On the agenda

1. 1Call to Order - Roll Call▶ 0:00
2. 2

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   Strategic Plan Updates

   discussed

   The City Manager presented annual updates to the City's Strategic Plan, reviewing the mission, vision, values, goals, and existing eight strategic objectives, and proposed new strategies including environmental stewardship, cultivating human resources, and maintaining a dynamic and connected downtown. Council discussed each proposal, with Mayor Rowe pressing to distinguish CRA work from general city services, and members raised related ideas including community gardens, invasive species removal, river/water quality, apprenticeship programs, and broadening 'downtown' to include the Palm District and U.S. 19.

   • direction:Council gave direction to add 'renew our natural environment and ensure sustainability for future generations' as a new strategic objective. (none)
   • direction:Council gave direction to add 'cultivate human resources' as a new strategic objective, including exploring an apprenticeship program and possible summer program. (none)
   • direction:Council discussed adding 'maintain a dynamic and connected downtown area' as a strategic objective, with debate over whether to reframe it as supporting the CRA. (none)

   📍Avenue Park📍Davis Plaza📍Madison (bridge)📍Sims Park📍U.S. 19📍old hospital site📍old police station🏢Cultural Affairs Committee🏢Environmental Committee🏢Friends of the Library🏢New Port Richey Main Street🏢University of Florida👤Chopper👤Deb👤Debbie Manns👤Deschamps👤Keisha👤Matt Murphy👤Nathan👤Rob👤Robert#Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)#FRA (Florida Redevelopment Association)#Palm District#Strategic Plan#apprenticeship program#community gardens#invasive species removal#performance-based wage system#water quality / stormwater

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   [00:00:16] Sounds like we're all present or accounted for, so take it away. [00:00:20] Well, it's that time of year again [00:00:22] when we get to talk about our strategic plan. [00:00:27] I typically like to discuss this with you in advance of any discussions about the oncoming fiscal year in large part because we use it as a gauge to ensure that our resources align with your organizational priorities. [00:00:53] The strategic plan, am I doing this? [00:00:58] Okay, that'd be great, is a document that we effectuated back in 2016 to start and it has been a working document since that time. [00:01:17] It actually sets forth a vision for the city in that it prioritizes some strategic objectives and goals and ensures through some action items the appropriate use of resources to support organizational goals. [00:01:45] It also contains in it a mission statement, a vision statement, organizational values and goals, and strategic objectives and for the purposes of the discussion this evening, unless you have any specific recommendations for changes to any of those, [00:02:15] we can just move forward and they're all in your packet that we put in front of you this evening and if you'd like, I can read them to reaffirm them. [00:02:32] I wonder if we could back up just to the previous slide. [00:02:36] Sure we can, thank you, Nathan. [00:02:37] Because it all starts with the mission statement and that's, oh, is that coming up then or? [00:02:44] On your sheet, on page two. [00:02:46] Right, we see it here and I just wanted to clarify that I agree with the mission statement for the city because it says, if I can just read it, it would be helpful because everything starts with that, right? [00:02:58] Everything supports the mission. [00:03:00] It says we're committed to providing outstanding city services that enhance the quality of life for residents, to provide opportunities for the business community and to maximize the visitor experience to the city. [00:03:13] So I just want to be clear in understanding that this strategic plan is the city's and our city council and mayor's mission statement and strategic plan because we got this whole other plan document here which mission is different. [00:03:33] So this isn't a mission to provide city services. [00:03:37] This is a mission for redevelopment. [00:03:39] And I've had this discussion before about the need for us to separate our roles in my mind and, you know, and we have a whole redevelopment economic development strategy that talks about public-private partnerships, supporting economic development. [00:03:58] That is not incorporated in the mission to provide outstanding city services. [00:04:03] I agree with the mission and I agree with continuing on and you've done a good job of outlining it but I just want to suggest that we have two entities that we are directors or council members of and that the other does have a different mission and, you know, having just got back from the FRA, this is like the major discussion of the difficulties of the residents, the staff and the elected officials to recognize the separation of the entrepreneurial [00:04:34] makeup of the CRA and the city services general fund which is what it will all go back to when that exercise of the redevelopment agency is completed. [00:04:46] So. [00:04:49] And the CRA has its own mission statement, right? [00:04:52] Well, I think that's what I'm asking for. [00:04:53] That we kind of, when we have that hat on, that we recognize that mission statement because city services are only allowable there as they support the economic plan that's in here and we just updated this thing a few years ago so I'm hoping so that I don't interrupt this process to say when we have a retreat or that we can segregate it into the two entities and have a kind of separate discussion because that has, I don't know what it's going to be this year, but pushing $4 million [00:05:24] a year revenue coming in and its mission is different. [00:05:29] I mean, it's not stated here. [00:05:33] Oh, it's not. [00:05:34] So I'm just clarifying my understanding of this. [00:05:37] So I'm going to ignore it as much as I can talking about the CRA other than somewhere in this mission I'd like to see something that supports the efforts of that element in this other realm. [00:05:53] That's my attempt to separate those two. [00:05:57] That's all. [00:06:00] Okay. [00:06:00] Okay. [00:06:01] The vision of the city then outlines the organizational values which are to provide quality public service, to seek continuous improvement, to demonstrate respect, compassion, and integrity in decision making, to ensure fiscal responsibility, and to foster an innovative culture driven workforce. [00:06:24] Our goals as an organization are the effective governance and professional administration, our safe, healthy, and welcoming neighborhoods, their commitment to core services so that they reflect current needs and community expectations, their responsible infrastructure and asset management, fiscal stewardship, and economic security and growth. [00:06:55] You identified eight strategic objectives for the city when we originally adopted the plan. [00:07:05] They were to mobilize reinvestment and in that what you meant was to facilitate effective partnerships so that we could improve and grow both in terms of residential and commercial areas. [00:07:21] You also wanted to increase real property tax revenues and that was to increase the tax base for real properties. [00:07:34] You wanted the city to focus on developing a community mindset which was a community culture that reflected a sense of pride and to develop partnerships which would result in service improvements or a cost savings to the city. [00:07:55] You wanted the city to provide up-to-date information and communicate effectively about services and to use appropriate platforms in which to communicate. [00:08:09] You wanted the city to focus on community policing improvements and you wanted the city to invest in infrastructure. [00:08:19] Over the course of time, the objectives were, or the strategies, excuse me, were somewhat combined because the objectives aligned with each other, so to speak, [00:08:41] and the resulting objectives were reduced to increase the tax base, improve the image of the city, and strengthen relationships, communicate effectively, continue community policing improvements, and invest in infrastructure. [00:09:08] The staff and I have met and we are proposing that you now be provided an opportunity to add to the list of strategies. [00:09:30] We will update you as to where we are on the strategies that you've already identified and many of them are ongoing and will continue to be ongoing, but we hear some things from you as we deliberate at your meetings that we believe are strong enough in sentiment from what you're communicating [00:09:58] that they may be strategies that we just haven't advanced in our strategic plan yet. [00:10:06] And so when the department heads and I met, we spent some time talking and sort of pen to paper [00:10:18] what we thought some of those might be for your consideration. So we're going to propose some of [00:10:24] those to you and you can tell us whether we were off base or not with some of those thoughts and I'll introduce those to you. [00:10:36] And if you take a liking to those, we'll include them. If we misread what you've been doing over the last year, [00:10:48] you can tell us that and our feelings won't be hurt. And if you have thoughts other than what we have proposed, we'd like to hear that from you. [00:11:00] With that being said, we're hearing a lot from you about environmental stewardship. [00:11:08] And so we have proposed it as an objective to renew our natural environment and to ensure sustainability for future generations. [00:11:22] And thought that that should be advanced as an objective in our strategic plan. [00:11:29] I think it's a great idea because I think the environmental committee has been speaking out loud enough for years that they want to be included in their realm a little bit. [00:11:40] The chairman of the environmental committee hollered me at dinner one night last week. [00:11:47] Which committee, sorry? [00:11:49] Environmental. [00:11:52] He wouldn't let me order my dinner until he had a chance to spend some time bending my ear. [00:11:59] Two of the items, and one of them actually would probably fit in with an added measure, was expanding the community gardens on and off for probably a year or so. [00:12:21] As long as we've had community gardens. [00:12:23] About possibly doing something on the front end. [00:12:29] It's Avenue Park. [00:12:32] Gardens or orchards or something in there. [00:12:39] And the second one I'll toss out and we can talk about it when we get into budget discussions. [00:12:49] But he also thought it would be wonderful if we actually allocated money. [00:12:58] I just want to say that when they had their community gardens in Simms Park, once they took their fruit, for lack of a better term, they didn't take care of the property. [00:13:08] So to put that out in front, I have a problem with that. [00:13:12] I do have a suggestion though that's that back road into the rec center. [00:13:18] That there's probably property there that they could have that wouldn't be used. [00:13:23] That's got possibilities too. [00:13:25] Yeah, I'm certain we could work with them. [00:13:27] But there would have to be a maintenance agreement put in place for any property. [00:13:31] Yeah, you know, we've been talking about that. [00:13:35] I'd be great. [00:13:37] I'm not so sure we want to use park property for that. [00:13:39] But I'm sure there are some other city properties available. [00:13:41] The only park property that might come to mind that might be utilized is the one down there by the old hospital site. [00:13:51] But I'm not sure that even will suit. [00:13:55] But certainly I'd be, I would probably think twice before I allowed an allocated park property for those other properties available. [00:14:06] I think also the, you know, if you went down and looked at the old police station. [00:14:10] There's a park, there's a, you know, garden there and it's not being taken care of at this time. [00:14:16] That would speak well for getting it back on the back side of the rips. [00:14:20] Mr. Mayor, I don't know if that's Mr. Murphy trying to jump in. [00:14:24] Do you want to see if he's got something to say? [00:14:26] But I do on this topic have something to say. [00:14:31] Which is that for a committee to ask for funding for them to put a community garden together is absolutely wrong. [00:14:43] So if we want to have an organization that is an agriculture based, food based organization. [00:14:51] We've said let's do it. [00:14:53] We should support it. [00:14:56] But to Chopper, to your point. [00:14:58] That community garden. [00:15:00] It's not on city property, it's on a piece of private property, and secondly, for us to have a committee that's actively functioning and using money, we don't allow, and it's not in our ordinance, so if you want to change the way we do committees, that's fine. [00:15:17] I'm trying to support and hope, because I believe in all of those things, and I want to support them, don't come along as a negative nelly, but I think the time has come for Mr. Deschamps and his committee to create a non-profit the same way other organizations do. [00:15:32] I wanted to make sure you guys knew that I had been collared. [00:15:36] Oh yeah, and I appreciate it, and I think we want to foster it, so we should be fostering it, if not doing it, because they're selling produce, people pay money, where's the money coming and going, the whole thing is, we act like it's ours, but it's run by committee, and that's not the way we do things. [00:16:01] Well, I think, Mayor, they may have approached you on that, they know that some other committees have received some funding, such as cultural affairs and such, but city funding, so I think that's the idea they have, but you know, they have, the library is a friend's library, right, and they go out and they raise money and advance some of their projects they have there, you know, I'd challenge the folks with the gardens to find a way to, you know, organize themselves in that way. [00:16:29] Yeah, that's what I'm asking. [00:16:31] The thing that Deb had mentioned as a comparable was New Port Richey Main Street, which is clearly a totally separate organization. [00:16:39] And a non-profit, access to grants and the whole nine yards. [00:16:43] Yes, I'm sorry. [00:16:46] We don't want him to hear us talking about them. [00:16:50] So without getting into the weeds, or pulling the weeds, I do have a couple of more things on this topic, which is weeds. [00:16:59] Removing invasive species. [00:17:01] I think, you know, we cleared a whole lot of Brazilian peppers out of that little park next to Matt Murphy years ago during a city cleanup, and the city's public works department cleaned it, kept it open, and we keep people from hiding in it. [00:17:17] I recently just learned yesterday about the potato vines that grow eight inches in a day that are invasive species, and also the higher next level, which is it's illegal to transport or move them, and I read all of this University of Florida stuff about how important it is to destroy them. [00:17:36] I sent something to Robert and Debbie yesterday about them, but the worry we had was we were getting just tons of them there by the bridge at Madison was, what if we put them out front? [00:17:48] So I think education, and our three words are what? [00:17:53] Classic, Florida, current. [00:17:55] So Florida, to me, means we should have something that really also addresses not just the butterflies and the fun stuff, but the fact that we're committed to trying to maintain our Florida natural environment. [00:18:12] Matt, did you have anything you wanted to toss in on this? [00:18:16] The only thing I have right at the moment is if everybody could talk, make sure they're talking into the microphone. [00:18:22] It's a little broken up. [00:18:23] I appreciate it. [00:18:24] Okay, and the river is not mentioned in this environmental either, so I think that's a huge part with our drainage and our stormwater, and a big part of like tons of funding that's coming down from the state is water quality improvements. [00:18:39] Yeah, I think once we got to the action items, I think that'd be a great place to put that, and I'll pencil a note in now so we don't forget. [00:18:47] Yeah, but I think it's great that you guys came up with adding that as a strategy. [00:18:52] No problem with that at all. [00:18:54] Reid? [00:18:55] Probably if we think more on it, we probably can even expand it more than just a few things. [00:18:59] I think we will. [00:19:00] I sort of plan that for at the end if you guys accepted it. [00:19:05] Just a little sidebar if we come back with this. [00:19:07] We had, I think last year we had multiple colors in this thing, and we had ones that we had completed and ones that were ongoing and ones that we hadn't done anything with. [00:19:18] Yeah, they're there. [00:19:19] That's next. [00:19:20] Oh, okay. [00:19:22] Okay. [00:19:23] We just wanted to introduce these as concepts to you first and just see if you like them or not, and then we'll go into where we left off. [00:19:33] I just flipped back and saw. [00:19:34] I know. [00:19:35] Just trying to be mobile. [00:19:36] Keisha doesn't usually let me get ahead. [00:19:37] That's all right. [00:19:40] The next strategy that we wanted to introduce for your consideration is cultivate human resources. [00:19:50] You've been very supportive of us in terms of our wanting to pay competitive wages, implementing a customer service standard program, recruiting, retaining the best. [00:20:10] We're now talking about a performance-based wage system and some other incentives to make sure that we professionally serve those who live in, work in, visit the city. [00:20:32] We're still not doing enough to make sure that we're providing the best in service, and we think that it needs to be a priority of the city to do so, so that our workplace culture truly results in employee engagement. [00:20:58] I totally agree with this, because whether I work next to Rob or Rob works next to me, if one of us works harder, we're rewarded, and I think a reward system is, without a doubt, the best way to go. [00:21:10] Otherwise, you might find two people that don't do 100 percent, or you can find one that do 50 percent and the other do 150 percent to get the job done. [00:21:17] So I think the person that does the more should be rewarded. [00:21:20] You want to at least look at it. [00:21:22] You get your 3 percent every year or 2 percent every year. [00:21:27] And Debbie, I would agree as well. [00:21:28] The human resources is critical. [00:21:30] I mean, one of the strategies that the council has had for a number of years is to improve the image of the city, and part of that comes in with the services and the interactions that both our residents and our visitors have with our city employees. [00:21:47] I know that it's just some incentives that create that type of environment. [00:21:54] I can't say that we haven't done this. [00:21:59] I know that there's probably areas we can improve as far as some of our interactions with our customers, which happens to be our residents and our visitors, that we can have that in a way, in a customer service manner that we'd be proud of. [00:22:15] You know, 100 percent of the time. [00:22:17] And, you know, I just kind of got reminded that. [00:22:21] I had a visit today at an establishment that's not in the city, but I just said this is just horrible. [00:22:29] You know, I just had, I just, they got my job done, but I sure didn't like the way they did it and how the attitude they had. [00:22:37] So I think if we can kind of incorporate that with our employees, I think that my interaction with our leadership is very much that way. [00:22:49] And I just like to see that filter all the way through to all levels of our city and our employees. [00:22:58] Matt, anything? [00:23:02] Yeah, I would like to say this is a huge and important part. [00:23:08] You know, we want our citizens to have that sense of community and buy into it. [00:23:13] And a big part of that is our workers and our human resources and our atmosphere within our city. [00:23:20] Cultivating that also, them buying in and making the priority to make our city the best at what they do. [00:23:26] That resonates to citizens when they interact with them. [00:23:30] I mean, I think this is a huge, huge thing, and I'm glad it's on here. [00:23:35] Just one other thing we got, you know, we got 10% unemployment in the city. [00:23:40] And, you know, if we're looking for people to come here and go to work here, we've got to have an atmosphere that they want to come and work here, too. [00:23:46] Thank you. [00:23:47] One of the other things the department heads and I came up with in talking is that we should have an apprenticeship program for some of our more hard-to-fill positions [00:23:57] so that we can feed them and perhaps have less difficulty with those hard-to-fill recruiting opportunities. [00:24:08] Is there a possibility we could have, like, a summer program? [00:24:11] Yeah, sure. [00:24:12] We're going to look at that. [00:24:13] Okay. [00:24:14] Because there are definitely some kids sitting out there between juniors and seniors, [00:24:17] or maybe seniors are just waiting to figure out to go back to school, you know, college or whatever, or something. [00:24:25] The next strategy that we wanted you to give consideration to, and it's sort of a simple one, [00:24:33] but I think it's important to be stated, is to maintain a dynamic and connected downtown area. [00:24:42] Downtown was an area of focus for us when we first all got together as a group, [00:24:52] and that was strategic, and you all told me that it would be the engine that drove this town, and it clearly was, [00:25:02] and we've invested well in the downtown. [00:25:05] We still have a couple of very important public improvement projects yet to implement in the downtown, [00:25:12] but it needs to continue to be a cultural and outdoor recreation and unique event center, [00:25:26] and I think we need to say that, and we need to continue to grow the business community and play a part in it, [00:25:37] and we need to recognize that the number of visitors to our downtown only helps our city as a whole [00:25:46] and never lose sight of the fact that it does drive our city, [00:25:52] and we need to program it as such and not rely on others to do it. [00:25:58] I would go one step further. [00:26:02] Historically, we've talked about the downtown in terms of being the historic downtown, [00:26:08] and I think we're at a point where we need to make sure that we're including the entire downtown, [00:26:17] including the Palm District, as part of what we're focusing on, [00:26:22] with the idea that a few years down the road, we may be expanding that definition of downtown out onto U.S. 19 as well. [00:26:31] I know we've got some development projects, which you have mentioned even fairly as recently as today, [00:26:41] to with the Davis Plaza, and as we start redeveloping, we may take a bigger view of what downtown is at that point. [00:26:53] To your point and to my earlier comment, I think I have a real straightforward and perhaps easy fix to my mental block here, [00:27:01] which is to take the strategy that says maintain a dynamic and connected downtown area [00:27:10] and call it support the city's community redevelopment agency, [00:27:18] and all of the things that you just spoke about, Mayor, are in this other document, and it goes beyond this mission. [00:27:27] So I think that the strategy would be to support the city's community redevelopment agency [00:27:33] where not only the downtown but the Highway 19, the residential, and all of those redevelopment efforts are seated. [00:27:41] I know it's asking you to separate this into two spots, but I know we divide your pay into two pieces, [00:27:47] and I'd just like to divide our thought process into those same two pieces. [00:27:53] It's important that if you say support the city's community redevelopment agency, all of that is right in this document here, [00:28:01] and then I'm done bitching about it. [00:28:05] So I understand what you're saying. [00:28:07] I'd almost think that the CRA would be one that would support this document rather than the other way around. [00:28:16] We talk about the CRA is talking about redevelopment. [00:28:19] That's growing the business. [00:28:21] That's the experienced lifestyle of our residents and our visitors, [00:28:25] and actually that's what the CRA is trying to do is to redevelop so that the city and all those that make up the city has an enhanced lifestyle. [00:28:43] Because the CRA potentially is not going to be here forever, right? [00:28:49] It won't be. [00:28:51] Neither will our strategic plan because we'll update it. [00:28:55] Well, each day we'll always have a strategic plan. [00:28:58] We may not always have a CRA, but if we do well, we'll develop ourself out of it, right? [00:29:07] No. [00:29:08] I mean, it'll just exhaust itself because it's limited by time because we'll always find projects, I think, [00:29:15] and if the goal is to get out of it quickly so we can get our general fund money back, [00:29:20] we're going to be giving up all of the county money as well, [00:29:23] but to that point, if the mission is to provide excellent city services, [00:29:27] what you just said is not the mission that we're working on, [00:29:31] which is the mission is that our city provides excellent service, improves its public relations, [00:29:36] improves its payroll handling and all those sorts of things. [00:29:40] And so, I mean, the funding entity that's going to do that is the CRA. [00:29:48] We've loaned money to it. [00:29:50] We've got the county breathing down our neck. [00:29:54] We've got state auditors looking to see that that's what that mission is. [00:29:58] So I don't want to— [00:30:00] just have it be considered, it's something real valuable to us. [00:30:04] Our strategy is going to be to support that because it's going to implement all of this. [00:30:08] I think maybe the way to deal with this, and I understand exactly where you're coming from, [00:30:16] the overall strategy of supporting the community redevelopment is much larger [00:30:30] than simply maintaining a dynamic and connected downtown or business community. [00:30:41] I almost think for our purposes, with the hats we've got on tonight, would be to add a strategy [00:30:51] referencing the, emphasizing community redevelopment in general. [00:30:59] Because it covers a lot of stuff that obviously the CRA needs to deal with. [00:31:06] Right. And to my point, everything you mentioned about what's happening, it's all in here. [00:31:12] But there's more in there, or should be. [00:31:16] Than a downtown statement. [00:31:18] Exactly. [00:31:19] So recognizing the downtown is great. I appreciate it, like it, and we do a lot of stuff [00:31:24] that's not in the CRA to support it. Police, maintenance, whatever. [00:31:29] I support this, but I think this was the cornerstone of us trying to develop New Port Richey. [00:31:37] And I think we've done a great job at it. [00:31:39] But I think now it needs to grow. [00:31:41] And so I don't want it to be limited to the downtown. [00:31:44] I'd like to see growth up on Congress and Mass and all the retail up there. [00:31:49] I'd like to see the growth down by the old hospital area. [00:31:53] There's a lot of vacant spots down there. [00:31:55] And so where this is a cornerstone, I don't necessarily want it to be the main focus. [00:32:00] We've got five square miles, and now we've reached out to 19 with the university. [00:32:06] Like you talked about Davis Hardware. [00:32:08] We're going to go up and down 19, and we're going to do that too. [00:32:10] So I don't know that I want this to be as emphasized as much as you are here. [00:32:16] And then just one step further. [00:32:19] You're talking about culture, outdoors, recreation, unique events based in downtown. [00:32:24] And the first year had something to do away with the discontinued, the closing of Railroad Square and stuff. [00:32:32] So I'm going to be out of town on the first, and I just want that table. [00:32:35] And I want to get a lot of input from the people downtown, [00:32:38] because I did a little walkabout in the last day or two, and they all still want it. [00:32:44] The people that I've talked to want it to stay. [00:32:47] So that's kind of contradicting what we're saying here in this thing. [00:32:52] So I just want it tabled until the 15th so we can talk to more of them. [00:32:56] I asked, and the city manager, and we'll report to council on Friday about that. [00:33:00] Okay, so we're going to do that then? [00:33:02] We are. I've asked the council if they could defer the discussion. [00:33:05] Oh, okay, okay, all right. [00:33:07] Chopra, that's an excellent point. [00:33:09] I wonder if we ought to, singular or plural, [00:33:18] but maintain a dynamic and connected downtown area and or downtown [00:33:24] and business centers or business hubs areas, because you're exactly right. [00:33:33] There are some other areas other than just the downtown [00:33:38] that will be business or commerce centers. [00:33:43] I mean, I think we could make it more broader to say maintain a dynamic [00:33:47] and connected New Port Richey through our CRA. [00:33:52] Because it might go along with Matt there. [00:33:54] The CRA, the money comes from all five square miles. [00:33:57] It doesn't just come from downtown to reinvest in downtown. [00:34:01] Yeah, I just said the whole city. [00:34:03] Right. [00:34:04] Yeah, you may have a good point, Matt. [00:34:06] What do you think, Steve? [00:34:08] Yeah, I mean, I certainly think that, you know, [00:34:11] the first thing is when you do these kind of documents, [00:34:13] if you have so many of them that they get scattered to the wind a little bit. [00:34:18] So at the end of the day, I think we need to regularly revisit our progress, [00:34:22] and I think that that's what we do privately now. [00:34:26] But, you know, I think I like the word connected, [00:34:31] and connected means connected to the rest of the city. [00:34:34] And so I think somehow we're kind of on to it, you know, [00:34:37] but to maybe enhance the benefits. [00:34:44] I mean, what Matt said is kind of my thing is just this whole discussion, [00:34:49] all of where we select what part of town we do things, [00:34:52] what projects we prioritize, that is that CRA discussion. [00:34:56] So that's kind of where I was headed. [00:34:58] But I don't think there's anything wrong in the strategy to, say, [00:35:01] maintain the exciting downtown that we have created. [00:35:05] That goes back to your point, Chopper. [00:35:07] We've already kind of done a lot, and it's already kind of working. [00:35:10] Maybe work on the success of our downtown to spread the commercial viability [00:35:16] throughout the city or something like that. [00:35:18] I don't know. [00:35:21] There's no doubt that the downtown development [00:35:24] and the whole area that you guys have done over the past years is the Belcal. [00:35:31] It's one of the Belcal. [00:35:32] We have two Belcals for the city, and that's the downtown core, [00:35:35] the businesses, the parks, and we have the river. [00:35:38] Those are the two Belcals that bring people. [00:35:40] That's why people are here. [00:35:42] That's why people visit, those two reasons, right? [00:35:44] That's why people want to live here. [00:35:47] That's the heartbeat of the city. [00:35:53] I've talked about it in the past. [00:35:55] Sure, we have poured a lot of money and investment in the city, [00:36:00] and we were getting returns on that. [00:36:04] Can't find a dollar that maybe has been misspent. [00:36:07] We've got to spread that out. [00:36:08] We've got to start moving that out, like I say, down toward the hospital, [00:36:12] out to 19, into our neighborhoods. [00:36:15] And so I think a lot of these strategies that we've already listed on here [00:36:23] do all that, is the ultimate goal. [00:36:26] I don't know that I'm like you. [00:36:30] Too many items get listed, and they all get watered down. [00:36:37] That's almost like, to me, is a vision or a mission statement [00:36:41] as opposed to the strategy. [00:36:45] Maybe the strategy, as you say, is to capitalize on the dynamic downtown [00:36:50] and increase its connectivity or something like that. [00:36:53] I just don't like to focus downtown as far as we've gone so far. [00:36:58] Let's broaden it, because this is a new proposed one, [00:37:02] and I think we're already doing that. [00:37:04] I don't know who needs to be there. [00:37:06] I think some of the action items and the measures on that [00:37:09] will filter in in some of the other strategies and objectives, I think. [00:37:15] Okay. [00:37:17] I like the idea that Chopper pointed out, [00:37:21] because it sort of goes along with what I had said about Davis Plaza, [00:37:25] that we need to look at some of these other potential business hubs [00:37:32] within the city limits. [00:37:35] Heaven knows we'd love to have one at the old community hospital area, [00:37:39] and we'd like to redevelop along US-19, [00:37:43] and then there's that whole Mass Avenue, Congress and Mass area. [00:37:48] Those are all projects already spoken to in the CRA plan, though, [00:37:51] so they don't necessarily have to be stated, I don't think, [00:37:54] in the strategic plan. [00:37:59] To me, the strategy is getting our staff and our general fund [00:38:03] on board with the strategic plan so that when we come to these projects, [00:38:07] because we can say which one we want to go first, [00:38:09] but whoever comes and says, [00:38:11] I've got a great idea to go over by the hospital, [00:38:14] or I'd like to do something here, [00:38:17] we need those private investors to lure us into it, [00:38:20] and we need to have a flexible and a reactive ability [00:38:27] to look at our infrastructure, parking. [00:38:32] I mean, our developers that were here last said parking and stormwater [00:38:38] are two huge costs of any kind of new development coming in, [00:38:41] and those are public works projects, and we have funds for those. [00:38:45] So lining up our public works projects to support the efforts of the CRA [00:38:51] to continue our track, [00:38:55] I think that's the closest I've come to saying something [00:38:58] that I feel like I could live with myself. [00:39:01] From what I gather in talking, you're not getting a lot of strength in that one. [00:39:05] And that's good. [00:39:07] I'd like to eliminate one if you guys will tell me to. [00:39:10] Matt, did you have any other thoughts on this one? [00:39:15] No, I think I'm good. [00:39:17] I think we need to cover the whole area, not just the downtown, [00:39:21] especially through our CRA because that's really where everything's coming from [00:39:24] and we're trying to better the whole city. [00:39:26] I think you've got some consensus. [00:39:28] So am I rewriting or eliminating? [00:39:30] Well, if you want to rewrite it and see what you want to do, [00:39:32] but rewriting would include the whole city. [00:39:35] It would include the whole city, not the downtown. [00:39:37] And if it doesn't work, just eliminate. [00:39:39] Okay, I think I can do it. [00:39:41] You've got some help over there in the audience. [00:39:43] If I'm going to get put out of it, because I heard Matt supporting the concept, [00:39:48] but can we have a strategy that reflects on the importance of the city's strategic plan [00:39:55] to support the successes of our CRA or the CRA plan? [00:40:02] It's a simple statement, and I just think it helps for me to carry the flow chart from here to there. [00:40:08] And I'm not sure, Mike, you want it to go the other way, but this is our big master. [00:40:13] This is the master, so I think the support needs to go that way. [00:40:17] Something about ongoing community redevelopment efforts. [00:40:21] Well, I think it's important that the strategy is that the folks that are here, [00:40:26] that are the parts of their salaries that are paid by the general fund, [00:40:30] because Charles is almost all paid from the CRA, [00:40:34] and then there are other aspects of our planning and our finance or whatever that are pigeoned off. [00:40:40] But to the parts that are on this side, making sure that we're jiving the plans between the two entities [00:40:47] and we're acting as one, as much as I keep trying to divide it. [00:40:51] Okay. Next? [00:40:53] Advanced emerging technologies is the next proposed strategy, [00:40:58] and what is meant by that is to leverage our technology system [00:41:03] so that we have secure data collection and storage, we can enhance performance management, [00:41:12] decision-making, internal communication, as well as external data sharing with the community. [00:41:19] Yes. All of the above. Yes. [00:41:26] Will that include the potential of going after some increased improvements to our broadband [00:41:33] as it goes to the community as a whole? [00:41:35] That's the external part you're talking about. [00:41:39] Technology, we can't slow down at all. We've got to keep up, period. [00:41:43] Okay. Good. Matt, anything? [00:41:49] No, I'm good on that. [00:41:50] Okay. Next? [00:41:52] The next one is to improve the customer experience, [00:41:55] and this one largely deals with our business environment, [00:42:00] and as most of you are aware, I'm kind of knee-deep in the planning department [00:42:06] and the development department, [00:42:08] and we really need to work on satisfying our customers there [00:42:14] and minimizing some of our processes and educating people as to what's required of them, [00:42:22] minimizing some processes, [00:42:25] and working on training and providing assistance on business permitting and regulations. [00:42:38] And so I work with the department heads, [00:42:44] and we came up with just improving the customer experience, [00:42:47] and we're going to sort of audit all of our operations from a customer's perspective [00:42:54] and see what we can come up with to optimize our processes and regulations. [00:42:59] You hired Frank, is that where he's going to be? Frank Starkey? [00:43:05] He is rewriting the code, the land development code. That's his. [00:43:10] But that's going to be eliminating some of the stuff you just mentioned [00:43:14] or making the processes easier or not that? [00:43:17] No, a little bit, to a small degree, yes. [00:43:24] I'm sorry. [00:43:25] Yeah, I just want—there's a lack of knowledge with the public, [00:43:31] and we have a lot of knowledge in-house, [00:43:33] and sometimes that gap there needs to be bridged, for lack of a better term. [00:43:41] And if we can bridge that and help them instead of just saying, you know, [00:43:45] here's your paperwork, go figure it out, we need to kind of educate them. [00:43:50] And we do have staff people that are assigned to play a role as a steward, so to speak, [00:43:57] to the people that you can tell just generally haven't had the experience, [00:44:01] and so they're overwhelmed by the process. [00:44:05] That's great, because that's been a problem in the seven, eight years I've been here. [00:44:11] Longer than that, I can remember. [00:44:14] Well, I mean in this position, eight years. [00:44:16] People have been in my year even before I was on city council, so back in the early 2000s. [00:44:25] And I'm just sitting here thinking, if you can get your hands wrapped around fixing this— [00:44:33] We're going to try, because we're covering a lot of tracks. [00:44:37] That would be the first time in probably two decades at least [00:44:42] that that has been as smooth as it probably should be. [00:44:46] We've had some personnel changes that have certainly made that more difficult over the years. [00:44:51] Sure. [00:44:54] Debbie, I wonder on that, you know, again, the fact of not having— [00:45:00] you know, so many strategies. In my mind, it's almost, you could probably combine that [00:45:05] with the Culvate to Human Resources. I mean, you're all talking about, I think this last [00:45:09] one you were talking more about the business community as opposed to maybe just, you know, [00:45:14] our general residents and those clients. But it's all about providing respectful, high-quality [00:45:21] service and assistance, whether it's to people or whether it's to businesses. I think that's [00:45:25] probably why you have two. One, you were focusing more on the business community as opposed [00:45:29] to the general. Right. And the second one has, you know, more to do with an ability [00:45:36] to provide online services and permitting and self-service options as well as to the [00:45:48] ombudsman's that will usher people through and assist with business questions or inquiries [00:45:58] and just reviewing all of our regulatory processes. Could you combine them into one? [00:46:05] I don't think so. I think they're independent of each other. I would agree. It's probably [00:46:09] two separate issues. Who's responsible for the customer experience, I guess, is the question. [00:46:17] I think we've got two distinct sets of customers, and this one is, from the way I'm looking [00:46:25] at it, at least, the folks that are going into building and development as businesses [00:46:31] trying to get stuff done better versus the entire staff. Right. That's sort of how I'm [00:46:37] seeing it. It's important enough, you want to separate it. Right. I get it. Train the [00:46:42] staff and then written... No, like I said, this has been going on for at least two decades. [00:46:49] Matt, anything? Thank you. Yes. I 100% agree with this. This is something I think we definitely [00:46:55] need to make sure we're doing. From a business customer myself, I would love to get some [00:47:02] input on that when you guys are working on it, Ms. Manns. Even the business community, [00:47:09] sometimes you have people that are coming in wanting business things done, permitting [00:47:13] or whatever, and they're new to it. They're like first-time business owners, things like [00:47:18] that. It's really helpful to them to walk into the process and help them, as well as [00:47:24] the other side of it on the residential side and our citizens who really don't deal with [00:47:31] this on a daily basis. I think it's huge. I really like this, and I definitely think [00:47:36] this is a plus for the city to really pursue this. All right. Thank you. The last strategy [00:47:47] that was proposed by the staff was to improve our emergency management services. Not that [00:47:57] our emergency management services aren't good. We do have a very good system in place, but [00:48:07] we think that we could improve. So we want to make it an organizational goal to do so [00:48:15] and to keep up to date. We are in a relationship with the county where we participate with [00:48:22] them in larger scale emergency management exercises and responses, but there are times [00:48:36] where there are smaller scale things where we would be on our own. We need to be better [00:48:41] prepared for those, and there are times even when the fire chief or the police chief have [00:48:49] better ideas, and we want to implement those because we have standards of our own. I agree [00:48:55] 100 percent because I think we went down an unpaved path with COVID, and I think we learned [00:49:00] a lot. Although we got through and we educated ourselves pretty quickly, but that also taught [00:49:07] us that maybe we should look at some of the other things and make their jobs a lot easier [00:49:12] when we do have an emergency situation. I like this. Matt? No, good, but I do think [00:49:27] we need to look at some of these services that we can offer, too. I think we can take [00:49:34] care of things in our city better than from people outside. That's my opinion. [00:49:40] Peter? No, I think when it comes to emergency services, I have to throw in the old where's [00:49:49] the ambulance question, and that's what I've been pushing for for the last 15 years ever [00:49:54] since the county lied to us and said that we wouldn't want an ambulance because it loses [00:49:58] money. Well, we don't make money in our fire department, so we start with every dollar [00:50:03] we spend as being a cost to our residents. However we do it, just the pure quickest and [00:50:13] safest way to get sick people taken care of or injured people addressed and to the hospitals, [00:50:20] which is the best place for them to be, is my goal. Hopefully we'll find our way there [00:50:27] one day. Well, we're conducting a study, and then we'll have a presentation to you [00:50:34] on the result of that, and then you'll tell us how to go forward from there. Great. Spence, [00:50:38] I believe that you had originally, or Judy had talked about us taking a break at five [00:50:43] o'clock. I believe we're at a natural break point right now. Okay, that would be great, [00:50:49] and our sandwich is upstairs, Judy, and everybody can eat and then come back, and this is a good [00:50:56] break point, you're right, and then we can review where we are on the current plan and then bump in [00:51:02] some action items for the objectives that you've allowed us to add to the plan. Sounds good. [00:51:11] Okay. [00:51:21] So when are we starting back? Five. Five. Matt, what kind of sandwich are you going to have? [00:51:31] Where is he? You guys can have mine. Where are you, Matt? [00:51:38] Cocoa Beach. [00:51:41] Cocoa Beach. [00:55:11] Matt, are you with us? [00:55:38] He's on the beach. [00:55:39] He's connected. [00:55:40] He just stopped. [00:55:41] Okay. [00:55:42] He's there. [00:55:43] He's just not there. [00:55:44] Whatever that means. [00:55:45] He's there? [00:55:46] Okay. [00:55:47] You want to take us from where we stopped? [00:55:48] I will. [00:55:49] We'll review the previous year's strategy and we'll start with increasing the tax base. [00:56:02] The key projects that were identified that have been implemented. [00:56:19] We can talk about the goals that were established and they were the Hacienda, the parking study [00:56:31] and the Grand Boulevard multi-use path project designed south of Main Street to city limits. [00:56:40] All of those are in progress or have been implemented. [00:56:46] The pedestrian overpass at Marine Parkway at US Highway 19 is in the process of having [00:57:00] a feasibility study brought to you for consideration. [00:57:06] We are in discussions with Grady Pridgen about the development of his property and [00:57:17] the redevelopment of the River Road Church property is an ongoing discussion. [00:57:24] The redevelopment of the boat ramp project property is in progress and the railroad square [00:57:35] phase one project is under consideration. [00:57:40] The outstanding items are railroad square phase two and alley improvements. [00:57:49] Are there any additions to action items for key projects that you think we should add [00:57:56] at this time? [00:57:59] Just a question. [00:58:00] We have those enterprise zones. [00:58:01] Is that in here somewhere? [00:58:02] Is that what we're doing with them? [00:58:03] It's actually noted in the CRA plan. [00:58:04] Okay. [00:58:05] It's in the CRA. [00:58:06] Okay. [00:58:07] That's fine. [00:58:08] Those are opportunity zones? [00:58:09] Yes. [00:58:10] Anything from any of the department heads? [00:58:11] Well, is this a report on what is happening on the existing ones or is this your goal [00:58:27] for new ones? [00:58:28] This is a report on where we are, but if there's anything new that you'd like to add, we can [00:58:32] do that. [00:58:33] Any new key projects that will increase the tax base? [00:58:38] I think it would be helpful to do that exercise after we have that Muldrow plan because they're [00:58:45] going to hit us with 19 plans and some of the stuff that you're talking about that's [00:58:52] kind of emerging, which kind of can also be, once again, subsetted into the CRA plan. [00:59:02] All right. [00:59:04] I would like to see the lead agencies or funds, when we talk about these key projects, kind [00:59:08] of identify, is it a transportation project, sort of like we do with Penny for Basco almost, [00:59:14] like hitting those different subcategories? [00:59:20] When we come up and end up actually making the decisions you're talking about, that's [00:59:24] where we do it more so than here. [00:59:26] That's what I'm thinking too. [00:59:27] I agree. [00:59:28] Okay. [00:59:29] Yeah. [00:59:30] Okay. [00:59:31] We do that. [00:59:32] Well, she's asking for new stuff. [00:59:33] It's like, let's just wait until we do that exercise if we can. [00:59:34] If we could have that exercise, I think you were going to talk about a retreat or some [00:59:39] additional capital. [00:59:40] So you want to come back and do the strategic plan a second time? [00:59:44] No. [00:59:45] I think when it comes to the capital projects, so your strategic plan is to implement all [00:59:51] of these mission things. [00:59:53] Then you got into increasing the tax base, which is a function of, if it's the property [00:59:58] tax base, then that's sort of the CRA. [01:00:00] but then you've also got down the way the annexation, which isn't the CRA, so I'm [01:00:07] just trying to see if we can't sort of subdivise these, subdivise them, so if [01:00:13] we're prioritizing, I don't want to prioritize one against another category, [01:00:18] I'd like to see the categories and prioritize within them, like the CRA [01:00:23] budget, what is that going to be, but I think annexation increases our tax base [01:00:29] Yeah, we do have that further down, so when we talk about, do we not have redevelopment of the [01:00:39] hospital site on that, is that not appropriate here? [01:00:47] Well, it's appropriate here in a sense that we're trying to get people to go [01:00:52] there, but when we get into it, there might be CRA funds that help support it. [01:00:56] Yeah, but, I mean, a lot of these wouldn't it also see our funds be support some of [01:01:00] these items here? I'm trying to understand what items we'd list here, what [01:01:05] we wouldn't, you know, because... Yeah, we might list it further down where we talk [01:01:11] about commercial properties. Let's make sure we we have it somewhere. So let's do [01:01:17] it there. And don't don't lose the multi-use path north to Port Rich. That's [01:01:23] sort of tucked in here between the green and the yellow. Yeah, that's because it's not in progress yet. [01:01:30] I mean, your overall heading is implement key projects within the five-year CIP, [01:01:34] and I think that that really tells it goes back to what Chopper said, which is [01:01:38] we have one now, we're gonna have another one when it's done, and that will then [01:01:43] just, those projects will automatically kind of, am I right? This is more, I think [01:01:49] this is more a broad band, and when we actually get down to the nitty-gritty [01:01:53] dealing with each one, that's when the dollars come in, and whether they're, you [01:01:56] know, you know, CRA dollars or, you know, general fund dollars, that's when we [01:02:02] divide it up. Not here, what we're doing here, I think, more is a making sure all [01:02:06] our projects are here, and maybe kind of giving us an idea of which ones are [01:02:09] moving forward, which ones are stuck, and which ones we haven't touched yet. We [01:02:13] haven't seen a red one yet. I remember when Bill Phillips was so adamant about [01:02:22] going back and counting the buckets of the penny for PASCO and how much was [01:02:27] spent on this and that, so my mind is kind of in that zone, which is [01:02:31] prioritize, so the goal is going to be to identify and prioritize and [01:02:38] track. I mean, that's the goal, right? And track how we're doing. That's what, this [01:02:43] is, that's what this exercise is tracking, I think, and making sure we got [01:02:46] everything on the list from our last list. [01:02:54] The only item that I'd suggest that we add to identify key projects is to [01:03:03] facilitate the development of the 1.29 pad that's located south of Kaiser [01:03:10] University. There's been some discussions that we're having that [01:03:14] certainly is important enough that we should advance it as an action item, [01:03:20] because it would be a key project for us to have a flagged hotel in the city. Has [01:03:26] SunTrust ever decided what they're doing? Yes, they have reached out to me, and yes, [01:03:34] they're interested in selling the property. The only part about it, and it's [01:03:39] confidential at this point, so I... We're in a public meeting, so... I really can't [01:03:45] disclose any more detail. The American Rescue Act identifies certain [01:03:54] infrastructure as well as certain things like broadband and other projects, so I [01:03:58] think how it affects us in increasing the tax base and identifying key [01:04:04] projects. Currently, we've just had something we didn't expect, and we have [01:04:09] to go through and figure out what we're going to do with that, and I know we're [01:04:13] going to have a good discussion of that, and you shared some information with us, [01:04:17] and one of the items that I'm hoping that we could qualify things for is the [01:04:23] microtransit, because we've talked about trolleys and parking garage [01:04:29] downtown here, and to me, that's a project I'm going to try to keep pushing, is to [01:04:37] keep the cars out of the downtown, keep the people delivered to the various [01:04:42] places and picked up, and microtransit is like the big... Would that fall under [01:04:48] increase the tax base? No. Would it be general fund, or would it be CRA? [01:04:53] Probably, it could be CRA, but it also might be some of that American Rescue [01:04:57] money, because it's to help the folks that don't have the cars and the golf [01:05:04] carts. Are you still working with your... I mean, let me ask her, are you still [01:05:08] working with your staff and trying to see what kind of projects they might [01:05:12] think where some of this money is? Yes, we are, and we've scheduled a work session with you to [01:05:20] discuss it further. I'm just not certain where you want it reflected in here. [01:05:25] Well, I think whatever becomes a project will be part of our five-year plan, or [01:05:30] our current budget amendment, and can get on here. Yeah. Again, it's premature to put it on, and we haven't talked about it. [01:05:36] Right, right. Peter, I would hold that thought for just a minute. I'm not sure if it falls under [01:05:42] increased tax base, but I don't want to lose it. [01:05:46] I think you're right, it doesn't. Okay. Okay, so we can move to partner to capitalize. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Matt. Yeah, I was just going to follow up on the [01:05:57] transportation part. It may not fall maybe right here, right now, but I think [01:06:02] it's going to, and I mean, I think next year we have the opportunity for the [01:06:06] microtransit program to come to New Port Richey as a trial basis, but [01:06:12] then we have to look at, well, do we want to keep it? So that may be something that [01:06:16] comes the next year or two that we're really going to have to look at and say, [01:06:21] hey, do we want to keep it if it works out? So I'm hoping, I'm hoping that through [01:06:25] the MPO and the state we get that here next year. We're going to be working on [01:06:29] it. I know our next work session on the MPO, so that's just something we need to [01:06:35] look at coming up down the road. Yeah, but before we get out of here tonight, [01:06:42] let's revisit and see where that plugs in best. Okay, I'm going to need to correct [01:06:49] myself on a couple accounts. First, in partner to catalyze investment, we [01:06:56] already reference developing a master plan for the former HCA property in the [01:07:02] surrounding area, and we do already talk about the working with Kenan [01:07:10] development on the hotel pad. So we do already have that, and it is in process. [01:07:19] We also talk about actively seeking development partners and focusing beyond [01:07:25] the downtown area, paying greater attention to our current business [01:07:31] community, maintaining communication channels with other levels of government, [01:07:37] all of which are in process. All of the action items are done regularly. The [01:07:45] only goal that is identified in that area, which is to continue working with, [01:07:59] that isn't completely yellow and it was a toss-up for us, is working with the [01:08:06] owners of Davis Plaza, Dollar General Plaza, on the redevelopment of the site. [01:08:11] We have discussions with them, but we haven't gotten them to a place where [01:08:16] they're willing to commit any dollars to the redevelopment of the site at this [01:08:20] time. And expand the tax base, that's where we start to talk about annexation. [01:08:29] We have conducted an annexation and assessment and needs assessment and [01:08:38] developed a strategy for that. We have had discussions with the county about [01:08:45] entering into an interlocal agreement as it relates to picking up enclaves, and [01:08:54] much of that is stalled related to a couple of legal issues. They think two of [01:09:03] the enclaves that we're proposing are not legal enclaves, and so our lawyer is [01:09:12] talking to their lawyer about whether or not they are enclaves. And then there's [01:09:17] an ongoing discussion as to who should be the steward of Leisure Lane Van [01:09:26] Doren Avenue. From our perspective, from my perspective, I would like them to be [01:09:39] the responsible steward of the property. And I don't think it needs to [01:09:44] necessarily come under the watch of the city. And with that being said, absent [01:09:59] that, there is an argument that the city might need to play a role in the [01:10:09] management of that property. At this point, the county administrator and I [01:10:18] are having discussions to determine what the best route might be. Certainly, the [01:10:27] Habitat for Humanity project is of interest to both the city and the county. [01:10:33] Certainly, the county has a lot more American Rescue funds than the city does. [01:10:38] They at one point did make a commitment to spend a significant number of [01:10:44] dollars to support the installation of infrastructure, which would provide [01:10:54] sanitary sewer for all of the future build-out of that property, which would [01:11:03] make the property much more desirable of a place to live. It's my hope that they [01:11:13] will carry out on their word for that. And if that's the case, it may be that [01:11:23] it's better that it stays in the county rather than go to the city. And I'll keep [01:11:29] you up to date as we have more discussions related to that matter. [01:11:33] You're saying not to not annex it eventually or just... If the county is [01:11:39] going to spend 2.5 million dollars on infrastructure, it may be that they'll [01:11:47] want to hold on to it. Resupplying them water? We are... In a 60-40 deal? No, we [01:11:58] provide water in that area. Okay, then the sewer, is that a 60-40 with the... with our [01:12:03] wastewater treatment plant, then? We would provide the sewer, yes. They're our [01:12:11] customers. They are our customers. Well, they support the treatment plant by 40%. [01:12:17] But you would need to make the decisions. If you want to spend money to support the installation of the [01:12:24] infrastructure, you could do that. We have a much smaller pot of money with [01:12:33] which to work, and it would need to be in our jurisdiction for us to be [01:12:40] eligible to spend any of our American Rescue funds. I think the concern is that [01:12:47] the, you know, the Habitat folks are only going to sit so long waiting for [01:12:54] somebody to decide to do something. And if Habitat can light a fire under the [01:13:01] appropriate people that are slowing things down on the county side to get [01:13:08] them to do something, fine. If they decide they don't want to do it, then I think we [01:13:13] we would then want to take take lead on it. But it needs to be done one way or [01:13:19] the other. Yeah, I'm not certain that the county's slowing it down, but I do need [01:13:22] to have a conversation with Mr. Biles. And I think Mr. Rivera might have [01:13:27] something that you wanted to say. Is that true? I just wanted to say if the county [01:13:34] didn't allow us to annex them, we would be able to service them water and sewer. [01:13:40] If the county paid for it under the proposal, we would be able to charge them [01:13:45] 25% surcharge. So that's how we would get some of the revenues out of that if [01:13:50] they remained in the county. So this page in our CRA plan that we just updated [01:13:57] talks about it. It's unincorporated, so it's not in the CRA, and it [01:14:02] addresses that at the end. It says the redevelopment initiatives talk about [01:14:08] coordinating with Habitat and all that stuff, but it says amend the existing CRA [01:14:12] area to incorporate this annexed area, make it eligible for tax increment [01:14:16] funding and other CRA programs. So I think that's a sticking point with the [01:14:20] county because they don't like CRAs. So it's like the only way we can fix it is [01:14:25] to annex it in and take advantage of the improvements. So that's kind of the [01:14:29] bottom line of your point, right? It is an additional point. But can't we annex it [01:14:37] without putting it in the CRA? Even you could, yes, but even if you put it in the [01:14:43] CRA, it's still revenue neutral for us. Right. So why do it? We might be better [01:14:51] off just to leave it as an enclave, but in any event, we need to get some [01:14:58] clarification from the county. [01:15:00] because you know and I'll follow up with the county administrator and report to [01:15:05] you yeah and let's get get that information to the the habitat folks too [01:15:10] because they call him today they've been hanging fire for a year now [01:15:16] the next item increased taxable value of residential properties goal is to [01:15:33] upgrade the residential housing stock by implementing programs to support our [01:15:40] neighborhoods and we have implemented fully a residential rental inspection [01:15:48] program we have implemented in various stages the following an infill housing [01:16:00] program a neighborhood reinvestment program we are working on a certificate [01:16:05] of compliance program now that we are a recipient from HUD of community [01:16:14] development block grant funds we intend to ask for some rental rehabilitation [01:16:21] program funds so that we can offer that program to the owners of rental [01:16:29] properties so that they can implement improvements to rental properties and [01:16:38] we have green so we're fully activated for foreclosure on lean properties that [01:16:47] we have processed through the slum and blight program we have completed our [01:16:53] urban core residential study and we can continue to offer our housing [01:17:07] we have green addressing some deficient conditions on our motels and used car [01:17:17] dealerships located along US Highway 19 we have offered incentives to the car [01:17:26] dealerships to make necessary improvements and we have come up with [01:17:33] many development agreements establish a recruitment strategy and produced a [01:17:42] marketing package to attract a different business mix in different [01:17:49] parts of the city we are currently working with Arnett Muldrow to develop a [01:17:56] plan for the US Highway 19 corridor we are in the green for establishing a plan [01:18:05] for neighborhood nodes a business strategy for the downtown area proactively [01:18:12] communicating ordinances to new businesses submitting ordinance to [01:18:18] council to reduce blight in the community continuing to participate in [01:18:26] efforts to assemble property where appropriate and funding incentives that [01:18:33] promote improved stewardship of properties located on US Highway 19 and [01:18:41] we are working with Pasco County to enter into an interlocal agreement which [01:18:50] will allow the city of New Port Richey ordinance officers to enforce Pasco [01:19:01] County standards for ordinance deficiencies on their properties on US [01:19:08] Highway 19 before we turn the page here um I think you have um Charles you can [01:19:14] probably help me with this I think you have a list on line of some of the [01:19:19] properties that are available but most of it I think it's probably three [01:19:23] streets is that correct and they're all in the downtown area yeah probably [01:19:33] privately owned yeah but it's just limited to the downtown core area about [01:19:39] three streets am I correct okay so those areas that I talked about a little bit [01:19:43] earlier I mean I'd like this to be back in yellow I think it needs to grow [01:19:47] because I think we have you know the areas that I think I mentioned [01:19:50] Massachusetts Congress you know you know south on Grandin down by the old [01:19:54] hospital and you know some of the places out on 19 because there's two just north [01:19:58] of Davis Hardware now two beautiful buildings I mean there I think leaders [01:20:03] was in one I can't remember who was in the other but I mean they need to be out [01:20:07] there and marketed and advertised so I think we need to expand you know because [01:20:12] the few places downtown you know we're very visible but some of those places we [01:20:18] need to get people to look out there you know so much so the so the so anyhow [01:20:23] the property assembly and property you know availability I think we need to [01:20:29] expand you know maybe turn that back to yellow and keep working on that [01:20:35] imprudent through some marketing package that kind of goes hand in hand with what [01:20:39] I was just saying we need to have some kind of marketing you know packages [01:20:44] available to people that you know are coming to the city or coming to the [01:20:48] state actually because we can get the people the leftover people that don't [01:20:52] want to be in the Miami area you know looking into Tampa you're looking into [01:20:56] Pasco County you know levels and I don't think we really have a package that that [01:21:00] says it would you know come here get you know we'll take you know we'll take the [01:21:03] leftovers that don't want to be in Miami or don't want to be in in Pasco County [01:21:07] so I think we're not [01:21:18] okay I don't I'm not familiar with I'd like to see that yeah okay so that's [01:21:26] really that's kind of an ongoing so I think maybe that should be kind of [01:21:29] yellow to more than it should probably never be green in my opinion you know [01:21:33] because we're always working on updating you know not that it's a shade of yellow [01:21:38] and green half and half or something so Debbie are you are this the last time [01:21:45] you talked about so we're actually then this interlocal agreement with Pasco [01:21:50] County we're actually working on code violations for county property we are in [01:22:01] the process of presenting to you an interlocal agreement that will allow us [01:22:07] the authority to do so and and then the interlocal agreement will be presented [01:22:18] to Pasco County which they will need to pass also to afford the city the [01:22:30] opportunity to enforce their ordinance yes you know it's the example of that [01:22:34] the fire and the house on on Washington and Michigan it looks like it's in the [01:22:40] city but ends up being in the county an example of that is the abandoned ABC [01:22:47] liquor this is for every property on US Highway 19 that is in the county that's [01:22:54] the jurisdictional properties that we're talking about addressing at this point [01:23:04] and the argument that we have presented to the county for requesting the [01:23:15] authority to do it because their ordinance officers don't travel all the [01:23:19] way to our jurisdiction to take a look at those properties on a regular basis [01:23:27] and that they are consistently a blemish on us that would definitely match that [01:23:34] house on Michigan and well so I still understand why you know we just report [01:23:39] it to them with him take care of it well they just don't do it all right there [01:23:44] the process you know then I I was for me with that piece of property and I was [01:23:52] going through the county that's why [01:24:04] I saw our people ties up their people it takes weeks to do it Pine Hill Road is a good example of that mess we had out there on the north side of the road. [01:24:19] I think maybe somebody might be listening well I mean I don't want to I mean Matt [01:24:27] we do get their cooperation when we have a really big issue and we've grown to [01:24:37] rely on them for big cleanup efforts but some of the I'm not as just as quick or [01:24:47] easy for us to handle it than even before it in even to report it to them [01:24:52] okay I just curious okay let's try to back up on there there was one item that [01:25:04] that was we marked in red we didn't talk about the conference sorry the the amend [01:25:11] the comprehensive plan for greater densities that's in getting ready to do [01:25:16] that in the land development the next strategy and increase the tax base has [01:25:34] to do with increasing property ownership in the city and addressing some issues [01:25:41] related to homelessness in the community and they and we have four action items [01:25:49] that we have indicated that we think are appropriate and we they're not noted I [01:26:07] guess because I need to tell you about them and the first is we need to seek [01:26:12] sources of funding that will assist people that are interested in [01:26:17] homeownership opportunities we need to identify a regional house repair service [01:26:25] that can be recommended to people in need of assistance with necessary home [01:26:30] repairs and we need to as I indicated to you already apply to HUD for some [01:26:37] rental rehabilitation program loan funds and lastly we need to actively seek [01:26:45] community partners and programs to address the homelessness in our [01:26:50] community is we haven't started any of that is any of those would we be [01:26:58] with the county on them yes sound like all of them would be a cooperation it [01:27:04] would require cooperation yes improve the image of the city is the next [01:27:11] strategy if we could hang for a second Matt anything on this one before we go [01:27:16] forward no I'm good there thank you backtrack a little bit it was two and a [01:27:25] half years ago that I introduced to the council the idea of applying chapter 171 [01:27:32] 203 of the Florida statutes which is called the interlocal service boundary [01:27:37] agreement so when she was talking about extra territorial powers beyond the [01:27:44] limits of our municipal boundaries chapter 171 point 203 sets forth the [01:27:50] process to go to the county and say you know we would like to sit down and [01:27:55] discuss with you who is best able to manage these issues so code enforcement [01:28:00] was one the one that I've always been after is then the stormwater one because [01:28:05] we have we have a stormwater fund and that they may as well and I always point [01:28:11] to Main Street by the Burger King where it floods there and that whole area that [01:28:16] goes out to 90% County residents that's on a city road that floods and flooding [01:28:25] is dealt with generally under flooded basins so you have one unified plan to [01:28:31] deal with the water as it rises and with the flood elevation issues we're having [01:28:36] I think that one of our goals might be to enter into these interlocal service [01:28:45] boundary agreements we have one with the water and sewer we have our sewer area [01:28:49] we should probably have one with drainage I think what we do with the [01:28:54] well but in those we just have mutual response so we have our area they have [01:29:00] theirs and if they need us we'll help them and all our governments will do [01:29:05] that if there's a flood and they have a problem they can call us we'll help them [01:29:08] but but I'm talking about getting the funding that's going into a big pot [01:29:13] somewhere to deal with drainage that we share the basin from so if that if that [01:29:19] ABC liquor store for example or half of these little County enclave properties [01:29:25] are part of the drainage facility that we that we operate it would only make [01:29:32] sense to me that one entity ought to be in charge of or be the lead entity when [01:29:37] it comes with dealing with that tidal water coming in that sort of thing but [01:29:43] that's what that goes along what she's saying yeah is that what you know we [01:29:46] need we need to talk with them and say these problems but they're not going to [01:29:50] come and deal with we're going to deal with it is that okay yeah and the point [01:29:54] is if you follow the statutes you send them a letter and within 15 days they [01:29:58] have to sit down with you [01:30:00] they have to negotiate in good faith because the Florida statutes say urban [01:30:04] areas win in this case. You know if we are offering a higher level of service [01:30:09] then they ought to consider allowing us to manage the areas that are part of our [01:30:15] urban core. So even if we can't take Trouble Creek to order out our borders [01:30:21] they could enter into an agreement say these are the borders for your public [01:30:25] works and streets and folks to maintain and here's the revenue sources and you [01:30:30] enter into a negotiation. It doesn't have to be everything but at some point you [01:30:36] know the statutes allow this. My colleagues at the time said well we [01:30:42] didn't want to aggravate them by instituting a legal process let's just [01:30:47] talk to them and then over the last two you have two three years it's been well [01:30:51] you know they don't want to listen to us or they have a hard time getting our [01:30:55] attention so I don't think it's a shot over the bow it's just saying hey can we [01:30:58] talk about this and do it in a formal way that there's the time limit it goes [01:31:04] through a process and then there's a resolution to it. I think that direction we should get from Debbie and the lawyers to say 171203 they're familiar with it anyway but I'm for [01:31:17] implementing whatever authority we have to say this is what the law says for us [01:31:23] to do and maybe they'll pay more attention than us asking them to do [01:31:27] something. We'll make sure the funding comes along with you start dealing with [01:31:31] stormwater it's not it's not a cheap fix and you know it was that many years ago [01:31:35] the county didn't even have a stormwater fund and I implemented that just a [01:31:39] number of years ago and of course they've had their issues with with that [01:31:44] a few years ago with all the flooding and so yeah just I'm okay with that I [01:31:52] just kind of tread lightly if the money doesn't come with it well that's what [01:31:57] I'm saying we we would negotiate if we thought that it would help but if [01:32:01] they're collecting money and not using it on stormwater projects that we're [01:32:04] paying for that really give them their evacuation right to come out I mean we've [01:32:10] got the city manager but she'll be over at the public works garage hunkered down [01:32:16] when the hurricane is that where it's gonna be yeah I'll be in Georgia next [01:32:26] sure the next strategy is to improve the image of the city the objective first [01:32:32] listed is to cultivate community ownership and pride all of the action [01:32:39] items to include publication of the newsletter established neighborhood [01:32:44] signage project establish and upgrade municipal facilities prioritize and [01:32:51] conduct city-sponsored family-friendly events and programming quality library [01:32:57] and recreation programming have been implemented and will continue to do so [01:33:03] delivering high quality municipal services to include maintenance and [01:33:09] upkeep of our equipment and buildings providing an integrated system that [01:33:15] allows customer input on service performance creating visually [01:33:20] attractive gateways into our downtown and on major roadways improving our [01:33:29] business tax receipt process updating forms and processes functionality for [01:33:37] utilities reviewing and considering policy changes to solid waste and yard [01:33:45] debris program ongoing conduct transport feasibility study for ALS service and [01:33:56] that is ongoing enhanced quality of life we are currently implementing the [01:34:04] library improvement project and phase one and phase two of the James E gray [01:34:13] preserve expansion project are on hold pending some additional funding we are [01:34:24] due to make a presentation to you on the meadows dog park project we are making [01:34:33] some improvements at the existing skate park and we are increasing opportunities [01:34:40] for community education at the library and rec center and we are prioritizing [01:34:47] some neighborhood areas so that we can come back to you with some redevelopment [01:34:53] project ideas isn't the tennis court in there shouldn't that be said it shouldn't [01:34:58] that be in there somewhere we can put it in there but it'll be complete before [01:35:06] July 15th I'm just saying you know it's it doesn't have to be in there but I'm [01:35:12] saying isn't that where it should be [01:35:15] got it hold you to that July 15th oh you're there too I'm holding you to that [01:35:29] July 15th don't look over now he looks over right to Robert this Bermuda [01:35:38] Triangle going on right here [01:35:42] if I may the education when you mentioned the library and the recreation [01:35:48] center community education increase opportunities for that just as a planting [01:35:56] a seed here for what you're going to tell us with the rescue act money they're [01:36:01] one of the qualifying uses is job training and increasing the labor force [01:36:09] and helping folks that are out of work or whatever and I know I mentioned it to [01:36:17] you all before but the idea of us getting into some kind of vocational [01:36:21] supporting the vocational you know development of our youth that tracks [01:36:27] into the whole education thing I'd be curious to see whether there's a entity [01:36:32] out there that wants to do that for us that there's been talk about the boys [01:36:36] and girls club might be wanting to come into town the other libraries are all [01:36:40] having these maker spaces that they're putting in one is culinary arts we got [01:36:46] such a big hospitality there's a shortage of hope of hospitality workers [01:36:52] and talent I would love to see us actively try to incorporate that youth [01:36:58] training and skill development among our population and giving them an [01:37:02] opportunity whether it's after-school programs working with the schools [01:37:06] whatever can help to support that and I noticed that in the community in the CRA [01:37:12] plan it says summer youth sidewalk development program so this was just [01:37:17] approved and part of our plan which supposedly has 80,000 funding in it but [01:37:22] this was developed trade skills the youth the New Port Richey can use to [01:37:26] develop further interest in labor trades and general construction and maintenance [01:37:30] the paid hourly program will be offered to qualified men and women of 16 years [01:37:35] or older to work it in six member teams with two public work staffs for [01:37:39] direction and supervision the sidewalk program is a five-foot minimum width [01:37:43] city right away in predetermined neighborhoods sidewalks have been [01:37:47] recognized as minimum property improvements with most immediate payback [01:37:50] in terms of property value increases so we have a plan I don't know if we've [01:37:55] ever implemented it or not but it does fall into this community education and [01:38:00] it's a stated goal so I don't know how you all feel but I think it would be [01:38:04] great for us to try to get some training youth training whatever we can do if we [01:38:09] we're 20 we're you know down and 10% of employees and we've got these teams to [01:38:16] do some of this yeah you're paying them yeah you know so we get some of these [01:38:21] entry-level position type things done yeah go to work on that Robert would you [01:38:27] well we have money to pay them too I mean and that's coming from the Rescue [01:38:31] Act so that money can be used to retrain and and we've never done any real we [01:38:35] could issue the force training we could issue those PhDs right [01:38:39] out higher and deeper pine pine handle degree right anyway I meant it might be [01:38:47] worth seeing what you all think about that let's look into it you know summer [01:38:51] is coming and they're looking for something to do keep them out of this [01:38:54] marathon every we we charge the Cultural Affairs Committee to to work on [01:39:05] developing the public arts master plan or input to that no we haven't charged [01:39:12] them with the task yet no and again would we charge them with the task I [01:39:20] mean we would ask for input when we input yeah but we would need to have a [01:39:25] person an employed person or somebody well the library or something that with [01:39:31] a rec center doesn't doesn't the rec center observe their meetings yeah we [01:39:39] would work with them on the task yes it would be a city program though not a [01:39:44] committee program right to continue on if you'll allow me with improve the [01:39:53] image of the city we have strengthened relationships purpose of that is to [01:39:59] enhance the quality of life for our residents and businesses and community [01:40:07] partners and the focus has been to evaluate our current relationships and [01:40:16] determine the direction for future relationships and all of the [01:40:24] relationships are green I I and the other department has maintained active [01:40:31] relationships with all of the local organizations and people listed [01:40:40] communicate effectively we are green we try to advance more communications using [01:40:50] electronic and social media video content we enable city sites to be [01:40:57] mobile friendly we need to do a better job of updating our website and [01:41:03] maintaining it regularly we need to improve redesigning our web presence and [01:41:10] its functionality we're green in terms of implementing our marketing and public [01:41:18] relations master plan and we are working to expand the city's GIS [01:41:24] capabilities you get anything on that Matt [01:41:33] no I'm good on that [01:41:37] Debbie could we add the entities that you've mentioned the school boards County [01:41:42] Commissioner's MPOs all that stuff could we add our local support groups I mean [01:41:47] you're working well with the Chasco Street and all of our little nonprofit [01:41:54] entities that strengthens the image of the city without a doubt you're doing it [01:42:02] already so under the communication Debbie you know the one thing about [01:42:11] communication you just can't have too much of it you know we've had some I [01:42:15] know in past council meetings people says oh we didn't know about that and [01:42:20] you know where we find this information and so forth so I think that we we [01:42:24] constantly work on that and you marked you got mentioned here update the [01:42:28] website and maintain that that's all part of that I think if anything we [01:42:32] over communicate and then that way it's [01:42:38] appreciate you pointing that out and working on that okay I'll be in dealing [01:42:46] with the image of the city too if you didn't broadcast the picture of the City [01:43:20] yeah I'm going item if he's answering the matter you there can you take your [01:43:31] golf cart out of reverse he's not there I'm sure you would said something [01:43:49] you hang up and call him back okay thank you I'll wait then mayor go ahead [01:44:03] okay in order to continue our community policing efforts we are maintaining our [01:44:13] downtown beat with the police department we are continuing our [01:44:23] anti-prostitution efforts we are working with a number you have dialed this [01:44:35] community an ongoing basis to curtail prostitution we are working on drug [01:44:45] trafficking strategies and Kim we are we are not using confidential drug [01:44:55] informants at this time and [01:45:00] We do have a fund to pay for informants, but it just hasn't worked out for various reasons. [01:45:06] Please enter your access code, followed by the pound. [01:45:08] We do use anti-drug programs in the schools and community groups, [01:45:14] and we use social media to inform public enforcement or public unenforcement. [01:45:20] To enable audio control. [01:45:22] And we are continuing to address homelessness and trespassing and other quality of life issues. [01:45:32] And we are collaborating with homeowners to establish watch groups. [01:45:40] But as Kim indicated to me, when we were updating the plan, [01:45:44] that was something that we wanted to do a little bit more of. [01:45:48] And we also wanted to equip our officers with some resources to assist more with during mental health crises. [01:46:02] Do we want, and I know it's such a huge problem to deal here with the whole homeless thing. [01:46:12] I remember seeing you indicate that's a potential use of something. [01:46:17] But we've always felt the county ought to do something with their homeless problems as well as us. [01:46:24] But I mean, I don't know. [01:46:27] Is there any solution? [01:46:30] We talked earlier. [01:46:31] One of the strategies I was talking about is to collaborate with others on trying to, you know, [01:46:37] develop some specific action plans on that. [01:46:42] And I do have a meeting on Friday with someone from the county. [01:46:45] I'm hoping to learn perhaps that what they're doing with their American Rescue Funds related to the homeless. [01:46:52] And hopefully have a good report for you on how they plan to spend some of their funding to support those activities. [01:47:02] I'm sure they will be. [01:47:03] It's really hard. [01:47:06] We had a problem behind the Dollar General on Massachusetts, and that was county property. [01:47:13] So we got the county to clear that property, so it chased them off from there. [01:47:17] There was another example of a county property behind Harbor Freight. [01:47:22] We got them to clean that property up, and they moved from there. [01:47:26] Now they're parking sometimes at night on the south end of Harbor Freight, you know, at night. [01:47:34] And then if we chase them off from there, they go in. [01:47:37] You know, you turn the light off in the Marathon gas station in the car wash area, and they go spend the night in there. [01:47:44] And then that whole kind of retail storage area right there, that's county. [01:47:51] So they can go stay on that property, and it just becomes a big game. [01:47:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:47:57] Like, you know, so it's another. [01:48:04] We have to work together, bottom line. [01:48:05] Yeah, that's another interlocal thing, you know. [01:48:07] Yeah, I know that California's got these little tiny homes with just like one little thing. [01:48:12] It's air conditioned. [01:48:13] It's got a sink, a toilet, a place to sleep, and they row them out there. [01:48:17] I don't know that it does. [01:48:18] St. Pete's got them. [01:48:20] And I think I've mentioned my sister works for the Catholic Church on a volunteer to feed them, but they kill them with kindness. [01:48:26] So, you know, it's either, how can I help you? [01:48:30] Let's get you somewhere. [01:48:32] Let's get you to some services. [01:48:34] And the ones that won't take it, they just go move on over there. [01:48:39] I have a really good friend that did that with the homeless through the VA. [01:48:44] They found them homes. [01:48:45] They got them, you know, electricity. [01:48:47] They got them home first and last and all that, put them in there. [01:48:50] Within a month or two, they left because they didn't want the responsibility. [01:48:53] So, you know, it's where they want to live. [01:48:56] You know, it's not, we can't give a mom our standards of living. [01:49:00] They've got their own standards of what they want. [01:49:02] So it becomes a, maybe it gets too warm and they'll go to Georgia or North Carolina or something this summer. [01:49:08] I don't know. [01:49:10] Anyway, yeah, I don't know what percentage of the police is dealing with that population, [01:49:15] but I'm guessing it's a pretty good amount of the calls are related to that. [01:49:19] I don't know. [01:49:22] Yeah. [01:49:23] Continues to continue without an answer. [01:49:27] Yeah, go ahead, Matt. [01:49:28] Also, you know, they move around a lot, too, in the city, out of the city to the county. [01:49:34] So, you know, that kind of an issue, that big issue there, we definitely need to work on the county, [01:49:40] working together on that, you know, and working even if it's, you know, supplying some funding towards it, [01:49:46] like the county is doing to certain programs, because it crosses the lines between the city and county a lot. [01:49:55] So that's just something we really need to work with them on and help, you know, towards a common cause. [01:50:02] Just like before, you were talking about the vocational programs. [01:50:06] You know, there's lots of agencies that do that. [01:50:10] So even if it's a matter for the city, just, you know, maybe transportation for our citizens to attend these things [01:50:15] or something like that, but I don't know if the city should actually be taking it on. [01:50:22] I mean, we have to take a role in it, but there's plenty of organizations out there. [01:50:27] I don't think we need our own separate, you know, program for those things. [01:50:35] The action item was drug enforcement, and, you know, one of the biggest things we hear is the needles that get left in the parks [01:50:40] and on the side of the roads, and so it's the drug addict, homeless that create the most concern, I guess. [01:50:50] You know, there's a lot of folks I've recognized for years that either may have a mental disability or whatever, [01:50:56] but they're just our residents, and that's okay. [01:51:03] Still have a standard of living and private property rights. [01:51:12] The final strategy from the plan that was originally adopted is invest in infrastructure, [01:51:23] and largely all of the action items have been implemented. [01:51:33] We continue to employ a proactive approach to necessary upgrades in water, stormwater, and sewer. [01:51:40] We do seek grants to support continued investment in our parks and public land. [01:51:47] We continue to complete sidewalks and alleys, portions of improvement. [01:51:56] We pursue state resources to implement subject to sewer. [01:52:01] We are working and have completed the utility master plan and the wastewater treatment plant operating permit, [01:52:11] and in process is the completion of the construction of fire station number two, [01:52:16] the fleet purchasing warehouse project, and the library improvement project, which brings us... [01:52:26] To where's the fire station? [01:52:28] Where are we with the fire station? [01:52:30] We're up to bid, and the project bids are due July 15th, is it? [01:52:38] July 1st. [01:52:39] 1st, so it's July 15th that we'll have a bid recommendation to you on. [01:52:45] Debbie, on investing in the infrastructure, and Pete, you mentioned the use of American Rescue Funds. [01:52:52] I think one of the things that those funds can be used for is for water and sewer improvements, [01:52:58] and that's something that can invest in that. [01:53:04] It can be an investment in the city for future income if we can expand to more residents in our service areas, [01:53:12] and we may be looking to do that, I would think, with some of that money, [01:53:16] so that we can get long-term returns on that American Rescue Funds. [01:53:22] So that's something that I'd like for us to look at that when that time comes. [01:53:28] Great. [01:53:29] Mike, along those lines, they say water and sewer, but it also incorporates stormwater, [01:53:33] and that goes back to our environmental stewardship in terms of cleaning stormwater [01:53:39] that's being dumped in from our commercial areas into the river directly. [01:53:43] And so the stormwater projects are mostly going to happen in the city limits, [01:53:49] and the septic to sewer are mostly going to happen in our service areas, [01:53:53] and so to the degree there's a service area that wants to annex in, [01:53:59] and I continue to think about that area from Trouble Creek and 19, where Irene Loop [01:54:05] and those areas back in there where they're all on septic now. [01:54:11] And, you know, I think Robert has told me a few years ago that in a big heavy rain [01:54:17] and you go out there you can smell, it's just nasty. [01:54:22] But that's where the gentleman came in and told us he wanted to annex. [01:54:28] So using rescue money to help us to annex and bring in that new tax base [01:54:34] would be, I think, something I want to hear about when you set your priorities. [01:54:39] But the stormwater also is a great incentivizer for the density in the downtown area. [01:54:46] That floodable park, that floodable area that was shown to us by the Regional Planning Council, [01:54:53] and the ability to put stormwater in this big area for development by the potential hotel, [01:55:00] whatever happens out there, we could use rescue money without question [01:55:07] to do stormwater enhancement rather than giving cash to somebody to come in and build, [01:55:13] giving them that infrastructure that helps them to, like we can master plan it. [01:55:19] That's what I'm hoping will happen in that site. [01:55:22] Anyway, see when the CIP comes. [01:55:28] Debbie, you keep trying to move us and I keep slowing us down. [01:55:31] Oh, no, that's all right. [01:55:32] Where are we on page 16? [01:55:34] We are on environmental stewardship. [01:55:36] And I've left the action items open. [01:55:40] I've filled out the objectives, the goals, and the measures. [01:55:50] But I have come up with some action items that I think fit. [01:55:58] And I'll suggest them because I think they support the objectives that we're talking about. [01:56:16] And if you like them, then we'll go with them. [01:56:18] And if you don't or if you have ideas of your own, then just let me know. [01:56:22] But the first one is install solar panels at the library, which [01:56:26] is something that we're proposing. [01:56:28] The second, since we're trying to- [01:56:31] Are we doing that now? [01:56:33] Yeah, I thought so. [01:56:34] We are, but it's not green yet. [01:56:36] Oh, OK. [01:56:37] OK. [01:56:38] OK. [01:56:39] To continue to add EVs to the city's fleet. [01:56:44] What page are we on? [01:56:46] 16. [01:56:47] These are things she's proposing. [01:56:49] Are we just right in? [01:56:50] Yeah. [01:56:51] Yeah. [01:56:54] Research carbon reduction goals and prepare a recommendation for you to consider. [01:57:01] Adopting at some point in the future. [01:57:07] Assess the feasibility and cost of offsetting electricity with renewable sources. [01:57:15] Identify and implement water conservation strategies within city buildings and operations. [01:57:24] And improve the amount of recycling collected throughout the city. [01:57:32] Those are all- [01:57:39] The vehicle electrification. [01:57:43] I don't know if it caught Robert's attention yet, but Ford's announcement last week of their F-150 Lightning. [01:57:52] The one with the larger battery pack also comes with a bidirectional charging system, [01:58:01] which put into simple forms means if the lights go out, you run the lights in the building from the truck, [01:58:12] which if you think about it, we've got some places that might not make a whole lot of sense [01:58:18] to have electric generators sitting all over the place. [01:58:21] But if you could bring the public works vehicles and park them and plug them in, you'd have lights. [01:58:30] So there's a lot of that on the horizon. [01:58:35] And those are supposedly going to hit the market this time next year or before. [01:58:41] So we're 12 months out. [01:58:45] There are programs in the back of my mind. [01:58:48] We have a lot of houses in this community that were built in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. [01:58:57] And I think is there a type of program that if they changed out their toilet, [01:59:01] we could give them at a discounted rate a toilet that would be water saving? [01:59:07] We have that in place already. [01:59:10] How does it get out? [01:59:11] How does the word get out? [01:59:12] We promote that in the city newsletter from time to time. [01:59:17] I thought there was something in the back of my mind. [01:59:19] That's why I'm asking. [01:59:20] I don't really know anything about it. [01:59:22] We took advantage of it. [01:59:24] So, yeah, it's there. [01:59:26] It just seems to me maybe the rental homeowners aren't familiar. [01:59:30] You mentioned something about the river. [01:59:32] And I thought this would be a good place to place it, but I don't remember what. [01:59:36] That's funded through SWIFT, right? [01:59:38] To improve the quality of the stormwater outfall into the river [01:59:43] and monitor and make whatever improvements that we can for the. . . [01:59:51] Yeah, I don't know that there's a lot of monitoring we do. [01:59:55] And I know I've asked a couple questions. [01:59:58] And we talked about it. [02:00:00] about the Nebraska parking lot and retention pond and it goes that's gonna [02:00:03] hold all that water and then you know we know the water is eventually gonna go to [02:00:07] the river and but we do have some weirs that are put in place to try to catch [02:00:13] the oils and so forth on that but that's that might be something that we might [02:00:17] look at a little bit more and see what we can do to reduce the harmful storm [02:00:27] water that goes into the to the rivers I'm sure we can I'm sure there's areas [02:00:31] we can improve that and and when I was talking to Tom O'Neill earlier to see [02:00:38] his interest in getting on a committee he told me that some of the early [02:00:42] spinners or and Robert you may know about you know what he's talking about [02:00:47] but I think it was there near the Methodist Church intersection when you [02:00:54] put you put some higher quality things that would clean the river and I know [02:01:02] we've been doing that all along but I think that's a good goal for us to stay [02:01:06] on because it's a good it's a good theme for people they're interested in [02:01:11] environmentally sensitive there's CDS units is what they're called and we [02:01:17] we've got four of them now and so they're maintained on a quarterly basis [02:01:21] we do do testing along the river we have our NPDES permit which is requiring us [02:01:28] to do some testing so we can get some baselines on the surface waters to where [02:01:33] when the reports come out the EPA is going to identify what bodies of water [02:01:38] are impaired and what improvements you have to make right now our test results [02:01:43] are looking that bad but we can always improve and then I want to say about [02:01:48] maybe four years ago or so we completed the river study that we ended up doing [02:01:53] testing from the city limits to the north all the way back to the Great [02:01:59] Preserve fertilizer in these testing we we've tested for that we've also I don't [02:02:06] know if you remember a few years back we updated our ordinance to reflect the [02:02:11] fertilization periods in the rainy season you can't fertilize we also have [02:02:16] call-outs about those zones that are between your lawn and the river that [02:02:22] you're not allowed to fertilize so that we can keep that the runoff from going [02:02:27] into directly into the river so we do have some things in place and our permit [02:02:31] does require us to review those every every year to see where we need to [02:02:35] update that might be something you know we're talking about communication so [02:02:40] forth I'm not sure that that information is out there for the general public to [02:02:44] see or can reference and and maybe and maybe not even the commercial folks that [02:02:52] you know put the fertilizer down stuff they may not even know those rules that's [02:02:56] action item then is community education and I would also add this is where I [02:03:04] would think that the invasive species eradication of invasive species and [02:03:10] education of that as well I was looking at these potato vines and on one thing [02:03:15] I said that that you know you it's illegal to transport them and then on [02:03:20] the next website you could buy six bulbs for 395 the the other thing we could do [02:03:30] in this and I suspect the payback is pretty quick based on what I've heard of [02:03:36] residential systems but look at our our city facilities with the idea of [02:03:45] installing solar we've got some huge flat roofs that are probably be pretty [02:03:58] good places to put solar panels make both those things too that you just [02:04:02] brought up Robert that might we might ask the Environmental Committee the way [02:04:08] that they would like to inform the community on those types of those types [02:04:16] of way that they want to communicate to the community what we need them to do [02:04:23] on those type of those doings and we have taken a look at the at the solar [02:04:27] systems that you're talking about the ones in the library they're expandable [02:04:32] so while we've we've got the initial grant to go ahead and install those then [02:04:37] we can apply for a future grant and expand upon the system that we have the [02:04:42] fleet maintenance facility that we brought to you last week we had [02:04:46] discussions with the engineers about what types of roofs to where as we move [02:04:50] forward that we could go ahead and install some type of solar system as [02:04:54] well so yes those are those are things there's a what we would call low-hanging [02:04:58] fruit that we're looking at now if we can do that affordably and if the pay [02:05:02] back is really in a single-digit number of years correct that that's that's [02:05:09] almost found bunny particularly if we come up with a way to pay for it yeah [02:05:16] the you know I've got a neighbor that says it took him five years to pay for [02:05:20] solar panels and if you were in that five to seven-year range I mean that [02:05:27] that makes a lot of sense [02:05:34] and then the micro grids are more power to keep then that's almost more to the [02:05:40] emergency management side of things to have an area where when the power goes [02:05:44] out there's pharmacy or drugs or public things in fact when we were looking at [02:05:50] the storage and they said they had the bed over there for people would have to [02:05:54] spend the night for dispatching I was wondering whether we could use some of [02:06:01] these emergency some of these emergency [02:06:08] hardening funds and FEMA dollars that are out there to allow you to stay in [02:06:13] place more or to you know when the power goes out yeah if you have a hub [02:06:19] that's a micro grid that keeps essential services which has to do with food drugs [02:06:28] and emergency services I don't know if there's some element of what we're [02:06:35] building over there that could actually qualify as a as an emergency facility [02:06:42] because he's hardening it for some big wins and everything so we're taking a [02:06:48] look at there's funds everybody every time you turn around there's funds but [02:06:55] who gets them and how much is the whole different story [02:07:00] okay [02:07:08] match you got any thoughts it just on the environmental stewardship there's so [02:07:16] many different things that we can do that's out there I think it's the matter [02:07:20] of pride prioritizing the best ones for us and you know what what makes the most [02:07:25] sense so going forward you know whether it's renewable energy you know [02:07:30] environmental as far as our river they're probably not not all the best [02:07:36] suited for us but we have the ones that you know the ones out there that are we [02:07:40] should be taking advantage of [02:07:43] the next strategy is cultivate human resources and the action items that are [02:07:57] being proposed are to publish the employee newsletter on a quarterly basis [02:08:03] develop a training program for city employees and as I indicated earlier [02:08:12] investigate the possibility of establishing an apprenticeship program [02:08:17] for hard-to-fill positions align employee evaluation systems with [02:08:23] organizational priorities and practices continue the following working groups [02:08:29] the Labor Management Coalition the Wellness Committee and the Safety [02:08:34] Committee and then lastly to evaluate so city policies to meet the needs of the [02:08:40] changing workforce [02:08:45] add anything on this one [02:08:51] so all these all these objectives and goals here or you know what we need so I [02:08:57] think it's a good good list here anybody else I would suggest you pick up some [02:09:06] action items that you think would work and I would lean on Bernie heavily I'm [02:09:16] Bernie okay I you know and she's running out the door your department heads so okay [02:09:25] I think we're good on that then okay that'll take us to advance emerging [02:09:32] technologies the action items that the department has and I came up with are to [02:09:39] implement a dedicated fiber network between city facilities because we [02:09:53] omitted that right up front we did yeah I'd love to see this become a big [02:10:07] discussion in the CRA capital yeah that's the last one right and I was [02:10:12] going to put your shuttle pods in this one right okay keep your action items [02:10:22] you had listed right to share with us later yeah okay 20 and then elevate the [02:10:31] customer experience by providing quality tools and services expand the city [02:10:40] services that can be assessed online access online advance solutions based on [02:10:49] department needs and city objectives expand existing technologies as new [02:10:57] features become available provide resources allowing the information [02:11:03] technology staff to remain up-to-date with new technologies develop and [02:11:10] information technology master plan perform annual third-party security [02:11:16] testing on the city's IT resources implement additional infrastructure and [02:11:23] resources to expand the network and provide resiliency deploy additional [02:11:29] network security tools and conduct cyber security training with staff maintain an [02:11:37] incident response plan with annual testing and deploy software solutions [02:11:42] which collect and provide analytics for staff a far enough ahead in this whole [02:11:49] field anything on this one I think he helped put the list together [02:12:00] now the little outside my paygrade I hope making sure this happens I looked [02:12:10] good to me [02:12:13] it's through customer experience we'd like to purchase what's referred to as [02:12:20] CRM software and that's really and I and Charles is actually best suited to [02:12:28] explain it but it's really a software which allows us to track when when any [02:12:38] city staff person has interacted with a customer so that we know what they've [02:12:44] been told already and what who they've talked to so that we can make sure that [02:12:50] they stay on the right track and they don't get turned around in circles too [02:12:55] many times and we can give them the most direct answers that they need we'd [02:13:03] like to develop a written reference tools to assist property owners through [02:13:08] permitting and other regulatory processes we'd like to provide [02:13:14] ombudsman services to usher developers through required processes we want to [02:13:21] review all of our regulatory processes for process improvements we'd like to [02:13:27] research technology applications which facilitate online permitting and [02:13:33] licenses develop customer-friendly communication protocols intentionally [02:13:42] and regularly communicate processes to users of the system and services

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

3. 3Communications▶ 2:13:45
4. 4Adjournment▶ 2:15:55