##VIDEO ID:fCYBTThZWfE## e e she's princip 11 a 11 a not Je how are you I said this time I didn't forget to bring my hand cuz I'm telling you these hot flashes are kicking my butt [Music] body good good evening I'd like to call to AUD of w Haven City commission meeting this is the 12th day of November 2024 at 6: p.m. can I have a roll call please yes sir commissioner dollison here commissioner Mercer here commissioner danler here may mayor May prates and mayor bson here we will have an invocation by Minister Abdul Al from First Missionary Baptist Church and we be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Vanessa Castillo city clerk please stand in faor let us pray dear Lord God we come now before your throne of grace and mercy thanking you for this day and this hour asking your prayers peace and blessings on these our commissioners and staff who have been called to lead our community in which we live of work and play we ask dear Lord that you would grant them the wisdom knowledge and understanding and courage to make the decisions that would enable our city and his people to live prosper and grow in safety and unity we ask dear God that in all their deliberations they will first think of the common good of our city and its residents thank you Lord for all our service members of the Army Marine Corps Navy Air Force Space Force Coast Guard Army Reserves and National Guard we thank you for all our leaders at all levels of government in our city county State and our nation now Lord as we enter this meeting we thank you for answered prayer we thank you for your grace and mercy may we always be guided by the spirit of community Justice and love and give you all praise honor and glory and all of God's children said amen amen I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all to join the [Music] Commissioners honorable mayor and Commissioners we have a single Proclamation this evening followed by a presentation um but for the proc clation uh this is recognizing members of the P County school board and some of our local schools so I'm going to ask uh our principls from Lake Region Winter Haven High School and chainel Lakes Elementary to come forward and we anticipated having um superintendent Hyde and Jason pittz is Jason okay Jason thank you sir I didn't see you sitting back there um to come forward and I'll read the proclamation it reads as follows we're at as the PK County School Board closed all P County Public Schools and offices to normal operations on Tuesday October 8th 20124 due to Hurricane Milton and whereas the P County School Board opened multiple schools throughout P County as shelter sites including pet friendly and special needs shelters and prepared to remain open as needed to serve those who may have required shelter and whereas in the Winter Haven area Winter Haven High School and Chain of Lakes Elementary both served as general population shelters and Lake Region High School as a pet friendly shelter these schools served over 1,000 people and 100 pets during Sheltering operations and whereas within those schools more than 40 P County Schoolboard staff work 12-hour shifts alongside 10 P County deputies and whereas The Cooperative efforts of the P County School Board in working with P County leadership and Emergency Management ensured Sheltering opportunities for both local residents and those seeking shelter from other communities now therefore Nathaniel J Birdsong Jr mayor of the City of Winter Haven Florida on behalf of the city commission and our community does hereby express our express our sincerest appreciation to those who went above and beyond their daily School District duties and recognized their heartfelt dedication to Safety in our community in witness whereof he is heing to set his hand and cause the Seal of the city of Winter Haven Florida to be affixed this 12th day of November 2024 signed Nathaniel J Birdsong Jr mayor ATT test Vanessa Castillo city clerk don't have a speech prepared but I want to thank these ladies and their staff if you've not been to a if you've not had the privilege at staying at one of our shelters uh during a hurricane uh you have missed some very hard work you know these these staff do their regular job during the day they stay at these and and these principals stay there for several days it's just not one shift and and we can't thank them enough uh for the time that they put in um and so I just want to thank them for their hard work and and and what they do during their hurricanes thank you thank you principes if you'd all like to come forward I have Dr hobby here with me who also helped with the shelter he's one the please come forward so hover you now you want to get them organized for right two one more thank thank you very much mayor and Commissioners as you're making your way back to the DI um like to in invite forward Dan chesnik with theater Winter Haven um as you know theater the city completed its transaction to acquire the Ritz Theater on in August of this year and immediately we enter entered into an extended Amendment with uh theater Winter Haven to operate that on the city's behalf so Mr chesnik is going to give you a brief presentation on what is happening in the world of theater Winter Haven and the Ritz Theater hi thanks for having me wait for my presentation to come up do I do there we are um I've pick been in this job now for nine years and about two months and in the first month that I had this job I met with then assistant city manager stabs and he challenged me to make sure that we do so much art in this community that no one ever complains of not having anything to do and he never wanted to lose a potential resident to Orlando or Tampa because we didn't have an Arts Focus here in Winter Haven and so I'm here nine years later to kind of tell you how it's going and I'm just going to go through this as quickly as I can as a laundry list with just a couple of points on each slide um we're best known for our main stage of course this is what's been happening for 55 years at theater Winter Haven the couple points that I want to make about this is one our price the whole season all of those shows is a total of $108 um it is a value of ours that no member of our community will be excluded from the Arts that they can't afford it so when we are pricing our products we do the opposite exercise that most people do most people try and figure out what the market can bear and then charge that we try and find the lowest price that we can possibly charge and still say solvent that is a value that will run through every single thing that I talked through today and on our main stage we do 105 performances when the Fieldhouse got its facelift the city graciously turned over the old gym to us and challenged us to even bring more art to the community in which we built the Norman and Linda small second stage that is runs just like the main stage we do a number of performances there we do 46 performances there in this year that was built in 2002 at a cost of about $130,000 for us I also want to point out that the main stage we also have been investing in making those City facilities better last year we replaced all the seats that cost about 75,000 we put a new sound at 37,000 in a whole LED wall so we spent 145,000 on the main stage last year as well just in uh Capital we have our Academy Series this is free to all participants and it's theater by kids but it's also important to know that it is for kids this is where we invite all the schools from P County to come and watch shows during the there uh during a field trip focusing on those schools that are economically depressed and so they have access to the theater we even will pay for transportation to get those folks to the theater so they can see their shows knowing that they may not be exposed to this on a regular basis our ghost light Lounge is something we built and opened up following the pandemic we saw a real need in our community for artists who needed a place to perform all of our stages are so um programmed that we very often couldn't open up little spaces and slots for local artists the ghost light Lounge is for the community they book those shows in there themselves they come to us and we just say yes we've pre-wired it so they can have all the um technology of a modern theater and it is completely free to them to perform in and also should they wish to charge for their performance we go ahead and we donate back to the artist 100% of the performance fee for that so this is a a laboratory for local artists to do whatever it is that they want we're averaging one show a week there I want to talk a little bit about the Florida theater conference because this was a huge commitment for us we used to do six shows on the main stage now we only do five um in order to make space for Florida theater conference we just finished that this weekend we welcomed to Winter haven, 1600 participants from 56 Florida communities we hosted 31 plays on our main stage in our small small stage in those 3 days we hosted 67 workshops we and we had over 400 auditions for 39 colleges that were at the complex we are the only the only conference that uses the entire every single room in that entire building both theater side and on the Fieldhouse side for that the entire Fieldhouse is a trade show for um colleges and arts related things there wasn't there wasn't a hotel to found in this town all last week it's a huge economic driver I know for the folks over at visit Central Florida and P County I'm even told Starbucks ran out of coffee they're mad about it I got to give them a heads up next year they've let me know um but I'm sure everybody wants to know what's happening at the Ritz is that's been the the highlight of everything that's been going on we've moved in in August we took August and much of September to renovate the whole inside um it looks great so we have some goals there that are very clear and brought to us by you our city leaders and the success of the RIT is not going to be measured inside the rits the success of the Ritz will be measured by the economic activity that we drive up and down Main Street and making sure that we are a true economic driver for everything that's happening downtown in order to do this we have to give people a reason night after night after night to come downtown and um and explore what it is that we have to offer and hopefully spill out into the streets and visit the food locations the bars the shops and all of the new and exciting things that will be coming to Winter Haven starting out with Tes I'm going to start on Tuesday since it is Tuesday and I don't know what everybody's doing here because there is a tribute show happening one block from here um it's Crosby Stills nashing young um we can fix it though come join us next week for queen or the week after for Elton John or in the beginning of the the of December when we do the Carpenters Christmas we have 25 of these scheduled throughout the year we do two shows at 5: and at 8 this is something we brought over from the complex it's a very successful program and brought it over to the historic Ritz Theater so we could start out with a base oops um we are also doing our variety Wednesday shows this is to keep in in line with the the Vaudeville history of the rits it could be something different and it is something different every single Wednesday this is also dinner and a show we've done one so far Andy gross comedy magic ventriloquism he has over a billion views on YouTube um and we had a great night we learned a lot um some of the ones that are coming up are the Christmas sock hop Opera's coming to here um and a pentatonics like group hourglass that'll be happening and we have again 19 of these scheduled throughout the year on Thursdays we will be creating a new show that we call Nitro Bingo we have 22 of these scheduled throughout the year Nitro Bingo is actual Bingo but it's not your uh Grandma's bingo at the Elks Lodge it's Nitro Bingo is what we call it it'll be a highend energy with all of the lasers and the lights and the confetti and all that kind of stuff happening every Thursday over there at the Ritz but then after Thursday there's Friday And on Friday we're going to turn that place into a dance hall every week with different themes we did our first uh on November 1st the day after Halloween with our Monster Mash dance party it was a great success our next one will be coming up on November 22nd when we're doing a' 70s disco there at the Ritz we hope to see you all there in your bell bottoms uh on the weekend Saturday and Sunday we are doing themed brunch themed brunches there at the Ritz again this will will serve food and uh there might be MOS s or two we have 58 of those scheduled throughout the year coming up soon are a piece of Woodstock so it'll be a 60s uh beatnik brunch and uh the Beatles Brunch is soon to follow after that we did our first one a couple weeks ago just one week ago it feels like a couple weeks ago with the TW Taylor Swift brunch we had our Swifty brunch pretty well attended we learned a lot we're adjusting some of our food service and making it great for all of those that come in the future but that's not all we're doing there at the Ritz we've moved our professional series those that we had done those at the complex for the past four or five years and we're now moving that to the Ritz there's 18 scheduled performances of that um included in that is assisted living the home for the holidays about the wacky retirees and uh a place in a Lake Ashton is place called Pelican Roost um menopause 2 the musical that is they're now on a cruise ship and they're uh cruising through the change apparently and the male the male intellect an oxymoron so that'll be showing up there in the spring and today I got confirmation that we'll be able to bring in Tony and Tina's wedding which uh had to Vegas residency you may have heard of that that'll be there for uh 1 2 3 4 5 6 days days in February uh we do a lot of community events we have 10 of these scheduled but they seem to pop up on the calendar every day some of these we just did last week wine chocolate and cheese and then we hosted an after karaoke party for that we did the state of the city we hosted on Saturday the um Symphony guilds tribute uh to Michael blé which was their fundraiser featuring the theater winner Haven big band and uh we're going to be showing the movie till for Martin Luther King day we have special events as well where we kind of try and own the holidays these will be hard ticketed events coming up you'll see a New Year's Eve party Mother's Day Valentine's Day St Patrick's Day all these kinds will be special events and then we are also making it theater winter Haven's living room where we can all watch community events that we think everybody might be interested in like uh the oh yeah right yeah right what happened I know everybody's sad about this I probably should just cancel this one uh but anyway the Gators versus the seminal but we're not doing it just where you watch it on the big stream passively we're going to have our marching band there so they'll be playing like you're at a live band we're working on getting some cheerleaders there we're going to have at a high energy fun interactive experience where you can watch the game um and we'll have food you know Pub pubs food and all that kind of stuff we're also doing it for the Super Bowl and the Oscars and the Tony and the Kentucky Derby and all that kind of stuff so we're going to have a series of watch parties there all old we are going to have 432 performances with a unique audience between the historic Ritz Theater and um and theater Winter Haven this year it's a lot of entertainment and that is really the uh the heart of everything we do however the heart isn't the most important thing it's the soul so what is great for this is it opens up a little bit of capacity over at the complex too cuz we moved a few things over next year we're going to do something new we have Patrick Duffy and Laura Pearl Linda Pearl sorry who are going to be moving to Winter Haven for a month to work out a new show that they've been working on a pre- Bradway run type of a thing on the Norman and Linda small state they're going to stay here for the entire month of October and we are uh kind of getting into the professional theater residency type of a business with that that's really exciting for us and it will be theater Winter Haven uh volunteers and casts who are going to be doing the Scenic Design for them the lighting design for them uh stage managing the shows and all that so it's kind of exciting merge between professional and our amateur theater that we do here but there is a larger goal and the larger goal is to serve all members of our community not just those who have the resources to be able to pay for a ticket and to serve those communities that are his Al disenfranchised and I'm starting to talk about the with the penguin project the penguin project is a theater program exclusively for kids with Developmental and or physical disabilities there are only two replication sites in the entire State of Florida this is a national program um we are one of them uh we did 101 Dalmations last year this year we're doing ssal the musal and we are auditioning now it's a great program each um each penguin is paired up with one of our own theater kids who work side by side with them throughout this months long program to get that show up on the stage um I want to introduce lorenta Smith back there where are you lentus he is our leader of the bishop and brothers marching Warriors I'm so proud of this program um they are the home home team band for Winter Haven basketball they're the home team band for Winter Haven girls flag football they are the home team band for Discovery high schools basketball program they're the home team band for Pok State basketball you will see them marching in the Christmas parade you'll see them marching in the Martin Luther King Parade they have represented Winter Haven in Charleston South Carolina in Kingsport Tennessee in Louisville Kentucky and St Pete and Tallahassee they've been awarded the best marching band in pole County for how many years straight lentus for three for three years Straight lenus had been doing this long before we paired up six years ago we started our our relationship together at theater Winter Haven he'd been doing it in any parking lot he can find any grass patch he could find anywhere in this town and if there is a hero in this community for working with these kids he's certainly one of them similarly similarly Carlos and Sheena are back there they run the unity Elite um uh competition dance program that we do at theater Winter Haven they will tell you that what they're doing is changing people's lives and they're right but what they also do is become the sunshine state champions of uh hip-hop dance they are the pulk county Grand champions of hip-hop dance they were the bring on the heat national champions of uh hip-hop dance and they practice at our facility every Monday Wednesday every Monday Tuesday and Wednesday they've grown so huge now that they take up two whole spaces every time that they're there and I know you have a competition coming up right when is that December 7th December 7th so we hope that that they get crowned again um as they go on to compete I'm really proud of this program as well uh the act four players are a group of our senior citizens a group of senior citizens that go to nursing homes assisted living facilities and perform for them for those folks who are in firmed and stuck in the in those assisted living facilities we've really built out a huge music program that which started with our community choir but has evolved into our community big band and also our Suzuki Strings program all of these practice at the complex multiple times a week and are really becoming as strong as any of our uh theater programs the music stuff that we are starting that we're starting to do there our veterans project we spent two years interviewing P County veterans from every branch of the service in every theater of war and then we put together a cast that was made up of both veterans and actors to bring their stories to life um and we've been doing that now for seven or seven or eight years um we we haven't done it since covid but we're anxious to bring that back that's an important part of everything we do our Arts after school program we partner with the rec center across town um and we this was through a grant that I wrote for arts for the underserved um so we have our team go to the rec center and we do arts programs there but not only Arts programs there we take them on field trips like to uh poke Museum of Art you can see on there on your screen and also to theater Winter Haven programs drama time live is a program where we go into every single second grade throughout the throughout Winter Haven helping teachers with their reading programs specifically we work on fables along the same track as when they're working on fables and then we land in the schools and perform the stuff that the kids are already learning we did that in partnership with the p County school board our homies is our Theodore Winter Haven Homeschool Group we they uh they kind of live there and uh we've been doing that now for 13 years it's kind of like performance School for the Arts but Home School for the Arts and then we have our classes as well our classes have been going on since the beginning of time but recently we've started partnering with um outside professionals to raise the level of what we are doing so um Broadway Beginnings is one example of that Broadway Beginnings is led by Elizabeth Burton Lions she was a rocket in New York and she was on the elf national tour she was in The Wizard of Oz national tour and she has her program that operates out of the theater Winter Haven spaces at the Chain of Lakes complex and of course we do summer camp we have seven versions of our summer camp uh one is Loren's band camp and then six different versions of the summer camp that happens throughout the summer there we welcome each year about 250 kids when you add it all together and that is what we are doing over there at theater Winter Haven um does anybody have any questions questions yeah I just I make quick comment Dan thank you thank you yeah I just wanted to yeah I don't want to take credit for all this there's a lot of people that are working on a lot of things but it is absolutely critical to us that we have our eye on our magnetic north and that is serving all members all members of this community and working diligently to make sure that the Arts is excluded to no one who is in this community and we will make sure we do that I'll also add being the Le Commission leaz on to the Ritz board over the last several years they tried and tried and tried and I mean just really poured their hearts out into making that thing work but it seemed like they were always just just one step away or just missing that sauce so I would just like you to take back to your board of directors thank you on behalf of the commission for Lending us the sauce I will do that and I want to say about the the Ritz it's not any individual that do it it's the whole infrastructure you have to have the whole thing built we haven't cracked the code on that yet by the way um our marketing isn't geared you know we're first a year we're a year behind you know it takes a year to Market anything I'm going to start selling season 56 in January um and we only had this little tiny window to try and get it going so we're not at capacity at the Ritz yet um even for the limited things that we are doing um but I'm confident I feel really about the direction that we're going in and I know that we're contributing in a lot of different ways already I can feel it so I think we're going to I think we're going to get there I just want to say um Dan for anybody that doesn't realize Dan is an absolute rock star and we owe him an absolute Deb of gratitude in this community for what he has done over the last nine years since he's been here and not every kid plays football or baseball or basketball he serves kids that don't do that and and we owe him just such a dead of gratitude for the heart and soul that you pour in each of these children that come in through there and the adults too because you you serve you know seniors just as well so from this dasis I know I thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you do and from our community we thank you for all you're for all you're doing and we feel like you're going to make this thing work at the Ritz we're pulling for you and anything we can do to help let us know so I I will say this that theater and especially Community Theater is the one place in the world where being different being weird um having a marching to the beat of A Different Drummer is the thing that will make you successful very often the things that will get you bullied in school or in anywhere else are your greatest strengths at a theater so I would challenge anybody who has a kid um if they need a place to fit in if they need a friend I guarantee they will find it in the theater I guarantee they will find it Backstage on stage anywhere around there it's a really um great place to grow up that's why I'm involved my kids grew up at theater Winter Haven I was a theater dad and uh when nor retired I wanted to preserve it Dan I want to uh I just want to personally say that you have far exceeded our expectations of uh what we envisioned or thought could be done with the historic rits and uh I've been in the building at least a couple times and every time that I enter the building I am uh just impressed with the uh the kind of excitement and enthusiasm that uh you know you have injected into that place and uh it just really makes you feel proud uh to know that we've taken a building uh historically that was not all inclusive and I mean that there were people that could not enter that building 100 years ago mhm and to know that your program and listening to you tonight talk about inclusion diversity um that speaks to the entire community and that's to be commended because I think what makes you Winter Haven unique and a wonderful place to live is that when we recognize all the citizens have a stake and so I just want to say to you that our hats are off to you for doing an outstanding job and on a personal note uh last night my daughter uh who was part of theater Winter Haven uh opened uh with the Louis Armstrong story it's a wonderful world and my wife was able to be there for the opening night and I know that is possible was possible because of theater winter haon so thank you very much thank you and thank you for allowing me to extend the invitation to groups like Loren's and Carlos's who are out there work working and we can provide an umbrella to capture all those folks that are doing great things out in the community already just want to say Dan you have far exceeded our expectations I was there when we interviewed you yeah you were and uh seven times yes I'm not going to tell that story but that was a story in itself but you press Beed and really and truly uh I can truthfully say this that uh everybody never thought that you could uh exceed Norman small but I can sit here today and say you've taken that theater to an additional height I'm proud to stand on his shoulders want to thank you thank you I wanted to I want to say thank you Dan um you have us All Amazed and you have us all um just you know with all the programming and everything it's um so far-reaching and um it's just amazing I think we're all in awe of you thank so thank you very much thank you thank you all for the time all right I would just remind the commission that November 22nd is that 70s dance party so all right we have uh no developments of notes Commissioners uh do we have any minutes no no no we have no minutes uh so we're down to comments from the audience there are several people that have uh signed up to speak and what I'm going to do is when we get to uh item um 11a then I will go according to the list and call you up all right um we have no ordinances second reading consent agenda Commissioners Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the consent agenda in its entirety thank you I will now close the commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to any item on the consent agenda may do so by coming forth stating your name and address for the record seeing none our closed public hearing reopen the city commission meeting is there any discussion all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I I opposes say nay hearing none the consent agenda is adopted in its entirety all right we're now down to uh item 11a resolution r451 would you read by tyon City attorney thank you Mr Mayor commission resolution number r d2451 a resolution of the city Winter Haven Florida repealing resolution r86116 regarding the fluoridation of the city water supply system and authorizing the discontinuation of the fluoridation of the city water supply system making findings repealing conflicting resolutions providing for severability and the administrative correction of scor errors and providing for an effective date thank you thank you city manager honorable mayor and Commissioners this item came about is a a request from the city commission uh to bring something forward for the commission to consider as a little background on the matter on September 27 of 1986 the Winter Haven City commission adopted resolution r86116 authorizing the floration of the city's water supply system floration is not mandated by any applicable federal or state law rule or regulation and is dependent upon the election of the governing board of the city to authorize such a recent Court ruling in the United States District Court of Northern California was just came out in September of this year and express concern concerns regarding the effects of fluoride and public water supply this past uh week I provided to you a summary of that that Court ruling that was prepared by assistant City attorney Drew Crawford um in in general if I could just take a moment to kind of recap what that summary uh spelled out so the federal toxic substance Control Act permits a US citizen to file a formal petition with the EPA the US EPA to consider if a chemical presents an unreasonable risk of harm to human health in cases where EPA decides that the chemical does not present an unreasonable risk of harm that citizen or group May appeal the epa's decision to a US District Court if the District Court decides that the chemical does present an unreasonable risk of harm the court can order EPA to make new rules and regulate the chemical during Ru making EPA decides whether the chemical should be labeled restricted or banned in November of 2016 plaintiffs filed a petition with EPA asking for fluoride to be regulated EPA denied that petition in February of 2017 the plff sought judicial review through the US District Court for the Northern District of California the Court held a 7-Day bench trial that started in June of 2020 the court stayed the case and permitted the plaintiffs to file a new petition with e EPA EPA denied the plaintiff's second petition the case was reopened in October of 2022 the Court held a second 10-day bench trial starting in January of this year and the court issued its decision on September 24th 2024 that Court found that exposure to fluoride is associated with adverse effect of reduced IQ and children a credible 2023 study review performed by the US national toxicology program found that a drop of one point in a child's IQ can be expected for each 28 mg of fluoride per liter exposure of fluoride measured at a concentration of 4 milligrams per liter of either water or urine is a conservative point where fluoride causes human harm conservative tolerable exposure to fluoride is a concentration of approximately 04 mg of fluoride per liter 200 million Americans have fluoride added to drinking water at a concentration of 0.7 milligrams per fluoride of fluoride per liter The District Court granted the plaintiff's petition and ordered EPA to initiate fluoride rulemaking under the tsca EPA has a wide range of options it can Pro it can require prohibitions restrictions or limitations on the amount manufactured process processed or distributed it can issue labeling requirements or it can issue recordkeeping requirements commercial use regulations disposal disposal requirements or notice requirements generally the federal agency rulemaking process can take between two and three years to complete EPA still has time to appeal that District Court's order so that order has been set EPA now is in a position that they can seek to appeal that um if it is if it is not appealed and it is upheld then they would go into that rule making process and again that could take you know two to three years to come away with rule making so this this came about at a request of the commission to discuss and and further evaluate the city's fluoridation efforts um the city does presently and has since 1986 added fluoride to the city's drinking water system um that results in a level of the 0.07 millgram per liter um that is a a minor cost at the end of the day about $448,000 is what that chemical cost within our our operational expense um City staff is is recommending this evening that the the commission discussed this this is purely a legislative or quasi legislative decision by the city commission um again there's no regulation or requirement to add fluoride there's no prohibition against doing such there are recommendations that have been established based upon at what level that would be added you heard a presentation or some comments from City's water director Gary hubber during your Workshop agenda review session last week gave you some insights as to what other agencies within P County do um there's some that add fluoride there's some that don't um if you are so inclined in Lin to uh seek discontinuation of our of our fluoridation practices the resolution would allow you to do so and that's why that's presented at your request and with that I'll stand for any questions City Attorney John Murphy certainly has some insights into this and uh Gary Hubbert is here as well in case you have any technical questions related to water okay Mr Mayor yes okay so before we begin our discussions tonight let me first of all tell the audience that this is all on me okay I'm the one that started this not my commissioner so anybody's angry to anybody up here Point your point your angst at me because I'm the one that brought this up and and I and I'm the one that wanted us to have this discussion so and and also I'd like to mention to all the dentists out there we have gotten your emails and your and your voicemails we understand and we realize and we completely agree with the fact that fluoride's good for your teeth we don't doubt that we have no qualms with that concern whatsoever as a kid growing up I used to have to put this gel on my teeth Dr trip used to give me this gel to put on my teeth and and but I still got cavities but at the end of the day we we I don't or anybody of us uh have any problems whatsoever with fluide on the teeth what our concern is is what happens when fluide gets in the gut and we don't know this is very reminiscent of what happened with us during Co all four of us with the exception of commissioner doson went were were here during Co and we were asked to make decisions on things medical decisions on things that were very complicated that we didn't completely Ely understand so uh it's it kind of reminds me of that so we haven't made up our mind we're having a discussion about this we want to get to the right truth and and I will tell you after the recent election you know president Trump has named Mr Kennedy to be his H something something director and Mr Kennedy has made it well known and has publicly said he wants a fluoride out of water on the entire country so this issue we might be a little bit on front of it but this issue is coming just based upon current events and what's happening in Washington DC so with that I just want you you guys to know that that don't take your angst out on them take it out on me if there's any in to be made and with that Mr Mayor I'm going to make a motion that we approve um um section or um resolution r451 thank you all right I will now uh close the city of commission meeting and open the public hearing and now I will call in order the way you sign up John Lynn please come forward state your name and address for the record and you have five minutes the only thing that I'm going to ask since we have 18 people that have signed up I would like to ask your urgence not to repeat what someone else has said we don't need to hear the same thing for 18 times all right thank you yes so I'll be setting standard right I mean for that it's a good position to be in thank you Mr Mayor I'm John Lynn I am the chair of the pop County chapter of the Republican Liberty caucus and I'll be a little bit redundant and Mr city manager went over the uh recent court decision September 25th 24th 25th 2 for historic Court decision and fluoridation toxicity case orders EPA to act Federal Court ruling is the first to require stronger fluoride regulation under toxic substance law in a first ofit kind decision a federal court in California ruled yesterday being September 25th that the EPA must strengthen regulation of fluoride in drinking water across the country the court found that scientific evidence of fluoride's health risk when in when ingested at levels currently prescribed for drinking water especially to the developing brains of infants require stricter regulation of the chemicals presence in drinking water under the toxic substances Control Act the ruling could have significant impact on a widespread long-held practice of adding fluoride to drinking water in the United States currently more than 200 million Americans about 75% of the population drink fluoridated water the case was uh the case that was decided food and water watch uh versus EPA came about after the EPA denied a 2016 petition calling for the agency to ban or limit the fluoridation of drinking water food and watch food and water watch and several co- petitioners sub subsequently sue the EPA to compel action based on the mounting scientific evidence of toxicity when fluoride is ingested in response food and water issued the Winona hter issued the following statement today's ruling represents an important acknowledgement of a large and growing body of science indicating serious human health risk associated with floridated drinking water the court looked at the science and acted accordingly now the EPA must respond by implementing new regulations that adequately protect all Americans especially our most vulnerable infants and children from this known Health threat in the next four years we will witness a sea change of historical heavy-handed government regulation being thoroughly examined to determine the impact on public health Robert F Kennedy Jr will be directing the efforts of a federal level to examine Health regulation industry be it big a Big Medicine big Pharma big food or even big Dental many regulations that once seemed beneficial have in fact proven to be harmful to the public never have so many Americans been awakened to what they are eating drinking breathing and generally being exposed to they want transparency they want informed consent so they may decide if their exposure to a substance is harmful or not regulations must Bubble Up from we the people not forced down from the industry level using the legislative process process as its enforcer the force fluoridation of public water sources I believe is one of the now realized harmful interventions that took place in the past the basic assessment now by the EPA and these were their attorneys under oath that unless you have a crippling skeletal fluorosis you have not been harmed by fluoride exposure there's a great deal a great deal of time in expanse between having been exposed to fluoridation fluoride and uh skeletal ceros uh uh so again a life a span there of time that you could be experiencing things you have no idea that might be related to fluid prior to a diagnosis of skeletal fluorosis is obvious in various forms ostearthritis arthritis bone cancer bone fragility as well as studies showing the lowering of IQ in children I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here I would ask that you do remove or cease dispensing it from via the Winter Haven water supply if IND individuals want fluoride much like the co uh jab they are certainly welcome to get that it must it should not be something that's dispensed by this body to a host of people in this community without their full awareness florite they are able to get it it is not a concern of government at any level to be dispensing what we know now is potentially a harmful additive in the recent days colar County Florida have uh have ended a dispensing fluoride in their water system City Naes is considering it this week as we speak and it's coming and as uh vice mayor indicated it's coming we need to get ready for it not only this but a plethora of other uh actions that are going to be taken by this Administration to examine and and let the public know and be fully transparent about that thank you very much Nicko Nick catano catano yeah all right good evening distinguished leaders thanks for this opportunity to speak to you my name is Nick katano um prior to covid State your address please yes 10005 Karen Ridge cor kiss Florida 34747 thank you you're welcome so prior to covid I think most of us in Modern Life we we've learned to trust our leaders our scientists we're too busy to really look into so many different things it was just uh you know your doctor knows better the experts know better and when covid came around that kind of changed everything because we were stuck at home and we had plenty of the time to look into things and I think with all the covid measures that were coming down and the vaccines I wasn't against vaccines per se I didn't know what to think I just wasn't comfortable taking a shot uh before I knew what the efficacy was over time and working at Walt Disney Company it was being mandated and and our jobs were being threatened and getting covid and and getting better and using early treatments that were available that were demonized uh I I dug in a little deeper and I found out that why didn't why did the experts have it all wrong why were the doctors telling me something other than what my experience was and I wrote an open letter to Disney at goofy vine.com if you go to the menu I I have an open letter there that's aged over four years and it's held the test of time and all I did was use empirical data and things that were going on around the world to prove that it was too soon to make the claims they were du doing and mandate these these shots on people and that opened the door to for me to question a lot of different things as I've thought of the a lot of the health issues I've thought about the fluorination and the water and just from a common sense perspective um if you drink the water I mean most of the time you put the bottle down it goes to the back of your throat it really doesn't touch your teeth it's not a nutritional like a calcium that's going to build strong bones and teeth that they're hoping the fluoride's going to be on your teeth and we don't swish it around our mouth trying to bond it there and with so many products on the market and so many of us brushing every day with fluoride and being able to go to the dentist uh and get the fluoride if we so choose putting it in the water now that we know that there's the risk versus the reward and the adverse reactions I it doesn't seem like it's a valuable choice and I'm here to just encourage better decision making about that because it's it just seems to be a practice I know there's a lot of dentists that are concerned genuinely concerned but I got to imagine if the doctors would have taken the time over covid and spend the time to research like many of us had if they would look at the new data um I have Jamba jamama Pediatrics uh literature it's a medical newsletter and they recently just come out against the fluorination process as well so there's another there's a lot of reasons for people people and if they would take the time I think they would have a different opinion on it I want to read what jamama wrote they said publishing it serves as a testament to the fact that jamama Pediatrics is committed to dis disseminating the best science practice entirely on the rigor of the methods and the soundness of the hypothesis tested regardless how contentious the results may be um it's amazing to see even with when I stood against the vaccines and the mandates not against people's choices but uh my right to reject it and to keep my job I got death threats I got uh all kind of crazy things happening me and it's it's crazy to see The Stance people take on issues like this and I think a lot of that's imposed and fear-based rather than people openly minded looking at things rationally and considering what the risk and the rewards are um informed consent is somebody something that uh people have brought up and I think there statues on on the Florida law that's 381 that talks a lot about that that can look into it this is a medical Pro procedure that's going into the water system and and there's no individual uh informed consent for people what the risk may be and I and it doesn't make sense to me that if I'm weighing 200 lb the same amount of uh fluorides in the water for the 10-year-old kid that just played football and he's guzzling down half a gallon um so it's it's hard to medit that way and from what I've looked you know when I look at the images and I've checked out and found out for people in the industry that it's true they go into these water plants and some of the larger ones they're wearing hazmat suits there's all these danger signs so it's kind of hard to determine you know how much is actually going in I mean there's not a precise measure and the last point I wanted to bring up that that has really struck out to me we don't use farmer grade fluoride in the water right it's not pure fluoride when when they mine it up they they it comes in with all these other tox tox toxin chemicals and that goes into the water system as well um so all those things don't really provide a benefit when you weigh out the risk reward uh thank you for your consideration and thank you for your time thank you an a bush hello um my name is Hannah Bush my address is 713 Avenue M Southwest and win haven um so I do want to thank you actually for putting this on the agenda for tonight um the topic of fluoride in the water um is something that I have long desired to have removed from our water as a mother of six who has actively pursued good health for my family fighting inflammatory diseases in my loved ones I have wished for a long time that our water could have as little toxins in it as possible I have had to purchase a reverse osmosis water filter for our family to drink pure water and to cook with it as well but I cannot afford a whole house filtration system that would make the water in the rest of my home safe for washing hands bathing and brushing teeth when you know better you do better is a motto that I stand by I am not held accountable for the things that I do not know but once I learned something that I that I didn't know before I must act accordingly I believe you have that opportunity now once upon a time someone thought that adding fluoride to our water system was an act for good to keep teeth strong but we now know that there is not really a level of fluoride that is safe for human consumption while someone was well-meaning potentially in introducing this to our water supply how did they ignore the fact that fluoride is in fact a neurotoxin when someone brushes their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste or rinses with mouthwash do they not need to spit it out then why would we want to drink it I argue that even having it as in toothpaste is dangerous because while it may be beneficial to teeth it most certainly is being absorbed into areas of the body that have nothing to do with our teeth I can get false teeth if needed but I only have one brain um when someone has a heart condition they can be given a nitroglycerin tablet in case they need it and where do they put it um underneath their tongue why because it absorbs into the system extremely quickly sublingually so when someone brushes their teeth they are potentially absorbing a neurotoxin inadvertently now I can and I do purchase safe toothpaste that does not include fluoride but I cannot fight the levels of fluoride that we wash our hands with brush our teeth with and bathe in please I implore you to vote to remove this from our water if someone would like to have floid there are more than enough ways to get it in but I do not need a medication dispensed to my family with no dosage no accountability and no liability that causes way more harm than it does good thank you Jonathan bush Donathan Bush 713 Avenue M Southwest good evening I want to begin by saying thank you thank you for your service in our community I know it takes time out of your busy schedules and away from your families to do the job that you're doing and I believe that though you may have differing opinions at times that I'm confident each of one of you want the best for this city and you care about its citizens so I thank you for that as well thank you for addressing this important issue now I'm not a scientist nor am I a medical expert but I am a father raising six children in this community as well I am the pastor of many families in this community who have many children in this community and so we live in an Information Age we know that uh that's a good thing this allows us to extrapolate data and make informed decisions based upon that data and it's my understanding that the decision as has been mentioned here to add fluoride to our City's water was a decision made 38 years ago and while much may have been unknown then much is known now fluoride as has been mentioned is a neurotoxin that can affect brain function uh which is one of the reasons why a tube of toothpaste issues directions to use only a pea-sized amount and a warning to avoid ingestion and if one does ingest it contact a poison control center immediately and so a concern a concern I have for our water if it contains fluoride what is the proper dosage we can't control the dosage also it's my understanding that there may be dentists that recommend it in our water because it prevents tooth decay and I won't as you asked us not to repeat certain things I won't repeat certain things I'll will be respectful of our mayor's wish um but again it's a perfectly fine option for a consumer if they choose to use fluoride I would just Advocate let it be an option for us and if fluoride does affect neurologic function uh whether or not I'm an expert in the area as data seems to uh advance in that regard uh there are harmful effects of fluoride on us and so I would just ask you this are are we willing to take that risk are we willing to take that risk and so I do have a quote from the article that was mentioned so I won't read that but in short i' just ask you to please please consider voting to remove fluoride from our water and I think that Winter Haven really has an opportunity to lead the way in this region so thank you very much terissa Ki did I say it right k o w a l s k i that's not me I'm not going up it's me I crossed it off oh you crossed it out okay all right Debbie Owens thank you so much and I'm so excited that y'all have this on the agenda because it is a very important item on the agenda and also if there's a dentist in here I want you to know I love my dentist I really do and he said years ago all give your address please oh I'm sorry my address Deborah Owens 1407 Palm Drive Winter Haven Florida 33884 anyway Mike Dennis said all disease begins in the mouth and he's right it does but it's not necessarily tooth decay which is what we think about because we're at the dentist it is as mentioned earlier what goes into the gut because everything that starts in the mouth eventually gets into the gut so taking care of the gut and what goes inside of the body and stays there and is hard to eliminate is critically important to to note now I I brought my toothpaste with me okay and I have no objections to fluoride however it does say active ingredient fluoride for anti-cavity and then you go down and you read the warning if irritation occurs or persist to stop using and then you go on down and read the warning and it says if swallowed get medical help contact the Poison Control Center now that's right here on the box as a warning meaning that we brush our teeth and we spit it out we don't drink it and ingest it and that's where the problem lies is that we're ingesting floride now I brought with me a whole packet of information and I won't go over all of it but it is from fluide alert.org and I'll be happy to leave it with you guys it indicates problems such as brain damage already mentioned lower IQ already mentioned neurotoxicity pineal gland now that's an interesting one and one that's particularly important to me is thyroid disease and it even says here in 2010 the second most prescribed drug in the US is synthroid for thyroid disease so fluide has a link to the thyroid and again it's because what you're putting in your body and it stays there and it tends to accumulate and over time is where the problem occurs so the costs were mentioned that it's it's not that big a cost to add fluoride to the water but it's passed on to the consumer because we end up with diseases that we were not aware of occurring over time because of the relation to fluoride being in the water so I highly Advocate that we do remove the fluoride from the water for those concerns and also look at the cost that's being passed on to the consumer for health care and we're talking about IQ for children you can't put a price tag on that hypothyroidism leads to many other diseases and concerns you can't put a price on your health I was an airline pilot I'm now retired if you don't think it matters I was not allowed to eat a poppy seed methan why because a poppy seed would show up on the drug test it's just that simple thank you um freyo I'm Tom Freo I reside at six Enclave Drive in Winter Haven uh Mr Mayor Commissioners um my presentation is going to be from a little bit different perspective from that that you have heard already this evening uh I wanted to to start out by mentioning a uh a research program that the city manager had mentioned for the national tox toxicology program which uh suggested that higher fluoride intakes uh had uh negative impacts on children and particularly uh their IQ my my research uh my donor happens to be in the area of research and I know that research like many things uh there are are a lot of different studies that are done and and they often times conflict with each other uh they have methodological weaknesses associated with them and one of the the points that has been made out about that current research is that um the majority of the data was collected in non- US countries like Canada China India Iran Pakistan Mexico uh and it was also done where the levels of fluoride that the uh children were ingesting was much larger than what is permitted uh according to the regulations here in the United States and according to what you have in your own water supply here and in fact a 2023 metaanalysis of eight studies which happen to be in the same year that the national TX toxicology program study came out found that fluoride exposure concentration similar to that uh used in fluoridated community drinking water in the United States is not associated with lower IQ scores the uh National toxicology program uh monograph provided some important information to Regulatory Agencies to set reasonable standards for the amount of fluoride and water but they even assert that it does not and was not intended to assess the benefits of fluoride and I think whenever we make decisions we always need to weigh are there negatives are there positives and what outweighs what and as I've looked at the information that I've been able to come across so far the data suggesting that there are substantial negative effects are relatively weak on the other hand I think there is considerable data that indicates that there has been very positive results from the use of fluoride in fact the Centers for Disease Control and prevention have hailed Community water fluide is one of the 10 greatest Public Health achievements of the 20th century what happens when you don't have an easy access to floor as you do in the floridated water is that the access to the fluoride becomes dependent upon the socioeconomic status of the children that are involved and I I know some of you probably had backgrounds similar to mine when I was a child we did not go to the dentist all the time we may have gone to the dentist because we needed to have a some procedure on our our teeth Etc but we didn't go in for fluoride treatments Etc better the way that you do today uh I know that a lot of poor children today do not go in for regular fluoride treatments uh and so when you take the the one source that is available to everyone out of the supply then you're going to have kids who are at an upper economic level who have other ways to get the fluoride the ones at the bottom economic level it's going to be taken away from them basically oh o wanted to point out that for the medical community as a whole not just the dentist but the medical community as a whole including the American Dental Association the American Medical Association the American Academy of Pediatrics the World Health Organization the Centers for Disease Control and prevention us Public Health Service and the American Public Health Association all are strong Advocates of keeping fluide in drinking water what I'm urging you to do is to postpone your decision to collect data to look at this very carefully As you move forward and make absolutely sure that you are basing any decision on very good and irrefutable science how do you like that for timing eh PA Polo Paul poo um address is 25 Skidmore Road um I am a 33-year practicing general dentist in Winter Haven and a lifelong resident and I thank you mayor bird song and Commissioners for your time uh I won't repeat what was just said but uh according to the Center for Disease Control tooth decay which is cavities is the most common chronic disease for adults and children in the United States it disrupts people's lives and undermines their success fluoride is a mineral mineral that reduces the cavities by 25% in adults and children more than 75 years of research shows that floride is a safe way to reduce cavities so but let's bring this home according to the US Census Bureau Winter Haven has a population of 57,98811 in the community benefits from Florida and water regardless of age socioeconomic status race ethnicity access to dental care or dental insurance water fluoridation levels the playing fields for the halves and the have knots the cost of fluoridation is about 84 cents per person per year based on winter Haven's estimate of8 48,000 to add fluoride water fluoridation saves residents $32 per person per year and avoided dental treatment costs this amounts to over $1.8 million each and every year in short that means that they have an extra $1.8 million to spend on taxable disposable income in the city instead of spending it in our dental offices which is not taxable um now I realize you're being hit with a lot of information uh so I Echo the previous speaker and um saying don't make any hasty decisions and would welcome a public Workshop in order to allow both sides to bring their data forward so it can make an informed decision thank you Goan Smith good evening Joanna Smith address is 441 Chamberlain Drive Winter Haven Florida thank you so much for having this meeting tonight so we can speak on behalf of the fact of whether we should or should not have fluoride in the water I can tell tell you after 36 years of being in the dental field 17 years as an assistant now almost 18 years as a dental hygienist I have seen over the years starting with my parents generation to knowing what kind of dental care they had to now my grandchildren I have seen where we have patients that come in at in our older age have tons and tons of Restorations from having um a lot of Decay as a child now fast forward my children have never had cavities my grandchildren do not have cavities um yes they have had extra care because I work in the dental field but there are so many people that cannot access dental care so I would hope that you would keep it into water so that we can have the people that are undeserved that can't get in to have things done um but in my experience I do feel that it is needed thank you Tracy Olen Tracy is that Tracy t r a c y or m a c y apolog hi my name is Tracy Olen my address is 499 teranova Circle Winter Haven Florida 33884 um so I come to you today as not only a scientist I have a PhD in chemistry I've been teaching chemistry at college for roughly 12 years um but I'm also a mother of a 11-year-old daughter who has fosis of several of her teeth in her mouth um so I have um kind of a personal um effect from fluoride um or overdosage of fluoride for my daughter um if I can start with a famous quote from a scientist paracelsus he said dose determines the poison and I think that's very important in this proposition uh mainly because that's kind of what's at the heart of this um what is the dose clearly the dose in the drinking water has been stated by several different people to be of safe levels um I do have data here though that says um when asked the uh CDC the FDA the Ada could not give a limit could not give a dosage that was safe for fluoride that is not disputed that is a fact there's no published documents on that that are that are found um not to mention uh I think as a chemist I can speak to the chemical properties of Florine um so Florine naturally is found as F2 it's a gas it's highly highly reactive uh when it reaches the stomach it reacts with hydrogen where it produces hydrochloric acid HF um HF hydrochloric acid is the only acid able to dissolve glass it is a very toxic very corrosive very strong acid um fluoride is the negatively charged portion of that acid that is created in our stomach fluoride being negatively charged likes to bind positively charge things I didn't mean this to turn into a college chemistry educational seminar however I think it's important to understand how it works um what's actually going on fluoride being negatively charged likes to attract positively charg things much like a negative in a positive or South and North Pole of a magnet like to come together that negatively charged fluoride ion will attach to positively charged ions such as calcium such as magnesium okay okay these ions calcium and magnesium are huge in neurological function okay the neurotransmitters in our brain use different ions such as calcium and magnesium to have neurological Transmissions okay these are the links and if you look into studies I don't want to go on too in depth with some of these studies but uh the effects of IQ in children are directly related to some of these ions and some some of the Inhibitors of different um biological Pathways again trying not to get too much in in detail here um if I could I would like to say that there are several different scientific research papers that um through overexposure to fluoride Dental items toothpaste um different mouthwashes even uh flossers now have fluoride in them uh we cannot determine how what dose is being offered to children adults um Etc uh so that is I think of utmost concern there's a senior scientist at the epa's office of water that agrees we need a reassessment of fluoride safety standards this is a scientist senior scientist at the UPA specifically of of the water um division there um there's NIH National Institute of Health studies that show a correlation between higher prenatal exposure to fluoride in reductions in the IQ um I ask is it worth it to potentially prevent some cavities while essentially reducing the IQ of our children is that a fair tradeoff there are other studies published studies um that show how fluoride can cause bone disease that's Undisputed nobody argues that that fluoride levels that can be achieved through all of these different various routes of exposure toothpaste water um other Dental items supplements um I remember when my oldest daughter was younger they actually sold Nursery Water that had fluoride added to it I'm thankful I didn't at the time give that to her I didn't know of the effects of fluoride okay um 68% of American children have some form of dental fosis my 11-year-old daughter being one of them she has discolored front teeth that clearly affect her overall want to smile it you know has an effect on her um and again this is directly due to over fluoride consumption um whether that was prenatally or you know through drinking the water and using the different items as mentioned um currently and I just want to leave with this the current standard for having too much fluoride in your diet is something called crippling skeletal fosis of which there's no cure and it is just that crippling I think we should have better standards um for measuring when there's a problem with these things before we add it to our public drinking water thank you AIA Keith Maria Keith oh okay okay you're gonna have to bear with me my name is Maria Keith I live at uh 1700 6 Street Northwest Winter Haven Florida um I want to thank you for bringing this up this is something we really do need to oh thank you this is something we really do need to be discussing um a lot of what I had to say has already been said so bear with me as I go through this but fluoride is a deadly poison it is toxic it has been used for years as a rat poison and to kill coyotes um this we've already talked about oh it also will burn through concrete too she said glass but concrete um it's an industrial waste instead of spending money to dispose of it safely they sold it as a treatment for dental care a win-win for the industries needing to dispose of it they make money off waste by poisoning us um fluoride is the only chemical in our water that is not used to treat the water it is used to treat us we are being poisoned by fluoride because we get it everywhere and they've already said Foods Salt other things that they've mentioned um the balance that we're getting in the water it may have been fine if that's all we got but because we're getting it in all these other things that we're eating and breathing raisins is really really bad the it's like three point something so that if you eat raisins and drink this water you could be in bigger trouble um it is something that we don't need in our water because you can take you can have fluoride treatments or you can eat these other things you have it in your mouthwash you have it in your toothpaste we don't need it in our water and I feel like I'm being forced to take a medication that I don't need and I try not to drink our water here in fact I don't I drink bottled water and they say that's an some bottled water too but I can't control where I shower I'm getting it through my pores and it's it's unnecessary we're getting too much um so I would like to the only thing I have that nobody's brought up is bone fractures memory problem problems numbs the brain kidney disease immune deficiency um they mentioned the bones and that's that's plenty and as far as the AMA and the CDC and the wh nobody trusts those people anymore they've lied so much to us we don't trust them anyway so I think we need to go with what's going to be happening here oh in only 30 countries in the world being us have fluoride in the water and even Canada doesn't have it in there and none nobody in Europe does hardly so and their teeth aren't any worse than ours we have more dental care so we should look a little better right but I guess that's all I got I thank you for your time and um I I do pray that you get the fluoride out of our water we don't need it thank you Donna hearer hi I'm Donna Hager my address is 4078 great EGR Drive Winter Haven and listening to all the comments here and I appreciate that we've had the opportunity to hear all the comments it seems like it's really a no-brainer to take the fluide out of our water there's so many other ways that you can get fluoride without having to contaminate our water with it as Pastor said use wisdom knowledge judgment and intelligence when making this decision it's been mentioned that the EPA who basically protects your own jobs by passing things has known since 2016 that's eight long years that fluide could be a problem for us we know it's a health risk Winter Haven has shown great leadership in the Arts and we can be very proud to show leadership in this area by eliminating fluide now instead of waiting until it's going to be forced upon us anyway so if we eliminate it Winter Haven has another check mark and positives for us I urge you to save the $48,000 save the money that we're using on medical care because of his health issues caused and eliminate flu ride you got the opportunity to do it tonight thank you st alas Steve alas morning Commissioners for the records Steve Elias 145 Lake Odus Road in winterham so I'm here tonight uh speaking as a father of three children in this community uh the son of a uh my father who's got Alzheimer's disease been drinking the water for years uh and as a water plant uh treatment engineer that's what my master's degree is is in I've been designing water and waste water plants in Central Florida here for 31 years um you know here about fall the science you hear that a lot I want to remind everybody what this you know I'm I'm the science project guy in our neighborhood so the scientific method it's okay to have a hypothesis going into a situation but you you do testing you examine that data and then you test your hypothesis to see if it was really true you got to be willing to change your mind when new data comes available and you just keep doing that that science is never settled you keep revisiting the data looking at that federal judges ruling on September 24th it's been repeated you know the unreasonable risk especially with children lowering their IQs um you know listening to the attorney uh you know the proponents all all the named agencies refus to reexamine the data over the years that they've been suppressing and there's overwhelming research uh documenting these risks I did a quick study there were 454 studies most of them with negative outcome um what what was kind of startling that under oath in that in that seven-year you know everybody had a chance to bring their data to the table all the organizations bring their studies under oath the EPA the CDC the FDA and others every single one of them admitted under oath that there were zero studies zero studies showing that fluoride is safe for the brain so it's a it's a done settled science it's a neurotoxin um I actually did some you know you go back and revisit what you think you know I went back and looked at the material safety data sheets for this floristic acid and sodium fluoride there's a lot of words in there that really concern me things like considered hazardous by OSHA call poison Center uh doctor immediately if if you breathe it contact with your skin or swallow and here was um an interesting one damage to if you ingest it damage to delicate body tissues and the toxicology properties are not legally invested they're not fully investigated so that's our legal disclaimer that they're not you know the science is questionable I guess according to that as an engineer uh designing systems I get designed to design systems that drink uh deliver portable water which means Safe Drinking Water um I can tell you going back and revisiting all this and I know I've never designed a system with uh fluoride added um I've never been a fan of it but going forward I really I get guess good uh instincts over the years I don't carry medical malpractice insurance for practicing medicine uh I I can carry professional liability insurance for for my engineering actions delivering safe drinking water but because of that I will never sign and seal a uh you know set of plans or whatever for a water plant delivering you know fluoride into the system on a personal level I've taken action to protect my family uh I've I've spent like $33,000 on filters at my house house to remove the city's fluoride now I know everybody can't do that my girls are actually away at college I bought them berky filters and got them filter removal and that too Gainesville and you know they add it to their water too but um but what's what's unfair here is that you know I still take a shower I swim in my pool I can't control that goes through your pores um you know my dad you know he's got Alzheimer's um I don't know what a safe dose it's the city's drinking water is for him um because he's already got Alzheimer's I don't you know how much rat poison you know that's the way I look at it I'm but anyway um so I I respectfully request that the city commission you know pass this resolution and discontinue um adding this to the water especially in light of this Federal ruling I don't know how you know the city can take that chance going forward the liability of this um I'd ask you to be U you know and if this has been mentioned but you know you can go to the dentist if you want fluoride treatment you know um that's up to you but I applaud the city for looking into this I appreciate the staff looking into this the commission bringing it up um I really feel this is probably the I know you didn't make this decision but this could be the biggest Health decision for health outcomes that the city commission maybe has ever made if I'm you know based on all this information so I ask you to um follow the science here and please discontinue to use the floorhead thank you Dr Greg Scott is it Greg Scott Dr Greg Scott yes uh Dr Greg Scott um office at 211 6th Street Southeast Winter Haven uh have been practicing uh Orthodontics in P County for 37 years in Lakeland and Winter Haven um I'm a proponent for fluide only because I I know what will happen I think I know what will happen to the underprivileged kids in Poke County in uh in Winter Haven if we remove the fluoride from the water um in uh 1945 Grand Rapids Michigan became the first city to start using Flor floridated water supply and they found a 60% reduction in decay among kids and that's significant and so uh I know there are other sources of fluoride available we just have to figure out if we remove the water uh the fluoride from the water we're going to see a huge increase I think in dental decay rampant Decay among the kids so I'd like you to at least um take a lot of time thinking about the consequences uh maybe consider what can be done if you remove the fluoride from the water instead and uh I uh that's all I have to say thank you for hearing me I just encourage you to consider it uh keeping the fluoride in the water thank you Dr garrey Rich r c t d Maybe g e o f f r e y good evening uh my name is Dr Jeffrey rentel um I work at 2150 Harden Boulevard in Lakeland Florida I am uh the current president of the Poke County Den Society I am a board certified oral max official surgeon I'm kind of the bridge between Dentistry and Medicine and um I do spend my time uh outside of work working at lvim working on on underprivileged patients that are um that live below the poverty line and so forth um I'm not going to debate here just to Echo what Dr Scott said I'm not going to debate if uh too much fluoride or too little fluoride is going to cause an issue here I feel that uh to serve the underprivileged uh patient population that I see that it's it's in increasingly important to decrease the chance of having rampant Decay now I don't know how many people in here and I'm not picking and choosing here but I've I've had to take children to the operating room I've had to cut their necks I've had to drain their abscesses due to having Decay and I could only see that getting worse over time the increase in infections inflammatory meteors that would travel in their blood system could only cause issues down the line um it it's it's quite simple we use the data that's afforded to us we make an an excellent decision that we that could not really cause any issues for you know the children in the future um again this is to me it's it's about the children I want to make sure that they have the decrease the chance of having uh dental decay increased the chance of rization you know looking at a looking at an 8-year-old nine-year-old child with their parents in my office and I have to tell them that tell the parents I have to remove your son's first MERS second MERS K9 teeth because this Decay looking not only looking at the child and looking that like how they're going to have issues with socialization looking at the defeat in the parents eyes when you have to tell them that your child is going to have have to take out the adult teeth on these kids so um I just want the decision to be made in a matter where all the um data is reviewed there's no rush for it it's been going on since the 80s um so I say you know if we could review the data hold off on any type of vote and um I would I would prefer to keep the Florida in the wars I just think it's going to get worse in the future and thank you very much Colony Chris even Commissioners Chris Colony 400 Island Way Winter Haven Florida 33884 and I got uh involved with this stuff um early on with my dad had Parkinson's disease when I was 2 years old and I lived through it forever until he died when he was 70 and a half so the neur component to fluoride potentially um really sparked the interest and um I was born and raised here in Winter Haven I've raised my five kids here in Winter Haven my oldest is back here he'll be having kids as well and hearing the uh credentials of the dentist here I appreciate that but we kind of know what we know I believe that and uh Co is kind of you know discerned that to us so right before this meeting I received a letter because we know Dental but the toxicology portion of it um came into a little bit of uh I guess a little more clarity here so this came literally about five o'clock tonight uh International Academy of oral medicine and tox toxicology I said this is from Kim Smith the director I would like to congratulate you on considerating uh considering the removal of florid dat of water in our city following the federal judges ruling on September 24th 2024 regarding floor uh regarding water fluoridation this ruling brings critical attention to the ongoing debate about the safety and ethics of fluoridating Public Water Supplies International Academy of oral medicine and toxicology iomt would like to provide some background on our organization and it stance on water fluoridation the iomt consists of thousands of dentists and Health Professions professionals who are deeply concerned about the widespread use of fluide in drinking water our members are W are committed to advancing science-based Health practices and protecting Public Health our position on florid floridated water is clear it poses potential risks to human health numerous Studies have raised safety concerns including links to Developmental and neurological issues as well as the accumulation of fluoride and tissues over time given that water fluoridation is essential is essentially a medical treatment the lack of individual consent for this treatment is troubling from both an ethical and legal standpoint in light of these concerns we strongly recommend that you move forward in removing fluid from the Municipal Water Supply the IM amt's position on this issue has been consistently supported by our extensive body of research and is outlined in detail in our official position paper which I've copied the link I don't have that with me um but I can supply it to you all this position has been unanimously agreed upon by I all IIA members emphasizing the importance of individual autonomy and health decisions we believe that the removal of fide from our drinking water is a crucial step towards safeguarding Public Health we trust that after careful consideration the City commissioners will prior excuse me priorize the health and well-being of residents by taking action to stop the fluoridation of our water supply thank you for your attention to this matter we are confident that your decisions will reflect the commitment to the health of the community please feel free to contact me should you have any further information or clarification so I do have a little bit more time here and I'm very involved with my kids my oldest is 22 be 23 this month my youngest are twin daughters that are 13 and I'm very active in coaching Sports um my girls soccer mainly and of course tennis but I've seen more dramatic snapping of both knees my nephew snap both of his knees forward um and constant ankle breaks and just a a lot more than when I was a kid um I don't know if there's a correlation there um it does seem a little bit ridiculous uh that we're I'll back up I thank you for considering this and I think it's um it's a no-brain to really do some research and have a round table discussion with some of the folks in here that's all right this suits thank you Commissioners for your time my name is Liz suits I live at 5625 Spring Lake Drive Lakeland Florida um my husband and I have 12 children and we this is our 12th year uh we moved actually from Winter Haven about three years ago to get away from the city uh water supply and other things to live out in the country in southwest and the Southwest area of P County and I come to realize tonight that that area also flates their water thinking I was moving into a county water system that does not and we are the only one that flates our water so I didn't achieve my goal there um Winter Haven was has been a second home to us though my grandparents um have lived here or both sets lived here for years um before they passed and my aunt and uncle as well so I am still concerned about the City of Winter Haven um also I lived here for 5 years with my children four of my kids were born here and uh and many of them lived here for for those 5 years and um I just I have concerns about what effects are still happening to them because of the fluoride in the water um it has been proven to be a neurotoxin I one of the bad things about being at the end is that everybody has said everything I've said so I'll have to go um off the flight but I also represent the uh pregnant population I guess who has deep concerns about what's what's happening to my in my my baby inside because the water I'm drinking that I had no idea was floridated and I have no way of opting out I didn't consent to it it's considered a medical treatment but yet I have no way of getting out of it and with 12 kids we definitely don't have the money for an a reverse osmosis system so I can't take care of the my kids health in that way that I want to even if I wanted to I couldn't afford it um as with any medical treatment the fluoride comes with inherent medical risks so you have to is this is a risk benefit situation here um I would say with the the the dental fosis it's notable to know that um in the mid 20th century only about 10% of children had mild cases of dental fosis now that number is much higher I don't have the exact number but it's also increased in severity as well um and all the other things that everybody mentioned I won't mention I do have a couple of children that struggle with ADHD and that's one of the issues that um has been correlated to I have to wonder if that's from the water my kids were drinking I just I guess they'll never know but [Music] um it's also important to note that topical fluoride application the oral cavity according to the Department of Public Health appears to be a more direct and appropriate means of preventing cavities if one chooses to do that uh we should not be Mast treating the general population for cavities without their knowledge or consent uh our dentist always ask us if we want fluoride for our kids and that's our choice to do that or not not to mention it's readily available on most common toothpastes on toothpaste on the market um but there's also good reason they don't put it in baby toothpaste uh and we add it to their water without thinking about it so uh making respectfully making Health choices for the public is not the job of this city commission or the water department um for that matter um I just want to go back to the neurotoxin for the for brain for the for a baby's early development as a pregnant mom I really think about this 75 to 90% of ingested fluoride is absorbed and readily distributed throughout the body it easily crosses the placenta and reaches the fetus and amniotic fluid and children retain higher proportions of absorbed fluoride compared to adults they retain 80 to 90% whereas adults only retain 50 to 60 and this incompletely formed blood brain barrier is less likely to protect a developing child or fetus from the toxicity of fluoride Imaging studies have shown that fluoride accumulates in the brain in the regions that are responsible for memory and learning um these are concerning facts for parents who have to deal with learning disabilities already um the United States Court District case that you've heard I just want to point one thing out of that um in 2023 winter Haven's uh water report showed that it was 1.1 milligram per L liter of fluoride even if the um margarine of error was um what the EPA requires it should be 0.4 is the optimal level thank you for your time all right that's the last person on my list however however if you got here after the list was presented to me I will now give you an opportunity to speak so you can come to the podium state your name and address for the record thank you mayor bird song my name is Jonathan Scott I think I was mistakenly skipped on that list my name is Jonathan Scott my practice address is 2116 Street Southeast I um I'm a past president of the P County Dental Association and I'm speaking for the continuous addition of safe levels of fluoride to the city's drinking water fluide would disproportionately punish the one out of six Winter Haven residents living in poverty and as somebody who I believe in the power of autonomy and the power of personal choice so this is a conflict to me but I've also seen the pain and financial burden that lack of access to fluide causes firsthand removal fluoride will simply be a cost transfer from the city residents so please either table this issue so that both sides of the topic and hold an evidence-based discussion or vote against the removal of fluoride in order to protect the residents you you serve please exclude no one thank you all right next person Joe mcke 405 palomia Circle I just wanted to State some things that haven't been stated yet uh my background is very very diverse uh part of it was in light and Industrial and institutional chemical manufacturing uh one of the things that isn't commonly known is that um fluoride was originally used I shouldn't say originally but one of the original purposes for a process called crystallization so you guys might remember back in the day when the old Banks had marble floors calcium and the lines that would go to the tellers you would see that after a period of time they'd actually be worn and there'd be a little Gully well what they finally figured out was that if they took FL fide spritzed it on the floor took a buffer buffed it in they would turn that calcium Crystal into a fluoride Crystal and the process was called crystallization now any good floor guy will tell you you don't crystallize a floor every day you will make it so brittle it will powder so the crystallization process is something you would use randomly maybe once every every 3 months or so you would use this crystallization process otherwise that calcium would become so brittle it would literally powder away you got sand under your shoe it would just powder underneath your feet so it's well it's well known that fluoride will neutralize into calcium so think about where is this fluoride going that you don't urinate out about 60% of it where is it going day by day you're neutralizing it into the calcium of your bones we're wondering why do we have all of these fractures as was stated by that young man earlier why is it these older people are falling and having these broken hips left and right and left and right they're consuming fluoridated water every single day sometimes half a gallon a gallon a day where is that fluoride neutralizing it's neutralizing in their skeleton and those bones if you were to take a femur and I know you don't really see you know you can't physically see the the bone move but all bones are meant to be flexible kind of like a bow and arrow you know you can Flex the bow a little bit and that's part of the process where that bone then the osteoblast release osteocalcin the osteocalcin attracts the calcium brings it back to the osteoblast and that's how you build bone now once you crystallize your skeleton you have very little bending in that bone and then what happens is that bone becomes very brittle very weak isn't able to release osteocalcin isn't able to pull new calcium back into the skeleton and you see right here oh I've got a scenario for broken bones all over the place so that's just getting into the skele let's get into what was mentioned earlier let's get into it is an endocrine disruptor so think about this in 1921 the federal government mandates that Morton iodize the salt why because we had so many issues with thyroid goer and things of that nature and US soil is very deficient in iodine so here Morton iodized as assault way back then the only people uh the only way to get um you know your salt was at the general store so they knew if they could iodize the salt they could get iodine into people and stop all of these glandular issues all glands need iodine for structure and they need a lot of it us soil deficient so we iodize the salt but about the same time we started chlorinating the water that's another hallogen then we started fluoridating water that is a very power powerful hallogen and it blocks iodine receptors so we kind of Wonder like why do we have all of these thyroid issues now we're already iodine insufficient and now we're blocking The receptors with fluoride this is insane look at the amount of people who are on thyroid medications about one in every three women over the age of 50 and about another third of them should be on one but they don't even know it the major culprit fluide and for these people that say yeah yeah let's just drink it let's just drink it every day should I stop what in the world are you thinking you can put fluoride on your teeth you do not need to drink this on a daily basis in every ounce of water that you're drinking that is just nuts thank you for your time anyone else my name is that's a little bit too loud I need to I need to bring it down a little bit my name is Daniel wolf I live at 56 Lake Daisy Boulevard in Cypress Gardens I see some very very studious looks on the faces of the uh city council here and I think we've got some attorneys over there we' got some got some uh dentists back here behind me yeah this is the part of the evening when well I'm hopefully going to either intentionally or unintentionally provide a little bit of levity not too much I'm still going to be serious I still care about the issue I'm being totally serious when I say this Matters To Me Maybe not as much as some of the other people all all caps all cap and then on the lower almost all caps so I've had a lot of work done few cavities almost every tooth has a crown on it lots and lots of root canals so I mean I've got a mo I've got a motivation to let's stick more fluoride in there because I've I've got a personal reason to argue for that let's get more of it in in fact there's got to be more than just fluoride which will about a perfect future a healthy future where we're all filled with wisdom and health and well maybe we'll get to Utopia I know I know everyone's like we've had enough of your your stuff Mr Wolf but the reason I'm talking this way is because I've been around dentists I've been around people who are successful never met one of them who was genuinely altruistic not one not I've met some dentists like got a I I liked I enjoyed their personality but they all had one thing in common the ones I liked and the ones I didn't they all wanted to live in the biggest house in that City they wanted to drive the most expensive car but they're all buying a Stairway to Heaven tonight today all of them were buying it they're they care they care so much about the disenfranchise the people suffering they could cut their prices in half they could do that now that there's a was it Brad who said direct your anxiety or no what was the exact phrase you said earlier anguish your your anguish is that IT director I'm not going to direct my anguish at Brad I'm going to look at all five people because four years ago I typed in my computer and got on to a um city council meeting there was a zoom meeting we were all sitting at home because there was a pandemic and uh I didn't see any doctors at that meeting to today I consider a dentist to be a doctor today there's a lot of doctors I didn't see any doctors except the city council brought a doctor to the meeting to tell us all about covid-19 want to save everyone care about everyone don't want anyone to suffer would you mind quitting your job for two years we don't want you to suffer we just want you to go lock yourself because we have a history in pandemics of locking people inside their house for two weeks or two months or two years cuz we're all really really smart 2024 we're certainly smarter in the 21st century than we were in the 20th century we're full of wisdom charity altruism we really care for each other so much so it's almost painful yeah you know who the least popular person is in any room on this planet any place the person who does two things except subjective reality and tells the truth those people always get burned at the stake always there's not one exception to that rule so am I passionate about this issue not really I mean I I I think it would be a good idea to take it out of the water so for me it's 4 48,000 earlier someone said it's just $48,000 that's how much I tip my valet 48,000 you peasants and you're whining about our $48,000 expense you embarrass me I'm going to go out and get my $250,000 car I'm not even worry about it well I do worry about 48,000 and there's not not just that 48,000 there's probably a I don't know hundreds thousands of other expenses that the city engages in the county the state the federal government engages in that they shouldn't be engaged in so I'm going to say that I don't buy into the sincerity of all the dentists and all their assistants who really care about the disenfranchise and the suffering cuz they could cut their prices in half they could volunteer 40 or not 40 that'd be egregious they could volunteer 20 hours a week to uh some neighborhood that needs their services and I just wanted to finish up by saying I want to thank though the city council because four years ago it's going to go off I'm going to need five seconds four years ago I did get a call from an assistant from one of the Commissioners and I appreciated it cuz after I complained about something that happened to me and I thought you guys all forgot about it about two or three weeks later one of your assistants called me on the phone and said Mr Wolf I'd like to have a conversation with you and it was the first time in my life that someone who worked in government actually followed through and showed me that they really did Care thank [Applause] you anyone else Jada Wilson uh 2146 mirol Drive Winter Haven Florida um I thank you for your time and for listening to all these facts and fun things um one thing I did notice is uh I also I want to say that I don't really have a background in any of this um although my mother is a scientist and I grew up learning about all the fun things that science has to bring um I myself has never really interested in science but I do know quite a bit of random facts about science from my mother and uh I do have to say that I think pointing out just that the marginalized children will not get fluoride um I don't really think that that's the best argument only because I think you can go to Dollar Tree and buy a tube of toothpaste for a125 with fluoride in it and um I don't see why it would need to be in our water if you can go to the store and just grab a tooth to TU of toothpaste um for a child in need and again like he was saying I do believe that these dentists if you really are concerned about these marginalized children you can cut your costs or at least buy them a tube of toothpaste I know that I'm sure half of them could probably afford to buy every marginalized child in Winter Haven a tube of toothpaste with fluoride in it and uh another thing is if if you're saying that these teeth are being removed from these children's mouths and things are happening to their their teeth um how about we talk about the amount of sugar that our children are consuming too and the the food supply that our children are being um fed and let's talk about that and how that is causing this tooth issue not that the fluoride is going to solve it but that we need to get to the root issue which is actually our nutrition and our health and I think that that is so much more important for these marginalized children because I'm telling you right now I have a heart of I have a heart for children I volunteer with children all the time I love kids and I I see this issue I see it and it's sad to see what people are feeding their children I think that there should be education on um what what we should be feeding our kids and especially the amount of sugar that they're consuming I do not think we should link the fact that we're putting fluoride in our water to solving the problem of uh malnutrition in our children and I also think that if this is happening in humans um why is it not happening in our animals why are our animals not brushing their teeth I don't think a deer brushes his teeth every night but yet he's not getting uh cavities right I mean I guess we're not not checking their mouths but their teeth aren't randomly falling out and they're just fine and I think that that also has to do with their nutrition because they're eating a diet that God intended them to eat and we are not we are eating processed foods that are heavily I know you guys don't have anything to do with the food supply and all that but I'm saying I think this is the deeper rooted issue than that fluoride in our water cannot solve and I think that fluoride in our water is causing much more much bigger health issues that are costing our people so much more money to try and solve I see every day people are spending thousands of dollars a month trying to save their health because they're these things that we're putting in our water are causing other issues and again it's not just fluoride when fluoride's added other toxins are added that are causing more problems and these problems need to be solved and then we're taking pharmaceutical drugs and those are also contaminating our water supply because if you think about it you can't get those out people are urinating in the water and you cannot get that out of the water so we're just our water is highly contaminated we do not need to be adding more contaminants to that if anything we should invest in a a uh Citywide Reverse Osmosis System and remineralization system I believe that would be a better investment of our money than adding fluoride to our water and that is all I have for you today so thank you for listening is there anyone else good evening everybody Kim Davis 354 teranova Boulevard Winter Haven Florida 33884 good evening guys I'll be quick I just want to reiterate with everybody else I really do not think we need to be adding another chemical to our bodies um I wanted to use the example of infants making bottles for infants how many of us have done that and we just warmed up the tap water to make that bottle for an infant how many bottles do we make in a day eight at least for a newborn that we are feeding them water as we give them back BS as we do everything else I made my baby food I added water to the food to Pur uh puree it so that it would be fine enough for the babies to eat we're absorbed with chemicals in everything we do so I would just ask that you would consider going ahead and taking it out RFK Jr is already going he's already announced it he's going to be removing it as long as along with many other chemicals from our bodies and to the um to the teeth Decay I also want to say when was the last time you heard a dentist say that you could heal your teeth your teeth are bones they can heal there are plenty of natural remedies out there where you can actually heal tooth decay if we just used common knowledge ancient information and not always rely on these pharmaceutical medications and drugs who by the way our pharmaceutical companies are paying about 75% of the fda's salaries and funding let's just use some common sense and just remove one chemical unnecessarily thank you is there anyone else good evening my name is Richard otter I live at 818 Avenue O Southwest Winter Haven Florida 33880 I've listened to a lot of this this evening and you have some dentist here and stuff that's talking about how good fluoride is for your teeth well that's not what we're talking about we're talking about fluide in the drinking water I have never seen a little kid take a swallow and rinse her mouth out then swallow it and playing in the streets or everything else they drink it it goes over the teeth and it gets into their stomach I can understand they gargling mouthwash toothpaste fluide might be great for your teeth but it's not for your stomach and to put it in drinking water I myself use a uh I don't have a a good water filtration system for my house but for my drinking water I do I don't understand a uh it's not good for your body I mean it seems like everybody knows that but I've heard it argued that it's great for your teeth that's great and I've heard the poor brought up a few times you can get fluide so many ways but to put it in drinking water that's in your stomach that's your digestive process that gets into places where it should not ought to be I can understand it for your teeth and that that might be great I don't know I don't know what else to say but thank you anyone else all right I will close the public hearing and reopen the city Commission meeting is there any further discussion can I just ask I've got two comments and go ahead uh two questions and then some comments um Gary quick quick question umary can you come to FL I tried to fact check as quickly as I could through a lot of this tonight so that's why I was up here typing and um found out even more stuff than what I prepared for to have tonight but I just wanted to confirm fluoride is naturally occurring correct yes we have natural fluide in uh upper florid and water okay and I don't know which way this vote's going to go tonight but I just wanted to cover our basis if it if it did go yes and we removed it will fluoride still be found in our drink drinking water yes it will be it'll just be a at a lower concentration it runs between 02 to3 milligrams per liter okay thank you I just wanted to get that on the record so that if it does pass and then a water report comes out and finds fluoride we're not secretly putting it in there so thank you for adding that to the record thank you um so I I did a little bit of research like said up here and um I found it interesting foods with fluoride raisins fruit fruit vegetables apples Seafood potatoes um plenty plenty more on this list and I just found that interesting so there's plenty of fluoride to get uh out out and about um in our everyday life uh I also found it interesting and I learned something new tonight the the correlation of of thyroid disease and fluoride and um I just found it interesting that I have hyperthyroidism and my sister has hyperthyroidism and no other family member had any kind of thyroidism so I I don't know maybe we're just The Unlucky One unlucky to but that that's that's odd I was born in ' 81 she was uh born later in the'80s and and the city added U fluoride to the water in uh in '84 four so take that for what for what it's worth um so my opinion on this matter is uh you know there's far greater access to fluoride today than there was 40 years ago or even 80 years ago when it was first introduced into the systems the government really should not be involved in health care or what goes into the bodies of citizens um those really should be left up to the patient and to the provider um so those are my thoughts yes um one of the things that I prefer is I like data to make decisions and it seems that we have a lot of data but none of it is similar it's different age groups it's um it's not us data I guess um it seems like we're all over the Place using and that's that I know the internet makes it real easy to do that uh so in times like that sometimes you rely on the professional um on the professions that research that and should know the most about that um and if I were to ER eror I would want to eror and and on the side of those professionals who you know um when I go to the doctor you know I want a professional I want someone who's been trained and skilled and and all of that so I wouldn't expect to go to um somebody who wasn't wasn't that type person so it makes it really difficult to make this decision um so I just wanted to say that it does make it difficult when you when you're all over the place so anyone else I um you know when uh you said direct all your eye toward you I guess uh when we uh first uh kind of brought this up and you know initially I was kind of like yeah well you know if it's a harm that's causing problems and that kind of thing you know if we don't need it yeah just do away with it you know it's kind of thought was a simple simple matter yeah but then I had to think about my own life and I actually said that I talked about the fact that I'm probably a poster kid for uh fluide um my mother had nine children I'm one of nine uh poror we grew up poor lived in a project uh I never saw a dentist until I was an adult when I went to the dentist uh got my first check up and uh I heard all stories about Dennis and so I was kind of a little concerned about that because I'd never been to one even as a kid and uh he reported he said you do not have a cavity in your head and uh he said you must lived in a place where there was fluoride and uh indeed I I checked it out and in fact it was so there for me you know it it was a benefit you know my mom could not afford and my parents could not afford a dentist to take us to a dentist I go regularly to a dentist now I still have all my teeth by the way I mentioned that and I'm glad to have them um so I think you know as as as one who who uh who fights for those on the margin uh who stands for those who are less fortunate than we are sometimes um I would love I want to air if I'm going to air I want to air on the side of helping people who cannot necessarily help themselves and I do not want to cause any harm to anyone we don't want any comments from the audience we did not Mark you while you were speaking and we I will not allow anyone from the audience to mark my Commissioners thank you Mr Mayor uh therefore I you know I I have a doctor I have a dentist and uh one of the things that I do when I go to uh my physician or dentist um I take Serious what they tell me if they prescribe something uh of medication in fact uh I know some people who have uh who said well listen doc I'm not going to take this I'm not going to take that doct says well I tell you what maybe you need to find you another doctor if you're not going to do what I ask you to do then I can't help you so when my dentist or my doctor tells me something you know I take very serious what they're telling me because I'm one believing that uh they're doing what's in the best interest of of my dental health or physical health we can bring all the other components about money and all the other issues everybody's trying to make money so we understand that part of it but the fact of the matter is I think many people go into professions because they either believe that they can help there's something that they believe that will be a benefit or an asset to uh to the community or people in general so hearing you know the uh the dentists and those and also reading the report I had a chance to be at Florida league and asked several of the Mayors and other officials from various cities and they too are grappling with this this challenge or the same issue as well so uh what I thought was a simple matter is is actually a little more complex uh than I initially uh thought and um but I I would hope and I would hate to think that uh we would do away with something that in fact is beneficial to uh those uh who certainly are uh less fortunate in our community and um so that's a concern that I that I certainly carry I think there's a lot of stuff been shared here tonight a lot of lot of passion a lot of feelings about it and that's great it's good to hear that but I think also that uh um as a commissioner you know serving in this capacity you know it's a it's a serious matter and I recognize that two People's Health and their wellness and their well-being is vital important without your health you have nothing else uh in fact your health is your wealth and um so again this a very difficult situation it's not as cut and dry as I thought it would be and uh so that's where I where my attitude is at at the moment any other commissioner yes yeah just real quick for the audience this is this is basically what you've seen tonight is basically Civics 101 this is what local cook government is all about we have an issue here that affects everybody we're taking we're letting everybody speak there's no rush we're up here going to try to make the best decision we can not everybody's going to be happy with the decision that we make so just understand this is a good thing that's going on tonight this not not a bad thing this is a good thing that's going on but I do have one question and I go back to Dr Poo's using of numbers he said there's roughly 9,000 kids that walk the streets that they're not getting fuyed of some way do we have T you might know this or somebody might know this is there a charity involved somehow you know because we donate 350 $400,000 a charity as as a community every year is there a charity that gives away toothpaste or toothbrushes or something because we if we pass this we'll have an extra $48,000 that we could potentially use for fluoride you know toothpaste giveaways or something that effectives or some way we could possibly deploy this money in a different way to help the people that otherwise wouldn't have access to fluoride I'll defer to um Dr poo maybe the dental Community has an awareness that I can tell you through our grant and aid program I don't believe we've ever had any of those agencies that have come forward that are dental specific um certainly you know you have programs within P County that focus on health care for those who are um below the poverty line or or have less resources to Avail themselves to traditional medicine or traditional practices but I don't believe commissioner dancel we've ever had anybody that has applied through our grant program or made themselves you know known to us that maybe we could mention that to the Haley Center because the Haley Center we award them money every year and maybe they could take that on if there's not an existing charity out there because I would be willing to potentially add some more money to that Avenue if this passes to potentially help the people that that can't get toothpaste fluoride toothpaste on their own but that's just my thought so one of the things he had said with his information um I think it was Mr follow you said one out of six um payLo payLo okay I wrote it down wrong I guess um one out of six was um didn't have dental care yes 9,000 people that's what I was just talking about he said it was like 9,000 kids but there is there are there is County services available for for dental care and and my understanding is there's a considerable weight to access those services but you know Dental Care is you know once every six months so the fact that you takes two minute two months to to make an appointment that's okay you know make make your appointment 3 four five months out and and go receive the care from the county I if you if you don't have dental insurance or if you don't have access to a um you know a dental provider close to you um I had another thought and it just escaped me so I apologize but um it just seems to me like that there is there there's plenty of accessibility for fluoride if you choose to use fluoride on your teeth um yeah and I know what it was sorry I would I would Echo that I I would if this does go through I I would love to see this $448,000 allocated to some sort of dental education for elementary schools I I remember when I was in elementary school it was a second third grade I can't remember which grade it was but I remember they came and they educated us on how to brush our teeth and how to floss and they gave us a little goodie bag and it had everything in it I don't know if that program still exists unfortunately I think those type of programs have have long since been done away with and that that's an unfortunate thing but potentially I think that created a generation of people who used better Dental Care than than prior to that so I think education would be a a great utilization of those funds If This Were to pass tonight yeah I think I think originally it was uh established in part to uh give an opportunity to those who were you know in those days back in the 50s and the 60s I'm a child of the 60s growing up uh who did not have access or did not have opportunity that's why fluide was actually uh introduced into the system because the Ben benefits that that were realized and uh so therefore you know those who did not have it have those chances would benefit and apparently because it it obviously has done what it was expected to do uh and it's amazing because we can have a benefit and don't realize what it's actually done for us or or what it has helped but now we look at it and say oh this is is the worst thing that could ever happen to us but we've been dealing with for the last 40 years and uh and if you want to blame every health issue that you have on one thing it's a combination of many things hereditary it could be whatever uh we know that so you can't just blame all of situations on one thing and uh so it's it's challenging because you know uh you want to do what is right and you feel in your heart that is the best way to go of course and uh but uh so again I I I don't know what I've seen the information I've seen those communities that did stop FL with fluoride as Studies have shown later that the they saw the numbers plummet and to Decay went up and you know there was a adverse effect so uh you know that that is that is the potential that we perhaps can realize if we if we in fact do uh uh stop uh fluing fluoridating the Water mayor I have one more thing to say um I I have worked in water for a long time but you know fluoride is not uh an issue with with that you know some do cities do some don't um I saw this come up in um Clear Water um and um it was unsuccessful to take it out um because you know the medical profession the dentist and things um showed up and um and so that at that time it was chos not to and I'll go back to you um um I'm next to the oldest of 13 so we did not see the dentist I was an adult and I have um um we lived in out we were farmers we lived out in the country so it was not in our water we had Wells and so until I moved when I was 18 19 years old um you know I didn't have fluoride in the water so I can't blame it on a lot of diseases but I can blame it on a lot of dental money that I have spent for dental care so um maybe I don't know but um uh like I said it's um I don't want to I want it to be available to those people who can't for it in some way um I mean at least to have the opportunity to have where they choose it in their toothpaste or whatever but uh it is you know it is a concern and um the data like I said is is all over the place and so um you know I would like it more confined and and say you know and more results and and whatever but maybe that's not not the way it is maybe it is time as I said there's a lot when I spoke on this before there's a lot of other ways to get fluoride now rather than in in the drinking water uh at one time it was the only thing there wasn't fluoride in in toothpaste um until probably the late 50s I think that's about when fluoride came out in toothpaste um but now it's in it's in almost everything you can buy it over the counter you can do all of that if you have the funding to do so so it's like I said it's a very tough decision so for me so anyone else I know from the uh legal standpoint John uh some indicated that uh they felt as though this is being uh imposed or forced upon them and that we put this in the water um and it's our right assuming to do that I don't know what else we put in the water far as that is concerned I don't know all the components that actually go in I know I've been to the wastewater treatment and see how they treat water and uh so I don't know all of the process there so it's interesting to look at all that goes into it uh but from a you know that position that they feel as though this is something that is being forced upon you or you have to take or you know where do we stand with regards to that I mean is there is there a challenge there or uh I don't I don't understand the legal aspect of that so I'm asking the question at this point I'm my understanding based on the cases that we discussed that came out of the Northern District of California the um the court in that case suggested that EPA should take certain actions and examine the issue and perhaps come back with Ru making which takes years and time I I'm not aware uh of any requirements that mandate us to fluoridate the water one way or the other we we do however adhere to all of our permit requirements and whatever we put in our water is permitted and is in accordance with appropriate practices and procedures as we sit here today as far as I know Gary hubard would be the best person to be able to opine on that issue but um in terms of that's a that this this is a example as the commissioner Daner noted as a pure policy decision there is no legal requirement to do this one way or the other and so long as we continue to operate our water system in accordance with the permits that are issued then I think we're good so this is your decision I do have one more thing for for you John in that same regard I I received a lot of letters and and emails and phone calls one of them and this didn't come up tonight was that if now that we know that this could potentially be harmful and we still vote to have it in the water we now become liable in some way is that is that consistent with law the way you understand it and we as Commissioners maybe are even personally liable because now that we know that it could harm or or not I understand not that I'm aware of commissioner dancer um until such time as the EPA or other agencies start promulgating rules and regulations that pertain to this issue then I I I would think that you would have not the liability would be would not be something that okay that was just one concerned about this time that was just one of the emails that I've received that could evolve over time though as as data and information becomes more uh more apparent and studies become more um known if you will I'm done all right anyone I think we've had a thorough discussion we had a lot of people to speak and so I will now call for the vote all those in favor of the motion let it be known by saying I I opposes say Nay Nay Nay can we have a roll call yeah commissioner doson than Commission Comm Mercer yes commissioner danler yes mayor proam Yates yes and mayor b s n so for clarification that motion to accept resolution r451 to cease fluoridation of the water passed second reading ordinance 0 2449 which read about tyone City turn thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0-24 d49 an ordinance amending ordinance 23-25 the 2035 winner Haven comprehensive plan 2035 future land use map series by revising the future land use map series by assigning primary mixed Ed Hub futured land use to one Annex parcel repealing all ordinances in Conflict here with providing for the administrative correction of scers Errors providing for severability and providing an effective date General location 250 Cypress Gardens Boulevard the area covered by this request is 0.89 plus or minus Acres thank you thank you city manager mayor and Commissioners ABC properties LTD requests the city assigned primary mixed use Hub future land use and Commercial Highway C3 zoning District to an Annex parcel totaling .89 plus or minus Acres this contains a 9,088 ft ABC Fine Wine and Spirits retail store that was constructed in 1975 this property was annexed into the City of Winter Haven April 22nd of 2024 the petitioner does not plan to make any alterations to the existing store as this property is developed no additional demands on public infrastructure are expected the requested primary mixed use Hub future land use is consistent with the developed use and the city designations in the area the requested C3 zoning district is consistent with the primary mixed use Hub future land use designation Planning Commission at its October 1 first 2024 regular meeting voted to recommend approval of these requests no members of the public spoke staff's conclusions are the assignment of primary mixed use Hub future land use and SE res zoning district is consistent with the developed use and surrounding City designations and as this property has already developed no additional demands on public infrastructure are expected at this time staff recommends the city commission move ordinance 0 24-4 to Second reading thank you than you thank you the second reading will be uh on November 25th however if there's anyone that would like to speak to this ordinance may do so at this time seeing none we'll move right along ordinance o 2450 would you read by tile onus to the attorney thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0- 24-50 an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the code of ordinances of the city of wien Florida by assigning commercial Highway C3 zoning District to an Annex parcel repealing all ordinances in conflict with providing for the administrative correction of SC providing for severability and providing an effective date General location 250 Cypress Gardens Boulevard the area covered by this request is 0.89 plus minus Acres thank you thank you city manager mayor and Commissioners ordinance 0 24-50 is a companion ordinance that addresses zoning staff recommends that this be Advanced to Second reading thank you we will have the second reading on November 25th if there's anyone that would still like to speak to the zoning you can do so at this time all right ordinance uh 02451 would you read by tyone to the attorney thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0-24 d51 and ordinance amending ordinance 23-25 the 2035 Winter Haven comprehensive plan 2035 future land use map series by revising the featured land use map series by signing neighborhood support featured land use to one Annex parcel repealing all ordinances in conflict with providing for the administrative correction of sceners Errors providing for severability and providing an effective date General location of parcel generally located north of high Highway 550 West East of King Road and south of Cross toow Drive the area covered by this request is 1.19 plus or minus Acres thank you thank you city manager mayor and Commissioners Cyprus Southeast LLC requests the city assigned neighborhood support future land use and Commercial Highway C3 zoning District to an annexed parcel parcel was annexed into the city on May 133 2024 the petitioner intends to develop the property with a multi-unit commercial building for small businesses based on on 1.19 Acres the maximum potential square footage under the proposed neighborhood support future land use would be 12959 square ft the uh there is supporting water sewer and transportation infrastructure um those all have sufficient capacity to support these requests however final concurrency determination shall be made at the time the property receives site plan approval and is developed the requested neighborhood support future land use is consistent with with the property's frontage on an Arterial Highway and at the intersection with a collector roadway the requested C3 zoning district is consistent with the neighborhood support future land use designation Planning Commission at its October 1st 2024 regular meeting voted to recommend approval of these requests two members of the of the public spoke with questions related to the required landscape buffers and potential drainage issues staff's conclusions are as follows the assignment of neighborhood support future land use and C3 zoning district is consistent with the property's frontage on an Arterial Highway and at the intersection with a collector roadway and there is sufficient public infrastructure capacity to accommodate the maximum theoretical development under C3 staff recommends the city commission move ordinance 02451 to Second reading thank you the second reading will be on November the 25th ordinance 02452 that's zoning would you by T loone the City attorney thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0-24 d52 an ordinance amending chapter 21 of the code of ordinances of the city of wi Haven Florida by assigning commercial Highway C3 zoning District to an Annex parcel repealing all ordinances in conflict with providing for the administrative correction of scor Errors providing for severability and providing an effective date General location of parcel JY located north of Highway 540 West East of King Road and south of cross Tower Drive the area covered by this request is 1.19 plus or minus Acres thank you thank you city manager know it this is ordinance 24- 52 is the zoning ordinance and staff recommends that this be Advanced to Second reading all right thank you ordinance 02455 would read by Ty lonus to the attorney thank you Mr Mayor ordinance number 0- 24-55 in ordinance extending the corporate limits of the city of winen Florida so as to include their in additional territory lying contiguous and adjacent to the present boundaries of the City win Haven Florida describing set additional territory repealing all ordinances in conflict with providing for the administrative correction scers errors and providing an effective date General location 75 Sage Road the area covered by this request is 8.64 plus or minus Acres thank you thank you city manager mayor and Commissioners ER Whitehead requests the city commission Annex one parcel totaling 8.64 plus or minus Acres located at 75 Sage Road is depicted on your screen he is seeking annexation for the purpose of obtaining City Utilities for future development current taxable value of the subject property is approximately 200 $ 63,360 24-55 to Second reading all right the next reading will be on 11:25 new business city manager thank you mayor and Commissioners the this is pertaining to the guaranteed maximum price for Chain of Lakes Park phase two so in 2023 the commission awarded RFQ 2245 for Chain of Lakes Park Phase 2 construction manager at risk to R Construction uh we have been working with r over the past several months to advance that project um the commission authorized the city manager in June of 2024 to issue multiple purchase orders not to exceed $17 million as portions of that project were ready for construction that was done in an effort to maintain a time frame and and schedule of delivery for early winter 2025 to date the city has issued 15 m368 51 as incremental construction packages towards this project at this point the city and county have entered into additional addendum for the funding plan both the city and the county um are now contributing an additional $2 million towards the project bringing the total cost or the total funding for the package at just over $24 million a final GMP has been delivered which generally includes the four Collegian artificial baseball fields the fan areas uh and spectator areas the picnic Pavilion all the site drainage and utility work Associated the common areas parking perimeter fencing pave perimeter Trail uh system Landscaping restroom building and and entry building the maintenance building and other support areas as I mentioned the city currently has 24,64174 current fiscal year uh the following breakdown is shown in your table details the expenses associated with it you can see in your table the total amount of funding that is available and you can see in the bottom portion of that early release package A and B and then a final release package of 8,643 n6 this brings the total project expense $4,748.14 it leaves a remaining balance of $148,400 GMP for this project at $4,149 uh that does include that final purchase order staff recommends the city commission authorize the city manager to sign and authorize the final guaranteed maximum price of Amendment for the project in the amount of $24 m1242 approved the overall project budget of $4,899 and to take any additional action related to the completion of this project U Katrina do we have photos so just want to walk you through I don't know if you've had a chance to see this site um these are probably at least a week old at this point probably longer than that you can go back if you would Katrina please so the two fields in the starting in the upper right hand corner that would be field one field two directly below that field three is not yet constructed um we have a lift station that Services Park Lake and this site which have to be Rel has to be relocated first and then Field Four closer over to the lake if you'll Advance the slide please you can see where the lower fields did exist you can actually see some of the clay infields of those um that area is being dug out is the um retention holding area for this entire site that is about 15t foot drop from the top of the existing BM down to the bottom of that and that will hold water so that is going to be a a nice water feature the trail system that surrounds the entire project you can see will be built up on that burm um there's all the the Lakeside vegetation that we've had a lot of discussions on and we talked this recently about our efforts to have that removed uh that is moving forward Katrina is there more photos here this is another look back towards the lake from above the Fieldhouse and you can see how these fields really open up onto the lake T where's the fourth field I see okay so if you're looking right here you can see that is field three which she's hovering over right there and then Field Four to the to the west of that so field three it it looks tighter than it actually is because you still have Cletus Allen kind of driving down through there um but when you see how they lay out it fits in there just right right um if you happen to go by there today if you drive Landings Boulevard or down through chain Lakes Park you would see that the artificial turf began being laid on field number one today the uh the back stops um commissioner dancer is a baseball player you you understand that you know when you put uh chain link fence on there every foul ball den and bends that these will actually be netted back stops similar to what was in Chain of Lake Stadium uh so that holds up has much greater durability and actually a lower cost for the project at the end of the day um they will build one field at a time what you see down there is 57 stone uh then there is a smaller stone that goes on top of that and then a sand base and then the turf goes down that Turf is then topped with sand and a rubberized uh infill um that causes the blades to stand up and gives the durability of the turf um the the uh the the poles for all the back stop and fencing on field one and two are in they'll they'll finish field one with that Turf um Andy I think we said it takes about 15 days to do one field with the turf as they roll it out and seam it and and make it all what it needs to be and then they'll move to the next field and the next field and the next field so it is a uh quite an amazing project to see um the the the trail system will go all along the east side of these two fields that you see here down along the Lake Shore and then up around that water retention area so it'll be a a really beautiful scene there uh very usable space all right any questions entertain a motion Mr Mayor yes motion to approve the chain Lakes Park Phase 2 guaranteed maximum price thank you I will close the commission meeting open the public hearing anyone wishing to speak to this item from the public can do so at this time Mr am can I just ask for clarification on that one item all right I will close the public hearing re open the city commission meeting I just want to make sure that the motion includes the GMP the uh total project budget and the authorization to complete as per the recommendations everything as stated thank you sir just for the record I needed to all right any discussion all those all those in favor say I I poses by the same sign the completion date on that what is the completion date uh the baseball fields will be ready for play when russmatt uh Collegiate Invitational comes to town in late February the vertical buildings will not come online until late Summer Okay um so our our commitment to the partners at the county and the TDC was to have those fields activated so we'll end up bringing in temporary restroom buildings and some food truck type concession Services the fields following rust matat will likely shut down for a period while we're doing the construction of those buildings um and we're working with TDC and others on all the scheduling for that will there be any shade canopies over the bleachers did we ever find decide on that Andy you want to speak to the amenities uh good good evening uh yes there are shade uh canopies o over the bleacher cylinder Ruben Williams and there ALS also uh some large shade canopies as you go into in the common areas in the in the Gathering areas as well going to get hot out there in August very hot all right commissioner Lon reports commissioner Mercer okay um I'm just going to go through the list since it's been a long n um chamber lunch and learn for the theater w win haven and um at the Ritz U with Dan uh he told us all the things I guess that we're going to do there so um poke arts and culture Hall of Fame Gayla I went to that uh poke Vision mayor's Roundtable mayor protim was there he did a great job um and giving them the rundown on um the fourth annual Hispanic heritage luncheon and that's was a great luncheon um I think even better than ever before so um and thank everyone for all the work and hard work that they do when they prepare and do all of that um for us um state of the city event uh again our city manager talked for two over two hours on everything good or bad understand that that was good I mean it uh I don't think you even stopped it's just keep going keep going so um never slowed down um FLC uh legislative committee mine's a municipal now I uh did Transportation or intergovermental relations for a while um since I've been here I guess the first four four years and so um this Municipal committee is more my style and I also went to um hear Gary speak on um uh on the yeah on the water side I U spent the first um he did his presentation so I wanted to make sure that I saw that and then I went on over to my committee um uh like Howard Heights veterans uh Day celebration um they they have um quite a few Centennial Centennial Centennial Teran I guess Cent whatever it is um and um one of them in particular had reached his H 100th birthday on the 11th on that day so um it is always hot there they we're always in the Sun so at one o'clock it was really hot so um but it was a good celebration so that's it and that was it commission dler yeah I've got a whole bunch to I'll go quick like Howard Heights I've been to a million of those things that's the hottest I've ever been with any program so mayor bir song did a great job reading the proclamation when it was so hot um arts and culture uh meeting in Barto we're now having our arts and culture meetings in various venues across the county and we decided to meet at the at the at the Museum in Barto uh wine chocolate and cheese good event understand they sold over a thousand tickets for that event it was so crowded every one of those things gets more and more crowded so kudos to uh Main Street for pulling off another good event state of the city congrats T you did a good job um Master Plan update at chainel Lakes uh school I went out there and Andy was there and his crew and did a good job they had shetes all around so you can go around and vote and I voted for a lot of public art was what I was voting for so Andy if you see skewed you can know that's how I was Voting so Hispanic lunching great Vanessa good job you and your crew always one of my favorite events of the day so Hispanic lunching was beautiful also went to The Haven Hotel rededication I guess it's been a 100 years and uh very interesting to kind of take a tour look around there but I have to say uh rev if you ever get sick our mayor can preach he can preach for you he got to preaching he he got to preaching that day and I thought I didn't know who it was so um you have a second calling there Mr bird song If it's not uh if it's not in public service you can certainly do it in the pulpit and then last no not last next and last Arts culture and Heritage Gaya at noro Hall U really fun event i' I've been to that c second year now the Winter Haven guy that got in was Jim Stafford this year and he was actually there so congrats to the Stafford Family and finally the Florida theater conference I don't know if you went and spoke uh mayor but I went down there and all all those ARS kids just a good fun time good energy and it's quite amazing to see 30 some odd colleges LSU and FSU all of them have booths down there trying to recruit yeah trying to recruit these kids to come do their art stuff at their school so and it's not like basketball players it's artist so anyway it's kind of neat and I always enjoy that event so I was down there for that so that's it for me all right commissioner doson R the uh was able to attend the annual Hispanic heritage luncheon uh there was so much food there it was crazy I I've never seen so much food I didn't know where to start and uh it was just food was great great service uh I'm just really impressed with just how they how the city just worked together to make that a wonderful event uh American Legion Post 2011 annual fundraiser was able to attend there that was very interesting as well to they had gotten back since covid so it was good to see that planning board uh was able to uh of course be at the meeting and and and it's great to see now that we have a full board seated and so this place is full uh when they when they now meet and it was good to see that they had just one item on the agenda uh this last this last uh meeting uh also the uh 2024 state of the city uh as been mentioned presentation was exceptional uh just want to give uh just a uh Round of Applause to the city staff and certainly to our city manager for doing a wonderful job uh attending the FLC policy committee um you know this is my second meeting think we have another one in in uh December I have really enjoyed uh going it's extremely informative uh you get a chance to meet some amazing wonderful people across the State of Florida uh doing the same things that we're doing and Challen challenge facing some of the same challenges as well uh Haven Hotel 100 years I never been in that building before that was first time and uh just talking to uh some of those who have residents who who have been there uh just kind of feeling that whole uh the Ambi of that building is amazing too so it's it's a beautiful place and uh they told me we got a couple vacancies too but you know so arts and culture uh annual uh banquet that was really nice uh really enjoyed that uh just a really class uh event so that's about what I had to deal with all right may approach M Yates thank you thank you yes uh as previously mentioned I had the honor of representing the City of Winter Haven at this year's mayor's Round Table um we had I think there was about 13 Mayors uh from around the county that were able to be present and um I mean I'm partial but I think Winter Haven certainly fared the best um of all other municipalities across the county um also attended the uh so thank you for that allowing me to uh to represent the City of Winter Haven there American Legion Post 2011 annual dinner attended that as well attended the state of the city I think it was closer to three hours T Michael talk but lost count but it was actually an hour and 30 minutes oo fact check that one for me we both were wrong you just wished it went for three hours uh attended the Florida League uh Ci's uh committee meetings on on Friday I'm part uh of the finance and Taxation committee um the number one priority that will be presented this year to the league from that committee is of course ad valorum property taxes um to continue to prevent a further assault from Tallahassee on those funds uh for the city cities across the state uh one other thing I was going to bring up and I had this this conversation um with uh a few League members uh while I was there on Friday and that is the federal action Strike team that the Florida league has and I would just um I I thought it would be appropriate for me to ask I would love to be a part of that Federal action Strike Team through the Florida League um I felt it was appropriate to come back and just uh get my fellow Commissioners thoughts on that um if you don't feel that way I I understand um but I think that that would be good for the City of Winter Haven to have representation on the Strike Team um so often we're able to um uh you know correlate City of Winter Haven items with League strategies and it really presents the opportunity to um really reinforce the direction of of the City of Winter Haven and the needs that we have at the federal level while simultaneously pushing forward with the uh League directives as well so um just ask for your support on that um in in joining that committee Mr Mayor um I'm I'm been a member of the federal action Strike Team for 10 years I've been to Washington DC many many times but if you'd like to take my place I don't know if we need to you have two people on there oh I didn't know you were I I thought we did not have a Strike Team yeah I I didn't go to the last couple of meetings but I'm I was planning on going to DC this February but it doesn't matter to me if you would like to do it uh maybe you can add some new energy to it that that I'm not adding so I don't care if you want to take I want to take your spot no no no no I I seriously didn't know I didn't realize that we had yeah I've been doing it for 10 years and been I've been going I've been to DC probably 10 times so on that thing and the Tallahassee uh but I've got no problem if you want to if we need to if you want to take my place on that committee you're welcome to do so so I'm happy to turn it over to you I don't know how we do that at this stage of the game but you know at some point probably will never next make the next assignments or something or we'll have to find out and I don't know that that's a a liaison role that we've ever designated as such so I think it's if there's consensus then you probably have two people I've done it before done it so and this isn't necessarily the trip this is actually the the strike team stri team yeah yeah I've been a part of and that committee is forming now so that's why I'm good I brought didn't I say didn't I just talked to you about or maybe it was AJ that I y'all somebody sent me an email and said do I want to do this and I said yes but doesn't matter I I rent and let you have it you got it thank you yep that's it uh um I have a list of 10 things I'm going to try to be brief but one is really significant uh the utilities and natural resources committee we had already selected our top two items before we met last week after Garis presentation and we there was that presentation and there was a tree ordinance presentation so there were four items and we voted the one water came in second so uh one of our priorities is going to be the one water plan now the number one priority which is really and Gary and I talked about this could really affect us if the legislature passes this and that is a cap on transfer from the uh Enterprise funds and also a cap and a reduction on what you can charge uh utility customers outside your city limits and gar said if if that's lured that the uh the the schedule that we just had that Rellis did would all have to be Revisited because those numbers would not work so that is a major major major major concern uh so hopefully it won't get ped but they the league is certain that it's coming back in this legislative session so that's something that we need to keep our eyes on I tell you one of the things I did that that uh really sort of shocked me cuz I had never seen it a day with our Sheriff sold for [Music] $66,000 three people paid $22,000 each for a day with the chef at hav hospital Gayla I never seen anything like that in my life um you can do it for free if you make the wrong choices right along the uh you're in the back of the car the the the the the theater conference I gave a greeting to those 1600 kids the place was packed uh and they were allowed like the uh Dale graduations you know you say something and close your ears but it was it was really good but what I really was impressed with is the number of colleges and universities that was at that Fieldhouse every inch of the space they took me all around was being utilized which is great for us and the great thing about it is that uh the conference is coming here for the next five years so we got a fiveyear contract so that that's H really impressed with that um the Winter Haven EDC board meeting was today and one of the things that I was and I had not heard this and maybe you all have that the school board uh in fact uh superintendent Hyde is going to present uh to the uh to the school board a plan to have a bricks and mortar Academy at our airport I mean that's that's major I had not heard that maybe you all had heard that and maybe it'll pass and maybe it won't but uh we'll we'll see I had not heard that but that's what was uh reported today and did I get it right Eric that's what I thought I heard I had had not heard that before yeah um the um the lake Howard Heights I always like to attend that event I'm going to try to have breakfast with them uh with the Vets Thursday uh morning and the uh Arts uh conference Hall of Fame that was a a nice event uh as well and uh last but not least the uh state of the city uh it was good T you doing a great job and uh listen you all have to know I think it was the answer of all of the people up here I've sat through at least 20 state of the city and so this was this was different it was different we've done them all kind of ways from all of the staff having parts and I mean thank you T thank you sir it was good it was good uh so that's all I have uh City attorney thank you Mr May commission nothing this evening C manager I've got three things if I could they are simple reminders um tomorrow evening beginning at 5:30 at the willbrook golf course will be another one of those parks recreation and culture Master planning public meetings so if you were unable to make the one last week at chain Lakes Elementary tomorrow evening being Wednesday at 5:30 at uh willbrook Golf Course Thursday evening please don't forget that's the ridge League of cities dinner that will be held at noro Hall I will not be in attendance with you when that event got moved I had already committed to uh mcing another event here in town so we MJ and I are going to divide and conquer so he will handle that on behalf of my office but uh from what I heard today they are now on a waiting list for people to get into Ridge Le of cities that we sold all of our tickets wow so that's good and then um the celebration of life for Andy Ireland is this weekend that is Saturday at 11 a.m. at Christ Community Church so if any of you are interested in attending that again this Saturday 11:00 a.m. that's all I have thank you Deputy city manager nothing this evening sir thank you city clerk nothing this evening Mr Mayor I got one thing yes Thursday I have on my calendar post elction audit John uh do you know am I supposed to go and certify anything or we don't have anything for some reason I have that on my calendar it must be an errant uh entry because we're make sure we're odd number even year right I don't know why send anything no I'm I'm on my personal calendar so I personally typed it in so I don't know don't know why I made that state but no problem all right okay well we at the end of the meeting emergency ma matters not received for the agenda motion to ad join move We join have you decided whether you're going to do the CRA board meeting on December 4th at 4