CITY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING - Nov 05, 2026

Good evening. Welcome to the November 5th, 2026 City Commission meeting. We're going to call the meeting to order. We will start with invocation and pledge of allegiance by our city attorney, Jen. Let us begin this meeting by taking a brief moment of silence and reflection. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Before we go to presentations, I did want to make a couple comments. First of all, as you know, we had an election on Tuesday and we do have a new commissioner-elect, Nan Bennett, who happens to be here even though she's not sworn in yet. I want to congratulate her. I also want to make sure we do a shout out to Mark Ocean who was the other candidate. And as anybody knows who's ran, you put yourself all out there. It's tough and he ran a good election as well as Nan. And Danine made their choice, but we want to thank him for stepping up as well. So let's give him a hand as well. And of course, nothing else interesting happened Tuesday night. But actually, I did want to just make a mention, as everyone knows, Amendment 3 did pass. I think 61% overall from the state and about 57% in Pinellas County. And, you know, voters have spoken. We respect that. As your city leaders, as I put out today on behalf of all of us, you know, we hear it. We know the economy is tough. We know people need relief. That message is clear. We do know that we've got, I think, 4.7 million in 2028 to cut. We'll have 7.6 overall by the time we hit 2029. And I just want to assure every resident that, you know, you see in front of you five people that love this city deeply. So we're going to take those actions seriously. And as I promised before the election, if it passed, you know, we'll do it like we do, as we do everything in the community. We will do it together. We will have plenty of input time for people to decide, you know, where the service cuts are a little less painful. But we all know Dunedin. And we'll try to, you know, make it as painless as possible and work together on it. So I just want to assure everybody of that. And we're getting to work right away with a, what, a December 2nd? Second special meeting. December 2nd special meetings. Of course, during the budget session, we cut a half million dollars and we had another million dollars of efficiencies we were putting in place as well as part of contingency plan for next year to get ahead of it because the actual hits won't hit until the year after this coming one. We, you know, we'll be looking at a couple million dollars to try to get started. So we'll start to have it happen and, again, the community will be a part of those decisions as we move forward. So, but again, we, and we will move forward because we have a great community. So, okay. So I am going to, as we all, we are a veteran city. We love our vets. So I'm going to call the veterans up here if they would. But I'm going to turn this over to Vice Mayor Walker. Well, thank you, Mayor. I almost wore my purple heart flag pin that you gave me, Father Bob. So, but I wasn't sure if you'd be here, but okay, I should have. It's all yours, Mayor. Well, I am, I am extremely proud to be doing the Veterans Day proclamation and even more proud to be part of this great group that stands in front of us. Veterans Day and Veterans and Military Family Appreciation Month, 2026. Whereas President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th, 1919 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day and whereas 107 years later, our nation continues to honor our fallen heroes and commemorate their selfless sacrifices and to honor our veterans who have courageously defended our country and who now volunteer as mentors, teachers, and counselors. And while tens of millions of Americans have served in the United States Armed Forces during the past century, we are reminded that the defense of freedom comes with great loss and sacrifice. And whereas veterans' courage, dedication to duty, and love of country have made it possible for Americans to live in freedom, and whereas on this Veterans Day, we remember with the highest regard the bravery of a generation of Americans who fought with honor, and we salute the men and women who put their lives in danger to answer the call of duty. And whereas, as we give thanks to those that have served freedom's cause and salute the members of our armed forces, we also honor the men and women defending our nation today. Now therefore, I, Robert James Walker, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the mayor of the great city of Dunedin, Florida, and on behalf of the entire city commission, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, November 11, 2026, as Veterans Day in Dunedin. And the month of November is Veterans and Military Family Appreciation Month, and encourage everyone to join us at Pioneer Park for a Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, November 11, to honor our veterans and recognize the tradition of freedom they fought to preserve. Whoever the chosen one is. What's that? Whoever the chosen one is. Go ahead and say something. As always, you know, we thank the city of Dunedin and our city commission for your just amazing support of our veterans community and any of the activities that the veterans community puts on. This is a special year. It's our 200, and we're actually at the end of our 250th birthday, and we're particularly proud of this Veterans Day ceremony that's coming up. We're kicking it up a notch. You know, there's going to be a lot of good music. There's going to be a lot of fanfare. We're going to have our junior ROTC just off of a successful competition year. doing a rifle drill presentation for us. We have the Dunedin International Chorale doing some singing for us as well as the Heavenly Hollies as always doing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. So, what started it is just a last-minute decision several years ago to put together a Veterans Day ceremony, and it happened not at Pioneer Park. It actually happened at Edgewater Park, our first Veterans Day ceremony, because if you remember, when we finally decided to do it, it fell on the Saturday of Wine and Blues. So, we couldn't do it at Pioneer. We ended up having to do it at Edgewater. And, you know, with a week's notice, we filled the park, and it has only gotten bigger and bigger every year, thanks to, obviously, the Department of Parks and Recreation and your support and everyone else. So, thank you so much. Just to let you know who's represented here, we have representatives of the American Legion, Post 275, VFW, Post 2550, Military Order of Purple Hearts, am I missing? and various veterans. So, again, you know, we just encourage everyone to come. Come early. Just so you know, we have soulfish that's going to be playing an hour before and two hours afterwards. So, if you don't have anything to do after the ceremony, bring your beach chair, come and enjoy. As always, Jody Purcello, you know, from Wild Iris, he's going to have coffee and homemade muffins ready to go for you if you show up early. It's going to be a great day. So, again, thank you for your support. Thank you for everything you do for the veterans community. And, Rob, I do want to say if anybody hasn't been to the veterans ceremony in the last few years, you know, you need to do it because it's very, very meaningful but it's also just, it's fun too but it's very meaningful and you do a great job. I was thinking maybe Jennifer and I or we could get up there and do boogie-woogie-bugle with it. Maybe not. Anyway, also we have George Washington. Sure, but I just wanted to introduce George Washington. We have George Washington in the audience too who wanted to be here for this. I also, by the way, want to thank Michelle for adding the fact that November is the military veterans and families appreciation month. You know, it's always important to remember that when a soldier is deployed, the entire family is deployed. So, it is important that we keep the families of all of our veterans in our hearts and in our minds, especially during Veterans Day. So, thank you for adding that to the thing. And Frank, did you have something? Rob just said it. Oh, he just said it. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Well, thank you all for your service. Thanks for what you do for our community. Glad the other vets came up here, military group. So, appreciate it. Thanks for all you do and we'll see you on the 11th. But we've got to get a picture too. Picture, picture. Don't forget that. Okay, everybody get close. Close in. Yep. All right. Perfect. That's great. Oh, I love it. All right. Thank you. Is there a second copy anywhere? Yeah, but she can get us the extra one. Yeah. Good. Mayor, if I may, just want to acknowledge that that was my last picture. Oh. And I couldn't be more proud to have my last picture be taken with the veterans. That's awesome. I'm very honored with that. That's awesome. Okay, we are going to go to citizen input. Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on a topic that is not on the agenda? Oh, it looks like this is what Mr. Washington's here for, so come up. I can remember making that flag. Steve Beatty, George Washington. I'm here tonight because I was smiling on Tuesday. No matter which side of anything you're on, what exciting times that democracy worked, what I fought for. My favorite colony, you know, John Hancock here running everything, my favorite colony, but you guys got thrown a curveball about eight, nine months ago when our Continental Congress passed this Amendment 3 and then we the people passed it again. But you can serve just like the original patriots. Remember, only 40% of the patriots were patriots in America and the rest were the undecided or British loyalists. And things weren't easy back then either. I have so much confidence that what this, you're going to look back at this in 10 years and say, oh my God, that was the most exciting time having to deal with that Amendment 3 funding. And frankly, if I would have known that was going to pass and it was going to be a challenge, I would have ran for one of your offices because I would love to be up there right now. You get to, you get to be like the original when they started out with zero dollars, working hard, and you get to reformulate and do, and what makes you so far, you're my favorite colony and my favorite regiment. Otherwise, we have Safety Harbor. All right. We have Tarpon. All right. Clearwater Regiment. But this regiment, all of you I know are up to it because true leaders thrive on this stuff. I can feel, when I get in situations like this, I feel it running in my blood. It's like, wow, thriving on this. Where if it's like, like I always tell people, I'm the wrong person if your company's in good shape. You don't want me in there to run it day to day. But if it's not in good shape, I'm your guy. I can come in there and I thrive on making it better. That's what I see in all of you. So whether, no matter which side of this on, I am so excited that we have all of you leaders here and our staff at the city to make the most of this and be better. We could come out ahead of these other cities and be showing the way as we always have. Come out ahead to where we're providing more services for as many dollars as we can within this with the most creative ways, whether private, corporate involvement, using different ways. So as watch and I say long live America and long live Dunedin. Thank you, George. And will you be taking a boat from the marina back to camp? Anyway, anyone else wish to come forward and speak on an item that is not on the agenda? Hi, good evening, Commission David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. Last month, there was quite a controversy in the city of Tarpon Springs regarding a rezoning land use change. This land use dispute revolved around a mosque wanting to expand its footprint on an adjacent parcel of property, which became a huge problem within the local community as this rezoning land use change was not clearly identified and proper notification was not given in its process of expansion. Elevating the argument, someone appearing to be a Muslim dressed in a burqa stood before the county commission playing Muslim prayer music for about two minutes before being escorted out of the establishment. Some of the residents in attendance of the county meeting were quite vocal in their opposition to someone playing Muslim prayer music wearing a burqa. Particular factions were yelling, Nakba, get out of here and leave. It's not as though I agree or disagree with religious freedoms or the freedom to speak. My point being, if the Muslims are not allowed to expand their footprint using clandestine fashions or shady means of not clearly identifying themselves or not properly defining their intentions, then religions of another nature must also equally and fully and clearly disclose their expansionist pursuits and their intentions as well. Which brings us to the reclaimed water variance application which clearly states that I, the applicant, literally owes my health, safety, and religion. I don't owe anybody my religion, especially when it comes to water. I'm a Christian. I can pretty much tell you that the Muslims are not behind this reclaimed water variance application which religiously is claiming eminent domain of both my personal and real property in Statute 15303, Section 5. I find particular interests based on Statute 218.415, Section 16F, and Statute 2.01 is soon to be a huge problem regarding insurrectionist and rebellious policies based in the 14th Amendment as reflected in Chapter 163 of the Florida State Statutes. Thank you. Thank you, David. What's good for the gooses, good for the gander, right? Thank you, David. Just saying. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the audience wish to come forward and speak on an item that is not on the agenda? Okay. Seeing no one, we will go to the consent agenda which is as follows. So 2A is approve of the minutes for the 9-17-2026 special meeting and then 9-17-2026 regular meeting. And 2B is board and committee appointments. We have three new people for Board of Finance. Oh, I see one of them out there. Yeah. Two of them out there. Good. All right. I don't see the third one here, so okay. All right. Okay. So that's exciting. And so does anyone wish to pull any of those? Okay. Can I have a motion? So moved. Second. Anyone in the audience wish to speak on any of those issues in the consent agenda? Okay. Seeing no one, I'll close public input. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed unanimously. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations to Amanda, wherever she is. Okay. It's a very important board, so do it especially now. So, there you go. Okay. We're going to go to action items, and our first action item is going to be Resolution 26-28, authorizing execution of Revised Amendment No. 4 to the Loan Agreement with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the State Revolving Fund Construction Loan Agreement WW-5202C1 for various wastewater projects to decrease that loan by $17,077,603 to $6,417,549, and subsequent execution of SRF Construction Loan Agreement WW-5202C2 in an amount equal to $17,540,003. And, Jen, can you please read Resolution 26-28 by total only? Certainly. Resolution 26-28, a resolution of the City of Dunedin, Florida relating to the State Revolving Fund Loan Program making findings amending Resolution No. 21-25, approving the form and authorizing execution of the Fourth Amendment to the Loan Agreement WW-5202C1, approving the form and authorizing execution of the Loan Agreement WW-5202C2, establishing pledged revenues, designating authorized representatives, providing assurances, providing for conflicts, severability, and an effective date. That was Resolution 26-28, read by title only. Okay, could I get a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. Okay, staff presentation. I think Clay, there you are, and Gene. Yes. Excuse me. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Clayton Watkins, Utilities and Engineering. With me today is also Gene Hawkwater with the Finance Department to help with, help me answer any questions. As stated, Item 3A is Resolution 26-28, authorizing execution of the revision Amendment Number 4 of the State Revolving Fund SRF Construction Loan Agreement with the Florida Department of Engineering, excuse me, Environmental Protection for various wastewater projects. This amendment splits the agreement into two separate loan agreements, reducing the original amount to $6,417,549 and creating a new agreement in $17,540,003. This loan, that number also includes the capitalized interest that is part of the agreement from the original loan that is actually $17,077,603. With this project, there were four projects involved. It was the citywide lift station, electrical, and SCADA improvements. Also SCADA improvements at the wastewater treatment plant and then also the wastewater, excuse me, the wastewater treatment plant's electrical upgrades. As the first three projects are either completed or varying in end, as we came to the yearly time to renew the agreement with FDEP, they realized that they have three projects that are done and that we can start to actually finalize and finish the reimbursement and then also start making our payback. So that's where the reason they split out the electrical project with the wastewater treatment plant because that's another two, two and a half years left. So as we went through this agreement, they did leave the original loan at 0% and the new interest rate for the new loan is at 2.6%. We did have Gene and Finance take a look. Current loan rates for something that is, you know, bank loan at that rate is now, for a 20-year loan is at 4.78%. So we, you know, we're getting a decent rate on that number. So let me see. That's it. So as such, staff hereby recommends resolution of 2628 authorizing the execution of revision amendment number four to the state revolving fund, construction loan agreement with Florida Department of Environmental Protection and we're here to answer any questions. Okay, questions. I'll start with Commissioner Gow. No questions, Mayor. Commissioner Dugard? No questions, Mayor. Vice Mayor? Just a couple of clarifying questions really for the purpose of community education. So the state revolving fund, that really analogous to the private sector where it's a revolving line of credit basically that allows us to do large infrastructure. Correct. So what it is, it's sort of somewhat like a line of credit but we do not start paying or incurring interest until we start actually receive the money. Like when we pay our contractor and then we submit reimbursements. After that first reimbursement that's when we will start incurring but as noted, the first 6.4 is at a 0%. So yeah, it's basically like a line of credit. Yeah, and that's my second question. It's extremely low interest rate on this revolving line of credit. Yes. And as you noted, you said it's a revolving loan. I think that's why they wanted to split it out so we could get that 6.5 back into the cycle and it can be loaned against later on. Yeah, okay. And then the amount went down. Does that impact further withdrawals from that SRF? No, the amount went down was what it basically is the cost that is the wastewater treatment plant electrical project. So we just created another amendment. That's the second agreement. Okay. Yes. All right. Great. Good presentation. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Sandberg. So is this loan, is it collateralized by future billings? Is that, is this loan collateralized or? I don't think. Not to my knowledge. Okay. So it's, because we are a city. It's, it's, I guess, I think it is collateralized. It's based on, on the fund is, the wastewater, wastewater fund is responsible for paying it. The other thing I did, I'm not sure if it goes along with this, but, you know, everything's changing so much. Are we feeling good about our security at our facilities? Cyber security, any type of, Yes. All of our water and wastewater treatment, we're on an internal system. Nothing is, nothing that operates the plants goes out into the internet. Okay. We have, that's why we have it manned, but all of them are manned with at least, you know, the two people every 24 hours a day. Okay, that's all I had, Mayor. Okay, I don't have any questions. Let me open it for public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak to this issue? Okay. I mean, this is all good because we're getting low interest, so it's all good. So, okay, I'll close public input. I'll go to commission comments. I'll go to the maker of the motion, Vice Mayor. No additional comments. Thank you. Okay, seconder of the motion, Commissioner Degard. No comments. Okay, Commissioner Gall. No comments. And Commissioner Sandbergen. Nothing to add, Mayor. I'll just add again. It's all good because it's, what's the interest rate? On the first 6.5, it's 0%. On the other 17.5, it's 2.16. So, yeah. And what's the market rate again? 4.7 to 4.8. Yeah, so this is, this is good stuff. Okay, I will go to roll call vote. Commissioner Gall. Aye. Commissioner Sandbergen. Aye. Commissioner Degard. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker. Aye. Mayor Franey. Aye. Aye. And motion passes unanimously. Okay. And now we will go to City Manager Annual Performance Evaluation and I'll turn to Teresa for staff presentation on this. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commission, Teresa Smalling, Director of HR and Risk Management for the City of Dunedin. You are here at this point to discuss the City Manager's Performance Evaluation. As you know, our City Manager, Jennifer Bramley, was hired with the City in 2017 and per her contract, the Commission would evaluate her performance at least once annually. The Commission was sent the information to complete the evaluation form and return the completed form, discuss any, have a meeting with Jennifer. What you have in front of you, the exhibit, is the annual evaluation form compiled with all of your responses. At this time, I invite you to discuss the evaluation form and make any comments. Okay. So, on that note, I think what we've done in the past is we have discussed the evaluation, then we, help me out with this, have we done the goals last, I think? Yes. Usually discuss the evaluation and then decide on any increases and then discuss the goals. Yeah, that sounds good. Okay, so basically, I guess I'll just go to each individual commissioner and you can summarize your thoughts and then we will discuss a raise. So, anybody want to volunteer to start or shall I just kind of pick somebody? Okay, Vice Mayor, I'm picking the Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome, Vice Mayor. Well, Jennifer, the, well, this last year was very much characteristic of the previous years since I've joined the commission. I am always, I am always extremely impressed at your, your poise under fire. I am always impressed with your ability to look forward and to actually recognize things that we need to be aware of before it happens. and I will say that and just really that the testament to this is really about how you and the staff have managed the resources of this city. It, you know, I know that, you know, we all catch a little bit of flack about that but there are certain things that you just can't, you can't argue with, you know, our double-A bond rating, the fact that regardless of the worst case scenarios and we take, look back at the three storms that we had in 2024, we were, we were much farther ahead those three back-to-back storms than we were with Irma when you first came on board and that's testament to your leadership and I, you know, I think, again, the other thing is, and we'll be talking about this on December 2nd but we are going to be doing the special meeting that essentially where we're going to be approving a contingency budget based on the amendment 3 result but the thing is, you know, this was brought to us several, several weeks ago and so really, you know, at this point we were prepared for this which is the most important hallmark and, you know, and again, I wish General George Washington was still here but, you know, this, you know, as the leaders of the city that we have a responsibility and I think we're prepared to enact that responsibility so, those are my comments. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. We'll go to Commissioner Sandbergen. You know, I had my, all my work done before Tuesday so, I mean, you almost have to start over because what if it passes and what if it doesn't? you know, one of the first times I ever met with Jennifer, she said a couple of statements to me that have really stuck with me and one is that I don't hold grudges and that's huge because I still remember the fourth grade getting my shoes stepped on and so it's a little different for her to bounce back like that. You know, I guess, you know, is there anything, what is our biggest challenge in 2027? I don't know if it's time for questions and answers but besides Amendment 3, what is just something in 2027 we're going to be faced with? Well, I think that most certainly we need to complete the marina and I'm going to talk about that during my comments if I may. With goals, yeah. When we get to goals, complete the marina, complete the work that we're doing with our infrastructure. We're doing some really good work obviously on the wastewater treatment plant and so on and so forth, $16 million job. It's hard to frame that. Outside of Amendment 3 though, because that's going to be pretty much all-encompassing for us and it's going to impact everything else as well. Okay, and I think when the votes came in, 62% of Florida got what they wanted, 38% didn't and I think it's a real important time for you and not just you but also this commission to keep an eye on the morale in our staff. I don't want to walk around on eggshells but I'm sure at 8 o'clock Wednesday morning when this building opened up there's a lot of changes and I know you're good. You do sit down with the staff and your openness, your ability to make that camaraderie and keep it together. I am very satisfied. You're the only city manager ever worked with but at Marina and some of those things we'll get those done in 2027. Absolutely. That's all I had Mayor. Thank you Commissioner. Commissioner Gao. Thank you Mayor. A lot of it's already been said Jennifer. It's been certainly an interesting year challenging year. The last three years have been hard but you have managed us through this with vision and steadfastness. You've always been open and honest and certainly nobody is perfect. You're not perfect. I'm not perfect. The city staff isn't perfect but you should be proud of the work that we've done and the commission should be proud of you reporting to us. Thank you for everything you've done. I don't know why it just really sinks into me when you can talk to especially other elected officials in other communities that talk proudly of you and the work that you do in Dunedin. It's nice to have that response. Back off. You can't have her. But certainly there's some goals and there's things that we need to address and we'll do that under goals. Thank you for everything you do. Commissioner Degard. Commissioner Degard. Thank you Mayor. I have had the privilege of working with some of the best leaders in the country being a leadership coach. U.S. Bank, Hallmark Cards, UPS. I got to meet some of the very best. They got nothing on you. Serious. Thank you, sir. For what you bring to the job, it's near perfect fit. And whenever someone comes up and gives me something less than a complimentary statement about you, I say find me someone better. And they get very quiet. Because that's really the choice. Everyone has been shackled with the necessity of being human. So we all make mistakes. It's not that we don't make mistakes, it's what we do when we do make mistakes. She never admits, no, I do too. But I tried to be harsh on this evaluation. This is my second evaluation. I tried to be as harsh as I could. And I still couldn't find anybody out there that I thought might be better. She's the perfect fit at the perfect time. And remember one thing, if you're in a storm, you're looking for the best captain you can find. And I think we have that. Thank you, Commissioner. I feel like I want to break into when you walk through a storm. Hold your head up high. Anyway, all right, and I did want to add to Commissioner Sandberg's comment that actually I have worked with many other city managers, and you're great. I'm just going to tell you right now. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I guess I'm lucky to know to be grateful. Okay. Thank you. So, and interestingly enough on the employee morale issue for Amendment 3, yeah, it's a scary time for some of our employees. And as I would have expected, I think by noon on Wednesday, there was an email that went out to all employees, basically kind of steadying the ship and saying, you know, we've worked on a contingency budget, we're going to be okay, you know, going to get through this, you know. So, you know, so I just, I think you just kind of know what you have to do. And that's what made it tough because I did see election night. You had the hard job of coming in and steadying the ship when people were afraid. And that's a hard job. That's a hard leadership job. But again, we've seen you in that seat many times and you're always strong. I wrote down a few things. I mean, you know, you're a good fact finder, you're good at giving alternatives, very good at making strong recommendations. The number one thing I wanted in a new city manager, because I was part of the process with you, was somebody who wasn't willy-nilly about recommendations. And then they made a strong recommendation and the commission disagreed, they didn't get weird. They didn't get pouty, they didn't get, oh yeah, I'll show you. You just take it like a professional and you get the job done. And so I think that's really a strength of yours. You're an honest broker among all of us. You're very careful about, you know, just being very, I think, bringing your best to each one of us and not showing any kind of favoritism or anything like that. And again, that's a real downside to a lot of city managers. They can't do that. You're a very honest broker and that's huge. You have a strong ability to say no. And as everybody knows, that's why you're not always liked. And if you're always liked, you're probably not doing your job. Well, you are not doing your job. Because you can't always be liked and you have to say no. And there's a lot of city managers that don't want to say no. And they also want us to look bad up here that we always have to say no. And you're good at that as well. You know the city after the nine years that you've been here, you love the city. You and your husband are a team. I mean, you're very involved. He's very involved in Rotary, in the church. I mean, you love this community. And that's a side benefit. You know, it's not mandatory. We just get that as a cherry on the cake. And it came up before, but you are now on the board of Florida City County Managers Association, which is good for you personally. But even more so, it is good for us. Because that's where best practices and, you know, the cities and counties coming together. And I know that as we face Amendment 3, that's going to be a huge resource for you. Because a lot of people are trying to figure out how to do things and trying to think creatively so that we have the least impact possible to our citizens. You have a great team. You've built a great team, and it's really important. And because that's the backbone. We have good employees. That's the backbone of all of us. You know, you're very competent, very transparent. You have great integrity. You have great integrity. One thing, and again, you can't say this about every city manager, I absolutely never have to worry about the honesty, integrity, and transparency of you. Ever. And I mean, again, I think all these positive things that we have, including a strong financial team, because I said it about as well, is that when you get all the stuff out of the way and you have those kind of skill sets, you have it allows the five of us in the most, hopefully, intelligent way possible debate the issues important to the city and hopefully come up with the best possible decisions. And I think those are all what make you a very good city manager. You had a really good year. You know, in the eval, I kind of highlight some of the things I thought were your best and brightest moments. And, you know, we're not all perfect, but you are a really great city manager. And very appreciative. Very thankful. And the citizens are very lucky that we got you and that we're keeping you and that's really important. So, and we're going to have a big year ahead. And I think, you know, with our financial team and with you and our directors, I mean, that's going to help us make some really, and help the community, more importantly, make some really tough decisions. So, okay. Thank you, Mayor. So, those are my comments. So, we need to decide on a raise. So, Teresa, tell me how it's usually we do what happens with the rest of the employees. And so, tell me the range or how this would work. Basically, the rest of the employees, it's anywhere from zero to 3.5%. Okay. So, I mean, I know that I want to give the top, which is 3.5%, but I need a motion for whoever wants to make a motion on whatever that's going to be. The outgoing commissioner. The outgoing commissioner will propose 3%. Okay. Do I have a second? Okay. I second the 3%. Okay. Okay. We have a motion. Any discussion? Yeah. Should we do that after or when? When's a good time? Yeah, let's talk before we take a vote. We can, okay. Sure. So, just a minute. Teresa, what was, in the compensation range, did we have many people above 3% inside our management team? The management team, pretty much as far as I know, all got 3.5. All got 3.5. Thank you. Any other discussion before I go to public input? When I received everybody from the recap of the evaluations, was there a number on, I think mine came across, there was two of us that had numbers and three that didn't. Am I right? Correct. Two commissioners said in line with the leadership team or the, and the staff. And then, I believe the mayor just said, said yes. And I believe there was one request for 2%. Right. That was mine. So, it was, the mayor recommended 3.5%, you recommended 2%, and vice mayor and, vice mayor said just yes. And then, Commissioner Dugard and Commissioner Gao said commensurate with leadership team slash staff percentages. And anywhere where we provided what that number was for leadership, the leadership team? Usually the, the top is 3.5. So, the staff, their evaluations are numerically scored. So, it would be based on, you know, whether the, the scoring for the city manager's evaluation is slightly different from how staff is evaluated. But overall, you know, if you take a look at what she has scored, you're looking at, uh, pretty much the majority, outstanding and excellent. Right. So, if you numerically did that, then you're looking at 3, 3.5. And I, you know, I, believe me, this is, I think this is, this is city commission Steve talking. Have we ever actually had a presentation of her entire financial package, cars, phones, everything? Have we ever seen a bottom line number? I, I don't think that has been done in, in, in the past. Okay. Yeah, there's a contract. I mean, we have a contract that we did originally with her package. It's, it's all spelled out in our contract. Okay. Okay. Um, that's all I have, Mayor. Um, I mean, I have, I have thought, I mean, for me, I'm just going to talk about me and then we'll go to public comment. But, um, we have an outstanding, excellent city manager. I just saw on the beacon, uh, a neighboring manager that's making a lot more than what our city manager is. And our city manager, in my opinion, is way better. Um, so, uh, 3.5 is not exorbitant. Um, we're going to be asking a lot, again, of our city manager. Um, and, uh, so I'm, I'm for the 3.5. But, anyway, let's go for a public comment. Anyone in the audience who should come forward and speak on this issue, please come forward now. Name and address for the record in three minutes. Hi. Dinner building. I have a business here in Dunedin as well. Um, I'm looking at the overall picture. Oh, yeah, if you could, I'm sorry, there's a button there. Just go closer. Can you help, Teresa? Better? Okay. Okay, got it. Okay, sorry. I'm looking at the overall picture. I mean, we've, we've read this in the papers that we're looking at cutting 26 positions, if not more, since Amendment 3 got passed. Okay, so we're going to cut 26 positions. We're going to get rid of the pools. We're going to, we're not going to be doing Halloweens and Christmas parades. So why would someone want to accept another 3.5% raise when she's going to cut 26 positions? I don't understand it. I just don't get it. You know, it just, it nothing makes sense to me. If you're going to cut 26 employees from the city of Dunedin, cut 20, 22 and not take a raise. It's real simple. It's, it's not rocket science. And I'm, I'm sorry that Amendment 3 went through and everybody's in, in a pinch. But when I need a new fence, I don't ask my neighbor for the money. I save my money and I get a fence. It's like putting a kid through college. You get a little extra expense. It's the same thing. You know, I mean, I'm sorry it all happened for people, but I can't myself as a resident and a business owner in Dunedin justify a raise. Sorry, I just can't. So we got, I mean, cutting costs. I mean, we got, we got Dunedin employees taking the vehicles home that live in South St. Pete. And we pay for this. We pay for this. That's wrong. That's absolutely wrong. You want to cut corners? We got to start small. We're not going to start with 26 people. We got to start small. Let's start with 3.5%. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Name and address for the record in three minutes. Hi. I had a list of complaints. John Dobrzynski, 1319 dinner bellying. I'm really disappointed in the city of Dunedin that no one shows up to these meetings. Yeah, I say the same as Pete. I can't believe she would even sit there and accept. Please don't personalize. You're speaking to the chair. I can't believe the city manager can accept 3.5% when you're going to make cuts. You have a brand new parking garage you're going to build. For what? If you're taking away the parades and that, you can go park anywhere you want any day of the week. I ride my golf cart down there all the time. So that's one thing. Another losing thing, I don't understand how you're just bragging her up. It's so good. The city of Safety Harbor already built. Again, please don't personalize. Go ahead. The city of Safety Harbor already built their pier. That's done. City of Clearwater redid their whole marina. Huge. Did you guys see it? I was there today and they were starting their program before the storms happened. They did all that. Go ahead. Not comparable. Yeah. Thank you though. And then with my house, I don't tear my house down if I need a new house. I can't afford it. We live on Social Security made my life. So we remodel it. You guys, you had so much in property tax, you just tear the building down, build this Taj Mahal. So you do it. Safety Harbor does it. Spends $82 million. Clearwater does it. And then all your excuses are, well, this city did this. So we got to do it. Ours is cheaper than theirs. So we can do that. There's always the excuse for that. So finally, you guys are going to live on a budget just like we have to. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. I'm going to come back and I'm going to reiterate again, we have an outstanding, excellent city manager. I will say right now, my philosophy as we face the storm here is I am not going to do this on the backs of the employees. The people that we have left after we make layoffs are going to have to be the best and the finest to get us through. That's going to be my philosophy. And I'm not going to start by doing it in the back of the city manager. She's a great city manager. She's not making more than a lot of her colleagues and I stand by that. But again, we have a motion on the table. We have a second. Anyone else wish to add anything to it? Okay. Sure. I just happen to know that the rate of inflation this last year is 3.7%. In essence, this is a cut. Minor, but it's a cut. And I don't think that's an appropriate action for us to take. Social Security went up this last year. Unfortunately, at the same time, so did health care costs. Many people on Social Security are getting less money than they got last year because of that. It's very hard out there. We know that. But we know that the next four years are going to be the toughest we're going to face. I do not wish to go into those four years by demotivating our leader. I believe 3.5 is appropriate. I will not be able to vote for this motion. I won't either. Any other comments? Okay. There's a motion on the table. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Nay. Okay. The motion passes. 3 to 2. Okay. Okay. So 3% raise. Okay. So now we're going to go to goals. And we are going to, I think, do we have? Oh, you know what? I have my own. I don't have everybody else's. So hold on. Okay. So let's do the same thing with goals. If we can go starting maybe with Commissioner Gao, which again, since you're not going to be here, I guess that's a good one to start. Well, we've already heard the goals. Implement, start to implement Amendment 3. Right. That contingency budget and the marina. And so anything else you can fit into that. So I think she'll have her hands full. You all will have your hands full with Amendment 3 this year. So those are my comments, ma'am. Okay. And let's go to Commissioner Gao. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Commissioner DeGuard. I'm trying to find mine. I can't find it. I'm sorry. I'm not the vice mayor and I would speak to you. Yeah. So sorry about that. I'll let Jeff speak for me if he'd like to. The universe changed on Tuesday. We all had been holding our breath hoping that Prop 3 would not pass. And unfortunately, one of her goals has to be the extraordinary management of a diminishing budget. how we do that, how we retain the best possible quality of staff and keep them motivated, has to be at the top of the list. The second thing is to look at capital opportunities so that the capital projects that we have can be funded fully in light of this diminishing environment relative to property taxes. Third, we do need to find other forms of revenue. We're on our way with one, but I don't think that's going to be the one that gets us home. And so finding additional forms of revenue falls high on my list. And I'm going to stop with those three. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So I think that, you know, the storms that we had in 2024, we're starting to see some of the fruits of the recovery and, but there's a couple of issues, or not issues, but a couple of things that we really need to just keep an eye on. Number one is essentially, I think we should get an update soon about our FEMA reimbursements and the status thereof. And then related to that, there's, you know, there's been a lot of frustration with regards to the recovery of the Dunita Marina. And we, we also, we also need to get an update on that because we haven't really gotten, you know, a good feeling of where we stand. It is on the agenda for this evening. Oh, it is? Yes. This evening. Okay. Well, thank you. That's, that's how fast the response time is. Here's the beautiful thing. Want to change your vote now? What's that? Look how fast she got you. Want to change your vote now? I think everybody's mentioning the fiscal management in, in the rears of the passing of amendment three. And then really tied to that is just the continued and I continued vigilant management of reserves and capital improvements with a focus on the, our future storm preparedness. But those are all things that are pretty visible in terms of our, our, our management responsibilities of the city. So that's all I've got. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Sandberg. Well, I hate to beat a dead horse about increasing revenue. I've actually been making a list. I'll bring the paper in from my house, uh, studying out different cities and how they handle things. Uh, I think we really need to focus on it and not, I'm not just talking about the city manager or the staff, but myself included as a, as a city commissioner, we have some, you know, we're home to maybe a thousand businesses. I've had more than one come to me. I've had a couple of them bring their business cards. I forwarded them on that want to partner with us. They want, you know, I think it's time we, we thank the sponsors that we have. We remind them how important they are. And, uh, I think going forward, we really need to focus on bringing those people into the loop. Let's co-sponsor, let's get them to help with some events. And I know, you know, we all know there's chatter around town about different groups being put together. And, uh, I just, I don't think I can stress that enough is we need to increase our revenue. I don't want to hear any more about what cutting our expenses. We've heard that now for a while. Now we need to pick it up and, and finish it. So 2027 will be a challenge, but we'll make it through. That's all I had, mayor. Um, okay. So, um, yeah, I think this is going to be the year where we need, we do need our best and brightest. And again, I'm going to reiterate, you know, whatever, whatever we reimagine ourselves to be, um, you know, we want to have a tight workforce and, um, and the best workforce and, and we want to treat them right. Um, um, I've, I, uh, I've got quite a few, obviously, and I'm just going to highlight a few. Getting the Marina East Wall done, which I think is very close. The Marina Pier, which I know is held up because of fisheries, not because of the, but still a federal, federal agency that's holding that up and, uh, we should take us, uh, what, four months by the time we actually get to there. And I think we'll get an update, um, you know, needing to really look at Marina Master Plan. I know I just went on all my tours with the floating docks, um, the last two days and that was great. Uh, so that's important. Um, um, I think, I do think, uh, we also need to understand where some of our, uh, enterprise funds, not water, wastewater or, or trash or anything like that. But, you know, is there some way that they can get back to the zero fund, you know, and, uh, and provide some revenue source, um, if it's, uh, fair? Because the Marina in particular is a complete asset to the whole city, not just for the few people that have a boat. And so, you know, so there may be some playback, uh, there as far as, uh, what you're talking about, which is kind of a little bit of a revenue source. Um, the, um, um, you know, we already have, we've cut a half million and we've got another half million in efficiencies. I think that we're efficiencies, not really cuts, just efficiencies, and they're ready to, ready to go. And we've got a, we've got the contingency on, uh, December 2nd. And then we know that'll be the easier part. You know, after that, it's going to be the more gut-wrenching part. Uh, and we'll see kind of where we end up with that. But again, I, as I've said, I don't want to silo those, those things. I want to be able to kind of reimagine how we can, um, you know, kind of, you know, shrink ourselves a little bit, but, but still keep the best of the need, and so to speak. Um, let's see, um, it's come to our light, I think, recently, the importance of the Live Local Act and how that could have an impact on what we want our, our city to look like and feel like in terms of its charm. And that, of course, is a state action impacting us again. Um, and so, um, I, I know that we're looking at and possibly thinking about a legislative request to fix it so that we, because we have a situation right now where we have absolutely no control and our citizens are frustrated and, um, but we can't do anything. The state has to be the one. Um, so, uh, that's certainly a big one. We're going to have to get the Penny for Pinellas priority list ready. Um, so those are just some of mine. Um, but I think obviously our, our biggest, our biggest thing will be just, um, you know, trying to put our best hats on and think creatively about how, whether it's revenue or expense, how we're going to guide the city through this. And, you know, again, I, I think I get why people voted the way they did. I mean, they need relief. And now, um, but, and, but we'll have some, we'll have our challenges and it's going to be on your shoulders, I think, to guide us through. And you've already pushed us to a great start by being very proactive in how we're doing this. So I think as we move forward, forward, we'll, uh, we're at least, uh, I think moving somewhat in lockstep. And then of course, I know you've built in a lot of things for how our community will be providing input as we move forward. And that's going to be critical too. And, you know, um, I just saw something today about, you know, um, you know, something on Facebook and of course our communication team right now is really important because how the heck are we going to, how are we going to know? We, uh, this, this commission is extremely approachable, but also it's really important because it's just hard to get to 37,000 people if you don't have a good communications team. So, um, those, those are kind of mine. Um, so I guess if anybody's got anything else, um, do you want to, uh, do you have some comments? I do. Okay. I certainly do. And, um, so, uh, thank you very much, mayor, vice mayor and commissioners. Um, I think that this is, uh, um, an excellent evaluation and I'm, I'm very appreciative to all of you, um, for your honesty throughout the evaluation during our meeting, our one-on-one meetings as well. Um, it, it has been a difficult year after a difficult year after a difficult year and the challenges facing the city, uh, you know, it amazes me. I was thinking today how different they are, you know, from the cyber attack to the, um, to COVID and then the three hurricanes and, and so on and so forth. And, and now to amendment three. And that's why to answer commissioner Sam Bergen's question, it's difficult to, to, to pinpoint a, a another impactful issue because it, it kind of envelops everything else and it, it, it's impacted or it's influenced by everything else, um, that we do moving forward. So, um, you know, a couple of things I really want to, as you know, uh, one of the things that I really try to do is be as direct as possible. And I believe that I am, and I believe that I am, you know, with our senior management team and, and, and with the employees. And I did, uh, as you know, I go around twice a year to talk to the employees. Um, and I, I, uh, this time around, we talked about the contingency plan. We talked about what would happen if amendment three passes, uh, moving forward. They are well-informed. I did send out an email yesterday and that was actually mayor to directors and division directors. And I sent out one this afternoon, which you may not have seen yet to all of the employees. Um, you know, the mayor sent her communications to the community at large and I sent the communications to the employees, um, morale is going to be a huge problem and it really depends upon the department, right? An enterprise department, which is funded, uh, by user fees essentially is, is, could be largely untouched, uh, whereas some departments could be deeply, deeply impacted. And so we have to, have to be appreciative of the journey that the employees are taking, um, as we go through the, the decision-making process. So I did commit to, uh, meeting with all of them once a month, virtually do an all call, whether they want to attend or not, we will tape it. I mean, we will record it, uh, and just so that they, we can get their input on the plans that we're making and so that they'll be informed, um, on, on everything moving forward. Um, and while I'm on the subject of amendment three, I actually have it down farther in my notes. Um, you know, I, I've discussed, uh, prior to the contingency plan first, um, uh, showing, if you will, in September, uh, discuss the plan moving forward if amendment three passes. And, you know, we got to the point where it was polling that it was not going to pass. Um, and so, um, but, but we were by September in a position to not have to make, um, knee-jerk reaction decisions if it does pass. And so every decision that we're going to make is going to be steady, it's going to be thorough, and it's going to be predicated upon public input. Um, and it is going to be the voice of the community, um, and we are going to be looking at late winter, um, or very early spring for those public input meetings, uh, for the outlying years. The first year from, you know, the approval rate through to October, the efficiencies, and there will be some lowering of levels of service, but the, the genuine, your genuine, general constituency is not really going to feel it that much. Um, but as the mayor said, in the second year in 2028 is the year that we are going to have to start, uh, looking at decreasing hours in community centers, the library's already decreasing hours and so on and so forth. And that's contained, which contained within the contingency plan. So, um, you know, as the mayor had said, we're situated in a, in a, in a position right now where the ship is steady, the ship is steady, and we are, uh, prepared to address this, as I said, in a very thoughtful manner, um, and get the input that we need all around. Um, and I do feel up to this task. I do. I don't want it. I don't want it. And City Hall here was pretty silent on Wednesday morning, um, and I know that Tony had some tough meetings with his staff, um, thereafter. So, and Tony's our Director of Parks and Recreation for those who may be watching. And so, um, um, but, but the employees, they're committed and they're dedicated and they're going to hang in there, I hope, for most of them. Um, but as, as long as we're open and transparent with them, too, I think that, that, that, that's going to be very important to them. Um, you know, one, one thing, uh, you know, in the, the accomplishments that were attached to the evaluation, I want to be really, uh, very clear that those are organizational accomplishments. Um, they certainly weren't mine and never mine alone, um, but, but the entire organization, and I read over them today at lunchtime. Um, and, you know, I acknowledge that we have issues in the marina, we have issues in the golf course, uh, Weaver Park Pier is not rebuilding, and we're going to talk about that. That's in, in, in a city manager's update. And I want to say, for those that are highly concerned and commenting repeatedly and very concerned, I see you, senior staff sees you, it is a main priority of the city staff right now. And we were talking this afternoon, and I don't think that there's anybody, or yesterday afternoon, I don't think there's anybody in the city that wants to see that marina finished more than staff, really, genuinely. Um, and we're going to talk about how we're meeting with them and, and as I said, what our progress is. But the point is, when you look at those accomplishments, those issues tend to, uh, tend to, to blanket the magnitude of what we have accomplished over the last year and the things that the city commission has made decisions on. And, um, and I'm just really proud of the progress that we've made. And I don't want to forget the progress that we've made, um, in the last year, in the year before that too. So, um, the, you know, none of that could have happened, any of that could have happened without just a dedicated, uh, management team. The department directors are experts in their field, all of them. Um, they've been doing this for many, many years. They're very, very talented. Um, I'm lucky to have all of them, really. Um, and I've said to you many times, and the department directors roll their eyes because they're sick of hearing it, you know, my job is to remove obstacles for them, but sometimes I am the obstacle every now and then. Um, and I have to be, um, but mostly it's Jennifer Cowan who's the obstacle. But anyway, so. Always the attorney. I'm just kidding. We had that conversation earlier. She's not. I'm just that. For the record, she, she is not. I know what you're thinking of. Yeah. She is not. So, uh, but a special call to Jorge, uh, Quintus, the deputy city manager. Um, so, you know, where, what, what I'm not good at, Jorge's good at, and what he's not good at, I'm good at, which is kind of the way you need in the senior management team. Um, you know, he's just been, you know, pushing forward our capital projects and, and leading, you know, that aspect of the organization and, um, uh, just really great work. And, and I appreciate everything you've done, Jorge. Um, department directors and then just staff in general, you know, how committed they are and dedicated. And we heard a gentleman who came up, uh, was it two weeks ago or two meetings ago, who said that, you know, he approached a truck and said, this needs to be repaired. And how do I, and, and, you know, and I still am trying to find who that employee was. Does anybody know? We'll find it. So, um, you know, the boards and committees, again, it's been a tough year for them. The consolidations are occurring, uh, continue to occur. And I'm, I'm, but I'm grateful to them. Uh, you know, some of the good work that's coming out of those boards and committees and the volunteerism within this city, it's second to none. It really is. Um, and, you know, of course, and then finally the city commission and the five of you, um, if it, if it appears up here that, that, that, uh, we never have disagreements, then that is incorrect. Um, we do, but as commissioner Sam Bergen had said, um, uh, I don't hold a grudge. You all don't hold a grudge. Um, and I, you know, I think, you know, amongst the five of you there, I know that there has been once or twice this year where we have disagreed, um, and, and you win. No, I'm just kidding. Just once or twice? Just once or twice. Some of you more. Some of you more. But no, I mean, it's, it's, it's, um, you know, I feel, and I said this last year too, uh, that we're, that we're successful as an organization because you don't punish, uh, me or staff when we make a mistake. Oftentimes you really want to know why, how, how are you going to fix it, but we're not punished. Um, and, um, and, and I'm certainly not punished for saying no to you. And, you know, a lot of times the way this works is if you really want to, then, then you have four colleagues. Amadeus, you all talk about it and you all tell me, you know, how you want to do this or that. So, um, and that, that, that makes a very strong, uh, relationship I feel. Uh, and, you know, as far as the level playing field and never paint playing favorites, it's like my mother would say when she put us all to bed at night and she tell each one, you're my favorite, right? My four sisters and I, each one, you're my favorite, you're my favorite. And we were all, when we were all adults, we finally raised, she told each of us that because we thought we were all her favorite. So, um, and you're my favorite. No, I'm just kidding. You're not. No, yes you are. No, but, um, so I really, I, I appreciate that the relationship. I'm very grateful. Um, and, and as, uh, George Washington had said earlier, um, we're up to this task. We are capable of this, very capable of this. And, um, and we're going to work together, uh, on obviously, uh, uh, addressing the impacts of amendment three on the, on this organization, the way the community wants us to, uh, to address it. Right. Um, one last thing, just love working with Jennifer, love working with Michelle. Um, you know, uh, Jennifer is, is certainly not a shrinking violet, but you know, I enjoy the sense of humor. I enjoy working with her. And when she says no, as you know, I listen. So, um, um, and that's, you know, unusual for an attorney, but no, I'm just kidding. But thank you very much for the evaluation. I, I, I very much appreciate, um, the 3%. I very much appreciate it. I'm grateful. And, um, it's been a good night, I feel. Thank you. Good. Thank you. All right. Uh, we are going to go to propose agenda for the number 19th. Unless somebody wanted to come up and talk about Jennifer's goals, I'll give you that chance. Anybody? Jorge. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. I'm closing public input really quickly. Okay. All right. So next would be the proposed agenda for the November 19th, 2026 commission meeting. Uh, are there any additions or deletions, changes? Anybody? Okay. Uh, how about anybody up here see anything that, Jeff, there's something you want taken off? Or no, just kidding. Okay. Uh, so if I could get a motion. So moved. Second. Okay. And all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Okay. We're going to go to informational items, commission discussion, or comments. Um, I guess I'll start with vice mayor. Vice mayor. The other one. No, me, Jeff. Um, I think, uh, really the only thing, and it really doesn't, uh, involve Dunedin, but I, I think it's still exciting. Uh, PSTA, um, is going forward. We authorized, um, and this is, this is, this is grant money, but we authorized about to 200 and some odd thousand to bring the two ferry, the cross bay ferry boats, um, up to maritime code. And, um, essentially, uh, the great thing about that program is, is that, uh, first of all, they've got a great partner in Hubbard Marine. And second of all, uh, almost all of this is being done with grant money. And, uh, so anyway, it's, it's a, it's, it's very interesting, but, uh, other than that, I really don't have a lot to add. All right. Good. All right. And, uh, Commissioner Sandberg, any updates, information items? Uh, tomorrow I'm going to, uh, be the starting speaker for the murder mystery golf cart. Oh, uh, event through downtown, including, uh, they start from soggy bottom to CUNY to Dunbreu to flying bulldogs, Sterling, progressive arts, Hanu, all sponsored by hidden Creek golf carts. And I'm going to kick off. No, it's a tomorrow afternoon. And so you find me at, I want to go heckle, but yeah, so I'm excited. You know, I'll remind them of we need to be safe and, uh, the golf carts still need to behave and do the right thing, but it's going to be nice bringing a lot of people to town to enjoy our city. Uh, this Sunday, uh, a group that, uh, that I really have tried to work hard with, and that's the Dunedin high school baseball team. It's their scramble tournament at the Dunedin golf club. And they sent me a message today, come up and talk to them. They asked me if I golf, but of course I've told them that I have no hesitation to admit I'm the world's worst golfer. So I'll go and enjoy. And, and, you know, I, I, I think I was told there's nearly three dozen alumni and I, and I told the coach that means a lot to me. That means a lot to the commission, bring them back and continue to pro not only promote the city, but to promote that program, which of course, you know, was a national powerhouse. So, oh, and one last thing that we can talk about. If anybody, I just thought it was really ironic that we got our Pinellas tax bill one day before the election. I don't know if anybody else wants to talk about that, but, uh, yeah, that's all I have. I think it actually is by statute. So I don't think it was gamey, but you know, I do have one thing to add kind of related. Sure. Go ahead. So anyway, uh, Sterling Wine is doing a wine, uh, blend contest. And, uh, it's, it's, I think it starts at eight o'clock. Tonight? Yeah. And I've been asked to judge that. So, but I want to, I want to, I want to get you out of here. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. I'm making my comments really long now. I was going to say, we've already done the wine Olympics and yeah. You can think you're right. Okay. Um, okay. Uh, commissioner, go. You know, the thing about best ball scrambles is knowing that your ball is never going to be best ball, you know, and that's, that's the way I play golf, you know, uh, nothing really new, new to report. Dunning high school band program is having a fundraiser. If you need a mattress, uh, Saturday, uh, November 14th in the gymnasium at the high school. Yes, ma'am. Only the best, only the best. Yeah, some things were better left unsaid and talked about, I guess. And, um, uh, the band director at the middle school was voted teacher of the year at the middle school. Oh, that's great. And if any of y'all really know Anna and the work she does, what an incredible, passionate woman she is that has more energy than, you know, it's hard to keep up with her when she sleeps, but, uh, congratulations to Anna. Um, and that's all that I really have. Okay, then. All right. So 16th then, right? That'll be it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. Commissioner DeGuard. Thank you, Mayor. It is difficult for me right now to, um, approach the everyday. And a lot goes on in Dunedin everyday as we were just listening to it. But after tonight, the gentleman to my right will not be up here with us and I will severely miss him. He is a gentleman in so many ways. He has a heart as big as this dais and he lets me cheat off his homework. Um, it's been an honor to work with him. I know we've got an excellent, I know we've got a great replacement coming in. And so I'm sure that we'll have the same kind of energy in the team that we've had before, but I just couldn't go through this meeting without mentioning, uh, how much I'm going to personally miss Jeff. Um, as far as what's going on in this community, because of the seismic change we experienced on Tuesday night, um, it is tough just to look at all the great things that are going on at this time. Uh, wines to blues, all of the activities in this town are so energetic. It's just like you have this energy and, uh, robust community and then suddenly a cloud shows up and kind of starts dropping a lot of water on us. Uh, I know we're going to work our way through it, but it's a big distraction at this time. Uh, and therefore I'm going to stop here and just, uh, wish my colleague well and welcome my next. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, I will say as far as amendment three, I've just decided, you know what, we just got a pedal to the metal and one step at a time and, you know, we'll next, then what's my thing? Just do the next right thing. Just next, make the next right decision over and over and we'll get there. Um, because we love this community and we're going to make the best decisions possible, as possible as we can. Um, so a couple things I did want to make sure we mentioned Halloween happenings and spooktacular, uh, recreation always excels and I know those were tremendously, uh, successful events this year. Uh, downtown trick-or-treating was a tremendously successful, uh, activity and it was packed and, um, and ironically, I, I was, uh, going from Sterling Winery and I was going to go have dinner at Clear Sky and I thought, boy, sip and stroll sounds good right now. But instead, I drank, I drank my wine, I got some water and I walked down the street and I behaved myself. Um, anyway, uh, so, um, of course, the Veterans Day ceremony's coming up on the 11th, Wines and Blues, November 14th, Celtic Festival, November 21st. Um, tomorrow morning, I'm doing a welcoming comment for Garrison Jones Elementary Veterans Celebration Performances, so that's going to be kind of fun. There's always something going on and I don't know if we've said it, but congratulations to the Rays, even though they didn't win the World Series, they had an amazing season and, um, certainly, uh, gave the community a lot of jolts and fun, so that was great, too. But, yeah, we have a great community and, um, and, uh, and we'll continue, we'll continue to be a great community. Uh, we just have some challenges and we'll work through them, so, um, okay. Uh, City Clerk, update. Uh, congratulations to Jennifer. Your job well done. Pleasure working with you. Also wanted to thank Vice Mayor Walker and Nan Bennett and Mark Ocean for helping me get through my first election fairly smooth. Yeah. Uh, so thank you. All right, all right, all right. Okay, and next is City Manager update. Wait, I'm going to start with City Attorney update, because you're going to be a little longer. City Attorney update? No update other than just to say I enjoy working with you as well, and you're certainly in a shrinking violet yourself. Yes, I think I've had some pretty animated discussions with both of you, you know. I'm thinking two disagreements? No. I mean, and when I say, when disagreements, it's a good, healthy debate, right? Right. Or you're pulling out, yeah. Yeah, it is. It's debates. It's healthy, elevated debates. Yeah. Anyway, um, okay, so, uh, City Manager update. So, Mayor, in response to, uh, Vice Mayor's request and, and others of you, Commissioner Sandberg, and we have prepared an update on the Marina and the Weaver Park Pier, uh, projects. We do have a PowerPoint presentation for you. Sorry about that. But, um, and also, Mayor, if I may, I have one more item after the, on your City Manager's update. It will be quick. I got all the time in the world, apparently Vice Mayor doesn't, but, yes, proceed. I asked for this. Yeah, you did. You asked for the echoing. Okay. They should get it, yeah, momentarily. I am hoping. I had my copy made, so. I've seen paper, and she did it, like, that's all the paper that was in there, because I'm like, why'd she do it like this? Uh, it's, it's actually, it's a supplement arena update presentation, if you want to jump on that, so we can, yeah, there you go. Oh, there it is. It's there. Good job. We don't have the same, I don't know if you, what do you, this, the screens look a little different than what we have. What are you all looking at? Okay. Yeah, we're seeing this. Okay. Well, we're just trying to be able to scroll our way through, because the only reason, what we're seeing here on our screen is not the same that you all are seeing. Okay. Now, we're good. Sorry about that. No, I, okay. Sorry, excuse, sorry about that. I think Clayton Wykins, Utilities and Engineering, uh, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners. I also have Tony Mulkey here, our Parks Director. Uh, we'll sort of run down, uh, the update on where we are construction-wise, um, and permitting, construction-wise with the wall, um, permitting for the, um, pier and docks A and B replacements, um, along with just some other updates of other, the happenings that are around the marina, and then, uh, we'll give a quick little update on, uh, Weaver Park also. So, uh, I wanted to give you an update of where we stand. Current work, uh, that's going on at the bulkhead, uh, the contractor has spent the most of this week and the last couple weeks, um, tying steel, and they're starting to, to form the cap. Uh, they are installing the stormwater drainage system. There's two structures in the ground, and we're, they stated this morning they'll be working on the piping between those. Uh, the outstanding work, however, is we still have to continue to form the cap and complete that, along with pouring the cap, actually pouring the concrete. Um, there's also fender piles that go on the outside of that, um, and then the new sidewalk that goes behind the wall, and between the car, the, excuse me, the drive aisles, and the parking area, so there's still some pavement and some, and some work to do on that side that's still remaining. Um, on the north side, same thing, they actually need to start to, start to putting their forms on and, and tying their concrete to do their, excuse me, tying their steel, uh, to, to, to make the concrete cap. Uh, there are helical tiebacks on that wall, so that way, sort of, instead of the old dead mint system, this is sort of a screw-type material that will, that'll hold that, that section of the wall back. Some of those are, will get tied into the old wall to help with, with the support of that. Uh, that too has some fender piles on the water side, and then there is a sidewalk that will run behind that also, so all of those activities are still remaining to, to go on with that. Um, so, we'll give a little update on the schedule, um, this is actually, um, a little out to, out, out of date, which we'll have to update you compared to a, um, schedule that we were given this, you're in the middle of the afternoon today. Um, as it states here, uh, previous, and as the contract stands, the substantial completion date was July 13th, um, with a final completion on August 12th. Um, with that, their previous schedule when we made this had them finalizing a substantial completion November 27th. Um, that is no longer the case, um, as it stands right now, uh, the vast majority of the work on the eastern bulkhead will be completed, um, except for the pavement at that time. They will still have their, their goal is to have the sidewalk and the curb complete by, excuse my, by December the 4th for the parade to try to get some of that stuff out of the way, um, for the boat parade, um, but paving will not happen until, um, let me look here, sorry, I'm trying to catch up with this, um, not until the first, the two weeks before Christmas will final, final them out, uh, the two days before Christmas is at their new, their new timeline. Um, we currently, we were previously holding Monday meetings with them as progress meetings every, every Monday. Um, as they are now working, supposedly working seven days a week, we, we do a Thursday meeting, um, to try to play catch up and see if whatever is going on, if there's anything that's needed for them to do a weekend work, whether it's information from the design engineer or from the city, that we can try to augment any questions that might delay them over the weekend. Um, so I don't know if we want to just go through everything and ask questions or do you want to? Yeah, I think we should go through everything. Okay. Is that okay with everybody? Yeah. I just, I figured since we were changing topics, I didn't know if we wanted to do that. Yeah. Um, so quickly on the fishing pier, as, as stated earlier, um, or previously dated, you know, the, the, the decking and the railing has been removed, uh, the piles will still remain in place until the Army Corps permit is approved. Um, we, last week, our last meeting, we did approve, um, you approved the purchase of the new, the boat lift, um, that will be ordered and installed by the, the pier contractor. Um, as we stated, the Army Corps permit is still outstanding and is standing with National Fisheries and that's our only outstanding review. Um, we have had, um, Representative Luna's office reach out to try to contact and expedite things with fisheries. Um, we have not heard anything. If that has, you know, given us any news, we are still waiting to hear from them today, fisheries that is. Um, I know it came up earlier today and when it has come up a lot of times where people talk about our, where, where we are compared to Safety Harbor when their pier two was damaged by the storm. Um, Safety Harbor had in their CIP for design and permitting of their pier back in August of 2022. They received their, all of their permits in June of 2024. Um, they were scheduled to start construction in 24. They were delayed a little bit by the hurricanes and then they held off their start of construction for state appropriations since the storm, since it was, uh, their pier was destroyed by the permit. So they were two years ahead of us in design and permitting. So, and that would of course help when you're trying to get, get things done quicker. Um, earlier it was also mentioned about Clearwater. Clearwater was fully under construction and had contractor on site. So, you know, they were very far, they were far ahead of even, you know, Safety Harbor. Um, well, hold on a second. So, um, and we do have this, um, the project on our, um, on our website, on our project page. So I'm not sure if we have the difference between the, the Safety Harbor and Clearwater on that page and we're going to incorporate that because it's, it's a huge difference. And you don't want to start comparing cities, but if you can, acknowledge that in the slides. Yeah. Say that they were two years ahead of us so that there is some connection to the timeline. You know, and actually they had already started to renovate their marina before the storms. They had already had everything pulled out and, um, I mean, it's, it's almost an apples and oranges comparison. Right. What they ended up having to do is when the storms were coming, they had to pull all of their heavy equipment out, but it was really easy to do because the docks were already gone. And, you know, I just, it just drives me crazy when there's, people try to compare us to that. It's just wrong. Yeah. Oh, we saw it tonight. And I, I, I probably was a little, you know, I never interrupt, but it was just like, you know, it's fresh in my mind that it's absolutely not comparable. Yeah. Sorry. I just, I just did one of my comments. We're, we're adding to me now. Thank you. Um, so on doc A and B, the design, um, we have submitted for our Army Corps permit. It was the first week of August. Um, then on September 18th, our Army Corps reviewers stopped by. We walked the entire marina to let her understand what the proposal is. Um, and she tried to try to find ways that could help us in the permitting process while doing such. Um, we see as in for the site visits, uh, two of, two of you have, have had yours and we had the mayor do her visits the last two days and then we'll currently schedule with, um, commissioner elect men and as soon as we can. So we can try to finalize all those and get, get everything and sort of turn everything and get in front of you. Um, we are working on an RFP to develop a short list of contractors that will be able to bid on this. So we're going to try to make sure we, we'll do a request for proposal, get contractors to do that work. We'll short list the ones that will actually be able to give us a price for this kind of learning and kind of maybe short cutting some other things that have happened, uh, with the seawall. Uh, so with that, uh, the master plan, um, as we talked about the docs layouts are sort of being finalized as we roll through this, uh, design of docs A and B. Um, once we sort of finalize that, we'll bring our consultant back in to do another presentation, um, sometime in the near future that way we can give consistent direction on which way, um, we'd like to proceed with the design of the rest of it outside of A and B. Um, so we just decided to do a little quick, quick update on some of the stuff on the master plan. You know, here is the general layout that we'll be running with. This is the, the rough version. We got a little tighter now that we're in design. Um, so just with the new, with the old and the new count, these are all from the last presentation, um, that was given back in, um, March. And then just, this was just some information regarding the, the proposed of the layout. Most of this is more kind of talking about this layout. We'll sort of addressing more of that parking along the, the, the north-south parking that goes up against the, the, um, the marina itself and sort of how we want to, as a master plan and getting that reconfiguration. So we'll, we'll have some conversations on that. Um, and then this is just some improvement costs as we went through, um, to some of the stuff that for the, um, improvements for the onsite on, on the upward, the upland side of that. And then I'm going to turn over to Tony to discuss a few of the other items. Uh, thank you. Tony Mulkey, Parks and Recreation. Good evening, commission, mayor, vice mayor. Um, a couple of items that are pending is the commercial dock lighting that we, uh, are, are switching out to solar lights. Uh, the footers were poured this week. Um, they are, uh, large if you've been out there and we've had some questions about it, but we went out and measured, uh, to probably reconfigure. We're not going to lose any parking. We're just going to have to adjust some of the gourd out areas out there and make sure that the, uh, the placements are protected from vehicles. Uh, part of that reason was just because of the proximity to the seawall and some underground infrastructure they didn't anticipate once they got into the ground. So we are moving forward. We've, we've had the fixtures. Uh, hopefully they'll be going up tomorrow and, uh, I know there was, um, some question about the lighting on those and we, we have had, uh, photovoltaic, uh, kind of estimates on that. And with these lights, they are very downward facing. They're, they're very similar to kind of the bucket style lights, dual mast, uh, with one light on each side of them, similar to what's out here. But of course they're, they're different products, uh, out here in the parking lot of the city hall. Uh, but they are a different product with the solar, they'll have a small panel on the top and I don't know if this one has that in it, but we'll. So Tony, just because this is an issue I talked to Clay about this morning and it was an issue that Kevin Benjamin had, um, so it won't cause any problem to like the Victoria. So generally speaking, this, as you see this image, that came from the photometric, that's the photometric from, so that's, that light area shows where the lights will shine and then as you see it darkens up as you go, as you go away. Yeah. Yeah, this is actually from the photometric plan. So in other words, it won't be a problem. It should not. It should not be. And these lights also, um, with the solar and the power management of them, they start out at 100% brightness when they come on in the evening, then after midnight they dim down to 40%. So they will provide security lighting and enough lighting to, to, uh, create a safe environment, but, uh, shouldn't, shouldn't be like a, a bright, uh, blinding athletic light. Well, since I asked a question, does anybody else have a question on that? At the end? Just, we'll do, yeah, we'll do it. Okay. So yeah, let's keep going. Uh, the second item here is a replacement pump out for the, the boats in the marina. This is something that, uh, uh, some of our marina constituents are, are, are eagerly awaiting that we get re-hooked up, but that's dependent on the, the restoration of the east wall and the, the, um, connection to the utilities. But we do have the unit. It is grant funded. So, uh, both good things. We're looking forward to getting that back. And then the Weaver Park pier, uh, Clay can probably provide a little more of an update of the recent areas, but we did, uh, I think I presented previously, we did a extensive research on the existing permitting on there to see if we could provide or proceed under a nationwide permit for repairs. And we are still pushing for, uh, moving forward with repairs so we don't get stuck in a, um, uh, permitting quagmire as we've, we've seen in other instances. And I know, uh, with the conversations with the Corps and, uh, as well as Isaac, if you want to provide anything. Yeah. And as Isaac is working with finalizing, um, our scope for the design and permitting section of that, but also a lot of that is us trying, we're, we're, we're scheduling a pre-application meeting because as when our Army Corps reviewer was in town on the septum, we kind of picked her brain on different ways to try to get this permitted quicker than the full process and, and trying to do our best and not get fisheries involved because it's a separate one that is frustrating our, even our Army Corps reviewer is she's frustrated with, with their lack, with their lack of progress and their slow timing. Um, so that's why when we're the second, this third big bullet here, replacing the deck and railing, um, we're, we're trying to just re-deck and re, and redo the railing as a permit and instead of going through and doing the piling, because once you start getting in the water, that's when it starts trickling different things. So we want to get with them to find out our quickest way. The, the kick up will always be that it is probably considered a fishing pier. So that's where it's going to be a little difficult of trying to get fisheries out of the, out of the review. And that's really where we're, we're going to say questions at this time. Okay. Um, so we'll go to questions for this and I'm going to start with, uh, you know, Vice Mayor, I think you asked for the update, so let's start with you on questions. Oh, thank you, Mayor. Um, actually, uh, just a clarification, um, it sounds, if I understand this correction, correctly that for the bulkhead, substantial repairs will be completed by November 27th. On the east side, they will have, they will, they are scheduled to have the cap poured, the railing on, the sidewalk poured and have the curving in, then there will just be sub base and it will not have asphalt at the time. And so really it's just the paving, the paving in the parking lot. On that side, on the, on the north side, you're pretty much probably going to see what you have today. Okay. Um, okay, the, with regards to the contractor, um, I know that there, that we're, we're in that period of liquidated damages and such. What are the next steps on that? I mean, just in terms of, of making sure that we have a appropriate cost share. So one of the things we were doing, we were working with finance, is also finding out what are our damages from not having the, the fishing, not having the, um, the boat, the boat ramp open and not being able to rent the, the slips that are adjacent to that. So those are damages that we are looking at understanding and making sure that we can, we can collect on. So. Okay. Nope. That's, that's good. And also the additional costs that our contract, that our consultants have had for additional time for monitoring construction also. Yeah. So we've got every reason right now to be happy with where we're sitting right now with regards to closure on this. And for the most part, um, are you talking about pace, happy with pace of work? Cause the answer to that is no, no, not the pace of work. I I'm looking, my perspective right now is just get this thing done. Yes, that is ours. And we will figure, we, like I said, we're figuring out what the damages are to the city when it comes like the boat ramp, the slips, the extra costs that we've had to pay consultants is, and that's where our concentration will be. Nope. Thank you. Really great update. Greatly appreciated. That's all I've got. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Sandbergen. So those, um, where that concrete is poured on the Bon Appetit side, that's where the light poles will go. It is on that side. It, um, do we have a map? I don't think I saw one, but I was down there. It's, it's, uh, adjacent to the, uh, north wall further east than the Bon Appetit area. But yes, it's, it's through that corridor, but right along that commercial. Was there four of them? There's three. Three? Three. We went from six to three. I think you said we were not going to lose any parking. They're right in the middle of parking spots. Well, we actually lined them up with one, the area of the gourd out area around the fire hydrant on one of them. That was the strategy to kind of line it up and put it as close to the boardwalk as possible. Okay. But they're lined up with the lines and we can, we have some gourd, gourd out areas on each side of that parking lot that we can just shift them over a little bit. Okay. We measured and we can create some little aisles between them. I know. And, uh, the mayor brought it up with Kevin sitting back there. Uh, I can tell by that, that his condo, the association shouldn't have light, but remember there's a couple dozen hotel rooms right there. Are we going to, are we lighting the marina and the parking lot? Like it looks like in that picture. It does cover some of the parking lot, but of course if you've got the separating median before the second side of the parking lot over there, so it is a little bit wider than what it shows. Okay. So then those hotel rooms won't have. There's existing lights today along that, between their, in their parking lot that are closer than these will be. Okay. Okay. Um, one day when I was down there this week, the, uh, there were gates up that you couldn't get to the A and the B dock. Was it any reason why those were roped or fenced off? There's, they were probably just working in an area where they didn't want to allow access for anybody to go down because they were actively construction in that area. Okay. And my last thing on the marina, I know you guys are, uh, having working meetings. Do those meetings also dig into or drill down on financial wherewithal down there? Cause I've heard some pretty substantial issues that have been brought to me about some, uh, non-payment down there. Is that being addressed within City Hall? I would say, I mean, we, we're certainly questioning them. Um, uh, we're talking about it amongst ourselves. Okay. I don't know if during the meetings we're talking about that aspect. Clay? During those meetings, it's mostly focused on getting the work done. What do you need from us? You know, you need more people here. That's where the focus of those meetings are. Okay. Those are progress. Those are construction progress meetings to try to just keep them moving. Right. Yes. Which is, that's, that's great. That's what I want to hear. But when this person brought this to me, it wasn't very flattering about some financial concerns down there. We won't go into it tonight, but it's out there. I will say that I have heard some of those rumors and they're not correct. So, um, and I think if it's the same rumor, but, um, yeah, I don't think we should get into it tonight. We want them to finish. They need to finish. Okay. And even if, and let's let, let's, you know, the 800 pound gorilla in the room, even if they were to be bankrupt, then they would still continue working. Right. I mean, so, so, um, you know, we're, we are near, we're getting there and we need them to move forward. And, you know, we, during their meetings twice a week, I mean, the whole point is to get the information flow back and forth. So we're not holding them up. Right. Okay. Good. And, uh, I, I said it on one, just one, and I'm going to try to sit on the one on Monday too, but, um, but yeah, I mean, it's the minute they need something, we've got it. Okay. And then the last thing, it was interesting the way you presented with Weaver Park. That's, it's, that's not as bad as what I thought. I thought that whole thing was going to have to come down similar to, so if it's just, so we're going to possibly try to replace just the decking. Is that what we're, that is the intention at first, unless Tony wants to add more to that to be determined. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I promise. There are a few pilot, there are a few piling that we would like to, to replace, but I think at the same time, in an essence of trying to get something, if there's a quicker way to get through the permitting, to get the, the, the decking and the railing replaced, and then come back later and get a new pile or two in there, then that's, we will look to do that route. Okay. If I may add just briefly, um, you know, one of the things when we had the initial evaluation, they, they did find like some of the pilings were substandard, but that was because people had gone and poured concrete in them over the years and things like that. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're, they're not stable. So it's just not to spec as. And if possible, it's my last question. If, if it came down to, we wanted to replace the deck, you know, I watched your staff do it at the marina. Is that something that we could handle in-house instead of having to put it out to bid? I'm not sure we necessarily have, uh, the wherewithal to do it. Okay. Okay. Good. That's all I had, mayor. Thank you. Um, please go questions. Um, see if we could do it in-house, maybe it could be an Eagle Scout project. Eagle Scouts out there. Hey, I'm confident it's been done in the past. Um, the photovoltaic, you had mentioned that it's going to be at a hundred percent and then at midnight, it would dial down to 40%. Correct. And is that optional? Is your wiggle room there, there is 40% may not be bright enough for safety or a hundred percent might be too bright, even if it's before midnight. So we could be at 80% and then 40%. These are actually controllable lights. Okay. They do have where you can adjust the settings on them. They're, they're not just on or off. Very good. So if Kevin starts screaming at us, then we'll give, we'll give Kevin the remote control. He'll start texting us. Come on. And, uh, for the Edgewater Park improvement plan, I know this is an old photo, uh, but please refresh my memory. Um, this isn't the final product on it. Is this going to come before the commission? It will. In the future to really decide what's, so changes can still be made to that. Correct. Correct. Okay. All right. Good. That's part of the master plan. Correct. Yeah. I got you. Right. And you can talk to each one of us separately before the meeting. You'll be allowed then. Yes, I will. Yes, you will. Yeah. So you're referring to this configuration. This was just what was last proposed. Yes. Right. Okay. Yeah. Very good. All right. That's all that I have here. Okay. Questions, uh, Commissioner DeGuard. Thank you, Mayor. As, um, I look at what we can control and what we cannot control. We cannot control fisheries any more than influence through our political representation. And we have two contractors, one that's outside the bounds of their initial performance goals. And the other, are both of them outside the bounds or it's just one? No, the peer contractor, we actually have their contract set up. There was a demo phase and a construction phase. So they've done the demo phase and we have not started the clock on their construction phase. So we only have one contractor that's outside their bounds as far as performance. That is correct. Okay. That contractor has assured us that they will be able to continue the project until completion. That is what they tell us every Monday and Tuesday, every Monday and Thursday. Yeah. Well, there's some people out there getting a little nervous about it, as you plainly know. Yes. We, we, they, they, they're, they're, I'm just going to be quiet. No, I'm not going to be. I think I'd like some counsel on, uh, bankruptcy if that were to be happening and possession of materials in a construction site. I happen to have some familiarity with this project, uh, issue because, uh, I saw a whole newspaper lose its pub, its printing plant that was in construction because of a bankruptcy. So I want to be real clear about who owns what, if it's delivered to site, is it ours or not? So I would have to, I'd have to review the contract to be able to tell you that, but I believe that it is. The other thing that you need to know is with both, uh, with this project, because it is a public project, there's performance bond and a payment bond, meaning that there aren't liens on the project. Subcontractors will be paid even if it's paid through the payment bond in the case of, uh, bankruptcy. Performance bond means there's a surety standing out there that is assuring performance of the contract, regardless of whether or not the contractor performs it. Okay. Well, we all hope this contractor does, but I think we should be well prepared for the, uh, contrary. So thank you very much, mayor. Okay. Um, so a couple, I just have a couple of questions. Um, so, um, the lighting base that is so big, like, why is it so big? Cause it's so big. Is it big? It is big. It's like big. And it's like, why? Cause I mean, has Bob Ironsmith looked at these to see, like they passed the design? What? It did go through permitting to, to put these in. And I, the, the question did come up briefly and, and there was, um, a reference to wind load on, on the structures cause they're 20 foot tall. So with a solar sail on the top. So I don't know if that created more, uh, wind load on those, but it was engineered that way and, and specked out. Yeah. Okay. I guess again, my question is, did it have to be that big? Yeah. You have to come up to the mic. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that was, that was what they were. That's what their engineer designed for the wind load. Do you want me to make an engineer joke right now? Absolutely. Seriously? Just because an engineer did it, like that's actually a reason I'd scare, it scares me more. Again, was it thought with aesthetics of the beauty and the charm of downtown Dunedin and the marina? I just, I'm asking, are we asking? I think Tony and I have. I just don't want it to like happen. And all of a sudden we're like, Oh, we, we have discussed the way that the, you know, it is, it is tall and looking at different ideas to try to put something other than just the concrete pile that you see out there today. So some sort of decoration over it. Charming. Charming. Charming. Charming. Charming. Charming. Charming. Not engineering. You know, sorry. You know, no insult. You know, I can make attorney jokes too. We already kind of did a little bit. Okay. So, but seriously, you know, we are charming Dunedin. So I just don't want to like, after we've waited this long, to be like, OMG. So. Mayor, we'll look into that and we'll get back to you as far as what we can do. Please, please, please. I think someone else in the audience might be happy about that as well. Let's see. My, my other question is, so for the boat parade, you know, we won't have the pier. And so we're saying now where it's blocked off now, where it's fenced off with the parking lot, you're going to have, we're going to have the sidewalk done, but the paving won't be done to the parking lot. Does that mean it'll still be fenced off or what does that mean? I would expect to see most of that's still fenced off at this time. I think, and that's the way, my understanding that, you know, I think you're pretty much kind of, I think Tony's planning the parade, assuming that they are there as if they are today. In any way we can, we will, we will work with as they go to shrink in their footprint of the fencing to allow more pedestrian access around the facility as we just got to really see where they are at that time. Okay. Well, you know, guys, I love the boat parade, but I don't want to do it if it's not going to be safe and we don't have adequate space because that place can be packed with people watching that boat parade. So are we going to be like, you know, limited here and limited there and all of a sudden it's just not going to work and it's going to be crazy and I, I get, I just want your honest views of this. We're, we're working on different scenarios with that and I, I, the harbormaster's been in touch with the, the foreman on the site, on the site on trying to clear it out and they're very aware of the dynamics of this and what we desire. You know, it's disappointing to get the update that the, the north wall wouldn't be a little further along at that point, but if the east wall is where they say it's going to be, I think we're going to be in a good spot. We're looking at strategically positioning some bleachers in some new ways to, to try and open it up for people. Since we don't have the, the pier for accessible viewing, we're going to utilize the peninsula a little more for that. Oh, that's true. I didn't think about that. That's a good idea. Yeah. And just, you know, with, with the boat ramp not going to be open at that point, we'll be able to use that for some additional parking for accessibility and things as well. Okay. All right. Okay, good. Okay. Well, thank you. Um, okay. I don't have any other questions, but I am going to open it up for public comment. If anyone wishes to come forward and speak on this issue. Okay. Seeing no one rushing forward, I'll close public comment and, um, okay. So I think, thank you. Thank you for the update. Very helpful. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much. That was, that was a great update. Very good. So mayor, if I may, just one more thing. Yes, go ahead. I know, no, we need to move on a bit, but I did want to mention that, uh, parks and recreation staff and, uh, the spooktacular at the community center. Yeah. I, yeah, I, I attended it one night and I was just absolutely blown away by the work that they were doing. And, um, and I had to laugh because they were, I mean, it was recreation and parks maintenance and it was all hands on deck and the decorations were just, just out of this world. And, um, you know, I was walking through, um, uh, after the lights went out, I was walking through and, and, you know, it's so, so fun to see the, the parks maintenance staff and recreation staff, like with a chainsaw and, you know, their colleagues and they're pretending to saw them in half and they're just having a wonderful time scaring people. And, you know, one of the, uh, turning a corner, there was a, some guy, some, one of our employees with an air horn and when I turned the corner to leave, he pointed at me and went, oh, sorry. So he's very kind. He didn't do it. But anyway, just, just so creative, uh, you know, the amount of work that went into that days and days and, and, and when I was there, everybody was just, um, so, um, it would, they were enjoying it themselves. You know, they really were in the atmosphere. There was just kind of jubilant, which is fun. And we scared the bajiggers out of a lot of people, which was, which is cool, you know? So I just wanted to see. Two-year-olds. You didn't scare two-year-olds I hope. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If their parents let them in. Yeah. And there are a couple adults who are running out the other side too. So, um, but no, just a fantastic job. Will you please convey to your staff, Tony, that, that, uh, we're proud of them. They did a great job. Well, thank you. If I can add the creativity and just, uh, imagination that our, our team has out there, all of, all levels of operations and the programmers and just, uh, executing a very good event. And we had a, uh, a ticket taker one night standing at the door with a fake bloody knife and, uh, she, she might be sitting with me. That was me. Well, that was you. Yeah. Yeah. So everybody was having fun. Yeah. Yeah. And also the volunteers. I know there are a lot of volunteers too. Yeah. You can't really do it without that. Yeah. Well, the, the, the advertising leading up to it was great too. Cause I noticed that right off the bat. It was great. Sue's team has done a wonderful job and we're trying out some new things and I think it's been effective. She had your staff on their front and center and they were doing good. So, um, great. Okay. I think there, if there's nothing else good for the order, I'm going to close the meeting. Adjourned. Thank you.