Wood: The pastor gave the invocation at his suggestion–there will be a series of clergy giving the invocation on a “rotational basis” (I think nine clerics is what he said).

Kelly Windes: Thanks Lindey Chabot for her work securing the grant for Royal Melvin Heritage Park (the harborfront property the city bought).

Craig Barker: Brings up the DEP’s new rules banning cleaning fish on the docks (if you haven’t heard about that, check out last week’s Destin Logs). Asks Kelly for a charter’s eye view of things.

Windes: “I tried to determine just what adjectives I would use” when thinking about this. “I settled on unfortunate … what we probably have here is a misguided bureaucrat trying to make a name for him or herself … They don’t understand the fact there’s probably tens of thousands of families around the state that make their living around harbors and marinas. The small miniscule scraps … disappear almost immediately” in the maws of fish and seabirds and helps promote the environment around the seagrass biosystem. So that’s a mistake, and it’s a bad blow to the fishing industry. “We need to get to someone that’s over the head of the person who proposed this ordinance.”

Kisela: We’ve met with Sen. Don Gaetz; the only appeal route is the governor and the cabinet and they’re reluctant to intervene. “It’s very, very frustrating–they try to link it back through their notice of violations to the fact the city of Destin created a no-discharge zone in the late eighties and nineties. The very fact these activities have been going on for eighteen or twenty years …”

Two more members of the Youth Council in attendance. Sam Seevers compliments them for their work along with Bagby (and if I’ve misspelled Szlarski, my apologies) and their willingness to look at things like Adopt a Street rather than just “teen” issues.
Seevers moves to approve the work plan.
Council Jim Bagby (Jennifer’s dad): “She did a great job in the presentation–her mother looks exceptionally well tonight too.
“Now I can go home safely.” (general laughter)
Compliments Sam for having proposed the Youth Council concept.
Unanimous to approve the work plan.

She lists the Youth Council’s priorities:
•Since several churches are providing or planning to provide youth facilities, the council recommends looking into partnering with them to avoid overlap in services.
•The council still supports construction of a city Youth Center if partnering isn’t possible. The council favors putting in the middle of town so everybody has reasonably close access—Buck Destin might be a good choice.
•The Youth Council continues to support the Adopt a Street program (which it convinced the city to resurrect).
•Provide assistance to the Destin History and Fishing Museum, for example actively soliciting volunteers for the museum and helping out at an upcoming fundraiser.
•Petitioning the City Council for the undergrounding of all utilities.

Mayor Craig Barker: Commends the council for their efforts and her presentation.

Passes unanimously.

Already?
Yep. Sam Seevers moves, Sandy Trammell seconds.
Unanimous.
I don’t know I’ve ever seen a budget pass that fast.
Next hearing will be next Monday at 6 p.m.
Details on the budget will be in Wednesday’s paper.

Will this go as smoothly as the millage rate? Let’s see …

Nope. Betty Kenyon, Destin resident heads up to the podium: “Glancing over this mini-budget, under capital projects, there’s $35,000 allotted for a tennis facility. Can we afford it?”

Greg Kisela: This is carried forward from the previous year–won’t be spent unless council says so.

Kenyon: She’s one of the advocates of a city skateboard park “I don’t want to favor the tennis players over the skateboarders” who are already using “all the public space they can” by skating in parking lots, sidewalks, etc.

1.455 mills is the rate, the same as the previous year.
No public comment. It’s not the first time that’s happened (I’ve sat through eight previous millage rate hearings in my time at The Log).
Unanimous to set the rate.

Next, a comp-plan amendment to include various annexed parcels into the city’s growth-plan map and updating the city limits in the plan.
No comment from the audience.
Sam Seevers moves to approve on first reading.
I think Sandy Trammell seconded.
Unanimous

Dewey Destin is absent, everyone else is in place. Invocation (by one of the local pastors), pledge and we’re away!
First up, creating a water work plan to amend the city’s comprehensive growth plan: This is apparently necessary even though DWU is actually in charge of all the waterworks.
Despite the gripping and controversial nature of the topic (yes, that was sarcasm), there’s no public comment.
Sam Seevers moves to approve on first reading.
Tom Weidenhamer seconds.
The vote: unanimous.

Several department heads in the audience for the budget meeting. A number of other audience members, some of them unfamiliar to me–I think about 12 people in the audience in all (not counting city staff).
Jennifer Bagby of the Youth Council is here to present City Council with the committee’s work plan for the coming year.