I'll call to order the November 6, 2025 meeting of the Clearwater City Council. If you wish to address the council tonight, please complete a comment card. Comment cards are located by the clerk, seated at the right of the dais. When called to speak, please hand your card to the clerk. This time we'll move to item two on the agenda, the invocation. Tonight I'd like to call forward Pastor Steve Creloff from Lakeside Community Chapel and then ask all in attendance to remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Lord, we begin tonight by giving thanks to you for this country of ours and its rich history. We pray it will continue to have richness and be a blessing to many. We thank you for the beautiful city that we live in. Grateful that you've placed us here. Grateful, Lord, for all the council members tonight. We ask that you would give them wisdom as they look into all the things that are presented to them, give them insight, help them to focus, pay attention. And we're just very grateful that you, your word says you've ordained government and we are in submission to our leaders and we thank you for that system that you have put in place. So we ask that this would be a really good night and a lot would be accomplished. We pray this in your name. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. Before we begin tonight's, or go further in tonight's meeting, I'd like to introduce our dais for tonight. To by far left is Deputy City Clerk Nicole Spray. To her right is City Clerk Rosemary Call. Good evening. To Owen, your last name. I keep screaming. Yeah. Our city attorney's out tonight ill, so we have our Deputy City Attorney, Owen, who's filling in his space. Good evening. To his right, we have Council Member Ryan Cotton. Good evening. To his right, we have Council Member Mike Menino. Good evening. To my right, we have Council Member David Albritton. Good evening. To his right, we have Vice Mayor, Lena Tichera. Good evening. To her right, we have our City Manager, Jennifer Poirier. To her right, we have Assistant City Manager, Dan Slaughter. And to his right, we have Assistant City Manager, Alba. That will move to Item 4.1, and tonight we have our Citizens Academy graduation. So at this time, I'd like to begin that. I'm happy to announce that the annual Citizens Academy class is graduating tonight. Each of these graduates have shown their commitment to the future of Clearwater by completing an intensive 10-week program that included visits to many city facilities and departments. Because citizen involvement is crucial to the future of Clearwater, this group is to be commended for their achievement and dedication. Many of our Citizens Academy graduates now serve in leadership positions within our community, and I am sure these graduates will do so as well. We offer our congratulations to each of you, and I'd ask for each of you to step forward, as we call your name, to receive your Certificate of Completion. Cheryl Acton, Ed Chambers. I guess we're going to try a minute. Oh, we have, do we have certificates? Do we have certificates? We do. Start there and work your way through. It's going to be tough for you to read. Congratulations. Watch that bump there. Thank you very much. Congratulations, Ed. Thanks for having me. Congratulations. I think we were going to go, but typically we're going to go. We're going to load a protocol here in the script. Passing out certificates over there. Okay, I get it now. Okay. Yvette Compton. Congratulations. Congratulations. Jack Cullinane. Jack's here tonight? Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations, Lisa. Yeah. Yeah, that was Lisa Cullinane. Okay. Mary Decker. Congratulations. Allison Goldman. Congratulations. Congratulations. Waldo Fernandez. LaShawn Harrison. Congratulations. Tracy Hawkins. Lawrence Jarvik. Congrats. Bill Johnson. Congratulations. Professor going through the class. Yeah. She was getting adjunct on this one. Congratulations. I learned a lot. I want to step back. Irma Hill Karpinski. You're good on that one. Congratulations. Shannon Brooks Leahy. Thank you so much. Thank you for your good thinking. Thank you. Really nice. Samantha Levy. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Shariah Littleton. Sabine Rushmeyer. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Annette Sejiecki. Congratulations. Congratulations. Patty Snyder. Congratulations. Juanita Sparks. Congratulations. Congratulations. Don T. Meyer. Congratulations, Don. Pat T. Meyer. Congratulations, Pat. Dr. Smith. Sherry Van Hoodigam. And Anissa Webb. Congratulations, Anissa. Thank you. We had a few graduates who couldn't be here tonight. We'd like to recognize them as well. Nana Westmark is not here tonight, but thank you for your participation. Richard Lusk and Linda Morrell. All of you tonight just so much. We appreciate so much participating in this very important program. And we also want to thank our staff for putting it together. A lot of work goes in on the city staff to make this such a successful organization and event. And we appreciate the staff's involvement, too. So congratulations to all the graduates. Thank you for applying and going through. And we hope that many citizens will apply to the next leadership academy when it comes up next year. We'll move to the next item on the agenda. And that is the Suncoast Jazz Festival Proclamation. At this time, I'd like to call forward Joan Dragon from the Suncoast Jazz Festival. She's the executive director of that to receive the proclamation. I'll read this first. And then, Joan, if you'd like to make some comments, we'd love to hear from you again. So whereas the art of creating jazz music is a uniquely American form of music that originated over 100 years ago and that has influenced and enriched not only American music and culture, but also the music and culture of the world. And whereas the Suncoast Jazz Festival is in its 35th year and brings increased attention to the city of Clearwater and its diverse and vibrant cultural arts. And whereas the Suncoast Jazz Festival continues to feature local, national, and international musicians. And whereas the mission of the Suncoast Jazz Festival and its volunteers is to contribute to the education of local young musicians and to give them performance opportunities, and this year we'll host two master classes for local students to foster the preservation of jazz. Now, therefore, I, Bruce Rector, Mayor of the City of Clearwater, Florida, On behalf of the Clearwater City Council, do you hereby proclaim November 21st to the 23rd, 2025, to be Suncoast Jazz Festival Weekend in Clearwater. What a great tradition you have. Well, I just, you know, I just want to thank you so much. It's a little trite, but it does take a community to make things like this happen. We have 150 volunteers, and we've got the Clearwater community that supports us, the Sheraton Hotel, all the local vendors, and we couldn't do it without you. So thanks so much for giving us this opportunity to just say hello. Thank you, and I hope some of you can come down November 21 to 23 over on Sankey at the Sheraton. Fabulous, joyous weekend. You might remind us some of the performers that come in. I know one of the Marcellus family is always presented. Jason Marsalis, a lot of names you would not necessarily recognize unless you're into jazz, but Jason Marsalis, Diego Figueredo, a fabulous Brazilian guitar player, Wycliffe Garden, Ken Popowski, and we do have sort of a famous street band from New Orleans. They're called Tuba Skinny. I always want to say Skinny Tuba. But they were quite a hit on the streets in New Orleans, and they're with us for the first time. So we start with early New Orleans jazz and then bring things all the way up into, you know, the current American songbook. We have a little bit of rockability, a little bit of gospel, swing dance on Friday night. Lots of stuff for everybody. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for all you do, and it's not just the enjoyment of adults. I know what you talked about, the education of young musicians is really important to our community, to lift up these young people who appreciate the arts and to educate them. How can we forget the students? That's an important part of it as well. We're going to promote. This is how we're going to keep the jazz tradition alive, and we have master classes. Jason Marsalis has led master classes. Dave Brubeck's kids have led master classes. So the opportunity for young kids to spend time with and hear stories from these people that have been there and done that, it's just invaluable. Well, thank you. Thank you to all the volunteers that help out. Thanks. Thanks for everything you do. Yeah, good. Thanks so much. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, okay. Thanks again. Oh, good? I'll open it. Why don't you all get in front here? We'll get a picture. Give one picture of them all in front, too. Yeah. Thank you so much. No, you're going to get your phone. Come on in here. Come on. Come on in here. Come on, Lena. I know. Come on, Lena. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, yeah, we don't want that. Thank you. Thank you. No, thank you. You too. That removed item 4.3 on the agenda. And our city charter, Article 3, Section 303, calls for the city manager to submit to the council at the first regular meeting in November each year to make available to the public and comprehensive report on the financial conditions and administrative activities in the city. So tonight is the first council meeting in November. And we're pleased to have our city manager make that report. So we're welcome, and we look forward to hearing from you. Well, thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jennifer Poirier, city manager. And it brings me great joy tonight to be here to give this presentation of the state of the city. Bear with me. It is a little longer of a presentation. You know I talk fast, so I will get through it as quickly as possible. Feel free to interrupt me if you have questions about any of the pretty incredible accomplishments. I want to note right off the bat, this isn't everything we've done. This is the above and the beyond stuff, the really cool stuff, the things when we were talking about it to the team that they're most proud of that we accomplished this year. So with that, we're also going to talk about not just our successes over the past year, but we're going to talk about, spend a little bit of time on our financial health. Can't talk about our financial health without talking about the storm damage and the cost recovery as it relates to that. And then in closing, we'll talk about what we hope to focus on for the upcoming year. So last fiscal year, Clearwater's general fund had revenues of $218.9 million, as well as expenses that totaled $232.9 million. Last year's millage rate was 5.885 mils. That's the same rate as the last two years. And I know a question that's come up a lot lately because of what we've got going on in Tallahassee is, what is our unrestricted reserve general fund balance? And that is $67.4 million, and that is as of September 30th. This represents a 30% of the fiscal 2026 budgeted expenditures. As you are all very familiar with, our community went through and endured some significant damage to their homes and property, as did we. Last year, we had three storms and incurred an estimated of $87 million in damages to city properties, rights of way, and infrastructure. We completed damage assessments, inventories for all three storms, and it included a total of 391 FEMA-eligible line items. That is for city-owned assets, and the vast majority of them, of these line items, are still in process. Our FEMA claims are submitted as projects, and so we have 130 projects that we have out there. 18 have been approved so far. 41 are under FEMA review, and 71 are still waiting to be submitted to FEMA. The process of recovering costs associated with the storms will take several years to complete. It's a complicated process, as some of you are familiar with in past storms. As of today, out of that $87 million, we've received $9.2 million from the insurance proceeds and $6 million from FEMA. It's expected, and we've prepared for this, that not all of our storm expenses will be reimbursable by FEMA or by our insurance proceeds. We will continue to work to mitigate and reduce that loss as much as possible. I want to acknowledge the hard work of the finance director, Jay Ravens, and the budget director, Kayleen Castile, and their teams, as well as Jared Hood, our interim emergency manager, and the council and previous councils, because our ability to be able to spend that $87 million is an attribute to the councils before us that have followed the lead and taken the advice of our very conservative finance staff that's made those balances be available. Now, the best part is our accomplishments that we have made together as a city. As I mentioned, this is only some of the highlights. All of our successes can be found at myclearwater.com, Florida-annual report. Our achievements would not be possible without the care and professionalism of our employees in this incredible workforce. We thank them often. I know that we've really all put an effort into that because our storm recovery was incredible, and they appreciate that gratitude, and so I'm glad to be able to have the opportunity to show some specific examples of what they have accomplished. So to our team, thank you so much. We're going to start by going over the successes that are associated with our strategic goal of being a high-performing government. You all know how I feel about the dashboards. They are one of my absolute favorite communication tools that we have out there. But better technology helps us do better in the way that we do business. Our team has built upon the success of last year's development of transparency dashboards, and we've added six external and internal new dashboards in 2025. We are especially proud of the city work plan dashboard. This is the one that we refer to a lot, the one that we used our strategic planning meetings to derive our work plan for the year. And I am super proud to report that of the 142 projects that are in that portal, more than 74% of them are either on time or complete as November. And that's in lieu of the three storms that we are recovering from that were not part of our work plan. So, again, way to go, team. Existing dashboards were enhanced to keep pace with the city's major technology initiatives. These dashboards are never meant to be a one-and-done. We're going to continue to move and change them and enhance them to make sure that we are measuring and communicating and telling our story in the best way possible. The transparency of our performance remains a top priority, and that's what these dashboards are mostly used for. You can see our dashboards at myclearorder.com forward slash data. We had multiple departments that were involved in the building and opening of various city buildings, gathering spaces, and infrastructure. We constructed and opened Fire Station 47, added a much-desired pickleball courts at Clearwater Beach at McKay Park. We celebrated the grand opening of the Mercado and repaired and reopened Pier 60 in less than one year after it was damaged after the storms. We also finished renovations and moved back into the municipal service building that's occurring now. And when the new city hall opens at the end of the summer of 2026, we will offer our residents a consolidated and more efficient municipal complex. Significant technology investments were made as well in the areas of cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, traffic network systems, and an AI-powered chat box, whose name is... Thank you. And we migrated all of the police department employees from a city-maintained radio system to the Pinellas County radio system, and this consolidation will save at least $231,000 a year. This past year, Clearwater has seen a record number of tourists who are coming back to Clearwater Beach. Again, thanks to our team for getting it back and open. This is especially good news as our community continues to rebuild. According to the information from the St. Pete Clearwater Convention and Visitors Bureau, tourism numbers are down countywide, but they are up here in Clearwater. We can see the increased tourism taxes that are collected and analyzed every month, and we continue to be the lead for that. These increased tourism figures demonstrate the value of our hard work to restore our community and reopen our economic base, including the Philly Spring Training and the beach. Thank you again to our employees who are part of our recovery offers. Despite the two major hurricanes, Clearwater's marine and aviation team delivered major wins that are transforming how residents and visitors experience our waterfront and our skies. The Clearwater Beach Marina reconstruction is charging ahead with phase one nearing completion, while keeping every commercial tenant open for business. This is a true feat of coordination and communication. The Seminole boat ramp is being rebuilt stronger than ever, ensuring public access remains open, even amid complex construction and permitting challenges. Over at the newly renamed Clearwater Executive Airport, we proudly restored its original name to reflect its growing stature as a regional aviation hub. We've secured millions in grants funding and voiced resilience with a new emergency generator to keep critical systems running during the storms. Together, these achievements demonstrate Clearwater's commitment to innovation, resiliency, and economic both, both on the water and in the air. Another one that I'm incredibly proud of for this team is that we made a lot of effort to seek and support additional funding through grants. Several departments pursued and re-awarded grants this year. I'm happy to say, and I know I already said this earlier tonight, but the amount of grants awarded more than doubled than the year before. Our Clerk's Office provided administrative support for 13 grant awards, totaling more than $23.8 million. The city submitted hazard mitigation and resilient Florida grant applications for more than $177 million. We're still waiting to hear back on some of those. We secured multiple grants to help fund the Clearwater Breach Marina Project, the Eddie Seymour Softball Complex, construction of a new terminal and hangers at the executive airport, stormwater pump systems in low-lying neighborhoods, and for elevating a vulnerable seawall and bringing traffic control cabinets above sea level. We will continue to work across multiple departments to leverage grant funding to supplement city funds. Crews from Clearwater Public Utilities manage the community's water needs by delivering more than 4 billion gallons of drinking water and treating an equivalent volume of wastewater and supplying reclaimed water. Our teams work to modernize our water room systems, which leads me to share with you our work on the wastewater consolidation project. This is one of our major projects in the upcoming years. We recently completed a final review of Clearwater's Water Reclamation Facility Master Plan, which confirmed the city's data-driven strategy to consolidate facilities, improve our resiliency, and mitigate the risk of spills. Progress is underway, and the successful identification of lift stations for rerouting as part of the consolidation. The team is developing contracts for owners' advisors to write the contract and help measure two construction packages, which will divert flows from the Marshall Street and East Basins and expand the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility. We're excited to continue to move forward on this major project. The Finance, Budget, and Audit Department launched a centralized e-procurement platform called OpenGov. This platform enhances efficiency, transparency, and accessibility through the procurement process. By expanding the vendor database, the city has increased competition for our RFP and RFQ processes in hopes to help make sure we're being the most competitive as possible. OpenGov includes more than 14,000 active vendors, including more than 6,000 certified small business disadvantaged minority women and veteran-owned business enterprises. Since going live in October, the city's issued 66 solicitations, and of those, 55 have been awarded. This is another really cool stat here. New and better technology helped revolutionize the way our customer service team operates. Our team implemented Genesys software and the Utility Customer Service Call Center, which has streamlined phone calls and email routing. This has improved our customer care's team efficiency, accountability, and consistency. The team answered more than 20,000 emails last year with a service level of 93%. The average response speed went from 48 hours to 5 hours and 53 minutes. It's an incredible improvement. The team answered more than 73,000 phone calls with a service level of 91% and an average answering speed of 47 seconds. The team also launched a new customer satisfaction survey through Genesys, receiving 92% positive satisfaction rating during customers in its first year. These efforts improve our service delivery and reinforce our commitment to quality customer service. The solid waste and recycling teams worked to improve efficiency along their daily routes. Routeware software was successfully implemented, and it has improved the efficiency of our route design and use of personnel. This project will expand to include cameras for efficiency and accountability. We also updated the solid waste fleet to ensure reliable service delivery and completed design on a modern heavy truck and car wash that will begin construction in 2026. This will help us better maintain our vehicles and help bring those maintenance costs down as well. Next, we're going to look at the accomplishments that tie to the economic and housing opportunity. The city has initiated multiple downtown infrastructure projects and is officially kicking off construction in downtown Clearwater. It's this important time for transformation, as many of our projects are or will be under construction soon. They include Harborview Hotel, the Ballard Apartments, Osceola Parking Garage, Osceola Roadway and Infrastructure Improvements, PSTA Clearwater Station, and our new city hall. Additionally, we're happy to have more affordable housing in the downtown core with the Indigo Apartments and the soon-to-be open Clearwater Gardens. The city did a lot of work to make both of those projects happen. CGS Energy is the enterprise utility at the city, serving more than 32,000 customers and growing. The team rolled out a rebranding campaign to change their name from Clearwater Gas System to CGS Energy, and they updated their vision to be the energy provider of choice. This is their regional utility provider that serves customers in Clearwater and up to 16 other municipalities in both Pinellas and Pasco counties. They received more than $4.1 million in revenue through retail operations. They sold $32 million of natural gas therms and transferred $4.3 million to the general fund through a dividend payment, which is more than the $2.6 million that the minimum dividend is required. The department also negotiated and closed its sale of its Pasco property for $725,000. That property was purchased in 1995 for $275,000, so we had a really good return on that investment. As the spring training home to the Philadelphia Phillies, Clearwater is known for its sports tourism activities. Negotiations continue with the Phillies, and the Baycare Ballpark continues to be the site of the Phillies and the Clearwater Threshers. The Eddie Seymour Complex is where baseball and softball players from around the country come to hit it out of the park. Last year, the city hosted 27 regional and athletic tournaments, which generated more than $42 million in economic impact and nearly 44,000 hotel room nights. The city is going to continue its efforts to promote Clearwater as a premier destination for national sporting events and sports entertainment. You all know we went to Nagano, Japan this year. It was our first delegation in nearly a decade. City staff, council members, and the sister city's board members visited Nagano this past July. The delegation toured city hall, local schools, and a water treatment plant. With support of our economic development team, the group met with major companies in Tokyo, such as the Embassy, Japan External Trade Organization, and Daiso, which just opened a new location in Clearwater in September. The city also secured an interview for the mayor with Nikkel to promote Clearwater and attract foreign direct investment. The economic development and housing team partnered with St. Pete College to create a pilot management consulting services program, which is designed to strengthen Clearwater's businesses while providing students with professional development opportunities at the same time. The program launched October 1st with the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition as its first participant. We're also partnering with the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition to build a mini mall called The Grove at 1105, which will be made out of repurposed shipping containers. The name is going to pay homage to the area's history, which used to be called The Grove. We're excited to see how these programs develop. Next, we're going to look at our achievements that improve our community well-being. We'll start with the library. As we know, the library is so much more than books. Our library team helps enrich the community through innovative and impactful library services. Staff at multiple locations hosted Space for All events, which promoted space-themed STEM activities for children of all ages, hosted 1,200 participants in this year's Comic-Con event, and more than 1,200 readers participated in the summer reading program. We had eight students graduate in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, and 12 city residents became U.S. citizens through the East Community Library Citizen Tutoring Program. The library partnered with the Pinellas Education Foundation and Pinellas County Schools for the Take Stock in Children program, which provided scholarships to 11 resident students. And staff at North Greenwood Library and Homeless Empowerment Program provided more than 40 library cards to job-seeking patrons. Parks and Rec, another department that had an incredible year. Parks and Rec services helped improve residents' quality of life. The team participated in 5,700 water safety lessons to 960 students from four Clearwater Elementary schools for their physical education curriculum. We organized 13 free community events, drawing more than 20,000 attendees, and supported 14 community-based sporting programs for more than 2,500 Clearwater young people. The special events team issued 400 special events and wedding park permits. And we installed new playgrounds at Soul Road and Forest Run Parks. Pool equipment renovations were made at Ross Norton and continue at the Long Center. And our volunteers picked up 19,000 pounds of litter during 7,000 volunteer hours to beautify city public spaces. Investing in public art and art appreciation helps to build a strong sense of community for our leaders. Clearwater expanded its public art program with multiple large-scale projects, including new murals, mosaics, and sculptures across city parks, libraries, and downtown corridors. New murals were installed at Coachman Park, the North Greenwood Library, Marymount Park, and Crest Lake Park's Giving Wall. Residents can see a beautiful mosaic work at the new Mercado, and there are new art sculptures in downtown Clearwater with additional pieces that are coming to the Clearwater Marina, Clearwater Gardens Apartments, and PSTA Modal Transit Station. Next, we're going to talk about how the city is enhancing its strategic goal of environmental stewardship. This is one of our really cool new toys. It's called a WeDo. The city worked hard this year to restore critical infrastructure and prepare for future storms. Crews inspected and maintained almost 5,000 storm drains and executed a project focusing on cleaning and restoring the flow of Alligator Creek. In response to call for innovation and cost efficiency, we introduced the WeDo aquatic harvesting vehicle seen on this slide, which mechanically removes invasive plants from waterways to improve water flow and reduce algae blooms. In addition, the city made significant advances to improve long-term flow protection and climate resilience. We installed tidal valves in areas prone to blue sky flooding, replaced traditional traffic signals with hardened mast arms for storm durability, and completed a citywide vulnerability assessment to identify and prioritize future resiliency projects. Those efforts reflect Clearwater's commitment to protecting residents, infrastructure, and natural resources today and into the future. We all know how important trees are to our community, and they're important because they improve air and water quality, they provide shade, they reduce flooding, and they enhance local resilience to storm and a heat. Clearwater is recognized as a tree city for 43 years in a row now, and to celebrate the occasion, we gave away more than 2,000 young trees to city residents at our Arbor Day celebration. The Parks and Rec Department implemented a tree planting program with a goal to plant $50,000 in new trees in city parks. The team completed renovations in the Harbor Oaks and Countryside Medians and U.S. 19 approaches at Drew Street, and the replanted trees in traffic calming medians in the Ottoman Greenlee and Brookhill Hillcrest neighborhoods. As always, the city's planning and development team works to build our tree bank and promote a strong and healthy tree canopy in Clearwater. We also continued making progress on maximizing savings through solar energy this year. Four new municipal solar installations were completed at Morningside, General Services Complex, the Solid Waste Transfer Station, and Clearwater Gas Complex. The city retired its third batch of more than 24,000 renewable energy certificates through Duke Energy Clean Energy Connection Program. This allowed for some of the city's operating electricity be powered by solar, equivalent of about 25 million kilowatt hours. The city also supported the Solar United Neighbors Switched Together Program, which educates residents and small business owners about solar energy through workshops, events, and digital media. Clearwater had 180 residents register for the program, and 40 installations were completed this year. Another cool toy we got. After last year's hurricanes, the city has taken steps to improve our resiliency in the face of extreme weather. The Clearwater Police Department acquired a Lenco Bearcat all-terrain armored vehicle through grant funding so we can use it during dangerous or inclement weather situations. The agency also obtained a high-water rescue vehicle to assist in saving residents during major flooding events. Having equipment like this on hand will be a tremendous asset to our rescue teams in a flood situation, similar to like what we had at the standard apartments last year. And last but not least, we'll see how a clear is working hard to provide superior public service. Maintaining a premier workforce is important to ensuring our success. The city achieved positive trends in employee vacancies, which are now at 7.6 percent, down from 8.7 percent, and turnover is down to 9 percent from 9.6 percent previously. Compared to last year, we now have 17 more full-time staff on board than previous year, 20 fewer vacancies, and 10 fewer employees who have voluntarily resigned. These outcomes reflect our strength and retention strategies and improved workforce stability. In addition, we continue to build dynamic teams by successfully recruiting executive leader roles and have negotiated competitive compensation packages to attract top-tier candidates while remaining within budgetary frameworks. I think we would all agree that the executive team and the department heads that we brought on board are absolutely outstanding to complement an already outstanding team. We're especially proud of how our city employees rallied around one another after last year's storm. This is something that I don't think many people know, but we had over 40 employees who made monetary donations to fellow employees who were personally impacted. The city collected over $2,100 in gift cards that were given to our employees in need, and we managed donations of clothes, furniture, toys, and pet food for our staff. The city was selected to participate in the Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Innovation Track, something else we are all very proud of. This nine-month program challenges local governments to design innovative solutions to complex public issues. Ten employees across city departments will develop a project to enhance Clearwater's service delivery experience and improve outcomes for our resident and staff. The city also hosted our first cohort of the Executive Leadership Academy, which graduated in June of 2025, and the second cohort is currently underway. The goal is to advance leadership development citywide and to contribute to the city's culture of learning. Public safety is one of our highest priorities, and we want to make sure our public safety has the tools it needs to continue to be one of the best police forces in this country. The Clearwater Police Department achieved reaccreditation by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement. The agency was first accredited in 1998 and has been reaccredited every three years since that time. This program helps retain top-quality personnel at the police department and generate organizational success. The city achieved four prestigious awards for our wellness program, which is designed to help keep our employees stay healthier while also helping keeping our medical claims down. They include the 2024 Gold Cigna Healthy Workforce, 2025 Healthiest Employers, 2025 Platinum Bell Seal for Mental Health, and the 2025 American Heart Association's Gold Level Well-Being Works Program. We continue to provide the Motivate Me program, which pays city employees a wellness incentive for completing healthy screenings for certain cancers. Last year, 475 employees participated in this program. And in addition, the Achievement Awards Committee has worked hard all year to celebrate our staff and let them know how much they are appreciated. So those are accomplishments, some, just some, of our accomplishments for last fiscal year. Where do we go from here? You know you have an ambitious team, and we're going to continue to be an ambitious team that has an aggressive work plan going forward. So in the years ahead, we're going to continue to focus on securing as much as we can and FEMA reimbursements. We look to you all for some help with our legislatures to help us with that as well. We will continue to handle significant budget challenges that come our way from legislation out of Tallahassee. We will open our new city hall government campus. We will finish the Clearwater Beach Marina and build and open the downtown Osceola parking garage. We will also be working with Pinellas County on their land vacation as a development opportunity for the downtown core. And, of course, we will see through our negotiations with the Philadelphia Phillies and a remodel at the Baycare Ballpark. We will continue moving toward our wastewater consolidation project. Staff will soon present the engineering portion and Senate Bill 64, engineering parts of the project, soon to City Council. And we're developing contracts for owners' advisors to write the progressive design build contract to help manage those two major construction packages. This is a very different approach to what we have done in the past due to the size and scale of that project. And work session is scheduled for December 5th with Hale Innovation to pursue grant funding. Now I just get to thank you all and our employees for their dedication, their hard work, and support every day. Without all of you, none of what we just went through would have been possible. So thank you to the City Council, Mayor, and Council. Really appreciate you all. I'm very proud, as you can tell. I know I talk fast. I wanted to get through this as quickly as possible. But don't take that as just trying to get through this. I really am proud of this team and all we have accomplished. It's nothing short of miraculous. And thank you. At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Well, first, thank you for this report. And thank you for, in the report, pointing out the contribution of all of our departments, all of our staff employees, and having the success we've had. We just had a Citizens Academy dinner tonight with the graduates before the meeting. And, you know, we just talked about how they all come to see the breadth of what you just described. And just, and you pointed out the amazing service that our city employees have given this past year to make all these things happen and to achieve the successes that you just subscribed. So thank you for pointing it out. And thank you to all of our employees for making this city successful. So with that, any questions? I would just like to make a comment, if you don't mind. Thank you so much for this presentation, because you clearly and effectively showcased and listed an extensive list of accomplishments. They were diverse, and they include many challenging ones, from dashboards and focusing on transparency to personal and professional growth initiatives, very forward-thinking planning. Even, like, the grants show to me that we're looking forward towards the future. And I think you and the team, as well as us, I believe we have grown Clearwater's voice to extend further and louder. And I think we're going to continue to reap those rewards. So the list of accomplishments that you just showcased on their own is remarkable. When you add that to two storms and all these were in conjunction, that goes above and beyond. I've said it once, and I'll say it again, having the number one beach comes with great responsibility. And so we knew that when those storms came, and we did not hesitate, as earlier the mayor mentioned and quoted Mr. Slaughter. So the idea, or what you've proven to us, is you can excel even in adversity. And the implications of that was not just felt in Clearwater. Because our county is dependent so much on the revenue from the beach, the ripple effect extended past our city. So I believe that we are not the only ones that are thankful, but the region, for our staff's incredible work and dedication. Yes, thank you, sir. Thank you, City Manager Employer. Thank you to all of our staff. I mean, you know, it is noted and cannot be understated of how important each staff member of the 1,800 employees that we have for this organization makes such a difference. And you can see the true heart and grit of these people, this team, of how they came together after the storms, how quickly things got back to a new sense of normalcy, and how much they cared about our residents, our businesses, and the industries that we have here so that those people could pick their lives back up and get going. I mean, there's still places in the county that are still waiting on permits to do things. And, you know, thankfully and fortunately, because of the lack of hesitation that was mentioned in this team here, in the foresight, we weren't behind the eight ball. We were ahead of it. So that proactive thinking, I think, is very well felt by me. I appreciate each and every one of you and the heart that you guys have. And it encourages me, and I look forward to the future. Thank you. That's from Reno. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, City Manager, for such a great presentation. I wonder, you guys have been so bored not getting anything done in this city. I was wondering what we were going to throw in there. But, wow, what a list of accomplishments. We said it in the Citizens Academy, your team's amazing, and you say that all the time. We don't get that many opportunities to thank our team, but we know that we are truly blessed. We all work and shake hands and bump shoulders with a lot of leaders throughout the entire state of Florida. And I've heard each and every one of these members up here on your team brag about not only our city leadership, but your leadership in all our departments and how great they are. And that was evident in your video post-storm and everything else we do. So what I take away from that presentation is that we didn't only were amazing and how we didn't hesitate to react to storm recovery, like Assistant City Manager, I guess, told the mayor, which was right on. But how we have moved forward on fixing and attacking some of our challenges of our vulnerabilities. I mean, we have vulnerabilities and infrastructure challenges from our East Coast to our West Coast on both sides and everywhere in between. And there's a lot of list of projects from seawalls to raising roadways to stormwater to lift stations that we continue consolidations of a master water plant. These are very important. We're going to continue to do them. But we don't just get locked into that bubble of fixing challenges. You and your team find ways to think forward and continue to make Clearwater not only brighter and beautiful, but safer. And that's important to our residents. Outside of that, reducing our budget by 10%, finding ways through all those accomplishments of spendings and revenues being attacked and storms to save the taxpayers' money means a lot to them as well. So what a great presentation. I appreciate you and the team and the leadership. So thank you. House Member Albright. Okay. Jennifer, I am so impressed with what you have done as City Manager. You know, when you were, I guess, when you were appointed as interim City Manager after our last City Manager had left, you hit the ground running. I mean, you know, first it was the tree thing, and then it was the recycling, and you handled those beautifully. And what you've done here is everything you said you were going to do. So I'm just going to leave it at that. I'm just really impressed at the amount of things you not only say that you're going to do, but that you accomplished. So thank you very much. I think we're on the right track, and I think we have a great future ahead of us. Thank you. Thank you to you guys. Thank you. Thank you again. And with that, we'll move to Item 5.1. Approve the minutes of the October 15, 2025 City Council meeting as submitted and written summation by the City Clerk. Is there a motion? Motion to approve the minutes. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. This time we'll move to Item 6 on the agenda, and that's our consent agenda. I believe there are a couple items to be pulled from the agenda. Yes. I've received a request to pull 6.4 and 6.10. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda except for Item 6.4 and 6.10? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. That will move to Item 6.4. Authorize the purchase order with St. Petersburg College for the Clearwater Police Department and Clearwater Fire Rescue for Police Academy Sponsorships Paramedic Training Program, an ongoing advanced training for existing personnel in the amounts of $155,000. Pursuing to Clearwater Code of Coordinates is Section 2.563, paren 1, paren F, Professional Services, not subject to CCNA, Academics, and authorize the appropriate officials to execute same. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. I'm Lieutenant Meg Hastie with Clearwater Police Department. I'm here on behalf of the Police Department and the Fire Department requesting $155,000 for training and sponsorships for new police officers and firefighters. Happy to answer any questions. Anyone here from the public that I desire to speak to is your name is 6.4? I'm Mr. Haluba. Boy, you all are really good at congratulating yourselves. Gag me with a spoon. 6.4, now one of several SPC Law Enforcement Academy eligibility possibilities is honorable discharge from active military duty. I believe this should be an exception, an exclusion to eligibility. Police work, that is community service, is diametrically opposed to military training. They're just two separate trades, two separate mentalities. It's like taking a truck driver and putting him in the cockpit of an airplane and say, take off. It won't work. It doesn't work. Law enforcement, that is local law enforcement, Mr. Slaughter, is supposed to be a buffer to military rule and prevent any military takeover. There's actually a federal law dating back to 1878 called the Comediatus. This act limits the U.S. military's role in local enforcement. Limits their role. So why in the world would we want a group of people with military training in our police force? Makes no sense. Some of these, you know, and I'm a lifetime member of the VFW. I support veterans. Some of these people have a, you know, proclivity for things like PTSD. How is that going to be weeded out? This just makes no sense. And for that reason, as provided in the U.S. Constitution, I'm allowed to petition this government to not fund this act. However, according to Ms. Poirier, I am happy that the, you know, radios are all on the same frequency with PCSO so that Clearwater police don't have an excuse for not getting their instructions. Is there anyone else here from the public that I desire to speak to agenda item 6.4? Hearing saying none, is there any council discussion? If there's none, is there a motion? Move to approve agenda item 6.4. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? You get on this. Thank you. You get on item 6.10. Authorized purchase orders to global public safety in Canover, Maryland, and Enforcement 1 of Oldsmar, Florida Secondary for police upfitting services in an annual not-to-exceed amount of $1,300,000 for one year with three one-year renewal options. Pursuant to request for proposal number 53-25, police vehicle upfitting services, and authorized to appropriate officials to execute same. Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, City Leadership. Brandy Calendrea, General Services Director. I have with me Deborah Moore, our fleet coordinator, which is our subject matter expert, and we're here to answer any questions you may have regarding this item. Is there anyone here from the public that I desire to speak to agenda item 6.10? I'm Mr. Haluba. Of course, we approved all these other expenses for the police department. This one is interesting, and I'm just opposed to this unnecessary spending for the Clearwater Police Department. PCSO is primary. Now, I mentioned earlier the act from 1887 that limits military involvement in local affairs. The Comeditas is defined as a group of warriors serving a particular leadership. Now, in Clearwater, the group of warriors is the Clearwater Police. That's who the warriors are. The leadership being served by this group of warriors is Gandy, who I'm glad came out of hiding tonight, Mr. Slaughter, and the absent Mr. Wallach, the ruling fiefdom. That's who they serve. This is another waste of money, unnecessary, for an unnecessary police department. Ms. Poirier didn't mention how much money, how many millions upon millions of dollars would be saved if local law enforcement was contracted with the primary law enforcement entity, which is Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. That just doesn't come up because of the fiefdom. Won't allow it. The police are supposed to be made up of our friends, neighbors, and relatives. Some of that might be ex-military, but in my opinion, it should not be. If Clearwater Police were friendly neighbors and relatives, and maybe cut some people a little slack, maybe Trevor Rector would have been driven home instead of the jail. Okay, that's enough. Thank you. Is there anyone else here from the public tonight who decides to speak to the agenda item six point? If there's no other public comment, is there any council discussion? If there's no other public comment, is there a motion? Motion to approve agenda item six point ten. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Move to agenda item seven point one. Adjust the minimum monthly wastewater collection sewer rates for customers with meters under one inch and pass ordinance 9854-25 on first reading. Councilman, Mike Plenty, Interim Problems Utilities Director. Today, I'm requesting you adopt ordinance number 9854-25 on its first reading. Ordinance collects and adjusts the minimum monthly wastewater collection rates for customers with meter size under one inch. This rate adjustment is necessary to adequately fund our wastewater system, maintain compliance with debt coverage requirements, and support essential capital projects. This proposed rate structure is based on recommendations from recent revenue sufficiency analysis conducted by Stand Day Consulting. This action directly supports several of our strategic priorities and ensures high-performing government by properly funding and maintaining vital infrastructure. It also advances environmental stewardship by providing the resources needed to protect our local waterways, promotes community well-being, by ensuring a safe and reliable sanitation system for our residents. I'm happy to respond to any questions that you may have. Does anyone here from the public tonight desire to speak to agenda item seven point one? I'm Mr. Huluva. This is another instance of bad management by the City of Clearwater. You've already raised our water rates 47% over the next five years, which is outrageous. The water rates are connected to the sewer rates. So you're going to raise the sewer rates in tandem with or separate from how we get billed now? Well, it's just another money grab. Clearwater Utilities is an operating criminal enterprise. Do anyone else hear from the public tonight? I desire to speak to agenda item seven point one. Hearing scene none, is there any council discussion? Ordinance number 9854-25, an ordinance of the City of Clearwater, Florida, amending code of ordinances, is Appendix A, Schedule of Fees, Rates, and Charges, Article 24 of Public Works, Fees, Rates, and Charges, amending Section 3, Rates for Wastewater Collection, Providing for Severability, and Providing for an Effective Date. And just for the publics, we discussed the council work session on Monday. This was a scrivener's error, basically. We've already debated these increases, and we've already discussed that at length in a prior meeting. But, unfortunately, the document was inaccurate that we actually approved. So we're just correcting an earlier scrivener's error. So with that, if there's no other council discussion, is there a motion? Motion to approve agenda item 7.1. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Unanimous 7.2. Amend the Clearwater Code of Hortzes by establishing Division 3, Community Resiliency and Leisure Services Advisory Board, amending the membership composition of the Sister Cities Advisory Board, and pass ordinance 9855-24 for screening. Council members, as part of this year's budget exercise, staff was asked to look for efficiencies, and part of that included improving the effectiveness and efficiencies of advisory boards. Many of our boards were created when we lacked the professional expertise, but more importantly, they were created 40, 50 years ago, where holding public meetings was the most effective way to seek public input. Fast forward 50 years, we now have technology, and I think most individuals are more active on social media, but that's not the only way. And so that was one of the reasons why staff has decided to combine, and that's what this ordinance says. It repeals the sections associated with the Environmental Advisory Board, Parks and Recreation Board, and the Library Advisory Board, consolidates what was their overview into one board, which is the Community Resiliency and Leisure Services Advisory Board. The ordinance proposes to create a seven-member board that will meet every other month. Three of those members will have professional expertise preference. It's not required. The idea would be to, if this is passed and adopted by council, we would ask the current members of the three existing boards to see if they are interested, because since they will be meeting more frequently, there may be individuals who are not interested or may not be able to. One of the differences, I know that many are very passionate about their respective areas, but I think what is important to note is that this board will now be empowered to look at two main objectives that are outlined in our strategic plan, and that's the community well-being and the environmental stewardship. That strategic plan is a living document that changes yearly, and now they will have an opportunity to review those items and still seek input from that affects the library services and parks and rec services and facilities, as well as environmental issues that are impacting the city, citywide. But they will be empowered to actually hold public outreach and education sessions on those topics. And working with the library director, they will now be hearing the appeals that citizens will file if they file regarding materials that are in our library system. The Parks and Recreation director and the sustainability division manager has requested that they review prospective grants applications, and those are two major areas. Because they are meeting more frequent, they will be able to be engaged, but more importantly, have an opportunity to engage the community. I think one of the concerns is that when you look at their past agendas, you see agendas that just provide project updates, and staff is concerned that that may not be the best and most efficient use of our board members' time. And so I do have the Parks and Recreation director, I believe, and the library director here to answer any questions. I think on this one, we can go ahead and get a reading, Mr. Kohler, on this, and then we'll take a couple of comments. I think there are some folks who want to comment on that. Oh, actually there is one clarification that legal is asking. So part of this proposed ordinance, it codifies the process of renaming the ball fields and portions of the rec fields, which is currently established by a resolution and states that all applications are sent to the Parks and Rec Board, which will now be this new consolidated board. Legal will like clarification. Does council want all applications to go to the board to rename ball fields, or do you want an opportunity where if council wishes to rename their own facility, that council can go ahead and put it on the agenda as opposed to going to the board? Or if council decides on the latter, then we will make that change in the ordinance before the next reading. On that, what comments or questions or discussion does the council have on that part? Vice Mayor? Since they're meeting more often and these are going to be very engaged citizens, I think we should continue on, just re-divert their responsibility to the new committee, that's my opinion, and have the community be engaged with a decision like that. Just continue as it is. Thank you, Mayor. In thinking of this question, I think what we have to ask ourselves is where does this discussion originate from on renaming ball fields and sports complexes, and so often it's either coming from the dais on this group or it's coming from staff or the community. I wonder if there's some sort of hybrid model that we can find to where, and legal can tell me if that's possible or not, if it comes through staff in the community, it goes through the board and the board can make that recommendation to ourselves, but if it came from this body that I don't know if we necessarily need to put that through the board and through staff's time, so maybe is there an opportunity to hybrid that? Yeah, speaking with the city attorney, you do have two options. You can have all renaming go through the board for recommendation that goes back to city council, or there would be another option in which council could initiate it themselves. But whichever avenue you want to go down, he just wanted clarification, and then he would amend the ordinance for the second reading. So you could do either or. Just wanted direction. Personally, I appreciate that this is a representation of the community of this board, but if we're going to rename anything, I would like a broader community input than just the board. That may or may not at any given time represent the feelings of the entire community. So, personally, I would rather, you know, be a council discussion. We'd certainly, you know, if any board member wanted to come and weigh in at council meeting and we were discussing naming something or renaming something, they could certainly do that. But I would like to keep it with the council where we can get the entire community's input, not just theirs, and get it directly from the community rather than it go through them personally. Can you elaborate on what is the present process? So the current process is staff will receive the request, whether it comes from the community or through the council, because I think there was one instance where it did initiate from council, but they directed staff to take it to the advisory board. They hold a public hearing for it, make a recommendation to council. So although the board hears it and makes a recommendation of yes or no, the final decision is still made with council. And if people feel really strong that you're going to have two public hearings on it, basically, they're going to come out twice, which we, you know, we've had an issue and discussed, we saw. So I think I understand, you know, why you could have in the past done that. I think to some extent there are things the community development board addresses that does take a lot off our plate to have them dress a lot, but they have finality on some of that stuff that this wouldn't have. They'd be making a recommendation. So personally, I think it would probably be more efficient for us just to take that off of this board and just put it with the council, and we can put on the agenda whatever we want. Because to your point, most of the time it's going to be initiated by somebody on the council, the idea. Vice mayor, thank you for asking what the exact process is, because I think that's important. And to the mayor's point of efficiency, I agree. I don't think that there should be a redundancy, something coming either initiated by this board down to somebody else to just send right back to us, you know, for essentially two public hearings. I can attest to, if you put something on this board, people will show up if they don't like it. So that goes with naming of ball fields, you know, streets, anything like that. So I'm okay with leaving it at the discretion of whoever the elected officials at the time are. And just to be clear, you still want another avenue remaining to occur at the advisory board and then for recommendation to council. Recommendation. So those initiated by council will remain with council, but those initiated by staff and the community to the board, then back to council or to council rather. I'm going to get confused. So I think that's the issue is we're trying to get clarification. So do you, for those renaming opportunities that are initiated by council, it remain with council or do you want all, meaning even those that are not initiated by council, the staff and members of the community go to the advisory board or do you want them to go straight to council? I would be for having, if we initiate it, it comes straight to council. It's part of our agenda. I think so. And if it comes from citizens of the board. And certainly the board. Okay, so that's. Members of the board are often to come with the community and weigh in, but if we initiate it, just. So those that are initiated by council will remain with council and everything else, meaning those initiated by the citizen or by staff will go to the board for a recommendation to council. You feel differently, I don't see anything. I don't see any. I would prefer the old way, but that's where I stand. Ordinance number 9855-25. An ordinance of the city of Clearwater, Florida repealing sections 2.160-2.64, 2.191-2.195, and 2.231-2.234. Establishing sections 2.101-2.105. Admitting the composition of the sister city's advisory board in section 2.251, providing an effective date. Is there anyone here from the public that I desire to speak to this agenda? Good evening. Sharing some time here. We're all coming together as the Clearwater Neighborhoods Coalition. They're here to support me. We came up previously and read this to you all, and we're taking the opportunity to read it again. So I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you, Mayor, City Manager, City Council. Before I start, I just want to say congratulations to our latest Citizens Academy class. As a graduate of the 2015 class, welcome to the ranks. So here we go. Dear Mayor and City Council members, as an extension of the City Council, the City's advisory boards play a vital role in providing citizen engagement, insight, and oversight on projects, plans, and initiatives in a public forum. These boards are not just procedural bodies. They are a cornerstone of transparency and communication between residents and their government. While it is fair to review advisory boards for efficiency, we strongly urge you not to consolidate the Environmental Advisory Board, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and Library Advisory Board, and not to disband the Air Park Advisory Board, although that's already happened. Each of these boards provides unique and irreplaceable expertise that strengthens Clearwater's governance. The Parks and Recreation Department is the second largest piece of the City's budget. Its advisory board provides meaningful discussion that has helped residents improve one of the City's largest resources, its parks. The Environmental Advisory Board has supported and advocated policies that have made Clearwater a more resilient and sustainable community. These policies have helped the City save millions of dollars and would not be at the forefront of the community if not for the board's advocacy efforts. The Air Park Advisory Board played a critical role providing citizen insight and oversight coupled with aviation and industry expertise to shape present and future operations at the multi-million dollar city-owned resource. These boards meet quarterly and each meeting is supposed to be two hours or less. The cost savings from combining these boards seems negligible and the reduction in public discourse seems more like shuttering sunshine than a cost-saving measure. Disbanding the Air Park Advisory Board because the company tasked with running the operations of the Air Park meets without sunshine constraints certainly reads more like removing important discussions about a city resource from the public. It should also be noted that many of the members of City's Advisory Boards are graduates of the City's Citizens Academy, which promotes serving on these boards to its graduates. Consolidating and disbanding Citizen Advisory Boards is a decision that significantly reduces transparency in residents' ability to address the government. The City Council has continued to reduce to keep public comment on items not on the agenda off the agenda. Please do not further erode and reduce the few remaining public forums we have. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Honorable Mayor and Council Members, I'm Glenna Whitworth. I'm Chair of the Environmental Advisory Board at present. I'm speaking for myself alone, unfortunately, tonight because the AB was not given an opportunity for input on this decision. I am speaking in favor of maintaining the EAB as an independent board. I have been a member of the EAB for five years. Prior to that, I attended every EAB meeting for two or three years. I feel that transparency and citizen engagement are the issues here when discussing the purpose and value of the EAB. The EAB has been a very active board during the time I've been a member. Several resolutions and letters to City Council based on citizen input have had a significant impact on Clearwater's contribution to a healthy environment and residency's quality of life. The following are a few reasons why the EAB should be maintained as a dedicated board for environmental issues. One, the EAB is the City's only advisory board with a stated objective to provide citizen insight to the City Council and staff on environmental activities within and affecting the City of Clearwater. I understand that has been incorporated into the objectives of the new board. I appreciate that. The EAB was instrumental in the City Council passing a single-use plastics and polystyrene resolution that is evidenced today in the requirements of vendors at Coachland Park to avoid use of plastic bottles and polystyrene containers. The EAB played a key role in the creation of the sustainability coordinator position. This further resulted in development of the Greenprint 2.0 Sustainability and Resiliency Plan, which we contribute citizen input and support to subsequent, and we will to subsequent plans. The EAB played a part in the City's decision to contract with Synergistic to implement energy efficiency measures that are saving the City millions of dollars over a five-year period and far into the future. The EAB was instrumental in City Council's approval of an ordinance excluding the use of cigarettes and vaping products at beaches, city beaches, and parks. We showed value as a partner to the City when we were asked for suggestions last year regarding a tree replanting program. This result was unanimous vote by City Council for that plan. These examples of an active EA board are hardly comprehensive but are merely highlights during my time attending meetings and sitting on the EAB. Yes, board meetings require staff time and effort, but what price can be put on citizen engagement and transparency. The EAB is grappling with serious issues concerning clean water, clean air, vulnerability issues regarding sea level rise, heat issues resulting from changing environment, pollution caused by stormwater overflow, clean energy, and energy independence. These issues are too numerous, important, to be watered down in a combined board with diverse interests. Thank you very much. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. I'm still Bill Johnson. I think it's appropriate to start with why you have environmental advisory boards in the first place. And perhaps I can provide a little insight to the history behind the Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board. It was created to provide citizens oversight of the new stormwater fee back in 1991, which, as I recall at that time, the fee was $3 a month. Now, of course, it's $16.18, I think. Earlier tonight, you celebrated the Clearwater Academy graduation, and I think you saw that the results of that is a creation of highly motivated ambassadors to the community between the city. The 2024 National Citizen Survey showed that 82% of our benchmarking cities ranked higher than Clearwater on the job of government at welcoming involvement. And 70% ranked higher at being open and transparent to the public. Two boards or three boards increased the public involvement. With the upcoming rollout of the city's vulnerability study next week, there will be a lot of work to educate citizens on these environmental and sustainability projects. Perhaps it might make sense to consolidate the library and the parks boards, but it surely seems appropriate to retain the environmental advisory board. Thank you. Anyone else who would like to speak to you? Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members, city staff. I'm Patrick Rafferty, Countryside Area. I come before you now as an individual, the chairman, proud chairman, of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. I applied to serve on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as a direct result of attending the Citizens Academy and being encouraged at graduation to give back to the city. I was appointed to the board as a member and have been chairman since 2023. I believe our success as a board could be based upon being a forum for communication, collaboration, and constructive input. Individual residents, groups, or officers of organized residents can directly communicate to the board and the director of Parks and Recreation at our meetings. The board could collaborate with the director of Parks and Recreation to develop solutions and provide constructive input as needed. We have succeeded in that mission. We are now faced with a proposed consolidation with two other advisory boards. Those boards have very different missions, particularly the environmental advisory board. Our role as a forum for residents will be impacted and our effectiveness as collaborating directly with Parks and Recreation will be adversely affected. The success of our one board will not become better as a consolidation of three boards. I am concerned that the assessment of the effectiveness of our board was by reading the minutes of our meetings. No council member attended any of our meetings at any time. The city clerk making this proposal never attended a meeting of ours. For first-hand observation of our activities, we only had one resolution presented to us for us to vote upon as a motion and that was the naming of the ballpark. Yet that one activity was the single statement that was made on August 6, 2010 as our accomplishment. This is far from the actual facts and was very misleading. I note these actions as a direct result of resident input and collaboration with Parks and Recreation. There was no motion made, there was no vote taken, but these things were done. Wheelchair tennis program began at McMullen Booth Tennis Complex. A United States Tennis Association grant was given to the city and a wheelchair tournament was scheduled for November. This came about as a result of a citizen, Nita Cole, and her son approaching our board advisory committee asking for help getting wheelchair tennis. We requested the documentation of the action plan from the Marymount Park Neighborhood Meeting conducted in June to recover the park from use as a debris field. In conclusion, the Parks and Recreation budget is second only to the Clearwater Police Department and is a fundamental part of residents enjoying Clearwater. Our advisory board has been an effective partner and needs to remain as a separate entity. I recommend Ordinance 9855-25 not be enacted or at least be paused for a more thorough review of the facts and its possible success. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Margie. Does anyone else anyone else here you'd like to speak to this one? Okay, with that is there any counsel? I'd just like to say a little bit on my end and having served on I was on the Parks and Recreation Board advisory board at one time that you know it's a different it's different from what we've done in the past and I get it you know change is a little bit hard for folks to see the benefits of it but I hope we're we're as a community we're seeing the glass half full and not the glass half empty by trying this because I can tell you from the meetings I've been to in the last year talking with mayors and communities all around the world most of the time the influence that citizens have on local government policy and practices it doesn't come from a appointed advisory board of the official board of the city it comes from grassroots organizations that they start friends of the parks or things that that are non-profits that have the flexibility to meet anytime you want to meet and really often their weight their input often more influential than what we would get from an advisory and I I understand I understand the benefits and some of the things have been described tonight that our advisory boards have provided and and we we've benefited in many ways which is pointed out to some of the speakers here but I've also I've also experienced that in the past we've had advisory board members resign and when you ask them why they resign they say we don't we don't do anything except receive information it wasn't a good use of my time I thought I thought we had some authority to take action and do things and the reality is most of these don't and there are so many other ways for citizens to give input and I encourage citizens that care about a cause or issue to there are already some existing organizations Sierra Club does great work in our community to bring to our attention and weigh in on issues that are important to our community with the environment and there are other groups too we have Friends of Moccasin Lake Park who volunteer and do lots of things out there to really encourage the growth and success of that park I would I would encourage us regardless of whether we vote to approve this tonight or not to to perhaps see this as an opportunity for groups who care about a particular issue or citizens that care about a certain issue to find a way to organize privately to provide the same input and guidance and involvement that that you're providing on these advisory because I think there are some arguments you can make that the citizens that care about these issues can be more influential separate from and apart from these advisory and so with that I'd just like to see if there's any other discussion or comment once and then see if there's a motion well you pretty much covered a lot of what I was going to say I think I think we're going to try this and I think I think you know having 10 members on it with 3 environmental science members and 7 at large members you know I'd like to give that a shot and try it because I've heard in the past I've sat up here when different and not necessarily I'm not picking on one board or the other but I've had boards as the mayor said people say what are we here for we don't do anything or nobody listens to what we you know they have a meeting it's informational and they're not asked to do a task or anything so this may be a better way to tackle some of these problems so I'm going to be making a motion for this other discussion or is there a second thank you mayor thanks for speaking and coming up and joining us this evening I respect and understand the hesitancy that some of you and many in our community might have in us making this change is changing something that we all recognize the importance of sustainability environmental stewardship community well-being those challenges and those objectives they're not being lowered of a level of importance because we're changing the title of a board or the consolidation of a board the community well-being and our resiliency and sustainability environmental stewardship is just as important today after this agenda item as it was yesterday and as it will be in 50 years so don't feel that we're stepping back on that level of importance what we're not doing is making a decision based on budget cuts we're not making a financial decision we're not making a decision because we want to be less transparent we're not making a decision because we don't value public input it's the opposite of that and i think that what's important is the goal of this consolidation is to improve our efficiency to reduce redundancies that have been talked about to strengthen coordination and communication between between boards and between departments and with council i think what this does is it puts us a bit better alignment with our strategic plan and our strategic goals that's important to all of us you know this leadership team our leadership team has been consistent in trying to find creative ways to streamline staff's time and resources to retain and attract not just members and volunteers to fill roles but engaged members we understand the importance of how important engaged members are on these advisory boards but i think this gives us an opportunity as boards and as board members to truly be more effective we've heard the word empowerment again this change is not about reducing public input i see it as the opposite it's about making that input more impactful on the city of clearwater in those very important areas that we've discussed so for those reasons i will be supportive of this agenda item the motion is there a second second any further discussion before we vote on the motion council member albert and you said you wanted to increase the membership to 10 because right now it's proposed at 7 but 7 with 3 environmental no it's 7 and of the 7 3 with a preference of 3 of those members yes you're right no i'm not asking to increase then yes i was going to ask for an amendment yeah okay okay so no further discussion all those in favor aye opposed nay so it would be 4 in favor and vice mayor and just to do i have a verbal consensus for amending the language regarding the process for the renaming so those initiated by council will remain in council and all other those initiated by citizens or by staff will go to the board to then come to council i'm still named 4 to 1 okay we'll move to agenda item 8.1 8.1 ordinance number 9842-25 ordinance of the city of clearwater florida annexing certain real property located on the north side of woodring drive approximately 50 feet west of maryland drive whose post office address is 2714 woodring drive clearwater florida 33759 into the corporate limits of the city and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include said addition providing an effective same word here from the public and i desire to speak to agenda item 8.1 hearing seeing none is there any helpful discussion if none is there a motion move to approve agenda item 8.1 second all those in favor aye opposed or next agenda item 8.2 ordinance number 9843-25 ordinance of the city of clearwater florida admitting the future land use element of the comprehensive plan of the city to designate the land used for certain real property located on the north side of woodring drive approximately 50 feet west of maryland drive whose post office address is 2714 woodring drive clearwater florida 33759 upon annexation to the city of clearwater as residential low providing an effective date i want to hear tonight from the public so i speak this agenda hearing seeing none is there any council if there's none is there a motion motion to approve agenda item 8.2 second all those in favor aye opposed next agenda item 8.2 ordinance number 9844-25 ordinance of the city of clearwater florida admitting the zoning atlas of the city by zoning certain real property located on the north side of woodring drive approximately 50 feet west of maryland drive whose post office address is 2714 woodring drive clearwater florida 33759 upon annexation to the city of clearwater as low medium density residential providing an effective date anyone here tonight from the public desire to speak to this agenda hearing seeing none is there any council discussion if there's none is there a motion motion to approve agenda item 8.3 second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous agenda item 8.4 ordinance number 9845-25 ordinance of the city of clearwater florida annexing certain real property located on the south side of morningside drive approximately 360 feet east of evans drive whose post office address is 2743 morningside drive clearwater florida 33759 into the corporate limits of the city and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include said addition providing an effective date anyone here to the public that desires to speak to this agenda hearing seeing none is there any council discussion if not is there a motion move to approve agenda item 8.4 second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous agenda item 8.5 ordinance number 9846-25 an ordinance of the city of clearwater florida and many of the future land use element of the comprehensive plan of the city to designate the land use for certain real property located on the south side of morningside drive approximately 360 feet east of evans drive whose post office address is 2743 morningside drive clearwater florida 33759 upon annexation to the city of clearwater as residential low and preservation providing an effective date the public desires to speak this agenda seeing none is there any council if there's none is there a motion move to approve agenda item 8.5 second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous agenda item 8.6 ordinance number 9847-25 ordinance of the city of clearwater florida editing the zoning atlas of the city by zoning certain real property located on the south side of morningside drive approximately 360 feet east of evans drive whose post office address is 2743 morningside drive clearwater florida 33759 upon annexation to the city of clearwater as low medium residential and preservation providing an effective date anyone have to be public desire to speak to agenda item 8.6 hearing saying none is there any council discussion if there's none is there a motion motion to approve agenda item 8.6 second all those in favor aye opposed unanimous do the agenda item 9 city manager reports yeah yeah substitute city attorney appreciate you being here tonight mr. call agenda item 11 closed and comments by council members council member cotton yes sir thank you i know our next meeting is going to be after this so i'd like to just say thank you to all of our veterans next tuesday the 11th for veterans day that's coming up you know a thank you is just all i have right now but the appreciation the gratitude that i have for the service that you gave this nation from the cotton household will always be something that's near and dear to our hearts and that we're always grateful for you and i know this clearwater community is too so thank you all for that next i have to thank somebody that emailed me learned a little bit of history some of you might know this i didn't but 50 years ago there was the sinking of the ss edmund fitzgerald it was a state-of-the-art freighter who lost 29 members on lake superior one of those members mr gordon mcclellan was born right here in clearwater so being the 50th year anniversary on november 10th 1975 just want to say thank you to the emailer maybe you all received that same email i'm not sure but definitely very interesting bit of history that goes around with that freighter and that we had one of the members who resided and was born didn't reside here was born here in clearwater and then moved to michigan so thank you for that piece of information who sang the song oh no not going to get that didn't get that much history so i look forward to gordon thank you i'm going to say the same thing with veterans day coming up tuesday november 11th a lot of community activities from now until then staff did a great job on the veterans breakfast this morning so thank you for that that was very nice that is a time that we should probably do it far more often than you know just one one day a year one weekend take that opportunity for us to say thank you thank you to all our vets that served and sacrificed this country and to their families for the freedoms that they've provided for us to do what we do in this little small window of life that we get so not just from my household and family but i know from this entire dais and our city staff and team thank you to all our veterans out there be safe and have a wonderful veterans day and a weekend thank you council member albert well not to be redundant i uh i wish everybody between now and tuesday will just thank a veteran for what they've done for serving our country uh it's really important they're not forgotten um and as uh mr menino said this morning the city did a real good job of putting together a breakfast to honor our veterans and they had a good turnout so that's it vice mayor it's all been said well i want to uh i guess weigh in for like um third fourth time here on veterans day uh and we have we have a lot of events in panellas county this week our event is saturday at crest lake park uh patriot fest starts at 11 a.m with the ceremony honoring our veterans at noon so invite the public to attend to come out to invite our veterans and we've had uh we've had several in the past year uh one one here in clearwater was a hundred and over a hundred years old but we've had several world war ii veterans uh over a hundred years old each pass away this past year and uh to to thank any living veteran for their service um as as council member albert and said that is really important for us to there are so many i think there are statistics several years ago there are something like 100 thousand veterans in panellas county alone one out of every 10 residents of our county is military veterans so we thank them for their service we encourage our community come out to crest lake park on saturday and uh to celebrate veterans this upcoming week all week long so with that uh i don't have anything further and we'll move to item 13 on the agenda and that is to adjourn the november 6 2025 meeting of the premier city council 4 huh you there you there you there you there you there but you there