Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Hopely Gerdes, District 2, Brandy Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4, and Council Chair, Lissette Hanowitz, District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Gibbons Jr., and District 8 and Council Vice Chair, Richie Floyd.
Welcome, everyone, to the April 9, 2026 City Council Meeting. Clerk, could I please have a roll call? Here.
Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Gerdes. Here. Gabbard. Here. Harding. Here.
So today, normally, we have an invocation, and then we have the Pledge of Allegiance, but today we're going to have an invocation, and it's going to be followed by a special presentation of the National Anthem, so I'm going to ask you to stand up for the invocation, and then please remain standing for the special presentation that's going to be given of the National Anthem.
Good evening.
Good evening, Reverend Elizabeth Sipplin.
Thank you for inviting me. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble hearts, lifting up the leadership of our city, those entrusted to serve the people of St. Petersburg. Lord, we ask that you would put your hands upon the city of St. Petersburg Council. Cover them with wisdom, clarity, and divine guidance in every decision that they make. Father, let unity rise among them. Where there are differences, let there be understanding. Where there is tension, let there be peace. Teach them to lay aside their personal agendas and come together for the greater good of our community that they serve. Let respect and collaboration fill every conversation, every meeting, and every moment within the walls of City Hall. Lord, grant them patience, patience with one another, patience with the process, and patience with the people that they are called to serve. Help them to listen deeply with compassion and to respond with integrity. Remember and remind them that true leadership is rooted not just in authority, but in service. We pray for wisdom beyond human understanding. Illuminate their minds to see what is just, fair, and necessary. Give them courage to make difficult decisions, and the discernment to know what will bring lasting impact and protection for this city. Father, let peace reign, not only within these chambers, but throughout the city of St. Petersburg. God, we ask that you cover this city with protection. Strengthen the system that serves the people, and uplift every neighborhood, every family, and every individual who is called this city home. May this council be a reflection of unity, diversity, and strength. Strengthen collaboration, hope in action, and let their work be effective, their service be honorable, and their legacy be one that brings transformation and trust to our community. In your matchless name, we ask amen and amen.
Amen. Thank you. Go ahead, sir.
Oh, can you see by the dawn's early Once so bright, twice gleaming What strides and bright, stop the best Thank you, Reverend Sippling, and that wonderful presentation of the National Anthem.
Council members, we have an agenda. We're going to amend and have the National Barbershop Harmony Day Proclamation go first in the awards and presentations, and with that amendment, ask for a motion to approve the agenda.
Second.
We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Council members, please enter your votes. And seeing that all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally announce the vote.
Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously.
Thank you. Clerk, are there any speakers for open forum?
Yes, there is, Madam Chair.
Can you please read the rules?
Absolutely. If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the City of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. Applause is not permitted except in connection with awards and presentations. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and ask to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments or when you reach the three-minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation used, normal rules apply, including the three-minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by e-mail only, and we have only one speaker. Madam Chair, Bill Hillman, please go to either podium, state your name, address, or cross street, and you will have three minutes to address city council.
Yes, hello, my name is Bill Hillman, and I'm at 2901 Central and have a couple of other properties at 2828 Central and 2927 Central. And I'm here today to address my concerns about the transit overlay development process itself and the content of it. And as I said, I have three properties on Central Avenue that are going to be affected by this. I only learned about this vote that's happening next month in a casual conversation with a real estate broker two weeks ago, and it's very important to me. I'm surprised that I only found out two weeks ago, considering that when somebody wants to install a fence or change their storefront or do something like that, anybody within 400 feet of that property gets a notice that something is going to happen to the neighborhood. And this is very important, this overlay, more important than a fence or a storefront, and it's meaningful. So I went to the city zoning department last Monday to ask specifically how this is going to affect my properties going forward if this transit-oriented development plan goes through. And they were not able to tell me. They referred me to Adriana Puentes, whom I emailed and called but didn't get any information back from. So I still don't know what I'm entitled to in terms of development now, and I don't know what I'm going to have if this passes. And it seems like something that I should have information that I should be able to get from the city. I'd also like to add, anecdotally, I've owned my property, one of my properties, since 2003. So I've been fully invested in this area for a long time. And in that time, 26 years, 23 years, only four buildings have been built that meet the ordinances right now and for mixed-use development, commercial and residential. And those four buildings have only contributed 23 units, residential units, to the neighborhood, to the Grand Central District on Central Avenue. So this is a very important component, the residential component. Density, I think, hasn't been addressed by previous, in the past 26 years.
Thank you. Your time's up. But the Administrator Gerdes, he's going to provide you some information.
Yes, sir, if you could just please sit tight for a minute. I'm trying to get a staff member to come in and get your contact information, and we'll make sure we contact you directly on your properties. Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
And in Zoom.
Great, thank you, Clerk. We close open forum, and now we move to awards and presentations. First up, we have D4. This is going to be presented by Council Member Gerdes, and it's the National Barbershop Harmony Day Proclamation.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And let's give Sunshine City Chorus one more round of applause. We were treated with Can You Feel the Love Tonight downstairs earlier, and so we got a little taste. And just thank you so much. The Sunshine City Chorus is the St. Petersburg chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Their logo is based on St. Pete's original logo, Mr. Sun. And the original charter for the Sunshine City Chorus started in 1946, which is crazy to think about. The original, or excuse me, and then rechartered in April of 2023. So these guys went a couple of years ago to the state competition. Ten gentlemen went down. Last man, was it? Excuse me. Last man. Time flies in my world. And so they were the newest and the smallest group and came home with the state championship. And I know I speak for everybody in this room, but music is food for the soul. It brings so much joy. It brings back memories. It brings back feelings. And these guys are doing it on a daily basis for our community, representing our community outside of it. And I'm just so proud of them and really just had to recognize them. And I wouldn't have been able to do that without Lance Lubin. Lance is the director of the Sunshine City Chorus. He also is the about-to-be-outgoing president of Eagle Crest Neighborhood. He has been the president at Eagle Crest in District 1 for 25 years. And I think we'll give him a round of applause for that. I can tell you, and I'm sure my dad will attest as well, Lance has been a fierce advocate for the West Side. And I mean that in the true definition of the word. He has protected development on the West Side. He has protected parkland. He has protected his neighborhood fiercely for 25 years. And I want to thank you while we're here, Lance, for your dedicated service to the city of St. Pete. And so it's been a great honor to celebrate the Sunshine City Chorus. And again, Lance, thank you for helping us bring this joy of music to our community. So I'll read the proclamation. Whereas Barbershop Harmony is a uniquely American art form rooted in community, camaraderie, and the joy of making music together. And whereas National Barbershop Harmony Day is celebrated annually, commemorating the birth of organized barbershop singing on April 11, 1938, when 26 men gathered for a song fest that sparked a nationwide musical movement. And whereas the historic gathering laid the foundation for what would become a vibrant tradition of a four-part a cappella harmony, preserve musical heritage while fostering fellowship across generations. And whereas the Sunshine City Chorus exemplifies the enduring spirit of barbershop harmony through its commitment to musical excellence, community engagement, and the promotion of arts. And whereas organizations such as the Sunshine City Chorus enrich our community by bringing people together through song, strengthening cultural connections, and inspiring creativity and collaboration. Now, therefore, I, Council Member Copley-Gerdis, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim Saturday, April 11, 2026, as National Barbershop Harmony Day in St. Petersburg, and encourage our citizens to celebrate the musical tradition and the joy it brings our community. Thank you.
Hey, well, thank you so much. It's, uh, you don't have to lower it anymore, but...
I was following directions.
Oh, okay. Anyhow, we are so delighted to bring this to the city of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, which we love so much, and that's why we, uh, named ourselves the Sunshine City Chorus. So, we are always looking for male singers. So, if this looks fun to you, there will be cards in the lobby. So, thank you so much, uh, and I just urge all of you to, uh, to experience the joy that music brings, especially the young people here. Uh, join choruses, join choirs. Uh, it'll bring you a lifetime of joy, and you'll make some of the best friends you've ever had. Can I hear you say amen? Amen. All right. Thank you so much.
Just before you leave, we have Council Member, Vice Chair Floyd, who wants to say something.
I just wanted to say thank you all for being here today. It was a real treat. Lance, very nice to see you. That's what I would say. That's, uh, and, uh, I know, uh, Copley knows exactly what he's saying when he's hinting at how fiercely you defend your neighborhood. Uh, I know exactly what he's getting at. I'm not sure that's a compliment. It's, it's a compliment to you, but, you know, us up here, maybe not so much.
Well, I can assure you it's the Napoleon compliment.
Uh, uh, it's, it was lovely to hear, uh, you all sing today, and, uh, I love music, but I can't sing at all, so I'll just be in the audience for your shows.
That's only because some fifth grade teacher told you you shouldn't sing. Okay. Everybody can sing.
Yeah. All right. Well, I like your optimism, but maybe I'll show you. Thank you. Nice to see you all. Yeah.
Council Member Driscoll. Thank you, and, um, thank you all for joining us today and, and for that, um, beautiful rendition of our national anthem. It made me even more proud, um, to stand and look at our flag while you were singing. It meant a lot. Um, Council Member Gerdes, thank you for, um, being here to, and reading the proclamation. I want, um, the group to know that it is Council Member Gerdes who always insists that we sing, that City Council sings Happy Birthday to any Council Member or staffer who has a birthday coming up, and if you were here to hear that, I assure you, you would not want any of us joining you in your group. However, I do love the invitation that you have out there welcoming others to join you, um, because we need more of this. We need more music in our hearts, and we need more music in our, in our community. It's, um, it's really a wonderful reminder of the ways that, um, that we can all lift our voices to make the world better. So, thank you for all that you do. You made my day.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And thank you so much. I will tell you, uh, Council Member Gerdes said, music is food for your soul. Uh, it definitely made our hearts smile today, from downstairs when y'all sang to now, um, you know, the day when we were here and City Council meetings. You know, sometimes we're dealing with tough issues, and as you know, people aren't always happy with us. But, you know, starting a day like that and listening to you all sing really made the day better. So, thank you, and thank you for bringing so much joy into the world. Thank you. Okay, next up, we have D2, which is Earth Day Proclamation. And this is going to be presented by Council Member Gabbard. So, we'll take a minute so they can move outside. And those that are here for that proclamation, you can join Council Member Gabbard at the podium.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm honored as, uh, I think almost every year that I've been on City Council to, uh, have the, uh, opportunity to present the, uh, Earth Month Proclamation. So, happy Earth Month, everyone. Earth Month is a very special celebration. It's celebrated worldwide, and it's a recognition of our beautiful planet and our obligation to be good stewards of her resources. Uh, in full disclosure, the reason that, you know, I probably love all things environmental is because I was born on Earth Day. It is my birthday, so, um, I feel like I was kind of born for this work, right? So, don't really have much of a choice when you're born on Earth Day. So, um, you know, St. Pete, we benefit so greatly from our environment. It brings us joy, recreation, learning opportunities, chances to engage with nature, um, economic opportunities for our small business friends that are in the crowd today. And, of course, tourism. Um, and, you know, that list goes on and on for all of the things that we benefit from Mother Nature. And the other thing that I would say that we benefit from is our collaboration with our community partners and with our city team, who care so greatly about all of those vital resources. As we continue to strive to be a resilient city, we cannot forget that sustainability should be at the heart of everything that we do. So, I'm honored today to be joined by Maven Rogers from our Office of Sustainability and Resiliency, and she has her entire team with her today. I don't want to forget anyone, so I'm only going to name you, Maven, and then you have the opportunity to name everyone else, because I know you have a lot of new team members. So, I want to make sure that we introduce everyone. And then I'm also joined today by our friends at the Sierra Club. So, thank you all for being with us today. And with that, I will read the proclamation, which reads, And whereas, the Tampa Bay region is an environmentally rich and ecologically diverse community with an estuary that is valuable and is a productive regional resource. And whereas, Earth Day was originally observed on April 22, 1970, by more than 20 million Americans, leading to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. And whereas, the Tampa Bay region faces challenges to protect our environmental resources and quality of life, including basic needs of clean air, pure water, and natural habitats for future generations. And whereas, the Tampa Bay area's environmental resources have greatly benefited from the legislative and public awareness generated by the observation of Earth Day. And whereas, April 22, 2026, is Earth Day, to be celebrated throughout the month of April and in many communities in the Tampa Bay region. Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Brandi Gabbard, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, the mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, April 22, 2026, as Earth Day in St. Petersburg, and encourage all citizens to commemorate Earth Day by attending community events and by acting both individually and collaboratively to promote a more sustainable and resilient future for St. Petersburg. So, we are going to be joined first by Pat Fling with the Sierra Club, who's going to say a few words. And Pat, if you would please share all of the events that you have going on for Sierra Club for Earth Day. I know you have at least two, so...
Well, I probably can't tell you all the events, but coming up, we have a Lunch and Learn at the Thrive building, where Sierra Club has our local office. So, that's coming up in April, I think it's... Twenty-second. Twenty-second, yes. And there's several other events that you can find on our website, Suncoast Sierra Club. And we're so thrilled to be here, to recognize Earth Day, and thank you for all that you all do to preserve our Earth and to keep St. Petersburg green. Thank you.
Maven Rogers, Sustainability and Resilience Director. Thank you, Council Member Gabbard, for bringing this important resolution up, our proclamation, sorry. I oftentimes actually forget that Earth Day is here, because every day is Earth Day for us. You know, whether it's our office planting a thousand trees this year, or it is working on the vulnerability assessment to our critical infrastructure and our sea level rise vulnerabilities, I often tell our staff that we are the scientists that come into community planning. And with us going to the dark side of the moon, science has never been more important. So we're very excited. My staff has been growing. I just want to show that commitment from the city of St. Petersburg in sustainability and resilience. One person I'd like to recognize that's not here is Chelsea Freeman, who's our new urban forester and sustainability coordinator. She's actually not here because she's working on a pre- and post-hurricane analysis for hers. And she's really working very diligently to make that deadline. So I'd like to thank her. And then I'd like to introduce my staff. So we have Casey Evans, who's our resilience coordinator. We have Nicole Shanabill, who's our sustainability and resilience supervisor. And then we have Bruno Martino Piciacci, and she's our energy management specialist. Bruno is actually in charge of trying to drive down our utility costs. So we're very excited. We're growing our team. And that really, it shows a commitment from our council. And I want to really take the opportunity to say thank you, thank you, thank you. It is the pleasure of my life to be serving the city. And you all make it happen because you provide us the budget to do so. So thank you. And keep the money flowing. Thank you.
Well, I just want to say on behalf of City Council, I want to thank all of you for providing your expertise and time on matters that really are important to our city. Because frankly, we need subject matter experts in terms of our sustainability issues or resiliency issues. And I know with some of you, I've had those long conversations of what we should be doing and what we can do better. And we can't do it without you. So I appreciate it. And for all you young kids out there who are thinking about careers, they do some really cool work and we need more of them. So thank you. Thank you. Yep. Council Member Driscoll.
Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Gabbard, for the reading of the proclamation. It's very fitting. And I want to thank all of you who joined us, the staff who work day in and day out to make sure that our city stands proudly as a leader in resilience and sustainability and environmental stewardship. I also want to give a special thanks to the members of the Sierra Club. When I first ran for office and I had to go through the interview process in hopes of landing that coveted endorsement from the Sierra Club for my election, there were a lot of things that came up that I was not familiar with. And I said at that time, I am going to be counting on you to be a resource for me as I move into this, you know, as I move forward and learn. So I'll be leaning on you all a lot. And I have. And you've been there for me every single time. And I'm not quite done with you yet. I'm going to be contacting you soon on a new thing. And you've never let me down. And I hope most of the time I've been there for you as well, at least. So I hope I've done my small part. You have done a huge part in moving our city forward as a leader on environmental issues. And I appreciate every one of you that's here and all of the Sierra Club people who are not here right now. I love you all. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you all for being here. Next up. And by the way, to show you how nimble we are, I made the mistake of calling Earth Day Proclamation because I skipped the first one because we had moved something around. So we were going to. And you were ready. And everybody acted like this is we're doing things the right way. And I had messed up. So D1 is a Small Business Week Proclamation. It's Council Member Harding who's presenting it. So whoever is here for that item, if they can join Council Member Harding at the podium.
Thank you, Chair. And I'd like to thank the mayor for the opportunity. I think he chose me because I have failed at this three times over my career. And that is part of it. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about small business. We don't often think of what small business does for our country. It employs over half of all the people. We normally think about bigger countries or bigger companies. And truthfully, it is more pervasive. If you think about downtown St. Pete and we want to go eat after work today, you're not going to find a chain to go to. You're not going to find it. Well, you'll find two out of 46 restaurants that are in downtown St. Pete. And don't get me wrong. They have a role. But the heart and soul of a community is normally it's small business. And I will tell you, and this is the important part, that when we think about danger and we think about risk when it comes to you doing a job, you first think of your police force, your fire department who are going to come rescue you in times of need. You think about the war fighters who are over in the Middle East protecting the country. You think about the guys that suspended themselves from the trop to try and put that giant roof back on. And there are lots of dangerous jobs. But the risk part, when we think about risk, probably one of the riskiest things that you could do for a living in this country is open a small business. And I'll tell you how you get there. You cash in your 401k, you borrow money from your parents, you take all the savings that you have, you ask your best friends in the world to invest in an idea, and what you get for that is the opportunity to take all the money that's left over at the end of the day, which I can tell you from experience for me in my last venture was 14 months. And so you spend your time going out and selling the new product that you've invented, and at the end of the day, you don't get to go home and have dinner yet because you have to go back to work and make that product that you just sold that's going to go out tomorrow. And so I greatly appreciate the opportunity that the mayor gave me, and I am proud to read the proclamation from this city. Whereas the President of the United States has proclaimed National Small Business Week every year since 1963 to highlight the programs and services available to entrepreneurs throughout the U.S. Small Business Administration and other government agencies, and whereas National Small Business Week officially recognizes business owners for their invaluable contributions and unwavering dedication and commitment to economic vitality, and whereas National Small Business Week officially recognizes business owners for their invaluable contributions and unwavering dedication and commitment to economic vitality, and whereas from the neighborhood storefronts that anchor our communities to the innovative startups driving our future, small businesses are the foundation of St. Petersburg's economy, strengthening our local identity and weaving meaningful connections throughout our city. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg is proud to recognize small business and our valued collaborative partners who contribute to their development and growth by providing support and services, and whereas when we support small business, jobs are created and local communities preserve their unique culture. Now, therefore, I, Mike Harding, Councilmember District 3, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim May 3rd to May 9th, 2026, is National Small Business Week.
Good afternoon. Afternoon. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Chair Hanowitz, Councilmembers, and esteemed, honored businesses and entrepreneurs, I'm going to lift this up just a little bit more. My name is Tracy Smith. I'm the Manager and Small Business Liaison at the Greenhouse, and I'm joined today by our City Development Administrator, James Corbett, Manager of Economic Development, Andrea Falvey, our amazing team at the Greenhouse Navigators, Economic and Workforce Development team members, as well as our outstanding colleagues from the St. Pete Chamber, as well as our amazing small businesses who joined us today with their unwavering support. Thank you so much for being here and showing up. I'd also like to thank you, Councilmember Harding, for stepping in as an entrepreneur yourself who supports other entrepreneurs. We see you doing that, so thank you. Additionally, our team extends our appreciation to the entrepreneurial support organizations. We have several of them joining us here today. Thank you so much for your unwavering dedication to the Greenhouse and to our entrepreneurs. You are there every single week, and we appreciate you for that. Thank you. To help our businesses start, grow, and thrive in our local community here at the Greenhouse and beyond. So National Small Business Week provides us with a moment for us to pause and recognize the small businesses that power our St. Petersburg economy. Those who share their talent, their creativity, and expertise and service to all of us each and every day, as Councilmember Harding mentioned. They are our artists, our retailers, our restaurateurs, our tech entrepreneurs, from startups to just beginning their journey to our legacy businesses, Councilmember Driscoll, rooted in history of our city. Our small businesses represent resilience, innovation, and staying power through every challenge from economic shifts to hurricane seasons and beyond. And so we invite you to join the Greenhouse for a week-long celebration of St. Pete's Small Businesses during the week of May 4th, featuring a citywide business walk across all eight city council districts and that's going to be on Tuesday, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo. So Councilmembers, we're inviting you to join us, so more details to follow on that. In recognition of our first legacy business honoree at a ribbon cutting, that's going to be on Wednesday, May 6th, so more information to follow on that as well. There'll be curated business capacity business workshops during the week of National Small Business Week and then we'll close out that celebration of National Small Business Week on Friday, May 8th with the Greenhouse, Open House, and Food Truck Friday in partnership with one of our partner Saturday shops. And so we thank you all for supporting small businesses today and every day and we look forward to your continued support of St. Pete's Small Businesses. And so we look forward to seeing you next month and again I want to thank all of you for joining us and we know it's an interruption in your day but thank you so much for coming out. Thank you.
Council Member Givens.
Thank you and thanks to each of you for taking time out of your day to be here. We know that it could be an interruption to your own businesses so we appreciate that. There's a lot of hidden pressures that a lot of people don't see when it comes to running your own business and so I appreciate you all and special shout out to the Greenhouse. Ms. Tracy, there are numerous people who I have sent your way that you have literally held their hand through the process and I appreciate you and I see you and your navigators the work that you all are doing. It's tangible, it's personal, it's agile and it's tailored specifically to the individual businesses needs. Whether it's a lemonade stand or a food truck or a brick and mortar, everybody is somebody and so I appreciate the chamber and the Greenhouse for always being there, our economic development department for your support as well and I just want to thank you all for always celebrating diversity. I'm looking at diversity right now and I'm thankful that we live in a city that still prides itself and celebrates that diversity so thank you so much for what you do. We see you and we appreciate you. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you. Thank you all for being here and for everything you do for our city. You know, the City of St. Pete has a fantastic small business community that really supports each other and I really want to commend our city team that's always there and like Council Member Harding it was mentioned by you, Tracy, you know, he is a small business owner who supports other businesses and we see a lot of that in their city and it doesn't go unnoticed so if you need any resources or you're thinking about starting your business that's the lady to see right there, Tracy at the Greenhouse so thank you all for being here.
Thank you.
Okay, next up we have D3 and this is going to be presented by Council Member Figg Sanders. It's the Black Maternal Health Week Proclamation and for those who are here for that proclamation if you can please join her at the podium.
Good afternoon everyone. While we are here during our awards and presentation I think that this is more of an acknowledgement of an acknowledgement of some of the issues that we as moms as African American mothers have had to experience and that we now have a voice I think this is the 10th year of the movement is that we now have a voice because we're being recognized for some of the things that we've had to go through. You would think that the theme this year is rooted in justice and joy and the birth of a child is supposed to be joyous. We're supposed to celebrate that new life but unfortunately this particular acknowledgement is for the Black Maternal Health Week where so many of our moms lose their lives or the lives of their children wanting to share the birth of life. So I am so honored to read this proclamation and who we have with us today is Ms. Kaisha Robinson from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority the Social Action Chair who will also bring a few words as well as Dr. Marshara Foss the Program Manager for the Florida Black Maternal Health Initiative and the proclamation reads Whereas annually during Minority Health Month April 11th through 17th is recognized nationwide as Black Maternal Health Week to raise awareness and improve desperate birth outcomes among African American and Black mothers and babies and whereas Black Maternal Health Week is a crucial component to advancing Black Maternal Health in Florida where in 2024 Black mothers were two times more likely to experience a severe obstetric event 3.2 times more likely to experience a maternal death and nearly 2.6 times more likely to have an infant pass away before their first birthday and whereas each maternal death is a tragedy with devastating impacts on their family community and society as a whole and according to the Florida Maternal Mortality Review Committee nearly 70% of these deaths were considered preventable and whereas Tampa Bay Black Maternal Health Week Initiative was created as a mechanism to improve Black maternal health outcomes through education advocacy and community support through the development of a week-long health campaign Black Maternal Health Week of Tampa Bay comprised of several events and a formal recognition celebration and acknowledgement of Black maternal health now therefore I Councilmember Deborah Figg Sanders on behalf of Kennedy Welch Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg do hereby proclaim April 11th through 17th 2026 as Black Maternal Health Week in St. Petersburg and encourage all women mothers parents and supporters to promote health and justice in their families and communities now we'll ask Ms. Kaisha Robinson
to Mayor Welch and all council members good afternoon my name is Kaisha Robinson and I serve as the advocate for social justice chairperson for Zeta Upsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and I'm grateful to accept this proclamation from the City of St. Petersburg because it recognizes the importance of Black maternal health and as was stated earlier this is more than just a proclamation it's a moment to both celebrate and it's also a call to action it shines a light on an issue that deserves our fullest of attentions see we believe that every mother deserves to be heard respected and supported by raising awareness and advocating for equitable care and educating our community we move closer to a future where healthy outcomes are the norm and not the exception it is in that spirit that we welcome the community to join us on Saturday May 2nd from 10.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve for a panel discussion on this very important issue I want to thank you again to councilpersons to staff and to all council members for standing with us in this mission and for recognizing this very important work that reminds us that change is possible when community comes together thank you
my name is Dr. Mashara Frost as she mentioned and I just want to thank you all for having us again this year I am the program manager for the Florida Black Maternal Health Initiative I am joined here by my wonderful team my co-founders Dr. Ron A. Wilson and Dr. Vicki Dugat as well as our director of operations Dr. Rachel Logan as well as our steering committee members Michelle Grimsley Shendano and Alyssa Bedard and I just want to say that we co-founded the Florida Black Maternal Health Initiative when we were seeing trends that the racial disparity in maternal and infant outcomes were getting worse and not better and so we really are acting intentionally to create and draft evidence-based solutions that are community-rooted to try to address these issues in our community and so I know that Alyssa has a few words so Alyssa if you could please go
Good afternoon Mayor Welch City Council members and residents of St. Petersburg my name is Alyssa Bedard I stand before you today as a native of St. Pete a mother a community leader and most importantly today a very seasoned doula committing to improving birth and health outcomes for black birthing people thank you for the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate Black Maternal Health Week a time that calls for only not only recognition but also for a sense of reflection accountability and very intentional action to be taken Black maternal health is an ongoing public health crisis it's a human rights issue and it's a reflection of how deeply inequitable inequitable structures structures have been woven into our systems all across sectors in the United States black women are still three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes babies are going home without their mamas husbands without their wives and mothers without their daughters black women are dying preventable deaths because they are not being heard and they are not being held here in Florida and across the nation black birthing people are more likely to experience health complications during the perinatal period more likely to have their pain dismissed and more likely to experience trauma related to their actual birthing experience and it's important to say clearly very clearly that these outcomes are not the result of individual choices or behaviors they are the direct result of systems barriers of inequitable access of unequal access to quality care of lack of representation and trust within the health care system they are a direct reflection of implicit bias within the health care systems chronic stress from racism gap from racism gaps in postpartum support and policies that have historically overlooked underserved and intentionally harmed black families and black bodies so this week is not only about naming the problem it's about listening to women and listening to families it's about uplifting and honoring solutions organizations and advocates that have already been doing the work ones here in our community that already exist people in this city and beyond black led organizations doulas midwives clinicians advocates who are doing the work every single day to provide culturally congruent care building trust educating families and helping create safe spaces where black birthing people feel seen heard feel safe and most importantly feel held during their experience held during one of the most important and memorable seasons of life so when we talk about improving birth outcomes we're talking about listening to these people as part of the solution we're talking about expanding access to community based organizations and care we're talking about listening to voices not just during this week but in the decisions that shape our policies here locally and the decisions that shape our funding our healthcare systems year round we are wanting to ensure that every person regardless of their zip code their educational background where they come from that they can experience a healthy pregnancy birth and postpartum period with dignity with safety and with joy because as we care for them we're caring for ourselves and for our city generationally so proclaiming black maternal health week is a meaningful step to ensure this happens it signals to our city to our residents that you see this issue and that you're willing to exclusively name it so on behalf of the Florida Black Maternal Health Initiative thank you thank you for your commitment to equity thank you for your commitment to listening and thank you for your commitment to stay rooted in justice and in joy
Council Member Fig Sanders thank you I had to come up here so I can push my button but I want to again I want to thank you all for coming and everything that you are doing to bring awareness to them because I was one of those success stories when it comes down to maternal health I kept going to the hospital at 29 weeks pregnant saying I can't breathe yes you can I cannot yes you can I end up delivering a baby 11 weeks early and coding twice and so thank God that I was in a place where I had advocates thank God I was in a place where they caught it early but that's one of the things that we live with on a regular this isn't something that's made up this is something that is a reality for so many of our African American mothers and families so again I just want to thank you thank you Mayor for providing the honor for me to read this proclamation and hopefully we will continue to read this proclamation but as we read the proclamation and bring more awareness those numbers those numbers would decrease thank you so much thank you Chair Council Member Gibbons
thank you so much and thank you so much Council Member Fix Sanders for bringing this issue forward and thank you ladies for being present today I had a dear cousin Willette Gibbons McKinney she was a pharmacist who passed away after childbirth and she experienced many of these issues that you ladies are talking about today we lost her very early and I think about the lives that you all are saving through your advocacy I thank you so much for using your voice and for shining light on communities that have been traditionally and systemically overlooked and ignored thank you for shining light on an issue that sometimes only gets about a week's notice really we should be talking about it all the time so continue advocating continue educating I serve on the board of the Next Step Pregnancy Center so we welcome you we are one of the best kept secrets on the deuces so please come and let's partner and let's do more work together so we can keep saving lives so thank you all so much thank you Chair
thank you well every year when this comes up I love hearing and I will tell you Elisa when you speak the journey of being a mother and for those ladies that are there with you they're so lucky to have you because just hearing you speak here I know that you give them so much support and I feel it and so I think they're extremely fortunate to have you as an advocate and have you all ladies as advocates on this issue and Council Member Fick Sanders you've shared that story before and every time you share it look you know I will tell you I mean that is the scariest moment in a woman's life you know when you have a baby and you don't know what's happening or something may not be going well and I feel for the mothers out there and then when you look at the data and the information and you fall in categories that you shouldn't be that's even so much worse so thank you for bringing light to this issue for your continued advocacy and your continued education in our community thank you thank you okay next up we have our mayor here Mayor Welsh who's going to be presenting Nikita Johnson Day Proclamation so everyone here Nikita if you can join the mayor and everyone here that's supporting Nikita if you can please join him
thank you
which is everybody in the room or if you want to stand by where you are behind him wherever you feel comfortable anywhere you find space
so Madam Chair I learned a while ago that when Charlie Gerdes Council Member Charlie Gerdes gives you advice it's usually good advice and I've forgotten until today that seven or eight years yeah yeah it happens you forget that he invited me he invited me down to the trop to see these go-kart races and it was great they were going so fast around the trop that's where I met Nikita and I'm just so honored today to present the last proclamation to our own hometown hero in racing phenom Nikita Johnson y'all give him a hand Nikita is joined by his father Obi members of the team I see Kevin and Kim from Green Savory Racing are here as well we've got now they have permission to get out of school but from Thurgood Marshall students who participated in Team Accelerate as part of the Grand Prix are here as well and they made these wonderful pins great to have y'all here and I'm really excited about how we integrated STEM into the Grand Prix and Nikita was a part of that as we all know the Grand Prix weekend is always an exciting time in our city it's a community celebration it boosts our economy and it showcases our beautiful downtown waterfront to the entire world and to have one of our own win an internationally televised race in our own city and to frankly watch him grow into a champion and a great young man is truly a blessing now I do want to say in interest of keeping the peace for Mayor Love and Councilmember Webb and the other Gulfport folks he actually lives in Gulfport but he races in St. Pete and so we've adopted him and are proud to give him this proclamation and the proclamation reads whereas Nikita Andreas Johnson born in St. Petersburg Florida has emerged as a premier talent in international open wheel racing demonstrating exceptional skill and precision since the beginning of his racing career at the age of 11 and whereas Nikita has established himself as a history maker by becoming the only driver to win races at all three levels of the USF pro championships USF juniors USF 2000 and USF pro 2000 all while holding the record as the youngest winner in each of these categories and whereas Nikita's 2024 season included finishing as the USF pro 2000 vice champion with eight victories and making an historic European debut as the youngest race winner in the British GB3 championship and whereas in the 2026 racing season Nikita took the Indy Next by Firestone series by storm securing a victory in his hometown opening the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg taking the lead and holding it for all 42 laps and whereas following the win in St. Petersburg Nikita secured a dramatic win at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama a feat that put Nikita into the history books again making him tied for the most wins in Indy Next by the age of 18 and he's got a birthday coming up so maybe we can sing him it's in May so maybe we sing birthday today council member and it's propelled him to the lead of the championship standings and whereas we recognize and commend Nikita Johnson for his unparalleled racing achievements his dedication to the sport and his role as a distinguished representative of St. Petersburg the city of St. Petersburg takes great pride in celebrating our trailblazing hometown hero Nikita Andres Johnson now therefore I Kenneth T. Welch mayor of the city of St. Petersburg do hereby proclaim Thursday April 9th 2026 as Nikita Andres Johnson Day in St. Petersburg and urge all residents to join me in celebrating Nikita's contributions to our community and the racing world way to go
I'd like to thank all my friends and family for coming out Mayor Welch for having me here and the whole council for everything and then Kim and Kevin for always doing a great race weekend here in St. Pete every single year I feel like every time I've been racing it's been getting better every year so thank you to the mayor and everybody from the council and Kim and Kevin for it I think it's the best race on the calendar it's our Monte Carlo of the IndyCar circuit so it's pretty amazing to race it and be the hometown hero but I can't do this without my parents and all my family friends for always helping me out on the race weekends it's very hectic we have probably I guess 30 interviews that weekend maybe more so it's extremely hard and to have all the support is amazing also to have the support from the community it's very cool to be able to go downtown and have fans come up to me so I love that and then I also want to thank all the kids for coming out during the race weekend it was pretty cool to go talk about the race cars and try to get the younger generation involved in motorsports because it's it's a completely different sport but I just want to thank everybody for having me here and it's pretty amazing thank you
council member Harding thank you Jared Nikita congratulations you have impressed me not today I'm sorry not in your racing so much as today you're a young man and this part where an entire city names a day after you is going to happen a lot more in your career but when you got up the only thing you talked about is all the people that you're grateful for that's the important part at some point in time somebody genetics or God or Mother Nature or whatever gave you this incredible talent but standing next to you is the reason that it was developed right and you recognize that it was the blood and sweat and tears and money lots of money that your family was willing to invest in you to get you there and then it was the people like the kids standing behind you that created the fandom I am very impressed with how you recognize that stay humble stay kind and don't forget that the important part is right here all the way around you congratulations we're going to hopefully see you well if we're not too small of a city we're going to see you again you're going to be racing in bigger places and I speak for all of us when I tell you that we look forward to watching your career congrats thank you chair
council member Gerdes
thank you very much chair council member Harding I couldn't have said it much better I think what you're seeing here is the microcosm of what makes Nikita so great first of all that's probably the first time he's ever blushed is when we all got up and gave him a round of applause I don't think that happens very often in his world but what you're seeing are family and friends and colleagues and students and that's what what makes Nikita special having known him for a good portion of his life when I'm around him you don't realize you're around a very high performing athlete and having been blessed with the life of being around a lot of athletes that says something and I just want to thank his parents for their time and their love and their investment and all of you here supporting him today it has been so much fun and I just want to tell one other story so I'm at the race on Sunday I've got my kids there my kids and my wife but you'll understand why I just said my kids in a second Nikita wins Shelley rushes us down the stairwell that's where I lost Council Member Gabbard and my wife and I've got both of my kids by their hands and thinking that I've got escorts getting me to the winner's circle and I show up and I'm about 30th in line to all of these people and that tells you the entire story is that everybody else was just as excited to get there and then Nikita walks up and it's like just another Tuesday it was incredible and so to have that experience with my kids and to get to watch that Nikita and Nikita's got now my kids right as he's about to go up and get doused with champagne and it was just awesome and let me tell you man I again Council Member Harding we're going to be able to watch this for a long time and we're really excited to do it and I hope we keep celebrating it with you and just thank you so much for being the example of what I hope my kids are like when they're in front of a group like this thank you very much man congratulations thank you Madam Chair
Council Member Givens
thank you you know congratulations again Nikita when I think about birthday presents I don't think can get any better than this right you got a day now in your honor and so to your parents I just want to say congratulations I had the honor of meeting your lovely mom Alicia downstairs and I know what it's like to have great supportive family members so I just want you to know that wherever you go you always have this great support system behind you and your family and all these people standing behind you and in us as well so wherever you go know that we are the wind beneath your wings we're supporting you as you fly because the sky is the limit and I'm looking at all those young people standing behind you go Thurgood Marshall and I'm just thinking in addition to Council Member Gerd as kids you have so many young people that are looking up to you so keep setting the tone keep being a great example to all of these other young people that are going to come behind you you are a role model if you don't know it yet you're a hero to a lot of kids so keep shining you're a superstar congratulations thank you Chair
Nikita Nikita I just want to say real quick I mean first of all my colleagues and the mayor have said everything that needs to be said you make our city proud the one thing I want to add is you get the wins but you've earned this respect that you get here and it's very clear from the people behind you and from the dais and from the mayor so thank you thank you okay we're going to move on give them a minute so they can make their way out of chambers and the next item we have is a presentation and it is by St. Petersburg Aquatics and Mr. Kurtz Paul Kurtz is here so we'll give them a moment
to make their way out and then if they can
just also move downstairs because I know they're going to want to chat
old man
yeah more true
how are you doing hello good afternoon everyone who knew all you had to do was talk about swimming and clear the room easy so my name is Paul Kurtz I live at 910 31st Terrace Northeast 33704 I am on the board of St. Petersburg Aquatics and we're pleased to be here today I want to thank the council for the invitation to be here and share the story of our great partnership over many years I say 46 plus well we weren't so great at keeping records so long ago but it's at least 46 I can tell you that I'd like to start with a little history and maybe some background on the club just to help you understand a little bit about our culture the non-profit was established back in 1980 the records go back a little bit further but 80 for sure is when we started our mission has been to provide affordable competitive swimming programs in a safe healthy and positive environment the third bullet I really want to highlight too because that's kind of our key we're volunteer powered all families are asked to participate in the swim meet which is the big the big events for us swim meets can be pretty chaotic a lot of kids running around on the pool deck if you haven't seen one and if you're running two sides of the pool you might need 50 plus volunteers to run a swim meet that's a lot and the parents have been a big part of that and supported that for many years and that's been our culture and that's kind of been our secret we demand parent involvement and we get it Fred Lewis is our head coach he was hired back in 1988 he can't be here today he's obviously on the pool deck coaching he's been with us for 38 plus years he's missed two practices in 38 years the first was when his mother passed and the second was when his father passed that also includes a couple of surgeries that he had in the morning hobbled onto the pool deck and coached and he likes to joke that if he's not on the pool deck he's on the slab so he's a very committed coach in 1987 the club was $7,000 in debt we asked the city for a loan the city politely declined we're out of money what are we going to do so we leaned on some of our parents Dr. Jack Pyle gave us a loan for $7,000 it helped that his wife was president of the board Gail at the time one year later we paid back the loan in full and have been in the black ever since and I think that's a real testament to the club finances the club culture with the volunteer and having Coach Lewis around and we've been in the black ever since we've got three year round programs now first obviously started at North Shore which is the our flagship program about 10 years ago we added a program at Walter Fuller and that's been really successful too and we're really excited to to have that program about three years ago I think the city put in heaters and chillers at McLean and we were able to add that as a year round program too to capture that segment of the city too so we've got three kind of nice places around the city that host our year round competitive swim programs in the summer time the city opens up the neighborhood pools and we're able to expand that to the summer swim program Fossil Lake Vista Northwest Shore Acres the year round program right now we're at about 400 between all three sites it goes to about 650 in the summer depending on the year depending on the number of swimmers we estimate that since 1980 we've served over 50,000 young people in the community so I think that's a pretty big number for a small club let's talk about some of the partnership benefits first is affordability swimming is probably one of the most affordable sports that your kids can participate in we like to boast or coach likes to boast rather that he hasn't raised his coaching fees since he started in 1988 it's the same price that's pretty incredible sorry but that's amazing so just for reference if your kid wanted to swim at North Shore Pool or Walter Fuller or McLean you would pay $55 a month which I think is extremely reasonable now this doesn't count the meat fees which are in addition to that but again that's a very reasonable fee we're the cheapest in town we're the cheapest in the region and we're the cheapest of all sports so we make it very accessible and if you're not able to afford it we'll help you we've got some folks on scholarship right now that's not going to be a barrier to joining our program not at all so that comes to the inclusive inclusivity piece we've been around for a while we're not going anywhere we've been here for 46 years and we hope to be around a while longer we're very happy to have been partners with the city for this long it's been a wonderful partnership in terms of community impact a couple years ago when the McLean program started we saw an opportunity to expand this and to team with Academy Prep we've invited them to be part of our team now and we have a lot of their students who come after school and swim on the swim team now and in fact the program has kind of grown a little bit too we've got three swimmers next year that will be joining high school teams to swim so we're really seeing some nice progress there and some good partnership with Academy Prep the other thing about swimming that's interesting is it's very structured there's a lot of swimming they swim six days a week and if you want to swim some of them swim in the morning some days too that's a lot of practice there's a lot of structure we also highlight academics as well you can see up there are schoolastic all-americans which is a combination between good grades and really good times too good athlete good scholar we're going to be scholastic we've got a dozen up there this year and we like to think that it just builds healthy habits and water safety which is obviously a very important piece there in terms of economic impact this is something that we're really proud of as well about ten years ago the city hosted some meets we hosted some meets but we saw an opportunity maybe to host some more we have a great facility there we can do long course we can do short course we can do two sides of the pool it's a wonderful facility absolutely fantastic so we partnered with the city we put in money to buy a scoreboard the scoreboard allowed us to bring in some other meets and to really help to grow those meets there when we grow that we grow some of the economic impact that happens downtown it became wildly popular and now we hardly travel to any other meets but at North Shore Pool so it's really nice that we bring everyone here to the community and do that well things break down it's been nine years we need a new scoreboard so we're so happy with the partnership with the city we want to buy another scoreboard and put it into that facility we want to give back to the city we're just about to spend 120 it's going to be a little bit more than that once you add in permitting and some of the other things too it's probably closer to 130 it says 120 on the slide but we want to give that back to the facility we've had such a great relationship with the city it's been such a wonderful partnership we believe in the city and we want to continue that as well so we're actually giving back to the city on this as well right now it's in the permitting process we're depending on how long that takes subject for another conversation we anticipate maybe 45 days on that so we're pretty excited about that to have that in probably at the end of May as I mentioned the weekend meets are pretty lucrative a lot of folks coming in from out of town Tampa Sarasota as far away as even Polk County and that generates business for local for local excuse me that generates income for local businesses restaurants and hotels the third bullet really speaks to kind of why they come to well you need more than a scoreboard to run a swim meet there's timing equipment there's all the technology involved the starting blocks all these things well we're purchasing that too and allowing everyone else to use those as part of their meets so for instance the last couple weeks there's been a big meet in town called the ISCA meet we had swimmers that participated in that but that was wildly successful I think they had what 1500 kids in one meet Benoit was sold out for two weeks in a row nobody could even think about getting a room there that's a good problem to have so this is kind of some of the economic activity that comes with a part of having swim meets now the fun part achievements over the years we've had many many athletes that have gone on to swim at colleges get different types of scholarships here's a few of those this year that will be graduating our athletes continuously are represented at state national and even international events all over the world Olympic swim trials and the Olympic games I believe we've had 23 athletes represented at trials over the years and it doesn't sound like many but it's very very difficult to even qualify for the Olympic trials you have to set a very high standard only two swimmers from the trials qualify to go to the Olympics so if you're the third best swimmer in the world you might not go to the Olympics because you're third at trials that's happened before to us in terms of our very high achievers Brad Snyder who's pictured on the left there in the white shirt he's one of our Olympians one of our Paralympians he's pictured next to Bobby Think there who's one of our other Olympians along with Nicole Haslett Melanie Margalis 13 gold and three silver between them that's pretty cool 16 medals from St. Petersburg sorry Mike that's pretty cool hey I didn't know that I've been with the club for I've been on the board for 10 years I've been with the club for 14 years I didn't know we had 16 medals I thought maybe we had 5 or 10 I didn't know we had 16 that's pretty cool so we're small but we're mighty and we don't toot our own horn a lot I think our program is a little quieter and we go about our business and produce great athletes and produce great scholars and produce great members for the community the last bullet is something that we're very proud of there's probably 3,000 swim clubs in America and St. Petersburg ranked by USA Swimming is number 21 out of 3,000 so we're in the top we're within the top 1% top 0.006% of clubs in the nation that's pretty that's pretty amazing too so again thank you very much for the opportunity to be here we're small but we're mighty everybody loves a picture with the Olympians they're St. Pete finest there and the lower left-hand corner is one of the Olympians with one of our other little devils and he got a little tattoo there to look like Caleb Dressel and a couple of our other swimmers at McLean but we're just very pleased and very grateful to have had this wonderful partnership with the city for so many years and we really look forward to continuing that partnership for many more
thank you thank you and I just want to say before I turn it over to Councilmember Gerdes I brought this item forward because number one I spoke to Paul he starts telling me all this information and I'm like and why isn't this in front of city council because it is loaded this presentation is loaded with so many things that are happening in our backyard that people don't know about and the work that St. Petersburg Aquatic does and the fact that children can get lessons at the price point that you all offer is just truly it's fantastic so thank you for your work I'll turn it over to Councilmember Gerdes
thank you very much Madam Chair Paul thanks so much for the presentation I'm one of your 300 collegiate swimmers and so I'm just I say it all the time they hear me talk about this all the time I would not be sitting where I sit if it weren't for partnerships like spa partnerships like Northwest Baseball I mean Fred scared the crap out of me when I was a kid he probably still I haven't seen him in a while but he probably still scares the crap out of me he's still good at it yeah I mean I just I can't say enough about it and I'm very glad that when I was going through this presentation when I was first reading it earlier this week I'm like are they gonna talk about all this like stuff they've won and I finally got to it you were burying the lead and it's just incredible let me tell you just real quickly I swam against Brad Snyder for most of my life he was the same age as I was he's fast he lost his sight later in life serving our country he'd whoop me today it's incredible I mean I went to he went to northeast and we both swam similar events and I asked my coach to switch the events for that meet because I didn't want to get my butt kicked by Snyder I mean that's the type of athlete that frankly Spa has been turning out for 46 years I mean when I grew as I was growing up and swimming against and I got so many I still have so many friends from swimming across the system from the different locations because that's what you did in the summer you would northwest would go swim fossil park and fossil park would go swim lake vista it was awesome because you traveled which was cool as a little kid you didn't get to do that very often even though it wasn't very far and just the I
have
so many friends I just saw Brad Schaefer who swam for Northeast on the street yesterday he swam for Fred I feel bad I didn't bring this first of
all
but I hope I'm doing an okay job this has had such an imprint on me and my family both my mom and my dad grew up swimming the brother right under me we both swam through high school I was lucky enough time has such an imprint on my family it's such a big deal and I hope you hear it from other people if not you're hearing it from me I am so thankful for everything that spa does and the partnership with the city and the staff at the pool because you guys have to intertwine and I'm really thankful for the parents and I'm glad you brought up the fact of the volunteering about the parents because so back when they didn't have touch pads all the parents had to time it was hand time and they write the cards and a parent would then take the card and they go turn in the card you had to wait to figure out who won it wasn't automatic and you know that has all changed but the volunteerism portion of it has not and I can't I'm just so thankful for the whole thing and just please know if there's we want to see you here every year celebrating this and if there's anything I can do we can do you have a lot of fans up here I can tell that without even knowing because I watched eyeballs up on this screen so just thank you so much and I know that was a bunch of different stories son that got to grow up doing this thank you very much thanks madam chair
thank you councilmember driscoll thank you thank you so much for coming today and giving us this update and helping us to learn just all that the organization does it's incredible we have we have spoken over the years about it seems every year we have a renewed commitment to doing what we can to make sure that every child in St. Petersburg knows how to swim you are helping to meet that goal and that means the world to me so thank you seeing that you have scholarships available you have discounted programs available and I know you do a lot of work with our parks and recreation department and that relationship is key and it goes both ways you're helping us we're helping you right and there are lives that are being saved because of that there's passion being born as well it's just fantastic in the presentation it says you currently have three swimmers who are participating on scholarship how do we turn that into 30 how do we make sure more people know about this that you know we have is it awareness or is it capacity
probably the former
capacity
is there I mean right now the city just put in heating and chilling heaters and chillers at Shore Acres maybe that park wants to be a year round park too so there is more capacity available sometimes transportation might be a barrier so we saw an opportunity with academy prep they provide the transportation and we provide the services too so that was a nice partnership there so those little pieces are ones that we're we're very proud of and that they're happening and we hope maybe that will expand
yeah and the way that you look at those pieces and say all right if we can get this and then you find a partner to help make it happen I hope that the city continues to be one of those partners for you and that you that we can help with the resources that you need to help us continue to meet that goal for the children of our community so thank you I just oh finally I wanted to say also on May 2nd I think it is we have our water safety day at Walter fuller pool is that something that you all participate in as well
that's a city initiative right there however
I know y'all can come
we're at the pool every day however the scoreboard serves a dual purpose that's a message board for the city so for the last nine years anytime they wanted lifeguards anytime there's a some type of special event bang right there great you get a lot of eyes on that too so we may have paid for the board but it's a community asset let's get the messages out there let's get public safety messages out there we need lifeguards every pool needs lifeguards great let's show it up there it's a lot of eyes on it so
yeah well thank you for maintaining such a strong partnership and sharing the values and goals with us on this and I know that the folks that are at our pools our staff they appreciate it too so
yeah it's been a great partnership there's a lot of different levels a lot of different staff and like I said it's been a great partnership we're very pleased and hope it continues for many more years to
come me too thank you thank you madam chair thank you well thank you Paul and is there anyone else that you may want to introduce that's here I see some people that I think are with you
we have we have with us we have some parents we have some other board members we have some masters swimmers we have some coaches here so we have a whole host of people here to
well then I want to also thank them thank them for their support and for staying here throughout the whole meeting with us we really appreciate everything you do for the organization and for our children and Paul thank you for being such a wonderful advocate for for the organization and obviously for the children in our city and I again please keep those lines of communication open and keep us posted as to what's going on and how we can help thank you so much thank you okay next up we have F2 which is a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance update and we are lucky to have Helen French the executive director for Arts Alliance for those that may not be aware every year we get a nice little update and we always look forward to it and I also point out Tracy Kennard is here also so thank you for being here thank
you chair Hanowitz for having me thank you council members for your service to our city it is a joy to come before you today some of you might know that I am also a dancer and an arts educator so I understand very deeply and personally what community support for arts feels like in my lived life so stepping into this role as executive director last August came with some big shoes to fill and I am grateful for the trust that the city that Tracy and Celeste have put into me to lead this organization before I dive in I wanted just to share a few national data points that I think will help contextualize the work that we do here in the city of the arts nearly 80 Americans attended an in-person arts and culture experience event last year nationally the arts and culture represent a 1.2 trillion dollar industry and that's a larger share of the GDP than transportation agriculture culture or utilities so here in St. Petersburg arts attendees spend an average of 48 dollars per person beyond the price of the event that they are going to and that money goes to meals parking food hotels and other adjacent experiences and I think that's an important thing for us to remember that when people go out and experience art they're experiencing our city as well in a deep way and they're paying for it I'm a family of four and I guarantee you I spend more than 48 dollars when I go out so 30% of arts attendees come from outside the county and of those 70s came specifically for that arts event when hundreds of people come out for shine or walk into a gallery on second Saturday art walk that art activity flows into our local economy and I think we can all feel that happening for every dollar that the city invests in the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance I'm proud to say that we generate 10 times that through sponsorships grants and community partnerships and I like to just say community partnerships are incredibly important I would like to just kind of also point out that the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance is a connective tissue we have these very public facing programs but so much of what we do is help connect artists organizations businesses and resources I joked when I took this job that I feel like the help desk for the arts my email gets wild but I think it's important to know that there's so much interest and so much care for what's happening here in the arts community people are curious and I'm happy to help so please send them my way if there's anything that comes up that you feel like Helen can help you I guarantee you my office and I will work very hard to answer questions and make connections so second Saturday art walk averages 51 participating galleries each month free museum day brought an estimated 10,000 people through the nine participating museums but I would like to point out that our city currently has 13 museums and since 1965 when the MFA opened we have grown to have 12 more museums that's quite an amazing growth in that what 60 years to think that we are really a city that has that many museums performing arts month featured over 45 events and in 2025 we distributed approximately 5,000 of our arts guides I've printed more for 2026 and I brought some for you that we can distribute and they
will
be given out through the city our grants program we've been able to invest over $126,000 towards local artists and creative projects since the program began in this past year in 2025 $50,000 supported 12 artists across all six disciplines we had eight established artists and four emerging artists participate and I think it's important to note that emerging artists need our support they are the next generation of what's coming up here and I say emerging but I don't want you to think young either you can have you can be an artist as a second time career and because you're always usually an artist at heart I think that hopefully the passion with which you expressed about swimming every artist I know understands what you were expressing right because we express ourselves through art so Muse Awards last year we had 206 attendees come to celebrate our seven award winners this year I've shifted Muse to fall into the fall of 2026 I felt it was important to respond to some other needs in the community and shift that moment until later in the fall we also convene a performing arts task force which brings performing artists and arts organizations together monthly to address the unique challenges and opportunities that face that sector performing arts is broad and diverse we have spoken word artists and then we have theatrical artists we have dancers and we have musicians and so there are some unique needs that different genres inside performing arts and each of them need and each of them so what we work towards is trying to address what those needs are I need to identify them first so that is a huge way that we collaborate and it's also a little bit unseen but this group has decided to work towards building an all inclusive accessible performing arts festival in 2027 which is a huge thing for us to bite off inclusive at every level all the time here in our city so those are big things for us to accomplish and I look forward to updating you guys on that particular initiative as it moves forward I did update you at the committee of the whole about our shine mural festival and I'm going to try to that I go the wrong way
thank
you I appreciate your help with that perfect so as you all know shine made an intentional shift to be all local this past year we had 16 local St. Petersburg artists 19 new murals across the city and this was a deliberate turn to celebrate the talent that lives here in St. Pete it is estimated that attendance was at about 12,000 attendees we had over 176,000 viewers reached through social media platforms 18 media features including two television segments and I will say I have done about four interviews around shine for national magazines including Allegiant which put it in there if you fly Allegiant this month you'll see us in there you'll see our city and it's always an honor when I get to talk about the city of the arts and the sunshine city so just know that our city and our city's walls are out there they're being advertised across the world shine 2026 planning is already underway we are looking at dates in late October or early November I personally would love to move us out of hurricane season as much as we can but there's so much happening in our city I'm also balancing those dates with what else is going on it is our intention to include local national and international talent the sunshine city is an amazing show them all the beauty that we have to offer while they participate by sharing their artistic talents on our walls you all already have the shine 10th anniversary book but it is still selling well and I love when developers or business owners tell me that they've shared it with people because it shows off the story of our city and it really does tell a story of our people and our growth of our community and beyond so arts education is an important component of what st. Petersburg arts alliance does and it's a very personal one for me I would not be standing here today in front of you without the training I received here in st. Petersburg as well as in the Pinellas County public school system there is a program we have called arts for complete education this ACE committee is made up of educators artists business leaders and organizations that work together to advocate for arts education as a fundamental component in every child's education it completes their education the work of ACE directly impacts 93,000 school children on an annual basis here in Pinellas County and just last week we held the ACE principal's appreciation breakfast and you guys might think like breakfast okay what is this about but it is one of the school children from different arts programs come and either sing they share what's happening their artwork is shown on the walls some of you might have attended it is one of those feel good days that just starts your day off right like we just heard the Sunshine City Chorus and all of us in this room I think felt how we changed when we participated in art so imagine a roomful of principles being celebrated by the arts in our community and this way of celebrating them is just to say thank you for keeping arts in between your walls every single year funding futures is another program that we have that supports young creatives ages 10 to 17 and it helps them access summer arts experiences we've given out over $45,000 in scholarships since 2017 and applications are open now through the end of April so if you know a young creative or artist in your district or an arts organization that would like some help we can we do have funds to help make things come together so it is a needs based situation so we really want to make sure that we are getting the funds where it's needed most and you can always reach out to me
if
you have questions about that program so what's ahead there's a lot happening in our community and one of the collaborations that I am proud to be part of is involved with Visit St. Pete Clearwater Creative Pinellas and the Clearwater Arts Alliance there is a art cultural tourism grant program that launched on Monday this program was unanimously approved by the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners last month and it's an opportunity for St. Petersburg arts and arts organizations to present something that would be an artistic experience in the fall I am proud to help support our city's artists get access to this money to put on something that would be amazing to help them grow this is a pilot year of this program so stay tuned for ways that we can improve it into next year and the successes that we have from this year as you all know April is National Poetry month and laureate Denzel for a one month poetry events all across the city I don't know if you have received a lineup perfect but there are I believe over 20 events happening this month that focus on poetry there's something for everyone I guarantee you so I hope you will take time to
go
out and experience that and then second Saturday art walk is this Saturday so if you have an extra $48 you could go out for free and spend that $48 in our community please but the galleries will be open from 5 to 9 and I hope that you will go out and see something this is a really exciting time in our community right now the season we're in with everything that's happening and the arts community is coming out in just gangbusters with what's happening so in closing at the committee of the whole earlier this year I said that St. Petersburg is a city hugged by art we have over 800 murals 13 museums more than 50 galleries and hundreds of performing arts events that happen each year we really really are a city of the arts everything that the St. Petersburg arts alliance does is in service of that we are honored to work with you and partner in this work and I am grateful for the council support and for the support that comes from Celeste and Tracy thank you I'm happy to answer any questions you might have
thank you so I want to say first of all since you've come on board you've been so proactive and I know that because you've been reaching out to council members which I think is fantastic especially when Shine was getting off the ground and reaching out like what can we do in a mural in our community and just I wanted to see in public really appreciate that and you all really worked hard there was one mural here is in my district that we are St. Pete you know that's at LMCU they're in the corner of 22nd and 4th Street and you all made that happen and worked collaboratively with reached out to the bank and they did a great job with the artists and promoting the work and it just kind of shows like how a program like that can be expanded and work with like the businesses and the community and make sure that you get this wonderful art in our community and spread it through the city because that was the one thing you said when you meeting it's like we want to make sure it's not just in downtown or the center but we want to make sure we can go as far out as we can and hit all the districts so I just want to say first of all I really appreciate how much effort you have put into that and making sure that you're fulfilling your role and making sure that you're keeping us updated in everything that you're doing at St. Pete Alliance so thank you so much thank
you councilmember Driscoll thank you Helen thanks for coming in today to give this update it's fantastic I've been just overjoyed with your leadership since you joined the organization and I can't thank you enough for taking this on it's not easy a couple of things I do want to thank you for all the assistance that you and your board have provided as we have been discussing the establishment of the artist sustainability fund thanks to you and the work of others including Tracy and Celeste this is moving forward it's going through the process now to become official and my hope is that we'll be able to continue to rely on you as we work on what the actual grant program is going to look like because I believe that you the St. Pete Arts Alliance more than anyone else knows how this funding needs to be allocated and for what and what the best use is because this is coming from a place where we really want to have meaningful positive impact on our local artists in the meantime you were great I hope you don't mind me bringing this up but I want to help demonstrate what kind of work that you do with the artists because I think some people just don't know there's shine but there's so much more if you don't mind I would love for you to share with everyone how it worked when you were approached by a local developer with a project that they wanted to do that was a little out of the box and what do you know they knew to call Helen and can you tell us what happened
or I you know I was approached by a developer and they had a kind of a wild as you suggested project and idea and they asked me did
I
think it was feasible and just like hey we love the arts and we really want to understand this community and so I met with them and their idea was wild and I said okay but here's some things I want you to also consider artists need to get paid for their work and they need to be up front about what's happening and so this particular what councilman is referring to is I think we know the pink buildings that are downtown and I think it's important to know that artists get opportunities all the time and as an organization I want to help share what those opportunities could be and so this particular entity came and presented an opportunity and I thought artists should know about it and so I was happy to share what that opportunity was and you know no one can imagine when you get creative people in a room together what's going to happen and sure certainly not every piece of art is everyone's cup of tea right I think we can agree on that but I think that the fact we can have art in our city and the fact that it can manifest itself in many different ways is something we should celebrate because what isn't my cup of tea might be your cup of tea right and so that is a component that I think is important but that kind of connectiveness is what I was referring to a little bit earlier that things happen people come to me and ask questions and if I don't know the answer I will go and try to find it for them or ask someone else that can help as well and I think that is an important component of what my work here is as well thank you for asking about that
yeah and I want to point out that you're not necessarily representing artists you're connecting people to them and you're empowering the artist by saying no I'm not going to tell you how much you should pay them that is their business they are they are working artists that is what they do you can work out the terms with them absolutely and and so you really help to elevate the message that this isn't your organization is not a collection of artists it's an artist advocacy organization and a resource for the artist just like the business program which is one of my favorite things of all time because many artists are really great at creating their art but especially at the beginning they may not know how to run that as a business the business side of it and you guys just do amazing work in helping to bring both sides of the brain together
thank you for saying that I have to say Councilmember Harding when we were talking about small business I thought those are artists artists are small businesses and that is so true and we do have an arts business academy but it is a skill as you know and it involves a lot of risk so I appreciate your proclamation today and the connection to artists can speak for themselves and they can negotiate their terms and think that they should because they are small businesses yeah
I would love for this to be continued you know a few years ago we were presented with some great work that was done to create the comprehensive arts strategy and I know that that's something that wasn't just created and then it's on my desk I
read it at least once a week sitting on my yeah so
I wonder if there is a time and I can put in a new business item to have a discussion and committee about this for you to bring that show us what's working I think it's time to look at it and see what needs to be changed or updated and we can decide together because the city's got skin in the game on this too yes you guys were instrumental in helping get
that come to life as well
yeah so if it's all right with you I'd love for you to come back in that forum and just dive into that a little bit more so that we can help each other with that real strategy I'd
be happy to thank you
thank
you thank you madam chair thank you and the other thing I want to say about Helen is she actually read some of the stuff priorities but Helen did so I have a lot
of
respect for that thank you very much okay next up we have new business G1 council member Gerdes thank
you madam chair respectfully requesting a referral to the youth and family services committee for an update on ARPA funded programs including youth opportunity grant programs this referral is a staff request and I'm formally submitting this new business item as a method of informing city council and I'll move approval
second I have a motion second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your vote seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote
madam chair the motion to approve agenda item G1 passes unanimously
thank you next up is G2 which is mine and it's related to G3 I just so first of all
I
want to thank council member Gerdes for being collaborative to actually discuss moving something to BFNT PSI agenda has been super packed and we had a conversation for the general obligation bond and the airport in one meeting and then they wanted to add the marina that can't happen it would be too difficult and so in moving everything around and knowing these are important issues I just want everyone to understand what we're trying to do is if this passes April 23rd we'd have a conversation on the marina and the airport the geo bond the conversation on the fiscal side of it is going to be F&T on that same day so we can have those conversations which allows us to then on May 14th have the second conversation of geo bond which has to do with the marketing aspect and all that and the crane conversation and it looks like in June 11th we can have AMI so we are trying to pack as much as we can and we've been able to accommodate some of the administration requests on some of these items that have come forward that have been added recently so with that being said the first one is respectfully requesting a referral to PSNI for an update on the progressive design build process for the redevelopment of the municipal Maria including project timeline and phasing this referral is a staff request and formally submitting this new business item as a method of informing city council
second
I have a motion and a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tell you announce the vote
the motion to approve agenda item g2 passes unanimously
the next one is respectfully requesting a referral to bfnt for a discussion of the general obligation bond including potential projects and referendum language please note that this request is not a duplicative of the existing PSI committee referral item rather this referral serves to alleviate some of the scheduling constraints among the city council committees second we have a motion a second clerk if you can open the machine of voting council members please enter your vote seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote
madam chair the motion to approve agenda item g3 passes unanimously clerk
we have open forum it looks like we have someone signing up do we have anyone else on online
okay
madam chair we do have one speaker parry g washington please go to either podium state your name address or cross street and you have three minutes to address city council thank you
i understand you've asked for accommodation
that's okay
we've given you the accommodation the clerk is giving you can you please state your name in cross streets mr washington dr washington
testing i can't hear but i can't hear it
we can hear you though sir
doctor the time already started what's going on can you read
just please reset the clock here you go sir
dr perry g washington veteran united states hero i have the third highest medal issued by the united state army i'm a national hero
can you please give your cross streets at this time sir
why do i have to give that
because those are our rules and you know that you've been here before and you've given them
well you
know our address i've given it many times sir i cannot pretend that i'm going to remember anybody's address and that's a rule can you please give me your address
my address is 175 north 5th street north this very building i work here i'm at work right now sir i'm a human rights
civil rights
activist sir
can you give us your cross streets it's not this building no one lives in this building can you give us cross streets
it says work or live
i'm working
right now
sir you don't work for the city of st petersburg
i'm a human rights civil rights activist
sir it's simple if you can give us cross streets
you can follow the law right sir
can you just give us cross
can you follow the law yes or no
can you give us cross streets this is not a conversation 5th street
north and 2nd avenue
sir this is not a conversation it's just giving us a cross street so we can listen to what you have to say afterwards
you're wasting my time sir i said 5th street north and 2nd avenue that's works thank you i did
i did
at least 15 times you all waste a whole minute of my time telling me what i can say and what i can't say i emailed every one of you i emailed every one of you junior you act like you don't know what the 7th district encompasses you have done nothing significant for my people ever since you had that chair i want to make sure i get rid of most of you and my people today's word is jack here's the four cold ass look it up it's not cursing it's not a jack leg that's a legal term a jack ass is something totally different i'm not saying the mayor is a jack ass but it works like one talks like one looks like one because i said so i'm going to run for mayor i'm going to change all this i'm going to show you what the lord says
thank you sir any other speakers okay we close open forum announcements any announcements councilmember gerdus
thank you madam chair i think we'll wait till may for nikita's birthday but it is councilmember given's birthday this weekend on saturday so we'll go ahead and sing councilmember given's a very happy birthday happy what
sorry no we
don't have all right you know i'm speaking on a turn we don't have another council meeting this month so we have to sing to brandy as well next week oh crap i was thinking i this whole month is getting away from me no the other day the other day i was telling someone that that today was our last one of the month
it's a crazy week
sorry all right well we're gonna sing it again next week really eager to
sing happy birthday trust me you can
have it council member gabbard i'm just saying
happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear
cory happy birthday to you
before i thank you everybody i'm gonna be quiet
that's very smart the only thing i'm gonna say is my daughter and my legislative aide elizabeth if you don't already know have started the second annual city council pet photo contest and they're looking for submissions and i guess they're due today
they are hold on a
second is it today tomorrow tomorrow it's i was gonna say that's pretty short notice although they put signs so april 10th is hug your pet day so which is tomorrow so hug your pet so i think they're due tomorrow or you can check with elizabeth so hug your pets when you get home and then take a photo and send it to elizabeth and so if y'all know last time we looked at the book there were there were lots of great photos and do a really good job and take lots of pride in the photos and i think it's basically to see cute photos of animals at the end of the day so anyone thank you everyone for a wonderful meeting today meeting adjourned