Re: The traffic circle. The problem is, there are no signs up there saying traffic in the circle has right of way. We need signs.
But she’s very pleased with the restriping on Indian Trail.
A complaint: Dog owners who let their dogs go poop without cleaning it up. “When I’ve slipped up and said something, I’ve had four-letter words thrown at me … what can be done?”

No response.

And on that note, we adjourn.

Anastas Pazevik: Congratulates them on completing the extension to Commons, with one exception: As you turn into Indian Bayou Trail from Commons, the curve is too sharp and many people have gone off the road. This needs to be fixed (I believe the city is working on this).
“Now, I may sound like a scrooge, but I don’t believe it is city government’s duty” to provide the scholarship. Miss Destin’s services are primarily to the charter fleet: They should provide it. And other civic organizations such as the Lions or the Rotary should weigh in. “It is just that I feel city’s should not be involved to giving scholarships to individuals who are not working for the city … Miss Destin does not represent the city at all city functions. If that person did, I do not believe as a retired schoolteacher and professor that we would be doing justice to that student who probably has a part-time job, who has schoolwork, and other school activities to attend to. Asking more time of that student is, in my view, damaging.”
And if we give a scholarship to Miss Destin, what about Mr. Destin, Mrs. Destin, Mr and Mrs. Senior Destin? “i ask the council to reconsider that and refer it to other civic organizations.”
Wood: “I similarly share some of Mr. Pazevik’s concerns.” After talking to the rodeo he learned there is an educational aspect—GPA is part of the judging—and the money goes to the college, not to the individual, so it doesn’t get misused. And other organizations do contribute to a scholarship, it’s not just us.
Bagby: Regarding the roundabout, they wouldn’t be going off the road if they’d drive slower.
As for Miss Destin, he’d like to see us partner with other groups, but when he’s down at the docks during the Rodeo, she’s there. “She’s representing us—would I like to see her at more event, yes I would. But the amount of community service she puts in, it’s more than most kids in our town.”

He reminds council about the Didgeridoo Down Under event at the Community Center, 10 a.m. Thursday (check Wednesday’s Log for more details).
Details of the Fourth of July and the Community Center’s annual slip and slide event follow.
Saturday, July 4: Fireworks over East Pass.
Seevers: Niceville is skipping its fireworks this year—why don’t we invite them to Destin to share ours? Barker: Sure!

This is a request the council approve a study—costing up to $50,000—of how well the city is doing meeting multimodal standards of traffic management. The money has already been budgeted for.
Bagby objects that the study, as proposed, doesn’t factor in the trips generated by nearby Okaloosa County development, and adjusts the traffic counts to get averages: “I’d like to know the actual counts.”
Planner Ashley Grana: We can get you those.
Bagby: We need the information on county area: As Commons get built up, it’s going to get very bad. “When we report trips separately, nobody knows we’re both pouring trips on (the road). When you put this hand over here and this hand over there and nobody knows what you’re doing and then you put them together …”
Jim Wood: “I just have a minor concern. As we progress through our multimodal plans, one of the intents is to see if we’re succeeding or not.” Will this data help?
Ashley: “That’s the whole purpose … we’re submitting this documentation to DOT.”
Wood: Second issue: He gets very disturbed by some of the wages we pay our consultants and contractors. There’s not only a project manager, there’s also a “responsible person”—why isn’t the manager responsible? “When I’m paying an admin person almost $30 an hour to do admin work, that just sickens me.”
Barker: I thought we had to pool trips? Grana: The county wanted to amend that because they didn’t want to do it. Barker: “I didn’t think the county could bow out of an agrement just by not wanting to.” Grana: “I didn’t either.”
Kisela: Was the agreement amended? (I may have the answer in an old file, I’ll have to check).
Motion: Unanimous.

In brief: Royal Melvin Heritage Park won’t be built for another three years. In the interim, city staff have proposed using the northern part of the parcel for paid parking, with meters.
Kisela: This is something the city authorized us to do on the northern portion. If the city gives conceptual approval, staff will report back whether they’d need individual meters, how much improving the property would need, how much the city should charge. “This would give us interim parking for the next three years.”
Weidenhamer: Move the city council authorize staff to do the reporting and research.
Trammell seconds.
Sam Seevers: “I’m a little concerned about the expense of having these meters in, then a year and a half, two years from now, we pull it back out. I’m not convinced this is the way we need to do this.” She’d want to see all the options, not just the parking-meter option, when the city reports back. “If there’s some way you guys can bring some other alternatives—we definitely need parking on the harbor, when I went to the function Thursday night to honor the hero, I could not find parking and I was driving everywhere.” Which is good, because it means the tourist economy has returned.
Kisela: We’d at least like council to endorse the concept before we take staff time to do the research.
Weidenhamer: Will we be doing this in-house?
Kisela: There’s certain basic assumptions from past parking studies about turnover rates and that sort of thing. We can use them to validate what we do.
Jim Bagby: “I’d like to see it broken down .. what’s the fixed costs, the capital costs of providing parking, what’s the cost of providing meters … If the cost is low enough, let’s just put parking there.” He wants that information in.
Dewey Destin: Is this another one I can’t vote on? But he does support the idea, even with a charge, so that the city can afford it.
5-0 with Windes and Destin abstaining. MIller reminds everyone that the abstainers own interest in adjoining parcels, hence they have a conflict of interest and must not vote (which everyone knows, but that puts it on the record).

Kisela gives the recap on the scholarship funding and its history (I’ll cover that in my print article).
He suggests they take $2,000 from council contingency to cover this year and last, and then budget for it in the future.
Sam Seevers: “Back in 2003, my intent was we do the scholarship on an annual basis. Somehow it says in the minutes it was for the 2004 pageant only. When I realized we didn’t fund it for 2005, I brought it back up … it clearly says we should fund the money (because) they’re ongoing aspects of the city’s heritage.” But once again, it didn’t stay in the budget. “This is a scholarship for a young lady who gives a whole year of her time to this community … my total intent was to have this an ongoing scholarship for whoever wins Miss Destin, on an annual basis.”
Tom Weidenhamer: Move to approve the motion.
Wood: I would like to see this as a separate line-item. Kisela: Sure.
Bagby: The motion doesn’t say ‘in perpetuity’ so I would like the minutes to reflect that is our intent.
Weidenhamer: Let the motion be amended to say ‘in perpetuity.’
Trammell: “I would like to say that having a daughter who was a Miss Destin, I was very proud of her, but when I brought this up as a Mom—and this was long before Miss Seevers—I was definitely told Miss Destin’s responsibilities were limited to the Rodeo.” If we’re going to do this, invite her to all city functions. “Right now, she’s not. I checked on that, the city doesn’t invite Miss Destin to ribbon-cuttings, other things we do—not that she has to attend them all, but she should be invited.” If she’s some sort of city symbol, we should act accordingly.
Kisela: He’ll be glad to invite her. Bagby: She comes to the Christmas parade.
Miller: Despite the motion, you can’t bind future councils to budget for this.
Unanimous.

Jerry Miller: Regarding the closing on the harbor parking lot, the city is proceeding, but they do not seem to be proceeding properly and providing the documentation required by statue. “The seller is not in a position to be able to deliver the property free of possession by other parties” at present. The city will issue a closing for June 26, but the council may be faced with either walking away or compelling the seller to go through with the deal.
2)The city needs to execute an agreement with the DEP regarding the Shore at Crystal Beach Park, deeding it to the public in perpetuity. Sam Seevers moves to have the mayor execute the agreement; Jim Bagby asks why nobody but Miller has a copy.
Kisela: Lindey Chabot (grants manager) thought the Mayor was already authorized to sign it, but it would be safer to get the authorization.
Dewey: Is this an emergency? Miller: “I don’t have a clue. They were prepared to have the mayor sign it, I vetoed that. That’s how it got to your table.”
Kisela: He speculates (his word) that with the state squeezing money out of the fund balances, she wants to get it in before any of the funding can vanish.
Sandy Trammell seconds. The vote is: Unanimous.

Nothing from Windes, Seevers, Wood. Bagby says his item—”legislative oversight responsibilities”—will be postponed until July.
Dewey Destin: Nothing.
Tom Weidenhamer passes out pictures of ducks paddling in a Mountain Drive puddle last week. Sandy Trammell jokes that the value of the property will go up since it’s now “waterfront.”
Weidenhamer: A resident visiting at Silver Shells was told to leave the beach because it was private. The resident told the guard that the beach was usable from the first 20 feet up from the wet sand. “Shortly there after a Deputy Johnson, whom I assume was working in the employ of Silver Shells at that point came to reinforce the Silver Shells employee’s discussion.” Johnson told her it was private all the way to the water’s edge; when she refused, he said he would “have to take some action to have her removed.”
Weidenhamer: “I think it’s unfortunate we keep talking at this table all the time and it’s publicized at TV that we have a 20 foot buffer zone upland for the public to use, yet that message doesn’t seem to get to the proper people, even our own law enforcement … I hope we can do something to remedy this situation.”
Kisela: He and the mayor met with the new sheriff, who’s committed to the 20 foot policy. The city will have “open and direct” communication with Silver Shells. “Unfortunately it seems like every day we slide into the 100 days of summer” this happens.
Dewey Destin: “In addition to the 20 foot policy, we have another unique situation: The easements are dedicated to the use of the public … They have an absolute right to be there under the agreement.” He says we should contact the beachgoers in question, explain and apologize.
That saves me the trouble of pointing the same thing out.
Sandy Trammell: No reports.

Two sets of minutes and reimbursing Councilor Jim Bagby for $488.65 for his trip to the Sterling Conference in Orlando. The city is in the process of competing for the state’s Sterling Award for organizational excellence.
$14 of that was for dinner, the rest was reimbursing the mileage on his 863 mile round trip.
Passes unanimously.

As you may recall, the city wants to extend the loan it took out to buy Royal Melvin Heritage Park through December, because the state has some technical issues it wants satisfied before they issue the grant for the property.
The extension passes 6-0, with Dewey Destin abstaining. Jerry Miller points out that Kelly Windes should also abstain (because he’s head of the fishing co-op which owns the neighboring property), and Windes amends his vote to abstain.