This regular meeting of the stewart city commission for the 13th of october, 2025. Thank
you all for attending. The invocation will be provided this afternoon by pastor james
harp of the stewart alliance church. And whether you then please lead us in the pledge of
allegiance. Please stand. Okay. Let's pray. Our father, I thank you for this day and thank you,
god, for this opportunity that we have together here. Lord, we want to bless your holy name
today. And it says in your word as as you're blessed, you bless us. And I think everyone here
would just be thrilled to receive a blessing from you today, father. So we just commit this time to you. Thank you for these elected officials that serve us in this community.
lord, we do ask your blessing upon them and their families. Protect them. Provide for them.
lord, keep them healthy. And we thank you, lord, for the work that's being done in and
through our community. Father. So lord, we just once again commit this day into your hands
this afternoon, into your hands, this meeting into your hands. And we thank you in advance for
how you're going to reveal yourself and that your presence would be manifest with us. We
pray in jesus name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america,
and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you, pastor harp. And I'm always delighted to see tutus. So
before I introduce you and the arts moment, my daughter was a professional ballet dancer. She
danced professionally until she was 30 years old. You cannot imagine how many nutcrackers. I
have had to sit through. Yes. Can we have the roll call, please? Mayor rich here, vice
mayor collins here. Commissioner clark here. Commissioner job here,
commissioner reid here. So this is the florida arts and dance company, and they're going to
provide us with a very compact recital. This baby. Okay. Well, the. Good service award. Is
there something on here? Cool. All right. The chair's back.
okay.
chinese.
thank you very much. One more. Oh, sorry. Last but not least.
okay, all of you come up, come up front with the moms and the teachers. Miss
nina. Oh, there you are. And something was up. Beautiful. Thank you. You know what?
please tell us when the shows are going to be. Nina. Okay. The shows will be at the lyric
theater december 12th to the 14th. Thank you, thank you. Good job. Okay, mr. Bhagat. The
first of our two proclamations this afternoon, florida city government week. Florida city
government week, october 20th through the 26th, 2025. Whereas city government is the
government closest to the most citizens and the one with the most direct daily impact upon
its residents, municipal government provides services and programs that enhance the
quality of life for residents making their city their home. And whereas city government is
administered for and by its citizens and is dependent upon public commitment to and
understanding of its many responsibilities, city government officials and
employees share the responsibility to pass along the understanding of public
services and their benefits. And whereas florida city government week offers an
important opportunity for elected officials and city staff to spread the word to all
citizens of florida that they can shape and influence this branch of government. And
whereas, florida league of cities and its member cities, of which stuart is a member,
have joined together to teach citizens about municipal government through a variety of
activities. Now, therefore, I, campbell rich, mayor of the city of stuart, do hereby
proclaim october 20th through october 26th, 20 2025, as florida city government week
and accepting this proclamation in recognition of florida city government week is the city of
stuart's own clerk, mary kendall. It's not often I get to be on this side of the
microphone, but thank you very much for the proclamation. It's just, as you guys are aware,
city government week happens every year, usually third week in october, and we just try and
celebrate it by bringing awareness to what the city does and what, you know, things we
offer different things. We've done several different things throughout the years. But this
year we we kind of snuck up on us a little bit. So we're making it simple. But we've
been working together, photographs of our departments kind of doing something silly.
we wanted to be a little more lighthearted this year, and misty is going to be taking
care of that and putting that on our stuart life facebook page. You know, just for fun,
introducing our departments and and what that department does for the city. Thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you. Once you get through. Yeah, I guess. So. Dance. Thank you. Mary.
okay, mr. Baggett, on a more serious note, domestic violence awareness month, october 2025.
whereas domestic violence is a serious, widespread issue that affects individuals in every
community, regardless of age, race, income or education level, and leaves a lasting impact on
survivors, families and communities. And whereas more than 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4
men in the united states have experienced physical violence, threats, or abuse from an
intimate partner during their lifetimes, the effects of domestic violence extend beyond
the immediate harm caused to survivors impacting children, workplaces, health systems, and
entire communities. And whereas safety, support solidarity is the theme for the domestic
violence awareness month 2025, uniting communities nationwide and here on the treasure coast
and standing with survivors, safe space is the only certified domestic violence
center serving martin, saint lucie and indian river counties, providing life saving services
such as 24 seven shelter, a confidential hotline, legal advocacy, children's programs
and financial empowerment to help survivors achieve safety and stability. And whereas it
is vital to recognize the importance of safe space work and to encourage community
members, employers, faith leaders and civic organizations to act by raising awareness,
learning the signs of abuse, and offering a compassionate support to survivors. Now,
therefore, I, campbell rich, mayor of the city of stuart, do hereby proclaim october 2025 as
domestic violence awareness month and accepting this proclamation and recognition of
domestic violence awareness month. Is the ceo of safe space and apparently a few members of
her team. Jennifer fox good afternoon, miss fox. Good afternoon, commissioners and
community members again. Jennifer fox, the ceo of safe space. On behalf of safe space,
our staff behind us and our board members and survivors of domestic violence, I want to
thank you for recognizing october as domestic violence awareness month. I do think
this proclamation sends a strong message to survivors across our community that says,
you are not alone. Domestic abuse can be found in every neighborhood, workplace and
school. Yet survivors do feel alone. Every statistic represents a person, a parent,
a child, a neighbor who deserves to be safe in their own home. Safe space is the
only state certified domestic violence center serving martin county. And just to give an idea, our crisis hotline answers between 200 and 275 calls every month. Last year,
we served 891 survivors of domestic violence, 165 of those were kids, 378 people stayed in
our safe home, and we provided legal advocacy and representation in court. Thanks
to our attorneys here to 359 survivors in our community. So we're talking about almost 900
people, almost 900 people who found us, and 900 people who are safer because of the
support of this community. This year's domestic violence awareness theme, safety,
support and solidarity, reminds us that everyone has a role to play. Safety means making sure
survivors have a place to turn 24 hours a day. Support means listening without judgment,
connecting friends, family or colleagues to resources, and solidarity means standing
together, wearing purple, raising awareness and ensuring survivors know that this
community is with them. So we want to invite the community to get involved throughout the
month of october. This thursday, october 16th is purple thursday. It's something that happens
across the nation where we encourage everyone to wear purple and show solidarity with
survivors. And you can post yourself wearing purple with the hashtag with survivors.
this friday, october 17th, we're gathering at the tesoro club in port saint lucie for
our amethyst gala. This is our signature fundraising event that shines light on survivors
stories and then raises critical funds. And then thursday, october 23rd, we host
our day of giving. It's a community wide day of generosity to support survivors here in the treasure coast. So just to learn more about these events, services we provide are
ways to help. Please visit our website at safe spaceflight. And also you could follow us
social. Follow us on social media. So thank you for using your platform to shine a light
on this issue, and for standing with survivors of domestic violence. Thank you, thank you,
thank you. 16. You may want to go in the front, amy, in the front. Do it. Perfect. Look
this way. Smile. Thank you. Take care, take care. Take care. All right. Take care. Good. No,
they had to order that I can get. I can get the details because I'll. I'll get. Okay.
we have. Six service awards this afternoon. And I'll start with recognizing five years of
service in utilities and engineering is kevin mcdonald's. Do you have a speech prepared?
oh, go ahead, just say how much you love working for the city. Kevin is like, no way.
he also recognize you. Five years of service with the police
department. Timothy's. I believe he's not able to be here on duty. Right? Yeah. Ten
years of service in the development department? Yes. Speech. I have a little
something. Thank you for this recognition. It's an honor to receive a ten year service
award. And I truly appreciate the opportunity to have contributed to this organization over the years. During my time here, I've had the privilege of working
alongside some incredibly talented individuals and learning many valuable lessons. I'm proud of the work we've done in the milestones we've reached together. I will always
look back on the positive experiences and the people who made this journey worthwhile. Thank you again for the recognition and I wish everyone continued success moving
forward. It was very nice. There's an envelope. Oh, heavy. And also ten years of service
in utilities and engineering and hawkins. All right, if you twisted my arm, I'll say
something. No. Everyone always says I use my allotted time up during meetings, so I'll try
and be brief. No, I just want to say thank you, especially to my coworkers across the
utilities and the sanitation team. I always ask a lot of them, and they're always very
quick to deliver and assist me with ever cleanups or programs that I'm working on, so I do
appreciate their support. It's been a quick ten years. We've done a lot, but edith is my
work twin. We actually began working on the same day, and roger johnson, strong at the
time, onboarded both of us. So it's been a real blessing to work here at the city, and I do
appreciate all your support. Yes, yes, yes of course. You say no. Okay. Mister hawkins.
and also in utilities and engineering department with 15 years of service is bradley
howard. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, I've heard of her 15 years of service in human
resources. She's strong. I do have a little something to say. So when we celebrate milestones
like these, we are always reminded of how quickly time passes us by. I remember my
interview as if it happened yesterday. I met with our finance director, jolie
boglioli, who was second in command at the time, and the former hr director, linda
torpey. And I was excited to start my new journey, and I'm still can't believe it was 15
years ago. It really seems like yesterday. I have an amazing team in human resources, karen
and debbie and maggie and jan, although I only have jan at 25% because the chiefs dominate the
rest of her time. So I have a little bit of jan, and we have the pleasure of serving the
needs of all of our employees and their families. I look forward to coming to work every
day and working alongside such talented, dedicated and engaged people. To say that the city of
stuart employs some of the finest would be an understatement. Just walk around and meet them and you'll see. This is a big year of numbers for me. This is my 40th
year in human resources, my 25th year in public service, my 15th year with the city. And
I'll turn 60 in a few weeks. So I'm going to play those numbers and hope something comes out of
that. But thank you for providing me the opportunity to continue my career with the
city. She did own that 60. Thank you so much. Okay. Development application
approval processes and procedures. This is a presentation from the
development department. I think jodi's hiding behind the computer over there. Right. Jodi, we need to give her a higher chair. Are you ready? Yes, sir. Okay. Good evening.
my name is jerry kugler. I'm with the development department. Tonight. I'll be presenting to
you the land development application, the approval process and the procedure. This
is for each application that we receive. This goes through the the requirements that we have
to do to move the applications forward. So what is the purpose for a development application
review. One is to ensure compliance with the local zoning laws and planning
policies, to protect the public interest and maintain environmental integrity.
promote promote sustainable growth and development, provide transparency and accountability
at each stage of the development process. Facilitate the approval of development projects that align with the community needs in the process. Begins with a pre-application
consultation, where developers engage with the planning department and identify potential obstacles. In our land development code, we have 14 different types of
applications that we process on a that you can apply for. Some of them are like major code
conditional. Use your large scale comprehensive plan, your minor development plans, your
plat applications. They all part of. They all have a different process in the code
and how we are to approach them. In our code. We also have an exemption that when you're
doing a development permit, that you could be exempt if you don't alter the existing
building or structure. So as long as change is not made to the gross floor, it's use and
the amount of impervious surface on the site, the applicant may seek a change of
use of an existing building or structure by applying for issues on an occupational
license, so long as it does not adversely impact the following, including, but not limited to
parking and level of service. We we are right now taking this language and working on a
change of use application that would meet the intent of this code. So when people come in or
when folks come in or applicants they wanted, they have an existing building and
they want to convert it into a use that is permitted through the zoning code. But the
building itself was not designed like a restaurant to a office building or an office
building to a restaurant or medical office. So in zoning, we look at all those and
hopefully we can come up with a change of use application so it would not burden the applicant.
so each application that we receive there is in our code, it talks about an application
review timelines. When the city first receives an application, we call what's called a
completeness review. We have 30 days to do a completeness review in our department. We've
kind of set the goals a little higher. We try to do it within 5 to 10 days, so the applicant
can kind of know what they're going to need to submit, or if they met all the requirements
to review that application. If the applicant is application is deficient, they have 30 days to
address the deficiencies. Once the applicant application is deemed complete, the city has
120 days or 180 days for applications that require final action through a quasi judicial
hearing or public hearing, the city development department shall also routes these
applications to each department for department review and submit, and they are to submit
comments within 20 working days after receipt. And at that time, if the applicant needs more
time, they can ask for an extension so they don't meet. They don't go up to those
deadlines. This is just the first review for compliance review. And sometimes the
applicant can go to 2 or 3 reviews and those timelines do apply. So once the application
is considered in compliance it is deemed in compliance or not in compliance. At that point,
we will move that application through the next process, which either is administratively or
if they need a public hearing. And the different reviewing departments. These are all the
different reviewing departments that review each application. So when you submit a planned
unit development, all these departments will weigh in on comments to make sure that
they're in compliance. And some of those the first round does not always happen. Typically
it's about two rounds, 2 to 3 rounds before the applicant and the city will deem the
application in compliance. So I'm going to switch over to our our portal, the opengov portal
that we just now have rolled out. So all our applications are online now. So the
application applicant, as soon as they submit it's real time. So if we're responding the
portal it's real time back to the applicant. They can converse back and forth with
staff. And I'm just going to show you how this process works. Okay. So this is this today is
what my dashboard looks like today. So if I go into and I look at all my projects that I
have, I'm going to go in here and look at all my projects. These right now are all the
projects in the city, in this planning department right now. And they're all different
stages. So I just want to show you one of the projects that we recently received and how the
that process is applied. So this is a major site plan for 50 southwest dixie highway.
this is going to be a marina with a restaurant. Oh, I'm sorry this is the wrong one.
yeah. Yeah. This I'm sorry. This is the right one. So you can see the applicant submitted
to us through the portal. They created their own login. They submitted. They submitted on
the on the 8th of august, and our planning department put them in compliance on august
14th. They paid their fees, and now they're starting their review process. So this is the
first review that we received and all their attachments that each department are reviewing
are in into the portal. So as you can see this is the first review. They we were able to
get this application out and in compliance. And then most of the applicant or or the
different departments responded within 20 days. The last 20 working days, if you can see
the ones in red, that review needs to have a second review, the one in green. That review
has been reviewed and approved. So now we what we do is move it to the next level. So right now
we're waiting for the applicant to resubmit for their second review. Addressing the comments. And you can see these are the comments within the applicant inside the different reviews.
so they see this immediately. So as soon as we put this in there this is what the
applicant gets an email notification that, hey, your review has been done for engineering and it's either rejected or approved or needs additional work. In this case
this one needs additional work. And this is what was provided to them for that review. You
can see same thing with the survey review. So in the past they've had to wait for
everybody to submit comments and for the planner to prepare a report and get that out to
the the applicant. The way the system is now designed is that they can go in there and they
say, okay, I see the review for the survey has was rejected. I need to address all these
comments. So the surveyor their surveyor can be working on these these comments while, you
know, maybe they're working on the on the traffic and everything and then they can resubmit and it keeps moving them through the process. So this is just essentially how
we're trying to expedite the process for the development review. Once this as you can
see, once it goes through the process it'll prepare the development order. And it goes through all these different other departments before it actually gets closed out. Also,
we another thing that we have designed is in this portal is available for anybody to review.
so if anybody wants to know what's going on at 50 south northwest dixie highway, they
can create an account and log in and type in that address, and it will give you all the
activity that's happening on this address. And you can click in there and you can you can
see what's going on. So this is their attachments. You can see this is the site plan. And this
is just showing what they're reviewing. Also we have created another portal. So if you don't
want to go into our portal or create a login name, you can also go under our website. Just
put that in there for you. Going into our department and planning, and we just try to
give you a little bit of a snapshot of what planning is doing, in case you want to know.
so and this is this is our active dashboard that shows you everything in yellow is pre-ap
is in a pre-application stage and everything in pink is in review right now. And you can
literally you could go in here and click on these and you can know exactly what's what that
application is. And it tells you what the application who the planner is. So if you
wanted to contact the planner and find out a little bit more information, you can contact them. So these are some of the things that we're trying to do to improve our development
applications. Some of the other things that we would like to try to do is find ways to
expedite existing buildings when they need to convert over to a different type of use. But
it may not be a lot a negative impact to your neighbors, or it may not be any additional
facade changes or landscaping, but it also could possibly go through a building permit
process. This concludes staff's presentation. I did want to show you your building permit
side. So this is the same system that we use for our building permits. So I did pull
out one just to kind of show you how the people who were going through the building
process can maneuver through that as well. 16 1634 okay. So same concept. So once you see
the workflow you'll understand that. So they have an intake as well. This is a new house at
816 southwest saint lucy crescent. And you can see it came in on the eighth on the
sixth. And it was I'm sorry, july, july 7th. And it was completed their review, they
went through all the review process and the permit was issued. Let me see here. If
permit was issued august 13th. So that's less than 30. That's about 30 days including your
not your not including your holidays or your weekends. So we are trying to be a little
bit more efficient. We have issued roofing permits within two days, so we're always
continuously trying to find ways to move through the process quicker and to try to
get compliance without without having to go through all the bureaucracy of the of the code
sometimes. So this concludes my presentation. If you have any questions for me or if you'd
like to look at possibly changing some of the requirements, staff is always
willing to assist with that. Are there any questions of jody? I do. How do we sign up? Is
this just an open gov account? This is where where would we go on the city website to make an
account. So I can show you that. So you can go through our building department or you can
go through our planning department. You can go through our business tax receipt. But in this case I'll just show you. Yeah. Like if we're on the home page for the city. So that's a
good question. So we did look today and we noticed that we did not have a button just on
our home page. And we did note that that we're going to work with our department to put an
actual button. So you can sign up right there. You just like search it on google then or you
would search it under our you can go to development department or building. And we
do have a button that tells you how to log in and everything. So but it's public access right.
anybody can anybody can log in. They would just create a they would just create an account.
and you only need it if you have one account. So if you have your, your business tax
receipt or you have a building permit or you have a development permit, you only have to create one account. Everything gets attached to that account. Can you access it
without having an account? I don't think so. I think you have to have an account. So
then if we wanted to, we'd have to create an account. Yes, you would create it. And that goes.
is there any way to make it not have an account where you can just view it, or is that I
don't know if that's like a daring question, or maybe mike would know. I don't know if
it's for security, but like some people don't want to create an account. I think it's
an inconvenience to be able to view public information. In my opinion, though, I can
certainly find out and give you an update on that if you have to create an account. I don't
have that answer right now. No worries. So if we're on the development department on on
the city site. Got your building, just got a building. Building. Building back. Back
up. Yeah. Got a building. Okay. So you can also go through the business tags too. Yeah. You
can go through. So there's a button on the building department and it tells you how
to log in or create an account right there. Okay I see it. And that's good because then you
can see all the comments. You can see all the attachments. Because like the biggest thing
that I, I hear people call me on is that the process takes a long, long time. Right now,
other than calling jody, we have to follow up on it that that's like the biggest
feedback that I, I get is that there was one person that brought something up. So like,
you can get third party plan review for building but not for zoning. Correct. The state
statute does allow you to do a third party plan review for building permits, not for, not
for development permits, for development stuff. That's that's considered a private
provider is how it's referred into the state statutes. Now, now when we do that anyway,
does it get sent out or am I thinking different? Jody. Like, I know it gets sent to like,
kimley-horn and like joe capra. Is that the same concept? And then the city has their own
internal where it gets sent out, obviously to police, fire and stuff like that. Yes. So how it
works is some of the disciplines that require for the application, like traffic
review surveys, we don't have those on staff, so those are sent to our consultants for
their review. But planning and pretty much everything else besides traffic and your survey
and sometimes your tree mitigation, depending on if there's some environmental or
wetlands, we do rely on our consultants to help us with that review. But as far as
planning comments and everything that happens with our department and we go
through, yes, with the applicant be able to send it out themselves to kimley-horn
and joe kapoor or no, the city likes to be involved. So the process. So the city has a
contract with our individual consultants that have discounted rates. So we use
those rates. Gotcha. So if not, they're going to be paying a little bit more than what we
have a contract with. Do they have that option though to do that if they we don't desired
or in our code right now we don't have anything to offer that at the end of the day, the
city will still have to check and review it to make sure it complies with our our
comprehensive plan and our our local land development codes. Okay. Well, my perspective is
to the board is I know we did a zoning in progress and stuff and that was more for like
development to go after. But as far as like this process, I'd like to see like a workshop or
two to get professionals that live and work in the community to provide their input. They do
this every day. I don't do this every day. Jodi and her team does it every day. But just the
feedback that I hear is it could be interpretation of land development code that might
need clarified that we didn't go after. So that that's what I would like to see. First, I'm
happy to support doing a workshop along those lines. Yeah, I am also just to make it
clear and concise because like, yes, I'm in land development code a lot and I know, know
your team is as well. And some things might need clarified or cleared up that that we didn't
particularly look at. We were looking at more over development, anything to roll
density back. But as far as definitions maybe or processes, I think some of it needs
clarified and cleaned up. I think one of the things too, that prior to us or myself
creating these applications, it was very hard for staff to determine where each part of
that development was at. So now we have we can on a daily basis. We go in there every morning,
look at our projects, see what's due. It comes automatically on our dashboard.
it kind of gives you those little soft reminders and also everything that we do in that
program, the whoever is on the application. And you can add people to the application. So
even if you're just not the applicant and I want to have a, a surveyor from their part be
on the application so he can he or she can see the comments immediately. They will be
notified as well as a guest on the applicant. So everything that we add into the
application or we update is live. So they see it immediately and so they can
upload things in the middle of the night, as opposed to coming in with the nine sets of plans
and the check and, you know, waiting for us to process it, which could take two weeks and
just to process the information. So I do believe that now that we have this up and running,
it's helped. I know it's helped my staff and helped me know where where we are in those
development applications and what we are waiting for. And then it's very nice because the
developer, the applicant can can email us back and forth in there as well. And that comes
as a message to us as well. So, you know, if we're closed for today, instead of having to
figure out what our email is, they can go into their portal and send us messages. And they
have learned to do that very well. And it really helps out with us. As if they don't
understand one of our comments, they we can get that clarified immediately. Instead of having
to wait for them to resubmit, and then find out that they really didn't understand a comment. Makes sense. I know you guys have been cleaning up a lot. Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah,
I think having the workshop would would help. And I've been speaking with the development
director about it. There's a there's a distinction between getting a permit and getting a
site plan approval. And sometimes when someone's doing what's essentially interpreted
as a change of use and someone changing a, a retail store to a restaurant, they don't realize
that our code requires us major or minor site plan approval surveys and other things, and
having this system in place will help. But also when we come through with the workshop.
jodi and I were talking about proposing to the commission to have a an exception form, or if
something's below 2000ft■!s. Ani have an example right now, there's a house on denver
street that was currently a residential use, but it's already zoned for retail or
commercial, and there's a person that wanted to go into it and rent it and have it be a
place that sells kind of stone and new age type stuff and do massages, I guess, or something
to that effect. And it would require a change of use, but they could take up to 90 to 120
days, and this person wasn't even going to change the color of the paint. Wow. And so that
seems like a lot of overkill to review a building that's already in existence, that's
sitting vacant. That's not that has the parking lot in place, has everything in place. So
we're trying to formulate a method to allow that type of procedure to be expedited so it
can go in, get an inspection from the building official, and if it meets the building code
for whatever that new use is to be able to go straight through. But we'll bring that back with
the workshop as well. Okay. So you will undertake to make that happen. Mr. That will be.
absolutely. Yeah. Okay. I was thinking, I mean, I would likely do it as more of an
agenda item, bring it back during the meeting and then depending on the direction of
the board, because we're not going to change any land use or any zoning, it's literally just
going to be the process or procedure of the review. The rules will all still stay in
place and the densities will be the sameme. It would just be how are the timing and how the
departments review it if we mike, if we do it like that though, are people going to be
limited and it's going to be like podium? That's my concern because I, I, I don't really
want to do it that way. If that's how it's going to be done. I mean, I'm happy to have
it be a fairly select audience, probably. It's people who do it for a living, so we need to
hear from them at length. I think I like sit down with them. Yeah. Do you want all five
commissioners to be present as a workshop, the commission, or do you want it to be a public
workshop where staff receives the information, in your opinion, which one, which one's more successful? I guess I should say different objectives. Well, a lot of times, a lot of
times we'll do workshops and let the public bring in comments, and then we bring
that information to the commission so we can do it. However, whatever is your whatever's your preference, if you guys want to hear the public comments then you
probably want to be present for it. Yeah. Okay. So we can put that together. Any other
questions for jody? Thank you jody. Thank you jody. Thank you. Okay. Before we get into
commissioner comments, can I just say something? Okay I'd like to go first. I just wanted
to ask the chief to assuming these are our four new firefighters. Alright. So this
commission did something pretty unique recently. Almost all of us supported a millage and
budget that lowered taxes, cut unnecessary spending, and prioritize public safety all in
one. So I would love for you to come up and introduce these four new guys. If you wouldn't
mind, I can introduce them as they're coming up. It's timothy lyons, thomas cox, let's go,
brian pertusa and chadwick van dike. Yeah. Young. Speech. I'm glad you guys are on board.
make us proud. Yes, sir. Thank you. Conclude your remarks. That was all. Okay. Thank you
for indulging, commissioner reed. I'll see you back at your spot. Yeah. I actually enjoy
this spot. Yeah, I promise you, october. Thank you. Yeah, I enjoy sitting down here. Yeah.
so I know I asked for the agenda item number 12 to come back. I just I just ask for the
public to be respectful. It's it's not anything towards mike or anything like that. That's
all I ask for from the public tonight. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, commissioner job. I
actually didn't have anything but recently came to my attention. The environmental
attorney reports to the commissioners. We really need a way in place that each
commissioner knows what the others at least thinking. So we need to have a process. And
usually it takes place here on the dais since we can't talk to each other. But before
commissioner approaches the environmental attorney with something, I'm not talking anything minor. I know I reached out to her regarding office furniture and things of
that nature, but anything else I think really should go through all of us. We could
discuss it, and then it either can be talked here or, you know, one commissioner or the mayor
can speak to the attorney at the time after we've discussed it. But I think what's
happening is, I don't know. I know the mayor recently approached the environmental
attorney and I wasn't aware of it, and I thought it was kind of an important issue that
maybe we should have all been aware of. And that issue was just out of curiosity. I'm
curious now, okay, because I spoke with the environmental attorney. We had a good
conversation, okay. But it was regarding. You really have no idea what she's talking about,
right? Are you going to act like you have no idea what she's talking about? I speak to the environmental attorney and the city manager and the city attorney, I mean, because tom
can. Penny knew what you were talking about. So we're talking about the biosolids issue.
really? You have no idea what's going on right now. Oh, you mean the potential conflict of.
yeah, that would be it. That would be it would I think that I am I have to know, after I
read the news article, I did relay that information to her from tom that had been
mentioned in the newsletter in the transit neighbors. Tom knew it before you did. Yeah.
interesting. Yeah. And since mr. Penny does not sit on this commission, nor is he involved
in the city in any way, I find it interesting that that is what your conversation with the
attorney. And I would be curious where that came from, because I'm sure ruth didn't go
to him with that information and trying to stir the pot. So that's curious. I, I just be
very careful about I do think we need to be very careful accusations because because
this commission worked hard to make her position and her being here a priority, and not all of
us were on the same page. So what it feels like at this point is that there may be some
of us, after the fact, trying to subvert her from doing her job. Wow. Yeah. Okay. That's
you're incorrect. I would be completely incorrect. But going back to what I requested was
the fact that that should not happen again. Even if it was not meant to happen. We should
all at least discuss something prior to that. That kind of conversation coming up with
attorney holmes, it was in the newsletter. If you look at the dates which I spoke to her, it
was after the newsletter had been published. I didn't realize we were kind of running
the city based on not so friendly neighbors newsletter, but that's a whole other story.
okay. All I'm asking is that when any commissioner, not just you, any commissioner has
something of of that level wants to speak to the environmental attorney, I think
we should all at least know that's all. I mean, if I did this and you would not be kind
of upset that I went and spoke to her, and you had no idea. Mike, did you go to tom about
it? No. So something's going on. Something smells funny. This is good. I was I actually didn't
read the whole story. I didn't even read the article. So who doesn't even know about the
article? What? Everybody reads it. Wow. You need to be very careful about these accusations.
you need to be very careful. Obviously, you read it, mayor. Read. No, I do read the
newsletter. I also read the stuart news. Oh, yeah? Well, that. Okay. Hey, hey, hey.
excuse me. All I'm asking for is in the future. I think that when it's something of of that
importance, that certainly should at least have had this conversation so that every
commissioner knows. Not that I have to read it in the not so friendly newsletter. Okay, fine.
thank you. Yes, this is open government. Somebody's lying. Unbelievable. Commissioner
clark, does that conclude your remarks, commissioner? Yes it does. Okay. I was just going to
follow up with with commissioner job. Is it the communication with the.
environmental attorney? I know that I have a weekly meeting with the city manager. I speak
to mr. Baggett as needed, and I speak to miss holmes as needed. But I did promise, miss holmes
that I was going to include her in my weekly time. When I speak to the city manager, I just do
the next hour or half an hour for her. But is that what you're saying? Or are you
saying that we should gauge what level if somebody is bringing up something that they
need to bring it up to the to the entire body? But I you know, I think that I mean, I speak to
them all the time, but I don't know if every time I speak to them, I don't think I need to
something of this level where you're saying this was, you know, conflict of interest. Yeah. Wouldn't you like to have known that before the. Yeah, I, I, I didn't yes or no. Yes. You
find out about it. Yeah. No. You'd like to know ahead of time. Yeah. And if we had this
kind of discussion, we'd know that he was going to say or or he would say it here saying.
and I'm not singling you out, ma'am. Any of us saying, well, this is something that, you
know, we should all discuss. And it it does involve the, the attorney holmes, that the
reason is it's a little different because she doesn't report to the city manager. She
reports to us. Correct. And for that to happen, we need to be like cohesive. We need to know
whether it's for or against something. We all need to know it before the conversation goes
to the attorney or to tom camp. Penny, I would just tom penny, whichever goes first. Mr. Camp,
penny is just a news source. He's no different than mr. Burbank. He's not a new source. I beg to differ. I'm going to argue on that. He is an opinion person. It's his opinion. It's
not a news source. Yeah. You will have your opportunity. You have to subscribe to read his
stuff or oh, he sends it to me freely. I don't always read it because it is his opinion. But
you all know I don't think much of his opinion, but he's not a news source to that point.
there is a difference between trying to talk to and again, to reiterate, you know, ruth, mike
lee, these are three chartered positions that work for us directly. There is a difference
between going to them to try to wrestle with and clarify a matter, and then it somehow
ending up before it ever even hits the dais out to to tcpalm or to tom camp. Well, I don't
know, you know. So if it's in good faith and that really is the, the goal, this, this kind
of a thing I hope will not happen in the future when it's these three people that work
for us directly and that we are. This may sound a little patriarchal, but we these are
people that work for us directly, that we are responsible for, that we should
protect and have working and doing their job and having them be a political football, I
think, is wildly inappropriate. And, you know, I know ruth wants nothing more than to just
be able to do her job. This is something she's really dedicated to. And so I don't
want her to be even mildly deflated about this kind of political nonsense by, you know,
coming from people who may not have thought that, you know, this job should exist from the
beginning. So I hope that kind of thing will end going forward. Whoever's responsible, whoever
the rat might be. And I'll end my comments with that. The not so friendly neighbors. I don't
understand the term rat. This was made of. He has, miss rudge. Is it? There's 33,000 people
receive his email communication. Oh, when I read it, you're right. I went to to miss holmes.
I was not aware she had that position. And I was made a mayor and said that there was a
potential conflict of interest. I do not see that as subverting her at all. So tom can. Penny
was the only source of a potential conflict of interest that you know of the. I'll
litigate with you right here. What do you mean? Source? Was that the only person that
you've talked to that raised the possibility of a potential? I was not aware answer the
question, was that the only person not aware of her position on the palmer board
until it tom put it in his newsletter, and that's the only person that has raised a
potential conflict of interest that I know of that that you have talked to at this point. I
also talked to, okay, I talked to someone at the county after after our joint meeting and
asked her because her who? John. Male. So he talked to john male. Anybody else? No. No attorneys.
I talked to some attorney friends. Oh, okay. After the newsletter transparency. Don't
you think we should be aware of whether the conflict exists or not? I think we should be. We
should be is absolutely correct. Not tom campaigning. Right. Not tom campaigning. And
considering you're not sure that all of us read the not so friendly neighbor, we should
have all known before you took it upon yourself to approach what? To communicate that. To
communicate that you think it's a conflict of interest? I didn't say I. I said it said it
was potentially a conflict of interest. I don't know if it's a conflict. I think you should
get some advice from the city attorney as to whether or not there's a sunshine violation
and what was being communicated. We should probably not have this conversation on the dais,
because I would just like somebody was communicating. We all know if somebody was
communicating what another commissioner said to another commissioner, we could be
implementing ourselves to a crime. And I think it would probably be better that we hold
off on that. Commissioners, I know I don't talk to the mayor, I don't talk. I think we made
ourselves clear. Yes. Just going forward, I'd like to have a process in place where we,
the rest of the commissioners, all know what's going on before it's brought to the attention
of. That's fair. Yes it is. It's fair to say on any issue with any with any of our three
direct, with any of our three direct employees. Is that what you're saying? Because they all
have to be treated equally. I missed the first part. Sorry, ma'am. So on any issue with any
of our three direct employees before we go to that employee, be it mr. Mortel, mr. Or miss
holmes, you have to bring it up on the dais. Is that what you're asking? Really? I mean,
we're talking about what is the where is what is the minor things do not need to be. I
mean, that's before it goes to tom camp or goes to tom camp. You're saying I, I'm not saying
anything. I think that we should follow the mayor. The city manager? Yes, and move on.
I'm not going to just. Let's keep in mind that we on major things. We should all be aware.
that's all. Somebody somebody read. Okay, that's all I have to say. Just enough. I think
that's an inappropriate characterization, mr. Vice mayor. Okay, just I don't you.
does that conclude your remarks, commissioner clark? You were you were you were speaking. Oh,
no, you were speaking. No, no, no, you would respond. All right. Oh, I just responded to
you. Okay. So comments for today, the 13th of october. I just wanted to commend I don't
know if he's here today. I don't see him. Mr. Oh yeah. Pete. Yeah. He's here. Our
utilities director. We had a great ceremony to dedicate our utility building right behind
the courthouse there, the reclamation facility in the name of michael anthony
goldberg. And that facility has gone from being something that everybody knew about because it
was a smelly place. But there's been so much changes and so much innovative work done in
the utilities department and the reclamation department, and just seeing the family and
knowing that this gentleman was recognized. I know it's hard to make these decisions, but I
think it was very worthy. And I just want to commend mr. Eugene and his staff and all of us.
thank you, thank you, thank you. Shannon. I keep mixing up your use and ease and I put to you
before your. Okay okay. So. I've had a complaint or report about a right of way issue. And
I know that we've gone over this before because I even had issues about the right of way
behind my home. That was many years ago. But I know that I think since the mid 2000,
probably even before I was on the commission. And then again, it was reiterated sometime
afterwards regarding how right of ways are cleaned up and what happens when and what the staff
burden is and what the burden of the homeowner is, and what happens when you have a right
of way that could be a revocable use of that right of way by the resident, but not
necessarily added to their title for the ownership of the land. But they could have
revocable use of the right of way and do certain things in the right of way. And however,
we do have on the general scope for the environment, having right of ways that are filled
with mature trees, and they serve a purpose for the environment. They also clean
some of the the water before it goes into some of the culverts, because it stops certain things.
it also stops a lot of debris. So you'll find debris in those areas. But that has come up to
me from a resident, and I know that mr. Martel did an excellent job responding back
to that. Comment. And if we ever need to have anything, maybe jody in her department or
somebody else once in a while, if we need to do a or even in the newspaper or the stuart
publication, put out some notices or information to the public so that they know some
of these things, what happens to the right of way behind my house? Or what can I do? Or
what are the frequently asked questions that might help the public somewhat, but I do
applaud mr. Martel for his response. And like I said, if the departments want to do
something, a little small white paper and publish it every so often, or put it on the website
as a frequently asked questions, they can do that. The other thing is this is a 100 year of
martin county, and tomorrow night at the flagler center, there will be a presentation
for stuart heritage about african american history in hobe sound, florida. And that
whole area used to be all owned by african americans, with fruit farms and vegetable farms
in that area. And so they have a very good grasp of the history. And they'll be talking
about that tomorrow night next door at the flagler center, 7 p.m. 7 p.m. That's it. I have
no no other mayor rich, I had a question for commissioner clark. Okay, so for clarification
purposes, you want the development department to send out how how the city maintains
right of way? No, that was just a suggestion of a frequently asked question. If if people
wanted to do that, the email that came in. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. If if jody and them
wanted to come up with frequently asked questions about different things at the city, what happens with the right of way or something that could be so they could develop
a white paper on that with just a few bullet points? Yeah, I remember seeing that email as
well. And that was from mr. Just for the record, this particular one was from faye
james, which who lives right next door to the community garden, which we dedicated to
the house of hope. And then there's a property that goes back to the railroad track and
then to the taylor property. Yeah, I, I got that email also the, the taylor property has
some of it. And then the other piece that goes to the railroad track, who, who owns that? Mike
I forgot and there were private people want homes back there. This is the issue. That was the
question was the right of way that was owned by the city that ran directly behind her
property, outside of her fence. That has not been maintained. Yeah. As grass since 2008. Yeah.
and so it was a policy that was adopted in 2008 to leave a lot of the right of ways in their
natural habitat. And I don't know if you guys remember, but last fall, in september or
october, someone took a closer look at the east. Stuart overlay zone. And one of the
proposals that came out of one of the workshops was to build a pedestrian bridge over the
smith turner lake toward high school avenue, where stuart middle is, and then the very
first street on the other side of the bridge. There's a right of way that went between homes
for about four blocks. And in it it said, someday, in the future, this could be a bike
path or pedestrian path, and it never went anywhere. Nobody did anything with it. But within a
month or so we had about 20 phone calls, and all these neighbors were very upset that
we were going to be cutting down the right of way and clearing it, because they did
not want people in between their homes in this public right of way area. So it's a
it's there's a balance there. Some people want the right of ways to be used as alleys. And
they have over here like on camden and things like that. Others want trees and natural
growth in the right of ways. But when there's power lines and or utilities, a lot of
times we need to maintain it as a public property for the purposes of serving the
utilities. And as a result, back in 2008, the the city adopted the policy to leave
them in a natural state so that they would provide tree and shade and and then owners of
property. If the if the trees or bushes cross your property line, you're free to cut it off
on your property and clear it. And miss james case, she wanted us to clear the right of way.
not there was no portion of it touching her property, and we were trying to explain that we
can't maintain it one way for one person and then another way for another. It's a very
complicated situation that would require new policies and budgeting because, you know, if
one person wants it, mona's grass, and then somebody else says, well, I'd like it to be
ornamental trees, or I'd like it to be, you know, whatever it is, we go down that slippery
slope because the power company, are they responsible? Not at all, not at all. They'll trim
it if you call them. If you if it gets into the power lines and they do what they call hat
racking, they just come and cut the trees right off as like a square. And a lot of times
it'll kill the trees. So we try to avoid trees that that get that tall and that big. But
again that happens because they spread just in wild in florida. So they start growing up. But
we have a lot of right of ways. And in fact, I can bring back some lists at a meeting for you.
yeah, I printed that off because I haven't seen your response to her. So I don't
know if you've done one yet. Did she did james and I've actually been going back and
forth a lot. We're trying I mean, everything's great. And and milton actually over the years has been pretty good about like, maintaining like a three foot path on the outside
of her fence. But it becomes very burdensome on the staff. And again, it's ignoring a
special benefit to one person when you're not doing it for everybody. So it's an imbalance
that can be difficult. Thank you. Well, I was going to say it's it's halloween. I didn't
see any notice about the hobgoblin or anything, but maybe I'm out of the notice
loop. The community center. Do you know anything? Jessica? It's on the board. It's on the
going forward. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Vice mayor will be there. The vice mayor normally.
normally. You're speaking. Yeah, she's signing me up. Mr. Martel, do you have any comments this
evening? I do first. Last week there was an entity. I don't have its formal name, but I
think it's referred to as tea and spice. That was heard before the crb. That's on your
agenda for tonight. They have requested that they be continued to a date certain in
november. I don't have the date, but I think jody will when the agenda comes up. I'll just I'm
just bringing it up for your attention now. Over the weekend, we received an email regarding
the condition of the crosswalks in downtown stuart, and I'd gotten some other feedback from
some other people, and I mentioned this in the last or first meeting in september, I
think. But the state of florida, using senate bill 1662 and fdot. Required that all cities and
counties in the state of florida remove any street art or any other painting of
crosswalks, and fdot funds would be withheld from the local jurisdictions if they
didn't remove that. We had some crosswalks in downtown and in the middle of downtown that
were blue and had some other stuff, and although I don't think that was what they were
specifically referring to, we did receive a direct notice from fdot to remove those, and
milton did so at the same time. We're also undergrounding the power in on flagler and on
seminole. So they were putting some conduit in that center median. So we didn't replant it
and re mulch it because we knew it would get torn back up as we did the landscaping thing. I
mentioning it just because if people ask you about it, it's not that we're maintaining it
in a poor condition. We just don't want to duplicate the service and spend the money to
put that stuff right back in, to tear it right back out. Also, the. Project lift has begun
construction and has raised the car wash and strip plaza on the corner of tarpon and mlk
boulevard. So you'll probably notice a construction fence around that, but that is going
smoothly. City attorney and I met with the project foreman briefly last week, and it seems
that there were no problems at all. There was a hidden septic tank they weren't aware of, but
it was able to be removed without incident. On a on a higher profile matter. On
october 6th, officer jacobson of the stuart police department got a little national fame when
he captured an alligator down by hudson's at the end of flagler park. Either he was a
an internet sensation and as well as some national stories. So be sure and congratulate him
on saving us all from the alligator. And the alligator was not harmed and was
relocated to haynie creek, where it's living happily ever after. A huge, huge piece of
news came to the city at the end of last week, and michael kennedy is to be congratulated
if you see him. He is our florida inland navigation district representative, and I
don't know how he managed to do it, but in speaking with the engineering department and I
haven't even received the letter yet, but it looks like that our entire replacement of
our courtesy dock was funded by the florida inland navigation grant, without interfering with
any of the county's funds or programing, and that will be in excess of $1 million. So it's
real money, which is really great news, because every time we get a storm, those floating
docks bend and they're a lot of expense to maintain. So this new dock will be great for us
all. And then lastly, I was going to introduce you to the new firefighters. But they've
left already and that already took place. So I have nothing else I have to get back on. Did
you did you want to talk about the agenda item date? Certain? Well, I did mention tea and
spice is going to do it when we get. When you guys adopt the agenda, you can either approve
it to a date certain then, or you can continue it when you get to the agenda item,
whatever the preference of the board is. Jody, is she here? Do they have a preference? When is
the date that they wanted that move to? Do you know november 10th? Yeah. So the november
10th meeting is when they from now. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mayor, can I ask mr. Morton a question? So
is that all high visibility sidewalks, including the ones. Okay. All right. Okay. All
right. Thank you. To answer your question, the downtown ones. Okay. All right. Thanks.
okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the agenda, please? As published move that
we approve the agenda as published. I'll second, we have a motion by commissioner clark
and a second by commissioner job. Do we have any public comment on this item? Seeing
none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed. Motion passes. Comments from the public on
non-agenda related items. Madam clerk, do we have any slips? I do, william rudge. Good evening.
I have two things to address tonight. The first thing is to thank mr. Rudge. Could you just
push that closer to you? Is that better? Okay. I have two things to address tonight. The
first thing is to thank god for the peace in gaza and the return of the hostages. The
second thing is, I don't really approve of rehiring of the current city manager. I know
him to be a fraud who has misled and lied to this very commission on multiple
occasions, and I have documentation that can back that up. I don't think he's
suitable or fit for the position and is way overpaid and way. Mistrust a lot of it.
he's betrayed the trust that people have placed in him as a public official, and I don't
think he should be rehired. Thank you. That's it. Next, I have karen hall. Yost. Rudge.
good evening, karen hall. Yost rudge, 1701 southwest palm city road. And mayor. You can call
me miss hall. Oh. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't go by rudge. Okay. But anyway, thank you. All
right. I just want to also say that I'm so grateful the hostages are home, and it's a
very sad state of affairs. What mr. Martel has done to so many different people. And I know
he's harmed my family and and put us through the fire. But my children don't even smell like
smoke. All right. But we cannot, you know, we can't expect to do well if we have a couple bad
players on the field. Okay. I forgive you, mike. I pray for your soul so much. I've loved
you for. I'm sorry you cannot address the city manager directly. You may direct your
comments to me. I've loved you for a little less years than him because he's been here
longer goofing it off. But now you're here goofing it up. You can't single out anybody up
here. I love you, mayor. Okay? I love. Please continue. Well, thanks. I hope I get my time
back. You will? Anyway, I just want to say I love you, mike. I'm so sorry. You didn't have
to be so bad. You could have said you could be honest any time. But you won't. And it
breaks my heart. What you've done to yourself and to your family. I can't even stand to
be here and listen to other what you've done to other people. Walter lloyd. Evening
commissioners walter lloyd 150 cabana point circle I'd like to start by giving my perspective
of why many of us in the public come to these meetings and stand at the podium to address
you, who are our elected representatives? We come from different backgrounds and
belief systems which shape our understanding of what is good, bad, right and wrong. It is for
many of us a desire to make a positive difference in this world we live in. Studies show
most of us believe there is a higher power than the powers found in our earthly realm, one
of the most powerful attributes given to us while we are on this earth is the power of
choice. Choice is how you are elected to represent us based on our understanding of your
character and abilities. You're chosen to lead our community with integrity, good character,
and in good faith to execute the commitments and oaths you took to enter the office. This
leads me to the subject of the agenda item before you, item number 12, for your
consideration of the current city manager considering his past choices, hearers can judge
for themselves while noting that all the meetings are on record in public video archives.
the following comments are based on my personal observations and experiences of
his choices and actions, and they are intended with respect and constructive intention. It
has been my experience over the past years that mr. Mortel and his role as city attorney and
city manager operates from a position of personal personal agenda more than representation
of the public at large. And I've told him as much in the past. Correspondences. Some
examples can or could, where he appeared to be the developer's attorney, representing special
interests over community. Even when the alj had judged the city's actions as inappropriate,
his questionable alliance and information feed for local propaganda media such as
friends and something questionable, negotiations regarding a brightline station,
questionable election signage, removal policies that appear to favor the incumbents over the
challengers, questionable judgment in dealing with members of the community. I've left the names incomplete to protect them, but some examples are miss linda, miss robin,
miss sarah, the hamiltons and extended families. Of all those folks. You can contact me if
you need further elaboration. So my prayer is that you all be filled with the knowledge of
the lord's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding to make the right choices for the
well-being of the communities you serve. I believe it is time for a change in fresh
perspective, which more closely reflects the will of the people who elected you, whether it be
in policy or personnel. Thank you. I will. Laughlin. Good evening. I have the privilege
to serve on the crb and while at that meeting we had this past tuesday, I heard a couple
of small business owners discuss some very well interesting things. One of the
things they brought up was the 10% year over year property taxes. That was one concern of
one individual and the other mentioned. Another small business owner identified that
they had a little complaint about capitalism. Well, we don't really have true
capitalism here in america anymore. Now, the most dangerous words that you're
going to hear are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help, right. And I know the one
person complaining about the 10% year over year tax rates is accurate, because when I had a
small business, I had a 12%, followed by a 17%, followed by a 13%. I was basically a small
landlord, a mom and pop operation. I recognized that the trajectory said that, you
know, initially I could eat those costs, but I was not able to pass that cost on to the
potential tenants that I had in my particular unit. So I chose to sell when I could, not when
I had to. Now I can and actually, again commend you all for that tax cut that you had.
I'm hoping there's at least a limit there. I was talking to another small business owner
who's been here for 22 years, lives in stuart, pays taxes. He lost out on a contract to an
out of county contractor. It was in the contract was in excess of 10,000. So it had to
go out to bid. He lost out by $500. Their bid was $500 cheaper. I'm hoping that the
board or the committee here can come up with a plan to maybe have whoever reviews these
contracts consider, hey, this is close. This guy's paying over 5000 a year in property
taxes. I don't know exactly his number. I'm guessing it's over 5000. Okay, maybe we can cut
him a little slack on that $500. Then it goes to the question. Well, what is all the money
going spent to or where's all these property taxes going? Well, we have a grant that well,
it goes to cover the streets and things. We're talking about the streets and that three
years ago this commission voted to give away parking spaces to fpl so they can have a charging
station. So a potential small business owner who wanted to develop their own charging
station, well, they can't they have to compete with this multibillion dollar corporation, fpl, who is owned by nextera and nextera, just recently was asking for a 10% hike rate
increase. Why are we helping these big fat cats? Next, some of the money gets given away in
a grant to a nonprofit. This nonprofit, millions of dollars will not be paying taxes, in
all likelihood, and this nonprofit most likely pays themselves a substantial amount.
so I gotta ask the question, what are we really intending to do with the people's property
taxes? Thanks for your time. Thank you. Will audrey creech. Good evening, audrey creech. I
live in palm city, but I work in the city of stuart, so I didn't even know that there was
an a discussion about the city manager tonight. I was here on other matters. However, I'm
going to give you some thoughts. First, I am a part of stuart main street. The the lease for
the. Particular center that we work out of flagler is up for review, so I hope that you will
support that. Additionally, as to city manager, you have an extreme opportunity here. You
have a wealth of knowledge sitting at your table. You have decades of experience being
city commissioner, being a city attorney, being a city manager. I understand it may not be
popular to say this, but there are very few cities that have that ability to go and say,
have you seen this before? Has this ever happened? Whether the city's been sued, whether the
city's been suing others, whether it's anti-growth, pro-growth, it doesn't matter. He has been there, and I would sincerely ask you to understand that you have a veritable
source of very significant intel that very few cities have. Additionally, I sincerely hope
we are not judged only on the people that dislike us, because, frankly, there are a lot of
people that dislike other people. Honestly, if there's not someone that dislikes me,
I'm doing something wrong. That means I'm not standing for anything. Somebody should be at
me somewhere. So I would say that regardless of the many people that I'm sure are going
to come up here tonight and be very vocal and very passionate and I don't disagree. I don't
know their stories. I'm not even going to try to do their stories, but I would suggest
that you should not necessarily judge a person's career on a couple of people who are not
enthused with that human being. It should be taken in complete and utter summation of that
person's career. Have they done their job appropriately? Overall? Thank you. Robin
cartwright. Good afternoon, commissioners. I would hope that the deliberation and
discussion will be up as open for public discussion because I have some thoughts, but my
public comment is specific to commissioner job's comment about everybody's favorite friend and neighbor. As you may recall, with my case, our favorite friend and neighbor
was provided with very specific documentation and information about what were supposedly
confidential. Talks about my legal case. And I can say, looking at the dais, two of the
commissioners and the current city attorney were not part of that, which potentially limits the number of people who could have possibly shared that information with everyone's
favorite friend and neighbor. And it was only taken down from the public purview once the
developer called and said they were really ticked off about it. And mr. Raines, who was the
attorney for the developer, reached out to him to have him take it down. Now, when this happened, I reached out to the city to express my concern, because I acted in good faith,
because I was told absolutely this was confidential talks that nobody should discuss. And
yet here it was, published on a blog, in a newsletter that is paid for and sponsored by
developers. In and amongst that conversation with the city was a conversation with former acting city manager attorney mr. Nicoletti, who said, very clearly, we will look into this,
this breach will not be tolerated and we will look into this. That was three years ago, and yet here we are. It's like groundhog day that everyone's favorite neighbor is being
provided information that nobody else is privy to, and it is being published with the
sole intent of swaying a vote or a conversation. And I get that. Everybody does it. We all
share things because we want things to go a certain way. But when you have somebody who is
sponsored by developers and which is interesting, no longer listed on his news site, they've all been taken down. But he is being sponsored by developers for the purposes of.
so I expressed to you, I implore you, please find out who is leaking this information.
this is not the first time it has happened, obviously, and it will not be the last. But as
long as this kind of shenanigans is tolerated by this commission and by staff, it's only a limited number of people who can provide it to him. So I strongly recommend
that you do an investigation, look at public records, because there's only a limited number
of people who could possibly do this. Thank you. Robert hamilton. Good evening, robert
hamilton 1895 church of stuart. Y'all know me. Last time we were here, we had brought up to
you guys. Section 202 30 on the procurement method. Now we believe that still applies. You
all received an email today. You really need to read the email. But before I go into
that, let's let's think about something. We have a life guard, lifeguards at the beach doing
his job. Little johnny drowns. Mother goes back a week later with her other kids. Same
lifeguards there. Why would you keep the lifeguard? Why would you keep a cancer in the
community to damage us personally, damage our home, drag us through the mud. I
still come in here. There's an out for everybody on this. With the mckee renovation being
accepted by the historical people, by commerce, and by the city itself, I'm not here to
fight with anybody. Here's an opportunity to resolve it. What you all decide to do or not do,
that's on you. It's our home that was destroyed. Our home that the lies about the roof
ridge vent system that were discussed last week, which you have the report and the report
clearly states there's no roof ridge vent system. So again, mr. Jenkins from guardian came
in here and lied to our city commission at the behest of the city manager. Remember, I was
going to get hurt or was going to get hurt real bad. We're going to be wounded. It's time
we move on. There's an opportunity with the federal law here to use the federal
code. Now. We'll all be happy probably when hud opens back up. I'm sure some of you got the
same emails we did. Everything stopped at the moment. So between hud and the oig again,
I come here and here it is. It's it's right here. It's it's plain and simple. It's self
procurement 200.23. Oh, you know, the sad part about it is it didn't need to have all this
happen. We would have went away quietly if it would just been fixed. You just want our home,
our historical building fixed. The last thing I'd like to say. I was at the building
department, and mr. Hatton was going through stuff with me, which I appreciate. And when I
mentioned the grace and we're doing the paperwork, it's historical building. She doesn't want to put that on the paperwork. Now, what's it going to take to put the state id
number to the state of florida? Recognizes our building on the paperwork at every other
previous permit had on historical building permit. You have a job you need to do again.
we're still injured 15 months later. We need to get to the bottom of it. Move on with
section 200. Thank you. Did you wish to make a comment? Yes. Robert. Forgive me. I'm. I'm
confused. I thought we were. We had a revised scope of work that you guys were going to
sign, and we were going to move forward. Is there an issue? Look at the scope of work that
included the. It's erroneous. It's got improper stuff in there. It's not complete. It
wasn't correct. It's in the email I sent you today. Lee, can you chime in? He responded
to my email. I looked at it for two seconds before coming into the meeting, so it was very
lengthy. He had comments which we were asking for his comments on the revised scope of work.
okay, I'll I'll address it tomorrow. It'll be one of the first things I work on. So.
okay. Got it. I'll be honest, I didn't see what he's mentioning, some of the things he put in
the email, but mr. Jenkins will never come on that property again. The man came in this
room and lied, sir, last week. I'm not going to get in big argument with you guys. He came
in here and lied. It's on video. He lied again and again and again. We don't have to
tolerate this. Do you understand that? Our home was damaged? The man came in here and lied to a government body. Now, you may have them under control, but you damn sure
don't have me under control. You hurt my family. You hurt me, my property, and you all
running around making like it's somebody else's problem here. You're going off the rails, man.
yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what the next step was. Let's get it resolved. It
sounds like we're commissioners. Read the email. Yeah, and speak with mr. Baggett. One of the
issues is mr. Antonio with guardian needs to go back and re-inspect the home, which was
discussed at the last meeting. Yes, but I guess we're hearing from mr. Hamilton that you're
not going to allow him to do that. I never said we were going to allow that at the last
meeting. I never said that. Right. The tapes there, I've read most of that email, but I think you need to do it. It's it's really idiot proof. It's bullet point as to the things
that are not correct and compared to the legal description and all that. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'll leave you with this. It's pretty sad. Now I'm going to leave some
levity here. It's pretty sad, counselor. How many years? And they can't get the property
description right? Yes. Come on man. And you wonder why we get emotional. That's my home, mr.
baggett. If I come to your house and trash it like the mayor said was done to us,
you're not going to be a happy man. Let's just get it fixed. This could have went away a year and a half ago. We are trying to know. We are trying to. He came in here and lied.
sir. Mr. Hamilton, we're trying you. I know you want to shut me up. It's alright, mr. Hamilton.
we gave you a a good audience last week and we continue to listen to you and thank you for
the email, and I'll provide us a context for our discussions with mr. Martin and mr. Baggett.
mr. Commissioner reed. Yeah. For clarification purposes, lee, is it a requirement for antonio
jenkins to come in their property and to inspect in order to we need to have it
inspected by the project manager and that's who's the project manager. I don't think guardian has another project manager. I offered in the email that mr. Hadden or some other
city official could be there at the same time, and and I got crickets. So that was unless he
responded to it in the email a couple hours ago, I don't know. Okay. But right now we we mr.
antonio needs to go back out and re jenkins antonio jenkins of guardian needs to go back
out. All he simply needs to do is re inspect the property. If we need to have the building
official with him, or I'll go out there myself if, if to be a mediator if that's necessary.
but that that is for clarification. So it is a requirement antonio has to
unless we utilize the 200 dash 230 which allows it doesn't matter no matter what. Under
the cdbg grant, the scope of services has to be formulated by the project manager. So even
that's before it goes out to rfp to come to the agreement on the scope of services, the
project manager has to look at it. The hamiltons have to look at it, then it has to be sent
to florida commerce. If florida commerce signs off on it, then it gets sent to shpo. Once
shippo signs off on it, then it would go to procurement and then the federal statute that
they're referencing would actually be a state, a state procurement rule that you could
do a sole source procurement if you could demonstrate that there were no other contractors
that could qualify to bid. Okay. So so when when I guess robert and olga, when you do respond,
I mean, it sounds like he has. Yeah. Correct. I, I briefly looked at it as well. Like lee
said, I gave two dates that mr. I understand, but in order for him to even move forward, they
would have to come into his house and he might not be comfortable with that. And I don't know how he would be comfortable or if we go that other avenue. I mean, it sounds
like we're we might be back to square one unless I think first we need to hang on. I'm not
finished. Unless between the hamiltons can come up with where they would feel comfortable with antonio being in their residence again. But there is no ridge vent system
there. And antonio jenkins did stand before us at that meeting and say there was one. And I
did my own due diligence. Lee. And they don't make a ridge vent system for a standing seam
metal roof, by the way, or any metal roof at all. So he's that project manager and he's
supposed to go in there again and inspect. And he stood in front of us and said there was
one. There is not one. If, if, if he's not going to inspect it, it's going to delay it even
further. I mean, I'm, I'm trying. You guys asked me to get this thing quickly done.
I've tried and I'm doing my best. No. And I listen, lee, I know I'm not going to inspect
inspect it. I know and listen. You're doing your job. But antonio jenkins failed, and he
absolutely stood in front of us as board members and lied and said there was a ridge vent
system. I think, first off, I we shouldn't be accusing him, saying he lied when when he's
not here to defend himself, so let's I understand I you can contact the company cobra and I
don't I don't need to I'm just saying please don't accuse him. And he's not here to defend
himself. And I'm not saying that to defend him. I'm just saying we need to give due process. We're a public entity. I understand, and we've done that in the past. And and then
we brought them here to answer the questions. Then that question should have been posed to him. If you were challenging him, we should have challenged him when he was here. But I
don't want to. All he's got to do is inspect the property. I mean, there's no dispute that
everyone's agreed to put a ridge vent in, right? So that's not and that's that's in this
revised scope of service. They might not be comfortable with him going in their house. And that might put us back to not. And we can we can go through florida commerce and and go
down a different path. And if that's the case but it's just going to be delay okay. Thank
you. Both parties have obligations. Excuse me regard to this process okay I do have
one more public. Okay. Go ahead olga hamilton. Good afternoon, olga hamilton, 311 southwest
third street. Okay. The church that you all tied to here on august. On august 4th, 2024, we
notified mr. Jenkins of guardian community resource management. He represents that
firm. We notified the city manager that the contractor did not install the roof ridge vent
system included in the cdbg. Scope of work. In rectifying this situation, mr. Jenkins
wrote to us demanding the full payment on the roof. 1990, including roof ridge systems
that was not installed. It was faked. Yes, we hired home inspector who was given to us
by insurance company. He wrote a report. He confirmed there are no any functioning roof
ridge vent system count from august 2024 to today. Date 2020 fifth. How many days of lies?
we repeatedly asked the city administration for inspection. Reopen the permit reinspect
deduct for work. Did not complete. No. The city administration paid the full
amount without any deduction for the roof ridge vent system. Despite we provided with the
bid. And by the way, as the city attorney wrote to us that he included that. Court roof.
quote unquote, red roofs, who inspected and gave bid no. Excuse me. That form. Quote,
red roofs, they did not they did not write in their bid that we have existing roof ridge
vent system. What they wrote in the in their bid to remove the ridge cap, not reach vent
system and to remove the metal, it's known vented metal. There are no cobra roof ridge systems.
there are no any roof ridge vent system on our roof. This is days of lies plus including
as mr. Jenkins, guardian community resource management vetted contractor, review
contractor certify their work. Supervise. They work, certify their work and he certified at
85% windows complete when he had in his hand. Since december 1st, 2023, the state historic
preservation letter and the structural engineer report stated, all windows have to be
removed and damages all have to be repaired to our windows openings. 85%. He certified and
paid taxpayers money doesn't matter. Federal taxpayers or the city of stuart taxpayers
fought over 46,000 of taxpayers money given to patriot response group for fake roof ridge
system and shoddy installation of the windows. I hope we can move forward, but I do have
concern, even not just mr. Jenkins, to have on our property, but guardian
community resource management, who sent us documents with falsified dates and for
signature. Thank you, thank you. Is that conclude? That concludes the public. Thank you.
can I get a motion for the approval of the consent calendar? So moved. Second, we
have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by commissioner clerk. Is there any public
comment on this item? Seeing none. Roll call please. Vice mayor collins. Yes,
commissioner. Yes, commissioner. Yes, commissioner. Clerk. Yes, mayor. Rich. Yes. Item eight.
so, will you read item eight for our consideration, please, mr. Baggett, resolution number
101 dash 2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of stuart, florida, to
authorize a three year extension to absolute triple net unsubordinated lease agreement between the city of stewart and stewart main street association, inc. For the
flagler center, located at 201 southwest flagler avenue, stewart, providing an effective
date and for other purposes. We have attached the original lease and the original
ordinance. I'm sorry, resolution that initially proposed or approved it. It it
provided for an initial three year term, and then there was two additional three year terms.
this is the second additional extension term. So you have this is will be years seven,
eight, nine, seven, eight and nine. Nothing else is changing in the contract other than
extending the time I do. I pointed out into the summary that there seem to be a
scrivener's error in the original commencement date. In the original lease agreement,
it was dated at the top in august of 2019, but in the original resolution, the
commission authorized it to commence on january 1st, 2020. I think the august date was
around the time it was finally executed by the city and stuart main street, but I I the the
first renewal for an extension. They were consistent with it starting in january. I just
wanted to point out to to the to the board in case you guys caught it, that that seems to
be a few months off. They've requested that it be extended, provided their letter in here,
and we have a draft of the extension for the for the lease for the second renewal. I'm
happy to answer any questions. I believe someone from stuart main street is here if you have
any questions for them, mr. Vice mayor. So I don't know if you feel comfortable, mike, but
just kind of briefly walking through these three different agreements that we have with
main street because my, my ask here would be to have all of them line up together where we
have three different agreements. I think it's something that's needed to happen for some time
that are sort of floating out with independent time frames, and I think all of them need to
land basically on one agenda in the future for future commissions. I think it's it's
a little fragmented. So for what it's worth, obviously for the edification of the audience,
the three agreements are the rock and riverwalk, the green market and the flagler center.
and so we can bring back the green market and the rock and riverwalk and combine it to
this lease at a future date, if that's if the inclination of the board is that, be pretty
easy. Historically, what really happened was main street started doing rock and
riverwalk. They were having to pull a special event permit for every single sunday, so it
became an absurdity. So what we did is entered into an annual deal with them to pull one
special event permit for 52 sundays so they could do the rock and riverwalk. Unrelated
to that. Several years later, they responded to a request for proposals as it related to
operating the flagler center and were awarded, or were they were the selected applicant,
and they started operating the flagler center. Then on a separate matter, they also
responded to a request for proposals to operate the green market. And as a result, we
have these three staggered contracts. The flagler center's before you guys tonight. If you
want to address that tonight, I can bring back the other two contracts. And if all we're
doing is changing the dates, I can meet with candice at the at main street and have her bring
it to their board. I don't think there'd be any objection by their board. If you're not
changing any terms or anything, just to consolidate them so that they all come back annually for the commission to review at the same time. And it probably makes sense for it to
be in like may so that it's before the budget. I say that because they all, all of the
agreements in some way kind of play on each other. So we, we pay 70,000 for, you know, main
street to do riverwalk plus they lease and then they give us back money for that lease.
it really should be all looked at together, I think for a commission to be able to review.
and it's if you remember last year we said that we will not review the annual allocation we
make to them. Remember we lost that. But to be able to holistically look at the city's
relationship with main street, not to criticize it to me, but I think so that because
otherwise these these just one of these lands on your agenda over here and then over there,
we can't really. And if something needs to be, maybe they need more than 70. Maybe,
you know, you can look at it holistically and say, okay, this is our relationship with main street. These are our expectations. That would be my ask. I agree. Okay. Are there
any other questions of mr. Baggett regarding this? Actually the city manager, if
you had I had my go ahead. But that's okay. Commissioner clark okay. So in light of what
commissioner. Vice mayor just brought up. If we're going to vote on this item number eight,
resolution number 101 2025, we'd like to vote on. I'd like to vote on this separately
tonight, since that's there. And your suggestion would be something to wait to wait so
that they all land on one agenda for future commissions for us to bring them back next
time. Like I can get them on the next agenda because this is already done. I would literally
just put this on tonight's agenda and then just add the other items. The only thing is
a matter of speaking to main street. Obviously those other the the rock and riverwalk
contract for the special events permits easy, but the green market one is an rfp response.
so it may or may not be, but we can still bring it back at the next agenda. It's also the
annual allocation we provide them. That's an additional item. Right. Well that was that's
budgeted. Yeah. So that's in the. Contractual budget. Right. So the funding is there. It's
you saying you want you want to put it. Vice mayor do you want that to come before us every
year? Again, I think it should all be a part of that package for us to consider our
relationship with them. And again, I'm not saying that to cut it or but but just for
transparency, that motion failed last time. I just want to remind you. Well, but that
doesn't mean we can't bring it back. Yeah, I think they should all come back together again so
we can holistically look at them. Okay. I don't have a problem with that. Okay.
commissioner job I my question is to the city manager, and he and I have emailed back and
forth. I was looking at my understanding that there are some sublets over at flagler
center. And you did not have a copy of those or you were going to look for. Well, I sent you
the blank, the unsigned copy. So, so like when the cityci enters into an agreement, like
with azul to land lease, we don't get copies of the 49 sublets where they lease the
units out. And when we entered into land lease with huizenga for the sunset bay marina, they
have 202 subleases for the leases. Then they have a sublet for the marina. Then they have
a sublet for the sailor returns, and then they have a sublet for. I can't think of the coffee
house. Gilbert's. And so their lease requires the city commission to approve any
assignment of that, just as the lease that you have before you tonight has a requirement that
in the event they're inclined to sublet the parties. Paragraph, paragraph nine says
that the lessee may not assign all or any portion of this lease or sublease the whole or
any part of the premises, including portions of any improvements erected thereon by
lessor other portions of the premises for any purpose, without the express written
consent of the lessor. Open parentheses. City manager, which consent shall not be
unreasonably withheld or delayed. And so when you look into the going back on it, when
we were looking into what unreasonably held or delayed met is, obviously it would not
be unreasonable for the city to deny a sublease with some of that we were in litigation with,
or deny a sublease with an entity that was not zoned to do business there or something
like that. But as it relates to the amount of the lease, it really has no bearing on the
city of stuart. They this goes on to say that no matter what, the lessee shall remain liable
for the full performance and obligations under this lease, and no sublease can extend
beyond the existing term of this lease. Was your point more who or how much? No, who. I
don't really care how much. So it's so the reality is, number one, the flagler center I'm
sure doesn't have 23 subleases. No, they have I believe it's one with an engineering firm that used to be in the building that's so occupied. And we should certainly have a known
who is that we do. Okay. And I provided you a copy of the unsigned lease because when the
prior city manager got the letter from stuart main street, it had their proposed lease in
it. When I was at my desk friday looking for it, I happened to find that like on
the computer, I'm sure I could go through the clerk's office and get a copy of it, but I in
my email to you, I said, I don't know if they've updated that lease because it was signed in 2019, so we don't even know if they're still there. Well, that's another
issue. No, they're still there. Okay. Maybe double check with candace, right? Yeah I mean I mean, do they lease out any property for no fee? I mean, are there other people using
the facility at flagler? They're not they're not allowed to. So if they did and they and
I didn't know about it, then I don't know. Right? I'm not sure of that. But they didn't they
haven't informed us of that. Right. But I do know. Can we ask if there's anyone using
property at flagler as an office, a desk somewhere? I mean, again, that would be
something if they're not even paying a rent, but they just the vice mayor sit on that
board. But I feel like that's more of a city manager. I mean, I'm happy to find out. So it
gets back to all of us. Thank you. And for what it's worth, if they're subleasing and
someone's using it as an office and and maintaining a business tax, the city has an interest
in it. But if the entity itself is saying that they can use office space, I don't know
who's using the office space or what the allegation is. That's not paying rent. That's just
going in and sitting there. I don't know that that it's actually a lease or not, but I
will ask. I don't believe that that's happening, though. I guess that's the point. We
don't know. And it is our property that we lease. I guess that was the point. We don't
know. Okay, great. Thank you, commissioner reed. Yeah, my question was pretty much
answered. And I think probably what you're getting at. Commissioner, is probably that
consultant for brightline that was using that property address for a mailing address, I think
tied to their sun biz corporation, I'm assuming. Yes, that's what you're talking
about. That was the I forget the guy's name several years ago. He was a sam yates. Yes.
sam yates, he was using it, their property address as a mailing address for his, I
think, like registered agent maybe, or something for mailing purposes. And I'll ask. I don't
know if he's still there or not, and I don't know. And I don't know if he was ever there. I
don't know, I just know on sundays it was listed. I'm assuming that's what you're talking about. It's still listed, right. But then if you're listing it as such, he's
still there. The lease that the engineers have. Do you mind coming to the mic, please? So,
sam sam is still there. He actually is the executive director of the gold coast
builders association. He's occupying space provided to him by culpepper and turning on the
space that they lease there. I mean, I know that's a sublet of a sublet. Well, I don't know if
he's employed by culpepper interpreting, but if he is, he was doing some pr and marketing
for them. How much now? I don't know. I mean, I know he officially is using that space.
let's let the city manager find. Out there aren't any. If he has an actual lease, then they were
supposed to get our permission for that. The commission could declare it a breach and
terminate the contract. Now, when you say our permission, it says city manager. Well, I you
come in, I would bring agenda. Right. Exactly. Okay. And so I have no idea. I assume that
culpeper culpeper turpentine office used to be where toby overdorf office is. Okay. When
they're ten years ended because it's waterfront property. Instead of having a referendum,
they got moved to. They got they had to move out when they had to move out when the.
whatever the stuart main street rented the flagler center, culpepper terpening then went
and worked out a deal to rent office space in the back of the flagler center. That was
approved by david dyess back in like 2009. Was it ever on the agenda? Like, I have no idea.
agenda? I have no idea. And then the sam yates, it sounds to me like, is occupying that
space as an agent of culpeper terpening not as a tenant. Yeah, but no different than your
employee would be occupying it as you. Not that he has his own lease with them, but rather
that he works for them and uses the space that way. I have no idea. But if the commission
wants to change it, why would you in front of you right now? Why would you characterize it
that way if you have no idea? Because I know that that candace has come to us and told
us they were subletting. There'd be no reason for us to deny a sublet, whether it was
sam yates or whether it was culpeper turpentine. We didn't have a basis to say that he was
a no. So if they were doing it just for permission, there'd be no reason not to bring it
forward. What would be accurate is we we have no idea. Well, except for mark's telling us
that he's using culpeper's office. That's the space that culpeper leased. But aren't you
made aware of these, mr. Vice mayor, when you attend the board meetings, aren't you aware? Made aware of? No. And you don't ask these questions. This is all sort of coming out
now. All new open government. Yeah. So so mike, going back to it, if it was a sub sublease,
it would come in front of the board on a consent agenda item of I would imagine that's what
I would do. That's what you would do. But we don't know if dave did it when he was city
manager. So the lease doesn't require it. It's not a requirement I know that. Correct. And I know that I know that when it happened, I know the city manager discussed it.
yeah, with the individual board members. And because culpeper terpening had been a tenant of
the city for 20 years prior to that in the building. That's right here on the corner of the
parking lot where toby overdorf office is. But what happened was when the new law came into
play, or the new code came into play, that you couldn't stay up in waterfront property for more
than ten years without a referendum. Yeah. When ten years ran out, they had to move.
so they got moved out of that space. And we're looking for space. So I think it all just
kind of happened at the same time. But I don't remember the details of how it got
negotiated or what. No. For clarification purposes. They could and I know these might be
new leases, but we have other leases in the city. And I don't know if this one's just more
controversial because of who. Rents it and then who subleased it to a potential sam yates
consultant with bright line. And I don't know if that's why it gets more, I guess,
attention. But what I'm getting at is our other leases like that in the city to where you
would have the authorization, and then I understand you would bring it to the board on a
consent agenda. Is that how it would be done for other ones? I'm not aware of any other
leases in the city that that have the sublet language. I know, I know that the ground
lease for sunset bay marina allowed the huizinga group to originally sublet it to a
restaurant and then bill, dave or bob davis built the sailor returns. I know that when
huizinga group sold it to the next company that manages it, they had to come before the
city commission, and the city commission had to approve the assignment. The city commission
was not given the financial terms of what huizinga was paid for it. It was just to approve
the new managing entity that was going to be managing the marina and operating the marina.
so did the pelican have that lease to it? Because I remember the pelican pelican when it
assigned its lease to mike matukaitis. Same thing happened. Had to come in front of the
board of what was paid to the pelican were not public. It was just just like when mulligan's
used to be right next door at boathouse, and they sold the balance of their lease to the
boathouse company. Whatever they sold it for was a dollar or $1 trillion was not
disclosed. It was that the city commission had to decide whether or not it was accepting
the new land or the new tenant as a operator that was going to be financially stable,
sufficiently enough to maintain the building or do whatever it was. So is this the only lease
in the city that has this option? Well, okay. Is that is that essential that we know this to either approve this motion or not? I appreciate that's a good but just asking
some I know, but it has nothing to do with this item. If, if, if you would like to make a
request to the city manager that all city leases be brought, it's not good on what I'm
saying. Why can he not ask his questions? Why does it have to do with his decision? Because
we're talking about the flag release. This would be the we're talking about the pelican lease now. Well, I'm we were talking about gilbert's lease. Why why can he not ask his
questions? So in in short, is the florida statutes require you to mitigate damages. So if
you're a tenant in any landlord situation and you're in a position that you can't pay
your rent any longer and your landlord's evicting you, the landlord has the right to sue
you for the balance of the months that are due. But if you can mitigate those damages by
finding a sufficient tenant, even if your lease doesn't have the assignment language in it,
the courts will interpret it to include that language and allow you to fill those shoes so that
you can avoid or mitigate the damages for the remainder of the the breach of that contract,
the leases that the city has as it relates to its long term land leases, all have the
assignment language, because when you have an 80 or 90 year lease, it's not anticipated
that the person's going to run the through the tape. So they they generally do it. But those
aren't waterfront property. The waterfront is unrelated okay. But the sunset bay's water. So
is it a hudson's is waterfront. Waterfront is waterfront. So what is it, a land lease versus.
it's a land lease is a building. It's well, hudson's and waterfront were both considered
land leases because what we say is you're renting it as a triple net land lease. If the
air conditioning breaks, that's your problem. You have to maintain it. We're not
providing you a tenant where we provide you with working air conditioning and working
windows and working heat, and if it leaks or any of that, we say, no, it's just a flat land
lease. And then that's your responsibility for everything else insurance, taxes,
maintenance, everything. And that's just been a policy of the city, I get it. But those
would have to come in front of the board. This one would not. That's all. And that's all I
was asking questions on mayor rich. This this one I know you would bring it if they if they
if they had a different tenant that was wanting to move in and it came forward, it's just as
easy for me to put it on the consent because I just put it on the consent. But that's what
you would do. And I don't know that it requires it one way or the other doesn't require it.
right. It doesn't require it. That's that's going above and beyond which I would appreciate it would be nice. And I'm sure most people would. Thank you, mayor rich, for allowing me to
finish my comments. Commissioner job, do you have additional comments? I just wanted to say my whole reason was that it is city property and we should know who's
leasing it or subleasing it. That's all. Okay. We do. We have a motion with regard to
resolution number 101 2025 as presented. I think that we gave city manager direction to bring
that back. Yeah. So now that's what I was going to say. If we're going to do it separately,
I asked that before or if we're going to actually table it and bring it back. There was no
such thing about actually having them all be on. That makes more sense to table it
and bring them all back. But is it going to be is it going to affect anything, mr. Martel,
you said we need to. I mean, the only thing before us today is the lease. I don't know that
we're I'm not I'm not taking any action to tell them get out. I mean, so right. So I don't
think it has any. Technically, the lease does not renew till the end of the year. So under
the under the lease agreement, they have to let us know within 120 days that they're going to
renew it. They did that. And so at the next and it says at the next agenda meeting, we have to
bring it up. But I'm letting you know that we have until the end of the year. So we have a
motion. So if you want to do a motion to table it to the next meeting, and mr. Martel will
bring back the enough time. Mr. Martel, I'll open up. Comment. Mark, I don't believe it's it's
not a problem for our staff. I don't know, I can't speak for main street, so I mean, I'm
just so I can talk to candace tomorrow, but I don't think it should be a big deal. I mean,
so we can have it be a date uncertain in. Right? I just bring it back and I'll plan on
next meeting. If it's not, I'll do the meeting after asap, but uncertain. Right. All right. So.
so, mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we table this item for now and that the city
manager bring back as soon as possible, but at a date uncertain. These multiple different items for one agenda, all agreements relating to the agreements related to main
street. We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by commissioner job. Is there
public comment on that item? I don't think I do have public comment, mark. Thanks. Mr.
mayor, I just had a quick comment. I think it was the reason this this thing got
turned down last time. Main street's lease for them to be able to survive, they're
booking long term. And so if their lease expires at a date certain they can't book
anything beyond that. And so the concern was and the reason it wasn't put simultaneous with
the other leases, because the other leases can be canceled right away, is that if you did
that, there would be a provision in there that have to be a provision in there for
main street to have time to execute any of their leases or not leases, but event people
that have signed up for weddings and all that kind of thing. So that's the only thing I mentioned is a consideration for this right now, is you're going to have to somehow
dovetail their need because they won't be able to make any money. Then if they can't book
those, those events. We're not talking about pushing it all the way out. No, I'm just
saying just just so they'll be, you know, so that they're being taken into consideration
because I do think, you know, I think it's a good idea to look at them all at the same time.
it's just that main street gets if they can't book out 12 months, they've got a problem. So anyway, thank you. Thank you, commissioner reed. Yeah. So for clarification, when this does
come back, if we're aware of any sub leases and to who they are with when it does come back.
yeah. My only comment would be I would ask that the vice mayor understand the concerns of his
fellow commissioners, that attending the next meeting try to get questions, answers to all those questions as you understand them now. So yes. Okay. And I think to maybe try
to clarify what we're looking for is, is culpeper subleasing to sam yates or anyone else. So
not just who are we, who is main street subleasing to, but are there leases from culpeper
to anyone else? Yeah, yeah. So we have the full tree of potential leases as those are
supposed to come up contractually. And I want to throw a wrench in this, but
technically what mark just said to us was main street needs to know in advance because they
enter into multiple subleases for individual days for future terms that obligate them for
the space being sublet for someone's wedding for one day. Yep. So. So that's the venue is
what sam yates is subletting. We don't know what. Sam. Well, I mean, if he is or not, I'm
just pointing out, like you guys are saying, we don't know what it is, and then we're
characterizing that. We know what it is. We're looking for any leases or subleases that
are happening at flagler. Right. Okay. Okay. I have another public comment, mayor. Okay. Go
ahead. That was the time. Hi. So I was asked by candace to be here. Mark has a wealth of
knowledge and I don't discount that. However, he is not here. On behalf of stuart main street
today I am a board member. I am here on candace's authority and therefore any discussion about
sam yates being or not being on the property, frankly, is not his authority to say. With all
due respect, now, as far as yes, we would be more than happy to get all of the leases to where
they need to be so that it's the most efficient for both the board and our board to keep
track of them. Obviously, that makes very much a lot of sense. I'm glad that we have the lease
going till the end of the year, so that it doesn't impede operations immediately. I'm
glad that hopefully it's coming at the next meeting so that we don't have any, you know,
issues as far as payment of bills as far as events currently. Thank you very much.
as far as culpepper interpreting, to the best of my understanding, this is just me
as a board member. Is that culpepper interpreting is the only current tenant. Now we
will, of course, when candace gets back, she's in california right now. When candace gets
back, we will, of course, provide whatever information you'd like to have, especially because in the lease, it does require us to at least ask for some level of approval of who
it is we would sublet or let to. And mr. Mortele, you know, the the city manager does make a
good point. We are consistently letting out the space in some form or fashion. So just keep
that in mind. If indeed for whatever reason, I don't know, I really don't. But if sam
yates happens to be a part of culpepper and terpening, please be aware that we sublet to all
walks of life, regardless of their stance on any given topic. Thank you. More than that, it's
just the transparency of if he is subleasing from culpepper. That is something contractually
that's supposed to be disclosed. It's not an attack on him for being a bright line. I don't
disagree, I don't disagree, I I'm not aware, I can't confirm or deny. I know that culpepper
and terpening is the one that I am aware of. Well, that's what we want you to be able to
confirm or deny, that's all. Thank you very much. That's. That's all I got. Thank you.
okay. Roll call please. Okay. Mayor. Rich. Yes, commissioner. Yes, commissioner. Yes, vice
mayor. Collins. Yes, commissioner. Reid. Yes. Okay. Motion passes. Item number nine.
mr. Baggett, please. Resolution number 100 dash 2025, a resolution of the city
commission of the city of stuart, florida, authorizing the submission of a grant application to the florida department of law enforcement for funding under the fiscal
year 20 2526 drone replacement program providing for the execution of an agreement if
funds are available and awarded, and providing an effective date. Mr. Mortal, are you going to?
mr. Baggett? I'm happy to handle it. Essentially, the state of florida passed a law
banning the use of any particularly chinese drones, and this is a grant opportunity
for the police department to obtain another drone that is not a chinese drone, and it's
100% paid for by the state. So there's no matching funds whatsoever. It's just authority
to apply for the grant. And if we get awarded the grant to purchase the drone. Okay. And
the chief's here, if you have any questions about questions or comments, mr. Martel, if not,
I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Reed. Commissioner reed. Yes, this is for the chief. Are
these beneficial in the city historically? Have we used them? Do you have to get, like, drone
certified? Because I saw an article come out and I don't know if this is like a big
brother thing. I can see both sides. If this was in miami, like where you get a911 call
and this thing just autonomously flies on scene within like two minutes, they
were saying, and it starts filming everything going on. I know it's not to that we're not
doing that. I know it's not to that degree. But yes, I think what you're talking about is a
drone as first responder program, which I think miami has, where the drone is sent
out with or just ahead of the police officers, it flies on its own and gets to the scene
to check the scene out to see what's going on. That's not what our drone does. Although
if we had if I was on the radio and the drone operator happened to be sitting next to me, I
could say, could you, can you put the drone up to go to that robbery or, you know, whatever
it might be, our drones, we use them weekly, sometimes daily, depending on what's going on. Certainly for security, for any public gatherings, we have them, especially with what's going on
nationally. We use the drones to clear the rooftops of buildings anywhere near any crowd or the parades, things of that nature. In addition to our staffing with our officers. If
we're doing a search warrant at a particular location, the drone will go up in advance to
help for security and perimeter security. We've used it for missing folks, missing persons.
it does have a heat infrared, infrared so that we can help track missing missing persons.
and so it has about, I think, a 35 to 45 minute battery. But we have several batteries. So you
can drop it, put a new battery on and put it right back up. We have two of our members are
certified. And if we are awarded another drone, we'd look to certify additional
officers and make it available. It's a it's a game changer with those, you know, they have the
eyes above a certain incident or scenario. So it's a very big tool for law enforcement. Okay.
that clarifies it. So it's not something that's flying constantly or it's special
occasions. It sounds like yes, we have to we have to we have to have somebody fly it for us.
right now we don't have a drone as first responder program. If this time. And I should also
mention that there is a state law that prohibits us from using drones for code
enforcement and other purposes. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor, if there's no further
discussion. Yep. I was going to make a motion on the resolution. Was it what you were going for
it? Ladies first. Yeah, I was just going to make a comment. I was talking to the drone guy,
chief. And the cost difference is remarkable. And what has appealed? If the drones could
be a little cheaper, what's would provide a much higher degree of safety for the
officers, as you know, sending these drones into dangerous situations and to check out the
house first. But these are what, 30,000? Mike? It's about 20. Yeah. So yeah, where the
chinese drones are so inexpensive, they're almost disposable. So yeah, the the
dji that we had before was about 3500 for the top of the line, one that we were using.
and it's the same drone as 20. But but I guess the law when, when when you're not paying for
the service you are the service. Like, you know, the I guess we're giving them the data
instead of money. Okay, I'll look for a motion resolution number one 100 20, 2325 2525.
sorry, I just lost two years. Move approval. Second, we have a motion by commissioner clarke
and a second by the vice mayor. Is there any public comment on this issue? I have none seeing
none. Any additional comments or questions from the commission? Roll call, please.
commissioner reed. Yes. Vice mayor collins. Yes, commissioner. Job. Yes, mayor.
rich. Yes. Commissioner. Clarke. Yes. Item ten. Mr. Bhagat. Resolution number 98 dash 2025,
a resolution of the city commission of the city of stuart, florida, to approve a major urban code conditional use exception to glenn and kimberly gordon with gordon
enterprises. Stuart, llc, also known as the spice and tea exchange tenant at 39 southwest
osceola street, to allow a formula business to be located within the formula business
area and to waive the required 300 foot separation between the formula business establishments,
providing for an effective date and for other purposes. Mayor, if I may be heard briefly,
certainly. I recently heard that they were requesting a continuance, so I wanted to read to you the board section 11.03 .11, titled continuances under our land development code,
a continuance of a quasi judicial proceeding may be requested by any party at any
time prior to the conclusion of the hearing. Such request may be granted by the board in the
interest of justice and fairness. If granted, the hearing shall be continued by the board to a specific date in time, considering the reason for the continuance. If it is
not reasonable to reschedule the hearing for a specific date and time, then the applicant shall be responsible to provide adequate notice of the new date pursuant to the requirements of
the code, so we don't have to go through the whole quasi judicial right. We do not know.
right. If you're if we're all agreed. Right. Yeah. Okay. You don't have to all agree. Yeah.
yeah. Three of you, three of us. So do we set a time certain then? Yes. I think they were
requesting a date. Certain. Yeah, I would move november 10th. Yes, mayor. I would move
that. We continue. Can we allow the vice mayor to make a motion? Mayor, I would move that. We
continue item ten until november 10th. Second, we have a motion by the vice mayor and
a second by commissioner clark to move item ten to the november 10th agenda. Can we
request that they make an effort to talk to each of the commissioners before the
november 10th meeting? I'm sure they'll I've done that already. Probably. No. That's okay. Do
we need to take public comment on this? I don't believe so. Do we have none? What? Okay. Roll
call. Commissioner read. I'm sorry. Loughlin. What public comment? Will loughlin I do
have one. I'm sorry. Okay. Sorry. It was present at the meeting. You got three minutes.
you got three minutes. Briefly. Since this is going to be continued on, it looks like. But I was on the crb. I was one of the members that voted yes to approve this. After I came
in. I drove in that day thinking that, no, I'm not going to do it because I don't
want a big business coming in here and potentially squeezing out small business. But what I
discovered, I kept an open mind. What I discovered is the individuals involved see
themselves as small business owners. They run and operate a niche business which does not
compete with anybody else. We had a member of the business community here who was against
them, or at least not really against them, but concerned about that competition. They
don't have competition. They would contribute to this. Another concern was they would
get in a big advantage of having this corporate entity helping them along. I spoke to
the corporate entity they do not have. In fact, they basically have to give up a
brand new car just for the privilege of coming in here. In addition, they have several hundred thousand dollars of expenses to come in here. So this is not a big advantage
they have for them. This niche business basically caters to the top 10% income earners. Their margins are extremely high. So I do not see this as a potentially negative thing.
also, I see a lot of potential positives. They are potential mentors. Once you see the
gordons and how they operate, you can tell very quickly that they are good people and they
want to hire a local person to act as their manager. This manager, whoever that lucky
individual will be, if approved, will learn how to run a small business. They've been in
business for 12 years. This will be their fourth operation. When I spoke to corporate, they
knew exactly who these people were and they said glowing things about them. And again.
you know, they also the corporate also identified that they had they could carry up to
three local skus. That would mean that potentially if you had, like the martin county
honeycomb co-op wanted to run their honey through their operation, they could. So
there's opportunities for other small businesses in the area to maybe segue into this and
venture on. So this is a, you know, even though this code like going back to how did the
rockefellers and the carnegies become these super tycoons, these monopolists? Well, they
couldn't do it in the 1890s. They couldn't do it. But the early 1910, 1912, they figured
out, hey, let's get congress to pass laws and regulations. That's going to make it very
cost inhibitive for competition. Remember, rockefeller said competition is a sin. Once they
were able to get the congress critters to do that and the regulations were in place,
that's when they got their monopolies. So the code in theory, is to protect against
big business. And I like this code here, but I also like how whoever came up with this code,
I think was a genius. They created the options where small businesses can be allowed if
they meet certain requirements. They're not competitive, they are going to contribute. So I
just wanted to state and I see they're not here. But when they do arrive, I think you're going
to like what you see. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Any other comments? Commissioner
reed? Did you have a comment or question? Yes. I was actually looking forward to them coming
tonight for some good discussion from my fellow board members. But what I wanted to
put into the record was miss gordon emailed me last thursday at 1:55 p.m. And I won't bore
you with the whole email, but at the end of it it says, p.s. Well, I want to apologize first.
I haven't called them back yet. I've been very busy this week, she says. P.s. I tried giving
you a call today but wasn't able to reach your voicemail. I just wanted to say thank you
again for your time and consideration. It really meant a lot to me as you are the only
board member I've had the chance to speak with. I truly appreciate that you took the
time to listen. Wishing you a wonderful weekend. So thank you. I will call you back. By the
way, any other comments or questions? I do have one. Marcella gambler. Miss gambler.
good evening. Marcella. Gambler. Marcella gambler and associates. My firm was helping the gordons
navigate the regulatory process. This is something they the application that they started
themselves. But then it became a major code conditional use. It wasn't just opening a store.
they're not here, I am here. They mistakenly understood that. Just requesting this last week
to staff meant it was automatically moved. Part of the reason for moving this is I
think you're going to see overwhelming support from the downtown businesses. Not not
many of them could be here that night. But I think when you hear from them, as the board
member said, you will be very impressed with their business. So thank you for moving this to
the november meeting. I'd just like to remind you, this is a motion. We are not debating the
merits of this application. We are only it is only a motion to move it forward in time. So if
you really want to address that issue, mr. Brecksville. Welcome. The only thing I would ask is
that the the crb did review this. They reviewed it very, very well and we had people and
they worked really hard on it. Will made some great points, others made some great points.
so all I'd ask is that you guys, maybe if you get an opportunityt that level, because right now
they're I think they did a really good job of of evaluating it. And it's a tough
issue. And part of the reason it's a tough issue is because this formula business code is
not really clear as it relates to number one on the code. And so that's why I'm asking you to
take when you're taking a look at this, take a look at whether or not this code will function
the way it's written. Considering that we haven't had anybody denied in ten years. So
now if I'm if I'm a franchise that comes in with, you know, 98 franchises around the united
states, and I have 5 or 6, is that is that how do you deny them when you've approved
everybody else? So all I'm asking is take a look at what crb did and and also take a
look at that language in that formula, business language to see if, if it's even defensible
going forward. Okay. Thank you. Any others madam clerk roll call please then. Mayor rich.
yes, commissioner. Reed. Yes, vice mayor. Collins. Yes, commissioner. Selby. Yes,
commissioner. Clerk. Yes. Motion passes. Item 11, please. Mr. Baggett, for resolution
number 104 2025, a resolution of the city commission of the city of stuart, florida,
authorizing the execution of an amendment to lease with tenants at 301 south east ocean
boulevard to allow for the termination of lease in in the year 2028, and to allow staff
to relocate in accordance with prior commission action, providing for an effective date
and for other purposes. Mr. Martell, I believe this is you. Yes. As you are aware, I
originally brought this to the attention of the commission at a hearing to get authorization
to even begin the discussions with these two tenants so that we could relocate to the place.
I then thought that I had both tenants signatures in place and put it on the agenda, and only
one of them got the lease back to me in time. So we heard the bowman lease, and that was
executed. And then following the bowman lease, I received the signature from the florida
cancer specialists. And that is attached as well. It happens to be their fourth amendment. I
don't know what the other amendments were, but the terms of the lease are remaining the
same. Their rent is listed there, and essentially the purpose for this lease is that
they actually had another option. On top of this option, they've forgone any future
options and have agreed to be out in the end of february of 2028, which is the exact same
time as bowman's. And that way we can start making plans. Are there any questions of mr.
martell? Entertain a motion then. Mayor, I'd like to move resolution number 104 2025.
I'll second that. We have a motion by the vice mayor and a second by commissioner job. Is
there any public comment on this item? I have none. Any questions, additional questions
or comments from the commissioners? Seeing none. Roll call please. Commissioner.
clerk. Yes. Commissioner. Reed. Yes. Vice mayor. Collins. Yes, mayor. Rich. Yes, commissioner.
job. Yes. And finally, dad of the city manager's employment contract. As you requested this
item be put on the agenda. Commissioner. Read. I'll allow you to start it off. All right.
so what I'm asking for from the board tonight, first I want to say I totally respect you, mike,
for what you've done for the city and what you do for the city. You've been here a long
time. I wasn't here as a board member. I've been here for a year, so I wasn't a part of the
hiring process for your position. But what I'd like to ask for publicly is for your
resignation. And for us to go look for a new city manager so I can be a part of that new
process moving forward. So I'm going to make a motion tonight to place joe lee as acting city
manager until we can find a replacement. And I want to do everything publicly so I can
get my fellow board members input as well. Because, like I said, I was not here for that.
and that's what I have to say tonight. So are you making a motion? Yep. So my motion would
be to place jolie as acting city manager until we can find a replacement. And I'm also
asking for city manager to put in his resignation as acting city manager currently. I'll
second that. For purposes of discussion, we have a motion by commissioner reed, and we have
a second by the vice mayor. So is there any public comment on this motion? Mark breckfield,
406 southeast finney drive, stuart, florida, 34996. You know, I think with any city
manager, they're in a tough spot and they have to make tough decisions. And so you're
not going to agree with all of them. But and I would say that's true with mike in terms
of some of the things I've had I don't agree with this answers all the time, but I think we're
lucky to have somebody like him. He's an attorney. He's got experience as a city manager.
he's previously been an elected commissioner, so he understands the pressure you guys are under.
and I just think that to go through that whole process again, I understand that you
weren't here, sean, and I appreciate that some others weren't here. But there's a lot of things that happened in stuart before commissioner becomes a commissioner. And I
don't think we make a change afterwards just because we weren't there or we want to vet
it again. I mean, if there are specific issues, mike should be given the opportunity to
address those in any personnel situation and, and, and have some comment relative to what
what the situation was and be be told. The last thing I'll say is that if we lose mike,
I'm not so sure you're going to find for that cost an attorney, a previous elected official and
a city manager who has that kind of experience and is able to help us get through this,
through budgets and through everything else. So I'm not saying that for any other reason other than I think that this is a premature motion in that I think that first, the
council should put a group together to meet with him and find out what your issues are
and have some. And I think you even mentioned that, sean, it was a good point. Everybody's
entitled to a performance review, right? And he's never had one. So I don't think it's
fair to lay a person off before they've had that performance review. That's all I'm saying.
I have robin cartwright. Good evening commissioners. I could make this very personal, but I
will not. I will keep it focused strictly on issues with the contract that I've looked
over extensively. So I won't discuss how I have been personally disparaged or
misrepresented, and then followed up with an email saying that that wasn't my intention. I won't discuss the comments where he has called people unfortunate names like a
fake news reporter. I won't discuss how he has kept city staff and employees for the
purposes of their divorces, private mortgages and traffic citations, including a former city commissioner. I won't discuss how he's had access to discovery that nobody would
have had access to otherwise, that he shared with two individuals, so somebody could
be personally sued that he marked up, that he said he got as a public records request. So
what I will share with you are the fact that he is using city resources for his personal
clients. This is happening during the work day, during work hours. So is he billing
simultaneously while he's being paid a salary by tax dollars? Is he using a city computer for
the purposes of conducting personal business? He is definitely using city email because you can find that in the clerk of court records, not just in martin county, but in
broward, indian river in saint lucie county. He's also using the city paralegal as his
personal paralegal. So is he also using miss cavos resources while she's being paid by city
tax dollars to benefit his personal law business? So again, this is a concern because if we
have somebody who's entrusted with public information and public access and public
records, are they using what they have access to in a way that is beneficial for the
taxpayers for whom they are supposed to work? Thank you. I have olga hamilton. On one
southwest street, hamilton. It's you know, I, I grew up during the soviet times,
communist party regime and a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of corruption, backroom deals, low
lying. That's how I grew up. I smell it miles away when it happens. When the ussr
collapsed and after graduation, university, college, university, whatever it was. I was a
commercial director of a state theater, state theater with 100 employees, 40 actors, each of
them a hollywood star. And. 5060 employees. And I was responsible for bringing money.
but I was also under that cap of the state. When the state dictates you what to do. It's
it's a scary, scary stuff. It should be scary stuff for commissioners when the
commissioners are getting threatened if they don't do or say something or they cannot
communicate with their constituents, they are getting threatened. It's it's very
scary stuff, but it's also kind of very disappointing stuff for me to to to be here. And, you
know, yes, freedom of speech and everything. But when a city official on leader position
just brazenly giving false information to the commissioners, brazenly that
that's not good when he writes you one thing, another thing, things to us on our project
when right out of bed, when city commissioner, when he was city attorney and he knew about
doe agreement on sub grant and how the city was responsible for supervising not only
contractors but also consultants, the city hires. But from the first day when
city manager, who is also the office of court right here on the dais saying city is not
responsible for supervising the project, right in the contradiction to the agreement
that the false information to the commissioners. I understand you commissioners have a lot of
things to do. And when I write, this is as you say, my goodness. She wrote again, four pages
diatribe. But I write it to protect ourselves. And by the way, to protect you too, when I
have to put all together to address every fact. Every fact, where was false information
given. So please read it, read the documents, and I address all the documents over 200
emails and more will come. Not to you, but probably the petition to appropriate
agencies as well, because it's not good when the city officials, when the government
officials just giving false information. Next I have robert hamilton. Robert hamilton, 1895,
church of stewart, third street. I just want to talk to you about operating outside the
purview and the scope of your job description. That's what I contribute to this. What
happened here? The city manager operate outside his scope, damaged us, hurt us, accused us
of crimes. The chiefs here. If I threaten somebody, come arrest me right now. Never
threatened anyone of you. People here never participated in bid rigging like I was
accused of. Didn't do that again. Operating outside the purview. We have a cancer in
the community. You need to remove the cancer. We need to move on. One thing I will say,
he's smart. He is smart. I listen to some of the things he does, and it's a shame he
didn't sit down and just talk to me, because this could have went away very quietly. I
wasn't asking for anything special. We would have worked it out very quietly and I would
have got my place fixed. But now I can't have jenkins back. I can't trust my city. My city
is out to get me. I mean, I have to think with that mentality. None of us in this
room, nobody should think that. Remember I told you almost a year ago, our ships are going
in the same direction. This man's in a different ship. Robin's in a different ship.
what's the common denominator? Why does this stuff keep happening? You negotiate when
you're an attorney? I spent a quarter of a century with them. You negotiate all the time.
there was no negotiation. You were going to beat me over the head, beat me over the head
into submission. I'm still standing. I'm bloodied, and I'm here. I don't mean ill will to
him or anybody else. Mr. Baggett, you're an attorney. I want my place fixed. I'm not
going to keep playing. I'm not threatening nobody. I've come to you for a reason. You know
the damage that was done. These people, they just do not care. And I'm sorry that we take the
position. We take. He has to go when you have an issue. And I was an officer with the
sheriff's department. Oh, buddy, you followed that chain of command. Because if not, you're
out that front door. And it was oil robinson. The one running out the door. Anyway, you have
a hard job to do tonight. We put you here to do a hard job. Do the job. Thank you. Ted
astolfi. Good evening. I'm a resident of city of stuart. Been here for about 40 years or
so. I just want to speak up on behalf of mike martel as a city manager. As a previous city
attorney is a former lpa member. As a former city commissioner, mike, being an attorney does
nothing but defend this commission and keep you all safe from the laws and
regulations of the state of florida and the county and the city of stuart. He he defends
you to the nth degree. I know people don't like him. I know they end up on the losing side
sometimes. That's a hard place to be. Been there. I don't like it but been there. You can't
blame the person that you were arguing with. They're doing what they need to do for their
city. I don't appreciate the ambush of an employee, any employee, in coming out and
saying, I want your resignation without having talked to them first and discussing your issues with them and working through those issues and giving them an opportunity. Usually
you have an opportunity for corrective action if there are issues. I've never heard this
before. I don't know if mr. Martel has had that. I don't know if that's taking place.
didn't seem like it when I saw the item come up, but I think it's a I've. I've been through
multiple selection processes for city managers and city attorneys, and I can assure you
that you won't find anybody better than what you have now. We've had some people here that
didn't last very long, for reasons I can just tell you from being here for so long and
being involved in government, I would be very upset as a city commissioner, as a city
resident, to lose mike martel, especially in this way. So thank you. Mayor matheson. You
know, I've haven't been involved lately with the city of stuart in the past. Did you
introduce yourself, please, sir. And your address? Hi, I'm merritt matheson. I live at 506
southwest south carolina drive, stuart, florida. You know, starting over. I haven't been
involved much with the city past year or so. But I've started to pay attention a
little bit. The past couple months, I've heard a lot of talk about transparency. I'm
not seeing a lick of it right now. I'm hearing some accusations. I've never seen a
commission so intent on finding a conspiracy or drumming up problems. I'm also looking at a
commission where I see one commissioner who's been part of picking a city manager. Besides
transferring a city attorney over. But I want you all to think about what would make the
right city manager. For me. It was someone that lives in the city, has their money where
their mouth is, has knowledge of the job of being a commissioner. Has hometown
roots, has knowledge of the job, of perhaps being the city attorney, and is willing to be
on call 24 over seven, because that's what it takes. And I'll guarantee you, any new
commissioner is going to look at all these meetings. And what do you think you're going to
get after they see all these meetings and all these accusations? And what I just
saw right now, if there's a reason to remove someone, lay out the facts, make this a
courtroom, prove your case. That's what the five year job is. Every two weeks, the city
attorney and city manager come for a job interview. You guys are their boss, but you get a
lot more done if you work with your boss. But meeting after meeting, all I'm hearing is
ways that you can try and prove him wrong. He works for you. Go in, sit down and talk with him
for an hour. Figure out something about a lease on main street. Sailor's return. Any
one of the city leases. That's knowledge you should have before you come to a meeting.
I'm sorry, but a lot of these questions I hear at these meetings, a commissioner should
know the answer well before they come to a meeting. Do your homework. And if you're going
to ask for someone's resignation, lay out the facts, because I promise you're not going to get another city manager to apply. And I've been through them. It's not easy.
you're going to be the ones on call for 24 hours a day if you do this, but if you do it, be
transparent about it. I have raj patel. I think we love him. I would just like to make a
point to rebut. Part of that before we go on is I actually out of respect for mike? I
would rather not open up everything and try to litigate his faults, because if we do
end up hiring another city manager, they would watch the video. And out of respect to
protect mike. And I'm not saying I'm planning on firing him right now, just to your
point, hoping it doesn't go in that direction, that we don't do that, you know, and I, I was
a part of the board that did hire mike and. I would rather not go that path. I hope if
anything, if the the intent is to hire a new city manager, that we do so respectfully and,
you know, not litigate him on the dais as a neighbor, as somebody else who lives in this
town that has been a previous city attorney and commissioner. Out of respect for mike, I
would rather not do what you're suggesting. Madam clerk. Raj. Patel. Patel. Hi. Raj patel, I
live in palm city, but I'm a steward taxpayer. For many decades, I had no intention of
speaking. Today. I just wanted to to see what the performance review was about. Mike wartell
has done no favors for me, if at all. I've asked him to help me. He's helped within his
capacity. He's not done any favors for me. A little surprise that instead of a
performance review, we're asking for resignation. It's a little disappointing.
considering he's got a wealth of information, and I think he does everything that the
commissioners asked him to do. I watch it, I watch the commission meetings from if I'm
overseas, I watch it. If I'm here, I watch it. The the man has a tough job to do. It's
very sad to see this type of thing where I had no intention to speak again, but I filled
out the form because commissioners are asking for his resignation. I implore you
to do the right thing and discuss it. Give the man a chance. Thank you. I have no
further comment. Okay. Comments or questions from the commissioners? Commissioner
reed. Yeah, I didn't want to make any of this personal, so I won't go in that direction to
address some of the comments, some of the stuff I didn't want in front of the public. So, you
know, out of respect to mike, I was just asking politely for something different and not to
go in that direction to bring up things or accuse or any of that narrative. So I asked for
it to come up as a discussion item. I've been here for a year. I respect you whether you've
been a prior commissioner, you're a current commissioner. I've been here for a year,
though, and that's my thoughts, and that's why it's on the agenda. And I made a motion
that was seconded for discussion purposes. But that's where I stand. Yes, mr. Vice
mayor. Yeah. So, so for me, I was a part of the commission that hired mike. And, you know,
this is this is a hard conversation to have, you know, we we hire and fire three
different positions. So this is probably the most important thing that we do that sets the
tone for the city. Mike has been invaluable for me both when I was campaigning to be
able to understand the issues in more detail, and every step along the way. Mike has been a
huge resource to to be able to understand context, past history. But and here's the but
is, you know, mike's mike's role that city manager job, the city attorney job and now our
our new newly created environmental attorney job. These all serve at the pleasure
of the board is is how it's characterized. Because I hired mike I can appreciate that we
have a very different composition of our board right now. And I can also appreciate
that that composition may change wildly in, you know, less than a year. So I though I
respect mike and who he is, who who he has been. I also can appreciate in light of this
role, serving at the pleasure of this commission, that if I was a new commissioner who was
going to be here, you know, for the next three years, that it would be very important to me,
you know, who sat in this seat and that I very well may also want a shot at hiring somebody
of my choosing. So for me, I'm open to hearing from the board. You know, I hope we all sort of
chime in here from commissioner job as well, what your thoughts are. But. I guess I would say
I'm happy to support if that's the direction that you guys want to go in. I'm happy to
support that. If it's not, then you know it's not. And and again, you know, I just hope
that and I get the sense that all comments are coming from respect. And again that, you
know, we don't litigate anybody on the dais if, if it is the direction that we want to go in
in seeking mike's resignation and looking for a new city manager. I guess my questions
would center around how that process would take place, because in preparation for this,
I. I went back and looked at dave ross and how the commission at the time handled
him as a city manager. And at that time they put dave on. Like a leave, some kind of
administrative leave. And joe lee was the acting city manager at the time. And then that gave
them another meeting to. I guess it's a little bit of a different situation, because
this was brought up at a previous meeting where that was sprung up at a meeting, but
there was a leave provided, you know, with joe lee present at that next meeting so everybody
could discuss their ideas and thoughts about next directions. So I guess my questions would
center around, if it is the pleasure of the board to hire a new city manager, would the
best path forward? If that's our will, would that be to put mike on leave? And, you know,
fire him tonight, ask for his resignation. You know what? What kind of our thoughts are
collectively on that? If I can briefly respond as it relates to the dave ross, there was
actually some communication beforehand as it relates to what happened tonight. The reason it was on dad was because commissioner reed city wanted to review my contract
the next day when he met with the city attorney, he said that it was some of the terms or
conditions in my contract that he wanted to change, which actually would be found in the
charter. So we didn't put it as an agenda item because I didn't think it was an action item. If
you look at the code of conduct, it says when preparing for commission meetings, when
preparing for commission meetings, commissioners should direct questions ahead of time to the city manager so that staff can provide the desired information at the commission
meeting. Meeting by ambush is never acceptable. There are an infinite number of questions an
elected official can ask that can't be answered on the spot, and to do so may only serve to
make staff look ineffective. I read the article in stewart news, and commissioner reed
said, I'm not interested in firing the city manager. I want to talk about some other stuff.
and he said that he thought the best way to evaluate the city manager would be to talk to the
directors. I have to tell you, I, I truly am surprised at the approach we're taking tonight
just because I have been available and no one's called me to discuss terminating me
once or to tell me why they were terminating me, or to even tell me which thing I did wrong
in my job. So if you're inclined to go down that path, I'm obviously not going
anywhere. I've lived here my whole life. We've obviously, as you mentioned, been working
professionally for the last 2 or 3 weeks. In between those, I would ask that you direct this,
be put on another agenda item for a more formal proceeding so that it can actually be noticed
properly under the state law as it relates to due process, and notice and address it
accordingly. Because there were people that asked me if they should come to tonight's
meeting and I honestly told them no, I said I read commissioner reed's comments in
the paper. I don't believe that's what they're bringing up tonight. I think if they're going to, they'll bring that up for another meeting. And if that's the case, then that's
your guys's prerogative. I don't disagree with that, but I had no idea it was coming. And
I, you know, nor did I. Commissioner clark. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Marshall.
thank you. Mr. Commissioner reed, for bringing this up. So when commissioner reed said
something last week or the last meeting I thought that he just wanted, I was surprised why he
had to bring it up in the commission. I didn't realize that this. There was something
more behind it. I thought he just wanted to get a detailed copy of the contract, and I
thought I said, I haven't a problem. I don't have any problem with that. And that's
probably why nothing specific is on here other than a discussion and deliberation. And I know that we have the will, as the commission, to deal with the employment
contract termination or whatever we whatever stage we want to put that his ability to
serve us in. But I am I mean, I, I prepared in that I, I, I realized that I, I looked at
his contract. I didn't specifically go through and see anything that he wasn't or
wasn't doing. But I've heard all the things that have come before us. This one instance is
not the rest of his whole service to the city and to the employees. And. I just, I just
think that we need to to pull back and think about this. We're at the end of the year.
we're starting a new budget. Even though we're at the end of the year. We're, we're we're
starting. We just started a new budget. If you if we even if whether or not mike stays on,
we're talking anywhere upwards of probably 275,000 or more, plus other benefits and other
things for a new person, plus, the hiring process alone is probably going to bring us into
some serious money to to try to get somebody from other places. This tactic and this way of
dealing with things in the in the spirit of transparency, I don't know, I'm just I'm very,
I, I'm just very it's I think the, the word if you could read that I don't I'm not going to
read that conduct code of conduct again. But that ambush, that ambush. Yes. It's just
very, very, very, very striking to me and I, I just I just think that we need to cool off
and think about this and, and try to figure out how we can best manage our city. And I and
I know that you're saying, well, that's because you, you we we might need somebody else to
manage the city. But I think that if we can work with the person and the resources that
we have. I, I just, I, I would, I would not be in favor of any type of termination of mr.
mortal in this manner and especially at this time, just just for clarification, what
what is other than us discussing his working for us or not? What more would the
pleasure of the board signify? We we cannot meet outside of these meetings to discuss it.
so. Right. So it would be, it would be bringing it. So I don't know, I feel like I feel
like we're characterizing it a little bit as. Not being open, but we're trying to talk about
it now. That's what we're. Yeah. We have to weigh the pros and cons of of benefit to our city
in the in at this point in time. I mean he has specific responsibility is the
implication that he has failed to fulfill some of these responsibilities. And section
3.05, you know, I we just got to stop worrying about sparing his feelings. We're taking his
job away from him. So again, we need we need to know how he has failed. If he has failed,
there's actually a center city manager evaluation form. I haven't taken the time to do
that. I haven't spoken to a single department head. There are 11 different departments in
the city. I sure as heck am going to talk to each one of them and ask how they would
evaluate mr. Mortals. If, I mean if he's failed, do you think that that a through l
appropriate to do in the two weeks that this time this has been agendized that we would be
discussing his his contract if that was the case. He's certainly entitled to due
process, a more reasonable process, you're asking none of us did you know that he was
going to. Commissioner reed was going to suggest, I mean, if in fact, he said the opposite. If
you bring up discussion and deliberation of the city manager's employment contract, my assumption is that there might be some thought about hiring a new city manager. He
said the opposite. He in fact said the opposite. That would be my assumption if we're going
to discuss it. Okay. But so that's when I would use that due diligence and assume all I have to do is read the newspaper and said he wasn't going to. Maybe we shouldn't go
with what the newspaper says, and we should just assume our due diligence on our own. I
don't, I don't, I don't. Has he failed commissioner reed? Has he failed to perform any of the
specific duties outlined in section three point a through l? Yes, yes. So, commissioner job.
yeah. I didn't read the news article, but I was asked that specific question by keith and
I said I wasn't going to discuss anything else on the phone. I said, you can come to
the meeting, by the way. So I don't know what the news article said on that. And I
didn't want to get into the weeds of specific examples. Commissioner, commissioner gmb,
for respect to mike. Okay. That's why I didn't want to do. You can just bump me,
commissioner clark. Commissioner grove, I will agree with the people who've spoken for mr. Mortel. He is he has a plethora of knowledge. He's been a city manager. He's
been a city commissioner, he's been a city attorney. He's now been city manager, and he has
done his job well. And if you speak to all of his directors or the employees, I'm sure that
he runs those departments magnificently and that they all love him. I'm a new
commissioner and I don't want to go into the weeds, but from day one, there was a level of
what I could say that misrepresentation and trust. So for me, that's an issue. And I
don't really want to go further than that. But that's basically part of my agenda. And as to
his knowledge and all that he's done for the city, hands down, he's knowledgeable to to anyone
in this room. I mean, really, he has done, in that sense, a fantastic job. He knows the
city, he's lived here, he's been a resident, and we're just talking about you have to be
able as a commissioner, whether you're new or older, commissioner, you have to be
able to trust the information you're given. We cannot really I do investigate a lot, but we
cannot. We have to rely on someone to let us know this is the way to go. And I don't
always feel that that it was. I feel that sometimes it was misrepresented. And my vote was
then based on that. And I, you know, for that reason alone. Thank you. And you're not
willing to provide specific examples of that misrepresentation. Again, I
think as the vice mayor said, I don't think that we want this to become a court where all of
the things that we it shouldn't be out in the public. I'm sorry. This might be one of those
reasons, one of those occasions, you don't want it to be transparent. And that's all the more reason that I would request that you schedule it for another hearing. So I'd
have an opportunity to sit down with each of you and individually hear what it is
you think. Because I also believe that if in fact, we were sitting down, there might
be a misunderstanding between us. And I don't know exactly what you're referring to, but I
also know that there were public comments earlier tonight about thing that paul nicoletti
was trying to get at somebody that revealed information to tom company, and I know the
whole story of that, and I know it wasn't me, but I know that the inference has been that it
was me, and I actually have addressed it on multiple occasions. And I again, if I
were sitting with you privately, I don't want to air the information about it right now, but I think I could explain to you exactly what happened. You would understand that it wasn't
me, and it would be very clear that it wasn't me, because it wasn't actually, to be perfectly honest. Right. My conversation here on the dais and what I've just said has
absolutely nothing to do with mr. Penny. He's like the last thing on my mind and anything
he says, I really don't, I don't adhere to, I don't I was, I was just using that as an
example. The same for, for attorney nicoletti. He, he's been an attorney here. He's been filling in and whatnot. It has nothing to do with them, honestly. I just think the
morale of the city employees, the. We have to consider a lot when we make these statements
and, and do these things. And I just wish that. My fellow commissioners would think about
that and think about the city as a whole and the direction of the city and the morale of our
employees. And I think somebody said, if somebody comes in the future, the city of stuart was
not like this. And I think there'll be people who will say, I'll never apply for a job in
that place. But maybe there will be. I think there's two issues. I think there's what
mike is doing. But mr. Martell is due as an employee, as due process, as as a reasonable
evaluation. Yes. Just like any employee. And you know, the reason to maintain mr. Martell
is not because of what difficulty or improbability of hiring another city manager may
be. That's a that's a separate issue. I just think as as an employee, he's he deserves a
review and discussion. And most people get, you know, second chances if they're guilty of
gross misrepresentation or gross error in their job. I see no evidence of that. And I just
unfortunately, I appreciate your sensitivity, but I think there's nothing more damage to
someone's reputation than these vague, unsubstantiated claims of incompetence. And lying.
somebody said that on this, and unfortunately, this is such an awkward process that it has to
be done on the dais in public. But that's the burden we have. And I think that's the
responsibility we need to accept. I can tell you that I had anticipated bringing up that the hr department does, in fact, have a evaluation process that could could be done. And
quite frankly, in the next two weeks, the commission could do that evaluation process. And if
the majority of the commission felt that there was a trust issue or a problem with it, it
wouldn't change anything. It's not going to change the way the city gets operated for two
weeks. I mean, I've always loved the city and I've been committed to the city. The last thing I'm going to do is something that would be detrimental to my coworkers,
because I respect all of them, and I want to make sure that they do well. So if you guys
are inclined to go down that path, I would still recommend going procedurally do the
evaluation through the hr director, meet with the directors of the city, get the
feedback from it, talk to the community, and then make your decision and meet with me as
well and talk to me about it so that I at least understand what your position is, or why you
feel the way you feel. I'm going to let mr. Baggett come in here. He's been patient. Mr.
baggett, do you have a comment? Yeah. Even before mr. Mortel made his initial comments, I
had made notes that we failed to properly notice the public advertise this issue. I also
put notes here and code of conduct about the ambush, I think. I think this should have
been more well advertised. This is a serious issue, although all you're asking for him is to
resign so you're not taking his job away, but he's sitting here asking for due process as an
employee of the city. Even without a contract, where the employees are entitled to due
process and and he has a contract and he's a woman of the city. So he has more of a
reason that we need to provide due process. I think from a legal perspective, I think this
should be advertised at least for the next meeting or meeting thereafter, and properly notice
the public. There seems to be a lot of people from the public had an idea that this was going
on. I had no idea this was going on. I thought we were talking about the duties and responsibilities, and that's why I put together the agenda item, which included the the
charter. I was not prepared to to hear this, but I that's my legal opinion on this. Thank
you, mr. Vice mayor. So let me let me offer. What may be a, I hope, a reasonable, you know,
trying to work through this right now. And you're driving the bus. Sean, I'm just
throwing out some ideas here. You're calling for city manager's resignation to the
point of due process. Potentially. As I mentioned before, you know, historically,
the city with dave ross put dave on administrative leave in that two week period, not
necessarily firing him, but putting him on leave and then having joe lee be the acting
manager, maybe something like this, and then having agenda for the next meeting. A formal
discussion of whether or not to retain the city manager or excuse me, can I just clarify?
one, in fact, is not living. Stuart. He lives in alabama, right? I'm not I'm not saying
for like a permanent I'm just saying I don't think he even lives here now. Okay, I'd say
that because that's what sean said. And then historically, I know dave ross. That's what they did with dave saying, you're saying, well, who maybe anybody talked to joe lee about,
maybe it's somebody else. I don't know. But but just just to try to get to a solution
that's reasonable. Maybe putting him on administrative leave and then at the next
meeting discussing whether or not we retain mike as city manager or if we want to move
forward with seeking a new city manager. That way, there's sufficient nobody could make a
case that there's not sufficient due process, and people could could show up and
speak to it. And you're driving the bus. Just I wanted to offer that. Am I recognized mayor
rich? Certainly. I'm not a I'm not opposed to amending my motion. I have no problem
sitting down with mike and even talking to him. But I'm not going to bring specific
examples up on the dais. Out of respect towards my city manager. I've known mike for a very long
time, and I don't want to go in that direction publicly. I have no problem sitting down with
the city manager, though. Even hr lee as a witness. But I'm not opposed to the
administrative thing to where mike is, is still here, but at the end of the day, I would
like a new city manager regardless. And I understand I'm only 20% of the city, but
that's my feelings and that's how I feel. So then hypothetically amending the
motion to where mike would be placed on administrative leave, either joe lee or whoever we
would decide would be the acting, and then having a meeting at the next meeting
agenda to discuss. Hopefully not in, you know, brutal detail, but, you know, sort of
superficially, our thoughts around this. We have a little more time to prepare. You know,
everybody, all of us can really consider the public can have more notification. Is that
reasonable? I don't I don't know how that works. I'm not opposed to that. I just don't
know how it works. If I can, you can amend your motion if you'd like. Yes you can. Well,
you know, you're right. It was it was made and seconded. So no pressure. But yeah I have no
problem. So I, I'd like to amend my motion then to place city manager on administrative
leave for the next two weeks until it comes back as an agenda item. So it's properly,
publicly noticed. Does that even mean administrative? I mean, that's that's what we've
done in the past historically, so that we could give notice to the public to be able to have
due process. And then at that meeting we can discuss. So no one will function in his stead
for the next two weeks. Oh, there you go. Those negative vibes. We need to identify
someone. Acting city manager. And my concern with joe lee is he's not been made aware of
this. Neither have I. And I don't even think he's in the state, so I drama. So can we
have this the city attorney? No, I cannot also you have to have to also know it has to be one
of the directors and they have to be present. I mean, so again, as far as the administrative
leave, you guys can put me on administrative leave effective friday if you want. I mean, it
doesn't matter to me. Like I said, the the purpose behind administrative leave. I'm not
sure you know what effect or benefit it gives the city to have me not work. I'm. I'm
happy to sit home if that's the case. But I'm happy to also work. So it's your call and
your discretion. But if you're going to have me on administrative leave, you have
to appoint an acting city manager per the charter that's present. So then, if that's the
direction we want to go, we would need to have. A special meeting with those department
heads here. Unless there's somebody in this room that wants to be in that position.
but yeah, we'd have to have a special meeting. Well, we could I know the different. Why don't
we just. It's not happening. Commissioner job. Okay, well, we could make a blend of this
if if mike would stay on for the two weeks or three weeks that we need to meet with
department heads and need to meet with mike, but I don't want to air all of that on the
dais when we come back in two weeks. Correct. Okay, okay. That's fine. I'm okay with that.
so he'd come back as an agenda item. So I'll amend my motion for it to come back as an
agenda item then. And then over the next two weeks, withdrawing your original motion. Well, I'm
amending it. So why don't we just withdraw it for sake? Ease. And your new motion is simply
to bring this back as an agenda. Which which one's easier? Lee, just amend your motion. No,
it's seconded. Made and seconded. Just withdraw it. I'm somewhat concerned what the motion is. So. Yeah. So the motion would be for it to come back as an agenda item in two
weeks. And in the meantime, I have no problem meeting with mike. If any other fellow board
members want to meet with mike and discuss things, but for it to come back in two weeks,
whether or not we have a special meeting between now and then, I don't think it's
necessary. So good. It's a very simple motion that this come back as agenda item on the next
meeting. For the next meeting, what comes back in two weeks? His his employment discussion.
okay. In two weeks, after having met with mike and some department. Well, the motion
does not include whether you meet with mr. Mortel or not. That's up to you. I have no
problem. Meeting is asking. Yeah, correct. And probably a good idea then to have the various department heads present and or joe lee, since that would be part of that
decision making. Hypothetically, I'm pretty sure the city manager needs to live in the
city. Does he or not? I would think so. So for for an interim not you can make an exception
but that the the charter requires the city manager to be present. The problem with
appointing jolie right now is that he's not present tomorrow. Gotcha. Yeah. Was that lee or
was it clear? Lee. No, that's that's a clear. Madam clerk, do you have it? It's clear. Do you
mind reading it back? Just for clarification, city manager remains on duty and an agenda
item for his employment discussion will be brought back in two weeks. Are you happy
with that? Language should be yes. And department heads to be present. Is there a second?
second? Forgive me. So we have a motion by commissioner reed and a second by the vice mayor.
is there any additional public comment on this? No. Any additions? Okay. Just in
listening to what was said from the dais, I mean, I don't see where notice wasn't provided
just here on the agenda. I understand your your desire to be fair to mr. Mortel and give
him an opportunity to speak for himself. But I don't think any of this stuff was just decided
by any one of you. Just tonight. So, as I heard, commissioner job said, this was an
experience over time. So I think think people were noticed. I'm not an attorney. I disagree
with you. But. Okay, fine. And as far as. Him being put on administrative leave, I would
say that would be appropriate so that he's not in the midst of, you know, any of the
meetings and things going on. I understand there's a problem that you can't put anybody in
this place tonight. So whatever the pleasure of the board is, I thank you for your
consideration. Sorry. I just want to add to. Could you just. Made my card? Yeah. So I made a
I made a comment before, but I would ask that you consider at least as just advice, maybe not
amending the the motion, but that all of the commissioners between now and then have an
opportunity to meet with the city attorney and potentially hr because we've got both the
commission issue and an employment issue, and there's certain guidelines there that may get the city in trouble if we don't follow those. And it might be a good idea for if the
commission doesn't already know. And I know some people may already know, but probably be a good idea for the commission to sit down and just address those hr issues. What we have to
follow, what we have to do if we're going to ensure that that, you know, the process takes
appropriate action the way it's supposed to. And, you know, I don't know how old mike is, but
I can tell you in my case, you got a problem if you're letting me go. So anyway, I just I just
mentioned that I just think that something should be done. Thank you. Anyone else? Madam
clerk, I have no further public comment. Any additional questions or comments from the
commissioners? I do. Okay, commissioner reed, for for hr, is that something that should
be in the motion? Meeting with hr? She's a department head. Yes. She's I would recommend
that. Absolutely. Because I can provide you with the evaluation form that has been used in the
past for a city manager and a city attorney, we can talk about the whole due process
process. And of course the city attorney is available for that as well. And we can walk.
that's not something that we're bound to. That may be a nice idea, but the those three
charter positions serve at the pleasure of the board. Correct. So in the same way we had in in
the same way we had an evaluation process with hiring ruth, for instance, it wasn't necessary for her hiring. Right? So I think the issue mandating that we're meeting with anybody
or, you know, no, I think it should be in the motion is what I'm saying. Certainly not
mandating that, but giving any employee an opportunity to speak to what the concerns,
allegations, performance, behavior, all of those just to have that opportunity to speak
that out. Right. That's really what we're talking about. You still have the right to make
the decision that you make, but not to give any employee an opportunity to speak on their
own behalf with the concerns that you have is, is is general process? No, but but just that
being included in the motion? No, no it should not I think it's it's messy. I don't want
it to be a contingency. Agreed. I think you just the motion is fine. You can't compel behavior.
right. Okay. All right. Thank you. I think the mission, the motion is simple. Mr. Mccrystal
have a frank comment. Okay. Wow. This is this is hard. This is about as hard as it gets. And
I'm not one of those people that get up here and moan and groan about mike for little
specific issues, that they have personal problems with them, for sure. No one can argue that
mike is. I mean, who's more knowledgeable about the city of stuart? Good luck. Good luck
finding somebody, mr. Brakebill second, I guess. So. As much as I can be accused of not being
great on great details or even caring about the great details, like when you're when I'm
introduced to you, I won't remember your name because I'm checking out your body language and who you really are. I don't care what your name is, I won't remember your name. That's just
the way I've always been. But I think my strength has always been. Looking at things from
30,000ft and. It's like what I'm hearing and. And what I've seen specifically, just as
someone in the audience is a few times where. It seems like mike's on a different page than
than you guys, and so I think that's the big picture. If, if the, if this majority
commission today. If we can all remember the the election and why you were elected, okay. For
the people of stuart, what the people asked for. I guess the big picture question is, does
mr. Martell help you in your political job to do the will of the people, or does he not? So
I think that's that's pretty much the bottom line. None of the other little mosquito type
stuff. But do you have a city manager who is going to help you impose the
people of the city of stuart that elected you? And I think, you know, as you get older, you
realize that time is burning and you ain't going to be up there forever. So. That's it.
that's my view from, from from from far away, I mean. That's it. Thank you, thank you. I
have no further public comment. Mayor, roll call, please. Commissioner selby. Yes,
commissioner. Clark. No. Commissioner reed. Yes. Vice mayor. Collins. Yes. Mayor.
rich. No. See? No