The Venice City Council met on July 8, 2025, from 9:00 AM to approximately 12:00 PM (with an executive session at noon). The meeting began with a tribute to retiring City Manager Ed Lavallee, followed by public comments, consent agenda, multiple public hearings on land use changes, new business presentations, and council reports. Key votes included approval of a new Planned Public Hospital District zoning (6-1) and setting of preliminary millage rates (6-1).
All right, if I can get everyone to take their seats, we're gonna call this meeting to order. Okay. Wow. Um as everyone knows, today is Ed's last meeting with the council, so there's gonna be some some things happening here in the very beginning that might be a little untraditional, especially to him, um, which makes me very happy that I get to throw some more curveballs at him today. We have an executive session at noon, and I will start with our roll call and then we'll move on from there. Mr. Engelkey. Mrs. Frank. Here, Mr. Howard. Here, Mr. Smith. Here. Mr. Weed. Here. Vice Mayor Bolt. Here. Mayor Pechota. Here. And we'll stand for the invocation. And of course, today's pledge will be led by Mr. Lavelli. It's okay. And with it is with gratefulness that we accept the task before us. We ask you to bestow your blessings on all who live in or visit our beautiful city of Venice. Amen. Amen. One nation. Liberty. All right. Ed, if I could get you to go join your family in the front of the room. There's oddly enough a seat uh vacant next to your wife. All right, and then before I join you guys out in the audience, I'm going to just real quick, I want to talk about a presentation that was done earlier this year for Ed. So City Manager Ed La Valley received the Michael J. Roberto Award for Career Development from the Florida City and County Management Association on May 30th at the Florida City and County Management Association annual conference in Orlando. This award recognizing recognizes an FCCMA member who has made a significant contribution to the development of new talent in professional local government management. Ed's mentorship and leadership have helped shape many careers throughout his tenure. The award is a memorial to the late Michael Mike Roberto, an FCC MA, past president and recognized leader in the development of public management careers. Madam Clerk, if you can go ahead and cue up the video and I'll walk out into the audience. Very impressive that you know you've come this far, 14 years at the city of Venice, and you're going out the door and still getting awards doing it. So thank you for everything you've done for us as a city, for me as a person. You've been a tremendous influence on all of your directors and the entire staff of our city of 385 employees. More than that, your reach goes into the community and communities around us. So Ed, you probably won't remember this, but I remember it very well when you were first hired here, actually before you were first hired. But you did something unexpected. I remember me and Rand Keefe, your uh executive assistant, were carrying a table unglamorously through this awkward double door in the hallway, and you appeared at the other end to help us carry the table. That to me signifies who you are. Uh you are a servant in every sense.