I'd like to welcome you to the January 5th regular city commission meeting, and I am calling it to order.

Uh first we will have the invocation by city auditor and clerk grooks.

Please thank you.

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.

And Vice Mayor, will you lead us in the pledge?

Thank you.

And we are going to have a moment of silence in memory of a city neighborhood activist Barbara Powell Harris, who recently passed away.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And to begin our agenda, are there any changes to the order of the day?

No, Madam Mayor, there are no changes to the order of the day.

Thank you.

May I have a motion to accept the agenda as published?

So moved.

Seven.

Moved by Commissioner Batti, seconded by the Vice Mayor.

Have your vote, please.

And it passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Turning the page.

No problem, Mayor.

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.

Thank you.

And we have four individuals who have requested to speak at this stage of the agenda on items that are not on today's agenda.

If you will all come and join us at the table.

I want to thank all the staff too, especially the special events where we where it all starts with James and Laurie and John and getting our permits and everything and our application so we can do this.

The police, I mean, it's all hands-on deck that night, like I'm sure it is on New Year's Eve.

And Sergeant Luciano, it was his first time kind of uh in control of that, and uh Lieutenant Quinlan was there, and then of course they brought in Lieutenant Schweederman, and then of course Lisa helped us get our FDOT permit so we could close down uh 301 so we could go across the road.

So, and then uh Mr.

Willie Butler and crew, the public works.

So I tell you what, we couldn't do it without them and just what they do, and and uh he was instrumental in and getting doing a little special something for me, which uh didn't take too much time.

Our parks and rec who make sure that we get the trees pruned so the the floats don't hit any tree limbs, and uh so and then I want to I I want to thank my board.

I've got some new board members on uh the board uh this year, and it really worked well for me.

Uh my first two years, I felt like I was doing it myself.

But uh this was actually my ninth year.

It would have been the 10th uh had we had COVID, and we're getting ready to do our 30th uh this year, which would have been last year, but with COVID, we didn't have one.

So we're looking forward to our 30th year.

We're gonna be working on the the uh what's going to be the theme, you know.

It's there's the 30th year, which is the Pearl Year, my tenth year, which is diamonds.

Uh we've got our 250th year of the uh of the United States.

Um there's all kinds of celebrations happening this year, and we want to make it special.

Uh I couldn't do it without our volunteers, and believe it or not, the night of we have right out about 10 volunteers, not including myself, but uh unpaid uh that puts that together and makes it go down Main Street.

And um then uh we had some sponsorships this year.

We've been kind of struggling because when I took it over, my insurance was $400 for the day that I have to get.

Uh this last year I cut a check for $7400.

So uh then we had a new Santa, and I just as as I leave.

This is what it's all about.

Um and this this gentleman, Derek Newberry wrote this, and Ian Swabi uh from The Observer, you might have read it, but this says it all.

He's a Derek Newberry says he has attended holiday parades all over Florida.

However, he said he's never found one, quite like the Sarasota Holiday Parade, uh, which was held along Main Street on December 6th.

It's like real personal.

Newberry said, everybody knows everybody, but it's still like a big city.

Sarasota has got everything a big city has, but it's still homey.

It's a nice city, and however, there were still big things to showcase in the community.

And we had we our theme was celebrate Sarasota, and that's exactly what we wanted to do.

And I don't know if you know this, but we had some judges from the county and circuit clerk that actually did the judging of the floats this year because we celebrate them too.

So thank you all very much for the opportunity to do the parade.

Looking forward to this year.

Thank you very much.

Uh Linda Goulds.

Nothing to add.

Okay, thank you.

And Victor Woods.

You mind if I stand and said, All right?

It's as long as he can hit the microphone.

Yeah, just so thank you for allowing me to speak uh briefly.

How are you doing, Kyle?

Nice to see you.

I need I need you to be in the mic, though.

You have me on the mic.

Yeah, you've got to be in the mic immobility.

Yeah.

Thank you.

There you go.

So the reason I'm here today is to discuss uh Newtown and the noise.

I don't live in Newtown.

I don't want to live in Newtown.

I live in Lakewood Ranch.

I'm from Chicago, I'm a national speaker and published with Simon Schuster, Kevin Hart's turning my life story into a movie.

You can look that up if you want.

The reason that I'm here is some of the people in Newtown have been calling me about the noise, telling me about it.

I've looked at it.

Simple thing.

I go back to Lakewood Ranch.

I live next to doctors, lawyers, people that won the lottery, they don't look like me, they look like most of you.

If I go and play my music loud in my neighborhood, they're gonna call the police.

If I don't turn the music down, I'm gonna go to jail that night.

It's just not tolerated.

This is a problem for the poor.

I've never seen a city where you have so much affluence so close to poor, disproportionate people.

They want their music down.

It's a law enforcement issue.

I also worked with Chief uh Sheriff Wells.

I brought the crime rate down in Palmeadown.

I spit work with law enforcement all over the United States.

And I'll be on TV Wednesday with the Bradington police chief helping with initiatives there.

Just letting you know that what's going on in Newtown is completely unacceptable.

What's good for the white people that live in Sarasota is good for those black people, even though they're poor.

If you don't care about the adults, what about the children that live there?

It's a simple law enforcement issue.

It's not racial profiling.

If people in my neighborhood don't want to slow down with the speed limit, they don't have a choice.

You don't have a choice.

You either when I was downtown across from the Gator Club in a very expensive car.

Police officer came over to me and said, Turn your music down at 12 at night.

I was listening to Frank Sinatra.

I said, You don't like Sinatra?

We both laughed.

I turned the music down.

What's the difference between the people in that neighborhood because they're poor and black, so it's okay for them to have that music.

Between the people in that neighborhood because they're poor and black, so it's okay for them to have that music.

Again, I'm from Lakewood Ranch.

I used to live in the country club where Dick Vitel lives.

I can't do that in my neighborhood.

It's not common sense.

They're poor.

Eventually, what will happen in Sarasota is you will get rid of that whole area and build condos on it and do other things.

That's what we do in all cities.

Every city has this problem.

And then they ask the black people in the neighborhood to patrol it and put police their own area.

Doesn't make any kind of sense.

So I come to you good people.

I heard you recognize the Pledge of Allegiance.

Can the people in Newtown get justice for all?

Just basic common sense.

Turn the music down.

The reason I'm here is because Ronique, wherever she is, I don't know where she is right now.

She's got cancer.

She calls me on the phone every weekend and says I can't sleep after her chemotherapy.

That's why I'm here.

Otherwise I'd be at home watching Sports Center.

I own my own company.

It's a nice place here, but I don't want to be in here.

I have other things to do.

So I love Kyle.

Kyle is my friend.

It's good to see you.

My brother at work.

I've been in his office before.

It's a nice guy.

But thank you for listening to me.

But just common sense.

Law enforcement issue.

And I understand what people are saying.

Oh, if we go in a new town and we pull over young black males, they might have a gun.

They might have drugs in the car, they might have alcohol.

Well, what difference does it make?

When I leave here, I might get racially profiled driving down the street.

Sorry, thank you very much for your statement.

Thank you very much.

I hope I hope that you good people will do something about it.

Well, we need to control the music with the music in Newton.

Well, then I'm gonna leave right now.

Thank you.

Right now.

Mr.

Martinucci.

Okay.

Have a nice day.

Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, and everyone.

On December 1st, 2025, Kelly Brown, the president of CCNA, read my statement concerning the revision uh revision recommendations of the noise ordinance of the City of Sarasota.

The two recommendations were first to establish residential noise zones outside the immediate downtown area, and second to establish city oversight of the Sarasota schools that are within the city limits by eliminating the noise ordinance exemption clause for them.

As a result of that December 1st meeting, my presented statement and the ABC 7 interview with Kelly Brown after the meeting.

Please note that during the November 2025 C CNA meeting, the president of the Arlington Park Neighborhood Association and the President of the Poinsettia Park Neighborhood Association expressed their concerns about the excessively loud stadium PA systems, baseball bad and cage noise, and period bell volume levels that could be heard throughout their neighborhoods, as well as the Alta Vista neighborhood.

On December 19th, 2025, the President of the Avondale Neighborhood Association sent an email to Principal Chase, the City Commissioners, and the Sarasota School Board members concerning the excessive sound and noise issues that exist due to the main stadium PA system, announcement PA system, early morning band practice rehearsals before 7 a.m., amongst other concerns in their neighborhood.

This is all there is also a signed position petition from over 100 Sarasota High School surrounding residents in the Alta Vista and Arlington Park neighborhoods requesting that the volume levels of all of the stadiums be decreased and speakers be redirected so that the sound does not project towards the residences.

Please be aware that now, in addition to all of the current excessive noise issues that the Sarasota High School, that right now Sarasota High School has plans to remove the temporary classrooms and build six new tennis courts and three sand volleyball courts directly behind the residents on Bay Street over the next few months.

Also build a performing arts center adjacent to Tammy Sola Street in 2027 and continue to expand its presence in the city, all of which will generate even more noise.

School administration, school security, uh Sarasota Police Department have all been contacted many times concerning the excessive volume and low uh levels of noise.

However, nothing can be enforced because the schools are exempt from all of the city noise ordinance laws.

The schools need regulatory oversight so that they don't continue to negatively impact the surrounding residents' life's uh quality of life, especially as they continue to expand within the city limits.

Thank you for all of your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Uh we have two additional um people who would like to speak.

Renique Hawkins and Howard Butts, if you'd like to come up to the table.

And I neglected for the first group of speakers to ask to state whether or not you're a city resident and if you're speaking for yourself or someone else.

I'm gonna try to bring him up if that's okay.

Okay.

Um he usually likes me to speak for him.

He can speak for himself.

Uh but he just likes to be present to uh see if it can.

Yeah, thank you.

Is this a good place to say?

Yeah.

As long as you use the mic.

Thank you.

All right.

And you have three minutes.

Yes.

Only three minutes.

How am I gonna do it?

Ah.

I first wanted to say good afternoon to everyone.

Um I did this presentation in support of the can you hear me in support of the noise ordinance?

And I put a photo of Reverend Dupree here, and he's one of our, I believe our first black commissioner.

Um I probably won't read some of this.

Um I started this presentation because it's just my opinion that our one of our black commissioners, Mr.

Backti, I don't want to attack anyone, is is failing this legacy.

The issue in Newtown with the noise ordinance is being seriously ignored.

Um I wanted to actually play something if I can.

Am I allowed to?

Okay.

Very brief.

Should I put it here?

But the sound, you might want to put it closer to the mic.

Okay.

Ma'am, if I may interrupt for a second.

Okay, thank you for the question.

You might allow to attack me.

No person, no tax attacks.

I'm gonna play this because I have uh okay.

The time of this is 2 15 in the morning.

I just want you to.

I don't know if you can actually see that, but law enforcement was actually on the scene of this incident at 2.15.

That's just the time for one.

This is a video of I started of me actually editing.

And I want to know if you can actually hear what is being said here.

It's about anal sex.

So I'll move on.

Okay, okay.

So yeah, just just to show you the the language is horrific, the volume and the situation of the ordinance is really being ignored.

I just had a couple of questions.

Because this is really from a medical standpoint.

So I wanted to know if the city is prepared or does it can it be prepared to pay for the case?

Well, I'll interrupt you.

We cannot answer questions.

Right, I understand.

Is it prepared to cover the expense of medical bills of Newtown's well-documented noise issue?

I don't know how that is uh can that be answered.

Um, but residents like Howard and myself have really suffered from uh reputation, which is really terrible.

Um overall health issues.

Um neither I nor myself had cancer until we moved to Newtown, and it's not genetically tied to either one of us.

So the second question was uh will the body ask the Sarasota police department to enforce the ordinance equally citywide, and also can Sarasota adapt the 65 decibel level citywide and enforce that just like Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.

So that's those are the questions I wanted to ask.

Thank you.

And and Mr.

Butts Well, most of it was he was that I had to talk about it's almost the same thing that she said that I was the same thing that she was going to go.

Okay.

So it's just that uh it would just rough living in in that neighborhood with all that noise and all that record going on.

If he has more time, this is a letter that I presented on his behalf before.

And um would would he Mr.

Butts would you like Ms.

Hawkins to read that letter?

Yes, she can read it.

Okay.

I'm not gonna read all of it.

It's it's it's basically saying that he had uh written the attorney general's office asking for some enforcement.

And the reason why is because when he was sleeping in his house in his bed, he would have to get up and put himself in his wheelchair because he would start choking.

So that was when the height of the noise situation on Thursday, Friday, Saturday night.

We couldn't sleep until about four o'clock in the morning.

So these these little clips here are just tipping the iceberg, basically.

Um behalf of Howard and myself.

This is just a quick statement from the Sarasota Ministerial Association that they're willing to work with the city government uh with the goal of establishing a city sound ordinance enforcement action plan.

Time is of the essence.

So I definitely wanted to work with someone on this.

Um and we're we're kind of almost there.

If we can tie a bow around the issue of especially Newtown, it's concentrated in Newtown.

Everybody knows that.

So you're really not hearing from a lot of citizens.

So you're hearing from it.

Is that 50 minutes?

So you have one more minute.

Okay.

So the citizens like Howard and myself, um, well, Howard are considered the voiceless.

They're they're not gonna make the calls.

They're not gonna meet law enforcement at 3 o'clock in the morning.

They just want relief.

And for years, Newtown has been asking for that.

So we hope that this is the time.

This is a new year, and we're tired of being ignored.

There's been a lot of talk about it.

We're tired of our reputations being challenged.

Um, because we have so much more, especially myself, so much more to offer the community than talking about noise and headaches and chemo and and just the the depreciation of health and his health as well.

So I would like to, I don't know, table this to um put a plan in place and lower the decibel level.

And I definitely want to work with someone on this, so hopefully, Adam Mayor, you're the one hopefully to bring this to a close.

Thank you very much.

Thank you both for coming to speak to us.

Oh dirt bikes.

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is approval of the minutes.

If nobody has any corrections, I would move approval.

Unfortunately, I made a substantive uh correction.

She did.

Oh wow.

I thought it was wow, I can't believe it.

I know, and I'm surprised you did not catch this one.

Because it doesn't happen that often.

So um we do consider this a substantive change um on marker 11.32 a.m.

where the city uh resident Jim Lamp will displayed um on the chambers monitor iPad.

It was during a public comment.

Um we are describing of a city employee.

We got his title wrong.

Mr.

Wayne Appleby is not the um where is it?

Where is it?

It is under iPad from Delray Beach.

Delray Beach item.

Yeah.

And uh 11.3246 a.m.

And we just need to change Wayne Applebee's title.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, wrong place.

I'm wrong one, wrong one, that's the wrong one.

Sorry, I'm sorry.

This is under new business item number twelve um at 340, the direction and sale portion of the property located at John Wingley, changing uh Wayne Appleby's title from we have him as director of homeless services of Sarasota County.

He's not that.

They did see that, and I thought I wondered if we're gonna do it.

We just need to make that correct.

Oh, he actually is so other than that, there everything else was not subject to.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry, it took me a long time.

So uh you made a motion to accept as correct it?

Except as corrected.

Yes.

Uh uh under item 12.

Did we have a second?

Yes.

Seconded by uh Commissioner Alpert.

Uh motion by Commissioner Ahern Koch.

Um we have a vote?

Yes.

And that's passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Uh excuse me.

Uh we're down to item 5.1 uh report under board actions report from the downtown improvement district, their annual update and um fiscal year 2024-25 annual report, and we are going to hear from Mr.

Sugar and I'm blanking on NATS manager Ryan.

Good morning.

Good morning.

So we're here um with the downtown improvement district for the um annual update in the board report.

I have the board chair with us that is going to give you an overview, so I will turn it over to him.

Good, thank you.

Good morning, Mayor Trice, Vice Mayor Ulrich and Commissioners.

My name is Ronnie Sherger, and I serve as chair of the downtown improvement district.

I'm here today to present the board's annual update, including the DID annual report for fiscal year 2024 and 25, as required by state statute.

The report is included in your agenda materials and is also posted on the city's website.

The annual report outlines and projects the initiatives supported by the DID along with financial information and our work plan for both the previous and current fiscal years.

The downtown improvement district, or did is governed by a five-member board of directors.

All board direct members are commercial property owners or representatives of property owners who pay in a district's assessment.

The DID's mission mission is to support a vibrant and competitive downtown Sarasota, one that attracts businesses, employees, residents, and visitors, and to help to ensure downtown remains an exciting and desirable place to live, work, visit, and to invest.

The board generally meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m.

in the Commission chambers.

The DID supports a variety of programs and events that enhances downtown's vitality and appeal.

This includes providing additional funding by for the Bay Runner Trolley, the main street complete streets visioning effort and popular community events such as Fresh Fridays.

The DID also hosts an annual light up the night celebration and helps enhance a downtown environment through holiday lighting, landscaping, hanging flower baskets, and support for the maintenance and cleaning of downtown sidewalks and alleyways.

In addition, the DID supports local businesses through marketing and promotional efforts, including an online merchant directory, social media promotion, and special campaigns such as Black Friday, all aimed at increasing foot traffic and strengthening downtown's economy.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Commissioners.

Commissioner Aheron Kotch.

Yes, hi.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation and thank you for your service on this board.

The Black Friday event was the first one that I believe the DID has held.

Do we have any understanding of its success or any measurable data that you have from that event?

We do.

We had about 40 downtown merchants participate.

It was the first event that we did have.

That about 50% more traffic was pulled on Friday and Saturday.

There are definitely some things we can do better to make it more of a weekend event.

But overall, we were very happy with the success that we had.

We did get some very positive information from the merchants and the downtown people.

Personally speaking, we had uh because I'm located uh in Nerdmark and we had a fire engine outside.

Uh we had a lot of people visiting because we had a lot of kids on the outside, we're handing out candies and uh Susan North from North Star Jewelry did a wonderful job in coordinating and helping with everyone in that area.

Uh for other other businesses did very, very well having an increased uh traffic uh uh walking in that territory in that area.

So we're very pleased with the first year.

Nice, excellent.

Um I wanted to ask about the Fresh Fridays.

Um in the backup material that talks about 2,000 attendees benefiting local businesses through increased foot traffic.

Um now we're in, I don't know what year it is, six years, year six five of Fresh Fridays.

Do we have any substantial data on that?

You know, the the business's increase, X amount, which businesses increase, um, are more businesses staying open late, etc.

etc.

etc.

Yeah, we haven't done a full analysis.

Um we did get some new software through the special events um team this year.

Um it's called PACER AI that we are able to go back and track, so that's why we are able to um get numbers of how many people attend the events.

We can see where they visited before, where they visited after.

We haven't gone back for the full five years and have done that yet, but we can see throughout the history when we do have a black uh Fresh Friday event, it is the most people are in the downtown during that time frame.

And we do see the most businesses get those people.

Um we are still working to try with the merchants to stay open longer.

It's a little bit more difficult because we don't get as much foot traffic down Main Street to get some of the merchants to stay open longer.

But it is something that we are working towards.

So we will have some numbers eventually on which businesses are benefiting, whether it's restaurants, whether it's you know, shops, where the end of proximity to the event and all that kind of things.

I have it um month to month.

I don't have a five-year history of it, but I do have I do do a report after each event.

Right.

Um so I do have it from starting um when we got the software in October, so I have that October and November, and I will have one for the um light of the tree that we just have.

Excellent.

Thank you.

And then my other question has to do with the trolley I saw in your report.

Um, when it says attained results, it says the Bay Trolley, you know, connecting downtown uh Sarasota to St.

Armand's Circle and Leto Key.

Um you all support that with $50,000 a year every single year.

Is that something that you're willing to continue to keep doing?

Do you see the benefit of it?

Or should the city start looking elsewhere for that, those funds?

I know you'd probably rather have the funds, but based on information and data, do you have data to support the fact that this does increase and help the businesses on St.

Armand's, which is not your purview, but actually in downtown Sarasota?

I don't think we have direct correlation data.

We have the numbers from the trolley that the number one stops for the trolley are within the DID.

Um so do can we say with 100% certainty that the merchants directly benefit from it?

I don't know.

Do I think that there is a benefit to the district?

Yes.

Um obviously from a board's perspective, could those funds be used for other things?

Of course.

Um it's when the board sits and puts down their their plans for the next following year, you know, what are the other priorities and initiatives they they want.

Um it is one thing that again we are trying to get more substantial data as far as direct benefits, but there is no doubt that the trolley does definitely you know bring people to and from the biggest stops for the trolley are within the district.

Right.

So I mean, if you could eventually get there with the data, and for example, we spend, let's just throw the number out there, a million dollars on the trolley.

Um, and if you feel like your percentage of benefit in increased business is 10%, then maybe 10% is what you can do.

Um you can talk about that number 50,000.

I mean, I think it's important that you all, if you're contributing to it, that you understand what the benefit is to the actual businesses, that's the point of it.

Correct.

Um, if it's uh a tourist attraction, which it seems to be as well, you know, we should be discussing that that part of it and its contribution and what it serves for the the residents and the visitors and the people who work, because I know there are a portion of people who work out on the islands who do take it and use it for transportation.

Um just whatever role you could play in helping the city get actual information about who's using it, when they're using it, and why they're using it would be I think very helpful to all of us.

Thank you for everything that you do, and uh uh happy new year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The vice mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your presentation today.

And would you convey to all the board members we appreciate their service to the DID and to our community at large?

Um I must say the downtown has looked magical during the holidays.

Thank you for that.

And the Fresh Fridays, wow, our city is so vibrant on the Fresh Fridays.

So the DID was started in 2008.

Downtown looked a lot different in 2008 than it does today.

I'm wondering if there's been any consideration for a number of things.

Changing the boundaries, having different categories of membership.

I know the DISCA has different categories of membership as well as the Rosemary District Association does.

And so has there been any discussion or consideration of that at the DID?

There has.

Thank you.

And the last thing, I know you have to have a strategic plan, but I'd like to commend you for working toward accomplishing it.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay.

Thank you.

Commissioner Batti.

First of all, happy new year to you both and you know to the board.

And uh again, thank you for your service and uh you know what you bring, you know, to to the board and to downtown, you know, in general.

Um you were talking about the expanding the boundary or what have you.

And it ends at Goodridge?

It does.

Okay.

And what in because I know you know certain individuals have property, you know, further, you know, outside the boundary, like going toward 301.

That that wouldn't be a benefit to sort of expand it like down, you know, that that that bar or what have you.

It it's not that it wouldn't be a benefit, it's the cost benefit versus the services that would have to be provided versus the amount of revenue that would be in is number one.

Number two, remember it the ability those property own owners would have to voluntarily want to be within the district.

Um and again, the board at the time, and again, this was probably about a year ago that they had the discussion, um, expanding it that far up, they did feel like they would be diluting the core of downtown by doing that.

Now, again, it doesn't mean that the discussions wouldn't continue in the future, especially as Upper Maine continues to grow.

And I think a lot of the decisions in the past have been not that it was necessarily a dead zone, but it didn't have the vibrancy of downtown.

But I think as that grows that that might be a more viable solution.

Well, I know like in the uh early 2000s, that was downtown when I, you know, um, and that's where all the activity and and you know, all the vibrancy of downtown was.

You know, what one of the things that you know we're talking about is trying to gain empirical data, you know, or you know, evidence or information regarding you know how this benefits, you know, who it benefits and and so on, be it the trolley or or be it Black Friday or or uh Fresh Friday or whatever.

The you know, outside of say someone like like Mr.

Sugar, who is you know, graces of life, the amount of investment that he has in downtown and and uh the efforts that he's made to to try and bring you know vibrancy or whatever.

I wanted to know because when we start getting into the whole thing of uh, you know, the the downtown master plan and streetscape and so on and so forth, um, I know myself that I I will be reaching out to the property owners such as yourself, Mr.

Sugar, or whatever, because I don't understand how we're here talking about the DID and those increment taxes, you know, are basically related to the the actual property owners down there, how the property owners are not a part of the conversation of what's what's happening and what not at the table.

You know, we have this ad hoc committee, but I think the property owners need to be there.

And is there any way for the DID?

I don't know whether that's uh a city question or did question or whatever, what we can do to recruit, increase or what have you more merchants downtown, you know, there's no reason why, because I'm gonna tell you now, as someone who is an avid patron of downtown, like literally like every day.

And Mr.

Sugar can attest to this.

Um during the holidays, yeah, they have families down here because they're going to you know to the restaurants and so on.

It's not really any place for them to shop.

You know, it is it's it's dead down here.

You come down here on Christmas Eve, everybody's out at Bendison, you know, they're uh out at the mall.

What can we do to try and and recruit or bring in merchants or or what have you?

I don't know whether not this is talking to the property owners or or what, you know, to create uh uh uh uh uh a more shopping experience downtown as opposed to we always talk about downtown not being inundated and littered with bars and restaurants.

You know, what can we do to bring you know merchants and so on?

Well, thank you very much, Mr.

Batina.

I'll answer that.

Um the DID has a limited budget, and if you take a look at our financials, our our our funds are truly allocated throughout the year with really just minimum of what we're able to do in marketing outside of our our our expense, really our largest expenses are our are our basket, our our flower baskets and what we need to get for the city and our and our uh interest payments.

Uh to be really when we talk about inclusive within the city, it's not just in our opinion that as a board, not just a commercial, but the residential that the residents that benefit from this, right?

This is all how how does it benefit downtown?

And within the DID district uh borders, there are several high-rise condominium complexes that all these residents do they they do benefit from what we're doing.

Uh if as you say, if you want if we if the DID wants a larger a larger responsibility to drive awareness and a fun factor downtown, uh additional funds are needed for us to to market this properly.

Um and that's my background as how how do we market it.

We just don't have enough funds for that.

So either we raise the the tax or we include additional inclusional tax uh tax revenue.

Um I would be one to say that if if you're a downtown, if you're a resident, you're in you're enjoying all the things that that the commercial owners are are trying to enjoy.

And why is it why is it only the the commercial owners uh why why is it only left for them?

Uh I think it it would be inclusive and fair and and equitable that the um that there would be a small as there is an ad velorum tax for commercial owners, the same thing should be if you're a downtown resident within the DID board, district that you you have that additional uh small tax.

That would double or triple our revenue uh to create really a truly great city uh and an awareness downtown because a majority if you take a look at our financials, the majority of our funds are already spoken for.

And we only have a very limited amount of funds to go out to to help uh the the commercial businesses.

And I would like to see if we could have something to that effect and take a look at that uh possibility.

You know, I uh I can uh you know think that that would be you know reasonable you know idea, you know, to to look at or request because you know, to your point, everyone benefits, you know, from from you know what's big the activity and so on that goes on downtown, you know, um not just the merchants and and commercially or whatever, all of the the residents that live downtown and then so on.

I can uh you know think that that would be you know reasonable you know idea you know to to to look at or request um because you know to your point everyone benefits you know from from you know what's big the activity and so on that goes on downtown you know um not just the merchants and and commercially whatever all of the the the residents that live downtown and then so on so the say individuals or uh companies or whomever that own you know property or developers that own buildings they they participate in the funding of uh no they do not only commercial ownership and this is and that and that and then you know to your point right you know they get it on record you know that you know why why shouldn't they or what have you if they all benefit from it matter of fact that's why they're building there you know so that the people that live there can benefit and enjoy downtown and whatnot they're going to engage just like everyone else so so why not um but uh I think that is something that that should be looked at um and looked into and investigated so um again thank you all very much you know thank you um Mr.

Donato and you know Mr.

Kaufman and uh people like yourselves that that uh own property down there that are doing everything possible to to keep with the uh your vision statement and mission statement of making downtown vibrant um and that is successful and that we continue to uh grow and evolve you know as the city grows and evolve so thank you very much appreciate thank you for the report as well I I will just wanted to say as far as you mentioned the master plan um we do have a did board member that does sit on the master plan committee um the board is very much involved in it um so that we do play a uh you know the board will play a role as that committee gets further along and we are represented on that board and the commercial property members are represented on that board.

Yeah right so but thank you again I appreciate it and thank you for that information.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Alper do you have anything before we go to second round?

Okay I have a couple of things one uh in terms of fresh Fridays I was downtown the Friday after Fresh Friday and I said where did all these people come from so I'm wondering have you noticed spillover as a result of Fresh Fridays?

Yes.

So it's building business at other times.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And and I guess you you just implied that you just started having measurements so I'm hoping we're gonna see more of that information in the future.

Correct.

So then the other thing that I was wondering about uh and I guess Mr.

Sugar are there other potential joint did city initiatives that you're discussing and you would you know considering bringing forward to the city.

We are uh we we are and I think um we will have something available in the next yeah we have an upcoming workshop on the 8th um the board typically um within the first uh this the beginning of the new calendar year especially when new board members um have been seated they have a workshop that plans out you know what are some of their initiatives and what plants they want to put into place um and it would be during that workshop that they would start to um come up with some of those um items as well as as we know the budget process starts over again and some of those conversations start to happen so yes there will be more stuff forthcoming and if I may just as as a close to compliment Julia on on on her leadership of uh with the DID um it's great to see especially in the last two years how many people come up to me or to my restaurant um after um fresh fridays and they're from St.

Pete they're from Tampa they come up from Naples they've heard about our Fresh Fridays and people are starting to make this a destination and which is great.

It's great for our restaurants it's great for our other shops it's great for our hotel industry here because people come up not just for for the day they stay the night and I think it's just going to be a continuation.

And I think the trolley is great because people come here for the weekend they use that trolley they go down to uh they go down to San Armand to go down to Leto and I think it's just it's a cause and effect um and it's but it was a wonderful I was prior to me being here but that trolley I think is truly great um and I think it's a a wonderful benefit to the city of of Sarasota and it makes me proud when we see people at at the um I know you've all been there on the front on Fridays uh when we have this event and people are just as ecstatic of it and it's a nice event and the police do a wonderful job and everyone just really enjoys it.

And it's really a pleasure to see that we are becoming more noticed and then we're becoming more of a destination than just something that people come up here just for a couple hours.

They're looking forward to it.

So, congratulations to everyone on the commission that's really taken the city and to really taking it to a uh a greater heights, and it's for me being an outsider seeing it for the last five years.

It's been a wonderful experience working here and and seeing people with vision and understanding how beautiful the city is and where it's going to go to.

Thank you.

Now I have one question specifically for Ms.

Ryan, um, and it's regarding your office.

Uh there was discussion here, questions here about expanding the boundaries of the DID, and you were saying, well, it's important to have the focus on the area.

So my question is has there been any discussion in your office about encouraging or investigating the creation of some other business districts, whether it's Upper Main, Rosemary, whatever.

Um briefly, there has been.

Um it was suggested again early on by the board.

Uh, like I said, I think the DID talked about um expanding the district, and then their suggestion was that Upper Maine should be a separate district.

Um, you know, I've been with the city now about three and a half years, and during that time there have been various conversations.

Um, no full direction yet as far as what actually to explore, but there is data out there, and there has been again discussion on and off throughout the board.

Um different boards at different times could want different things.

Um again, the discussion is always there, um, but no formal action has been taken.

Okay.

And and have you heard anything from um commercial property owners in other areas saying, gee, maybe we need a business district.

I personally have not thank you.

Thank you.

Um and Commissioner Ahern Kotch, your next second round.

Oh, I was just going to um say the about um Ms.

Volker on the um the downtown ad hoc committee as the representative from but also I just wanted uh you reminded me of something else was the legacy business program.

I know it's a citywide legacy business program, but perhaps you all could have a discussion about promoting those legacy businesses that are within your district.

We have to give them a little boost too.

And encourage them to um to fill out the you know the application.

It's not that big of a deal, and you know, the more people that participate the the more special it becomes and more valuable it becomes.

So we're gonna bring that on Thursday.

Yes.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Batchy.

Yeah, sorry, thank you, Mayor.

I just had one more, and that was I know that that um uh that's put on by Mr.

Soto, the uh New Year's Eve festival and so on.

Um but then with Fresh Ride.

Do you all have any like numbers in terms of like how many people participate in these things, or whatever how many people come down and or whatever.

We we can usually pull the numbers a week later.

Oh, a week later.

The data is usually available a weekly.

Okay, it's usually two to three thousand people coming back for the event.

Okay, yeah.

All right, excellent, beautiful.

Uh that's it.

Thank you very much again.

Thank you very much.

Have a good day.

Thank you.

Commissioners, any other questions, comments?

Uh thank you.

Um so I will entertain a motion to accept the uh did's board report and annual report if there's another.

Second.

Okay, moved by Commissioner Alpert, seconded by Commissioner Batti.

And your votes, please.

And it's unanimous.

Thank you.

Five zero.

Um, and now we move on to our next item uh was the employee retirement account committee report.

And um the presenter is the chair of that committee, then Billingsleep.

And I've also uh asked my pension administrator, Deborah Martin to also come if we're any questions that may come.

Thank you both.

Good morning and happy new year.

Um so I am Ben Bellingsley, I'm the newly appointed board chair for the employee retirement account committee.

Um so the employee retirement account committee, also known as the ERAC was established by ordinance section 24-133 on September 7th of 2011, alongside the creation of the General Employees 4018 defined contribute contribution plan, otherwise known as the DC plan.

The purpose of the ERAC is to oversee the DC plan's investment offerings and fiduciary responsibilities.

Our consultant is currently Mr.

Howard Dare, principal of Dare Capital Group, who provides the board with performance monitoring, fund suitability analysis, fee of reviews, and recommendations.

The current status of the DC plan is closed to new participants as of December 1st of 2021 when the city joined the Florida retirement system, otherwise known as FRS.

Participants at that time had the option to remain in the DC plan or join FRS.

So we currently have 170 uh roughly active members who are current employees, of which 40 of those are unvested, meaning they have not hit their five years of service with the City of Sarasota, with roughly 500 total participants, including active separated and retired employees.

The plan is uh administered by Corbridge Financial Retirement Services, formally valued as our third-party record keeper.

Uh plan participants do have access to their accounts and support via their phone, secure online portal, or meeting with our on-site financial advisor bi-weekly, Mr.

Trent Harris.

Uh it's important to note as well that there is no cost to the City for Core Bridges services to participants.

Uh so with that, we'll open it up to any questions that you all may have.

Thank you.

And uh something came up, I see.

Okay.

Right now you have um Vice Mayor put her hand up, but I'll come look at your screen.

Oh, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um our agenda request format says there are five members of the committee.

Ms.

Griggs.

Um the finance director.

Yes.

You, who are the other two members of the committee?

Uh Alexia and Lauren.

Um not sure off the top of my head where they're located in the city.

My office.

Thank you.

Thanks.

That was my only question.

Uh it's not working.

So any hands raised hands to anybody.

I'll just uh Commissioner Aaron Codge.

Um yes, thank you.

Thank you for serving on this, and um really appreciate what you do.

Uh you know, I've been to a handful of them, I must say I get pretty lost in the discussion and try to follow along and figure it all out.

I always learn something, but there's a whole lot going over my head.

So but thank you all for doing it because um you know it's it's really important that we have people that are dedicated to paying attention and reading through all those materials and and uh attending the meetings.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

I have uh couple of sort of well, you said that there are 170 active employees, and I'm gathering those are the ones who chose not to switch to FRS.

Yes.

Okay.

And I wasn't quite sure whether those 40 that are unvested are a subset of that 70, or they're an additional 40 who are unvested.

They're included in that 170 active, current active members.

Okay, so I guess my confusion is they're unvested because they haven't been in the plan for at least five years, but if they couldn't join the plan after 2011.

They couldn't join the plan after 2021 when the city joined FRS.

So we won't have any unvested members as of about December of this year.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And um are there employees who have accounts in the ERAC who also are part of FRS?

So they started under the original plan and then when FRS started, they kept their money in the uh retirement account.

But they also started FRS.

Yes, and as long as they are they provide service to the city of Sarasota, it doesn't have to do with how long they were in the DC plan.

If they're here for five years, then they will vest in whatever they accrued in their contributions from the city.

So yes.

So if they chose to, could they roll over from the DC plan into FRS, or is that not possible?

Not while they're not while they're with the city.

Okay.

Okay.

Just curious.

Thank you very much.

Does anybody else have any questions?

No.

Well, thank you very much for your report, and I will entertain a motion to accept the employee retirement account committee report annual report.

So moved.

Second.

Okay, moved by Commissioner A.

Hearn Kotch and seconded by Commissioner Bad T.

May we have your votes.

So looks like a vote is unanimous, 5-0.

Thank you all.

And at this point, we're going to recess from the Commission meeting and convene into a special session of the community redevelopment agency.

And I will just be official there.

And so we're now in the special Sarasota Community Redevelopment Agency meeting.

And we have the minutes of the December 1st 2025 CRA meeting.

Are there any change?

I would move approval of the minutes.

Thank you.

We got a motion from Commissioner Ahern Koch and a second from Commissioner Bad T to accept the minutes and your votes.

Okay.

And it's unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Moving along, the next item is a report from the Newtown Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board regarding R.L.

Taylor Public Art Mural.

And I'm calling upon and will get your title right.

And I guess we're going to hear from uh Ms.

Galant.

I also had uh board members Shelley and Yancey on the list, but I guess it's Appleby and Gallant today.

Good morning.

Wayne Appleby Economic Development Manager for the City.

Some some titles you never lose, apparently.

Thank you, Wayne.

But uh appreciate uh mayor and commissioners being here today.

First of all, let me pass uh my sincere regrets from Dr.

Shelley, who uh woke up ill this morning uh but had uh all intentions of being here and doing the report.

And so uh please, as as we speak, add her level of passion uh and commitment to the issue that we may not carry as eloquent as Dr.

Shelley would.

So um just just to open up, the Newtown CRA advisory board spent 2025 uh working on a plan to um have a new Taste of New Town event in November, which they held as their first annual.

And as part of that discussion, uh led into the idea of establishing a public art mural at RL Taylor in in Newtown.

And um and there were a couple of community meetings around that.

And at the November 19th meeting, the Newtown CRA voted unanimously to formally request the uh City Commission as the owner of the building and a significant building in the heart of Newtown and and in this city's um assets uh to ask you as the owners uh to uh approve the process of starting uh to request a public art mural on R.

L.

Taylor.

Um sitting as the CRA.

So we're giving a board report as the CRA, and we would ask you at the conclusion of this to accept our report.

If you choose to uh approve uh after hearing the information, uh the process to begin the public art process.

The first item on consent is there.

You if you are in agreement with that, you could just leave that in vote in consent.

Uh if you do not wish to pursue a public art mural on our tailor, then of course that item would need to be pulled.

Um at this point, um, I'm going to let uh Rochelle Gallant introduce herself and and talk a little bit about uh the concept of the project that was held in the community and at the CRA.

Good morning, Rochelle Gallant for the record business relations coordinator.

This is a community mural that's intended to celebrate the history, the culture, and the resilience of New Town as a community.

As such, it will reflect the past, present, and future of this of the community by establishing a visual landmark that will reinforce community pride.

Um it will have a key component being community engagement, similar to the successful community paint day at Arlington Park, wherein a community artist will be selected and encourage the community to invite the community to participate in completing portions of the mural.

This approach will build local ownership as well as provide hands-on arts education and strengthen community connection to this space.

If this is approved, the NCRA advisory board will issue a formal call for artists developed in collaboration with the public art plan and public art program.

And just to conclude, if I could just have the L Mom for a minute, this is the particular wall that the community and the CRA had discussed in their meetings in 2025.

This would be the west side of R.

L.

Taylor again, visibility to 301 was uh the primary uh purpose for that.

And so again, um that really represents the request of the CRA.

Uh we're here to answer any questions.

Um again, we appreciate accepting the report and then ultimately whatever decision you decide on the first item on consent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And first questions are coming from Commissioner Ahern Cons.

Thank you.

Thank you for your presentation.

How many square feet um does that comprise uh separately and together?

And do they want both or just one or or the other?

I'll see.

I don't know.

And I'm not sure that it's really been that defined yet.

Um that is the particular area.

But uh besides the the purpose and as Ms.

Collant designed what it may look like.

Uh that would be work with the community and the artists uh that are selected as to how much of that wall is used.

Uh I suspect it may not go all the way to the top of the roof, and so that's that's really yet to be determined on the I was just curious.

I I was just curious because you put in here the cost of $30 a square foot, and so I didn't know if you had a budget and it When we drafted the the what you see in your packet as the draft call for artists, we did um spend a little bit of time or some time with our public art administrator just gauging how this is generally put together and um based on her experience um that is the standard rate to offer.

So that was why we we knew that much at least would be part of we had that definite uh data is to include in there.

Okay.

I was just trying to get an idea of both both walls are I don't know, 500 square feet.

That's the max we're gonna do, and then maybe the budget right.

So the CRA the CRA does have a budget for this, um but the plan is also to pursue this in conjunction with the public art program.

And if that is approved through the public art committee, then some funding would come from the public art program.

And the other concept that had been discussed is much like was done in Arlington Park where there was community participation, you know, with the artist.

Uh again, why we didn't necessarily envision perhaps the the mural would go all the way to the roof.

Obviously, the community would only paint at the at the ground level uh for safety and liability reasons.

But um so I think all of that is yet to be determined.

Uh that was a number that public art has provided to us, and we felt between the CRA and the public art, if we come together, both through the CRA plan and the public art plan, and we both contribute to it, we have enough funding to do the project, however it's ultimately designed to be.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um, I must say that the public art, the public's participation in the public art at Arlington Park was just so invigorating and everybody loved it.

So I'm sure the same will happen here if it's approved.

To me, this seems a little complex in terms of approval and funding.

So could you just summarize who has to approve and who is financing?

Sure.

So first of all, we're here today uh ultimately to ask the city commissioner as the owners of the building, uh, whether you will allow us to proceed with the process.

If if that answer is no, there'll be no more discussions.

If you all approve it going forward, then the newtown CRA will make application to the public art committee and follow their process, which also involves community engagement and selection of the artist and and concepts and all of that.

Um I think again, between um the CRA's funding uh and the and the public art funding, we have uh enough funding in place.

Uh I hesitate to say exactly how much because I don't want the bid to come in exactly what I say.

Um so but we believe that we have uh funding in both parts to be able to fund the project.

Um the public art committee will, if we follow that process, once you have approved it today, it will be their process to approve the mural.

Uh with that comes, of course, um uh funds for maintaining the murals.

So that cost is not placed on the parks and rec department.

The cost of maintaining the mural is with the public art committee.

If we don't work with them, then we have to cover that in another way.

So that's our advantage to work with the public art committee is for that as well.

So the if if you approve it today, the uh then the public art committee will have the approval.

Got it.

Thank you.

Okay.

I don't see any other requests.

I have a couple of questions, and I did not drive up there to figure out which walls are you talking about.

And when there are events in the park there, is that the stage area?

Yes.

Or is the stage area on the other side of that the yellow wall that was in the picture is at the stage area.

Blue wall would be to the side of the stage area.

Elma, please.

One of the thoughts that we had is that Miles, if there is an event, and for any reason, if the mural, if you do choose the yellow model, there is an event, there could be pipe and drape to cover the mural if that was necessary for an event.

Okay.

But yeah, so when there's an event, the mural will be especially prominent.

Prominence the LED.

Thanks yellow well selected.

Great, thank you.

And my other question was will it be legal, possible or whatever, for individuals in the community to donate funds toward this public art?

That's a good question.

I'll have to I'll have to get an answer to that question.

I'm not sure how the public art fund is managed and their ability to take donations.

That's probably a more of a finance question.

Well, when we're further along in the process, you'll have that answer.

We will.

We will.

The mayor, the answer is always yes.

Always take money.

We can find a way.

Or find a way.

Thank you very much.

Are there any other questions?

Well, then I will thank you for your presentation, and I will accept a motion to accept the advisory board report.

So moved.

Yeah.

Okay.

Second.

Moved by Commissioner Batti, seconded by Commissioner A.

Heron Koch.

We have a vote.

And it's unanimous.

Thank you very much.

And we will adjourn the CRA meeting and resume the City Commission meeting.

And we are at consent agenda number one.

Are there any items to be pulled?

Commissioner Aaron Kotch requested to pull item 6.9.

And that is the only item I'm aware of to be pulled.

Okay.

So I don't see anybody signed up to speak.

So may I have a motion to approve the balance of consent agenda number one minus number nine.

So moved.

Okay.

Moved by Commissioner Batti and second by uh Commissioner Alpert.

And may you have your vote.

And it is unanimous.

Thank you very much.

And so now we have item 6.9.

And Commissioner Ahern Kotch requested that that be pulled.

So I just requested that this item be pulled for a very short and impromptu presentation for the community.

Good morning, Madam Mayor.

Vice Mayor, Commissioners Vernhall, Utility Director.

And with me is Tyler Stargil from Ferguson, who will bail me out if I get into too much trouble.

This is actually the final step in a four-step process.

The Commission has previously approved the purchase of the new automated meter infrastructure or AMI meters.

And they will replace the existing automated meter reading AMR meters that we have currently in the system.

The Commission has also approved the meter boxes purchase of the meter boxes, which will allow us to leverage the full capabilities of these new AMI meters.

The Commission has previously approved the contractor who will come in and actually conduct the meter replacement process with utility staff supervision.

This request before you today is for a network as a service agreement with Ferguson that they will come in and actually construct the infrastructure for a network that will allow us to remotely read the new AMI meters.

The current AMR meters are read by driving by in a properly equipped vehicle to gather those readings.

The new process can be we can utilize that existing technology with the drive-by, but we also will have the ability once the network is constructed and fully functional to read those meters remotely.

So that will allow greater interface and efficiency in our billing process.

It will also allow the utility to set limits so that if there's unusual usage out there, we will see it and we'll get an alarm.

It will also help us identify leaks in the system.

And as Vice Mayor, you've seen in my office that display of pressure readings that go throughout the system.

This is yet another system on top of those pressure readings that will allow us to pinpoint if there's an actual break.

And an additional benefit once this system is up and fully functional, the individual customers will be able to set up alarms on their system so that, for instance, if they're going out of town on vacation and they know there's no water going to be used, they can set a limit that says, hey, if I get more than 20 gallons of usage, send me an alarm.

So they'll know something's going on at my house, they can call the utility and say, hey, can somebody I think I have a leak, something, we can go out and investigate that.

So that's the advantage of what this metering system will allow us and the customers to do.

Commissioner Aaron Codge.

Yes, thank you so much for that uh presentation.

I know the community really appreciates us uh trying to do everything we can to be more efficient, not only to save uh time and money, but also to save water.

When there is a leak, I mean, those are the things that we hear about.

People don't know it, people don't know it, we don't know it until it's kind of too late.

And this is being proactive and working ahead of that, and I think it's um, you know, a great value to our community to understand exactly uh the time and effort that um you all are putting into uh moving us, you know, right ahead of and with technology so that we can better serve them.

So thank you very much.

And we've been working with Jen Thornberg and her group to put little press releases out there so that when this actually happens and you have these strangers driving through your neighborhoods, you'll know exactly what's going on.

They'll know what route is being worked on, so there shouldn't be any surprises.

And there'll be a number to call with the contractor if they have any issues, any problems, the contractor will address them.

I think outreach is really, really important.

It's probably not one of the um sexier topics for people to be reading about, but it's I think it's one that when when there's a problem, we hear about it, and we don't hear about it until there is a problem.

That is your world.

And um, and so I think the more we can educate and get this information out, which is why one of the reasons I pulled it, was to have you know a little bit of discussion about it on the record so that the four people that are listening will know what we're doing.

So thank you very much, and uh I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor.

So just to be clear, are you saying that this will help us identify leaks earlier?

That somebody who typically has a hundred dollar water bill won't be surprised with uh $7,000 water bill because of a leak that nobody knew about.

Yes, ma'am.

That's that's the intent is to get those early warnings so that we can be proactive and go out and find out what's going on there.

That's great.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh Commissioner Batti.

Uh yes, uh, thank you very much, and thank you, uh Commissioner Ann Clash for pulling this item and to get it for getting that information out there because it's important that uh that you know our residents and and uh you know citizens know that there's a correlation between us saving money, them saving money, and uh us you know furthering our initiative be a smart city.

So um I just wanted to say thank you.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Uh and so I'm really thrilled with hearing how you know that it will be much more efficient and effective in the monitoring and ultimately more control by our residents.

Uh, just curious, after all of this is fully implemented, do you anticipate having staff reductions as a result of not having to do drive by?

No, ma'am.

What we'll do with the staff, we have two people who do the meter reading.

What we'll do is repurpose them, and they will be doing more meter maintenance.

So responding to those leaks.

Um, if we have errors, we we'll know, and those individuals will be repurposed to go out and deal with those issues.

Make sure if we don't get a read, there's something wrong with the antenna, those sorts of things.

So they'll be doing more maintenance activities than the actual reading.

Sounds like upgrading their jobs.

Well, they they they do some of that now in conjunction with the reading, but the reading portion will go away and they'll just be more focused on the maintenance side.

Uh motion to approve.

Move approval of item uh six point nine.

Okay.

Move by Commissioner A.

Hearn Koch, seconded by Commissioner Batti.

Uh, your votes, please.

Um it passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Uh and uh before we start, uh, consent number two, let us take a fifteen minute break.

Uh, so I have that it is uh ten twenty, so let's be back by ten thirty-five.

Thank you, Mary.

The January 5th, 2026, uh City Commission meeting is back in session.

And when we had our break, we were about to start consent agenda number two.

Um are there any items to be pulled?

I am not aware of any items to be pulled.

Wow.

Okay.

Would you please read the titles of those items?

Thank you, Mayor.

Resolution number 26 R 3370, a resolution of the City Commission of the City of Sarasota, Florida authorizing the execution by the mayor and actation by the city auditor and clerk on behalf of the city of Sarasota of the State of Florida Department of Transportation Public Transportation Grant Agreement for expenses associated with providing public transportation along State Road Seven Eighty-Nine Quarter, providing for reading of this resolution by title only and providing for an effective date.

So move.

Okay.

Move by com Vice Mayor Ulrich, seconded by Commissioner Ahern Koch.

Shall we vote?

Yeah, this will also be roll call.

Please hit your buttons.

Aaron Kotch?

Yes.

Alpert?

Yes.

That's E.

Yes.

Ulrich?

Yes.

Trice.

Yes.

And that passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

And we are now up to board appointments.

We have two sets of board appointments to make today.

The first one is dealing with the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, which is the new City of Sarasota entity of that committee.

And we have five people who put in applications for four positions.

And I think it would be a good idea to call down Cindy Imshaw if you all have any questions regarding this board as well, just in case she can impede the bundle those.

Ms.

M.

Schaub is going to join us.

She is the develop the general manager of the Office of Housing and Community Development, and she has been a leader in the joint city county AHAC until now.

So thank you.

Good morning, Mayor, Commissioners.

Again, Cindy Emshaft, General Manager of the Office of Housing and Community Development.

So the county is going to administer their portion of the ship funding, and we administer ours.

We are welcoming them to join us, but we do need to make sure that we have at least eight members of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and an elected official serving on.

So we already had four members, and then we received five applications thus far.

Four of them are filling new categories, and the latest application will be a duplication of another category.

Okay.

Is it appropriate for me to ask a question of Ms.

Emshaw?

Does anybody okay?

I see several do.

So Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

So our agenda request form says we currently have four members, and the committee may have at least eight, but no more than eleven.

Why did we decide on four, not five appointees?

Only because four had the previously applied.

And now we have received a fifth one.

I see.

So I see nine an odd number as a better number for a board than an even number of eight.

Okay.

Ms.

Commissioner Aaron Koch.

That was my question was are we allowed to appoint all five?

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

My question is, how important is it that a member actually be a resident or someone who works in the city of Sarasota as opposed to being a county resident?

Because we have two applicants who are not city residents.

So how important is it that they are city residents?

I did confirm with the Florida Housing Coalition, and the statute requires that one person be a resident of the City of Sarasota.

And with the approval of our ordinance, we're trying to make it as open as possible so that we can get the best composition of members.

We ask that they either are residents of the City of Sarasota, that they are working in a business within the city limits, or that their business does business within the city limits.

So we want to entertain as many applications as possible from the best pool of candidates.

Now what if one of those applicants meets none of those criteria?

Then they wouldn't be eligible.

Well, that's why I'm following up.

So I notice that the list of criteria says actively engaged.

And some of the applicants are not actively engaged.

So that was why I was wondering.

My question to I have I have a question actually regarding this.

Isn't it still a little up to the commission's discretion know whether they appoint someone who is outside of the city limits?

Is it still up to the community?

They don't necessarily have to do that.

And I think that whether they're a city or not city is up to the commission.

It's not some sort of statutory requirement that they all are city residents, is that correct?

We already want one of our four existing seated persons.

Only one of our four existing seated persons.

Mr.

Thaxton is a city resident.

Okay.

I just want to make sure we're all clear because I don't want us to think that you know you all think that you can only appoint city residents.

That's the special make sure it's clear.

Yeah.

Okay.

So any other questions?

Oh, the Commissioner Alpert.

Um I suggest we appoint all five.

I'll second that.

Okay.

Um any discussion.

Okay.

It's moved by Commissioner Alpert and seconded by the Vice Mayor to appoint all five.

Can we have a vote?

And motion passes 4-1.

Thank you very much.

And next is the appointment to fill an opening on the historic preservation board.

Okay.

I can I can read that if you like for me to read what's going on with that.

The um vacancy is instituted resignation as Mr.

Tony Susa is which is a practicing professional historian or archaeologist, and we have provided um basically an application for you all to consider.

Okay.

Um Vice Mayor.

Um I have a motion.

I move to appoint Lori Muldowney.

Second.

Okay.

Move by the Vice Mayor, seconded by Commissioner A.

Hearn Koch to appoint Laurie Muldowney to Historic Preservation Board.

Uh any discussion?

Highly qualified.

Okay.

Can we have your votes, please?

And it passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

And that moves us to unfinished business.

Um we're going to ask uh director of governmental affairs, Jorgensen and Diana Shaheen, CE CO of the Bay Park Conservancy, to join us and make a presentation uh regarding uh the oh well we got the CEO this time, not the CEO.

I am not Diana Shaheen.

Delegated this responsibility to me at 4 30 a.m.

So here I am.

Good morning, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, Jennifer Jorgensen, Director of Governmental Affairs, and A.

G.

Lafley, the CEO of the Bay Park Conservancy in place of Diana Shaheen for today.

And we are here today to ask for an approval and execution of an exhibit to be then amended into the current partnership agreement between the City of Sarasota and the Bay Park Conservancy.

And this exhibit, which is in the backup material, is basically we currently have separate usage agreements that dictate that the Bay Park Conservancy operate and manage any of the buildings that are on the 53 acres of the Bay Park.

And we are adding two additional buildings that they have not previously managed and operated, and that is the Chidsey Library, which just opened this year, and also the municipal auditorium, which had been operated and managed by the city up until this October.

And so what we're doing with this exhibit is taking the existed existing separate usage agreements and putting those into the current partnership agreement as an exhibit.

So all of the management and operations are within one legal document.

And then we are also adding the two additional buildings that we talked about, the municipal auditorium and the Chidsey Library.

So that is what's in the exhibit that we are asking to be approved today and then amended into the partnership agreement.

Okay.

Any questions, Commissioners?

Commissioner Alpert?

Um I just have one question, and it's it's for AG.

I brought a copy of the email that you sent to us that all these things that you want us to consider.

So that's subsequent to this.

This is not involved with uh what we're approving today, correct?

Correct.

Yeah, that's what I didn't see it looked like.

Okay, correct.

Thank you.

Future conversation.

Okay.

Vice Mayor?

Uh my question was the same question Commissioner Alpert asked, and your answer remains.

Conversation to be continued.

Thank you.

The purpose of that, the purpose of that communication was to request that we get begin to think about sustainability over the mid and long term.

This is basically done in frankly, extremely good work by Jennifer, Joe, Diana, and the team.

Thank you.

And I did have a question.

What is the net effect from the perspective of an entity that wants to rent space in one of those buildings for an event or recurring thing?

Yeah, what is the effect from the potential renter's perspective of the change?

I'm going to take a half step back and then go directly to the rental piece.

The net effect of all of this is that in addition to conserving, restoring the land and the water, we're conserving and restoring for buildings that happen to be on the National Historic Register in our treasures for our community.

The advantage to the community is that we will have more indoor facilities to host park activities and events.

And we do live in a climate that can be tough.

We have a rainy season, it can get hot and humid.

Secondly, we'll have more opportunities for community events like elections, like candidate forums, like CCNA meetings and more venues to accommodate those.

Thirdly, we'll have more rental facilities.

So in addition to what we've had so far, which is basically just the garden club part-time.

We'll have the garden club, the blue pagoda, the Bayfront Community Center, and the municipal auditorium.

So it should be, and by the way, those rental fees are significantly below, you know, the commercial rental fees, starting with Holly Hall and Van Wezel, which are on site.

But if you look at any of the fees that are charged for comparable events, we're well below them because we cover costs plus a very, very modest margin.

Some will go up.

Most will eventually go up because of two, three things preventive maintenance.

There's no charge for all the capital improvements, right, which have been funded by the TIFF and private funding.

But for preventive maintenance, ongoing capital improvements, and we do provide for every rental partner.

We provide cleaning before and after.

We provide setup if requested, and there are certain, you know, very basic things we do.

We meet them, we show them the venue, we unlock the doors, we make sure that they're locked when they're done, we make sure the security is on, so very modest, you know, management and administrative costs.

Okay.

And I'm assuming that your calendar is pretty much set well in advance.

So I'm wondering what percentage of the time Bay Park activities would be programmed, and which percentage of time would be available for private rental.

Yeah, that varies significantly by facility.

We try to plan the Bay Park activities and program out one year.

We're doing the budget against the plan in the next few weeks.

Um rentals, it depends.

Some of our rentals, like at the municipal auditorium, are booked on a recurring annual basis because the LESsee has a has a show or has a program or has an event that's recurring and is popular.

Um a little longer in advance, and some are literally booked two weeks away if there's availability, depending on what it is.

Company events, um, you know, things like that.

So you don't expect that potential renters will be especially disadvantaged?

No, in fact, I think they'll be advantaged with more venues, more variations in not just the spaces, but in the rental fees and the rental accommodations.

I think they'll have more choices.

Great.

Well, thank you very much.

Uh any uh, yeah.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um page six of 47.

Maybe we could get that up on the screen.

Um item number six talks about the use of management areas.

And in about the middle of that paragraph, there is a sentence that reads all uses of the management areas, such as programming space, rental space, events, activities and operation, must be managed, rented, and utilized in accordance with the city's ordinances and policies.

Would you explain that a little bit, please?

Does that include what what ordinances and policies does that include?

So that could include, for example, if they were going to have a special event that closed down right-aways, they'd have to get a right-away permit as is required by the city ordinances.

Any of the ordinances like that.

And who would enforce that then?

It would be enforced as any other ordinances enforced.

So uh the special events team, for example, works very closely with uh Ms.

Shaheen and her team to make sure when there's events going on, they're working very closely with that.

Um again, SPD is involved in in um doing security of the park, so if there's any ordinance being violated there, we would pull in um code compliance if we felt there were any ordinances being violated similar to any um other entity.

Thank you.

Um on page eight of 47 number 14 addresses maintenance and security.

And it says security for the Bay Park will be provided by the SPD SDPD.

Who provides security now?

Um the Sarasota or the police department does provide security now as the same security that they would provide any of other of our other parks, and this is also included as a provision in our partnership agreement with the bay.

The bay then and the city have agreed for anything that's above and beyond a normal um security that's provided by SPD at any of our other parks.

The Bay is then responsible for that, such as installing various security cameras, monitoring those.

So the Bay does have some responsibility in that as well.

Thank you.

Um you should know.

Um I believe we're the only park, we may be the only civic space that invested in rather sophisticated um security system.

We've coordinated hand in hand with SPD in the use of it.

I won't bore you with the details, but SPD apprehended two individuals who had committed theft on the site, and in addition to apprehending the two individuals and recovering that stolen property, they found a whole slew of additional stolen property.

So this is a hand-in-glove operation that has benefited the community and the city beyond just the park.

And we will selectively and carefully extend the security system that we've started in the park as we add additional um phases to the park.

The other thing we do is um for certain occasions we do hire and coordinate with SPD private security.

So if something's at night, if it's uh going to go after dark, um, if it's going to be a large crowd and we expect families and kids, um we will movie nights, we will often add security to complement, private security to complement what SPD provides.

Thank you.

Um my final question is related to page eight of 47, number 15, that talks about future improvements, and it says uh my words maybe improvements over 100,000 dollars must be approved in writing and in advance by the city manager.

Why not the city commission?

I will defer to Joe Pulzak in that question.

No, um this is language we typically have in most all of our leases, and this was the same language that was in our usage agreements.

Um usage.

So it's the same as it is now.

It it is for the three um usage agreements that we had for the three buildings that that they were um using before.

Okay.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get most of this stuff on the record.

That's why I asked.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Batti.

Uh thank you, and uh happen to you to you both.

Um I wanted to ask you you mentioned something regarding the usage uh for like elections or something like that.

Is that is that prohibited, Boss?

You know in uh in that uh our facilities that we not do those to Commissioner, I think you're referring to uh political rallies as opposed to uh Mr.

Turner who does polling and voting at uh the historically at the municipal auditors.

Okay, so we would hold in that.

Okay.

But hold so I'm I'm totally off base with that.

You're right in line, but we polling and and elections take, we do partner with Mr.

Turner's office.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, generally political rallies, we do not allow the four elections.

Okay, that okay, I was you know confusing to my Your Honor.

Okay.

Any other questions, Commissioners?

Well, thank you very much.

Appreciate the presentation, and I will entertain a motion.

Move to approve proposed management and operations agreement and authorize appending the agreement to the partnership agreement between the City of Sarasota and the Bay Park Conservancy as exhibit G.

Second.

Motion by Commissioner Ahern Koch, seconded by Commissioner Batti.

Any discussion?

Okay, vote.

Passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Uh and the next item is uh the Sarasota Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, Transportation Project Priorities list with the presentation by uh Chief Transportation Planner Corrales and Senior Transportation Planner Ariaga.

Welcome.

Hi, happy new year.

My name is Alvi Murray Kravis, Chief Transportation Planner.

Corinne Ariaga Senior Transportation Planner.

So today we're gonna go through the Sarasota Manatee MPO 2026 Transportation Project Priorities.

We bring this up every year, so this should not be new, but some items on the list are new.

Uh a little bit of what we're gonna cover.

Uh the Metropolitan Planning Organization, it's just an overview of what that is, the 2050 long-range transportation plan, which was updated fairly recently, the MPO project priorities, its eligibility and funding, and then the list.

And it administers federal funds.

There are specific funds that they administer, but they have other discretionary funds as well.

And our city commission, two city commissioners have seats at the MPO board.

Recently, the Sarasota Manatee MPO adopted their 2050 long-range transportation plan.

This was back in October.

The long-range transportation plan gets updated every five years.

This contains plan studies that benefit our area.

It lists projects eligible for federal and state funds, and these are to be submitted as project priorities.

In terms of those project priorities, like I said, they are submitted annually.

They need to be part of the long-range transportation plan in order to be eligible.

They must be in a federal aid highway system, which means that the majority of our local roadways are not in those federal aid highway system.

They must be in our local capital improvement program, or CIP, or a master plan, like Sarasota in Motion, our multimodal connections plan, among others.

Any requirements within that 2050 long-range range transportation plan funding categories.

Like I mentioned, this plan got updated, so there are brand new requirements, but the categories relatively remain the same, and I'll go through them in a bit.

And then there are projects that are not eligible for MPO funds that are still eligible for FDOT funds and other competitive grants, which we have listed under jurisdictional needs.

So under these funding opportunities, there are those LRTP funding categories.

Roadway capacity, which was a name shift.

It existed, but now there's um you know slightly different.

The city is not eligible for these because um those are mostly brand new lanes, and we are built out.

So the city does not have any projects under this category.

There's intersections improvements, which include roundabouts and intersection reconfigurations, resiliency improvements, which are part of the resiliency assessment study that was done.

Multimodal improvements that include context-sensitive design and the MPO's active transportation plan projects.

This is part of the FDOT MPO's TSMO master plan and the congestion management plan.

And finally, the safety improvements.

And this is part of their destination zero action plan.

In terms of the draft 2026 MPO project priorities, like I mentioned, the categories have changed a little bit, but we essentially kept the reorganization of that list that was explored with the commissioners back in 2022.

We just renamed them and kept essentially the list as it was.

We included all of the 2050 long range transportation plan funding categories, and you will see that when Kerwin goes through the list.

In addition to that, there are four new transportation projects.

These four new transportation projects are Tuttle Avenue from Fruitville Road to MLK Junior Way Court, and this is a corridor improvement.

Particularly this project was to align and support Sarasota County.

This is a county maintained roadway, although it's within the city.

So this project is to support Sarasota County, especially because this project was highlighted as part of our local safety action plan.

The following one is US 41 from US 301 to Sylvan Drive.

And this is a drainage and corridor improvement project.

This includes the Whitaker Bayou Bridge.

And then the next two US 301 from US 41 to the North City Limits, and State Road 780, Fruitville Road from US 301 to East City Limits are TSMNO projects, technology projects.

That includes connected and autonomous vehicle technology.

And I'll hand it off to Corinne to go through the list.

Thank you.

On page one of the list, you'll see that the it starts with a green blocks that shows what's funded in the Florida Department of Transportation work program.

In the first column, you can see some are in black text and some are in red text.

The red are new projects that have been funded in the work program.

So you can see the legacy trail circuit circus trail extension currently has funding in the work program for design and then construction in future years.

US 41 at 47th Street is a pedestrian hybrid beacon is funded that is a goes with with the next project.

The US 41 resurfacing from Myrtle to General Spatz Boulevard.

So that those are a goes with project.

And then lastly, we have the safe routes to school.

We were awarded for the Booker High improvements, and that was listed in the future years in the work program.

So in the bottom of page one, you'll see our safety project is Main Street.

That is that is not a new project that is going to stay on the list.

And then on page two.

We have our multimodal improvements.

And that's a context-sensitive design.

You may be aware of the visioning that just concluded.

We have our Edge Ed Smith Stadium improvement, 12th Street from Orange Avenue to Beneva Road.

That is the result of a MPO study that they performed.

The Boulevard of the Arts from US 41 to Orange Avenue, that's part of our part of our complete streets project with 10th Street.

And then the new one, Tuttle Avenue that's supporting Sarasota County, is a part of that as well.

Next we have our intersection improvements.

US 41 at University Parkway.

This is an intersection that's been included in the an FDOT study.

And then we have our resiliency improvements.

We have two new ones.

We have our US 41 from US 301 to Sylvan Drive.

We already spoke about that.

Then we have our 10th Street from US 41 to Orange Avenue, and that's also a part of the 10th Street and Boulevard of the Arts Complete Streets project.

And then we have our second new one, which is St.

Armin's Key State Road 789 from US 41 to St.

Armin's Circle, including John Ringling Boulevard and Fillmore Drive.

On the next page, we have our transportation systems management and operations projects, and those are technology projects.

We have the two new ones are US 301 from US 41 to North City Limits, where we're going to expand ITS infrastructure and CAV technology.

And then Fruitville Road from US 301 to East City Limits, which is expanding the ITS infrastructure and CAV technology.

Additionally, we have our TSM and TSM and AO application, which is our phase two, and you can see the intersections listed there that would receive that CAV technology if awarded.

And lastly, we have our grants and jurisdictional needs.

This is the projects that are not eligible for MPO funds, but are potentially still eligible for FDOT funds and competitive grants.

So here we have listed 17th Street from Orange Avenue to the city limits, our North Legacy Trail, which is an urban trail connection to Newtown and University Parkway, our US 41 at University.

I'm sorry, US 41 at Boulevard of the Arts intersection improvement.

We have the North Sarasota to the Bay Park Bay Park Legacy Trail Network, which is a combination of urban trails that connect to the Bay Park.

We have the TSM and O application phase five, which is additional intersections throughout the city, US 41 at Orange Avenue, roundabout and multimodal improvements, TSM and O application phase three, additional intersections throughout the city.

Shade Avenue from Hibiscus Street to 15th Street, TSM and O application phase four, additional intersections throughout the city, and then water transit and other mobility studies.

And lastly, we have transit operations listed to support our county partners at the Breeze.

And with that, we have a recommended action to approve the 2026 Sarasota Manatee MPO project priorities list, and we'll answer any questions the Commission may have at this point.

Thank you, Commissioner Heron Koch.

Thank you very much.

I'm sure you can anticipate my question.

It has to do on the very first page of the presentation and the second item down, the roundabouts at Myrtle and MLK, and it says funded, and they are not funded.

Unless you have news that I don't know about.

So the projects, in order for these intersections to remain a priority for us, they need to be on the top of the list.

So they are on the work program as funded.

And that's why they are at the top of the list as funded.

We currently have funding for design, and we're still working with the Sayers that I'm at T MPO because they included it as part of their 2050 long range transportation plan to add funding for it.

And we're working with FDOT in order to continue the project.

So our hope is that because the MPO put in those projects as part of the 2050 long-range transportation plan that we can build up on that momentum and continue the project.

So that's why in the list, we keep it at the top because it is still a priority, and City Commission sent out a letter this time last year with that thought too.

So that's why I made it to the list too.

Thank you.

It's it's um just for me.

I and I I get where you know it being on the list and the the funded, but I just want everybody to know it's it's not really funded, and that we need to continue to advocate for those projects to move forward because I just want everyone to understand that you know, unless we keep advocating for them, they can fall off the list and not ever happen.

And at this point, it looks like it's very far out, but at least it's still on the list, but we still need to continue to advocate for it.

Um and I'm sure the commission knows, as maybe some other folks know, that there's a stretch of US 41 between 14th Street and basically Cortez Road, all the way in Bradenton, that is the most dangerous, has the highest number of deaths than anywhere else in the region.

And it's not because it's a long one, it's just because that's the way it is.

And if we slow the traffic down on 41, um that that could help when in that effort, and having a roundabout at MLK and Myrtle is part of the overall roundabout plan to slow traffic down as it comes into the city.

It's the issue I hear about the most is speeding in the city.

And this is a tiny step to getting there and helping it out.

And I know you know all this.

But it's a step nonetheless that we have to keep on pushing for.

So my next question has to do with the new project at US 41.

301 and 301 to Sylvan.

Can you just um talk to me about the coordination of that project with the uh dredging of Whitaker Bayou and the upgrades to the Bayou and how that should be or could be coordinated?

So I right now what we have is the resiliency components of the project, which it is the eligibility, which is what is eligible for in the um MPO long range plan.

So it only entails certain drainage improvements and corridor improvements for the roadway and not necessarily for the dredging and everything for the bridge.

Right.

Under the bridge.

Under the bridge.

So the coordination will need to happen.

You know, will need to happen, right?

But the dredging will happen, will need to happen first, and then the corridor improvement.

But this does not guarantee that we will have the funds for the project.

This is just us applying for the project, and um it's not to say that we will not get it, but it's also it's not set, it's set in stone that we will.

So the dredging um will probably happen first.

Um, and then we will find out whether or not we get these funds.

And it's resiliency funds, like you mentioned.

Right.

It's just um when I think about the overall picture of the Whitaker Bayou, the bridge, the resiliency of it all, um, if there's some coordination that could happen around it all, so it's a bigger impact than individual acts, it may be more powerful and it may be more efficient use of funds, is what I'm saying.

So it's just if we can think a little bit more holistically.

And I know these are different government entities trying to coordinate with different funds with different restrictions, with different timelines and different requirements, but just putting it out there that you know the the more we can try to coordinate the better.

Um the water taxi funding there at the you know at the bottom and other mobility options.

Where are we with that?

It's a question, you get on a daily basis.

Why doesn't City City have a water taxi?

So currently the water taxi, we started the um planning and design.

We have Cummings and Cederberg as our consultant to do that work.

Is that the consultant for is that did they work at the one in um Manatee?

It's not the service.

It's not the service, it's the consultant that so um the Bay Park has used them as as their coastal um engineering firm.

So they're just a coastal engineering firm.

Right, but did the Manatee County use them when they had consulting before they did their water taxi?

I'm not aware of that, so uh right now what they're doing is the design of the docks.

It's not for the service, it's for the design of the docks.

Right.

Right now, what we're doing is um they completed their due diligence, they did some reviews, and they're working on the design of the docks at Marina Jacks and then the Ken Thompson Park area.

Okay.

Marina Jacks area and Kent Thompson Park area.

Okay, all right.

Um do you think it would be useful for the city commission to write another let out letter of support for the roundabouts on MLK and Myrtle?

It is up to City Commission to decide.

And but do you think it would be a useful thing?

And I think um that would be okay to include.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

Those are my questions for the moment.

Any other questions, Commissioners?

Okay.

So thank you very much for your presentation and your report.

And I will entertain a motion.

Madam Mayor, I'd like to make two motions.

Okay.

One is I would like to approve the Sarasota Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization, City of Sarasota 2026 Transportation Project Priority List.

Second.

Okay, moved by Commissioner Ahern Koch, seconded by the Vice Mayor to approve the project priorities list.

And any discussion?

No.

So we will.

Whoops.

Whoops.

Oh, there we go.

And it passed unanimously.

Thank you.

And Commissioner Aher and Kotch, you have another motion.

Another motion if the city could issue a letter, the same letter we issued last year, but again this year in support of the MLK and Myrtle Roundabout projects.

Second.

Second.

Okay, moved by Commissioner Ahern Kodch, seconded by Commissioner Batti to write a similar letter to last year in support of the MLK, excuse me, it's 41 Myrtle roundabout.

And MLK.

Oh, the two roundabouts.

Two of them.

Okay.

So it passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Great.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Okay.

Um next on the agenda is uh well before we get to the next agenda item.

Um it's 20 after 11.

And looking at what we have coming after, just the timing looks to me like when we get to the McCown Towers parking discussion.

Either we hold that after lunch, or it will be split by lunch.

So I'm looking for the sense of the commission.

Should we postpone that discussion that agenda item till after lunch?

So that we don't split it.

Perhaps sure.

Yeah, I would think whatever the commission wants.

Okay.

Perhaps start new business after lunch.

Well, we might be able to get to the other new business before lunch.

So it seems like there's a consensus from the commissioners that we will hit do the agenda item on um is the new business number uh 122.

122.

We will start that after lunch.

So if you are only here for that, um plan to come back by round one, and we will do that then.

Okay, great.

So moving right along, we are uh okay.

We're going to discuss the city manager search, get an update, and I'm calling upon City Auditor and Clark Griggs and City Attorney Paul Zach to give us an update.

Oh well.

I'll start.

Um as you all aware, you all have received applications regarding the city manager search.

We have a scheduled January 13th special meeting to discuss these matters.

Um as of right now, I we anticipate getting the consultant's recommendation letter by Wednesday.

I'm hoping to have that to get to you all.

Um other than that, I think we have a couple of matters that we need to discuss on the 13th.

Um not only the applicants, but also next steps.

Um public participation, how that's gonna go, and either and also negotiations regarding who's going to handle that.

I think that those are you know our next steps of conversation that we have on the 13th.

And one other item uh Shella and I talked about is we're gonna want from you a decision when you want to cut off accepting resumes.

Because that has to be a decision that's made by you if resumes filter in after the advertised dates by the executive recruiter.

Do you want to keep accepting them or do you want to have a cutoff?

Because we did receive some applications over the break.

We are working on redacting them in 8 a.m.

now, and I probably should have them to you if not by today, first thing in the morning, depending on how long we get done here.

Um so I will have some more applications to give you all to remote.

How many?

I believe there are eight.

Um so uh just for you all to have.

So we do need a cutout, though, because that at some point we need to be able to say this is it, this is what you're looking at.

Um for the meeting on the 13th, we need to have a cutoff.

So just so what vacuum material is going to be in that is just that's what it we have.

So just thank you.

Before we begin our question commissioners' questions, we do have one request to speak by Flo Entler.

Please join us.

Happy New Year, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Commissioners.

My name is Flo Entler, 37 years city resident, and I'm representing myself.

Ken Thompson was the longest serving city manager in our country and in Sarasota's history.

His term ended in 1988, a year before I moved here.

Since then, we've had seven city managers.

Some like David Sollenberger served the city well.

Others struggled with controversy and ethical lapses.

A city manager's job is to make sure our local government runs effectively, efficiently, and fairly.

But in recent years, public trust has taken a hit.

Not gone entirely, but bent pretty badly.

To rebuild it, we need a leader with strong values, someone who brings people together and leaves with integrity, teamwork, respect, and accountability.

The Herald Tribune once said the city's manager's job, quote, requires vast abilities that most mortals lack, end quote.

There's truth in that.

It's not an easy job.

But we shouldn't be looking for a superhero or an empire builder.

We need a solid manager, someone who knows how things work, who loves public service, and who wants to make this city stronger.

Our community has been through a lot, explosive growth, rough politics, and serious flooding both inland and along the bay.

I'd call it a perfect storm, except there's nothing perfect about these storms.

The county's made it clear that stormwater management is coming back to the city.

That's why it's so important to find a manager with real experience and resiliency and infrastructure.

Rising insurance and utility rates are deepening our affordability crisis.

And if Tallahasse cuts ad velorum taxes, the city will have even fewer resources for essential services like police protection.

The next city manager needs to be smart with money and careful with spending.

But just as important, they need to have the courage to do what's right, even when it's hard.

In my HR work, I found the best way to measure integrity in interviews is simple.

Ask candidates to describe an ethical challenge they faced and how they handled it.

You'll learn a lot from how they answer.

Finally, with threats to home rule coming from Tallahassee and ongoing challenges along the coast.

People who have lived here or worked here and understand this community from inside out.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

Commissioners, you have the questions for Ms.

Griggs and Mr.

Polzak.

And Commissioner Herancoch.

Thank you.

I had a call in to uh the firm, the recruiting firm, uh, and we just keep missing each other, so I did not get a chance to have this question asked.

So if you do speak to them, um I was looking, I looked through all of the resumes and submissions, uh and and I'm eager to receive the additional eight.

But um I would like to know which of those um resumes were sourced by the firm, which was one of my top priorities was that the firm be actively sourcing candidates.

And so I I have no indication of that.

Okay.

That's one question.

The other question is some of the applications had um cover letters, some had resumes, and some had cover letters and resumes.

So the ones that are missing, one of those two pieces, um, is it just something that they didn't submit, or is it something that maybe is not in my packet?

No.

We what they that we saw that too.

Yeah, so we were aware of that as well.

Um that is what they submitted, but I can ask um the consultant why is it they only those individuals only submitted cover letters?

Because we noticed that too.

And we want to do that.

Like, was there communication with the firm to say, excuse me, because people make mistakes, right?

When they submit things online and they could have thought they attached something and they didn't, and did they reach out to them to say, here's your you know, your application was not complete.

We can ask, we'll ask.

I'll roll up and ask.

And um then to the question that you asked about a cutoff date.

I I'm okay with uh a cutoff date at some point in time.

Um, perhaps after the commission has had a um a good discussion and feel like we have a nice um uh uh list of applicants if we feel comfortable because we haven't had that discussion yet about our list, and if we feel comfortable with um however many that we have, or if we want to keep it open.

So I'm interested to hear what the other commissioners say about the candidates.

Okay.

Can I can I make a suggestion?

Um, and if you guys give us the direction today, I would like to be able to close it as of Thursday.

Um because that gives us a cutoff and will we meet on Tuesday next week.

That's it.

There's no coming in over the weekend, we're not receiving applications on the weekend, we have to worry about making sure you all get it in enough time to review them.

I just think for to keep it clean and so everybody's not scrambling around.

I I I would suggest we have a cutoff as of Thursday that we're no longer accepting applications from Sumter regarding the city manager search.

Now if you guys decide you don't like email, come Tuesday, we'll reopen it back up, you know, per um the discussion.

But I just will like I would like a cutoff.

I I think we'll be cleaner for everything if we have a cut-off.

What what are the advantages of cutting it off and then reopening versus opening it, having the discussion and then cutting it off?

Well I I suggest cutting it off for the public.

Um we can't keep getting applications in, not just for you all to have time to review them.

We also have to redact them.

We have to ADA them.

We have to put them on the website.

We have to make sure you all review them.

We have to make sure the public is see them.

And I don't want to do that with a weekend.

I don't want you all to get thrown a bunch of stuff on Sunday or Monday and the meetings Tuesday.

I just think that's not clean, it's not transparent, and I would prefer to just have a cut-off.

And this is my own opinion.

If you've got resumes filtering in after you've selected semi-finalists, then you're gonna you'll have to make a decision we can't on the process.

Yeah, so my question was I guess our first real discussion, unless we are gonna have one now, our first real discussion about our pool of applicants will be on the 13th.

Correct.

So my my thought was, and I'm completely open to changing this thought was that we wait till our discussion at the 13th, because I don't know how the other commissioners feel about our applicants.

Um and I'm not positive how I feel exactly at this moment either.

Um that we wait until that meeting to decide, yes, we feel like we've got I don't know, 20 great applicants, cut it off.

Or not happy with any of them, or only happy with some of them, maybe we should leave it open for another two weeks.

And I I'm just throwing it out there because I don't know how the other commissioners feel.

Obviously, I have no idea how they feel.

So I'm just throwing it out there, and maybe maybe you all don't know how you feel yet either.

Um Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Um there is strong rationale for cutting it off and on a designated date, giving staff time to redact and get the resumes out to commissioners, so we have time to review them on the 13th, and then if we on the 13th say not good enough, then we reopen.

I would say at that point we reopen for a definitive period of time.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Alfort.

I think uh Commissioner or the Vice Mayor's uh suggestion is a good one is that we can always at the 13th decide.

Well, we can't at the workshop no, we can't.

We but we could reopen it.

We wouldn't.

It's not a workshop again.

Yeah, okay.

Okay.

Okay.

It's not gonna be a workshop.

It's a but on my calendar as a workshop.

Yeah, we're gonna say it's a special meeting.

Okay, wonderful.

So we can make it.

And and my question is, because I you know I don't remember for sure.

Um, are we not gonna rely on the search firm to have some ex you know in input into the final final list?

We aren't experts on resumes.

And they and they I think it's ludicrous.

And they ask to be deciding.

Okay.

No, no, they are.

And um, he's actually gonna be here in person for that meeting as well.

And he's also going to submit a recommendation letter for you all to review candidates that he thinks that would be for you all to consider.

Um and we'll make sure he addresses at that meeting what how the candidates were sourced.

Commissioner Batti.

Oh no, I just wanted to uh stay for I get that concur with the comments and sentiments of the vice mayor.

Um I'm doing that on Tuesday and going forward from there.

And I think it makes perfect sense to the city auditor and clerk's uh point that uh you know it just makes the process a lot more clean.

Um so I I I uh in complete agreement with uh the vice mayor.

Okay.

I actually am quite confused.

Okay.

Um I'm comparing this search with the previous search, and in the previous search, we actually the the firm checked not just uh recommendations, they interviewed people who had worked with the candidates and gathered insight from that, and I'm expecting that additional information from this firm.

As uh I believe it was was it you or or uh Commissioner Albert said, you know, we're not experts in this, we are paying a search firm to provide this information, and as far as I was concerned, we were paying a search firm to check recommendations, etc.

Um so I want to know what additional information we're getting from Sumter, and then beyond that, in terms of the cutoff date, wouldn't it make sense to cut off on Thursday with the expectation that anything that comes in before Thursday, they will have done their due diligence on before Tuesday.

What good is having another I don't want to say core dump, but we got 80 resumes dumped on us with no intelligent vetting.

I mean, we got two that have high school diplomas.

So I I understand what you're saying.

What are we paying this firm for?

We should but you asked you all asked as a commission, you all asked for every single application, whether they were big lot, burning costs.

No, no, no, you know what I mean.

So I understand that it's just that when we meet with Sumter on Tuesday, every single application should have gone through their promised level of review.

And I believe you all will get that when they submit their recommendations.

You I see this is the thing.

We asked them to get us those applications now because you all wanted them all, you all wanted the public to be able to view them before he could even sit there and go through what they needed to go through.

So we asked we have to allow them time to get us their recommendations too.

Um because we we can't hold it.

I couldn't wait have them wait to send us applications.

Mr.

Bullock has told us his timeline.

We need to get we need to get the applications so you all can review them.

I think we need to give something a chance to submit their recommendations, and then you all can decide there if this is not what you were looking for from them.

But but that's also why I would support your idea of having a cutoff this Thursday or even today to give them time to have gone through whatever additional resumes come in so that we don't have their recommendations on Tuesday plus a handful of applications that they haven't had a chance to go through.

Exactly right.

That's exactly right.

Then it would tilt the deck in one way or the other.

So um yes, I know we did ask to see everything, and I think that's really important that we in the public see everything that's submitted.

But I too is also under the impression that as they're being that number one, they sourced club people, and that should be something that they have information on, back uh additional information on.

If they've sourced them, they sourced them for a reason.

And so they should have that information already, and that information should be in our hands.

On Tuesday, I don't want to hear for the first time their recommendations and be sorting through a list that I've compiled and graded and uh you know if everything we they have on those candidates, we should have, and the public should have now, so that we can have an intelligent conversation on Tuesday, so we can whittle this list down and figure out do we have a substantive list of candidates or not.

I'm okay with cutting it off on today or tomorrow or whenever you want to do it, I'm okay with cutting it off.

Um but if they're gonna give us additional information, if they have a different information, we should have that additional information now.

And and you will, that is our discussion about them producing a report that you'll have that'll go through on Wednesday, you said.

Yeah, that's what I was told from Sumter is that they will have a the recommendations from all of the candidates' applications that they receive, and they will have something for the commission to review.

So additional information in the about every single application, what they think, who they think should move forward, um who they think you all should, you know, really look into.

They will have all of that submitted to us.

Okay, and when and when you say um what they think uh and that will be backed up with recommendations or background searches or you know the other information that we might need.

Well, substantive, not just their opinion of how they feel, but you all didn't state that you all told them that you didn't want to do backgrounds until we got it whittled down.

So what are they going to give us in addition to this?

Just their feeling.

No, they're we'll make sure that I don't mean to be you know a dismissive.

I'm just asking questions because I'm I'm not clear either on what they're going to be giving us.

We'll make sure they indicate what work they did to generate that recommended list.

Thank you.

And we do feel like the cutoff date should be such that they can prepare a report that is consistent with that cutoff date.

And so they've looked at that total population of candidates and made the recommendations to you.

Good.

Okay, I'm okay with that.

Okay.

So Commissioner Batti, I think you were next up.

Do you have a oh no?

I just it must not have gone off the sorry, I didn't clear this out.

Oh, I did have comments.

Vice Mayor.

Um so far they're doing exactly what we directed them to do.

Exactly.

We wanted everything.

We got all the resumes.

Now we have to be explicit about what we want from them when we meet at the special meeting.

And if we could just iterate one more time, what exactly we want from them?

That will make our meeting on the 13th run more smoothly than it otherwise might.

And I will actually I'll reach out to Warren whenever we get done today, um, even at or at lunch, and have him make sure he listens to this meeting to be prepared to answer any of these questions.

Um we're doing the best that we can.

We are not HR.

Why?

So um do we need a motion?

Um I hear I've heard different things about cutting off as of Thursday, and I first said that.

I wouldn't mind cutting off at the end of the day today and putting all the others that have come in into a pool that we if we reopen the application process, they're in that file.

I think that would be better than he he can prepare a report based on that cutoff date.

So I move that we cut off accepting applications at five o'clock today.

I'm good with that.

I second.

Okay.

Move by the vice mayor, seconded by Commissioner Batti to cut off all applications for city manager at 5 p.m.

Eastern today.

That's the same.

So it was implied it was Eastern time.

Yes.

Thank you.

I have a question about the motion.

Um are there any legal implications to us not having announced that cutoff date?

Maybe somebody I just want to make sure we're not gonna get in any trouble.

Somebody saying I had planned to submit it Tuesday at four because XYZ or there was already an advertised date range that's passed.

Okay.

You're making the winnowing decision to address the.

Beautiful.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Alfred, did you I I was going to uh object to making it as of today because I just think that's very short notice.

I mean, I don't get that that the you know the submission range uh time has passed, but uh I would opt for Thursday as Crooks uh uh does that give us time.

Well we do we we do have a motion on the floor.

Yes.

This is discussion.

Just a discussion of the motion.

Yeah, that's one discussion.

Commissioner Alper could make a friendly amendment if she feels strongly.

Well asked to make a friendly amendment.

To change the date to from Tuesday to Thursday.

Yep.

That's right.

It's to allow them to you know she hasn't made it yet.

So I'm gonna make a friendly amendment um that it be changed from today at five to Thursday at five.

Umly because I think um in my rationale is also Sumter may have an idea of people who are out there that um maybe were looking to get it in so that they you know they can give them enough notice to make sure you get it in by Thursday and that gives you know the city order and a clerk time.

So I I would make a friendly amendment to the motion.

So I think there has to be a vote on that.

I'll I'll second it.

How does the maker of the motion feel first?

Yeah.

She has accepted her.

Well, first of all, I don't get this friendly amendment thing.

There is no such thing as a friendly amendment.

Okay, so I mean if I'm not mistaken, if I can if I may speak it's pretty much changing the motion altogether and just saying that instead of today is Tuesday.

Well, what amend it?

Exactly.

So I just you know asked the city auditor and clerk, you know, which she felt was best, and she said Thursday.

So I'll I'll you know we're send my my my second or what have you.

Well, okay, so you're rescinding your second of the original motion.

So the original motion dies for lack of seconds.

So we are now on the floor with the motion by uh Commissioner Alpert seconded by Commissioner Ahern Koch to uh end the uh acceptance of city manager applications this Thursday at 5 p.m.

Eastern.

Correct.

Uh is there discussion of this motion?

Who is the actual maker of the motion?

Who's making the motion?

Okay, thanks.

I seconded it.

Yeah.

And I just like to say this is no slight to the motion made by the vice mayor and whatnot.

Oh, no slight take up.

So can we continue with the discussion?

Does the maker of the motion care to I I made I already stated my reasons?

Okay, I'm actually opposed to it.

My big concern is we are expecting no later than this Wednesday, the recommendations from Sumter, which I'm going to assume has some additional information attached to it.

And this motion is saying, oh yeah, and after we've received all of this information or the recommendations with additional information, we're going to accept some additional off the street without additional background information from new applicants.

So just the timing seems difficult.

Um I'm opposed to it also.

Uh first of all, the deadline has passed.

Anyone whose application we're accepting now?

It's very telling.

They didn't meet the deadline.

And so why are we accepting any applications after the already established deadline?

So uh and then we do need to give the search company time to do their due diligence before the thirteenth.

Okay.

Commissioner Batti.

I'm sorry.

Commissioner Alpert.

Yeah.

Um, my my comments to to um those objections are um yes, we're gonna get a report from them on Wednesday.

I don't anticipate if they get any more resumes in, it's not gonna be another 80.

It might be one.

It might be two at most, which would give them time to amend their report if they needed to, then we would still get it in enough time.

So I I I don't think the fact that they're going to give a report on the resumes that they've received already by Wednesday is going to make it so onerous if they happen to get one more or two, you know, or two more.

And that they can, you know, they can look at those and uh make an a amended recommendation.

So I I I just don't think it's it's that big a deal and gives the opportunity for notice that again it's gonna be closed officially.

Okay, I then have a question for Ms.

Commissioner Ahern Koch.

If there are additional applicants that come in by Thursday, and Sumter is not able to provide the additional information on them before our Tuesday meeting, and you see it for the first time on Tuesday.

Will this be a concern?

Um So I was gonna also say that what Commissioner Alpert said that I think that between Wednesday and Thursday it's not not gonna be that much time.

It maybe there are one or two, and that's plenty of time for them to give us.

I I don't expect that they're gonna be doing like this massive background search and and and a whole summary about each person.

I think it's gonna be short and the reasons they recommend or they don't.

Um so I don't think the work is so onerous.

If it were a week or two, maybe there would be a concern, but I think one day we should be fine with that.

And I I'd be okay with hearing one or two at the meeting.

I really do believe also too that those that were really seriously interested in applying have already done some.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm just being honest.

So unless there's some sort of political something that changed for them within the past, you know, who knows?

You never know.

But we have a motionless.

Commissioner Batti, did you want to say anything before we vote on it?

Oh no, I was just going to say, you know, rationally speaking, you know, that makes you know sense.

Um I mean, we got 80 in the length of time that we've been doing.

I can't see we get in another 80 in two days.

So we are voting on the motion to cut off on Thursday, 5 p.m.

Eastern.

Thank you.

And uh motion passes for one.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Um we were still doing questions on this uh item.

Um what else do we want to explicitly ensure that they come to that meeting on the 13th?

Well, I I have a made a list of what I just heard.

Um were the resumes sourced.

And we want to find that out.

Why were some of them had cover letters and some didn't?

What was the rationale for that?

And why did they submit just those with cover letters?

Um just submitted a uh C D as well.

So I saw that.

Some were applying to the wrong city.

Like I said, I you know, yes, with this process probably being a little bit different than what they're used to.

Um with you know the commission deciding that they want all of everything kind of maybe throw them off a little bit what they're used to doing, probably providing their recommendation with all of the applications, but we needed the applications first.

So um I that's kind of all I have right now.

Anything else that I'm missing something?

Well, I'm I'm a little bit off between what we will be receiving by Wednesday, and what beyond that we were hoping to have by Tuesday.

I thought we were gonna expect to receive all of the information by Wednesday and would be discussing it the following Tuesday.

Um but that list, you know, are we going to what are we going to get on Wednesday?

And um I was wondering um so what if what are they gonna give us on Wednesday?

Um and then I'm yeah that that's basically what I have for them, but then I have one more question that I guess we will discuss on Tuesday, which is what is our process to whittle this list down.

Are we going to come up with semi-finalists on Tuesday?

How are we going to narrow those down to finalists?

Who are we going to act?

I I guess if I remember correctly, the plan was the semi-finalists.

We will interview via Zoom, and then the finalists we will bring to Sarasota to interview.

But maybe if if we sort of get that in writing, so we can all say, Yeah, I understand what we're doing.

I'll make sure you all have something in the daists who kind of go through what you all need to um get done that day.

What are the expectations?

What are you know, what are the goals?

Um you might not want a little downing yet, and you want to start over.

So we don't know, but just to have an idea, I'll I'll make sure you all have that.

Okay.

Um I can add some.

Commissioner Herrencock.

So just I don't know uh what everybody else is doing and how they're going through this process.

Uh I I'm going through them and I'm doing yes, no, maybes.

Um, and then within the yes no maybe's I'm looking at the criteria that we all discussed that we talked about having and and trying to take that into consideration.

We can't answer all those questions because we we only have the resume and what they're telling us about themselves.

So I'm taking that with a grain of salt.

Um, and then just trying to loosely take into everybody's priorities of what they're looking for and give them a sort of general uh ranking within the yes knows maybe's um and that's sort of the process that I'm going through.

Um, I'm trying not to Google people too much yet, but I have a few.

And any other questions, comments.

Okay.

And keep in mind, you know, part of this, this process is one hundred percent transparent, and everything is occurring here at the dais.

Um, so we're making those decisions in in real time, and we'll make sure we respond to these directions.

Oh, um, the eight more that you've received.

Are you holding on to them until Wednesday?

Or I'm gonna give it them out.

Um, we just gotta finish doing our supplement.

Right.

And then I'll hopefully get them out, even not today, if not first thing in the morning, depends on how we do today.

No, ma'am.

Probably not.

So that I believe ends that agenda item.

Um, and it is five minutes to noon.

I'm going to suggest that we break for lunch until one o'clock, and then we will return for new business.

So with that, I'm not sure.

Meeting back to order.

We are now at the first item of new business, and I will ask uh director of governmental affairs Jorgensen and General Manager Procurement Hayes and the Chair of the Downtown Master Plan ad hoc committee Bill Wadill to make a presentation.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners.

Jennifer Jorgensen, Director of Governmental Affairs.

And we are here today to discuss a procurement issue.

The procurement team had worked with the downtown master plan ad hoc committee to put together a solicitation, an invitation to negotiate specifically to hire a consultant to help with the downtown master plan.

And when that solicitation was put into was put out to bid, it had erroneously left out a local preference requirement, which is a requirement in our city code, and that local preference um requirement in our city code does ask or does require that we um put certain scoring criteria into our into our scoring requirement.

So in order to stay compliant with our procurement code, um we decided that it was best to cancel the solicitation and redo the solicitation, including the local preference criteria in the scoring card, as is required by these by the uh procurement code.

So the ad hoc committee did um do a motion and passed um the motion to ask for a the local preference to be waived by city commission.

And I should have introduced, sorry, who was at the table, General Manager Renee Hayes is here.

She is our general manager of procurement here to answer any questions that you have.

And then also the chair of the ad hoc committee, Bill Waddell is here to talk about the request for waiver of the local preference.

And with that, I will turn it over to Bill.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Commissioners.

Happy New Year.

Nice to see you all.

To build on upon what Jennifer mentioned, we as we were talking with staff and providing recommendations for the ITN.

We had several meetings where we had discussions about what kind of a consultant are we, should the city be looking for, and certainly had a lot of just healthy discussion about the importance of some members of the team having an understanding of the local context, the prior master plan, what the community would like, what the elected officials would like and staff, and so on and so forth.

But always felt like that while that should be a part of a team that is hired to update the master plan, it need not be the prime.

We should be striving for the best consultant possible to lead the process.

But we encourage, as a committee, I say we, a substantial majority of the committee, we encourage some members of the team to be local for the reasons that I mentioned.

So that was why we proceeded with the ranking that we did for the first round of ITN, and then appropriately is as Jennifer mentioned, it was discovered that we had that inconsistency.

And so we had that discussion again at our last meeting, December 8th.

And you know, again, reaffirmed that while local is critical, local context, the knowledge is critical.

We hope we encourage that the selected firm ultimately has uh a local uh subconsultants uh as a part of their team.

We don't think that leading uh them as the prime consultant is critical.

And so we ultimately uh had a vote and it was um the the motion was approved 10 to one uh with one abstention to recommend uh that the city commission consider um waiving the local preference but again reaffirming the importance of having a local presence as a part of the team.

Um I will also just share that there's a strong desire.

This our committee was seated over a year ago, as you all know, and so there's a strong desire.

Uh we hear at every meeting, can we just get a consultant and move this thing forward?

And so we talked about do we really want to wait until January?

And the decision was let's get it right.

We've gone this far, let's get the right consultant ultimately selected and move forward in the right way.

Um but to that end, we also, as a fallback, re-rated it should the commission decide not to waive local preference.

We redid the table.

But again, it was voted 10-1 to recommend that local preferences waived.

Thank you.

Uh commissioners, questions?

Uh Vice Mayor.

Um I don't know if there's a question in here or not, but uh certainly comments.

You have a very large committee.

Some would say too large.

Um everybody on that committee is local.

Um those local members have local knowledge of the downtown and the community at large.

I tend to agree with you that the best consultant is more important than a local consultant.

Um you want to get it right.

And so let's go ahead and discuss it further.

Umbert.

I agree with uh the vice mayor that we've got all these local people on that committee.

I don't think it's that important to have a, you know, if if they're if the best consultant is local, great.

But if not, we want the best consultant.

Uh well, I was going to frame the same thing, sort of as a question.

From the standpoint of we are trying to get a new forward thinking master plan, downtown master plan, uh, besides the idea of getting the best consultant.

Would having somebody who has knowledge and expertise from a wide range of cities outside of Sarasota be better than somebody who is Sarasota focused.

I'm just one member, of course, but I I feel like that's sort of the tenor of the conversations that we had that we want someone that has done this before in similarly sized cities, similar initiatives, lots of public outreach and done it successfully.

But that's the most important thing.

And so again, uh you've got a local committee that's very engaged and very smart, and and uh Vice Mayor, your comment is very well taken.

We have very healthy discussions.

I think we've come together quite well as a committee over the year, you know, of getting together.

But um and so we're going to we're going to press very um adamantly for a lot of public engagement because I think that's what made the last plan successful, and I think that's what will lead us for the next 20 or 30 years.

But to your point, we need someone who can show that they've done this before successfully and let a you know a complex multidisciplinary team on a complex project like ours of a city of our size.

Thank you.

Um Commissioner Batti.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Um, and thank you all.

Yeah, I think uh the you know the best consultant, you know, as opposed to you know someone local is uh is the best you know role to take.

You know, think about you know the layout of the city and the planning of the city was done by someone that's not from Sarasota wasn't local or what have you.

So uh I I think the you know the same should be done when it comes to the downtown master plan and so on.

So uh commend you all commend, you know, the ad hoc committee on the efforts and the work that you all have been doing.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, thank you very much.

Any other questions?

Uh thank you for your presentation, and I will entertain a motion.

Um I was gonna move that um the request made by the downtown master plan ad hoc committee to approve the waiver of the application of local preference for the downtown master plan consultant solicitation pursuant to the City of Sarasota Procurement Code Section 2-368E uh be granted.

Second.

Okay.

Motion by Commissioner Aaron Kotch, seconded by Commissioner Batti to waive the uh preference for a city of Sarasota business.

Um vote.

Um I just it's a discussion, sorry.

No discussion.

I just wanted to speak to the motion briefly that typically um I really value the local uh requirement.

Um I think it's an important part of what we do, but in this situation, um very specifically and also with this very large um committee voting almost unanimously to support this request.

I think that speaks volumes.

So that's why I made the motion.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Well, then we have your votes, please.

And it's unanimous.

Thank you very much.

And we are moving on to one of the main events of the day, I think.

Uh new business number two uh discussion regarding the city working with the housing authority to potentially participate in the construction of public parking spaces in the proposed McCown Towers three new senior housing development application and parking garage.

And we're going to, well, was requested by Commissioner Ahern Koch and Mr.

Russell to present on this.

So I can kick it off if you want.

Okay, so Commissioner Ahern Cosh will kick it off.

Yeah.

So as the um liaison to the housing authority, this commission's liaison to the housing authority, um, this is a discussion that has been going on for a while.

And um the board requested that uh we have a discussion about it instead of these discussions taking place independently of each other, that I place the item on an agenda so that we could have a community group discussion uh for all the parties to voice their uh opinion and their thoughts on this and for us to get some facts to talk about in this uh kind of a forum before this commission with everybody weighing in.

So at their request, I placed the item on the agenda.

Mr.

Russell and I um uh put together an idea of what we wanted for backup material, which would which includes in your backup material the meeting minutes where um the community came to speak, so residents and community members of Rosemary plus the board.

Um so those uh minutes and those discussions are in your backup material.

Plus, Ms.

Griggs also was kind enough to include um letters that were sent from the community as well uh as backup material as well, and then um a city manager uh bullock uh put together a presentation, which we will have as well by Mr.

Harvey.

And with all that information, I look forward to a very interesting um and thorough discussion.

Great.

Thank you.

We're going to hear presentations from these gentlemen after the presentations.

We've got several people who have requested members of the public have requested to speak, and then commissioners will have the opportunity to ask questions.

So I will turn the floor over to you, gentlemen.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Uh thank you, Commissioners.

Um about I guess it was December of 24.

Um we had discussions about uh what we felt with our our co-developer partner, we felt was a good opportunity to apply to the state for competitive funding to build additional affordable senior housing on the uh existing McCown Tower campus.

Um we applied and we did not get funding initially, but there were some challenges that people filed against one another.

We weren't party to it, but um the judge ruled in favor of the challenger, and it it ended up causing our application to get funded.

So uh we weren't expecting that, but uh lo and behold, we got 9.2 million dollars from the state uh to build 96 affordable uh elderly units where our current surface parking lot is.

And um so in order to do that, we're gonna have to build structured parking to park our existing 175 elderly residents and the 96 additional residents uh we plan to house on the site.

So um that's kind of the the plan.

Um it would be kind of in the middle would be the structured parking, and then the units would wrap around the garage along Coconut, then Boulevard of the Arts, and then turning on to Florida.

And um we're also planning about is it 5,000 square feet?

Yeah, 5,000 square feet of retail along Boulevard of the Arts, uh yet to be determined uh what or who would go in there.

Um so that's the plan.

Um thing I would note is that we did apply to the county for seven million dollars from their uh CDBG disaster recovery funds, what they call resilient SRQ.

And um, and these were last year's storms that they got funding from HUD for, and they set aside 30 million for affordable multifamily housing.

And so we submitted an application for seven million dollars to basically um make the new development there fully funded.

So I hopefully we're gonna circle back to it towards the end of this, but I would like to ask for the city's support for that almost regardless of what happens with the public parking component of it.

Um but I would love to have the city commission's formal support for that application because the county commission is planning to vote on that a week from tomorrow.

So you want to add anything?

Um, I'm Jake Zonima with uh Ford's Development Smith-Henzi group.

We're co-developers, and um I I know that uh Roxan has a uh presentation here about how the parking works, and so I think mainly I'm here to be able to feed back uh any questions that come out of this presentation and uh appreciate you guys hearing us.

Um final thing.

Um we were eager to have this as Commissioner Aaron Coach mentioned, put on your agenda because we really need kind of a clear indication from the city commission as to the public parking component because we really have to button this whole deal up.

And um, in fact, we have to submit uh uh credit underwriting report to the Florida Housing Finance Board this summer.

And so the deal has to be completely buttoned up, we're gonna have to submit, you know, for site plan approval with the city, permitting uh and have everything the the design completed.

We can't basically we can't complete the design until we know if we're gonna do 80 or 100 60 spaces of public parking.

And so that it just started becoming more and more urgent that we get some kind of indication from the city commission as to whether they wanted to pursue this or not.

And then I think by March or April or something to get final financial commitment for it.

But uh we really want to get some indication today so we know whether we'll go without it or keep planning for it.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Harvey.

Were you going to speak next?

Yes, I'm next.

Okay.

So before, if I can, Madam Mayor, before uh Broxton does the heavy lifting.

Um it seems like we've spent Thanksgiving and uh Christmas with William and his team on our weekly phone calls, and we got through a whole bunch of issues, and we got to the point now where it is a it is a real possibility if the if it makes sense to uh all the parties and the commission decides to move ahead, it it could actually happen.

We have to cross a bunch of thresholds to get there with his team and our attorneys and bond counsels and whatnot.

Um so then uh over his holiday, Broxton uh spent a fair amount of time looking at all the parking possibilities and tried to lay out a story for you that presents options if you choose to go in this direction and clarifies the financial situation under uh different circumstances that we would find ourselves in.

As you know, our parking garages don't cover their own debt and operating.

Uh and you know, we're working hard to try to make this one be the first one that that would do it, but it there's a lot of moving parts that uh we'll go over uh in the in the presentation.

So Broxton, why don't you kick it off and I'll only jump in when you need me to.

Mayor, before uh Mr.

Harvey gets started.

Could we clarify?

I have a lot of questions that apply to his presentation.

Do we want questions during or after Mr.

Harvey's presentation?

Well, theoretically, we're going to hear from citizens' comments before we have questions.

Thank you.

So one day, Mayor.

Can somebody turn the temperature up in here?

We made some adjustments.

It got cold when we all left.

I I'm not sure why, but uh hopefully it's gonna warm up a little bit.

Okay, uh excellent.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Uh, my name is Broxton Harvey.

I'm the general manager of parking for the city of Sarasota.

So today I'm going to be going over the Rosemary parking summary, which basically gives details of the what parking currently looks like in Rosemary and what it could potentially look like.

Sorry.

Okay.

So currently in Rosemary parking district, we have 555 on-street parking spaces.

Off-street parking spaces, which includes the hotels, the apartments, and all other parking is 4,412 for a total of almost 5,000, which is 4,967 total parking spaces.

What you see before you now is an actual map of Rosemary and the boundaries and the proximity to the Bay Park.

Um the inventory actually includes 63 on-street um blocks and an additional 74 off-street parking facilities.

So back in the end of the summer or the beginning of this fall, we uh procured Dixon Resources, which is a parking consultant.

They actually conducted a three-month parking survey of the Rosemary district.

And what they utilized to perform this the study was drone imagery, and they also use license plate recognition that my staff utilize on our LPR vehicles, license plate recognition vehicles, and they were able to come up with the occupancy levels for the Rosemary District.

And what they determined was that during the peak occupancy, and this is adjusted for seasonal conditions, parking in Rosemary was around about 88%.

So that's 4,371 occupied spaces out of the 4,937 that we um discussed earlier.

So when it's off season, the occupancy is approximately six sixty percent, which is two thousand nine hundred and eighty occupied spaces out of the four thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven.

So what the study found is that the need for that there is a need for an additional two hundred and sixteen parking spaces in the Rosemary District.

So how do we um you know address parking in Rosemary?

So it's not just about building a parking deck, they are different options for you know coming and creating and assisting with the parking.

And part of that of is one of three.

Uh the first one is going to be shared parking agreements with private facilities to expand public available parking.

So that's basically public um parking uh offering public parking um on site.

The next one would be strategic strategic investment in publicly managed parking spaces, which is what we're here to talk about today, which is McAuan Towers, public parking components, and the third option is parking management measures such as um calibrated time limited demand based parking prices to assist in turnover and peak season curb side pressure.

So again, we're gonna be talking about the second one, which is which is strategic investment and publicly managed spaces.

On this is a aerial view of the current state of McCowan Towers.

Um there are two towers, correct?

And there's a surface lot, and that surface lot is where the new project is going to go with the 96 um units and the parking garage.

And here's another concept rendering, and you can kind of see that the roof of the parking deck is kind of exposed, and again, as Mr.

Russell stated, that the units are going to basically wrap around the parking structure in a parking deck.

So what we were tasked with is basically to identify a resolution for the parking shortage in Rosemary District.

Um, the housing authority is proposing a possible 80 to 160 um public parking space options within the McCowan Tower Garage.

Um based on the study, 80 parking spaces addresses the baseline model shortfall for parking currently.

160 spaces, which would be the maximum number that this project could offer for public parking, uh, provides additional spaces for future growth, day-to-day variability, and occasional spillover from the nearby destinations, such as the Bay Park.

Again, um the housing authority can uh offer the City of Sarasota the option of two levels of public parking.

Approximately 80 spaces per level.

Um the public parking area of the garage is yet to be designed, and the placement of the public parking spaces is yet to be determined, whether it's going to be in the upper the the top two floors or the bottom two floors.

Um what we have to take into account is going to be the mobility and the ease of the access when determining which levels which would be per public and which will be private.

Um the project will be a mixture of public parking and residential for McCown residents.

The estimated cost is $50,000 per space for the parking structure, and that would be for one level that would be $4 million for 80 spaces, and for two levels, that would be 160 spaces at $8 million.

Again, this is a concept of what the design is going to look like.

I know I stated that every level had 80 spaces.

That was almost true.

The first level is the only one that would be a little short.

It will have 74 parking spaces on the first level.

But the next slide is what every level from the second to the fourth floor would look like with 80 parking spaces.

On the financing side, there I'll weigh in here.

We had our financial advisor and bond council review.

What are our options for generating the estimated cost of these things?

And we ran two options, 15-year and 20-year.

And understand you have some garages financed at 15 years and some at 20.

So we ran those two options just so we had it.

This this would uh these are estimates of the interest rates and and basically what it would cost.

And the quick summary is a 15-year is about 700,000 a year, and uh the 20 years about 600,000 a year.

We won't hit these numbers precisely, but they're pretty close.

So as we go through this, you'll hear references to uh what the debt service is.

It's roughly uh uh the you know somewhere between those two numbers.

So those were or were the numbers of actually the cost of the the building of the parking spaces.

Um we have to go now look at exactly what are the existing conditions inside of Rosemary.

Um currently Rosemary has 555 again unmetered on-street parking spaces.

However, only 276 of those on-street spaces have commercial frontage.

Um, the other half that create the 555 are residentials, and we kind of want to stay away from putting meters inside of residential areas.

Um the current downtown on-street rate for on-street parking is a dollar and fifty per hour, $1.50 per hour.

The operating hours are from 10 a.m.

until 8 p.m.

City operated three-hour parking lot in Rosemary.

We have 39 parking spaces on 5th Street, and there are also two private lots which are approximately 107 parking spaces, um 81 that are immediately behind Rosemary Square and 26 at the northeast corner of Boulevard of the Arts and Cohen Way.

So we also want to look at what does paid parking in the garage look like if we keep on-street parking free in Rosemary.

Um there's a question of the garage's ability to cover its annual debt and operating costs.

Um, the possible low usage of the garage if on-street spaces remain free or time restricted.

What we're looking at is how many people actually go inside of a parking garage and pay for it if you can park on the street for free.

So it has to be some type of compromise between on-street and the garage rates.

Um, if we were to only charge into the garage, charge in a garage and keep on-street free.

Um, there's a possibility to lose or reduce the revenues by 25 to 30 percent based on that, and also we have to look at if we ever have any type of storm impacts as well that could also affect the caught the revenues inside of the garage as well.

So if we look at installing meters and charging for the 276 spaces that have commercial um frontage, um, that's gonna be one option.

And also the current garage permits right now, they're $20 per month.

Um, we're gonna look at maybe adjusting that in our future slide.

Um, the number of permits that we're anticipating to be inside of the parking garage is about 80 permit holders.

So these are gonna be the next 10 or 12 slides, are gonna basically discuss what type of rates will we actually need to be able to be successful in paid parking in the Rosemary District.

So the proposed McAuan revenues for 160 spaces, which is two levels at our current rate of $1 an hour, just like it is a state street and Palm Avenue Garage.

And if you look at the two columns, it's separated, and the reason that it's separated is Monday through Thursday, our hours go until 12 midnight.

And the reason that it's separated is Monday through Thursday, our hours go until 12 midnight.

And on Fridays and Saturdays, we go until 2 a.m.

So we had to kind of make those adjustments to basically show the difference in the revenues.

And what you're looking at at the lower numbers of the 70% and the 60%, those are the compliance percentages.

So these are actually people that come in and actually pay and don't try to skip out on parking.

And it could be a little bit higher, but these are the averages throughout the city.

So about 67%.

So that means that if I have 300 parking spaces, that you know, 200, which is 66, 67 percent, will be occupied at any given time.

So based on that, if we are to go at the same exact rate that we rate structure that we have right now in the garages, we will have about 401,000.

And again, that does not cover the cost on the other slide, which I think was about $600,000 for the for the payment to debt.

So if we were to go up to $1.50 an hour, now it goes up to $601,000 annually.

And again, that barely covers the debt, I think for the 20-year.

So where we are now is if we're to go to $2 an hour inside of the parking garage at Rosemary, that will net $802,000, which covers the cost of the debt, but it doesn't cover other annual cost.

But we now have to look at on-street metered parking to be able to offset the cost of having paid parking inside of Rosemary.

If you were to meter all 555 parking spaces inside of Rosemary, which I stated earlier includes residential, that would net 1.175 232 dollars.

But if we were to look at metering just 276 spaces, that would be $584,000.

And you couple that with the $800,000 from the two-hour parking, I think we're around about $1.3 million.

And if you go with $2 an hour on-street for $276 commercial parking spaces, that's going to be $279,253.

And I know I said it was going to be a lot of slides, but I want to give as many different rate structures as possible.

So $2.50 would be $974,000.

$2,075 would be one million seventy-one thousand four hundred and seventy-three.

And I'm stopping here at $3.

It'd be $1.168 million.

And that's just for on-street.

That does not include the garage.

So now we have to look at the actual current rosemary lot that the city owns behind Rosemary Square, which is 39 parking spaces.

And if we keep those rates the same as the city as right across the street here at First Street lot, and the judicial lot is $1 an hour.

So that lot would be able is making right now $55,000.

And that will go inside of go towards the repayment as well, possibly.

Annual permit parking, which we said we have we're going to anticipate about 80 of them, 19,200, and the city operated lot would be 55,000, which would be 1,059,000.

The proposed rate structure, which will be able to pay the debt, the annual cost associated with it, and have a type of contingency would be for $1.50 an hour, which is 50 cents more than what we currently at.

I'm sorry, yes, a month.

Thank you.

A month, and also to keep the city operated lot at the same, which would be $55,239, which gives us a grand total of about $1.4 million inside of the Rosemary District.

So there are costs that are going to be associated with it.

So in order to go on-street, if we decide to do the 276 parking spaces, that would be 25 pay stations, which would be $180, $87,500.

But if we go with the entire Rosemary District, which is the $555 spaces, that would be $375,000 for the meters.

They're $7,500 apiece.

LPR license plate recognition is $45,000.

A new enforcement vehicle would be $25,000.

The installation of the meters would be anywhere between $8750 to $17.5, depending on if we're doing $25 or 50 pay stations.

Post materials will be about $15,000, and one additional handheld and printer, and that's what the staff uses to enforce and write citations.

Depending on, again, if we were to meter part, a portion or all of Rosemary.

Now the annual costs, the ongoing costs are going to be the debt service of $700,000, a full-time employee to be in a Rosemary district is going to be $75,000.

The share possible share of the facility maintenance, elevator maintenance estimate will be about $30,000.

That includes the annual agreement and any other type of repairs that may need to be made.

Share of the facility insurance, estimated $12,000.

So Commissioners, all of these numbers are budget level numbers.

These are not here to tell you this is exactly what it's going to cost.

These are budget level numbers.

So I'd say we're probably within 20 percent, and I'm kind of making that up, but uh to give us some parameters.

So we're just not at the point we can give you a precise plan.

We can give you a uh a decent sense of what the costs and expenses would be, and that's what this represents.

So on the next slide, we've sort of laid out what we saw as sort of where are you?

What choices do you have?

You've got a lot of choices, but uh boil them down to um you can direct staff to proceed with further garage planning and coordination with the authority.

Do understand that's gonna carry with it some costs because they're gonna quickly go into the design mode, and and we're gonna need to pay our portion of that.

So I don't have a number on that today.

We've got some estimates, but um you know we're probably in the few hundred thousand dollar range for them to do a design that includes our two floors uh of uh of parking.

Uh you can direct us to bring back a plan for charging for the on-street parking uh when and if a garage opens.

You could direct us to bring back a plan to meter on-street parking without a garage, or you could tell us to just go away and do nothing.

Um so that's sort of the the overview and the summary.

We've tried to include enough information to give you, let you make an informed decision.

Uh, but all of it would mean coming back with a more precise plan, uh more accurate cost and revenue projections, uh, and of course uh integrating all of our work with the authority if you choose to follow that path.

That's your presentation, right?

Yes, that is it.

Thank you.

Uh and we will we have members of the public who have asked to speak, and we will defer commission questions until after they have spoken.

We have six people, no more.

Just more people who request this meet.

And I will invite the first five to come up.

Um Melissa Furman, Carl Williams, David Lowe, Valerie Bruchand, and Louise Mashinist.

And you each have five minutes, three minutes?

Five minutes.

This is a three minutes.

Three minutes.

This is not a public hearing.

Okay.

So each have three minutes.

And state your name and whether you're a city resident and if you are representing someone other than yourself.

And Ms.

Verman, you can begin.

Okay.

Well, actually, listening to the presentation, it's a no-brainer that the city cannot afford a parking garage.

And the residents and the people that uh do business in the rosemary cannot afford to lose their customers with paid parking on the streets.

But here's a few of my thoughts concerning the garage.

Um that uh also a few neighbors agree with.

The McCallan Towers Garage proposal will be on the table uh for vote January 5th.

That's uh this these are my notes.

Uh the City Commission meeting.

Um, in my opinion, not only residents of McCowan Towers will be negative negatively impacted with the addition of the proposed garage, but entire the entire immediate neighborhood will suffer.

The new construction will destroy the views and quality of life for not only the residents of the towers, but also the homeowners in the Rosemary District adjacent to the proposed garage.

Some of the last green space, animal habitat and road in the rosemary will disappear once the land is covered by volumes of concrete at the corner of Coconut Avenue, Boulevard of the Arts.

Potential crime traffic and trash issues may evolve once the garage is built.

Due to the transit nature of those using the garage at all hours of the day.

Not to mention that there's already a daily traffic jam on the Boulevard of the Arts between Coconut and Central, with cars idling for hours while children are picked up from school and events.

Do we need more cars than our quiet neighborhood?

The housing with the apartments, the size of the luxury hotel room was added as an afterthought to make the garage more palatable to sell to the city.

The original plans called for retail space.

There is no guarantee that the proposed structure will be only four stories, as I learned at a meeting that I attended at McCowan Towers, where Mr.

Russell's favorite developer stated that more garage floors could easily be added wink wink to the members of the Sarasota Housing Authority Board.

The Sarasota Housing Authority Board should spend their money improving and updating the properties that already exist, especially around 23rd Street off of Osprey Avenue.

Many of the um properties have been poorly updated, causing potential harm and danger to tenants, which was exposed by a competent whistleblower, and is under investigation.

Neither city nor the Sarasota Housing Authority should be in the parking garage business on the taxpayers' dime, especially when they can't properly address items already on their plate that need funding.

Most of the neighborhood has been kept in the dark over the garage that was proposed around two years ago.

There's no positive advantages to for the homeowners and the renters in the area to have a garage on Coconut Avenue.

The only winners will be the proposed exclusive.

Thank you.

Mr.

Williams.

Hello, my name is Carl Williams.

I'm one of the administrators for the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences.

With all due respect before I go on to my statement, I did want to clarify what the previous speaker said.

The uh car line for our school is uh there from 3.45 to 408 to be exact.

So it's not several hours.

Just wanted to clarify the time.

Let's round it up.

345 to 415.

Um I'm not sure if everyone is aware or not, but we own the property.

We uh about a year ago we purchased the property north of May Lane, um, currently called home resource.

Um we own that property.

Um we have a contract in place that we will start to build in about two and a half years.

Um we have not determined yet whether or not we are going to build an elementary school or if we are going to um build a perform in our theater.

However, that will be increased numbers, um, and in our opinion, it would actually warrant a need for more parking, because I can tell you as someone who has been with the Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences for 16 years now.

Um I have had a chance to see um some of those beautiful views that you talk about.

Um we had that before they built the condos right across the street.

Um it's just the nature of the beast right now of the way the world is going.

Um but for me as someone who tries to look at both sides of the street.

Uh I do think that additional parking would be needed.

I think you see it right now.

I wish I could blink an eye and we could have it done.

Um but knowing where our school is going in the next couple years and knowing that that's going to add even more traffic, um, I would definitely um urge you to consider the garage plan.

Um, you know, and again, you know, our school is a support.

Um, if there's anything that we can do to try to help with the process, um, we would actually be more than willing to meet with whom over whomever to do so.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mr.

Lowe.

I'm David Lowe.

I'm president of Disco and my head's spinning with all this information.

What I had prepared to talk about.

Um, let me let me try and wing it a little bit.

First of all, I think we all love the Rosemary as a unique neighborhood, social services, um, two hotels, two schools, and a real array of people.

Um, to the credit a lot of Sarasota Housing Authority, I think it's 27% of the dwelling units in the Rosemary are lower income or uh attainable.

Twenty, something like 27%.

That's crazy.

We have around 3,500 people now with this eclectic, vibrant destination, murals apart now.

And with that will come challenges.

Thank goodness that the housing authority has this project going on.

Were it not, heaven knows we kick the candor on the road, and you buy property potentially at 100-150 dollars a square foot, and you build a structure later on.

Here we have a chance to piggyback on with the Sarasota Housing Authority, add retail to activate and provide possibly my dream is a CVS mini miniature pharmacy or a small grocery store to service the neighborhoods.

It it isn't perfect, it's expensive.

When it comes to the um uh uh uh meters, I hate the idea.

But if it is ultimately decided that that is the method that's needed, I would you use that sparingly.

And one of the models I've looked at, and I know I would I would want to try and look at this downtown wide, not just the rosemary, right?

Sidewalk cleanliness is a major issue for our merchants.

And there are certain cities that take 5% or 10 percent, some percentage of the metered parking rate and allocate it to parking.

Now I don't know if there are bond covenants that would prevent that, but let's prevent that if we could sell this, that the parking, the paid parking has some benefit to the community, helps turn over and is a necessary evil.

I don't know how to do this.

I I'm troubled by it, but if that's the only alternative, I'd I'd wish for us to use it in a limited way.

I estimate the assessed valuation of the Rosemary Nile is probably a billion dollars.

So those are a lot of taxes coming in.

How to pay for this and whether parking should you know be self-funding or go into the general fund, I can't answer.

That's a philosophical question.

I hope you guys can discuss.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Valer Bouchon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

It's not a good afternoon, good afternoon, Queen.

All right.

Um sitting here speaking on behalf of our citizens at McCown Towers and it's and they are totally against public parking.

And at first, even the uh housing that is proposed to go there.

Now they settled, uh they got a little easy about the housing, but they only wanted parking for the residents.

They do not want public parking.

And many of them was wanted to be at this meeting, but they thought it was going to be at the house and authority.

That's why you don't see them here.

Um, because I did put out flies.

Because when this started, the residents should have been involved, however, they wasn't like everything else.

The decision is made, or they have uh made you know uh their plans and then the residents are the last ones to know.

But their quality of life is just as important as everybody else's quality of life because you put uh uh um a larger garage that is bad enough to have it in the center, you know, um, and don't know really how that's going to work.

But the fear of putting a public park in there wherein people can come in and out as we that's dangerous.

That's dangerous uh to the people because they are fearful and it should be taken into account that they do not want it.

Now all the businesses that's around there, they should have provided parking for their own business.

Why infinge on the low income again to provide for those that really can build their own?

So I I uh as you reject this.

Don't be part of this because the quality of life for our seniors are just as important as everybody else in this city of Sarasota that's famous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And uh Louise Mashinist.

Hi.

Uh the reason I'm here is that uh I'm a representative of the Unitarian Universalists of Sarasota, our social justice arm, uh, and as such I've been attending the Sarasota Housing Authority meetings.

Uh we have good relationships with not only with the Sarasota Housing Authority, but with individuals and other organizations in North Sarasota and you know many of the residents of uh SHA.

Uh so I've been going to the meetings for months as Commissioner A.

Hearn Kotch sees me there, and uh I've been listening to residents' concerns, so I'm I'm here to echo some of the things that Valerie has already said.

Uh I sent you all a letter by email, so I'm actually here to ask you to read my letter.

I'll just mention a couple of the main points.

Uh but it's it's really the fact that residents are concerned about security in particular.

Uh they wonder how will safety be assured in this mixed public-private parking lot.

Uh how will they be sure that there's not going to be noise, alcohol and drug abuse, people living in the parking garage, these a lot of many are elderly and disabled people who are going to be prone, you know, easy prey to crimes in the parking lot, not to mention other disruptions, you know, noise, litter, people taking their parking spaces.

Uh and it it's shocks me because I know that there are some higher price condos in the city that do have public parking mixed in there with their private parking lots, but nobody has addressed any of the facts about how how can this actually be designed to allay the concerns of the residents?

This has been talked about in the vague, very vague, indistinct terms that people have raised questions.

Uh I think that unless there's a way to design this project to answer the concerns and alleviate the concerns of the residents that you should scrap this idea.

Uh for example, adding two more floors and uh Valerie mentioned quality of life, that's a real concern.

We looked at the picture.

Would you want to live where there's a very high parking deck facility right in the middle of your uh you know your residential structure, or would you rather just have one with two levels that is enough parking for the residents themselves?

But it's mostly security concerns, uh the distance that residents might have to go from their cars to the elevators to the building.

Uh it should be designed with quality of life of the people who reside there, and I actually think there's also a respect component of this.

I I am this is my supposition, but from hearing people talk, I think that it's like, yeah, again, this is going to be dumped on us.

What about the rich people living in all the other high-priced condos in the area?

Are they forced to share their space with others?

And I think that we we should uh think of these residents with respect and answer their concerns.

And if you can't, don't do the project.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And we have one more person who has requested to speak.

Melissa Laughlin.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Melissa Laughlin, Rose or Sarasota resident, Rosemary District resident, and president of the Resume District Association.

Thank you to everyone who was working over the holidays, first of all, to William Russell, to the city staff, and to all of the commissioners probably taking input on this important topic.

I'm here on behalf of the Rosemary District Association, and we are unanimously in favor of this project.

It has been something that's been on the radar screen for five years to help solve the parking issues of the neighborhood.

As David pointed out, we're a vibrant neighborhood.

We are the most densely populated neighborhood, and we have the most economic diversity thanks to Sarasota Housing Authority and others.

So to keep that going, we've run into a problem, and parking parking demand exceeds the supply.

And we want to have a thriving workforce that is also there.

We want diversity in age and workforce as well.

And we see parking as important infrastructure that supports the economy of the neighborhood, but also of the city.

I think we all know there's so much more development happening, and we've got to also plan for that.

So we think multiple uh solutions are needed.

Um why this project and why now?

One, we have a ready and willing partner right now.

We have a nearly shovel ready project.

It's the only option on the table right now.

Number two, this is an irreplaceable location.

This is right in the heart of our business district.

It serves connectivity to other neighborhoods as well.

Um and so for those reasons, we really see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really make a difference for the future of the neighborhood.

Now there are trade-offs and concerns which I think are valid and have to be addressed as part of this.

The residential concerns are very important safety, security, noise, accessibility, and quality of life.

Those are critical, and we believe can be addressed, and there's many examples of that in the city as well as outside the city.

They can be addressed through the design process with appropriate interaction with the neighbors, which has to, and residents, which has to take place.

We are only in favor of this project if those can be addressed.

So in short, I think right now we've got a willing partner.

We've got an ideal location, and we've got a near shovel ready project.

Let's make this happen.

Thank you very much.

And uh we'll invite you back, the our gentleman, Mr.

Harvey, Mr.

Russell, and I'm sorry I forgot your name and our commissioners, I am sure have questions.

And I'm waiting to see who pushes the button first.

Okay, Commissioner Batti, you're first up.

Uh thank you.

Wound up in here.

Uh thank you very much for your uh presentation and so on.

One of the things that, you know, I asked the question or what have you, is um I would like to ask, you know, our our um parking czar, if you will, you know, this Mr.

Harvey.

uh Harvey someone spoke about you know uh in I'll try and shred lightly here when especially talking about the installation of spirit because of fear which and someone said about how to you know allay the the the fear concerns and the way you do that is not to instill it you know so we're talking about safety concerns in uh this structure if there's going to be public parking in there are there safety concerns in all of our other garages in the city not for my standpoint from my standpoint we have staff that's there from 7 a.m until midnight uh we have cameras um our staff does patrols and we monitor um if there's anything going on inside the garages that should not be going on uh we trespass um anyone that that that is there that shouldn't be there that's doing something that they shouldn't be doing so again we have staff that's there to attend to those type of uh of concerns okay yeah because you know he's talking about maybe someone said something about people living in there um living living in the garages and you know drug use and all of this kind of stuff you know um so what what what floors are we talking about you know when it comes to the public parking and in in the city and so on um so for rosemary y yes so for rosemary right now it hasn't been determined um I mean there's preferences um but in my mind the way I would envision it is that it will be separated by some type of barrier or gate that the residents have to go behind before that date where they get to their parking um and the public will just be um open so sort of like um for example the mark so the mark you go inside the mark is public parking it's retail parking and then we get to a certain level there's a gate and only the residents can go inside of that gate.

So that's the way I would like to see it but of course design would have to take place and we have to kind of figure out if we're gonna be on the upper levels or we're gonna be on the lower levels.

Okay.

So you know especially when we're talking about take in taking the uh surface parking and turn it into a parking garage and Mr Russell I mean being that this is you all's you know property with the surface parking there is this there now and um that exists how much is that occupied you know um on a day to day basis or or what have you it varies but at night it's pretty pretty fully occupied.

Okay.

So you're gonna need more parking or what have you and so on.

Because I myself you know as a representative of District one having lived in every neighborhood in District one I take pride in that I grew up right there on Central Coconut.

I just grew up on coconut.

So when I used to go down coconut on my skateboard or me and my friends used to ride down coconut on our bikes you could actually see the the water from Boulevard of the arts and coconut because the public library was right there.

All right but guess what can't see it no more because there is a development in a structure sitting there with some of the people that are sitting here complaining about like not being able to see things live in that same dagger development so you didn't have a problem when you when you took a mortgage out on there or whatever.

So but I can't I can't see that now so how many floors are we talking about in in in this whole this I think it's four four four.

The residential structure before and then depending on whether we have three levels or four levels or you know potentially five levels of parking deck.

Okay with you said about five thousand square feet of retail space?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

All right so I mean and you know with the need for parking over in um Rosemary and as you said you know Mr Mr.

Lowe comes to us all the time and gives us all the numbers in terms of the amount of units that are going to be coming popping up in that area of what's going on with the Bay or whatever what what would you suggest because I know with our other garages that we have an issue with them being occupied particularly occupied you know to to the uh to capacity or whatever and they're not being used you know um how are we going to push that in into into these parking spaces?

Um so the way that you can actually have the garages to be utilized correctly is to make sure that the rates are correct, right?

So if the which we do currently now have the rates on street higher, but I don't think they're higher enough.

They're high enough to actually push people inside of the garages.

So you just have to make sure that the rates are correct.

So if the rates are correct, people won't want to pay uh twice as much to park on the street as they do inside a garage.

So rates actually, to answer your questions, rates on street would determine and push occupancy levels higher inside of the garages.

Okay.

All right.

Um those are my my my questions for right now, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for that information.

Thank you.

Commissioner Alpert.

Okay.

I didn't expect to be the second one up.

So the parking lot the with the 39 spaces that we're charging a dollar an hour.

Um if we do this and put on street parking and garage parking, why would we keep that at a dollar an hour?

Actually, you know what?

That may have been an error.

That actually is not a dollar now.

It's three it's three hours right now.

So but I want it to be one dollar an hour, which is currently what?

Well, that's what it currently is downtown, so I kind of left it as that, but we can always look at increasing it as well.

Um but what we want to do is um we might have to look at actually increasing that so we won't have people parking there, you know, versus inside the garage if we were to go um for it with the garage.

But um, yeah, definitely the garage is I mean the lot right now is packed with just timed parking, which is three hours max, and we also have permits inside of that lot as well.

So we have about 39 spaces, we have about 20 permit holders, and everyone else that comes there, they basically park um for three hours and they go on and park somewhere else.

Okay.

Do you know how much they're charging for the private lots?

It's like um, if I'm not mistaken, six dollars, six to eight dollars an hour.

An hour.

Okay.

Um what about the um security concerns?

You said you know, we do have cameras or not, and we have um, you know, we have some high-end buildings in the city.

I mean, we look at the Sonovas Bank building, garage, they have public parking and they have private parking.

They have in the mark, we have public parking and private parking.

Sure.

Um so isn't there a way to design it to alleviate any of those concerns about the safety?

Definitely again with staff.

We have staff there pretty much from the opening to close barrier gates.

We have um cameras that are in place that we can actually monitor and look at and see if there is anyone that's that's there that shouldn't be there.

So um we do have measures in place to you know address those concerns, but again, we don't have major issues inside of our garages, maybe skateboarders, maybe someone on the roof um, you know, trying to take pictures when they shouldn't be taking pictures, but those are the main concerns.

Um nothing um since I've been here, we really haven't had any major um issues inside of our public garages that I can that I can recall right now.

Well, don't they have in the in the um you know, like again, like the Snogas Bank building, they have a private area, they have a separate entrance.

So you go in the garage and the public part is on the lower floors, and then there's a separate gates that you have to have a you know, uh I guess a fob for or a card or something in order to get in to where the residents park, correct?

That is something that I suggested, but of course that's with the design.

Um can they both be on the same side?

Can one be on coconut entrance, one can be on Florida?

So it just depends on how the design goes, but that would be ideal.

But that can all be addressed, in other words.

So uh let's see.

I think um the the looking out on the parking deck.

Um I know that's a uh a little cheaper.

I don't know that it's possible to add a roof there in that area.

Um is that something that could be considered, but so that they're they're looking at a roof instead of a parking lot.

Now they're looking at a parking lot right now, so I mean um, you know, we have to remember that as well.

That why was it designed without a roof?

I think just cost factors.

Yeah.

Priority is short, which is why we're applying to the county.

Okay.

That's that's kind of what uh what I figured, and yeah, and um it's I understand it's not the ideal, but right now that's what they're looking at as parking lots.

So those are my questions for now.

Okay.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

remember that as well but why was it designed without a roof I think just cost factors yeah priority short which is why we're applying to the county okay that's that's kind of what I what I figured and yeah and um it's I understand it's not the ideal but right now that's what they're looking at as parking lot so those are my questions for now okay thank you Vice Mayor thank you uh I was going to ask about um existing garages that have public and private parking in them can you tell us about how many there are I I I don't have the information on me right now but I do know that there's at least two if two with the Senovas and the mark and Whole Foods oh sorry Whole Foods correct the State Street and the garage above the fifth third bank I know is a combination at five points sure uh so about four maybe six or so I would say about five okay with that yes um I have a couple questions that aren't related to parking but related to chatter that's been out there that I just like to get on the table and talk about what is the relationship between the housing authority and the city of Sarasota is the housing authority a city department how does that work we're not a city department um but under state law um so we were originally chartered by the city of Sarasota back in 1938 as a housing authority so therefore we are considered a municipal housing authority and in the state of Florida you can either be a municipal housing authority or a county housing authority and if you're a county housing authority the governor appoints your board and if you're a municipal housing authority the mayor of the city appoints your board so the relationship essentially is that the mayor appoints our board but other than that we're an independent quasi governmental nonprofit and we don't get funding I mean we get the city has supported redevelopment efforts in the past but we don't get ongoing funding from the city budget we don't get ongoing funding from the county budget and we don't get ongoing funding from the state budget either and so I was going to ask where do you get your money it depends but mostly from HUD.

Mostly from what?

The U.S.

Department of and speaking of HUD is the Sarasota Housing Authority currently under investigation by HUD?

No.

You're not no okay thank you um so referring to your presentation Mr Harvey so we're pro we may uh move forward to ask you to come up with a plan currently we don't have enough information to make a decision but would your plan include a recommendation for 20 or 15 year financing would you have a preference that that would be up to the to the commission but but if I had a preference again yeah I would say that would be up to the commission and will you come with a preference?

With a recommendation yes.

Okay.

Sorry my notes are on my pages of your annual permit parking is currently 20 dollars a month.

Throughout the city yes throughout the city downtown do you have um the amount in other cities that you can compare is 20 dollars a month what most cities have or would 30 be more aligned?

So two two years ago I actually had the survey I did a survey and I came to commission with the recommendation of increasing the rates well I'll have to do is get do another one but I would say that looking into a public facility that's for employees we're low but the 30 would be more in line but I I still don't think it's where it should be but I would definitely have um comparables to be able to show you between all the other Central Florida cities.

And it's much lower than it costs in New Jersey right?

Oh way more I mean sorry less way less thank you those are my questions for now mayor thank you Commissioner Aher and Kutch Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation so um I I just wanted to um put this out there and just state this first and foremost is that um since I'm on the commission um eight nine years we're going on um the big topic when I was running for my first election was uh parking and we subsidized parking and should we put in the meters?

Um the big topic when I was running for my first election was uh parking, and we subsidized parking, and should we put in the meters?

Do we put them in, we took them out, we put them in, we took them out, we put them in, we take them out.

The whole room, everybody was divided between yes parking meters, no parking meters, they work, they don't work.

It was a big huge topic.

And we were uh made a presentation, it was one of the first votes uh I took, I remember.

And um we were told the citizens subsidize the parking department, which typically you hope that you don't have to subsidize your parking department.

But we were told if we put in parking meters, we would not have to, citizens would not have to subsidize the parking department anymore.

That was in 2017.

We're still subsidizing the parking department.

We're still putting in meters.

The community was against it, they didn't like it, they didn't want it, the businesses neither.

But we also didn't like subsidizing the parking department.

So for me, I'm very concerned about continuing this trend.

This trend of putting in parking meters to make our parking department whole, because we keep doing things and it's not happening.

And I'm not blaming you, Mr.

Harvey, because I know there are things that are out of your control, like hurricanes and COVID and things like that.

However, um the city keeps supporting reduced parking requirements for developers, which puts the burden on the taxpayers, the citizens.

And then we build more parking garages and we put in meters with the hopes of paying for it, and it's not working out.

So it's a concern to me that we keep putting this burden on the taxpayers again and again and again.

And I know we do it, the reasons why we do it.

Uh, but it's a concern to me that we're just not getting the department in the black.

And so I wanted to get that out there, is that um that's one major concern for me.

So in the projections you gave us, what is the total cost of the proposal?

Fifteen years, 20 years, including the debt service.

That's one major question I have.

Um my other question has to do with um page five of the minutes that we have for the from the housing authority from the minutes of um October 22nd.

Um Commissioner Meredith made a motion to proceed with the added level for parking garage.

And we're talking about two levels.

All the numbers are two levels when the board voted for one level.

So I'm curious how we are examining numbers of two levels.

So the the numbers for the two levels because of the the what the study came back for was you know that we needed 216 parking spaces.

So if we have the opportunity to get close to what the need is, the the closest would be to 160, which would be the two levels.

Now, if you want us to, we can't always come back and look at the numbers and crunch the numbers for the uh one level, which would be 80 spaces.

I'm just curious because that's what the board approved was one level, not two.

So if we have our hearts and we have a discussion and we have our minds set on two levels, and that board only voted for one, and we're having this discussion, and Mr.

Russell takes it back to the board, and they say, no, we said one level.

Why are they coming back to us with two?

I just wanted this commission to know that uh it seems like the conversation is this, right?

They approved this, and we are talking at this.

So I'm I'm curious about that.

And I um you know, I just don't want us to have a conversation that's not in alignment with what the housing authority is.

I I know the last conversation that we had is that we were offered up to two levels.

So even I know they are mayor approved one level, but we were offered up to two levels of the year.

Their motion, and I was at that meeting, which is why I know the motion was for one level and that there would be some financial input from the city to the housing authority.

I don't think we've discussed that at this point in time, what that would be, but that was also part of their motion that the city could that this be the reason why this was entertained was that um it would provide parking for those businesses on the ground floor, so that makes sense.

But there would also be uh some kind of a financial gain for the housing authority, which I'm not really sure.

Are we talking about that at all here?

Anybody?

No, that conversation has not been had.

Because those numbers should be considered by this Commission as well.

We've we've approached it in our conversations.

But is it part of the numbers that we have here?

We don't have a payment to the housing authority in here.

We have an estimate of maintenance, but you know, we haven't really none of us would tell you as I started this discussion that the numbers before you are are exactly what we're gonna see.

We have to negotiate design, we have to figure out uh you know how to how does everyone get access, how do we keep the separation?

I understand that, Mr.

Bulk, and I don't mean to be rude, but just I have a limited time here.

And I just wanted to say see in the in the motion, it says proceed with the added level for the parking garage if a financial arrangement can be made.

And I know that was part, a deep part of their discussion was they were entertaining this because there would be some kind of a financial arrangement made where the housing authority rightfully so would want some kind of a financial incentive.

It doesn't serve their residents to have the public parking in their development.

It serves the housing authority if they get some kind some kind of a financial arrangement.

And I don't know if that's part of our numbers that we're being given here, or that's a line item that's been considered.

We'll I'll defer that to William as to the relationship with the Housing Authority Board.

Okay, I'm a little confused by that answer.

So I guess the answer is no, we're not considering what that financial arrangement would be.

If you're asking, is there a payment to the housing authority?

We don't there is no payment in the on slide 29, there's no line item for a payment to the housing authority.

We have estimates.

The reason I said we're estimating maintenance is you know it's likely we're gonna pay a good chunk of the maintenance.

And we've we have informally talked about that.

Uh while we can't write them a check, we might be able to cover part of the larger maintenance uh issues for the for theirs and ours, it's going to be you know essentially one structure.

And some of the common areas, elevators like that.

Okay.

So on page 12 and 13 of your presentation, Mr.

Harvey, you have the estimated costs for $8 million, 15-year and 20-year.

So am I to understand that if you do, for example, the um let's just do the 20-year at $8 million, which assumes two levels of parking, that's um $600,000 annual services, which would be over 20 years about $11 million.

So does that make the total project cost $19 million, almost $20 million?

Or do I misunderstand that?

Um, it will be the $8 million plus the interest.

Which would be $11 million, so a total project cost of about $19 million?

No?

How much is it then?

Sorry, no app.

Yeah, looking at that slide, it shows interest costs of $3 million eight hundred and fifty-five.

Okay, so then the total project cost is eleven million.

It would be $800 million plus uh $3.8.

So $11.8.

Okay.

So we so about um 11 million, right?

Almost $12.

Yeah.

Right.

Almost $12 million.

Okay.

So that's the total project cost is $12 million.

Well, that's the debt cost.

Right?

Yes.

So and understand, I'll I'll say it one more time.

Well, maybe more than once.

Uh we're using $50,000 of space as a planning number, because that's as close as we can get right now.

And we've all sort of agreed seems to be a reasonable number.

Um can't guarantee you it won't be higher, can't guarantee you it won't be lower.

Okay.

All right.

Um then I wanted to ask about the metered parking.

Were the businesses in Rosemary consulted about this?

I mean, do how do they feel about having meters?

Um does when you when you met or just which is your preferences metering just the commercial, not the residential, sure.

Won't that push the people who want to park and run into the place and come back out, won't they circle around and park in a residential spot, which would mean that the residents now are being forced out of their own free parking spaces?

Won't that impact the residents there?

Uh no.

Um to answer your question, the conversation has not been had because we haven't gotten to that point because we haven't gotten a go-ahead to move forward.

But as far as if you meter them, meter parking just creates turnover the same way I mean we have two-hour parking that creates turnover as well.

But the the concern is is that if you have free parking on the street, who's going to pay to go inside of a garage?

Yeah.

I mean I would.

I prefer parking in a garage.

But I'm just my my concern is that if you if you have 500 on-street parking spots more or less, right?

And you only meter the commercial ones and you don't meter the residential ones.

The people who live there that park in the residential spots, they're gonna people will drive around in in a free spot before they will pay, right?

Well, it's about convenience.

I mean, if a person is willing to walk two blocks or three blocks to go to their favorite coffee shop, or would they rather just pay a dollar fifty an hour or or or or or or less?

So it just depends.

Um a lot of people pay for convenience.

Okay.

Um then as far as concerns for for um Okay, actually I should ask Mr.

Russell.

That's okay.

Mr.

Russell, what is the benefit to the housing authority aside from providing parking for the commercial businesses?

What is the what is the benefit to the residents of the housing authority by having the public parking in a parking garage?

Um, I mean, one potential benefit would be that if they need extra parking for visitors or guests or whatever that they could potentially park in the additional parking spaces as well.

So other than that.

I can't think of much.

Okay.

Okay.

Um my turn.

Uh I I'm thinking we might be a little bit jumping the gun.

My understanding of this agenda item was to get a commitment from the commission to whether or not we want to um get you to provide public parking in the new McCown Towers North Tower.

And that we should be expecting between now and March to work out details of how much it would cost, what would be the plan for paying for it?

Would it be charging in the garage, charging on the street, charging wherever, what about prices, but not really getting into that detail today, but more is does it seem feasible and do we want to proceed?

This is my understanding of what this agenda item was supposed to be.

So that's I'm correct on that.

Yes.

Yes.

We just need direction.

Do we continue or do we stop or do we look at something else?

Okay.

So if I've got concerns, questions about gee, I don't think we should be paying there, but we should be charging here.

That would be between now and March, we can work out those details and get recommendations.

We can bring you back a parking plan that looks more precise, uh, gives you some recommended rates, both in and out of the garage, and uh Broxton can do a little, I mean, uh, you know, literally he's done this in a matter of a couple days over the holidays.

So uh and I appreciate his work.

But we will we can make it more precise.

Great.

Thank you.

Um just a couple of detailed questions for your presentation for the uh parking survey, you cited 4,096 seven spaces total.

And I'm wondering, are they all publicly accessible or were you also counting spaces that are behind locked gates within the residential towers?

That is correct.

That that is every parking space inside of Rosemary, whether it's locked, whether it's not accessible, whether it's accessible, every single parking space in a rosemary in that 63 block radius.

Because I'm aware of a lot of vacancies in the locked unaccessible and also that what you are referring to as residential parking is being filled by people who are going to restaurants, so consequently the service workers and visitors to those residential buildings have no place to park, despite there not being any parking meters.

So that's a different situation.

Now then the other thing in that survey, was there any attempt to differentiate between public parking and parking for guests to that residential building?

Sure.

No.

So when they use the drone imagery, it's just occupancy levels.

So they just basically go through and they can see from an aerial view how many actual spaces are being utilized.

And we also utilize our LPR vehicle that rides around the city and peing's license plates.

So we were able to go through and it maps and was just able to only able to show parking spaces that are being occupied.

It can't separate if they're not a couple of things.

Oh no, they they're only on the streets.

Those occupancy numbers, they got they got data from the planning department and the occupancy of the buildings, and that's how they came up with the numbers for the off-street but as far as the on-street numbers, those were the drones and the LPR that we drive on the street or we actually look down from.

Okay.

And then there are 12 parking spaces that are available to people who don't have a fob.

And in theory, they are for guests of residents, but who knows?

So, you know, that's that's another thing that I think needs to be in the calculation.

Um I got a couple of things for you to consider when you're working on the numbers to come back to before March.

Um first of all, Sunday.

Currently, you're only safety enforcing parking on Sunday.

Correct.

If we charged on Sunday, I'll bet our revenues from parking would go up way, way high because it would be probably at least as much as what we collect on Saturday.

So I'm I would like to see what you think we would collect on Sunday and how much it would cost you to do that in terms of personnel, et cetera, et cetera.

But I think that's something we really need to know.

I I actually did kind of look at it from a high level over the holiday weekend.

Um the only one thing I would say we would have to consider is yeah, I would I would say you would think that it would be close to Saturday, but more than likely it'd be closer to a Monday.

And the reason I would say that is because Sundays, a lot of businesses are closed or they have reduced hours.

So we have to take that into account as far as Sundays.

See, I'm in Rosemary.

Our businesses are restaurants and and people visiting their friends.

So I don't think that makes that much of a difference.

Um then the other one is it would be interesting for us to hear the differential between maintenance expenses if the garage were free.

So you wouldn't have to put in the uh the license plate readers, uh, you know, you and the whatever, and the pay stations, and it would probably reduce the ongoing maintenance.

So what would be the differential if we made the garage free?

Um, you know, the s the you know what wouldn't we have to be paying for?

I think that would be valuable information because one of the things in a previous parking discussion, it was street parking in front of where you want to go is more desirable than parking in a garage two blocks away.

So why do we charge more to park in the undesirable garage space than in the desirable street space?

So, you know, let's look at that.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

So those were my questions for right now, and I see for the second round we had the vice mayor.

Thank you.

Um just one question.

If we um ask you to proceed with further planning, will you come back with to us with information as to how other cities do and how we could account for unmetered parking in residential areas?

I just recall, I think in Milwaukee, where they have permit only.

And all the residents who live there have a sticker on their car.

And unstickered cars can be enforced.

Don't we have that in St.

Armands?

I don't know.

But anyway, you'll come back with to us with that information.

Yes.

So yes.

How other cities do their residential and possibility on metered?

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Alpert.

I don't really have any more questions.

I was going to advocate for moving ahead for all the reasons Melissa Laughlin gave.

We've got this opportunity.

We need the parking spaces.

I think we should ask them to move ahead with uh 160 spaces.

I don't see how one extra floor, if it's it's not higher than the existing project would impact the residents anymore.

It would be the same issues whether they're 80 or 160.

And 160 is closer to what we need and is planning for future.

So did anybody have any more questions?

Otherwise, I'm ready to do that.

Well the Commissioner A.

Hern Koch and Commissioner Batti are up on the other.

Me?

You're next.

Okay.

Mr.

Harvey, is this the only option for more parking in the Rosemary District?

Are there other options out there for for the city?

We're having very preliminary discussions with another property owner.

They're prelim they're really early, but we've started those.

Okay.

So this isn't the only option then?

Uh right now.

Right now.

You know, these kinds of things look like they have potential, then they crater, then they, you know.

So but we are having preliminary discussions.

Okay.

All right.

Um and then um is this would this parking be just for the rosemary, or would it for the rosemary residents and the businesses?

I guess along the lines of the permit situation, or would it also be for the bay or the future performing arts center or for anyone, or would it be limited to just the businesses?

So public parking is public parking.

Okay.

So anyone that if you wish to park there and walk to the Gator Club you you can.

Okay.

Um but yeah, it is open to the public.

Okay.

Um and then so the information you gave the percentages of the on-street parking that you gave in your presentation.

Um, where was the occupancy rate of that?

Um the peak occupancy was 88 percent.

Yes.

I I was I don't think I I think I misunderstood your presentation.

So is that that's the fourth that's all the 5,000, or that's just the on-street?

That's all.

So what is the on do you have a percentage for the on-street parking only?

Not not here with me.

Um I could go and get it from the previous.

Because that would be the most interesting piece of all of this, I think.

Um to know that situation.

And what is your um off-season conversion factor that you do for when you're calculating the parking?

Is it what is the conversion factor?

Do you know?

Sure.

Um I would have to again go look at the um the study.

I can actually provide that study, um, but all of that information should be inside of there and and it's a formula, but I don't have it right here in front of the.

Okay.

Just curious what that conversion factor is.

Um then um for some of the residents in that have been talking to us um in Burns Court and in downtown and other areas of the city.

Have we had conversations with them?

I know Burns Court has been talking about having a parking garage for about 20 years now.

Um have we had any discussion with them about this or or any other area?

I think you and I met it when you were first hired.

It was in your first week or your second week, and we were over there in Burns Court, and and the residents and the businesses were talking about how they've been asking for parking solutions for a while.

Do we have any any idea of what's going on there with those folks?

Sure.

So uh with that, I actually reached out to the owners of that lot, because the city used to operate that lot on the corner of Orange and Laurel.

Right.

Maybe like four or five years ago, and then sort of we ended that agreement because they were going to have a development.