City Council - Jun 11, 2026

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Hopely Gerdes, District 2, Brandy Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4 and Council Chair, Lisette Hanowitz, District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Givens Jr., and District 8 and Council Vice Chair, Richie Floyd. Welcome, everyone, to the June 11, 2026 City Council Meeting. Clerk, can I please have a roll call? Frisco. Here. Givens. Here. Lloyd. Here. Gerdes. Here. Gabbard. Here. Harding. Here. Hanowitz. Here. Dick Sanders. Here. Today we'll have our invocation given by Pastor Lannis Thomas Jr. from New Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. If you can please stand and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. Good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank you, Father, for another day of life. Father, we thank you, Lord, for bringing us here, Father, for the celebrations, Lord God, for the awards, Lord God. But first, we have to celebrate you, Lord God, because, Father, you've been so good, so kind, so graceful, and so merciful to us, Lord God. So, Father, we just thank you for all that you're doing here in the city of St. Petersburg, Lord God. We ask in the name of Jesus, Lord God, that we keep the greatest commandment that Jesus gave, that we love one another the way he loved us, Lord God. So, we just thank you now, Father. We ask in the name of Jesus that you come in, Lord God. We ask in the name of Jesus that you continue to touch our city, continue to bless our city, Father. We just thank you, Father, because, Father, without you, it would be no St. Petersburg or nothing else. So, Father, we just ask in the name of Jesus right now that you take over the meeting. Come in, Lord God. Bless those who need a blessing, Father, and we just want to say thank you. It's in the precious and mighty name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, Lord God, that we do pray 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. Thank you. You may be seated. Thank you, Pastor, for that beautiful invocation. Council members, we have an agenda before us. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing that all present, council members have voted. Clerk, please tally announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously. Thank you. We have a consent agenda. Clerk, are there any cards? I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing that all present, council members have voted. clerk please tally announce the vote. Adam chair the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. I'm going to take a moment thank you I'm going to take a moment real quick and turn it over to Jackie our our city attorney. Thank you chair I just wanted to introduce Dale Delaney he's joining our litigation team I won't talk about why or I'll get upset about that but we're very excited to have it and appreciate your confirmation. Thank you and welcome aboard we're glad to have you okay next up we move up to open forum clerk are there any speakers for open forum? Yes madam chair. Okay and if you can read the rules. If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda please sign up with the clerk only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet only city residents owners of property business owners in the city or their employees may speak all issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of st petersburg government if you're speaking to an item on the agenda you may only speak once during open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda applause is not permitted except in connection with awards and presentations in order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address city 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 in the zoom app or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed when it is your turn to speak you will be unmuted ask to state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments or when you have reached a three minute time limit you will be muted all raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item regardless of method of participation use normal rules apply including the three minute time limit on comments the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and rules of the quorum if live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the quorum the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means including by email only and we do have some speakers great and i just want to remind everyone as the clerk said there is no clapping or any other type of uh let's say applause or anything like that um during open forum we're going to reserve that for awards and presentations and we want to keep it orderly so clerk if you can name the first two speakers first two speakers reverend ben altern zeman and amy miller approach either podium state your name address and cross streets you have three minutes to address city council thank you i'm reverend ben atherton zeman my pronouns are he and they and i'm the minister at the unitarian universalist church of st petersburg that's at 100 mirror lake drive i want to thank councilman corey gibbons for um bringing the proposal that ended up with the title inclusive faith and it's conclusive family and faith month and thank you for respecting lesbian and gay parents my own congregation includes all kinds of families gay lesbian and bisexual parents and children trans and non-binary parents and children and unitarian universalists have sided with love and against discrimination for centuries but i agree with councilman richie floyd that there is a concerted effort to try to push back against lgbtq rights this pushback comes from our county commissioners from the state house and from the white house i'm proud of our city's protection of the lgbtqia plus community but our state government punishes teachers who use a trans child's correct name and our federal government has recently classified groups who support trans rights as terrorist groups and this discrimination can have deadly results the pulse nightclub mass murder is one example another is the fact that over half of trans children attempt suicide some of my colleagues in ministry define marriage as one man and one woman unitarian universalists believe that love makes a family not just heterosexual parents i do not believe in a god who discriminates against lgbtqia plus people first corinthians chapter 13 says that love is patient love is kind it does not envy it does not boast it always protects always trusts always hopes and always perseveres but if we say families can only look a certain way this seems boastful to me but if we protect our trans and non-binary kids as this t-shirt says if we protect our trans and non-binary parents our lesbian gay and bisexual kids and parents then we are doing god's work so i thank the city council and the city of st petersburg for reminding us that love makes a family and that that happens during during pride month and every month of the year and if any trans children any lgbtqia plus children or adults are listening please know that this pastor loves you please know that your life is precious please know that you are perfect in the eyes of god and if you're getting thrown out of your church somewhere else in florida you can always come to st petersburg you can always come to my church thank you thank you next speaker and if your name is called if you can come up to the podium um what's the other can you call another speaker um brad falvo approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council okay amy can you go ahead and speak we just have two speakers at a time so when you gotcha good afternoon council my name is amy miller i live at 700 beach drive northeast proud president of proud resident for 36 years of st petersburg i'm here representing item g3 about the narvaez landing and expedition um i'm i'm wanting to thank uh councilman coakley girdus especially for bringing this resolution forward and i hope as jim mcdougall does that you will pass this resolution today and also recognize the quincentennial event on 15 in 1528 to 2028 a 500 year anniversary which doesn't come around too long another thing i'd like to mention is i appreciate everybody else who on the council who met with us and listened to the story it's a story not well known it's a story about the first non-native who stepped foot on the north american continent and i think it could really propel st petersburg forward on an international stage and one last thing uh hasn't been considered in the resolution but hopefully going forward we'll talk about making a monument to honor this epic event and survival journey um that celebrates many cultures including african americans latin americans and in american indians and i want to thank jim mcdougall for his 10 years of research and and uh just perseverance on this project thanks everyone thank you go ahead sir hi my name is brad falbo 1856 south mary way south uh deborah fix sanders i've requested your phone records from what you've been doing up here many times and you've stated that it's not related to your official duties so i look forward to getting those records from today's uh you know activities on your phone i'll start off with city clerk chan deborah fix sanders ken welch are criminals they have disregarded public florida's public record law chapter 119 and they have treated this community's right to transparency with contempt if any of them believes i am lying take me to court let everything come out in discovery i welcome it for months i've asked the city for the records from the original gas plant sale the city just completed the digitization and surprisingly provided me with the majority of records it's apparent that no one has actually taken the time to look at what really happened at the gas plant in the 1980s so i did over many weeks by hand and with the help of ai i built gasplantdata.com it is still in development but it has already started to tell the story that has been avoided for many years the story residents have some residents have always suspected people's homes were sold for pennies on the dollar however certain commercial and institutional properties received hundreds of thousands of dollars and remember this is 1980s money first baptist institutional received nearly 900 000 and likely more for relocation but here's what should concern everyone in this room mayor welch's father david t welch sat on this city council during the gas plant deals the welch family also had ties to the prayer tower church of god in christ the uncle was on the board the dad was on the board the mayor's uncle pastored that church during the time as well and today his son the um uh the uncle's son is uh leads the church so i asked the question the city refuses to ask why did bethel metropolitan baptist prayer town and first baptist institutional receive so much money while the rest of the gas plant community received so little why did the mayor's father his uncle and these institutions fail to fight for their own people and the neglect is not just history council member fig sanders sends out a monthly email accounting for her hours by her own numbers from january through may she spent 13 hours meeting with constituents 13 hours in five months a fraction of her time for the people she was elected to serve hopefully deborah spent more time in history class because she would have learned that taxation without representation does not bode well in this country i hope the other council members will maintain a high level of transparency and will continue will consider looking into the full gas plant history thank you thank you next two speakers next two speakers jenna gordon thomas gross approach either podium state your name and address or cross streets you'll have three minutes to address city council whoever makes a it first can start well good afternoon to all of you uh happy pride by the way it's uh good to see you all my name is jenna gordon 546 93rd avenue north saint petersburg and uh i'm a 28 year old trans woman from florida grew up here uh moved to saint pete about four years ago and uh i'm just here to speak in favor of the resolution to protect lgbt people from discrimination in this city and uh because i want to stay here i love this town in many different ways it's beautiful i uh and i just want to continue to have a place in it to work here live here in safety and dignity like everybody else and uh i uh but i see what's happening all around me uh just since in the past four years over 400 000 trans people have moved states for fear of their safety uh just because of everything that's been done uh to attack our community and you all are leaders of this community and i know that you all have an opportunity to set an example for everyone here to be good neighbors to one another stand with each other no matter what our sexual orientation or our gender identity or any of that is because we're all human beings and i am looking forward to see how it goes and i thank you all for your time thank you go ahead sir uh thank you uh city council my name is thomas gross i live at 4927 13th avenue north st petersburg i'm here speaking in favor of the city of st petersburg bidding on the morgan complex in st in south st petersburg as the horrible living conditions tenants have been forced to endure can only be ensured through democratic control over the complex i'm sure you all know the morgan complex given the massive complaints against them over the last almost a full year at this point since august uh them uh not paying their water bill i believe for many years there being holes in the ceilings wasp nests all over being almost inhabitable conditions in this place these conditions may seem extreme but landlord exploitation is definitely typical for your constituent tenants in st petersburg across the entire city notably in boca siega the boca siega apartments llc where the manager of the complex acts as a tyrant against the privacy and rights of the tenants the answer is clear the city needs to reevaluate its relationship with housing not as a commodity to be traded on the speculative market which results in gentrification displacement and exorbitant rent increases everyone in the city has to face who's a tenant over 40 of st petersburg people but as a human right which is controlled by the tenants themselves in conjunction with the city primarily through tenant associations and resident councils like the st petersburg tenants union a common argument against this might be that it would simply cost too much taxpayer money i know last week that was a a common talking point against a lot of things which costs a lot of money including the uh the duke energy uh feasibility study but i would think over 40 percent of st petersburg residents that are tenants would rather prefer their hard-earned money being going towards controlling their very means of survival in their housing instead of into the pockets of private owners who don't even live in florida much less st petersburg uh thank you all i hope city council understands that these problems are not from one bad landlord but that tenants don't have democratic control over their own very means of life i also support uh richie floyd's resolution and that he introduced to uh show saint pete stands to protect its lgbtq plus residents against discrimination thank you thank you no more in person we have one and two madam chair uh dalti ray i'm going to enter you into the meeting space when i do please state your name and address for the record you will have three minutes to address city council uh dalti ray go ahead please hey can you all hear me yes hi um dalti ray um i live on 16th street north and uh 20th avenue north and um i just wanted to uh speak in favor of g2 the uh resolution opposing a state legislation that discriminates against people based on sexual orientation gender identity or any other protected identity or characteristic i've been an ally of the lgbt community my entire life and um i remember the day that gay marriage was ruled uh legal in 2015 and it's been really uh disheartening seeing the regression that our country has taken um especially in the state of florida i feel like florida has kind of been like the um kind of leading the charge in that regard so i i think that a city that has the largest pride parade in the in the state and puts rainbow tape on the steps of city hall is one that should be um vocally opposing the state legislature and their um fight to dehumanize uh lgbt people so i really hope that you all vote yes on that resolution additionally i also want to advocate for the saint pete city council to look into um buying the morgan property while it's under foreclosure and making it publicly owned housing thank you that's all thank you do we have any other speakers we may no more speakers madam chair thank you okay we close open forum and now we're going to get to the award and presentation part of our meeting the first up is the five pulse remembrance day proclamation and our own vice chair floyd will present that if there's anybody that is going to stand with vice chair floyd on this proclamation you can join him thank you everyone uh thank you so much for being here today um i just have a few brief comments uh i'm incredibly honored to be able to present this proclamation today although it was obviously something i wish i didn't have to do uh orlando is one of the few places that i've called home in the past as i went to ucf just a few years before this horrific accident uh event not accident um and i was i was crushed when i woke up that morning 10 years ago and immediately worried for my uh lgbtq friends in orlando and i was fortunate to be able to get in touch with all of them relatively quickly that morning but that wasn't the case for everyone this tragedy shows the exact reason why it's so important that we stand up for everyone in our community and so with that i'll read the proclamation 10 years ago on june 12th whereas 10 years ago on june 12 2016 a horrific act of violence at the pulse nightclub in orlando florida claimed the lives of 49 innocent people and injured dozens more and whereas the tragedy at pulse nightclub was at the time the deadliest mass shooting in modern u.s history and continues to be the deadliest act of anti-lgbtq hate violence in modern u.s history and whereas pulse nightclub served as a place of community friendship and belonging the tragedy deeply impacted the orlando community as well as families and communities throughout the state of florida and the nation and whereas the pulse tragedy remains one of the deadliest acts of violence against lgbtq people in the united in united states history and occurred during pride month and whereas in the in the aftermath of the tragedy people across florida and the united states came together in grief compassion and solidarity to support survivors honor the victims with action recommit to building a world free of anti-lgbtq hatred and comfort those affected and whereas law enforcement officers firefighters and emergency medical personnel healthcare workers and countless community members responded with extraordinary courage and service in the wake of the attack and whereas the state of florida has designated june 12th as pulse remembrance day to honor the victims survivors families and all those affected by the attack and whereas remembering the lives lost at pulse provides an opportunity to reflect on the importance of community public safety and standing against violence and hatred in all forms now therefore i council member richie floyd on behalf of kenneth c welch mayor of the city of st petersburg do hereby proclaim friday june 12 2026 as pulse remembrance day in st petersburg and encourage everyone to remember the victims honor survivors first responders and reflect upon the values of compassion unity and community joined by the community engagement manager of uh the city of orlando uh luis martinez good afternoon everyone on behalf of orlando mayor boridi dyer and the city of orlando as a hispanic perorican and lgbtq plus individual i'm deeply proud to stand before you today thank you to mayor kenneth t welch and the st petersburg city council for this deeply meaningful proclamation and for inviting our city to be part of this noble gesture 10 years after the poll strategy our commitment to honoring the 49 innocent life lost their families the survivors and the first responders remains as steadfast as ever this proclamation is a powerful reminder that our communities are bound together by shared grief but more important importantly by an unwavering dedication to the values of compassion inclusion and unity we accept this honor with profound gratitude standing shoulder to shoulder with st petersburg community in our collective mission to ensure that love and light will always prevail over hate thank you muchas gracias thank you um thank you vice here floyd for those beautiful words uh we hold the family and friends and everyone affected by the tragedy in our hearts today and always the next proclamation we have is a d1 pride month proclamation and we have our mayor here with us hi mayor welch thank you madam chair members of council our st pete community thank you all for being here vice chair floyd thank you uh for your words and mr martinez thank you for joining us as well today is a day where we stand on who we are as a community and i'm honored to remember that just a week ago we raised our flag in honor of pride month and we're especially proud to celebrate the diversity of our community in the climate that we face in our nation today our city is inclusive of all residents regardless of their neighborhood economic status race religion or orientation that's what we are st pete means i want to invite our lgbtq liaison nathan bremer and all of our friends from the lgbtq plus community if you would stand again and join me for this proclamation and it reads whereas the city of st petersburg values diversity creativity and civic engagement and strives to be a city where all people feel respected safe welcome and connected through opportunity and belonging and whereas many of the residents students city employees and business owners within the city of st petersburg who contribute to the enrichment of our city are a part of the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and questioning community and contribute significantly to the cultural civic economic and creative vitality of st petersburg and whereas pride month honors the ongoing pursuit of equality dignity visibility and opportunity for lgbtq plus individuals while celebrating the resilience leadership and contributions of generations of lgbtq plus people who help strengthen our community and whereas this year we celebrate the 24th anniversary of st p pride florida's largest pride celebration which brings together hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors and recognize the substantial economic impact an event of this size has had on the city of st petersburg and our surrounding areas and whereas we partner with our neighboring cities and communities across the united states to recognize and celebrate june as lgbtq plus pride month now therefore i kennedy welch mayor of the city of st petersburg florida do hereby proclaim the month of june 2026 as lgbtq plus pride month in st petersburg and invite everyone to reflect on ways we can all live and work together and reaffirm our commitment to mutual mutual respect compassion and the freedom for people to live their lives authentically we re further recognize pride month by flying the rainbow flag at city hall and you may have noticed some work on the steps as well during the month of june uh thank you all for standing on who we are uh as a city god bless you thank you thank you mayor my name is nathan bruma and i'm proud to serve as the city of st petersburg lgbtq coordinator and i am joined graciously by a beautiful representation of our city with leaders from the following organizations the tampa bay lgbt chamber equality florida trans network the tampa bay international gay and lesbian film festival the trans film festival winter pride sage advocacy and services for lgbtq elders out arts and culture tampa bay black lesbians the queer asian museum st pete pride love the golden rule the gay men's chorus of tampa bay project no labels p flag greater pinellis uu st pete and allendale united methodist i i know we don't have a lot of time to have everyone speak but i have three organizations you may not be as familiar with that have tremendous history so joining me here for just 60 seconds apiece uh we have jeremiah from the gay men's chorus of tampa bay jane from sage and james from out arts and culture to tell you a little bit about themselves thank you so much for letting me be here my name is james bake i'm uh with our arts and culture we're a non-profit that helps celebrate lgbtq artists and authors in the area right now we have art out going on it's our ninth annual it's at the gulfport library and the james museum this year we're celebrating over a hundred pieces of queer art at the both the library and at the james museum and we're very excited to be celebrating 60 plus authors or artists thank you so much thank you good afternoon my name is jeremiah cummings and i proudly serve as the artistic director of the gay men's chorus of tampa bay where we have um where next year we are excited to say that we celebrate 25 years of changing lives one song at a time although you cannot hear us locally again until october we do want to invite you over the next couple of days to join us with several courses from all over the state of florida to honor pulse in orlando at the first united methodist church of orlando where we will be joined by the orlando gay chorus and diversity the voices of sarasota where we will take the next two days and just celebrate together in song and and socialize together and we're excited that next year next summer we will be the hosting chorus here in tampa bay for that very same event and we hope that you will join us and just come and enjoy and be entertained and let us change your life one song at a time hi there thank you my name is jane haskell i am director of impact and engagement at sage we are services and advocacy for lgbtq plus elders we are the nation's largest and oldest organization dedicated to uplifting the lives of lgbtq people age 50 and better we are headquartered in new york but i have the privilege and honor of living and working remotely here in st petersburg a commu a community not only rich in lgbtq history and individuals but in lgbtq elders i am so thankful for the lgbtq ancestors and elders who came before all of us i don't know that we'd be here today if it weren't for them so i just wanted to say thank you to the lgbtq older adults who have made it so we can celebrate who have paved the way for the rights that we have today and just acknowledge that st petersburg is full of such a beautiful diverse lgbtq community aging is a process it is not a moment we are all aging and i just want all lgbtq people to grow old thank you council member girdus thank you very much chair um i've been sitting here this morning trying to figure out what i was going to say during this proclamation and the only thing i can come up with is you make me proud of the city that i was born and raised in that i chose to live in that i choose to raise my children in and i chose to represent so thank you that's all i can really say is thank you and vice chair floyd i i try not to do this except to my children and even with them because i don't know i think i watched a quote in a movie one time about telling somebody that you're proud of them and it's a weird thing but i'm proud of you thank you well said council member girdus um look we uh had the pride flag raising um last week and i will tell you it was just a wonderful wonderful occasion seeing all our community celebrate pride month here in st petersburg and that's what we do as a city and seeing all your beautiful faces and all the happiness that i is surrounding you um makes my heart full and by share floyd you did a fantastic job i know you were holding it together and that is unlike that's unlike council member i mean by share floyd because he holds it together all the time and so him speaking with emotion unlike me uh the hispanic here in the room that gets emotional um he holds it together and and so um it was very appreciated i thought the awards were very poignant thank you to all the organizations and everything you do thank you for being here okay next up we have da it's inclusive faith and family month proclamation and we have council member gibbons who is going to present the proclamation thank you so much chair and i'm going to ask those who are here for the faith and family proclamation to please join me over here on this side of the chamber as they come i want to acknowledge that as we prepare to celebrate father's day weekend we recognize the work that these organizations that are here today are doing we are grateful for each of them we have representatives from faith and family from the next step center various pastors here from somebody cares tampa bay and multiple multiple congregations that are represented and i just want to thank them so much for being bold and courageous and for standing with me today as we recognize faith and family month the proclamation whereas strong families serve as the foundation of thriving neighborhoods and contribute to the social emotional and economic well-being of communities throughout the city of saint petersburg and whereas valued families come in all varieties of forms whereas diverse faith communities civic organizations businesses and community leaders play an important role in supporting families through mentorship service education fellowship and outreach efforts and whereas family faith in family month encourages individuals congregations organizations and diversity of all families to participate in activities that strengthen relationships promote shared values and foster meaningful connections among generations and whereas the this observation recognizes the importance of investing in children and supporting parents and caregivers honoring grandparents and elders celebrating diversity encouraging healthy healthy and resilient family relationships and whereas when families are strengthened and communities work together in a spirit of inclusion service and compassion to all the entire city benefits through increased civic engagement stronger neighborhoods and a greater sense of belonging and whereas the city of saint petersburg values is the contributions of all of our residents faith communities and organizations that dedicate their time and resources to uplifting families and creating opportunities for future generations to flourish now therefore i council member cory gibbons on behalf of kenneth t welch mayor of the city of saint petersburg do hereby proclaim the month of june 2026 as inclusive faith and family month thank you thank you this time we will have remarks from pastor i think i saw him somewhere is he here pastor where are you anderson there you go pastor anderson oh he's not speaking today pete where are you pete you are speaking thank you minister gibbons council council councilman gibbons and uh to all of you thank you very much for thank you very much for the opportunity for the opportunity to be able to recognize the important role that family has in in making children uh to flourish and to be the citizens that will be taking all of these seats and all of these seats uh in coming days i'm my name is pete mishler i'm part of the pastoral team with my church gulf coast community church and also with the next step center which has a big event coming up just a week from tomorrow um that is called gather for life which is part of faith and family month and uh we um i wasn't prepared to speak so all of a sudden my heart's racing so um our scripture for that event is from psalm 145 one generation shall commend your works to another and tell of your awesome deeds and so our our emphasis is on equipping the next generation and engaging the next generation in works of faith in in in ministry and and in valuing the worth and promoting the worth and dignity of all human life all image bearers of god so thank you all very much thank you good afternoon my name is ellis hodge i'm the pastor of word of life fellowship church located here in st petersburg florida um this month our concentration is basically to take the word of god to instruct to teach and to demonstrate and then allow the holy spirit to guide people in the direction that god would have them to go we don't hate anyone we don't dislike anyone we try to love everybody in the spirit and union of christ and and according to the word of god and that's what not only what we do this month that's what our calling is that's what our focus is every time we grace the pulpit every time we walk in the community and every time we talk to someone is to demonstrate and show the love of christ and let him choose who he may want to serve him thank you thank you sir council member fake sanders thank you so much and i i am just so happy to have all of you all here today and and pastor hodge thank you so much for saying that but what i want to do is there was a piece of the proclamation that was omitted and i want to take that opportunity to spell to to say what read what it says and it says whereas valued families come in a variety of forms including those headed by opposite sex couples same-sex couple foster parents adoptive parents single parents and blended families and i read that because i was the only mom for a very long time i was a single parent and i want to make sure that all of our families in any and every form know that we are an inclusive city and this proclamation celebrates everyone so thank you so much for your words thank you thank you council member fix sanders council member driscoll thank you so much and um given that this was a proclamation signed by the mayor um i know that city council members if you read a proclamation you're um typically not given liberty to change the wording of something that the mayor has written and signed um so i appreciate council member fig sanders um correction there and making sure that the entire intent of that proclamation was read properly um i also want to point out that um at a time when we have um the first two the first two proclamations and then this one i can't help but think about the wonderful work that's being done today by equality florida um they and the fact that st petersburg is the birthplace of equality florida um makes some of this particularly special to me um in light of the fact that they have a wonderful program called parenting with pride and they've recently launched a new interfaith initiative um that is going to really um elevate the role of faith in um equality florida's work and i absolutely appreciate everything that they do and um i don't know if any of them were part of the the group that was here today but i do want to publicly thank them um for all that they have done and um take a moment to express to the mayor and the administration my deep appreciation for all of the the thought and effort that went into making last week's pride flag raising and celebration um such an incredible success even more than that it was a great statement that we were able to make and that is what i will carry out um carry in my heart in my mind um and in my celebrations throughout this month which is pride month thank you councilmember gibbons thank you so much i just want to thank those who showed up today and uh just make mention you know again this was not meant to divert any attention from any one organization one celebration or another but the intent was to prove that we can love all god's children and we can celebrate all god's people all in the same month thank you chair thank you so um council member pig sanders i'm glad you mentioned that because i do want to um just make it clear to everyone that's here present or anybody that's watching when we have these proclamations as city council members they don't come from us individually or from us as as a city council they really come this from the city of st petersburg and our strong mayor form of government and they are assigned by our mayor kenneth t welch and all proclamations say that and when we read them um we are supposed to read the proclamation as it is presented so i want to make that clear so i appreciate council member fake sanders um for you mentioning that um because i think that is important for everyone to understand it we don't have the liberty of changing what is on here so having said that we're going to move to the next proclamation and that is d3 which is the 2026 governor's hurricane conference innovation award and i will say that we're going to take a break after d4 because there is a huge group of codes compliance and others that are downstairs um as we know in their way that's a huge group so so we're gonna we're gonna have a huge group downstairs come up so we'll take a break after d4 but i wanted to make sure that whoever's watching understands that um so hi hello good afternoon good afternoon it's a pleasure to be here i'm amber building emergency management manager pleasure to be here on a blue sky day delivering wonderful great news um so i'm so happy to be here so today it's my honor to share that the city of st pete's economic and workforce development team was recently recognized with the innovation award for the hometown haulers program at the 2026 governor's hurricane conference this award is presented to programs that demonstrate new and creative approaches to hurricane preparedness response recovery and following hurricanes helena and milton in 2024 a challenge emerged in the emergency operations center how do we remove debris faster support our residents and accelerate recovery and it was a remarkable thing to watch in the eoc when you have a problem that gets presented and to see people work through that and what it looks like to watch city leadership sit at that table with city staff and work through the problem in real time and develop a new approach but ideas alone do not win awards implementation does the economic and workforce development through the city development administration took that concept and turned it into a functioning program they built the framework engaged local businesses managed logistics and created a program that was both innovative and accountable the result was the hometown haulers program which enrolled over 100 local trucks completed 5382 debris halls generated more than 1.6 million dollars in payments to local businesses helping their own community recover the city moved forward with this program without the expectation of fema reimbursement prioritizing recovery while still ensuring the program met federal requirements and the work paid off fema has already obligated a significant portion of the program and the city anticipates full reimbursement as the review process continues this award recognizes not only an innovative idea but economic and workforce development's leadership and dedication and turning that idea into a successful recovery program that is now being recognized throughout the state of florida so congratulations to the economic and workforce development on this well-deserved recognition thanks amber and i first want to recognize uh i said it earlier uh it's uh the best in the business our emergency management team so thanks to amber and the entire team um i want to just quickly just thank a few people um while we were in the uh eoc this was post um helene but before milton and we were thinking what can we do we have another storm coming um how can we get debris picked up and also how can we help with infusing some economic development into community and i want to recognize council member fig sanders and several others in the community who contacted us with the uh the framework of this idea and and uh i also want to thank our city administrator rob girdus and our mayor because at the time when we were saying we were going to do this we didn't know exactly how it was going to work we're figuring this out on the spot and they gave us the ability to move forward with not not knowing that we were going to get reimbursed for from fema so i appreciate them giving us the ability to to do this after that uh i contacted uh and unfortunately tracy smith retired uh she was part of the team uh and andrea falvey is not here today she's off today is her birthday so happy birthday to amber but uh george smith at the time was also a part of the economic and workforce development team and essentially i remember distinctly on the call saying hey we want to stand up this program where we're going to pick up we're going to pick up debris we're going to pay the uh the teams that are picking up the debris debris we need to do it in a way that's structured that maybe we can get reimbursement but we may not be and i need you to do it in 24 hours and so they engaged our team and i want to recognize shelby with procurement here alexis garcia and cassidy with economic and workforce development they really did the the lion's share of the work to uh distribute we had to get placards created we had to uh assign the work so that we were evenly distributing um the the pickups in the areas that were hardest hit getting the documentation for the payment and then making sure ultimately uh that the haulers were paid and they did all this with not a blueprint and like i said we we turned this around in about 24 hours so thanks to the team for their hard work and i actually want to give this award to alexis garcia she uh she describes this as a uh a labor of love she she actually is still working right now with fdm fdem and fema to make sure that we get every dollar back that we can so thank you to elect us and the entire team council member girdus thank you very much madam chair uh council member fig sanders um thank you for you and your team and your innovation and your willing to your willingness to think outside of the box this this was an amazing program and uh it frankly a lot of it was literally in my backyard and so uh just thank you so much to administration i remember being on the phone with rob with mayor with james about this program trying to uh ramp up the raytheon property as quickly as possible i big thanks to les porter who was willing to do that we would not have been able to do that without him and um just incredible what this what this did mayor uh thank you for uh when we were down you doubled down on our people and that says a lot and it worked i watched it work and if you were a hauler and you're here or you're listening thank you and i tried to be out at the raytheon site as often as i could and i went up to as many people as i could to say thank you and if i didn't say thank you to you i'm saying it now because it made a big difference i watched it happen in our neighborhoods i watched it happen in my neighborhood where the debris was piling up fast and that's before a truck could even get into town and so thank you for the difference that you made in our community and uh council members thank you for believing in the program and it's it's nice to know st pete continues to innovate from the front and so thank you to the entire team thank you for the work thank you for changing what emergency management looks like going forward not only for our city but for other cities now we just got to figure out where we'll put it we'll figure that out though we're good at problem solving i believe in it but again to all the haulers thank you thank you you made a difference you got us started and the hardest part of moving a rock is the first push so thank you so much thank you madam chair thank you council member cavern thank you madam chair and uh just a personal note of thanks from district two uh you know almost every neighborhood in my district was affected in those days and when times felt like you know we would never see the the next side um here came our own community to help and make sure that we were able to move as much as possible before the next one came and that was because of the team that was because of leaders like council member fig sanders i see uh dr tomlin back there in the back thank you for your leadership um and for everyone urban league i don't want to leave anyone out i'm sure council member fig sanders will name them all as she rightfully should but just thank you to everyone and and really to our team um council member girdus said it best but uh you know what you all mean to us and we know that those moments many of you were dealing with your own homes at the same time but continuing to be there for our city we talk a lot about resiliency we talk about it when it comes to our stormwater pipes and our infrastructure i think the thing that we don't talk about enough is the resiliency of our people and you guys are the example of that so thank you for everything that you do thank you to our community members for being our partners and uh we hope we don't have to ever call on you again but if we do we've got the blueprint we're ready to go so thank you all thank you madam chair thank you council member driscoll thank you you know it's not that often that leadership at the state level actually likes what we're doing in st metersburg so this really means a lot you know i am so glad that um that everyone involved has been that our city and everyone involved has been recognized um for that innovation in um in a time of crisis um i am so grateful for council member fig sanders um you know get getting this up to to the right people to help execute it um staying in touch with everyone all the all that you did um it's it's what you're all about council member fig sanders and i appreciate you for that for the team that worked tirelessly to figure this out and get it out the door so quickly it says so much about who you are honestly i'm not surprised because i know enough of you for long enough that um this is this is just what you do and i'm so glad to see that you're being recognized for it so thank you and to those who participated stepped up and said hey i can help this way i can help my neighbors i can help my my fellow citizens this way thank you thank you for for being there for each other and that's really what saint peter is all about and we've shown that through this um this program in so many different ways at so many levels so i'm very grateful thank you thank you council member i have to say uh so every council member has spoken has said exactly what i think but council member driscoll i have to say council member fig sanders who would have thought that the state of florida would have thought your idea is so so worthy of an award i mean this makes us proud because not everything we do here in the state in the city of saint petersburg is uh looked upon with a smile from tallahassee so it says something about the program and everybody behind it that made it a true success um it was a great idea and it took our little village basically to get it through get us through the hurricane and uh for those that are watching this is just part of a small group in our city that keeps us safe during storms and i want to make sure that everybody acknowledges their work so let's give them a round of applause again mayor thank you madam chair i just want to make a couple of comments and i won't steal uh councilmember fig sanders thunder but i just want to make sure we said thank you this idea came from the community and i have a unique vantage point of being in the eoc and watching how this team deals with stress and as councilmember gabbard said many of our team members had gone through personal trauma just days ago with helene we were dealing with cranes and everything else right and here comes another hurricane that's going to put more debris out there so i just want to thank councilman girdus helping us get that dms set up it wouldn't work without that council member fig sanders uh nancy was mentioned she was uh integral to this and just getting the word out to the community so there's so many folks to thank but when we stand on our principle of being inclusive even in the midst of two hurricanes it works i noticed tom came in when we talked about reimbursement we had a lot of conversations about do you move forward knowing we might not be reimbursed and we said yeah this is the right thing to do so i just want to thank everybody and i know some of y'all were dealing with personal losses that i didn't even know about at the time and you still work through it so this is an example of how we work as a city i just want to make sure we said thank you to everybody thank you and now we continue the celebration on the hometown haulers with d4 the distinguished citizen award and councilmember fig sanders is going to present good afternoon everybody so what we're going to do is i i want to uh definitely say thank you for everyone that's here but i will be remiss and i'm going to ask dr tomlin if you would come up with me please so you you keep hearing everyone say councilmember double fix sanders i was only a little bit of what brought such a success to the city of st petersburg nancy dunham aka professionally branded name fancy nancy if you would stand with me please reached out to gypsy galardo to say i have these businesses that have trucks that want to give back to the community that was after helene and we knew milton was coming and so they convened a small group of us dr tomlin who agreed and so graciously offered to see the first hundred thousand dollars for the hometown haulers gypsy galardo carl lavender nikki gaskin capehart is that it i got everybody we got on a call saying how are we going to get this done how are we going to get this done and we need to get it done quickly because we got another hurricane coming so we reached out to the mayor's office and i will say we had to get it done regardless and we could not have done it without the team that you just saw up here without the mayor saying yes but more importantly without you all saying i want to step up i want to be a part and make a major impact to our community during a very very difficult time now nancy this is you you received the first distinguished citizen award because you brought it to us that you did you brought it to us we thank you for that because that we don't know what we don't know but we were blessed to have you and everyone else here to say we're ready to work we need to get it done and we're ready we're here so you will get the first distinguished citizen award to nancy dunham for actually giving us an award-winning program thank you i have a lot of them and please forgive me if i miss anybody or i say it wrong but as i say your name if you would please come up because we want to personally thank you for the contribution that you made uh to this program where's the mayor come on up here look it took all of us come on up it took all of us uh mr bill baptiste is he not here somebody gonna give it to him okay uh mr clinton blue oh my bad ladies and gentlemen mr blue is no longer with us i did not realize that he has gone on to be the glory who are we going to give this to um baby come on up and get this for mr blue jackie who's accepted on behalf of mr blue thank you so much mr jackson come on up mr gilson this is a junior marquel green come on mr green quan rush is accepting the award on behalf of mr green thank you so much for being here sir thank you mr anthony harrell okay we gonna get that to mr harrell he had to leave okay uh trey henderson come on mr henderson thank you so much sir mr allen jackson loben and we gonna get that to mr loben david pierce oh he couldn't be here david pierce had to be somewhere with his wife she's graduating and he could not miss that so yeah he was in the right place no choice patrick ruffin okay so y'all you know what y'all better live like today is your last because one day it will be mr ruffin is no longer with us so we're going to make sure that someone in his representative in his family would get this on his behalf yeah you're right thank you derrick ruffin derrick ruffin is he not here he said he's shy both of them they're twins they're shy two twins and they said they both are shy okay so eric ruffin he's shy too bobby smith you're right thank you james so much for what you did thank you thank you so much dakota weaver thank you mr weaver we appreciate you thank you so much okay here come blue cheese mr antoine well because he be dressing so that's with everyone but again we have dr tomlin we want to give her the microphone because again she graciously in the initial meeting agreed to see the person going and that would be remiss not to thank you duck uh thank you council member ruffin sanders for your leadership and thank you to all of the heroic uh city team and the members of the community that led so valiantly in this effort in our city's uh greatest time of need on behalf of the foundation for a healthy saint petersburg we're just very privileged and honored to be able to serve our community in this way it illustrates the power of philanthropy and the importance of public private partnerships and uh the strength of community when we come together around a shared aspiration and the common goal to care for one another so it's our pleasure and our honor to be able to do this type of work and we look forward to working with our community not only in times of crisis but also in times of strength so that we can continue to build a stronger brighter more equitable community that makes all of us who call this beautiful city proud thank you so much so before we ask nancy to take 10 seconds um after she speaks we want to play the video that was done on the hometown haulers all right hi guys um just i just want to give you like a a brief overview of what i experienced in those moments um first and foremost i definitely want to thank miss gypsy gallardo miss ganika tomplin i want to say jelts non-stop but i know it changed um miss david figs council member david figs of course and i'm also miss um nikki gaskin k part just for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to actually go out there and get these people on my own without any restrictions without any remorse nothing just let me just go be great and i appreciate them trusting me in that much that in that manner to do that um i did take a little slack from my community um because they felt like since um and this is me talking um they felt that since we have this color skin that it should only be based off of that you know and as black people we have been set back in time however i'm one of the people that feel that it shouldn't be regulated by one thing right now we need we have a need and anybody that can meet that need whether they have a driver license as long as they have a driver license or a social security number or ein we want them so i didn't want to um i didn't want to you know break it down like even though i had all the right to do as i wanted to could have gave me every guidance to it but i'm like no i wanted everyone to be a part of it but what i do want to bring to you guys attention is um one one of the hometown haulers came up to me and they told me that before that program was created they were like literally 30 minutes before um taking their life like they wanted to kill their self um only because he was being raised as a family man so he was the pride he was he's always meant to take care of families um and in that moment he was 1500 short of paying his rent and this program came about and so he was able to go out and hustle that money back up and still be that man of the household so i just want you to know that you guys literally saved the life that we didn't even know that was going on and not only that um the maslow's hierarchy of needs at this is a moment in time that i also can say that the whole community actually met that the community that i served that i was working with i mean i was all the way out to the to the to the yards out there with them just making sure that they were fine with everything they had going on but at that moment they had like a sense of pride they had a sense of belonging that was one moment that y'all as a community or the city really regained their trust y'all really made them actually felt like um they belonged somewhere you know like that you valued them and if you had to hear all the different conversations that they had with me they walked around they smiled i mean they they cheese and their chest is poked out it was like geez so it was just like of the history of how the community does not trust so much the city of saint petersburg or elected officials i don't you know i don't do politics but they don't care for everything that moment there you know they were really you know happy to be a part of something you know and they talked about it for days about that and then also what i want another thing i want to bring to your attention to those when that hurricane did happen even though the best of us the ones that's up higher you know was getting better pay if you just think about it any time when we was going to any park recreations and stuff and the people had the food out there for everybody to eat you can tell the rich from the poor we all start stood along each other looking the same pulling up in nice cars raggedy cars and no one looked at anyone the different even the less fortunate our unhoused community was able to eat and bathe and do everything and actually regain their dignity in those moments so i just want to let you guys know from the ground zero that that that day there it actually woke up a lot of people in the community it also gave people an actual another chance of actually living so now they have their own businesses like so many of them to open up their own businesses they're general contractors you know they don't invest that same money because i want you guys to understand that although we do want you know we'll take grant money we don't really want the grant money we just want an opportunity to actually get our own money you'll be our own selves and actually generate the money for our own families so just giving us that opportunity meet us as a whole um the opportunity to do that that was just like priceless so i just want to tell you guys thank you as a whole just in case you never hear it from ground zero they told me everything and i'm full of everything so i'm very appreciative and then also to the mayor just for him just to stop throughout all this stuff that's going on you know and he has so many different things that they are beating him down about he actually stood up as the leo that he is and i'm a leo also um he stood up as a leo in those moments there and i mean he didn't think twice about anything he literally kicked in at those moments like and i mean he elevated it all the way from the food all the way from the disasters all the way to i mean everything you could think of it was just coming out left and right left and right with no hesitation so i just want to tell you thank you so much for that i definitely noticed it and um the community noticed it also too so we appreciated you in those moments and thank you guys it's being recognized statewide for a first of its kind hurricane recovery program that it launched after those 2024 storms it's called the hometown haulers initiative the city won an innovation award for the program last month it's designed to speed up debris removal while also helping people recover financially spectrum bay designs josh rojas shows us how the program created opportunity in the middle of disaster recovery for david pierce the road to a new business opportunity started with storm recovery pierce says the general contracting certifications he's earned since the 2024 hurricanes are directly connected to saint pete's hometown haulers program pierce used his truck to haul away debris from hurricanes helene and milton the city paid him three hundred dollars per load he and his business partners then used that money to start the pierce contracting group we were able to come up with a plan we'll take what we make from the hometown haulers program and we'll reinvest it in ourselves antoine wells also signed up to be a hometown hauler wells says his small business managed seven local crews during the cleanup effort and completed about 100 halls community resources and solutions was able to um get generate some income uh during the time of the storms but also help some other families which they probably wouldn't have had work during that time because basically everything was shut down the first of its kind program supported economic recovery by generating 1.6 million dollars for small businesses and residents impacted by the storms according to the city while at the same time accelerating hurricane debris removal in may the city won the innovation award at the governor's hurricane conference for creating what leaders call a new scalable model for community-driven disaster recovery mayor kenneth welch says the grassroots idea for that program came directly from the community it's really innovative uh caught the eye of the director of emergency management and other folks and our team got the awards we're really proud of their innovation mayor welch says 100 local trucks enrolled in the program completing more than 5 300 halls pierce says the innovation award was well deserved i think it was great kudos because it was very innovative you know to bring uh the people from the community to help generate some dollars help put some money in our pockets city leaders say the hometown haulers program not only accelerated storm recovery but also created an economic lifeline for families and small businesses working to rebuild after the hurricanes in st petersburg josh rojas spectrum news so council member fig sanders thank you for the distinguished citizen awards for the hometown haulers but i think we would be remiss not to include you in getting an award right council members it seems like council member fig sanders deserves an award also for being part of this so we're going to make sure that you also get a distinguished citizen award for your part thank you my share floyd thanks i just wanted to say real quick that um uh after hearing all of this it gave me the words to describe like a feeling that i had about this program and it was that the people that i knew that participated in it really i feel like it really gave them purpose as well at the time like when they felt like they were uh contributing to the city uh and you know it was able to help them but uh not just financially but uh like spiritually and mentally as well and so i hadn't really put my finger on what that was until you were speaking really and so i just wanted to say i saw the exact same thing and i'm uh really happy that we were able to get recognized for it and we're able to recognize people for it yes thank you no i you know it's amazing when you think about our community as large as our city is and when you think about neighbors helping neighbors right and the basics of what makes a community and this is the epitome of that this is the epitome of neighbors coming up together and the city coming together and coming up with a solution to help their community and it's fantastic that we could do that in a time where everyone is struggling uh from the hurricane and find a way and find the light um from you know the darkness after a hurricane so i thank you all for being a part of this and for making it happen um fancy nancy i it's just it is it is amazing the work that was done on the ground level and i just really really appreciate it thank you thank you all okay with that we're gonna take a five minute break to allow those that are here that can need to leave and then those that are downstairs come upstairs so five minute break we're in recess we're back in session um the next item up we have is d2 which is codes compliance appreciation week proclamation and our mayor ken welch is going to be presenting that thank you madam chair good to be back with you uh this is an opportunity to recognize some true unsung heroes uh our men and women who are in blue today from codes assistance if you all mind standing with me this is what and there are still folks working in codes right amy and just for folks who are watching and this will be short but this is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate a division of the of the city that has a challenging role helping to ensure our neighborhoods are healthy and safe our codes team have managed a new role following the historic back-to-back hurricanes they've been instrumental in helping put our city back together and get us back on our feet our coast compliance officers were our boots on the ground when many of their own families and homes needed attention in support of their efforts and appreciation of their work i've issued the following proclamation and it reads whereas codes compliance assistance provides for the safety health and welfare of the citizens of st petersburg through the enforcement of building zoning housing environmental and other codes and ordinances and whereas codes compliance assistance is responsible for improving neighborhood health and safety enhancing the quality of life for residents in our community and whereas codes compliance assistance has prioritized education and assistance to achieve compliance with dedicated staff conducting proactive outreach with tenants and homeowners to connect them with valuable resources and whereas every day assisted by administrative support staff they provide quality customer service to the public for the betterment of our community and often their efforts go unnoticed even after compliance has been achieved and whereas codes compliance assistance staff are dedicated well-trained and highly responsible individuals who take their jobs seriously and are proud of their department and the city in which they serve and whereas codes compliance assistance deserves recognition for the jobs they do often going above and beyond their duties to assist residents protect tenants and improve neighborhoods now therefore i kenneth t welch mayor of the city of st petersburg florida do hereby proclaim the week of june 8th through 12 2026 as codes compliance assistance appreciation week in st petersburg and express appreciation for the dedication and outstanding service provided by the individuals who serve in the codes compliance assistance department thank you all for the work you do now we'll hear from our housing and neighborhood services administrator amy foster amy thank you mayor um i definitely think that the work that this team does every day deserves to be recognized and while it may not be cutting ribbons or breaking ground make no mistake that under the leadership of joe wah and beatrice zafra this is an innovative and focused team and they focus on assisting our residents every code that's enforced is an act of act of protection this work takes knowledge it takes patience and honestly it takes a thick skin the work isn't easy or appreciated in the moment they have to make difficult calls and deliver news that people don't always want to hear but they do it every day with professionalism and integrity on behalf of our residents i thank the entire codes team and joe and beatrice for your leadership so i'm going to turn it over to joe thank you mayor thank you administrator foster good afternoon madam chair members of council uh thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this afternoon it's really an honor to be able to recognize the great work that our codes compliance team does as the proclamation mentions this is a group of dedicated professionals who often do a thankless job despite this they show up every day to serve our residents to the best of their ability and often go above and beyond their normal duties five years ago on the heels of the coveted pandemic when we lost a lot of personal interaction and communication i challenged the team to change the perception of our department within the community we knew it wouldn't be easy but it could happen over time with every knock on the door every return phone call and every email exchange where the focus would be on customer service education and assisting our residents standing here today i can tell you that i am extremely proud of this team and the way that they conduct themselves every day as we continue to work towards that goal whether they're answering the phones to take a complaint supporting a tenant who just received an eviction notice connecting someone to our housing team for assistance or going door to door in the aftermath of back-to-back storms to support the community they do it with an unbelievable amount of compassion and empathy this group also embodies what it means to be a work family always being there to support and uplift one another in an often difficult job what many people don't know is that over the past 18 months while they navigated increased workloads during recovery efforts they also experienced the loss of two colleagues and members of that work family it was inspiring to see the way that they continue to show up every day in the face of adversity to continue to support one another and our community i am truly amazed at how resilient this group is and how they always jump to action when called upon i'll be remiss if i didn't take this opportunity to also thank our fellow city departments and community partners who we connect with on a daily basis to support residents to solve problems that cross department lines we value and appreciate the collaborative nature in which we're able to work towards our common goals i'd like to thank the administration for their support as we've implemented some innovative new programs to assist property owners and tenants alike we're also very grateful for the continued support they've shown as we managed an unprecedented workload after the storms and then i want to thank each of you mostly for your patience as i know you all often feel questions and concerns related to codes issues and you always provide us with grace and understanding as we try to gather information to find solutions so with that again i want to thank you for this opportunity to recognize the entire codes team for their hard work and dedication to the city and its residents so thank you very much council member curtis thank you madam chair um well council member gabbert said it earlier and i think it rings true here i'm sorry to steal your quote earlier council member gabbert but our people are resilient and you are a shining example of that and so from eight people that get a lot of those types of emails too we have a lot of empathy for that and so thank you so much every day for doing the work uh and and amy and joe thank you uh for your leadership here uh joe joe answers emails to some of the nastiest emails in the nicest way it's pretty incredible uh you've got way more patience than me brother and uh and and that like that leadership i think seeps down into the rest of the team and so uh from somebody that does notice when you're driving through a neighborhood or i see you on ninth avenue or fifth avenue just know that um from me our family the girdus family we are just so thankful for you and we have massive fans of what you do because joe said it right you you are the protection of our city and not just safety but of a standard and that saint pete standard is only held because of you and i am very very very grateful for that and i said it earlier because born and raised here raising my family here i want my kids to come home just like i came home to my hometown and they won't do that if it's not for people like you and so thank you so much to each and every one of you and please know my door is always open if you ever need anything and i'm so grateful for you and the work that you're doing every day thank you so much thank you madam chair thank you council member hardy thank you chair i have had the opportunity over the past year to speak with three of you three on the team thanks to to joe for allowing me to to get to know some of you and here is the part that that i am most impressed with um the the job that we've asked you to do as evidenced by everyone who's spoken is a very difficult job you have to go tell people that they're doing things wrong and and there is now a penalty for it we're moving towards a penalty for it and and it's for the right reasons right but but the three conversations were were tied together these three separate conversations were tied together in something that joe said he used the word empathy and i was i was so impressed with um with the way that the department approaches this is wrong and it's got to be right but how can we help them get there um there was a uh one of the discussions was uh was helping me understand that um that all codes violations aren't on aren't on purpose i i didn't really think about or understand that sometimes it's just people who fell on hard times a health issue or a money issue or a family issue or whatever it is and the fact that that we have through amy and joe and you all which is where the opportunities come from or the ideas come from developed ways to help these people which is not our job it is not our job to help these people through their codes violations it is your job to find them but you decided that your culture was going to be a culture of helping them when we find them with with tools um to get through i could not be any more impressed with you all i could not be any more impressed with your culture i could not be any more impressed with your customer service and uh and this is this is one of those ones where where we get the opportunity to to recognize um what what is normally a thankless job um and and really make you understand that that are hopefully uh give you the idea from us that that your job is important but the way that you do it is is absolutely out of this world so thank you very much for what you do um and thank you for being here today thank you chair thank you by share floyd thanks i'm gonna keep it short and sweet i really appreciate y'all uh i appreciate the innovative work that you do uh to help people like so many people have mentioned particularly tenants and just to you joe uh you know i have a friend who likes to pester y'all a lot is how i'll leave it uh and she has nothing but kind things to say about the department and uh your leadership and so i'm really grateful for everything that y'all do thanks thank you councilmember gibbons thank you chair i just want to say on behalf of district seven thank you all so much you all really are the wheels that keep our cities turning and when you think about the work that our codes department does you are really that first line of defense a lot of times the complaints that come from our constituency you all are met with them as you're out there driving those streets and so i see you and i appreciate the work that you do and please forgive me me for being probably the reason that you all have more work because i've been pushing and promoting c click fix left and right so thank you all so much for your innovation and for your steadfastness it is appreciated wholeheartedly and thank you so much administrator foster and joe for all of your hard work i have to say joe probably responds quicker to emails than anybody so thank you so much for all of your hard work i appreciate and i'm grateful for each of you thank you councilmember fix sanders thank you i just want to take this moment as you are receiving your flowers to say thank you um because again you all handle some of the most difficult part of our city and addressing those needs but i have to thank mr wall i think you've heard it um he is the most gracious most expedient most polite person that i've seen uh in a very long time and he's consistent where are you mr he's consistent i've never seen mr wall have a bad day and i just want to thank you for that because the coast department what you guys do is not easy and you are not met with a whole lot of thanks and you're definitely not given a whole lot of appreciation so today i thank you all and this was such a momentous occasion for everything that you all do please know that you are seen heard and appreciate it thank you thank you so in my past life i i i as a prosecutor i was part of enforcing the law and one thing you learn is when you're enforcing the law whether it's codes or a statute a lot of people don't appreciate it but guess what a lot of people do and what is the alternative having neighbors duke it out i mean you in a civilized society seriously we need you this is part of what makes our city work and so i know the work that you do every day but just know that every time that you have someone that may complain about what you're doing there's 10 other people that are appreciating it okay and i hear it from the residents in my district just like other city council members hear it in the residents in their district in our neighborhood meetings how appreciated it is and i also want to double down on joe wall uh and his team you know you mentioned joe customer service education assisting residents every time that i have written an email you know sent an email it's been forwarded by my office the responses that you give aren't just quick they're thorough and they're on point and that is extremely important you are so knowledgeable in what you do and it trust me there are times that i'll send an email late at night and there's joe responding and i'm like how does he have the time to do this but he does and so you have great leadership um and amy obviously that also goes to you and it goes to every one of you what you're doing i've heard wonderful things not just from from the top but also from other departments and working with st p police department having those good relationships i think that's extremely important it says something about what you do every day so please always remember when you're going out there even if you have a bad day and some and people are giving you grief there's a lot of people sharing you on so thank you very much for what you do thank you okay i'm going to turn it over to my share floyd while i go down to the podium great thank you all we're gonna go to d7 caribbean american heritage month proclamation given by our city council chair and we'll wait just a second all right take it away okay thank you by share well good afternoon everyone it is an honor to join you as we recognize caribbean american heritage month here in the city of st petersburg as a city council member i am proud that our city is taking this moment to celebrate the history the culture the leadership and service of caribbean americans and as a child of cuban refugees this proclamation is personal to me i carry with me my family story every day and i know many of you do too today as we look around this room we see the beauty and strength of the caribbean represented in many forms cuba haiti jamaica puerto rico the dominican republic trinidad and tobago barbados and beyond we see public servants faith leaders advocates community builders cultural leaders and neighbors who make st petersburg stronger every single day caribbean americans have shaped this country for more than 400 years and they continue to shape our city through their servicing government public safety education business the arts civic life and community advocacy their contributions are not only a part of our national story they are part of st petersburg story for me this month is also a reminder that identity is not something we leave behind it is something that we carry forward it is in our families our accents our recipes our music our prayers our resilience and our warmth and commitment to open doors for others it is my privilege to stand with you in celebration of caribbean american heritage month and read this proclamation whereas during caribbean american heritage month we recognize that caribbean americans have been part of the american story for more than 400 years and have contributed greatly to every aspect of our nation including the economy healthcare public service arts culture education the military literature science and technological innovation and whereas caribbean american heritage month was first officially recognized by the united states congress and president george w bush in 2006 honoring the friendship between the united states and caribbean countries founding father and the first secretary of the united states treasury alexander hamilton and the common values and shared history of the united states and caribbean countries and whereas the city of st petersburg shares those same values history cultural and economic ties to the caribbean and has a history recognizing the contributions of caribbean americans including by naming one of its libraries after james weldon johnson a second generation immigrant from the bahamas and whereas the city of st petersburg is proud to join in the national celebration of caribbean americans and welcomes the opportunity to celebrate their rich culture and heritage through food music and events that invite people of all backgrounds to experience these cultures and develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of caribbean americans and how they continue to play in our nation and local community and whereas caribbean americans have served as public servants within the city of st petersburg and in the community improving the lives of all residents and are integral to our history our culture and respective communities locally and beyond now therefore i share lissette hanowitz on behalf of kenneth t welch mayor of the city of st petersburg florida to hereby proclaim the month of june 2026 as caribbean american heritage month in st petersburg and i also urge citizens government agencies institutions businesses and schools to celebrate the contributions of caribbean americans thank you now i invite our government affairs director david thompson up to the podium thank you thank you chair thank you council surprise i'm jamaican uh maybe not surprise if you've uh been around my house um i i just want to take a moment to thank the mayor thank council for recognizing caribbean american heritage month for the first time here in the city of st petersburg chair hanowitz brother proclamation and talked about the little you know things and the people that you don't realize are from the caribbean and as chair said there's a you know it's one thing to be born in this country but it's one thing to leave the country that you're from and move here and give up your life and your culture and try and start over and for those of us who are descendants or those who are first generation we very much understand what it was to give up that life and to be a part of a new one and to really connect and give in public service to uh a place like that thank you i believe we have francis joseph is going to speak president of the caribbean american national development organization thank you thank you uh chairwoman yes and thank you to the mayor i think he slipped out and to all of the council members uh thank you for giving us the opportunity uh the caribbean american national development organization uh just think about it when we created that name uh we first came up with the name can do and that's what the acronym stands for and then we came over that long name uh who who knew we could have actually come here today to stand in front of you and be recognized for our accomplishments so that's uh part of the reason why the organization was created uh as the chairwoman already indicated uh the caribbean american uh heritage month was was established back in 2006 by then president george w bush recognizing the accomplishments and the contributions of the caribbean american community to the community at large so uh all of the things that the people that migrated uh came and contributed to the to the american society we now get an opportunity to recognize and celebrate so thank you for that opportunity uh from a can do perspective i am the chair uh we're over in tampa so i was invited over here this morning uh and similar to our speaker earlier today i did not come to speak uh so i'm making this up on the fly but can do uh in even though we're in hillsborough county we have a strong relationship with uh st petersburg and we know uh that the caribbean community is growing in the tampa bay area we're not quite as big as miami or fort lauderdale or atlanta or new york but just by walking into this building this morning i quickly recognize some other people from the caribbean so our population is growing uh and we thank you for your support as we move forward uh i know there's a caribbean carnival that that the city of st petersburg has been supporting over the years so thank you for your support on that uh there was a group earlier today uh that talked about disaster recovery and disaster management uh i would like to share uh i would be remiss in not saying thank you to the the members in the community of st petersburg for the support in the disaster relief for hurricane melissa in jamaica uh because the tampa bay area we donated over 40 000 pounds of supplies that went back to jamaica to support disaster recovery similar to what we are talking about here uh candu is also a member of the coad for hillsborough county we've supported uh disaster relief efforts there we've collaborated with career source which is also here in st petersburg for job development and economic uh opportunity and sustainability initiatives as the caribbean community grows we are looking forward to being able to build on that economic footprint uh to better support themselves and advance the community overhaul so thank you for your support uh for recognizing the caribbean community uh as we continue to grow together thank you councilmember gibbons thank you i just want to take a moment to recognize each of you uh for your contributions and for your accomplishments here in our community specifically those of you who work here at city hall um we appreciate all that you all do uh and a huge shout out um to can do i appreciate all the work that you all are doing i've been following you for a long time and i'm grateful for the work that you can do because we can do more together um so thank you all for for recognizing this day today david you know you are part of what makes st petersburg a diverse community and i appreciate all of you for your contributions and i just want to shout out a district 7 restaurant that catered our delicious lunch today taste of the islands thank you so much i just want to thank everyone who joined me here today and these young men who behave so well thank you thank you again thank you thank you all we have one more proclamation world ocean day proclamation brought to you by council member gabber thank you vice chair and if i could ask the members of the sierra club to come and join me so i'm very honored to bring world oceans day proclamation today um you know as a girl who grew up in indiana landlocked in the middle of the country the ocean was a far off dream and it wasn't until i had the opportunity to be an exchange student when i was 18 in japan that i stood on the shores in hokkaido pacific ocean in front of me and i realized how small we really are in this big world and how beautiful and how lucky we are to have our oceans our environment and mother earth of which i believe as an environmentalist it is our responsibility to be stewards of and so i'm very happy today to read this proclamation and it reads whereas world ocean day provides an opportunity to recognize the vital importance of our oceans the gulf of mexico and the marine wildlife coastal communities and economies that depend on clean healthy and resilient waters and whereas residents and visitors of st petersburg and the tampa bay region cherish our beaches fisheries sea grasses mangroves recreational opportunities marine wildlife of gulf of mexico all which are central to the region's identity tourism economy and quality of life and whereas offshore oil and gas exploration development and drilling carry inherent risks including oil spills leaks industrialization of marine waters habitat destruction and pollution which could cause significant harm to florida's coastal economy natural resources marine wildlife and way of life and whereas even the perception of environmental risk associated with offshore dwelling drilling can negatively impact tourism investment and business development in coastal areas and whereas the protection of our coastal environment and economy is a priority for st petersburg and the long-term well-being of our community outweighs the short-term benefits that expand offshore drilling and that might offer to the oil and gas industry and now therefore i council member brandi gabbard on behalf of kenneth t welch mayor of the city of st petersburg florida do hereby proclaim thursday june 11th 2026 that's world ocean day in st petersburg and recognizes world ocean day as an opportunity to celebrate and protect our oceans the gulf of mexico and the marine wildlife and coastal communities that depend on healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems today as i said by members of the sierra club and michael mcgrath will be speaking for them thank you so much thank you well i realize i think we're the last proclamation of the afternoon so um i won't kill too much but good afternoon my name is michael mcgrath lead organizer for sierra club florida i want to thank mayor welish members of council and the city staff and community members for inviting us today for world oceans day here in st pete um you know for a city like ours world oceans day is not abstract uh it's about who we are right we all have our special memories at the beach our our great fisheries we have before us our sea grasses our mangroves the dolphins over by vannoy sea turtles manatees all the things right um it really helps to create our own identity and also quality of life for the residents of st pete and also help support our local economies um that's why i want to thank you all today for supporting this proclamation also supporting our efforts to oppose offshore drilling and standing with the sierra club to oppose um efforts that would actually open our gulf up even more to more offshore oil and gas drilling activities um it's we're at really a critical moment here within our gulf and there's one thing i actually wanted to just bring everyone's attention to that i wanted to just kind of be as an educational tool for us today each of you received a bookmark today um of a rice's whale out of curiosity show of hands how many folks have heard of this this whale before rice's whale okay some okay some but not all right we have some more work to do um get this folks this is the only this is this is the gulf of mexico's only um year-round resident whale it exists nowhere else in the world than here in the gulf of mexico um it's critically endangered there's only about 50 of them left um out in the wild um during the deep water horizon explosion back in 20 uh gosh what was that now 2010 20 yeah um or so right um that that actually killed about a fifth of their entire population from from the oil drilling activities um if we have more expanded facilities for um oil drilling within the eastern gulf um the florida gulf if you will um we will see the species um it go extinct simple as that right um so this is survival is threatened not only by offshore drilling but also vessel strikes seismic exploration noise pollution habitat degradation of course oil spills and there's also federal actions more broadly with the trump administration to weaken the endangered speeches act exempting the oil and gas industry from um having to follow the protections of the endangered speeches act so it's really helpful to have communities like st pete take the leadership on this so we can actually have a coalition of local governments across the gulf of florida that we can work with saying not here not in florida not our shores and i'm really just really proud today that st p is standing with us today to save our shores together again thank you so much for your partnership on this and thank you again for making it very clear that we cannot stand to have extinction be on our our our hands so thank you again council member driscoll thank you thank you council member gabbard for reading the proclamation and thanks to the administration for creating it um this is an important one to me i know um a couple of years ago uh for world oceans day or near world oceans day we had this uh similar plaque proclamation and i had invited the executive director of the florida institute of oceanography to come and speak with us and give us an update on fio um i thought about trying to scramble something together for this time but they're kind of they're just so busy right now um you know with everything since the since the fire but i wanted to take the time to point that out so that maybe next year um someone who's still on the dice will invite fio to come and give an update um they along with the college of marine science have done some incredible work and and some of them are um actually strong advocates for the rice's will which is how i am familiar with them and i um actually found myself in dc with them a couple of times meeting with different um members of congress their staff and others to um talk about solutions because there actually is one and um the solution can be found in st petersburg as usual because one of our companies sail drone which is at the maritime and defense technology hub actually has the technology and the equipment to be able to um go out and sense where the rice's wills are because some of the part of the problem is they're they get in the way of the ships and the ships don't want to move you know um but sail drone has a way that they can help very efficiently guide them around if only we could just get them to all work together and so um that's a little bit of what i know um i've become a big fan i want if you have extras of these i can give them to my fish friends um yeah and um it i'm just so glad that you brought it up and i really really appreciate that the sierra club has been raising awareness i do get your emails and i am so glad that you're bringing this up because um i'm the number of of rice as wells is so small right now that um you are not exaggerating when you talk about um possible extinction in the very near future so um you know i'm right there with you i appreciate you and i appreciate all that everyone is doing to advocate for our marine life for our marine environment and um just a big shout out to all of those who are doing the work to advance technology and science in that area thank you thank you councilmember girdus thank you very much chair uh councilmember gabbard thank you for reading this proclamation and bringing it forward um to the sierra club thank you so much um i was flying home from a work trip or five weeks ago from somewhere west of here i won't call them out and uh it was right at kind of sunset and we were taking off and we were flying over the gulf and i looked down and i had to double take because there were some stationary things in the water and i went what the hell is that and then i realized it was oil rigs and i went man i'm really happy i don't have to look at those in florida and i hope i'm continuously happy that i don't have to look at those in florida and hopefully we can chip away where they are at other places so thank you so much for the work that you're doing i'm very happy that my kids weren't on that flight so i didn't have to explain to them what those were that'll be another time but i'm just very proud of the work that you're doing especially on this front thank you for representing us so well and protecting us thank you thank you madam chair thank you and council member gabbard thank you for um bringing the proclamation and sierra club for all the work that you do and your advocacy i mean teaching us something every single day i think it's an it's important um i love the the story about the rice's whale that you have actually put out there to let people know that they're endangered i think that's incredible um that a lot of people don't know more about this especially when we're threatened with uh opening up our gulf to more drilling and that sort of stuff um and florida has been fighting for many years on this front i will always if i will always continue so i'm glad that you're in the forefront and i feel better about it too that you're there so thank you thank you okay so we move on to reports uh we have a presentation this was pulled by council member gabbard this is on the residential recovery and elevation program grant and i will turn over the floor to council member gabbard to introduce us thank you madam chair uh so i pulled this item i think for probably two reasons uh one certainly um anything that comes through sunrise saint pete i always appreciate a presentation and a public conversation because these dollars are so important to the recovery for everyday residents in our city and um let's be honest i mean i shared this at the lair committee that uh we've been really pushing back on tallahassee and fema for the lack of response under the elevate florida program uh continuing to try to keep the pressure on working with our state senator and representatives to make sure that those dollars come down and whenever you know i'm out in the community talking with residents about this the very next question is what about the saint pete money right so i think it's important that we're continuing to be transparent in how we are moving forward and and being very honest about what our hurdles have been so far right i mean a lot of this like to the point this morning in hout the agreement didn't even get signed until just a few months ago so um you know i just i think for full transparency full accountability making sure that residents know that we are still working to move these dollars forward uh that was my purpose in pulling this so thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to introduce it and i'll go ahead and turn it over to aubrey thanks so much councilmember gabbard and chair and council members happy to be with you i'm aubrey phillips director of strategic initiatives and grants for the city of st petersburg today i'm going to provide a brief progress update on our residential recovery efforts and the action plan implementation overall and request your approval for a resolution to help us continue to streamline homeowner awards in particular the presentation today frames up where we are where we are what's working and the immediate operational steps that are helping us to serve residents better every day so first up a quick overview of the agenda and objectives we'll cover today overall implementation progress the feedback we've received and monitoring observations we've made and the actions that we have currently underway to ensure a consistent and positive applicant experience as we all journey on this road to recovery i'll close out with our request to city council to approve a resolution delegating authority to execute residential recovery and elevation program grant agreements this is to ensure we can move eligible homeowners promptly from approval into construction and get people on the road to recovery sooner so here's the broad how the broader action plan is tracking as councilmember gabbard referenced with in february we received our fully executed hud grant agreement within four months of getting that hud grant agreement back fully executed over three quarters of the city council approved funding in the action plan has been activated and that's what you see represented on this slide so currently in progress we have our residential recovery and elevation program disaster relief reimbursements public infrastructure mitigation and post-disaster improvement in planning applications are currently open right now for the affordable rental housing for multi-family developers those responses are due by 5 p.m tomorrow i will reinforce that we will remain in the cone of silence pending those awards and then later this summer we'll be launching home buyer assistance voluntary buyouts and non-profit community support services so i have to take a moment here to recognize this is not just me and the team that i lead uh this is almost every department in the city that has been helping to support this effort as well as our implementation partners i want to give a quick shout out to legal housing and community development real estate and property management public works codes em like i said a lot of departments are involved in helping make this happen so quickly zooming in on residential recovery here's a timeline of some key operational milestones and really operations started even before this timeline starts so as a reminder to everyone on council and the public that may be listening video government services provides our program management support for the city's residential recovery programs and this is under a competitively procured consulting agreement that was originally approved by council in august of 2025 ryan flannery a principal with bdo has joined us this afternoon and is available when we get to the q a portion reflected on the slide the city began accepting applications on december 15th 2025 while we were awaiting our fully executed grant agreement back from hud we wanted to get the ball moving on getting folks in the pipeline for recovery intake paused on february 15th due to higher than expected applications and that's to allow us to time to review the applications we had received and assist assess whether additional applicants could be served with the current funding we have available and on february 19th 2026 we received our hud fully executed grant agreement and we were then able to issue our first disaster relief payment award in march of 2026 and the first reimbursement for repair award in may of 2026 we just recently completed the environmental review for our first repair and reconstruction awards so we're expecting those grant awards to be coming forward very shortly i'll remind everyone on council and those watching that these federal funds come with substantial documentation eligibility and review requirements and that does impact how quickly we can get help to residents so in particular all repair and reconstruction awards require an environmental review which depending on the age of the structure entails a mandatory 30-day review period by the state historic preservation office these reviews and documentation and eligibility requirements are all embedded into the into the case workflow that you'll see in just a moment and that's to ensure that we have full compliance with all of our hud regulations before any obligation or construction proceeds we want to make sure we're moving people to recovery quickly but we also want to ensure that we're protecting the city and making sure that taxpayers are not on the hook for repaying any funds to hud so as of this past monday june 8th we had 1635 doc cases in document collection 611 were in review 240 were on hold and 184 were complete so digging into that just a little bit more deeply case managers are actively assisting applicants with document collection as i mentioned there's a lot of documentation that hud requires that we collect and verify with applicants we do encourage and i encourage you if applicants are reaching out to you please encourage them to make an appointment with our service center and the case management team that remains one of the most effective ways we found to finalize outstanding materials and get cases moving forward the review process includes eligibility verification damage assessment duplication of benefits and environmental reviews it also includes the pre-award quality control to ensure that these dollars are all compliant with the federal rules and regulations on hold cases you see reflected here are paused either because of a unique situation or question with a particular case or based on the prioritization that's established in the relevant program guidelines after priority applications are addressed those cases that are on hold because of prioritization will be processed and then complete applications include both awarded applications as well as those applications that were duplicate withdrawn or cases that were ineligible focusing in on those cases that are in review the 611 that are in review are undergoing that eligibility verification and environmental clearance check and new kpis are helping us to make sure that these things are moving forward more quickly next up we'll summarize implementation momentum feedback and operational improvements that we have in effect now so as of this past monday we had issued 37 grant awards totaling just over 370 000 dollars as i mentioned earlier our first repair and reconstruction awards have just completed environmental review so we're anticipating those grant notices will be going out any day now the uh as we have been processing applications we've received a very low quantity of complaints today just 12 since we opened applications however we did see a slight uptick in april so an increase from two complaints per month to three complaints per month but that was enough to trigger us to do some additional monitoring related to applicant experience and really dig into what applicants were seeing using this feedback both the city team and bdo's team introduced additional monitoring to look into that and based on the findings of that effort we've strengthened intensive weekly staff training with an emphasis on service standards and federal documentation requirements we want to make sure our case managers are clear so that applicants are clear and we can get people moving forward more quickly we're also conducting case-by-case follow-up to remove barriers and refer residents to other programs where applicable so as you might imagine we're encountering folks who are dealing not only with recovery but ancillary issues related to paying both a mortgage and a rent facing eviction threats things like that so we're making sure that we're connecting them with other programs that the city your community partners have to provide those wraparound support services and help folks to stabilize in that recovery journey and then also bdo has been expanding their case management team so we have six new hires coming on board this will grow the team by 50 percent since may 1st we have new kpis that we're rolling out over the next month and a half to two months that'll focus on case processing applicant contact cadence and quality control return rates this is will help to support over time long-term oversight and continuous improvement we're proactively not only managing production but we're also adapting to emerging federal guidance while we bring today's resolution and work on internal efforts to streamline award execution so as one example of that emerging federal guidance we've recently been informed by our hud representative that save which is the system used to verify citizenship and immigration status is no longer required we're awaiting the publication of hud's announcement of this and further clarification as our understanding is that there is a federal injunction that may affect the applicability of that save and uh prora requirements uh that relate to citizenship and identity documentation this would really help to streamline the documentation that we have to get from citizens to be able to process their cases but of course we want to make sure that hud is supportive of that direction and that we're not coming out of compliance so with all of that context uh here's our specific recommendation for council action and how you can help us to continue to move eligible homeowners forward we're requesting council to approve a resolution delegating authority to the mayor or designee to execute residential recovery and elevation program grant agreements and related documents so in this case that's a mortgage and promissory note on these agreements that a lot will allow us to move eligible homeowners forward without delay let's see just as a reminder um our eligible applicants for this program can receive up to three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars worth of repairs reconstruction or replacement of their storm impacted home to a decent safe sanitary condition this delegation of authority reduces administrative friction for residential recovery awards over a hundred thousand dollars so that we can execute those agreements promptly while maintaining full compliance with hud requirements i did want to mention here one of the we had some discussion this morning at hlut about the makeup of our population that we're assisting and particularly how much we're assisting those in our elderly population so for our residential recovery program we do prioritize assistance to households with members who are 65 or older we currently across all three types of assistance so repair and reconstruction reimbursement for repairs and disaster relief payment about a quarter of our applicants 679 cases total are households that have members who are 65 or older that increases as we talk about repair and reconstruction awards for repair and reconstruction about 40 percent of our cases have members that are 65 or older that tells us reading between the lines on that data that those households with older family members are having some of the hardest time recovering so we are really emphasizing support there i really want to shout out our bdo case management team they are very hands-on with applicants they sit down they've visited applicants in their homes helping them walk through how to log on to various federal systems to get the documentation that's required and we know that that's that's not an easy journey for folks so we really appreciate the the time that the bdo case management team takes to to meet applicants where they're at but that'll take any questions you might have thank you council member govard thank you madam chair um and thank you for the presentation and so yesterday we received a memo from aaron fish about the voluntary buyout program is aaron here or whoever can answer the questions uh first of all i just want to thank you guys because you did a great i mean aaron did a great presentation in here about like what we discussed on march 12th and there were concerns at that time on the voluntary he's there he is he heard his name and he appears thank you aaron i appreciate your memo that you sent us yesterday and i appreciate um the response from staff for the feedback that was shared about voluntary buyout specifically with the um proposal in march that that individuals could you know purchase a home or relocate anywhere within the state of florida and very clearly um you know i know myself and at least two other council members i think in that committee were very um steadfast that it needed to be relocation within the city of st petersburg um you know that's one of the challenges that we are continuing to see is that people want to stay within the city that they have loved and you know built a life in but once their home is destroyed they have a lot less resources to do that with and so i really want to just thank staff and the administration for hearing us and for making those changes i don't know if you want to speak to that at all um with voluntary buyout happening in the summer july ish um if there's any like specific conversation about like outreach and things like that yes and uh good afternoon council uh good to be here aaron fish real estate property management director and council member yeah to um to answer your question yeah the original outreach is expected to start in the summer um with a mailing to go out to all the property owners within the disaster risk reduction areas and then based on the feedback that we get from that then um then we will start reviewing um the properties and you know those locations at that time okay um two questions about that just because council this is our last meeting and then we go on break and next thing you know it'll be july right so um two questions also came up in the committee in march have we narrowed down the areas that um we discussed before the map that you had shown us and i bring that up specifically around district two because the one and only area really that was in district two as i pointed out was highly a multi-family area and so that certainly when we only have the bandwidth to do 14 properties doesn't really work for those large scale multi-family might work for smaller ones not the ones that were in that area so have you all looked at that map and kind of brought it down a little bit more to areas where you actually think because if you just send these notices out to all of these areas without refining it a bit more you're probably going to get a lot of applications you're going to have to weed through that aren't really going to meet the criteria so yes and that's a good point council member we um we did consider that and then ultimately um the idea was that if we we did send it out to everybody cast that wide net so to speak we really wanted to see the benefit of what that feedback really is without trying to hone in too much on certain areas and potentially miss something okay so yeah it's it's going to be a broad outreach okay and then my last question on this point is uh also from the feedback from the committee um with only having 14 properties that are really going to be able to be impacted um have we continued to work with uh say stormwater and making sure that whenever we do get these applications in we're somehow prioritizing based upon areas where there are stormwater projects happening and i go straight to clan bayou kingston street south i was just down there a couple of weeks ago with a couple of my senior uh ladies who i continue to keep track of through the elevate florida program um and there are homes down there that people have not touched and they are right along clan bayou in that area and so you have to worry about will they know about this program right if they're not engaged in the active rebuild but then also i just look at those properties and i think like those could be ripe for buyout and be able to utilize that with stormwater projects that are planned so have you guys had more conversation about that certainly and i and i think once we get the feedback from the outreach there will be plenty of opportunity for staff across administrations to review and and provide feedback on what's most beneficial to the city okay ryan do you have anything to add about what your experience has been working in other cities where you had disaster funds and kind of outreach and response and any challenges with outreach um when people haven't you know returned home and maybe are a little bit more difficult to reach so in general across all types of programs just outreach um you know that it's a it's a common issue for sure um i think that it it's a sustained concerted effort which i think you know the city has been doing a great job with um outreach comes in a lot of different forms we've come to find that outreach really works best with social media yeah believe it or not and word of mouth are the two um you know most prominent for uh when we we do surveys and get responses from folks who have applied it's usually those two methods okay very good well when all of that opens in july if you could get that to us as council members uh be happy to share that in newsletters and on social media as well thank you madam chair thank you council member driscoll i actually aaron it's just it's just a quick buyout question i know it was a while back we had gotten um like a map and i'm i'm sorry if i missed it with the update that we were just sent but is the maps like can we look at it today and it's still accurate yes yes there is on the city's website there is a a public facing map that shows the disaster risk reduction areas and it is a searchable map where um you can go in and type in an address or even click on the map and it will show whether or not that property is eligible okay i just want to make sure it was up to date and um something we could still encourage people to use yes okay and um i you know i'm i'm gonna just schedule a quick call for us for my additional questions because they're really specific and i don't need to take up everybody's time so thank you certainly thank you thank you we have a resolution for consideration i'll entertain a motion second motion second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item f2 passes unanimously thank you thank you aubrey for the update we'll recess at city council and convene at cra uh we have mark vanloo here uh on a resolution recommending the city council approved funding in an amount not to exceed 408 1852 in previously appropriated tiff funds from the south st petersburg redevelopment district to habitat for humanity of pinellas county for the construction of the grove townhomes good afternoon council chair vice chair and council members mark vanloo assistant director housing community development i do have a brief presentation i can go through with you to explain this request in this project habitat for humanity has constructed 11 units at 1805 18th avenue south all of these units are three bedroom two and a half bath for sale townhomes and are restricted to buyers with household income of 80 percent a very median income or below habitat has completed construction of the project in late 2025 and has closed on the sale already of seven of the 11 units as of late may is under contract for the sale of three more expected to close this month and has the final unit buyer selected with a closing date yet to be determined the project's located on 18th avenue south just a couple blocks east of the tangerine plaza area as well as a couple blocks east of habitat's new under construction pelican place project they're a 40 unit project that is beginning construction now this is an actual photo of a portion of the units that were constructed on the site and they're it's a really attractive project with 11 great for sale townhomes these are the basic numbers for the project so total project costs just under 3.9 million dollars which breaks down to about 354 000 per unit in total cost habitat is requesting city funds in an amount of 481 852 and 14 cents breaking down to a per unit subsidy of 43 805 and all of the units are affordable so that number remains the same per affordable workforce housing unit and that represents about 12 percent of the total project cost the financing plan habitat has constructed the homes using self-financing and will recoup the cost of the homes through the buyer's purchase price down payment assistance and the requested 481 852 gap funding it's important to note that the average household income level for all 11 buyers comes in at about 70.3 percent of area median income with the lowest earning buyer at 62 percent of area median income and the highest at 78 percent so due to the income levels of the buyers that were ultimately selected for these homes habitat for humanity is unable to cover the full cost and is asking the city to help cover this gap this is a little different i usually come before a project starts requesting the gap funding in this case habitat attempted to build the project without any financial subsidy but at the end of the day with the selection of lower income buyers have this gap that that they're requesting our assistance with so staff recommends approval of this funding request i'm happy to entertain any questions i also have representatives from habitat here thank you councilmember driscoll thank you thank you mark for the um the report very supportive of this i really just wanted to take the mic for a second to thank the folks from habitat once again you created something that we can all be proud of and given gosh i mean just this morning in our housing land use and transportation committee meeting we're getting our housing opportunities for all update and talking about you know the continued difficulty in finding home ownership opportunities for um folks who are on the the lower end of the income scale or not not making what was it uh 28 an hour or 34 whatever the housing wage is now um this is housing for real people it's home ownership for real people and habitat is making it happen like nobody else i drive by these a lot it's it's beautiful once again you know and um so thank you and more please thank you madam chair thank you council member girdus well i'm just going to repeat what council member just said i just wanted to say thank you i'm super excited for this mark thanks for the work amy mike sean great job second motion second council member givens thank you chair i am so pleased to support this and i concur i want to thank habitat mike and the whole team sean all of you all the hard work that you all put in for a 43k subsidy per unit less than half a million dollars we have other projects in the city that we've done a hell of a lot more for and they've taken much longer so i thank you all so much for your diligence and your hard work and helping to make homeowners a realistic dream for the regular working class family there's so many people who i know from this community who have become homeowners not priced out of our community but able to maintain their home and also able to give their family a place to be raised because of the work that you are doing so i'm so excited to see this go up in my district and congratulations thank you thank you councilmember fixander thank you again thank you so much for this presentation and of course mike and john knows you know that habitat has always been my favorite um especially because of the opportunities that you provide so i just really wanted to say thank you and i agree with council member driscoll we need much more thank you thank you thank you well thank you all i'll just say ditto we have a motion a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote i'm chair of the motion to approve agenda item cra2 passes unanimously now we adjourn as cra and reconvene as city council same report same presentation motion motion second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item f1 passes unanimously thank you sir we move up to two legal items we have mccall here hi mccall good afternoon chair members of council uh thank you for your consideration of these couple legal items the first item before you were asking for your approval to increase the not to exceed amount of our engagement letter with laying in rafa from twelve thousand five hundred dollars to twenty two thousand five hundred mr nick laying his expertise in laws governing florida homeowners associations has been extremely beneficial not only to our office but to administration and we're just looking for this funding to help get these hoa documents finalized for the deuces town home debt townhome development thank you thank you you have a motion a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item i1 passes unanimously thank you i2 and then this request is going to be similar to our request we brought gosh a few months ago related to the geo bonds this is uh asking for your approval of the resolution confirming um the appointment of brian miller olive to provide legal advice and services on various funding and finance related matters associated with a potential reduction in ad valorem revenue for not to exceed amount its initial 25 000. move approval a motion a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda i2 passes unanimously thank you and thank you mccall we move on to new business the first item is mine uh i am going to amend some of the language because that actually passed the legislature and it started before it uh passed the legislature so uh same same item and i do want to check with administration july 30th committee of the whole recommended budget is that a good place to put to talk about this yes chair we're comfortable with that okay that sounds good all right move approval second okay we have a motion and a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council member please enter your vote seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve miss lee thank you we have g2 vice chair floyd uh i am respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution opposing any state legislation that discriminates against people based on sexual orientation gender identity or any other protected identity or characteristic you can see the resolution attached uh the language um around uh city funding for shelter services and whatnot was uh i ran it past uh amy and uh administrator foster and uh to make sure we were all comfortable with it uh and i also want to thank my friend jenna who helped write this as well um and i'll move approval second we have a motion a second council member curtis uh thank you madam chair floyd i'm just going to repeat what i said earlier probably thank you thank you council member gabbard same here i was very proud of you earlier but too too verklempt to say anything so i i did not but i do want to take this opportunity just to thank you not only for the remembrance proclamation earlier and reading that but also this uh resolution i stand in support with you 100 percent and i just really appreciate your leadership thank you i share floyd thank you uh all um one other thing i wanted to mention is i i felt this was important to bring this year because it's the last time to talk about this and it's the last time we get to talk about it because of the legislation coming from the legislature and uh i hope that it's not the case because i feel that um you know my first amendment rights are being violated by the legislation so i think we'll have uh there'll be a more public discussion about that kind of thing in the future but a big reason why i uh did it was because it's our last opportunity thank you thank you thank you uh 100 support and wonderful timing given given it's pride bump so we have a motion and a second right clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item g2 passes unanimously thank you next up we have g3 council member girdus thank you very much madam chair uh colleagues i have a resolution in front of you requesting approval uh that the city of st petersburg recognize uh the panfilo de navarras expedition landing near uh jungle prada site again uh i worked with legal and i want to thank rue also for the one-on-one and i i'll speak for him and if you can yell at me if i'm out but i think i have his support on this as well um listen i i want to make it very clear this is just recognizing uh the historical significance of this this is not a yeah everybody's picking up what i'm putting down yeah okay well yeah and big thanks to legal for helping uh the way it was done and that was very purposeful uh the ancillary events do not get lost on me and so uh but again i thought it was important with the 500 anniversary i mean a lot of a lot of cool things happened i mean the first one of the first black explorers traversed america to the pacific ocean uh there's there's a lot of history to this and i wanted to commemorate it and i think this will help kick off also what is the 500th anniversary of this and i'll move approval thank you have a motion a second council member gabbard thank you madam chair and just very briefly thank you councilmember girdus for bringing this forward i know uh if mr mcdougall is listening yes thank you um amy is here thank you for taking the time to educate me in our one-on-one that we had and uh immediately i was in support but of course we try to always give reverence to colleagues when something happens in their district and so i very affectionately uh said you go talk to councilmember girdus and uh you know good luck so you know very happy to see this come here today and so um thank you so much for your advocacy and for your education i really do appreciate it thank you thank you and amy uh thank you for the for the uh um meeting that we had and obviously same thing with council member gabbard and your advocacy on this issue it went it landed in the right spot wow aren't you not here so we have a motion oh council member girdus i'm sorry thank you madam chair just i and thank you council member gabbard amy and jim jim is not able to be here he had a surgery and i just want to publicly i think he's at home watching i just want to publicly thank him uh i i had an extra thousand pages of reading and so uh i've gotten through about half of it if i'm being honest with you jim uh but uh very very thankful for uh bringing this forward to me frankly i was relying totally on the historical marker that's already there but i think this is important for us to recognize so thank you so much for the support council member driscoll yeah thanks uh council member girdus for bringing this forward i had the the pleasure of meeting with amy and jim and amy thank you for shepherding this the way that you have doing your part um i noticed that rui's here and um i know he gets excited about these things too and he is also plays a big role in getting getting some of these things done and making sure that we're recognizing our um all parts of our history so um thanks for all that you do as well i know i love it when we give rui work to do but then it means that you have to answer the phone when he calls but honestly thank you thank you by share fool thank you yeah i did want to say i read through it and i was like oh yeah this is totally reasonable thing and well written and uh i think it's a good thing for us to do legal yeah absolutely yeah yeah because i was like you know i see it i'm looking like all right let me make sure this is good and it was good so i appreciate it thank you thank you really good to see you by the way there's some pictures you have to pick up which is unrelated to this so my legislative aid is going to meet you outside while you're here i just want to make sure i she's kicking out the district one stuff i'm trying to take you you know thank you for what you've done on this too we have a motion and a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members uh except council member i thought i did it sorry there you go all present council members have voted now can you tell me and announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item g3 passes unanimously thank you next up we move to uh council committee reports h1 council member girdus thank you very much respectfully requesting city council approval of the short list of proposals for the fy 2026 management evaluation of the billing and collections department to two offerers ecom technical services and baker tilly advisory group and i'd move approval second we have a motion and a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please telly announce to vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item h1a passes unanimously thank you next up is public hearings they start at 501 so at this point we are adjourned thank you we're recess sorry recess recess for public hearings um the first item up is j1 um i believe we have dr avery sliker here hi hello good did not see you you snuck up on me i know i'm a little how are you doing i'm good good evening chair vice chair committee members what we are here before you this evening is to authorize a second allocation of the emergency solutions grant on sheltered survivor housing which is known as rush funds from the u.s department of housing and urban development in the amount of two million three hundred and twenty eight thousand three hundred and one dollars this is the second allocation in response to the major disaster declarations associated with hurricanes helaine and milton rush funding is to address the housing and service needs of individuals and families experiencing homelessness or those at risk of homelessness as a result of the disasters the funding is specifically intended to help communities rapidly identify engage shelter house and stabilize vulnerable residents affected by disaster related displacement and housing instability consistent with the priorities identified by the pinellas county continuum of care the city plans to utilize these funds to support a range of homeless activities which may include street outreach emergency shelter rapid rehousing rapid resolution diversion services and homeless prevention programs there is no local match associated with this funding the grant represents an opportunity to bring these additional federal resources into our community to help address the increasing housing and homeless challenges as a result of our recent disasters and to support our most vulnerable residents i'll entertain a motion move approval thank you a motion a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item j1 passes unanimously thank you and thank you for being here next up we have j2 in ordinance amending city code 26-168 and creating a new section 26-169 to be entitled neighborhood resident only parking areas titled neighborhood resident only of 639 titled neighborhood resident only of the city of st petersburg amending the city code to revise section 26-168 and create a new section 26-169 to be entitled neighborhood resident only parking areas and provide for effective date madam chair we do have a few cards okay thank you we have Evan Moore here first of all councilmembers I know that you have received some additional information on this item there is additional language that councilmen council members can consider in case you would like to Evan Maury has been working on this for a very long time and has done a good job at first you know reaching out to both Chamber and Kona and bringing up this item and trying to get feedback we've gotten a lot of recent feedback which he's been addressing this week with me and we've had meetings so I just wanted to kind of let council members know that and he's gonna be able to address a lot of that today so Evan thank you so much for being here and start with your presentation thank you good afternoon council Evan Moore director of transportation and parking management I'll walk us through a few slides here the first one has some background and history on the residential parking permit program in the city of st. Pete which dates back to the early 90s of note is the initially the program was relatively small and in the eastern core of downtown over time as it grew and parking stress pushed out from that core area the RPP program has gone through several expansions the latest of which were into a traditional neighborhood the old northeast section immediately north of downtown the first section of the ordinance in front of you aligns the code with how the program has evolved over time for example this includes updating to match the fee increase approved by City Council through the FY 2027 budget process and a transition to passes always being valid for 12 months from the date of issue rather than passes acquired during mid-year expiring at the end of that calendar year also listed on here are some of the eligibility requirements and the limit on visitor passes the RPP program has definitely gone through several expansions as the city has grown as earlier mentioned overflow parking and resident requests for parking relief didn't stop when the old northeast zones were added indeed both staff as well as City Council have fielded requests to consider options for residents further from downtown though we haven't had a mechanism knowing that the downtown program couldn't readily be expanded to remote areas of st. Peter areas further from from downtown since the original council referral and through the council committee process we've developed a draft ordinance that that's before you today which doesn't define any exact zone or zones instead it establishes a framework and ground rules that would be applied to potential future zones this framework establishes some very clear guardrails that provides elements of protection for all interested parties some of the major elements are listed here which includes that significant congestion must exist and that a permit program must be able to provide some relief of that excessive congestion it also requires that a two-thirds supermajority of households be in support before a proposed zone can even come to City Council for consideration and while the traffic study and petition process are very similar for traffic calming there's a big difference here because once all the hurdles are cleared all the boxes are checked it still doesn't move forward without going through the entire City Council amendment process again and I'd like to emphasize that no new zone would be implemented without a thorough evaluation passing the petition defining all proposed details of a zone community engagement and at least three votes of City Council the committee and then twice with full council here's a few more details about the proposed framework first it's flexible in that a zone wouldn't have to be in effect 24 7 it could be certain days or times of the day however it's not meant to address occasional major special events for example we wouldn't be conducting the requisite parking study in a neighborhood adjacent to Grand Central during Halloween on Central or Pride weekend the previously outlined high bar set for program initiation partially addresses the fact that both residents and business interests must be kept in mind while defining a program we added an additional restriction that also works towards protecting business interests which is that the ordinance would not allow for a proposed zone to come before council that includes any parking abutting a commercial use earliest earlier this year we did share the draft ordinance with both the council of neighborhood associations and the st. Pete Chamber so this slide shows the recent history of council meetings related to this item however it should be noted that today is actually the fifth time in front of council in total the first was when City Council voted to send this topic to committee almost three years ago on July 20th 2023 the second time was a committee discussion on October 10th 2024 the third time was April 11th 2026 for the second committee review and discussion at PSNI the fourth time was the first reading which occurred late last month and the final time is today at public hearing one idea that has emerged since the first reading is the possibility of adding a one block buffer along all major streets as defined in the city's comprehensive plan this would complement and not replace the budding commercial property prohibition council was provided draft language yesterday and you may wish to consider that option during today's deliberations to close I'd like to thank mr. ingram who's here here again today for speaking at the first reading and our conversation since then I'd also like to thank the chamber and Kona for their help in sharing information with their constituents and also for talking through viewpoints and ideas this concludes the presentation thank you evan I believe we have public comment yes madam chair first two speakers kyle masterson kay moham kumar approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council you're here both are against next two speakers bryce kennedy nate siegel approach on the podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council both arguments madam chair philip ingrim ingram a couple weeks i came before the i guess i should give my 2339 dr martin luther king jr street north sorry i represent trip steiner and it's great to see you all again your name sir philip ingram good evening a couple weeks ago i came here to the council to state how concerned i was about the parking ordinance that was being proposed for passage my chief concern was about the lack of accessibility protections for many businesses across our great city that day i stated i was ready and open to discuss with any city leaders to try and come to a possible solution to help secure more protections for our business community while still respecting the other stakeholders involved i must take a moment to thank many city leaders who have taken the time to reach out speak and meet with me and hear mine and many other concerns this is especially true for evan mori who i have to imagine is probably tired of hearing from me at this point but indeed has been a great partner and resource and i thank you for that we arrived at a solution of creating a one block buffer zone around any major future road in the city's plan to protect accessibility to a vast majority of the businesses that are possibly affected from this i believe this will go a long way to help protect those businesses those businesses and also respect the residents it also protects investment of future commercial property and viability for many of us to plan and keep our doors open this also would be a partnership with our neighborhoods passes a passage of this ordinance without the added language i would believe have potent would have the potential for unintended disastrous consequences i wouldn't be surprised if here calls tonight for deferment or tabling this vote for later date and that there are some unresolved issues that might need to be concerned i don't think that's the worst thought but if you choose not to do that and you choose to move forward to vote with this vote i do ask that is only with this additional language thank you for your time i appreciate it good afternoon i'm steve mcgarry small business owner i own wildflower ice cream at 26th and mlk i have a couple of budget filter to a gold uh 지�茶 ia aplombi and spesie sdm tvд mirror we've talked a lot about black diamond county park i own invstarred miranda ice cream and instagram a couple cool littleologica McKinsey in corosis so this timing is a little bit unfortunate watching friends close down and it's just a bad a bad time basically for a lot of businesses with rising rents insurance healthcare all that good stuff all the ingredients going into it basically for a lot of businesses with rising rents insurance health care all that good stuff all the all the ingredients going into it so when I saw this thanks to Phil really bringing it up to a lot of people I got a bunch of messages from a lot of friends they were concerned about this and I think that when it comes to the timing and everything going through this the the timing is just off unfortunately I I know that you came to a middle ground but I would encourage maybe an economic study of impact for something like this in addition to what you guys are talking about because I went through as much as I could with time permitting and the local businesses along these corridors make the neighborhood special their coffee shops ice cream shops salons and we hosted my son's kindergarten ice cream social the other week and something like this kind of harboring or hindering something like that is kind of painful for both the neighborhood and for us to see so what I would encourage is that there is some sort of economic study of some kind done here to say like all right how would this affect taxes how would this affect jobs all of that around the area because my employees parked there minivans with strollers park all up and down these streets to walk to violet stone and the surrounding places so the ordinance itself acknowledges that parking restrictions can create an undue burden on small businesses so at the same time you know the city currently lacks the personnel and vehicles for a net new cost that this would be to enforce something as large-scale as this so that means that taxpayers would be asked to fund enforcement that would be vehicles administration all these operational costs would be a net new cost and as a business perspective that's a big deal when you incur a net new cost of any kind so I like the one block exclusion I think that that's at least somewhat of a middle ground but I would encourage to expand into some sort of economic analysis here as to what the impact would be on all of us all up and down the MLK corridor and I appreciate everybody here for finding a middle ground thank you next two speakers next two speakers Daniel F and Chris Steinacher approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council I didn't want to butcher it how you doing guys my name is Dan I'm the owner of the violet stone I'm gonna you guys have heard a lot over the last few weeks about what this effect would be to our businesses I'm gonna talk a little bit about just what my story's been like in this city I moved here four years ago my wife we actually started as a food truck at Crescent Lake like we used to park out front of it I would scream at people trying to sell pizza to them right we'd sell like five pizzas a day and it was a hustle job we're doing it in front of the pickleball courts what was great about it was we were left alone we were able to just sell make a little bit of money we started to grow eventually got into a takeout spot in Kenwood we were literally next to simply delicious if anybody's familiar with them we're under a bridge selling it right so and then continue to do really well great support from the community parking's never been great no matter the spot we pick right it's always been tough we moved in MLK sunk a lot of money into that building right it was somewhat of like you know and not to talk poorly about any of the other existing businesses prior but there wasn't a lot going on there as a barbershop there was a new brewery there wasn't a lot but in the last two years it's exploded right fourth Street it's very commercial it's very franchised MLK is literally small businesses you know I know myself Steve few of the other guys and girls that run those places around there we live in those areas right I just bought a house in that neighborhood right like so I'm very very familiar I had somebody parked out front of my house yesterday who was going to a coffee shop like around the corner from my house right so we live with this and you know did I have to park four feet away from where I normally park yeah I did didn't ruin my day it's okay we are the ones that when the hurricanes hit we were giving out free food for two weeks right I was like telling people not to pay they wanted to donate everything that we're like don't worry about it it's on us right when the EBT stuff got shut down six months ago we were the ones that fed 5,000 families outside of the restaurant right they weren't customers right they were taking buses actually to come to us so we could feed them right we were the first ones that stood up we don't have the billions of dollars that McDonald's has or Chick-fil-a has to build these massive parking garages right we're not paying $80 a square foot to be on Central we take a lot of pride and we put like you know our home equity lines like on our homes to build these businesses right so that and these you know when I bought my house I found it really funny that on the Zillow description of the house it had my restaurant labeled as I would live near that restaurant right so it's a benefit to those that are in that they're in the MLK business district right like that's why they're buying these properties I think the one block then I'm fine but I really could see I mean I know my spot on a Friday night they're parking two three blocks away right like we're already making handshake deals with Ace Hardware who whoever can let us park there we're paying them cash just to get by right we know it's a problem like we get it but also we're in a business district like that's where we're at that's what we're trying to make a living out of so we can't survive off of just the people that live in these neighborhoods there's not a lot of apartment buildings you know so thank you good evening my name is Chris Steinecker president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce located at 102nd Avenue North in St. Pete our chamber here is here today to ask for a deferral of this vote we need to ensure we understand all the impacts estimates as well as how we determine how best to address the businesses that won't find the same relief in this newly proposed one block carve-out of our main quarters it simply doesn't work for all as I mentioned last week our brick and mortar businesses in every district are facing unprecedented economic headwinds leaving many fragile and for some one week away from shutting their doors as we read on a weekly basis well I've heard a few you say this new code doesn't put anyone in harm's way today and I agree to a point I do understand that neighbors would have to go take the next step and not at the neighborhood level but at a block-by-block level some won't go through this work others will unfortunately as I scan the city's business impact study I recently found today they cite that this new idea will impact five or fewer businesses unfortunately we are not privy to understanding how they came up with this number who they believe the five would be or what the impact really means it's that type of uncertainty we are creating should I sign a long-term lease well I'm not sure Chris do you think you're one of the five or maybe even six if you've estimated wrong we can't support this it just creates too much uncertainty for our entire community but you know I get asked all the time can St. Pete remain that cool funky Florida outlier that offers a promise of inclusivity for everyone well when will we mess it up I respond confidently hey we're not messing up we're moving the right direction I respond as long as we don't create any forced errors if we start to change to accommodate those who have found us and now may expect a different experience it's my belief this new code supports not in my front yard a movement in our city and especially if you can afford it and since this is block by block you actually may find neighbors at odds with each others because one block wants to support the business and one doesn't or you may find neighbors that just don't like the employees or customers of a business and it wants to work together to say no not in my front yard then it calls on all of us to fund this project these blocks forever with our tax money for enforcement on public land that we will never have access to again you heard me talk of the st. Pete way I say every conversation starts with or ends with I love st. Pete I've spoken of the fingerprints and footprints all of us can leave on a city of this scale I've said we're hugs over handshakes when we come to relationships and we're neighborhoods with access over subdivisions with gates I believe we may be putting up gates and not even aware of it please defer let's determine how best to move forward it may not even require a new code I'm appreciative of the city staff and all of you for meeting with us and our chamber members throughout this effort thank you very much thank you next two speakers next two speakers Franklin Alves Caitlin Grady approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address City Council Franklin Alves 1026 9th Avenue South I'm here representing the Council of Neighborhood Associations and so when we met with Evan originally back in February some of the first things that we did was really process this this code change we have a dedicated landing page on our website it's been in our newsletters emails and something that I've done personally is every neighborhood that I go to I bring this policy forward to them making sure that we're helping neighborhoods kind of flex that civic muscle what's been really interesting about talking to them about this policy and as you know talking to neighborhoods talking to them about policy can hit kind of prickly in certain subjects this one universally accepted I think that overall all the conversations I've had with neighborhood associations neighborhood thought leaders is that this makes sense if you have a like demonstrative problem you hit these very high bars then there should be opportunities to look at a solution and move towards a solution what's good about this is that it's not a universal blanket like process it is individualized and neighborhoods have the opportunity to really exercise that that muscle in there talk to their residents and get that overall consensus for for us what's most important about a policy like this is that it adds much needed tools in the toolbox for neighborhoods there's not a lot of options for them to be able to find a solution for this and we look at other neighborhoods like Old Northeast where this is a solution for them it's nice to know that we have something like this and that you all are working on something for neighborhoods to be able to have that in their toolbox and so overall for for Kona we do generally support anything that adds that tool to toolboxes for neighborhoods and so anything that we give them neighborhoods more agency more flexibility and more opportunities to be good stewards for their communities and the people that they represent we're very much in favor for all of that for something like this I really want to take the take the time to thank City Council and staff for for organizing something like this moving forward listening to your constituents and for neighborhoods that are experiencing this challenge and coming up with a possible solution for them for those that have that type of problem so that's all I know that there's the conversation about deferring this I want to say that I think that can be handled here on the dais I know we don't like making sausage on the dais but I think that a one block buffer could be something that is an easy conversation to have make that amendment change if you all see that's appropriate and then move forward with it so again I just want to thank you all for the time and happy Friday junior so thank you go ahead my name is Caitlin Grady and I'm at 30 15 7th Street North in my business and 13 10 16th Avenue North also 33704 in my home I'm here to represent the body electric yoga company we occupy a hundred year old commercial building in five points which is a residential neighborhood we've been in business there for 14 years leasing for 11 of those years and owning for three of those years we rely heavily on neighborhood parking and we've been in conversation with our neighbors about it for years they know we care and they know the efforts that we make we've made significant investments into keeping as many cars off the street as possible and to getting those cars that do park in the neighborhoods to park mindfully we bought the empty lot next to our building for over 400k and pay 10k a year in taxes along with the mortgage on that property just for parking we incentivize biking busing and walking with rewards that can be used towards services and products we have signage that is about parking and driving mindfully and we discuss parking with every single new client that comes to our doors and while we do our best to minimize the need for parking on the streets we absolutely do need it the nature of our business is that everybody comes all at once to take class that means a rush of cars all at once that's the nature of a high-volume accessible yoga studio that serves many if we can't fill our classes we can't do business we can't materialize any other options for parking because we're not a traditionally commercial corridor even the caveat that would exempt streets within one block would not apply to us and I think a lot of businesses too they are the block between the main corridor and the neighborhoods I understand it can be frustrating when you have trouble parking near your home I grew up in Philly so trust me I feel the pain also it's part of living in a growing and thriving city sometimes I can't find parking at my own house because the neighbors having a party and even though that might be a little annoying in the moment I would never want to live in a community where we can't gather where we can't have community commerce I don't think it's the plan to make ordinances that make it harder on small business we live in a growing and thriving city and I think that those who don't want to live in a commercial corridor should not there's many neighborhoods within St. Pete City limits that are not on commercial corridors and that's literally why there's suburbs for many years we've been changing as part of the community in St. Pete the body electric we've been changing and saving people's lives their words not ours we've partnered with the city to provide free monthly yoga as part of healthy St. Pete and our monthly fundraising classes at the pier which raise hard money for local nonprofits we're the kind of business that makes St. Pete what it is but we love our community we love our city we somehow managed to survive COVID in the hurricanes but we wouldn't be able to survive this thanks last speaker John Burchette approach on the podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address City Council thank you very much John Barquette my primary business is at 615 MLK North with a whole bunch of buildings that we're renovating right now in MLK South but good evening chair Hanowitz vice chair members of City Council I'm here tonight as president of the MLK business district representing businesses along of one of St. Petersburg's most historic and what we feel important commercial corridors just a few days ago our organization was opposed to the proposed neighborhood residents only parking areas ordinance we were concerned about the potential impacts on small businesses their employees customers and service providers who rely on access to public parking near commercial corridors like many business owners throughout our city we worried that a well-intentioned ordinance could create unintended consequences that would make it harder for businesses to succeed and harder for customers to access them however I'm here tonight because something important happened in this process city staff listened council members listened stakeholders from both neighborhoods in the business community came together to find common ground in particular we appreciate the addition of language that excludes areas within one block of future major streets from eligibility for a neighborhood resident only parking area that amendment recognizes that major corridors serve a broader public purpose they are not simply streets adjacent to neighborhoods they are economic engines that connect residents to jobs services restaurants retail businesses health care providers and community institutions for the MLK business district that amendment material addressed our primary concern it demonstrated that the city understands the need to balance neighborhood quality with economic vitality and balance is really what this discussion has been about yes neighborhoods deserve tools to address legitimate parking challenges businesses deserve confidence that public policy will not inadvertently restrict access to their customers and employees tonight's revised ordinance represents a meaningful step toward achieving both objectives I also want to be clear that our support tonight is not a blanket endorsement of every future NROP application each risk each request should continue to be evaluated on its own merits with meaningful input from affected businesses property owners residents and stakeholders we believe the framework before you today is significantly improved from where this conversation began you know is there room if I took my MLK business district president had off I think there is room to to possibly improve or look at and the example of round lake and that commercial node is excellent because those businesses would not be protected under this ordinance I am here speaking on behalf of the MLK business district so on behalf of the district I'd like to thank chair Hannah with city staff that's it thanks guys no more speakers ma'am thank you well I'll start off real quick and I want to turn it over to Evan to answer some things that were brought up because before we get into councilmember comments I brought this item forward because this is an issue that has come up before city council on many occasions we live in a city where we have businesses and we have neighborhoods and we have had this conversation in a variety of contexts and most recently by the way when we did the whole Grand Central area and we had the BRT and the bus rapid transit when we allowed businesses not to have no parking minimums in that area and historic Henwood came out and was very opposed to it and they're like okay well then maybe they don't need to park into our neighborhood this has come up in a variety of instances and it is just a part of a growing city this is not about pitting businesses against neighbors this is not about picking on people who have houses that are by businesses or businesses who are in the middle of a neighborhood or businesses that have small parking lots this is about a city being responsible and tackling this issues like by the way other cities tackle it because residential parking permits you will find throughout the United States there are Florida Supreme Court cases that deal with residential parking permits so this is by far not an uncommon practice as a city grows it's usually better to deal with something when it's not a hot topic and when people aren't up in arms about something and then you're gonna have a whole neighborhood's gonna come out and say you know what we don't want their parking in our streets we don't find any parking and then it becomes even more difficult so part of the reason of having this conversation in a time where level heads are here and people can have a conversation about the pros and cons without having a heated argument over a potential development is probably the best way to approach this issue and be thoughtful about it so with that being said I just want to make sure that council understands there have been things that have been said but at the end of the day I think administration and I have allowed for different options depending on how we want to go forward this is not something that's new and now these issues are being brought forward I think Evan has also done a good job of providing council members which you have before you some examples of how if you had the extra block what it would include and not include and I Evan I want to give you the opportunity because just to show number one how vast it is in terms of what this would include in certain areas and allow for parking and also if you can also maybe talk about how other cities do this and how we're comparing and how these proposals compare to other cities sure so there's there is a distinction between what some might consider a commercial corridor and the future major streets so there's probably more streets on the future major streets so for example 30th Avenue North is on on the map so body electric would have some protections that were were not apparent we just used a few examples like Mr. Ingram came to the first meeting so we mapped out well what would the original restriction have have resulted in around trips diner and you can see short black lines that go from ML King Street to the alley that's behind trips it wouldn't have been very many spaces with the one block buffer it adds quite a bit of spaces it eliminates quite a few homes from being able to potentially have residential parking signs in front of their block and if you look at it on a neighborhood-wide basis you got about actually two-thirds of the neighborhood that will not would not be able to apply for the program if the one block is is put in place so in that case it's leaves quite a bit of parking in the neighborhood that is first-come first-served shared parking and the very interior of the neighborhood if it goes through all the process and if it gets approved by council a small interior part could could be approved so that's the trips diner example do you want me to go through the other ones okay could you oh it's on here great I didn't know here's the beer boutique example it's one that we've we've talked about and because of the location of 9th Avenue North that's not too far from from here being a major street it takes all those blocks from 8th to 9th off limits it takes the block or we already have the block from 4th to Dartmouth that's off limits and then 7th Avenue North on the north side would be off limits adjacent to all those commercial properties so with the parking that you see on the screen the places that could become resident only are pretty few so again here for body electric there's a one block buffer there's an alley so you can see 31st Avenue North there so on this screen everything shaded in blue would not be eligible for residential parking permits and then one of the things one of the examples that we've discussed is the Grand Central District and because not only Central Avenue is a future major street but First Avenue is of course 20 20 20 second is and 28th is so if you look here the red is where it begins that could become residential parking if these neighborhoods applied so all of the blue shaded would not even be eligible if the one block was implemented and going back to Crescent Heights the dashed line is the neighborhood and the solid red would be the interior two blocks east-west that potentially could have permits if passed with the one block buffer and that leaves 62 and a half percent of the neighborhood unable to get permits where that could be shared parking between residents and businesses so those are just a few of the examples that we drew up to share with you and then how does it compare to other cities what is proposed here well in the when we went to committee we had looked at a lot of cities and we actually thought that the Phoenix program looked a lot like our res our program for traffic calming with their thresholds and was one of the few that required City Council to approve zones so I'll give you a few Florida examples st. Pete Beach 50% occupancy instead of 75 with the same 25% intruder parking the zones are approved by the city manager or through his designee st. Augustine 50% occupied 25% non-resident and then this the petition threshold is lower 60% Palm Beach 50% occupied 25% non-resident approved by the town manager not there not their council in Tampa it's a 50 they it differs based on driveways and garages so there the threshold is 50% occupied and if less than half of the homes have driveways and garages 70% occupied if most homes do have off-street parking of some sort 65% petition threshold so very close to our two-thirds and that's approved by the director or or designee so those those are just a handful of examples for you so basically what we have is extremely generous it was extremely generous to start with it's much more extremely generous with the amendment considering that most of the parking issues are within those areas and those would be the homes that would be affected and in my research I couldn't find a one block buffer and anybody else's nobody else did that okay and by the way the original one included areas by businesses that would not be covered under residential parking permits and Tampa actually has residential parking permits by businesses yes they go right up to the main corridor now they do provide for free passes for businesses in Tampa so that that is a trade-off there right okay thank you councilmember Gabbard thank you madam chair and thank you Evan for all of your hard work on this and madam chair thank you I even the work that you've done this week to bring us you know something amended and to listen to the concerns that have come to you I certainly appreciate that because I know that's not easy in real time and so thank you for all of that and I think I you know I wrote down the word balance I heard someone say that earlier and I think for me and St Pete one of the most important things about you know the the challenge of keeping St Pete special is that synergy between our small business community and our neighborhoods it's vital that we don't tinker with that too much because if you pivot one way or the other too much it could ruin that and so I'm sensitive to that and I just I want to ask a few questions that I think even with what this future major streets I still have a couple of these outstanding issues that I just really want to clear up and understand before I make my decision because even as I sit here right now I'm not quite sure which way I'm ultimately going to vote very sensitive to what one of the speakers said you know with the economic challenges that our businesses are going through currently our small businesses I don't want us to do anything that could not only create maybe a clash between neighborhoods and businesses but could hamper their livelihood another thing that I have a lot of concern about that I don't know we haven't talked about it yet tonight I want to kind of dig into a little bit is the experience for contractors you know business providers going into homes doing work landscapers housekeeping crews I mean realtors you know anyone who is going to be going into these neighborhoods and working as their form of business I'm very concerned about that as part of these changes $10 a day is what people are being asked correct to pay for a permit if if these pass and let's just say in the future but $10 a day is what's set right now correct if they need to be there all day as a contractor right and we we would have guest passes though so you could issue your housekeeper a guest pass to park for a short period of time when they come and how many guests passes per property uh for this it I get my zones confused but this is three three that's what I thought I remembered but Heather three that's mirroring our programs that we already have in other areas right okay um yeah I mean you know that kind of takes me to my other concern about people's ability to gather in their homes um you know that is an outstanding concern for me as well you know I'm just thinking if I'm a contractor and especially in you know today's time when it's a little bit more challenging to you know kind of stick on time and on budget and you've got a three four day job at a house so you think um you go and you get your three or four day ten dollar a day permit and Friday rolls around and oh well parts didn't come in this didn't happen that didn't happen better get back down to the city so I can get my permit for Monday morning it just makes me kind of concerned about what those implications businesses um and you know somebody had mentioned or a couple people actually mentioned you know why not do the economic impact study Chris mentioned he just found it yesterday or this morning in fact I had problems finding it as well because it now just lives on a city website that isn't even called the business impact study it's the business impact estimates um and I wanted to bring this up as a separate ask just for future backup um if the administration would be so kind as to include these in the backup going forward I understand by um you know the way the Florida statute was written and the ordinance that we passed in 2023 putting them online is what is required but for full transparency people deserve to know what these business impact statements say and so um you know I would like to see those going forward but there is there's a lot of vagueness in this business impact study it's not real specific and you know it very clearly comes right out and says in section 2a businesses whose employees and customers have historically parked in the neighborhoods will be impacted but it doesn't say how it doesn't really speak to anything further from that um it just I don't know I'm I'm very concerned about that piece of it and again when I put on you know the hat of what I do for a living in my other life as a real estate broker people purchase in these neighborhoods because they love the vitality they love the businesses that they can walk to that and trust me when you take people to these neighborhoods to look at property and they see all of this happening especially if you're out showing on a Saturday or in the evening on a Friday and they go oh wait I can't park here I don't think I want to live in these neighborhoods right and then they go to other neighborhoods like someone said you know they'll they'll go further up to the north side where my district is or other parts of the city I just think that that vitality is what creates those neighborhoods and so I'm I'm still very sensitive to all of this and I I don't know that we have landed in a place that makes me feel comfortable to move this forward I'm certainly not going to make any motion to defer I'll vote how I vote at the end but I I just have a lot more questions than answers I also have some other uh questions about once again it's mentioned in the business impact study you know we're going to have to have the manpower and I think this was said in the PSNI committee councilmember Curtis might have said it um you know we're going to have to hire more enforcement sorry you don't have to come back I'm just quoting you I'm just quoting you um so I think you said you know we're going to have to have more enforcement right like it was something that pointed out it also says it right here in the business impact study we're not hiring more enforcement we've already put basically a hiring freeze on and we know that challenging times are coming we're not going to be hiring more people so are we creating something that potentially neighborhoods could try to take advantage of that we can't even enforce anyway I I'm having a hard time with that I don't know if administration has any comment on that but that I I don't know tell me why that is a good idea but I can tell you that historically we when we run the numbers that parking enforcement officers end up paying for themselves through the citations that are issued so that can that's a position that if it went into effect would likely pay for itself and say we had just one zone and we had to hire one person to do it they would likely have other duties maybe they're going to do um boat ramps for parks and rec if we do that or they're going to work downtown and be able to write tickets there so we've always found that if we're hiring people um to write a ticket that costs that's maybe 40 dollars you know based on their rate of pay they only have to write a couple tickets an hour to to come out even so that would be one thing I would say about an enforcement historically for for us okay um talk to me about the special events because I'm still a little vague on how special events get handled um so we would not go study an area if it was experiencing a large special event because that would just be very atypical so we would want to study a neighborhood on a typical saturday or a typical friday and we just would avoid um studies during major events we want to capture a typical overflow situation not an excessive overflow situation you wouldn't use the special event to make a case for it you would study it during another time then if it still was implemented and a special event happened you would create chaos in that area without people being able to park i mean i think in the um in the example of grand central that's a really good a good one um there is that buffer people could share and it would create some parking challenges when you go north of second avenue north or south of second avenue south where in that case people would be able to find a place to park by their home but they wouldn't be able to park for the event okay well i look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say those are some of my kind of outstanding concerns um so i look forward to the discussion thank you thank you um and i just want i don't know if we made the record clear we do have it in the city in old northeast yes and um that kind of prompts me to there we did do a buffer for for that there was no residential parking in old northeast between third and fourth street so we do actually have a precedent for that even though that was brought in kind of late on this and then even when the original program was developed there was a buffer where it's set we the code was written that there will be no um residential parking permits on central avenue in the in the core so we have done buffers in the past right i just wanted to point that out because old northeast i don't think there's a problem with selling property in old northeast in st petersburg with the parking situation in old northeast and with the residential parking permit situation and the fact that all the venoy park events that we have and everything else and somehow that works out so i just for those who don't know it does exist in the city currently council member hardy thank you chair evan thank you for your work uh thorough and uh and thought-provoking greatly appreciate your efforts um i struggle with this entirely i don't know what we're trying to exactly solve for some of these communities have been around for 50 60 years we're not building tall buildings in these communities that we're trying to change the the the demographics of it um and the the folks who own these properties whether they're residential or commercial they bought them under the auspices of buyer beware they knew what this was going to be when they got there and so by doing something like this um what we're doing essentially is we're picking winners and losers that's what we're doing um trips diner has uh 12 parking spaces 14 parking spaces i don't know they're right behind it there aren't many um there are not enough to sustain a business i guarantee you that so when that business was opened um that business model was written on the idea that the city owns streets that i can utilize as a business owner and so that business was built on that model after it was open at some point in time and i'm making this story up now but if it's not trips it's another one of the businesses on on 9th or 16th um money was borrowed right at some point in time trips either either got old enough that it needed new equipment or got big enough that it needed more equipment and some money was borrowed that money was borrowed um on pnls that were written on volume if we take parking away from from that business i promise you i guarantee you that that business will drop there's no doubt about it so we've picked winners and losers that's what we've done the map right here i would assume that a lot of the complaints and that's what we're doing is we're solving for complaints um a lot of the complaints would come from areas where there is residential and there is commercial or or restaurants or yoga studios that are popular that have a level of success that require more street parking um and now we're looking at those and saying well we can't fix that part but we'll fix other parts so this this what we're talking about is not it is not universal so now we're going to try and now we're going to try and help some residents but we're not going to help other we're not going to be able to help other residents because of x and so i'm struggling with all of this but the part that i'm i'm really struggling with is that all of these parcels all these pieces of property regardless of what's built on them they all pay property taxes um and as a result of paying property taxes they have rights and one of the rights is the use of public streets and the use of and the use of public parking and that neighborhood um has done it that one on the board has done it that way for longer than we have been doing this and it's worked it's worked fine it's really no issue so now we're going to solve for a problem that's going to create administer that that's going to create bureaucracy um over something that really i i don't beyond the fact that i am upset that i had to park four blocks away from my house which don't get me wrong i get it but but i bought that house knowing that and so i won't be voting for this um and and and i struggle with with what we achieve um by by by bringing it forward and possibly passing it i'll take one quick point of personal privilege i have known this young lady for many years i'm very proud of you thank you chair thank you and um again our city hasn't been in ember and sat without growth i think we've heard both from residents and from businesses and from others the growth of their city and the impact and you get it whether it's downtown whether it's any other area we continue to grow there's going to be more and more challenges coming and i will tell you we have sat here through many meetings every time we approve a building in downtown anytime we do anything where people talk about the change and the impact to their area and so i want to make it clear that everybody has an impact it's not just businesses it changes for residents too and so i don't want to get that also lost because i do understand the business impact to it but there's also the residential impact that we're also represent so we represent everybody and i don't want to have that lost in this conversation because i will next time we have a conversation and we have another development that we're approving or we're taking parking away and you have and you hear from the residents we're going to all be reminded again of this issue councilmember gibbons thank you chair um evan thank you for your hard work i know this has been a tough one for you um but i want to start um with something that was mentioned which was um grand central's uh brt for the sun runner um here we were just a few weeks ago having this similar conversation about removing these parking minimums now we're having um a conversation here uh very much along the same lines and so i i'm wondering again you know how we find that middle ground because what i don't want to see is what was mentioned and i want you to clarify this that this could come back 50 times for 50 different neighborhoods should this pass today if there was a neighborhood to seek an exclusion would this body have to determine whether or not that should be granted each time yes i mean i think more than one could come at a time if they came to the city at the same time but that's how this would work um that's one of the high bars they don't get established without coming back through city council and i appreciate the um clarification i got the same calls with concern um i appreciate the business owners that made time for me uh to walk me through what it is that they're asking for and i appreciate the residents who are frustrated but they were willing to sit down and listen um i think it's very difficult um when you have residents who bought homes and neighborhoods knowing what they bought right uh homes with no driveways minimal to no parking but you also have businesses who purchased in these commercial corridors knowing what they got themselves into but what they didn't expect was these unintended consequences from new laws that honestly my opinion have no teeth so i i'm just concerned that again we're rushing this without all the facts and i'd like to have all the facts um i feel like the um one block exclusion is is a good comfortable middle ground but at the same time i want to know more what are the implications right how is this going to impact businesses because what i don't want to see happen is residents come back upset because now we've lost all these businesses these mom and pop businesses like our ice cream shops our diners you know that's what makes saint pete special i love taking trips to trip diner but again once that space is gone who's going to feel it and i can tell you it's going to be the residents in that immediate vicinity who's going to miss it the most so i personally um would love to see this deferred interested in hearing from the rest of my colleagues but i would really like to see a proper study completed before we consider this thank you chair thank you council member driscoll thank you thank you for the presentation and for all of the work that you have have done on this i know it was um it was brought to you right um i think it was the the chair's new business item in the first place and um i just appreciate the amount of time that you've taken to work on this over uh the last couple of years um there is so having having been a downtown resident at one point from for many years um i lived in two places one had um a private parking space for my car um the other one i had street parking i had no space so i've kind of lived both didn't have businesses on my block or really one block away it was more than like two blocks but in downtown you've got if it's not metered there are time limits so it's two hours from this a.m to this p.m except for you know zone 1a or whatever that worked you know and for my block i knew that if it was a popular raise game i might have to park on the next block and walk to my uh my apartment but that was just life that's how that's how things work um and that's with the residential parking permit okay but the time limit i'm i'm just really surprised that we're kind of going at this with a like a 24 hour thing because i i feel like the time limit whether it's two hours or three which is the norm that that helps to create the balance that some of us might be looking for i know it says in here that um that we we would establish time limited parking zones when it deems advisable to do so um but then on the next thing it says that it we recognize that it causes a hardship for residents who own vehicles and cannot secure off street parking like i've lived that i chose that i knew i wasn't buying a place or renting a place that had a private parking spot i knew i didn't you know when you buy a house if it has a driveway or a garage you choose that someone said earlier you you kind of choose the vibe of a neighborhood but you weigh what's important to you is it more important to you to be able to walk to the ice cream store or is it more important to you to be able to park um right right by your house people have to make those decisions for themselves so meanwhile we have these neighborhoods that are quite popular for the um the residential elements and for the business elements i have i have been watching the faces of worried business owners i've had calls and i do appreciate that this one block buffer came about but i have heard and seen and i'm kind of looking at some instances where i still don't feel comfortable with that now the path that i could see to getting to yes is that that is sort of the starting point right evan that the rules actually could be different because we would be taking this up on a case-by-case basis yes i think um maybe an example of that would be that if this is the framework you have to operate within it without changing the underlying ordinance but you could do something in a particular neighborhood where like if you're concerned about grand central you could say okay in this neighborhood we're going to do a two block buffer now you couldn't say we're only going to do a half block buffer because that would violate the underlying ordinance but if you wanted to go further from a commercial corridor that that could be an option okay so that flexibility to go bigger when when needed is um is great that makes me a little more comfortable i don't know that we have talked enough about the time limit option and i don't think we need to i mean i'm not saying let's have a huge conversation right now about it but i feel like in the in the downtown area where this where it's not metered where you have the two or the three hour parking that does create a balance for people and it could solve the concerns that are out there about where are my customers going to park we we did cover that in committee and what um what i put forth was that i felt like it would be uh burdensome to try to do like to our parking far away from downtown where it requires multiple trips out to an area to to implement that and if you were to do to our parking it's just a different thing downtown yes other places if we did to our parking in a faraway zone i'm not sure we'd be accomplishing much for the residents because it would be it would still be that that spillover so we had just determined through the committee process that the ordinance would have um not time limits but just restrictions right right i just i just feel like that would create more balance and i understand that there would be challenges with enforcement but i don't think that um the burden that's that's placed on the businesses is is worth it if we're not going to go in that direction it takes so much to keep a business going especially if they're not like they're finding success outside of downtown isn't that what we want the folks who live in the neighborhoods where these businesses are located they love being able to walk to beer boutique they have to realize beer boutique cannot stay open it cannot survive if the residents close off the neighborhood to anyone else who wants to come in and that's how i feel that we're that we're looking at this i think there is a way to achieve a balance i'm i'm just not totally comfortable with where we're at with this right now um i i think if we could defer it and keep working on this i don't want to get it wrong because um our business community can't afford it they cannot afford for us to get this wrong that's where i'm at right now thank you thank you vice your floyd thank you so i wanted to hear what everybody had to say i think i'm just going to make a couple of points um evan when we first talked about this i was just like no right off the bat like wasn't interested because of some of the things council member harding said like i live right next to a business district sometimes people park in front of my house it's fine sometimes i use it and you know this wouldn't impact me anyway i live too close uh and uh i knew that when i bought the house and that was fine um but i've since thought about it a little differently um so the first thing i think i thought of was about like public streets being a resource for everyone and that no one should monopolize it and so uh be it residents or businesses like it shouldn't be monopolized by anybody like we should all share this public resource and so that brought me like to like how do we go about deciding if this is the right thing to do um and there's a democratic process there it's two-thirds of the neighbors have to sign it and i think with that level of threshold and the business is able to interact with those residents like it's a it's a really high threshold and so if you have a business that's causing such a problem that two-thirds of the residents are upset about it like that's that's what made me think because i believe the people here like they've talked about how they want to be good partners with their neighborhood and if i lived by them i would not vote to do this i wouldn't sign the petition because i know uh they're being good neighbors but uh i just felt like as we had conversations the flexibility brought me some comfort and as uh was described by a speaker it's a tool for neighborhoods to use and i have had some people say to me that they were uh they didn't want to be in here all the time like going through a hearing and fighting it out it's not the strongest argument to me because i'm always in here going through a hearing fighting it out um and i signed up for that and that's okay um so uh yeah i i got more comfortable with it as time went on and especially recognizing that it's going to be case by case it's got a high threshold uh but what i will say in addition to that though is the block compromise yeah at this point having seen this like i wouldn't support it without the block compromise um i'm glad to have seen that especially through grand central because um you know you can see that i had an i had a resident say to me whenever we were talking about like removing parking on central they were like i live on second uh doesn't matter what you do to grand central like people are always parked in front of my house i don't care anyway yeah so uh in that vein and to council member given's point like this sort of relates back to another conversation we had recently in that vein like yeah the people who live like within these boundaries like of the buffer zone like they have got to already have recognized that they moved to a place where people are just going to park on the street they've got to recognize that so i i do like the compromise um but i'm very sympathetic to what everybody said here today and so um i would say with the compromise i could support it because i do think there's plenty of flexibility and it won't just happen but i also you know i understand and won't be upset either way if we have to have more conversations about this is what i'll say yeah but i i'll support it with the compromise i'll leave it there by share girdus i mean sorry i got upgraded thank you madam chair so you know i'll be very honest with you i've gone round and round about this um you know there are very few votes um that i feel like i come in and it's still a bit of a toss-up i appreciate um the one block i got to talk to evan briefly the other day and and some of the stakeholders in this conversation and so and and this is kind of what i was thinking would be would end up being the compromise very honestly and so it's it's it's still going round and round in my head if i'm being completely transparent here here's some of my takeaways just from listening i i very much totally and wholeheartedly agree i think i think i was talking with chris the other day and i use the example of one of the biggest complaints i get in my district is uh i get a call and they're like council member girdus there's cars in front of my house again at 3 30 p.m on 74th street and i'm like well that's because you live two houses down from pasadena fundamental and school is getting out and you bought a house next to a school that's been there since like 1972 and you bought it four years ago and so i i totally agree with listen you're buying into like the vibe of the neighborhood i'm i totally agree with that what i will say though is that that is not always the case that should not be a blanket statement because you could have bought a house and then something changes a block away from you could have had a uh you know a hair salon that only has four people every hour and then it turns into a restaurant and bar and it's a very different vibe than it was when you bought that house so i just i just wanted to share that lens this doesn't mean i i'm not changing my mind on that i just i just wanted to make sure i was saying it out loud because i think sometimes we get caught up and me too i definitely do so i speak for myself i get caught up in listen you knew what you were doing when you bought the house but things change around you also when when you buy the house and so that that's the the changes that have kind of been happening real time in this conversation so when it when it comes down it gets down to the decision the brass tacks of it and i see council member driscoll i'm interest i'm interested in council member driscoll's comments and then chair hearing from you because this was your item and so here's kind of where i'm at on this i do i do not support it on its face value i'm i'm considering supporting it with the one block but i'm i am not in for a deferral i i just think this decision needs to be made we've been talking about it for three years this is the fifth time it's been in front of us i could we do a little bit deeper economic study yes and then we're using manpower and money to do that and i think we've got enough to arm us with this decision very frankly i i will say i'm i'm leaning towards because i'm going to use hardings and i've officially spoken longer than i think in the last two years um council member harding's point where it's like i just like there's no neighborhoods waiting to do this i just don't know what problem we're solving for and i don't want to cause a problem by trying to solve a problem that is non-existent and so i'm interested in in hearing my colleagues one more time and maybe i'll chime in again but i to be very honest with you at this point i think i'm leaning i'm leaning no um but again i'm definitely against the deferral i think we've got we've got enough to to make this decision thank you madam chair thank you council member driscoll thank you um evan would would it be possible to require an economic impact study with each of the requests because yes i think that if you're going to do the traffic study for the parking study you know part of the requirement would need to be an analysis of how such a move would impact the businesses i can yeah council member driscoll so again this is creating a process where every discrete area that's proposed and that meets the criteria has to come to council to be added into the code so that has to be done by an ordinance process so there is a business impact statement required for each and every ordinance so that's not something that's a request that's already built in so you will get one for each future because they can only be placed and set by ordinance for the reminder on that so that helps and um concerning the concerning the um contractor parking pass um council member gabbard brought up a point about you know them having to go back and then what if it takes longer than planned would a resident with a with a um residential parking permit and be be able to give a visitor pass to a contractor to use or like not give them but loan them let them use one of their visits while they're doing the work because the visitor passes are good um for like what up to seven days i think i think there's a problem with that do you know of one heather no i mean that's your choice who you are going to use your passes on some people use them for extra members of their household their children or we don't really investigate who's getting them you just get them and then you're that's what you've got i know you've got to stretch that 15 sometimes we get a request to cordon off spaces in front of a particular home because they have to be there and we go put up signs and then they would pay for that but if they didn't have to have a specific place if they could park nearby then they could park for free with the and as you've had conversations with residents do residents understand that by that if they were to go to this into this particular program that there would be a limit on how many visitor passes that they have and it might be a little bit hard to have people over for the for the birthday party i think if we if this were to pass we would it would be very important for us to explain that to each neighborhood early on before they sign the petition one way or another what what the program parameters are and if they don't like the notion that they won't be able to have parties without people potentially having to park far away they're not going to sign the petition i'm still thinking that's all i have thank you councilmember harding thank you i'll summarize that the in order to do this it is my opinion that you have to pick winners and losers but i i want to take it one step further i i would bet a dime to a dollar that first off this event came to light because complained is not the right word but citizens brought this up that that they have issued parking close to their house right i'd bet you a dime to a dollar that those folks who are most affected and most want relief and just think they deserve relief and and have have argued for relief are the ones who live in what we are making into an exclusion zone right the folks that live in in a giant city block of just houses right there are two cars that that's what your that's what your family is until you get a 16 year old and two cars fit in front of your house but if you live where richie lives there's a good chance you don't have any parking spaces when you come home because there's a business right close to your house but we're going to exclude his house we're introducing bureaucracy that i can't make sense of um that's my logic thank you chair thank you so i appreciate everyone's feedback i see that there isn't support in general but i will tell everyone this it's not an issue that's going to go away it's just not and we are going to continue seeing it and that to me this is not about businesses versus residents at all this is about finding a way for our city to manage those interests in a way where people can be happy and i get the concerns that business are expressing which is the reason we had the one block buffer and it does it does actually cover the areas that are most affected but that's what compromise is about this first came up with rolling oats and the parking and when people think about where you buy and where you live and what the area is and you should know what you're buying when people first moved there that wasn't there no one expected i mean not really sorry trader joe's trader joe's rolling oats by the way has grown much more and bought parking another area that by the way started very small and continue to grow and that also is it is not what was there before we have businesses that grow and outgrow their space and they need more parking so to me this is not and i i hear a lot of conversation about well the residents should know where they buy well i don't think that's a fair statement because it goes both ways i think everybody knows what they buy including the businesses and if they don't have parking or not so i you know i don't want to pit anybody against each other and that wasn't the point of this conversation and i don't like that tone in terms of what how we're approaching it this is about a city that's growing trying to put something in an ordinance by the way that is very common in bigger cities that have more issues than us and more and and small businesses just like we do it's not i mean i'm hearing this conversation it's like oh my god are you crazy how can this even happen it's like oh my god it happens all over the united states of america in cities that are bigger than us with more businesses and i i mean i was in la and it's in la it's it's everywhere so i to me that wasn't the point of this conversation to me the point of this conversation was having a true conversation before you know what the hits the fan to be blunt but maybe we need that to happen and then it'll come back to us and it may not be the compromise it may be a completely different thing and i'm fine with that i'm absolutely fine but when i look at residents every time and we have something come before us whether it's you know reducing parking minimums whether it's the increasing the density and now there was a building and it was short and now we're it's more now it's eight stories and then people don't aren't able to pack park and we make these decisions we are impacting everybody that lives there as the growth of the city and to act like we're just you know we can't do anything about it i don't want to say that either because there is a tool that we can have in place and then it would still come before city council but city council doesn't want to do that and that's fine i thought it was a good tool to bring forward so we can be responsible when it comes afterwards then we look at it and we do something thoughtful and i think that's why we had the conversation and frankly i think that evan brought something that was very reasonable it wasn't to shove anything down anybody's throat it wasn't to honestly do it to an extreme where compared to other cities we actually made the bar much higher and more difficult but it was really to do something to for residents and for businesses and for everyone else to kind of find some balance so that was my goal and it really wasn't to pit neighborhoods against businesses or to destroy businesses because frankly i do love the fact that mlk is growing i do love that grand central is growing but to act like it doesn't have an effect the growth in our city or the growth in downtown to the quality living of people that's that to me is short-sighted because it does there is that that tension and i think it's important to address and they are difficult conversations my district is in an area that is growing my district does have the growth from downtown and that's why it happened in old northeast and that's why you have the parking permits in old northeast and somehow with with single family homes duplexes apartment buildings all these people that live in old northeast imagine they have residential parking permits and somehow all the the things that we've heard today the concerns that have been brought up somehow they're able to have people come and do work at their house and find parking and do all the things and so i'm fine with however this lands but i thought it was an important conversation to have because we do have these conversations come up at city council every time we have a development in our city every time and the the tension between the growth in our city and keeping the quality of life that we all have and we all agree every neighborhood is special all these business districts are cool and somehow finding that balance is important i thought that this was some way to address some of the issues so with that said uh council member fix sanders thank you so much um so thank you uh chair hanowitz for this and and i guess um and thank you for everybody that come out and and again thank you evan um for this when i think of residential areas and i think of some of the smaller businesses that are in those areas i keep hearing about future purchases you buy into that area well i think about where i am where i already live in that area um and how i don't want to have me i don't want to park on the next street over when i come home i want to be able to park in front of my house i want to be able to watch my car i want to be able to have accessibility um to not have to walk around the corner so when you know i hear terms like quality of life and development well the one thing that protects us about big development is zoning there are only so many developments that we're going to be able to put in certain areas so i hear the small business owners but more importantly i hear the homeowners homeowners um in regards to having accessible parking if you grew up that way and you're used to it then okay that's okay but i'm one of the ones that still want to keep st pete st pete i know that we're growing i get it i i know that we're going but every neighborhood and i do appreciate the fact that it's it would be case by case but again i hear council member harding loud and clear what problem are we trying to fix there are certain areas of our city like i don't like to go downtown i know that's your district i love it but you can't park and i don't do parking garages that's just a personal preference of mine so if i know that something is happening downtown i just don't go i just don't go and that's the choice that we make so although i like um what was brought i'm still i was quiet because i knew i wasn't going to support in the first place and you know i'm okay being the only no but i just think that if we're going to move something like this i do agree that we do need to know what the impact is to the other homeowners because i bought my house and i don't plan on moving you know and i moved there with an expectation of having that type of environment for my children at the time and now my grandchildren so again chair handlers i hear you i do i hear you um loud and clear i'm just not ready you know some council um remember girdus made a statement this morning that has resonated with me all day long some of the things that we're dealing with now weren't thought of years ago and we're paying for it and we're paying for it and so i'm not going to be in a hurry to have my grandchildren pay for something because they can't find suitable housing with adequate parking and so i get it so again i hear the homeowners i hear our small businesses and i hear the voices out there that saying and i do hear we're not going to defer but i just wanted to go ahead and put my position on the record of how much i do appreciate the future consideration but it's not apples to apples to me in order to move forward with it so thank you chair thank you council member driscoll thank you i i was actually on city council way back when we did residential parking permits for old northeast i think it took two maybe three rounds uh that we that we did that um part of the problem there was that it's it's right next to downtown and you had a situation where um it was often employees of um establishments downtown who would park in old northeast because it's free and then walk to work that was um it's just a different situation because the folks who were parking in old northeast whether they were customers or or employees whoever doesn't matter they have the option of parking in a garage unless you're deborah but but people had other options if you go to grand central right now there's no parking garage they don't have any options they're going through the same growing pains that the edge district went through before them and the edge district now has a parking garage hopefully more coming in that area and westward as our westward success and growth continues but we're not there yet i think if we were talking about one neighborhood and really taking a scalper a scalpel to it or a microscope to it and really going uh like zooming in on the neighborhood level i think we could find a way forward because we could more closely examine the unique attributes of the neighborhood as well as its challenges but having something like this even though there's flexibility and there's so much that i like about this approach and having this tool i think um i don't i don't want us i don't want city council to give up on on this because there is a problem there is a problem i just don't think that this i i don't think i can support it because i i don't see that there has been enough buy-in and so maybe there is something wrong with the formula that we have here it's important enough to keep working on and get it right here that nobody wants to defer this um i'll just i'll just let it go and and i'm hoping that um um as as the city council moves forward that there will be other ideas that come up that can solve this even if you decide to start looking at it on a neighborhood basis or based on a um a zoning type something like that that is a little bit more condensed that's all thank you and i think you brought up a good point i think it has to be more concrete for people yeah at the end of the day it's gonna happen with an issue and this was try to trying to look at it broader have a framework and then have the flexibility for an issue but what i'm hearing is the issue needs to be there for people to consider it and if that happens then then we'll deal with it when it happens and it may not be this flexible it may be much more stringent and if it is going to be a whole neighborhood you may have a whole neighborhood that has residential parking permit just like old northeast and so this was a balance of not going that route and i thought it would be a good way to start but i i hear you i hear that we may end up at that situation but i want i want to say also in old northeast and and there's a a misunderstanding about some of the neighborhoods that at least i represent not all of them have garages older homes and i've said this before have garages where you would put a buggy in them they are storage units they don't fit suvs or whatever today's vehicles are and if you look at the homes that were built close to whether it's mlk whether it's fourth street whatever it is and you look at some of those 1920 and 1930 homes with accessory dwelling units trust me people are not that those are not garages where people are parking they're parking in the street so i just wanted to clear that up in terms of the parking situation i don't think there is a situation where people are like oh i'm just not i mean there could be i'm just not going to park in my garage where i can fit my big vehicle i think a lot of times you just don't have that option and so i wanted to make sure but but i hear i hear everyone loud and clear this was a good faith effort in dealing with an issue that's been brought to me in various forms to have a solution without people being here with pitchforks but i guess we're going to wait for the pitchforks so with that said this we can move on to the next item this item okay thank you evan for all your work and thank you all for being here and giving your input we really appreciate i really appreciate um the meeting that i had the other day i thought um y'all were extremely thoughtful in terms of your approach and very understanding and i just want to give out a shout out to you and trips and you know john i mean you all definitely cared about what the neighborhoods finding that right balance for both for you and for the neighborhoods and i thought that was very wonderful so thank you okay next up we have g3 and this is a first reading clerk the post ordinance number 636-h an ordinance of the city of st petersburg florida amended its comprehensive plan amending chapter three future land use element issue natural resources and objective lu6 and policy lu6-1 to remove marina development restrictions in north venoy yacht basin providing for severability providing for an effective date the second reading and second public hearing for this ordinance is scheduled for august 27 2026 we have no cards for this item madam chair motion a second clerk if you can open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair the motion to approve agenda item j3 passes unanimously next up we have open forum clerk are there any speakers yes madam chair first two speakers courtney bermudez charles phillips approach either podium state your name and address you'll have three minutes to address city council good afternoon i'm charles phillips uh address 10775 village club circle north um i'm here to speak about the situation at the morgan apartment complex uh the st p tenants union has been organizing with the tenants of the morgan for almost a year and the conditions at the complex are frankly very shocking mold damage structures unresponsive management and non-functional fire systems harm the safety and integrity of the residents at the morgan this problem is caused by private equity purchasing cheap apartments and allowing the situation to deteriorate until the complex becomes unlivable and i mean unlivable literally uh only about 30 percent of the complex remains occupied due to poor conditions and a situation where people feel that their voices aren't being heard at the moment the tenants many of whom are long-term residents of the city feel like they don't have a voice the city of st petersburg has an opportunity to be the voice and advocate for these citizens at the at the moment the property is undergoing foreclosure and this presents a golden opportunity for the city to purchase the property and create a safe and livable community for the tenants elected officials such as yourselves have an obligation to stand for the dignity of their constituents please take this chance to purchase the morgan and run it as a good community like the jamestown apartments and to do right by them thank you council members thank you um good evening madam chair mr vice chair and council members uh before i begin i want to thank the city for officially recognizing can do uh caribbean american heritage i'm sorry oh i'm sorry courtney bermudez 129 114th avenue north uh can do caribbean american heritage month and uh world ocean day as a puerto rican woman and therefore a caribbean american myself i deeply appreciate seeing our cultures and communities honored in this space i'm here today to speak about the ongoing crisis at the morgan apartments i was reached out to by multiple groups um who works with who work with tenant organizations in my capacity as a property manager i went over there and i have to tell you it's abysmal it's really bad i wouldn't put anybody in there uh since the hurricanes residents have been living with conditions that nobody honestly in st petersburg should have to accept water intrusion mold electrical hazards damaged stairwells units that have never been fully repaired the issues go on and on and from what i can see in my research they have been raised repeatedly through public grievances community reports and families are still waiting for safe and stable housing they've been wide there have been widespread reports community concerns about management companies financial instability including the possibility of bankruptcy proceedings and as a result residents are left uncertain about who's responsible for repairs who's accountable for safety and whether the rent they're paying is being used to maintain the property i think it's clear if you go down there it's not being used to maintain the property some residents have begun withholding their rent they simply cannot continue paying for uninhabitable conditions the situation has become a public safety concern a public health concern and a community stability concern i'm asking the city council to consider three actions first i understand the city council did do an inspection or the city did please notify the residents some of them are not aware they don't know that the inspection happened and they certainly don't know the outcome of the inspection second determine whether or not the current ownership or management is in violation of city codes or state statutes and pursue enforcement actions that ensure real compliance and real accountability third begin exploring the city's option to purchase the property if the current ownership cannot or will not meet its obligations uh given the financial uncertainty and long-term neglect of the building this may ultimately be the uh the most stable path forward and resident for the residents and for the surrounding neighborhoods people living there deserve dignity i think we can all agree on that um saint pete prides itself on being a community that um gives historically disenfranchised residents a voice and i think this is an opportunity for us to be able to do that thank you so much thank you any other speakers caller correa approach either podium states your name and address you have three minutes to address city council hey carla correa 345 5th avenue north here with the saint petersburg tenants union so i feel like city council's been on a good roll lately it's like the feasibility study funding the trans thing today like i feel like let's let's keep this going so i'm here to uplift the um the call that the last two speakers made for the city to look into purchasing the morgan and i'm not going to repeat all the issues because i know you guys know about the morgan um but like the major ones like not paying the water bill not paying the duke energy bill not paying the fire watch for months like there's a lot going on there the pool's green it's rat infested it's mold infested and i'm not saying like the city hasn't done anything like i do appreciate the work that the city has done so far on this um especially like amy foster and like her team but and that work has been mostly to relocate the residents but i feel like we need to look at like long-term solutions for this and that would be like making it city-owned public housing and it's not something that the city doesn't already have like jamestown apartments i don't know if you all have been to jamestown like all the council people but um it's really nice like it's super cute it's well maintained um and so we need to like expand that um public uh housing enterprise um because obviously the morgan is like incapable of managing it and they're like completely unaccountable um so and this whole thing like we should see housing as a public good right like the whole thing like we've had meetings with some of you all about it and the question is always like well how are we going to pay for it but like we don't say that about like roads or like water or sewer you know it's like our essential needs like housing um so like yeah and times are really hard right now like you said earlier councilwoman gabbard about um like yeah hard times are coming it's like hard times are here like hard times are here right now and then like you said like um councilwoman fig sanders like that we're we don't we shouldn't be like like we didn't know these problems were coming like we can't we shouldn't say that we should be like forward thinking with what we're doing now like think about like how are we going to like fix the affordability crisis like how are we going to like make sure people have housing um so i know this idea has been brought up before this isn't like the first time we're saying this um but yeah so if we could get an update on like where the city is with that that would be really helpful we'll be contacting you all um and yeah i think you guys should really consider this and people this this is like the same thing as why people want public power you know it's all this is we need to be looking at housing like that so my time's up so thank you thank you open forum and we go to announcements okay council member fig sanders thank you thank you today has been quite a day um and there are just a couple of things that i i failed to um pull and it's on it's it's on me um that um i really wanted to address so first before i go into that st p tennis union we talked about that and and so i would love to continue to have that conversation because the morgan is in d5 second we did not recognize this mom and i think it may be my fault juneteenth is happening and we did not juneteenth officially juneteenth national independence day is a federal holiday in the united states it is celebrated annually on june 19th to commemorate the end of slavery in the united states the holiday's name first used in the 1890s is a poem on two of june and 19th referring to june 19th 1865 the day when major general gordon granger ordered the final enforcement of the emancipation proclamation in texas at the end of the american civil war so juneteenth as many juneteenth um celebrations as you can attend this month would be great and i wanted to make sure that um i did that i forgot to ask for the proclamation on june t my bad the second thing that i wanted to talk about um and and you all know how i am when it comes to certain things and it was even more evident to me this morning or this afternoon i did not pull the and i'm sorry that i did not the resolution approving the amended and restated city council policies and procedures manual because had i pulled it there would have been two items in there specifically that i would have highlighted item number two clarifies that each council member must take an oath before assuming office as required by law and as a part of that oath that i took twice i've taken twice i brought my whole 110 percent to this position as council members we have three things that i can narrow down in order to speak on one is to be present one is to be present two is to represent those that elected us yes we're elected by district but we were also elected by the city of saint petersburg and three the most important thing that we're supposed to do is vote vote and i'm glad to say even when i was chair i did not miss one meeting did i vice chair not one i took my election in my position here seriously i took it seriously those are three things that we need to to talk about then item six are the council policies and procedures it states that we all worked on and voted on at a committee of the whole it adds the language to the civility preamble regarding attendance expectations including the importance of being present prepared and punctual for meetings now i'm gonna leave that right there i needed to make sure that i said that and i said that out loud i wish i would have pulled that from consent but i'm voicing my commitment as a council member this day and i wanted to do that to give us we're gonna go on council break everybody so hopefully we'll take the next couple of weeks um to realize that we just can't change proclamations when we want to change proclamations we just can't miss important votes when our constituents expect us to be present and i just needed to make sure that i voiced that in the sunshine um so that i wouldn't be accused of speaking out of sunshine we're on sunshine and what we do here is important what we do here is very very important um so i just want to thank my colleagues for engaging me in this conversation thank you thank you council member harding thank you chair thank you councilman councilmember fixaners i'm going to echo some of your comments the uh the the last item last week uh the the duke energy item i was disappointed with the outcome um i was not disappointed with the vote and i it uh heartens me that one of the things that i can say about all of my colleagues is that uh that you all speak your truth and i i am i couldn't be any more uh enlightened by that i couldn't be any happier about that even though i gave a great speech um but at the end of the vote the clerk took the uh took the tally and this was decided on seven votes and it should have been decided on eight votes and um and it got me to thinking um it didn't sit right with me and i spent the rest of the night thinking about it and i from my perspective and what i've learned from my six colleagues who've been here longer than me and what i have learned from legal and janie and our manuals is that this is the job where we're sitting right now is the job everything else is important don't get me wrong and everyone else does this job a little bit different than me but things that that we do in responding to constituents or going to meetings or whatever they're all important but this is the job this is where we decide the people's work this is where we decide what it is that we're elected to decide um and i think that's enough thank you chair thank you councilmember gibbons thank you chair um and thank you to those of you who showed up to comment on the morgan um just mentioned that we have a job to do and the work that we do is important and this work is important addressing these individuals who may end up unhoused in our community so i want to ask administration um do we have an update on that legal matter at the morgan we can certainly provide you an update um i'd have to talk to the team and check on the specifics of everything my understanding is it has become a little more complicated with the bankruptcy but we can certainly follow up with council i appreciate it our job is to respond to the immediate needs of our constituents and so i appreciate you all for advocating i certainly wish the district representative would do a little bit more uh to make sure that we could save those people who are in a very difficult situation um and then lastly i'm talking hold on i'm sorry no i'm just i'm i've talked that loud i'm sorry no no no hold on a second i spoke out loud i'm sorry let's not have crosstalk between house if there is if i have to enforce a rule you can direct it to me and then that way because i i don't want this to get needed so i'll be happy to enforce a rule council member um gibbons has a floor and so go ahead council member thank you chair i appreciate that i i'm all about respect um so i i respect you when you talk just respect me when i speak we may not always agree that's why we elected eight different council members from eight different districts because we all have different opinions i respect yours respect mine and the last thing i want to mention is you know again i think the city should be investing in what matters most and that includes saving properties that could actually be a resource for our city we could purchase that property and convert that to a city owned public housing property and right now the city's been pretty silent on that so i appreciate you all for showing up and speaking out because i get those calls from morgan from the morgan residents all the time and they want us to show up and to speak out about issues that matter to them now so thank you so much thank you chair thank you council member driscoll thank you um i do want to say i appreciate everyone's input and the discussion that was had today regarding the neighborhood parking um i want to commend council member fig sanders for her comments earlier regarding the city council policies and procedures it never hurts to review those things and sometimes certain things do need to be pointed out um i also want to commend her on having um what i understand is a very good handle on what's going on with the morgan um it is not something that we have uh that has been brought up in a while um but from what i'm hearing she is um um you know completely on top of what's going on with that and um we do we do um have disagreements sometimes and i appreciate that council member harding uh brought up the vote from last week and i couldn't agree more that um um our job in these seats voting is what we were elected to do um you got to show up it's the number one way that we show up for our constituents and for our city council member fig sanders also mentioned june 10th which is june 19th but then there's also june 10th which was council member girdus's birthday and i don't think we have done we haven't sung yet have we all right well i think i think we're gonna no i'm not the last speaker so we won't do it now but i think that is how we need to end this meeting and just like sing him out all right thank you chair thank you by chair floyd um sorry okay uh two things first uh on the morgan um i've said this before but uh i think you know it was mentioned like you know how are we going to pay for it we have funds set aside for the acquisition of property within the uh south saint pete cra it's commercial property but it exists and i think you know there's a strong argument to be made that we could consider that but is it enough is a whole nother conversation and so uh i'm gonna uh speak with my friends at the tenants union and uh maybe we'll figure out how we can actually have a discussion instead of this just being at the end of the meeting the last couple of times uh anyway and then the other the other thing i wanted to say was um the council manual handbook was in here thank you janie for sorting us out there i appreciate uh all the work that went into it so that's it thanks thank you well i wanna you ended in in in a spot that i i wanted to start with which was thanking janie for a lot of the work that went into this manual and with and extend that to also legal uh because i don't legal work hand in hand with janie on this and it's the heaviest lift huh janie had the heaviest lift she no she absolutely does and but you all also put in the time in this this is the type of work um that is not something most people do um and pick up because it's really a lot of times like you know it's a policy and procedure manual and not as exciting as some other stuff it's the type of work that people do every day that never gets acknowledged but it's important because it does lay the foundation for our work here and she took the time to literally look at every word in that manual to ensure that number one is in line with our practice today and it makes sense and then put everything together and so uh that was monumental and it's very much appreciated so i i thank you vice chair floyd for bringing that up because i wanted to touch upon that um so janie thank you uh the other thing that was brought up and i think it's important since we are talking about the manual and civility and all that first of all look we just had a discussion where um my item didn't go forward and it was very civil and um and i thought that was extremely important and i always think that's important you know we may disagree uh on issues but i try to never uh have do the ad hominem attacks or attack people personally i attack the issues and the facts um and look and there are times that we're not gonna agree on issues but we're fine i mean we come out every time out of this and we're gonna still still deal with each other civilly even when it's a vote that may not go your way and it happens all the time you know on various issues so i i commend um city council for being respectful and thoughtful in terms of their feedback and taking their positions and i've always respected council members who stand in stand strong in their position based on the facts i also commend city council members when they call out issues that are important to the body as a whole and that was done today and so because that was done i think it's important also to read the portion of the manual for the record to make clear because this actually i and i may be wrong but legal maybe you can remind me part of this paragraph that dealt with attending meetings and all that was changed not that long ago and has been amended and updated right okay so i'm gonna read that because i think it's important for us to hear and it's like like i feel like i you know with my daughter sometimes it's good to like read it share it talk about it and say it out loud so council members have a responsibility to demonstrate civility and professionalism when interacting with fellow council members citizens city staff and other elected or appointed officials civility though not easily defined is reflected in respectful conduct that emphasizes the merits of issues rather than personal attacks or hostility it also includes the responsibility of being present prepared and punctual for meetings as consistent attendance and timeliness convey respect for colleagues staff and the public in government civility means conducting the city's business with courtesy addressing issues on their substance and avoiding unnecessary conflict by maintaining civility professionalism and reliability city council ensures its work remains focused on the common good of the community affirming that the manner in which governance is carried out is as consequential as the position taken whoever wrote that did a very good job by the way uh so i thought that was very important to say out loud um i i'll say that there are times that council members cannot be at a meeting for various reasons and we're we typically are apprised of that i think it's important if a if a council member cannot make a meeting or is going to be late or and things happen or can't make a vote then janie should be advised and others should know so that way they can prepare accordingly so i think i appreciate um the council members who brought up issues i think i i am hopeful that with the spirit of this manual we go forward and conduct ourselves with with the manual as we have approved it so with that said i think it's a good time to have a happy birthday celebration are we ready happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Curtis happy birthday to you well we're gonna be on break this is our last meeting uh before break so everyone enjoy your break thank you all for being here with that said meeting adjourned thank you