Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Vice Chair, Hopley Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Ed Montenari, District 4, Lisette Kanowitz, District 5 and Council Chair, Deborah Figg Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad. And District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon, everyone. We'll call the order of the January 11th, 2024 City Council Meeting, beginning with a roll call. Gerdes? Here. Gabbard? Here. Montenari? Here. Hanowitz? Here. Dick Sanders? Here. Driscoll? Here. Muhammad? Here. And Floyd? Here. Thank you. We will today have our invocation given by Father Tom Morgan of Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, and then we will follow by the Pledge of Allegiance. Would everyone please join me in standing? Let us pray. Almighty God, we ask your blessing and the gift of wisdom on Councilman Copley Gerdes as he takes the oath of office. We thank you for his service of our city of St. Petersburg, and with the other members of our city council and local government, help them to govern well. Almighty God, we thank you for the sacrifices that those who choose to serve in government make as they strive to be faithful to the oath that they take. We pray that our city council and the members of our local government may always know that we whom they serve appreciate what they do as they seek to govern wisely and for our good and the good of St. Petersburg, Florida. In your name we pray. Amen. I pledge you and to the root of one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Father Morgan, for that invocation. Council members, we have an agenda before us with a few additions where we're adding E2, E3, and G2. I'll entertain a motion for approval with the addition. Move approval. Second. Can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, can you please cast your votes? Seeing that our council members have cast their votes, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously. Thank you. Council members, we have a consent agenda before us and we ask, do we have any cards or? There's no consent. Nothing on consent. Oh, nothing on consent. Sorry about that. Okay, we'll go ahead and take that off. Okay, show time. We're at the point where we're going to administer our city council vice chair, as he's sworn in today, our vice chair, Corey Gerdes. I like the color. I'm thinking about getting on that color. I'm growing up. It happens. It's an honor to be here today. All right, all right. In the gym, man. Thank you for your service and for all members. Thank you. I, hopefully Gerdes, do solemnly swear or affirm that I am a citizen of the city of St. Petersburg, the state of Florida, and the United States of America, and as an officer of the city of St. Petersburg, and a recipient of public funds, I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution, and government of the United States, and the state of Florida, and that I am duly qualified to hold office, under the charter of the city, and the Constitution of the state, and I will faithfully perform the duties, of the office of vice chair, of city council, of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, on which I am now about to enter. You need three total? My bad. Now, vice chair, it says here that I'm supposed to recess for photos. Is that something that you still would like for us to do? Sure. Yes. So I, we recessed council meeting for 10 minutes so that we can take photos. Thank you. Okay, we're recessed. Congratulations to our new vice chair, Copley Gerdes. We applaud you, and we look forward to 2024, and all the wonderful things that are going to happen on this dais. So now we will go to open forum. Do we have, clerk, can you please read the rules for me? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing, or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak, and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the zoom app or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it's your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments, or when you have, when you reach the three minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation use normal rules apply, including the three minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of the quorum. If live public comment is disrupted violations of the rules of the quorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. And Madam Chair, we do have some speakers and I'm going to call them two at a time. First two speakers, Lynn Morris and Jimmy Elwell. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. And you will have three minutes to address city council. Did we just start? Sorry, it's my first time. Okay. Hi, my name is Lynn Morris. I live at 2709 First Avenue South St. Petersburg. And I'm here about the noise on central as a 20 plus year resident in that house. I'm all for the businesses that are moving in, but I think they need to respect the fact that people live there. We get up early for work, sometimes 5 a.m. And wild child is my biggest complaint because not just their regular business noise, that's fine. But about once a month on Sundays, they have parties. According to the website, wild child closes at 3 p.m. I'm sorry. I'm a little nervous, but they start these parties at like six, seven o'clock and they last until 10 or 11. And the music is so loud. My house stuff is vibrating. You cannot sleep because you can't, you can't even hear the TV. We've called the police a couple of times, but that to me is like a waste of manpower. I don't want to call the cops because of noise. That just seems like it's not fair. I think that the police have real things to look after, but the noise coming from them is, I mean, you come in the house and you can barely have a conversation. So my, that's my complaint. I just want to address the noise issues. If businesses are going to open up and they're going to have events after hours, they need to have some type of wall or bushes or something to contain that sound because this is an outdoor, they have their indoor event, but these are outside. Like people are dancing in the parking lot, having a good time, which I'm all for a good time. But if you're having a rave or loud music at 10 o'clock and I have to get up at five, that's just not considerate. And I don't think that they are taking into account any of the neighbors along that street. So that's my issue with them. And thank you. Thank you for listening. And again, just the noise with the new businesses I think needs to be addressed. Thank you very much. Ma'am, if you could just hold on a minute, I'm going to get Callie to come over and get your name and number. We'll follow up with you. Thank you. Okay. I'm having basically the same problem with Wild Child. Please state your name. Name. Oh, I'm sorry. Jimmy Elwell. I live at 2725 First Avenue South. I'm next door to Lynn. And Wild Child, that is my biggest problem, but not just the noise. Although the noise, my toaster oven in my kitchen is just sitting there going boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. And stuff on my walls is doing the same thing. And it's ridiculous. And I don't mind them having loud music, but they could turn the bass down a little bit. But anyway, that problem, plus they've got delivery trucks that keep the alley blocked almost half of the day. And we don't get our garbage emptied. The garbage man can't get through. He's tried. They won't move. And that's one problem. And then they've put in a drain going to the alley. They tried to tell me it was rainwater. I caught a sample of it. This is more like sewage water. And where it's coming from is they built this outside area on and they put a bar in there. Well, that drain, they didn't bother to pipe it into the regular system. And they just ran it right out the back. And if somebody could check on that, maybe. And in their garbage can lids, they never shut them. Never. And I thought there was an ordinance saying that they were supposed to keep their garbage can lids closed. And I know there's sometimes they're over full, but, and you can't do anything about it. But in the summertime, the flies get so bad out there. And I'd never had flies until that restaurant opened up. Even when Numex was there, we didn't have a fly problem. This is really bad. And then we got rats now. And I'm pretty sure that's where they're coming from. And then they got their leaf blowers that they take all the trash that's in their area over there and blow it on our side. They blow it mostly on, over on Lynn's property. But they still blow a lot of it over on mine. And the dust just goes everywhere. And I spend most of my time outside and it's impossible when they're out there. You got to clean all the dust off of everything. But anyway, I'll quit on that one. And that's basically what I've got to say. But it's really been a problem since they moved in. Thank you. Thank you. Next two speakers, please. Madam Chair, the next two speakers, Dan Cerronin and Wendy Snyder. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the records, and you will have three minutes to address city council. Yes. You can start. Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Wendy Snyder. I live at 6407 Sandpiper Way South in St. Petersburg. I've missed other meetings at which the Ray Hines proposal was on the agenda. I thought it was on today. I apologize. That's what I'm speaking to. I really think the Rays want to stay here as much as we want them to. They've spent a lot of time looking elsewhere for other alternatives, haven't come up with anything. They're back here. They want here. They know the way we know that that expensive parking lot over there is going to eventually be redeveloped. They want in on that. And I don't blame them. They're a business. But why is the city, and when I say city, I mean city-county jointly, why is the city bending over backwards for them? Why is the city squandering its opportunity to benefit from the appreciation and value of those 64 acres over the next 30 years? Why is the city selling that land at a price below the old, out-of-date appraisal done before the zoning changes that make this redevelopment project possible? Why not get a new appraisal? At least then we'll know what we're giving up. Why is the city spending $130 million in infrastructure costs that are normally paid by the developer? Why is the city issuing bonds in an amount that will greatly jeopardize its borrowing ability down the line in the event of a natural disaster? Why is the city squandering its opportunity to address the affordable housing crisis that we have in this city? And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that issue because I know the CBAC is looking at it too, but that's a big issue for me and I think it's a big issue for a lot of the voters in this city. Why is the city giving up all the revenue to be generated by any new stadium? Under the current term sheet, the city gets nothing for naming rights, gets nothing for streaming rights, doesn't even get a measly share of ticket revenue that it's getting now. It gets nothing. What is the hurry? It seems to me that the closer we get to 2027, when the raised contractual redevelopment rights expire, the stronger the city's negotiating position is. What is this hurry? And I hope it's not because it would be you guys who would have the credit for bringing in one of the biggest redevelopment projects in the state in recent years. I mean, if you have future political plans in this city or state, I think you really ought to reconsider before you commit the taxpayers to this boondoggle for Ray Hines. Thank you. I'm Dan Cerronin. I live at 5026 Fifth Avenue South. I'm here because in the last year or so, the building department has started requiring change of use applications, even without construction, and it's causing huge delays for new business owners. A lot of them are changes of use that are very similar. This application that I'm going to speak on is 1534 16th Street South. It was a restaurant for years and years. It was reclassified as an event space. Now they want to change it back to a restaurant. There's no construction being done. The requirement is that you put in a, they have a full-scale drawings that have to be submitted with whatever the current state of the facility is. That takes an architect to come out and do the drawings. It takes about a month to turn around. This application was submitted on November 17th of 2023, and that's 55 days, and the fire marshal still hasn't even opened the file. So that means this person is already three months in on rent on a simple change of use that should have taken 30 minutes. The other day, I got another application that we submitted for 3074 18th Avenue South. For the Southside Council members, you know it as that restaurant right next to Lundy's. It's been a restaurant for 40 years. I got the email back from the city that it is considered indoor recreation. It is not a restaurant. So now we have to go through that process. Even though they're ready to open, they're going to have to hire an architect, spend a month there, and hope that the fire marshal takes the time to open the application. So this is, it's starting to become an issue. There's more applications that I have, and it just seems, it seems like it's more Southside, but it's just something that we need to look into and address. Thank you. Thank you. Next two guards, please. Madam Chair, the next two speakers, Ross Prevelle and Dylan Dames, and these are the last two speakers. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address City Council. We have no speakers in Zoom. Good afternoon. My name is Ross Prevelle. I live at 225 First Avenue North, and my office is at 200 Central Avenue, where I've been for now over 30 years. I'm here on behalf of the St. Pete Area Chamber of Commerce to talk on the Rays-Hines proposal. For the St. Pete Chamber, I run the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan Group, and I've been doing that now for about 13 years. And I find it interesting because oftentimes the waterfront, the downtown waterfront, is considered to be the crown jewel of St. Petersburg. People can argue that, but that's kind of the way it's been described over the years that I've been involved with those projects, including the pier and all of that. But my point in this is I think we have an opportunity in St. Petersburg to have another crown jewel. And I do believe that the Rays-Hines group is the right group to do this. I agree with the previous speaker. The Rays want to stay in St. Petersburg. I think they want to stay in St. Petersburg for a number of reasons. I think the ownership and the management of the Rays love St. Petersburg. They live here. They want to be a part of the community. They've already been a part of the community. I think what has happened to Central Avenue over the years and how that has built up has brought more people to a closer area of the stadium. If you think back to when we built this stadium and opened it back in 1990, arguably we were the last of the old stadiums built for Major League Baseball. Camden Yards opened two years later. Camden Yards, if you go to that stadium if you've ever had the opportunity, everything around it is engaged. It's a project that was built in order to bring people down there and enjoy the waterfront of Baltimore in that stadium. I think this project has the same possibilities. I think, you know, I know that there are going to be people who are going to disagree over the details of the project. I understand that. We understand that with every project that's ever done. If we go back and look at the peer development project, there were people who disagreed with what was done there. But look at the results that we've had. You're going to have disagreements. But that's why you go through a process that we're currently going through as a city, and you try to make sure that you develop the best project possible using the best possible partners that you can. And as a chamber, we believe that those partnerships are the Rays-Hynes groups, and I would agree with that. I think as long as we keep our eyes on the ball and understand, you know, what it is we're looking for, and I agree with the whole idea of promoting St. Petersburg. I didn't agree with the idea of the St. Petersburg Rays, but I agree with promoting St. Petersburg. I think we ought to push that as a city more than we have in the past, and I think you're already on that path. So, you know, in closing, let me just say this. I think the next crown jewel is that area, and we're going to honor the Gas Plan District. I think we're going to do what we need to do for affordable housing and workforce housing. I think the whole project is a win for St. Petersburg, and as a chamber, we want to promote that and endorse, you know, moving forward with that project. Thank you. Hey, Council. My name is Dylan Dames at 12001 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North. I'm with Faith in Florida here on behalf of Progressive People of Faith, Ranburden folks, and in the area, and all our collaborators with shared values. I want to start by congratulating Chair Fig Sanders and Vice Chair Gerdes on their new roles, and then thank Council again for the opportunity to raise our voices during open forum. The reason why I'm here today is because I have hope. After attending Tuesday night's Community Benefits Advisory Council meeting, I have hope in the power of the people's lifted voices. With so many losses of liberties here in Florida over the past couple of years, I don't take it for granted that some of you sitting here today helped to make history in 2021 with the CBAC to give community members a chance to influence the developments relying on and directly impacting their neighborhoods. I would urge Council to maintain this attitude toward democracy in future hearings related to the CBAC's capacity to converse with citizens like myself. I see it as a continuation of the democracy that we're demonstrating to the rest of the state. Through Tuesday's meeting, concerns around affordable housing were raised, both by a standing member of the CBAC and also the city's presentation of the comments that were raised in December. I think it becomes clear that St. Pete citizens and the developer are using different definitions of affordability and equity. And I think the way that you as our elected leaders get to those definitions and understand what the people mean by affordable is by processes like the CBAC and continuing to converse with us and hear our voice. I think St. Pete is truly set apart in this way. It often is a headache for me, but so many of my friends across the state find me lucky, and I would agree that we have a lot of luck compared to the rest of Florida with things like the Community Benefits Advisory Council. I hope we can live up to our progressive packaging through the concerns of citizens being actually recognized and weighed in your final assessments of the historic gas plant redevelopment. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Any more cards? Now we will close open forum and move to our awards and proclamations beginning with E1, and I am going to ask Mr. Dominique Polk and his family to please join me at the podium for the Distinguished Citizens Award. I'd also like to invite Mr. Walton Triggers, who is the president of the Friends of Albert Wittert, to please join me. So ladies and gentlemen, it brings me great joy and honor when I became a council member and we talk about the accomplishments of our, they're teenagers, yes, but we have some young men out there that are doing some really awesome things. So I want to read Dominique Polk. He was here and he received the Sunshine Ambassador Award in 2021, and I was so impressed by him wanting to learn how to fly, and he flew his first solo flight at the age of 16, and for that, I wanted to recognize him as being someone to watch for the future. Dominique Polk started his aviation journey at the age of 15. He completed his first solo flight on his 16th birthday. He recently acquired his private pilot license on November 10th, 2023, and is now working toward his instrument rating. Did you all miss that? He has his pilot license now. What a wonderful opportunity and accomplishment. Dominique has completed much of his training at the Albert Wittert Airport, located in our beautiful city of St. Petersburg. Dominique was one of the scholarship recipients of the 2023 Friends of Albert Wittert Scholarship. This scholarship enabled him to pursue his aviation goal of becoming a private pilot. Dominique works part-time in the mechanic department at St. Pete Air, and he's a full-time student at St. Petersburg College, and he also attends Pinellas Technical College to take a trade of barbering, so if he can't fly you, he'll edge you up. Dominique's long-term aviation goal is to become an airline pilot. Dominique, I also am going to give you this award, but I invited Mr. Driggers here because when you were here in 2021, my first question was, what does our diversity look like? He took it a step further and helped create the scholarship, so we could not do this without Mr. Driggers. I'm going to ask you to please come and say a few words. This is hard. So we visited with Deborah Fig Sanders, and she was talking about Dominique, not by name, but she said, do you know him? I go, no. But she inspired us, the Friends of Albert Wittert Airport, to do a scholarship program. And so now I have the opportunity to meet Dominique and his family, wonderful people. And what, come to find out, Dominique is an inspiring role model for the young people of St. Petersburg. And what he doesn't know is out of the dozens of applications we have, he was the highest male score out of dozens of applications. Now, the good part is we're doing more applications for, since we have people like Dominique who got that, now they're working on their instrument rating, so we've created a bigger scholarship that we're hoping that Dominique will apply for and hopefully be the best score as well. That will give him the ability to move forward on his instrument rating and his commercial rating. That's a major milestone that he has had and he has accomplished with his hard work. Just a little bit of our money, it was his hard work. We don't take the credit for that. But he's had a major milestone that which, if he follows this through and depends on how far he takes aviation, he will be able to be in one of the 5% wage earners in the United States. So, it's your hard work and I appreciate you more than you know. I would just like to say thank you to everyone on council. I'm very grateful to be here. I'd like to say thank you to my family for the support. Thanks to the chair, council member, Deborah Fick Sanders for recognizing me and council member Ed Montanari for the words of encouragement and support. And with Mr. Walter, I really appreciate everyone. Thank you. You know, as a man mom of three, I cannot not recognize his mom, Ms. Janica Polo. Because I'm sure every time he went up in the air, your heart just had a different kind of beat. So, we want to thank you, mom, for allowing him to explore something different outside of the box. Not corralling him into something that society expects for young African-American men to do. But you've actually introduced him to something. And thank you, Mr. Driggers, for hearing those comments in regard to opening the opportunity right here in little old St. Pete, that they actually have that opportunity to learn how to fly. Thank you. Thank you. And Grandmommy did not stand up. Stand up, Ms. Darlene. There you are. We're going to take this moment. And so, I definitely want to present to you this City Council Distinguished Citizen Award. Whereas, a great city is only as great as those persons who give exemplary service to their communities, whether through participation in voluntary programs, through unique personal achievement in their profession or other endeavors, or simply through a lifetime of good citizenry. And whereas, such service that is truly the lifeblood of the community and the city so often goes unrecognized and unrewarded. Now, therefore, as a duly elected member of the St. Petersburg City Council, so I hereby recognize that, Dominique Polk, Jr., we have an outstanding citizen, one who is worthy of the esteem of both the community and the great city of St. Petersburg, Florida. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Montaneri. Thank you. Well, I wanted to say hello to Dominique again and your whole family. It's great to see you. And, you know, our society needs role models of all ages. And you are a role model for young people in our city. And I've told my story. I started to fly when I was your age. I've started when I was 16 and flew through high school, college, in the military, and then American Airlines. And I wish I had time today to show you my office because in my office there's a lot of airplane pictures and models and that sort of stuff, my flight helmet when I was flying fighters in the Air Force. But aviation is a very deep career choice. There's a lot of different things you could do in aviation. And you're starting in a very strong position. And you've got a lot of friends out there. I'm glad that Walt Triggers and friends of Albert Whitted that are planting those seeds, those seeds for young people for a career in aviation. It makes a huge difference. So, Chair Fick Sanders, thank you for recognizing Dominic and his achievements. And congratulations on earning your private pilot's license. Great. Congratulations again. Next we'll move to E2, our National Mentoring Month proclamation by Councilmember Hanowitz. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. And we're continuing on the theme here of role models. For those that don't know that it's Natural Mentoring Month, it is my honor to present this proclamation. I will say that I became a mentor through the Pinellas County School System, through Lunch Pals. And I started when my mentee was in elementary school with the Lunch Pals program. And now she's in middle school at Madera Beach Fundamental. And seeing her grow as a young lady has been an honor for me. It really, truly is an honor every week when I get to meet with her and see her growth and see her trajectory and see a bright future and know that my role now will help her get a scholarship in the future through their program. So I encourage everyone to get involved and find out. And you're going to get a little bit more information from Pinellas County Schools. We have Seymour Brown here. He's the director of Strategic Partnerships. Sean Ferguson, the senior coordinator. And I think Bria-Jaline, she left. She left. So they're here. I'm going to read the proclamation. And then they're going to share a little bit of information for you. Whereas January is National Mentoring Month. An annual campaign to recruit quality mentors to provide additional networks of support for young people. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg recognizes the contributions of volunteer mentors who guide young people to success in their education, career, and well-being. And whereas mentoring programs help make our state and community stronger by enabling impactful relationships that increase social capital for young people and provide invaluable support networks. And whereas mentors can help young people explore careers and build skills to achieve higher lifetime economic outcomes through activities like helping them set career goals, write a resume, practice for an interview, connecting them to opportunities, and more. Whereas research has demonstrated that mentoring programs have a significant positive impact in a variety of academic achievement measures, including truancy and absenteeism, scholastic efficacy, and engagement, school-related misconduct, and peer support. And whereas quality mentoring promotes healthy relationships and communication, positive self-esteem, emotional well-being, and relationship growth for young people. And whereas with a mentor, youth facing risk are more likely to enroll in college, less likely to start using drugs, and more likely to volunteer regularly in their communities. And whereas while one in three young people still grow up without a mentor, demonstrating the need for additional awareness and resources for mentoring programs. And whereas National Mentoring Month is the time of the year to celebrate, elevate, and encourage mentoring across our state and recruit caring adult mentors in. Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Lissette Hanowitz, on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch, do hereby proclaim January 2024 as Mentoring Month in St. Petersburg, and I urge citizens to participate in mentoring programs that support children and youth. I just got ball and told that I'm going to be the one doing the speech. Thank you, Councilwoman Hanowitz. I appreciate it. Thank you to the Councilmembers and Chairperson Fig Sanders. We really appreciate the opportunity to be here. My name is Shanae Ferguson. Think Renee, say Shanae. That's what I tell people. So we at the Office of Strategic Partnerships are so excited to receive this proclamation for January, which is National Mentoring Month, every year. Mentors play a very important role in the lives of thousands of our students in our district every year. Mentors help students with positive choices. They help develop critical thinking skills, support academic achievement, and enhance their social and emotional well-being. Research has shown that students who participate in a formal mentoring program have better attendance. They have an increased desire to attend college. They have better adult interactions, higher graduation rates, and are less likely to engage in negative behaviors. The Office of Strategic Partnerships is proud, very proud, of the almost 1,500 active trained mentors that we have in our district. And those 1,500 mentors actually are mentoring about 3,500 students. So as you can see, there's a big gap there, a great need throughout the district. One of the programs that Councilperson Hanowitz is a part of would be our Take Stock in Children Mentoring Program. It's very important. The Pinellas Education Foundation actually gives scholarship money, about $9,000, to each student for them to attend college. And part of that program is the mentorship piece. So they all need mentors. So having that positive role model to guide them all the way through high school and then receive that scholarship at the end of the program goes a very, very long way. We also have 5,000 role models. Some of you may be familiar with also the Girlfriends Club. And, of course, Lunch Pals are some of our mentoring programs. So with each of the mentoring programs, students have the opportunity to be paired with a caring adult on a regular basis. Mentors agree to meet with their students for 30 minutes, either once a week or every other week. It's a very small time commitment. I know we've all got half an hour once a week. And so the district's currently seeking businesses, churches, government organizations across St. Petersburg and Pinellas County to help with our mentoring efforts. And we at the Office of Strategic Partnerships, this is my director, Dr. Seymour Brown, we're honored for the time that you all have taken. We appreciate the opportunity. And we just ask that we continue to look for opportunities to go into Pinellas County Schools, go in there, meet with the students. I guarantee once you're in there and you start meeting with them, you're going to absolutely love it. So we always want to encourage you all to become active in Pinellas County Schools. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. We do appreciate all that you do for our young people. And thank you, Councilmember Hannah Witts, for bringing this forward. Next, we will now have a proclamation in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Shuffleboard Club. Councilmember Gina Driscoll. Good afternoon, everyone. It is such an honor to be presenting the proclamation for the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club to honor its upcoming 100th anniversary. I have a personal tie of my own to the Shuffleboard Club, having gotten involved with it many years ago and doing a couple of projects there. That's where I met Christine. But even before I met her, I had some neighbors one day that said, oh, we're going to the Shuffleboard Club on Friday night. They do this open shuffle thing where it's free. And, you know, you can bring a beverage and play and they've got music and everything. I'm like, at the Shuffleboard Club, how is this is a thing now? And they're like, yeah. So I went and I had a blast and it actually became like the something that I would do and bring friends with me on a regular basis. I would have friends visit from Orlando and they would want to go to the Shuffleboard Club. I mean, I couldn't believe it. It was wonderful to see this resurgence of popularity. It really all comes down to the work of Christine Page, the executive director of the Shuffleboard Club, and the many members who work with her to really just improve, always be improving the Shuffleboard Club, to make the necessary, you know, renovations, things like that. Working with our parks and rec department to, you know, be good partners because it is a city property, we couldn't pick a better steward of the property than the Shuffleboard Club. And as I read the proclamation, I think you'll understand what I mean when I say that thanks to the people who have really dedicated themselves to the success of the Shuffleboard Club, it's really, they've made it so much more than a club, it's truly a community. And I encourage everyone to check it out if you haven't before, and if it's been a while since you have tried Shuffle, it is time to get back out there because the weather is perfect for it right now, most of the time. But this is just a wonderful historic asset in our city that is just as popular today as it was when it was first born 100 years ago. The proclamation reads, whereas the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club was founded on January 24th, 1924. And whereas the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club grew from two to 105 courts, becoming the largest recreational club of its kind in the world, growing to over 5,000 members in the 1940s. And whereas the Florida Shuffleboard Association was founded at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club in 1928. And whereas to this day, shuffleboard players around the world play by the rules standardized at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club in 1928. And whereas the National Shuffleboard Association was founded at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club in 1932. And whereas the International Shuffleboard Association was founded at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club in 1979. And whereas the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club is an important part of the tourism and recreation history of the city of St. Petersburg. And whereas the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club remains an important part of the culture and community of the city of St. Petersburg, being open and welcoming to all. And whereas since 2005, the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club has fueled the Shuffleboard revival in St. Petersburg and around the world, inspiring renewed interest in the sport and remains the largest in the world, with 82 courts and over 2,600 members. Now, therefore, I, Gina Driscoll, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim January 24th, 2024, as St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Day in St. Petersburg. And I urge citizens to join in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the club. Thank you. Thank you for all of the work and the heart that you have put into making the club so successful. I would love for you to say a few words to everyone today. Well, thank you. Thank you, council members, for doing this. It's been a milestone that we've been looking forward to for a number of years and 20 years ago might not have made it. So if not for the hard work of many people and people that came before me and their vision for what the club should be and the hard work it took to bring it back again, we're very excited. And we're using this year to not only bring attention to the club, of course, we want everyone to come and join, but to do some special events and a lot of outreach to make sure that everyone in St. Petersburg knows that they're welcome to come and try this sport that is a lot of fun. So thank you very much. Thank you again to Christine and the club members who are here today. If you could stand really quick so we can recognize you. They make this happen. So here's to you all and here's to the next 100 years. Thank you for that. Thank you so much. And thank you, Council Member Driscoll at Ford and indefinitely presenting that well-deserved honor to the Suffolk Board Club. So now we will move to our legal item, J-1, and joining us is Assistant City Attorney Joe Patner. How are you? Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Council. I'm here to seek approval of a resolution with final payment to the outside counsel of Jones, Hurley, and Hand of $83,213.55. This is the final payment of our outside counsel in a labor dispute matter, the Miranda case, which went on for some time. I will tell you that the client, which is in this particular case, the police department was very satisfied with the work that was done. And while we did negotiate a lower bill to get to this point, they did do the outside counsel certainly did the work and is deserving of it. And the money is allocated and allocated with the police department budget. So with that, if anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Otherwise, I'm seeking approval of the resolution. Move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve J-1. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, can you please place your votes? Seeing that all council members have placed their votes, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item J-1 passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Now we will take up our report items with G-1 Project Prosper, and joining us is Ms. Faye Steinhauser, who is the Executive Director of Project Prosper. Welcome. Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you so much to Councilwoman Hanowitz for the invitation, and thank you so much for your time to the council to hear about our programming. Oh, and I'm supposed to have a clicker, I believe, right? Aw, there we go. All right. So I want to start today by just telling you a little bit about St. Petersburg's immigrant population. So in 2018, there were more than 27,000 immigrants, making up 11% of the population of the city. And it's interesting, they're actually more likely than the native population to own their own home, have an advanced degree, and be employed. But paradoxically, they also tend to have a lower median individual income. And this is a really diverse population that comes from, you know, many areas of the world, many backgrounds. So you can see that this is a very important population that we have in the city here. To support this population, Project Prosper has a mission to provide financial integration services and resources that empower recent refugees and immigrants to achieve financial stability and inclusion. We were formed in 2007, and we are a 501c3 nonprofit. And we formed after our co-founders saw two problems in the community that needed to be addressed. The first problem was developing an understanding and using the financial system for immigrants as a challenge. And existing programs within the community simply were not meeting the unique needs of this population. Among those needs are language comprehension, especially of difficult financial terms, cultural barriers, such as debt being unacceptable or avoiding interest in loans and banking in some cultures, and also understanding the role of credit in our own culture, understanding that in this country, it's very unusual in the world, actually. But in this country, nearly everyone is going to engage with credit at some point in their life. And you can use it to buy almost anything, from a cup of coffee to a car to an entire corporation. Our clients also sometimes have issues with fear, including fear of banks, governments, credit itself, and I would say pretty much across the whole population, the fear of just making a costly mistake. They also have increased vulnerability to scammers and predatory lenders, and that really is because they simply have a lack of life experience, and they really just don't know what is normal in this system. I'd like to expand just a little bit on these points about debt and fear and lack of life experience, which are really key to our population's vulnerability. And I'd like to just share with the council that we have members in our community who actually have never had access to a bank account in their entire life. And that's because the countries that they lived in simply did not allow them to participate in that sort of a system. Some of our clients come from places where being in debt can quite literally get you killed. And others have just had bad experiences with maybe banks limiting their access to funds that they've deposited, or in some cases, simply just stealing the money. As a note, we know that there's a native population that also deals with some of these issues as well. But there's a big difference between our population and theirs. Within this country, the vast majority of people agree that our financial systems are trustworthy and safe to use. So the folks that we have here that have a lot of fear about banks and the financial system, they're a minority population, and a vast majority that does agree the system is functional. Our clients have the exact opposite, and I should say some of them have the exact opposite. They come from countries sometimes where the vast majority of the population does not trust the bank, does not trust the financial system, and only a small minority actually trusts them. So when they come to the United States, there's a lot of education that needs to happen for clients that have those issues about why banking is important and why they need to engage with the system when they've gone their whole life without it. So our first—oops, I'm sorry. Okay. So we want to understand the problems that—I'm sorry. I'm out of whack here. Okay, our second problem that we saw in the community is full inclusion to the financial system, which really means getting access to credit. Being able to fully use the system really requires that. So things that they needed, our clients need on that, is knowledge on how to access credit. You know, why is this important? How do I actually access it? What are the steps that I take? And being the primary on accounts. I mention this one because we have a lot of folks that are married to Americans, and so they come over, and maybe the American is the one who applies for the credit cards. And as it turns out, if you're a secondary on a card, you're not really getting the credit history that you need to be able to fully be included in the system. They also need safe and affordable opportunities to build a credit history. A lot of our clients use what's called a secured credit card, and it requires a deposit. So for anyone who's unfamiliar, if you apply for a secured credit card, they may ask for a $500 deposit in the bank that the bank holds. And they give you a credit card that you can use that has a $500 maximum limit. You use that credit card for a little while, and if you respect the boundaries of the credit card, you can then graduate on to a regular credit card without a deposit. And this is a really common way that clients enter into the credit system. But the problem is, if you can't save that first $500 to be able to do that deposit and get started, this is not a thing that you can use to be fully included into the system. So in response to these problems, we developed two programs to serve the community. The first is a financial literacy program. And this program really brings programming out into the community to community ESOL or English for speakers of other languages sites or other partner sites. And we go to places where clients naturally gather. We don't believe that clients should be coming to our office specifically for financial literacy education. We know people are busy, and we have to be out in the community where they are. Within the program, we offer 13 intermediate to advanced level English or Spanish courses that cover the basics from, you know, what is a bank, what is a credit union, through very advanced topics like personal income taxes, home buying, et cetera. We just recently added a beginner level English curriculum, which is really focused on financial survival skills. And then we're also developing some e-learning courses as well to further increase access. Our second program is a 0% interest loan program. This program features a $2,500 maximum loan that has a savings component with it as well. We credit report to all three of the major bureaus, and we don't require any credit history at all to be in the program. There's also financial coaching and a matched savings component if the coaching requirement is satisfied. Last year, we worked in three counties, and this year we're actually expanding down into Manatee County. And we provided 132 financial literacy classes across those counties. And within Pinellas County, we had seven different sites that all took classes. We also granted 10 loans. And I think it's always important to talk about your funders because that can greatly influence your work. So among our funders are the Pinellas County School Board that we have a grant with, banks, United Way, and other individuals and foundations. But I think perhaps the best way to recognize the impact of our work is to show you a client journey. So I'd like to introduce you to St. Pete residents Ernesto and Liliana. They came to St. Pete in 2015 from Venezuela, and they came here looking for safety for themselves and their children. Ernesto was hoping to get a better job than his role in housekeeping, so he enrolled for English language classes at Northeast High School. And that's where he encountered Project Prosper's financial literacy program. At the end of our course series there, we told him about our loan program as well as the other participants. And immediately, it piqued Ernesto's interest because he had never had a chance to, you know, have that someone extend that kind of trust to him. He used his loan for immigration expenses, and just a few years later, his wife, Liliana, also got a loan and used it for immigration expenses. And when we asked them about their experience, they said that Project Prosper really provided a foundation for them to build their financial life upon. To wrap up my time, I'd like to just share a couple of challenges that we face in the community and ways that I hope we could work together. So, one of our biggest challenges is just community awareness, letting people know that these folks are in our community, and that they have certain very specific challenges, and that they're a very important segment of society. Their success is really our success. Secondly, of course, is the fact that our work addresses the challenges that these folks are facing. And then, we also would love to increase the client access that we have. So, within the city of St. Petersburg, we have two existing sites, PTC St. Pete and Clearview. And both are kind of in central St. Pete. So, we'd love to be able to reach clients in other areas of the city and make sure that we're giving access as much as we can. And then, our other access point we're hoping for is through businesses. A lot of businesses in the area employ immigrants, including our hotels, our restaurants, and many, many, many other employers. And what we'd love to be able to do is to go into those businesses and, as an employee benefit, be able to offer them classes that fit right into the workday. They're during lunch hour, they're after hours, et cetera. And the reason this is so important and, you know, would be valuable for employers is because more financially fit staff is actually better staff. And there's a body of research that shows that. So, I'll end my time there. Thank you so much for your time today. And if anyone has questions, I'd be happy to respond. Thank you. We do have Council Member that would like to make comments. Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Faye, for that wonderful presentation. I would also like to acknowledge you have a board member here, Molly All, that's part of the organization. Thank you both for what you do for Project Prosper. I will tell you, when you were speaking about a refugee or an immigrant family, that's what I grew up with because my family were Cuban refugees that they came. And the issue of trust is extremely important in that community. They do not trust government a lot of times. And depending on their circumstances, they come from difficult circumstances, horrific things that have happened in other countries. They have cultural barriers coming into this country. They have language barriers coming into this country. Then you add the trust issues. And it's just, I mean, it's sad even when you see the children of these families that sometimes have to guide their own parents in the system. They're the advocates for their parents, children in elementary schools that are serving as, you know, translators, right, and explaining the system to their parents at a very young age. So I really appreciate what you're doing for 11% of our population that's out there. I want to point out, I love the fact that you have found ways to engage with employers to provide it as an employee benefit so you can reach more people out there through employers. I think that's fantastic. The loan program, I remember when I was young and I didn't have any credit. And I didn't have anyone that could give me credit or sign for a credit card because my family didn't have that ability. My mom would not buy property because she was scared that the government would take it away from her. I mean, that's the reality. So this is real and it's still happening. And I'm just so glad that you're providing this service. So thank you so much. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember, no, Vice Chair Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Councilmember Hanowitz, thank you for bringing this forward. This was great, Faye. Thank you for the presentation and just to see the amazing work that you're doing. Really, I just wanted to commend you and the entire organization for the work and for the impact that you're making. When I first started my business, a large part of it was doing financial literacy classes and doing them across the city, frankly, across the state. And so if there's any support I can give, please don't hesitate to reach out. It really is what got me started in the financial world is trying to help younger professionals navigate this. And it is. It's an amazing, big, scary system. And it still is sometimes. And so I'm just very proud that this work is happening here in St. Petersburg. And any support I can give, please do not hesitate to reach out. But thank you for all the work that you and the organization is doing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And thank you, Ms. Seinhauser, for your presentation. And, again, we congratulate you and appreciate all that you're doing. And good to see you, Ms. Auld. Thank you for attending and joining us today. Thank you so much. Thank you. So next, we will now move to item G2, January unnamed storm report. And joining us is our own Ms. Amber Boulding, Bio-Emergency Management Manager. Hello. Hi. As always, it is a pleasure to be with you all today. Big congratulations to Chair Fick Sanders and Vice Chair Gerdes on your appointments. My first time being here this year, which I guess it's only been a couple weeks, but congratulations. There's been a shuffle, so I have to get used to. Everybody's seats. So we're going to summarize and go over this year's storm, or this month's storm. We also had this storm last month, and it's just been a very busy time. So, I don't know. Buckle up. Before I jump into my report, though, I do want to touch on the weather pattern that we're seeing right now. So, you know, we've been hearing, well, this is very unique. We, you know, we're not seeing these kind of storms. We don't usually get this kind of weather. And that is true. But we are in a severe El Nino pattern, and that doesn't come around very often. So the El Nino itself can, they say, every two to seven years right now, and we're in a more severe El Nino, which means the jet stream that normally is north of Florida has shifted down. So those winter storms that are typical for the country are getting pushed down further. So that jet stream's bringing them right over kind of that south-central Florida area, which is why we're going to get more of that significant weather. So we had that significant storm in December, we had one this week, and we're going to have another one on Friday, tomorrow. Not quite as severe, but it's going to happen more often. So hopefully we don't see them to the caliber that we did in December and this week, but certainly we always want to stay on our toes and be ready for that, because that is what when we get into these seasons of El Nino, what that means. All right, so for this January severe weather event, I'm going to start off with just a timeline overview of the events that we saw, and then cover more of the specific city preparation and response actions, and then I'll finish up with impacts that we saw from the storm. So we first started monitoring this one early last week. The Weather Service had an inkling it was going to come, you know, again, it's that jet stream, so it was up towards Alaska, and they were waiting on it to come down. On Thursday last week, we had our first National Weather Service webinar, and on Friday is when we sent that first situation information to the executive policy group and to our department emergency preparedness coordinators in the city to say, hey, this is coming, that we're very confident it will create weather impacts. The uncertainties of what it will cause, we're still not sure yet, but we were already looking at that potential flooding situation based on those lessons learned from December. Come Sunday, it was even more confident that we were going to get that water rise and the potential coastal flooding. So that's when Public Works began their prep work, which I'll get into here in a minute. On Monday, we held our first executive policy group briefing first thing that morning, and a decision was made to activate the emergency operations center to a level two partial activation. This activation was virtual. That allowed us to establish a battle rhythm with two-time daily executive policy group briefings and real-time updates via Microsoft Teams. Jeff Baker from Duke Energy was actually able to join us in person from fire headquarters on Tuesday, which was the day the storm actually moved in to sit there with us and monitor real time as the storm was moving in any kind of power outages and how he could work with our crews to get people back online faster. And then on Wednesday, we began the damage assessment process, getting out there, looking at our neighborhoods to see if we took on water in any homes, if there was any wind damage and things like that. And then to today to our brief out. So our city preparation and response actions, a lot happened between last week and this week. And it's, I think, an accumulation of lessons learned from previous storms. And I'm just wanting to make sure we can do as much as we can. So Claude's team and Public Works did a lot with clearing storm drains and lines cleared. Claude sent me some great stat sheets with lots of numbers. I'm happy to read those. Or if you have questions, Claude can come up and give those. But it includes over 3000 inland inspections and 138 of those inlets were cleared. Street sweeping 384 total miles were swept and they picked up 180 cubic yards of debris off those streets. They distributed a total of 13,550 sandbags. 3300 of those were delivered to the houses that received the flooding during the December event. So when we look at our forecast, what we were hearing from the National Weather Service is this could be very comparable to what we saw in December, though hopeful not quite to that level. So that's what we were planning for. So if houses flooded during that December event, that's what we were planning for in January. So we wanted to make sure that those those houses were protected as much as possible. And then at our full service sites, they handed out just over 12,000. In addition, the Public Works crews service backflow preventers installed a flood barrier, lowered lakes and use permanent and temporary pumps to manage the floodwaters as they came in. The city also placed trailer mounted variable message boards throughout the city's high risk areas to warn about the potential weather and the potential for high water widespread messaging with social media, print media and TV. The St. Pete service center transitioned to the citizens information center, taking calls from the public, giving them information before the storm and then taking those damage reports after the storm, whether it was line trees down lines down or whatever the issue was flooding. That way we could get into the C click fix system and dispatched out the police department stage to the high risk areas to monitor monitor flooding in real time. And they were prepared to close down those streets or neighborhoods if flooding became an issue and a safety problem. Fire rescue performed initial damage assessment by grid Tuesday night, which then informed our full damage assessment, which happened Wednesday morning with the planning and development department. And they did that Wednesday morning. And then any of those damage reports that we got through C click fix were handled on a case by case basis through the appropriate dispatch center. And then when we look at impacts, overall, fairly low impacts citywide, especially when we compare it to the previous two storms that we saw with the December storm in Adalia. This was much more of a wind storm for us than the December storm, which was very much a water storm. So the storm itself was quite brief, moved through around 4pm on Tuesday. And within an hour, it was gone. So if you were like us staring at the radar, it was a very strong, they called it a potent system that just came through. During that timeframe, I'm sure everybody's phones went off, we had two tornado warnings. So that means National Weather Service sees that rotation. We had one warning that came through kind of for north St. Pete, mid Pinellas County. And then shortly after there was a tornado warning that came through for a more south county. And it was that second warning that actually we did have that EF zero confirmed tornado. After the storm moved through, we still had the coastal tide, it continued to rise. It rose until about six o'clock until those winds shifted offshore and started pushing that surge water back out. So to give you some final numbers, our total storm tide, which is the regular tide plus the storm surge that came in was about 2.8 feet. And just to give you a comparison back in December, it was 3.97. So we were about just over a foot less than what we saw last month. And it made all the difference as well. We didn't have any reported flooding of any of our homes with this one. Wind speed sustained 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 46 miles per hour and those were recorded at Albert Whitted Airport. To look at damage assessment, we had heavy prolonged winds pretty much throughout the day. And that brought down some trees which created sporadic power outages around the city, all of which were restored fairly quickly. No recorded damages from flooding. Again, we did have the roads go underwater and you know that the typical spots that we're used to. But we again, we didn't have any reports of the water inside homes and it all drained very quickly as well. To speak, go back to that tornado. We did have a confirmed EF zero tornado with winds of about 82 miles per hour that very briefly touched down. I'm in the Bartlett Park area. It caused the tree to go through a roof on a home on Kingston Street South and some roof damage to an apartment building over on 6th Street South. Street team was deployed over to that area just to see if there was any unmet needs to check on the residents. It was determined that no residents were displaced, but that team is still working with those residents to make sure that we're fulfilling any needs that they might have. And that is my report. I'm joined with the leadership team here today that is also happy to answer any questions or provide clarification on anything that you might have. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Gabbard. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Amber, Claude, Amy, the entire team, administration, because, you know, watching you guys in action every single time one of these storms come along is incredibly impressive. And I always feel a little bit more at ease knowing that you guys are at the helm. So I just wanted to first of all, thank you. I also wanted to thank you for today's report. You know, I put this forward because I hate to put more work on you guys after you've been tired and you've been here and you've been doing this. But I think it's important that we communicate to the residents because there's a lot of kind of, you know, rumor mill that starts with things, a lot of frustration that people are feeling. And I think that clear communication about how the city is responding is very, very important. So thank you for doing the report today. I don't really have a lot of questions, but I have kind of one thing and maybe this is an administration question. I see Tom is back there and maybe this is something that he has thought about before. But I'm starting as, you know, we have more and more of these events, seeing, you know, kind of the dollar signs racking up, the money that we're having to spend to do things that we don't normally do as part of our everyday course of business. And, you know, when we have a major event like a hurricane, for instance, we have the ability to be able to draw down funds to recoup a lot of that. That doesn't happen when we have events like what we've just seen or maybe even what happened in December. And so my concern is, and I would like to maybe at some point see some information about the amount of money that we have had to expend through these last couple events and then talk about do we need to start thinking about a contingency fund specific for these sort of events? Because I'm just worried about kind of the drain and, you know, when things are, when it's all hands on deck to go and deliver sandbags, for instance, that's work that isn't happening elsewhere that normally does happen. So I think those kind of things we really need to start getting into and thinking a little bit bigger about. We have a lot of conversations coming forward. We have a cow coming up at the end, I think, of March to talk about some of this stuff. But I want us just to kind of start to think a little bit bigger about the financial impact. So I don't know if the administration or Tom, if that's something that you guys have discussed at this point. Yeah, I think that's a great point, council member. And I think, you know, that's something we should look at in our budget process, because you're right about that. There's overtime costs that we incur with staffing. There's also additional tipping fees that we incur in sanitation. So, you know, not necessarily in this storm, because it wasn't as severe, but in the December storm, we did have to do pickup at residences. There's no FEMA reimbursement for that. So there are additional costs. You're right about that. And it is something that we should think about and talk about. Okay. Well, I'd like to work on that a little bit more with you guys. So I'll follow up and potentially even bring a new business item at some point to maybe have a report about the financial impacts of these storms. So thank you again. Thank you all for everything that you do, keeping us safe and on behalf of the residents that I serve. Thank you, Amber. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Montanieri. Thank you, chair. I too want to let me start by thanking council member Gabbert for putting this update on the on the agenda, because it was it was timely. It was timely and Amber and and the whole city team, I too wanted to thank you all for everything that you've done. When we have these events, especially in one of the critical neighborhoods in my city council district, Shore Acres, the workload just goes through through the roof. And a lot of times these events are they're they're beginning on the weekends and I know that everybody's working hard during the week and then these events are coming in and our city staff is not getting much of a break. And but the response is getting better and better as as we we move forward. I had a meeting earlier this week with Claude and Liz and engineering and a couple other departments. And when it comes to these events, you know, we especially in Shore Acres, I want to I want to continue to talk about what we've done in the past, what we're currently doing and what we're what we have planned doing for for the future when it comes to infrastructure and some of these low lying neighborhoods that we have in in St. Petersburg. The response for this storm was was very, very strong, and I appreciate the work that public works in our stormwater traffic and pavement operations did when it came to getting street street sweepers out there checking the storm drains clearing them out. I spent I spent I spent I spent I spent five days in a row going around short acres and seeing our team in in action. And it's very reassuring not just to me as a city council member but to the neighborhood. I got a lot of responses positive responses because people were out there doing things to help alleviate flooding. So we still have a lot of work to do but and in this storm we we got off the hook, but we still have a lot of work going forward to alleviate some of these issues that we have in in Shore Acres, Riviera Bay and other flood prone neighborhoods in St. Petersburg. So thank you for the update. Thank you. I want to also concur with Council members. Council members. Thank you Council member Gabbert for wanting to bring this forward because the response time that we've experienced since I've been on on Council has just been indescribable. I mean, we are knowing what's going on almost like real time and I want to thank you. I actually put it out on my social media and to get the residents to thank you for them being aware of actually what's going on means a whole lot, especially as a council member who's trying to be informative. But as the city administration, Claude, Amber, you guys never cease to amaze me of how detailed you will get a quick text, but it tells us everything we need to know. And that has been very beneficial for us. And so I definitely wanted to make sure that I thanked your whole team in keeping us updated and informed. And I just appreciate the way that we seem to get. I don't want to hear from you that often. So I don't want us to have to get better at what we're doing, but I want to thank you for what you are doing. Thank you, Amber. Thank you, team. Seeing no one else having any questions or requests to speak, we will now go to our new business items, beginning with H1. And that is Council member Gabbert. I'm sorry. I turned my page fast enough. My apologies. So this new business item actually be no surprise to anyone because we have had lots of conversation about this already to this point. But I think the last conversation we had was Council member Floyd had brought it up again and Council member Mohammed as well. So I wanted just to go ahead and put this new business item forward. So I want to respectfully request a discussion on the appointment process for both the standing and ad hoc committee members appointments to the Community Benefits Advisory Council. And have that added to the referral item that was previously approved on the November 2, 2023 Council meeting. And I so move. Second. Having motion and second of item H1. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, can you please place your votes? Seeing all council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item H1 passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Next we will go to H2, Council member Floyd. Thank you. I have here, deferred from last meeting because I wasn't here, a new business item. Respectfully requesting a referral to the Health Energy Resilience and Sustainability Committee for a report from administration on our ISAP energy consumption renewable goals and progress to date. I'll move approval. Second. Having a motion and a second for item H2. Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting? Having all council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item H2 passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving right along. Now we have open form. Do we have any cards or anyone to speak on Zoom? No speakers on Zoom. No speakers on Zoom. No speakers on Zoom. Well, that rounds us up. We are at that moment of announcements and shortly after we will gladly adjourn. But do we have any announcements? Vice Chair Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Quickly, I just wanted to thank my colleagues. It's truly an honor to be chosen to serve as Vice Chair and I'm looking forward to serving with you. Chairwoman Fig Sanders and congratulations. I wasn't here last week to wish you congratulations and to say a big thank you to our Chairwoman Emeritus, Councilmember Gabbard. And so I know I shared with you a few words, but just thank you for your leadership in 2023. It was greatly appreciated. That being said, we do have a birthday. Our Government Affairs Director David Thompson. It's his birthday today, I think, actually. And so let's sing him happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear David. Happy birthday to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much, birthdays and blessings. I see no one else have any announcements. And again, I want to welcome our new Vice Chair, because he does not know what he is in for right now. But no, actually, I appreciate the fact that, you know, the willingness of all of us wanting to serve. And again, starting off 2024 on a high note that all of us are here, we're visible, we're heard, we're seen, and we are blessed. And I do appreciate all of the work that we are looking forward to. And thank you, Administrator Gerdes. We're going to do our best to get through these meetings as expediently as we can. But no, actually, we want to make sure that we do, you know, meet the needs of our constituents. And with that being said, I am calling our January 11th Council meeting adjourned. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair.