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Called for a year. What? Okay, I'm calling this. I'm calling this regular meeting of the

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stuart city commission for the 25th of august, 2025. To order before the presentation. Roll

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call, please, madam clerk, mayor rich here, vice mayor collins here. Commissioner

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clark here. Commissioner. Gobi here. Commissioner reid here. And offering this evening's

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invocation is pastor darrell ormond from the first baptist church of stuart. He is not

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here. Jimmy smith is here. Jimmy, come on down. Oh! Say the prayer. The invocation.

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please. Stand and then lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please. Thank you, father, for

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this day. We come now, lord, as your little kids coming before you, asking you for all the

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good things you have to give us today. God, that our right minds I'll love in our hearts.

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our visions utilize our limbs, our legs and our feet. God, we just thank you for the right

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mind that we can come together as one in the place called the city steward. God, touch

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everybody here today. God in a special way. As we go forward in this meeting, give us a love

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in our heart to be humble and respectful and love towards one another in the name of the

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father, son, and the holy spirit. Amen, amen, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag

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of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under god,

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indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen. Thank you, mr. Smith. So I just want

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to take one moment to introduce the chief councilor of hopetown, which is the city of stuarts

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sister city. I know former mayor matheson was involved after dorian and troy mcdonald

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was very involved. He's here this evening with his wife, chelsea. I was he was nice

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enough to join me for breakfast at maria's on saturday. And would you like to take a moment

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just to make brief remarks, mr. Jeremy sweeting? I promise I'll be brief. I don't want to keep

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you long, especially after such a provocative budget workshop today. But just a few words,

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really, mr. Mayor, city commissioners, city manager, residents of stewart. Good

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evening. Just over a decade ago, in 2014, the city of stewart became sister cities with the

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uptown district in the bahamas. The uptown district has had a name change recently to better

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reflect the entire district. We are now known as the abaco keys district, which includes

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hopetown, maniwaki and great waunakee. Mr. Mayor, in 2014, one of your predecessors, mayor

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troy mcdonald, visited uptown and we signed the sister city agreement. Myself, along with

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two other council members, don cash and arthur alden, made a return trip to stewart where we

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attended a special called city commission meeting and also toured the city, visiting

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various businesses here in stewart. A good number of our businesses in the district have

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participated in boat shows here in stewart, and we have a number of stewart residents

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that have second homes in the albuquerque district. Although our municipalities may differ

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in size, our budget is $506,000 per annum and yours is, I think, 100 million, and your

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population is much greater. We both offer a quaint, small town feel that is the envy of many.

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we can't say thank you enough to the city, the people of stewart, and in particular the

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nonprofit group operation 300. Stephen layton and many of the former city commissioners. They

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did an amazing job in the response in the aftermath of hurricane dorian, when our

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communities received catastrophic damage from dorian's fury. Almost

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immediately, we began to receive aid from different ones here and many, many others as

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well. Across america and in other countries. We're excited to keep this relationship alive,

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and I would like to invite you, mr. Mayor, on a tour of our district in abaco, bahamas,

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whenever the time is right and then a small contingent from our council may do a return

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trip to stewart in the near future. Mr. Mayor, I thank you again for allowing me some time.

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I pray god's blessings on this evening's deliberations. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank

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you, thank you, mr. Sweetie. Mr. Sweeting and his family are here. And stewart, to take

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advantage of medical resources available to them, so I wish them the best luck. Mr. Mayor,

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did you take a picture with I did. Would you all like to take a picture with mr. Sweetie? No

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I did, yes. You took one here on the dias. Here. Would you all like to take a picture with

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mr. Sweetie? Come on. I think it'd be good for positive. Okay. Up there, mr. Martel? Come on.

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that was a commission. Come on, mike, I was just about out. Come on. Journey. American

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music city. Come on. Yeah. Junk city. All of that. Everybody. Fried chicken. Okay. For real?

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thank. Welcome to the bahamas. And I will be accepting mr. Sweden's offer. And I look

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forward to going over there hopefully in november. I have a friend here in stuart who had a

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home. Has he had a had a home in man o war and it was completely destroyed,

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completely destroyed the docks, the dock, the dock house. And fortunately he was able to

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rebuild it. But that was an unbelievable storm. And unfortunately the residents of

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stuart are well aware of how powerful and damaging these hurricanes can be. So, well,

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this. We haven't seen one of these for a while. Mr. Baggett, could you please. Do the oath

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of office for our new environmental attorney, miss ruth holmes? Yes. Miss holmes

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will come up to the podium. Thought that would be the best spot where the mic will catch

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both of our voices. And if you'll raise your right hand and repeat after me, I, ruth a

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holmes, do solemnly swear I, ruth a holmes, do solemnly, solemnly swear that I will

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support, honor, protect, and defend. That I will support, honor, protect, and defend the

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constitution and the government of the united states and the state of florida, the constitution and the government of the united states and the state of florida. That I am

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duly qualified to hold office, that I am duly qualified to hold office under the

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constitution of the state of florida, under the constitution of the state of florida, and under the charter of the city of stuart, and under the charter of the city of stuart.

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and that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of stuart environmental attorney, and that I will well and faithfully perform the duties of stuart environmental

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attorney, on which I'm a. I am now about to enter, so help me god, on which I am now about to

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enter. So help me god. Absolutely. Okay. So exercise today. Commissioner. I know

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it's my party for the day. Yeah, right. Right. Sorry. I thought it was a lawyer thing, but. You

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are a lawyer. That's a yes. All right. Okay. The woman in the. Oh. Oh, hold on, hold on. Oh.

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where's mary? This way. Jerry williams, shake his. Thanks. You don't want to wait for. No.

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just on that item, I'm sure. I would just like to say, ruth, it's it's a really big day. And

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it it was a war to get you here. It's been a war that's been going on for a long time. I

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think it's great that, you know, former mayor matheson was here. This was something he was

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pushing for during his term. And I'm thankful you're here. I'm looking forward to you

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being an asset. And there's bright and beautiful things ahead for the city of stuart.

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so thank you for taking the job. Thank you man. Mr. Martell or mr. Baggett who's going to take

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the lead on this item I am okay. This is a presentation on the referendum process pertaining

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to the two acre parcel adjoining haney creek. Previously, we had brought

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before you some of the issues or potential issues regarding the two acre parcel that you

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guys had wanted to move forward about possibly converting it into, converting it into

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preservation or conservation land, whereas it's now zoned commercial. So I wanted to kind

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of update you on a little bit of the process that will require us to do that. And I've

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done a little bit of research in both myself and the city clerk. So if we go back to

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section .9.01 of the code of ordinances, I have attached to the agenda item long term

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leases for waterfront property in the city that's owned by the city must be approved by

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referendum. And back in 2011, when this when this parcel was separated out from 5051 other

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acres at haney creek, it was done by referendum to have two acres zoned commercial and to

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develop to help pay for the remaining 51 acres there. And so that was done by referendum.

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and so likewise, in order to change that, we need to go back out for referendum under our

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under our code 9.05. It refers to the process going back to 9.04. And that section of the

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code requires us to publicize the issue 30 days in advance in the newspaper, prior to it

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going to referendum. We also have to provide notice to the supervisor of elections and

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city clerk reached out to our county supervisor of elections, and she requests that we have a

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resolution adopting the referendum and the language in the referendum at least 60 days

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before the election, we have the option of doing a special election, which would be pretty

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expensive and probably have a lower turnout if we do it earlier. Or we could just wait

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till the next general election, which is next august, and then it wouldn't cost extra money.

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if you also recall, in the last meeting I brought before you, there was an interlocal

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agreement that us, the city and the county joined together in 2011 and that that interlocal

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agreement was conditional upon the referendum. And the interlocal agreement also

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requires us to use the two acre parcel for commercial purposes in order to pay for the park.

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the park, the whole preservation area, the haney creek. The county has has never

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objected to us not developing it into commercial. So right now it's never been developed

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in the commercial. So it's not been providing money. We've just been providing it out of

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our own general budget. We would probably need to that we probably we we are required to

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enter into a new interlocal agreement with the county or amend the previous one. I'm not

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quite sure which one it will be, because it's kind of the way the original interlocal

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agreement was written was. It expires after five years, but the part about the continuously

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using the two acres survived the expiration of the agreement. So I'll probably work with the

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county attorney. I have reached out to at least elder at the county and and have already

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kind of started this process. I forwarded her the old documents, the interlocal agreement and a

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referendum. We've had a couple of conversations about it, and I think she was in agreement

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with me that that process to amend or draft a new interlocal agreement would probably take

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about 1 to 2 months. So with 1 to 2 months to get a resolution by before both boards, with the

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draft of the interlocal agreement, probably two months capped at maximum. So we have

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plenty of time because the next general election would be august, unless you wanted to do

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it on a special election earlier, we would have time for that as well. But we have a

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whole year to get to the next general election. So roughly three months is all that would

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take. So we've got plenty of time to do that. And that's the only thing that I was coming

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back to kind of go over that process and how much time we needed. And if you guys have

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any questions, I'll be happy to answer. And oh yeah, one more. Yeah, one more thing. Mr.

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martell had spoken to someone potential developer, and I'll let him talk about it. So

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following the meeting that we had the discussion, I got a telephone call from a gentleman

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by the name of taylor or tyler. Tyler has the property owned by the county that used to be

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known as aaron's nursery. For those of you who've been around a while under contract, and

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it's on the corner of us one and baker road, it already has a curb cut on us one, and it

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already has a curb cut on baker road. He has concerns about the curb cut on baker road because

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just like the the shell station on wright boulevard, when people go to pull out of the

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shell station, the cars get backed up at the light and they try to pull out and get in

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between the cars and turn left there and kind of wreak havoc. And so he contacted me and

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wanted to know if the city of stewart would be interested in working a deal with him, where

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he would actually build our entire trailhead, the parking lot, the bathroom, the lights.

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and then, just like our code requires, and you can look up and down us one and everywhere

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else, we require cross connections to keep cars off the roads anyway when they can

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interconnect, so that he could make it so that cars leaving his property wouldn't be going

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directly onto baker road right there, but they would be going further down, and they'd go

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into the parking lot of our trailhead and then go out onto baker road, creating the

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expansion. I told him no, the first time he called me. Just know. Then he was insistent on

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following up, and then we had the meeting where you guys discussed coming back with the

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referendum on the trailhead idea up on baker road, and he called me again and I said,

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look, I don't know what the commission is one way or the other on it. I will bring it up

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at our next meeting. I will mention it to them. And if the commission wants, you can come

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in and answer questions, or you can do a proposal or submit it to them one way or the other. I

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just didn't I didn't honestly didn't know what the commission's temperature was

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for it, I can tell you. I mean, the property's been kind of underdeveloped for a long time

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because the aaron's family had no interest in selling it, but I believe that it's already

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transferred and the state issues are over with, and it's probably going to be developed

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whether it's developed with a connection to that trailhead to it or not. I don't know that it

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makes any difference one way or the other. I just wanted to tell you that this phone call

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came in. If you guys want me to schedule the guy to come in and give you some kind of

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presentation, I will. But there's really not much need for one. I on last agenda I

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attached and you guys had the pictures of the parking lot of what our trailhead would look

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like. And so the only thing that would be additional is literally a connection through

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to the next parcel on onto aaron's property. The advantage to it would be one of the

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biggest concerns I get into when we start talking about doing these types of projects

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is the o and m, because we have to maintain the parking lot, we have to maintain the lights, we

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have to maintain the bathroom, we have to, you know, insure it. We have to do all the stuff. If

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he was willing to build it for us. Number one, that alleviates an an extreme expense to us.

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but more importantly, if he was willing to maintain the parking lot, ensure the parking lot,

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pay the electric bill and maintain the that access for us so that we didn't even have to

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do it. The perpetual nature of that, from a management perspective is great. The the

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negative aspect is, well, the city's cooperating with the developer or whatever it is now.

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the developer is going to use the parking lot. I'm sure they are. I'm sure cars are going to

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drive from his property right through the parking lot and right out onto baker road. But

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if you're serious about doing the baker road trailhead, imagine not doing the the deal

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with the developer. And now we spend the 700 grand or whatever it costs, and we maintain it,

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and we do the lights. And his employees still park in that parking lot. We just ensure it.

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it still gets whatever it gets. And it's just simply that we get $0 from it. I should also

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mention that that particular property owned the aaron's property is not in the city of

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stewart, that is in the county. So that corner is county land. So it will be going through

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whatever development approvals it's going to go through. It's not going to come through the

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city of stewart, of course. And again, this is all conjecture and speculation. I mean, the

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guy hasn't made any offers. I don't have anything in writing. He was just calling to see what the city felt about it. But if you wanted to talk to him, you could say to him that you would

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only approve it if he annexed into the city, or if he didn't annex into the city, or if he

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did x, y, or z. I mean, that would be the discretion of the board. And for you guys to talk

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about the the fact of it is, is that I originally told him it was haney creek. I didn't think

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the commission would have the tolerance to do really anything. But then as this has evolved a

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little bit now, there's been more discussion about potentially going to a referendum and potentially building this trailhead. I said to him, look, I'll, I'll, I'll

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bring it up. So here it is. I brought it up. If you guys want me to do anything, let me know.

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for now. It's not an agenda item. You don't have to vote on it. You don't have to do

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anything. Just letting you know. Mister vice mayor sean, were you able to see you were on

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vacation that day? Were you able to see those slides from that meeting where it showed

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that trailhead off of baker? Yeah. I have a question for the city attorney though, too. So I

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just wanted to see if you were familiar with that. It would be met with I met with

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commissioner reed on friday and showed him the slides. And so those prices, you know, one of

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your concerns was, oh, what if it's 5 million or 10 million? I think it was like 6 or $700,000

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at the time. Correct. So if you put that two acres into conservation just because we

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can't talk otherwise. So that's why I wanted to ask the city attorney something on this

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agreement prior. Sure. Lee. So I and you can correct me if I'm wrong. I just want to

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understand at least. So if I'm looking at the term of the agreement, section four, you

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talk about the interlocal agreement with the county. Yes. And and as far as the

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termination and the terms. And it says section seven, eight and nine will survive at the

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expiration of the termination. Right. And then when you go to section. Eight, it talks about

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a management plan, and it talks about land uses that are compatible with the restoration

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goals and purposes, conservation and appropriate public recreational uses, where

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such recreational uses are compatible with conservation requirements, you can come up

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with a management plan, such as conducting limited land clearing for the purpose of

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constructing such pervious facilities as docks, boardwalks, or mulched walking trails.

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would we still have to go to referendum in order because that survived the term? So, no.

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so the referendum was to whether or not to do a long term lease of the property.

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that's all you have to go to referendum on. This was an interlocal agreement. Gotcha. So this would be terms that the staff and commissions on both boards would agree to. And they

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agreed to in 2011. But if we're going to do an amendment it would be both boards currently.

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so like that section, the whole seven, eight and nine isn't even applicable anymore. No it

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is, it's it is. So that's that's what I was trying to explain, that the way this is

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written, the term expires after five years. Seven. Right, right. So that means some of it

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survived. So that's why it's a question of is it an amendment or do I have to do a whole new

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interlocal agreement? I can bring you up to speed. When you were out of when you were not

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present, you were out of town. The discussion was, can we take the two acres and stop using it

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for commercial activity? And the putting the conservation, make it a trailhead, whatever.

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and the city attorney said there was a referendum and the public voted. And the

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referendum says we shall list this property for commercial lease. So we can't put it into

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conservation. If there's a clause that says we have to list it for commercial lease because they're contradictory, that's contradictory language, just the funding agreement

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between the city and the county. And then you have the ref. No, we're not funding anything.

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well, that's what it's called. So. Right. But that was agreement between this is back

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in 2012 when they were merging there. So and when was the restaurant in 2012. Back in

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2011 when the tax money came in, the city owned a property called the flag parcel. That's

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down by where frankensteins used to be. The county and the city pooled their tax, their

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half cent sales tax money to buy the last 53 acres of haney creek from seacoast bank, who

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had it in foreclosure from a developer. Jeff krauskopf wanted to take the two acres

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and use it for commercial purposes to provide a perpetual funding source to pay for the

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maintenance of haney creek in order to make everybody whole. Jeff krauskopf had the city

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donate the flag parcel to the haney creek park project, which was roughly two acres. It was a

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road that was finished with the all upland and dry at the end of it, so there was going to be

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no loss of land. There was then a big hoopla about what would the city use the money for

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other purposes? And jeff said no, they would do it for just the management of haney creek,

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and all of the money generated from it would go back to haney creek. So the county and the

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city entered into an interlocal agreement saying that, yes, we're going to buy the 53 acres

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of haney creek together, hence the name, the funding agreement. And yes, when we buy the haney

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creek property together, the city is going to throw in the flag parcel. In exchange for

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that, the county is going to agree to allow this other parcel at the entrance of north

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river shores be surveyed, staked, and a lot or created so that the city could then have a

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two acre parcel that the city would then be responsible to go lease it out for commercial

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purposes. And 100% of the revenue that was generated from that lease would be reinvested

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into haney creek, so that haney creek could the maintenance would be insured or paid for.

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that's where we were. So the referendum overrules the this the referendum. The county

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doesn't need a referendum. I know you respond. What's just so I understand. So the the

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referendum is to we did a referendum to take the two parcels and convert it to

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commercial so that it can pay for the rest of the park. The referendum was because haney

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creek is a watershed that is on a tidal basin. And section nine of our code says prior to

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leasing or renting any land in the city of stewart that is on water that city owned, there

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must be a public referendum. Since haney creek was adjacent to a tidal creek. It qualified

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under the referendum to be required before it could be leased out. For more than ten

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years, there had to be a referendum. As a result, a referendum occurred in, in, in,

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in, in concert with the agreement that the county and the city had entered into in

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the interlocal agreement, the language of the referendum is with the city attorney was

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interpreting that said, it told us we need to do this now. If we want to not do this, what do

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we do to correct it? You come back with another referendum, right? And that's where we are,

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the referendum. So this was a referendum specific to this parcel then, right? Correct.

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correct. But it's not I can read it to you. That's what I was getting at. How come it's

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not in the agenda packet then. Well it was in the last agenda but I the only thing I was

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talking about today is the process. I understand the process of, of I've already

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discussed that. I already brought the language. I in the last agenda item. It's very

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brief. You can read it. Right? Right. I can read it. It's very brief. I'll get it, I'll get it.

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it's it would have given. Yeah. So the last time we had it on the agenda, I attached the

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referendum language in the interlocal agreement. And I discussed the background and the history of it. Today. I was just trying to explain the process because you guys wanted

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to go forward with it. What do we have to do? We have to go out for referendum, and we have

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to amend the interlocal agreement or draft a new interlocal agreement with the

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county. So the interlocal agreement, I.e. The funding agreement, the funding agreement is an interlocal agreement. I know it's titled funding agreement and like mr.

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wartell said, it was about funding the whole project. The county and the city both own

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the haney creek watershed district 5050. These 50, 51.5 acres, I think. And the two

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acres come out of that, we have to undo by referendum what we did by referendum only on the

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two acres, the the all the other conditions as far as maintenance and so forth. We

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did it in the original funding I interlocal agreement. So we would need to do all that stuff

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by interlocal agreement with the county. So the county will have to have a commission

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meeting on on an interlocal agreement and so will we. And so each board will do a

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resolution adopting a new interlocal agreement. The if what you're if you want to

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consider what mr. Mortel was talking about today by this developer, the two acres would

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just be converted into conservation land, and then the trailhead would be around the

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corner on baker road, and we would develop the trailhead there versus on the two acres.

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I mean, whether or not that developer would go that path, that's something we could do,

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is have that baker creek trailhead be what we develop versus that two acres. Two

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acres would go conservation. And then if we wanted a trailhead, it well, regardless

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we have to convert the commercial zoning to to yeah to conservation land. So even to

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do the trailhead. So commissioner clark. Well it was just this is probably getting

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into the weeds, but it was just the idea of if he built the trailhead and would possibly

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maintain it, it was just about liability and about annexation. And I know that mike already

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brought that up. So, you know, if it would be treated as a regular road right away, public

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road right away. And even though it's going over, quote unquote, our land, but it would

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be a long term lease, I guess, if we decided to do it that way. Well, as far as the two acres,

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there's no lease. We. Yeah. Well, if we if we ever did that agreement with the developer.

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yeah, it would be whatever agreement you entered into. Okay. He owns it. Yeah. Well,

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no, our piece would. Well. Can we bring it back and talk about it before the 2026 commissioner

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would like to. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I would like to entertain at least finding out what his

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plans are. You know, what restraints we could have on restrictions. Also, do we know

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what he's planning to build on that other property or it's already built or. Well, there's

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already a nursery that's been on the property for at least 50 years. I think it was probably

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the 60s is when it was built, but I suspect he's going to be building a gas station, a fast

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food store or a cvs because it's the corner of us one and baker road. But he can come in.

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and now, by the way, that's likely going to happen no matter whether you get your

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trailhead or not. It's not in the city of stewart. It's a county parcel. It's not in the

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city. We're not going to have anything to do with it. And that's why I told him

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originally, no, I said that our original referendum on the two acres was saying no to that

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stuff. And so the real thing for us is if you're really serious about doing the

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trailhead, there's going to be whatever it is next door. Let's say it's dunkin donuts, or let's say it's 7-eleven next door. They're going to have a curb cut right onto the road,

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and then we're going to have our parking lot, which is another curb cut right under

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the road. And it's going to be erased to fdot to see who gets the first curb cut, because

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then they can't be so close to each other and, you know, all the other stuff. Whereas if we

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were both doing the project, then the the question would be what would be better from the

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standpoint of the traffic on the road or not? And honestly, I mean, obviously the answer

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and the easy answer would be, why doesn't he sell us the land and let us make it all part of

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haney creek and use the half-cent sales tax to buy that? There you go. That was the

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first thing I offered. It didn't work. Well, there's other options, too. We recently

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entered into an agreement with. I honestly don't remember the name. It was to be a

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conservative where people could come and fish, walk trails, and I forget what that conservation

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easement where we we entered into an agreement to be part of this trail where people could

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come and, you know, we had to have the right trails for people to come and access to

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walk to different. I don't remember what the name of the project was. So in line with

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that. Maybe he would at least build some stores that would attract more people to the park.

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I mean, he's just looking for I mean, I'm just saying there's an exchange of ideas that we

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could do. I mean, maybe I mean, there's no doubt about that. The the dialog is the question.

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right? So whatever that might or might not be, I mean, I can give you guys's contact to him

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individually. I can give it to him separately. I did I just said to him that I'd bring it

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up and I would get back to him. I, I didn't really have. Well, I agree with you, commissioner

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joby. I think we should at least talk to him. I do, to see what it is. Would it, mr. Clark?

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would you agree with that? That's what I was getting at. Yeah. Would this be overflow,

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vice mayor? Would this would not be opposed to it? Okay, okay. I think it's to again,

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there's the shell station just on the north side of the roosevelt bridge. If you pull

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into that shell station and you pull out under wright boulevard to try and get back on us one,

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the curb cut is really close to us one so the car is turning right off of us. One are

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constantly coming around the corner and the cars waiting at the light to get onto us. One

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back up so it makes it so cars pull into wright boulevard and then they're kind of stuck

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there in limbo and there's like mini traffic jams all the time. What he is looking to do is

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shift the curb down to where the entrance to public is down on the western end of the

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publix, properly so our entrance would be right across from that so that it'd be a

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straight line moving it west of the entrance of us one, so that people could pull through the

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parking lot and pull out over there without getting caught up in that traffic jam. If we say

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no, he can go ahead and build it, and he's got the curb cuts. They're already there. You can

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look at it on a map. It's just going to be a tied up mess. And and it may be better just to

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say no, not to get caught up in the mess with it. But I didn't want to say no without giving

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you guys the chance. And I didn't want to give him your phone numbers and have him

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start calling you without having talked to you or brought it up, because I didn't want you to get bombarded with stuff. You had no idea what was coming. Mike, I gotta question. Can I

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just finish? I'm sorry. No. It's okay. I guess that if we're going to discuss it, this

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would be the time to discuss it, to see if we're even in agreement. I, I'm not adverse to hearing what he has to say and how it benefits us, and obviously it benefits him also.

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but I'm just saying, if a majority of the commissioners aren't in favor, then we're

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wasting our time, right? This is the point for us to have a dialog. I mean, this is the

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only time we can have a dialog about this. Well, it seems currently a majority are in

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favor of at least listening to what he has to offer. Anything to listen to him. Yeah. Can I

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commissioner read? Do you have. Yeah, I just wanted to state on the record too. There there are

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two different zonings right now. There's two. Is it two? Is it the. Both parcels there, mike.

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there's ones be one and then one's general commercial. Two. I have no idea. I mean I'm, I'm

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not I have nothing to do with the development. I have never looked into it. I never

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contacted the county. I don't know the guy. I've never even met him. I mean, I've never

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even met him. I didn't I wasn't concerned with what his development was because it was

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in the county. It's not even city land. It's not in the city limits. It's county county land.

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so I don't know what the zoning is. I don't know, I mean, I'm assuming that aaron's nursery

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was probably ag at one point. I mean, it's been there a long time. So how would it work for

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discussion with them? Like, did you reach out individually? Well, I think we need to have

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the discussion here first to decide what it is we'd even be looking for. What are the

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things we wouldn't accept before we even entertain the idea of speaking to him? Well, when you guys say what you're looking for, what you wouldn't accept if he builds a racetrac

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gas station. And it gets approved by martin county, which it will, then I'm not

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sure what difference it makes. The question still is, would you connect to the parking lot

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to get the parking lot for free and maintained for free? Or would you say no, we want two

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curb cuts on baker road? Because I mean, to me that's the only issue. I mean, there's

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no there's no real benefit to the city at all other than where not having to pay for the

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the trailhead. If we weren't doing the trailhead, the answer would be really easy. It'd be

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no, no, go away. We're not doing anything. But if I'm the only reason I'm even bringing

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it up is because if we're actually considering building a parking lot there and building

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curb cuts and putting lights in so that it's lit, and putting a bathroom in so that people

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aren't going to the bathroom and hanging creek and putting the facilities and structures

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there. Then the idea that someone else might pay for it has an appeal. But how much is

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the appeal? And and what's the benefit that you can provide us with this map as to the cut

365
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through that you're talking about, like from that property to it was on last agenda, right?

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yeah. 28th. So if you pull up on your phone right there baker and us one. Yes. It's that

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property on the corner that pulled up. I mean I I'll, I'll email. Okay. He wants it to be

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opposite the entrance to the public is what it is. So you can see that on the map. Mr.

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vice mayor. Yes. So for me that would. I'm sorry. Were you were you done, commissioner? Well, I

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thought, is that something that I can show commissioner lee we're not talking about? Well,

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as you guys. Yeah, I can show it from my computer. I just want to make sure you're

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talking to each other privately. No, but if it's part of the public discussion, then yes, I can show you on a map what it looks like. The trailhead. You want to go ahead. Yeah. So for

373
00:40:30,114 --> 00:40:30,114
me, that that kind of a thing. Assuming that that's a gas station, I'll wait for them.

374
00:40:34,985 --> 00:40:34,985
all right. What you're doing here from from the last. Thank you. Never mind. Thanks. I was

375
00:40:42,559 --> 00:40:42,559
just looking. The public is right across the street. Basically. Yes. That's publix

376
00:40:48,566 --> 00:40:48,566
there. So now you're looking at it. You can see it. Yeah. So to me, that would defeat the whole

377
00:40:54,205 --> 00:40:54,205
purpose of a park. There. If you basically extend the parking lot of, like a wawa or

378
00:41:02,979 --> 00:41:02,979
this kind of a thing into your park versus having a separate park that has a sign there that

379
00:41:09,953 --> 00:41:09,953
it's park and parking for the park for the park. I'm sure that would help that gentleman,

380
00:41:17,060 --> 00:41:17,060
but to me, that's a deal where it's it's more damage than. I mean, we're blessed that we

381
00:41:23,800 --> 00:41:23,800
have the half cent sales tax money there to even trailhead up there. You put that two

382
00:41:30,774 --> 00:41:30,774
acres in conservation that's done, and then you have a separate park. I don't want to

383
00:41:35,813 --> 00:41:35,813
be connected to whatever he's going to turn that into. I think it's messy. If it gets

384
00:41:40,783 --> 00:41:40,783
sold, if I'd rather just have a park there. Imagine I imagine my four little kids, while

385
00:41:48,125 --> 00:41:48,125
people are zooming in and out to get to a gas station. It's just a mess. Like I after

386
00:41:53,730 --> 00:41:53,730
seeing the map. What I do realize is that, yeah, it's almost like, you know, on one

387
00:41:59,002 --> 00:41:59,002
where you have td bank and wawa, it would be that same kind of yeah, to me it's a mess and it

388
00:42:05,675 --> 00:42:05,675
defeats the whole like exclusivity. And you know, you're tucked into a park to

389
00:42:10,314 --> 00:42:10,314
have that kind of a through thing. If it was another sort of commercial property that the

390
00:42:16,219 --> 00:42:20,189
city owned or something that's different, having that connectivity. But you want your park to be isolated. It would be my take on that. So I'm not really interested in that kind

391
00:42:25,963 --> 00:42:25,963
of a deal. What I want to see is just as soon as possible, because there are two separate

392
00:42:30,767 --> 00:42:30,767
issues. One is the the lee, what you were talking about where we're going to referendum

393
00:42:37,140 --> 00:42:37,140
for the two acres going to conservation. The other is, you know, separately what do we

394
00:42:42,812 --> 00:42:42,812
doing with that parcel and trailhead off baker so as soon as possible I would like to see,

395
00:42:48,855 --> 00:42:48,855
you know, and have us all talking about if there's something different that we

396
00:42:55,992 --> 00:42:55,992
would like to see, other than what tim volker put together for the arpa money for that

397
00:43:01,030 --> 00:43:01,030
site and go into a little more detail with the half cent sales tax money. Commissioner clark,

398
00:43:09,672 --> 00:43:09,672
it's been a long time since I saw this resolution, but just mean mr. Mr. Baggett on section

399
00:43:20,884 --> 00:43:20,884
8.4. I forgot why we had that phrase in there about the city providing the annual income of

400
00:43:29,825 --> 00:43:29,825
anything that happens on the two acre parcel to the county, because we were going to show

401
00:43:35,098 --> 00:43:35,098
that we were maintaining the caney creek with all of the money. So if we rented it out

402
00:43:42,071 --> 00:43:42,071
for $1 million a year, we would have to demonstrate to the county that we were spending $1

403
00:43:47,243 --> 00:43:47,243
million a year on caney creek. It all came from the carveout parcel, right? It's been a

404
00:43:56,886 --> 00:43:56,886
while. I mean, that's the the greatest appeal to me of that document is that it says that

405
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:05,160
these this financial revenue will be dedicated to the maintenance of the park in our

406
00:44:10,999 --> 00:44:10,999
cost cutting fervor here, the easiest thing to start cutting is going to be maintenance of

407
00:44:16,606 --> 00:44:16,606
these parks, and especially a 50 acre parcel. We don't take care of the interior of that.

408
00:44:21,210 --> 00:44:21,210
not that many people will see it. So I, I would like to praise those of you who are

409
00:44:28,450 --> 00:44:28,450
involved and had the foresight to commit those resources to the maintenance of this very

410
00:44:34,089 --> 00:44:34,089
large park. And I hope we can see that take place. I've never been a fan of providing a

411
00:44:44,901 --> 00:44:44,901
trailhead on us. One of the busiest streets in the city of stuart. So I think we and

412
00:44:54,810 --> 00:44:54,810
commissioner reed, correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be a majority that's willing

413
00:44:59,015 --> 00:44:59,015
to at least discuss with this gentleman what options he may feel he has, if we can, if we

414
00:45:05,020 --> 00:45:05,020
can have somebody else build that trailhead, we're sort of eating our cake and have it too.

415
00:45:11,060 --> 00:45:11,060
it seems to me it sounds enticing. I have to be honest. Once I saw the map, it

416
00:45:15,164 --> 00:45:15,164
basically then looks like wawa and td bank. So you have this intercourse of that road and

417
00:45:19,234 --> 00:45:19,234
it's just too much. It doesn't have to be that we could give him his access and then move

418
00:45:24,206 --> 00:45:24,206
our move the park down a little and have a separate. Perhaps he'd be willing to provide a

419
00:45:30,879 --> 00:45:30,879
separate entrance to the trailhead than the two don't have to be connected. All he

420
00:45:35,184 --> 00:45:35,184
wants is that cut down the road a little. I don't think it necessarily has to be attached

421
00:45:40,355 --> 00:45:43,993
to the entrance to the trailhead. We have money set aside for this purpose. What what's the what's the issue? The issue is why not take advantage of someone? Because

422
00:45:48,897 --> 00:45:48,897
it would destroy the very nature of having a secluded park for families. Who's going

423
00:45:54,335 --> 00:45:54,335
to build there anyway? Yeah, it's. So why would you connect to what he develops there? I'm

424
00:46:00,742 --> 00:46:00,742
saying the trail, the entrance to the trailhead does not necessarily need to be

425
00:46:05,714 --> 00:46:05,714
connected to his little road to the to the cut. That's exactly what he wants. Ironically, I

426
00:46:12,454 --> 00:46:12,454
know ironically, I think that if you if you I think it would he absolutely wants to be

427
00:46:16,925 --> 00:46:16,925
connected to the park. But I also think if you look at the entire corridor or any other

428
00:46:24,767 --> 00:46:24,767
corridor in stuart, that you would also find that our code requires us to like when

429
00:46:30,972 --> 00:46:30,972
developers come in, they actually have to ask to a for an exception to deviate from

430
00:46:37,245 --> 00:46:37,245
the code, not to interconnect their parking lot with their adjacent parking lot. So we

431
00:46:42,784 --> 00:46:42,784
require like if you go to walgreens on east ocean boulevard, you can drive

432
00:46:47,155 --> 00:46:47,155
through to sports without going on the east ocean boulevard, because we required them to

433
00:46:52,893 --> 00:46:52,893
connect the parking lot. And then from stimlje you can go into the next parking parking

434
00:46:58,466 --> 00:46:58,466
lot because we require them to be interconnected so that cars don't loop in and out onto the

435
00:47:04,238 --> 00:47:04,238
road. So to his adjacent parcel and the adjacent parcel. Well, you said his adjacent parcel.

436
00:47:10,912 --> 00:47:10,912
and is it specific? Does it include parks? I don't have any idea where we're where we're

437
00:47:16,351 --> 00:47:16,351
going here. I know that his commercial property, if it was being built in the city next to

438
00:47:21,389 --> 00:47:24,993
another commercial property, it's not that's that's a hypothetical. That's not. That's not what we're talking about. I totally agree. Yeah, it's next to the city. It's

439
00:47:29,232 --> 00:47:29,232
next to the park. Right. Can I make a motion that we parking lots. You're going to have

440
00:47:34,068 --> 00:47:34,068
people pull out onto baker road to pull into the parking lot is what the like that's what. Why

441
00:47:40,007 --> 00:47:40,007
would you be faced with if let's say it was a subway and somebody went into the subway

442
00:47:45,714 --> 00:47:45,714
and bought a sandwich to go for a hike in the park, then they'd have to pull out onto baker to

443
00:47:51,588 --> 00:47:51,588
pull into the parking lot to go to the trailhead, because the two parking lots weren't

444
00:47:57,191 --> 00:47:57,191
connected. Correct? Right. Somebody's zipping through that parking lot. You like to make a

445
00:48:04,265 --> 00:48:04,265
motion? Ask kids. Yeah, just to get through there to get back onto the on the baker. Yeah, I

446
00:48:19,013 --> 00:48:19,013
just I had another are we willing to speak with the gentleman? He's mr. Mr. Reed I

447
00:48:24,753 --> 00:48:24,753
had a question. So like I don't know mike, if this is something, would it come before the mpo

448
00:48:29,790 --> 00:48:29,790
board because it's a county road to know they wouldn't want a signalized light there at one

449
00:48:33,861 --> 00:48:33,861
point, because it's already hard enough coming out of even if they wanted a signalized

450
00:48:38,666 --> 00:48:38,666
light, their mpo is fdot. Those are state roads, the county roads, the city. The mpo

451
00:48:47,141 --> 00:48:47,141
doesn't address those. It's this was just a presentation. I just wanted to we're way in the

452
00:48:54,317 --> 00:48:54,317
weeds. I don't it it's not that significant to me. I'm going to tell them I didn't get any

453
00:48:59,086 --> 00:49:03,023
clear direction. If he wants to call you guys directly, he's welcome to. All right. Sometimes you need to get into the weeds just to get where we want to go. All right. You feel

454
00:49:09,430 --> 00:49:09,430
you have sufficient direction, mr. Martell? Okay. Comments by city commissioners.

455
00:49:16,069 --> 00:49:16,069
commissioner reed, I'll still let you go first. All right? I thought that we. Are you sure

456
00:49:24,044 --> 00:49:24,044
that's where we are? Yes. I'm on the wrong agenda. Right. Environmental attorney

457
00:49:31,285 --> 00:49:31,285
presentation. Just finished. Approval of the agenda. We're not there yet, mr. Clerk. We're

458
00:49:37,892 --> 00:49:37,892
getting there. Yeah. I did want to reiterate in my commission comment for emails to be online.

459
00:49:45,433 --> 00:49:45,433
it's something I'll continually push for. And I also wanted to mention I spoke with city

460
00:49:51,871 --> 00:49:51,871
manager mike mortel and the hamilton's. Their project is supposed to come up as an

461
00:49:57,613 --> 00:49:57,613
agenda item at the september 8th meeting, and they asked me to get a consensus from board

462
00:50:01,881 --> 00:50:01,881
majority that they don't want their project presented yet. They said they're waiting for

463
00:50:08,022 --> 00:50:08,022
something from florida commerce. So if I can get a consensus during everyone else's mission

464
00:50:13,059 --> 00:50:13,059
comments, I'll let city manager know that they're not ready for it to come in front of us.

465
00:50:19,635 --> 00:50:19,635
that'd be great. Is that the case? Right. Well, the hamilton's won't speak to me.

466
00:50:25,304 --> 00:50:25,304
they sent me an email saying that they're waiting for an answer from florida commerce. I

467
00:50:31,010 --> 00:50:31,010
spoke to florida commerce on a conference call on friday. Florida commerce provided me

468
00:50:36,282 --> 00:50:36,282
with a copy of the answer that they'd already given him. His answer was related to the money

469
00:50:44,191 --> 00:50:44,191
that was used by the city to pay for the patriot group to do his roof. Essentially, the

470
00:50:54,202 --> 00:50:54,202
gentleman at florida commerce by the name of graham, told mr. Hamilton that we used the

471
00:51:02,342 --> 00:51:02,342
administrative matching funds at his direction to pay for that lien to be removed from

472
00:51:08,014 --> 00:51:08,014
his house. When he was complaining about it. He now wants to say that mr. Grant,

473
00:51:16,822 --> 00:51:16,822
that graham told him that they couldn't use cdbg funds because at the meeting I said, we use

474
00:51:22,864 --> 00:51:22,864
cdbg funds to do it. The city of stuart has one account that has the cdbg funds in it. It

475
00:51:30,570 --> 00:51:30,570
was the 50,000 that the city put in as the matching funds, the $750,000 that we got was

476
00:51:36,075 --> 00:51:36,075
all commingled at the direction of florida commerce. That's how we paid it. I sent copies of

477
00:51:45,417 --> 00:51:45,417
those emails to mr. Hamilton last week, and nonetheless, the question that was being

478
00:51:54,660 --> 00:51:54,660
resolved was we had all backing it up. We had his scope of services was to get a roof,

479
00:52:04,070 --> 00:52:04,070
windows and doors with some insulation started moving forward on that. There's been a

480
00:52:09,041 --> 00:52:09,041
calamity of issues. We then got to the point where we were doing another scope of services,

481
00:52:15,249 --> 00:52:15,249
and we said, here's where we think the scope of services is. He said he wanted to do his own

482
00:52:20,386 --> 00:52:20,386
scope of services. He hired a group called mckee group to do the scope of services. He

483
00:52:26,025 --> 00:52:26,025
presented that to the city. I reviewed it, personnel reviewed it, guardian reviewed it and

484
00:52:31,831 --> 00:52:31,831
went through it and said, okay, we'll agree to this scope of services. We then took the

485
00:52:38,437 --> 00:52:38,437
pricing off of it and took the letterhead off of it, because a scope of services has to go out

486
00:52:45,277 --> 00:52:45,277
to bid. And pinellas sent that to florida commerce and cc, the hamiltons and said, we believe

487
00:52:52,884 --> 00:52:52,884
we've agreed on a scope of services. Mr. Hamilton submitted this to us. We don't

488
00:52:57,856 --> 00:52:57,856
have any changes to make. We're agreeable to this as well. That's when mr. Hamilton

489
00:53:04,362 --> 00:53:04,362
accused the cra director of fraud because she took mckee's letterhead off and changed the

490
00:53:11,937 --> 00:53:11,937
prices, and that's when he said he was entitled to get his own without going through

491
00:53:18,077 --> 00:53:18,077
procurement, could use his own contract and didn't have to go through procurement. We had a

492
00:53:23,148 --> 00:53:23,148
conference with florida commerce. They said it has to be procurement. They said, let

493
00:53:29,121 --> 00:53:29,121
us call the hamiltons. They then called us back and said the hamilton's will not talk

494
00:53:33,925 --> 00:53:33,925
about this anymore unless they speak to all of us. With congressman mast present. We

495
00:53:43,969 --> 00:53:43,969
said, okay, great. Schedule us when congressman mast is present. No one contacted us.

496
00:53:50,842 --> 00:53:50,842
the hamilton's contacted commissioner reed. Florida commerce thought us. Who do you

497
00:53:57,018 --> 00:53:57,018
mean, mister? Me. Pinnell guardian, the city of stuart or anybody to participate in that

498
00:54:03,154 --> 00:54:03,154
phone call? The hamilton's had contacted commissioner reed to participate this phone call.

499
00:54:08,727 --> 00:54:08,727
commissioner reed sent an email to florida commerce. Florida commerce commissioner reed was

500
00:54:13,599 --> 00:54:13,599
representing the city of stuart to resolve that scope of service. They had the meeting

501
00:54:20,139 --> 00:54:20,139
on the scope of service. They didn't really talk about scope of services, though. Well, okay.

502
00:54:25,212 --> 00:54:25,212
so that becomes the issue. According to florida commerce, they did talk about the scope

503
00:54:30,615 --> 00:54:30,615
of services, and the hamiltons wanted additional work done, such as an air conditioning

504
00:54:37,089 --> 00:54:37,089
system and some electrical work done that was outside of the scope of services, and no one

505
00:54:43,094 --> 00:54:43,094
from the city objected to it. So I then objected to it when I found out about it on the phone

506
00:54:50,968 --> 00:54:50,968
call. Okay, so I don't by the way, we don't know what was other than what you were there

507
00:54:55,941 --> 00:54:55,941
for. So I just what was discussed. Hamilton's asked me during my commission comments

508
00:55:00,278 --> 00:55:00,278
to get a consensus from the commission up here that they do not want their item heard on

509
00:55:06,952 --> 00:55:06,952
september 8th and because they were not ready. Something to do with florida commerce. I don't

510
00:55:11,123 --> 00:55:11,123
know all the details. I'm just trying to give that's that's good for me. Someone what they

511
00:55:17,429 --> 00:55:17,429
want. But it's it's more complicated than that. Sure. It's very complicated. I can't

512
00:55:21,966 --> 00:55:21,966
not have it on the september 8th. Well why not? Because the city also said that guardian

513
00:55:27,037 --> 00:55:27,037
shouldn't receive any additional tax dollars. And guardian is involved in the

514
00:55:32,977 --> 00:55:32,977
hamilton case. The city said guardian shouldn't be involved anymore. Commissioner job said

515
00:55:37,815 --> 00:55:37,815
we should start the procedure to have them removed from the file. We can't move forward on

516
00:55:42,820 --> 00:55:42,820
a scope of services until guardian goes back into hamilton's house and inspects

517
00:55:47,092 --> 00:55:47,092
paid, haven't they? Or they would still be paid because they process, they're still

518
00:55:51,897 --> 00:55:51,897
involved in the case. We removed them, they would still be paid. So there's no point

519
00:55:56,703 --> 00:55:56,703
even discussing that. I'm not I don't I'm not. Are we removing them? Because that's all the

520
00:56:00,939 --> 00:56:00,939
more reason to have the hearing. No, we had a we had a discussion. Right. But the the

521
00:56:06,077 --> 00:56:06,077
but so there's no point. Hang on guardian. Guardian wants to come put on their side of the

522
00:56:12,583 --> 00:56:12,583
story. Guardian got a lot of things said about them last meeting that they totally

523
00:56:18,122 --> 00:56:18,122
disagree with. Hamilton's don't want guardian to come put in on their side of the story, but it

524
00:56:25,496 --> 00:56:25,496
gets better because this is a cdbg grant. It must be completely finished by january

525
00:56:35,305 --> 00:56:35,305
1st. That means we have to figure out the scope of services. If you fire guardian,

526
00:56:42,846 --> 00:56:42,846
we have to hire a new guardian. They would still get paid anyway, so that's why. So

527
00:56:47,752 --> 00:56:51,724
there's no point discussing that. So I've learned a lot more since the last meeting and that's well, I know that's how you feel, but the board is still discussing it. Right. So

528
00:56:56,893 --> 00:56:56,893
by the way, for the board, even if you did remove them, they would still get paid. So what

529
00:57:02,332 --> 00:57:02,332
would be the point in removing them? First of all, I remove them. I was yeah, I don't feel

530
00:57:08,972 --> 00:57:08,972
comfortable even taking the position that they should be removed because that's not what

531
00:57:13,210 --> 00:57:13,210
we're discussing. They did anything wrong. Yes they did. Yes. Yes we are. Now that was

532
00:57:18,749 --> 00:57:18,749
at the last meeting, by the way. Yeah. What you're talking about is not. No, what I'm talking

533
00:57:23,987 --> 00:57:23,987
about currently is not having the hamilton's project on the september 8th meeting. And I

534
00:57:29,225 --> 00:57:29,225
was trying to get the consensus from the board majority. So I'm trying to explain some of the

535
00:57:33,999 --> 00:57:33,999
problems with that. So if we don't have it on september 8th, when are we having it? They'll

536
00:57:40,137 --> 00:57:40,137
probably notify us. Who the. Hamilton's okay. They've received the response from from

537
00:57:49,313 --> 00:57:49,313
the florida commerce. Commerce. And they received that like two weeks ago. Okay. Well, I

538
00:57:57,022 --> 00:57:57,022
haven't heard anything since I know. And then and as of thursday, they told me they

539
00:58:01,057 --> 00:58:01,057
were waiting for the response to. And I sent them the same responses and the emails again.

540
00:58:05,495 --> 00:58:05,495
but here's the thing. If we don't do it and we don't get the scope of services, and then

541
00:58:13,069 --> 00:58:13,069
we don't go out to the 30 day bid to get the job bid, and then we don't issue the po or

542
00:58:19,776 --> 00:58:19,776
the purchase order before december. It's over. There is no more grant funding to

543
00:58:29,752 --> 00:58:29,752
reimburse. So january don't think you get to send in the bills. Where does it state that

544
00:58:36,293 --> 00:58:36,293
at? Well, actually they claim they discussed it call with brian may's office,

545
00:58:40,516 --> 00:58:40,516
but I wasn't there. So I don't know. Does it does it in a contract with guardian, the

546
00:58:45,788 --> 00:58:45,788
city, the entire grant the cdbg grant program ends january 1st. Yes. Just like the arpa funds

547
00:58:51,360 --> 00:58:51,360
ended. That's the same exact thing. And yeah, so we still have time then? How much? Well,

548
00:58:57,434 --> 00:58:57,434
how much time do we have? It's. You said we only need 30 days, so we need 30 days to publish

549
00:59:03,272 --> 00:59:03,272
the rfp. And then we need 15 days for hamilton's to pick their contractor, which is 45

550
00:59:08,344 --> 00:59:08,344
days. So if we start december 30th that we take 30 back. That brings us to thanksgiving. Then

551
00:59:16,686 --> 00:59:16,686
we take it back. That brings us to november 15th. So we have to have this entire matter

552
00:59:22,691 --> 00:59:22,691
resolved by november 15th. There's no way that the city can sign the scope of services

553
00:59:30,665 --> 00:59:30,665
until we have access to the property again. But guardian is no longer welcome on the

554
00:59:39,608 --> 00:59:39,608
property because the city said that guardian did something wrong, but I don't. The

555
00:59:50,185 --> 00:59:50,185
guardian says they didn't do anything wrong. Are you talking about from the last meeting?

556
00:59:54,490 --> 00:59:58,394
that's when this guardian thing got brought up. It's been going on for a year. Gotcha. Okay. It's been going on for a year. Just out of respect for them asking, can we defer the eighth?

557
01:00:03,465 --> 01:00:07,368
and but they've been tentatively look at like the 22nd and just see if you guys can discuss this. If you can talk to the hamilton's or somebody can talk to the

558
01:00:11,072 --> 01:00:11,072
hamilton's, because I mentioned to them that they needed to reach out to the city. I don't

559
01:00:15,411 --> 01:00:15,411
want them to feel like trying to talk to the hamilton's for a year. We've been putting it off

560
01:00:20,315 --> 01:00:20,315
and trying to negotiate it, and then all of a sudden, every time I told them something,

561
01:00:24,586 --> 01:00:24,586
they'd come into this room and say, consider us committing fraud and all these. And that's

562
01:00:30,025 --> 01:00:30,025
why I picked it up in my commission comments. And now what they told me. I'm just

563
01:00:34,395 --> 01:00:38,300
trying to reiterate to the board, that's that's all I'm doing. I'm trying to do my job. That's it. Right. So they don't want us to talk about it. They want me to continue being

564
01:00:43,471 --> 01:00:43,471
blamed for all this stuff. And they want guardian to continue to be blamed for all this stuff,

565
01:00:48,476 --> 01:00:48,476
but they don't want you guys to see the information. I mean, that's what's happening right

566
01:00:55,483 --> 01:00:59,423
now. That's what I'm just reiterating what I was told. Hamilton's don't need to be here. They don't need to come. They don't need to present anything. There's no reason. I

567
01:01:04,392 --> 01:01:04,392
just want to walk through and show you guys the history of it, show you the pictures of it and

568
01:01:09,430 --> 01:01:09,430
say, look, is this a reasonable scope of service? I disagree, I think that they do. I stated,

569
01:01:16,171 --> 01:01:16,171
what? Yeah, what was it? And they should be able to have their time, just like any

570
01:01:20,408 --> 01:01:24,379
developer or guardian or anyone that we're going to give time for them. And we are. Absolutely. And have they've been to 20 meetings so far. We've been given three minutes

571
01:01:28,349 --> 01:01:28,349
every time they come. That's all they get is three minutes. Like anyone with a public

572
01:01:32,420 --> 01:01:32,420
comment. Okay. So what I would prefer then is can we assign this to one of you guys?

573
01:01:37,425 --> 01:01:37,425
because I don't have any authority the way this is going. I can't manage it, I can't the

574
01:01:42,432 --> 01:01:42,432
hamilton's won't speak to me. They tell me every time I talk to them that one of the

575
01:01:47,201 --> 01:01:47,201
commissioners told them that they didn't have to have a contractor. One of the

576
01:01:51,506 --> 01:01:54,909
commissioners told them that they were going to have their meeting. Then when they don't want their meeting, they turn. We have a procurement process. So how would that work for them

577
01:01:59,347 --> 01:02:02,749
to even pick their specific contractor that was under the grant program, under the procurement of it, they go out to bid, correct the top. Any bids over a 15% threshold are

578
01:02:09,423 --> 01:02:09,423
removed, and then the remaining bids are left, just like they were before. They had two

579
01:02:16,296 --> 01:02:16,296
contractors to pick from in their original bid. And my concern is that if we go out to

580
01:02:23,270 --> 01:02:23,270
bid process right now that the hamilton's, if they don't get mckee, there's going to be no

581
01:02:29,210 --> 01:02:29,210
deadline for them to do it. And then they're going to say, we didn't get it done. City of

582
01:02:34,549 --> 01:02:34,549
stuart, you need to pay for this. And then it's going to be on the city's tab. And and

583
01:02:40,487 --> 01:02:40,487
everyone's going to be looking at me saying, mike, why didn't you get this done? Okay. Just

584
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:45,360
no. Excuse me, mr. Martell. This lengthy discussion with your good questions,

585
01:02:50,597 --> 01:02:50,597
commissioner reed, indicate why this needs to be on the agenda. Well, they don't, because the

586
01:02:55,703 --> 01:02:55,703
agenda. Mayor rich. Okay, but the city has been instructed to pay money. The florida wasn't

587
01:03:02,442 --> 01:03:02,442
florida commerce. Who told you to write a check, mr. Mortez? This was in november. This was

588
01:03:06,613 --> 01:03:06,613
a while ago, mayor rich. Okay. Yep. But representations are being made to the hamilton by a

589
01:03:13,320 --> 01:03:13,320
single commissioner, of which actually, by the way, city manager, mayor rich, we just

590
01:03:19,193 --> 01:03:19,193
let me finish a stance on anything. The city manager is completely unaware. Why? I mean,

591
01:03:26,199 --> 01:03:26,199
well, that's why I'm trying to reiterate it. Just let me finish. It reminds me of when

592
01:03:31,439 --> 01:03:31,439
we had to deal with the restaurant next door. Remember that? And they were asking us

593
01:03:36,376 --> 01:03:36,376
to provide them considerable compensation to improve the building. That took us a couple

594
01:03:41,948 --> 01:03:41,948
of meetings. We didn't do that. So let's get going on this process. Let the whole I mean,

595
01:03:48,789 --> 01:03:48,789
things are said in the meetings with our congressman that even our city manager doesn't know.

596
01:03:55,295 --> 01:03:55,295
brian, I'm very I'm very uncomfortable with that. I would just the more the entire

597
01:04:00,834 --> 01:04:00,834
commission is informed of this issue, the better served everyone will be, especially

598
01:04:06,573 --> 01:04:06,573
the hamilton to give the residents what they asked for. Yeah, okay. All right. You've

599
01:04:11,578 --> 01:04:11,578
already heard commissioner reed say that brian mast was not on the call. There was a

600
01:04:15,749 --> 01:04:15,749
representative there. There was a representative for him. What was the purpose of the phone

601
01:04:20,620 --> 01:04:20,620
call? What was the discussion? That's all I need to know. I wasn't on the phone. I know,

602
01:04:24,657 --> 01:04:28,494
I'm asking commissioner reed. There was discussion on the process and stuff. That was a majority services. No no no no no. It was processes on how things work throughout the cdbg

603
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:33,800
grant. There was some comments made towards the city that I necessarily didn't want to hear,

604
01:04:38,574 --> 01:04:38,574
and that got shut down by florida commerce. But to say that I'm like talking about

605
01:04:44,278 --> 01:04:44,278
making I would never do that behind closed doors. That's not what you made a deal that

606
01:04:49,248 --> 01:04:49,248
didn't happen. Well, that's how I feel. It's being portrayed. But I'm just my comment is I'm

607
01:04:54,454 --> 01:04:54,454
looking for a consensus from the board majority that the hamilton's do not want their

608
01:05:00,193 --> 01:05:00,193
agenda item on the september 8th meeting, for what it's worth. And that's it. There is

609
01:05:05,564 --> 01:05:05,564
no hamilton agenda item. Just so you know, you told me there was going to be one on

610
01:05:10,603 --> 01:05:10,603
september 8th, and that's why the board instructed me to correct the original cdbg.

611
01:05:15,643 --> 01:05:15,643
grant didn't have the board micromanaging it. The board has taken over the hamilton case.

612
01:05:23,551 --> 01:05:23,551
if it's given back to staff and we can make our own decisions, and I'm not required to come in

613
01:05:30,422 --> 01:05:30,422
front of the board and not required to get commission action like the rest of the the

614
01:05:35,361 --> 01:05:35,361
the cdbg cases, then I can tell hamilton's this is the way it is. We're moving forward and

615
01:05:43,202 --> 01:05:43,202
these are the rules. This is the grant. And if you don't like it, sue the city. But the

616
01:05:48,273 --> 01:05:48,273
problem is the board has taken all my authority away from me and given it to the hamilton's.

617
01:05:55,347 --> 01:05:55,347
and I don't have the ability to implement any of the grant rules. I don't have any of the

618
01:06:01,857 --> 01:06:05,324
authority to implement the contract. And every time I tell the hamilton something, they run to a different commissioner and say, I want a public hearing or I want to talk about

619
01:06:10,463 --> 01:06:10,463
this. And they come to the meeting and they post stuff on social media and they put signs

620
01:06:15,300 --> 01:06:15,300
in their yards. I said what I had to say, right. So so I'm fine with not having any

621
01:06:19,538 --> 01:06:19,538
meeting, but don't we don't. There is no public hearing scheduled. There is no decision

622
01:06:24,579 --> 01:06:24,579
for the board to make. There is no nothing. The reason we're doing all that is because the

623
01:06:29,715 --> 01:06:29,715
board is instructing staff to do it. You just made a statement that they have to be

624
01:06:34,586 --> 01:06:34,586
here on the eighth. If the board's going to continue managing this project and we're

625
01:06:39,058 --> 01:06:39,058
going to finish it by january, then yes, if you don't want to do that, then I'm asking you

626
01:06:45,199 --> 01:06:45,199
guys to take it over and have somebody be assigned from the board, be the one that's going

627
01:06:49,769 --> 01:06:49,769
to manage the project or in the alternative, cancel the public hearing altogether, have the

628
01:06:54,309 --> 01:06:54,309
board not have the public hearing. None of the others got a public hearing and let the

629
01:06:59,745 --> 01:06:59,745
city staff run the grant the way it was originally intended to be run through the grant

630
01:07:04,752 --> 01:07:04,752
rules through florida commerce. But what's happening with me is every time I try to say the

631
01:07:11,424 --> 01:07:11,424
grant rules, they run to you guys and I get beat up at the next meeting. And then when I'm

632
01:07:17,296 --> 01:07:17,296
finally pushing back to him saying, fine, you know what? I was trying to wait to get this

633
01:07:22,268 --> 01:07:22,268
scope of service assigned, but I don't care. We're going to put this out there. We're going

634
01:07:26,338 --> 01:07:26,338
to show everybody what happened. All of a sudden. They don't like that idea. And so now what

635
01:07:30,409 --> 01:07:30,409
they're telling you is don't do it because I know why. So that when we miss the deadline, you

636
01:07:35,547 --> 01:07:35,547
guys can then turn around and say, mike, why did you let us miss the deadline? And so I'm

637
01:07:41,320 --> 01:07:41,320
trapped in this thing. I don't want to be here. Sean, do you feel comfortable talking with

638
01:07:46,057 --> 01:07:46,057
the hamiltons and sort of told them to reach out to the city manager and and let them know,

639
01:07:51,062 --> 01:07:54,467
but they said they were waiting on something from florida commerce, mike, saying that they got it two weeks ago. It's my understanding that there was partial information that came

640
01:07:58,437 --> 01:08:02,242
from florida commerce. They're waiting for the other part. Correct. So they have not received everything from florida commerce. What is it they want? I don't know, I

641
01:08:05,277 --> 01:08:05,277
don't know. They have a they had a list of questions and information. But to mike's

642
01:08:09,581 --> 01:08:09,581
point, we don't want to get too far behind here to where we can't get it done right. I

643
01:08:14,352 --> 01:08:14,352
understand that, but I feel as if we still have time. When would you need to have this

644
01:08:19,691 --> 01:08:19,691
this buttoned up mike? I is you're saying, am I handling the matter? So why don't we

645
01:08:25,364 --> 01:08:29,200
table it to a commission, sir? What's a date certain that we need? Mike and I'll make september 8th would work for me. What? What's our absolute last deadline? Next meeting. So,

646
01:08:34,273 --> 01:08:34,273
what is it that you guys want the hearing to be about? They want an opportunity, from what

647
01:08:39,411 --> 01:08:39,411
I understand, to present their side of what has happened to who, then they don't get to do

648
01:08:44,381 --> 01:08:44,381
that in the three minutes they have. So they can have that whenever they want. I don't

649
01:08:48,519 --> 01:08:48,519
care about that at all. But if you guys are authorizing me, what if we did it october 13th?

650
01:08:54,092 --> 01:08:54,092
continue with guardian and I don't care about the public hearing. You guys can give that

651
01:08:59,033 --> 01:08:59,033
to them anytime they want. But let me handle the cdbg grant and let me write them a letter

652
01:09:04,602 --> 01:09:04,602
and tell them if you miss these deadlines, you're done. And I'm moving on without you and

653
01:09:08,673 --> 01:09:08,673
that's that, and treat them the same way as the other grant people, that's wonderful. But

654
01:09:14,245 --> 01:09:14,245
if there's some kind of public hearing that gets to take place where it's the whipping boy,

655
01:09:19,484 --> 01:09:19,484
where they want to slam mike mortel and and pinal gandhi, I'd like to get it over with

656
01:09:26,091 --> 01:09:26,091
and be done with it. October 13th. Give you enough time to do what, I don't know, to have

657
01:09:31,230 --> 01:09:31,230
it as an agenda item. And then I'm not. I don't have an agenda item. I don't have anything for

658
01:09:36,168 --> 01:09:39,437
you to vote on. I'm not sure exactly what they're waiting for either, but apparently they're waiting for something from florida commerce. They asked me during my commission,

659
01:09:43,374 --> 01:09:43,374
why don't we get him in here and hear what they're waiting for? Well, and at least start

660
01:09:47,478 --> 01:09:51,315
the process of understanding what they feel they need. Yeah, it seems like the perfect reason, mayor rich, if the consensus is not made right now, it's coming on the september

661
01:09:55,386 --> 01:09:55,386
8th meeting. Regardless, let's take it off september 8th and never put it on another meeting

662
01:09:59,556 --> 01:09:59,556
until you hear from them, until they come in and ask for it. There you go. What? What

663
01:10:04,194 --> 01:10:04,194
commissioner reed is asking for is what would be the deadline date with october 13th. Is that

664
01:10:08,199 --> 01:10:08,199
the next date after the 28th? Yeah. Recognize this? If they come in on october 13th and

665
01:10:13,337 --> 01:10:13,337
they whatever they say, whatever you hear, I promise you they are going to be really

666
01:10:20,510 --> 01:10:20,510
upset after that hearing. And it's going to take some. There's going to be some

667
01:10:28,286 --> 01:10:28,286
healing necessary. So when they don't respond and we don't get anything done and we go past

668
01:10:35,360 --> 01:10:35,360
that january date, the question is going to be why did we go past the january date? My

669
01:10:42,032 --> 01:10:42,032
preference would be no hearing at all. I don't want there to ever be a hearing. I was

670
01:10:47,704 --> 01:10:47,704
originally asked to do a presentation to the board as to what happened in hamilton's. I

671
01:10:52,276 --> 01:10:52,276
told you all that I was going to present it when the matter was over, because I didn't want

672
01:10:58,215 --> 01:11:02,185
to say anything during that public meeting that would offend hamilton's, that would slow down the process. But now it's been manipulated into a situation where every time I

673
01:11:09,426 --> 01:11:09,426
try to move something along in the grant, the hamilton's run back to the board and say, I'm

674
01:11:15,432 --> 01:11:15,432
committing fraud or I'm breaching the tax dollars, or I'm doing this or doing that.

675
01:11:21,371 --> 01:11:21,371
the questions they're asking for right now, either we let mike handle it fully or we

676
01:11:27,745 --> 01:11:27,745
schedule this instead of the eighth. Let's make it the 22nd. And unless we hear back from

677
01:11:33,183 --> 01:11:33,183
you that, yeah, that's not okay. But out of respect, we won't do the eighth. Let's do it on the

678
01:11:39,256 --> 01:11:39,256
22nd. Okay. And then you can you can report back. What if they say they're not ready on

679
01:11:44,494 --> 01:11:44,494
the 22nd? Why are we why don't we just let staff do with me? If they're not ready by the

680
01:11:50,101 --> 01:11:50,101
22nd, they're never going to be. And we'll just deal with it. Mayor. And I've had

681
01:11:54,571 --> 01:11:54,571
commissioner job, okay? So I just want to. There's some misstatements that are made.

682
01:11:59,275 --> 01:11:59,275
mike, you made a statement before saying that we asked you to remove a guardian. We asked

683
01:12:04,281 --> 01:12:04,281
how could we remove guardian? And we were told, it's my understanding that there was

684
01:12:08,285 --> 01:12:08,285
impossible. We could not they were in we could not unless someone found cause for them to

685
01:12:14,224 --> 01:12:14,224
be. That is what you said? No, what I said was we couldn't approve project lift and not

686
01:12:21,300 --> 01:12:21,300
pay guardian. And we couldn't remove guardian and not pay them for the work they'd

687
01:12:26,336 --> 01:12:26,336
already done. You can remove guardian right now without cause for 30 days notice. Yeah,

688
01:12:30,540 --> 01:12:30,540
but you didn't say to do it. That's not what you said at the last meeting. At the last

689
01:12:35,478 --> 01:12:39,116
meeting, you said the only way they could be removed is if they had done something wrong or right, screwed up a project or whatever. And other than the hamilton's, according to you,

690
01:12:43,153 --> 01:12:43,153
that hasn't happened, I don't think. No no no no no. Let's be clear. Not other than the

691
01:12:47,557 --> 01:12:47,557
hamilton's I think in the hamilton's guardian has been our saving grace. Guardians

692
01:12:52,262 --> 01:12:52,262
been the ones that helped the city. Guardians are the ones that keep pointing out the

693
01:12:57,267 --> 01:12:57,267
stuff at hamilton's. Patriot was the one that hamilton's had a problem with. A good job, but

694
01:13:02,572 --> 01:13:02,572
not guardian. It's not the guardian issue that part of the cbg grant is if work is not

695
01:13:07,243 --> 01:13:07,243
done or not properly done, they should not be paid. And that is part of the cbg grant process,

696
01:13:12,649 --> 01:13:12,649
because I did I went to look it up. So. Right. So now we're having this hearing that I'm

697
01:13:17,587 --> 01:13:17,587
talking about and I'm being accused of failing to follow the cbdg grant. But the reality

698
01:13:23,259 --> 01:13:23,259
is I gave the hamilton's the letter from florida commerce that told me to use those funds

699
01:13:30,367 --> 01:13:30,367
gets better, because even after they told us to use those funds, we said, nope, that's not

700
01:13:35,270 --> 01:13:39,241
enough. We need hamilton's signature and we couldn't get hamilton's signature. So then we had a second letter from florida commerce that said, pay this money without their

701
01:13:46,282 --> 01:13:46,282
signature to get this lien removed. And they instructed us to do so based upon their

702
01:13:52,155 --> 01:13:52,155
communication, that meeting. And so we did it. Okay. The other thing is that you had

703
01:13:57,192 --> 01:13:57,192
mentioned that the cbg grant for there's two it was mit and another that garden guardian

704
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:05,000
had put in for an rfp for these cbg grants. And they were on record. But I went to the

705
01:14:11,140 --> 01:14:11,140
procurement site on the city and those cbg grants with them with the guardian had expired

706
01:14:16,912 --> 01:14:16,912
in april of 2025. I have the printouts if you'd like. Okay, so I'm not sure what you're

707
01:14:23,885 --> 01:14:23,885
saying. I don't know. According to this, they're not even the holders of these cbg grants any

708
01:14:30,427 --> 01:14:30,427
longer because this what's on the procurement site says that they have expired in april of

709
01:14:36,131 --> 01:14:36,131
2025. I'm not sure what's on the procurement site, but their bids expired in april of 25.

710
01:14:42,273 --> 01:14:42,273
well, I know the contract. I sent you an email on it as well. Contract with guardian and

711
01:14:48,444 --> 01:14:48,444
there's two of them. So. So we're still working with guardian every day. Hamiltons

712
01:14:54,516 --> 01:14:54,516
were supposed to be done in 24. They won't let us be done. Hamilton's. This wasn't even in

713
01:15:01,190 --> 01:15:01,190
relation to hamilton's. It was in my relation to the question which was, we were told sean

714
01:15:05,261 --> 01:15:05,261
and I both wanted to see what could be done to have the guardians off of the cbg. Grant.

715
01:15:10,299 --> 01:15:10,299
right? Did tell us that was impossible. It could not happen because they hold these rfps,

716
01:15:16,171 --> 01:15:16,171
these two. I that what we said was we'd have to go back out to a new rfp to hire a new company

717
01:15:22,544 --> 01:15:22,544
to like if they walked off the job today, if guardian quit, who would finish the reporting

718
01:15:28,750 --> 01:15:28,750
and do all the the work? Who would finish the reports? But again, wouldn't they or

719
01:15:33,456 --> 01:15:33,456
shouldn't they have valid cbg contracts on our site? We do have valid contracts with them.

720
01:15:40,395 --> 01:15:40,395
we're continuing to work them. No one has terminated the contracts. Just like when you

721
01:15:45,434 --> 01:15:45,434
sign a lease with a landlord and the lease is for a year and you continue to live there

722
01:15:50,405 --> 01:15:50,405
after the lease runs out, you can terminate the contract. You guys could terminate it, but we

723
01:15:55,243 --> 01:15:55,243
need to hire someone else to do their job, and we don't have time to go out to rfp and hire

724
01:16:02,351 --> 01:16:02,351
that someone else and then get them on the job and then them get them into inspect and then

725
01:16:07,221 --> 01:16:07,221
get the scope of services, and then go out to rfp on that scope of services, and then

726
01:16:12,560 --> 01:16:12,560
pick the person that does it, and then then to come back and do it, and then to go and get

727
01:16:18,099 --> 01:16:18,099
the job done by thanksgiving. It just won't happen. Mayor rich, may I? Sure. Okay, so we

728
01:16:25,973 --> 01:16:25,973
had a meeting on august 11th. City commission meeting. I was told by city manager that when

729
01:16:32,647 --> 01:16:32,647
you look at it, there's a termination. Section six, 6.2. I was told there was only

730
01:16:40,488 --> 01:16:40,488
termination for cause. That's absolutely not true. You can also terminate for convenience

731
01:16:45,727 --> 01:16:45,727
in section 6.1. Also, to clarify the term of the contract in section 1.1, the

732
01:16:52,367 --> 01:16:52,367
term of this agreement shall commence on the date of execution by the city and

733
01:16:57,074 --> 01:16:57,074
continue through approval of the final reports by the city. This agreement shall have an

734
01:17:03,144 --> 01:17:07,080
option for extension of this agreement as necessary to complete the services, or to provide additional services not to exceed five years. The agreement was executed on the

735
01:17:13,588 --> 01:17:13,588
27th of april of 2020, so you absolutely could extend it. You could also terminate it. And

736
01:17:20,495 --> 01:17:20,495
this was an email that I sent to city manager mike mortel and city attorney. August 12th at

737
01:17:29,404 --> 01:17:29,404
12:38 p.m. The following day. Because I knew you could terminate for convenience and I

738
01:17:35,810 --> 01:17:35,810
knew that it wasn't valid. And my response to that email was that at the meeting you had

739
01:17:40,984 --> 01:17:40,984
discussed that they had done shoddy workmanship. Regardless of that, they also forged the

740
01:17:47,156 --> 01:17:47,156
evidence. They also they want to see it. Correct. Okay. Could you, could you I'm finished.

741
01:17:53,327 --> 01:17:53,327
but those those are the facts. And I also stated that's what the hamilton's asked for. And I

742
01:18:00,602 --> 01:18:00,602
was trying to give them what they want. This has spiraled out. Let him finish, mr. Mortel.

743
01:18:05,575 --> 01:18:09,277
this spiraled out of control. But I was also told there was only termination for cause, and that absolutely was not true. On august 11th meeting. Okay. And I'm here with the facts.

744
01:18:16,183 --> 01:18:16,183
we've the facts that the august 11th meeting was that no one knew that you had appeared on

745
01:18:22,323 --> 01:18:22,323
the telephone call with brian mast office until you told us on august 11th. That was a

746
01:18:27,127 --> 01:18:27,127
surprise to me. It wasn't on the agenda. It was out of left field. No one knew what

747
01:18:33,268 --> 01:18:33,268
happened. When I started asking you what happened at the meeting. I still don't know. To

748
01:18:38,841 --> 01:18:38,841
this date, I don't know what was discussed. I don't know what what the purpose was. All

749
01:18:44,245 --> 01:18:44,245
I know is that florida commerce told me that the purpose of it was to get them to sign the

750
01:18:49,250 --> 01:18:49,250
scope of services that they had originally submitted and agreed to. When you and I spoke about

751
01:18:56,023 --> 01:18:56,023
it afterwards, you told me that they also said they wanted a steeple. They wanted electrical

752
01:19:00,394 --> 01:19:00,394
work done on their house. They wanted air conditioning done on their house. Mike, you knew

753
01:19:05,465 --> 01:19:05,465
about the electrical work, though, when you told me that that happened during the

754
01:19:09,636 --> 01:19:13,139
conversation with florida commerce? No, that was that's so that didn't happen. That didn't happen on that meeting. Okay. All right. Excuse me. I think it's clear. And, mr. Vice

755
01:19:19,246 --> 01:19:19,246
mayor, correct me if it's wrong that there are at least three of you who would wish to

756
01:19:24,551 --> 01:19:24,551
continue this to the 22nd, is that correct? That is correct. That's we're going with and I

757
01:19:31,458 --> 01:19:31,458
just ask what is being scheduled for the 22nd. So this would be the presentation by.

758
01:19:38,332 --> 01:19:38,332
the presentation by hamilton. Well the hamilton's have an opportunity. They certainly

759
01:19:43,671 --> 01:19:43,671
will. They will not be. Originally commissioner reed got up on the 11th and said the

760
01:19:50,744 --> 01:19:50,744
hamilton's have a presentation they want to do on september 8th. Now the hamilton's are

761
01:19:56,082 --> 01:19:56,082
saying they don't want to do a presentation. Do they want to do one on the 22nd? I don't

762
01:20:02,289 --> 01:20:06,259
know, they just said they were waiting on a response from florida commerce. I would just like to make sure that they have the opportunity to if they. So, mr. Mayor. Okay.

763
01:20:11,098 --> 01:20:11,098
commissioner clark, so what if guardian does their presentation on the eighth and

764
01:20:16,703 --> 01:20:16,703
the hamilton can do any rebuttal or anything on the meeting after that? That way we

765
01:20:23,977 --> 01:20:23,977
know the information. We know what guardian is presenting. I think we should do it on the

766
01:20:29,582 --> 01:20:29,582
22nd. I think it efficiently. It would make more sense to have one hearing, okay. To just

767
01:20:35,255 --> 01:20:35,255
do one. I mean, no matter what, it's hamilton, right? It doesn't matter who's doing it

768
01:20:42,095 --> 01:20:42,095
as long as they're not limited to three minutes. The hamilton I mean, it's going to be a

769
01:20:46,800 --> 01:20:46,800
presentation. Right. And then so for clarity find out if they know excuse the commission

770
01:20:52,109 --> 01:20:52,109
terminating the contract because it expired in april. Is that what I'm hearing? I don't

771
01:20:57,210 --> 01:20:57,210
there's no motion for that. There's no motion. Right. I know, but it's not in existence.

772
01:21:01,481 --> 01:21:01,481
do you want me to set another agenda item to extend it? It wasn't in effect when project

773
01:21:06,353 --> 01:21:06,353
lift was here either. So. So do you want me to skip? That's not what I said to extend it. The

774
01:21:11,491 --> 01:21:11,491
point we're trying to make is that we asked for information and we got back information

775
01:21:15,528 --> 01:21:15,528
that really wasn't. It was half truth, actually. It was tied to the discussion we were having

776
01:21:21,869 --> 01:21:21,869
at the time. The discussion was saying that the guardian had done all this shoddy work and

777
01:21:28,208 --> 01:21:28,208
that they weren't to receive any tax dollars. And I said, you can't do that, and you

778
01:21:34,346 --> 01:21:34,346
can't do it unless you can show, cause now you can terminate the contract at will, but you can't

779
01:21:41,087 --> 01:21:41,087
take the tax dollars away. You still got to pay them and fulfill the terms of the

780
01:21:46,392 --> 01:21:46,392
contract that they fulfilled. They were. You're co-mingling both issues. Last time the

781
01:21:52,265 --> 01:21:52,265
meeting was don't give them any money from project lift, and don't give them any other tax

782
01:21:57,237 --> 01:21:57,237
dollars from the these grant things. And I was saying, you can't do that unless you show

783
01:22:02,274 --> 01:22:02,274
cause that is got to be done. There were several questions I think commissioner read, if I

784
01:22:07,379 --> 01:22:07,379
remember, was saying that these are tax dollars. Right. And and I was saying that they, they

785
01:22:13,552 --> 01:22:13,552
could not be removed. Meanwhile, they really don't even have a contract. Let's not let's not

786
01:22:19,126 --> 01:22:19,126
let's not start talking about project lift. I would remind the commissioners that if they

787
01:22:24,632 --> 01:22:24,632
ask for information from either, we have now three direct employees, mr. Martel, mr.

788
01:22:30,336 --> 01:22:30,336
baggett and miss holmes. If you ask them for information, whether it's in a public

789
01:22:35,541 --> 01:22:35,541
meeting or in private, and they give you information you feel is incorrect or incomplete or a

790
01:22:42,616 --> 01:22:42,616
falsehood, you don't have to wait for the meeting to say, I'm confused. You said this,

791
01:22:48,856 --> 01:22:48,856
this, you know, could you please explain it in greater detail to me? I appreciate that

792
01:22:56,262 --> 01:22:56,262
you've drilled down, but just to. We're on the very first commissioners comments still

793
01:23:02,402 --> 01:23:02,402
and I'm so he has made the request that the item that was on for the eighth is now on for

794
01:23:11,610 --> 01:23:11,610
the 22nd. Is that sufficient? We're moving on. And does that conclude your remarks,

795
01:23:17,216 --> 01:23:17,216
commissioner reed? It does. And I want to state I'm not up here to argue. I'm here to clarify

796
01:23:21,353 --> 01:23:21,353
things for the record, on what was said at last meeting and what actually exists in a

797
01:23:26,158 --> 01:23:26,158
contract and what was actually said between the hamiltons and myself. And as far as the phone

798
01:23:30,229 --> 01:23:30,229
call, I'm not here to argue with our city manager, nor am I here to argue with you. Mayor

799
01:23:35,134 --> 01:23:35,134
rich, I just wanted to present some things that I thought needed clarified, and I respect

800
01:23:39,337 --> 01:23:39,337
where you're coming from, mike, on it. I just, I feel like I'm doing my job by stating that

801
01:23:45,477 --> 01:23:45,477
this is what they asked for, and I feel like I wouldn't be fulfilling my obligation if I

802
01:23:50,317 --> 01:23:50,317
did not at least attempt. Okay, thank you, mayor rich. The hamiltons have gotten what they

803
01:23:55,654 --> 01:23:55,654
wanted. Well, commissioner question no. You can clarify if you wanted to clarify if that

804
01:24:03,430 --> 01:24:03,430
would require them to provide information to the city manager in time to have it in the

805
01:24:11,403 --> 01:24:11,403
agenda packet for the 22nd, so that that time frame is provided to them, that anything

806
01:24:17,510 --> 01:24:17,510
that they want to have in their presentation, that they'd give it to us ahead of time in the

807
01:24:23,949 --> 01:24:23,949
time frame and have that available and then whatever guardian is going to present or

808
01:24:28,153 --> 01:24:28,153
whatever mr. Martel is going to present, that will also be on the agenda item. I want to make

809
01:24:34,992 --> 01:24:38,129
sure that we don't have any confusion and that there's complete cooperation by everyone. I've already told the hamiltons that they're not required, by law or otherwise,

810
01:24:44,236 --> 01:24:44,236
to present anything in advance, and that they don't absolutely have to give it to us. To us. I

811
01:24:50,074 --> 01:24:50,074
just wanted to give them the opportunity, if they wanted it to be attached to the agenda,

812
01:24:54,079 --> 01:24:54,079
to present it in advance. And it's got to be on the like for the eighth, it would need to be

813
01:25:00,519 --> 01:25:00,519
tomorrow, but for the 22nd it will be the ninth. On the ninth. Okay. The day after the meeting,

814
01:25:08,095 --> 01:25:08,095
I'm not obligated to know. I'm sure I could not compel them, but. Right. He can request. No

815
01:25:15,233 --> 01:25:15,233
thank you, mr. Reed. Do you have any additional unfinished commissioner job? No, it's my

816
01:25:21,073 --> 01:25:21,073
turn. Number one. I want to welcome. I also want to welcome attorney holmes. Thank you so

817
01:25:26,077 --> 01:25:26,077
much for being here. But I have to say, while we're in this budget phase, some individuals

818
01:25:31,449 --> 01:25:31,449
continue to mention the cost of hiring an environmental attorney for the city of stuart.

819
01:25:36,154 --> 01:25:36,154
I would like to remind everyone that if we do not aggressively attend to the repair of the

820
01:25:43,294 --> 01:25:43,294
saint lucie river, anything else we do in the city will mean nothing. The river

821
01:25:47,565 --> 01:25:47,565
provides life to the city. Boating, both personal and boating industry, fishing both

822
01:25:52,470 --> 01:25:52,470
personal and fishing industry and tourism. So the implication that this is not money well

823
01:25:59,913 --> 01:25:59,913
spent is misleading. I'd also like to request, now that the attorney holmes is on board, I

824
01:26:04,348 --> 01:26:04,348
would like to set up meetings with all the commissioners and the attorney so that we can

825
01:26:10,355 --> 01:26:10,355
discuss strategies, etcetera, going forward. I'll let commissioner baggett discuss it

826
01:26:18,329 --> 01:26:18,329
with you. But the only place that I, commissioner, attorney baggett, to discuss it with you,

827
01:26:23,368 --> 01:26:27,238
but the only place you can have private meetings with all the attorneys going forward would be if you're in litigation. So you have to file the lawsuit first. Otherwise it has to be

828
01:26:31,677 --> 01:26:31,677
on the dais one on one. What about one on one, one on one, one on one. You can. It's so

829
01:26:38,082 --> 01:26:38,082
much more. What she's asking if we were all there. Right. So the question is this is talking

830
01:26:42,720 --> 01:26:42,720
to basically an employee which doesn't really come under the private. It's a public, it's a

831
01:26:49,293 --> 01:26:49,293
public. If you if there's more than one commissioner present, it has to be a public meeting.

832
01:26:54,732 --> 01:26:58,369
would you like to have a workshop or something? But it's still a public meeting. All right. Well then maybe a workshop if she can make a presentation and we could

833
01:27:02,239 --> 01:27:02,239
question it more effective if we're all there to discuss it, rather than doing it one by one,

834
01:27:06,710 --> 01:27:06,710
where we haven't had the opportunity to even talk to each other as to some of the

835
01:27:11,248 --> 01:27:11,248
things we'd like to be, you know, addressed in the strategy, she could make her presentation

836
01:27:15,519 --> 01:27:15,519
and we could all speak with her, add to it. Yeah, we could do that. That's the simplest. And

837
01:27:19,823 --> 01:27:19,823
we've got room on september 8th, a little less formal on september 8th. Oh, gee, I

838
01:27:24,561 --> 01:27:24,561
wonder why, but we don't know if that's agreeable to attorney holmes. She's going to do that.

839
01:27:29,032 --> 01:27:29,032
well, we're we're able to instruct her. She's raring to go. Have to put a presentation

840
01:27:36,974 --> 01:27:36,974
together. I have to be honest. Okay, so the next thing is on the august 11th commission

841
01:27:45,384 --> 01:27:45,384
meeting, robin cartwright, a resident of stuart, stated during her public comment that

842
01:27:49,753 --> 01:27:49,753
she had reached out to the city manager, mike martel, for the opportunity to create a

843
01:27:54,360 --> 01:27:54,360
committee for residents to navigate issues with the commissioners. I agree with

844
01:27:59,029 --> 01:27:59,029
commissioner reed regarding transparency within the city government and this type of

845
01:28:04,067 --> 01:28:04,067
interaction between residents and commissioners might be the answer to gaining the public's

846
01:28:08,638 --> 01:28:08,638
trust. Once again, I would like to see this on an agenda so that the commissioners could

847
01:28:13,243 --> 01:28:13,243
discuss and vote on such a committee. Once this item has been added to the agenda, it

848
01:28:18,247 --> 01:28:18,247
might be helpful to ask miss cartwright if she would like to share her vision for this type

849
01:28:22,953 --> 01:28:22,953
of committee, and there might still be room on september 8th if miss cartwright is available.

850
01:28:28,559 --> 01:28:28,559
in response, commissioner, the original meeting I had with robin cartwright was when I was

851
01:28:34,331 --> 01:28:34,331
the city attorney and david dias was the city manager. I met with robin and virginia

852
01:28:38,334 --> 01:28:38,334
sherlock for about two hours, and we actually went over a very detailed list of things

853
01:28:42,840 --> 01:28:42,840
related to the code of conduct and other methods, and potentially creating a

854
01:28:49,080 --> 01:28:49,080
committee that would hear challenges to actions by city commissioners for one reason or

855
01:28:57,187 --> 01:28:57,187
another. It didn't end up getting put on an agenda. Then, when I became either acting

856
01:29:04,194 --> 01:29:04,194
city manager or city manager, miss cartwright brought it up again and I actually put it on

857
01:29:09,400 --> 01:29:09,400
an agenda, presented it to this board, and you guys voted and told me not to go forward. I

858
01:29:15,038 --> 01:29:15,038
think if I remember correctly, that was more about rewriting an ethical. It was the code of

859
01:29:20,243 --> 01:29:20,243
conduct and that, but it was all directly related to the exact same thing. That's what

860
01:29:25,181 --> 01:29:25,181
it was. I'm happy to put it on again. I'm just telling you that we did it. And if you guys

861
01:29:30,286 --> 01:29:30,286
want to do it again, I'm happy to. September 8th, mayor rich, may I? Yes, commissioner. I

862
01:29:34,324 --> 01:29:34,324
remember you doing it, mike. I think a big part of it was at the time was something to do

863
01:29:39,261 --> 01:29:43,066
with punishment towards city commissioners. And I think you should ask robin, because that's what it was. Was that what it was pertained? It was a committee that would hear

864
01:29:48,238 --> 01:29:48,238
complaints about commissioners and be able to address those complaints that that may have

865
01:29:54,376 --> 01:29:54,376
been. But that isn't what she mentioned on august 11th. Yeah. What is it? I'm fine. No, no, I

866
01:29:59,415 --> 01:29:59,415
mean, we can put it on september 8th. I don't have any problem hearing it. I was just

867
01:30:04,921 --> 01:30:08,491
told by the board not to. I thought that's what it was pertaining to. Well, if you the majority would like an item put back on the agenda to discuss it, you can clarify for the

868
01:30:14,164 --> 01:30:14,164
record, no, we're not going to start having people come up from the audience during

869
01:30:19,669 --> 01:30:19,669
commissioner comments. So you want to make a comment now? No, no. Okay. She will make public

870
01:30:25,775 --> 01:30:25,775
comment when she has time to make public her. So does that conclude your remarks,

871
01:30:32,348 --> 01:30:32,348
commissioner? It does, commissioner clark. Oh, brother. I have a couple of things I

872
01:30:42,491 --> 01:30:42,491
don't know. We haven't met since the passing of pastor jerry gore, who has been very

873
01:30:49,599 --> 01:30:49,599
active in our community. And his funeral was this past saturday, and he's just going

874
01:30:57,406 --> 01:30:57,406
to be a loss to our community. And I just wanted to just say that from the dais. How

875
01:31:04,481 --> 01:31:04,481
important participating in the community is. And I just wish his family and his friends and

876
01:31:12,455 --> 01:31:12,455
his entire church, it's been a great impact on the community, and I'm sure that they will

877
01:31:19,228 --> 01:31:19,228
feel the loss and will feel the loss of his participation, especially at some of these

878
01:31:25,534 --> 01:31:25,534
meetings. So that's that's that. And I heard about pastor gore's passing on my way to the league

879
01:31:33,675 --> 01:31:33,675
of cities meeting, which was around the 15th, 16th and 17th or so of 14, 15, 16 of, of

880
01:31:43,252 --> 01:31:43,252
august. And the to me, the league of cities meeting hadn't been in probably like 6 or 7

881
01:31:49,158 --> 01:31:49,158
years to one of those annual things. At least that's what it felt to me. I might have gone

882
01:31:55,330 --> 01:31:55,330
to something, but it was well attended. Of course, there's all these concerns with regard

883
01:32:01,906 --> 01:32:01,906
to sb 180 home rule and all the other things that are of concern and the things that the

884
01:32:11,247 --> 01:32:11,247
league has been pushing with our other elected officials at the especially at the state

885
01:32:18,621 --> 01:32:18,621
legislative level and even congressional level, when it comes to having funding to do

886
01:32:24,526 --> 01:32:24,526
things in our city from the from the federal government level. And I went to several

887
01:32:31,166 --> 01:32:31,166
workshops. But I think that people were very cautious. They they want to hear what's going

888
01:32:37,572 --> 01:32:37,572
on with the legislature and what's going to happen, especially when it comes to how

889
01:32:44,145 --> 01:32:44,145
sb 180 is going to be playing out and the potential for objections to that. So, and

890
01:32:53,222 --> 01:32:53,222
which is called the the joint lawsuit, which is also on this agenda today. But I'd say that

891
01:33:01,663 --> 01:33:01,663
people want to serve their cities and their communities when they get on these boards

892
01:33:08,970 --> 01:33:08,970
and councils and they are concerned. But I, I just know that people also want to be

893
01:33:17,979 --> 01:33:17,979
able to participate in a lawful manner with regard to even if you don't agree with things

894
01:33:26,388 --> 01:33:26,388
that national or state level. And so that was that was a kind of atmosphere that I felt. But

895
01:33:34,462 --> 01:33:34,462
I know that we have some very good people here on the treasure coast who have been

896
01:33:41,104 --> 01:33:41,104
participating with the league of cities and with the treasure coast league. And I must say

897
01:33:48,209 --> 01:33:48,209
that we should be thankful for the leadership that they have and that they've been pushing

898
01:33:53,917 --> 01:33:53,917
at the state level. And I just want to say that all of us together collectively, have

899
01:34:02,356 --> 01:34:02,356
been really. Working hard in the state. It's just amazing to see the the discussions that

900
01:34:11,566 --> 01:34:11,566
people had and, and to to know that there is just people are on the edge about certain

901
01:34:17,806 --> 01:34:17,806
things. And at the same time, they were very fervent and want to make sure that their

902
01:34:24,445 --> 01:34:24,445
communities are well represented. So I appreciate the opportunity to go to the

903
01:34:29,484 --> 01:34:29,484
league of cities. I have information for a personnel department, for utility

904
01:34:34,656 --> 01:34:34,656
department, for city manager. I took a lot of information and paperwork, and I still have to

905
01:34:41,562 --> 01:34:41,562
get that out to them. But I just think it was it was good for to get an opportunity to

906
01:34:48,338 --> 01:34:48,338
participate in that meeting. And the third thing I have for today is someone brought up

907
01:34:56,343 --> 01:34:56,343
project lift, and we know that that's going to be coming in soon, and they're going to be

908
01:35:01,348 --> 01:35:01,348
removing the current building that's there in what we call the old willie geary plaza. And

909
01:35:07,554 --> 01:35:07,554
I know for years the naacp has been having a small they've had permission to use the building

910
01:35:16,997 --> 01:35:16,997
there. And I, I think that there's still like to continue to have a relationship with the,

911
01:35:22,370 --> 01:35:22,370
the city. And I understand that the city may have. A mobile building that could be used if

912
01:35:32,348 --> 01:35:32,348
we can work together with a contract. And I think that we need to if it's okay, I'd ask

913
01:35:39,053 --> 01:35:39,053
if we could look into that and see if that bill, if the city can lease something to be put

914
01:35:46,260 --> 01:35:46,260
on a property which is actually close. It's it would be on private property, but it's

915
01:35:53,167 --> 01:35:53,167
actually close to the current location where they've been having their meetings on the on

916
01:36:01,375 --> 01:36:01,375
the what is called now the project lift property. Are they seven, is it 720? Martin luther

917
01:36:07,648 --> 01:36:07,648
king boulevard property. So I'd like to see if we can, if it's okay with this commission, to

918
01:36:16,123 --> 01:36:16,123
ask the city manager to possibly look into the possibility of using, what do

919
01:36:23,497 --> 01:36:23,497
you call it? I wouldn't say a trailer. It's called is it a mobile, a mobile building?

920
01:36:28,335 --> 01:36:28,335
that's I think it's an old it's a building that used to be a part of an old fire station

921
01:36:33,375 --> 01:36:33,375
that they're not using now. It's. And they, they could use that building behind the

922
01:36:39,279 --> 01:36:39,279
sheriff if they, if it could be used. I'd like to ask if we can. I don't know if we need to vote

923
01:36:45,785 --> 01:36:49,355
on investigating the possibility of doing some kind of a lease with that, so that they could be able to use it and meet meet, but they'd have to put it on their land. I

924
01:36:55,464 --> 01:36:55,464
don't know if we could ask mr. Martell to investigate that. If I need to have a vote on that,

925
01:37:00,600 --> 01:37:00,600
I'd like to ask people to, if they're interested in seeing if I could find out what it takes

926
01:37:08,942 --> 01:37:08,942
to do something like that. Yeah. Liability. I'm happy. I'm happy to look into it, to see as long

927
01:37:15,181 --> 01:37:15,181
as the commission is open to it, we could obviously secure liability. It would obviously

928
01:37:19,286 --> 01:37:19,286
be a lease. It would have to be insured and bonded, and they would need to be responsible

929
01:37:24,190 --> 01:37:24,190
for providing the land. But I can look into it and they'd take care of the liabilities if

930
01:37:29,263 --> 01:37:29,263
you. So you look into it. Is that okay with everybody for mr. Martell to look into it?

931
01:37:34,367 --> 01:37:34,367
this this was for the naacp to have a to use a mobile building that the city has, and it would

932
01:37:41,307 --> 01:37:41,307
be all fire code and everything. Yeah, yeah, they would look into all of that, of course. So

933
01:37:46,379 --> 01:37:46,379
fire building. Yeah. Well, used to be a fire station. Would that be otherwise? It's just

934
01:37:53,287 --> 01:37:53,287
well it's currently we could we would. The city has still owns it but we could, would normally

935
01:38:00,260 --> 01:38:00,260
if we didn't have another use for it, we would normally put it on government okay. And and

936
01:38:07,367 --> 01:38:07,367
sell it or dispose of it as a surplus asset. Government surplus. We haven't done that

937
01:38:13,774 --> 01:38:13,774
yet. Short term lease. But it's really the discretion of the board if you wanted to do

938
01:38:20,914 --> 01:38:20,914
something else with it, I'm pretty sure the lease would be negligible. For what time frame?

939
01:38:26,119 --> 01:38:26,119
well, well, hopefully if they can maybe get incorporated back into probably using a room at

940
01:38:31,624 --> 01:38:31,624
the new project, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how that will work out in that project. I don't

941
01:38:37,296 --> 01:38:37,296
know, I thought zach said he'd let him use portion. Yeah, a little rule I remember about

942
01:38:43,002 --> 01:38:43,002
the discussion. He said that they would be able to maybe bring back just an item where

943
01:38:47,708 --> 01:38:51,410
there's more information and we can. That's what she's asking. Okay, so that's what I'm asking. Yeah. Not a lease yet, but just more information. No, no. Right. More information. Do we have to

944
01:38:56,284 --> 01:38:56,284
have a roll call on that or just. Okay. We all agree on that okay. Thank you. Okay okay.

945
01:39:02,188 --> 01:39:02,188
it had three but I'll do for I'm definitely going to get involved with miss ruth holmes.

946
01:39:09,628 --> 01:39:09,628
and I appreciate her being here. And I hope that we can work really hard and get some things

947
01:39:17,703 --> 01:39:17,703
going, because I don't want us to become a ghost town because we have more and more

948
01:39:22,742 --> 01:39:22,742
environmental problems and problems with our water. And I know that you won't be able to

949
01:39:28,348 --> 01:39:28,348
solve everything, but we're looking forward to you working with the county and working

950
01:39:32,985 --> 01:39:32,985
with the organizations in our community to make sure that we're on top of things. All

951
01:39:39,891 --> 01:39:39,891
right. Does that conclude your remarks? Yes. Thank you, mr. Vice mayor, I have none. Okay.

952
01:39:45,897 --> 01:39:45,897
I have to stay here. All right. I'm going to be the nice commissioner this evening or

953
01:39:53,272 --> 01:39:53,272
tell a nice story. So thank you, commissioner clark, for accompanying me to the florida

954
01:39:58,377 --> 01:39:58,377
league of cities annual meeting. And it is an intense event, nonstop breakfast through

955
01:40:04,650 --> 01:40:04,650
dinner and meetings all day. There's many breakout sessions, and fortunately, we were able

956
01:40:09,288 --> 01:40:09,288
to cover most of them between us. I brought back what I think is a terrific idea for the

957
01:40:16,362 --> 01:40:16,362
school zone we've been working on, and mr. Martell is going to bring that to us. So this is

958
01:40:25,203 --> 01:40:25,203
the job as mayor does have considerable challenges, but it also has some terrific benefits.

959
01:40:31,577 --> 01:40:31,577
and one of them is I get to meet people on a fairly serious level that I otherwise, let's

960
01:40:38,149 --> 01:40:38,149
be honest, I'd never would encounter them. And one of them was pastor gore and. He was a

961
01:40:46,492 --> 01:40:46,492
very interesting guy. He felt very strongly about community, his community. He took to the

962
01:40:54,332 --> 01:40:54,332
time to share those concerns with me. And I was I really enjoyed and valued the fact

963
01:41:01,440 --> 01:41:01,440
that I got to know him, and I had the honor of reading a proclamation from the city at

964
01:41:11,382 --> 01:41:11,382
was that the first methodist? Is that what that was? United methodist, united methodist.

965
01:41:18,423 --> 01:41:18,423
and that place was completely full. I was I had no idea the influence and impact this. I

966
01:41:30,401 --> 01:41:30,401
mean, he's sort of diminutive in stature, but boy, he's big in heart and spirit. And it was

967
01:41:39,009 --> 01:41:39,009
such a privilege to be able to stand in front of that group of people who cared so much about

968
01:41:45,283 --> 01:41:45,283
him and share the city's acknowledgment and respect for his contribution. And I just

969
01:41:55,930 --> 01:41:55,930
wanted to say that. Mr. Mordell, are you talked out or do you have additional comment?

970
01:42:04,335 --> 01:42:04,335
nothing further. Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the agenda? Approval of the

971
01:42:10,408 --> 01:42:10,408
agenda is published. No items to be moved up or down. Okay, okay. We have a motion by

972
01:42:16,047 --> 01:42:16,047
commissioner clark. We have a second by the vice mayor. Is there any public comment on

973
01:42:20,785 --> 01:42:20,785
this seeing? None. All in favor, I. Okay, madam clerk comments. I do have one. It's robin

974
01:42:30,294 --> 01:42:30,294
cartwright. I came tonight to talk about the senate bill, but I'm really beyond annoyed. Mr.

975
01:42:41,272 --> 01:42:41,272
martell, you are no victim. Nobody is blaming you for anything. The truth of the

976
01:42:45,342 --> 01:42:45,342
hamilton's case is it was shoddy work done. Period. Full stop. End of story. If guardian

977
01:42:50,414 --> 01:42:50,414
or the city of stuart paid any bills when they saw the shoddy work that was done, that is on

978
01:42:57,087 --> 01:42:57,087
the guardians in the city of stuart. There is no other way to say it. You are responsible.

979
01:43:02,226 --> 01:43:06,030
guardians is responsible for processing it. There are documented issues with all of it. Regardless of how you feel about the hamiltons. Mr. Martell, you are no victim in

980
01:43:10,067 --> 01:43:10,067
this situation, but I want to be very clear about the comment that commissioner job gave me

981
01:43:15,206 --> 01:43:15,206
credit for. When commissioner, when miss sherlock and I met with mr. Martell, that was in

982
01:43:20,378 --> 01:43:20,378
october of 2022, and it was to discuss the actions of a commissioner. Commissioner

983
01:43:25,449 --> 01:43:25,449
bruner, who represented the city without authority on a youtube channel with the

984
01:43:29,486 --> 01:43:29,486
chamber of commerce. And I wrote to mr. Martell expressing my concern about how it was a

985
01:43:34,758 --> 01:43:34,758
policy violation of the city's code of conduct. And mr. Martell wrote me a very lengthy

986
01:43:39,530 --> 01:43:39,530
email on october 21st, 2022. If you would like to do a public records request for it, or I

987
01:43:46,102 --> 01:43:46,102
can forward it to you and miss sherlock actually responded to mr. Martell, which is why we

988
01:43:50,107 --> 01:43:50,107
had that meeting, to have the discussion that we did. And I'm just going to read you a couple

989
01:43:55,112 --> 01:43:55,112
highlights, because I keep everything just for this reason. This is from miss sherlock. I'm

990
01:43:59,118 --> 01:44:02,152
very disturbed by your responses to robin cartwright's email asserting alleged violations of the city's code of conduct. For commissioner bruner, you advise, robin that

991
01:44:06,356 --> 01:44:10,329
the process for citizens to request an investigation of an alleged violation of the code of conduct is to file a complaint with the florida commission on ethics. I'm sure

992
01:44:14,197 --> 01:44:17,768
you know, however, that the commission on ethics does not investigate complaints based on alleged violation of local guidelines or conduct like the city of swartz code of conduct

993
01:44:21,172 --> 01:44:21,172
for commissioners. She then goes on to say, you advise robin that quote, if the city

994
01:44:27,144 --> 01:44:27,144
manager determines there is a violation of the code of conduct, then he will address

995
01:44:31,148 --> 01:44:34,417
that with commissioner bruner and whoever else he deems appropriate. But it would amount to a human resources policy issue. Your responses to robin's complaint, which have

996
01:44:38,689 --> 01:44:42,492
been adopted by the city manager, are clearly an effort to dismiss the allegations without independent or unbiased review to determine the validity of the allegations.

997
01:44:46,363 --> 01:44:46,363
this is not authorized by the code of conduct or the city code, and does not reflect an

998
01:44:51,303 --> 01:44:54,238
interest in upholding the public's interest in responding to residents concerns on integrity. This is why we asked for the commission so that there would be an opportunity

999
01:44:59,376 --> 01:44:59,376
for people like me who have a grievance with people like mr. Martel or any of the

1000
01:45:03,613 --> 01:45:03,613
commissioners to basically field and vet these concerns so that they could be reviewed and

1001
01:45:09,553 --> 01:45:09,553
appropriate nonpartisan, nonparty affiliated person could give guidance on what

1002
01:45:14,493 --> 01:45:14,493
this looks like. It could be go to the commission on ethics, it could be directed to human

1003
01:45:19,329 --> 01:45:19,329
resources, or it could be these are other resources. You're valid. Your complaint is not

1004
01:45:24,134 --> 01:45:24,134
necessarily valid. But I hear you and it definitely needs to be addressed. The hamiltons

1005
01:45:28,304 --> 01:45:28,304
need to be heard. People like me need to be heard. And, mr. Martell, if you disparage me

1006
01:45:33,609 --> 01:45:33,609
one more time, I'm seriously going to file a complaint with the commission on ethics. I

1007
01:45:43,252 --> 01:45:43,252
have no further public comment. Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the consent

1008
01:45:48,324 --> 01:45:48,324
calendar? Move approval of the consent calendar, which is actually item number three.

1009
01:45:53,329 --> 01:45:53,329
second, and we have a motion by commissioner clark and a second by the vice mayor. Is there any

1010
01:45:58,367 --> 01:45:58,367
public comment on this issue? Seeing none. All in favor, I okay. Mr. Baggett, could you

1011
01:46:05,242 --> 01:46:05,242
read item four, please, for our consideration? Sure. Resolution number 82, dash 2025, a

1012
01:46:11,314 --> 01:46:14,717
resolution of the city commission of the city of stuart, florida, authorizing participation in a lawsuit seeking, among other things, to declare that senate bill one

1013
01:46:21,724 --> 01:46:21,724
8180 imposition of a blanket statewide prohibition on the exercise of home rule authority

1014
01:46:27,196 --> 01:46:27,196
over land use and zoning regulations is unconstitutional and should be enjoined and

1015
01:46:33,269 --> 01:46:33,269
retaining weiss, serota, hoffman, cole, plus bierman pl, I.e. A law firm to prosecute

1016
01:46:39,842 --> 01:46:39,842
the lawsuit and providing for an effective date. I know we discussed you wish to make

1017
01:46:48,250 --> 01:46:48,250
comments on this? Sure. We've already previously discussed this issue. You guys asked us

1018
01:46:56,426 --> 01:46:56,426
to bring back a resolution authorizing the city to join the lawsuit. I think it's

1019
01:47:03,332 --> 01:47:03,332
important to note that the attorney client relationship in this lawsuit is going to be

1020
01:47:09,304 --> 01:47:09,304
different than what you might be used to with our other outside counsel, as we would

1021
01:47:14,745 --> 01:47:14,745
have florida sunshine shade meetings where we could talk to the attorneys on a regular

1022
01:47:19,449 --> 01:47:19,449
basis about the status of the case, the settlement of the case. It's my opinion that

1023
01:47:24,620 --> 01:47:28,323
you're not going to have that relationship in this case. So you're part of a it's not a class action, but you're going to be a group with a large group of plaintiffs. And I just

1024
01:47:33,295 --> 01:47:33,295
wanted to point that out, that that is going to be a little bit different. You're not going

1025
01:47:39,102 --> 01:47:39,102
to have a lot of say so or decisions in the case you're you're going along for the ride,

1026
01:47:44,073 --> 01:47:44,073
I guess is a good way of putting it. And the law firm will probably be making

1027
01:47:48,210 --> 01:47:48,210
majority of the decisions they can't have, let's say 30 cities join up. You can't have 30

1028
01:47:54,149 --> 01:47:54,149
shade meetings to try and make a decision in the case. So you're kind of giving up some

1029
01:47:59,321 --> 01:47:59,321
of the power by joining the case. But there is strength in numbers. Obviously if you have

1030
01:48:04,327 --> 01:48:04,327
a large number of cities, you're going to make a more of an impact against the state. In

1031
01:48:11,032 --> 01:48:11,032
this in the resolution, we are waiving potential conflicts because an attorney is

1032
01:48:15,872 --> 01:48:15,872
representing multiple parties in the same action. It could it a conflict could arise with the

1033
01:48:20,576 --> 01:48:20,576
attorney. If the attorney is making a decision about the case, like I mentioned, the

1034
01:48:25,146 --> 01:48:25,146
attorney can't have every single city make a make the decision. So there are some

1035
01:48:30,622 --> 01:48:30,622
potential conflicts that we're going to be waiving. One good thing about it is if we went on

1036
01:48:37,459 --> 01:48:37,459
our own with our own law firm, we'd be paying a much higher bill. With this opportunity, we

1037
01:48:42,365 --> 01:48:42,365
are capped at a maximum of $20,000. $10,000 is for the initial case. And that's that's

1038
01:48:49,203 --> 01:48:49,203
through the regular circuit court. You know, we would this case is probably going to be

1039
01:48:54,742 --> 01:48:58,317
expedited. It's probably they're going to file it. I did speak to them. They're going to file it up in tallahassee and leon county. That's where they're going to file the case.

1040
01:49:02,484 --> 01:49:02,484
on behalf of all the cities that join, probably within six months, you're going to have a

1041
01:49:07,223 --> 01:49:07,223
summary judgment motion at the trial court level, and then you get a final judgment that's

1042
01:49:11,361 --> 01:49:11,361
going to be ten grand if it gets appealed to the first district court of appeal, it's

1043
01:49:15,396 --> 01:49:15,396
another five grand. And if it goes to the florida supreme court, it's another five grand

1044
01:49:19,401 --> 01:49:19,401
thereafter. So you are capped at a maximum of $20,000 exposure on the attorney's fees.

1045
01:49:27,375 --> 01:49:27,375
I. Wanted to address, you know, we were getting solicitations from the law firm. And I

1046
01:49:36,384 --> 01:49:36,384
believe commissioner dory howington, a commissioner from deltona, and I just wanted to

1047
01:49:42,424 --> 01:49:42,424
address a couple of things. I saw some at least one communication where she said,

1048
01:49:49,231 --> 01:49:49,231
if you join, if you don't join the case, you may be left out. I don't necessarily agree with

1049
01:49:55,403 --> 01:49:55,403
that assertion. There's going to be we're going to be seeking injunctive relief and

1050
01:50:01,410 --> 01:50:01,410
declaratory relief. And I want to separate both in the case just to explain to you. So

1051
01:50:09,184 --> 01:50:09,184
they're going to file a case, a loss, a lawsuit on behalf of any and all cities and counties

1052
01:50:14,122 --> 01:50:14,122
that join. And they're also going to file an emergency motion for an injunction. An

1053
01:50:18,526 --> 01:50:22,130
injunction is to stop someone from doing something. They're going to seek an injunction asking the state of florida to stop enforcing senate bill 180 against us and the other cities

1054
01:50:28,903 --> 01:50:28,903
during the pendency of the lawsuit. So it's a temporary injunction pending the outcome

1055
01:50:35,243 --> 01:50:35,243
of the the long term and the end of this case. They have to prove to get a temporary

1056
01:50:41,217 --> 01:50:44,487
injunction during the pendency of the case, a highly likelihood of success. So they may or may not prevail on that. And so if you weren't in the case, there's a potential some

1057
01:50:50,558 --> 01:50:50,558
case law out there that you might not be included in that injunction. However, the case

1058
01:50:57,098 --> 01:50:57,098
itself is seeking declaratory relief, and the declaratory relief is that this law is

1059
01:51:02,070 --> 01:51:02,070
unconstitutional. If the lawsuit prevails and it is declared unconstitutional, then

1060
01:51:07,241 --> 01:51:07,241
it applies to all cities. So she kind of made in one of her communications that if you

1061
01:51:12,814 --> 01:51:12,814
don't join, you won't get the relief. But I think there's kind of half it's kind of half

1062
01:51:18,519 --> 01:51:18,519
correct and half incorrect. And I wanted to make that distinction because I feel like

1063
01:51:22,557 --> 01:51:22,557
you might have had some questions regarding that statement. And. If you have any

1064
01:51:30,164 --> 01:51:30,164
questions, I'd be happy to discuss or answer any further questions about the case. But I

1065
01:51:37,438 --> 01:51:41,275
think I've just described everything that I wanted to that I had any questions of mr. Baggett from the commission? Thank you. Lee. If not, do we have a motion? I'd move

1066
01:51:49,216 --> 01:51:49,216
approval resolution 82 2025. I'll second. We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second

1067
01:51:58,358 --> 01:51:58,358
by commissioner job. Is there any public comment on this item? I don't have any currently.

1068
01:52:05,032 --> 01:52:05,032
none. Okay. Are there any questions or comments amongst the commissioners? Okay. None.

1069
01:52:16,544 --> 01:52:16,544
oh, okay. Mr. Vice, you're the maker of the motion. I would just like to say I'm all for

1070
01:52:23,784 --> 01:52:23,784
this. You know, as one of these whereas clauses says sb 180 is unconstitutional and invalid.

1071
01:52:32,459 --> 01:52:32,459
and my my hope is that more municipalities jump on. I know we're going to be the first

1072
01:52:39,233 --> 01:52:39,233
wave and the tip of the spear here. I hope more municipalities jump in because

1073
01:52:43,238 --> 01:52:43,238
I believe this is what I can't speak for florida residents overall. But in martin county,

1074
01:52:51,145 --> 01:52:51,145
we want to protect the martin county difference. You know, this is what I believe voters

1075
01:52:55,349 --> 01:52:55,349
want the city of stuart. And my hope is that martin county will join in and follow suit with

1076
01:53:01,388 --> 01:53:01,388
what we're doing as well here. And because as of yet, they've been pretty quiet. But this is

1077
01:53:07,094 --> 01:53:07,094
the right thing to do. This is us fighting back. And truly, I mean it when I say this is the

1078
01:53:15,002 --> 01:53:15,002
alamo. If sb 180 is not struck down, you know, can cities even really can counties even

1079
01:53:24,612 --> 01:53:24,612
protect that slow growth difference anymore? Probably not. So this is this is it for

1080
01:53:31,551 --> 01:53:31,551
me. This is the alamo. And I'm just so thankful that that this is happening and we have the

1081
01:53:37,691 --> 01:53:37,691
opportunity to join it. Commissioner clark oh, I did I know that I've heard about

1082
01:53:47,267 --> 01:53:47,267
communities wanting to join, and I just wanted to ask mr. Baggett with regard to the

1083
01:53:55,208 --> 01:53:55,208
status as to the governor and some of these communities that are weighed in, especially

1084
01:54:00,448 --> 01:54:00,448
counties. I think I think it was manatee county. I was reading about them when we've

1085
01:54:05,318 --> 01:54:05,318
already taken that step. And of course, we're taking it. We we would take a further step today.

1086
01:54:11,124 --> 01:54:11,124
but I was just wondering, what is what is the status with regard to some of these

1087
01:54:19,232 --> 01:54:19,232
communities that are supposedly going to be in this first wave? Nobody has done anything yet

1088
01:54:26,906 --> 01:54:26,906
per se, who has joined? Is that what you're asking? Yeah, I'm asking, I, I asked that

1089
01:54:32,112 --> 01:54:32,112
question of I've spoken to two different lawyers at the law firm, and I've asked that

1090
01:54:37,117 --> 01:54:37,117
question who all's joined and have do you have the ten. The ten. Yeah. They need okay. So I

1091
01:54:44,190 --> 01:54:44,190
need to back up because the, the proposal for the cap of 10,000, 5005 thousand is this

1092
01:54:49,261 --> 01:54:49,261
as long as they have a minimum unicipalities or counties that join, they felt

1093
01:54:54,436 --> 01:54:54,436
pretty confident they're going to get that number. I asked who's joined but they wouldn't

1094
01:54:58,470 --> 01:54:58,470
identify who. To me on the phone. And did they say how many? No, they I think we would

1095
01:55:07,513 --> 01:55:07,513
be number seven. From my understanding, they wouldn't identify the number or or who

1096
01:55:14,120 --> 01:55:14,120
has joined or not joined to me on the phone. They, they said that they will be in touch with

1097
01:55:19,358 --> 01:55:19,358
us on it, but that's they didn't not want to answer my question on it. I'd like to

1098
01:55:26,699 --> 01:55:26,699
take this opportunity, mr. Mayor. I wanted to add something. Something else came

1099
01:55:31,036 --> 01:55:31,036
to mind. We have 314 day notice letters from residents slash business owners in the in the

1100
01:55:37,343 --> 01:55:37,343
city that are threatening to sue us under senate bill 180. And last time, I think I

1101
01:55:43,248 --> 01:55:43,248
indicated there were two. I got a third one today. And so I just wanted to this is a good

1102
01:55:48,354 --> 01:55:48,354
opportunity to tell you that if we get sued, we're going to be defending the case based on it

1103
01:55:55,194 --> 01:55:55,194
being unconstitutional. So we're going to have ongoing conversations with the law firm

1104
01:56:00,099 --> 01:56:00,099
because they're going to be suing as a plaintiff seeking that it's unconstitutional.

1105
01:56:04,437 --> 01:56:04,437
we're going to have another case or multiple cases saying on the defense side that it's

1106
01:56:09,341 --> 01:56:09,341
unconstitutional. So we're going to have to seek action in when we're defending the case,

1107
01:56:16,315 --> 01:56:16,315
whether or not we can seek a stay of the defense of the case, because there's this other

1108
01:56:20,952 --> 01:56:24,556
lawsuit going. And I think that would probably be up to the particular judge that's assigned the case, whether or not he or she would like to stay the case, because there's

1109
01:56:28,593 --> 01:56:28,593
another potential litigation against the state of florida claiming unconstitutional. So

1110
01:56:33,932 --> 01:56:33,932
consolidating, I don't know. That's that's I otherwise you would have two different you

1111
01:56:38,437 --> 01:56:38,437
could have two different outcomes, you know, or and if we get sued multiple times we'd

1112
01:56:43,742 --> 01:56:47,246
have multiple. I could definitely see in martin county, if we had three lawsuits they would combine the lawsuits into one. So it's just judicial economy. It's better than

1113
01:56:51,616 --> 01:56:51,616
having three separate lawsuits. I don't know how it would be handled if they're suing in

1114
01:56:55,721 --> 01:56:55,721
tallahassee, and we have a case here that we're defending and I don't I don't this would be

1115
01:57:01,461 --> 01:57:01,461
handled by outside counsel and on the defense side and on the plaintiff side. So we would be

1116
01:57:08,166 --> 01:57:08,166
retaining outside counsel to defend the city for any lawsuit or lawsuits. I don't want to

1117
01:57:15,306 --> 01:57:15,306
speak ahead of time right now. And they might have a different, you know, strategy or or

1118
01:57:20,378 --> 01:57:20,378
recommendation on moving forward on that. So you may continue to ask questions. And

1119
01:57:24,683 --> 01:57:24,683
what is the hard and fast relationship with this law firm that it will be limited to the

1120
01:57:32,557 --> 01:57:32,557
10,000, then the five and five? Or will we be suddenly asked for more money and more money?

1121
01:57:39,431 --> 01:57:43,334
more money? I mean, there is a condition that they need ten minimum, so they might come back at nine. I don't I don't know if they're going to live up to the, to the limit. They

1122
01:57:49,140 --> 01:57:49,140
could come back and change the amount. But if they get ten, I think that's that's the number

1123
01:57:53,578 --> 01:57:57,149
that, you know, they drafted the, the the resolution that you have attached to it. So yeah, I can't see them bowing out on that. But I think they're locked in if they have

1124
01:58:03,221 --> 01:58:03,221
a minimum of ten or you know, if they have 20 same thing. They're locked in. I think pr

1125
01:58:09,394 --> 01:58:09,394
wise it would be bad for him. District court they I did ask today, are we going in federal

1126
01:58:16,266 --> 01:58:16,266
court or state court. And they said state court in leon county in tallahassee. I know that

1127
01:58:23,110 --> 01:58:23,110
you've probably read noel. We haven't gotten to reading the title yet. But for members of

1128
01:58:28,379 --> 01:58:28,379
the public who don't know what's in this. I was thinking of something that I'd ask you.

1129
01:58:39,824 --> 01:58:39,824
no, no, no, I did. I was looking at something. I heard smile. Yeah. I think the

1130
01:58:47,183 --> 01:58:47,183
main thing is that, you know, the part about the unconstitutionality. That's one

1131
01:58:52,256 --> 01:58:52,256
of the biggest. Whereas clause that comes up. So. I don't have any other questions on this.

1132
01:59:05,368 --> 01:59:05,368
any other comments or questions? I just have a brief comment. We've enacted ordinances that

1133
01:59:13,509 --> 01:59:13,509
are clearly in violation of our comprehensive plan. We're in direct violation of state law

1134
01:59:19,214 --> 01:59:19,214
by failing to rescind, and we have no business getting involved with this lawsuit at

1135
01:59:26,590 --> 01:59:26,590
this time. Roll call, please, madam clerk. Commissioner. Clerk. Public. Oh, I'm sorry.

1136
01:59:34,196 --> 01:59:34,196
public comment. Right. She's. No there there was no public comment. She had none. I don't

1137
01:59:40,103 --> 01:59:40,103
have any. Okay. Any public comment? No. Yeah. We're voting no. Let's allow public comment

1138
01:59:48,076 --> 01:59:48,076
on the public comment. You've got to provide. Okay. Come on. Did you take my vote already?

1139
01:59:55,183 --> 01:59:55,183
are you going to let me get through it again? I. Voted walter lloyd 150 cabana point

1140
02:00:04,227 --> 02:00:04,227
circle. It's amazing to me that the mayor wouldn't invite the public to comment, and I'm just

1141
02:00:13,435 --> 02:00:13,435
so refreshed by the the. Yes, public comment that. And then when I said I'm ready, he said,

1142
02:00:26,148 --> 02:00:26,148
no, we're voting because I know that we're not supposed to have debate here. But no, you're

1143
02:00:32,454 --> 02:00:32,454
right anyway. I'm refreshed by the members that do look to the public for their comment. Also,

1144
02:00:39,461 --> 02:00:39,461
as to the gentleman that's making the comment here, I, I got to see how he acted when he

1145
02:00:46,268 --> 02:00:46,268
was sitting up there. And I'm just thankful for who we have. I applaud you for standing

1146
02:00:53,742 --> 02:00:53,742
strong for the people that voted for you. Fear is never a reason to make a decision. We

1147
02:01:00,950 --> 02:01:00,950
know that. So I just want you to continue standing strong for the people, even if it meant

1148
02:01:07,255 --> 02:01:07,255
your removal. You're standing strong for your convictions and for what we elected you to do.

1149
02:01:14,430 --> 02:01:14,430
thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. I have no further public comment. Okay, let's try

1150
02:01:22,537 --> 02:01:22,537
the vote again. Please roll call. Commissioner clark. No. Vice mayor collins. Yes. Mayor.

1151
02:01:30,512 --> 02:01:30,512
rich? No. Commissioner. Job. Yes. Commissioner. Reed. Yes. Okay. Mr. Baggett, will you.

1152
02:01:40,355 --> 02:01:40,355
motion passes. Will you please read item five for our consideration, please? Again,

1153
02:01:45,961 --> 02:01:45,961
I'd like to point out this is the first reading of this ordinance. Ordinance number

1154
02:01:50,231 --> 02:01:50,231
2544 dash 2025, an ordinance of the city commission of the city of stuart, florida, amending

1155
02:01:56,204 --> 02:01:56,204
the text to section 11.01 .02 of the city's land development code by deleting the public

1156
02:02:02,310 --> 02:02:02,310
hearing requirement for major development projects greater than 50,000ft■!s and replacing t

1157
02:02:08,617 --> 02:02:08,617
with public presentation with a public presentation to the city commission requirement.

1158
02:02:15,423 --> 02:02:15,423
providing for conflict. Providing for codification, providing for an effective date

1159
02:02:20,829 --> 02:02:20,829
and for other purposes. Back in april, the city commission had directed staff to initiate a

1160
02:02:26,968 --> 02:02:26,968
text amendment to land development code, changing the public hearing requirement to a

1161
02:02:33,274 --> 02:02:33,274
public presentation requirement. You might have. The question is, how can we do the amendment

1162
02:02:40,114 --> 02:02:40,114
here? But we're not allowed to do it under zoning and progress. It's the city's position that

1163
02:02:45,086 --> 02:02:45,086
this is not making the land development code more restrictive. It's actually

1164
02:02:49,457 --> 02:02:49,457
making it less restrictive, which would not violate senate bill 180. So we are able to to

1165
02:02:56,198 --> 02:02:56,198
make these text changes to the code. I also want to point out that we have the public hearing

1166
02:03:05,173 --> 02:03:05,173
with the local planning agency last week, and they approved this. They approved

1167
02:03:10,811 --> 02:03:10,811
recommending approval of this ordinance with a caveat that to leave the public notice

1168
02:03:16,984 --> 02:03:16,984
requirement. And if you look at. The red lines in it, in the in the proposed text deletions,

1169
02:03:28,496 --> 02:03:28,496
there's a paragraph, it's paragraph f, and it has city commission public hearing

1170
02:03:34,602 --> 02:03:38,172
notice. Notice of the public hearing shall be provided by mailing and by posting the subject. Property requirements for notice for public hearings can be found in section 11.02

1171
02:03:43,777 --> 02:03:43,777
.00. So the lpa recommended approval of the changes, with the caveat of putting that back

1172
02:03:50,919 --> 02:03:50,919
in. And so what they wanted is at a public hearing, you have to put out we have our

1173
02:03:58,626 --> 02:03:58,626
ordinance that requires us to put notification out by mail and by posting on the property.

1174
02:04:04,267 --> 02:04:04,267
and so they wanted that requirement to still be there just for the presentation. So,

1175
02:04:09,937 --> 02:04:09,937
you know, a public hearing is quasi judicial. The folks are under oath. There's a

1176
02:04:14,508 --> 02:04:14,508
presentation from staff and from the applicant. You guys vote on it with a presentation.

1177
02:04:19,580 --> 02:04:19,580
it's just merely a presentation to notify you and the public of this project going on. And we

1178
02:04:25,019 --> 02:04:25,019
cannot vote no. Well, that's there would be no vote in a presentation. So that's kind of

1179
02:04:31,259 --> 02:04:31,259
the issue, I guess this these it was set up originally to create a public notice by

1180
02:04:37,065 --> 02:04:37,065
having a public hearing. And it put the board in an awkward situation where it appeared

1181
02:04:42,203 --> 02:04:42,203
that they could vote no, but they really couldn't vote no because it was in compliance

1182
02:04:46,441 --> 02:04:46,441
with the code. Right. So this way we're alleviating it's a public service. Do we have a

1183
02:04:57,386 --> 02:04:57,386
motion? I had my light on. What do you have? I asked a question after we have a motion. I'm

1184
02:05:04,092 --> 02:05:04,092
sorry. No go. So I'll make a motion so that I can ask a question with regard with

1185
02:05:10,030 --> 02:05:10,030
regard to resolution 2544 2025 move approval. We have a motion by commissioner clark and a

1186
02:05:20,177 --> 02:05:20,177
whispered second by the vice mayor. He did. Okay, so my question is I didn't see the

1187
02:05:28,483 --> 02:05:28,483
lpa minutes, but I know that it just happened recently. But I'm glad that mr. Baggett mentioned

1188
02:05:35,222 --> 02:05:35,222
the lpa vote on this matter. I was concerned about the difference between residential

1189
02:05:42,096 --> 02:05:42,096
and commercial, but I was told that 50,000ft■!s is 50,000ft■!sd of course, the whole idea of

1190
02:05:52,106 --> 02:05:52,106
whether or not it's. The, the, the publication part of it and whether or not even when you

1191
02:06:02,315 --> 02:06:02,315
have that presentation, it is just a presentation for the sake of the public before the

1192
02:06:07,954 --> 02:06:07,954
commission. It cannot be turned down by the commission. It's just to advise the public that

1193
02:06:16,963 --> 02:06:16,963
whatever is happening on that property, over 50,000ft■!s is happening there, whether it's

1194
02:06:24,541 --> 02:06:24,541
whether it's residential or commercial and. I hope it'll be okay. I mean, we we've done we

1195
02:06:35,048 --> 02:06:35,048
this has been there, but it's just been the con the I guess you'd call it. I don't know if

1196
02:06:43,225 --> 02:06:43,225
it's a confusion, but potential conflict or, or misunderstanding in how it's

1197
02:06:50,263 --> 02:06:50,263
actually carried out, but making this plain and letting people understand that this is

1198
02:06:57,671 --> 02:06:57,671
how it's going to be carried out and there won't be any vote. It's just having it here in

1199
02:07:03,477 --> 02:07:03,477
front of the commission to speak about it, to make a presentation about it, for the

1200
02:07:08,681 --> 02:07:08,681
knowledge and information of the public. And people might say, well, I'm here because I

1201
02:07:14,489 --> 02:07:14,489
don't agree with it, and it's going to go, well, it's something that can be done and

1202
02:07:21,494 --> 02:07:21,494
that has been approved. Whether it's I guess it's administratively and it's

1203
02:07:26,634 --> 02:07:26,634
something that could be done there. And we the commission at that time cannot deny that

1204
02:07:34,273 --> 02:07:34,273
project. That's correct. Mr. Baggett, do you wish to clarify? Yeah, just wanted to clarify.

1205
02:07:40,215 --> 02:07:40,215
so the way the ordinance is drafted is it does not include public notice because I have

1206
02:07:45,217 --> 02:07:45,217
that deleted. So that's what I was wondering. Yeah. So you would motion to approve the

1207
02:07:50,390 --> 02:07:50,390
ordinance as it's drafted. So the public know. So I'm just pointing out I agree you

1208
02:07:55,528 --> 02:07:55,528
brought that up to number two. This is the first reading. So we still have to come back for

1209
02:08:02,170 --> 02:08:02,170
second reading okay okay. So normally what we do is we do a motion to transmit to the

1210
02:08:06,273 --> 02:08:10,243
second reading. But I know you've already and I neglected to say that at the at the beginning of my introduction. But since you do have a motion, if you want to clarify that my

1211
02:08:15,214 --> 02:08:15,214
seconder agrees with whatever you just said, right. To add that language. So making sure

1212
02:08:20,153 --> 02:08:20,153
that we're still including public notice. Yeah. So paragraph f would be brought

1213
02:08:26,292 --> 02:08:26,292
back in. And I can make those changes by the second reading. I wasn't able to do it because

1214
02:08:31,099 --> 02:08:31,099
it was already posted on the agenda for the first reading. Even though because the lpa

1215
02:08:36,635 --> 02:08:36,635
happened last week, it wouldn't have to go back to the lpa. No, no. Okay. Okay. Now public do

1216
02:08:42,274 --> 02:08:42,274
we have public comment on this item? Madam clerk, I have none. You have none. Okay. Any

1217
02:08:49,281 --> 02:08:49,281
additional comments or questions from the commissioners? Are you doing

1218
02:08:53,319 --> 02:08:53,319
all right down there, commissioner joe? You're uncomfortable, I am okay, I'm

1219
02:08:57,456 --> 02:08:57,456
sorry. That's okay. Yeah, she plays hurt. You gotta give her credit. Okay. Roll call please.

1220
02:09:05,200 --> 02:09:05,200
mayor. Rich. Yes, commissioner. Reed. Yes, commissioner. Giovi. Yes, vice mayor collins. Yes,

1221
02:09:13,672 --> 02:09:13,672
commissioner. Clark. Yes. That we can do it. I should have said no. Good idea. You

1222
02:09:20,947 --> 02:09:20,947
probably could change it. Just mr. Baggott or mr. Martel. Would you like to lead the d

1223
02:09:25,183 --> 02:09:25,183
and d on item six, please? Certainly. I don't know if any of you had a chance to click on

1224
02:09:33,858 --> 02:09:33,858
the attachments to item number six on the d and d, but on june 20th. I'm sorry. Yes. Do you

1225
02:09:42,734 --> 02:09:42,734
have a question? So yes, it's just the d and d so there won't be to excuse myself. That's

1226
02:09:48,106 --> 02:09:48,106
fine. That's why I was asking. Thank you. Okay. Why don't we wait for her to. Leave the dais?

1227
02:09:55,213 --> 02:09:55,213
mr. Martel, do you need some assistance? Okay. It's just that when I sit that long. Yeah,

1228
02:10:03,956 --> 02:10:03,956
yeah, I get it. So for. For what it's worth, on june 23rd, a gentleman from jensen beach

1229
02:10:11,296 --> 02:10:11,296
came in and said that the left turn lane on us one at lockhart street in its current condition

1230
02:10:19,003 --> 02:10:19,003
was dangerous, and he presented a photograph and I attached the photograph to the agenda item.

1231
02:10:24,242 --> 02:10:24,242
and I have it on my computer right here if you want to look at it and see it. But the fact

1232
02:10:30,482 --> 02:10:30,482
is, you can see the dashboard of his, like the where the camera was held below the

1233
02:10:35,821 --> 02:10:35,821
dashboard of his car. You ever sat in your car and had your eyes below the dashboard of the

1234
02:10:41,292 --> 02:10:41,292
car? That too would create a fairly dangerous circumstance for you. When driving. I

1235
02:10:46,631 --> 02:10:46,631
attached pictures three and four to the agenda to show what it actually looks like. When

1236
02:10:52,138 --> 02:10:52,138
milton took the picture the next day, when you were sitting behind the dashboard of a car

1237
02:10:58,043 --> 02:10:58,043
regularly and well, he's got that big rig. But anyway, paragraph four gives you a

1238
02:11:06,151 --> 02:11:06,151
comparison of a car that was in front of him to show you what the visuals look like. In any

1239
02:11:13,425 --> 02:11:13,425
event, during the meeting, the commission discussed and said that this intersection was very

1240
02:11:20,065 --> 02:11:20,065
dangerous and needed to be modified. This is us highway one, the only modification that

1241
02:11:29,240 --> 02:11:29,240
the city of stuart can make is to remove all of the landscaping from the center

1242
02:11:35,313 --> 02:11:35,313
median. We maintain the landscaping well below the threshold that's set by florida

1243
02:11:43,487 --> 02:11:43,487
department of transportation. It was went out and measured it that week and it was 18. I

1244
02:11:48,226 --> 02:11:48,226
think 36in is the maximum height it can be, and it was between 12 and 18in. But

1245
02:11:54,031 --> 02:11:54,031
because the commission concluded that in the position it was in, between 12 and 18in

1246
02:12:00,204 --> 02:12:00,204
was dangerous, that means now that if there's a car accident. And we have it in this

1247
02:12:09,146 --> 02:12:09,146
condition, the city will be liable for failing to maintain it in a more safe condition. So

1248
02:12:15,222 --> 02:12:15,222
I need some direction from the commission as to whether you believe the intersection

1249
02:12:20,425 --> 02:12:20,425
actually was dangerous, or whether you want me to bring back an agenda item and notify

1250
02:12:26,030 --> 02:12:26,030
florida department of transportation that you want to remove the landscaping. I think

1251
02:12:32,803 --> 02:12:32,803
it's fine. I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Dangerous. Mr. Not dangerous. It's fine. I would

1252
02:12:40,110 --> 02:12:40,110
agree with that assessment, commissioner clark, do you have any comments? I turn left on sr

1253
02:12:47,318 --> 02:12:47,318
five every time. I don't like it and I don't like the oak tree and stuff, but I don't

1254
02:12:53,190 --> 02:12:53,190
think it's dangerous. Well, it's further down the median. Yeah, I don't I don't think

1255
02:12:58,562 --> 02:12:58,562
it's dangerous, but it's like any other tricky intersection. But it's been a big it's always

1256
02:13:05,437 --> 02:13:05,437
been there and. I think it's fine and I'm not I as long as, as long as there's a consensus

1257
02:13:16,448 --> 02:13:16,448
from the commission that the maintaining it in the standards set forth by fdot, fdot is is

1258
02:13:24,654 --> 02:13:24,654
okay, then I can move forward and that's it. I just need a consensus. That's all I need.

1259
02:13:29,493 --> 02:13:29,493
that's all I got. Comments. Comments. Thanks. Okay. Okay. That's all I have. So you don't

1260
02:13:34,267 --> 02:13:34,267
need a motion for that I don't. This is a d and d okay. If you wanted me to bring it back for

1261
02:13:40,270 --> 02:13:40,270
an agenda item to remove the stuff, then I would. I don't think we have an interest with

1262
02:13:45,308 --> 02:13:45,308
that, do we? No. The medians are finally looking nice. Okay. Seeing no other items for

1263
02:13:50,581 --> 02:13:50,581
reconsideration. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Sir.