CITY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING - Oct 22, 2026

Good evening, and welcome to the October 22nd, 2026 City Commission meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order. I'd like to say, go Rays. Yay. All right. And now I'm going to turn to Jen, and as part of our moment of silence, let's make sure we root for our Tampa Bay Rays. We can pray for that, can't we? Okay. All right. So if we could stand for invocation and pledge. Let us begin this meeting by taking a brief moment of silence and reflection, and if those reflections drift towards the Rays, so be it. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, individual, liberty and justice for all. I drifted there. I'm just going to say I did. I drifted there. So pretty exciting stuff. I mean, we had the Blue Jays last year. We got the Rays this year. You know, this is awesome. Now we just got to get a victory in the World Series. Okay. We are going to go to presentations, which there are none. So we'll go to citizen input. Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on a topic that is not on the agenda? Okay. Seeing no one. Oh, John, are you coming forward? Do you have something? Okay. Come on forward and name and address for the record, and three minutes. You know the drill. How are you doing? If you could stay, church. Forgive me. Oh, John, did you say your name and address? You do, for the record, yeah. Thank you. Okay, now they're saying the microphone. Yeah. We just need to make sure the microphone's on. You don't have to repeat it again. I wasn't sure what the... It says push. Yep. Got it. Okay, we got it. You got this. Okay, thank you all. You got this. Everybody does it, so, you know, anyway. The city's mission statement is to improve the quality of life for all by listening to the voices of our citizens and providing quality services through responsible financial stewardship. You probably all know that. A few weeks ago, I noticed that a storm drain on my street was plugged up with mud and debris and actually had grass growing in it. Whenever there was a rainstorm, the street in that area flooded. I made a mental note to notify the city, and of course, that note evaporated my memory cells, as most do. A few days later, I saw a Dunedin City truck near my house working on a different project and thought I'd ask them the best way to report the plugged drain. As I approached the truck, the driver rolled down the window, smiled, and said, Good morning. How can I help? I told him about the drain, and I asked the best way to report that. In person, by phone, or email. What would be the best way? His response was, You just did. Two days later, a large truck cleaned out the storm drain, and the flooding problem disappeared. Jennifer, somehow you have successfully connected the dots between the city's mission statement, your team of enthusiastic, customer-focused workers, and residents like me. Kudos to you and your staff, and thank you for all you do to make Dunedin an enviable place to live. Can he have five minutes, Mayor? Can he have five minutes? I famously never allow, yeah, I never allow clapping, but hey, you got to do it for that. Yeah, I broke the rules. We allowed clapping, so, but, John, do you want to come up? You can have multiple three minutes if you're going to talk like that. Thank you very much, and I've said it before. All of us up here have. The backbone of this city is our city employees, so thank you for that, for sharing that with us. Okay. Madam Mayor. Address for the record and three minutes. My name is Gregory Olenich, and I live at 548 Lockley Street, and I have for 40 years. I have an incident I just want to relate to that's important to me right now, and I'm looking for guidance. On October 13th, my wife went for a walk to the Walgreens in Patricia and Union. She tripped on the uneven sidewalk near the Welcome to Dunedin sign. She fell on her face. She broke her nose, and she inflicted a deep laceration to her nose. Jacqueline is antiphospholipid. She's a bleeder. One of the four school crossing guards there gave her his sweat towel because she was bleeding so badly. She called me to come and pick her up. She was a sight to be seen. I took her to the walk-in clinic urgent care on 580 Main Street next to Marcos Pizza, and they said they couldn't help her. They couldn't stitch it properly, so we had to go to the emergency room in Mies. And she received six stitches and a CAT scan of her broken nose. On October 14th, we were given a referral from Dr. Amber Stephens to an ear, nose, and throat doctor, Dr. Christopher Muller. Also on the 14th, I sent a text message with pictures of my wife and her injuries to Dunedin Public Works, Susan Bartlett, probably the wrong department. I received no reply. Jacqueline returned to a new clean towel to the crossing guard. Who was nice to her. He didn't see her fall, only her bleeding. On the 19th of October, Dr. Muller removed the six stitches and told her how to behave, how to take care of her fractured nose. Also on the 19th, we went to City Hall to find out how to submit a claim, a report, or whatever. The only person available was the lobby receptionist, and she really didn't know how to help us. She went away, and then she returned with a City of Dunedin employee accident report. We filled it out, and we were told that someone would probably contact us later in the day. We have heard nothing. That was four days ago. The City must have a correct procedure to follow to submit a true accident claim with location, date, extension of injuries, for the consideration of fair compensation. She suffered the original pain, the needles, the stitches, stitch removal, and a fractured nose, plus not wanting to attend church and other scheduled events because of the way she looked. Please tell us how to proceed. I would suggest that perhaps this gentleman needs to, yes, call you immediately, and we'll get on that. So I'm sorry that your wife was injured. I'll provide you with my business card. You call me first thing tomorrow. Sure. I'll give you this copy. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, and sorry for the issue. Okay. Anyone else in the audience wish to come forward and speak on issues? Not on the agenda. Okay. Name and address for the record, and three minutes. Hi, my name is Elizabeth Cascallera, and I've been living in Dunedin for now seven years, and we've had a little issue, me and my neighbor. My neighbor, Emily, is also here to accompany me for the problem that we're having with the high school and the school drop-off. For seven years, we have been battling with the principal about allowing them to go around our street, Texas and Carolina, blocking both lanes, in and out, where we can't even leave the driveway. I've had my mailbox banged into four times, had to replace, grass driven right over with the cars, and it's never the kids, by the way. The kids have been a doll. They're as sweet as can be. Good morning, ma'am. Good night. Whatever it is, I've never had a problem with it. The parents, if you try to leave in the morning, they'll chuck you the bird, swear profanity, and it's been going on for such a consistent time that we have all tried to go talk to the principal. We've tried to reach out to Pinellas County. They always tell us, it's Pinellas, it's not Dunedin. Well, I pay taxes in Dunedin. I've called for the traffic, water, traffic, whatever that department is. They put signs on one part of the corner. Great for that. But the parents are still coming through to do drop-off. There's a big sign there that says, no kid drop-off. Of course, they drop off. They open the gate, and the cars stop piling up. It's either in the morning or in the afternoon when we're all trying to get in or get out. It's supposed to not be a drop-off. I don't understand why this is getting out of hand again. And it's a constant battle that we've got to go back and forth. I have now a cop that's there from 7 o'clock till 8 o'clock when she doesn't show up. Everybody piles up on Falcon. Everybody piles up in my driveway. So it's still a problem. A cop being there is not going to solve this problem. The street is very narrow. We all thought that it was at one time going to be a one-way when they were starting to fix some stuff around there. It didn't turn out to be a one-way. There used to be no parking along the fence. They took all the signs off. And now they're talking about having a gate opened on that side of the street on Carolina. Another gate, which they're supposed to be closed off, which this is not zoned for a school drop-off. And this problem has been going on consistently now for seven years. Happens every year. I go into the principal. We have a conversation. It lets up. And then here we are again. I want to know, what do I need to do next? Okay. Thank you. We'll answer that question. Let me just ask, first of all, is there anyone else in the audience that wishes to come forward on any issues that's not on the agenda? Absolutely. Come forward. Name and address for the record in three minutes. My name is Emily Wollett. I live on Texas Avenue, which is a one-block street, literally right across from the schoolyard. I've been living there since 2001. And shortly after living there, we started having trouble with the school opening the gate. There's a gateway at the other end of the block. I live on the block, I mean, closest to the side where Carolina is, which is where she lives, right on the corner. And they started letting the gate open. And because the idea was, well, it was too difficult for the children to walk to the front of the school and go in the designated areas to go in and out of the school. Well, when it first started, you know, it was a couple kids here and there. Kids weren't on cell phones. They weren't looking in their cell phone all the time. They weren't on motorized vehicles. They weren't on motorized scooters and all this other stuff. And then, so it started just getting so out of hand that one day I decided I got up very, very early. And I literally counted every car that was coming down the street. And I didn't even get up as soon as the car started. It was like 20 minutes after the car started. And within that time period to the time that school opened, there was 99 cars on this little street. And like she was saying, you know, I had issues with the cars because some of these people are driving heavy trucks, which I can hear all of the vibrations from the engines in my house. Some of the people have, you know, giant boom boxes on their cars. So no matter where you are in your house, you cannot actually get away from the noise. I had my elderly mother living with me. And every afternoon, the boom boxes would come. I would ask the people, could you please? I have to go outside because my mother is having stress because of the massive sound waves that are pervading my house. I mean, it's a never-ending, constant violation of the sound, any kind of sound, because it just pervades every single thing. So I have to go out, ask them, can you please turn the music off? Then if they are waiting too long, the street is really only narrow. It's so narrow that there's really no easy discourse for two sides to go. If somebody is coming, you just be courteous and you move over. But when the guys are waiting in line to pick up their children, which happens, you know, on and off for literally 20 years. She's been here seven years. I've lived there since 2001. And it's literally been going on for two decades or more. So, you know, the kids, what happens when the parents and whoever is sitting there in their car and they don't want to wait, then they literally pull into the opposing lane traffic, which you've got a little teeny street, then they're blocking everybody. I've had issues where I turned into my street. I couldn't even get in because there's people double parked. Thank you. Can you just wrap up? Yeah, so now they're talking about doing a gate. And the issue is this, nobody should be even coming on the street to drop off their children or anything like that. I mean, you're talking about a block. They have to walk a block more. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and thank you. And before I ask for another speaker, could we not do the rotating screen? I mean, it's kind of distracting when a citizen is talking to have a rotating screen up there. It seems rude. I know somebody didn't mean it that way. And it's gone. Yeah. Okay, good. I mean, you can just leave up one, just rotate it. It's distracting. And I think it distracted the speakers as well. Okay. Is there anyone else in the audience who wants to speak on an issue that's not in the agenda? Okay. All right. So I'll close citizen input. And I know there is history with this issue. How would you suggest that we move forward with this, city manager? Mayor, there is quite a bit of history. We can take a couple minutes if you'd like to talk a little bit about where we are, because we've had plenty of interaction with the schools, with the school as well. Would you like us to do that? Or would you like us to circle back with an update to the city commission of where we are and we can... Yeah, I want to make sure they're heard and, you know, I don't want to give an answer that may not be responsive to if these are new issues or... I know there's a history here, but... Clay is our city engineer, mayor, and he can give us an update. Is that okay? Yeah. I just... Are we... Then what are we going to do with our citizens, I mean... I can... We can pass information. Clayton Watkins, Utilities and Engineering. Yeah, this has been a topic. It usually comes up in our traffic committee about every August at the time the school starts. There's been a lot... I know they were talking about how traffic in two-way... We didn't one way. What we basically have done is put signage at the intersection of Indiana and Carolina that just basically restricts the left-hand turn onto Indiana that then becomes Texas. It's our understanding that this door is... The reason the school opens the gate is it's for their walking traffic, and I think if... The way it's our understanding is if they shut the gate and you move the entrance to the front of the school, that then takes that two-mile radius that they have to bus students into, and it shrinks in into that. So that's sort of where we've been told. There have been multiple emails from the... Luckily, one of our committee members has a student, you know, at the high school. So they do send emails to tell parents this is not a pickup-and-drop-off zone. It is for pedestrian, you know, for walkers and bikers only. It is constantly a thing. We talk with, you know, the sheriff has two deputies, patrol deputies, probably the one that sits out there that she referenced earlier. But, you know, they have to bounce around through multiple school districts. So we're trying to sign it to have to stop them, but at the same time, it's sort of, you know, the bad behavior of something. I don't want to say bad behavior, but behavior by the drop-off instead of taking them around the corner and going in. And we can continue our conversations with both the sheriff and the school principal. So the gate's open for walkers. The gate is meant to be... And people are using their cars to go through. Correct. Couldn't there just be a gate that only fits walkers? Oh, no, no. The gate is a pedestrian gate. It's they're using Newt, Texas to drop their kids off. So they shortcut, instead of going out onto, yes, instead of using Pinehurst and getting in line, they're using that as a shortcut. Or they're parking there. And I think that one of the issues is a couple years ago, they used to have an assistant principal or a teacher there to scoot them around and not allow them to drop off there. And then the principal would say that they don't have sufficient staff to make sure that happens. So we'll reach out to him and talk a little bit more and let him know that residents were here this evening and the city commission is interested in watching. Yeah, we'll continue the conversation with them. So will you kind of let us know how that goes maybe in like a week or two or something and let us know what's... Yeah, we have another meeting coming up in a couple weeks so we can bring it back up in there. Why don't I give out my card, too, so they have contact and we can... I just want to make sure we don't, you know, we... Yes. Anybody else for a card? I want John to come back up again. That's what I want. Thank you. And thank you, ladies, for coming up and telling us about it. So I know it's got a long history and I'm sure it's very irritating. Thank you. Okay. All right. So we're going to move past citizen input. I'm going to go to consent agenda. 2A, improve minutes for the 9-1-2026 workshop and the 9-3-2026 regular meeting. And then we have boards and committee appointments for Committee on Aging, for Firefighter Pension Trust Fund Board of Trustees, and for Library Advisory Committee. We have 2C, which is award a bid number 26-2618, the replacement of 4-sodium hypochlorite, which is bleach tanks at the water treatment plant, to Odyssey Manufacturing Company in the amount of $164,185. 2D is award a bid number 26-2621 for the purchase of the replacement fireboat lift to Elite Marine Dock and Seawall in the amount of $98,164.45. 2E is award repairs to lift station number 8 to TLC Diversified Inc. of Palmetto, Florida, in the amount of $89,963.51. 2F, first renewal of the Clearwater Ferry Services Interlocal Agreement and operational agreement between the City of Dunedin and PSTA for ferry services beginning October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 for an amount not to exceed $85,000. And 2G, the final one, approval of a change order to bid number 26-2607, Hammock Boardwalk Replacement Project for an increase of $16,528.64, to Price Marine Construction for additional framing, hardware replacement, and ramp repairs to the Western Boardwalk at Hammock Park. So, do I have any items to be pulled? Mayor, if I may, 2D and 2F, just quick questions and a little clarification. 2D and 2F, okay. Is there any other commissioner who would like to pull anything? Okay, so can I have a motion for the rest of everything except 2D and 2F? So moved. Second. Okay. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward and speak on any of the issues we just talked about other than 2D and 2F on the consent agenda? Okay, seeing no one, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Okay. So, and ladies, I was going to say, you don't have to stay if you don't want to at this point to anybody that came for citizen input. I don't want to put anybody through any grueling workout. Okay, we're going to go to 2D, which is awarded bid number 26-2621 for the purchase of the replacement fireboat lift to elite marine dock and seawall in the amount of $98,000, $164,000, $45,000. And so you just have a question? Yes, just clarification and just a couple quick questions for me. Okay. So, all right, Isaac. Isaac Wasilewski, Engineering. Yeah, I don't need the whole presentation today. As I was reading through that, it seems like this launch is electric. What would we do in the event of a power outage? So, for a power outage, there is like a manual override or release for that. Are you concerned about just in general or like a storm related? Well, this past week, there was like 1,700 outages here in Dunedin at that time. I just don't want our firefighters to be delayed as long as there's some kind of a secondary launch system. Yes, yes. Okay. And the other thing, we have BDI, we have Elite, and we have, is it On Point? Is that the third one? Theoretically, we could have three contractors down there at once. Am I right? So, Elite is just procuring us to the boat lift. They're purchasing it and dropping it off. So, On Point is going to be the one that is going to be installing it. So, it's just going to be two. Okay. I misunderstood that. All right. Thank you. Because I was concerned about, you know, two restaurants plus that hotel plus the ferry. There's a lot of traffic. So, you clarified that. No, and thank you for explaining with Elite. Of course. That was part of my next question. So, I'm good, Mayor. That's all I had. Okay. Anyone else have any questions about that one? Okay. Seeing no one up here. So, let me get a motion on that one. So moved. Okay. Second. Okay. Is there anyone from the audience who wishes to come forward and speak on the issue? Okay. Seeing no one, I'll close public input. And all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Now, we'll go to the other one. We have first renewal of the Clearwater Ferry Services Interlocal Agreement. So, I'll turn again to Commissioner Sandberg. You just have a couple questions. You know, I just realized that we received an email today, I believe, from Orge that clarified. I just had a question about tracking the usage and how much activity was actually down there. So, we're good. I had, I mean, we're good. I remembered that I read that email this afternoon. So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I had the same question, too. What was the actual usage of it? So, okay. Good. So, in that case, does anybody else have any questions about that? Other than it might be good to get this before the actual expiration date, which, you know. But, other than that, I know we're used to it. Sorry. I didn't want to make you feel too good with that compliment from John. Well, I could. I could. Never mind. Okay. All right. Well, maybe it's not on you. It's on PSTA. Got it. I won't say that. Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay. Wait. When PSTA says I can say it, I can say it. It's on PSTA. Okay. Got it. Got it. Okay. I'll say it's gracious. No, they're very gracious. All right. Sounds good. So, can I get a motion for the Clearwater Ferry Services? Somebody will move to second. Okay. Go. Who was second? Was it you? Okay. I'm sorry, Rob. I should have let you have that. I'm bad. Okay. And is there anyone in the audience who wishes to come forward and speak on this issue? Just even to defend yourselves? No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I think it's so successful, honestly, that it probably just kind of rolls, doesn't it? So, I was, you know, my bad to even bring it up. Okay. So, motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed unanimously. Yes, I did, didn't it? Didn't I ask for citizen input? Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did. Sorry. Commissioner Gow is just trying to, you know, get at me tonight, right? He's got one more month. He's got one more month to get me, so he's checking on me. I'm going to be very watchful. Okay. And thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks for being here. Okay. Okay. We are going to go to action items, which is going to be the first one. Is 3A application LUPZO-2026-0002. Request to rezone the 1.07-acre property located at 968 Douglas Avenue from Downtown Industrial to Downtown Core. Second reading of Ordinance 26-09. Rezoning from Downtown Industrial to Downtown Core. Or, okay, okay, let's see. First of all, this ordinance is quasi-judicial and therefore requests that the city clerk swear in all who intend to speak, first of all. Okay. And does anyone up here need to disclose any ex parte contact for the record? Okay. Seeing no one. Okay. And Jen, could you please read Ordinance 26-09 by title only? Yes. Ordinance 26-09. An Ordinance of the City of Dunedin, Florida, zoning certain real property located at 968 Douglas Avenue, parcel number 27-28-15-23076-013-0050, with designated meets and bounds, and totaling approximately 1.07 acres to Downtown Core, D.C., and providing for an effective date. That was Ordinance 26-09, read by title only. Okay. Can I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, Vice Mayor and Commissioner Sandbergen. Okay, presentation by George and Bob. Well, no, by George and Matt. Okay. Just trying to trick me on this. Okay. Yeah. Good evening, Mayor, Vice, Mayor, Commissioners. George Keating on behalf of the Community Development Department. Seated to my right is actually Bob Ironsworth. No, Matt Jackson with the Economic Development Department. Mayor, I'll be very quick with this presentation. We received no correspondence between first read and second read, so nothing's changed. So I have about five slides, and then if you have any, if you want any input from Economic Development, he's there to answer those questions. Very quickly, you've already kind of introduced the project. It's located at 968 Douglas Avenue. I'm sorry. That is the owner, 968 Douglas Avenue. The applicant is Mazes Development, Bill Mazes, and the representative by Brian Onksy, who's behind me, and if you have questions of him, he'll be available to do so. The rendering on the left shows the project location. It is actually 968 Douglas Avenue, and you can see a rendering of the facility on the lower right-hand corner there. By way of background, as mentioned by the city attorney, it's approximately a little bit more than one acre in size. It borders Douglas Avenue to the east and the Pinellas Trail to the west. The owner-applicant is redeveloping the property at Douglas, as the commission knows, to a parking center structure that will hold approximately 318 parking spaces to serve the Main Street Exchange project, as well as some of the retail space that's contemplated with this development after the rezoning. And you can see the second bullet. There is approximately 25,000 square feet of retail space contemplated. Because the current downtown industrial zoning designation does not permit the retail component, that is, therefore, the request to downtown core. By way of land use evaluation, there is no change to the existing land use. The land use is activity center. And this project would comply or comport with the provisions of that land use designation. From a zoning perspective, you can see in the left-hand side, you can see that downtown industrial parcel. And there is one residual parcel that remains that we hope to eventually get into the downtown core. But the property is located there to the left. It is currently downtown industrial. The takeaway from this slide, really, from a commission perspective, is that it does meet all of the requirements of the downtown core zoning district. So we will not be creating any nonconformities as a result of the rezoning or the development. Very quickly, on August 12th, the LPA did recommend unanimously approval of this ordinance to the city commission. As the city commission knows, they heard a first reading on September 17. And also approved a first reading unanimously. As previously mentioned, there's been no new information received by community development in the interim. Accordingly, staff recommendation is to approve ordinance 26-09 to change the zoning district designation of the subject property from downtown industrial to downtown core on the city's official zoning map. And with that, I think we're happy to answer any questions. Okay. Questions for staff? Commissioner Gow. No questions. Commissioner Dugard. No questions. Vice Mayor. No questions. And Commissioner Sandberg. No questions, Mayor. And, of course, it's second reading. That's why a lot of the stuff gets done first. And as much as I really want to, like, heckle Brian a little bit, I guess I don't have anything right now. Okay. So that being said, no other questions. I'll open it for public input. Anybody in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. Seeing no one, I will close public input. And I will go to final comments. And I will start with Vice Mayor. Nothing I haven't already said. I think this is going to be a wonderful addition to the city. And I am full-heartedly in support of it. Commissioner Sandberg, in final comments. Really nothing to add. Doing a heck of a job. How fast it's moving along. You guys are really plugged into the community. And I surely appreciate that. That's all, Mayor. Okay. Commissioner Gow. Final comments. I have a boss that lives on the north side of the artisan, and I get pictures on a daily basis of the progress. And they're always quite impressive. And pictures, whatever. But the comments and just the construction is clean. The way you guys operate is just amazing. And there isn't a negative thing you could ever say about the progress that's being done. So, well done. That's great. Okay. Final comments. Commissioner DeGuard. Completely in support. Glad we're seeing them move along. Thank you, Mayor. My only comments is, I think I said it before, but I wanted to require it before the parking garage got started. But I found out, oh, you couldn't require it. And so, I was thrilled when it was requested to do this. And fully in support of making, you know, some shops and maybe a restaurant in there. I don't know what all is going to go in there. But mixed use is good, and it will give life to that end of the street. So, fully supportive. And, you know, please pass our best on to, you know, Mr. Mazas. And you look so much like him. But just a little younger, right? But anyway, it is a great, you can just feel it. Everything's being done really top notch. And well thought through and with some heart as well, which is great. And communicating with the businesses. So, I think those are great comments, Commissioner Gow. Glad you brought them up. Okay. Roll call vote. Commissioner Gow. Aye. Commissioner Dugard. Aye. Commissioner Sandbergen. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker. Aye. Mayor Franey. Aye. And that motion passes unanimously. So, thank you very much. Good job, Matt. Yeah, good job, Matt. I prepared so long ready to speak. That's all right. Next time. That's how they lull you into it. That's right. Okay. We are going to go to 3B, Resolution 26-20, combining the Social Services Committee and the Disability Advisory Committee into one Social Services slash ADA Advisory Committee at long last, right? And, Jen, can you please read Resolution 26-20 by title only? I will. Well, but there's a little difference tonight. Okay. So, on the resolution that was included in your packet, there are two changes, well, three changes. The first one is to Section 3. Okay. Maybe we can just get there real quick to be with you on this. Okay. Okay. So, 3, okay. 26-20, and where are you going to take us? To Section 3? Section 3, and it's on page 2. And it's just the difference of, originally it talked about the resolutions being repealed, 1510, and in that particular paragraph, 10-11 was omitted. So, we've added that in. Okay. And then, on page 4, there was a typo under Section 4, written report, it said the written report, and both the and written was capitalized, so we made that typographical change. Okay. The only other change is as to the title. And the title, and we think this was just omissioned by the version that was grabbed, is that it was a much shorter title, which you may have enjoyed better tonight, but I'm going to give you the lengthier version in reading that now. Okay. Go ahead. Resolution 26-20, a resolution of the City Commission, I'm sorry, of the City of Dunedin, Florida, to combine the Social Services Committee and the Disability Advisory Committee into one advisory committee with a new title of Social Services slash ADA Advisory Committee. Repealing Resolution 10-02, which established the Social Services Committee, and repealing Resolutions 10-11 and 15-10, which established the Disability Advisory Committee, establishing the Social Services ADA Advisory Committee, providing for duties, membership in terms of office, providing for organizational structure, providing for reporting responsibility, providing for record-keeping, providing for appointment and removal, providing for review by the City Commission, providing for review by the City Commission to continue the committee's existence, repeal of inconsistent resolutions, and providing for an effective date. And that was Resolution 26-20, read by title only. So significantly different than what we have, though, right? The titling was. And basically, I think the old title was just like a summary that was put in, and then we sent changes, and it just didn't, the version didn't get picked up for the agenda. Okay. Okay. Okay. But the substantive was all still in there. Yeah. I'm certainly not delaying this. I know that. Or, you know, if any of my comrades can. But anyway, okay. So, all right. I will ask for a motion. So moved. Second. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I'll go to staff presentation. Michelle. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. After consensus direction was provided at the February 3rd, 2026 workshop to combine the Disability Advisory Committee and the Social Services Committee, both of those committees held a committee merger workshop on April 28th, 2026 to review the draft resolution. The proposed resolution you have before you incorporates the duties, purpose, and deliverables of each committee that were discussed, and any suggested edits have been incorporated into this proposed resolution for consideration. And just some notes. The last meeting held by the Social Services Committee was on January 20th, 2026. They currently have an outdated roster of five members. The last meeting held by the Disability Advisory Committee was on December 9th, 2022, and they currently have an outdated roster of three members. The staff liaison to both committees was not available today, but I am happy to attempt to answer any questions you may have. Who is the staff? That is Teresa Smolling. Okay. So the questions for staff, starting with Vice Mayor. Yeah. So I'm just kind of curious. Does the committee, the combined committee membership, is it full? No, sir, not at this time, because currently if we were to combine the two, we would have a total, and we would have to reach back out to them to make sure there was still continued interest, as it has been some time. But currently there would be the three and the five. That would be eight, and we're shooting for nine. Okay. So one spot. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Questions? Commissioner Sandberg? I guess my only question would be, in combining these two, everything remains the same as far as their expectations and the coverage that we've had in the past. We're not taking anything away from this committee, are we? No, sir. I wouldn't say you're taking anything away from either committee. Okay. The hope is that they would be working together rather than overlapping and actually be more efficient. Good. That's all I need. Thanks, Michelle. Yeah. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Gow. Okay. So did I understand this right? Right now we have eight members, five from one committee, three from the other, but we don't have a formal commitment from any of those eight? We do not have a formal commitment. We would have to circle back. It's been some time, but they did participate in the merger workshop. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's fine. And I know that they haven't met because of lack of quorum, but at least with some of those members of those eight, they would have been willing to meet had there been a quorum? Yes, sir. Okay. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. That's all I have. Commissioner Degard? Question? What feedback have we had from the eight individuals regarding this merger? Any opposition? No, sir. No opposition? Thank you. That's all I have. My only question is, on top of the fact that they couldn't always get the quorum, wasn't there some holdup we weren't replacing? At least in the ADA, we weren't replacing, so that just added to the problem, right? The Disability Advisory Committee, we couldn't, when we went to try to, we were going to have, they couldn't meet, so we were going to try to ask that you all appoint yourselves. And then it was thought that let's just wait for the consolidation rather than go ahead and appoint them. And I think it's just taken longer than we would have anticipated. Yeah. We did try to appoint within, and we held off on that. Okay. Well, whatever frustrations were felt by the committees, you've shared our apologies for that. Absolutely. Okay. All right. So I don't have any additional questions. I'm going to open it to public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. I'll close public input and go to Commission comments, starting with the maker of the motion, Commissioner Degard. We have been trying to consolidate the number of committees we have due to the expense of keeping these committees going. Because, as you can see, with one of these, they're not meeting very frequently. It's been four years on one of these committees and just the first of this last year on the other. I suspect that if they don't have that much business or they can't get a quorum, that we need to combine them so they have a more robust agenda and something more to do. So I'm fully in support. Okay. So final comments, seconder of the motion, Commissioner Sandberg. Really good to streamline we've been working on this for a while. Nothing more to add, Mayor. Right. Yeah. So that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor? I don't know. I'm all in favor of the efficiencies and consolidation. We need to be more efficient. And Commissioner Gao, final comments. Thank you, Matt. You know we've been working on this for a while. And, right, the concern for anybody who this might be new for, right, was we really do appreciate and desire and want resident input. And you can just tell by the length of time since these committees have met is the challenge that we were having. And so instead of getting rid of these committees, we thought, well, let's first combine them and see if we can't continue to get there as resident input. And so I'm glad that we're taking this approach. Yeah. I mean, I think the efficiencies are good. I know change is tough. But I appreciate it. And I think the workshop issue was the most important to get the committee people together and make sure they felt like the merging was covering all the bases. So I appreciate all you did for that and all the liaisons did as well, Jennifer, and certainly the members themselves. So I'm totally in favor of this. So I think we get a roll call vote. Vice Mayor Walker? Aye. Commissioner Gao? Aye. Commissioner Sandbergen? Aye. Commissioner Dugard? Aye. And Mayor Franey? Aye. And that motion passes unanimously. Okay. We're going to go to 3C, Resolution 26-22, combining the Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability and the Stormwater Advisory Committee into one Stormwater and Sustainability Advisory Committee. Jen, can you please read Resolution 26-22 by title only? Am I ready for a but? Yes, Mayor. Yes, there's a but on this one. Okay. Similarly to the last one, there were just a couple of typos in the body, but the main changes as to the resolution title. So just real quickly, by the couple of typos on page one in section two of special provisions, it identified Resolution 22-05 as being repealed, but it should also include 92-4. That same change is made in section eight under repeal on page five, and then under section four of general provisions on page three, written report was capitalized when it shouldn't have been. Those are the changes along with the change to the title. Okay. Thank you. Membership and Terms of Office, providing for organizational structure, providing for reporting responsibility, providing for record keeping, providing for appointment and removal, and providing for a review of the City Commission to continue the Committee's existence, repealing and consistent resolutions, and providing for an effective date. That was Resolution 26-22, read by title only. Okay. Can I get a motion? So moved. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. I have a motion. I have a second. I will go to staff presentation. Michelle. Okay. Thank you again, Mayor. Once again, consensus direction was provided at the February 3rd, 2026 workshop to combine the Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability and the Stormwater Advisory Committee. The Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability and the Stormwater Advisory Committee held committee merger workshops on April 14, 2026, and May 12, 2026, to review the draft resolution. The duties, the duties, the duties, and the duties, and the duties, and the duties, and the duties, purpose, and deliverables of each committee were discussed, and any suggested edits have been incorporated into the proposed resolution for consideration. The last meeting held by the CEQS was on August 25, 2026, and currently has a roster of six members. Last meeting held by the Stormwater Advisory Committee was on April 14, 2026, and they currently have an outdated roster of eight members. And as a side note, one member is included on both committees, so if we were to combine today, there would be a total of 13 members rather than 14. And we have staff liaisons Natalie Gass and Jake Dintelsbeck here to represent both committees and to help answer any questions you may have. Okay. Questions for staff. I'll turn to Commissioner Gow. Thank you, Mayor. Michelle, how many current combined members do we have? It would be 13. And how many members in this new committee by resolution? Nine. Nine. So how do we reconcile? That would be by attrition. By attrition. Yes, sir. They would start off with the larger number, and as we would just not appoint any new until we needed to. Very good. But as it stands now, if all 13 show up, they're all considered committee members. That would be correct. Okay. Thank you. That's all that I have. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Dugard. Thank you, Mayor. This is an interesting combination of committees because I see that they're between environmental quality, sustainability. There can be from time to time conflicts of interest relative to those two groups because of their different goals. Have we done anything to address that kind of conflict? What kind of conflict are you referring to? Well, sustainability sometimes gets into preservation, whereas environmental quality, is it odds with that from time to time? Because what we're trying to do is to preserve the environment, not physical structures and things like that. And we might find ourselves in conflict. Have we had any discussions along those lines? So CEQS is the Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability. So they are really overseeing the environmental standpoint of sustainability and resilience. And the goal is to merge with the Stormwater Advisory Committee, really focusing on all those various topics together. So they've already got that resolved. They've more focused on the environment than sustainability. Is that what I heard? Well, actually, if I may. Okay. It's been environmental quality and sustainability has been a committee in and of itself for a long time. So they've had a problem? Yeah. We haven't had a conflict. That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. So questions, Vice Mayor? Nope. No additional questions. Okay. Commissioner Sandbergen. No. I have no more questions, Mayor. So I meant to ask this the last time, too. So I'll ask this one, Michelle. So is this standard language in the agreement now, other than the wording for the duties, so to speak? Mayor, the only thing that I would say is different would be the explanation of a quorum in this draft resolution. Yeah. And I did notice that. That wasn't in the last one, though, right? It's not in any of our other resolutions. It's not stated like that in any of the other. But once we get past the 13 members down to nine, potentially we can revert that possibly back to old language. Because I'm assuming it's there just to guide that difference now. If I could suggest, I would suggest just a statement of a majority of members of the committee shall constitute a quorum. Is this wording, though, that the committee itself, the workshop came up with that they wanted? That it is. It is what they came up with. Yeah. I don't want to change that. I think probably people worked hard. But maybe once we get down to nine in a couple years, hopefully, that maybe we can look at, Natalie, I'll look at you. Maybe we can look at just taking that excess so that we're consistent with the others. But I think that probably they just did that because, I'm assuming they did that because of the confusion. It could be different numbers at different times until we get to nine. To provide a little context, with CEQS and their current resolution, they have a range of members. And that has caused a little bit, which is very different from the other resolutions. And over the years, that's caused a lot of confusion and conflict around what is considered quorum. So I think they just wanted to prevent any further conflict or confusion. Yeah. Okay. Well, then I, hey, whatever they need, that's, I'm not going to debate that. If that's helpful to them and that they know what they're talking about. So I'm not going to, I just wondered kind of the difference. Other than that, everything's standard language? Yes, ma'am. Okay. They've gone to a bullet point that's a little different. I like it. I think it flows well, but that's a little different. Yeah, actually, I kind of like it, too. I just, I think it flows well and it makes it helpful. Okay. So I'll open it to public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. Seeing no, I'll close public input. I'll go to final comments, starting with maker of the motion, which was vice mayor. No additional comments. Obviously, this is in the interest of efficiencies and it's been a project that has been very long. So I think this is good. Okay. And seconder of the motion was Commissioner Gao. You know, I find great value in all of our advisory committees. But given where we are with climate change and hurricanes and stormwater, I think, I think we're going to see amazing things. We're combining two committees that can stand on their own. And if you put them together, I'm anticipating amazing things coming. So well done, Natalie. Well done, Michelle. Great. Final comments, Commissioner Dugard. I'm just echoing my colleagues' statements. They're accurate and supportive and so am I. Thank you. And final comments, Commissioner Sandbergen. Just like we talked about, we've been working on this for a long time, make it more efficient. And I maybe should have, during questions, I kind of missed something. What about if we have two committee chairs? Has there been a selection or what would happen in that case? That's all I had. So we've already discussed with both committees to have a merger workshop meeting, really to initiate that and work out all those logistics to vote and select a new acting chair, vice chair, and secretary, and kind of lay out the ground rules for the committee. So they'll decide that. Good question. That's all I had. Yeah, good question. Rock, paper, scissors. They could arm wrestle. Arm wrestle. Okay, yeah, I don't have anything to add. I think this is about efficiency, but it's also about making people feel like, you know, the committee's got meaty enough to, and this one, I don't think, that was never the issue, either one of these. But certainly with some others, they, you know, they wanted some things that were more meaty. So, again, which is the same as efficiency. So, okay, roll call vote. Commissioner Sandbergen. Aye. Commissioner Dugard. Aye. Commissioner Gow. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker. Aye. Mayor Franey. Aye. And that motion passed unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Michelle. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, we're going to go to 3D, which is Resolution 26-23, Declaration of Intent to reimburse the cost of constructing water, wastewater, or utilities capital projects from one or more future issues of tax-exempt bonds or notes. Jen, can you please read Resolution 26-23? By title only. Sorry. By title only. Resolution 26-23, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Dunedin, Florida, declaring its official intent to reimburse the cost of constructing water, wastewater, or utility capital projects from one or more future issues of tax-exempt bonds or notes, providing for certain other matters in connection therewith, and providing an effective date. That was Resolution 26-23, read by title only. Okay. I'm going to have a motion. So moved. Second. Okay. Mr. Sandberg and Vice Mayor. Okay. Staff presentation. I will turn it to Les. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Les Tyler at the Finance Department. This item is a resolution for reimbursement of the cost of constructing water, wastewater, or utilities capital projects from one or future tax-exempt bond issues or notes. Staff anticipates the estimated cost of constructing the water and wastewater and utility capital projects will be approximately $8 million in total. This is an estimate to be refined in the months ahead. It is expected that the cost of the projects will be financed from one or more future tax-exempt debt issues. This resolution approves reimbursement of those expended funds if necessary from future debt proceeds. The source of the advance refunding will be our water-wastewater enterprise fund, and we've got a list of projects in the background that I'll walk through. We've got five projects. The first is a RASWAS filter feed pump. The next is a Wastewater Treatment Plant Facility 8 filter media and basin rehab project. The next is a Wastewater Treatment Plant Emergency Generator Building Rehab project. And the fourth is a Production Well Facility. And the last is the Willowwood Village Water Main Replacement Project. The total of all those projects is just under $8 million, $7.977 million. And I want to point out that this resolution does not obligate the city or the Enterprise Fund for Water and Wastewater to issue debt. It just provides us to have a tool in our tool belt to be able to reimburse ourselves once we do issue the financing. We happen to answer any questions. Thank you. Okay. Questions? I'll start with Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. When the bonds are sold, how does the interest rate get established? How does that work? Yeah, we would probably, with this, we would probably issue a bank loan. We could issue bonds, but we'll probably issue a bank note or a bank loan. And we will, the terms of the interest rate would be we'd go through an RFP process and open it up to different banks to bid on. And then we would look at the lowest attractive rates or look at the rates and also the financing package. And whatever was the most attractive rate for the city, we would propose to bring that to the commission. Okay. And the other question I have, because I don't, at least in my time on the commission, I don't recall doing this in the past. This is kind of, we've done this before. Yeah, we do this quite often. As an example, we did it with a parking garage not long ago, probably maybe six or nine months ago. Anytime we know we are planning on issuing a financing, it's a smart thing to do, a tool in your tool belt. Even if you don't do the reimbursement, at least you have the opportunity to do it if you need to. We did it for the city hall project back in 2021. We did it for, we also did it for the parking lot, actually, for the CRA a few years ago as well. So when we know financing is coming in the near future, we try to do this so we have that tool in our tool belt. Okay. No, it totally makes sense. It's more just. Yeah, we have done it before for large vehicle purchases too. Horry just mentioned that. Okay. For real large ones, yeah. No, it makes sense. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Sandbergen. No, you actually answered my question because I didn't recall doing this prior. So as long as we have, that's fine with me. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Gao. I had a question to ask and answer to me. Okay. And Commissioner Dugard, questions. Thank you, Mayor. We've got some pretty specific amounts here, $7,977,000. And is there, our experience lately has been everything doubles in price every five minutes. Yeah. How are we dealing with the possibility of inflated pricing and things like that on this? Is this going to lock us in in any way? Well, no, it's not. That's a good question. You know, these are estimates today. These are what's in our current budget, our best estimates. And we'll be working with City Engineer and their team in the months ahead. We're anticipating we probably would go out for financing in February to April time frame. That's next year, 2027. So we'll be working with them to fine-tune these numbers. If we find that we think that they're going to be more than we currently budget, we'll adjust. And so the actual financing could be more than $8 million. And we'll refine it as we move forward and get closer to issuing the financing. This doesn't lock you in in that way then? No, it does not. That's correct. Thank you. That's all I have, Mayor. Okay, I do not have any questions. So I will open to public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? I didn't think there would be anybody rushing to this one. Okay, so I will close public input. And I will go to Commission comments, final comments, starting with maker of the motion, which was Commissioner Sandberger. Really nothing to add other than I'm glad it's you, Les. Seems like it's in good hands, and I appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Okay, final comments. Secondary of the motion, Vice Mayor. You know, I'm just glad to have another tool in the tool belt. And I'm also glad that I wasn't the only – we had all the same questions, so that I wasn't the only one up here having a senior moment. So thank you. Commissioner Gao, final comments. No, it's nice to have this tool in the box. The fact that we're talking about wastewater capital projects, those are today issues, so well done. Good to have them there. Okay. Final comments, Commissioner Dugard. Yeah, I remember doing this on April 22nd at about 530. No, this is great. I'm just pleased that we're doing so well and anticipating getting prepared for these kind of things. I think it's great. Thank you, Mayor. Great. Okay, my final comment, just – I mean, these are projects that have to get done. It's our basic infrastructure, and this is called being smart with the citizens' money. So thank you. Thank you very much, Les, for thinking ahead on this. I'll go to roll call vote. Commissioner Dugard. Aye. Commissioner Gao. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker. Aye. Commissioner Sandberg. Aye. And Mayor Franey. Aye. And that motion passed unanimously. Okay. We're going to do three – thank you, Les – 3E, Resolution 26-27, amending the marina boat ramp fees. Staff is requesting that Resolution 26-27 be continued to the November 19, 2026, regularly scheduled 6 p.m. City Commission meeting, being held at Dunnean City Hall and Commission Chambers. Could I have a motion to that regard? Second. Second. That was good. Boy, they stepped on each other's tongue now. I actually thought you did say second, but I'm going to give – give it to you. Sandberg in and then Vice Mayor. That was good. Okay. All right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? What? Yeah. Do you have a nay? I'm a nay. Okay. Yeah, you're taking this away from me. Oh, you'll be gone. Sorry about that. Okay, so motion passes by a four-to-one vote. One nay vote from Commissioner Gall. You're just scared. Who's struggling. You're just scared. I see. Very. All right. Okay. So, all right. We're going to go to 3F, which is a very important one. 3F. Award of bid number 26-2610 for the Deneen Golf Club Course Maintenance Services Contract to Brightview Golf Maintenance, Inc. in the annual amount of $868,010.08. And we will go to staff presentation by Tony and Blair. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor. I almost said Tony Blair because it's just like all of a sudden I'm thinking about England, right? Anyway, Tony and Blair. There you go. Portmanteau. Pleased to be here tonight to bring this contract forward. The golf course maintenance contract was originally awarded in 2023 for a three-year initial term with two options for one-year renewals. That first renewal did take place in July. Regardless, we had put this out to bid, I believe it was in April with a response in May, and we had six bidders on this. We took it out to bid just due to feedback, maintenance concerns, and just a general good to see what's on the market. So, we're bringing forward a contract with a new firm, Brightview. They are a very large firm. They are very established. They managed well over 80 golf courses, many in Florida, including over half of the village's courses. I'll let Blair talk about a little bit of his experience, but they were the low bidder. They are responsible, and they were responsive. So, we did our diligence. We had a panel that researched and looked into them, checked the references. Blair took site visits to see their performance at other municipal courses, and we were satisfied with what we saw. Just to clarify, who was the panel? The panel? You said there was a panel that reviewed everything? We had, you want to? Sure. We had, it was Tony, me, John Falcone, Jim Tucker, and one of the people that's on the golf committee, Bailey Morris. Okay. Okay. I'll ask a question later. I don't want that one. Okay. So, go ahead. Sorry. So, the end result is we're bringing forward a contract that's actually less expensive than what we're paying right now with a very well-established firm, and we are prepared to execute the change at the beginning of December. I'll let Blair talk about a little bit of his investigation, if you'd like. I took a tour of Florida, it felt like, and I visited nine of Brightview's properties throughout Florida, all municipal golf courses, because ultimately it comes down to my relationship with them and their ability to perform and take care of this asset for the city of Dunedin. And I won't tell you that every one of their properties was absolutely perfect, but I will tell you I am 100% convinced they know what a good property should look like, and three of the properties were bordering on wow. Now, every contract's a little different. Some places they have to supply the equipment, such as Dunedin. Some places they don't have to supply the equipment, so it's a little hard to quantify everything exactly the same all the way through, but they know what a good golf course looks like, and they know how to get that course to that position, and they know the Florida market. And those were all key things for me. They've got over 30 golf courses just in Florida, and I visited, as I said, nine of the municipal golf courses, whether it's county-owned or city-owned, because I wanted to see what they could do under that structure versus a private club, and it was impressive. Okay. Anything else to add before I go to questions? Okay. So, questions for staff. I'm going to start with Commissioner Gow. Thank you, Mayor. It's cheaper, but we're looking for better, right? The questions that I have, Blair, are our members, and our residents in general, are pretty picky about everything in the city, and we've heard from the members of the club, they will nitpick anything. Some of their concerns had value, and some of them is nitpicking, and I'm in the belief that... You must be going out of office the way you just said that, but I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. Sorry, I should interrupt you. Nobody's going to take care of the course. Nobody's going to take care of the home like the homeowner. So, nobody's going to take care of that course as well as we will, up to the standards and expectations of ourselves as well as our members and those that use the course. So, what measuring stick do we have that guarantees that they're going to live up to that expectation of what we expect our course to be? Well, the RFP specifies specifics on some of the practices, like how much fertilizer has to go out, how many times the greens have to be mowed, cups changed, bunkers raked, things like that, and that's standard in the golf maintenance RFP. It also has a statement in there that we have to be best in class. We're already ranked pretty highly, as you've seen some of the articles written about us and some of the rankings of the golf course. So, they have to meet our expectations. The RFP is the minimum. It's not the maximum, it's the minimum. That's where we start at. And I'm comfortable that they can meet our expectations. I think you're correct that nobody will take care of things like you take care of things. Brightview is trying to establish themselves in the Tampa area. They've opened two stores in the Tampa area because they also do a lot of landscaping and everything work. And they have the size for the manpower. They have the size for the equipment. And they have the know-how. Their regional superintendent, which would be the person right over the staff people that I would be talking with most of the time, is actually stationed at one of their courses in Georgia. And it's the number one or number two residential course in the state of Georgia. A very high standard of maintenance there. So, they can see where our current supplier has been struggling with applying all their resources to the golf course. And I think that they will improve the product we have to offer and even improve our standing in the community. And it's up to me to watch over them and keep the, I guess, baseball bat over their head to get it done, since we're a baseball town. And I certainly know that you will carry that club, walk softly, carry a big club, right, I guess would be appropriate, so to speak. And the contract amount, is that coming out of general fund or is that coming out of enterprise? That's on us, sir. Okay, just wanting the public to know that. Thank you. That's all I have. Okay, questions? Commissioner DeGuard. Thank you, Mayor. When you walk onto a golf course, what are the three things you look for to know that it's well maintained? Well, I think what forms your opinion is your first impression. Whether it's the signage, the parking lot, how you're greeted by the bag staff, I think that gives you the first impression of the golf course. Whether you're going to enjoy the day or not. And then certainly your interactions in the pro shop. When you look at the golf course specifically, I would say the first thing would be the greens. They're the most important. But also, they're the thing that people probably have the greatest opinion on. If they miss a putt, it's always the greens' fault. And that's true of me, too. And I do miss putts. I would think the next would be the fairways. Tea boxes, not so much because you get to put a tee under it. But definitely greens and fairways. And then the little nice things, the beds. You know, is there candy wrappers all over the golf course? Do things look like they've received attention? Are things kind of manicured and trimmed? And look what Commissioner Gao was talking about. Look like you care. And I think those are the things that probably form your opinion on the golf course more immediately more than anything else. With the heat and humidity, we've had this last year. I know a lot of, well, my yard's been, had fungus and grubs. How do we maintain and does this contract cover that? Yes, this contract does cover it. Our current contract covers it also. But we still manage to get some fungus. We still manage to get some algae. And it's, I think the main thing is the responsiveness when you do get it. You can spray all the deterrents that you want to out there. But when we had that humidity and those gray days and all that rain, you were going to have problems. So it's your responsiveness, your ability to identify what the problem is, send out a soil sample if you need to, but to immediately act so that the damage is limited to a very small area. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Okay. Questions? Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So the specification, actually, we own the specification for the criteria, the measurement. And that's the Dunedin Golf Club maintenance program spec, right? Correct. Okay. Yeah, that's... And I noticed the contractor has the responsibility for maintaining that particular document. The contractor has the responsibility for maintaining the golf course that's covered by... Yes, but it's covered by that document. And to uphold and adhere to that document at that level or a greater level, whatever is needed to make us the best in class. Yeah, and I just, I asked that just because, you know, I think it's important that the community knows that, you know, we have our standard and they follow that standard. Yeah. Okay. And then you mentioned, I think, Tony, you mentioned that this contract is actually less than the one that we're previously under? Yes, sir. What, what, how much was that? About approximately $1,000 a month. Oh, really? Okay. Wow. And the term, three years? Same terms as the previous initial three-year contract with two optional one-year extensions. Right. Those are all the questions I have, Mayor. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Sandbergen. So that $868,000, that's locked in for three years, that number? Yes. Okay. Okay. I guess, did you say the supervisor for this group is in Georgia? I was kind of hoping to hear they were here in Tampa. No, their regional is in Georgia. He covers all their courses from Georgia to Orlando and us and up. Has he seen the course? Yes, he has. Okay, good. And they will provide their own maintenance equipment, am I correct? All, yes, sir. All of it. It's all theirs and it's, it needs to be ordered and to show up. Okay. And in that price, does that also include the fertilizer and chemicals? Yes. Wow. Okay. Okay. I tried to look for any input from the golf club, the advisory committee, but the minutes weren't available. Was there anything from the committee that you could share, any good or bad? Sure. Uh, so the, uh, the golf course committee, we did present them with the bid tabulation and the specs, uh, to review it. There, there was some feedback about some of the, um, the terms within there as far as specifying very specific work. Okay. I think we're covered under the other language in the broad kind of general terms, but we did receive some feedback. But at that point, it's, it's kind of start over for one detail or make sure we manage it correctly. Okay. So it was resolved. I mean, they, their input was, was taken into consideration. Correct. Okay, good. And, uh, you know, I guess there's a lot of people that live real close to that, uh, to that golf club. You know, these guys are experienced, you know, they're going to deal with trees, down trees, dead trees, animals, critters, the, and neighbors. I mean, you know, we have a, we put a lot of faith in them too, because they're representing, you know, one of our most important assets. So as long as you feel comfortable with them, Blair, uh, who would be the closest to Dunedin that they would manage or maintain? Champions Gate. Champions Gate up in Troy? On, on the way to Orlando. Oh, I see. Champions Gate Resort. Yes, sir. I got you. That's all I needed. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, that's the course I play at all the time. Just kidding. Just kidding. No. Speaking of, I was asked to do the, I guess, what do you call it? The tee-off today? Or what do you call it? But, uh, they asked for, for the mayor or, or the city manager. And of course, since anybody that saw me throughout the first pitch, uh, at the baseball game, I thought maybe that, I don't want to look like an idiot in two sports. So, uh, so Jennifer, how did you do today? So I hit a really nice long drive into the, uh, wrong fairway. But it was a nice long drive. Okay, well. That was very brave of you to admit that on the dais. Well, it's true. And about 150 people saw it. So, um, I have, I have several questions. Um, one is, uh, just, this is an aside. Have the golf club committee members had a tour of the course yet? Um, at the next golf course committee meeting, um, I'm taking a calendar and they can pick their day. They've all been invited to have one. So on October 27th, I believe it is, is our next meeting date. I'm just going to go in there with a blank, a blank calendar. And we hope to knock it out in two weeks. Great. Great. Okay. Um, okay. Um, is this the best way to bid this? I mean, we were talked obviously at length last time about bids, hard bids versus, versus, you know, having a 50% cost and 25% references and 25% is, you know, what, what they're going to bring. I mean, I don't know what criteria do you use, but is this the way to do, because let's just say that, um, let's say our current provider was the low bidder. What would we have done by, by virtue of the process, they would have to be the first one considered and either eliminated as not capable of taking care of it that with a reason that would stand up to scrutiny and go to number two. That wasn't the case. They were number four in this case. Um, but that's what we'd have to do. Would you feel confident that this is still a good way to do it? You and Tony both feel? I, I think it, it is effective. I, I think there, there are approaches that you could explore that, that are a little more qualitative instead of just going by the numbers. Um, but we did our diligence on this and, and what we saw was, I mean, obviously we can't afford multiple failures because the course won't survive it. Um, okay. I, I got you. So, um, you guys have thought about that. Um, so do we know who the superintendent will be? Not at this time. The job is posted on the National Superintendents Association, but we don't know at this time who the superintendent will be. Do we have any say in who that is or? Yes, we have a lot of input. Okay. Because I, I'm not a golfer, but people that are, are like, it's all about the superintendent. That's very important. They're the person that is going to be the ones that, you know, that's all about it. So, okay. And, and I know we had that, that's been a significant problem currently. Multiple, multiple changes in that position. Okay. Um, and so we got three references from them, but we, did we actually get more references from them? And then on top of it, you want to see all these, what, nine courses, did you say? Nine different golf courses, yes. So you feel like you've covered that base really well? I, I do. Okay. Um, this is kind of a side question, but who's in charge of around the clubhouse? In charge of? Around the clubhouse. Like where the restaurant is? This contract. Even like, you mean the pavers by where the restaurant is? Like where people sit outside on the patio? They'd be, they'd be in charge of trimming all the bushes, mowing all the grass, planting plants, flowers, or native landscaping around the clubhouse. So grass growing up in the pavers of the patio outside, they do that too? Okay. Because I've gotten some comments about the look around the clubhouse, so. Yeah. Um, and in specific. It's not there anymore, but yes. Okay, good. That's great. That's great. Because that, to me, that kind of, as a non-golfer, that's the first thing I look at. Um, let's see, um, I think, I think that's probably it. Oh, I guess one other question. Um, cancellation terms. So how does the cancellation work? If, if we decide we wanted to cancel, or they decide they want to cancel, how does that work? So if, if they decide they want to cancel, I believe they have to give us 100? I think it was 180 days, but obviously I'm more concerned about what we, if we had to. The standard is 90 days in the contract, 30 with cause. 30 with cause. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Um, and we feel comfortable that if they're not performing to a really, this is kind of a, I don't know how to ask this question, but been caught in the middle of bids with public sector governments where they're not really that good, but they're not really bad enough to say, hey, you're not cutting it. But I guess we are able to get out of it either way, even if it's without cause, we can still get out of it pretty quickly. We, we are, uh, one of the things in our diligence I, I did come across, they, they have their own proprietary reporting system and we can work with them on what we want to see from that report to verify that they are performing the way that we want them to. Um, you know, one of the discussions was aptitude. We need people with the right aptitude to look at the clubhouse and say, we don't want weeds growing out of the pavers, we want the beds to look nice all the way out to the street. You eat with your eyes and we want to make sure that we put on the best, best, uh, face for the neighbors as well as the golfers. Okay. My final question is how are we, before December 1st, how are we making sure that, you know, we're keeping that golf course up? The, uh, we're on our second regional manager with our current supplier and both the second, the, the new regional manager and the vice president of the company, uh, have said that they will actually improve the golf course between now and their last day working there. They're very much concerned that if for some reason we have to put out an RFP in the future, that they would be considered and they want to not do any harm to their name as far as working for the city of Dunedin. And just this past week, they brought in four extra workers over and above their normal staff just to try and make things look good for the men's member guest tournament, which is going on right now. And how are the courses looking? Better. The course is looking better. The greens are still struggling. Uh, a couple of them look a little better. Uh, some of them look about the same, but the, the course itself, as far as fairways and tee boxes, roughs, uh, bunkers, uh, looks, looks pretty reasonable. It really does. And final question, I promise. Um, when's the real season start? People are starting to show up in town, but really about January 15th is when. So we got to really have this looking good. Yeah. Well, we, we need to have it looking good all the time, but January 15th, that's the floodgates. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, you know, Blair and Tony, we're putting our faith in you. So, yeah. Mayor. Um, yes. But before. Did you all want to add something? Then I'll ask you. If I could just actually add one thing, if that's all right with you. Sure. Um, because I think I, I'd like, I think this is important for the record. Um, back in June, we had the option of either, uh, extending this agreement for a year, right? Which we, we actually down to earth allow, you know, extended it for a period of time or going to market. And there was a lot of discussion amongst staff about the unknown of going to market. Um, if we go to market and, you know, as we know, as, you know, Commissioner Gallaud said, everything is, or Commissioner Dugard, or one of the two of you said, everything is, is way more expensive every time you go to market. But, uh, I, I want to note that the members of the club had really encouraged us to go to market. Uh, and we listened to them. And, and I think that, that the result is a win-win for everybody. Um, you know, we are impressed with the bright view. I think that Blair definitely did his homework. Uh, and just being at the member guest today, uh, it was good to see everybody. It really was. And, and I'm looking forward to a new day, uh, with this maintenance company. But we went to market specifically. That's my point. Uh, because the, the, uh, members asked us to. Okay. I do want to clarify one thing. So there is a CPI increase that's allowed, but not required, right? No, not required. Okay. They can submit it, but. I believe so. Okay. I just want to, yeah. Okay. So it could, like, if it's reasonable, I mean, why would we say yes if we don't have to? Right. Right. And it's, it's on them to, to make their case. Of course, I guess if they're so fantastic and they can show that their costs have gone up. I don't know. I, I, yeah. Anyway, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll stop at that. Okay. Uh, additional questions, Commissioner Gallaud? You have a good question? Well, actually, Mary, that, that kind of was my question. No. I just want to know what, uh, escalators might be put into place. And I know with the Iran war and the Strait of Khmer, we've got issues with oil and gas and, and fertilizer, right? A lot of the agricultural industries were screaming about their fertilizer. So what, what happens if the war continues or for whatever reason, fertilizer prices increase? How does that play into, if they're coming in with a lower bid than the previous, I, I don't know what their costs are, so I don't know what the margin is, but, um, how, how will they handle it and how will we handle it? So, with, within the bid, um, terms, there are special conditions under Section C, which is in the packet, the, um, that discusses the price adjustment process and what they'd have to produce on that. Uh, as far as what their costs are, they're a large company. They have an economy of scale, so that, uh, hopefully they would have some efficiencies to be able to absorb some of that fluctuation, um, but otherwise we expect the work to get done. That's bottom line. We expected the work to get done with the current contractor, too. All right. Anyway. That was more. Oh, and, and actually, it's specifically, I was looking for it, but isn't specifically said in there, like, gasoline is a, don't even submit something about agrees in gasoline, or, there's something in there, I thought, that was like, don't even submit that, because that's not going to be considered. There's a few different terms. A few different things like that, yeah. But, you know, I get it, this is better, I get it done. Okay. Um, any other questions up here? Mr. Sammer? Yeah, we won't spend a lot of time on this, so maybe this will involve you, Gen C. When our committees in these selection groups, why, I don't know why, but when, you know, this, this is a publicly traded company, Brightview. We're going to talk about waste management in a few minutes. We talk about Tetra Tech. Is there any disclosure that these committees should be making about having stock in these companies? This is a publicly traded company. Never been asked that question before. Um, what I will tell you is, so there are certain disclosures that are done, of course, by, um, you all as, as electeds, and there are also the same kind of reporting disclosures that are done for procurement individuals. So, um, ones who are involved in procurement, and as well as I do a disclosure, um, many of the, um, uh, directors who are involved in purchasing also do disclosures. I, I'm not sure if the committee, I'd have to look at the committee members, but my thought is, is that many of the committee members, um, if they are involved in procurement, may already be filing the necessary disclosures. So, such as Form 6 and Form 1? Form 1. Form 1. Yes. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Um, so the one thing, and I think somebody mentioned it earlier, but, um, the, uh, the, the golf course committee, um, it was, I, I'm sure the minutes are out there, but they actually approved this before it comes to the commission, right? So, they, they reviewed it and provided feedback. They didn't file any type of motion on it. And, and who was the selection committee for that? You and, or, uh, for the, for the bid, bid tabulation. Oh, it was Tony, me, John Falcone, Jim Tucker, and Bailey Morris. Okay. All right. Yes, sir. Um, yeah. Okay, that, that answers my question. Thank you. And I did talk to the chair. I mean, I think they were comfortable with the process as it was moving forward, and I know you guys are going to be updating them. So, that's good. Um, but yeah, as much input as they can have, based on expertise, of course. And I know Bailey's on there. Um, so, um, okay, um, any other questions? We're good. Okay, I'm going to open it up for public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Name and address for the record. And three minutes. Is this going to be as good as the last one, John, or? I'm still John Cadu, 1426 Alamo Lane. I'm not a golfer like the mayor, and I don't know a lot about golf or maintenance or any of the numbers that I've heard. I'm asking from a resident's point of view, has there been a pro forma or a profit and loss statement done, a projection? Are we going to, the city is going to make money on this course or lose money, and to what extent? That's my question. Okay. And I'm going to get all public input, and then we'll answer that question. So, I'm going to get everybody, and then we'll answer that question for you. So, I'm done. Yep. You're done. You're good. Anyone else in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. So, let's, maybe we can answer John's question. Who wants to answer it? Well, you just presented to the Board of Finance, so you can. Yes, I did. We still have a, for fiscal year that just ended September 30th, we still have the P-card bills that haven't been put into our costs yet. But without the P-card bills, we are profiting $190,000 in that fiscal year. So, I anticipate there will be some P-card bills, and it might be $185,000 in profit. And do you anticipate that's going to grow, or do you think that's going to be, what's your long-term? Grow. Grow. Yes. Grow. Grow. Yeah. Grow. It's going to grow. You told me it has to. Absolutely. Okay. Right. And there's a variety of strategies that were presented as far as fee adjustments and some other efficiencies that are going to make that number get bigger. Great. Okay. Well, that's a great question, John. Yes, that includes everything. That's bottom line. Yep. And, you know, well, these guys know we needed to make money, because we don't have money from the general fund to give it. So, as a matter of fact, they owe us money. Actually, residents do get a discount. If you take up golf, John, you can get a discount. Okay. Okay. I'm going to close public input formally, and I need, I'm asking for a motion. So moved. Second. Wow. Wait. Who said it first? Okay. Commissioner Degard. I just think, that was like stereo multiplied. Okay. And then, Commissioner Sandberg, I think you were second? Yeah. Okay. Well, I think we've settled on Degard. So, who's got the second? I will surrender my position as the maker. I'm not accepting that. So, who's the second? I was, man. You were? Okay. Sam, okay. That's what I heard, so. Okay. So, okay. Motion I have a second. We'll go to final comments, starting with the maker of the motion. Commissioner Degard. First of all, I'm excited about this new provider. I think it's, I don't want to say overdue, but I think it's due. I think that's the way to say it. You're working out the bugs still in a number of ways. This is one of those. You're being proactive around it. I salute that. I sat in on the finance committee meeting the other day, and I also think your approach to the support of the club on a continuing basis is very constructive, and I'm excited about that as well. So, on all fronts, I'm in support. Okay. And final comments, seconder of the motion is Commissioner Sandberg. No, it's really something we can be proud of. It's a real asset to our community, and we do get feedback, and it always sounds like it's, everything's, you know, going, there's something wrong, whether it be a fungus, or you know, we fought it before the rainy season, and I'm really glad to hear, not only the financial part, but bringing in this new group, and if you're comfortable with them, that's all I really need to hear, and let's make it happen. Thanks, Blair. Okay, final comments, the person who may have been a seconder, well, we're not sure, we'll have to go back and call it. I think I'm actually the one that gave it up. Have final comments? Actually, just a couple. First of all, this is really more related to the process. The mayor brought up a point with regards to the different ways that an invitation to bid and an RFP are evaluated, and I, you know, I know quite a bit about the processes. I just don't know what the process is when we make a decision, whether it's an invitation to bid or if it's an RFP, but, you know, it would almost seem to me that this would lend itself to actually an RFP status because of the scope of the work, and if there's some policy in effect, you can brief me on that back. I'm not, this isn't going to hold up my support for this, but that's just my unsolicited editorial opinion. Second comment, yeah, I did some research on Brightview. You know, they're a pretty darn impressive company all the way around, and, you know, their portfolio is just incredible. And I, you know, I think the thing that really kind of sold me on this, well, one, we obviously need a first-class maintenance company to manage our, one of our crown jewels, and I think, by all appearance, it appears that we've selected that because they most certainly have the experience, and anyway, I, and I guess the other thing was is that the fact that they came in as the lowest price provider, I, I think is, is really great. It's, it's, it's a benefit to us, and so, anyway, I'm fully in support of this, and I greatly appreciate the due diligence that went into this, so thank you. Okay, final comments. Commissioner Gall. Thank you, Mayor. I need to at least acknowledge that there are some golfers that are listening and watching, and I've been corrected. The, the, the quote is, walk softly and carry a big bertha, is what I've been, I've been told to say, yes, which are clubs out there for anybody. I didn't know what you're talking about, so thank you for that. Yeah, I, yeah, I certainly agree this, I don't know about overdue, but the, the, the time has come, we do have a lot of people with eyes on the course that, that are watching what we're doing, residents and members, so it is time to get it right. Like, they are an impressive company, and, and so that's nice, but I know, uh, my mama said, uh, no, just being raised, tell me what you're gonna, don't tell me what you're gonna do, tell me what you did. So, uh, the proof for me is gonna be in the pudding when they get here, and, and we can see, actually see what they're doing to the course, so. So, but it looks good so far. Thank you. Okay, um, so, you know, I mean, yeah, and I, I'm sure there are golfers watching, and I'm just gonna say, you know, when people email me or text me, and I, like, and it's, oh, everything's horrible, and the sky's falling, like, I mean, that makes my heartbeat go up. Like, I mean, we put a lot into this course. The last thing we wanted to do is fail in any way. It needs to be the crown jewel. So, um, I have a lot of trust in you guys. Sounds like you went through a good process to get to this group, um, the fact that you did some research on the company, I like that. Um, uh, it just needs to work, and, um, and, and I know that sometimes, um, you know, like I'll get, I'll get a couple emails, and then I'll ask somebody else who is at the course, and they'll be like, yeah, it's not, this guy's not falling that bad. Like, it's not that bad. I mean, this is typical for this season. Um, but then, you know, then I asked the city manager, how are we doing? And she goes, well, you know, we've got some issues. And then my heartbeat goes back up. Um, so, um, yeah, I mean, so I think you're telling us that this is what you need, and you think this would be a good company, and you're going to be all over it. I have a lot of faith in both of you. Um, and, uh, so, yeah, I, I'm, I'm very supportive. And, uh, this, uh, John, you asked a great question. Again, I'll say it again. I mean, we don't, we don't have any extra money to back up this enterprise fund. It needs to make it. It needs to make money, and it needs to be something we're proud of. And, and we're coming up on the 100-year, you know, party, which I guess we'll get some details on that to follow, because I'm excited about that. And, um, but again, we want things to look good, and, and, um, and we'll be proud of it as well. Um, okay, so let's go to, it's not a roll call vote, so all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Uh, motion passed unanimously. Five zip. Okay. Thank you. And we, I'm sorry, because I know there's some people in the audience that are going to speak about recycling, but we're going to take a short break. We'll come back, and we'll get right on it. I'm sorry, but we, some things are necessary. Okay, we're back on, and, uh, we're going to 3G, award of RFP number 26-2604, otherwise known as the do-over, uh, where it's recyclables, collection, processing, and marketing services to Waste Pro of Florida Inc. And the amount of $1,170,000. And we're going to go to our staff presentation, uh, of, uh, actually, no, we're going to go first to our city manager who wants to kick things off. I made a note, so I wouldn't mess that up. So, you kick it off, and then you can go to staff. All right. Thank you, um, and good evening again, mayor, vice mayor, and commissioners. So, on October 8th of 2026, the city commission voted to allow for reconsideration of RFP 2604, which is a proposal from qualified firms, uh, for recyclables, collection, processing, and marketing services. The city commission had voted that evening 3-2 not to award the proposal and subsequent contract to the recommended firm, which was Waste Pro. Uh, as you recall, the city commission asked a number of questions that evening regarding the recycling program, the proposal, and the RFP process itself. And from that discussion on that evening, uh, and on the dais, and certainly from subsequent discussions with members of the commission individually, I firmly believe that this vote, that vote, was not necessarily a mandate on the city's recycling program, but rather it reflected the need for additional information in order for the commission to feel more comfortable with approval of the RFP that I've referenced earlier. As such, the city commission allowed for reconsideration of that vote two weeks ago, which brings us to this evening. Staff has met several times, uh, regarding this request for proposal and the presentation for all of you this evening. Um, we are going to answer your questions directly and as succinctly as possible. Um, those specific questions that were asked on October 8th in order to provide the information necessary for the city commission to approve the RFP this evening. And as you know, staff's recommendation is that the city commission approve the RFP this evening. So an overview of the presentation this evening is a background on the recycling program itself, and Natalie Gass is here this evening to give us that, that background. We're going to talk about the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund. We're going to talk about the request for proposal process. First of all, as it pertains to generally RFPs, and then to this RFP specifically. Then we're going to take a deep dive into average market value, uh, and how we valued the contracts, uh, between Waste Pro and Waste Management. That's the cost comparison of proposals. Uh, and then the cost comparison, which is an elimination of the recycling program. And that's not the city of Dunedin taking the recycle program in-house and performing it. It is eliminating it altogether. And what the impact of that would be on the waste stream, uh, within the city of Dunedin. And so a lot of this presentation is really a snapshot in time. Um, these are, you know, we're using average, average, average market value for what the market value is at this time. It changes, which is why this is a very complicated RFP. Uh, and I think that that was, uh, what resulted in all the questions that the city commission had on October, um, 8th. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over for the first part to Natalie Gass. Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners. Natalie Gass, Sustainability Program Manager for the city of Dunedin. Here to provide a chronological timeline and history of our recycling program and its benefits. In 2012, the city launched its first community-wide recycling program, servicing residents, drop-offs, and our municipal buildings. This was the first single stream or mixed stream program, um, where the collection method is that everything is going into one single bin and then later being processed and sorted at a materials recovery facility or a MRF. Mixed stream recycling played a critical role in achieving buy-in and launching a community-wide program, resulting in high participation levels that are still seen to this day. Although mixed recycling has the benefit of high participation, it does come with the ongoing challenge of contamination, which our department and city continues to combat through education. In 2012, the program was contracted and awarded to Republic Services for five years. After those initial five years, it was then awarded to WastePro, who has been servicing us for the past nine years. In 2022, the city adopted its first sustainability plan, DREAM, or Dunedin's Resilient Environmental Action Master Plan, which has a dedicated section to sustainable waste management. This was a plan written by the community for the community. We did not contract out or pay a consultant to write that sustainability plan. It was written in-house and through vocal community members and local experts. Within the plan is a goal to reduce solid waste, divert materials from the landfill, and support regional zero waste efforts. The sentiment and strong environmental focus stayed consistent as the city adopted its first strategic plan in 2024, really covering all of our other plans within the city, which included a vision statement that incorporated championing sustainability. The strategic plan heavily relied on community focus groups and public input to shape and direct its priorities. Next slide, please. The recycling program has been an integral part of managing our waste as a coastal community. It diverts waste from our local landfill and conserves global natural resources. It promotes a circular economy of reuse instead of a linear economy where materials end up in a landfill quickly. For example, recycling aluminum can save up to 95% energy when used instead of making the original product and avoiding that pollution associated with extracting the raw materials. Diverting recyclable materials preserves the life of the Pinellas County Solid Waste Facility and Landfill, which, if local municipalities stopped recycling altogether, would decrease in lifespan by 20 years. The recycling program is a tangible way our residents interact and engage daily with environmental sustainability. I'm excited that we have this opportunity to continue our legacy of being an environmentally focused community, not only for the environment, but also for our community members who have supported and participated in this program for the last 14 years. Thank you. Thank you, Natalie. Good evening. Michelle Monteclero with Public Works. I'm going to talk about our current recycling program. So currently, we offer curbside recycling to 11,800 customers once a week, Monday through Friday. We have two drop-off locations, one off of Lake Haven and one right by the Highlander Pool. And we have 23 facilities that have dedicated recycling carts at each location with no additional cost. This picture here is of our recycling guide. It's posted on all of the carts and then also at our drop-off locations. So we're going to shift gears a little bit. We're going to talk about the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund and what the role of the Enterprise Fund is meant for. It really supports the city's trash and recycling collection and operations. So when we're looking at labor, equipment, materials, repairs, and replacement of vehicles. This contract is not funded through the General Fund. The Solid Waste fee is found on every resident's utility bill. And that fee covers recycling, trash, yard debris, and bulk item pickup. I will now pass it off to Tammy Winton, our Purchasing Manager. Good evening. Can you hear me? So the RFP process is a very subjective process. It is a process to get at the best value for the solution or need of what the department city has. And it's judgment. It's very subjective. It's based on the judgment of each evaluator. The Purchasing Memo has a very detailed explanation. Tammy, are you able to pull the microphone closer to your mic? I'm sorry. That's all right. Can you pull it closer? There we go. Here we go. A little louder? Yeah. Right. Okay. There. Okay. It gives a very detailed explanation. But, you know, in essence, it's to get at the best value procurement. It takes into consideration whatever criteria is in the RFP document, and then based on the judgment of each evaluator, which we try to have at least five, an uneven number, their perspective on each proposal that they review. So, like I said, the process is subjective. It's based on the evaluator's judgment, and the proposals on the proposer experience, qualification, and the solution presented by the proposer. And it might take precedent over price. For this particular RFP, to make sure that each evaluator understood what their charge was, there was a memo that went out. First, there was a memo that went out to make sure that there were no familiarity with any of the proposals. Then, once I got that back, I sent them a memo exactly what would happen in the process, how they are supposed to evaluate each proposal on their own individually, make whatever notes they want, and come to the meeting with their scores. It meaning they could have given their scores all at one time or have discussion. Most RFP committees want to have a discussion. So, they had a discussion about each proposal, what they liked, what they disliked, how it met the criterion to their judgment. They brought their scores with them. During the discussion, they had time to change their scores if they wanted to. They could not see anybody else's score, but they could adjust their scores based on the discussion. Perhaps there was something that they missed or something, whatever. They could change their scores. Once they passed their papers forward to me, they could not change their scores. And I put the scores on the board. And at that time, they saw everyone else's scores. That matrix is included in your proposal, in your purchasing memo for both proposals, which Waste Pro of Florida had 480 total points, and Waste Management of Florida had 434. Questions? So, I'll continue on regarding the request for proposal process. Just to give more, just an overview. So, what the goal of the proposal was, was to solicit proposals from firms that are qualified to collect and process recyclables. We had five committee members, Jorge Quintas, our Deputy City Manager, Sue Bartlett, our Public Works Director, myself, Michelle Monteclero, the Assistant Public Works Director, Megan McCormick, our Environmental Program Manager, and Laura Valetti, Environmental Specialist 1. And as Tammy said, the proposals were evaluated and scored individually by each member of the committee first, and was not discussed with other evaluation committee members or vendors prior to the publicly advertised meeting on August 31st, 2026. So, and then we also had a criteria that we used, and I know this was asked last time, so to provide more transparency, the evaluation criteria, you know, we looked at qualifications at 20 points. The technical proposal at 30 points, and the financial proposal was 50 points. Total points possible was 100 points. And then here's a timeline for you regarding the request for proposal. You know, this RFP was posted on May 19th, and then on July 30th, we received two proposals, one from Waste Pro and one from Waste Management. The committee met on August 31st, 2026, to evaluate and discuss the proposals at a publicly advertised meeting. We brought this forward to you on October 8th, the motion to award this RFP, but that motion had failed. But the same night, the commission did approve to motion to reconsider this item during the upcoming regular commission meeting, which is held this evening, October 22nd. And then, as you know, October 22nd, we're bringing this forward for you to consider the award of this contract for RFP 26-2604, Recyclables, Collection, Processing, and Marketing Services, two ways per floor of Florida, of Clearwater, in the amount of $1,170,000. So, we're going to shift gears. We talked about the RFP process. We're now going to talk about cost. We're going to talk about the average market value. So, the average market value, recyclables are a commodity. There's a commodity market for recyclables, right? And that index market for each type of recyclable, it fluctuates. It goes up and down, depending on demand and supply of those recyclables. So, when we look at what the average market value, we look at, it's really a formula, right? The material composition percentage of each recyclable times the market index price for that commodity. And we determine that composition percentage from our 2024 composition study. So, to add more clarity and to really walk you through it, we have the October of 2026 AMV calculation. So, if you look at the column on the left-hand side, you see all the different types of materials and their grade description. You'll see aluminum cans, for example, has a high index value of $95. If you keep going, the market value, it's the market over the ton value, is around $1,900. And the material composition from our recyclables is $2.6. So, the average market value for aluminum would be $5.27 for the month of October 2026. You add all of these values, the average market value, for each different type of recyclable, and it totals $103.86. So, that's the average market value for October of 2026. What we do to determine our processing cost, we take a quarterly average, so three months, and we take that average. And if it falls, so in this case, it would fall $103. So, you go to $100, where the little arrow is, and go right across, and your processing fee per ton for a recyclable is $25. So, we talked about average market values. We're now going to do a cost comparison, right? We had the question of, hey, what's the cost comparison between Waste Management's proposal and Waste Pro's proposal? Well, we did the math for you. So, the cost difference between Waste Management and Waste Pro, the differential was $241,210.21. And we did also copy both of their contractor-free snapshots from the proposal. So, you'll see we have, you know, the fixed cost for each cart, the fixed cost for the roll-off containers, and then we have the average market value, which determines our processing fee. Michelle, if I could. Go ahead. Jorge Kintas, Deputy City Manager. I just wanted to interject. I've had some questions from several of the members on the commission as to looking at the comparison between Waste Management and Waste Pro, and the question being, well, why is there such a disparity in cost? Well, when you look at the residential collection price, waste management was slightly less, $0.08 less than Waste Pro. But the significant increase was in the roll-off fee of Waste Pro was $8.50? Waste Pro was $2.25. I'm sorry, $2.25, and waste management was $8.50. And so, the question was, why is there such a large disparity? And not knowing how each company structured their pricing, my thought process in responding to those inquiries was when you look at the Waste Management proposal, I would suspect that they probably didn't want the residential fee to be substantially different than it currently is or in comparison to their competitor. But the reality is Waste Pro owns a large number of their carts that are used throughout the city. And in order for Waste Management to submit their proposal, they would have to essentially replace all those carts, because if Waste Pro was not the successful bidder, they would then remove their carts from the city, because they're no longer providing the service. So, I suspect that part of the cost differential between the two firms is that Waste Management had to look at the term of the contract, how they would amortize those expenses for those carts that would have to come into the city to provide their service, and look at the term of the contract that they're being awarded, and somehow incorporate that cost into their bid proposal, which I'm assuming is they buried part of it, I would say, in that roll-off cost, not knowing exactly how they bid it, but they had to somehow recuperate that cost if, in fact, they were to be awarded the contract. So, I just wanted to explain a little bit, based on some of the questions that I received, as to why there appeared to be such a differential on the roll-off cost between the two firms. So, we have here Waste Management's estimated annual cost. We did use the values because we had it from FY26, so the tonnages and AMV rates for 2026. So, you'll see their total estimated cost for the roll-off hauls was $326.400. Curbside was over $1,060.000. And then, the processing fees, which are based on the average market value, was $96,126.26, giving us an estimated total of $1,483.110.26. So, we did run the numbers for you, and then that's also part of Supplement E. That's also in a PDF as well. So, then we did the same thing for Waste Pro. We used the same tonnages and the same AMV rates, and it was less. So, our roll-off hauls were $86,400. Curbside was $1,071.912. And then, your processing fees were a little bit lower at $83,588.05. If I could also expand, I could see the question come as to this, and the estimate that we did was an apples-to-apples comparison, utilizing the figures from the data that we have from 2026. The recommendation for reward, you'll see, is different than this number, the $1,241.000. Our recommendation for reward is $1,170,000. And that's based on our projections going forward, utilizing these contract dollars and what we expect to actually produce during 2027. And the reason that it's slightly lower is the budgeted dollar amount and the cost that we used for 26, if you'll recall, when we adopted the new rate study for the solid waste on the 19th of March of this year, that included backing out of the unincorporated areas that we were servicing adjacent to the city within the county. And so, by applying those reductions to 27, that's why we anticipate that the actual cost for the award is the $1,170,000 versus what you see here on this slide as the estimate. Because what we were doing on the estimate between the two firms was just trying to give you an apples-to-apples based on the historic 26 data, which part of 26 included servicing those unincorporated residents, which are no longer being serviced. So, we also ran the scenario of if we completely eliminated our recycling program and we were to treat recyclables as trash. So, what would happen is we would have to add three additional trucks, three additional full-time employees. And we'll go into that a little bit more. So, what needs to happen? For capital outlay, you know, I mentioned three additional trucks. And then we'll also have to add additional green carts. So, residents who are recycling and it's full, they will want an additional 90-gallon green cart. We estimate that's about 2,875 additional carts, as well as additional personnel, three, and then potentially temp labor, either a temp and a half, part-time temp. And then operational changes. You know, we'd have to remove and dispose of the blue carts and roll them off-site. We'd have to add three additional routes, right, or reroute and make them smaller. So, instead of three routes every day, it would be six. And then we would have, you know, there's a cost to also education and outreach, right, education and outreach, yard signs, door hangers, and we'd have to have a communication plan as well. So, the impacts to garbage collection, we did a cost estimate. So, the three additional positions, which includes salary, FICA, retirement, we estimated to be $143,826. And then we actually took the most recent up-to-date quotes from one of our vendors for three trucks, and that would be around $1.2 million. And then we estimate that 25% of our current customers would need an additional cart, and it is $160 for one 90-gallon cart. That would put us at $460,000 for a total of $1,828,826. So, that's just, you know, that's the impacts to our garbage collection. But there would be reoccurring annual costs year to year. So, what we did is, side by side, we said, hey, this is the recycling contract, this is the estimated cost. We went over that with you. It comes out to be $1,241,900. But if we had no contract, and we were to treat our recyclables as trash, we would see an impact, a reoccurring cost for labor of $363,062. This would include for salaries, benefits, any temp labor, the equipment, right? We would look at $342,287. This looks at fleet replacement. This looks at fleet maintenance. And any fuel costs that we would have to incur, because now we have more trucks on the road. And then material disposal. Our tipping fee, this is only for disposal, about $156,884. Right now, the tipping fee per ton is $63.57. This leaves us for reoccurring costs year to year. If we were to bring recycling and treat it as trash and add it on to our garbage collection at a total of $862,238. And again, if I could elaborate, as Jennifer mentioned, this is a snapshot in time. Exactly. Right. So, and we have representative here from Pinellas County Solid Waste. So, our rate study and the ordinance that was adopted on the 19th of March had anticipated projections of 8% increase in the tipping fees that we pay every time the vehicle, the truck, goes across the scales at the county waste facility. What it doesn't include is if this becomes a trend and the county sees that municipalities are starting to back out of the recycling program and all of a sudden their plant starts to receive much more product and the landfill starts to fill up much more rapidly, that then most likely there would be a corresponding increase in the tipping fees that they would charge to the municipalities and anyone else coming across the scale. So, again, this is a snapshot in time based on what we know now. It doesn't anticipate any potential additional increases to the tipping fees that might occur should we do back out of the recycling program. So, with that, our recommendation this evening for you all is to award the contract for RFP 26-2604 for recyclables, collection, processing, and marketing services to Waste Pro, Florida, Clearwater, in the amount of $1,170,000. Okay. Questions for staff? I will start with Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So, our relationship with Waste Pro goes back to 2017, I think, right? And that was, they were here for Irma, I think. Yes. And the impacts of Irma were, in terms of the debris, was significant. And these are questions, honestly. I'm trusting you, sir. Let him get there. And how would you evaluate their response? I would remind the commission that the city's ability to meet the criteria that was placed upon us as far as in order to remain compliant and eligible for the FEMA reimbursements had a specific time frame associated with it. 90 days comes to mind, and Waste Pro was integral in our ability to meet that criteria. They were a great partner. Prior to the contract with Waste Pro, we had Republic, which was our recycling company before that. I would say that we've had much better service as of late. Thanks. Thanks. That's a good answer. And I certainly understand the mechanics of the RFP process. But if you were to use, let's just say, past performance as a metric or an evaluation criteria, how would you rank that? Well, I believe I'll speak for myself as one of the raters. I took that into consideration in their technical performance, in their ability to perform, in the response to the RFP and how it was structured, their familiarity with the city, the fact that they work hand-in-hand with our staff. And we can rely upon them when we need to in the case of events such as you described. So I know from my personal rankings, I took all that into consideration. And, you know, cost was obviously a 50% component. But to me, that was part of how they structured their response, how they addressed all the inquiries and the specifications that were part of that RFP process. So I personally took that quite all that into consideration in my ranking. Yeah. Greatly appreciate that. No further questions. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Sandbergen. A couple of words that have been tossed out. I just want to make sure that I fully understand the definition. We have contaminated goods. I want you to explain exactly what contaminated recycles are. So contaminated recyclables is when you have, you know, food waste or hazardous waste or non-recyclable material go into the recycling bin. And that's when you have, that's when contamination occurs. And do we separate that or does that get separated at the drop-off? At the MRF. At the MRF. The recovery, yeah. Okay. And the other term that's kicked around, I just want to make sure I understand, and that's tipping. Is that simply every time the truck goes and... That's the terminology that's used at the waste energy plant. It's when they go across the scales that they call that the tipping fee. So you basically deduct out the weight of the vehicle, and so you're left with the tonnage of the material that's on the truck. Okay. And I know there's a significant difference, I think, in the term roll-off. Yes. Define that term to me. What does roll-off mean? Roll-off is when you, I mean, when you have a container, like our recycling centers, and then basically that container can roll off onto the ground. That's what I'm understanding. So that's those giant... It's a big container. It's the large containers that you'll see off of Lake Haven and over... Got it. Because I do use that. When there's that much difference in price, is it possible that these two bids were bidding different sizes? Anything... They were bidding the same... I mean, like the $200,000 difference for roll-off price. So I would venture to say, given the firms that submitted and the experience that they have and the fact that we had 11 vendors attend a pre-proposal meeting, they had every opportunity to understand exactly what we meant by the roll-offs. They had every opportunity to visit the sites. Obviously, Waste Pro is very familiar with what they are. But Waste Management had every opportunity because of the pre-proposal meeting and the fact that 11 firms attended. Only two chose to submit. But they had every opportunity to understand that component. Good answer. That's all I had, Mayor. Okay. Questions? Commissioner Gallen. No questions, Mayor. Okay. Questions? Commissioner DeGuard. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, staff, for all you're doing to bring us up to speed on this. We know this has not been exactly the smoothest of processes. We're not happy about that either. I'd like a little bit deeper picture in time. Back when we started the recycling program and what its costs were then as opposed to the costs now. Now, I know we don't have spreadsheets on that. But give me a general rule of thumb, what we've experienced since the inception of our recycling program. Natalie's like, why me? Why me, she says. I don't really have a breakdown of the costs historically. I know, like everything else, it continues to rise. And also, we see an extended level of participation. So back in 2012, starting this program, it was really, you know, the first launch of the community going out. And I think that's very different from where we are today. We have full participation in the program. It's a very integral part of our management of how we control our waste. But those fees have to increase over time. Like everything else, we see that. I don't have exact pricing, though. Well, I'll tell you why I'm asking that question. And you can correct me if you see me going adrift or off course a little bit. As I understand it, the evolution of recycling in this country has pivoted around its consumers, the consumers of the recyclables. And most notably, China's removal from the market has driven prices upward for cities wanting to recycle because that buyer is no longer in the market. And that drove, that was a pivotal moment for recyclables all over this country. Is that a correct statement? Yes. So that was the S.W.O.R.D. policy. We, as a country, were sending our recyclables to China for processing. They realized what we were sending was highly contaminated because, really, it was when we were sending material. We were just bagging it up and sending it, yeah. We were sending material over, and we were getting paid by weight. The more weight we sent over, the more money we were making. We didn't care if it was contaminated. We kind of preferred it because there was more weight. We were getting more money. China realized they're not sending quality material, and they shut that process down, which left our country scrambling to understand and develop infrastructure and programs to handle that waste. I think there's a larger perspective that I have from a sustainability standpoint. There's not enough regulation around recycling, which is why we see contamination. And personally, I would love to see more emphasis put on the producers of this material. There would be some restrictions. So don't worry. Don't worry. We're going there. Yeah. But my point is there was a pivotal moment, and suddenly cost shifting occurred. Yes. And that cost shift went right onto our citizens' backs because they were no longer able to provide us their recyclables at a cost that we could sustain at a lower level because we could get the market. Okay? So that was not – when we put our recycling in place, that was not even in our minds. We kind of thought China was always going to be there. This is a stable market. Let's just go get rid of this stuff. And that's what we did. In the meantime, our recyclable costs, like many of our enterprise funds, have exploded. I mean, that may be an overstatement, but they've certainly gotten a lot more. I mean, we're looking at right now cost continuing at this scale going up substantially. Now, that's what I think caused us to go, wait a second, we want to understand this because we were looking at those costs increase, and then we saw the possibility that we didn't understand, and I will say we didn't understand, I didn't understand, what the variable cost and scoring you guys had put together because we couldn't see it. I couldn't see it anyway. And maybe some of my colleagues could – they're better at this stuff than I am. But nonetheless, it was a confusing moment for us, and it caused us to go down a path that I think some of us regret. I do. Because I really do believe in recycling, and I do think it's an important aspect. But there are two E's here. There's economy and ecology, and they've got to kind of work together. And so while I won't get into – I'm getting comments. I'm about ready to get the cook from the mayor. I can see – I like what you're saying, so. But I wanted to be sure my assumptions were correct in what we're facing. Also, the other thing, have we been aware of the consolidation going on in recyclables? There's acquisition and mergers going on inside the system, which, by the way, may have contributed to the fact that we only had two bidders, which is going to make the marketplace more difficult. Is that a true statement? I guess what I will speak to is that as a community, when we look at our waste and our recycling, it really comes down to how are we consuming materials as a society. And I think there's a direct cost impact to when we recycle better, that impacts us financially. Because when we are putting unrecyclables and contamination in our bin, that is going to drive the industry to have more staff in place at their MRFs, more infrastructure technology to try to handle dealing with that waste. So I think there's a very key tie-in between education and how we process our material. I don't know if that's fully answering your question, but that's kind of the perspective that I have in that regard. Commissioner, Republic Service was our original provider. Is that correct? Republic Services? Republic. Republic Services. Republic. Republic. Okay. And they didn't bid on this, although they're still in operation. Can you tell me why? Probably because of Jorge, but – I'm sorry. Can you tell me why? Go on, Jorge. I'm going to have to have somebody start my car for me after this. But in response to some of your questions, Commissioner, I think part of what you described as far as consolidation and things like that are the result of China not accepting the material midstream from when the process initiated. And as a part of that, the MRF – and we've got representatives here from WastePro that can elaborate and speak much more intelligently than I can. They're about ready to throw something at me, I think. But the ability, I think, for the technology at the MRF facilities has increased and improved significantly. And I think the response to some of this consolidation or in the case of WastePro where they subcontract out the MRF has to do with trying to get that MRF facility closer to the producer, right? Because the cost of fuel and the transport getting the material to – we used to take it across the Skyway years ago with WastePro. So now it's here in the county. So you get some economies at scale in trying to get the MRF closer, and some of that leads to consolidation and acquisitions and also the cost associated with trucking it to those facilities. Okay. And if I can also add on, you know, I did a little bit of a deep dive on the global economics of recyclables. And when China was importing, you know, recyclables up until 2018, and then they did pass the National Sword policy. So you saw this shift, right, in demand. But also China stopped accepting recyclables, but that passed on to more southeastern countries, south Asian-eastern countries. And then as well as you have now more shift in the domestic market for – in the U.S. for recyclables, but also, right, the MRFs, they create more jobs, and there's more of a local demand for reused materials locally. Okay. We've adapted somewhat to the environment. That's what you're saying. Mayor, I think it's important for people watching and listening that we let them know that a MRF is a material recovery facility. Right. It's where we take – it's not a short little character. No, it's – Can you say that slowly? A MRF is – a MRF is – A material recovery facility. And that's where we take the recycling, right? So it's important if it's close, then we save money. It's not blue, and it doesn't have a little white hat. No, it doesn't have that. I think that I'm so much into comments, I've got to yield my time. Thank you, Mary. Well, it's very interesting, but thank you. Okay, so a couple questions. So one of the things that did come out of our last meeting, and I have it, and I think the person's in the back of the room, but just an idea of doing twice a month versus once a week. And we looked at any of those options to see if – does it make sense to do something differently like that? Of course, I can already tell what would happen in my house. Okay, which week is it? Is this the week? Or is next week the week? Anyway, so – and I don't want to answer my own question, but I'm thinking something has to do with this repetitive nature of creating behavioral habits. But have we looked at options of those things, and does it make any sense? Does it give us cost efficiencies that would be helpful without hurting the program, or have we looked at that? I'll take a stab at that, Mayor. Sure. Our current program has once-a-week collections. We did that, if you recall, shortly after I started here in 2014. We went to single – we used to do twice-a-week collections, and we did – on the trash, we went to once a week and then shortly followed behind with recycling to Mary. So we actually did have it once every other week? We – no, we used to have twice a week. Twice a week, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, I know that. Okay, gotcha. But when we went to once a week, then we had the recycling program mirror that. Right. There is a possibility to consider every other week. Not sure of the economy of scale that we would realize from that. We'd have to decide, does that apply also to the roll-offs? What's going to be the frequency on the roll-offs? Of course, the concern being, though, is if you go to every other week and the bins get full, then you start to get – well, I'm just going to put it in the garbage can, right? True. So it's – those things need to be taken into consideration. We could certainly, you know, do a future bid or request an amendment to a contract in the future if that's something that the commission chooses to pursue. Yeah, as we workshop some of this for all of our enterprise funds, maybe we need to think through if there's any smart ways to go because I don't want to hit the program. I think behavioral – Natalie is shaking her head. I mean, creating behaviors that are consistent is important, too. But, again, you don't want to, yeah, foolishly, you know, have them come every week when it's not necessary. Let's see. So I'll tell you, I got this question all the time until they gave up Basamine. But a place like Meese Life and places like that, they want it. They want the recycling, and we don't do it. And what's the actual reason for that? I believe the reasoning is because of the quantity that they're getting. They're getting more cardboard. They're getting more recyclable material to recycle. Right, but, I mean, why won't we do it? Why don't we do it? Oh, so I believe for – like, they would be considered commercial, like a commercial business. So then we don't provide recycling to commercial businesses. They would have to find a private hauler. Yeah. I think that that was – As we look at stuff, too, I'd love to look at that because you've got all these willing people over there that are more likely to, you know – I think if I may – They buy Amazon packages, too, and so they've got all that cardboard. I think that decision was probably you'd have to go back and research 2012 to 2017. Yeah, probably a long time ago. And we could – you know, that might be something as part of the budget process that we would look at, you know, in providing with that information at a workshop. I mean, there's people over there that would lead the charge against contamination, you know. I mean, actually, I don't really know what the news life itself knows. I know what the residents feel. I mean, I suspect that – we could ask WastePro their opinion, but you treat it almost like an open market. No, that's true. Remember when we backed out of the unincorporated areas that are adjacent to the city, WastePro stepped in and took those customers on. And so, you know, they might be willing to contact those. Yes, right. The commercial properties can decide themselves whether or not they want to recycle. And I think that that's – So they could do a separate contract, basically. But we could help facilitate some of that, right? Does that make good sense of our time to – for places that big? We can absolutely do that. We can connect them with all the different recycling companies. Okay. I'm going to go to that gentleman then. So I just – I guess, you know, I mean, I'm for recycling, and I've always been for recycling. So – but this is just a question, getting in the weeds a little bit, which probably is dangerous if I shouldn't do it. So when you talk about no recycling, it looks like the savings would be like about $379,000 difference. So that's what we'd save. Okay. And so – Yes. What do we lose? We save that. What's the – why not? Why not just give that back to our residents? Why – what the heck? Natalie? She wants to answer that question. Like Jorge mentioned, I really feel that we would create a chain reaction. Well, if Dunedin's not doing it, why do we have to do it? I think a lot of communities do look up to Dunedin as an environmental community. And as Jorge mentioned, if we start sending all of this material to Pinellas County Solid Waste, our burn plant and landfill, they would most likely start increasing because they need to make up for the material coming in, the staff to process it, the time to do that. And then our landfill starts filling up faster. Like I mentioned, if we all stopped recycling, we would lose about 20 years on our landfill. You'd have to understand how that would impact the rates. And if they increase the tipping fee at the county landfill, not only are you paying higher for the recycling material, you're paying a higher rate for everything you're sending there in the garbage. Mayor? May I add to that, please? No. Yeah, no, of course you can. Yes, you can. Of course. You had to think about it for a moment, though. No, you can. I'm just kidding. I think that primarily we would all agree that the landfill is a significant issue for this county moving forward. I think that the other part of that is when you look at the, Natalie, I mentioned the strategic plan and the DREAM plan, and you look at the amount of citizen input that went into drafting those plans. And sustainability is part of our mission statement. It's deeply woven into the city of Dunedin. We have not heard, through our citizen survey or our business survey or any of the other surveying that we do, that there is a problem, per se, with the recycling program. Or even as we were looking at the rate study. I mean, that was a very public process. We had not heard from the community that they wanted us to modify or discontinue the recycling program. So I think that you, you know, for my part, though, I mean, we teach a generation of children, which is us, when we were younger, that we need to recycle. And then we teach our own children and our grandchildren that we need to recycle for the good of the environment. And then, you know, when there comes a time when it is not as beneficial economically for the city, then we don't no longer do it. So I think the larger question is whether or not it is the right thing for the city of Dunedin to do moving forward, based upon what it is our residents and our business owners want to see, want the way the city to conduct itself into the future. Mayor, if you're interested, we have a representative from Pinellas County Solid Waste, if you have any specific questions. I thought Paul Sacco was coming. I guess you're the Paul Sacco. Yeah. Are you? Name it, name. Good evening, Mayor. Nick Catherine Eichner with Pinellas County Solid Waste. Good evening, Vice Mayor and Commissioners. Representing Pinellas County Solid Waste, so your team have done a fabulous job in talking to the societal and the environmental impacts, if the decision were made to stop recycling. What I wanted to just speak to is what the impact will be on the county as a whole and Pinellas County Solid Waste as your only disposal facility for trash. So we receive about 1.5 million tons of trash into the facility every year from Pinellas County. We can process up to 1 million tons of that through the Waste to Energy Facility. So you can see that we already have a delta. So our landfill is already receiving more trash than we can process in the Waste to Energy Facility. And as your staff have correctly said multiple times, if the county were to stop recycling, we would shave 20 years off the life of that landfill. Right now, we've got about 66 years of life left. So you would be making a generational decision. What does that look like? If we have no other landfill in Pinellas County, we won't have another landfill in Pinellas County. So at that point, we'll have to transport the waste out of county, build a transfer station in order to facilitate that, and the costs will go two to three times higher than whatever the disposal fees will be at that time normally. So that is a significant difference. So you're looking at potentially a short-term gain for a very huge long-term cost if the decision were made to stop recycling. And what I would just say is don't let Dunedin be the tipping point, pun intended, in stopping recycling. You are a model community, as mentioned. You're the fifth most populous city or municipality in the county, but you're the fourth best recycling community in Pinellas County. So your decision for... You've got to be better. You've got to get better. Four is number one to it. There's your goal right there. So you are looked at as a model community, and so we, looking at the county as a whole, it will harm us in terms of our disposal capacity in the county if recycling were not to continue. So let me ask you one question. So I'm assuming that no other county would be rushing to help us find space in their county for, you know, to put our trash. I mean, that'll be the trash wars of 60 years from now, right? It could potentially be a trash war. We would be looking for wherever would take our trash, and it may not be Florida. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So does anybody have any questions in particular to the... I just want to make sure. Thank you for being here. Of course. Appreciate that. That was actually helpful, I think, you know, illuminating. I think that's important for all of us to realize, you know, it's always been trash, right? I mean, historically, trash is a problem, so that's why the mafia was involved in it so early on, right? Anyway, sorry, I don't know where that came from. Okay. I don't... Sorry. I guess it's late. I don't have any other questions, so I've got a lot of notes here, so I guess I need to open it for public input. Anyone in the audience who wants to come forward and speak on this issue, come forward, name and address for the record, and you have three minutes. Leslie's going to rush in front of you, it looks like. Okay. Leslie Viennes, 1261 Penny Court. Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners. I watched the Dunedin News today. I already got the email, and the first topic was Florida City of the Week, celebrating the quality of life in Dunedin. I clicked on the video, and it said the city of Dunedin is more than Honeymoon Island, so much more. Recycling is a huge part of that. I was on the Environmental Quality Committee for 15 years, and we were instrumental in bringing recycling to this city, and I'm very proud of that, and I do not want to see it go away. So much of what I had to say was taken by Natalie, Jennifer, and Jennifer, and so I appreciate you cutting down my time here so I don't have to watch that clock, but there are a couple of things. I know I went on the website, and there's so much there on the environment and how it relates to our city. I volunteer at a couple places here in town. People come to our city looking for a new home, a new home that is sustainable, that is friendly, that is welcoming. But so many questions when realtors, because I've asked a couple in the last few days, what is one of their questions? Of course, cost of living. What is another? The sustainability. So many places where people are coming, recycle. And that is a question realtors get. Does Dunedin recycle? And they are proud to say yes. So please, keep this in mind when you're thinking about this. I have a couple questions, first of all. And Jorge answered one of them about possibly going, one that Mo asked about going to every other week. And I understand that because I agree. When we first started this, it was twice a week, which was incumbersome. And the other thing is, if the contract were to be negotiated, is it just for three years with a two-year extension every other year, like the golf course contract? And Commissioner Sandberg, you mentioned that your recycle bin at the last commission meeting. You actually have to address the chair, and you can relate your question. We're going to ask it after it's all. It's not a question. It's a comment. He mentioned about the fact that his recycle bin, every week when he puts it out and his neighbors, there's only a few things in there. But is everybody, are they aware that you can do cardboard, that you can do metal cans, that you can do glass bottles, wine, beer, whatever? Used to be single-color glass. There's so many things that people can put in the recycle bins. And I know the recycle bins used to come with the stickers on them. We get the hanging tags on the door every now and then. But the contract with these companies, it says marketing. Do they help the city put marketing materials together? Did they promote recycling? Mailers to the home from WastePro? Or the other one saying, this is what we do. This is why it's important to your environment. If their contract is part of marketing, they should be helping the city promote this. Thank you. Great. Before you go, though, your question was, and we'll answer them at the end, but if the contract, do we have to contract just for three years? Or what was that? Is it extended two years after that, each year with a renewal? Gotcha. Yep. Okay. Good. Thank you, Leslie. Okay. Anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Name and address for the record. Three minutes. I'm in Coton, 1515 Bayshore Boulevard. There we go. I enjoy early morning walks before sunrise. You should join me sometime, Mayor. And as I walk the streets of Dunning, I enjoy seeing these large bins, the recycling bins lined up curbside, like sentinels guarding our quality of life. These thousands of bins, to me, are proof that the citizens of Dunning are involved and interested in this issue, as we've already learned tonight, because we're all interested in Dunning's high quality of life. It's a Dunning discipline. We, many participants, we're not perfect, and sometimes we contaminate, but we're getting better. But we have cultivated what I call a healthy habit of doing this. My wife and I have been doing it for 14 years. It's part of who we are. We feel engaged, and we feel we're helping. And I'm sure thousands of others feel engaged and helping. We're doing something right on the ground. So without this program, to tell you the truth, many of us, I think, would feel adrift. We'd feel guilty throwing this stuff in the garbage. That would be an awful sensation. So please maintain it for the good of us all. It's the right thing. It's the Dunning thing. And I want to let you know that this presentation was written by me without the help of artificial intelligence. Thank you, Eric. Okay. If anyone else in the audience was to come forward and speak on this issue, please come forward. I had a feeling I knew Patrick was here for this. Name and address for the record and three minutes. I'm Patrick Clare, 2028 Harvard Avenue. Earlier this evening, the commission decided that you were going to merge the existing Stormwater Committee with the Committee on Environmental Quality and Sustainability. Now, the commission looks at those committees to provide guidance and direction for what the residents are looking to happen in the city. We're now talking about recycling. That's one of the major things that this newly approved combined committee is going to be interested in. It's one of the things that you have said you expect them to provide, to help. In my opinion, if you scale back recycling, you are rejecting one of the premises and one of the requirements of this new committee that you just approved. So how contradictory could you get to do something like that? It would be against the dream plan, and it would also be against exactly what you said you want to do. Thank you. Thank you, Patrick. And I think I speak for everybody. I shouldn't jump out, but I think clearly if there was going to be some real significant change here, we will go that route. I mean, that will be, they'll certainly be part of it. So, okay. Anyone else in the audience wish to speak on this issue? Okay. Name and address for the record in three minutes. Ann Bennett, 1990, Saddle Hill Road North. So a couple of things I've heard tonight. Recycling, like our lifestyles, are very individual and, you know, just within my own family, between our household and my children, I can see a vast difference. I don't shop at Amazon. My children do. They create tons of recycling. And if we don't have a full can, we just don't put it out that week. We just add it two weeks in a row, and that way they don't stop, and the route just goes that much quicker. So it can be done very effectively. The other thing I think that we need to keep in mind with the cost going up is these companies are basically transportation companies, and diesel fuel has increased 25% since March. And they're signing a contract for five years. So, you know, they're going to have to hedge their bet. I would suggest that maybe there may be other indexes sometimes in some of these contracts. CPI isn't always representative of what an industry's cost is. And there may be more of a petroleum-based index that might be more reflective of escalation in their industries. And in the future, we consider which indices we tie these contracts to that they're respective of whatever the contract is we're doing. Thank you. Anyone else wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. Seeing no one, I will close public comment. And we did have two questions. So, Jorge or Michelle, I'll go to you. So, first of all, the contract negotiation, how does that work in this one? I guess we still have to negotiate it. So, do we do three years with a year extension? So, the term of the contract is for five years with the renewal option of two additional two-year terms. Okay. So, we could go as long as nine years. Correct. And does that have escalators in it in terms of cost increases? Yes. There's a CPI escalator. I did highlight it. It's not for the first year, but it's for the second year. And it's based on a CPI index for garbage and trash. And then it can only hit a ceiling of 3%, but it can't go below 0%. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. So, I think that answered one of your questions. And then the other one is, and it's a great question about marketing materials. What is the real obligation of the WastePro to, you know, to really pump it up and get stuff out there and, you know, educate? You didn't think you were just going to sit back there, did you? Okay. Exactly. A lot different tone today. I like that. Especially being from Dunia. Yes. But, again, Ed Farmer with WastePro, Andrew McKimson. With the marketing, we're more than happy to work hand-in-hand with the city. The RFP actually laid out some specific criteria as well to bump up the recycling as far as video and shooting information and things of that nature. And we've always been supportive of the city. We'd be more than happy to put out door hangers and flyers, things like that, to help improve the education. So, again, we... I did love the sticker. It's like, do this, don't do this. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, you do, like, on some of the harder things. Like, I don't know how I got in my head for such a long time that the detergent things that are plastic, like, you couldn't do it because they're too thick or something. But I guess you can. Yeah, exactly. As long as you clean it out. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. And, again, some of the educational material comes from the partners or Pinellas Partners in Recycling. There is a set educational document or sticker that we get from the municipalities or they provide them to the municipalities that we can adhere to the containers as well. And one of the big items that everybody's aware of is, and Dunedin has been promoting it as well, is keep the lithium-ion batteries out of the containers. That's a big deal. I mean, it causes truck fires, facility fires. Right. And right now, that's one of the largest campaigns we're on right now. So we'll be more than happy to help get that word out. So we'll be working with the team here to kind of pump up a little bit. Yes. Yeah. And just to add on, specifically within the RFP, we did ask for at least two hours of B-roll footage and they would work with our staff on that. And then also attendance for five city-approved events such as the Gulf Coast event, National Walk to School Day, Great American Teaching, and the Homeowner Association presentations as well. Okay. And I would encourage if there's a commissioner that has never visited one of the MRFs, that's a very educational visit. Got it. Leslie said pretty much handle your questions. Okay. Okay. Anybody else while we've got the gentleman up here have any questions? I just want to make sure we're good. Okay. Very good. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. Okay. So I think I officially closed public input and I need a motion. So moved. Second. Okay. Final comments starting with maker of the motion, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So we sat here two weeks to talk about this and I think just from my own personal perspective, I just want to provide a little bit of clarification. Yes, I felt extremely guilty two weeks ago. This was never, the city manager said it, this was never a mandate against recycling for me. I'm just speaking personally. And it most certainly was not intended to disparage the relationship that we have with Waste Pro. This is an example of a public-private partnership that is very successful. Your letters of recommendation are beyond reproach. And I do greatly appreciate the hard work that the staff had to embark upon to get this across the finish line. And in terms of the, you know, why we have to do this, the fact that we reduce our landfill by 20, the life of our landfill by 20 years. I mean, we can't absorb, we can't absorb this. Not only the recyclables, but the contaminants that are contained within. So, you know, I'm a firm believer in recycling. And I think where we ended up was two weeks ago was essentially the imperative that we sitting up here need to, we work for the community. And, you know, if we're not, you know, quite understanding the mechanics or the infrastructure of the deal, then, you know, we have a responsibility to make sure that we do. And I just, again, I appreciate the hard work of the staff. I know this was a heavy lift to get this back to us. But anyway, I just want to say I'm fully in favor of this. I greatly appreciate you answering my questions. And with that said, that's all I've got. Great. Thank you. And seconder of the motion, final comments, Commissioner Degard. Thank you, Mayor. There's about three different ways I wish to approach my comments tonight. First, I want to talk about process. The way this was processed was, as the staff usually does, examine it, carefully present it, and put it before us. But when they do so, it's a binary. What I mean by binary is it's either yes or no. And if it's no, then we cause damage by rejecting something. Could be no, we answer no because we're philosophically against it. But sometimes we answer no because we don't fully understand it. And I think that's where we were two weeks ago. We didn't fully understand it. We didn't understand how a scoring system could come in with a good score for a company that was not the lowest bidder or was it the lowest? That's where we were. And we got caught up in that. And yes, that's partially our fault. But I also think it's systemic fault because of the way the binary works. There's no cord to pull to go, wait a second, we need to stop this right here so we fully understand it before we vote on it. It doesn't feel right. And I don't know how we're going to deal with that but I hope we can find a way. Regarding recycling, what I was trying to make a point of through my questioning a moment ago is recycling is evolving. It's not a stationary issue. And as it evolves, it's going to place different expectations and needs on us as a city and our citizens. And you can see the cost is there. It's about $30 a year per household, give or take three in one direction or another. That's what it's now costing. Back when we sold this thing, we said, hey, it's almost free and it was. It was probably $4 or $5 a household. Today it's not. And that cost is not going down. In fact, our provider that we're going to work with and I think we're going to pass this tonight, that's my prediction, is one of the 50th fastest growing companies in the state of Florida. They're a billion dollar company and they're growing like a weed through mergers and acquisitions. That latter part does bother me though because what that latter part means is there's going to be fewer and fewer providers. When there are fewer and fewer providers, that means there's not opportunities to properly bid. That's what bothers me about our initial provider not being in this bidding process. I would have thought we'd have had three at least. By only having two, we're not having a horse race. And I'm concerned about that. And I'm going to put that on the table. I don't know how to deal with it at this moment, but I am concerned about only having two bidders in the process. That's the economic side. On the ecological side, I don't think we're going to get away with it this cheaply in the future. We're not going to be able to deal with trash the way we were. Last two weeks ago, I said, we're sloppy with trash. We don't think about it. We just put it in the canister, roll it out to the street. We separate it, hopefully somewhat, and that's what we do. But the producers of the products that are going in there, that are the packaging, and they don't care. They put together pans that have forever chemicals in them, and we throw them in our trash can. I'm sure they love that at the landfill. There's a day coming when we're not going to have the liberties of that kind of noblesse oblige luxury. We're not going to be able to do that anymore because in smaller countries where the land is actually even tighter than the United States, the customer pays for their garbage by the pound. We're going there. We're going there as a country because we are too casual about our trash. Now, I don't know how soon. Hopefully, I'll be off this dais when we have to face that one, but we're going there because the producers out there are doing the most economical thing for them, which is the cheapest packaging they can put together, and that's what we throw in our trash cans. So until we put those things together and start having a strategy that's more than just this moment in time, we're going to run into some uncomfortable moments. I'm fully in support of this motion. Thank you, Mayor. I have to say, cheapest packaging and sometimes cheapest food, and that goes in our body. Jeez. It's kind of sad. It does start at that. Final comments. Let's see. Commissioner Sandbergen. Like I normally do, you know, great presentation, you know, sit and listen to it, but I did things the way I normally do, and that's a little unconventional. Tuesday was a beautiful day, so I simply hopped in my golf cart and I ran down 10 people in Dunedin, started the marina, Pioneer Park, my gym, and on the south end of town, and I said, I want to talk to you about recycling because you are a citizen, you are my boss. I love these presentations, but I wanted to hear it from what, I mean, poor girl's trying to walk out of the gym yesterday, and I run her down to talk about her recycling, but no, it wasn't the city manager, but no. You know, and this is so Dunedin, the answer was, from seven of these people, my trash, or my recycle bin is full, it's full of Amazon boxes and wine bottles, and I swear to you, that was their answer, and you know something, those are the people I work for, and I am 100% in favor of what you presented tonight, Michelle, did a hell of a good job, and I support this 100%. Okay, Commissioner Gao, final comments. Yeah, you have no opinion about this at all, do you? Zero, none, whatsoever. Wonderful, fabulous presentation. You all crushed it. You all kicked its ass, so well done. I'm very pleased with the tone on the dais, much different than two weeks ago. I could, I could go on for a very long time on recycling, and I don't know that by weight isn't a better way. You know, we have to do something. No, well done. Thank you. Yeah, I have to say, though, two weeks ago, inside my head I was exploding. I don't know if it showed on the outside, but, but you know, the bottom line is, you know, things always turn out the way they're supposed to. And obviously it got out there that we didn't, you know, oh, we were really going to do away maybe with our recycling program. And that, and that just bothered me a lot. And I think it really all it had to do with was we had, you know, some commissioners that needed a little more information. And we had time. This didn't expire until March, and of course WastePro was willing to extend. And we had time. And that's fair because, you know, we're elected to make sure we do know the answers. That's what we're elected for. And so, and so we better before we say yes on a contract of this magnitude, $1,170,000. But never once in my mind after that meeting did I really think we would come here, back here, and it would actually in any way jeopardize our recycling. And if any good ideas about, you know, efficiencies came out of it, great. That wouldn't harm the program. So I'm thrilled we're back here. You know, we always learn. It's so funny. I sat here and I thought, let's see, what do I have in my recycling can? Certainly Amazon, but I'm not the big Amazon buyer in my house. I complain about what are we doing? They're making way too much money. It's so easy. It's so easy. I am responsible for Diet Pepsi, plastic, sorry, sorry guys. And then wine bottles. I'm not a big drinker at home, so let's have a party or it's a holiday. Pizza boxes, as long as they had a covering on it and you could remove the covering. Canned foods, yeah. But it's almost always full. And so, yeah, it really is Dunedin and appreciate Commissioner Dugard some of what you brought to the table because you're right. I mean, there's such a big picture conversation here and you kind of illuminated some of that which is always really helpful on the dais. So, I'm ecstatic with where this ended up. It is Dunedin. Eric, you said it very well. Leslie, thank you. Everybody who did comment. Patrick. So, I guess we will go to, I have all these comments, guys. Sorry, I got to figure out what am I doing next. Okay, it is a voice vote. So, all in favor. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I dare you. Okay. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. Okay, there we go. But Mayor, if I could real quickly. I did not thank all the people that emailed us or made comments on social media. Thank you to the residents of Dunedin for letting us hear from you. And honestly, I didn't say, even though I know a lot of people in the dais, said to thank you again for staff, including staff that was here last time and did a great job with the presentation. County, thank you for being here. I think, you know, doing this helps educate and illuminate it. And again, it just kind of firms up our passion for it. So, I think it was a good exercise. Okay, we are going to go to the proposed agenda for November 5th, 2026 commission meeting on are there any additions or deletions? No, ma'am. Okay. I see that we have our city manager's annual performance review. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. When are those due behind the scenes, though, to be ready for the agenda packet? Is it like the 31st? Michelle, you know, the date that... I'm so sorry. Say the question. When is her pre-evaluant, our evaluations, due to get them into the packet? The 30th, I think. 30th? I'm so sorry. Teresa is running that. I don't... Actually, so the agenda packet is out a week from tomorrow, so they would be due... Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, that's not... If you would like me to, I will write them for you. Yeah. That's not going to happen, so... All right. And aren't you going to be somewhere? Yeah. I could meet with you, right? Right. That's correct. Okay. Well, then tomorrow. Tomorrow? You're going to have a busy date? No. Okay. I don't know. Lindsay was not here today, right? So... I thought they were due on next Friday. I thought they were, too, but... Yeah, next Friday, so they'd be on the two... Yes. I'll get my calendar. Yeah, next Friday. Oh, next Friday. Sorry. Gotta love it. Gotta love it. Yeah, I'm going to write that down to put in the eval. I, you know... Giving, you know... I'm missing one week, so... Okay. We are in the beer vita triangle, aren't we? Okay. Any other additions or deletions? I'm wondering if you need them. Yeah. No, ma'am. That's right. That's it? The agenda, the supplemental agenda that was published today, no changes or additions. Okay, and everybody did see the supplement, right? Yes. Okay, so can I have a motion to approve November 5th agenda? So moved. Okay, so Vice Mayor and Commissioner DeGardt. And all in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye, and any opposed? Motion passed unanimously. Okay, informational items, the proposed agenda for November 3rd, 20, Commission Workshop. I think the issue here was normally we do not have a meeting on November 3rd because it's Election Day. Normally, we do have someone up here who's impacted, and when I say that, somebody who's not terming out or who's running, but I don't know. I mean, we've typically not done anything on Election Day. We focused on Election Day. And we have no items. We have no items. Organically, we have no items. It's not like we could definitely have items, but is everybody in favor of maybe just not doing it, just keeping the tradition? So moved. Yeah, we can't. Yeah, we can. We're at a meeting. Yeah, so moved to cancel the workshop. Do I have a second? Second. Yeah. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed unanimously. Okay. That's unusual. We're usually adding meetings to our schedule. Okay. Commission discussion and comments. I know that I'm going to start with Commissioner Gow because he had an item that he wanted to bring forward. Thank you, Mayor, very much. As you all, I think we're all aware of a piece of legislation that passed in this last legislative session and it is Senate Bill 1134 or I believe it's a committee substitute to it when it basically is. And it drew concerns from city staff and from the commission on the impact of that and our ability to be involved in a number of events throughout the city that are tied that are tied to culture, heritage, and things of that nature, whether it was St. Patrick's Day, the Highland Games, Cinco de Mayo, all of those. And it just got me thinking about what are some of our options and what can we do. And I would like to get some consensus direction, if okay, to allow staff to work with one of our legislative partners within Pan Amos County on when I, specifically the Highland Games, but when I look at our, we talk a lot about our Scottish culture and our Scottish heritage and actually I think we've been talking about that wrong. It's not Scottish culture and Scottish heritage. It really actually is Dunedin's culture, Dunedin's heritage. And whenever we talk about our Scottish culture and heritage, we always tie it back to the founding of Dunedin. You can go into our history museum and see parts of our, the, the Dunedin's heritage and culture revolving of Scots. You have, you know, our, our Highland Games are a great economic impact to the county. There are 12 different Highland Games throughout the state held each year. I don't know the impact for all those municipalities and communities on, on how they're involved. But as the, the city grew from the two Scots, we started naming streets after, after, parts of Scotland and then we started naming neighborhoods after parts of Scotland and things of that nature. We have the Tartan as part of our city seal. So, we are so intertwined that it makes reasonable sense to me that we can work with the state on allowing Dunedin to continue our culture and our heritage that happens to be Scottish. it's not Scottish culture and heritage. It's our heritage that happens to be Scottish. And so, I'm asking you to give consensus direction to provide that opportunity to staff. So, yeah, and if I may, and I'm glad you brought it to give clarity to it. I mean, obviously, I know how passionate you are and it's important. I know there's been a lot of work done by staff and particularly our city attorney and in particular this with some strategies on dealing with the Scottish peace even though, you know, there's more to it than that but that's particularly at heart in our community. So, and I want to make sure we get the right strategy. And so, can you kind of brief people on what you've been looking at and what your thoughts are on the best direction based on Commissioner Gow's comments? Sure, sure. so one of the things that we did is we looked at whether, we looked at some of the exemptions that were provided and one of the exemptions that's provided in state statute is when there is recognition in a history museum of your community's history or of a particular ethnicity's history in a local museum and your museum has that. You know, it just, as Commissioner Gow was speaking of it, you know, it's so ingrained in what is Dunedin's history and it is the Scottish culture. And so, I'm in the process of writing a memo that basically outlines this because I believe it'll fit into one of the exemptions under the statute. That being said, obviously, a clear exemption in the statute would be even better. But that's where we're working with with regard to that. just because we talked about this after getting your thing, you know, there's two potential ways to go, right? We go as a city or maybe Scottish American and the Scottish groups lead the charge and we support. Yes. And which do you, which makes the most sense? I mean, I know which one would be better for Scottish groups came forward, which probably who you're talking to, right? Yeah. And I think for a lot, a lot of times some of the, and, you know, the city manager Nicole may have thoughts on this as well, but a lot of times the legislators like to hear from their community groups, particularly on something like this, like you have a specific group here that would be heavily impacted as well as many of the residents that enjoy the festivals, the schools, the, you have the piping bands, you have, yeah, the folks that are inside the school that you help support in learning the instruments. So I think with, and you have your, you have so many events, like you have the piper in the park and, you know, when I think about all the events that I've attended, oftentimes there are folks there in Scottish garb, you know, celebrating, including many of you. I guess we can't wear them anymore, right? So I do think that like from an effective standpoint, you may have a better effect having those community leaders reach out in addition to the city saying, yes, we support this. So, so, yeah, so I think it's great, Jeff, because I think this could be giving us clarity here. Jennifer, do you have any, what's the best way for staff to kind of lead that, to get to our delegation? We can all obviously help promote the exemption, but what, like how, you know, how do we maybe bring the Scottish groups together who apparently I think are already asking, they want to know, what are you guys going to do? Well, we have the option with the, you know, the, the, you know, our heritage being, you know, in history, museum and, and, and so on and so forth. So that's one thing. I mean, that's, that's one direction, but the exemption is better. And, you know, I see a real opportunity here given consensus direction from the city commission to work with the SAF and SAS as well as with our representatives in Tallahassee to, to, you know, essentially put together the, initiate the effort to, to create the exemption for us. And I, I actually formally, yeah. And, you know, one of the things too is that it, it is, you know, specific to Dunedin, but the fact that, what is it, 60% of the Southerners of the Declaration of Independence were Scots, you know, so, right? I mean, it's something like that. So, you know, I mean, we would bring those types of things to, to the fore. Claudia's related to Moses. Yeah. So, so there you go. So we'll put her. I think that said something about Claudia. So I think the best thing to do is if we get consensus direction is that we start working, we call the groups together, we start working with them, we work with either Representative Burfield's office or whomever to say, how do we form this, and then come back to the City Commission and say, this is what we're doing. And actually, it is a conversation. I mean, obviously, she's up for election, but it is a conversation I know I've had with Commissioner Burfield. I said, you want to set Dunedin on fire, like, you know, affect their Scottish culture. Right. So I actually think any of our representatives would help sponsor that. I just do. Like, what's to argue about? I mean, the sad part here, and I'm just going to say it straight out, the sad part is, we all know what the state legislature was trying to nix. We all know what the real target was. But instead, they did this crappy piece of legislation that is ridiculous. And now we've got to worry about wearing a name tag at a St. Patrick's State Festival, or we get removed from office. I mean, give me a break. But that being said, we'll play nice, and something that's that passionate for us. I mean, actually, I mean, you guys speak up, but I don't want to speak for you. No, I fully support this. This is a, you know, and I agree, it's a crappy piece of legislation. And, you know, I think we should be working all hands on deck here to get the exemption or whatever strategy is going to make this work. So, let's do it. I would say that, you know, continue forward under the guidance of Gen C, obviously, with her interpretations, and I would definitely be in favor of as long as you felt we were doing the right thing. Mr. Dugard? This kind of stuff just makes me angry. Yeah, no, just me. To start with. So, it's almost hard to come up with a rational response. I agree, we should talk to our legislators about an exception. But the reality is, is even if they didn't cut one out for us, I'm not sure how I'd want to proceed here. I don't think, I understand my lawyer friend down here at the end will always keep us in the least possible place of jeopardy. However, sometimes you put your foot out. Just a thought. Well, I agree, and I think it's conversation on the whole thing that, you know, cities and counties need to have because, I mean, look at the effect it's even going to have on Visit St. Pete Clearwater. It's, you know, for tourism. I mean, it just makes no sense. But, okay, so we're all in favor of at least moving forward with that piece of it. I do know that, and thank you, Jeff, I think the clarity really helps to push it forward, so thank you for that. And I, you're coming back to us on the whole DEI legislation to do, like, explain all the things that we can and can't do, that kind of thing. Yes, actually, I believe that there's a workshop coming, I want to say, in December, where staff will be coming back and talking about exactly what this bill did and the, how the city's addressed it so that you're very clear on, because it's affected a lot of different areas. You know, it's affected, obviously, parks and recreation, it's affected library, it's affected finance, and, you know, all of our contracts and stuff. So just in giving you an update on how we're prepared to move forward come January 1st when the bill takes effect. Even professional associations. Well, and I guess the question, and it goes back to what Commissioner DeGar just said, is there any city or county that is taking a lead on creating any kind of a lawsuit? Because it really is, to me, it's like against, I mean, I'm sorry, I'm just going to say, we're supposed to be the freedom state, and this, to me, is so anti-freedom. It's crazy. Yeah, I'm not sure on the, as far as the legislation goes. I know that at several of the conferences that I've been to since it's passed, there's been a lot of discussion on this, but the discussion really has been, at least in the legal community, has been more towards we've got to get to administration, make sure that the cities understand how broad this is, and then, do workarounds, which is, I guess, what a lot of, and walk through how it's actually, you know, what it impacts and what it really doesn't. So, that's really been the focus, more than suing or challenging the law. Okay, I'm just curious, I mean, but I do want to say, because we got this question one time in an email, and I answered it back, and the person, I said, well, you know, we hire completely on merit, we continue people on merit, like, we're not doing anything that, I mean, but we are an inclusive community, and the person just sent back and said, oh, okay, well, thank you for that, and yes, we are, we're an inclusive community, that's what Dunedin is, and it kind of came in a way, I thought it was going to go the other way, and it was just, but I think there was a concern maybe that, like, we're, you know, we're just doing favoritism in some ways for different, I don't know, I couldn't analyze it, but I don't know, I, it's, it's just definitely a terrible piece of legislation, and even the people that are, that voted for it are like, yeah, it's terrible, we shouldn't have done it, I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it, okay, sorry, I'm with Tom, I'm getting aggravated, so I better shut up, okay, any other things, so we're given the go ahead to do what we got to do, very good, thank you, that's good, okay, so Jeff, did you have anything else? Absolutely, my path forward, oh, I attended, and I spoke with you guys individually kind of about this, but on your behalf, I attended the reunion for the class of 76, oh, thank you for that, and it is the class of 76, class of 76, and it was, it was their 50th year, and I was so impressed, they were, one, it was a huge turnout, for 50 years since they graduated, it was a large group, and they were polite, and kind, and nice, they were thrilled that I was there, they were, not that they were disappointed, everyone wasn't, but the commission was invited, and they, you would have been so welcome, had you had the ability to attend, I did send regrets for everybody, that, and just, you know, once it hits October, our calendars just go, and we can't be everywhere, and so they, they were totally understandable, but just, I wanted to thank them, they were thrilled at the sign that we had posted for them, I did take credit for that, but I think it was actually Rob Walker probably poked a stick on that one, so thank you Rob very much. Thank you Jeff, it was. Don't think that wasn't lost on me. Okay, commission discussion and comments, Commissioner Dugard, what you got? Last night I was at the annual meeting for the Dunedin History Museum, and it was a lovely evening, and as I'm sitting here, and I'm looking at the juxtaposition of this conversation relative to what I saw last night in the celebration of who we are as a people and how we come together with various points of view, we stand out, we're different, and we, when laws like this come down to try to make us all the same, it's going to, it's going to rub us the wrong way. I'm not sure how to act on that at this moment, but I'm sure looking for a way, but we have a great heritage here. I've adopted this place. I wasn't one of those that had been here their whole life. From time to time people remind me of that and say, why don't you come, go back where you came from, but this is, this is a place that attracts people oftentimes at the sunset of their years, and it's a fantastic place to be. Just fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, commission discussion and comments. Vice Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And Tom, I can completely align with your comments. Imagine running for office after living here for only two years. Yeah. Yeah. No one would oppose you the next time you drive. Yeah, but you guys hit the ground running, man. Yeah. We're into everything. Sincerely. I really don't, I don't have a really a lot to add. I'm just happy to be back in town, and I do want to ask Jorge if you have any pull with Ed Farmer. We may need two trucks on Monday, November 2nd. Thank you. All right, that's all I have. Okay, Commissioner Sandbergen, commission discussion, comments? Last week, I enjoyed hanging out the evening with Commissioner Gao and Commissioner Dugard as we attended Our Lady of Lords. It's like 35 years I've been going to that, and that's really something special. Did you go on any rides? No, but we still had a good time. We run into people you haven't seen in a long time. Last week, or the week before, I went to Tampa Bay Regional Planning, and the speaker talked about dengue fever, and I realized you don't want it. And we talked about the high school football games on Friday night, keeping the kids safe, and I know we've had some inquiries here at the city about who's responsible, so pay close attention to that. We'll be glad when that's gone. I was really excited to see that invitation to the Rays watch party. We did it for the Jays, so obviously we need to do it for our local team. And the last thing, and I seriously did go out into the community to talk about recycling, and I had someone really a real shout out to the public works. A guy said, he goes, you know what I like about Dunedin? We had a water issue, a pipe issue. He was a board member of a condo on Broadway. He goes, and I grew up in Chicago. We would call to have something like that fixed, and we'd see him maybe a month later. He goes, the guy from Dunedin said, he called us and we'll be there in 15 minutes. He goes, that's quicker than you could have got it done. And I thought, man, you know, it was such a nice thing to hear from someone that had, you know, I ran him to talk about his recycling, but, you know, the guy called and said, we'll be there in 15 minutes, and it's done. And he said, in Chicago, it was a month, and then it was union, and it wasn't done. It wasn't done properly. So, just little things like that that, you know, somebody said about how proud of the city we are, and that really made me beam when I heard that. So, that's all I have. I have, just one business item, and I think I brought it up before, but I guess I want to make sure that all my comrades are on the same page. I know that we're due to get another kind of total update since we did code enforcement citations. We added that, and kind of a different method of doing it, and we capped the fine at $5,000 for anybody who's got code violations. I'll be honest, at the time I thought it was an overreaction, and it was too much, and I think that that's turned out to be a little true, but it's worthy of a discussion to the pros and cons, so if everybody concurs, city manager is prepared to do kind of an overview of where we're at with codes, and the fees, and the citations, and fines, and that kind of thing, and of course, in this case, Gen C, I like how you call her Gen C, Gen C has a lot of input too, because she's seeing the cases that go to court, and I think she has some good insight on the cap value, but I just wanted to see if everybody's okay with that, and it'd be a workshop, right, workshop item, yeah, okay, and then other than that, go raise, I got my raise pin on, I also have my 50th anniversary of Bon Appetit, come on people, yeah, and so, yeah, so that's pretty exciting stuff too, and let's see, and is there anybody going to the ribbon cutting at four tomorrow, I think there's a ribbon cutting, yes, I will definitely be there, okay, because I can't go, so, yeah, okay, and Jorge's at everything, so, yeah, if you could carry the water for us, that'd be awesome, appreciate that, and I'll ask you this now, Jennifer, before city manager update, but the pier, what's the, have we gotten the Corps of Engineers permitting, or, actually, I get, I continue to get, I got actually asked that by Bon Appetit today, right, and so, so it's still, fisheries had comments, and fisheries actually is not the Army Corps of Engineers, they're a separate division, which I did not realize until, so it's there, it's on them, so it's not on Corps of Engineers, and Army Corps of Engineers was here, I think, 10 days ago, and they're pushing fisheries as hard as they can, so fisheries had comments about fish, and I think, or something, anyway, they had comments though, and we addressed the comments that we resubmitted, and we haven't heard back from them, the contractor is, you know, obviously, they're going to have to stage, and stage up a little bit, but they're ready, they're keeping an eye on it, as soon as the permit's issued, they know that we need them to go. And is it like three or four months for them to get it done then, or? Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. Can I add to that? Sure. Yeah, go ahead. Just, you know, on our agenda review on Monday, I mentioned that we need to get a marina, a holistic marina update. there's a lot of, there's a lot of, let's just say, a lot of conversation around where we're at with marina. Yes. And that, that would include the master plan and kind of where are we at with the docks and that sort of thing. Right. Yeah, be happy to do that. Thank you. Well, has everybody scheduled their tours for, to see floating docks? Yeah, mine are scheduled. I'm done, yeah, mine are done. Are you done? Did you already do them? Yes. Oh, very impressive. Very good. Good to start. Dark tours? Yeah, dark tours, yeah. So, I think mine are like next week or a week after or something. And I've been told, don't try to reschedule because it's a, yeah, it's like, it's a nightmare getting them set to begin with. Let's see. Anyway, that was my only thing. And we're confident the boat parade is going to be able to work around all that too. Yeah, yeah. Tony's working with the boat club to figure out the workaround. Yeah, there we go. Okay, that's all my stuff. So, City Clerk update. Mayor, we're looking forward to celebrating the upcoming graduation of our class of 2026. All right, Rita. All right, Rita. Graduation's on Tuesday, October 27th, and we're also hosting the annual board and committee sunshine training. Okay. I did notice that the graduation is in the early stages of one of the World Series games, but that's okay. You guys are more important. Last year, it was the Blue Jays. I know. We got our teams in the playoffs all the time, so that's good. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. And City Manager update? So, I'm not going to be able to make the graduation for Citizens Academy, so, and I just want to thank all of them for all of their hard work, the time, commitment. There are ambassadors in the community at this point forward, as well as staff. I know that Heather Drake in City Clerk's Office worked really hard, and, you know, it's a heavy lift for the departments. It really is. And they worked really hard. They're so proud of their departments and being able to show off what they do. So, I'm sorry I'm going to miss it, but I wanted to say that in public. And also, I just feel that, I really feel that, you know, calling Jennifer Gen C sounds like a rock star. So, I would ask that from this point on you call me Gen B. We're going to call you multiple things no matter what you ask. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Yes, I know that. Yeah, wait until your evaluation, then you're going to know we'll call it. Never mind that I brought it up. Yes. Is that it? Nothing further. I think you better stop. City Attorney, Gen C, update. I just wanted to touch on a question that was asked earlier this evening with regard to individuals and disclosing if they had any interest or held any stock in any companies. And one thing to keep in mind with regard to that is normally reporting individuals are final decision makers or ones who have the authority. So, you may have a committee that looks at an item and evaluates whether or not it's met the terms or even has a recommendation. but the ultimate decision makers are you all sitting up here. And so, you're the ones that have that ethical consideration and have to make those filings. And I just wanted to respond to that. Yeah, thank you. Okay. Well, if there's nothing else for the good of the order, I did see the Blue Jay picture of your class with all their Blue Jay colors on. Dean Drake, Heather Drake, sent it to me, which was very sweet because of, you know. Anyway, so, on that note, meeting is adjourned. I don't know.