Clermont City Council Transcript 2-24-26

0:07:19 I call this meeting to order. Welcome to our council meeting for February 24,
0:07:24 2026. In the interest of time, efficiency and
0:07:30 ensuring everyone who wishes to address the council is given the opportunity to do so. The following will apply to all
0:07:36 comments made by the public in person and virtually. Virtual participation in council meeting are available on your
0:07:43 computer or smartphone via Microsoft Team or by telephone.
0:07:49 You can learn how to participate virtually by visiting our website www.clefl.gov.
0:07:56 gov and search for attend council meeting online. Each speaker will be
0:08:03 permitted three minutes to address the council. In an effort to be respectful during the meeting, please make sure
0:08:09 your cell phones are set to silence. Thank you for participating in the city government. Tonight's invocation will be
0:08:17 given by Pastor Sean Court of Freedom Prospective Ministry. Please rise and
0:08:23 remain standing for the pledge of allegiance.
0:08:34 Am I doing the pledge of allegiance? No. Okay. Just invocation. Okay. Okay. Just making sure.
0:08:40 Amen. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to stand together in unity,
0:08:47 Lord. And respective of whom we serve, who we call our faith in, we just come
0:08:54 together with one heart and one mind to serve under you. You are the ultimate shepherd. And we ask that you bring our
0:09:02 minds together. We first thank you for waking us up in the land of the living because somewhere somehow someone said
0:09:08 good night to their loved one last night not realizing they were saying goodbye. So we first thank you for life and the
0:09:15 spirit of life. We thank you for this opportunity to be here as leaders who care for our community and serving in a
0:09:21 common good. And we give you the glory for giving us a heart of unity and a heart for one another. Not just a heart
0:09:28 for being right, but a heart for being righteous before you. So we ask that you give us that spirit of humility to
0:09:35 serve, to speak, to not hear, but also to listen and to serve and to
0:09:41 administrate from a common heart with a common good. In Jesus name we say. Amen.
0:09:47 Amen. Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United
0:09:53 States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under
0:09:59 God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen. Thank you. Please be seated.
0:10:09 Thank you. Oh, okay.
0:10:18 Is this where I debut my standup or is this where I sing or Okay. So given the opportunity to speak
0:10:25 about Black History Month and I'll just take a but for the next hour what I want to share is making sure you're all awake
0:10:32 you know it's the end of the day you're like is he really going to speak for an hour? And well, I'm a pastor. That's
0:10:37 what we do, right? So, uh, understanding sustainability
0:10:43 and understanding unity. That's what this is all about, right? Because in a nation of true unity, there is no need
0:10:48 for a Black History Month, a woman's history month, a Hispanic music month. It's because we all are one. But we've
0:10:56 gotten to a part today where we all are separated because we are all about agenda and history. We know the old
0:11:03 colloquialism, history is his story, right? and and understanding that history changes just like you recall
0:11:09 different things from different situations. We can rewrite our memory. We can rewrite our history. We can
0:11:14 rewrite our hearts. But the most important thing, you can't rewrite facts. And so given the opportunity to
0:11:20 speak briefly about Black History Month, you'd expect me to talk about all the black firsts and all the great things we've participated. Whether it is you
0:11:27 grew up in a wonderful metropolis like New York City like me where we have an opportunity to see everybody at their best or if you're in Podunk Idaho where
0:11:35 everybody looks the same, everybody talks the same, everybody thinks the same. And when you see diversity, it's when you turn on the news or a CSI TV
0:11:43 show and that's about it. And I came down to from New York to Orlando and I stood on a corner and I saw a hidic Jew,
0:11:50 I saw an Asian, I saw a Middle Eastern person and I saw a Latino and I thought
0:11:55 they were filming a commercial cuz that's the only first time and the last time I think I saw that much diversity in one street corner. It's changed a lot
0:12:01 since then. But what I wanted to share is in the spirit of Black History Month or whatever it is, you know, people who
0:12:08 look like me, know people have variances of people like me, is understanding that
0:12:13 in order to go fast, you go alone. But to go far, you go together. And this
0:12:22 is a nation that was built on pluralism. But what I would hate to know is if another 250 years from now, if the Lord
0:12:29 delays his coming, they scratch their head and say, "Hey, remember the Ottoman Empire?" Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Remember
0:12:34 the the Ming dynasty? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Remember uh Mussolini? Yeah. Hitler? Oo.
0:12:40 Remember slavery? Yeah. Remember remember? Hey, United States. Oh, snap.
0:12:48 United States. Whatever happened to them? 250 years and then they were gone.
0:12:54 the social experiment failed because maybe they lost their vision that they're just trying to go far or
0:13:01 just go fast but not go together. So it's not so important that where this
0:13:07 country is going because let's let's talk about a couple of quick black history facts, right? Since that's what I was asked to come share. So we know
0:13:14 the origination of civilization was in Albulon. Albulan. What's that? That's Africa
0:13:21 before the Romans named it Africa. And so speaking to the light so
0:13:26 better. Okay. Because I didn't want to my back being turned to you kind of. But can you hear me though? I can talk louder. I was raised in Brooklyn. That's
0:13:33 how we do. But Vinnie, so I say that all to say and thank you for bearing with my
0:13:38 humor is if Africa or El Cabbilon is the origination of of where life and
0:13:45 civilization came from. If God wanted to keep it just people of color, he would have built a wall.
0:13:52 But he didn't. And remember the Moors? Anybody ever heard the Morris?
0:13:58 Yeah. Right. Northern Africans that conquered Europe. At that point, Europe was a 99% illiteracy rate. They didn't
0:14:04 take showers. They didn't bathe. They didn't know anything about religion. They didn't know anything. But the Moors brought them technology. Street lamps AD
0:14:11 792. Sewer system AD 792. All these things.
0:14:17 But wait a minute. I thought No, no, that was all back then. It's also hidden history
0:14:23 that is convenient to hide when you want to. We edit our memories. We edit our
0:14:29 history. And so we say, well, Thomas Edison discovered a actually no, that
0:14:34 was a thousand years before Thomas Edison there was electricity. But that's edited history. There were sewer
0:14:41 systems. Same thing. Thousands of years later, we still can't figure out how the pyramids were built. Hidden history. And
0:14:48 so Thomas Edison, the light bulb, right? But who made it sustainable? Lewis
0:14:54 Latimer, his black assistant. Otherwise, we'd be changing light bulbs every 5 minutes. They'll go out. They go out.
0:15:00 But the fact of the matter is, black history is wonderful, and we did great things, but Harriet Tubman's Underground
0:15:05 Railroad wouldn't have been successful if it wasn't for white folks that let the slaves stay at their home.
0:15:11 So, it was achievable, but it wasn't sustainable. So she was going fast but
0:15:17 she couldn't get very far. The Moors were going wonderful for almost 700 years. They ruled Europe then got kicked
0:15:23 out because of poor leaderships. Then Christians came in who had better leadership.
0:15:29 So at the end of the day is it's kind of like a leaprog effect. One culture takes
0:15:34 they fail another takes over. But here we are 4% of the world's population.
0:15:40 We're the sickest. We're the fattest. We drink the most coffee because we need
0:15:46 it. We're on the most antihistamines. We are the most drugged up
0:15:53 because we're suffering. We're dying slowly, but we look so good dying, don't we? We look really good. We got the
0:15:59 whitest teeth, nicest hair, best skin. Except for those in the Polynesian isles. But we do pretty good for
0:16:05 ourselves. But what happens though? Why are three out of five commercials
0:16:11 pharmaceutical ads? Because one thing we've capitalized on in knowing that there's more money in
0:16:18 treatment than cure. But we're the greatest nation on earth,
0:16:24 right? We are the greatest nation on earth. We we we we we have a pretty formidable army. But how did that work
0:16:31 for Mussolini? Pretty formidable army. How'd that work for Hitler?
0:16:37 So, if we're just 4% of the world's population, wouldn't it make sense that we reach across the pond and
0:16:44 connect? Wait a minute. We can't reach across the aisle and shake hands.
0:16:50 We can't even say hello to folks in the supermarket. Because we've been taught by the
0:16:56 rewritten editorialized history that if you don't look like me, sound like me,
0:17:01 you can't get with me. As I say in closing, the only way to keep from repeating
0:17:07 history where we're one of those empires that implode
0:17:12 is to simply learn to do it together. That's how every empire and every
0:17:19 society in the world has failed. They started believing their own press
0:17:25 because our teeth were whitest, our skin was best, and we drove fancy cars. I've been to parts of Africa that don't drive
0:17:31 fancy cars. But the guy walking around with flip flops, stains on his shirt was a billionaire
0:17:36 cuz he doesn't read Forbes, nor does he care about Forbes, but he can buy everybody on Forbes and have change left
0:17:43 over to buy a couple of their chains. So he's about going fast, but he's built
0:17:50 more schools and more hospitals in his community than most of our billionaires in this country.
0:17:56 So I say to you, my brother who looks like you,
0:18:03 my sister who looks like you, in God's eyes, is it about being right
0:18:09 or is about being righteous? What do we say about ourselves? But what report card does God give us? So you
0:18:18 distinguished gentlemen and ladies here, I thank you for what you're doing because you're serving and you're
0:18:24 serving in our best interest while we're sleeping, while we're at the supermarket, while our kids are being ushered across the street with wonderful
0:18:30 men like this right here. Making sure that our kids get through the crosswalk safely because I see him every morning.
0:18:37 And for our distinguished those who served in the military, while we sleep at night, you're walking
0:18:44 the wall. That's why we can fly flags on the back of our pickup trucks and our SUVs.
0:18:50 But the end of the day is, do we really believe what we're telling the world? And what is the world saying about us?
0:18:58 And if you're aspouseed to be a believer, what is Christ saying about you?
0:19:06 So I simply ask this as you come to these meetings. Remember you're not just
0:19:12 serving your passion prayerfully. You're also serving your
0:19:17 purpose. It's not about you. But when you walk out of here, did you make an impact?
0:19:25 Did you change somebody? Or did it just spew off about your passions and you still missed your
0:19:31 purpose? We need each other. Let's rewrite history and be that
0:19:36 civilization that actually lasted because we wanted sustainability.
0:19:42 Not just going fast but going far deep inside. I applaud you
0:19:49 all. Thank you. Thank you.
0:19:56 Thank you, pastor. Wow.
0:20:05 Okay, this afternoon we have two proclamation. The first one is a proclamation for Miss Team Florida. I
0:20:13 invite Noel Shinaki to to the front to accept
0:20:18 the proclamation. Please go ahead.
0:20:23 Whereas Noel Shinaki is a Claremont resident and lifelong central Florida
0:20:28 native who currently serves as Miss Florida's teen for the Miss America organization representing the city of
0:20:35 Claremont at the state and national levels. And whereas Miss Shinaki is the
0:20:40 founder and president of Hope for Heart Kids, a 501c3 nonprofit organization
0:20:46 supporting children and families affected by congenital heart defects through educational outreach and
0:20:53 hospital book distributions reaching 18 states and three countries including Central Florida. Whereas, Miss Shinaki
0:21:00 has been honored for her leadership and advocacy at both the local and national levels, including recognition as a lake
0:21:07 and style 40 under 40 honore and a top seven community service achievement
0:21:13 finalist at Miss America's teen. And whereas Miss Shinaki serves as an
0:21:18 American Heart Association youth ambassador promoting cardiovascular health education, CPR awareness, and
0:21:26 heart healthy lifestyles through schools, community events, and public outreach. And whereas Miss Shanaki's
0:21:32 service and leadership exemplify the city of Claremont's commitment to youth leadership, civic engagement, and public
0:21:39 health and highlight the positive impact of Claremont residents beyond the community.
0:21:45 Now therefore, I Tim Murray, mayor of the city of Clmont in the state of Florida, do hereby recognize and commend
0:21:53 commended for and commended for your her outstanding service, leadership, and
0:21:58 dedication to improving the lives of other Noel Shaniki. In witness thereof,
0:22:04 I have here unto set my hand and cause the great seal of the city of Clement to be affixed this 24th day of February in
0:22:11 the year 2026. Thank you.
0:22:36 Smile.
0:23:00 Sure.
0:23:11 Okay, I hope everyone can hear me. Well, hi everyone. I didn't really have a speech prepared, but I'm so grateful
0:23:18 to be here and be in a room with so many incredible people that truly are affecting our community in such a
0:23:23 positive way. I love everything that the pastor just said coming up here. I'm so big into my faith and hearing people
0:23:29 talk on unity when the enemy really does try to come and bring division just was like really just reaching out to my
0:23:36 heart when I sat there and I don't even know who you are but I can tell you know who the Lord is. So that was so encouraging to me and even just to share
0:23:42 a little bit about my story is I founded my 501c3 hope for heart kids cuz my cousin Tyler was born with hypoplastic
0:23:49 left heart which basically means he was born with half a heart and at his or at the age of 15 he was having a heart
0:23:55 transplant and ended up losing his life to it. So we founded the 501c3 to continue on his legacy, but it's way
0:24:00 more than just affecting the heart community. It's a ministry. It's being able to walk into the hospitals and not
0:24:06 just give them words of encouragement, but give them something that actually is eternal. Like it says in scripture, the
0:24:12 power and life and death is in the tongue. So when we're able to go in there, bring words of encouragement from the word of God, it impacts them in an
0:24:18 eternal way. That they leave as you had said, changed forever. that is not just something where you're speaking words,
0:24:24 but that actually holds the power of life and death. So when we speak to them, you will be healed. We've seen so
0:24:30 many stories where the families have just been radically changed because of the way that the Lord has impacted them.
0:24:36 So even being able to come up here as Miss Florida's teen, it's way more than a crown, but it really is a mission
0:24:41 field that we're able to utilize and see real life impact. So I'm so grateful to be here today to accept the proclamation
0:24:47 and just to stand in this room of incredible people. So that's a little bit about me. Thank you. Thank Thank you, ma'am.
0:24:58 Don't want to forget this. Well, we thank you.
0:25:05 Oh, the next proclamation is for Arbor Day.
0:25:12 Whereas in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set
0:25:18 aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of
0:25:24 more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day was observed in Florida on January 17th, 2026 due to the
0:25:32 winter dormcancy of trees in the ease in planting and transplanting. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our
0:25:38 precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce
0:25:45 oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the
0:25:52 economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas the
0:25:57 city of Claremont wishes to acknowledge its commitment to the preservation of nature and its longestablished history
0:26:03 as a tree city USA by recognizing the celebration of Arbor Day.
0:26:08 Now therefore, I, Tim Murray, mayor of the city of Claremont in the state of Florida, do hereby proclaim the 17th day
0:26:14 of January, 2026 as Florida Arbor Day in witness whereof I have here unto set my
0:26:22 hand and cause the great seal of the city of Clement to be a fixed 24th day of February in the year 2026.
0:26:29 Thank you, ma'am. And that's in house, so we don't have to present that one.
0:26:35 though. Uh, next we have the quarterly budget report from our finance director.
0:26:44 Yes, sir.
0:26:57 Okay, great. Thank you, mayor and city council.
0:27:02 20 minutes of charismatic speaking and wonderful presentations. And now we talk about a budget report. So, but uh I will
0:27:11 uh go through the report fairly quickly, but of course we as usual be glad to answer any questions you may have. In
0:27:18 your packet, you have a hard copy of the PDF version of the report. I'll be
0:27:23 navigating this report through the city's website, which the general public will be able to find from any of the uh
0:27:29 finance department pages on our website. Uh this first quarter report reflects, of course, activity from October 25
0:27:36 through December 25. And we've made some changes to the format of this report, which I'll touch on as I go through it
0:27:42 over the next few minutes. Um but first off, just a reminder, the report is now presented into three sections. Uh the
0:27:49 first one is a city-wide presentation by fund type. Second section is a general fund presentation with revenues grouped
0:27:56 by revenue types and then expenditures by department. And we now as uh I'll
0:28:02 speak to in more detail when we get there, we've added a third section which will display fund uh balances and
0:28:08 running totals of the fund balances from quarter to quarter. Mr. Bora. Yes. Uh the information in my
0:28:14 supplemental packet says it's through November, but you said this is the quarterly bit. Can you reconcile?
0:28:19 That is the system generated budget report that I typically provide in the
0:28:25 supplemental packets. My apologies. Um the PDF of this same report should have
0:28:31 been in in your uh is attached to the agenda item in your agenda packet. Okay. Thank you.
0:28:37 Thank you. Okay. uh first data table within the
0:28:43 report. Uh this is a citywide presentation of revenues and expenditures uh by fund type as I said.
0:28:51 Um and there's a one of the differences we made changes we made in this report
0:28:56 um is on display here with this first table. We now are showing three years of historical data within these data
0:29:02 tables. So you'll see up at the top fiscal year 23, 24, and 25 followed by the current year fiscal year 26. In
0:29:10 addition, we've also changed the data within those three historical years to show what the totals were at this same
0:29:16 point in time in those years in order to provide you a a comparison from year to year. Uh so for instance, at the end of
0:29:23 the first quarter in fiscal year 25, we had receeded $29.8 million in revenue in general fund. This year we're at 28.6 at
0:29:30 the same point in time. So on and so forth.
0:29:38 Going down to the next uh data table. This is specific to revenues citywide uh
0:29:43 still with the same uh fund presentation. As you can see in the lower right hand corner year to date uh
0:29:49 we're at 18% of um excuse me I'm on the wrong one.
0:29:55 Year to date we've received 32% of revenue citywide all funds. Um and this
0:30:01 of course is led by the general fund where year to date we're at the 49% mark. So in the first quarter, as most
0:30:08 people know, we received the majority of our advalorum distributions. Um so through the month of December, we've
0:30:14 already received 22 of our $28 million uh in distributions from Lake County, which is typical in most years.
0:30:22 Scrolling down the enterprise funds, you'll see we're at 25% right on target at the one-year quarter at the at the
0:30:28 quarter point of the year. That is led by our impact fees, which are outpacing our budgeted numbers at this point in
0:30:35 the year. We are lagging behind slightly with user fees. Somewhat typical of the
0:30:41 first quarter, but as water consumption increases throughout the year, uh we're confident that we'll make up that
0:30:46 variance as we continue throughout the year. The year-to- date, 32% across all funds.
0:30:55 Now, scrolling down to expenditures, uh same presentation, citywide by fund type. Uh lower right hand corner. As you
0:31:01 can see, we have uh so far spent 18% of our budget. Um 19% in the general fund,
0:31:08 18% in the enterprise funds. Both of them uh very good um metrics at this
0:31:14 point. The outlier there you see is in the debt service fund. This is tied to some uh counting that is lagging in
0:31:21 relation to our $58 million wastewater treatment plant project, and I anticipate bringing some um information
0:31:27 related to that to council at a at an upcoming meeting.
0:31:32 Now I'm going to scroll down to the next section which is specific to the general fund. Um our first data table well here
0:31:39 is showing much like on a citywide presentation we're showing revenues and expenditures across all revenue uh
0:31:47 account types and then down below by uh department groupings. And as you see on
0:31:53 here at the uh at the end of the first quarter, our um
0:31:59 keep getting ahead of myself. General fund we've received 28 point uh excuse me, yes, general fund revenue is $28.6
0:32:06 million as I mentioned earlier um but only spent $12.5 million at this point in the fiscal year. I go down to the
0:32:13 next table which is uh specific to the general funds. Here we can see our percentages as mentioned um at the very
0:32:20 top 65% of all of our taxes driven by that ad valorum distribution schedule.
0:32:26 Um and then down at the bottom the fund as a whole 49% we've already received half of our revenues for the year. Again
0:32:33 pretty typical from from year to year. The uh permits fees and special assessments uh category is lagging
0:32:40 slightly behind. Uh that is um
0:32:46 check that is and oh excuse me let me speak to the intergovernmental revenue section first that is uh due to a state
0:32:54 grant $1.2 million budgeted uh specific to the state's contribution to our
0:32:59 pension funds. We receive that once a year typically in um July or August so Q4. So that number lags behind
0:33:07 throughout the entire year. And up above on the uh permits category is simply uh
0:33:12 related to uh a delayed receipt on a franchise fee of payment uh that we
0:33:18 received just outside the end of the quarter. So revenue marks look good at this point within the general fund.
0:33:26 Then the last table um specific to revenues and expenses general fund um
0:33:32 expenditures group by department. As you see in the lower right hand corner, we're at um
0:33:38 19%. Uh for the fund at this point in the fiscal year, very good sign. And you
0:33:45 follow all the departments on the far right hand side, you can see all of them are below the 25% part mark at this
0:33:51 point of the year. Led, of course, by public safety, which is our largest grouping. They've so far spent 8.6 of
0:33:57 their 41.4 million or 21%. So general fund expenditures looks extremely good
0:34:03 at this point in time. Then the last table our our newest addition to the report as I mentioned at
0:34:09 the outset the uh running balances of our unrestricted fund balances uh for
0:34:14 all funds across the city. So let me walk you through this and uh speak to some of the nuances that exist in this
0:34:21 first quarter. So you see a listing of all the funds on the lefth hand side general fund all the way down to our CRA
0:34:27 fund. And then the first column of data is what was our beginning fund balance
0:34:33 number within our budget that we adopted at back in the fall. Um, as it says in
0:34:38 parenthesis there, that is an unawited number. Uh, the good news is we are very close to concluding the fiscical year 25
0:34:44 audit. when I stand before you uh presenting you this report at the end of Q2, we will have those um audited
0:34:51 numbers and we'll revi be able to revise these numbers at that point in time, which is perfect timing as we uh get
0:34:57 into the budgeting season. Your next three columns are revenue and expense year-to- date numbers for each
0:35:04 of those funds along with a calculated net change and then a current fund balance column based off of that
0:35:11 performance. Obviously, right now, this is showing 42.4 $4 million in unrestricted fund balance in the general
0:35:17 fund. We know we're not going to end up there as uh as we continue to go through the year and because we get all that
0:35:24 advalorum early in the year um the rest of the year our expenses will outpace the receipt of our revenues. So the last
0:35:31 column is more indicative of where we believe we will stand and that again is
0:35:36 directly from the budget. Um at that point in time the number was $20.3 million is where we expected to be at
0:35:43 the end of the fiscal year. Uh the good news I'll give you a little preview of the audit. Uh this was actually in the
0:35:49 uh Q4 report. Um but those that beginning fund balance number is going to increase. Um and once we get that
0:35:56 audited number as I said we will reflect that in the next quarterly report.
0:36:02 So that is my prepared remarks. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you have.
0:36:12 M uh I'm just curious um general fund back at
0:36:18 the on the first slide you said we had we uh last year we was at 29 million or
0:36:23 so and now we at 28 million is down from last year. What what you would contribute that to? Is that because we
0:36:31 we we lowered our millage rate and so we we expecting received less or what? It
0:36:38 could have been simply a receipt of a grant early in the year or some additional charges for services. Um our
0:36:45 while our millage rate did decrease for this fiscal year, the amount of advalor we would receive actually increased. Um
0:36:52 so it's probably just the timing of a few specific uh revenue sources.
0:36:57 And I know you probably won't know this, but uh at this time last year, what was the percentage we was at? I think you
0:37:04 told me he's sitting at 49% of collection on general fund right now. It was likely very similar because of
0:37:10 the distribution schedule of ad valorum. We typically at this point have you know
0:37:16 a very high percentage of that distributed at this by this point in time. I guess I I'm just trying to
0:37:21 figure out if people uh is paying a property taxes uh
0:37:28 on a regular basis where they holding off because of the fact of economy and everything because I know some people
0:37:34 haven't they tell them they haven't paid theirs yet. They still waiting on some funds to do it.
0:37:39 In the back of our audit every year we have a statistical section that is compiled by city staff and included in
0:37:45 that stat section is a table that displays our collection percentage of advorum taxes. We're routinely yeartoear
0:37:53 in the 94 to 96% collection percentage. So u we're fortunate to have such a high
0:38:00 collection rate. Okay. That's at the end of the year we're still in 90. We never 100%.
0:38:06 Right. Okay. Good. Well, I also I just caught my eye that we begin the year with 26
0:38:12 million plus or but then you uh projecting that at the end of the year at the end of 26 um fiscal year 26 we
0:38:19 going to be at 20 million in in fund. Yeah, those those were numbers uh pulled from the audit um excuse me from the
0:38:27 budget last year which were by and large prepared during the summer um are ending
0:38:32 I I've not yet seen a draft of the audit. I should within the next couple days. But my belief and understanding is
0:38:39 our beginning fund balance number uh will be higher than that. Bit higher than the 20
0:38:45 excuse me higher than the 20 20 million that you Well, that's our projected ending number, but because our beginning number
0:38:52 would be higher than Yes, sir. That projected ending number would be higher as well. Well, like I say, I according to what
0:38:58 I'm looking at here, you say we begin the 26, but your projected end going to be 20. So I'm I'm like, wait, that's $6
0:39:04 million difference. So that tell me we overspending somewhere. We spending a lot more than we taking in somewhere.
0:39:10 Okay. So I'm that that just drove my attention for some concern. So
0:39:15 yeah, the the the adopted budget um did utilize reserves to balance the budget.
0:39:22 So So we'll just have to keep our eye on that. Okay. So all right. Thank that was
0:39:27 the question I had the thing that caught my eye. Thank you.
0:39:32 Anyone else? If not, thank thank you sir. Thank you.
0:39:41 Next item is public comment. Any uh beginning with this
0:39:46 uh and now we will be allowing virtual comments. If anyone wish to address the
0:39:51 council in person, please come to the microphone and state your name and address and name and address. Once
0:39:57 inerson comments are concluded, we will move on to virtual comments. If you are participating online
0:40:03 online on Microsoft Teams and wish to pro provide comments, please raise your hand and you will be called on to unmute
0:40:10 your microphone when it is time for you to speak. If you are participating by phone, you will press star five on your
0:40:17 phone to raise your hand. When called upon, you will press star six to unmute
0:40:22 your microphone. For all virtual participant, if you wish to comment on other items on the agenda, please stay
0:40:29 on Microsoft Teams or on your form phone and raise your hand when the item comes up on the agenda. This portion of the
0:40:36 meeting is only for items that are not on the agenda. Yes, sir.
0:40:42 My name is Rudy Bowen. I was born in Claremont in 1933 down on Lake Minnola.
0:40:49 Been a resident here 92 years. Claremont is my hometown and I'm proud of it. I've
0:40:56 heard some rumors about the operation of our city. You're gonna have rumors, but
0:41:02 the one that I don't like the most is they're underpaying certain people of our establishment
0:41:10 making the city manager, God bless him, making 185,000 a year or more. They
0:41:16 deserve it. The mayor is making less than 20,000 a year.
0:41:21 I don't like that. He's worth more. He's my friend. And I think the city of
0:41:27 Claremont needs to re recognize that position. I graduated from high school in 1951.
0:41:35 Got drafted in the Korean War. Got my butt shot off. I haven't heard anything
0:41:40 since, but I'm a happy camper. I love Claremont. God bless it.
0:41:47 Mr. Mr. Rudy, I know you have uh Can you give me your address, please? Your
0:41:52 address. Address. Can we get your address? Can Can we get your address for your
0:41:58 house? I'm sorry. Your home address? I They pay me enough to make it
0:42:05 worthwhile, but I don't want to go through it again. It's okay. Thank you.
0:42:10 I know. I know he's on Fifth Street down here somewhere or down the road, but he can't he, like I say, he got shut up in
0:42:17 the war and can't hear. Good afternoon, council. Sammy Taylor,
0:42:22 Powder Horn Place Drive, Claremont. This is a story that was broken a couple of weeks ago by Channel 2 News.
0:42:30 When the remains of a man were found in Claremont were identified as a 23-year-old man who went missing in
0:42:36 1988. The young man was identified as Ernest Joe Manzares. Officials describe
0:42:42 a twisted story that began in 1988. Mansares was a Navajo man who left his
0:42:48 family home and never returned.
0:42:53 He had moved from Colorado to Okoi to be with his family due to domestic violence.
0:43:00 Detectives stated that his father and his uncle were both involved in a motorcycle gang associated with
0:43:05 prostitution, drugs, and criminal activity. Monsarus was not involved with the the gang.
0:43:13 The night he left, he went to confront his father and uncle after finding out that they plan to sell his sister and
0:43:20 his niece, ages seven and eight, to a motorcycle gang. He told his mother that he would be back. He left in his 1976
0:43:28 red Chevy Monte Carlo. He didn't have a wallet and he didn't have a jacket.
0:43:34 That was the last time Ernest Joe Manzarus was ever seen. In 2009, the
0:43:41 remains of a human were discovered while clearing land for a new park in Claremont. A spent shell casing was
0:43:47 found nearby. Despite the fact that the crime scene was disturbed, teeth, bone
0:43:53 fragments, and some clothing were found, the case went cold. Those remains were
0:44:01 in a shoe box until recently. In 2025, officials were contacted by the
0:44:07 medical examiner's office. Thanks to grant funding and new technology, the bones were analyzed using DNA genealogy
0:44:14 through Oxramm Oram, sorry, Oram, a laboratory combining science, software,
0:44:20 and process to build a robust infrastructure for justice. Manzaner's uncle and father are
0:44:27 deceased, but
0:44:33 the dead man was still able to speak his name. Officials say that this is Akoi's
0:44:39 oldest missing person case. Manzaras, who is the oldest child, was
0:44:44 the protector of his family. He deserves to be recognized and his murderer needs
0:44:50 to be found. The one thing that I'd like you all to realize from this story is that in this
0:44:57 community, there's still a murderer who walks around. And if he's not alive,
0:45:02 someone knows something. I ask everyone in this community to please bring forth
0:45:07 any information you may have regarding this case. Whether it's knowledge, a
0:45:12 suspicion, or a creepy feeling, please help get justice for this family. Thank
0:45:18 you. Thank you. You ready?
0:45:23 Yes, ma'am.
0:45:30 Okay. Charlene Harrison 4th, Dotto Street, Claremont.
0:45:38 Mayor, give me a minute. I want the truth to be known about him. His name is
0:45:43 Ernie. And yesterday, I spoke to his wife, his widow, and his daughter. His
0:45:50 wife has remained married to him all these years. And I want the truth to be told here tonight because I want
0:45:56 somebody to be recognized that you don't normally see here in this hall. Linda
0:46:01 Charlton is behind me and she's going to come up here. She was the reporter for the daily commercial that we took down
0:46:07 this PD corrupt, dirty, racist. And after that, mine and Linda's story
0:46:14 didn't stop and our journey because people have called us up until just even this for all these years. And that's why
0:46:22 I said I get mad at y'all's whining up here because you get two nights out of a whole month for some of you that have
0:46:28 whined. Not all of you. and we spent 25 years. It didn't stop at our house. And Linda gets the credit
0:46:36 because I want to tell you what really happened in this horrible, dirty city.
0:46:42 Our workers were out there when we bought the property at Lake Hayawa. They were clearing it. They found him and his
0:46:50 remains and they were told, "You didn't see anything. We don't want to hold this up." and Linda and I who was out there
0:46:58 on the radar got the call. I met a man in downtown Groveland in the public and
0:47:04 he said also another worker took his teeth home. Well, I knew the teeth can solve a lot
0:47:12 of things. Little did we know how long this was going to take. But I want you to see this guy's face because when I
0:47:19 come in here, this is the stuff that I have fought for for so long. Lyndon and
0:47:24 I have loved him and his bones all these years and we never gave up. Now I know
0:47:29 our police is sitting in the back. I've already talked to Ocoy. I believe we know who probably killed him and they're
0:47:36 dead and it's never going to be solved anyway probably. But the point is he was a human being
0:47:43 that deserved to go back to his loved ones. That was a surreal story and a phone call yesterday. But I asked them
0:47:50 did they want to know the truth and they wanted to know the truth. It's hard to believe that your loved one didn't matter for a stupid damn park down here.
0:47:57 I've never gone to Lake Kayawa and I don't plan to. I saw it. We had to call the sheriff. Crime scene went up. People
0:48:04 in our PD back then was they messed up the whole scene. But I want everybody to
0:48:11 know she's standing behind me. They called us the Louise. We are like ying and yang and night and day. But Linda
0:48:18 was the reporter that drove that train all through the PD up to this. She never
0:48:24 gave up. And we knew that one day maybe. And the daughter came forward years ago.
0:48:30 She's young. She never met her daddy. She was a baby. And I'll finish.
0:48:36 And gave her DNA. And now that Ortham that they call has solved this. It wasn't good policing. I talked to the
0:48:41 chief. I've talked to them. I talked to Okcoy. There was nothing to solve. They didn't know who he was. But Linda and I
0:48:48 were told shortly after that he's Native American. He also had a tie to Texas that I found
0:48:56 yesterday is true. He is a Christian. He didn't It had to do with drugs and a
0:49:03 motorcycle gang. How could we know? They hadn't even identified him. So, I want y'all to know here's the lady behind me
0:49:09 that I give her all the credit that you don't get to see that tried to clean up this nasty, dirty town that the good old
0:49:16 boys were running. And I'm going to tell you, the good old boys are tied into this guy and they're right here in this
0:49:21 town. Linda. Okay.
0:49:26 Linda Charlton, 9101 County Road, 561, Claremont. I do not live in the city. Uh
0:49:34 back in 2009, Charlene and I were calling the remains of this person. He
0:49:40 was Mr. Bones. When I came before the uh council in 2009 asking for a an update
0:49:47 on Mr. Bones, it was because the police chief at the time seemed to be doing his
0:49:52 darnest to make sure that this story became a hidden history, that no one would ever know anything. And it close.
0:50:01 It took a while. Uh, I was hoping that the police chief would be here because
0:50:06 there's questions I have that maybe are best to the police chief, but he's not here, so you're going to get him anyway.
0:50:13 Uh, when uh, Mr. Manzanari's went missing, his car also went missing, the
0:50:19 lovely 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo. uh 8 or 10 years ago, however long it
0:50:26 was when Victory Point was being constructed, the first stage of the
0:50:32 construction was that the area that used to be West Lake was cleaned out. Now, I
0:50:39 happen to be covering a story relating to that. So, I got a a lot of eye as to
0:50:45 what was being cleaned out. One of the items being cleaned out that I saw was
0:50:52 the chassis of a car that in uh configuration and size
0:50:58 kind of sort of looks like a match to that 1976 uh Chevy Monte Carlo. Uh so
0:51:04 what I would like uh is a is the report
0:51:10 that identifies that car. If you don't have it off the top of your head, that
0:51:16 means you're a normal person, but you should know who has it and how can I get it. Uh, in connection with that, if it
0:51:23 turns out, hey, this is the car belonging to the to the missing man whose body was found 2 miles later, uh,
0:51:30 then the next step would be, does the car still exist? uh the possibility of
0:51:36 there being evidence in that card pertaining to his apparent murder are
0:51:41 slim and none, but if it still exists, give it a shot. Uh so we have that, we
0:51:48 have that. So, uh I want to know who the point person would be for my inquiries. If
0:51:55 it's if it is the police, uh chiefs, then someone should hopefully let him
0:52:00 know, hey, you need to talk to this person. She knows stuff. Uh I know that the car was identified as least in terms
0:52:09 of make, model, and year because the own the person who owned the property on
0:52:14 which it was uh being stored told me what it was cuz someone had told him. I
0:52:21 don't know if it was a an police officer or someone in the excavation people that
0:52:26 I don't know. All I remember is that it's an American car and I think it dated from the 1970s.
0:52:34 Uh, which would be that doesn't mean it's Mr. Menzanari's beloved Monte Carlo, but it it sure raises questions.
0:52:42 And uh, speaking of questions, any questions for me because I could give you one other.
0:52:47 Do you have a contact like email address that you'd be willing to share with me on the side? Sure. Okay. Thanks.
0:52:52 Uh, so I would go over there and I'll I'll do it. Okay.
0:52:58 I have another question, but that one's even harder. So that maybe that'll wait. Okay. That he's our city attorney.
0:53:04 Oh, okay. Okay. Linda, you go this way. This way. Okay.
0:53:13 Mr. Van Wagner, I guess you need to coordinate with the city attorney and
0:53:20 and Mr. and the police chief on that, please, sir.
0:53:25 Yes, sir. Good afternoon, council. Joe Famasi 2693
0:53:32 jumping jackway. I'm here to speak to you today in requesting an investigation
0:53:38 into the actions of May 27th, 2025 during city meeting by the mayor.
0:53:46 I feel that this reaches the heights of possible violation of the city charter.
0:53:53 I'm requesting that the council have a fact-f finding independent investigation
0:53:58 in this situation because I feel that this egregious behavior has continued to
0:54:05 present. I think that this government is a broken system and that the rules are
0:54:10 not being followed and I'm calling for a transparent factf finding investigation
0:54:16 to put this government back on track. I think it's fair to ask this for the
0:54:23 citizens of Claremont for transparency purposes.
0:54:28 Miss Myers, I'm sorry. I failed as a man. A couple nights ago, we talked
0:54:36 about changing the times back. Some very rude things were said to you. And if the
0:54:42 person that said it should realize that every time when they talk about how we
0:54:47 interact at this meeting, they read the rules. They say no personal attacks.
0:54:52 I'm a son and a father. I have two daughters. When I get afraid, this is
0:54:58 what they bought me. And I should have had your back. Same thing for you, Miss Strange. Some very rude things were said
0:55:05 to you, and I didn't have your back, and I apologize. I'd like to give the uh city attorney
0:55:12 this request and I hope you will consider it for a future meeting because I think that this
0:55:18 situation is getting out of control and there needs to be defined powers for the transparency of this government and
0:55:25 being able to function. What happened divides this government inside the
0:55:30 house. What did a famous person say? A house divided cannot stand. Thank you.
0:55:39 Thank you, Mr. Hold on.
0:55:50 Yes, ma'am. Good afternoon. Sharon Key, 644 West Oyola.
0:55:58 It's Black History Month. This month, communities across our nation pause to
0:56:04 honor Black History Month, a time to reflect, remember, and recognize the
0:56:10 stories that built this country. And while some cities nearby may
0:56:16 celebrate more visibly, the truth remains that the same
0:56:21 everywhere, black history does not belong in one city, one month, or one
0:56:27 group of people. Black history is American history.
0:56:32 When we fail to recognize black history, we don't erase it. We only diminish our
0:56:38 understanding of America itself. And the reason I'm kind of emotional is because
0:56:44 of everything that's going on in our world today. And um
0:56:51 some things happened to me in the last couple of weeks that I thought would never happen in our city.
0:56:58 So, um, I just want you to know that black history is American history and that we
0:57:06 have contributed a lot here and we are all one,
0:57:12 we work together, we play together and I just believe that when we
0:57:20 don't put so much emphasis on division instead of more of unity,
0:57:27 and love. It's It's just really sad and it breaks my heart to see it. But we
0:57:35 have contributed a lot to this world and to this America. And when you have
0:57:41 people say malicious things, um,
0:57:46 you don't belong here. Um, just some of the things they said. I I
0:57:53 guess because I moved back here in 2018 and you come back and you think that
0:57:59 maybe things have changed a little cuz I was back there in the mall time and I
0:58:06 remember him going down east sometimes and we kind of like scatter you know but
0:58:12 uh you kind of think and you kind of hope that things would change or have changed
0:58:18 but now I think it we have given people the opportunity to say what you want to Okay. Anytime you want to say it and
0:58:24 it's and in way I kind of say well let them say it because that's truly their hearts because that's the real person.
0:58:32 So when someone tells me go back to where you belong. I was born and raised here in Claremont Florida.
0:58:40 And um some of the nasty things people say and do. But I do want you to know that
0:58:49 I'm going to finish reading this. When we fail to recognize black history because we have contributed a lot, we
0:58:55 don't erase it. We only diminish our understanding of America itself. Because you cannot tell the full story of this
0:59:01 country without telling the truth about the people who helped build it, defend it, and redefine it. So whether
0:59:08 celebrated loudly, quietly or not at all, black s black history still lives
0:59:14 in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our culture, in our shared future. Let
0:59:20 us remember honoring black history is not about division. It is about truth.
0:59:26 It is about unity. It is about ensuring that every story that shaped this nation is seen, valued, and remembered. Because
0:59:35 we honor black history, we honor America. For black history is American history.
0:59:42 Thank you. Anyone else?
0:59:50 Yes, sir. Good afternoon. My name is Kirk Shu and I have a restricted address under
0:59:55 Florida state law, but I am a resident of Claremont. Greetings, city council, mayor, city
1:00:00 council members, attorney. Don't want to leave anybody out. Bill D. Sorry, Rick.
1:00:07 Um, last day council, I spoke about standards. I hand thing an oath of the office we took in the military. I thank
1:00:13 you for your time. Um, I enlisted in 1980, almost 46 years ago.
1:00:20 In the first week of basic training, they hammer into you military standards and the uniform code of military
1:00:26 justice, which falls under the constitutional laws. Um, they really beat it into you. Um,
1:00:34 through my career, since I retired here in 2013, a lot of people ask me a lot of
1:00:41 questions. People I served with in combat and peace. I had the opportunity to go to Congress, Tallahassee, many,
1:00:46 many times. And a couple of the questions I received is like this. What's it like to go to war?
1:00:55 Have you killed anyone? How many?
1:01:00 Why are veterans so angry? I'm gonna answer that one from my
1:01:05 perspective. Veterans are often angry because we see,
1:01:10 we pay, we feel the cost of American freedom. When our friends, brothers and sisters
1:01:17 die, their body scarred, broken, injured, they carry the cost of freedom
1:01:23 in their body. They care for the rest of their life.
1:01:28 When I was in Iraq in '05, I saw a guy blown into pieces. He lived, burned over
1:01:34 90% of his body. I was on the IED task force in Iraq, part of the joint task force.
1:01:41 One of the other popular ones, what's post-traumatic stress or post-traumatic stress disorder?
1:01:47 This one I've asked actually in public presentations and it's been debated all the way up to the president of the
1:01:52 United States, chairman of the joint chiefs when I retired in 2013. And I explain it like this.
1:02:01 It's the stressing cause with the internal and moral conflict of war of
1:02:08 combat. You grow up for the first 20 years of your life and you learn this ethical
1:02:13 code, moral code that killing is wrong. You don't kill.
1:02:20 And then after a little bit of basic training and combat skills, they send you into unimaginable chaos.
1:02:27 War, bombs going off, people shooting, smoke, the fog of war,
1:02:33 and you have less than a second to decide whether you're going to die or you're
1:02:38 going to take another human being's life. So, I'll tell you about a story of Iraq.
1:02:44 Give me another minute, please. His name was Terry. Part of my joint task force in Iraq in 2005. And Terry, squad
1:02:51 leader, sergeant first class, was in the middle of a combat in most of Iraq in an engagement and he shot
1:03:00 another man. And then
1:03:06 this young boy, 10 or 11 years old, picked up his father's weapon, an AK-47,
1:03:11 and started shooting his own platoon. And so in fraction of a second, he
1:03:17 decided to save his own soldiers or to drop that young boy.
1:03:23 He's never recovered. He retired. He weighed 169 pounds. He now weighs over 350 lbs. He drinks heavily. He smokes.
1:03:31 He cannot drink the pain away. That's what war is like. That's what
1:03:38 combat is like. I did seven combat tours over 33 years.
1:03:47 War is not the same thing for everybody. I did direct combat, direct action with special operations.
1:03:54 And post-traumatic stress is a normal reaction to an unnatural thing. I thank
1:03:59 you for your service. God bless you. Thank you, sir.
1:04:06 Anyone else? Anyone else? This is a public forum. Anyone wish to speak to anything that's
1:04:13 not on the agenda may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone else? Seeing no one else, do we
1:04:20 have anyone online? Okay, with nobody on online, we going to
1:04:26 close. We can go ahead and close public comment. Um,
1:04:32 before I move on, Mr. Van Wagner, is there any changes to the agenda? I just want to make you aware that item number
1:04:38 three, we had a bidder that wasn't able to hold the price. That's on item number
1:04:44 57. So, we went with the next bid and that was a change of $186.87
1:04:54 that is added to this bid. So this this one that's on here the 247
1:05:00 240,000 excuse me 647 it's just 1866
1:05:06 more than previously. Okay that's the only change. I don't think we need to take any action on that. Do we miss the
1:05:11 war? Right.
1:05:17 I'm sorry. We don't need to take any action on that. Right. No I don't think so. Right.
1:05:29 All right, the next portion is this consent agenda which contains items that have been determined to be routine and
1:05:36 non-controversial and with if anyone in the audience wish to
1:05:42 address a particular item on the consent agenda, now is the opportunity for you to do so. Additionally,
1:05:48 if staff or members of the city council wish to speak on a consent item, they have the same opportunity. The consent
1:05:55 items this evening is items 1 through six. 1 through six. Are there anyone wish
1:06:03 anything to be pulled? Anyone wish anything to be pulled from
1:06:09 the consent agenda? Seeing none hearing none, I'd entertain a motion. Make a
1:06:15 motion to accept consent. I second.
1:06:20 Okay. Have a motion and a second uh to accept the uh consent agenda as
1:06:25 presented. Any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor? Let it be known
1:06:31 by saying I. I. All oppose. Chair vote. I as well. Motion passes. 40 5-0. I'm sorry.
1:06:40 Unfinished business. Item number item number seven,
1:06:47 ordinance number 2025-039, final Ivy
1:06:54 Ridge. Okay, mayor, I'll read both of those into the record. Seven and eight.
1:07:00 Okay. Well, we're going to look at item seven and eight at the same time, but we will we will and item eight is ordinance
1:07:05 number 2025-04 uh 0, but we will vote on them
1:07:10 separately. Okay. Ordinance 2025039, an ordinance of the city council of the
1:07:15 city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, adopting the largescale comprehensive plan amendment for the city of
1:07:21 Claremont, Florida, pursuant to the local government comprehensive planning act, chapter 163, part two, Florida
1:07:28 statutes. Setting forth the authority for adoption of the large-scale comprehensive plan amendment. Setting
1:07:33 forth the purpose and intent of the largescale comprehensive plan amendment. Establishing the legal status of the
1:07:39 comprehensive plan amendment providing for conflict severability, the administrative correction of scrivener's
1:07:45 error, publication, and an effective date. Ordinance number 2025040,
1:07:50 an ordinance under the code of ordinances of the city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, amending the official zoning map of the city of
1:07:57 Claremont, referred to in chapter 122 of ordinance number 289 Code of Ordinances,
1:08:03 reszoning the real properties described herein, as shown below, providing for conflict, severability, administrative
1:08:09 correction of scrivener's error, recording, publication, and an effective date.
1:08:15 Yes, sir. Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, and guests. John Cruz, Development Services.
1:08:22 The city as the applicant is requesting a large-scale comprehensive plan amendment of the subject property as a
1:08:28 follow-up to the staff initiated annexation request. The amendment would change the future land use from Lake
1:08:34 County urban load to city of Claremont low density residential. Outlined on the display is the property in question.
1:08:40 It's known as Ivy Ridge. The property is located southeast of Lake Louisa Road
1:08:45 and Hammock Ridge Road intersection is approximately 57 acres. The property was
1:08:50 approved under PED ordinance 2020-03 in Lake County for up to 155 single family
1:08:56 dwelling units. The property is currently moved forward and construction activity is starting. The property was
1:09:03 annexed by city council on June 10th, 2025 prior to building permit issuance
1:09:08 to capture approximately $1.8 $8 million worth of impact fees for the city of Claremont.
1:09:14 Since the project is greater than 50 acres, a large-scale comprehensive plan review was required. The amendment 25-02
1:09:23 ESR was transmitted for comment to the state of Florida, Florida Commerce Department, and other state agencies for
1:09:30 review. In December of 2025, the city received five responses from the reviewing agencies with no comments
1:09:38 being provided other than no adverse impacts have been found. Since no substantial comments or objections were
1:09:44 received, the city is proceeding forward with adoption of this request and recommends approval of ordinance
1:09:50 2025-039. The planning and zoning commission
1:09:55 recommended approval 5 to zero. Staff recommends approval of the large scale comprehensive plan amendment ordinance
1:10:02 2025-039. Next, we're moving on to the resoning portion.
1:10:09 The city as the applicant is requesting a reszoning of the subject property as a follow-up to the staff initiated
1:10:15 annexation request. The zoning change would be from Lake County Plan Unit development to City of Claremont Plan
1:10:20 Unit Development. The property is located southeast of Lake Louisa Road and Hammock Ridge Road
1:10:26 intersection. And again, it's approximately 57 acres. The property was approved under Lake County PUD ordinance
1:10:34 and for up to 155 single family dwelling units. The PUD zoning does not propose a
1:10:41 conflict to the existing uses and land uses in the area. The proposed use is
1:10:46 compatible with adjoining properties as required by the comprehensive plan. The transfer of Lake Countyy's PED ordinance
1:10:52 and the city's PE ordinance is a like for like with small adjustments made due
1:10:57 to code references such as county to city. The planning and zoning commission
1:11:03 recommended approval 5 to zero with an additional condition that the development builds the city's landscape
1:11:08 code. Staff notes that this condition is already captured within the ordinance under section six entitled landscaping
1:11:14 requirements. Staff recommends approval of the resoning to PUD with the conditions contained in ordinance
1:11:19 2025-04. That concludes staff's presentation.
1:11:27 Thank you. This is this is a public hearing and anyone in the public wish to address these items may come to the
1:11:33 microphone to state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address
1:11:39 either of these item may come to the microphone to state your name and address and have three minutes.
1:11:44 Seeing no one in the chamber, we have anyone online at this time? Okay, no one online. So, I close a
1:11:51 public portion and bring it back to council. What say council?
1:12:00 I make a motion to accept ordinance number 2025-39.
1:12:05 I second. Okay. I have a motion for approval of ordinance number 2025-039.
1:12:12 Any further discussion? Hear none. Uh, it's roll call. Council member Strange.
1:12:19 Nay. Council member Bane. I. Council member Myers.
1:12:25 I. Council member Peterson I.
1:12:30 And the chair vote I as well.
1:12:35 Motion carries 4 to one. All right.
1:12:41 Ordinance number 2025-04.
1:12:48 Entertain a motion unless unless there are some questions. No. Okay. Any comment?
1:12:54 Yes. I make a motion to accept item number eight, ordinance number 2025-040.
1:13:04 Second. I have a motion and a second uh for approval of ordinance number
1:13:09 2025-040. Any further discussion? None. All uh roll call. Council member
1:13:16 Strange. Nay. Council member Bane. I.
1:13:21 Council member Myers I. Council member Peterson I. And the chair vote I as well. And motion
1:13:28 carries 4 to one. Thank you sir. Next up is new business.
1:13:35 Uh item number nine is for variance request.
1:13:43 Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, and guests. Justine day with planning and development services.
1:13:49 Introducing agenda number I agenda item number nine for 1222 Fifth Street. It's
1:13:56 a variance request. The applicant and owner, Kenneth Ramsey, is requesting two
1:14:02 variances to the land development code to install a 288 square foot storage
1:14:07 building on his property located at 1222 Fifth Street. The property is designated
1:14:13 with the R1 single family medium uh density residential zoning district and
1:14:18 is approximately 9,000 square ft. Currently, the property consists of an
1:14:25 existing single family residence and a detached garage that were built around 1925 as indicated on the Lake County
1:14:32 Property Appraisers website. The property owner would like to install a storage building in a similar location
1:14:38 to the existing detached garage. The first variance request is to allow
1:14:44 for a sideyard setback to be less than the minimum 7 1/2 ft requirement. The
1:14:49 second variance request is to allow for a rear yard setback to be less than the minimum 25- ft requirement. These
1:14:55 requests would allow for the proposed storage building to encroach into the sideyard setback at 5 1/2 ft from the
1:15:01 south property line and encroach into the rear yard setback at 7 1/2 ft from the west property line.
1:15:08 The applicant has indicated the proposed storage building would not be encroaching into the rear yard setback
1:15:14 any further past the existing detached garage that sits at 7 1/2 ft from the rear property line. The existing garage
1:15:21 built in 1925 is a legal non-conforming structure since it does not meet the current rear yard setback of 25 ft. The
1:15:29 applicant would like to keep the proposed storage building in line with the existing detached garage since it
1:15:34 would give their family more outdoor space for backyard activities as well as storage.
1:15:40 Upon review of the applicant's request, staff is unable to support the request for a reduction to both the side and
1:15:46 rear setbacks. Land development code section 125520B states storage buildings over 150 square
1:15:54 ft shall be subject to setbacks for all other structures. The variance request is not the minimum that would make
1:16:00 reasonable use of the land due to the structure being able to be located elsewhere and meet the applicable land
1:16:06 development codes. Section 101246 of the land development code requires a
1:16:12 positive finding on the review criteria in order to grant a variance. Staff has reviewed the application as submitted
1:16:18 and finds the application does not meet a positive finding on one out of the five criteria. Therefore, staff
1:16:24 recommends denial of the variance request. Thus concludes staff's presentation.
1:16:30 Thank you. Is the African present?
1:16:50 Yes, sir. Mayor, Councilman, my name is Kenneth Ramsey. I live at 1222 Fifth Street.
1:16:57 Okay. So, uh we moved into this house about a
1:17:02 year and a half ago. Uh very, uh happy and proud that it's part of the Spanish run. Uh another dozen or so right around
1:17:10 that area. So, we learned more about that house u as we moved in and then continued uh while we lived there. So,
1:17:17 uh very proud to be part of that. It's very interesting. We also learned back in 1925 uh storage was a different
1:17:24 perspective. So, but that being said, it's all good. Um, but we always had
1:17:31 discussed what would it mean to put something in the back corner there. I think it's the south uh southwest corner
1:17:36 by the uh detached garage. And it's perfect area for just a storage shed and
1:17:42 place to do stuff, you know, around it, you know, projects and whatnot to further the house, which is why we're
1:17:47 requesting to match the existing rear offset of 7 1/2 ft to the existing
1:17:54 garage and then uh move the closer to the line about uh by a foot. Uh
1:18:02 therefore, the building would be better centered between the existing garage and the fence line.
1:18:09 Okay, that's it. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. If we uh we have any other questions, we will call you
1:18:16 back. Thank you so much. This is a public hearing. Anyone in the public wish to address the item may come
1:18:21 to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Anyone in the public wish to address
1:18:28 this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes. Seeing nobody in chamber, anyone online?
1:18:36 No, that's a discussion. Okay. Thank you. Well, we're going to close public comment portion and bring it back to council. What's the council?
1:18:45 The existing structure there is 101 years old. Is that 2025 or 1925 it was
1:18:52 built? That is correct. Yes, sir. So, would you be building the secondary structure to be in compliance with that
1:18:59 so it would have the same look or is it going to just be a a box type of storage? Um it's it's going to be uh
1:19:06 built in place. We looked at several different options of trying to uh I've
1:19:11 designed it two different times now. It started off as a metal structure. Uh that didn't work out for other reasons
1:19:17 and whatnot, but it is going to be a wooden structure. Um it's not going to have the stuccoed look per se. Um but it
1:19:26 is going to be a wooden structure colored uh matching accordingly. Uh very similar. Uh but I did go with a wooden
1:19:33 structure just to sort of blend with the rest of uh other structures in the area. There's a shed just next door to us
1:19:40 that's um as far as similar distance to the fence line. Are you going to be building it directly next to the existing structure or is
1:19:47 there going to be a space between? There's going to be uh because of the the movement the variance requested it's
1:19:53 going to have uh 30 36 in 32 in between
1:19:58 the existing garage uh is going to be the distance between the two structures.
1:20:04 So, and what's the reason why you can't be in compliance with setbacks? Well, the setback uh from the rear the
1:20:10 rear setback is at 26 ft. And if you go that further up into the property,
1:20:16 that's actually where my carport is. So that that's the reason for the rear.
1:20:24 Related to Mr. Peterson's questions, I'm curious what the neighbors uh shed is
1:20:30 off of their property line. I don't know if you can speak to that, how many feet the neighbor's shed is or if staff knows
1:20:36 the answer to that. Uh I measured it. Uh it is uh just under or right over six feet. So not quite six
1:20:43 and a half, but it's about six feet. That's the distance off the fence line as And you're requesting 7 and 1/2 ft.
1:20:50 I'm requesting 5 1/2 ft off of uh the south line, 7 and 1/2 ft off the rear,
1:20:56 which would match the garage, the existing garage. So, the neighbor's six and you're asking
1:21:01 five and a half, correct? Okay. And is the neighbor present or aware of what you're proposing?
1:21:07 Absolutely. I I spoke with uh George and Mila Meyers. Uh George specifically, he
1:21:13 was always he was a vet, always outside hanging out and we chatted quite frequently. Um unfortunately six months
1:21:18 ago he passed away. So although uh his wife Mila is certainly
1:21:24 well aware of the project and I even forwarded the uh uh information that you guys have currently to the to her as
1:21:31 well as uh her extended family who did a lot of work around the house when after he passed. So it is it's certainly a
1:21:37 known project.
1:21:46 Attorney Wall, we don't have anything in our code relative to design standards at this point, do we?
1:21:52 Not I think addressing what you mean by design standards. Yes. In other words, that the architectural
1:21:58 design of the unit to be consistent with the home or the adjacent properties.
1:22:03 Uh not not formally stated in the code. I think that you are able of course to
1:22:09 approve subject to conditions as you wish.
1:22:16 Dave, go ahead. Thank you, mayor. Um, I don't necessarily have any questions. Um, I
1:22:23 did talk to staff about this in our agenda review and notification was done as we do per our code for any type of
1:22:31 project like this. Um, I look at this as very similar to a
1:22:37 project or an item that we had before us recently in the older part of the city
1:22:42 that um, an individual was looking to and I believe that one was on the line and not didn't even have a setback. Um,
1:22:50 and here we're matching. I I I I I don't know that I could get to yes if you were
1:22:55 exceeding what the current garage was already in terms of the setbacks, but given that we're matching um that that
1:23:03 uh footprint to this footprint um and it's been there I'm not sure exactly
1:23:10 when it was built, but at least uh sometime after 1925 um thereabouts or after uh it's been
1:23:18 there for some time. Uh, and so, uh, I I I have no problem with that. And I I
1:23:23 think that, um, you know, we might see as a as a city some conversation about
1:23:30 looking to tie these types of projects to existing structures in terms of how they look and
1:23:37 how they feel, but we don't currently have that. And I really have some reservations about cherrypicking as to
1:23:42 when we do that. Um, so I'll support your request at this time. Thank you.
1:23:49 Okay. You have anything? If we don't have any other discussion,
1:23:55 I'll make a motion to accept discussion. I just You say it's 3 ft between the two
1:24:00 buildings. It would be 3 ft. And that throw you what? 5T 5 and 1/2 ft closer to the property of the side.
1:24:06 Yes, sir. Okay, that's correct. Is there a reason why we have be have three feet between the two? Uh, well,
1:24:14 I was trying to Where am I going to place it? So, it's still usable. You can
1:24:19 get there through there with a lawn mower, right? I'm trying to think about how I'm going to get around and keep
1:24:24 everything kept accordingly. So, otherwise, if I was going to uh stick
1:24:30 with what the current uh offset is in place, it would close the gap between
1:24:35 the two existing structures. Uh the front of the existing garage also has a
1:24:40 u a decorative trim, so it's not necessarily the frame of the garage. the
1:24:47 where the opening is, it actually comes out maybe another foot. So that's trying to take that into consideration.
1:24:54 Okay. Um because I mean this side setback bothers me and I I was
1:25:00 looking at it and saying if we can get it get it to keep it at that seven and a half ft side setback I have no problem.
1:25:06 This is a this is one of the unique areas of our town. Okay. I always call it our Spanish
1:25:13 village. Okay. because all everything is set over there in village uh Spanish style and everything and uh I realized
1:25:20 the need uh with our other thing I think Mr. Peterson touched on it for me was the was the architecture and the final
1:25:26 design. Is it going to match similar what's there already? But you said no, it's going to be wooden.
1:25:32 Correct. It's going to be a wooden structure. Uh we are going to uh color accordingly. You know, it's we want it
1:25:39 to blend as well. You know, it's all the way in the back corner of the lot, but we still want it to look nice and blend.
1:25:45 Well, you know, I'm trying I'm trying to I'm trying to support this and I this
1:25:50 Mr. W. You say we we can put stipulation on because if
1:25:55 I guess I what I would like to see is maybe you go ahead and do this. I would like to support this but if we can agree
1:26:02 to I trying to keep it in the Spanish style. uh when you do it, I can I can
1:26:08 really really support it, but uh I don't know how expensive and that's why I was thinking maybe if you moved it right
1:26:13 next to it or even use the present one of the present walls and everything can
1:26:19 save you some money and keep it looking all one of the same and then we still have the 7 and 1/2 ft on the side. I
1:26:25 don't have any problem with the back back uh setback because the present one has the same backside backside setback
1:26:31 and that's back in when these were built. We really didn't have too many codes in the city at the time. So,
1:26:38 you know, so and that's another reason why I'm I kind of like le saying okay
1:26:43 overlook the 7 and 1/2 ft because during the time there's a lot of them over there that's not meeting the 7 and 1/2
1:26:48 ft. So your your code section does say that when you deal with a variance, you can approve, deny, or approve with
1:26:55 conditions. Well, and for clarity, what we're really talking about here is not approving a shed. It's approving that this property
1:27:02 in perpetuity would have a 7 and 1/2t setback with a 5 and 1/2t sideline setback. Is that accurate or do I
1:27:07 misunderstand? It's a good question. And I think we'd have to look at the application to
1:27:14 Well, we we approving a a share that exceeds our present day codes. Okay. Uh
1:27:20 that wouldn't meet our present day codes. Of course, when all this was built over there, a lot of them, none of them homes, a lot of that stuff over
1:27:26 there wouldn't meet our meet our present day codes because back in the day when they was built, it wasn't there. I I think it would be to allow the
1:27:32 setbacks for this specific structure. Right. So,
1:27:38 so when our comprehensive plan is done and the design team comes up with
1:27:44 standards and criteria, if this gentleman wished to build a a larger garage with an ADU on top, for example,
1:27:52 um let's say the design team says six feet, he would have to come back for a variance for the five and a half feet.
1:27:57 Just as an example, I think yes. Okay,
1:28:05 I'm going to move to approve item number nine. Second.
1:28:10 Okay, I have a motion and a second for approval of where are we? Item number nine. Any further discussion?
1:28:18 No. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose and chair vote I as well.
1:28:24 Motion passes 5. Item item number 10 is consideration for
1:28:31 res good luck sir I'm sorry consideration for resolution number 2026- 006R
1:28:38 a resolution of the city council of the city of Claremont Florida relating to the drinking water state revolving fund
1:28:44 loan program making findings authorizing the loan application and execution of
1:28:49 the loan agreement for project number 3514D designating authorized representatives
1:28:56 providing assurances providing for conflict, severability, administrative correction of scrier's error,
1:29:02 publication, and an effective date. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Scott
1:29:07 Boore, finance director, and I'm joined by Mark Griffin from public services. The Florida Department of Economic or
1:29:14 excuse me, of environmental protection, FD has included a series of city of Claremont drinking water capital
1:29:20 projects as part of their 2026 drinking water state revolving fund priority
1:29:25 list. This action makes the city eligible for a $15.6 million loan from
1:29:30 the SRF program for utilization towards the presented projects that are included in your packet. The loan award includes
1:29:37 a 50% debt forgiveness subsidation in a form of principal forgiveness.
1:29:43 Uh the resolution before you in section three uh authorizes both the application
1:29:48 and acceptance of the loan. FD will provide the specific terms of the loan
1:29:54 to us approximately 6 weeks after the submission of the application. Staff
1:29:59 will report uh those uh terms back to city council at that point in time. Key
1:30:05 dates of this uh program include the following. Application is due to FD by
1:30:10 March 12th, 2026. Loan acceptance is due to FD by June 10th, 2026. Projects must
1:30:17 be completed by December 2031. and repayment would begin the earlier of
1:30:23 6 months after the last project is completed or fiscal year 202930.
1:30:29 That concludes staff reports. We'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Okay. First, we're going to open
1:30:35 it up to the public. Anyone in the public wish to address this item may come to the microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes.
1:30:42 Anyone within the chamber want to address the item may come to microphone and state your name and address and have three minutes.
1:30:49 Seeing no one, Mr. Wayne, we have no one online. So, we're going to close public comment. Bring back the council. What
1:30:55 say council? I have questions for staff. Uh, Mr. Bor
1:31:00 probably just for you. Um, which fund would we use to pay the
1:31:07 balance of this loan? Water fund. And do we have sufficient funds in the water fund currently or
1:31:13 projected over the next however many years that this loan would be in place to pay it or would this result in a fee
1:31:20 increase? Well, let me um revise partially my
1:31:25 response to that. Uh some of these projects may very well also be eligible for use of water impact fee as well. So
1:31:33 when I say water fund, I'm I'm speaking to them in as a whole. Um but in ter
1:31:39 your question was rooted in uh repayment. Um this would of course if
1:31:44 authorized by council be included in the rate study that is currently ongoing uh
1:31:49 that council authorized it a couple months ago and and which we're about halfway through that process as we speak. Uh whether or not uh this would
1:31:56 impact rates would be determined by that study. Uh, as I sit here off the top of
1:32:03 my head, I do know that we do have debt in the water fund coming off the books over the next 10 years. Um, so that
1:32:11 presumably would help stabilize that. But again, um, to specifically answer
1:32:16 your question, that would require the conclusion of the the rate study. So according to the financials that you
1:32:22 give us today, we currently have 10 million almost 11 in the water fund and
1:32:27 5 million in the water impact fee fund. And we have debt service obviously but new construction and development coming
1:32:34 in. Knowing what we know today, does this
1:32:39 seem like a prudent activity on our part?
1:32:45 From my chair, it certainly does. and and and let me further explain why. Um
1:32:51 my understanding and and and I'm hesitant um I'm I'm hedging my comments because we don't have the terms from FD
1:32:58 yet, but my understanding is um there's two different tracks that the city will
1:33:03 be able to choose from um as we are working through these projects and
1:33:09 receiving the funds. One would be an uh an upfront distribution of the entire
1:33:14 15.6, six, but with that would come interest. Um, the preferred track, as I
1:33:19 understand it, is that we pay for these projects as we go and then we are reimbursed for them and that would come
1:33:26 with a 0% um interest rate associated with the loan. Therefore, making it even more
1:33:32 prudent to answer your question um to to move forward with this. Okay. And then I have a question for the
1:33:38 um public works staff relative to we had some conversation at the uh priorities
1:33:45 meeting about and you hopefully I don't know if you're the right one to speak to you're you're the one this time. Okay.
1:33:52 Um that we're looking to put a water treatment facility in the wellness way area.
1:33:57 Correct. Over the next five years more or less. Yes. And my recollection is that we anticipate that's going to be about a
1:34:03 $30 million project. Does that sound right? Correct. And we also have a project at Verde
1:34:09 Ridge that we're looking at. Correct. And that's five or six million. That's correct.
1:34:15 So if we have 15 million in the bank and we're looking to take out a 15 million loan
1:34:21 with a 50% forgiveness or at least it seems like this is consistent with our
1:34:26 plans. This is it is. And these some of the projects that are listed under this grant funding
1:34:31 are ones that are already in the city's budget and in the five-year plan currently. Okay, great. So essentially, we're doing $15 million
1:34:38 worth of projects for seven just over $7 million. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
1:34:47 Okay. I just wanted to say I think with uh
1:34:54 commend staff whomever sought this out uh to get the opportunity to complete
1:34:59 projects that we have in the plan uh and to get state assistance. I think it's
1:35:04 something that's been an initiative that this council and past councils have asked the city staff to do and you're
1:35:11 doing it. So, um, between this and another item we um approved earlier on
1:35:17 the consent agenda, um, we're we're getting well over half more in work than
1:35:24 what we're paying out of out of city funds to do. Um, and it's improving uh
1:35:29 infrastructure and and expanding access. So, I think that those are all things
1:35:35 that we need particularly as it relates to our water and and the safety of that water. So, thank you for that.
1:35:42 Thank you. Anyone else? I second what council member Bane said. I'm going to move to approve item number
1:35:48 10. Second. I have a motion and a second for
1:35:54 approval of item number 10. Resolution number 2026-00006.
1:36:00 And it is resolution, right? Yes. Because I'm looking at a screen saying ordinance. So
1:36:07 So I want to I want to verify anything. Any further discussion? No.
1:36:12 All in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. All oppose and chair vote I as well.
1:36:17 Motion passes 50. Item number 11, ordinance number
1:36:24 2026-012. Introduction. An ordinance of the city
1:36:30 council of the city of Claremont, Lake County, Florida, closing and permanently abandoning a portion of Short Street
1:36:36 Ride ofway, Johnson's Replat according to the plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 8, page 71, public records of Lake
1:36:43 County, Florida, and more particularly described as below. This ordinance will repeal and replace ordinance number
1:36:50 2025016 due to revised legal description providing for conflict severability
1:36:57 administrative correction of scrier's error recording publication and effective date.
1:37:02 Thank you. Yes. Entertain motion.
1:37:07 I move to approve ordinance number 2026 012 intro. A second. I have a motion and a second
1:37:14 for approval of ordinance number 2026-012 intro uh to vacate uh rightway
1:37:22 amendment. Any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor? Let it be known by saying I.
1:37:28 All oppose. Chair vote as well. Motion carries 5. Uh reports Mr. Van Wagner.
1:37:36 Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just some important dates. Our March workshop is
1:37:41 going to be on March 17th at 3 PM. I want to make you aware of some events.
1:37:47 The Great Claremont Campout is February 28th through March 1st at Waterfront Park. And we have the Claremont
1:37:55 Multihall Riata. That's March 6th through March 8th. And the Great
1:38:00 Claremont Triathlon is March 8th at Waterfront Park. That concludes my report.
1:38:06 Mr. Mr. Ben Wagner, can I ask you to um
1:38:11 go ahead and let's try to get some advertise more advertisement out on the on the Jazz Festival. Yes.
1:38:17 That's coming in in uh in April. Yes, it's in April, but it's our first time
1:38:23 doing this and I know we got a lot invested in this. So, I would like to see better part uh of some pretty good
1:38:28 participation and I know I've been around the city and kind of saying things to people and a lot of them isn't aware of it right now.
1:38:34 What's the date on that again? the 18th and 19th of April. So, and it ought to
1:38:40 and from what I understand some people come back with feedback from it. We got some great entertainment coming uh some
1:38:46 great artists that'll be here. So, okay, please. We just need to step up. I would love to see step up on the
1:38:52 advertisement. Okay, Mr. Awa. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Um last meeting I told
1:38:58 you that we are still negotiating the Duke Energy ordinance. I think we're now at the place where it'll be it'll
1:39:05 hopefully end up on your agendas in April um for your consideration. We are still working out and have made very
1:39:12 clear um things like lighting on Hook Street and Excalibur need to be handled
1:39:17 as expediently as possible. They keep promising. Um we got another promise
1:39:23 yesterday. Um they've confirmed that they are willing to um do what public
1:39:29 services has requested which is um in exchange with for us working with them
1:39:34 on uh doing work on rightsways without having to go through um an extensive
1:39:40 permit process with us. Uh they would be willing to provide trucks to hold up their infrastructure free of charge to
1:39:47 us when we're doing work on our right ofways. So sometimes when they're digging it creates a lateral support
1:39:54 issue. They've always charged the city for that. They're willing to do that. Um in any event, I think it will be ready for
1:39:59 your um review and we'll send that soon. Okay. Um what about Highland Avenue?
1:40:06 We that was another request that was made and discussed yesterday. They've I think said that they've tried to put a
1:40:12 work order in three times. I said it's not good enough. Um, and I I mean to be
1:40:17 blunt, I told them that these are preconditions to the city. Now, it's all it's actually up to you, not up to me, but I want to
1:40:24 play a little harball with them to get it done. Well, why you know, Chief Gracie isn't
1:40:29 here because he were with me when we did the uh survey of all that. I know it
1:40:35 include that survey included more than Highland Avenue, but with in light of what happened last week over there on
1:40:41 the corner Highland and Block. I mean, I come through there in the darkness and everything. I I think it need to be
1:40:46 really really addressed because I didn't the darkness really caught me even more
1:40:51 so the other night with the incident we had over there. I've emphasized that. So, okay. You know, but but if we can
1:40:57 get at least Highland, I mean, we need to really step it up on Highland because it is truly truly dark over there in
1:41:03 that area in that corner along there. So, and it's like I say, I think it's something we still paying for.
1:41:08 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if they want a 10-year extension on a monopoly here, they ought to be willing to do that as a
1:41:13 bare minimum. Yeah. Because, you know, we pay for these street lights. We paying for these street lights, and they telling me on their website that we have street lights
1:41:19 in these areas, and none of them exist. So, so thank you, sir. Yes. Anything else?
1:41:25 No, sir. Um, okay. Yes. Uh, who? Let me look at what
1:41:31 we got here. Mr. Peterson. Oh, going in reverse order. Okay.
1:41:38 Um, one of the things you had mentioned before about advertisement and I think
1:41:43 we should we I know we in past sessions we were talking about uh public information
1:41:50 uh strategies. We're talking about hiring people and things like that. But I think Melinda's doing a phenomenal
1:41:56 job, but I really think, you know, she needs additional personnel in there. And I think we should look into possibly
1:42:03 getting other people in there to expand our public information office as we're growing bigger and bigger, especially as
1:42:09 we're having more and more events. I mean, uh, as a as a senior, we're
1:42:15 looking at at reading material, but I I'm the minority here now, and most of the people are into Instagram, into
1:42:22 Facebook, into other forms of uh of getting the message across, and I think
1:42:28 we should look into expanding that, especially as our city's growing.
1:42:33 Secondly, I was really touched about PTSD. I mean, I think everyone here gets
1:42:40 emotional when they think about what the veterans have to go through in these type of situations. And I don't think
1:42:47 there's anything any words I can really say that can that can touch your touch your hearts, but I know like it it
1:42:54 touched my heart when you when you mentioned that before and I just want you to know that. Secondly, I was at the
1:43:00 DPZ uh meeting last night, the culmination, and I thought it was
1:43:06 amazing the amount of of work that was done and the level of work that was done
1:43:11 in the drawings and things like that. And I I you know I think it it's it's
1:43:16 something I know it's in its infancy still and we're not you know we haven't made any final decisions but I think it
1:43:22 was great the amount of talent that we were able to get as a city
1:43:28 to you know use the their level of expertise. That's it.
1:43:35 Thank you sir. Council member Strange. Yes. One of the items that we voted on
1:43:40 tonight was um engineering both concept and engineering on Bloxom Avenue. I
1:43:46 would I'm asking for council's support to direct staff to ensure that whatever
1:43:53 the concept is and the final engineering to to be directing staff that that
1:44:00 design be consistent with the beautiful work that we saw yesterday that was done
1:44:05 by DPZ. I think a lot of the drawings, if you haven't seen them, with people being able to bike and move about and
1:44:12 use golf carts safely and, you know, I I fear that if we don't, if we're not
1:44:18 intentional about directing our professionals to have that standard that
1:44:26 we will be going through this process of comprehensive planning, a design as a ministerial task rather than as an
1:44:32 intentional task. So, I was hoping that I could get council support to to direct
1:44:37 Mr. Van Wagner and the team at public works to communicate to that contractor that we don't want business as usual on
1:44:44 that street design that we want it to be consistent with the walkable bikable concepts that we've been seeing coming
1:44:51 out of the DPZ team. I see a yes from Miss Meyers and Mr.
1:44:56 Peterson. Yeah. Are we are we engaging in a conversation
1:45:02 here about this? Because I I I guess I I'm curious why we didn't just make that as a motion and when we voted on it to
1:45:08 the item was to hire a firm. The question is the standards. So, but I think the standards would be a
1:45:14 part of that conversation. Um, I'm comfortable with asking staff to be
1:45:19 cognizant of walkability multimodal, but I'm hesitant to say they have to follow
1:45:25 a concept that isn't even an actual concept presented to the council for approval. I do I do have a concern about
1:45:32 that. So in theory, if we want to say present something that's walkable, that's multimodal, that it's consistent
1:45:39 with with uh use of golf carts or bikes and other forms of transportation that
1:45:44 that promotes healthy lifestyle, walkability, those types of things, I'm okay with that. I just am hesitant to
1:45:50 say follow DPZ when DPZ has a concept, but we've not implemented any of their
1:45:57 concepts into our comprehensive plan yet. Yeah. And for clarity, I didn't they didn't provide anything for that street.
1:46:03 So there's nothing to follow from DPZ. It's the it's when the concept plan is done. Well, perhaps we should be asking
1:46:11 for when the concept plan is done before they go to engineering to have it come back to us for consideration. What do we
1:46:16 think about that? I agree with that. Yeah. Well, there we go. Well, part of the that street and the
1:46:22 one of the main portion of the street that's being looked at is outside the the zone that DPZ is working on. It's in
1:46:28 the what's that? the southwest uh quadrant to the south side of highway 50 even though we do have a section there
1:46:34 uh a block from Highland on which is already walkability in mo multimotal you
1:46:41 know golf carts everything go through there and people walk we got sidewalks and everything there uh I think the
1:46:46 biggest thing we're looking to do though is more or less um storm water improvements along there
1:46:53 because especially to the south side of 50 on Batson because um whenever it
1:46:58 rains there. I mean, we have a serious problem with storm water and we have the sidewalks and everything running along
1:47:04 there now, but we have to do something about you're right about widening this if we can widen the street and capture
1:47:10 the storm water. Eventually, it'll go all the way down to Hook Street, but I think right now, if I'm not mistaken,
1:47:17 this portion is just going to um Minhaha, right? And everything. This portion of it is just going to Minihaga,
1:47:23 but we have a concern to go all the way down to uh Hook Street with it. Um, and
1:47:29 the biggest thing is we we have to try to because of the funding we're trying to use their uh grant, we have to try to
1:47:36 try to watch out uh our spending as well. So, Oh, sure. No, I support the project. I
1:47:41 think improvements on that road are great. I'm just asking if council supports, you know, staff holding our our our
1:47:47 professionals to a standard of walkable, bikable, human friendly, multimodal. It sounds like we got that. Well, if you if
1:47:55 you look at the other portion of Batsom Blossom Avenue to the uh south of Highland,
1:48:01 uh basically that that was they took all that in consideration along along the way. That's why we have all the
1:48:06 sidewalks, the new curb and the storm water catch. Uh because we used the same program to do all of that. Well, it was
1:48:13 three times we used it along the solo and well, you know, so but I I think the
1:48:19 we I don't have no problem with reiterating it to staff. Mr. bandwagon reagent with staff is to keep it in in
1:48:25 in that perspective, but I definitely want to see it kind of like match what we did with the other side of blocks and
1:48:31 everything. So, which is pretty good. So, yes, sir. Anything else, ma'am? Yes, I had several. Go ahead.
1:48:36 I'm sorry. And I hate to jump in. I just I'm a little confused about what the direction is to city management. I think
1:48:42 I saw consensus, but that's why sometimes it is good to do things by motion.
1:48:47 Would Would you mind giving the city manager direction by motion?
1:48:53 I wouldn't even know how to do it. I move I mean I I think your what your ask was that the standards I mean I
1:49:01 don't it seemed like you agreed with council member Bane about what he was saying which is multimmodal you know we
1:49:08 asked that the work that's produced pursuant to this approved item uh conform to the multimodal vision.
1:49:14 Correct. Okay. Well, if if you're happy with it and you feel like you have the direction, that's fine. But I just
1:49:20 didn't want it to come back later. Yeah. If if there was a drawing or something, I would refer to that, but I don't I don't have such a thing.
1:49:26 Right. Yeah. Well, like I say, it's already multimotal. It just needs some work. It's it's a bad area. Need to work
1:49:32 and need to upgrade it and improve it. It's curving and all this over there and capture the storm water. wishing
1:49:38 basically I wish we can close off Arman Street through there altogether but uh cuz it creates a real hassle over there
1:49:45 but I know that's not going to happen either but but anyway I I agree with it.
1:49:50 All right, great. Um so when we have items that went through planning and zoning I I had
1:49:56 thought that in the past we had asked that the planning and zoning notes be included with the agenda packet. I might
1:50:03 be misremembering, but tonight we had items on the agenda that were um had gone through planning and zoning and I
1:50:09 did not see them in the packet. So, I just wanted to remind staff that planning and zoning does a lot of work
1:50:15 and I think that what they provide is valuable and and when they give us reports, I'd like to have copies of
1:50:20 those in the packet. Um related to that, there was recently a a training for
1:50:27 planning and zoning and in that conversation uh there was communication to our planning and zoning team about
1:50:33 how we're interacting with applicants. And um while I support the overall
1:50:39 messaging, one of the things I would have liked to have seen and I'm curious again what my fellow council members
1:50:45 think is I would like to see if planning and zoning was willing to put together maybe a list of standards that they see.
1:50:52 I think it would be helpful for the DPZ team as well to see what our planning and zoning team see as you know what do
1:50:58 they see as the standards. I know when someone comes in here, I'm looking at certain things like human friendly,
1:51:04 walkable, bikable, but those aren't official standards for the city at this point. And yet, I think a lot of folks
1:51:10 on planning and zoning are looking at that. And there's no reason why they couldn't put together a list in my mind
1:51:18 to say these are the standards that we're going to review these things and then bring it up to council so we can send it back so that they know, we know,
1:51:26 the applicant knows these are the standards that we're looking at which we could then share with DPZ as they're working on our comprehensive plan. Is
1:51:33 that something I mean do we need a motion on that? Is that something we feel I think one of the things they said it was certain areas you know when they did
1:51:39 the blueprints these are areas that we can do resoning these are the areas we cannot so I don't know if you could come
1:51:46 up with zoning rules at a blanket when you have can and cannot do so we have to
1:51:51 make it has to be differentiated between different you know I don't know can you make zoning rules that are applicable
1:51:58 for zone A but not zone B oh that's a great question legally can that be done legally
1:52:04 I mean is there the possibility of maybe like a joint workshop between council and planning and zoning where we could
1:52:10 talk about those things. Yeah, the answer is yes. And in fact, I if if that is the route that you wanted to go down, I'd recommend the joint
1:52:16 workshop because ultimately you are going to be the deciders. But if you want their input, that's the
1:52:22 way to do it. What do we think about that? Do we want to do that? Yes.
1:52:28 Cool. Um, I wanted to follow up on a question
1:52:33 from the last meeting. Uh, I think it was the last meeting about the disc golf. Um, I hope everybody received it.
1:52:40 I asked our tourism director for a report on what the projected economic impact of the national championship
1:52:47 would be. Did everybody get that? He sent it back. Um, I believe it was a million dollars
1:52:54 estimated economic impact. And in a follow-up uh communication I received from Mr. Richie um he did verify with
1:53:01 the team with the group at the disc golf that all of the rooms would be the only
1:53:08 rooms they're promoting let's say are in Claremont and in fact they're using a local RV park that con coincidentally
1:53:14 has a disc golf course in it and so they use it to prepare. So uh I wanted to follow up on that as it came up at the
1:53:21 last meeting. Also, one of the items as upcoming events, I guess I'll do a this
1:53:27 will be perceived however it's perceived, but uh the spring games does start this Friday. Um it will go for the
1:53:34 month of March. If you like going to local restaurants, please be advised that about 25,000 people will be coming
1:53:40 into town uh throughout the month and restaurants are likely to be full with college softball players and their
1:53:46 families. Um, most exciting for me is that the division 3 national champion,
1:53:52 Try University, will be here playing their opening games on this Saturday
1:53:57 starting at 1:30 at Legends Way Ballfields for anybody who wishes to go. They're playing two top 100 teams. So,
1:54:03 they should be extraordinary games. Um, so I think that that is good. And then
1:54:09 one of the members of the public brought up a question about um our rules and you
1:54:15 know how we follow them and compliance with our charter. I need to be accountable to um the council and the
1:54:20 public. I made a records request that um I perceived as a point of inquiry. Uh
1:54:28 our attorney clarified with me that it was in fact direction to staff. I did
1:54:33 not mean to do that. I thought that the record request was a request for inquiry and so I want to be accountable to each
1:54:40 of you for that. Um I now know if I have a request for any document to direct
1:54:45 that specifically to Mr. Rand Wagner and I apologize to the staff member that I
1:54:50 made that request to in the manner that I requested it. Um it caused me to ask for a opinion by our attorney of you
1:54:57 know what what are the rules? I want to make sure I'm not um violating those. And I think that the request from the
1:55:03 public that um any any perceived any alleged violation um to be looked into
1:55:09 and and I welcome it and I I support the public's request for an inquiry into uh
1:55:16 the way that we communicate so that we can make sure that we're communicating in compliance with our charter.
1:55:22 And and let me just address that. I always appreciate the cander of uh you council member Strange and others. um
1:55:28 you know what the charter prohibits is willful you know violations and so when people request information and documents
1:55:35 I don't consider that a willful violation of you know the prohibitions that are in the charter or anything. Um
1:55:42 it's it's just sometimes there's a a line between um give me this or can you
1:55:47 answer this or can you give me this. So, it's just something I try to call balls and strikes on, but there's no willful
1:55:54 and I appreciate it. It it wasn't intended to to step over Mr. Van Wagner's toes, and I apologize, Mr. Van
1:55:59 Wagner, if I did. Um, it's helpful for me, and I think it's good for us to be
1:56:07 on the safe side to say, you know, all of our communications really, unless Mr. Van Wagner says, "Yes, talk to this
1:56:14 member." And then what I've been doing is making a point of following up with Mr. Vanwagner. I I did meet with that
1:56:20 person and then this is what we talked about and I hope staff is doing the same, you know, that that we're all
1:56:25 holding each other accountable. So, I just wanted to own my own stuff in that
1:56:30 um and and put that out there. Let me Mr. W talking about talking about
1:56:37 records requests a little are you saying as council members we we
1:56:42 can't submit records requests? No, what I'm saying is because the charter prohibits I mean total the opposite,
1:56:49 mayor. I mean because the charter prohibits council members from giving direction, right? It says
1:56:56 that, you know, members can make points of inquiry with staff. And and as I've said in my email to all of y'all, it's
1:57:02 not my intention to get in the way of whatever relationships you want to have and should have with staff, but when
1:57:08 when a council member, for example, um as council member Strange was saying,
1:57:14 like if she wrote an email, if anyone wrote an email and said to uh Mr. hell
1:57:19 over here like, you know, get me a report on this, get me the numbers on this. That's technically the city
1:57:27 manager's purview to give instructions on that. But it could be construed as a
1:57:32 public records request, right? It's going to someone at the city. It's saying, "I'd like to see these records." And so in I I don't
1:57:40 really see it as a willful violation of the charter. I view it as a public records request, if that makes sense.
1:57:45 I'm not saying it's prohibited. I'm saying it's absolutely allowed. I'm just I'm just saying because I mean I don't
1:57:50 have no problem. Every time I need something to send it straight to him, they have to do it and he'd be inundated
1:57:56 with with requests. But uh just asking for information. I I've always thought as a as a council member, as a citizen,
1:58:04 I can ask for it. Like I can pick up the phone as a citizen and call any department head and say, "Hey, can you provide me this without going?"
1:58:10 And I and that's the point of inquiry, you know, for example. So if you're asking, "Hey, can I find out what this
1:58:15 is?" That's a point of inquiry. It's allowed under the charter. Okay. It's just a difference between direction. I know it seems like semantics, but that's
1:58:21 what you have a city attorney for. I'm so sorry. Well, I I'm just trying to get some other I heard her say she did a records
1:58:27 request and I'm like, "Okay, we we have to do records request through the city manager now uh and everything." Yeah.
1:58:34 Well, and and to that end, because I I understand your perspective, I obviously share it or I wouldn't have requested
1:58:40 the information. Um, you know, on reflection it, you know, we have we have
1:58:47 power, you know, we're council members. We're we're not we do have access to
1:58:53 directors and we are their boss's boss. And so, um, you know, when when I I had
1:59:01 the conversation with our attorney, I you know, I said, well, that, you know, with great power comes great
1:59:07 responsibility. And so I think that we should be mindful of I think it is good
1:59:12 practice to be mindful that if we have anything um other than a general inquiry
1:59:20 other than um you know a friendly or cordial conversation with directors I
1:59:25 think it puts everybody in a better position if our primary if our primary point of contact is the city manager. Um
1:59:32 again and I don't have any problem and what I am doing at this point is I would
1:59:37 say you know hey Mr. You know, I call him Rick. I do. I say Rick. Um, I have a
1:59:43 question. Do you mind if I meet with And I I'll say, "Scott, do you mind if I meet with Scott? I have a question about
1:59:49 this budget item." Sure. He always says, "Yes, I meet with Scott." And then I follow up. Hey, I met with him and these
1:59:55 were my questions and my concerns. And especially if I have something that maybe maybe I'm not happy with the
2:00:00 result of it. I think it's better that I say that to Mr. Van Wagner than that I say that to Mr. Boore. because now it's
2:00:08 hard enough to have five bosses, but now if all the department heads have five bosses, that's just miserable. So,
2:00:16 if I've ever done that to any of you, call it a rookie mistake. And I've learned. Um, but but I do think that
2:00:21 that's good practice because if we were just citizens, odds are we would not be
2:00:26 going to department heads to ask for documents. I mean, we might try, but we
2:00:32 probably wouldn't be able to. I did. Well, and I think I think the city manager also has discretion as well
2:00:38 to say, "Look, why don't you meet with Scott Bor about this as well? I mean, I
2:00:43 there's not some wall like the wall between church and state or something like that." So, yeah.
2:00:52 There is a wall. Okay, that's all I have to Thank you. Um, Council Member Bane.
2:00:59 Thank you, Mayor. Um, two things uh that just came up. So with the PNZ reports,
2:01:06 uh that was something when I chaired PNZ that we talked about that we wanted as a
2:01:11 as a commission to have a summary that wasn't just the minutes that gave a
2:01:18 summary of the results of the items on our agenda and also some bullet points
2:01:23 about the the arguments for or against or concerns that were brought up,
2:01:29 amendments that were made. And that was something I did as chair. Uh it's not
2:01:34 something that's required. Uh I think uh that I know I I found it to be
2:01:40 beneficial for you all as council members when I was PNZ chair to have that information because it prompted
2:01:46 some questions that maybe would not have come up before. Um and I think that if
2:01:52 the current PNZ and the current chair, uh Mr. Colby wants to continue that.
2:01:57 Either he could do that as chair or appoint someone on PNZ to to do it and
2:02:02 to still have that. But I think them hearing that that's something that we would benefit from and continue to benefit from maybe then prompts uh Mr.
2:02:11 uh Henchel or someone else to to you know have that conversation that they already have with the with the PNZ chair
2:02:18 to see if that's something that they'll put on the agenda and and discuss and see if they'll continue to do for us
2:02:24 because I do find it to be I I found it to be beneficial even on that side of the of the of the dis. Um, and then with
2:02:31 regard to the the question about the charter and so forth, I I think you know
2:02:37 where that differentiation lies is that charter talks about council members versus general public. The charter can't
2:02:44 tell the general public that you can or can't, you know, ask a question. And so we do have that different standard. And
2:02:50 I kind of look at it more from the standpoint is it is it is it direction or is it a question? Is it information
2:02:56 or is it a report? Because for me, if I if I called up Mr. Bor and said, "Could you tell me what line item I could find
2:03:03 this budget?" That's just a a I'm just asking the information, the question. But if if you could repair 10 years
2:03:10 worth of that same line item and compare it to now I'm asking him to do work that
2:03:16 actually is taking uh a direction from me. And that I I I kind of use that as
2:03:21 the example of where then I would go to the city manager and say, "Mr. City Manager, would you be willing to have
2:03:27 Mr. bore do this report and quite honestly give it to all of us because I think it might be something beneficial
2:03:33 for all of us. That's usually like the standard that I use in my brain with it um to try to help me uh and I think it
2:03:40 is good just to have that clarification cuz sometimes we it's unintentional. it you it just comes up. But other times, I
2:03:46 do think we have to be very cognizant about um
2:03:52 because of that role we're in and we are their boss's boss that they're going to
2:03:57 want to please just out of doing good because they're good people and also the realities of
2:04:04 the circumstances. And so I don't want to put them in a spot where they don't
2:04:09 want to say no uh and be uncomfortable. And I think that's maybe where um if
2:04:14 it's potentially that could create that, it should just go to the city manager and and have his office handle that is
2:04:21 kind of how I've operated it. And correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. City Attorney, if that's No, it's a good example. Thank you. I'll
2:04:27 steal it. You have my permission. Um I I brought up yesterday in my agenda
2:04:34 review meeting uh and on social media some issue and concern about the ut the most recent utility bill and I wanted to
2:04:40 to bring it up to talk about it here today too. So I think at last count we have over 5,000 of our customers who are
2:04:46 in the autopay program. And with that new autopay program there's no longer
2:04:51 verbiage on our utility bill that says something like what it used to say direct debit do not pay. And it said
2:04:59 those words in two different locations. It said it on the top portion that a person might keep for their files of of
2:05:05 the bill. And it said it where you tear on the bottom and remit that with a check or bring that into city hall. And
2:05:12 it doesn't say that in either spot now. So when I got my most recent bill this past week, I looked at it and thought,
2:05:19 well, I thought we enrolled in the auto autopay. Why do I owe a bill?
2:05:25 and I happened to be talking to the person who was working out front here and a person came in, a resident, and
2:05:32 they had the same question and they directed them to utility billing. So, I know it's on the radar of of the city
2:05:39 manager and uh the finance director who oversees that area, but I just want to make sure that the general public
2:05:45 understands too that that's something that uh we have to deal with. And I hope that we can find a solution. It looks
2:05:51 like we used to be able to customize our bills for people who were in direct debit and I hope we can find a way to
2:05:57 customize that for the autopay. And if we could get um some uh uh some, you
2:06:04 know, pretty quick action on that before maybe next bills go out so that we avoid
2:06:09 a lot of folks either sending in checks and paying twice, having to redo reimbursements, having to it just adds a
2:06:16 lot of I think angst and frustration for staff and not only uh and for our residents. And if it's okay with the
2:06:22 city manager, I see Mr. Boore uh standing up and I think he might have something he wants to say. So, if it's okay with you, sir, I I'm totally fine
2:06:29 with that. Be glad to provide an update for you.
2:06:34 Oh, great. Uh, earlier today, I did have a meeting with our assistant director, uh, Jenny Cassidy, and our utility
2:06:40 billing manager, uh, Dana Wiseman. Um, it is about an 8week process. Um, but we
2:06:46 do have, uh, in addition to that request, a couple other items that we're going to ask them to do. Um, there's a
2:06:52 small cost associated with it, but it's perfect. It's completely within our budget, but I was told it's about an
2:06:58 eightweek process to turn that around. Okay. So, that should be something where we get some verbiage.
2:07:03 Yeah. That that would really tell someone if they're in autopay, they don't actually have to pay this bill by tearing on the
2:07:09 bottom and writing a check kind of thing. Okay. Correct. Well, and and I'll wrap myself out again. I was one of the late registrants
2:07:15 to the autopay from the de direct debit. Um, so my inquiry would be, um,
2:07:22 can we use the text notification system that I know was filtering those of us who are taking too long to get into the
2:07:28 system to maybe communicate to those who are in the system, hey, this has come to our attention. Please, you know, you're
2:07:35 in the autopay system. This will be updated. Something to get give people that heads up that, you know, they they
2:07:42 are obviously we think we paid it, but it's the first time. So maybe we could send out a text communication. Is that
2:07:48 something we could do? My understanding is yes, we could do that. Um, just a side note, but related,
2:07:55 one of the challenges that we have with this new system is under autopay, all of
2:08:00 the individual account holders can choose their payment date. So to put out blanket statements on a bill or
2:08:07 otherwise becomes problematic because you uh, Council Member Bane may choose to pay on the 10th whereas Council
2:08:13 Member Strange may pay on the 14th or whatever it is. So, we've had to hedge against that, but as I said, efforts are
2:08:19 underway to help with the language. Well, and I appreciate that and that's I I I only brought it up here so that
2:08:25 because I know if if I felt that I saw it someone else, we talked about it in our meeting yesterday. Others have
2:08:31 brought it up. I'm sure it's circulating through as people are opening their mail and getting into paying their bill and
2:08:37 going to have these questions and concerns. And I I'm happy to hear um that we're going to do something to to
2:08:44 address it. and we're already on it and obviously we have to work within the time frame that the company gives us,
2:08:50 but we're we're on that we're on that page and I appreciate that very much. Thank you both. Um,
2:08:55 Mr. Scott, before you go, I'm sorry. I heard you say you can choose the payment dates
2:09:00 now. If you are uh enrolled in the autopay program, you can, sir. Yes.
2:09:06 So, I guess one of my concerns there is um because we have different pay cycles.
2:09:13 If I choose a later date than than my late notice or whatever, how do that
2:09:18 work? Do we change their payment date or what? Can they change their payment? No, the cycle is dictated by geography.
2:09:25 Okay. Um where they are at physically within the city. Um and the due dates are attached to each of those cycles. Okay.
2:09:31 Um if a user does choose a date outside it, um there's the potential for
2:09:37 penalties to be assessed if they're late and then ultimately a cut off. So they
2:09:42 if they choose still choose a date outside their pay date because that's one of the complaints I hear is the fact that I don't get my uh check until this
2:09:50 time of the month my bill is do at this time of the month I don't have the money so I end up paying late fee right so uh I think in the past we used to say
2:09:57 they be able to change the uh billing date but you said we can't do that anymore
2:10:03 that's my understanding yes sir okay all right so oh another potential
2:10:09 problem okay um along the lines of kind of
2:10:14 updates and conversations uh over the last what week and a half, 10 days or
2:10:20 more uh where we had the pre-workshop meetings at at various points throughout the community and all the the DPZ
2:10:27 workshops. Um, it's come up in conversations about really kind of how
2:10:32 little we've talked about and and talked about updates related to our our
2:10:38 downtown, whether it's our uh our streetscapes, um, our regional waste
2:10:44 collection program, the uh, De Hoyus property and where we are with that
2:10:50 transaction. Um, and so, uh, I would like to ask if, if if we could, uh, of
2:10:56 the city manager to give us an update, and I'm happy to provide some things in writing, so you don't have to write all this down, um, to, um, to get some
2:11:04 updates on that because it's, you know, it's really strange to me how um, we we had all this emphasis and conversation
2:11:12 and there's a lot of conversation out there about what is happening and why why aren't things happening more so than
2:11:20 what is happening. um who's behind what and um you know I I don't I don't like
2:11:28 when there's misinformation out there um about what we're doing as a community
2:11:34 because I think ultimately what that does is it hurts our business owners and our property owners in the downtown area
2:11:42 and we need to be above that um in all we do and whether we support in terms of
2:11:49 a vote or uh we have to then support our folks in this area. Uh that's our our
2:11:55 our part of our job I see is to be chief chief cheerleader of our community. Um
2:12:02 and so uh I if it's uh Mr. city manager. I'm happy to give you some information
2:12:07 here relative to just some things that I thought about um and maybe we can engage the CRA because I think that was one
2:12:14 thing we had in our last CRA meeting was a kind of a conversation about how can we be more inclusive of our CRA. I and I
2:12:22 know the way we have it set up by state law is that it's basically the council and two people, but those two people
2:12:27 provide really valuable input and perspective. And if we can have more regular CRA meetings, even if it is the
2:12:35 ability for us to have conversations and updates and and viewpoints on what's
2:12:40 happening in the downtown area, I think that would be beneficial. Um, and then finally, uh, I I know, um, Council
2:12:48 Member Meyers talked a little bit about, uh, us providing some information relative to, uh, recognizing someone
2:12:54 during African-American History Month. And, you know, I think a lot of people came to mind when I thought about some
2:13:00 historical figures that, um, that I'd like to talk about. and uh Vel Phillips,
2:13:05 uh Mary Mloud Bthoon, um even local leaders like uh Senator Geraldine Thompson or STE Pinkney, the first black
2:13:13 commissioner and mayor of Eustace. Um Donald Longworth, the first black person to be to hold office in Lake County to
2:13:20 ever be uh to hold Lake County, and that was in 1977. Um and to even Harry Moore, Harry T.
2:13:27 Moore, who played a really pivotal role in investigating and working through um and bringing attention to the the Grove
2:13:34 14 tragedy. Um but I chose Shirley Chisum, the first black woman elected to
2:13:39 Congress. Uh she was elected in 1968, 6 years before women gained full financial
2:13:46 independence and could even open an account, including a credit card or a
2:13:51 loan. So think about that for a second. six years before that was allowed, she was she ran for as a black woman and won
2:13:59 election to the US Congress. She was also a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Prior to
2:14:06 Congress, she was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1964. She was also the first black candidate
2:14:13 for a major party nomination for president of the United States when she sought the Democratic Party's nomination
2:14:19 in 1972. She was known throughout her career as being a champion for economic, social,
2:14:25 and political justice. And she was a strong supporter of civil rights and women's rights. And I really loved her
2:14:31 campaign theme. Her campaign theme was bring us, but it was the US, bring us
2:14:38 together. And her slogan was unbought and unbossed.
2:14:43 And those words were inscribed on her mausoleum vault when she passed away.
2:14:49 You know, during her campaign uh for president, her announcement for president, she described herself as a representative of the people. And she
2:14:56 offered a new articulation of American identity. And I wanted to read this quote from her. She said, quote, "I am
2:15:02 not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not
2:15:08 the candidate of the woman's movement of this country, although I am a woman and
2:15:13 I am equally proud of that. I am a candidate of the people and my presence before you symbolizes a new era in the
2:15:21 American political history. Powerful words.
2:15:26 After elected to office, she was a college educator and remained politically active and social justice leader. She was actually nominated by
2:15:33 President Clinton in 1993 to serve as United States ambassador to Jamaica, but she could not pursue that due to her
2:15:39 health. She had already relocated to Florida by then and in 2005 at age of 80
2:15:46 she died at her home in Orman Beach after a series of strokes. President Obama awarded her posumously the
2:15:53 presidential medal of freedom in 2015. So I appreciate the opportunity to share and celebrate Black History Month with
2:16:00 my fellow council members in the community at large today. And thank you council member Myers for the invitation
2:16:05 to do so. And that is my report. Thank you, sir.
2:16:10 Council member Myers, thank you for that. And I'm going to follow suit with who I'm going to
2:16:16 highlight. You all have Do you have the pictures? Okay. The African-American I want to highlight
2:16:23 for Black History Month is my mentor, the late Gerald Dean Thompson. She was an educator in public schools, then went
2:16:30 to work at Valencia College as a director of the Equal Opportunity Office. She was elected to the Florida
2:16:36 House of Representatives from 2006 to 2012 and again from 2018 to 2022. She
2:16:42 was elected to the Florida Senate serving from 2012 to 2016 and returning in 2022 until her passing last year.
2:16:50 Throughout her time in office, Senator Tommpus represented areas including Pine Hills, Paramore, Carvershores, Horizon
2:16:58 Rest, Oakland, Winter Garden, Gotha, Okoey, Lake Winnav Vista, parts of Apakka, parts of Windmir, Dr. Phillips,
2:17:05 Orange County Convention Center, and Walt Disney World. Senator Thompson initiated and saw bills passed to
2:17:12 exonerate the Groveland 4. She also she also pursued to have compensation to
2:17:18 James Richardson who was wrongfully incarcerated for 22 years. She also
2:17:23 fought against discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. Her leadership extended across key
2:17:29 legislative committees, including the Appropriations Committee on PreK through 12 education, where she worked to
2:17:36 improve public education funding, access, and quality. She also served on the fiscal policy, judiciary, military,
2:17:43 and veteran affairs, space, and domestic security, and rules committees, ensuring that Floridaians receive strong ethical
2:17:50 representation in the government. She established the Wellsbuilt Museum of
2:17:55 African-American History and Culture to ensure the legacy of Black Pioneers in Orlando and throughout Florida would
2:18:02 never be forgotten. As chairman of the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force, she labored to create a permanent
2:18:10 institution dedicated to telling the rich and untold stories of African-American contributions. She was
2:18:17 married to her loving husband, Judge Emerson Thompson, Jr., for 54 years. Their marriage produced three children,
2:18:23 seven grandkids, and one great grandson. She was my mentor, a wonderful woman.
2:18:29 After spending time with her, she made you feel like you can fly. I'm sorry I miss her.
2:18:36 And I also want to um mention the the
2:18:41 passing of the great civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson.
2:18:47 I would like to also um ask for us to have a proclamation for
2:18:53 women's history month for the month of March. In doing this, I would like to highlight the women and leadership here
2:19:00 that work in the city of Claremont during the month of March. Maybe have their picture on the website with their
2:19:05 name and their title and mention them while we have our council meetings. And I thank you all and thank you again for
2:19:13 participating. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Matthysse.
2:19:20 Mayor, I have nothing to add beyond that. I can't follow that. Thank you.
2:19:27 Okay. In that case, I guess I give my report.
2:19:32 Wow. First of all, I think he left already. It was uh quite touching to hear M.
2:19:42 Mr. should talk about military combat and of course it bothers me a little bit too because you know I I am one of those
2:19:48 that that served in combat and everything and
2:19:54 I have have issues whenever you start talking about it. So um it is very touching and I always say to u most
2:20:01 people every person that went in the military ought to be see receiving some recognition that PTSD is real. Um
2:20:10 and it's something they do to us from the minute you say yes and sign that dotted line you know uh you step off the
2:20:17 bus and they start brainwashing you holling at you and carrying on and all. So it it affects you and you carry them
2:20:22 things with you the rest of the life and I I can truly understand where he was coming from. Um I've been there. Okay.
2:20:31 Um Mr. Van Wagner and the council one of the things I know I have been noticing
2:20:37 in the last two or three months um with city council me meeting being at 3:00 in
2:20:43 the afternoon. Um, we having problem I think we have a little bit of problem
2:20:48 with parking out out here in the parking lot. I have no problem parking anywhere, but we stoing the whole park parking
2:20:54 spaces out there for council members and other people, I guess. But I would like to request that we reserve the two
2:21:02 parking space next to the handicap out here for customers. Uh, yeah, I hear they're coming in to
2:21:07 pay the water bills, the utility bills. Um, I really noticed it again today when I come in. It happened to be two or
2:21:13 three people coming in and uh looked like they was trying to pay your bill, but we had the parking lot blocked off con. Okay. Um that's another problem we
2:21:22 have with 3:00. You got workers here and everybody else trying to park in this parking lot. So, yeah, parking at a
2:21:28 premium, but I still think we need to make sure we have uh spaces out there available for our customers to come in
2:21:33 and pay pay their bills. Okay. Um, so I'm asking the council to consider going ahead and let's mark those off and say
2:21:39 customer uh uh utility customers only, please. Okay.
2:21:45 Um,
2:21:50 and Miss Sharon Keys, she said something about uh she don't
2:21:56 belong here. People been attacking her since she don't belong here. And let me say, you know, I'mma piggy back off that
2:22:02 because I I've been getting some of the same comp uh same uh
2:22:07 same comment and it bothers me because of the fact that the ones they coming from is people that never just just
2:22:12 moved here. I was born and raised here, okay? And I have people coming in this
2:22:18 city, my hometown, and trying to tell me I need to leave. That's concerning concerning to me. And it's getting to be
2:22:25 worse every day. Okay. I'm sorry Miss Keys had to deal with it. I I don't usually say much about it, but when she
2:22:32 um brought it up, I I can totally agree with it because I get it every day. Um I
2:22:37 get attacked on a regular basis, but I usually ignore it. And uh uh some people
2:22:43 ask me, "How can I deal with it?" Well, you know, I remember the times when I was living here, when I was raised here,
2:22:49 I was called names. I had to go in the back door places and I couldn't go here. I couldn't go there. I had to drink out
2:22:55 of different water fountain. And I thought we had overcome that in this city. Okay. And that's why I feel I feel
2:23:01 so proud to be the first black to sit here on this DAS as the mayor of the city and to have our first black female
2:23:08 sitting here and everything because I thought we have come so far where now when I'm hearing not just from
2:23:14 her, but I hear it from other people out there, I I just it's just uh bothering me. It bothered me quite a bit. So, we
2:23:21 need to I don't know what we need to do to try to fix that and everything, but we need to do something about trying to
2:23:28 trying to fix it. And it just aggravates me that so many people have move into our cities and then try to dictate how
2:23:34 we run our city. Okay. Um, you know, they tell us we got too many
2:23:40 people moving in here and I love like they come to me a lot of time about this and about traffic and one of the things
2:23:45 I like to ask them, how long have you been here? They say, "Oh, two, three years." Well, aren't you part of the problem?
2:23:51 So why are you complaining? You moved here as well. Okay. So, uh, so let's
2:23:56 let's try to get along is what I'm saying. You know, move along, get along. If you found a piece of history, you
2:24:02 move here. So, let's let's all us just come together and get along and and keep going. I attended the five the fallen
2:24:10 heroes 5K on Saturday. Um, I think Mr. Bane, you was there as well. It was very
2:24:19 enlightening and heartening and heartfelt for me because to see how many people was out there Saturday to
2:24:25 participate and thinking back when this first started what four or five years ago I think we had less than 100 people
2:24:31 in this race the first time we did it and Saturday when I stepped out and I see all them people the street full and
2:24:37 it was over I'm thinking well they told me 675 pe participants on Saturday
2:24:44 that made me feel good and and and honored and and just
2:24:50 felt so warm inside and everything besided. And that goes back to giving the police department credit as well for
2:24:57 promoting it and and really really promoting this and getting the publicity out and reaching out to all the
2:25:03 different agencies. I think I asked the uh chief down there Saturday how many different agencies represented and I
2:25:09 think he told me about seven different agencies that was actually there. I don't know how many different agencies was actually participating in the run
2:25:15 cuz they do not register. But it just it's just heartfelt and everything and I hope next year all of us can be out
2:25:22 there and try to participate. I didn't run Saturday. I walked uh but it was great to be there and what
2:25:28 and see it see it go off. Okay. Um
2:25:35 mayor's lunchon will be uh next Tuesday. I'm at IHOP. I guess next Tuesday supposed to be pancake national pancake
2:25:42 day. So I be I hawk but if y'all want pancakes I guess they're doing a special
2:25:48 thing at IHOP on next Tuesday and everything. Um talk about park. We talk about come
2:25:54 back. Um Mr. Mr. Ben White
2:26:00 I must say I I I called Mr. Mr. Scott up a while ago and everything. So to asking
2:26:07 he was wanted to come up and ask that question. So I just want to let you know I did that. And keep in mind when I do
2:26:12 them in these meeting I look and Mr. W you can tell me if I'm wrong or not but I mean uh council meeting is my meeting
2:26:19 and I I think I had a right to invite people up to the without having to go through Mr. Van Wagner if I'm not
2:26:25 mistaken right. I want to try to get some rules there. You're in charge of the meeting mayor. I
2:26:30 mean, I I think um of course you can do an invite and if the invite is accepted,
2:26:36 I I don't think anyone needs to stand on ceremony. I think ultimately the city manager does have authority over the
2:26:43 employees. So, I mean, if I mean, I I can't imagine a scenario, but if
2:26:48 if you wanted someone to come up and speak and the city manager didn't want
2:26:54 that employee to come and speak, the city manager authority would control. But I pray to God that we never have a
2:27:01 situation like that. And um I we so far we haven't. No. Okay. Thank you. I just want to want
2:27:08 to verify. And uh the other we had a Mr. Forasi I guess he gave you a thing and asked for investigation of me. That's
2:27:16 fine. Uh if you want to try if you want to Well, first of all,
2:27:24 you're welcome to investigate me all you want. Um it doesn't matter. I know you I actually work you actually work for me,
2:27:30 so I don't know if you can do that or not, but anyway. Um well, I I will address that, mayor. I mean, I think um first of all, I'm not
2:27:38 going to do an investigation on my own. Um if the city council wanted some kind of investigation into anyone on this
2:27:46 council, then that would be a matter that the city council could take up, it would have to be by majority vote. And
2:27:51 no, I would not do it. the city council would have to appoint what we call a special counsel, someone who does not
2:27:58 work directly with you or the other council members because I I represent all of you um in my capacity as the city
2:28:04 attorney. Um so uh the request I mean I'm reading it I I I think it's a copy
2:28:09 of an email that I've already received. Um but that's the way it would work and
2:28:14 sometimes cities do these kinds of things if they think there's some kind of uh corruption. And of course, I don't
2:28:22 have any authority and the city council doesn't have any authority to determine whether ethical violations have been
2:28:28 made. That's a matter for the commission on ethics. I think the what I'm reading is that this is an allegation regarding
2:28:35 violation of section 3.05 of the Claremont City Charter. Um, which I've
2:28:41 already addressed. So, uh, I don't know if that helps give guidance, but no,
2:28:46 it's not something that I can or will do. Well, well, I'll I'll say um two incidents
2:28:54 that struck me and I don't think I was present at the May meeting. I believe
2:28:59 that refers to an instruct instruction to our um planning and zoning director
2:29:05 to provide and hold a document that was later presented in a way that as I
2:29:10 understood from the public caused some controversy relative to the relationship between our council and our city
2:29:17 manager. um which was I mean look it was a I
2:29:22 didn't say anything at the time wouldn't have said anything at the time um but I do recall in December um it seemed our
2:29:30 police chief the way it appeared to me was that our police chief had been instructed and and then there was a a
2:29:37 gentleman who held himself out as the general counsel for the police department um to provide guidance to us
2:29:44 on uh fireworks and I I don't believe Mr. Van Wagen were you aware of that
2:29:50 instruction or the the preparation of that report? No. Um and then at the last meeting there
2:29:57 was an interaction relative to direction for a report that um Mr. Henchel
2:30:04 acknowledged happened in a parking lot that Mr. Van Wagner was not familiar with. And do these give rise to ethical
2:30:13 violations? I don't know. I I think that the question is a fair question. I think
2:30:19 the citizens asking in the context of transparency. Um but I do think that those are
2:30:25 instances that I've observed in the public forum where I mean one was on
2:30:31 video later but um personally two of them where the city manager was caught
2:30:36 off guard by a staff member being asked to take action at a council meeting. Um,
2:30:42 and I don't think we should put the staff or our city manager in that position. And I think that is, if I
2:30:48 understand the complaint, the I believe the May meeting is the one that I wasn't present at. And I think that would I
2:30:55 mean, I heard about that from the public, which was why I watched the meeting later. Um, but I think those are
2:31:01 the issues and I do think that we should be mindful of what the agenda says and
2:31:09 um that the city manager should be advised if we're
2:31:14 I just generally think we should be advising the city manager anytime we're going to do something that steps into
2:31:20 direction with his staff. Um, so I I think those are the issues. I don't
2:31:25 think it's a one-time thing. Um, I'm not sure that I'm don't know that I'm even
2:31:31 making a suggestion of any action, but I am saying that those are examples I've seen that I I think could at least be
2:31:38 per, you know, perceived as crossing a line. Thank you. Um, as I say, Mr. W, if you
2:31:45 if you all decide you all want to do an investigation, go right ahead. Okay? I have no problem with it. I will not
2:31:51 stand in the way of it. Mr. W or any whatever y'all decide. Um, Mr. Murray, are you are you do you did I
2:31:58 misinterpret the actions? Like did did I misunderstand? And and then I guess my
2:32:03 question would be are you do you intend to continue to again just like tonight?
2:32:11 We just had Mr. Scott come up and we asked him for asked did we not ask him? No, I don't have a problem with that. So
2:32:17 when I do these things and you I don't know what you're talking about in May, but as far as the fireworks go, yes, I
2:32:22 had concerns about fireworks and I had talked talked to our chief and and because we had some concerns coming up
2:32:28 about fire fireworks in the city. Okay. And I wanted him explain what's
2:32:33 the real rules on fireworks. Okay. Before we started I saw you in invaded
2:32:39 during the holiday season with all these calls and everything else. What do I do about this? What I do about that? Now,
2:32:44 if if that's a problem, that's fine. Okay. Uh we can sit back and we can let
2:32:51 let our police department uh whatever uh problems that coming up with us, we can I can always run it right to Mr. Van
2:32:57 Wagner and let him handle. Okay? I don't have no problem, be honest with you. One of the things I say all the time is the
2:33:04 fact that he make the big bucks, not me. He's responsible running the city, not me. Okay? I have no problem sending
2:33:11 everything to him because that's what he get paid for. Yeah. Okay. But then it see some things that I
2:33:17 have a couple things I have sent to him I haven't gotten back. But I you know I I'm a p patient person.
2:33:23 See and and I and I feel like I feel like he got a handful and some minor
2:33:28 things that I may call a staff man u
2:33:34 program u manager and say hey here's what email I got. Handle it. You know
2:33:40 far as I'm concerned I don't I don't want to handle it's simple. It's simple things why keep bombarding him with okay
2:33:46 but I I if if everything need to go through him I have no problem with it but I don't I don't if they'll come back to me if department head come back and
2:33:52 tell me so and so and so and so or this this then I will go to him okay but if I had just ask him for some information
2:33:59 hey can you give me some feedback on this situation okay yeah I think if department heads are
2:34:04 coming to any of us without going through the city manager it is on us to let him know that they are coming to us
2:34:11 because that is that that is going around the chain of command, so to speak, or the the organizational
2:34:17 hierarchy. And so, yeah, I think that this is perhaps an uncomfortable conversation, but again, sunshine, we
2:34:23 sit in a fishbowl. We don't get the benefit of having some of these conversations one-on-one, which is good
2:34:29 for the public and and sometimes uncomfortable for us, but that's why we're in the kitchen because we can handle the heat, right? So, um yeah, I
2:34:36 would say that anything that gives the perception that we're directing staff, we should be mindful of. And uh I don't
2:34:43 think inquiring in a public forum is any way inappropriate. I mean, we're effectively asking for permission to do
2:34:49 it. But I I do think that if we're giving a direction to prepare a report that that should be gone that should go
2:34:56 through the to your point, Mr. Bane, earlier about if we're asking them to do work that that should be going through
2:35:01 the city manager. Here's the other thing I I I have to contend with. People look at me as being
2:35:07 the mayor. They think it's me responsible for everything going on in this city. So when they come to me and
2:35:13 ask me something, uh, you know, I I can like I can say, "Hey, not me. Send it to
2:35:19 the city manager." Yeah, that's what I do. Yeah. I I say, "Hey, let me get the city." And I would
2:35:25 have no problem with that because it'll make my life so much easier. Yeah. Okay. But then again, sometime they
2:35:30 stand in there and they want they want answers. And see, and I'm I'm going to try to get an answer for them right there. See, and
2:35:37 if it's not if it's something serious, Yeah. I, you know, I evaluate the situation. If it's something serious,
2:35:42 I'll send it to the city manager or some whoever it need to go to. But if it's something I can just call call somebody
2:35:48 and say, "Hey, we got a problem over here with with this trash pick up. Can you can you look at it?" All right.
2:35:54 Minor stuff. Why bother the city manager? It's done. And nine times out of 10, oh, it's done. Move on. Okay. But
2:36:01 if it's something serious and and we need to bring it, I'm trust me, I'm going to the city manager because I'm
2:36:06 not I'm not going to tackle it on my own. that's what he get paid for. And I believe in trying to stay in my lane.
2:36:11 Okay. Uh u one of the things I learned in in 23 years of the military is hey we all
2:36:17 have a job and we have to stay in our lanes to make sure the job is done right and and to protect and save lives. And
2:36:23 of course when you start stepping outside your lanes and everything in the military people die. Okay. And we got to watch that.
2:36:29 Okay. But I I have no problem with it. All right. I don't think I ever give um
2:36:35 I call and ask for information or situations all the time with with with them out there so I can explain to to
2:36:41 customers uh what's going on. Matter of fact, I think I just did it today with
2:36:47 Mr. W to try to get some verified, you know, because hey, I was on the phone with him. Hey, I need to Is this what
2:36:54 happened? Okay, fine. I don't need to go to city. He can tell me. I mean, yeah, Mr. W's our lawyer. So,
2:37:01 yes, I am under your control all the time. Don't let Mr. Ranger know when I'm calling Mr. Wong.
2:37:06 But, but yeah, you know, anybody I think I can get resolved real quick and not
2:37:12 have to bother the city manager. I'mma do it. I did it today. Hey, call the people back and say, "You're right. This
2:37:17 is the situation. I just confirmed it with the city attorney." Okay. Um,
2:37:25 that's all I have to say about it and everything, but you're all welcome, you know. Uh, but then again, like I said, I would really like to consider having
2:37:31 having reserve parking out there for the customers park in in them two first two parking spaces out front. If y'all can
2:37:38 consider that. All right. In recognition of uh Black History Month,
2:37:43 I I am always trying to recognize our people we have here in Climat and I'm
2:37:48 honored today. The person I want to recognize is Captain Donnie Crocker and
2:37:54 um a true trailblazer, patriot, and man of faith. Uh, Captain Cochran is a former naval avi a aviator in the United
2:38:01 States Navy who made history in 1986 as the first black pilot selected to fly
2:38:06 with the Navy's elite flight demonstration squad squadron, the Black Angels. In 1994, he broke barriers again
2:38:14 once again when he became the first black commanding officer and flight leader of the Blue Angels, a powerful
2:38:21 symbol of excellent courage and persever perseverance. Let me add there in the whole 70 I think
2:38:29 it's about 74 years of the Blue Angels there's only been three black pilots total even even in in the uh since he
2:38:38 broke the barrier there's only been two other black pilots in the uh Blue Angels
2:38:44 born on July 6th 1954 on a farm near Pelum Georgia Captain Cochran the
2:38:49 journey is one of determination and faith he graduated in 1976 from Savannah State University which would then known
2:38:57 uh then known as Savannah State College with a degree in engineering technology and earned his comp commission through
2:39:03 the NOTC program. He later graduated from the air war college and earned a
2:39:09 master's degree from Troy State University in 1920 in 2022 he was
2:39:15 inducted into the Georgia's Aviation Hall of Fame. A welldeserved recognition of a life marked by excellence and
2:39:22 service. Today we are blessed to call Captain Cochran a resident of Clout. He
2:39:27 continued to inspire others through motivational speaking and faithful service at New Jacob Chapel Missionary
2:39:32 Baptist Church. He his life reminds us that with faith in God, commitment to
2:39:38 education and an unwavering discipline. There are no limits to how high we can soar. Captain Cochran is my black hero,
2:39:48 Black History Month hero because he didn't just break barriers. He lifted him up. He lifted others as he climbed.
2:39:55 Okay. Uh so I I'd like to just take the time to recognize uh Captain Cochran. I think he just uh had a time with Mr.
2:40:02 Kirk out there not long ago. But he uh if you want him to speak, he's willing to come out and speak. I think I had him
2:40:09 speaking with the Boys and Girls Club and I still get every time they see me, some of the members of Boys and Girls
2:40:14 Club still remember those days. So it it's good to have somebody right in our own midst that living among us as we
2:40:20 call ourselves choice of champions, okay, to have somebody that we can recognize and all. And we have a lot of
2:40:27 lot of trailblazers and and um heroes living here and mention uh women's month
2:40:35 next month. I can think of one. you just name the school after aria aria co and
2:40:40 that that speaks a lot because the county has a policy that they do not name school after individuals no more so
2:40:48 so for for us to be able to go through and fight and get that done when we got it done that that's speaks a lot and
2:40:53 must must say a lot so that that's one of our own that's grew up right here in clim uh she no longer with us but she
2:41:00 one of them I recognize thank and that's all I have anyone Anything
2:41:08 else need to come before the good of the city? Seeing nothing else meeting.