City Council - Feb 13, 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, Leseth Hanowitz, District 5, Deborah Figg Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Givens Jr. And District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon. We'll call to order the February 13, 2025 City Council Meeting. If we could have a roll call, please. Gabbard? Here. Harding? Here. Hanowitz? Here. Rick Sanders? Here. Driscoll? Here. Givens? Floyd? Gerdes? Here. Okay. This afternoon, we will have our invocation given today by the Pastor Frank Peterman of the Rock of Jesus Missionary Baptist Church. And then please remain standing for our Pledge of Allegiance. We thank God for this day and for your wonderful service to the mayor, staff, and city council members and all those who work to uplift this city. As I often said, it's quite an honor having served in this capacity years ago. I can't ever forget the old landmark, as the word of God says. So I enjoyed that and I enjoy your service. And I pray and hope that you'll continue to go further in taking this city to a higher level. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come praising your name and thanking you for this day. Come asking that, Lord, you guide us, you strengthen us, that you forgive us, that you make us whole. And, Lord, we ask right now that you bless, Lord, this meeting space, this time, this council, and the mayor and the staff, and all those who participate in the ongoing march of making this city the greatest ever throughout this country. We plead, Lord, your son's blood upon, Lord, this meeting time. And we thank you, Lord, for the people who are here in the audience, bless their lives, and let them receive what they need, Lord, in this whole governmental process. We thank you, Lord, we ask that you will bless this wonderful time, bless the chairman who leads this group, and all the individual council members. We thank you, we praise you, we lift you up, God, and let your will be done this day and the days to come. I ask this prayer in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Pastor, thank you so much. Thank you to the service that you provide at the church, but also to the service you've provided to the city of St. Petersburg. It's very much appreciated from this dais. Thank you. Okay. Okay, council members, we have an agenda in front of us, including an ad of G1, a referral to a cow. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. Seeing as no further discussion, we have a motion and a second. 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, with council members Floyd and Gibbons being absent. Okay, thank you. We'll move right into open forum. Clerk, could you please read the rules? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once, during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak, and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the hand-raised feature button in the Zoom app or enter star 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments 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 comments is disrupted by a violation of the rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comments by alternate means, including by email only. And, Mr. Chair, we do have some speakers. Thank you. Let's call two at a time, please. The first two speakers is Mark Glover and Michelle Knight. Go to either podium. Please state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address counsel. Shall we dance? All right. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, counsel. Thank you so much. And I'll take you up in the dance a little bit later. My name is Mark Glover, and I'm the public sector lead for Keys Claims Consultants. Mr. Glover, would you please state your address? Oh, my address is 37 North Orange Avenue, Orlando, Florida. But I represent the St. Pete Housing Authority currently. Okay. Yeah, so as I said, we are public adjusters, and we basically assist municipalities. We represent the entirety of the U.S. Virgin Islands government post those two Category 5 hurricanes, and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars accordingly. We have been in communication with some of the staff here inside the city of St. Pete, and was, you know, attempting to try to offer some services. Our services are 100% contingency, and so if there's no recovery, there's no fee over and above what you've already received. So, you know, again, my name is Mark Glover with Keys Claims. My grandfather was a Methodist preacher, so I won't take my entirety of the three minutes. And if you all have any questions, I would like to be able to send you all some information separately, under separate cover. I do have some brief brochures that I could also leave here. Thank you. Go ahead. My name is Michelle Knight. I also have documentation I would like to give the clerk to give to each one of you regarding what I'm going to speak on. Can you share your address, please? Yes, my address. I'm currently living at 601 Rosary Road Northeast in Largo. I am a former resident of the city of St. Petersburg. I'm sorry. You have to have an address here in St. Petersburg. Well, I did have an address until I was flooded out with Hurricane Helene. And being a native-born St. Pete resident, up until September of last year, I have a right to speak here regarding the negligence of the city. This is a public forum. I have submitted all documentation. Chair, your current rules, unless the individual has to have a current address in St. Pete or a business in St. Pete, it doesn't sound like that's the case. I'm sorry, ma'am. You'll have to distribute those to us to different means. You can send them to us via e-mail. Oh, I will. And you'll also be hearing from an attorney because there is negligence regarding the city water treatment plant that y'all need to know about. Ma'am, thank you. Let's next two speakers, please. The next two speakers is Matt Widener and Kevin Batdorf. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address counsel. Members of the council, my name is Matthew Widener. I have a home at 1201 Eden Isle Drive. We're in the middle of a crisis. You're in the middle of a crisis. I'm talking about this utility issue. I did not use 9,000 gallons at my singular office in the month of October. My home did not use 20,000 gallons in October. I know that you're getting overwhelmed with these complaints. I know that you've got this scheduled for a cow. The reality is you folks have an oversight role. Your oversight role is to ask hard questions and make sure the administration is providing you information. I know that you're hearing all of these complaints, hundreds, thousands of them. You've heard the news reports about hundreds of examples that they have collected. I need you to focus like a laser on the volume issue. These citizens did not have 10,000 gallons flowing through their abandoned and empty houses. They didn't have 20,000 gallons. So what's the explanation? The only explanation is that the meters are faulty. And there is precedent for this nationwide going back years in which there are faulty meters. I take real exception and I have a real problem with the fact that some of these citizens, many of these citizens, in fact, are being told go spend your money, hire a plumber, hire a leak detector to find out whether 20,000 gallons is leaking into your house that doesn't have walls put up because it's banged out, right? The leaks don't exist. You have this oversight function to find out from the engineering and water department how many times have you cut off the meters physically, sent them off to the engineering and analysis department to find out and then confirm that the meter itself is faulty or broken, right? This is happening out there, but they didn't describe that to you when they came before you last week. You have an oversight role to determine exactly how many complaints are out there. The UBRC form is not easy to find. I'm somewhat sophisticated and I got to probe around and get to where the UBRC is. This needs to be front and center on the city's website so that when the citizen has this problem, they fill out a paper trail and you folks can get some handle on exactly how big this problem is because right now you're getting phone calls in there. You're getting people in the staff level that are overwhelmed with this, but you folks have absolutely no idea how big this problem is. The biggest problem I have, when you look at that UBRC form and it says they're going to stamp every one of these things denied, the next sentence that I've read, it says you can pursue civil litigation. They know damn well you can't pursue civil litigation. That's one of the problems. So guess what? These thousands of consumers out there that have a problem because they're being billed, the money's being taken out of their account, you've got automatic withdrawals that it's coming out of and you won't give the money back, and the response is, sue us? That's not practical for someone on fixed income that just had $700, $800 taken out of their account and they can turn in the damn world that's going to take that case up. You folks can do something about it. I know you've got interest in this right now. I can tell by the looks on your faces. Fulfill your duty and obligation to the citizens. Ask hard questions at the Cal and get the information in advance. Thank all of you for what you're doing. Good afternoon. My name is Kevin Batdorf, 1801 Nevada Avenue Northeast, a native of St. Pete. I am a real estate broker and Shore Acres Civic Association president. I want to echo everything that Mr. Widener said, but I'm not going to take my time repeating that. I agree with it. I'm here today to talk about the Scarlet Sea. The city of St. Petersburg made a decision to open a codes case on almost every home, approximately 11,000, located in the special high hazard area of St. Petersburg, regardless of flood status, even though the city has a list of every home that actually flooded, including how high the watermark was. The city published these goals as reasoning. Ensure necessary repair permits are obtained and completed. Verify permits are closed out with required inspections. Protect buyers from purchasing unpermitted repairs. On its face, these goals we can all agree on. To be clear, I agree with disclosing that a house flooded to potential buyers and future owners. I agree 100% with that. All repair work that requires a permit should be permitted. This could have been accomplished if the city's permitting department were better equipped to handle the requirements they're imposing. Shore acres leadership asked for mobile permitting and shore acres to expedite the process. That, along with proper messaging and communication, would most likely have prevented this extraordinary action. The city's method of casting a wide net goes too far. Placing an open code case on homes that did not flood creates a stigma for that property. Homeowners are being advised that they can close the case, but cannot remove the case from the property's permanent record. Just ask yourselves, if this was about permitting, why is the open codes case, in all caps, labeled Special Flood Hazard Area? Why not label it permitting? As time goes by, the memory of this discussion fades. Real estate agents and future buyers will use this data to identify houses that flooded. Unfortunately, the properties that did not flood will also carry this stigma, and they will mistakenly be identified as having flooded. How do you think that will affect the value of that property? Performing an initial search of the property's code case will show the case number and type of case, which will show Special Flood Hazard Area, all caps. It doesn't matter that a case will be closed. It's even more concerning that the status for homes that did not flood are now being changed to invalid complaint. The complaint originated internally at the city. At what point did it become appropriate for the city to initiate invalid complaints? The next two speakers. The next two speakers is Rachel Tenpenny and Bob Glazier. Please go to either podium. State your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address Council. Thank you. My name is Bob Glasser. I live at 506 17th Avenue Northeast in St. Petersburg. I own a real estate business in downtown called Smith & Associates Real Estate. We've been fortunate to bring many new homeowners to the market, and yes, we're dealing with a lot. It's a crisis unseen and unheard of, and nationally, they're all paying close attention to St. Pete and Tampa Bay, how we're resolving it. But more importantly, I'm here today because I have a great support for ACT. Today, you have an opportunity to look at ACT and its work in the market, represented by Mr. Harris here, who have helped over 15,000 youth and families since they opened a number of years back. My involvement's been the last seven and a half years with our company. We've invested in it. We've participated. We've got to meet the kids and seeing the growth and the change and introduce them throughout Tampa Bay, all a part of what incubated in St. Petersburg, which is really a landmark situation that this city can make claim to, I think, ultimately nationally. A hundred percent of those students in that program have all graduated from high school. Ninety percent have gone on to pursue a higher education. Over time, it wasn't just about music and dance, which I'm not good at. It became really good at industry-type standards that they could work in, different metrics. They found career paths that took them to different companies, including our own, but also it provided a metric that ACT could follow the amount of work that all these students have done to give credibility to why the investment by the city, by individuals like myself and other business people, is so important to bring these young students into the world and into our market as the best students possible. So today, I'm hopeful City Council will help step forward, like the business and civic leaders that you are, and want to see and create, as the minister said in the end of his prayer there, new higher benchmarks for all of us. And Alex will make the ask, and we appreciate your support. And thank you for all your work. You all do a great job. Thank you. Rachel? Tim? Tim Penny? Passing. Oh, she's passing. Okay. The next speaker is William Edwards, and then we have somebody in Zoom. And what was the last one? Then we have one in Zoom. Please state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address Council. I'm head of a small homeowners association at 547 First Street South here in St. Petersburg. Share your name, too, please, sir. Pardon? Could you share your name as well, please? William Edwards. Thank you. Bill Edwards. Our water usage in August was 36. In September, it was estimated by the Water and Sewer Department at 145. In October, it was 1,576 gallons. In November, it went back to 42. Well, what happened, our bill starts at September 26th to 27th. When the hurricane went through, we had three feet of water. We're fronting on First Street, and you all know, I'm sure, what happened to the airport. We lost three cars and two elevators in the building. The water meter was under water, seawater, for about 12 hours. That was, I think, the first cause. The second cause was we were told not to drink the water thereafter, and the city came back and flushed all the lines with very high-pressure water. Between the two, when I complained about the bill, we were told to check. And, of course, I think our usage indicates that we had no leaks. Between the saltwater and the pressure, I think that the water meter failed. The fact that the Water and Water Department estimates frequently what our bills are, I suggest a possible solution, simply estimate what the October bills really are, maybe add something for an additional amount to cover mistakes, and then reset the base usage to whatever it was at the end of October. I think that's the fair thing to do, and I thank you all for your courtesy. Thank you. Let's go to the speaker on Zoom. Okay. Sherry Jubey, I'm going to enter you into the meeting space. When I do, please unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record, and you'll have three minutes to address city council. You may go ahead now. Sherry Jubey, can you hear me? We can't hear you. Let's give her one more second. Let's try one more time. Sherry Jubey, please unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address city council. She put her hand up. Okay. No more speakers? Mr. Chair, no more speakers. Okay. We'll go ahead and close open forum. Okay. We'll move into awards and presentations, starting with D2 Radio St. Pete Day Proclamation, and we're joined today by our mayor, Ken T. Welch. Welcome, mayor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council, our great St. Pete team, members of the public, thank you all for being here. Chair Gerties, it's a pleasure to join you for this awards and presentations. It's a great way to recognize and celebrate great organizations in our community, and the first one is Radio St. Pete. I'd like to ask the Radio St. Pete family to join me. Way on the other side. Okay. Jay and Karen, thank you all for joining us. And Dr. Harris, good to see you. Who wants to hold a proclamation? All right. And it reads, whereas Radio St. Pete is a listener-supported, volunteer-run community radio station that has provided diverse and independent programming to the residents of St. Petersburg and fostered a vibrant, inclusive, and engaged community for years. And whereas Radio St. Pete and RadioStPete.com offers a platform for local musicians, artists, civic leaders, and individuals to share their voices, ideas, and passions, promoting creativity, local culture, and community connection. And whereas Radio St. Pete and RadioStPete.com serves as a resource for education, entertainment, and information, contributing to the civic life of St. Petersburg through thought-provoking interviews, local news, and cultural programming. And whereas the station's commitment to providing access to the airwaves for underrepresented voices and supporting community-driven initiatives exemplifies the spirit of public service and the values of community engagement. And whereas Radio St. Pete's continued success is a testament to the dedication of its volunteers, supporters, and listeners who work together to ensure its mission and vision remain strong and vibrant. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, March 5th, 2025, as Radio St. Pete Day in St. Petersburg, and encourage all of our residents to celebrate the work of Radio St. Pete and to support its ongoing efforts to provide quality, community-centered programming that strengthens the bonds of St. Petersburg. Thank you for your great work. Thank you, Mayor Welch. And thank you so much to the City Council, to staff, and really to all the people here in St. Petersburg who have supported this endeavor. Joe Bordeaux, the president of the board and the person who founded Radio St. Pete, unfortunately couldn't be here. He had a business meeting that was planned months ago. So, I'm the VP of the board and the music director, and again, on behalf of all of us, thank you so very much. Joe Bordeaux had this vision 13 years ago of what a community radio station could be, and we're getting there. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Don't go anywhere yet. Don't go anywhere quite yet. Don't go anywhere quite yet. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. I just wanted to congratulate you, and thank you for all that you do. Radio St. Pete offers something that's kind of hard to find these days, and that is that hyper-local focus through radio. You find ways to be entertaining. There's really something for everyone, right? But there's also great information that is shared over that, whether it is educational or informative about our hurricanes, things like that. You really do serve the community in a unique way, and I appreciate that very much. I also had a wonderful time a while back doing a broadcast with you all at the Florida Institute of Oceanography on board the RV Western Flyer. That was fantastic, and it gave your listeners an inside look or an inside listen to some incredible research that's going on in marine science out there, and you were able to blend it in with some really cool music that was performed live while we were there. What a great experience for me. So, I loved that. Thank you. And I can only imagine how much fun it was for people to listen in, and you do that kind of stuff day after day. It is just a real gift to our city, and I appreciate you, and I thank you. Well, thank you, and you should all know we're right around the corner, so we're right in the neighborhood, and you're all welcome to stop by any time. Just real quickly, just wanted to say thank you. I am a constant listener of one of the podcasts that is created out of St. Pete Radio, and now that same, I don't know, is it podcaster, is hosting a radio show, and just I think the content that's created, I would totally agree with Councilmember Driscoll. You know, this hyper-local focus with local people, it's an amazing gift that we have here in St. Petersburg. So, thank you very much for the last 13 years, and hopefully I get to listen to the next 30. So, thank you so much. Congratulations. Okay. Moving on to D3, Black History Month proclamation, and again, Mayor Welch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is another great day in St. Petersburg to celebrate the diversity and progress we've made in our city and in this organization. Our administration has been intentional about being inclusive and creating opportunities for everyone to have their voice both heard and valued, and this Black History Month is special for many reasons. I'm pleased to have many community representatives from various agencies and organizations, and I'll ask them to join me at the podium, if y'all would, as I read the proclamation. As the keeper of history, Ms. Scott. And it reads, whereas February is annually observed as Black History Month and has been designated to identify the historical contributions of African-American citizens, and whereas African-Americans have made countless contributions to the city of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, the state of Florida, the United States of America, and the world, and whereas the city of St. Petersburg has a robust center of cultural organizations, such as the Woodson Museum of Florida, OSILA, African-American Heritage Association, and community oral historians, who continue to work to support the intellectual development of our community to collect and preserve Black stories, sponsor Black history, and literature events. And whereas the late John Lewis's words, quote, Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year. It is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble, end quote. Those words continue to ring true today more than ever. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg takes pride in celebrating Black History Month and recognizing the contributions of notable African-Americans, now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month in St. Petersburg. And I urge residents to join me in celebrating African-American history legacy and the profound contributions of African-Americans to our great society. Thank you. And now we have a few words from Esther Eugene, the NAACP president of the city of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Branch. Did I get that right? Okay. And world. And world. And Terri Lipsy Scott, the CEO of the Woodson African-American Museum of Florida. Madam President. Thank you. Come on, Chase. So I'm going to introduce to some, reintroduce to others. This is Chase Temple. Chase is our Youth Council president. And my commitment in 2025 is that wherever I show up, Chase will show up as well. So I want to talk a little bit about black history. In 1920, the NAACP stood up in St. Petersburg as the first civil rights organization to fight racial segregation, voter suppression, disenfranchisement, levied at black residents. In 1940, Dr. Ralph Wimbush, a black physician and civil rights leader in St. Petersburg, fought against segregation in public spaces, schools, and professional fields. In 1960, the NAACP Youth Council and Mr. Joe Savage mobilized young people to take direct action against segregation by leading sit-ins and other coordinated activation efforts, including Mr. Joe Waller, who removed a racist painting right here at City Hall. I want to add that it's vitally important that we do something to place and tell the story where that painting was removed. In 1980, Dr. Joseph Smith was a strong critic of the city's decision to displace black families and businesses in the gas plant district. And that was, as many of us know here, for the construction of Tropicana Field. In 2000, Reverend Clarence Williams organized public demonstrations and rallies to bring attention to the plight of the gas plant district, displacing residents. He highlighted the continued inequities in St. Petersburg, where black communities were not benefiting from economic development. In 2022, I, our Commissioner Flowers, Council Member Debra Fig Sanders, Reverend Clarence Williams, Reverend Lewis Murphy, Senator Roussan, our mayor, and other key leaders, along with the Department of Justice and the FBI, conducted listening sessions because St. Pete Catholic students thought that it was okay to write racial slurs on school campus. And here we are, in 2025, consistently and continually fighting for black people and equity. The fight for justice and equity never ends for us. Many of our brothers and sisters can go to sleep and not worry about anything because when they wake up, their equity and their rights are clear because of their skin color. But we, me, I'm still denied fair and equal treatment, fair housing. I'm denied economic opportunities. Our young men and women still deal with mass incarceration. Systems of oppression still remain prevalent. And I know y'all don't want to hear this. It's uncomfortable. But there's comfort in discomfort. Please remember that black history proves that we must always fight for our rights and our progress. Resistance is not a sign of defeat. It's proof that our power, especially in our current political climate, is what we must remain strong in. I ask our city council to thank our mayor because he's one of the only ones who has steadfast in his commitment to ensuring that our history and our voices are not silent. I stand here because not only am I black, but I'm also history. We must do better. Well, in the black church, after a message like that, we just generally pass the plate. Thank you so much, President Esther, our young president as well. We have with us also the CEO of Urban League, Ms. Nikki Capehart, Danny White, Race Without Ism, and my fellow board member, Chiquita Clark, the Woodson African American Museum of Florida. I am Terry Lipsy Scott, and I am indeed honored to live in a city where inclusion is a cornerstone, where we can stand proudly and state that we celebrate not only African American history, but other histories as well. We are proud as a people to wake up in a community that every day we know we are led by individuals who have a passion for diversity, for equity, and inclusion. And leaders, those are not bad words. There are indeed symbols and statements of courage and of character. And I applaud you for carrying the banner. As the executive director of the Woodson African American Museum, we humbly thank you for co-sponsoring Harriet Tubman, who's proudly displayed in our legacy gardens, and I beg you and our community to share this opportunity with us. Harriet Tubman's sculpture, The Beacon of Hope, is proudly displayed in our legacy gardens. She's traveled across the country, and this is her first time in the state of Florida, and she's here in the city of St. Petersburg. And for that, I say thank you. Mr. Mayor, as Esther was rattling off history, there is a little that she left out. The first African American vice mayor of the city of St. Petersburg was Seabed Winbush, followed by Dr. David T. Welch. And history that we continue to celebrate is you, our mayor, St. Petersburg's first black mayor. History that we celebrate. And with that, I'd like to say to each and every one of you, Andrew Young was here many, many years ago, and he walked the downtown area, and he said to me, when we got close enough, he said, what did you all do to deserve to live in a city like this? And I asked myself that question over and over again. I don't know what we've done to deserve this, but I'm grateful. Thank you for your leadership, and I'm a proud resident of this city. Thank you all. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and I want to thank each and every one of you so much for being here today. I just want to take a moment to commend the contributions of trailblazers. Ms. Scott mentioned the names of Seabed Winbush, the late Seabed Winbush, and the late Dr. David Welch, who, Mr. Mayor, I found out the other day, played first base with my uncle on the St. Pete Pelicans. So that's a little piece of black history for you all. So I just want to pause and speak the names of the late Ernest Filiu, the late Ernest Williams, the late, excuse me, we already mentioned her in him, but Dr. David Welch and Seabed Winbush. These are former council members who blazed the paths that my colleagues and I travel, and I am so excited to see future generations here today who will also travel this trail that they blazed. So, you know, I'm just so excited. You mentioned it, Ms. Terry. We have history right here amongst us, our first black mayor, but it's exciting to know he won't be the last black mayor, right? Isn't that right, Chase? Yes, we talked about that. History is in the making. So let's support these future generations and their dreams, you know. Let's, instead of stopping them, let's push them to reach their goals and to reach the stars because as Dr., I don't think he was a doctor, but I'm going to make him a doctor today, but John Lewis, Congressman John Lewis, he was a good brother, frat brother of mine, told us it's okay to get in good trouble, y'all. So, you know, don't hesitate to organize at your schools like the students at St. Pete Catholic did. You know, that's where it starts at, in those student government associations. Join, get active, get involved, and you too can become history in your own way. And lastly, just put a little plug out there for you, Ms. Terry, in the spirit of Black History Month, the Collard Green Festival will be taking place this weekend on the deuces in the heart of my district, District 7. So please come on out February 15th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and let us celebrate Black History. So thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate it. Council Member Fix Sanders. Thank you. So I am not new in this space of thanking those trailblazers that were standing here today. I appreciate everything that Ms. Esther said, and you're right. A lot of the things that we need to speak about are uncomfortable. But because we have people that are willing to stand steadfast and to continue to remind some and educate others that we ain't going nowhere. We are a culture that needs to be applauded, celebrated, 365. You know I'm a huge NBA fan, and I love their jerseys that says, Black History Always, meaning we're going to consistently be there. Mayor, I thank you for this proclamation. And there is so much history that goes with the Welch name. There's so much history that is in the city of St. Petersburg, period. And I want to ensure that as we acknowledge other organizations and we acknowledge other resources and opportunities, that we do not forget the opportunities that were founded by a lot of people we don't even know their names. So thank you, Ms. Terry, for continuously reminding us. And I'm coming to see Harriet. I heard it was awesome. It's a beautiful display. And so I want to make sure that we see that. But again, I speak on us all of the time. So this is not new. I guess I need to. I'm black. But I speak on us all the time because I am with you to let you know that we are going to consistently stay mindful with the progress of the city of St. Petersburg and what it is that we still need to have done to ensure our history is not forgotten. Thank you, Chair. Okay. We will move on to D4, Localtopia Proclamation. Mayor Welch, last but not least. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And before I say that, happy birthday, Councilmember Figg Sanders. Thank you. Mr. Chair, in the city of St. Petersburg, we love our small businesses. Our city organization celebrates them, provides support and funding for them through our greenhouse and its staff and services, provides grants and related programs and purchases goods and services from them. One of the very best celebrations, and I'm excited it's coming up, is Localtopia. It gives our residents an opportunity to sample some of what our small business owners have to offer. I'm pleased to read a proclamation and promotion of its 12th annual event, and I'll ask the one and only Olga Boff to join me. Where's Olga? There you go. Y'all show Olga some love. Give her a hand, please. How you doing? And it reads, Whereas our city's locally owned, independent businesses are integral to the unique flavor of St. Petersburg, and make it a place we want to live, work, and play. And whereas the health of St. Petersburg's economy depends on our support of businesses owned by our families, friends, and neighbors. And whereas our St. Pete-grown businesses need our support now more than ever to survive. And whereas the Independent Business Alliance Keeps St. Pete Local works to keep and build a thriving local economy and a unique community. And whereas Keeps St. Petersburg Local will commemorate its 13-year anniversary by presenting the 12th annual Localtopia at Williams Park, our city's first park, purposely selected as the venue for the festival. And whereas Localtopia will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 22nd, in Williams Park, and is a, quote, community celebration of all things local, end quote. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim Saturday, February 22nd, 2025, as Localtopia Day in St. Petersburg and encourage all of our residents to attend the celebration, savor our local flavor, support the participants, and continue to support all of our locally owned, independent businesses year-round. And, Olga, thank you for the great job you do. I wanted to take this opportunity, especially this year, to thank all of you, to thank our city and all of its departments for the support it gives Localtopia. I think you may be aware of events of this scale actually having to cancel, having to decide to never come back because of all of the challenges that come with putting on a festival of this scale. This particular celebration goes beyond a market or a regular festival. When we say it's a community celebration, it truly is, but it's also an economic impact for our city, especially after the year we've had. This event next Saturday is crucial. It's a lifeline for the participants, but it's also the most visible manifestation of Keep St. Pete Local's mission, and it's truly needed, which is why this is the shirt this year. This is the year that we really have to be mindful of where we spend our money. And that day, there's obviously tens of millions that get actually funneled through our city because it's the only event that only has St. Pete-based businesses, ones that were born here, ones that want to grow from here. And after that, the money continues to circulate. And it's not just for the participants, even the surrounding businesses, especially hospitality businesses, claim to have their best sales day of the year as well as the participants or one of their best sales day. So I want to thank you for helping us to continue to put it on despite it being the most challenging year post-hurricane with the bandstand in its current state. But we still want to bring it because I think, as I've said, it's not just about putting our arms around these businesses, but this year I feel like our community needs to put its arms around each other because of everything we've all been through. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of Logotopia. Olga, thank you so much for everything that you do. I know it's a big lift. We were on the phone just a couple weeks ago. I could hear it. Just, you know, it's such a celebration of what St. Pete always has been, which is a tight-knit community that always looks out for each other. And I know that's what you're doing for this community of small businesses. And so from one small business owner, a big thank you from me. So thank you for everything you're doing. And, Mayor, thank you for bringing this proclamation. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. See you next Saturday. Yeah. Okay, now we'll go to D1, the Feeding Tampa Bay Annual Report, and we're joined by Thomas Mance, the CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay. Welcome. Thank you very much for having me. And giving us some time to give you an update. We think it's always a good idea to let you know what's happening in your community and how an organization like ours addresses this. So we do have a couple of slides that we want to go through. But first, a little background. If you don't know who Feeding Tampa Bay is, we are the largest food relief organization in our 10-county. We cover 10-county territory, one of which, of course, is Pinellas County and then, of course, St. Petersburg. Our responsibilities are twofold. One is to provide food, first and foremost, but second is to also provide resources. So we have a quick presentation to take you through today to talk a little bit about what we're going to do. So whoever advances slides? Oh, I do. Wow. All right. Let's see if I can not screw this up. Hey. So you know some of this information, so I don't want to read my slides, but I want to talk about what's happening in our communities. Roughly 50% of the folks in any community today are accessing our services. We tend to think of food relief services and social services largely being pointed at folks who are at poverty level or below. The reality is that is by far the smallest part of our service profile. Most of the folks that we serve on a regular basis are employed, they're part of the economy, they're taxpayers, they're consumers, they are part of our corporations, our small businesses, our communities, our schools. We could tell you many stories about who accesses our services, like teachers, like folks that are here for our safety and protection, like folks who have stood on a wall and protected our country. I think it's important that you know that because one of the things we face far too often is a belief that someone that we serve is someone who has given up on their responsibilities. We find the opposite to be true. We find the folks that we serve as heroic, an important part of our community, and working very hard to manage their obligations. The reality is their economics don't match up. They don't make enough money to take care of the responsibilities that they have. They're not living frivolously. They're dealing with ongoing increases to housing, food, transportation, and other costs that you all are well aware of. Again, for no other reason, if we didn't stand here for any other reason, it would be to say, we would want to say, please let us change your mind about who we're taking care of. The way we like to think about it is we're taking care of friends and neighbors, not them. There's no them in our vocabulary. If we talk a little bit about what we're doing in Pinellas County, which includes here in St. Petersburg, we provided about 16, almost 17 million meals last year into the community. We work through 52 local partners, some distribution we do ourselves, but think about somebody like a great organization here locally like St. Pete Free Clinic. We partner with them to make sure they have the resources. I want to mention our investment in schools. We have 17 pantries inside of schools today, which were built largely to answer ongoing challenges that children and families have with being competitive or capable in the school arena. We also have started to partner with Bay Pines and Evra, where we have food relief supplies and resources in health care clinics, because one of our ongoing obligations is how do we improve health outcomes. And then you notice something as simple as important, though. We have a job training program, which here in St. Pete has brought $5.4 million in economic value. We think that's important for you to know. We've been in business for close to 45 years. In fact, sometime this summer, we'll pass our one billionth meal provided. So our commitment has long been to this community. And one other thing that I didn't put on here, which we should have, we are a part of Pinellas County's emergency services. So during both of the hurricanes, we are the organization that is there first. Even though you have national providers that come in and provide resources, all the food is generally distributed through us. So in the day of the hurricanes, both, the day after the hurricanes and even before the hurricanes, our trucks were on the road making sure resources were provided. We are the ones that stand up large mass distributions at a Tropicana field. And so it's important for you all to understand that, because while you're elected to support your local folks in St. Petersburg, virtually all of the resources that come in during a disaster come in nationally, statewide. And they come through us, and then we flow those down into your community to make sure folks here are okay. And then finally, I would talk about where we are headed over time. Our goal is to continue to expand services. The challenge for us, of course, is that need is not diminishing. It's increasing. This is the great issue that I think you all face. We face as a community, which is a greater and greater populace is seeking our services as part of their ongoing household budget. Charities were largely built for emergency relief services. The reality is we're now part of household budgets and incomes. We're also expanding our programs and services. So when someone comes to see us, we might give them a meal first, but we're also connecting them to other resources, services, and partnerships, because our objective, just like theirs and just like yours would be, we want when someone comes into a meal, we want for them to walk out with a future. And then largely, as I mentioned, we're also looking how do we build capacity. So we've gotten a couple of million dollar grant from one of our partners that will allow us to build out some of the capability of local partners by providing resources for transportation, refrigeration, infrastructure, so that we can increase the capacity of agencies. And in the next week or two, we'll announce another grant given to us by a financial services partner, where we will invest in transportation and housing repairs here in Pinellas County, largely hit by both of those storms. So we continue to invest. I think, as you know, a storm is an issue of the moment. Recovery is an issue of much longer time frame. So I want to finish by saying our goal and hope in sharing information with you is that you understand who we are and what we're doing here, but most importantly, to continue to think about how we can partner with you moving forward. And with that, I will pause for any questions. Thank you again for letting us present. Thank you. We'll go to Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you. Excuse me, Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Mance, I have to thank you so much because I will tell you, one of the organizations, I want everyone to hear this, that immediately contacted us after the hurricanes was feeding Tampa Bay. And I will put a shout out to one of your people, Lorena Rivas Hardwick. Who's sitting right there. Hi, Lorena. She contacted us. It must have been every day or every other day after the storms, letting us know to tell our community about the different disaster relief programs that you had, where the locations were of the food banks, how people could be volunteers, which, by the way, there were lots of people in the community that wanted to be a part of. And that, to me, is incredible because there are so many organizations out there that provide services, but you don't hear from them immediately. And you guys were, I mean, you were on top of it. And that is incredible. So, thank you so much for what you do and the service that you provide to all our residents from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. It's our privilege to do so. Thank you. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. And thank you for giving us this presentation and the update today. It has been just wonderful getting to know you over the last few years and volunteering with your organization, seeing through that work the huge operation that you have going, visiting your central location there in Tampa. It's just every time I get involved with Feeding Tampa Bay, my appreciation and admiration for you guys just grows. Thank you. So, yeah, it's, and you've gone so far beyond just connecting people with food and that basic, you know, emergency assistance. But the FoodRx program is something I'd love to hear you tell people about that a little bit more so they understand what that is. And then also the Fresh Force program, which is not something that the average person might think about when they think of Feeding Tampa Bay offering. Do we have time to answer those? Yeah, absolutely. So, our FoodRx program is specifically designed, one of the issues of, to answer health care issues that folks are having coming out of health care situations. So, one of the major causes for representation at the doctor at the hospital is poor nutrition. So, we work with Bay Pines and Evra. When someone comes out of care, they can provide a FoodRx prescription that allows that family a few days' worth of food, which just giving them the opportunity to have a bit healthier food in their home creates a better long-term outcome. We also put pantries in those locations so folks can come back to those spots and get food relief. But I think one of the things we know is that the long-term implications of lack of nutrition in food is going to cause, you know, challenges that even folks like you end up having to deal with with how many folks are coming for additional resources. So, we do this across all of our 10 counties. We're building more and more of that here in St. Petersburg and in Pinellas County. Our job training program is specifically designed to provide folks that don't normally have a pathway to a new job. So, think aging out of foster care, coming out of a poor education situation, poor job history, or incarceration. All of those are our primary targets. We put folks through a 10- to 12-week course. They come out with their Class B CDL licensure. They come out with warehouse logistics or culinary arts, all of which are important positions. Not only that, we spend 20% of our time on social skills because most of the failure rate in job programs is not productivity. It's the ability to navigate a system that's unfamiliar with you. We also pay all of our folks that go through training. I do want to share one thought that we have had. So, we have been talking to Jabel, who is a big partner of ours, and one of their issues is how do we create more jobs. So, we actually got a bus donated to us, literally a city bus. And so, we're in the process of refurbishing that. And our idea is that we will work to set a location here in Pinellas County where we can come over, pick up students, bring them back to our facility, train them for the 10- to 12-week period, bring them back and forth every day. They become folks that then work in the local St. Petersburg and Pinellas County area. We have a unique opportunity in the facility we built to do that. But I just also want to use that as a story to illustrate, we often get caught up in regionalism, localism, county lines, et cetera. Our view is to make sure we provide ample resources across a much broader base and make sure that they, again, affect local change and local capability. Thank you. Could you just say a few words about the Healthy Pantry Network? Yes. So, that is another effort for us to build out nutritionally appropriate food. If you don't know this, generally speaking, folks who are economically compromised buy unhealthy food at a much greater portion. Why? Because you can stretch your dollar further. If you think about the outer ring of the grocery store, it's the most expensive food in the grocery store. And so, our objective is we want 80% of all the food we provide to be on the MyPlate continuum, which is healthy food. And so, our Healthy Pantry Network is built specifically for that so that folks have access to items that, again, they may not be able to afford. There's nothing wrong with a birthday cake or a Diet Coke, but if that is too much of your diet, again, we create longer-term outcomes that aren't effective. And so, I think all of us want people to be healthier. And so, we can impact a whole lot of folks here in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County by providing more and more fresh food. Thank you. And last comment I want to make. You mentioned the St. Petersburg Free Clinic as an example of one of the organizations that you work with. And what I think a lot of people don't understand or aren't aware of is that even though you're a very large organization, you're not acting in a silo. So, around St. Petersburg, you can probably name a few local nonprofit organizations that connect people with the food that they need. So, much of that comes from a partnership that that organization has with Feeding Tampa Bay. So, they're not keeping it all to themselves. They're not so worried about having their own stamp on everything. What Thomas and his team understand is that often those very small nonprofit organizations, the church-related organizations, things like that, they are the ones who have the relationship with the community. They're the ones who know where to go. So, that's who they're seeking out to help so that this, the food that they have, the resources that they have can be spread even further out to the people who need them. That is just a game changer. Yeah. I think, you know, we think that the local relationship, about 80% of our partners are faith-based, and they have a very important and specific relationship in their local community that's largely built on trust. I think the way we think about it is if we can give them the resources they need, they're the most effective at distributing those resources in their local community with people that already know and trust them. So, around our 10 counties, we have about 400-plus partners that we make sure they have the resources that they need. Yeah. Well, thank you for that. And please consider the City of St. Petersburg to be a partner to you. Thank you. And know that this is a topic that is discussed quite a bit among City Council members in our meetings, looking at different initiatives to help move the needle on this. And I hope that you can continue to be a part of that conversation. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I want to thank you so much for being here, Mr. Manns. I've seen the work that you guys do firsthand as a volunteer with various local food pantries here in the area, Positive Impact, St. Pete Free Clinic. So, so many different places, a lot of churches here in this community that I've collaborated with. You talk about expansion opportunities. I'm just wondering, has there ever been any thought behind collaborating with some of your nonprofit partners to maybe operate a free market in a brick-and-mortar setting? Yeah, there has been. There's a couple of conversations we've had here in the county over time. We've talked about putting a grocery store in, a lower nonprofit kind of grocery store. This is something that Council Member Driscoll and I have talked about for some time. We do have bricks and mortar in Lealman, which is kind of in the middle of the county. And so we're considering expanding that. And so if that's a conversation you all want to have at some point, because I think, again, your constituents you're elected to represent may live in St. Petersburg, but they gather resources wherever they can find them. So we would certainly be happy to have that conversation. Everything we've done over here we've funded privately. And I think a collaborative effort would be something we'd definitely be interested in. If I had to estimate right now, we're probably getting to about 43 or 44 percent of the need in the county. So there's a lot of room to grow. And I think, you know, for you all to understand, only about 22 percent of the food that's distributed in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County comes from St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. Virtually all of it we bring from other places. There's just not enough resource here. Whatever we gather here that stays here locally. But so I think that could certainly be a conversation we would be more than open to having with you to think about how we can more effectively serve the community. Certainly. And I appreciate that. My other question for you. You mentioned 17 schools. You guys have pantries in 17 of those schools. I don't expect you to list those today. But I would love to see a list of those schools because I think that's another opportunity where we might be able to partner. And maybe not even just schools, but some of those recreation centers and even neighborhood centers as well. Yeah. So thank you for that. Yes. I think we have annual reports for you all, which should have some of that information in there. But I do want to talk a little bit about that. I think we still have time. But I do think it's important that you understand how we thought about the problem. For years, we did backpacks. Right. And those are they were important and effective. But as we studied the backpack issue, we realized something fundamentally important. We brought in USF to study the program. And we found that 70 percent of the food was being eaten on Friday night by the family. It wasn't the kid that was hungry. It's the family that was hungry. So we started to put pantries inside of schools where a mom or dad, when they pick their child up, can shop, gather. You know, it's literally an old classroom or a storage room. A mom or dad can shop, gather the food that they need and go home. And so we put those in there to solve the food problem. But they also solved another problem. They created better attendance by the child at school. The kids that were a part of that program reported less behavioral issues. The school reported that grades and other challenges, grades went up and other challenges went down. And it created a better relationship between the family and the school because they had something else with which to partner. So we think, again, it's just a much different way, like a health care clinic is. It's a much different way of making sure we're taking care of families where they are and finding ways to meet needs they have. Thank you for pointing that out. I think it's important that, you know, you acknowledge the fact that one of the barriers, I think, to better food, healthier, nutritious diets is the access. It's a huge issue. A big component. So I appreciate you pointing that out. And speaking of which, have you considered a collaboration or partnership with the St. Petersburg Housing Authority? Yes. So we partner with somebody like Habitat right now. Whenever they move someone into a home, we put food in the home for 90 days. So the family can adjust and, you know, move in more effectively and reduce some of their expenses. I do think part of the reason why we're here today and part of the reason why we want to have conversation is we think there's ways for us to reconsider or consider anew how we are effective and impactful in local communities. So the answer to that is yes. There's a great collaboration that was announced by Met Men and St. Pete Free Clinic about housing. I think all of us have an idea about saying how can we look differently at the challenges that we have. We do have a housing center in East Tampa where we actually have a food pantry in that housing center, right, because you have a concentration of population that can use services. All of these are things we'd be open to. Wonderful. And that's just where I was getting at. Yes, sir. Just thinking about, you know, Mr. Bundy's giving me a tour of some of the properties. And there are a lot of, like, tenant sheds, you know, and stuff like that that are vacant that we could refurbish and renovate and turn into pantries. So thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate you, Mr. Mann. Thank you for giving us the time today. We appreciate it very much. Thank you. And thank you for all the work you're doing, the whole team, the whole organization. I won't even call it a team. I mean, it's a massive organization, 10 counties. And it sounds like you have no shortage of ideas from this council, so I'm sure we'll be seeing you soon. However we can help. We just put a lot more work into the organization. We look forward to it. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. Oh, and Elizabeth has the annual reports for everybody. Thank you. Yeah, that's fine. Thank you very much, Elizabeth. Okay, so we're going to move into reports. We're going to start with F2, a resolution establishing race days for the 2025 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete. We've got Chris Belestra and James Corbett joining us, and we get to pass a resolution taking the speed limits away, everybody. Good morning. Oh, good morning. Good afternoon, Chair Gurdist and members of the city council. Before we get started, and Chris does the presentation, I just wanted to take the time to think and recognize Chris Belestra, as some of you may know, Chris will be retiring effective March 14th, so he stayed on so he could do one more race for us. Chris has been here or will be here for 17 of the 20 Firestone Grand Prix races, and he's been an integral part of the success of that race. I've heard multiple times from the Green Savary staff about how St. Petersburg is one of the best cities to put on a race, and I am confident that is due to the work of our team, particularly Chris, Tony Lino, Sean Druin, and all of our departments. So, before we got into the resolution, I just wanted to take the time to thank Chris and thank him for staying on one more time. And the second best hair in the city to Michael Dima. I am, thank you. Dima's got number one. Chris Belestra, city development. And I am humbled every day I walk in this building and very humbled today by such a nice recognition. Thank you so much. I think for a lot of us, not just me, this is one of our favorite times of year, particularly after last year's rough fall that we had. And everybody's looking forward to good times, and there's no better way to kick that off in the spring than the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. So, I'm going to share a few fast facts with you all, turn it over, show a video, turn it over to Kim Green, Kevin Savory, owners of the event, who are going to share specifics about what's going to happen, and then at the end, the business part. I can't forget that. There is a resolution that will allow us to drive crazy speeds on our local roads. So, also wanted to recognize Sean Druin, Dave Worth, and Tony Lino. They really are the keys to make this event happen every year. We've had street racing in St. Pete since 1985. I think we're all very familiar with what happens here. This is actually the 21st consecutive year with this team, and we couldn't be more proud of how this event has evolved over time. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a part of the NTT Data IndyCar Series. It's the kickoff, March 2nd, 2025, and 1.8-mile course, 14 turns, streets of St. Petersburg. It has been branded, and this race is now branded in this city and gives us marketing that we cannot buy. So, we're all very happy, thrilled, and proud with the progress that this event has become over the years. It's a model public-private partnership, and, again, I think Kim and Kevin would echo that. It works and provides economic impact to this city. We're big in city development on metrics. I believe truly that metrics matter. You can't improve unless you know what you're talking about, what your numbers are. The overall economic impact of this event is about $61 million. Based on a study that's, I think, two years old now, we know the event has grown every year consistently. Of that, about $37 million is direct spending, and $3.3 million is actual tax revenue that comes right back into the city's coffers from the weekend, a three-day event. So, there's really not much else that compares relative to events in the city. Once again, most importantly, the brand that has been created is so special. It benefits the city. It benefits IndyCar. First race of the season, people get to get out of wherever they're coming, colder climates. We have a lot of visitors from Europe that come just for this event. And we have a new TV contract with Fox. It will be presented live on Fox Sports. And not just the main event, but all the other races will be carried on FS1 and FS2. So, Kim and Kevin may touch on that as well. So, with that, if I could ask Mr. Tracy to maybe dim the lights and feel free to turn up the volume a little bit and a brief video. St. Pete always brings out great races. I love this track. It really fits with my driving style. Super tight, super aggressive. 110% every lap, every corner. I love coming to St. Pete to start the season. It's a good race weekend. When you're racing a street course, you don't see what's around it. Apart from the straight line here in St. Pete, you realize that you're on the airport runway, which is pretty awesome. This place is really awesome. I think it's as close to Monaco F1 as you can get in the U.S. You've got to be on and around this place. You know, the street circuit. So, there's no room for error. You've got walls lining the entire track. We've got the water right here. We've got all the yachts. The fans are everywhere lining the walls. We're racing right through downtown. I love coming here. I think it's the perfect place to start the IndyCar and Indy next season. Buzz and energy apply. It doesn't matter what they did last time out. It's all about this race. Inches from the ground. Inches from each other. Full send every lap. Now, you might not know what's going to happen, but on any given race day, you'll want to find out. The IndyCar season kicks off the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Tickets at gpsaintp.com. This is Joseph Newgarden. Joseph was conceived to win races. Stopped drinking milk at 2. Picked it back up at 32. Good for strong bones. Tell that to his clavicle. Joseph's like an action hero who wins even when he loses. This is his wife. His Tuesdays. His hand-eye coordination. He might have the greatest jawline in sports. He's not that handsome. He even wrote a children's book about winning. America loved it. Joseph loves the smell of unleaded gasoline. He hates imperfection. He doesn't believe in magic. But on Sundays, Joseph flies. Joseph Newgarden. This is Joseph Newgarden. Welcome to the fastest racing on earth. Thank you, Mr. Tracy. If I could bring up, again, our partners, 21 years and running, Kevin Savory and Kim Green. Thank you, everyone. Hard to follow Chris and everything he added there. But it's been 21 years. I had a lot more hair back when I started. It was a lot of work back then. But you know what? It's been a pleasure. We've worked with many city councils, four different mayors, a lot of the same administration through the whole thing. And they're sitting in here. And it's been fun, work, hard work, an event that I think has grown with the city. And the racing series has grown with it. The IndyCar series is unbelievably strong, so competitive. I couldn't even guess which driver would be favourite coming into the event this year. These 10 or 12 guys could win. The support series that come along as well, they're the next IndyCar drivers. And many of the current IndyCar drivers have gone through those same channels. So it's a great way to start the IndyCar season. I think that we're going to see some exciting racing. Usually beautiful weather in the spring here in St. Petersburg. I've enjoyed living in St. Petersburg since 2015. Thank you for your partnership. I really appreciate it. Kevin is my business partner for a long time. A bean counter knows all the facts. I'm sure he's going to give you a few facts on how much better we've done over the years in shortening the track build and getting off the streets after the race. But really, thank you very much, City Council. Thanks, Kim. I don't know why bean counters get such a bad rap, but there it is. So, you know, again, I think just, you know, some fast facts like Chris likes to share. In our original agreement from 2004, we had 75 days to build the track and dismantle. And right now, this year, we're down to 15 days to build the track, four days for our race event, and five days and a few hours, and we'll be out of here Saturday at noon after that race. So, again, I think it was something that the City Council challenged us with years ago and through investments that Green Savory has made, both with great partners here locally, Ring Power and Steps Transportation. They've helped enormously in making our build more efficient, but also investments that we made in the kind of equipment that we have with the block and the fence panels and so on that, you know, make our build much, much more efficient. So, again, I think over the course of the weekend, eight races between FS1, FS2, eight hours of shoulder programming on the race weekend, and then two and a half hours of coverage on Fox on Sunday. So, again, we're so excited about the new partnership with Fox. One of those ads was created specifically by Fox. There's two others with our winner from last year, Pato Award, and also the many-time champion who said that his kid didn't like the story that Joseph Newgarden wrote. So, anyway, again, just great creative that Fox has done. And, ironically, those ads were created by folks who never been to a car race but just met the personality, loved them, fell in love with them, and how do you create something that's going to resonate. And I think the big benefactors of that here locally are going to be the city, obviously the CVB, who we're continuing to expand our partnership with, so we're so excited about that. And, again, it's something we challenge ourselves with because we get it. You know, it's about tourism. It's about what can we do to help get the message out there about the city of St. Petersburg. And, you know, it's a challenge that, you know, we're always up for. So, again, one of the things that always kicks the event off is, you know, our flag raising. We look forward to that, the Chamber of Commerce media lunch, and, you know, we're going to have some exciting news to announce on that Thursday. And then on Friday, the 5K run, and Kim and I have had a long partnership now with Police Athletic League and the support for the youth that go there, and it's something that Kim and I feel really, really good about, you know, that kind of grassroots program. So, again, you know, so excited about this year's race. But also, you know, we're going to miss Chris Balestra. He's been such a champion for us for so many years and so involved. And just so you know that we're not going to let him go out easy. Just before this meeting, he probably hasn't seen his email yet. We have a Dolly meeting scheduled for 1.30 on Monday. So, again, it's just, you know, it's not going to end for a while. And I think for us, it's about that challenge of being a good partner here in the city, about how can we work with the Dolly and with Bill Edwards and so on. And, again, we're always up for that challenge, and we look forward to it. And, you know, again, it's a great city to live, work, and do business in. And, you know, we're excited about the Grand Prix for many, many years to come. So thank you very much and look forward to it. We'll see you out there. Thank you. Council Member Gabbard. Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much, Kevin and Kim. It's good to see you, as always. Thank you for your continued commitment to the city of St. Petersburg. You know, I've shared with you both privately that, you know, we moved here in 2003. I'd like to thank you guys came the next year because we moved here from Indianapolis. You came from Indianapolis, kept us from being homesick, and really, truly started to make St. Pete feel like our new home. And so you guys are such a part of our family traditions now, everything that you bring to our city. You know, we're sitting at home on the couch seeing that commercial with Joseph Newgarten, my son. You don't get a 13-year-old to look up out of his phone very often, but when Joseph comes on the screen, he's excited. Oh, my God, I've met him. I know him, you know. It's just that excitement of being part of those traditions that now 21 years rich in our city. So thank you, thank you for your continued commitment. Chris, I'm not saying goodbye to you today because we're not here for that, but certainly I want to thank you for everything that you have done for this particular piece of our rich tradition. You know, you really do keep this moving, you and your team, and we just thank you so much for your service all these years. And we're definitely going to miss you when we have these conversations next year. So with that, sir, I will go ahead and move approval. I thought you might. Second. Okay. We've got a motion and a second. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you, and thanks for bringing this forward to us. It's always exciting when you do this because then it's a reminder that the race is just around the corner. It has come a long way, as Kevin mentioned earlier, and Kevin and Kim, thank you. Thank you so much for your partnership through the years. The setup time and the dismantling time has been compressed. That was one of the things that was a big concern with residents downtown that I heard about from even before I was on city council. So the progress that's been made on that has been very much appreciated. We know there's always room for improvement, and I just appreciate that through all of that, you guys have been partners with the city to look together at how things can be done better all the time. Is Tony here with us, too? Oh, hey, I couldn't see you behind everyone. So we're not talking about Chris leaving because I'm in denial right now, so that's just going to have to wait. But, Tony, you really go above and beyond. You're a real hero in all of this as well, and I didn't want to let this moment go by without recognizing all of the work that you do on this and many other things, but you are Mr. Grand Prix for the city, and I really appreciate that. And you're also excellent at responding to residents who have concerns and their own ideas, and I always get such positive feedback after someone has had an interaction with you. So thank you. So this is a race that really puts St. Petersburg on the international stage. It is exciting to see it in person. It's fabulous to see it on TV, just getting a little taste of it here. This is what the world is going to see, and it just makes me very proud, and I'm glad that we are getting ready to welcome it back. And if you think we have any plans for you to go anywhere, all you have to do is think about the fact that we've got you included as mandatory inclusion on the master plan for the Center for the Arts. I mean, the Grand Prix has to be a part of that. We said that from the beginning, right? It's a very exciting project to also be coming forward to you all shortly. Right, and it means that you are a part of St. Petersburg and a part of our collective community, not just on race days, but every single day. So it just says a lot about who you are and the kind of partners you are. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a very short, I know we have a move approval, but one more time I'd just like to thank all council members and Council Chair Gerdes for having us today. It comes up quick this year. Two weeks from today we'll be raising the flag, and that begins a very crazy and fun weekend party in the park on that Thursday afternoon, chamber luncheon Thursday, and off to the races from there. So looking forward to seeing you all out there. The resolution that you're about to approve is one that we have amended over the years in a way that allows you to make changes to dates and other components. It's Ordinance 702G. And thank you again to Jackie, who is one of the original constructors of that master agreement, and it goes to the, I think, strength of our legal team that other than amendments that have primarily dealt with date changes over the years, that agreement is intact 100% in its original form. So that speaks volumes to kind of the back of house, the things that nobody sees that we do behind the scenes. Just like Tony, I think he got his last overnight ability to sleep in January, and he doesn't sleep until the race is over now, and the track is torn down. So thank you all very much. And with that, administration recommends approval. Thank you. I'll just quickly, Chris, thanks for all the work. Tony, Sean, the rest of the team, just very appreciative. You know, it's more than just a race, too. You know, it's a place to come together to enjoy. I mean, selfishly, I'll talk about it is by far the most favorite picture I've ever taken with my son, just me and him, is at that race. And when I, like, when people, when I think about memories, I think about that. And so, you know, it's an amazing celebration of St. Petersburg in a race, and there's a winner, which I love, competitor. But it's also a place where a lot of our city comes together on a mostly beautiful day and celebrates where we live. So I'm very thankful, thankful for that. And I just want to touch on one other thing. Kevin, you brought it up. I was a board member for PAL for five years. PAL does not operate in the city of St. Petersburg without that race, without that 5K. It doesn't operate. It's gone probably seven or eight years ago when this started. They were in dire need of a jump start, and this race provided it. And I'm just so appreciative of your partnership with PAL and that 5K and your continued support of that organization that gives a place for our kids to play safe throughout our city. So I'm very, very thankful for that and thankful for everything you do. And like I said, it's much more than a race. Very appreciative. Okay. Before I start crying, we've got a motion and a second in front of us. Seeing no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F2A passes unanimously. Driving fast, drivers. Thank you, Chris. Thank you so much. Yeah, you can clap for that one. We'll allow that one. Okay. We're going to move on to F1 and a report of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. And this is brought forth by Council Member Gabbard. Council Member Gabbard, I'll turn it over to you for introduction. All right. Thank you so much, Chair. So I have the pleasure today of introducing for the first time to this council, the newest TBRPC Executive Director, Wren Kral. Wren actually is not new to the Regional Planning Council at all. She has been in the role of Executive Director for a little over a year now and came in at a time of incredible change and opportunity. But she has been with the Planning Council, oh, my goodness, probably most of her career. 27 plus years. But to that point, her mother was once upon a time the Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. So her roots run deep with this organization. And I'm very glad to have her here today to give you all an update as to everything that the Regional Planning Council has been doing over the last year. It's a lot. So she will try to go through it briefly for you. But Wren, I very much thank you for your leadership and for being here with us today. I'll turn it over to you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Chair Gertie's Councilman Gabbard, all of you, thank you very much for having me here today. And thank you for mentioning my mother. That was very kind of you. I have to say my mother was the very first female Executive Director in the nation of a Regional Planning Council. So very proud of that legacy. So good afternoon. And I just want to take, it's not very often that I get this opportunity to see all of you in the same room. So I'm going to be Wren for just a second. And my folks were brilliant and they moved me here when I was a young teenager to St. Petersburg. So this is definitely my home. And I just want to say from my family to all of you and knowing what I know about what it takes for emergency management planning, thank you. Thank you for everything that you did prior to our storms, for the communication, for what you did during the storms, and after. I know the nuances and I know that what a challenge three back-to-back hurricanes were to this region and to our citizens and our residents. And I thank you all so much because folks don't understand what it takes to get debris picked up for one storm, let alone three back-to-back storms. And I thank you all very much from my family to you all. Now I'll put on my hat. So Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. I was going to bring my partner in crime here, Kara Wood-Sarah. She's our Director of Resiliency. I have a couple of slides that I have in here just for your information because I know that they're on the St. Pete website. So if you need to reach out to anyone, you'll have this as a reference. Kara Wood-Sarah is our Director of Resiliency. She is considered a leader and expert in resiliency around the Tampa Bay region and has appeared in several of the Tampa Bay Times speaker forums, the Spotlight Tampa Bay, including with Mayor Welsh. Kara was unable to attend with us, but please reach out to her. She works closely with the city. And I just wanted to let you have a face and a name. This face and name doesn't really need an introduction to this chamber, but I must tell you what she has done representing the City of St. Pete on our council. And it's been amazing. You all appointed her to our board in 2018. And Councilman Gabbard was right there in with Commissioner, former Commissioner Janet Long, formulating the very first, the second in the state of Florida, Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition. And since then, our work has been so focused on resiliency. Councilwoman Gabbard has served literally in every capacity, every officer position. And since the coalition was formed, she's either been chair or vice chair or co-chair of this effort. So we thank you very much. You couldn't have picked a better representative. And you're going into your eighth year. So we really appreciate the support through the years. Our mission statement is to serve our citizens and member governments by providing a forum to foster communication, coordination, and collaboration in identifying and addressing needs regionally. What this means is we provide a forum for all of you to gather with other jurisdictions to work on issues and challenges and exciting things in a regional fashion. We tackle those issues that aren't just stopping at jurisdictional lines. And we were actually created by Florida Statute, Florida Statute 186, which we serve as Florida's only multipurpose regional entity. We've been doing this for 63 years, promoting regional leadership, economic development, resiliency planning. And, you know, resiliency planning is a new name, but we were doing the same thing back in 1962, just a little differently, and environmental stewardship. I have to tell you that the person who founded the Regional Planning Council was Mayor Herman Goldner of St. Petersburg. What a character, what an interesting man, and what a visionary. He actually got in with Clearwater's mayor and Tampa, and they started this great effort. And he really was the leader in regionalism in starting that effort. We serve six counties and 23 municipalities. We have 13 gubernatorial appointees, and we have ex officios, which is Florida Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection, and Southwest Florida Water Management District. Another informational slide only. I'm sure you recognize some of these leaders. Our chair this year is Mayor Freeney from Dunedin, and Commissioner Ray Flowers is our vice chair of Nellis County, former councilperson for St. Pete, and Commissioner Rebecca Bays is our secretary-treasurer from Citrus County. The next slide is for your information only. This is our management team, so if you hear me say anything, or if you want to find out more about a particular topic, you've got the slide. Please feel free to contact us. This past year, we started a program called the Tampa Bay Government Liaison Program, and this program is really basically internal, and it's the way we've decided to operate, start operating with our member government. So each one of our staff has a, they're assigned a particular member government, and they are a liaison to that government. They get to know your staff. We like to say that we're an extension of your staff. We have 3.9 million folks in our region, and we are the size of Delaware and the country of Qatar. So I didn't realize that, but that sounds big, doesn't it? So, and I didn't realize that our Tampa Bay water, the actual body of water, is 400 square miles. Here's our list of council programs, but I'm going to go really quick through and just tell you a little bit about our economic development program. We are designated as the Federal Economic Development District for the Tampa Bay region, which means that all of our local governments, because we maintain the district, are eligible for federal EDA fundings, Economic Development Administration fundings. One of the things that we do with that is a lot of economic analysis, which is things like we, for the city of Plant City, we did an economic analysis on the Strawberry Festival. We've done, our latest one was on the Florida Aquarium. So there's, if you want to know about what, let's say, Mainsail or any of your wonderful festivals or even the Grand Prix, what the economic impact is to this region, that's something that we can do for you. One of the things to keep in mind, too, is that with the Regional Planning Council, you do not have to go through procurement. And we are also much more cost effective than some of your private sector consultants with the same expertise on board. Emergency preparedness and hazardous materials. This has been a very important role of the Regional Council from forever. We house a local emergency planning committee, and one of the things that you might like to know is that we train first responders, and this training goes across the Tampa Bay region and across jurisdictional lines. We also house an inventory of all hazardous materials in our Tampa Bay region. This was actually started in 1986 by the Community Right to Know Act, and it was so that folks would know what kind of chemicals were in buildings near their homes or where they worked. This was done in response to a terrible chemical tragedy in Bhopal, India in the 80s. We now have a situation where your local firefighters and first responders, when they're on the way to an emergency, they know what they're walking into. They have a, right on the computer, they can see what chemicals are in this particular facility, so they know what they're going to need to do to tackle it. Environmental planning, the Agency on Bay and Coastal Management is celebrating its 40th year, and what an agency that is. That's a committee of the council. It was responsible for helping get swim legislation done. It was responsible for the Tampa Bay Estuary being declared a national estuary. The TBRPC's ABCM was also formed the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which you all know, I'm sure, with all of your great work that they do, they're now their own 501c3 and have been for many years. We also have an environmental journal that's free to all of our citizens in the region, as well as students. It's a fantastic journal. It's online. Please, if you haven't subscribed to it, please do. The FDOT Stormwater Public Education Grants, we work with your city a lot on this, where your public works folks can apply for grants to do stormwater education, and it can be anything from wrapping a vehicle to doing stormwater drain markers, and that's a great program that's funded through FDOT. GIS design and visualization. This is where I know about 30,000-foot view, but the folks that I work with are amazing. We have fantastic new technology. For those of you who might have attended our Resiliency Summit this past May, one of our features that we have this technology where you can scan a QR code, and our folks that were attending the summit could scan the code, take their phone out onto the beach, look through their phone, and they saw a beach house on stilts. And they could take the phone and actually walk under. I mean, you feel like you're underneath the house looking, and you watch storm surge come up. So, for example, if you're thinking about building a new city hall, let's just say that, this technology would allow you to have a QR code, and your citizens could go to the plot of land and go, what's that going to look like? And it's a great, great tool to use for explaining to residents what particular projects might look like in the future. I should know what project that is. That's a real-life project. I don't. I apologize. But we've done it for Madeira Beach with the new Johns Pass that they're thinking about doing. And we're here at Resiliency. Resiliency is so much a part of all that we do. We are currently working with the city on a partnership, the Resiliency St. Pete Action Plan. I'm pretty sure you all are familiar with that. That's a neighborhood pilot program that focuses on adaptation in the city and throughout the region. So we're going to be providing technical support, community engagement, visualization services, and a gaps analysis on existing plans. So my staff has already been working with your staff and all the partners, Cara, Claude, everybody's working together on this project, and we're very excited about it. So that's going to be a big focus, and we want to have it be a pilot so that we can take this and make it applicable to anywhere that is experiencing flooding issues. So this is a good start on certain neighborhoods in the city. One of our other big projects is Clean Air Tampa Bay, and this was federally funded through the EPA. And I'm happy to say that we have completed, we're two years in, and we have completed our region's first greenhouse gas emissions inventory. So we now know who, what contributing factors are happening and what our most greenhouse gases are coming from in our region. We're hoping to continue that work. We're not positive yet, but we've at least got that greenhouse gas inventory, and that's a good start. We're hoping to go on to phase two with implementation of some of the projects. And I'm excited to say, Councilwoman Gabbard, you know, I was a little conservative on Monday at our regional planning council meeting, our monthly board meeting, but I'm excited to say that the Fish and Wildlife Foundation did send us a contract for $2 million to do the first coastal master plan. This is going to represent the first comprehensive regional coordinated climate adaptation plan in Florida. And it creates a model for the regions to follow and address climate resiliency. So this is going to be fantastic for identifying our flooding areas throughout the region. So with that, just leave you with this one thing. New in 2025, we are busy building a regional information center, and it will have hubs for economic development, emergency management, resiliency, shoreline data repository, and we hope that it's going to be a one-stop shopping for all of our member governments and local governments. And for you all as policymakers, you want to learn more about resilient shorelines, you'll be able to pop onto this website and gather all the materials. And we're going to keep that in real time. That's the goal. And this is actually modeled, and I was around long enough to know, we had a regional information center that was a library that had four people in it, and they were responsible for providing you all with any kind of information that you needed. So now this will all be online, and we're excited about that. Resiliency Summit, please come May 15th and 16th. It's at a brand-new resort in Manatee County adjacent to their convention center. It's the Palmetto Marriott Resort. This will be our fifth one, and our own council alum, Brandy Gabber, will be doing some sessions, moderating some sessions for us. The agenda you can find on our website. And please participate in the Future of the Region Awards. This is in its 31st year, and we honor these fabulous projects like nobody's entered the pier yet. So there's lots of, the mural festival. I don't know that Grand Prix's ever been entered. So there's lots of things that you guys can do, and everybody learns from this program because they see who the winners are, and it's fun to share that information. So with that, I thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it, and what a great group to follow with all those wonderful proclamations and feeding Tampa Bay and then the Grand Prix and then Wren. So, you know, so thank you all. And Councilman Floyd, you're my, I'm a constituent of yours. It's been nice to see you. Pressure. Pressure. No, you did a great job, Amanda. Any questions? Councilmembers, any questions? Well, I'm just, I'm so thankful for all the work that you continue to do, and Councilwoman Gavard, thank you for continuing to be a great representation on Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council and continuing to lead there. I know in the past it's been some lifts. I think you went chair of this body and chair of Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council back-to-back years. And so, but thank you for all the work. Very appreciative for the update. Looking forward to having you more often. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to, yeah, why break the streak now? Okay, we're going to move on to F3, an Arts Conservatory for Teens update, and I'm going to turn it over to Councilwoman Fick Sanders for an introduction. Oh, thank you. I am just so honored for you young people. I don't know who put teenagers at the end. A parent of teens, that's what we don't do. But they saved the best for last. And with that, they did that. And I want to just say thank you all for coming, and thank Alex for continuing to advocate for our young people using artistic opportunities. And thank you for the support that they are getting to help us cultivate our young people. And I was reading the information when they say undeserved or at-risk students. I don't know why we find it necessary to use that, because there is so much talent throughout the city in our young people. And I wanted to make sure that you all share some of that. I've been to your breakfasts. I've heard you, Mr. Harris. And I have seen the talent of ACT, and I know that you've come forward hoping that your city will help continue your efforts financially. And since we're such advocates of art, I'm hoping that we will be able to do that. But more importantly, you all did fantastic. My sons would have been all over the place. And you all will sat there, and this is a day in the life of a council member. So if you're ever considering that role or considering it, this is what we do. There's a whole lot more that are involved in that. But the track that you're on and the benefits that you're being offered through ACT is undeniably one of the best opportunities the city of St. Petersburg can offer to our young people. And I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Harris. Thank you, Council Member Deborah Pick Sanders. And thank you, Chairman and Vice Chair and all council members. Just before I present an update of our long-term partnership, I hear that it's someone's birthday. And so as a city of the arts, I think, and an organization that celebrates it, so much so that one of our students is going to offer a gift. Bella. Hi. It's so nice to be in front of all of you. And it's so just humbling to be in a room of leaders and people who take a stand to help make sure our people are secure and safe and being taken care of. So, yeah. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to the beautiful council member. Yes, ma'am. Yes. I think I got some competition, y'all. Thank you. She puts us both on the ground. She does. Great job. Thank you, Bella. One more time for Bella. Yes. Yes. So, today I just want to give an update on some of the young folks that you see. This is just a very, very small group of our young people. It is a great honor and gratitude to each of you for all that you do and that I stand before you today to present the remarkable progress of our organization that started in Midtown on 22nd Street. As a pilot in 2009 to 2012, and in 2012, we officially filed for a 501c3 organization and launched this. So, we're celebrating as an official organization 13 years this year. ACT remains steadfast in its mission to educate, empower, and enrich the lives of youth and teens, cultivating responsible and engaged citizens for a brighter future. Through our research-based curriculum and arts-infused programs, we have built an ecosystem that directly aligns with four of the mayors and his administration pillars for progress, education and youth opportunities, equitable development, arts and business opportunities, neighborhood health and safety, and environmental infrastructure and resilience. Since our inception, ACT has strengthened the academic, economic, social, mental, physical well-being of all young people in our community who come through our doors. As we celebrate this 13th year of our impact, it is evident that our partnership with the city of St. Petersburg started under the auspices of Mayor Foster. So, this is the third mayor and administration I've worked with, with our organization, has been instrumental in scaling our reach, deepening our impact, and solidifying ACT as a leader in transformative youth and teens development. Progress and growth, leveraging our city's support through the city's investment, our shared commitment to youth of St. Petersburg, ACT has been able to achieve unprecedented growth and impact. We're proud to report the following milestones, number one, expansion of satellite locations, ACT has grown from one location to eight locations, and now 19 satellite locations, 11 of which are in the St. Petersburg, Florida. And we continue to expand throughout our beautiful city that we love to refer to as a city of the arts. Number two, student engagement, currently in partnership with Pinellas County School Systems, working with our second superintendent, and many of the administrators there, and teachers in schools throughout our county and city. We are serving over 860 students, are enrolled in our weekly programming that we track every week. We get a report to understand who's enrolling, how many are attending, and where there are opportunities for us to continue to expand our impact. Additionally, ACT, broader community engagement programs include impact rallies, master classes, and our holiday tour. Number four, serve an additional 3,791 students per month through our program. Number three, program evaluation and research validation. Our impact is reinforced through independent program evaluation led by Dr. Bruce Jones. He is the senior vice president of research at Howard University, and recently, Howard University, you'll be announced, I think, this week, has been designated as an R1 research institution, which makes it one of the top research institutions, among others, such as USF and John Hopkins, and so on and so forth. With this strategic research partnership, ACT has positioned itself to become a global leader in youth development research through the arts for healthier communities. And so our commitment to workforce development and economic impact, ACT is not only an educational institution, it is also a critical economic driver for the community. Our programs are designed to equip students with the skills and training needed to enter diverse career paths, including entertainment, education, law enforcement, military service, entrepreneurship, serving on city council. There is one story, a brief story I would like to just highlight, one of our students who now not only finished our programs, he was being reported every day to the principal's office and getting referrals. Brilliant. And often we hear about, you know, making sure that students have the basic foundation in elementary school with reading, writing, arithmetic, math, and all those great subjects of foundational subjects. But often we forget about, when they become that preteen into teenage years, there is a lot of development that is still happening. And therefore, there needs to be more mentorship to walk them across the bridge into greatness. This one student is an epitome of that. Brilliant, great foundation, veering off on the wrong path, engaging in gang, in the local gangs at that time. Found our program at one of the rec centers, heard about it, and they said, You need to go to act. And so he didn't know what it was, and the first week or two, his mom was ready to punish him because he wasn't, seemed like he was getting any better, and we were not moving fast enough. And so I sat with my, one of my team members in the office, and I said, Please, allow us at least one year. I promise, if he doesn't do anything, make any changes, you know, you're his parent, please. I said, but give us one year. Within less than one year, in six months, before that school year ended, he not only went from a referral every day to zero referrals, he ended up graduating with honors, enlisting into the military, and now serving in our reserves. Those are the kinds of impact stories that we often hear merged with others who just need a good support system to be able to help develop their skills. Research underscores that cities investing in programs and institutions like ACT focused on education and innovation see significant benefits across multiple dimensions. Economic growth, programs like ACT cultivate talent pipelines, foster innovation, and prepare the next generation of leaders driving long-term economic diversification. Talent, talent, attraction, by empowering teams with professional development, leadership skills, and financial literacy, ACT enhances the city's reputation as a hub for skilled, future-ready individuals. Also, community well-being. ACT's holistic approach integrates mental and physical well-being, equipping youth to thrive in their personal and professional lives, ultimately contributing to the social and culture vitality of our city. A few of the stats many of you have heard over and over, and we continue to celebrate them because they're worth celebrating, our high school graduation and career readiness. Since our pilot phase, ACT has maintained 100% high school graduation rate among all of our students who've come through our doors, some of which were on the verge of dropping out or not graduating on time and getting a diploma. 90% of those students have gone or matriculated into higher education institutions, whether local or other cities and states throughout our country. Many of them have returned and continue to work and live here. 10% of them did not feel a calling to pursue higher education, but they, through the training and other mentorship programs that we put them in, are now thriving professionals in the workforce of their choice, whether it's entrepreneurship or starting their own business or working at some local business. ACT students collectively annually receive 10,582 core curriculum contact hours. Employment and economic contribution that we are making employs 41 professionals, a combination of full-time, part-time, and contractors. ACT's strategic development of curriculum and programs fosters a strong external support system, contributing significantly in education, economic mobility, and cultural vibrancy. Through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning, we integrate the performing and visual arts, creative technology, and health and wellness to provide holistic education that prepares students for the future. As we look at the deep-rooted community partnership with the city of St. Petersburg, our longstanding relationship with parks and recreational centers, public school systems, charter schools, colleges and universities, and faith-based organizations underscore the organization's value to the city's social fabric. These partnerships are vital to ensuring that our young people, from all backgrounds, have access to high-quality arts education and career preparedness. Here's some data that I want to share with you here. It's a little bit of a thing here, but our program, 860 students, as we mentioned, also 41 locations, the capacity to win a teaching artist, which is a 155% increase, and then the full-time, nine-contractor support program staff. So I can provide this slide to you that is not a little bit overlaid there, but here are some of the other stats. 78% of our students reported an increased passion for the arts because of ACT. 66% of our students reported improved communication skills. 91%, this is a celebratory moment, of our students expressed heightened interest in going to school because of their enrollment and involvement in ACT. 72% of students reported feeling more confident. 53% of students reported greater ability to navigate life challenges. These statistics reflect not only the efficacy of our research-based curriculum and programs, but also the direct influence of ACT in shaping the future of St. Petersburg youth. In my conclusion, a bold vision for the future. As ACT looks ahead, we remain deeply committed to expanding our footprint and deepening our impact in partnership with the city of St. Petersburg. For more than 13 years, ACT has refined and defined its mission, and today we stand poised to become an even greater beacon of hope, resilience, and workforce preparedness. Therefore, on behalf of the families and students of ACT, we're asking for your support, and this year the request is $500,000 to continue expanding our footprint, as I alluded to earlier, with a research-based program, and a focus to continue to bring that kind of energy here for career preparedness and further research on a global scale where people will be able to come and learn how you make communities more safe and how do you increase the preparedness for young people through a pipeline of education that partners with our public school systems, that partners with our charter schools and our faith-based communities. We must continue to shed a lot of hope and create the environment for success for our teenagers, starting at elementary school, but continuing throughout that middle and high school are very, very critical for the success of our students. And I believe that people will come from all over the world to come and see how we did it, and I think we will be a testament to show how this can be done. I travel quite frequently, and I often hear when I have an opportunity to speak in many forums that how can we, one, clone you? I think that's very interesting. But the truth of the matter is that we are doing something unique, and we created it here on the sands of St. Petersburg, and we've been in the garage, as I often say, creating this machine and model, not just based on one idea, but as research focused, my entire dissertation was on how the arts impacts self-efficacy among teens in urban communities because I saw what was happening here. I've been in this community now for 17 years, and I believe that we now can come together even more deeper than we have before and taking our relationship to the next level and really impacting our young people in a very, very big way. Thank you. Thank you so much for this opportunity, for sharing this update with you. Okay, I think we have a couple of cards. Let's go two at a time, and just as a reminder, just state your name, and then you'll have three minutes to speak. The first two speakers is Deborah Long and Regina Parks. Please go to either podium. You'll have three minutes to address counsel. Say, say, your name, and address for the record. My name is Deborah DeBerry Long. I live at 301 1st Street South, downtown St. Pete. And I want to thank the Chair Gerdes and the Council members for allowing me to speak on behalf of my support for ACT. And also, I'm very excited about the programs and the funding initiative that this Council has addressed in order to deal with the lack of arts funding that has been taken away by the state of Florida. My decision to move, I'm a new resident here. My decision to relocate from California to St. Petersburg in 2023 was based in large part on the landscape of arts and the vitality of the arts community and the business community, the entrepreneurial spirit of the business community here in St. Petersburg. Having partnered with my late husband in a variety of entertainment businesses, including music production, broadcast syndication, and music licensing on multimedia and films, I recognize the importance of fostering a creative workforce with skills in both business and in the arts. My sister, Daryl DeBerry, who is a long-time St. Petersburg resident and arts advocate, knew that I was searching for a youth mentoring program that would align with my personal community interests and philanthropic goals. She introduced me to Dr. Alex Harris. That meeting is just beginning to have far-reaching impact by shining a light on St. Petersburg's commitment to the arts. Two weeks ago at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, I was honored to open their permanent sonic playground exhibit dedicated to fostering innovative thinking and the arts through mentoring and experiential learning. This exhibit features a video interview with Dr. Harris and brings national attention to St. Petersburg, highlighting ACT and the more than 50,000 young people and adults who are expected to visit the exhibit each year. That exposure, plus the Grammy Awards' shout-out to the Tampa Bay region by Doshi as she accepted her album for Best Rap, has also put our region in an ever-growing spotlight. Thank you to the Council of the Arts. Good afternoon. My name is Regina Parks, 880 South Village Drive North, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33716. Good afternoon, Council Chair, and to all members of the Council. I'm speaking as a parent of a child at the Arts Conservatory for Teens. It was important for me as a parent to connect Jada, who's here today, with an in-person experience that she needed. She attends St. Pete Collegiate, and she's in that high school collegiate program, so she lost the involvement of theater and performing coming over to St. Pete Collegiate. Absolutely loves the arts, and she had that during her elementary years all the way up to her ninth grade year. We tried a couple of virtual programs. However, virtual can only go so far. After auditioning for ACT, she got in the car and said, Mommy, this one definitely felt different, and being in person was a different feeling. Being a part of ACT has increased her confidence levels, particularly through a series of the holiday tours that ACT exposes the youth to. It was a heartfelt experience for me to see one of the tours that was held at an assisted living facility where there was a variety of talent that each of the youth displayed that you saw here today and how much the seniors, even in the facility, enjoyed and sang along. These performances gave Jada a sneak peek into some of the real-life experiences and what it would take to become an actress is what she's striving to be. The opportunity that this program has provided Jada is giving her the pre-professional development needed for her future and also skills of character development, and it's been an absolute blessing for me to connect Jada with ACT. It's a professional research-based program, and they've been able to provide us and other families with a full scholarship to make that opportunity available to all the children. And the icing on the cake is that they provide transportation. For a busy mom like me, that is definitely a convenience, and it definitely helps out. If I have a few more seconds, I also want to speak on behalf of the administration team at Mount Zion Christian Academy. ACT is a partner who provides ballroom dancing, ballet, and chorus to our K-5 scholars, so it's been quite the experience to see how the scholars embraced each other, holding hands, doing the ballroom dancing, and other styles of music, and we know that the arts is affecting their development overall. Thank you. Next two speakers, please. Next two speakers is Tim Malkiewicz and Deborah Semler. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. You all have three minutes to address counsel. Okay, thank you. I'm Debbie Semler, 5858 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg. I would sing happy birthday to Deborah, but I'm going to do you a favor and not do it. So I have been involved with the Arts Conservatory for Teens for about 10 years. To me, this is not just an after-school program. This is a lifeline to success for these kids. This program builds confidence, builds self-esteem, it builds strength in their conviction to be proficient in their talent or whatever career they choose. Their mission focuses on economic development through job readiness training, not just for the performing arts, but to be competitive in the workforce. ACTS research-based curriculum and program's 13-year history is the epitome of positive transformation for these teens. It unleashes their creativity and provides a solid foundation upon which achievement is built. It nurtures positive values like empathy, kindness, responsibility, integrity through strong and positive role models. Most importantly, a combination of ACTS programming contributes to creating good human beings. ACTS makes St. Petersburg unique. ACTS makes us a better community. I'm all for helping these teens achieve this goal. Please join me in this effort. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Tim Malkiewicz, representing the chair of ACTS at 261st Avenue South. Chair Gerdes, City Council, thanks again. It's obviously been a long afternoon, as we pointed out, for the youngsters, but well worth the time. Thank you for your continued supportive act. Really do appreciate the positive feedback and the impact it has on our community here in St. Petersburg. Educate, empower, and enrich. These are words, verbs, very powerful verbs that we use in our mission statement. And they influence the lives of our city's youth, as you've heard from a parent, and you've heard from Alex, and obviously you've seen some of the talent that has come through here through the birthday celebration song. Educate, empower, and enrich. Those are also powerful actions that drive many of Mayor Welch's pillars for progress, when I go and review that, and their impact on our city's youth. Act and the City of St. Petersburg are perfectly aligned when it comes to creating opportunities for a better, prepared, and educated workforce. It's more than just an after-school program. In fact, that's not really what it's about. It's a philosophy and proven practice in education, empowerment, and enrichment. It fosters an environment of hope, resilience, and preparedness, equipping young people with mindset and tools necessary for high school, graduation, as well as career readiness, and lifelong success. What keeps me motivated and committed to ACT's mission is the unwavering dedication to the measurable outcomes, the strong leadership, and its ability to create lasting impact. As a homegrown organization rooted right here, as Alex said, in the sands of St. Petersburg, ACT has spent years refining its approach to ensure it truly transforms lives, not only for the students, but also for their families and our greater community. So with the City's continued partnership and financial support, ACT is poised to reach even more young people, expanding opportunities that will shape their futures and strengthen the fabric of our city, and I appreciate your time and consideration in deepening our partnership to make an even greater impact in our community. Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you. Okay, I think that's it for public comment. That's it. Okay, we'll go to Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. Thank you, Alex, for the update, for bringing the group here today. This is really special. Just amazing to hear from you. I've got a couple of questions for you if you want to get to them, Mike. And thanks to the supporters who have spoken today. It really means a lot. And if we're going to make this happen, we're going to need your guidance. So stand by for that. This organization has proven itself over and over again. Dr. Harris has proven himself to our community over and over again. And the students have shown us the benefits of this work over and over again. I think it's time for us to help the organization level up because this is what we want. Whether you're talking about the arts, you're talking about workforce development, economic development, the future of our city lies in the work that's being done by organizations like this who have the demonstrated outcomes that we're looking for. So when I see something like this, I say, more please, and how do we help? Which is why we're meeting soon. I heard the number of $500,000 mentioned. And what we will need to see is a proposal and what that would look like. And I know it's something, you know, we can work on it together. I'm happy to bring forward a new business item for us to talk about this. It can also be discussed as part of our budgeting process for the next fiscal year. That's already kicked off. And I've already, along with some of my colleagues, have demonstrated a strong support for increasing our arts funding. So we'll keep up with that. And, you know, there are some different ways that I think we can get there. But we need to know what that's going to look like first. So I look forward to having those conversations with you. And I can't wait until we can get to the point where we can celebrate having achieved this together. I think it's time for the city to be a stronger partner and help you get to this. Your numbers are outstanding. Thank you. So I just want you to know I have your full support, as always. Yes. But this is intriguing. And I look forward to having further discussions about it with you and with my colleagues here and the administration. Thank you so much. So just know this is the start of what's next. Thank you. Uh-huh. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Well, I'm excited, Dr. Harris, to move on to what's next because I have had the opportunity to sit down and talk to you. I've seen your proposal, and I'm excited, Council Member Driscoll, to bring forward the new business item and also the budget request because you deserve this. I certainly think our kids are worthy of this investment. When you think about what's happening in our community and what you see on the news, we showcase the bad, but it's nice to highlight the good. And I think today we got to see the good that's taking place in the neighborhood. So thank you so much, Dr. Harris, for showcasing that. Just a few things. I'll start off with some comments. First of all, I know what the arts did for me. You said it yourself. It provides pathways to career opportunities. I don't think I would be here today if it wasn't for bringing music, which is no longer here today, or, you know, Southside Fundamentals Band or Lakewood High's Band. It was those opportunities that gave me a ticket to college. I was not athletic, y'all. I was musically inclined. So I appreciate the opportunities that the arts provided. And I just think about, you know, we have the opportunity to, we say that we're the arts capital. We say that we are the premier destination for the arts, but are we being intentional about making sure that we preserve this name, this legacy in perpetuity? Well, that's going to take making sure that we invest those dollars where they need to be spent, and that's our kids. So I certainly love what you all do. I'm looking forward to my tour to come over there and check you guys out. So, and my last thing is, is we talked about the Bridge the Gap plan, right? The county, if you're not familiar with it, I encourage you to research that. Having been in education, I know that we have an issue, especially when it comes to African-American males not graduating at the rate that they should be, a disproportionate disadvantage there. So I love the fact that you guys are focused on increasing our graduation rate and decreasing the dropout rate. So when we think about poverty in St. Pete, I want my colleagues to know that this is one of those things that helps break down the barriers to end the cycle of poverty by investing in our youth. And if we can put dollars everywhere else across this city, we can certainly support the arts in our youth. So, again, my last question for you, I've seen the proposal. Obviously, others haven't. So what would that breakdown look like for these dollars? How would they be allocated? I don't expect you to go dollar by dollar, but just in summary. In summary, the $500,000 request will help make, strengthen our platform here, our footprint, to impact more students. Right now, for example, there were some budget cuts with the Pinellas County Public Schools, for example, is one example of others. And I sat down with the chair of the board, Laura Hine, and we had a conversation, and we were having a conversation with the superintendent, and I think on Monday, because we're trying to find we have a 10-year relationship with the school, but we may not even be able to be on those campuses next year. And so that's what we are faced with. We see the results. We've checked the boxes with intention to ensure that the product that we've created for the young people is working. It's a model that works, as we love to celebrate the idea of that research-based, because that's where we started. We wanted to do something that has empirical evidence to support our practice, that all of our teaching artists, our top professional teaching artists, that not only are professionals that have honed their own skills and craft through their training, but also through our training as well in engaging to ensure that we have the outcomes that we have. So that's one huge example of how the dollars will be used for our students. I appreciate that, and you estimated that half-million-dollar investment. About how many students do you estimate that would reach? So for our program, it's $1,500 for our traditional programming. For our advanced, some of the students you saw here today, that's $5,000 a year to get them from transportation to our workshops to our trainings that they go to every week. So that's how it will increase a little bit less than 500 students, basically. The idea is to put the numbers to students. And I think we have to be intentional about providing those wraparound services to families, especially those low-income families who may not have access to transportation. Maybe they're working two and three jobs like my mom did. So to your point, Regina, thank you for bringing that up. I appreciate what you guys are doing. You're meeting people where they are. You're helping these kids reach their dreams. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. Thank you. Council Member Fix-Sanders. Thank you so much. Dr. Harris. Thank you. Thank you. And like I said, all they had to do was see what I saw. So thank you, Council Member Driscoll, for offering to do the new business item. But that's already in the works. I know that you are meeting with Mr. Walsh. And I'm waiting on that response so we can move forward. Because I know you're saying a half a million. But according to that, you're asking us to also initially set aside $100,000 for the first year. And so that's where we've started. Because that seems to be a little bit more palatable with what we're trying to do with that. So again, you came. We saw. You conquered. And I'm just so grateful that you see it for yourself that my colleagues are just as interested in helping your program as I was when we initially met. And I said, let's do it. Let them see how much of an impact that you've made to the city of St. Petersburg and our teenagers. So we're going to continue to have the conversation. I want you to continue to grow. I want you to continue to be the mentor that you have been for the last, what, 13 years? 12, 13 years? And I want to thank your supporters for definitely being here. I'm glad we were able to get them to come. And they hung out with us for a little while. But we have nowhere else to go with this but up. And so I appreciate all that you've done. And for coming and just showing just what you're working with. And I appreciate all of that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you. And, Alex, you do fantastic work. I mean, you are an incredible ambassador for the program, done a great job with the presentation, reaching out to us, bringing all the support that you have. We all know the great work that you do in the community. I will say that, you know, based on the number, I sit on the Arts Advisory Committee. The total amount that we get, I think, in grants is $550,000 is what we have. So I just want to throw it out there because we got additional money, I think, last year because of the increase, right, into the budget. But just to put things in perspective and so people understand, we do have an Arts Advisory Committee. We have monies allocated, we have monies allocated, they look at all these organizations, just like you're, and you know all the people that are involved because you're part of it. So you know all these great organizations that do work. And that's kind of the balance, I think, that we're talking about, you know, how do you kind of fit it all in with how we're trying to help the organizations. So definitely want to be there to level up and see what we can do. But that's kind of the context of what we're looking at in terms of budget and looking at the money. But I think you're fantastic. And, by the way, everyone, he's a new dad. Yes. Bless that night. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Alex, always great spending time with you, whether it's at the breakfast a few months ago, and, well, it seems like a few months ago. It's probably a little longer than that now. But the time we spent on the phone and then time earlier, I just always appreciate it. And then I'm just always blown away by the kids. You know, I think about being an 8-year-old picking up a trombone, being a 12-year-old picking up a baritone. Being a 14-year-old picking up a tuba. The tuba, I think, weighed as much as I did at that point. And then all the while, you know, being able to sing and learn how to do those things and be on a stage. And I can promise you, I'm not sitting in this seat if it weren't for all those things. You know, and I talk a lot about our baseball fields and our swimming pools because I feel the same. I was able to spend a lot of time in those, too. But, you know, the ability to, you know, whether it's, which is unimportant today, the ability to campaign, to knock on somebody's door and have an honest conversation with them, or be able to sit up here and press a button on a pressing issue that might not go so well and have the confidence to do so, I think, didn't come from my ability to sit in the batter's box. It came from my ability to be on a stage or read music and have the confidence to do that in front of hundreds or thousands of people. And so I appreciate the work that you do, and I know, or at least I hope I communicated that to you as I've seen you in the past. So I'm excited to have these conversations. I'm glad some of the concerns Vice Chair Hanowitz just brought up were the concerns, you know, just being transparent. Certainly, you know, I've asked for the arts budget to continue to go up, but we also want to make sure that, you know, we're trying to impact as much as we can. And I know you're doing that, and I know we're going to have those conversations and looking forward to that, and certainly looking forward to continuing to support your organization for many, many years to come. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here, and thank you for the update. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We are going to move on to F4, our Code Enforcement on Storm Damage Property Update. And we're here with Administrator Foster and Director Joe Waugh. Thank you, Chair. I'm going to— Oh, yeah. Sorry. Good afternoon, City Council. I'm just going to say a few words to get us started. First of all, I just want to thank Council Member Gabbard for bringing up this item. It's an important discussion to have. And I just want to take a moment to thank all our staff, because I know a lot of staff has been watching. And it has been a challenge for staff to handle the day-to-day operations while also handling the longer-term recovery of the storms. And so I just want to take a moment to thank them for everything they've been doing. And I want to just talk a little bit about the longer-term recovery and everything that's been going on. You know, we had the debris management, which we've worked through. The increased permitting demand, which we've talked about and is still occurring. And then today we're going to be talking about compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program and our city code. We're going to continue the discussion next week on utility billing. We've also had a lot of discussions about construction and repair of city facilities that are ongoing. Now we're starting to talk about grant management with the exciting news on the CDBGDR and the money coming in, how we're going to handle that. I think we sent you some information on that today. The finance and budget challenges and then, you know, the ongoing issue of communication with the public and about what we're doing. So, you know, we know that we're not going to be perfect in this long-term recovery. There's going to be lessons learned, but we're dedicated to the work, and we believe that we will emerge as a city in the end stronger and more resilient for all the work that we're doing together. So just wanted to share that with you before I turn it over to Mr. RuPaul. Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council. We're here today to present an update on the codes monitoring cases that we first briefed you on in early November. That briefing followed a letter that was mailed to every affected property on November 1st. With significant misinformation circulating and emotions running high, we want to ensure that both you and our residents have the correct information. Look, we know our residents are weary. Some of them are facing the process of putting their homes back together for the second, third, or fourth time in recent years. This process is not something the city has ever been required to undertake before. So we're designing the plane as we are flying it. I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity, thank you, Rob, for recognizing staff in your comments, to recognize the work that this team has done over the last four months. Many of them were boots on the ground before waters had even receded while their own homes had been flooded and their families displaced. Mr. Waugh is here today to provide an overview of the process and our lessons learned, and we also have the building and permitting team and floodplain manager here to answer your questions as well. I believe that Mr. Doyle will also be here to talk about communications if needed. I do want to mention, though, that while we've been sitting here, Joe is going to share at the end of the presentation how we've already presented to FEMA, and they've provided us with positive feedback about our processes. But while we've been sitting here, FEMA has already reached out to us because of the increased media attention and wants to schedule additional meetings with us to ensure that we follow the processes that we presented to them earlier in the year. And so, you know, Joe, we'll talk to you about the forensic audits and the things that we know we have to have in place for FEMA. I just want to say to you again, none of us want to be in this position to have to be doing this work. It's certainly unfortunate that so many homeowners have been impacted, but it is an important part of the process to be in compliance so that we have resilient recovery. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Waugh. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair, members of Council. I guess it's good evening at this point. Joe, we're going to let you do this presentation. Yeah, I know. I was waiting for the move approval, but I guess. All right. So we know how challenging the last few months have been for everyone that's been impacted by the storms. We understand that it has been a difficult process and that there is much more work to do on the road to recovery. A resident that reached out to me last week to provide feedback about this process told me, the city should have been out here immediately after the storm looking for people doing improper work and should still be out canvassing. I had to explain that we were. We were out there after the storms. We were going door to door throughout their neighborhood and the entire city, but we weren't there to issue violation notices. We were there to provide support, resources, and in many cases, a hug and some comfort during a difficult time. I wanted to lead with that because that is who we are as a department, and that is who we are as a city. We are intentional about our work, and our goal is always to do our best to assist and protect our residents. While we knew we had a difficult task ahead of us that has never been encountered before, we took an informed approach that we believed was best for the city and our residents, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here with you all this evening to review that process. So I just want to begin with the timeline. As we all know, we experienced the back-to-back storms within a two-week period. Codes, housing, and social services staff conducted street team outreach immediately after the storms, and construction services and permitting completed damage assessments at the same time. On November 7th, the 49% rule was reviewed during the HLUT meeting, and that is when we provided an overview of our plan to actively monitor storm-damaged properties. In December, we finally received the final list of damage assessments for each storm event and began a plan for implementing the monitoring process. So I wanted to provide a brief background on how the damage assessment process worked. So as I mentioned, after each storm, inspections are completed to identify indicators of damage to include water lines, structural disrepair, and then debris that may be removed from the property. That data is entered into a county damage assessment application via smartphone in the field and allows for photos and notes to be added to the specific properties. While not exactly the same, it has similar functionality to our C-ClickFix application, which I'm sure many of you are very familiar with. The county then uses our data assessment numbers to assist in the emergency declaration process and then releases that information back to the municipalities. So this table here represents the total number of damaged properties split between those within a flood hazard area and outside of the flood hazard area, and this is for both Helene and Milton. So as you will see, there were significantly more properties within flood hazard areas due to the storm surge that was brought by Helene. I also want to highlight that the 11,000 properties are every property within the flood hazard area that were identified through damage assessments. So this represents about a quarter of the 40,000 properties that are actually within flood hazard areas within the city. I also wanted to provide a brief description of what each level of damage means, the lowest obviously being affected, and then the highest being destroyed. And then properties that were identified as destroyed did not have a monitoring case, but we are addressing those through our demolition process. So we are monitoring these properties to ensure compliance with FEMA and our city ordinances to ensure all required permits are pooled and inspections are completed. If we fail to do this effectively, it could affect our community rating system discount or could result in being placed on probation from the National Flood Insurance Program. We've also learned from other municipalities that FEMA will be actively monitoring our response to the storm recovery. One municipality described it as a forensic audit. They encountered issues when there was a lack of permits compared to the number of damaged properties, and then on top of that, there was insufficient code enforcement cases to close the gap and ensure those properties were obtaining the necessary permits. So while we knew developing an effective process was going to be challenging, it was a little bit more difficult than we anticipated. Initially, our time was consumed with balancing recovery efforts, street team outreach, unfit and unsafe structures, and a record number of tenant complaints filled our plates immediately after the storms. By late December and into early January, we began to see properties being listed for sale that didn't appear to have the required permits. Our current case management system left us with little room for flexibility, and we were facing an increase in workload that was over a third of our yearly total. Validating data was also difficult, and ultimately, we discovered that it was more efficient to validate it by basically distributing that throughout the entire staff with field inspections. So we began to problem solve and establish some workarounds with the NavValine system to make sure it could do what we needed it to do for this process. The map shown on this slide are the 18 different zones that were created to equitably distribute the workload amongst our staff and ensure that they could complete their work efficiently. The investigative team also had to manage their own current workload, and so we established new inspector identifications that aligned with their assigned zone to help keep their work organized and reduce the potential for errors. So as we begin the next steps in this process that I'll discuss later, cases will be initiated within the non-flood hazard areas that are shown there as the no zone. So in early January, we began the implementation process. A detailed process and procedure along with a flow chart were developed for our investigative staff. We held dedicated staff meetings to review the process and answer questions for the team before the work began. Understanding that our investigative staff would be experiencing an increased workload, we utilized our main code's email and phone number for these cases to ensure that we maintained prompt responses to questions and concerns for our residents. The last thing that we wanted to do is have a delay in response with this new process, so we wanted to make sure we incorporated that. We also provided talking points to our administrative team to ensure there was clarity in messaging and escalated all calls concerning these cases directly to management staff. So I did want to highlight some of the key processes with these monitoring cases. So first, physical inspections are completed for each case. The bulk of these will initially be drive-by due to workload, but we are doing more detailed inspections if we do observe that there's the potential for work being conducted without permits. Violation notices are issued if work is completed or in process without the required permits, and these are found both via those physical inspections, and we are also reviewing real estate listings as well. Properties with active permits for repairs are changed to a post-disaster emergency permit case for record-keeping purposes, and then if all work is completed, the permit is closed and the case gets closed out. If work is in process and the permit has not received all required inspections, we are monitoring these until completion, and then the case will get closed out. And we understand the workload that the permitting department has right now, so this is just a second check and balance to their process. That way, if a permit doesn't get closed out, it expires, we can make sure we capture that. So we did attempt to cross-reference closed permits prior to initiating these monitoring cases, but there were issues that we identified that required a more thorough review of each permit. And so one example that I can provide, there were a lot of PDEP permits that were issued immediately after the storm because, for example, someone needed a new electrical riser so they could get power back onto their house. We obviously wanted to make sure that could happen very quickly for them. So if we were to make a blanket statement that anybody with a PDEP permit had done all the work that they needed, there was going to be a significant number of properties that would be missed through this process. And that's why we could not just say, if you had your PDEP permit, we weren't going to start this because there were some discrepancies there. So we initiated monitoring of cases on properties that were affected, understanding that we would be reviewing these cases after 90 days. This allowed us to physically inspect these properties to ensure work wasn't being completed and then conduct a review based on FEMA's guidance prior to closing them out. If residents believe that a monitoring case was started in error because they had no damage, those are reviewed by management, and we've been trying to turn those around same day, two business days, as long as that it's been for us to get a response back to residents. So understanding that codes cases are public records, cases that are closed because there was no evidence of damage that would require remediation are closed with detailed notes, and also they are shown as invalid rather than just simply being closed. That way, if you were to look at that record, you would see that that was an invalid case. So some inspection results. Since January 27th, we've completed almost 4,500 inspections. There have been 806 cases that have been changed to the PDEP case type because they had their active permits. 59 cases were closed because the permits had received all their final approvals. 23 have been closed as invalid after an additional review by management, and then we've had over 65 violation notices issued for work without permits. And I wanted to just show an image and a description of one of the properties that we found early in this process. So as you can see, new flooring, cabinets, roof, HVAC, pool equipment, all done after the storm, and there was not a single permit that was pooled for any of that work. And this was listed for sale. Next, I want to share some facts about these monitoring cases. So an active case does not equal a code violation. And an active case itself does not create an encumbrance on a property that would affect real estate transactions or refinancing. So we have utilized monitoring cases for over 10 years to track our vacant and boarded properties throughout the city, and we have never been told by a title company that a monitoring case has held up a closing. Additionally, over the last two weeks, we have not had a single title company that has contacted us about a flood hazard case and indicate that they had any concerns with the presence of that case while they were going through their closing. No fines or liens have been placed against any property due to one of these cases at this point in time. So our standard process is to notify property owners once a violation is found. Each year, we have thousands of cases that are initiated that do not result in violations, and owners have never been proactively notified just of the presence of a codes case on their property. I wanted to highlight some of the communications surrounding this process. So during the November 7th HLUT meeting, we provided an overview of our plan to inspect the 10,000-plus properties that were identified via damage assessments. I completed one-on-one meetings as requested with council members after that committee meeting. On November 1st, Planning and Development Review Services mailed out information about the 49% rule to the 40,000-plus structures that were in the flood hazard area. And then I had direct communication with residents and neighborhood association leadership the week that the process began. There's always opportunities for improvement and lessons to be learned from every situation. While I'm confident that we developed a sound process that will protect our residents and allow for a resilient storm recovery, I recognize that we failed to communicate this effectively to the impacted residents. We were transparent about our intentions during public meetings, but fell short when it came to proactive communication prior to the rollout of that process. We have since launched an FAQ and have provided details regarding this process on our website and through social media channels. Beyond communication, I think we can also focus on identifying better tools to allow for more efficient validation of data that crosses multiple departments and organizations. And that's already underway within the city as we are transitioning from NAVLINE to the Tyler system, which will be a much better tool for situations like this moving forward. So throughout this process, we have technical assistance meetings with representatives from FEMA. During our January 30th meeting, we outlined our monitoring process for them and received the following feedback in addition to a reminder of the importance of continuing down this path. So FEMA's review indicates the city of St. Petersburg's current processes do not demonstrate potential program deficiencies that may impact resilient and compliant storm recovery. We have submitted this process for a FEMA write-up as a best practice. And then again, the reminder, failing to enforce your regulations could result in the loss of the community rating system policy discounts and result in CRS downgrade. Additionally, failure to administer and enforce minimum standards address program deficiencies or remedy NFIP violations may result in probation. So moving forward, we will continue the monitoring process within flood hazard areas, and we will begin the process for damaged properties outside of the flood hazard areas. So while permitting requirements outside of the flood hazard, excuse me, flood hazard area is less stringent, it is still imperative to ensure the permits are obtained for all necessary repairs. So this will additionally protect our residents and ensure an equitable codes compliance response to the damages that were sustained throughout the entire city. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you all may have. Thank you. Okay. Council Member Gabbard, I'm going to ask you something real quick. Yes, sir. Vice Chair Hanowitz has to go to an event representing the city. Is there any chance you might be okay with her going first, or do you want to lead it off? I mean, I brought the report item, so. How about it? So first of all, I just want to start by saying thank you. I know how busy you all are, so bringing a report item is not, you know, the easiest thing in the world to ask you right now because I know how much work it's going to take. But I just want to thank you. Thank you for everything that you've done because, Joe, you and your team, Amy, have really worked beyond overtime to get us to where we are today. So I have a few questions just to kind of clarify because, Chair, the reason that I brought this report item was because, I mean, quite frankly, I missed the deadline and you were gracious enough to let me get it on, but I don't know about my colleagues. I've done pretty much nothing for a week but talk about this topic. So it's very timely. We needed to have this conversation. I have a list of questions that you kind of covered but a little bit more specific stuff that specifically has been coming to me. So first I'm just going to start out. I want to ask Legal, where is Heather? So, Heather, I know you've been working closely on this. You're very familiar with all of this. This is your area of expertise. So the very first question, is this legal to do this? Absolutely. We are actually utilizing a process that we already have. We were lucky in that we have a fully built-out codes compliance process and the process that we're doing in regards to people who actually have the violations is exactly what we've been doing with our code enforcement board. The notices are the same. This process is fully compliant under Florida Statutes 162. And Amy, you mentioned there was a November letter that went out to all residents and that there was mention of enforcement or something in that. I went back and tried to find my letter. I couldn't find it in my numerous stack of stuff. I think Liz has it pulled up. So, can you talk about that? And to my understanding, there was no legal requirement to do anything additional in the way of notification because these are not violations, correct? That's correct. Okay. So, this November 1st letter talks about the permit requirements for storm damage repairs and resources for property owners. And throughout it, it talks about, you know, what happens next, what substantial damage, what's the 49% rule, the market value. And it lets them know that there will be inspections and trying to find that exact area by codes enforcement. Okay. And I think that's sufficient to answer the question because I think there's this idea that there's been zero notifications sent out. And so, I just wanted to make sure that we really talked about what notification we have done. Yeah. So, you know, I think one of the things that has been kind of a real sticking point, and you mentioned it, was the individuals who did not have damage. And so, can we talk a little bit about why it's public record, it can't be just removed, it's marked as invalid, why is that? And I just want to say to my colleagues, I have one of these cases on my house. So, all week long, every time this has come up, I've gone to my case, and I've looked at it, and I've been using mine as a case study. I had a voided code's case from back in 1997 on my home. Didn't keep me from purchasing it in 2014. Didn't even come up, to be quite honest. So, I'm just kind of looking at this and saying, you know, like, why are they marked the way that they are? Why can they not be removed? Residents should understand that. So, just go back, and specifically for this situation, one of the things, as Mr. Wall mentioned, is that we looked at other communities, especially Fort Myers Beach, who is in a suspension of their NFIP program, and I asked my legal assistant to pull me everything from that documentation that got them in that situation. And the second thing is they failed to provide all documentation that demonstrates your community is leveraging its code enforcement process to address new and existing codes cases for all structures not confirmed as compliant. To confirm compliance, we have to do that inspection. And how the process works is we have to keep those public records when we go out, just like any other codes case, if a complaint is received either internally or from a citizen, we open a codes case to document the complaint or the reason that we're going out, who went out, when we went out, and what we found. And if we find nothing, the case is closed. But that public record must remain. And we have them going back to the 80s. So, it's highly likely with a city that has a housing stock as old as St. Petersburg that there hasn't been some interaction with codes. But that's not a lien. It's just a public record. So, Joe, can you talk about the process for individuals who state that they do not have damage, but they have one of these cases? What process? I know you said it's like two business days or something like that. What process do they go through? So, when they contact our office, they'll indicate that they did not receive any damage. Our administrative staff will take all their information. They'll send that email to me and my management staff. We will then do a more thorough review. So, we will go into the damage assessment tool. We will see exactly what the extent of the damage was. Maybe it was six inches or it could be three feet. And then we'll go into the actual tool to see what did the photographs look like. Sometimes there is no clear indicator, but you can look at the property right next door, and there was a three-foot line on that house, reasonable to believe, you know, it just got washed off or whatever may have happened. And so, we will do that initial review. There are going to be situations where you can clearly see that there was maybe a six-inch water line that was on the garage door, but the stoop of the house has stepped up. And so, in those cases, you know, we've partnered with Permitting on this because we did not want to make that call on our own. We are going to close those out because there wouldn't be any more evidence at that point in time that water would have been into the living space that would have required repairs for permits. If it's not something that we can make a decision on based on the information that we have in front of us, we are asking residents just to simply allow us to come out at their convenience, come look and see what the property conditions are, and if there's no evidence that there's water intrusion, no recent work, we'll compare, you know, current photographs that we take with recent real estate listings, things like that to make sure the conditions haven't changed, and then we will close that out. So, we are trying to make this as easy as possible for everybody. Certainly, you know, the number of calls coming in has increased exponentially this last week, but we are still prioritizing that because we understand the importance of this, and we're turning those around as quickly as we can. All right, thank you. So, then I think my last question, and then I just got a couple comments. So, the case type, I've heard a lot of conversation about this, right? The special flood hazard area being used as the initial case type, and then I can see from my own that once you file the permit, then it moves into the post-disaster emergency permit. So, why is that special flood hazard area type used? So, that was just the case type that we created for these cases. All right. And just like the PDEP. So, when we start this outside of the flood hazard areas, the case type that we're using is a damage assessment property maintenance case. This is one of those workarounds with our tool. NaviLine is very difficult to pull reports out of. So, the easiest way is to have that very first, you know, data point to be the actual case type. So, we know if FEMA asks, let me see all of your properties that you've inspected, you know, due to damage. I can pull every special flood hazard case, and we can have it right there ready to go for them. If we were to put that in one of our regular permit case types or a property maintenance case type, trying to dig through all of the ones that were not there. So, it's really just a workaround for the tool. It looks like a reporting mechanism, yes. Okay. And then, I think Hannah is here. I have a question about permitting after the fact, and maybe this is an Angie question. So, quite frankly, some of my calls the last couple days have been people calling to confess. Like, I'm hearing that there's now this Coates case. I went ahead and did the work. Maybe I didn't know flooring, drywall, those things that I was supposed to permit. What do I do? Come into the office and pull a permit. No added fees. Just come in and pull a permit. Nothing substantially has happened. We're not going to fine you extra. It's not a double fee with working without permit. We are simply out there saying, please pull your permit. So, they can just come right on in, bring the photos, bring every scope of work that you did, and just pull a permit. Okay. Well, when I started getting those calls, I kind of felt like, you know what? It's starting to work. That, you know, the accountability that we have to put around all of this is so critically important. And I also wanted to let my colleagues know. So, I verified everything that Joe was saying about Cloud on Title. I reached out. But I took my case, and I sent it to four title companies. And I said, if I went to sell my house today with this on here, would this impede me closing on my home? The answer on all four of them was no. It will not. It will come up in a municipal lien search. And that title company might ask for a hold harmless just as a notice of disclosure. But I would say that in those comments back to me from those title companies, a lot of them said, you know what? Quite frankly, we're selling homes that we're concerned that people don't have full disclosure on. Maybe this is another way that people will have an additional layer of knowledge about what potentially happened to this property. So, I wanted to let you all know that, that I did do my due diligence. I went, I looked, and I wanted to make sure that we were not doing any harm. I had asked these questions in my 101 on November, but just wanted to verify that on the back end. Can I just double click on something? You know, Hannah shared what should happen if somebody didn't pull a permit, and we're here to work with folks, right? And so, the FAQ does explain, here's what you need to do. I do want to mention, so everybody's aware, that they're going to be found out one way or the other, right? So, we have FEMA's data for who applied for FEMA. We have insurance data. And so, there's a lot of people that are writing us right now saying, I didn't have any damage. I didn't have this. Here's my picture. But we have the other data to tell us a different story. And so, just come in. We're here to help you. And I really want to underscore that, that, you know, let's not dig the hole deeper, right? Just come in. There's people here who want to be of assistance. Right. And I've been sharing that message with individuals who have called me over the last few days. Asking those same questions. And I think, for me, like, this is a really great example of, you know, we have these processes that we have to put in place. We have to work through this permitting process. And we have to hold people accountable because of all the reasons that you shared that our city could be even at greater risk of not being sustainable, not being resilient, if we do not do these things. This is about keeping us as a strong city. But when we talk about strength, strength also comes from standing together. And I feel like there's been a lot of this kind of division over this particular issue over the last week. And it's very upsetting to me. It's very concerning to me. Our neighborhoods need us to band together. And I feel like the further we're getting away from the storm events, the more that there's this, like, kind of desire to kind of tear each other apart, right? And cast blame and doubt. So I would just say to any resident that is listening, to hear what our staff is saying. They're doing everything they can to try to help to rebuild our city every single day under impossible circumstances. And so to tear them apart on social media or in the phone calls you're receiving, the emails that you're receiving, is completely unfair. We will get through this together. It is not going to be easy, but we have to continue to move forward in a way that is respectful, understanding that we all are making the same decisions together collectively out of respect for each other and our processes. We need our residents to do the same. And so I'm really glad that we're having this conversation today. I want to thank you again for allowing me to put it on last minute because the only thing I want us to do is rebuild a city that is stronger in the face of what we have coming for us in the future. And so I just really applaud all of you for being able to stand up, make those tough decisions, stick by them every day, and continue to do the work that you do. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Councilmember Harding. Thank you, Chair. Joe, I wanted to take just a minute to address you. Sitting here listening, I wanted to be able to regurgitate everything that you have changed since the first storm. You instantly became understaffed. You created new policy. And I could go on and on and on. And we're all very grateful and impressed by that. But I wanted to take a moment. I have heard from two different sources that what's happened lately with what we're talking about now has created some consternation and some phone calls have come in or correspondence has come in that were very difficult. And from what I understand, you directed them all to you, personally. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's it. Thank you very much for that. Yeah, your staff has taken a beating. They're working longer than they want. There's not enough of them. They have damaged houses. On and on and on and on and on. And this adds to the, you know, I am confident, as Councilwoman Gabbard did a good job espousing, that the team is on board. But they're getting beat up. And you took it all. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, we're going to quickly go to a public comment we have on Zoom. Great. Pinellas Park, Grace Brethren Church, I entered you into the meeting space. Please unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address City Council. You may go ahead. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Joseph Sowers, 5601 Hobson Street, Northeast. Just using the church's Zoom access. Part of my struggle is that it took six to seven weeks for me to get that letter. I was someone who did not have renter's insurance or homeowner's insurance, flood insurance. I was very grateful. I was there for an organization called Texas on Mission before the week after Milton had already taken out my drywall, remediated from old, and put my drywall back in. So for me to find out three, four weeks afterwards that you should have gotten permits for that, these were people that were based at a church in South St. Pete, so there was some kind of lack of communication there. The other thing is, you know, I tried to make an appointment today. The system says that there are no appointments. On September 26th, when the storm hit, finished work was considered an exempted permit. Finished work is things such as baseboard, doors, painting, trim, that type of thing. And then I find out at a meeting, online meeting, in November 8th, that that is no longer considered finished work, and now I need a permit for that. I think the city is overwhelming its building department unnecessarily. Yes, I did have damage. It was fixed. I've spent way under the 49%. Under the previous September 26th requirements, it says that I just need to submit a cost breakdown for the work that was done, and I'm more than willing to do that. And I'm sorry, two foot of drywall is not structural. I disappointed that my city council member wasn't available after the storm because he had resigned or whatever, I don't know. But, you know, I appreciate, I worked for the state of Florida for 35 years, so I appreciate being a public servant. But we just want to be in our homes. We want to move forward. I made good faith effort. I was very blessed that someone helped me. And now it feels an awful like I'm being punished for being proactive. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, excuse me. We have one more public comment. She's filling out the card. Okay. It's Rachel Tenpenny. Please state your name and address for the record. You'll have three minutes to address council. Rachel Sartain Tenpenny, 1684, Watermark Circle, Northeast, St. Petersburg. I've been selling real estate in the area since 2003. I've spoken with Brandy about this topic and Kevin, and I've seen all the social media, and I've been involved in group text complaining about it. And I just want to say thank you to our city, our council, and our codes department for doing what you're doing. And you're drawing a line in the water. And I would say sand, but water went more appropriately. The day I stayed for Helene, and the next morning I walked down the street and just started helping my neighbors pull soaking wet rugs out of their living room and whatever we could. And I ended up, I think, helping clean out at least 30 homes. And being in real estate, I looked around, and I was scared to death because that's my livelihood. What am I going to sell? There's nothing to sell. It's all destroyed. And I just started my own brokerage and just hired my daughter a full-time salary. And so I got to work and kept walking the streets and talking to people, and I came across a mother and her teenage daughter sitting on 62nd Avenue Northeast right outside of Shore Acres. They were waiting on somebody to pick them up, and I asked what street she lived on. She said Denver Street. I said, how long have you lived there? We bought nine months ago. Denver Street flooded in Idalia as well. And I don't know how many other times those homes flooded. I'm tired of fix and flip, BS, throw some lipstick on the pig, and remodel these homes and selling them to unsuspecting consumers. And if the realtors and the homeowners and the remodelers would do what they're supposed to do and disclose, we wouldn't have this case. And to the comment of the person that just called in, the reason why these drywall permits are so important is because the mold behind the drywall. And I'm going against the grain, and I am planning to do my social media BS tomorrow because everybody else has done it, and they're on Bay News 9 and ABC Action News and this, that, and the other, and they're all bashing the city for what you're doing. But what you're doing is protecting people, and you're putting an end to constantly rebuilding these homes that are below the floodplain, that some of them are, you know, you've got floor joists that are wooden and subfloors and wood floors, and they got flooded, and they didn't get treated. And I've seen those neighbors move back in, and they have to be ripped out. And I'm sorry, I just wanted to say thank you. I am passionate about this, and I appreciate all that you're doing. Thank you, and we appreciate you. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. I'll be quick. I understand the why. I understand the reasons that we have to do this monitoring, and I appreciate all that has gone into developing a process, and I agree with Councilmember Harding that you making yourself available for people who need answers or need to vent whatever is admirable, and so thank you. Some might say, well, that's your job, but I know that it's more than that, and I certainly appreciate it. The challenge that I'm having with this is the communication piece, and I feel like we're coming back to that concept quite a bit lately. I mean, last week it was about the water bills. This morning it was about crane safety. Now we're talking about code enforcement, and every single time we bring it up that some proactive communication could go a long way. I mean, yeah, it's a lot of people, but think about the trouble that could be saved by just making sure that everyone understands what's happening and why and not waiting until people are just, you know, kind of in their own crisis about this for you to say, no, it's okay. You can come to confession, and we will get things fixed, and you'll be absolved, and everything will be okay. There's a way to get ahead of this instead of chasing behind it, and that's where, quite frankly, I'm disappointed. I just feel like there had to have been a way to give people a heads up, and I'm getting tired of asking about communication and why it's not better. That is the one thing where I think that we really, really need some improvement. I don't know if, in hindsight, you were thinking that, yes, we could have. Yes, Councilor, I referenced it in the presentation, right? That was definitely a lesson learned, and I think that, you know, what I've learned from this is I didn't anticipate the level of misunderstanding, right? And that's why I didn't have a second thought about doing this process, because I knew that a code case means nothing, you know, until there's an active violation. But I failed to realize how quickly that could spin, you know, into misinformation, and then we're trying to backtrack. So I absolutely agree with you. I appreciate that feedback. And, you know, our standard process, we don't notify until there's a violation notice. There's thousands of cases out there that nobody even knew they had a case, and that's just historically how we have operated. Obviously, this is a different scenario. Again, first time we're dealing with this, so I recognize that. That's why I wanted to put that just out front right in the presentation. This is something we've learned from this, and we'll do a better job next time. Thank you. Thank you. Can I say a few words? Please. Counsel, Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Amy. So, Councilwoman Driscoll, I hear you. As has been said, we are balancing the recovery work as well as the regular items. That is our standard. It has been a lot to balance all of it. We're learning lessons. We work with an incredible team. Unfortunately, most of them are over at the pier with Councilwoman Hanowitz. And the mayor, I would love to bring the team here. We can explain some of the emergency communications. We can get some input from each of you. We are working as hard as we can. We hear you. We are trying to balance our regular work as well as the recovery work, and there are lessons learned. Yeah, I understand that. And we've got folks out there who are trying to balance their regular lives with their own recovery work. And somewhere out there, I can only imagine that we've got a homeowner who had to figure out how to help out Grandma at the Princess Martha when she found out that there was a crane down the street that could kill her during the storm. And then their house gets flooded. They get a $2,000 water bill. And then they find out they've got an open codes case. Imagine what they're having to balance right now. And we work with those individuals every day. The team that we work with feels that pressure. A lot of our team members have lost their homes as well. And we're going to continue to do the best we can. Okay. I love it when we do things in a way that doesn't piss people off. And there is a process by which that can happen. So I look forward to seeing some improvements in that area of communication. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilmember Floyd. Thank you. I just wanted to put myself in the queue to uplift one specific part of the conversation. I went through things myself. I had a broken foot. I could barely walk and my house flooded. I had to put it back together. And I was late to this meeting because I was at home doing electrical work that I thought I could get done in our break. And it's not done. And now the breakers are off anyway. I got work to do when I get home. Yeah. So I bring all that up to say about the people who did not go get permits. And, like, the gentleman who spoke on Zoom. With a little bit of patience and going to the permitting office, I've had, honestly, a pleasant experience. And I really want to shout out everyone who works there as they're in a difficult, difficult situation. Like, we're here during the day. We're off in our community. We're at our house getting stuff done. They're at the permit office every day, day in and day out, and dealing with people who are frustrated. And they have been – they walked me through the process very easily. You do have to have a little patience, though. Maybe if you want your permit right away, you have to spend a long time there. Me, personally, I went, dropped off the paperwork, came back and picked it up about a week and a half later, got a revision. That took about a week. And so you do need a little bit of patience, but they are very, very helpful. And I want to uplift something a member of staff said earlier. I can't remember who, but I haven't felt at all like anyone was trying to, I guess, punish me. They are there to help. And so I understand it's frustrating. I know the gentleman on Zoom talked about an appointment or whatnot. You can just go in there whenever. It's gotten a lot easier to get access to people lately. I'll say that. It's still very busy, but they have great processes in place right now. And I just encourage you. It was a scary thing for me. The only permit I had gotten before was to get trees cut down years ago. And to go through this process was intimidating at first. But if you just go there in person, everyone is very helpful. And they make it very easy on you. So I just wanted to let people know that that is the case and encourage them to go in person and talk to people and have just a little bit of patience and know that the storm permit is free. It just takes a little bit of your time to get. So thank you. Council Member Fix Sanders. Thank you. I have a quick question. Wasn't there a time when one permit was kind of like a one-size-fits-all that if you went and got one permit, you can do multiple tasks, the storm permit? So has that expired? I guess I'm trying to understand the line delineancy from the entire building official. Yes, it's still a PDEP permit is a post-disaster emergency permit for the property. So it would be all-inclusive for any repair work from roofing to electric to drywall. So none of these cases that we're referencing now held that type of permit? No, they would all have that type of permit to clear the codes case. Okay. Yeah, if they've already pulled the permit, they're still monitoring the case until it's inspected and completed before they would close it out. Okay. And I have to say, since I said it publicly before, one of the homeowners that called complaining about the service, and it's been made clear how frustrating the process is, I saw her a couple of days ago, and she said, Council Member, I would like to report that the experience that I've had from this point on has been awesome. I don't know who the young man is. She called his name or whatever, but she said she had to let me know that her experience has been different this go-around. So I just have to put it out there, you know, this time like I put it out the first time. So I want to thank you for that. But more importantly, I want to let our city staff know, because during the whole recovery time, I was concerned for constituents, but I was so concerned for our employees that were going through the same thing as well. And I still am, because everybody's still not completely going through it. I kind of had like after-storm guilt, because I didn't have any damage other than my fence and a couple other things. It was nothing dramatic, but thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you for having to deal with your own stress and still having to be there. Now, grant you, I'm not going to exclude poor customer service, but I just had to let you know that I had gotten a different story from one of the same residents that has had a completely different experience with that. So I want to thank you for that. Thank you. It's always good for positive feedback. Oh, yeah, it was positive feedback, and I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, I just, Joe, I want to just kind of click on a couple of things, because I think it's just an opportunity to just dig a little deeper, and then I'll make a couple of quick comments. So we talked about Naviline and some of the restrictions. Could we just talk about, just kind of go a little deeper on the restrictions of Naviline and how Tyler is going to help, even if nothing else changed, Tyler is going to help with that. And I don't know if you or somebody else wants to talk about how we're already down the road with Tyler, and we're, you know, we'll call it close in government times, but we're close. Yes, so we're several months into that process. My operations manager was in meetings all day with Tyler today building out our codes processes. So I think the immediate thing with this, so we go into Naviline on the code side, and we had to start all of these cases. In order to see the permits, you have to go into a completely different side and go into the permitting. Tyler is going to allow us, once we immediately pull that property up, it's going to have all the information that we need right there, and there's no bouncing back and forth between are we in the code side, the permitting side, utility billing side. It's not siloed. Correct. So it's going to be a much more efficient tool for everybody. I want people to understand that we saw some of this issue years ago and started this process to get better. It just happens we just haven't gotten to the finish line yet, and I wanted to make sure we talked about that. The other thing I want to talk about, just so we're clear, you talked about an active codes case is not a codes violation. Can you talk about the difference of the two, please? Yes, so, I mean, essentially the codes case is just a marker in our case management system to tell us that we need to go out and do an inspection at that property, right? So could we have an... It could happen on things much larger than or much smaller or much larger than a disaster, right? Yeah. I mean, I've had one at my house. We're having the wrong vehicle in front of it, right? Correct. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So we use this every day. I mean, we process 30,000 cases a year using this system. Okay. And then can you talk about the difference between that and then an actual violation? Yeah. So once we finally do our inspections and if we observe that there's a violation of city code that exists, at that point we initiate the process to notify the property owner that they have an issue where they need to take corrective action. There are plenty of times where we don't see that. The case gets closed out and that's the end of it. Thank you. I just... Those were a couple of things. I just wanted to make sure we touched on and just dug down a little bit deeper. I want to go to something that Council Member Floyd talked about, which is kind of the patience and grace of it all. You know, I remember... There are a few things I remember about being in college these days, but I remember being in a psych class and they talked about emotion never wants to have a conversation with reason. And I feel like when we're in this, you know, together, that's what this is. There is emotion, right? And all of us are feeling it in some way, shape, or form. And then what we're trying to communicate sometimes, people just don't want to hear, including us sometimes, because we're trying to communicate the reason to the emotion. And that is very difficult, okay? And so I thought Council Member Floyd's comments were spot on. You know, I think about, you know, I hate to use another water analogy, but it's the best one I could come up with. And perfect timing, Mike. I'm about to talk about lifeguards. When you take your lifeguard class and someone is drowning and you go through that exercise, that person fights you. Because when it happens in real life, you are giving that person a lifeboat and they don't know that they want it. And that's what this is. This is really difficult because we are trying to go through the... This is the way I feel about it, at least. Back me up or tell me if I'm wrong. We are trying to go through the process to make sure St. Pete, exactly what Council Member Gabbard said, stays resilient and strong for the future. The only way to do that is to get in the water and try to save it. And there are going to be fights in order to do that. And that's no fun. Nobody wants to do that, right? You don't want to be the person struggling in the water. And you don't love to be that person that knows they're going to go and counter that struggling person and could go down with them. And so that's where I feel like this is... That's where we're at at this point. And so I say all of that to, echoing a lot of my colleagues, a massive thank you. Because I know we feel it. I can't imagine how you and the rest of the... Frankly, the administration feels it. Because not only do you get it from 280,000 people, then you get it from the eight of us who can call you at any time, whenever we want. And so I just am very appreciative. I know it's difficult. Thank you for doing the hard work. Thank you for answering the phone. That goes to everybody. And I just am very appreciative. And thank you for being the lifeguard. Thank you for being the lifeguard. Okay. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, we'll go into our new business item, which is G1. Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. I declare a request for a referral to the Committee of the Whole to discuss the Prairie Park expansion project, currently on the Wikiwachi project list, and so moved. Second. Seeing as we have a motion and a second, no other council members wishing to speak. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present, council members have voted. Clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, the motion to pass agenda item G1 passes unanimously with Council Member Hanowitz being absent. Council Member Harding, looking forward to having that conversation. And thank you for bringing it forward. Okay, we're going to move into our final open forum. Clerk, do we have any speakers? There are none in Zoom. We don't have any. Okay. We'll go ahead and close open forum then. Council members, any announcements? I mean, I just found out my roof is getting on tomorrow, so you can all celebrate with me for that, finally. But, otherwise, no. Hopefully, Council Member Floyd will match that with power later. I know. Progress. The only, yeah, Council Member Floyd, go ahead. Yeah, well, you know, my foundation was damaged in the storm, and it's getting fixed on Monday, so. Progress. Yes. But, you know, I think you might have been about to talk about it, but we did have the Kids and Cubs game on Saturday. Yeah. Glad you brought it up. And, you know, we did win. Shocker. It was 9 to 6, though. And it was 6 to 6, like, in the 5th or 6th inning, and we played 7. So, it was a close one and a lot of fun. Some of us, not me, some people around here are still sore today. Yeah, definitely. Not me. No, I'm all recovered, but I also am in my early 30s still. It was a great day. So, anyway, yeah, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, I had a really good time. And it was just a wonderful community event, really. Yeah, amen to that. Thank you. Thank you for bringing it up. Council Member Gibbons, you want to talk about Collard Green Festival one more time? Certainly. Just a reminder, this weekend, and I, you know, get beat up for this all the time, Colby. I do not like collard greens, believe it or not. I don't. I am not a collard green eater. I'm going to put the pressure on you. I'm sorry. Thank you, Ms. Deb. Thank you. But I encourage all, whether you like it or not, there will be so many different other vendors there, food trucks, everybody. So, I love fried chicken. That's going to be out there, Colby? That's what I'm thinking, Ms. Deb. So, please stop by. You got heavy. He's right there on the deuces. So, there's barbecue. There's a little bit of everything fun for the whole family. So, I invite everybody to come out to the deuces. Let's have a good time, and let's celebrate collard greens, everybody. So, Boizel, Hosey, and Samantha have done a great job. I believe this is the third year, and so I'm excited to see what's happening. Awesome. Longer than that, thank you, Ms. Deb, for the corrections. There we go. Yeah. Well, hopefully we'll see you on Saturday. All right. Nothing else for the good order. City Council is adjourned. Thank you.