##VIDEO ID:TWhQYwXuT4s## e e e e on the review for this uh what is the date 23rd of October 2024 can I get a roll call please commissioner doson here commissioner Mercer here commissioner Daner here mayor poam Yates here and mayor bson here we will have uh invocation then the pledge um so these presentations all will take place well now you say agenda review only the Strategic plan presentation yes sir so again that cityu class three GL graduation they had their last class last night um and they will do their uh an actual graduation ceremony I don't know if we'll have Pomp and Circumstance but we'll have 30 graduates in here to uh get their certificates on Monday um one of the things I wanted to do this evening actually this was scheduled for the two weeks ago um we had a lot of discussion about our strategic plan when we adopted that and how do we keep this from being what I call a a spot which is strategic plan on top shelf um we wanted to make it a living breathing document that we're we're referencing as often as we can so every month at your first agenda review we're going to provide you a a very brief and I mean very brief 10 minutes uh is our goal uh just an update on some of the things that we're doing within the various strategic pillars uh we will get through all six of our pillars with updates before we go back into a a goal revisit session next April and then we'll do those six again so uh for the month of October our first pillar that we just wanted to give you some updates and this is just really some things that we are doing that tie back to that pillar that that we think are important for the commission to know about um so this first month is on responsible government and I'm going to have some of my staff help with this presentation this evening again responsible government is all about managing our resources smartly fairly and with citizen input and on your slide gives you an examples of of some of those elements that are included in within that so that being said I'm going to ask Katrina Hill to get us kicked off with some information on where we stand with our uh Community feedback good evening here we go sorry I turned it off and forgot um so as you know we launched a survey effort through our partnership with Zen City in 2023 so that survey has now completed its third cycle the exact same survey goes out every six months to the community I mean it's a different different respondents each time it's still not really possible to identify solid Trends yet as we're this is the first time we have any year-over-year data but we are starting to look at it and try to figure out what we can glean from the information so on the graph in front of you you'll see each of the areas that we review our scores on in each cycle so it's each of our pillars and then an overall satisfaction the green line is for the first survey which was June of 2023 blue is December 2023 and red is this most recent cycle which was this summer June of 2024 the yellow represents an a Aver of all three per periods so I do want to touch on a few key points from this most recent cycle um well from every cycle really each of the scores is calculated from a series of three to five questions that make up the score for that individual pillar um most of the individual scores that you see calculate continue to fluctuate up or down within what we call the margin of error so five to 6% for this particular survey but I do want to review those that fluctuated more largely than that um so starting with Quality of Life Community safety and infrastructure left to right on your screen those all remain steady within the margin of error across the last three periods in the area of responsible government we saw the biggest drop with an overall drop of 12 points in that score um the biggest factor in that was a 22o drop on questions asking citizens to rate the value for the taxes they pay to the City of Winter Haven um we recognize this data um and some of the social listenings and some of the other engagements we've had there likely some misunderstanding about the city's budget and how all the different sources of revenue and how budgeting is done CJ is going to touch in just a minute on a new tool that we're rolling out um to try to help correct some of that perception we also saw a 10-point drop in the transparency and communication to citizens from the City of Winter Haven government um the lowest scores were from the Northwest and Southeast quadrants I will touch on some enhanced efforts in the area of reaching our city and making sure everyone is aware of what we're doing and feels that transparency in the next slide um in environmental stewardship we also saw an 11o drop in the rating um of solid waste and recycling services I'd venture to say based on the timing that that had to do with the county eliminating Recycling services um we've done a lot of work in the last two months to make sure our citizens are aware that we're not doing that I hope to see that one um rebound our other noticeable change was a drop in nine points in economic sustainability this category saw a drop in questions related to the availability of jobs that pay a living wage and planning for and managing growth so we know that growth is a Hot Topic right now and and we're working on another new public awareness campaign to help our citizens better understand what we can and what we sometimes cannot do in that are area um to just try to further educate them so it's not displayed on the screen but our net promoter score we did see a slight drop from 48 to 43 that was primarily driven in a seven-point drop and the question How likely are you to recommend Winter Haven as a place to live but the same group of respondents um answered very highly to if they would be living in Winter Haven for 5 years from now so that may be tied to that growth mentality of they don't want other people coming in um I do think it's important to note though that that overall satisfaction where we ask citizens how satisfied are they overall with the quality of life in in Winter Haven has stayed very high so that stayed up at 93 so we'll continue to run this survey every six months the next window will open in November with a report due to us in early 2025 can I ask a quick question yes do you um have an age limit on like the living wage question for example like a 17y old kid may not answer that the way a 25y old person do you have like an age cut off for people eight you got to be 18 MH okay how how large is the sample you say this particular sample I don't have that in front of me it's usually 6 700 I believe I can get that information to you there there no other um like home ownership or anything like that nothing I have all those demographics so we know race um we know male female we know age we know which quadrant of the city they're in it is verified that they're in city limits um and I do have the different income brackets so we can break it down that way and on that survey you know it's it is a it's a valid survey but it's just one one of several tools that we're trying to use to help understand really what's the perception of the of the community and and you know how effective are we in what we're doing um I think to to Really drill this down and there's some cities that do this and it's it's quite costly you can do a full-on community survey and spend you know a few hundred thousand dollar to to get that where you're getting a pretty significant sample size and you're getting a variety of characteristics and metrics within that um I don't know that that's NE that's a necessary tool for us I think we're we're really just trying to get a sense of what the community says more so than we ever have so we can be a little more um a little more aligned in how we're communicating and what we're educating on and where we need to do a better job versus um doing a full-on research study is it possible that the same person filled out that survey all three times or if they fill out the survey once are they kind of like not receiving future I believe the vendor controls for that um I can get more details on that for you but I do know that they're looking to get a different sample every time anyone else all right all right so the Strategic plan officially kicked off October 1st so we in our first month um the city manager personally took the Strategic plan and our fiscal year 25 budget out to all employees he went to each department and he also held some additional sessions for those that may not have been here the day that he visited their Department um staff were given and you each have one of these up there the staff handbook version of the Strategic plan um and moving forward all of our new staff received this during orientation along with an explanation of what the Strategic plan is and how they play play a key role in it so the staff one as you can see really focuses on timelines responsible parties and laying out those strategies and definitions for them as well as QR codes throughout if they want to get to the full version we also created a citizen version of the Strategic plan so that's the smaller one that you have up there um we've already distributed this to a few groups so our City University class um the chambers leadership Winter Haven class the chamber board of directors Winter Haven Economic Development Council board of directors and a few others have already received it um we do have the state of the city coming up November 7th at the rits and everyone that attends that will receive this additionally action strategy 6.3.4 right out of the Strategic plan outlines a new community outreach program that is launching in this fiscal year um and in that particular program we'll be working to get out to every single quadrant all four quadrants probably multiple times of the city um to really meet people where they are we'll go to them instead of asking them to come to us and this is part of what we will take and make sure it's in all of their hands so just making sure that our community has it and they know um what our priorities are over the next 5 years in addition to that we have a transparency dashboard on the website um I'm going to pull it up for you real quick and scroll through it little disclaimer this will update the second week of November so all of these that you're seeing right now are um fiscal year 24 numbers right the year that just ended um so the first set of data with aligned with the new strategic plan will come out in the first week of November and this will update to have all the new strategic plan goals and strategies and all of these metrics then back aligned to those strategies but this is on the website um and it will stay there and you'll be able to see everyone will be able to see those performance metric updates as they come in would it make sense to put this on access Winter Haven app a link there to like to navigate back to that we can do that we can put it right there on the home of the app make that happen and this is something we've never we've never done this before we've never had this much transparency out there with this type of information so again just trying to be as open to our citizens as we can ask um our CFO CJ Scott to give you a little insight into a new tool that we just launched in the last 30 days yeah um so first a little bit about the budget seems like a lot has happened since we approved the budget um the gfoa government Finance Officers Association established the distinguished budget award for exceptional budgets and we have received that budget the exceptional budget for the last 31 years and a big thank you to Cal Bowen for making that happen um last year we also received special recognition for our strategies and goals now how does gfoa evaluate the budgets well they look their criteria is based on best practices and um when the budget award originally started they had nine rating factors now they have 25 and here's just a few of them but um we align our budget book with those best practices so um as you can guess we go above and beyond the basic criteria that's the way our city rolles um with detailed um with accounts we provide a lot of detailed information especially like capital accounts machinery and equipment and Capital Improvements debt schedules we have over 10 years of um debt schedules and then for FTE we provide over three years and we include pay grades along with pay rates now the only downside to this is our budget book is 500 pages and that's a little bit of a challenge to read so we created the budget in brief and I I know you all have received this um should be a copy at the Das for each of you of the budget in brief yeah so this is an awesome document that captures the essence of our budget book um it shows the budget we're close to 300 million our millage hasn't gone up since 2018 actually it went down in 2022 um it shows this the critical needs of our City Public Safety Clean drinking water safe roads um it really captures everything and I like on the last page the FTE um I do want to say we rolled this out to the CDU and I believe we had one of the most popular presentations um and I don't think it was us it was the buget and brief and one of the attendees said what are you going to read the budget book or are you going to take a look at the budget and brief and you have all that information there I also want to say a big thank you to the city manager and Katrina Hill because when we create our the way Finance created it it looked like a kindergarten clipboard and by the time they got done with it it was a comprehensive really attractive document and Commissioners this is intended that we can give this to any citizen any business anybody that's out there we can make sure you all have copies of it it's going to be it's on the website um this is you want to know about government finances in Winter Haven for 2425 this is all you need to look at if you want to dig deeper if there's some really burning issue you want to get into we can direct your right to the uh the full budget book and on that back page there's a QR code again scan that with your phone and it's going to take you right to it so um this is something that that we'll make available if you are going out to speak to a group and you want copies of this we'll make sure that you have this as well as that citizen version of the Strategic plan to take with you um again I look at these as somewhat of our our committal contracts back to the community that we serve okay so the next thing I want to talk about is our credit rating just like an individual has a credit score the city has a credit rating are three rating well there are three rating agen es uh Moody's standard and po S&P and fit we have contracted with fit and SNP um what are they looking at when they're rating our city the debt level um Financial condition you know we want to be financially healthy debt security we have the funds to pay off that debt economic and demographic profile we have no control over that but they're looking at education they're looking at income they're looking at race um so that's one factor we can't control and then management if there's a high turnover in management that raises a red flag so how are we doing well in the past two years we've received two promotions um Fitch they rate we went um just recently from a double a negative to a double A positive um uh S&P last year we went from a double a negative to double a stable and then with uh utility we went from a double a negative to Able a stable yeah so um and let me show you so what does that mean we are in the high-grade area and the better your rating when you go out to borrow funds it helps with lowering that borrowing cost so we have done really well um any questions on the credit rating and those were just done in um September time frame that's we call that the The Fitch ratings conferences that they do with us there's a tremendous amount of information that the finance department along with Gary hubard um Gary's done a great job on this on the Utility side uh we are right where we need to be in that area if we could get to double A Plus and have positive outlooks that's even better um the problem with getting to that AAA is to to maintain that tripa is extremely difficult and at some point you're going to slip backwards and I almost say you're better to be a a strong number number two category in that with a a lot of opportunity to maintain it versus being at the top of the list and have a lot of opportunity to see it drop um and the last thing I have is the RFQ for depository services so we bank with a nationwide corporate bank for our banking services and that's fine but we also have $6 million in customer utility deposits and and we don't get interest on that and that's for Florida statute um so we would like to take that $6 million we went out for an RFQ and invest it in a local bank um and our whole um philosophy is exceptionally local where we Embrace and support our local community so the intent of this is depositing funds in a local bank will help us support the local economy um and and one more slide um the expectation the local bank will invest a portion of the deposits in the community which can contribute to the growth and development of our area local banks also have a better understanding of Local Economic conditions and may be better equipped to provide Financial Solutions tailored to the community needs so um right now we um we have a selection committee they will look at the responses and we'll move on from there and that will come back before the city commission for final action at some point in the next probably 30 to 60 days I just have a question about local So when you say local are you you just have to have a physical presence in win haven local local because there are banks that are really local yeah right there Banks so there there's a lot of criteria that are that it's outlined within that RFQ we we researched similar requests for qualifications and proposals from a number of other cities to craft that um and you got to I don't know how many banks in in Winter Haven specifically but they're not necessarily headquartered in that's the case you know I'll just speak freely you know we we bank with truist which is not a a local bank and certainly any benefit there is that comes off of that $6 million in um non-interest bearing deposits that goes back to that bank and they can you know use that as leverage in whatever Community they want most likely back in their where their headquarters so we look for banks that were headquartered specifically within PK County um and use that as the the underlying approach there now I just one yeah yeah I think that would that would be certainly a Way Forward uh as it relates to you know banks that are that are you know a local in the sense that they're headquarters here in in P County we have several but also we have credit unions as well so my wife would wanted me to say that okay but uh that that have been a commune for a long time noted and I can you know it's the the it's our local banks that get involved in things you know in the community they're doing they're helping with a number of different projects and initiatives to benefit the community and it just makes good sense there last thing we want to talk about this evening uh commissioner is just from a responsible government big piece of responsible government as you may recall from that first slide is um our care for our employees and our retention uh really what we're doing to uh to fill vacancies and and and address um the uh retirement of people as that comes along and so Shan Dyk can give you a quick update on our efforts to recruit a new fire chief I shared with you that fire chief Sunny Emery will be retiring at the end of January after a very long um and uh and decorated career here with the city um and so just in in advance of that and not waiting until someone's gone before we try and fill the seat this is where we are good evening I just wanted to um walk you through kind of the processes and schedule that we H have in place in um recruiting our newest or our new um fire chief um with the assistance of our Communications team we launched off a marketing brochure which you should have at your seats um we identified um professional industry sites which to recruit with and have accepted applications or resumés through the 17th of this month since then we have um reviewed those applications and we have are set to begin our first round of Zoom interviews this week um our second round of scheduled interviews are scheduled for the week of November 4th and and that will consist of um some Community stakeholders peers from the leadership team members of the fire department and professionals from the fire industry our third and possible final round of interviews for this position um will be with our city managers and are expected to take place the week of November 11th or the 18th depending on timing as our candidate listing is narrowed down backgrounds screens of ver verification of the information provided will be checked and verified we um anticipate the selected candidate to join us um the first part of January of 2025 which will allow some time with the current chief um for a smooth transition if for some reason someone is not selected this does not occur we're confident that assistant city manager Charlie bird will continue to keep a float and uh guide the department as needed as we find the right candidate for this position so Commissioners this is the same process we've used for I think every Department director that we've hired on over the past probably I don't know Gary how long have you been here five years now six six and a half and um uh seems like just yesterday and so we've used this process of panel interviews and stakeholders and an assessment center that we run um I'm excited about the process like I said we we're doing we're starting Zoom interviews tomorrow um is that first wave and we'll narrow that down and and get to this this next phase but this is how Vance came to be a member of our team this is how MJ was selected CJ Gary uh Troy Britney the whole process of what we do there is uh Julie Adams went through this this is um Katrina was put through the ringer um fortunately you don't do this for city managers um but we're we're excited about this and and I I feel confident we will have a a fire chief come early January and have that smooth transition and be ready to roll last uh thing I want to just share with you and Charlie you are you going to speak on the community safety piece or would you like me to do that for the next one he's giving me the look so I'll go ahead and talk about it um so in two weeks we'll be back to the first agenda review for the month of November and we'll do an update on on um our community safety pillar there what I can tell you to expect that evening is some updates on cyber security from hip some updates on what we're doing with our leaden copper rule compliance which pertains to water safety and folks from uh Gary hub's department will be here to speak on that we also intend to bring to you uh a demonstration that evening on brand new technology that we have launched Within the police department that involves virtual reality training for the proficiency of our officers and using newly deployed taser units and this is quite fascinating how this works in the training that they go through we'll demonstrate that right here on the floor and you'll get to see that on your screens and see exactly what the officers see uh when they're encountering this so pretty pretty exciting stuff so with that that's our update for this month on responsible government all right thank you T thank you sir okay we have no developments of notes then we have the minutes um now we're to the audience's second readings we've reviewed these once so are there any changes the only thing I would say is that on items um on ordinance 2430 and 31 those were heard by the city Commission I believe back in August and they were transmitted to the Department of Commerce they were of a a magnitude that required that transmittal and so that's why they are delayed in getting back to you normally they're two weeks apart um because we had to wait for the feedback from Department of Commerce on those so uh they are then there was no comments received from Department of Commerce D fdot or any of the other agencies at the state level that review that okay what about uh 45 and 46 no changes since um since the last um uh since two weeks ago when you when you heard this 47 and 48 uh no changes on 47 item 48 this is again where we're uh establishing the levels of service standards on our sanitary sewer subelements and that one um again had to be transported uh transported transmitted to the Department of Commerce and they have uh again issued um their what we call an orc report objections recommendations uh Corrections or changes and there was no no comments from any of the state agencies on that so it is ready for approval makes it consistent okay and then we have the consent agenda the rowy gains um this is a uh an exciting item to bring forward to you so we had entered into a uh sear construction manager risk contract with Rada Construction in March of 2024 for the renovations of Rowdy gain's pool they have submitted a follow a scope of work um that includes the renovation of the pump and filtration chemical systems the pool deck renovation and some expansion there a pool deck pool deck parameter perimeter drainage improvements a new liner in the main pool as well as all the contingency bonds and and uh overhead fees and things that go with that um this is in line with the two million budget that we have there are two actual items here one is for the approval of that GMP uh from R which is at um 1,618 671 and a uh amendment to our scope of services with a design team which is right Pierce for limited Construction services at the end of the day the total project comes out to 1,999 637 and again it's a budget of 2 million so we are within budget that project is slated to begin Adam when do you think you'll you'll actually start on that uh December 2nd December 2nd so we'll be out of the high school swim season allows us to do all that work during the the cooler months when the pool has less activity in it and so we'll uh we'll work to get that done as quickly as possible Rody as you know is already mobilized on site as they're doing the Chain of Lakes Park Phase 2 project CH ma'am yes um this pool like be brand new no leaks no whatever well there shouldn't be any leaks now this is the the biggest issue that we're dealing with on this system is we're we're dealing with filtration and chemical application systems that were installed in 2002 so we're 22 years old on that we're still using pelletized or uh briquette style um chlorine product which has a lot of um has a lot of byproduct with it you know that that um Bond bonding agents and stuff that go into it that that creates some issues for the filtration this will new system will be on a liquid chlorine system much easier to work with um much less expense to that operationally we'll see some savings there they're they are replacing the pool liner on the main pool um if there is an opportunity for us and and this is something I'm going to look at over the next two weeks if I can identify the funds to also do the diving well ler at that time I'd like to go ahead and do that that's estimated if we do it separately it it probably last us another 2 to 5 years is what staff projects cost us about $150,000 to do it then we could probably do it for about 130,000 now so I'll work with Finance to see if we can can take care of that at that point everything out there is brand new and you should have a realistically no less than a 15 plus year uh window on those liners if and everything else should be good to go okay we're much better than we were in 2002 commissioner Mercer when we were losing problems losing an awful lot of WaterOne else 10B 10B uh MJ is going to give a quick summary on this one yeah this is kind of an interesting one so the department of energy has a block grant program that is focused on Energy Efficiency uh so similar in um Community Development block grants where there's an allocation based on the size of your community uh so the city has an allocation of 7 $6,800 um but we still have to apply for that like a grant and meet a certain set of criteria um and it's kind of a narrow group of what those criteria for something eligible would be uh so after reviewing it we think that um a purchase of an electric vehicle uh to be used for microtransit uh in the downtown cras um is probably probably a qualifying um purchase so that is that is what we are putting in an application for uh we talked about that during um our strategic planning session and that actually aligns strategy 3.2.1 says to evaluate Implement enhance mass transit and microtransit services assets and policies So This falls right in line with that um there's a picture of it there it's a what we're looking at is what's called a gem car very similar we have one of these vehicles now within the the city's operations uh but it would be operated by a third party most likely uh and used as like a microtransit so if you guys have seen the squeeze in Lakeland or in um Lake Wales be very very similar type operation but using an EV vehicle instead of a gas vehicle that would be paid for um through this block grant program so that is what we're we're just seeking um approval to go ahead and submit that application for that so basically it would be to purchase this vehicle yes sir yeah two of them and then the uh the operation of it will it be through there there's a couple third party vendors we've talked to uh Citrus connection is one there are some other options as well that we would use is it going to be blue I think they come in white standard we'll make it whatever color the commission wants you need to have that color stands out I would think you could get them wrapped yeah I think that's actually what we had talked about was uh potentially wrapping them put an orange roof on that and have an orange and blue one that would be pretty nice oh but but we the the let me let me say this dud the purchase would uh would would take place later this is just to apply for that uh Grant allocation and see if it's something that they deem eligible how how much are the vehicles um [Music] individually I don't think we have that in the fact sheet here uh but it's $76,000 so it be uh about 78,000 for both of them for both of them for both of them yes sir y they're are they climate control they condition no they're not so it's it's like a uh it's like a very nice golf cart maybe way like a soup Cup golf cart it is street legal yeah there's some there's some stuff that makes it different from a there are windows that go up yes sir the one that the one that we uh we'd spec out had doors on it that way it could be used during inclement weather the top of is it for uh putting items or something on top of it or I think in that picture the top of it has a solar panel on it um we we would just charge them most likely that is it it is all electric it is all electric yes sir yeah we have one of these now that the um downtown CRA purchased um we probably need to do a better job of putting that in some of our parades um so instead of riding on the mule every time maybe riding a gem car I don't know we'll explore that and see how we can get some greater publicity of it all right than okay uh 10 C uh so this is the purchase of three uh grapple trucks these are the claw trucks that we're using for debris collection uh we use for standard collection of landscape materials and um other types of junken waste throughout the year uh two of these are replacements for vehicles we have that are uh getting quite long in the tooth and one of them is an additional vehicle uh we we haven't added a vehicle to that Fleet in quite some time uh and as the community continues to grow the need for that has grown as well and all of that is budgeted for within our uh within this year's budget and that's just we're asking for a ratification these are these are detailed in the budget which um per our procurement policy allows the the for myself to sign off on making those purchases because they're basically approved at the time that the the budget's approved but I wanted to bring this back to you one um to to show you that we're we're following through on those purchases these will help us also with our debris management efforts um Britney do you know what the turnaround time to actually take delivery on these would be we issued them a letter of intent um and they the next So within within the month we'll have these trucks and for you know again trying to maintain our debris management that'll help how many do we have in the fleet Britney can you go to the podium question is how many do we have within the fleet now um we currently have 18 total with or 15 total within the fleet at the moment some of those are spares um and some of them belong to our streets operation as well as our Parks operation and they are moved around as needed but we have 15 total at the moment is there a little difference in the design from the from the newer from the older um no these are typically standard there are a few that a few years ago we bought that had a route assist component on them they have a small um side edge where they can load things um that they may not need to actually bring the claw out for um so that allowed them to load more efficiently um in some of our newer neighborhoods that maybe didn't have as much debris and then dump into to the body Brittney will there be one of these at the Hands-On Haven event uh right now they're all picking up debris so we did not a hands on Haven um that's where our focus is at the good reason not to you know in the um the special meeting that we had yesterday um stated that you were getting the uh the debris what about the furniture and junk because our policy basically according to what I've been told is that you have to call to get those items picked up yes well and our neor all around town I see it all around town that there just uh a lot of junk for the LA of a better turn yes sir um we're we're aware um so because of hurricane Milton and coming through um the the city as well as the county has shifted to only collecting the hurricane debris and those are phased based off of guidelines set by FEMA for collection um so the first phase is the actual debris collection second phase comes into bagged brush and then moving into that construction debris as well as household Furniture um so that that is how the process we're moving at the moment um but when we are not in a debris collection State collecting from a storm it is that you have to schedule your your bolt collection we we drive a set route for all of our Horticultural waste um but the debris collection is an allart service and that the residents need to call and schedule that so we aren't driving around aimlessly searching for for debris so Britney for clarification I think to the mayor's question the you are picking up the non bagged horiculture waste now and that is a Public Health Directive and FEMA recognizes that then you go you'll run the same routes to pick up the bagged leaves and twigs and all that stuff and then the third run that you do through their with with County Contractors as well is on household goods white goods those types of things and they do not need to call in for that it will just be part of the regular rout for that once once our debris our our hauling contracts come to a close and everybody has said everything from Milton has been collected we will resume our scheduled based bulk collection services does that answer your question Mr Mayor yes I because I I'm just yeah whether or not we will going to just start picking those items up without people calling because people are not calling we'll make a pass of those before we go back to normal operations yep I've got I've seen stuff that has been out for month and a half two months yeah and that's a problem we run into in fact we were scheduled to meet in the last two weeks and the hurricane kind of put a kibos on this was that not everybody calls that in right no I somebody gets evicted and the whole household basically throws up at the side of the road it looks like um our drivers are directed to make note of that and one of the things that I'm working uh strategy with code compliance in public works now is when we have that how do we how do we tackle that faster how do we how do we mitigate that issue and and who who gets build for that because if somebody evicts somebody they just take all their stuff and they stick it at the side of the road and a lot of times that's a full truckload yes they've never called it in and then the people in that neighborhood are kind of stuck um the best eyes we have on that is our folks that are out driving around whether that be within right now it's mainly within our public works department and the solid waste uh workers that are running those routes but I think one of our strategies coming out of this this meeting I'll be having with code compliance and others is really making that a priority for all of our people that are on the streets that if you see that if you see excessive piles make note of it and get that to public works so that then they can follow up directly with that property owner the only problem T is that even if that's done and you you tried to address it you you clear it and I'm just talking hands-on experience in my neighborhood we erected the sign cleared it it stayed clear for maybe 3 weeks and then somebody dumped again yep that's that's the illegal dumping y yeah and that's that's on our our r radar as well yes sir yeah I mean it's and it's it's a it's a I think just a Citywide problem that we and I don't know the answer to it but if there's well we used to at one time we used to pick up furniture and stuff without people calling we we did and we would run and again that was the time when we were running with about 13,000 homes that we were servicing and we're well over 20,000 homes now um and what ends up happening is you would have those trucks they just they're constantly running the route and it's the least efficient way for us to do that and it was not consistent with what our code calls for either in terms of how we pick up junk so using an on demand service um helps ensure that we're getting those areas we're not putting additional wear and tear on the vehicles or unnecessarily wasting fuel in the process and we can really be more responsive to the resident um you know those are those are changes we've made over the past few years and really that came out of what necessitated that just a little kind of looking back over it was coming out of covid we didn't have the manpower to get it done you we were scrambling like everybody else for drivers and collectors and the the garbage has to be picked up the household garbage is the number one priority because that that truly becomes the the the most critical public health and safety issue um so that's when we made that change to better align with our our code um and it's worked well um I think that that over overall it's it's an easy process that that's why we have the access Winter Haven originally was so that people could do that right from their phone I've got Junk to be picked up you plug it in it goes straight to our system so we will we will get it up um we do just have to get all this you know the the horiculture debris up first one of the mayor go ahead one of the things that we assume is that everybody uses some form of you know um Facebook or or you know some point of media like that there are people out there that still don't do that and so if an employee or somebody sees that could they you know like write down the address and then maybe have someone uh as you see the pile leave a hanger a door hanger or something on the door you have to call it in or something like that yeah and and it may be that the drivers that are out there maybe a it may be a sideloader that sees it commissioner Mercer and they don't they wouldn't necessarily know if that pile has been called in and so that's why getting the address and bringing it back to the office and then from the office we can make contact with that Resident to to get that squared up and so one of the things we do do um is these come in on access Winter Haven or our drivers report them our office staff is reaching out to the account holder to let them know that that wasn't scheduled collection but we will be scheduling it um in the day that it will be scheduled um we also are putting a mailer into the mail as soon as we we talk to those people because we understand that not everybody is on social media um we've added that to the bills so if anybody is looking at their bills I know we've gone digital so not as many people are reviewing those um as of late and then one of the additional communication pieces um we are working on a um postcard if you will um to notify residents that the City of Winter Haven is still recycling as well as about that bulk um schedule um and that the plan is for that to go out as we are completing our our hurricane M and clean up um so that will be just kind of fresh on their minds at that moment thank you so you would you would and I've mentioned this before but you would think that the garbage drivers could have a iPad in there and just a pin drop system so you know if this Street's got 50 pens on it you know that's a high volume Street to to tackle my question is um the we ran into this in previous storms but the yard waste that's bagged is now on in many cases is on on top of the tree limbs and everything else and so in previous storms that got passed by it wasn't picked up are we are we passing that by again like I know we've we've marketed you know to the nth degree separate your items do this do that but I'm just wondering are we are we getting out and throwing the bags to the side or right now due to the sheer volume of debris that we're collecting if there's bags or comingled junk within the pile we're not collecting those and we're notating those for the second round of collection um because that we we have no disposal site unless we want to pay to take it into the landfill um the disposal site that we have here in Winter Haven will not allow us to bring any bagged or comingled materials in and what we ended up doing in Hurricane Ian was actually we collected all that debris that was in bags and we used um a additional labor to open all those bags and create another pile and then transfer that pile and again it's it's it's frustrating that you have to do that um I don't know how we better educate on this is this is the challenge of it and it's not just here I mean that's that's an everywhere problem there it is the problem I I've got property people just they put their stuff they just mixed it all up on my property and just keep going but any rate it's what we have to deal with all right any other questions okay so T D um this is just simple travel and training this is just so I could share the commission um requesting permission to uh to travel to an icma uh local government reimagined conference this is later in uh the end of February um an opportunity to uh engage with some other city managers and find out some Innovation strategies uh the the in addition to that conference what I intend to do during my travel there is to spend some time with the folks in Denver and learn from them on what they're doing with some of their housing initiatives and homeless efforts um specific they've got a a a um Net Zero homeless initiative that pertains to Veterans I'd like to get see if I can bring some more of that back okay all right 16 a b and c they're all yours so this is real quick I'm not going to waste your time with this this evening but I just want to give you this information um this is normally I provide you a monthly or a quarterly updates in um in September and with the the hurricane and some other issues that we were tacking at that time not had a chance to get this before you I won't go through this but this just gives you some of the highlights of what occurred in the period of um June July and August I'm sorry yeah July August and September I apologize um so the uh July SE July August September 24 so that is just for your uh use as you see fit um 16b just want to point out that uh the grant Nate application Review Committee um Dr Steve Negley has stepped down from that he served his three years on that on that uh committee and due to some uh personal matters and and needing to address uh some family issues he is having to uh free up some time for that so he has submitted his uh request to not be reappointed Dr Negley was appointed um from our records what we've reviewed was appointed by um commissioner JP Powell at the time that seat is now filled by commissioner dollson so we are requesting that Comm doson identify someone to fill that seat and um present that to us so we can do the necessary efforts to uh vet that person out to to be on that board so commissioner if you would uh it's your pleasure uh make give some consideration for someone to represent um you and and your your ideals on that committee um the only thing that we ask is that they not be affiliated with any of the nonprofit that would apply for funding through us because that would create a conflict of interest so if you and you can just share that um if you if you want to share that with me we'll begin that process and then we'll bring that back to the city commission for actual approval to appoint them okay um the last item I have is uh this is just for some logistic consideration I want to make sure that on um as we look at the November calendars and we're just trying to make sure we are prepared for any Public Notices that we do for planning uh commission related items that would come to the city commission your commission meetings in November are November 11th and November 12th November 11th has been moved to November I'm sorry November 11th has been moved to November 12th which is due to the uh Veterans Day holiday and that is per Charter that when the meeting falls on a holiday we go to the next Tuesday so that is all said November 25th is the Monday uh prior to um uh Thanksgiving we have not traditionally cancell that meeting and I'm not requesting that you cancel I just would like the affirmation that we will meet on that evening so that we can plan accordingly as we begin establishing agenda items for those those meetings I think the only time we've had cancellations during my ten year here has been on the agenda review if it happened to fall on that Wednesday before actual Thanksgiving day but we have not canell the um the meeting itself if it was on that Monday we typically cancel the last meeting in December that is correct yeah me this that's fine with me if you're asking or you I'm just ask I just want a confirmation that we will meet on the 25th okay in that meeting on in December um commissioner dancer in response to your comment that would be on December 23rd yeah so we would cancel that meeting is that the consensus okay and the agenda review on the uh 18th yes sir we will we will take action to to make sure that's noted as such that's all I have thank you all right mayor I got two things I want to bring up just real quick uh for what it's worth Andy Ireland just passed away and I don't know if and used to be our mayor or if he was uh I know he's a City Commissioner but if he half we probably ought to fly the flag at half mask if he was mayor we will uh we'll research the wall before we we leave tonight so anyway he's he just passed away um and the other thing is I'm just asking this to the commission and any and T if y'all felt compelled or thought it might be a good idea to do a proclamation for Winter Haven High School for all they did during the the the hurricane opening up their building for everybody to stay in and made it a relief center and all that I mean I don't we can do it or not I'm just putting it out there because sometimes it's nice to be recognized by us uh and they did you know open the building up for the community to crashed there during the hurricane and it just might be nice to have Gina come in and recognize her and do a proclamation or something a thank you kind of a deal I just throw it out there for what it's worth and see what y'all think is that the school or the or the county I mean so well it's it's it's it's the school I mean we would we would probably just thank Gina I would think um that's principal and staff from the school still works the yeah the the site when that happen their staff from and it was pretty full I mean it wasn't packed but it was pretty full and so it was it's a burden on them and sometimes it's nice to be recognized with a thank you that's all I think their count was like three or 400 people in that ballpark it's pretty Co so it's an inconvenience and be nice to just thank them we can do whatever the commission Wishes the the um the designation of the shelters comes from the um it's in coordination between the superintendent and the P County emergency management director as to what school how many schools they need to open up and um but certainly we had two schools here in in Winter Haven um Winter Haven High School and chain Lakes Elementary we're both used as shelter both just thank them both and yeah appreciate your efforts whatever was appropriate we can uh we can certainly do that um and uh and have that ready for you it' probably be at the uh first meeting in November um and I also wanted to make mentioned I'm glad you mentioned resolution or or or uh Proclamation there um we will have a fluide uh item ready for you apologize that that's not ready for Monday um we just need a little bit more time between the two meetings um to turn that around City attorney myself Gary Hub and others are working on that and I expect that to be ready for you at your first meeting in November as well for your consideration I see Gary in the back does he concur with our thoughts or you have any thoughts on floride Gary CU we we're getting ready to kick it out all right bad idea good idea what do you know about fluoride um you know really the fluoride issue is a community decision personally myself me personally speaking the less chemicals that we add to the water I feel better so I'm I am supportive okay thank you we we have asked the Department of Health just so you know we've reached out I presume G had someone at his staff reach out okay to see if they have a viewpoint on that issue um I have done some research myself that I've shared with staff that it's a very controversial it can be very very controversial um it's was recently done in ker County and in pinelis County about a decade ago it was very very controversial okay they they they took it off and then they put it back on again because elected officials got voted out of office because of it fair enough so you have the information on Andy irand uh service yes he's getting he's getting buried on no on Christ Community Church uh I just got a text let me see if I can find it for you uh his son text me um Brad I just pulled up his obituary yeah you got it in the newspaper and it says a service will be held on Saturday November 16th at 202 at 11:00 a.m. at Christ Community Church Christ Community that's out in Overlook Drive pass right between Catholic Church on Overlook Drive there all right but I think he was a mayor don't you you did you ever sh with him just tease him I know that wasn't he a mayor at one point I thought he was anyway all right any reports but now matters not received for the agenda motion to ad joint