COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY - Jul 23, 2026

Jeff Gow: yes · Steven Sandbergen: yes · Tom Dugard: yes

Outcome: And that motion passes unanimously. ✓

July 23rd, 2026, Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. I'd like to call this CRA meeting to order. And the first order of business is Vice Mayor Walker is on a work business obligation trip out of the state, actually. And so could I entertain a motion to excuse Vice Mayor's absence?

So moved. Second.

Okay. A motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Opposed? Motion passed unanimously. Okay. And I know that Vice Mayor will zoom in with us for the regular meeting, but he couldn't pull it off to be here for this one. So, okay. Citizen input. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on a topic that is not on the agenda? Okay. Seeing no one, I will close. Citizen input. And we're going to go to the approval of the minutes for the May 21st, 2026, Community Redevelopment. Are there any changes? Okay. Hearing none. I'm going to have a motion to approve the minutes. So moved.

Second.

Okay. Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. And next is Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Committee report, which is given by the chair, Alan McHale.

Alan McHale. McHale, he's here. Is he here? Yeah, I don't see Alan. He must have a conflict or something. Oh, is he Alan? Okay.

He what? I thought he was traveling. Maybe he is. Okay. Well, he's a busy, busy man. So we appreciate when he can get here. But, okay. So we'll just basically roll over that then. And we'll go to 1C, which is Community Redevelopment Agency Annual Independent Audit. And I'm going to turn to Les with Jeff Wolf, partner with Forvis Massars. Did I say that right? Forvis Massars?

Sure. If I may, Mayor, this is something that's a statutory requirement is for the CRA to have an audit each year. This is also something that will go on the web once it's, you know, if it's approved tonight. So this is kind of an important item for us. But, yes, we've got, obviously, Les and Jeff to give you a few highlights. And we're very pleased, again, that there weren't any red flags on the CRA. Always, yes, always. It's a good thing.

But not unusual. I mean, I don't know that we've ever had red flags, right?

No. No, we've always been good. Of course, there's been some communities on the East Coast that have had some various issues. And we've made sure that our stuff is really in good shape. Good. Okay, great.

Okay. Jeff? Or Les, whichever one wants to start.

I'll let Jeff go.

Engagement partner for the city and the CRA. As mentioned, the CRA, it's really about a compliance audit. The financial information is part of the city, the city's act for, and really audited that process. So it's really about compliance. You know, it's the CRA collecting the money as required by statute and the TIF calculation, and then it's being spent in accordance with Florida statutes and the CRA plan. So I really won't get into the financial information. It's really a compliance audit. And as noted, there's no issues noted as part of the audit. So I'll really just go over the reports, be pretty brief. But, you know, I don't want to undersell, you know, a clean audit is a clean audit. But, you know, if there's any questions on anything you want me to expand, I'll be more than happy to do that. So our first report is our report on the audit of the financial statements and whether they are materially correct. Of course, we had an unmodified opinion. That is the highest level of assurance you can receive that your financial statements are materially correct. Our next report is our yellow book report on internal control. It's part of our audit and really the city audit. We gain an understanding of internal controls. We test controls, but we don't render an opinion on controls. The standards don't require that. But if we had any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in those controls, we would communicate those to you. And again, happy to report, no issues, no internal control findings noted. Our next report is our audit general required management letter. This report covers kind of several things. Really, first, if there's any other findings that maybe didn't reach the level of the internal control report, but still significant enough to communicate to you. But again, that's a clean report. No findings, no issues noted. Our last report, probably the most significant one, though, because it relates to the compliance with the Florida statutes that govern CRAs and also the statute related to investments. So this is just an examination report just to determine, again, that the CRA is collecting the money in accordance with the calculation. It's being deposited timely. And then ultimately, are the funds being budgeted and being spent in accordance with statutes and the CRA plan? And again, as noted, you know, this was a clean report, no findings, no issues noted. So overall, you know, clean audit, really no issues discussed. Kind of one of those things, no news is good news. But I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have on the CRA.

Okay. Before we do questions, Les, do you have anything to add before I take questions?

No, nothing. It was, like Jeff mentioned, clean audit. I just want to mention that we'll be presenting a citywide audit on August 6th, and Jeff will be back to present that as well. I would have mentioned that.

Lucky you, Jeff. A little more, Scott. Well, we want more good news. Good news, of course. Good news.

Okay.

We want more good news. I'll have a little bit. As long as it's good, we'll keep coming to it. Don't come back otherwise. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. Questions for Jeff, starting with Commissioner Sandbergen.

I really don't. How many, do you do the work yourself?

I'm the engagement partner, so I oversee it. I mean, am I looking at invoices? No, but I'm heavily involved in all parts of the audit, both the city and the CRA, so I'm very familiar with the work. At one point, I was probably the senior, so at one point, I have done the work, but I'm not involved in the detailed transactions. That's all I had, Mayor.

I did love that, though. No, I don't have any questions. I'll hear it in there. Sorry. Okay. Any questions, Commissioner Gow?

Clean audit? No, I'm clean.

Commissioner DeGuard, any questions?

Is there any testing in this audit? Is there any, do you do any asset testing, anything like that?

Well, so, I mean, there are some. There's a small pot of capital assets on there that we test. Certainly, we test the cash. It's a regular full audit, and actually, it gets more scrutiny because it has a smaller materiality than it would as a city, because as a city, it's not a major fund, so it gets lumped in with a bunch of other funds. But since it is separately audited, it has a separate materiality. We're certainly confirming the cash, which would be part of the city audit. Anyways, we test capital assets. Focus is really on the revenue, making sure the revenue is correct, and then also the expenditures are in accordance with the plan. But yes, absolutely. It's a regular full audit. But, you know, so it's, we test, you know, everything in accordance with materiality in our audit plan. Thank you. That's all I have, man.

Okay. I don't have any questions. Sounds good. I want to hear the same thing on August 6th about the city, so. Okay. I'm going to open it up for public comment. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. Seeing no one coming forward. I'll close public comment, and I will ask for a motion.

Move approval. Second. Second.

Okay. Commissioner Gow. Commissioner DeGuard. Okay. And any final comments? And I'll start with the maker of the motion. Commissioner Gow.

No comments, ma'am.

Commissioner DeGuard.

No comments.

Commissioner Sandberg. No comments. Okay. I don't have any comments either, so all in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes unanimously.

Thanks, Jeff.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Edgewater Drive parking lot lease agreement. We have Bob and Matt going to give us an update presentation on that.

Yeah. Let me just introduce it, and Matt's going to take it. This is 715 Edgewater, okay, across from Edgewater Park, down by the marina. It's a very important lot to us. We lease it. We've been doing it for years, and it's also one of our most economical parking leases. But Matt's going to take it from here.

Yes. Good afternoon. I'm Matt Jackson, Economic Development Manager. As you can see on the screen there, that is the location map of the lot. It's a 32-space parking lot. As Bob mentioned, it's a very important lot across from the marina. There's been a wonderful partnership with Ms. Bushnell since 2020, and Ms. Bushnell is not looking to make any money off of this lease, just pay for any fees that she incurs, such as property taxes, and in addition, any associated costs with additional liability insurance that she requested here. Also, staff has been working with Parks and Recreation to beautify the lot. There's been some additional landscaping there in regard to palm trees, some cleaning of shrubs and such at the south end of the property, as well as adding some fresh show. It will be for a three-year term with three available one-year terms after that, and staff does recommend approval of the new lease agreement. Happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Questions for staff? Please read that.

No questions.

Mr. DeGuard, questions?

What is the zoning on this property?

Well, I had to take a look at it. Yeah. Definitely, at one point in time, somebody was looking at condos there, so I'm probably thinking it's D.C., but I can send you an email to verify that zoning.

Okay. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

She was very receptive not to seeing it developed, so we were very fortunate in that. But we'll get you an email on that. Thank you.

Are the spots, are they marked, or is it just sort of find a spot?

There's wheel stops. It's shell, so there's wheel stops, but then there's no striping. Okay. Okay. That's all I needed.

So, I'm going to open up for a public comment.

Oh, sorry.

I don't have any questions, so it's a great deal Debra's giving us. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. Seeing no one, we'll close public comment. I'll ask for a motion. So moved.

Second.

Okay.

And I'll go to final comments, starting with maker of the motion, which is Commissioner Sandberg.

Nothing to add, Mayor.

And Commissioner DeGuard.

Nothing to add.

Mr. Gow.

No comment.

My only comment, and again, I'll just reiterate, I mean, what Debra Bushnell does for the city by doing this, I mean, it's fantastic. I mean, really, it's a, and plus I know, like, her heart is so with the city and what she wants us to be and be charming and all that. So she just is a great contributor to our community in a lot of ways, but this is a really nice way to do it.

No, I agree. And if I may add, the Mayor and Commissioner, too, especially with the marina, under construction and the loss of some parking, this is even more key right now. It's a heavily used area, actually.

That's great. Awesome. Okay. So all in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passed unanimously.

Okay.

Okay. Approval of amended CRA bylaws and Associated Resolution 26-02. City Attorney, please read CRA Resolution 26-02 by title only.

Community Redevelopment Agency CRA Resolution 26-02, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Dunedin as the governing body of the City of Dunedin Community Redevelopment Agency CRA, amending the CRA's bylaws and providing for an effective date hereof. That was Resolution 26-02, read by title only. Okay. Can I have a motion?

So moved.

Can I have a second?

Second.

I was starting to think that was a really controversial issue.

Okay. Well, I wanted not March, but May. Yeah, I know.

You know, I did think to myself, okay, well, this may not stay the same, and therefore we're making a motion that will have to be adjusted. But anyway, all good. So staff presentation, Bob and Matt.

Certainly. I'm going to turn it over here to Matt in a second. But this is really to get the bylaws in conjunction with the way we operate, which is more every three months than two months. Of course, what's in there, as you found, Mayor, is a 4-15 start time. That's certainly up the will of the CRA. But it does give you a little bit more time in between the commission. But Matt has something to add here, too.

So let me turn to Matt here a little bit on the bylaws. Yes, thank you, Bob. Just very little add to that. We just changed the meetings to be quarterly, to be more reflective of how many times the CRA meets each year. Also, in the original bylaws, the executive director was said to be employed and removed by the CRA. This was just updated to name the economic and housing development director to be the executive director of the CRA. And then last, the financial management section was added just to reflect required items, but nothing changing actual operations of the CRA. We do recommend approval of the revised bylaws, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I report to a lot of people, but Jennifer is my boss.

So I do serve with the pleasure of city manager.

Well, I did notice that this actually strips the CRA of powers.

No.

And I don't know if that's a strategy. No, no, no. Right away, I'm like, no.

No, you're still the boss, too. No, you're still the boss. Trust me. Yeah, I know. And my wife, too. This strips us of our power.

Anyway, well, your wife is totally the boss. She's the boss. No, I'm still the boss. Okay.

No.

Questions for staff? And I guess I'll start with Commissioner Sandberg.

No, I just, I see that 415. Are we going to, we will start to abide by the 415 start?

Well, I mean, was that actually put in there, thought through, because you guys acted shock that it was in there, so. I mean, that was off camera, so I, you know.

No, I understand. No, I was looking for it to be the same, but 415 or 430, whatever you'd like.

So you're just making it work, because it was in there?

It gives you a little more time for dinner, but it's whatever the pleasure of the CRA would like, so. So it was not on purpose.

Yeah, I mean, I, I personally, I think only one time have we collided, and, you know, I, I mean.

If you like 430?

It's almost kind of like, well, yeah, but do we have to be so rigid? I mean, isn't it possible to say maybe adjusted, you know, I mean, I don't know. Like, does it have to be like.

Sure. I mean, you can, you should identify what time you anticipate it to start.

Yeah, so, which will normally start at 430, or I don't know.

Yeah, so we can say at 430, and less otherwise, properly noticed. Yeah, there you go.

We just got to make sure that Michelle can public advertise, yeah.

Okay, and in the event that someone was to show up to see a specific item?

Yeah, I mean, I think it should be a set time either way. That's just me personally. Yeah, I do too. It's up, it's up to you guys.

No, that's fine. I mean, if you want to leave it at 430, but I think 430 is good enough. What's everybody else? Sure.

We, we tend to be, what Commissioner Kynes used to say, brief and brilliant. So we try to go through it fairly quickly if we can. So 430 can work.

I just honestly can only remember one time where we kind of like, it was close. But actually, it was actually good to have a reason to end, because what I remember was dragging on was not something that was dragging on with great purpose. Oh, that's correct.

We had a, yes, this is, yes, we did have that one time. Yes, you're right.

Just one time. It was very polite to say we had more time for dinner or something. I know, right? We just need to decide something. I don't think we're going to base it on that.

I was trying to come up with something, but no, 430 is fine. City Attorney can amend that and we can.

Well, especially since it was a mistake, you put 415. It was.

All right. I'll own up to it. It was a mistake. Okay. Right.

Yeah. And then not with the flexible language. Okay. I guess that seems to be the will of the people. That's right. Will of the commission. Will of the board. Any other questions?

That was all I had, Mayor.

Okay. Over on this side, questions? Commissioner Gall.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah. Are there any, and this kind of falls in line with the time start, but are there any rules or operational procedures that follow the bylaws? And the reason I'm asking is, it's very detailed. Here's when we're going to have the meetings. Here's where we're going to start. And I'm used to, with other organizations, you really, you create a framework with bylaws, but you also leave them flexible so that you can change at any time without it being a big deal and it's changing bylaws. Does it have to be this detailed?

It doesn't. It should identify, like, how you're holding your meetings. Like, they're going to be quarterly. If you don't want to identify what the months are that you're anticipating having it, that'd be fine, but it should say quarterly. I think it's a good idea to identify, you know, the location or time, unless otherwise, just because you're giving notice. You don't have rules. Like, with the commission, you have set, you do a resolution where you adopt all your rules and those rules stay in place until whatever. And this, with the CRA, you just don't have the same, you know, you don't have the rules separate from the bylaws, so they're kind of acting in that way. Yeah. So I think that's why it has more detail. Do you have to have it all in here? No. You could do it in a different way.

I was just wondering, under Chapter 163, you know, to have that kind of a little bit more solidified under Chapter 163, so. We can always call a special meeting, or we can cancel. You can do that.

Yeah. Yeah, I was just more curious on, I'm used to keeping them flexible versus detailed, but I don't have a dog in the fight. And I think we were teasing you about this earlier, Bob, but yes, acknowledging the economic and housing, you know, the director as the CRA guy. Yeah. That is something different. It is. And so what happens if you leave us?

If I leave you, Jennifer would, or a city manager would go out to hire a new economic and CRA director, so they'd have both those titles. It looks like when this was done many years ago, and, of course, it's functioned well, it kind of gave, you know, that the CRA hired the economic development director. When I came on board, I was hired, you know, previously by the city manager, John Lawrence, back at that time. And so we just thought this was a little bit more cleaner set as opposed to the CRA hiring someone independent of the city manager. Jennifer Bradley might have some comments on that. I don't know. But, yeah, I just think it's a little bit more appropriate because I serve dual functions.

Right.

You know, I'm serving some different hats, whether it's affordable housing, it's economic development, and, of course, the CRA. So that's why it seemed more appropriate to report to the city manager. Yeah, that's the will of the board here. That's my only questions.

Yeah, I'm just pondering it, you know. I mean, it's never a little thing to take for granted when you kind of shift the base, right? And I just am trying to understand, I mean, because in some ways it locks in, you know, we don't know what we're facing after November. Will we still have both things together? Will we have it? I don't know. I'm not suggesting that's where my, that's the first time I've ever thought that. But I'm just saying, but we'll always have the head of the agency. Remember. Who will be designated as that person under your title with the city. But, again, it's a little goofy, too, because, I mean, you know, I've got 40 years of history here, so I know that no one's ever, that I can remember, tried to act outside the realm of what we normally do with other directors.

But, you know, looking long-term, of course, the CRA sunsets in 2033, but you're still going to want, in my opinion, an economic and some portion for the downtown.

Right, yeah, the whole issue goes away. Correct. Unless we in some way keep a CRA, just with our own money.

Yes, so I think you're going to need an economic.

And then we'd probably have a new, or we'd probably look at it again, but we wouldn't necessarily shift power back, you know. That never happens between staff and commission, so I'm fully aware of that, and so I'm fully cautious about it. Right, so let's just say that, you know, Bob, we love you, you know that. But let's say we didn't like the new person you bring in after Bob, and then we were like, we're just unhappy. I guess I would assume, and I'm asking this more of, I guess, the attorney, I'm assuming that we would basically take a vote of no confidence, and four of the five of us would say we have a vote of no confidence in this CRA director, and then it would be up to the manager to say, no, I'm not going to get rid of him, or I will.

Yes, you could do that, and the other thing you could always do is, these are your bylaws. You could amend them, and you could say, this position is no longer our executive director, this position is our executive director, or whomever.

Right, and if we had four or fifth votes, and you'd always have the ability to do it, because it takes four or fifth votes anyway, so. That's the current one, right, yeah. That's the current. So either way, we kind of have control. I mean, yeah. Go ahead.

Well, I think if the city commission were to decide that they did not want the director of economic development and housing to be the executive director, it doesn't mean that that director would be leaving the employee of the city. It means that they're no longer the executive director of the CRA, right? Correct. Correct.

Correct, but if that's the main part of their job, I mean, obviously. Plus, if they got a four or fifth no confidence from the commission, you'd probably.

Yeah, I mean, it would be a very serious.

What's it take for the city manager to be gone? Is it four or fifth? I mean, I'm not, I'm not. It's the majority. Right, so if you have four or fifth, then we've got four or fifth for you, too. I'm well aware. I just want to make sure our power base is clear.

Actually, I serve at the pleasure of the city manager, so I don't have much protection. So I serve at the pleasure currently the way.

Correctly.

You know, actually, from my perspective.

Well, you know, the commission used to approve, as you know, the all director positions, and that could be very brutal and political, and it got changed, and I absolutely agree that it got changed. Yeah. But it never had the power to get rid of people either, which, you know, so they just had the power to approve it. Is that four-fifths still in there? The four, no. Uh-uh. No, basically, it would be, it would, what I'm suggesting is, either way, it would still be up to, what it would turn to, if you guys jump in, what it would turn to is that Jennifer would treat it like any director, the director, I'm not going to say Bob, serves it the will of the manager, the manager can say, nope, he's done, or if we were very frustrated and the manager wasn't listening to us, we would maybe do a vote, and we'd say, we have no confidence in this person, you need to take care, you know, do something. And so if four of the five of us said that, and she said, well, the heck with you guys, then there's a four-fifth vote that could remove her, too. So I'm just, you know, we, you know, I can't extreme here. Jennifer, we're both gone. I'm just saying, when push comes to shove, we still have the in-week, or we could change the bylaws, but again, we'd never have to do that.

I'm having trouble with hypotheticals here. The manager would be crazy. The manager is, too. So Jennifer and I are both gone. That's it. Well, if they're going, I'm leaving.

So Matt, be ready, right? Well, I do think if I may say also that. This is a great discussion, by the way. I mean, I have to be joined. It really is. It's Jennifer shaking my head. But from a recruitment perspective, I mean, it's, the executive director of the CRA is a natural fit as far as economic development goes. Right, right. And so, you know, and I think that having, as I said, those positions kind of in lockstep is really important for project coordination and that type of a thing. And so, I mean, anybody sitting here is going to look for somebody with that really strong CRA experience. And I know that when I was hired by the city, that was a, you know, that was a big point as well, that I had experience with CRAs. Right. And I did. And so, I see it from a different perspective in terms of it's really a strong recruitment. Of course you do. Yeah.

And why am I not surprised?

I'm just trying to spin this in a nice way.

But actually, what this tells me, and I didn't even realize it, is we could basically tell you, don't tell him what to do. We're telling him what to do. Right?

Yeah.

Because he works for us right now. Right. And now he won't. He will work for you.

Right.

So, that's the question of the chorus, guys. How do you feel about it?

That's all true. And is that the way it's always been?

Yes.

And is this amending that?

Yeah. It is. It is. But, again, I think it's been practiced in a way that deferred to the city manager. So, I think it really, in a sense, is going back to how it's been utilized, at least to mine. Now, in the beginning, it's possible that it really was more directive with the news when the CRA was nothing.

Sure. At one point, I want to get across as the CRA Director Economic, you're only as good as the resources you have. You need the resources of the city manager and all the other department heads. So, it's not a situation where you can just be independent. I need public works. I need community development. I need parks. I need them all. And unless the city manager sets the tone and the culture for that, the CRA Director is not going to do as well with the economic. That's just reality. I cross all different departments with the city manager, frankly, whether it's affordable housing, whatever it is. So, I think that's why it's important, you know, to have both.

You know, I'll just say this. I'm good with this because, actually, I think that there's so many CRAs that are not the city commission. That's correct. And our city has decided to make it the commission, which means we have dual control in multiple ways. And so, I think that I am. I'm good with it. But when I read it, I didn't want anybody to think, I didn't realize this is shifting a power away from the commission to you. But I'm good because, at the end of the day, we have power over you.

So, it's obviously been working all these years.

It has.

It really has. Let's not break it, then. Yeah. Well, again, I'm dependent on the resources of the city manager.

Yeah, that's true, too. Do you know what it is? I'm not going to do as well. That's a good point, too. And my thought is, it has been working with this in here for all these years. And also, with all these years, we've built up trust with Bob, that the new person coming in there, if there is, sorry, not applying anything, but if something happens, there won't be any trust with the new person. And so, we're relinquishing something that has had no impact for 15 years, but may have serious impact going forward, especially when it comes to our only leverage, then, is pressuring the city manager. And four-fifths votes, and now we have to have multiple votes, and now it becomes a big issue when it doesn't necessarily... If we leave this in here today, nothing changes. So, I'm just wondering why this...

Well, I mean, we both kind of got this started. I'll just say no. I mean, I actually think that we've been acting as if it's the way it's going to get changed to, and nobody... But, you know, it really only takes... I think Jennifer's right. From a recruitment standpoint, it takes politics out of it. And any time you take politics out of it, it's better for recruitment. It just is. Because we all get along, and it's... We get... You know, I think we make good, logical decisions, but that's not always true. And that would be the biggest danger in the future.

If I could, for a second. Tell me, how long have you been here, Bob?

I've been here since 1995.

And you interviewed for the process? Who did you interview in front of?

Yeah. You know, it's interesting you ask that, Commissioner. When I came on board in 1995, it was, of course, the mayor was working to at the same time. Our city manager was John Lawrence. And he had brought two commissioners who were also CRA members. It was Commissioner John Doglione, and it was Commissioner Jackson Arnold. And they interviewed me. And then it went to the city manager. And then they brought me on board. And so, on that situation, that's how that one worked at that time.

There's a two-edged sword here, and that's my point. If I truly think the manager needs this authority for the interview process. And we don't need to get caught into an interview if we don't need to. And I'm just thinking out loud. I'm also thinking of lines of authority and responsibility. And I prefer them go through the manager to you, which is what this will do. So, I'm just stating a position.

No, Commissioner, again, you know, just reemphasizing. I know I mentioned a couple times. If I don't have the resources with the city manager, and the city manager doesn't set the tone, whether department heads to work in cooperation, I won't do well. So, again, any day, it's community development, it's parks, it's public works, it's all those different departments. One more question.

It brings up one more question. In the roles you have with CRA and then community development, have you ever found yourself in a conflicted state because of a development that might be in one part of the town as opposed to the CRA? And have you ever found something like that occur?

I have not. I have not. You have to remember, we were 90%, 95% residential. So, I've never had a problem, you know, pivoting between Coca-Cola or Achieva and something in the downtown. Or today, we worked on affordable housing projects. So, no. Okay. It's been good. Thank you, Mayor.

No, Mayor.

Okay. So, to put that one to rest, I mean, does anybody want to change anything? I'm actually, I'll just say, I mean, I'm good with it now. I think, honestly, I really do think it's almost meant for ones that are independent CRAs that are not the commission because then they have their own person. They ought to be able to get rid of them or not get rid of them. And that's not who we are. We have the extra safeguard and protection, which is why I think we're one of the best CRAs. And so, it kind of makes sense.

I think what's nice, too, is that, you know, Jennifer has the pulse from all of you. And Jennifer can rein me in or direct me in a certain way for a one-on-one, which she does. So, she knows, you know, all the different tendencies and nuances of the commission. So, I have that ability to get her thoughts and voice and direction. So, that's pretty important to me, you know.

Well, in some ways, it's an efficiency because you do multiple things for the city. Correct. We're not segwayed just into one job.

Correct.

Okay. So, then, do I have everybody's questions? Does everybody else have a chance? I just have one. So, in terms of the January, March, July, October, I'm great. But if we miss one or we don't need one, it doesn't seem to say when we reschedule. I guess we can cancel it. And then we can call a special meeting if we still need one at a different time, right? So, there's still flexibility to do whatever we want.

You have flexibility. And one of the things that's important, we've had it not recently, but in the past, you know, I would talk to Jennifer. So, we might need a special meeting for a developer downtown. You know, whether it was the artisan or it was Bill Mazas or something. It didn't hit quite the timing that we need. We need that ability to call a special meeting on that because you are all going to be a player, especially if it's an incentive development-oriented type project and development agreement.

That being said, other than changing 415 to 430, is there anybody that wants to adjust anything else? Okay. So, could the makers of the motion, which was Commissioner DeGardt and Commissioner Sandbergen, are you good with changing 415 to 430?

Yes, I am. I agree.

Okay. And then I just need to open this up for public input. Anyone in the audience wish to come forward and speak on this issue? Okay. All right. I'm going to close public input and go to comments. I'll start with maker of the motion, Commissioner DeGardt.

I have no concerns regarding what I'm seeing here, but I do need to compliment our staff and what we do here. It's amazing. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. And seconder was Commissioner Sandbergen?

I couldn't imagine changing it. What a great job you and your staff do. I mean, this is why we're done eating. We just do things right. So, thank you for everything you and your staff have done. I have a few questions when we get to the downtown discussion, but I appreciate everything you do. Thank you.

We appreciate you and thank you. Our staff is great staff.

Okay. And Commissioner Gow? No comment. My comment is just that I really, really enjoyed that discussion. It's part of why I like to stay in elective business. It's just kind of fun.

I was like, who's my boss? I just thought it was important not to blow by it. I totally agree.

No, when I noticed it, I'm like, hmm, wait a minute. That's moving the power base. But, because we're commissioned and not a separate CRA, we have what we need. Okay. I'm going to do a roll call vote on this one.

Commissioner Gow?

Aye.

Commissioner Sandbergen?

Aye.

Commissioner Dugard?

Aye.

And Mayor Franey?

Aye. And that motion passes unanimously. I guess I should say four to O, since there's only four of us tonight. Okay. We'll go to Community Redevelopment Agency Director's Report. Okay. This is your Bob. You're on.

Yep. Thank you, Mayor and Commission. What I wanted to do here is just provide a little bit of a historical perspective of where the downtown has been. Of course, the other aspect I mentioned, and we covered a little bit under the budget here recently, is we need to update that CRA master plan. But I think it's also important to reflect and say, gee, this is how far we've come. You know, it's pretty impressive. You've seen this picture many times. I know that. I've planted it quite a bit. We always talk about the little haystack types there, the weed right there at the median. But you can see how far we've come. I'm going to go through some projects through redevelopment, and certainly happy to answer your questions you might have. The master plan, as I just mentioned, we need to update it. It was 2011, 2012. Time has really gone by. We've accomplished probably 90% of what was in that master plan. And we've got to get ready for the next day and the future and what the vision is and how we go ahead and keep our own city CRA so we can stay strong. Capital Projects, just want to give you a quick overview on that. Skinner Boulevard, they're out there putting in the irrigation, okay? They've gone ahead and got the soil beds ready. They're going to go ahead and start doing the landscaping, so it's pretty exciting. I do have some good news. I'm a little bit cautious with this. This just happened today. I did mention it to the city manager. It kind of made my day. It is not a done deal by any means, but I think you're all aware I'm very sensitive to a sense of place. And one of the things I've been disappointed with this is how many one-way signs we have throughout the median. I mean, if you count them, there's probably 20 one-way signs out there. And I talked to one of our traffic consultants that's been with us for a long time, which is Jerry Dipkowski. I asked him for a favor. He initially didn't get through with DOT staff, but he was able to get in contact with the assistant district secretary. And he said, you know what? I think there's a chance we can get those signs removed and then put those one-way striping in the road itself so those signs would go away, which would really make it much more attractive with the landscaping. So keep our fingers crossed, but I'm very excited that it will occur. It will really clean up the area quite a bit. Undergrounding has also taken place. That's going well, too. So Skinner, which was a project we started in 2018, is starting to really come down the home stretch here. And it certainly has slowed speeds. This was something that bifurcated downtown. We wanted to set this up for redevelopment. So very excited about this Skinner project. The Midtown parking garage, we're continuing to move forward with going toward an RFP process. No money is being spent. But after that, everything is just in a kind of a stationary period until we see what happens with the property tax relief in November. But we do want to continue to move on and make sure we can get costs identified for the project. The downtown pocket park, also called Grand Oak Park, really has picked up speed. The pergola is up. The brick pavers are going in. The Main Street sidewalk is happening. Also the Grand Street sidewalk. So that one's looked to be complete in mid-September, but the bathroom won't follow until the end of February. This is just a good project. This is just a graphic.

Bob, before you leave that item, though, what does that mean about use of the park?

Oh, we're still looking to have the use of the park, and we'll have to somehow cordon off that area until the bathroom comes in place. Is that what you mean?

Yeah. Yeah, so it actually could be used for old-fashioned Christmas, whatever.

Yes, we just want to have the bathroom section, so we'll just have to put the barricades there. This just shows the roundabouts there in Skinner, which, to be honest with you, have all been positive, I hope, in your travels. I haven't really heard much negative on it. It slowed the speeds down. It's made the trail more usable. I was worried about a lot of negative feedback. I have not seen it, but maybe you have in your travels. This is just a picture. It shows Grand Oak Park. It shows the progress we're making. The pergolas there. The brick is getting done. You're going to see this thing really take shape. It's going to be a great little pocket park on the east end of town, which was part of the deep, if you remember that, downtown east end plan. This was something that's another catalyst to bring people into our downtown on the east end.

Bob, landscaping is starting in early August, right?

Yes. They're going to get in there in early August for landscaping. The city manager has really, go back to Grand Oak Park, city manager has certainly called several meetings to get the progress moving quicker on this with the contractor, which is Malley. And we've really been focused with him. So, yes, landscaping is going to get started, which is good during a little bit more of the rainy season. And look at this picture, huh? This is where kind of you see the black pearl and the chicken boom room. This is 1980s. Here we are today with the black pearl and the chicken boom. They look great. So this is just another picture that shows how far we've come. That's me, actually, in younger days. All right? That's me with some hair. This was the first project I did when I was with the city. This is probably 1996, and I wanted to streetscape Main Street from Loudoun to Highland. So, yeah, that's me in younger days. My wife laughs at that. I go, wow, what happened? But it's kind of exciting to see it. This was my first venture, and we kind of got our feet wet with this project, and it served us well, you know, all these years. This is a picture over there by Skips, okay? You see the overhead wires. Now we have the decorative traffic signal there. We've got some palm trees. We've tightened it down, made it more pedestrian-friendly. Another great picture over downtown, before and then. Go ahead. This was kind of a cool project. Just to get you a perspective on this, this is the museum. And I went from some streetscape projects to saying we really need to make the museum area look a lot nicer. This is a focal point for downtown. We were one of the first to do, I hired a contractor. I don't even know if it exists anymore. It's called Semington. And we did a mechanical lay. These pavers were put down mechanically, since it was such a large area, and it just really made the museum pop in this whole area look good. This was another streetscape venture that we did. You have to remember, CRA money, TIFF, is supposed to be spent really on capital projects, and this was another example of that. I'm very happy you've all been a part of this. This was the streetscape project in front of Main Street, in front of, excuse me, Constantina, that we won an award from recently, which is kind of neat. This was from the Florida Redevelopment Association. We widened the sidewalk. We put in new brick pavers. We made it much more ADA-friendly. And, of course, we made the sidewalk wider. And it's just been a great pedestrian access way. This one kind of, you know, this was a sleeper for us. On the left is where Artisan is today. This was a killer building. I know, Mo, you probably remember it. This was killer.

I thought it would never go away.

It was manufacturing. Yeah. I thought it would never go away. This was Douglas. We wanted to branch out from Main Street. They had made the vats for orange juice, and, of course, they were starting to wind down. The building got demolished, and it became just a vacant parking lot. We actually did lease with the Dunnean Brewery. It stayed that way for several years. And then we said, gee, we'd really like to get redevelopment. How do we activate this area? So we came up with something pretty strategic. We went ahead and said we can do a parking garage here. We'll lease it, which got Mr. Kokolakis going. He did the apartments. We really wanted the grocery, so we pulled on him for Nature's Food Patch. Initially, the deal was too far apart for lease rate. We asked Joe to work with us. He did. Initially, he was a little bit hesitant to do that. It turned out to be the best thing for him. He leased up all the apartments right away because it was a grocery downstairs, and he has a tremendous waiting list today. So this was very much a catalyst project, and we also worked with Mr. Kokolakis on joint partnership to do angle parking and undergrounding of the utilities. This was all overhead at that point in time, and there was no angle parking. We wanted to make this another Main Street. We'd also gotten a CDBG grant to help spur on Douglas with some improvements. This was another deal he did in the very early years. I was proud of at this point in time. We wanted to live, work, and play downtown. This was the time with new urbanism. Seaside was getting a lot of attention. The city owned a piece of the property there where the Monroe Park townhomes is, but they didn't own the corner. The Freeborn family owned the corner toward Douglas. Across where the Freeborn family is now, their office, that was an old, dilapidated ATM Sun Trust property. And we went to the Freeborns, and we said, let's do a land swap. And we swapped the land. We went out for an RFP, and we got these townhomes, and they have the offices and commercial in the front. So we wanted this new urbanism type feel. If you're familiar with the architect, Andres Duany, we were trying to follow the lead on that. So this was one of the ones I probably did in 98 or 99. It was kind of a cool project. Victoria Place, pretty cool. You know, for those of you that remember, this was just old apartments. I think it was called Sun Blessed Apartments. If memory serves me right.

I'm really disappointed you didn't have an old picture of the sunblest motel. I should have sunblest on there, and that motel that was in there. Yeah, I know.

That was a great picture. We had some behaviors and character there that probably weren't in the best. And, of course, we got Victoria Place, and we got the retail, which brought people to the marina area, connected our downtown. And, of course, we have the beautiful condos. So this was a neat project. But that one laid dormant for some time, too. All these things take time. We have an active facade program that we do citywide, and we do downtown. This is one that the Black Pearl took advantage of, and you can see the before and the after for the facade program. Pretty cool. Just wanted to give you a glimpse. You've got to feel proud of everything that's been accomplished. We've still got a bright future going ahead. We need to continue to keep investment in our downtown and keep it strong. But I wanted to share that with you, especially the Keller Building. People tend to forget what was there. And, you know, I wanted to make sure that you know it and why it's so important to revise and update that master plan. We need to get a lot of public participation, citizens, merchants, chamber, all that to prepare a plan. We're looking to start that probably in October or November of this year in conjunction with Forward Pinellas. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Okay. I'm going to start over. I think it's probably over here. Commissioner Sandberg?

Yeah. First, I'll talk about that sod in Pioneer Park. Yes. I actually pulled my golf cart up, found myself go in, and stick my fingers in it. Some guy was looking at me. I said, no, this is what we wanted. But, you know, every year, and it's not the first time this has come up, it gets beat up so bad. Do we have a plan for when the market is back to see if we can save that grass?

The market is such a big activity engine for us. I mean, we have talked a little bit with our new director there, Tony, to look at some ways, maybe. We did put in concrete bands painted, you know, to kind of reduce some of that foot traffic. It's just such an important asset for the city to look good. But I recognize nearly. It just seems like. And I will not look at Commissioner Gow and look at artificial turf. He was funny, too. I still remember the story. He said, you got my daughter's vote. You don't have my vote. I still remember that.

No, I was talking to a merchant downtown. Yeah. You know, and he pointed it out. It seems like every. I'm sure that some of those corners and some of those spots are real high traffic. Yeah. So they really get, you know, I'm sure we can't ask them to rotate. But if there was anything we could do, because this isn't the first time in the last decade that I can recall it, that looks like it at the end of the year.

It gets beat up pretty bad. You're right. I can talk to the parks director and see if there's any other options for us. But, yeah, it's just important. It looks great. But then the market, and there's some other events, too. It is a market. But there are other things that are taking place there, too.

How about any timetable on Main Street Exchange and when that building is going to come down?

Yeah. Talk to Mr. Mazdas. It's probably going to be more late spring of next year. He wants to get the garage done, because, remember, we lease parking from him. Yeah. And once he starts a demo, you lose all that parking there. So he would like to get the garage done first and then take a look at the demo time period. So it'll probably be the spring of next year, my guess.

Okay. I've got two more. I don't know if you had it changed or, Matt, or somebody from City Hall here. When the fence went up where they're building that garage up on, I guess that would be like the 900 block of Douglas, those cars on weekends were driving into that fence to park. And some of those longer trucks were actually taking up the southbound lane of Douglas. Now it looks like they've moved the fence or the wall out, so there's no parking. That's correct. There's no parking there. That was a heads-up move because, man, that was a mess.

Yeah, there's going to be no parking there. And you're going to see a – we're working in conjunction with the city manager and other department heads, a letter of agreement relative to the parking garage and truck deliveries and things of that nature. So that's coming up.

And the last thing was just a comment. At Keller property, I remember 2004 during the hurricanes, it just pummeled that property. And you could hear that metal banging at night when the wind blew. It was almost kind of like from a movie. It was eerie. But that is, you know, to remember what was there. It was eerie. Yeah, with that parking when the brewery used to use that. Yeah, man. Yeah, thanks. It's come a long ways. That's all I had, Mayor. I won't go on.

No, no, no. It's good. It's good. Commissioner Gow, questions?

No questions. No comments.

Wow. Not even about turf, huh? Okay. There you go. Okay. Commissioner Dugard, questions?

We spent a lot of time last CRA on the Grand Oak Park. Can you just give us a quick update on the bathroom issue, the completion date, and the condition of the tree? Because I know we've had a lot of construction on there.

Yeah, we certainly have. As far as the completion date minus the bathroom, we're looking at mid-September. And the city manager has certainly put a lot of focus and energy into it with department heads. We recently had a meeting on that. So we've given Maui, that's the contractor, let's go. And that's where you're going to see this one pick up speed. The bathroom, though, it will be toward the end of February. So it's going to be a later date. We will look to keep the park open, and we're just going to have to fence off that area where the bathroom is because there's a slab there. As far as the tree, the tree's very healthy. We've had Rick Warren or Arborist out there. There are maybe a branch or two that might need to be trimmed to make sure it's elevated. But all in all, it's doing very well. It's very healthy, the tree.

There was a mystery about the change of size of the bathroom. Do you have any more insights into that? Changing the size, I really don't.

I don't recall that.

May I, Mayor? Yes. So we actually did reach out to the, because the contractor built the foundation, as you recall, or the footing. And we reached out to the designer, because there was a change in design between the specs that we had sent and the design. And we have not heard back at this point why they changed what they did, and why we had to expand the footer on the property. So we'll continue to pursue that, because if they changed it without our permission and without, then we will definitely deal with that before we close out the project.

Thank you. Thank you for looking into that. On the parking garage, I heard you say that we're going to kind of hold off on things until we get a November 3rd.

I'm sorry, Commissioner. We're going to continue on with it. Okay. So our next step is to go out for a request for a proposal that will take several months. If you remember, the commission approved three qualified contractors, Kokolakis, Creative, and FinFrock. Now the next step is to do an RFP. So they're going to go ahead and they will put their presentation. They will meet with staff. There will be an evaluation committee, and those will be evaluated, and we'll start to have costs. But at that point in time, which is getting close to the end of October anyway, we just don't want to make any decisions and bring anything to you until we know what happens with the property tax relief bill.

So procedurally, we're going the same way that we would have ordinarily, even if November 3rd didn't exist. Yes.

City manager's direction to me is keep it on the go.

Just don't spend any money. Put a stake in the ground in this. I don't want to see projects stopped at all until we know what November 3rd is, unless we have it brought before us and have a chat about it, because I just don't think that's the way we should do business. We can try to save money on things from time to time, but sometimes it costs you a lot to do that.

No, I understand, and I really feel we definitely need it, especially if you get out of these lease lots. You remember the Monroe Parking Garage, that lease is up in 2033 or 2032.

It's not that far away. All right. Under the conditions that the referendum does pass, what do you foresee regarding the garage?

Well, for me, you know, I can only speak for myself here at the moment, a lot's going to depend on the cost. If the cost comes in reasonably, I think between the CRA and remember when the CRA sunsets, there's going to be a strong influx of revenue into the general fund. You know, $1.5 million, $1.6 million in the first year. After that, it will continue to go up. I still think the garage is doable with debt service of $840,000 a year. That's just me independent of anybody. That's my thought process. I think in order to protect, remember, the downtown now is a $315 million engine minus penny money, minus utility, minus franchise money. You want to preserve that, and that's just an economic guy talking to you. Thank you.

Yeah, Commissioner Sammer, do you have something else?

Yeah, just real quick. Did you say, are those contractors still working on bidding the garage, or has that been –

No, we have qualified as they go through the RFP. I remember that. Yeah. No, when we go out with the RFP, they will go ahead and give us price and cost, and it will be an evaluation committee. Okay. At that point in time, we'll know a lot more. That's – okay. Yeah, I wouldn't want to bring something to you, I guess, back to what Commissioner Dugas – I was mentioning Commissioner Dugas. If the price goes up, you know, to such a high, more than what we expected, that's a different ballgame to me. Okay. So, okay. Thank you.

I have a couple questions. Well, first of all, I was just going to comment that, you know, the issue of the bathrooms and the dimensions changing, I mean, that meeting was 60 days ago. So, we haven't heard anything, or, I mean, are we – it just seems like we would have heard something.

Yeah, not that I know of, Mayor. The last time I checked, we made the clear, and we haven't heard anything from them.

Well, I mean, I have a problem with that. That's 60 days ago.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll double-check.

Well, we'll get on it. We'll talk to the project manager, see what's going on with them.

Okay. I just don't know who lacks a sense of urgency. Did we jump right on it, and they just refused to respond, or what? We did.

They jumped on it. They jumped on it. We were on it, like, almost immediately. I'm just not sure what the status is. Last time I talked to Clay Watkins, we had not heard back from them, and I'll check and see if we have since then.

Okay. I mean, because, you know, if we have any other adjustments to make, we want to know. Okay. Let's see. One other thing with the park, with Grand Oak Park. I know that, like, in the initial stages, we obviously have done a lot of things with the soil, and there were some issues. We do inspections to make sure it's stable there. So the whole project will be a stable project, no more issues with gaps, et cetera. No. I mean, are we feeling good about that? I mean, it's going to be a good, credible, solid, no surprise kind of a situation?

Yeah, absolutely. If you remember, there was the air conditioner vents underneath the slab, which was kind of unique, and those are getting filled in. So, yeah, I feel very comfortable with the stability of it.

Okay, good. And then my other question, that in the May 21st CRA minutes, that's what reminded me, we requested an update on all the sidewalks in the downtown and how they're being inspected and repaired. And I just wondered, did that, I don't remember seeing anything about that, that we got a reply about that.

I don't recall either, Mayor. I need to double-check on that.

Yeah, I mean, we're just up in the budget for our regular sidewalks, but, you know, there's some concerns with our regular sidewalks in where we have our most traffic, which is downtown.

Right. We need to follow up, Mayor. Yeah, if you could. I apologize for that.

Okay. Appreciate that. Okay. And I don't have any other questions, so I'll just see if there's any public input on the project. Anybody? Okay, I'll close public input, and any final comments by Commissioner Gough?

No, no comments.

Commissioner Degard?

No comments.

Commissioner Sandbergen?

No comments, Mayor.

Yeah, no comments. Good report, though. I love the pictures. Make sure you get a good picture of ocean optics, you know, so we can compare that. Absolutely. Yeah, so, okay.

Can you paste in the tumbleweed again? Yeah. We'll do that. No, I get a lot of mileage out of that. I know.

I like it. Okay, we're going to go to Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Committee membership recommendation, and Bob's staff presentation.

Yeah, we've had a little more turnover in the CRA advisory than we had in the past, and this is an opportunity, actually, businessman Terry Zervos, a dentist. We're looking to appoint him for a partial regular meeting, and then for an alternate, we're looking for Ann Bokenkamp.

And these are just basically people that are on, so they're kind of re-upping their time?

Yeah, we go by a list, you know, people have been on, and this kind of reflects that. So, Terry has been on in the past. He sat out some time, Dr. Zervos, so we're putting him back on. He's a good fit, small businessman on Main Street, and then Ann Bokenkamp, of course, to visit Dunedin. So, that's another good fit for us.

But it's a reappointment, not after term limits.

I mean, that's not correct, Mayor. No, these are both new. Dr. Zervos says he was termed out, sat off for a year. This is now appointing him to partial regular term ending March 1st, 2028. Ann Bokenkamp, appoint to a partial alternate term ending March 1st, 2028.

New.

Both new. They're both new?

Yes, new. Okay. Okay. All right. So, okay. And you feel they're the best, even though, I mean, you know, I love Dr. Zervos, but was there anybody else that should have gotten a chance or?

Well, we tend to go by, you know, I think he's a good fit. We tend to go by the list, too. It's been fluctuating and changing quite a bit. So, he was up there to be next in line.

Okay. But I thought he sat out for a year. He did. Because he was turned out.

He did sit out for a year. But he's still high on the list? He put his name back in. Yeah. I believe that's the way it works.

Mayor, forgive me. I don't have the exact background on this. It could be that CRAC has specific requirements. They require so many that reside within the CRA, so many that own a business. They have specific requirements. It could be, forgive me for not knowing, that they chose one based on those requirements.