City Council - Apr 10, 2025

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Chair, Copley Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4 and Council Vice Chair, Lissette Kanowitz, District 5, Deborah Figg Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Givens, and District 8, Ritchie Floyd. Afternoon, we'll call to order the April 10, 2025 City Council Meeting. Could we do a roll call, please? Kanowitz? Here. Rick Sanders? Here. Driscoll? Givens? Here. Lloyd? Here. Gerdes? Here. Gabbard? Here. Harding? Here. Thank you. Okay, we will have our invocation given today by Rabbi Philip Weintraub, Congregation Benay Israel, and then please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. 3,500 years ago, the Israelites, the Jewish people, left their indigenous home and went down to Egypt during a famine. They were welcomed as guests, and many made their lives there as immigrants. A new pharaoh came into power that saw them not as assets to the broader society, but potential enemies, and persecuted them. He enslaved them and made their lives miserable. And for over 100 years, they accepted their fate. But then they cried out to God, to their creator, who sent them Moses to assist in bringing them out of the land and returning them to their home in Israel. To this day, the Jewish people reenact this journey, celebrating a Seder with symbolic foods, refusing all leavened products for a week, eating matzah, a flat bread, to remember that we did not have time to let our bread rise in this hairy journey. We remember that we were slaves, and now we are free people. As we do that, we look around the world and see that far too many people are not yet free. And we know this time of year is sacred to so many. As Passover begins Saturday night, Easter is coming, bringing the vision of redemption through the resurrection and the Christian tradition. For Muslims, Ramadan and aid are celebrations of receiving their holy teachings. And all of these festivals remind us of our own potential, of the positive choices we can make on the world around us, just as so many wonderful honorees are here celebrating their service to the community. So our divine parents, our heavenly father, as we stand here and serve our beautiful city, let us continually aim, let us continually work to aim higher. Let us strive for excellence and fairness, equity, and the greatest challenge of all, compassion. As we see the darkest moments of so many, let us ask you to light up this world. Let us serve as beacons of light through the work that we do, and let us build a world of love. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Rabbi, thank you so much for joining us this morning and that beautiful invocation. Okay, council members, we have an agenda in front of us with the addition of H1 and H2 from this morning's BF&T meeting. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Seeing as we have a motion to second, no other council members wishing to speak. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, the motion to pass approval of the agenda passes unanimously, with Council Member Driscoll being absent. Okay, and then we'll go ahead and move into open forum. Clerk, could you please read the rules? 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're 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. 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 asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments, when you have reached 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 material must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum. If my public comment is disrupted by the violation of the rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comments by alternate means, including by email only. And, Mr. Chair, we do have some speakers. Okay, let's call two at a time, please. We have Dr. Ph.D. Please come to the podium. State your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address council. Please state your name and address, sir. My name is Dr. Perry G. Washington. This head, United States Army. I work at 175 Fifth Avenue. This building, I'm at work right now. Dr. Washington, that's not going to work. We need your address, please. I will not give my physical address for fear of the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys coming to my house. Give us the intersection then, please, Dr. Washington. Dr. Washington, Central Avenue and First Street, or there's a subdivision area called Perry's Bayou View. I'm Perry. I built that. My father built that. I put those monuments there. Is that okay? Please continue. Now, what I'll say to you, simply because I told you I built this building and you don't believe me, don't make it so. My family was in Florida before any of you were born. I'm here today because an individual I elected appeared on TV, white shirt, brown slacks, shorts, casting this everything on my people. The people that raised you, brought you up. I want to tell you, my people built the White House. So why is it impossible for me having part in building this building? I told you things I should not have known. Those paintings, are they really paintings? Or is it someone behind them? Does the ratish hold secrets? Why? I put them there, this hat. I am a security expert. Downstairs, there's another police department downstairs. They have enough guns to fan out any rat for about 15 seconds. Thank you, Dr. Washington. Mr. Chair, no more speakers. Okay. Thank you. We'll go ahead and close open forum and move into awards and presentations. We're going to start with D1, the Essence of Ebony Pearls 2025 honorees, brought to us by Councilmember Fig Sanders. I moved quick on you there, Councilmember. I'm sorry. Young ladies, I would love for you to join me at the podium, please. So it brings me, first of all, good afternoon, everyone. It brings me such honor, if y'all want to, I don't want to be here somewhere, Edward, to introduce the Essence of Ebony Pearls honorees. The 13th Biennial Essence of Ebony Pearls debutante scholarship cotillion was held this, I don't know when it was, what was the date, y'all? March 15. The chameleon was more than a celebration of beauty, elegance, and tradition. It was a milestone marking the debut of 20 remarkable young ladies into society. It was a joy working with each of you, and I'm going to ask the cotillion's chair to please come up, Ms. Cassandra Williams, and her co-chair, Ms. Reneer Boozy. As it gives, and just so that you all know, this was a scholarship organization orchestrated by the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sororities, Zeta Upsilon Omega Chapter, and I was actually the chairperson of the cotillion from 2001 to 2019. So I have experience with this, but each year it keeps getting better and better, and I just thought it necessary. to recognize, oh, our president is here, stand up, Denae Skipper, who is our chapter president. But I just thought it was necessary to thank these young ladies for wanting to participate, but more importantly, wanting a scholarship, because school is expensive. But Cassandra, I want you to come and say a few words as the chairperson. Thank you, Council Member Sanders, and thanks to the council for having us today. I just want to say that we're very proud of our young ladies. We started working with them back in October of 2024. So everything culminated on March 15th, and we're just so very proud of them. And as Ms. Big Sanders mentioned, this was a scholarship cotillion, so they were able to earn dollars for college. Again, thank you for the opportunity, and that's it. Thank you. So, of course, I'm going to recognize them with our City Council Distinguished Citizen Award, and the first one goes to Ms. Debutante Jordan Moore. I should have heard me. I said, come on, let's take our picture, girl. Let's take our picture. Then next, the first runner on, this is Ms. Braylon Brinson. And actually, it's Ms. First Attendant. I was loud and wrong. Our second Ms. Attendant is Ms. Courtney Sneed. The third attendant is Ms. Jasmine Eberhardt. Oh, you come on over here. This is Ms. Congeniality, and she, Ms. Congeniality is actually voted on by the other debutantes the night of the cotillion, and that shows that she's displayed kindness. You were sweet, too, weren't you? You didn't talk back. You didn't say anything. You just showed up. Yeah, that's Ms. Congeniality. Ms. Jalen Hicks. Next. It's Ms. Community Service. Come on, Ms. Community Service. That meant that she gave back, and we always need our teenagers to volunteer and give back to their community. Now, she's last, but definitely not least. I started a scholarship, my husband's business at Supreme Heating and Cooling. But as I was the chairperson, I saw that there was a standout every year of someone that just displayed this supreme spirit. So, Ms. Supreme Spirit, for this cotillion, it's Ms. Sabina Mimit. Sabrina Mimit. This is Ms. Supreme Spirit. Wait, hold on, sweetheart. Thank you, ladies. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much, Council Member Fix Sanders, for bringing this to council chambers today. I wanted to congratulate each and every one of you young ladies on this auspicious occasion, on this great accomplishment. My sister was a debutante. Ms. Deb was a huge supporter of her, and she wrote letters of recommendation of hers all the way until she joined the sorority. But these ladies that stand alongside you, these are mentors, these are role models. Continue to do what they do. Blaze new trails. Continue to shatter glass ceilings. Continue to break new records and be sheroes in your own rights as you go on to college. Because remember, this is about service. This is about scholarship. It's not about parties. So you're going to go to college, you're going to have a lot of fun. But remember what this day and your cotillion was all about. It was all about service and scholarship. And so go out and change the world and then come back to St. Pete, like Ms. Deb and I did, and try to change St. Pete and impact change and try to be history makers in your own right. And the last thing I want to mention is honor that history. My sister and my mom, they were debutantes at the Coliseum just like you were. But my grandmother, she was a debutante in 1945 at the Melrose Clubhouse by the Federation of Colored Women. Ms. Deb, you know about this, but you all may not. So I encourage you to do your homework. Know about the Federation of Colored Women, a society of women who in this community, they gave back. They encouraged the next generation to continue giving back. And so that's why we're here today. So congratulations to you all. Thank you, Ms. Deb. Yeah, you reminded me. I was a debutante back in 1983. Y'all do the math. But thank you so much for coming. And we do appreciate you all wanting to participate in that. But it is our honor really to recognize you and to present you to society. So thank you so much. Thank you, Councilmember, for bringing this forward and helping us celebrate these young women in our community. Okay, we're going to move to D2, Black Maternal Health Week proclamation, also given to us by Councilmember Fick Sanders. Right. So this is such an honor for me to stand here and to be able to talk about the Black Maternal Health Week, especially one who was a minute or two and a trach away from being one of the statistics of Black Maternal Health. So I'm going to ask Dr. Mashara Frost. Did I say it right? Mashara Frost. Yes, ma'am. Dr. Vicki Dugat. Zakira Peoples. Alyssa Bedard to join me as they are here representing the Florida Black Maternal Health Initiative as I read this proclamation. Whereas, annually during Minority Health Month, April 11th through the 17th, is recognized nationwide as Black Maternal Health Week to raise awareness and improve the 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 the state of Florida, where in 2020, black birthing babies were four times more likely to pass away to pregnancy-related complications, two times more likely to experience a severe obstetric event, and nearly three 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 acknowledgment of Black maternal health. And therefore, I, Councilmember Deborah Figg Sanders, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim April 11th through the 17th, 2025, 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. I'm going to allow, is it Dr. Frost? Are you going to say a few words for us? There you go, Dr. Frost. I just want to say thank you to the City of St. Petersburg for continuing to acknowledge this cause, and it's very important that we continue to raise awareness around Black maternal health, specifically in the United States. We are considered one of the worst in terms of maternal health when you compare us to other nations of similar backgrounds. And so, and that is largely driven by the racial disparities in maternal health outcomes. And so, in improving maternal health for Black mamas and Black babies, we can improve outcomes for us all and really make change in our communities. So, thank you all for having us today. I'm not sure if anybody on my team will be using it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to D3, Fair Housing Month proclamation given to us by Councilmember Gabbard. Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the Mayor for this opportunity to give this proclamation. I think it's fitting that we would be celebrating Fair Housing Month on a day when we had our Housing for Opportunities for All update this morning. We get an annual update every year, and it really discusses the remarkable work that not only our city team, but the group of stakeholders who work in the housing space bring to our city to provide the most vital piece of anyone's life, which is housing. And housing in our city is a right for all individuals, and that's why I really am happy that we're here today to bring this recognition. I want to invite our housing advocates and our housing staff up to join me for the proclamation. So we have Dr. Avery Slyker and her team, who I will let introduce because I don't want to miss anyone, all from our Housing Community Development Administration Department. And then we are also joined, please come join me, by Kwan Reamer and Manuela Hendrickson from the Pinellas Realtor Foundation. The Pinellas Realtor Foundation does work throughout the community, not only in assisting with charitable housing opportunities, but also has created a fantastic down payment assistance program that really bridges the gap for individuals. And so they have been able to put over $12 million of housing stability into the community through the work that they do. So thank you for being here with all of us today. And with that, I will go ahead and read the proclamation. I'm going to give you both a copy. Thank you. All right, and the proclamation reads, Whereas, in honor of the 57th anniversary of the signing of Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, also known as the Fair Housing Act, April is designated as Fair Housing Month to bring attention to the landmark legislation that guarantees fair housing and equal opportunity for our nation's citizens. And whereas, by supporting, promoting, and enforcing fair housing laws, as well as equal opportunity, we are contributing to the quality of our state, city, and nation by encouraging others to abide by the letter and the spirit of the National Fair Housing Act. And whereas, providing fair housing opportunities for all citizens is an essential goal of the City of St. Petersburg, and it joins with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, concerned citizens, and the housing industry in working to realize the dream of fair and affordable housing for all city residents. And whereas, the City of St. Petersburg is proud of its efforts to further fair housing and recognizes that this can only be accomplished through forging partnerships and other government agencies, corporations, for-profit, non-profit, entrepreneurs, and all persons interested in furthering fair housing. Now, therefore, I, Council Member Brandy Gabbard, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, the Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim April 2025 as Fair Housing Month in the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, and urge all citizens to observe this month by preserving and promoting each person's right to housing without regard to their status to celebrate the Fair Housing Act and protect these rights under law. Thank you for being here today, everyone, and thank you again for the work that you all do. Dr. Slyker, would you like to say anything and introduce your team? Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much, Council Member, Chair, Council, the housing team. We have a mixture here of administrative staff. We have single family. We have our outreach team, and we have multifamily here with you, and I'll let them all say hi in a moment. But on behalf of the Housing and Community Development, I would like to extend a deep gratitude for the Fair Housing Proclamation. This recognition is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and collaboration that's gone into creating a more accessible and just community for all of our residents. We're especially grateful for the opportunity to highlight the vital contributions that our residents make in helping us support and enable our efforts each and every day. Our heartfelt thanks to our partners. Together, we share a goal of creating safe and affordable housing opportunities, and this proclamation acknowledges the power of partnership in achieving this mission. I'd also like to express my sincere appreciation to the City's Code's Compliance Assistance Department, who is currently at a Fair Housing event right now for us. Their diligent work and ongoing efforts to ensure housing standards are upheld help guarantee that all residents have safe and quality home. And lastly, I want to recognize the people who live and breathe Fair Housing every day, the team behind me, and the team that's back at MSC still working. I am endlessly inspired by your dedication and the care that you show. This proclamation is not just a recognition, but a reminder of the importance of continued collaboration and the ongoing commitment that we do have to Fair Housing in our community. And we look forward to working together to further these efforts, ensuring that every resident has an opportunity to thrive. So I thank you again for this honor, and I ask you to please join us on April 23rd for the 21st Annual Fair Housing Symposium that is being held at the Pinellas Realtor Organization. Thank you. And team? I'm April. I do street outreach. Thanks. Cassandra, Senior Housing Development Coordinator. Jonathan Caudill, Finance. Mallory King, Housing Development Specialist for Multifamily. James Hicks, Financial Officer. Helen Rimes, Social Services Planning Manager. And if I may, I'd love to ask Manuela Hendrickson on behalf of the Pinellas Realtor Foundation to come up and say a few words as well. Thank you all for having us here. Fair Housing Month is an absolutely fabulous month. We love it. We all know I'm a realtor of 31 years dealing with the Pinellas Realtor Foundation, where we not only make sure that fair housing is always at the forefront, but we also do provide grants for first-time homebuyers. The housing market right now is the toughest that it's been in 30 years. We all know that, but we don't want to throw in a wrench on top of it to have discrimination issues. It's hard enough to have financial issues. So I want you to know, just in case you don't know, that all realtors are obligated on a regular basis to do fair housing training. And if there ever is any situation where you run into perceived discrimination, please reach out to our realtor association. We have a very large association, and we take this very seriously. Thank you, Brandy. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Floyd. Thank you. I just wanted to take a second and say thank you to the housing team. I know I can be difficult and give you a hard time all the time, but it's because I care, and I really appreciate the work that you do, and I want to see it be as good as possible. And so I'm very grateful. I mentioned it a little bit this morning. I really do think we do more than a lot of other places, and I believe we can continue to do even more, so I just wanted to say thank you. Council Member Fig Sanders. I concur, but I'm not difficult. I just wanted to say thank you so much because what you do is valuable. It is so important, and I wish we can clone you to have twice as many because we do have the concerns and the issues out there, but you all have done a great team. I'll make a call. You all are right on it. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And please know your work is noticed as well as appreciated. Thank you so much. Council Member Gibbons. Thank you, Chair, and I just want to thank each and every one of you publicly for the work that you do. I know that housing is a human right, and you all are proving just that, so I appreciate the boots on the ground, proactive work that you were doing to fight a crisis that is real and a crisis that is raging across our country. But I agree with Council Member Floyd that we are taking the right steps and we are enacting the right policies and taking the right measures to combat this issue. So I certainly appreciate you all for the work you do. So thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. More specifically, we encountered a young lady last Thursday, last Thursday night who was in a very horrible situation, and the team had her out of there and into a safe place Monday morning. Could not be any more grateful or any more proud of what you all do. Thank you very much. And that young lady is a phenomenal lady with two small children in the worst part of her life, and she couldn't be any more grateful for your efforts as well. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Chair, is it okay since we have the larger group here? Can we do a quick group photo? Of course. Are you okay with that? Yeah. Mayor, since you're here with us, would you please join us? Absolutely. It was your proclamation after all. I do what I'm told. Just quickly to our team, thank you so much for me. It was incredible to get that comprehensive update this morning on just all the work that's being done. When I went through that packet, I was a bit dumbfounded. It was – and I know there's 7,200 other spreadsheets that we don't get to see. And so I'm just very appreciative of all the work, and then thank you to the Penelope Realtors Foundation for all the work you're doing both behind the scenes and on the front lines. That's very appreciated. But just lastly to our team, thank you so much for what you do for all of our residents. You know, I know it can be a very thankless job sometimes, and so thank you for everything that you're doing, for all the thank yous that you don't get. Thank you for keeping up the good fight. It's very appreciated. I hope you know that. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to move into D4, Water Conservation Month, and we're joined by our Mayor, Kennedy Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Council, members of the St. Pete team, and our great community. Let me first just echo your great comments on housing. I watched that meeting this morning. We've got so much to be proud of in our city for innovating and leading on housing. Today I have the pleasure of reading two proclamations and recognizing city staff who positively impact the quality of life for our residents and visitors alike. The first proclamation for Water Conservation Month is an opportunity to educate our community about the importance of conserving water, which is one of our most precious resources. And we all recall we were reminded how important access to clean water is so important, and last year during our historic weather events. I want to invite our Public Works Director, Claude Tankersley, a face we're very familiar with, and Al Smith from our water conservation team to join me at the podium for the reading of the proclamation. Gentlemen, and it reads, Whereas water is a basic and essential need of every living creature, and whereas the state of Florida, water management districts, Tampa Bay Water, and the city of St. Petersburg are working together to increase awareness about the importance of water conservation, and whereas St. Petersburg and the state of Florida have designated an April, typically a dry month when water demand increases, as Florida's Water Conservation Month, and whereas St. Petersburg has always encouraged and supported water conservation through various incentive programs, educational presentations, and special events. And whereas every business, employee, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving Florida's precious water resources. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2025 as Water Conservation Month in St. Petersburg, and urge every citizen, visitor, and business to help protect our precious resources by becoming more aware of your use of water and using water-saving appliances and practices. And, Claude, do you want to give us some pointers? Thank you, sir. Some observations? I appreciate it. All right, sir. I actually will be very brief. I do have Al Smith with us, and he, with Chris Claus, run our water conservation program, and so I would like to have him speak to you. But one of the things that I thought about the other day is pretty incredible, I think. The last time we had to expand our water supply was back in 1971. 1971 is the last time we had to expand it. Our St. Pete water plan shows that we will not have to expand it at least until 2050. And so we might end up going close to 100 years without having to expand our water supply in large part because of water conservation and how well this community has done with that. So I just wanted to share that with you guys. And, Al, please, come on up. Thank you, Mayor, and to the Council. By making this proclamation, St. Petersburg joins other municipalities and organizations, water management districts in the state of Florida, recognizing the value of protecting our environmental resources. This is the 27th year of bringing attention to water conservation. With your permission, I would like to provide information for customers who wish to learn more about the city's water conservation programs. This year, our emphasis is on assisting our residents and businesses with outdoor water efficiency measures. St. Petersburg and our partners are offering the following educational opportunities and incentive programs. The popular Sensible Sprinkling Program provides eligible customers a free sprinkler system checkup, rain sensor installation, and detailed irrigation system drawing and an efficiency report. And residents can email SensibleSprinkling at stpete.org or call 727-892-5611 for an application or more information. The water conservation team continues to provide information, informative online classes. Subjects include collecting rainwater in rain barrels and gardens, water-wise living, getting to know your sprinkler system, and microirrigation. To view the class, schedule, and register, visit stpete.org forward slash water workshops. The city participates in a regional program that offers many different rebates for eligible St. Pete single-family, multifamily, commercial, and government properties. Rebated items include toilets, shallow wells, and cooling towers. Two new items are free installation of a smart irrigation controller and rebates for installing high-efficient sprinkler components. Customers can find details and check eligibility at tampabaywaterwise.org. And of course, for more information on all these topics, residents can call 727-892-5688 or visit stpete.org for such water conservation. Thank you. Thank you. And before I turn it over to Vice Chair Hanowitz, I just want to say, Vice Chair Hanowitz, thank you for all the work that you do at Tampa Bay Water. I know every time we have a water conversation, you are a fierce advocate. I think that's a gentle way of saying it. And I just want to thank you for all the work that you do there. I know you take it very seriously and thank you for representing us so well. I do. We all know how important water is to us, whether we have too much of it or too little of it. So I just want to say I'm always honored to represent the city of St. Petersburg on the board of Tampa Bay Water. And for those who do not know what Tampa Bay Water is, that's our regional utility. Before the existence of Tampa Bay Water, guess what? There were water wars. We used to fight about water. And elected leaders back then, it's crazy to think what happened back then happened. I can't imagine that happening now. But they got together and did something great and built a regional utility and set all those differences aside. That includes Hillsborough County, Pasco County, Pinellas County, the city of St. Petersburg, city of Tampa. And we are excited to, every time that I go to those meetings and we look at what we use in terms of our water in our city, even with all this growth, our numbers are constant. And I think this is important because I know everybody thinks, oh, seriously, a toilet, does it really matter that much? It actually does. And people have no idea because everybody's like, well, yeah, all this growth of people in the city and that's why there's so much water being used. No, we are using less water than we did. And Clyde, I know, you probably know these numbers off the top of your head. I don't. But seriously, what was the usage before, like per person? You have these numbers and every time I hear this, it shocks me. It was approximately 150 gallons per person back in 1971. It's now 75. We've cut it in half. That's unreal. Like that is the type of information that most people don't realize. So even with all our population growth, the usage that we have is less and less and it's because we know more about water conservation. We think about it. We're thoughtful. And in the city of St. Petersburg, we were pioneers back in the day with reclaimed water, which there are cities that wish they had our reclaimed water system because to actually build a system of reclaimed water nowadays, the cost would be astronomical. And you see all the growth that's happening in Hillsborough County? They wish they could do it. They can't. And so this is a type of innovation that we've had in our city. So large in part to people like Claude and Al and others that are in the city that think about these things and plan for the future. So we're very fortunate to have them. And as a board member in Tampa Bay water, I'm always honored to represent the city of St. Petersburg because we do lead the way in innovation and in these matters. So thank you very much. Thank you. And I'll just quickly say, I know I've told this story before, but every time this proclamation comes in front of us, I think about like fourth grade art class and we've got Tampa Bay water and the city of St. Pete sponsoring, draw this thing and they'll put it on the front. I don't even remember what, they made a poster out of it, I think. And because of little things like that, and by the way, I was terrible. I never, I didn't even come in a hundredth, but going through that, I remembered to turn my faucet off while brushing my teeth, you know, to not have it run, to not have the water be running in the backyard, which by the way, I did a lot as a kid. Okay. And so, but because of those things, now my kids turn off their water while they brush their teeth, when they brush their teeth. And, but they do it and they didn't need, they didn't need the spark like that because it just became normal. It wasn't that. And I think that's the council members or vice chair's point is that we were ahead of the game creating good habits with water. And I'm so thankful when I hear stats like that, I'm like, that's amazing. And so just Claude, Al, team, thank you so much. You know, those, those little ideas that you might not think go a long way. Well, there's two generations right there. They've gone a long way. And so thank you so much for what you do every day. Thank you. Madam Vice Chair, can you sprint down here? I would love to, Mayor. I was trying to get your attention. Okay, we're going to move into D5, National Library Week proclamation also given to us by Mayor Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you said, this second proclamation is in honor of National Library Week highlighting the incredible work that our library team does daily and the incredible resources that are available to our residents through our libraries. I want to invite our community enrichment administrator, Mike Jeffries, and our new library director, Beth Lindsay, to join me at the podium. Do you have other staff? Chris, what was that? Brackett. Chris Brackett from the library team as well. Thank you all for joining us. And it reads, whereas the St. Petersburg Library System provides free and equitable access to more than 360,000 books, e-books, and e-audiobooks. In addition to digital services and innovative programming, ensuring all St. Petersburg residents and visitors, regardless of background, have the support they need to be informed, connected, and empowered. And whereas all seven libraries within the St. Petersburg Library System serve as vibrant community hubs, connecting our community members with knowledge, technology, and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and learning opportunities. And whereas the St. Petersburg Library System nurtures young minds through story times, stream programs, and literacy initiatives, including our summer reading program, which saw more than 8,000 participants last year, fostering curiosity and a love of learning that lasts a lifetime. And whereas the St. Petersburg Library System protects the right to read, think, and explore, protecting the intellectual freedom and free expression for all St. Petersburg residents, and ensuring access for all. And whereas the St. Petersburg Library System, its librarians and library workers provide welcoming spaces to all the 502,000 people that visited our libraries last year, inspiring discovery, collaboration, and creativity for each of them. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim Sunday, April 6, through Saturday, April 12, as National Library Week in St. Petersburg, and encourage all residents to visit their local library, explore all the system has to offer, and celebrate all the ways the library draws us together as a community. Thank you to the team for your great work. We appreciate it. So, Mike, you always say it starts in parks, so we need something for the libraries. I'll work on it. Okay. Who would like to make some comments? All right. Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate those comments, and thank you, Council, for all of your support. It is really refreshing to be able to stand here before you today as chair of the PPLC for Pinellas County and tell you that I am proud of the City of St. Petersburg and the support that our library system gets. As you can imagine, nationally, locally, libraries are under attack right now, and I'm happy to report that here in St. Pete that is not the case. As Mayor indicated, we provide access to all. We provide information to everyone, regardless of what information they're seeking, and I think that's critical. You've heard me say this in the past. Libraries are the great equalizers. They don't care what your annual income is. They don't care where you graduated from. They don't care if you graduated. The library system is there to uplift, to teach, to answer questions, and to move people forward. Last month, I was able to participate in a graduation program that occurred because of our library system, and we have a program that is free that doesn't offer a GED but offers an actual high school diploma for those that go through the program, and I will tell you right now, it was awe-inspiring to see single moms, single dads, to see grandparents stand up and to get their high school diploma after working for two years to earn it, and we're looking to move the needle in all different areas. This right here is a program that we should all be very, very proud of. I do want to introduce our new library director. I'm very excited. I am actually very disappointed that I have to report that she graduated from Lakewood High School. I'm not exactly sure how that happened. I don't think I looked at the resume very carefully. When Beth gave me some notes, I thought, oh man, Mary's going to rip me on this. So yes, as a Northeast Viking graduate, I have to give props where they're due, but Beth has been with us for 19 years now. She's been in almost every one of the areas of our library system. She started in youth services, and I think most people know her from youth services, circulation, reference, and then management. We are so excited to have Beth here. She graduated from Florida Southern and then worked in the Lee County Library System for 15 years before we were able to steal her. So as you know, we lost our previous library director. Mika had to leave the city, unfortunately. And I know Mayor Rob, Tom, and I really worked hard to figure out who the right person would be to replace Mika, and I'm happy to report that we have absolutely found that in Beth. I will turn the mic over to Beth. She is not super fond of speaking publicly, so I've told her she'll do an amazing job and that you guys are harmless. So if you can keep that in mind as we move forward, that would be fantastic. Thank you, Mayor, city council members, and city administration. With so much going on in the libraries on the national, state, and local levels right now, National Library Week is more important than ever to shine a light on what libraries and library staff do every day for their communities. Libraries are so much more than a quiet place to read. We also offer e-books, e-audiobooks, programs for people of all ages, computer and wireless internet access, including hotspots, museum passes, and so much more. I want to thank our staff for all that they do for our community every day. I just want to thank our city administrators and city council members again. We're so grateful for your support and look forward to continuing to work with you to make sure libraries have the services and resources necessary to help our community members thrive. Thank you. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you so much, Chair. I appreciate it, and thank you all for the work that you're doing to create more equitable communities, to close that digital divide. A lot of folks don't realize it. Even though I'm a millennial, I grew up at a time where everyone didn't always have the internet in their home. So, Councilmember Floyd was the St. Pete Public Library, now the Barack Obama Library, where I would go to fill out that FAFSA application, to fill out my financial aid applications and my scholarships and school applications, all of that stuff. So, I appreciate you all for being that place where doors were open for me. I remember going there to get the story time hour with Roger Clement. It's always a great time coming to our libraries, so thank you all so much for the work that you do. I'm thinking about, Mr. Mayor, the gas plant district. You know, a lot of folks don't know the first black library was in the historic gas plant district. So, as we recognize our history, let's honor that as well and the doors that are being opened every day. So, welcome to St. Pete. We appreciate you coming back home, Beth, and go Spartans. Thank you, Jerry. I sure handle it. Thank you. Well, in the proclamation, when story time came up, all I can think of would the wheels on the bus go round and round because I remember holding my daughter at the soon-to-be-open Obama library and doing that with her and it was such a wonderful time, I think, in a parent's life when the child is growing and you go to story time in the library and now I go with her to pick Sunshine State books. It's crazy how quickly that happens and so, to me, the libraries are such an important part of my life, not just for my daughter when I was growing up. We didn't have a lot of money. We couldn't go buy books. We had to go to the library to borrow books. We didn't have money to go buy the books and so, that was central to getting an education and seeing what's happening, how the libraries are under attack. You know, the bottom line is when I think about libraries, I think about First Amendment. I think about protecting our freedoms, our freedoms of expression, allowing diverse points of view because that is a cornerstone of a free society. And that's what you all do and you provide to us and that is extremely important. And for everyone that's out there, go out and get your library card and visit the library because they have so much to offer. So, thank you. Thank you. Mike, Beth, Chris, thank you for all the work that you... I have my library card. Good. I got to meet Beth at the event at Al Lang on the field and I got schooled with all the things that I didn't know about the libraries very quickly. And so, I appreciate that because now I will never forget those. And so, just thank you for everything you're doing. I mean, I think everybody up here could talk about fond memories in libraries and just so happy to continue to celebrate all the work we're doing and I know I probably speak for all of us where we're all very excited to reopen Obama Library and that'll just be one more thing to celebrate during the year when it comes to libraries. So, thank you for all the work that you do. Yeah. Okay. We're going to move... We're going to switch gears now. We're going to move into I-1, a resolution providing for settlement authority limits. for liability and workers' comp. We've got Ken McCollum, I think. Right here. Oh, yeah. Sorry, Ken. I expected you down there. I got a little space up here today. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm not here with a settlement today. What I'm here about is our processes internally and this is something the legal department has been discussing for the last couple of years and we finally decided this is probably a good time to bring it. As many of you will recall, the authority that the legal department has to settle cases is $25,000. Anything over that, we come to council and you get briefed and then we have a vote on it and then for our workers' compensation cases, that limit had been $35,000. Well, the interesting thing to note is that prior resolution, those figures go back to 1993. I was in my first year of law school when that happened. That's how long ago it was. And so if we plug $25,000 into an inflation calculator and run it through to today, that would be over $55,000 in terms of a like value. And so we are seeking from council a resolution to increase our authority to $50,000 and that would also provide authority to the risk management department up to $25,000 without having to come to the legal department. And just a couple other items of background in all this as to why we're doing this. There's a couple different reasons. One thing that you never see is property damage involving automobiles and a number of cases that happen within the city. And by making this change, it'll allow the risk management department to deal with people whose cars have been damaged without forcing them to go through their own insurance. And with the values of vehicles that have gone up so high, that'll make the city a little more responsive to people that are in those situations. The other thing that I would add is there's been a change in the rules of civil procedure in Florida. As of January 1, cases are moving in circuit court much more quickly. And as part of that tool, the judges here in our local jurisdictions are sending us to non-binding arbitration on a fairly regular basis. And with the timelines involved on that and how quickly things are moving, we're not nimble enough in terms of notice requirements with council to get something in front of you so we end up in an arbitration and then we have to react quickly under the rules to respond to the award and our hands are a little bit tied and if we had a little bit more authority, we might be able to resolve more cases at a lower number than what we end up with with a non-binding arbitration award. So that's some of the rationale behind it. And then just in terms of the big picture, I know we have a couple of council members that are newer since we've been doing this. Just as an interesting historical viewpoint, which I find interesting, the sovereign immunity cap in Florida began in 1973. It was $50,000. It has changed over the years. It went to $100,000 in 1981. The current cap is $200,000. That went into effect in 2010. And that's where we are today. Obviously, every year we hear in Tallahassee there's movements afoot to increase the amount. There is currently a bill in front of the House, a companion bill in the Senate that doesn't have much movement. But as we all know, things happen rapidly at the last minute. This is threatened every year. It might be a little different this year because it appears the plaintiff's bar is giving money to the other side of the aisle that they've never done before because they realize that's the only way they'll get things done. So we'll just have to see how that plays out in the next few weeks. But be that as it is, that's what we're asking for. If anybody has any questions. Chair Hanwitz. Thank you. Well, first of all, I just want to commend you. That was a very long and broad overview for this, which I think is fantastic. As a good attorney, you were ready and you answered every question before anybody can ask a question. So I thought that was extremely good. And I just am amazed that we've gone from 1993 to now and haven't done this. So with that, move approval. Okay. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much. Having been someone, and we talked about this, Ken, who was affected by the city's high-speed chase pursuit policy before that changed, I was hit by an individual who was fleeing from the police. And the city settled with me. And that was $1,000, even though I needed to buy a brand-new car that had been totaled to get back to Florida State to be able to finish school. And I had medical bills and all that stuff. It wasn't much. So I say all that to say this, is the time has come to adjust to inflation. There are costs that people incur as a result of accidents that don't happen, you know, so on their account. So I think it's just time for us to do this. It's long overdue, so that's why I'm supporting it. So thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item I-1 passes unanimously with Council Member Driscoll being absent. Okay. Thank you, everybody. Thanks, Ken. Okay, we're going to go into reports now, and we're going to have a presentation from Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, and we have Alicia Shuloff and a couple other members of her team. I'll let her introduce them, the president of the hospital, and just before we start, I've been very fortunate enough to be on the foundation board of the hospital now, I think, four years, and this place is very, very near and dear to my heart, and I'm sure I'll have comments at the end, but just, Alicia, thank you for everything the hospital has done, has gone through this year, and I'm very excited for my colleagues to hear this update. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chair Gerdes, and thank you to City Council. It is a delight to be with all of you today, and I am joined by our Chief Operating Officer, Justin Olson. I'm joined by Anita Berry, and also Dave Billardello with our Vice President for Government Affairs, so we really appreciate the opportunity to join you, and it has been a minute since I've been with you all, just about three years, and we have, at that point in time, I was a new resident here in St. Petersburg, and now I am pleased to share that we are all friends. We have raised kids together among us, and we have survived two hurricanes or such that, so we will jump right in, and I just wanted to say thank you for your true partnership and leadership. This slide hasn't changed too much since we've joined, but I just wanted to level set and remind you a little bit about the Johns Hopkins All Children's System. So we are the most recognized academic leader in pediatrics with the highest acuity, meaning the highest level of care demanded by our patients, and also the highest Medicaid utilizer in the state of Florida. We are proud to serve as the number one children's hospital by U.S. News and World Report, and I think that's something that we can truly all celebrate. The number one children's hospital in the state of Florida right here in St. Pete, offering, again, the highest specialized services. As I mentioned, I think the points on Medicaid are really important for all of us to recognize. Over 60% of our patients are on Medicaid, and we all recognize that Medicaid typically pays about 70 cents on the dollar, so you can see that the calculus there really creates a situation where we have a shortfall, and that is why we rely so much on supplemental funding and also on our philanthropic giving. This slide has changed, however. This really represents our regional care network, and we recognize that inpatient care is only a small piece of the equation. Johns Hopkins All Children's here in St. Pete is a 259-bed facility, and I might add that it has been very full. We have been near capacity for the last several months. Actually, we continuously have the highest census on record in the 250s out of those 259 beds, so we definitely appreciate the community's need for our services. This slide, however, also recognizes the other areas on the west coast of Florida where we are located. Again, inpatient care, those 259 beds that I alluded to are very full, but we know typically care is given in more than inpatient settings, and it's actually the majority of the care is in an outpatient setting. So what you see on this slide is a number of our outpatient care centers as well as the affiliations we have with other hospitals in the area. We are truly the provider for many others in the area. When they come or need pediatric care, as you can see on the slide represented in green, those are hospitals that utilize us. So we not only have the 259 beds here in St. Pete, but we cover about 100 beds throughout the west coast of Florida, again represented on this slide. And in addition to that, and what I will speak about in a few minutes, is that we are also opening a new campus with Justin's incredible leadership with that initiative opening up in Wesley Chapel. That will add about 56 beds to our total. So our mission, as we approach our 100th year, I heard a lot of that spoken about today with 100 years here in St. Pete. Our mission is grounded in these four areas, treatment, education, research, and advocacy. So I want to take a moment and walk you through each of the pillars of our mission just to showcase a bit about what our teams are doing on a daily basis. I think when we talk about treatment, the best way that I can describe our treatment and our care and services to you is through some stories from patients. So let's begin with Maya. She is in the upper left-hand corner. Maya is an example of our cardiac program. This is an incredible program that we have, again, one of the largest heart transplant programs in the area. And Maya represents, her story is really powerful. Maya came to us first when she was about seven months old for her first heart transplant and then came back to us about seven years old. Maya is a dear friend of mine, I might add. She is as spunky as can be. And she was adopted by the most beautiful family who has loved her and cared for her. But Maya oftentimes can be found playing hide-and-go-seek with Dr. Q and or Dr. AK. and I think she has in effect stolen our hearts while we have healed hers. The next slide is Ezra. And Ezra is in that upper right-hand corner there. Ezra represents our Maternal, Fetal, and Neonatal Institute. That is our 97-bed NICU and, again, about 100 beds throughout the west coast of Florida. Here you see Ezra. And this particular story resonates with me. See those balloons right there at the head of the bed? They showcase 529. And that was 529 days that Ezra was under our care before going home for the first time. And so Ezra is pictured there with the care team that took care of Ezra and I think really showcases our commitment to research and education and, again, all of the care and compassion. I think as a mom of four children about taking my child home for the first time and how that was even a little unnerving and I can't imagine not taking my child home for the first 529 days of life and knowing that specialized care that is required. So it's just a beautiful testament, I think, to that specialized care that we provide. In the bottom left-hand corner, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Jojo and pictured in the back, he kind of blends in with his brother but is also Jaden. So you can see the back of Jaden's head and the front of Jojo's. And this is a beautiful story because I think one of the differentiators for pediatric care is the wraparound services that we are able to provide, truly that family care. And so Jojo and Jaden are ringing that chemotherapy bell together. And what I would love to share also, I've gotten to know this family very well as well, and the beautiful thing here is that that family was so touched by our team that in turn, every Friday afternoon, particularly just a backdrop, for our hematology oncology kids, oftentimes those kids are with us for an extended period of time, right? Potentially a 30-day chemotherapy treatment. But every Friday, they would host a coffee stand with us. And so Jojo and Jaden would turn back to our team members to give them snacks and coffee. And I think that is just another example of how our services are unique and different and how we really become family. And then finally, Jaden represents our Institute for Brain Protection Sciences. This is a top program in Florida for pediatric neurology and neurosurgery. And this service also includes our behavioral health program, which I know we all know and recognize is so critical for services these days. Jaden came to us after a very traumatic boating incident, and the care team is there with Jaden as well. I think this story is really powerful because Dr. Jallo, who's pictured in the upper right-hand corner, talks about when he met Jaden's mom, how he could only promise her that he would do his very best, but he wasn't sure Jaden was going to get off of the operating room table. But look at Jaden right there, just as smiley as could be alongside, again, the team that took care of him from the ER with Dr. Megan Martin to Dr. Jallo and the rest of the team. But these are four very specialized services that we provide with hundreds and thousands of children that are in our care each and every day. And I think what really constitute and bring to life our mission and particularly that quarter, the one component of our mission that I alluded to for treatment. In addition to these four institutes represented by these four patients, we also have some really significant, what we call niche or pioneering program, where Johns Hopkins All Children's is truly one one of the only hospitals in the country, if not the world, offering the level of care and service. And the example I give there is our congenital diaphragmatic hernia program. That is a mouthful. And this is truly where the diaphragm doesn't go all the way across the baby's abdominal region and cavity. This is oftentimes diagnosed about 20 weeks by ultrasound and utero. And if you are diagnosed with this anywhere else across the country, you might have somewhere between a 40 and 60 percent survival rate. Johns Hopkins All Children's has the only, the only, it's fun to say when you have the only in the world, but the only dedicated unit to this disease state. This is under the leadership of Dr. David Kays and an incredible team of care providers, including Stacey Stone and many others, who come together to take care of this patient population. And remember those statistics I shared, these kiddos have over a 90 percent survival rate in our unit, and that's even with the most complex of care. So that is one example. Our EATS, or esophageal airway treatment program, is just another, but I share that to really emphasize that while we can definitely take care of the bumps and bruises, you all have helped us for almost 100 years provide that specialized care in the community, and we are so grateful. So moving on to the second of our pillars, this is our education mission, and I think this is near and dear to all of our hearts as well. We are home to two pediatric residency programs. It's our commitment to really train the next amazing providers in the country and in the world. So those two pediatric programs, we have a longstanding relationship with USF, University of South Florida, and then also our Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital residency program. And between those two, we have 15 fellowship programs in addition to those two residency programs. And I want to call out in this slide, you can see on the left-hand side, that is a picture out of our simulation center. And by all means, I always welcome, if anyone wants a tour of our campus, we'd love to provide that. This simulation center is again one of a kind where we are helping to put folks in that situation that hopefully they never have, but we will train them as if it were real. And again, because of our high level of specialization, oftentimes we have that once in a blue moon situation that we have to train for, and this is where oftentimes that happens. And we've also used that to apply for the line funding, which I think you all are familiar with out of the state of Florida. And that is one example of how we bring our learners together in a very controlled environment. That environment is also used to help prepare patients and their families to go home. As I was describing Ezra's situation earlier, that sim center is also used to bring parents in so they can practice and be prepared for when they take their child home. We have one room that simulates a bedroom or your television room or whatever you call it, your den. And those simulations examples have been known to save a child's life several times over because they have had the chance to practice in our sim center. I should also mention before I go on, education is not just limited to our physicians and our Johns Hopkins all children's environment. We also have extensive training programs with our nurses. We have a very unique and specialized nurse residency program because we know that that's an area of opportunity for us, especially with COVID, how many of our nurses had condensed training. Our nurse residency program gives them the opportunity to have more clinical environment time as well as that specialized care that they need or specialized environment that they need. Research is another differentiator. So I'm on the third of four components of our mission. And research is very important and is a differentiator because it gives additional hope and healing when families might not have access to in other environments to clinical trials. So I'm proud to say we have over 500 research studies and over 150 clinical trials specifically in what we call our Children's Oncology Group. We, Children's Oncology Group is a national collaborative and consortium and we are one of the few members in the state of Florida. So again, that increases the hope, the opportunity for research trials, especially for our hematology oncology patients. And the fourth area of our mission is advocacy. And I think no better time than now to share the importance of our role, really helping others understand, as I am doing here with you today, the importance of importance of children's health. So as I mentioned, a lot of our advocacy comes in education relative to our funding mechanisms and the importance and the reliance we have on supplemental funding and also philanthropy. We are one of only four licensed specialty children's hospitals by Florida statute in the state. And so again, I just hope that that is something that sits with all of us and that is something that we can take home to recognize the important role that we play with education of our constituencies as well. Amory is the little girl pictured here, giving the high five to our care team member. And again, it's telling Amory's story over and over again and hoping to bring our patients' stories to life. So we also have a very important economic impact. We are one of the top 50 of Tampa Bay's largest employers. We have about 3,600 full-time and part-time employees. And again, in the 10 largest employers in Pinellas County. And we appreciate your support with many of those efforts and all of the collaborations that we do. In addition to this, I just want to call out our net community benefit. That is approximately $129 million in 2024. That is a summation of all of those dollars that we are really reinvesting and giving back into the community. It goes from everything for some of our community health initiatives, our charity care, our community building activities, and so much more. And again, we are the partners with you all and appreciate you helping us to bring those to life. So when I was with you last, we had not yet, or maybe we had just started, embarking on our strategic plan. And I just wanted to spend a quick few minutes sharing the successes that we've had and the journey that we are on with the great leadership of you all and others in the community. So when we started about three years ago, we engaged about 1,500 stakeholders. No exaggeration, we tried to count. 1,500 stakeholders to say, what do you want in your children's hospital in the next 100 years as we were approaching our centennial? And together, that came to form that center circle, to be the premier clinical and academic pediatric health system in the southeastern United States. And then we said, what's it going to take to get there? And you will see the outer ring identifying what we call our pillars. So just briefly, I would like to highlight a couple of the accomplishments that we had relative to those pillars in 2024. First, relative to being a trusted leader, we are proud to have our second magnet designation. That is the highest level of nursing and patient care excellence recognized. In addition, we expanded, again with the great leadership of the team that's with me today and everybody back in the hospital, we expanded our network locations and specialty care providers and were designated as that number one children's hospital in the state of Florida. Under Pursue Excellence, we had significant operational improvements, including our performance and quality and safety and also outperforming our budget. When you think about how do we make hospital or Johns Hopkins all-children's hospital easy, this is hitting that red easy button if we will, because we know that healthcare is inherently complex. That has been in the growth and access project for Wesley Chapel as well as a bit of our St. Petersburg campus expansion that I will be talking about with facility hardening as we have all endured these last two hurricanes. And then just recently, in fact, this past month, we expanded into urgent care in Tampa. As we think about how we grow and cultivate healthy and thriving communities, we've done a number of things, including the expansion into our community programs that have community sponsorship. And then finally, the green pillar there, we have done quite a bit with innovation and discovery, expanding our fellowship programs and new trials. 2025 has gone quickly already. we are nearly halfway or three-quarters of the way done through our fiscal year, and we are really proud with the accomplishments that you see on this slide as well, again, being the number one children's hospital by U.S. News and World Report, along with some other recognitions, having operational excellence. I alluded to earlier that highest census on record over and over again. We have also done, I think this one's an important one to call out, and we appreciate the collaboration with the city police department, but we know that violence in the workplace has increased, not just in hospitals, but across the nation. That is something that we are really dedicated and working on, and we have a team that is working to enhance our workplace safety, and you all have been a great partner, and members of the community have been great partners in that effort. We're really proud about the groundbreaking. Hopefully some of you had the chance to see some of that media recently, and opening our Wesley Chapel Clinic, which is a precursor to that Wesley Chapel campus, and then in just a moment, I'll walk through the hardening of the St. Pete campus. Finally, I'll let your eyes scan, but we are really, really amazed and impressed. We just recently, a couple months ago, opened a new clinical trial involving gene and cell therapy. That can be a life changer for our patients, truly. We think about the concept of can you cure a disease? This is an example of a way that we have have cured potentially a disease for a patient, and so I think that, again, demonstrates our commitment to innovation and discovery. All right, so I'd just like to move into a couple things here. I'll skip that slide in light of time, but we had great partnership with the city over hurricanes Helene and Milton. I know I don't need to share with anyone in this room just the challenges of those storms overall, but I think what I want to highlight is first the success that we were able to accomplish together with our community partners. We were able to offer significant employee support, raising money to give directly back to our employees who face storm damage and personal loss, partnering together with the community for food, water, baby supply, and car seat distribution, and then finally, as it pertains to the facilities, I think this is where we are most looking forward to the partnership going forward to invest in the hardening of our facilities. We did sustain damage of approximately $1.5 million that already has required significant work, but our steam line is vulnerable and is delicate, and we are now in the position to invest approximately $34 million, $34 million to harden our facilities, and when you think about the numbers that I shared previously about the challenges and the shortfall that we already have given our Medicaid funding, this is where your partnership and your help will be so critical. These slides are in your deck, but this just alludes to some of that damage that we had, the $1.5 we've already invested, but this slide shows the $33 million, and we were so excited to see the Sunrise St. Pete program, and we are very anxious and ready to be the first knocking on your door to complete that grant process to assist us with covering that $33 million price tag as it is so significant. This is what those dollars in part will go towards as the expansion of St. Pete campus. The reason why is that first bullet point you see in the upper right-hand corner, that steam utility replacement. This project will totally move our current steam line, which is down the street from our campus, to creating an opportunity for it to be adjacent as you see in that upper left-hand corner with the steam boilers moving right by the facility. This will significantly enhance our ability to reduce those steam line vulnerabilities that are currently in play and that we all are just anxious and hope that we will not have another hurricane until we get this project done. So these are some visuals of the excitement of what I've already alluded to. We are very thrilled to share this information with you, and we can't say thank you enough for all of your partnership, and before I take any questions, if you can assist me with a slide and push that watch button, we will celebrate with you all Ryan's story. Thanks for making the magic happen with the video. This is one of those chemotherapy ringing experiences. I wish I could have you all to the hospital to experience it, but this is the closest thing I've got. I do that every time, friends. From the bottom of my heart. For loving our boy as much. For loving our boy as much. Honestly, you guys are angels. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much. It's an honor. That's what we do. So all we do, all for kids. That's what we do. We love these kids as if they are our own, and we hope to get them home soon. So thank you for your time and attention, and I am delighted to take any questions that you have with the great assistance of the team that's here with me today. Council Member Givens. No questions, Chair, but I just want to thank you so much for being here today, Alicia. I appreciate the work you do, and I applaud you and your efforts. I'm one of the newer council members, so I haven't had the opportunity to come over for a tour, but I'm so excited to come over there. I was over at Bayfront with John this week, and it was amazing. I was just blown away by the innovative technology, the work you all are doing. I'm just excited to get over there, so I can't wait to sit down and talk to you and see what you all are doing. You talked for a moment about gene and cell therapy. Are you doing anything in regards to sickle cell disease treatment right now? Yes. In fact, that gets a presentation all by itself by Dr. Tamara New, who is leading that charge. We have one of the most recognized sickle cell disease team across the country. Maybe you already knew that, but it's phenomenal, and again, I think on the front edge of leading cures for kids, so please, when you come by, we can't wait to have you, and Dr. New and the entire team would be delighted to share more. Dr. Valahos also just recently joined us, and she is on another very specific disease state that is on the front edge. We can't wait to share. Yes, and I know a little bit about it. Good. Dr. New is on the St. Pete Sickle Cell Disease Board with me, so I know a little bit about the work you're doing, and again, you know, oncology and hematology, the two are cousins, so I'm excited to see how we can support you. I know we have partners at the federal level that are interested in investing in that, so looking forward to coming over. Likewise. Council Member Fick Sanders. Thank you, and thank you for the presentation and the great care that you continue to give our babies because you know they are truly my heart and our future, and Council Member Givens took my question because when you spoke about the specialty care, sickle cell was the first thing that came to mind for me because we've had so many issues with getting equitable treatment, and for those that truly understand what that looks like for our young people that are afflicted with sickle cells, so I'm ready for the presentation. please make sure I get that invite so I can get there to see what that presentation looks like because it has taken so long for us to really get that federal recognition, and I think Senator Roussan has some good news for us this legislation session, so I am looking forward to that presentation, and thank you so much for everything else that you do for our children. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. So, Alicia, it sounds like you have your next lunch and learn. We do. And so I'm just going to I'm going to cheer on the hospital for a minute. The work that they're doing at the hospital blows me away every time I'm over there, and I'm unfortunately, unfortunately, there a lot, and I'll just give you I'll give you one example of one of the stories that I heard the other day, and I was at the hospital talking to Jim Thompson. He's a doctor there, and a child at Manitoba, I think it was Manatee Memorial, needed a surgery, and he couldn't get there fast enough, so we put him in a helicopter and flew him there to do it rather than bring the child here. That's the, they don't stop at Johns Hopkins All Children's. It's incredible. I, you know, I, the doctors that I've met over there, Jowlo, Q, Thompson, K's, I won't even go into CBDI because then I'll, I'm probably going to cry anyway, but then I would definitely cry, but the, they're, not only are they amazing doctors, they're amazing human beings. It's incredible, and I, I mean, I'll speak for me, I haven't always had that experience with doctors, and to, to walk in there, and Jim, Jim Thompson's like six, seven. He like swallows me, giving me a hug. It's ridiculous, and so it's just, it's incredible, their work they're doing, and I don't, I don't like doing this, but I'm going to talk a little about what my family does over there. So nine years ago, my wife's little cousin was diagnosed with ALL, and we started a charity, and after this year, we'll have given $800,000 to research at the hospital and $400,000 at $5,000 a clip. So you can do that math real quick. Of children that have been diagnosed with cancer, that have received treatment at Johns Hopkins All Children. The ridiculousness to have that charity blows me away every day. I want to shut it down, and the only reason we can do that is if we continue to support this hospital. Like, and that's just one part of it. You know, we talked, the gene cell therapy, Council Member Givens, thank you for bringing it up, but for us to even have to have that sickens me, and so, I'll speak for me, obviously, whatever support, me, my family, and however I can lead this council, I'm in. I don't, you know, we have a gem in our backyard, and for anybody, and I won't go down this rabbit hole, anybody that wants to see it, I'll be at Live the Mission tomorrow at 745 in the morning at the hospital. If you want, Council Members, if you want to do that, Ryan will give you the information to do Live the Mission where you get to go behind the scenes. I'm taking some people from the community, but if you question what's going on over there, my daughter had hip dysplasia at three days old, which turned into a gastro thing, and we spent way too much time there, and now she hugs the doctors that she sees from there, and then my son was a NICU baby, and let me tell you, the doctors are cool, the nurses are heroes, and so if you've got a question about Johns Hopkins All Children's, this isn't for my colleagues, this is for anybody that's listening, my office is open. I will answer those questions, and so team, Alicia, thank you. We are so thankful. Thank you all. All right. Before I go into full blown mode, we're going to move into F2, St. Petersburg Free Clinic Update. Jennifer, welcome. Thanks for being patient. Oh, thank you. What an honor. To follow the wonderful presentation by Alicia, All Children's is one of our partners, and I'm very humbled to share the podium with them today. Thank you to Chair Gerties, Vice Chair Hanowitz, and council members for the opportunity to share an official update. Lots of you have gotten unofficial updates, and I want to thank my team members, Cheryl Zeitler, Chief Executive Affairs Officer, and Zoe Blair Andrews, our Senior Director of Impact, for being here today as well. St. Pete Free Clinic was founded in 1970 as a home for uninsured adults to receive no-cost health care. And over five decades later, we continue to deliver on that promise, and we've also grown to provide additional critical services in our community, including food, housing, and navigation. So I'd like to start my brief remarks today by giving you all an update on the Fresh Pace Program, which, as many of you are aware, is our Healthy Neighborhood Stores Program that we deliver in partnership with the city, and specifically the Healthy St. Pete Division, with lots of thanks to Kim Lato, that whole team, and Mike Jeffries for all of their support and collaboration. The Fresh Pace Program intends to provide a solution to food deserts by identifying and working with existing neighborhood corner stores to increase the amount of healthy food they offer and to drive the prices down for those healthy foods. I am thrilled to share that two years after the launch of this program, we are achieving hoped-for results. All of our certified Fresh Pace stores receive support in improving their infrastructure and their ability to stock healthier food, things like coolers and shelving, and even new security systems, new doors, exterior paint, to not just help with the stocking of food, but to also improve accessibility, safety, and the overall curb appeal and welcoming nature of the store. From there, participating stores choose from a selection of healthy items to stock, they purchase those items, and then they get reimbursed through grant dollars up to a certain amount for those purchases. Then they're required to price those items at an agreed-upon rate that is either comparable to or lower than what customers would pay at a traditional grocery store. This is in contrast to how stores of this size might typically have to price healthier items by marking them up and thus making it much harder for people to buy and afford those healthier selections. We're proud that we keep communication lines open with the stores, and each month, every store is visited by SPFC program staff to ensure food and pricing are in compliance and that pricing is displayed so that customers know at a glance that nutritious food is indeed accessible to them. The program has achieved and continues to achieve results. In a survey to customers across all of our Fresh Pace locations, 81% shared that they no longer need to shop at other stores. 94% of customers cited the affordability of fresh produce, and 97% indicated they'd recommend shopping at Fresh Pace stores to others based on the availability of fresh produce and other healthy options. That last stat is meaningful because we want store owners to also see the value of stocking and lowering the price of healthy food, more customers, and more sales revenue. And in fact, that's exactly what's happened. As one store owner shared, since joining the Fresh Pace program, we have doubled our produce sales as a store. So we are proud to be Pinellas County's and by extension, St. Petersburg's largest food bank and most heavily visited food pantry, which I'll talk a little bit more about in just a moment. But we also know that food banking and pantries are not the sole solution to food security and nutrition equity. Our neighbors deserve to shop for healthy, affordable food in locations that are accessible to them. And Fresh Pace achieves just that. It's a powerful part of the solution to food deserts and helps support neighborhood-based nutrition and health equity. We're grateful to be in our third year of this powerful program with continued funding from the city, and we hope to sustain and grow this beyond this year with the city's continued support. We are also grateful to continue our work in increasing food security and nutrition equity through our new food bank, a 28,000 square foot facility on 31st Street South, and our We Help Fresh Pantry locations downtown and on the deuces. Through the food bank, we are consistently distributing over 20 million pounds of food or 17 million meals, representing $47 million in grocery cost savings for families annually. We distribute to 115 partner sites throughout Pinellas County, 55% of which are in St. Pete. These sites include churches, preschools, high schools like Gibbs, the Emergency Room at All Children's Hospital, and other nonprofit partners like Positive Impact Ministries, Reach, St. Pete, Neighborly, and the Shirley Proctor Puller Foundation. We receive the food we distribute through our food bank from a variety of sources, including Farm Share, large vendors across the state like Second Harvest in Orlando, Feeding Tampa Bay, and through bulk purchases. In fact, 35% of the food that we distribute is purchased with the support of a grant from the Juvenile Welfare Board. More than 70% of the food we distribute is fresh. Produce, healthy protein, dairy, and bread. And at our We Help Fresh Pantry locations, we are consistently serving more than 30,000 visitors every single month in every zip code from the county, but most heavily so from census tracts in St. Pete that line up with the Healthy Food Action Plan's food priority areas. In addition to the significant work that we're directly doing to promote health through accessible, healthy food, we continue to operate our founding program, SPFC's Health Center. Our Health Center provides no-cost primary care, specialty care, including cardiology, gastroenterology, gynecology, and neurology, dental care, no-cost prescription medications, diabetes intervention services, mental and behavioral health care, and medical navigation services. The combination of our local work in food and health care that does not cost our neighbors anything is transformational for our community. And we see that in community members like Michael, who became a patient at our health center after visiting a health screening event that we hosted at the site of one of our Fresh Pace stores. He didn't know it, but Michael had uncontrolled diabetes and no health insurance. After connecting with SPFC at this health check event at a Fresh Pace store, he is now receiving the care that he needs from us, including regular visits with his primary care provider, medications, a healthy living coach to support him in his diabetes management, and healthy food. Today, Michael's A1C is way down and he's feeling good. And he has said without SPFC, he probably wouldn't be here today. Multiply Michael by the thousands. And that's the impact of the Free Clinic, a powerful community resources with all eight of our locations in St. Petersburg. As we look to the future, we know that we will be facing times when the need for what we do will only increase. And as such, we know we need to expand, deepen our impact, provide our community with more health care tools, and increase access to our programs. So with that in mind, I'm excited to share that we are looking to acquire the former Badcock Furniture Building on 22nd Avenue South and Martin Luther King Street. Some of you already know that. So cat's out of the bag. We're hoping that's going to happen soon. And at that location, we plan to offer healthy food, health care, navigation, and a variety of additional services delivered through partners all under one roof, creating even more access for our neighbors and accelerating our community's movement toward health equity. We look forward to keeping you posted and we thank you so much for being so supportive of everything that we do. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Fix Sanders. Thank you. Welcome, Jennifer. You know, since my first tour at the Free Clinic and to see, even then, you were doing an awesome job. Now you are super awesomeness as to, yeah, just one of, another super, super, super with everything that you've done. and to see, to come in and watch the dignity of those needing those services where you don't know who's who, they get their own cart, they do what they do, they get what they need, and how you don't turn anyone away. You know, so when I look at what your food sources are and what your revenue is and more importantly what your expenses are, I'm glad as a city representative that we've continued to support your efforts because what you do benefits our constituents. And I want to say congratulations on the new Badcock location. Yay. I'll get there. Fingers crossed. We're going to speak it into existence because you will be right diagonally across from the senior health care center. So with you not, you know, specifically serving seniors and our seniors right there because my mom and aunt get services at that senior center. So then look at the convenience now for our seniors to come and get the free food and things like that. And I was at the Ray Jax, our first fresh paste store for that grand opening of the program and it's continued to grow. I think two of them are in District 5. But you have continued to grow the mission but not only walk the walk with serving our constituents. And so I can't find anything wrong with what you're doing. And if I could, I would try to help you fix it. That's just how supportive I am of what it is that you're doing and all the accomplishments that you've made. Because I think I met you what, three years ago? You may have been three years ago. It was sometime during COVID which feels like a blur. Yeah, I know. So that was 2020 so that was my first year in council. So I, again, thank you for coming and giving us this report and I am in full support of anything and I told you that then. Full support of anything that you're trying to accomplish because of how many people you serve so unselfishly. And when you all started the dental piece that just, I mean the health piece including dental, that just blew me. It's like, okay, so there really is, well I'm not going to say no excuse because there is some exceptions but the fact that you are making that readily available when even those of us have insurance don't take advantage of what we should. So, again, thank you for that and I am looking forward to even greater things from you because you and your staff and your team and your volunteers have just done a phenomenal job and I thank you all for that. Thank you for those comments. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. Jen, thanks for the time we got to spend together with your team. Thank you for the directions. I had a chance to work with a free clinic a few years ago and it was pretty amazing then and I'm going to use Council Persons, Fig Sanders' examples in two-fold. One, you've taken amazing to a whole new level and back in those days the free clinic was moving mountains picking up food from Publix and using Feeding Tampa Bay as a food source and now you've skipped over that and you've gone to where not only Feeding Tampa Bay gets food but where they get food. The idea of 20 million pounds that it's an industry that I work in. I did the math after we left your place. It would take a bare minimum of 1,200 semis. That's the perspective that I have. 1,200 semis to bring enough food to stock what you did last year. It is mind-numbingly overwhelming and from this Chair and I think at least this Chair over here but I think this entire Council come back and ask us and let us be a part of your success. We appreciate what you're doing. This is service at its absolute finest and probably the thing that I am most impressed with that my colleague touched on is you and I dress for church. Go down to your place right now and get in line for free food. Nobody would say a word. Nope. Not a word. It is truly an awesome part of St. Pete and we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you so much Chair and thank you Jennifer. I appreciate you. Thank you Cheryl. Thank you to the team. Brandy, everybody. I appreciate you all making time for me to give me the behind the scenes tour. You know I volunteered for a decade with the St. Pete Free Clinic but I had never really known how much of a labor of love this really was. So for the sacrifices that you all make I appreciate you. I just want to hit on for a moment the economic impact. 47 million dollars in savings annually. Right? So in the middle of an economic crisis that we're all living in you all are really making an impact a positive impact. So I appreciate you and what you're doing there. 55 community partners and the list is growing because since our tour I found more and just like I have at least 10 more convenience stores to add to this list. What I don't see on the Fresh Pace list is zip codes. Can we talk for a moment about the zip codes that have the greatest need? I know you're serving all of St. Petersburg but where do we see the greatest need in the services that you all are providing? The zip codes that visit us most frequently at our pantry locations which is how we gauge that 33705 33714 33713 33712 and 33711 Thank you and if I'm not mistaken I believe Babcock is in 33705. That's right. So one of the barriers when you talk about access to health care dental services access to healthy and nutritious food which is what you're providing at WeHelp I went I saw you all are bursting out of the seams I would guess having a location like that a brick and mortar would help you with the expansion of services that you're trying to offer so what would it take to make that happen? I know you said that that hasn't happened yet so what is it going to take to get you there? So just a couple of administrative items if I can share if you don't mind it's public so we are pursuing a special exception with the Development Review Commission in May mostly to just make sure that we can have the flexibility that we need to make the food pantry side of the house the size that we need it to be we don't know exactly what that size needs to be yet but we want to be able to get in there and gauge that it's large enough to meet that expansive need so that's the one thing we need and then of course as we move forward we're hoping that'll happen and we're hoping we'll move forward with the purchase as we do so we're really looking forward to getting the community engaged in this work we're in very close touch with those whom we serve we seek regular feedback we want to bring even more partners along with us make this a site where partners in the community can also deliver services we can connect with more community members and so really helping us reach people and partners that we may not already be in touch with to make sure that they understand who we are what we do and importantly the dignity of the services that we provide and the comprehensive nature of all of that under one roof you said it yourself you're reaching the unreached and I think it's all about providing a shopping experience that's rooted in dignity so I appreciate the work that you all do thank you sorry council member I didn't mean to almost cut you off I just wanted to make sure we didn't continue to talk about DRC applications yes sir okay Jennifer just so excited for everything that you guys A are accomplishing and B everything on the horizon the tour both at some of the facilities originally and then going to see the new warehouse it's just incredible what you guys are doing and it's just it makes me so proud to have you guys here and I would reiterate what council member Harding said you know I think you certainly have our support and so thank you for being here and thank you so much for the update thanks to all of you appreciate it okay we are going to go to council committee reports and I am respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution excuse me that's the wrong one respectfully requesting city council approval of resolutions amending the city's fiscal policies and authorizing the issuance of a not to exceed 85 million non ad valorem revenue note series 2025 and council members I'd ask that we do A and B separately move approval second we have a motion and a second for H1A seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote Mr. Chair the motion to approve agenda item H1A passes 6 to 1 with council members Fig Sanders Gabbard Gerdes Givens Hanowitz and Harding voting yes council member Floyd voting no and council member Driscoll being absent okay H1B move approval of H1B second we have a motion and a second I don't see anybody wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for H1B council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote Mr. Chair the motion to approve agenda item H1B passes unanimously with council member Driscoll being absent okay thank you H2 I'm respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution to utilize existing fund balances for the May 1 2025 principal and interest payment for the public utility subordinate lien bond anticipation note series 2024 move approval second we have a motion to second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk could you please tally and announce the vote Mr. Chair the motion to approve agenda item H2 passes unanimously with council member Driscoll being absent okay thank you we are going to move into open forum clerk do we have any speakers Mr. Chair we do not have any speakers nobody on zoom okay we're going to move into announcements council members any announcements council member Gibbons thank you chair on Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Jackson Recreation Center aka Wildwood the Jordan Park the Jordan Park neighborhood and also the St. Pete Police Department will be going head to head and I invite any council members that want to hit the court with us we're going to be playing basketball it's going to be a night under the stars for community and law enforcement to interact we welcome you to come out to that also 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete they will be having a health and wellness expo so we invite the community to come out to that as well thank you I might have to come visit but I'm going to keep my ACLs right where they are yeah in a box on my counter I have one last announcement council member Gibbons it's your birthday tomorrow so happy birth yeah happy birthday council member 33 double threes huh all right I got caught up with council yeah welcome now we'll be the same age we're twins are you guys the same age yes we are we will be now yeah okay all right when's your when's your birthday council member in july oh so all right all of four months yeah then council member Gibbons you're back you're back to being the baby again all right let's sing happy birthday to council member Gibbons happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Corey happy birthday to you oh thank you thank you happy birthday all right well everybody if there's nothing else for a good to be ordered thanks for a great day thanks for all the for all the love we've given these organizations appreciate you all very much and city council is adjourned thank you we'll be right back to you we'll be right back to you