Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Chair, Copley Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4 and Council Vice Chair, Lisseth Hanowitz, District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Cory Givens Jr. and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon. Welcome to the February 20th, 2025 City Council Meeting. Can we do a roll call, please? Gabbard. Here. Harding. Here. Hanowitz. Here. Vic Sanders. Here. Driscoll. Givens. Here. Floyd. Gerdes. Here. Okay. A little change this morning. We're going to have our invocation given by Councilmember Cory Givens Jr. and then please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Let us pray. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in thy path we do pray. God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for this opportunity to gather to tabernacle in this edifice. We ask that everything that we do be done in decent and in order. We ask that you bless our mayor, bless our chair, touch our governor and our president. Father God, I ask that they see you in all that they do. Let us decrease while you increase. In your precious name we pray. Amen. 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. Councilmember, thank you very much for blessing us with that invocation. Okay, we have an agenda in front of us with an addition of H-2 and H-3 resolutions for emergency or today. Excuse me, those are committee reports. My apologies. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Seeing as no council members wishing to discuss, we have a motion to second. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Councilmembers, 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 Councilmember Driscoll being absent. Okay, thank you. Councilmembers, we have a consent agenda in front of us. Do we have any cards? No cards, Mr. Chair. Okay, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Seeing as no further discussion, we have a motion and a second. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Councilmembers, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously with Councilmember Driscoll being absent. Thank you. Okay, let's move into open forum. Clerk, could you please read the rules? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may speak in forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the City of St. Petersburg government. If you're speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once, during open forum or when the agenda 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, to speak, 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 raised hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and ask to state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments or when you 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 rules of the quorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violation of the rules of the quorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including email only. And we do have some speakers, Mr. Chair. Okay, let's call two at a time, please. First two speakers, Michelle Dudley, Elijah Braboy, please approach either podium, state your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. I'm new to this. Good afternoon. My name is Michelle Dudley, 247 Miramar Boulevard Northeast. I'm here today to speak about utility water overcharges. I have been in these council chambers numerous times, as my husband was Bill Dudley, Councilmember from 2008 and 2016. Most times were for joyous events, for his swearing in ceremonies, and twice for proclamations he received from this city. I wish I was here today for a similar occasion. Unfortunately, that is not the case. As were many citizens of St. Petersburg, I was impacted by both Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Consequently, my home was devastated, and I have been able to live there since September 28th. Imagine my surprise when I received my utility bill in December of $1,439.31. I was sure there was some error as I had not lived in my home for three months, so I called customer service to rectify the situation. The young man I spoke with was very rude, extremely impatient, and lacked any compassion as to what my concerns were. He was unable to provide any clear reasoning as to what could have occurred to allow for these excessive charges, only saying that it started in August and was part of an adjustment. Excuse me. He added that I must have a leak. I'd need a professional team to verify whether I did or not have said leak. Until then, I was obligated to pay the $1,400-plus bill. As of auto pay, it was deducted from my account. My next-door neighbors, the Shivers, had a similar incident. Their water bill was approximately $1,300, and when they called, they were given similar information as I, and that they, too, must have a leak. Neither of us had leaks prior to the hurricanes, but coincidentally, we must now both have leaks so massive after the hurricanes that it merited these charges. We had no such leaks. If leaks of that usage were in our homes, they would have been flooded. If those extreme leaks existed underground between our homes, evidence would have emerged from the underground saturation. None of those occurred. While I don't believe that these overcharges were a deliberate attempt by the city to gouge citizens to pay for the damages caused by Helene that impacted water mains, the sewer treatment plants, and manholes, I believe that those damages themselves may explain these incomprehensible charges. Too many people have been implanted. We are still trying to piece our lives together from the double whammy of these hurricanes. We should not have to be hit a third time by the city. I am counting on city council to do their due diligence and provide remedy for the situation. Thank you. Chair, if I could, Mrs. Dudley, I'll have a manager reach out to you. Good afternoon. My name is Elihu Brayboy. I live at 144 23rd Avenue South. I'm here because I am also a major property owner along the Deuces. I also submitted a bid on the RFP for the 951 Merriweather building, a property land for lots owned by the city of St. Pete. And I submitted it for the October. I understand it was extended into November. Bottom line is I got a call from the mayor last Tuesday telling me of the three proposals submitted. Mine was the only one that was dealing with home ownership. The other competing proposals were dealing with affordable rent control properties. We're dealing with home ownership. And my proposal was considered rejected by the mayor. And I got no other reasons other than he was much more impressed with the other bidder. I want to say to the council that the Deuces has just got back on its feet. This was the worst, one of the worst areas in the city of St. Petersburg. Crime, abandoned buildings. I personally have bought about five of those previously abandoned buildings. We now have viable businesses in them. There's about 12 of my clients are in these buildings on 22nd Street. They are having almost about 100, nearly 100 employees, and they're generating almost $3 million in gross revenues. And we have 93 rent control properties right behind us called Jordan Park. We need in this neighborhood now is homeowners, people who are have a stake in the ground or skin in the deal versus a transient household. We need homeowners in the neighborhood. This proposal that the mayor has accepted could defeat all of the work that we've been doing for the years. And I would ask this council to have the mayor's office to reconsider. I was the only local bidder, by the way. So I was unacceptable for the city staff by our proposal for home ownership. And we are totally disappointed with that decision. And we think the city of St. Petersburg as a whole needs a viable 22nd Street. They need a viable Deuces. And you can't have a viable Deuces with just low income people. It has to be a mixture. It has to be a mixture of businesses and a mixture of incomes. And it's not to be a dumping ground for all things that the community does not want. Just last night or Tuesday night, the community made a vote on what was more important to them as opposed to rental houses versus home ownership. And they expressed that home ownership was the most important. That's why I'm here. Thank you. Next two speakers, please. Carolyn Brayboy, Robert Craven. Please approach either podium. State your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address city council. My name is Carolyn Brayboy. I live at 144 23rd Avenue South. And we have been involved in the 22nd Street Deuces corridor probably since 2013. We grew up here in St. Pete. And we looked down the corridor and saw that there were all boarded up buildings, was not viable. And our goal was we have a heart for that particular community. And our goal was to try and turn it around. The idea that two of us could do that was a little bit ambitious, but we have some great people. As a result of starting the project on 22nd in 2013, we now have over 12 female entrepreneurs who support over 100 people in households providing decent incomes. They provide many needed services in our community. And we offer affordable rents for those entrepreneurs. Our objective, one of our objectives, is to break the cycle of poverty. And one of the things that we've seen in St. Pete is the destroying of generational wealth. When we had our gas plant area and people were displaced, many individuals lost that generational wealth. We're trying to provide ownership so that they can, some people can reestablish it with a special emphasis on the people who lived in the gas plant area. We're looking for stakeholders, stakeholders versus renters in the community. We're not a huge community. We're just getting on our feet. And we're looking for people building equity. If you have equity in a property versus renting, you should have rent receipts. If you have equity over time, I know I can't save the amount of money that I've built up in equity owning real estate. But by that ownership, I then have the ability to pass something on to my children that I always have to start all over from scratch the very first time. So we feel that stakeholders in the community would take pride and would help us improve the community. Bottom line, we have become a society where you have to build equity or intentionally build wealth. And the way to do that is through real estate. That's the process we found. It works well. And for young people starting out, that is their way to build wealth as well. So we just believe that real estate allows you to do that. And this is one of our missions and goals and reasons we've been working so hard or diligently on 22nd street. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Robert Craven. I live at 995 Eden isle drive Northeast and have lived there since 1999. Um, I like Ms. Dudley received a very large, uh, utility bill right after hurricane Helene. It was over $1,500 and normally it's around 250. Um, I watched the committee of the whole discussion this morning, which was very good. However, there were a few things that I think I would like the, uh, uh, y'all to consider these. I have a digital water meter. It was put in in December of, uh, 22. Uh, I don't find that it reads accurate. Well, I can't say accurately because I don't have a way to measure how many gallons I use, but I see great fluctuations in it when like for one month, it could be 29 days. Uh, the next month it they're measuring it for 33 and it's less than the 29 and both of it's much higher than the average of say 3,400 gallons for two people, two people in the house. And that's it. Um, um, we don't have, uh, people come and stay there a lot. We don't have, uh, extraordinary use for our water. We don't, uh, wash, uh, clothes and dishes three or four times a day, but barely, uh, a few times a week do we use the, uh, dishwasher, maybe three times, uh, uh, the clothes washer. Um, so my concern is I didn't hear anybody question whether or not these digital meters, which were submerged for an extended period of time during Helene, whether they were impacted at all. Uh, I do know that the company that manufactured these, um, digital meters had issues six or seven years ago. Maybe they've corrected them. Maybe they haven't. I don't know. The questions then came down to seals. Um, the seals of the meters would, uh, leak and you could end up having erroneous, uh, figures. Um, one aspect about that, uh, the meters, the city website frankly doesn't explain the digital meters very well. It explains how to test your, uh, mechanical meter, nothing on the digital meter. So I think, uh, something added there, but I do agree the city code needs to be, uh, revised to be more flexible so that credits can be, uh, properly given to, uh, the citizens. Where I live is on, uh, smacks by you, which is adjoining Placida Bayou. Placida Bayou, as you know, was heavily inundated by sewage from the, uh, water reclamation plant. We were told we needed to get the water in our pool, which was black out. We were told to do a cycle. So I need to think. Thank you. Mr. Chair, we have a speaker at zoom. Okay. Uh, Joseph Sowers, I'm going to enter you into the meeting space. Uh, when I do, please unmute yourself, state your name and address for the record. You will have three minutes to address city council. Joseph Sowers. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Uh, yes, sir. Yes. Okay. Joseph Sowers, 5601 Hobson Street, Northeast, uh, home I've lived in, uh, since I was born. So a couple years. I want to start by saying the duties of the elected city council members are many faceted. You are to represent and advocate the residents who elected you. You are to provide oversight to city departments, and ensure transparency by these departments. You ought to hold city departments and staff accountable for actions which have hurt, quote unquote, the residents you represent. I appreciated hearing council members acknowledge some of these duties during this morning's meeting about utility bills. First thing is, what is the time frame for substantial damage letters? Please an actual time frame and not just we are working on it. It has been nearly five months and many residents are facing life altering decisions and these letters are needed to help with those decisions. Not to mention that no charge permits will be expiring in a little over a month. Secondly, has the city reached out to the Pinellas County federal legislative delegation about the apparent overreach of FEMA? At the last city council meeting, it was stated that FEMA wants the city to leverage code enforcement, which from my perspective sounds an awful lot like weaponizing code enforcement against the city's residents. Third, why were there decisions made about post-disaster utility building not addressed or considered in hurricane preparedness activities? Too many actions were not prepared for in a state which routinely is impacted by hurricane and tropical storms. Why was pre-storm communication not already a part of preparedness activities? The point of preparedness is to be prepared. This is the opposite of building the plane while flying it, which was stated by a city staffer at last meeting. There are plenty of municipalities in the state that could have been interfaced with over the last 25 plus years to be prepared. I will say that the frontline staff I have dealt with is excellent. It is the management practices which are problematic for me. Two real life examples. My father received a bill for the time period covering from 925 to 1024 on October 30th. He paid it and then on to 1025 he received another bill for the exact same time period which included a late fee and a turn up charge. This even though he had 14258 credit for a balance. He also received four bills in five days all without explanation. Not to mention that they were not given 30 days to pay the bill as was mentioned in this morning's meeting but rather only 17 days. Real life example two my meter was replaced approximately two years ago it was replaced with an analog meter. After hearing the discussion at the morning utility billing meeting I would love to hear the theories as to why flooding would cause high water use and then without any intervention once the water receded the water usage would stop. It would seem improbable that rising water could turn on a faucet and receding water could turn it off. At the last meeting the council member asked if what was being done was legal and the response was yes. Thank you. Next two speakers please. Next two speakers Larry J. Williams, Mark Glover please approach either podium state your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address city council. Ladies and gentlemen it's a privilege to appear before you. Mr. Chairman I'm here to briefly talk. We need your name and your address. Okay Larry J. Williams 1309 Wren Avenue in Leesburg Florida. However I have four businesses here in town that are at 1955 First Avenue North. I'm here to talk about three challenging things that are happening in this community and have happened for a long time. First of all the infrastructure challenges and solutions that we have. We all know what they are but I'm here today representing a company called Van Ward, V-A-N-V-A-S-K-U-V-A-N-W-A-R-D. They're a strategic solutions provider committed to addressing and resolving our city's long-standing infrastructure challenges. Van Ward is prepared to tackle the critical issues affecting our aging and deteriorating systems. Included sanitary pumping stations, outdated and damaged pipelines, stormwater management, potable water, wastewater treatment, and energy. Our current infrastructure is no longer sufficient to support the needs of the growing community and continues to contribute to contamination of the bay. Van Ward brings together the world's leading scientists, engineers, and industry professionals, offering expertise to implement a comprehensive and effective lasting solution for the city of St. Petersburg. Van Ward proposes and formally requests that the chairman, the council, and the mayor schedule a dedicated workshop with Van Ward that so Van Ward can present a very detailed infrastructure proposal. This proposal will outline a methodology to increase city revenue, a significant reduction to the cost of the city, and a measurable reduction in the monthly rates to the residents. To ensure proper coordination, we request the city council chair provide us available dates and times within a requested time frame of about three weeks. Lastly, commitment to city's future. As the community is aware, there is ongoing uncertainties regarding the future of the our rays and the gas plant site, particularly in the race in the wake of the recent storms. Should any existing agreements fall through, should any existing agreements fall through, Van Ward is prepared to submit an offer to purchase the team for 1.5 billion dollars and acquired the 86 acres gas plant at 1 million dollars per acre. Go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Mark Glover and I'm with Keys Claims Consultants. I was here last week and brought up an initial conversation I would like to have with each of you, as I indicated, Chair. I did send that email and have received some response from some council members. I'm sorry? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, my address that I'm operating out of is 1245 Jordan Park South St. Pete. I represent the entirety of St. Pete Housing Authority currently, so I just want to make that clear. And we're representing them in the recovery efforts from their private insurance carriers. What I've heard here today is the same thing that we've seen. I represent the entirety of the U.S. Virgin Islands government, which I think I may have mentioned previously for the two Cat 5 hurricanes that happened down there. We're in the business of figuring out how we can make sure that this city is recovered and recovered in a manner that is consistent with the insurance premiums that you all have paid over the years and decades. What we know is that no insurance carrier has ever paid one dime more than they were legally obligated to pay. They've oftentimes paid less. What we do is basically work with you and your team. I've had some conversations, preliminary conversations with Blaze, and we'd like to be able to present what our preliminary opportunities are for the City of St. Pete in a comprehensive way. And oh, by the way, no obligation. If there's no additional recovery over what you've already negotiated with your carrier, there will be no fee. We bring the world-class experts in terms of structural engineers, in terms of other ancillary things. We're talking about, you know, these water meters that may have been impacted. We will have the facts and not supposition or anything other than what the facts are that can be supported by the data. And so what I ask respectfully is that we be given a platform in order to be able to go and do a deeper dive, whether that's through a workshop or whatever. But what I do know is that the governor has extended state of emergency in the procurement process so that you all will be able to actually procure services, which is a no-cost contract because it's contingent, in through the expedited fashion. That window closes April 1st. And beyond that, all of the adjustments for your claim per the legislation that was passed last year, all those numbers have to be into the carriers, no later than the 9th of October, which is one calendar year subsequent the event. So the clock is ticking. We're here, ready, willing, and able to provide the services. We have recovered billions of dollars. And what we do know is that individuals, I'll yield. Thank you, sir. Next two speakers, please. Next two speakers, David Lance, Carlos Yapiz. Please approach either podium, state your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address to get a council. Thank you. David Lance. I'm the CFO of Barcat Realty at 615 Martin Luther King. And I wanted to go over the water bill situation. Basically, we received in November 2024, a water bill for our property of $9,256. And the previous bill was $356. This is about a 30%, 30 times. And our following bill was $956. So I was at the meeting downstairs, and the one gentleman made a lot of sense that we don't know what happened. We just don't know. And it's more like you have two hurricanes is equal to like an earthquake. You've got some seismic or something occurring that's affecting these meters. And I called several times. And one gentleman was extremely helpful. He called me back, which is unusual, and was willing to work with me. But I couldn't reach him anymore. I don't know what happened. But I kept getting other people. And they said, well, we're not going to call you back. But it's going to go through the process. So but we don't know how long this is going to take. So this gets a bit frustrating, where you're trying to figure out what's going to happen. And at the same time, they're trying to do auto pay through our business, right? And so I turned off the auto pay. And then I find out that that's only good for 30 days. So they're about to auto pay again. So I found out, OK, if I put it in writing, which I did, then that that's gone. You can't take the money any longer. We're still trying to resolve this. We were told that there is a leak. And we said, OK, we brought plumbers out. We found a small leak. We replaced. We have four tenants upstairs. And our offices are downstairs. We went through and I sent the receipt in. I sent several letters in. And I still haven't heard anything back. And they said, well, we won't get back to you. You'll have to keep calling. So I'm just asking that someone from the water department work with me. Thank you. Sir, Cali's going to get your information. We'll make sure that we get with you. Thanks. Go ahead. Good morning. I'm here actually for one of the cases following the commissioner pulled a plat on one of our projects. So I can wait to speak then if you like. That's fine. Let someone else take your time and I'll do it. Thanks. Next two speakers, please. Next two speakers, Lou Brown, John Chin, approach either podium. State your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. Good afternoon. My name is Lou Brown. I'm a realtor with Lou Brown Realty in St. Petersburg. I appreciate your time and consideration. Mr. Brown, could you give us your address, please? Certainly. My home address is 3767 30th Avenue South. My office is 2927 16th Avenue South. Fortunate and blessed to be born in St. Petersburg. Not very far from the site that I'm here to discuss, which is the site on the Deuces, where the Bray Boys intended to build a unish building that would separate up would offer home ownership for people in, around and of the neighborhood, as well as anyone who could come in and afford it on an ownership basis. And that we think that is very, very important. Um, we understand that there's a lot of other housing around, but in order to really invest and to move forward in the community, you have to work from the ground up. And we feel that the project that was put together was the best project for the city to consider. Um, not sure, obviously, um, what the other considerations were, but you know, I find it very difficult to not accept the, uh, proposal that was submitted, uh, by moms, uh, by the Bray Boys, uh, who I've had the privilege of working with for, for several years. Um, this is very simple. Uh, the home ownership and the ability to create the home ownership that is necessary is one of the things that will help the city to move forward. As you look around and you see any project where that has been done already, you realize that. So it is very, very concerning that, uh, that proposal was not accepted, but perhaps there is a process by which we could go through to review that and perhaps the mayor's office would change. But it is very important. It's very important to utilize people of the community, about the community, um, and who look like the community. And you know how diverse St. Pete is. I know, and I'm reminded every time I call the city and I'm on hold and I get to listen to, uh, the, the words about the diversity and what really needs to happen. Um, we're asking for your help. We don't know exactly how we can do it, but we know it can be done if we work together on it. So please give us some consideration to try to move forward with this project, which we feel will have very long-term effects and will support our community for all of the things that we want to, we need to, uh, and we have to, to support all that we need to do. Please give us consideration. Thank you. Thank you. Last speaker, Jeffrey Jacob, please approach either podium, state your name and address. You have three minutes to address city council. The previous speaker is going to wait. Yes. Good afternoon, council people. Jeffrey Jacob, Tyrone Boulevard North, St. Petersburg, Florida. Uh, chatting about the noise ordinance thing, uh, was it 689H, St. Pete's latest move to hush things down a little bit? I get it. Nobody wants blaring speakers at 2 AM. The city's saying it's all about public welfare, keeping the peace, protecting our ears, that kind of stuff. Uh, they're setting decibel limits, 80 during the day, 70 at night. And if you want to crank it up past that, you're grabbing a permit fair enough on the surface. It's framed like, hey, we're just looking out for you. And I can see how some folks might not along with that, but here's where it gets sticky for me. At least government's got this habit of stepping in saying, hey, we've got the fix. And suddenly we've got rules piling up. This ordinance isn't just a suggestion. It's got teeth, fines, permits, maybe new gear to measure sound. If you're a bar owner or run a venue, that's real money, real hassle, especially for small businesses trying to keep the lights on. And that's where the business impact estimate comes into play, or the BIE, if you will. Florida law, 166.041 subparagraph 2, subparagraph 4A2 says if a city is going to drop a rule like this that hits private businesses, they've got to show the work. So put out a report. How much is this going to cost folks? How many businesses get dinged? Post it online. Let us see the math before they vote, before you vote. So I have flipped through the agenda packet. I actually just found this out last night. 258 pages. So flipping through that, I'm not seeing the BIE. I'm not seeing the business impact estimate in the 258 page agenda packet. So there's nothing saying, hey, here's what this means for the little guy. The city's justifying it with this public welfare line. Sure. But where's the balance? If this step is skipped, it's not just sloppy. It's against the rules that are supposed to be filed under Florida law. 166.041 subparagraph 4A2. That's a red flag. So I'm all for keeping things chill. I'd rather see neighbors sort this thing out. Maybe businesses tweak things themselves instead of city hall jumping in with mandates and no homework to back it up. I'm not saying that noise is not an issue. Live next to a loud spot and you'd feel it too. But when government rolls in, I want them to prove it's worth it, especially when it's liberty and the wallet on the line. No BIE. That's a miss. Let's keep it simple. Keep it free. Maybe skip the extra red tape unless the city's got the numbers to show it's got to happen. What do you think? Does this sound like the fix we need or just another layer we can do without? Have a great afternoon, y'all. Sir, just to let you know, I think you have us confused with St. Pete Beach, who's considering a noise ordinance. We are not. You're not? 689H? I saw that in the agenda packet. Not ours. Really? Okay, I haven't been sleeping much. Just wanted to let you know. Wow, so it's like I'm on a hit of acid without the acid. We enjoyed the visit. Just wanted to let you know. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Gerdes. No more speakers, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you. We'll go ahead and close open forum and we'll move into reports at F1, presentation, update on selected opioid support grants, and awardees receiving opioid sediment funding. Jess, good to see you again. Great to see you all. Presentation up. All right. Good afternoon, Chair and Council members. Jess Fridell, Senior Operations Analyst with Housing and Neighborhood Services, here today to provide an update on opioid support grants program and share the selected awardees who will receive grant funding through this grant cycle. So I'll give you a bit of a refresher on the opioid sediment funding as a whole and how we got here and then share a bit more about each proposal that we selected. So in 2018 and 2019, the city signed on to several lawsuits against prescription opiate manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for their role in the opioid epidemic. All lawsuits in the U.S. were centralized into one court in Ohio under one overarching litigation effort. States brought their local governments together and that whole process culminated in the state of Florida's statewide response agreement being signed in November 2021, which outlines how the dollars are allocated throughout the state through state, regional, and local buckets of funding. That statewide response agreement outlines several guidelines for using these dollars with the overarching rule being that all settlement dollars must be used to fund opioid education, treatment, and prevention strategies. In the statewide agreement, there is a list of approved uses that the state has set forth. Expenditures must fall under one of those approved uses. It's a pretty varied list, but they are outlined there. And the Department of Children and Families is now overseeing this process and has convened the statewide council on opioid abatement as required by Florida statute. So the city will receive approximately six million dollars spread over a period of 18 years. The amount we receive each year varies depending on the settlement payment schedule for each company. To date, we've received about 1.089 million dollars and some change. And you can see the variety between years there on the slide with about 300,000 received in FY23 and then almost 800,000 received in FY24. We haven't received our FY25 distribution yet. However, we did just hear yesterday that we received a check for 186,000 dollars from McKinsey settlement, which will be a one-time payment. The grants awarded through this grant program will be the first expenditures from the fund, which is why it still says zero expended to date. So as far as the timeline for the grant program itself, on September 5th, council approved and appropriated settlement funds for the program. The next day on September 6th, the grant application opened via OpenGov. Up to one million dollars were appropriated for these grant awards and non-profits could apply under two tiers of funding to cover a variety of organization sizes and capacities as well as project scope. So there was an up to $25,000 tier and an up to $100,000 tier. The original deadline to submit applications was October 20th. However, due to experiencing two back-to-back hurricanes and our non-profit community being heavily involved in their own recovery as well as the community's recovery, we extended that deadline to November 17th. The review committee met on January 13th for deliberations. We received 11 applications in total from eight organizations because organizations could apply under both tiers if they applied for different projects. One application was ineligible from that pool. They did not meet minimum requirements and so the committee deliberated on the remaining 10 applications. Three in the $25,000 tier and seven in the $100,000 tier. Out of that 10, seven applications were recommended for award from five total organizations and that totaled $532,000 approximately across those seven applications. So I'll just give a brief summary of each awarded applications. So here we have the two in the $25,000 tier. Live Tampa Bay received funding for peer support. They will pay for certification courses, training costs, and for time spent attending the trainings for 25 peer support specialist candidates as well as some employment support afterwards. PERC received funding for providing harm reduction education to businesses and community organizations including training on how to identify an overdose when it's happening, how to reverse an overdose using Narcan and then providing the Narcan itself to the stakeholders. Under the $100,000 tier we have Westcare who is hiring two peer support specialists at their St. Pete residential treatment site which is a new service provision for them at that location. The Drug Free America Foundation is planning a community-based participatory research project using photo voice methodology which will center St. Pete residents and recovery and those who make up the surrounding support system for those in recovery kind of as the face of the campaign sharing their stories. And so those photos, videos, and stories will be shared through public exhibits, educational workshops, and be part of a larger anti-stigma campaign. Then we have Operation Par who will use their funding to offset costs of medication assisted treatment or MAT for those who cannot afford it. PERC will increase staffing at their idea harm reduction program to include peer support and additional outreach which will expand their operations from three days a week where it is now to five days a week. And then finally we have Live Tampa Bay again who will use these funds to provide 24-7 respite recovery housing with transportation there, conduct street outreach with wound care kits and Narcan, and conduct an anti-stigma campaign as well. So there's a lot of variety of these proposals being funded all of which align with the city's categories and the state's approved uses as well as significant alignment with our priority areas that we set forth in the grand documents. So today's presentation to council is just an update. No action is required from you all today. We will now execute agreements with the awardees with the performance period starting March 1st covering a year to the end of February next year, 2026. Awardees will provide monthly invoices and reporting to the city as well as monthly data reports to the state as required by the statewide agreement. And of course we'll keep council updated on impact and what we're seeing as the outcomes. With that, happy to answer any questions that you all might have. Thank you so much. Council members, any questions? Jess, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it as always. Glad we can support, you know, those organizations and looking forward to updates in the future. Thanks so much for all the work. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to F2, an update with the We Are St. Pete Fund. Jess, you get to stay up there, huh? Yep. Give me a lot today. All right, good afternoon again. Jess Rydell, Senior Operations Analyst, here to talk to you today about the We Are St. Pete Fund and the forthcoming Housing and Small Business Disaster Assistance Programs that will receive We Are St. Pete Fund dollars. And so you'll also be hearing from Dr. Avery Slyker and Brian Kaper later on as they explain those programs. So how we got here, as we all know too well, on September 26th, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida. On October 2nd, in partnership with Pinellas Community Foundation, the city launched the We Are St. Pete Fund to raise disaster relief funds. And then seven days later, on October 9th, Hurricane Milton made landfall. When we launched the fund, we shared that the fund would benefit St. Pete residents, small businesses, and city employees who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene, and then expanded that scope to include Hurricane Milton once that became a reality. The city ceded the fund with an initial $200,000, $100,000 to benefit direct recipients of the fund, and then up to $100,000 to cover administrative costs. We wanted to make sure that anyone who donated knew that their donation would be going to direct relief. I will note here that as we've kind of planned these programs and fleshed out all the details, we've been able to take on program operations in-house, and so very minimal admin costs are going to actually be needed. And so any unspent funds in the admin set aside will be reallocated to direct relief. A screenshot here from PCF's fund webpage on their website, and the current total raise is about $1.019 million and change, and there are still donations actively being received by the fund. And we will cover each program in more detail today, but here's kind of an overall funding summary for your reference with initial allocations identified for each program. The housing disaster assistance program for residents, $400,000. Housing disaster assistance program for city employees who do not live in the city, $200,000. Small business disaster assistance program, $200,000. Rapid resolution funds, $100,000. And as a reminder, these were appropriated by council back in December. And then admin costs up to $100,000, which as I just mentioned, we will not need all of that $100,000. And so we will be moving that around. So on that note, we've drafted this structure in a way that allows us to meet emerging needs with the ability to allocate dollars between these outlined line items based on need and data. So as an example, whatever we don't spend out of the $100,000 admin set aside, we will reallocate to another use of funds as we've outlined here today. And then PCF will approve any allocation between line items, and then we will notify council as well. So you kind of know where we are with each bucket. And then up next, Dr. Avery Slyker will share more about the housing program. Good afternoon, chair, council members, Dr. Avery Slyker, director of housing and community development. So real quick, we have a quick review of the housing disaster assistance program, and how we will be funding the program as we get started. We had dollars from the state housing initiative program, from the American Rescue Act, and the home investment partnership program. And as of last night, the state also provided us an extra $65,500 out of shift that has to be appropriated and encumbered by June 30th. And we will be adding those dollars to these dollars. And with that, we're also having the 400,000 from the We Are St. Pete fund. What the housing disaster assistance program will look like, we have eligible activities of storm damages, that is a $30,000 limit for tree removal, home structure repairs and interim repairs. We also have insurance deductibles up to $5,000. And we have rent and utility and heirs up to three months of payments, or a $10,000 limit. And these had to be for any payments after Hurricane Helene, September 26. We do have to uphold caps. And this is due to the funding sources that we are utilizing. So we have the 80% AMI that is for our ship, our home and our ARPA funds. This is why it was determined that the We Are St. Pete funds would be at 140% AMI. There is going to be one application, it will go through neighborly. Of course, if someone doesn't have access, we always have paper available and staff available to go out and assist completing that application. We determined that homeowners can use their own contractor if they've already been working with one. Or if they need, they can use a city contractor. The only thing that we will be checking for contractors is that they are licensed, insured, and they must register in OpenGov to be a vendor. Without registering, they cannot receive payment. And we will follow our rehabilitation program guidelines for underwriting and construction. The only exception to that are all the waivers that we submitted, both with the state and with the federal government HUD. And we have made the application as simple as possible with self attestations. So the We Are St. Pete housing disaster assistance program, what will it look like for non-city residents? It's going to look the same. There will be one application. All the determination is going to be made on that back end. It's city staff that's going to be doing that work. So for this we have got everything mirroring down to the AMI and we are partnering with HR. So it will be on the back end of our workflow within housing that there's just an additional step where we reach out to HR to confirm the employment and the site that they live in. Currently what we are dealing with is we have over 150 individuals that are on our list for assistance. That list was from the original street outreach that was done after both storms as well as calls that we continue getting. We will beginning with those 150 individuals. We reach out to them on a regular basis anyhow checking in finding out how they're doing if there's any needs that they need outside of us that we can conduct them to. So we're going to be starting with that. After that individuals can reach out through our website or they can call us. Starting today we have a new live person Monday through Friday 8 to 5. Now to Brian. Thank you Dr. Schleicher. Good afternoon Council. Brian Caper, Economic and Workforce Development. As Ms. Rydell mentioned there is $200,000 of the We Are St. Pete Fund set aside for our Small Business Disaster Assistance Program. The program is for businesses that are located within the city limits. Brick and mortar home-based businesses and businesses operating out of shared commercial spaces will be eligible and I would like to thank council for the feedback at HLUT to include home-based businesses in the program. Businesses must be independently owned and operated. They must have no more than 50 full-time and part-time employees. They must be in operation since the storm so September 15, 2024 or longer. Have proof of eligible losses and expected to reopen or resume full operations. These are grants. They are not loans. There will be an application processed through OpenGov that will be handled by the Economic and Workforce Development Department and there are four funding tiers depending on the business need and category. First being to replace any equipment and inventory damage for a shared commercial space or a home-based business would be eligible for $2,500. Equipment or inventory damage for a brick and mortar would be $5,000. Any structural damage which would include relocation costs. Thank you Chair Gerdes for that addition to the program. Related to damage from the hurricanes would be eligible for up to $10,000 and finally sort of combined for brick and mortar businesses if they received structural damage along with equipment and inventory damage they would be awarded $15,000. Next Ms. Rydell will come up and talk about next steps. All right so as each program is ready to launch Pinnell's Community Foundation will approve the use of funds for that program and then grant us the dollars for each bucket of funding. The timeline has adjusted a little bit since we did this backup so currently housing disaster assistance program will launch on March 11th and then the Economic and Workforce Development team will follow their normal cadence of publicizing the parameters starting the first week of March kind of socialize it a bit make sure people are up to speed and then open the application itself the final week of March. And then with that we're happy to answer any questions that you may have. Okay thank you Councilmember Gabbard. Thank you Chair and thank you Jess for the presentation. Great work for the entire team. Dr. Seiker my questions I think are mostly for mostly for you. I just have a couple of clarifying questions. We had a great committee uh conversation which Brian alluded to and we're able to give a lot of feedback and we really appreciate you guys taking that into consideration and what you've brought forward. Um so you mentioned uh that last night you heard that there was and I didn't write it down quick enough um 65,000 additional dollars? 65,500 dollars. Okay and that was part so that adds to the 432 for ship that is already on the presentation? Yes that's correct. Okay that's fantastic. We'll take every penny we can get. We will. So great great news and then um I wanted just to clarify so talking about you know how they can use their own contractor or a city contractor um and you mentioned that they have to be registered in our system to get paid. Remind me does that payment go directly to the homeowner or do we pay the contractor? Every payment including the insurance deductible goes to a contractor. Okay. Or a landlord or a utility company. Got it. You're not paying residents. Okay very good and then the 150 um on the next slide the one that you were talking about the non-city residents, city employees, that part of the program. You talked about um about the 150 people who through street outreach and all of that and you've continued to keep in contact with them. Have you seen that number start to go down? No it's risen. It's got it's it's risen in fact when we were at HLUT committee we had 100 on the list. Okay. So it is it is rising. Okay. It is increasing every day. So the need is getting bigger. The need is larger. Okay. All right. Well please keep us posted on those numbers as we continue to look at the CDBG DR. I keep messing those initials up. As we look at those dollars and other dollars to be able to hopefully help people um just keep us posted on that. And then the last thing I would say is just on behalf of the home-based business community who often feels ignored. Thank you for adding them. Um very important. You know during COVID we learned a lesson that when we do all of this economic development specifically towards our small business community a lot of time these home-based businesses get left out. And we learned those lessons in those days and I think that you know we've kind of had to pull a lot of those tools out of the toolkit in these days as part of response and recovery. So I'm really really glad to see that they're included. So thank you. And with that I'll move approval of the resolution. Thank you. Councilmember Fix Sanders. Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. And mine is in the same light Ms. Slyker. When it speaks about using your own contractor just some precautionary clarification. So it's saying they must be licensed and insured and registered with um a city vendor. Do we go and ensure that that contractor is a subcontracting and that the subcontracting have never had any liens or has anything else? Yes we do. Okay. We check all of that and we go into Sunbiz but then we also check our databases within HUD and everything to make sure that they have not been disbarred, dislicensed. We do all that background checking. Thank you so much. That is my question. Thank you chair. Thank you. Well I just I just wanted to say thank you with two I think we had two discussions of this in committee and I just think this this ended up fantastically. Thank you for listening to all the feedback. I know we went through a couple of iterations but this this came out awesome. Just just very thankful and thanks for listening. Okay seeing as no other council members wishing to speak 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 agenda item F2 passes unanimously with council member Driscoll being absent. Okay thank you. All right moving right along into F3 where we're going to talk about uh Azalea Porter land and the uh housing capital improvement program. I think we have Mark Van Lue joining us. Welcome Mark. Good afternoon uh chair vice chair council members uh today I bring before you uh funding opportunity for the Azalea gateway project. I have a presentation here available to go through with you real quickly. So I think most of you are familiar with the location of the project on the former Raytheon site near the Tyrone Mall area. This is a uh an overview of the site plan and if you look at the top right hand red square containing buildings one two and three that represents phase one which is what we're here to just to discuss today and phase one will be inclusive of a total of 340 dwelling units 102 of which would be affordable and workforce housing uh divided between 80 percent and 120 percent of area median income. A couple of renderings of the building and the uh green space park that would be located on the south end of between phases one and two for use by both phases once they're in place. So this is the redevelopment of the former Raytheon site at 1501 72nd street north it'll be in three phases over approximately six years approximately two years per phase. We're here today talking about phase one again a total of about a thousand dwelling units of which ultimately when all three phases are done at least 300 units would be restricted as affordable and workforce housing again divided evenly which would result in 150 units uh at 80 percent ami and below and 150 at 120 percent ami or below and the the negotiated term of that affordability for this project is 50 years the agenda item before you today is the requested financial subsidy for phase one and it's worth noting that phase one will carry extra infrastructure burden that will ultimately serve the entire site so this phase does carry some additional cost and additional need but will ultimately serve phases two and three as well so phase one specifically is 340 dwelling units again 102 will be affordable in workforce uh the total cost per unit based on the total project cost breaks down to 323 024 that's slightly below the average cost per unit cost of recent projects that came in just a little bit above that at 343 000 the per unit subsidy request which breaks down over all of the 340 units to 17 647 dollars per unit or if you only look at the affordable and workforce units that subsidy would break down to 58 824 per unit is consistent with other recent project subsidies and consistent with what it's taking these days to get these types of projects built again 51 of the 102 units will be 80 percent and 51 of the 100 of the 102 units at 120 percent ami this project as you may remember is utilizing uh house bill 1339 the original version of live local act to enable residential construction on an industrial zone site and the development team for this project is a combination of porter azalea land led by les porter and the falcone group those two entities will combine under an llc called azalea gateway apartments when they have their financial closing soon and the proposed schedule shows that permits would be approved on or before september of this year these dates are set to give a little breathing room so it's anticipated these dates will be exceeded or earlier than this but this is sort of the latest point the construction start would be before the end of the year in november of 2025 about two years on the construction timeline so it'd be completed in december of 2027 and they would begin marketing the lease up of those units earlier in july of 2027. that's my presentation i have the developer and his team here as well today so if you'd like any questions to for myself or the developer or administrator foster we're all here i see maybe one more comment coming anything else mark uh no go ahead okay all right let's go to public comment brian unz jr please approach either podium state your name and address you have three minutes to address city council thank you mr clerk mr chair we're here on behalf of the applicant we're here to answer any questions that you have i know the council is very familiar with the history of this project has been many many many years in the making i just want to say thank you for the commitment and the consistent support of the council for the project and for affordable units in this area of st petersburg which are desperately needed and also to mayor welch his team mr gurdas mr van lue miss foster mr diema and miss sobel everyone's been very excellent to work with so appreciate it thank you thanks brian councilmember floyd thank you uh i'd like to first get some clarity i uh just couldn't hear what you said when you said the affordability length uh 50 years is that five zero or five zero five zero okay all right thank you for that that's longer than normal which is cool um and then the other thing i wanted to ask about was uh what environmental remediations looking like right now if you could just give us an update i'd like to defer to the team to address that they're most familiar with that thank you mr van lue and councilmember floyd we have our environmental engineer mr schultz who's here to answer those questions he's much more qualified than i so i will defer to him and you may recall he testified at the site plan approval and y'all had a very informative back and forth that i'm not sure i fully understood but i think you did so i appreciate that thank you uh greg schultz with uh stantec uh 388 park place boulevard um in clearwater um as far as the environmental remediation it's a it's a two-tiered type of thing if you'll recall the liability and responsibility for the groundwater cleanup is is staying with raytheon that's an ongoing process that they've been doing for years with fdp and they anticipate that's going to go on for quite some time as far as development related uh remediation there's really very minimal soil impacts and those are going to be managed in place with engineering controls to cap what little bit of contamination there is and then we're going to be installing passive vapor vending systems beneath the buildings just to make sure that there's no interaction between that groundwater plume and the structures just as out of an abundance of caution so there's no risk of vapors building up in the buildings or anything like that so yeah we're working hand in hand with fdp on all of that as well okay thank you i was just looking for the latest information so i appreciate that um i have other things as well on this topic uh the history of it was mentioned um which obviously we don't need to get into because i'm sure we don't want to be here all night because there's a lot of history uh but the recent history not just of this project but of our ordinance that's allowing this project to happen i do think is relevant in that we at first were allowing industrial development on industrial lands because of uh if they were 100 affordable and then uh we changed our res our our ordinance um which i voted against because i had been reached out to by developers uh including the one doing this project asking for it to be changed to where it was uh 30 percent affordable or i'm sorry 15 percent affordable and 15 workforce uh i opposed that change uh and i found it uh unsettling that developers had come and asked us for something and we gave them exactly what we asked for uh and then uh setting that aside when this project came to us um it was complicated and very uh emotional with the community here because of uh you know a lot of things people not wanting to see the development in general but people concerned about the environmental situation and uh our decision here was made a little bit easier in my opinion uh because live local had passed and they had been given the ability to build on this site without our approval uh as long as a certain percentage of it was at 120 ami so we approved it uh and we're optimistic we'd get 80 percent ami units which is what we're doing now um but uh the there's a few things that lead me to what i want to finalize on and one of them is is when told that we needed that we should change our ordinance to allow for it to be 15 percent at 80 percent ami and 15 percent at 120 instead of 100 percent uh affordable and workforce i was told like we're doing this so that we can make the numbers work on a project like this and that was what the developer told me and when we had a meeting and i guess i didn't realize at the time that like making the numbers work in a project like this involved asking for city subsidy as well so uh there was that thing uh that i had in the back of my head and then the other thing is is this one thing for me to approve uh building um at a site that you know i had concerns within the community has concerns with when i know the alternate the alternative is they're going to be able to build and there won't even be affordable housing there necessarily um but it's another thing for me to say okay you can build there and we will give you money to build there as well so that that's another step uh for me and then the last thing is uh i said it last week in committee i do not support uh subsidizing 120 ami with city money anymore uh the rents are almost three thousand dollars a month i know that uh and i i'll say this i'll continue to um analyze every uh proposal y'all put in front of us to see if it's worth it but the combination of you know workforce housing at three thousand dollars a month being half of it and the environmental concerns and the live local this is just too much for me it's too much for me like i was okay with it when the alternative is to only get 120 and we can get 80 instead but now six million dollars of city money and there's environmental concerns and half of the housing's not affordable in my opinion and uh you know the way that the law changed at the developer's request from my perspective it's too much for me so i understand why y'all brought this to us but i can't support it today thanks council member gabbard thank you chair um so i'll give i guess the other side of the opinion about these sort of legislative actions that the state takes so 1339 quite frankly um for us is groundbreaking legislation and ordinances that we incorporated because prior to 1339 the state of florida had done very little in the space of land use for affordable housing and so 1339 was really what kicked the door open and we were one to we were pretty much the only at that point in time city that may still be true i'm not sure that actually took advantage of that and yes things have morphed things have shifted and they have to because the calculations around these developments and we've talked about this time and time again if we want to get a mix of housing we have to be able to take bold moves that are going to get us there the reason for our hcip fund is just what we're doing today it is to get more units in developments where they may not exist otherwise and so for me and i completely respect my colleagues opinion that's why there are eight of us here so we have eight different viewpoints and eight different opinions but for me i have long wanted us to enact these sort of legislation and these sort of ordinances so that we can get units where they would not exist otherwise and that is what i believe this project is this set dormant for so long we've seen so many reiterations of what the developers tried to do here and we finally for me have something that i think is palatable to the neighborhood that is moving it forward i would love to hear what uh chair girdus actually has to say about this because this is in your you know your backyard and i just feel like if this is not the right project then what project is in this particular area because i mean industrial land we've had many years of conversation about industrial land in areas that no longer have um rail associated with them is basically wasted land at this point and so being able to do a project like this really changes the game for those communities and especially in an area where the last census showed us that the the it was actually going down there were less people living out there and now i'm jealous every single day of chair girdus because he's getting all these developments out in his district so it's really changing the game for the west side and i think that it's critically important that we utilize these dollars we get the mix of housing that we need we utilize the tools in the toolbox and so i'm very happy to support this today and i just want to thank the developer for hanging in there i know this has not been easy and i'm really glad to see that you're finally here today so thank you okay um mark thanks for the presentation thanks for all the work i know this has been a lot of back and forth um i i would echo everything council councilwoman gabbard said i i am um just relieved to be at this point and i can't imagine um what their team feels like after multiple cppc runs forward pinellas multiple city council runs um this is a long a long time coming um i i don't want to go the rabbit hole again on the on the environmental concerns um i i have a different take on that having lived um for 10 years two blocks from this site my father working on it for 23 years my grandfather working on it for 45 uh not to mention we just had city employees out there for four months without foundation on it and the only reason we were able to do that uh and capture 29 acres for a debris site was because porter development allowed us to do it for free and so um our city still has debris on it if it's not for that site and for um porter development's willingness to work together and so uh a big thank you from me on that um we wouldn't have been able to do it without you um so i i listen i said this i think it was last week we're the least dense district we have to start somewhere and if i i'll steal it right from councilman gabbard if it's not here where it's right up against the trail it's right against tyrone mall which has six bus stops it's right next to a library it's right next to two schools uh i i just where else do you put it if it's not here i just so i'm i'm in support of this was happy to see the county support it unanimously um and so at this point i'll entertain a motion for approval move approval second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak and we have a motion in a second 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 f3 passes six to one with council members fig sanders gabbard girdus gibbons hanowitz and harding voting yes council member floyd voting no and council member driscoll being absent okay thank you thanks mark thanks team okay moving into f4 um where we're going to talk about the uh stantec consulting services for water resources council member gibbons you were talking about this earlier uh claude welcome thank you mr chair thank you council so we are bringing to you a resolution to authorize the mayor's designee to execute a task order with stantec for the rate analysis study for water resources stormwater and sanitation these are three separate utilities they'll be providing these services for fiscal year 26 and they'll be doing a revenue sufficiency analysis and a cost analysis of services for all three utilities they'll create a multi-year financial management plan that looks out over the next 20 years of our utilities they will support us in the utility bond calculation so that we can figure out what it will cost for us to borrow the money and and how much of the money we're going to borrow to do the work that we have planned and then they'll also be looking at the saint pete beach true up analysis i know that sounds very strange but we have an interlocal agreement with saint pete beach that is very unique that takes a lot of effort to um to make sure that we are charging them the correct fees and so uh we we selected stantec in 2023 to do this work we we go through this process of selecting a team every three years the next time we'll be going out for an rfq is in 2026 the amount of the work that they are proposing to do comes to 215 300 dollars and administration asks for approval move approval okay we have a motion in a second seeing as no council member is wishing to speak i i just will say one thing because it came up earlier and i just i wanted to speak to council go ahead i was just going to say something really quick yeah and i know because you haven't had experience with stantec andy burnham has is amazing when you start doing the conversations in terms of the utility rates he's an expert in the area and i will tell you it's such a big lift for us like kind of like learning about the process and he gives us information from other municipalities so we can make uh good decisions and just like um administrator tansley tankersley said earlier we make the decision at the end of the day but they really provide us all the different tools that we need to get there and so i i found him to be not just very knowledgeable but actually very easy to understand in a very complex issue um that has i think been very helpful so that's the only thing i will say about him and and you'll get to know him at some point but that was all i wanted to say chair thank you council member gibbons thank you vice chair hanowitz and thank you mr chair for the opportunity to speak and i just want to say claude publicly in no way was that an attack to administration this morning or to our consultants i appreciate all the work that they do just as you said vice chair hanowitz being new to this role i'd love to get to know them have that opportunity to have discussions with them and see where we go forward so that in 2026 we can stick with them if all goes well so thank you i appreciate it oh thank you council member and i i don't think anybody took it negatively i think council member hanowitz took the words right out of my mouth i i consider angela and andy the all-star team i think when uh i think through bfnt uh i meet with well they come to bfnt i think six times during the year and then we end up having four one-on-ones in between them and and let me tell they just blow me away every time i'm with them you know frankly i very rarely do this but the the blame was on 12 years of no rate increases is why we're where we in this position and andy has dug us out of a helped dig us out of a hole that was far deeper than it is today and so uh i think you're going to really enjoy working with him and um excited to to continue our relationship with stantec okay we have a motion and a second seeing as no other council member members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk could you please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item f4 passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent thank you so much claude okay we're going to move into f5 a resolution approving a plat for the terraces at 87th townhomes phase two and uh we're joined by scott bullion how's it going scott doing well yourself doing well thank you good afternoon council chair and council members for the record scott board with development review services the item before you is the final plat referred to as the terraces at 87th townhomes phase two for the property generally located at 429 87th av north the phase two plat is highlighted in yellow phase one has already been replatted which is the prop property directly to the south of phase two the phase two plat is creating 20 plotted lots for development with the townhome on each lot this is the site plan that was approved by the development review commission on may 5th 2021 for redevelopment of the site with 112 multi-family units replacing the previously existing 112 mobile home units the applicant has elected to replat the property in four phases on august 15th 2024 city council approved the final plat for phase one which is the southeast block within the site shown and that plot shown here and it consists of 16 plotted lots for development with townhomes along with two tracks again phase two is located in the northeast corner of the site staff has not yet received preliminary or final flight applications for phase three the southwest block and phase four the northwest block the applications processed to date for the overall redevelopment of the site includes the site plan approval in may of 2021 a variance to interior setbacks approved by the drc in november of 2023 vacation of rights of way approved by city council in january of 2024 the phase one final plat approved by a city council in september of 2024 and an easement vacation that was recently approved administratively the building permits submitted to date for redevelopment of the site include a parking paving landscape permit referred to as a site permit for phase one that was submitted in september of 2021 and approved by all trades in november of 2022 construction of the 16 townhomes for phase one was completed december 2024 with certificates of occupancy issued and the site permit closed out the site permit for phase two was submitted in may of 2023 and is still in process with comments issued by engineering and fire that need to be addressed the phase three site permit has not yet been submitted and the phase four site permit submitted in june of 2023 is also currently in review with comments issued by engineering fire and zoning that need to be addressed these permits were not expedited for review currently only post-disaster emergency and affordable housing permits are expedited by the city administration is recommending approval of the phase two final plat subject to conditions and this concludes staff's presentation if you have any questions i'll be more than happy to answer them okay let's go to public comment carlos rupis approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council carlos jeffes 300 beach drive northeast unit 3001 st petersburg uh we're here because the item was pulled from consent agenda and my understanding is that you would like an update on the project as you know this was a very difficult project to put together since it was a mobile home park and we have to relocate people before we can even come to you and then we have to remove all the asbestos the molecule the units and go through the process of civil engineering and i'm glad you brought me here today because the system is broken you guys have a system for the permitting process in development review services that is killing us you need more staff either you're going to pay more to get a staff if you don't have a staff the first submittal of a project takes 60 days to get comments many times that's ridiculous and then when we get comments back we resolve the comments submit it and then the next response has more comments that they had before when we resolve them all and it just you just keep going in a loop and it's taking us sometimes 15 months to get a project approved that's ridiculous look at learn from sumter county which is incredible they respond to us in two weeks absolutely amazing you need to hire more people list runs an amazing department but she needs more money to hire the perfect people that you need you'll get the people you just offer more money this system needs to be addressed we call the city nobody answers their phones email the people nobody answers not not everybody i mean there are some that are amazing people in your city staff but there are others don't even answer trying to get addresses for the property is another major problem we can't get a meter until we have an address for the parking lot you can get an address until you get it plotted then you get a personal id number and then you can apply for the meter so that's 12 weeks after in the meantime you have lost four months this system needs to be changed and i'm glad i'm here today because you're missing out in us completing projects paying you taxes creating jobs that needs to be fixed and i ask you to get involved with this and the her development of your services she needs the help and you have a tremendous activity in cmp we operate in six seven counties this is the most difficult one and please fix it as far as the update of the project we just completed phase one i hope you're happy with the project we're going to move on to phase two and do one phase at a time i don't want to have a whole bunch of units empty if the market doesn't absorb it and then having to turn them into rentals that's not what we want to do unfortunately we're on the land free and clear and you don't have to worry about it so i just asked for the review process to be better thank you sir councilmember gabbard thank you chair and uh thank you uh for you know coming and speaking today and for being here call us so it's great to see you and uh thank you for the presentation when i pulled it i wasn't sure if it was a good news item or a report item because to me this is a good news item um this is a project that my district has long been awaiting um has you know been asking about a lot uh for those of you that are not familiar um the mobile home park that was there before was uh in great disrepair let's say that and for me now that we have seen what hurricane helene specifically with the storm surge did to that particular area this now has become a resiliency project to me because had those mobile homes been on that site still every single one of those individuals would have been flooded out of those properties and so now we've got better build higher build and now residents who invest in those areas will be safer overall so i just want to thank you for your continued commitment because i know what a struggle it has been to get to this place and really just wanted to bring it today so that our district could have a bit of an update i get asked about this project all the time what's happening what's taking so long um and i do understand the struggles that you've been through so thank you for being here today and being open to having the conversation um i do have well i have one question for you but then i have another question for the city um so you're going to have four phases total are you going to have four separate hoas on each one of those phases no it's one master hoa okay the reason for that being a fee simple lot so we are going to do it individually as way out of phases because if something happens in the economy and it doesn't work anymore we'll do something else with the land turn into into single family or whatever but but it is it's a cautionary movement to do it one at a time okay so we're we're going to do four is one master hoa we're we're about to receive the civil permits for phase two which will have the pool for the community bathrooms and we'll build the an additional 20 units i don't know if you know this but we voluntarily elected to go from 112 to 92 units okay so you actually went down yeah okay got it um and i had a question about the clubhouse and the pool and the amenities and everything so that comes in with the space too correct correct because i get a lot of questions about that when are they going to improve the the portion that looks more towards fourth street so yeah that's on the way we're actually almost done with the site work there uh but we're going to do the phase two part with the permits from the civil that we've been anxiously waiting and literally i hate to say this but they blackmail us to replace the sewer line of 87 which we didn't have to do and that really missed the whole process okay very good and then for the city i have a question and um it's it is in the backup here so that's why it came to my attention and i'm just curious so in a project like this um you know have we discussed on the stormwater particular issue you know there's this line here that says that the development purposes um runoff must be conveyed to public stormwater system so in a lot of communities um we do you know there has to be on-site retention or something like that especially in the coastal high hazard um why do we not have that as an option for our storm water when we do a development of this size i'll be honest that's not uh part of my review um i don't know if corey's able to speak to that how you doing corey malishka is only official with development review um our city engineering department does review for that um this would trigger the drainage ordinance which does require on-site retention or treatment um so there actually are retention puns on this property um you just see the one probably to the um it's going to be located to the east side of the building that's done um i know scott had the site plan up where it was the green area so if you look at i don't know if you got the printout of the powerpoint yeah okay so if you look at east of the building of the first phase you'll see a green area okay um that is actually the retention area okay and then there's going to be retention areas for each phase okay now they will get some credit for what was there because of how the drainage ordinance is written so that existing impervious to what they're proposing and carlos could probably speak to a little bit of that because he's worked with his engineers on the specific designs of what that look yes we actually have a retention pond for each block so under your city ordinance when you disturb a lot to more than 3300 square feet you got to go and plan and treat and do what you need to do we're doing that we actually got approval drc to cover the ponds with the deck so we can use it and they're not visible okay that the deck is coming but right now is is about three feet deep and 110 feet long by 47 feet wide okay and that phase one then we'll do one of phase two which will be under the pool area and you won't see it but it's there and we'll do the other on the others as well very good all right very good well thank you i'm very excited again to see you continue to move forward and with that i would go ahead and move approval second we have a motion a second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item f5 passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent thank you thanks scott okay moving into f6 the advanced air mobility task force update hey good afternoon welcome uh rich lezek uh airport manager uh fun update on the establishment of a task force for advanced air mobility uh just for general very brief and general overview uh advanced air mobility is a new uh air transportation uh concept or vision that was kind of bore out of some advancements in uh aeronautical technology specific design automation and electrical and battery propulsion systems uh electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles ev tools are probably some of the more common ones you see this issue certainly has gotten a lot of press as of late it's one of the hot topics certainly uh in the aviation world and among other uses probably the most popular concept in the in the air advanced air mobility is usage as like a short range air taxi type of network or system but there are other other applications as well so this was a new business item that was brought forth to the economic workforce development committee back in july we provided a presentation overview on advanced air mobility um there was some discussion that followed and this discussion bled over into the august uh committee meeting uh the committee felt that this was a topic that warranted much more in-depth study and felt that a task force would be the appropriate vehicle to do that uh city administration agreed uh with that approach um and now unfortunately this item did get tabled for a few months as we dealt with the outfall from all the hurricanes and storm damage but in december memo went to city council just asking for nominees for potential members to serve on the task force um in january at the economic workforce development meeting in january we met reviewed the names that were submitted by council at that point city administration had also uh added three other names and we are up to uh 14. following that meeting we proceeded to contact all the members to confirm their interest in participation city administration also added another two names and so we ended up with a total of 16 candidates uh 14 confirmed they wanted to participate uh and two declined uh once that was finalized we took the list to the mayor for his review and he approved the candidates and so our next phase was to bring um a resolute former resolution back to the full city council to formally establish uh the task force uh we were initially targeting the march 6 meeting to do so uh however i know there was a expressed desire to fast track this item and uh the resolution actually was finalized this week so i know a copy of that resolution was forwarded to uh council yesterday so certainly uh you would have the option today if you want to approve the resolution to establish the task force you could do do so today uh and if if not then we would just um move it to the next meeting for formal adoption uh so with that i will open it up to any questions or discussion move approval thank you i just have one question on the candidate pool on your matrix there um i see that jeff brandes uh is not going to participate but then there's a note that that says advisor capacity only yeah so he um he indicated that he would still like to participate in terms of like if they want folks to come speak if the task force wants people to come speak and give input he just doesn't want to be a full-blown task force member okay so he'd be somebody that's like you'd invite him to speak yeah yeah all right that's all i had we have a motion in a second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item f6a passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent okay thank you all right we're going to recess the city council and convene as a cra we're going to take up cra2 a resolution finding and proposed plan to construct a 21-story mixed-use building located at 446 4th street south consistent with the in-town redevelopment print corey welcome thank you good afternoon corey malishka is only official with development review services division there we go as you can see on the aerial the subject property is generally located at 446 4th street south the property is currently developed with a one-story 4,984 square foot office building and a surface parking lot the applicant is proposing to demolish the existing building constructed a 21-story mixed-use building with 2,250 square feet of commercial space 213 dwelling units and 230 30 parking spaces the project's estimated construction cost is valued at 67 million dollars this is the site plan before you today with this being oriented north to the top the base of the proposed mixed-use building will occupy a majority of the property there are two existing curb cuts with one of the curb cuts located on 4th street south and the second curb cut on 5th avenue south the existing curb cut along 4th street will be removed and the existing curb cut along 5th avenue will be relocated towards their eastern side of the property the ground floor of the building will be a mixed-use which will consist of commercial space residential lobby a loading area trash room back of house facilities and parking spaces as well as the access to the upper levels of the garage floors two through six will be devoted to parking there will be a residential liner units on the floors three through six oriented towards fourth street the seventh floor will have an outdoor terrace and amenity area and residential units floors eight through 20 will consist of residential units and the 21st floor will have an outdoor terrace amenity space and pool pedestrian access to the ground floor commercial space will be from fourth street south pedestrian access to the residential lobby will be from both fourth street south and fifth avenue south the style of the building proposed is contemporary as described by the applicant's architect the tower will be a multi-family high-rise and a contemporary expression of urban architecture the building is designed to seamlessly integrate form function and community engagement its massing is thoughtfully composed with a strong podium base the podium is articulated with the concept of beams of light directional rays that travel upward connecting the vibrant urban ground floor activity to the sky above the sleek facade defined by arithmetic interplay glass windows walls and frame vertical elements accentuates the building's vertical vertical vocality excuse me while maintaining modern geometric clarity some additional elevations before you and then this is the rendering of the building as if you're getting off the interstate coming into downtown the irp includes design development guidelines to ensure compatibility between the types of development that are desired in the downtown the proposed project also is reviewed for compliance with the design regulations contained within the redevelopment plan this does include compliance with the land development code development shall submit for cra review and approval parking structure should provide decorative facades through the use of building materials or be encased with a liner building development should provide design elements such as trees street furniture and entryways to the building that are in scale to the human development shall provide appropriate architectural variety ground floor of the building shall contain uses as permitted by the land development code open space shall relate to the activities along the block as well as to the pedestrian system infill development should also create a sense of place and all new development shall relate in building scale mass to its surroundings and the development shall be consistent with the permitted uses in the downtown zoning district so another rendering if you're looking from the hospital campus walking towards the development with respect to compliance with the code the property is located within the dc2 zoning district the development rights by our the maximum far 7.0 the applicant is proposing a max development right of 7.0 staff has determined that the proposed development is consistent with the land development regulations and consistent with the redevelopment plan this is a close-up if you're across the street looking towards the building looking eastward along 4th street again the proposed redevelopment of this site will fit into with the newer and older developments the building's urban and scale has pedestrian oriented features including ground level commercial space lobby entrances the screening of the parking garage florida ceiling storefront windows as well as ample fenestration throughout site improvements will include 10-foot wide sidewalks street trees landscaping bicycle parking and a new stormwater drainage system the press pedestrian improvements will contribute to a pleasurable walking experience that provide wide shaded sidewalks and will help connect the campus to downtown the usf camp excuse me this is another view if you're looking across the street at the hospital campus at the corner the existing downtown development pattern does consist of a variety of different building types uses densities intensities other high-rise buildings within the immediate area include the sage which is a 13-story building that's located 400 4th avenue south baylor capital site which was approved um about a year or so ago is a 25-story building and that's going to be located at 3444 4th street south hamden pierre which is an 18-story building that's located at 333rd street south and as well as we have to the south of us the innovation district which is locate located outside of the redevelopment district but includes john hopkins all children's hospital orlando health and the bayfront and usf st pete lastly just a close-up to the residential entrance into the building from fifth avenue staff does recommend approval of the attached resolution finding that the proposed project to construct a 21-story building with 2250 square feet of commercial space 213 dwelling units and 230 space parking garage consistent with the redevelopment plan thank you thank you councilmember floyd thank you uh my comments aren't totally on the uh building as proposed i do think it matches the plan for the uh in town redevelopment uh area uh it was just going to make one comment on the building that exists there now there's been some conversation amongst community members that i've heard people you know expressing disappointment uh architecturally interesting building uh that has greeted a lot of people as soon as they pulled off the interstate into st petersburg for a while now um i'm disappointed you know that uh something like that would happen as well but you know uh property owners rights to redevelop their property is uh and we at least have some control over what we see there through this process and they've checked all those boxes but i did want to express a little bit of disappointment to see the old building get torn down so that's all uh and i'll move approval second we have a motion and a second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item cra2 passes unanimously with council members driscoll and hanowitz being absent okay we're going to adjourn as the cra and reconvene as the city council and we're going to go to uh new business and uh council member floyd i am respectfully requesting a referral to the housing land use and transportation committee to provide an annual update on housing opportunities for all this is a staff request i'll move approval and it's a staff request but i'm eager to get the information i know it comes every year as a staff request so whenever i became chair of hlut i was like hey we're doing this right and they're like we'll send the staff request so i'm excited it'll be good information especially for the new council members uh to get an overview on our housing policy and uh what we've met up to so okay we have a motion and a second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item g1 passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent okay thank you moving into council committee reports we're going to start with h1 council vice chair hanowitz thank you chair respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution supporting the repeal of the preemption of construction crane regulation in florida statutes and i so move thank you seeing as no other council members wishing to speak we have a motion 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 agenda item h1a passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent okay thank you all right moving on to h2 i am respectfully requesting approval for a resolution approving the funding for the purier park expansion project and the amount not to exceed three hundred thousand dollars from the wiki wachi funds and i'll entertain a motion for approval second we have a motion a second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda item h2a passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent thank you okay moving into h3 i am respectfully requesting approval of three resolutions establishing policies and procedures for leak adjustment relief for involuntary leaks during a flood event a resolution establishing policies and procedures for mechanical water meter high read in an absence of a leak and a resolution approving changes to the utility bill review committee and i'll entertain oh we and we have one card excuse me john chin please approach either podium state your name and your address you have three minutes to address city council either one dealer's choice all right ladies and gentlemen uh chair council my name is john chen address is 718 93rd avenue north saint petersburg florida 33702 um i was here i believe on the last meeting on the 8th and i was able to get a hold of somebody through a back channel that i found and uh unfortunately uh i believe the culprit are the meters i spent an additional 300 getting somebody to check my sprinkler systems because the person i spoke to on the phone from the utility company managed to convince me that even after everything we've gone through already that i needed to get somebody to check my sprinklers and we did so i believe we just need to replace the meter and it seems like i get a lot of resistance every time i do mention hey it's the meter she did mention that my meter even though the house was built in 2012 the meter was replaced in 2020 didn't know that happened apparently it got changed to a wireless meter so i'm thinking perhaps people who are suffering these issues and have gone through the steps have done their troubleshooting to just get their meters replaced i know it's expensive but it hurts it hurts the customers the civilians more that usually have a water bill of 220 to jump to 410 the water usage the just imagine this the average fuel tanker that you see on the road is between 3 500 to 5 000 gallons my bill is showing a usage of 13 000 gallons it's a lot of fuel tankers for a four person four person house just two kids two grown-ups during the highest usage like i mentioned before it was during the hurricanes where we had evacuated and we weren't home to use the water so perhaps if with what we're bringing up on the agenda if it'd be made easier to replace these meters and then continue tracking the progress and see if you know that was the case there was a gentleman that did speak earlier he didn't mention that some meters did have some type of defects with the uh forgot what he had mentioned the gasket rings or something and it's possible that the meter is reading more water is registering more water going through than is actually being used and that was my point i was even up to spending twelve hundred dollars to put a flow meter attached to the house so i can actually see how much water is actually going in but i think we could avoid that well thank you very much for your time you guys are kind have a good day god bless you council member gabbard sir so you actually live in district two so my legislative aide kim is standing right behind you she's going to give you her card and we will follow up with you absolutely thank you chair thank you we have a motion in the second sorry second now we have a motion in the second seeing as no other council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote mr chair the motion to approve agenda items h3a h3b and h3c passes unanimously with council member driscoll being absent i just want to say thank you to all my colleagues i know putting a cow uh this morning was um somewhat burdensome so thank you to administration and my colleagues uh for doing the work and getting this up fast i i really do think it's going to make a difference so thank you to everybody uh and especially legal for help to make it happen uh okay let's move into open forum david soccle please approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council uh david soccle 325 5th street south this is my office address and i also live at 1474 circles so i'm in several different districts here um i'm speaking here on behalf of frescoes i had a court this morning so i was on or this afternoon so i was unable to be here uh when you approved the one-year extension on my lease and so i wanted to take a moment uh to thank you for that uh the first thing i should say though is i think thank goodness we're open when i saw that storm what it did to the trop and um i bought that awning for frescoes 20 years ago i spent over a hundred thousand dollars on it and this is back when the city you know was not putting any money into the pier and frescoes and all that and i when i looked at the trop i said there is no way my awning survived and i was shocked to go down there and in the first storm though helene i did lose we did lose everything obviously we had uh four or five feet of water come through there and so i lost several hundred thousand dollars i had to buy all new brand new equipment refrigeration freezers beer coolers inside outside fish coolers fryers everything you can imagine was ruined we had brought some stuff from outside in and when we went and got electricity back we got inside to check on it and it all floated and flipped over so it was all just lying on its side sopping wet and and so that's what happens to your your restaurant equipment when four feet of water come through um but i've had the place for for you know like i say 21 years now uh so the fact that i realize the city's not quite ready to make a decision yet on what they're doing with the marina i would like to be included uh and at some point i might submit some type of proposal on that just to to build a new one um i had submitted something that i think was submitted by safe harbor but that portion of it was not accepted uh so you're just it's still enough things going on with the city uh but from my side i have so many employees have been with me more than 10 years which for a restaurant is rare uh but i you know i take care of them i paid everybody through when we were closed for the all the storms i continue to pay everybody so that i didn't create more problems several of my employees lost you know their homes where they were living other problems uh so i try to be you know not just a good uh businessman but also you know a good person in trying to keep everything around and so by you guys giving me another year it really helps because these people you know if they were going to be fired april 30th of this year you know they have they have families they've got kids they've got several people met their spouses while working at frescoes and they're now all together with that with kids that are you know seven eight nine ten twelve years old uh so i'm going to go back to them today and say good news we at least have until may of 26 and hopefully we can work on something beyond that but thank you i appreciate it thank you no more speakers mr chair in person or in zone okay we'll close open forum and move on to announcements council members any announcements have fun at local topia this weekend i mean come on people until you drop right i'm getting my saint b gear uh all right well if there's nothing else for the good of the order february 20th 2025 city council is adjourned thank you everybody