It is my honor to share with you the accomplishments that we have made in my first year in office. This year has flown by and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I would first like to recognize our staff. To say that I am proud of them is an understatement. They have been given the support they need to grow individually and as a team. Their “can do” attitude not only is a blessing for the city but a skill that will continue to serve them well. My six years as a commissioner has served me well and allowed me the time to understand our cities strengths and weaknesses.
My first objective was to improve our customer service in all departments. The addition of a Director of Development Services was created to perform complex professional and administrative work in directing and coordinating the services to the community pursuant to all aspects of land use and development. I welcome Eran Wasserman to this position and will offer him the support needed to allow this department to succeed.
Neal Schwartz as building official is a hire that I am equally proud of. He came to us with much experience in the Florida coastal communities and has exceptional knowledge of the Florida building code. I give a huge thank you to John Fernandez for stepping up to the job in the interim period. I couldn’t have done this without John. His civic duty to the City of Holmes Beach is a gift that keeps giving as he has called in to help on more than one occasion.
Bringing our planner, Bill Brisson, on staff gave us the ability to have a “planner on call” and as a user in our citizen serve portal in the review of code compliance in permitting and business tax applications. His customer service skills and knowledge of planning and zoning is an asset.
Although Neal brings to us his Flood Plain Manager Qualifications and historical knowledge, it came highly recommended that we have someone other than the building official to perform these functions for the city. I thank Lynn Burnett, our city engineer, on receiving her timely certifications as she is providing the City with these skills in meeting our goals to improve our CRS rating for our citizens. We have also added Lynn to our citizen serve portal and included her in the review process of all permits. This proactive approach to storm water retention on private property is becoming more and more crucial in our efforts in resiliency.
Our code enforcement team was in need of support. Not only did they need the help of a skilled clerk to process and coordinate citizen outreach, NOVs, and special magistrate proceedings but they needed office space. Their office was moved into the ground floor office space of the annex building at public works. They have changed their name to “code compliance” as this is more in keeping with their mission in promoting awareness and education into bringing properties into compliance. They received 3 trucks from the police department and we will be self funding the replacement vehicles as needed. JT has been promoted to Supervisor. Our budget includes the addition of one more position, a full time clerk, so that Robyn can assist as an additional code officer. We have had 2 special magistrate hearings and will continue to use these proceedings for the enforcement of our codes and bringing properties into compliance as necessary.
Our VRC program is more efficient and cost effective thanks to the departments working together in the collection and inspection process. With the addition of monthly rentals into this program, I thank Ami in advance for her ability to expand her services with her continued exemplary customer service skills.
Our License Plate Reader system is an asset to our Police Department and the Chief is very pleased with its performance. Crime continues to go down in our city and the presence of our police officers should continue to make our City a safe place to live. I thank Chief for continuing to make this city a safe place to call home.
Spring Lake is improving, and with the addition of the aeration should continue to sustain life, bring clarity to the lake and improve the habitat for aquatic life forms. Although the startup has been challenging, the public works department continued to monitor the progress to make any adverse affects as minimal as possible and I thank them for that.
The improvements to our City Park are underway with a new and improved skate park, Dog Park and a multi use field. With sincere thanks to the Hagan Foundation we are able to replace our playground equipment and move it to its new location in the park. Tom Sanger from Sanger Pools and donations from area contractors has graciously donated the material and labor in participation for this skate park and I cannot thank them enough for this generous donation. I understand that both the Chief and Dave Zaccagnino worked diligently to find the donations for this bowl and I appreciate that we have a community that is once again willing to give.
We have successfully completed our first phase in our multi use path. We will continue to improve the bike lanes in our city as well as crosswalk visibility. We are currently in the next phase of our storm water infiltration South of Manatee Ave and are in the planning stages of much needed improvements to Marina Drive and the seawall at City Center.
We are currently adding water and fish cleaning stations to the City owned t-end boat docks on Marina Drive. These are available for rent by our residents. We will begin dredging at the Holmes Beach boat ramp and 65th St canal. More dredging will be required using either the local option 5 cent gas tax or other revenue sources in the near future.
Thanks to Lori Hill our City Treasurer, we were able to continue to grow our reserves including additional reserves for our Bert Harris lawsuits and again, have a glowing audit. I would also like to thank her for the format in which the commission is now receiving the quarterly financial reporting as it allows them the ability to monitor our financials at a point in time with the anticipated projections to fiscal year end.
We have successfully completed an RFP for the rewrite of our comprehensive plan. The planning commission played a large part and I praise them for their efforts. Eran stepped up to lend his skills in the rating process and now the hard work begins. As for the planning commission, we have never had so many applicants for open positions. Civic duty is at an all time high in our city and I couldn’t be more pleased. Thanks to all who have applied to these positions and I urge others to give of their time and skills for open positions on our boards as they become available.
This was the first year that we had a real presence at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference. Last year the Chief and I attended. This year not only did I and the chief attend, but our Engineer and Director of Development Services and Sergeant Pilato were also in attendance. Much is gained from these conferences in preparedness, recovery and lessons learned. I contracted Eran from LTA to perform our Director of Emergency Operations in the Recovery and Chief Tokajer will continue to be the director for preparations. We have updated our EOC plan, developed our Emergency Comprehensive Plan and our hard at work on our department specific Coop plan.
We have updated our Employee Handbook. I thank Mary for her efforts in this lengthy process that covered the period of an outgoing and an incoming mayor. We not only improved our job descriptions but also our employee evaluation process. Mary rallied through an unfortunate injury this year and I thank her for her commitment to the city.
We have joined the Tampa Bay Resiliency Coalition and have modified our comprehensive plan to come into compliance with recommended resiliency goals. I thank Lynn and Bill Brisson for their help in this endeavor and the commission for their approval.
Our City Clerk was elected as VP of the Florida Association of City Clerks. She has been a tremendous asset to our staff and is currently training 2 assistant deputy clerks to help in her department. She continues to amaze me with her skills in multi tasking and her gracious attitude to all. The commission approved moving qualifying for city elections to the supervisor of elections which allow Stacy to stay focused on all of her other many duties.
We have prevailed in our first 2 Bert Harris claims and are continuing to defend our right to self police with respect to our comprehensive plan. Our citizens deserve a commission that will continue to legislate for the betterment of our city and I applaud their continued efforts.
On a personal note I have completed the advanced institute for elected officials and was recently
Elected to the Board of the Florida League of Mayors and will be representing our district at the conferences and legislative days. There is strength in numbers and with the Leagues priorities in supporting clean air and water, home rule, protection of wetlands and resiliency, I feel this an important opportunity to address many issues facing our coastal cities in Florida.
Thank you and again, it has been an honor to serve.
Mayor Judy Titsworth’s State of the City Report was extremely impressive. She has built and leads an inspired team of local government members and city residents. They are achieving numerous positive results in a very short period of time with a professional approach never before seen in any city on the Island in the decades I have been here. How fortunate we are to have her accomplishing the things we who live here on the Island care most about. She doesn’t just talk the talk like so many others. None of us will ever all agree on doing the same thing at the same time being done in the same way. But I think it is fair to say that it would be very difficult to find fault or do anything but admire, respect and approve of the first year of this Mayor’s tenure. I look forward in the coming year to seeing Holmes Beach flourish and benefit and congratulate them on how well they are all working together toward important common goals we can all relate to.