Please stand.

Heavenly Father, we affirm our faith in thee.

We seek your divine strength, wisdom, and guidance in the deliberations that affect the lives of each of the citizens of our community.

In that name we pray, amen.

And I'll call on Commissioner Avram Coach to lead us in the pledge.

I think allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which one nation under God.

And there is a will with the liberty and justice are all right.

No mayor.

All right, that makes it easy.

Um can I get a motion to approve the proposed agenda schedule?

So move.

Second.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Ulrich moved to approve the proposed agenda schedule.

Commissioner Batti seconded.

If you will vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

The motion passes.

Thank you.

Okay.

And if you will join me out front, we have one presentation this morning.

Thank you.

All right, we have an employee of the month for September 2025.

And I'd like to call up to the front Ed Brouwer.

Good morning, Ed.

How are you this morning?

Um, Ed is an engineering technician three for the public works department.

So we're proud to announce that you are our employee of the month.

Um, and have been essential to the permitting process here in the city of Sarasota for the past six years, bringing your expertise and positive attitude to every interaction.

You were nominated by a citizen for this honor following a Sarasota Shine submission that highlighted your exceptional customer service.

A citizen comment.

Ed took the time to explain all the aspects needed to complete the building permit process.

He was polite, helpful, and knowledgeable.

This praise, along with his accomplishment accomplishments during his tenure with the city reflects the professionalism and care you demonstrate to our customers.

Your commitment to professional development is evident through the active participation in the city's training program for our future managers and leaders, where you continue to develop your skills for the benefit of both your team and the community.

Your dedication to your role and your excellent customer service exemplify the city's values of integrity, accountability, teamwork, and respect.

Please join us in congratulating him on his well-deserved recognition.

Did you like to say anything?

Congratulations.

And one of the things that I don't think a lot of people understand in regards to is the amount of work that the engineering department does.

Over 2500 permits for review.

Ed's done about a thousand of them this year in regards to it.

And uh it's just amazing work, and it's one of the reasons why I leaving today has been so successful.

It's because of people like Ed for working with the public works department.

Ed, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Commissioner.

Congratulations.

Congratulations and thank you.

Congratulations.

All right, let's let's get a picture.

Three, two, one.

Since you only had a weekend, you can tell me.

Don't go to where yet.

Okay.

Okay, I lied.

We have a second presentation.

Mr.

Jeff Coate, would you please uh come up here?

All right.

Thank you so much.

I want to read what this says.

This is is this your last day or your last day.

Okay.

Okay.

Amazing.

Amazing.

So this is after really over 30 years of service to the city.

So we have this uh wonderful plaque for you that says, in recognition of 30 years of dedicated service from May 15th, 1995 to September 2nd, 2025.

Boy, a lot of has happened in the city since everywhere.

And you've seen it all, right?

With gratitude for your leadership, commitment, and lasting contributions in service to the city of Sarasota, including your roles as director of public works and interim city manager.

Uh Doug, we couldn't be, you know, more proud of you and what you've done for the city.

I've worked with you for 10 years, and I know that there was always steady leadership in whatever you did, and that you could count on if you said it was going to happen, it would.

And so we really appreciate what you've done for the city.

And I know the other commissioners would like to weigh in here, so come on up.

Umgratulations, Doug.

Thank you for that.

Thank you so much for your dedication and your work.

Um we all appreciate it here in the city, and I agree with the mayor.

You know, your your word is your bond, and even if you can't commit to something, you will commit to addressing it.

And I've always appreciated that about you.

So thank you, and good luck in this next uh chapter of your life.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Yeah, Doug and I just had a little brief moment.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to say how much he was enjoying retirement yet.

You know, and and I'm sure he had been expecting previous to now that he would have enjoyed.

As someone who actually retired when you were just starting with the city.

Yeah, I hope I wish you 30 years of wonderful retirement.

I have appreciated your quiet strength in all of my dealings with you, and I just wish you the best going forward.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Good morning.

Uh Doug and I fought over uh table space at every meeting.

We sat next to each other, and I I think he won because he's retiring.

Oh, wait, I am retired.

Well, I don't quite know what to say about Doug Jeff Coate.

He is who he is, and I'm honored to have been able to work with him.

I wish you the best in your next 30 years.

Thank you.

Mr.

Jeff Coat.

I thought you were gone, man.

Yeah, no such luck, right?

No, no, no, no, no.

We want a fishing boat somewhere.

But no, but uh, I just want to say thank you so very much, man, for all the work that you've done for the city.

Um, and particularly, you know, in my growth as a commissioner and as a as a person uh coming in every day when you stepped in as uh interim city manager, you know, the first one in, the last one out.

And uh let me tell you, being out here on the street interacting with uh with your staff, and I can tell you firsthand, man, that uh they all have nothing but praise for you and uh hold you in the highest of esteem and regard, and uh that's due to your work ethic.

And I think the city is uh is a great loss for us and whatnot, but we did I know Garner one of you know your disciples of what have you.

So want to thank you so very much for your dedicated service to the city and uh to us as commissioners.

Thank you very much, man.

Appreciate it.

One, thank you all very much.

Thank you for the confidence in me in regards to asking me to be the interim city manager, and I appreciate that very much.

To the staff, you know, it's been great.

I've been blessed to be able to work with wonderful people over the years with administration, with the staffs that I work with.

I I just can't say enough about them.

You know, perfect example with Ed today in regards to being an employee of the month, several of them, because they're dedicated to doing the things that make the city great and continuing to do that, and I'm so blessed for that.

And I thank you all, and I think the administration very much.

And I have to also thank my wife and my family in regards to putting up for 30 years me leaving home when a storm enters the Gulf in regards to that.

So uh very much appreciative.

Thank you very much for this.

Thank you so much.

He will be missed.

Thank you.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Um is our citizens' input um concerning city topics that are not on the upcoming agenda.

And Ms.

Griggs, if you'll read the Pledge of Public Conduct.

Thank you.

We may disagree, but we will be respectful to one another.

We will direct all comments to issues, we will not engage in personal attacks.

All right.

Um you each will have three minutes.

We'll start with Stephen uh and Norm Schimmel.

Norman Schimmel.

And I'll let you state your name and whether you're a uh city resident.

So my name is Stephen Gaffanti.

I live in Gulfgate, so I'm not a city resident.

Okay, thank you.

In August of last year, I was elected to represent my precinct.

Hearing that the police would be at the REC, I brought proof of my election and a copy of the law.

The police sergeant made it clear that he didn't care about the law.

He didn't care whether I was elected to my position.

I was to leave, or he would arrest me.

I brought these facts to your attention, and you graciously had them investigated.

It turns out that you have no policy uh to prevent this interference with the democratic process.

So your captain's default position was to support a police state.

A state where the police control which elected can take their seat.

A state where the will of the voter is irrelevant, and the police choose who represents the people and who doesn't.

This is a dangerous precedent.

At the moment, it is happening only to local precinct representatives.

But if left to stand, the police can exercise their power at the State Capitol.

Do you really want to surrender our democracy to a police state?

I ask that you create and pass a policy that forbids the police from blocking elected representatives from taking their seats.

Even better is a policy that encourages the police to ensure that elected representatives will be seated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Schimmel.

Before I start, may I point out the 14th framed canvas that will be presented in Sarasota, Sarasota County.

This particular canvas after our memorial ceremony will be hanging in the airport as you come through security on your right hand side.

You'll see a 9-11 uh wall.

We already have a canvas up there, but that's where it will be.

Okay.

I don't think we were able to the people at home were not able to see that, I don't believe.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

Yeah, so my name is Norman Shimmel.

Uh I'm a resident of Sarasota, and I've signed a card.

It is my honor for the 14th consecutive year to announce our Sarasota 911 memorial ceremony.

For 40 years, I lived 28 short city blocks from the towers.

And I saw them go up and I saw them come down.

When Patty and I permanently moved here, we made the decision to establish this yearly memorial, and I made the decision to contribute a frame canvas which will go in Sarasota and Sarasota County.

In your annex, as you walk into your annex, you'll see the frame canvas that was given to City Hall on the right hand wall.

With this tremendous help of the county and first responders, and I do want to point out Mr.

Robinson, Officer Robinson.

When we came up with this idea, he assigned his staff, Maya Moore, Gretchen others, Jan Thornberg, and uh Mr.

Brown, and the entire first responders over at the county and fire and sheriff, and they all worked with us, and we established this 9-11 memorial, which we handle every year.

But Mr.

Robinson will always be a part of this in putting it together.

With the tremendous help of the county first responders, the sheriff, and especially the SPD City, we started this.

We donate a framed canvas every year, and you see this year is here.

This year on Thursday, September the 11th at 9.30 a.m.

It usually goes an hour.

Our ceremony will take place, and all can see, all who can see me and hear me are invited.

It usually runs about an hour.

We'll be at the brand new County Emergency Services Fire Administration Building.

Uh you can see this, and I'm going to make this easy for you.

It's at 6062 Port Away, but everybody knows where the large bus station is on the corner of Bay of Vista and Cattlemen.

And if you're driving east on Bay of Vista and you go just past the bus station and make a right turn, you will see 6062 uh Port Away and the new county building.

We invite all, and as a reminder, we rise, but we never forget.

God bless America.

Thank you, Mr.

Shimmel.

I appreciate it.

Okay, let's move on to the approval of the minutes of the special Sarasota City Commission meeting of July 29th, 2025.

So move so move.

Okay.

Um may I submitted a few non-substantive changes to those minutes?

I did not submit any changes.

And I didn't find any.

Wow.

If there are no other changes, move approval.

Yeah.

Commissioner Batti moved approval, so I'll take yours as a second.

Okay.

All right.

Um.

And if you will vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Yes, it is.

All right.

The motion passes unanimously.

Then we have approval of the minutes of the regular Sarasota City Commission meeting of August 4th, 2025.

So moved.

And that changes?

Okay, nothing.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Batti move to approve.

Commissioner Ulrich seconded.

If you'll vote, Commissioner.

I'm sorry.

Now you hate it.

Now you hit it, sorry.

Is that your vote?

All right.

The motion passes unanimously.

Okay.

Moving into item six, consent agenda number one.

Any items to be pulled.

I am not aware of any items to be pulled under consent one.

Okay.

Uh can we get a motion to approve?

Consent agenda.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Batti move to approve consent agenda number one.

Commissioner Ulrich seconded.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

Is that your vote?

Unanimously.

All right.

What about consent agenda number two?

And that we do have some.

Okay, so uh consent agenda number two, seven point two was pulled by Commissioner Ulrich, 7.3 Commissioner Ulrich, and 7.5, Commissioner Um Aaron Kotch.

And that's all that I have.

Okay.

If you will read them, please.

I will read.

All of them.

Yep.

All right.

And that's all to be pulled.

We we're good with everybody.

Yeah, I see.

Okay.

Resolution number 25 arm 3348.

A resolution of the city commission of the city of Sarasota, Florida relating to the acquisition, construction, and funding of capital improvements associated with the new public parking garage on St.

Armin's Key, being the annual assessment resolution, approving the assessment roll for the fiscal year commencing October 1st, 2025, and confirming the applicable portion of the cost of the approvements to be paid by the by assessments.

Imposing assessments upon all tax parcels described in the assessment role.

Directing certification of the assessment role to the Sarasota County Tax Collector, providing for servability, providing for a reading of the title only, and providing for an effective date.

Resolution number 25R 3349, a resolution of the city commission of the city of Sarasota, Florida, amending the budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2024 by providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in exhibit A, providing for servability if any of the parts here of are declared invalid, providing for reading by title only and providing an effective date.

Resolution number 25R 3350, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sarasota, Florida, amending the budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2024 by providing for supplemental appropriations in the amounts identified in exhibit A, providing for servability if any of the parts hereof are declared invalid, providing for reading by title only and providing an effective date.

Providing for servability if any of the parts hereof are declared invalid, providing for reading by title only and providing an effective date.

An ordinance of the City of Sarasota, Florida to vacate that certain approximately one 1,004, I'm sorry, 1,403 plus minus acre portion of the platelet right-of-way known as 10th Street, commencing westward from the roundabout within the North Tam Miami Trail right away to the shore of Sarasota Bay, and including four platted rights away, which extend northward from 10th Street to the boat basin, all located within northerly portion of the Bay Park with a street address of 655 North Tammy Trail, all as is more particularly described here in providing for servability of the part zero, providing for reading by title only and providing for an effective date.

I'm sorry.

Thank you.

1.43 plus minus acres.

I apologize.

Thank you for the catch.

All right, thank you.

It all runs together.

Okay.

Can I get in motion to approve items 71 and 74, which is the balance of consent agenda number two?

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Commissioner Batti move to approve the balance of consent agenda number two.

Uh the vice mayor seconded it.

If you'll vote, Commissioners.

And also a roll call.

Aaron Kotch.

Yes.

Alpert.

Yes.

Fetty.

Yes.

Ulrich.

Yes.

Trice.

Yes.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

All right.

The motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Item 72.

Uh Commissioner Ulrich.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I wanted a presentation on this item.

As you know, Bobby Jones is near and dear to my heart and in close proximity to where I live.

I think a presentation would be good for commissioners to hear and for it to be on the record and for the public as well.

Jerry Fogle, Parks and Recreation.

Good morning, Commissioners.

So as most of you I believe recall in 2020, the Bobby Jones golf course, 45 holes with downsized to 27 holes with uh nine hole short course.

Uh do you rem recall that?

Or 18 hours 18 regulation holes with non-hoe short course.

Who was here during that time?

Oh, on the on the committee.

Commission, yes.

Yes.

So during that time, uh basically we downsized Bobby Jones, and then we converted a portion of that to uh be converted to a nature park.

And in 2023 of December, uh the nature park, along with the new and improved Bobby Jones opened up to the public, and we have had rave reviews.

Uh so far, so good.

And now we're trying to move forward with the improvements to the nature park.

Uh we submitted to use park impact fees from the county of about a million six hundred and seventy thousand uh for uh boardwalk, uh which will have seating on that along with uh peninsula overlook.

Uh then we have some overlooks throughout the park.

Uh we'll have a micro forest.

Uh no, that's one of the favors for the vice mayor, uh, uh along with additional pavilions, additional amenities throughout the park.

So we're looking uh incredibly forward to to being able to do that.

At the end of the day, the plan costs for over 4,000 trees.

We don't have the funding for that currently, but I hope uh in the future we'll be able to get the funding and be able to plant those trees.

Thank you.

Questions?

No, I have we have someone signed up to speak.

You can st you can stay there, Jerry, because it was only one person.

Ted Wilson.

My name is Ted Wilson.

I live in the City of Sarasota.

Thank you.

I am a past member of the prep board and was sitting on the board when the new Bobby Jones Park was approved.

I'm very upset with the proposed expenditure of 1.67 million dollars for the nature park at Bobby Jones.

As you know, the park is a conservancy that was protected that is protected by Big Water Land Trust, which is run by Christine Johnson.

Ms.

Johnson advocated strongly for the creation of the park and said the trust would work hard to help fund park improvements with fundraisers and donations.

However, due to the then city managers' oversight or ignorance of the Conservancy's abilities, that promise never made it into the Conservancy Agreement, which is permanent document that lasts into perpetuity.

To the best of my knowledge, the trust has supplied no funding for the park.

Yet I have attended several of their fundraisers over the years that they said were very successful.

The funds must be used to pay their 16 staff members and oversee the 18,000 acres is all they have.

Additionally, online I have been unable to find any financial information about the Big Water Land Trust.

The 1.67 million dollars should be used to help pay for the new clubhouse at Bobby Jones that you seem to have trouble finding the funding for.

There is no reason that the park impact fund fees cannot be used for the clubhouse since the funds would be increasing the usage of the park, create a revenue stream that could fund future improvements that Big Water Trust seems to have forgotten about.

Since I got a couple extra minutes, I would like also to point out that even though the city owns Bobby Jones Park, in reality, the city gave up all of its rights in the Conservancy Agreement.

So in reality, the 1.67 million dollars is funding a semi-private property.

Also, I hope you have the trust approval for the entrances at 8th and 17th Street.

The trust may not like the interruption of nature with those entrances.

Plus, it will increase some of the cost for our park system to maintain those entrances and close them nightly and open them daily in the morning.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm gonna keep my questions to the consent, the agenda item related to the 1.67 million dollars.

Um would you explain to us why we can't use that for a clubhouse?

Well, first, in my humble opinion, I would not recommend using any of that but for the nature park.

I think the environmental impact, you know, for the wildlife and and for the water that it actually filtrates through Bobby Jones uh also holds instead of going into the uh community and neighborhoods, uh the wildlife and the nature lovers.

Uh like I said, this is a very special park.

It's an OASIS, it's a park to go to if you're having a very uh a rough day uh to do a stress reliever as far as I I'm concerned.

So I would never recommend that.

But for the park impact fees uh themselves, they are supposed to be used if you're going to purchase property for for a park, expand uh the park property, buy some more land and expand that property, um, add a new amenity that adds capacity.

So really and truly, this isn't really ideal for a clubhouse because you're replacing the clubhouse.

So that's going to be a hard sell.

Uh now if you increase it and it's a little larger, maybe there's a nexus that you could try to justify uh and maybe use some of that uh if you could justify the restaurant is uh instead of seating 20 people with seats 40, right?

And maybe there's a nexus there that you could justify uh but but it would be hard pressed.

Um I'm just saying that I think it's it's not suited for a a clubhouse because you're replacing the the current clubhouse that was there.

Thank you.

And where did we come up with the dollar figure to request 1.67 million?

That was based on the the amenities that I I stated and listed.

Um so that was based on the boardwalk, the uh the overlooks, um, the um uh the pavilion and and all those amenities, plus uh the microforest, and we're adding some additional trees along the entrance to the park too.

Uh so that was based on those uh amenities.

So was that dollar figure calculated a few years ago, and it might be a little low at this point in time?

Well, we we actually uh got it updated, I believe, in April, I believe was the updated um probable cost for for those amenities by Kimley Horn.

So they're fairly fairly recent.

Okay, thank you.

Um and when do you think we'll start seeing some of these shovels go in the ground?

Well, I I'm hopeful uh since we are in the construction design phase with Kimley Horn, I'm hopeful that uh we can move forward with some of the irrigation and trees in the ground by the end of this year, early next year.

You have a vendor?

Uh yes, we have uh a tree contractor that that can assist us, and we also have landscape architects that can assist us with some of this work.

Great.

Thank you.

Those are my questions, Mayor.

Okay, Vice Mayor.

Yeah, this this obviously happened before you joined the city, but I just have a question regarding the issues that Mr.

Wilson brought up.

Are you aware of any funding that we probably should have been expecting from this trust he referred to?

Well, um I just the process in general.

Uh it it took quite a bit of time to to get to uh kind of a funding agreement was what we were working on with Ms.

Johnson uh with Bick Waters.

Um it didn't materialize uh in you know in a timely manner.

Uh they had other projects, so they kind of moved forward with other projects that um they prioritized.

Uh I reached out to Ms.

Johnson and asked if we could maybe uh revisit that uh conversation.

She is open to that.

I'm meeting with her on September the 10th to go over all things Nature Park in hopes that we can maybe come to some kind of agreement on expanding our partnership because we already have a partnership.

We have a conservancy over the entire property.

We already have a partnership, so hopefully we can expand it to enhance the nature park.

Uh so that's the goal.

Um, and I will be updating the city manager's office after the meeting in hopes that like I said, we will be able to continue to expand that partnership.

Thank you.

Um so I'm gonna ask you in light of what's been said today, um, that why are we not waiting to um see what we can get from the you know conservancy what kind of help before we're looking at this?

Um and I would disagree with you that adding a new clubhouse doesn't add capacity.

We're not repla you know we're not just replacing an old one.

We got a trailer sitting there.

That's a temporary and it was always planned to be temporary.

So, you know, so I I disagree with the comment that that wouldn't add to um the capacity for Bobby Jones.

Mayor, I maybe I misspoke and I'm I'm talking about the old clubhouse that we knocked down.

So that's the old clubhouse that's what we would have to go and apply for park impact fees.

It could add capacity and we but we'd have to figure out that nexus we couldn't use 1.67 million dollars for that it that we could not do that because majority of it is we replacing it.

So it would be just a portion that would add capacity.

Well I think it would add capacity to what we had.

So there may be some funds we could use but we couldn't use 1.67 million.

So have you been actively pursuing having the Conservancy raise some of the money that they promised they would raise I was here and I know that that was part of the agreement.

And that's the meeting that we have mayor so at one time uh like I said Christine Johnson Big Waters moved on to other projects this was kind of taking a little longer than uh we had hoped uh and so they moved on to other priority projects that they had and so I reached out to her ask her if we can revisit that and so I'm hopeful through our conversations that maybe we can bring agreement to the Commission in the near future I'm hopeful I'm meeting with her on the 10th and and we will see.

But nonetheless this using utilizing these funds if we are able to do something with them it doesn't mean that they can't still go and donate uh to the city uh for for the nature park so they could would we then take some of these then and and if we could get it from them then we could use this for something else I mean that's up to the commission that that would be up to the commission.

So Mayor if I may just for clarification's sake as you know impact fees can be used for capacity adding projects so we really haven't done the analysis yet on any what clubhouse may or may not include and that analysis would uh when we know what the clubhouse is would be able to do that and I perhaps identify capacity adding elements that we could justify for the use of those impact fees.

So that that analysis and that decision hasn't been made and won't be made until we bring you back the clubhouse and understand where the commission wants to go with that.

Okay thank you.

How is this adding uh capacity what we're doing we're just in we're just improving what's there but it doesn't how does that add capacity?

It's like commissioners when or mayor is when you buy a park property it doesn't have a lot so everything you add to it, you add a boardwalk, you add capacity.

Now more people can come and enjoy it you add a pavilion you're adding capacity because more people can come and enjoy it.

So every element you're almost adding because it's like it's a it's a blank canvas uh you're adding capacity to that so that's that's how it the impact fee works.

Okay.

All right thank you anybody any other questions okay thank you all right um can we get a motion move to approve resolution 25R dash 3350 second oops I'm sorry that was St.

Armand's 334 let me back up one 49 move to approve resolution number 25R-3349 seconds um commissioner Ulrich move to approve resolution number 25 R 3349 Commissioner or Vice Mayor Trice seconded um just I am going to support the motion but I you know just want to uh make sure that we we look fairly at doing a clubhouse so um if you'll vote Commissioners and also roll call Albert yes Betty yes Ulrich yes yes Aaron Kotch yes is that your vote commissioners yes all right the motion passes um our next one is item 73 that is also you uh Commissioner Ulrich it is yes good morning I'm Kelly Strickland director of financial administration and here to answer any questions you have about this.

Yes I can go right into questions.

Yeah there's nobody signed up to speak um so I understand this is to establish a budget uh regarding the St.

Armand's paid parking area fund to advance 400,000 dollars to this fund.

It's an interfund loan uh from the General Fund to St.

Armand's and uh yes, ma'am, it is for $400,000.

And so to me, advancing funds means that somewhere, sometime the parking area fund will pay back the money that we're lending, we're advancing to them.

That is the hope.

And per our bond covenants where we um borrowed money for the St.

Armand's parking area, we specifically put in the bond covenants that any funds that with a deficit to pay debt service or pay the operating would have to be in the form of a loan.

Yes.

And if this trend continues that they don't raise enough money to pay their fair share, uh, how would they pay back what we're advancing them?

If I might jump in here, they is we so the whole premise here in establishing for all of your for your both your parking uh projects, both the downtown beach and also St.

Armand's, uh, the assumption in the borrowing was that eventually revenues generated from those um uh parking garages and and uh meters and whatnot would pay back the debt service and pay the operating cost.

So to get there, the rates have to equal the debt service plus operating cost.

Right now the rates are not adequate.

We touched on this in our budget workshop.

We'll be bringing you back a plan uh to look at those rates and a plan which I'll bring back and then you can do with it what you please, uh, which would increase the rates to the point where they will cover debt service and operating.

Until that point, uh we're obligated to pay the debt because we guaranteed the debt with something called which every non-advalorum debt I've ever seen in my entire life has been guaranteed with something called a covenant to budget and appropriate legally available non-advalorum revenue just rolls right off the tongue.

And what that means is if the uh assessments in this case, if the assessments can't pay debt and debt goes first, you have to pay that, and then operating costs.

If the assessments can't play it, can't pay it, then we find legally available non-advalorum revenue.

And that's what we're doing in this case, Kelly has before you uh the funding which will uh allow us to pay the debt service.

We treat it as a loan, which we should, and eventually the parking rates should reach the point where they cover debt and operating and begin to pay that loan back.

So that's the long-term plan.

It'll take a while to get there, and it's up to the commission to decide whether or not they want to whether they like that plan or want to develop another plan uh to get us to that point, or whether you want to forever supplement these enterprise funds with general fund revenue.

And we can have that discussion when we bring back we'll do a comprehensive parking presentation and discussion item with the commission on where those rates could be, how long it might take, and what that would look like to a customer.

Thank you.

Um, Mr.

Bullock, those words that rolled right off your mouth, plus the other words were the answer to my second question about what plan do we have?

Thank you.

Those are my two questions.

All right, thank you.

And we and oh, Commissioner Aaron Cosh.

I actually did have a question.

Um I think I emailed this question to the um interim city manager, Mr.

Bullock, about the terms of paying it back.

Are there no terms in here?

We don't we don't actually try to specify that or so we initially set up the first loan, we set it up for five-year repayment plan with a 3.5 interest rate.

Uh that is our blended portfolio rate that we have.

And every year at budget time, when we look at the revenues, we see that the existing fund balance and any planned increase in the fund balance haven't come the way we thought they were.

So we've put off, we backed up the repayment plan for this.

Um are those terms in this agreement?

Uh this is just simply an internal transfer loan.

And so it does say that the parking revenue shall be used to repay the general fund with the interest at the interest issuer's blended investment portfolio, right?

So Commissioner, in answer to your question, if the Commission decides to never raise the rates to a to a level where it would pay debt and operating, then theoretically, this loan would sit on the books forever.

Uh you know, until either the the debt was paid off, so the bonds were paid off, uh, or the commission decided at some point to set the uh the revenues at a at a high enough rate to pay it off.

And we have to remember the partially the problem is that we had the um hurricanes, and so there was there was no parking out there, so nobody was paying for parking.

So that also hurt our our revenue coming in this year for the parking.

All right, thank you.

Did you have another or no?

I don't know.

Okay.

Um right, can I get a motion, please, on this resolution?

Yes, Mayor.

This time I will move to approve resolution number 25R-3550.

3350.

Second.

3350.

3350, what did I say?

I'm just trying to get something else known here.

I don't know what it is.

Sorry.

Who seconded Commissioner Batti?

Okay.

All right.

Uh Commissioner Alright moved approval of resolution number 25R 3350.

Commissioner Batties second, if you'll vote, Commissioners.

Thank you.

And also roll call Batsy.

Yes.

Ulrich?

Yes.

Rice.

Yes.

Aaron Kotch?

Yes.

Albert.

Yes.

You can't see it, I'm sorry.

It's 5-0 on the case.

Was that your vote, Commissioner?

All right.

Passed unanimously.

All right, Commissioner Ahern Koch uh number seven five.

Um just wanted to pull it so that we take an express vote on this one.

Okay.

So we don't need a presentation.

Unless somebody else would like a presentation.

I don't need a presentation.

Oh, sorry.

That was just if it was pulled.

Okay.

Um yeah, I do have one speaker.

Uh Philip D.

Maria.

Wave.

He's saying no.

Oh, okay.

Wave.

Okay.

All right, since there's no presentation.

Okay.

Um, can I get a motion, please?

No move.

No move approval uh of ordinance number 24546.

You got two Commissioner Batti or okay.

Uh Commissioner Ahern Koch moved approval of ordinance number 24-5546.

Uh Commissioner Batti seconded.

All right.

If there is no discussion, then we will vote.

And also roll call Ulrich?

Yes.

Rice.

Yes.

Aaron Kotch?

Yes.

Albert?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

This is slow today.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Thank you.

Um, can I ask real quick if you guys could um slow down on the motion, like saying second I move, because you guys are talking at least or you're not speaking loud enough so it's hard to hear who's saying what.

Let's slow down a little bit.

Okay.

We're trying.

Um all right.

So we move to unfinished business.

Um first item is item nine one, and that's a uh let's see.

It's to give direction regarding a capital improvement program for the what's the school avenue greenway, and this is mixed up here.

This is all right.

I'm sorry, yeah.

School Avenue Greenway.

Yep.

Okay, and I'm gonna call upon our trees chief transportation planners, Ariaga and Chief Transportation Planner Corrales.

Good morning, I'll be Marie Crowley's chief transportation planner.

Karen Ariaga, senior transportation planner.

Um Katie Hopkett, a consultant with Patel Green and Associates.

Thank you all.

Hi we know.

So we are here today to provide you with an update on the School Avenue Greenway Extension Feasibility Study.

So before we get into the study, uh, we just want to give you a little bit of the project background.

So this project has been around since 2005 and was in the Arlington Park neighborhood action strategy that was adopted by the Commission.

It showed number nine and number 10 as action strategies.

The number nine was to install phase one, which currently exists today.

It was completed in November 2007, and it extends from Siesta Drive to Weber Street.

And number 10 is for phase two, which was to extend that from Weber Street to Hyde Park Street.

So as you can see, in 2014, there was an update to commission that showed that there was insufficient funds to complete phase two.

So through that, this project has been consistent and it shows that in Sarasota in motion it was one of our projects that was identified as well as in our capital improvement program and has been submitted to the MPO for our project priorities every January.

So now that you had a little bit of the project history, what are we doing here today?

So we're here to re-familiarise you with the study, which is separate from the project.

So some of the things that we heard about uh through the Sarasota in Motion uh transportation master plan that people in Sarasota want transportation choices.

They want to see investments in walking and biking facilities, and a greenway is just that.

It's a facility that provides uh space for people to walk and bike with the lowest level of traffic stress.

And as you can see, it meets the number one priority it set forth in Sarasota in motion, which is to expand the city's trail network.

So, like I said in the project history, we found that there was insufficient funds to accommodate phase two, and that's because in the designs that were there, it showed that they wanted to pipe 84 feet of the ditch and put a facility on top of that.

So when we looked back at that, uh we said, well, what could we do differently that would make this more cost feasible?

So we entered into a feasibility study with Patel Green and Associates, and as you can see here, it kicked off last summer, and one year of public engagement, technical reviews, and uh public meetings, communications.

We are here today to show you the results of all of that work.

But before that, we're just going to give you a little update on the need and purpose of the project.

So, like I said, the existing School Avenue uh Greenway uh extends from Siesta Drive to Weber Street.

It's approximately 0.36 miles, and this study explores that extension from Weber Street to Daytura.

So that is approximately 0.44 miles.

It follows a utility drainage easement that is maintained by Sarasota County, and it is a connection to Hyde Park Street, which is a low volume east-west connection.

It connects to a park, three different schools, as well as uh grocery store Aldi near Siesta Drive.

Some of the things we explored in the existing condition were those connections as well as some safety analyses.

And what we found, uh we we saw that there are at least 85 crashes in the last five years at this on US 41 that parallels where the extension would happen.

Um you can see there's two fatalities and four incapacitating injuries.

So extending this greenway would provide people a safer alternative than traveling on US 41.

So we got all of this background data, but we really needed to reach out to the community and listen to what they wanted.

Uh we we did that through several means.

We started with two different surveys.

We also had a public hosted and in-person public meeting where we were able to have verbal discussions as well as written comments that really helped us hear what people's values and expectations were.

So we were able to use that in and put that into our analysis.

So some of the things that we heard through the surveys was more than 50% of respondents use greenways.

Um they use it through walking and biking mostly, but we can see that there are people who use mobility assistance devices.

So we want to make sure that any facility that gets put in is ADA compliant.

Um we also looked at what people, what values they had, what did they want to see?

What was the biggest benefit to these to this greenway?

And you can see nature connections and exercise were some of their biggest, their biggest uh preferences.

We also asked what was the biggest opportunity to make the extension a wonderful amenity, and as you can see, the biggest thing here was making those connections.

There was also safety as well as the drainage and easement was a an opportunity.

So what we we heard from the community, we were able to take that and really convert that into how we analyze some of these some of these.

Ooh, sorry, how we reviewed the uh the concepts.

So now I'm gonna hand it off to Katie to go through some of the technical review and how we got how we reached the preferred concept.

Thank you.

As Corinne said, this uh we talked with the community, actually, we listened with the community first before we started problem solving.

We didn't come in and say, I know what you should do, here's your solution.

We came in, we heard what was important, and right away, based on what was important, we developed performance metrics.

We wanted to see how well different options performed based on what's important.

And this is a high-level review in the interest of time.

If you have questions or want to know more about any of these, we um we have all of that information.

But you can see that these these seven different um elements were the performance metrics that were used that we could see how well the different um concepts performed, how well they were reflecting what was important.

In that review, we looked at different surface types.

We're we were constrained with the right-of-way, right?

Like the this is where the alignment was going to go for the most part.

Um, but that alignment, or excuse me, that right-of-way, it varied from 35 feet wide to 55 feet wide, which was fairly narrow.

But we wanted to see how different options, which were surface types, how they performed in these different segments.

So we we we kind of chunked up the extension and said, you know, based on that available right-of-way.

We said, how well would a traditional asphalt pavement do?

How well would boardwalk perform?

We'd heard that that might be a an uh an option that folks would like.

We looked at pervious surfaces.

We looked at a natural surface, and then also a no-build, which is a very typical approach to a feasibility study.

We want to be able to compare.

Then when we when we took all of the the results from that, um the three surfaces that are in the the squared circle there are the paving with the typical asphalt, boardwalk, and the pervious surface.

We found that those met the goals both of the greenway program and best satisfied the community's vision while still allowing safe access.

That was if it didn't allow safe access, it was kind of a no-go.

So we took those, I know these are small images, I apologize, they are.

Um they're also available on the website and all of our other materials, but based on those performances, we worked and collaborated with our engineers to develop these design concepts that we wanted to then take to the public and to the stakeholders and get more feedback on them.

So, like I said, these have been shared at public meetings, but I'm gonna I'll summarize the main differences for you.

So the first concept, concept one, uses a paved surface for the length of the extension, and that could be either traditional asphalt or pervious surface.

The current right-of-way, it allows the greenway extension to run adjacent to the open ditch that is north of Blossom Brook Canal to hibiscus.

So even though it's a paved surface, there's enough room that it can go next to the open ditch and not in that area is not piped.

But from hibiscus to Daitura, that open ditch is piped, and the paved greenway greenway runs along the center.

The second concept uses pavement and a boardwalk surface.

That's why you kind of said which performs best in each of those segments because we knew it could change.

Um it has paved surface from Weber to Blossom Brook Canal, just like concept one, and then it transitions to a boardwalk, and that runs adjacent to and over the open ditch.

That concept, it prefers the open preserves, excuse me, the open ditch, but it does impact more of the existing tree canopy.

And then the third concept, which is the no build, it evaluated the performance to see if there's no change to the greenway network, there's no change to the existing ditch, to the street crossings, or to maintenance.

And again, it's necessary, we need to be able to compare because any investment should improve conditions.

So we took those three concepts to the public and we asked them, what do you like?

What don't you like?

Do you have a preference?

And we did hear 62% preferred concept one or concept two, leaning more towards concept one, um, over 38% who preferred the no-build concept.

So the staff recommendation is concept one, and I'll I'll you can see it in a little better detail here in some of its attributes.

Again, the open this we're kind of looking from north to south here.

So starting at Daytura, that open ditch is piped.

So for those three blocks until you get to hibiscus, and again, it could be a paved traditional asphalt surface, or it could be pervious.

That's something that could be explored in next phases.

And then the southern portion of it, it would include a dedicated crossing at Weber to connect the existing greenway to this extension.

That was something we heard a lot from from people that there is no safe way to get across Weber.

Um and in the southern portion, uh, we're able to kind of meander the greenway because there is a little more right-of-way there, and that helps preserve the existing tree canopy as well.

So some of the things that we heard from from the public about concept one, some of the things they liked, and some of the things they didn't like, right?

Um lots lots of opinions.

Uh the potential pervious surface was was a thumbs up, and the ability to preserve or expand that native tree canopy was also a big thumb thumbs up because as we saw, nature was is really important uh to the people who were um giving us feedback.

It also allows that safe access to everyone and expands the greenway network.

Um people also saw it as an opportunity opportunity to improve drainage, but then the things that people didn't like, they didn't like the idea of changing that open ditch, which has a very natural feel to a pipe drainage drainage solution.

Because we heard that we did try to minimize where it is piped and where it could be left open.

There were concerns about uh possibly too many people would be using the facility, that there would be homeless people, and there was a sense that they might be losing privacy or uh disturbance from from lighting.

We did hear a lot about drainage concerns, both storm water and uh that we had heard that there had been flooding in the neighborhood.

So we did bring on a drainage and drainage engineer, actually, as the the project's uh uh deputy project manager was a drainage engineer because we knew that was so important to the community, and the preferred concept would not change the existing drainage areas.

You can see where they're occurring on on the map there.

Um with project improvements, the open ditch could be reshaped, cleaned, and stabilized, so it could be made made better.

So, as you can see, the what we are proposing is that preferred concept that intermingles the the different concepts in terms of looking into concept one and incorporating some aspects of the other concepts.

What you're looking at the screen is an estimated construction cost because as you know, this is a feasibility study.

We don't have planning and design, so what we can provide to you is an estimated construction cost.

Um, what is currently allocated in the CIP is about a million dollars.

Um, this is multimodal impact fees.

Multimodal impact fees can only go towards capacity projects and it's new capacity, so that is new roadways, new bicycle lanes, new sidewalks.

It cannot go to retrofit sidewalks or retrofit resurfacing or anything like that.

Um in order to continue the project moving forward.

There is some funding needs, but uh we would be looking at additional funds to be able to get the project moving forward.

The staff recommendation is to move the project to next phase, which is planning and design and secure full funding to complete construction in order to move the project in the next phase that that would mean um us refining that alignment, uh looking at landscaping and amenities to reflect that community vision.

And with that, I'll open it up for questions and comments.

Do we have anyone signed up to speak on this?

Actually, we do.

All right.

Uh we got we have several.

Um need a break first, are we okay?

Yeah, probably have a break, I would say.

No.

Okay.

We've got a lot of speakers signed up, so it's gonna take a little bit.

All right, it's um it's 10.04.

Let's be back at 10.15.

Okay.

We're in recess.

All right, it's 1015.

We're back in session for the uh regular Sarasota City Commission meeting of September 2nd, 2025.

Uh when we went to break, we were on item nine one uh discussing the capital improvement program direction for the school avenue greenway feasibility.

And um we are at uh commission or constituent comments.

So um I will call you up five at a time.

You have three minutes to speak, and when you speak, if you will state your name and whether you're a city resident.

Lance Thomas.

Helen McGill.

Uh Catri Fior.

Floantler.

And Danny Williams.

Mayor.

Yes.

Photo Record, I believe, Ms.

Intler.

Do you still want to do that?

Uh no, I got somebody else too.

Okay, perfect.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Never mind.

Overhead be working.

Yes.

Yes.

Do you want to sit here?

Are you okay?

All right, gotta go.

All right, Mr.

Thomas.

All right.

Uh good morning, Commissioners.

Uh, my name is Lance Thomas, and I'm a resident of the city of Sarasota.

I want to begin that by saying that I strongly support the extension of the School Avenue Greenway.

I rely on my bike as my primary form of transportation for running errands, grocery shopping, getting around town.

One of the trips I make regularly is to Aldi at Southgate Mole.

To get there, I write on Shade Avenue before connecting to the existing School Avenue Greenway.

Uh that first part of shade on shade is uncomfortable and stressful.

There are no bike lanes and cars often pass too too close and too fast.

It's not the kind of street that most people, especially families and older adults, uh, would feel safe using on a bike.

Once I reach the greenway, everything changes.

It's shaded, peaceful, and feels safe.

A rare example of biking infrastructure that actually works for regular regular everyday travel.

Extending the greenway would fill a critical gap in our city's transportation network.

It would create a safe direct connection between neighborhoods, schools, parks, and essential destinations like shopping centers, all without forcing people onto dangerous roads.

Right down right now, the nearby alternatives, which are US 41, Shade, or East Avenue, are all not safe or accessible for most people.

They're certainly not safe for an eight-year-old riding a bike alone to school or to an eight-year-old who's trying to stay active and independent.

The Greenway Extension is a chance to create something that truly serves people of all ages and abilities.

Hi.

My name is Helen McGill.

I filled out a speaker card, and I am a city resident.

Thank you for serving our city.

I appreciate it.

And um, I think she's gonna give out some thank you very much.

And um the photos that have just been handed to you was taken by a serviceman who and I had to print it that way because I wanted you to see the verbiage that he wrote to me as he was going back and forth on my driveway.

Oh, and that, and I know it's small, but that's the only way I could seem to print it with the words on it.

It was taken on July 14th, and there was a rainstorm, not a tropical storm and not a hurricane.

And if you figured haven't figured out already, I oppose the project.

Obstructing the functioning drainage channel with an impervious surface will cause flooding.

I do not claim to be an expert, but I don't need to be to understand that adding culverts and concrete will impede the water flow and percolation substantially.

At your meeting, I went to uh there was an expert there, and he was silent.

I went up to him and he just listened to me, but he did not answer any questions.

I wanted to understand the slope, what the slope would be because there needs to be a slope for water to drain.

And I wanted to check, see who would be checking on the sedimentation because there was a sedimentation that happens when you have water going through a pipe.

And I also wanted to know who would be responsible for the debris that would who would be managing the debris that would happen when you have pipes that have to be cleaned out and such.

There was much discussion though about saving of lives, since many people obviously have been killed, I guess, on that stretch of 41 parallel to the project.

Apparently, it is being suggested that commuters are going to jog off of 41 for that short span and come down the street and hop on a different pavement because it is already paved.

There's a sidewalk on 41.

They're going to hop on this other piece of pavement for a short distance in order to avoid being on that pavement.

As you can hear, it sounds absurd to me.

I want to show you another visual.

And this is I've been a realtor in Sarasota for the last 24 years.

You are looking, you can pass these out, please.

You are looking at a contract addendum that every seller now must present to their buyers.

This is a result of all the flooding.

I want to tell you flood zones are the most important item I hear about in my business.

I'm losing out of time.

There's a beautiful new home on the market for 1.7 million, and no one wants to buy it because half of her house on hibiscus is in a flood zone.

It's an important issue that you need to consider.

We don't want a dam on High Street.

Bless you.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Flo Antler, 36 year city resident, president of the Allington Park neighborhood, and second VP of C C A.

I'm here today representing the neighborhood.

I attended both workshops.

Approximately 50 people attended each workshop.

I read all the comment cards, 33 in total.

Four of them didn't give a definitive answer, so I took those out.

Of the 29 cards, only seven want the MERT, and at least three do not live in the neighborhood, and some don't live in the city.

Twenty-three neighbors do not want the MERT.

They want to keep it as is, the no-build option.

The survey was misleading.

Most questions asked assume the project already approved, and it's not.

They don't want it for many reasons, but mostly drainage and flooding issues.

I'm going to let my neighbors adjacent to the ditch talk about drainage.

The only point I'd like to make is on the county's community flood zone map, which is right here, that I emailed all of you.

The MERT is in a flood zone.

Making pervious impervious isn't a very smart thing to do in a flood zone.

Somewhere along the way, the term MERT was replaced with the word greenway.

I find that humorous.

The greenway is taking green away and replacing it with pavement.

And we will be losing many trees.

Section A is so narrow that trees cannot be replaced.

Trees help with chain drainage.

Page 39.

Tree canopy considers how close can trees exist or be planted near the surface without negatively affecting the service surface.

We heard from staff this is very tiny.

Sounds to me like we will not be getting any trees replanted.

That question will not be answered until the design phase.

That's concerning.

Page 293.

Stakeholders.

I do not understand this page.

None of these entities live by the project nor attended the workshop.

These are actually the stakeholders.

These are the people that are directly affected by this project, and their voices should matter.

Please listen to them.

If this does get approved and their homes flood, I can see the city being held liable for that decision.

This poor point four four mile mark doesn't give us connectivity.

Sidewalks on East Avenue make much more sense that that would connect the entire neighborhood from north to south.

It would be a safer route for kids going to all the schools.

Shade Avenue Complete Street is also in the works.

This MERT isn't fully funded.

The money would be better spent elsewhere, such as the circus trail MART.

That's connectivity.

This may have made sense years ago, 20 years ago.

But it doesn't make sense today.

For these reasons, please deny this proposed project.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Katri Fierro.

Hi, my name is Katrifiro, and I'm a resident city resident for 35 years.

Thank you.

And I would like to discuss the Greenway project as being proposed as a safer access for walkers, bikers, school children, and people with disabilities.

This path suggests that it's a destination for Southside elementary students and also Brookside middle school students, as well as an alternate path to Arlington Park and SMH.

Let's first talk about the safety, specifically the safety of the school children walking on this greenway, going to these two very popular elementary schools and middle school.

For this section, the children would get on the greenway and walk south and end up on Weber.

Now we know that the study calls Weber a very high volume road.

We all know that Weber is high volume, but more importantly, it is a very narrow four lanes without a true shoulder.

And with numerous stormwater drains between shade and 41.

These children would get onto Weber sidewalks on the north side and would have to traverse those sidewalks to shade and to 41.

So what does that mean?

It means that these sidewalks are very narrow.

In most cases, there's a foot drop-off from the sidewalk to these storm drains.

And we know how dangerous that could be.

So let's also talk about the covering of section B, which is Blossom Creek.

There is a proposal to do that with a boardwalk.

When you talk about a boardwalk over Blossom Creek and also that canal, you're talking about how does drainage get impacted with sediment and also debris that goes up against the boardwalk pilings that would then cause damming in that area, and what does that do with the boardwalk?

Lastly, I don't think that anybody here understands that those drainage ditches that we're talking about for the B section is 10 feet deep.

That so if you're putting a sidewalk where you're putting a pathway or a boardwalk, how do you get something that falls in 10 feet deep out?

Thank you very much.

Danny Williams.

Thank you.

I'm oh yeah, thank you.

I have a video I'd like to run.

Thanks.

Thanks.

My name is Danny Williams.

I'm a resident of the City of Sarasota.

And I thought we might like to take a look at the place we're talking about.

So this was yesterday.

If it will play.

There we go.

We'll take a look here.

This is the where the MERT is being maintained on the left, so they're uh fixing heaved uh sidewalks and things.

The safe route to Aldi is here on the south.

This is the existing path that I use to go down to Aldi.

It's it's lovely to have a car-free place to not be a piece of traffic to go get my groceries and to be able to get home.

Um the other half was proposed long time ago.

It's still in the plans, so I'd like to uh make sure I'm I uh would like the project to keep going.

It certainly has uh seems valuable to not stop it at this point when we have an amenity like this that will draw people to it.

And as a when I do cycling errands, uh I certainly will go out of my way to go to a car-free safe place.

And I guess that's the end of that.

I brought four different ways to do the video, and uh I'll practice more for the next time.

So unfortunately, the piece you didn't see was the dad and his the dad with the Aldi bag in his hand and his four-year-old uh daughter walking on this path uh heading up from Aldi.

A nice, safe, comfortable place where they could go.

She could bounce around and before and not worry about it.

Um east or school is not a comfortable place.

We talked about traffic stress before of a lovely at the end of the video, is where uh yard care trucks parked on east.

I'm going up my lane, and other truck other cars are passing to come over where I am on my bike.

It's it's not a comfortable that's traffic stress.

I would not send my eight-year-old that way.

And sidewalks aren't a great choice because uh there's so many curb cuts and drivers aren't looking there.

Drivers see the bike lanes, they don't see driveways nearly as much.

Um, no neighborhood should be locked in amber and exempt from change, just as no neighborhood should experience radical change.

This is an incremental ongoing improvement to an existing amenity and a step in the evolution of our greenway network.

We have the legacy trail.

We use that to to go long distances.

If anything is near it, we use it.

We go out of our way to use it so we don't have the traffic stress to get around.

And every trip we take, not in a car, is not being traffic, and not another lane that has to be added.

So I would like to uh affirm that this is a good project, we should keep going with it.

Yes, we will use it, and the pepper trees and things uh can be replaced with uh native plants, and the staff said drainage will not be negatively affected, so I believe the engineers and think we should go forward with this.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

All right, uh we have four more speakers.

Uh Joan Kellett, Carol Butera, Tracy Robinson, and Rob Grant.

All right.

Um, and again, if you'll state your name and whether you're a city resident, Miss Kellett.

Yes, I'm Joan Khalett, and um I live at 2206 Hibiscus Street in the city, and I'm a resident of Sarasota since um the 40s.

So um I've also lived in my house for 50 years, and so I've seen the changes in my neighborhood.

I also was involved, and I found a copy of a letter from 2005, and I would like to read it to you because it states what we're going through right now, and most of these things are the same now as what they were back then.

This letter was written to Natalie Ross Transportation Planner Planner, Alexandra Davis Shaw, Assistant City Engineer.

Um, it was written July 26, 2005.

It was in regards to Mert for School Avenue, dear Miss Rush and Miss Davis Shaw.

As a 30-year homeowner on Hibisca Street, I'm one of the families directly impacted by the proposed bike trail.

I would like to express my dismay for your proposed plans, which were presented by the June 21st meeting.

This is the third meeting I've attended regarding this project, and I'm even more concerned by the newer proposals.

At the last large meeting before this one, those attending were asked to leave their phone numbers if they would like someone to come by and address their concerns.

I did so but never received any communication.

Again, I would ask that someone contact me and personally view my concerns.

At the meeting on the 21st, we were informed that the bike path would possibly be a 10-foot concrete path with lighting.

As I'm one of the families fronted with the open drainage ditch, this pathway would go right outside my property line, in between my house and the ditch.

There's not enough room for a 10-foot path.

As through the years, the county maintenance people have widened the ditch, and the grounds are of different elevations.

There are also two really nice oak trees which provide shade for my property and habitat for birds.

My house could experience flooding by leveling the path as the runoff would flow to the east, and I live east.

My hallway and bedroom are also viewable from these windows.

Needless to say, people walking or riding their bikes at all hours, just 25 feet from my living room, is not a pleasant thought.

They feared transients sleeping on benches, noise from passers by, dog mess being left, little maintenance from city county crews.

The list goes on.

Unfortunately.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Ashley Jansen, and I'm speaking on behalf of Carol Buchera.

Dear commissioners, thank you for taking the time to ask residents near the proposed trail their wishes.

We currently enjoy the trail the way it is, and many people walk it regularly.

Our concerns, flooding.

Last year during storm season, we experienced flooding.

We are not in favor of piping the ditch anywhere along the proposed trail as it would decrease the drainage provided by the ditch.

Maintenance.

We and many of the neighbors living near the ditch and trees living near the ditch and trees on either side of the ditch are not impressed with the current maintenance of the area.

Trees go untrimmed with limbs hanging ready to drop during the next major storm.

The ditch is not regularly cleaned out or maintained.

How would this improve with the proposed project?

What steps can be taken to ensure current maintenance of the area?

Lighting.

Our bedrooms face the ditch.

Lights at night could be very distracting.

Wildlife.

We currently enjoy wood storks, woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, and others.

Enclosing the ditch, added lighting and removal of current trees will decrease the wildlife population.

Trees.

We enjoy the trees.

If this project is approved, we understand that it would remove established vegetation cost.

Existing funding does exist, but it is not enough.

Thank you.

Hi.

My name is Tracy Robinson, and I have lived, my husband and I have lived in our house for 14 years.

Can I put this?

Yes.

How do I there and it'll yeah, there you go.

Okay.

How can I scream dark?

Your screen went dark.

Here we go.

Yeah, you go.

That's sorry.

That's okay.

There you go.

So we currently live where the um bridge will be.

But um I'm gonna start from the north-south.

Um the water from all the new builds and the larger builds and the higher builds have been flowing into this creek from all directions.

And it comes down towards my house.

Um if this is covered, where will all this water flow to?

It will back up into all the streets like it did last year.

I know that this will still be open, but that this staying open and this being closed doesn't help this group of neighbors.

The destination we're talking about only goes five blocks.

It doesn't really connect to anything.

I'm sorry, it's from here to here.

It doesn't really connect anything.

We could use the um shade complete street plan and connect it this way instead of using the funds for water and flooding and people's homes.

Um, we were talking about green space, um animals and plants, um and the endangered species uh were at risk.

I'm just going through the feasibility packet.

Um earlier the city planners mentioned that um 50 or 60 percent of people use a greenway.

Whereas right here in their own study, it says 93% of people use it rarely.

I'm sorry.

So there if there are 3,000 people that live in this area, and uh 93% rarely use it.

This is 210 people for using this giant project.

Um speed bumps and the safety, the speeding from Cabana Inn, uh jungle gardens to Tuttle back and forth on my street is terribly fast.

Um we need speed bumps for that as well.

Um people running to get to center for sight.

Um the maintenance, this is the main thing I need to show is this missing manhole cover that has been there from the hurricane, and it has been not been replaced.

And here's a pump station right here, and nobody has I'm sorry, your time is up.

Thank you.

This is dangerous.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Grant.

Can I flip with you?

Hello, Commissioners.

My name is Rob Grant, and I'm a longtime resident of the Arlington Park neighborhood.

Decisions on capital projects boil down to priorities and deciding on balance whether it makes sense and provides enough of a public health benefit to justify the cost and disruption of change.

For this project to extend the school avenue MERT, the project the priorities include connectivity, public safety, ADA requirements, project budget, ongoing costs, and of course, storm water drainage and environmental resiliency concerns.

The project's connectivity benefits are limited in my mind because the path dumps people into the middle of a neighborhood not very friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.

Here's the project, it ends right here at Detour Street.

These are all just neighborhood streets.

They are not well maintained.

We have a lot of construction, narrow streets.

There's either no sidewalks or sidewalks that are also narrow and in poor shape, and chronic traffic and speeding issues that make it dangerous to be in the neighborhood sometimes.

As for this, as for the project budget, how much staff time and resources have been expended over 20 years to get us a 300-page report concluding likely the best we can do is cut down a bunch of trees and then and install what will like most likely be a long impervious driveway.

How much more time and money is it going to take for this path to nowhere?

Which leaves stormwater drainage and environmental concerns, which are most of the nearby residents concerns.

Here's some maps from the county website showing community flood zones.

I highlighted the project area there.

All of this area um I'd like to also note excuse me.

Um this makes no sense.

I'd also like to note in order to install this lengthy driveway, large equipment will likely have to be used, and many trees will have to be removed, further depleting the canopy across the neighborhood.

I've watched the canopy in Arlington Park be decimated over the last 10 years, and a project like this by the city would be a tragedy that only makes it worse.

Finally, after last year's storm some of your own experiences, I would hope that you would sympathize with the residents' concerns at their own homes about how this project would impact flooding and drainage there.

Once you change this, once you build it, you can't take it back.

It's there.

Then what?

If there's a problem, who gets called?

Who's gonna respond?

We've already seen that's been a problem this past year with the county and the city.

With all due respect, it's a lot, but this will just add more.

So please be good to your neighbors and fellow citizens today.

Don't move this project forward and put the funding and resources to better use elsewhere.

I just wanted to note that this is the first time since I've been coming down here involved in the city that I've ever heard anyone mention the AP neighborhood um plan that is from about 15 or 20 years ago.

It's never been brought up before.

I would do anything to see more of it brought forth and uh maybe reviewed and uh put back implemented again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

What I'm sorry, commissioner questions?

Yeah.

Did you say something no?

Oh, okay.

Somebody said something it was it was one of them.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Alrick.

Thank you, Mayor.

To our planners.

Once again, you've submitted to us an extremely well-written report that takes subjectivity out of the questions and the answers.

I applaud you for that.

I'm continue to be impressed by the work that you do.

You've said that being said, however, however.

You said that this project was in our minds 20 years ago.

Twenty years ago, there are a lot of multimodal projects that weren't in place that are in place now.

The legacy trail, the what are some others?

So we have the Brother Geenan um MERT that goes from US 301 to about Palm Avenue.

And then we have various projects, but I wanted to get to the point of, you know, I understand that the project has been in the works for 20 years, right?

But Sarasota in Motion was accepted in 2020, and the project came up again in 2020.

So it although it was 20 years ago, it's still coming up as a priority.

And priority number one was to move trade trails and create this network.

And the network is not only this one location, it is multiple locations.

Like her mentioned, there's Brother Geen and there's Alderman Mart, there's Circus Trail, there's multiple locations.

But South Sarasota is missing that connectivity.

And that connectivity would be School Avenue, would be that Hype Park Street would be Shade Avenue.

Unfortunately, Shade Avenue does not have funding anymore due to the hurricane reallocation.

So the Shade Avenue complete street?

Correct.

But it's still a priority.

A priority.

And so like this priority that took 20 years, you know, who knows how long it will take for the Shade Avenue complete street project to find money somewhere.

Okay.

Um would you are you able to put page 13 of your presentation up for us?

Right.

So that's good.

Um I'm looking at the thumbs up, and the paved option had three.

That's the most expensive, and we're doing boardwalk in just one little section, right?

The boardwalk would be the northern half.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

Um Pervious had three, natural had three, and the no build had four.

So no build and boardwalk had an equal number of thumbs up.

You didn't really discuss no build when you discussed this page.

Why?

So this analysis was to uh help inform the concepts.

So we I we analyzed all of the surface treatments against the no build, and we decided that the ones that met the goals of connections and safety were to be utilized in the concept development.

So the no build was already a concept.

So how do we inform the other two concepts being developed?

So we looked at did it meet the connections and safety aspect of it, can it be ADA accessible?

And if the answer was no, then it wasn't included in a concept.

I see.

Okay, thank you.

And how about page 21?

So this is the page that tells us the need for remaining funds.

In situ in situations like this, and this is not uncommon, where we have partial funding, but we need to find more money.

Where do the remaining funds typically come from?

So there's several different options.

What we have done so far was to use the funding we have available in the CIP and leverage that against grants for uh construction funding, then there's also the opportunity that more more multimodal transportation impact fees could come in and help uh help fund the construction as well.

So we wouldn't do it until we had the funding in place.

You wouldn't like the parking people.

So construct our money.

So yeah, the construction wouldn't happen for several years.

We we got to a really good point for concept designs in this feasibility study, almost close to 30% design, um, but not specifically.

So we have to move that forward further in the design to be able to really understand what the full construction cost is, and also to get us into a place where we're shovel ready.

So right now, this we are not shovel ready, so we're nowhere near construction.

Thank you.

One last question, Mayor.

So a number of people have talked about well, what about East Avenue putting sidewalks there?

That would take people away from 41 and to uh an area where there were sidewalks, an alternative route.

What about East Avenue?

There is a possibility that sidewalks could be accommodated on East Avenue, but that would not be the same as a 10 foot plus off-road path.

That feeling, that comfort, that level of safety, that level of traffic stress is not the same.

It's not the same experience, and it doesn't provide that comfort level that for all ages and abilities.

If I may add, we also have been looking at East Avenue in other ways.

So, for example, through to the traffic calming process, the right of way is not there.

We cannot accommodate sidewalks in all of the segments throughout all of the blocks throughout East Avenue.

So that is a concern.

It would create a lot of gaps in the system.

So whereas School Avenue would be a continuous thing up until you reach um you reach the project limit, and then we would continue school avenue through another process through another um treatment.

So there is gaps in the system throughout East Avenue in order to accommodate a sidewalk.

Thank you.

All right, uh Vice Mayor Troce.

Hi, thank you.

Uh first, would you uh believe one of the commenters misinterpreted the report?

I read it as at least 93% use the as opposed to 7% would not use it, but 93 use it at least rarely.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

So it's daily, yeah.

Okay.

Thanks.

Just to clarify that.

Um I am I I I've noticed several other neighborhoods are unhappy that they have drainage ditches.

And just psychologically, I don't think Sarasota should have drainage ditches.

We should have something a little bit more 21st century.

So I'm I'm surprised and interested to hear the neighborhood saying we want to keep our drainage ditches.

Um have you consulted with the stormwater people and and and looked at some of the options besides drainage ditches that would help with the stormwater?

Um and I I I happen to be one who likes bioswales and rain garden, so have has you have you looked at that?

Yeah, absolutely.

So Sarasota County Stormwater as well as other uh technical staff were included in our technical stakeholder group that we've met throughout the lifetime of the project.

Um specifically rain gardens and other stormwater treatments would be evaluated and addressed in the planning and design phase, which is the next phase.

Those are things that we can include.

It's just a matter of true fitting and where it makes most sense, and that happens in the next phase.

So I'm interpreting that as where you say drainage ditches, or we'll keep the ditch the ditch could take very different forms.

It could be a bioswale, it could be a rain garden.

It's just as you get further into the design, you would decide which to use.

So then my other question in terms of pervious and impervious pavement, um again, I can see that obviously the impervious is cheaper, and that might be the first thing you do, but have you looked at the downstream costs?

Um again I can see that obviously the impervious is cheaper, and that might be the first thing you do, but have you looked at the downstream costs?

You mean besides just in installation costs, but maintaining it and the effect on storm water, maintenance, et cetera.

Have you looked at those and will you be looking at that if you move forward with the pri with the project?

Yes, absolutely.

That was actually a topic of discussion in our technical working group was maintenance.

It's also part of the reason the boardwalk was an issue as well.

Um they did identify extra maintenance costs that would it be incurred for per uh pervious pavement.

Okay.

So impervious is still a potential solution, even though if you're just looking at initial dollars and cents, that's just initial, right?

Um and then I wanted to know assuming there was money, the money was you know constantly flowing, and we weren't saying where was it coming from?

Um what would be the time frame to actually be able to be beginning construction?

So planning and design uh typically takes about two years if you know the stars align.

Um and funding becomes in place.

So after those two years of planning and design, um you would look at because of the segment being so short, about two years of um the construction timing.

So between four years in total.

So two years before construction would start, and then another two years before it would be completed if a miracle hit us and the money were available.

Okay.

Um and and then several people said, oh, well, why not spend the money on something else?

And I know that this is very restricted money of what it can be spent on.

What other projects could this specific money be spent on if we didn't say yes, move forward?

So currently um there are multiple projects obviously in the in the capital improvement program that will have multimodal impact fees.

The one that would be most eligible and is almost shovel ready would be circus trail.

So that is the alternative staff recommendation.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's those are my questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Ehernkot.

Thank you.

That last question was my first question.

So thank you for that.

Um you brought up a very good point.

So, first of all, let me thank you for this report.

It's a really comprehensive.

Um, big picture, little picture.

I mean, it's just it's I read all three hundred and something pages, and um really you did an amazing job.

So I just I I want to thank you for for doing that, first of all.

Um and I also appreciate your balanced um presentation with saying what was liked and what was disliked.

It's important to know that to be able to weigh all of that um when making these kinds of decisions.

Um one of the things I want to ask, maybe this is a question for um Mr.

Bullock, is that um when you started out the presentation, you had mentioned that the city uh commission voted to accept Sarasota in motion.

And um of the commissioners may not remember this, but I believe Mayor Alpert and I were the only two on the commission when that came before us, and I believe we were the only two who voted to adopt it.

Um but that failed uh three to two.

Um so I did vote to adopt it, and I believe you did too as well.

Um and so then the next motion was to accept it, and we did accept it.

And we just recently had a discussion about the accepting versus the adopting thing, and I'm gonna talk about that later in my comments.

Um, does the city commission have to uh take some sort some kind of action when we're talking about implementing priorities of Sarasota in motion since it was just accepted and not adopted?

So generally what happens with mobility and most other plans is you may accept the plan, but it breaks down into projects, and projects will show up in your capital budget if they're small, maybe in your operating budget, but they come back to you generally as projects.

If you accept uh a set of projects and they are funded, then those can move forward because you have voted on those and provided the funding.

So really to implement any of the plans, generally they come back to you as specific projects where you look at funding, vote on it, and then it can move forward.

Just to be clear, the city cannot enter into any contract until the funding is in place.

So there's never a danger of something happening and we not have the money because it's in the in Florida and most other states, we just can't enter into those contracts without having the funding in place.

I think I I'm just trying to get it so I think the general understanding on a commission is that when you accept something, you're accepting that a committee did a report and you're just receiving it, and you're not necessarily uh putting staff dollars and time and money and allocating into implementing it.

So I'm wondering why it's being referenced.

And again, all in the guise of I voted to adopt it, right?

I'm not uh dissing the plan.

I very much liked the plan.

I'm just trying to understand how it went from accepting to an actual you know, staff time consultant looking into it, surveys, meetings.

Did that come to this commission?

Were we did we direct that or how does that work?

I'm gonna have to turn to those who hopefully live through it and uh so this project was included in the capital improvement program under the General Mert um for a long time and then was teased apart sometime in 2020, 2021 as its own project with funding available for it.

And then from there, it was approved by City Commission up until last year.

Say that again.

It was approved that so this project came before the commission.

And so what happens when a project is listed out in the capital improvement program, it indicates to us that it's a pro priority and that we should start working to get it shovel ready.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

I just wanted to find out that avenue of how we got to where we are today when we just accepted a plan and didn't adopt it.

Um you had mentioned that the funds, if we didn't go forward today, could not be used for Shade Avenue.

The only way it could be used for Shade Avenue if it's new sidewalks or new bicycle lane, but Shade Avenue, you know, it it will depend on which phase or which section of Shade Avenue.

Okay, so it could be used for Shade Avenue.

It could.

Okay.

Um then um the trees.

Um very specifically um a tree survey to to look at how many invasives are there, how many native trees are there, how many trees would have to be removed.

We don't know any of that until we get to the we would potentially get to the next phase of um design.

That's correct.

Okay.

Yes, that's correct.

Um because that's that's an issue, and that is an important detail of this project that obviously um, you know, taking it's it's sort of a a double-edged sword, right?

We don't know how many trees would have to be removed, uh and couldn't be planted or or could be, uh, or how many you know, native removing native trees is a plus.

Uh removing oaks is not a plus.

So we wouldn't know those very important details unless we move to the next phase, right?

But it's it's yes, that's correct.

However, I will say the concept one was chosen because it does preserve more of the canopy.

So the boardwalk would have to eliminate the tree line, so it could be towards the um towards one of the sides or the other.

Whereas this concept then from hibiscus to Daytura, then with that being piped, the trail would then go towards the center, leaving the trees intact on the sides.

Right.

Okay.

Um then uh uh Vice Mayor brought up something about drainage ditches.

Um have you all been in touch with because drainage and flooding is a big piece of this.

I'm uh I actually think that's the biggest piece of you know what we're hearing as far as feedback goes.

Um have you you talked about the um Sarasota Bay Estuary, some folks on the estuary did a presentation in, I believe 2017 about um trapezoidal uh culverts and how those are the best for water flow because when you go from a ditch, a drainage ditch or a culvert that's natural to a pipe, it rushes the water through the the pipe as opposed to a natural ditch which filters it and is actually a much better treatment for so the water gets to its endpoint, but it's been treated along the way.

So have you weighed that as a con to the piping of some of these things?

We're gonna bring up Richard Epdograf, he's our utilities engineer, and he worked on the drainage and utility component of the project.

Okay, and and you you could probably answer some of the other questions.

There are major concerns about um flooding and drainage and um I c uh I think we are seeing how maintenance has not uh happened in what the community has expected um with all the flooding we had last summer, um with flooding that we're having now, with the way you know the rain falls in buckets after it being bone dry for five days and it's hard to absorb.

This is increasing, you know, um the i the issues that we're having with flooding.

It's it's making it worse.

And so I see the neighbors' concerns.

It's bad now, and that's a big piece of this.

Um I believe you you had mentioned um any investment should improve conditions.

So I'm not convinced this is going to improve the flooding conditions, and that's a really important point.

The big picture is very nice.

Connecting greenway, nice bike trails and walk trails.

I don't want to make the situation worse.

Good morning.

Richard Uptograph with Patel Green Associates.

Uh we have looked at the the drainage aspects of it all, and uh to your point and uh to the residents' point as well, the ditches are very valuable.

Uh we we're not denying that.

Uh the and we're not denying that there will be be change as we go forward.

Um we can provide engineering solutions that will um make the situation out there better, but not significantly better.

With the you know, it won't be a drainage project unless we want to change it into that.

Um but uh with the additional survey that wouldn't be needed for design, we can look at options of uh different types of trapezoidal piping network that you mentioned perhaps, uh certainly different size pipes.

Um but we're also having that goal to maintain as much of the ditch as we can.

Um so um And when you say we who who's the we that's maintaining this.

So the county currently maintains the ditch as it is today.

And so if that agreement continues to stand, they will continue to maintain the stormwater um the stormwater facilities out there.

Okay.

But I think you just meant to preserve as much as of the open ditch as possible.

I see.

Yes, yes.

And to preserve that value that it does so that your firm was offering to maintain our I'll take you off on that.

Um all right.

Well, so I I think I'm out of time now, but um thank you.

Commissioner Batsy.

Oh thank you.

Um, I was just touching on, you know, what the commissioner just spoke of regarding, you know, the concerns of the neighborhood.

And you know, that that is uh a huge, huge concern when you're talking about the flooding.

You know, you're talking about people's properties, um, them you know having to incur the cost of it, you know, when these things happen.

And you know what is as great as this project is or what have you, and uh and I totally forgot that I used to I used to live in an Arlington neighborhood and I used to live right there on East Street and whatnot.

So when you're talking about the gaps with with sidewalks and so on, I I know what it is you're talking about.

And um and especially the connectivity over to South Southgate, because I lived over there too.

Damn, I lived everywhere in Sarah.

So um, you know, but that is, you know, a a major concern.

Now my former landlord in Arlington, they're in favor of this project or what have you, you know, right there on on on the street because their their son is uh partially blind, and they they said that uh you know this would be of a great benefit to them and and him having some you know a place to walk.

But the flooding.

You know what in, you know, listen, I'm not versed in swells, trapezoids, drainage ditches, you know, butterfly gardens, whatever we're talking about here and whatnot.

Um, how can this be mitigated?

You know, you're talking about you know, take going from you know, pervious service to impervious service um surface and so on.

What what can we do to to, you know, if if we move this along or whatever to see that the this this doesn't happen or what have you, you know, with the flooding of these properties and whatnot, because I can totally, you know, empathize with with the residents over there.

Yeah, the the project will not increase any flooding.

Um as I mentioned, it's not gonna necessarily resolve it.

It's not going to take it away.

Um so we would design it to make sure that we don't have any additional impacts.

I do believe that we could we talked about not just all of the hundred year, the big storms where we get afternoon deluges.

Um, some of the piping network could help with those and get those off the roads faster um without creating any downstream flooding as well.

But the uh the the flood maps that have been shown or the inundation that occurs during major hurricanes and storms, you know, that would be another project to resolve those issues, but we would not make it any worse.

No, because I I know one of the photos there um was of June 11th of last year or what have you, which was a major tropical storm or whatever.

Um that's that's again, you know, uh piggybacking up what the commission had said was my major concern about the flooding, you know, you know, um but as you said, you know, it's not like it's going to expenditiate the the flooding over there or add to it and not take it away, you know.

So and one of the reasons why the uh staff recommendation is that concept one is like Corinne said, it allows um room for trees to remain inside because the the path would go down the middle.

It also allows room for things like rain gardens and bioswales to slow down the water before it gets into the the pipe, um kind of make up for if if it did go with an impervious surface, kind of make helps make up for that, helps create and maintain that natural feel um and really add amenities to um instead of you know it's it's not just a a paved path through there, but it's uh it's a linear park and and add something to the neighborhood.

All right.

Uh thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um I think you know, many of the questions uh commissioners asked many of the questions I have, but I have I have some more.

But I think the the focus um should be on the flooding, and I think what you're saying to us is this is not going to increase flooding in the neighborhood and potentially could help it in some in some ways.

Not you know, as you said, not majorly, but it's not going to make it worse, but has the potential of making it a little better.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay.

Um and the tree removal we don't we don't know about, but in the design phase, you'd be looking at that and working on being able to maintain as many trees as possible, correct?

Yes, that's correct.

Um what about um there was a comment about this just you know goes to nowhere, you know, it stops at De Tourist Street.

How does this fit in with our overall transportation plan?

Is there there are plans you know later to then um extend that?

So right now the extension would end at Daytura Street where there's a very small gap between Da Torah to Hyde Park Street.

So we would do some improvements that would allow for people to be able to bike through there or walk through there and um connect to Hyde Park Street.

Uh so in the Capitol Improvement Program, there is with undetermined funding sources a Hyde Park Street redesign that would then uh serve as the east-west connector between um east city of Sarasota that would cross over into west city of Sarasota where people could then connect to Orange Avenue or Osprey and bike all the way up into downtown or connect to the legacy trail.

So there are larger plans at play where this connects too.

It's just this was focused on the extension versus our multimodal connections plan.

So just for now that's this is a part of the the overall.

Um there was uh a um comment about the lighting being distracted, can distracting potentially to the homeowners.

Can you uh address that?

Don't you usually use lighting that would not so the lighting would be determined in the next phase.

However, we do uh we do look at dark sky options which would uh point the lighting downwards and not outwards, so it would not interfere with people's homes or uh the provide light pollution in the sky.

Um also I think it wasn't clear to people that they thought that there was going to be the ditch is gonna be covered with piping, is the the and maybe I'm not clear.

The ditch where it is now will still be a ditch.

And the part that's already piped will stay piped or you're adding piping.

So there is a portion of concept one that will be adding additional piping, and it is from hibiscus street to Daytura, so about two blocks.

And it is from hibiscus street to Daytura, so about two blocks.

Okay.

And why are you doing that there rather than just leaving the ditch?

There is not enough space to accommodate the facility, you would have to pipe the ditch.

So like for the boardwalk concept, you would have we would have had it, we would have removed trees and had it hanging over the pipe ditch.

Whereas with uh asphalt or whether it's impervious or pervious, you you can't have that hangover um an open ditch.

So we would need to pipe that ditch so we can then move it in the center, which preserves the trees.

Okay, so if you pipe the ditch, what are you gonna do for those two blocks in terms of the drainage is you know for swales or what you know what what will happen there with um amenities?

I mean, I know you haven't done the plan yet, but what kinds of things would you have in mind that you could do so the um the op the opportunities that we have are things like rain gardens and bioswales.

We do have those where we can see where the best fit is for them.

There's also people told us they wanted some passive space as well as opportunities for community gardens.

So there is plenty of opportunity to realize the community's vision.

Um it's just a matter of once we get into the next phases, next if we if and when we go to the next phase, where are those where is enough space to ha to provide for that?

Okay.

Um then there was also a mention of um using now the shade complete street plan instead of you know, since we're gonna be having that in the stead of this.

But can you explain how a complete street plan is not the same?

Yeah, absolutely.

So a complete street plan uh looks at every part of the roadway, so that includes the travelways for vehicles as well as sidewalks and potentially bike lanes if there's space.

So right now with Shade Avenue, we're looking at a street design, which which includes sidewalks adjacent to a street.

So there's still vehicular traffic, whether that's low level, high level, medium level, that's to be determined.

It's still you're still walking or biking near a vehicle.

The school avenue multi-use recreational trail or greenway, that is completely off-road.

You are not interacting with vehicles until you are at crossings, which is a very limited amount of time throughout the entire project.

So it really reduces those conflicts with vehicles and creates a safer space for people of all ages and abilities to um either exercise, like they said, or go to Aldi and get groceries.

Well, however, they use that is their decision, but it provides that space for them to be able to use it.

And then there was um there was a comment about the board boardwalk causing a damming effect on the ditch, you know, the potential.

Can you explain can you talk about that?

That's that's not the concept that's the staff recommendation.

That was the the concept number two.

Okay, and what about though there you're there, isn't there something going over uh going over a ditch, a little bridge?

Prefab bridge that would that would cross over Blossom Brook Canal.

Okay, so there's nothing that would create a damming effect with that.

Not that I'm I mean um there could be something that would be a blockage, isn't there today with the bridge and and the piles and the foundation for that?

Um but it would be designed to to span the canal as it exists today.

And so any you know, blockage um should be minimized.

But uh there's the plinto for blockage today, you know, different things impede the canal things get in there, but it would be a maintenance issue they would have to keep an eye on.

All right.

Um that's all I have for now.

Um let me go back to uh Commissioner Aaron Koch.

Thank you.

Um so just sticking with the flooding, because that's really and the drainage is my my main focus here.

Um explain to me how reducing capacity, reducing pervious land will not negatively impact the current drainage and flooding issues that are are already a problem.

Well, the the design would include a piping system or improvements to the existing canal as it is today, and it in order to move that water um in the same capacity that it has prior to the project.

And like uh we said, we're is a potential for some uh rain garden bioswales, some existing or some new ditches along the side of the uh existing trail that would have inlets connecting into the new pipes, you know, rays in order to provide just a little bit of storage that may be uh needed to compensate for that additional imperviousness that you're you're speaking of.

And um so the that would be it would be county maintained.

Um there's no guarantee though that it will be maintained.

When it's introduced, it'll function great in a year.

It could be the same level of a lot of the other drainage amenities we have in the city.

Um there's no guarantee that this won't be a maintenance issue.

That's right.

Yes.

Yes.

That and that's that's that's the point is that today we have issues with maintenance.

Not here, just here, but throughout the city.

I think you know, we can safely say that there are issues.

And we've had flooding throughout the city this a year ago, this month and next month.

And a lot of that has to do with poorly maintained facilities.

So this would be another one that would have to be maintained and could be could be a problem and make it worse eventually if it's not maintained, right?

Yeah, I mean, yes, that's correct.

Okay.

I mean it has to be maintained.

Uh I will say uh there was some comment about you know sedimentation buildup when you pipe things.

Um and while that can happen, we do design them to flow at a velocity that um will naturally clean out that sediment.

Um but uh to your point, you're you're correct.

I mean, maintenance is an issue.

It has to be kept up.

Yeah.

Um, I I I like the project very much.

I like the the idea, I like the concept, you know.

It's there's just a practicality and a reality to our world today.

And um it's it's a concern.

It's a concern to me.

And it's not just to me, it's it's to me because it's to the citizens on page uh 139 to 146.

The citizen comments um, you know, the the drainage is mentioned on every almost every single one of them.

Um can you respond to that?

I mean, this is the issue.

Yeah, so if we plant if we move into the next phase, the utilities and drainage is going to be a component of the design.

So it will be addressed in that in that perspective.

However, if you want to make this a utilities and drainage project, that is outside of this, and that is how that can be addressed to make the and the holistic problem better.

So what we can do is create an engineering design that will not make it worse than it is today.

Um then um pervious versus impervious.

Uh what is what is the cost approximately of the maintenance of pervious versus impervious?

I mean, there is a cost to impervious maintenance, obviously we have buckling sidewalks all over the city.

Um not that much, but it happens.

Um but impervious, I mean pervious as well.

I mean, that's uh there's a a maintenance cost to that as well.

What's the about for a square one versus the other?

Do we do you have an idea?

I don't recollect the the number off the top of my head, but that was uh that was a major discussion with our technical group because the the technical group was made up of the sorry made up of the the people who build and maintain these facilities.

And we asked them, what are your thoughts about pervious surface?

Do you are you maintaining some already?

What kind of equipment do you have?

Because it does require special equipment, special maintenance.

Um the the cells can get clogged with sand.

Um they have to be vacuumed.

Right.

Um that was um so yes, you have to have special equipment and and special maintenance.

They did say that they were the the folks they were very much not in favor of a boardwalk, but they were fine with with pervious surface.

Um they have some facilities already, so they have experience with it.

And it will it will also depend on the type of material, right?

And we there's various materials out there, so we don't have a cost of which ones we would we would use.

So again, that that falls into the design of the project.

We we did look at two to three two or three different types to have an understanding of what the the construction costs and the maintenance costs would be in the future.

I just I just don't recall.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Actually, I have a question for Mr.

Bullock.

Um in terms, yeah, the the thing we're talking the most about is the drainage, the flooding, the stormwater, and the thought was, gee, maybe we should do this design in conjunction with a project, either with the county or with the utilities in terms of stormwater um, you know, how we can best design this and solution to the stormwater issue in this area.

Is this feasible to add an additional project that would coordinate with this one?

So i if it was determined that the flooding in this region is of the highest priority, then um we could certainly get with the county and bring back a project.

My guess is it would be significantly larger than the one in front of you now because it would involve a whole variety of stormwater conveyances that would have to be um designed and a determination made on how to resolve area flooding in in that uh community.

So I mean, yes, can it be done?

Yes, it would probably dwarf the budget that these folks are looking at today in in order to bring you something to solve uh flooding in that area.

And then you would legitimately ask, is this is this a high uh the highest priority flooding we have in the city that we want the county to undertake?

We have submitted to the county a list of projects uh that Nick could talk about uh related to stormwater and flooding.

I'm not aware that this is one of them.

Okay.

Do we have any resources within the city?

And when I say resources, I'm thinking more in terms of expertise, although money is always a question, that could provide guidance in well, as you design this, take this into consideration, or maybe you should adapt your design in this way, because sometime in the future we can do this in terms of stormwater, flooding, whatever.

So when we need special expertise, we rely on our con uh a set of contractors to do that.

I'm going to assume because these ladies are highly our staff is highly competent that they selected an engineering firm that has that expertise and and has brought that to bear here.

If not, then we can we can deal with that.

But I will add that we did adopt the 2024 Engineering Design Criteria Manual, which has chapter five, which is the stormwater.

And um this shows us this chapter has everything that we can follow and how to design our storm water facilities to be up to the standards.

And we are designing to um to those standards.

Again, um so our engineers would follow that chapter to a T.

That chapter was also written by the current director of stormwater from Sarasota County.

So that is to that is something that we would follow and do the standards set forth in the manual.

And just to close the loop on that, during this whole process, we had a technical working group that included people from Sarasota County Stormwater Department as well as internal county, I'm sorry, internal city staff as well as external county um employees from other departments as well.

So if this m project moves forward, we would continue to seek guidance and and uh enter those discussions with other technical experts on uh different ways to move forward and is this feasible?

Is this the best way to do it?

Are there other best practices that we can um include?

Great.

I I figured you would, but I just wanted that confirmation.

And just one more thing to confirm that as you go into this next phase, you will continue to have p public presentations and input sessions.

So as you come up with ideas, you will get input from the public.

Absolutely.

The public involvement does not end here.

Okay, we will have more community engagement if the project moves forward.

There are still a lot of other things to decide.

Some some things like amenities, placement of rain gardens, that passive space, what makes sense, what doesn't.

This is the utilities and drainage and stormwater that we're thinking of, um, and to kind of bring the community with us along the way.

That's always been our our uh motto.

Thank you.

Um I have a a couple other questions.

Okay, so if if you do rain gardens and bioswales, would the city maintain those, or would that be the county?

I think it's a city.

It will have to it will have to depend on working with another public works director, Nikash Patel, not the retired one from today.

No, he's retired now.

We have one more day.

One more day.

Um good morning, uh Nick Patel, public works director.

Um So the rain gardens is something that we'll have to work out with the county, but the bios whales and all that will be the county's responsibility at this time.

All right.

And so then the county is responsible for maintaining it now, correct?

Yes.

Um so if we do something new and and improved, the county will still have to maintain it, correct?

That's correct, part of the interlocal agreement.

So if the county maintains things either way, it's good, but if the county decides not to maintain it, we haven't heard anything, they wouldn't be maintaining what's there.

Is that correct?

If they're not going to maintain what's there, then it you know, and then they don't maintain what we put in.

Is that any different?

You see what I'm saying?

What I'm saying is by doing something new and improved, if the county doesn't maintain it, they weren't gonna maintain what's there now.

So it doesn't make any difference.

I would I would agree with that.

Um thing w we've done based on recent discussion is um I've already we've already reached out to the county to see if they can maintain if they can address the entire D ditch on school avenue.

So I think that's something we're we're we're working diligently with the county with.

In other words, we would want to keep them maintaining it no matter which way.

That's correct, either way.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay.

I don't see any other uh questions.

Um does somebody want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion, Mayor.

Move to reallocate funds currently allocated to the School Avenue Greenway to the expansion of the city's multimodal trail network for the circus trail extension.

Huh?

I would think you would move to deny this and then it wasn't part of the discussion.

Yeah, that was listed.

It's on the agenda.

Yeah.

Oh, I'll second that.

Okay.

All right.

Discussion, Commissioners?

Uh I'll speak to the motion, Mayor.

You know, a lot of times when neighbors are interested in a project, whether it's been on the books for 20 years or two weeks, it's more difficult to find the greater good before you move forward.

In this case, the project is five to seven blocks long.

As they say it leads to nowhere right now.

It's in the middle of a quiet neighborhood.

It's alongside a storm drain that overflowed last summer.

It's pretty clear there are other alternatives that may be better.

And that's why I made this motion.

Commissioner Hermcoch, did you want to speak to it?

Um Yes.

Uh conceptually, this is a great idea.

It's not um new to the country or the world.

Uh it's when we get to the details that it starts to become problematic.

And the statement that it won't make the situation worse.

So putting dollars into something that just won't make the situation worse.

And the dollars we use should not only connect neighborhoods and connect people in this beautiful design, but it should also make the situation better and improve it.

And the cost to maintain is a big one, whether it's impervious or pervious.

And I wouldn't support anything that were impervious.

I would like to have supported something that were pervious, but that cost to maintain, I think is is a big one.

I mean I I think that's an issue as well.

Not having the neighborhood support wholeheartedly is a problem.

And I think conceptually, like I said, it's a beautiful idea.

But the details matter.

And that that's where this the funds could be better used elsewhere and maybe revisit this idea at another time.

So I don't know if that would be better than this, so I would not be able to vote to support moving the funds to circus trail.

Um I I don't think we could count the numbers that are here and say, you know, based on who was here and who wasn't here, that is one way or the other.

Um but yeah, I think it's a project sounds good, but again, I don't know anything about circus trail, so I cannot vote to put that forward ahead of this one.

Um I'm going to agree with that.

I was going to say the same thing.

Um I don't know enough about the other project to say whether that's better or not, so I'm not going to support the motion.

Did you I think I comment?

Yes, go ahead.

Uh during the presentation, staff indicated that the circus trail extension project is shovel ready, almost shovel ready.

Still doesn't give me the details on it, so I'm not going to support it.

May I ask a question?

Um or uh just tech ta technically, could this be continued until we get clarity on the circus trail extension so that you could be informed of that if that is something you would support or not since it's almost shovel ready?

I mean, we are we have a motion on the table.

You would have to kind of take that back if that will be something you wanted to consider, but we do have a motion.

Um mayor, could I move to amend my own motion to say instead of the circus trail extension?

Another multimodal trail, another multimodal project.

I think that's to me that's the same thing.

I don't know what that's going to, whether it would be better or worse, and um I'm not gonna support it.

Okay.

So are we ready to move?

Do we have a ready to vote?

There is no other uh amended a motion since I seconded it.

Yeah, you have to accept it.

Yes, so I would I accept that amended motion.

All right.

Okay.

So motion was made.

There was an amendment that was seconded as well.

So we will move forward with the voting for that.

That motion.

And the motion then is to reallocate the funds to another multimodal project.

Uh yes.

All right, are we ready to vote?

Ready?

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Yes.

Okay.

The motion fails three to two.

Okay.

Is there any other motion?

To continue to enable uh them to come back with uh information about their second recommended alternative.

I'll second any comments.

So that would allow us the opportunity to compare whether we want to do that or we don't.

Yes.

All right.

Okay.

Passes five zero.

Thank you.

Um, it's quarter to twelve.

Do we want to get into this?

Do we have anybody signed up to speak?

Okay, I think we can probably get get this done.

Um, how long's your presentation?

About seven minutes.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, it's one o'clock on um Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025.

We are back in session for the regular Sarasota City Commission meeting, and when we left for lunch, we were just beginning to start on item nine point two, which is uh giving the direction regarding the capital improvement program, the main street complete streets visioning projects.

So again, I'm gonna call upon Chief Transportation Planner Corales and Senior Transportation Planner Ariaga for a presentation.

All right, good afternoon, Alvy Marie Corrales, Chief Transportation Planner.

Corinne Ariaka, Senior Transportation Planner.

So today we're gonna cover the Main Street Complete Street Vision Plan.

Um a little bit of background about this project.

This was identified as the number eighth priority in Sarasota in motion.

Um this plan, uh, Main Street called for converting from angle to parallel parking, uh widening sidewalks, landscaping enhancements, considering pedestrian mall at certain locations, some safety improvements, and it looked at the project's limits being from US 41 to US 301.

Since then we moved the project limits to be from US 41 to School Avenue, and that is approximately 1.2 miles.

The about the project itself, the purpose of the Main Street Complete Street Vision Plan was to establish design elements and concepts that continue to support the downtown Sarasota.

The goals were to engage residents, businesses, and visitors to develop a cohesive vision, identify opportunities to enhance safety, accessibility, and mobility, investigate opportunities for public realm, streetscape, and right-of-way improvements.

Before you see a timeline, um, Main Street was identified in the 2001 Downtown Master Plan as a walkable environment, setting the intention for a pedestrian-friendly corridor.

Then again, in 2018, Main Street was identified in the Sarasota Manatee MPO safety plan as a high crash location, having over 250 parking-related crashes within a five-year period.

As it stands, Main Street has over 150 parking-related crashes within this five-year period.

Staff spent one year gathering feedback, and that was only public engagement.

Um, and that is more towards awnings.

And more than about 60% spent more than 30 minutes.

So we once we worked with the public, looked at all of that engagement.

We built some draft concepts.

And in that second survey, we heard that they support widening sidewalks and public spaces.

There was an overall discussion about parallel versus existing angled parking.

And this was more towards why parallel, why existing angle parking and not completely parallel, why the combination, and obviously conversations with the businesses as well.

They found that commercial uses and attractive landscaping are essential throughout the segments as well.

With all of this information, we created the vision for Main Street.

And that was a walkable, inclusive Main Street that supports local businesses and preserves historic character while balancing current and future community needs.

And what you see is an example of what these concepts look like.

Additional information about these concepts can be found in the vision plan, but also thorough details of each concept can be found in appendix E of the materials.

And it's also on page 374 of your backup material.

Then I'm gonna hand it off to Karen to continue the presentation.

Thank you.

Additional information that is included in the vision is a vision palette.

So we when we did our community engagement efforts as well as through the visual preference survey, we were able to obtain what people wanted to see and how elements people wanted to see on Main Street.

So some of those of those elements included hardscape materials, uh, seating and street furniture, landscaping and natural elements, lighting, bollards, and safety features, and bicycle and scooter parking.

So these elements will help inform the planning and design phase of the project as it gets into more details.

And additionally, uh there was a lot of conversation about if we're removing parking here, what is what are people gonna do?

So there's a lot of supplemental elements are available for us to explore in the future.

So some of those include the uh parking and wayfinding technology for that real-time information.

Additionally, we heard a lot of people wanting that pedestrian mall feel look and feel.

So there is flexible spaces for that as well as the uh ability to put in some bollards that can be put on and kind of close down the street for those temporary um pedestrian mall uh experiences.

Uh additionally, there is opportunities for alley activation for walking and biking, um, as well as flexible spaces for trolley stops, maybe valet parking, uh circulators, ride chairs, and other mobility options that could be explored to help people move around Main Street.

So, right now we are concluding the visioning phase, which took approximately two years, um, and we are the next phase for the project would be planning, environmental, and design, which can take anywhere from one to two years or more, depending on you know, on things that happen.

Uh the full report for the vision is available online on the website, and then we are recommending that the commission continue to move forward with the fully funded planning and design of Main Street complete streets, as well as approve the vision for the main street for Main Street from US 41 to School Avenue.

That would establish an approved typical section that developers can use as a standard when submitting and constructing future projects along Main Street.

And with that, we're happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time.

Commissioner Ulrich.

Thank you, Mayor.

Again, job well done on your report.

So I have a whole bunch of questions.

I'm just gonna go down my list here and I'll get stopped at some point, I'm sure.

You mentioned the trolley.

Uh I think funding for the trolley is almost expired.

And so do you have any idea about future funding for the trolley, or is that something we don't talk about?

No, we definitely talk about it, and we've been talking about it.

Um so we hope to bring you back a plan because funding does expire.

We have one more year with a a modest amount of FDOT money still.

Uh and uh we'll bring you back some options.

Um right now the trolley consumes all of your economic development fund, all $160,000 of it every year, and still have an an appetite for more.

So we're looking at some options where we could maintain the service or very, very close to the service and maybe free up some of that money, and it may include partnering with the county in order to pull that off.

So we're in those discussions right now.

We're not we're not through them yet.

We're in the middle of them, and I have to thank uh once again our your highly capable transportation planning staff in uh helping lead those discussions.

So we don't have to remove the markings for the trolley.

No.

Thank you.

At least not yet.

Okay.

In addition to that, there's um also an established breeze trolley that goes through Main Street.

Yeah, I saw that.

And is it related to our trolley?

No.

No.

Okay.

There's overlap, yeah.

Yeah.

On page 15 of your um presentation.

It's the section from Main to Fletcher.

Oh, of the presentation.

Well, I don't know.

I had uh page 15, just visualize, if you will, the section from Main to Fletcher.

I take that section uh quite frequently to avoid Fruitville on my way home.

Anyway, there are frequently a number of sheriff vehicles parked there.

Um since we're reducing the amount of parking.

I have that as 16 of 442.

Okay.

I actually have it as 15 of 442.

That's what I meant.

15.

Oh.

Okay, yeah.

Well, I don't know how you put this up.

Yeah, we can put it in the overhead.

Is this the page that you're referring to?

Is that Main to Fletcher?

It's Fletcher to school.

Uh I want the section main to Fletcher.

It is Main Street, but is it oh from US 301 to that is the section.

And see um on the south side of the street.

Um furthest east.

There is uh angular parking.

Uh very frequently there are sheriff vehicles there.

Uh is there anything we can do to that about that?

We're reducing the number of parking places.

And um I don't know if we could find private parking for the sheriff's vehicles.

Yep, right there.

Yeah, since this is um part of that courthouse area, um, that area we kept it the same.

Umfortunately, it it is more towards the our parking division to determine what we can do, whether it's enforceable or not.

Um so I can't I can't respond to that.

Okay.

We can ask.

We can ask.

And that's all we can do.

All right.

Um my final question, I'm surprised it's going so quickly, is regarding bollards.

Um there were some bollards that were big balls and others that were posts.

Uh do all of the bollards that are posts, are they able to sink down into the street to open up the street when you want?

Those are the types of ballards that we were considering, and that was for special events and that um maybe opera operational uh pedestrian mall and some at some times.

I think that's a really good idea.

So those are my only questions.

Nice mayor.

Thank you.

Um a couple of uh the chart where you showed the timeline.

You had three things that had stars on them.

Were they going to be happening concurrently for one to two years?

And then you had uh feasibility land acquisition and then construction.

So if I read that correctly, um is like possibly four years to construction and assuming money from flows from the troops from the sky.

So four years from construction and then another two plus years for construction.

So is that a good estimate?

Give or take.

Um planning environmental and design would take up to those two years.

Uh this is just a standard um project phase.

So right of way, we don't need right of way, so that that goes away.

Um and then construction would take a little bit longer than um the two the two years because we understand that it would be impacting the businesses, so then we would have to face the project and work with the businesses and do a lot of communication to be able to construct the project and do as minimal impact to the businesses as possible.

So but in any event, we're looking at you know uh two years out before anything really physically starts.

And the reason I I'm bringing this up is the project in one sense sounds like it's operating in uh uh you know its own little bucket, whereas parking will be a major impact and or would be impacted.

So we need some parking solutions and also um circulation, you know, downtown.

So shouldn't there also be other projects that are going on at the same time uh so that we have a coordinated response that you know we will we won't just have this in a vacuum that we will have the other pieces of the puzzle happening at the same time or being solved at the same time?

So things would happen concurrently.

We have been working with parking, um so we have not been functioning in a vacuum.

Uh we have had technical working groups with a lot of the different departments, so um this would happen concurrently with other other things that are happening around the city.

So potentially say a parking solution if it involves constructing a new you know structured garage, that might be four or five years.

So your project might sort of slow walk itself so that the parking garage would be ready when the need arises for because of main street redesign.

Is that sound feasible?

If it if things align, then yeah.

But I mean, would it be an effort to align?

It would be it would be an effort.

Um it again, it all depends on whether the funding is in place for both projects, to be honest.

And and the same thing with this a downtown circulator correct to get people around.

Um and then okay, so so that those were my my questions.

But again, I'm really enthusiastic about your moving forward on this uh, you know.

Main Street is to some extent the focal point of the city.

So the more we can enhance it and make it a wonderful destination, the better.

Thank you.

Commissioner Rati.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh and thank you all very much for your presentation.

Really appreciate it.

And um, you know, just a few things here.

The the breeze is uh is that the county who I mean who operates that?

Is that what that is?

Yeah, yeah.

The breeze is uh the rebranded Sarasota County area transit.

Okay.

And is that is that uh free?

No.

That's the the breeze is not 99 is that's the S to Q.

Yes, bus line 99 is free.

Only 99 it just started.

Okay.

I'm just saying that's a public service announcement.

Okay, what is 99?

Tammy Trail.

Oh Tam Miami Trail.

Okay.

So but the breeze that goes down downtown or I think that's the the hotel one the 76 line route.

So the 76th flyer is the one that runs through um the hotel and the airport but the one that is running through currently um similarly to the Bay Runner on Main Street is the Siesta key that goes all the way to CSD and comes back.

Yeah because one of the things that uh that you know I want to ensure with the the trolley because it's been so well received is that you know regardless of what happens you know um that we take maintain the level of service and whatnot that that um that people have grown accustomed to you know that that being free you know for for anyone going to the from the far east end of Main Street all the way out to the Barrie Islands you know I see you know people that work out there you know taking that thing for f for free and they they so look forward to it or whatever um and it's a great anonymity to the to the city.

Um in the the pedestrian 'cause I always had uh you know thoughts of Main Street being um more uh pedestrian mall friendly or what have you and one of the things that that I wanted to do and that uh uh plan on doing was having uh discussions with um the property owners down downtown because we have to have some degree of synergy with them you know um if we are going to you know basically move forward with this with this uh project and bring your vision to fruition or whatever and it basically work in my in my estimation and when you start talking about the parking down there um where were you with I mean when you spoke about that you know how was that received parallel to slant to slanted parking or or whatever you know so parking um the community was up for changing and shifting the parking um because it allowed for additional space for the wider sidewalk but also for the trees because the community wanted to have more shade and more space for that.

So that's why when you look at what the top priorities were um as part of that first survey um that that was highlighted so in turn that that was what we looked at and in that striking that balance we kept a lot of parking right because when Sarasota in motion was was being done everything was meant to be changed from angle to parallel but in listening to the businesses and the merchants we needed we needed to strike that balance so we created different concepts from angle to parallel um some sections you will see a combination some sections you will see full parallel some sections you will see um just parallel and the the public spaces so you know we we try to listen yeah yeah and and which I can appreciate but the one thing that people have to understand as well is that you know when you're creating particular areas you know urban areas like downtown um there's you go most places there's parallel parking I mean because that's what works and that's what that's how you're able to accomplish the wider wider side sidewalks and make it more pedestrian friendly or whatever and someone that frequents downtown I mean you had on here you know one two hours I mean I'm downtown every day on day I mean aside from being a city hall but just you know um patronizing the businesses here but um because you you're not going to get you know parking right in front of your the the store that you're patronizing.

I mean that's just not realistic you know whatever um in terms of the the brick streets how about that w how was that received or whatever speak on that I don't think we don't have full brick streets.

There is the asphalt travel way and then um potentially that brick work on the pedestrian area.

However, um there are segments that will have that flush curve where the travel way and the pedestrian zone will be on the same um level, so similar to lemon without the full travel way being bricked.

Is as I you know aforementioned the whole idea of speaking with the property owners or what have you down there is one thing to speak to the residents and get them involved, which is important.

Another thing to speak to the merchants, which is important, but also to speak to the those property owners down there because one one of the conversations that I want to want to have with them is you know, basically what's their vision, you know, and what's their vision for Main Street and for who's basically going into their businesses.

We can't have you know downtown downtown totally and completely inundated and littered with bars and restaurants or whatever we want retail down there.

We want quality retail down there to give that that uh pedestrian experience and that shoppers experience or or what have you, you know.

As I said, we're not in competition, you know, with St.

Almonds because we're both part of the city.

Our competition is out east in UTC or whatever, and they have a lot going on out there and they're growing.

And to the vice mayor's point, you know, the downtown, our main street is the in Sarasota, the city of Sarasota in general is the epicenter, you know, of Sarasota County or what have you.

And you know, I just want to make sure that we get this right because Norport is growing down there or whatever, they're creating their whole, you know, situation and you got Llewellyn Park and so on, um, and all of that's happening.

I just don't want us to miss this opportunity because uh as always, you know, say Sarasota was 20, 25, damn near 30 years ahead of St.

Pete.

I can remember growing up there was nothing in St.

Pete.

Nobody went to St.

Pete.

People from St.

Pete came to Sarasota because there was nothing there.

All they had was the pier.

And now look at what they've accomplished, and now we're all going there for you know, to have a good time and and entertainment and so on, and to go shopping.

I want that same experience here in Sarasota and to get in to get that back, you know.

So um, but thank you all for your presentation.

If you know, just some things to sort of keep in mind, you know.

So those are my questions and those are my ideas or whatever.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Hernkoch.

Thank you.

Um again, thank you for the really comprehensive presentation.

A lot of material here to digest.

Um, but I appreciate all of it and it's pretty valuable.

Um so I uh you know, I was wondering if you had said I I know this has been a a point of discussion for a while.

Um and so uh attended some of the meetings and so on and so forth, and I have seen, you know, the the sort of mix and match of proposals, you know, from parking to trees to amenities to all kinds of different, you know, concepts.

Um and in all of the materials, I think, you know, it as I kept reading through it, it kept saying basically um, you know, from uh Gulf Stream all the way up to about orange, you know, on street, main street parking is used and full and on page 189 of 442, um, you know, you go down the little list there and it's Main Street and it talks about its capacity on Wednesday and on um Saturdays it's you know 93, 92, 97, 98, 100, 96, no.

And um and throughout your report in the very beginning, it talks about how the lower part of Maine is the on-street parking is really used a big percentage we can see.

But the further east you go, um less and less and less.

Um is there a way we can improve Main Street and be careful to not take away the parking for the merchants on Lower Main, so from Orange down, because that's where at DID meetings I attended a lot of the DID meetings, um, and they expressed some angst about the removal of parking.

Um, we have a letter from the Downtown Merchants Association, you know, two of the merchants there, at least two of them have been pretty vocal about maintaining the parking.

And um, and the you know, we have a letter from the Downtown Merchants Association, you know, two of the merchants there, at least two of them have been pretty vocal about maintaining the parking.

Um are there elements of the plan where we can keep the parking on that lower main as uh diagonal and then still move forward with some of the the um proposals that you're you have in your plan.

So one is parking and the other one is trees.

Those are the two biggest um issues is that you know we have those sort of like I think they're the shady ladies on Main Street, they've grown in and I would hate to see us remove trees to plant trees and say, Oh, they'll be beautiful in 20 years.

Well, we just planted these, I think, 20 years ago.

So and then 20 years before that there were oaks.

I mean if we're doing this every 20 years, we're just taking out trees to plant trees.

So I'm asking if there's some sort of a combination for parking, trees, and then also the disruption of businesses are the three three main topics.

So when you look at the segment between Gulf Stream and Pineapple, the parking remains the same.

The only thing that we are doing is some utility work, some of the lighting.

So parking remains the same at that point.

So it's from pineapple to orange.

Pineapple to orange.

Right.

So there's 34 parking spaces between Gulf Stream and Pineapple.

That remains the same.

Um from pineapple to orange, there is modification in parking, right?

The reason the modification in parking is significant there is if you look at the existing conditions on page 127 of your backup material, that's all of your crash data.

And if you recall, I mentioned that a lot of the parking related crashes, they were over 250 parking-related crashes that is hyper focused, particularly on that segment.

And the only way to mitigate that is converting angle to parallel.

So no other solutions.

There is no other, there would be no other solution in terms of mitigating the parking-related crashes.

If you look at page 131, you see that in the map, all those dotted in red, that's where the condensation, like all the cluster of parking-related crashes are happening.

Right.

Um I don't know, it just seems like there might be some other solutions as opposed to just removing the parking.

The other the other thing is that if you don't convert the parking um, you essentially you don't have space for the trees to have additional space to grow.

So that that is something that the community wanted, and right now some of those trees are not not doing so well.

Um based on our um tree assessment report, they are some of the trees are in fair condition, others are in poor condition.

Yeah, we have excellent majority of them are palms because palms do thrive in smaller, smaller spaces.

But um that is what you need to take into account.

It's either we change the pre we keep the angle, then there's a lot of backing into crashes um due to parking, and there's the situation that we can't accommodate larger trees and have more shade.

Yeah.

Yeah, I just it seems like it's a zero-sum game when in fact the I I mean I'm hoping that there's some other solution to that because the merchants are pretty adamant about the loss of parking there is gonna be detrimental to them.

Um that discussion has happened at the merchants association, and it did.

And it's been a continuing theme for the whole discussion here.

And that's that's where I think some of the people are experiencing pain and angst is that removal of that angled parking um and the potential removal of current trees that are are thriving right now.

And so uh and then also there's the disruption to the businesses.

Um and it does, and so I I think that there are solutions to these three issues that can be worked through.

Um, but I you know that's what I would like to see is I would like to see that those concerns addressed.

Because it's very clear here in a lot of the um, you know, page 53, the importance of commercial uses really important.

Uh, you know, I noted some of the pages where the community talks about parking, parking, parking, parking, parking.

Um in those surveys that you have in there as well.

Uh it's pages 331, 333, 331 to 332 and four.

People when they say, you know, what what do we need?

What do we need?

Parking, parking, parking, parking, parking.

Parking, parking, parking.

And so not only the residents, but also the merchants.

I think that's that's just in this big plan that's really uh comprehensive and well well done and well thought out, that parking removal of that parking is a major issue.

Uh the main, and then after that I would say more care with the trees that are there and um I think you can stage it like you mentioned about business disruption during this, that we can have ways to accommodate and not you know make the businesses feel like they can't function during the construction of this, but um so I think there's sensitivity there.

So the main one really, really is parking.

It's just the removal of the angled parking there.

Um so that's I was just curious if you had any any other solutions to that area, any other compromises that we could.

So keep in mind that when we did the parking analysis on street, along Main Street, adjacent to Main Street, so anything that was intersecting Main Street, our surface lots and our garages, we have over 2,000 parking spaces.

Yeah.

And out of those 2,000 parking spaces, we did our parking analysis in November during season, d on a weekday, on a weekend.

And we redid that analysis in March on a weekday and on a weekend.

And our garages were not up to capacity.

There is on a weekend, on a weekend, we had um forty-eight to fifty percent uh garage capacity.

So that means that we had fifty percent available parking spaces on in our garages.

Right.

On a weekday, we had 45 to 55 percent um occupied.

So that means that if you take the bigger number, 45 percent were unoccupied.

So in our peak times, and those were like I mentioned, that was during our season and during our peak times, that was the percentage.

Yeah, I know, I know.

I saw all that.

I get it.

I get it.

It's just that um there obviously people want to park on Main Street, and it really helps the businesses for people to be able to do that.

It's in high demand, and um I I see that taking that parking away will force them in the garages, or it could force them elsewhere.

And that's that's the main concern is that you know, to Commissioner Betty's point, we do want to keep a vibrant commercial downtown, not just bars and restaurants, those spaces have to be occupied by businesses too.

So we have a balance.

And if the merchants are telling us it's hard already and those spots are full all the time, please don't take them away.

I think we should heed that warning.

Um that's the main concern for this um really well done um proposal here.

Okay, Commissioner Ulrich.

Thank you.

Um it almost seems like regardless of what we do, there will not be enough parking places on Main Street unless we stack them.

And we don't have any plans for that.

So um another matter that I I'm very enthusiastic about uh creating a pedestrian mall on Main Street, parts of it, maybe not all the time, but some of the time.

But I have to mention to you something that I did address during the public meetings, community workshops that is also very important to me.

And that is providing for drop off and pick up spaces for people who are non-ambulatory, and people who have very limited walking ability.

There has to be a way that we can allow people to provide for unloading and taking care of their loved ones who want to participate in our city and are unable to do that unless we provide for them.

That's not a question.

Yes.

Commissioner Batti.

Oh yeah.

Um I get your point regarding, you know, the the parking just because, you know, we gotta get people in these garages.

I mean, if you go out there right now, I guarantee you that there's a lot of parking out there.

So the hours of which the merchants are operating, you know, which a lot of them till like maybe five or six or something like that.

This this parking on Main Street or whatever.

So I'm I'm enthused about the possibility of the parallel parking and the wider wider sidewalks.

Um particularly, you know, we talk about trees or or what have you.

We need trees, we need canopy on Main Street or what have you, you know.

We talk about trees all the time.

This is what the community wants, and I want to see that we do, you know, um what we can to give it to them.

What so when you talk about the and and um to Commissioner Ulrich's point um about the pedestrian mall, did you have all have any thoughts of how that how that works or whatever?

I know you were talking about the ballots and whatnot that that what would they come up out of out of the out of the street or whatever how I mean how does that Yes.

So they would um it would come up out of the street and then go back down in like a little house, underground house.

Um and there is potential to like you were saying, the some of that retail is open until five or six at night, so there's a possibility of even creating those pedestrian malls at nighttime, um, just because the the retail has has expressed their concerns with closing down the street and their business.

So maybe if we do that over, you know, seven to seven or whatever that time frame is that can be worked out later, um, they'll be able to see that it might not actually impact their hours and want to stay open later and participate in that um activity.

Uh it's also good for special events, of course, um, and other um other items.

And that's what I was talking about in terms of getting with the the the um property owners down there because you know in order to have like a pedestrian mall or whatever, you gotta have like shops down there or whatever.

I don't know, you know, what the situation is with uh the spaces can accommodate, you know, things like a uh Banana Republic or uh, you know, or something like that, something that draws people to downtown to want to come down here and shop, you know, not just dine and say go to EVs or or Classical or something like that, you know, but they actually come down here and shop.

It it because it always bothers me that during the holidays, you know, you come downtown, there's nobody shopping down here because there's really nowhere for them to shop, you know, or whatever.

There's not a lot of clothing stores down here.

I mean, there's maybe a a couple, you know, or whatever, but there's definitely nothing, you know.

I'm sure even my father shop is not even on Main Street, it's off Main Street or whatever.

So I just want to us to create an environment that is more pedestrian and and retail and shopper friendly or whatever that that uh would get people to come to Main Street, draw them from UTC or whatever, have another option aside from St.

Armand's if they're looking for for other places to to hang out and shop and just you know, window shopping and and so on.

So um there's more or less like you know, comments as opposed to questions, but thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um we had public uh yes.

Yeah, but um I haven't commented yet.

And then Commissioner Agarn Kotch has got a third round.

I can wait.

To your third round?

Yeah, well.

I mean, I get three rounds and I haven't had one, so I'm gonna just take one.

I don't I don't need three.

But um playing off of what um and I get ten minutes, Ms.

Griggs.

I haven't done a first round.

Thank you.

Not that I necessarily need it, right?

Um one of the things that we've been talking about in terms of of the retail is um maybe looking at hiring somebody, figuring out what we would like to see down there in terms of retail and hiring somebody to help bring that in, but that's kind of the the purview of the uh uh the new ad hoc committee with the downtown visioning is what we would do.

So, you know, that's not that's not on you guys to do that.

So that's you know, that's what we're thinking that we would do to bring in those shops that we want.

Um but secondly the parking issue.

Um transportation planners have a lot of background in this.

kind of the the purview of the uh uh the new ad hoc committee with the downtown visioning is what we would do so you know that's not that's not on you guys to do that so that's you know that's what we're thinking yeah um that we would do to bring in those shops that we want um but secondly the parking issue um you two are you know transportation planners have a lot of background in this can you explain um the parking in terms of retail if you take um if you take and make the environment around the shops much more pleasant with wider sidewalks and more sidewalk amenities and more street trees that that's what will help the businesses it's not necessarily parking on a dead part of the street so businesses thrive on foot traffic people enter and purchase things from their retail on foot or by bike I mean but their the where they park doesn't necessarily have to be in front of their business that doesn't that doesn't have any economic benefit it's more about the people walking by their shop seeing what's in there and wanting to go in and explore and that's more like that has more of a purchase power than being able to park in front of a store.

And that is that's according to a lot of studies that have looked at this isn't that correct?

Yes.

That that if you create a better environment and by doing this parking plan you creating a better environment by allowing for wider sidewalks, more street trees and encouraging the activation in the other parts of downtown rather than then lower Maine.

That is correct yeah okay um that's basically what I wanted to um you know what I wanted to have have you speak on is that issue that's study after study has shown that every time I know the re you know the retail shops are concerned but every time that's happened in you know in cities across the country that they find out that it is then if they get more activation on the street their sales go up it's not having parking every time directly in front of their building which usually is not going to happen in any event.

All right Commissioner Ahernc wait and I no you're the third everybody else is nobody else is asking for another time except you okay uh but I only spoke once I only asked a question you've done you've done I marked you off here um oh I'm sorry you're in your second round I apologize any second yeah thank you um so um the the uh input that I've had from a lot of the merchants they are a lot of them are retail merchants um and you know they have written us and their discussion it did and their discussion at their merchants association meetings that I've attended um was that uh as we see in some of your surveys here we have an older population that population wants to park on Main Street and I understand about the theoretical and I don't disagree with it that a nice environment does invite people to come and shop and window shop and stroll in but also there is a certain segment of our very specific city of Sarasota folks who want to be able to park on Main Street and that's you know attested to by these statistics that are in here about how Main Street parking is is full it's 90 hundred and ninety-three and so on and so forth so one doesn't have to exclude the other right we could have a nice environment uh and do the best we can and also still provide parking uh I think my question is uh for the parking department has the parking department discussed um what that's going to do to their uh capacity if we're going to reduce it by uh how many spots are being removed approximately between 110 and 125 but they have been part of our technical working group it's just this is a visioning and we have not determined exactly how many parking spaces will be removed.

That's why I'm saying approximate because that will be determined on based on the design because it is based on that curb type it's based on what stormwater impacts we would have I mean they it's just based on a lot of things.

So when once we know once if the project moves to the planning and design then that that is an additional conversation that would move to the parking division.

Okay.

But they have been part of the conversation.

Okay yeah it's just that we continue to um support the parking division and this would reduce their capacity and so that would have an impact I think on their bottom line somewhere but you know that could be offset if people do indeed park in the parking garages more.

But you know, that could be offset if people do indeed park in the parking garages more.

I mean, maybe that's how it's offset.

I mean, I don't know.

I was just curious if you had had anybody do an analysis of what that would do to the parking division in their bottom line.

And the parking division currently is going through um a plan or a process, if I'm not mistaken.

Um so all of this information has been provided to their consultant for them to um, you know, look at.

Yeah.

Um the the uh flush um sidewalks, you know, taking the curb away, making it flush.

Um that is something I think that is uh has great value.

Do you see any issues with us doing that?

Uh has there been any pushback to that?

No, there hasn't.

No.

And um are there any any negativities to that that we should be aware of?

Uh any safety issues or anything.

The only safety concern would be if um, you know, a vehicle would come in, but that's why we have the the ballards and all of that incorporated into the visioning.

So the ballers would be in front of where the cars would park, is that to separate the car from the sidewalk?

Yes.

Okay.

Because we have it flush like that in on lemon.

So um I was just curious if you've had any feedback to lemon and um if that's impacted and uh anything in your your thought with this design.

No.

No.

Citizens never commented.

Okay.

Okay.

I I mean I I think it makes it look um very inviting, you know, when you have it flush and you know, the pedestrian is doesn't, you know, have to, you know, step down to cross the street and so on and so forth, just makes it look more plaza-like, more inviting, and and that was the intent, and I think that it's been achieved.

So I think that's a a really positive piece of the of this design that you have here.

So those are my questions for the moment.

Commissioner Betty.

Uh yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I think this is my third or whatever.

So wanna make sure that um because I just want to ask you, so in your study, your park because this parking is gonna be at the center of like anything all the things that we do here in the city when we're adding any type of anonym, be it you know, performing art center or whatever, parking is at the at the center of it.

When you did your parking study or what have you, particularly like of the garage, and you say that it's like 40 five to close to fifty percent occupied at at any given time seems like, or whatever.

Um taking away the say hundred or so spaces, you know, in downtown on Main Street could be made up in the parking garage or whatever, if people correct.

So let me let me pull this up.

When we were talking about, you know, our bonds and bond covenants and so on and meeting them in and and and so forth, and then being able to to be utilized to full capacity, you know, so I'm sorry.

So what you're looking on the screen is the our the parking analysis and the locations that we looked at.

So you see the on-street parking, the parking garages, and then the parking lots.

Well, the first three lot, the only lot.

Uh we looked at the city owned um locations and then the right-of-way.

Like I mentioned, there is over two thousand parking spaces, but at the garages particularly, there's over thirteen hundred parking spaces.

Um if I break it down, uh Palm Avenue has a total of seven hundred spaces and State Street Garage has three hundred and ninety-five.

If they're only at fifty percent capacity in total, right?

If the garages are only at fifty percent capacity.

You're more than making it up or whatever.

Correct.

And and you know, and one of the things that Commissioner Ulrich said and you know, and to uh commissioner codes point, you know, with the older population or whatever, did you mention something about maybe some sort of transport from the garage to whatever, you know, down Main Street or whatever.

I mean, like a I don't know, maybe a golf cart or something like that, you know, or whatever, you know.

I mean, just an option, but um because you look at places like the mall, you park in the parking lot where you're going shopping, man is freaking damn near a mile away, you know.

You go parking in on St.

Armor's Circle, you're walking everywhere.

Okay, uh whatever, wherever it is that you plan on going or whatever, you're never gonna park right there.

Very rarely are you gonna be able to park right in front of you where you're gonna be.

So um I like the idea, like what it is you all present it and uh um continue to do the great work that you do and whatnot.

Nick, you should be proud.

Well, no, that's not as good.

Um in your study, did you didn't you see that in you know as you had further east on Maine, um there isn't as much I mean parking is um not taken up, it's not usually full because there's nothing down there, you know.

So there's that parking on Maine.

And the other thing is I think if um when um you know Broxton is looking at the parking, um if you charge more for Main Street and less for the garages, then that encourages people to park in the garages, which would also free up more parking on Maine.

And then plus we have once you get off Maine and Palm, you got free parking everywhere.

You know, so um all right.

I don't think we have anybody else, and I failed to uh bring up the two you can stay willing of two speakers.

Um then if there are any questions after that.

Um Lance Thomas and Danny Williams, and I apologize.

I forgot to bring you bring you up at the beginning.

Danny had to go.

Danny had to go.

Okay.

All right.

Oh, good afternoon.

Three minutes.

Name is Lance Thomas, I'm a resident of the city of Sarasota.

Also representing the Sarasota Mobility Alliance.

I want to express my strong support for the Main Street Complete Street.

Uh there's several parts of the plan I'm uh particularly excited about.

First, I really appreciate the inclusion of flush curbs on the sections on Main Street between Five Points and Lemon and between Lemon and Orange.

Uh this expands upon the design that's already used on Lemon Avenue, uh, which looks great, uh improves the continuity of the street, makes the area much more pedestrian friendly.

Um it's great for art fairs and in uh farmers' markets and people don't have to step up and down on the curb.

I also support the enhanced crosswalk markings and intersection improvements.

These changes will make it safer to cross the street, uh, which is essential for walkable and vibrant downtown.

Uh another element I'm looking forward to is better signage, uh, wayfinding and technology.

Think of those real-time signs that say how many parking spaces are available.

Maybe people aren't aware that there's 500 spaces available in uh the nearby parking garage.

Um this could reduce the need for on street parking and cut down on drivers circling the block looking for a parking space, uh improving traffic flow and making downtown more enjoyable for everyone.

Lastly, the addition of wider sidewalks and more shade will make a huge difference in how comfortable Main Street feels, uh, whether you're walking, dining outside, or just enjoying the space.

Uh thank you for pursuing this project.

Uh these kinds of improvements make our downtown safer, more welcoming, and uh better for residents, businesses, and visitors alike.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Anybody have any more questions before we ask for a motion?

All right.

If you somebody wants to make a motion, I'll move, Mayor.

Uh move to continue the main street complete streets project into the planning and design phase.

Do I need to add the rest of that sentence that's on the agenda request?

No.

Thank you.

Second.

Okay.

Um the motion you want to speak to it.

I think we've said it all.

Okay.

Uh anybody else?

Commissioner Aherncotch.

Um, yeah, so I've I really like the direction that this plan goes.

There's so many, many good things in here.

Um, but the parking is a big, big, big issue for the merchants, and they have continued to speak out against the removal of just the parking between pineapple and I think orange is it is where it is.

And um they have major concerns about um how that's going to impact their businesses, and I really have to heed that.

Um that input it's it's been consistent, it's been continual, and um, you know, both from the dead and and the downtown merchants.

So they're there every day, all the time.

They know their clients, and um have provided us input.

So that's the piece of this that is um very uh concerning to me.

Okay.

Well, I think that T presented.

Uh ladies for yeah, you I'm sorry, yes.

Ladies first.

Okay.

I I was just gonna say that um the next phase will take two years.

They're gonna get a lot of more input from the public and will in I've got confidence in that they will incorporate the parking issues, uh you know, all of that, the um accommodating senior citizens, more ADA compliance, you know, because I think we need more ADA than an average community.

So I'm confident that over the next two years all of those improvements will be incorporated in the plan in the trees also.

So that's why I'm very much supporting this.

Commissioner Batti.

Uh yes, uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just wanted to speak, you know, to the whole idea of the merchants and retailers with the parking and you know, and how it may impact their business or whatever.

You know, this try something different, it may enhance it or whatever, you know, it may improve it.

Um by now I don't think anyone has seen anything different.

So um this is an opportunity for us to try something new and uh get more foot traffic on on Main Street and uh some more retail and and better retail and and and so on.

Um not saying that the retail there's bad, but you know, maybe I did say that, but um but no, but you know, getting more things that uh that that people can feel excited about coming to, you know, as I said, like a banana republic or or you know, sunglass hut, things that you see in in a lot of um very populated retail uh places like a mall or whatever, or even out on St.

Almond Circle.

Um so I know I think uh the wider sidewalks and and and uh more parallel parking would that would attract more foot traffic with better re with good retail.

Okay.

Um that would uh do a great deal for for Main Street in um in this vibrancy.

Thank you.

All right, if we could vote, Commissioners.

Go ahead.

Is that your vote?

Yes.

All right, it passes four to one.

Thank you.

All right.

Next on our agenda is item nine three, an update on the city manager search.

Um Ms.

Griggs and Mr.

Polzak.

All right.

Um we just um wanted to follow up.

I sent an email out last week regarding interview questions.

I don't want to receive responses back from two of you.

The deadline was Friday.

If I'm gonna have to assume if you don't have any questions, we gotta move forward without you all having interview questions.

As I understood it, uh the those questions were only if there was questions that they wanted everybody to ask that that did not preclude us from asking questions.

No, no, no, no.

I just saying that nobody I don't receive responses from two, so I don't want anybody to say I didn't include them.

So I have to bring it up.

Um so I'm gonna move forward with the we have to put the agenda out literally probably today, if not tomorrow.

If I don't receive questions by the end of the day, we're gonna move forward with what we have.

My question was going to be are you in the position to read the questions that you got, or do you want to wait no?

I'll wait till we we need to compile, and I still haven't received from everybody.

So I just want to give everybody a chance to give us what they need.

Those will just sorry, it's it's my fault.

Sorry.

Those will just be questions to be comment on this?

Yeah.

Answered in the presentation components by the search firms.

So you obviously will be free to ask questions during the actual.

Yeah, I I mean I I knew that was under I thought that was understood.

This is just what you all stated, you wanted interview questions to be given to them.

So if you don't have anything, I'm just gonna we're gonna move forward.

Okay.

So I just want to give that update.

Thank you.

Do we have anybody signed up to speak?

No.

No.

I have a question.

All right, uh Commissioner Rawwick's on the board already.

Thank you.

Um feel free to say if I returned.

You did.

Oh, thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Honkowch.

Um so my question is that if two of the five of us submitted questions, um, you'll still go forward with those those two inputs.

Okay.

Correct.

Yes.

Okay.

And uh we are we gonna be made aware of those questions that have already been submitted so that we will be put we are attaching it to the backup material for the meeting next week, which we would like to put out, if not today, first thing in the morning.

So you'll have it within 24 hours.

Okay, okay.

Okay, anything else?

That's that's all.

Commissioner Bat T.

Oh no.

Feel free to uh submit any questions.

No, I didn't.

All right.

Um that's all I don't think there's anything else we need to do for that.

Okay.

Okay, next item is item 101, which is um proposed resolution number 25R 3357.

It doesn't tell me what that is here.

Infrastructure Oh, that's the infrastructure sales surtax.

And I'm gonna open the public hearing on that proposed resolution and call upon the city auditor and clerk to read the title.

Um, actually, um, anybody who plans to take an oath today, could you please stand and take this oath?

Anybody okay?

All right.

Thank you.

Do you swear or affirm that the evidence of factual representation which you're about to give or present to this commission during any public hearing held this second day of September 2025 are truthful?

Thank you.

All right, and I'll go ahead and read the title.

Resolution number 25R 3347, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sarasota, Florida, amending the infrastructure sales surtax 15 year extension expenditure project detail list in accordance with the procedures established by Sarasota County Ordinance Number 2007-087 and amending the infrastructure sales surtax 15-year extension expenditure project detail list in accordance with the procedures established by Sarasota County Ordinance number 2022-001 pertaining to the 1% local government infrastructure sales or tax levy, providing for reading by title only and providing for an effective date.

Okay, I'm gonna call upon our financial administration director Strickland to make a presentation.

Good afternoon.

I'm Kelly Strickland, Director of Financial Administration for the City of Sarasota.

The infrastructure sales surtax is more commonly referred to as the penny sales tax, and it has rules that are established in the original county ordinance requiring the city to hold a public hearing on the changes to the capital projects, which are funded by the penny sales tax.

That's what this resolution is doing.

The last set of changes occurred on September 3, 2024, with a public hearing and the passage of resolution 24R-3262, setting the project list in line with the 25 the 2024-25 capital improvement plan as recommended.

The commission previously met in July for the budget workshops in which the CIP was presented and tied to specific funding sources.

During that workshop, recommended changes to the C the Capital Improvement Plan were presented.

Specific changes that were made to the penny sales tax funding source are outlined in the resolution before you.

The infrastructure sales surtax four or penny for started on January 1st of 2025, and it has had no changes to the adopted categories.

In summary, the changes in the proposed reservation 25R-3347 amends the project list for phase project list for phase three, which ended on December 31st, 2024.

All the modifications are listed in this resolution, the backup memorandum and the detailed exhibits.

Okay.

I don't think we have anybody signed up to speak, correct?

All right.

Uh questions, commissioners.

No.

I don't see any.

Um I'm gonna close the public hearing and ask for a motion.

I'll move to adopt proposed resolution number 25R-3347.

Second.

Okay, any discussion?

Okay, if you'll vote, Commissioners.

And also roll call, please.

Trice?

Yes.

Aaron Koch?

Yes.

Albert, yes.

That's he?

Yes.

Or it yes.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Motion passes 5-0.

Okay.

Um into item 111, which is a quasi-judicial public hearing.

And I am going to call upon the city auditor and clerk to read the title.

Thank you.

Ordinance number 25-5575.

An ordinance of the city of Sarasota, Florida, providing for the designation of the House Casita.

Casita, sorry if I say that wrong.

Accessory dwelling unit garage and street wall located at 1874 Westeria Street, historically known as the Stigney Kimbrough Residence, as a structure of historic significance pursuant to the historic designation, regulations of the city found in Article 4, Division 8 of the Zoning Code.

All more particularly described hearing providing for reading by title only and providing for an effective date.

Okay, and I'm going to call upon the city open the public hearing and call upon the city attorney to explain the quasi-judicial process.

Thank you, Mayor.

This is a matter that Deputy City Attorney John Shamsy handled, so I'll hand it off to him.

Thank you.

So as you know, this is a quasi judicial hearing.

There are parties to a quasi judicial hearing.

The parties include the applicant, the city, and anyone who has applied for and given affected person status under the city's zoning code.

Parties may proffer evidence, testimony, expert testimony, and documentary evidence.

Parties have the opportunity to cross-examine opposing parties and to present a closing or rebuttal argument.

The decision of the city commission in a quasi judicial hearing must be based on the competent substantial evidence in the record.

At the beginning of a quasi judicial public hearing, the commission members must indicate if they have had any ex parte communications on the matter.

That is contact with any parties outside of his public hearing today.

So at this time, we will ask the commissioners to state on the record if they've had any ex parte communications.

I have had none.

Okay.

None.

None.

None.

Sounds like none.

Okay.

All right.

Um do we have any affected persons?

No.

No.

Okay.

All right.

And the recommended time limits on this.

Um you want me to go into it or you want to go into it?

I'm I'm on to go into it.

Uh I think the proposed time limits if the commission is is uh in agreement is 20 minutes for the applicant, uh, 20 minutes for city staff, five minutes for any affected persons, which there are none, and then three minutes for any members of the public.

Uh and then a um uh rebut a five-minute rebuttal from the applicant in the city if necessary.

Okay.

All right.

So um all right, I'm going to then um we want the well, we want the applicant to go first, right?

Yes.

Correct.

Okay.

So I'm gonna call upon our historic preservation senior planner Dodd and property owner Catherine Duffy to make a presentation.

Good afternoon.

If it pleases the mayor, I think I'll take about one minute and Ms.

Sounds really good.

We'll take just a few minutes more.

I'm delighted to present to you, Miss Catherine Duffy, one of the owner, uh, excuse me, one of the owners of the uh home at 1874 Wisteria.

Mr.

Duffy is in the audience.

The uh historic preservation board voted unanimously to recommend this home for historic designation.

You've got the ordinance and the backup materials in the history of the home in your uh packets, and I'm gonna let Miss Duffy um read something into the record for you.

Okay, thank you.

First of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um, just a little background.

On March 2nd, uh 2025, my neighborhood, uh South Point Seattle Park, held a centennial celebration event in which eight historic homes, all built uh between 1925 and 1926 were opened to the public for tours.

Approximately 500 people from around the city attended.

Many were unaware of the extensive history of the neighborhood, and the tremendous foundation, the earlier residents provided to make Sarasota such a beautiful and desirable location as it is today.

Um this is just the little brochure that we had, but I wanted to read for you the uh the history that was briefly accumulated in the descriptions of each one of the homes, but I'm just gonna read mine obviously.

Um wrought iron gates lead to the OASIS setting of this Spanish Mediterranean revival house built by Logan and Curran, developers of South Point Seattle Park.

The original owner of this four-bedroom, four-bath home was William Stickney, the former governor of Vermont, and his wife Sarah.

The first president of Ringling College, previous mayor of Sarasota, and superintendent of schools, Vermin Kimbrough, followed.

He and his wife Edith lived in the home for 35 years.

During World War II, they opened their house to Army officers working at the Sarasota Air Base.

The current residents, myself and my husband, remodeled the main house and casita in 2019, updating it for today's lifestyle while keeping the decor and materials period appropriate.

This green porch was rebuilt and an outdoor kitchen and paper pool decking were installed in 2020.

The extensive side yard landscaping was completed in 2021, creating a true alfresco experience.

Many of the existing plants were utilized throughout, and I'm told many are original by a master gardener.

The interior details include many original features such as flooring, light fixtures, moldings, doors, and hardware.

This historic gem is lovingly maintained by my husband and myself, who hope opening it to this tour inspired others to appreciate and help preserve Sarasota's unique past.

Thank you for recognizing the historical significance of this home.

Thanks.

Thank you.

All right.

So we don't have anybody signed up to speak.

So we don't really need rebuttal.

Um Commissioner questions.

Commissioner Aherncotch.

Thank you.

I only have um really one question.

Thank you so much for doing this, making the effort and taking the time to do this.

This story is fascinating, and um I really appreciated all of the information provided to us.

I did have one question on page um 20 on page 55.

Um it uh mentions that the house was it says in the master side file that the house was built in 1929, but in your backup material it says 1925, and I was curious which one was the accurate number.

1925, according to all of further research.

That's my only question.

I just wanted to verify that.

All right.

I don't see any other questions.

So um it's a beautiful, beautiful home.

Um so I'm gonna close the public hearing and ask for a motion on proposed ordinance number 255575.

I'll do that, Mayor.

Uh move to approve ordinance number 25-5575 on first reading.

Second.

Okay, any discussion.

Yeah, I I just oh sorry.

Oh, go ahead.

I just wanted to comment uh uh about the history of the people who lived there, and then the thing that I really got a kick out of was the designers uh Logan and Curran, and with uh Frank Logan, who died when he was 43 years old, and he had invented a new gas mask canister, and the canister was still in use in early in World War II, although Logan succumbed earlier as a result of self-testing canister prototypes.

So I mean, with history like that, you gotta keep the house.

All right, Commissioner Ulrich, you wanted to say something.

I do.

Um I'm sure that wasn't the first person who died testing an invention and won't be the last.

Um but I do want to applaud the owners for taking this step in preserving their home, and I appreciate that.

All right.

If you will vote, Commissioners.

Now I hit you buttons.

Go ahead.

Well, you know what?

Let me reset that.

Okay.

I think that's right.

Here we go.

Yes.

Is that your vote, Commissioners?

Unanimously.

Thank you very much, and thank you all very much.

Okay.

We have citizens input concerning city topics.

And I have a feeling we have a speaker.

Okay.

Indeed.

Well, it's about the same number of people here going to Delray Beach out of Sunshine.

Sunshine law prohibits casual encounters per the memo from the uh the city uh attorney where uh private conversation takes place on uh on city matters.

Why then are three CC commissioners, the deputy city manager, a department head, and six ad hoc committee members from the same committee, all going to Delray Beach for three days together.

If you don't consider the appearance of propriety important, and you don't want to invite a guaranteed sunshine lawsuit, why do it?

It's absolutely like pouring gasoline in a room, getting books of matches and laying them out there, and then hoping that nothing happens.

You know, the records request that I placed on this wasn't fully answered, um, because it doesn't show who's paying for the department head.

Um it did, though, show quite bizarrely, because I didn't ask that, that uh city vehicles are gonna be used.

You're gonna get one each, or are you uh well that's what it said in what they sent me.

What can I tell you?

That's what they sent me.

Uh they told me that you'll that there are no mileage being paid because city vehicles are going to be used, and that would beg the question how environmentally friendly would that be, and more the patient would you get a car each?

You have six hours there and back.

Well, okay, everyone's shaking their head, but you're going.

Um this vow of silence that the uh the city manager alluded to.

Uh nobody expects you to take that.

It's a small town, it's a free country.

You can talk to whoever you like about whatever you like.

But sunshine is very clear, and the city attorney made it very clear.

He said, quote, close calls will likely be a violation.

Again, begging the question, what on earth are you thinking of?

We have in our community the preeminent sunshine litigator of our time.

It's absolutely sitting there laughing his ass off at this.

It is bizarre that another commissioner added himself to the role.

You now got three of you, but the bigger part, six people from the same committee, and we're all gonna say pretty please, no one's gonna talk about any of the common interests.

The only things that you share, the common interest.

It's implausible, it's not gonna happen, and you're gonna get sued.

I'm gonna come back tomorrow, and I want the actual answers to the questions that have been actually posed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on to remarks of commissioners.

Commissioner Ulrich.

Thank you.

Um I have three things.

There's been a lot of discussion about the state requiring us to remove the paint from the sidewalks.

And I'm wondering if the interim city manager could address where we are in that process and why we did it.

Why we removed the paint.

Yes.

Oh, I should have sorry, I just late in the day, gone for a little humor.

So we received uh a couple correspondence from the state, uh first in July, again in um, I'm sorry, first in June, again in August, uh, informing us that uh current regulations at both the federal and the state level require pavement markings within the right-of-way to be uh compliant with uh what I'll call the um green book.

If I hope I have that right.

Um we did a little checking on that, and it appears that they are technically correct that uh we are required to comply with uh those and some other regulations, and that it does extend completely in the right of way.

Um so that began uh uh some communication between uh FDOT is the form that the state took to um communicate with us, and they began to explain to us that we and every other city or county uh had to uh uh clear any unauthorized marks uh from pavement sidewalk or street.

They uh then helped us out by identifying the areas that they wanted clean specifically in the letter, and um uh the letter uh first letter was sort of a general uh here's here's what we would like you to do.

The second letter got a lot more specific and uh asked us to confirm that we would we would remove uh the uh all of the unauthorized markings by September 4th.

And please note I'm quoting now the Department will pursue withholding of state funds as permitted by law.

Should the City of Sarasota reverse course and decide not to comply.

Uh so we we took a quick look at our budget to say what are we talking about when they say state funds.

I didn't say transportation funds, I didn't say any specific just state funds.

And as you saw, we receive about 67 this year, about 67 million dollars in state funds that that literally touch everything that we do in one form or another.

So I uh uh instructed public works director, Nick, who has just come back in to begin to remove the markings and comply with the state deadline.

He put together a schedule to do that and giving us time in the event of rain uh that we would be there completed before September 4th, and indeed uh the last of the work was done this afternoon, or maybe it was this morning, but it's done now.

Uh so uh given the position of the state, it was clear and unequivocal.

Um the fact that we could uh verify that they had the authority to do it, and the reference to withholding in any legal form they could quote state funds.

I felt the risk to the city was um uh to to try to do something about they also suggested in the last letter that we could appeal, but the areas that they identified to be removed, we could not appeal those.

They had to be removed.

So I have no idea how any of the appeals worked, but all of the items uh have been removed.

Thank you.

So jeopardizing $64 million.

67.

Seven, sorry.

Okay, but uh it's done.

It's done.

Thank you.

Um have two more points.

Last year the city hosted a very successful public meeting before the budget was passed.

I think it was the first time the city hosted such a meeting.

It was well attended, it educated the public and the budget process and some things that were happening.

I'm wondering how we ensure that happens next year.

We didn't do it this year, but it was a good thing to do, I thought, and I'd like to have it done next year.

Uh I speaking as one of five.

We didn't.

We did We did.

Yes.

It was in the studio.

Is the town hall?

Yeah.

I believe it was in March.

Yes.

Well, where was I?

Was I there?

Yes, we do have one though.

Yeah.

Oh, well, that's a good thing.

Um and are we planning on doing it again next year, then would be my question.

Excellent.

And I think it will become routine.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was well attended.

I don't know, where was I?

And then the last thing I'd like to do is thank Mr.

Schimmel for his ongoing effort to never forget 9-11.

That's it.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Back to you.

Uh nothing, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Aherncotch.

I have a couple of items.

Sit tight.

Um I'm going to get to uh I think one of the most difficult ones first.

Um and Mr.

Polzak and Ms.

Griggs, if you could help me out on this one.

This one has to do with my vote for um on the Purple Ribbon Committee.

I'm going to start by apologizing to this commission uh because while I was um really engaged and paying attention at that meeting, I did not hear the mayor, uh and she did not say it softly, um in the motion to accept the report.

Of the Purple Riven Committee.

I did not hear it.

I went back and I listened to the meeting, and it's loud and it's clear, and it said and it stated, and it's in the actual transcript.

But sitting right here, I did not hear that, and I would not have voted because when the vice mayor said, and I've got them right here, uh she wanted to make a motion or make a motion that would it was in three parts, and it was introduced as thank the committee, accept the report, and then direct for you know some of the um recommendations to be in an action plan.

And then there was discussion, and then there was actually the motion was made in two parts, uh and it was thank the commission, and then the mayor added, and accept the report.

I voted for it even though I didn't hear the accept the report.

But it was said and it was said loud and clear.

Um so I didn't hear it, and um I wanted made clear for the record that I absolutely do not accept the report.

And um and and my confusion is expressed when later I said after we voted, I said you were going to make three motions, and I thought one of those was going to be a loan for the um accepting the report.

Uh so I whatever method is best to put it on the record that I do not accept the report, and the reason I do not accept the report, and Commissioner Ulrich tried to clarify it uh by defining what exactly that means when we accept the report.

And um and and it is true, I I do not accept the report um because uh it it is there was confusion about that the whole report in general.

Um there were the the several chapters that were written individually and were the opinions of those individual members.

That was still approved by the whole body, but the prologue was not.

The prologue was not approved by the body, it was not discussed, and it is here.

Um when we accept a report as we saw today during those two big items that we had, even if we accept it, it can still come back.

And it came back twice to us today.

Um the mayor and I voted, like I said, to adopt it.

It was not adopted.

It wasn't something that was confusion over at the time, the difference between adoption and exception.

Um and we specifically wanted to adopt it, but it was very clear the other three commissioners did not want to adopt it, they wanted to accept it.

And it has a lesser value even when you accept it.

And so in accepting that transportation plan, it still lived.

It lived on, and we talked about it twice today.

So I made it clear in this meeting, and I want to make it crystal clear now.

I do not want this plan to sit on a shelf or come back in five years and say the city commission unanimously accepted this report.

That's why we're bringing it back to you.

So I don't know the best way for me to uh get that on the record.

I had asked the city attorney, do I officially change my vote?

How does that work?

And so I think he's advising me to make my statement today on the record, which is as good as bringing it back and having us revote.

Is that correct?

I mean, you are clarifying the record here, this will be noted in posterity.

Um it was a it was a 5-0 vote, so you if you changed your vote, it wouldn't change the outcome.

Right.

It would be noted in another part of history, and when anyone ever researches this ever again, they will see that I voted for it, but there's no other way to change that.

Uh it will always be attached to that meeting.

So I just wanted to make that clear uh and part of the record that um I made the mistake and I did not intend to accept to vote to accept that um purple ribbon committee report.

Um the other item I wanted to, well, I wanted to just uh mention a couple of things.

Um I believe we all had a meeting with um city staff about FDOT and their um plans uh from Gulf Stream Roundabout to the bridge.

Did everybody have a meeting with the city staff on that?

This is removing the plantings.

Removing the plantings that I haven't I had a talk with you.

I didn't have it with anybody else.

Right.

Um well um uh there's gonna be major work done at the intersection, they're gonna raise the road because it it's like a bowl down there a little bit at Sunset Drive and it floods and so they're going to be doing work, but in doing work, they're going to remove trees.

And I had a request from St.

Armands.

If you know it's a short transport, if they could have the trees on the, you know, the street that leads into St.

Armand's.

Let us look at that.

We we also looked at relocating them in the same area that we're taking them out from.

So let us look at St.

Armand's and see what's best for the trees.

But the intent is to save all the trees that we planted.

Okay.

And then I wanted to share that a couple of us attended an event at Booker High School.

They had a field house, which I didn't know what a field house was.

I do now.

And it was a really lovely event and and it's a great amenity for the coaches and for the uh football players to to have something like that.

And they actually took an existing building, fixed it up and added to it.

So that was a really nice event.

And I have been talking with the um city manager about this commission meeting and having regular meetings with the county commission, Longbow Key, uh potentially the school board and the airport authority, um, since those are big operations in our city and we don't meet with them regularly.

Um and so I was hoping that this I would could get an item on the agenda and we could formally talk about that.

Well, our thoughts about meeting regularly with these bodies.

Um my last item is um having to do with the sidewalk um paint.

And um I wanted to apologize to Denise Coball uh at Burns Court.

I wanted to publicly apologize to her.

Um, you know, in the city's haste to comply uh uh with FDOT.

Um I think there were some mis uh missed opportunities for communication and coordination.

And so I wanted to apologize to her for that, and I think it's a good opportunity for us to learn.

Hopefully there's not a next time, but if there is to have um a little bit better coordination and outreach with the folks that are impacted uh when something like this happens.

But I also wanted uh the commission's um input on potentially uh having a resolution uh and in that resolution we can acknowledge that the city complied with FDOT's uh requirement.

We can acknowledge the state has the authority to do what they did.

Um and also um we could um ask that the um state legislature uh that we respectfully request the state legislature reconsider its policy on sidewalk painting uh slash art for municipalities and acknowledge that for some projects in the city of Sarasota, the sidewalk art served functions as basic as a wayfinding, pedestrian wayfinding, but also celebrating Sarasota's unique history and and preservation of that storytelling.

Uh and was also a tourist attraction and an and ultimately an economic generator.

So I would request your support in asking the city attorney to draft such a resolution.

I have a question.

Yes, ma'am.

So what you read seemed to me all the all to be looking back.

Is there anything in your motion or resolution that would look forward like allow us to do it in the future?

Yes, exactly.

Or we're just apologizing for No, no, no.

It would be it would be for them to reconsider their policy specifically to sidewalks.

Um because that that's a tool for us to have wayfindings, celebrate our history, and it's an economic generator and a tourist attraction.

Madam Mayor, may I?

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um I don't know which of us is in which Florida League of Cities uh committee, legislative committee, but I received from mine that um asking by this Thursday if any, you know, if we had a recommendation of something to add to the discussion that we get it into them by Thursday.

Well, it would seem to me throughout the state, this has been an issue.

So wouldn't it be appropriate for whoever's on that committee to submit that as a as a suggestion to the um policy appropriate policy committee at Florida League of Cities and get all of the Florida League of Cities to back it?

That's a that's a really good idea.

Um I believe it would be the Transportation Committee that would handle that.

Is who's on the transportation one?

They renamed everything.

I know I don't I'm it's not mine.

Mine's utilities, natural resources and public works.

I I've always been on the transportation, but I'm not sure that that's what they put me on this time.

Okay.

Well, I think that's an excellent suggestion because the Jennifer Jorgensen will identify which which committee and do you think uh Mr.

Mr.

Bullock do you think that she would be able to draft something and ship it up to or ship it up to them through the appropriate one of us?

Yes.

Okay.

Great.

Is that that's it that's an excellent suggestion.

And and if they don't adopt it, then we Sarasota can say, but we're pushing through with that.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that's a fine, a fine suggestion.

Do the other commissioners agree?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's all I have.

Okay.

Um I just I've uh added an item to the agenda of our September fifteenth meeting to discuss our strategic planning process.

As several community members have pointed out, we haven't really established specific measurable goals from which those strategies would flow.

Um, you know, strategies to achieve those goals.

Instead, we've sort of developed a laundry list of things that we would like to see happen.

So what I the purpose of the agenda item is for us to decide whether or not we want to just continue doing things the way we've done it or whether we want to move for toward a more whoops to move toward a more professional strategic planning process.

So that's on the September 15th agenda.

So and that's all I had.

Okay.

Um I had a couple of things, but I made the mistake of writing it down on paper instead of putting it in my usual notes.

So that's why I don't like paper stuff because it's not here.

Yeah, yes.

So anyway, so we'll go to um the um constitutional officers.

We'll start with Mr.

Pulzak.

Do you have anything?

I had a couple quick announcements if you don't mind.

So first the city has received a charter officials not constitutional.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Yeah.

I'm thinking didn't even notice it myself.

Yeah.

Okay, go ahead.

I'm sorry.

Uh no worse.

Uh the city has received a uh settlement offer pursuant to Florida State statutes 76879 and Florida Rule Civil Procedure 1.442 in the case of Elena Kisson versus the City of Sarasota.

It's case number 58, 2024 CA 001468 in the amount of $50,000.

It's a uh trip and fall case.

Not recommending settlement at this time.

However, I am going to be asking for a shade meeting.

So that's the second announcement.

Um be asking for an attorney client shade meeting pursuant to Florida statute 286.011 subsection eight.

In that same case.

Um again, it's a trip and fall case, and we're gonna seek to have a private attorney client meeting known as the shade meeting with the commission in accordance with Sunshine Law again 286.011 subsection eight.

I'm announcing this at today's public meeting.

And it's in that same case for the record again.

That's Elena Kisson versus City of Sarasota 2024 CA 001468 NC in the circuit court of the 12th Judicial Circuit.

The subject matter of the meeting shall be confined to settlement negotiations or strategy sessions related to litigation expenditures.

We'll reach out to each of you at a later date to schedule a date and time that's convenient and provide such notice to the public in accordance with the law.

It's also possible that the shade meeting will not be required if a pending motion for summary judgment is granted, or if a settlement is reached below the threshold requiring city commission approval.

That's all for me.

Thank you.

Ms.

Griggs.

Nothing.

Mr.

Bullock.

No, ma'am.

Okay.

Mr.

Robinson.

Yes, ma'am.

To the uh public comment today, two items uh that came up was the um the gentleman who made the complaint reference to the police department that was got that did uh get tendered to the police department's internal affairs uh department and it was investigated and found to be not a policy violation.

So obviously, I know what you're talking about.

I'm sorry.

The gentleman who came to today to each other the gentleman who complained on the cops this morning.

That the public comment this morning.

uh public comment today two items uh that came up was the um the gentleman who made the complaint reference to the police department that was got that did uh get tendered to the police department's internal affairs uh department and it was investigated and found to be not a policy violation so obviously the gentleman who came to today you guys to each other the gentleman who complained on the cops this morning that the public comment this morning wouldn't that let them run in my oh oh oh okay okay but that was a long time ago wasn't it are you guys are you drinking out of the same cup there all right the um yes it wasn't it was quite a while ago the the original complaint was a long time ago he just made a second appearance so that was handled um in accordance with our our policies and procedures at the police department um obviously the as often happens sometimes folks don't appreciate the outcomes of those investigations the Roberts Arena yes correct correct uh the second issue was the uh manhole cover that the the young lady brought up during one of the the items that's already been rectified and there's an email in all of your inboxes uh letting you know that it's all taken care of so new uh manhole cover was placed so it is not going to be an issue uh moving forward obviously in light of the tragedy that happened out in the county in the 5400 block of Bay of Vista so we don't want that happening here and uh we got that rectified right away so that is no longer an issue and that is all I have.

That was in the city?

That was not in the city that was in the county.

The manhole the manhole was in the city oh it was in the city okay two different manhole issues and and who's getting a city vehicle to drive to Delray beach I have no comment on anything that came up there.

We actually are uh putting together a master response because there were literally emails being sent by staff uh ten minutes before uh the public thing here when is that trip yeah I I think yeah uh the week from Wednesday a week from tomorrow okay all right that's it okay if there is nothing else then we are adjourned