##VIDEO ID:U4qk-O5zu5c## mayor Goodman I am here council president Cox here vice president Hines she's absent council member Jones here council member council member Martin here council member ricko here CD manager Terry Bard I'm here attorney Kirsten Balo here didd clerk Latricia Wright I am here and all other staff present thank you all right opening prayer pledge allegiance of the flag Mr Mayor Charles good father we just thank you for the fact that we live in this country a country where people can participate in their government where they can watch them and Lord I just ask you to be with these counselors as each one of them weighs the things before them and does the very best that their hearts tell them for our Citizen and for the city of Willison and Lord I ask you to be with each one of them and I ask you to be with our Police Department who recently did something miraculous that I'm not allowed to speak to but they did do something that deserves praise and will get praise at the right time and Lord I just ask you to be with the police and the fire in our city Lord which thank you Lord escaped the worst of these last H ask all this in your name amen amen I Al to United States of America na indivisible andice for all thank you very much all right thank you sir item one additions deletions changes and approval of the agenda I'll ask approval the agenda from Council I move approval of the agenda is presented second all right we have a first we have a second any other discussion any not right then all in we move to vote all in favor say I I Z all right presentation by City counc president Mike SCS and M Laura Jones can you hear me so we wanted to give this little special presentation to Mr Nick Williams today he was on our CRA board for 24 years 21 years um and he just resigned he's going to be moving out of the city so we wanted to make sure that city council recognized all the hard work he did don't forget that the CRA has to do with uh removing blight and working on our downtown um he was instrumental in working on Heritage Park across the street of block 12 our sidewalks and um multiple other projects we have our CRA here today so if anybody would like to come up and also speak you're more than welcome but I will get some pictures of all you guys but uh we just wanted to thank you so much for your service it's was a long haul I know but you got a lot of really great things done so thank you very much so this is a certificate of appreciation presented by the Willison City Council of Willis Florida to Nick Williams for devotion leadership for your [Applause] e all right item number three proclamation declar in October 21st to the 27th is Florida city government week Mr Charles Goodman and he also has a presentation you said it didn't work whereas the the city government is the government closest to most citizens and the one with most direct daily impact on its residents and their homes whereas municipal government provide services and programs that enhance the quality of life for residents making this city their homes whereas the city government is administered for and by its citizens and is dependent upon public comment and commitment and to understanding of its many residents about the responsibilities whereas the city government week is a very important time to recognize the important role played by city government in our lives and whereas Florida city government week offers an import an opportunity to convey to all the citizens of Florida that they can shape and influence government through their civic involvement whereas the Florida League of cities and its members cities have joined together to teach citizens about municiple government through a variety of activities now there for I Charles Goodman by virtue of the authority invested in me as the mayor of the city of Willison Florida you hereby proclaim the week of October 21st through the 27th 2024 as Florida city government week in witness whereof I here unto set my hand and caused the official seal of the city of Williston to be a fixed the 17 day of October year of Our Lord 2023 even though it says 23 I assum it's 24 I didn't write it I for thank you thank you sir from the Florida League of Mayors I was given out three coins to distribute at my discretion to give out each coin to someone that has accomplished something significant that goes above and beyond because the quantity of coins is limited hand out the coin for a significant reason so that we do not diminish the value of these coins counselor Deborah Jones would you join me councelor Jones public service for your vision and your leadership I and the Florida League of Mayors wish to give you this and hope that you will bring precious memor [Applause] congratulations all right item four public participation this is your first of two opportunities to address the council at this time anyone in the audience can come to the podium and speak for five minutes on any topic other than what is on the agend okay item five consent agenda these are the council minutes from October 8th 202 can I get a motion for approval I move approval of the cons agenda as presented I second I have a first you have a second all right any other discussion for this no if not we'll move to vote all in favor say I I I I SC zero okay updates staff board Council update city manager Terry perard thank Mr President so I'll be brief because I know we have a lot to cover tonight um just one thing to bring your attention and unless y'all want to get into a lot of discussion about it is that we're having some issues with the bu lift station here in the city if you don't know which one that is that's the main station running into the wastewater treatment PL we're working on it currently with right Pierce and Donald um do you figure out what our options are and um hopefully I think we still have somebody scheduled for this week yes no I'm good I just want to be brief and I may have some better ideal of what's going on with it but uh there's three pumps in the fug lift station one uh has been running on manual which is now not responding the other one's kind of Dead on Arrival and the third one is 30% and leaking um so you know we uh you do have a request for proposals coming back on the bypass for that flip station on the 30th we'll be coming back to you on the 6th uh to see if it's something that yall entertain to do and there could be the possibility of an emergency purchase which is the reason why I'm telling you this up the one pump that's not working manually that if we can get it we're going to get it here but the cost going be 24,000 I want to let you know up front that if we get it time we'll be making that purchase staff Chief R wanted me to announce that thanks to Florida Highway Patrol we will be taking a trip up tah On th where they have donated firearms um also we U Arizona applied for the Jag grant for the MD if you don't know what an MD is computers in our cars and how that works great for us is when we go to do a traffic stop we normally have to call dispatch wait for them to run it and we don't buy by that time by time we get that information we're already out with that vehicle we run them right into the El system and with second we get all that information so prior to us get out of the vehicle Mak contact with anybody we already know if they have a warrant whether liced if there injunction involved or so in about a week a right we're supposed to hear whether or not we got this great thank you staff any other M Jones Thank you Mr President I just have a quick announcement or update to give you about the puppy that we found a few weeks ago that had been hit by a car um we had a third opinion and this opinion is that the puppy's actually healing pretty well we're not going to do surgery at him on him at this time and he is most likely not going to lose his leg so he's already been adopted and he's going to be going back for some um x-rays in about 3 weeks to make sure that he's healing properly so that's good newss save the save the city about well we got all every they got donations our staff went out and got donations for the puppy in case he did have to have surgery to the tune of $4,800 so I was really proud of him for doing that but um we don't need to use it for the puppy now so the ones that were specifically for him will be returning with a thank you letter and the and the ones that told us to keep it we'll be using it for other things awesome thank you keep [Music] M any other stat all right Mr Mayor he he had a family issue he was here hopefully nothing too serious but yeah I guess with that um he wanted to let you all know that November 2nd um he has a gymnastics a local gymnastics group that is going to be doing a bake sell and a car wash at the fire department so soon as I get the time on that I will let you guys know about that and then also you have a binder that has been placed up there this is a project that um chief steagle chief Willis and Miss con reest have been working on to provide the council information about the fire department so if you have any questions about that is more than answer any events all right thank you ma'am anybody else okay Council thank you Mr President Laura you can keep my little bit also uh I have a concern I know that our city utilities department has been through an extraordinarily difficult time and I have been quietly trying to avoid this question but I think it's important 7th Avenue and 7th Street and 4th Avenue has had water in it since the Hurricanes left a long time ago I've had people on that street contact me and said they had contacted the city my first concern is are we wasting water my second concern is I've seen the March so I'm I know that the utility division is aware of it the people that contacted me also said they had seen Mark but it's been a long time since the marks were made so I am using my announcement to ask the city if you cannot fix something at least notify the affected residents of the situation so they don't so they don't continually call me uh it a simple communication can alleviate a lot of misunderstandings and heart feelings so if if it is something that you feel you can do I'm willing to live with it I just move over over to Third Avenue take 8th Street to Third Avenue and I don't have to go through the water but they don't think we should have to do that thank you very much so since you brought it up I think gives me an opportunity to respond one do you know what he's talking about okay nobody has contacted me here in said have you referred anybody to me to handle this problem no sir they called me and told me that they had already contacted the city now I didn't query if it was a city manager but they had contacted the city I would think if someone came in with that that the agent behind the desk would have referred them to the utility department I'm not trying to run the city I'm just passing information that was given to me they assured me that they have called the city and then when they saw the markings they called me again and said it's been a long time and I said did you call the city and this person and I'm not hiding anyone's name it was Miss Grace Marino the wife of one of the contractors that built this building so and she's not the only one also the people across the street but the point is not that it's not fixed the point is if we can't fix it communicating with the citizens should be our next step so what we'll do is we'll figure out what this problem is I'm also going to order you to research if the city was notified of this event um and then we'll take it from there thank you Mr city manager thank you okay anybody else all right item seven new business item discussion with possible action 2023 city of Willison Florida financial statement and independent auditor report is Helen Painter with per GR good evening this microphone works yes uh I'm Helen Painter with per gr company and the audit partner in charge of the audit for the city of Willison and I'd like to thank uh the mayor and the city council members uh president uh Cox for uh being able to spend time and meet with us uh earlier in the year I also met with Steven Bloom your Finance director and your city manager uh and we went over the audit report and our recommendations I'm just going to give an a brief overview uh the city and all local governments are required to have an annual Financial audit so um your Finance director uh and his team uh keeps all the uh accounting records and then they close out the books in September uh and have us look they're ready approximately in April and we perform the audit we make inquiries uh with um your different department heads as we read your minutes we want to make sure that what's happening in your minutes are being carried out in your accounting records uh we look at your budget that was recently approved of course this is the 23 budget to make sure that you do not overspend your budget so it's very important that um that's one of your largest internal controls is that you set your budget so that um you don't overspend but you have enough to set aside so that if you have any emergencies um that you would have money set aside for that so our purpose is to work with your management team and then based on the results of our audit we give a an opinion on the financial statements and so we are saying that we believe that these financial statements are fairly presented on material respect so that is what we call an unmodified opinion I know that we're trying to scroll through I thought I would just give a big picture um the biggest thing that we wanted to talk about that we talked about with each of the council members is building up the city's reserves that we believe that overall that your um reserves are not where they should be to be in such a state that uh if you had an emergency like we've had these two hurricanes fortunately this city was not affected but uh it most of these um natural disasters are affected and refunded by FEMA but it takes a couple years and so you need to have that Reserve in place um so you need to look at each of your departments and your Revenue sources to make sure that you've got you're setting your rates you're setting your fees license building department Etc in such a way that you're covering your costs uh and then have enough the fees set so that you're not only covering your cost but enough is set aside for emergencies like the lift station you know that was a $24,000 um expense unexpected and uh so those are just some of the the big highlights that we wanted to point out um your airport operations are doing well um your CRA you've done a lot with that and recently borrowed a million dollars for some of those big projects but those monies are going to be uh The Debt Service on that will be the property tax revenues and um you also have three pension plans uh that you participate in and those are always costly um and you have are required to fund those so there's some expenses that you're not uh able to get out of and we want to point out uh to take a look at your reserves and what your expenses are to make sure that you are charging the fees that you need to to cover your operating costs so with that I'd like to thank um Stephen Bloom and his team I think he might be online uh for his assistance during the audit and providing all the information that we were able to uh need for our audit process I'm happy to answer any further questions but again uh we enjoyed meeting with u each each one that was able to spend some time and council member Hines also did a zoom call with me today I'm happy to answer any questions questions so overall pretty happy Pardon Me overall pretty happy overall pretty happy but uh just to beware um you know that you need to start building up your reserves we need to look we'll be looking at your September 30th 24 um and and see where you're at financially there but moving forward U your budget is your your biggest asset and your internal control to make sure that you're spending within that budget I was happy to see we had no deficiencies correct that's always a great thing yes found no no errors or significant deficiencies in your internal controls or any of the transactions that we audited so overall you were pretty happy you could be happy we could be happy here we're looking at the happiness is with um having good accounting records but your reserves are too low we need to just really consider that that um you know you only have approximately 8 800,000 or so in your general fund and it cost you approximately 5 million to run the general fund so you know it's uh you're getting into a danger zone especially with with Florida with the Hurricanes that's uh you know you need money on hand clean up such like that that's just a good example of why you need to have reserves a logistic question um sorry newcomer up here Norm you mentioned that when we met that this is normally provided in April but that we just weren't able to get on the agenda until now is that typical schedule like that you would have this available for 2024 and April of 2025 your audit of 2024 it's due to the state in June okay June 30th uh so we started the audit in April and uh By the time everything was wrapped up in our meetings it was issued in June okay so usually before we do the typically it would be before we do the budget for the next year that makes a lot this year because of okay than we'll try to yeah I think that by the time we finish the audit in June that you're already in the budget process but that's a very good point that we should just jump on it yeah the sooner the better I mean this is my first year looking at a budget and I think this information would be good for me to have before I look at the next year's budget so I can make better decisions absolutely not anybody's fault I'm just very good any other questions thank you ma'am all right Item B evaluation scoring results and recommendation for an ISP fiber Network Finance design and construction for the city of Willis Mr Walt nickel right thank you good evening Walt nichel with right Pierce um I'll read the first part of our letter that we had uh sent to to Terry and then get to the summary I don't need to read the whole thing but uh the city of Williston publicly requested qualifications for the financing design and construction of a city-owned operated and maintained broadband internet service solicitation process began on September 8th and concluded on October 7th with the receipt of a single statement of qualifications from Performance Services Inc an evaluation committee consisting of Donald Barber Aaron Mills Laura Jones and myself received copies of the S soq and each of us performed an evaluation that s soq the evaluation committee then met on October 11th to discuss the our individual results and compile a a score and to make a recommendation to city council for further action since only one statement of qualifications was received this process was simplified the evaluation committee's recommendations were either limited to either accepting the statement of qualifications that was received or rejecting it um we had a prescribed scoring process that that we went through uh a couple items of note as we reviewed the statement qualifications that we just want to bring to your attention was one the majority of the work regarding design and construction will be subcontract to B1 fiber by Professional Services Inc it was just an item of note as we went through it and then item two the statement of qualific of qualifications requires the selected entity to to provide a performance bond or an irrevocable letter of credit at the time the contract is executed during the solicitation process Professional Services Inc asked that this requirement be waved addendum number one was issued in response to that question and it stated that such a waiver was not in the best interest of the city and its requirement would remain despite the addendum response Professional Services Inc still requested this re requirement be waved it was on tap three financial help page 10 of their package the evaluation committee strongly recommends that the requirement stay during the contract negotiation so uh the recommendation is the evaluation committee recommends that city council accept the statement of qualifications from Professional Services Inc and authorize City staff to enter into contract and fee negotiations with them uh negotiated contract terms conditions and fees structure would be brought back to city council for further action so again this process is a it's not a bid Pro process it's a qualifications based process so you select Somebody by qualification uh overall the committee determined that they were qualified we didn't have other companies to compare to but the information they did Supply they are qualified so that was the reason for the recommendation but we did have an item of note about the performance bond we think that's highly recommended that we continue with that but we ask for Council approval to that staff enter into the contract negotiation now this is when they're going to hash out it was a sample contract as part of the process that some of those terms and conditions are negotiable they're part of the contract they're going to come back with more financial plans all the other bonds that they're going to need and a fee structure and once that is all done then that will come back to you for line of approv but we need your ask you for your approval for staff to start that negotiation process do anybody have does anybody have questions um my question is if we accept uh the the viid and go into the review and uh am I trying to say the uh negotiations for the uh actual B um we can always rejected at that time right yes yeah I mean so there's really nothing lost by doing that no you're just authorizing to go forward okay that would be what I would do mayor good evening Walter I have a question from you for you from a business point of view you did not see any red flags having only one person one company is all that even responded to this no one else wanted it and these this is the only company so as you tell us we got a choice you can take them or leave them but there's nobody else is that correct that that is correct we we uh had this publicly advertised this is a pretty narrow niche market exactly I thought I was still it is and there are multiple companies out there performing in this narrow niche market that do not belong to the city true there are private private yeah there's private internet provider all right thank you sir there there aren't many that are in the niche I know at one point when we were um discussing it with Performance Services they they told us there were maybe one or two others that are in this area in Florida uh that provide this service and again back to the state law that governs it there aren't many that want to mess with it so but it is beneficial for us to use it I may ask a question I have seen surprisingly three or four different internet companies around Willison having their sign up in individuals yard so if there people that have got their signs in individual's yard How can there be only one or two this is this is not this is totally different than that this is not internet providing it is f internet providing but this is us building it ourselves yes it is my point is that that are you saying that there's only one or two that will allow us to build it those other companies won't allow us to build it right but they will build it they would if if we didn't want to build it ourselves we would just back off okay I just wanted to get that clear all this is but if we want to build it ourselves this is yeah if we want to build build it ourselves but it doesn't mean that there are no other companies out there willing to provide internet there a bunch of them but we didn't put a bid out for people who wanted to provide interet we put a bid out for people who wanted to help us build it yeah I I understand I just wanted to make that point clear that's true okay thank you you are undering in competition with those other companies that are there to make a profit this company is helping you build it so you can and make that profit so that that's the difference they're helping you build your internet system Mr Barber two distinctions in the inquiry that the mayor made one is council's directions were that they wanted this done as quickly as possible so we put out an RFQ that was done on the shortest timeline that was allowable by law if they wanted more bids we could have gone out for months and months and months and months and solicited more and more would have come back because to Mr Mayor your point there are a lot of comp that can potentially do this the second thing is that those companies then are narrowed down further the other direction that the council gave us was that they wanted it as a performance guarantee under Florida statute so what you're talking about is providers yes there are a ton of them but what they wanted was a guarantee so that if the guaranteed number of customers does not happen the company steps in and provides those financial resources in the shortfall so that's what we did that's why you only got one bid back because it's very rare that you have a company that says not only will we build it we will guarantee you results and that is the reason why one bid came back so we're not talking apples to apples here we're talking apples to oranges thank you sir anybody else any question so have any questions but my comment would be that I think we have nothing to lose in negotiate trying to negotiate a contract this is now the the next official step staff will invest time there will be some uh input from the city attorney also needed as they go forward I would also say I'm happy to have this book because we didn't have anything in our in our agenda packet that told us about the bid itself or not the bid but the qualifications I'm happy to get the vote tonight thank so do we just give our blessing motion to move forward withing a contract or negotiating a contract per Services okay all right so need to have a motion for to go ahead perform serves uh I would suggest if you want to approve that it would be a motion um to direct staff to work with performance Performance Services negotiate a contract I make motion that we direct staff to work with Performance Services hey I all right any other discussion I move to vote all in favor say i i 4 Z thank you sir all right item C resolution 2024 D15 a resolution of the city council of the city of Williston Florida approving the state of Florida division of Emergency Management Statewide Mutual Aid agreement 2023 authorizing appropriate parties to sign any documents required to execute such agreement on behalf of the city of Willison and providing an effective effective need well as HR Direct yes sir thank you this is a Statewide Mutual Aid agreement with the Department of Emergency Management that will allow our police department and our fire department who are currently providing Mutual Aid due to the natural disasters that we've had um services to right now is Cedar Key um Cedar Fire Rescue and Cedar Police Department this resolution um approving the mutual Aid agreement allows us to ask the state for reimbursement for the services that we are providing for the mutal a that has been requested through the state so it's a very it's the blanket that is provided to every agency municipality through the State of Florida okay yes because I know they've been spending a lot of time with Cedar Key yes sir yes sir and that's good yes so this will allow us this is the first step in allowing us to get the reimbursement back for uh the man hours the equipment law those type of things okay all right anybody have any questions I move approval of resolution 202 24-15 all right we have a first we got a second any other discussion anybody else all right we'll move to vote all in favor say i i 4 Z all right the next item for business will be a public hearing M Mr President this is a quasa Judicial hearing this is a special exception 20241 first quarter of business is whether there have been any expart Communications from any of the council members regarding this item anyone lots of head okay um second item of business will be to uh if anyone has any information documents um that need to be provided they need to be provided to the clerk if they are not already included in the agenda packet does anyone have any items that they would like to Tender to the clerk okay anyone who wishes to speak on this item please stand raise your right hand to be sworn in all right do you swear orir affirm that the testimony gives truth the whole truth and nothing about the truth Mr President the next it of business would be staff presentation followed by any applicant presentation does this mean if anyone has any questions they have to be sworn in if anyone from the public would like to speak on this item they need to be sworn in you all do not need this all right so that being said so we did the applicant statement so next would be would be staff presentation station thank you Mr President this application is special exception SE 20241 went that applicant um is Mr Charles web he's the property owner he's requesting the special exception to allow retail Sal sales in a residential business zoning District the subject property is 116 Northwest Main Street the parcel ID is 0561 7000000 the future land use and is residential and the zoning is residential business the current use is an office and the prior use was an office uh the adjacent zoning land uses are residential business commercial commercial and residential so applicant is requesting the opportunity to open a retail which is the sale of goods to the public in relatively small quantities for use or consumption rather than for resale the application the applicant indicates its desire to be a part of the community and operate a good establishment the property is now vacant and the applicant believes this would be this use would be a good fit for the area with low impact as you you know the CRA and the city planner me have been trying very hard to get downtown to be rejuvenated and we think that this is a very simple step it shouldn't have any negative impact that we can find and so staff recommends that we allow this special exception it did go to a special meeting yesterday to the Planning and Zoning commission and they also gave um the recommendation for city council to accept the special exception if you guys need a reminder about what a special exception is because think youall have seen one in a while it goes with the property um owner or the use so this would be a situation where if the use was changed again so in this situation it is a renter of the property if the renter moved and somebody wanted to bring in something different even if it was retail they would have to go through this process again and um when the property owner does sell it it does not go with them so it's a special exception for use only okay I like that okay um do we have any questions for the witnesses for Miss Jones I did until she said that and now she cleared all my questions up thank you yeah and I think you answered mine as well my question was because he's the owner but not the owner of the business correct it still pertains still pertains to that the special he can get the special exception because he owns the property yes but the retail person can be somebody different um yeah so if it changes in any way um because right now you guys are are accepting retail so if it changes like if he goes back to an office and then somebody else comes in and wants to sell um fishing equipment you would have to go through this whole process again okay so it doesn't matter whether he's the owner or the renter the owner always um or the owner is the one the owner is the applicant okay yeah but there not what I mean is the owner is not doing it himself correct the owner is not doing they're lead seeing the property and that's allowable as long as the renter doesn't change to something different is within the limitations of the special exception grant that was my only question right Mr President if there's nothing left for staff um it would be time for the applicant presentation if the applicant has any presentation um the next item of business would be any um rebuttal from staff anything um and then public comment right anybody from the public any comments any rebuttal from the applicant I'm assuming not Mr President it would now be appropriate for the council to discuss and make motion desired okay so what do you think got any questions an asset or a good way to improve the quality of our downtown area and I I like the fact that um if it changes some if they move out we got to go through the process not saying we have control but um I like that they're GNA have to come in and get approval for that even though you he would still own the business building the applicant doesn't have any um uh reason to sell in in near future so he's trying to rejuvenate that building that's been vacant for a little a little while downtown where is the building right next to the Ivy House it is really the Ivy House the one that's covered with the Ivy the house with the ivy but not the ivy really okay I move approval of special exception 202 24-1 second all right we have a first we have a second any other discussion okay we'll move to vote all in favor say I I I 4 thank you Council okay at this time we will close the public hearing all right item e discussion with possible action Charter Review Committee City attorney kirston Balo and Michael Cox council president all right right so this item um I think you all will remember a couple of meetings ago we sort of discussed that the first step to a charter Review Committee is deciding who's going to be on it who it's going to be made up of um just as a quick recap your options are to have you all as the council serve as the charter Review Committee um and you can absolutely do that you can have a board of citizens that is appointed um by each of you uh to represent you in the charter uh Review Committee or you can do uh it was posited can we do a combination of that can we have citizens and the council yes you you could do that if you chose um there's there's a lot of flexibility regarding how you create your Charter Review Committee but I did want to bring it back to you all because we do need to have a decision on who you want on the charter Review Committee before we can move forward with it together what are your ideas we're all be imp might separate meeting get together um again logistic question if if we do decide that account member council members are also on the committee sunshine all have I I would recommend that if you if any of you are going to be on the charter Review Committee that you all be on the charter Review Committee so either a citizen board or this this board or a combination of all of this Council and additional citizen if you choose and will they need to live in the city yes uh I just want to remind some that were on the council when we first started this in 2022 that ly tipon with the Flor OFA leue of cities suggested that we have a board of mixed council members and residents but it's up to the counsel and the lawyer says if one counselor is on the board all should be on the board is that correct opinion it's not a law it is my experience that you get issues with having some council members on there are a lot of we try to avoid the appearance of impropriety where possible it's just there's just more likelihood that someone will be upset about something if there are some members on and not other members on regarding what you're discussing and when you're discussing it perfectly good my personal feeling is I do think that prior to being a council member I do not really understand the working of the city hall maybe there would be a citizen out there that would have served some capacity in City Hall and have an understanding of that but I feel like blindly be on the charter Review Committee might leave some gaps that we would want to have left in gap I also will point out so a couple of things just to give a 10,000 foot view of the charter review process again because I know it's been a minute since we've gone through it the first step is putting together your Charter Review Committee whatever that committee looks like that committee is going to have at least one meeting probably many many meetings and they are going to go through your Charter and suggest changes those changes will then come before this Council in the form of an order this Council can then make decisions because the changes that are recommended are just that their recommendations so then this Council can make decisions on what they are going to vote to be on the ordinance because ultimately you will pass ordinances so you may this to at that point and then it will come for second reading in front of you just like any other ordinance and then it will be placed on a ballot for the citizenry to vote on so that's sort of the process so there no matter if any of you are on the charter Review Committee you will see these before they end up on a ballot and I just want to ask the council uh I still have the minutes from the first Charter review meeting that we had and if you'd like I can send them out to everyone so you all can review the changes that you all had suggested in that first meeting say we didn't get far I think got maybe three days just into it uh we ended up on Section 2.09 yeah we didn't get far and that took what three meetings yes yeah it's a process it is and and it's only it's not very long but section two is not far we didn't get far I do remember that um I know that before we tried it with everybody naming someone that we wanted to represent us there uh or represent our citizens on our behalf um I'm going to suggest we do the combination this time we all know who we wanted last time that may still be our choice it may not um and if we serve with someone that has totally different ideas that would be I think that would be great it makes a lot of people which would make it probably a little harder but I think it would be a good representation if we all chose someone um and then we served us as well and to Latricia Point again the that all of you be on is not just reiterate it's just my suggestion you don't have to follow that you can have some members of the Council on and some members of of the public a great idea it's absolutely up to you all so don't take that as a the lawyer said you can't do it no that's not so once we started we go through the whole process or can we break it down you could break it down however you like you can decide that you're going to just focus on one section for one meeting you can get as get through as much as humanly possible every single meeting it's up to you all once you decide who's going to be on the board how you're how you're going to break that down and the committee itself would decide once they got there correct once you have the members of the committee designated then we would move forward with scheduling amongst everyone times and dates that work um and with that many members I imagine that it will be a get as much done as humanly possible every time everyone's capable of same and then start over and do it again and then start over do it again and realistically like what I mean again this isly um what kind of I mean there are only so many evenings I have available and so many hours I have available what kind of time I mean I'd love to do it don't get me so the a couple of things on the timeline for Charter review once you start the process there's not a designated deadline for you all so you can take as long as you choose you could take a year you could take two years I've had cities take many many years in one charter review if you take that long sometimes you have to go back um to the beginning so definitely wouldn't recommend taking three years to go through um but there's not a set deadline um how many hours do I think it will take I mean if we did an hour before our teach Council me it would be the same day yeah I mean you could is it better than an extra day I me don't so what I will say is that the charter Review Committee like any other board entity just needs to have a coral so even if you Hadad Ma say 10 m as long as you have members if one person's absent you can still carry on how many people total you recom would I recommend the fewest amount that you can get away with is the easiest logistically but you can you typically to the point you typically see about seven five to seven is what you Ty see that take forever can I just say that um when I took the CH review class they suggested seven that's just a suggestion of seven members so you can just have two citizens and you all would be the five May yeah unless you include the may I don't know if he wants to then make it eight Aon yes I would serve I know before we did include you so you appointed two members of the public the beauty of it is that it is pretty flexible how you decide to go about it that's also the struggle of it because it's up to you all to decide how you want to go I know exactly who I would app point if you only point to don't know if anybody else would agree with them if you want them I can give them to you I know the first one I would appoint would be Mr Fuller I'm glad you came back I don't know where you were but I looked for you a while ago I agree with that and and the other one um I I know you Ser I think you served with Justin H uh who was is one of our past presidents of the council um I think he was an excellent member of the charter review Comm yeah and I just want to make note that from that 2022 meeting one of Mr F's concern was that we did not have citizens on the CH Review Committee that was also my concern if you remember I remember because I read through the notes and I remember he said that part so now that we're entering into this can we pause on recommendations until we have a chance to ponder it instead of having to make recommendations for the citizens tonight I would like frankly to talk to someone before I make a recommendation of them and they're not in our room currently well I know we chose them we chose people before I did not I thought you chose Albert before who I thought you chose Albert before I can't hear well you can't have my man no but I just made a suggestion I think you would be an actual member okay my point is that I don't know if the other counselors Meredith I don't know if that everybody is ready with a name and would probably appreciate the time to consider it and to ask someone if they would be willing to serve other than just putting their name out there I you're right I did have Alber I'm perfectly fine with him he's enough of a pain he should be on one of these yeah he's very meticulous that he breeds his material so he he's great um and and I know sitting right there well if we're going to only appoint two public that's what was suggested that we only appoint to and that's why I made the suggest that was your suggestion city clerk yes it were po L titman with the Florida League of cities that was her suggestion because she runs uh the charter review did she suggest all of the council and two citizens honestly she did not suggest councel that's what I thought she just said you should have at least a couple of citizens on there yes and that our ideal number would be seven I think it was the attorney who said point2 the attorney said appoint to that's where I heard the appoint to yeah uh and I know you don't you're not trying to tell us what to do but that's where I got it from it wasn't from lri generally it all of the things that are coming out of my mouth at this point are suggestions I will tell you when that changes um the a point two came from if your general is seven and you you've C five of you up here then appointing an additional too okay I will point out if I'm correct counselor that we only have four people because you have said you cannot do this so you have four Council people and me well she'll be a I just want to make sure you don't consider a counselor who has clearly stated her time constraint will not allow her to do it okay and so I will ask it straight out counselor Meredith do you need time to talk to anyone I would like time to consider whether a whether I have the time to commit to this on addition to the current obligations and just make sure that I can do my due diligence and yes I would like to consider knowing the background and history of the people I've met Mr Fuller but I don't know the person that ever refer to and i' just like to gather a little bit more information for before saying for sure that I want that person as my representative and you want to decide you're even able to use is that what I heard yes yes what I thought I heard I don't like hearing it but I thought I no I would love to have a lot of more hours to day okay so I rest my comment I'm not commenting anymore I have no problem with anyone that was recommended at this point I just don't think we should close the committee until everyone has an opportunity that is not quite as long did counselor Jones and I well maybe this will maybe this will eleviate those concerns I will need to bring a resolution if we're going to appoint people who that are not already on the council so I don't have that with you today because I was unsure where we would land with this so I can bring back a resolution that I can very easily change depending upon who and how many individuals we decide to vote for at the next meeting if that gives everyone enough time to come up with some names and then if everyone has a name then we have a lot of options good job counselor and for somebody that I don't know or just because they've served on the city council doesn't me anything to me no offense like I want to know who I'm voting for so I or if there's somebody in the public that says hey I would like to be on that committee then they can volunteer or you know I'm not meaning that your suggestions are bad but I don't know these people just because they're on a city council if they know something about the city well no I get that there's a lot of people in the public that might want to do this like at and to do you it's a hard to start so I I will point out that if dependent on how we go about this if we're only appointing two members obviously you all will will two members of the public then you all will need to vote on that we may need however many members of the public we decide to to have unless you all are going to appoint on a one by one basis or decide amongst yourself who gets to a point and who doesn't get to a point then you'll need to vote on it in order to vote on it I imagine that you'll need to go through an interview process if there are enough applicants so so that is sort of what we're discussing here is that if we're not to say one way or the other do it or don't do it this way I just want you to know that if you are saying we're going to appoint two people there are five Commissioners five council members and so a lot easier for everybody points one yeah some hybrid version um where both to consider the time constraints of those of us who have to work hours PR you know close up when the meeting starts and then also have more representation Community where we would maybe have some meetings where the council gets together handful meetings where we get try and get together and put all meetings have to have a quum that's why I said a point all member and when you come and when you can't come you don't come no I guess we can allo somebody else too yeah I mean we all did that but we might have seven or eight every time we met yeah I guess I was think sort of thinking of having sort of two layer to it a group of each point a member of the community and they come together with their ideas we get together as counil ideas and then what I will say is what you're describing sort of sounds like each of you appointing someone and that's your Charter Review Committee and then when they come up with their recommendations they'll bring those to you in the form of an ordinance at which point you all can have conversations if you can ask the charter Review Committee to come to all the meetings where you consider the ordinance and you all can have discussions between yourselves about how you want to amend how they got there um Etc and you're you're welcome to attend all of the charter review committee meeting meeting that you're able to attend even if you're not on the but I just I just want to point out that that's sort of what that sounds like to be which is acceptable that's how you want it go so can our city manager be on it can do anything you want all right that's my is the r because he's been to the meetings too like Latricia and everything where um they talk about the charter reviews so so your city manager is a member of your public and you're absolutely free to if you choose Place him on the charter Review Committee if he would like that I will say I will say many city managers do not want that responsibility because there there is interaction between the city manager Office in the charter Review Committee and not only that his job is part of the charter a charter officer it's really hard for a charter officer to be in the middle of that discussion any Charter officer I do not disagree with you on that because you may change the structure of I guess too I feel like that we should maybe wait to make a final decision to meeting in govern year because I feel like her you know this is obviously very important future of the city decision and having and in the meantime I will send you all a PowerPoint explaining to you what a charter Review Committee does give you all the logistics and everything and do we all need to go out and find somebody or do we I I need dire but it sounds like we're winding it up no I think we're my my request is that we we delay the decision making on whether we go find somebody and until Darin us here and makeal decision all Council MERS are in Aaron is darness online okay she was going to try okay thank you the ones are then that way there miss H just so I'm clear the requirements to be on the charter have yes that's it noer okay so we got a little homework you want us to come back well we can we're here so we can start the process s do we would like well we decided do it so I really hate to go well then it it be since we're delaying the decision making and times is back it might be a good idea to just wait till the next meeting and then after the next meeting then everyone be looking for a name dependent upon what decision we come to the next all right so do you want me to bring this back at the next agenda on the next agenda y sounds like okay sound soed okay all right ITF discussion with possible action city clerk evaluation Brook Willis HR director first I will go ahead and apologize for all of the confusion in this evaluation process um it has brought to light some suggestions um that we can discuss afterwards on reviewing the evaluation and what we would like to see moving forward so I have a PowerPoint that you guys have in your the new one is updated that was placed on the dis for you guys the only changes that were different from what was presented in your agenda packet and what you have in front of you right now is a revision of Miss Martin's evaluation and that has been ma'am it's in the packet I tell lric is looking she's getting it she's it's on the it can be brought up if you would like to go Slide by slide to discuss anything so we had all council members provide an evaluation for Miss Wright um her anniversary date is September 23rd so we are kind of behind the ball game on that um other than that so you have everyone's uh outside of the PowerPoint you have everyone's evaluation along with Miss rights achievements and her self- evaluation so do you have any questions from what you have in front of you so far is it a PowerPoint yes it is it is it's on page 166 166 the only changes will be two slides in in 166 so start starting on yeah if you're in the agenda packet it's on page 166 so we'll start off with um slide number two is um Miss L Miss latrica sorry um self- evaluation with her achievements throughout this year and then it goes into her pending projects of what she's currently working on such as you know the recordkeeping the digital records management special events website and social media projects that she is also continually working on she also provided um her ongoing goals which next page um which mirrors a lot of your comments um about furthering education and some other things it also um Miss Meredith had a a suggestion that did not revolve her or change her evaluation it was just a comment about a more interactive calendar which Miss Rod also put in her self- evaluation before she even seen any of her stuff so I think that you guys are really on the same page page as far as what you're looking for in upcoming U goals for Mr R um page five is basically the summary of um her achievements and moving forward so we'll go through the evaluation [Music] process um which is slide seven so you had eight areas um that you evaluated Miss Ryon um starting with city council relations Communications public relations intergo or inter departmental relations public records management responsibilities of legislative support constitutional offer officer as supervisor elections for the city of willingston and professional traits that was a total of 31 questions um with a rating scale which was the confusion which will be corrected is one to five um and then the option of if you have not observed any of those um interactions with Miss Wright then you could choose Ino so the way that the grading was is we took every question that was answered per evaluation and came up with the average score so if you had noos which going through you'll see that um some council members did have not observed so those questions were not counted as part of their average so it was only the questions that they answer in that so we'll start off um with Mr Fox he answered 31 questions with no Ober zero non observed with a average score of five these are some of the comments what I Tred to do is give you just a overview of everybody's ADV valuations if there was comments made you could kind of see all of those in one place then going evaluation to evaluation so these are some of the comments that president has made on evaluation vice president hin she answered the 31 question her score was 3.77 um she did not have any comments um objectives or over or goals or misri in her evaluation next is Miss Jones her score was 4.23 answer 31 questions zero non and those were a lot of the comments member Martin this is be the update so this would be the updated slide slide 12 along with Miss Martin's evaluation is on the diet um she answer 20 Questions 11 of the 31 questions not for average with five bed these were a lot of her um these were her comments so like in this one the public record management she has not observed any of that interaction with Miss right so goodio 31 questions zero not observed and average four five so the average with every Council member's evaluation is 4.60 which translates to exceeds job standards from Miss right so um the next um The Next Step would be the recommendation of an increase currently you have MRE salary up there um so how would you like to proceed I have the 2023 salary survey for The International Institute of Municipal clerks that has the break down from the population so I have narrowed down the population that is below us and a little bit above us to kind of have an idea of the recommendations and I have also put together um which I will hand out to you um I know in past it was based on a percentage so we've ran some numbers for anywhere from a 3% increases which um which she does not fall within the category but that's what you guys have decided on approved for the general employees um during our budget up to an 11% just just to make the spreadsheets s to be honest so I'll with these it was I'm sorry it was it was an average of 4% % yeah uh the score it was a 4.3 I believe and if you're asking the amount I believe it was it it was not it was not very yeah forever our score and that so in past years um you have evaluated misright and then based and it has really been the will of the council if it is based on the average because one year it was based on what her average scores was what the percentage that equivalent to um other years it was someone made a recommendation and you discussed it and went through it that way so it's it's not been uniform across the board on how the race for misri has been so to give you those are the examples that since I have been with the city we've kind of we've kind of gone through those are the scenarios so it's been Council recommendation or it's been based on what her average score was average scoring which is a 4.7 you don't have your salary survey book with you do you for who or the city Clarks in our area that is what this is it is not our area it is based on the population with in I was thinking about Chapan and dellan dellan is 67 is that correct what is it sorry 75 okay um Chapin was not on this list so I see that no they were not even in the whole spreadsheet um this was based out of the international Municipal clks so some people gave information from their cities and other not do you know if any of other ones have all the different certificates that this right has so I will say based on looking at this spreadsheet there's a lot that I've taken out because a lot of it was not relevant information um trying to make a decision on this only provided the what their highest available that they reported those salary survey shows that they have the highest certification of iimc so they are that's a master the masters of the the Masters that she's Curr working on and I know that Miss R is currently working on that she doesn't have actually very many more hours to go to finish but she is a certified municipal clerk and there are many of those showing on your salary survey yes so the city of chapelin is somewhere between 0 my first couple of years didn't realize how much that she she does correct um this year spending a lot of time with her learning to educate she does a lot she does and I can tell you that my opinion um that her valuation does not cover nearly the stuff that she's responsible for right which is not a fair evalu I mean it it's an evaluation yes we've used this but I believe that moving forward of sitting down with each of you and having a better evaluation that evaluates exactly what us to be more job specific yes ma'am because she u a lot of the stuff that she does just to help the council absolutely better you know by getting us to meetings um you know the special on we don't we don't evaluate special events right and she she does a phenomenal job with our special events y so she she does a lot I wonder how many of these other clks do what she does I can tell you from the yes that and that's what I was going to say is from my experience dealing being in that growing up in that experience of the city clity manager um knowing a lot of the ones surrounding here they don't have like my mother never did special events that was done with like the chamber she helped with some stuff but you know there's a lot of things that Miss rights does I mean it's like the Facebook um website those type of things yes we have multiple people who interact with that but she's she's our record so you know she's in charge of those type of things and you know there's a lot of other clks don't do that they stay in their little bubble of that my counsil and this is what I do right so yeah and it's just not the counsel I mean when I've been up here and going over stuff with her staff comes in AB she's right there to help yes you know so do a lot of a lot of PS all right Council Mr President yes sir so I just uh you know Trish and I even though we I don't work for her she doesn't work for me but you do notice over time you know how hard somebody does work right I will tell you that Latricia keeps I don't want to say odd hours but she'll leave here at 4:00 go home take care of the home life and she's back here at 6:30 it's a very common practice for to see her up here on Saturday helping with the V doing things City Hall not open I will tell you that we are better known today than we a couple years which is an indication of the home rules award we all got with having Latricia Latricia encourage us the way she does to go do things most of y'all know that I'm not a real big people person right but Latricia has managed to push me out of that lane and to get me more involved in parts of Florida Liga City parts of the North The Economic Development Council parts of river Lega City I mean the list goes on and on she will find you legislative committee um the resolution committee um all these things that that helped decide important things for the city that I was not aware of that would be beneficial for us she has arranged for meeting for us for our state representatives I will tell you right now now we got a 30 minute conversation with Chuck CL on our utility issues and how what we can do that even the floridaa city um legislative person there said nobody y'all were there so said he's not he to the same standard you know it's a 3% pay rate because of her position of a charter officer I think she should be given a pay raise that's commensurate of what she does for the city I don't know if we really know everything do because the time she's up here we don't know there would be a lot of going parade Flag Day you name we wouldn't have office supplies probably yeah no and she and and she even scrutinizes not his budget for sure some of the stuff that y'all don't know she even scrutinizes the bills on all of our staff product you know and goes over them to make sure that we're getting the best which you know y'all normally know that's something I do she Tes it on her own to make sure that the price for getting stable every well is the best price I appreciate everything she's done personally for me I don't think I could be the city manager or this city to be what they are today without sadly the apprciate everything Mr President I will tell you that Miss Ray has been absolutely critical to my role as your City attorney I am useless without your policies always is available to help me find them I'm useless without your contracts to review she makes sure that I have every single thing that I need when I'm late on my agenda items which I frequently am um Latricia will remind me please send them in and she gives me a grace period that that I do need um she's been I would not be able to provide you with the legal services I provide you if she did not provide me with the help that she provides to me yeah because even my wife was like what's the deal with all these meetings you're going to I said well it's because Latricia said we have to go yeah she's very good at that so she's very good fortunately I have not been on that radar yet just wait I know I think she's letting me settle and she asked me today how long I've been here I think because she's got something in her sleep so did she take you to the insurance meeting yet yes we went to that and we had the first thing see there she's got to go she did that one as soon as I walk in the door but we have a we have the insurance okay let's go so yes um she is she very allows us especially with my interactions with fmit she has opened the doors for my communication with them and it is it has been very beneficial for and and she's the reason I serve on their board because she pushed me to do that she nominated me to do that so that's why I'm there okay Council so we have some percentages in front of us so we can go by that or if you have another idea we can we can run that's not a I'm going to suggest that we take her to an even 72,000 is there is there anything that I should know about what we have at23 just at 25 what happen so I I can answer that question so um in the contingency Fund in the general just alone we have 31 any that's any of the raises that spart what do you think 72 would be about five and a half% in trees I mean money grew on trees I would love to give her like whatever right yeah but in having just sat with Mr Talen painer and been told that we need cautious I would like to give the most amount while still staying inside the bounds of caution might have to defer think that number is a little bit but I'm very comfortable with the 72 722 I'll take a motion I move we increase city clerk's salary U beginning October 1st of 2020 it would be September 23rd September 23rd 2024 uh to 72,000 a year okay have second all right anybody from the audience would like to say something can go ahead I just wanted to point out the math I did the math for you guys that's a dollar uh 78 cents uh an hour I just wanted to make sure you guys do that that that may change your perception um we've done in the past for other staff and whatnot we've done dollar and a half $2 two and a half dollar3 raises I just wanted to point that out that that comes out to a178 if you take the difference of the two okay thank you sir I gu is addition to the already oh she does being a charter member her and the city manager do not get okay the the automatic 3% okay sorry I didn't realize that so do you yeah I I feel like in in that case that I would be more comfortable with I mean I would like again money gr treat um but I would be more comfortable with a slightly higher amount knowing that the 3% was not already built in I was I'm just throwing it out I mean the 7% is an increase of $230 per hour and I don't work hourly so um I feel like that is a good I wish I had what did you say chap on was a big jum we just got done seeing everything that she she does she does for staff she does I think the math some on here is wrong 10% says 76,000 115,000 Mr Barber do you have a question okay right with it okay I am in the motion to make 75,000 all right sta anybody comment all right we move to vote all in favor say I I I those oppos score zero thank you we'll bring a resolution to the next meeting with this and I hope next year yes sir that if you tell us that these need to be in by such and such a date yes sir that they are in such such yes sir if noten the only one yes absolutely and I you know updating and moving forward with a probably a new process would probably be beneficial so maybe right after we get done with the budget year um looking at budgets then we can look at reevaluation of the valuation okay Mr Barber do you have a question sir all right all that finished item8 public participation second opportunity anybody from the public want to speak all right um item nine announcements that got anything bar I didn't want to do it at the beginning because I wanted to make sure everybody understood how important it was um tomorrow we begin many many days of smoke testing throughout the city um police fire utilities we've all coordinated this this gone out on the bills we'll get with um our city clerk and get more published in the morning about this but we have put it on Facebook and just for the Public's uh understanding this is putting smoke specifically through through our waste system uh through all of our Mains it's a special device it lets us know where we have storm water incursion lets us know where there's weaknesses in our system and so we're going to start mapping that out uh throughout the entire city it should be finished sometime midweek next week hopefully uh but I wanted to make sure that you spread the word and if you get phone calls about why is my sink have smoke coming through it why is my bathroom look like it's on fire you know don't immediately Panic um don't necessarily rush to call 911 unless they're sure it's something serious uh because uh there will be a lot of smoke coming up in a lot of different places uh for these tests are you doing this in quadrants around the city yes and we'll be updating that tomorrow the section right here around city hall and into the Northwest Quadrant will be the first one and we'll give updates for folks so they understand kind of what area that that's going to affect as we start out each morning and if we do see smoke coming out of the drains in our house we should call bummer absolutely you should call City Hall and let us know so we can document it come look at it and then we'll go from there and make a recommendation if we needed to do so and how long will each quadrant and test be for it depends on where the systems lead some of the sections in town are a little bit more interconnected than others some have a higher density of population than others and some like this area haven't been rebuilt since the 1940s so probably have a little bit more smoke holes than some of the other parts of town so um estimated guess I mean we should probably spend about 5 to six hours on the testing and it generally takes about 24 hours for all the smoke to dissipate internally within the pipe when it goes into your house is going to be a lot of smoke it's going to be a white odorless uh non-toxic uh smoke um uh they they can't sniff it or they can't get any kind of uh enjoyment out of it but it's also not harmful in any way either I saying like smoke detectors uh it could possibly set off a smoke detector if it's within the area but it won't set off like a carbon detector or anything of that nature okay all right anybody have questions Mr Mayor all right well it on 10 the Jour got a second second all right got a first got a second any other question all the favor say i i i 4 Z and the time is 7:46