This

time we're gonna go ahead and get started with the city commission workshop scheduled for Monday, August eleventh, twenty twenty-five.

If I can please have the city clerk call the role.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

all.

Okay.

This

time we're gonna go into discussion items for a discussion for ordinance number 28-2025 lobbyist registration, lobbying disclosures, and payment of fees.

If I can please have the city attorney uh lead us in the discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, so we are here tonight to discuss on this item a proposed uh lobbyist registration ordinance.

So this came about as a request by consensus from the city commission.

I was noticed for a first reading and requested to be brought to a workshop for further discussion.

Um what this uh piece of code, this ordinance intends to do is create transparency for um the community in regards to decision making and what um input lobbyists have on the various decision makers throughout the city, including the city commission and other administrative final decision makers like your city manager, your planning director, um, your building official, etc.

Um, so what an important thing to that I think we should all be on the on the same page about as we start is the definition of a lobbyist.

So as we've defined it under this code, which pulls from statute, is that a lobbyist is any person who engages um in a in lobbying, which is a communication written or oral, or any meeting or discussion with any member of the city commission, staff decision maker, or board member wherein there is communicated, disclosed, or discussed any matter which is or may be pending before the city commission, staff decision maker, or respective board, in order to influence the action or inaction of the city commission staff decision maker or respective board.

Um this definition includes appearances before city commission and boards, but does not include the act of filing in application on behalf of or as authorized agent for another.

Just for the record, I don't mean to interrupt you, Vice Mayor Harry has arrived.

So a lobbyist is a person who engages in that conduct for compensation, and for one, an entity other than his or her employer, or two for any entity, including his or her employer, if a principal function of his or her position is lobbying or governmental relationship relations.

So that's just kind of the definition that we're working with as far as lobbying and lobbyists.

This ordinance goes on to require that any lobbyist register and pay a fee to the city that lobbyists do an annual filing, that um commissioners and staff decision makers keep records on a quarterly basis of communications with lobbyists, um, and that there are penalties for failure to file the lobbyists for their failure to register that they could be subject to a fine of $50 per day, and uh that a um lobbyist may be publicly reprimanded by the commission and or banned from lobbying if the violation is particularly egregious.

All right, before we go into the commission, is there any public comment?

Logically next one.

No.

All right, anybody uh commissioner Calwell?

Go ahead, you're on the board.

Let me get you back on.

Go ahead.

Does the uh term uh under the definition include consultants?

So if you are a consultant who your primary who is speaking with a decision maker or a city commissioner in an intempt to change or to um cause a certain decision by the decision maker or by the commission, yes.

This would not include I don't know, um, like an engineering consultant who they're presenting just data, they're not attempting to influence a decision, they've just provided their report as part of an application.

Um so really it applies to lobbyists if a person calling themselves a consultant is in practice a lobbyist, yes, it would apply.

Would we include that term under that definition then as consultant?

Um

the reason I'm saying that is because that project that they were building on Normandy, they had a professional come in.

He said that he was their consultant.

Um

I'm unfamiliar with the specifics of that project.

Uh I would say the definition of lobbyists as written here would encompass a consultant who is for who is conducting lobbying activities.

Um we can certainly tweak that to be you know a person including a consultant.

Okay.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, I

gotta turn on my mic.

Commissioner Lulley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um my initial thoughts on this are that I don't know that it is has enough teeth, is what I would like to say.

If we're gonna go through this process and put something in place, I would like to see more um more burden placed on the actual elected officials uh or our appointed officials or um whoever would would this would apply to.

Um because at the end of the day, I think the what we're trying to prevent is so is the undue influence on the official.

So I I would like to see a little bit more burden placed on the individual, you know, like for example, we have to all file financial filings every year with the state.

Um so I you know that's a pretty strict guideline.

If you don't do that, you can get an ethics violation, you can get you can't file to run again.

Um so I would like to see a little bit more teeth there.

Um I think that uh I try to, you know, we did this back when we were talking about the animal welfare items and we found something in Palm Beach County.

This is before you were here, um Zach.

Um I think Lee County has a good uh example of an ordinance.

I'd like to see ours look a little bit more um similar to that.

Uh it's it is more layered than than what we've proposed here, but again, I think it has more of the punch that we're looking for if we're gonna go through this exercise.