TOWN COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2024 OAKLAND MEETING HALL  7:00 P.M.  CALL TO ORDER:  This meeting was held in-person and livestreamed as a Zoom webinar. Mayor Taylor called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and  Invocation by Marilyn Mack. ROLLCALL  COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:  Commissioner McMullen Commissioner Polland Commissioner Ramos Vice Mayor Satterfield Mayor Taylor None  COMMISSIONERS ABSENT:  PROCLAMATIONS/PRESENTATIONS:  Proclamation Declaring State of Local Emergency for Hurricane Milton  Mayor Taylor announced the Proclamation Declaring a State of Local Emergency and stated that under the advice of counsel, he signed the order earlier to be effective October 7,2 2024. MOTION was made by Commissioner McMullen, seconded by Commissioner Polland to ratify the Proclamation Declaring State of Local Emergency for Hurricane Milton effective  October 7, 2024. NAY: None  AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor  Mayor Taylor said that he knows that everybody's probably paying attention to the weather and to the news to see what's going on. He said he has had the pleasure over the last several days for the previous storm and this storm to attend EOC meetings with Orange County, and it has been very interesting hearing the updates from the National Weather Service. Mayor Taylor said it is still an unpredictable storm and the exact landfall is yet to be determined. He said they feel that as it gets closer to us that they'l! have it narrowed down and at the five o'clock latest briefing, it did shift south. Mayor Taylor said that doesn't mean that we're out of the woods by any means, iti is a pretty large storm, SO the further  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024- - Page 1    south, the better we'll be, especially for those folks in the Tampa Bay area. He said if it's south of them, it sucks the water out of the bay and if it's north of them, it pushes the water in SO just crossing our fingers that it keeps going south. Mayor Taylor said that they are expecting the impact of the winds Wednesday evening to start coming in, and they had recommended that residents get to your shelter by noon tomorrow, if you can and try to get all your preparations done first thing in the morning and then just go inside and wait it out. He said Duke Energy is on the EOC call as well, they expect anywhere in the neighborhood of roughly 1 million customers in the state without power. Mayor Taylor said that they have mobilized 16,000 linemen who are on standby and they're staging those linemen in The Villages as well as over at Ritchie Brothers Auctions which is on 27 and I-4 SO that's good to hear that they got guys standing by and ready to go. He said as far as the town he thinks we're about as ready as we can be on staff's end. Mayor Taylor said he has worked with staff this week and they've done a great job getting things together. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that the town has handed out over 2,800 sandbags in 48 hours. Wednesday recycling has been canceled, SO residents should secure containers and cans, and remove any debris from the curb. She said that after the storm, do not mix vegetation and household debris, keep them separated in piles or they may not get picked up. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that we encourage everyone to follow us on Facebook, but the town website is updated with all of the most accurate information regarding town operations during the hurricane. Jessica Lovejoy is our Community Outreach Director, and she's done a really fabulous job keeping that website updated. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said she let the staff not be here tonight SO they could prepare, SO Jessica is not here but she's been working really hard. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that Jessica came up with a list of important numbers that are on our website and there are also handouts here tonight sO that you can have our important numbers of who to call at what point. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that everybody's been working really hard and Public Works Director Parker has been working exceptionally above and beyond. She said that he went and scrounged sandbags yesterday after work SO that we could have them this morning to hand to our residents. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that everybody's been working hard, and she wanted to mention that staff have said they've noticed the neighbors helping neighbors. She said she knows Jim and Jan Holzworth were out helping at the sandpile, SO we really appreciate them and everybody that stepped up to help their neighbors during this time to Mayor Taylor said that he has gotten calls and texts and emails about water and wanted to reiterate that water service is through the town and as long as the power stays on, you will have water. He said if power goes off, we have a backup generator that will still supply water to residents. Mayor Taylor said that we do ask that you turn off your irrigation systems because there's no reason to run it when we're getting 12 inches of rain coming in. He said that would help save stress on the generator from running and fuel. Mayor Taylor said that there is a very high probability that we're going to lose power and we're going to be out of power. He said for how long, who knows? Mayor Taylor said that going back to what Duke  prepare.  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 2    said, if the storm goes straight through it is going to be pretty bad in their mind. He said Town Hall is closed tomorrow and Thursday, and planning to open Friday depending on the situation with power in the town SO he is sure Community Outreach Director will post something on the website, but essential personnel and town staff will be here Friday just to start cleaning up. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said they will also be conducting damage assessments. She said Oakland Nature Preserve will be closed Wednesday and Thursday and the school is following OCPS, and they'lI be closed Monday through Friday for the hurricane and Monday for a teacher workday only SO, they'lI be closed all the way now Commissioner Ramos said he would like to add to what Ms. Marilyn Mack's prayer was. He said during this time he knows that we have been helping each other, like everybody at the sandbox has been helping each other. Commissioner Ramos said like the Mayor has said, we for sure are going to have electricity go out for a lot of us and that is when people are going to get irritated and upset and he asks that like Ms. Marilyn Mack said for everyone to show love to your neighbor and have patience when you're hot and have no electricity. He said that this is the time to really show who Oakland is down deep in our spirit of loving our neighbor and helping each other out no matter who it is and working through this. Commissioner Ramos said that there'll be trees down and they may not be in your yard, maybe in your neighbor's yard SO if you have time and you have energy, go out and help,  through Tuesday.  this is the time to show it and hopefully we get to shine after the storm. Proclamation -Florida City Government Week - October 21-27,2024  Mayor Taylor read the Florida City Government Week Proclamation announcing October 21-  27, 2024, as Florida City Government Week.  PUBLIC FORUM: There was no public comment. CONSENT AGENDA:  a. Minutes - 9-24-2024 Town Commission Budget Hearing b. Minutes - 9-24-2024 Town Commission Regular Meeting Mayor Taylor announced the items on the Consent Agenda.  .C OACS Out of Field Assignments  MOTION was made by Vice Mayor Satterfield, seconded by Commissioner Ramos to  approve the Consent Agenda.  AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor  NAY: None  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024-F Page 3    OTHER POLICY MATTERS  Auditor Selection Committee Recommendation  Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui reported that on August 27, 2024, members of the community were selected to participate in our selection committee for Financial Auditing Services. We received four (4) proposals, and the committee met three (3) times throughout the month of September. We would like to thank Mayor Taylor, Ken Bresnahan, Scott Gordon, and Steve Stanford for their time commitment during this process. Due to Florida Statute, there were some rules to be followed:  1. Pricing shall not be the sole or predominant factor used to evaluate the proposals. 2. Rank and recommended order of preference shall be no fewer than three (3) firms. 3. If pricing is one of the ranking factors, then the governing body (commission) must The committee reviewed each proposal carefully and ranked them based on firm qualifications & experience, management & staff experience, methodology, and pricing. The committee discussed the pros and cons of each firm and gave their top three (3) firm Those top two (2) firms were brought in on September 30th for 30-minute in-person presentations. Members of the committee were able to get their questions answered and The auditor selection committee recommends selecting Purvis Gray as the Town's new auditor. Purvis Gray's rankings were in the high 90s, and the selection committee was The Finance Department recommends authorizing the Town Manager to execute any MOTION was made by Commissioner Ramos, seconded by Vice Mayor Satterfield to MOTION was made by Commissioner Ramos, seconded by Vice Mayor Satterfield, to amend the original motion to authorize the Town Manager to execute any necessary documents in  select the highest -ranked qualified firm.  selections.  clarified.  extremely impressed by their in-person proposal.  necessary documents in order to contract services with Purvis Gray. approve the selection of Purvis Gray as the Town's new auditor.  order to contract services with Purvis Gray. AYE: McMullen, Polland, Ramos, Satterfield, Taylor  NAY: None  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 4    TOWN MANAGER/DEPARTMENT HEAD REPORTS:  Manager's Report  Mayor Taylor said that just SO that nobody is alarmed, in the packets are the water rate increases which occur each year. This year, the water rates are going up 3%.  Assistant Town Manager Hui reported on the following:  We have scheduled thei installation of a new A/V system in the meeting hall for the last week of October and the first week of November. We hope tol have the new system up and running The Farmer's Market is cancelled this Thursday and will not be rescheduled. Registration is now open for "Trees of the Season", anyone interested can contact Community Outreach  for our November 12th Town Commission meeting.  Manager Dattolo at the Arts & Heritage Center.  Department Head Reports  Chief Esan said that they have rescheduled the 5K that was supposed to be this Saturday for November 17th. He said they are going to put it all over social media and contact all the sponsors. Chief Esan said that the Police Department is more than prepared for this storm response. He said that the only thing he would ask is when the storm does pass, please allow Public Works and the Police Department to go survey the damage. Chief Esan said residents should not be out in the town trying to film things and take pictures and see what happened because there are dangers that can still be out there. He said let Public Works and the Police Department go out there first, make sure everything is safe, and then the residents. Chief Esan said that Sheriff Mina and Mayor Demings are meeting tomorrow to discuss the possibility of a curfew, and they should be making that decision on the 1 o'clock call tomorrow. He said that ift there is a curfew, it's really important that the residents abide by that and stay inside because it is for their safety and no other reason than that. Chief Esan said that he doesn't know if they're going to do it or not, but if they do, please pay attention to it and once the storm passes, the curfew may still stay, and that's to allow everybody to make sure that all the infrastructures intact and everybody can then get outside safely. He said that the Oakland EOC at our Police Department willl be up and running tomorrow at 8 a.m. and we'll be on that one o'clock call with the Orange County government Public Works Director Parker said he echoes everything the chief said, it's very important for the residents to not be venturing out, and there's all kinds of hazards. He said that we learned that with Hurricane Irma and he feels like this is going to be kind of a repeat of that with all the vegetative material that'll be on the streets and those that lived here know that you couldn't even tell where the streets were after that storm. Public Works Director Parker said another important thing is the separation of yard waste and tree debris and then fences  and we're ready for anything that comes our way.  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 5    or household stuff or just junk, they can't be mixed. He said if they're mixed, we'll end up having to skip it and it'l be picked up at some future date, but it could be a month or SO. Public Works Director Parker said for water and sewer, as the Mayor said, we're in really good shape with that SO he thinks, as Chief Esan said, we're ready for anything that comes  up and we'll get through it, one way or the other, no problem.  COMMISSION REPORTS:  Commissioner Ramos asked Deputy Chief Bryant to talk about the E/V meeting they attended. Deputy Chief Bryant said it was two-fold really, but mainly was to get the town ready. He said we're moving towards electric vehicles, and, when you come to your revenue on State Road 50, if you're going to put in an apartment complex, residences, shopping mall, or whatever, just like we used to have to do with handicapped spots, we're going to be mandated to do electric vehicle charging stations. Deputy Chief Bryant said that is something that we have to start thinking about and put into our code. He said that they're going to suggest that you have SO many electric parking spots per whatever you build. Deputy Chief Bryant said that the second part ofi it was an opportunity that came up and he thinks Commissioner Ramos had the same idea. He said that going off what the Mayor said at the last commission meeting, he was talking about putting cell phone towers on our water tower and if the town has any kind of strange pieces of land that we own that we can't really build on because of this, it's kind of just owned land, the turnpike as we're seeing today, that's an evacuation route from down south. Deputy Chief Bryant said that we're going to have more and more electric vehicles coming up that turnpike with mandated evacuations. He said if there is a little strip of land there, what they're proposing is that somebody, it's most likely going to be an investor, but it could be the town and you put in those charging stations, and it is passive money. Deputy Chief Bryant said that we would get the electricity back plus a little bit of a profit and it's a piece of land that we can't use otherwise. He said it could literally be a strip, you know when you come off at a rest area and everybody pulls in sideways, you know, if everybody could pull into like 12, we could add six, and maybe if we went over, we could do 12 more, and you back up and get back on the turnpike. Deputy Chief Bryant said he was thinking about easy money, but the same idea is we're going to be mandated to go that route and have these stations. He said if you think about that empty lot next to 7-Eleven down there off of Remington, something like that, somebody's going to come in there and buy that and put these in, SO it was just an idea that the commissioner and he had. Deputy Chief Bryant said that he has talked to the Town Manager about how we want to think out of the box with a strip of land that we can't do anything with. He said it is very little overhead. Commissioner Ramos said that it's noti if, it's when and it's most likely that the EVs are going to be here in the future to stay. The Mayor of Winter Park is taking full advantage of it; they used to be free, now they're profit centers for the city. Deputy Chief Bryant said that they even talked about going into residential areas. He said that they want the residential housing codes to have something similar to how you rough in a sink in a garage or you rough in the gas for an outdoor area,  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 6    they want us to rough in electricity for EV cars because it costs SO much after the building's built. Deputy Chief Bryant said it's something we're going have to look for to get it in our codes and then also make a little money. Commissioner Ramos said, at minimum, the multi- family apartments will need it to have it already. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui asked if Deputy Chief Bryant said it is now mandated? Deputy Chief Bryant said no, it's not, this is what's coming in the future and they're starting to put pen to paper where they're going to pass this down from a state level to a county level to a municipal level. Commissioner McMullen said that was discussed at the NLC probably about two or three years ago SO there are grant dollars on a national level to help facilitate that. He said there are a lot of grants, and he knows that Duke is one of the companies that's supporting it. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that is where we got our EV charging stations from originally, and then they stopped servicing those, SO then we turned them over to somebody else. Mayor Taylor said that ours out here in front of Town Hall, there's always a car hooked to it. He said he doesn't think we get charged anything for it, right? Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said the new company ChargePoint can reimburse us for electricity use and a percentage of whatever the proceeds are. She said just to be aware, during the hurricane, we had the option of putting them in free mode where nobody has to pay to use them during this time sO ift there's cars coming through from Tampa or wherever, they can just use them without being charged during this period. Vice Mayor Satterfield asked if we get any money back from that company for electric use and stuff? Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that is what she was just saying, yes. She said we just started doing the agreement with them, SO she doesn't have a record of reimbursements yet but yes, we can. Mayor Taylor said he knows the City of Orlando mandates a certain amount of chargers per space you have in a shopping center SO if you have like 300 spaces, you have to have X amount, just like handicapped spots, you have to have X amount of charging spaces for charging stations. Commissioner Ramos said based on what Mayor Taylor is saying, the Mayor in Winter Park said the EV owners were taking advantage of the parking spaces on Park Avenue and using them to park there all day, SO they came up with ac certain charge per hour after you got there from the second hour to the third hour. He said the first to the second hour was going to be SO much, and then after two hours, it would charge five times that amount and you didn't want to leave your car all day and pay $100, SO that makes you want to move it, or if not, you're going to be paying the large bill.  Commissioner Polland - Nothing additional. Commissioner McMullen - Nothing additional.  Vice Mayor Satterfield said he knows it has been a hard time. He said we've been through a lot of these hurricanes, and Chief, Mike, and Deputy, Elise and staff, you don't know how much we appreciate the job that you guys do. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that on a regular day, it's hard to work here and going through all of this, we're very appreciative of the work that you guys all do to try to keep everybody in this town safe SO thank you SO much. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said they've been amazing. This group of people,  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 7    including everybody, down to the line staff, have been amazing through this process. She said we are all working towards a common goal, which is to get it as prepared as we can for our residents, SO everybody's been on the same page, it has been seamless, really. Vice Mayor Satterfield said it shows, and it will show even more as we get past the storm what Mayor Taylor said that at Meet' Your Mayor last Wednesday, there was a pretty good turnout and there were a few things that the residents brought to his attention that he thought we ought to consider and think about in future meetings as it goes along. He said one of those items was Briley Farms and a resident speaking about the tree on Pollard Street. which is south of Briley. Mayor Taylor said there's a huge oak tree, it's an absolutely beautiful oak tree right there and he has asked the Town Manager to have the developer make sure that they put tree barriers around that like any development would to protect the tree. He said second of all, if we can get the road that is proposed to go there staked out SO you cansee it. He said he thinks there's concern from the residents that they've seen this sO many times where the developer says it's going to stay and the next thing you know, guys out there with bulldozers are pushing it down. Mayor Taylor said that he knows that everybody here on this commission, sitting here today, are not for cutting trees down and we want to try to save as many trees as we can. He said that there are instances that he explained to the residents where trees do have to go and can't stay there due to the infrastructure and the utilities that are going under them, but we need to put policies in place and maybe there's a different way of working around that tree SO if you get a chance and are driving around, you want to go take a look at it, it's at Pollard but it's an absolutely beautiful tree. Mayor Taylor said what it's supposed to do is it goes Pollard and right before that tree, it turns west and goes back to Jefferson Street, that is the proposed route for the road but there's another set of oak trees there that are supposed to stay and there's some yellow tape around them right now but he said it would make him feel a lot better if the developer put some barricades around it to really say "Hey, this is staying, this isn't going anywhere". Mayor Taylor said the second thing which he thought was very interesting and this may be ac collaboration with resident input and a resident committee and it's basically preserving the historic homes that are in town and recognizing those historic homes. He said that we do have a lot of houses that are historic and even though you're not going to designate them as being on the National Registry of Historic Houses, because you could if you wanted to, one of the ideas brought up was if Oakland could do a local designation of "Hey, my house was built in 1887, and here's a little bit of background for this stuff", and then possibly there's a way you can do a plaque or something out front. Mayor Taylor said he thinks the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation is going to do a historic walking tour of Oakland on a Saturday SO what he tries to stress to people is that Oakland is a very historic town, it has been here longer than Winter Garden and he thinks it would be a great idea to preserve those houses. He said that there were a few people that wanted to participate and do that, and he is open to having them put something together. Mayor Taylor said Michelle Territo lives down the street in the old hotel, and she was one that wanted to kind of spearhead  the staff does sO much.  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 8    this and put this together and get with the residents that do live in those houses and find out how many. Mayor Taylor said he thinks it would be pretty cool to have a story for each house, from the owner's perspective on the house. Commissioner Polland said that there used to be some houses that had that. Mayor Taylor said that Mayor Montgomery made those little plaques, and he thinks there is one still standing in front of the Territo's house now and there were probably other ones that have disappeared over time. Commissioner Polland said he thinks that's a great idea. Commissioner Ramos said he thinks they had iti in the home off of Brock. Mayor Taylor said that one on Brock, she was one of the residents that came on Wednesday night, and she was absolutely into it. Commissioner Ramos asked ifv we even have a count of more or less? Mayor Taylor said Michelle Territo told him that she thinks maybe 10 or 12, but there could be more out there. He said it does not exclude any part of town, we know what the core historic part of town is, which is here, but he thinks it would just be cool to have some sort of heritage historic trail, you know, that you could walk and admire these houses and try to preserve them the best we can. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that in the old days when we first started the heritage festival in the park, we would have a tour of these old homes at one point SO somewhere there is a record of some of them because he thinks it was actually Mr. Montgomery who led the tour around. He said he knows that it was a long time ago but there's got to be something somewhere that will probably give Michelle a good start. Mayor Taylor said he thinks that was back in Mayor Taylor said that the third thing that was brought up and piggybacking onto the historic homes is something we are working on and should be coming out very soon which is our tree ordinance update. He said that the discussion was creating a historic tree designation ofa certain size tree that a lot of residents wanted to try to get where this tree is designated as a local landmark and regardless of what you do it cannot go away unless it's diseased or rotten. Mayor Taylor said that these are the trees that people say, "Hey, this is a beautiful tree", and maybe it is the one on Pollard Street or maybe the one by Town Hall here. Commissioner Polland said the one by Speer Park. Mayor Taylor said yes, that one and all those that run down to the pier. He said that was mentioned about those trees down there and to try and try to designate those trees and say, "Hey, this tree's here, here's how big it is", and give statistics and things like that. Mayor Taylor said that was another group that would like to do something like that. Commissioner Ramos said that we had at one time or another, a gentleman who took pictures of the grandfather oak trees we had here, and he made a book. Commissioner Ramos said he has the book. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that he had made a calendar of them, too. Commissioner Ramos said that hel has the book where he numbered them, named them, and some of them, he thinks probably about four of those on the book have already fallen but maybe he can bring staff the book sO they can have somewhere to start. Public Works Director Parker said that his name was Scott, he forgets his last name, but it was really a good book, and it was educational. He said he thinks it was right before Hurricane Irma that it was done SO we lost some trees during that and then, there are trees that have to be taken down because of disease or age or whatever and some of those are gone, too. Public Works Director Parker said if Commissioner Ramos has the  the late 90s because they had more plaques that were down the street.  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 -) Page 9    book, it would be nice to know where those trees are. Commissioner Ramos said then we would get a professional arborist. He said that is what he does with the two trees he has by his home; he brings in an arborist every four years and they prune them and check them to see the health because sometimes they have rot inside, and we don't even know it. Commissioner Ramos said an arborist can check them and label them starting with the one in Briley. He said if that was already part of the untouched, sacred trees of Oakland then you better make the road go around it. Commissioner Ramos said that if you are buying a property with a sacred tree of Oakland, you can't touch it, build around it, that is what we're trying to accomplish. Vice Mayor Satterfield said that Public Works Director Parker did that back behind the church. Public Works Director Parker said yes, on! Sadler, we built the round Mayor Taylor said that the last thing that the residents brought up is a golf cart parade at Christmas like Winter Garden does. He said we left it at that's great if it wants to be a resident driven parade, but the town staff would not be involved. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that Community Outreach Director Lovejoy actually had a change of heart SO she's going to work with Jill Cox to organize it after Santa's Lane and support it as a town function. Mayor Taylor said that the idea was to do a golf cart parade after Santa's Lane was done, and then just go through town. He said at the time, we said the town would be okay with it, but the residents would drive it. He said if Community Outreach Director Lovejoy is good with doing that, then the Police Department can be involved with any road closures and that type of thing. Mayor Taylor said he knows that you've got Oakland Park now, there's a lot of traffic, and there's a lot of golf carts running around SO he thinks it would be pretty cool. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that Community Outreach Director Lovejoy has a plan for that and will work with Jill Cox on that. Commissioner Ramos said that it is very good, and he has been looking forward to that for a long time. Mayor Taylor said that he thinks it would be very good to have something Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui mentioned that Town Attorney Stephanie Velo was online this whole time because she can't be here right now. Commissioner Polland said that in Melody Oliver's report with the employees, he said for the ONP employees, he said he knows they are all listed as four years, but they've actually been there longer, like Jennifer is seven years and Nicole around the same. He said he thinks that's when the town took them over. Assistant Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said that's correct. Mayor Taylor said he saw that, and he wasn't sure because he knew they were there longer. Assistant' Town Manager/Town Clerk Hui said it is because the town only started paying for those employees four years ago. Commissioner Polland said they all have been here quite long, longer than  around the tree.  like that.  four years.  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 - Page 10    ADJOURNMENT  There being no further business, Commissioner McMullen adjourned the meeting at 7:41  p.m.  TOWN OF OAKLAND:  SHANÉT    ATTEST: Jnhi  ELISE HUI,TOWN CLERK  Town Commission Regular Meeting Minutes  October 8, 2024 -1 Page 11