The Mayor and City Council held a work session on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, beginning at 1:00 PM. The agenda covered a closed session report, introduction of a new Public Works Maintenance Manager, approvals for the May 8 special election candidates, bid awards, parking rate changes, tent and canopy regulation amendments, zoning clarifications, signage code updates, a boardwalk pedicab franchise ordinance, and annual picnic table agreements.
For those days again. Okay. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this work session of the Mayor and City Council. Today's Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, just after 1 p.m. First, on the agenda, I have our notice and report of our closed session. Prior to the mayor and city council's open session being held at 1 p.m. Uh today, April 14th, 2026. A closed session was held today here at 11 a.m. beginning beginning at 11 a.m. here at City Hall. Topics of discussion were legal personnel and procurement matters. Persons present were Mayor Rick Meehan, City Manager Terry McGean, Deputy City Manager Jarrell Harmon, Council President Matt James, Secretary Will Savage, Councilmembers John Garrick, Jake Metresc and Carol Proctor, City Clerk Diana Chavis, Legal Counsel Maureen Howarth, and our tourism and business development director, Tom Perlazzo. The mayor and council discussed the city manager's evaluation and consulted with counsel on pending and potential litigation. Event opportunities were discussed for which council made a specific finding that public discussion of two prospective events would adversely impact the bidding and proposal process. I had a motion from Secretary Savage, seconded by Councilmember Proctor to close the closed session. Closed session ended at 1.04 p.m. with five in favor. Next on the agenda, I have our acknowledgments and recognition. Good afternoon. It's my pleasure today to introduce you to the new public works manager, Matt Thompson. Matt is not new to public works maintenance. He actually started his career in maintenance in 2009 as a part-time seasonal maintenance worker. And he did that for two seasons. Then in 2011, Matt was hired as full-time maintenance worker. And in 2013, he was promoted to a meter technician. While still a meter technician, he would take on the additional roles as a seasonal supervisor for the department. 2019 Matt advanced to full-time maintenance supervisor overseeing multiple divisions and crews within the department. And also attended the attended and completed the first leadership development course offered by the city. He has served on the Public Works Safety Committee for six years, has been a member of the Human Resource Advisory Council since 2020 and still serves on that council. Matt's tenure, he has overseeing all major operations, and include the beach, boardwalk operations, street, special events, with his leadership and management, has given him a comprehensive understanding of the maintenance department. Join me in congratulating Matt Thompson in his new role as public works manager and look forward to his leadership in the years to come. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations. All right, next on the agenda, we have comments from the public. Any person who may wish to speak on a matter scheduled for discussion on the work session agenda may be heard during comments from the public for a period of three minutes or such time as may be deemed appropriate by the council president. Anyone wishing to be heard shall state their name, their address, and the agenda item on which he or she wishes to speak. Would anyone like to speak uh this afternoon? Same none. We'll move on to new business. Item A is a council candidates for the May 8th, 2026 special election presented by the city clerk. Good afternoon. Uh with the resignation of Larry Yates announced Tuesday, April 7th. There was a municipal election set to fill his spot. And um Tony DeLuca's seat was also uh open. So we postponed the election. We changed it to May 8th, from April 21st to May 8th.