Tony Ploughe for Tybee Island City Council 2023
Hi, I am Tony Ploughe and I am running for Tybee Island City Council.
I am asking for your support and vote to be a City of Tybee representative on City Council.
Click on the image to see my Sept 22, 2023 interview, Behind the Bar Podcast with Paxton
Click on the image to see my research on Tybee Debt, Capital Expenses, Water Sewer Stormwater, Bridges, Fresh Water
Slides for Video on Tybee Debt Capital Water Sewer Stormwater Bridges Fresh Water
Tybee Debt Capital Water Sewer Stormwater Bridges Fresh Water.pptx
Tybee Debt Capital Water Sewer Stormwater Bridges Fresh Water.pdf
My initial thoughts on items on Tybee include:
Pedestrian Crosswalks:
The pedestrian crosswalks with sidewalk side yellow flashing lights are dangerous. I have witnessed many near misses when pedestrians expect to have the right-away to cross the road and vehicles do not recognize the need for them to stop to allow pedestrians to cross the road. Drivers have been taught in the United States for traffic lights; yellow means caution, red means stop. All of these crosswalks need to change to over the road red lights when pedestrians seek to cross the road.
Short Term Rentals:
Ordinances passed by the current Tybee City Council over the past two years I believe were passed for a similar purpose as when the 35 ft structure height limit was passed in effort to encourage the continuation of a residential home community while providing for the continued vacation rental use of those properties that have been regulated for many years as approved use.
I have 3 adjacent Vacation Rental Properties on Tybee that I manage, meet all guests and have lived in one of the properties for 9-10 months of the year (renting my residence out for the summer) over the past few years.
I am researching and seeking additional guidance on the expectation of recusing myself related to voting on Short Term Rentals per:
Tybee Ordinances: Article III. Sec. 2-106. - Code of ethics for city officials.
(f)Prohibition of conflict of interest. A city official may not participate in a vote or decision on a matter affecting a person, entity, or property in which the official or employee has a substantial interest.
The Handbook for Georgia Mayors and Councilmembers also provides guidance on Conflict of Interest:
I Agree that 50% STR in residential areas with existing STR (where we are at now with STR ordinances) is a reasonable max number. I moved to Tybee to be part of the Tybee community. Without locals, we do not have a community.
I believe we should enforce existing ordinances related to violations for parking and noise issues for all properties on Tybee. If STR guests, visitors and locals are not following the noise and parking ordinances, they should be cited.
Tybee Road:
I would like to see us share as many details as we can for the upcoming plan to replace the Bull River and Lazaretto Creek Bridges.
Link to GDOT Bull River and Lazaretto Creek Bridge Replacement project with two land bridges, include bike and pedestrian improvements and enhanced paved shoulders.
Tybee 12/16/21 latest Tybee News Release that I see:
Defined timeline as of this news release:
2023 – Right-of-Way (ROW) acquisition for both bridges
2024- Project bid process opens; construction begins
Tybee Parking:
I believe we could look into park and rides with busses from parking lots off of the island for summer weekends. Park and Rides have really helped traffic in the state of Washington.
View this list to see that parking at existing businesses and private properties are used as well as transportation authority managed parking lots with a few to hundreds of parking spaces per location.
I believe we should further enforce parking regulations and cite vehicles illegally parked in undesignated parking locations. Vehicles illegally parked on or blocking private property should be cited and towed. Vehicles parked illegally with excessive unpaid overdue parking citations should be booted.
I am in support of employees of Tybee businesses to purchase reduced cost parking permits.
Zoning Height Regulations:
Maximum structure height must stay at 35 ft, ref City of Ordinance Code Sec. 3-090. Understand the City Council defined this requirement in the 1990s, which has been a huge influence in keeping the character of Tybee Island for residential home use.
Beaches:
In favor of continuing smoking ban on the beach.
Beach and dune renourishments are high concerns. I am impressed and appreciate the effort of the city, Alan Robertson grant proposals and many others with data collection and decades of effort of focus on this topic. The beach and dunes are crucial to our continued welfare and existence. Believe we should continue to focus on the protection of the marsh and wetlands.
Parks and Recreation:
I am in favor of additional investment in parks for families. I believe the latest grass soccer field proposal for Jaycee Park is a good path forward for us at this time.
Water and Sewer:
This is obviously a large and growing topic for our island for funding sustaining and improving our infrastructure. I believe we can do more to inform and educate the island on these issues and plans.
I believe we should build in technology to allow property owners to subscribe to their individual property meters hourly water use data to allow property owners to help manage water use/leak detection.
Strategic Planning vs Reactionary:
As a city, it appears to me that we can be more strategic in our planning versus what appears to be more reactionary.
I would look for us to further define and document our operations to move in a more strategic manner. I do believe we are working more towards the 2021-2026 Comprehensive Plan as a city though as evident by the city managers recent bi-annual status report.
I have not been able to find a City Operations Manual that guides us in the daily operations and activities within the confines of the Tybee Island Code of Ordinances. I have seen the employee manual, emergency management, public safety and additional information guides on the Tybee website.
The city operations manual can identify staffing of large scale events on Tybee, planned or not planned. The plan can include a calendar of preparation for an event including when to estimate the amount of visitors expected on the island. Based on that estimate, we can have defined staffing requirements for Fire, Police, Ocean Rescue, Ambulance. Weeks in advance, coordination can occur with additional County and State personnel as needed. The type of event can be evaluated for low, medium, high risk for the need of need additional emergency personnel staffing multiplier to the baseline support staffing plan.
City Council Meeting Agendas:
Ordinance proposals and all topics need to have sponsors identified to the legislation.
I believe some of the past years ordinance proposals could have been more mature before being presented for approval. Appears the city council meetings that I have attended include more brainstorming topics and workshop level discussions than you would expect at a board meeting.
There tends to be many revisions to the meeting agendas and packets with information going on and off the packet prior to meetings. I have heard many council members comment they were not sure they have seen the latest packet.
Fiscal Responsibility:
As a city councilperson, I will be fiscally responsible in approval of expenditures and contracts for Tybee. I am a details person and seek to comprehend all aspects of contracts and funds the City of Tybee is spending for the welfare of our community to confirm they are appropriate.
Commitment to City Councilmember Position:
My expectation of my role in participation with Tybee City Council would be an approximate 20-25 hour a week commitment to be able to provide informed decisions and leadership in the direction of Tybee Island.
Dogs on the Beach:
I believe the proposal of a trial period and trial location that did not get approval at a recent city council meeting is worth reconsidering for a few winter months at first. The challenges I see with allowing pets on the beach:
Pets will have to be leashed at all times under control of a person. On a leash to me means, one end is attached to the dog and the other end is attached to the person, whether that be in a hand, tied around their waist or other means of having positive restraint; not with a dog dragging their 10 ft leash on the ground. People are also going to want to take them into the water, which does not work well with a leash. If a pet is on the beach without a leash, there is more risk of another pet being attacked or a person being bitten. This brings in the discussion of enforcement. This is going to be additional work for assumed Code Enforcement and Police. Are we willing to hire additional staffing to support the enforcement of dogs on the beach or are we expecting them to provide this additional support with the existing staff? If we do not enforce our laws, I believe we are susceptible to liability issues.
We will need to provide dog waste bags, containers to place the waste, disposal of the containers, signs and campaigns to encourage owners to pick up after their pets, define time of year and location they are allowed. Previous council meetings on the topic discussed protecting our environment of turtles and bird life.
For our trial period, what would our criteria and measurements be to determine it was successful or failed the trial period for further expansion of dogs on the beach or not?
Are we seeing and picking up dog waste on the beach?
Are we seeing pets maintained on a leash?
How many citations have there been related to dogs on the beach?
What is our additional staffing load on the city to support it?
How do we measure our community favorability of dogs on the beach before and after the trial?
Folly Beach of Charleston allows dogs on the beach at any time from October 1 to April 30th and prohibited from 10am to 6PM for May 1st to September 30th.
https://cityoffollybeach.com/rules
St. Simons has similar times of year acceptance of dogs on the beach and allows verbal control of the dog by the handler if the dog is responsive to the verbal control.
https://www.glynncounty.org/1522/Beach-QR-page-2
Jacksonville also allows dogs on the beach, requiring them to always be on a leash similar times of the year and limited during the summer:
https://jacksonvillebeach.org/232/City-Animal-Ordinances
I am not trying to make Tybee like Folly, St. Simons or Jacksonville; just evaluating how other cities accept dogs on the beach for consideration.
Additional Topics:
I am in favor of continuing pedestrian open container of alcohol in the community and the beach.
City of Tybee Island Ordinances: References:
Code of Ordinances and Recent Adopted Amendments to be included link to the city website is here:
https://www.cityoftybee.org/254/City-Code
Understanding the Needs and Issues of the Island:
As a candidate for city council, I am eager to learn of resident’s concerns, issues and recommendations.
Personal Info:
I moved to Tybee in 2011. I have attended every Tybee City Council meeting since Aug 2021 with the exception of two meetings. My commitment is to be open minded, compassionate and as well informed, with research and data, as I can on the topics to provide balanced decisions and leadership for our community of Tybee Island.
I am looking forward to speaking with many of you in the community to understand your concerns and recommendations on what we want for Tybee.
Tybee has been where I call home and has been my home base since 2011. I have lived on Tybee for 7 of the past 12 years. I have taken contract assignments and lived and worked in other cities/states for 5 of the past 12 years. As a contract flight test instrumentation engineer for 32 years; I have worked at 8 different aerospace companies, lived and worked in 8 states and 3 continents. I am single, no children with a 9 week old Golden Retriever named Bodhi. I graduated from Purdue University in May 1991 with a BSET. I am originally from Indiana, first moved to Savannah in 1996, lived on Talahi from 2001-2005.
I am seeking your vote for Tony Ploughe, candidate for City Council to provide balanced informed leadership for Tybee Island.