Special City Commission Meeting

City of Deltona 2345 Providence Blvd. Deltona, FL 32725 Minutes Special City Commission Meeting Saturday, April 13, 2024 5:30 PM Deltona Commission Chambers DECORUM POLICY: The City of Deltona has a significant interest in conducting orderly and efficient public meetings, which includes preventing disruption, promoting civility, and preserving decorum. To that end, behavior which disrupts or impedes the efficient and orderly conduct of any public meeting, as determined by the Mayor, or presiding officer, or a majority of the City Commission, is not permitted. The Mayor, or presiding officer, or a majority of the City Commission, may interrupt, warn, or terminate a speaker’s statement when that statement is too lengthy, personally directed, abusive, obscene, irrelevant, or otherwise reasonably perceived to be a disruption to the fair and orderly progress of the discussion at hand. The Mayor, or presiding officer, or a majority of the City Commission, may also interrupt any part of the meeting to warn any individual that they are being disruptive or otherwise impeding the efficient and orderly conduct of the meeting. The Mayor, or presiding officer, or a majority of the City Commission, may require any individual to leave a public meeting for its duration if that individual is unable to observe this Policy after being warned. Should an individual be required to leave a meeting for violating this Policy, that person shall be escorted from Commission Chambers by a Volusia Sheriff’s Deputy. 1. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Mayor Avila. 2. ROLL CALL – CITY CLERK: Present: 7 - Mayor Avila Vice Mayor JodyLee Commissioner Avila-Vazquez Commissioner Colwell Commissioner Heriot Commissioner McCool Commissioner Shimkus 3. PLEDGE TO THE FLAG: 4. BUSINESS: A. REVISED City Manager Candidate Interviews: City of Deltona Page 1 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 • 5:30 - 5:35 - Review procedures for interviews • 5:35 - 5:55 - Dale "Doc" Dougherty • 5:55 - 6:15 - Carmen Y. Davis Note: These times are tentative. Colin Baenziger with Colin Baenziger and Associates stated he thinks everybody knows we've had a pretty good weekend and a very long day at least for the candidates. Yesterday they took a tour of the City, met some City staff, and attended the reception with the public. This afternoon the elected officials, the Mayor, and Commissioners each met with each of the candidates for about 40 minutes. Tonight, we're going to have the two remaining candidates Carmen Davis and Dale “Doc” Dougherty do a simulated kind of Commission meeting where they will be standing here and the Commission as a body with be asking them questions. Our idea was so that the Commission could see them in a social setting, a one-on-one setting and then a council meeting type setting. We did have four other candidates, two of them had other opportunities, one dropped out and the fourth went into the hospital. We are down to two at the moment and we will see what you all want to do after you have interviewed these candidates. We will be back here Monday night for a decision. The first candidate is Dale “Doc” Dougherty who will introduce himself. What he normally recommends is that each of the Commissioners could ask one question and the Mayor just starts at one end of the dais to the other. Mayor Avila stated out of respect for the rules we set-up by this Commission, each candidate is going to get 20 minutes so I will do my very best for every single person up here to ask their question and if the two candidates can just be mindful of that. Dale “Doc” Dougherty wished everyone a good evening and he appreciated the opportunity to speak before the Commission this evening. Just to give a little background, he was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He met my wife on a blind date and has been married 30 years this New Year's Eve. We have five children, the oldest is 25 and a graduate of Florida Gator. She is a software engineer in the Melbourne area, and he will be going over there tonight to see her. We have another one that is an officer in the Army as a Quarter Master and a college graduate. Then three other children that are at West Point right now as a freshman, sophomore and a senior that will be future officers for our country in the Army. We started our career in South Florida moving now from Pennsylvania to the West Palm Beach area. From there after 12 years became disillusioned with government and had enough people in government to say, “hey aren't you happy at least you're getting paid”. My objective is to do stuff in life, especially in doing something for the community. After 12 years he finally said to his wife that is it I want to recalibrate my skills and so he went to the University of Notre Dame to get his MBA (Master of Business Administration). He left the workplace five babies in toe, went up to South Bend and came out when the market crashed in 2008 and he was the oldest MBA student. Of course, he went back into what he knew which now he is even worse than ever. Looking at things upside down and backwards from a business perspective in government is not something you traditionally see. Plus, a background in Parks and Recreation, he is a special event coordinator and marketing person so everything we put out should be put out with Excellence. From there City of Deltona Page 2 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 worked our way down to South Carolina and worked out of Walterboro, Charleston area. He worked over in Macon, Georgia, went with the consolidated government and started as the City of Macon. Transferred to Bib County, the department and then consolidated so that was quite an experience. Then down to Hillsboro County with 1.3 million people down there but, the same concept of doing very little was the expectations which he told his wife the first day he did not think they were going to make it very long there. He had to fully get into management, so he made the move up to Michigan, probably our one and only stop up in Michigan. There are great people, a great Mayor and Council up there but, our objective was always after five or six years once the kids were in college to work our way back down to Florida. Just recently he was recognized as the longest serving manager in the city's history with great financial shape but, it is time for us to make the move down to Florida. Deltona is interesting and it keeps jumping out at him as a place he thinks he may want to be. Commissioner Shimkus asked what is your process for developing project plans and how do you approach the tracking and reporting on plans across the City? Mr. Doughtery answered starting with the end, exactly what is the solution that we are looking for. He has seen a lot in government where plans are put together and then put on the shelf because they were useless. The following questions need to be asked: What is it going to take to get there? What is our halfway point? Who is involved and who is engaged? He does not think there is one set plan specifically for every project but, generically he would say your end is what you have in mind. Any project that he is directly involved in is not done in a vacuum, it is done with everybody involved. He would include citizen engagement like a task committee, so they understand the same situation that we understand. He likes to get the citizens involved so that they can see that there may be issues one way or the other. So, he sees citizen engagement in some of these big projects that the City is dealing with. Commissioner Avila-Vasquez asked what would be your goals to move the City forward bringing staffs’ morale back up and in the trust of the residents for the City? Mr. Dougherty answered what attracted him about this position the most is what appears to be a lack of stability overall. He thinks the Commission has done the best they can with instability over the last four years or so with no one really in charge. The position is almost like a traffic cop working with staff making them feel safe and secure. The Commissioners themselves helping them to be overly prepared for the meetings and some of the topics we are going to have. Then for the citizens themselves to have them be involved. So, looking at the stability of what he could bring to the community he thinks is number one. Number two, the lack of citizen engagement which could be said except it does not look like the Commission is hiding anything. Putting out as much information as we possibly can to let everyone know what is happening, he thinks is significant. He thinks the City’s development is a concern and infrastructure has to be there for that development. He has experience working with small governments, big governments and several different states. Development is important, you need to have that increase in tax base but, it also has to be City of Deltona Page 3 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 done with infrastructure first to make sure that we are covering ourselves. He believes in good government. He is still an ideologue that believes everybody wants to do their best. He thinks the staff will feel supported, the Commission will be informed and be trustworthy of his leadership and he thinks the citizens, the vast majority, will understand that we are getting on track. Commissioner McCool asked that keeping in mind transparency and stability, what are your top three goals for the first 30 days? Mr. Dougherty answered the first 30 days is to find out several things but, one is individually what is the objectives of the Commissioners and what is your personal agenda. Nobody runs specifically for office with just a general idea, there are things that they like to focus on. My objective right from the start would be to meet with each of the Commissioners to go over what direction they really would like to see the City go in. Leading the staff is without a doubt the number one thing also, to meet with the department heads, see where they are at, what their plans are, and what their concerns have been. We have a lot of open positions, what is it going to take to fill those positions with the right people because within the 30 days I will have my orientation for all the staff. This is an hour presentation about who he is, where we are going and what we are doing. He wants the best people around him because when you are a ten you hire tens but, when you are an eight you hire sevens. Again, we are acting in the peoples’ best interest, the trust of the people. He does not hire just next in line, he wants the best people around us, so we are going to fill these spots but, not just with next in line. Staff is going to feel secure that there is somebody in charge making decisions and being responsive to the citizens. When citizens come with legitimate questions and ask legitimate questions that is fine but, coming with conspiracy theories, trouble and just looking to cause issues, that does not help anybody for anything. He will address decorum at meetings and how we present ourselves publicly because people around the other communities are looking at us. He feels that the image that people are putting out about Deltona is hey we might have trouble but, at least we are not Deltona. He feels like the challenge is to come in here in the first 30 days and just find every different way he can to correct that atmosphere and especially having a background in marketing and promotions. There is some good positive things that we can add to our list, promote what we are doing and maybe stop some of that feeling of this is not a great place because it is let's promote it that way and really change the attitudes. I feel if I'm doing the job correctly then staff is going to trust him, the Commissioners are going to trust him as a leader and for the citizens, he will find common ground as much as possible in the first 30 days. Commissioner Colwell asked what is the City’s greatest assets and its greatest weaknesses? Mr. Dougherty answered the residence are both because you have got an asset of engaged people that want to see the community grow and be a great place to live and raise a family but, you also have some that are out there who are extremely negative towards the community no matter what. He thinks it is an issue as we talk about what kind of atmosphere we are putting out there. The negative image being put out there is very City of Deltona Page 4 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 damaging because you can have a great City but, if people are saying how bad you are the image is going to be bad. You have 100,000 residents that could be greatly engaged that may be interested in not listening to that and actually moving the City forward. The opportunities are there even with developments like the Deltona Village which has been going on since 2010 and would be a fantastic addition to the community. Commissioner Heriot asked how would you discern the difference between legitimate concerns and conspiracy theories and what kind of time would you give to those residents to make that differentiation? Mr. Dougherty answered he does not believe in running a Facebook administration where whatever was said last night we have to quickly respond because then all we are doing is responding to people that just have a system that is called whataboutism. So, you answer the first question which then leads to answering 15 questions. We just cannot spend all our time on social media but, he thinks if we have a good communication department from the City itself to put out publicly here is the situation and here is where we are going. Again, having some citizen task forces because then people understand it is not just coming from us or the consultants but, it is also the citizens that are on the task force. The more people that can understand what is happening the better off we are. He does not believe in being very responsive to just the latest conspiracy theory but, he thinks as you look at an issue where people are very confused, he thinks the communications department needs to make sure that we are putting out proper information. The more information put out there the better but, at the same point we just do not go answering question after question just because someone has come up with something. Vice Mayor JodyLee asked what are you going to do different that is going to help our residents to fix our issues, save us money and start getting things done but, I do not want a canned political answer? Mr. Dougherty answered the best decision when hiring an outsider in any position that you have is to bring in outside eyes. He hires people within if possible but, certainly bringing in outsiders rather than just hiring from within. He hears a lot that you need to keep that same person in the position because they have been here forever and they have the knowledge but, they have the knowledge of the way we have always done things. If you bring an outsider in they look at everything and say why are you doing this that way. Zero based budgeting is the number one thing that he would do. The moment that he arrives he would be looking at the budget and starting from zero. You have to ask what do you really need to be successful in each line item and that does not mean that we are going to reduce the lines because there might be an area where we need to add resources to a department to be more successful. Unless there are special surprises that come up during the year that you have to be prepared for but, it really breaks it down to say Commissioners with honesty this is exactly what is needed to run our City. The citizens then have trust also that this is what it takes because when you really get down to turning the lights on and paying staff, that alone is a heavy chunk of the entire budget overall. As we know personnel is huge along with just basic utilities and from there what do you have left to do anything beyond that. Is it City of Deltona Page 5 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 the Fire Department with educational programs, Parks & Recreation with more special events and activities that we can add in there but, you can see the breakdown rather than saying operating supplies is $90,000. He thinks it gets down to the bones of what is needed to really run the government. He is very much in favor of a lean organization, and he does not believe that even department heads and leadership are people that should wear suits and drink coffee around the office. Everybody’s got a hands-on job because there is no suits and he is not a suit himself. He believes everyone should be engaged and involved. Everyone has a worth and they need to show what their value is to the community. Mayor Avila stated we have a manager form of government in the City of Deltona. What are you going to do to ensure that no one on the dais, including himself, respects that boundary where we are not directing staff specifically and that petitions are coming to the City Manager ensuring that our employees have one boss and not seven? Mr. Dougherty answered the concept is clear and most residents do not understand the full City Manager form of government. When he gets here, he is going to go through that process to make sure everyone understands how it all works but the department heads are usually the ones that are asked the most. He has no issue with the Commissioners having relationships with department heads or staff friendships. If you are calling about a pothole on a street near a friend's business, you would call Public Works and any other citizen would make that same phone call about a pothole on the street. If you call and say my friend's parking lot needs a pothole filled while you are on the street take care of it, we cannot have that. His advice to the department heads directly are anyone that asks for anything beyond the pale the answer is you know how the game goes, you have to call the City Manager and ask him otherwise I cannot do it for you. As long as they understand that, very clearly, because if an employee is going out of their way to help one Commissioner and not help the others that employee may not be here very long. The rules are well set, we are going to be fair, we are going to be honest and tell the truth. Keep your word, exercise integrity and that is our ethical foundation. So, any department head that just seems to be taking care of one Commissioner or two Commissioners and the others do not know it, that is inappropriate from the staff level. He will be willing to say to that Commissioner that they cannot ask for that but, what do they need and he will take care of it for them. We will not do anything where we take care of somebody's permit or somebody wants to move up the line for a fire inspection. We will do them as they come through because we are not going to be on the front page of a newspaper playing favorites or having something happen in our community in which it was done that way. We will be as ethical as we can and as much as he appreciates trying to get things done and representing your districts it still has to be done with structure and if it is a legitimate request it is going to be done anyway because that is what we need to do. Employees need to feel secure, they do not have two bosses. Mayor Avila asked to add three minutes to Mrs. Davis’ time and the Commission will ask their questions in reverse. He asked Mrs. Davis to provide an introduction and that the Commission would ask questions within the time frame allotted. Mrs. Carmen Davis thanked the Commission for giving her an opportunity to come and City of Deltona Page 6 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 present herself and share her background and experiences in speaking with them so that she can show that she would be a wonderful fit as our City Manager. In summary as you know she was a County Administrator for Hines County Mississippi for over 9 ½ years as she was the longest tenured County Administrator to date. In that position she managed a staff of 900 employees. Also, she had relationships with the Constitutional Elected Officials as well and assisting them to manage their different offices and making sure they had the resources to do their mandated duties. Also, she has managed cities as Lake Worth Beach with a total of about 45 employees where she also served as City Manager there. So, with her background and experience for almost 25 years in local government and including urban planner with the City of Detroit she feels like she is a wonderful fit for the City of Delona. Vice Mayor JodyLee asked what are you going to do differently so we can save money, get the job done and make sure things around here are done and transparent for the residents? Mrs. Davis answered she is very budget-minded in her experience. She has of course done a number of budgets as well as manage the finances of the different agencies that she has been manager over. She is a person that believes that we should be very mindful to our rules and procedures and of course every local government has to abide by purchasing laws. So, we want to make sure that we are in line with the purchasing laws and how we conduct our purchases and our bids and all the other processes related to procuring our services, equipment and materials. What she would do is work with our purchasing director to ensure that they are in tune with those procedures as well as the City's policies related to purchasing. She would also make sure that we work very closely in line with the Finance Department because the Finance Department would also be responsible for being a part of the process of making sure we are spending in the right way. That whatever we purchase is in line with the budget and everyone is responsible for that, every department, because she knows every department has budgeting responsibilities. They also have purchasing responsibility so to make sure that every department is in line with the policies, that they are accountable for what they are purchasing and making sure we are in line with that budget. Commissioner Colwell asked what do you see as our greatest assets and our greatest weaknesses? Mrs. Davis answered right now the greatest weakness is our core, our staff. We have a number of vacancies right now, key vacancies in our senior management team and so that would be the biggest priority that she feels that we need to address. Making sure those key positions are filled particularly as it relates to the Planning and Economic Departments. She believes we now have hired a HR Director and she recently heard that there is no longer a Finance Director. So, these key positions are very vital to moving forward the priorities and visions of the Commission so that is what she would do to move forward. Then the other priority she believes is concerning our infrastructure. She continually hears about the concerns about flooding so she will first get with the team to see what has been done. She knows there have been a number of studies and so we need to look at the studies to see what is required to address those concerns and try to seek the resources that we need to City of Deltona Page 7 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 carry out that plan. Commissioner McCool asked in the first 30 days of taking that seat upstairs what are your top three priorities? Mrs. Davis answered well the first 30 days would be sitting down with each one of you making sure she understands our priorities, our needs and our concerns and also putting together a communication plan with each of the Commission who need to be on top of what is happening in the City. She needs to connect with the Commission on a very regular basis to make sure that you are in tune to what is happening on a day-to-day basis and keep them in that loop. So, that is what she would start with and the next she would start with her leadership team and getting to know the different departments, what are the issues, what are their needs, and what are their concerns. She will now be able to determine the direction and the guidance that they need to carry out the direction of the City. Commissioner Avila-Vasquez asked answer what would be your goals to move the City forward, bringing up the staffs’ morale and the residents’ trust in the City? Mrs. Davis answered as far as the staff morale certainly as it is connected to the answer she just gave, making sure we fill those gaps of vacancies in the key leadership and making sure that she understands their concerns and needs. What she sees right now is the lack of stability and that stability is really a result of the vacancy and the turnover in the City Manager position. So, being in that position will start the process of building the morale because right now of course she is sure the team is doing a great job keeping the operation flowing but, without the head leadership guiding and being able to give them the support and the resources they need to carry forward it is hard to maintain progress. Once you move over a different City Manager they will have to come about and learn the operation. If that person leaves, you have to start that process all over and that is why right now, we see very slow movement in the projects that are before us because of the guidance that is not there to help them move along in what they are responsible for doing. The team is very valuable and very important to the progress because they are the ones doing the work, so they need that support. They need to know that they have someone there helping them, encouraging them, empowering them, and also giving them the support and making sure that they have the skillsets to carry through. As far as the community, it is the second part of your question. The community needs communication and she thinks communication is key. She heard yesterday from many of the community members they want to know that they have someone who would listen. They want to know if they have someone who is available for them to help share the updates, the information, and what is happening in the City. To know that they have an ear about their concerns so, of course, she wants to be involved in the community to make sure that they know that she has an open door policy to sit with them, to make herself available to the community from time to time and to make sure that they have someone they can have a pinpoint person to understand the makings of what is happening in the community and in the City. Commissioner Shimkus asked what your approach is to project management and how you City of Deltona Page 8 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 approach it with regards to the planning and the reporting of a project to all the key stakeholders including the citizens, the staff and the Commission? Mrs. Davis answered one of her major ways to handle project management, she believes that each year it is very important to set goals. With those goals she works with all her department heads to establish goals for their departments, and we make sure that we understand the goals for that year. We make sure it lines up with the budget and make sure those goals are established with key objectives to reach those goals. Then at the end of the year we are able to determine how we have progressed. That project management process is by listing all our projects, stating our projected completion dates or our goals and how we want to meet those objectives and communicate that so there is a regular review by holding weekly meetings. In her previous experience she had weekly meetings with all her department heads and part of that weekly gathering is to go over the progress of what we are doing and how we are fairing along with that. What are the hiccups, what are the issues that we are coming about with those projects. How we communicate that to the Commission is that we will give them a periodic update with that on those, a progress report. She knows currently the City has a City Manager Report and videos that go out through DeltonaTV and so she thinks those are nice avenues in which to communicate project progress as well as written reports. So, that is how she will handle updating the Commission on those projects. Commissioner Hariot asked can you give us some examples of a project, a significant project, and one of the agencies that you have worked with in the past? A project that you were able to complete without using a significant amount of Ad Valorem revenue or other tax funding, a project that you were able to complete with alternative funding. Mrs. Davis answered we have had many projects that we use grant funding without Ad Valorem taxes. Currently we have at the City of Lake Worth Beach, we are working on a project with our infrastructure for our electric utilities. The project is ongoing, and it started with issuing a $40 million bond to start the sustainability and resilience project. However, we knew that $40 million would not be enough to carry through for the rest of the project. The project was to strengthen our electric utility infrastructure so that it will protect us from natural disasters, other events and make sure we had system reliability and reduce outages. We needed additional funding so what we did is we sought grant funding and so in that endeavor we were awarded, and we sought funding from the Department of Energy called the GRIP (Grid Resilience and Innovative Partnerships) Program. We were rewarded $23.4 million to continue and leverage the funding that we had already acquired for that project. Mayor Avila stated we are known in Delona for hiring consultants and sometimes we don't follow through. What would you do to make sure that we break that mold? What would you do to stay on a time frame? Number two, that we can project that time frame and project to the residents, Commission and staff. Number three, when there are opportunities like CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) or ECHO (Environmental/Ecological, Cultural, Historical/Heritage, and Outdoor Recreational) that we apply for those. City of Deltona Page 9 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 Mrs. Davis answered when we seek studies or evaluations on different issues certainly it is to get an understanding of the magnitude and what is necessary to correct a situation and so studies are very important. So, in doing so, it also gives you information as to what is required and what resources that you need in order to resolve that situation. So, studies are important to know what we need and what type of resources we will demand to carry that out in order to move forward in that. We have to make sure so there are times when you are receiving services on, or studies and you do not have the funding for it so there is a possibility that the next step in that process is seek the funding. Once you seek the funding, we apply that to the project and we move forward so it is a matter of creating a project plan, making sure the project is moving forward and also keeping you updated which relates to the question of project management. Making sure it is moving forward and constantly reviewing the progress of that project and communicating it to not only the Commission but the public. That communication is in writing and also reports at the Commission meetings. Commissioner Shimkus asked can you think about something and give us an example of something in your career that you wish you would be able to go back and revisit, what you learned from that, if it was a mistake or a regret and how you might approach something differently with what you have learned since then? Mrs. Davis answered she does not have a particular project but, what she can say is as City Manager she relies on her staff and the department heads to be subject matter experts. She relies on their advice, their guidance, and thoughts on certain situations that she may not be an expert in because she is not an expert in everything. The role of City Manager is very dynamic, there are 50 things going on at the same time sometimes and so you have to act quickly. Sometimes you can act quickly, and the decision may not be something that should have been made or should have been made differently. Sometimes the situation can come back on you if you move in a different direction if you had not taken the time to step back and look at that situation and think it out. You have to rely on your staff so that is why it is very important to make sure you have staff that you can trust, staff that are professionally trained and very in tune to the work that they do. So, there are times where she had to make quick decisions sometimes and you wish you had even 10 more minutes to make that decision because you might have done something different. Commissioner Avila-Vazquez stated so you know the City started with a long list of candidates and we wound up with a short list of candidates. Some of the ones that pulled out gave reasons of watching our meetings and listening to comments from neighboring elected officials or other areas and they felt that they were not ready to take on the challenge of the City of Deltona but, you are here and you are interviewing for the position. She asked what do you look forward to in working for the City of Deltona and why are you here? Why do you want to work for the City of Deltona considering all these other people who turned us down for whatever they saw? Mrs. Davis answered she is here and she does not shy away from a challenge. She knows there have been a lot of talk, she has heard a lot of concerns from the community and from the Commission. She has read a lot of stuff, she watched our meetings, and she guesses City of Deltona Page 10 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 one could look and be discouraged but, she does not see it that way. She sees it as a challenge, and she has been there. She has 25 years of experience in very progressive communities and so she believes that she has developed the tough skin and the disposition to handle the challenges. She thinks this is a very vibrant community. She likes its structure; she likes what she sees in the community, and she thinks it has rich potential to go where the Commission wants it to go. So, all she can say is she does not shy away from a challenge, and she says thank you to those candidates for allowing her to be here. Commissioner McCool asked please explain to me your process for handling resident conflict? What she means by that is that we have residents with serious concerns, and she needs to understand that we have a well-defined process but, we have had in the past retaliation from departments. Mrs. Davis answered quickly, she would certainly like an opportunity to talk to the residents and their concerns. Have an open ear, discuss the issues, and resolve things. She believes in protecting staff and she hope staff is not attacked. In this field of public service it is tough and we want to do a good job and we want to do what is best for the community. So, we have the best at heart generally and so we want to provide good service to the community. She thinks by doing that is keeping an open ear and open door to allow them to share their concerns and allow us to address it. The Commissioners discussed having the candidates answe 5. PUBLIC FORUM: Time permitted, public comments shall be limited to items on the agenda and shall not exceed four minutes. Please be courteous and respectful of the views of others. Personal attacks on Commission members, City staff or members of the public are not allowed, and will be ruled out of order by the Mayor. Mayor Avila opened the public comments and Brandy White addressed the City Commission. Mayor Avila asked the Clerk to call each Commissioner so they can provide any ex parte communications with the candidates and each Commissioner had none except for Vice Mayor JodyLee who stated he had a phone call this morning with Mr. Dougherty. Mayor Avila opened the public comments and Gail Bar and Elbert Bryan addressed the City Commission. 6. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m. City of Deltona Page 11 Printed on 5/1/2024 Special City Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 2024 ______________________________ Santiago Avila, Jr., MAYOR ATTEST: ________________________________ Joyce Raftery, CMC, MMC, CITY CLERK City of Deltona Page 12 Printed on 5/1/2024