At this time, we'll call to order the March 5th, 2026 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. With that, we'll move to item two on the agenda, and that is for the invocation. I don't see Father Swick here, I don't believe, so I'll, maybe, that's not Father Swick. If you all stand, then I'll lead us at an invocation, then I will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Father, we pray tonight for the safety of the men and women serving in our armed forces, wherever they're at in the world. I pray for their safety as their lives mean so much to many family members who are here, worried about them here in the United States. And wherever they're at around the world, we're so thankful for this to serve our country. We pray for their safety tonight. We also pray for the continued safety of our first responders here in Clearwater. These men and women in all walks of life in our city are out there risking their own lives every day. We pray for their safety as they serve our community. Finally, we pray tonight for your guidance and your wisdom as we make important decisions for the future of this city, and we ask that you help us do so in a way that flies your name in all respects. All this we ask in your name. 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 for all. When we go further in tonight's agenda, I'd like to introduce our dais. To my far left is Deputy City Clerk Nicole Sprague. To her right is City Clerk Rosemary Call. Good evening. To her right is City Attorney Owen Coler. Good evening. To his right is City Council Member Ryan Cotton. Good evening. To his right is Council Member Mike Menino. Good evening. To my right is Council Member David Albright. Good evening. To his right is Vice Maralina Chichiro. Good evening. To her right is City Manager Jennifer Poirier. Good evening. To her right, Assistant City Manager Dan Slaughter. To his right, Assistant City Manager Al Battle. With that, we'll move to Item 4 on the agenda, and specifically Item 4.1. For the Flood Awareness Week 2026 proclamation, I'd like to call forward Cassie Cordova and Jean Henry. Whereas the City of Clearwater has previously experienced severe weather in the form of extreme rainfall or tropical system events resulting in flooding, and whereas flooding has caused damage and losses to homes and buildings in all areas, whether they are in high-risk special flood hazard areas or low-to-moderate-risk flood zones, and whereas the City of Clearwater voluntarily participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, NIFIP, that provides residents with the opportunity to protect their property against flood loss through the purchase of flood insurance, and whereas the reduction of loss of life and property damage can be achieved when appropriate flood preparedness, control, and mitigation measures are taken before a flood, and now, therefore, I, Bruce Rector, Mayor of the City of Clearwater, Florida, on behalf of the Clearwater City Council, do hereby proclaim March 9th through the 15th, 2026, to be Flood Awareness Week. And Cassie and Jean, would you like to say a few words about the program and the important work of the city? Yes, Council Members and Mayor, thank you for having us here this evening, and thank you for bringing this awareness, you know, back out to the community. It's amazing all the resilience that all of our agencies have come together to help the residents from the past hurricane season. So keeping this above our residents, you know, it's crucial. The awareness needs to stay out, especially as we approach hurricane season and, you know, the rainy season. And so, again, I appreciate your proclamation and letting the residents understand that, you know, we're going to continue bringing awareness items to you. And, again, thank you very much. And I just want to build on that and say thank you very much to Council for this support. And I also wanted to flag that we did launch a new program, our Adopt-A-Drain, to parallel our Adopt-A-Park and Adopt-A-Street. So if you go to myclearwater.com slash Adopt-A-Drain, that allows our residents to pick a drain in their neighborhood or nearby their work. We will provide supplies, and you can maintain that drain to prevent any localized flooding. Well, thank you for all your work you do. You know, some in our community have very painful memories from 16, 17 months ago. But we have others new to our community who maybe haven't had the firsthand experience with the damage that flooding can cause. And so your awareness program and this proclamation is very important to residents of our city. So thank you. Come on up. We'll present you with the proclamation. With that, we'll move to item five on the agenda. Approval of the February 19, 2026 City Council meeting minutes. So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Move to the consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from tonight's agenda? Okay. If none to be removed, then do we have a motion? I move to approve agenda items 6.1 through 6.12. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. We move to item 7.1. Approve connecting Clearwater and active transportation plan for the state of Clearwater and adopt resolution 26-24. Before we move on to this item, staff is requesting that this item be deferred. We're going to work on the resolution and bring back a modified version of what you have in front of you this evening, if that is okay. I believe you still need to vote to allow us to do that on or is staff's deferral enough on the record? I think staff can move it. Okay. Any objection? No objection? Then we'll move to item 7.2 on the agenda. 7.2. It's resolution number 2607, the resolution of the city of Clearwater, Florida, authorizing the execution of a resiliency Florida program agreement between the city of Clearwater and the state of Florida, Department of Environmental Protection, for a grant to fund portions of the construction of the Clearwater Beach Marina at the Clearwater Beach Marina, providing an effective date. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Aaron Braley, Marine and Aviation Division Controller. As discussed, this item was on the Monday Council work session. I'm happy to answer any questions that you can. Can we go ahead and hear a reading? I think he just read the resolution. So completely? Okay. Perfect. Does anyone here from the public tonight desire to speak for this agenda? If not, is there any council discussion? If not, is there a motion? Move to approve agenda item 7.2. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Jim, item 8.1. 8.1 is a second reading. I'll go ahead and read the title. Ordinance number 9875-26. An ordinance of the city of Clearwater, Florida, annexing certain real property located on the north side of Bonaire Street, approximately 215 feet west of Ridge Avenue, whose post office address is 1604 Bonaire Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33755, into the corporate limits of the city and redefining the city and redefining the boundary lines of the city to include set addition, providing an effective date. Does anyone here from the public tonight desire to speak for this agenda? If not, is there any council discussion? No discussion. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Agenda item 8.1. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Agenda item 8.2. 8.2 is also a second reading. Ordinance number 9876-26. An ordinance of the city of Clearwater, Florida, amending the future land use element of the comprehensive plan of the city to designate the land use for certain real property located on the north side of Bonaire Street, approximately 215 feet west of Ridge Avenue, whose post office address is 1604 Bonaire Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33755, upon annexation to the city of Clearwater, as residential low RL, providing an effective date. Does anyone here from the public tonight desire to speak for this agenda? Hearing and saying none, is there any council discussion? If there's none, is there a motion? Motion to approve. Agenda item 8.2. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Agenda item 8.3. 8.3 is another second reading. Ordinance number 9877-26. An ordinance of the city of Clearwater, Florida, amending the zoning atlas of the city by zoning certain real property located on the north side of Bonaire Street, approximately 215 feet west of Ridge Avenue, whose post office address is 1604 Bonaire Street, Clearwater, Florida, 33755, upon annexation to the city of Clearwater, as low-medium density residential LMDR, providing an effective date. Anyone here from the public tonight desire to be heard on this agenda? Hearing and saying none, is there any council discussion? If there's none, is there a motion? Move to approve. Agenda item 8.3. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. And 8.4, 8.5, and 8.6 have been moved wrong, correct? Is there anyone to speak to those items? We move to item 9 on the agenda, so this is to be heard on topics pertaining to city business, but not on tonight's agenda. Are there any citizens to be heard? I do not have anyone on the list. Okay. Move to item 10, city manager report. Item 11, city attorney reports. The only thing I want to say is, as you know, the Gotham closing occurred last week, and I just wanted to say a special thanks to two attorneys in the office. It was Jared Simpson and Matthew Mitch. They did pretty much all the work from the city attorney's office in the last few weeks. A big day for Clearwater, so thank you. Thank you to both of them for their work. Thank you. I don't know if I'm here tonight. No, I don't know. Appreciate it. The broader team, too, was a community effort. I also, I think, in addition to staff, you know, I know Council Member Tech Chair was involved bringing that group here, and former Mayor Hibbert worked really hard to travel and really put in a lot of time getting Gotham to come here and do that project. So, I think you can say, honestly, it was a real community effort to not just get Gotham here, get them interested, and get the whole thing through. And it took a long time to do it. We appreciate everyone in the community who participated in this project. Move to agenda item 12.1. Provide direction regarding the September 3rd, 2026 Council meeting. Council Members, according to your calendars, we do appear to have an issue. So, in order for us to reschedule the meeting so that, the September 3rd meeting, so that Council can attend the annual affiliates meeting, we have a problem with, as it impacts the budget hearing. And so, we can't have it on certain days because of the county hearing. So, the days that were available, but we can't have them, would be September 8th and 10th. The other day that's available, according to your calendars, is September 9th, but then that conflicts with the PSTA budget hearing. And so, I need direction as to what Council wishes to do. That can't be done on the 14th, correct? The first meeting? No, because I think it's Council conflicts that we have. So, the first budget hearing has to occur between the 3rd and the 16th. So, there's no dates available after the 3rd to have it before the 16th? That's what I was told. So, I don't know if anything has changed on your calendars, but in terms of holding the first budget hearing, I can't have it on the 8th and the 10th, and then the one that was available was the 9th, but then that conflicts with PSTA's hearing. And if we change that meeting and then have a special meeting for the second hearing, which our Council meeting right now is on, I think, the 16th, then we can't hold the second hearing on that week because it conflicts with the county. So, that's why we had a special meeting on that day because of the county hearings. This year, everybody's on the same schedule. I know we typically have our meetings in the evenings to allow the public to attend, but could we move it to earlier in the day? For the budget hearing, no. Okay. It has to be held after 6. It has to be held after 6. Yeah. Well, it looks like we don't have any. The 15th work? The 15th. I mean, if the schedules work for everyone else, does the 15th work? I mean, it would be back-to-back, essentially. But you can't have the first, well, the first meeting. Yeah. You can't. Yeah. When is the 15th? Is that? It's a Tuesday. No, because then we can't have it. The following week would really, I'll have to double-check, but I think that week, we would have to have the following week, the second hearing. Yeah, aye. And it may conflict. Is that a possible option? I don't know. Let me double-check and see because I don't know if there's any meetings on that second week. So we would do the 15th and then the week after? It would have to be the following week. Like the week of the week after? And then the week after? You'd have to move the second one. Oh, you could. So that's the thing, yeah. It has to be X number of days in between the first and second reading. And then once we make this change, it needs to stick because once we, once finance notifies regarding the trim notices that, yes, then it becomes an issue. So it needs to be adopted before the 26th. Okay. Let me find out and then I will work with, if it does work, I will present an item at the next meeting. But then I'll make sure that your staff holds it. Okay. Very good. Very good. Move to item 13. Closing comments by Council Member. Please move to Cotton. I have nothing tonight, sir. Thank you. Council Member Menino. I do, Mayor, thank you. Just quickly brag about the kiddos in our community. I know we've all spent some time this week celebrating the kids and their families, and it's been awesome. We had two breakfasts, one in Clearwater at the stadium and one with the Blue Jays this week. Clearwater for Youth has given out over a million dollars in scholarships to high school seniors to help kind of spread their wings and set them off on their journey into college and to plant those seeds of hope. And I just want to thank CFY and all their staff and their team for recognizing those kids and giving them and their families that opportunity. I think sometime in the end of this month there are going to be 18 of them, I believe, in here celebrating with us. It will be a good time to meet the parents and shake their hands. As well as we were here for the Art Alliance unveiling of the Youth Art Exhibit, which was fantastic, and it was amazing to look at some of the artwork and then to see that was made by a second grader, and I would have no chance at duplicating. But it was awesome. I believe it's here in the library for the whole month? I think so. For the month, so if you get a chance, come down and check it out. But we have some amazing kids in the community, and it's so nice when you get an opportunity to recognize them. So thank you to CFY, the Water for Youth, as well as Art Alliance. That's my roll, Brady. Yeah, you know, January was kind of an off month for performances at the Sound, but they started cracking back up again. Last weekend was the 19th Clearwater Sea Blues Festival, and we had a lot of good turnout for that. The weather was perfect. We had not only bands down in the park, but we had bands up on Cleveland Street, and it was really a great thing to see Cleveland Street hopping the way it was. Tomorrow night, Little River Band, and then on Saturday night, Brett Michaels. So if anybody gets a chance to come out and see them, that's it, the Sound. Just plan on coming. That's it. Iceman? So there's a lot going on in Clearwater, so I have to write it down. And thanks to Council Member Menino, I had to scratch out a couple of things. But we all attended our opening day for Philadelphia Phillies, as well as the Mayor's Cup. I also had the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the Phillies versus the Canada team. But what really stood out, at least for me, was this last Saturday. In my experience, it may have been one of the most successful nights in downtown. We had the incredible Sea Blues Festival at Coachman Park, filling the park with music and energy. Just one block east was the Fleetwood Mac Tribute at the Capitol Theater, and the band right next to that. The band, No Filter, had everyone on their feet. With an 80s rapid-fire medley, it was nonstop high-energy chaos, and yes, we were dancing. The block next to that, people were dancing salsa. It reinforced my belief that downtown is organically being tied to music. Regarding the CFY, one thing I do want to piggyback on that is that I'm very impressed and thankful that they don't limit their grants to traditional baccalaureate degrees. They also support vocational paths. That means that investing not only in the future of college students, but also in skilled trades and careers that are essential to our community. It ensures that every one of these students has a real opportunity for their future. I was also honored to speak at the opening reception regarding the arts. It was humbling. I was impressed by the art that was there and inspired. Some of those paintings, I mean, some of those artworks, you can't believe it's a 7, 8-year-old. So I think we have a couple of prodigies in there, in the mix. Yesterday, we held our second strategic planning workshop. It was just as interactive as the first one, but we were really drilling down regarding priorities and direction. And so I'm glad that Clearwater celebrates its young artists, invests in its students, hosts world-class events, and plans for its future. I think that Clearwater is not just busy, finally. It's thriving. That moved to item 14, closing comments by Mayor. I'd just like to touch on some of the things that have already been said, but just really thank our community. In addition to, I was equally impressed with particularly the art exhibition that's going on here at the library. I looked at some of these paintings and drawings and artwork, and I think, wow, you know, that's really, that's an incredible, impressive middle schooler. And then you get right up on it, and you read who the work was created by, and it was sometimes a first grader that created the work. It's amazing what our kids have done here. And they've framed them all, so it's a water fluxy vision. I hope the community will come out and support this and just see what amazing kids we have here. But from that event and, you know, CFY and where the teachers and the sponsors would come for the scholarships, and then this past week has been Read Across America Week, and I know several of us have read books at our elementary schools. I've read at Sandy Lane on Monday, and then I read today at Eisenhower Elementary. And we have amazing kids at our schools in Clearwater as well, public and private. And all these kids are amazing in part because of the families that support them, but they're also amazing kids and are because of the community that supports them. The teachers at Eisenhower and Sandy Lane and all of our schools here in Pinellas County, but definitely in Clearwater, we have teachers and staff that do amazing work with our kids that give unselfishly and lovingly to these kids and embrace them. We saw that here the other night for the art exhibition, too. Their teachers were here. And so I think all of the artwork was done actually by the kids. But you could tell that they had gotten a lot of great instruction from adults through our school system and just volunteers in the community. And our community is making a great impact on the future of Clearwater by supporting these great kids in all different ways, parks and recreation, you name it. I appreciate so much everyone in this community that spends time with young people because it is the future of our city and it is going a long way to making sure that Clearwater is bright and beautiful for years to come. The second thing I'd like to thank the community for is volunteering. We've talked about the successful ESPN college softball tournament. That event would not happen. And we wouldn't be able to host it, get all those millions of views on television if it wasn't for the volunteers, thousands of volunteers, not just that event, other events like the event the other night, the vice mayor's talking about. We count on volunteers for almost every major event we run, Sea Blues Festival, you name it. It would not happen if it wasn't for volunteers. And we also have, in addition to the people who spend their time intentionally, we have people who are just kind to the many tourists that will be coming here over the coming month for spring break and spring tourism, that it's easy to get annoyed by the extra traffic and the congestion here and there. But those of our residents who extend a kind hand, give folks directions, try to help folks out, you go a long way to getting us that ranking as one of the best beaches and best cities in the country and in the world. And I appreciate everyone who goes out of their way to make visitors feel comfortable because it makes a huge difference. So we wouldn't have the great community we have if it wasn't for all of you out there who are participating and helping our community be better in a different way. So thank you to all of you. So with that, I don't have anything further tonight. And I believe we're done with our agenda at 625. So we will adjourn the March 5, 2026 meeting of the Clearwater City Council.