The mic was live, and you could just hear [INAUDIBLE]..
Hello, did you know?
[CHUCKLES] [INAUDIBLE] everybody sweating.
[? Didn't go ?] over great.
I call the February 13th meeting of the City Commission
to order.
And to start out, we will have Pastor Travis
come up for the invocation from Baptist Church of Casselberry.
Thank you.
Let us pray.
Precious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity
to stand before you, O Lord.
Father God, we ask you to bless these gentlemen
and these ladies that serve our community.
May you give them wisdom, give them knowledge,
to do the business that is needed for our community
to be blessed.
And Lord, we thank you for the many blessings
that we have in this great nation that we have.
Lord, continue to look over our leaders, making sure that they
look toward you Lord in all the decision makings that they
make, that they honor you, that not only
that they be honored, that you'll
be able to honor your people.
In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
Thank you, sir.
If you would join me for the Pledge.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
Thank you.
Donna, would you please call the roll.
Commissioner Aramendia?
Here.
Commissioner Meadows?
Here.
Commissioner Albritton?
Here.
Vice Mayor Busch.
Here.
Mayor Henson.
Here.
Thank you.
OK, we start the meeting out with the minutes,
approval of minutes.
Is there any comments, questions, deletions?
If not, the chair will understand a motion
to approve the minutes.
Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January
23, 2023, as presented.
Second.
We have a motion and second.
All those in favor.
Aye.
Those opposed.
That motion carries unanimously.
If everyone would join me out front,
we have a special proclamation.
I'd like Mike and the chief to come down if you would please.
You need the microphone.
It's kind of a bittersweet moment for us.
We have another retirement.
And we want to give a proclamation to Mike Johnson,
and let me read it here.
Whereas Mike E Johnson has served the city of Casselberry
in a professional and dedicated manner since he
began his employment with the city as a police officer
on January 5th of 1998.
He was transferred to the criminal investigations unit
on October 29 of 2001, where he served the Department
and community as a detective and has most recently been
representing the city in his role
as financial crimes investigator with Seminole
Financial Crimes Task force.
Whereas Michael Johnson, whose passion professionalism
and devotion to duty has proven to be a tremendous asset
to the Casselberry police department over the years,
and whereas Michael Johnson has for the past 25 years
has been an exemplary employee of the city of Casselberry
has instructed fellow law enforcement officers
on fraud investigations and has worked with law enforcement
agencies around the world to further the goal of protecting
victims against financial crimes and who has earned the status
of Certified Fraud Examiners, certified cryptocurrency
expert, and certified blockchain expert,
and whose commitment to the city of Casselberry
and the police department has been proven to be invaluable.
I therefore-- I David Henson, by virtue of the authority vested
in me as mayor of the city of Casselberry, Florida,
present the proclamation to Michael
Johnson in honor of his retirement on behalf
of the city commission.
The staff and the citizens of the city of Casselberry and
set aside this day to honor and show our sincere
gratitude and appreciation for his extraordinary 25
years of service.
And for anybody that understands blockchain and cryptocurrency,
they have my respect because I certainly don't understand it.
Thank you, sir.
[APPLAUSE]
Mike has to be a bean counter's bean counter
to understand all this kind of stuff.
Thank you, appreciate it.
Hey, Mike, congratulations.
You'll [? be ?] good.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Thanks for everything
[INAUDIBLE]
I will.
OK, thank you.
Thank you.
Give him one more.
[APPLAUSE]
OK.
All right.
The next item on the agenda is we're going to have
to delay for a little while.
Young lady that's supposed to be presenting it as
stuck in traffic.
So it's quite apropos since she's--
so hopefully she's not riding a bike on the way here.
So we'll move to the consent agenda
and come back to that item directly.
And so the consent as far as the consent agenda
goes is there anything on the consent agenda
that anyone wants to remove or discuss?
If not, is there anyone in the audience wishing to discuss
anything on the consent agenda?
Seeing none, hearing none, we'll close
that portion of the meeting.
Turn it over to the commission for action.
Motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
All those in favor?
Aye.
Those opposed.
That motion passes unanimously.
As we move along.
See discussion items.
Any future agenda items that anyone needs to talk about?
OK.
We have one resolution.
So we'll start out with that resolution 23-3350
and we'll turn it over to Donna to read that by title.
Resolution 23-3350 resolution of the city commission of the city
of Casselberry, Florida recognizing and confirming
legislation in progress regarding
the buffer and accessway requirements
and section 3-3137 of the unified land development
regulations for property zoned recreation and open space,
providing for legislative findings,
recognizing legislation and progress,
providing for conflict severability,
and an effective date.
Mayor and commissioners, presenting this item
will be Dr. Kelley Brock, director
of Public Works and Utilities.
Good evening mayor and commissioners.
So as Donna mentioned resolution 23-3350 provides
for recognition of legislation and progress
regarding buffer ways--
buffers and access ways.
So the staff has been taking our parks bond projects
through our development review process
as any other site plan would need to go through,
and with that we've realized that we have some constraints
that we need to work through with regard to buffer
requirements which brought about this item
that's here before you tonight.
So the unified land development regulations within the code
of ordinances define--
have various definitions related to buffers,
including buffering, buffer strips, and buffer yards,
but basically they call for landscaping
or other screening between adjacent uses
for proposed developments.
Within that same section of the ULDRs,
there is a table that indicates what
type of buffer, denoted by A through D,
would apply in a given situation.
So in the example of parks, there
is no separate parks or recreation open space zoning
category for buffers currently.
So it's usually interpreted as being
a low impact development-- so if your proposed
use is low impact.
And then in most cases, your adjacent existing use
is single family residential.
So in that case your buffer required would be B.
A type B buffer is basically 20 foot width
between the adjacent land uses.
So when it comes to parks, we are dealing with a lot
of competing interests.
One is to try to fit in all of the elements that were
included in the conceptual packages
associated with the parks bond.
There are these landscape requirements,
and I have a couple of examples of that I'll share
on the next couple of slides.
There are the city's goals related
to active transportation where we're trying to make all
of our parks within a 10 minute safe and comfortable walk
of every resident within the city,
as well as trying to promote active transportation
and complete streets.
We also have challenges when we're
trying to make sure they're served properly
for emergency services.
Fire department has a lot of say.
We have environmental considerations
like wetlands, stormwater requirements, and the like.
I didn't mention it here, but we also have other interests
like Duke and power easements, as is the case with Wirz,
is a challenge that we're currently working through.
And of course there's cost, which has been a big impact
for these park projects.
So this next slide--
these next two slides will give you
just a couple of examples of the issue that we're looking at.
So Wirz Park, this is Mark David Boulevard.
This is the currently proposed site plan for Wirz Park.
And then depicted in the pink color along the northern side
of the park is what a 20-foot wide landscape
buffer would look like.
This is against a single family residential.
And if you look closer, you can see
we're trying to squeeze in a new sidewalk connection
to get better access from Mark David Boulevard into the park,
and to the various park elements.
And this buffer requirement would actually
make that pretty much unachievable with this site
plan because the sidewalk, even if you
were to shrink its width, would need
to encroach into that buffer.
And we're constrained by other issues such as fire department
requirements, the dumpster location,
the existing community building location as well.
Another example, perhaps even more egregious,
is Dew Drop Park.
Off of Avalon Boulevard, the current access to Dew Drop Park
is largely unimproved access consisting of a mulched area
to be able to access drive up into where the parking
and the restroom are.
Under our current code, that really
would not be able to meet our buffer requirements,
because that space that you're going between
is insufficient to achieve a 20-foot buffer
from both adjacent single family residential
on either side of it.
And then we've also proposed--
Dew Drop Park is actually meant to be a shared use path.
So it's a real trail facility that's linking
Avalon to Canterbury Circle.
And it's meant to snake through the park.
This is very similar to what was proposed
in the conceptual package.
And this would be encroaching taking up about half
of that buffer in this current scenario.
So that kind of elucidates the issues
as we're facing as far as the buffers, the buffer
requirements for parks.
While we were looking at this section of the ULDRs,
we did notice this section that has to do with buffer
strips along street frontage.
We noticed the language and this is just vehicular only.
We think that's just an oversight that it was missed
that you should be able to have sidewalk connections
and active transportation connections
through those buffer strips that are
required along street frontage.
And I think that was just an oversight when the code was
originally written, but now is the time to go and clean that
up while we're cleaning up the buffer requirement.
So staff's recommendations, and this is what's reflected
in the resolution before you tonight,
is to consider modifying section 3-13.7.C.1
regarding buffer yards.
There are two tables in there that may need to be modified.
We are proposing to narrow the focus
to only recreation and open space zoned proper properties.
So in effect it would just apply to parks.
It would allow, potentially, for sidewalks
and shared use paths under certain conditions
to be within those required buffers.
It may result in the need for additional vegetation
to sort of mitigate the impact of that encroachment,
and this wouldn't be by right it would be subject to planning
and zoning commission approval.
And then while we're at it, the second section mentioned there
3-13.7.3.2 has to do with the strips along street frontage,
and that's simply revising it to also
mention active transportation not just vehicular access.
So the resolution provides for recognizing
legislation in progress.
That will help us in particular with our permitting process
that we're currently undergoing for Wirz park,
and then you would see this again
after it has passed before--
we hope to take it before the parks and recreation
advisory board, and then planning and zoning,
and then back to city commission for first and second reading.
We're trying to target the second reading
for June of this year.
And with that, I will take any questions you may have.
Any questions of staff?
I think it's pretty clear.
At this point, we'll open it up to the audiences.
Is there anyone in the audience wishing
to discuss resolution 23-3350?
Seeing none.
Hearing none.
That portion of the meeting is now closed
and we'll turn it back over to the commission.
I move we approve resolution 23-3350 as presented.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
All those in favor.
Aye
Those opposed.
That motion passes unanimously.
Then we have no first reading of ordinances.
We have no public hearings tonight.
No other items that I know of that are on the agenda.
So we'll open it up for citizen comments.
Is there anyone in the audience wishing
to speak to anything that was not on the agenda tonight?
Please come forward name and address for the record.
Good evening.
My name is Dr. Deborah Bauer.
I'm president of the Society for Historic
Casselberry, 423 Eagle Circle Casselberry,
Unincorporated Seminole County.
I just wanted to come tonight to let you all know,
you may not believe it, but two years have passed
since I came before this board.
Historic Casselberry is celebrating its second birthday
believe it or not.
Two years ago, not exactly tonight, but approximately,
came before the board to let you all
know that a group of citizens had gathered to help address
a great oversight and the fact that within the historical
community of Seminole County, of the seven municipalities,
only two did at the time in 2021,
only two didn't have a Historical Society--
Casselberry and Winter Springs.
So I'm proud to say that Winter Springs
is now the only one that still doesn't two years later.
And within that two year period we've worked to come together,
we now have a membership of close to 40 members,
both inside and outside the city.
We draw from all over the Seminole County area--
a couple actually even outside Seminole County.
We've hosted four educational lectures and a guest lecture
series, where we've had close to 300 people
attend those four lectures.
We have another one coming up on March 9th
that we'll be talking about the architecture of James
Campbell Rogers within the city and South Seminole County
at large.
And we continue to work right now with our two main points
being increasing public awareness of the city
and working to preserve cultural resources.
So I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank the City
Commission, thank Mr. Newlon, thank city staff
for the wonderful support that they have continued to give
historic Casselberry, because I have to tell you
all, I've been doing this a long time,
and I've said this in other areas.
It's a dream to be able to have the support
that historic Casselberry has had both publicly and privately
from the city, and I just want to thank you
all from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
Good.
Can I comment on that real quick?
Sure.
Yeah.
I think this is fantastic.
In fact, I've talked with a lot of people
in the city about this.
I know Commissioner Aramendia has been really also involved
with historical Casselberry.
In fact, Deborah Bauer, she she's been very, very good
at promoting and really helping with the historic Casselberry,
and it's grown over the last couple of years.
And I've talked with a lot of people about this,
and I think it's fantastic.
And I've actually been thinking about this,
of potentially creating maybe--
because of that, the conversations I've
had with people, a historic day for Casselberry.
Maybe it could be a Historic Casselberry Day or even
a historic day for Brightwater, Historic Day,
or Brightwater History Day.
So I've been thinking about that a lot lately.
In fact, I was going to bring up in my commissioner comments,
and it's--
thank you for bringing that up, Deborah, because I've
been meaning to bring this up.
But I think it's something that we maybe should take a look at.
Now that we have an active historic group
working within the city, this nothing but propels us.
We have historic parts of the city.
Brightwater is one.
We're dealing with Brightwater right now,
and I think that, eventually, that
could be a symbol of the city, eventually, of its past.
But it's a pretty unique opportunity because of what's
going on with Brightwater, because it's
such a unique focal point, and also a unique, I would say,
historic marker for Central Florida.
It's a destination.
So it's something to think about.
I've had a lot of conversations about it,
and love to maybe have more conversations about that.
Anything?
If you don't mind.
Do we know if there's any state holidays for specific cities
in Florida currently?
Because I think it would be great to even push at the state
level to see if there could be a Historic Casselberry
Day as a state holiday.
We can celebrate the date of incorporation,
which is October 10th.
Thank you.
Thank you for the clarification.
And the reason that April 1st was chosen
for the historic marker dedication
was because, supposedly, that was
the date that Hibbard Casselberry turned
in the paperwork to the state.
And it was Gordon Barnett that thought that that
was a joke because it was April Fools',
so he didn't believe it.
But he was able to sneak it in before Gordon
Barnett, which was Fern Park.
That was the battle--
who's going to incorporate first?
So that's the reason that April 1st was chosen.
Oh, great.
Well, I'm glad to say that I'm a lifetime
member of the Casselberry Historical Society,
so I would encourage everybody else to join up
and support the organization.
So go ahead?
Oh, I just wanted to hitchhike on Vice Mayor Bush's comments
and take it literal and just make sure it's said
and honor the Historic Society for their great success
of winning a historical monument marker for the Brightwater
Estate, which is right now, I believe,
planning to be installed on April
1, as Commissioner Aramendia kind of alluded to that date.
So anyway, that's a great success
that they've been pursuing for the last two years as well.
So I congratulate you all, Dr. Bauer, Former Commissioner
Hufford, who I know is very engaged in the Historic Society
too.
So anyway, that's my comment.
So April 1st, I show up and nobody's there.
Is that how that works?
[LAUGHTER]
I'm on you.
I got it.
Very smart, that one.
I've been set up.
Yeah.
Yeah, if that's what you want to do, I mean,
that's fine with us.
I mean, I don't see an issue with that.
I mean, obviously, the city manager
would have to look into that.
Yeah, for me, I--
What's the [INAUDIBLE] for the day?
We'll have to talk about that some more.
Yeah, because that's an opportunity, because I know
that's coming up, and I thought maybe
that could be something we could have
discussions about because it's going to be a big deal for us.
Like I said, traditionally cities
celebrate their date of incorporation
as their anniversary date.
Like a Founder's Day.
But not.
OK.
We'll get back to the citizens' comments.
Is there anyone else in the audience
wishing to speak to any item that
was not on the regular agenda?
If not, we'll close that portion of the meeting and we'll
turn it over to Emily Hannah, since she just was
able to transverse the area.
And we'll have Dr. Brock introduce here, I guess.
As long as she says she wasn't lost
and didn't know how to get here because she'd never been here.
I won't believe that.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
She doesn't know the area.
For those of you who don't know, Emily was one of our planners
in the city and moved on to greater things.
I hope so.
[LAUGHS]
So Emily doesn't really need an introduction,
but Emily Hanna, executive director of Bike
Walk Central Florida.
And she's going to speak to the Best Foot Forward Program
and the city's participation in it.
Thank you, Kelly.
Good evening, Mayor, commission, City Manager Randy.
Oh, my god, it feels like I'm home.
So thank you guys for having me back to present to you all
the activities that we've been really doing
over the past couple of years in the pedestrian safety
program, Best Foot Forward.
So just to familiarize probably the audience and some of you
that might not know, Best Foot Forward
is a pedestrian safety program that's
across the entire region.
So each individual county and city
participate and have specific outreach and enforcement
efforts that they take place, and also the engineering
improvements that they do to the crosswalks
are all very unique across each individual city and county
based on their program.
But all of this is a part of a regional effort
to change driver behavior and, really, to make drivers
be more aware of pedestrians and cyclists out in the community,
and remind them that there is a state
statute that says that they have to stop
and let people cross the road.
So really that's the whole impetus of the program.
But today, I'm presenting to you specifically what Casselberry
has been doing in that program.
And honestly, I'm here to tell you what rock stars you are,
but you already knew that.
So there will be some plugs throughout the presentation.
And it feels really good to be back in front of you guys
presenting all of this information about all the work
that you have been doing in the city.
I've been keeping an eye on all of you.
But here's what we've done from October 1
to September of this past year.
We've held four high-visibility enforcement operations.
So that's your police department participating
in those regional efforts.
There were four details held, which
essentially, a detail is an enforcement
effort at a specific crosswalk.
So sometimes, if our partners say, like, Orange County, city
of Orlando, they have lots of police enforcement staff
available to do these efforts.
They might do multiple crosswalks in one day.
You guys have an incredible staff of the PD,
and they hit one crosswalk hard each and every enforcement.
And they are often top-performing in our metrics
that I'll talk about in a minute as well.
And then, of course, they've issued
over 51 warnings and citations.
So that's not-- we don't want to issue tickets in the program.
That's not the point.
It's education.
Every time a driver gets a citation,
you know that they're telling somebody
else that they got a ticket.
Did you know that this was the law?
So we count that as education, right?
Hopefully, they're telling people--
hopefully in a positive way, not negative.
But we call that education.
So we're not out there to put a financial burden
or issue these tickets.
Really, it's up to the enforcement agency
whether or not they issue warnings,
or if the violation is incredibly egregious,
they usually will cite them.
We've held over five events and presentations,
reached about 1,100 people with those events in presentations
and handed out over 2,100 materials
to different individuals.
And that could be educational material related to the driver
yield law, or it could be just reminders like pens or graphics
or pencils or stickers that we have that
really just remind people to watch
out for people in crosswalks.
We have bumper stickers that you'll likely see around
your community, especially if you've
attended a event recently.
And then, lastly, we really work with your Public Works
and Engineering Department to monitor specific crosswalks
throughout the community.
So we've monitored five to date.
We completed over 30 crosswalk data collections, which
I'll talk about in detail.
And we supported three other projects
within the city of Casselberry.
And of course, I could not come to the city
and work with you guys without supporting some of the efforts
that you guys have in complete streets and the work
that Dr. Brock is doing, which has been fantastic.
And I'm sure you all know of his kudos
to winning the Change Agent Award
from Smart Growth America.
So huge win for all of us in the region for Dr. Brock's work.
One of the things that I really want to highlight to you
guys today, the importance of a new regional summit that we
added to the program last year.
So right now, we're meeting with our regional stakeholder
partners but in their respective counties--
so all of the cities that participate within Seminole
County all talk to each other, Orange County, Osceola County,
and so forth.
We really decided that we're still siloed.
We need to have these conversations
across the region.
So we brought everybody together in one big summit,
and that was held in April of 2022.
And, at that time, we decided, you
know what, there's some really outstanding people that
are part of this coalition.
We need to thank them for their work.
And so we put a call out for the three E awards, as we'd
like to call, one for enforcement, one for education,
and then one for engineering.
And we had the coalition partners decide who to nominate
and who should when those three E awards.
And it is such an honor to say that Sergeant Blunt won
the enforcement award for being an outstanding enforcement
partner to work within the program,
and not only we at Bike Walk Center Florida recognize that,
but our coalition partners among the entire region
recognize that.
So Sergeant Blunt has been fantastic not only
in working with us in the program
and spotlighting the work that they've
been doing in the city of Casselberry,
but educating and telling other law enforcement partners
about the work that they're doing and getting them
excited about the operations that we
hold are about really educating on that driver yield law.
So last year, he was the inaugural enforcement winner,
so kudos to Sergeant Blunt and the CPD for all the work
that you guys do continuously on this effort.
So I did want to highlight that to say how important that is
and how excited I was-- not biased at all.
You can't tell.
So as I said, we monitored crosswalks
in the Best Foot Forward program across the city.
These are the five locations that we monitored last year.
These locations have slightly changed this year.
So next year, I'll be up presenting, hopefully,
something a little different, in different locations
that we help.
But these were the five crosswalks that we monitored.
And here are some engineering improvements that were made.
So we're really fortunate to have a partner like you guys
in the program because we get to suggest recommendations
to your crosswalks, and your public works department is very
quick to implement or put those into their plans
and make happen.
So at Queens Mirror and Lost Lake Lane,
there was a rapid-flashing beacon installed.
And that yield rate-- so the number
of the percentage of drivers that stop
and let people cross the road--
doubled from 40% to 80% right overnight.
We had some issues with some lighting
because those were solar, and the trees kind of made
those lights a little dim, but our data collectors observe
these during their observations, and we sent that information
back to Kelly and the partners so that they can make
those changes in real time so that nobody
has to feel unsafe about walking and biking in the city.
At Crystal Bowl and Casselberry Elementary,
we did a new type of pedestrian treatment
that we've actually been talking about but no one was
really bold enough to do except for your deputy--
your public works director.
So Kelly decided that we were going
to do this gateway treatment at this elementary school.
We measured data before.
It was yielding at about 36%--
so about 1 in 3 drivers were really stopping and letting
people cross the road.
Now I'll caveat and say that is outside of school
crossing times, because there is a school crossing guard there,
and we do not interact with the school crossing guard
because they have a very important job to do,
and that is to make sure everybody
gets to the other side of the road safely.
So we don't try to collect data during that time.
But apparently, for drivers that are outside
of that school zone, they think that nobody
should be allowed to cross.
So we try to educate that all hours of the day,
even during school and outside of school,
that you should be able to cross that street.
And so by doing the gateway treatment,
by adding the high visibility paddles that
are in that roadway, along with changing out and adding
the stop bar sign or the stop bar that's there to let drivers
know that that's where they should stop their car,
we've increased that yield rate to 74%.
And since then, that has been a project
that we've sent other partners across the region.
And I can certainly tell you, with fact,
that we've got two or three other municipalities that
are inputting this type of work, this countermeasure
on their streets now because of the fact that you guys did it.
So kudos to you for being pilots on all of these safety
improvements in your city.
All right, so Operation Best Foot Forward-- like I said,
we held four enforcements, four details, and 51 warnings
and citations, one of the largest number
of warnings and citations issued for
our small municipal partners.
So kudos to Chief and his CPD team.
We had lots of people out during our enforcements last year.
They are interesting to attend if you have a chance
to come out and watch one of those enforcement operations
take place, or if you're, like Mayor, and join in
on the enforcement operation and cross the road
and become our decoy during that enforcement.
I promise, we were very safe with him.
But we invite you out to participate.
Even Commissioner Dallari came out and participated
at one of the locations that is a joint jurisdiction
between Seminole County and the City of Casselberry,
at Park and Lake.
And we were trying to point out to him that there were
some safety concerns that we really needed Seminole County
to step up and take care of.
So we're still working with Seminole
County on those issues.
We are always pointing to them at Casselberry
is doing as to lead by example.
So our outreach efforts-- we were out in the community
attending those five different events.
Like I said, 1,100 interactions, with 2,100
educational materials distributed, along with some
helmets.
We are certified helmet fitters, and we do
fit helmets when appropriate.
Not every event is designed for that.
And we even got the city manager out there
representing to yield for peds.
Thank you, Randy.
So this year's program we are doing three enforcements.
So we're scoped to do three, but I always-- we hold for a year.
We do one a quarter.
And usually, every year, CPD always
participates in all of them.
So that's never an issue.
They like to participate.
And when we do, we encourage that,
and we'll always support your additional efforts in that.
We are monitoring five crosswalks this year.
Some of them are the same.
Some of them are new, in anticipation for projects
that you guys are building in the city.
So we're taking advantage of that,
and we will be doing five more presentations and events,
so we will likely see you out at this beautiful park and other
places throughout the city.
And ultimately, as always, thank you
for supporting the Best Foot Forward pedestrian safety
program and being a very important partner in the work
that we're doing across the region
because without you, we wouldn't have the opportunity to move
the needle, and we wouldn't have other partners
being able to look at those that are moving the needle
and doing the right thing for pedestrian safety.
So thank you for all of the things that you do in the city,
and I hope that you continue to be
the change-makers that you are.
Happy to answer any questions that you might have about
the program or Bike Walk or anything
that I've been up to lately.
Thank you.
Question-- Emily, how do you guys get your stats?
How do you collect?
What's the data collection component to that?
Sure, so the data collection-- we send a data
collector out to a crosswalk.
That crosswalk is identified by the city partners here.
We make some recommendations-- obviously, I know the city,
so I've made a few.
But we go out and we cross the road
20 different times in three different occasions,
so 60 total crossings.
And that's how we get our average yield rate for
that specific data collection.
What I like to do is try to send different data
collectors to that crosswalk.
We have varying ages, genders, and ethnicities within our data
collection program, and so we like
to send out multiple different types of people
to cross the road to see what that average data comes back
at.
But that's ultimately how we collect that data.
We do six different data collections
for each one crosswalk.
So that's about 30 that we do a year.
OK, awesome.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Yeah, first, nice to see you, Emily.
Thank you for the presentation.
I find it-- to be able to see the data
and to see that relatively simple and inexpensive
changes are doubling the compliance rate is amazing,
really.
And I will say also, just by looking at those pictures,
it definitely visually is easier to understand,
OK, I need to pay attention here.
But yeah, doubled in both cases is super impressive.
So keep up the great work.
Thank you.
I think education is the key here
because it is confusing to a lot of people,
and I've been confused by it myself, quite honestly.
But when you do yield, you get a lot of people that--
especially when you're turning right--
somebody's crossing, you get people blowing horns at you
and all kinds of stuff.
So the education is the key.
And the more we talk about it, the better it's going to get.
Absolutely.
Go ahead.
Since I get to enjoy the one over at Crystal Ball Circle,
I would say that it's pretty interesting
because, at the same time, it's adding that value.
It's interesting how even then, as good as it is,
you have some people that will stop at 3:00 in the morning,
and it's like, there's nobody in the sidewalk.
OK, hey, I'm behind you.
No problem.
Then, when they get to the stop sign, they don't even stop.
They just turn right.
And it's like, so you did well back there,
but you totally failed the test in front of us.
Come on now.
But I will say that really has woken up the neighbors.
And that's usually the biggest issue
is you become so immune to it that you tend not to realize
that you do have an important crossing here,
and you do live in the neighborhood.
These are going to be your kids or somebody else's kids.
So I do appreciate that even though there's a ghost there
and there's nobody crossing, you still have that opportunity
where people still stop.
So it makes them cognizant.
So I would say that it does work.
I appreciate your work.
I know that you really hold this in high regards to that.
So I welcome whatever else you want to do here.
And I know that Kelly will [INAUDIBLE] too.
But thank you very much, Emily.
Thank you, Commissioner, I appreciate it.
Anything else?
We appreciate you.
Of course.
Thank you, as always, and I hope to be back not in a few years.
But a little bit sooner.
And thank you to your team of wonderful employees
at the city to allow us to be able to do this work
and monitor this data and bring back
the before and afters to you guys
to show you that the work you are doing
is making a difference in your community.
So thank you.
I encourage everybody else to participate.
It's kind of fun.
The one lady that does it from, I believe, Orlando Health--
Orlando Health, yep.
Yeah, she's been a trooper, and I've
been participating with her on a couple of occasions.
So it's kind of fun.
It's something that will certainly
encourage your attention to detail when it
comes to these kind of things.
So we appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thanks, guys.
Moving on.
We'll go to the city manager's report.
Thank you, Mayor, commissioners, I'll be brief.
I'll draw your attention to the Procurement Information Report
included in your packet that speaks
to contractual commitments that were entered into by staff
through their delegated authority
under the procurement policy.
And beyond that, that concludes my report.
OK, move on to attorney.
I have no report.
When have you ever seen an attorney that
didn't have something to say?
It's great.
OK, we'll move on to city clerk.
I know she has several things she wants to talk about.
Just wanted to let everybody know that this coming Saturday,
February 18, we have several events
going on all at the same time.
We'll start off with our Mardi Paws Parade at 5:00 PM,
here at Lake Concord Park.
That'll be followed by our Mardi Gras Music Festival.
That will be from 6:00 to 9:00.
And simultaneously, there'll be two different art exhibits
going on, one at the art house for the Seminole
County Printmakers Exhibition.
They'll be having a--
that'll be from 6:00 to 8:00.
And then, over at the Sculpture House, I cannot say the last
name, but I'll let you know.
It's Eugene Ofori-- last name I will not even butcher--
and that will be from 6:00 to 8:00.
OK, we'll go back to--
down the--
So I've been busy.
So we'll start a couple of weeks ago.
I went ahead, and I joined with Dr. Deborah Bauer,
and we had a conversation pretty much about preservation
and the city's work and working with the preservation
of the Brightwater Estate.
So that was decently attended.
Then, also went ahead and, let's see,
we had the topping off of the police station,
so very well-attended, great to see the walls going up.
And we're halfway there, so something
to be very proud of as well.
Also, I was able to participate as a facilitator
for Leadership Seminole.
We had arts and culture last Friday.
And the city of Casselberry hosts a ceramic class.
That's what we do each and every year.
I also speak in behalf as president of Seminole Cultural
Arts Council, so we have our 15-minute speech of what we
do with the arts there as well.
Next year, since I am part of the committee that puts it
together, we're going to be bringing
them to the new art house and showcase that
and do it here instead.
So very happy to report on that.
And also-- let's see-- we had [? Counto ?] last week.
[? Counto ?] was hosted by the City of Oviedo,
and they had a couple of things of discussion.
They had the new fire truck that they showed us.
It's a ladder truck.
And I think at 1.2 to 1.5--
depends how much apparatus you want to go
ahead and add to the vehicle.
They're one of the few cities that still
has their own fire department instead of having
Seminole County services.
And they also had a presentation on their downtown district,
and what they're trying to do-- because they're in that moment
that they're growing, so they have a zoning district called
Downtown Transitional, which means that as they're
moving forward, the opportunity is there to have more density.
Of course, their density is sort of limited, obviously,
because of roadways, infrastructures, et cetera.
But it gives a cohesive plan of where it is that they're
looking to move forward.
And then for commissioners' reports from different cities,
we had Longwood, who went ahead and discussed some
of the events that they did in the past couple of weeks, SMaSH
Festival being one of them.
SMaSH received around 300 to 400 people
that were able to attend.
City of Lake Mary also mentioned some of the festivities they've
done in the past month or two.
We had City of Winter Springs.
She had a question of how long the meetings run.
Seems to be that their meetings run over five hours.
So we pretty much just let them know how much--
in all of our cities, how long our meetings usually run for.
City of Altamonte-- same thing, just the festivities
and the new year.
We haven't met since December, so a lot of us
were just trying to get over that hump of the holidays.
Water and soil, for example--
they're going to go ahead and join us.
We're going to be hosting Earth Fest here
in the city of Casselberry, along with Friends of the Park,
April 29th.
So they're one of the members that always join us.
So they're very excited to join that with us.
Seminole State College-- they reported,
too, on the new semester.
And City of Oviedo-- well, that's
what their presentation was.
Seminole County was not at the meeting.
And Sanford had to check out earlier,
but she did go ahead and leave some notes behind of some
of the stuff that they're working,
things they're adding to the riverfront, bathrooms
that they're adding there as well.
And other than that, let's see--
Friday, went ahead, attended the food truck event.
Unfortunately, it was rained out,
so by 7:45, the park was pretty much cleared out.
Other than that, we also have a historic marker
dedication for Hedy Lamarr.
That will be March 12th, and that
will be at Red Bug Lake Park.
And that will be at 4:00.
It's outside city limits, but it is Casselberry.
And the Jewish foundation for Historic Preservation
is paying for that marker as well.
So there'll be some attendees if you all wish to be there.
Hedy Lamarr was a resident of Casselberry,
and it's going to be dedicated at Red Bug Lake Park.
Other than that, that is all I have to report.
Thank you.
I'm not going to try and top that.
That was good.
I would like to mention--
I believe it's been mentioned, but, speaking of historical,
I believe this is the first meeting
that we are livestreaming.
So I know it was a process to get there.
The city is really good about dotting the Is
and crossing the Ts, so glad we got there.
And I know we're going to do it right,
like we do everything else.
So it just gives another opportunity for the public
to see what's going on and, again,
nice to be in the sunshine.
So thank you, staff.
Thank you, City Clerk Gardner.
Thank you, IT, for getting us there,
and everyone else involved, thank you.
Have a good evening.
I'd just like to add on to that.
I think that livestreaming is extremely innovative.
It's been around a little while, but to be able to take it today
and incorporate it live on our website
and be able to provide captioning
and make things so accessible, it's astounding to me.
We have made great strides in making meetings more accessible
by pushing meeting times from 5:00 to 5:30, but as we know,
there's still plenty stuck in commutes
even during those times.
So for those who might have health issues
or work takes a priority or any other reason--
family dinner calls--
for them to be tune in and join us online,
I think we'll hopefully see greater engagement
and hopefully more access.
But hello, everybody.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it staff and clerk and IT for all your hard work.
Thanks again.
Well, the last two commissioners beat me to the punch
on that one.
I was going to thank everybody was involved
with getting this done--
IT, I know our clerk--
she did a lot of work getting this put in.
I know it's a challenge.
Everything always looks easy when you're doing--
especially when you're streaming a service.
There was a lot that was involved to get this done.
So thank you, everybody that was involved with that.
Also, I'd like to also congratulate Mike Johnson again
for all the work he's done in the city,
and then also recognize the historic Casselberry.
I want to continue that conversation going.
I think there's a lot to offer.
And if there's something else that we
can do to bring recognition to it,
love to keep those conversations going because I think it's
going to be a big part of who we are,
who the city is moving forward.
OK, well, since our last meeting I'll
go through some of the stuff that I
was involved in with the city manager and Mr. Aramendia.
We went to Seminole State College
and looked at the county manager candidates
and got to meet the finalists for that.
And quite honestly, they chose the individual
that I thought was probably the best suited for our area.
So that was interesting.
Went ahead and attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting
and went to the MAC meeting in downtown
Orlando, where our Winter Park Drive project was presented
by our consultant and Dr. Brock, and it was very well received,
and it fit right in with the theme of DOT,
and Dr. Brock was recognized by everyone for his work.
And that was a feather in the cap of Casselberry.
And I pointed out how Winter Park Drive was not
only important to Casselberry, but important to the region
because a lot of people use that road to avoid the intersection
17, 92, and 436.
So hopefully, that will get fast-tracked
and get on the agenda.
I also attended the police building topping-off ceremony
and toured the building, and really
impressed, one, with the space.
It's something that they'll be able to grow into,
and it really is an impressive.
And they are working with the supply chain issues,
but it's very comforting to know that we've
got a good team on the project.
Attended the Tri-County board meeting.
And we should appreciate our city clerk and assistant city
clerk because I got the minutes of the board
for the board meeting five minutes before the meeting.
So it made it interesting to read to the minutes
before we could approve them.
Outside of that, I went to the South Seminole Academy
this last week and judged the Shake competition.
It was very interesting and really enjoyed that.
Former Commissioner Hufford encouraged me to attend that.
And the kids were just spot on.
If you've never been to one of those,
they had 10 stations set up in the gymnasium.
And they brought the students in, 10 at a time,
and they had three waves of them.
This was the semifinals.
And they tasked these kids with--
they didn't know what they were coming into,
and they tasked them with different tasks.
They're judged on their handshake,
their presentation, their--
I took the station where they had to pick
a random item out of a bag.
And there were just Kleenex and a candlestick holder
and just different items in the bag.
And they picked one item out of that bag,
and they had to develop a commercial
and sell that product to me.
And they were judged on their presentation there.
It was just a good--
and one kid went to the national finals last year
and came in second from Casselberry, the Academy.
And he was in this program again this year.
And he was dynamic.
It was impressive to--
and we're talking middle school.
These kids are learning life skills that are
going to last them a lifetime.
So it was very interesting.
Unfortunately, went to--
Dede Schaffner's memorial service was held Saturday.
Those who knew Dede know what a dynamo she was.
And I will tell you, she was a school board member,
but it went way beyond that.
This lady was a school board member for like 16 years.
But her dedication to Seminole County
and the children of Seminole County was second to none.
This lady worked until the day she died for Seminole County
and for the betterment of the children of Seminole County.
And if you didn't know, you missed
one heck of an opportunity.
I know Anthony has worked with her closely.
She was involved in the arts program.
She started the Dividends program in Seminole County.
She started the Red Bag program for food for the children.
She had her fingers in everything.
Anybody that knew Ms. Schaffner, when she started approaching
you, you knew either you were going
to get into your billfold, or you
were going to be volunteering for something
because she was that dynamic.
She had that presence about her to where she was going
to pull you into whatever.
She had a passion for what she was
doing that was second to none.
And at her service--
if you want to call it a memorial
service or celebration of life-- was
really a good tribute to her.
And Seminole County lost a leader,
and that was kind of sad.
Also, attended the Florida League of Cities
webinar today--
legislative priorities.
And I'll talk about that a little bit.
And then on the 16th, I'll be going to--
Leadership Seminole is going to have
a visioning where they pulled community leaders together.
On that same day, shortly after that,
I won't have to leave Lake Mary because we're
going to have the Tri-County League of Cities there.
And the city manager and I think the city clerk
is going to be attending that.
On the 21st, we're going to host Mayors and Managers here.
So those of you that want to join in are more than welcome.
The 23rd, I will be attending the police awards ceremony.
So we'll be doing that.
And on the 24th, I've been invited
to be the keynote speaker at the Aviation Maintenance Institute.
We're going to have a graduation ceremony,
and I've been asked to be the keynote speaker there.
On the second, we'll have a MAC meeting, and on March the 7th,
we'll be doing our budget workshop.
But as far as the webinar for the League of Cities webinar,
they're going to be coming up with a five-year water plan.
And one of the items that we need to pay attention to
is House Bill 361.
And every Monday morning during the session,
Florida League is going to be highlighting what's
transpired, what's coming up.
So if you want to stay abreast of what's
happening in the legislature, that's
an opportunity to do that.
And also, another hot button issue
is they're calling it accessible housing in the legislature,
workforce housing, affordable housing,
all the same kind of things.
But they're looking to increase the Housing Trust
and the issues that we have already
dealt with and passed as legislation as far as density--
they're going to be talking about that
and fast-tracking those kind of things through the process.
So when people develop adjustments to their comp plan,
they're going to look favorably upon increasing the density,
which we've already done.
So we're kind of a step ahead of it.
Both the Ship and Sail programs--
if you don't know what they are, you
need to get educated on that because the state's
looking to put $700 million to those two programs.
The Senate president is taking up the mantra of live local.
And that's where they're supporting local housing
and local rents and so forth.
So House Bill 671 and 383 are both going to be something
that we're going to watch, and they're
going to try to look for streamlining
the permitting process for building permits and so forth.
And the next webinar is going to be February 23rd at 2 o'clock.
And that's for the Prelegislative Webinar,
and that'll be the last one before the legislature hits.
And I intend on going to Tallahassee during the session.
So I'll be up there for that for a couple of days.
Outside of that, I don't think there's anything else.
Did I miss anything?
No, that was very complete.
OK.
Nobody has anything else for the good of the cause?
I apologize for being so windy, but we'll
call the meeting adjourned.
[GAVEL STRIKES]
[SIDE CONVERSATION]