All right, good.

I guess good afternoon now, everyone.

It is twelve oh one uh PM on Friday, November seventh, twenty twenty-five, and this is our uh annual statutory meeting.

So it's a big meeting where we give the state of the city and choose a new mayor and vice mayor.

So I will let's get to it.

I will call on the city auditor and clerk to do the invit invocation.

Thank you, please stand up.

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 the name we pray, amen.

Oh, any changes to the order then.

No.

Oh no.

All right.

Um here we go.

I mean, I think overall we can say the city's in pretty good shape, and we've done some cool things, so let's go go through it.

Um we have um a couple of years ago, we changed the uh allowable density to encourage affordable housing in the bay front and down count downtown core and urban edge.

And um increase the density by four times, but not increase the size of the units.

Um that has really been helping us create more affordable housing.

I think we have um I think there's a slide here too that shows that we have about a thousand uh units right now in it uh underway on the books.

And we're also, which doesn't count the attainable housing project that we are hoping to create across from City Hall.

We've already bought the property for the project, and we're hoping to partner with an affordable housing contractor or developer to be able to bring that to fruition.

While doing all of these things, we've also been fiscally responsible.

Um our annual budget this year was 2 million, you know, a little over 2 million lower than last year's budget, even though we had to increase the millage slightly, the increase was uh due to needing to build back up our reserves from the hurricanes last year.

Um the hurricanes, as you can imagine, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, caused a lot of damage in the city.

We're still working on the cleanup, but just the debris collection and the immediate um cleanup.

We depleted our our reserves about 80%.

So the millage rate, the additional amount is to go towards building that up.

Our director of economic development is working with the community up there, and I believe with uh Commissioner Batti to create economic activity in in the MLK corridor, and I think they're making really uh good strides towards doing that.

Um our uh legacy business program encourages businesses to stay in our community uh long term, and of course uh we encourage and you know, encourages with the trolley service downtown to the Barrier Islands so that tourists on the Barrier Islands can come into our downtown.

Uh people from the mainland can go out to St.

Armand's and Leto Key.

So it's a mutually beneficial you know, really service for all of our residents and visitors.

We've been actively working in historic preservation.

I think sometimes we get you know, I guess the bad rap that we don't consider that, but uh actually we have been conserving or preserving the structures out at or I guess along the the bay, I guess we're would call them the um the corridor that's going to be with the municipal auditorium and this is the Chidsee Library up on the right that just was restored, and if you haven't seen it, you should you should go and take a tour of it.

It's they've really done a phenomenal job.

We're looking forward to the Muremar building on Palm Avenue being renovated and I don't think it's on this slide, but I just wanted to remember I just wanted to mention that the McAlpin house uh that everybody was worried about has found a new location, so that's gonna be moved, and so we're really happy, happy about that.

Public art is uh you know alive and well, and we're working on a calls for walls project.

Um and as you can see, we already have some murals painted on walls around around the city, and if you're an artist out there and you're interested in doing that, you know, please uh get in touch with the city.

Um the public art contributions also include um contributions by developers when they do a new project.

Um they're required to either contribute to the public art fund or do their own piece of art, and you can see the one on the right is at Astor and Lynx and their parking garage.

And of course, we can't forget our art in the roundabouts.

Um the one on the right is Polly at 14th Street and US 41, which is really a stunning, if you haven't driven past that yet, it's really a stunning sculpture.

And we're making good use of we're making good use of our uh city hall walls and um our current cultural exhibit is petticoat painters.

And our current cultural exhibit is petticoat painters.

We just got a new collection from them that are hanging on the walls.

So on your way out, if you didn't take a look at them on your way in, you know, take a look at all of the paintings out there before we had the collection by the Florida Highwayman.

So we're changing that out regularly.

So if you if you haven't, you know, stop by periodically and see what kind of artwork we have on display here at City Hall.

Just this slide is just to illustrate the number of projects going on in the city and how much our development services, how hard they have to work.

Building permits issued, 8,621.

And that doesn't represent you know all new buildings.

That's you know, with any kind of thing.

I think you know, we're doing some work on my bathrooms and my condo, so I got a building permit for that.

So that you know counts all kinds of building permits.

But we have, as you can see on the slide, new vacation rental applications, um, our construction, uh, the the value of the permits that have been issued in the city is like 728 million two hundred and forty-five thousand and twenty thirty-nine dollars and forty-nine cents.

Um we get really exact here.

Um I I think it's it's really great to see the new business applications, 1,075, um, and renewal 6,141.

So we also are you know getting the businesses to open in our community.

We had a ceremony this morning uh for the Sarasota Police Department for one of the um officers who was moved on now to the um the school board police office, you know, 28 years of service in the city, and we have in his estimation, and I agree with him, the best police department in the country.

And you know, we have other police departments coming here sometimes to see how we're doing things, especially with our our homeless outreach program.

They do community policing, and um as you can see for this year from January 1st to October 29th, uh violent crime is down um 19%, and that's actually 59% in the last three years if you add up uh year year over year.

Very proud of our transportation and mobility efforts with the Bay Runner Trolley and the VO scooters and bicycles, and you can see how many rides, so almost what, a million rides between the two of them.

So those things are being used, and hopefully in the future we'll be able to expand on our micro-mobility transportation.

To add to that, um we believe complete streets are important to provide for not only vehicle traffic, but provide for bikes and people who walk and all kinds of transportation, people in wheelchairs.

Um transportation doesn't just involve getting cars around.

It involves transportation by with you know, with your walking, with riding a bike, or you know, taking the trolley, however, you you know, however you choose to get around.

Our Ringling Boulevard and Pine Place Roundabout, as you can see there, um received an award by the Institute of Transportation Engineers for its design.

Um we have these I guess uh bike trails that we're adding to the city again to allow for more people to get around by other means.

One of the things we wanted to include this because one of the things that we always we always hear here's a concern with you know all the growth and development that you know we don't have the infrastructure to support that, but we're working on a lot of utility projects in the city to upgrade to improve.

And these are some of the that uh we're talking about right now.

We have a north trail water main replacement, and I know those of you who've driven the the North Trail are really aware that we're doing that.

Um Verna uh water main relocation, um the water treatment plant rehabs, so we're always working on making sure we're keeping all of our infrastructure up to date and functioning.

These are some of that we have completed or the one we've completed, the South Asprey Avenue Force Main Sewer Replacement.

And so legislative priorities and appropriations.

As you can see on the right, these are the appropriations that we either have received or we're very likely to receive.

Um but we also um all of us lobby our legislators for things that fall under the category of home rule, environmental resilience and water quality, affordable housing, arts and culture, and solid waste.

And so, you know, the advocacy for the city to get us, that's why we've gotten some of these appropriations and help with the state to make our city a better place.

With the Van Wazel Performing Arts Hall, um we had a lot of damage during hurricane.

I believe it was Helene or Milton, I can't remember now.

Helene, both I know we had the storm surge, but it was really, really bad with with Helene and Milton.

So we're um floodproofing it and uh working on things to help it to be much more resilient because it's it's uh one of our most vulnerable structures in the city because of being close to the water.

And the uh you know, the bottom floor really is under sea levels, so with sea level rise with hurricanes that we really don't expect to lessen in the future.

We expect that you know we'll be hit again at some point.

We just don't know when.

So we want to make sure that we have hardened this for those eventualities, and also um making it a better performing arts hall so that it can survive the next five to seven years as our main performing arts center while we're working on a new one, which gets me to the Bay Park and the Performing Arts Center potential location.

As on the left, as many of you know, that's phase one of the Bay Park, which has turned out phenomenally.

And I want to mention about about that because that was done in a resilient environmentally sustainable way.

And we found when the hurricanes hit that it survived very well because of that.

So as we do more and more of that in the city, you know, we'll be able to make sure that we can recover more quickly and not have as much damage in the city from hurricanes.

But on the right is uh, you know, a glimpse of what's being considered in the next phases as you go along the um waterfront there in front of the Van Wazel and heading north.

Um we're doing a resilient shoreline, which is what stood up really well for phase one.

Um you might see the parking garage there, and the idea is a parking garage would be covered over by park.

So it's a very, very cool concept, you know, could create a water feature there, a um, you know, something that would be fun as you know, because we'd have like one of the few hills in in the city that we could do, and a couple of restaurants for the boat launch area.

We're adding uh extra boat launch area, adding extra parking to make that better for the boaters, and then the seawalls too, and new docks to upgrade all of that.

They um, as you said, the Chidzi Center or library was renovated.

Um, the municipal or the Bayfront Center is being renovated right now.

And if you haven't seen the new promenade along there, be sure to check that out because it looks so much better than than it did.

These are just a few pictures to uh as a reminder of really the situation after the hurricanes and how much damage and why it costs so much you know of our reserves to be able to do the cleanup and still working on that.

Um, Sopreto Pier has not been uh done yet.

But here are some recovery pictures that you know, staff working on things to get the parks back in shape.

And you know, here's before and after St.

Armand's looks really good now.

The playgrounds, the other parks.

Again, before and after of Lido Beach.

And this is just uh a graph of how much we expect to uh spend in the next year or so to actually clean up the parks, fix them up from all of the hurricane damage, and it's about uh a 13.95, 13.95 million estimated cost.

And all of these projects have been started, so you should see the results in the next in the next year or two.

Resiliency is something that we've been talking about for years, that we've been doing for years, and so what we're doing now to protect ourselves from additional hurricanes, sea level rise just fits in with what we have been doing all along.

The upper left is um and the lower left there is the Bobby Jones golf course where we've made and nature park, where part of it was created to be a watershed to clean the water that comes from the surrounding area before it goes into the bay.

At the bay, we also have mechanisms that we clean the water so the bay actually as they talk about protects the uh the bay from the city and the um by the you know cleans the water that goes through there.

And I don't think I need to say that that of course we're gonna have you know, we expect stronger, more frequent storms, so becoming more resilient is extremely important.

Especially for St.

Armand's because we've got shops out there, not all of them are reopened.

A lot of them are.

Um I was there Thursday night, and it's starting to look good, but we still have some empty storefronts.

And the issue there is definitely long-term resiliency and because you know, in a heavy rainstorm um they flood.

So we are working on coming up with solutions for what we can do to make them more resilient so the shopkeepers out there don't have to worry about, well, you know, what am I gonna do in the next storm?

Is my shop gonna flood or is my restaurant gonna flood?

And one of the things that that we're also doing for resiliency is undergrounding the utilities there with the consent and uh help of the residents who really would like to see that.

So when a storm does hit, they maybe will lose your their electricity briefly, but not for long periods of time because when you need to clean up, you need to have electric to be able to do that.

Here are some of our current projects, uh seawall upgrades, living shoreline, a vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan.

We did one years ago.

We're updating that, and we'll be working on implementing some of those things.

Um the beach and dune restoration, not only are we doing beach renourishment again, um, but adding dunes to again protect against uh sea level rise and protect against storm surge.

Not only are we doing beach renourishment again, um, but adding dunes to again protect against uh sea level rise and protect against storm surge.

Wetland restoration and drainage improvements.

Now I just talked about the Leto Beach uh dunes, so we'll be getting those done um as you can see, late 2025, December 2026 for the sand replacement, and then the fall 2026 for the Dune project.

So it's been a year focused on recovery and resilience.

Um we're continuing to repair the storm damage to roads, parks, utilities, and the Van Weasel while preparing our community for the future.

I think overall it's been a good year considering and it's been my honor to serve as uh your mayor for the last two years, and I look forward to whoever is the new mayor going into the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so uh speaking of of the new mayor selection and vice mayor, we are at that point in our um and um I'm going to nominate um Debbie Trice as the next mayor.

Second.

Okay.

Well, since we have it that way, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Ayes have it.

All right.

Congratulations, Mayor Trice.

Thank you.

You are officially new mayor of Sarasota.

I nominate Commissioner Jen Ahern Koch for Vice.

Wait, let's let's let's announce what it is first.

Hold on.

Um we do that.

Um let's pass the gavel.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Here you go.

No, I'll just stay where you are.

We don't want to do all that.

It's pass the gavel and then now let's announce what the next item is.

So the the next item on the agenda is the uh selection of the vice mayor.

And um I guess I'll open the floor for nominations.

Nominate Commissioner Jen Aaron Koch.

Okay.

All right.

We have a nomination on the floor for Commissioner Jen Ahern Kotch.

All right.

Do we have any other nominations?

Well, I was going to nominate uh Commissioner Ulrich.

We all have had that opportunity or whatever.

You know, so but uh so yeah, I I also was going to encourage Commissioner Ulrich to step up as as vice mayor this year, um, especially since I know that Commissioner Ahern Koch is going to be involved in a uh re-election campaign.

So and you all have taught me how much additional work this is.

Yeah, right, exactly.

And I and I do so, you know, Mayor, if I may.

Please.

Um again, you know, I've been, you know, had the pleasure and and uh distinct honor of being vice mayor and mayor and uh Commissioner Heran Kotch as well, and when that did a great job while she was uh vice mayor and mayor as well.

Um the mayor, and I'm sure you'll step in and do a great job as uh mayor as well, but just uh in in fairness and given uh opportunity just do it yourself to to be you know vice mayor and um and should you accept that honor, you know, uh uh have every you know confidence that that you'll do a great job just as you know well I'm not gonna say I did, but everyone else did with everyone when they were mayor and vice mayor.

So what's the process?

Okay, well, first of all, we have one nomination on floor.

On the floor, we need to either vote on that or if we you know do we need a second on that?

Well, we'd like a second.

We have two nominations.

Yes, yeah.

But we had one, I think.

We do one at a time.

We try to do one at a time.

But if we don't feel like we don't have a consensus here, so I'm not exactly sure how you all want to go about it.

She did do a second.

I don't think we had a second on the nomination.

I would like to to support the nomination of Commissioner Ulrich as well.

Okay.

Um so do we take off um Commissioner Ahern Cosh off the table?

Do you are you okay with that?

I'll remove the name.

Okay.

So is there a consensus that we would like Commissioner Ulrich to be our next Vice Mayor?

Yes.

Okay, so all those in favor of Commissioner Ulrich being the Vice Mayor, say aye.

Aye.

All right.

Eyes have it.

Um Vice Mayor Ulrich.

Congratulations.

Okay.

So that leads to that.

So I see that the next item is remarks of the new mayor, vice mayor, and the city commissioners.

So I will start.

Thank you all for your confidence in me, and I promise to do my very best to live up to your expectations.

Twenty twenty five, as you've heard, was a challenging year, but we were reminded by the mayor's State of the City address that we had quite a few successes.

And I doubted down a few as she was speaking.

One of which is we have over a thousand affordable housing units in the pipeline.

The new town community redevelopment agency really had some achievements this year, and they show signs of really moving forward with a momentum.

And I'm going to remind everybody that tomorrow is the first taste of New Town at R.

L.

Taylor, and it'll be food, it'll be music, it'll be vendors.

I'm going to encourage everybody to come and see what New Town has to offer.

Another is the fact that we received a grant to repair and harden the Van Wesel Performing Arts Hall.

And the historic preservation that we did this year all contribute to our economy.

I mean, these were significant buildings that will be financially sustainable over the years, and I think that's very important.

All this was despite the fact that much of the city's resources were consumed by storm recovery and building resiliency against future storms.

Interim city managers, Doug Jeff Coate and Dave Bullock and our dedicated city staff kept the city running smoothly.

But the lack of a permanent city manager delayed the pursuit of visionary future-oriented projects.

So in 2026, I anticipate that this city commission will have the opportunity to consider plans to further increase our economic vitality, plus extended to other areas of the city to build upon the progress we've made toward increasing our inventory of affordable housing by fine-tuning the programs that we have in place and filling in gaps with new programs.

And then also to address the challenges that come with growth, recognizing that as long as Sarasota is one of America's best places to live.

So we have to recognize that there must be some 21st century solutions that we can implement to meet the challenges that come with growth.

Looking at the year ahead, our number one task is to hire a new city manager.

Yes.

But we need someone who has the skills and the vision to build upon Sarasota's success thus far and lead us on our upward trajectory and continued status as America's best place to live.

Until we have a new city manager, I look forward to continuing to work with and learn from Dave Bullock.

He has brought a thorough knowledge of Sarasota and many years of experience in public administration to the job of interim city manager.

But equally important, he has introduced a different perspective.

And I will continue to ro rely on Sarasota's two other charter officials, Sheila Griggs, our city auditor and clerk, and Joe Polzak, our city attorney, for advice and guidance going forward.

Now I don't want to leave out our deputy city manager.

He has been our can-do person.

You know, you you go say, Pat, we have a problem here.

On it, ma'am.

Unfortunately, he's not a licensed plumber, because I suspect if he were our bathrooms wouldn't be operating already.

I get my graduation certificate.

Probably most important, Sarasota's citizens have elected a great team of commissioners who I've had the privilege of working with.

Each of us has our individual interests and skills, but we bring them together to arrive at the best outcome for Sarasota.

You are a pleasure to work with.

And then there is our outgoing mayor.

I have learned so much as vice mayor, observing how she operates.

She's level headed, even in the most stressful and bizarre situations.

So I have really appreciated the opportunity to see what the job of mayor involves by sitting next to you, filling in for you on occasion.

So I I do appreciate the great job that you've done.

And you're a mourning person, so if something you're you're more mourning than I am.

So I'm hoping that when something comes up that, oh gee, do I really have to be there?

Looking forward for you.

You filling in for me.

But I will leave it at that and just say thank you for naming me Sarasota's next mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Vice Mayor, would you like to say a few words?

Yeah, it sounds sort of weird, Vice Mayor.

Um, Liz, Mayor Albert.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to you for these two years of dedication.

Um you served as mayor with genuine commitment to our city, and I thank you.

Um you mentioned public art in your speech tonight on Palm Avenue in a partnership with the Ringling School, they're gonna be projecting all kinds of stuff on our Palm Avenue garage.

So you should get there, everybody.

Um that was an addition to my prepared comments.

Um as the commission begins a new year.

I'm humbled by your confidence in me.

Chief, you did this too.

I'm energized by the opportunity to keep working with you, um, my fellow commissioners, mayor, uh city manager who was ever in that chair, deputy and charter officials, Ms.

Griggs and Mr.

Polzak, and with every single member of our staff.

I'm looking forward to it.

We're gonna chase face the challenges together with our shared commitment to transparency, collaboration, and a desire to make our city the best it can be.

So let's get to work.

All right.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Aheron Kotch.

Yeah.

Um I didn't prepare any statements, but I did want to say thank you to Mayor Alpert for your service for two years as our mayor running the meetings.

Uh it's not a little more work, it's a lot more work, and we really appreciate it, and it goes notice.

So I want you to know how much I appreciate it.

And to the Vice Mayor, former Vice Mayor as well.

You always have to be ready to go, and I thank you for doing it.

Um I really appreciate the comments that you both make at meetings and representing this commission.

And I never for once doubted that when one of the two of you got up to represent us as a body that you were going to re represent us well.

And so I thank you for your time and your dedication to all of that.

And um, you know, I really appreciate what you said, Mayor, about um everybody coming at this table from a different angle and from different uh skill set and from different points of view, but coming together as one body, and that's one really important thing I think that the community appreciates about this specific commission is that you know we can have our differences and we can have our discussions and our disagreements and we air them right here at this table.

But at the end of the day, whatever that decision is, three to two, two to three, four to one, or five to zero, we are one body that makes that decision and it's informed by everybody in the entire community and supported by our staff.

I would like to thank Christina and Brianna as well for their incredible support.

Um they uh um are the backbone of us getting from A to B and B to C and wherever else we go next.

And I know we couldn't do our job without them.

Um thank you to the charter officials, and I welcome with honor our new vice mayor, um KKO as we call her.

Uh and I know we are going to be very proud to have you represent us as well.

So I'm super proud of this moment and welcome and thank you all.

Thank you all.

I would uh let Commissioner Batigo first.

No, first thank you.

Um again, it's uh not only an honor and a privilege, but um a humbling experience, you know, to to be here.

Um always say that uh making the decision to to run for commissioner and to accomplish that, you know, is one of the the the greatest feats, you know, of of my lifetime and one of the best things that I've got done.

Um though there were sacrifices, you know, that that I made, uh it was well worth it.

And it's been worth it in the past commissions, it's been worth it with this commission and to sit here as uh the lone male, you know.

Lone brother uh amongst uh four uh incredibly um independently strong, you know, women.

Um I feel honored.

And uh you know, I can't thank you all enough, you know, for what you bring and and offer this city, um the leadership that you bring to the city, the the vision that you bring to the city, your your own uh breadth of knowledge.

Um and just knowing that uh that you have the the best interests of the citizens and the city overall uh at heart is uh refreshing.

Um and you know, to Commissioner Heron Koch.

Uh you know, can't uh express enough respect for you and your your your graciousness, you know, particularly with Vice Mayor and so on.

Um and you did so with with uh a great deal of uh dignity and uh have a great deal of uh respect and admiration for that.

Um Vice Mayor uh Orick or KKO, she doesn't knock you out once, she knocks you out twice.

Um again, uh uh I have every confidence that you you're gonna step into the role and uh and do so with the a great deal of honor and uh dignity that this city so well deserves as you as you have since you've been on the commission and uh and uh I appreciate that.

Um to our outgoing mayor, uh the the great uh Liz Albert, Commissioner Albert.

Uh you know, I don't know what what words can be said that haven't been said, you know, enough you've been on this commission, you know, for quite some time.

And uh I'm can s just speaking for myself, have learned you know, such a great deal from you watching you as you move and operate, not here just at the commission at a dais, but um throughout the city and wherever, you know, we we may travel.

Um, your your your knowledge and and and what you pass along to not only myself but to this commission and to to the city when when we're speaking on various topics um is unparalleled and uh you know I can't express you know enough thank you for for that.

Um your your knowledge and and and what you pass along to not only myself but to this commission and to to the city when when we're speaking on various topics um is unparalleled and uh you know I can't express you know enough thank you for for that um and you know congratulations for your two years um in in serving this city as uh as a as manager and to uh a new mayor uh uh Mayor Trice.

I was about to say commission or vice mayor, but you know, um get rid of the vice for trice and whatnot, you know.

Hey.

Don't do it once, don't do it twice.

Do it trice.

Yeah, yeah.

But uh but uh no, sorry about that.

I'll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen.

But um but no, but uh um uh I I again just as I said with the vice mayor, I have every you know um wealth of confidence that you're gonna you know do a great job, you know, as as our leader um of this city going forward.

Uh you know, you you you bring you know again your own knowledge and uh personality and so on to the commission that is uh um that is much needed and uh and I can't thank you for that.

Um can't thank uh a commission.

I mean uh they are like the commission, they are bosses Christina and Brianna for the work that you do.

Um and uh Alexia, you know, um Bonneville says as well and whatnot.

Um Mrs.

She stole she stu literally stole stole the stole the woman from us.

Yeah, but but the work that you all do um as I've constantly expressed to you before.

Um you can do your jobs without me, but I can't do my job without you.

And uh and you do a fabulous and incredible job at that.

And I can't thank you, and I'm and I'm sure I speak for everyone here enough uh for the work that you do and what you bring to not only to to us as a commission, not only to the staff of the city, but uh to the city as a whole and when I and to the great wonderful staff of the city, uh each and every one of you and all of the various departments throughout the city, thank you for the um invaluable and unquantifiable work that you do um for for Sarasota.

You put us on the map um and it's the work that that you provide to the city that that makes Sarasota Sarasota and gives it this identity and gives us a great deal of pride in the work that you do um to our interim city manager, Mr.

Dave Bullock and uh uh Mr.

Doug Jeffko when when uh he was our uh interim city manager, did a great job.

Um can't thank him enough for the for stepping in and and doing the work that he did.

But uh to Mr.

Mr.

Bullock, thank you so very much, man, for the work that you've you've done and uh continue to do.

Um I learned a great deal from you uh each and every day that I'm here you know in the walls of City Hall and look forward to continuing to learn to learn from you as well and to our Swiss Army Knife, um Mr.

Uh Patrick Robinson, uh Deputy City Manager.

That's a good one.

Yeah, exactly.

The utility man and what have you.

Um to be plumber.

Exactly, soon to be plumber, you know.

Plumber Pat.

Um But no, uh again, man, I mean you know, you know, uh and I can't say enough, you know, how much you taught me um and uh kept me out of my own way and a lot of times and whatever.

Um and the work that you do, you know, and the vice mayor expressed that's expressed that enough that um you do a great deal for the city that that a lot of people don't know um and uh behind the scenes and get get things done.

And you know, you know I come to you probably more than anyone, and uh I thank you for the work that you do, honestly.

And to our city attorney uh and our former city's attorney, uh Mr.

Bob Fournier, thank you so very much for the work that you provided for this city for so long and uh keeping us out of our way.

And now that's your job, you know, Mr.

Paul Paul Zach, and thank you so very much um for the work that you've done because you've been in Mr.

Fournier's office for quite some time along with Mr.

Malegnik and um John Shamsy, thank you all so very much for the work that you that you're doing and that you continue to do for the city and we look forward to you uh providing us with the guidance that that we so so need in the um in a lot of times.

But more importantly, happy birthday to Ms.

Ailis Griggs.

You know.

I mean stealing Alexia from us was you know, but uh was one of the best things I've ever done.

No, but yeah, you know, I can't thank you enough, you know, for the work that you not only do for the city, um, but for being the friend that you are to me along with with all of us.

Um, you know, you you're confidant that uh that we all lean heavily on.

Um and we can't can uh express enough thank you.

Um I'm sure I speak for everyone.

So I again I just want to tell tell the city, all the staff, um, the commission and the leadership of the city, um all the residents, um everyone and everyone out there uh listening that uh this is the the greatest city in the United States and the world.

All right.

And uh I uh uh humbly, you know, thank you all for for allowing me to be a commissioner.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I'm gonna turn to former mayor Liz Albert for remarks.

Okay.

I I I didn't repair prepare anything either, but um can I just say ditto to what um what Commissioner Baptiste said, you know, about the staff and everybody.

But um, you know, I I I have to say you all kind of brought tears to my eyes.

I really appreciate the opportunity that you all have given me to serve as the mayor for the last two years, and as Commissioner Batis said, you know, the graciousness for Commissioner Ahern Koch in, you know, I guess putting putting your ego aside or whatever, and being being just as supportive as as she could be.

And um so I you know, I I appreciate all of you, I appreciate working with all of you as well.

You know, it is an interesting mix of people and different skills, but I think every single one of us come to the job with the idea of doing the very best for the city, and I think that's the most important, most important thing.

Um, I I have so many people to thank that, you know, I I don't know that I can go through all of them, but I want to especially mention um Tom Barwin, who was the city manager when I first came.

I learned a lot from him.

Um, you know, certainly Marlon Brown, who I appreciate so much um the job that he did.

Um Doug Jeff Coat for stepping in and um, you know, certainly Dave Bullock, who has just in a short period of time really um gotten a handle on what needed to be done in the city and what we need to do to move the projects forward, and I know his goal is to make sure things are in place so the new city manager, whoever he or she may be, can come in and um be able to step in and things are in good shape and well on their way to you know the the goals and the visions that we have as a commission.

And yes, Pat Robinson, who is the can-do kind of guy and is always always pleasant to be around, always has a good quip, you know.

I I wish I had your sense of humor.

You know, it's like it is a skill, it is a talent uh to be able to do that.

I have zero of that, so I always like seeing somebody who who does, and you know, and our wonderful staff.

Um I tell everybody all the time what a great staff we have here in the city.

I mean, it makes our jobs so easy, you know, especially you know, Christine and Brianna and formerly Alexia, uh, you know, all of our administrative staff who gets us to where we're supposed to be, um, makes coffee for us occasionally if if we need it, and just um the professionalism of everybody in the city.

I I don't know if uh many of the residents, because how would they know that they bring such skill and talent and knowledge to the job and caring for what they do to make our city better?

So, you know, uh we wanted to get out of here by uh by one, so I'm not gonna keep going on and on, but you know, I just appreciate all of you.

I appreciate the uh residents who gave each of us the opportunity to be commissioners, and um what we all wish is that we all do the very best for each and every one of you.

Thank you.

And congratulations to our new mayor and vice mayor.

And uh next on the agenda was other matters administrative, um.

So no statements from well, I just want to say congratulations to everybody and thank you for all the work that you all do, and we really appreciate it.

That's all I have.

And thank thank you too for you.

Congratulations to the new uh mayor and vice mayor.

We look forward to supporting you all in the new year ahead.

Yes.

Happy birthday.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

And the meeting is adjourned.

Oh, he was Dave.

I was just gonna say if it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't be here.

Okay.

Adjourn again.

Your adjourned.

Thank you.