morning welcome to the july 1st 2025 city commission workshop i want to call the meeting to order and we'll start by having jen do our pledge of allegiance thank you jen i did want to start out by um uh commissioner walker um is going to miss today he's on a big project with his job and so he will not be able to he'll be here for thursday but um i did want uh he asked for an excuse absence and so if i get him so moved second okay all in favor hi opposed okay motion passes unanimously okay and we will always miss you commissioner walker wherever you are if you're listening so okay we're going to go right to presentations we've got lots of little kids in the room today this is fun um okay so um i'm going to ask i guess the uh fire chief or whoever's going to kind of lead us through everything i think he's out in the lobby i think he is and that's okay and have a full house of uh someone ring the fire alarm oh don't do that he'll come running bueller here he comes are we uh are we ready chief okay herding cats out there right herding cats morning mayor vice mayor commissioners we're just we're running calls we you know that happens to fall in place every once in a while so we're having a hard time getting everybody here at one time but so we'd like to do uh again this is like our second uh time we've done a group uh swearing in process so i'd like to go ahead and we'll start calling them forward and why they're on their way i'd like to give you a brief uh synopsis of their career and their education so uh emma berger paulian emma emma and we're having the the person that's going to pin them as well as coming up with them so emma started with the department december 18th 2024 she moved here from virginia where she was employed at the as a firefighter paramedic at charlottesville fire department for two years and she has a bachelor's degree of science and from james madison university so this is emma and go over that way and stand towards facing the commission michaela bowers michaela is a firefighter emt she started with us on april the 16th 2025 michaela is new to the ems and fire service having recently completed her firefighter and emt training at pasco hernando state college and she plans to attend the paramedic program later this year mccale welcome and paramedics keep calling these women in chief you're going to keep calling women in or sean started with the department april 2nd 2025 he worked for sunstar for the last five years as uh he will be attending the fire academy later this year to obtain his firefighter one and two certification welcome sean he's one of them got here late so he didn't get that instruction uh firefighter paramedic colin burford and colin started with the city december 18th 2024 he worked for sunstar for five years and was a field training officer he graduated from paramedic school in 2022 with the top three in his class colin welcome colin zachary harner zachary started with the department february 22nd 2023 he was a critical care flight paramedic with the u.s army for two years and a total of six years in health care in the military and he continues to serve in the u.s army at this time welcome derek johnson firefighter paramedic he started work with the department january 15th 2025 derek served as a rescue swimmer with the u.s coast guard for 13 years so we got us for us with the boat so it kind of looked like a swimmer i hear sounds like we don't need a boat firefighter paramedic sawyer keller and sawyer sawyer started with the city may 7th 2025 he was previously employed by the city of treasure island fire department and a manatee airport authority fire rescue department combined for over five years he's an ems instructor for a manatee technical college he's also a cme instructor for pinellas county ems and he has associate's degree from spc and a bachelor's degree from florida gulf coast university and i know the commission always likes to hear this he's a dunaden high school graduate hey there you go right awesome what does that trump the woman that's pretty good paramedic ty parish ty started with the department march 26th 2025 he also has worked for sunstar for four years and he'll be attending a fire academy later this year to obtain his firefighter one and two certification that's great welcome ty firefighter paramedic ron shelley we couldn't find a date today or what all right ron started with the city in march 12th 2025 he moved here from colorado where he had over eight years experience as a firefighter paramedic and driver at the colorado springs fire department he also worked for orange county florida fire rescue for two years he has an associate's degree from pikes peak state college and a bachelor's degree from the university of colorado at cos whatever what is that welcome oh okay thank you welcome ron and last but not least and he's been here for all of an hour and seven minutes now uh nick wainiki wainiki come on in as i say he just today is his first day oh wow orienting him right from the start uh he's worked for the american medical response uh amr for a year his associate's degree from spc and he served in the u.s navy for four years and his honorable discharge in 2017 nick welcome welcome do you want to split that's that's everybody so yeah chief you're the choreographer here what how are we doing this we can split halfway and yeah that's good that's probably a good idea way you can everybody gets to see you okay so we're going to do everybody at once okay all right so so this is a good looking group i have to say how about everybody give them a hand we're glad you're here so i'm going to do the oath of office and uh so when i say i and then you'll fill in your name and just repeat after me i yeah let's try that again so you'll say i and then your name and then i'll keep it so i'll say i and then your name this is my first time too doing this so we're gonna we're gonna make we're gonna make this work do solemnly swear to do my duty actually i apologize right off the bat we're going to start completely over you guys are going to raise your right hands okay okay i do solemnly swear to do my duty as a firefighter with the dunedin fire and rescue department to the best of my ability and to serve the citizens of dunedin fire and rescue district with compassion courage and integrity and to uphold the laws and constitutions of the united states of america the state of florida and the city of dunedin congratulations now i think you're going to lead us in the pinning ceremony right okay okay this is a time for spouses and girlfriends and significant others to get even with their their mates there and co-workers so we all have badges there you can go ahead and feel free to pin them on no blood we're not allowed to have any blood mary do you want to take pictures now or yeah let's take some pictures and then we'll have some comments so we have to squeeze in together because the commission is going to stand behind you here so actually we can take you want the family members when we have them just the firefighters well let's get it with the family up here first and then we can get it with the firefighters i think that'd be good all right so that's the family already up here okay now let's just get the firefighter the distinguished class yeah yeah okay okay and as you come over this way i'll give you a certificate here so emma you're all set thank you don't anybody go anywhere we'll have some comments up here oh i'm sorry i mean don't leave the room okay i'll have you guys you can just kind of step to the side because we'd like to make a few comments up here and that'd be awesome so i'm going to start with the vice mayor oh thank you mayor um i'm very proud this morning this is uh you look at the diversity of the the recruits coming in the the firefighters and it just it's wonderful with the women in my noise it's just great uh among the group right we have uh if i can remember correctly we got water rescue people swimmers we've got colorado is in the house how cool is that that's exciting um dunedin high school alumni how cool is that uh from the class of 79 uh welcome to the city of dunedin um and just thank you thank you for what you do thank you for following your passion and uh thank you for supporting all the residents of dunedin it's a good day thank you commissioner sandberg i realized this weekend how important you are to our community um i understand you're a little busy out on the water but downtown we didn't get a drop of rain uh i cannot ever say enough good about what all of you do and it really prides me to sit here and look into the eyes of this little one right here in the front row because i know she's really proud of her dad and i'm proud of your dad too and i welcome your dad to the city of dunedin and i hope he's here for a long time so thank you to all of you thank you commissioner dugard thank you mayor each of you come to this moment in time drawn by desire to help people desire to be a part and desire to make a difference and each of you will we will all go to sleep better every night knowing you're at your station and i'm grateful for that thank you mayor thank you um and i'll just say um we are so proud of our fire department here um we respect what they bring to our community so i think that you come to uh again to a really uh honorable place where you will be respected personally and over the last you know a little over a year uh the fire department's touched my life i i don't want you to touch it that much anymore for a little bit broken wrist my mother's death it means life where you all responded and of course hurricane helene where my house was flooded so you can you can lay off on me a little bit but uh but uh but my point is that um uh you guys touch so many lives and when you do it's everything and when you're there it's everything so uh we are proud to have you here um i am glad we have a good diversity in the group and uh and i look forward to working with all of you so thank you very much and congratulations and actually if we could just finish i don't know if the commission i'd like to go down and shake each hand i didn't get to do that that'd be wonderful did you okay so uh the chief's flagging you out but i do want to say uh welcome to the chief's flagged and i do want to say uh welcome to leonardo back there 12 days old with a firefighter outfit on anyway congratulations on that that's what makes the world go round we're all trying to hold that baby i know right give us the baby yeah i think dad wasn't letting go of that baby though anyway thank you everybody appreciate it and congratulations appreciate all you do your dad was here it's like oh that's awesome love it you you know it's yeah it was i just love stuff like that i think maybe you're wow it's quiet in here now i think our we totally lost well we you know we've got gene and less and we've got lily and lindsey and we've got orgy so that was really nice though that was that was really really nice um okay so uh our next item is citizen input does anyone notice wish to speak on a topic that is not on the agenda seeing no one uh we will um we well seeing five people who aren't going to come up um we will move on um anyway so we have uh one workshop item today so uh which is the 2026 city commission light item budget discussion and i will uh turn that to les and gene gene's in her new role full-fledged now right good morning mayor vice mayor commissioners les tyler the finance director and i'm here with gene horsewater our new budget manager and doing a great job i'd like to just uh go over a few things this item is the every year we have the city commission's draft budget that we go through with the city commission as we roll through the budget process and uh we have a couple of exhibits we have exhibit a and exhibit b and exhibit uh and what and the first one shows the actual cost for 2024 and it also shows the uh 2025 actual cost to date which is october through may of 2025 the original budget for 25 and then the proposed budget for our 2026 budget we're moving into exhibit b in the staffing is more detailed line item uh showing 25 original budget and the 26 proposed budget i want to point out that in exhibit um we had one formula error in exhibit b and i just wanted to point that out uh we had which is the third page in the staffing report uh there's a section uh uh in the middle that's titled uh it's titled travel in per diem and it's at the city commission budget detail uh report and uh down in the commissioner's section there's uh there's a on the far right there's a percent change and we realized yesterday that the percent change uh for commissioner de garb was 100 and for commissioner sanderbergen was zero but they both should be 100 percent change year over year so just wanted to point that out the no the dollar amounts are correct but the percentage change should be 100 for both of those uh comparing 26 to 25 and i want to mention just a few uh changes that that we noted and then answer any questions the commission has the first is under salary and benefits uh if looking at the uh exhibit a which is the high level summary uh the insurance cost has gone up in 2026 compared to 2025 by about 11 percent uh or about five thousand dollars and that that increase is consistent citywide our estimate right now for health increase in 26 over 25 is currently 11 percent uh we're still working with our consultants and and that number may change some but that's our best estimate citywide what our health costs will be increasing next year so that's that's what uh caused that variance and next for operating costs the next section down um the majority of the increase between 26 and 25 were a couple line items that i wanted to point out uh the the largest of which was our it services fund which is our internal service fund for it uh services that decreased 13 300 uh this year which is a 19 decrease in 26 compared to 25 and that that's due to a couple of things the first the largest reason is in 2025 there was 8100 dollars of computer replacements in the city commission's budget and in 26 that amount is zero uh and also uh want to mention that uh it services there's also a few less devices moving forward and one of the things it services is doing is they're they're uh moving forward they're they're planning on changing uh and moving to docking stations uh in most cases for for employees and currently uh myself for example i have a desktop and i have a laptop and and currently every five or six years i get each of those replaced moving forward the plan is for for employees to have laptops and docking stations to where moving forward i would have just my laptop replaced every six years so that that's saving some that's saving money in 26 and also future years in the it services fund uh it'll take a few years to completely roll that out but that's that's one recommended change we have in the 26 budget i wanted to mention um for promotional activities another change uh in the amount in 2026 is uh 3100 more than 2025 and that's due to an increase in uh we increased the holiday banquet cost by 2500 that budget's been running tight the last couple of years so that was increased some and also employee gift cards were increased uh about 1200 in 26 over 25 and another line item that has a larger change is uh other current charges which has a decrease of 3500 3550 in 26 compared to 25 and the major reduction there is uh we had a reduction the expenses for the sister city program is 4750 in 2025 and then it's zero in 2026 and we budget that normally every other year uh and there was also an offsetting increase in other current services of 1200 for the annual chamber uh dinner in 2026 which was added 1200 and moving down towards the bottom of the page we have our uh aid to private organizations and that's our civic partners and our and our grants that we have every year for non-profits uh we have an increase proposed increase of nine thousand dollars in 2026 uh it's increased from 217 000 in total uh and it was 208 000 so there's a nine thousand dollar increase in 26 compared to 25 and also want to mention we received the grant applications they were due on uh they were due on june 13th we uh received uh more than last year we have i think four or five more applications than last year so uh there were some new applicants which is nice but we and and our uh our org uh subcommittee will be meeting having our first meeting on july 8th to start going through those applications and then we'll be sharing theirs those with your commission at the august 6th workshop uh moving forward but we did have quite a few applications this year about five about five more than last year that were that were uh that we awarded last year and the total commission budget in 2026 uh proposed budget is 619 785 and that's very close to 25 that's about a 95 increase compared to prior year as i mentioned there were some some uh some decreases and increases but overall the budget's very close to 25 that includes our general comments and be happy to answer any questions thanks uh before we do questions les can you um the aid organizations process can you make sure clarify and who sits on that committee and how we take applications maybe a little history yeah sure yeah we uh every year we we usually put the grants uh out uh middle of may and we and we usually give the applicants anywhere from one four weeks to five weeks to respond this year we get in five weeks uh the deadline this year was june 13th and we have a subcommittee that we've had the same committee for a few years now and the subcommittee is the city manager myself and uh and phyllis uh of course the uh library director so we we meet once or twice and we go through all the applications uh and unfortunately the applications requests are always more than than the funding available i mean that's that's for sure it's been that way for a number of years but we go through the applications and then we uh make recommendations to the city commission and that's normally at the second workshop and then we we sort of have uh proposed awards for city commission's consideration and then the city commission can accept those we change those uh you know uh during that meeting uh and normally we we try to uh like for instance we've got 217 000 in the proposed budget and we have our we have our civic partners uh we have three civic partners and the civic partners are are allocated a certain dollar amount and they're actually a line item in the budget uh and and and the the other is just a pot of money for grant applications and non-profits can can apply and then and then they're awarded uh you know based on uh funding availability and just the application itself we do look at the quality applications we look at to make sure that they are are answering the questions that we ask and they're providing financial information uh to the best of their ability because we do ask for that too and we also ask them what they did with the money the prior year you know we want to if we get if they received funding the prior year we want to make sure they spend on the programs that they said they would spend it on we look at that as well but that's kind of a high level the process yeah and i just think um jennifer you step in if i'm not saying it right but i think historically this process came out of um getting throughout the year just getting random requests and so in order to create a structure this was created for some time there actually was a commissioner that would sit on the committee but that just put a lot of pressure on one commissioner um uh so um you know so it was just a more streamlined approach and and then the civic partners came out of the fact that you had particularly dunnean fine arts center and historic museum who tended to uh get more support over the years that was just kind of like a long-standing partnership issue and so it was a way to you know just help them not fully have to compete for their baseline number um but anyway and then dunnean cares was added just because of what they do and the importance of what they do so i think that's anything else jennifer that i'm missing from historical okay so i'll go to uh questions and i guess i'll start uh mission guard thank you mayor uh the process looks sound um the product looks in line with what we've got going on with the budgetary environment um i would consider this to be something of a um modest budget increase would you share that point of view less yes i do share that point of view and and i also want to mention i apologize we we did uh we have a handout that's that is in front of the commissioners we we did we did uh we had a request late yesterday to add one more bit of information in the uh in the summary level and the hard copy in front of you what we've done compared to the staffing is we've added on the far the far left shows uh 24 actuals we added the 24 budget to show a little more comparison between the 25 and 24 budgets when to point that out but yeah but i i would agree it's it's a it's a modest increase uh from year over year commissioner okay i have no more questions okay uh vice mayor thank you mayor uh with the the civic partners um if i can recall correctly i'm please correcting if i'm wrong those were broken out and kind of given um a special status as a partnership type of thing uh if i remember the conversation it was because these were bigger organizations and the intent was to to kind of put the city and those organizations in a position where they could wean off is is a terrible phrase but i'm having problems this morning with phrasing but uh so they would no longer be part of of this process am i remembering correctly and if i am has there been any any procedures in place or has anybody looked at that how that could happen or is this just a new structure we're looking at yeah that that was the that was the plan i mean the plan was that they would become self-sustaining at some point and and we would and we'd hope that the the numbers our contribution would go down a little every year and they have gone down some i will say they they started out about 50 000 roughly 55 000 with the dunny and fine arts and the uh and the museum which were the first two that the mayor mentioned uh so they and now they're at 37 000 and the same the same as last year in in the proposed budget in 26 but they have have got they have gone down some uh so uh you know i don't i i don't know exactly when we're going to get them to uh that you know continue to decrease to that zero amount but we have seen the balance decrease um jennifer you want to add to that yeah i mean i think that when the committee um considers the applications um we need to talk to them about their plan moving forward to decrease um the the contribution there was um it's difficult though because i think everybody's experiencing the same thing we are as far as labor issues and you know those types of things as far as running their their um organizations the other thing is i just wanted to add to that as i recall one of the reasons why we wanted to add a line item for for our civic partners is because they felt that they were competing against each other as well and they weren't comfortable with that you know in terms of if if i get more than you get less and they didn't like that and i you know we're all you know pulling in the same direction and so um that was one of the main reasons why they became a line item but we'll definitely um have a chat and look through their their applications we comb through them uh pretty thoroughly the the the applications we even look at the reserve that the organization has um you know and the expenditures from last year and the proposed expenditures next year so it's a pretty thorough uh and rigorous review of of the applications and they respond i mean every now and then we get an organization that we get something on a cocktail napkin and you know we usually don't don't entertain that but um they do a good job with their applications oh cocktail napkin and not a a beer napkin well yeah right yes which means they have a reserve somewhere right now and you know and just to be clear i'm actually not even proposing we wouldn't even continue that i like the idea of the breakout and it it looks good to me with them separated out and with the label of civic partner i i because i think that is warranted on who we are as as a community to go these are non-profits not that i would ever put one above another but there are certainly those and uh that stand out a little bit and these organizations do i just was more curious as to where we were and i do notice that actually while we over time have decreased it it actually has increased from 24 to 27 uh from 35 to 37 so at least in that short period of time uh it's actually uh increased but yeah to acknowledge that in uh times of inflation times of labor crunches and and and stresses that especially in the non-profit world and especially in this period of time when we really don't know what's happening at the state or especially the federal level what's going to happen with any grants that these organizations use to help sustain them over time uh remains to be seen uh other than that uh the the budget looks good i am curious uh regular salaries and and wages is uh uh did that go down no did yeah it went yeah why and you might have mentioned it and i was focusing on the orgs but the very first line salaries and wages yeah the salaries went up in 25 uh you know we we adjusted this the the wages in 25 for 26 are you mentioning that are you mentioning the small 1100 dollar the 1100 yeah you know what that 1100 is jean off the top of your head when we um put in the um increase that was approved for the 25 budget we put an estimate in and it might have just been a little bit higher estimate also there are changes with the commission and who is getting um uh the waiving benefits and stuff like that that affects that line item because if you if you waive your benefits you get a stipend right across everywhere those kind of little little things like that might affect okay yeah other than that i'm i'm i'm good so thank you thank you mayor great okay um mr samberg the uh i guess as i look at that list the first thing if it doesn't have the word dunedin in it immediately i walk away from it and stop looking have have we reviewed that every one of these are located and based here in dunedin well if i may bless um so uh yes but it's not a requirement to submit a grant or to be awarded funding uh for example um there there is a a ride share program uh for the elderly and it's not located in dunedin specifically and they usually i don't know if they did last year but they usually submit an application so there are some um that have a county-wide uh impact and usually they will tell us exactly how many they serve in dunedin as part of the application well great for pointing that out which one is that so i don't see anything that looks like right neighborly cares would be neighborly cares was one i don't know i don't know about the ride share that actually that was what i was talking about is neighborly cares because they do the ride right yeah yeah okay that's more food right yeah and which one does the uh transportation i don't recall which one but they might i mean neighborly cares may do it too but yeah yeah but you're right they're county-wide but they service our community and they give us the numbers that they serve within our community okay right um which actually they always want a lot more based on what they service but we give them what we can what are the total uh amount of applications that were received i heard it was five more than last year but yeah we've got the applications uh we got the three civic and then the other pot is uh 20 applications 20 20 20 of 20 have applied for 2026 yeah and so obviously then we saw some this year that didn't apply last year yeah we had some in 20s we have some new ones in 26 for sure two or three and and we had uh la and last year we awarded 15 different groups so we've got like five more than we awarded last year so we might have had 17 applications last year uh there was a couple we did not give funding it for we we got one last year that was a brand new non-profit it wasn't even a 501c3 yet so we we told them to come back you know right that happens from time to time but we do have about i'd say four or five more this year it looks like so if we were to you know i'm not saying that i'm committed to this but reduce some of these numbers could we add some of those that were not selected if we had the same amount of budgeted money uh well if uh another thing we do just to mention is we we normally recommend and it's up to the commission we we recommend that of of that 217 000 we have budgeted we normally hold back 10 000 uh because we do that because uh sometimes uh non-profits will come to us during the year they miss the budget process and we and if they do that then we give them the opportunity to uh request during the year and then we'll bring that to the commission last couple years nobody last couple years people have not requested but but but we have in the past had ones come later so we we do try to hold back a little bit just in case there's someone that applies later just want to mention that so if i can add to commissioner sambergen's question um so typically we make a recommendation of the city commission for all those that have requested funding and are eligible um the ones that usually we don't recommend to the city commission either in the case that that that les gave you it's not a 501c3 yet it's a fledgling not-for-profit and we need to to get some track record going before we recommend or they don't serve dunedin because there we do get applications of of uh some organizations that really we can't identify the impact on dunedin okay so we we don't recommend funding for that so there's usually a reason why those aren't recommended for funding but we usually you know their ask is almost always way higher than what we're able to afford but we we spread it out pretty pretty evenly okay so during the application process there's no parameters of this is the max this is the minimum there's they just ask for what they want right okay and it was it was noted that uh there sounds like there's some uh review let's say in the in the aid to private organizations where'd the money go how was it spent does that also carry over to the three civic partners is there that much review of where their money went also yes yes we asked the civic partners to provide that uh what they spent the the funding on prior year and make sure that it was in accordance with with what they had planned on spending it on so no salaries no bonuses no retirement whatever no not that stuff it's not it's normally uh special special programs or or a capital item or something like that depending you know okay and you you track that and you know exactly where it went then so yeah we we asked them to provide an accounting of you know you know what'd you spend that 35 000 last year and provide that yeah okay our three civic partners and i have to compliment them they're really good at keeping their numbers for this application they are good i was just having everybody playing by the same set of rules that's all i had thank you less thank you mayor cool um gosh i don't even know if i have a question i do have one though um the uh our flowers what do we what do we allocate for when we do flowers for someone significant for a funeral or because you know flowers you don't want some lame flowers going to somebody like you know former former mayor yeah i just want to make sure but we we have administratively we can up that we don't have to do that here we can we do not have to do that here we can uh increase it um and in fact yeah yeah we need to in talking to staff yeah it's just you just get and and it's it's still important especially you know when you have you know somebody who's served the city and you know passes away or whatever so yeah okay uh i don't really have anything else like um what is our what is our commission salaries now they are uh 19 19 100 for the mayor and 15 15 600 for the commissioners there we go we're making the minimum wage congratulations no you don't that was uh yeah so when i'm talking to kids groups and they ask what we make it's always like what that's all you make like that's not a real job it's your allowance it's probably more than what i make i have to explain it's a civic job i still don't talk to teresa in the halls okay uh so do you need us to formally approve this uh yeah if you could just give us your your approval with that we can make that one change so we just consensus everybody agree with the census okay and also mayor just want to make sure that you're okay with the committee uh being less phyllis and myself that sounds like a horrible committee no no that doesn't involve one of us yeah that's right it does not yeah so has that same group been there for a while yes about four four years it's 2019 it's working okay the mayor directed me thank you you didn't want to be here when one of us sat on it it got really interesting anyway uh anyway but i i think it's a good group um so okay uh we're good with that so informational items i think um you know our main commission comments are on thursday but um jennifer since we have a few minutes i mean can you sorry i'm throwing this out at you you can kill me can you just update us on like douglas ab baywood shores the marina yeah i just saw something come across on baywood shores so that made me think of them but douglas abs had some things going on too so i just want to yes so on douglas avenue um we did uh construct a berm um around the retention area small berm um the uh we went out to had a contractor do it for us we installed tidal valves um in i think it's a what is it four tidal valves um the tidal valves appear to be working there is water uh encroaching at high tide in through um one of the storm water uh outlets and we're actually um uh uh we had a cruise on site this morning to have a look at at what we need to order in order to like additional tidal valves and you know i don't know the technical words for those things but there there is we think a remedy um for that for that uh um uh high tide flooding the the sunny day flooding um the as far as the uh baywood shores goes i know that we're inspecting the the tidal valves uh we do have again some sunny sunny day flooding uh at high tide uh that neighborhood uh was informed when we put in those tidal valves that if it's a high tide uh and we do have rain then it's not going to drain until the tide goes down you know so um and that might be what's happening at um at north douglas we're also uh looking at that as well so north douglas is we're continuing to work on it we we have some remedies um that i don't think we had envisioned originally so uh uh trevor bacon and michelle monteclara are working with uh janette the resident uh representative resident in that area so um and there was communication uh this week yesterday between the two of them um as far as the marina goes the marina is open and it's open to operations yes the peninsula is open um it's open to pedestrians uh the uh we're we're slowly populating it i'm signing the slip rental agreements every day and laurie is doing a fantastic job i mean we get i get the slip rental agreements at 11 o'clock at night you know and 5 a.m in the morning and she is just cranking them out and and i can tell you they do not sit on my desk i sign them the minute i get them uh so uh the ramp will remain closed the marine advisory committee uh i asked their opinion they were very clear uh that they want the ramp to remain closed and for several reasons uh one of them is that that we're probably we're going to go under construction that's another thing um we're going to go under construction on the east bulk head wall and repair the north bulk head wall uh we opened the the the request for bids and it came in within budget so uh we are steaming forward on that is um so it's difficult to open the ramp and then close it again almost immediately uh also we wanted to to remain the domain of the slip renters as they as they uh come back into the marina the um the uh another reason is that uh the causeway still closed you know a portion of it the the um jet skis have no place else to launch and and we would have an uh inundation is that a word of um jet skis at our ramp if we open it and keep in mind it's still a construction site the you know the marina is it's stabilized to operations which is what the commission told us to do and which is what we did um and but we don't need a lot of traffic in and out of there uh in the in the basin itself uh apart from our slip renters um we are working with clear water to help us construct a new landing for the ferry um and you should see an agenda item on your your next city commission meeting jennifer's done a super job of working with a clear water attorney uh to get uh some you know kind of a an agreement as far as who does what it only take them a couple days um and we have had clear water ferry in there um to to have a look at getting the new ferry because we need to get um as you know and and commissioner sambergen had mentioned it on the day is we need to get people in and around the marina you know and and pedestrians in the shops and that type of a thing so working hard on that the um the playground is as you can see up and up and running we replaced the ground cover and a portion of it there's a small sinkhole uh we had to replace uh fill in and replace uh so a lot of activity in the marina um as far as the um the pier goes the fishing pier goes we are uh we're looking to uh we're putting out the do the design right and then put out an rfb and hopefully get that uh starting construction according to clay as early as is january and um i don't have my phone jorge so typically jorge would send me a message right now with anything i forgot oh i'm sorry my bad i thought we done it right yes so thank you jorge saved me on that one uh so correction for the record in case you know all four people watching didn't hear but anyway so the uh the the berm in that book two of my lawyers right the berm is under design and permitting on north douglas so i apologize for that um the electric pedestals they are in order um they as you know there was a delay uh because they're in high demand but we still anticipating that they're coming in middle part of july and we're in july now uh buell is standing by there are electrician standing by to um to uh install them uh lori is working with a manufacturer to get you know if you have 10 send them and you know so send what you have um we are not going to keep the ones that we have uh the the reason is is that there's salt water and you know encroachment within those and we're although once you plug them in you may be okay for 10 days after that you're going to have a problem or whatever it is so uh we don't want to take that risk and assume that liability um within our marina or having sold it to anybody else for anything but scrap so um i think east north douglas baywood electric pedestals i mean when will they winners the they'll all be done they'll all be good is that still like mid july that we're going to get them mid july start getting them mid july so they can be i would i would say i'm going to go out on a limb here that it's not going to take us that long to install them apart from the number of them but i can't give you a date mayor i don't know it come on come on yeah that's fine yeah do we have a a shovel date on the east wall coming to us yeah just not next meeting maybe the bid the 17th yeah yeah so it's it is on schedule which is good news we need to issue the nose to proceed and we're hoping to start in in august isn't that the bid that came in like half a million dollars under yes yeah we budgeted 3.5 million it's at 3 million 47 000 or something like that it had with an august august start date yes okay when's that ever happened coming down yeah yes and so um the good news is mayor you shall i or would you like to no you you go ahead okay uh go for it the uh the governor signed the budget yesterday and our 1.5 million for the marina is included in the state budget yes i remember thank you thank you governor and um and also we heard from our lobbyists yesterday uh and also the gabion repair is included in the budget so the the governor has has funded both of our appropriations well i won't say the senators when we sat in that senator's office yeah he made it locals calling too so yeah yes we did we had a lot of help and keep in mind too we'll we'll you know when fema pays for the marina we'll get 1.5 million less right so they're not we're not gonna they're you know no double dipping yeah but the good we'll have the funding assured in our budget so um yes yeah and i you know i just the marine advisory committee uh i'm just very grateful to them uh they've done a fantastic job of of a very contentious issue to begin with um they took a lot of hits they kept their heads they they have been fantastic they really have been and and uh we have a what i feel is a really good dialogue with them at this point anybody else have any questions for the manager since we got a i i do just since we're on this topic uh jennifer with the with the talk at the federal level and fema and what they're going to do and push things for the state i know there's only so much that the state is going to be able to do right and so i'm just thinking about our reserve and i know we're in very cautious times and i know that our upcoming budget talks are going to be painful and stressful but within that is there any thought on the need to i know we have a desire to increase our reserve but is there any conversation or is there any ability to increase that reserve uh so so i'll try it out so we're in a better position right right um i'll trot i'll trot out on this um uh we do have a meeting scheduled for uh january 18th january july 18th i know it begins with a j uh yeah i know and that's that's on the that's our budget workshop right now we have a balanced budget that we're going to be presenting to you a draft balanced budget um the question is if we are to increase the reserve um substantially then there are things we will not be able to do or services will have to decrease so we'll need to or you know increase revenues and there are all sorts of different ways to do that too but um and we can come up with some recommendations what we know what we know so far unless i have talked about this quite a bit is that if anything happens with fema it's going to be next year that that this last hurricane season is is still funded fema is still in place and that it would be proactive perspective if you will so that's most important we'll be able to uh uh you know in our various funds be able to uh reimburse ourselves for for the two storms it's it's moving forward which is what you're talking about increasing our reserve and i think that we need to have that conversation we do the budget workshop um but and and staff will have an idea of of what those larger items would look like to increase the reserve but i really don't think that uh the federal government is going to leave it up to the states without some sort of uh funding assistance yeah exactly so so because really florida is the number one customer of fema um so and and i don't i don't see that ever changing uh and so the question is for the state of florida which is what the fourth largest state um is it not i think it is so yeah so um how is it that a state that experiences those that number of stores that storms in that magnitude is is left without emergency assistance in its entirety so i think that things are going to happen in those terms um and it might be just the state government uh um increasing their own reserve to to accommodate you know i i'm not really sure but it's definitely a conversation to be had yeah and i would love and i know you're going to do this so it's not like i'm telling you something new but in preparation for those budgets if we do have to have that conversation instead of the commission saying i think we need to i would like to have some direction from you that we need to do this so then it's we get it now it's just the commission's decision what projects what services are we going to have to cut or how do we come up with that shortfall to help you as opposed to the commission making the decision well we think because then it just gets all all muddy because there's no doubt that the state will increase their reserves i would think so but i'd rather even though that the impact may not be in in the current upcoming budget cycle i'd rather do five percent this year and five percent next year as opposed to ten percent when we need to because that's just a big chunk so if we can look into the crystal ball and see where things might be heading let's take smaller bites year to time instead of having to take one giant bite well actually that's a very good point and um the less and i uh our finance director have had conversations uh because moving forward whenever we you look at our budget you see that we go into um negative figures on the outlying years and we always do there's a there's a carry forward uh that we have there's um all sorts of different things that impact that uh our safer grant then the all the firefighters that we saw today that we've managed to hire as a result of a grant that we have as you know um it's going to become a um liability if you will to the city of dunedin in 2028 meaning we're going to need to we have a grant for three years and then we have to pay for the firefighters a huge chunk of it the storm assistance and all those sorts of things so conversations that i've had with less is we want to put together for all of you what that plan looks like to uh at least on the outlying years um to ensure that we have that 15 percent reserve when you look at our budget year to year to year every year in the past when we end up with our actual budget it's actually way above our reserve level um because it's a it's it's a it you know it's a kind of a moving target if you will what did we not do what did we manage to save what came in higher than we thought and all those sorts of things so our reserve is good in the past years but we use that chunk to balance the next year's budget right so it just kind of rolls forward um and then as you get the outlying years then you know those those fund that funding thins because we're always assuming it's a 15 percent reserve so um yes absolutely we'd be happy to do that uh it's already uh something that he and i are baking in the oven um and and you know like i said there are all sorts of things i mean there's decreasing services there's increasing revenue there's um you know and and if you want to get to for example a 20 percent uh reserve which is something that we've really been striving for then exactly what that looks like um you know the one thing i want to be very clear about is that uh the when we present you the budget this year it's going to be a fiscal year 2026 and that's it because we usually provide the forecast it'll be an addendum in the budget and but the forecast a lot of people think that you are adopting that deficit budget in the future right you're not you're adopting this year and it's balanced because it has to be balanced by state law and it has to be balanced because we're fiscally prudent so um but the we we need a plan moving forward to to address that deficit budget because we recognize it every year all of us uh and um so and there are all sorts of things that we would do now that may not be applicable later but at least you know we have we recognize it and we have a way to address it that's a really long answer to your question but thorough thank you mr sanford it's um just two two different things you know i at least once a week i really go out and tour the city tour the community and this is just my opinion and see if anybody else agrees with me i've really seen a lot of houses for sale unlike in the past you know there was people you know there's no realtors call it inventory and i've been watching realtor.com and it it seems like the real estate market in dunedin is changing and i'm sure it's because of the hurricanes and hurricane damage i've just wanted just my opinion i don't know if anybody else has noticed that and the other thing getting back to that um money that is coming out of tallahassee when uh when we were in tallahassee i remember sitting in that senator's office and he was very confident that we would get that so now if that goes to the marina advisory committee or it gets out into the public is there an immediate earmark for what that money would go towards to satisfy the the people that are going to ask about what are we going to do with that specific amount of money you have an answer to that the 1.5 million yes well it's it's it's listed as an appropriation for repair of the marina so yes i mean we need to uh doc a doc b uh we were already going to replace them but they must be replaced sooner than later at this point um so so we've got to spend it in the marina on on the replacement of you know and and the east uh bulkhead wall and you know the the replacement or repair of the marina that's why we asked for the money so that's how we have to spend it so that would go towards that specific so yes the answer would be it's going to go towards the replacement of the east wall it's not going to go for something else that no it's kind of in outside of the basin no it is not okay that's all i needed and i think that it's sorry mayor i think it's really important to note too that we have gabion repair in there and those gabions that were damaged i mean that's that's a big deal for us yeah that's big do we um are we going to do a thank you in some form to the state for the governor's office yes absolutely i don't know what laura recommends but we should uh we should uh think about that okay that would be nice because there's a lot of stuff that got caught so so the little birdie that sits in the front row here and text yeah yeah so uh the ship date is july 17th of the um pedestals and it the install is two weeks oh okay that's awesome um you know i'm going to pick up on something that commissioner team we got going here commissioner sandbergen said which was um and somebody had said that like the homes for sale and you know interesting you know back in my house now and so you get the feel of the of the street right and so you go down that street and it's a mix i mean it's it's houses for sale and of course on alt 19 there's houses for sale those were houses that got flooded and my neighbor's house is getting prepped to be lifted and down further there's houses abandoned um i mean it's a it's a it's it's interesting um and actually uh a couple of my neighbors are concerned i was going to say this tell you this uh that like um at some of the houses with pools they're black pools like their their houses are abandoned the pools are black um so some public some safety and health concerns um and i think i think we probably need to take some time on that west side of um of alt 19 and all those subdivisions to make sure we understand what's going on there um you know matter of fact there's a house that's right next to one of the parks that apparently maybe there's a homeless person that's because it's in the house is abandoned i think it's an older couple that's not even living there um i don't know i think it's something we're going to have to be a little bit proactive about understanding what's going on in some of the neighborhoods so that we um don't have you know problems that we don't want um but yeah it's it's a very uh changing interesting environment of course some houses are just torn down and already and they're the property's sitting there waiting to be built on or maybe they're selling the property i don't know but it's it's really interesting how it's changed the landscape of those neighborhoods for sure mayor if i could piggyback on that this information is from may so it's two months old so sorry about that uh but i i reached out to some realtor people i'm real concerned about affordable housing in dunedin and and the rumors of who's buying up this housing stock and and all of that and and the response was recent reporting indicates that corporate investors now own more than 117 000 single-family homes statewide with 27 000 of those in the tampa bay region including panamas county roughly 70 of those properties are backed by wall street and private equity firms which often prioritize investor returns over long-term community stability the shift has had real impacts on affordability competitive or competition for primary home buyers and the character of neighborhoods in dunedin specifically data from investor focused platforms show that over 300 properties currently listed as investment properties with an average rental return of over 2 000 per month and so it just shows that people are looking at housing stock as investment opportunities and it is having a great negative impact on the definition of community and neighborhoods and in my mind that even includes short-term rentals you know and so even the people that love dunedin so much that they buy other homes to allow people to rent is taking a home opportunity away from families and the less housing stock you have drives the housing price up and so for these people that are anti-development because of traffic or homes stop building is not an answer but and i don't know what and i'm sorry i'm getting on a this isn't a platform situation so i apologize but jennifer are there are there anything that cities can do to protect the communities over and that's either jennifer but i see the one backed away and said what can we what can we do to protect our neighborhoods to help promote and protect that sense of community well i think you have some i think you have some of the protections in place in your land development code with regard to like construction your architectural review boards and getting that feel your ability and the tools you've given to the community to designate as historic districts to go ahead and keep or i'm sorry and historic homes i should say not historic districts yet but to keep all of um those elements of the community kind of going forward but as far as preventing someone from buying private property your your hands are tied there so if they corporations get to do it right if they want to sell to a corporation or an individual who wants to use as an investment property you do have regulations on your books with regard to short-term rentals and so you're you're fortunate in that regard a lot of communities don't so you do have some control over you know that and where they are and how they operate um but short of that you don't get to stop investors from i i i i get that you know and this is a for me a terrible example but i i equate it to a boa constrictor that we know how it kills its victims just by constricting and that they're very patient and every time the victim exhales it tightens just a little bit more and it's very patient until you can't breathe anymore and i see these private equity firms kind of doing the same thing they're very patient and as soon as there's a storm and if a sale sign comes up is and they just grab it they're very patient and just over time they're just purchasing more and more and more and it just it just it's very painful to be in a position to where it's private property and they're allowed to do it but at the same time what they're allowed to do is actually destroying communities right and but like i said you are though um fortunate in that you do have those regulations so even when they buy that property they're still going to have to follow your regulations right right right right yeah and in a lot of days it's okay we're protected against the short-term rentals but they just turn them into rental properties and so there's no wealth in renting properties and um which is what i'd like to do in the communities young families to come in and build their wealth right through through home ownership if that's their desire and it's just as long as the community knows that we are doing everything possible to allow them the opportunity to build their wealth instead of that wealth going to wall street um uh i'd like to go in that direction as long as we're able to say we're doing what we can that's fine i think we're very lucky that we have the regulations that we're allowed to have in short-term rentals right because we're such a popular destination and that's that's where big money is you could just see our neighborhoods getting chipped away if we were did not have the restricted areas um you know there's just so many people that would buy a property for that kind of investment so um but no i get it i mean you worry because again it's it's about the community it's not about corporations so right and given my comments about short-term rentals i know that there are some wonderful very community supported residents that have short-term rentals and so i i don't want to feel that i'm i'm negatively bashing them but overall short-term rentals are are a huge problem throughout the state i don't know about them but throughout the state and as long as we're on top of those those houses outside the district and we're able to tap down real hard we do okay you notice uh the code enforcement board it meets this afternoon you'll you see a case or two every code enforcement board of somebody's illegal short-term rental very good good thank you cool um okay anything everybody good all right well we i'm going to adjourn the meeting uh meeting officially adjourned