##VIDEO ID:U4pL1TVdI5U## e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] welcome to the vucha County council meeting the meeting will begin in 10 minutes it's [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he he he [Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] welcome to the vucha County council meeting the meeting will begin in 5 minutes [Music] a [Music] you there's plent of Suits down there hey guys I just wanted to let you know that there is additional seating additional seating downstairs in the Rotunda and in the tck training rooms so any of you individuals that are standing you will be able to go downstairs into those rooms um and have a seat and you still will be called for public participation and everything as well [Music] [Music] welcome to the vucha County council meeting the meeting will begin again in 2 minutes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay if everybody would find a seat we'll get started in a minute and Carissa do you know if everything's squared away downstairs okay they have monitors yes they set that up this morning so everything downstairs should be good to go and there are some public speakers down there probably yes we have ushers ushering their carts from down there to up so they will be able to speak as well okay all right well welcome to the November 19th fuchia County council meeting it's good to see everybody here um this means that there's a lot of items on the agenda that you're interested in um let me just make a few announcements before we uh start with the uh pledge of Alle aliance and um an there will be apparently a lot of participation and because of that I would just ask for everybody you get three minutes I'm not going to cut your time back but I'm going to ask you to please stick to the three minutes and um uh please direct your comments to the uh to the Council on on issues does it affect Valia County um we can't solve all the problems in in the world um and um I guess we will start with that we have a lot of Mayors in the room as I look around so welcome all of the other elected officials from around the county maybe you'll be getting up the talk I'm not sure but if we um if everybody's ready um we will start with the invocation um from Rabbi Paul Faulk with Ariel congregation in ar City if you would like to stand we welcome you to do that and I would uh also add that the invocation is open to any faith group in Bia County if you would like to participate just send uh a an email request to uh K the letter K green like the color ata.org I thought I saw her walking over here and you will um she'll get you set up but um your faith group is welcome thank you for coming a hasham Our Father in heaven we come before you first and foremost to offer blessings blessings that we live in a country where we get to enjoy things like Freedom we bless you for the reality that we're in vucha county and we are just surrounded by such incredible beautiful natural resources we thank you for the individuals that are here we also thank you for those that are serving us that have stepped up into that role and responsibility and bear it um in light of all the individuals they stand for we lift up the decisions and everything that goes on we ask that the decisions are made about what's best and we know that they're going to be again we offer to give you praise and we thank you for all that you do we offer these things to your hand every decision everything that goes on and we seek your will for we know that it will happen if we seek after it amen and amen amen I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all wow what a beautiful sound that was [Music] do you have more speaking requests no sir okay what we're discussing up here since everything on Das is is public information is there's a lot of people downstairs that want to speak that are still sending cards up so we will um we'll have she estimated maybe 50 requests for the opening public comment which is an important part of of what we do so um we will I'm going to give them some time to do that okay um so we do you want me to take the role pardon me do you want me to take the role you you can take the role and and uh in just a minute we're going to move ahead of the agenda a little bit if it's approved on item one just to get started and then we'll come back to the general public comments as soon as we have all the cards but Carissa would you call the role Mr Kent here Mr Reinhardt Mr Robins here Mr Santiago here Mr Dempsey Mr Johansson here Mr Brower here okay on the first item uh item one is approval of the agenda and we actually have a u a public comment on that correct um not not yet um uh first let's get a uh a motion uh to approve the agenda with a slate change that we're making now that we'll we'll do this and the consent agenda if we need to and then come back to the uh public participation because it's just not ready yet Mr chairman um I think it'd be more appropriate if there there may be a motion to approve or deny the agenda let's hear from if you're going to allow the public to speak on that one item let's let them speak and because it may sway some members of the Council or not even to make a motion okay Keith Chester Keith Chester danan Florida this agenda tonight is just too long and there's too much crammed in to the consent agenda I was up till 3 o'clock in the morning and yall know I'm a political junkie and I go through these things all the time for the the citizens this is too much you can see the room's full and downstairs full is full it's your job to do the people's business here and it's your job to do it out in the open where we can all hear and see what's going on and having an agenda like this there's too many mistakes going to be made too much is going to be skipped let's all be honest when that 1,1 111,535 was approved for four homes that was an oversight because all of y'all even said it after the fact and that happened because consent agenda we need to really do a better job I understand the idea of moving these meetings along but when you're doing the people's business this is too serious and there's literally millions and millions of dollars involved here and the people's lives are at stake people are hurting so we need to be a little more thoughtful how we're going to we're going to put on the agenda and how much and if you had to do two meetings that's probably what you should have done to make up for the one you had to miss because it's just too much thank you thank you for your comment okay in light of that does someone have a a motion um Mr you apparently anticipated that um no not really I I had no idea what he was going to say and I actually partially agree with you um and and Mr chairman I before a motion has been made I'd like to uh you know see where the council lies because I'm concerned with item number four uh on the agenda and whether or not we should proceed with it as as it's scheduled uh primarily because of um some of Mr Chester's comments right um we too much information millions of dollars that's a very complex item um that unfortunately we have no information on as a council we have zero uh documentation from staff whether it's from our our engineering public works department from our legal department um I I'll speak for myself I don't have enough information to make a decision on that because of the methodology that was used to put it in there and the communication that happened there we weren't really properly prepared for this as a council um we normally get and I know there's some new faces here but we normally get a lot of background information we get statistics we get all of the reports that we need and and we have time as Council to meet with staff some internally some externally to discuss and ask questions regarding each topic well we weren't given that privilege here and I get there probably several people here that want to speak for or against this um but I think we would do you a disservice without knowing the facts and sharing it with you what are we actually evaluating to make a to make a good decision um as a council member I don't have that so I'm very concerned I would rather that topic be properly prepared and vetted through staff and information disseminated to you all and us before the meeting that way you all can come prepared we could be prepared I would before for removing that item from the I from the agenda and scheduling a workshop so that okay please please hold your uh participation yet so we can complete the uh the debate here thank you Mr chairman so I think for the reasons I've outlined we have to do good governance and without information we cannot operate purely on a motion it is wrong to you that are for or against this it is wrong to the other 499,00 residents of valua to do it in a methodology that is inconsistent to any way we do anything here we need information I'm not saying no or yes what I'm saying is we need to do it the right way this is not the right way and and though I didn't fan the Flames to get a lot of people to come here for this you can blame the folks that fan the flames and did not do this the right way but in order to do this the right way we need a workshop that we can d dedicate specifically to this topic and have all of the information for everyone that has a opinion on this so that we can make our right decision that's that's where I am councel uh and um I just want to do it the right way I don't know how you all feel and I'd like to hear Mr chairman from my colleagues if they think likely if not we'll proceed thank you Mr chair okay before I speak does uh Jake Johansson yes so um I I uh I share the same thoughts as as they do right now unfortunately as a retired guy I found out that it would be on the agenda and contacted uh a lot of professional agencies a lot of Engineers a lot of Land Development people that that I know to to try to get a handle on this to to be a little bit proficient in talking about the moratorium or the proposal and and what actions need to be taken I got I got a ton of information uh in that period of time and had meetings with many of the people in the audience um or representatives of people in this audience in preparation for for it am I prepared no uh but I think there's a lot of people here who can shed some light however I I think it would be more beneficial if we get it in a collaborative Workshop where we can abuse all those engineers and their knowledge out there and I'm saying all of them and and come up with some reasonable Solutions uh that that may may not involve the moratorium I I don't know at this point um so so I would I would be amenable to discussing a workshop thank you okay anyone else Vice chair T Kent thanks chairman yeah let let me jump in just for a moment um councilman Santiago what kind of timeline are you thinking um to me that that's important while you're thinking about that date for that timeline I'm hearing what the last two speakers said there's some that I agree with that you said the thing I don't like about changing it is look at this room I mean these people showed up today and many of them want to have this conversation that being said I think with Merit when I'm hearing my colleagues say I need more information I need more time to grasp this huge decision so that that weighs heavy on me and I I appreciate that you both shared that I'm I'm I'm hopeful that we'll hear from I'm not trying to put anybody on the spot the other council members where you are with it because quite frankly I'm going to end it with this I could I could do it either way I can talk about it tonight and and and handle this now or if we want more time to let our staff and both sides share all of their data with us and information I'm great with that that also David do you have a a time yes you can answer you know I would say either 30 to 60 days I think staff can get some more information to us um and uh it's but chairman you got to control the meeting what's your point when there was a home CL we stopped the audience when they B would did not please be a little bit uh um conent of that and and maintain discipline for both sides thank you okay I'm completely cognizant of it and I I appreciate their first right I think they're they are in order um so uh I may finish yes I'd like it to be for the record that that comment was noted by me thank you very much everything we say is by the records recorded David Santiago so I'm cognizant to the fact that the the audience is here to speak some Pro and some you know against it um but I still think we do them a disservice because we don't have any information Troy there's zero up here we have we we have um some there's too much rumbling Mr CH is distracting you're distracting the speaker please less rumbling just let let us speak up here um without responding and and U and acting thank you Mr chair and I want to hear from all of them I don't have a problem not scared for the topic but what I what I think is we're wasting people's time by talking about a topic their time we we'll stay here all night but without having real information so we can't have any dialogue of amongst ourselves with any real factual information Pro or con that's it's more of a doing the job and doing the job effectively not from hearing from the members of the public is I'm sure if if if it's important to them they'll come back and I encourage them to come back but let's have conversations with good data and information and experts that we can make questions to and then make a decision that's that's all it is it's not denying anybody the opportunity to speak let us do it with good information thank you okay the uh don dempy yeah I I'm kind of leaning with Jake and David um I I think this last election kind of spoke volumes to everybody up here on the Das that I think everybody in the county recognizes that flooding is a major issue um in our County it definitely woke me up um because it it's okay I always suspected obviously be on the west side but maybe uh everybody else here maybe has a new Vantage Point um I think we're all interested in fixing the flooding problem nobody's here trying to Sher our responsibilities to you all but my understanding is we have new studies that are going to be done in all the cities uh enra has just now undertaken the flooding issue I think they've had a few meetings on it so far so I think we should let them maybe do some more let them speed it up the process because to me a building moratorium is that is a very drastic remedy there's going to be a lot of jobs lost um so there's a lot obviously flooding is a huge issue but massive job losses are also a big issue so we we got to look before we leap into a moratorium and I wish we could do a workshop like Mr Johansson suggested and have a viable debate from both sides and really spend a lot more time chewing on the bone before we actually vote on something because I'm not comfortable with voting for a moratorium or not or trying to address all the reported flooding issues tonight just because I don't think I have enough information yet as well so I I would rather put this off to a workshop and have a lot more information from enra and other agen or uh experts before we vote thanks okay thank you D um in a minute I'll I give you um an opportunity to make that motion if you like or or somebody up here but uh I put this on the agenda as the chair for a reason and I've been talking about it for um months and while you may call it Fanning the the Flames um okay you are um there's there's no flames to fan there's only flood waters and it is countywide and the cost the human cost is incredible and I I've read the letters from the various Chambers from attorneys saying that you know about the job loss um honestly I think that's a fear tactic and I believe that it is um um it's it's the same thing that we hear every time that we try and move this item forward to actually deal with flooding with something concrete that can make a difference the cost to this County if you want to talk about the cost are incredible it's costs that we can't keep up with now we can't solve this problem monetarily and every day that we delay this and allow development to to continue as status quo it just adds to the cost to the county and it adds to the cost of the suffering of the people that you see out here some of them that have lost everything you need to drive down some of the streets and see the 8 foot piles of furniture and clothing and personal belongings that are waiting for the trash because their houses had 4 foot of water in we cannot keep this off and if we the reason we need to do this item is so that you do have information that's the whole purpose we're not going to vote on a moratorium today it would have to go back to the county staff to write it but you need to hear the reasons of why we need it what could be accomplished with it and that's a that's a debate the public needs us to have so I will aely oppose putting this off uh once again if if the best I can get is to um postpone this for a a workshop workshop's not a bad idea um but part of it for me is going to be time if it's February I'm a hard no even on that but we we need to complete this item today apparently there's enough people in the [Applause] audience there's enough people in the audience that understood this well enough to show up um from the from the item that was put out we have a serious problem we have a list of things that we could discuss to ask the county staff to go back with and come back with a a moratorium um that accomplishes those things in order to lift the moratorium um um maybe they'll come back with another idea I I don't know but the the reason we need a moratorium because this keeps happening we push it down the road and we get no concrete measures and every day that it continue I I did a tour of Lake winam asset today with the St John's Water Management District never flood before a beautiful Lake that you can see 8 ft to the bottom and it's a polluted mess because of all the development around it and all putting the pumping their water into it from Diamond Lake um in St John's Water Management District there and I asked him do we have places to put the water you know what his answer was we don't know we're going to do uh a study it's in process it'll take four or five years if we go four or five years and just keep building around the lakes and springs and and our Weds um the beauty of of Valia County the health that we are partially responsible for for everybody here in 202 point2 202.4 um we we have a responsibility to act on their behalf for the health and safety of the en environment and and the citizens and to kick it down the road again I I understand why you're doing it um a mistake um we need to deal with it and send County staff something today that they can um deal with what what do they even know to to put on a uh on a workshop David is that a question it is a question I think we should have that discussion one point right um and when is that point please let us continue conversation thank you Mr chair um the problem Mr chair since you asked me a question is you know you you should be transparent with the public at the same this item got put on the agenda we have very professional competent staff some of you might not like them for whatever reason or another he didn't talk to anybody in our legal department about this that's not true you don't know that oh well then I'll tell you that the information I maybe got was wrong there was no real according to my the information I have there was no real genuine a consultation to this agenda item because I know our staff would be very professional and start preparing and having good dialogue with us and getting the information nobody here including myself is saying we don't have a flooding problem not saying it you use the word it's responsible right we should be responsible and do it the right way not by emotion we need more information and I think you said we do and I'll acknowledge that but the way you went about this was to do exactly what you see here today in that chamber downstairs you sent an email to all of the city say come fill the chambers and I know you said it fill the chambers because I need your help because these guys I can't speak for everyone they're going to want to do it the right way right not in the emotional way I respect everybody's flooding issues I respect it okay I get it that's you all know what I think but our jobs are much more responsible than that we have to take the right Road Mr chair that's it let's have the conversation a matter of fact Mr chair I move that we remove item number four and direct staff to talk with uh uh members of the council to prepare for a workshop and uh bring information uh to us on the potential of a moratorium including uh data process where the flooding occurred uh bent information as much information that the staff can provide us to make an educated decision a dialogue to consider a moratorium that's my motion chairman may may I just say something to Mr Santiago yes thank you would you mind with your motion to add within 60 days and a 4M start time in these Chambers I so move to amend accordingly I think that's enough time to get the right information okay so your motion is to move move item four to a workshop to a date yet not established but within 60 days of today yes 4M meeting a workshop or a County council meeting 4M Workshop okay okay that's the motion does it have a second I'll second for discussion okay I'm gonna I'm going to clear the queue for a second and anybody that wants to discuss this uh come come back in but I want to I need to deal with something before that because I believe that you're accusing me of something nefarious you're a that's all right no go ahead and stick okay well you just did several times you you accuse me of Fanning the Flames sending every of every city a letter telling them to fill the chambers that's just patently false I sent every city a letter and asked for their support and there there's a reason I did that it's because I want the cities to be on the same side of the desk as all of us I don't want to impose uh something on them I want us to work together that's the only way this is going to work and that's what I sent to all of these to every city every councilman every commissioner and every mayor asking that we would work on this together I did not ask them to fill the chambers um I've I've asked the public um as I'm out speaking to the public please come and share your story because this is what moves us to action I'm sorry but that's that's what we have right now is the public demanding that we do something instead of just saying I'm glad you've changed your mind on flooding because from that chair before you you asked me what flooding so I've never said that I've never said that I find find the video tape and bring it up I'll be glad to take you on a tour and show you the flooding all over the county bring up what I said one day continued lines okay okay so we have uh we're on item one approval of the agenda with with a motion to move uh item four is that it only item four anybody else want to move something else to move item four to a workshop within 60 days I I want to um I want to hear a date on that at 4M um when can you get uh a date if this passes well you have to set you not as you go in the next year you you're going to have to set your calendar which is what's done on the first meeting in January uh we can make an approximation and then get back to you uh here in a few minutes that's what You' like to do uh but I think we'll have no problem with 60 days we'll find a date within the 60 days and it'll be a 4:00 meeting and I Mike was going to speak on it but uh just a finer point you mentioned Workshop uh you you may want to do a special meeting versus a workshop that's uh something you might want to determine and then the public can participate and we can actually vote on something actually take action I'm okay with that I would amend my motion to make it a special meeting of the second of the motion would step as a second or I I like that better yes I'll agree to that okay for debate on that motion uh Jake Johansson yes sir um at this point I'm just going to kind of re iterate what George said uh I felt that it was important we have a lot of people here that want to speak on on both sides of the argument and I didn't want them to go home and then and then in a workshop find out that they they can't speak their their uh to their issues and and I was going to say do we want to even hearing tonight which yes this has moved off that's been speaking but go ahead was gonna answer your question because it was a it's a great question and I appreciate you answering it if you have more to say on it goad sentence but yes so um at at this point though I I don't think that it has Merit during this discussion because if if item four gets ped then there is really nothing to speak to uh it can't be spoken during during this this uh Motion in second because this Motion in second is just a p for not to talk about the the actual uh subject so uh I'm willing to go with a special meeting if it comes to that and allow them both sides to speak okay and one other thing um I would like uh council member Santiago to know that uh I in fact through the vucha Lea cities invited every mayor and every council member here every Virginia uh or Virginia every V uh building industry Association member they can make it every contractor every chamber and uh anybody that's associated with development because I do not want just one side of the story I want both sides of the story so I can make a logical M if I had to so so that that's why are here and I hope they come back if we uh if we end up having a special meeting thank you yeah I I want both sides uh too and however if this item if if anyone is here to speak on an item they have to speak on that item number if they have something else to talk about that affects accounting they can speak on in the opening comment so if we pull this off the agenda I am going to allow these people that came tonight to speak if they want talk about flooding um that's an issue that affects our County and they have every right to do it tonight and not be asked to come back in 60 days they can come back again would that be at the end so no that'll be in the uh in the opening comments that we're waiting for all of the uh the tickets for public participation I thought we just did public participation before we did the uh we haven't done any public participation yet because didn't have all of the U we had one on Agenda One by Mr Chester um okay uh Vice chair try K thank you chairman just a couple of brief comments first to those that showed up today and those that are listening online or downstairs this is one of the reasons why I love local government is because we show up or you show up and we do the work for you you these are rented seats I've said that before and you show up because it's important to you either side chairman I'll just tell you I had a constituent reach out to me and you know sort of angrily want to know you know why is this on the agenda and I said the chairman has put it on the agenda and then I let him know and that's his right he's the chairman and when you look at our rules our chairman can do that if wrest us when to get something on the agenda it's a little trickier but you're the chairman so I respect that and my next comment will make 50% happy and 50% upset but I'll just publicly say this I applaud you for bringing this up and having this discussion and I'm going to tell you why that last meeting that we had it was brutal to listen to the 30 plus comments and hear the horror stories about the flooding they've had we we in this community these are our neighbors we see this stuff we we know what people are going through so I'm appreciative that we're going to have a conversation in that same vein I'm extremely appreciative of Mr Santiago to bring up the idea of hey let's get more information about this let's get this right let's not do this you know on the fly right now when we don't have all of the information that we need if it was somebody not doing their homework up here shame on them but that's not the case that's not what I'm hearing so that's why I seconded the motion I think we can have a very good healthy discussion in the very near future which is why I wanted a timeline on it I don't want this to go on and not happen I love whoever came up with the idea that we make it a special meeting because the public needs to participate I'll just tell everybody I had someone yesterday call me and they wanted to know where am I on this issue and I said I don't ever tell anybody how I'm going to vote before I'm going to vote and I don't know where I am because one of the biggest pieces is the public input and someone it's happening me time and time again I hear something from the public and I think in one way and it changes my mind I think Don Dempsey's changed everybody's mind up here at least what a half a dozen times in the two years that we that we've been to no seriously I mean I'm I'm calling you out on it it happens so chairman I want wanted you to know wanted the council to know wanted the public to know this is a discussion we need to have I'm glad we're going to have it I'm glad it's going to be at a time when there's more information for all of us to have time to digest and that's where I am thank you councilman Don Dempsey yeah and I I also agree with everything Mr Kent said the only thing that I might add is well for one um right after Milton after the last two hurricanes um I set up a town hall meeting and hopefully um well you all are welcome to show up on December 5th at 5:30 right downstairs we're going to have a town hall meeting hopefully to answer a lot of questions about flooding uh it's it's a district one meeting but everybody's welcome to come I believe the chair is coming I heard um and I hope everybody else could come because I know you guys have a lot of questions and you're wanting answers from your County government and so um some of the department heads will be there hopefully to answer any questions and explain to you what we're going to do um as you may or may not recollect under the transform 386 allocation of the grant money from HUD um you know I was pushing for more of that money to go toward infrastructure but I understand there's a lot of limitations from the Department of Housing that's ties our hands so now that we have a new Trump Administration a republican controlled house senate maybe it'll be a different Dynamic when we're dealing with the federal government maybe they'll loosen the pur strings a little bit on the next 300 million we get for Milton relief and maybe they'll allow us to put a lot more towards infrastructure as opposed to special one-off housing projects like we had to do with transform 386 so what I'm saying is I'm optimistic that there's a lot of creative um options that we may have both from the Feds all the way down to our local uh budget but I mean I the town oh I'm sorry 5:30 5:30 to I believe 7:30 is when it's going to be it's a couple hour meeting and hopefully we'll be able to answer a majority of y'all's questions um I'm sorry I okay I'm sorry um and I I kind of agree I'm not Jeff you're the biggest proponent of this flooding thing you're the squeaky wheel that'll get flooding addressed I believe on this Council and I don't think anybody doubts your sincerity for trying to fix the flooding issue and I'm not voting to kick this down the road just because I don't want to talk about it I really want to see how the new Trump Administration and how HUD May deal with us better with how we can handle that money we get for Hurricane Relief I really want to see more to infrastructure and all the flooding of these neighborhoods how we can use that money for those purposes as opposed to these individual houses who have weather damage I want to help the neighborhoods so I I just think it's a much better idea to have a special meeting like David and Jake proposed and everybody else so I'm voting to postpone it for that reason only not as any type of um slight on you because I do think you have the best interest of everybody at heart thanks yeah I never I never thought that Don um with you and a couple people I think it's been stated that uh um it's been David obviously wants to stop stop this we just had that settled in a in a an election uh David and so uh Michael Dyer um yes sir so typically adoption of your agenda is very routine quick action by the council so technically it's a ministerial act you do not have to have public input but you may so if you have Public public input on this the issue the the thing to address would be whether it's on this agenda t T night or not but I understand from hearing the chair's comment and I think you're correct that if members of public want to speak on items on the agenda they're free to do so and so that's correct they may have more Liberty to address what they want to address at at that time thank you um and we are going to have one more public comment on item one there was there was two but uh debate the last point pardon me my debate what what about it I'm ni cep okay I think I'm next queued up but oh I thought you spoke I'll tell you what I will ume no I will I will defer to you but let's let's hear from the last member of the public did you bring her down an Ruby they called her name in the Rotunda and in the training rooms um so unless she's here so we'll let uh Mr Santiago go ahead and make his comment while we ask wait for an Ruby thank thank you Mr chairman you know for your for your benefit and for members of the public I take no pleasure and bumping heads with you Mr chair um we got the circus that's okay um but yes exactly that's how you're acting I I I listen to everyone here so you need to behave too as much as I would okay stay in order please I'm trying to Mr chair don't call out the public and call them names job it's your job anyway let's continue where where where I was going with this I take no pleasure in bumping heads with you Mr chair and the audience needs to know that but just a minute ago you said that I said I wanted to stop this those words that never came out of my mouth you could play the videotape back you say we want to work together right to get this stung and I want to never did I say well let's not have this and just kill I want this but the way to work together is to work together Mr chair right and the way to work together is that you don't leave this Di and I get calls from people where and I'm just telling you maybe heay so I'll give you the benefit of that where you're calling the majority of this Council corrupt and other names it's difficult to work together when you do that or whoever might do that when they leave these Chambers working together means genuinely working together the process you know the chair the process Mr chair if you'd work through the committee and work through this process hey guys what about this let's take this on I don't think there's been I shouldn't speak but I don't I can't recall one time where generally speaking we talked about an ideas and we said no we don't want to talk about that we said schedule it so and I get it that we're we're on the heels uh the completion of a campaign season a lot of things are said in campaigns on all sides but I want to work on it but I want to work on it the right way that is it I have a history of working with tons of other elected officials this is the first time I've ever bumped heads like this um but I want to do it the right way Mr chair okay and you can talk to all the colleagues I've ever worked with I want to work for Solutions let's just work together that requires both and I'm willing to do that and I'm willing to participate in it in a professional manner thank you Mr chair look look that is exactly why I put it on the agenda so we could discuss it together and work together and then so to have you come up and say that that's exactly the opposite it's what we just went through with the entire campaign when your your purpose seemed to be to disrupt this meeting so that then you could go out and say that uh Brower is not a leader and he can't he can't conduct a meeting um I'm sick of hearing it so let I've never done that okay so let's work together that's the reason I put it on here so we could discuss it together and and make some decisions that will be hard decisions that some of the cities have already done did Ann come up yet an Ruby you're going to speak on item one the agenda and we be 1307 Park Avenue Daytona Beach Florida so I missed most of the discussion on item pulling item four because you can't hear anything downstairs but I did get the feeling that there was going to be a vote on holding a special meeting after more information was gathered so I'm a big fan of gathering information rather than just give staff a vague gather information I think it would be good to do I'm going to read off my phone notes get parcel information and Maps parcel's already under development agreements vacant Parcels available to for development Parcels protected from development and Parcels currently being developed so that way you'll know if you're talking about a moratorium what you're talking about the other thing I would suggest is that during a moratorium you do a study of building requirements in other areas that have successfully addressed flooding do a study with recommendations for future building patterns Community patterns and site plans and take a realistic look at the increased frequency and severity of rain events how do our standards need to change to accommodate this we can't control the increased frequency and severity of the rain events that are coming and we can barely control how we respond to what's already in place for development the only thing you can control the only thing where you have input is how you develop in the future and it really needs I appreciate you want more information that's great but make sure you get the right information make sure you get the information that will truly have an impact and I think that starts with doing a survey how much land are you talking about how many parcels and I think you need to do a study on what those changes might need to be so that's all I'm urging is that if you're going to do a study do it with some I don't know I lost my thought thank you thank you so all good information and just so the audience knows the had we done item four all of those things were listed on there that the council could have picked to send back to the staff to bring us more information on undiscussed there was there was a long list of solutions and and and St and studies that we need to to do and information that we could generate um so uh that that's all on the item so to hear that there's uh they didn't understand what we were doing is is um disappointing to me um okay uh Danny Robbins thank you chair and usually I don't engage or note anybody in the public or any of our speakers but I happen to agree with with Mr Ruby and we're often on the opposite sides of the aisle uh with a lot of things that we uh that we encounter here in the community but I believe she's absolutely correct and there's a lot of passion and anger justifiably in this room and I just want to make sure that we stop and think of the right solution to this serious issue and not just a solution that's going to lead us back like we see time and time again um six months a year down the road and it's compounded and it's worse so uh I'm glad we're taking this this item seriously chairman this is a serious issue and I don't know just uh in observation mode I don't know one council member or that I've seen up here uh not take this seriously in fact we've been trying to dedicate quite a bit of of uh money uh to this uh to this problem in in planning but uh to steal a quote from uh mayor Fred Cleveland new samna we do have to uh apply Math Science and logic to what we're doing so that we don't so we don't um encounter these problems time and time uh over again preparation is going to be key in order to have a successful meeting or a successful uh discussion on topic we have to have information um we don't have that right now to make any sort of discussion and to be buffaloed into a vote or some sort of action item uh I believe at this point it would be juvenile but I appreciate it thank you so much okay thank you uh George reonal yes uh two dates come uh are coming up here that uh want to consider uh first being uh December 17th would have been uh a meeting anyway that had been previously removed uh date's no good for me everybody I just put it out right now I just asked staff if we were meeting on the 17th they said no I said great because I had an event I was dealing with 17th is out for me the other date would be uh January 14th January 14th is perfect for me okay we haven't voted on the item yet so we'll make that the date certain January 14th and we'll see if it works Danny Robbins are you still still up from the last comment no sir thank you okay then just to wrap this up before I call for the vote um because I'm hearing it from both sides that I don't view this as being juvenile um I've tour the homes that you can't even breathe the air because of the black mold I've seen the problem and I've in my tour today with the St Johan's water man Management District um he relayed some information one about the study where do we put water we don't we don't know it's a problem right now that was part of this item had we discussed it that we could send that back to staff and to bring us the information so I'm not going to keep belaboring that um but the thing that he said um that really got my attention was that the service that they use to look at weather down the road um he said we are expecting um 60 to 90 years from today of very wet weather in Florida just like we have with maybe a brief pause in dryness so this is here for the rest of our lives we have to deal with it and and we need to deal with it um as quickly as possible I did not expect anybody to vote on a moratorium tonight the vote would have only have been to go to the staff with a list of accomplishments that we wanted to see made um before a moratorium can be uh could be Ed created by everyone up here not just by me but all of us so hopefully we'll get a chance to do that January 14th I don't see anybody else that wants to speak um so I'll call for the vote uh to move item four to a special meeting at 4 pm on January 14th um all any other comments all in favor say I one did you have a comment before I call the vote yeah I um if we can set that date a little bit I think the motion is to it for within 60 days I'm still looking through my calendar to make sure January 14th works for me um we can certainly vote for it before the end of the night um on on not vote for that part I mean make the date selection by the end of the night um but in the motion it's not the date's not there just within 60 days by the end of the night I could have that confirmation on the on the 14th so you might not be able to make the 14th no I don't know yet I'm working through my calendar so I'm waiting for a reply from my assistant so okay okay so that was not part of the motion I asked the county manager if he would give us a date he was uh kind enough to get on it and do that um but apparently that's not January 14th is not accepted as part of the motion Mr chair procedurally the motion is in place has been seconded by someone and that motion does not include a specific date the motion that you're going to call Will laun says within 60 days is that if I can finish I said that before the end of the night I'm certain that we can select the specific date the 14th might work I'd encourage us to vote on the motion and then we will settle that date before the end of the 9th thank you Mr chair seconder is all right with that I am okay well okay that's the motion um I'm really not very comfortable with it because it's sometimes hard to uh to work around your schedule ch I'll I'll tell you why I'll tell you why this is the guy that wants to work together you see and I've been calm here but this is the guy that wants to work together this is who order Jesus Christ chairman yes as the seconder let me explain why I'm okay with it I'm okay with it because it's gonna happen within 60 days we've made that very clear to staff we all agreed and we're getting ready to vote on that so within 60 days it's going to happen so you know does it happen uh by the 14th or or the 19th or the 18 18 but within 60 days it's we've said we're going to have this meeting and and it's going to happen I trust um councilman Santiago when he says publicly I'm just waiting to hear back from my assistant if this date works by the end of the night I'll be able to give that to you so I as a seconder I'm okay with it because I know it's going to happen within 60 days okay all right all in favor of the motion which is to uh move item forward to a special meeting uh within 60 days um is 4M still of the yes that was the motion and that was the second okay all in favor say I I any opposed so we're moving this to a special meeting um okay now we do we have all of the that was that vote six to yes perfect yes one short do you have the um public participation forms yet okay as I call you please come up the please make sure microphone is near your mouth so we can hear you theum goes up and down there and somebody can help you with that um you're aware of how that works and please stick to three minutes and um first we have Tracy Anderson and if you would when you come up just tell us where you're from you don't need to give your whole address for safety reasons but tell us where you're from hi my name is Tracy Anderson I'm from Holly Hill Florida and I love my community I have been flooded three times 2009 2022 and this last time I've had to rebuild three times when I bought my property 37 years ago it was not in a flood zone now I'm in a flood zone I'm in a big flood zone what has happened around my house after 2009 which was a 100-year storm okay which keeps coming now every 5 years what had happened is we decided to build tow houses behind my homes now when we built the tow houses we built them up so they're about 5 seven feet above our streets they built a huge retention Pond which that's great my street and the three streets next to me are the secondary retention Pond when that overflows because the canal goes into the retention Pond it comes down the street and I have a river that comes through the front I am flooded all the way around when the water stops going down the street into the one drain I have 20 minutes to leave my street 20 minutes think about that now I know you all want to wait so many days to make decisions on things if Sarah had shown up today like it was supposed to be I don't have 30 or 60 days I come from a time when we were responsible for our actions Baby Boomers not one of you know there's a few of us left we're in a society now where nobody has respond responsible nobody takes responsibility we have studies you have studies out the yin-yang what good are the studies if you're building these tow houses and we're flooding whoever did that study you need to get their money back because they don't know what to do you can have 30 studies but the action speaks sir I voted for you because of that one issue and I'm a super voter and believe me I go out and talk and baby rumors were very strong as you can tell but I'm telling you right now I want somebody to be responsible for what's happening I do not want to move nobody's going to buy my house I want to live there I'm going to be 70 in three years I can't start over I cannot start over please remember that half the people more than half the people cannot start over and I don't want to I love Holly Hill I Love the community they have great people there but daret vucha County wanted you become the leader of something different tell people you know what this is a county we're going to put our citizens that live here first instead of the citizens that are coming in so please please when you think about this stuff think about these people and 8 feet of stuff in people's yards yeah you're right it's it's horrible and it's heartbreaking all I'm asking for is your help and remember the time thank you thank you I'm going to call several names in a in a row so that we can get if there's anybody downstairs we can get them up next will be Paul Richardson followed by John Nicholson followed by Virginia Bennett Mr chairman point of personal privilege I just wanted to announce that January 14th does work for me okay afternoon councel my name is Paul Richardson of the land we had a lection November 5th but I would like to uh i' like to say thank you to brusa County Supervisor elections Lisa Lewis her entire unson staff pool workers volunteer po Watchers and for the VIS elections they came together November 5th and gave us the best election in the entire country of bla and fla assistens can be assured that we have the greatest election system in America say what you want about Jeff bus but he set fla on a path that allows our citizens to have faith in our elections ever since the 200 Els I also hope that the for Le reexamines early voting after that historic turn outb uh now unfortunately I'm going to be here for uh item 10 I want to Prett briefly on I hope you guys improve it it's been an honor and a pleasure Mee on the uh cultural Council of bla County and your representative in that regard and I hope to continue with the Grant and and as we've been debating it recently and on the cultural Council for for a long long time to come and I thank you for the privilege and honor of being serving on that Council thank you very much I appreciate it uh God bless fissa County God Bless America and her internal Ally Israel thank you thank you uh John Nicholson followed by Virginia Bennett followed by Keith Chester yeah next Daytona Beach side uh on your agenda you have item n the U reers Park Flash Pad they want to take it out and put in a playground uh I've been there 40 years it's in front of my house they've had two play Grounds there and they've taken them both out and they are yet to put back in one has been 30 years waiting for them to put back in and the other's been 17 years to put it back in so I'm asking to make sure that a ground does go in in that location secondly item you try you're going to be talking about Airport parking so I'm sure that you're going to allow free parking for residents they on the beach at the airport if we can have free parking on the beach we could have free parking at the airport just just to decide uh secondly with regard to the election all right uh as you all know I back Jeff because of the camaraderie that you guys have done I mean the previous councils what they did to have the post you would not want all right they Pi on somebody and it's you never get anywhere all right he's the chair and I've been waiting four years for him to act like the chair and lead a bunch of cats scattering all over the place trying to make the best deal for this the county of alucha it's very hard all right so give him some slack I ask George please when Jeff comes up with these ideas talk to him what's going on in the past what he's allowed to do what's going to get the rest of the council upset all right because the counil Believe It or Not folks behind me they have a way of doing things and if you have somebody come in throwing the baby out with a bath water it's making it very difficult you saw it t we spoke an hour whether we going to the delay item four or not we spoke for an hour you could had everybody speak in that period of time so at this point Jeff you've got to work with him you have to lead and the you please give him some slack hold him to the fire like you held yourself but do it we need it as this C um a lady been calling me about anti-Semitism gave me several examples so I went in my uh Library I have a book on the Holocaust everybody knows about the Holocaust it's ancient history but unfortunately it's not so I'm asking you to have something said something claimed that we will not allow somebody to be discriminated against because of their religion theor of their skin the language they speak it have to make an issue of it than thank you Virginia Bennett followed by Keith Chester followed by Katherine levenson is not here she had to leave Virginia had to leave Keith Chester followed by Katherine levenson followed by Charles gaberty before the clock has started I want to remind you all you haven't voted about the consent agenda to pull items we will after public participation oh okay all right very good uh there's an old saying if you fail to be prepared be prepared to fail the county and the cities in valouch County have not been preparing over a year ago probably two years ago I started saying core governmental responsibilities and I started saying we need a plan a holistic plan for now and into our future and how we're going to pay for it for core governmental needs for many decades I've watched fuchia County further and further handouts and it started well SunRail uh I've used it yesterday and today but let's be honest SunRail was put in place they didn't have a clue how they were going to pay for it but it was voted upon and now we've got $9 million a year that's going to be going out plus that could have and should have been going to our core needs here in County like flooding so everybody in the audience that's concerned about flooding because their homes are flooded or traffic or the need for sidewalks or litter or how shabby some of our ride of ways look these core governmental needs core governmental responsibilities they have to understand that so much of their money and money that has come in from the federal government that could have went to those core governmental needs has been earmarked to handouts to socialist style programs to things that really are not what's core to valch County government and many people have backed this some of the same people that gave you sunre gave you the cultural Council gave you children and families and all of those things they all sound good when they're put into place but they never go away and they keep going and some some of them you are taking our money from us by force because if we don't give you the money you tell us that we got to give you you can take our homes and property and then you're choosing who to give it to you're making our charitable contributions for us that's not right that's not what government was intended to be when it was formed I think that the recent presidential election like it or not has sent a message 60% of the voters in valuch County voted they did not want a 1.7 trillion doll program of handouts they did not want $25,000 going to new home buyers they did not want school loans being paid off by people that are out there working the trades and busting their butts y'all need to heed that message what 60% of the voters said when they voted against those those things so while this room is packed full of people asking you for more and more and more for their causes understand there's a lot of people that are against it thank you Katherine levenson followed by Charles gab gaberty followed by suzan Shyer ready Katherine yes Katherine levenson I live in Orange City uh unincorporated the outside part um I live on a lake that's never flooded ever I have no insurance for flooding FEMA has come out and said that it's a man-made problem so they won't cover any damages I've paid $25,000 to have dirt put in so that my house doesn't flood what I mean by that is I saw the flooding coming up because we flooded after Milton not during after so for two weeks after Milton Water was gone went through 1792 where the road broke you know where I'm talking about and it's still going in today I have video of it from today so the water went in still coming in and the water rose up in our lake at least 15t high and probably 200 feet in so the water that I've been on the dry lake that dry lot I've been on is now flooded and the dirt that I put in was 25 loads at my back door to prevent the water from coming in my house it is working right now but if Sarah would have come it would not be working and I would be in a house that was like you said black mold um that's a problem because the Orange City uh Council and and um their manager have decided that the water didn't come from them but it did um St John's Water Management they haven't done anything because they feel like it's you guys's problem not ours and not not theirs um the congressman that I contacted Webster Barnaby he is supposed to be talking to you guys because this is something that's preventable it should never have happened we had two little ponds and now we have a gigantic Lake that's overflowing the bounds of it so much so that it's flooding down into other people's property that are not even Lakefront so we're all suffering all of us in this area um what we would like for you to do is pump the water out because the water was put on us sneaky in 2017 when a county person got an a permit without advertising in our area they went to Daytona Beach which is 35 miles away and posted it there and then it got approved so since 2017 the water's been sneaking and our lake has gone up up up until 22 when Ian came it almost flooded us but we didn't really know why and then in this one afterwards it was obvious what happened and we found out the problems and it's really County the county got the permit the county let the Orange City developed the way it is and they have put their water on us and that's really unfair we're private Lake we're private Community we have nothing we do nothing we don't bother anyone but yet we're getting flooded and I foresee that the homes that are down below me in elevation they're all flooded and that's really terrible considering we've never flooded before and we don't have insurance and FEMA disavowed us so now what yes I voted for you too because I need this done thank you what lake does she say she lived on Mr Miller Miller pond it's now Miller Lake thank you yeah it's in Orange City Charles gabber followed by Suzanne Shyer followed by David Hill my name is Charles jber I live on Windgate Drive in the Westminster wood subdivision of D land I'm the treasurer of our homeowners association and I'm here representing our homeowners association tonight I'm talking about storm home water and Retention Ponds our system is a series of three Retention Ponds and several uh French drain systems I had pictures which were not going to be able to show which would have made this make a little more sense but I have pictures of two of our Retention Ponds after a hurricane and they are pretty they are working just as they were designed um our third retention Pond is directly across Blue Lake Avenue from the county retention pond that's at the corner of Blue Lake and Victoria Trails Boulevard I had a picture of that area so that you could visualize it for those that may not be familiar but if you've driven down Blue Lake that's where all the roads been been covered with water for a month um our third retention Pond was designed to hold the storm water from Windgate drive and a few hundred feet of Old Pond Road and the wind gate called deac when the county pond at Victoria Trails Boulevard is full it overflows back through the gutter drains on Blue Lake Avenue and flows across the West sidewalk and directly into the third Westminster wood retention Pond when our pond filled up from your overflow water during Hurricane Milton it backf flowed through our street drains and it flooded Windgate drive and Old Pond Road road to the point that we had a highwater rescue vehicle have to come in and remove a 94 year old neighbor I had a picture of that also water continued to rise as the water came across Blue Lake for more than a week after the storm had passed our HOA took action to save homes as a water went up yards and into homes and driveways the HOA brought in pumps and spent $1,488 saving seven homes I'm here tonight to ask that the council reimburse my homeowners association for that $ 12,488 and I'd like to know how we move forward doing that it's all I've got thank you Suzanne Shyer followed by David Hill followed by Reverend Shan Proctor good evening Suzanne Shyer Orman Beach representing dream Green valua in November of 2023 we'll we pulled water samples from green blue and Deon springs for a past forever chemical study being done by the University of Florida in September of this year we received the study results by email from the UF team the study on pasas and Florida freshwater Springs was published in science of the total environment the following is read directly from the study to the best of their knowledge this is the first comprehensive study highlighting posos in Florida Springs pfbs per flobban sulfonic acid was the most detected pasas across all Springs the three most contaminated Springs were all within a 10mile radius of Deltona pasas were detected in the spring Vents and and runs seven sites exceeded the epa's drinking water maximum contaminant level for either pfoa pfos or both as a summary of the abstract of the study the State of Florida contains over 1,000 freshwater Springs fed by groundwater that provide 90% of the drinking water for inhabitants freshwater Springs are regarded as some of the cleanest water sources left on Earth but recent studies regarding the extreme pervasiveness of pasos across the globe have caught into question whether pasas have filtrated these vital water sources in this study 50 freshwater Florida Springs were analyzed for the presence of 29 Peas the Springs with the highest concentration of pasas were Green Spring Blue Spring and Gemini Springs Green Spring as the highest concentration receives back Blow from the lake in times of low groundwater discharge causing a potential mix that impact the delicate ecosystems that inhabit this spring second highest concentration of posos is Blue Spring located in Blue Spring State Park due to the springs protected area it's unclear where the potential posos source is coming from but a likely source is considered the St John's river third highest concentration in posos is Gemini Springs dilon spring also came in the top 10 with high concentration the summary provides an explanation of pasos and consumable water as well as Seven Springs exceeding surface water levels for fish consumption posing risk to Residents visitors and Wildlife life in freshwater Springs there were some Springs that had no posos in the test a copy of the study will be emailed to all council members and Mr Reon Wald in 2022 we did a posos test with cyclopure lab through our organization from residents unfiltered tap in Deltona and Lake Helen the results coincided with the University of Florida results thank you for your time also Tim Bailey received this study via email and for the remaining few seconds we support the moratorium and we want the pollution board which is this Council to look into the pollution of the water of our Springs and our water bodies thank you David Hill followed by Reverend Shan Proctor followed by Karen Clark my name is David Hill I live on Miller Road in Orange City Florida um I'm he about Miller Lake the flooding of Miller Lake Miller Lake used to be 200 F feet from my property line now I have 20 foot deep pond in my front yard and I've lost an acre of land this all started in 2017 with a permit by Royal Oaks Professional Center approved by St John's and approved by the county of vuia this system this uh permit allowed for storm drain to be put across traymont drive drive to drain Royal Oaks Professional Center parking lot Royal Oaks Professional Center has an exfiltration system under their parking lot it's designed to take the water in and distribute it out it hasn't been doing that since its installation of the storm drain the exfiltration system is next to W Lake it's at any given time this system is 10 to 20 feet below the water in W Lake all it is is a conduit for Wawa Lake and all the groundwater traveling underneath the Royal Oaks Professional Center parking lot um this Lake in this system is like a water tower if if anybody would just go and look at the storm drain across Tremont Drive you would see the water's just like a river rowing through there and it's been doing it for seven years it's taken it's taken the capacity of Miller Lake to handle a storm event to to handle it it won't handle it in addition to that storm drain across drive an illegal drain was put on Wawa Lake and hosted into uh the storm drain across Treemont drive there should be polities for that the permit under paragraph one says if any deviations that are not so authorized May subject the permit to enforcement actions under chapter 373 of the Florida Statutes I've pointed that out to St John's to the city and the county and nobody will do anything you have the tools to make a change paragraph 17 of the permit says if any adverse impacts result the district will require the permittee to eliminate the cause it should be evidence of what's happened to Miller Road so please call St John's and say hey this was a bad idea the technical staff report of that permit the county gave a letter of no objection to put that strong drain under trumont drive because they felt they had the capacity to handle water the capacity was long since taken away in summary you approved this strain that has taken all the capacity of me Lake to handle a storm event we have been flooded every day 24 hours a day for seven plus years you have a responsibility to stop it you are liable for the taking of our land with your approval of this permit as St John's to the strin thank you Reverend Sean Proctor Karen Clark followed by George figorito thank you council members my name is sea Proctor I am the pastor at the United Church of Christ of new samna beach and I'm here just to give you a little break from talking about flooding to find something else to talk about but I'm here with faith fighting against Injustice towards humanity and uh we brought we have 34 congregations of various Faith Traditions that are involved with our with our Network and we brought 40 people here tonight and we will talk about flooding but I'm going to I specifically want to talk about the $400,000 that's been left out of the of the funding for the first step shelter in the next year and I know that there my understanding is there was a five-year agreement to keep that funding in and those five years have expired now and it's been chosen to take that $400,000 out of the funding from the county to the first step shelter I understand there may be some difficulties with people having problems with leadership there for example or people having problems with the blade places run but taking away money from firststep shelter will only hurt the wrong people it's not going to harm leadership there they're still going to have their jobs what it's going to do is it's going to decrease the number of beds that are there which is already a lower capacity than what we originally wanted and when we take more beds AC when we take more beds away it makes it even more difficult for us for social workers for pastors for for other people who are trying to help people receive housing it makes it even more difficult for us to access the services that are provide first provided at First Step shelter uh 94% of the people who have been housed from firststep shelter over two years ago are still being housed that means that the outcomes are good from First Step shelter we do not need to lose the funding there we need more beds there not less beds there uh we have a great need for it we have over 2,000 kids that are homeless in in Valia County in the school systems we need to have ways to uh address the homelessness problem we have very few here in the county we don't have nearly enough resources so I'm asking you to consider putting that back in the budget so that we can more properly serve the least of these so thank you thank you uh Karen Clark followed by uh George figuro followed by Pamela Walker hello I'm not talking about flooding you have enough of them um I want to thank Lisa Lewis I was a watcher for um one of the uh presidential candidates and I was there from 8 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night you guys have a great staff she trained them well and you have nothing but Kudos on that even the crazy drunk that was outside they kind of subdued him um I want to thank the tree debris people that are stationed out of the um West fuia over by the um Humane Society they're doing a great job and once I told um Mike Chitwood that the guys were going way too fast that's amazing the next day all those vehicles coming and going was slow the way they were supposed to be I want to thank them on that um the word discussion is in the description of item four so discussion is just hearing people and talking listening so I know that it went off on a tangent and got changed but on the special meeting will'll be able to speak as well that's what I wanted to know because I know in there's certain classes you can't speak you can only here um and why wait 60 days but that's all over with I'd like to also think about not now about an animal shelter like it's in Orange County because the new contracts when a shelter gets a contract it used to be Animal Control delivered the animal to the shelter they took care of it for three days because that's what the requirement was but I think it got changed where they now have to adopt out and that's the part of that contract that's a little worrying the shelters that already got the contracts just to let you know so that it's not a bad idea you already have the vet you already have these staff and it would be it could be it can be used for John the job training because it's a separate billion dollar industry for Animal Care shelters you know um just the whole animal industry is several billion dollars and you can take advantage of that there are not so much taxpayer dollars there's a lot of Grants there's a lot of businesses out there that would gladly fund and we have the property there are there is property out there plus you can also have a par where you can take in the horses and I remember that during that year somebody borrowed my one truck to car horses into um another shelter area just to be safe so it was it was available so think about that possibly doing an animal shelter and I know there's a group of people that we can help that's about it just I feel sorry for all you guys oh my God thank you thank you uh Jorge followed by Pamela Walker followed by Kathy Thompson good afternoon thank you for the time Mr chairman congratulations on your election make no mistake the rest of the board this man has a mandate the entire the entire community of politicians they even recruited a democratic Sheriff to go go after him and the public spoke and they gave him a mandate so we expect you all to surround him with support and show some respect he's a good man and he cares about us all right I'm here to talk about flooding I don't like being mean I'm a nice guy here's the problem my children and my grandchildren are living in the equivalent of a septic tank my my son and his family are practically trapped in their house I've said that before I'm not going to I'm not going to belabor that I don't want anybody to lose their job I used to be on the Consulting engineering construction side I know I don't want any to lose their job certainly County staff's not going to lose their jobs okay so my comments are not aimed at these people I would love development to happen fix the floting I know you've got a project underway but I know how projects go they take 18 months nine months for long to study them another year to design them another year to get financing it's five years before you have anything please George Let's accelerate this process let's make it go faster the faster we find a solution the sooner we stop talking about moratoriums and and and very difficult things like that okay just be aware all this flooding you all have liability for this somebody falls down and gets hurt gets bit by a coral snake Comm suicide because they can't get it anymore they're going to come after you as well and S immunity is only going to get you so far and I'm not trying to lecture you but it's a reality I have one last thing I want to talk about because I'm allowed to talk about as it relates to flooding anything I am very disappointed with one of your staff members his name is is Mr Bartlett when I first came here three years ago before this was a crisis I was told he been my contact when I went to him he said well I can't do anything you need to convince the board I said okay started working on it then I Rec him he talked to me about one item later on I reached up for an update I left the messages he didn't return my calls my wife had a discussion with with me he got belligerent and aggressive with her I don't appreciate that she didn't appreciate that so tonight I said why did you ghost me he said I figured we had nothing to talk about how does he know what we have to talk about all I wanted was an update I told Mr reinwald he said discuss things with me from now on and he's been very responsive and I appreciate and I respect him but I've lost confidence in Mr Bartlett I know he's leading this study or he's a great part of it I don't know that he's a fair judge of what should be happening I wasn't going to bring him forward but he treated me tonight like garbage have yall heard that before treating someone like garbage he's he FLIR at me disrespect I won't tolerate I'm doing thank you good luck Mr chairman thank you Pamela Walker followed by Kathy Thompson followed by uh Donna McDow yes I'm here again to talk about Animal Control I've been this place since in two years ago and I have emotional support animals the the animal trolls I mean they don't do their job they harass me and harass me I wrote a letter to the Sheriff's Department about I guess them trying to put me in jail about my animals I'm doing everything I can to keep them and they took them to Halifax and they adopted them out so I don't know they sold them cuz that's more than what they concerned about money that's what they're concerned about so when you see homeless people out here with their animals they take care of their animals they eat before that animals eat before they eat you know so this is the issue with animal control and their officers Rin and something Tay Officer Taylor very rude harassing people thank you Kathy Thompson Donnie Donna McDow followed by JC figurado Kathy Thompson resident of Orman Beach but most importantly president of Daytona Playhouse no surprise to any of you I just wanted to come today to personally update you on our second Echo project little bit of history in 2013 we got a letter for some lawyers saying that we were receiving a bequest from a former Patron and volunteer we heard it was going to be about $35,000 and it turned out to be $350,000 I can assure you in these 78y year history of Daytona Playhouse we have never had a donation of that size may never again but that allowed us to apply for our first Echo now we had hoped to renovate the entire building with that money but unfortunately the cost was going to be 1.2 million which was $400,000 more than we had so we we broke it into two phases we addressed first what was most important to our patrons we wanted to give them updated bathrooms since the original bathrooms were built in 1955 um along with other amenities so our total folk and a lift to allow easy wheelchair access for them but the plans were in place and we'd gotten zoning approved which we would need to do phase two and then of course the pandemic struck and that L us a little while but we continued to work on it and as soon as we could we applied for our second Echo and we were improved in December of 2022 now the cost for just the phase two now was 1.2 million so that shows you just how much cost in construction has increased since then but our Echo application was approved thanks to you we completed our children's show for that summer and we closed our doors on July 1st the project was to be completed in December of 2020 what year are we in 2023 and we started our season a little late that December but there were lots of challenges Supply PL supply chain issues delivery delays worker shortages but black and Associates and in particular the late Deo were determined to do their best for us and and we were able to remain open so we ran a full season while the construction went on and at the end of June our construction project was actually completed we now have Ada accessibility both to the front and the back of the theater we have an elevator costume area true rehearsal Hall New dressing room um it it is an absolutely wonderful facility um particularly for the children this summer who were the first to get to use our new um dressing dressing room and rehearsal Hall so I want to thank Daniel Marsh Joe Markham Echo advisory committee Etc our heartfelt that and thank you to the citizens of aluia County Donna McDow JC and David ker I'm standing in for Donna McDow my name's Elizabeth pompy and I live in uh unincorporated Port Orange um lots of what came to talk about had to do with the moratorium but anyway I'll um oh sorry sorry okay um congratulations on the elections everyone um I wanted to speak to the council and say now that the elections are done can we please work together and and get get things done for us the people in visha County including those that live in the city spoke loud and clear on this election day um the moratorium I felt was good uh it would put reg it would stop the building until the flooding issues are solved not just cancel the building it will just reopen them after we decide what's going to happen with all the flooding you hear all these people and you hear it over and over uh next the most important thing is to stop building on our Wetlands that's what's killing us our wetlands are are supposed to collect the storm Waters then it filters it down into the aqua which is our drinking water so if we keep putting retention P ponds in the the water just washes away and here we are with a water shortage now because we have no Wetlands because everybody's building on our Wetlands where I live I is a perfect example because Town West built on Wetlands they put their retention I'm now their Wetlands um I've said this before um our our wetlands are our greatest asset here in Florida and we need to protect it um the next thing that I became aware of is this resolution authorizing a deferral of impact fees for s single family homes I I can't even believe this is being considered I know it sounds good like maybe the individual that's going to go build a home is going to benefit but what I see is the developers are going to benefit and right now um there's no shortage in De developers wanting to build around here the large developers make the money build poor infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks and then move on to build the next leaving us taxpayers to pay for repairs of the shoddy work Town West is a perfect example um I know know it's in the city of Port Orange but development is still the same um I think maybe there should be onput by these developers that come in and build and have to do this and then if there is a problem because if you walk downtown west the roads are falling apart and the sidewalks are falling apart um and it happens over and over um we the people in vucha County get stuck with that bill because we have to pay the taxes that that cover it um uh I'm not even sure why the council is even considering that it only benefits the developers in my opinion um it's under the guise of a of a strategic goal of increasing efficiency and effectiveness of government operations I don't see where waving fees uh increases that it just seems to be a catchy title to give back to the to those that are destroying our country our County excuse me um the next item I would like to speak back ah is the K through 12 development in t farro no JC followed by David Kremer followed by Pam Teter I'm back you guys were expecting it I know uh George I've left you a half dozen messages I'd love a call back love to talk about gaining access to our house which we are still driving a side by side or a large truck out of so if we could have a conversation about me and all my neighbors uh that would be great we need some help um first I would like to uh ask that we revisit that FEMA money that was allocated towards uh HUD and low-income housing and repairs uh I know it can be used for infrastructure and storm water management I think that that conversation needs to be brought up and addressed uh second Mr Santiago you pulled up a picture after I walked out of the room that was very very inaccurate and I'm asking today if you have any information or anything else you plan on doing when I believe we do it now and we have that conversation I have brought you facts and I have brought facts and facts I brought facts with PhD professional stamps on it you have not asked me one time to actually look at it instead we insinuate that I am leading an army of people that that and I have a BS issue that doesn't exists which I do um I'm here like let's pull the picture up what's talk about it let's review it three hurricanes happened within the month before the picture you showed property recovered within a couple months we are over a month probably almost 40 days after this hurricane and I still have a river flowing into my backyard which is flowing into my front yard which is flowing into my neighbor's pasture which is flooding us out today I have a river and it hasn't rained okay that is damn seepage that is from improper water table elevations being set and that is reclaimed water being pumped into these Retention Ponds to maintain artificial Pond Heights for beautification and for irrigation okay in another neighborhood next to us they have a deep water well on a float switch that was set at six feet over the normal water table elevation okay that ran for almost 5 years per the company that installed it okay the way in the St John's permits that water leaves that pond is through lateral infiltration and irrigation when you call St John's just to get clarification on the verbage that they use lateral infiltration is water seeping through the pond okay these are water table elevations that were set over the predevelopment findings in the bound report by six feet okay Victoria Park within the last two months before the storm brought in 200 million gallons of reclaimed water to maintain beautification and irrigation so when you want to say that I don't bring facts let's talk about the facts before you insinuate that thank you thank you David Kremer Pam terer Elizabeth pompy Dave Kramer I also live in on uh Miller Lake in Orange City and I am flooded I have lot lost uh many acres of land my wife and daughter have had to move out of the house it's surrounded by water uh the power shut off you can see the water coming up through the vents uh it's uninhabitable now we've had 14 inches of rain but but as you've heard already that turned into 7 10 12 feet of water on a lake um that shouldn't happen now this isn't the first time being here phys physically here 2017 2019 2021 for the same issues of the water being pumped and being drained into Miller Lake and each time valua County was they they specifically said we're not going to do anything and just a few years ago St John's river Authority they actually got all the entities together the city of Orange City the city of DeBerry the Department of Transportation St John's river and they all agreed they could pump that water out and get it to uh to Barry that was a few years ago which would have got us out of this problem uh fuchia County was the only entity that refused to do it they said we will not provide a pump and we will not provide resources I was actually told by Ben Bartlett uh that I could buy the pump myself and then they'd look into it with it also uh another time one of the county engineers David hamstra he came onto our property and said that we're going to we'll we'll stop the pumping and stop the drainage so the County's known about it there been going on since 2017 so what's been done since uh Milton on Miller Road they've built the county has built a temporary one lane uh road that fortunately I'm on the Shady Lane side I'm the other side of the lake and I don't have to use that road it looks extremely dangerous and unsafe now the Valia county has also have been told that they put a stick literally put a stick in the mud and that's how they're monitoring the lake so I'm not sure what kind of design and engineering and science is around that but I would expect a little more to be done than to say we don't see the Water Rising because we put a stick in the mud so what what are my expectations they've pretty much been met over the last eight years I expect nothing to be done I expect good solutions to come forward and the county not to do anything so I'm going to do what the County's done to me for years I'm going to shut up I'm going to turn my back to you and I'm going to walk away pam [Applause] terer pam terer Elizabeth pompy and Ronnie hole I don't think there's U probably a lot I can add to this subject of flooding however I do want to put our face to this severe problem that the county has we bought our home in July after moving from North Carolina and we had no idea what awaited us the retention Pond located beside our home began to overflow into our property before the Hurricanes arrived the water came Within 30 ft of our home we were blindsided by this issue I mean who in the world would have thought that flooding would be a regular occurrence that the county would not address crazy huh since our home flooded in this last hurricane we have had to it's still not livable by the way uh we have had to rely on friends to have a place to stay driving an hour and a half round trip each day as we struggle to clean up and rep our home we have to wonder is it in vain to fix up our house when the next day will let us again we've been told there isn't anything that can be done except that you have long range plans while I appreciate even that unless these plans have actual steps to fix a problem and a date to begin they remain an elusive dream do you have any idea how hopeless and helpless that that makes us feel unless you have experienced the anxiety and Trauma of a flooding event you cannot even imagine as you go home today and you prepare to sleep in your bed just think of those of us who can't do that as you prepare for the upcoming coming holidays and you gather around your table at Thanksgiving please think of us who can't do that as you put up your Christmas decorations in your home please think about the rest of us do not have that opportunity please work on this problem now please address it for those of us who are suffering on a daily basis you want our tax dollars almost $10,000 by the way next year that we will owe you help me live in a home and and do something about this flooding I'm just asking you as a face of trauma right here before you please please help us thank you thank you Elizabeth you spoke for somebody else did you Elizabeth pompy okay uh Ronnie Hull and Pat Nicholson good evening and thank thank you for allowing me to be here my name is Ronnie Hall I live newa Beach I'm the general manager of the Valia County Fair on behalf of the valuch county fair board of directors we'd like to thank the County Council Administration staff and employees for helping us put on the annual Fair after a hurricane so we can have over 4,000 youth in this County display their projects to our County thank you again for all you do I know you have a lot going on but thank you again thank you Ronnie Pat Nicholson followed by Thomas rutage followed by Tyler momberg is Pat Nicholson in the room okay we will go to uh Tom Thomas rutage followed by Tyler momberg followed by um Fred clevand no I just called your name and come come on down you were next you had set alarms off my name is I live in the land and there was an issue last year and I started following the council minutes and I've watched each of you and I have to say I'm really disappointed with what I see you'd have to be deaf and dumb not to see how people are suffering and to see you kick item four down the line we know what you're doing you're trying to get around it the same thing you do every time look at my notes Here If You know if you remember who B life was that's what several of you remind me of it's just aggravating our tax dollars are paying your salaries you are not following your oath of office you are not he the taxers look around you you don't need more study your planning department your building department your county attorney is not doing their jobs none of them none of you should be paid you should be ashamed of yourselves and then to have the suspension of the impact fee from a developer when the federal government under Biden has already given the money don't dare ask the taxpayers to bear that burden get a grip and do the right thing we've had about enough of all this stalling Thomas rled followed by Tyler momberg followed by Fred Cleveland sorry boss I was downstairs uh getting through security um thank you th out will by the Sea thank you for your service to our community and congrats Mr Brower and Mr Reinhardt for your election victories um you have seen me before where I was forecasted the machinations the end result of this election admittedly I was speaking from the Hubers of the galactically ignorant I had no idea what Mr Brower was up against um election analysis indicates brower's absence from the local Republican voter guide was extremely damaging and went against the expectations of the rank and file Republican voters in Valia County many relied on this guide and did not understand the process that eliminated Mr Brower from it when they found out that outrage was uncontained in my opinion unless there is a change in leadership and this committee comes to alignment with the expectations of Republican voters that will remain discredited and ultimately unreliable for local races the word is out and the educational process will continue the Shuan for all presidential year candidates who rely on the doors on the on the endorsement are a thing of the past it will be easy going forward for endorsed Republicans to counter it in in District races where there are far less voters needing education on the subject this is most in poignantly indicated in the seat 2 race where a candidate a lifelong Republican was not on the guide and almost won Mr Miller was so wounded by the affair he switched parties and protest had he had he not done that he likely would have won easily and been seated here another thing we learned is endorsements or worthless working polling locations I never heard or any other volunteer ever heard say it was brought up when the voters had plenty to say um on another subject the road issue which you've heard from me before the on the 4100 Block in Wilbur the southern end the Trap bags are gone um they were gone before the approximate one foot surge hit um from the latest nor to just normal height Tides have taken away this is really for staff so the southern end of the 4100 Block and Wilber by the Sea and on orial the Trap bags are gone they're essentially missing uh the northern ones are further west and they're still there working somewhat another thing regarding the flooding listening to developers and Chambers of Commerce complain about Job losses from a moratorium is like listening to defense contractors arguing against stopping Wars because it'll hurt jobs anyway thank you very much for your time Tyler momberg is Tyler still here can somebody turn off their Tyler okay uh Fred Cleveland Mayor Cleveland still here yes followed by uh Ava Castellano followed by Katherine pante good evening Mr chairman uh council members uh first of all thank you for your your service um it's not volunteer but it's pretty close based on what you're paid uh and thank you for taking a breath uh and and I can can only tell you that I have heard the stories that you heard tonight from new samna residents about uh our flooding the human cry to do something to act please unite our cities so we do no damage to our neighbors please seek the cooperation of our nearby counties on this what I call a regional or Statewide issue leverage the county managers contacts the Army Corps of Engineers our US Congress and our governor's office to get the billions of dollars it's going to take to remedy this and the time that it's going to take to get it right the first time measure twice cut once we have a community of low-lying areas not the least of which is Corbin Park where 50 homes get flooded every time we beseeched your generosity and your wisdom on approving the grant of the uh 368 for this Corbin Park project lastly the Arts it's the only surviving evidence that our culture will have for future Generations please remember that when it comes to your budget vote for a couple of reasons it's an economic engine times five for the people that attend and it's a worthy government service to the residents and citizens and businesses in the area thank you through your time thank you for your consideration and thank you for your commitment tonight amongst amazing pressure uh you have an unenviable job and I'm proud to serve with you thank you Ava Castellano followed by Katherine pante followed by Carla black hello I'm Ava Castellano and I'm representing the Athan Cedar regarding item number 10 on the agenda I'm 15 years old and I'm a freshman at Dand high school I'm a member of the IB Program have a 4.5 GPA and I'm the class of 2028 secretary I have been a student of the Athens Ceder Youth Academy for over four years I was a part of the foot loose Junior Cast last year and a part of the Legally Blonde cast this year I also been in improv for a majority of my years at the Athens theater on top of all my time spent at the Athens Cedar I'm also part of the Dand High School band and have done dance for over five years as you could probably tell I'm very very involved in the Arts in our community and the impact of this has been immense in my life personally I have experienced more creativity focus and social awareness I'm also not the only one to experience such things from participating in the Arts the Arts have had a major impact on the person I am today and the person I will eventually become this grant keeps many things going in the Arts community all throughout vucha County it would be devastating to see these opportunities slowly diminish for kids exactly like me who love the Arts it would be even more disappointing to see someone like me who plans on continuing being an active member of the arts program not being able to participate because of budget cuts I'm also a junior counselor of the Athens Cedar Youth Academy this has been a very fulfilling experience getting to see younger kids who are exactly like me enjoying and being fully immersed in the Arts it's an incredible experience to watch these kids learn grow and play through the Arts on top of everything the Arts have built a very strong Community for me and has given me a safe haven where I can truly be myself I've built so many incredible friendships and would be extremely saddened to see this Outlet possibly be taken away from these younger children who are just starting out the Arts have given me and so many others the confidence to participate in many other endeavors outside of the Arts in fact I wouldn't have the confidence to be here in front of you today if it weren't for the Arts the Arts are an incredible thing that should be kept alive for everyone when deciding on this grant I implore you to think about everyone but especially the children that this can have a large impact on thank you thank you um before I call in the next person um a it was good to hear from you but I'm I need to remind the audience if you're going to speak um on a specific item um please come up during that item um this is for this part of uh public participation is for items not on the uh agenda next we have Katherine pante followed by Carla black followed by Pat Joslin Katherine pante Daytona Beach protected address good evening Council accessibility of Council meetings needs to be addressed and can be addressed in our Charter under these taxpaying residents deserve a seat at the table to have their voices heard our Charter grants the authority to move the location of our meetings as long as it is advertised in a newspaper of General circulation one week prior the county owns the Ocean Center so there is no place space and cost are non-issue I propose on the basis of accessibility for all residents that the County Council hold one of the two monthly meetings at the Ocean Center which has plenty of space to seat many residents as well as parking I also propose that we maintain an evening meeting to start no earlier than 5 p.m. as people do have day jobs I add this specifically because our at large councilman has requested that both meetings be held during daytime hours that action will severely limit the working Public's access to attend Council meetings now for a U-turn to address to a Tona Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce Facebook post on opposition to the countywide moratorium the chamber claims several thousand jobs will be lost in the Construction and building industry this is blatantly false many folks and I was one of them many folks and I was one of them who could not even hire a contractor roofer Etc to put our homes back together post storm because people are backed up for months with work it took one and a half years to put my childhood home back together after Ian because I was waiting on subcontractors the most concerning thing mentioned was the hundreds of millions of dollars lost revenue for the county wow just wow is that all these people think of is their lost Millions after pumping half a million into a county chair race to take out the one councilman who really hears us and wants to address our countywide flooding issues to that I say what about the thousands of dollars vucha County residents have lost due to flooding The increased cost of insurance that many can no longer afford to have what about our neighbors who have to file bankruptcy those on fixed incomes those we made homeless not once in their Facebook post did they mention the safety the health or security of our residents only pure greed at the loss of millions in Revenue to the chamber I say how about you reach out to your business partners and instead of creating gentrified parks of concrete to funnel some of those dollars to our infrastructure needs in our County redoing our Antiquated 100 Year own storm and sord drains makes for a whole lot of construction jobs thank you thank you okay Carla black uh Pat Joslin followed by Stephanie Cox good evening councilman I am Carla black from Orange City I'm here to discuss our Public Safety and the protection of our quality of life I've been following the stories of our residents our family farmers and small businesses that had never been in a flood zone prior of the construction of the F and build communities over Watershed that popped up in and around their proximity to them I find the Retention Ponds unsightly and ineective at doing their job jobs I find the um some of the residents are stuck in continuous standing water that has never been addressed they have no dry path to their homes nowhere for children to play nowhere for animals to graze and they are very much at risk for deadly bacteria and mold we also have residents that previously were not in a flood zone or a flooding during not only name storms but also typical summer storms many don't have the appropriate insurance coverage because it is difficult to obtain and extremely costly they are also at Great risk to their health and well-being for our Public Safety we should stop the six and8 feet of fill over Watershed development projects we should require low impact development policies Implement requirements of the county and municip alties to upgrade storm water management and clear debris in conjunction with our M municipalities the flooding is not in my backyard I'm in an unincorporated Orange City but I do care about this County I care about the people to quote a favorite artist we've compromised our pride and sacrificed our health we must demand more not from each other but from ourselves let us think of this before rushing to approve resoning for another 250 home fill and build project over Watershed I stand with the moratorium you've delayed it and I'm satisfied with that but I I will come back and I will discuss it stand with it and I thank all of you for your time thank you pat pat jlin followed by Stephanie Cox followed by Reverend Anthony Stars my name is Pat Joselyn I live on Taylor Road in Delan Florida and this hurricane they closed our road and they closed it for three weeks because it was flooded up to my knees Mr Santiago if you've not been out there and neither has our district person that I've seen they've not come so what I came to say today I don't think I can say um I listen Len to Glenn Beck no it wasn't bad but I I listened to Glenn Beck and Glen Beck says do the next right thing do the next right thing all of you sitting up here the only person that's ever been to our place is Mr Brower Mr Brower has been there multiple times to check on us and to make sure we are okay nobody else has he checked on our neighbors that it only been there I was going to cry our business has suffered because of Victoria Trails Victoria Reserve um Sawyers Landing they built up 68 ft if any of you get yourself out and go look at our neighbors on Rockingham and War Admiral the the road that's not the property that's not finished in the reserve they've got an 8ft wall of sand an 8 foot wall of sand you guys have been listening to JC for six years you've done nothing it's time to get off your butts and like I said the city of day to the city of Delan last night get your thumbs out of your butt approve the moratorium put in our our the infrastructure that should have been there before we started building this should have not happened to us we live in X um elevation X elevation does not flood except for when Victoria Park and all of those subdivisions build eight feet up so all of you guys that are against this straighten up as my mother used to say straighten up I'm going to take you behind the Woodshed and the other thing I would like to say is I think you need to ask the community to be on these committees you need to ask us what the answer is you need to allow us to be on the committee because putting only government people on the committee ain't going to work and what time is the 5th of December Mr Dempsey thank you we did not even know that in our district all of us sitting downstairs that couldn't get in today we had no idea that you were having a town hall okay thank you thank you uh Stephanie Cox followed by Reverend Anthony Stars followed by uh Joe Rob oh past Stephanie Cox here going twice Reverend Anthony Stars uh Rob pastr is Rob here he not on that row uh Chelsea of past act she here yeah Robert you speaking rob you were ahead of her if you want to come down and speak first so it's Rob Chelsea and then Missy Herrero thanks for the opportunity I'm roback I'm here speaking not on my own on behal but also on behalf of the residents of Luchia County who flooded and specifically for my friends and neighbors of The Firs Village first off congratulations Mr Brower and Mr Reinhardt on your recent re-elections the you now more than ever we need your leadership your hard work your dedication we need your cooperation and your focus to be the community and the people that live here represent representatives to do the right thing for us those who live here now not for contractor or developer to make their next million dollars not for the persective families who may move here or for the businesses that may come in the future we need the infrastructure handled now for The Who live here now many of us are still feeling the impact of development that's already happened and we deserve to have an infrastructure that works so we suffer from repeated flooding what we need is attention to this infrastructure deficiency and flooding matters specifically attention like the idea of a motocross track cut from County staff and elected officials alike remember that a lot of information a lot of effort and it went nowhere and it wasn't to benefit the many thank you all and staff for your recent work to schedule the upcoming County meetings and for the special meeting that was just taken care of tonight to address the flooding and other disaster related concerns later 25th and 26th of this month although we need a lot more done than just talking about the problem to see results it's a it's a small step in the right direction what I've been hearing from Ben berl works is that we just need to order more studies yet there probably isn't any money to get that work done the studies are going to indicate just like in the past there were plenty of studies that currently still in the county offices the which they recommended was never completed such as the B21 2009 study shouldn't in fees be for the impact of development because in my neighborhood there's been a noticeable impact so regardless of what the engineers say the new developments off West specifically for my neighborhood are definitely impacting the or homes and local residents of tamoka farms Village that Happ to at lower elevations that's why we must have the moratorium on new until we have answers and actions because ordering those studies can't be theowing action if new developments are allowed to be both at higher elevations draining to existing infrastructure it will be the additional expense of the existing residents as we've all recently seen I just don't see how any of you could vot to remove impact fees for Builders when we've seen the impacts firsthand so recently and repectively I feel if new building is allowed with these flooding concerns not being met it will show the people where your Lo thank you and look out for to look out for the people not special interest groups I'd like to recommend our agenda item to look at the possibility of EO funds considering the M across track let's do a recreational storage out there take care of a lot of people might have lost some time up front I think the worked Chelsea is Chelsea a past neck good evening everyone I'm Chelsea Pastak I also live in unincorporated Port Orange in the tamoka Farms Village I want to also congratulate Mr Brower and Mr Reinhardt who aren't here tonight on their election and another term I'm hoping that with new terms and a new year comes camaraderie amongst the council along with new ideas and new outcomes that provide responsive and fiscally responsible services for the health safety and quality of life for the citizens of alucha County to be a community rich with resources and opportunities today and for generations to come as your mission statement States I'm hopeful that the seven of you will work together in collaboration with local municipalities with that being said I'm here to speak on a couple of topics time depending um the first one was going to be that we support the moratorium I know that's going to be pushed off but I don't know why we can't have at least discussions on things um when we had hurricane Milton I've been here to speak to you guys several times before but when Milton came through we had five feet of water on Halifax Drive on the West Side um the only access to our properties was via boat or kayak back um you know my my children couldn't even stand out there it was up to Rob's chest um when we're talking about the deferment of impact fees I know it's an agenda item but these fees help with new or expanded public facilities that will directly address the increased demand created by that development we the people need help not another savings for developers who are already set to make a profit so when you vote today and when you vote on items such as this moving forward think of the people I heard them sitting outside um since it's a parch house but those who are suffering um they're directly affected by your decisions the final item I want to cover is regarding something called City Lights church it's located within our rule to mocha Farms Village they applied for a special exemption request to turn this once home newly turned into a church into a k through 12 school um that isn't supported by our local plan this is going to go fourth to the planning and Land Development regulation on December 19th and then come in front of you in February potentially but there's a huge restriction in the storm water flow just north of this property which adversely affects all the homes further to the north by keeping the storm water higher for longer um the flow from the west of 415 must converge and then pass under the old Daytona Bridge consisting of only two attached 8 by8 box culs and this restriction has been known about for at least 15 years overall there's a lot more infrastructure that needs to be upgraded before anyone even considers something like this you've heard me up here on multiple occasions and I've emailed you all the B21 watershed management study from 09 um where the big ticket items weren't completed more building is not the answer not to mention a school of this size the 415 it's a two-lane Highway the roads and traffic patterns can't support it we need your help together we stand divided we fall thank you thank you for the time Missy Herrero followed by Elana craft followed by Tim Palmer what about right hi my name's Missy Herrero I live in Orman Beach um I love to see um those kids staying up past their school bedtime to be here to participate that's how much people really care about what's going on um thank you also for having the alternate meetings at 4:00 it really is nice for the residents who work that they can come and participate and I think that that's really essential for our community um wow we listen to um everybody say they wanted to work together tonight I really hope that that's where we're moving um I've been here on and off for the last four years and really been uh disappointed in the unprofessional behavior and on the council that really undermines accomplishing anything for the residents we all lose when you guys can't find a consensus we take for granted certain inate rights of residents of this community the right for a homes to be protected from adverse effects of new new developments built in our communities is one of them a lot of people are here because they're suffering the issues of flooding the people behind the scenes they want that want to delay talking about this current problem and how it's affecting our residents are kind of been pulling a lot of the strings and what's happening but the people who really are being affected are here today the lack of infrastructure is not only present in flooding issue our roads are overwhelmed our schools are overwhelmed I talked to a neighbor who teaches at Hinson and she said she has 37 kids in her class 37 our hospitals are overwhelmed if you've been unfortunate enough to bring a family member to the a local Ed you've most likely experienced how overwhelmed the staff and facility are there's long waights in the Ed and there's limited beds if you've been even more unfortunate to have a family member who needs Hospice Care you'll also find there's a shortage there it's essential that we Shore up our resources to take care of our existing residents before more development more land code changes comp plan zoning and density changes in my limited experience from attending City Council meetings I've watched developments be presented to the local M municipalities and the engineers with all of the education that they have they present their plan of how they're going to contain their water and none of the discussion ever is it there's no responsibility on how it's going to affect the existing residents and I think that that's an essential piece that needs to be changed on how we look at new developments thanks for your time thank you Elana craft Tim Palmer followed by Earl hunt good afternoon my name is Elena craft I live in Norman Beach so I would like to take my time today to highlight some of the details uh that were conveniently forgotten um about today's agenda item uh which Mr Brower did provide to everyone so to start there was a very specific term in today's agenda item and that word was discussion I considered negligence not to discuss real solutions to the devastation many nucha County residents have experienced over the past few years and the ter controversial has been used to describe this proposed temporary moratorium there is nothing controversial about pausing development in order to ensure all future developments meet specific conditions to prevent and minimize flooding in his proposal Mr Brower outlined the following criteria as conditions to lift the temporary moratorium there's three of them the first one is to require low impact development standards by definition low impact development provides a sustainable approach to Land Development by mimicking natural water cycles reducing storm water runoff mitigating flooding and preserving natural habitats that is not controversial in fact it sounds like the only responsible and Humane thing to do developers shouldn't be vilified in this discussion but they should be held to a much higher standard than they currently are the way developers are clear cutting and Paving over alucha County shows complete disregard for the residents who live here and who have to suffer the consequences of their profit-driven tunnel vision I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of valusa County residents would support an initiative that places a temporary pause until developers are required to build responsibly that's why everybody's here the second condition Mr brow included in his proposal was to prohibit the current practice of draining wetlands as we all know the main purpose of wetlands is to store flood waters there's nothing controversial about prohibiting The Filling of wetlands the fact that vucha county has a page dedicated to instructing developers on how to obtain a wetland alteration permit is quite shameful as stated on the County's website and I quote if the application meets the requirements of dis division the Wetland alteration permit will be issued there should be no requirement that justifies the filling of wetlands in vucha County again not controversial and the third one was to uh ensure that every municipality has to reevaluate their storm water management practices and maintenance nothing controversial about that it makes perfect sense that the county and the cities pause new residential developments until they update their storm water Master plans so he presented three rational solutions to prevent flooding you have plenty of time to review them prior to this meeting and residents fully support them just ask them and what you did today was just basically kick this thank you topic down the road thank you Tim [Music] Palmer followed by Earl hunt followed by uh Debbie Doo I only need a minute Danny stepped out I want to thank him for his quick response uh to a concern that we have I also want to thank d and Jeff for what they're doing with Edgewater by the way I'm Tim Palmer from Valia County uh and what they're trying to do and cooperate with you on this concern and I have just one thing to say and that is I am astounded that council members would come here unprepared to talk about a problem that has existed for over a decade I app I have I have that's right I'm not going to use the whole time I appreciate the need to consult with the experts but you don't work for the experts you work for us Jeff thank you for giving a time for We the People to speak he if you'd hold your applause we could get through um a lot more names here Earl Hunt is Earl still here Debbie dalbo and Eric colon Coulson Earl still here Debbie Dalo Eric Coulson is it Eric SE Olsson okay sorry thank you for the opportunity to be here um I'm Eric Olsen I'm raising sixth generation of my granddaughters you know of uh residents of Valia County and I don't say that to impress on you but I or to impress you I I say it to impress upon you that I care about my community and I have cared about my community 52 years old born and raised in Delan Florida my great-grandfather came to this town a long time ago so you know we've seen a lot of things happen over the years currently live in newna Beach the flooding is a nightmare right it is a nightmare we know it is right it's changed I've seen flooding in 35 years ago that didn't flood or that flooded 35 years doesn't Flood now got areas that didn't flood 35 years ago that Flood now um changes of of patterns happen but one thing I tell you is we've got a lot of rain 25 years ago we were in this room talking about how we were in a drought and we weren't going to we didn't have enough water to to have clean water for our kids right so we started water-wise ordinances and we spent a lot of money time Millions hundreds of millions of dollars we spent change the Dynamics of construction and toilets and water valves and we did all that because we needed to save that water now here we are talking about how we've got so much water we don't know what to do with it or where to put it um the water table is extremely high I took pictures and posted this weekend on a on a house where the river is uh 4 feet above main high water water line two foot above the dock right I've never seen that in my life ever we got a restaurant in day in port or ponet sorry that on Saturday had two inches of water in their building right the only time it's flooded before is when we had the Hurricanes um we feel for the people that are flooding and and and I'm glad you guys aren't voting on a motion it's very important that we don't vote on a motion you need critical thinking in these times that of Despair and these issues for these people behind me but I'm going to say things that's not going to make some people happy and I'll say things that some make some of them happy you know I I can't I feel for the flooding victims I've been flooded before you know not in the last few storms um it's a horrible feeling to go through I can't even explain the nightmare during that storm much less after the storm and the damage is done but you can't exchange that that sad feeling we have for those people that are suffering that for foreclosure signs on the houses that's going to happen when you put a moratorium on construction nobody in this room can say they don't know somebody that's in construction that depends on construction for their livelihood I've depended on it in my career in my life I'm a family of Carpenters Builders and Farmers we all live in harmony like we all we should all be living in harmony we have to find an answer for it the problem wasn't caused by these guys right here sorry it wasn't it was caused by people before you it was caused by people bad apples guys that weren't making the best decisions the right decisions and it's your responsibility now to make sure we make them but exchanging the the the sadness that we have for the people that are flooding for um for foreclosure signs bankruptcies suicides and loss of jobs is disgusting at best to hear those words said thank you Jim pis I think it's maybe John pis followed by Allison root followed by Gigi Galloway uh good evening everybody thank you for thank you for giving us at least a couple minutes up here to talk about this um you know Eric said a lot of the same things that I'm going to say I've been doing this my whole life born and raised here 59 years ago proud of it I've been doing this my whole life my whole family's been doing the same thing um it's you know I I had a lot of employees here that we represented when it got pulled off there's a lot of people that left so you know and we have a special meeting I'd love for you guys to hear a little bit of that because you're not even going to hear the tip of the iceberg I'd say there's 10 five or 10% left since it's been pulled off the off the agenda um FL I we went through some flooding ourselves just like Eric said my family's been through it just this last month um the moratorium is just going to make the situation worse if you consider that because now you got flooding victims that we take we take opportunity away from them we take um funds out of their we take money out of circulation and what happens then you know we don't want to make the situation worse talking about um talking about having a special meeting and really sitting down with experts And discussing this thing and absorbing it I'm a home builder and developer got into development me they had to because you know I got to get my piece to build a few houses to try to fit the American dream for folks we're not here to make a ton of money on one house I'm from here right and a lot of the folks that you'll hear from are from our group are here and you know it's it's whenever we the folks that we employ are from here right we're not from out of County we're not from out of state we're not we're here and the money stays in circulation take it out of circulation then you've got a whole other list of problems um we got way too much to learn um you comments about building communities High building over Wetland stuff like that tells me again there's a whole lot um because there are things that we are forced to do as a developer that puts our communities High I mean there's so many things I'd rather not do as a developer that are in the rules and regulations that we are forced to do everybody up there knows all this stuff but we need the time to talk about it um we need education we need St studing we need compromise and we understand that and we're we'd love to sit down and talk about it I know I've got a lot to contribute a lot of lot of education and stuff that we've been through Engineers were here I heard you call a couple names these guys decided they're not going to talk now there's a lot of folks that you need to hear from to understand it um and the last thing I'll say is um thought we postponed this and I've I'm only here this late because we pulled it off the agenda but I've just sat through 50 people that have been talking in in support of a moratorium and again the motion's high and we understand that we need the time to talk about it from both sides you need to learn every bit we need to learn before we make a decision that could possibly make the situation worse thank you Allison root followed by GG Galloway followed by Praise Hood uh Allison Rees I live in Delan on the Southeast corner of uh Blue Lake and uh Tailor been living there better our house there 30 years ago was nothing out there at the time they had just hadn't even paved Taylor from uh MLK to uh Blue Lake I've had a front row seat for the last 30 years I've seen everything that's going on um every time every time they keep adding keep and the flooding gets worse and worse and worse um uh to start with I've called three of y'all Tred to get up with it get appointments phone calls for the last few months nobody there's one person called me back M Mr BR right there I called you and I called you my representative over there didn't even know anything about you having a town hall meeting till you just said it been calling you trying to set up meting meetings what's the deal you can't call nobody back I mean we're having flooding out there all these people are hurting they had to shut down Taylor Road had to set down armed Camp Blue Lake they shut it down for a while it's sinking in the ground it's about to have a big sinkhole there is anybody doing anything you talk about having a workshop a study where you going to study Orange City the land Daytona there's one common Den nominator in this whole problem do I need to bring Elon Musk in here to tell you what's going on only thing I've done today is was able to Kick the Can down the road another 60 days typical politicians youall have a good day GG Gallow price Hood Mr chair can I get his name you called Alison rot and that Al and I didn't just speak who who just SP sure I'm not sure it was Jim re Reeves Allison Reeves Reeves thank you I Allison root okay you let me know am I good you are good all right I'm going to keep it very brief because obviously it's been a long night for everybody and it's only going to be longer because we haven't even got through the first thing on the agenda um I would just like to take the time to say thank you to the County Council for extending the time a more isn't something that should be taken lightly it isn't something that you should rush into I know it's been discussed at different times throughout the years um but again it's not it should never be a knee-jerk reaction it needs to be something thoughtful and something that because there will be jobs lost there are 50,000 people who reside and commute to valua County each day to work in construction the seventh Cong congressional district of the United States which is our Southern portion of our county is one of the top 10 for construction workers in the nation the statistics are out there so to say that it won't affect people I guarantee you it's going to affect that kid right there who's trying to get a license in construction so yes it will we're encouraging our children to take construction programs here in valua County electrical HVAC all these programs that our school board is dumping money into for what to send them away they can't work here if you have a moratorium where are they going to go so I just want to thank you guys for taking that opportunity to really think of the impact that this will have on our residents here in blch County thank you GG Galloway followed by Price Hood followed by go ahead GG um Mr chairman Commissioners first of all thank you all very much much for being the Mike Tyson and that other guy that has to stand up and take all these punches it's easy for people throw punches at when y'all can't throw back but I just want to tell you as a former athlete I look at y'all as being my sports team and I want y'all to win the national championship and I challenge y'all to learn how to work together and work better together because we need y'all to show True leadership you know I I've lived here 42 years and I'm going to tell you about a part of where I live that's been flooding since 42 years ago you know let's stop putting the blame on the developer and let's realize that Nova Canal was built probably I don't know 40s or 50s there's only three ways that water can get out Holly Hill and down on Port Orange I feel the pain my house has flooded twice in 42 years my partner just had 2T of water his house is next to the power station Jake down there at Port Orange 2T of water right next to where the Nova Canal I challenge each of y'all we brought in over $1.1 billion dollar of tax dollars with money that we can get where is our pumping systems I grew up as a kid in Texas and we had massive pumps massive pumps New Orleans massive pumps go back and look at aial photos up in Orman Beach when the airport was a naval airport myy Branch the other Branch up there the ditch the creek was dug out 20 feet deep 20 feet wide there's trees this big in it my tax dollars say that somebody is supposed to be paying my tax dollars to clear those Creeks out I got a property on mail roads that has flooded three times in the last last four years do widen the road covered the dent Chu the water has nowhere to go do we ever check do do fdot widen the interstate right there to fly over Airport Road all back up in there go look at the covert they put they're unloading a 100,000 square ft of water after every rainfall it doesn't go to each side it goes way maybe that's where that 5et of water came from I think what we need to do is take a real the reason I say tap the braks on the moratorium is we need to take a slow process and look at all the people involved it's just not developers let's go to Dot and find out where they're putting their water because their ponds don't meet what developer ponds needs are supposed to be so with that thank y'all very much and um I look forward to the next meeting I have more comments for you thank you thank you uh Trace Hood followed by I think it's Jane dowy followed by Joanie Gonzalez good evening Council um chair just wanted to say thank you all for being here tonight and my name is price Hood I reside in South Daytona and I'm the government Affairs director for the Daytona Beach area Association realtorss I you received a letter an opposition from me earlier this afternoon uh written by our president and I just wanted to read that for the record today uh dear members of the valua County Council the Daytona Beach area Association of Realtors adamantly opposes any development moratorium in valua County to address flooding concerns specifically a countywide moratorium on residential development would have a harmful impact on the local economy community and housing Supply from an economic perspective there are many negative repercussions associated with the residential development moratorium a reduction in the pool of over 20,000 vua County residents working in the Construction and building industry today potentially harming property values disrupting ongoing development projects creating uncertainty for investors and possibly not addressing the underlying issues successfully if a clear plan and timeline for resolution aren't implemented successfully essentially a residential development moratorium could interrupt economic progress while not providing an effective long-term solution for flooding in our area a cool down in economic progress can directly reduce tax revenue that's used to fund essential Public Services like much of the United States fuia County in Florida have a housing deficit a residential development moratorium will exacerbate the area's existing housing shortage while creating an affordability imbalance for the foreseeable future prospective homeowners and renters will be forced to seek housing in an already overburden Market at a time when this area desperately needs additional housing units we implore the County Council to invest investigate alternative solutions that balance smart growth and responsible development for example infrastructure and Resource Management could be improved through more strategic sustainable Planning and Zoning adjustments rather than an outright ban on development the Daytona Beach area Association Realtors strives to be a resource to the Lua County Council on all real estate matters we are always ready to participate in discussions that work towards solving our area's challenges while keeping the sustainability and prosperity of our community moving forward we appreciate you all scheduling a special meeting to further discuss this and we look forward to being there at the table thank you is Jane dowy in the room followed by Joanie Gonzalez followed by Nancy La Riviera Riviera no hi my name is Jane dowy and first of all I'd like to thank Jeff Brower for coming out and uh looking at our Lake I'm a resident on Lake winam misset have owned the property there for over 20 years in Native Delan um I was really going to do something else different because we've had a lot of the people that were here left because we were all here for the moratorium that we like wam misset is definitely in favor of we've um the the flooding around our lake is horrible the crest wind the Victoria all of the areas around us we've just become a big Cesspool what was once and like Nancy La Rivier will follow up a clean lake is now murky we since Milton I have a brown sludge not phosphates you know we've had that before from um fertilizer and all that comes over this is at first I thought it was pollen because it was just a brown film that we've never had before it doesn't happen all the time but it's all on the west side of the lake which means it's coming from the East side because of the breezes that come from the coast we have a wonderful Breeze however it fills our the west side of the lake with all that junk from everywhere else there were some other I think the ladies following me um will show some pictures and tell you how bad the impact is that Victoria Hills is and we are certainly in favor of a moratorium until something can be done because as they the gentleman saw today the the landfill has put everything above the lake and the lake the natural drainage is non-existent anymore again I was supposed to be last but anyway I'm first but I just want to thank you for your time thank you for coming out Jeff we really um appreciated it and we met with s St John's water district management and hopefully we'll find some kind of um resolution but we'll be here again for the moratorium meeting if we're allowed to speak at that thank you Joanie Gonzalez followed by Nancy La Riva followed by Jack uh you know who you are from uh danan on Westchester I'd like to start out today by sincerely thanking our chair Jeff Brower and St John's Water Management executive director M register along with Chief of Staff from St John's Water Management Brad purcel for coming out to lakew misset today I've been a property owner there for 30 years uh we toured the area with my neighbor Jane Dow that just spoke we took them to approved developments in the city they're allowed to let water leave their properties and no overflow into Lake wiam misset East of us on Martin Luther King the new development Lakewood Estates has two ponds that directly overflow into into Lake Diamond Lake Diamond directly overflows into Lake wiet the dot allows runoff from 44 to go into Lake wiam misset on the east side of our Lake we have the new crestwind development who could you please keep playing my pictures um the crestwind development who clearcut almost everything for their 600 plus homes we get dirty runoff constantly to the lake from Crestland recently we found found that crn had two giant Godwin Pumps with 12-in hoses directed to low area that flows directly into wiam misset each of these pumps can discharge 3,30 gallons of water per minute they were running 24 hours a day I could hear them from my home at the time the ponds and crestwind were all very low one was almost empty yet they directed their dirty water to us they move the pipes now but who's supposed to watch for these things the properties around the lake are all flooded still and we can't afford any more legal runoff the only way for Lake wet to go down besides evaporation is a 1928 man-made canoe trail on the East Northeast end of the lake it's overgrown and doesn't flow well the canoe trail is platted but it's not dedicated so the county has its hands tied up to help currently on the lake 40 of the 45 docks still sit underwater many of the docks are popping up and breaking off insurance doesn't cover docks my neighbor neighbors have lost their yards out buildings storage sheds with other contents the use of the lake has stopped the entire lake is a no wake zone for who knows how long the new surrounding developments have all been allowed to give us their overflow it feels very unethical we are the gateway to the land in this beautiful Spring fet Lake sitting in the entrance has become a drain for everyone the new developments seem to get it all while we St flood at heaven to suck up the reality of what they've caed something has to give thank you uh Nancy and then uh Jack brought ma'am you would need to be able to speak into the mic ma'am if you could hand the documents over to me yeah yes yeah just give them to C she'll distribute them and then use a microphone apart okay uh Nancy La Rivier I'm currently the president of the lake wiet civic association thanks for your time uh the University of Florida has at least at least 35 years of data on Lake wiet for about 16 years I've been collecting water samples and taking SEI disc readings monthly in my almost four decades on Lake wiet I've seen it deteriorate from a crystal clear Sandy Bottom gem into an increasingly tea colored water body couter homes has been pumping unfiltered water directly from their construction site as you just heard into a culvert that drains into winam AET which I believe is illegal all their runoff is supposed to be filtered through their retention ponds they bypassed their Retention Ponds uh there's supposed to be loral plantings around all the Retention Ponds before houses were allowed to be occupied and that's not being enforced currently Coulter their lawyers the city the investors who sold the land all promised that this would never happen but already it is and the project is not even done it's quite new SEI dis greetings on Monday November 11th 2024 showed the worst visibility in over 38 years just 8 to 9 ft a year ago I was getting readings of 12 to 15 feet and a year before that I would sometimes get 20 feet of V visibility I had the lake water tested at the local Health Department recently and the sample was found to be high in coliform uh currently the lake is suffering the effects of flooding from all sides partly due to recent rains partly due to Hurricane Milton the big difference is in the past thick forest south and east of the lake would suck up excess water from the storms crestwind development has resulted in the removal of tens of thousands of trees fill has been added and pavement laid down so now the water has no place to go but into the lake and into people's y uh homes this is I've been on this Lake for 37 years and this is the first time I've ever seen a home on the lake actually flood um in addition there was a two week long Deluge that came across State Road 44 from Lake Diamond which is now surrounded by new development this project the crestwind project is being constructed on the last remaining natural recharge discharge area supported supporting the lake there's a a clear trend line and you'll get outlines for this uh showing nutrients increasing in our water the result is urif foration which leads to harmful alil blooms dead zones fish kills and ultimately a green scummy Pond from what was once the clearest cleanest Lake in Central Florida so one I'd like to know what you're going to do about enforcing environmental regulations because culture is not following the rules that they that were set before them um lakew asset civic association our experts and lawyers have been providing information for 30 years to the county and to the city of Dand on the effects of overdevelopment um I say air on the side of caution don't kick the can down the road we can't wait till January for Action a mo a moratorium is the right thing to do at this moment thank you thank you uh is it Jack a Jac am I anywhere close no okay followed by Shannon Krueger followed by Joe du hi my name is jate Saanich I'm here to speak for my mother um svan Saanich um I grew up here in Dand um our house has been in South the land in unincorporated fuchia for 46 years um I received a phone call during Hurricane Milton at 3:00 a.m. from her and the problem was that water was entering her house I decided not to come down because we had been fine through all the Hurricanes and I stayed on the phone with her for three hours while she frantically lifted stuff off the floor on tables trying to save as much as she could um right it's been 46 years and no flooding has happened at our house so what's changed the population of uchia county has increased from 200,000 people to 600,000 people I just researched um so that does mean that there are a lot of developments so I reviewed the master plan for vucha County like for Capital Improvements I only saw that from what I can remember one related to storm water and Port Orange so I think that the master plan is in Act is not adequate for the county as you can see from the flood of people pardon the pun who are coming to speak at the County council meeting um in 2004 hurricane struck Francis Charlie Ivan and Jean and during that time we did not have flooding in our house I can relay the story of Glenn eagles which is a couple minutes away from our neighborhood and homes in that area got six feet of water inside and they required rescue the storm water infrastructure at our property consists of a French drain and then there's a ditch which runs behind her house and then there's additional culs which feed into it so with the development of including I think it's Bentley Green and other properties including all the victoras that are east of us on Orange Camp that means that water is Flowing to our property I think we need some kind of lift stations or something to add to the county master plan land to help save us and all vucha County residents from all this flooding thank you thank you um Shannon Krueger Joe dubac Ken Meister in that order hello my name is Shannon Krueger and I'm a valua County resident I live on the edge of uh the land sort of you know in brandy wine but I'm not really here about that I'm here I came here to because of so many people that I know personally that have experienced situations with the flooding and their family members and then to to be here I got here much on time as I'm sure all of you have been so it's a long day um and very quickly it was pretty much put off that oh we're going to wait two more months before we even talk about doing this the moratorium and the problem is clearly the regulations and the processes that we have now do not prevent these problems the so if we go for two more months under the regulations that we have how many more developments are going to be passed that clearly are just going to exacerbate this problem it's a serious serious problem especially with the larger developments clearly that's where a lot of the big problem is coming from the concerns for local Builders and people that are saying you know there aren't enough jobs if we have a a moratorium a short I mean it's a temporary moratorium that was asked for while we figure out what's the right thing to do we shouldn't be adding to the problem in the meantime and that's my big concern to how many big developments could be approved under regul ations that clearly do not work we have so many almost everybody except for the few people worried about lining their pockets almost everybody here has spoken about how over the last few years five years 10 years 20 years all of these things keep happening over and over again and we all know it's not going to get better it's going to get worse so to put in new developments under the current regulations even two months worth could seriously hurt more and more people because it's clearly not working what's been approved what's been set up all of those things don't work as to talking about oh we'll have a loss of a few jobs and I there will be and I don't want to say few but think of all of these people that need to now have work done on their homes so there's all those construction jobs all of those kinds of jobs are going to be out there for people that are need going to need to have their homes fixed yes the big developer big money guys aren't going to be able to make money during this time frame or at least proceed forward with what they're doing any new stuff obviously anything that's already in the pipeline We Can't Stop but we shouldn't be approving anything under the regulations we currently have because they don't work thank you Jo lubach followed by Ken Meister followed by Danielle Lona good afternoon Joe blach new samna Beach uh mostly clarification regarding both the moratorium and other items that are before you what is the impact of County actions on City activities do you do your decisions that you make apply just to unincorporated property or the entire County if not the entire County how do you help those that are majority of citizens living in urban areas regarding the moratorium be sure to add if you do pursue that be sure to add teeth not just new projects but all not just commercial but also residential after all we all have rights not just the developers thank you Ken Meister be followed by Danielle Lona followed by Robert Coleman hello my name is uh Ken Meister I live in Wilbur by the Sea and uh two years ago my house was lost in uh hurricane Nicole it's been a two-year challenge to go through permitting at the DP and with the county and to start to rebuild and that's not why I'm here though because we're finally starting to make some progress and frankly I think the county has been very helpful throughout the process and I want to thank Jeff for coming out so often to check on how we're doing and but the issue right now is that it took us took my myself a year and my neighbors a year to build a seaw wall to start to protect our homes against the next hurricane and we finally have built those seaw walls but we have a large problem in that the county has right of we right next to us a 40ft right of we and there's several of those down the beach that house the walkovers that go to the beach and all those rways are are naked and unprotected and so what is happening is that as all the residents now are building their seaw walls all that water from the next storm is going to be hitting that right of way and taking out not only that property but roads and eventually then our homes that we just rebuilt now Jeff came out this week and we had a high tide this week in a king tide but we didn't have a storm and we saw that the water was already rushing through the right of way into the sandbag into the Trap bags and creating lots of potential damage to our homes that we just had built the seaw walls and this problem is going to be much much worse during the next storm we tried before we built our seaw walls to work with the county and I'm going to look at you Michael we try to work with your team to build a seaw wall across the RightWay and we were going to pay for it so we weren't asking the county to do this with their own money we said we would pay to build a right away to build a seaw wall across the right of waste so that all then of the the County's property was protected and we could not get to agreement with the county we tried for about four months some of it was over who was going to pay for the landfill behind the seaw wall but most of it was legal mumbo jumbo that we couldn't get through and finally had to go ahead and build my seaw wall and then my neighbor did the same we're going to have a really big problem here in the county on all those walkovers next summer when the next storm hits we had like I said we had a king tide this last weekend the storms were pretty or the seases were pretty rough but it wasn't anything near a storm and those trap bags were in big trouble and you heard one person this this evening already speak of that that they didn't have their trap bags this is a problem that needs to be fixed I'm just giving you a heads up now that um someone should take this pretty seriously because we're going to have some issues in the future thank you thank you uh Troy Kent your name up by accident okay uh Danielle Lona Robert [Music] Coleman and Daniel atona uh I live in Holly Hill Belia County and this is my first time addressing you so I'm going to give you a courtesy is what I was taught and give people an opportunity to listen to everybody here tonight um the reason I'm here tonight is like many others flooding I have lost my home three times I have carried my mom paralyzed in a wheelchair 5 feet to six feet in the air with my neighbors in past Knee Deep Water I just carried my 18-month-old grandson in a life jacket my city who some are here tonight when we went and asked questions about culverts and LPGA the reservoirs the canals the Count's responsible the Count's responsible the Count's responsible we don't know who's responsible we don't know we're going to find out for you so I'm asking you if somebody here can tell me whether it's in an email a week from now in the city of Holly Hill what is the county actually responsible for so the residents can address the city with facts we are tired of the blah blah blah we are tired of hearing the blame oh it's the county oh it's the county oh it's the county if it is the county I'm asking you to fix the problem the biggest investment in my life is gone gone I cannot sell my house I have to tell people which I already would because I have morals that my house is flooded three times I worked my whole life to be able to have what we call the American dream and that is to own a home and to the people here in the construction field this has nothing to do with you I painted for 20 years I know many contractors but I'm going to tell you the problem the problem is most of the contractors are building developments and we have flooded since 2009 when Alabama built the tow houses I didn't buy a house in a flood zone I did my homework I investigated to make sure I wasn't in a flood zone and I became a flood zone and now I am the reservoir and so are my 30 neighbors three streets over please if I can find a contractor because there's so many because everyone I call says they don't do Residential they only do commercial so I will wait outside and I would love to have the help of anybody at this point thank you Robert Coleman Elliot Meadows and Dy uh Snodgrass hey good evening uh my name is Robbie Coleman I'm a fourth generation blushia County resident I live in Orman Beach I am a commercial general contractor but I will help you if I get your number after this um when when my dad was growing up here uh on dun Lon when you got to Nova Road past that was woods so we've been here a long time and and this community has grown and has developed um when considering a moratorium to fix something that we don't know how to fix I just want you to take into consideration the ramifications of that the jobs are not just construction jobs uh yes it's contractors subcontractors Architects Engineers attorneys there's all sorts of people who are connected to the construction industry and I I kind of found it disturbing hearing some of the the comments tonight about people losing their jobs and that kind of not being that big of a deal it's a big deal to me it's a big deal to my employees it's a big deal to my Subs um construction jobs a lot of them are really high-paying good jobs it's the way that we get students to come back after college it's what brought me back here um so residential construction drives commercial construction that new grocery store down the street that you love to go to is not going to be there if there's no houses because the demographics don't work to put it there um I I think everybody here in the audience and in the County Commission understand that there is a flooding issue that needs to be resolved uh I just think an overreaction of stopping all resid residential development is going to cause a lot more destruction and uh I I think the action definitely needs to be taken but in isolated locations not everywhere in the county floods um so there was a comment earlier today unemployment and job loss is not a fear tactic to me it's reality and if construction has halted all over the county you know that new uh electrical airplane company they don't have anywhere to put their people they're not coming here they're going to go somewhere else thank you for your [Applause] time Elliot followed by Dodie Snodgrass followed by Eric Rainbird hey everybody Elliot Meadows I've been here since 1981 um I'm on both sides of this issue I own 50 rental properties I build 50 houses a year and I live on lake winam misset so I understand all of the flooding concerns from all aspects um appreciate everything you guys are doing too by the way but I want to say one thing to everybody here tonight that if we do a moratorium it literally helps nobody who's flooded during these last two storms the moratorium does not stop my residence on Lake winam misset from continuing to flood they will continue to flood so you know as I drive around town on a daily basis going to my different properties and my different sites you know I see um overgrown ditches um I see just like gii gallway said before I see um areas that are supposed to be draining that haven't been maintained um another thing that a lot of these people don't think about is I talked with a gentleman named Ryan Solstice at the city of Edgewater and he pointed out an interesting fact during the Edgewater moratorium talks which was since 1964 when Edgewater was started and I buil a lot of houses in Edgewater the storm water that was used was approximately 1% of the total land area now on all of the new developments since I don't know 2002 or 2003 they've been using a 30% storm water calculation now obviously we know that the houses in Edgewater are going to continue to flood until they can actually have a spot to run that water off it's going to happen same just like in Sleepy Hollow where my dad lives we've never had water my whole life and now all of a sudden there's water at his front door so I'm on both sides of this this issue but if we have a moratorium so what my family and my brother and my cousin and my uncle we don't work for a year and I understand what these other people are saying well you guys can go and you guys can fix houses and you guys can Remodel and yeah we would do that we would have to we' be forced to do that but we're going to change the rules of the game in the middle of the game I've already purchased 10 lots I'm I'm a small Builder you know I make a couple hundred thousand a year I purchased 10 Lots in a year or two in advance you guys can't all of a sudden say oh hey you can't build now well these are infill lots in a city so yeah you're going to say well these big developers are flooding us and this and that and some of the people on my Lake are right we shouldn't have crestwind and listen I know the culture guys I'm friends with them but we shouldn't have Crest wind's water coming on our Lake it shouldn't happen so we're going to have to have policing of the actual rules and regulations that we put into effect or else what are we even here talking about if we're not policing the rules then all of this doesn't even matter so let's police the rules let's maintain the ditches and we can chew gum and walk at the same time let's figure out what to do about the flooding and let guys like me still be able to support my daughter who's going to get her master's degree at ston thank you guys 30 nodr followed by Eric Rainbird followed by Dana MC hi um my name is Dodie SASS and I live on Green Street in South Daytona which is now the new man-made uh retention area of alucha County I'm here today to demand a halt to all new building and development on the original swamp and retention areas of the county which were created by man but which were created by God and mother nature not meant to be filled in and built upon by man I've lived in valua County my entire life and all of these decades in the area we have never seen this type of flooding that we are seeing now a natural engineering study has already been done over the last two years by The Firm of Ian and Milton it has been proven that all of the building that has been permitted by the county and the surrounding in cities within the county on the east and west sides of Williamson Boulevard as well as East and West sides of I95 the original and natural retention areas of the county have caused this issue excuse me as well as an inexcusable poor planning and inexcusable poor planning and permitting I have now become aware the county only has three drainage systems that empty into our Halifax River and then into the the Atlantic Ocean one of these Outlets is in the city of South Daytona and it is called Reed Canal this canal is the responsibility of visha County and it is flooding our homes as well as the old drainage system pipes that are also clogged and cannot handle the amount of drainage that the city of South dayona is now forced to handle I drive Rec Canal daily and I have for over 24 years in all that time I've only seen workers and Equipment clean that Canal one time over the last two and a half decades have any of you ever seen this canal or walked beside it I have on Saturday I walked from us one all the way to Nova road in front of and behind the barricades I took pictures of all the trash car parts and tons of vegetative debris that is clogging up the canal I also saw huge pipes that run under Reed Canal road that are completely washed away and crumbling under the pipes I saw duck bills that have not been maintained and may not be functioning properly if at all I was appalled disgusted and so very disappointed in the county for not doing his job of maintaining this vital drainage system for our County and especially the residents of South Daytona who have now flooded in our homes for the second time in two years my suggestion is to do an immediate cleanup of this canal fix the crumbling and washed away pipes flush and clean out the pipes filled with debris that run into the city of South dayona and also help the city of South dayona rebuild their inferior 12in pipes of the 1950s that are also crumbling broken clogged failing and useless thank you I have solutions to these problems as well and I'd love to share those with you and I'll see thank you Eric Rainbird followed by Dana M follow by Nicole Burgess thank you guys um when I moved to Edgewater 25 years ago I didn't think that edge water meant that that's where my mailbox was on the edge of the water um I sit on the Planning and Zoning Board and chairman Broward thank you for coming out to like I three of our meetings now thank you for every mile of driving that you've been doing on our our behalf um I sit there in a chair smaller than your chair and I listen to these developers and their lawyers which kind of intimidate us and their Engineers constantly telling us that oh well we got a a plan set up and by law we can't leave any more water we no more water can come off than when we were first there meanwhile 25 years in Edge Water I'm watching US1 got water on it now and uh been lied to to the point where I actually told one of the contractors I said I don't believe you they weren't too happy that I said that but I don't believe them we're just watching their results we're going to have a study who's going to do the study who's going to hire the study I can give you a study that can say whatever I wanted to say I took statistics in school you can make statistics say whatever you want we're going to have a study for two years and 60 grand um so many things to go over um it's kind of sad that somebody makes a statement that look Valia County's flood plan is working five minutes later Port Orange Police Department's posting a video going down D Lon Avenue in an airboat how is our flood plan working um the people spoke there was massive money spent against you you were left off the the the guide you still won the people are fed up we saw a presidential candidate spend $1.4 billion do and she got her clock cleaned money doesn't work anymore guys whoever's donating to you do what's right for us you're you're in charge of making us safe yeah the contractors need jobs I get it I was a union painter up in New Jersey I needed a job and I had one but don't bow down to the money that's being donated because ask K Harris money don't work anymore the people are backing into a corner we've had enough Dana [Music] MCO followed by Nicole Burgess followed by Father Phil is he still here thank you Council I appreciate it uh Mr Brower on your win um and also Mr Reinhardt you know I really hate dragging politics into this because for four years I was accused of being anti-development because I took a strong stance as a City Commissioner on what was happening to our city so if we want to talk politics in this I would point out that our governor turned down Federal funding for infrastructure projects because the words climate change was in it and then to santis got $1.5 billion dollar from the state budget which gutted every single or just about every single infrastructure project that we had in belua county and it is hard to sit on on either side of this debate when there is a lot of partial information given to one side of the subject we've not objectively sat down and talked about this I hear the developers and I hear construction experts telling us that this is going to affect their jobs and here's the thing I don't want anyone to be unemployed I just want them to do their job better because they're not going to volunteer to take any money out of their pocket to make sure that building standards are better that's our job to do that as legislators and in vucha County we have a rich history of development money running this County we do I've been on the inside of this and I see it I know how many developers approached me I know how many Builders approached me in my time as a City Commissioner in Delona and I'm probably not in my seat right now as a Delta City Commissioner because of that because of my stance on development I was not until we take special interest in politics out of development we're going to be standing up here debating we have failed our residents and I say that as a former commissioner we have failed our residents when we start talking down to them and we start telling them to behave we cannot do that there's a lot of money being spent up here and you know it does not help we have a member a County Council who works as a lobbying for development it makes us feel that we're not protected and when we bring politics into it and we start talking R&D that's further further alienating I don't know if any liberal person out there any Democrat out there that wants to see continued flooding and I don't think there's any Republican sitting up here that wants see it either but we need to stop the special interest money there is developer money going into pockets and I know that for a fact and until we regain the public Trust on that matter we're not going to move forward thank you Nicole Burgess followed by Father Phil followed by Amelia West chairman before she starts can you pull it up a little more so we can see it on this end thank you I'm Nicole Burgess I'm at Daytona Beach Midtown um I was working at the lockdown crew at halif Fox Hospital during Hurricane Ian when I received a call from my husband at 5:45 5: a.m. on September 29th 2022 telling me he was making the decision to evacuate the house with my son and our pets the next time I saw my home my husband waited through waste deep water to help evacuate our neighbors who'd been sitting on their sofa for two days this October I stood in the same spot and took a picture of a different neighbor with her foster children on each hip trying to figure out how she was going to get to her home that she also couldn't get to at this point now that I'm two years in to living in Florida and recovering from two floods I tried to figure out what can I do to make this better so I've been educating myself I had three weeks to figure out that there was this meeting and I educated myself in that amount of time um I've learned that in 2022 the news journal report of valua county is one of the most flood P counties in the State of Florida with nearly 54 4% of Homes at risk for flooding their Source estimates the number is going to increase to 68% by 2050 I've learned that the combined damage to personal and Commercial properties from Hurricane Ian Nicole and milon Milton total 9549 million I've leared that b county has been fortun fortunate enough to have the collective input from a group of professionals who donate their time and expertise through the n R committee to develop a list of incentives for developers to reduce the risk of flooding from new developments but I've also learned from our sister communities that none of the developers adopt these incentives that would be most of these incentives are low cost or no cost to many developers I've learned that for the fiscal year 2024 2025 that the governor vetor 35 m682 n67 th000 for the communities um in and adjacent to valua County to address drainage storm water flood mitig and flood mitigation strategies I've learned that he's also turned away 11 billion dollar in federal funds to reduce floating for the whole state of Florida so what can I do I can ask you to ask valua County to mandate low impact development strategies that's not a moratorium I can ask you to stand up to our state legislature and say why are you turning away funds to your constituents because we have elected you to act on our behalf I am asking you today that if it is political Kryptonite to go to Tallahassee let me be the face of valicia County to say we can't do this anymore thank you for your time father father Phil you will be followed by Emelia West and then our last speaker will be Robert Campbell good evening chair bow and County council members I'm Father Phil eido pastor of Our Lady of Lords in Daytona Beach and a longtime member of Faith fighting against Injustice toward Harmony we are a coalition of 35 congregations in blushia county and I'm here today to talk about flooding and what you are elected representatives can do about it on behalf of faith and the 50 of us that were here are here that are here tonight from our 34 congregations thank you to both chair Brower and council member Santiago for attending our action assembly last spring that night in front of more than 12200 people you committed to fight for low impact development to be made mandatory it's time we make that happen over the past three years that faith has been researching flooding in our area we've heard stories of homes businesses repeatedly flooding not only in the Midtown area of Daytona Beach but all along our Coastline and Inland to Dand Deltona and more this was not just during hurricanes but during everyday afternoon showers we soon realized that our flooding problems had existed for a long time and that they are getting much worse we have spent years meeting with local and National experts and have concluded that the best thing we can do to prevent this problem from getting worse is to make low impact development strategies mandatory this will will prevent things like the complete clear cutting of native trees and filling in of swamps we are not here to tell you to put a moratorium in all development we just want you to make sure that when development happens when permits are given that proposed development doesn't flood those of us who already live here or make those struggling with flooding even worse we want to propose a compromise it's time to make low impact development strategies mandatory we have met with all of you for 3 years now and this is not a New Concept we have been told time and time again that the incentive approach voted on by you and many other communities in Florida simply does not work developers do not use the incentives offered by governments by mandating developers to use these strategies you'll be protecting us your residents your constituents please pass low mandatory low impact development strategies nothing changes if nothing changes thank you thank you Amelia West followed by Robert Campbell hi sorry I didn't plan on speaking I don't have anything prepared to say but earlier Mr Brower you made a comment that hurt my feelings a little bit you said that someone had mentioned to you about the loss of jobs that would come along with the full moratorium that it was just you thought it just would be a scare tactic and a someone whose job is on the line and know a ton of people whose job would be on the line I'm scared that's not just a scare tactic that's a real life situation that has a lot of implications that if you guys come back if you do all your research and you say this is absolutely necessary then hey I'll give up my job because I don't want people's houses to flood I do care about my neighbors but I'm also asking everybody to care about people who might not be able to afford their houses if they lose their job and yes some of us will be able to snag jobs in a different type of industry or in a different County but if you have 50,000 people fighting jobs because it was said earlier that's how many people work in the construction industry we're not all going to snag jobs and it's not just maybe we can't afford our houses we can't afford to also Patron local restaurants and Retail which I know are already struggling um I just hope that you guys and I I know you guys have your work cut out for you because you're not going to please everybody um and hopefully there's a happy medium but I would like to think that when you guys come back that we have a nice clear list of the pros and cons that you can say this is necessary this is not necessary and here is why um real numbers of we have to do the moratorium or it's not going to work can you prove that doing no building is going to prevent flooding in the areas that are currently being flooded I know that developers are responsible for making sure places do not flood is stopping their development going to make things worse um in the areas that are flooding there have got to be other other avenues to address in places that have been developed for a while is stopping a new development far away going to prevent flooding that area and get we need plans but we need you guys to come back with actual facts so that we can say one way or the other it seems like there are other avenues around it like holding you guys account holding you guys accountable for stuff that's been done in the past that was not done correctly um and making sure that things are done properly in the future but thank you for your time um I know you guys have a lot to consider thank thank you Robert Campbell thank you to County Council first of all I want to thank you guys for um signing up to do this difficult job um guess what are we trying to accomplish here we all don't want more flooding I don't think there's anybody who's like yeah one more flooding um but to get there the tough job is to get to the right answer not necessarily the popular answer and you know when we look at this I know you guys can walk and chew gum so fixing the problem is what we want right so doing a moratorium isn't going to fix the problem it's not going to make these houses not flood nor is it going to you know hurt our economy so in a way the you know the the moratorium on the agenda really kind of was a distraction from getting to a solution so now everybody's worked up there's an easy solution blame all the developers it's all their fault not but there's actually kind of lot it's complex issue so the you know F dot has some some responsibility for the flooding the Southwest John South Water Management or the Water Management District they have a absolutely have a huge part of it because they're the ones who are telling these developers that they need to put in four or five feet of fill which then causes the flooding so that's not anything to do with our County that's Water Management District so I guess we got to get the right people at the table to be able to get to the right solution which is you know when we look there's a lot of resources instead of spending another $3 million on another step stud is it possible that we can get local Engineers some of the local Engineers know it I mean I've heard some of the local Engineers say hey there's easy way to fix the you know the Midtown flooding there's already an easement in place all we got to do is dig dig it so is it we can get some local engineers and then maybe come up with some recommendations and then actually spend the money to fix the problem instead of have another study three month more years get on the track another um resources for you guys so there is the valua County Association for responsible development you know there's people there there's Engineers there there is the Urban Land Institute they do this a lot come in communities and do for free come in and you know come in and help solve problems so um just use our local resources to get this done so I don't know if possible we could get a working group to solve help come up with a solution thank you for your time thank you Robert uh Candice uh Kelly or key Ann Miller and you will be followed by Lisa Smith good evening and thank you guys for hearing us out tonight I stand before you to address an urgent concern regarding the our community's future Jeff B has proposed a building moratorium and discussed potential solutions to our ongoing flooding issues however I must emphasize that we currently lack a clear action plan our constituents your constituents who elected you all are dealing with reported flooding including myself of our homes for several years now while I appreciate the intention behind those proposals we must ask how does Mr Brer plan to fund these incentives these initiatives what a what's a comprehensive strategy if we risk leaving our community in a state of uncertainty we need timelines and checks and balances we've had lots of promises and nothing accomplished the residents of our County deserve transparency and accountability especially concerning matters that directly affect our homes and our livelihoods as County Council you can set minimum baking standards and environmental standards but you cannot tell the cities what they can build a lot of this is caused by Chain Reaction the city can imp additional restrictions and regulations they feel necessary it is important to note that the county moratorium only affects most rural areas as they are affected too this is not the solution for everyone today the news journal reported that many mayors heard from Mr barin for the first time ever we must all work together towards a solution the attacks must cease between County council members and City officials hoping for any of you to fail is essentially hoping for all of us to fail we need our our County and our cities to work together for all of us we need a welldefined plan that outlines not only the steps we will take to mitigate the flooding but also financial resources needed to implement these measures effectively engaging with experts stakeholders and communities is essential to develop a practical solution to Solutions we need updates weekly and monthly we need accountability let us collaborate to ensure that our future plans are not merely promises but pable steps to lead to a real change this city and county again working together there's no way one of you not one of you not one city not one person sitting in those chairs not one of you all of you are going to have to work together thank you Ann [Music] Miller followed by Lisa Smith followed by Janine Kimo thank you and congratulations Mr brow on election I voted for you um I do want to uh I was here to support I am here to support the moratorium but I will say in in response to the gentleman from the construction industry I wouldn't mind if it's just a moratorium right next to my property and I'll explain why um with some photos um so I I got National Weather Service numbers on the rainfall for hurricanes Ian and Milton and I found that the average reported for Ian was 13 Ines the aage average for Milton was 11 so that's two inches more for Ian I just want you to bear this in mind although I know that hurricane Milton the ground was saturated so what I'm arguing for is just for purposes of my comparison let's think of them as approximately equivalent rainfall events now I want to show you um this is our property at the time that Ian hit this is the back corner of our property you notice the water comes up to that that fence you can't really tell very well but there are three um ramps into that detached garage that are mostly dry the like the bottom quarter or third is covered okay so now let's move on to the next um this is the same scene from further back after Hurricane Milton you can actually see that post way down there by where that car is uh hurricane Milton instead of getting about six inches at the maximum in the back corner of our property we got 2 feet of water across about an of property it looked like a bayou when you looked out of our yard you can go to the next one uh it flooded our detached garage our detached office we're still trying to we have racked up so far $40,000 worth of losses which I know is nothing compared to people who were um flooded in their homes you can go to the next one but you can see it goes on and on and on all the way up to that's the corner of our back porch now what I want to argue is that those are two very similar events but somehow completely different impact on our property that's the car at Hurricane Ian a hurricane Milton sitting on the ramp that was dry in Ian with 17 inches of water in it so yeah you can stop now um so the question is what's the factor something totally different happened within those two years our property had never flooded hurricane Ian we got a large puddle this is the most obvious explanation most obvious new Factor the building at the Reserve at Victoria which went in in the interim and they take the reserve takes can handle 8.5 Ines of water in 24 hours so the remaining two uh5 in we assumed that they released it into the wetlands which tumbled right down to our property the reason I want to stop the development is last picture there's more development going up just north of there what will happen then we expect our house will flood thank you thank you uh Lisa Smith Janine Kembro and Brett Gibbs oh my goodness I know you guys are tired of hearing us um I'm Lisa Smith I live on Rockingham Lane um does anybody know what the definition of insanity is cuz this is it doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result nothing is happening this is my back part of my property the if you follow the fence line up you can see how high those houses are in Victoria Trails this house that I live in has has been here since 1986 never once have we had any of the flooding that we have now I know you're sick of hearing it but the only common denominator is all of the building that's it it's simple now I'm sorry that you're worried about your jobs and you know I'm sorry for my family and my neighbors who some of them have been fighting over this for six years and nothing has been done so we'll just keep flooding you guys every single meeting and keep discussing this and do the insanity until something is done because there's many of us losing our homes there's many of us losing our jobs because of it losing our pensions because having to take out to fix the problem and you know we're all hurting and we're not asking for the building to completely stop and land we're just asking temporarily until we fix what's broken right now there's got to be something that y'all can do to help us with that I have can you give the next pictures I have my neighbor right behind me this is just yesterday he go to the next one you can see that's this front front porch is the view of Victoria Trails this is Lake in the back which is right adjacent to my backyard which keeps flooding into our yard um is there another photo there still this is his front yard gets gets late front property now again and there's one more I believe it's I said it before I said it at every meeting it's criminal what's happening to us last night when we were at the city meeting we had one of the members say oh well you know we get affected too our power goes out okay that has nothing to do with this you are not in the same boat as all of us the builders get protection the residents need some type of protection and we need some type of fix because it's not right so please let's do something instead of keep postponing meetings after meetings and seeing the same thing over and over again thank you for listening Janine Kimbro followed by Brett Gibbs followed by Anthony Frank good evening I live in the Mana War Street uh in the same neighborhood as Lisa uh this is the flooding at our gate three and a half fet High um this type of flooding doesn't normally happen uh to this unless we have a hurricane but our regular flooding has been happening because of development of Victoria Park we have had a problem with the drainage ditch behind our house on Taylor Road what happens during a bad storm or during the hurricane is the water will flow between the property my neighbor's property and my property and unfortunately my neighbor's property did Flood inside his house this past time I am asking for help to redo the drainage dish on table ER and have Engineers work on it because our our other neighbor behind our house also flooded in their house on Taylor Road so we're basically surrounded by flooding now my husband and I have lived in this place for 32 years and my husband's a disabled veteran our road was totally blocked we couldn't get in and out but my neighbor on the other side is high and dry and let us cut through so we had a way to get out of our house I had applied for 386 transform I had talked about that once before they had re-evaluated my case and I have 401 income that I have used to help on my property and they denied me again because they didn't deduct all of the 401K income I'd like to be reconsidered for that and nobody has come out to see our property we have had to pump prop our water from our property back to the drainage Stitch and it took about two weeks and we can finally have a little bit of a sight of our road but we're going to need extra funds to try to repair the road thank you thank you Brett Gibbs good evening my name is BR Gibbs I live here in blce County been born and raised here my whole life I work in construction industry here since I was 16 years old um to start flooding should be the top priority period these citizens that are dealing with this it's ridiculous there's no reason that they should have to put up with this you've heard it over and over I get it I'm a broken record uh Mr Brower well I commend your efforts on what you ran for being the flooding victims you did it standing on the backs of the construction industry we're the people that built it we're the people that may have gotten it wrong for those victims I understand but we didn't come up with a design we're the one performing the work we're the one you're going to take food off of our plates I've heard several people say that the the temporary nature of this is is just temporary construction will come back you're asking me and my family to give up what I've put my entire career in to a career path to now give up and change careers because of this moratorium that being said uh what you're proposing in my opinion will single-handedly do to the construction industry what Co did for entertainment and restaurant in this area single-handedly you will put more families out of work searching for new jobs that shouldn't have to be searching for jobs these are residents that are are comfortable in their career paths that have have set lives that you've heard from multi-generational families that have been construction workers here in this County so I don't stand in front of you with some sort of magic solution um but I can stand here and tell you that all of these affected people that are currently flooded that are currently dealing with all these Financial burdens of a flood and I'm empathetic towards it that is the first and foremost problem none of you will get any sort of relief from this moratorium you'll still be flooded you will still be dealing with all those financial burdens while the rest of the community takes a knee in his sideline and possibly puts thousands of people out of work due to it that's all I have thank you for your time Anthony Frank I Would by there I've never been here before I've been to two city meetings with orange City went to the the uh meeting in PATCO with the St John thing about a week or so ago and it seems to me um you know we asking I'm from Miller Road by the way I'm with the crew from Miller Road and Shady Lane Miller Lake which is you know basically used to be Miller ponds Miller Lake now it's going to be Miller Ocean here pretty soon if another hurricane come through but anyway uh here's the thing we ask questions like well why can't we pump this water out of here and we're told because they did do that years ago I I don't know the exact year if it was 07 or 04 or 06 I don't know I think it's the year when the three hurricanes hit us you know all one after another but they ran some pipe back to the there's like 160 AC at the End of the Road Middle Road is a dead end Road there's one way in one way out um I'm sure y'all are familiar with it cuz yall sent out 60 truck loads of millings to give us a on Lane route getting out of it and wound up that did about a third of it and I think you wound up when it was all done about 120 or 150 truckloads of millings for a one lane thing with cones on it so you don't drive off in the dark or whatever you know cuz there like five foot of water on each side of it but anyway and I appreciate that because I was hopping fences walking through bare trails to get to my truck on the other side of the water so I go grocery shopping and I have to park my truck on the other side of the water and hop fences and crap to take food home and it ain't easy hopping fences with eggs and not breaking them but I never broke a one just so you know that's pretty good for an older guy like me myself anyway here's the thing what we're told is we can't pump water on private property now there's a radio tower out there in in the middle of Road and I don't know if it's private if the you know the state owns it or the county owns it who owns it but it's a radio tower that has a lot of uh government contracts and they can't shut down I think that's part of the reason why they they did the lanes because you know for defense reasons whatever there's important stuff that that uh that those towers are taken care of um they pump back there and the owner or who I'm who runs it the the facility made it clear there's no problem but there's like 160 Acres back there nothing but sand and dirt and and you know brush and whatnot uh so I don't know why it can't be pumped back there because whoever is in charge of it they don't have a problem with it they didn't have a problem with it back when they did it the first time um so I don't want anybody breaking laws we're not out here trying to get somebody to do something that's breaking the law by pumping on private property but if that's the reason that you can't do it I'm here to ask you this why won't you enforce the law because we're getting all kind of water dumped into our Lake by the businesses across the street thank you orang well thank you but uh thank you uh Keith NM thank you chair Brower Keith Norton from Holly Hill Florida just wanted to uh thank you all for your service to our community um I've had a lot of conversations with their investor Community with my organization uh over 80 private sector investors and several are engineering firms local engineering firms and they would like to help staff uh as you as they process this flooding issue and we appreciate your leadership on this so thank you very much I look forward to coming back with my comments on January 14th thank you Keith okay Council that is the end of the initial uh public participation um I know everybody probably needs a break I would like to suggest that we try and get the consent agenda um taken care of um because we have one two three four five six seven items that will be pulled um for a vote so that could take an hour um so what is your pleasure uh Vice chair Kent chairman I'm I'm I'm okay to talk about that in a moment but I wanted to mention something different at this time if that's okay if I can have a minute you may have a minute thank you um unprecedent I we normally would do this at the end of the meeting but since we have so many residents in the chambers right now chairman and Council what I'm going to do is I'm I'm going to make a motion hopefully we get a second we get a vote on this chairman if we if we have to let people talk on it after the fact of course that's that's totally fine but our residents expect us to lead they expect us to address this major problem that many of them are affected with in a hugely negative way Council my motion will not cost anything except for staff time but my motion is to direct George rectenwald to come back to this Council within 30 days and give this Council a plan on how we with and with a number a financial number associated with it on how we can fix our canals redig our canals our storm water repipe those lines these are things that is are our responsibility and I think it's this is something we can address now ask staff to come and look at it come back to us within 30 days this isn't moratorium talk right now this is fixing what we have when Gigi Galloway got up and talked about that Branch I think what you were trying to say Gigi was Grover Branch up in Orman Beach and you're right he's shaking his head yes the trees and I had no idea it was 20 feet deep and however wide back in the day that you have the pictures of but the trees that I've seen growing in that that needs to be cleared out so Council I make a motion that we asked George and staff to come back to us within 30 days which would be December 19th and give us a plan on how this can address the storm water the canals within the county of uchia thank you I'll second that just for discussion real quick and have some questions for the county manager thank you okay so we have a a motion on the floor by Troy kis second by councilman Robins uh for the county manager to come back within 30 days with a plan to fix the canals and storm water conveyance systems uh everybody up here to talk on this motion yep okay uh David Santiago yeah I guess when we go through it it just I mean I I don't think it's a good a bad idea um the question is can that endeavor be done in that window time period I I don't know the answer going into a holidays and I'm sure the and not to to make light of the situation I get it this is an important topic but I don't know if you can deliver that not to jump but I think George could do it in two weeks if we told him to I was being kind with 30 days okay I I I don't know well it all will go to the extent that you want done I mean I'm prepared to discuss later if you'd like all the stuff we are working on right this second I mean we're not waiting for a discussion and nor have we you know we've been doing this a long time I've got people that are working these problems today so uh I I can come back and and give you more on some of the other you know maintenance issues and things that were that were brought up um I will say I would before every hurricane every big storm we put a team of people in the field every single time and they know exactly where these canals are we know I don't know what the confusion is in hly Hill uh they know what we uh maintain and we know what we maintain we have an extensive uh asset management system that's probably a you know uh something that is an Envy of a lot of places has been working for years so we go on out and we take a look and we inspect those now people see things like trees and overgrowth and all that well a lot of that uh does not really affect what happens because we make sure the flow is there before the storm and then immediately after the storm we run out for anything that fell in the canal and we go clean it out as soon as we can uh you can't get rid of all the vegetation because you need the vegetation unfortunately to hold the banks so it doesn't slide in we also do work with St John's weather Water Management District too to make sure they don't want it you know we're not to the point but maybe we will or maybe they a solution coming forward but going to concrete slip mine ditches which is what is used in other areas of the country and may uh may help uh move water quicker I will also like to say though that in these two hurricane events the other part that occurred and no one mentioned uh was you had a significant um surge uh or tail water situation so in other words the where the water was ultimately going the Halifax River on the especially as mentioned on the east side was elevated along with the ocean so that's coming back up those connction s uh I think we have South Daytona was here earlier they have a pretty sophisticated system to prevent that but it gets overwhelmed when you have when you get over seven8 Ines in those type areas you're getting past the design of of the systems that are out there so I just want to make that clear that as we go forward we will be working and we'll working on upgrading things and I will come back with a plan on more maintenance more inspection I mean after the 2004 hurricanes we we bought invested in sophisticated camera equipment we gone out we regular the camera and we line PS which is something that we've become very very good at uh so sometimes what people might see uh on the edge may not be what's really going on deep underneath because we've gone through with cameras and we've lined a lot of things uh but again we will continue that I'm committed and and uh so as my team that's what we we actually uh enjoy and and work on all the time but we'll up those efforts I'll come back with what uh to the level I can it's over several million feet of drainage uh out there so we'll get uh I can tell you again uh what we're um what we're doing today what we plan on doing try to attach some numbers to it um the idea about studies I just want to because I got baded around a while uh I agree with some of what was said you know there's no need in one aspect we we know where the flooding is nature has to it start with the studies for the study what we're talking about is really pre-engineering and Engineering so where are you going to send the water or if you can send it somewhere because that's another I can tell you one of the solutions that's going to come out of this and it's not going to be popular but there are places that are not defendable and then we're going to have to talk about maybe what we've done in the past like up in Holly Hill and other areas is where we bought out neighborhoods and and turned them into storm water uh facilities because that's what you're going to have to do in some of these cases uh and others we and you have you'll see here and I know a lot of people really will want to leave but unfortunately U um they'll miss out on you know several million dollars many millions of dollar tens of millions of dollars in projects that are going to go out today before you that are going to address flooding and some of them uh will be projects some will be Innovations like connecting ponds with pipes and pumps to move uh water around better and there's more technology that's coming out that may allow that system to be more automated so we'll be doing uh you'll see those type of projects and more of them as well so but yeah I I will come back in 30 days and and we'll have a lot but I'll probably be talking about some of it here in just a few minutes when we get to that item of stuff we are absolutely doing right now George thank you for mentioning the projects that are on the line you're right most members of the public probably don't know that that's coming forward but um I think it's also important to know your motion I think is good and we should do that and I think they're already doing that I think one of the other things is how do we leverage the fact or how do we address the fact that much of the flooding that's occurred correct me if I'm wrong George has occurred in cities um and we often take the blame for that right well I'm sure we have to work together water know it's old saying storm water water Knows No Boundaries you know this is something we do have to work regionally together those canals that were dug on the east side were were dug originally as mosquito control canals they go back to the 1920s and before with the idea of draining the area to be able to build uh your all of your Eastern cities so we make maintain them they're in the cities we work together with them but I think what's kind of exciting about uh the transform 386 monies and the other things we've working on is this one out also to the cities as well as the county we have offered to take and and not only uh just give out the money uh our teams are going to help manage these projects they'll run through our offices to ensure they make uh because there's a lot of federal strings attached to this money and we have the team that can manage it I probably will coming back to ask you uh I'll probably have to add an engineer or two uh to our staff that'll help with that uh but we're prepared to do that um and so uh I I just want to say again I you're going to see some of the best cooperation you've ever seen because of the fact that we are sharing that money we've using a system uh uh where we um you know people have put in their projects they've been rated and they've been given the money and they're matching that money and so uh these are exciting very good partnership projects and there's more to follow we'll go over that when we get to that it yeah and in fact I think today we're going to be transferring possibly 18 million additional dollars that's another thing we've asked we listened you you the concerns I I I will say people still you got to remember and I'll talk more about it later you know the funding source for this is you know is HUD Housing and Urban Development and they have an expectation you know a mandate really and but part of it has it has to go to housing you know there has to be a good portion but they they were wise enough and and do done this enough to understand well what's the sense of doing housing in areas that are could be affected by flooding so they allow us uh certain percentage to use for uh infrastructure and for mitigation and we're going to take full advantage of that and there are some monies in some areas that once we analyzed it we said all right well these housing needs uh okay they did not get the damage we thought so yeah we're prepared to ask even tonight to move $18 million uh into uh that part of money for further projects will'll be coming in round two with uh the county and the city and and I'll just leave with this Mr chair um it's going to take the collaboration espe because a lot of the things that are shown often in developments and I'm not blaming the cities but we often get blamed for projects that we really had no governance over we didn't de side on of those again I'm not pointing fingers but um it's going to take collaboration and George you're the guy to do it right to to solve the problems and work with the cities um well I'm the guy to help coordinate it we have a great team of people uh and it will take some uh engineering help I'll take any help that uh uh people locally want to provide uh along with what we already are Contracting for and and on top of that our own team but sometimes it takes and again people yes we have a lot of in internal knowledge and uh sometimes it does take a third party with some outside expertise AB uh to look at this as well I mean you know again and I want to stress I think I said this earlier we're a big County and there are reasons of the flooding uh that are different throughout the whole County I mean I will say one common factor that uh I never heard anyone mention is the rain it's these are tremendous rainstorms these are not little rainstorms we're pretty good at handling that considering where we live in a tropical and semi-tropical area uh we handle rain pretty well but we don't handle rain when it gets up into you know above 8 n Ines and and when you're getting into some of these historic uh numbers it we'll show that I think when we talk I think I wait and we have the the workshop and we can go over uh special meeting exactly sorry this very good the special meeting on this because that's where we can really kind of hone in on the data and what's out there but like I say the good news if anyone we're not waiting for that meeting I mean that's going to be part of because this is going to be going on for a long time a lot of work we're starting right now we've been working at it and we're not going to wait to uh I'll be reporting on not just what we're going to do but what we're already doing councilman Robin thank you chair uh Mr Ken I I appreciate uh trying to go after an action item that we can achieve today just being here uh several years now one of the the biggest problems that we have consistently no matter the issue is funding myself and Don Dempsey were on the the losing end of a vote um several months ago when we were talking about transform 386 one of the biggest things if we want to send a clear message Mr Ken um to the public uh I know we can transfer money out for certain issues issues but I want to put it on paper I want to put it on paper with a vote I can't make the motion because I was on the losing end of that vote to lock in an additional 50 million no if hands or butts about it in concrete for additional storm water uh to address these additional storm water needs and provide some relief um I think that's a huge thing and but I I don't also want to cut out um the other side to the story and not put it or not make it um excuse me let me back up or not put it on the agenda um properly um to give everybody on on both sides of the issue the notice but I would be I would be an upvote on that if someone would like to bring that up it would have my wholehearted support to get money concrete no offenser buts about it and let's uh go into this Workshop or this meeting knowing we have as much funds as possible to address every one of these needs uh intimately uh with our constituents because we all want to solve this problem chair and and and I appreciate the energy there and I think we're heading in the right direction if someone else wants to bring that up Mr Robins at the end of the night tonight I I will bring that up to see if we we can have a vote on it and bring that back so we can have that discussion I'm telling you right now I'll do it at closing comments tonight Don Dempsey yeah uh Mr Robbins just took every bit of words out of my mouth um I was going to make the same motion but I can't because Danny and I run a losing in but it uh it really broke my heart to hear that one lady that lives in JC's neighborhood talk about she went to transform 386 or what George talked about was a potential um buyout or bought out neighborhoods in the past because I I kind of perceive this as our one of our realistic options I'm not in favor of a moratorium I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania in a coal mining Community where my family all worked for the mines and when the coal mines shut down or went on strike it wiped out the community I worked in an area I lived in an area where the uh Volkswagen Rabbit plant was and when they shut down the Plant it wiped out the community it hurt and to wipe out the they were but it's just so I I'm not in favor of a moratorium but if we are going to talk moratorium that 50 million that was voted on to allocate 50 million towards new multif family housing more development well let's put a moratorium on that for a lack of better words take that 50 million and don't develop that multif family housing and put it towards infrastructure or at least not spend it until we have our Workshop until we can be more responsible with the money than just making more development more incen incentives for more people to move in here for more traffic more flooding when we could use that to solve infrastructure I remember that debate that we had and I remember it was possible that we could transfer that money to more infrastructure but it was voted down um so I would ask that we reconsider that because now flooding is at the Forefront um and I think we really need to address that so I would also second it if somebody else were to make the motion okay I I feel I gota say in um what I what I just mentioned a minute ago I'll reiterate 188 million of that which you asked of that 50 is going to be on item number three if we can get to it item number three has it and that's 18 of that 50 uh right now now then to your point I don't think we should spend we won't spend the other 32 because we're going to have this uh these workshops coming up and then we'll we we will but I do believe and there's a way we have to do it again within the federal guidelines make it legal and make sure that 10 years from now when we're all gone that uh um and we're audited and everything that everything does correctly but but I believe we we'll get to the 50 you're talking about and we're going to start tonight with we're going to ask for 18 of it right now and then the 32 will come in subsequent meetings if if we can work with us on that and we'll be uh we will be uh in line with the federal regulations and and if I could add to that George thank you very much and I appreciate it I'm not trying to I'm not saying that we shift The Columns necessarily I'm just saying let's just hold on to that money and wait and see we've got a like I said earlier we have a new Trump Administration we got the Doge the department of government efficiency so I think if HUD gives us two another reason why I don't want to break any rules or anything right now because uh we don't know what's coming with with next storm we want to be in good stad just the fact that the county got that money directly by the way is a first most of the time and it would go to the state and then the state would divide it across the whole state we we were lucky to do that I don't know again now to your point with the new Administration it may go back to the state it may not be the same system but what we got we want to make sure we take good care of uh be strategic with it that's what uh I'm asking to do here and and again that's 18 million on top of a 100 million yes you know that were you're going to put uh 60 of it potentially if you if you're okay at tonight UH 60 million out uh on projects uh immediately yeah and well okay chairman may I have 30 seconds please yes um just because it's hugely important to me to say what you mean and mean what you say and be a man of my word councilman Robbins and councilman dimsey I said that I would bring it up tonight tonight for the 50 million I I just want to get a head nod from both of you with the 18 million that we're talking about that'll come up with item three I'd like to adjust that to 32 million to get to the 1250 are you okay with that are you okay with that thank you thank you chairman thank you okay um thank you for bringing that up George I was gonna I was going to say that I remember when we had the initial conversation about that money that um I and I think several other people uh asked Donna Butler about uh more money for storm order and um she mentioned then that I believe she said she could get another 15 million from for mitigation and she has has in fact done that and we are going to vote it on on it tonight the first part of it right with more to come um and that's also that the these studies that we're talking about Will come in further meetings as our you know some other housekeeping stuff we have our uh we already slated to come before you with our storm water utility uh and the work plan uh for that as well so that's all coming in the next uh actually starting in the next meeting so okay one other question for you within the next 30 days uh with the canals and storm water conveyance um in the tour today with St John's Water Management District the the toughest question that came up um was where are we going to put more water especially if it if this rain continues and they fully expect it to continue through our lifetime anyway um so um and they're studying it but it's going to take five years where can you put the water when you bring back that report can will it includ any information like that of of where where we're putting water um I mean that that was a big part of the the Bor not in 30 days that that's what the studies like I say that's why we have to invest and I know people are frustrated but no you they have to have uh we have to have a place to put it and like I say there'll be in some cases there is no place to put it and that's when you're going to be looking at possibly you know um changing an area buying out houses and and putting in a storm water uh facility or or park but that's why each neighborhood really needs to be studied separately each Basin uh Ben's got the a plan and and we've got more money than we've ever had before for that type of engineering so we before we were just going to be you know doing one Basin at a time now between with what we have and what the cities are also asking for will'll be covering a large portion of the area so and we'll have that mapped out you can take a look and see we're going to address these things very targeted and the areas where where it's needed um so uh but I in 30 days I won't have I don't know where all the water's going to go in in 30 days but we'll try to uh at least get you where what we're doing right now and the the engineering and study work that's going to be done here short yeah I didn't think you could do it all in 30 days what I'm hoping to hear is where the where the problem areas are because we we know that we have that map right we can take a look at that now is that something that GIS can work on long to we've got Maps i' we've got them already uh done we just need some refinement but I can show you we uh we take the data and we map it right kind of looks like measles from here but these are heat maps that are showing uh the areas where the flooding was reported and we'll come back again and and maybe be able to di dial in a little closer on these neighborhoods so you can take a look okay and that was again back to the moratorium that was also one of the things on the on the list to talk about with going to the cities and if we need to do that but it's not just a county unincorporated County issue it's in the cities where can they put water and um I think uh I would like to see us work with them um and hear from them what they're doing to uh figure out where they can put water where they can move it before Storms Come that doesn't just move it to somebody else's neighborhood because that's what that's was the whole conversation this afternoon at um like WI a set is it it's a we're going around in a big circle we're our teams already met uh we met with the city of Dand I believe uh they're in the audience uh I know they brought in some expertise uh uh extra to supplement their staff and I see some of them here in the audience I won't put them on the spot but we met with danan we' met with Edgewater we'll continue to meet with edar they've had some changes in Personnel but we'll continue to work with them and again you'll see cooperation uh you know Public Works people have always been very good uh Cooper and they'll continue uh we work together on things like water supply on the west side of the county we've had extensive uh work on that southeast part we'll just continue to model that and and and work with the each of those areas because again we don't want to do something that works against each other and the Nova Canal is particularly complex uh I think there was some stuff already this week uh that's one of the Army Corps of Engineers who we did spend quite a bit of time with with few uh week or two ago um they were in town they were already studying the Nova Canal uh it took years for the city to get that on the um get that study and the importance of that study is you have to have their study in order to get uh work done by that agency and so that is uh that I'm having to report is going to happen they are ahead and so U I expect I think that study might actually get expanded before it's done because I think it was centering on Midtown and uh I think it need really needs to be looked at from Holly Hill all the way to Port ore okay thank you uh David Santiago thank you Mr chair uh just briefly I think you the conversation about the 50 million which I think that there obviously support and and I I would support it also but I think we're restricted um just for the general Public's purpose they should know that if in case you don't see that happen today we have restrictions by the feds on how much we can change because this report has already been approved and submitted to the federal government they have caps on how much you can transfer at certain time period so that's why in today's proposal you'll see in the agenda the 18 million so you won't see the 50 million come out today based on the conversation um because we have to follow those federal guidelines thank you Mr chair Vice chair Troy K thank you chairman um personally I I find George rewell to be um very competent and very effective at his job I'm appreciative of that um and I know he said that he would he would handle this so just in case any of us were thinking should we not have a vote on this I just want to say even though I I I give him those compliments and that praise I like the idea of still voting on this because I like hopefully a 60 vote to let staff know yeah it sends a good message absolutely on your motion that's on the floor yes sir yeah we're going to vote up oh perfect yeah and then my only other thing chairman totally unrelated but you asked about you know going through the consens after this I know that our residents have been here and we've been here 4 hours and 21 minutes already I I would respectfully request that we do instead of a 30- minute break a 20 minute break but we take that break and we come back at uh 8:41 after this vote okay uh councilman Robbins thank you chair just a quick question to cap this off um not really a question that has to be answered now uh County Manager this when we come back with this additional information uh whether it's for the special meeting or or moratorium um I want to touch on the live local uh and how that would affect or uh some of the effects would be even if we did a moratorium would people still be able to build um under the live live local if you can bring that back just add some clarity to the situation uh I think it would be U very helpful and useful so okay can we get rid of it do you know anybody um do you know a guy okay I don't see uh any other comments so we'll we'll bring the uh motion for the county manager to come back within 30 days for uh he's going to fix all of our canals and storm water conveyance systems and uh that that's uh that's that's information that's um primary in this process to know what's happening there so uh all in favor say I I and the opposed and the motion does carry six to zero and I asked the question about consent agenda uh Mr Kent you replied I think you need a you would like a break right now feeling of the council okay sorry uh don your your name is up okay sorry for the audience because you have been here for a long time too but um we will uh we will take a 20 minute break till 8:43 you going to be here will you be back damn damn e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e oh I needed you at the beginning of the meeting okay if everybody wants to find a seat we will get started okay we're already on item two which will be for the approval of the consent agenda so if everybody wants to write this uh down the rest of the council um these following items are pulled um for a comment from the public and therefore a vote um f g h i j m t and X are there any other items that anyone on the council would like to pull chairman I make a motion to approve the consent agenda Yes actually I'm sorry chairman before I make that motion for comments only not not for a vote so at the end of this just comments AA and BB for Kent AA and BB so chairman I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as proposed by staff absent items fgh i j MTX sen Johansson any other comments questions all in favor of approving the con approving the consent agenda except for the ones that were just pulled say I I any opposed and the consent agenda uh what's left of it is approved six to zero so we will start with uh item F and member of the public that wanted to speak to that um is Keith Jester do you want to hear the uh okay I'd ask that youall bear with me tonight because I have a lot to say about all of the spending as far as F that's obviously grant funding and I'm fine with it but I think it's very essential that this body in the county start putting out a comprehensive list of everything that this County does whether it's money that comes through the county or the county spending directly for homelessness for uh shelters for housing initiatives I learned that the C's earmarked $88 million over the last five years I didn't learn it from the County government okay y' all need to put that out there because I understand that there's groups that are coming and asking for more and more and more especially for housing's coming up the people need to know what the County's doing you need to brag about it what you've already done it was mentioned uh about the the homeless shelter coming for more money well right here's dealing with homelessness y'all spent millions and millions of tax dollars on these issues but you're not putting it out there for the people to know so it sounds like you're doing nothing chairman motion to approve item F okay we have a motion to approve item item f is there a second Joe Hanson second okay Vice chair Kent makes a motion councilman Jake Johansson makes a second any discussion all in favor of approving item F say I I I any opposed and motion carries six to zero that brings us to uh item G and we have a member of the public who would like to speak to that uh Keith Chester if we're talking moratorium should we be considering this project as part of a moratorium should we be giving out federal funds to through the county for the purpose of of more development when we don't even have our current uh issues under control that's what was stated all night tonight so should we be using government money to further more development that could create more problems okay is there any uh comment or is there a motion on item G no motion well no I just for discussion um yeah I keeping in line with what we talked about with the multif family uh development with the 50 million from transform 386 I would I'd like to just again I don't think this property is that far from Miller Road and all the flooding issues we heard in Orange City so I again I would really like to just put a hold on spending this money see if it's possible direct staff to see if it's possible to somehow shift this money more towards an infrastructure type program then another uh you know development going I think people are mostly against more development and if that money could be better utilized infrastructure solution I'd like to see that okay it's [Music] $460,000 is that is there any possibility of what he just heard recommended I'm defer to Brad but M standing is no go ahead Brad so this is uh previously approved by Council this is the agreement that's coming back because this um organization went to the state level with our letter saying you are our local Choice project um they won the tax credits and so they'll bring back a capital stack which will leverage millions and millions of dollars to to build these um if there's a moratorium in place obviously it wouldn't go forward but if we stop it here it it it was dead in the water and Brad can you talk about the funding source this is State ship dollar so this is um money that comes back to us from dock stamps when people buy and clothes on houses and it has to be used for this purpose okay do we H have to address his councilman Dempsey's concern do we have any um uh concerns of flooding has that how has that been addressed is there a plan that so this St Water Management plan we can see just like any other project that would come before the county will go through the development review process okay councilman Santiago thank you um right thanks for clarifying Gentlemen We we've already approve this um there's a lot set in motion on this and there is no moratorium in place so I don't think we should act as you know I'm not saying you are Don but uh we need to do the right thing here certainly going forward um whatever decision is made it will be applied but it's a move to approve thank you second Kent I didn't hear the motion move to approve move to approve item G and the second was by Vice chair Kent any other discussion quick uh quick Jim just real real quick Brad uh question for how many how many uh how many apartments is this going to be I'm looking 68 sir 68 and and that's going to be midrise yes sir yep all right um got it if I recall midrise is better than Urban too right yes sir so all right uh that's all I have thank you chairman okay thank you uh C would you call the [Music] rooll Mr Kent yes Mr Robbins Mr Santiago yes Mr Dempsey yes Mr Johansson yes Mr Brower yes sometimes you never know thank you uh that takes us to uh item H and we have a member of the public Keith Chester who would like to speak on that item when this information is put out it would be good for the public and others to know how many Section 8 vouchers are already available within the county of Valia to include the cities how many people are already receiving Section 8 vouchers and are these new vouchers or are these for existing vouchers to continue funding for existing vouchers so and again that's information that should be put out so the public knows I'm not crazy about Section 8 vouchers to start but okay uh is Brad here no new vouchers 331 is what we have at the county level that we administer um this is a continuation of the program that we've had so these are people that are housed already with Section 8 vouchers it's a fully self-sufficient program um that pays for itself through federal funds and it's not building new housing assistance for people yep okay yes um is there a motion on H move to approve councilman Santiago moves to approve second Johanson second by councilman Joe Hanson all in favor say I I any opposed and the motion carries six to zero and that brings us to uh I and we have one member of the public who would like to speak on that uh Keith Chester I'd just like to hear some explanation of what that is please so the public knows okay I'd like to defer to our community Assistance expert Carmen Hall um if she may right good evening Carmen Hall community Assistance director so this item is a grant closeout agreement this particular Grant we have already expended all of the funds it was for Rapid rehousing homeless prevention and emergency shelter and Street Outreach with ESG CV dollars so as part of our Corona virus um expenditures an additional funding that we received from the federal government is strictly closing out the grant so that way we can complete the process thank you do I have a motion on item iove motion to approve by councilman Robbins second Johansson and the second is by councilman Johansson any comment or questions all in favor say I I any opposed and letter I is also approved six to zero uh Jay we have uh several people who would uh like to speak um Jay is reconsideration of award for fiscal year 20242 Children and Families Advisory Board funding agreement with the Boys and Girls Club of of valua Flagler County's um uh we have several people that want to speak on this item uh Keith Chester uh I'd like to hear a report on what the findings were uh with the issues that were discovered at the Boys and Girls Club I would also ask that that you request staff break these different things down boys and girls club was a lead agency half a dozen agencies under it that were receiving funding uh through and these are County tax dollars by the way and those should be broke out we shouldn't have lead agencies our people should be directly monitoring uh it shouldn't be a pass through so I'd really like to see that done uh furthermore I'd like to see this funding if you look at this it's been pretty much the same funding year after year this needs to be moved out to something like United way to handle these are tax dollars that are are derived uh from avalum tax taxes and first thing we don't pay those in equally what I pay in is about a th000 a month I mean a th000 a year one of your sons or daughters just buying a house going to pay about 5,000 so as it is we already are it's it's not a fair and balanced tax system that we have but I'd like to see this this funding uh be eliminated in the future not this year it needs to be a slow process and it slowly be turned over to something like a uned way and they would they're better equipped we need to this County government needs to concentrate on core governmental responsibilities this is one of those programs that was started and has never gone away that's what always happens and I can tell you as somebody who was once a grant recipient you always keep trying to get more more more and more so and it's easy money grant money is much easier money than out fundraising and so forth so it's what I like to see as the United Way take this eventually Mr chairman move to approve we have four other people to speak on it um but uh the item I think listed the information he just it does and it's not a grant it's a contract for services so we go out and competitively bid these services for Youth Development that would be born typically of the government so we are Outsourcing essentially some of our um responsibilities to to the private sector I will say and I think it needs to be said that you know the email we received from Mr Chester alleging fla fraud and unethical Behavior at the boys and girls club was false uh our team went in and did a a mod did a a um kind of investigation and and looked at the um you know our monitoring and also understood about the National Organization and the issue there um you know the National Organization came in and said you need to have a better selection process but there was no fraud or un ecal Behavior going on so you you did an investigation not we did a monitoring sorry monitoring yes okay which is like our audit it's it's essentially an audit that our team does okay yes sir okay uh Dr Jamie [Music] brero and you will be followed by Mary Bruno hey I'm Dr Brer I just wanted to uh you know come up here and say that I'm a product of the mission of the Boys and Girls Club so I was a club kid as one of the when Joe had his very first Club in Delona and I've come full Circo some 33 years later to be the board chair of the Boys and Girls Club you know it's it's programs like the boys and girls club that has allowed me to do this it's it's the thing that's given me the confidence I disagree that um that we're funded just by grants over 55% of our funding comes from donors and that's because the donors trust what the Boys and Girls Club is doing you know and again I'm I'm a product of that mission and I believe that I would not be where I am today without the mentorship and the the things that the boys and girls club provided me so just want to make that known and clear thank you uh Mary Bruno you'll be followed by Ma Mac Reed good evening um chairman Brower council members um Mr rean wall I'm uh again here to talk about the Children and Family's Advisory Board sometimes it's really great to have some history uh 20 plus years on and off this board um and I do want to say to answer your one question about the why we looked at that one time before way early on in this process and it was determined that because these are County tax dollars that we did not want to turn our County tax dollars over to the Y to determine how they would be distributed um so um we also over the period of time we have done this at RFP um for years we used to get 20 30 40 50 grants that the board would go through individually and award individual projects um the the board the council at one time said that that really probably wasn't the most efficient way to do this and that in order to make our sub our our um providers talk to each other eliminate duplication of services do those kind of things we really needed to get them to talk together more and that was the original purpose of this RSQ process was to divide up for example this case Youth Services to have a group come together and look at youth servic provide the RSQ to one provider who would work with the group underneath house store the YMCA so that they would be able to um streamline their services and not duplicate and uh provide those the the services that were meant for youth again I want to remind you that all of the programs serve our most vulnerable populations so our youth are the students that really need assist the we serve seniors we deliver Meals on Wheels um that type of thing swimming lessons for those uh students in 32114 and Deltona that would never afford swimming lessons and hopefully we've saved a few young people from being able to drown from being from from drowning so um I appreciate you asking the questions because I think that's if a very important thing but I also want to say remind you that during this time from the when this item was first pulled um those Services were not being funded yet they were going on so many of our um organizations are laying out that money that they um in order to continue to provide the services for this month and a half or whatever it's been so thank you very much for your time um thanks thank you MC Reed good evening and thank you Council uh my name is Mack Reed I'm bit on the ground here about six weeks now I'm serving as the interim CEO for Boys and Girls Clubs ofu and Flagler counties uh thrilled to be here the community has been very welcoming and uh hospitable for for me uh coming in and learning a new community I've had an opportunity to to meet with several of you I look forward to meeting with those that I haven't had an opportunity to meet with yet I'd actually love to to show you some of our club sites and take you on a tour so you can see firsthand the programs and impact that we're having on the kids' lives the funding is is really critical we're serving 60% of our kids are from single parent homes and about 70% of our kids are living in households with incomes of $40,000 or less so these These funds are really helping us to be able to meet the needs of the kids so that they can have that hope and opportunity that they need to succeed uh you've heard about the other partner agencies that we work with as well and they're doing phenomenal work in the community as as well so thank you for your support Joe Hearn good evening Community Mr chair councilmen um I just wanted to come speak on behalf of cab I wanted to remind all of you that you guys take the time to appoint quality people to that board to really do a lot of the leg work and the lifting and research and hold you know uh sessions with these providers and really have the time to drill them all of our members on cfab really do have input they all ask serious questions we just went through a whole survey process I encourage you to read it read about it or look it up in the minutes but it really digs into what these organizations do and the impact that they're having in our community and the stuff that we're helping them with to take the burden off our families our Working Families our families that don't have the money to pay for quite frankly they're going to eventually become a burden if we don't help them a little bit so I just wanted to recognize that and really recognize the cfab committee I also wanted to say that you know these organizations that we're working with are tested organizations they're not just fly by nights we get some new nonprofits that come in we definitely guide them in the right direction how they can get involved how they can try to be a part of getting some support to better our communities however the ones that are currently listed United Way ym CA you know Early Learning Coalition Coalition for the homeless all of these organizations domestic violence um these are all Improvement agencies that have been in our community for a long time and you know I I respect the fact that you take our tax dollars very serious I'm a valuch county taxpayer it's important that we take those very seriously but don't take away from the programs that help our community be better and don't take away from programs that help people who need an opportunity to get ahead can get ahead as with all organizations um boys and girls club is the lead agency I made very very clear to do my research before we recommended budget numbers any of that to ask has this problem happened before has there ever been an issue like it there never has and anytime any of you have been in the corporate world or any world that has a business when you have someone who's been a starter of an organization who's been there 35 years when that change happens it's it's not going to be there's not going to be an easy transition in that situation so I do ask that you give them some leniency that this is a one-time situation that's never happened before and also be concerned about some of the subs that work under this lead agency that do incredible work in our communities we are right now hurting some of those with mental health in our community house next door some of the subs that run underneath that so respectfully I just ask you to take all that into consideration look at the facts go back and look at some of our meetings look at all the work that we do look at how we get all these providers in one space and really drill them on what they're doing how they're providing how they're making a difference and also realize the money that we are giving them is a small percentage to what they have to go out and raise to continue their missions and I thank you so much for your time well timed okay uh Vice chair Kim thank you chairman I don't see anybody else's name so chairman if you don't mind I I have a couple of questions for for staff Dr bbau and and briefly a couple comments before those questions the first comment is to the gentleman that spoke first thanks for coming in and being a real life testimony about the Boys and Girls Club it's it was impactful I appreciate you showing up the second one is to Keith Chester uh you know I never met you until in here we've never had a private conversation but I've said it before and I'll say it again all your emails make me make me think and I appreciate it uh don't know that I agree with your style all the time and that's in the emails but I appreciate what you say it always gets my attention now to my questions why a pass through why why is it like a subcontractor almost I think it's a valid question for Mr Chester why not the county just give all of these I'll say subcontractors the money directly because we want them to collaborate so this was a a program a model that was put in place after we had a lot of individual organizations coming and asking and so by doing it this way I will tell you that my team still it's just like the the the main the primary where it's a cost reimbursable contract so before we even put any money out there we are vetting each expense against the child against the um category to see if it's eligible we do the same thing for the subs Dr bbal it's no surprise I'm a big fan of yours you're excellent of what you do and I appreciate you justifying that but for me you don't have to do that I I know how good you are at what you do and your team and how you hold people accountable I guess my concern is you know twofold now is that boys and girls club becomes the holder of the ring that all the subs have to go to to get what they want even though you guys are vetting everybody that's concern number one um and then always when you when you sub it out you know the general contractor you know making some money on it so that's that's my second concern you don't need to get into that because here's my next question that I had I'm real big into any monies we're giving I like 100% of it to be impactful for who we want the money to help and this 5% B for administrative costs $ 22557 so 5% of 57172 talk to me about that administ rative piece so that I will say that that is low for your typical admin because you can get up to 10% for the first time ever I hate your answer sorry it's the truth I hate it no I I do it's it's almost like Hey we're lucky they're only doing 5 perc you know I I hate this piece and if I don't get a good answer from it whoever makes the motion to approve this if this administrative cost is not taken out I'm probably a no okay um so I I think the expectation that we have have individuals administer these contracts and grants without any administrative dollars is um I think that we won't have people apply and you will we can have this conversation when we I will say that this is a fiveyear contract and this is the fifth year we will be bringing back we're going to do a competitive process again if you want us to decrease that and when we put it out we can certainly do that um but I I would be remissed if I didn't ask Carmen if she had anything to add here because I know my my um comment did not uh who does that 5% go to that goes to the administrating agency which is Boys and Girls Club so why don't we take that on and be the administrative agency and keep the $2,570 because we have a it would cost us more at the end of the day I don't see how I don't see how but all right Carmen in I can run the numbers for you and and if I'm wrong I will I will I will say that publicly so just add so the administration costs they are responsible for going out and monitoring their subcontracts um so that is one component they also are reviewing the invoices prior to them getting to us so there's two components there it's also having the lead agency we always want to make sure that we're having um you know a cohesive environment for these types of services and making sure that we're not duplicating Serv serves and things like that and that was something and I think Dr Bruno touched on it a little bit in our previous model when everybody was coming to us there is more duplication and not as much Synergy going on within the different service categories there's also a lot more service categories by so by going to this model it's created more of a individual conduit so that way they're working with these agencies they're making sure that we're not providing the same things multiple ways and making sure that the funds are covering all gaps in Services um I think another important factor is it is a five-year contract so we're actually in the process of reviewing this um all the service categories what the needs are in the community and so next time for the following year it's a competitive process again another agency can compete for that lead agency role it's not necessarily always the same agency but we do have a five-year contract to allow them thank you councilman Santiago thank you Mr chair before you sit down I'll just ask you the simp question or Brad or anybody one of you um do you the 5% in in your experience uh in working with this do you believe they earn that I would say so because there's a lot of work working with these agencies so when different agencies come and ask us I would really like a grant because I want to provide an after school program we send them to that lead agency and then they work with them and they talk about their next Grant cycle what's going on there's a lot more there's a lot of inquiries going on almost an extension of you fair enough thank you Mr chair I move to proof second Johansson with a question okay uh yeah she were up next councilman Johansson yep Brad team team um do you have the people in house to manage it if uh manage the process no how much would it cost to hire somebody part-time or full-time to do this much more than this much more so one FTE if you're talking about it an entry level position with the benefit load would be more than this $29,000 okay do we know what or magnitude what what one FTE at 1650 an hour would be I I do not want to speculate I you know R Ryan 55 6000 all right got it thank you okay all right we have a uh a motion on the floor to approve by David Santiago second by Jake Johansson everybody's asked questions are there uh who's still down there can I well I have a question for uh for Brad it may have to come from the director did somebody did I hear somebody say we raise 50 or 51% of our funds through I think it was Mr Hearn 55% I believe I don't think it was Joseph that said it it was one of the commenters correct you said that yes okay he's the chair of their board so you probably know that okay so so yeah the the grand money and the the federal dollars that is about 45% of the budget and then we're raising around 55% of the rest from donors and things like that to your point with administrative administrative cost and money going to CEOs and everything so I I watched the last uh council meeting where this came up this topic came up going back to 2012-ish uh Joe had not received a raise uh being a CEO for three years then he received a small raise then he did not receive a raise again for five years before receiving another small raise and then finally in 2021 22 and 23 is where we started bringing him up to where someone at a medium level at the 50th percentile should be for his position so he's was grossly underpaid so we're not taking these funds and and throwing them at salaries for administrative staff that's not what this is about so if you think about it not receiving raise for eight years that affected his pension that affected his way of living everything like that the mission in the club is is what this These funds are going to sure and because you brought it up what's the salary that's not I you don't know the salary I do know his current salary but I don't know if that's it's isn't it a public record it's a nonprofit right so it's public right we I don't I don't understand why you would to answer that question I don't I just don't know if it's the right thing to say right now yeah I'm asking you a question you're asking for money it's the right thing to say the the salary right now for him is 150 thank you what would one more question what this is a 571 $724 um expenditure you're raising 51% what would you do if you if if you didn't get this money we would have to look at closing potential sites So currently we have eight sites right we we wouldn't have the the Monies to fund all the sites so it's going to impact kids right now we're in a situation where our clubs like the one at Lake H and we're at capacity there are 30 40 kids on a weight list so what we need to do is grow we need we need more buildings we need more funds we need spaces to grow right now taking money away we just wouldn't have our our main expense is the salary of the employees the unit directors the junior staff that's where the bulk of our money goes where a $3 million organization two 2.1 million of it or something goes basically to salaries to run the programs after school programs the other monies are for transportation which we know the vucha county school boards almost pulled from us this year luckily we have that there are a lot of challenges we face but you know that I think ultimately closing clubs would it would hurt us a lot so you you're raising 51% through private donations how do you how do you do that so there are there are different events that we have like we just had we have a a celebrate the children which was formerly known as steak and stake which has been going on for 20 plus years that raises a lot of funds uh this weekend we've had our success events through our blue Riven committee uh with Kevin bowler and and several different organizations where we do a poker tournament we do a golf tournament and a Color Run we just did a color run this weekend um over at the brown by the Brown and Brown building so we had a good turnout there um so it's through those funds and then also just like I said private donations from from different people that we've cultivated relationships with that we've brought into the clubs they've seen what we do they've seen the Power Hour they've seen that the kids that go to the clubs graduate at a higher percentage than those that don't if you take the same demographics and and compare them so they see the benefits that we're doing it's it's very structured now but when I went you could come and go in the clubs back in in the early 90s when there was one they didn't know if I was there or not or if I had left early now it's very structured you come in your first hour you sit down you get help with your homework you know and every everything is very structured now there are programs we're innovating all the time we're trying to provide more for the students or for the for the children that we serve so it's it's very impactful it is it's I don't think anybody up here would argue that it's a a great program but you one more question for him you raise that amount of money through private through fundraising efforts but when I asked what what would happen if this went away you said you would close down programs why wouldn't you increase fundraising well that's that's always a goal in a mission that's always on right year after year we're always looking to increase fundraising okay I I think they couldn't they couldn't make up the 571 this year yeah so they would have to temporarily close programs and do more fundraising but the thing about this is this fund's leveraged we're leveraging our dollars with their private dollar to provide more services and so it's it's leveraging tax dollars and and getting more bang for the buck we also have a clause in our agreements that our funding cannot be for executive salaries it has to be individuals providing direct contact to those those uh club members so the CEO salary could not be supplemented out of our funds okay um thank you very much and I I am I'm not questioning the quality of the organization at at all um I'm what I question is M Mr Chester had a he has a really good point is it is it um our responsibility government's responsibility to be generous with Public's money to donate to nonprofits um I I struggle with that because I've talked to so many people in the public who struggle with paying their mortgage paying the insurance and and paying the taxes on their home I mean young people are having a hard time starting off it's it's a huge problem and so I I'm going to ask it during our next U budget season probably during our um when we set our priorities I think we really really have to wrestle with this problem is this a core responsibility of our government when we we just had a two threeh hour talk on funding for storms where people are losing their homes um money is a problem is this is this a responsibility um of government it's great as a program as as it is and as much as I really like the people that are involved in it um so it's I it's an issue that we're going to have to take up um soon do we give to any nonprofit organizations uh councilman Robbins thank you chairman um Brad real quick you said this contract is over um soon this is the last year of the 5year contract and it's not a donation it's competitively bid process for service just like we do for any other service in this government it's put out and a request for proposals is given okay and if I heard you correctly earlier is this something we can reg renegotiate in future contracts absolutely absolutely so it sounds like there's some consensus that we probably want to talk about this uh I'm I'm on deci side but I I will say this in theory that we talk about core responsibilities and this is where I look at things a little bit different from my experiences uh in law enforcement um and I take a step back and I look at the core respon responsibilities of a community um and in my opinion part of that is keeping our kids off the street keep keeping them out of trouble keeping them off drugs keeping them busy uh and keeping them out of jail um as a police officer I saw that revolving door thousands of times so I think we also need to ask ourselves is this money well spent um do we deal with this issue Community issue and I believe it's a core responsibility of a community um uh in my opinion uh in this case do we deal with this issue on the front end like this program or do we deal with it on the back end where we're tenfold when these kids are going through drug programs when they're going through these Community programs uh the court system our broken judicial system and in and out of jail um I could see both sides of this but this is much bigger than just cutting a couple dollars my opin okay councilman Santiago thank you Mr chairman I just want to be clear um I think this is money well invested in our community and this is not a donation to the Boys and Girls Club as Brad has spelled out we they we are Contracting with them for services and the savings I think the community sees is multiplied by a significant amount in my opinion so they do a good job and I'm 100% behind them anybody else uh that was questions any other debate I appreciate the uh the comments we had that's uh actually what I what I just said we need to we need to do is debate is this a core responsibility or not so we just started it um I don't see anybody else that wants to talk Carissa would you call the role on item J Mr Kent yes Mr Robins yes Mr Santiago yes Mr Dempsey yes Mr Johansson yes Mr Brower yes and it passes six to zero and the next one is uh item M agreement for lawn maintenance with lnk moon Landscaping uh Keith Chester I don't remember how long ago it was a year or so ago uh the County Council said they wanted to pay all staff members a minimum of $15 an hour are we asking our contractors to do the same because ultimately we're saving money on the backs of humans that are working doing the the daily work it's daily tasks that in uh the more we pay a living wage here the less we have to pay it in Social service handouts so I'm just concerned that that we're if it's embedded in the contract they pay a minimum of $15 an hour like is paid to County Employees okay move to proof we have a motion to approve second Johansson contract by David Santiago and the second one was by Jake Johansson any questions debate all in favor say I I any opposed no motion carries uh six to zero and you'll find the answer to your question yeah we already got six and that takes us to uh item T we had uh I don't know if you heard but the last vote came in by Danny Robbins he was out of the room but as you know can hear so it was a six zero uh item T which is a custodial banking letter agreement with JP Morgan Chase Bank in connection with Signa health and life insurance company Self insurance claims and administration no item T is a resolution authorizing deferral impact fees AMT is a resolution author I've read the one above it authorizing deferral of impact fees for new single family homes and um is Clay still here okay uh Keith Chester if you'd like to speak and then if there's questions that Council wants to ask of okay okay is there a a motion on T move to approve Johansson second Johansson makes a motion to approve councilman Robbins makes the second any questions Don Dempsey yeah this is more of a comment um I talked to Clay irvan about this quite a while the other day and um I mean I'm going to support it but I I kind of wish wish at some point we collectively could get to the mindset where we're willing to return money back to the government it it appears that we seem to have this mindset that if we don't spend it we're going to lose it and I've said this all along is I don't like incentivizing more development I don't like the fact that we're doing impact fee waivers to create more development I think we've heard from the masses today people don't want more development and then then if you really show them the second part of this is we're asking them to pay more taxes whether it's through their federal income tax or their state income tax or their County property tax they're still paying for it so I think it's I don't think the majority of the people that packed this place today and spoke really like the idea that we're using their tax dollar to incentivize even more development into an area that apparently is one of the most flood prone counties in the state so I would like to see us just get to the point where we'll hey take that transform 386 money and thanks but no thanks or the state money thanks but no thanks but I just I mean we'll take it but I I don't like the fact that we're you know they they get to the front of line for the permits they get the impact fee waivers they get all the special benefits because it's going for more development of affordable housing I get it but I I just don't like seeing T taxpayers paying more more to create more development when that's what I think is not really the popular thing right now that's all but I'm ready to vote on it and approve it we have a another member of the public that would like to speak on it and we also have uh commissioner councilman Joe Hansen who would like to speak me me before them then before me well she might say something that you'll have go ahead would do you want to hear from her okay just gal for the record Jessica gal um just a quick few points on this um that I think are are key components and we heard from residents as well um this deferral of impact fees is something that the county has kind of been programming for the past five years at least of the strategy for affordable housing it's identical to what you did for Habitat for Humanity um these structures are already built this organization um sells all residences at cost or below cost so there is no profit for this developer in any instance because they are developing affordable housing um at a loss willingly to themselves in most circumstances um affordable housing is the only instance under state law that impact fees can be waved without an offset from the general fund um so they do have that set aside um if you're worried about kind of the funding sources and all of that um like I said these homes are constructed it's an opportunity to put six of our residents in a new home um for the holiday so we're really excited we're here for questions wanted to clarify okay uh councilman Jo Hansen yes sir thank you um uh I'm on the affordable housing advisory committee and and uh you know I battle with the the same questions you have every day Don um uh Carmen hasn't hit me yet but she has G given me the stink eye once or twice um I my main concern with with anything affordable housing or anything that runs contrary to uh what the state's doing is is the the I always have that fear that they're they're just going to preempt right we had we had the affordable housing or the live local act and and the the things that are important to our County are not necessarily important to every County but but our legislators don't care when they throw the blanket over the whole state um the live local act we we are fighting up here to prevent industry next to a subdivision the live local act allows subdivisions to be built next to or in place of Industry so they are forcing us to put Apartments next to Future Field Farms so I I'm I'm very uh L of not giving money back but but putting the Line in the Sand about stuff like this without having an eye toward the state to wonder what's going to happen um so so a little bit here a little bit there this this is a great project habitat four or five homes one home right one home here one home there uh I'm a big fan of that um and and if it comes to um midrise affordable housing that that midrise infill Li there's there's a lot of wins there too right so uh I I I think I think this is great to approve and I appreciate uh uh Jessica saying that that this is like Habitat for Humanity because I know some people are saying we're giving money it was mentioned today in the com we're giving money to the developers no we're we're making affordable housing which is in Ence with what the state wants um U from by the way conservative super majority legislature so um uh we got to consider that so uh those are my comments before the vote thank you chairman you're welcome uh we have another member of the public that wanted to speak for the record Nik husi um Orman Beach just just one thing I wanted to know talking about liid each of these houses not only are they built at or below cost but all six of these will be certified Florida Florida uh Green Building Council so they will have a a certification for being Green Building and having energy star appliances and all of that thank you uh councilman Robbins thank you chair Don I think most of us are on the same page and and Mr Johansson something that I would be open to discussion about in the future and I'm going to I'm going to support this um but I do think because I have residents that out to me you know we're deferring some of these fees that have to be pay back possibly down the road but what's not being deferred are the impacts that it still creates and ultimately in the meantime we're putting those impacts on the backs of of other taxpayers um in my opinion now there's other sides to the story but at the end of the day it goes back to if growth's paying for itself this this slogan that we hear all over um and if we want to actually make changes it's something that we're going to have to look at uh in the future um if it's not paying for itself then we have to stop giving away free peace in this department or what it looks like it just looks like a political punchline uh during election Seasons that's very disingenuous if we don't act on it so I would like to have that discussion in the future I don't know if I'd support another one after this to be honest with you thank you okay uh anyone else we have a motion to approve and a second um if there are no more questions all in favor say I I I any opposed and item T also passes uh 6 to Zer unanimously um and that takes us to the last one item X um Authority for the county chair to approve SunRail commission's local funding agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation Chase Banking did you want to speak on that you were good okay um motion to approve motion to approve by Vice chair Kent and was by councilman Santiago all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries unanimously and that takes us to um already to item three chairman I was going to comment on AA and BB yes true you did I'm sorry thank you we already voted for those and they're approved but um to the the public listening and also to the council so I I inquired with staff about AA and BB you know AA is the vintage car parade and they're going to um be in the inlet Park entrance and I look at that as a staging before their parade so I was okay with that and for BB that's the Daytona be Shores parade of 50 vehicles and one tip car so again um a quick event down there having a parade on the beach I'm okay with that the reason I mentioned that is there was an item on the agenda that was pulled but I understand we'll be coming back to us um I have some very pointed questions for that uh that group just because um it starts interfering with the new toll price structure that this Council has agreed to that we have created and agreed to and I believe it could have a negative impact uh not only financially on this County but also it sends us down a slippery slope that I'm not willing to go down to those are my comments thank you chairman thank you okay now we're ready for item three um Donna Butler is she's coming down this is a Community Development block grant Disaster Recovery hurricane Ian oh my good evening [Music] Council Donna Butler director of Office of Recovery and resiliency I'm actually very excited to be here tonight and present this to you especially in light of all of the conversation that um you've had earlier this evening so the original item that uh was before you but has been modified uh late yesterday and I apologize for the late modification had 22 projects this has 18 total projects uh from Seven municipalities and then Valia County and over $60 million recommended from cdbg drr to be spent on infrastructure and mitigation here's a spreadsheet you'll see that there are um 16 projects from cities and two from the county totaling that $60 million a lot of storm water projects to be accomplished in Bia County as well as two infrastructure projects in addition uh we put out a call to the cities to ask them if they had any additional storm water studies that they wanted to accomplish and the answer was resoundingly yes please so we have 27 requests totaling approximately $8.6 million uh you'll see them all listed here four from Valia County uh two from Daytona Beach one of those is match for their um already existing Army Corp of Engineers um study that they have in the works three from Delan three from Deltona six in Orange City three in orand and Port Orange 3 as well finally uh you've talked about this a little bit already we are proposing to transfer at this time uh $18 million from three different categories $5 million from planning 3 million from the rental repair line and 10 million from the new family construction totaling 18 million adding to the already existing 92 million for infrastructure mitigation taking that total to $110 m910 th000 and if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer and then we have a whole bunch of City staff that's been sitting here patiently so in case you have specifics about their um Pro projects that they proposed they can answer those thank you um let's let's go ahead and hear from them I think we've lost maybe one where we lose more uh is Mayor to you still here Edgewater runs on diesel diesel de well good evening uh mayor dies from the wonderful city of Edgewater I just want to take a a moment before we get into this and thank each and every one of you guys for your communication uh chairman you've gone to several of our meetings councilman Robins you've called me at least once a week ever since we flooded the first time checked in communication has been tremendous had a meeting with St John's Water Management uh you've been a tremendous asset to the city of Edgewater we appreciate you representing your District well with that being said we have two projects in front of you tonight oh and this is the interm city manager Jeff Thurman we have two projects ahead of you ahead of you tonight uh one being a canal armoring structure uh for Florida Shores area it's needed Mr Robbins you and I had a meeting with St John's Water Management official our canals are deteriorating away we need a away to armor them uh to hold more storm water and the second one is uh flood proofing of our Public Works facility we had over 5 ft of water uh in our public works this project would be a tremendous asset to the city of Edgewater we would really seek your approval would certainly make our residents happy uh and prevent future flooding with this infrastructure we appreciate each and every one of you guys thank you for all that you do thank you uh Keith Cher when I spoke earlier tonight and others have reinforced that one of the big problems we've had is deferred maintenance that our cities and the county it's a lot of the flooding occurred because of deferred maintenance and now we're playing catchup and whenever I look at this uh list it all pretty much appears to be deferred maintenance so there is no doubt in my mind and I'm sure the minds of many others that were here tonight that the problem is is that cities and the counties have not been handling their core responsibilities well when it comes to flood water and flood control I'm glad to see that these projects are happening I'm glad to see it's federal tax dollars but the cities and the county need to step up their game and take care of their continued maintenance on these things and not wait until the room's packed full of angry citizens so and the other concern I have uh is the county is [Music] using uh millions of dollars here for an EMS facil I consider that padding the budget however if we're honest about it it's it is federal tax dollars and if we can save local tax dollars that's good but it's a shell game and I just hope that the whatever local tax dollars we end up saving we can put those into storm water or something of that nature and I'm extremely concerned again back to social programs it's almost endless here that we're giving tax dollars to social programs that could and should be used for other things it's every single meeting tonight was packed full of it here you have uh domestic abuse shelter kind of like how Mr Robbins thinks that that's a core governmental responsibility to a certain extent but I have to tell you uh you've got this wasn't mentioned earlier you got the boys and girls club and Head Start is going to get millions of dollars for a new facility that's probably money we could have and should have used elsewhere and you have SMA healthc care they're going to be getting a good chunk of change we already PID 18 million just to the West fucha Hospital Authority through ADV valorum taxes but the big one is pce girls uh Pace School for Girls PACE Center for Girls $3 million y'all already kicked that can down the road you said you didn't want to use those dollars for it or use tax dollars for it and now this to me I feel this was snuck in I feel that this was a backdoor deal it's the way I feel it's I can feel how I want I feel that this is I don't think that we should be we pay 1.5 billion $1.5 billion dollar a year to the school system we shouldn't be sending tax dollar that can be used for core needs thank you for schools I think you just drew a response just to clarify this agenda item was modified there are no nonprofits on this particular agenda they will be presented to you at a later time so those were taken off of here um but just to set the stage for a future discussion yes it was 6.3 million that was proposed for nonprofit uh reconstruction of buildings that were damaged or destroyed um far lower than other communities at 7 million and 20 million for two for each of those and this was four agencies but we'll talk about that at a later time no nonprofits on this agenda item thank you also let me just add uh none of these projects are deferred maintenance um uh that's a whole different category they would not be eligible for this money if it was considered a maintenance project these are all additional uh either Replacements or additional systems that are being put in Dale Arrington you will be followed by Alex Schuman and then Tanya Stanton thank you very much Dale Arrington city manager Orange City we put in for this project following hurricane inan and after Hurricane Milton I can say that we need it even more it is is a project that will immediately solve two longstanding drainage problems within the core area of the city that have been flooding for a long time as you know mil Lake not to be confused with Miller Lake located to our South is in the heart of our city and is a beautiful recreational area that we um have left in a pretty much pristine condition through the use of echo funds but it's surrounded by an older low and moderate income neighborhood that has traditionally flooded because mil Lake much to our residents you know sorrow is also an fdot drainage Pond that carries all of the drainage through the center of the city into this lake that is beautifully de redone so that it is a recreation area now during Hurricane in it flooded and sadly Milton brought even more storm water to the city of Orange City it was a 1,000-year storm nearly 20 Ines of rain in a short period of time and all of the surrounding streets in this low moderate income area flooded we had to close the head start school for nearly three weeks we had to extract people from their homes what we will do under this project is rebuild the old fdot drainage line that goes out to the river and has been diverted to a barrow pit that the city of Orange City has purchased it will be able by rebuilding this line we will be able to increase the number of gallons that we pump per day from 1.25 million gallons to um um I think over uh 17 million gallons per day it's a 17 fold increase so what took us three weeks to drain an area and get people back into their homes will take us one day that's really pretty amazing we will also build another drainage Pond a shorter uh drainage line a shorter one this is new not replacement from the old Industrial area right down the street from this that provides hundreds of jobs to people and houses the United States post office during Ian it was closed for weeks we found a temporary fix this time around and it was only closed for five days this will enable us to keep that job and employment center open quickly the last thing I want to say is this is a fine you're laying and the potential for adding additional drainage projects 2 miles to the West is really quite amazing because you're putting water in a borrow pit with additional grading and Redevelopment of that borrow pit it can hold much more than just the storm water from Mille and from the industrial area it can be added on to over Years thank you happy to answer any questions thank you any questions for the city manager of Orange City Alex Schuman thank you all Alex Schuman city engineer for the city of Warman Beach um all of the study areas that have been identified with this grant um are areas that were impacted both with Ian and Milton um as we heard tonight it's a you know areas where we can uh help our residents um get water out and get water where it needs to be uh to the Halifax and to Moka Rivers uh if you have any questions I'm available for comment to answer any questions see here thank you oh Tanya Stanton okay okay uh councilman Don Dempsey yeah Don I don't know if I could ask you a quick followup this is this is a wonderful list I I'm so happy to see where this money is going the only question I have though is uh the EMS operations building I kind of um share Mr Chester's concern about that um it's been a while since I've done the old W wests side versus East Side whining sessions um but you know we've had the majority of the people here today were from the west side I mean we've got Taylor Road we've got out there by the FFA building we've got Miller Road and and other places that are routinely being flooded um but yet it doesn't appear any of those are being addressed here so my concern is we've already used half of the money now if we're up to $110 million because of the $18 million shift we're still have used up more than half of the available money for infrastructure and mitigation what is so important about the EMS building that can't wait I would much rather wait for these studies to come back have a game plan to address all the West Side you've done a wonderful job on the east side but there's only one thing being addressed on the West Side sure and I'd like to go down that list and make sure we have enough money available before we spend it on an EMS building first of all uh the Orange City project is on the west side and that's 15 million the largest project yes there will be more project is coming in the next uh grouping so it will be on likely on the West side let me remind you the EMS covers the entire County and that building is the headquarters and it floods and we every time we have a problem uh a storm we either don't have access to it or we have to bug out we have to raise uh all the stuff that's in there you have almost 300 employees that work in and out of there so and I can tell you some of the solutions are going to be coming before you whether it's this building or houses uh it's going to be tearing down buildings or moving people out of other buildings so this is just one example but this is one that happens to be ours it's not the entire project um it's a contribution towards it um but uh it's important that we get this thing going and get out of that particular area U and we have a lot of photographs that show we had lost access during uh Milton and uh and flooding I think during Ian in the building so and and we've had another storm every time there's a major hurricane they have to bug out and again it's it is the uh um headquarters for a very large very critical operation that we run so that's the thinking behind it and uh you can be assured there'll be more uh projects coming on the west side in the next uh round of projects to come out I I hope I didn't misspeak George or Donna because I did acknowledge the Orange City you know that's Miss Arrington she left the land I guess to go to Orange city we miss her but um yeah I'm familiar I went down and looked at that area and it it was horrific and I'm glad it's being addressed but there's still I mean I know you guys have to bug out the EMS people have to bug out 300 people but all these people that spoke tonight had to bug out of their homes too when we flood so I just want to make sure that we don't run out of money um if we have money after we figure out well if there's 6.8 million difference at the end then we'll figure that out but again you're we've got millions of dollars coming and these are the projects that were submitted in this round we'll see what the next round comes but you know these are picked everyone who had a project that met the CR criteria um is being funded on what they ask for so um and again there'll be more in the next round if if 6.8 makes the difference down the road on some project um then we can make that adjustment but i' I'd like to go ahead right now and get started on um on our EMS project because it's critical okay okay Vice you're done Vice chair Troy Kent thank you chairman just just very briefly um I also am pleased with um the the positive impact with the County's going to be able to do and help these communities that are in this round um I want to give a special shout out to to my two cities that I represent H Hill thanks for being here Warman Beach thanks for being here and you know I was pleased to see Orange City did one quarter of the money on one project here and um you know I I can tell you from someone that's been driving by that uh that Lions Club in Orange City goodness gracious like when is the water ever going to go away and on graves like people can't drive that so it's it's a huge problem Don and I'm I see it with you so I'm I'm I'm here with you thank you chairman councilman Johansson s thank you very much um D can you go back to the studies page absolutely it's two pages yep 27 requests totaling 8.6 million approximately okay next page all right um so absent from this list and and maybe it'll be round two but uh um I'm I'm interested that theberry doesn't have anything on this list have they submitted anything no sir not for uh infrastructure or for planning studies got it um interesting to me um chairman if if you indulge me can I ask Carman rosando of May he's the city manager yes question about uh so earlier earlier today we heard about somebody talking about we got a water to the berry you're not on the list what's it seems like you you're close enough to the water that you'd have some problems well um during Hurricane and we didn't have we only had one house with water intrusion hurricane Ian um as we talked about City de's put in $32 million worth of infrastructure for storm water because we were we were the poster child in 2004 and 2008 for storm water we flooded hundreds and hundreds of homes in in 2004 and 2008 um so de went on a mission um to never h that ever happen again and so we raised our storm water fees we borrowed money we put in3 $2 million worth of infrastructure hurricane Ian and the difference between hurricane Ian and this year is Hurricane Ian in 2022 was the first hurricane we had in five years and and our and we didn't have the saturation that we had in this particular uh hurricane season now this hurricane season we did have uh 20 homes uh impacted had water intrusion um about three4 of those were private storm water systems that that had water intrusion um there's about six homes that uh around the DeBerry Plantation area um that fdot was pumping into as well that we we had six homes that were impacted there at the berry Plantation entrance uh but that was on the Glenn Abbey side but other than that um our systems are in place um the water was just overwhelming we had I know we had 18 to 20 inches of rain um in generally short period of time we calculated about a sixh hour time frame um and so the water was just too enormous fdot ponds were were overflowing um and so uh yeah it was a little more significant event but we had a lot of private closed Basin Retention Ponds overflow and damage people's homes that uh that we didn't have any control over and so yeah that's that's the reason why you don't see the Barry on there is that uh with hurricane Ian we didn't really have anything to apply for okay now if you do hurricane Milton we may we had some projects we need to do yes thank you very much yes um I and and I hope you're involved in the special meeting Workshop in January seem to have gotten it right uh but uh I I'm very pleased to see the list that we saw earlier uh I understand that's round one Don I've been starting to get that list out forever um you know I I was talking to Mayor Hall a couple hours ago many hours ago uh about about Lantern Park and and how I never take a vat personally and that I that I really think about what I'm doing and try not to bias myself but I'm tired of waiting in the lantern Park to get my friends out of there every year so I'm I'm glad that project's on the list I hope that the project that you have mayor and less uh are successful um I'm going to bring my shovel to make sure it doesn't happen again but um I hope this is the start of of some momentum George to to to work on these things that that we talked about earlier these focused surgical attacks on low area basically older um older subdivisions and older neighborhoods that are just getting wrecked by this water uh regardless of the original cause that's there now we got to get rid of it so I appre appreciate it and Donald thanks I hope you double your efforts and get the next batch out quicker than this one it something tells me you're you're on the rooll now it should be easier so Mr Johansson I also be remiss uh um item GG too uh uh was a $2.7 million uh storm water project that you guys just approved today uh under the uh forer Pond which is just down the street from uh and is located in um orange city as well so you know we've taken a really good approach working really well with the city of Orange City as we always do and I think you're going to see significant change because that was an area that we could Target we also just uh I'll point out there's a smaller $160,000 project that's occurring on hem Boulevard it it's a drainage project as well so besides this money here there's other monies that are going into this uh as well thank you thank you chairman welcome councilman Robbins thank you chair Don real quick uh I hear you what areas do you have in mind um that that we can um how can we help you uh collectively um you you know some areas and you're more intimate in the west side than I am but what can we do as a board to get you where you you need to be at with your constituents we've got Lake Gertie where former judge mcfar Smith all those guys live they're routinely flooded we got over by the FFA building on the truck route are any of those in the city like the land or do we need to lean the land or they're on the border if not yeah because and they got development obviously JC Ronnie Mills the Common Ground farms uh Miss Joslin all those people that have recurring flooding I mean I understand they're addressing Orange City that's wonderful can you make us a list Don can you make us a short list where we can we could probably just pull half the comment cards from tonight and put them on that I'm with you but every single one of those project is being worked on right now uh my staff we met with the city of Dand uh the city has graciously agreed to take uh some of those projects lead on some of them and we're taking the others so we already have uh the Taylor Road study is just about done and that'll lead uh to projects up there that'll you'll probably see that here on one of the next next meetings uh for the next step of that uh like Gertie the uh um Craner Avenue up there um by the by the farm all uh We've divy those up with the city uh they're taking two we're taking two um and we're studying those areas and we'll come back with you know like I say you take the one in Lake Gertie uh that's probably going to be some sort of a buy uh buy property and dig out type of thing uh well the Craner will probably entail working with the Department of Transportation and finding a place for that water um and uh Taylor Road uh we have a pretty good idea of uh what we're going to do there too so already from P area just that and Lake winam the sets another one and I'm not trying to sit here and say the County's not doing anything or that we're sitting in your hands I'm not saying that one bit I know you guys are being very proactive towards finding a fix what I'm saying is I just don't want to run out of money I mean we're already half through halfway through the 110 million and I just I mean George you hit it right on the head you said that we may have to resort to buying out neighborhoods and I kind of see after everything I've heard over the last two years I think that might be our only viable resolution at some point is we're just going to have to buy out some of these neighborhoods and improve our storm water right I think that's going to be way more than $60 million to buy out a lot of these neighborhoods so well it depends on the size I mean we'll be very strategic with that like in Lake Gertie uh uh I'm not we don't have all the measurements yet but I would say uh a few strategic purchases would probably go along way yeah so I just don't want to run out of money I mean I I don't know why we can't defer the EMS op building just just I'm not saying we shouldn't do it but let's deal with these problems in the land area that I just mentioned and then if there's money left over then we got money for the the Ops building I just don't know why it's whatever you guys want to do I mean we we'll work with however you need us to do it yeah want to be a problem I'm just trying to save some of the cash for I think what going to end up being buyouts thank you I hope that answers your question Danny okay I was I was going to come back to the uh to the EMS just with a a question about the current building but this is this is their headquarters I I don't know how we can defer it and put it off I prefer not to like I say it's going to get done well put it this way it will get done it's just about where the money will come from you know if it doesn't does if it's not if this is not available then I'll be asking for more out of the general fund uh to do it so you're relocating it it's going to happen current building floods right what's going to happen to that building that'll get sold that's factored in we'll sell that building it's in an industrial area uh in Holly Hill why won't it flood when they get it well that'll be up to the whoever gets it to decide what they want to do they can tear it down and raise they might they might sell it to an aquarium company or something you never know can we preamp that and make it water storage of course then we keep it and it's just an expense but yeah well we did something similar with our Road and Bridge facility uh if you'll recall the the Northeast Public Works facility uh which probably had three fet of water in it during these last uh few events but uh we sold that property off I think I don't know exactly what happened I think they cleared it off to do something else and then we build our facility out to the West um right so that's the same basic idea except for in this case we're trying to uh uh rehabil rehabilitate an existing building uh that we have already purchased okay yeah I I hear you Don but I think when it when it comes to EMS and First Responders I think we've we really need to make sure they can do their job there correctly and um and treat them well it's a they're they're in a can't live location right now um councilman Santiago thank you Mr chair you know dannyel I just wanted to say I'm a little bummed out because Don isn't the only one that represents the west side you're included ask me okay I'm kiding you look grumpy um no uh I agree with the chairman um I think we should move forward with the M uh funding Don I think we're in a unique position too at least the I4 Corridor is in a unique position because legislature is coming into session um in the next few weeks and I'm pretty certain they're going to have to address some funding opportunities uh for the communities including Valia so we we we're GNA I think we'll be okay we we got to make sure we activate and act responsibly to be in line for our share thank you Mr chair Mr Santiago I heard you say you agree with the chairman it sounds like mend in fences already should we sing I'll take it I'll listen I love good ideas that's a good idea I wasn't GNA be the one that sings uh councilman Robbins yes sir just to reiterate a little bit with just Don with just EMS if you go to that building you can actually see the years that they've corrected it with floor joyes and false floors and I just took a a CPR class there like two months ago and some of those areas in that building are lifted up like 3 4 feet I mean and it's been redone and redone and I've been in and out of that building since early 2000s so um I I would well can I ask you this I mean we just bought that building for Lisa Lewis I mean there's a lot of extra space over there I mean we can't put them in there temporarily because I understand half that building is just going to be rented out to other potential tenants I mean I'm pretty sure this ship is sailed okay all right just an observation but I just want to make sure there's enough left over for the buyouts Stu all right councilman Santiago M chairman I move to approve the list uh as presented by staff thank God is there a second second second by Vice chair Kent any other discuss discuss questions all in favor say I I I any opposed respectfully no yes oppos I opposed okay uh motion carries five to one Danny's taking his money back I think I I think we also need to uh make a motion on the moving of the1 18 million do as proposed in the item Mr so moved Mr chair if you would indulge me just to make one comment on that please sir um it's proposed at 18 million I know that you want to bring up a higher amount we need to keep that below 20 million each time we make a move we can have multiple moves that total a greater amount as long as they stay below 18 million so if we can do 18 million now we can do subsequent moves at later Council meetings each time if you want we just need to otherwise it ties it up for three months it's not your decision to move it then hway in if we keep it below the 20 million at one time you can make it cumulative greater than that but at one time it needs to stay that way otherwise HUD gets to weigh in move to approve the 18 million transfer as proposed by staff second joh Hanson why didn't you make it 199.99 I could have but there's not time right now okay we have a motion to move the 18 million with more to come and the uh motion was was that by you yes sir David Santiago and I believe the second one was Jake Johansson all in favor say I I and he opposed and you move the money okay item four is moved to a special meeting item five has already been disposed of item six first reading of ordinance number 202 24-6 amending chapter 72 of the code of ordinance to allow for a five lot subdivision without a plat and Clay Irvin's going to present that good evening clay Irvin director of growth and Resource Management this was directive from the County Council to go back and look at our subdivision regulations and come up with standards that would allow for easier methods for uh folks in the rural areas to be able to subdivide their property and um we've been able to process it through the planning and Land Development regulation commission before you is a ordinance that would allow for owners of properties in the rural and agricultural zoning to split their properties into five Lots without having to go through a subdivision this means that eliminates a lot of time having to go through the process and having to prepare a final recorded Subdivision plat staff initially recommended um mandating that it could occur on a paved County roadway uh the planning Land Development regulation commission felt that was too stringent and the uh recommendation in in front of you today would allow for this to occur on an unpaved Road as long as it met the minimum safy standards for fire access and being able to provide for uh proof of legal access to that area um staff also Drew upon prior standards where we were requesting 10,000 square feet of the lot would have to be out of the flood plane and what lend areas the pdrc felt that that was too much and uh recommended 5,000 square ft so that's again coming to you as part of your ordinance here uh there was um a discussion as to what would be the minimum lot size and that's two and a half acres so therefore what you're seeing is that anything with the rural zoning or uh agricultural zoning where they meet the minimum lot size of 2 and a half acres they can go through this process uh the discussion about storm water is such that um we're not requiring a master storm water plan as part of the division of this land but will'll require that at time of building permit that the owner of the land would have to provide us with an affidavit indicating that they would not allow for flooding to come off of their property and impact their nextdoor neighbor that's what's in front of you today and uh we'll be glad to answer any questions there may be thank you councilman Robbins thank you chair um I'm going to make a motion to approve and just have a little discussion after I'll second okay we have a motion to approve item six by Danny Robbins and the second was by David Santiago and um do you want to start the do you have a question or discussion um the discussion or uh just make a statement chair okay yes please uh no staff thank you uh I know this was an issue I believe that originated with the looseners in my district um individual and the family have uh some kids that they want to leave properties too and I think it's just um looking a little bit in advance you know where it gives the ability to our our constituents still in the rural or transitional areas uh to be able to do so without um just the the the monotony and and the red tape to uh give something to their children uh when their time passes so uh I appreciate uh Council support getting this point and hopefully we can get uh come together and get it across the line Thank you thank you uh clay a question um this is I like this it is less red tape it it cut some regulations um but it's not without problems and the the problem that that I see is a a common a and maybe uh chair Mills will be able to comment on this when he comes up as well right now when we have uh housing going up on un unmaintained uh dirt roads that the county doesn't maintain the understanding is it's a private road and they have to maintain the road and we get a lot of phone calls uh from people change of ownership or 10 years later they forget or the condition the road is so bad that they're wondering why the county isn't maintaining it and um I'm wondering is there any way to tighten this up somehow to make that not uh an issue not a problem that comes back to to the county to to maintain a private road um if this was a standard subdivision in other words they were going through it we would require covenants and rest restrictions in a homeowners association to oversee the maintenance of the private road um you can still if that's something that you feel is appropriate that can be put in there as part of it um that's not consistent with what the pdrc made as their recommendation okay all right I'll let um chairman Mills maybe when you come up to speak well not not yet because they might have more question questions but if you could touch on that we'll give you little extra time uh councilman Santiago thank you Mr chairman I want to thank the committee because I read the the notes in the minutes they they went through this pretty extensively and I read the back and forth and and I do recall that this was a product that we directed them to do based on some previous hearings that we had so I just wanted to thank the committee for all the back and forth that they did and um sounds like there was some good dialogue I didn't watch the hearings but according to the what I read it looked like there was some good back and forth with staff too so thank you Mr chair you're welcome uh we do have a member of the public uh CH chairman Ronnie Mills you still chair the pdrc correct yes one of the busiest committees that we have in the county yes and also the pdrc um voted to let me speak on their behalf also okay to this um to address the issue of the um maintained Road what would they has to meet the standards in order to get a building permit now for emergency vehicles and things of that nature we just can't have a sand Road out there or anywhere and these subdivisions and the and in the um agricultural areas where the permit is required for a building permit and so that was discussed uh we didn't wanted add additional burden for the intent of the ordinance anyway is to have a family property that they'll be able to split up without having to go through the subdivision process that's the whole idea of it uh I did need a clarification though because we didn't see the final draft on this but on uh item e in this um it says uh that the um parent property and any additional Lots must front on to have direct access to an existing paved or unpaved Street or easement uh I don't want to rule out the fact that the parent property can't provide that easement to those lots rather than being existing that was the only thing I found with the final draft of the ordinance that I had to uh would like to be discussed on and um as far as a maintenance issue being that it would more than likely that you're talking a minimum of 2 and A2 acres and a lot of these are going to be a lot more than 2 and a half acres strictly because of the zoning regulation they still have to go by zoning and so um I understand where you're coming from but a lot of the issues are being that you're hearing from are cases like on um in um Orange City on Hamilton where you got these unpaved roads on these smaller Lots uh with the original subdivision were coming through you typically you don't hear that much from the U larger Parcels in rural areas and that's why we we we really because most of these properties are not going to be on a paid road to begin with I would be willing to say 90% of them aren't okay okay thank you and uh we have a couple councilman that want to speak and then clay would [Music] you clay would you when after the last two councilman speak will you uh handle the question well the issue is this is that if you look through our staff report the critical thing is that we were looking at is this was something that was um relatively easy so that these property owners could share their property we did not want to see the reason why you have a subdivision in the first place is to ensure that roads water sewer and storm water are provided to meet the code requirements and so we saying that if you didn't have to provide those as part of this project then therefore we could say a subdivision and the associated engineering plans are not required that's why we were trying to say is that access should be through either an existing private or public roadway um you know creating a new road is actually a Act of subdividing the land Beyond we we were looking at is saying you already have the access you're just splitting it up so that you can get access to it it's up to the council if the council feels that it's appropriate to allow for private new private roads to be created I just want to point out that we already have an unpaved Road subdivision I know about it because I was the one who drafted it back in 2014 as part of your smart growth policy Review Committee where we allow up to 25 lots to be created and utilize an unpaved Road where we go through and address the issues that Mr Santiago and what the chair were talking about in regards to the maintenance so if you have a property owner who wants to do a more elaborate development we have that Avenue already in place if you're looking for someone who is just trying to split up their Parcels that are already front on a road this gives them a quicker way of doing so it's up to the council you're hearing from the the chair what he wants to see done that's it's really your call on how to do it again the mindset of the staff was a Subdivision plat is required when we're seeing infrastructure needing to be provided so that you can divide the land and so therefore if you're trying to exempt it from a subdivision then you shouldn't need to have to go through all the for Access storm water water and sewer okay okay thank you uh pardon me yes I got some questions basically what what I'm asking is if if it if you can access it by easement we want to be able to have the parent property provide the easement to the additional Lots because a lot of these eans come in they may come in 60 foot wide and if I'm dividing parcel up five Parcels additional Parc four additional Parcels then I don't want to have to front each one of those on that 60 ft easement coming in so it doesn't make sense for the property not to be able to provide the additional easement to the additional Lots being um made and that's all you know that was the only discussion I had on that as far as the maintaining the road you know uh you've got maintained road to the parent property as is okay okay so uh Council will discuss it we can either approve it as it is send it back for changes or maybe make make a change but uh councilman Robbins thank you chair uh chair Mills thank you I I miss that and I see your I see your point uh in that and and something that I just want to point out we're trying to make it easier but this other verbage restrictive verbage gets kind of put in there um and I and once again thank you for picking that upon it because I missed it I want to make things easier and and the the only way to do that is for us to get out of the way a little bit with this stuff and and give the responsibility we can't be everything to everybody we can't be the nanny State as Mr Chester puts it so eloquently in in some of these emails we can't be the nanny to everybody at some point we have to have personal responsibility if there's a question of who maintains what um when you buy in a private road you have to assume some responsibility of maintaining your your your uh your access way um I think this accomplishes if we can modify this um uh uh with the suggestion that that chair Mills had made I think it would go a long way and I'd be willing to support it I won't support it the way it is now I'll support it uh are you amending your motion I'd amend my motion to uh bring it back and adjust the verbiage to reflect uh chair mills's suggestion to include the easement as a second I'm okay with that and I just had one comment Mr chair to bring it back to the next meeting or no we don't need to we can to mend it here why why add another item to the agenda it's a simple language text that staff can do sign bring it back I guess okay you need to bring it back you can't strike it um I I would like to preserve the notice so if you can U make a motion to um bring it back to a date certain we can we can bring it out back without make those proposed changes um uh without having to read advertise it ah gotcha po why why can't you do why can't we just amend it here oh yes sure uh depending upon what you're proposing I think you would just delete the phrase each resulting lot so that only the parent parcel must front on an existing Road each result each you know created lot from that parent parcel can access off of a newly created easement from the parent parcel is if you delete that phrase each resulting lot from so strike it through this strike existing because then you could sit there and well no because you want the parent parts of the r to come from an existing lot it's the each resulting lot right issue so on line 95 just strike and each resulting lot so only the parent parcel must front on an existing public or private Street or easement each resulting parcel or re each child parcel can come off of a newly created easement from the parent parcel so if Danny amended his motion to strike that that line as you suggested that would accommodate that yes Danny mov that I'm okay as the seconder okay and Mr chair I just want to Quick moment to Chairman Ronnie Mills if I may just yeah I was going to oh ask chair Mills if he was comfortable with with that I think you just got what you your concern was yeah that that was our concern uh originally like I said there was an En easement in the ordinance itself and like I said 90% of these properties are are on easements you know the larger parcels and this would eliminate having to you could split it up like if you if it's further into the parcel itself that you could create an easement off the parent property pretty much um now whether that must set on an original easement for the parent property you know that's the that's the discretion of I don't see what the difference is of an existing easement or an easement I would just make it easement throughout the whole wording of the ordinance rather than an existing eement I think we accomplished what he wanted quot oh no I wanted to say Ronnie just one moment of personal privilege uh our sister's leaving us again she's yes she is your blood sister and my sister in other ways so I just sorry about that he knows what I'm talking about uh councilman Johansson yeah I got a quick question I guess for for play just just so I understand um you know the scenario is is a family wants to subdivide and give their their kids or grandkids all house so in the back of my 40 acre property I give one of my grandkids K the the back five um how is that person going to get in and out if he's got to go through Mom and Dad's front door to get there the easement that that Mr Mills was talking about now fast forward 20 years and and the grandchild sells that property to me remember said we got to take personal responsibility and that's pretty easy when the whole family lives on the 40 acre property but once you start uh personing it out to people next thing you know it's like it's like my my private subdivision right now where the first thing people say is why aren't you coming to get my my hurricane Milton debris well you're a private subdivision I pay taxes right so what's going to happen with that road that that's on private property with an easement that's private that floods and somebody these back in that back Lot H how do we how do we prevent ourselves from being held accountable for private roads like like all the ones we're discussing now that have that have failed one of the things we're going to require as through the process is that the people who are processing this will put in a covenant restriction on the property acknowledging so that when you purchase it it says very clearly that you are accessed via a private road not built to County standards it's never to be bought by the county never to be maintained never to be Mill existing language that we utilize right now and we'll just carry it over into this perfect thank you very much I I love the idea I just want to protect the county in 30 years okay I look that look look like it's it we have a a a motion an amended motion completed and a second uh all in favor say I I I the opposed and that carries unanimously 6 to Zer okay items seven and eight go together but we need to uh take them up uh with separate motions so we'll start with item seven which is a quasi judicial uh hearing so if uh anyone has any expar to declare please do so now no one okay clay thank you clay irman director of growth and Resource Management before you tonight is uh a resoning from B3 to B4 and a special exception for a uh Car Wash currently in the way our zoning ordinance is written car washes require a special exception in the B4 and they're not even allowed in the B3 so the applicant is requesting to rezone this property the property is located right where 17 and 11 split just on the north side of the existing commercial center there there where there's a gas station they are looking to um put in a 7-Eleven convenience store with gas pumps and an automated car wash so they're going through the resoning process so that that way they are consistent with what you see around there in that we have existing to the south of this property B4 property and so this would be it's not spot zoning it's continuing on the special exception would allow for the automated self uh service gas station or excuse me car wash that will be located along the north property line of this it went to the planning and Land Development regulation commission with a recommendation of approval uh we did receive a letter from an AJ recent property owner uh in one of the manufactured home communities there who expressed some concerns with the property um as you can see it it it meets our dimensional requirements it meets the criteria for the special exception so staff recommended approval of of both the resoning to be for and the special exception in regards to the special exception just want to kind of touch on the the site plan this shows you the location of the uh convenience store and the gas pumps that will be out toward State Road 17 the uh building to the north there is the uh self-service car wash so it's an automatic car wash where you go and basically utilize it yourself again staff looked at it it met with all of our criteria recommended approval if there's any questions we'll be available to answer them okay Council anyone have questions does anyone have a motion motion to approve motion to approve item seven U by councilman robins and the second one second was by uh David Santiago I'm sorry we have a u the public who wants to speak um I think you're representing the property owner Jessica gal I'm checking to make sure I can still say good evening lost track of time uh Jessica cob Law Firm on behal of the property owner like clay said this really matches up the zoning um on the four corners of the intersection um there is no change in the setbacks from the B3 to the B4 so no differen is there um and then the special exception is for just a a single accessory Car Wash I think generally the intent of the special exception is for a primary use um but we're going through this process just so everything's documented we've got a 35 foot landscape buffer on 17 uh and I did want to note the one letter of opposition she raised concerns about buffering and removal of trees in front of her house um she is well north of the proposed resoning site and is actually in the remainder portion of the property that is not being developed at this time the her viiew Corridor will remain the same and with that we are here for any questions and we have our engineer as well for any engineering question so you the buffer is um only on no there will be landscape buffers on all sides 17 just has an increased 35 foot landscape buffer under the county standards the how are you handling uh storm water I think I just saw one a storm water retention Pond there correct and this has not gone through full engineering design this is the concept layout but the initial thought is to have that storm water Pond right at the front there along um where the intersection of 17 and 11 is you can see that location okay um so this will come back to us at that point no it'll be a staff level site plan review so approved by the development Review Committee okay thank you any other questions for Jessica thank you thank you okay we have a motion to uh approve and a second no other questions no debate all in favor say I I any opposed I'm going to vote for with uh reservations to see the uh I don't want to see that mobile home part flooded flood it for the 500 or plan it for the 500e storm item eight special exception for a car wash you we've already heard about it so yeah second motion to approve by David Santiago second one was by Jake Johansson All In favor say I I any opposed that carries 6 to0 78 nine is the uh 2024 Echo spring Grant cycle award recommendations that is correct so this is the cycle that Council directed um staff through George to implement uh we opened it and we actually had three applicants we originally did it for DeBerry to be able to get their drawings in um they've done that uh Council the C Echo committee was um consistent with their super majority vote to Grant um Alexander Island the DeBry project exceptional status so you have two projects from Port Orange one from South Daytona um and then one from DeBerry all detailed in the agenda item here to answer questions if you have them okay David Santiago move to the approve the list as presented by staff Second Joe Hanson okay we have a um motion to approve by Santiago second by Jake Johansson um Carmen you're still here can I ask can you come up for a a quick question the special exception this is for this item yes wow um I have I have concerns about the exceptional status but it according to the way the uh Echo is written right now it's you you meet that qualification so my my larger concern would be this is two and a half million yes sir for you and there is there an outstanding you still have to raise 10 million no this this this project uh we this the city has matched 1.8 million uh uh against the 2.5 million uh the city purchased this property in February of 2023 for 3.5 million uh and part of that purchases is matches is is applied to this this project here um if the city has not done anything else will be a first class um Nature Park on on the St John's river um and 25% of the burm and all the amenities will be complete um what is the long range Vision um well this this as as I uh submitted a letter to the council um uh here a little while ago a few days ago I mean we having a lot of opportunities additional opportunities uh coming towards this particular project so um this pro project is so unique that it it it provides a lot of opportunities and we're getting a lot of investors coming in wanting to be part of this particular project uh for example Rivington on our council meeting tomorrow night wants to donate 58 acres to the city that's adjacent to Alexander Island um and it has the remaining part of the Historic Oak Hammock that that exist on Alexander now um and it will now create a double our nature trail will be double of what was originally planned and we'll fund that when we can um and so the we have other investors coming in wanting to sponsor certain additions to this particular project whether it be picnic areas on the river whether it be more fishing peers uh etc etc um so uh the city will continue this will be will continue to enhance this particular Park but this particular part here will provide the um uh this project to be a first class Park just the way this money is set to be but again this project is going to Evol excuse me evolve over time as investors come forward uh simal county has come um looking possibly to bring a ferry service uh ask us if they could do a ferry service to this Alexander Island they're excited about it so I we're considering all those but as far as this Echo project is concern um this is uh going to be build a first class uh Nature Park as uh this ech Grant and this um my funding matching funding provides okay thank you uh Vice chair Troy Kent and M chz had to leave and so she also submitted a card there as well thank you chairman um city manager before you sit down then BR I have a question for you Dr bbal um is is the plan of DeBerry every year just to come back and have um Echo funding no there's a maximum to this particular project um so uh that no our plan is not to do that I think we eligible for a little bit more money based upon the match that we provided but um I don't think we'll be back U every single time to do a a a a project on that one of our one of one of our letters we talked about is where's our funding going to come it's going to be coming from investors and sponsors um the St State Legislature uh for Appropriations um we'll also be looking at state grants and federal grants uh to enhance the project as we deem necessary in the future so that's interesting investors and sponsors thanks for thanks for sharing the information Dr burb quick question for you what does a project have to be to meet that special exception like I I was you know been talking to people like hey it's just a box people are checking and then they're eligible for more money so just a little history on that so two things that needs to um they need to show that it is County has countywide importance and they have to show that it will um serve a significant number of people countywide excuse me and so what your team did when I first came on board is this was a very subjective saying saying those two things was interpreted differently by each Committee Member and so we went back and looked at the five or six projects that had gotten Grant funds before I was in seat and said what did they use to prove those things so what we came up with so if you want to prove countywide importance you need to either do a a public meeting or do a survey a countywide survey asking people this question will you use it is it something that you will visit does it have a significant uh is it significantly important in your life will it improve your quality of life um show the economic impact of the project um a robust feasibility study providing public input was there public input into the project and is it a component of the master plan so those are five kind of criteria that we list for that and Deber completed three of those so the other one is a significant number of people served so the things that we've put as letters of support from other municipalities or business they got letters of support from many municipalities saying our our constituents will use this park um current and future use projections they have their kimley horn study that projected nearly 30,000 people would utilize this outdoor recreation project a survey of potential users they did that of countywide individuals a robust marketing plan they have a robust marketing and Fe a robust marketing plan where they're going to partner with the chamber and others in the area to develop Partnerships to Market this um not only here but I think along the SunRail line because it's close to SunRail and then last our Partnerships that will attract a significant number of people again they talked about those Partnerships with the chamber and and businesses especially as they come online with their downtown so those are kind of the things that we use otherwise it's a subjective judgment and people who come to eeko don't know what they need to do to prove this and so by providing some objective things that these are what proves that it will be exceptional um it gives the grantees a fighting chance to know what the criteria are yes sir councilman Johansson yeah I just like to comment that you know it's what was it again 170 Acres Alexander and and I recall from our conversations just before you bought it that um it it was in the market to be developed but you you guys kind of this property was um already had an overall development plan to build uh 64 homes on this particular property right on the Uplands um and so we bought it to prev V it from being developed I I think it's a it's another um it's another opportunity here to highlight it's not ficia forever it's not Florida forever but it's it's another percentage of land that won't ever be developed and and you know in this effort to come up with that 50% um uh 50% development 50% uh conservation preservation that that we talk about but I don't think we promised any body um I think this is a good step forward um uh I like it and I've already been out there a few times it's it's pretty nice so I'm looking forward to seeing what you're doing with it in the future thank you okay uh we have some members of the public Keith Chester you're first followed by John Nicholson passing you're done John Nicholson and the mayor had a family obligation she needed to get to she's not here and Carmen just spoke John Nicholson day Tony beach side uh I've given you all a a list that was provided me by Brad as you know I've come often mentioning that they told me to a donor City uh thanks to uh Troy I had a meeting with Brad on uh vuch forever uh the city of Daytona Beach has donated about $19 million to vuch forever I thought it was 20 but 19's close enough um and we got back zero not a penny uh so we went through Echo and I look at the echo because Don's always talking about East and West uh we looked at East and West as well and the western part of the county raised 28 $8 million and uh they got back 27 million so there's about $800,000 that they haven't gotten back with that $4 million or whatever it's going to be a tremendous uh advantage to the Eastern to the western side of this uh County now Daytona Beach raised 15 million and they got back 5 million so they have a net loss of1 million so when we look at East and West the balance is not there all right it's about almost $20 million that the uh e side of the county has raised but they've not been able to get back all right so uh when these things come before you um be a little bit uh generous uh because I think I'm I'm pushing for the city to ask for uh a super fund for the pier it would be drastic change for our downtown they're doing a study right now for Main Street the chamber is so hopefully with the consal tooca buying so much land on Main Street and the um Brown and Brown project that might go in it's a hotel um condum project uh we going to need plenty of funding so if it comes before you think of the pier as a uh countywide project thank you thank you uh councilman Johansson so I I just want to remind everybody that that um when it comes to Echo uh when it comes to forever and when it comes to uh Florida forever um obviously there's more land to Forever on the West Side than there is to Forever on the east side uh especially East in 95 but I I See Echo projects is not winners and losers we winners it's it's fuchia County and and uh um I I can go to DeBerry to a park I can go to the Springs to a park I can go to the pier when it gets built with Echo money and and uh uh anywhere else in the county so so I don't see uh a tax dollar giv the echo as as they got and we didn't but uh I see it as as we won and and we get to enjoy the environmental cultural historical and Outdoors of of echo so uh just a comment thank you very much chairman you're welcome uh no more comments no more questions so uh Carmen if you want to stand up I'm going to call the vote you don't have to but you've been you've been waiting for this for a while uh this this is going to be one of the bla County's greatest one of greatest natural Assets in bla County I I promise you that and mark my words today we'll do everything we can to make it a shining star in blushia County okay uh all in favor of approving the list as proposed say I I any opposed thank you very much I appreciate it thank you that brings us to item 10 and the reason the rest of the people in this room are still here um the cultural Council recommendations for Award of a 20242 Community cultural grants program yes sir if I may just give Council a quick recap of the timeline and the direction as to why we're here so in November um there was discussion about um bringing a Sundown to the the grant program um so we had po postponed as staff or cancelled the initial workshops that we have with grantees in March this Council again discussed uh revisions to the program um at that time the direction to George and through or to staff through George were to continue on with this year's cycle um a as you know using the the current criteria um and then we will simultaneously work with the cultural Council to come up with recommendations for improvement at that time what the motion was is to uh guide kind of the changes that you would like to see to the program were to stimulate new cultural growth enhance the program in so far as it improves the grantees ability to attract new audiences increase Revenue attract new audiences and increase revenue and funding from other sources basically um to not rely on Government funding always so what you have before you are the results and recommendations from your cultural Council and the cycle that this Council directed us to move forward on I we as the cultural Council last week we met two times to finalize the the recommendations and changes to the program Jake told me he was going to ask me to talk about those so I will just go ahead real quickly and and talk about those changes so one um to stimulate new cultural growth what the the recommendation will be to you coming in January um or in the first qu of 2025 rather would be to uh in order to stimulate that new cultural growth providing some general program support grants to new or small cultural organizations what that looks like is um you can have some general operating support if you're new or small but you can't have it forever so there will be a maximum timeline on providing that support if you're a new organization coming into the cultural sector um you'll have to provide proof of programming for one year which is less than we previously had because we want people who are coming new into the sector to be able to access um some support um from Council uh the second is to enhance the program to attract new audiences by providing Project based support grants so rather than just general operating support you got to come to us with a good idea you got to come to us with a project or a program that we'll co-invest with you on and so those are that would be open um to organizations but it's not guaranteed it you know the you have to come with a good idea that we will co-invest with you um the other recommendation that will come to council is to include um $225,000 for capacity building um as a grant for larger organizations or even the what what the cultural Council recommended is the county organized this kind of capacity building Workshops the first year to help our nonprofits hire some folks that are you know experts in the area of resource development fundraising and have our nonprofit leaders go through the program to be able to build their skill set in that area so they can go out and secure funding from other sources so that's kind of the broad brush that we'll be coming back to you um in January but I did want to share because I knew I would be asked so that's kind of where we are the council um worked real hard over the last week to try to land in a place where um this Council would be pleased as I said those will be coming back to you when when do they when you probably the second meeting in January I think is our goal okay uh Troy Kent thank you chairman help me with my memory did did we ask last year for some of those changes to take place this year year no you asked us to continue this cycle this year the 24 cycle and those would take place in the 25 cycle was the motion okay and my second question is looking through this I didn't see Athens theater on there so they operate under the Sans theater Sans theater is their I think their DBA if I'm correct okay yeah Athens is the DVA was it written like that last year I thought I remember seeing Athens theater last year was it Sans theater as well I think it was s so our Tim Bailey told me it was Sans last year okay that's all for now thanks yes councilman Johansson I'm going to skip and wait for the comment okay okay uh two comments I I have one more question sir appreciate the uh the council getting together and discussing you know what we asked them to and um I'm just wondering if there was were you involved in all the discussions yes sir is has there been any discussion on um Pro it's probably very few of them but any of the organizations that have large endowments to continue to um every year put in a request for funding there so the operational model that we have now will allows them to apply every year because they're spending money on operations the model that we're moving to will require them to come up with a good idea that we co-invest with and your your advisory Council will make a recommendation on whether they think the county should co-invest or not okay it just it seems like that would help uh spread money around to some of the their they're they're wanting more uh organizations to come in smaller organizations and um yeah so it levels the playing field so if you have a good project if you're a small nonprofit and you have a good project and you want 15,000 from us um you you could get that 15,000 whereas now you're limited at 8,000 is the max based on your operational funds so but if you're a large organization if we have a cap on it you know whatever it may be that this Council decides they're all going to be at that cap okay uh councilman Santiago thank you Mr chairman um thank you Brad I want to uh applaud the council um I guess everybody can remember back when discussion of this kind of sparked and it was uh intense um and uh I respected everybody's position they shared there but I think we've landed in a good place with these recommendations I think it's healthy for you all it got the uh the I think the the juic is Flowing as far as how do we get creative and and and I think I made the comment back then um that uh I'd like for opportunities because I've heard from others that it's hard to penetrate uh this uh funding whether it was true or not but um I did have several conversations with many in the uh field and uh it was very good dialogue so those that reached out to me thank you uh it helped me learn quite a bit and uh I'm in a position now to support what we have before us thank you Mr chair okay um all that said we have a an hour and 10 minutes of uh of uh participant requests um can I make a motion to approve the list Mr chaired so we can have that pending maybe that'll help some of the audience we have a motion by Santiago second Johansson approve and a second by councilman Johansson so I will um I will call on on each of you if if anyone is um just wants to stand up and say please pass it or don't pass it you have that option I just ask them if it's approved that they they're they're they will wave the time to speak we we haven't voted yet okay um Keith Chester that's two hours past your bed time then you won't know how we vote for years I've heard this body talk about uh cutting where can we cut when it comes down to cutting you can never find a place to really cut so where do you cut in January you're going to start talking about roads infrastructure and how it's going to be funded now and into the future Jake mentioned that well it's we might have to raise taxes our roads are crumbling we've got desperate need of sidewalks our our rideways aren't being taken care of we've heard about the storm water issues the list of core needs goes on and on and on so there's only a couple ways to to fix them you wait and hope that you get a grant but that hasn't worked because drive around our roads are crumbling they're not being taken care of you can't say they are if you drive around you see it there's a from Jacob's Road from the high school to 92 I see kids walking on our rideways our County rideways kneee grass walking down the road or walking down the side of the road we have so many needs so what are we going to do are we going to raise taxes and those taxes you raise go to who the most are young people who are just starting out most of the people in this room are older like me I only pay $1,000 a year we've got deep discounted taxes so we're not getting hurt but if you have have to raise taxes it's going to hurt the young people where are yall going to cut Danny even said earlier tonight he said well he he sees it as you know for the the Boys and Girls Club he sees an importance in that well we can all find things that we see importance we want to save everything but in the end of the day you're really not doing your jobs your core governmental responsibilities are going unattended to so we just keep letting it crumble or you going to raise raise taxes drastically what are you going to do these are handouts y'all when you take our money and give to the organizations you're making our charitable giving decisions for us these aren't core governmental responsibilities these groups are going to talk about return on investments well what's the return on investments on roads if you have inadequate roads you're using up more gas you're burning up you know the whole thing so what's your return on investment there of having nice adequate roads where you can travel about that's what y'all are supposed to be responsible for so you know y'all just keep kicking the can down the road Council after counsel I've seen it and now you have SunRail to pay for how you going to do it all how you going to take care of the business and come January when you start talking about these infrastructure issues what are you going to do so they should take this do a United Arts type model and find funding through the private sector thank you uh Kathy Thompson I I would love to understand your definition of core government I under roads obviously are our beach is important our Parks important I came to this area and I'm speaking as a citizen of the area now because of the Arts in this area I take great pride in the fact that every summer we take 30 to 40 children in that can't afford a fancy [Music] School arts program and they get trained for free in dance singing and acting every summer and I can't tell you how many letters I've gotten from the parents and the children the mental health benefits that has provided we take your Grant and we don't take it for granted and we do not turn any donor away we don't stop fundraising because you give us $14,000 a year which is about what it's averaged for Daytona Playhouse for the last three or four years we take that money and we subsidize what we charge the county camps for your children to attend our Productions in the summer we only charge $6.50 a child when we normally charge $10 to $15 if you take away the grant I'm probably going to have to raise what I charge you so I'm going to get the money from the county or I will have to stop the program I will have to stop going to the retirement centers and giving free performances to our seniors in the area much of what we do is because we are very proud of being not for profit not a dime goes to any executive salary we pay nobody on the board and yet we are a full-time working volunteer board with 200 other volunteers volunteering we only pay for the technical type Services we must pay some money to even acquire to conduct the shows that we do very appreciative what you all have done I hope you're happy when you see the final agreements that we come to um but you aren't our main source of income by any stretch but I will tell you please tell me the name of an additional donor I can go to um because I've run out of ideas we used up almost all of that with just trying to do the Echo and we're seeing less and less donations and less volunteer time we need your help and helping us with a grant return on investment yes you are partnering with an organization that then spreads the dollars farther and our tourists are very happy to come back and visit here because they can be entertained at night I mean we could thank you thank you Craig uppercue you'll be followed by Sarah Mr chairman sorry I'll wait for you I I wanted to see if Mr chairman if we can make a motion a why make motion to uh um because of the time to modify our public comment uh time during this hearing not that I don't think it's important I think we're going to hear a lot of the same respect for a lot of you just so we can get to I think I know where you're going to get to but I don't know if you want to entertain that discussion Mr chairman just to modify it to maybe two minutes well how about if we let the uh the speakers make that judgment if you can say it in one minute perect or two minutes do that we can absolutely do that so Craig uppu good evening thank you so much for your um energy and commitment to um the citizens of valuch County and Beyond um I am the president of the valuch County cultural Alliance and I wear other artistic hats like I work for the school district and um support as the Fine Arts specialist at the district level so one thing I did want to add and and of course there is a direct economic impact uh as of the last economic Prosperity um report 1,472 jobs uh here in vucha County were a direct result of the Arts um and culture and it brought in over 48 million generated um by these organizations and a return of an impact um created over 7 million in local tax revenue so these proposed changes that you heard from Dr bural I love that you're doct or bbau by the way didn't know that I'm going to join you in about two weeks when I defend my dissertation um this streamlined program really does Foster an efficient regulatory framework by directing support where it has the greatest impact uh it will also enhance operational efficiencies for our smaller uh organizations that can apply for operational grants and it will support projects for our larger organizations that expand audiences and will contribute to the expanded Recreation and tourism that is one of your goals drawing both new residents and visitors our joint support for the Arts will really Foster a solution oriented culture one that will continue to build Partnerships keep residents engaged and strengthen our fiscal stewardship and last with my time remaining I do want to thank each of you um that we've had uh an opportunity to speak with you over the last couple of weeks and um learn about more about you and um and how you've grown up in this area and the Arts that you've participated in and how meaningful that was to you thank you so much for your attention appreciate you thank you uh sarapin I'm going to let you tell us your last name I'm going to let you tell us your last name uh yeah hi I'm sarapen zav lunov I'm 14 years old and I'm a student at the Athens theater Youth Academy and have been for around 5 years before taking lessons at Athens I would have never been able to stand up here and do this today I raise my voice for the organization that has given me a voice organizations that promote the Arts are a community Touchstone they have brought and continue to bring so many people together I've made some of my most important friends through the Arts and I know I'm not the only one taking classes through the art programs have allowed me to improve my skills and come out of my shell in a way I could have never imagined it made me realize education doesn't need to be tedious if we were underfunded so many people may not have the opportunity to discover themselves and their talents in the way I have been so lucky to many artistic organizations offer a safe space where students who can't be themselves at home are accepted they offer a place for students to practice tell their skills and meet new people along the way not only do they allow for safe spaces but also an opportunity for people to express themselves through the Arts also um I know some of you were concerned with keeping kids off the streets and out of trouble art offers a great outlet for these possibly at risk kids with guidance provided by these artistic organizations if you were to abolish funding you'd be turning your back on the artistic Community you would damage the safe spaces that have been made for people to practice their art and most importantly damage the community that brings them together because of uh the propos changes to the culture arts funding valicious Artic artistic organizations will hopefully be able to continue to enrich the community Through the Arts and the way they have for so long I hope you consider my words and consider voting in favor of Val's artistic organizations and what they represent thank you thank you well done Grace Bon okay did she take anybody with her sorry Harrison bidder bitler sorry I didn't see that one wasn't crossed is this your first time speaking here it is so good evening good night and as it would appear almost good morning my name is Harrison bitler and I'm a ninth grade student in the IB Program over at the land High School outside of school I'm working towards my Eagle Rank and Scouts and I'm working towards making the School tennis team um I feel really lucky to live in D land it's an amazing small town with a super strong sense of community we have a fun vibrant active downtown but one of the main attractions is the Athens theater we're so fortunate to have a facility like the Athens in this town my parents and I love to go grab burgers at half wall see a show and then go get ice cream or a different treat over at Pat and Tony's once we're done but to me the Athens goes beyond just an evening of entertainment I've been acting and taking classes with the Athens Youth Academy since I was in the fourth grade which means for the the past 5 years of my life I've spent a minimum of one afternoon a week there the skills that I've been building there go beyond the Arts public speaking memorization teamwork and overall confidence these are vital on the stage but they're also super important when you're becoming an adult if you aren't able to make your voice heard then you'll just keep getting run over all your life in improv class I've learned to adapt to situations on the Fly and roll with whatever challenges come my way when we've worked on dance routines I've learned to step outside of my comfort zone and do things that scare me a little bit sort of like this in Productions I've learned that one person can't carry a show alone it also takes an ensemble a stage crew a house manager a director and we all have to work together to create something worthwhile while it's true that there is an Arts component available through our schools the funding to those programs are cut more and more every year this grant helps the Athens Youth Academy and other programs like it to bridge that Gap and keep these opportunities available to students like me in addition to the ethens theater and their Youth Academy Bela county has several other amazing programs currently benefiting from this grant I've personally enjoyed camps and shows at the Gateway Center of the Arts in DeBry the Sho string theater over in Lake Helen and the Little Theater in uh yeah in the Little Theater in new smna beach um I love supporting my neighbor and art teacher when she sets up a booth at the Fall Festival of the Arts have you ever heard the belcanto singers perform they're amazing these programs make our lives Fuller and this is why I'm here to encourage you to approve the funding um yeah cuz I need the Arts in my life we all need the Arts in our lives thank you thank you Jennifer Moran good evening thank you for allowing us to speak tonight my phone's about dead and it's got all my notes on it but we're going to plow through here okay I know it's late and I'm going to go as quickly as I can thank you for this opportunity I am with uh Jennifer Moro with the Hub on Canal um let me start off by saying that we work diligently to raise money through individual donations corporate sponsors grants and fundraisers we are constantly hustling to keep ourselves afloat that being said I'm here to ask you to support the recommended funding for the community cultural grants part of our mission at the Hub is to be certain that everyone can benefit and experience the art in all its many forms regardless of socioeconomic status obviously we all know we have lost theate funding so our arts and culture organizations are already in a deficit some of us in a very large deficit not only do we lose as an organization so something happen to our County funding but so does the community at large without this funding we simply can't reach those who benefit from our offerings specifically or Outreach programming which is just one aspect of who we are and what we do whether it be veteran suffering with bcsd ESC students Youth and Adolescence who have suffered the loss of a parent the list goes on these are the ones who will lose the support of the education and healing that our Outreach programs offer um I'm going to skip that just to be quick we have programs like our fashion club that teach a real life career skill in the fashion industry for grades 6 through 12 that middle school age group is where those girls are most at rest to start going down the wrong path programs like ours allow them to come to a supportive and safe environment where they can express themselves free of judgment while learning leadership and career skills becoming strong confident and productive young women we really important work not just at the he with all of the other amazing organizations behind me who rely on funding to make a real difference in our communities I appreciate your time and thank you Jennifer coolage Jennifer kulage executive director of Atlantic Center for the Arts I reside in Delan Florida and thank you so much for your attention consideration and due diligence in all things and and your endurance for this evening um I just wanted to um respond to to U the comment that was made about United Arts um I think we can learn a lot from United Arts of Central Florida and Orlando United Arts is successful because of very significant funding that is provided through the tourist development tax dollars in Orange County um it's also um the county itself does other incentives to encourage these Arts nonprofits to raise money and be matched 15% and then continue to reach goals and unlock additional support I think we can learn a lot from from United Arts but it's not as easy as it seem and it comes with great County investment in consideration of that um just want to urge you to support the grants um as put forward by uh the council um because it does represent a continuation of Decades of a public private partnership um with this County and these Arts organizations that bring significant return on investment we heard earlier for from Dr EP uh Craig um uppercue about the economic impact Atlantic Center's economic impact Return of the total is 4.8 million in total economic impact in the area with um supporting over 104 jobs in surrounding area and then this also trickles down into the household income from the benefits and then local government support at 126,000 over 126,000 and then of course the state benefits as well um wanted to respond to what um councilman Robins said about um paying on the front end or the back end with young people I've spent 30 years in this business in arts nonprofits our goal is to change lives and change conditions and we know that the Arts are a powerful tool to turn apathy into interest with our young people and every Arts organization is working with young atrisk students and is augmenting the underfunded school systems programs with Arts activities and Partnerships that are not funded adequately and we're here to serve and then as we look at all of your goals we want to help you be a strategic partner in achieving all of these goals and want to thank you for the challenge and working with your staff to make this partnership even more effective um moving forward so thank you Doug mcginness Doug is no longer here uh Robert lease Richard England good evening um I had a whole bunch of stuff to say but I'm not going to use any of that just going to Echo a couple of things that you've uh already heard I think um all of us probably believe all of us here probably believe that in some significant measure the Arts are effectively a public good and like roads and other things these are this is a a class of benefit or opportunity or exposure which acrs to the benefit of everybody and I would argue that it accurs even to the benefit of those who don't come through one of our doors because of the societal impact of what the Arts accomplished they cut down divisions and help everybody see things differently and imagine things to be differently and those are important considerations and you know it was mentioned earlier that if uh if you know another donor we'd be happy to go after him and that's absolutely the case um there is increasing competition out there for the donated and for the vast majority of us the grants that we receive here are a fairly modest amount of the total operating budgets that we have and we are constantly looking for other funding sources mostly because we want to expand what it is we want to do but taking those dollars away or reducing them in any significant way is going to have a negative impact on our Collective abilities to provide the programming to the citizens of alucha County and I don't know if you're aware but while overall philanthropy this is a national set of Statistics but overall philanthropy to all nonprofits not just Arts related ones has continued to grow modestly but steadily over the years but the share of the population that donates to any not for-profit cause is roughly haved in the last 25 years so that's it's getting harder and harder for each of us to go find more dollarss that support those things that we do so this type of support is invaluable thank you Lindsay from the Athens okay thank you you heard that you were just uh given your doctorate right you don't have to go defend your thesis now um Julia j okay Mark Francis Lloyd thank you chairman Brower Lloyd Bowers resident of Daytona Beach Florida I am here as a a 12-year member of the cultural Council and as you know we are appointed by you to do the duty that we've been tasked with and I feel like I should just say these kids were incredible and just say what they said and then just sit down because they were amazing but that is why the county has done this for the last 30 years and that is why you allowed us to continue to have the same program this year which we did not know at the time in March when you agreed to continue with this year's program funding that the state was going to line item veto all of the state funding so it becomes even more crucial also I wanted to point out that that the $611,000 which represents I believe 0.2% of the county budget is the same amount that we've been giving since 2012 so in 2024 you're actually awarding grants based on $ 2012 which have obviously decreased in value over the time and I hope that you are pleased because I so remember the first meeting you and I had when this issue started blowing up and we talked about things that were important I hope you are uh pleased and all of you are pleased with the work that Council has done not only with fast-tracking the grant uh workshops and the uh Grant considerations and Grant awards that we did during the brief period of time that we had but also we received the memo from staff outlining for us again what you had said in past uh Council meetings as to what you want us to address on October 25th and between that time and here we've already had a public hearing discussed that we've had another council meeting where we met with staff and outline the program and we will be bringing back suggested changes to you in January so Mr Chester this is not one issue that they have kicked the can down the road they in fact have grabbed the can and are running with it so thank you George papis followed by John Nichols good evening George papis I'm the chairman of the cultural Council and um I'm first of all ditto to everybody that has been talking about how great the Arts are but I just want to be here just to say thank you counil from Santiago is not here for getting me out of my box I was a little skeptical when I went in try to do some changes I thought we were doing great and I think still think we were we were doing great but I like the changes that we've implemented and I think you will too I think you will find that when When Brad here you know when they put all together and we come back in January you'll be happy with it because I think it's funny Tim and Brad looked at each other when I went you know Brad I think you you having me come around to you and I went you know you're right I like the idea idea of um the council being able to see the projects that are happening you know I don't think you were seeing the projects and I'm not blaming you I don't think we were communicating but now with the the the grant writing the way it's going to be you'll see what's happening you'll see how wonderful it is and I I want to have the opportunity for the council for the for this Council the County Council to see um what the Arts organizations in this community are doing as Council Johansson where are you right there yeah there you go I was used to seeing you from over there said it's a win-win situation you got these you got these uh the trails walking trails and the beautiful nature that's that enhances the taxpayers quality of life that's something government does have a responsibility for the Arts enhances our quality of life Plato said that Two the government has two functions education and health and I think the Arts and Echo trails and things like that enhance our health and our education so thank you very much for making this old guy kind of Bloom out a little bit thank you very much John Nicholson John Nicholson Daytona Beach side um this topic um came up before uh with your background and talking about saving I'm sure it'll come up again uh but I think you're missing the point uh as you know I taught for 20 years uh history math um science you name it but what got me was when I was teaching math I decided that my students by the end of the year need to be able to spell every word in the lery in the back of the book they had to Define every term in the back of the book because what's the use of having math if you don't know what you're talking about so if somebody presents you with a problem later on in life you've got to know what they're talking about what do they mean by Arc what do they mean by quadrangle you had to know more than just the numbers likewise it's the same thing with uh the Arts anybody in music did generally very much um or had an advantage over those that did not have art or music because it was a crossover there are a lot of things that you learn in one area that goes in the other the same thing with sports how many coaches tell you what the they learn on the field what the teamwork means to those young men in their relationship with teacher their wife in the future their children there's crossover and that's what I think you're not seeing the Arts are crossover to the quality of life and we absolutely need them thank you thank you Linda Culver Dorian pardon me she had to leave Patty party Sam Sam uh with the Museum of Arts and Sciences say it again it's du I just got married recently so I'm getting used to saying it well congratulations thank you so much so it's new to me too um hi I'm Sammy with the Museum of Arts and Sciences I'm the manager of development over there um and I'm coming to you both as the manager of development and our grant Rider and also as a citizen of valua I'll be completely honest I went to college here and planned to get up and move to visit my brother in Chicago and stay there and I stayed because I fell in love with the cultural programs here in Valia County I wasn't expecting a little town in Florida I'm from Colorado and I was not expecting a little tiny town in Florida to have everything I'd ever wanted including Sumer of the greatest museums I've ever had the chance to visit from Mo's standpoint this grant allows us to do some really amazing things for the community and something we feel really strongly about and that main thing is first free Tuesday every first Tuesday of the month the Museum of Arts and Sciences opens up its doors for the entire County to visit free of charge this includes a story time with the library along with other programs that we're really excited to provide and these sort of things things are really difficult to get sponsors for we are incredibly lucky to have some really wonderful names who are not interested in sponsoring programs like this they're interested in building brand new buildings which you might have seen and endowing things like planetariums and doing these really big exciting things they didn't really want to sponsor a free day and so our hope that with this Grant and keeping this grant the museum will have the chance to continue really wonderful programs like first free Tuesday museums for all blue star veterans which lets veterans and their families in for free uh the museum regularly sees over 12,000 people at no cost every year um and this is about a $500,000 loss on the museum and so this grant really allows us to bring these really amazing programs to the community thank you Sammy I just some words of advice before you go and then we have our last speaker that you really need to learn to kind of come out of your shell and express yourself a little bit you know I've heard that my whole life thank you thank you Eileen is Eileen still here yes hi I'm Eileen Simo I'm the education officer at the commemorative Air Force Florida Wing here at kded the Delan municipal airport and when a child comes from a family that is not a legacy Airline family they go to an airport and they see a barbed wire fence they don't know a path to a career in in aviation and we provide that through our stem programming we all know that flying is a little bit of science engineering technology math and a whole lot of art combined to make the magic of flying we open our hanger door to Youth of all ages all and they come in from Roc groups they come in from church groups School groups and scouting Aviation explorers youth come and we provide Hands-On learning engineering challenges and they get to sit in the flight deck of a t35 trainer and envision a career in the future in the skies we can't put a price on inspiration we thanks to your Grant and your generosity are able to inspire the next generation of aviators thank you where the commemorative Air Force at the Dand municipal airport the Florida Wing kded is the Pilot Talk for Delan municipal airport thank you thank you oh please would you like to come for a tour the cultural Grant committee had their meeting there a year and a half ago we would love to open our hanger door to you as well as the youth okay thank you okay that's the end of the uh public comments so we'll see if if you uh talked yourself out of it or into it um is there any other comments uh Jake Johansson so I'm I'm I recommend we double Julia's because she chose not to speak and half everybody else's no actually I do have uh I heard a lot about educated youth right there's a lot about educating youth I I didn't see if there's any funds that that the school board provides is that is that I'm seeing a bunch of head shaking a lot of Education not a bunch of so no education dollars um that I'm aware of for these organizations and no Schoolboard requests as part of the requests that's before you today got it so that might be a place to everybody said if you know a donor I don't know if I know them but but you can you can go get it worked for us 30 years ago you got the Door Keep chipping away you can bring Mr Chester with you um so as far as I'm concerned this is you know this is just the right balance between uh funding cult programs and making sure our taxpayer money is spent uh responsibly um some would say we've we've bandied the word mandate about a lot tonight but some would say by our our our citizens approving echo of which I think the C is culture right Brad C is culture uh that by approving Echo uh our public wants stuff like this and and we get two or three emails a day about core respons responsibilities at least that's what it seems like two or three a day and and I think our core responsibility is responding to our public and so I'm not against funding Cultural Arts and and I know that's a big issue for the cultural arts Community every year since at least the two years I've been here so um uh the the thing that we just had have to concentrate on up here is are we using the taxpayers money effectively and efficiently are we giving it to the right people for the right reasons and I think the cultural council's coming up with some plans uh to make me feel more comfortable my original thought is is to to wean people off the government's dollar so I encourage all of you and and I I noticed what your ask was compared to what your got was this year um but but know that we will always look to pour down that $611,000 and I know it hasn't been changed since 2012 but it may change next year to something less than $611,000 so prepare yourself for that I think there's there's a lot of programs that we're looking at that that you'll hear the term sundown a lot during the budget season here in the next few months uh and this may be one of them that that sees a little bit of that so prepare now uh I'm here to help I've talked to some of you I've talked to many of you uh and and I'm willing to shake the tree uh for you on your your behalf um I walk in some of your doors often um uh you all know my wife has the checkbook so just hit her up for the funds and um um we'll we'll put on but uh um thank you for everything you do and I look forward to a uh uh a good January um meeting to find out what the uh what the recommendations are for next year thank you Jake I think you just talked me out of it sorry no more coffee for Jake no more coffee oh you got the okay Vice chair Troy Kent chairman thank you um a few comments for tonight I'll just start with the Kent family we we enjoy the Arts and the three that we we utilize um are M moas um yeah I'm going to come back to your comments in in just a moment um the Athens theater and Dayton house and I just call those out because those are the three that we tend to go to events and and enjoy our time and um you know buy some tolers while we're there and put a little money in the dination box and enjoy the the local artists and talent and uh it's it's always been en enjoyable for us and I said I was going come back to your comments and I'll just say thank you for sharing so I hope those that were listening tonight online and the few that are still here um picked up on the free Tuesday at M moas and I think that's wonderful that the museum has a free day for any and all um that's powerful that's imp full that that means something uh is [Music] um is Athens theater Sans theater are they here okay uh good call not sending the same person you sent last year yeah wildly inappropriate to get up here and I think blast this man and blast this man about publicly about I don't see your names coming and and and attending our events you know and I was just sitting there going gosh you know I mean that that could have been me if I didn't purchase the tickets in my name to go see misery with my my family and the Christmas story with my family so good call because if if I was more on my game last year I would denied your funding because of that inappropriateness of calling someone out this isn't against you I'm just saying it wasn't okay I didn't like and they don't need they're big guys they don't need me to defend them but it bothered me last year that that rubbed me in a way that I thought that's that's not how you you do business and then I and I learned that I think at that meeting because I never met Don Dempsey my life until we got sworn in together but Don owned a comedy club you talk about art yeah you know right here and and and was losing money year after I say year after year I mean it's what you said every year and um that's not real art is it it's real art it's just a different it's just a different kind kind of art um and I I probably should have asked this question earlier before all of you got up and spoke and I'll Segway just for a minute Mr Chester I've said it multiple times you and I never met before I I got sworn in here I I appreciate your comments I think they're valid and it makes me excuse me it makes me stop and think about our core responsibilities and do we take this $ 6,758 and put it towards our flooding concerns like you know it's a heavy thing to weigh here and your your emails even know apprec I I don't agree with your style I've said that now twice which is ineffective as a speaker repeating yourself but I appreciate the way you always make me think in in those emails so then you know I I go to Mr Joe Hanson's comments which I don't know that he exactly said this but it made me think it is you know it's how you value a a community and a society is by what you offer that community and society and and part of that are the Arts and how refined are you um you know when I started on the city Commission in orand anytime we built a public building we had funding set aside for art in public places to have some type of sculpture to go along with that new building and it it it adds a different level of happiness I think for people to see things like that so the value is there there's no doubt in my mind um that it's there but now back to what I should have said before you all started talking was um George how long has has this been going on her 30 years so you know how long's this been going on and then I I would just say like what's your plan is your plan for the taxpayers to always subsidize you and if so just say yeah that's my plan my plan is every year to come in here and you guys give us like a I'll on ath Ceder $ 58,183 that's my plan every year I want you to give that to me I don't care about our endowment or how much money we're bringing in that's my I'm going to come in and get that taxpayer money and I just wanted to know like is there a plan to get off of the public funds and then Council this is this is not meant negatively against any of you I just I think about myself with this it's sort of and I'm we're all taxpayers we all live in BL County we pay taxes but I it's feel like it's easier to just give away the money when it's not yours like this isn't coming out of our checking account you know so I I I feel like that's something Weighing on my mind as well is it's it's it's easier to just say yeah absolutely $611,000 and at the same time kind of get brow beat a little bit about it because you haven't increased the prices since 2014 and you know with inflation it really should be a lot more so this is a bargain you should just do it for us so now that I've taken you on an artistic Journey from one side of the spectrum to the other you have no idea where I'm going to vote on this and neither do I but I'm getting there thank you chairman councilman Dempsey yeah um Dr bbau I was just curious or somebody from the cultural Council are we getting the p&l statements from these nonprofits before we approve or recommend these requests we're getting operating cost which is the the basis of the formula that we use for their maximum allowable are we getting their revenue statements as well no sir all right yes you are okay okay okay yes we [Laughter] are you you all did okay could I could I ask maybe somebody from the Athens is there anybody here from the Athens that or this yes sir okay um I was just looking at uh this website propublica it's basically talking about the pnls for nonprofit organizations and maybe you could confirm the accuracy this um what was your Revenue in 2023 I did not write the grant um and now I only volunteer my time with the Athens and so I can't I can't speak to that specifically but I'm happy to get the answer and send you an email okay this actually this is cause IQ I'm looking at this website and they're they're reporting that you guys brought in 2162 million in Revenue in 23 that sounds that sounds likely okay um there is a for-profit um portion so when we have visiting bands and things that come those those are identities that we have to pay taxes or you know activities that we have to pay taxes on however the you know the main season when you come see a player a musical that's produced by the 501c3 nonprofit okay awesome now unfortunately due to covid you were limited to 1 million in Revenue in 20 21 it went up to maybe 14 22 13 but fortunately 23 postco your revenues went back up over 2 million sure thank god um and your expenses were under 2 million 1.9 that yielded you guys about a $250,000 net profit in 2023 right so we've done some pretty major upgrades to the facility which is great yes sir and this website boasts about a wonderful job you've done and I share the public comments about what a wonderful asset the Athens is to the community I've uh thought about I used to bring in National comics when I had my comedy club we had Louis Anderson there Michael Winslow I had and I had thought about even getting bigger names and renting that facility because it's beautiful the renovations they did was astounding 430 some is your capacity with the the oldfashioned balcony 431 13 okay 431 431 yes sir yep great venue and I noticed that over the last few years you've had tribute bands you've had 23 had 170 performances and conducted 1,831 educational events 224 classes private lessons I mean you guys are a huge benefit PR awesome downtown and I am a downtown property owner so you add an immense value to my properties and thank you very very much for what you guys do but getting back to the how long do we should the taxpayers be expected Mr Chester sitting right here how long should he be expected to pay taxes to add to the $250 million $250,000 profit sure you know that that's what that's what I my debate mentally yep um so I I thank you I don't know do we have somebody here from um The Hub the hub's here yes okay may I ask you a question sir and I'm sorry I don't mean to put you guys on the spot I just this is stuff that I found and and I I really they're showing last year I don't know if you want to identify I'm sorry and I apologize I've never been to your facility I've heard wonderful things about it but um they're showing that you guys had a net income last year of 2.2 million now okay I I I figured that okay because yes did you got sell an asset or something did you no I think would probably impacted the numbers you're looking at is that um my wife who started and funded and built Jane's Art Center um which is a companion organization around the corner she donated 100% of the assets to the hub and that got counted as a a donation and more than likely that's fig figured into that figure that you see on an ongoing basis um it's been a couple three years since we had a positive net income figure yes sir according to this website it's showing that you guys had a 58,000 net income in 21 83,000 net income in 22 and then obviously the $2.2 million year 23 was actually a loss other than that okay um and I guess the question is do you have a plan to get off of the yearly requests for support the pl I mean the plan would like for probably every single one of us the plan would have to be to find more people to attend to find more people to donate to find more people to sponsor and all of those kinds of things and those are very challenging tasks and this has been a difficult year election year uncertainty Rising Insurance costs RIS Rising everything we had to drop our flood and wind coverage because it was too expensive for us to to renew would have cost us $37,000 between those two things and we couldn't afford to do those so we're keeping our fingers crossed thank God the hurricane season is mostly over uh at least for this year we'll see what next year brings but it is a significant challenge um you know and to the point somebody else made one of the strategies would always have to be to either stop doing some of what we're doing or to charge more for the things that we do and for every single one of us just like the free first Tuesday at at moaz the idea is here for all of us to expose as many people to the Arts as possible so I'll reiterate what I said the first time when I was up here and that is in some significant way the Arts are a public good to luia County citizenry and in some measure that means I believe and I only speak for me but I suspect I speak for most that that means that it is not inappropriate for some ongoing level of support for all of us to keep the Arts available and inexpensive and accessible to as many people as possible yes sir and okay than just to know where I'm coming from like Mr Ken said I used to own a comedy club here for six years I thought it would help the downtown I lost money every year fortunately I was able to subsid subsidize it through my law practice and I just would continue to lose money because I wanted to benefit the community I share the appreciation for the art I consider stand-up comedy and artman but I want to make a point of order all right I'll we I think we're out of out of our structured policy on how debate because we're in debate now and not questioning back and forth of members of the public I love you Don I got I got a r a into our rules I I'll do that okay he was asking questions we're in debate we're in debate and we don't go back andth with members of the public that's our rules okay I will uh just ask if there's the Atlantic Center for the Arts last one but is there anybody for that oh you're here for that okay Miss coolage um it says here you guys lost 720,000 last year was and is that accurate okay do you do you know why that was or okay what I can say is okay I'm sorry what I what I can say is that we offered a um a freebased Residency program to to be competitive with other residencies with law law um with big endowments uh nationally and so um the leadership at that time um decided to make that decision and expected certain grants to come in that were national grants that did not come in and so they elected to um take their um some of the um unrestricted endowment funds to plug that hole so we didn't go into to the Red Bread it's just we we took our investment money to fill that void I wasn't here at the time but that's what I understand um was done and that's why we're doing a new business model to eliminate the fee based Residency program uh and we'll be in artists to come and pay for room and board and then work with the artists with us that makes any sense thank you yeah okay just to make try to make a point David is basically I don't know a lot of these seem to be like consistently the same request every year whether they have an upe of 300,000 or whether they're down 700,000 nobody's debating I'm not debating that they're not worth our community's time and money because they do benefit so much but it's it's just I'm hoping that the council maybe next year might look more into the p&l statements attach those to the the requests so that we can have some idea are these guys getting close are they at the point where they're self-sufficient and we should really not be granting them money as opposed to the ones that may be hurting down a couple hundred thousand and maybe they are definitely worthy of taxpayer support that's all so I'm not trying to poo poo their requests I'm just saying I'd like Council to maybe look into I think we're moving more and that's what the change for Don council member Dy is the you know we're moving towards that with the Project based it's going to be more of a merit-based system you better come with a good idea because there's going to be competition it's not going to be a division of the money to everyone who applies okay thank you for your time and patience guys especially Dave I think it's worthwhile um you can you can see the the struggle up here the the council's trying to um to do the right thing with you you s you've sat here as long as we have today and um most of it was about flooding where's the money going to come from from flooding um money is always a struggle all of you have said um well actually The Hub said the trend is slightly going up up of of people uh donating but for a long time it's been down dollars donated have gone up the share of the population has fallen right and my point was going to be that there's a reason for that and one of them is because we take governments in general from Washington DC to the city level take so much money um out of the economy people don't have money to give and so we're trying to be very careful about um how how we spend other people's money and um if as Mr Mr Chester is a resident bad guy tonight and he's I I appreciate the fact that he will speak up and sound the alarm that is it government's responsibility to be generous with other people's money um so I'm much to Mr Chester's dismay I'm going to support this if I get two things um right now and I'll have to ask George if this is possible and he's not here there he is um I was going to ask Michael but it's you know I'll ask George and he can handle it with with Michael Ryan is it uh in order to help help everybody uh in increase their income and wean off uh government money can we highlight maybe each month or a couple times a month one of these organizations on our social media page and maybe you could do an interview with with somebody or let's help them promote the Arts and what they do is that a is that a possibility Mr yeah we can do that we already do something similar with EO so right okay um half of it is there the other half of this is harder could uh George with your permission I'd like to have a conversation I guess with Dr uh bbau about how do we move um to funding the Arts with the tourist development tax well let actually uh something we need to talk about a little bit that wouldn't be Dr bbau myself and I think our CFO uh would be where we'd want to talk because right now the most of that is being used of all it's being used at the ocean center right we could take a look uh at what uh um there's they are meaning I think most of their uh needs for U upgrades and maintenance so if if that's the case we may be able to do something out of the TDC okay so we can we can have that just say yes the answer with answer discussion yeah just but I would prefer it would be with myself and uh and the CFO okay all right and then we will in include you at some point whoever you want to app Point um I'll be glad to talk to you about it I mean that seems to be a TR and some other uh counties communities um and it it might be very beneficial for you but so okay um any other questions then um chissa would you please call the role Mr Kent yes Mr Robbins yes Mr Santiago yes Mr dimsey yes Mr Johansson yes Mr Brower um yes okay do you need some money okay um item 12 is a selection of the firm for federal lobbyist that we're going to clear the the room now how do you how do you want is this a secret ballot for me too okay this shouldn't take long I did watch the uh all of the presentations um do I need to give it to David to approve okay thank you Mr chair pami purchasing and contracts um back on October 15th um we brought forward to the council um two firms for the federal lobbyist Becker and the porter group um the chair was absent that day and when we completed that vote there was a tie so as you said you have reviewed the presentations you also reviewed the packets and you have now presented me with your selections I'm going to quickly add that to what I currently have and then I will read the results if that's acceptable do you need Russ Brown to help you no no sir Pam's cable of rating on her own okay so is that oh that's number one so the other one's number two all right so now we have the results um the lowest score is going to be your winner um we have Becker with 11 and Porter group with 10 um I will read the individual vote into the record um starting with Mr Brower um Becker and poov 2 Porter group one Mr Johansson um Becker and poov one Porter group two Mr Dempsey Becker and poov 2 Porter group one Mr Reinhardt Becker one Porter group two Mr Robbins Becker two Porter group one and Mr Santiago oh I'm sorry Mr Kent I skipped I'm good tired Mr Kent um Becker two Porter group one and then Mr Santiago Becker one and Porter group to so what I now need is a motion um to bring um for a recommendation of award to negotiate a contract with Porter group to bring back to you um for approval somebody want to make that motion that motion to approve the porter group group yes and uh motion is made by Don Dempsey is there a second second by uh councilman Robbins uh Jake Johansson refresh my memory when this you're going to bring this contract back when when does it start January this one will immediately um this one the current one and ends December so yes it will begin in December then is that right yeah it'll begin in December because the current one ends I believe November 30th um and so this one we'll we'll bring it back on the 15th so it'll pick up Midway through um December got okay I'd like to ask a question to the the county manager I do we have any ongoing projects that are going to be affected by a change potentially yeah we have our Army Core project that we've been working on so which is trying to get the funding I know they worked hard uh we're trying to take like a three-prong approach I believe to get funded um for that uh study that's required to get any kind of um further work done for the beach okay I I um I have a little concern about that Gap I have a lot of concern about that Gap after my conversations with the uh Army Corps and uh uh and the way things are going and the movement of the people that were running this project for us at the federal level so I I'll I'll share that with you as a uh as a comment and and I I don't know if this is a suggestion but I'd like to chat about maybe can we have two for a period of time on contract I don't know Council can have as many as they like we could make that if you want to make that motion that they complete that project I would I would like to make the motion that that beer complete any project that they're working bever with right now that that will impact our flooding storm water Coastal resilience or anything that they County Manager deems appropriate for a period of time uh um of probably 90 days home 20 days that might be too short yeah I mean I'll have to talk to the firm and see what uh what we can negotiate as far as the price but I would imagine it would come within my authority yeah I think that's pretty important so I'd like to make that motion and keep them along for for these projects Hey Hey sir so you got a motion on floor so you can make that a condition of the original motion if the maker of the original motion wants to amend it to do that or take a vote on the first motion or whatever you want to do I go ahead County attorney no that's fine I was just going to suggest have it be a separate motion but okay I'll make a separate motion I think we do it a separate I'm I'm amenable to that let's vote on this and then I'll make a separate motion afterwards okay all right all in in favor of the motion for the uh Porter group um actually David Santiago did you have a comment I'll do it afterward about that um all in favor say I I I any opposed okay um second motion by Jake Johansson was to continue with the Becker maintain Becker for the our our pening federal projects um uh to to complete ition of Successful Failure uh with the budget especially the Army Corps until we can get it's it's a right now is a very tenuous time and I don't want to lose momentum with Becker um probably 120 days maximum would would do to get the turn over and get the right people to the right place and S up hopefully we'll get a new Congressman by then and and be able to re-engage and uh and move forward so uh motion to retain Becker for 120 days for federal programs do you want to put a day limit on it or just until they're complete what complete takes four years will it take four years I can come back as it as we if we think it's close and we want to continue I'll just come back do a renewal yeah yeah let's do 120 days first is there a second to that councilman Robbins makes a second to councilman Johansson's um motion I think that's a great motion um this is probably not the time to switch horses on that very important Beach project um so questions all in favor say I I any opposed okay Becker group gets a 12 day continuation and that starts today Wednesday right not not [Laughter] Tuesday John Porter I want to say thank you for your confidence in us work we do starting right away thank you we need money Mr uh Johansson and Pam if I just confirm when is the existing contract with Becker expire November 30th I think supp okay so 120 days from that okay all right thank you item 13 yes are you here contract with Wharton smth uh good morning since it's after midnight um for you today is a contract a Construction contract with Wharton Smith for our Southwest Regional wastewater treatment facility um council's already approved part A and Part B for roughly uh $25 million this is part B phase two uh which will uh finalize the construction price so the guaranteed maximum price uh for this project where we're constructing uh and expanding uh the wastewater treatment facility down in DeBerry from 2.7 to 4.5 million gallons per day we're also increasing our reclaim water storage and we're upgrading our electrical facilities um the total project cost for this will be 62 million in change um it provides capacity for the uh anticipated uh septic to sewer conversions as part of the Gemini Springs uh re remediation uh projects and it'll increase our alternative water sources um the multiple funding partners with with this grants from the d The Water Management District as well as the utility uh fund um and and arpa but um this project did come in about $6.3 million less than the anticipated budget but that money will be applied to the next project provided you approve this one so if I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have okay uh councilman Santiago move to appr proof Second Joe Hanson to approve by councilman Santiago the second by councilman Johanson how uh how much of you got quite a bit of money from D 31 yes sir $40 million for this project all of this 41 $40 million 840 Milli 800,000 from DP and 1.7 from the Water Management District who who applied for that Grant Mike O he is the man when it comes to getting money for our utility projects and he's still awake yes yeah all right uh Jake Johansson a quick question Ben um what's the capacity of the reclaimed uh is it a lake uh no sir it's actually a tank storage tank storage yeah we have we have 4.5 million gallons that we're upgraded 9.5 million and really that helps us because because during our dry dry times when people are maximizing their reclaim usage they'll have more to go out and then during wet weather times when they're not using as much we have storage available as well all right all right I'm as you well know orange guy I'm a big lake fan and I'm I'm always looking for a place to put storm water now so doesn't sound like this is a good place for for storm water though all right thanks okay any other discussion all in favor of the motion to approve the contract with Wharton Smith say I I any opposed and that carries unanimous 6 to zero which brings us to item 14 the uh contract with PC construction company for the Southeast Regional Water Reclamation facility staying with the wastewater treatment uh plant uh theme this is our facility over in oakill um same uh type of project we are uh increasing the capacity we're doubling it from 600,000 to 1.2 million gallons uh one uh difference between Southwest Regional and Southeast is that we're also upgrading this facility to Advanced wastewater treatment which is a greater removal of nutrients which also helps uh the mosquito Lagoon and helps our load loading uh requirements that we have for reducing the amount of nutrients going into the mosquito Lagoon um we've council's already approved approve the pre-construction services this is for Part B of the guaranteed maximum construction price of $31.5 million total contract price is $32 million and as mentioned before this also is receiving a significant amount of money from the DP uh as well as arpa but we are moving a portion of the arpa arpa Savings in the last project to this one to cover the The increased cost associated with this one happy to answer any questions is there a motion m approve second motion to approve uh by Santiago second by Jake Johansson was it was that Jake or D yeah it was okay doesn't matter questions debate all in favor say I I any oppos motion carries six to zero and that takes us to uh Ryan osowski for the last two budget resolutions since we're all bright and awake good good evening morning Council uh this year end budget reconciliation is something we do every year by State Statute we have up to 60 days to amend the budget um almost all of these um and materially all of these are related to in fund transfers reimbursements from One Fund to another um there are some instances like I think there maybe one or two instances where there was a a fund budget that needed to be appropriated but other than that these are all just moving money in between funds Council approval is necessary anytime we move money between funds even if the purpose is clear and obvious like reimbursing our funds from Hurricane expenditures or reimbursing from the federal PFC projects to the airport funds uh the agenda item has a list of all the different transfers if you have any questions I'll I can address that specific one but in in uh response to the time I will end here and look for any questions okay councilman Santiago move to approve the resolution second Johansson motion to approve by David Santiago second by Jake Johansson questions for Mr osowski debate all in favor say I any opposed okay one more and almost the same theme but just a separate item on the coronav virus local fiscal Recovery Fund uh Ben actually talked about the two biggest numbers on this spreadsheet reallocating between the two Wastewater projects we also have some other reallocations that need to be done this money has to be fully uh encumbered which all the actions that council's taken today has actually gotten us to that point um appending um by approving those projects we really need to approve this one as well to get the funding in line uh the b19 canal was approved at a previous meeting that came in under poer Pond came in over there are various other items that I've listed out in that item with with explanations but again in the interest of time I will leave it at what I put in the summary unless you have any questions David Santiago move to approved resolution second johe Hanson motion to approve uh by councilman Santiago second once again from councilman Johansson questions all in favor say I I any opposed and that motion carries 6 to Zer thank you very much you is there any public participation fell asleep fell out his note on that one John nson to beach side with regard to funding for your um um flooding uh if we had passed the half penny sales tax we'd be approaching $300 million at this point which would be a great help in uh solving a lot of the uh flooding problems so I'm asking you again at this point to consider putting a half penny sales tax or a penny sales tax on the next um vote because if you ever going to get it with the amount of people that are here and the um anger and the animosity uh about the uh flooding they will pass the half penny sales tax to solve this because especially downtown Daytona Beach cannot go anywhere without solving its flooding it's stuck where it's at so I'm asking you to think about it I know you don't you're Republicans you don't want to increase sales taxes but 38% of this is coming from our tourist all right and all of us I I it doesn't affect me at all I'm 40 feet high but all of the residents in all of the areas in every city is affected by this flooding so I'm asking you to again think about half penny sales tax thank you thank you brings us to uh closing comments uh County Manager yes sir uh I just have one thing to cover uh you know there's quite a bit of distance between uh the last meeting and this meeting and uh during that period of time uh we of course uh started our debris removal uh operation uh I think I originally had reported that there was some issues with getting equipment uh and and resources given what was happening uh all the way to North Carolina and down through the West Coast so uh during that period of time uh using my authority uh under the emergency declaration uh I had to approve the uh request of our contractor Crowder golf for unusual cost increases that uh were occurring um just a few facts to uh look in there of course there was uh the contract was uh preco 2020 four years old so of course they uh wanted to uh invoke the employer cost index uh both gasoline and Diesel and they also uh uh uh were reacting to the emergency order that was put down from the governor for 24hour operations which was not in our contract uh and of course the uh even getting being able to get those resources I am happy to report that uh uh with the uh proposed changes uh they were able to get uh nearly 35 units bought in here which uh um is what we've been dealing with we've now picked up 225,000 cubic yards and we're actually finishing our first pass uh would be done by Thanksgiving uh the key thing here to remember is that uh we have 100% um reimbursement by the federal government if we can get all of it picked up by January so uh we're on Pace to do that uh we'll have the second pass which will go on between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I think with the resources that we're able to attain we will get the uh 100% uh reimbursement uh I just uh handed out where where we were uh the new proposed rate is running between $ 122 and $13 a cubic yard uh just to put that in perspective uh one of the issues basically is on the west coast pelis County uh which was the hardest hit over there you know they're running at about 15 Dollar a cubic yard when it comes to CND D the stuff from flooding it's a $27 a cubic yard and you'll notice we were able to negotiate like I say just uh under 13 and for the CND D we're at 1445 so significantly less than what's going on over there I just also see that the St John's County uh contract is uh was redone at 4 $14.98 so again we're below that and they also had at 27 so uh I'm happy with what we were able to negotiate and I just needed to because it was done under the emergency uh Powers uh my duty is to report to you at the next meeting and that's what I'm doing and that's all I have okay County attorney does anybody have any questions on that okay County attorney Mr Dempsey did you have a question I I know I'm just kidding with you uh I just had two ordinances I would like to bring back to you uh and advertise for adoption one I emailed you before there's some uh federal court litigation that uh I would like to make a minor change to our meeting rules ordinance and bring that back to you and I can elaborate during that agenda item uh if there's if it's acceptable to council if I don't have an due to lateness in the hour I don't need a motion but unless there's an objection I'll do that and the second is um I know there was a lot of discussion about the new public camping uh homeless uh related ordinance that the legislature adopted and we've been uh talking to other local governments and monitoring what they're doing at this time I'd like to bring back an ordinance that basically would incorporate state law some other counties are beginning or have done that um I I see some of the benefit on it and I can address that during the agenda item as well so I can bring that forward unless there's an objection to you it would not be changing what's in state law it would basically be incorporating it into our code for enforcement purposes so um there were two comments made earlier in the meeting I just thought I would touch upon one uh the uh the issue of Civil Rights was raised and County Action in that regard chapter 36 of our code currently is on civil rights and it's rather elaborate so I just po that out to anyone might be interested uh that was adopted in 2011 uh a number of other local governments had done the same and Valia did as well and also I think there was a question by another member of the public on our contracts and uh requiring certain level of wages for the employees for vendors um that was a subject of a state law that passed this past session this year and actually prohibits now local governments from controlling uh wage and benefits by contract so we would be prohibited from doing that and that is it thank you thank you and then from council members uh this week we start with Vice chair Tor Kent thank you chairman um I'm going to start off with uh and these are very brief items but I I promised um councilman Robbins and councilman Dempsey because you could not bring it up but I'll make a motion at this time um for us to be able to talk about the additional $32 million we heard they can only have 20 million at a time but we can figure that out later on but a motion to bring up those transform $386 in the tune of 32 million for us to discuss um I would say within the next two meetings that we have is that okay George yeah January would be perfect let us y great perfect questions all in favor say I I any opposed okay okay the uh the next thing I I just want to say is uh you know we had a we had a a not to bring this meeting down we had a very sad horrific event in District 4 a couple days ago we lost a four-year-old named wh and child's um in Orman Beach and you know my wife was keeping me updated through social media about the number of people that were searching for this you young young young guy and out there trying to help his family and um you know I just say that um the entire Kent family are our our prayers and thoughts go out to whan and and his family just just horrible um last but not least Don I am so happy to hear that you're having a town hall I think that's fantastic um the people were jazzed up about it here and uh I can just tell you that um our team will get the word out and and hopefully it's it's wildly successful and with that I'll say January 13th is the next District dialogue uh in in District 4 with councilman Kent it's going to be at um B Centennial Park we're backed by Centennial Park and we talk about anything that you all want to talk about the time for that is 5 to 6: PM have a nice evening everybody oh oh happy Happy Thanksgiving yes uh councilman Robbins well it was also uh Troy it was also uh Jake's birthday the other day and Matt and Matt's same day and chairman be a chairman was it your birthday as well it was my birthday and we don't talk about age I don't I don't want to talk about him but I don't really want to miss one either um good point councilman Robbins good point yeah happy birthday to those guys so um I had Miss Debbie darino reach out to me a couple meetings ago um she asked me to bring a topic up to get uh placed on the agenda uh upcoming agenda it has to do with um uh animal abuse that has no expiration date I guess in our database I told her I would uh put it in front of the board and um just to give her an opportunity to come in and talk about it and see if it's something we would like to adopt she knows more about this uh than I do um that's all I can elaborate Carissa I I sent you um the email maybe we can just put that into the record and uh Miss Laura Roth also I think sent an attachment on there I couldn't open it for whatever reason but um if uh chair and County manager if we can somehow get that on there have Mr Rino come in and uh just talk to us a little bit about it and see if it's something obviously we want to do I I guess it's a widely uh accepted practice um one one thing I I know you have a motion on the floor to get approval but um I think it was Mr Reinhardt had brought this up earlier in this in the year requesting some information and a memo went out to you on that subject so if you Council does approve it we can attach that as well just for background okay motion to bring it back yeah go ahead and make a motion make a motion uh to get Miss dinino on the agenda to uh come in and give us a presentation on this um um animal abuse um legislation or an update that she wants to give us okay is there a second Mr Robins motion second uh by councilman Santiago questions all in favor say I all right any opposed and moving on um this is maybe for the definitely for the board but uh for the county manager I had a couple people uh reach out to me for several different things a lot of them are flood victims what kind of leeway do we have and Ryan's probably not going to like this uh to is there uh do we have powers to defer tax like if home if home is destroyed can we adjust people's taxes or residents taxes if or provide any kind of relief or pro-rated if if they're uh displaced um and it was it was briefly brought up earlier today but does the state have a program or is that something that's in our our purview to to offer folks or at least look at the state did something in one of our last storms if they were displaced for a certain amount of time then they were Exempted from the property taxes um but I don't know if that was a Governor's action or legislature I can't recall I don't know if we have the power I'm just wanted to share that Council would it be okay now you made him man there there are States statutes that cover uh disaster damage uh and and revaluing properties it goes through the Property Appraiser's office uh and then there's actually a reimbursement program where we can get some money back from the state as well but it's not something where we can change our millage rate that we levy on a property by property basis that has to go through the property praisers off is there any way we can get that information out to the public on at at our level um we'll get we'll get with the property praiser and get you some information maybe and maybe have like at the workshop you know have that information available at the workshop that hey you know we'll we'll help them get through this process because it it kind of makes sense you know and we all want to help uh however we can and and I understand it whatever we can do um but thank you Ryan uh another uh thing that was brought up I briefly Ben uh got with Ben uh earlier people have asked about some of the material that we have um at some of our our County facilities and it's a slippery slope and and Ben kind of reiterated that and um I know in the past I drove past the 44 Depot and there's just mountains of of millings uh and other material and and what I was wondering just so I can do my uh part because it was asked asked of me can we provide any relief since it's really taxpayer owned material if it's material that we're not using uh or that's been stockpiled is this something that we can offer our citizens and give back uh to offer them relief you know washed out driveways or um I don't know is that would this be something that would be even remotely possible uh I'm just trying to figure out what I tell or what I can tell um my constituents a couple we've done similar where we've put it on um um the the main ACC access roads uh preferably you know County uh public dedicated to the public maybe not necessarily County maintained um we probably have put some on private roads that serve like a neighborhood right uh I don't know about going down somebody's driveway per se but we've done it under the you know kind of the emergency access for safety vehicles uh umbrella and it's not necessarily m it maybe whatever material that we can use to get somebody in and out well and I and I get it but um it was more of you know can we offer a service if if we do have any excess material that we're not using you know so um just just a thought I'm trying to shake all the bushes here um uh to to get uh get the anybody some some relief um [Applause] do we want to talk about a cut off for meetings I'm down with nighttime meetings but sometimes nothing good comes after certain times like 10 11 um and and and especially what we deal with we've spent millions and millions of dollars today and sometimes a lot of us been up since 0400 um so yeah go ahead you you've made me pleased to hear you say you're down with nighttime meetings and if you're with nighttime meetings then I'm down with putting a time limit on the nighttime meetings and uh I'm available to hear what you all think but um I think a hard stop time of either 10: or 10:30 I think is very appropriate and uh I just think to you know uh not just for us but a lot of the folks and the allow people to plan a little bit more but also too thinking about the performance uh in respect of of um employees as well for the next day they're just like us they're just like everybody else they're not worth a damn excuse my language uh and and we're not going to be getting much important you but and Mr Robins if you don't mind um I think I think 10 p.m is actually a good number because it gives us six hours and I give George a pass on this one because we canceled a meeting you get a pass on this one but when I looked at this agenda I I thought it'd be out by 1030 pretty far off on that one but Jake you lost at 12:30 also so you're closer than me though so yeah that's something I I would be I would be happy to do jar can I make a motion for that now or do you want to put it on a future agenda I mean this is something for for us it's going to benefit I think everybody what are your thoughts you can I would make it in a motion um I think what we've decided in the past that we we would send it to staff and bring it back to a meeting and instead of making a decision the same night okay um so the motion is to end the nighttime meetings at 10 p.m. 10 yeah 10 p.m. second okay all those in favor um okay does that mean we eliminate uh Council comments too if we don't get there right yes okay cut them right off hard cut 10 p.m. okay I I will debate all the way till 9:59 and then we go to council conf this is your idea okay we have the motion on the floor and the second to stop at 10 p.m Jake Johansson quick comment as as we're discussing this um do we want to consider limiting our meetings to six or 8 hours in effort to force us all to be more efficient and effective with our time uh and and and that that may occasionally get us in a spot with uh with um with an abundance of public input in which case at the end of of six or eight hours that we vote to continue or vote not to continue that way if it's just us not managing our time correctly we can shut it down whereas if it's I think we had three or four hours of public comment um then we can we can advance it uh just an alternative thought I'll add to that jakeob I may Mr chair um you know as far as you know efficient and managing the time I I'll just share a practice that we did in the legislature if you guys will like it I'll support it but what we often did in Tallahassee when we had a a topic that brought out people similar to what we had today um the chairman at that point or someone in the committee would suggest um limiting the time or reducing the time um for so that we can get through everyone and be efficient and and and and we want to respect everybody have the opportunity to speak but it's often time very repetitive let's just be honest right um I think we should consider those so that we also respect the audience's time so get a if we should consider those when we have those um those hot topics we're going to have more hot topics and I don't think we should stop anybody from talking but um considering elting that time a little bit more for efficiency purposes um I don't know if anybody supposed that we do it in the legislature all the time D Danny will you adjust your if you feel comfortable adjust your motion to maybe both meetings if you feel comfortable to 6 hours not including the 30 minute break we take so that's fine I'll I'll make that motion and and second I'll still second that 6 hours so 4 to 6 yeah you're still looking at 10 o' so yeah that's 10:30 before you have lunch and 9 to 3 3:30 I can do that yep and so it's a new day so what what would happen fresh again what would happen if we're not done especially if we're not done and there's a a lot still hanging out it seems like it just continues a problem it pushes it to the next meeting where there's even a lar agenda it will force us to be more efficient with our time yeah I I would just add that with laying use items be because you know they call a shot clock but because we have a limited period time to act on some things we'll have to make sure we get through those maybe put them on earlier on the agenda just so you're aware of that um I I heard councilman Johansson say and den it's late and kind of on the fly but maybe you'll adjust your Mo motion again so that we could vote to extend the meeting dependent upon what's going on at the moment that's right majority rule to extend that and I'm good with that also okay so either one 4 to 10 9 to 330 with the ability to extend the meeting what did I say 3:30 it's 6 hour meeting not cluding the meal if you break for a meal extendable by majority vote okay how um how how many meetings have we had go this late late it's been I think we had one a while ago well yeah he really didn't have any option when we cancelled a meeting and we have one meeting in December that's correct one is it going to be packed well we'll have to take a look uh the agenda conference is Thursday so will uh we'll go accordingly the land use will be the trickiest part uh the other stuff we can work around and of course uh the uh but I I think given that we've got uh um the special meeting coming that takes a little load off and so therefore uh I think we'll be fine I think it's we can work through a lot of this Jake's getting up in age and he has to be in Orlando you know we got board meetings work I'm going direct I got plenty of time Jake Jake had a lot of energy today I don't know what you're talking about but he it's the insure thank you okay Jake you're still up I'm awake no you you're still up on the board oh you're not that away no I'm good okay still up I thought it was a question okay so the motion is uh cut off meetings four to 10:30 9 to 3:30 um with the ability to extend you don't want to do a super majority okay all right with a with a majority vote um all in favor say I I any opposed we'll try it okay you done okay um councilman Santiago just one quick thing Don you quoted uh you mentioned Michael Winslow today right yeah you said you had him over here wanted to share with you yeah I was in a movie with Michael winsel and I'll share the story with you one they yeah I was a movie star for one day so that's it Mr chairman police were you a stunt double police no but he was doing a lot of those sounds in the movie okay this is why we have to cut off meeting can I call point of order on councilman ding yes um as you heard the rumors I actually have finally done a town hall so um that's going going to be on December 5th at 5:30 and uh I I might downstairs yes and my understanding is chair is going to come and I hope you know if you can make it that'd be great um it's more geared towards district one I've had a lot of a lot of emails and I want to thank Ben and Clay because up to this point every time I've had a a constituent talk about Lake Gertie or one of these flood prone areas they've been nice enough to just meet with them and we have these meetings and it's a lot oftentimes the same thing with different residents so I think it's more efficient just with all the influx that we've gotten since the two hurricanes it's better just to go ahead and have one meeting with the same issues in the same areas and hopefully you can answer clay and Ben can answer a lot of the questions so I really do thank you um for offering to do that and um you know and Ben just I know he took a little bit of heat tonight but I just I I drove through Taylor Road and all that stuff near JC's Common Grounds all that before the storms and after and I noticed that they had the big pumping stations out there and they were just pumping pumping pumping in anticipation of the storms coming in which I thought was incredible and I mean it just hats off to to Ben for all the preemptive work they did to alleviate a lot of that flooding even though we got flooding it's I think it could have been a lot worse but for his proactive work so thank you for that and that's all I have thanks guys he was just rubbing his eyes back there I'm sure he's not crying right CH chairman may may I please extending the time go I am I know C Council I I just received an email from Lion Bobby and she says that they're holding a joint Lions Club anniversary on December 8th which we won't meet until then I know how we are with proclamations she's asking me to attend and to present a proclamation for their orman's 70th year and Orman by the Sea 20th year they're combining their celebration un George meia asked this right now I literally just got the email I'm looking at it and I'm going I'm not going to be able to give her a proclamation unless this Council approves that we we can present a proclamation George do you need to do you need a well we can have it on if you guys make a mo we can have it on the thir the December 3rd meeting oh perfect and then perfect great I I forward you the information so we can do it then okay thank you perfect kelman Johansson thank you sir um yes tomorrow I'll be at the East Central Florida Regional planning Council for executive committee regular committee with uh councilman Robbins and then the resiliency sub committee meeting um I I'm interested to hear the rest of central Florida's U uh flooding lows and to see what they're doing to mitigate the damage where they found damage or if they didn't have damage kind of like the Barry find out what they did right I'll be bringing that back um had a a extremely productive couple hours with the commanding officer of the Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville colel Bowman uh we had a lot in common told some Sea Stories in front of Suzanne um uh talked a lot about the uh study they're doing and and what it focuses on and and how they are uh working hard to expand what the meaning of adjacent and adjacent areas means and and you heard a little bit that they maybe expanding that study to include even more so I'm looking forward to that and um uh they were very pleased with everything that they saw uh regarding the the coastal restoration projects we have and what they might be able to do um uh the their Cole and his staff uh I I won't throw another County under the bus but they were very very happy with with our cooperation with them for things like Perpetual easements so for all of us regardless of what Coast you live on here in Bia County I think it's imperative that we keep the pressure on and educate our public of how important Perpetual ements are to getting 100% Federal funding for Coastal Rec uh restoration renourishment it is key and he hit upon it about five or six times his staff talked about it and and uh there's there's another County that's not doing it and and I know their Project's going to weigh out when it's between ours and theirs so uh so please please support that and if anybody's got any questions to contact our staff about the intricacies of that uh lastly um I think our our new legislators got sworn into today I believe and um uh they have committee weeks in December and next thing you know we're going to be three weeks behind because we haven't come up with our legislative uh agenda yet so I'm I already got the whisper but I already knew that's on our next agenda start thinking about our legislative um uh priorities so we can give them to George and and Suzanne and and have them give us theirs and come up with some some good ideas to get some of that money we have new Representatives now they're in different positions some of it good some of it bad but we have to play our cards right um um back at home and up in Tallahassee so that's all I have thank you thank you um everybody have a Happy Thanksgiving and we will see you in December good night for