Port St. Joe swears in commissioners, approves consent agenda and routine contracts

Port St. Joe's City Commission opened its first meeting of 2026 with a prayer and the formal swearing-in of newly elected officials by Judge Tim McFarland. Eric Langston, Stephen Kerrigan and Rex Bezet each repeated the oath to support the constitutions of the United States and the state of Florida and to faithfully perform the duties of their offices.

After the ceremony the commission moved through the consent agenda. Commissioner Carey made a motion to approve the minutes of the Dec. 2 meeting; Commissioner Lauer seconded and the board voted unanimously to adopt the minutes.

Staff gave a short engineering update: plans for a new city government complex are about 60% complete and will go to the city for review; permitting for stormwater, FDOT access, water and wastewater will follow. Staff also reported a contract reconciliation on a downtown utilities phase that should return a payment to the city of $119,539.23 while the contractor will retain approximately $124,065 as remaining contract work and retention.

The commission approved a previously tabled Change Order No. 1 from SCE after staff negotiations and accepted an award recommendation for paving at Williams Avenue, with C.W. Roberts named as low bidder for the parking-lot work. The board also approved a water-plant filter module award to Film Tech (low bidder). All listed votes were recorded as unanimous (5-0).

The meeting closed routine business by announcing that FEMA had advanced $150,000 against a larger allocation and that the city had hired a full-time code-enforcement officer to address ongoing property-maintenance issues.