[0:01] We're live this House. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. My name is Melissa Moss. I'm the President of the Democratic Club of Amelia Island. I really welcome all the community members who are here with us today who are also live streaming at home in their james and slippers, you know, where we might all want to be. Welcome candidates. Thank you all for being here. We very much appreciate it.

[0:28] audience members may notice that two of our candidates are not present. Those are two

[0:34] mayoral candidates. Darren asks you and Dr. James Anton. James Anton had a late

[0:41] patient appointment. He will be here at 6 or a little bit after. Commissioner asks you

[0:49] is working on a shift, he is not able to come, although you never know, sometimes they come.

[0:58] I also wanted to give a special thank you to the City Clerk, and I'm sure I know your staff helped as well.

[1:05] We had an interesting time with logistics, and you've been marvelous on the setup.

[1:11] Thank you so much for all of that.

[1:13] I want to thank the cross-section of community members who provided input

[1:17] it and feedback to me during the whole question development process. We could have had a hundred

[1:22] questions and been here all night. And the volunteers who did the real work of getting

[1:28] us ready for this evening, DCI board members, Leanne, Catlin, and Patty Mooney.

[1:37] So I just want

[1:38] to remind everyone that this is being live streamed and so people at home are watching now.

[1:43] This will also be archived and put on the city website so that it can be watched afterwards.

[1:50] It's really a great way to go back and look more at your candidates.

[1:55] This is a forum. It is not a debate.

[1:59] We will open by asking a series of five questions of all of the city commission candidates

[2:06] before we move to a series of four questions for the Memorial Candidate.

[2:10] But the forum's closing question will be asked of all candidates.

[2:16] There will be no questions from the audience.

[2:20] The moderator will be calling on the opponent commission candidates to respond back to

[2:26] back.

[2:27] So for instance, seat one opponents will be the first to answer question one.

[2:33] Seat two opponents will be the first to answer question two and so on.

[2:38] The moderator will also indicate which one of the two candidates for each

[2:44] commission see will speak first and reverse that order for the next round of

[2:50] questions. Basic ground rules, there's not a lot. The questions in sequencing of

[2:58] responses were provided to the moderator by the Democratic Club. You may always

[3:04] ask the moderator to repeat the question because by the time it gets to you you may need

[3:10] a repetition. And we will adhere tightly to the time allocated for each question. While

[3:16] you need not take the entire allotted time for each response you must complete your answer

[3:22] by the end of the allotted time. I'm going to do the moderator introduction now. And our

[3:29] Our moderator this evening is Cameron Moss, yes, we're related by marriage.

[3:36] We are both county residents.

[3:38] That doesn't mean that we don't care what goes on the city.

[3:41] In fact, we think it matters a great deal what happens in the city because as the city goes,

[3:48] so does the rest of the county.

[3:50] As a NASA County resident, Cameron has attended and provided comment at both city and

[3:55] county commission meetings for a number of years.

[3:58] He has also served as a member of the County Commission Planning and Zoning Committee.

[4:03] His skills as a moderator drive from many years as an international business consultant,

[4:09] facilitating discussions and planning sessions with executives and leadership teams.

[4:15] And with that, we're ready to roll.

[4:17] Thank you.

[4:18] Thank you, Mrs. Moss.

[4:26] As much as we've got a handful of questions here that we'll go through for each candidate and in the spirit of fairness, two minutes per answer per person per question.

[4:38] So it's always two minutes and it will be showing up in the right clock here that hopefully you can all see and when it winds down to zero, you should stop.

[4:50] So I've found that difficult myself sometimes.

[4:52] Okay.

[4:53] So first question for each candidate.

[4:55] We'll start with Mr. Bean as an incumbent.

[5:00] Question is, and this will be the same for all of you.

[5:02] Please introduce yourself, emphasizing the education

[5:06] and professional or volunteer experiences,

[5:09] the best qualify you for the position you are seeking.

[5:14] Mr. Mouse, thank you so much.

[5:15] And thank you to the Democrat Club for having me today.

[5:18] It's a real pleasure to be with you all tonight.

[5:21] I got his first start by saying thank you.

[5:23] For the past four years, it has been honored to serve you

[5:26] as your mayor and the city commissioner.

[5:29] And I look forward to serving you another four years.

[5:31] And so we're looking forward to that.

[5:33] What qualifies me for the position number one?

[5:34] We'll start with the education.

[5:35] Excellent question, Mr. Moss there.

[5:38] I grew up in the Nassau County school system right here

[5:41] in front of the Naveech.

[5:43] We started that south side.

[5:45] We went to emblematic.

[5:46] We went to emblem love.

[5:47] We went to the great further than to be in high school go pirates everybody and we then went took our talent

[5:53] Thank you Mary, and I see you had your class where you need this weekend, by the way. I knew that there you go

[5:58] We went to the University of Florida where I got my engineering degree and at that point in time

[6:04] You got a decision to make when you get a engineering degree where are you gonna go?

[6:08] You got to follow the jobs

[6:09] You got to be able to go out and make money support your family and

[6:13] What we're blessed with here in front of the beach are jobs right here at home

[6:17] And that is what I found I was able to come home and go right to work at one of our local

[6:21] potent paper mills.

[6:23] So with that being said, what kind of volunteer experience, and what kind of a, I would

[6:28] say number one, is that some of my experience in general for this job four more years is

[6:32] that I've been doing this job for the past four and I think we've been rocking a roll and

[6:36] getting ready for four more.

[6:38] But furthermore, other great things around town, I've served as president of our local Rotary

[6:41] Club.

[6:42] I have the vertical front of the beach. I have volunteered coaching our high school robotics team.

[6:47] We took a big loss at Cali and recently they are, they're a lot stronger robotics than you think.

[6:52] And then both, let me, I don't want to have any crap about Cali and they're great.

[6:58] But folks, bottom line is my experience is all right here in front of the beach because this is my home, it always has been and always will be.

[7:06] So with all that being said, oh my wife Alexia's here and I have a daughter on the way.

[7:11] So, we're very excited about that, and she said it grew off in the state of schools on it.

[7:14] Thank you, yes.

[7:16] Thank you, Mr. Beane.

[7:20] Just quickly repeating the question, introduce yourself, emphasizing education,

[7:26] and professional or volunteer experiences that qualify you for this position you're seeking.

[7:31] Ms. Tudon.

[7:33] Hi, my name is Tudon.

[7:35] Thank you for all for being here, so it's super nice to be here.

[7:39] I have an undergraduate degree from William & Mary in Virginia where I met my husband

[7:43] on the first day of school. It was interesting. And got paid to go to graduate school, get my

[7:50] master's degree in nutritional biochemistry, which I think really helps me in terms of

[7:58] research and understanding complex issues and moving forward to find solutions.

[8:06] Didn't think I wanted to get my PhD so went the way of most of my family and ended up teaching.

[8:13] Although our first duty station in Germany, my husband was 26 years in the Army

[8:18] so our first duty station in Germany, no teaching jobs to be had at the Army base

[8:23] where I was closing, so I ended up working in an accounting office that was not

[8:30] modernized and so I want an award building them a database to get them on track to

[8:37] functioning in the real world. And that led to a whole series of volunteering. It seemed

[8:44] everywhere we moved, I ended up as the treasurer. Nobody wants to be treasurer ever. So,

[8:48] treasurer, PTO, treasurer of the conservative NASA when we moved here, spent 17 years teaching

[8:56] high school, mostly chemistry, and AP environmental science. At our last duty station in Maryland,

[9:03] I served for four years. Our City had a sustainability committee, which I would love to see as a standing committee here our job was to put our fingers in every pot of Sydney business and help build into processes to make the city more resilient for long-term issues and save money along the way almost all the time because if you plan for the future you save money because you don't waste money on poor decisions.

[9:28] I spent a lot of time when we first moved here volunteering and all sorts of things so

[9:34] I've got to know a lot of community and I hope to be here for the next 30 years.

[9:42] Thank you, Mr. Sturgis, you're up next introducing yourself emphasizing education and professional

[9:49] or volunteer experiences that qualify you for the position you're seeking to take.

[9:53] Thank you, Karen.

[9:54] I would take the good afternoon, and I'm glad to see all the bright smiling faces out there.

[10:01] I'm David Sturgis, or C2 Commissioner, and vice mayor. I've been here my whole life.

[10:09] My family's been here since 1710. This is home for me, and I care deeply about this community,

[10:16] and that's the reason why I'm running for re-election. I studied like Bradley,

[10:23] All my life, I studied FBHS, got my high school degree and then went and got an

[10:29] associate's applied science and electrical engineering, served for a year or

[10:34] so a job and didn't really like that. So I moved on to being one of my

[10:39] passions of helping people and building their dreams. I do construction, most of

[10:45] degree model, and I have more of a hard-knots type of running your own business for over

[10:53] 22 years on this island, and seeing it since I've been a child. I've been here 51 years

[10:59] all my life, and so I have that strong work ethic. I work all the time, and I enjoy putting

[11:09] back. As far as serving for the community, I'm part of the North East Florida Regional Council.

[11:15] I serve on that around our district. I'm also a board member for the North East Florida Boy Scouts

[11:22] Sable District. I'm the homeowner's association president, Furny and Shores, as well as I'm an

[11:30] former Eagle Scout. And so I spent many of times at all of these churches serving any time

[11:38] anybody need anything, I'm there serving. I believe in giving back into the

[11:43] community for 27 years. I actually put the manors, manors seen up at the site

[11:49] Michael's Catholic Church, all volunteer with my father. We enjoy doing this.

[11:55] Thank you.

[11:57] Thank you, Mr. Sturgis.

[12:01] This has been true. Would you like to question again?

[12:02] Now I'm good.

[12:03] Thank you.

[12:04] Thank you.

[12:05] Thank you.

[12:07] So I'm Denise Minchew, and I'm

[12:09] running for city commission seat two.

[12:11] I want to thank the Democratic Club for having this forum.

[12:14] These forms are so important to making sure

[12:18] that you, the voter and the citizens in this community,

[12:22] can learn about all the candidates

[12:25] and learn about our issues.

[12:27] So I'm a native Floridian.

[12:29] I grew up up in down the East Coast of Florida.

[12:31] We moved around a lot as a kid, but I graduated from high school in

[12:36] Bunnell, Florida, which is Flagler County before there was a Palm Coast, so I

[12:41] really know what development looks like. And I went to work two weeks after I

[12:47] graduated from high school with Southern Bell and Daytona Beach. And I tell people

[12:54] that I went to the University of work. And I had a 38-year career with Bell South

[13:01] was Southern Bell, Bell South. I started as an operator, and worked my way up to a

[13:09] director at Bell South Business Systems. At that point in time, I think you could do that

[13:14] in the phone company. You didn't have to have a college degree to be able to be succeed

[13:20] and like you do now. So my work experience has always been in what I think of as customer

[13:29] operations, and a lot of process work, a lot of strategic work. I never, I always was

[13:37] able to do the work that I helped figure out how to, for other people to do. You know,

[13:44] at one point we were an organization of about 900 people, and we had to write processes

[13:50] to steer that ship, which is really hard to get 900 people in nine states to do the same

[13:55] thing consistently every day, but that was my job and that was what we've worked for.

[14:00] So I really am focused on process and process improvement.

[14:06] Thank you.

[14:09] Thank you, Ms. Mitchell.

[14:12] Ms. Kelly, are you all right with the question or shall I read it?

[14:14] I'm ready to get.

[14:15] Okay.

[14:16] Thank you.

[14:16] Please introduce yourself, emphasizing the education and professional or volunteer experiences

[14:22] that best qualify you for the position you were seeking.

[14:26] can you hear me? I get a lot of complaints and I'm not talking a lot enough. I'm

[14:29] Christie Callie, I'm running for C-3. I graduated high school and went straight

[14:35] to work. I worked two jobs or first union national bank during the day and

[14:39] special assets division. I rode the bus to get there and by the age of 22 I built

[14:44] my first ten. By the age of 24 I opened my first business, North Florida

[14:55] seven more locations throughout.

[15:02] I've served my husband in 2016 when he developed cancer for two years. That's what I did.

[15:13] So I'm going to keep my family going, trying to keep my husband alive and it didn't work out. And so here we are. I'm

[15:23] totally qualified to have all the business experience you could need or want to run and help run this town.

[15:31] I want to have great ideas to generate revenue,

[15:35] while maintaining our lifestyle,

[15:37] our little, small, beautiful lifestyle here.

[15:39] I want to keep genuine and hope for the best of my time

[15:43] to make.

[15:47] Thank you, Ms. Kelly.

[15:50] Mr. Pointer.

[15:51] Could you repeat the question?

[15:53] Could you repeat the question?

[15:54] Sorry, I'm late.

[15:57] Yes, we have to repeat the question.

[15:59] Please, introduce yourself.

[16:01] You'll have two minutes.

[16:02] Introduce yourself, emphasizing the education

[16:04] and professional or volunteer experiences that best qualify you the position you're seeking.

[16:13] Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, went to the University of Cincinnati,

[16:18] and from there, we've done a lot of different things.

[16:21] Came down here as a toy developer that did work out after a couple of years

[16:26] and had a start pretty much from scratch.

[16:30] My family, we started a Catholic caravan, and then yada yada yada.

[16:36] many different businesses since then.

[16:39] I was a volunteer for a life card volunteer for the pool.

[16:45] I've been a city commissioner two times.

[16:47] I currently serve on the historic district.

[16:51] I care a lot about the city, which is why I do what I do.

[16:56] And we're happy to have really put our roots in here.

[17:01] My family works with me in the business.

[17:02] and we've been successful enough with the support of the community and I'm just

[17:10] interested in continuing to give back.

[17:15] Thank you, Mr. Pointer.

[17:18] Moving to the

[17:19] first, the next question and we'll begin this with Mr. Sturgis. This is in the

[17:25] area of managing city assets.

[17:29] Maintenance in Fernandina is a never-ending need and the

[17:33] The city doesn't seem to have enough money and plans to do it right.

[17:37] What do you think needs to change to address this problem without overburdening taxpayers?

[17:44] Thank you, cameras.

[17:45] Actually, I'll start out.

[17:47] That is a pretty easy question.

[17:49] We have a maintenance plan in a plan for the future that already exists.

[17:54] We just inherited, for previous commissions, a lot of not necessarily addressing all the

[18:00] issues.

[18:01] not to say that they were bad but they were just they all crop up with cities

[18:06] every time the city has different issues whether it's drainage whether it's

[18:10] building maintenance whether it's whatever it all depends on what these five

[18:14] commissioners decide so we have a plan for rotating maintenance on vehicles which

[18:21] we're already we have enacted it instead of we follow it all the time on the big

[18:28] purchases like fire trucks and stuff like that, we have a plan going forward to add

[18:34] this to the rotation. As far as building maintenance and road maintenance, we've

[18:39] upped our limit every year as far as without going up on the taxes. We've upped the

[18:45] amount that we put towards these issues. So I think that we're maintaining it.

[18:57] The

[18:57] upgrading the paving every year we go more and do more.

[19:01] So I think we are addressing it from the different revenues.

[19:05] We keep going for grants and working well with the county.

[19:08] We can do different things that help some of these areas.

[19:12] And we are doing it.

[19:13] We are establishing it with almost $8 million

[19:16] that we got over the last time period

[19:18] with grants for different stuff.

[19:21] And then we spent close to 20 to $30 million on maintenance

[19:24] and not salaries and not things working in the city.

[19:29] So over the last three or four years or so.

[19:32] I think we're moving in the right direction.

[19:34] It's just we picked up the ball

[19:36] where it needed to be moved a lot farther.

[19:38] Thank you.

[19:39] Thank you, Mr. Sturgis.

[19:42] And I was too.

[19:44] Maybe that's in Fernandina is a never ending need.

[19:47] The city doesn't seem to have enough money

[19:49] and plans to do it right.

[19:51] Right, what do you think means to change to address this problem without oververting taxpayers?

[19:58] I think maintenance is a big issue.

[20:01] We've removed a lot of beach walkovers and haven't put them back on.

[20:05] We, in fact, need more if we're going to enable dunes to grow that little goat paths through

[20:10] the dunes that are not healthy for the dunes.

[20:14] We have a whole lot of blanks in our five-year capital improvement plan and don't fully tie

[20:22] our budget to our five-year capital improvement plan, let alone a 10 or 25-year plan.

[20:28] I think one of our most overlooked assets is our trees.

[20:33] Our trees are part of our assets and our infrastructure and we don't have an urban tree management plan

[20:40] where you know exactly where every tree is, what species it is,

[20:46] and when its life is coming to an end, and when and where you need to replace it.

[20:52] I live on beach street, and if you drive down big sections of beach

[20:55] it's really a beautiful canopy, but when you look under that canopy,

[21:00] the future canopy is not growing, and it needs to be growing already.

[21:05] there's no two and five and ten-inch trees under these big beauties and and it's

[21:12] it's something you have to plan for and or else you will not have it in the

[21:18] future and with the flooding that we just had more trees we're losing we all

[21:22] know we drive around we're losing trees every week you you all can picture big

[21:27] beautiful trees that used to be near your house and are gone and it's an asset that

[21:33] that we really need to improve on.

[21:35] And alternative sources of revenue are something

[21:39] that we have not explored as we have tens of thousands

[21:44] of residents coming over the bridge.

[21:47] And we, the taxpayers of the city, we pay for all our assets

[21:52] and the use of all of our assets.

[21:54] But we offer them for free to everybody coming.

[21:57] And maybe we want to continue doing that,

[21:59] but maybe we don't.

[22:03] Thank you Mr. In my apologies to the panel. I can't read my own handwriting. So I got the order wrong, but that's okay.

[22:11] Can I just mention, you are not amplified on your mark by microphone. It's not, it's not, you're not, that's the order of people listening to a call.

[22:27] I don't know if there's someone in the back who may be able to help with AV. It's certainly not a, I understand. I, I will speak up.

[22:35] You're welcome, so I should

[22:41] have asked Ms. Minshiew first and I didn't.

[22:44] So I'm just going to the pair and go from Joyce to Mr. Bean, and then I'll come back to you, Ms. Minshiew.

[22:51] Is that okay?

[22:51] Sorry about that.

[22:52] My bad, so one for the team, please show.

[22:57] Mr. Bean, maintenance in front of Dina is an ever ending need.

[23:02] City struggles to have enough money and plans to do it right.

[23:05] what do you think needs to change to address the problem without overburdening

[23:10] taxpayers? Absolutely. We as a city we work very well and we work incredibly

[23:16] hard on our budget. In fact what we always say the biggest the busiest part of

[23:20] a city commissioners life cycle is the obvious September that's budget season

[23:25] that's when we sit down we work on where all the money is going to be spent. We

[23:30] also part of that budget is the five year capital plan. We make a plan for the

[23:33] future, how are we going to spend future dollars as they come in? We have that plan, we have

[23:39] that plan and we make sure we use that plan moving forward. Is that plan going to be by the time

[23:44] you get to year three? Will that still be the same plan? Most likely no, because needs pop up and

[23:49] it's important that you prioritize and you work for the most urgent need to make sure that things get

[23:54] done when they need to be. When you see a need pop up, you have to be agile, you have to respond,

[23:59] you have to make sure that our city's needs are covered and that's what our commission has been

[24:02] a great job of working at. Now what I will say is a wonderful opportunity. It's

[24:08] alternate sources of revenue. That's the opportunity here. And that's something

[24:12] that this commission has been absolutely pursuing. And let me tell you where

[24:15] we've been tackling this. It's our relationships with the county, with the state.

[24:20] It's relationships. Now folks, when you used to open the newsletter, you go back a

[24:24] couple of years. You would open the newsletter. You would see the same headline

[24:27] over and over again about how the city and the county they're fighting again.

[24:31] That's what you would see over and over again, but if you opened it in the past couple months,

[24:35] You might be seeing headlines like the city and the county are once again working together and let me tell you why

[24:41] That's a great thing. It's because we are now working on funding projects using county and state dollars. We've got projects funded through the county

[24:49] Such as our new eBoravarez soccer complex. We're gonna. It's a two million dollar complex

[24:54] The city is only coming up with a million. The county is coming up with a million

[24:58] That's a partnership and that's great news. That's alternative sources of revenue. We're partnering with the school board on opening up a new practice fields in front of the school board building.

[25:06] It's these partnerships and also with the state we have two million dollars coming in to make sure our seawall has continued.

[25:12] We have a lot of great stuff coming through and that's thanks to these alternate sources of revenue and partnerships. Thank you.

[25:18] Thank you, Mr. Dean. Ms. Menshew.

[25:23] is a never ending need, the city doesn't seem to have enough money and plans to do it right.

[25:29] What do you think needs to change to address this problem without overburdening tax barriers?

[25:34] Thank you.

[25:37] I do think that we've had a disconnect over some time period between the budget and the

[25:44] The capital improvement plan, things show up in the budget, during budget year that have

[25:54] never been on a capital improvement plan, and they're not necessarily things that were

[25:57] emergencies and just popped up.

[25:59] They were things that were just delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed until they become

[26:04] an emergency or they become chaotic.

[26:06] So I think there needs to be a lot stronger view and look more long-term across the budget and across the plant.

[26:18] We do have pockets of things that are working well.

[26:21] We have great vehicles because we have somebody who works really hard on that.

[26:25] But that does, you don't see that across the entire city and particularly in terms of

[26:33] maintenance on buildings and some other long-term planning.

[26:38] So in terms of alternate sources of revenue, yes there has been an improvement in working

[26:46] with the county, with the state and some of that has to do with the personal relationships

[26:52] between the commissioners and some of it has frankly I think has to do with

[26:57] changing a leadership of the city manager and so we would once that

[27:04] relationship has improved I would think that we could continue to work cooperatively

[27:10] and look at the city and the state as of or the county and the state is the

[27:14] value partner for things that we have common interest on. I don't consider the

[27:20] County, my big brother, I consider them a valued partner and would like to work with them that way

[27:27] So I do think that we continue we need to continue to look for grants. We need to continue to look for these other funds and

[27:37] And move and move forward with a longer term plan

[27:41] Thank you, Ms. Venture

[27:43] Mr. Pointer

[27:44] made us in Fernandina is a never-ending need and the city doesn't seem to have enough money and plans to do it right.

[27:52] What do you think needs to change to address the problem without overburdening taxpayers?

[27:58] Well, I think that the city has done a decent job on some things and a really poor job in others.

[28:05] And I can say that because I was a commissioner being part of that, not doing such a good job on some things and doing a better job on others.

[28:12] One of the things that this commission, current commission was supposed to have done for the last three years was to look at a bond type thing and they haven't gotten around to it.

[28:26] I know it takes a lot of work and that type of stuff but you cannot fix this entire city on every year's property tax.

[28:35] You need to go out and you need to have a good plan.

[28:39] you need to say if this needs to be done and this needs to be done, this needs to be done,

[28:44] what is this going to cost? These are 50-year plans. These are 50-year improvements on buildings.

[28:51] The taxpayers of this year should not be burdened with all that expense on one year. It's ridiculous.

[28:59] The people who move in here in the following year and he's going to be here for the next 20 years

[29:03] should be sharing in that. You can't do this all on one year. I served on a

[29:11] commission one time where their adage was we're not going to spend any money

[29:16] unless we have it. Well you're never going to have any money. On these things if

[29:21] you need to build a new center you need to build a new city hall. These are just

[29:24] I'm throwing these things out. You can't do that on your property taxes on just

[29:29] today. This has to be spread over 20, 30, 40 years on just the taxpayers of today. But

[29:37] people are going to share in that time and time again over the next 10, 20, and 30 years.

[29:42] That's the way you think this is. Thank you, Mr. Pointer. Mr. Kelly,

[29:48] maintenance in Pernadina is a never ending need and the city doesn't seem to have enough money

[29:53] and plans to do it right. What do you think needs to change to address this problem?

[30:00] Without overburdening taxpayers. Well, I think to start with, we have to put our needs ahead of our wants. I think that all any available funds we have right now, we've got to bring the city up to speak. Get it where we need it and then push forward from there. We have outside revenue strings coming. We need to use that money, push it into repairing our town, getting us where we need to be, and then work on alternate sources of income for projects going forward.

[30:29] Great. Thank you.

[30:32] Moving on to the next question, and I'll promise to get the order correct.

[30:37] This is in the area of responsible development, and we're going to start with C-3, so Mr.

[30:44] Pointer, you're going to get to go first on this one.

[30:46] Okay.

[30:47] Ms. Kelly, I think you want to go twice in a row, so I have to give you a breathing word.

[30:53] Residents are concerned about losing the special charm of Fernandina to development that

[30:59] doesn't fit with the existing character of the city.

[31:02] What do you think the biggest risks are to Fernandina as we know it?

[31:07] And what will you do to mitigate them?

[31:11] Well, I try to just lead by example.

[31:14] If you look at the projects that we've done downtown,

[31:17] a lot of people criticize us for my family for buying that property and putting

[31:21] a miniature golf course on it.

[31:23] When I could have maximized my dollars by building a 45 foot building.

[31:27] I didn't want to see a 45 foot building

[31:29] and I didn't think it was going to fit in the community environment that I wanted to live in.

[31:35] So we put in basically a garden. It's those types of things that I think responsible development

[31:42] needs to be done. I think that the commission should reach out to developers who are looking at

[31:47] doing things in the city and seeing how we can work together where they can be happy but the city

[31:59] fees for impact fees and stuff if they do something that is in keeping with what the community

[32:07] wants. These are the types of things that you have to reach out. You know, I'm sick

[32:13] and by the thought of a 45-foot building right behind this building on their trunk

[32:17] alley property. I don't even know how it gets to that point, but I don't know if anyone's

[32:22] spoken to anybody or try to work this thing out, but I'm disappointed and those are the types of things that we have to work in the future.

[32:32] I believe in property rights, but there's ways of doing it.

[32:38] Thank you, Mr. Pointer. Ms. Kelly, residents are concerned about losing that special charm of Fernandina to development that doesn't fit the existing character of the city.

[32:49] What do you think the biggest risks are to Fernandina as we know it?

[32:54] And what will you do to mitigate them?

[32:56] I think the biggest risks are having very out of place buildings, again, like Tringoli happened.

[33:02] And I think that could have been negotiated ahead in time.

[33:07] I think everyone needs to get together before everybody gets upset and negotiate the best possible scenario.

[33:15] When I say everybody, I mean the community members, everybody has to go in calmly and think through the best possible scenario so that we do not come up with this.

[33:25] Hopefully we can go back to the table on Trangali and rework that. I hope so. I think that is the biggest risk of that happening over and over again.

[33:35] And the only way is to learn from that one and in the future you have to negotiate the

[33:42] best possible outcome before it comes to, you know, a really bad situation.

[33:49] Thank you, Ms. Kelly.

[33:51] Moving down to the end of the row, Mr. Bean, residents are concerned about losing the special

[33:56] charm of Fernandina to development that does not fit with the existing character of the city.

[34:01] What do you think the biggest risks are to Fernandina as we know it?

[34:04] And what will you do to mitigate them?

[34:06] Thank you, Ms. Moss.

[34:07] Let me start by setting the record straight.

[34:09] Let's set the record straight.

[34:11] Number one, we have to quickly go over

[34:13] what something called live local is.

[34:15] So if you haven't heard about this yet,

[34:16] it's a state law that I personally do not agree with.

[34:19] It says that if you do a certain percentage

[34:22] of affordable housing with the end of the development structure,

[34:25] and when they say affordable housing,

[34:27] it's not really what you would think is affordable housing.

[34:29] It's simply not.

[34:31] And if you meet that requirement,

[34:33] you can meet the maximum density that a municipality allows, which in front of the

[34:38] case up until this current commission reduced the density, which we did to

[34:42] combat this law, was 36 units per acre. And that is currently what is being

[34:47] invoked on the Tregali property. So I wanted to say that I completely agree with

[34:51] what Commissioner Porter said about how you need to negotiate with these folks.

[34:55] You need to work with people like the Tregali family when they come and ask

[34:59] because if you work with them, you can end up with an end result that I think

[35:02] fits in with the character of the neighborhood, it fits in with the community, and what was approached back last

[35:09] February was a proposal where they had 12 lots, and they were asking us to do a

[35:13] replat to make those even. Therefore, they could do six buildings, six duplexes, there are 12 units. That was the proposal. If you work

[35:21] with us on this replat, they're going to throw in sidewalks, drainage, they're going to do a lot to benefit the community and only build 12 units.

[35:29] That was a great deal for everybody a great deal for the city

[35:32] And that's why the commission was willing to work with them and get something that benefited the community

[35:36] Now since then there's been a lawsuit that squashed the 12th and so the developer is now invoking their right to go maximum

[35:44] That's what they're doing if I had a magic wand

[35:46] I would wave it and wish there was no lawsuit because I really want the 12 back

[35:51] I we worked really hard to get a good deal for everybody and then this lawsuit stopped the 12 and now we're dealing with 30

[35:57] So, folks, if there's a lesson learned from Schengali, it's that we need to work with these

[36:02] people that are building in our community because if we work with them, we can end up with

[36:06] something we all more agree with.

[36:08] Thank you.

[36:09] Thank you, Mr. Bean.

[36:11] Mr. Newton, residents are concerned about losing that special charm of frontendina to development

[36:17] that doesn't fit with the existing character of the city.

[36:20] What do you think the biggest risks are to frontendina, as we know it, and what will you do

[36:25] to mitigate them.

[36:27] I think the biggest risk to the community is loss of our character and I think the

[36:31] lesson from Tragali is that this sitting commission could have read our law 1.03.05 the

[36:38] way the judge did, that the commission, there was no plausible explanation for what the

[36:45] commission did.

[36:46] Our planning advisory board voted unanimously for that not to happen and the board of

[36:50] The adjustment voted unanimously.

[36:53] The 12 units that came in were originally had three homes on 4th Street where it was

[37:01] R2 zoning and the homes on the other side directly across the street would have had, would

[37:08] have been looking at homes.

[37:10] Instead the commission voted against our laws to even it out and have condos facing them,

[37:18] have duplexes.

[37:19] I think we also need to protect our wetlands law.

[37:23] This commission is currently considering changing how you calculate net density and how many

[37:28] units are allowed on a parcel.

[37:30] So you do the math of what's the zoning and how many acres are you do you have but before

[37:36] you do that math you subtract out wetlands.

[37:40] Well this commission is considering removing that wetlands subtraction and allowing greater

[37:45] density on a parcel.

[37:47] We have got to actually strengthen and protect our laws in our last duty station in Maryland.

[37:56] The pervious and pervious surface was flip-flop.

[37:59] We allow 60% of a lot to be impervious here in the city.

[38:02] It needs to be the reverse, only 40%.

[38:04] And that is in fact how the city was originally organically developed with smaller homes

[38:10] that didn't fill the lot which allowed trees.

[38:15] The more you fill a lot, the more trees you have to take out, which means you get a big

[38:18] rainstorm and you're missing where's the rain going and it needs to run off, where are the

[38:23] trees that collect the rain? There's a lot we can do to strengthen our loss to protect

[38:29] our community. Thank you, Ms. Tudon. Mr. Sturgis, residents are concerned about losing that special

[38:38] charm of Fernandina to development that doesn't fit with the existing character of the city. What do

[38:43] Do you think the biggest risks are to Fernandina as we know it, and what will you do to mitigate them?

[38:49] Thank you, Cameron.

[38:51] I'm not pro-development. I'm not anti-development. I support good development and smart community management.

[39:00] Growth is something everyone in our city and county is feeling with over 1.6 million visitors every year that travel over that bridge and go back over.

[39:11] I understand the concerns about development, and our city's land development code actually

[39:17] is designed to help managing control the growth.

[39:21] As a commissioner, I've worked hard, and it is important to meet a balanced property rights

[39:26] with protecting unique community ecology.

[39:31] Recently we took a step, as Bradley said, I'll just quote, the facts we converted 39 units

[39:38] and commercials only to 18 units to reduce the density that everybody is feeling.

[39:45] The 1.6 million travelers coming over causes a lot of strain but we are doing something

[39:50] actively at this commission to reduce density.

[39:54] As an elected official it is my job to listen to constituents and over development is a problem.

[40:02] Everybody is concerned with it and I think we can fight for those solutions for our

[40:07] residents in the end come up with an even balance. Thank you. Take a

[40:13] Mr. Sturgis. I'm good. You don't have to repeat it. I'll put

[40:16] I wanted to. Okay. I finally got it. No, not good. Please go ahead. You can say it

[40:23] by heart, right? Sorry. Please go ahead. Thank you. So first of all, I want to

[40:27] clarify a couple things. The local does not apply to the R2 zoning on half of the

[40:32] property. So one of the reasons that there are concerns about that property now is that

[40:39] that developer is trying to apply live local rules to the entire footprint and it does

[40:44] not apply to the entire footprint. The city needs to be able to recognize that and deal

[40:49] with it. I think one of the other issues we have is we have a planning department that doesn't

[40:54] have any planners in it anymore. Four people have left in the last couple of years and there's

[41:00] hardly anybody there, so how can you actually adequately plan and protect your city when

[41:06] you don't have a planning department that's adequately staffed and adequately trained.

[41:11] So that is something else that we need to look at and we need to work on.

[41:16] We also need to continue to look for opportunities to make the land development code more cohesive

[41:24] and more clear. I am very concerned about these suggestions that we're given to the planning

[41:31] department about reducing wetlands from the density calculation. That does nothing but

[41:40] drive, just drives more density and you know that is a huge problem. 103.05 which is a component

[41:48] of the land development code is very specific about how you divide or subdivide lots.

[41:55] And again with the Turingale property, I do not believe it was adequately addressed.

[42:01] So I think we need to make sure that we have the right people and the right jobs in the

[42:05] right departments so that they can actually manage what's going on in our city properly.

[42:11] And we need to continue to look at our land development code and understand what we need to do to approve it and to tighten it up and to make it better for both the developers and the existing property owners. Thank you.

[42:31] Thank you, Ms. Benchew.

[42:34] The next area is going to be investing for the future while living in the present.

[42:40] Can I get everybody?

[42:41] No, I just keep you guys.

[42:42] Yeah, I can.

[42:43] We went first.

[42:44] Sorry.

[42:45] Don't do that.

[42:47] Just kidding.

[42:48] I thought I covered everybody.

[42:49] So thank you.

[42:51] Quality control is really important.

[42:53] The next topic, investing for the future while living in the present.

[42:59] Mr. Newton, we'll start with you.

[43:02] State government requires a five-year capital improvement plan, and Fernandina should

[43:07] have these items in the annual budget.

[43:11] How effective do you think the city is in implementing the five-year capital improvement plan

[43:15] and how it ties to the budget?

[43:17] What improvements, if any, would you make to the process?

[43:22] When I moved here, one of the first things I did was join a group with a very ugly name.

[43:28] Their name was the Land Development Code, the Comprehensive Plan, Land Development

[43:33] Code Working Group.

[43:34] We changed our name to Conservative NASA.

[43:39] Our job for a couple of years was working with the city in a volunteer capacity to tease

[43:48] through every aspect of the land development code and the comprehensive plan and help build in

[43:55] greater resiliency, help build in better long term planning, help build in processes to actually

[44:00] get there. Our vision 2045 plan is actually very good if you've ever looked at it, it's online.

[44:09] it's not really being aimed for. There are processes in place in terms of 5 and 10 and 15

[44:18] year plans that are not being budgeted for. And you know I think about when my son was born

[44:27] the law had just changed for the 529 investment plan. I'm sure some of you are aware of that.

[44:38] We opened a 5-2-9 for both our kids, the years they were born.

[44:44] You long-term plan for these things.

[44:46] When you think about your own home, you know when your roof is likely to fail.

[44:51] You know when your furnace is likely to be done and the only way to get where you actually

[44:58] you want to go is to

[45:06] We don't do enough of that.

[45:10] And I would like to see, I would particularly like to see greater resiliency if where everybody's watching what's going on in Asheville and what happened as, as Helen came through. And it's only a matter of time before it hits something hits us.

[45:26] Thank you, Mr. Bean.

[45:29] State government requires a five-year capital improvement plan, and

[45:32] Fernandina should have these items in the annual budget.

[45:36] How effective do you think the city is in implementing that five-year capital improvement plan on how it ties to the budget?

[45:42] What improvements, if any, would you make to the process?

[45:44] Absolutely.

[45:45] I'll tell you, we have a very strong five-year plan within our budget.

[45:49] As we've already addressed earlier this evening, we spoke about we have a five-year capital plan, and that's

[45:54] across all departments. So every department brings their own, it all rolls up into our main

[45:59] budget, but that includes things like stormwater, like our roads. We have a facilities plan. We have

[46:05] a vehicle plan. How is our fleet looking? We have plans for all these things, and let me tell you,

[46:11] I want to emphasize this point as I did earlier. Is that a plan? It's a plan, but it's not a prediction.

[46:17] It's not a prediction, but it's not necessarily locked in to what's going to happen. As needs arise,

[46:24] There's not any need to completely lock down exactly what the plan will one day become, because I'll tell you what, you always got to be agile.

[46:33] So we have a strong plan, but when the day comes, we will have the ability to make sure that we're able to fund our city's greatest needs at the greatest time.

[46:41] Those needs will arise as we get there. We have a great plan, and we're going to make sure that it's funded.

[46:45] Now, I'll tell you what, part of this plan, as we're talking about the budget, is that

[46:51] we had the biggest budget in our city's 200 year history this year, and that's this

[46:57] current year.

[46:58] It was the first year and over a decade, we went to the rollback rate, and that was in

[47:01] the 2023-2024 budget.

[47:03] We went to the rollback rate there, and we did that to not raise taxes.

[47:08] We did that at the same time while making sure we have a strong plan for the future.

[47:12] So I'll tell you, it's all about good planning.

[47:15] It's all about good budgeting, even with going to a modified rollback rate this year, we were able to add three new

[47:22] Firefighters, two new police officers. We're making sure we have all these things

[47:26] We're looking forward to having this great strong budget. So I appreciate everybody being here tonight. Thank you

[47:34] Thank you, Mr. Bing

[47:35] Ms. Minshue

[47:38] Yes, okay, ready

[47:41] You're ready for me to read or do you gonna get the answer? Oh, no, I'm ready to go. Okay go for it. Thank you

[47:47] So, yeah, we have this really great plan, but then we sit in a council meeting or a workshop

[47:53] and we take money out of it for like, and nobody ever asked any questions.

[47:58] The playground equipment at Central Park is my favorite example.

[48:02] For three budget cycles, it was $350,000 put in the capital group plan to replace that playground

[48:07] equipment.

[48:08] And for three cycles, the city commission took the money out.

[48:13] nobody ever asked the question what are the implications what happens if I take

[48:19] this money out nobody ever stood up and said this is what's gonna happen if

[48:24] you take this money out so one day in 2023 parts of rep went out took the

[48:29] equipment down because it was it in the life and then we have the biggest crisis

[48:33] we've ever had in all of Fernandino Beach because there's no playground equipment

[48:37] suddenly where it was replaced with playground equipment that was designed for

[48:41] that would fit, so we may have a plan, but we don't follow it, and we don't ask the hard questions that say what are the implications of making a decision to put something in or take something out?

[48:58] And those are the kinds of issues that I think we as a city commission need to be asking, I'd like to see the budget workshops be department specific

[49:10] So that we could actually, in front of the public and as transparent as possible, have

[49:15] parts direct or have public facilities or have HR, anybody come and say, this is my

[49:22] budget and I'm going to defend it or I'm going to explain what I need to do in it.

[49:29] It's what I had to do in a corporation.

[49:33] I just didn't get a free pass on my budget and I had to defend every single penny that

[49:38] ever put in every year. And I think that there are better ways for us to manage this budget

[49:43] and to manage the long-term capital and framework plans that we may or may not have in place

[49:50] adequately. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Benchute. Ms. Kelly, state government requires a five-year

[49:59] capital improvement plan and Fernandino should have these items in the annual budget.

[50:03] How effective do you think the city is in implementing that five year capital improvement plan and how it ties to the budget?

[50:11] What improvements if any would you make to the process?

[50:14] I think overall the plan is good. I see room for improvement. I see room for some cuts.

[50:23] I've been pretty vocal about that.

[50:27] I think we can move forward. I think you have to be agile like they said.

[50:33] but I definitely think we need to have a lecture suggestion, have open forums on a department basis by department because we have some departments that are costing money or costing way too much money.

[50:48] I'd like to see some cuts made.

[50:50] other than that, I think like this said, you just have to be agile, you have to plan,

[50:54] but you have to be ready to to to Ziggins Ag a little bit sometimes.

[51:01] Thank you.

[51:02] Mr. Pointer.

[51:04] Well, we have a capital improvement plan that on paper always looks good, but in practice

[51:10] never works out.

[51:13] In Florida, you always have to have a balanced budget.

[51:16] so what happens at the end of the year when you've at a meeting three months ahead

[51:22] of time give a hundred thousand here a couple hundred thousand here and then

[51:27] at the end you're like well we that that street that we were going to repay we're

[51:31] gonna have to push that off to the next year and that's what happens and that's

[51:36] what's been happening for a long time and I think we're really kind of behind the

[51:42] Ape on a lot of these areas and that's why I really think that this in the future we

[51:48] have to come up with a plan there's two kinds of plans that we have to come up with.

[51:53] The yearly plan the midterm plan and then the long term plan.

[51:57] Five years is not long enough.

[52:00] When you're talking about replacing buildings or redoing this this is that's not long enough

[52:05] and you also can't do it on a rollback or you can there's just not enough money.

[52:11] It's gotten too far, too long, and we need a plan moving forward that we can share these costs over a lot longer period of time.

[52:21] So it's not a burden on the people who live here just today, but those people who will be moving here 10 years from now will also be sharing in the cost of what we've done.

[52:33] Thank you, Mr. Pointer.

[52:35] And the feedback I will get on my job here is that I had one thing to do, one job, and

[52:41] I couldn't get it right.

[52:42] So apologies, Mr. Sturgis, I seem to skip over you in this fun question.

[52:48] Everybody's getting a turn in that.

[52:50] Mr. Walls, I just do it with it, I need you to come back to me.

[52:56] Thank you.

[52:57] You're very generous, I appreciate it.

[52:58] State government requires a five-year capital improvement plan.

[53:01] And for them, Dino should have these items reflect the annual budget.

[53:05] How effective do you think the city is in implementing that five-year capital plan and

[53:10] how it ties to the budget?

[53:11] What improvements if any would you make to the process?

[53:14] Thank you, Cameron.

[53:16] I believe we do have a great five-year plan.

[53:19] However, it's not a magic ink ball.

[53:21] This city is a ton of giant entity.

[53:25] We do have a lot of resources and we do have a lot of parts in it.

[53:28] And I believe that one of the biggest things is, and nobody's mentioned it yet is, our biggest

[53:34] resource is our youth.

[53:36] Our youth.

[53:37] We're investing in our youth in parks and rec.

[53:40] We are investing with the county's health.

[53:43] We are literally getting the money it needs to build new soccer fields.

[53:47] The money it needs to revitalize, we spent over half a million, well more than half a million,

[53:52] close to 850,000 on central park.

[53:56] playground equipment necessarily isn't the biggest stress that this city feels.

[54:01] Like those floods that we got last week that nobody can tell about economic or

[54:06] mother nature when she flexes her muscles. Those are things that prove

[54:11] weaknesses that the city we have to be nimble. As a small city we are nimble. We

[54:16] can make adjustments. We can take care of the flooding. We can make adjustments to our

[54:21] Our plan, so the plan will change based on those needs, based on our citizens' needs.

[54:26] So I really do think that is the most important thing is the critical issues, not necessarily

[54:33] one piece of playground equipment that might have got missed during the budget cycle.

[54:38] However the case may be, we are doing it and we are making large strides with the county

[54:43] and the state's health and I think we're going to continue to do it and then we can make

[54:48] Ferdinand, a better place every day.

[54:51] Thank you.

[54:53] Thank you, Mr. Sturgis.

[54:54] Mr. Anton, thank you for joining us.

[54:56] Welcome.

[54:57] Very quick.

[54:58] A quick intro.

[55:00] We're going through questions with the candidates for the commission seats.

[55:04] And then we have a set of questions for my oral candidates that will follow immediately after this.

[55:08] So we'll get to you in a couple of minutes.

[55:12] As long as I get the order.

[55:16] Last category is ethics and accountability.

[55:22] There's a perception that commission members are serving special interests instead of the people that elected them.

[55:29] How the commission has ultimately chosen to handle issues such as the Trangali property, developer impact fees, and the Bioethanol plant appear to have undermined public trust.

[55:39] If elected, what will you do to regain and strengthen that trust, and we'll start with

[55:46] Mr. Point.

[55:49] Well, the first thing I'll do is I won't hire a consultant and then ignore what they

[55:54] tell you.

[55:56] We had a consultant that said you need to raise the impact fees for new development.

[56:03] This commission lowered it from what it was originally.

[56:06] Now, I would be impacted by that, and I was happy to be impacted by it, because this

[56:14] is future development, but what happened is by not raising that fee to the people who

[56:23] are coming in, we have now just burdened the entire community when this work needs to

[56:29] be done on the water and sewer, we all get to pay for it, instead of the new people coming

[56:35] in paying for it. So I don't really understand why the commission went against the recommendation

[56:44] of the consultant and lowered the fees when they said you're not collecting enough money

[56:50] for the future to fix your problem. So I won't do that. And as far as ethics go, I'm

[56:58] an open book. Just I have meetings. When I was a commissioner, I had meetings every month

[57:04] for people to come and ask any questions that they had, I'm always available because I'm always

[57:09] around with the restaurants that we have, and I encourage that.

[57:15] Thank you, Mr. Pointer.

[57:16] Ms. Kelly, there's a perception that commission members are serving special interests instead of

[57:22] the people that elected them. How the commission is ultimately chosen to handle issues such as Tringoli,

[57:28] developer impact fees and the bioethanol plant appear to have undermined public trust. If elected,

[57:34] What will you do to regain and strengthen that trust?

[57:37] I am a resident and a taxpayer just like everybody in this room and everybody in this city.

[57:45] My only focus is the residents and the taxpayers of this city.

[57:51] I have one of you.

[57:52] I have a long-term plan here, but I want to live in my little hammock out there until I die and I'm invested in the community.

[58:01] I want the input.

[58:01] I want to know what your ideas are, what your thoughts are, how can we hold

[58:07] the cost down while still keeping the integrity of our beautiful little town.

[58:13] I want it to be just like this when I am 90. I want it to be amazing and quiet

[58:18] and small and I don't want big bohemith buildings going in. I'm with you guys.

[58:23] I 100% and for the community. I don't have any special interests. I am not building

[58:29] or developing anywhere, I just want to represent the tax payers, residents, and businesses of this town.

[58:39] Period, no matter your party, I want to represent us.

[58:46] Thank you, Ms. Kelly.

[58:48] Next to Ms. Tutton, would you like me to repeat the question?

[58:52] Sure.

[58:54] There's a perception that commission members are serving special interests instead of the people that elected them.

[58:58] how the commission has ultimately chosen to handle issues such as the

[59:03] Trangali property, developer impact fees, and the bioethanol plant appear to have

[59:08] undermined public trust. If elected, what will you do to regain and strengthen

[59:13] that trust?

[59:15] I think the way you move through your life and and the effects that you

[59:23] project, I mean, you know, mother to high school teacher for 17 years,

[59:30] soccer

[59:30] you're constantly teaching ethics.

[59:32] One of my favorite memories was when I was,

[59:35] I think I was 13, you think I'm short now,

[59:38] you should have seen me when I was 13,

[59:40] my family, six kids were going to an amusement park,

[59:44] and I was about to get in for free with my little brother,

[59:49] and my mom said, oh no, no, she's 13,

[59:52] and paid the full $80 fee, and I was like,

[59:56] are you crazy, but that's what I was taught,

[59:59] Thank you.

[1:00:00] What's right?

[1:00:02] I think if anybody has looked at the campaign finances, my campaign has accepted

[1:00:10] nothing but 100% donations from individuals. My opponent has accepted a thousand dollars

[1:00:19] from waste management, a thousand dollars from Florida Public Utility, our electric company,

[1:00:24] from PAX and Tallahassee, from developers.

[1:00:28] My question is, why do those people want my opponent to win?

[1:00:34] What do they think they're buying?

[1:00:36] And it's not a good look.

[1:00:39] And I won't question my opponent's ethics

[1:00:41] because I don't know my opponent that well.

[1:00:44] But I will question the donors and the acceptance

[1:00:48] of this money.

[1:00:49] I think certainly if anything came before me in the commission that directly impacted me,

[1:00:57] my property or something near my property, you clearly have to recuse yourself.

[1:01:02] But I can't imagine much that I would need to recuse myself from.

[1:01:06] But I think communicating, letting people know you're listening and letting people have their voice

[1:01:15] and their opinion heard.

[1:01:17] Thank you, Ms. Tudon.

[1:01:19] Mr. Beane, there's a perception that commission members are serving special interests instead

[1:01:26] of the people that elected them.

[1:01:28] How the commission is ultimately chosen to handle issues such as the Trangali property,

[1:01:32] developer-in-fact fees, and the bioethanol plant appear to have undermined public trust.

[1:01:37] If elected, what will you do to regain and strengthen that trust?

[1:01:42] Absolutely.

[1:01:45] short answer. I run every single issue that has any perception of possibly being

[1:01:50] an ethical issue. I run that by the city attorney. I run that by our city attorney and

[1:01:54] I make sure that we're doing the right thing per floor to long and per per what we need

[1:01:59] to be doing to make sure we do the right thing. I would say but more generally this is my

[1:02:05] home. Vernon in a beach is my home. It always has been. It always will be. This is the

[1:02:09] place that I grew up in. This is the place that I will be raising my daughter in. I want

[1:02:14] the best for our home. And so with all that being said, I'm going to make the right decision

[1:02:20] for front of the data beach. I'm going to do what's right for all of our residents. And

[1:02:25] I'm going to do that because this is why I'm here. Why do I get up every morning and do

[1:02:30] what I do? I do it because I love our home. I love our town. And again, I just want to

[1:02:35] say thank you so much to every person, every person, every person who's donated, every

[1:02:39] of local small business, every local big business has donated, it's my campaign and says they

[1:02:44] want to be a part of the bean team. I say thank you because without you guys I would

[1:02:49] not be where I am today. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Bean. Mr. Sturgis. Got it this

[1:02:57] time. There's a perception that commission members are serving special interests instead

[1:03:02] of the people that elected them. How the commission is ultimately chosen to handle issues such

[1:03:06] as Trangali, developer impact fees, and the bioethanol plant, a period of undermined public trust.

[1:03:13] If elected, what will you do to regain and strengthen that trust?

[1:03:17] Well, first and foremost, I don't believe I have a conflict. When I took this part-time job

[1:03:24] at the City Commission, when they swore me in, I heard it was a part-time job. However,

[1:03:31] However, I live this, I live the city.

[1:03:34] This is where I was born, this where I grew up.

[1:03:38] And a lot of people do know me, a lot of big people, a lot of small people know me.

[1:03:42] We all have vocations, most of us on this commission, who are serving have vocations.

[1:03:49] So I work very hard as a builder, just because I'm a builder doesn't mean that I'm able

[1:03:55] to be bought.

[1:03:55] Well, no one campaign donation, no one person going to help me is going to buy my loyalty.

[1:04:04] I'm here for the city of Ferdinand Beach, first and foremost, I'm a native at local

[1:04:10] and I care about the island and the city specifically, because this is home for me.

[1:04:16] I didn't move here, even though I enjoy everybody that does move here.

[1:04:21] I, this is my home, so I don't think I have a conflict to suggest policy change sometimes

[1:04:29] when I suggest a policy change because I've put a lot of hours in doing what I do and

[1:04:35] I can see whether improvements could be made in our city land development code.

[1:04:40] I put a lot of effort into knowing what the city is and how it works.

[1:04:45] So I understand that it takes a lot of discipline to serve in this position.

[1:04:54] A lot of people don't really realize how much is involved with serving as a city commissioner as much as I do,

[1:05:00] or as much as the people that are serving currently.

[1:05:03] They understand how many hours is put in and doing this job.

[1:05:06] So I do appreciate everybody and all the residents, I take all phone calls,

[1:05:11] and all emails and respond to them, even Arlene in the back row or even anybody else I can call them out by name that I respond to them.

[1:05:22] Thank you.

[1:05:28] Thank you, Mr. Sturtis and thank you, Arlene.

[1:05:33] Ms. Menshue.

[1:05:35] So what will I do to regain trust? One of the various first things I'll do when I'm elected is I'm going to request a workshop.

[1:05:43] so that we can start talking about moving public comments back to the earlier on in the meeting.

[1:05:50] I would like to see us do maybe to try. You know, this is all just like you can do anything you should set your mind to do

[1:05:58] and this is not like brain surgery or anything, so we could just try stuff, right?

[1:06:04] And if it works great, it doesn't work, we'll try something else.

[1:06:06] So, I like to see us do quarterly cam halls so that we can understand and hear what all

[1:06:16] the community is interested in and has to say.

[1:06:21] I am a long time resident here.

[1:06:27] My family moved here in the 1930s when the mills first opened.

[1:06:30] My grandfather is resting comfortably out at Boss Fellow.

[1:06:35] And so this city is important to me as well. I am a retiree. I have one house. I have one

[1:06:45] pinch of plan. I have one so security. I do, I am not beholden to anybody. I am, as Shirley

[1:06:54] Chisholm used to say, I am unbought and unbossed. So I am here to represent the citizens. I'm not

[1:07:04] I have no aspirations past this job here, and I will be your voice on the City Commission.

[1:07:14] And you, as a voter, have the power to make that decision.

[1:07:18] And you, as a voter, have the power to decide what kind of City Commission you want.

[1:07:24] So that's what I would do to restore trust.

[1:07:27] Thank you.

[1:07:29] Thank you, Ms. Benchut.

[1:07:31] And I'd like to take just a moment and thank all the candidates for participating in this

[1:07:36] round of questions for the candidates.

[1:07:38] I think we should give them a round of applause for their participation.

[1:07:42] Thank you all.

[1:07:47] But don't move.

[1:07:49] You're not done yet.

[1:07:50] When I'm moving to the mayoral position, candidate discussion, and Mr. Askew is apparently

[1:08:00] on shift and not able to be here.

[1:08:01] So we're just going to grill you.

[1:08:04] I'm excuse me, speaking of you.

[1:08:05] I'm going to see.

[1:08:07] Bring it on.

[1:08:10] We'd like you, if you would, please, to introduce yourself.

[1:08:13] You've got two minutes.

[1:08:14] Introduce yourself, emphasizing what education and professional

[1:08:17] or volunteer experience you have that qualifies you

[1:08:21] for the position you were seeking.

[1:08:23] Certainly.

[1:08:24] So for those of you that haven't met me yet,

[1:08:26] my name is James Anton.

[1:08:27] I live at 7.04, South 12th Street.

[1:08:30] I've lived there for the past four years.

[1:08:32] I started living on the silent almost 10 years ago.

[1:08:35] On Monty View Road, just two doors down from Congress

[1:08:37] and there and being actually.

[1:08:40] My wife and I started our business here

[1:08:42] on a shoestring budget.

[1:08:43] We took about $15,000 of our savings after finishing Cairo School

[1:08:46] and opened up our office in three little 10 by 10 rooms

[1:08:49] on the south end.

[1:08:50] And we've now grown to the point

[1:08:51] that we can actually purchase the building

[1:08:53] where we plan to move into.

[1:08:54] And I say that all to say that we came from pretty much nothing

[1:08:58] other than being able to live in my in-laws house.

[1:08:59] I had no financing. I didn't take a bank loan. We started the business from scratch.

[1:09:04] Fast forward now being almost 10 years into living here and I have a two-year-old daughter

[1:09:08] and I have aspirations of hoping to keep this community as beautiful as it is now.

[1:09:13] Some relevant back story of what I've done to be qualified for this position.

[1:09:18] In addition to being the six-year member of the Furnity to Beach Power Referral Group,

[1:09:23] where I learned how to refer a business with 30 to 40 other local professionals,

[1:09:26] I served as the vice president and the president, and now I'm grooming my doctors to be the business owners that they could be one day going and learning how to run that group.

[1:09:37] What pushed me into becoming a commissioner was some process issues specifically with planning and permitting.

[1:09:42] And that's pretty much what drove me to decide if I wanted to either take legal action against the city or join the commission to fix policies, process, and procedures.

[1:09:50] So, as you can tell by the position that I'm in, that's the decision that I made.

[1:09:55] And being a doctor, we have to take a hypocritical to do no harm.

[1:10:00] And for me, there's no difference in voting on your tax dollars or policies and procedures that affect you as that hypocritical can take care of my patients.

[1:10:09] So, to the credit of how Ms. Tutan said, this is literally my DNA of who I am.

[1:10:14] And none of that is going to change.

[1:10:16] I also have no long term political aspirations beyond the City Commission.

[1:10:19] I'm just here to do the right thing, and I hope that you all see why that's a good

[1:10:24] choice for you.

[1:10:26] Thank you, sir.

[1:10:28] Let me try next candidate for mayor.

[1:10:30] Oh, that would be Mr. Antone.

[1:10:33] Two minutes.

[1:10:38] I've got to change the name tag.

[1:10:40] I'm not confused.

[1:10:42] I don't have enough trouble already.

[1:10:43] How would you define the role of mayor in Fernandina Beach?

[1:10:48] Well, I think it's important to first step back and look at the structure because this

[1:10:52] has actually been a funny little comment from some patients and friends and constituents

[1:10:56] have mentioned is, oh, you're running against Bradley Bean.

[1:10:59] Well, unfortunately, that's not the way the structure is, and I had to explain to them first

[1:11:03] how the cycle worked and how to make it.

[1:11:05] I wouldn't think I'd be fortunate.

[1:11:09] Two commissioners are currently pretty much the only choice for mayor.

[1:11:13] So clearing that up and then furthermore, suggesting that if that's where we're going

[1:11:17] and I've been on this commission for two years,

[1:11:19] I believe that having enough experience

[1:11:21] and seeing how the agenda runs,

[1:11:23] how interacting with city staff goes,

[1:11:26] the key for a mayor is to be the representative

[1:11:28] and the figurehead for this city.

[1:11:29] And although we don't carry any more voting power

[1:11:32] than our fellow commissioners,

[1:11:33] you tend to gain a lot more of the attention

[1:11:35] from your citizens,

[1:11:36] and you are the character witness and representative

[1:11:39] for both your commissioners and for city staff.

[1:11:42] And I said this in a previous forum

[1:11:43] that I believe our job is to be the liaison

[1:11:46] on between the people and the city staff to get the job done with the city vision is.

[1:11:51] And so my job is to serve as a leader and to make sure that not only every commission

[1:11:55] meeting we're leading and we're getting business done timely with decorum, but also giving

[1:12:00] staff some vision as to where we should be heading in the future, which comes to some questions

[1:12:04] that you probably have regarding capital improvement plan policy.

[1:12:08] So I won't jump to none on that.

[1:12:11] Thank you

[1:12:14] the next question in comparison to higher mayors I won't mention that

[1:12:21] Mr. Bean is sitting next to you would you do anything differently in that role

[1:12:26] if so what well a comment that was mentioned earlier and I will admit that I

[1:12:32] supported at the time the moving of the public comment for reasons that I still

[1:12:36] believe are valid however I think that the way I've seen this fall in the last

[1:12:40] two years it is very very necessary to give citizens the opportunity to bring that back to the

[1:12:45] front of the meeting and suggestion that I appreciated which I would be willing to follow is

[1:12:49] to take mayoral privilege if in fact we do have a large group of public feedback that would potentially

[1:12:55] delay the agenda and perhaps prioritize that we're up to ten speakers specifically city residents

[1:13:01] can go first and then if we think we want to move that to the end of the meeting that's a really

[1:13:05] strategic way where we don't have to allow where one really long meeting makes the rest of all of our

[1:13:10] public comment be pushed to the end. So I think that's one distinction there. And then something I'm

[1:13:14] very, very adamant about is discussing how the city is going to find revenue sources without

[1:13:19] increasing millage. And I've mentioned examples of those. I'm more than happy to go into detail with

[1:13:24] those. But I specifically said we deserve a conversation about the MyFernadina program that's been

[1:13:30] proposed. Our citizens deserve a workshop in a conversation about any and all terms of paid parking

[1:13:35] that we can possibly entertain, and anything else that's on the table, and it's okay if

[1:13:40] it doesn't happen, citizens don't like these ideas, but we need to have that conversation

[1:13:43] in front of you.

[1:13:44] And I think that's the critical point of the workshops and the town halls.

[1:13:48] Thank you.

[1:13:50] Final question.

[1:13:52] What would you do to increase public trust and engagement, and how would you persuade your

[1:13:58] fellow commissioners to adopt those ideas?

[1:14:01] Well, I've advocated the town halls.

[1:14:03] I like the idea of doing them quarterly perhaps instead of every month if there's maybe not enough meat on the bone to get into certain topics.

[1:14:11] So I think given people the opportunity for a town hall so that they can speak to us and selfishly as I've said before.

[1:14:17] I want that feedback because in my two years as a commissioner for you, there's been a number of agenda items.

[1:14:22] We get the short of it from the city staff, we do our research and then sometimes a group of residents show up practically have torches and pitchforks

[1:14:31] are upset that we're taking away their park or we're putting something in that's going

[1:14:34] to diminish their property value.

[1:14:36] And I believe that everything from the town hall and the workshop can drive that discussion

[1:14:40] to avoid some of those issues from happening in the future.

[1:14:43] So I believe that's very important.

[1:14:45] And then ultimately, just being available and being responsive, I am probably out of any

[1:14:50] on this commission the most committed in hours and what I do, but I always call my constituents

[1:14:55] back at the end of the day or I'll take the phone on a lunch break and I make sure to check

[1:14:59] Thank you very much.

[1:15:07] Thank you, Mr. Anta. Now, the closing question for all of you, including Mr. Anta, instead of a closing statement, we'd like each of you to answer the following questions. What is the one question that you haven't been asked but wish you had been asked?

[1:15:30] So, tell us that question and then answer it.

[1:15:36] Is that clear?

[1:15:38] So, what's the one question you haven't been asked that you wish you'd been asked?

[1:15:41] What is the question and how would you answer it?

[1:15:45] Because it's a bit of a curve ball, and I've got Ms. Kelly up first, you're happy to take

[1:15:49] 30 seconds if you'd like to think about it.

[1:15:52] Well, it's an odd ball answer.

[1:15:58] My personal one is my personal issue around here.

[1:16:03] Why aren't more people asking about this golf course situation?

[1:16:07] That's just me.

[1:16:08] We got $890,000 this year alone into that golf course.

[1:16:14] Why is no one asking questions about this?

[1:16:18] That's my question.

[1:16:19] Why is no one talking about it?

[1:16:21] Why is it anyone upset ever?

[1:16:24] It's our tax dollars year after year going into this golf course.

[1:16:29] That's just me.

[1:16:31] I'm about the money.

[1:16:32] Mr.

[1:16:37] Pointer.

[1:16:38] I have no idea.

[1:16:42] I've been asked so many questions over my lifetime here.

[1:16:45] I don't.

[1:16:46] Let's see.

[1:16:48] Why am I running again?

[1:16:50] I've gone through this two times.

[1:16:53] I've run four times, one twice, lost twice.

[1:16:56] I'm not a politician.

[1:16:58] I'm not good politician.

[1:17:02] I'm running because I'm frustrated with the way I see things moving.

[1:17:06] forward and that's why I'm running and what I'd like to see moving forward is a

[1:17:14] more cooperative commission working on the behest of the community to get

[1:17:26] better things done.

[1:17:29] Thank you. Mr. Sturgis what's the one question you've never

[1:17:35] been asked, but wish you had been asked. What is that question? And then answer it, please.

[1:17:41] Well, I'm going to say a funny thing to start with. The one question I would say is, is when do I

[1:17:46] have time for a vacation? However, the fact may be I like to serve the city. So I'm just going to

[1:17:53] answer my own question when I make time to have a vacation. I love my children, I love my family,

[1:17:59] and upon most I love the city. It really is my city. I've lived here all my

[1:18:07] life and I care about it and the decision the taxpayers will make a decision

[1:18:15] whether I stay elected or I don't stay elected and we'll see that on

[1:18:20] election day but I believe I've done what's best for the city and I want to keep

[1:18:25] doing what's best for the city we have a lot of work to accomplish. We've done a lot in a short

[1:18:30] amount of time and there's a whole lot. I've heard other things candidates have said that I would

[1:18:35] love to say responses to in this forum however I'm not going to do that. I feel it's not professional

[1:18:42] but I do know there's other answers that I could say to a lot of things that I would like to. However

[1:18:48] I think the most professional way and the most awesome thing to do for this evening is to carry

[1:18:55] on the good work that we've been doing at this commission for the city. Thank you.

[1:18:59] Thank you, sir. Ms. Menshue.

[1:19:02] So I think I have kind of the same question that Tim has.

[1:19:07] Because I have run twice and lost twice. And so people say, why do you keep doing this?

[1:19:15] And are you crazy? And do you know?

[1:19:20] And if this this comments go on feel free to answer both those questions, you know, I

[1:19:28] I love this city. I have always loved this city. I've been coming here since I was a child.

[1:19:36] And I know that I can make this city be better because my whole 40 year career was all about

[1:19:49] making things better. No matter where I worked or what department I was in or when I was consulting,

[1:19:57] what company we went to, we were all about making things better. And I know that I can do that

[1:20:05] because I've done it my whole life. And I think there are lots of opportunities in the city to

[1:20:12] improve processes and improve how we communicate and to improve how we train people and to improve

[1:20:21] how we respect our employees.

[1:20:25] And I think I can bring that energy and some of those suggestions

[1:20:31] and ideas to the table. And so that's why I'm running and asking for your vote on November

[1:20:39] Number 5, for me, Janice Minchew, City Commission, C2.

[1:20:43] Thank you.

[1:20:46] Thank you, Ms. Minchew.

[1:20:49] Mr. Bing, the one question you've never been asked,

[1:20:52] but wish you had been asked.

[1:20:54] Tell us that question then answer it.

[1:20:56] I wish you would have asked me, hey, as mayor,

[1:20:58] what have I been fighting for?

[1:21:00] What will I fight for?

[1:21:01] What am I going to keep doing?

[1:21:02] So that's my question.

[1:21:04] The answer to that is in the past four years,

[1:21:05] we made a lot of decisions.

[1:21:07] There are a lot of things in the past four years.

[1:21:08] I stand behind every single one we put in the work to make sure that we make the best choice for front of the new beach

[1:21:14] Part of doing this are things like our city commission sometimes is a three two vote

[1:21:19] But we it took a three two vote. We added public comment to workshops for the first time

[1:21:23] There's never been public comment workshops, but by a three two vote. We've added public comment to workshops

[1:21:29] We tried to make the city much more accessible and it has been I've really worked hard as mayor to revamp our Facebook page

[1:21:36] which you guys have been seeing. The City of Thurland Beach patient page has had so many

[1:21:40] new programs and things coming out. I participated in that with our Minute with the Mayor program,

[1:21:44] which is a big thing that we drop every week a minute, where we speak directly to the citizens.

[1:21:49] In fact, that Minute with the Mayor won the Northeast Florida Regional Award for quality of life.

[1:21:53] We are recognized here in front of the page for having a award-winning program like that.

[1:21:59] I hold a monthly town hall where I get to interact with the citizens every second Friday

[1:22:04] the council on aging. Since the day I was elected mayor, I've held that, I think we're at

[1:22:08] 20, I guess we're at 22 now because we're, it's coming back around the horn here, but we've had

[1:22:12] these town halls so we get here directly from folks all around the city. Just being more accessible

[1:22:18] than ever before we have. I also want to say that I'm the only candidate in my race who is willing

[1:22:25] to tell you right now I am opposed to paid parking. I will not charge it apart. I will not do that.

[1:22:30] You can't convince me to do that. I'll tell you why it's because of issues like these if you've been following

[1:22:36] Furniture politics for a long period of time

[1:22:38] You know that these are these hot button issues stuff like paid parking it comes up over and over again

[1:22:43] I think every candidate should already have an opinion on paid parking and tell you about it right now

[1:22:49] We don't need to have another workshop about paid parking because we've had it over and over again

[1:22:53] That's something there folks. I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna fight for it's our families like my family like my daughter

[1:22:59] I want to make sure we keep Fertidina, Fertidina.

[1:23:03] Thank you.

[1:23:05] Thank you, Mr. Beane.

[1:23:07] Mr. Tutan.

[1:23:09] I wish somebody had asked me about sea level rise.

[1:23:13] I may know a climate steward educator and right down here,

[1:23:17] we have a gauge that's from what was set in the 1890s.

[1:23:21] It's a, we have extremely good sea level rise data

[1:23:25] for Fertidina.

[1:23:26] We've had nine inches of sea level rise.

[1:23:28] NOAA predicts that by 2050 we will have another 12 inches of sea level rise, and by 2100 depending on our carbon emissions we will have another 2 to 7 feet of rise.

[1:23:40] We're building a sea wall that will only protect us, or we are talking about building a sea wall.

[1:23:45] We're not planning on funding it, but we're talking about it. That will only protect us to 9 feet.

[1:23:50] and the way disasters play out economically,

[1:23:56] and we can see what's happening with every hurricane,

[1:23:59] we can see what's happening with Asheville,

[1:24:01] is that not only do costs to a municipality rise,

[1:24:06] but tax-based lowers, because people abandon their properties.

[1:24:11] So let's look at Crane Island that we annex into the city.

[1:24:16] Everybody knows the trees are all dying there,

[1:24:18] because of saltwater intrusion.

[1:24:19] because that land is so incredibly low, what will happen to those million-dollar properties?

[1:24:26] Many of them do not have insurance on them because people own their homes outright

[1:24:30] and you're not required to buy insurance if you don't have a mortgage.

[1:24:33] What happens when a million-dollar home is destroyed?

[1:24:38] And the person is rich enough to just walk away from the property.

[1:24:43] Who cleans that up? Where does the burden of that come from?

[1:24:47] We are not planning for future resiliency and it's not right for our future children.

[1:24:54] I want to serve this committee and the city and the here and now, but also for my children.

[1:25:00] I would love it if 30 years from now my children arm wrestle over who gets the house and who

[1:25:04] gets the money because I both them want the house.

[1:25:08] We live in a funky cool old house on the green light.

[1:25:11] This place is too beautiful to not protect and it needs protection desperately.

[1:25:16] Thank you.

[1:25:18] Mr. Ante.

[1:25:20] Well, I've been asked this privately, but not publicly, so that's the best I got for you right now is why do you want to become mayor?

[1:25:26] And the short answer to that is I'm already on the commission and I'm going to be here for two more years.

[1:25:32] That's the first piece.

[1:25:33] Secondly, I have a number of constituents who have expressed that they believe in my philosophies and my votes.

[1:25:40] And I think I would be doing them a disservice not to run.

[1:25:44] Furthermore, for those of you that don't know, before I became a politician locally, even

[1:25:48] though I have no career aspirations, I'm a competitive bodybuilder.

[1:25:52] I don't like to lose.

[1:25:53] So whether it's personally or for this city, I want us to win.

[1:25:55] I want us to win on our budget.

[1:25:57] I want us to win on process, policy and procedure, and I want this to remain a beautiful place.

[1:26:03] Thank you very much.

[1:26:05] That completes the questions that have been prepared for this forum.

[1:26:09] Thank you all for your participation and your eagerness to share your views.

[1:26:15] Thank you all very much for coming. I think they deserve a round of applause.

[1:26:26] We're here again, but now we're on the line, too.

Sep 30, 2024 Candidate Forum Democratic Club of Amelia Island

Agenda

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