[0:00] Good evening. Welcome to the September 3rd, 2026 City Commission meeting. Like to call the meeting to order, and we'll start with our invocation moment of silence and pledge of allegiance with Jen. Can you take us with that?

[0:54] Okay, I just want to add to that, you know, our thoughts, continuing thoughts, go to Glen

[1:00] Hackworth, Maddie Hackworth, Bob's daughter, and Bobby Hackworth, his son, and of course

[1:07] he has three grandchildren too, so they're all dealing with the surprising loss pretty

[1:13] quick.

[1:13] So okay, we're going to go to, we need to, we had Vice Mayor Walker and Commissioner

[1:20] to guard.

[1:21] We're not at the past Tuesday workshop and I want to ask for motion for excuse

[1:24] absences.

[1:25] All for good reasons that they couldn't make.

[1:26] So moved.

[1:28] Okay.

[1:28] All in favor?

[1:30] Aye.

[1:30] Motion passes unanimously.

[1:32] Okay.

[1:33] And we're going to go to presentations and we have an artist recognition.

[1:36] Richard Logan and I'm going to turn it to Nicole and Elizabeth.

[1:40] Good

[1:47] evening Mayor, Vice Mayor Commission, Nicole Delfino, Strategy and Sustainability Manager here today to recognize the city commission chamber artist for this semi-annual display.

[2:01] So I'm actually going to pass it over to Elizabeth Brinkle, the city's art consultant to introduce the artist.

[2:06] Go over little details about the artwork here.

[2:11] Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, commissioners, staff.

[2:15] Thanks so much for the opportunity to introduce the artist

[2:19] for the current exhibition here in Dineen City Hall,

[2:24] running through December, 2020, 2006.

[2:29] Artist Richard Logan has the distinction

[2:31] of being a featured artist in the Takatori Yaki Gallery

[2:36] in Fuco, Fuco, Oka.

[2:42] Japan, Japan, Duncan McLean Gallery, the Florida Craft Art Gallery, American Strategic Insurance, and

[2:50] Bright House Networks in St. Petersburg, Florida.

[2:53] Mr. Logan's works have been exhibited in galleries across the U.S. He has completed large-scale

[2:58] commissions for city buildings, including a commission in Dunedin City Hall, Caladiseum.

[3:04] and numerous projects for local private and non-profit organizations.

[3:09] His work is collected throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

[3:16] Richard's pre-Columbian exhibit will be here in the City Hall until December 2026.

[3:24] And I emphasize that because on September 10th, from 6 to 730 p.m.

[3:30] And artists talk with light refreshments.

[3:33] We'll be here in the chamber.

[3:35] We'll talk with Richard about his inspiration, his process,

[3:39] along with learning more about him as a practicing artist.

[3:42] The public is very much invited to attend.

[3:46] And at this time, it's my pleasure to welcome

[3:48] artist Richard Logan.

[3:58] Thank you very much.

[3:59] And it's an honor to be here.

[4:01] I mean, there's lovely building, the space

[4:03] that you've created for artists just fantastic.

[4:08] You want to tell us a little bit more about yourself for, and then we've got a few questions for you too, so you don't have to say a lot, we've got some questions for you.

[4:16] I've always loved art, my parents told me I had to do something to make money, so actually I got my degree in architecture, but then decided that wasn't what I wanted to do and just started doing art, and so that's kind of what I've been doing.

[4:31] Are you making any money?

[4:32] Yes.

[4:34] I'm not a starving artist.

[4:40] So.

[4:41] But we've had a few questions for you.

[4:43] I'm going to start over with Vice Mayor.

[4:47] Thank you, Mayor.

[4:48] Thank you, Mayor.

[4:50] You know, the thing that I always find really interesting,

[4:55] you know, about the beautiful work that you all do is...

[5:00] Is your process? And can you kind of talk a little bit about your creative process?

[5:07] The creative process, it's varied. I mean, where the inspiration comes from, you never know.

[5:16] These particular pieces, the process was kind of combining the kind of pre-cumbian art with nature, which that's all part of pre-cumbian civilizations.

[5:31] The actual process is it's a photograph that's transferred on to the metal and then I do etched glass over the top of it and that's kind of that process.

[5:45] But I get bored and I work in a lot of different meetings, so it just kind of depends on what inspires me.

[5:53] Well, I think that's amazing. Thank you.

[5:55] Thank you.

[5:56] Mr. Stammer.

[5:57] So, I know most of the people in this room, when you walk away tonight, what do you want them

[6:02] to walk away thinking of you, trying to understand you and what you bring to us?

[6:09] What would you explain to the people behind you?

[6:13] Oh, wow.

[6:16] You know, it's a matter of trying to bring these particular pieces kind of a beauty and a vision

[6:24] of tying together different civilizations with the present, and how we work together.

[6:35] And just hopefully it inspires people to think about things differently.

[6:41] Didn't I see on your website? Was it someone from ZZ Top?

[6:47] Yes.

[6:49] Actually, that piece was I was at an architectural salvage place and I saw this piece of wood and I said oh, there's a person with a beard.

[7:03] I like that let's create it.

[7:05] Yeah, so that's where that come from.

[7:09] Okay.

[7:10] Mr. Go.

[7:11] Any questions, sir?

[7:12] Yes, ma'am.

[7:15] Of all the pictures that you have on Expeared Pieces of the Barton, I'm sorry not pictures.

[7:20] Is there one that speaks to you a little more strongly or is there a particular favorite that you have and why?

[7:28] You mean of this series?

[7:31] Actually probably the King Pocough.

[7:36] Just because...

[7:37] And for the which one is that?

[7:39] It's the one right in the middle.

[7:42] That one is a little more involved, the process.

[7:48] It's what we call stage carved glass, and so it's done in layers.

[7:54] So it's not just a plain etching.

[7:57] It's carved into the glass.

[8:01] And it's just kind of, I like people.

[8:05] So that's probably what out of this series is the one

[8:08] that I like the most.

[8:10] Very good.

[8:10] Thank you.

[8:12] Thank you.

[8:12] Mr. DeGard.

[8:14] Thank you, Mayor.

[8:15] Is your work exclusively in pre-Columbian, or is this just a second?

[8:19] No, this is just a series.

[8:22] A lot of my work has been, has dealt with music or jazz and people.

[8:29] I use music as, while I'm working, and sometimes it's inspiration.

[8:38] for new pieces and new ideas.

[8:41] And is Edge Glass kind of a focus for you?

[8:44] Edge Glass, it's something that it's a focus.

[8:50] No, it's not.

[8:51] I've done a lot of it, but I also do cast glass.

[8:55] I do oil paintings.

[8:59] I work in wood.

[9:01] I work in multiple mediums.

[9:02] So, this seems to be a big portion of what I've been doing lately, is the Edge Glass,

[9:12] and that was thanks to Duncan McClillan.

[9:18] He gave me the first residency to start adding glass to my work, so that's where that came

[9:24] from.

[9:24] That takes a lot of discipline.

[9:26] It's very painstaking.

[9:30] Yes, it's time consuming and when you're working with glass glasses, as you know it breaks.

[9:35] Yeah, how much glass did you go through to get through these five pieces?

[9:40] Actually, I didn't break in it.

[9:42] Oh, okay.

[9:45] This was a funny question.

[9:46] One of the theories that didn't break anything.

[9:51] It's amazing with glass.

[9:52] So I've just barely touched it and it's shattered and I've dropped it and you don't see

[9:59] any mark.

[10:00] So, you know, the glass is kind of a kind of amazing material, which you can't really necessarily rely on.

[10:10] What were you hoping the viewer would feel when they saw this were?

[10:16] I was hoping they would have some kind of reflection of, you know,

[10:23] pre-Columbian other civilizations and think about how it relates to our growth

[10:30] And how they dealt with nature, and that was a big part of their living and philosophy,

[10:41] and how we should probably do this and think about it this the same.

[10:46] It's beautiful.

[10:46] Thank you so much.

[10:47] Thank you.

[10:48] Thank you.

[10:49] Thank you.

[10:59] Thank you.

[11:00] work, what was your true inspiration?

[11:04] They put inspired it?

[11:08] Gosh.

[11:10] I was actually down in the Selby Gardens

[11:13] and was taking the pictures.

[11:17] And that's where the photographs on the back came from.

[11:21] And it was just kind of watching the little creatures

[11:24] that move around within the lizards,

[11:30] The spiders, you know, the birds and everything that move around within Selby Gardens.

[11:36] So that was kind of kind of where it really came from.

[11:39] Oh, that's great.

[11:41] Well, Richard, we just wanted to thank you for sharing your art with the citizens of Dunedin

[11:47] in the Citizens House.

[11:49] So to speak, and it's very appreciated, and thanks for all you do.

[11:53] I'm glad you decided not to do architecture, decided to do art.

[11:56] Thank you.

[11:57] Well, thank you.

[11:58] And I want to thank you also for allowing me to be here.

[12:01] And let's get a picture with you, up front here.

[12:27] Thank you very much.

[12:41] So before we go to the next, the next proclamation,

[12:45] I did want to kind of take a discussion for me as mayor.

[12:50] Claudia, could you stand up just for a minute?

[12:53] Claudia?

[12:54] Yeah.

[12:56] Yeah.

[12:57] Well, recently this lady, I won't say what birthday it was,

[13:01] had a birthday and she does so much for our community I missed the event but it looked like a lot of fun

[13:06] just wanted thank you and say happy birthday so yeah

[13:16] okay we're going to go to National

[13:18] Constitution Week Proclamation September 17 through 23rd, 2026 I'm going to turn that over to

[13:25] Vice Mayor well thank you Mayor you know it is it's truly an honor to be able to read this

[13:31] proclamation and I just want to thank all the veteran community the veteran organizations that showed

[13:37] up today to honor this. I would like the daughter's the American Revolution to come on up.

[13:54] So this is a pretty special year because we marked 250 years of the Declaration of Independence.

[14:04] And what I want to do is just provide a real brief distinction between the drafting of the

[14:10] institution and the Declaration of Independence.

[14:15] Interestingly, it was the daughter's

[14:17] the American Revolution, the petition Congress in 1955 to set aside this week, and ultimately

[14:24] President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it in the public law on August 2nd, 1956. And, you

[14:32] know, one of the things that I enjoy about this is because, you know, like you, I have a passion

[14:39] for our heritage. I became a member of the Sun's

[14:42] of the American Revolution this year and, you know,

[14:46] it's, it was truly a proud moment.

[14:49] So with that said, I want to read this

[14:52] proclamation, National Constitution Week,

[14:56] we're as September 17th, 2026.

[15:00] Marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, and whereas it is fitting in proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate the occasion.

[15:21] And whereas throughout America's history, in times of turmoil and peace, liberty and oppression

[15:27] are faith in the Constitution's promise of freedom and democracy has been a steadfast

[15:33] rock of national stability against the raging seas of political change.

[15:38] And whereas to this day, the Caladisi chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution

[15:43] continues to encourage public awareness of the historic significance of this milestone in

[15:49] nation's heritage. Now therefore I, Robert James Walker, by virtue of the authority vested in me,

[15:56] by the mayor of the great city of Deniedon Florida, and on behalf of the entire city commission,

[16:01] do hereby proclaim the period of September 17th to September 23rd, 2026,

[16:08] as National Constitution Week in Deniedon. And urge all citizens to join with the

[16:19] large-op chapters across America in honoring and recalling the importance of our rights

[16:24] under the Constitution by public display of our nation flag during national Constitution

[16:30] week.

[16:49] Good evening, Mayor and commissioners.

[16:52] As the cornerstone of our freedoms, the Constitution of the United States of America

[16:57] was written to protect every American from the abuse of power by government.

[17:03] Without restraint, the excesses of political power would cause our republic to perish.

[17:11] This guardian of liberties established our republic as a self-governing nation dedicated to rule by law.

[17:20] Government would be the servant and not the master of the people.

[17:25] We'd laud the achievements of those courageous men who 250 years ago struggled to balance

[17:34] a limited government with the rights, privileges, and the responsibilities of American citizenship.

[17:42] We, the people, speaks volumes.

[17:45] Candle D.C. Chapter D.A.R. encourages our citizens to honor their staunch courage and

[17:53] wise counsel by studying this great document.

[17:57] On that note, we invite everyone to visit our display at the Dunning Public Library this

[18:03] month.

[18:04] It will be up during the whole month.

[18:06] And thank you for helping the daughters of the American Revolution promote awareness of

[18:12] Our nation's greatest document and the Call of DC chapters proud to present you with the

[18:19] Constitution flag to fly over city hall.

[18:23] September 17th.

[18:38] Thank you.

[18:39] Thank you.

[18:40] And we need to get a picture.

[18:41] Let's give you a hand.

[18:51] Oh, yeah.

[18:51] We're going to hold up the flag maybe?

[18:53] Yeah.

[18:54] That's great.

[18:56] Is that idea city manager, family?

[18:57] And I don't know.

[18:58] But she comes out.

[19:01] She comes out.

[19:03] She comes out.

[19:05] She comes out.

[19:06] She comes out.

[19:07] She comes out.

[19:08] She comes out.

[19:09] She comes out.

[19:21] Maybe one of those is a good thing.

[19:25] It works.

[19:26] It's a great idea.

[19:30] That's like a good idea.

[19:34] I know enough.

[19:35] Can they show them the beans?

[19:38] I got the call once in life.

[19:40] You get the call.

[19:42] I don't know.

[19:43] That's a bad time.

[19:46] Okay.

[19:47] Perfect.

[19:49] Okay, ready?

[19:50] Two, three.

[19:54] Thank you.

[19:55] Thank you.

[19:56] All right.

[20:09] Next time, commissioner, San Bergen just have to have your heels on, maybe.

[20:13] You have to have your heels on, next time, will you? Okay.

[20:18] Pretty good for wearing flats. Yeah, exactly.

[20:21] You know, so many thoughts. Okay, and our next one, the very important one, which is a day to

[20:27] remember proclamation, I'm going to turn that over to commissioner Douglar.

[20:32] Thank you, mayor. Before I read this block proclamation, I'm going to ask every

[20:36] in the room to just reflect on where they were on 9-11 when they discovered the tragedy we

[20:44] experienced that day. Just take a moment.

[21:09] Excellent. Thank you.

[21:12] We are as the unprovoked attacks

[21:14] on September 11, 2001 upon America. By foreign terrorists have thrust the United States and other

[21:21] countries into a war it never envisioned militarily or diplomatically. Whereas the challenges

[21:27] facing all civilized people of the world as they relate to war on terrorism will not

[21:33] end until those fanatics responsible or eliminated or brought to justice. And whereas America

[21:39] is fully committed to ensuring our freedoms, remain unfettered and sovereign for all generations

[21:45] now and forever. And whereas world opinion needs to remain focused upon the eradication

[21:52] of these inhumane acts perpetuated around the globe, and we're as one way to accomplish

[22:00] this is to never forget that those innocent victims did not die in vain.

[22:07] And we're as America can fight back by reminding the world that the deaths of these people

[22:12] will always be remembered, and that they will be forever loved and we're as a noble and

[22:18] appropriate way to accomplish this is through the annual celebration of their living.

[22:25] And whereas this commemoration should be conducted each September 11th throughout the land

[22:31] to include the promotion of global peace and goodwill, the demonstration of America's resolve

[22:38] and perseverance to win the war on terrorism, the advancement of responsible citizenship,

[22:44] The encouragement of patriotism and love of country, and the poignant remembrance of those innocent victims who died,

[22:52] September 11th, as heroes, one and all.

[22:57] Now, either for Tom Dugard, by the virtue of the authority vested in me from the mayor of the City of Dunede and Florida,

[23:04] and on behalf of the entire City Commission, do hereby issue this proclamation to memorialize those men, women, and children who lost their lives.

[23:12] be a further proclaim that this proclamation will be

[23:15] publicized for all to see and know that these

[23:19] citizens of Deniedon remember with eternal

[23:21] respect those whose lives were suddenly without

[23:24] cause pointlessly taken from them on September 11, 2001.

[23:31] May they forever rest in peace and abide in our

[23:35] memories. Thank you.

[23:39] We actually have two recipients of

[23:42] one is from the American Legion, Kelly and the whole group, Kelly, if you want to come forward and also our chief with all our first responders and each of you feel comfortable making some comments.

[24:01] Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner of City Manager.

[24:05] I want to thank you for this proclamation and taking a time to recognize this historic 25th anniversary of the 911 attacks.

[24:12] We remember the 343 firefighters along with the law enforcement officers, EMS personnel, and

[24:18] the first responders in civilian two-hawster lives that day.

[24:21] On behalf of Dunnington Fire Rescue, we want to thank you for honoring their sacrifice and continuing

[24:26] to support the men and women who serve our community as well.

[24:30] We will never forget.

[24:32] We would also like to make sure that we invite everybody to join us here at City Hall on

[24:36] September 11th for a remembrance ceremony in the morning.

[24:38] Thank you.

[24:39] What time is that going to be exactly?

[24:42] Starts 840.

[24:43] Hey, 40.

[24:44] Okay.

[24:49] Thank you, Mayor Franny and Commissioners for this proclamation.

[24:53] I accepted on behalf of the American Legion.

[24:55] This being the 25th anniversary.

[24:57] This definitely is something that we know that we can...

[25:00] Never ever forget. We can never let this happen again to our land. We must remember that we are free and we must support and think about the people that did sacrifice their lives for this. The first responders, the families that no longer are families and just keep in memory and never let this pass. It's unfortunate it's 25 years. Thank you.

[25:29] We want to do a picture with everybody. So maybe Kelly and Chief, you guys can be in the middle and then have your groups right there.

[25:35] and whatever suit tells you to do real.

[26:38] Thank you to the Legion and to our first responders.

[26:46] And yes, I'm sure most people in this room.

[26:49] Remember where they were that day, and it was a horrible day.

[26:53] And so we don't ever want to have a day like that again.

[26:57] OK, we're going to go to citizen input.

[27:01] Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on a topic

[27:03] that is not on the agenda?

[27:06] OK, David?

[27:08] Name and address for the record in three minutes.

[27:11] I will, Mayor.

[27:11] Thank you.

[27:12] My name is David Ballard.

[27:14] at a junior, I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor.

[27:18] I frequently attend meetings at the Tampa Bay Water Authority, which is headquartered just

[27:25] up the street.

[27:27] This diagram is a pie chart displaying their capital outlay of annual expenses of what it

[27:34] costs to upkeep their yearly budget.

[27:38] The largest slice of the pie in this chart, two-thirds of their budget pays interest rates to a bond debt paying perpetual interest to an ever-growing bond market,

[27:53] subjecting us to an ever-growing debt maintaining interest payments to a contrived bond market.

[28:01] Slowly and surely and ultimately, at some point in time, this ever-growing debt will

[28:08] place us in perpetual bondage for water access, claiming that water is now a privilege.

[28:17] The diagram shows there is very little capital outlay for other matters, other than paying

[28:23] debt to such third party invocations.

[28:27] If the bond market, as contrived and invoked, was held null and void, neutralized, as

[28:35] based on the 14th Amendment, there would be ample amounts of money for other needs such

[28:42] as infrastructure.

[28:44] Now should the city and the county governments be operating on the same principle, maintaining

[28:50] and ever growing bond debt, neutralizing the interest rates to such contrived bond source

[28:57] would serve to free up money that could be used properly for library and parks and other

[29:05] infrastructure needs throughout the city. Thank you.

[29:10] Thank you, David. Anyone else in the audience wish to come forward and speak to a

[29:15] that is not on the agenda. Okay, see no one. I will close citizen input. I'm going to go to the

[29:22] consent agenda. And so we have two A. Approved the minutes for July 9, 2026 regular meeting.

[29:30] July 21, 2026 budget workshop. Two B is important committee appointments and we have one to

[29:36] denine cause away in coastal waterways committee. And we have two to local planning agency.

[29:42] to see City of Deniedon and Ford Penels in a local agreement for planning and mapping service

[29:48] into our special work project or project work.

[29:52] 2D Award of bid number 26-26-19 for the production well drilling services project to FTE.

[30:00] E Drilling USA Inc. In the amount of 326,672 dollars and 50 cents, and approved for the amendment to the agreement.

[30:08] To E, indemnification and hold harmless agreement for the use of City of Penelas Park Fire Training Facility. To F after the fact ratification of an emergency purchase order issued to Guardian Equipment Inc.

[30:22] for the emergency replacement of 2, 4,600 gallon sodium,

[30:26] hypochlorite, which is bleach, tanks,

[30:29] and installation of the wastewater treatment plant

[30:31] in an amount not to exceed $95,985 dollars.

[30:36] Is anyone wish to pull anything off of the consent agenda?

[30:41] 2D questions and clarification.

[30:44] Anyone else?

[30:46] OK, so minus 2D can I have a motion for the rest

[30:49] of the consent agenda?

[30:50] So moved.

[30:50] Second.

[30:55] Okay.

[30:55] And is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on any of the items that I just

[31:01] walk through?

[31:03] Okay.

[31:03] Seeing no one, I'll close public input.

[31:06] All in favor?

[31:07] Aye.

[31:08] Aye.

[31:09] Motion passes unanimously.

[31:11] Okay.

[31:12] And we have one poll, which is the 2D on production, well-drilling services.

[31:16] So just a question or a full.

[31:18] Just a couple of questions.

[31:19] I don't need a presentation.

[31:20] And it's a question's inclerification.

[31:24] $326,000 is that it?

[31:27] No upgrades of electrical fencing lights.

[31:31] We're not have to come back to these people

[31:32] and tell them anymore, right?

[31:35] This is for the actual drilling of the well.

[31:37] We do have to also bit out the above-ground pertinences

[31:41] like the piping and the electrical and the controls

[31:44] and its rotation as well.

[31:46] So $326,000 plus any idea what we're looking at then?

[31:51] another three hundred four hundred thousand dollars okay I see there's also another

[31:58] well nearby well these proximity to these two have any effect on each other I mean

[32:04] are they drilling is one deeper than the other but just make me they are the same

[32:08] depth so the city that didn't oh by the way I'm out of the city engineer

[32:15] Good evening, Mayor Vice Mayor Staff, I am the...

[32:19] So we have 29 wills throughout the city all 29 do not run at the same time.

[32:25] We like to give some rest and others.

[32:28] We operate from about 12 to 16, 17 wells at a given time.

[32:34] These two wells are nearly parked.

[32:36] We'll not run at the same time unless it is a emergency.

[32:42] That's pretty much all I wanted to hear. I had a feeling there'd be more money and

[32:47] Just want to make sure that they didn't even pee down each other, so that's all I had mayor. Thank you. Okay, anyone else have questions about it?

[32:54] Do you know mine?

[32:54] Go ahead. You mentioned 29 wells and so this will be number 30. Correct. This is the 30th well. Okay, and what are some of the decisions that go into

[33:06] deciding whether or not we need a new well?

[33:10] So, this, this, well itself, is spurred more from our need to have a resilient wealth field.

[33:17] As we found out during Hurricane Haleen, Milton, we are a coastal city.

[33:22] Some wells do get submerged from storm surge and also some wells lose power.

[33:28] So, we looked up two ways to make our wealth a more resilient.

[33:32] We got with a consultant WSP.

[33:34] they identified for well field sites on city owned properties already that we

[33:40] can install a new well. We picked the Emberley Park because it is more high

[33:44] and dry. It is Emberley Park because right behind our water plant, 50 odd feet above

[33:50] sea level. Also, it already has sufficient power. As I mentioned, this is a well across

[33:58] the park. Duke Energy also recently completed a power electrical grid hardening

[34:04] Project, an airplane part, there's that new above ground, a

[34:07] transformer, so the power supply there is more hardened to storms as well.

[34:14] And we already know this is a good location for the hydrogeological, because we already have a well there as well.

[34:20] Okay, and you hear all the time from the residents, as soon as they see a new development,

[34:27] as soon as they see something new, more people coming in, oh my gosh, it's not enough water for us,

[34:32] What are we going to do? Is this any reflection on population increase? Is there any negative impact to

[34:41] the current?

[34:43] Underground water supply that we have this this well and itself is not to increase our capacity

[34:49] It is not to increase our flow to the water and plant. It is only to provide a more resilient well field and to actually give

[34:57] portion of our aquifer a rest

[35:00] Because we don't want to continually pumping from one area. That's how a well goes dead. And you can't

[35:06] put for any more. So, as actually going to benefit Arcafer as a whole, because we're giving some areas

[35:12] of rest. And because we're a coastal community and during the last hurricanes, we had some of our

[35:18] wells get wet, as you mentioned. Correct. Does that water intrusion into those wells, is that

[35:23] contaminates that ruin the well or can the well come back from something like that? I think it was

[35:29] because of salt water or something, I could be incorrect.

[35:33] I mean, it's more of not necessarily the well being

[35:35] indicted because a lot of the electrical components

[35:38] is more of that, where you lose power

[35:39] because of the water getting near that of those components.

[35:43] So it's also just one, there's only,

[35:45] we have about two or three that are really,

[35:47] and that's in that areas, so it's more like you said,

[35:50] trying to move our wells locations farther away

[35:53] and farther up so we don't have those issues.

[35:55] It's not like the well was contaminated with sea water,

[36:00] It's just, you know, we got near so we turn them off.

[36:03] All right, and this again, this will be number 30.

[36:06] Is there a maximum that we came have want to have?

[36:11] So we have only four more well-sized permitted through Swift Mud,

[36:15] and this is going to take one of those away.

[36:17] It's going to be a special well-site.

[36:18] So after this, we'll only have three more sites permitted to us.

[36:22] All right, thank you.

[36:23] That's all I have here.

[36:24] Yeah, Mr. Sanberg, Mr. Garard.

[36:26] But if you're a guard, I'm sorry, yo, yeah, you're a judge.

[36:30] How do we measure the resource available in the aquifer, is there pressure measurement

[36:35] and the recharge rate?

[36:36] I'd like to know about that as well.

[36:39] So when we have to go and get this permit for a well site, we do have to do a whole hydrogen

[36:47] biological modeling of our aquifer that we draw from, and then we work with Swift Mud to

[36:55] which is the southwest Florida Water Management District, and we work for them to come up with

[37:04] what our capacity is, what the well can produce. It's limits at a service peak, so that is

[37:13] done through Swift Mud, and Swift Mud looks, obviously looks as a whole entire region in the aquifer.

[37:20] So what is our status, are we lowering our status capability? What is it? Do we measure

[37:26] that particular aspect? How much water's down there? That's a good question. I can only

[37:32] tell you that we are nowhere near our upper limits of our permit, and we are nowhere near

[37:38] our upper limits that we can draw from. We want to keep our aquifer a healthy, and we don't

[37:42] want to draw too much at all. So, adding the

[37:46] 3rd well, like I said, is only to provide a

[37:50] relief to some of our other areas that we

[37:52] draw from. And the depth is of these wells.

[37:54] This one is proposed to be around 240 to 280 feet down.

[38:00] And how long does it take for water to charge into that aquifer?

[38:04] Do we know that? In other words, when it comes down, it is

[38:06] recharge by surface water, correct? Correct.

[38:09] Okay. And we know the charge rate over time. I will have to get back to you on that one.

[38:16] I'm going to share. I do not know. Three charge rate of time.

[38:20] Well, permits one thing and I get that, but then also recharge rates, something else altogether.

[38:25] So, thank you very much.

[38:27] Nice mirror. Any questions?

[38:30] No mirror.

[38:31] Okay. I know the audience was really excited about this topic.

[38:35] I think it's out.

[38:36] I'm going to go to a question for toilet, thank you Steve for pulling.

[38:42] All right.

[38:43] Can I have a motion to approve?

[38:45] So move a second.

[38:46] Whoa.

[38:47] Okay.

[38:47] Wait a minute.

[38:47] A lot was going on there.

[38:48] I'm going to take commissioner's hamburger second.

[38:51] You're picking that.

[38:52] You get second?

[38:55] He pulled it so I'll give it in the right to that.

[38:58] Okay.

[38:58] All in favor.

[38:59] All right.

[39:00] I, any post.

[39:02] Motion passed unanimously.

[39:04] Okay.

[39:04] and we will go to our action item.

[39:07] Thank you, Clay and Alex.

[39:10] I'm liking the purple Alex, they just have to say it.

[39:14] Okay, second reading of ordinance 26-08,

[39:18] an ordinance amending the city of the need

[39:19] and code of ordinances to prohibit launching,

[39:22] motorized watercraft from the Dining Causeway Beach

[39:24] to protect the shoreline,

[39:26] reduce negative environmental impacts

[39:27] and reduce overall user safety.

[39:29] Jen, could you please read Ordinance 26-08 by Title O'Nlay?

[39:35] Yes, Ordinance 26-08 in Ordinance of the City of Dunnean, Florida, I'm ending the city

[39:40] of Dunnean code of Ordinances to prohibit launching a motorized watercraft from the

[39:44] Dunnean causeway beach to protect the shoreline reduce negative environmental impacts,

[39:48] and improve overall user safety providing for applicability, and several ability

[39:52] providing for conflict, providing for convocation, providing for an effective date.

[39:56] that was ordinance 26-08 read by title only.

[40:00] Okay, can I have a motion?

[40:03] Some of a second.

[40:05] Okay, motion in a second.

[40:08] In Stap presentation, Tony in the corner.

[40:11] So I'm sorry, you did say you wanted to kick it off.

[40:14] Yeah, I made this very much very appreciate that.

[40:16] And I wanted to just give you an overview of kind of established the framework of where we are this evening.

[40:23] In regards to ordinance 26-0-8.

[40:26] This is the second reading of the amendment as the mayor of mentioned prohibiting motorized water craft from launching or landing on the DIN cause way bridge.

[40:37] The Anano staff's going to talk a little bit about this during the course of their presentation, but this has been a controversial subject.

[40:45] And so the first public hearing was we had many welcome visitors who gave you a lot of testimony regarding their position.

[40:52] We've had a lot of emails regarding this particular subject and I know that as you go about your day you've heard from your constituents as well.

[41:00] And so there's been a lot of input into this particular amendment to the code of ordinances and not just during the course of the public hearings.

[41:09] So where this all began was on December 9th of 2025, the Dunning Causeway in Coastal Waterway Committee submitted a memorandum.

[41:16] to the City Commission and to myself a city manager, recommending that the City Commission

[41:21] act to prohibit launch and operation of motorized watercraft on the Deniedon Causeway.

[41:28] That memo is in your agenda package as Exhibit E was a very well drafted memo in my opinion.

[41:35] But the rationale for that memo was stated in a quote, this recommendation arises from

[41:42] documented safety hazards, environmental degradation, and conflicts between incompatible uses

[41:47] along this unique public coastal corridor.

[41:50] And I do want to point out that the Canadian cause and coastal waterway committee is a citizen

[41:55] group of residents of the city of the Canadian, who are appointed by the City Commission,

[42:00] and they acted in a advisory capacity to the City Commission.

[42:04] So I think there is some misunderstanding as to the purpose of that committee.

[42:07] And in fact, making a recommendation, as they did, is part of their task and their charge by the city commission.

[42:18] So in the Arabian period, then the county has been working with a city regarding some traffic circulation patterns on the causeway.

[42:26] And the county has been restoring the area to pre-herricane conditions, and there was quite a bit of damage, as you know, on that portion of the causeway.

[42:33] And so as re-opening the causeway became imminent, it was time for us to take up an address

[42:39] that an in-caused way and cause a lot of way committees recommendation.

[42:44] So, and that was essentially what we didn't want to do is open the causeway and have motorized watercraft there,

[42:51] without addressing the cause, the committees recommendation and then bringing it to the city commission

[42:56] and then closing it down again from motorized watercraft.

[42:59] So, it was a logical progression as to how we got here this evening.

[43:02] So, staff did our research, we spoke to the Dean Causeway in Coastal Waterway Committee.

[43:10] An angelized second of 2026, the City Commission provided consensus direction to staff after a presentation, to move forward with an ordinance prohibiting motorized watercraft from launching or landing on the causeway.

[43:23] It's important to note that this is a amendment to the code of ordinances, and there is a very robust public hearing and public notification process.

[43:32] that is, excuse me, incorporated within any sort of amendment to the code of ordinances.

[43:40] There are two publicly advertised public hearings.

[43:44] The first one was in July 23rd of 2026.

[43:48] And that was when the City Commission by a vote of 4 to 0 approved first reading of that ordinance.

[43:54] You heard a lot of testimony during the course of that ordinance from those who are in favor and those who are opposed to adoption of this ordinance.

[44:02] But, again, I point out that the public hearing is very important, and we have a number of people here, this evening who I'm sure we're going to speak to the City Commission, but also what you hear from your constituents in the intervening period.

[44:13] You're not guided simply by majority at the meeting versus of minority, you are guided by all the input that you received from your constituents.

[44:21] So, the first public hearing was July 23rd of 2026, and that was publicly advertised in the Tampa Bay Times under July 5th of 2026.

[44:30] Tonight is a second public hearing and if the City Commission adopts this ordinance, it would be effective immediately.

[44:36] This was publicly advertised on August 28 of 2026 as well.

[44:41] So publicly advertised, second public hearing of this ordinance you've heard a great deal.

[44:46] You've had a great deal of input from those who are proponents of the ban on most motorized watercraft and those who are not.

[44:55] And so I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to staff.

[44:58] They might repeat some of the information I just...

[45:00] This gave you, if had they probably will, but I just wanted to be able to frame this for you this evening. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Don't need to go.

[45:11] Good evening, Commission Mayor, vice mayor, members of the public, Tony Mulkey, Parks and Recreation Director, City of Dunning.

[45:18] We're here tonight for the second public hearing for this ordinance, and I think city manager

[45:25] characterized the domain points in the process of how we got here, so we'd like to briefly

[45:30] go through and just kind of refresh everybody's memory in the public that it may not be as

[45:35] aware.

[45:42] Good evening again.

[45:43] I got some feedback.

[45:45] Nicole Delphino, Australia and Sustainability Manager, we're just going to again briefly

[45:49] go over this presentation that was shared with you back in July.

[45:53] But take a look at the, the cause way, the history of the background, what the current

[45:58] environment is, some of those benefits to the environment, what we've heard from from

[46:03] Panels County, as well as really understanding the difference between the north and the south

[46:09] side, as far as the county ordinance goes.

[46:12] And then of course, our recommendations and any questions that you may have.

[46:17] So, you've seen this a few times now, but as far as the history of the Dunning Causeway, it was built in 1963.

[46:26] It is open today for recreational activities from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

[46:34] We have a number of key dates that we wanted to share even as far back as 1990 when the city commission

[46:41] a tentatively band launching at that point, and then moving on from there, several studies

[46:48] that were conducted in regards to the causeway, the environmental impacts of the causeway

[46:54] in 2005, 2012, 2014, and then moving into 2019, we'll discuss this a little bit more

[47:03] on specifics in regards to the county ordinance, which restricts usage on the north side, and

[47:10] And of course, as we all know, following the storms in 2024, the pretty much the entire

[47:16] causeway was closed down, but specifically the south side closed as far as any kind

[47:21] of launching or activity.

[47:23] In 2025, we heard from Penels County.

[47:25] They came and presented to the commission on modifying the circulation of the causeway for safety

[47:30] concerns.

[47:31] They had presented in the past as well to address circulation so as to prevent interactions

[47:40] between pedestrians and vehicles, and so that recommendation was made to modify the circulation,

[47:47] which was done in 2025. And then in 2026, the Penelis County completed, it is complete.

[47:56] The Beach Re-Nourishment Project for the causeway to help with the storm damage in the erosion

[48:02] that took place.

[48:09] All right, a brief overview of the current ordinance in chapter 14 is the

[48:16] designation of different use areas along the causeway.

[48:20] The causeway is a gateway to Honeymoon Island and Caled DC.

[48:23] Our Honeymoon and Caled DC Island state parks.

[48:26] It's an active recreation space as well as a transportation corridor.

[48:31] The causeway is separated out as was mentioned.

[48:36] The north side is managed slightly differently by the county.

[48:39] It's an area that has prohibited motorized watercraft for an extended time.

[48:45] On the south side, the area is divided into three different sections.

[48:49] The furthest west is a area that is allowed for non-motorized watercraft launching, a shore

[48:56] launching.

[48:57] The central section of the the Cosway Beach is a non-watercraft area and then the west

[49:05] or excuse me, east section closest to the channel is the area that has been traditionally

[49:12] used for motorized watercraft use.

[49:14] Now, this area is not a developed launch site or a boat ramp.

[49:20] It is from shore.

[49:21] It's about 1,000 feet of shore launching in 1,000 feet that is impacted by this proposed

[49:29] change.

[49:33] This is essentially just a graphic that's actually posted out there on the county signs on

[49:38] the north side of the road.

[49:41] And this kind of just shows in a little different graphical form of the non-motorized

[49:47] watercraft, the watercraft and the motorized watercraft zones.

[49:57] Again, just showing what the county

[49:59] ordinance is.

[50:00] It is as far as that's applicable and posted out there on the north side of the causeway with attention

[50:06] on seagrass preservation. That's part of their decision-making on prohibiting motorized

[50:11] watercraft through that area.

[50:17] And a lot of the discussion around this has been the benefits

[50:20] to the environment. The committees and other groups that have reached out amongst our

[50:27] or Dunedian residents have brought forward the Seagrass protection, but just the reduction

[50:34] in use helps with the turbidity of the water, shoreline scouring, bottom disturbance and

[50:41] has a lot of benefits from that reduced use that people have seen and kind of identified

[50:48] as a cause for wanting to make this change.

[50:57] In addition to that, we did want to share the attached to the agenda item or several letters

[51:03] of support of this ordinance banning the motorized launching, but that has come obviously

[51:10] as Jennifer had mentioned from the Coastal and Clauseway Waterway Committee and the memo that they had drafted

[51:15] to the commission. We have heard from Penelis County with their support of moving forward with this as well as several

[51:22] local environmental groups and users of the area, such as our

[51:27] sailability group and windmasses as well as Tampa Bay

[51:30] Estuary and Sierra Club.

[51:35] In addition to that, another component of this piece was

[51:38] safety.

[51:39] As I mentioned before, the county changed the route as far as the

[51:44] causeway direction goes with concerns over safety.

[51:47] We did work with both the need and fire rescue and the next

[51:50] slide talks about with the Panels County Sheriff.

[51:53] findings, but as far as calls, for service to the causeway, and of course as I think we're all very well aware that there have been two related

[52:04] Jetsky deaths that have occurred in the last couple of years.

[52:09] And then again, this is a reference to what the panel is kind of sheriff's office put together as far as Jetsky-related incidents that have taken place on the causeway.

[52:18] We did want to look at the term and this applies to the same for the fire as well.

[52:24] By the term before the closure of the causeway, so they looked back as far as January 1, 2022,

[52:32] all the way through at the time this data was pulled April 30, of 2026.

[52:37] The entire report, there's just a screenshot of it here, but as you can see,

[52:42] pre-closure incidences are primarily related to vehicles that were not abiding by the

[52:51] wake zone and then post-closure primarily most of the incidences are in regards to

[52:58] illegal launching.

[53:06] This is just a snippet that was taken in our conversations with Penelis County,

[53:11] Tom Washburn provided some feedback as far as agreeing that the city can take a position as far as

[53:19] restricting access. And then also mentioning that the particular reason that they restricted

[53:25] access on the north side was due to sensitive environmental issues and then the you know constant

[53:31] having to refurbish the areas due to the degradation.

[53:39] I'm not going to read this entire county ordinance

[53:41] here. But the highlighted or the underlined items are really just referencing this entire ordinance

[53:49] that the county has and reference to preserving the aquatic system and how important that is for

[53:55] our county and our environment.

[53:59] Again, this just goes into a little bit more detail as far as the

[54:03] concerns over activity that's affecting any of our aquatic preserve and we'll show you a little bit

[54:10] I believe the next slide is a map of the aquatic preserve, clearly it encompasses most if not all of Pinellas County here and that was the ordinance that the county does have in place as far as protecting everything within that preserve.

[54:29] And for a little bit of information we've seen and heard for a request as far as information goes, this is just, you know, for your information as far as available alternate launch locations.

[54:41] should the causeway become unavailable.

[54:45] They range primarily for public launches,

[54:48] but anywhere between two to three miles away

[54:51] from this location up to,

[54:53] I want to stay 12 or 13 miles is the furthest distance,

[54:57] but a lot of different options for...

[55:00] We're launching that can take place.

[55:06] And then lastly, this is how we got today. Jennifer talked a little bit about how important it was that this go through the proper process and advertising.

[55:15] So we did present kind of an overview back over the summer, as far as the direction that we that you provided us to take.

[55:23] The first reading took place July 23rd was properly advertised with seven days notice, and then again for this meeting September 3rd, we also had proper advertising.

[55:40] And lastly, as we are here for the second reading, staff recommends the City Commission adopt ordinance 2608 to amend ordinance 1421, section 454 to 32 to prohibit launching of motorized watercraft along the Dunning Puzzway.

[55:57] Okay, questions for staff starting with Commissioner Gal.

[56:02] No questions, Mayor.

[56:04] I'm sure to guard.

[56:09] Thank you, Mayor.

[56:10] I just want to be sure I understand the map that we're producing out of this process.

[56:16] Which is exhibit A.

[56:18] And I see that in the exhibit A, it still shows slow speed minimum wake area on the exhibit A 26-21.

[56:26] is that going to change? Is that going to stay the same?

[56:30] So I know we have kind of a sister item that's next on the agenda addressing the map.

[56:36] I kind of preemptively will say that there's no substance changes that are being made to the map.

[56:43] The map is referencing the water usage and we are not touching the water direction or the water usage identification

[56:50] Tony shared some of those?

[56:55] Just to reiterate, that's correct, this is strictly the shoreline activities.

[57:01] The waterway would require a different process that would have to be vetted by the state.

[57:06] It appears the map says that water access or voting is available for that area, so is that a conflict between the ordinance and this map?

[57:16] It doesn't conflict because it would prohibit the launching and landing of watercraft from the actual shoreline.

[57:23] But the area would remain in a no-wake zone available for boating.

[57:27] Correct. Okay.

[57:28] But there's no launching ability from that location. That's correct.

[57:33] Okay. Thank you.

[57:35] It's all I have, Mayor.

[57:35] Okay. Nice Mayor, questions?

[57:39] Oh, thank you, Mayor.

[57:41] I have my question really pertains to the enforcement of this.

[57:47] kind of curious as to what kind of penalties would be involved with that, how does this get enforced exactly?

[57:59] So we didn't include an enforcement section of the staffing, and essentially I know that the policy of the panels kind of shares offices,

[58:11] the first interaction is a warning, and talking to Captain Harvey, he's not going to move off

[58:19] of that, I think it's a directive of the sheriff. And so the first infraction, if you will,

[58:23] would be a warning, and then I think it's a code five citation class five citation, which is

[58:31] 93 dollars, if it's unconditionally 38, so they would receive that class five violation. I've also

[58:39] spoken to Captain Harvey about if they encounter the Sheriff's office encounter someone who

[58:45] has already been issued a citation, a classified violation, and they've come back and

[58:49] then at that point there will be an option to trespass them from the causeway so that they

[58:54] wouldn't be allowed to return.

[59:01] The trespass actually, it's not usually permanent for a period of time, maybe a year or something

[59:05] like that.

[59:07] I have no further questions.

[59:08] Just tack on because in here it also says about a fee a fine at $500. How does that invariant?

[59:16] So that will be the municipal citation of the $500 and that will be something that we would discuss with with the the sheriff's office

[59:23] If that's something we're going to pursue a municipal citation

[59:26] Who would that be for actual?

[59:28] You know people that have done it

[59:31] I can see in those terms. Yeah, okay. It'd be good to get that clarified so so actually people would know

[59:38] I think, actually, if I made mayor, the citation is one thing, but the trespassing is another.

[59:44] Gotcha.

[59:45] Yeah.

[59:45] Now, I get that.

[59:46] Just a bigger.

[59:47] Because what if you violate trespass?

[59:50] Although, be a good question.

[59:51] I don't think that you'll be coming back.

[59:53] I think you're going to have a little visit to Hotel Finals County Sheriff's Office

[59:57] Jails.

[1:00:00] Okay, thank you. Okay, any more questions, you're good? No, no further questions.

[1:00:04] Thank you, Mr. Samber and questions. Yes, I had nodding back there so that they kind of answered.

[1:00:08] Yeah, they affirm that I want to immediately. So we don't by chance happen to have a current picture of the way it looks out there right now.

[1:00:17] Do we?

[1:00:20] I mean, if not, I can continue. No, sir, we did.

[1:00:24] We can send one to you under separate coverage. Did anyone recently, I don't know how to get to you?

[1:00:28] I think that everybody in the audience could kind of what I'm going to talk about.

[1:00:33] So if I drive out the causeway, I take a left and go in by high and dry.

[1:00:38] I can go so far and there's those giant concrete barriers.

[1:00:43] Are they going to stay, if no matter what happens tonight?

[1:00:49] That's a follow up discussion with the county.

[1:00:51] They have proposed naturalizing that shoreline a little bit to provide some resiliency,

[1:00:57] but also accommodate more habitat, that's something they actually stepped up during this process and offered.

[1:01:03] So it would be a discussion to see what the access to that area would be.

[1:01:07] You know, because if we're going to, you know, this could change the whole dynamic of that area tonight.

[1:01:15] I mean, now we have cars coming through.

[1:01:18] Well, it seems like people would be starting to relax and enjoy the causeway.

[1:01:23] Looking at the water, I mean, I'm talking about families, and all of a sudden we have cars going through there.

[1:01:27] just something to consider. If we had had a picture, I was not there last weekend and I guess

[1:01:35] that's all I'm thinking.

[1:01:39] Well we have, if this is voted and that is enforced, is there

[1:01:46] going to be new signage, adequate signage, so there will not be, I didn't know, I didn't

[1:01:53] are stand? Well, we have new signs. Yes, we've worked with the county and actually put out some

[1:01:58] signs in the interim because the area is technically closed and we start to see an uptick

[1:02:02] of people trying to launch. Okay. So we did put signs at all the entries on the south side,

[1:02:08] and then if this were to move forward, we'd have to have some water-facing signage as well for

[1:02:13] no landing of vessels and we need to figure out the installation on that, but yes,

[1:02:19] there would. It's a great point for water facing, I've wondered about that.

[1:02:27] I want you to

[1:02:27] make sure for all of us in this room, there is no confusion in language or verbiage. If

[1:02:35] to share this office, if the FWC engages with someone, I just don't want either party

[1:02:42] to be uncomfortable, where a person with a lot of craft folks are trying to talk down

[1:02:48] the deputy or the warden and the warden is trying to say, no, I know what I'm talking about.

[1:02:52] I just want it to make sure for the fairness of both sides, I mean, can we all feel comfortable

[1:02:58] that every deputy that goes out there, every person that might take their personal watercraft,

[1:03:03] everyone will feel secure in understanding what's expected.

[1:03:08] So, Commissioner, if I may, this has been a subject of discussion with Captain Harvey, okay.

[1:03:19] that in terms of he has been in on the and he's the north district commander for those of you in the audience.

[1:03:26] So so the question was enforcement how we enforce it and then the second question was how clearly we can enforce it.

[1:03:34] And so I know that they have regular role call and I don't know the technical name of that.

[1:03:38] I know that they have discussed this ordinance and the deputies were because the area is very clearly.

[1:03:44] I mean, in drafting this ordinance to say there's no landing or launching on the causeway

[1:03:50] is very clear, is very clear.

[1:03:53] Well said.

[1:03:54] So, I don't, I think that enforcement will be relatively easy for the sheriff's office.

[1:04:00] This does not, however, prohibit anchoring offshore, right, and accessing the beach.

[1:04:06] That would still be permitted, and I think that people really don't understand that.

[1:04:10] But you cannot land on the beach, and either can you launch.

[1:04:12] Okay. Now,

[1:04:18] years ago, I'm not the only one in this room,

[1:04:20] we used to have bonfires on the causeway.

[1:04:22] Can you still have a bonfire on the causeway?

[1:04:25] That's rescripted.

[1:04:26] Can I go out there and start a charcoal grill?

[1:04:30] I would love to bring my colleagues,

[1:04:33] and I want all of you to give some consideration

[1:04:35] to doing away with grills as a whole,

[1:04:38] because I've read about a recent couple of severe injuries

[1:04:41] where those calls were left and it was a young child that stepped in them.

[1:04:45] And I want that to be some consideration tonight.

[1:04:48] I don't want to make this into a mess where we're amending what we're trying to do.

[1:04:51] But if we can do that tonight, I'd like to at least have each of you think about that.

[1:04:56] Going forward as we continue tonight.

[1:05:00] The other thing is we talked about horses. I was out there the other day and someone, you know, it was wrong. The dog was not a leash, but the dog was in and out of that, that grass area. Do we have any way that we can post that? I think the guy was training his dog because he was throwing the stick and the dog was in the water.

[1:05:20] So, Commissioner, the dogs are prohibited from the beach.

[1:05:24] Okay, they're allowed on the trail, but they're prohibited unless they're service animal.

[1:05:29] Okay, and then my last, it was brought up during the last meeting about some potential runoff

[1:05:35] from pesticides, maybe making that sea grass grow or die, have we got proper clarification

[1:05:44] on what exactly was sprayed, who sprayed it, and if there was any long-term damage to the

[1:05:51] So any of our waterfront maintenance activities, we do have buffers and things where we do not spray within a certain area based on product guidelines.

[1:06:01] I can't tell you exactly what was sprayed out there, but the staff that does do the maintenance follows those.

[1:06:07] Perfect because without if then one of our folks or with that been Pinellas County, it would have been probably one of our folks.

[1:06:16] That's all I had, Mayor.

[1:06:17] Thank you.

[1:06:18] Okay, I just have one question that I know I'm going to show you guys a follow-up, so I just want to make sure

[1:06:24] The county indicated that before they actually do the traffic pattern or anything

[1:06:29] They're going to on the south side. They're going to show us the mock-up of what they want to do or what the results of the north side

[1:06:36] Traffic-low have been, but they're not doing anything out there until they come to us and say

[1:06:40] This is our thoughts on what we want to do. We want to get input from you

[1:06:44] that is what they told us that is I want to make sure that it doesn't ever go through the crafts.

[1:06:49] That's our understanding.

[1:06:52] Yes, that they're going to come and present us before they implement anything.

[1:06:56] Okay, good.

[1:06:57] All right.

[1:06:57] If I'm going to be the crazy person out there is things stop.

[1:07:00] If it starts before we see it and we get input from people.

[1:07:03] We'll be calling them tomorrow to remind them.

[1:07:05] Yeah, okay.

[1:07:05] That's good.

[1:07:07] That's my only question.

[1:07:08] I just want to make sure we didn't get lost on that one.

[1:07:10] Can you show us how you get a follow-up?

[1:07:12] We do not want to see crazy mayor, so please take care of that.

[1:07:18] Dogs are not allowed on the causeway, but they are allowed on Honeymoon Island.

[1:07:23] They're allowed on the trail.

[1:07:25] They're allowed on the trail, they're not allowed off the trail.

[1:07:29] But Honeymoon Island is a state park.

[1:07:31] Oh, yes.

[1:07:32] There is a dog beach with a state park.

[1:07:35] So if anybody who has your dogs on the causeway, there is a relief fell.

[1:07:40] Right, half a mile down the road.

[1:07:43] I think you used the word relief, I thought.

[1:07:47] Pardon the pun.

[1:07:51] And when we talk about landing and they just can't land their jet skis

[1:08:00] on the beach, how close can they get?

[1:08:05] Are the residents, if this passes, and there is a jet ski

[1:08:09] that's 20 yards off the beach,

[1:08:13] are we going to start to get panic calls from residents?

[1:08:17] What's the expectation?

[1:08:19] So the one area there that was pointed out,

[1:08:22] this is a no-wake zone.

[1:08:24] So it would have to be kind of slow speed operations,

[1:08:26] but yes, they could occupy that area with a vessel.

[1:08:31] So they can get within three feet of the shore,

[1:08:34] they can get pretty close.

[1:08:35] Be people, okay, very good.

[1:08:36] And have we done any economic analysis, or do we know what the impact of the jet skis that they've had on our local businesses?

[1:08:48] Whether it's eddies, whether it's a bait shop, McDonald's Dunkin Donuts, the gas station?

[1:08:55] No, we have not done that analysis. We have heard from Glenn Stanky at the High and Dry, which would be the one that would probably be most impacted and he is in favor of the ban.

[1:09:06] on motorized watercraft, but we have not done an in-depth analysis of the surrounding

[1:09:12] businesses.

[1:09:13] All right.

[1:09:14] And thank you, Mayor, that's all that I had.

[1:09:15] Okay, I also have a follow-up, I don't want to.

[1:09:18] Okay, I do have one follow-up because you, you know, got me thinking, I guess the question

[1:09:23] is to the city attorney, is there enough clarity in there in terms of what, how close

[1:09:29] you can be to the shore, or is this going to be like, oh my gosh, we're arguing about,

[1:09:34] you know, somebody being a foot off versus three feet off versus six feet off, I mean.

[1:09:39] So the point of the ordinance was to stop the launching, you know, so they're coming on and going off the shoreline.

[1:09:47] And so that's what it's regulating.

[1:09:48] And I think that's very clear as far as the waterway goes, this wasn't changing the regulations that currently exist in that waterway.

[1:09:56] So as long as you're not touching the shore, you're probably okay.

[1:10:00] But if you touch the shore, you're in violation. Okay.

[1:10:03] All right. And I guess to clarify, that would be the Jetsky touching the shore, not the writer.

[1:10:08] Right. So they can get off the Jetsky and walk on shore.

[1:10:12] All right. Just.

[1:10:14] Yes. Sorry. Sorry if that was being picky.

[1:10:18] Okay. If I could also just go quick, since we were talking about this, there was a question with regard to amending the ordinance to include

[1:10:27] to deal with the hot coals, so I did want to let you know that there already is something in the code that prohibits the disposal of hot coals unless it's in a designated area, so that already exists within your code.

[1:10:44] So that means grills.

[1:10:46] are grilling is allowed but the disposal of the coal is can only be done in a designated area.

[1:10:54] Okay, which puts a lot of responsibility on the person that's doing the grilling.

[1:10:58] Good, thank you for clarifying that.

[1:10:59] Thank you. Okay, so if there's no other questions, we've got some quite a few citizens that do

[1:11:07] want to talk. I just want to kind of restate what I said the last time and what famously so

[1:11:13] I hope it goes famously as well.

[1:11:16] I probably have an equal amount of cards on each side of this issue, which makes it really

[1:11:21] important that the decorum of not clapping, not shouting out, not hooting, whatever, because

[1:11:29] again, the whole purpose of that is not to intimidate who's ever talking and make them afraid

[1:11:32] even get up here.

[1:11:34] So it's just about respecting each other's opinion and there's a lot of good opinions on

[1:11:40] both sides of this.

[1:11:40] So we want to do that.

[1:11:42] So what I'm going to do is, as I'm going to call a name and I'm going to call a name that's

[1:11:46] undec.

[1:11:47] So again, that person can be ready to come up and then it'll help the process move along well.

[1:11:54] So we are going to start.

[1:11:55] First speaker, when it will be, you basically name address and three minutes.

[1:12:01] And so David, get us junior is first and Mark Clark is undec.

[1:12:08] Good evening.

[1:12:08] Thank you again.

[1:12:09] David Ballard, get his junior, I live on Georgia Avenue and Palm Harbor.

[1:12:14] The newly proposed bridge, that's to replace our existing bridge, is to be much larger

[1:12:21] longer than the bridge that we have in place today.

[1:12:25] It'll extend out past the point of where people are launching their jet skis today.

[1:12:32] So in effect, this jet ski argument is kind of moot in relation to this newly developed bridge proposal,

[1:12:41] which ultimately is going to shorten the parking area that people use on the causeway itself.

[1:12:48] The new bridge will be nice because it will allow more water flow underneath that bridge to get behind

[1:12:55] Caledic island and flush out the grass flats that are slowly dying because the cause

[1:13:01] way itself is congesting proper tidal flow.

[1:13:05] Now, here's the problem.

[1:13:08] I'm not a big fan of dredging, but that's all we've done out there.

[1:13:14] The intercoastal waterway is a dredge.

[1:13:16] They're pumping sand up and down on the beach from St. Pete all the way up, you know,

[1:13:21] North Pinellas here, they're pumping sand from Coco Beach to St. Augustine, so in a sense

[1:13:29] the causeway itself is a dredge. It's artificial. Now in order to accommodate an ever-growing

[1:13:38] population and people that moved the floor to come for the water we need to provide them

[1:13:43] a place to go to so we need to reconfigure how we're going to design the causeway. I believe

[1:13:50] the tarp and springs, and the way they utilize cold assacks that kind of stick out into

[1:13:57] Fred Howard Park, Sunset Beach, is a cold assack. Those were dredged. I think we could utilize

[1:14:03] that same concept here on the causeway and create one, possibly two cold assacks out by where

[1:14:11] the bath house is, that extend northward, dredging obviously would be disruptive to the

[1:14:20] habitat, I've lived here in my whole life and it pains me to say this, but at the same time

[1:14:28] we need to accommodate for what we're removing from the causeway with the building of

[1:14:35] the new bridge, we're going to need to recreate some place else, otherwise we won't have

[1:14:42] the accommodations, we'll be taking away accommodations that are currently enjoyed by the

[1:14:49] So we need to replace that surface area that we're going to remove when building the new bridge and put that.

[1:15:00] As cold as sacks, as displayed, at sunset, beach and tarp, and in front, however beach and tarp, and would be an example.

[1:15:08] So this is kind of a design that I kind of came up with just on the fly for proposal. Thank you.

[1:15:15] Thank you, David. I appreciate your input. Okay. We have Mark Clark, and then on deck is going to be Eric Graves.

[1:15:22] Name and address for the record in three minutes. Mark Clark, 2013 Woodward Avenue.

[1:15:28] I would like to start by clearing up statements made at the last meeting, regarding the by staff,

[1:15:37] regarding the cost per-linear foot that the Dunning Causeway was the most expensive park in the

[1:15:43] Penelas County system that doesn't seem to be accurate.

[1:15:46] It's four to soto, four to soto is the most expensive park to maintain.

[1:15:51] And actually, the county is talking about seceding back to the state of Florida, several other parks because the budget cuts could possibly be coming up.

[1:16:02] So, Penelas County, it's just too expensive to maintain some of these parks.

[1:16:06] Secondarily, according to Penelas County and Swift Mud studies done every two years on Seagrass,

[1:16:12] Stonewater runoff is the number one cause of Seagrass damage, not personal watercraft launching on the cause way or anything like that.

[1:16:20] Number two is always prop-skit scarring, that's always secondary, they do the study, every

[1:16:29] two years, they do aerials, they do all kinds of stuff, swift mud actually goes out there,

[1:16:33] and actually goes into the water and inspects the grass and looks at the health of the

[1:16:37] seagrass.

[1:16:39] So done Eden, we have a lot of older subdivisions and there's a lot of stormwater runoff.

[1:16:45] I don't think there's anything you could do to prevent that, but it really has nothing to

[1:16:50] do with personal watercraft launching off that part of the causeway.

[1:16:55] And also, there's no study done that says that the sea grass is being damaged by the jet

[1:17:03] skis.

[1:17:03] It's just somebody's opinion that it looks better out there since the storm occurred back

[1:17:08] in 2024.

[1:17:09] There's no empirical data whatsoever.

[1:17:12] Of course, it depends on what time of year you look out there.

[1:17:15] If you visually look at it in the winter and in the spring it looks pretty good because the water is clear

[1:17:20] But once the rain season starts, it does get turbid and kicked up and you can't really see how much the sea grass is being damaged

[1:17:29] This proposal, this proposed ordinance does not solve the main problem on the south side of the causeway

[1:17:35] The area is congested but all different types of water enthusiasts either launching from the beach are using the channel to gain golf access

[1:17:41] This ordinance will not prohibit PWCs, as you've just discussed, from going somewhere, launching, bringing their trailer in their car to the causeway, setting up camp, and anchoring their personal watercraft off the beach, and then using it as a launch area to go in and out, not on the beach, but anchoring and then just enjoying the day, going to and from the causeway, using that as a base camp.

[1:18:11] Oh, look, do I have your, my suggestions would be to create a no-wigsome from the west side

[1:18:21] of the main drawbridge west to Hurricane Pass.

[1:18:26] That area is so congested with, oh, I'm out of time?

[1:18:31] Yes.

[1:18:32] Thank you, Mark.

[1:18:33] Okay, thank you.

[1:18:34] All right, but that was my idea is to make it a no-wigsome, because that's the main

[1:18:38] problem out there. It's just congestion with, with paddle boarers, kayakers on the kayakers too,

[1:18:43] not just a personal water craft user. And it's just a crazy space out there. And at a low

[1:18:48] tide, thank you. You got, yeah, I got it. I got it. Keep it going. But I appreciate it. We appreciate it.

[1:18:53] Eric Graves and Undec will be Carol Horner.

[1:18:58] Eric Graves, 1 4 1 3. Be sure Boulevard,

[1:19:02] Uniform Dunedin. First thing I like to say is just thanks for the approach that you've taken

[1:19:07] And as it's kind of been exciting to just see the process,

[1:19:12] both sides of the equation, the input, the inclusiveness.

[1:19:15] So thank you for that.

[1:19:17] As I said before, and I'll make this very quick,

[1:19:21] I'm very much in support of the band.

[1:19:24] We've talked about the environmental issues.

[1:19:27] We've talked about safety issues.

[1:19:28] We've talked about the quality of life issues.

[1:19:32] And then also, you've got experts.

[1:19:34] You've got data that really support this approach and the other thing for me

[1:19:40] I'm out there all the time and my eyeballs. I know there's seasonality and all that and I respect the previous opinion

[1:19:45] But it is clear since we have not had motorized vehicles launching at the causeway the difference and how that area looks as far as

[1:19:55] Sea grass as far as the turbanists

[1:20:00] The clarity of the water in the area. So, I'm speaking for myself, my wife also said, Eric, say that you're speaking for me, and then also representing the paddling group of the Dunning Bo club as well in support of the band. So, thank you very much for the time.

[1:20:19] Thank you, Eric.

[1:20:21] Carol Horner is next in Michelle Bernhott-Wam is after that, on deck.

[1:20:29] Horner, I live 1, 6, 6, 0, curly road, 1.3 miles to the Cosway, and I love Dunne Eden.

[1:20:37] Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

[1:20:39] And you're Dunne Eden, is what Dunne Eden resident?

[1:20:41] Yes, yes.

[1:20:41] You have Dunne Eden, sorry.

[1:20:44] I own a jet ski.

[1:20:45] I used to launch there all the time.

[1:20:46] It was very convenient.

[1:20:47] I would go out during the week.

[1:20:48] when it wasn't real busy, since a lean has happened,

[1:20:53] that causeway has changed.

[1:20:56] I will not.

[1:20:57] I put my jet ski at a speckle trout in Palmar,

[1:21:01] or a no-zona, and I launch there,

[1:21:03] I will not take it through that area.

[1:21:06] It is unsafe.

[1:21:08] The sand bars are unbelievable.

[1:21:10] And my neighbor has a boat in the back.

[1:21:12] We don't even take it up through there

[1:21:14] to go out hurricane paths.

[1:21:17] It's just too dangerous that whole area has changed and when I see a jet ski go through

[1:21:23] there.

[1:21:24] It scares the crap out of me because it's unsafe.

[1:21:28] People can go in and buy a jet ski and not know anything about the water and launch it.

[1:21:35] That's scary.

[1:21:37] That's dang scary.

[1:21:38] You got people paddle boarding, walking across the Caladisi walking.

[1:21:43] That's how shallow we are with a sand bar here in a sand bar there

[1:21:48] There's only a matter of time and it's nice because more people are going there. It's quieter

[1:21:54] It's not so loud you have a jet ski go out to the golf

[1:21:58] What he got his zip in through here for? I see it all the time even in clear water and

[1:22:05] No wayxone it should be a complete no wayxone through there

[1:22:08] Because somebody's gonna get hurt. It's about it's just a matter of time

[1:22:12] Whether it's high tide or low tide, I don't know when the last time you guys have been out there, but it's bad, it's real bad.

[1:22:21] So personally, the band is the best thing you can have, and you can do the environmental, but I'm talking safety.

[1:22:28] But if you can go into cycle springs and buy a jet ski and put it in the water and not understand what that water sign says,

[1:22:35] to stay left, no wake, you know, minimum, speed, people don't know that.

[1:22:42] I've watched it all the time. I took a girl out that just bought a brand new jet ski.

[1:22:46] I said, you're not going on that water, so I take you out and show you what these signs mean.

[1:22:51] So you understand it. That's being responsible.

[1:22:55] Can't buy a car and just jump in and drive it. You've got to understand signs.

[1:22:59] And boaters get upset at jet skiers for that reason.

[1:23:03] So, if any doubt, you just go slow, but that area is too dangerous, people, it really is.

[1:23:10] Thank you so much, appreciate it.

[1:23:11] Thank you, Carol.

[1:23:12] You got it.

[1:23:13] Okay, Michelle is next, and on deck is Cleveland, Leicoc.

[1:23:19] Hi, Michelle Bernbaum, 330, promenade, Dunneiden.

[1:23:25] I guess the thing that I'd like to express to you is how much the damage and injury that

[1:23:35] can be sustained by our friends, families, and visitors here, and Daneden, hit very close

[1:23:42] to me, a very good friend of mine's adult daughter who's an experienced paddleboard surf person

[1:23:51] here in Dunn Eden goes very frequently.

[1:23:55] She's also someone who can say a real sailboat.

[1:23:59] Two weeks ago, someone on a skudu knocked her off her board.

[1:24:05] She sustained bruises and cuts.

[1:24:09] Someone on shore saw how close he came

[1:24:12] and how much damage happened.

[1:24:14] They called the sheriff.

[1:24:17] The sheriff did nothing.

[1:24:18] Now, I've heard that you say, oh, we're going to give them warnings when they're irresponsible

[1:24:26] and dangerous on these waterways.

[1:24:30] But only takes is one dangerous incident.

[1:24:35] She was an adult who could swim.

[1:24:38] She was retain consciousness.

[1:24:41] But it could be a child.

[1:24:43] It could be someone visiting us here.

[1:24:45] And you're trying to tell them that we are monitoring their safety along the causeway.

[1:24:52] We are not.

[1:24:53] You're blowing people to bring jet skis into the beach area where children are swimming.

[1:25:00] Are you telling them that they cannot power their engines there? And you can't tell me that allowing people to drop anchors for their water craft is not going to cause damage to the natural environment. Now, looking at the maps that were put out, it was very confusing as to what the area of restriction actually was.

[1:25:27] It appeared that they would not be allowed in the beach area, the water.

[1:25:34] Those vehicles are going to be powered into that area and stop.

[1:25:41] They're going to come into interact with children, adults, and people who think because

[1:25:47] they're restricted from that area, they do not have to worry about being injured.

[1:25:52] So, I'm asking you to strongly consider this access.

[1:25:58] I mean, I understand not bringing trailers into the environment is a big step in the right direction.

[1:26:04] But I think you have to look at the broader issue of the safety of the people using that area.

[1:26:10] And I think when people hear about the ban from jet skis, they're going to assume they're not going to have to worry about being struck by jet skis in that area.

[1:26:19] So, I strongly advise you to consider extending that area.

[1:26:25] Thank you.

[1:26:25] Thank you, Michelle.

[1:26:26] Okay.

[1:26:27] Next, we have a Cleveland Lake Hawk.

[1:26:30] And then, on deck, we'll be Matt Norman.

[1:26:33] They may address for the record in three minutes.

[1:26:35] Oh, it's Cleveland Lake Hawk.

[1:26:36] 2, 3, 0, 6, Jones Drive.

[1:26:39] Fairway of state.

[1:26:42] Good evening.

[1:26:43] I just wanted to show my support for the Cosway Committee and their decisions.

[1:26:48] I am currently on the Marine Advisory Committee and I understand the arduous task that goes into making some of these decisions.

[1:26:57] They are not need-jerk reactions.

[1:27:00] We work hard on our committees to hear all sides of every viewpoint.

[1:27:06] We discuss them at Nazim.

[1:27:09] We try to be as open and professional as possible.

[1:27:11] I have also found that the city commissioners and officials are always available and eager

[1:27:18] to listen.

[1:27:20] I am extremely appreciative of the Dunedian government after having lived in a city where the

[1:27:25] government was completely inadequate.

[1:27:27] I know a lot of people have passionate opinions on this, but please be secured in the thought

[1:27:32] that this has been thoroughly researched and discussed, and the general public has been given

[1:27:42] Those people who have spoken on either side of the issue have done so eloquently and with courtesy.

[1:27:49] If no one else does, let it be known that I truly appreciate this.

[1:27:54] This is not an easy decision.

[1:27:59] But in doing so, knowing the process, I support the decision of the city commission for the city of Dunedin.

[1:28:06] I have no dog in this fight.

[1:28:08] And once again, I want to point out the folks on these committees are volunteers.

[1:28:12] they do not get paid, they are not reimbursed, they do this out of their own free

[1:28:17] will and time, and because they want to help make Duned in a better place.

[1:28:22] If you feel your voice is not being heard or your ideas are not being discussed, please feel

[1:28:28] free to join a committee.

[1:28:29] If I did it, anyone can.

[1:28:31] Come to the committee meetings, voice your opinion.

[1:28:35] Come to the City Commission meeting, give your input, question decisions, give us your

[1:28:40] college and experience. Talk to your commissioners. They are available. They listen. Thank you.

[1:28:46] Thank you, Cleveland. Okay, next is Matt Norman. On deck we'll be Claudia Naval.

[1:28:54] Name and address for the record in three minutes.

[1:29:01] I get you the American Commissioner's.

[1:29:03] My name is Matt Norman. I live on two three seven three mangrim drives and fairway

[1:29:09] states in Deneen, Florida.

[1:29:12] Again, my name is Matt Norman, and I spoke at the first reading

[1:29:15] in opposition to this ordinance. Tonight, rather than repeat the same arguments, I'd

[1:29:21] like to respond directly to what I heard from you. I heard legitimate concerns about public

[1:29:26] safety. I heard concerns about congestion. And I heard repeatedly that much of the demand for keeping

[1:29:33] this launch open was coming from people who don't live in Deneen, while Deneen residents live

[1:29:38] with the impacts. So I'd like to suggest a very different alternative. Don't restore the

[1:29:45] old unrestricted launch area. Instead, consider a dramatically smaller, permit only launch

[1:29:52] area available exclusively to denine residents if legally permissible. The previous area was

[1:29:59] large enough to accommodate.

[1:30:00] Eight dozens of trailers. Historical imagery, which you can go on Google maps and see today. I reviewed

[1:30:07] shows a well over 32 truck and trailer combinations on one busy day alone with room for more. I'm

[1:30:14] proposing something completely different. Create a small area near the bridge with capacity for perhaps

[1:30:21] 10 to 15 trucks and trailers. Comparable, roughly comparable to the scale of the main Dunedin

[1:30:27] in a lamplot, require an annual resident permit.

[1:30:33] Charge a meaningful fee, $150, $250, $300, even $300, if that's what responsible management

[1:30:38] requires, tie the permit to the resident and vehicle, cap the number of permits, if necessary,

[1:30:45] establish clear rules and make serious or repeat violations ground for losing the permit.

[1:30:51] Then, make it a one-year pilot, measure the parking, measure the compliance, measure enforcement

[1:30:58] incidents, measure environmental conditions, and come back with actual results.

[1:31:05] That directly addresses the concerns I heard at the first reading.

[1:31:09] The regional jet ski destination goes away.

[1:31:12] The large crowds go away.

[1:31:14] Capacity is dramatically reduced, users become identifiable and accountable, and denine residents retain a small amount of unique public access opportunity that has existed here for decades.

[1:31:30] There is a middle ground.

[1:31:32] I respectfully ask you before final adoption to direct staff and the city attorney to evaluate whether a limited resident only permit pilot could establish,

[1:31:42] could accomplish the goals you identified while preserving

[1:31:46] responsible access for your own residents.

[1:31:51] Thank you.

[1:31:53] Thank you.

[1:31:53] Thank you, Matt.

[1:31:55] Next is Cardi and Naval, and on deck will be Megan Colby.

[1:32:02] Hey, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioner's thank you for allowing me to speak.

[1:32:06] I don't have a lot to say.

[1:32:08] Cardi or your address, please.

[1:32:09] Name my address, please.

[1:32:10] Oh, my address, Ryan.

[1:32:11] I forgot that. My name is Claudia Naible 1094 Sumo, I wrote Dunedin.

[1:32:16] I've been a resident in Dunedin since 1994. I love this town. It's a town for quality

[1:32:23] of life and I'm going to keep on fighting for it. But the issue here right now is as well

[1:32:31] as a couple issues. I've had my personal negative experience with a lot of the personal

[1:32:38] watercraft jet skis, and safety is the major concern over here, okay.

[1:32:45] The thing that I'm hearing, I mean, this is public, it's about we love, we welcome people,

[1:32:50] but there's other places that they can watch the jet skis from, for Dunnied in resident.

[1:32:56] I mean, having been on the Marine Advisory Board issues were discussed also, that there's

[1:33:01] an opportunity that would be limited to the Dunnied in residents.

[1:33:05] You know, I guess what I'm saying is, what about the people that live in this phenomenal

[1:33:12] community?

[1:33:12] What are their rights?

[1:33:14] You know, why should people that may have watercrafted this plenty of the places around

[1:33:19] here where they can launch from?

[1:33:21] Why does it have to be on the course way?

[1:33:24] Okay, I mean, the hurricanes were horrible, but the resiliency that we've had, everything

[1:33:32] things come back, marine life, things that we should have been looking at before, and the hurricane

[1:33:39] forces to look at this stuff and rethink things.

[1:33:42] And I think for me it's very frustrating that people that are, and they could say the same

[1:33:48] thing about me, are bullying us that they want that cause way back, but what about the rest

[1:33:54] of us?

[1:33:54] What about the people that have been hit by jet skis is one of the Dungeon residents, I know

[1:34:00] that swims every day and was hit by a jet ski

[1:34:04] while he was out there swimming off the courseway.

[1:34:07] It was a few jet skis that were doing

[1:34:10] that run over there.

[1:34:12] And anyway, what happened was one of the jet skis

[1:34:15] told them just to take off don't stop.

[1:34:19] Because one of them stopped.

[1:34:20] I know there's only only been two deaths in a couple years,

[1:34:25] but that's two deaths too many.

[1:34:27] Last meeting that we had, the police

[1:34:30] and fire did have a lot of demographics, a lot of metrics about what's been going on.

[1:34:35] So what are we going to wait for more deaths to happen?

[1:34:38] Wait for a kid to get hurt?

[1:34:39] Well, like you were talking about the kid with having calls on the beats and burning themselves.

[1:34:44] We have to stand up and fight for what's ours.

[1:34:47] That's what I have to say.

[1:34:49] And thank you for doing the great job in listening.

[1:34:51] Thank you, Claudia.

[1:34:52] Megan Colby is next, and on deck is, it's, boy, it looks like Sean.

[1:35:07] Okay, then we'll play the Sean Spencer. Let's hear it next week, but okay, that's on deck.

[1:35:12] Naked, name of the rest of the record. How are you?

[1:35:14] Megan Colby, 1269 Royal Oak Drive and Dunedin. I'm good evening, everyone. I'm here tonight, not only to

[1:35:20] represent the Suncoe Sierra Club and our group support of this ordinance, but also as a Dunedin resident.

[1:35:26] I would, I, I, I, I'm sorry. I'd like to once again thank the committee, the City Committee

[1:35:31] is local organizations in all the Dunnian residents who have shared their common comments

[1:35:35] on the proposed ordinance. I was here during the first reading and while I'm grateful that

[1:35:38] you listened to and considered everyone's comments. I was also relieved that you chose

[1:35:42] to represent your constituents with your vote. I was out at the cause of age just a couple of

[1:35:47] weeks ago to take a look at the area that had recently reopened on the south side for people

[1:35:51] to walk on. It was very quiet there. The shore birds were waiting. Just a few feet out.

[1:35:57] I could see the sea grass beds clearly. Someone was fishing nearby. The sand was very soft

[1:36:02] and it seemed to be washed out a bit already from a recent rain storm. I could just imagine

[1:36:06] how much more damage would be caused to the shoreline by backing in a trailer with a small

[1:36:10] boat or a personal water craft. As a Sierra Club, we're going to be continuing to advocate for

[1:36:15] the addition of native plantings, like mangroves, sea grapes and native grasses along the

[1:36:19] to create an even more resilient shoreline for water clarity and for a local wildlife.

[1:36:25] But with this new ordinance, we'll have a head start on the continued improvements.

[1:36:28] So thank you very much.

[1:36:30] Thank you.

[1:36:31] Okay, next is Sean Spencer and on deck is Harry Mathews.

[1:36:39] Sean Spencer.

[1:36:44] Okay, well let's have Harry Mathews come on up and we'll leave that on deck for one more time.

[1:36:51] Name and address for the record.

[1:36:53] We'll vote you next.

[1:36:55] Just be ready.

[1:36:56] Harry Matthews, 646 Scotland Street, a member of the

[1:37:01] Cosway Committee and the Marine Advisory Committee

[1:37:03] speaking on my own behalf.

[1:37:06] I want to say that, grudgingly, I think we're doing the right thing.

[1:37:11] I don't like it.

[1:37:14] One of the men came to the Cosway Committee and said,

[1:37:17] I've been launching my boat there for years to go a little

[1:37:21] small fishing boat, and I'm thinking the same thing.

[1:37:23] I've launched my little dinghy there sometimes.

[1:37:26] But because of a group that's overwhelmed us, we have to say, we have to stop it.

[1:37:33] I get it.

[1:37:34] I don't like it.

[1:37:35] I'm not against Jetsky, so I'm not against the Jetsky groups.

[1:37:38] I'm just, it just caught to the point where we can't manage it.

[1:37:43] The young man that just said, let's build it, you know, limited ramp and control it.

[1:37:49] That was one of the things I brought up with the committee was to say, hey, how about

[1:37:52] if we do permits or stickers or how do we do that?

[1:37:54] with the city. I think with the timing that we have, there's no way to open this back up and

[1:38:00] then close it. We have to do what we're doing. But I would hope that we could be a little bit

[1:38:05] more creative, maybe in the future, and figure out some way to do both. How do we let the guy go

[1:38:11] fishing with his, you know, with his friends or his kids, with the guy that lives in far away a state

[1:38:16] state, the jet ski, but when there's hundreds out there, it's unbelievable. It's just overwhelming.

[1:38:21] we can't do it. One of the things we could think about is the bridge when the planning actually starts

[1:38:28] on the bridge or maybe before it starts. I know some of it's already started, but push forward

[1:38:33] and say can we put a ramp there? Similar to something that's like a bell air causeway.

[1:38:38] Some way that we can accommodate, there aren't enough ramps and done, we're struggling with that

[1:38:43] at Dunning Marina now. How do we manage the overwhelming cry for the ramp? So when we build a

[1:38:49] we may be pushed to the county in the state, so hey listen, can we add, can we put a ramp in there some place for limited number of cars but some cars the park?

[1:39:00] I missed the bonfires, there were great, those were the days, but they're not here now, but we should be able to do something that accommodates those.

[1:39:09] Let me see what else.

[1:39:11] That's all I have.

[1:39:13] Thanks for your time, thanks for listening and thanks for your efforts.

[1:39:16] Thank you very appreciate it.

[1:39:19] Okay, Sean Spencer and Undec will be Nancy Smith,

[1:39:26] name and address for the record in 20 minutes.

[1:39:30] Sean Spencer 4250 would field Avenue, holiday Florida.

[1:39:36] So I'm not going to try to convince you guys to reopen the causeway.

[1:39:39] Your decision is already made.

[1:39:41] Why can't you tell you is how we're going to affect Dundiedon?

[1:39:44] Our group has over a million strong enthusiasts.

[1:39:47] We're spreading the word to stay out of Dundiedon.

[1:39:50] Don't go to your gas stations, don't go to your hotels and said we're moving our people to Pasco.

[1:39:55] They're excited for us. They're embracing us. And I really hope this, because it's hurting.

[1:40:00] Your money. That's what it boils down to as money. And we're taking a large portion of that out. Something

[1:40:06] considered before you move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. Appreciate your input. Okay, Nancy Smith is next,

[1:40:13] and on deck will be John Lobier. I think I'm close. I'm on Helen Street. Okay, Nancy.

[1:40:21] Name and address for the record through. Nancy Smith, 1380, Daphatau Place. It's on Nathan.

[1:40:26] Good evening, Mayor, commissioners, and here a few times.

[1:40:35] I am a member of the Coastway in Coastal Woodways Committee, and as you are aware, for

[1:40:42] a few years, the agenda of this committee had issues that were related to problems with

[1:40:52] Justky activity on the causeway and the problems associated with it included traffic disruptions

[1:41:01] need for police presence on the causeway and in the water almost every weekend.

[1:41:07] Silla merchandise, justky rentals.

[1:41:10] These were some of the things that we were constantly being dealing with.

[1:41:17] As a member of this committee, we worked with the city, we worked with the county, we

[1:41:21] work with the police, we work with FWC, and neighboring community groups to try to remediate

[1:41:28] some of these issues.

[1:41:31] It really was after a lot of consideration that we made this recommendation to the Commission

[1:41:36] to prohibit the launching of motorized watercraft.

[1:41:40] It was not an easy decision to make, it was really a heavy decision to make.

[1:41:44] It was certainly very pleased with your support, and just a quick note, our decision had

[1:41:53] absolutely nothing to do with Seagress.

[1:41:55] I know that's come into this, but it was really related to a lot of problems that we're

[1:42:00] experiencing on the causeway because of the volume of the Geskese and the manpower that was

[1:42:08] being involved taking care of these issues.

[1:42:12] I'd like to just point out, for everybody,

[1:42:19] the attachments in the agenda tonight, I think

[1:42:22] are noteworthy in that they show the various organizations that are supporting this recommendation.

[1:42:31] And I think that's important.

[1:42:32] disability, CR club, Tampa Bay Estuary program, the Winlises, the Dunedian Beach Civic Association,

[1:42:41] World Schools, arms, condominiums, and the Penelis County.

[1:42:45] It says a lot when you have these various groups in support of this recommendation.

[1:42:53] And the support of these organizations, I think, validates this recommendation and the action by the city.

[1:43:02] I'd like to make one other observation, not related to this so much, but it's the activity

[1:43:08] on the causeway.

[1:43:11] I'm involved with Honeymoon Island, and I'm aware that in one year they have had an increase

[1:43:17] 500,000 visitors in one year.

[1:43:21] There was a tremendous amount of activity on that causeway, not just at Honeymoon with

[1:43:26] traffic, but more and more people enjoying the beach.

[1:43:29] Thank you, Nancy, appreciate it.

[1:43:31] Thanks for the important.

[1:43:32] Thanks for all you do on the committee.

[1:43:34] Okay, next is John.

[1:43:35] I think it's Lobby here, by Senator.

[1:43:37] Lobby here?

[1:43:38] Okay, and on deck is read of fully.

[1:43:43] Thank you.

[1:43:44] Thank you.

[1:43:45] Yeah, I'm John Lobby here.

[1:43:47] Four, three, six, Helen Street.

[1:43:48] Done even Florida.

[1:43:50] Navy veteran.

[1:43:52] Been in Dutton, like 10 years.

[1:43:55] I feel that this decision was made before the hurricanes in 2020.

[1:44:02] 24, because as soon as that, cause we had any little bit of problems, close it.

[1:44:11] The beach area where people use opened up quickly, which had boats, jet skis, other things,

[1:44:22] piled up on the side.

[1:44:23] Now, the other side, they had barrels up before the concrete blocks, and they weren't there

[1:44:29] sometimes, and I had been down there. I didn't even launch down there a couple of weeks

[1:44:36] after the hurricane. There was no damage. You know, there was some ruts, water ruts. That area

[1:44:44] was an overrun. The water didn't top over the causeway, like it did down on that. West south side,

[1:44:55] putting boats up against the pine trees.

[1:45:00] I think this was all an excuse. The opportunity presented itself, and you closed it, and it's been closed.

[1:45:12] Now let's just think if we close the entire causeway. What would be the impact then, environmental, would they be more serious? Would they be less accidents?

[1:45:25] But if there was no paddle borders out there running in a boat channel, they sit in the

[1:45:33] boat channel, like they like it there.

[1:45:38] Don't ask me,

[1:45:45] there's thousands of places for people to go enjoy the water on a paddle

[1:45:50] forward, sit at the beach, in the water, much nicer than the need in causway. That's gravel,

[1:46:01] rock.

[1:46:05] There's nothing pleasant about that. People like going there because they could

[1:46:11] pull their car up close, they get all their stuff right there. They're happy. Same thing

[1:46:18] with a jet's here, or personal watercraft or the fishermen, they want to be able to bring

[1:46:24] yourself up close. You know, yes, have a group of people. Have fun. Enjoy the waterway.

[1:46:35] That's pretty much what I got to say. Thank you, John. Certainly appreciate your input.

[1:46:42] Okay, read a fully and that's the last card I have.

[1:46:48] You may address for the record in three minutes.

[1:46:54] you've done even 3, 4, 6, 9, 8.

[1:46:57] Thank you.

[1:46:58] Good evening, honorable mayor and commissioners.

[1:47:00] My name is Rita Foley.

[1:47:01] I'm a done-eated resident.

[1:47:03] I'm returning from July to also speak to this issue.

[1:47:07] So, merely alternative sites for launching do exist, as they made clear.

[1:47:12] The post hurricane hauled his proof-of-this, sparking a beautiful ecological and rebirth

[1:47:18] of our marine life.

[1:47:19] I do think that the jet ski community has regrettably suffered damage to their reputation as a whole because of repeated irresponsible actions on the part of a minority of jet ski owners, and that is unfortunate.

[1:47:33] However, these incidents, as documented in the Pinellas County Sheriff's reports, do show that there is a problem that existing ordinances and the current tools available to law enforcement have failed to mitigate.

[1:47:47] families, kayakers, swimmers, paddle boarders, they cannot safely co-exist in that narrow area

[1:47:54] with the high-speed water craft. I would say please prioritize Dunnied in safety and

[1:48:00] environment, and respectfully urge you to vote in favor of ordinance 26-8. Thank you.

[1:48:07] Thank you, Regent. Okay, is there anyone else in the audience that does wish to come forward and

[1:48:13] on this issue.

[1:48:17] Okay? Seeing no one, I will close the public input section of this and I will

[1:48:22] I will last my fellow commissioners, is there any follow up questions at all that you

[1:48:25] needed to ask before we go into commission comments? Okay, so I will go to commission comments,

[1:48:33] starting with the Maker of the Motion, which is Commissioner Gal.

[1:48:39] Very good. You know, part of

[1:48:43] My opinion, part of this challenge is not something that happened two years ago or some resident speakers said we even had it down before.

[1:48:57] I think this is a problem that started a hundred years ago, and I think it's done a non-dunning group, an MS County group, Pasco group.

[1:49:06] I think local governments done even included really didn't anticipate the access to the water.

[1:49:17] We have very, very limited access to the water.

[1:49:23] And so we thought we have had groups that have wanted a sailing center in Dunning,

[1:49:29] where you're going to put it. We can't put it anywhere.

[1:49:31] Sam and Melanie is a wonderful organization that helps get disabled people out on the water.

[1:49:38] They've tried to get access to dining and green.

[1:49:40] I think we finally have, but it's very limited.

[1:49:44] And so you've got wonderful organizations that are trying to get more people out on the water.

[1:49:48] And they can't.

[1:49:50] And I think a lot of that was just decision-making 50 and 60 years ago that could have done better in hindsight.

[1:49:57] For the people that live in Pasco County, I mentioned that on the first.

[1:50:15] I'm going to repeat myself, I guess, a lot from the first reading, because I did kind of pull my soul out there. This really is a population problem.

[1:50:30] not just an increase in the population, but also the desire of the people that now live

[1:50:35] here.

[1:50:36] We have a much greater focus on the environment.

[1:50:39] We can say and discuss that stormwater monof is by far the bigger damage,

[1:50:51] whatever,

[1:50:51] to the sea grass, and I don't know that I can agree or disagree with that.

[1:50:55] There's certainly damage that comes from stormwater, and we are doing as much as we can

[1:51:00] to rectify that. If you remember what used to get pouring out of the pipes at we

[1:51:05] report, you couldn't swim at we report. I don't know you do it now, but it certainly

[1:51:09] smells and looks and is a lot healthier body of water today because of what we've done

[1:51:14] with our storm water on off, what we've done with our wastewater. And so we are learning.

[1:51:20] Again, there was a time when we felt we couldn't do any damage to the oceans. I was just

[1:51:27] reading an article today about 500,000 barrels of radioactive waste were dumped in the North Atlantic

[1:51:35] between 1950 and 1990 because they truly thought that was a good receptacle to get rid

[1:51:42] of radioactive waste.

[1:51:44] Yes, I guess what they're saying now.

[1:51:46] So we're all learning as we go and so now that we know what are we going to do about it.

[1:51:54] And the population growth, it's to the point where it's 10 pounds of

[1:52:00] a magnified pound bucket, something's got to give.

[1:52:05] And as far as the, and I do like the idea of, let's not back it all the way around,

[1:52:13] but is there some middle ground to me do smaller, is there a smaller swath of

[1:52:17] land that we can use and kind of control it?

[1:52:21] One, the enforcement on that is going to be the big issue.

[1:52:23] We're going to have people screaming and honoring for better enforcement on the jet skis.

[1:52:27] We already have them screaming and honoring about e-bikes.

[1:52:30] We already have them screaming and honoring about speeders through neighborhoods.

[1:52:33] And so what is the cost of law enforcement?

[1:52:35] What's the cost of living in the community?

[1:52:39] And in hiring more law enforcement can't always be the answer.

[1:52:42] We are also getting hit hard on budget constraints.

[1:52:45] And there's a three that's coming up that might eliminate our ability to have sheriff at all.

[1:52:51] Because that's all paid through property taxes.

[1:52:53] So enforcement has to be taken into consideration, and the ability of not being able to enforce that when you do.

[1:53:00] We can come up with all kinds of reasons on why you couldn't do this because it's man-made, because of this.

[1:53:10] If this isn't a solve every issue problem, yes, if this votes through today and their band, that doesn't mean you're not going to get somebody that's going to try.

[1:53:25] Just as much as we have speed limits and there's people who speed, there's people who drive

[1:53:31] recklessly, people are going to do what they're going to do.

[1:53:35] As far as that middle ground is concerned, I wholeheartedly agree with that, the permitting

[1:53:40] getting a license and that's what we have a Marine Corps.

[1:53:45] And so I said it on the first reading, I'll say it again today, we need to look at the

[1:53:54] at the arena, what does that cost, what does enforcement look like, because that would be a place that you do that.

[1:54:01] And so it's not like we're getting rid of jet skis, it's just we're focusing. So it's not it's just no on the causeway,

[1:54:07] not no completely, we've got a place for them.

[1:54:12] But I certainly do appreciate everybody that came out tonight. It really is amazing.

[1:54:18] And especially if it's not just tonight but you came for the first reading as well, that is crazy.

[1:54:23] I just love the democracy, I love people coming out.

[1:54:26] I love the emails that we got, I love we also need to take into consideration the number

[1:54:32] of civic organizations that assigned the letter, sale, and velvety.

[1:54:36] So it's not just the emails we get, it's all the organizations that are done in the

[1:54:39] step of Royal Steward Arms, the Civic, Civic Association, Sierra Club, is coming out tonight

[1:54:47] in favor.

[1:54:48] So we have all these groups so it's not just a resonant thing, it's the group of resonances,

[1:54:56] the total number of voices that are speaking out and when...

[1:55:00] And a far majority of those people speaking out for the band are also done in residents, just really, really puts us in the position.

[1:55:13] So those are my comments for tonight. I will be voting in favor of this.

[1:55:18] Thank you. Okay, second or the motion. Vice Mayor, final comments?

[1:55:22] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:55:24] There's a slide that if you could pull it up, it's the overhead area, the one with the alternative launch locations.

[1:55:39] That one, yep.

[1:55:41] I don't know if you can zoom in on the causeway there, but this is not necessarily against the jet skiers.

[1:55:54] And there were a couple comments that were made with regards to, you know, there's, there's a minority that exhibits worse

[1:56:07] behavior than others.

[1:56:11] Now, with that said, if you, you know, the one thing that I think is missing from this slide deck is the zoomed in picture of the overall area there on the causeway.

[1:56:22] This is really about two issues, number one, safety, and number two, lack of infrastructure.

[1:56:31] And I wish Carol Warner had stuck around for this, but she was absolutely right.

[1:56:38] Since the storms, first of all, let me just describe that area.

[1:56:43] I know this area very well. I'm a captain on the Calidesy ferry.

[1:56:46] So, I am out there, I have been out there on the best days and I have been out there on the worst days.

[1:56:54] And that area where the jet skis are launching from the south side of the Cosway is very constricted.

[1:57:05] The channel there is narrow and there is just not any room for error there.

[1:57:14] And you add into the mix, just ears who, you know, don't know the area, possibly have been drinking during the day.

[1:57:28] I will say that that is just a recipe for disaster, and we've already seen what can happen.

[1:57:40] Now, fast-forward through the course of this, I started driving the ferry in 2022 after the

[1:57:48] hurricanes.

[1:57:49] I want to talk a little bit about how the topography changed, and it changed significantly.

[1:57:56] The sandbar to the north of Caledisi is now extended almost well, actually, there's

[1:58:02] part of it at low tide that actually is in the channel itself.

[1:58:07] the sandbar to the west of Hyandry, that has expanded more to the west.

[1:58:18] Hurricane Pass has become so concluded, there is actually a channel marker that's sitting

[1:58:26] on the beach, so the area has just gotten more dangerous, and now so you put into the mix,

[1:58:34] The boaters who use the channel to go out to the Gulf or come in from the Gulf and go back to

[1:58:43] St. Joseph's Sound or whichever Marina they come from. They use that channel and that is the designated channel.

[1:58:53] Take into account launching these jet skis from a very constructed area of the Cosway.

[1:58:58] is now introduced just complete nutter chaos, and so it is a safety issue, and the other

[1:59:09] part of it is this lack of infrastructure.

[1:59:13] The area where they're launching the jet skis,

[1:59:15] there's no infrastructure there. That's just pure beach, and it's just the wrong place,

[1:59:25] And I do want to take just kind of take reception to comment that was made with regards to the impact of the environment.

[1:59:35] I want to say Nancy Smith, your recognition of the denied in groups that support this.

[1:59:42] You are absolutely right.

[1:59:45] These are the organizations that make up our water, our burning, our coastal community.

[1:59:53] And I have a lot of respect for those groups.

[2:00:01] But the environment itself, I, there was a, there was a YouTube video that Johnny Cores had put out and he had done this thing where he had done a shot.

[2:00:12] He's the guy with the drones out there and, you know, the funny thing about it is, I never would have thought there are that many sharks.

[2:00:20] in St. Joseph's sound, but there are, but he made the point of showing the area during the

[2:00:33] period of time, it was before the hurricanes, the jet skis were launching from the Cosway,

[2:00:38] and then he took overhead video of several years after the hurricanes when the jet skis were

[2:00:47] launching from there and what you can see and I get the idea that turbidity can be somewhat

[2:00:54] seasonal but the fact is without the jet skis the turbidity goes down so the water the

[2:00:59] direct light that hits the sea grass is is more prevalent and of course the the point in

[2:01:08] this is before I wrap up here is though is from those videos you could clearly see a more robust

[2:01:21] So, you know, I, you know, again, this isn't about the jet skiers, this is about just doing the right thing for our community.

[2:01:31] Thank you.

[2:01:32] Hey, final comments, Mr. Sanberg?

[2:01:36] You know, if you're on one of our board's or committees, you know, I see you out here.

[2:01:42] You're on them because this is your specialty, this is what you understand and you understand it a lot more than I do.

[2:01:48] And a lot of work went in for the groups to come up with these opinions, and I consider

[2:01:56] you to be the experts.

[2:01:58] I think there's probably very few operators of these personal watercraft that made it bad

[2:02:06] for everybody.

[2:02:07] It may be I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong, but it just, you know, even from the last meeting,

[2:02:12] there was some of them that, you know, we're going to ride and that's what we do and we'll

[2:02:17] back and I appreciate all the time and energy that went into this and I will support bringing

[2:02:26] it to an end tonight.

[2:02:28] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:02:29] I don't come in.

[2:02:30] Commissioner DeGarde.

[2:02:32] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:02:34] We have

[2:02:37] on numerous occasions found ourselves in a situation where we're trying to balance the

[2:02:43] rights of the collective versus the rights of the individual and I think this is another

[2:02:48] example of that. We find ourselves not wanting to limit certain things because we enjoy the toys

[2:02:55] we have. Those are jet skis of fun. And yet there's the rights of the collective to have a healthy

[2:03:03] sound to have a place where they can walk down the trail, not hear the roar of the jet ski. Now I need to

[2:03:12] keep us focused on the fact that we're not talking about what goes on in the sound, we're just

[2:03:16] talking about what goes on on the causeway and what can launch from it.

[2:03:20] What can go on in the sound as I was reminded by our manager,

[2:03:23] a phone conversation, while I was in the room,

[2:03:26] we can't stop that.

[2:03:28] That's not where we are right now,

[2:03:30] but where we are is that we do

[2:03:32] and can control the launch from the causeway.

[2:03:36] And that's what we're proposing.

[2:03:40] And as one that used to protest when I was younger,

[2:03:44] I hate to see the rights of the individual hampered,

[2:03:46] It always bothers me, but then again, there's the rights of the collective and we'll have to weigh that.

[2:03:53] And I think in this particular instance, we find that the rights of the collective have to supersede the rights of the individual.

[2:04:02] It's just going to have to be that way for a number of reasons, not just one, not the sea grass, not just safety, but actually for a number of reasons.

[2:04:15] So I am in support of this, but before I conclude, I need to complement the staff on doing an excellent job of presentation.

[2:04:25] I was sitting up there watching Nicole trying to figure out a way to expand that photo and I'm thinking, she looked at me, told me, and he's going, I don't know.

[2:04:33] They've worked really hard on this.

[2:04:35] You did a great job.

[2:04:36] Excellent job.

[2:04:37] And also the Cosric Committee, they brought this forward in a very good package with cogent thinking.

[2:04:44] It makes it so much easier on us when we're hearing your thoughts come forward as the way they did.

[2:04:49] And even those that oppose this particular proposition, you did so in a fashion of respect,

[2:04:57] and you did so and you brought honor to yourselves.

[2:05:00] So, it's hard to vote against you when you do that. But in this particular case, the collective will have to be our guy. Thank you, Mayor.

[2:05:12] Thank you. Well, I'm not going to repeat. There's been a lot to say that I agree with. For me, it kind of comes down to there's just a lot going on in that cause.

[2:05:24] it. And I was here when they actually decided to give that little space for launching commission

[2:05:33] 25 years ago or whatever. So we got to give something right over there too. I got to

[2:05:39] give them something and it made sense and they're still part of me that's like oh and I've

[2:05:45] got neighbors that are like you should give them something. I just think it comes down to a lot

[2:05:51] the smaller crap, vehicles, jet skis, I know it's not all about jet skis, but those sales

[2:05:55] are way up, a lot more people have them. I just think there's a lot going on. There's a

[2:06:01] reason they call it the Wild Wild West out there. And I'm not sure that it's a fit to have

[2:06:07] that launching there. And your word infrastructure was a good one, Vice Mayor. There is

[2:06:11] an infrastructure. And, you know, it's not just the launching, but it's the trailers. I mean,

[2:06:16] It's not intended to be bringing in trailers to do that in my opinion.

[2:06:23] I just think there's too much going on and when you look at safety and traffic, that's

[2:06:31] part of it.

[2:06:32] And last meeting, what a month ago, I'm sitting back and I'm most of the people that spoke

[2:06:40] in favor, or against the man, were from somewhere else.

[2:06:46] And I'm thinking, well, we got lots of traffic of our own out there.

[2:06:50] We don't need to create a lot of things to create more traffic.

[2:06:55] And I respect your comments about, you know, potentially we've certainly didn't set out

[2:07:02] to do this.

[2:07:03] I knew the reason that it was made for that space to be given before, but I just think

[2:07:07] we've outgrown it.

[2:07:08] There's too much going on. There's too many safety issues, too many traffic issues that

[2:07:13] we're dealing with. I always like to say the need and likes to be everything to everyone.

[2:07:17] I think this is just a situation where we just can't be. We have to say what's our primary

[2:07:22] focus out there and we gotta stay with that. And so I also would add that there's not a lot

[2:07:37] which is where the citizens are kind of loud and clear.

[2:07:41] This has kind of been loud and clear.

[2:07:42] Our residents and our committees have been loud and clear.

[2:07:48] And it's tough for a couple of the ones that really don't want the ban

[2:07:52] and I get it.

[2:07:52] And I feel I feel for you, but I have to say,

[2:07:57] between emails and calls and the meetings.

[2:08:00] I mean, there has been a loud, outspoken.

[2:08:04] We don't want this anymore.

[2:08:05] And I've got to respect that because those are the people that put me up here.

[2:08:10] And, but I do respect and I respect how the ones that don't want the band, respectively,

[2:08:15] did come out just like Commissioner Dougard said.

[2:08:19] So I'm in favor of the band, I think it's the right way to go.

[2:08:22] I think we continue to work with the county to make sure we have the proper places for

[2:08:27] people to launch.

[2:08:30] That's been a county-wide problem for a long time and now places to launch.

[2:08:34] Watercraft vehicles, but I just this isn't a place to solve it and I don't we can't solve it

[2:08:40] We certainly can't solve it for people in other

[2:08:43] counties

[2:08:44] other cities

[2:08:45] So, um, yeah, so I'm I'm in support of the band and

[2:08:51] I'll leave it at that. So we're gonna do roll call book

[2:08:55] Commissioner Gow

[2:08:57] Commissioner Sam Bergen. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker. Aye. Commissioner Ducard. Aye. And Mayor Frany. Aye and that motion

[2:09:05] passes unanimously. And I do want to thank everyone here on both meetings. This one in the

[2:09:13] last one, everybody's been very respectful. There's a lot of valid opinions on both sides.

[2:09:18] And this is what government should look like when people respect each other's opinion and we'll

[2:09:23] keep trying to look for solutions. So, appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, I think we're going to take a break.

[2:21:40] In a city commission, a city of the need for the Mending Resolution O717 by DAPTION, a revised exhibit A to provide a clear and more readable map of the allowable operations of motorized watercraft around the Dunning Causeway, making findings, providing for reasons for such updated map and providing for an effect to date thereof.

[2:21:57] First, I think I need to take a vote on putting it on since it's a start item. Can I have a motion?

[2:22:04] Okay, so I have my mayor and commissioner to guard all in favor.

[2:22:09] All right, all right, any opposed, motion passing in, honestly.

[2:22:13] So now we go to the item itself.

[2:22:15] Jen, can you please read resolution 26-21 by title only.

[2:22:19] Would you done such a nice job of it?

[2:22:23] Resolution 26-21, a resolution of the city commission.

[2:22:27] of the C have done 8 in Florida amending resolution 0.7-17 by adoption of a revised exhibit

[2:22:33] A to provide a clearer, more readable map of the allowable operations of motorized water

[2:22:39] craft around the Dunn Eden causeway, making findings for reasons for such revised map

[2:22:45] and providing for an effective date hereup. That was resolution 2621 right by title only.

[2:22:52] Okay, so we're going to go to staff presentation.

[2:22:57] Would you like a motion?

[2:22:59] Yes, I'm sorry.

[2:23:00] Let me pass that.

[2:23:02] Yes, okay, wait.

[2:23:03] Let's start over.

[2:23:04] Can I have a motion?

[2:23:05] Some moved.

[2:23:05] It's working.

[2:23:08] Nice Mayor.

[2:23:09] Yeah, we got a long way to go too.

[2:23:11] I forgot.

[2:23:11] I got in there first.

[2:23:13] I know.

[2:23:13] Well, he just was.

[2:23:16] I have Vice Mayor and I have Commissioner Degard as a second.

[2:23:19] and the staff presentation is Nicole.

[2:23:22] Good evening.

[2:23:23] Good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission Nicole Delphino,

[2:23:27] strategy, this microphone's really good.

[2:23:29] Strategy and sustainability manager,

[2:23:31] here to just review with you the resolution before you 2621.

[2:23:36] As displayed on the screen is the original Exhibit A.

[2:23:39] I'll just give a little quick history here.

[2:23:42] On December 6th, 2007, the Dunning City Commission

[2:23:46] adopted resolution 0717, which amended this exhibit a referencing ordinance 54-32. Then again,

[2:23:56] in October 23rd of 2014, the Denning City Commission adopted ordinance 1421, which amended

[2:24:03] the entirety of chapter 54, which deals with the causeway usage, including the exhibit a,

[2:24:08] however, at that time there are no updates to the map made itself. So as we were looking at the

[2:24:14] a company ordinance as far as where this map lives in Exhibit A.

[2:24:22] We wanted to, we, we, we've noticed that there were some code references that were made that were outdated code.

[2:24:29] In addition to, as you clearly see, it's very hard to read the designations and the outline.

[2:24:35] And so we are simply here before you today to update the map.

[2:24:41] and here is the proposed map. It's just a cleaner, cleaner picture, same exact map, same

[2:24:48] designations. It does not alter any of the waterway usage designations, but simply provides for

[2:24:54] an updated cleaner and more legible map. It should be noted that it does not again change.

[2:25:00] Any of the water designations and it does not pertain to the adjacent land use designations, the change to the map, beyond cleaning it up and making it more legible, include updating the legend, to correct the cited ordinance number, to the correct number, and then also the title bar, which updated the city's address and the resolution number.

[2:25:23] Again, no substantive changes made to the map itself, just providing for a cleaner, updated map as an exhibit A in this ordinance.

[2:25:34] Okay, questions for staff and

[2:25:38] Forget which way I think I'll go with Commissioner Gao.

[2:25:41] Thank you, Mayor. No question.

[2:25:44] Okay, Commissioner Degar.

[2:25:46] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:25:46] The only question I have is in the area that we're now talking about that we've focused on relative to the launch area

[2:25:53] And the fact that it is still for voting

[2:25:57] Why did we consider possibly restoring that whole area there to the watercrap prohibited section?

[2:26:05] Why didn't we bring that down to the bridge?

[2:26:07] Now I understand the bridge, I understand the marina, I understand all of that

[2:26:13] But I don't understand that that area that's city up there in this circle dots. We have treasure out there. I

[2:26:20] One would hope

[2:26:23] To be to be quite frank with you. A mending waterway designations is a much more complex

[2:26:30] Process that would involve him the state the quarter-push and wildlife

[2:26:34] Making changes to those designations. This is set by them. And so this was referenced in our code

[2:26:41] And again, this is why we wanted to just update it to make it clearer.

[2:26:46] Did you have something else?

[2:26:49] I would add that the timing just did not, right?

[2:26:56] Well, the timing wasn't right because it would take us a period of time, a year minimum,

[2:27:02] to change the waterway designations.

[2:27:04] And by that time, this beach would be open and open to motorized watercraft.

[2:27:09] That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor.

[2:27:11] It's very agile. I'm sorry, Mayor.

[2:27:13] Yeah, sure.

[2:27:14] It's something as a staff that we discussed.

[2:27:17] I mean, if this doesn't resolve the issue of that congestion,

[2:27:20] then we would certainly come back to an ask for authorization

[2:27:21] to proceed with something further.

[2:27:24] Great.

[2:27:24] Okay.

[2:27:26] Questions for staff, face mayor?

[2:27:29] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:27:35] So maybe I'm missing something here,

[2:27:38] but the green hatch,

[2:27:43] the right to the west of the bridge there.

[2:27:49] I'll never mind, I figured it out.

[2:27:53] Okay, the yellow hatched area,

[2:28:00] and it's this maybe the picture and I, this is a complete

[2:28:03] net, but you take a look at the legend and compare it to that area there, it looks different,

[2:28:10] it's not as distinct as per, you know, it's not consistent, my opinion.

[2:28:16] the yellow hatched area? Yes. Indicating motorized watercrap

[2:28:23] the heritid and the waterway. Yeah,

[2:28:28] just. Is it because on the right hand

[2:28:32] side it appears like it's the lines are on an angle. Yes. Yes. To cause

[2:28:36] way of order, it appears that there's so they need to be angled. Yes, that's okay.

[2:28:42] It could certainly make that correct. Yeah, it's a small point. Anyway, that's

[2:28:48] It's kind of true for the red, though.

[2:28:50] Isn't it?

[2:28:50] Is the red exactly what the legend is?

[2:28:54] If you tell your head a little.

[2:28:56] Yeah, I was going to say you got to.

[2:28:58] Because it's funny when I was looking at it.

[2:29:00] I saw the same thing.

[2:29:01] I said, these don't match the legend.

[2:29:04] So if you're going to improve the map, you might want it to match the legend.

[2:29:08] All the way around.

[2:29:09] We will make those up to you.

[2:29:10] Good catch.

[2:29:11] Good catch.

[2:29:13] All right.

[2:29:14] You're good now.

[2:29:15] Okay.

[2:29:16] for saying Bergen questions?

[2:29:18] I'm going to one up the commission or the vice mayor.

[2:29:22] Zipco's wrong.

[2:29:25] Oh,

[2:29:30] holy god, what, how long?

[2:29:33] You know how many people looked at this?

[2:29:42] I have no other questions, mayor.

[2:29:46] I have a question, so explain to me, okay, so based on the legend, the dotted line is, I see the channel, so the dotted line is what we own, so there's that area.

[2:30:00] We're obviously probably the concession area, right?

[2:30:07] Or it's by words as Denying Causeway?

[2:30:09] Yes, ma'am.

[2:30:10] And so that dotted area is where the concession area is, so we own that.

[2:30:14] And we also own the waterway to the right up there.

[2:30:18] That's to the west?

[2:30:21] Yes, yes.

[2:30:22] And we don't know anything up closer to the bridge?

[2:30:28] No, not when it comes to the water.

[2:30:33] Okay.

[2:30:37] Yeah, I guess I'm getting confused with the causeway in the water. Alright, I'm going to leave that alone.

[2:30:43] I'm good. I'm going to follow up. Sure, go ahead.

[2:30:46] Because I'm not going to leave that alone.

[2:30:47] Okay, go.

[2:30:49] So there's the city owned parcels just seem to be very random.

[2:30:56] What?

[2:30:57] Is there a history in that that we aren't aware of or?

[2:31:02] I think Jorge, our deputy city manager, may have some comments.

[2:31:17] We're not.

[2:31:18] We can always wondered myself, and I've known about that.

[2:31:22] It's such a mishmash, and basically the only usable area we have is a concession area, but it's always so kind of crazy.

[2:31:29] So, it would be nice to know this.

[2:31:30] We can under separate cover, if you don't mind, we will look into the mishmash.

[2:31:34] You don't want to talk about it tonight, and go for like a half hour dog and a night.

[2:31:38] I completely agree.

[2:31:39] Is that okay with you, Commissioner?

[2:31:41] Yeah.

[2:31:42] You're not good.

[2:31:44] Okay.

[2:31:49] Okay.

[2:31:50] Okay.

[2:31:50] So is anyone in the audience wish you come forward to speak on this issue?

[2:31:56] Come on.

[2:31:57] Name and address in three minutes.

[2:31:59] Please, I'm like, two, three, zero, six, Jones drive.

[2:32:04] Mr. Walker, you mentioned this earlier.

[2:32:06] I don't know if it's relative to this,

[2:32:07] But that's showing in there is becoming,

[2:32:10] I don't know where this would be addressed,

[2:32:13] but I go through that channel several times a week,

[2:32:17] and at low tide, I just don't go anymore.

[2:32:19] And it's just a matter of time, you're right.

[2:32:21] One of the cans is on the beach.

[2:32:24] I don't know if this represents it,

[2:32:26] or this is where that's addressed,

[2:32:29] but it's gonna be, there's gonna be an accident.

[2:32:32] I mean, there is, there may have already been one.

[2:32:34] See, that's all I have.

[2:32:35] Thank you. Thank you. I mean that could be something we want to get a better understanding of anyway

[2:32:40] I'm not perspective not that we have the overview of that. Well, yeah, I think this tries this is telling this is intended to

[2:32:48] show a little different perspective, but I

[2:32:53] Just to show the

[2:32:54] areas along the causeway that are restricted and not restricted

[2:32:59] but you know there

[2:33:02] I would suggest maybe we have a workshop on just what our city's role is in waterway there.

[2:33:12] I know who's responsibility is, it's the counties, but I mean it's gotten, it's gotten bad.

[2:33:22] Right, just getting an understanding of what sand's moved and what's open and what's not.

[2:33:27] And what is our role in this?

[2:33:29] I think that's there would be a good thing to

[2:33:37] City limits are in the sound so that there is some city responsibility

[2:33:42] And the last time I went for a ride with fire rescue

[2:33:48] They said one of the reasons why they go out

[2:33:51] Trying to get out as frequently as they can because of the changing

[2:33:55] Tides and the channels and so if they're on emergency

[2:33:59] They need to know where they can go and when they can't go

[2:34:03] So, shifting all the time.

[2:34:04] What?

[2:34:05] The fire department's never taken me out on their boat,

[2:34:08] so congratulations.

[2:34:10] Chief.

[2:34:11] You got to send it to the police.

[2:34:12] You got to send it to the police.

[2:34:18] OK.

[2:34:19] Anyone else in the public wishing to come forward

[2:34:21] to speak on this issue?

[2:34:24] OK.

[2:34:24] Seeing no one, I will close public input.

[2:34:26] And I will go to commission comments.

[2:34:28] And I will start with make her the motion vice mayor.

[2:34:31] Thank you, Mayor.

[2:34:32] I really don't have any additional comments on this.

[2:34:34] Obviously, this is, we're seeking to fix and make this more clear.

[2:34:45] So, thank you.

[2:34:48] And second, are the motion for Mr. DeGarde?

[2:34:52] I share my colleague's point of view.

[2:34:54] I think there are a few things that might need to be sanded off a little bit, but with those

[2:34:58] I'm being done, I'm fully...

[2:35:02] Okay, commissioner again?

[2:35:06] I'm in support as well, because if anything, the new map isn't worse than the old map.

[2:35:14] Thank you, I think. So there is progress.

[2:35:19] Thank you, I think.

[2:35:23] Okay, and commissioner Sam Morgan, final comments?

[2:35:26] Well, I've fully support this as long as the zip code is updated and cracked.

[2:35:33] That's as hard as it will.

[2:35:35] And the legend follows the, or the map follows the legend.

[2:35:39] I think I did.

[2:35:41] I thought you were calling Steve a legend.

[2:35:44] What are you?

[2:35:46] There I say that there is some businesses that have the 34697.

[2:35:51] It's the post office.

[2:35:53] Okay.

[2:35:55] I've seen it.

[2:35:57] I don't know about that, but we're going to find out, right?

[2:36:01] Let's find your separate cover.

[2:36:02] Under separate cover.

[2:36:03] Yeah, under separate color.

[2:36:04] You can just check that out.

[2:36:06] We're going to do a roll call vote.

[2:36:08] Commissioner Sam Bergen.

[2:36:10] Hi.

[2:36:10] Commissioner Gow.

[2:36:12] Commissioner Doogard.

[2:36:13] Hi.

[2:36:14] Vice Mayor Walker.

[2:36:15] Mayor Franny.

[2:36:16] Hi.

[2:36:17] And then motion passage unanimously.

[2:36:19] Okay.

[2:36:19] We are going to go to, actually.

[2:36:23] a very important matter here. So 3C Resolution 26-12 is established

[2:36:29] Senate of Miller-Drape, fiscal year 2027, and Resolution 26-13 is established

[2:36:34] tentative operating and capital budget for fiscal year 2027. So I guess Jen, we're going to

[2:36:40] do it one at a time. Is that what we're doing? Yes.

[2:36:43] Okay, so can you please read Resolution 26-12 by title only?

[2:36:47] Resolution 26-12, the Resolution of the City Commission of the City of

[2:36:51] and Florida adopting the tentative millage rate for AdValorum tax revenue for fiscal year

[2:36:57] 2026-27 at a rate of 4.1345 mills or $4.13 for $1,000 of assessed property value

[2:37:07] providing for a second and final public hearing date and providing for an effective date.

[2:37:11] That was resolution 26-12 read by title only.

[2:37:15] Okay, can I have a motion?

[2:37:18] So moved.

[2:37:20] Okay, Vice Mayor and Commissioner Samber?

[2:37:26] Okay.

[2:37:27] Okay.

[2:37:27] Staff presentation.

[2:37:28] Lesson Jean.

[2:37:33] So good evening, Mayor.

[2:37:34] Vice Mayor and Commissioner's all kicking off.

[2:37:36] Well, to the manager here, you just jump in there every time you're not on my script.

[2:37:42] So I'll allow you to speak.

[2:37:43] Thank you.

[2:37:44] Thank you very much.

[2:37:45] Thank you.

[2:37:45] Thank you very much.

[2:37:47] Very grateful.

[2:37:47] So as previously mentioned by the city attorney, this is a fiscal year 2027 operating capital budget across all funds.

[2:37:56] The budget is 138 million dollars, 845,566 dollars across all funds.

[2:38:04] So this budget is actually a decrease from the fiscal year 2026 budget.

[2:38:10] Thank you. This is a balanced budget.

[2:38:12] As I've mentioned many, many times, we cannot, by state statute, adopt a deficit budget.

[2:38:19] And now there, what we ever adopt a deficit budget, I don't think the city commission

[2:38:23] would permit that.

[2:38:24] It's a balanced budget at maintain service levels, while decreasing operating expenditures

[2:38:29] in almost all funds in the budget.

[2:38:34] And one of the operating expenditures, it does not decrease, for example, is building fund

[2:38:38] because that's a very well-funded fund, so there was no necessity there.

[2:38:42] The budget is based, as Jennifer said, upon a military to 4.1345 mills, that's $4.13

[2:38:47] for every $1,000 in value of the home.

[2:38:52] That military has been the same as, as we'll tell you, for the last 11 years,

[2:38:57] we have advertised this budget as a tax increase, however.

[2:39:00] And the reason for that is that our property values have increased

[2:39:04] between fiscal year, 2026 and 2027.

[2:39:07] And so the budget needs to be approved by super majority, which is a 4-to-1 vote moving forward.

[2:39:15] As you know, the budget process starts in February, probably a little bit earlier with a strategic planning retreat.

[2:39:21] And then we move forward to two workshops and then two public hearings as well.

[2:39:26] So a great deal of work has gone into this budget.

[2:39:28] It's first of all developed by the departments, the department directors, along with their senior staff.

[2:39:33] They then submit it to finance and finance meets with me and then we meet with a department as well to go over their budgets

[2:39:41] before we present it to the city commission during workshops as we develop the budget.

[2:39:46] So sometimes I think it seems that first public hearing and then the second public hearing on December, December, September 17th

[2:39:55] that there's not a lot of public input but every single one of those is a public hearing.

[2:40:00] And public opportunity for the members of the public to address the city commission. So with that, I, less is going to go back over some of this information, and he's going to do that in order to satisfy statute requirements, as far as adopting our budget. So I'll turn it over to the less than Jean. Thank you.

[2:40:17] Thank you. Less Tyler, the Finance Director, I'm here with the Gene, our budget manager.

[2:40:22] And as Gene information, this is resolution 26-12, the tentative millage rate for 2027, and also a resolution 26-13.

[2:40:30] The established and our tentative budget for 2027. We have a few adjustments since our last meeting, and we'll walk through those in a few minutes.

[2:40:37] But I have a few slides that I need to read to follow our trim guidance, and I'll go through those first.

[2:40:43] First, in accordance with Florida Statues 200-065-4C, the city of the need and is holding

[2:40:49] a public carrying this evening on the proposed millage rate and tentative budget for fiscal

[2:40:53] year 27.

[2:40:55] Prior to adoption in the city commission may elect to adjust the tentative millage rate or

[2:40:58] amend the tentative budget as it sees fit.

[2:41:01] Following the adoption staff, we'll publicly announce the percentage at which the tentative

[2:41:05] millage rate exceeds the 2026 ruleback rate.

[2:41:08] Staff will also state the date of the second and final public hearing when the final

[2:41:13] millies rate and the final fiscal year 27 budget will be adopted.

[2:41:20] It maximum millies rate of $4.1345 mills or $4.13 since per $1,000 property value was established through the adoption of resolution

[2:41:29] 26-11 on July 23, 2026.

[2:41:33] In accordance with trim, a millage rate of 4.1345 mills is 2.72% above the 2026 rollback rate

[2:41:41] and the rollback rate is 4.0249 mills from growth and property tax value.

[2:41:49] The proposed millage rate, the employer taxes are budgeted at a 95% collection rate in our

[2:41:55] 27 budget and that's the minimum required by Florida statute.

[2:41:59] At 4.1345 mills, our Ave Williams taxes are projected to generate 18,626,000 dollars in the general fund.

[2:42:10] And the Ave Williams taxes will account for 38% of all general fund revenues for fiscal year 27.

[2:42:18] Little on the budget process, as Jennifer mentioned, our budget process at the staff level begins.

[2:42:23] Really, at the January mid January we begin working with the Department of Finance Department does.

[2:42:29] And we work through different versions of the budget and work with the City Manager with

[2:42:34] fine-tuned in the budget and making sure we bring a balanced budget proposed to your

[2:42:38] commission.

[2:42:39] The 27 budget was published on June 25th, 2026.

[2:42:43] We had two budget workshops held on July 21st and August 4th.

[2:42:48] The meetings were nearly all day workshops going over reach funding detail.

[2:42:52] And the next section we will walk through is some of your changes since the August 4th

[2:42:56] budget workshop had been made based on commission

[2:42:58] direction and staff input.

[2:43:09] Starting with our revenue, I want to go over some of the

[2:43:12] highlights that have changed in our revenue since the

[2:43:14] last workshop.

[2:43:17] The most significant was, is it had an increase of about

[2:43:19] $645,000.

[2:43:21] And that was with the addition of $750,000 for a

[2:43:26] state appropriation for the high water rescue vehicle

[2:43:28] for the fire department.

[2:43:30] And they show a water main design, which is offset by

[2:43:33] and $14,000 decrease and FEMA revenue reimbursements for storm damage.

[2:43:40] In addition, we had a decrease in debt proceeds of $162,000 due to changes in our anticipated storm damage,

[2:43:48] line of credit financing needs in 2027.

[2:43:52] Next we move to the expenses, the changes since our last meeting and budget workshop

[2:43:57] to. We had a personal cost increase of $40,945 dollars. That was due to some position

[2:44:04] re-classes that were approved in budget workshop number one by the City Commission.

[2:44:10] Operating costs decreased by $80,000 due to bridge inspections were moved out to future year.

[2:44:17] And we also had an increase in capital cost of $515,000 and that change was due mainly to

[2:44:22] an increase of $225,000 in the General Fund for the High Water Rescue Vehicle for the

[2:44:28] Fire Department, and the city received a grant of $200,000 for that vehicle, a state

[2:44:34] appropriation. We had a $290,000 increase in the water wastewater fund for a $50,000 increase

[2:44:41] in the base shore water main project and a $40,000 increase in that same fund in the wastewater

[2:44:48] bypass pump project and also a $200,000 increase for the addition of a water project

[2:44:54] for the replacement of the bleach tank at the water plan.

[2:44:59] Death Service costs.

[2:45:00] Decreased by a hundred and two thousand dollars due to changes in our anticipated storm damage for the line of credit needs. We reduce that by sixty-three thousand dollars. We also had the removal of the orthiose lease payment of thirty-eight thousand dollars. That was for the parks maintenance yard. That lease expired in early twenty-six, and that lease of thirty-eight thousand should not have been in the proposed budget, and we took it out for the tenet of budget.

[2:45:28] Next slide shows the impact by each fund, and it shows the revenue change, the expenditure

[2:45:34] change, and then the fund balance change.

[2:45:37] The largest change is the water waste water fund, and that was due to the revenue increase

[2:45:41] for the baser of water mean appropriation, state appropriation, and the others are fairly small

[2:45:48] small amounts.

[2:45:49] But before we go to the next slide, I'd like to ask, we do have a follow-up memo in the staff

[2:45:53] report. It's exib it. Thank you. Do you in the staff? I could walk through that or answer

[2:46:03] any questions. We only have one item in the follow-up memo regarding credit card fees, but

[2:46:09] ask the commission how they like it.

[2:46:12] So questions on this one? I have one, but I'll start over here, Vice Mayor.

[2:46:19] Just, um, what, uh,

[2:46:25] how much did the budget decrease from last year?

[2:46:29] Decrease from last year?

[2:46:32] About 11%

[2:46:33] 156 million to 138.

[2:46:35] Over all, over all, over all, I'll 11% decrease.

[2:46:38] Right, until 11%.

[2:46:39] Okay, in total.

[2:46:40] Yeah, okay, that's great.

[2:46:41] Thank you.

[2:46:43] Anything on, uh, follow up.

[2:46:45] Emma, what all?

[2:46:46] Uh, no, nothing on the follow up.

[2:46:48] Okay, um, and I think, uh, Mr. Go.

[2:46:50] Uh, thank you, Mayor.

[2:46:52] Thank you for the exhibit last.

[2:46:57] On item C and D, for C, I'm going to staff projects to start passing along fees in

[2:47:06] fiscal year 28 or 29,

[2:47:11] is there a reason for the delay or to me that seems just like far away?

[2:47:16] Yeah, we probably do it in 28, we would, we would, we would, we're thinking we do the golf course

[2:47:21] First, assuming we get a commission direction in the CD and we want to take our time

[2:47:26] do that right and also sort of look at what patterns may change with people paying

[2:47:32] whether or not there's a big change from paying with cash, paying with different types

[2:47:36] of cash or check manual checks.

[2:47:40] We'd like to do one or two a year, so the thought was we'd do golf course in 27, then probably

[2:47:46] do Parks and Rec in 28 more than likely, I think we could get that done in 28.

[2:47:51] And utility building would be last for sure.

[2:47:54] We would not want to utility building until it's fully implemented on

[2:47:57] type of units, which is not now, they're just kind of beginning that process again.

[2:48:03] So we'd want that rolled out all the kings out of that and they'll be moving to

[2:48:07] Tyler Payments when they do that.

[2:48:10] And then once that's fully moved over, we would look at with permission

[2:48:14] direction to approval, moving to utility building be passed on to.

[2:48:19] Yeah, because speaking of utility building, the verb engine here does say staff will consider

[2:48:25] possibly passing on credit, so that leaves some ambiguity there.

[2:48:31] Is that been decided, not decided, we don't know.

[2:48:34] Well, I think we'd like to do the golf course and the Parks and Rec get those taken care of.

[2:48:45] And then when we address our next rate study for the water surrefund and some of these funds,

[2:48:51] I think that's the time to address that because we have the rate study at the rate

[2:48:54] rate.

[2:48:55] We have the credit card fees baked in the rates right now.

[2:48:58] So I think we want to, at that point, really talk to the, especially for the water surrefund,

[2:49:02] which is by far the largest fund.

[2:49:04] We want to talk to the commission, as we're doing that study and say, how do we want

[2:49:09] to have that moving forward?

[2:49:10] And then if we are going to move forward, passing it on, we would make that adjustment

[2:49:14] in that next rate analysis.

[2:49:17] All right.

[2:49:18] And then, I don't know, this is from me,

[2:49:19] it's in the question, but more about comment.

[2:49:21] But is this right that people be paid by check

[2:49:24] at the golf course, 6.8 percent?

[2:49:29] Yeah, yeah, over a, about a 10 month period,

[2:49:32] we looked at the volume and it was about about 3% cash,

[2:49:36] 6.8 check and then the rest was different types

[2:49:38] of credit cards.

[2:49:39] So that's 6.8 is most likely the members, obviously.

[2:49:42] Yeah, true.

[2:49:43] 20, 20, sex.

[2:49:46] Okay.

[2:49:47] I'll do it.

[2:49:48] I'll put my checkbook away.

[2:49:50] And I just jump on here.

[2:49:52] Probably wait until it's your turn before they get their wallet.

[2:49:55] They checkbook out.

[2:49:56] And then they hold up the line.

[2:49:58] I'm sorry.

[2:50:04] I just wanted to jump on. So, because I had the same question, it just seemed, it's, it may be I'm just missing something, but it's, it's

[2:50:14] twenty twenty six, and we're talking about twenty twenty nine for you, Bill, and that's three years from now. It seems like a pretty simple principle, the most

[2:50:22] businesses are charging credit card fees and we're not and I just I'm not sure

[2:50:29] I understand why this is so difficult and why we want to drag it out versus

[2:50:35] do it so we wanted to consider the impact on the users in terms of passing

[2:50:43] on the credit card fee because like when I go to the restaurants now and I

[2:50:47] thought the dry cleaner and they tell me they just tell me and I say oh okay I

[2:50:51] I've got to do it, I don't know, I've got choice for it.

[2:50:53] Right, I just, it seems like basically practice, and that's what the finest board was trying to tell us, like it's kind of standard practice.

[2:51:00] It is, but for water waste water, we just increased the fees, right?

[2:51:05] And we did not, we did not roll that into that increase in fees for them.

[2:51:12] Obviously, or convey that to them in that manner, and so what we'd like to do is do these other ones first.

[2:51:20] Because as less said, you know, it's difficult to roll these out.

[2:51:24] You know, there's a notification, I'll let type of thing, and then when we're doing the

[2:51:27] rates that we want to consider passing it on, let the end user know exactly what the

[2:51:33] impact of that is, what the impact is on the rates that they pay, and so on.

[2:51:38] So if we're just consider it more comprehensively than in a vacuum like we can with the golf

[2:51:42] club, because the golf club, you know, they're a captured audience, they're going to come

[2:51:46] they're going to pay their greens fees, and they're going to go out. They're not going to

[2:51:51] stop and say, oh, no, I'm not going to play. So it's a little bit easier and we felt a

[2:51:56] little bit different than the utility.

[2:52:01] I'm not sure I agree, but I guess we'll talk further about it. But I get it. But I do understand

[2:52:06] we just get it when some increases. And this is included. And so it's kind of like seriously now

[2:52:11] you're going to charge me for credit. I kind of get that. That's really what we're worried about.

[2:52:14] But I'm not sure that passed for record parks because it seems like we could do that.

[2:52:20] And also I just want to mention, you know, we wanted to be transparent and just with the golf course and

[2:52:25] wanted to, you know, get consensus direction and move forward with the golf course.

[2:52:28] You know, we did this survey and the survey is interesting because the survey,

[2:52:33] we surveyed 14 golf courses and, you know, really only one of them is passing on the fee right now.

[2:52:38] I mean, all the rest of these are doing what we're doing now and absorbing the fee.

[2:52:43] So, you know, so we did talk to Largo.

[2:52:47] And we talked to Largo, and we talked to St. Pete, and they are discussing right now passing on the fee.

[2:52:54] They're having discussions like we are right now, but we did want to point that out.

[2:53:00] We think it's...

[2:53:01] We don't say I didn't impact in play, but we did want to point that out.

[2:53:05] I was surprised by that.

[2:53:06] I was surprised by that.

[2:53:07] I agree.

[2:53:08] That doesn't get me wrong.

[2:53:09] I think it's a right thing for us to do.

[2:53:11] But, and I guess, just when you're considering utility billing, also understand the positive

[2:53:19] spin that can be done by figuring it all out, and then either give them a rate reduction

[2:53:26] when it's not scheduled to show, it's just acknowledging to the residents, hey, because

[2:53:34] it changed our format and we've reduced our instead of the constant increase, it's okay, we

[2:53:38] back to down, and you're not waiting for a right study, you're not waiting for something.

[2:53:43] And if Collar can handle it, and I assume Collar can, they're big enough, their system,

[2:53:50] ERP is good enough, but anyway, maybe for a further day, but I at least wanted stronger language

[2:53:58] there.

[2:53:59] Would you have a question?

[2:54:00] Okay, we got a question over here by Smear, and then I don't think I got the Commissioner

[2:54:04] I'd like to thank Mr. Sam Bergignette, though.

[2:54:06] So what do we do, do we have a question?

[2:54:10] No, Mr. Sam Bergignette, do you?

[2:54:12] No, I'm good.

[2:54:14] Yeah, I just, I'm kind of lost the bubble on this.

[2:54:22] Is part of the tentative approval tonight,

[2:54:25] including agreeing to this memo?

[2:54:29] I think my thought is mainly tonight,

[2:54:33] is to show you are a plan and we can move this plan around.

[2:54:36] We can definitely move this at a quicker pace if the commission wants us to.

[2:54:40] But we wanted to find out if get consensus direction, if you wanted to move forward

[2:54:45] with the golf course, which would be our first one and we would begin that process

[2:54:49] and take a few months to work through it but focus on that one first.

[2:54:53] Because it drives me crazy that the businesses more and more are passing on the fee.

[2:55:00] I would just, I would really want to see a little bit more of an accounting that what's the difference. What is it, what's the impact, but you know.

[2:55:10] So if we will, it seems to me like there needs to be more research on our follow-up letter here.

[2:55:17] So the contested direction and move forward with a golf club, right?

[2:55:20] And then we can, we can follow up with a memo on these, answering these questions as far as what the impact would be and so on and so forth.

[2:55:27] So, and discuss it further.

[2:55:29] Okay, and I think Commissioner Samberon did have something now.

[2:55:31] You know, it came up during one of the budget meetings.

[2:55:34] Why don't we go to our bank that we use every day?

[2:55:38] Why do we have to go to these other vendors?

[2:55:42] You know, every ERP system, Tyler Minus, for example,

[2:55:48] they've got two platforms you can use to process credit cards.

[2:55:51] They're own, which is called Nick, Tyler Payments, they call it now,

[2:55:55] and there's one of them when you can use.

[2:55:56] But it's not a great option, so, you know, they really, they really drive what your options are as far as what

[2:56:06] what who your processor is and who your transactions are.

[2:56:10] For instance, the golf course has, the ERP systems for up is a name of the software, but they have another

[2:56:15] processor that they're attached to their name, Phoenix.

[2:56:19] Most of them have two different ones you work with, but they're all different, and they don't do business with everybody.

[2:56:25] in other words, it's only using one or two options.

[2:56:29] So if I walk into play golf and I hand my American Express,

[2:56:33] it's just not that simple American Express

[2:56:36] deposit set amount of money into Wells Fargo

[2:56:39] for the city of Dunedin.

[2:56:40] I guess I don't understand the process of how that money moves around.

[2:56:46] Yeah, it's a big central clearing house,

[2:56:48] through all these different credit card companies,

[2:56:50] how it gets a performant place to the other.

[2:56:53] But really, we've got to tell you who your processor is, our processors are these different

[2:56:58] ones.

[2:56:59] We have four for the golf course.

[2:57:01] Right now we've got to set up the work absorbing the fee.

[2:57:04] We can change it to pass that on and there's some things we have to go through.

[2:57:08] We have to make sure we follow some legal requirements and some public outreach as well.

[2:57:11] We'll work with our legal counsel on that to make sure we do that right.

[2:57:16] And you can't charge the search charge on the debit card, you've got to be careful about.

[2:57:19] You've got to make sure you set it properly and most are set up to do that, but it's just making sure you get it set up right and roll it out properly.

[2:57:29] All right.

[2:57:29] Thanks.

[2:57:30] So just to, sorry.

[2:57:32] Okay.

[2:57:35] You're looking for consensus direction for the staff to do more research and move towards-

[2:57:43] So we're looking consensus direction to move forward on the golf course.

[2:57:46] We're recommending that we move forward on the golf course.

[2:57:48] in order to get that piece out of the way if you will so that we can concentrate on the others.

[2:57:55] We're also concerned because there is actually tremendous amount of staff time involved in this.

[2:58:00] So we've broken it out of component pieces that I think are manageable workload, especially given, you know, a amendment 3.

[2:58:08] And what we may be facing as far as reductions in staff.

[2:58:12] And so it appears that there's additional research, additional questions.

[2:58:16] And so we'd like to move forward with the golf course, and then maybe the other three back

[2:58:19] and talk a little bit more about that and answer your questions.

[2:58:22] Well, I would just say to you that the memo itself talks about staff or work with software

[2:58:28] coming about, to start the process and see what steps need to be taken to pass on the charges.

[2:58:34] So it seemed like there's a logical step, maybe you can pull any triggers.

[2:58:38] Yeah, we'd like to take that step as what I'm saying.

[2:58:40] Yeah, I'm not really to pull the trigger on the ball.

[2:58:42] So basically they're just doing the research.

[2:58:45] And then I'll just do it in a reasonable way.

[2:58:47] That's what I meant for you.

[2:58:48] Okay, all right.

[2:58:49] Okay, then I'll do it.

[2:58:51] And then you'll look at the rest of these and see, you know,

[2:58:55] at the same time.

[2:58:56] Because again, I don't want to necessarily put off what seems like

[2:59:00] what most businesses would do.

[2:59:02] Ultimately, that decision will still be yours, obviously.

[2:59:04] We're not.

[2:59:04] We're just wanting to do the research.

[2:59:06] Okay.

[2:59:07] Very good of that.

[2:59:10] Okay.

[2:59:11] So we'll move on.

[2:59:18] Okay.

[2:59:18] The next is our general fund update, and we've had some changes since the August 4th budget

[2:59:29] workshop number two, and we're looking at the revenues first.

[2:59:33] We had adjustments to insurance proceeds in fiscal year 26, and estimated debt proceeds

[2:59:38] for the line of credit in 2026.

[2:59:40] We also had an increase in 2026 for the intergovernmental revenue of 221,000 for FEMA and state

[2:59:47] Florida storm reimbursements. We added the state appropriation for the fire department's

[2:59:52] ship ATV vehicle of 200,000 and we had a decrease in fiscal year 27 estimated FEMA reimbursement.

[3:00:00] And a decrease that's to make the line of credit amount needed in 2027 as well. For the expense side,

[3:00:08] we had an increase in 2027, for the purchase of the Sherp ATVIC, we've mentioned before for $225,000.

[3:00:15] We had a net decrease for position re-classes and re-allocation of certain positions to other funds.

[3:00:21] For example, CRA staff for a few staff had higher percentages allocated to the CRA front fund and less in the general fund and the grant specialist position we transferred the percentage from the general fund to some of that to the strong water fund.

[3:00:40] We had decrease in the budget for the bridge inspection by $30,000 cost removed to a future year.

[3:00:46] Decreased Parks and Recreation Rint for the orthoist maintenance ER to mention that for $38,000 that is no longer in place at least

[3:00:56] We had a decrease in a line of credit principle payment of 53,000 for storm line of credit due to final review of storm activity and anticipated theme reimbursement and

[3:01:06] Our general fund reserve

[3:01:08] In our tentative budget of 18.6% above our target of 15% and moving to our long range plan as mentioned

[3:01:17] Our reserve in 2027 is currently at 18.6% in the 27 column.

[3:01:25] In the fiscal year 28 year, the reserve is at 8.7% and under the 15% goal.

[3:01:34] And we have two high-lighted yellow rows there.

[3:01:38] And the bottom row is addressing the shortfall and the top row is not, but the shortfall

[3:01:44] out that we do, that we do address has been reduced.

[3:01:48] It's now $5,000,000,000 a year in the bottom of the bottom there and it was $5.3.

[3:01:55] So it reduced by 300,000 a year.

[3:01:58] The shortfall reduced mainly due to we had received the grant funding we mentioned for

[3:02:03] the rescue vehicle.

[3:02:04] We also have reductions in the prison inspections that I mentioned at Orphi of Orphiose

[3:02:09] Lease that was taken out and also some personal reductions for salary relocations

[3:02:14] that I mentioned that kind of contributed to that reduction.

[3:02:19] I want to mention that during the development process, we have these shortfalls that we

[3:02:24] look at and each year the city manager works with the finance team and all the departments

[3:02:29] of the city to bring a balance budget to your commission making sure we have a minimum

[3:02:32] reserve of 15% or more in the general fund.

[3:02:36] As discussed during both budget workshops staff with the direction of the city manager we

[3:02:40] They're working on the contingency plan, the 2027 contingency plan, and our goal and plan is to

[3:02:45] generate $3 million in annual savings, beginning on January 1, 2027 in that plan, and

[3:02:52] the proposed data that meeting to present the draft to the Commission is September 17th at 1230

[3:02:58] PM.

[3:03:00] The plan will be to take information and input from the Commission at that September 17th meeting

[3:03:06] And then bring back to the commission, the revised

[3:03:09] contingency plan based on those comments in October

[3:03:12] for your review and hopefully approval before the vote

[3:03:15] in November.

[3:03:18] Are there any questions at all in the general fund?

[3:03:21] I'm sorry, when did you say we're going to see the contingency plan?

[3:03:24] We're going to present the draft on September 17th.

[3:03:27] OK, the draft.

[3:03:29] 1230.

[3:03:30] OK, so I'll make sure.

[3:03:33] So that concludes our general comments on the general fund

[3:03:35] and we have to answer any questions.

[3:03:38] Okay, questions starting with,

[3:03:42] I've told you last track of where I'm starting,

[3:03:44] so, a nice bear.

[3:03:46] You know, I don't have any questions.

[3:03:48] Richard Sandberg.

[3:03:50] Just looking at the top line of the revenue's property taxes.

[3:03:56] 26, 27 at one up, 28.

[3:03:59] Is that taken into consideration amendment three failing

[3:04:05] But our assumptions in our current budget are is do not assume that amendment 3 fails correct. Yeah, we're not we're not projecting right now

[3:04:15] Those those losses. Okay. Yes, thank you. That's all. I had a question. Yeah, but that's what the contingency plan will tell us. That's right

[3:04:22] Correct, it does pass this is what we're gonna do right. So so what we'll do just to be really clear

[3:04:27] As long as we're on the subject is and we've consulted with the city attorney is that if amendment 3 passes

[3:04:33] because we will amend this budget, right?

[3:04:36] According to the contingency plan, we'll bring it back to you and amend this budget.

[3:04:39] You can do that.

[3:04:40] Yes.

[3:04:41] All right, thank you very much.

[3:04:42] All right, thank you.

[3:04:43] Thank you.

[3:04:44] Sure?

[3:04:44] Go.

[3:04:45] Yes.

[3:04:46] On the reconciliation of changes to the fund, balance that age.

[3:04:52] And you might have mentioned it's why I apologize if I'm asking you to repeat yourself.

[3:04:56] But under the revenues, we have a decrease in the FEMA and anticipated me.

[3:05:01] What, why are we anticipating a reduction in FEMA reimbursement?

[3:05:10] It was just due to reconciliation of items we received already in fiscal year 26.

[3:05:17] So we were increasing in the estimate in 26, decreasing what were estimated in 27 or even in future years.

[3:05:29] So we're just trying to keep the estimate realistic based on what we've already received, so there were some year-end adjustments.

[3:05:36] Okay, so we haven't heard anything for FEMA as far as you're not going to get this.

[3:05:41] So we're still not anticipating getting everything, but never know.

[3:05:45] At this point, at this point we were so hopeful, yeah, that's right.

[3:05:48] There was not to believe that, yeah.

[3:05:51] And a decrease in the budget for a bridge inspection, which bridges that?

[3:05:57] The general bridge inspections for the city, we had had it budgeted for 26, and we thought

[3:06:06] we might still need some budget in 27, and Clay can correct me, but I think the thought

[3:06:12] was we might have to go back and do some other work, and it was not needed.

[3:06:19] Yeah, for some clarification, it is bridge inspections, however, it's mostly culverts pipes,

[3:06:24] And when we did inspection in 24, so we put it on a five year, we weren't doing it

[3:06:30] on a five year plan.

[3:06:31] So that way we can just shuffle that money over.

[3:06:34] I think there was some money previously, so we're just sitting in for the one pedestrian

[3:06:38] bridge, the way bridge, but we've moved that to.

[3:06:43] Okay, so this won't impact the safety of any of our bridges.

[3:06:47] No.

[3:06:47] So I think you here is our infrastructure's come running a little bit of the country.

[3:06:50] And also for, and also a little bit of definition, DOT does inspections on anything that has a

[3:06:56] span larger than 19 feet, even if it's a city street, they're response for all birds and

[3:07:01] inspections for roadways with a span larger than 20 feet.

[3:07:05] That 20 feet are larger.

[3:07:08] Thank you.

[3:07:10] And

[3:07:15] what is the parks rent for the Orthios maintenance?

[3:07:21] I'm embarrassed.

[3:07:22] I'm asking this question, but where is the Orthios?

[3:07:24] It was the, um, there was a maintenance yard behind where we had the art incubator, and that

[3:07:31] least terminated because now there is a parking garage being built there.

[3:07:35] I get pictures on that every day.

[3:07:38] All right.

[3:07:40] Thank you.

[3:07:41] Those are all my questions.

[3:07:42] Thank you.

[3:07:42] Okay.

[3:07:42] Commissioner to guard questions.

[3:07:45] My colleague did all mine.

[3:07:47] Thank you.

[3:07:47] Jeff.

[3:07:48] Okay.

[3:07:50] Okay.

[3:07:50] So I am going to open this up to public input.

[3:07:55] Is anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on the budget?

[3:08:01] Okay, seeing no one, I will close public input.

[3:08:04] And I will go to commission comments.

[3:08:07] Start with the maker of the motion, which was vice mayor.

[3:08:11] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:08:14] Just so I'm clear, and I'm sorry that I'm lagging behind the power curve here,

[3:08:19] but are we talking about the millage or the budget right now?

[3:08:24] The first one, 20 dash, 12 is the representative military for this year, 20 twice.

[3:08:29] Okay, all right, thank you.

[3:08:32] Yeah, so I'm in favor of the maintaining the military.

[3:08:38] I think it's really important to point out that we have managed to maintain the military at its current level since 2016.

[3:08:48] And that is not a lot of communities and municipalities can say that.

[3:08:56] And I will also say that there in light of Ben-Meth-3, and everything coming down the pike, it would be absolutely irresponsible to roll the knowledge back.

[3:09:09] Fiscally, you're responsible, not to suggest that we will, but I'm just saying that I am in favor of maintaining the military.

[3:09:20] Okay, second year of the motion is Commissioner Sandberg.

[3:09:23] No, I agree.

[3:09:23] I'm in favor of it, and certainly appreciate all the hard work and I'll ask that you put into it.

[3:09:29] Really?

[3:09:30] He's handed to us delivered and can't say enough good about that.

[3:09:34] Thank you.

[3:09:35] Okay, Commissioner Gown, bottle comments?

[3:09:40] Yeah, this is a causing me heartburn, heartburn.

[3:09:43] Some of the challenge I have is that residents are really hurting.

[3:09:49] I think the city, regardless of what you hear on social media, is really doing a great job

[3:09:54] and it's a great testament to the fact that we have an increase in mental traits since 2016.

[3:10:00] I think we do a good job on managing our budget, but residents are getting beat up from everywhere. And

[3:10:09] nobody wants to give them any health at all. And this is just me personally and I'm

[3:10:16] greatly infected by property insurance, my health insurance, my car insurance. And they're

[3:10:24] relief from anybody about anything. We've seen what's happened to rents. And so at some point,

[3:10:33] as a society as a community, we, somebody's got to give. And then, and I know a rollback

[3:10:39] wouldn't be the end all be all the last time we really had a strong discussion on rollbacks.

[3:10:46] It was going to be, I can't remember less, was it $40 per resident, what they didn't actually

[3:10:51] getting back. I know that's a drop in the bucket and I know a lot of breath and it's

[3:10:57] meant I really understand the property tax structure that when they write their taxes for

[3:11:03] property taxes, not all that money is going to done it. So, and they go away in a minute,

[3:11:08] I'm going to get $40 back, well that's of your done-in portion, so I get all that, so

[3:11:13] we need to do a lot more education. But I just, not only personally, but for the rest of the

[3:11:19] really really want to see some some relief. So if we're going to go ahead and do this, we've

[3:11:30] really got a scream and holler at Tallahassee about what we're going to do about all these

[3:11:36] other things that are out of everybody's control. You have a mortgage, you have to have

[3:11:41] mortgage insurance, you have a car, you have to have car, so these are things that you have

[3:11:46] have, and the homeowner, the car owner, has no leverage at all. Whatever the rate's going

[3:11:54] to be, I've got to write that check or use my car depending on who's paying the fee.

[3:12:01] And so I am in favor of this, but it's not without discussion, because I don't know what's

[3:12:08] going to happen to us as a society, and I can go on and on about private taxes, but I can't

[3:12:13] than sitting up here,

[3:12:17] but I just, I feel for everybody right now, and so I'm proud that we're

[3:12:21] not increasing, but it would have been nice to give a tip of the hat to the residents

[3:12:26] to go, because you're $40. So are we bothered you? But me personally, what I end up paying

[3:12:33] to the city of Dunnean is $1,000 a year from my big tax, that's what Dunnean gets, and I think

[3:12:41] that's an investment. I get to live in Dunning for $1,000 a year and get the green space

[3:12:47] that I have, get access to the water like I do community centers. There's so much. And so

[3:12:53] I'm willingly struck that check for $1,000, but it would be nice if it were $960, you know.

[3:13:02] But anyway, I am in favor of the message, but I just, I had to say something. So thank you.

[3:13:09] Thank you.

[3:13:10] I appreciate it.

[3:13:14] First comment, excellent process.

[3:13:19] We got this dig deep.

[3:13:22] I learned a lot.

[3:13:24] I don't know my colleagues, but I learned a lot.

[3:13:27] I have shared my concerns regarding this budget.

[3:13:30] Only in as much as we are finding ourselves

[3:13:33] an exactly the position my colleague talked about,

[3:13:36] which is in the healthcare expense costs.

[3:13:39] They are going up, they are taking away our wage increases to our employers.

[3:13:46] And that's just the bottom line there.

[3:13:49] I don't know what to do about it.

[3:13:52] I'm famous for asking other people what they were going to do about it inside that meeting,

[3:13:57] as a matter of fact.

[3:14:01] So I'm pleased with what we have with conditions, I guess.

[3:14:05] And it's conditions we don't control.

[3:14:07] So I will vote for this.

[3:14:11] Yeah.

[3:14:12] I'm in favor of the budget as well.

[3:14:14] I want to thank staff.

[3:14:15] I know that our department had, et cetera,

[3:14:19] did a lot of work on cutting things out of the budget before we

[3:14:24] we have been saw it, which is, you know,

[3:14:27] I've lived through a lot of commissions, as you guys know,

[3:14:30] and on the staff side.

[3:14:32] And, you know, it's always better if staff is proactive.

[3:14:36] and we don't have to be out here, you know, beaten everything up, out here, and on the cameras,

[3:14:42] and you brought us a budget that already had a lot of cuts, and they weren't easy cuts,

[3:14:47] and they weren't easy to get to, so it's appreciated.

[3:14:52] And, you know, clearly, you know, less genius than an amazing job,

[3:14:56] I've just processing this in a way that, you know, it's good and it's...

[3:15:00] And it keeps us into the big picture.

[3:15:04] I supported, you know, property tax has issues. And a lot of it is the inequities of the property tax.

[3:15:15] And that is where the problem needs to be resolved. But in the meantime, we have the tax system and the formula that we have.

[3:15:24] And I think that the investment to our community is good.

[3:15:31] And I support the budget.

[3:15:33] I think we probably were going to have a lot of work ahead

[3:15:35] to see if the minute tree passes, what that would look like.

[3:15:39] I know it won't look pretty.

[3:15:41] And at the meantime, I think we were hard to try to do as much as we can

[3:15:46] to afford an efficient way the kind of quality life items that our citizens have told us

[3:15:55] they want. And so, but I appreciate the hard work of this budget. It does show a lot of

[3:16:01] discipline from the staff perspective. So, okay, I'm, so we got to do a roll call, but Commissioner

[3:16:07] do guard. Commissioner Gow. And this is on the military, correct? Yeah, it is. I. Commissioner Sam

[3:16:16] Bergen. Vice Mayor Walker. Mayor Frany. I motion passes unanimously. Yes, sorry. I guess I drifted

[3:16:23] into the budget in the millage, but hard to do at this point. Okay.

[3:16:30] Okay. And we're going to have

[3:16:32] and please read Resolution 26-13 by title only,

[3:16:36] which does go to the heart of the budget.

[3:16:40] Resolution 26-13, a resolution of the City Commission

[3:16:43] of the City of Dunnean, Florida,

[3:16:44] adopting the tentative operating and capital budget,

[3:16:47] for the fiscal year commencing October 1, 2026,

[3:16:50] and ending September 30th, 2027,

[3:16:52] providing for a second and final public hearing date

[3:16:54] and providing for an effective date

[3:16:56] that was resolution 26-13,

[3:16:58] read by title only.

[3:17:00] Okay, and can I have a motion?

[3:17:02] So moved.

[3:17:03] Second.

[3:17:06] Okay.

[3:17:06] Staff presentation.

[3:17:13] We've finished our budget presentation.

[3:17:15] You don't have anything additional.

[3:17:16] I didn't think so.

[3:17:18] Okay.

[3:17:19] So.

[3:17:19] Out of ammunition.

[3:17:20] Here we go.

[3:17:23] Thank you.

[3:17:23] This is where City Manager was supposed to jump in again and say, hey, I want to say something.

[3:17:28] Okay.

[3:17:29] So well, no presentation, but does anybody have any additional questions?

[3:17:33] Last time we decided the millages is clearly the budget and capital budget.

[3:17:36] Anybody have any additional questions starting with or commissioner Cal.

[3:17:40] I have no questions, ma'am.

[3:17:42] Commissioner Dougard.

[3:17:42] No questions, ma'am.

[3:17:43] Questions?

[3:17:44] Commissioner Samburn.

[3:17:45] Nothing bad.

[3:17:46] And I don't have any.

[3:17:49] So I'll open it to public input.

[3:17:50] Anyone new audience which to speak on this item having to do with the operating capital

[3:17:55] budget for fiscal year 2027.

[3:17:59] Okay.

[3:18:00] Come on forward.

[3:18:00] Name address.

[3:18:02] And we will lay down to 306 Jones, it's just amazing that everybody laughed, and this is

[3:18:08] really the most important issue tonight.

[3:18:10] All the cameras laughed.

[3:18:11] So thank you guys for putting up for keeping the military the same.

[3:18:16] And you're absolutely right.

[3:18:17] Thank you for that, Cleveland.

[3:18:19] Okay.

[3:18:19] Anyone else in the audience, which is important to be kind of this issue?

[3:18:24] Okay.

[3:18:24] Seeing no one else, I'll close public input.

[3:18:26] I will go to final comments starting with Maker the Motion Vice Mayor.

[3:18:29] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:18:30] Yes, it's commendable whether we were able to reduce the budget by 11% that, again, testament to your due diligence in the work.

[3:18:40] Thank you.

[3:18:41] Commissioner, no, I'm sorry.

[3:18:43] Seconder, the motion is Commissioner Dugard.

[3:18:48] I'm oftentimes in awe of all the moving parts that you have to deal with here in the city.

[3:18:55] And to keep them under a physical control system that you have is amazing to me.

[3:19:02] Now, by the way, when I listen to you answer questions every now and then less, I'm confused.

[3:19:06] Just so you know that.

[3:19:08] That the glaze look that comes over me is a little bit of confusion.

[3:19:15] But it's just, you've made it a wind up doll that's incredible.

[3:19:18] I know there's been a lot of work in cutting this budget.

[3:19:20] The capital budget is well-managed and you've just had a capital budget tsunami hit you and

[3:19:28] What we had to deal with with FEMA and those expenditures?

[3:19:31] I'm hoping that levels out and I might go to understand it next year.

[3:19:36] Thank you.

[3:19:38] Okay, Commissioner Gow.

[3:19:42] You know for the residents in the audience or at home listening

[3:19:48] that think that we are just blowing through this in a matter of 20 minutes, it's not the case, right?

[3:19:55] This process starts in February and we've had several meetings over this.

[3:20:01] And one of those public workshops that we had, there was a post on social media that said, hey, they're discussing the budget right now. What do you think? And I actually got really excited that I might hear good, good content from our residents on this is what we should be thinking and how we should be approaching things.

[3:20:25] But I was so disappointed that it was just seemed to be a bunch of keyboard warriors.

[3:20:32] It just wanted a bitch in the moment of complain without any real substance in their comments.

[3:20:39] And I thought what a missed opportunity that is when you look at our process that starts in February

[3:20:45] and the state of Florida and the state budget, where they passed their budget in three days.

[3:20:51] It's given to them, read it, come back three days have a vote, and when you talk about local government,

[3:20:58] when you talk about municipalities, and the length of time and the transparency, we really try our best.

[3:21:06] Staff worked incredibly hard on this budget, 11% by Mayor Absolutly, that's astounding, and I know that didn't come easy.

[3:21:16] that came with a lot of sweat and some beers.

[3:21:22] And so I am in favor of it.

[3:21:27] I hope enough residents understand and appreciate

[3:21:32] what their city government does for them

[3:21:36] that just a circle back when you talk about

[3:21:41] your homeowners insurance and car insurance.

[3:21:45] One, they make more money in the less money they pay out.

[3:21:48] So they're physical responsibilities to save as much money.

[3:21:53] Other than the city does it provide a service.

[3:21:56] So if it's local money being spent locally,

[3:21:58] you can be upset with your city government.

[3:22:01] But it's your money being spent locally,

[3:22:03] come talk to us.

[3:22:07] I hope I'm not smudging too far along the line of amendment three.

[3:22:12] But I am in favor of this.

[3:22:14] Let's thank you and your staff for working so incredibly hard and all the department heads.

[3:22:20] I know this was a collective, a collective, lifting.

[3:22:25] So thank you all very much for listening to the comments of an old man.

[3:22:30] All right.

[3:22:32] Okay.

[3:22:33] Commissioner Sanberg and final comment.

[3:22:34] So we talk about the price of labor, price of supplies, everything is going up.

[3:22:39] I've heard insurance going up.

[3:22:41] except one thing, the dirty in city taxes.

[3:22:45] Is that safe to say, isn't it?

[3:22:47] It's the same milled rate.

[3:22:49] I would say that the rate at which we tax is not going up.

[3:22:52] That's what I mean.

[3:22:53] The rate at which we tax has not gone up.

[3:22:57] That's actually because of property values.

[3:22:58] Right.

[3:22:58] Does go up something.

[3:22:59] Exactly.

[3:23:00] Well, because of property values.

[3:23:01] Right.

[3:23:02] Job well done.

[3:23:02] Thank you.

[3:23:06] Okay.

[3:23:07] I'm supporting this budget as well.

[3:23:09] Decrease of 11% is great.

[3:23:10] Again, that goes back to my comments earlier.

[3:23:12] about the cuts, I commend all of you here for that, I think it's going to be interesting

[3:23:19] as we move forward. What's the total parks and wreck budget? Like 12 million? Yeah.

[3:23:27] About 12 million? 12.5 million? Yes. Right. And you know, people look at that and they're like,

[3:23:33] oh my gosh, they've got a ton of money to cut and we don't realize almost half of that is parks.

[3:23:41] something, every citizen, well, most citizens in this community have wanted us to have lots of parks on green space.

[3:23:48] And you have to take care of it.

[3:23:50] I was out walking out by the, um, the, um, one last of the area where the boat club was destroyed.

[3:23:58] And of course, a couple of our parks workers were out there cleaning up.

[3:24:01] I mean, that's labor.

[3:24:02] It's labor.

[3:24:02] It's upkeep.

[3:24:03] And I think that's where, you know, as we continue to try to educate and what's in the budget and what's at stake.

[3:24:09] I think that's going to continue to be important.

[3:24:11] But I support the fact that in this budget, right now,

[3:24:15] a lot of work was done to effectively reduce this budget

[3:24:19] to 11%, it took a lot, and again, I'm supportive of it.

[3:24:25] So let's go to roll call vote.

[3:24:26] Commissioner Sam Berkin.

[3:24:28] Commissioner Gow.

[3:24:29] Hi.

[3:24:30] Commissioner Doogard.

[3:24:31] Hi.

[3:24:32] Vice Mayor Walker.

[3:24:33] All right.

[3:24:34] And Mayor Franny.

[3:24:35] I am in motion past unanimously.

[3:24:37] OK.

[3:24:38] Mayor, if I may, as you know, I very rarely ask all the department directors to attend a meeting,

[3:24:42] but they're all here this evening for the first public hearing of the budget, and I know

[3:24:48] that Philis was not able to attend to her staff this year, so thank you very much for coming,

[3:24:52] but I guess some of them can go on now.

[3:24:54] Wherever Philis is, we appreciate it.

[3:24:56] That's right.

[3:24:57] Thank you.

[3:25:00] Yeah, you guys are here later than usual, too. Tony has to stay, Laurie is staying, Laurie is staying. They were a couple

[3:25:08] naps that were taken I was watching, but thanks everybody. You guys don't want to stay for the

[3:25:14] marina rates? America. America, we just need to read one more slide, okay?

[3:25:25] In accordance with Florida's Truth and Milage Trim Laws, a notice of proposed tax increase and a budget summary advertisement will be published within 15 days of today's tentative budget hearing.

[3:25:39] a public hearing to adopt the final millage rate and budget will be held Tuesday, sorry, Thursday, September, 17th at

[3:25:49] 6 p.m. at City Hall City Commission Chambers.

[3:25:54] Thank you.

[3:25:55] Okay.

[3:25:56] Let's go ahead and amend this slide for the record.

[3:25:58] Thanks.

[3:25:59] Okay.

[3:26:00] All right.

[3:26:00] Well, thank you both.

[3:26:03] And are you also up here for the marina rates?

[3:26:05] Who's doing that one?

[3:26:07] Yeah.

[3:26:07] I'm going to do that with, and Laura's going to draw on that, right?

[3:26:10] Yeah.

[3:26:10] I hope we are.

[3:26:14] Okay, so we're going to go to Resolution 26-17,

[3:26:18] amending the Marina user fees.

[3:26:20] Jen, can you please read Resolution 26-17 by Title Loneley?

[3:26:26] Resolution 26-17, a resolution in the City Commission of the City

[3:26:30] of Dunedin Ford, establishing Dunedin Marina user fees, including rates for use of boat

[3:26:35] let's pursue it to Section 86-76 and charges for use of boat ramp launches.

[3:26:42] Pursuant to Section 86-105 of the code of ordinances of the seed,

[3:26:46] the need in repealing resolution 25-29 in its entirety and providing for

[3:26:51] severability, providing and providing for an effective date.

[3:26:54] That was resolution 26-17 read by Title Rally.

[3:26:58] Okay, the motion is to adopt resolution 26-17 increasing.

[3:27:01] the Marina Slip user fees by 7% affected by October 1, 2026.

[3:27:06] So moved.

[3:27:09] Finally.

[3:27:10] All right.

[3:27:10] I had to work.

[3:27:13] I'm a slip runner.

[3:27:15] Here you go.

[3:27:16] OK.

[3:27:16] Staff presentation.

[3:27:17] Less Tony and Lori.

[3:27:19] OK.

[3:27:20] I'll kick it off.

[3:27:21] This slide was resolution 26 to 17.

[3:27:24] And we're recommending an increase in Marina Slip user fees of 7%

[3:27:28] of fact.

[3:27:28] October 1, 2026.

[3:27:30] Some background on this item. In late 2022, the city of Dunedin did a very comprehensive

[3:27:35] rates that he prepared by Consultant Raft Ellis for the Dunedin Marina to determine

[3:27:40] what rates the enterprise fund needed to be sustainable. The report was received by Commission

[3:27:44] in January 23 and the study recommended a series of 5-10% incremental rate increases and rates

[3:27:51] have not been increased since 2015. The city commission approved the initial 10% rate increase

[3:27:57] March 9th, 2023, and the rate changes have been a 10% increase took place on April 1st, 2023.

[3:28:06] Another 10% increase took place on October 1st, 2024. Another 10% increase took place on October 1st, 2025.

[3:28:14] The next goes to the increase is before the commission today with a proposed rate increase of 7%

[3:28:19] effective October 1st, 2026. Staff is forecasted the financial needs of the Marine Enterprise Fund

[3:28:26] and we believe the 7% increase is necessary to keep them marine to fund self-sustaining.

[3:28:30] The new revenue will directly cover daily operations debt service and vital capital improvements

[3:28:35] while maintaining our financial reserves in a healthy manner.

[3:28:39] I want to mention that the city received a $3 million state appropriation for a physical year

[3:28:45] 2627 to support Hurricane Repair and Restoration at the Dunedin Arena.

[3:28:50] These funds will assist the arena fund with the storm related repairs to the docking and

[3:28:54] dock V and will be very helpful with that project.

[3:28:57] But I also want to mention one item in our long range plan.

[3:29:01] Our forecast, the forecast assumes that FEMA and the state will fully fund the cost to replace

[3:29:08] stock A and B with modern floating docks and our current budget in the brain of fund is an estimated

[3:29:14] cost to have floating docks. The potential risk is if FEMA does not approve of paying for

[3:29:20] the mitigating and mitigation cost of floating docks, the brain of fund may have to cover

[3:29:25] more expenses than we currently have in our forecast, possibly. The impact would be if FEMA

[3:29:30] funding is denied for four costs of floating docks, the brain of fund will face additional

[3:29:34] capital costs. To cover the price of those added costs, we would likely need to implement

[3:29:39] additional slip rate increases in future years. This is a complex project, and the

[3:29:44] scope of repairs may increase the cost of the project and may not all be eligible for

[3:29:50] FEMA reimbursements. I also want to mention in the staffing in the exhibit, which is the last page.

[3:29:57] there's there's some reference to some

[3:30:00] This slips, there's five slips that have a reference that the slip size has changed. And I want to point that out, there's an

[3:30:05] astric and a footnote at the bottom that we have five slips that change and they'll have a new rate in 2027 year, because

[3:30:12] of their slip size has changed. I want to mention that the rate study was done, that was done was

[3:30:19] independent of any of any kind, any sort of the marine master plan increases. The study was just to

[3:30:25] maintain the infrastructure at the marina in the 2022 timeframe. Staff recommends approval of

[3:30:30] Resolution 26-17 and happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

[3:30:35] Hey questions, Vice Mayor?

[3:30:39] Yeah, just wanting to confirm. So when we pass this in 2023 or 2022, basically it was 10% in five

[3:30:52] convince 10 percent every year for five years, right? And just to confirm, basically, what you

[3:30:59] forecasted for this year is less than 10 percent, it's 7 percent. That's great. No for the questions.

[3:31:09] Okay, Mr. Sambergen? It's last night I had an hour and a half talk with a

[3:31:17] But I didn't even realize it was a slip runner and they made a comment how much they get for how little they pay.

[3:31:27] I was really encouraging to hear somebody present it like that.

[3:31:29] I won't say their name because I've known them a long time.

[3:31:32] I didn't realize they had a boat.

[3:31:33] But 23, 24, 25 or whatever.

[3:31:37] That's the 10% now seven and that's because of that $3 million.

[3:31:43] Is that why the percentage went up?

[3:31:47] So we had five years of a 10% increase, is that correct?

[3:31:51] What we had, they proposed five years at 10%, but what we've done three years at 10% and now

[3:31:57] we're recommending that we'd do that to 7% this year because we feel because of some

[3:32:03] of the, well, really, the state appropriation, as an example, that's funding that came in

[3:32:08] that wasn't planned.

[3:32:10] So we, we're, we're, we're over the lower the rates.

[3:32:12] As long as FEMA fully reimburses us, we know we have a good plan if they don't fully

[3:32:17] reimburses.

[3:32:17] We may have to possibly look at, you know, it's just in the race a little more in the future,

[3:32:22] but right now we think it's a good plan.

[3:32:25] So, are we geared, you feel real solid in the event of a delinquency?

[3:32:30] Do I understand we can go in and take possession with the salvage?

[3:32:34] We can actually take over a boat if it's severely delinquent, is that right?

[3:32:40] Yes, that is correct.

[3:32:41] And then we would go ahead and sell it to recover our losses.

[3:32:46] Is that what we would do?

[3:32:48] Yes, good evening Mayor.

[3:32:50] Vice Mayor Commissioner.

[3:32:51] Lori Ferguson, Harbormaster.

[3:32:54] We've had to do that one time and actually auction off a boat.

[3:32:57] Other than that, we've been able to work our way through some situations

[3:33:01] at no cost to the Marina.

[3:33:04] And most of the time ending up recovering the funds.

[3:33:09] I'm going to ask you one, maybe two questions that don't have to do with this, but they have

[3:33:14] to direct marine operations.

[3:33:17] In the event, now we're at September.

[3:33:19] So by this time next week, we could be under hurricane warning.

[3:33:22] What is our, what kind of contingent plans do we have to get those boats out of there?

[3:33:29] We always recommend that if a boat can be trailered, that it be removed from the marine.

[3:33:34] At that point, we'd open the ramp, obviously, to that owner.

[3:33:37] Yes, as a matter of fact, on our normal operating conditions, we

[3:33:40] close the ramp to the public, and we allow our vessels to exit the marina.

[3:33:47] Okay, so we're geared, if that did.

[3:33:49] Yes, the larger vessels, however, it's very difficult for them to find a place for those

[3:33:57] vessels to go.

[3:33:59] Okay, with the condition of that, a lot of it's under construction.

[3:34:04] Some of those larger boats could be removed with a crane, but obviously right now, we couldn't

[3:34:10] position a crane to get those boats out am I right well the question becomes if you

[3:34:15] lift them with a crane where do you put them they if if someone had pre-arranged

[3:34:19] hauling trailer yes I mean I don't see that happening okay very often I don't

[3:34:27] hear about that happening if they take it out to a haul out spot but when there is a

[3:34:34] storm everyone's doing the same thing so it becomes very difficult and there are no real hurricane

[3:34:40] holes around our coast so when they decide to exit that Marina it's a question of what direction

[3:34:46] do you go because the storm may be coming one direction now and then it changes course and they're

[3:34:52] heading right into it. It was less once the storm is named not named but once we are under a hurricane

[3:35:00] And you cannot force a vessel to leave by water.

[3:35:04] Okay. No, it's just very encouraging to hear someone go on and on about how happy they were in the

[3:35:10] arena for the price they paid and what they get, including Lori. I mean, it was very encouraging

[3:35:17] to hear that from a citizen last night said, it's all I have.

[3:35:20] You probably spend way too much time walking by that mariner.

[3:35:25] But at least twice a week.

[3:35:28] I did.

[3:35:30] OK.

[3:35:31] Commissioner, go.

[3:35:34] Questions?

[3:35:37] Yeah.

[3:35:38] So where am I?

[3:35:40] No, I'm just really.

[3:35:42] It's.

[3:35:43] It speaks volumes.

[3:35:45] They were able to reduce the rate from 10 to 7.

[3:35:49] It just speaks well to, again, the management of the marina.

[3:35:52] And it's testament by at least one select runner.

[3:35:56] The question is on a hat.

[3:35:58] The question now.

[3:35:59] That was a great question.

[3:36:00] What is it?

[3:36:00] I'm kidding.

[3:36:01] It's getting myself this big.

[3:36:03] I guess it is getting like real quickly.

[3:36:06] The start slips that are getting an increase, the or new rates next year.

[3:36:13] Those slip rotors know that.

[3:36:17] So, they're getting the same increase basically as everything else, but the square footage

[3:36:23] of the slip has been reduced because the design of the C-wall cap, so we've lost about

[3:36:28] four feet in those slips along that front C-wall cap, and we don't have boats in there

[3:36:35] right now, other than one, and he is aware of what his new rate will be.

[3:36:40] It's actually going to be less than his rate was before, so we're doing it, right?

[3:36:44] Thank you.

[3:36:46] I'm looking to make sure to start questions.

[3:36:49] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:36:50] I'm interested in the boat ramp,

[3:36:52] launch annual and daily fee.

[3:36:54] I noticed that the annual fee has gone up substantially,

[3:36:58] but the daily fee is stable.

[3:37:01] Is there a reason for that?

[3:37:03] Or tell me what's going on there.

[3:37:05] So the boat launch fee hasn't changed.

[3:37:08] At this time, what you're seeing is the resident person's non-resident.

[3:37:11] But it has stayed the same, and I think we're going to address that.

[3:37:15] We're going to revisit that when some other decisions have been made about the boat ramp.

[3:37:22] So the, yeah, my point was exactly what you said, which is non-residents staying the same as the resident on daily.

[3:37:29] Oh, the daily, that went to a few years ago, we put a kiosk out at the boat ramp.

[3:37:35] Okay. And the kiosk could not determine the difference between a resident and a non-resident.

[3:37:39] We are way to do that with exactly. We just had to put a flat fee on that.

[3:37:48] All right. Thank you. That's all I had, man.

[3:37:54] So finance board reviewed this.

[3:37:57] Finance boards aware of this and agrees with it.

[3:38:00] Yeah, finance board was aware of a 7% increase instead of 10%.

[3:38:04] Well, we discussed it a couple times in the finance board.

[3:38:06] And then the assumption is we'll stay at 10% for next year, but we'll see kind of what we look like next year.

[3:38:15] Yeah, we'll see we look like if we, if FEMA is going to reimburse us like we expect, we should be able to go 7% again, but we'll just have to evaluate next year and see we're out.

[3:38:25] Okay, and do we have any live aborts anymore?

[3:38:28] 1.

[3:38:30] And the person's grandfather basically, or, yes, and owns Dunnean property.

[3:38:36] Okay. Gotcha. Okay.

[3:38:40] Yeah, the boat ramp, I think, is it done? Rubik's Cube, as they say, so to be figured out.

[3:38:47] I don't have any other questions, so I'll go to.

[3:38:52] Mayor, I'm sorry. I was going to ask one thing real quick.

[3:38:54] Sure.

[3:38:55] less. Is there any way just the change in slip size, new rate, little

[3:39:01] asterisk? There's already a single asterisk in a double asterisk and this can

[3:39:06] make it just a simple, so it stands out a little more.

[3:39:10] A different sample? Oh sure, yeah.

[3:39:12] It's clear. I just want there to be a confusion in a single asterisk.

[3:39:16] Yeah, sure.

[3:39:18] Yeah.

[3:39:18] Cool.

[3:39:19] Okay.

[3:39:20] Whatever our attorney says.

[3:39:24] Okay.

[3:39:25] I'm going to open this up for a public input.

[3:39:27] Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on the Marine Night User

[3:39:31] Feas.

[3:39:33] Okay.

[3:39:34] Cleveland.

[3:39:35] They're going to dress you again for the record.

[3:39:36] I'm going to look up to 306 Jones.

[3:39:39] So I am a slip runner and I do want to thank Tony and Lori.

[3:39:42] They have given us all these numbers ahead of time up for like 10 years.

[3:39:45] So we know what's coming as far as the price going up at the slip, that's just total transparency, I really do appreciate that.

[3:39:54] I am curious about, I'm on the Advisory Committee, so we're going to have the boat ramp.

[3:40:00] The next, if you're really interested in that, come to that meeting because it should be very interesting.

[3:40:05] And the other thing is, we did get the money allocated from the state. I've been asking Lori, but I understand you're working on the budget now, but that's quite a bit of money.

[3:40:13] So, you were talking about FEMA tonight. So, there's a little bit of gray area there, but I'm sure we'll talk about it in the advisory committee, but it is on everybody's mind, because it is so much money.

[3:40:24] Okay, thank you.

[3:40:26] Thank you, Cleveland.

[3:40:27] We'll have you come every meeting.

[3:40:29] You've been very helpful.

[3:40:31] Thank you.

[3:40:32] Okay.

[3:40:34] Anyone else in the public wish to come forward and speak on this issue?

[3:40:39] Okay.

[3:40:39] You know what?

[3:40:39] I'll close public input.

[3:40:41] Go to final comments.

[3:40:42] Starting with Maker the Motion Commissioner to go.

[3:40:46] It's the only one I got in the night, by the way.

[3:40:48] Maker the motion.

[3:40:49] Yeah, I think this is wonderful news that we're not having to go to 10%.

[3:40:53] congratulations to everybody that got us here. I do think there's some things to work out and we've

[3:40:58] got a couple interesting years ahead of us, what we're doing and I thank finance, I thank

[3:41:05] Lori, I thank Tony for all you're doing and I also thank the committee. They're doing a great job too.

[3:41:11] That's all I have there. Okay, second year of the motion, Commissioner Sandberg and final comments.

[3:41:16] It's very, you've made this really smooth in other, and when somebody says I can't believe

[3:41:23] I get all that for such a good price, makes it a lot of pretty simple.

[3:41:28] Good job.

[3:41:29] Thanks.

[3:41:29] How many years did you buy this guy?

[3:41:33] Was it Wednesday?

[3:41:36] Of course, a vice mayor, final comments?

[3:41:39] No, I good job being able to reduce the 10% increase.

[3:41:48] What I would like, though, because it's been a while since we had a marine update,

[3:41:53] I'm wondering kind of where the marine master plan is,

[3:41:58] what's the status of the peer, where we add on the bulkheads.

[3:42:04] It's been a little bit of a time since we last got an update.

[3:42:08] So that would be great.

[3:42:10] Thank you.

[3:42:13] Well, following in Commissioner San Bergen's footsteps,

[3:42:15] I did talk to Chip down at the Marina the other day.

[3:42:19] And he said they're ready to cap it off and these wall.

[3:42:23] And so I'm just trying to live up to your standard there.

[3:42:27] So I'm trying to cut it down to like one, sorry, two weeks.

[3:42:31] Yeah, I was curious too.

[3:42:33] How long time we are and with the peer?

[3:42:37] Yes.

[3:42:37] do we sell a corv in canier issue with permitting or we so my understanding is we

[3:42:43] have one area fisheries left the plans are in their office and we're looking

[3:42:49] for them to approve the plans and then thereafter a place is going to talk to you

[3:42:54] about that actually we see comments from fisheries on Wednesday no Tuesday

[3:43:01] that was Tuesday so we're addressing those we should have those back hopefully

[3:43:05] sometime next week, but how long it takes for them to respond to those comments? I don't know.

[3:43:15] Okay, so one of the things that we do want to do is that we want to engage all of you a little

[3:43:19] bit more and start really putting some pressure, including our representative as well, and

[3:43:25] Annabelle Luna, they get this moved along. Okay, because as far as we know, there's really no

[3:43:33] standard or requirement for how long they have it and how long, you know, until they

[3:43:38] replied to us.

[3:43:39] So we need, so I guess I took my, you know, gaped there for a minute.

[3:43:43] So I thought the last one was fisheries and we've heard from the fisheries, but they generated

[3:43:47] comments.

[3:43:48] The generated comments.

[3:43:48] Okay, okay.

[3:43:49] So we're responding to those comments and some of those are just more general

[3:43:52] statements that may have been in the application originally.

[3:43:57] So, once we resumit, then they have, there's a real note clock that says they have to respond to us in a certain amount of time.

[3:44:04] We don't want another 30, 40, 40 and then after that, how long is it until the premise actually issued?

[3:44:10] I mean, you know so.

[3:44:12] And are we going to be running for election right now?

[3:44:15] So, I would think we can get it with fast response from some of our federal.

[3:44:18] So, somehow we keep the contractor engaged, right?

[3:44:21] And I've just had one more thing to that.

[3:44:25] I don't, you probably saw the press release earlier for last week, and I shared it with

[3:44:29] the city manager.

[3:44:31] But safety harbors open up their peer, and now the caveat is that their scope of damage

[3:44:38] was far less than what ours was, and so at least that's what allows me to sleep at night.

[3:44:47] And so I just, keep us, keep us updated.

[3:44:50] And safety harbor was ready for construction prior to the storms and then held off their construction until our federal funding came in.

[3:45:00] Okay, thank you. Yes. Okay, final comments. I think you hadn't done your final comments. I'm reading it. You had, okay. So, Mr. Gallagher.

[3:45:09] I already had mine. Okay, so we're good. I got everybody.

[3:45:14] Okay, so, and I'm in favor of them as well.

[3:45:17] I did want to say one kudo, because we really are great at meeting up on the state, because therefore we're getting in our business, but in this case, they actually helped us, and they gave us an appropriation and that is appreciated.

[3:45:28] So it's very helpful, you know, based on the devastation of the storm.

[3:45:34] So okay, we'll call the Vice Mayor Walker.

[3:45:37] All right.

[3:45:38] Commissioner Gow.

[3:45:41] Commissioner Sam Bergen.

[3:45:43] Commissioner Dugard.

[3:45:44] All right.

[3:45:45] And Mayor Frank.

[3:45:46] Aye.

[3:45:46] And that motion passes unanimously.

[3:45:48] Okay.

[3:45:49] We are going to go to the proposed agenda for September 17th, 2026, commission meeting.

[3:45:59] any additions or changes, anybody else, 70 comments?

[3:46:08] Okay, so do I have a motion to approve?

[3:46:11] Simult.

[3:46:11] Got one.

[3:46:12] All right.

[3:46:13] Second.

[3:46:14] Okay.

[3:46:15] I have a motion.

[3:46:16] Second.

[3:46:17] All in favor.

[3:46:18] All right.

[3:46:18] Any opposed?

[3:46:20] Okay.

[3:46:20] Motion passing unanimously.

[3:46:22] Okay.

[3:46:22] Great.

[3:46:24] Okay.

[3:46:27] So...

[3:46:27] Okay.

[3:46:28] Well, we lost Cleveland now, so we're going to do it.

[3:46:32] We still got Rita though.

[3:46:33] We still got Rita back there, so.

[3:46:35] OK.

[3:46:36] Commission discussion in comments.

[3:46:39] Starting with Mr. ago.

[3:46:45] It's got a long list.

[3:46:47] I do have a long list.

[3:46:51] This is new for me.

[3:46:54] So bear with me.

[3:46:55] If you don't mind, but it is suicide awareness month in September, and it's a time

[3:47:05] to recognize that suicide is not just a statistic, I'm behind every loss as a person, a family,

[3:47:12] and a community forever changed.

[3:47:15] In Podemos County, we are fortunate to have organizations working every day to bring hope,

[3:47:20] education, connection, and support to those who are struggling.

[3:47:24] Speak up for mental health is helping break the stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide,

[3:47:31] particularly among our youth by teaching that it's okay to talk about mental health

[3:47:35] and okay to ask for help. Freeman Sound uses music, education, and community engagement

[3:47:41] to raise awareness and provide resources for suicide prevention in mental health.

[3:47:46] Team Chelsea Foundation reminds us that, behind

[3:47:56] every family touched by suicide, is a story

[3:48:02] of love, loss, and determination to turn that loss into hope and support for others.

[3:48:09] Namely, it's now as county provides education, support, and resources for individuals and

[3:48:15] families affected by mental illness.

[3:48:17] The work helps remind us that mental health is health and that no one should have to navigate these challenges alone.

[3:48:27] And zero suicide partners of Pinnonus brings together organizations across our community with a shared mission to end suicide in Pinnonus County to education awareness coordinated care and community partnerships.

[3:48:43] These organizations demonstrate something very important.

[3:48:49] Suicide prevention is a community responsibility.

[3:48:54] It starts with conversation.

[3:48:56] It starts with asking, are you okay?

[3:49:00] It starts with listening without judgment

[3:49:02] and making sure people know that asking for help

[3:49:05] is a sign of strength and not weakness.

[3:49:06] This September, let's commit to looking out for one another.

[3:49:11] Let's speak up, reach out, make sure that no one who is struggling knows that there

[3:49:17] is help, that there is hope, and there are people who care.

[3:49:21] If you are someone, you know, as in crisis, call or text 98 for free, confidential support

[3:49:30] available 24 hours a day.

[3:49:32] Let the stand together as a community because every life matters every story matters and every person deserves hope

[3:49:44] could in a thought that I have

[3:49:47] To a side of wearing a spottings for everybody and I've been giving him out so now I don't have enough

[3:49:54] I do a polygi

[3:49:57] Mayor

[3:49:58] Rob and

[3:50:01] I'm sorry, ladies, I will get one.

[3:50:03] We'll get you up next week.

[3:50:05] And I'm sorry to show.

[3:50:08] Thank you.

[3:50:09] What's me?

[3:50:12] Thank you, Jeff.

[3:50:15] And you're absolutely right. There's way too much stigma.

[3:50:17] And that's what drives people from talking more about it and being nearer.

[3:50:22] And we all need to be better.

[3:50:24] So, thank you.

[3:50:27] Okay, final comments.

[3:50:29] Let's see, we'll go to Vice-Fair next, I guess.

[3:50:37] So if I'm going to get down.

[3:50:40] No, I think your words were beautiful, Jeff.

[3:50:48] And it takes a lot of courage.

[3:50:54] And I have tremendous admiration for you,

[3:51:02] sir.

[3:51:05] I'm glad to be back in town for the moment and anyway, I don't really have a heck of a lot to add.

[3:51:15] PSTA, we're going to be doing our first public hearing next week on the budget and the millage.

[3:51:23] Same challenges, obviously, but you know, that's why they pay us the big bucks.

[3:51:35] Thank you.

[3:51:36] Commissioner DeGarde.

[3:51:39] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:51:42] We have an extraordinary city.

[3:51:45] And we have an extraordinary city because we have an extraordinary team.

[3:51:51] We enjoy the banter between ourselves up here only because we're very comfortable with each other.

[3:51:57] And that's created by a mayor that tends to forgive freely, and we appreciate that.

[3:52:03] And people who enjoy each other's company and respect each other's judgment.

[3:52:09] But we also have a staff that I think is really good.

[3:52:13] If you've worked with a good organization, you come to expect it.

[3:52:17] But when you go out there and see some of the other systems,

[3:52:21] I just happen to have flown on an airline recently.

[3:52:25] And it was clear that their culture was not as positive.

[3:52:30] That's the culture I see here.

[3:52:31] a number of reasons for that, but I want to remind people that this staff is under a lot

[3:52:38] of pressure. They don't know what's going to happen on November 3rd and they don't know

[3:52:42] what they're dealing with, but they still perform with grace and with professionalism. I'm

[3:52:49] very proud of them during this time. It's all I have there. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you,

[3:52:55] Mr. St. Morgan.

[3:52:59] Well, when I did the proclamation for the library, I did highlight some of the interaction

[3:53:06] I've had down there, and it's just dealing with these little kids to watch them smile

[3:53:14] and it really makes you, you know, it's just, it's just, you really feel like you're doing

[3:53:20] something for them.

[3:53:21] Even if I'm reading a Dr. Seuss book, at least it

[3:53:24] spend time with them, it came up about the study in fire.

[3:53:29] I did last week, I spent the day with them again.

[3:53:31] And if you guys want to do something that really makes people feel good.

[3:53:36] I wanted all three stations with Chief Andoga met with every firemen,

[3:53:41] every paramedic set, one on one with me, and good people,

[3:53:46] good people when they start to relax and talk to you.

[3:53:50] then they talk to you as a friend, not a commissioner,

[3:53:53] but to hear what they go through, when you say,

[3:53:57] so tell me about what you guys do last night,

[3:54:00] and it's like, oh, let me tell them first,

[3:54:02] that's really a special time.

[3:54:05] Another thing is, you know, I sit on our spot

[3:54:09] for the Tampa Bay Regional Planning.

[3:54:13] There's a new part of it's called the comprehensive,

[3:54:15] I have the comprehensive economic development strategy committee and I was fortunate enough

[3:54:22] to be selected to be on that and I got a lot of studying to do in the next few days,

[3:54:27] a lot of reading and but again I, you know, because I've done even has a seat and I feel

[3:54:34] so honored and privileged to be there to represent the city and can't say enough good.

[3:54:40] We put in a lot of hours and you know we all we all get beat up and it's time

[3:54:46] times you know like Tom had just said and you know we're back together and

[3:54:50] be able to banter sometimes only we understand what we're going through and what's

[3:54:54] being said so I appreciate we're back together was a long time we were up

[3:55:03] Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. I admire you to take courage and passion in which you have both. So, you know,

[3:55:14] part of what makes the need special. I would say that we don't do mental health

[3:55:20] information that I recall. No, we need to do that. And now we need to, I think it was

[3:55:26] commissioner kinds, vice mayor kinds that at one time, you know, again, learning a little

[3:55:32] bit more about our county and mental health specifically in our city. I think it's

[3:55:37] important. I think we can shed some light on some things as well. You know, people just,

[3:55:42] you know, you're talking and then I'm looking at this thing that we all got. We all got one

[3:55:46] and this is something our fire union did and it's a teddy bear pink and it's holding the

[3:55:55] Dunning fire department logo and it was they did it as a way to I think that reason money I don't know

[3:56:03] But they did it because one of our firefighters lost by drowning is to your whole daughter

[3:56:09] Two years old, was she too?

[3:56:11] Yes.

[3:56:12] And some of us went to the service.

[3:56:14] It was that as thing I'd ever seen.

[3:56:17] But, you know, got to be there.

[3:56:19] Life is tough.

[3:56:20] And life is not fair all the time, so.

[3:56:24] So, also I just want to make sure we're constantly putting out there right now about the tax forum on,

[3:56:32] on September 15th, which also be one on October 6th,

[3:56:36] and that's to help educate on the effects of amendment three.

[3:56:41] And I know our first one will be myself,

[3:56:43] Sheriff Calteary, will be here for the whole night.

[3:56:46] And he'll be actually at both of them.

[3:56:48] And then also former Senator Jeff Brandes

[3:56:52] who he was a Senator Republicans Senator at the state level.

[3:56:56] And now he runs nonpartisan think tank.

[3:56:59] So he'll be here.

[3:57:00] So I think that we're going to have it at the health center.

[3:57:03] So we can provide lots of space for lots of people.

[3:57:06] it's a really important issue and number one, our job is just to educate and then everybody goes

[3:57:11] to vote.

[3:57:12] They're big as to vote what they feel.

[3:57:15] So, and then on a lighter note, I did want to add that today in the afternoon, our Toronto

[3:57:22] Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Guardians and their half-game away from getting that third

[3:57:28] wild-guards spot.

[3:57:29] So the Tampa Bay race could have helped them

[3:57:33] but right now they're losing by four and nothing.

[3:57:36] So that's not good but anyway, keep going, keep going,

[3:57:40] chase, and that's all I am.

[3:57:44] So city clerk update.

[3:57:46] Nothing need a report, Mayor.

[3:57:48] City manager update.

[3:57:49] Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

[3:57:50] So I just wanted to make you aware that some of the retail

[3:57:55] establishments reached out to staff and requested

[3:57:58] that we do a limited sidewalk sale for them in September.

[3:58:03] As you know, sidewalk sales are prohibited in our code,

[3:58:06] and two years ago, we actually permitted a sidewalk sale.

[3:58:09] It would occur for a few hours, perhaps the Saturday

[3:58:12] and the Sunday citywide.

[3:58:16] But we don't have the dates, we don't have the hours.

[3:58:18] It will be very limited, but I just wanted to let you know

[3:58:21] because I know that September is a small, usually small business

[3:58:23] month, and so they want to take advantage of that.

[3:58:28] Thank you, Mayor.

[3:58:29] I have one question.

[3:58:31] We repark.

[3:58:33] So Facebook does what Facebook does and you can start

[3:58:36] going on about we repark peer.

[3:58:38] And I know that the cost is like $600,000.

[3:58:42] But what is the plan?

[3:58:43] Is there money coming from FEMA for that?

[3:58:47] Or what's the

[3:58:51] glad you stayed Tony?

[3:58:55] Thanks, Mayor.

[3:58:57] The park does have funding set aside

[3:59:00] and it is for FEMA reimbursement.

[3:59:02] So that's kind of, with the crux of the steps that we have to go through, we had a couple

[3:59:08] of different ideas on how to move forward and our advisors have advised us that we have to

[3:59:13] go through it more formal process and we're going to probably hit some of the same snacks

[3:59:17] that we hit with the fishing period.

[3:59:19] But it is in process to best we can control it.

[3:59:22] Okay, great.

[3:59:23] Okay, I appreciate that.

[3:59:25] And looking at the hour, so it's a journey update.

[3:59:29] Okay, anybody else, have anything else?

[3:59:32] Okay, this meeting is adjourned.

CITY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING

Agenda

Transcript