City Council - Jul 13, 2023

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Copley Gerdes, District 2, and Council Chair, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Edmonton Mary, District 4, Lisette Panowitz, District 5, and Council Vice Chair, Deborah Figg Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad, and District 8, Richie Floyd.

Good afternoon, everyone. We will call to order the July 13, 2023 City Council Meeting, beginning with a roll call.

Muhammad. Here. Floyd. Here. Gerdes. Here. Gabbard. Here. Montonary. Here. Kanowitz. Here. Dick Sanders. Here. And Driscoll. Here.

We will have our invocation given today by Council Member Edmonton Mary, and that will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise.

Please pray with me. Lord, today we come before you with gratitude. We thank you for being a God of love who is with us now in this very room. You never leave us, leave us, or forsake us. Your grace has brought us safe thus far, and your grace will lead us home. We thank you for making everyone that's in this room, every person that we meet, every citizen of our city, in your own image, with dignity and infinite worth. We thank you for the calling you've given every one of us who lives in St. Petersburg to care for your creation and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Thank you, Lord, for the men and women that protect our city, our police officers, firefighters, and paramedics. Keep them safe and protect our families. Cast your loving arms around our city staff who work so hard every day to make our city a better place for all people. We pray for our government, our president, our Congress, our governor and state legislature, our county commission, school board, our mayor, and this city council. We've been called to serve with honor, with grace, and with humility. Let us be good stewards to act on the issues before us and do what's right and best for our country, our state, and for the city of St. Petersburg. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. 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.

You may be seated. Thank you, Councilmember Montaneri, for delivering the invocation today. I appreciate it. All right, Councilmembers, we have an agenda before us today. I'll entertain a motion for approval.

Move approval. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Councilmembers, enter your votes. Seeing as all Councilmembers have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously.

All right, and next we have our consent agenda. Clerk, do we have any public comment on consent agenda?

Madam Chair, we don't, and there is no one in Zoom.

Okay, and thank you. So, I just remind everybody to please silence your phones in the chamber. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion for approval for the consent agenda.

Move approval. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda, and seeing no request for discussion, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Councilmembers, enter your votes. Seeing as all Councilmembers have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to pass the consent agenda passes unanimously.

All right, and we will move on to open forum. Clerk, can you please read the rules for open forum?

Sure. 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 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments, or when you 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 used, normal rules apply, including the three-minute time limit on comments, the requirements that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting, and the rules of decorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of decorum, the Chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. And Madam Chair, we have no one signed up for open forum, and there's no one in Zoom.

Okay, very good. We will close open forum, and we will go to our awards and proclamations, and we are joined, I believe, by Mayor Ken Welch. Is the mayor ready? I know, we moved the first part kind of quickly, so we'll give it just a second.

All right, Mr. Mayor, nice to see you again today.

Thank you for being here.

Madam Chair, it is great to be back. Welcome back to our long, hot summer.

Yes.

Great to see Council, our St. Pete team, and all the members of the public. Great to see you all here today. This afternoon, Madam Chair, I'm honored to bring two proclamations and my recommended budget to you a little bit later. Our first proclamation is in recognition of Americans with Disabilities ADA Awareness Day. I'd like to invite Council Member Gerdes to move east, if that's possible, and join me along with our ADA and diversity coordinator, Mr. Lindell Bright, administrative assistant Anita Dreyer, and representatives from CAPI to join me at the podium for the reading of the proclamation. In St. Petersburg, we are intentional about inclusivity and ensuring St. Petersburg is a city where everyone has an equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or ability. Since 1972, CAPI has done the work to help ensure that our administration remains informed and compliant with ADA laws. I applaud their work and commit to supporting their efforts. The work we do in partnership, administration, CAPI, the council, and the community is significant and makes all the difference for those of various abilities and their families. An important part of the work is bringing awareness, and in that vein, I'd like to present the following proclamation. Bill, can you hold that? Thank you. As July 26, 2022, marks the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and whereas the ADA has improved access to government services, programs, transportation, public places, communication, and information technology, and whereas the city established the Committee to Advocate for Persons with Impairments, or CAPI, in 1972, with the purpose to serve as an advisory group who would advocate, advise, and formulate positions on issues facing persons with impairments and provide advice and guidance relative to affairs, concerns, rights, and special needs of persons with impairments to ensure their full participation in the city's facilities, programs, and services. And whereas CAPI has advocated and funded many services, including closed captioning of all city council meetings, handicapped accessible aluminum docks for the St. Petersburg Sailing Center, closed captioning related to disasters and emergencies, beach wheelchairs, and ADA training for city staff. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg has a long-standing commitment to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and continues to strive to provide programs and services to all segments of the community. Now, therefore, I, Kennedy Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare July 26, 2023, as Americans with Disabilities Act Day in St. Petersburg, and call upon residents to recognize that understanding and compliance with the ADA is a means to guarantee equal opportunities for all. Thank you all for the show.

First of all, thank you, Mayor Welch and Councilman Chair Gabbard, and all city councilmembers. And I've come to you on behalf of CAPI. Dr. Jared Gabbard is not here today, but if you see a lot of CAPI members and potential CAPI members also. As you know, the way I do things, I always invite folks that are potential CAPI members to join us and be involved also. But I want to thank the mayor with the support for city council and councilman Gerdes also as far as that is that we are the envy of a lot of state cities just with the implementation of CAPI and around the nation. So without those folks, which I am just a staff liaison, I mean, they watch me and they advise me and they keep me in line. And so, again, I want to thank each and every one of you guys and the councilman and mayor Welch, phenomenal job and taking care of our personal disabilities. Okay. Councilman?

You came all this way each. It's warmer over here.

No, mayor, thank you, and colleagues, chair. Being on CAPI, the representative for CAPI for city council, has been one of the highlights of being here thus far. I shared yesterday with the committee, every time I am with them, I am humbled. Their regard, love, concern of this great city of ours resonates throughout all of its citizens. And I think if we could get all of our citizens to be as involved as our CAPI members are, we'd have an even better place. And so the care and the love that they convey during our committee meetings, I can't even come close to it because it's near and dear to their hearts, and I'm just very humbled every time I'm around them. And I learn something new every time I'm there, too. And so just thank you for your support, mayor. Thank you. First, thank you for the appointment to CAPI and chair Gabbard. And then also thank you to all of our members. We're doing amazing things in here in St. Petersburg, and I can't wait to be a part of the amazing things that are yet to come. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Councilmember Montaneri.

Thank you, and thank you, mayor, for recognizing this day. When you think about back in 1990 when the American Disability Act was passed, it was landmark legislation. But in your proclamation, you talked about how the city of St. Petersburg established CAPI in 1972, 28 years before that landmark legislation. And it just goes to show the values that the city of St. Petersburg has had since the city was founded. We've been a trendsetter when it comes to taking care of people, and CAPI takes care of people. And I want to thank you, mayor, for recognizing this important day. I want to recognize all the members of CAPI in our city staff that work so hard to make our city a special place for everybody. Thank you.

Well, and real quickly, I don't know that I could say anything any better than either of my colleagues have already said, but I just want to thank you all for what you do every day. And Councilmember Gerdes appointing you, and I'm sure the mayor would agree to this committee, was a no-brainer because just of your heart and who you are as a person, that I know that you do a great job on this committee. So thank you for your service and your leadership there. The work that you all do, I know firsthand, critically important to the lives of so many. I've shared before with Lindell, I think, that when I was 14, my mom became permanently disabled. And so I've lived with someone who very much needed to live in a place where there was accessibility and resources. And you don't get that in a lot of places. But the work that CAPI does and we in the city do for people with disabilities really makes it a much easier place to live, a much easier way of going through life. So I just want to applaud all of you for being advocates, not only for yourselves but for others, because that is not easy work, and it shows in the work that is done every day to improve the lives of others. So thank you so much for everything that you all do. We will move on now to item D2, which is our Sunrise Sail 50th Anniversary Proclamation, and that will also be delivered by Merritt Welch.

Are you all sticking around? Okay. I was going to give you a minute. This is exciting stuff. After that. So it's all good stuff.

They're all welcome to stay all day if they'd like. Absolutely.

I just didn't want to get in the way. Madam Chair, our second proclamation is in recognition of the Downtown Business Association and their annual Sunrise Sail. Please join me in welcoming the Association President, Jose Martinez, and member Tammy Sims to the podium as I present the proclamation. And we'll wait one second. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you, sir. Good to see you.

Chair.

I'm going to call him.

Yeah, I'll just ask to speak first. Thank you. I'm sure it was never a sight.

Now, please don't compare me to Jose because I can't even start to match.

I hear he has a shop that you're looking at. Yeah. I need some help.

Downtown businesses are critical to our city as they help to ensure that residents, employers, and visitors alike can buy goods and services, conduct business, experience arts and culture, secure lodging, enjoy fine and casual dining, and the list goes on and on. For 50 years, the Downtown Business Association has played a role in downtown St. Petersburg's reputation as being one of the hottest places to visit in the southeastern United States. I don't know if we really want to use that descriptor today. One of the best places to visit in the southeast United States. It's our pleasure to recognize their work and the famous sunrise sail with the proclamation, and it reads as follows. Whereas the St. Petersburg Downtown Business Association was created in 1973 as a nonprofit membership association representing the arts, retail, restaurants, banking, utilities, city government, and other various types of businesses with a common interest of strengthening the downtown area. And whereas the association promotes downtown St. Petersburg as a vibrant, safe, and friendly waterfront environment with outstanding entertainment, cultural attractions, educational facilities, retail, art galleries, medical care resources, architectural design, and business opportunities. And whereas the association created the annual sunrise sale in 1973 to bolster the livelihoods of its retail and merchant members in a historically slower season of the sales in the summer, and has held the event annually ever since. And whereas 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the association and the sunrise sale event. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim Thursday, July 20th, 2023, as Sunrise Sale Day, and encourage all citizens to recognize the importance of the businesses that enhance the fabric of the city. You see what we did there? That's a good word.

Now, first of all, please do not compare me with lyrics. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Chair. I'm Gavin. And thank you, Council Members. First of all, I thank you for this recognition. These are the board members of the DBA. And they are the ones who do the work. They are the ones who recognized a long time ago that this is the kind of effort that we need to put our resources behind. And we thank you for this recognition. And, most importantly, I really, really appreciate the fact that we are here today. And we look forward to seeing each and every one of you in your pajamas. Next week, Thursday, at 643, you know, there is cake. All right? And mimosas. And mimosas. So, you know, we invite you to please join us. And we thank you for the recognition.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Chair, Council Members. It is a pleasure to be here in yet another capacity of supporting this wonderful city that you all are giving your service to. And I do wish to echo Jose's invitation. We hear often, gosh, I've never heard of that. Is it the first time? Fifty years. And so, I really do encourage all of you to support your favorite retailers and merchants. And join us for something that the New York Times has written about as the world's largest pajama party. And so, it is yet another thing that makes St. Petersburg special and what we're all here for. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. And thank you, Mayor, for delivering this important proclamation. As a former board member of the Downtown Business Association, I could not be more proud to be here with you today looking forward to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of this event. This is often something that goes beyond even Black Friday or Small Business Saturday in helping small businesses with their bottom line for the year. There's that saying about when you support a local business, you're helping a neighbor to send their child to swim lessons and to help to buy school supplies and things like that. And these are the people that they're talking about. I'm so happy that Meredith Rogers of Sapphire Audiovisual Experts brought her children here today. Skylar and Jake, they are enjoying summer camp this year. And it's because they are supported by the community, because they stand strong as a family-owned business, as a minority-owned business. Thank you, Meredith. Women-owned businesses mean so much. When we talk about things like the conservation, the storefront conservation plan, and the grant programs that we have to help small businesses, and all of the good work that comes out of the greenhouse, I always think of the DBA because these members, these business owners, are the ones that we're working to help. And so it is so appropriate that we get together today to celebrate and that everyone puts on their pajamas and joins me at 6.42 a.m. on July 20th to cut that cake. Not have a mimosa because it's on a Thursday, but, you know, maybe later on. And help us not only celebrate 50 years of the DBA and the Sunrise Sale, but to celebrate the small businesses that really make St. Petersburg who we are. I mean, this is what it's all about. You guys have been like family to me for a long time, and I could not be more proud of the work that you do on the DBA for the Sunrise Sale and for our great city. Thank you.

Councilmember Gerdes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to echo some of the sentiment from Councilmember Driscoll. And, Councilmember Driscoll, thank you for your past presentation on the DBA and all the work that I know you did. You know, I just wanted Jose to quickly thank you. So, I'm a frequent flyer in Jose's shop, Satorial. And I can't think of a better leader when it comes to the DBA. Every time I'm in his shop, he's talking about other people's businesses. He's not talking about his own. By the way, he works with his son. He could be talking about his son. He could be talking about his shop. He doesn't. He's talking about, have you been to this new place? Have you been to this? Have you seen this? That's our conversations. And I've happened, I linger in there. And so, much to my wife's dismay. And I just, Jose, I just want to personally thank you for your leadership. I know that your board and the members feel the same way. And I'm just so happy about what this organization has created and continues to create in downtown. And so, just a very big thank you from me. And congratulations on store number two. And I'm excited for you and excited for 50 more years of the DBA in the pajamas. We'll get your son to do it. We'll get your son. Yeah, we'll get your son. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll have future board members here. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Absolutely. Thank you, everyone, for being here today. Good luck at your sale next week. And congratulations on all of your success. All right, Council Members, we will move into our report items. And at this time, we will take up item F3, which is Mayor Welch's FY24 Recommended Budget. And we are joined by not only Mayor Welch, but also our Budget Manager and Budget Director, Liv Smikofsky.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We're back to an exciting time of the year. And as you remember, last year we started a new tradition with me personally presenting the recommended budget to you. And I'm excited to be back here with the recommended FY24 budget. As we build any budget, I'm always mindful of the Stewart principle, referring to former City Council Member Bob Stewart. And that is that we have limited resources and unlimited needs. Our city team has diligently worked since last January to strike the appropriate balance between those needs and our resources. Just to briefly recap for the public, the process and the development of the FY24 budget. We visited with City Council in January to discuss your initial funding priorities. In April, we held a budget open house to get feedback from the community. And notably, this budget open house was shifted earlier in the process to get more effective input from the public, as we believe that early and frequent contact with the community is important for the informed decision-making process. Then in April and May, we held workshops with City Council to provide an update on our progress. All of these meetings were designed to get input as we work through the development of next year's funding plan. The budget process is centered on ensuring our resources are deployed within our five pillars of progress, the five areas of impact in the community, housing opportunities for all, environment, infrastructure, and resilience, equitable development, arts, and business opportunities, education and youth opportunities, and neighborhood health and safety. These pillars, again, reflect what we do in the community, the impact we have in the community. These pillars are guided by six principles for accountable and responsive government, including in-touch leadership, inclusive governance, informed decision-making, innovation, intentional equity, and community impact. These principles guide how we govern. And so together, our pillars and principles help guide our daily work and also guide the budget process. The recommended FY24 budget ensures strong fiscal stewardship while still meeting or exceeding the City's commitments and priorities. Before I hand the presentation over to Liz Makofsky, I'd like to preview a few highlights from my recommended FY24 budget by focusing on some key investments for each pillar, starting with housing opportunities for all. Our St. Pete team, the administration, and City Council have celebrated recent successes like the opening of 51 new affordable units at the Shores in South St. Petersburg and the groundbreaking for 85 units for senior households at Bear Creek Commons. If we can put the lights back where they were, it's actually easier for me to read that way without the glare. Thank you. We have created the Housing Opportunities for All agenda, which expands and updates the 10-year strategy established in FY20 to increase affordable and market-rate multifamily housing supply, affordable single-family housing, and accessory dwelling units, increasing the 10-year target by 1,050 units for a total of more than 8,000 units. We've taken multiple actions to help residents settle in St. Pete, stay in St. Pete, and be stable in St. Pete. These include increasing down payment assistance in home rehab, creating a citywide pilot program for affordable rebates for rehab, committing $34 million in ARPA funding for affordable housing, providing resources to prevent evictions, as Council knows very well, instituting missing middle NTM1 zoning on corridors to increase density, and reducing or eliminating fees for affordable housing. I'd like now to thank City Council for your collaboration and leadership on all of these important initiatives. Within our recommended budget, we include $8 million for the Housing and Community Development Department's FY24 budget. This budget includes funding in the general fund as well as several other funds that contain state and federal grant resources to fund the city's various housing grant programs. In the CIP budget, there is an $8.75 million in penny for Pinellas funding over the five-year CIP plan for affordable housing land acquisition. This budget also provides resources for homelessness, especially as it relates to homeless individuals, youth, and families. In FY24, there is funding for social action grants at the level of $700,000, $400,000 for Rapid Rehousing, $260,000 for the Childhood Homelessness Project, and $150,000 for Pinellas Safe Harbor and Pinellas Hope, and $148,000 for St. Vincent de Paul to mention just a few of these investments. The next pillar is education and youth opportunities. We believe that our youth are our city's future. With the proper support and connection to opportunities, they will continue to call St. Petersburg home as they grow into adulthood. One of the needed opportunities for youth is access to jobs and gaining practical work experience. Not just for the pay, but for the opportunity to experience the world of work and the opportunities that that provides. Young people are asking for these opportunities. This was confirmed to me once again just yesterday, as I met with about 60 high school students in the Anytown program, which was held at Eckerd College. One of the students' areas of consensus is the need for jobs for young people. I've heard the same requests from young people at our previous youth conversations. So we are responding. I'm recommending an increase of $500,000 for a total of $1 million for our youth employment programs in FY24. Also included is a new investment of $500,000 for literacy and STEAM programs to address the literacy gap in many of our neighborhoods. In the Environment, Infrastructure, and Resilience pillar, the FY24 budget includes funding to support sustainability and resiliency. Examples, mainly located in the CIP budget, include Connecticut Avenue Northeast and Vicinity Resiliency at $4 million, $500,000 for stormwater system resiliency enhancements, and the upgrade of existing lighting at city parks at $100,000. Also on the operating side, the recommended FY24 budget includes funding to increase access to and the use of mass transit. Recently, administration has been working with PSTA on two new initiatives. One initiative would keep the Sunrunner free and requires $200,000 in funding. And because we are focused on intentional equity, I'm also recommending a second agreement to buy down bus fares on all routes for transportation disadvantaged riders at a similar level of funding, $175,000. Both initiatives will require interlocal agreements, which will become effective in November and October of 2023, respectively. The parties are planning on three-year agreements with renewal options for both initiatives. Under the Equitable Development, Arts, and Business Opportunities pillar, the recommended FY24 budget provides funding for strategic initiatives, such as the Grow Smarter Economic and Workforce Development Incentives Program at $270,000, small business grants and programs including microfund, commercial revitalization, storefront conservation at $500,000, the Economic Development Corporation at $150,000, and the Greenhouse Partnership with the Chamber of Commerce at $150,000, to name a few. And, of course, St. Petersburg is an internationally recognized city of the arts. We are home to hundreds of impactful wall murals, ten arts museums, and dozens of galleries and artist studios. Within the recommended FY24 budget, I've allocated $500,000 for the city's arts program, a $45,000 increase over the FY23 adopted budget. There is also $170,000 in the budget for the Woodson African-American Museum of Florida, $100,000 for the Florida Orchestra, $50,000 for the Arts Conservatory for Teens, and $87,000 for the Museum of History, which is a $75,000 increase over the FY23 adopted budget, and that will be used for archive support. Neighborhoods' health and safety is a fundamental priority for the administration and for City Council. Our administration has expanded this priority to include the health of our neighborhoods. St. Pete is diverse, and we must recognize that health and safety needs can be vastly different from one neighborhood to the next. This neighborhood approach allows our efforts to be impactful, holistic, and equitable. Within the police department, allocation is $1.7 million for the Community Assistance and Life Liaison Program, which is an increase of $399,000 over the FY23 adopted budget. And before Liz gets nervous, I'm rounding some of these numbers up.

So it's not, okay?

Okay, I could feel you back there. That $399,113 over the increase will fund the addition of two navigator positions and one supervisor position, allowing the program to extend into evening hours. Additionally, there is $1.5 million for the continuation of the body-worn camera program. Within the fire rescue department, funding is included in FY24 for five additional cadets at $278,000 for a total of 10 cadets department-wide. On the EMS side, there are six additional full-time firefighter paramedic positions funded by Pinellas County at $582,000. We also recognize a healthy city is vital to our success. The recommended FY24 budget maintains the city's Healthy St. Pete initiative by allocating $751,000 for the program located in the Parks and Recreation Department. And finally, to address the critical issue of mental health access and resources, we announced recently the allocation of $8.5 million to bring mental health services navigation and shared services support to our neighborhoods through the Social Services Hub program in response to this emerging need. And just a quick note, many of the young people rank mental health as one of the issues that we should look at, and we hear that consistently and increasingly. All the programs and services included in my recommended budget are achieved within our available revenues. In fact, because we continue to see double-digit property value increases, I'm for the second consecutive year recommending a reduction in the millage rate. From the current year, millage of 6.525 mills to 6.4675 mills. For homesteaded property owners, the effective tax increase is reduced from 3% to 2.09%, and the millage decrease reduces the citywide tax burden by approximately $1.7 million. Additionally, we will maintain our $500,000 investment in our economic stability fund to ensure that we are saving for the future. As I conclude my remarks, I would like to thank our team. We have a talented and dedicated staff of subject matter experts in every department who wake up every morning, come to work, and provide the world-class services that our community expects and deserves. They are setting the standard for public service, and I'm grateful for their service to our city. Special thanks to our budget team, led by Liz Makofsky. Our director. Is Jim here today? Okay, and budget manager Jim Chisholm, who I hear is retiring. So we'll have to check that out and see if that's a rumor or not, Jim. And, of course, Assistant City Administrator Tom Green and City Administrator Rob Gerdes. The level of detail and review in each department during the line item reviews is exemplary. And being an accountant, I enjoyed it immensely. Our chief of staff is an attorney, however, so this is his first time through. And he enjoyed it as well. Very informative. And thank you all for the line item reviews. Counsel, thank you for your leadership and your collaboration. I look forward to your review of this recommended budget. And I'd like now to hand over the balance of this presentation to our director of budget and management, Liz Makofsky. Thank you all. Liz? All yours.

Hey, well, good afternoon, chair and members of city council. You've just heard some comments from Mayor Welch on the FY24 recommended budget. And in the next few slides, I would like to go over some more details, more of the technical, not as fun side of the budget, and bring some of the major changes since the preliminary budget was presented this past spring. So, as the mayor has already mentioned, the recommended budget contains a proposed millage rate for FY24 of 6.4675 mills. This is a number we can't round. And this is a reduction of .0575 mills from last year's millage rate and equates to a savings of about $1.7 million. This rate will bring in $1.97.791 million in Avalorum revenue, which is an increase of 11.21%, or $19.943 million over the adopted FY23 budget. And the recommended general fund operating budget increased by $27.2 to $4 million, or 8.09% over last year. The following are some of the major changes to the FY24 budget since the preliminary version of the budget was presented earlier this year. A recap of all of the changes can be found in the executive summary section of the recommended budget book, starting on page 3. And funding has been included in the contingency in the budget department. There is $1 million in additional contingency set aside for potential expenditures relating to the historic gas plant redevelopment project. There's $100,000 for a citywide eviction prevention program. Additional funding for youth employment programs in the amount of $500,000 is included, and that brings a total amount of $1 million in the mayor's recommended budget. Additional operating capital for multiple departments has been added since the previous budget in the amount of $716,000, and includes operating capital in parks and recreation, police, libraries, fire rescue, transportation, and enterprise facilities departments. There's five additional fire cadets in the fire rescue department. And on the EM side, there's an update to the additional EMS positions that were requested from the county. There will be six positions added in FY24 as year one of a three-year plan to bring the department position count up to the staff multiplier. Also included in the mayor's recommended budget, there's $400,000 for a District 2 study and $100,000 for an Arts Plaza study. We added $25,000 additional funding for the Meals on Wheels program. The mayor mentioned the two new initiatives that the city is working with with PSTA that will require interlocal agreements. And there's $200,000 in the Parking Revenue Fund to keep the Sunrunner free and $175,000 in the General Fund to pay down fares for disadvantaged riders. There were increases to the commercial insurance charges for FY24, and these are found citywide throughout the departments and funds. As we received an increase in the FY23 amount, we needed to go back and look and update the FY24 amount. And also in the CIP program, we added $930,000 in an infrastructure to be determined project in the General Capital Improvement Fund for any additional infrastructure CIP issues that may arise during the year. In this next section, we'll give a quick overview using tables, charts, and graphs to illustrate the city's FY24 recommended budget. And these tables are also included in the Executive Summary section of the FY24 recommended budget book, which is also posted on the city's website. The total recommended operating budget revenue for the city for FY24 is $843.819 million. Charges for services make up the largest category at $358.9 million or 42.5%, followed by taxes at $264.6 million or 31.4%. The difference in the operating expenditure amount that you'll see on the next slide and the operating revenue budget on this slide is due to revenue received in funds that is not completely appropriated in the year it is received. The tax increment finance funds and the economic stability fund are some examples of funds where we receive revenue, but we don't appropriate in the recommended budget, but those appropriations may happen during the year as projects arise. The FY24 recommended operating budget for the city on the expenditure side is $826.934 million and is 8.8% higher than the FY23 adopted operating budget. The Public Works Administration, which includes the Enterprise Funds of Water Resources and Stormwaters, is 31.1% of the total operating budget, or $257.7 million. And next is the Public Safety Administration, which includes the Police and Fire Rescue Departments, that account for 25.87% of the total operating budget, or $213.9 million. Looking specifically at the general fund, the general fund revenue budget is $363.844 million. And general fund revenue comes from various sources, as illustrated in this chart. The largest single source of revenue, our taxes, including our ad valorem property taxes, and they come in at $264.6 million, or 72.7% of the budget. And the intergovernmental revenue, which includes our half-cent sales tax, is our second largest revenue source, at $41.98 million, or 11.54%. The total general fund expenditure budget for FY24 is 36, I'm sorry, $363.844 million. The city's general fund is categorized into our six city administrations. The single largest general fund investment made by the city is to our Public Safety Administration, which is 52.69% of the budget. The general government administration makes up the next largest at 19.04%, and some of the departments included in this administration are budget, finance, legal, and human resources. And our third largest general fund investment is in our quality of life type programming provided by the Community Enrichment Administration, which is 17.22% of the budget and includes parks and recreation departments and our libraries. Looking at our general fund budget by expenditure type, the single largest expenditure category of the general fund is salaries, making up 47.01% of the total, or $171 million. Benefits come in next at $69.9 million, or 19.2% of the budget. And these two categories combined make up 66% of the total general fund budget. Looking at our capital improvement program for FY24, our total is $164 million in projects, and it's a nice round number, which is a little bit unusual. Our water resources department is our largest fund. There's $81.575 million in projects, or 49.7% of the budget. Our four penny funds come in next at 26.7% of the budget, or $43.7 million. And the rest of the funds combined make up 23.6% of the budget at $38.7 million. And looking at our five-year CIP plan from FY24 through FY28, we have a total of $901.340 million in projects throughout the five-year plan. In closing, the first public hearing in the budget will be held on September 14th, and the second and final budget public hearing on September 28th, 2023. Both public hearings will be held at City Hall and Council Chamber at 6 p.m. And again, information on the mayor's recommended budget is available on the city's website, and there's a link to the website on this slide as well. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Liz.

All right, council members. I don't see any requests to speak, so I don't see any. Oh, sorry. Council Member Gerdes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Liz, thank you for the presentation. Mayor, thank you for the presentation. I just had one quick question, and Liz, I don't know if this is for you or maybe Tom, because it's something that came up in BF&T, but the increases to the commercial insurance charges, that's us anticipating that there will be an increase, right?

So when we did our initial budget, it was based on our estimate of the FY23 numbers, and since we did the workshop in April, we got the actual FY23 numbers, which were higher than the numbers we had in the FY24 preliminary budget.

Okay.

So we increased them working with the insurance, the human resources department, based on those 23 amounts where we think we'll be in 24.

Okay. I know that's something, and I'm only bringing this up. It's not really budgetary, but I'm bringing it up because I brought it up in committee. This continues to be, I think, an issue for us, that it continues to rise pretty rapidly. I had asked for some comparisons in committee about other cities that are being impacted because of Hurricane Ian, coastal cities. I'd love to see that because I know this is just continuing to be an issue. So I don't know, Tom, if we could maybe have a one-on-one or something like that. I just, we're not always going to have extra money, and so I want to make sure we're doing the best we can when it comes to that. But otherwise, thank you very much. This is awesome. Liz, you and your team continue to be phenomenal. Tom, thank you for all the work, and I know our one-on-ones, and I'm just super appreciative. You guys make this a lot easier than it could be. So thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Council Member Montaneri.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and Liz, thank you for the presentation. Thank you, Mayor. And I was not real pleased to hear about Jim's impending retirement. We need to talk. And it's always great to see Stacey. I'm glad you're back at work. But you all do a phenomenal job with this. I also wanted to appreciate that we're in this environment with the fast growth going on in our city, increasing property values, and I'm glad to see we're still working, trying to work our millage rate down. I would like to see a higher millage rate reduction, but I'm glad that we're working in that direction. I also, as you all know, I'm always looking to make sure that our reserves are adequately funded. $500,000 going to economic stability is acceptable, but I wouldn't rather be at the million-dollar target for that. There was one line that just got my attention, and that was the $930,000 for the To Be Determined CIP project. Is that a project, or is that a contingency?

It is a CIP project, and what we have it for is available funds where if there's an emergency that comes up during the year, that's a capital side that we haven't planned for. We can use it to match federal grants that we are going to apply for. Also, we're still seeing a lot of cost increases on the construction side, so it helps us mitigate some of those so we can continue projects that are budgeted, but maybe the bids come back in higher. So it's kind of a contingency, but it is an actual project, but we will come back to council to move it to that project, so you will see it and approve that transfer.

Okay. Have we done that before?

Yes, we did it last year, a bit higher amount.

Okay. All right. Thank you. And I was also glad to see that we have just under $2 million in our contingency fund, too. It's a good starting place. We just received this budget today, and we've got a lot of work to do to kind of go through it, but I appreciate the way that both sides, both branches of our government here work together to make sure we're good fiscal stewards. It's our main job as city council to approve the budget, so thank you all. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Council Member Hanowitz.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mayor and Liz, for the presentation. Everything's very clear, and I like when you go through it in order, which was done, which is very easy to follow. So obviously we have a lot of reading to do, as Council Member Montaneri mentioned, so we haven't had a chance to review everything. One thing that just got my attention, I was just curious, when you're talking about the contingency for the historic gas plant redevelopment project, you said potential expenditures. Do you have any ideas what that is in terms of what you're looking at here?

It's kind of what we put in, or do you want to go ahead? We put in contingency because there's a lot of unknowns out there, and by putting contingency, it'll be really transparent because we do have to come back to Council to get approval to spend those funds on a specific item. So it was more kind of, you know, anticipation on costs that could arise next year.

Okay, so there's nothing specific.

Council Member, thank you for the question, and thank you for that answer, Liz. And first of all, I just want to say what a pleasure it's been to be back with Council today. It has been enjoyable. You know, obviously, if we go forward, we're going to have expenses, whether those are legal expenses, whether those are owner's rep expenses. You know, that's to be determined, and that's why we wanted to put it in a contingency fund so we can shift those resources to the proper place at the time, and of course, Council will have to approve that as it comes forward. But we think this is the prudent thing to do, knowing that we hope that there will be these types of expenses going forward if we consummate what we're working on.

Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to find out whether or not there was an idea as to what, since it was very general. And then the other thing, I was very happy to see also Meals on Wheels get the additional funding. That's really important. But really appreciate the work that you all have done here, and I'm looking forward to continuing the conversation. Thank you.

Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. Thank you both for the presentation. It's, we're fortunate to be serving during good times, and we are really stepping up to this opportunity and responsibility to show that when we have good times, we're still being smart. And these are true investments in our city's operation today and in its future that I think we can all be proud of. being able to make those kinds of investments while reducing the millage rate is something that everyone appreciates. We know how difficult it is right now with the cost of living going up and providing that relief is important. We always wish it could be more, but since it can't be, what we want to do is show our residents and taxpayers what they're getting for their money. This budget, from what I've seen so far, and I'll have questions as we go along, but right now we are showing that. We are really showing a lot of bang for the buck, and I appreciate that. I also appreciate some of the big changes that have been announced. Thank you very much for putting in the funding for the study on the Center for the Arts, which I think is what you meant by the Arts Plaza study. And for the additional funding for Meals on Wheels, it gets us a little closer to closing that gap that we have between the number of seniors on the wait list and those who are being served. It is tremendous work that Neighborly is doing, and they can stretch their dollars when it comes to feeding our seniors a lot farther than we can. So having them as a partner is really important, and I'm glad to see that we're stepping up. I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the agreements with PSTA and what that can bring, because that is really big news. It's extremely exciting. As board members for PSTA, I'm sure Vice Chair Fig Sanders will agree. This is news. We can't wait to take back to that board. So if Mr. Morey perhaps could explain a little bit more, and I know we don't have the agreements yet, but anything more you can tell us would be really helpful.

We'll tag team it. I'll do the high-level stuff.

Yeah, I'm ready to jump out of my seat on this one.

My remembrance was that you were part of the request for that from the PSTA.

Yes.

And it makes sense. The route is working. It's proven the concept of premium transit. And as I said, from an equity lens, my thought is if we're going to fund that premium line, then we also ought to do something for folks that are really transit-dependent in the rest of the city. And so I said, if we've got the resources to do it, let's do something for those folks as well. So that's where the two funding amounts come from, $200,000 and $175,000. And so we're working through two separate agreements on that. That should come back November, October. But it's just from an equity lens, they both make a whole lot of sense. And the more folks we can move towards transit, the better.

Yes, absolutely. And as we've been making a case for Sunrunner, truly, if we can make it work in St. Pete, then that is the springboard to make similar routes and programs work in other parts of the county. And so, you know, between this and the PSTA board's recent approval of purchasing three more buses with the leftover funds from the Sunrunner construction, we're really lining this up for success. It's something that not only others in the county, but others in the state can look at as an example and replicate. So I really appreciate the administration's acknowledgement that it's important that we put some money into this, put some skin in the game to make it the best that it can be for our residents. The transportation disadvantage funding can be a game changer for us. And what I'm hoping with this is that with us putting in some money for that, that some of our other municipalities around the county and perhaps the county itself will look at ways that we can strengthen that program as well, because it's truly meeting the transportation needs of those who really need it the most. So thank you for all of that. I was wondering, I know that in some years past, we've had a committee of the whole meeting to kind of go back to the budget before we start our hearings, and this could be a question for the chair if we are planning to do that or if these are going to be one-on-one meetings that we follow up on. And I don't have the Cal schedule in front of me, so I don't know if that's something that we're planning to do before September. Okay.

But, Madam Chair, if I may, to Council Member Driscoll's point, our plan is to round with each of you during the next month or so. I think we're scheduling those now. And the point of that would be to, as we've done in the past, is take our conversation from January and compare it with what you shared with us and how we've tried to address that within the confines of the FY24 budget. So that's kind of the next step prior to the public hearings.

Thank you. I think there have been Committee of the Whole meetings in the past regarding the budget between July and September in some years when there were many questions that perhaps needed to be answered and discussed as a group. I would not consider this to be one of those years, although I welcome any opportunity for us to discuss it. I'm not saying that it's necessary this year, but I didn't know if it had been booked as a backup or anything like that.

As of now, I don't believe that we had any intention of doing so. I did understand from administration that there would be extensive one-on-one meetings, as I think we always do. So I think that if administration shares that there maybe is a need, we could certainly look at the schedule. But as of now, there is not anything scheduled. Okay. Thank you.

And I'm satisfied with that because I think this is close to as good as it gets.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Mohammed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues with appreciation for the staff and the team and the deliberation and the thoughtfulness that went into the budget. Also, thank you, Mayor, for, like, when I look at it, the responsiveness from, you know, hearing the conversations. That was always one of the issues, I guess, as an advocate. When you advocate around budget, you come in. It's a lot for me. But when you come in and, you know, we usually have, like, our set of priorities and things that we want to see added. And then when it doesn't happen, you think, okay, well, are they really listening? And so to be able to see the changes that have been made, hearing the feedback that comes from community and then seeing it reflected in the, you know, the preliminary, not seeing it in the preliminary, not seeing it is really encouraging and inspiring. Of course, the additional funding for youth employment is something that was on, you know, my list. I know I had a big list, so it's a lot of stuff on there. But I just want to say thank you for that. Exciting to be a part of the entire process for the first time. And I also want to give a huge shout-out to Tom just for his availability and the way that he's shown up for me with the questions that I've had, the conversations that we've had about budget. It has been very helpful, and I'm really appreciative to him for that. And so I want to just thank you and thank you and look forward to having the continued conversation. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Council Vice Chair, Fick Sanders. Thank you. I just want to start by saying this, like, may be one of the easiest budget reviews we've had since I've been on council, and I appreciate that. I'm glad Council Member Driscoll brought up the PSTA conversation in those two programs. And, Mary, you know, I really want to thank you for that, especially with the transportation disadvantage piece. You know, we've already conversed about that, so I was really happy to hear that we were actually going to move forward with providing that for our constituents. I'm even more excited about the youth employment program. So, you know, I'm on the same train with Council Member Muhammad when it comes to our youth and the employment piece. I'm even more excited as to see what that breakdown looks like and how we're going to reach those young people. I'm excited about the citywide eviction prevention program. That was definitely one of my concerns and consideration in regards to financing and funding those programs. But overall, again, I'll have to say that I do agree with my colleagues in regards, regarding the process and regarding the conversations that have, you know, been had and regarding, more so than ever, I say this time, we're listened to. And so I do appreciate you and the staff for that. And so I just wanted to just thank you, but really about the PSTA piece. I was really excited about that. So thank you so much. Thank you, Chair.

Well, Mayor, I guess I'll just sum it up with saying, like, this budget is what inclusive work looks like. You have really, like everyone else said, listened and tried to fill holes where you can as they align with your pillars. And this budget, I think, you know, you've just knocked it out of the park. So thank you so much. You know, definitely, I think Council Member Driscoll said it, like, we're going to dig into it, right? We're going to dig in. We're going to have some questions. Those one-on-ones, I'm sure, will be very helpful to kind of getting to the bottom of things. But we all create very large lists. Every department creates very large lists. Those lists go on and on. And there's so little resource, really, at the end of the day. So you have really found a way to try to fill those gaps. I just want to personally thank you on behalf of all of the residents and the businesses of District 2 for finding the money to fund the study of what the future of the district will look like. Very excited about that project. Cannot wait to work with you and your team on that project. Being the gateway to the city and the first thing that most people see when they come in, it is important and critical that we shine a light. And I'm very excited that we're going to do so. Council Member Gerdes, you mentioned the insurance issues. And that's something that I think all of us are incredibly concerned about. Back in May, we did the resiliency summit for TBRPC. And Blaise and Golia sat on a panel discussion with me, really kind of trying to get the word out to a lot of municipalities who don't have the kind of resources that we have. That this is going to continue to be a crisis if the state of Florida, especially, doesn't get their hands around insurance. And while today we've got $1.7 million, like you said, we may not always have this extra money. And so, you know, the insurance, that issue, that is going to ultimately trickle down and affect taxpayers in a much greater way. So I'm glad that we're keeping our eye on that. Unfortunate that we have to continue to budget for it. But it's definitely something that we're going to be faced with hard choices into the future. So we'll keep our eye on that. We'll continue to work on that. And I hope that all residents realize that while they're feeling the burden, we are feeling the burden as well. And trying to mitigate where we can so that we don't ultimately have to pass that on any further. So I just want to thank your team. Thank you, Tom, Rob, Liz, Jim, everyone that works on this. Every person on staff who touches the budget, you guys do a phenomenal job. And you make this very challenging process look easy. So thank you all for everything that you do. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to have the whole budget team stand up and be recognized. Great job, guys. Madam Chair and Council, thank you for the spirit of collaboration. I know we've got a lot more work to do, but we're doing the right thing for our city. And I appreciate the partnership. Thank you all so much. Thank you. All right.

All right, Council members. We will now move into new ordinances. Take up item E1. We're joined by Transportation and Parking Management Director Evan Morey. And, Clerk, can you please read the title?

Yes, ma'am. Proposed Ordinance 547H, an ordinance amending the St. Petersburg City Code to remove Chapter 28, Vehicles for Hire in its entirety, creating a new Article 9, non-motorized and low-speed vehicles in Chapter 26, amending Chapter 12 related to fees charged for public vehicles, providing for servability and providing an effective date. And the public hearing for this item is on August 3rd, and we do not have any cars, Madam Chair.

Move approval.

Second.

All right. I guess that answers the question if you want a presentation. So, thank you, Mr. Murray, for being here. We have two Council members, however, that do have some questions. So, Council Member Floyd.

I was hoping for a presentation.

Oh, well, we actually do have a call for a presentation. So, are you prepared to give a presentation today?

I can say a few words. And then Heather Judd with the City Attorney's Office, I think, is prepared.

Hello, Ms. Judd. Will? Yes. I don't have a slideshow or anything like that. I provided the backup materials, which were provided at the PS&I meeting, and that consisted of just a brief history of the program. Vehicle for Hire program has been with us as part of Legacy Code since early 90s, a version. It existed in the 80s, but mostly what we've had, we've had since the 90s. Now, generally, as I said at PS&I, around 2014, when we had the transportation network companies, as they're known in state law, or Uber, Lyft, and those ilk, we started to lose numbers from the program. And we were effectively preempted in 2017 from any regulations related to those vehicles. So, pretty much overnight, our ability to regulate most of our customers for vehicle for hire service permits went away. In 2017, also in 2018, council amended the code to take away one of the parts of the program. There was a part that certified the vehicles, the vehicle for hire certificate, and then there was a background check permitting process for drivers. City council at that point decided to forego, and we removed from code the vehicle for hire driver's permit, and we just kept the certificates for the vehicles and the business tax. And there was discussion of whether we could remove business tax. We saw it in attorney general's opinion from the state. We are not allowed to change our business tax in any way to get rid of it for everyone else, so we still need to charge that per car. We can't create an exemption that the state has not created for us. So, if we were completely exempted from taxis, limos, pedal buses, and all of those other folks, then we could take them out of business tax. But until they do, business tax will remain unchanged for those individuals. Now, what you're seeing here is we're proposing to remove the program. As you can see from the charts that was provided from the business tax division, we are, I think, 20 separate customers and companies now from a high of almost 600 prior to Uber, Lyft, and preemption. So, this program isn't really doing what it was supposed to do. It could potentially create a possible liability situation because you're talking about the main purpose of certifying and obtaining the stickers is that the city is coming on as an additional insured, and there's an insurance component to that, which isn't really served when the vast majority of vehicles performing these type of rider services are not covered under this program. So, lastly, the recommendation was in consultation with the business tax department, who does the administration, with PD, who does the enforcement, and with Evan, who manages some of our, his shop manages the contracts for pedal buses, low-speed vehicles, and micromobility. It was thought that we would remove the registration program vehicles for hire, leave that Chapter 28 reserved for future use for anything else. Now, pedal buses and some low-speed vehicles, those vehicles, how they're registered for the state, to be able to operate on state roads and many city roads, we have to specifically regulate them particularly. That's why you're seeing some vehicles are moving into Chapter 26, and that's just really where it's going to be holistically makes more sense to put them. Like micromobility is in 26, toy vehicles are in 26, regular regulations related to vehicles are in 26. So to specifically regulate pedal buses and continue to regulate them under their agreements with the city, they're just going to go to 26. Their day-to-day operations, fee amounts, and the folks that they work with in Evan's shop, that's not going to change. The only thing that will functionally change for these customers that were listed on that spreadsheet is they're not going to have to come in and get that sticker every year, and that's going to save them, I think, the current price is $95 a year. So all of those customers will be saving the $95 a year, but they'll continue to pay business tax with us. And if they're required to have an agreement now, they'll continue to be required to have an agreement.

Thank you for that overview. I appreciate it. That's what I was hoping for. I wasn't at the PS&I meeting, and so I'm grateful for that. Thanks.

All right. Very good. Council Member Muhammad.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Same here. I missed the meeting, and I appreciate the overview. The question that I had is in Section 26 around non-motorized vehicles with passengers. It's 26-503G, and it says that non-motorized vehicles with passengers except for pedal buses and horses and carriages may only operate between 9th Avenue South and 9th Avenue North, between 32nd and Tampa Bay. I'm just trying to understand how that area was chosen so we don't operate the service west of 32nd Street.

I don't have the code in front of me. Is that the pedal bus?

That is just for non-motorized vehicles, for non-pedal buses, and those ranges or courses are not changing from the previous, so those have been in there for quite some time. For certain types of vehicles, they're not allowed to operate on certain streets above a certain speed limit, and so when you're talking about if it's going over 25, so that's how some of those were drawn. Some of them were just drawn based on service areas for the people who were requesting at the time. A main non-motorized vehicle is, we don't, I think, have it anymore, but we had a horse and carriage, so they had a specific course as well. So that's part of legacy code. If that's something that we wanted to explore based on requests from the actual customers in that specific category, then I think we can adjust that.

When I think of non-motorized vehicles and looking at them, I mean, it has the exemption for horse-troned carriages, but I'm thinking, like, vehicles that may be on the trail. If there's other types of non-motorized vehicles, I'm just not that familiar. And when I saw that there was a certain area, you know, in my district going west, it's like.

I think another good example of a non-motorized vehicle would be a pedicab. And so that's a person on a bicycle with a seat attachment. They're also referred to as rickshaws, but we refer to them, I think, technically from business tax as pedicabs. And at the time, most of, I believe, our applicants were applying for a downtown area, and that would have some certain restrictions if they're going to be in the travel portion with the passengers. There's safety concerns on keeping them on the lower 25-mile-per-hour roads or things like that because they're specifically not allowed on sidewalks. So I think that's how we came with those original, but it wouldn't be set in stone unless we'd have to go and check and make sure that we're keeping within boundaries. And certain state laws, FDOT, the state roads, doesn't really like certain vehicles on their roads, so that's generally how we draw the courses. It's usually customer request, state law parameters in our own code.

Okay, and I was just wondering, so would it make sense to expand that area with the way that things have changed since this legacy work has happened?

We haven't had any requests for that, but we could evaluate that and wouldn't really be opposed to it. I think Heather did a great job explaining the history.

No, that makes sense. And then would they be allowed on the trail? Like if they had those types of vehicles, does the trail, is the trail included? I know you can't have motorized vehicles on the trail, so that would be a non-motorized vehicle, and the trail goes west of 32nd Street.

Well, we'd have to look. I know for regulations for the trail, sometimes we share parts of that with Pinellas County for responsibility, so that would be something I'd have to look more particularly in, and I couldn't speak to that to you tonight, but I can definitely look.

Thank you. That was it. Thank you.

Council Member Driscoll?

Thank you. Just to add to that, I would, since we're talking about vehicles for hire, I would want to see if there's some kind of data where how many and what kinds of vehicles for hire use the trail.

Currently? Well, projected, right?

Right.

As far as registered customers right now, I would say that's probably close to zero, because most of the customers that we have right now are limos or airport shuttles. Right. Those are the folks that a couple of taxi companies still come in and register for us, and as Evan says, we do have customers for our low-speed vehicles that have a agreement, a special license agreement with us to operate, and I'm not aware of any of those folks specifically having in their course parameters a mention of the trail.

Right. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be something that we see frequently. But still good to bring up, I mean, as we see that sort of some trail-focused development coming forward, I think there's something to be said for looking at the future of the trail and how it might be used for hire, among other things.

Well, the vehicle types will, again, be right in 26 with our other type vehicles, and so if we do have customers that are coming and seeking to do that, that would be something where that could be negotiated with Evan's shop, and if we need to make a code change based on that, we've done it before. We tweak things all the time based on new technology and new folks. I mean, that's really what's predicating this change here is the new technology.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There could be, yeah. It's good that that was brought up, the trail, just because there's, I mean, you think of, like, what could be coming forward in, like, the Warehouse Arts District. There are people who might want to utilize the trail for that for hire to help people from downtown get there and back and forth and vice versa. So, yeah. Sorry, I'm just, I'm kind of thinking out loud right now. So, I'm looking forward to hearing more about that. And thank you for bringing this forward because it is something that definitely needed to be updated. Thank you, Chair.

Council Member Muhammad.

Thank you. Yeah, and just continuing that, the logic behind that is exactly what you said, the conversations that I've been having with people around the Warehouse Arts District about having from or facing. There's some fences that, you know, they want to have removed so that they can engage more with people on the trail. So, we've looked at alternative uses for the pre-industrial area in Childs Park. So, looking at how those businesses can be more involved, looking at how we have on the Deuces Corridor, we have these stops and stations and other opportunities, new emerging technology, which might also create some innovative ideas for businesses that provide transportation, moving people. So, those are some of the other considerations that we have. But thank you for that. Thank you for the presentation.

Very good. Do we have any cards on this item? No? All right. So, we have a motion and a second. And seeing no further requests to speak, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council Members, enter your votes. Seeing as all Council Members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to pass. Agenda Item E-1 passes unanimously.

All right. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Judd. Thank you. All right. Don't go away. We're coming up to your next item, Report Item F-1, which is a resolution approving an agreement between the city and Power Design. And we are still joined by Mr. Morey. And I also do just want to make a mention that we do have Ms. Erin Riley from Power Design with us today as well. Thank you for being here, Erin. Nice to see you. And do you have a report on this item?

Yes, I have a PowerPoint to go over. All right. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for the opportunity to bring forward this agenda item to you. Just to orient us to where this project, potential project, is located. This is in North St. Petersburg on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North and 116th. You can see in this picture it's a very big intersection, uncontrolled. This image was taken when you have side street traffic on 116th. That is backing up. Vehicles have a hard time making maneuvers onto ML King Street. It's a 45-mile-an-hour posted speed limit. No stop control. No traffic signal for that traffic. So it just keeps going, and 116th has to wait at the stop signs. ML King Street is a county road, whereas 116th is a city-owned roadway. 116th, the characteristics of that road to the east of this intersection include one lane in each direction, a 30-mile-an-hour speed limit, bike lanes in each direction, and it essentially just connects ML King Street to 4th Street. Power Design now owns the western leg of this intersection based on a previous city council action to vacate that, and the city has traffic control jurisdiction of the intersection itself. Again, the side street traffic does back up. There's not many gaps in traffic, so it's difficult to turn, which also can become a hazard. There's no dedicated accommodations for people walking or biking to cross the road, despite the fact that there's bike lanes 116th, as well as sidewalks on ML King Street on both sides of the road. And we conducted a signal warrant analysis, and it does meet the warrants for installation of a traffic signal. Here's an example of a traffic signal that DOT put in on 4th Street at 116th, just to the east of the subject location, and it had similar situation where there was no signal. It needed a signal, and now it's been complete as of a couple years ago. Three years ago. And by installing this, it has improved the safety for all roadway users. A little bit about Power Design. They are one of the largest employers in the city, and on this map, west of ML King Street, or the left side of this picture, they own almost everything in the map. They own the retention pond. They own several of the buildings. They own all the buildings that you can see, the whole building. So only those southwestern most parcels do they not own. So they have a real campus here, a lot of employees, a lot of visitors, a lot of people in and out. Also, we began working closely with Power Design because of that vacation several years ago, and that's where these conversations initiated. And they were very cooperative with us to help us figure out a new trail alignment for the future because that was going to be one of the issues regarding the vacation. So I feel like we're happy to present a very unique solution to a challenge, and I would like to thank our partners as part of that. I look at this as a public-private partnership to solve a challenge that we share with the multiple jurisdictions and ownership. And what we've put forward is back in those discussions that began in 2019 or so and have continued and have evolved, I'd like to again thank Power Design because not only are they putting in funding because of the Western Lake being private, but they came up with the idea. They said, hey, if we put in some money, may we be able to advance this? And I said, well, that won't hurt. Certainly could help. Could help. And I think it helped with discussions with Pinellas County as well. So I'd like to thank the county for stepping in. We have $135,000 in an agreement from Power Design as a private investment, $382,000 approximately from the county. The agreement calls for the city to put in $382,500 as a maximum, but administration is requesting a $100,000 contingency because of the way that we've seen price escalations, and we just want to have that cushion there. We won't use it unless we need it. And hopefully, it sounds crazy, but hopefully a million dollars will buy a traffic signal these days.

I know.

So for the city funding strategy, we have a great way to pay for this because we have impact fees that are in the bank available. This is not a general fund expense. The area, the Gattastaff area was created about 30 years ago, and property owners and developers had to pay into a pot to pay for future transportation improvements. There's a list of improvements that had to be complete. Those are all complete. So now the excess funds that are still available, we can identify those and put them towards other transportation improvements such as this. So that's where the city portion is coming from. The county is also using transportation impact fees. So just a really good way to pay for this from the city perspective, and of course, with the power design, it also helps bring that down. So within this red-lined area, you can see that it's not all of Gateway. It's a certain area, and this does fall within it. And with that, I'll conclude, and we request that city council approve the resolution to let us move forward with the agreement and the construction of the signal.

All right. Well, Evan, thank you for the presentation, and I just want to thank you and Pinellas County and our friends at Power Design, because that is, it was a great collaborative process. All of you coming together, finding a relatively quick solution. I think I probably called you maybe, what, six months ago? I mean, it doesn't feel like it's been that long ago. You're probably going to tell me it was longer, right? But yeah, it went really smooth, came up with, you know, I think something that, you know, really works and is a great model for how we can improve transportation and traffic safety in a collaborative effort, especially with such a large and vital business. The traffic coming in and out of there is crazy. Like, if anybody's not driven and, you know, needed to come in and out of that intersection, I don't know how you've all done it for as long as you have. So, there's also apartments and, you know, all kinds of access going on through there. And so, I'm really excited to see this get done, and very excited to hopefully, somebody will move it forward.

Move approval.

All right. We have a motion and a second, and I don't see any other requests to speak. So, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present, council members have voted. Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to pass. Agenda item F1 passes unanimously, with Councilmember Driscoll being absent.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

All right. We are going to now move to item F2, which is a resolution accepting GMP for the remaining work for the President Obama Main Library renovation. And we are joined by City Architect Manager, Raul Quintana.

Good afternoon, Councilmember. Hello. Thank you.

Oh, and sorry, we also have Community Enrichment Administrator. I'm going to get that right one of these days. Mike Jeffries. Thank you for being with us. Oh, hello. Thank you for being here.

So, long time coming. One that we've been working on for some time and much anticipated throughout the community. This officially will move us forward with the construction and renovations of the Obama Main Library. So, happy to present. We'll move through the slides fairly quickly and then leave it some time for Q&A. So, this item is the approval of the GMP proposal number two from Biltmore Construction for the renovations of the library in the amount of $14,078,157. This is GMP proposal number two. GMP proposal number one was the abatement of the asbestos and the demolition, selected demolition, which we'll go through just briefly. And in order to move forward, that approval of this GMP proposal will be incorporated into the second amendment. That's also part of the write-up. And then there's some significant discussion here on the funding. So, we're appropriating $13,043,549. There's a number of action items that will be taken to appropriate. There's essentially four separate allocations here that we've worked more closely with our budget director and city administrator and staff. The first is unallocated bond funds, $514,000. As part of the project, we're replacing the entire windows around the facility, which will upgrade not only from an impact rated standpoint, but also energy. So, the energy revolving energy investment funds contributing to the project, the general capital fund, interest earnings on the bond, and then a number of allocations from the penny funding, the penny assignments to make up the entirety of the difference. And I'll explain how we came to that amount. So, just a little bit of background. The building was built in 64. Really, there haven't been a whole lot done to it since then. I mean, there was some modest renovations in 2010. But what really has prevented us from moving forward with this project has been life safety issues and the fact that the building wasn't sprinkled. In order to get that to happen, we had to deal with major asbestos in the ceilings and abate it. And so, for a number of years, the facility really wasn't up to standards, both in technology, just in operations of a modern-day library. We had penny round for funding that was appropriated for the library in the amount of $6 million. There was also some previous dollars that were available to us that we've been holding on to to kind of combine with this effort to make sure we do it all right, including the parking expansion. And so, when we presented to Council in April of last year to approve the GMP proposal number one for the asbestos abatement, we understood and we knew at the time that there was going to be some issues with the amount of money that we had. And we had projected a shortfall of about $7.2 million at that time. And then after that, once we got into the asbestos abatement, and I'll show you some slides of what that looked like, it was significant. What we ended up having to do with the asbestos that was encapsulated in the under-the-roof structure itself, once that got removed, we found that over time, a lot of that asbestos came loose. It got captured in some of the cavities of the walls. We ended up gutting the entire library. So, frankly, we're getting a brand-new library on the inside. The structure itself is fine. The perimeter's not changing. It's still the classic mid-century modern building that we've all seen and loved. So this is, you know, the project scope. This is what we're ultimately going to get. It's a upgrade, complete upgrade of the fire protection system, which by code we needed to do. For the first time, the library will be fully fire sprinkled. Life safety code upgrades and stairs and all the other components. Major infrastructure upgrades to the mechanical lighting, all-new electrical. The elevators upgrade, ADA improvements, which the library was seriously lacking in. Technology, we're now going to bring the library back, you know, right into the 21st century. It's going to be the hub of the technology for the entire system. And most importantly, the interior space just really needed to work for the operations side, for the staff and the customers. And I think we've met that. There was a slight change to one of the mezzanines. The mezzanines, as you know, were unique. In the 1950s, they found a pretty kind of creative way to support the mezzanines by building the stacks to support them. And we're going to remove one side of that to provide for operational needs. Chiller replacement for energy efficiency, upgrading the front entrance as part of the addition of the parking. The front entrance has these canopies. Those canopies are going to be removed. One of them is really low. It's about seven feet high. So we're going to raise that. ADA access is going to be right at the front door. ADA parking now right at the front door. The replacement of the window system on the entirety of the building. So those are the major improvements, the parking and then the rear patio improvements. And then we're working real hard to maintain our LEED certification as well. So this is kind of just a snapshot of really, frankly, where we were on April of last year when we presented to you the GMP proposal number one, which was for the asbestos abatement of $1.4 million project that was approved, and kind of where we expected that we would be based on cost projections at the time. And the GMP proposal we received on June 11th, you can see how the dollar is shaped out. There's, you know, at the time in April of last year, we thought, you know, about $7.2 million. And we knew that that was going to, that was necessary. We explained the fact that the library really needed those improvements to make it operational. Since then, you know, the number of factors have affected us. It's number one, really, there's just a broad cost escalation in the market. I think we've all seen that in a number of other projects. So that has been a significant part of it. And just making sure that the projects, again, done correctly, complete the construction documents, get through the permitting. And then when we did, as I mentioned, when we had the asbestos abatement and the general demolition, we gutted the building. So removal of all those walls, that was unanticipated. So that's part of the cost escalation as well, to get it all back in, run all new wiring, new mechanical, the whole bit. This is what, this is where we're at. And we've been working real hard. We've built more construction to make sure we understood the numbers, make sure the numbers were right. There are contingencies within those numbers that allow us to move forward safely and somewhat conservatively that we feel is the right thing to do. And then the second item is, and I'm, you know, it is what it is at this point. It's we, in order to move forward with the demolition and the, and the, basically the work that we're doing, we had to move the library, all the, all the books and the staff out. We've been renting that facility. And we believe that in order to complete the project, which is about a 16-month construction, and then a period of time to move the books back in, we're going to need to cover that additional temporary facility rental, and then a project contingency. So the 13 million is the shortfall. And again, we've, we've had the, the funding as explained earlier. So this is the plan. And on the left side, your left, is the existing plan. On the right is what's proposed. It really hasn't changed a whole lot from where we presented it back in April of last year. Um, the emphasis here is really creating spaces that are multifunctional, that really provide, um, you know, a greater use of public open spaces. Uh, the front part of the library, as you walk in, is still going to be in, uh, able to be closed off after hours. The auditorium's still going to be where it is. The blue, light blue spaces are multi-purpose rooms, uh, meeting spaces. Uh, the yellow is really the circulation and the seating. So as you walk in the library, just before you get to the circulation desk, there could be, uh, there will be a, a, um, a temporary, uh, enclosure that could open and close. So, uh, you could secure the rest of the library while there's events on the front. Um, the bathrooms, as you can see, are, are much more robust, additional restrooms. The, the centralized portions in kind of the orangey and to the left, that's the, uh, administrative areas and the technology support services area. And then the teen and the children's spaces are going to be right in the heart of the library and they'll be enclosed with glass walls so you can see right through it. You can see the openness of the library. And so that's level number one and then level number two has effectively removed the, the stacks on that level. And that is a space for, uh, breakout spaces, a computer lab, just general seating and, uh, ability to, you know, just gather and, uh, read and, and, um, you know, just enjoy the views of the library. So the, uh, the site plan, um, is the parking, uh, will be added to the front about 33 new spaces and as you can see, the handicap space is right at the entrance. Uh, we also have major stormwater improvements because certain portions of the library parking, uh, at times do flood. So we're going to take care of that problem. We're also making some improvements for access to the patio and furnishings and other, uh, improvements there. So really nothing changing on, uh, the building itself, other than at the entrance, we're going to, we're going to do the, you know, with the change of the canopy. And we've talked to our historic preservation staff, even though the building's not, uh, registered historically, it is, uh, uh, a, a building of recognition. It was designed by William Harvard and it's a mid century modern building. So the replacement of the glass is sensitive to that and make sure that that all, uh, fits. And then I thought I'd, you know, just share with you some images that are really telling us to, um, what, what we're up against and what we've done and where we're going to go. This is a, uh, view from the north side of the library to the right would be the lake looking back at that stacks that are supporting that back mezzanine. That's prior to the demo and that's, that's what it is today. As you can see, we've completely removed all the ceilings, all the mechanical lighting, all the electrical, everything that was above that, that, uh, that ceiling. And at that mezzanine, and you can really get a sense of, um, you know, how vast and how open and the opportunities for this library to, to really be spectacular. This is, uh, a little bit past the entrance where the, the, uh, circulation desk is, um, and just looking back towards the lake and you can kind of, again, see really what, what we've been able to, uh, to do and, and how this is, um, kind of a starting point for something really spectacular. Now, uh, the front lobby same and that's it. So, happy to answer any questions you have, and I'm sure Mike and Mika be available as well. Thank you.

All right. We'll start with Council Vice Chair Vic Sanders.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. And, um, hopefully you can see by the smile, I'm so excited about this. I am looking forward to the completion of the library. I was there when, um, Mayor Kreisman made the announcement and I'm still as excited today as I was back then. And then we do understand, um, the, the, the increase, um, in construction. Hi, how are you? Uh, we do, well, I do understand, um, the increase in the cost for it and I'm hoping with all of the, the updates, the ADA accessibility to me is worth it. The, um, abastus abatement is more than worth what we're going to, um, actually invest in this. So, thank you for staying on this. I know it hasn't been easy, but you're going to write this out. We're going to write it, write it out with you. And I'm just so excited to make sure that we have a party when we have our Obama library. So, I just wanted to thank you, Mike, and thank you, A.O.L., and thank you, Mika, for, for being here and making sure that this is getting done. Because one of the things that we have to continue to strive for is for the love of reading and our books and making sure that they are accessible to the community. So, again, thank you so much for that. Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Montaneri.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Raul and Mike and Mika. Good to see you. This is one of those issues that we don't like to deal with. It's hard, but you get into construction, especially with this, the asbestos issue, it gets complicated. Then we live in an environment where construction costs and materials are just going through the roof. I appreciate the one-on-one that we had earlier this week. And besides things, prices going up nationally, here in Florida, after Hurricane Ian, you had kind of a big sucking sound of construction costs and materials going down to the area that was affected by Hurricane Ian. And that plays into this also. I don't, like I said, I don't like dealing with these huge increases, but we also value our libraries, and especially this main library. So the only question I wanted to ask, and you didn't mention the timeline, so can you talk a little bit about the timeline, Raul?

Sure, yeah, that's right. So with approval of the amendment this afternoon, the execution of the agreement, typically it takes 30 to 40 days. By the time we get the bonds and the insurance and approve the agreement, you know, we have a pre-construction meeting and notice to proceed. So within that window, I think it's fair to say that we'll have, at that point, we'll be able to issue a notice to proceed. So let's say September 1st or so, it's a 16-month duration right now. I'm challenging Biltmore to see if they can improve on that. Obviously, they've got a wide open space to work with, but at 16-month, it will put us towards the end of 24, and then to move the collection back into the library, get it all set up, and get it ready for, you know, staff and operations. I'll give it a three-month process. So spring of 25 is what we're looking at, the date to reopen the library. If we can improve on that, we will.

Thank you.

I appreciate that question, and, you know, I think Raul answered it perfectly. We just want to acknowledge the patience of our community, of the citizens, of our elected officials. You all have been very, very supportive. This has not been an easy road. I appreciate all the one-on-ones, a lot of really good questions. I wanted to celebrate the two folks that are standing here with me because when Raul gave his presentation, he made it sound as if we just took the bids that came in and just went with those. And I want the public to know that Raul used the word challenged with Biltmore, but he challenged all of the subs to come back and let's sharpen the pencil. We were a million dollars higher than we are right now today several months back when we met with Mayor Welch and with Rob and Liz and Tom's team, and Raul just continued to push and push and push. So we have not taken these numbers lightly. We know what this means. We know that resources are tight, and I think it's important that the community hear that. I'd like to thank Mayor Welch and Rob and Tom for helping us find the money to make this project possible. And then ultimately, based on our one-on-ones, I'd like to thank each of you because, you know, it sounds like after we all met that we have approval from all of you as we move forward with this. Not to belabor it, I'd also like to thank Mika because even as we're looking at these numbers that are moving in, Mika was just notified that we don't have the approval letter in our hand, but she's been applying for grants and has an email that says that we have been approved for a pretty sizable grant as we're moving forward. So, again, I just wanted you to know that your city team has been working very, very hard to try to mitigate this very strange environment that we're in and doing the best we can for our community to make sure that we're making the resources go as far as they can. So, a lot of thanks to go around to a lot of different people. I'm sure I've missed some folks, and I apologize in advance, but this has been a very, very unique project, and it's important that this group and our community knows that we've worked very, very hard to mitigate that.

Well, thank you. Thank you. So, Mika, can you talk a little bit about what our residents can expect with this new library when it comes to – because a lot of people think about libraries and books, and now they're getting – there's just so many changes going on.

Absolutely. Can you kind of – I'm very pleased to be able to speak to that, actually. The community can look forward to a variety of things that are going to be a bit different when you see the way the space has been reallocated, we have tried to leverage every square foot that we can to be appropriated towards what are the growing demands over the past 10 to 20 years, and watching the trends. And the trends tell us that programmatically people are wanting the collaborative spaces where they can connect with one another. The library is a great equalizer in a number of ways, and people are seeing that, especially post-pandemic. And the way that we came to the table to try to address the needs of the community as best we could in a virtual environment, we have seen increases go through the roof for electronic materials because people are more aware of what's available. And so at the same time that we have a high demand for our traditional or physical materials, we also have a huge demand for the electronic and kind of have our feet in both worlds. And so when they come into this library, what they're going to find is that that programmatic space is there to be able to request a room, which you could not do before. There was no individual group, smaller size, say study type room or tutoring space, that kind of a space available. Modern libraries have had this for, you know, a couple decades. So we can look forward to our community at our largest library, at our president, you know, Barack Obama main library, having what fits the name but also fits what our community deserves. Our member services team is going to be right front and center, as you saw Raul spoke to that. And, you know, the staffing piece of this, I know sometimes when we think about the staff space and what's happening with that, you know, I didn't want that to get lost, that we're not focusing on, you know, staff, you know, only, but it's about having staff in the proximity to be able to serve at the point of need. And the building over time, it's just evolved in such a way in its use that staff were not necessarily aware of the community. When they're first coming in, you know, we had stuff that are all the way in the rear of the building, you know, some of the things that they're wanting as far as technology, needing classroom instruction, et cetera. We didn't have a classroom any longer because we were, you know, had overgrown the space. Our tech hub is going to be located there. So not only are you going to have this tech instruction, but the backbone to support all of that is also going to be right there under the same roof. And there's a host more. I could keep talking on and on. But we have, you know, major strategic initiatives to head at adult services and workforce readiness in more robust ways than we could in the past. That mezzanine area, the reason why all of those stacks are now on the first floor and we have that open mezzanine area is to be able to really drive home some of the things that people don't know about. Like a career online high school program where people are getting their actual high school diploma and a certificate in a career area that gets them, you know, the ability to get their resume and get there for them to do and get a job. So, you know, so many ways that we are serving that we're going to be able to do it more robustly and actually have the space that, you know, makes that more feasible. So thank you for the question.

Well, thank you for giving us some insight of what people can expect and where libraries are going. And I want to create excitement at our library. You know, we value education here in our city. We want to be known as an education city. We've got a city council and a mayor that values reading.

Absolutely.

And having a library that is state-of-the-art and where people want to go and expand their minds. It's very foundational to our city. So thank you for being here. And I'll go ahead and move approval of the resolution.

All right. Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you. Well, I was going to start by thanking you all, but I have to thank Council Member Montaneri. Because every question I had, it's like, okay, he's covered that.

Literally. I think in order.

But, no, first of all, I want to say that since I've been on city council, this was one of the big items that came to me and to all of us. And we had one-on-ones because it was a big project. And, you know, sometimes it's hard to tell for citizens when we're up here having these conversations. They don't know about the one-on-ones we have. But these were difficult conversations that you all had with us from the get-go. It wasn't just this last conversation. It was the original one talking about some of the incremental costs and their big numbers. And, unfortunately, we are in this environment. There are things that just we can't do, you know, nothing about. We're just put in this position. But this is our main library. It is our main library. And it's a resource for everyone in our city. And so what we are doing is an investment in our future. It's something that needed to happen a long time ago, frankly. You know, it would actually have been a lot cheaper if we would have been able to do it earlier. But here is where we are, and now we have to do it. And so I'm glad we're doing it. And I'm also glad that, you know, in our conversations it was clear to me, and this was mentioned, that there was a continuing fight with the contractors and subcontractors to reduce costs. And they will be continuing to look for extra funds to make sure that we can reduce the numbers where we are because, you know, we're hopefully going to look at lower numbers if we can get some grant money because then you don't know what else is going to happen and you find and, you know. So hopefully this is it. But I also wanted to thank Tom and Rob because it's also about finding the money, how are we going to pay for this. And they did a great job looking for that money. So that's, you know, I think it just shows that everyone's on the same page. I think city council's on the same page, administration, everyone, to get this project off the ground. And before you know it, spring of 2025, we'll be here, and we will have the best library.

Ribbon cutting.

Exactly. Thank you so much.

Council Member Mohammed.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And just, that's the benefit of just waiting to press your button. A lot of your questions get answered. A lot of the comments get made. So I don't have to be redundant. But thank you all for what you do. I'm really excited about it. The photos, the before photos, kind of moved me in a way that I wasn't expecting because I spent a lot of time in that library. And just seeing, you know, the way that it's progressing and now seeing the things that will be happening there is really inspiring the work that we've been doing around literacy. And, I mean, I spent a lot of time there with organizing meetings and just, you know, just being in that space. And so to see, you know, again, I had like a flashback, like, oh, yeah, that's right. It did look like that because it's been so close for so long now. But just, I'm really excited about it. Thank you for the thoughtfulness about the technology. I'm happy to hear about the tech hubs and the way that the space will be used, maximizing space, creating space for the embrace of technology. We just had a youth summit at Florida Polytechnic and went into their library and didn't see a book. And it kind of threw me off. But they have like a space where it's dedicated to just, you know, electronic, you know, and digital books. And so to hear that that will be incorporated, I mean, I still am kind of old school. I like to kind of fill the pages. But to know that that will be a part of it and the thoughtfulness that's going into it and really merging the two is really exciting. And so I'm happy to support this as well. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

All right. Very good. Well, I believe we have a motion and a second. And seeing no further requests to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing as all council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to pass agenda item F2 passes unanimously.

All right. Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right, council. We are going to move into our CRA. CRA, but before I recess us, I just wanted to let you all know that when we get to CRA 2, 3, and then follow up with reports F4 and 5, I will be recusing myself on those four items. And the recusal is due to a personal relationship with the developer. So just wanted to let you know that. And then at this time, I will go ahead and recess the city council and convene as the community redevelopment agency. And I want to welcome our economic development officer, George Smith, to start us off with CRA 4.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, council members. I'm George Smith, Economic Workforce Development Office. We're bringing forward to you today five items that are related to the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area. Our first item that we'll bring forward to you is the Affordable Residential Property Improvement Grant Program. And what we're asking of you today is that you approve or recommend approval to city council the following program amendments to the Affordable Residential Property Improvement Grant Program. That you amend the prerequisite projects that exceed $20,000 for single-family units and $60,000 for multi-family units in the CRA TIF investments. That they would require city council approval. And we're asking that the threshold be increased to $75,000, which is consistent with city ordinance. And secondly, to allow administrative amendments related to income limits to account for annual revisions. In 2018, city council approved six new programs, of which the Affordable Residential Property Improvement Grant was one of them. The program allows for a reimbursable grant for exterior and interior improvements with the emphasis on funding renovations that upgrade vital systems such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and roofing. The grant is up to 40% of the pre-construction value of the eligible improvements. Since the program initiated in March of 2020, we've invested $474,000 that has leveraged an additional $1,298,000 in rehab investment on 24 projects, renovating 54 units, of which 20 have been homebuyers and 33 units are rentals. We received applications for an additional 15 units with an estimated grant investment of $398,000. The rental units are at four different locations. One is for 18 units, one is for 12 units, one is for two, and one is for one unit. This is an example of the Triple R Plus program, as it is known. This property, a new roof was put on, HVAC installed, upgraded electrical, plumbing, installed new windows and screens. The renovation cost was $49,600, and the grant was $19,840. The affordability period is 10 years on this unit. This is another unit that was done through the program. Again, a new roof, HVAC, improved and upgraded the electrical and plumbing, installed new windows and screens. Renovation cost $49,500, grant $19,800. Again, affordability period for 10 years. So, in essence, what we're asking, this is an overview, that the current program stipulates that any single-family units in which we would invest more than $20,000 in TIF investment or multifamily development, which we invest more than $60,000, that we would have to bring that to city council for approval. We're asking that that threshold be moved to $75,000. And, again, to reiterate what we're asking of you is that you approve this grant program amendment that reflects that that I've just listed. Any questions? Move approval. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you. I first just want to start with a quick question about, I'm trying to phrase this, just our motivation for moving from the threshold of $20,000 for single-family, $60,000, to $75,000. I know you mentioned it being in line, but I just, you know, is there more to it than that or just some details in that?

The program was approved in 2018, which the costs at that time are much different than they are now five years later. Therefore, the renovation cost has escalated, which means we would be bringing forward more deals or projects to you all on a more frequent basis. In addition to that, now developers have identified ADUs as another renovation component, which, again, means that the cost for the renovations would be much more. So it is just in line and being consistent with our other grants that we have to bring forward that is at $75,000 rather than to bring units that are $20,000 on a more frequent basis.

Okay. All right. That makes sense. I'm going to ask a question, and the answer might be no, and then there won't have been much point to it, but let me ask. We're going to talk, I think, next about doing a deal, I guess, with an individual about a project. How does that relate to this program? Are they two separate things? Is that a separate thing completely?

Well, it's the example of me bringing or us bringing forward to council a project that exceeds, which would have been a $20,000 threshold that now exceeds $75,000 threshold if this is approved. And then this would be an example. This will be the first one that we bring to council, a CRA for approval and council for approval. That would exceed that $75,000 threshold. Okay. That is what I was thinking.

And so I read through the, I guess, the terms and everything that was provided in the backup and made a lot of sense. One thing that jumped out at me, and I'll just tell you my line of thinking, was, you know, there's a clause in there about not discriminating. And I realized that, you know, it had all the things you couldn't discriminate for. And one thing that we passed here is non-discrimination for a source of income. But that's obviously, we're going to have a talk about that next week. And that's not in there. And it wouldn't have mattered if it was in there if, you know, the preemption didn't come through that just recently came through. Then I realized that there might be an opportunity for some of the tenant protections that we have had in the past and still have to this day but has got preempted recently to be included in things like these kinds of deals when it goes to affordable housing. So I don't know, and I see, I don't know, like, if that needs to be talked about today or included today. What I really want to do in bringing it up is talk about how we as a city continue to protect tenants under the situation that the states put us in and how, like, programs like this having, like, the set of protections that we can enforce through contracts added into them going forward. And so I wanted to bring that up to people, and legal probably has a comment on it. But that's the kind of thing I'd like to see when we amend these programs is we're continuing to do what we can to protect the tenants that will be there in the future.

Brad Tennant, City Attorney's Office. Yes, there will be an item next week related to the Tenant Bill of Rights. But as you correctly identified, via contract, when we're giving someone money, there are different opportunities, and we can have some requirements related to it. Although I would defer to Mr. Smith regarding a lot of times some of these are homeownership-based, some of them are rental-based, and for each individual one, obviously it matters, you know, what the money is going for. So I can't speak to this particular circumstance. You know, is it a rental? Is it not? So forth.

Yeah, thank you for that. And I'm not trying to, yeah, get into the specific either, but the agreement for the one that's coming to us in a little bit has language about rental in there. It also has language about sale and ownership as well, and I just thought having the language expand to include that kind of thing would be great to see in the future. But I've got some more questions, but I think we'll get into that when we go to get into the granular of the actual deal that we'll be talking about today. But I wanted to put that out there for potential upgrades to the program in the future. So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Montaneri.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, George, for the presentation and for the 101 earlier this week. So I want to ask administration, you're wanting us to change the approval requirements in the whereas clause in the resolution. What sort of reporting will administration commit to if we approve these changes to city council? Because I would like to know what's getting approved in the South St. Petersburg CRA.

And I appreciate the question, Councilmember, and I have not really had this conversation.

I can answer this. Councilmember Montaneri, these are already included in your report, your finance report that you review every month. And so you would continue to see those monthly and be able to pull and ask any questions that you would need to.

Okay, good. Thank you. And then my second question is the request to administratively amend attachment one, amendment one. Why is that? Is that a problem to bring that to council?

Well, every year HUD changes the threshold or changes the guidelines as relates to income where the affordability, maybe 80% affordability, et cetera. And it just allows us to change that every year when HUD changes his guidelines. Okay. So that's the only thing. And for us not to have to come back to council to approve that.

Okay. All right. And I don't have a problem with both of these requests. Yes, but I want city council, you know, I don't want us to, I want us to get reports on when these things change so that we can stay on top of this subject. That was it. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So we have a motion and a second. And seeing no other requests to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Councilmembers, enter your votes. Seeing all councilmembers have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item CRA4 passes unanimously.

All right. We'll move on now to CRA5, an agreement between the city and Kobe Coleman.

We're bringing forward to you a request that you approve an agreement between the city and Kobe Coleman, who is an individual who is requesting TIF funding of $98,950 to renovate two affordable housing units in the South St. Petersburg CRA. This is the property as it was when it was acquired, and the work that is to be done on it is to totally upgrade all of the systems, roof, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, walls, flooring, and as well as provide funding to assist with the conversion of a garage to an ADU. The total renovation cost is $247,375, and we're asking for a grant of $98,950. The affordability period will be 15 years. Again, this is our request that I've just previously mentioned, and at this time, are there any questions?

Council Member Floyd.

Thank you. First, I want to start just by mentioning something I've said before to administration, which is like any, and I've worked with people on this, and maybe it'll be something that I end up working with administration on, but any sort of like objective measures for like how much we're investing in a housing project to like be able to compare to other things would be wonderful. But that's just so that it's brought up again, and we can discuss it. It's difficult because every time it's like different contours of deals, but it's like we're giving this much money to get this many subsidized units, and the next time it could be wildly different. So any objective measures we can do would be wonderful. But I want to ask specifically on this one, and maybe it has to do with all of these deals, but is there any language in the agreement about the unit being occupied? I didn't see it, and maybe this is for legal, but like we could give money for one of these things to be remodeled, and then it not be occupied. There doesn't seem to be any language about that in there, and so, yeah.

Good question, Council Member. Generally, it's an occupancy restriction, which means that any occupant is limited to be of a certain AMI, but generally it's just, you know, you can't have someone other than that, but there's not a specific requirement that it has to be occupied, I suppose.

Yeah, I keyed into that specifically because, you know, there's just a lot going on in our rental market specifically, and, you know, oftentimes you see units unoccupied, not being rented, and taken off the market. You know, I think speculated as to reasons why, but sometimes they're not always great reasons, and holding out for more rents and stuff, and I'm not saying that that's going to happen at all in this deal. I just, again, this deal keyed me into a couple of things, and so, you know, I don't know if that means we need to have a further conversation in the future about how we handle some of these, but, you know, I think it's worth, like, considering that we, it would just be a shame to, you know, go through the trouble of paying to have this thing renovated, and then large periods of time the property could be unoccupied. So I wanted to mention that and just get clarification on one thing. And, again, I want to reiterate a lot of these things that I'm saying are not about this specific deal, a little bit about the program in general.

If I may, Councilman? Yeah, go ahead. Please do. Please, yeah. One of the requirements is that the units have to be either rented to or sold to an individual or household whose income is less than 120% AMI. We do not pay for the renovation until the unit is occupied because we have to verify the residents before in order for them to be in compliance with the grant. Okay, excellent. Thank you for that. And we provide annual, if it's rented, then the developer has to provide annual verification of the income. We also record a restrictive covenant that if the home is sold, then we are notified that when it is sold, therefore we're able to verify the home buyer's income is below that threshold before that affordability period expires.

Okay, thank you very much for that. I saw that the deal wasn't executed until after the renovations were complete and all, but that makes perfect sense, so thank you for that. My last comment is just, you know, again, this is just the latest conversation about this, but my last comment is, you know, we're talking about 120% AMI. The AMI levels, at this point, it looks like they go up $10,000 a year for your average family here. I just want us to keep an eye on it. I know this is the whole city, not just the CRA or anything. And then the, you know, the difference between what the AMI is for an African-American in South St. Pete versus the whole city, 120% AMI is significantly higher. It keeps going up every year. It's frustrating for all of us, but I just wanted to mention that and for us to be aware in all of our programs that we're not in a good situation in that respect. So thank you for clearing up those couple of things for me. I think, you know, a constant eye on the deals that we're doing makes me realize, like, sometimes, a deeper conversation needs to be had. And I'll get with you all from the CRA and staff and whatnot as we can to make sure we're keeping an eye on everything. So thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Muhammad.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for the presentation. The question that I had along the same line around AMI, is the AMI that's being used, is that the CRA AMI or is that the city AMI? That's the, it's really the county. County, so the county AMI. Yeah, because that gives me even more pause, just knowing that the intent of the program and the basis for the CRA creation was poverty reduction and really being able to help those who have the greatest need and seeing that 120% of the AMI for a family of four is 104,000 in Child's Park. Right. Right. So that's a big consideration, and I don't know if this is the space for us to be, like, hash that out, but that's something that I'm really keen on, and I'd like for us to begin to work to make sure that the spirit and intent of the program is still there. So when we're looking at AMI, not just looking at the percentages, because I've seen us do that where we say, okay, 80, 120, 100. I see that in Namaste 100%, but seeing what the actual number is and the impact that that will have and who in our community will be able to qualify for that, because we see that the AMI is going up, and there's a lot of factors that contribute to that, namely people who are making more coming in, but the residents are not really, like, wages are not increasing. Jobs and career opportunities and all those things are not increasing. So the people who are here at 120%, it sounds good, but the people who live here still probably wouldn't be able to afford it. So, well, I'm interested. I drive by this house every day, too, on the way to work, so I'm excited about it and looking forward to seeing it. I'm just wondering who the new neighbors will be at 120% AMI. So I just wanted to direct you. Well, it cannot exceed that amount. Sure.

I mean, it could be lower, but that's the maximum amount.

And in today's market, if I have a property on the market, I'm going to try and get as much as I could, right? And so if I know I can go up to 120, if I get 100 applications, that's going to be one of the factors, I'm sure, that will be considered as what the person's income is and how much they can get for the property. So just another one of those things I wanted to register as a concern and thought. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Did we get a motion and a second on this one?

No.

Move approval.

Second.

All right. Now we have a motion and a second. And seeing no further request to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing as all council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to pass CRA 5, passing unanimously.

Okay. And now we'll move on to CRA 6, Commercial Corridor Planning Program.

And I'll step back a moment.

Hi, everyone. My name is Cassidy Monansky. I'm an Economic Development Coordinator. So I am here. I already discussed this program a bit with you at the Committee of the Whole Joint CAC Meeting. So some of these slides may look familiar. But I added a few so that you have something new to look at. So there you go. So we'll go through this. So this is a proposed program for the South St. Petersburg CRA. As you know, we have several programs. And this is the latest proposed new program. The purpose of this program, there's a lot of purposes. But the idea is that this program can help us strengthen corridor image and identity, encourage economic development, grow existing businesses and attract new ones, improve our public infrastructure, improve public safety, particularly traffic safety and transportation safety, increase amenities and services, reduce blight, and expand business organizational capacity and engagement, particularly business associations. The plan identifies these eight commercial corridors in one of the maps. That would be 49th Street, 16th Street, 22nd Street, 34th Street, 18th Avenue South, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Central Avenue, and 5th Avenue South, all represented by different colors on this map. So this map is from the original community redevelopment plan. We've added the properties that have been since rezoned as commercial to this map. So this program allows two different funding mechanisms. The first one is for planning and the second one is for project implementation. And so the commercial corridor planning funding can be used for all the different types of plans that you see above. But particularly commercial corridor plans, mobility and planning studies, feasibility studies. It could go towards market and industry assessments on commercial corridors, site planning and design, data collection analysis, and then organizational capacity, building for business associations, for example. The second set of funding that could be from this program is project implementation funding. And I've said this before, as an urban planner, we don't like plans to sit on a shelf. We like to implement them. And so that is incorporated into this program. So for project implementation funding, this is a summary of the eligibility. It's also outlined in the program document. Essentially, obviously, the projects must be within the CRA boundaries. They must meet the intentions of an accepted plan or planning study. You don't want to do projects unless they have been planned for and working with the community on those plans. The projects must be either identified on an identified commercial corridor from the map that you previously saw. Or they could be a multimodal transportation and mobility project that provides critical access to the commercial corridor. Because we know it's very important that our neighborhoods are connected to their respective commercial corridors. And that people can travel safely to them and access those jobs and those commercial opportunities. And then it could also be a park screen space or recreational facility project for park land that is directly adjacent to the commercial corridor. So sometimes there's some parks that are technically obviously not zoned commercial, but they're right next to the commercial corridor. This could be, they would be eligible as well as long as they're contributing property. And then the projects must meet the definitions of one of the project types that is in table one through four of the program document. And obviously they got to be consistent with all of our accepted district master plans, the complete street administrative policy, and or neighborhood traffic plans. So the project types that can fit under this program, we kind of bucketed them into four different project types. This may look familiar to you. If you have familiarity with the neighborhood planning program that passed last year, same tables. So I'll go through each of them. We have beautification, streetscaping, and placemaking projects are eligible for this program. That's things like street furniture, wayfinding signage, public art and creative placemaking or placekeeping projects. Like business district identity signage, memorials, fountains, street trees and planters, and then historic preservation, including surveys and planning assistance or signage for designated properties on commercial corridors. We also have multimodal transportation and mobility. That includes traffic calming, so things that can possibly slow down traffic, pedestrian facilities, so sidewalk extensions, crosswalks, signage, street lights, and other projects that make it more safe to walk in these commercial corridors. Bicycle facilities, so bike lanes, intersection improvements, anything you can see kind of in the complete streets implementation plan. Multimodal public parking facilities, this includes both auto, this is for all types, that could be automobiles, bike racks, bike share, and e-scooter spaces. For commercial corridors, and then transit improvements, that could be ADA and universal design improvements, as we discussed ADA earlier today. Seating, shade, placemaking, and lighting. We also could have eligibility for parks, green space, and recreational facilities. As a prior example, the Deuces has two new parks on it. Those types of projects for other commercial corridors could be eligible in the future under this program. Finally, we have community development and neighborhood safety, which is a major priority for all of us. That could include crime prevention through environmental design strategies, community-based urban agriculture and improving access to healthy food on commercial corridors, fencing and other buffers, and then environmental assessments and brownfield remediation on commercial corridors. So the budget impact, this right now is just a program that you are accepting, or hopefully accepting. So from here, every year we will, per our usual, come forward with a budget proposed for the program. Additionally, this program can be covered by both City TIF and County TIF. City TIF can cover the entirety of the program from planning to project implementation. The role of County TIF dollars is defined in Section 4 and in Tables 1 through 4 through the little check marks on the far right-hand corner. And then CRA funding may be leveraged with other funding sources, and that's a really big deal to us. This is something that can also complement things. So let's say we get a transportation grant to work on safety improvements for commercial corridors, but the business association is asking for placemaking projects that's not eligible for that federal grant. We could wrap that into one big project by leveraging CRA funding for that placemaking project, while federal dollars pay for, you know, the safety improvements. So we definitely want to look for those opportunities for synergy between our CRA funding and other funding opportunities. And with that, this is what we are asking for you to recommend approval of this commercial corridor planning program to the St. Petersburg City Council, and I will take any questions.

Move approval.

Second. All right. Councilmember Mohammed.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Cassidy, for the presentation. I'm really excited about this program. We actually have been speaking to businesses in the different corridors about it. We met on Monday with over a dozen businesses on the 49th Street corridor, even brought in the city of Gulfport. And so we had a really exciting time talking through the possibilities and the potential impact of the program. So definitely excited about that. And also have been in early conversations with other corridors and those that are established, as well as identifying businesses that would like to organize in other corridors that don't currently have associations. And so you beat me to the motion. So thank you so much, and I'm looking forward to the voting yes on this one.

All right. Well, we have a motion and a second. And seeing no other requests to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve CRE6 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent.

Very good. And at this time, I'm going to go ahead and turn the meeting over to Vice Chair Fig Sanders.

Thank you. Now we will take up item CRE2. Is there a presentation?

Very good. We are requesting that the redevelopment agency recommends the city council approval of a reallocation of $2.15 million in housing and neighborhood revitalization budget to the affordable housing incentive program. The funds will be reallocated from two developments. Public in Place, which is a planned 44-unit development on city-owned property at 18th Avenue and 21st Street, and The Grove, which is a planned 12-unit development on 18th Avenue and 18th Street. Both developments have been awarded to Habitat for Humanity and are in the final stages of negotiations with city administration. The funds will then be allocated to the affordable housing incentive program to support several affordable housing initiatives. The budget plan was approved by city council in November of 2022. Several major initiatives were included in the plan, such as Fairfield Avenue, which is solidifying the balance of its funds needed for the development, as well as Burlington Post, which has secured all of its financing and is proceeding. Both developments are highlighted in yellow. Citrus Grove has completed a substantial portion of the exterior improvements, which we have funded, including roofing, windows, removal of the wall, and construction of the fence. All the other funds that are highlighted in orange have been expended in various projects. The amounts highlighted in red are what we are requesting to be reallocated, which also includes on this page. There are several projects that have unmet needs that we are requesting the funds be reallocated to. Namaste Homes, which we will have further discussion about in a few moments, has requested an additional $770,000. Habitat has begun construction on several single family homes in the CRA that are at various levels of completion and have requested approximately $640,000 for up to 15 homes, which are located on various sites throughout the CRA. CHAF, which is another nonprofit developer, has requested $300,000 for seven units that are to be located on four different sites. In addition, there are several other single family developers that are seeking funds to support their developments throughout the district. Many of these developers are part of the Life Disposition Program. We are requesting additional funds to the Affordable Residential Profit Improvement Grant, again, because we've had increased interest in that program as well. We estimate that the total requested amount of $2.15 million could impact the completion of an additional 45 units of affordable housing. So again, to recap, we're asking that we receive approval that you recommend to City Council that the reallocation of $2.15 million in the Housing Neighborhood Revivalization Budget to the Affordable Housing Incentive Program. Any questions?

Councilmember Flory.

Thank you. So, and think about where I want to start. Namaste is included in this, and that's why I'm struggling because we have the presentation coming up. So, like, we're talking about moving the funds to another fund so that it can be used for that. It would have been helpful for me to just go ahead and have that conversation as well. But Namaste is a situation where the developer is asking for an increased subsidy, significantly increased, versus all of the other ones. Those are new projects, or are they a similar situation?

No, these are new projects. They're not asking for an increased incentive to develop them. These are projects that are in various stages of development that we need the reallocation of funds into that bucket, if you will, in order to have the funds necessary to provide the incentive for them to develop the homes.

Okay, and that's what I thought. I just wanted to be clear because the Namaste one threw me off. But so, but the Namaste one is an increased subsidies, and it's included in this. Okay, I just wanted to make sure I was right there. You know, yeah, I just, I don't know. I look forward to talking more about the Namaste one, honestly, is the truth. I'm fine with us moving this around. It's no big deal, but I think we're going to have a further discussion when it comes to that other one. So, I'll leave it there for now. Thank you.

So, with that being said, do we have a recommendation from legal that we go ahead and have that discussion?

I would say, Madam Chair, you're free to do that. So, if a council member would like additional information, there's nothing that would preclude you from giving that second report now, and then going back and voting, it's up to council.

And we have to vote on those separately, though, but we can include the-

You can have both presentations now.

Just for the record, it may be better to vote on those separately.

So, are you-

I'm fine. Either way. Thank you.

Whichever works for you. I think Council Member Floyd is looking for that Namaste conversation. So, since we're there, if we can go ahead and be a little bit more time efficient- Sure. We'll go ahead and accommodate that request. Not a problem.

So, we're requesting an increase of up to $770,000 for a total of $1,056,000 from the Affordable Housing Redevelopment Loan Program to Namaste to develop 11 affordable housing units on real property located at the northwest corner of 16th Avenue South and Dr. Martin Luther King Street South. In November of 2020, City Council approved the request of $286,000 or $26,000 per unit incentive to construct 11 townhome units, restricting the sale or rental to households whose income is less than 120% AMI. Developers have met with administration and staff and have indicated that due to increased cost of materials and labor, they will find it virtually impossible to sell the units at the original agreed upon sale price of $213,000. They submitted a request for an additional incentive of $770,000 or $70,000 per unit. The sale price of each unit will be $275,000. The units will be restricted for sale only, again different than the previous requests, to persons whose household income is at or below 100% AMI. In addition, the developers will offer loans to the home buyers at 5.5% fixed rate for 30 years. We have previously budgeted $600,000 for down payment and closing cost assistance to the home buyers. The mortgage payment will be based on a $215,000 mortgage amount. You may recall this was a part of the original presentation that gave a schematic building rendering, if you will, of what the proposed units would look like. Again, this was the floor plan as well as the site plan. This is a picture of the way the units look today, very similar to what was proposed. The sources and uses of funds, you'll see up top, which is the existing CRA funding, which was $286,000 or $26,000 per unit. The additional request of $770,000 or $70,000 per unit. Where it states their additional city of state grant is what we've set aside for down payment and closing cost assistance for the home buyers. The seller financing is stipulated here at 5.5% at $220,000 per unit. It's really the mortgage will be based on $215,000. So this also shows what their deficiency is, which is what they're requesting, where you see that their profit and the sales commission and the total development costs of the site as well as development costs of each unit. This is an analysis, if you would, an affordability analysis on a sale price of $275,000. The highlighted column to the right represents the debt to income ratio, which shows that the maximum housing expense front end ratio is 30%. As you can see, these units are affordable for households of two persons. So to reiterate our request, we're requesting that you increase the subsidy or the incentive, if you will, by $770,000 for a total of $1,056,000. From the Affordable Housing Redevelopment Loan Program to Namaste Homes that will allow them to complete the development of 11 affordable housing units located on 16th Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street South. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you. And George, I want to apologize because I feel like I'm hassling you today. It's not about you. No. Yeah. Okay. This is a huge increase in the subsidy. And, you know, I had this conversation with the administration about, you know, housing developers doing our affordable housing deals versus us doing our affordable housing deals and offloading the risk. And, you know what, sometimes it feels like we're, how are we really offloading the risk? Like, it seems like we made a deal before and now they're back asking for more money and it's, and you know what, we're, you know, we want the deal to happen so we're in this situation. Um, and I, I just, I wonder where like are consequences for saying you're going to do something and then failing so spectacularly, honestly. And, uh, I understand that the market conditions have changed. Um, but you know, imagine from our perspective, like it's frustrating that we have to go back and do things like this occasionally. And so, um, you know, I don't know if anyone has, I see if anyone has anything they want to say, that's fine. If you don't, that's also okay. I I'm just, I'm letting you know how I'm feeling right now.

I appreciate your comments, council member. Um, so there's a, there's a couple things I want to say. First, certainly I understand where you're coming from. Um, second of all, um, we have realized that to achieve our goals related to affordable and workforce homeownership. We're not going to get there with single family lots. We've made a transition to try and do townhomes, um, because of the density involved. And how we can increase the supply of affordable and workforce units with homeownership, um, through townhomes. Now, since we moved in that direction, um, to be frank, Namaste is the only one that has produced. That has actually built. Um, and I feel very strongly that those that build should be rewarded because that's what this is all about providing the units. Um, and they can walk away. If, if, if this isn't approved, um, it doesn't damage them. Um, they can walk away from the agreement that they have with us and they could sell these units at any price point, uh, that they want to. And I'll just share with you. I, I don't want to get into a discussion today about the deuces rising townhomes, but I can tell you the prices that we're seeing are much, much higher than what they're building for. Um, so we feel very good about what they've done. We hope that habitat will follow suit on Pelican place and shell dash. Um, and we really hope that we can impact the supply of affordable homeownership opportunities through townhomes, although it's been very challenging. The construction costs are high. You're dealing with an HOA. You're dealing with much more complexity than you are with a single family lot. So for all the challenges that have been involved, I have to say personally, when I drive by this property and actually see a product, I feel very rewarded by what we're doing. Um, and I'm in full support. Okay.

I really appreciate that. Um, because, you know, we don't get the whole picture that you're giving us that you're giving right now. We get the situation that's been presented to us and then we have to make a decision. And yeah, I think you see where I'm coming from. And so it's just, it gets frustrating. Um, and this isn't the first time that it's happened. And so, uh, I just wanted to hear your perspective on it really.

Councilmember Floyd, you know, another perspective that I will add, um, is when I started, which was just about a year ago, an average unit, I can't tell you about a townhome unit, but an average apartment unit was being built for $275,000. Um, now I haven't seen anything come in under $450,000. And so that is how much the cost of, um, construction materials and labor has gone up. In addition to that, I think everybody knows that interest rates are rising exponentially. Um, you know, we were looking at one, one and a half percent interest rates. Now you're talking about seven and a half percent and higher. And so I just want to underscore a couple of things that Namaste brought to the table that we're getting that we didn't get in the original deal. The original deal was 120% AMI. We've gone down to a hundred percent. We've heard this council body loud and clear. We've brought you deals back. We have brought deals back and we will continue to bring deals back that require more funding. Um, but when we do that, we're trying to get additional benefits for our citizens. And so we lowered the AMIs on this. Um, in addition to that, the, um, investment group has gone in to say they will, um, provide the financing so that our low income home buyers are not having to, um, receive the money at the interest rate. That is the going rate on the market, um, which saves a considerable amount of money over time for those buyers. And so I just don't want that five and a half percent, um, to be lost that that is money they are putting out, um, to make sure that buyers are able to get in, which saves the buyer exponentially when you're looking, you know, over the life of a 30 year loan.

Yeah. I appreciate that. I mean, the thing about the AMI, I didn't key into because the way the AMI has changed since this first came up is that it just looks like the sale price is more than it was whenever it was 120, even though it's a hundred now, but you're totally right about the five and a half percent. And that that's a significant amount of savings over time. So I appreciate you, uh, shining a light on that. Um, you know, I mean, maybe my frustrations with the inflation, but. Um, the frustrations real, no matter what. Um, okay. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Council member Muhammad.

Equally as frustrated, but understand all of the logic and the perspectives. A lot of these questions were answered for me in the committee meeting when we discussed it in the CAC. My question is I know that in some of our other deals that we approve and contracts that we approve, we do guaranteed maximums. Is that something that we can consider like going forward so that we don't get in a situation where, you know, you can just come back and ask and you say, you know, look, things have changed and I need more money. Like can we cap that and like go into these saying like, okay, this is what the guaranteed maximum will be. And if you need more money, if you run out of money, then I don't know. I'm just trying to think about a way to keep us from like having to kind of face this going forward. Like when we enter these types of situations, I mean, this is definitely unique. We're going to like, we were benefiting from it actually from what I'm hearing, but just as things continue to progress, like, is there a way?

I think the difference comes for Muhammad and how affordable housing is built is that there is never a number that is consistent for us. I hear council member Floyd's frustration of this deal is different than this deal. Every single deal is based on what is the gap in order to get it built. You know, we ask people to come with capital stacks that have a variety of sources, but we don't want to offer up money that people may not need. And so for that reason, you know, we wouldn't want to do a guaranteed maximum, you know, amount of how much we're going to offer. Because again, we're only filling a gap and so I wouldn't want to get in a situation where we're giving folks money that they aren't actually showing us there's a need for.

Well, I'm thinking maybe like just percentages of the project, like how we do with some of the others, like how we have a 40%, you know, reimbursement on the residential. Like is there some percentage or some number that we know that we won't exceed when it comes to like what we are willing to increase? Because this is a significant increase and like looking at the percentage of that.

Yeah, I guess I would say, you know, one of the things that Rob and I often kind of joke about that's a difference for the city of St. Pete than maybe some other jurisdictions is when you're the last one in you never get a deal done. And when you use a one size fits all approach, you're also not successful. And so, you know, I hear the frustration. This will not be the last deal you see that comes back with changes. I try to avoid that, but we're in the business of getting things done for our citizens. And sometimes that means we have to be flexible, but we're certainly willing to explore any innovative ideas that you may have and we'll certainly take a look into it.

Thank you so much for that and I'm just riffing just- Yeah, absolutely. I'm in this frustrated space too. But thank you for the work that you've done. I like where we ended up with this one, the benefits that we received, the AMI being reduced, the percentage, the financing from them. So I think this is absolutely great work. So it's not about this particular deal, it's just about this whole process and knowing again budget day, limited resources, unlimited needs, and all of those things. Like how can we, you know, strike that balance? And so, and I'm not picking on you either, George. You know I love you. So thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Thank you.

Council Member Driscoll. Thank you.

I agree. We, we have to stay flexible because you just never know what circumstances might arise. And that's why we have these conversations. I'm supportive of this as, as Rob mentioned. Um, this is still being done at a lower price than, than some of the other projects that are out there. And I too, um, even though this is, this hasn't been the easiest one, it feels like we've been talking about the Namaste development forever. But I like seeing that it's happening and we can't say that about everything out there right now. I was just joking with someone yesterday that I am, I don't think I'm going to do any more groundbreaking things where I pick up a shovel until the people have the permits in hand. Um, cause we've done a lot of those and I'm like, why, why is there no equipment on this site yet? We did the groundbreaking photo op like a year ago. So, um, there's something to be said for projects that are moving forward, even if it doesn't look perfect. And I certainly, um, support this one and I look forward to it finally being done. Do we have a motion on the floor yet?

We have for either and I think we're going to vote them separately. Yes. CRA2. Okay. We do not have a motion or a second on CRA2 at this time.

I'll move approval on CRA2. Second.

Second. Okay, since we have a motion and a second to approve item CRA2, will Mr. Clerk, will you please open the machine for voting? So now, everybody's in their votes. Okay, so seeing that all council members have voted, will you please tally and announce the votes?

Motion to approve CRA2 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent and Councilmember Gabbard being recused.

Alright, and I'll move approval of item CRA3. Second. Okay.

We have a motion and a second for approval for item CRA3. Will you please, Mr. Clerk, open the machine for voting. Now that we have all the votes for CRA3, Mr. Clerk, would you please tally and announce the votes?

Motion to approve CRA3 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent and Councilmember Gabbard being recused.

Well, we've done that. At this time now, we're going to adjourn at St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Agency and reconvene at City Council. And now we're going to have a report item F4. Move approval. Second. Now that we have a motion and a second, Mr. Clerk, would you please open the votes so we can vote for, where am I? Open the machine for voting. Thank you. Okay, now that our present council members have voted, will you please tally and announce the vote?

Motion to approve agenda item F4 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent and Councilmember Gabbard being recused.

Okay, now we're going to move to report F5. Move approval. Second. Now that we have a motion and a second to approve F5, will the clerk please open the machine for voting? Now that our present council members have voted, Mr. Clerk, would you please tally and announce the votes?

Motion to approve agenda item F5 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent and Councilmember Gabbard being recused.

Thank you. Now we are turning City Council meeting back over to Chair Gabbard.

Thank you, Vice Chair. We are taking up item F6. Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing as all council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item F6 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent. And item F7.

Move approval.

Second.

Alright, seeing we have a motion and a second, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing as all council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item F7 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent.

And finally, F8. Move approval.

Second. We have a motion and a second.

Seeing. At a rhythm. Seeing no request to speak, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item F6 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent.

Very good. Thank you CRA team. We appreciate you all. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Next we'll go into our new business and we will take up item G1 which is my item. This is a referral to the Housing, Land Use and Transportation Committee or other relevant committee for a discussion on a city owned land policy. Move approval.

Second.

Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Seeing no request to speak, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item G1 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent.

And we will go to our council committee report action item which is item H1 for the 6-15-2023 BF&T meeting. Vice Chair Fig Sanders.

Thank you. Yes, on the June 15-2023 BF&T meeting we had an action item where there was a motion made to move the discussions regarding potential modifications to the water and wastewater retail rate structure and strategic financing to the September committee of the whole. And for that I'm requesting approval. Second. Motion.

That was a motion? Yes. Motion second. All right. Seeing no request to speak, Clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Motion to approve agenda item H1A passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent.

Very good. And we will go to our second open forum. Speakers. All right. We will close open forum and go to announcements. No announcements. Oh, no. Councilmember Montenari. I'm so sorry.

I just wanted to share with the public the ceremony for the newest research vessel in the city of St. Petersburg, the Western Flyer, which is the third research vessel that our city has. And had a great ceremony with President Ria Law of USF and a good group of people that have been supporting marine science here in the city of St. Petersburg for years. And I want to congratulate everybody that's been involved.

Thank you, Councilmember Montenari. All right, everyone. Great meetings today. Welcome back, y'all. Thank you so much. Meeting adjourned. Meeting adjourned.

It has truly been a wonderful day.