City Council - Dec 04, 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, Lisseth Kanowitz, District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Cory Givens Jr. and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon. Welcome to the December 4, 2025 City Council Meeting. If we could do a roll call, please. Kanowitz. Here. Rick Sanders. Here. Driscoll. Givens. Here. Lloyd. Here. Curtis. Here. Gabbard. Here. Hardy. Here. Okay. Thank you. This afternoon, we will have our invocation given by Reverend Kenneth Irby, followed by a moment of silence, and then please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance if everybody would please join me in standing. Good afternoon. I am Reverend Dr. Kenny Irby, and I proudly stand before this august body as the faith and justice, community justice liaison for the Sunshine City of St. Petersburg, Florida, and a proud member of the Greater Mount Zion AME Church family. What a privilege it is to carry everything to our God in prayer. And in this season of light and love, we celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year's. And so let me ask you in the spirit of sacredness to acknowledge Isaiah 9 and 2 that reminds us that the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in the land of deep darkness, a light will shine. So let our Lord help us to let the light within us shine for justice, inclusion, and impact. And as we pray for our mayor, Kenneth T. Welch, cabinet members, city leaders, city council, especially today, and all of our community, we pray that this sacred place that we stand in be a place of courageous conversations, compassionate impact, and consistent intentionality. And if you will please join me in letting your light so shine with a resounding amen. Please join me in a moment of silence. Chief of Police James J. Mitchell, end of watch, December 25th, 1905. Officer James J. Goodson, end of watch, December 25th, 1947. Firefighter George W. Ludwig, last alarm, December 19th, 1966. Thank you. 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 so much. Please be seated. Rev, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for that beautiful invocation. Thank you for all you do for our city as well. Okay, council members, we have an agenda in front of us. I'll entertain a motion for approval. We have a motion and a second for the agenda. 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 the agenda passes unanimously. Okay, we have a consent agenda. Clerk, do we have any cards on the consent? Mr. Chair, we do not. Okay, thank you. Council members, we have a consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on the consent agenda. 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 the consent agenda passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to 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, 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 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 a raise hand feature button on the Zoom app or enter star nine 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 or 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 materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum. If live public comment is disrupted by 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 a speaker. Okay, let's call two at a time, please. Mr. Chair, we have one speaker, Phil Graham. Please go to the podium. Either podium, state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address council. Good afternoon. I'm Phil Graham, founder of the Waterfront Parks Foundation, and I'm delighted to be here today. We're a 501c3, not-for-profit corporation, and we worked with Mike Jeffress early on to form a partnership with the city. I'm sorry, could you please state your address? Yes, 6940 13th Avenue North. Thank you so much. And as a partner with the city, to partner with our parks department and Barbara Stahlberg now, we're working very closely with them on many endeavors. The foundation was established to preserve, protect, and promote the downtown parks. You know that those are seven miles long, and they go from, you know, Coffee Pot Park down to Lassing, about 240 acres of parkland. And we're just so delighted to be helping in preserving those parks. They are arguably the city's greatest asset, and they are a major driver, certainly, in our downtown's economic growth. We have partnered with the city from the beginning to protect and enhance these important assets. The flowers of Long Beach Drive and other areas, the design and installation of swings, and many other projects that we're doing within the parks. We also have been a voice for the preservation of these city treasures, and continue to advocate for their resistance to adverse development projects in the parks themselves. I'm here today to bring your attention to the need to review impacts of certain special events on the parks. In recent years, the popularity and the growth of these events has resulted in extensive damage to the parks and extended restrictions to park use by residents. We understand the economic value of these events for the city, but the destruction to the parks, the duration of the setup time, noise levels, visual blight, and the length of the events have grown to nearly intolerable levels for many residents. These factors have also outpaced the ability of the parks to reasonably recover from the damage caused by large-scale commercial events. We would like to encourage council and members of staff to review our current regulations regarding events to provide a better balance for the type of event and the financial responsibilities of the event promoters. We feel a committee of citizens, vendors, council, and staff members could be set up to review the standards and requirements for all park events. We feel better solutions for the cost of management of these events could be processed. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers? No other speakers. Okay. We'll go ahead and close open forum, and we'll move into I-1, our legal, and I think we're joined by Joe Kelly. Welcome. Good afternoon. Thank you. I am here to present a proposed settlement for approval in the case of Anthony Sang v. City of St. Petersburg. This is a lawsuit that stems from an accident that occurred on August 13, 2023, at Tyrone Boulevard and 22nd Avenue. According to independent witnesses, a St. Petersburg police officer entered the intersection against a red light without slowing down. The police vehicle was not running its sirens and struck the plaintiff's vehicle directly on the passenger door with heavy impact. The Medicaid bills for plaintiff's spinal injury were approximately $49,000, with $27,000 currently unpaid at this time. There's also a wage loss claim for $30,000. And with your approval, the city can resolve the suit for $60,000. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on I-1. 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 I-1 passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move into new ordinances. E-1, clerk, could you please read the title? Proposed ordinance number 142-HL, an ordinance of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, designating the Abbey-Upham House located at 5297 Huntington Street Northeast as a local historic landmark, and adding the property to the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places pursuant to Section 16.30.070 City Code and providing for an effective date. Public hearing for this item is December the 11th. Council members, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on E-1. 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 E-1 passes unanimously. Okay, we'll move on to E-2. Clerk, could you please read the title? Proposed ordinance number 620-H, an ordinance about modifying the capital improvements element of the comprehensive plan of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, by updating the five-year capital improvement schedule and replacing all previously adopted capital improvement schedules. Adopting fund summaries for the General Capital Improvement Fund 300. Bicycles slash Pedestrian Safety Improvement Fund 3004. Citywide Infrastructure Fund 3027. Recreation and Cultural Capital Fund 3029. Multimodal Impact Fees Capital Improvement Fund 3071. Downtown Parking Improvement Fund 3073. Water Resources Capital Projects Fund 4003. Stormwater Drainage Capital Fund 4013. Airport Capital Projects Fund 4033. Marina Capital Improvement Fund 4043. And Port Capital Improvement Fund 4093. For the fiscal years 2026 through 2030. Adopting the FDOT District 7's adopted five-year work program for the fiscal years 2025 slash 26 to 2029 slash 30. Providing for severability and providing for an effective date. And the public hearing for this item is December the 11th and we do not have any cards. Okay. We've got Britton Wilson joining us for a presentation. Hey, Britton. Hi. Good afternoon. Britton Wilson, City Planner, presenting the annual update to the capital improvements element for fiscal years 2026 through 2030. This is the first reading of the ordinance and staff does respectfully request scheduling the public hearing for next Thursday, December 11th. You have your presentation though? Sure. You can get it out of the way. So, similar to last year, I prepared a quick presentation on the purpose and process of the update. So, every year in the fall, following council's adoption of the budget and the five-year capital improvements program or CIP, staff completes the annual update to the CIE, which is a long-range planning tool used to demonstrate that the city's facilities are operating within their adopted level of service standard or LOS. And staff will use this data through the upcoming year to support proposed land use amendments that come before this board. So, the CIE is just reporting on a subset of recently adopted capital improvements program and that it only looks at project schedules for facilities that have an adopted LOS in the comprehensive plan, of which the city has an adopted LOS standard for water, sewer, solid waste, stormwater, and recreation. And even though the strict application of concurrency no longer applies to transportation facilities, we do still monitor the operation status of roadways and mobility options such as transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements. And planners refer to these as concurrency-related facilities as our LOS standards are required to be in place at the time of or concurrent with proposed development. And this annual update is a citywide or multi-department effort where the planning staff only collects this data from these respective departments and then calculates the level of service using functional population numbers. As demonstrated in the staff report, the city's facilities are all operating well within their adopted level of service standard. And the draft ordinance contained in your agenda packet lists the recently adopted capital improvement project schedules, demonstrating that the city has a plan in place, and the fiscal ability to continue to maintain the adopted level of service moving forward through the next five-year planning period. And with that, staff is requesting scheduling the public hearing for next Thursday, December 11th. And that concludes my presentation, and staff is available to answer any questions you may have. Okay. Thanks, Britton. Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you. So part of the reason that I always kind of ask for this is because one of the things that we hear a lot from our residents is, how can the city handle the growth of the people coming in? And when we talk about levels of service, this covers it. So I think it's always important for citizens to understand what our level of service is and where we are in that. So maybe for the second, the hearing, you can have a page that shows what our capacity is for all our systems, our facilities, and where we are. So that way we can have that discussion because it's a constant question that I get. Sure, absolutely. And I can include the current population estimate and our functional population. That would be great. Thank you. You're welcome. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on E2. 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 E2 passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. We'll go to E3. If you could please read the title. The proposed ordinance number 629-H, an ordinance of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending Chapter 17.5, Article 6 of the city code, related to affordable housing site plan approval, amending Section 17.5-111, related to applicability criteria, providing for severed billing, providing for an effective date. The public hearing for this item is December 11th, and we do not have any cards. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on E3. 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 E3 passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going to move into F1, where we've got our annual point-in-time count, and we've got Sherry Holzbacher, CEO of the Homeless Leadership Alliance, and Kathleen Beckham, Chair of the Pinellas County Continuum of Care. Here to present. Go ahead. First of all, thank you, Chair. Thank you, Kathleen and Sherry, for actually coming at my invitation. And the reason why it is so critical for, not the Science Center. The reason why it is so critical to have you here is because being on CLC, which has brought me immense pleasure and sadness at the same time, because we deal with our homeless and our unhoused population. And often we have people come to speak about homelessness that absolutely does not know what that term means or what is involved in that. And so it's important for us, when we get information from other organizations, from other sources, that we have, at least at minimum, a general knowledge of what that entails. Because a day outside in the sun, for us and our families, is a play date. A day outside for someone that's unhoused, knowing that that is where their home is, is something that takes on a completely different meaning and a level of a quality of life that not too many of us, I think, would prefer. So I want you to talk about the point in time and some of the other struggles that we're dealing with when it comes to our unhoused population and what it is that hopefully we can kind of do to help assist in some of our endeavors. Because we are definitely a collaborative of social services that actually are going to address that. And with that, I introduce Ms. Sherry and Kathleen, who is, Kathleen is the chair of CLC, and Ms. Sherry is the executive director of HLA. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Fix Sanders. And I want to just echo, this is a collaborative, and we are so and very, very lucky to have you on our board on the COC, as well as other leadership and staff who participate in our Funders Council and our Providers Council meetings. Very, very good partnership that we hope to continue. Wish we had that kind of partnership with other municipalities. So thank you very much for allowing us to come present on this point in time count. Also, like Council Member Fix Sanders had mentioned, there are other things that have come up very recently, especially major federal policy changes and priorities that are going to affect funding for homeless services that are provided through our Continuum of Care COC. And so to give an idea of who we are, very quickly, I do not like to take that for granted or assume the Pinellas Continuum of Care, or the COC, is a countywide network of providers, funders, municipalities, community members, people with lived experience. The Sheriff's Office, anyone can be a member of the Continuum of Care. You just have to have a desire to end, or it is homelessness. And so we have many committees and councils that meet. They establish the local priorities and policies for the system, so we can have a coordinated system. And they are also, and like I said earlier, City of St. Pete is a member of the COC and serves in many key capacities within our board and the councils, and in other ways, our work groups as well. The Homeless Leadership Alliance is the lead agency for the Continuum of Care. And so we staff the Continuum of Care, and we have the HMIS, which is the Homeless Management Information System. We apply on behalf of Pinellas Continuum of Care for HUD funding that comes through the COC program, and I'll be talking about that later. And we also coordinate the PIT count. That's the point-in-time count that happens annually. It's a federal requirement, and it really does make a difference about, it's a census, but it makes a difference around funding and many decisions we make, strategic decisions we make here and throughout the state and the country. And we also assist providers through the federal funding process. So getting into the point-in-time count, this is from 2025. It is an annual snapshot of homelessness, and like I said, it's more of a census. So if you think about a census, it's not going to be 100%. It's one day in January. Last year, I believe it was January 26, 2025. We're getting ready to have another one, January 29, 2026. We are raising funds very successfully for stipends and incentives for people to participate in that survey. But we are definitely, anyone who is interested in volunteering, please check out our website. If you go to PinellasCOC.org, you'll be able to find more information or check out our social media. The Pinellas-Pitt report, what is required by HUD, is covering the sheltered population that are surveyed as well as the unsheltered. Unsheltered, that is like Council Member Fix Sanders was talking about, people who are literally homeless on the street, in a car, or in a place that's not habitable by humans, not meant to be habitable by humans. And then sheltered homeless, which sounds like an oxymoron, is actually people who are, they are homeless, but they are living in motels paid for by other agencies. They are not self-sufficient in that sense. They are in an emergency shelter, or they're in transitional housing. So they're not in a permanent place to call home or a house. We all can identify what a home is on our own. And it, like I said earlier, it informs planning, funding, and policy decisions. Overall findings, and this is just a very quick snapshot, for sheltered homelessness, we had 12,000, I'm sorry, we had 1,325 people. And like I said, those are people who were in emergency shelter or transitional housing. Unsheltered homelessness, the literally homeless people who were surveyed that day, 538. That is the lowest, both of those are the lowest counts we've had ever on record for counting homelessness. And so the total was 1,863 people. We are special in Pinellas County, and then we go an extra step further. We provide a pit report that does not, is not required, and includes jail county data, Pinellas County jail data, which there were 125 people that also followed the same guidance that we were looking for here for the regular pit count. And then also Pinellas County schools, we partner with them, too, to get information. And they're under a little bit of a different definition of homelessness. They are, so instead of that literal homelessness, it can be literal homelessness, and 113 young people, students, were considered to be literally homeless and unsheltered since, from between August 10th and January 27th. And 4% of the entire student body, 3,623, were doubling up or in a place where they weren't sure night to night where they were going to live under McKinney-Vento. And that is a striking number. And I will add that when we talk about census findings above, that's a point in time. When we're talking about students in Pinellas County schools, you have relationships that are developed between teachers and counselors and the people who, just day-to-day, right? So that is a very good, accurate number to go by when we look at homeless counts. Like I said earlier, this is the lowest count recorded in Pinellas. There was a 12% overall decrease from 2024. The unsheltered count went down 25%. The sheltered count went down 5%. And there are several factors involved with this. It has consistently trended down since 2016. So we are seeing that, except for one year there was an anomaly where it ticked up a little bit. But there were fewer volunteers this last year compared to the prior year because of hurricanes. And also with the anti-camping legislation that came out, we did have concerns about people who may not have felt comfortable answering surveys or were not able, it wasn't as easy, they were not as available to find because of being pushed out further away. And some other things that maybe, that are, that we can say are good things that are happening, that we are seeing a decrease in our homeless population. It has been increases in funding, strong system coordination, and some of the other things, the hurricanes. There's been displacement since 2016. COVID was part of that as well, where people left the system that we track, and we haven't seen the people come back. We don't know what happened. Who is affected? These are, well, overall, the number, you know, everything looks like it's trending down. There are some areas that are not doing so well. There's an increase in older adults. I say there's 23% rise in unsheltered 65 plus. But we are really focusing on that 62 to 65-year range, right before Social Security hits, if people are eligible for it. And we're seeing that that is, that population, that subpopulation is the biggest, like it's just not comparable to the others, if you really put them apples to apples. 253 veterans were counted. That was an increase of 8% sheltered and a 10% increase of unsheltered. 189 survivors of domestic violence were included in this count. And also the disparities here with black and African-American individuals, making up 38% of the total count of Pinellas homeless population, while they're only 11% of the Pinellas population. 76% of the sheltered families also are black or African-American. And some of that may be due to targeting, you know, just where people congregate and get services, as well as the disparity that naturally exists here that we see. 41% of homeless students reported by Pinellas County Schools are also black or African-American. There were 494 people who experienced chronic homelessness, and that means that for 12 consecutive months they were literally homeless, or they have been experiencing at least four episodes of homelessness over the past three years, and they have a disability, and it's added up to at least 12 months. And then finally, as far as our unsheltered homeless population, 76% are male, and 62% of our sheltered population are male. And we're noticing that a lot with single individuals, of course, too. The primary causes, I think we hear the rhetoric. There's stigma, there are stereotypes that the cause of homelessness has to do with a variety of things, and I'm not going to mention right now because what we know is what is reported, the primary causes of homelessness from people who are experiencing it. Financial or job loss, 40%, so that was the main reason. Medical issues were 20%. Family issues, 14%. And eviction and foreclosures, 10% of the respondents, that was the primary issue. The fifth one, if it was up there, would be natural disaster. So for housing market pressures, I want to go through this really quickly. The ALICE report, the Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed, ALICE, report is put out by the United Way and United for ALICE. And I want to just point out 46% of households in Pinellas County, according to that report, which the United Way, some coast has reported, their earnings do not cover a basic survival budget. So these are families or households who are above the federal poverty line, so they're not experiencing poverty, and they are working. They are nurses, teachers, people who are running the machine, right, and not able to make enough to meet a basic budget to live in Pinellas County, and even more so like the city of St. Pete. So we're looking at being able to have a savings. If you have a car repair that's needed, you're just making it. A family of four for a basic survival budget, so a baby, a toddler, and two parents, if that's the case, has risen to $108,480 is the threshold to even make it to where you can start thinking about vacations or putting back savings or retirement, all the things that may come up that we all experience at different times. So when we talk paycheck to paycheck, these are the folks we're talking about, and they are professionals even, and they're people who work with us, and they are us. And then, of course, we know rising rents place those working households at a higher risk of homelessness, along with all the increases in cost of living that we're experiencing. What is working? Strong street outreach. Lots of partnerships there. High performance and rapid rehousing. That's where someone who is literally homeless then gets into a program where they are able to take on a lease and get supports and then finally take that lease over on their own. Permanent supportive housing. The permanent and supportive housing is a little bit misleading because it's not necessarily forever, but it's for people with disabilities who do need extra supports in order to continue living. They do contribute to their rent based on their income. They get support, all kinds of services, and are definitely contributors. So those are for people with disabilities. More case managers at Safe Harbor. That has increased through SAMHSA and other funding. We've noticed that that makes a big difference. We know that Safe Harbor is our largest, it's a shelter that is very low barrier, but only for certain populations. Not a place for children to go, for sure. Strong system coordination with active partners. So that is also something that is working. And so I wanted to get to the major federal changes that we are seeing, the new priorities coming down from HUD, and how that is impacting us. There was, this year we were supposed to, last year we went through a NOPO process, notice of funding opportunity. And it was intended to be, it was told that it would be for two years, so we could spend this year in planning and response and better system coordination. Right before the Thanksgiving holiday, HUD did drop, release a notice of funding opportunity for the COC program. And with a two-month turnaround, these typically are three months long. So it's very tight with the holidays and all of that. But some major changes, and some things we were anticipating, others we were not. There was no heads up or guidance given before that. So we are trying to make sure that we're going to be in alignment with what HUD has put forward, so that we can at least have a very competitive application and get as much funds as we need to keep people housed within, and served within Pinellas County and the city of St. Pete. So the priority now is on short-term crisis response, not long-term housing support. And there's a strict 30% cap on all permanent housing projects. So those are non-transition housing, not emergency shelter. These are more permanent placements or longer-term placements. And that 30% cap, those programs are 74% of our entire COC portfolio. There was another significant shift that we were not expecting, and that is that what is traditionally non-competitive funding in the past was at 90% of our total renewal amount, what we were currently getting, and then we had to go fight for the rest and earn it. We have to earn all of it, really. The HUD decided to cut that from 90% to 30%. So the rest of it is now completely up in the air and competitive and requires being in complete alignment with HUD's new direction. And again, when I say permanent housing projects, I'm talking about people with disabilities and survivors of domestic violence and people who have experienced chronic homelessness. So the local impact, the 30% cap, of course, is requiring a lot of strategic conversations. We've been having them. Lots of people from the city of St. Pete have been involved with that, with leadership and staff. HLA and the COC have gotten together. We've talked with providers and funders, and we're trying to assess risk and coordinate strategies and build this competition in such a way that we can minimize any major disruption. And the earliest local impacts could be as soon as January 2026, if replacement funding is not secured. I will also say that what we're talking about with the permanent supportive housing, that is with a provider here, those units are in the city of St. Pete that are being impacted. And so protecting local housing stability, for St. Pete, there's no big ask other than continue to support the strong relationship that we have. We're grateful for the leadership that the city of St. Pete has shown, the leadership on our board. We are coordinating, like I said earlier, with affected providers in St. Pete. We are exploring flexible or bridge funding options to help stabilize units that are at risk. Continuing to advance, of course, affordable housing, thinking about that ALICE threshold, not to mention people who are even lower income. And HLA will keep you updated on any changes as they occur with this funding application and any implications that may happen because of it. There's my email address and Chair Beckman's, as well as I will leave cards later on if you want, or you can always reach out to me and I'll make sure that we respond to any questions you have or needs. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go to public comment, please. Zendero, Flornari, please go to an open podium. State your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. South, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33711. And thank you, Ms., for your comments, because I've been fighting for this, for the homeless, for the longest. And it's like it's falling on deaf ears. I'm disabled. I'm a HUD, and I can't get a place. It's outpriced for my income. And then you see the people at the bus stops, around the lakes, and all that. Something happened. To be retroactive, you have to have a resolution. Resolution, you have to be retroactive in how to solve this problem. And the city is doing great. It's doing great things. But you got people that really need the service and being on the streets in the rain and the cold and all. I feed the homeless. I go to pantries. I do all that stuff. But it has to be something done. And Renee Flowers, I wish Ms. Welch, Mayor, would call her. She won't return my call, because panelists hope. There's so many people dying up there with MRSA and all that, and nothing being done about it. I witnessed that, you know. And I just want stuff not to keep falling on deaf ears. Hear us out. I mean, it's happening. You all might be great. But it's a lot of people that are not great. And I don't want much. I don't want nothing. I just want to help people. And this community has always been a great community. Lake McGorry, they want to clean the lakes. They ran the Canadians out. And with the water races, I used to go to that when I was a kid. It was great. And like I told you all last time, it's other things. Little money makes big money. People on cell phones raise the ticket prices. Raise up other things instead of kicking the homeless people to the curb. There's other things we could get revenue off of, you know. Let the police do their job. Don't defund it. And that's why I liked Mayor Bloomberg when I was living in New York. He was on everything at every time, all day and all night. Train surfing, whatever. What's the cause? You can't defund the police. Let him do it. Thank you. Any other speakers? No more speakers. Okay. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you so much. And I just want to thank you so much, Sherry and Kathleen, for your work. Always great to see you, Kathleen. Appreciate your hard work. You know, this is something that I've had the opportunity to do in the past. Thank you for encouraging me to volunteer. You know, the point in time count, that's important. As you said, that helps those policymakers make better informed decisions when it comes to funding for our most vulnerable population. The folks that people like me and Mr. Flanora are out there advocating for. I've seen you out there at Pinellas Hope. And keep fighting. Keep advocating. Your work is not in vain. We need advocates. There are folks out there who depend on us to make those decisions, to fight for them, to be in those rooms that they can't be in. And so when you think about the impacts of this federal administration and how it is hurting those programs that rely heavily on HUD funding, you know, the cap, there's so many people who are competing for the same dollars. And there's more folks competing than there is dollars available. And so we are stressed and strained every which way. And so, again, I thank you for the work that you do. And I encourage and implore everyone who's listening to sign up to volunteer. It's one day, three hours. And they train you. And we can go out in team. So we'll have a good time doing it. But we need people to volunteer. And better yet, we need people to respond. And we cannot ignore the elephant in the room. When you have groups like ICE out there on the streets, people are fearful to respond. But we have to be honest with ourselves. It's our job to educate and to get out there and to work with organizations like HLA and those other groups that are doing the work, St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, so many others. Again, they cannot do it alone. And so I'm grateful for our city social services department, Administrator Foster, Helen, and the team. They do a great job making sure that we are there to put in the sweat equity. And so I'm thankful. I'm grateful. But, again, I cannot stress the importance of us making sure that funds are secured in the future to help more people. There are more people who depend on us and funds available, and we have to do our part. So, again, I just thank you all for doing your part and making sure that everyone counts. But I also want to recognize those folks who are co-living. We have people who live on the streets, those who are sheltered and unsheltered. There are so many people who are displaced because of a hurricane, domestic violence, or whatever, and it's not by choice. And so when we talk about making sure everyone counts, let's be encouraging those people. Hey, don't be afraid to speak out. If this is your situation, be vocal about it and understand that there are dollars there at the federal level that could trickle down to the local level. Everyone says, well, what is the city doing? What is the county doing? Well, we can't do it alone. We need help. And so the help comes when we put boots on the ground and we get out there and we make sure that every voice and every body counts. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Sir, I'm sorry, sir. You've had your three minutes. I can't let you do that, okay? And it's not me trying to be mean. It's just me trying to follow the rules. Thank you. Okay. Council Member Floyd. Thank you. I just have a quick question, you know, for anyone that can address it, about the funding changes from specifically where we saw the non-competitive stuff going from 90 to 30. And just, I just want to delve into it a little bit. What's the implication? How strongly do we feel that through a competitive process we can recoup a lot of that? It's a great question, Council Member Floyd. And I just have to thank my team because it's been all hands on deck since the day the government reopened. We knew this was coming. We didn't know that the day they reopened at 11 p.m. that night, they would drop the NOFO. And they've been working around the clock with me, with HLA, with the county to try and look for ways to backfill this funding. So some of the specifics, right? The HLA brings down about $7 million in federal funding. We were planning for a cut, right? So I'd been working with the county already to repurpose some other funds they already had approved in the budget. Because we believed there was going to be a 30% cut, not a 70% cut, right? So we had already been working on the issue. And that's not certain either, right? So, you know, the county's makeup, political makeup, has changed. It has been hard for them to get even stable funding passed for Pinellas Hope and some of the things that have been longstanding in our community that have kind of been renewal funding year after year. There's questions being asked about that. The Pinellas County Blue Card, which funds health care for those who are uninsured and health care for the homeless, is also on the table and could go away. So we've been planning for that as well. So it's hard to say what the implications are. What I can tell you is that nationwide, it's 171,000 people that could be unhoused overnight, very similar to the Reagan administration. Locally, what that means is the 2,000 people she showed you that are sheltered right now could become unsheltered overnight. So all the work we've been doing over the last 10 and 15 years to go from 3,000 unsheltered people, where people working in City Hall were stepping over bodies to get into work, down to 267 unsheltered people on our streets, that could go away. So, you know, we'll know more. I'm kind of trying to take this day by day. I feel like we'll know more in early January when the NOFO is submitted to HUD. And then we probably won't know more again until June or July. So we're looking at gap options right now. HUD has really been thoughtful about this. I'm going to word it that way, which is more positive than my heart really feels about it. And every strategy we've kind of come to cuts us off at the knees. So things like if HUD could pay for the tenant-based rental assistance, could we, out of our other CDBG dollars or other dollars, provide the support of services that keep those who are severe and persistently mentally ill stable? They're not allowing the braiding of the funds that way. So the most positive thing we have found is Dr. Slyker has about a million dollars in home in hand right now, which, by the way, is also on the chopping block federally. So this could be a one-year solution, but it's likely not a long-term solution. Home is allowed to be used for tenant-based rental assistance. And so we believe that some of those dollars will need to do a substantial amendment, but we'll be able to backfill using some of those federal dollars in the short term while we come up with a longer-term solution. But supportive services won't be attached to that, so people who have been stable in the past because of services, you know, may have a roof over their head and be a little less stable. We are looking at other options as well. Well, you know you just programmed your rush funding. HLA has some rush funding as well that can be used for rapid rehousing, so that is an option. The county is still working through their advocacy plan with their commissioners. When we are ready to activate you for some advocacy, we will certainly do that. We're trying to determine, you know, when that right time is, when it'll go to a vote, but it'll likely be kind of the January time frame. So, you know, we'll keep you posted, but, you know, there's going to be impacts. What we're trying to do right now is minimize the impact so that you don't have 800 severe people with mental illness on the street overnight. Thank you for that. I would have hoped for a different answer, but I appreciate that all the work that, you know, clearly has gone into thinking this through. I don't have anything else. I'll leave it there, but I'll say to administration and everyone else, like, you know, yeah, bring us how we can, you know, reprioritize funds. I know finding new funds is going to, we're in a difficult situation there as well, but I'm eager to try to stave off the worst impacts of this, and hopefully we can, you know, make some priority decisions that help with that. So I don't necessarily look forward to that conversation, but I'm eager to have it when it's necessary. Thanks. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. I just have a question for Sherry. Thank you for the presentation, and I wanted to ask regarding the primary causes here. The list includes financial and job loss, medical issues, family issues, and eviction and foreclosure. Within that, we know that many of the unhoused in our community have mental health issues. And so I was wondering if there is a specific category where that fits in. Is it medical issues? Because all of these causes can create mental health issues. So I'm just sort of wondering where that fits in. The medical issues was not covering mental health or disability like that. But as far as where it fits in, there is a chicken and egg deal here. I also, the way I look at it is that when I am, I'm a renter. When I rent, I am not, many people are housed who have mental illness or substance use disorders, right? So those are just the primary, but we can get, I can get you some more information on what that looks like across our system. I would like to have that. I know that between Administrator Foster's department as well as our police department, there is a lot of effort that goes into outreach, person-to-person offering services that are refused. And often that is because there is a mental health barrier to saying yes. Because that seems to be what we see a lot in our city, that is something that we really need to zero in on. The more information that we have, the better prepared we are, the better equipped we are to really target solutions for that. And I will say, we do have a lot of behavioral health providers and services and treatment services that are part of the COC as well. And so, and that's really all I have to say. Right. Right now, it's more of a. Cuse to accept it. Cuse to accept it, yes. Right. And so that's the tough part, right? Okay. Hi. Helen Rimes, Social Services Manager. So, Council Member Driscoll, I just wanted to add to what Sherry was saying, that recently you all approved our dollars, our rush dollars, for BOLI to do their mental health program. So we'll have some street outreach that is mental health based. They will, I can't give away their whole plan, but they will be out and about. It will be with dignity. People will be able to come in, have a safe conversation inside a vehicle. And so I think that we will see a big difference as it relates to those who suffer with mental illness on the street. Our team could get to them. We can offer services, but we're not offering the right services, right? So it's like if I come to you and say, hey, do you want this car? But you don't need a car. You need a house. Or you need a TV, right? And so I think with our team that, BOLI, that is offering those mental health services, we will see a huge impact in the way that people accept those services. They're licensed. They're clinicians. And so they'll be able to help. It's not lost on us that some people don't have the mental capacity to make certain decisions for themselves. And so BOLI will be able to do that Baker Act if that's needed. And so I'm hopeful that we'll see a difference with that. And they'll be throughout our city. So it won't just be in the downtown area. But they'll be throughout the city. When is that supposed to start? So that was just approved, was that two weeks ago, I feel like, two weeks ago at council. So we're working on getting the agreement signed as soon as the agreement's signed. So I think by January that team will be out. But we've been speaking with them, having some conversations. So we know that they're on their way to getting what they need so that once we have the agreement signed fully executed, they can get the ball rolling. Terrific. Thank you. I would think January. I look forward to hearing how that's going once they get going. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Fick Sanders. Thank you. I just wanted to close again, and thank you for bringing up Bowley, because Bowley is a very active participant in CLC and in trying to provide these services out there. And when you go back to that primary cause slide and, you know, you say financial job loss, well, all of this is dominoes. So it's like you have one and it leads to another and it leads to another. And I'm concerned because, you know, you talk about medical issues. Before, your medical bills weren't impacting your credit score, which impacts your housing, which impacts your ability to pay other outside bills. So with some of the changes that we're experiencing federally, your medical issues may now be, you know, reported. You have your eviction of foreclosure. Well, a lot of our renters are forced to provide, you know, a decent credit score. So this all dominoes together. It all works together. And I'm going to put a plug out for CLC. We do this every month. We're looking for, you know, when we talked about our safe and clean streets, whatever that definition was, we went and said, hey, when is the last time you talked to an organization that dealt with our homeless? I never had that conversation. So I wanted to make sure that as a community, we actually engage those that we're making decisions for. And so since we are here today, and again, thank you, Sherry, Kathleen. I know you came and hadn't been properly introduced, but thank you for being here. But I want us to consider giving a little extra time, consideration, and dollars to our homeless. Because at one, we say this all the time, everybody is a paycheck or a medical bill away from homelessness, whatever that looks like. And because it hasn't knocked on your door yet, that same door might not be there one day when we're looking at it. So, again, thank you. Kathleen, I know we're kind of over our time, but do you want to at least say hello? Because she is, when I tell you, stand up, she is a bulldog when it comes down to protecting our homelessness. And I at least want to give you 30 seconds to just say hello, if you don't mind. Thank you. I will say hello. I want to say thank you for your service, Council Member Fig Sanders especially. But, you know, speaking as someone who is an elected official at a municipal level, St. Pete sets the standard for engagement and collaboration with the COC. And I've always been so impressed with your representatives and the people on your staff who are highly qualified and really make a huge impact in the organization. So it's not glamorous work. It's an uphill battle all the time. But it is the most important work. And I will say those numbers about the children, you know, as a former public school teacher, those are profoundly troubling. And when you have over 3,000 students consistently that are experiencing homelessness in some way, there's a big problem. And, you know, I like to say on one hand, it's great that there's trust in our Pinellas County schools, that they feel safe to reach out and let people know that they're struggling. But we need to have solutions for them, especially the Alice Report and the working poor. These are working poor people that are on the verge of homelessness or eviction. And we need to do all we can to keep them housed, and that's a better payoff for our dollars and for society as a whole. But thank you all. You do set the standard, and I hope you continue to support us and collaborate with the work we do. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Fick Sanders. Thank you. Thank you. Just quickly, just to echo, Councilmember Fick Sanders, thanks for your leadership on this. And then Sherry, Kathleen, Amy, the whole team, just thank you for the work that you're doing on a daily basis in our community and across the county. Just so thankful for all of you. And I'm very much like Councilmember Floyd, not excited to have the conversation, but I think all of us are ready to and try to step up where we need to. So thank you. Thank you for the report, and thank you for all the work that you do. Okay. We are going to move on to F4, and I think we are joined by Chris Goela and Dr. W. That's correct. All right. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Before you, today, you will see a resolution to approve a new five-year agreement with OHI West to continue operating the Wellness Center. The city couldn't be more pleased to have that in operation. Again, we've now just entered our 13th year of service with the Wellness Center, and I know we all have our positive experiences to share, so I don't want to belabor it. But it's been such a treat for the city on the finances related to health insurance, the engagement, the employee experiences. Really just we couldn't be happier to have the team here. So before we get to a vote, though, I do want to take the opportunity to invite Dr. Wanowich and his team up, Chris and Andrea, say a few words. Tell us a little bit about the future. Andrea and Chris, our office manager. Thank you, councilmen and women. And it's been an amazing 13, almost 14 years. I couldn't have asked for a better staff, but more importantly, a better community and panel of, you know, patients to care for. You all deal with some incredibly serious issues here as a council for the great city that we all live in. I feel like our job is certainly a difficult one caring for patients' health, but, you know, the joy that I get of seeing our patient panel come in because of the benefits you all give them to come without having to pay a copay, to come on the clock to care for their family members, too, because it is a whole family affair. We really get to see, you know, the aims that we're aiming to achieve, which is a reduction in sort of chronic health from a very early age onwards. Given that the majority of our population, you know, is somewhere in the 30, 40, 50, 60 range, we are able to address these issues very early on and correct them, you know, long before they become issues that, you know, will lead to more problems down the road. And even for the elderly in our patient panel, those that are retired on Medicare, we still offer, you know, incredible hope, and we have very sort of a committed patient panel that, you know, by coming in, by seeing us often, they often change small things to bigger changes, and we really see reductions in A1Cs, which are, you know, the diabetes markers, the cholesterol values. And, again, our hope down the road is that you all see this reflected in sort of the cost for care on an annual basis and, you know, in future planning. So it's been a privilege. We look forward to continuing to offer even more services where we find, you know, room for growth and improvement. We are always looking for that. That's, you know, my two cents. Sounds good. I haven't had anything to say. Okay. We'll go to Councilmembers. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I'm excited to support this today. Chris, thank you for continuing to work with them to make sure that both sides are happy. I know our side is. And this year I learned, you know, I always held the Wellness Center in high regard, but this year, more than any other time, it became clear to me that it is vital for our employees. And so I had, in January, I woke up with a pain in my stomach that didn't feel right, and of course I gave it a couple days, didn't change, so I called Dr. W. He got me in right away to see me because it was unusual, he got me right in to the radiologist to have a CT scan done. And this is something that, you know, any other doctor, you might expect, maybe it'll happen next week, maybe, you know, maybe not. But I got in the same day, and he actually called them to make sure I didn't have to wait. I mean, he was on it every step of the way. I had to go and have an ultrasound done and, you know, eventually to an oncologist and scheduling surgery, and he was with me the whole time, checking on me, making sure nobody was delaying this. And we didn't know what it was. I had to have a surgery to find out what it was. They had the CT scan revealed. I have never told the whole story before, but because you're standing here, and I feel like you saved my life, I want everyone to know. I had a cyst inside my uterus that was about the size of a softball. And then with the ultrasound, they saw that there was a mass inside that about the size of a golf ball, and they didn't know what that was. And the only way to find out and get rid of it was to have a surgery and take it out and then see. Well, that was kind of scary, just waiting for all of that. But again, Dr. W. made sure that no one delayed. And so I got in as soon as possible. And after the surgery, I found out it went well and that I had cancer. And they thought that they got it all out, okay? I had to wait two, I think three weeks to have a PET scan then just to see if everything was clear, and it was. I should have said that part first. But again, the phone calls and text messages to see how I was doing, that constant communication and that support during a really scary time. And Andrea, you spent some time with me on the phone, too, just to help me understand better what was happening to me. But the type that I had is a very rare and very aggressive form of cancer. And if you don't catch it quickly, it can spread fast. And, you know, for most people, they say, you know, the prognosis is not good. It's like five years. And so during a time when I was trying to recover from surgery and found out what I had and waiting to see if I still had it and wondering if I had five years or not, I got, you know, I had friends and family checking on me. But Dr. W, making sure that I was hanging in there and doing okay just meant the world to me. And so today I just had, by the way, now I just have to have a CT scan every six months to make sure it stays away. I just had one a month ago, and that came back clear, so we're on the right path. And he gets all the stuff, all the medical reports and everything, so he always knows what's going on. And he helped me also recognize that there are other parts of my health that I needed to start paying closer attention to and not put anything off anymore. So sorry to take up so much time. But I've been just so grateful for you, and I'm really happy that I have an opportunity to tell everyone in public just how important you are to me and to our city. So thank you. Thank you. I mean, it's a team effort, and I've had great mentors. My father was a family physician. I have learned from others, and we really try to pass this on to our patients. And it's across the board for everyone we see. Yeah. That 140%, 200% commitment. Well, when they say not all heroes wear capes, this is exactly what they're talking about. So thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Council Member Floyd. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Council Member Driscoll, I wish I pushed my button before you, though, because my problems pale in comparison. But I actually wanted to thank Chris and team and administration in general for first being able to put together something very financially favorable and that works out really well for us. I was really excited to get the presentation and see all the positives that we had and the, I don't know, I guess, logical consistencies that we put in there as well, if that makes sense. And then just thank the team at the Wellness Center. I literally never had a doctor, like a general practitioner as an adult that I felt comfortable with until, fortunately, I got elected and was able to check out the Wellness Center, which I really wasn't aware of when I wasn't affiliated with the city. And being able to come, make an appointment, and not have to worry about how much it costs or how long I'm going to have to wait because you're always very speedy has been a huge benefit to me and my family, me and my wife. And we're healthier than we've been basically as adults since we got this. And so I'm really grateful that you're able to do that for all of the city employees. I think it's an incredible benefit, a little taste of what it was like. I briefly lived in England. My wife is British. We have the National Health Service. It's a big reason I got involved in politics was advocacy around health care. And so it's a little taste of that in the city of St. Petersburg. It's an excellent thing. So I really appreciate you all. Councilmember Harding. Thank you, Chair. First, this is probably the single coolest thing that I've seen come out of an HR department. I have one. What a phenomenal accomplishment, idea and accomplishment. And, Doc, more to the point, sometimes as a parent, I had this conversation the other day, you just get lucky. You get the soccer coach that gets your kid really, you know, at six years old, engaged and teaches them, and they take on the sport, and it changes their lives. Sometimes you get a teacher like that. And in this case, I hold your team and your department in that regard. My wife and I have been married 25 years. Our kids are in their teens and 20s. And we've had two family doctors in that time until 10 months ago when we switched over to your office. And the service and the benefit are phenomenal. And as clinicians, you guys are as good as they come. But the part that really struck me and my wife actually articulated it was the dedication you have to service and hospitality. I mean, my kids, talk about a doctor visit. But that's, okay, I have all girls. I don't want to hear about it. But the way that your team, you and your team, treat your clients, your patients, is it really, it's the cultural part of the business that I put in the lucky category for our family. So I think you've seen that you have support up here, and it's nice to have a chance to say thank you. So we appreciate it. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I just echo everything that everybody has had to say. Dr. W., thank you for not only your care over the last, I'll go back over the last 14 years for the Gerdes family. And so since the beginning of this, and then just over the last four years for me, I'm very thankful for you and the entire team. When we talk about everyone in that office is ridiculously nice all the time and dealing, I'll just say with me, is I don't know how you do that 10,000 times a year. And so I'm just very thankful for you and very excited to continue this relationship, and I'm sure I'll see you soon. Council members, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. We've got a motion and a second on F4. Seeing as nobody else wants to sing Dr. W.'s praises, clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Nobody's voted yet. Anything. That wasn't anybody's vote. I'd actually like to push the button on this one. 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 F4 passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thanks, Chris. Okay, council members, we're going to move to F2, where we're joined by Beth Herondine. Hey, Beth. Hello. Good afternoon. I, too, would like to thank Dr. W. He is an excellent doctor. Dr. W., I was wrong. There was somebody that wanted to sing your praises. He takes great care of me and my husband. So, good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of City Council. Beth Herondine, Managing Director, City Development Administration. I'm here to talk to you about just a regular Tropicana Field item, not storm-related. So, we're getting back to normal. I'm happy to report. So, pursuant to the agreement for the use, management, and operation of Tropicana Field, a capital repair, renewal, and replacement account was established to provide for the repair, renewal, replacement, and betterment of equipment and assets with an intended useful life of greater than one year. This account is funded through both ticket stub and naming rights revenue and currently has a balance of approximately $1.025 million. Also, pursuant to that Section 5.01 of the agreement, the Tampa Bay Rays may request disbursement from the capital account for qualifying capital projects at the stadium. So, again, this is a typical regular occurrence, back to normal, and not related to storm damage. So, in preparation for the upcoming season, the Rays have requested a disbursement, pardon me, of approximately $1.004 million to cover a variety of capital repairs or replacements, including parking lot improvements, repaving, re-striping, and signage in the lots, and new parking lot gates, a refurbish or re-up of the ballpark and rec outdoor patio. So, that's an outdoor roof area, hospitality area. They are looking to replace aging HVAC units in the press dining area, the medical clinic, the family waiting room, and the concessionaire offices, miscellaneous sidewalk repairs of up to $100,000. And that could be less. And then some concession and countertop repair and replacement as well. Oh, and then one final. I was missing one. One final. As part of the Hurricane Milton repair project, we are replacing the backstop netting where it was on October 9th. So, I'd say base to base. It's a little bit further than that. The new Major League Baseball standard has it going from foul pole to foul pole. So, the net extra, so I'd say like from the base to the foul pole, that part of the netting would be covered by this fund and not the Milton repair fund. So, I think that is it. So, again, these are consistent with items the Rays have approved in the past. So, I would respectfully request your approval. If the chair would permit, after this, I do have a few updates on Tropicana repair if you'd like to hear those. But I'll stand by. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on F2. 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 F2. Passes unanimously. Thank you. All right, Beth, go ahead. And then just a very quick update on Tropicana Field. I'll just start by saying, thankfully, all is going well. So, just for those folks watching, we all know that the last roof panel was put on. All of the damaged vertical metal panels have been repaired or replaced. So, when you look around, those gaps are no longer there. So, that's great. The catwalk electric and sports lighting are in the process of being installed. And, actually, three of the rings, if you look up, three of the rings, the catwalk electric, they've been energized. And we did have sports field lights on yesterday. So, that was great to see. The new stadium sound system will begin installation this month. New turf comes in January. So, we're happy with Shaw coming in in January. We've got the clubhouse lockers coming in in February. And, again, we expect substantial completion of our portion of the work by the end of February or early March. Little wiggle room there. Blaze Mazzola did update me yesterday that we did receive another insurance payment. So, our total insurance payments received to date are now $10.287 million. I think it was a little over seven the last time we spoke. So, we're now at 10.287. And I actually got good news from FEMA today. I can't tell you that I necessarily understand it. But, I learned this morning that we have moved into pending applicant project review status, which, I pulled it up, is item seven on a 10-item process. So, I took that as good news. That news actually came directly from FEMA. And he said that that was a major milestone for us. So, I'm very happy to report that. So, I'd just like to thank council, administration, and, of course, all of the contractors and my partners at Engineering and Capital Improvement. So, I just wanted to share some good news. So, thank you. Thank you so much, Beth. Okay. Council members, we're going to move into F3, which is the disposition of the Science Center. Both of these resolutions have to be done separately. The first resolution is the will not material affect the utility. And then the second resolution is actually the sale of the property. There is a presentation if we want one. Council members. Move approval on F3A. Second. We have a motion and a second on F3A. 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 F3A passes unanimously. Move approval on F3B. Second. We have a motion and a second on F3B. Council member Juskal. Thank you. I just want to thank staff for working diligently on this to make it happen in anticipation of this passing. I want to congratulate Joe Hamilton and his team. And I would also like to congratulate former council member Robert Blackman, even though he's not here. He was the one who originally brought forward the idea to revitalize the Science Center a few years ago. And worked very hard to get the right people in place to get some funding going. And I hope that if he's not watching right now that he will certainly be on hand for a groundbreaking or ribbon cutting or something like that so that I can congratulate him personally. But it takes a lot for a council member to come up with an idea and do this and sometimes it outlasts your time on city council. It gives me hope that some of the things I'm working on now will be finished even after I'm gone. I'm gone, but I think he should be very proud. Joe, your persistence has paid off and your vision has been just accepted and celebrated and now we're going to see it happen. So thank you. Thanks for all you've done. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you so much and I just want to commend each and every one of you for your hard work on this. You know, Councilmember Blackman, he threw the ball and I was fortunate enough to be able to be on the receiving end of this, you know, coming into this as a new council member. And having grown up at the Science Center, I'm just so excited to see that we are about to revive an iconic St. Petersburg institution. This is exciting. I'm glad that we were able to come to a rational decision on this. So job well done, Joe, and thank you so much, Aaron, and administration for all your hard work on this. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. We have a motion and a second on F3B. 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. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F3B passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going to move into F5. And this was pulled by Council Member Gabbard, which is a combination of CA-10 and CB-7. So, Council Member Gabbard, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Chair. And thank you for allowing this to be pulled to report so that we can talk about what I really consider to be a very good news item. So, for those of you who are familiar with the San Martin Bridge, this has been an ongoing issue for, oh, my goodness. Well, it certainly predates me, and I've been here almost nine years. So, that tells you how long the San Martin Bridge has been a conversation in District 2. So, I'm happy to report that the county is finally moving forward with the San Martin Bridge replacement. It will probably not launch until, and Bridgesh, correct me, I believe it's like 2027 early, 2027. However, as you are going to hear, there is a lot of work that we need to do to be prepared. And so, today, you're going to hear about that project, about our utility relocation project, which is really an important step forward to making sure that the city of St. Petersburg is prepared when the county finally comes in and replaces this long-awaited bridge. So, very glad that we're here today. Not only was it a very large financial investment, but I felt it was also very worthy of a report so that the residents of District 2 could hear the positive progress of how it's moving forward. So, with that, I'll go ahead and turn it over. Thank you, Council Member, Council, City Council. I appreciate it. Always a pleasure to be here and to provide updates on these major infrastructure improvements that we do. And so eloquently put that introduction because I will go through the presentation, but you've really summarized the entire thing very well. And I'll start off by just a simple image that we look at right now of the bridge itself. The bridge, Vidal County, and similar to your comment, I remember when I first became director, this was one of the first public meetings I attended. The discussion on this bridge. So, what you see along the bridge is the existing utilities mounted on the side of the bridge. Now, typically, city bridges, city and county bridges, there are utilities on it. In this particular instance, this is a county bridge with a city utility. Why we are moving forward with this project proactively for replacing our utilities is that if we were, once the county starts plans or start construction of their bridge, we have to move quickly to relocate ours. So, we want to be out of there and not be a factor in their construction. There are opportunities sometimes to coordinate the projects when it's less critical. But because this is a major pipeline for us, we wanted to get ahead of the game and get it out of the way and give the county that freedom as well and flexibility with their project. So, the section of the project that we're looking at is along the 83rd Avenue is actually St. Martin Bridge as it continues. And it will continue north towards Gandy Boulevard. So, we're replacing the existing 24-inch sanitary sewer force main with a 30-inch as well as the 12-inch drinking water main, potable water main with a 16-inch water main, providing us additional flexibility and capacity as well in the system. So, the intention is that both of these will be installed by horizontal directional drilling. And that is a trenchless method. It will be sub-aqueous. So, it will be underneath the water, the floor of the sea, if I may say, or Tampa Bay. So, it's going to be underneath. It's going to mitigate impacts of risk for the city as well. So, the project benefits strengthen the water and wastewater infrastructure, improve long-term reliability, strengthen storm resilience, as well as protect the environment from unexpected breaks or leaks. Now, this is a very simplified version of the more intricate layouts in the next few slides. But I wanted to give you all an example of where the drinking water, the potable water main will be, as well as the wastewater line. It will be separated on either side right now. And I'll flip, continue on. And the first phase, what we're planning to do, the installation, is the potable water main or the drinking water itself. So, I will continue on to the staging of it. So, what you would see on this image is where the existing bridge is. And what's really important is where the highlight is closer to the north side of the bridge, which will be, as you look at that image behind me, to the right side. So, that's where the equipment staging will be. They will be drilling. The contractor will be drilling towards the mainland side, which will be to the left side of the image that you're looking at. Once they complete drilling, you'll see that red information box, which shows in the section closed, you'll see HDPE layout and fusing. Why we have chosen this configuration of construction is because that is the longest section that we don't have any other roadway sections entering in the main travelway. That allows us to lay out that entire pipeline section and then pull it back. So, again, we're going to drill from the north side. As the drill bit gets to the north side, then we'll be able to grab that pipe and pull it back. Now, keep in mind, perspective is that this is larger pipelines. So, we're going to start at the beginning with probably a four-inch pipe. And every time we drill one direction, we'll have to come back and back-ream it so we open a hole bigger and bigger and bigger. It's an interesting process, the directional drill. We just recently successfully completed one for a top-on crossing on our water main as well. Now, I will go ahead and flip to the Sanitary Sewer Force main, which is the same configuration. We'll be doing the same construction process. And you'll see the pipe laid out in that same location, but this time on the, if I may say the bottom side of this image, well, the east side of the road. So, it's kind of skewed, so it's very difficult for me to give you the directions on this. So, with that, the next phase, during this construction, what we can expect during the elements would be major construction. We are focusing on 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., possible night and weekend. Why? Because at some point, we're going to have to tie in this water and the force main into the existing system, and we'll only be able to tie that in when there's the least demand on the system, and that way we can mitigate any impacts to our community. There will be noise, there will be drilling, there will be dust. Some tree trimming will be involved as well, and all the work is planned for within the right-of-way. We're also planning additional traffic control practices. The public information meeting that we did was very helpful, understanding the community's concerns. So, we'll be adding additional variable message boards at 4th Street as well as at Gandhi. We did coordinate that with FDOT, and they were highly supportive of it as well. That will prevent drivers trying to pass through that section to avoid traffic, making them aware of the construction itself. And I do apologize, because you did get a revised slide, this, thanks to Councilman MacGabbard. Originally, it was March 2025. We were trying to get this out quickly to give you all enough time ahead of the Thanksgiving break, but we had to correct it. It was March 2026. And I do apologize for that typographical error. So, we're planning to start construction March 2026 and complete it, as you see, a very aggressive construction schedule. So, with that, I ask for approval for these companion items. Okay. Councilmembers, F5A and B need to be done separately. Move approval. F5A. Second. We have a motion and a second on F5A. Seeing as no other Councilmembers wishing to speak, Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Councilmembers, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present, Councilmembers have voted. Clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, the motion to approve which end item F5A passes unanimously. Move approval. F5B. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second on F5B. Seeing as no other Councilmembers wishing to speak, Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Councilmembers, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present, Councilmembers have voted. Clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, the motion to approve which end item F5B passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council. Thanks, Prajesh. All right. We're going to move into F6. This was pulled CB5 by Vice Chair Hanowitz. I'll turn it over to Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair. I pulled this item. This has to do with replacing sodden or waterfront parks. Residents have been asking about the project. It's a large area. And I want to talk a little bit about what are the parts of the park that the sod is being replaced, how long is the project, and talk a little bit about the funding source and also the plans in the future to maintain the sod. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Barbara, for being here. Thank you. I appreciate the invitation. Barb Staubert, Park Superintendent. And this project is a result of Hurricane Idalia back in 2023. Our waterfront parks experienced quite a bit of flooding during that storm, and all of the four parks impacted were inundated with water, creating not only a die-off of the current sod, but also some definite compaction issues. So we saw a lot more pooling and water sitting for long periods of time. The parks that were impacted are Vinoy Park, Albert Whitted, Elva Rouse, and Flora Wiley. So those four parks were impacted. FEMA came out and inspected them. They went through in detail in each park, measured each one, and then approved reimbursement for funding to replace sod at each of those four parks. So far, we have completed three of the four parks. We've completed Flora Wiley, Elva Rouse, and Vinoy Park, and now Albert Whitted is the last to remain. And so they agreed to replace with like species, which the dominant species was St. Augustine. So that is currently being laid. Flora Wiley should be completed today, I believe. They have their last pallet out there. So FEMA-funded project. It's been kind of a long process. We got an extension granted from FEMA due to having major storms last year, so we couldn't move much on it. But happy to answer any other questions you have regarding the sod in particular. Vice Chair Hanwitz. Thank you, and thank you, Barbara, for the explanation. So I just noticed this while I was on the dais and I asked legal. It looks like the math doesn't math in the resolution. So there's a total amount that we received of $553,611.21, and then in parentheses it says $415,208.41 in federal funds and $69,201.40 in state funds. You add that up, it doesn't add up to $553,611, and that's the same information that is on the memo. So, and I just noticed this. So I just want to make sure if you have the right numbers or we can correct it. Yeah. And legal, I don't know what your position is. Yeah, legal, I mean, as you know, legal uses the numbers that are in the memo. So it might be good. Yep, we'll check back with budget. Yeah, I would say we might want to try to figure out. Want to table the item? Maybe table that item because we would want to, if the number, obviously the parenthetical is wrong, so we should figure out what is correct so that we can change the resolution accordingly. It would be a tweak in just the first whereas of the resolution. Yeah, table. But I'd hate to change that and have that not be correct for some reason before I can confer with budget. Okay, so we can just table the item for now. We'll go to new business. If we need to, if we can either do this at the very beginning of public hearing or we can do it at, we can take a quick break and then come back. But maybe Tom has us right now. Yeah, yes, and I'm sorry for the confusion. That amount, the difference is the city participation amount. So it's like, I don't remember the exact percentages, but 12.5% from the state, 75% from feds, and then our participation amount is the difference, if that makes sense. So my question, yeah, do we need, I'm sorry. So do we need to change the memo if our participation because they only talk about it, their participation? Yeah, not the memo. The memo I'm looking at, this says city council accepted reimbursement award from FEMA in the amount of blank, federal funds. I mean, we probably should. This doesn't appear to read correct based on what Tom said. All right. So we'll table the item. What we'll do is we'll do new business, and then why don't we take this item up right at the very beginning of public hearing when we come back. That way we're not coming back 15 minutes later and then breaking again. It'll be very quick. We'll just give you a red line of the first warehouse clause on the dice. Perfect. Okay. All right. So we'll table the item for now. We're going to go into new business, G1, brought by Chair Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair. Respectfully requesting a referral to the Committee of the Whole or other relevant committee for a discussion regarding co-sponsorship agreements for special events, especially large-scale events in public parks, including but not limited to the size and duration of the events, fees charged, access to public parks before and after events, maximum setup and dismantling periods, park impact security and noise mitigation. And to give some context, we recently had an event. I got a lot of complaints, and I've been getting complaints because of a lot of the large-scale events, and we've been kind of working for a long time in this, and Mike Jeffries has been great. But the last time, the park was closed for over nine days, I think it was a total. It ended up on Saturday, and it was still not like the Monday after, and that's one of our main public parks. And that really upset a lot of residents, and that was just one of the issues that we've been dealing with. So I think it is probably a good time to kind of cover what our standards are going to be for these events. The other issue we have is the recovery of these parks after the event. That area, they had just fixed up a side, and it is not looking good again. And so I think it's probably a good time to have that conversation. So with that, I move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on G1. 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 sally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G1 passes unanimously. Okay. Thank you. We're going to go to G2. Council member Givens. Thank you very much, Chair. Without going too far into the weeds, I think we had this conversation last week. After multiple requests from some Main Street districts regarding their budget amount, whatever they get allocated every fiscal year, they need to see an increase. There's been a cost of living increase. I think it was five years ago. They haven't had one since. So we're requesting that we have a more robust conversation regarding the funding of these Main Street districts, whether or not there are some dollars that we can find someplace else to help them. We're not saying what that amount is. We're just having a conversation about the future of funding these Main Street districts. So with that, I'm respectfully requesting referral to the Economic and Workforce Development Committee or other relevant committees to discuss Main Street districts. The discussion should include how the city currently supports Main Street districts and potential funding options, excuse me, for increased annual funding financial support. With that, I move for approval. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second on G2. Council member Gabbard. Thank you, Chair, and Council Member Givens, I was curious, since we had a conversation at our budget cleanup about if there was going to be dollars that were going to be allocated to increase that funding coming from a different pool within the Economic Development City Administration budget, are you prepared to have a conversation with the administration and bring Council some sort of recommendation as to where extra dollars could be found? Because we very clearly had that conversation here in that budget cleanup, and I think that if we're going to move this to a committee, it should be a comprehensive conversation. So are you prepared to have that plan put together for this item? Council Member Givens, you can respond. Yes, ma'am. I am. I'm prepared to work with the administration to do that. I think that's what we need at this point is a clear path forward. Right now we've just kind of been looking for dollars and hoping and guessing we can find them. We'd like to have the discussion as to where exactly those dollars can be allocated from. So I'm willing to work with the administration to find them and to bring it to that discussion. I look forward to a very well-thought-out presentation. Thank you. Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. Actually, Council Member Gabbard had my question. This, to me, is an administrative function, and I want to make sure that we're engaging. We're always looking for dollars for everything, and if this is going to change, it has to start with administration. So if you're willing to go that route, Council Member Givens, then I got you. Thank you for that. Thank you. Council Member Givens. Yes, certainly, and that's what I want to be clear about. You know, I believe these Main Street districts, I see Nicole here with the Edge District today, they have had these conversations with administration. They've had these conversations with council members, I'm sure, other than myself. Now we're looking forward to actually saying, here's the pot of money. This is where we can allocate these dollars from, and this is the good that it can do. I think it's clear that these Main Street districts really are the backbone of our local economy, and they're just asking for a little bit more help to do the work that they've been doing just at the next level. So, again, I am not willing to have this conversation alone. I'm willing to engage administration because we can't do it by ourselves. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second on G2. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, 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 G2 passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. All right, we are going to go back to F6 now. I'm going to turn it back over to legal for a second. So, thank you, Chair. One option here after conferring with administration, since the only problem here is that the parenthetical itself is incorrect, would be just to delete the parenthetical rather than trying to rework the parenthetical, if you'd like to dispense with it now. So, it could just be approving the resolution with the deletion of the parenthetical in the first whereas clause. That'd be great. I'll move approval of the resolution with removing the parenthetical in the first whereas paragraph. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, 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. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F6 as amended passes unanimously. Okay. Council members, great job. We are at the point where we need to take a pause until 5.01 for public hearings, and then we've got another slate at 5.01. And so, at this point, council is in recess. Thank you, everybody. Good evening. We're going to call to order, back to order, council meeting, and we're going to go into public hearings, and we're going to go into J1 and J2. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on J1 and J2. Seeing as no council members wishing to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, 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 items J1 and J2 passes unanimously with council member Gabbard being absent. Joe, always good to see you, buddy. Okay, we're going to move into J3. Could you please read the title? Ordinance number 625-H, an ordinance concerning municipal elections for the city of St. Petersburg, making findings regarding the qualifying period for and the scheduling of those elections, amending city code chapter 10 to provide for a new qualifying period, ratifying that the dates of the 2026 municipal primary and general elections are the same as the dates of the 2026 state primary and general elections, providing for severability and providing for an effective date, and we do not have any cards on this. Move approval. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on J3. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your vote. I thought I saw a blink. 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 J3 passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to move into J4. If you could please read the title. Opposed ordinance number 624-H, an ordinance of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending city code chapter 8 to add a new subsection 8-38 milestone inspections, providing definitions for milestone inspection, qualified building, and substantial structural deterioration, providing for an inspection schedule, providing for consistency with state law, prescribing timelines and penalties to ensure compliance, amending section 12-6 to add milestone inspection fees, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date, and we do not have any cards. Move approval. Second. It went easy on you, Don. You already did the hard work. Right? Yeah, you sure did. I'll just say thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the back of material. Thank you for all the work you're doing on this. It's very important. I don't want to miss that. So, Don, thanks to everybody on the team, and it's important work, and thank you for doing it. All right. We've got a motion and a second on J4, 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 for agenda item J4 passes unanimously. Okay. We're going to move into J5. Could you please read the title? Opposed ordinance number 626-H, an ordinance of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending Chapter 22, Article 4, Division 6 of the St. Petersburg City Code, relating to the 1984 Supplemental Police Officers Retirement System, amending subsection 22-279-D to create staggered selections of full-time police officer trustees, amending subsection 22-285-I to allow a member in drop to be elected as a full-time police officer trustee and providing for an effective date, and we do not have any cards on this. Approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on J5. 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 J5 passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. We're going to move into J6. Clerk, could you please read the title? Proposed ordinance number 627-H, an ordinance of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, amending Chapter 22, Article 4, Division 4 of the St. Petersburg City Code, relating to the Supplemental Firefighter's Retirement System, amending Section 22-196 to include certain overtime hours on or after September 22, 2025 on or after September 22, 2025 in the definition of earnable compensation. Amending Subsection 22-200B to update reference to the Florida statutory definition of full-time firefighter. Amending Subsection 22-200D to create staggered elections of full-time firefighter trustees. Amending Subsection 22-206L to allow a member and drop to be elected as a full-time firefighter trustee and provide him for an effective date. We do not have any cards on this. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second on J6. 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 J6 passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. We're going to move on to J7. If you could please read the title. Proposed ordinance number 628-H, an ordinance concerning operation of the city's municipal governmental access channel, making findings regarding the operation of that channel, amending city code chapter 2, article 9, and providing for an effective date. And we do not have any cards on it. Move approval. Second. Just quickly, I just want to thank everybody at SPTV. You guys do a great job. Everybody down there, just very thankful for all of you. The closed captioning, having worked with you through CAPI over the last few years, just everything that you guys do down there, I'm very thankful for all of you. Thanks for making us look so good. Okay, we've got a motion and a second on J7. 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 J7 passes unanimously. Thank you. I had to say something. They're the ones behind the note. They're not on it. All right, we're going to move into J8. If you could please read the title. Opposed ordinance number 1175-V, an ordinance approving the vacation of an unimproved isolated 25-by-60-foot dead-end right-of-way on the southern side of Block 1, Lot 1, and the Maximal Woods Unit 1 Plat, generally located at 3010 58th Avenue South, setting forth conditions for the vacation to become effective and providing for an effective date, and we do not have any cards. We have a motion and a second on J8, seeing as no 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 J8 passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. Now we're going to move into J9. If you could please read the title. The ordinance number 1176-V, an ordinance approving the vacation of a street corner easement at the southeast corner of Lot 1 in the Power Central Park, Block 16, Partial Re-Platt, generally located at 3601 1st Avenue North, sending forth conditions for the vacation to become effective and provided for an effective date, and we do not have any cards on this. We have a motion and a second on J9. Just quickly, I think this is the smallest he's been able to use. Yeah, I'm just looking at it. I had to blow it up on my iPad when I read the backup, and in the backup, if you look at it, it's literally a cactus. It's pretty incredible. Okay, all right, we've got a motion and a second on J9. 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 J9 unanimously. Okay, thank you, Cheryl. All right, we're going to move into open forum. Do we have any speakers? Mr. Chair, we do not. Okay, and then we're going to move right into announcements. Any announcements, council members? Council member Gibbons. Thank you, Chair. I just want to take a moment to wish my friends, the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, a happy Founders Day. They were founded today in 1906 on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. They have been developing leaders and promoting brotherhood and scholarship and service and manly deeds for over a century. So I just want to give a shout out to the Alphas. Happy Founders Day, gentlemen. Thank you. Council member Fick Sanders. Thank you. First, I want to just let everybody know that I'm so excited. I was elected chair yesterday. Then we said our farewell, but we'll still see you. The council member Driscoll yesterday. She turned down. I'm sorry. Turned down. But you got a really good farewell, and it was well attended, and you got a whole lot of love, ma'am. So please know that your time and your service on PSTA was quite valuable, and I want to thank you so much for kind of dragging me along with you on that one. But, yeah, no, actually, it has been a very nice experience. I just want to let everybody know that we thanked you properly. We probably should have given you a party, but, you know. There was cake. Yeah, there was cake. There was cake. That's what I heard. There was cake where there's – and it was public. Yeah. Even better. It was public. It was public. So I just wanted to make those announcements so you will be missed on PSTA, ma'am. Oh, and another one. I forgot. As you all see, that Tampa Bay Ferry passed unanimously. So that is also news of the day. So thank you so much. Thank you, chair. Thank you. Council member Driscoll. Thank you. And, yes, it was kind of a bittersweet moment yesterday as I said goodbye as a board member for PSTA. I'll remain a champion even from here. And having served on that board since 2019, it was – it's really been quite an experience. And there's a lot that I'll be able to look back on and be proud that I helped to make happen. Thinking about lots of trips to Tallahassee and D.C. with Brad to fight the good fight. And, you know, it's just all been wonderful. So I'm going to miss it, but I am excited to have the opportunity to pass the baton. I know committee wish list forms have gone out. And, you know, let me – It opens up a spot for you. As you heard the testimonial from council member Fig Sanders, getting dragged along to get into PSTA is worth it. So I hope everyone will give that consideration as you think about your appointments for next year. But congratulations, council member Fig Sanders. PSTA usually does two years in a row for a chair. And so this will – she'll be going into her second year. She's done a phenomenal job. And there was no question as to whether or not she should be chair for next year. So I'm looking forward to watching and hearing the updates from it and seeing where I can still be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you both of you for your service on PSTA. And council member Driscoll, thank you for all the effort. I know that you've been a big part of that organization over the last few years. And so thank you. And then council member Fig Sanders, thank you for your leadership, continued leadership on PSTA. And I'm looking forward to seeing who our next appointee to PSTA is. And so I know there's some want there. I won't pick my head up because then I'll look it up. So we have a list of birthdays, council members. So Beth Herondine's is tomorrow. We've got Janie's the day after, James Corbett on the 8th. And Janie would be upset with me if I didn't mention that it is also Taylor Swift's birthday. And so I won't make us sing Taylor Swift, but we're going to sing happy birthday to everybody. Hopefully you remember all the names. So, yeah, that's right. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to everyone. Happy birthday to you. So, well, thank you, council members. It was a great day today. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you this morning. Just to give my daughter just a quick shout out. She won the temperance award at school, so I went to go see her receive that. So if my wife has the television on at home, Callie James, congratulations. Otherwise, I think we set a record this evening for nine items in 15 minutes. Good job. And so, yeah, well done. So thank you, everybody. Looking forward to next week, which is our last official city council meeting of the year. But looking forward to seeing everybody next week. There's nothing else for the good of the order. City council is adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Good evening. You too. Good evening.