TOWN COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES  TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2024 OAKLAND MEETING HALL  7:00 P.M.  CALLTOORDER:  This meeting was held in-person and livestreamed as a Zoom webinar. Mayor Taylor called the regular meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and  Invocation by Commissioner Ramos.  ROLLCALL  COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:  Commissioner McMullen Commissioner Polland Commissioner Ramos Vice Mayor Satterfield Mayor Taylor None  COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: PRESENTATIONS:  Proclamation = Florida Missing Children's Day - September 9, 2024  Mayor Taylor read the Florida Missing Children's Day Proclamation announcing September  9,2024, as Florida Missing Children's Day.  Proclamation - Constitution Week - September 17-23,2024  Mayor Taylor read the Constitution Week Proclamation announcing September 17-23, 2024,  as Constitution Week. PUBLIC FORUM:  Public comments were as follows:  Trillshun Bacon, 510 W. Henschen - Trillshun said he had a request to see if on that wall next to the basketball court, not where the house is at, but right behind, right next to the playground, he wanted to see if they could do a mural on there. He said with the town's permission he could get somebody to look at it and see if  they can put something on there.  Mayor Taylor asked if he had an idea.  Trillshun said that he has some. He said he is open to suggestions, but he thinks because of the rain, the paint on that gate is kind of coming off, and  1    that place is a beautiful park sO he thinks it would be good to put something  right there that's better than what is out there right now. Mayor Taylor said he thinks that is a great idea.  CONSENT AGENDA:  a. Minutes - 8-27-2024 Town Commission Regular Meeting  b. OACS Evacuation Sites N Manager's Report  Mayor Taylor announced the items on the Consent Agenda and said he would like to recognize those on the employee anniversary report with long service He said one was Mrs. Ramdehal; he said he doesn't know if anybody's kids had her, his kids had her as a teacher. Mayor Taylor said she has 17 years at the Oakland Avenue Charter School SO congratulations to her, that is a pretty long time. Commissioner Ramos said that all of his kids went to her, MOTION was made by Vice Mayor Satterfield, seconded by Commissioner Polland to  all four of them.  approve the Consent Agenda.  AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor  NAY: None  OTHER POLICY MATTERS  Tree Replacement. Agreement/Soutnern Oaks HOA  Town Manager Stewart said in 2024 the Town contracted a dredging company to remove sediment from Lake Apopka. He said that in addition, as part of that work, the contractor placed some sediment on the HOA property, which is which the town has since been surveyed. The HOA brought it to the town's attention that it was private property, and they had some requirements with one of them being for the town to test the sediment to ensure that it was under the threshold for any type of pollutants. Town Manager Stewart said the HOA also had a concern about the trees that were down in this area because the contractor had placed two or three inches of sediment over the root system of the trees. He said we had our arborist go down and he also requested the contractor remove as much sediment as possible without damaging the root system of the trees themselves. Town Manager Stewart said they met with the HOA through e-mails and met with them on site and were able to work on this agreement which basically says that if any of the trees died within the surveyed area within the next 5 years that the town would go back and replace any of those trees. He said they are not very large trees in nature, but there are trees that if damaged that we would need to go in and take care of those by removing the tree itself and then replace it with a tree of similar nature. Town Manager Stewart said that in this agreement, which was drafted by our town attorney, ittakes the onus off of the HOAI to make any future improvements to the embankment that was repaired SO if there are any future issues, the  2    town won't require the HOA to actually make those repairs. Town Manager Stewart said there is no money out of the town's pocket for this, it is just kind of a good neighbor type thing being that the town did place some sediment into that survey area during the project.  Town discussion was as follows:  Mayor Taylor said that he has noticed with the heavy rains we've had that the pond that Oakland Park created with that storm structure really helps out a lot. Public Works Director Parker said definitely. Mayor Taylor said before there was water just blasting down everywhere and that's not the case anymore sO he thinks things will Mayor Taylor asked if there was anyone from the HOA who would like to speak. Public  improve there.  comments were as follows:  Scott Gordon, 70 Millholland - Scott said he is currently treasurer of the Southern Oaks HOA Board sO first off; he would like to say that it is unfortunate that we had to even come to the agreement that the sediment was put on the property and unfortunately, it wasn't two or three inches, it was actually at least a foot in many places throughout. He said with that being said, he would like to say that Town Manager Stewart was great in working with the HOA to rectify that, most of the sand was able to be removed and smoothed out SO he wanted to say thank you and appreciates the town working with the HOA to come to a mutual resolution on this.  Mayor Taylor closed public comment.  MOTION was made by Commissioner Ramos, seconded by Vice Mayor Satterfield to  approve the Tree Replacement Agreement with Southern Oaks HOA.  AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor Motion passed with a vote of 5 in favor; 0 opposed.  NAY: None  Public Parking and Traffic Study - Oakland Avenue Charter School  Town Manager Stewart said that Town events over the past several years have grown in popularity and parking has been accommodated for these events through the partnerships formed through local churches. In addition, the Oakland Police Department and Oakland Avenue Charter School (OACS) continuously look for ways to reduce student drop off times He said that Vice Mayor Satterfield suggested utilizing a section of the west portion of the Oakland Avenue Charter School that may assist the Town in meeting the needs of public parking while also creating an alternative entrance to help alleviate traffic during OACS  to aid in the reduction of school traffic on public roadways.  student drop off and pick up.  3    Town Staff is recommending conducting a study of the surrounding areas of OACS to determine ift there is an opportunity for additional public parking in Town as well alternative means to improve parent and student experiences at OACS. All Town Department Directors input would be included in the study to ensure all needs are met throughout Town Departments to include OACS. The goal of the study would be to make improvements that benefit the surrounding residents, the school, local churches, businesses and the Town. Town Manger Stewart said that in the agenda packet is a sketch of some of the potential areas that we would look at as far as turning some of the school property into some type of public parking, shared use with the school during school hours and then open up some available parking on the weekends. He said that with this comes a bigger picture there with four or five surrounding blocks and in looking at all the entrances and exits in the areas that we know receive a lot oft traffic. Town Manager Stewart said that obviously Lakeside Church requires parking for their facility and then we have event parking and also, we have the school drop off and staging areas for pick up. He said we wanted to look at the whole picture SO we could possibly make improvements that would meet the needs and satisfy everybody involved in the town. Town Manager Stewart said this is not necessarily a fixed plan; there  isan old drain field on this particular piece of property.  Town discussion was as follows:  Vice Mayor Satterfield said that he first took the principal out to make sure of what they really use and what they didn't use and the principal was in full agreement that about 80 feet across the parking lot that would shoot North and come up behind Tractor Supply to the easement really doesn't get used and the school would have no problem with moving their gate SO that the hardening of the school for security is maintained. He said then he brought Town Manager Stewart over there because it just sounded like it was an idea that would work for everybody, we could accommodate Lakeside when they need it, and we have our own problems that we have had forever since we built that property, when we have our events and we can't park people, it would be additional parking for us for our town events. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that the other part to iti is in the back end of it, we might be able to divert some of the school traffic to go across that loop and instead of going back on Starr, they might come in the back way and loop it through to shoot back into town. There was additional discussion about possible school traffic loops and alternate There was discussion about the abandonment of the septic field. Public Works Director Parker said you can park on it as is, you don't have to do anything. If you are going to pave it, you would need to ensure stability and take into consideration There was discussion about hard parking surface and grass parking and how that Mayor Taylor opening thet floor up to the public. There was no public comment. Mayor Taylor  traffic patterns.  drainage as you would be crossing two swales.  may work.  closed public comment.  4    MOTION was made by Vice Mayor Satterfield, seconded by Commissioner Ramos to approve the Town Manager to obtain a scope of services from a qualified consultant  specializing in traffic and parking improvements. AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor Motion passed with a vote of 5 in favor; 0 opposed. TOWN MANAGER/DEPARTHENT HEAD REPORTS:  NAY: None  Town Manager Stewart said he is glad to see that the budget's moving forward, it has been avery difficult budget year. He said this is the first time he has ever been a part of a budget where it changed sO drastically at the last minute at no fault of our own SO with that being said, he appreciates the department heads and the work they do daily along with all of our Community Outreach Director Lovejoy said at Farmer's Market this week, we are celebrating many things. We are celebrating Hispanic Heritage with live music and a flamenco guitar as well as special Latin vendors and the Farmer's Market has turned one year old. Later in the day on Thursday, it the Art of Bird Photography at the center at 6:00 p.m. SO it is going to Finance Director Leon said that if anybody has questions about the budget to go ahead and e-mail her and she will respond. Vice Mayor Satterfield told her she did a really good job for Public Works Director Parker said we need to keep in mind that Winter Garden is making quite a bit of improvement to Oakland Avenue and the brick road down there and we were informed by them a couple of weeks ago that they will be doing some single lane closures. Commissioner Ramos said that speaking of Metroplan, he knows we are doing an inventory with Bike Walk Central Florida for the sidewalks and connectivity but when he was there at the meeting last week, they said the $3.8 million dollar grant cycle is already open. He said he talked with Amy Beckman who said to have our Town Manager reach out to them when we are done with the plan, and they will implement it, and we can apply for a grant for our sidewalks whenever we need it on Oakland Avenue or Tubb Street. Commissioner Ramos said while he was at the Metroplan meeting, he was talking to a commissioner from Winter Park who was talking about EV training. He said he was talking to Chief about when accidents with EV's happen, the police and fire rescue have a free training that he would like our staff to be trained on. Commissioner Ramos said that it happens that they catch fire, and they go on fire for a long, long time, so in Winter Park, Longwood, and Casselberry, the tow trucks stopped taking them. He said the first responders have to wait for the vehicle to turn off and they be hours and hours because if they put the car on the tow truck, the  town employees.  be great.  her very first budget presentation.  COMMISSION REPORTS:  5    tow truck will melt with the car, SO they decide to decline. Commissioner Ramos said that any town truck that comes over. just declines it and won't pick it up until it shuts down. He said there's some training for accident that their police officers were going through and he would like our police officer to go through it. He said he will bring the information to the chief. Commissioner Ramos said that at the Florida League of Cities, he met a charter review consultant, a senior advisor, Thomas Harmer, who lives in Oakland and moved into Oakland Park last year. Mr. Harmer said he will do free consultation for the charter review committee that we put together, that we have to put together a year prior to delivering the 10-year mark, which we have to have a committee started this October. Commissioner Ramos said he would be happy to come over here and he isa available for free through FLC. Commissioner Ramos said Mr. Harner would bring his staff and walk us through it and bring the requirements of what he would like to choose from the citizens, what knowledge and what background they should have for them to be involved in. Commissioner Ramos said that once we pick the charter review committee, her would be there for the first meeting to kick Commissioner Polland reminded everyone that NatureFest is Saturday, September 21st from 10-2 at the Oakland Nature Preserve. He was asked about the date for Pumpkin Glow, and  itoff.  that date is Friday, October 25thfrom 5:30-9:00 p.m. Commissioner McMullen - Nothing additional. Vice Mayor Satterfield - Nothing additional.  Finance Director Leon added that we had received four proposals from firms and the audit selection committee received all the proposals SO they will be reviewing it and meeting in Mayor Taylor said we used tol have local churches send a representative to do the invocations at the meetings and it might be a good idea to start that again where we go around to the local churches to ask them to send a representative to do the invocation. Trillshun Bacon offered to help with this. Mayor Taylor said we have a lot of churches in town and thanks Trillshun for offering to help. Mayor Taylor said that the knows there was the dirt road survey, but he believes the results are still pending and we are waiting for those to be published or are we going to be talking about that soon? Town Manager Stewart said that we can bring that up, he believes he emailed everybody the results of the survey. He said we are waiting until after the budget is finished and we finish this fiscal year to see if we have any excess funds then maybe we will have some funds to try to come up with a solution. Town Manager Stewart said that Assistant Public Works Director Brown has gotten some pricing for some millings which is like a third of the cost, doesn't have the same look as asphalt and is supposed to hold up just as long if you put it down correctly SO we are going to maybe try a block of that. He said that we had talked about different materials and things like that, but he thinks at this point we just need to either look at paving the roads or figure out one type of material to do. Mayor Taylor said that the last thing is that there have been a lot of people commenting and people have stopped him talking about the  the next few weeks.  6    quality of cell service here ini the town. He said there really is no cell service here in Oakland, it is like it is in a dead zone right here. Mayor Taylor asked about thoughts on putting cell antennas or a tower on the water tower. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that right now the code does not allow for that SO we would have to modify our code to allow for something like that. Mayor Taylor said that there could be revenue generated off of that. Public Works Director Parker said that we looked at that about six months ago and that is when the code thing came up. He said we had a company that came in and wanted to do that, but number two is we don't have the ground space for the support equipment out here. Mayor Taylor said if you can't do it there then we need to think about alternatives. Public Works Director Parker said the industrial zoned areas. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that industrial is where it is allowed right now, and it has to be SO many feet away from residential. Mayor Taylor said it needs to be somewhere sO the cell service could be better, there are a lot of people that stop him and talk about how terrible the service is out here. He said whatever we can do to assist, he knows a lot of people work from home and they rely on their cell phones. Mayor Taylor said that the first thing that came to his mind was the structure that is already there but if the town has some land and they can generate revenue off of it, there could be a lot of money. Vice Mayor Satterfield said when he was with Pepsi, they had a tower that had all of their radios, and it was a very nice income generator for Pepsi. Commissioner McMullen said there was a Spectrum representative at the FLC breakfast and asked if we have any challenges out here and he did share with her that he left Spectrum because of the challenges he had, and she was surprised to hear that. There was additional discussion about the challenges with Spectrum and cell phone service here in town and the need to try to come up with some solutions.  ADJOURNMENT  There being no further business, Commissioner McMullen adjourned the meeting at 7:50  p.m.  TOWN OF OAKLAND:  - SHANE TAYLOR, MAYOR  ATTEST: wia  ELISE HUI, TOWN CLERK  7