City Council - Sep 03, 2026

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Hopely Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4 and Council Chair, Lissette Panowitz, District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Gibbons Jr., and District 8 and Council Vice Chair, Ritchie Floyd. Welcome, everyone, to the September 3, 2026 City Council Meeting. Clerk, if I can have a roll call, please. Here. Gabbard. Here. Harding. Here. Hanowitz. Here. Rick Sanders. Here. Driscoll. Here. Gibbons. Here. And Floyd. Here. Today, we're going to have our invocation given by Reverend Ben Atherton-Zeman. Atherton-Zeman. Zeman of the Unitarian Universalist Church, followed by a moment of silence. If you can please stand and remain standing for the moment of silence. I invite you all to enter into a spirit of prayer or meditation, whichever best befits your expression of faith. Mother Goddess, Father God, Spirit of Life, you who go by so many names and sometimes no name at all. We thank you for this day. It is a beautiful day that you've made for us. We thank you for this opportunity to do your work in this world, here at this City Council meeting and elsewhere throughout the city. Please bless our elected city leaders. Please bless them with strength, with fortitude, with wisdom, and with the discernment to make the right decision, knowing that it's not always the easy decision. Please bless all the workers who serve our city, who keep us safe. That's all the workers, be they human or dog. Amen, ashe, and blessed be. Amen. Now a moment of silence for Constable Edward A. George. End of Watch, September 16, 1908. Officer Charles Lee Eustis, September 24, 1967. End of Watch. Please remain standing for our Pledge of Allegiance. 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 so much for the beautiful invitation, Reverend. Council members, we have an agenda before us. I'll entertain a motion for approval. 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, motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously. Thank you. Council members, we have a consent agenda. Clerk, do we have any cards? No speakers or cards, Madam Chair. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion for approval. 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 tally announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. Thank you. Now we move on to open forum. Oh, I'm sorry. We have a council member who wants to say something about the consensions. Vice Chair Floyd. Thank you. I just wanted to thank everyone. I did not pull it, but it was our program, our eviction diversion program was on there. I just wanted to say it's great to see us expanding that program citywide and putting it under the codes department. I think it's going to be really effective there, and so I look forward to that work beginning soon. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry, miss. That's fine. I was just trying to catch you before you moved on. Next up, we have open forum. Clerk, are there any speakers for open forum? We do have speakers, Madam Chair. I'll read the rules. If you can read the rules, thank you. If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. The clause is not permitted, excuse me, except in connection with awards and presentations. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments or when you reach your three-minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation used, normal rules apply, including the three-minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting, and the rules of decorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. And we do have speakers, are you speaking in open forum? Two speakers, Madam Chair, Dr. Perry G. Washington and Kathy Harrelson, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, or cross street, and you will have three minutes to address city council. Wow, is that good timing or what? Hi, everybody. Kathy Harrelson, 32nd Ave. North, St. Pete. I'm here actually about a consent agenda item, so I wasn't sure if that was open forum or yes. Okay. It's item, let me look at my email real quick, okay? Sorry. It's the one about transferring general obligation funds. Here it is. Item F1. Looks like there's a pending policy change, which is to codify things that have already been going on. That seems incredible to me. It appears that the city has amended or is about to amend its fiscal policy to explicitly prioritize required contributions to tax increment financing districts from ad valorem revs before allocating those funds to public safety. Now, having worked in the muni bond industry for many years, I know that these were not part of the original bond covenants for either type, either their general obligation or the TIF bonds. Anyway, there's no disagreements that police and fire need to be funded, but I don't understand why funds would be going from the general fund to the TIF, to the downtown TIF. I actually always thought they should start going the other way once the TIF was adequately and well-developed. That doesn't seem to be happening. And it's just, I think, unfortunate that that seems to be going in the wrong direction to me. The entire city pays into the general fund because we all pay into the general obligation bond, and I'm sure that also includes folks in the downtown TIF. But why would we prioritize funding there before even allocating it, even allocating it to the general fund? If I'm stupid or don't understand, by all means, let me know. But it seems like that's going in the wrong direction. Thank you. Next speaker. Dr. Perry Washington. Dr. Washington. Dr. Washington. I'm over here. Mr. Washington, you don't need to say. Dr. Washington. Dr. Washington, you do not need to scream. I'm not screaming. You are. I'm not. You are. You're greedy. We've been through this before. I'm over here. I gave you. Your dog. I. I. I'm in the way. I gave you a lot of leeway the last meeting, Dr. Washington. You didn't give me nothing. The audience were visibly upset. You didn't give me nothing. I have the right to speak here. Dr. Washington. My name is Dr. Perry G. Washington. 175, 5th Street North, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2nd Avenue. Dogs do not overrule people. You did not walk down this aisle because of the dog. Dr. Washington, lower your voice. First of all, I ask you all to give me a Bluetooth connection so I can speak because I can't hear myself properly. You all refuse to do that. But you know, you gave the police involvement last year over $91.4 million. You are foolish enough with all the flat camera problems to give $755,000. Well, you are foolish enough to arrest me in my yard. Dr. Washington. In my yard. This is the last warning about screaming. First of all, I'm not screaming. I'm speaking. If the camp, if they're still closed, move it back. We're done. We're done. What do you mean you're not going to let me speak? Dr. Washington. You're not going to let me. I'm going to. Move it back. Take a recess right now. Move it back. Five minutes. Move it back. No Zoom speakers, Madam Chair. Yeah, no more speakers, Madam Chair. Okay. We go to awards and presentations. The first award and presentation is going to be presented by Council Member Driscoll, and it is the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month proclamation. For those that are here and want to join her at the podium, they're welcome to do so. Good afternoon, everyone. It's such an honor to be able to present this proclamation on behalf of the mayor for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. It's always an admirable thing to advocate for something that you strongly believe in. When it comes from a place of experience, it means even more. And today, I stand here just in deep gratitude for these women and for everyone who advocates for real progress in fighting ovarian cancer. Over the last couple of months, I have really leaned on Carrie Kreisman, who is one of the heroes that's with us today as I began my own fight. And I can tell you that not only did she help to lift me up and provide some much-needed guidance, but she really showed me that it's not just about surviving, it's about thriving. And when you get to that point where you're not just trying to get through each day, but you're actually able to look around and say, life is good, it means a lot. It changes your perspective on life. It reminds you of what's really important, and it makes you laser-focused on that. These women understand what it means to get up and fight that fight every single day. When you are fighting cancer, you can feel very much alone. But if you look around, you can find that there's an entire world of support, ready to help, ready to pray, ready to bring mac and cheese. And I got to tell you, I speak from experience when I say that I don't know how I would do it without friends like Carrie. But they don't just help their friends, they take their voices up higher to anyone who will listen and can help to get the funding that's necessary, to get the research in place, to get the solutions that we need, to bring real results to real women everywhere. So today I first want to say thank you. Thank you for everything that you do. I hope that one day I'm at a point where I can join you. You will be. Yes. You will be. I've got to start feeling a little bit better myself, and then I will be right there with you. But for today, I'm proud to stand with you here as I read this proclamation. Whereas ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths of women in the United States and causes more deaths than any other gynecologic cancer. And whereas American Cancer Society estimates 21,010 cases of ovarian cancer will be newly diagnosed in 2026, and 12,450 individuals will die from the disease nationwide, including 1,850 new cases and 850 deaths in Florida. And whereas while the mammogram can detect breast cancer and the pap smear can detect cervical cancer, there is no reliable early detection test for ovarian cancer. And whereas the five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer is 50%, and survival rates vary greatly depending on the stage of diagnosis. And whereas black women with ovarian cancer are more likely to have late-stage diagnoses, receive lower-quality clinical services, and have lower five-year survival rates than non-black women. And whereas ongoing investments in ovarian cancer research and education and awareness efforts are critical to closing these gaps and improving survivorship for women with ovarian cancer. And whereas each year during the month of September, Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance and community partner organizations hold several events to increase public awareness of ovarian cancer and its symptoms. Now, therefore, I, Gina Driscoll, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and urge every resident to take the time to learn more about this quiet and crippling disease. Thank you. We'd like to thank everyone here for this proclamation, and we represent the Selma Mastery Ovarian Cancer Foundation for our mother, who passed from this disease 20-some years ago. And we give back to the women in this community and offer support groups and financial help with whatever they need. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor Welch, Council, and Councilmember Driscoll. I'm honored to call you friend and provide whatever support I can. No one ever thinks they're going to be saying the words, I have cancer, but unfortunately, it happens to way too many people. And gratefully, I'm a survivor, which is why I do the work that I do, but I'm not the only one. The women behind me, hundreds, thousands of people, advocates, men and women, caregivers and survivors across the country. And I, locally, but also with the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, we meet with lawmakers in Washington to ask them for funding that creates funding for things that people need, but also educational awareness. Because like we've said, and this is probably the fifth year I've stood up here and said, there's no diagnostic test for this cancer. So thank you all for your time and attention and for continuing to recognize September as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and invite us here to Council Chambers. Thank you. And thank you all for your advocacy, for continuing to bring awareness. And Councilmember Driscoll, you know that you have a whole family here behind you and supporting you every step of the way. So thank you for sharing your personal story. Thank you. Okay. The next item is the Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month Proclamation, and that's Mayor Welch who's going to present it. Madam Chair, thank you. Councilmember Driscoll, thank you for bringing that forward. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, and thank you to our advocates for speaking up today as well. I want to move on now to our Sickle Cell Disease Proclamation. We know that it is a debilitating disease that impacts the quality of life for millions of individuals and their families. There is an ongoing need for research and treatment, along with early diagnosis and pain management for those who live with this disease. We are thankful for the work of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, St. Petersburg chapter, led by Ms. Mary Murph. And welcome you and your colleagues to join me. We can get some balance. A couple come on the other side. We'll balance out with the red and black. Yeah. And just last year, we celebrated the opening of the Foundation for Sickle Cell Disease Research Center, a much-needed facility doing tremendous work for those who need it the most. And I'm honored to present this proclamation, and it reads, whereas September is National Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month, designated by Congress to focus attention on the need for research and treatment of sickle cell disease, and whereas sickle cell disease is a serious health condition that affects the lives of 2.5 million individuals in the U.S. and abroad. Dominant populations affected are of African-American descent, but also include those of Caribbean, Hispanic, Mediterranean, and Italian origins. And whereas this recessive genetic blood disorder is characterized by sickle-shaped red blood cells that obstruct capillaries and restrict blood flow to organ or organs, which brings about excruciating and intense pain. And whereas early diagnosis and effective management of sickle cell disease are critical to improving the quality of life and health outcomes for those living with the condition, as those suffering with the condition experience a myriad of health challenges, including organ damage, joint replacement, strokes, or death. And whereas the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, St. Petersburg chapter, established by founder and long-term community volunteer Mary Murph, works tirelessly to educate and raise money to support children and families to help ease some of the financial burdens caused by the disease. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg is proud to recognize the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Foundation for Sickle Cell Disease Research Center, in honor of Mary Murph, the center represents tremendous progress in research and expanding access to specialized care, thereby improving patient outcomes. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month in the City of St. Petersburg, and encourage all citizens to join in this noteworthy observance and celebration of support for our citizens impacted by this deadly disease. And thank you all for your leadership. Ms. Murph? To Mayor Welch, City Council members, and community friends, as Mayor Welch has said, I am Mary Murph. I am the mother of two daughters who were born with sickle cell, a lost one several years ago. And the only one left is suffering tremendously. However, I am happy to have the opportunity to speak to you today to share that sickle cell has been proclaimed as National Sickle Cell Month. September is more than just a month to us. It is a call to action time all year long. The disease is actually over 7,000 years old, so we don't have any time to lose. Yep. It's been around for many, many years. So what we need to do, we need to educate and advocate every day. We are 54 years old, and I have volunteered for 55 years right here in the city advocating for sickle cell. Mayor Welch expounded quite a bit on sickle cell, but I want you also to know that this is a hereditary disorder. It is passed down through generations, and like you said, it is characterized by the sickling of the red blood cells in the body. Anywhere that the blood flows throughout the body, the cells can sickle. So, you know, it is a very painful disease, very, very painful. It's the worst pain that's known to man. I also want you to know that it's not contagious. It's not anything that you can catch. It's hereditary. It comes through the blood family, and it continues for many, many generations. I recall as being the fifth generation, and my children were the first ones to be detected with SS, receiving an S gene from me and an S gene from my husband, which neither one of us knew. We were carriers. We were carriers, but it can only be detected through a blood test. So we want you to know the facts, and we want to make sure that you know enough information that you can also share it with someone else. We invite you to share the hope by joining us on Saturday, September 26, from 5 to 8, 30 p.m. at the University of South Florida downtown here. We will be celebrating our 54th anniversary. So come on down and have fun for a fantastic evening with the stars. Thank you. Council Member Givens. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mrs. Murph and my fellow board members. It is an honor to serve alongside of you. A lot of folks don't know, but our local chapter is actually older than the national organization because for 54 years, this young woman here, she had a vision, and she is a visionary. And I just want to thank you so much, Mrs. Murph, from the bottom of my heart. Council Member Driscoll, you said it best earlier. You know, it means a lot when it's personal. And I've lost more members of my family from sickle cell disease than I care to remember. And I just want to thank you so much, Mrs. Murph, for always being there for our community to help lobby. I've traveled to D.C. and Tallahassee with you all, and I've seen the work that you put in. You can give a senator and a congressman a run for their money, and they don't see it coming. And you really are a small but mighty champion. And the women who work behind you and the men who work alongside of you, you all are really trailblazers in this community. And I just thank you so much for really making an impact. You know, there are hundreds of thousands of people across this country who live with this debilitating disease. And because of the work that you started 54 years ago, we've gone from just having bone marrow transplants to cure this disease to now having gene treatment therapy right here in our backyard. So I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing and our partners at Orlando Health and All Children's John Hopkins. So thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. And Council Member Fick Sanders. So I just want to be quick, but I'm definitely genuine and sincere. I want to say sorry, Murph, because you have dragged your sorority sisters through this whole process with you, and we have been there to support you and Terry and Tangela the entire way. And the young ladies that you have standing next to you, you have been in the community, serving this community, also not only here in Pinellas, but we have our sickle cell branch over in Hillsborough County. And I just want to thank you for all that you've done. And we're going to continue to support you because, again, you made it very clear. A lot of people don't understand what sickle cell really is and the amount of pain that we see. We saw it with Terry and Tangela. You know, we went through that with you. So the fact that you are still volunteering 54 years later, yes, it was a labor of love for you because those were your daughters. You know, those were our friends. But you've continued, even though you've suffered a great loss, you still try to make it a little easier for so many other families dealing with sickle cells. So I had to publicly say thank you again. Thank you, Ms. Wells. Thank you for you all being here to actually continue to advocate for those with sickle cell. It has taken us quite a long time. We're not getting the same services as a lot of other diseases that are out there, and we're hoping that that will eventually change. I know, you know, you've had some assistance, and I want to thank Mayor for acknowledging you with this proclamation today. But the battle is not won because the fight is not over. Thank you, Ms. Murph. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Murph, and you all for coming here today. It's always wonderful to see you every year. And I can't say it any better than Council Member Figgs-Anders and Council Member Givens has said it. But thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Patriot Day and Day of Remembrance Proclamation, and our Mayor Welch is going to present that. Thank you, Madam Chair. In recognition of 9-11, we now pause to reflect on the bravery and courage shown by first responders 25 years ago. I'm honored to have Chief Holloway and Chief Watts joining me along with their teams at the podium. They're on their way in. Today we take a moment to remember and honor those who acted then and act now without hesitation, our first responders. And the proclamation reads, Whereas this year marks the 25th year, we remember and honor those who have been touched by the tragedies of 9-11. And whereas Patriot Day and National Day of Remembrance recognize our first responders, our emergency workers, service members, law enforcement officers, and firefighters who answered the call to action with strength, bravery, and courage. And whereas the United States Congress has designated September 11th as Patriot Day and National Day of Remembrance in honor of the innocent victims who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. And whereas the bravery and courage shown that faithful day inspires us to celebrate and care for our first responders, remember the patriotism shown by our service members, and celebrate our collective strength as a city, a state, and a nation. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare the 11th day of September, 2026, as Patriot Day and Day of Remembrance, and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the city of St. Petersburg and beyond. And to all our first responders, thank you all for your dedicated service. We appreciate it. Madam Chair, none of the chiefs want to speak. The one thing I would like Chief Watts to share is that on September 11th at the fire stations, they're going to be having a moment of silence, correct? We will. We do that annually. And I will say that, Mayor, Council, and guests, we thank you for the opportunity to have this proclamation. We commemorate the September 11th by honoring the fallen, by supporting the current members of first responders, and we promise to never forget, to never forget. So when you all are out there on September 11th driving by a fire station, you see our first responders out there in the moment of silence when the towers fell. Yes. They're going to be there. Please, please join them. If you have a chance, if you can go to your fire station or your police station, thank them for their service. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. And the next item is the Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation, and I will be giving that proclamation so those that are here can join me at the podium, and I'll leave it to our vice chair. Hang on. So I think I had a sheet with the names of everyone, and I think I left it somewhere up there. Did I leave a sheet with everyone's names? No? It could be there. That's all right. Don't worry about it. It's been one of those days. So it's my honor every year to give this proclamation, and for those of you that have watched me give it every year, you have seen that I've read it both in English and in Spanish. This year, I'm not going to read the proclamation in Spanish, but I will read a poem in Spanish. This poem is by Jose Martí, a Cuban poet who helped ignite the Cuban War of Independence against Spain, and it was my mom's favorite poem. Some of you may know the song Guantanamera. You may have heard it. But I will say a funny story. My husband, who's from the Midwest, as a child, he had heard the song, and he thought it was about a person called Guantanamera. For those who you think the song is about a person called Guantanamera, it's not. Guantanamera means a woman from Guantanamo. But some of the lyrics from Jose Martínez's poems are within the song, so you may have heard some of these before. But I think it's very appropriate because the poem contrasts the treatment between friends and enemies, and it uses a metaphor of a white rose. And the speaker's unwavering cultivation of the rose symbolizes their enduring love and forgiveness regardless of others' actions. And we live in a world right now where there is so much division and so much of us versus them, and we need to think a little bit more about how we cultivate that rose. Cultivo una rosa blanca, cultivo una rosa blanca en julio como en enero para el amigo sincero que me da su mano franca y para el cruel que me arranca el corazón con que vivo cargo ni ortiga cultivo, cultivo la rosa blanca. It's not going to rhyme the same in English. I cultivate a white rose. I cultivate a white rose in July as in January for the sincere friend who gives me his hand frankly and for the cruel person who tears out the heart with which I live. I cultivate neither fizzle nor nettle. I cultivate a white rose. So with that being said, it is my honor to read this proclamation. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month, known as Miss de la Herencia Hispana, is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th and recognizes the significant contributions and influence of Hispanics on our nation's history, culture, and achievements. And whereas September 15th is Independence Day for the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. On September 16th and September 18th, Mexico and Chile celebrate their Independence Day respectively. And whereas Hispanic residents in the city of St. Petersburg amount to an estimated 10% of our population and play a vital role in our community and workforce. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg recognizes the significant contributions of Hispanics, including many city employees in our community, their support and community involvement make our city more culturally diverse and welcoming for everyone. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg is proud to celebrate and recognize Hispanic culture and heritage as an important part of our inclusive city, Hispanics are part of the we in We Are St. Pete. Now, therefore, I, Lissette Hanowitz, on behalf of Kenneth T. Walsh, mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 15th through October 15th, 2026 as Hispanic Heritage Month and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the city of St. Petersburg. Thank you. Now, before I turn it over, I know there's a couple of speakers. I know there's some employees that are all here from the city of St. Petersburg. If you can wave your hands, if you're Hispanic. I had to listen. I forgot it. So, but we are very fortunate to have a good number of our employees who are Hispanic and have been with our city for a very long time. So I wanted to recognize that they're here with us today. I believe they're, are you speaking? Yeah. You want me to go first? Okay. Oh, thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council. My name is Linda Rosso. I am the founder of Kanguros. That is Spanish for kangaroos. We are a bilingual educational nonprofit in St. Pete focused on cultivating connection and positive mental health in children. And I believe community is a huge part of that. So thank you for celebrating us and our community and coming together with us. With that, we are located on the south side of St. Pete. We're kind of tucked away and we are grateful to provide a space of community connection and inclusion both for our students and for our educators. We would love to invite you to come out and visit us sometime. And if you're available tomorrow and happen to love jazz or soul music, we will be at the studio at 620 hosting a benefit concert with actually the amazing Allison Nash will be singing. And so we'd love to invite you there and you'd be able to hear a little bit about who we are, why we do what we do. I invite you to visit our website, kanguros.org and or feel free to connect with me following this and I would love to share more with you. Thank you again. I am Dr. Christina Jones-Juarez and I'm with Excelsior University St. Pete and I'm going to have my executive director for the Center for Social Justice, Ruby Blanco Orduna, speak for us. Good afternoon, Mayor Welch, City Council members, community leaders and everyone gathered here today. It is a true honor to be here as the City of St. Petersburg officially recognizes and proclaims Hispanic Heritage Month. This year, our team is Pioneers of Change, Shaping the Future Together. It is a powerful reminder that Hispanic heritage is not only about remembering our history, but also about recognizing the people who continue to create change, open doors, strengthen communities and build opportunities for generations that follow. Today, we celebrate the resilience, leadership, culture and contributions of Hispanic community. We honor those who came before us, but also we celebrate the pioneers among us who are currently helping to shape the future of St. Petersburg. We are also very excited to continue this celebration on October the 7th with our Hispanic Heritage Month event at Excelsior University, also titled Pioneers of Change, Shaping the Future Together. This event will bring together leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, community organizations and residents around St. Pete to come and collaborate with us in this opportunity to talk and discuss about the future of the Hispanic population. We are especially grateful to partner with the Green House and the Hispanic Outreach Center and for Mayor's Welch support in helping us to bring this vision to the community. Our program is built on this very simple idea. Pioneers rarely create change alone. Partnerships and relationships are what transform ideas into real community impact. So today, as we receive this proclamation, I hope we not only celebrate our heritage, but also ask ourselves, how can each of us can be a pioneer of change? How can we open a door, mentor someone, build a bridge, or create an opportunity for someone else? Because when we do that together, we do more than honor our history. We also shape our future together. Thank you. My name is Sylvia Acevedo. I'm with Mi Gente, Mi Pueblo, basically my people, my village. I want to thank the mayor's office. I want to thank the city council for this lovely proclamation. Of course, you. We go back six years and we had that forum on the little screen during COVID. I'll tell you a little bit about the organization. I've got some cheat notes. So our mission is that we activate and connect Mi Gente to experiences in culture, healing, and advocacy for social justice. During Hispanic Heritage Month annually, we have a signature event. We call it a signature event, you know, and that has historically been in St. Pete. This year we're having it September 19th at Tropical Home Gallery. It's Latina-owned gallery in Ybor City. I invite you to attend that. The time is from 11 to 5 p.m. My assistant here is helping. But the, and, you know, and it's cultural education of children's activities. It's not performative. In no way is it just you going there to dance, cha-cha-cha. It's educational advocacy. It is amazing. And the thing about this year that I'm most proud about is that we partner with the city of St. Pete for the second annual SOMO St. Pete that's going to be held in the pier. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Members. We're very excited about that one. And that is going to be October 4th, and it's going to be in partnership with Pero Por Que Esto No Me Está Haciendo. Ahí está. All right. So it's going to be at the pier, 2nd Avenue Northeast. The city is, we're partnering with the city of St. Pete, Mi Gente, Mi Pueblo, and Peer Events LLC. So it's going to be community, culture, live music, activities for kids, food trucks, you know, and a little bit of salsa, you know, because we all need that. And so please join us. I'm so excited to be able to engage our local vendors to come out with food trucks and artisans and, you know, infuse a little bit of, you know, of the economy into them. So thank you. People stare at you all the time because you're right there. It's one reason. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Liz Mendez. I'm part of the Hispanic Outreach Center. I'm the Director of Community Impact and Development. And I want to thank you to recognize the Hispanic Heritage Month. It's, as you know, very difficult when somebody comes to understand the language and all that. And the Hispanic Center is right there to help them to navigate the system, to help them understand the forms. So that's what we do on the Hispanic Outreach Center. This month, give us the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the history, music, cultural, tradition, and contribution of the Hispanic that has moved here and the Hispanic Americans to our community. The Hispanic Outreach Center is proud to serve everyone in the community, not just the Hispanic population, but like I mentioned before, our focus, of course, because we speak Spanish and English, is the Hispanic community. We help them to get through that bridge that we have been talking a little bit before, right? So we offer our services and bilingual services, help individuals access information and resources in both English and Spanish. And we are grateful for the opportunity to serve the community and everybody that comes and support us. Thank you to the major, you city members, council members. And thank you, everybody, to recognize and celebrate the Hispanic Heritage Month. I encourage you to join us on our gala. It's going to be on September 25th. We are going to celebrate everything that we have been able to do to our community, all our neighbors on Perales County. And also, we are going to take the opportunity, of course, to celebrate the Hispanic Heritage Month because why not, right? So thank you so much and happy Heritage Month. Thank you. Thank you all so much and it's wonderful to hear about the number of events that we can participate in over the next month. We're going to go on to item D5, National Service Dog Month proclamation with Council Member Gabbard. Thank you, Vice Chair. And if I could get everyone to come up here and join me. Yes, Brady, it's finally your turn. I think the meeting was getting a little long in the tooth for the dogs. So thank you for their patience. So yes, we are joined today by several of our friends, four and two-legged. So I will do some quick introductions before I read the proclamation. So first, we are joined by several of our friends from Dogs, Inc. C.B. Holden, who is joined by his handler, John Benjamin. Klondike, handler is Stacy Goodrich. Loretta, whose instructor is Krista Jordan. And Dave, whose instructor is Samantha Phillips. And they are all from Dogs, Inc. And we also are joined by Carrie Christman, who did not bring a dog with her today. But she is a long-time champion, as we all know, of Dogs, Inc. and service dogs all around. So thank her for being here. We are also joined for the first time at this proclamation by St. Pete Fire and Rescue, Brady and Shadow. So welcome to both of them. Lieutenant Rob Newberger and Lieutenant John Blinkley is with us as well today. And unfortunately, Snowbird was not able to be with us today, but we will make sure that we get a copy of the proclamation to Snowbird from USF St. Pete. So with that, I want to go ahead and read the proclamation. I'd like to give one to St. Pete Fire and Rescue and one to Dogs, Inc., whoever would like to take it. And then we will go ahead and move on with the proclamation. And the proclamation reads, Whereas National Service Dog Month observed every September is a time to recognize and honor the dedication, training, and invaluable contributions of service dogs and the organizations and trainers who prepare them. And whereas service dogs are highly trained working animals whose skills, dedication, and companionship provide life-changing assistance to the people who rely on them. And whereas service dogs help individuals with disabilities to live fuller, more independent lives. And whereas service dogs assist veterans and those who sacrifice for our nation, providing faithful companionship and trained support so their human partners can meet the demands of life with confidence, independence, and purpose. And whereas increased public awareness about the role of service dogs helps foster a community of inclusivity, accessibility, and hospitality where individuals of all abilities are welcomed, supported, and respected. Now therefore I, Council Member Brandy Gabbard, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 2026, National Service Dog Month in St. Petersburg, and encourage all citizens to reaffirm our community's commitment to compassion, accessibility, and... My name's Lydia Baxter. I'm the Media Relations Manager at Dogs, Inc. I'm not sure if you're familiar with us. We were founded in 1982, originally as Southeastern Guide Dogs. We were founded as a non-profit organization to raise and train guide dogs for people with visual impairments. Since then, we have expanded our programs to also serve Gold Star families, local first responders, children with vision loss, as well as veterans with disabilities. Just wanted to say thank you for recognizing us and the work that we as well as countless other non-profits do and we really appreciate your support. And now we'll be joined by Lieutenant Newberger who is going to speak on behalf of Brady and Shadow. Now, you have to tell Brady's story, too. Please, don't forget to tell that. Yes, so first off, thank you for having us. Brady was actually founded our drill grounds down by Del Holmes Park four years ago in 2022. He was pretty sick when we found him. Luckily, he found me. I'm lucky to have him. He's been a great partnership for us and my family. So, yeah, he's great. Just a little tired of waiting around. That's right, yeah. He's still a little puppy, so he's got some puppy energy. But, yeah, we started our canine program with St. Pete Fire Rescue earlier this year in April. These dogs provide a tremendous service to our first responders, both on the fire side and police and EMS. We've been used in several deployments around the state so far this year to provide comfort to agencies that are going through crisis or have a loss. Science has proven that these dogs have been great in all the facilities. So, while Shadow and Brady are the first, we hope there are plenty more of them to come. So, we're excited to get them in the station soon and thank you for your support. Finally, Madam Chair, I just want to give a special shout-out or a bark-out to St. Peter's Bark for their partnership in honoring our service dogs. So, we have treats, compliments, participants of the District 2 office and St. Peter's Bark. So, special shout-out to them. They deserve it. You know, after looking at the agenda and seeing the dogs waiting for all the presentations, we should have probably put them first. That's okay. Madam Chair, we do have one more speaker who would like to say something if that's okay. Yeah, absolutely. Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, community members. I want to thank you again for allowing Dogs Incorporated and those who are of the service community joining today. I'm an individual who for many years was in the workforce. I used to work in St. Peter's for many years. But in my later years, I developed an eye condition called Star Guards. So, I'm now blessed with the opportunity to have the service dog, C.B. Holden here, who's helping me navigate these latter years. But prior to that, I had the opportunity with my wife Tashna here. We're also puppy raisers. And I say this to you all because there's a community of volunteers behind the guide dogs, service dogs, and Gold Star member dogs that represent Dogs Incorporated here or in your community. So, if you would like to be a puppy raiser, please join the organization in doing that. We're also blessed to be able to have our dogs trained very often. So, I was in St. Parlemento, Florida for three months, not three, about three weeks, pardon me, getting oriented and trained on how to become a part of this dog. But we use downtown St. Petersburg as one of the training locations for streets, navigation of traffic, pedestrians, stairs, etc. So, thank you for the use of your lovely city. Thank you for your support. And I hope that we'll have an opportunity to grow our relationship going forward. Madam Chair, thank you. And thank you all for waiting patiently. They were good dogs. So, I think next year we're going to have to move them up the line, though. Just mental note. So, we'll wait till let everyone have a chance to leave before we start with reports. Thank you all for being here and joining us today. It's good to see you all. Oh, Madam Chair. Yes. I forgot because I didn't have it in front of me, but if everyone loves Brady as much as I do, he actually has his own Instagram page. So, you can follow him at Brady in the Berg. That is his handle. So, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that. Brady in the Berg. Brady in the Berg. Okay. Good to know. Thank you. Just giving them a moment to walk out. So, next item up, we have F1 and we have Liz Makofsky here. Hi, Liz. Hi. Good afternoon, Chair and Council Members. I'm not as cute and cuddly as your previous presenter. You all, Liz. Talk about me like that. For a close second. But today, we're here to discuss three proposed changes to the city's fiscal policies. There's a memo resolution and a marked up version of the existing fiscal policies in the backup for the meeting. These changes were also reviewed and approved by the Budget, Finance, and Taxation Committee at their meeting on August 3rd, 2026. The first change can be found on page 9 of the fiscal policies and it's related to the uses of ad valorem revenues. The fiscal policies currently state that ad valorem taxes shall be allocated to cover the cost of providing public safety to the city and the proposed change would be add the language to clarify that we are required to make contributions to the city's tax increment financing districts and that they are made from the ad valorem tax revenues received by the city. The next change is on page 15 and it is needed to update the fiscal policies with the FY27 rate study. Currently, in the pay-as-you-go improvement section, the policy states that the annual rate study for FY18 set a target of 50% cash and other resources and 50% bond funding ratio for the city's public utility and that that target has been met. The proposed change would remove the language that states the target has been met and replace with language stating that this target continues as a general guideline for the city's program due to the temporary move from the 50-50 target for the stormwater portion of the utility in the FY27 rate study. And the last change is on page 18 and comes from a request from the committee, the Budget and Finance and Taxation Committee during their January 29th meeting. The request was to add a framework to the fiscal policies for using the Economic Stability Fund to support affordable housing similar to the framework established for natural disasters. And under Section BB3 of the fiscal policies, we added a subset A that provides this framework. And thank you if there's any questions. Thank you. Council Member Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just quickly, there was some comment during open forum about the language. I just want to make it clear. The language that we're changing is to codify the required contribution above the threshold for the TIF from the general fund to the TIF fund. Not any other ad valorem, but only for the ad valorem inside of those TIF areas above the threshold that we are required to make that transfer. That's correct. And also, we're having a conversation about shortening the length of a CRA. And so this is just the above the threshold inside of those TIF areas not anything. There is not more money going to TIF than there has been in the past. So I just wanted to make sure that was very clear. I can't answer any questions. Sorry. I'm sure some of us will be around if you want to get us when we break. And so I just wanted to make that very clear. So thank you for that distinction. Otherwise, thank you for having these conversations inside of BF&T. This was helpful. I think all of these recommendations are needed. and I appreciated all the input at BF&T and I'll move approval. Thank you. We have a motion back in. Thank you. Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Gerdes actually answered my big or asked my big question. Thank you very much. On part three, that the, that the, as I, I don't know if this is the question I ask in this forum. As I understand it, the way, I guess legal, the way that we created the Economic Stability Fund, it doesn't allow for what we are currently, it doesn't stipulate what we're currently doing with it. So it would, so anytime we want to use the Economic Stability Fund, it would still have to come back to City, to Council, if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Okay. That'll continue to be a struggle for me because that's, that wasn't the original intention. Council can do whatever we want to do on that side. But I just wanted clarification on that. And other than that, thank you very much. Council Member Gertes has handled my question for me. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Floyd. Thanks. I'm going to piggyback on the original discussion. Just real quick, money collected in the geographical areas where there's a TIF district goes to the General Fund and then we transfer it to the TIF. That's correct. And we have been doing it. We just wanted to make it clear. Yes, thank you. Just wanted to say that explicitly. Thank you. And just to be even clearer, it's just what the law requires. I mean, at the end of the day, you have to, the money has to go into the General Fund, but because we have the CRAs, those monies have to go back into the CRAs. And it's, that's just how it works. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Council Members, please enter your vote. Seeing that all present Council Members have voted. Clerk, please tally announce the vote. Chair, motion to approve the General Assembly of the Council. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. I'm Erica. Hi, Rajesh, F2. I feel like we haven't seen you for a while. Good day. Good day. I don't know what's going on. Is there an engineer that can help us in the room? I can't even get. I'll do the simple piece. I'm not going to touch it again. Yeah. Can't talk anymore. Your mic's on. Man from heaven. Okay. We're good, it seems like. They don't want you to talk. I will move. I'm getting through this. Good day, Council. British Improvement Engineering Capital Improvements Department. And today we bring to you an award of a construction contract for some drainage improvements along 50th and 7th Street in that general neighborhood. It's a commitment that we, on August 6th, City Council approved the CSA contracts. As part of that approval, I mentioned that if this is approved, by September we can bring a construction contract. That's how efficient this process can be. And this is just really that follow-up on it to show and, you know, to follow up on the trust that you all gave into us as far as approving that process. But I also want to implement, mention that we are implementing some really interesting elements as part of this project. So while we are looking to do stormwater improvements along 50th Street, 50th Avenue, from 4th Street to 7th, and then north from 7th towards 54th Avenue Canal, the ultimate discharge is to give you a size of the capacity that we'll be adding to the system. When we connect to 50th Avenue, 54th Avenue Canal, it's an 8x7, 8x6 box cover. So it's taller than me and I'll say wider than me too, wider if I was laying down. So what we're also implementing as part of this project is seven water quality hydro planters. So what these are is also a commitment towards low-impact design, green infrastructure, but also helping to offset floodplain impacts. So several of these will be installed along 50th Avenue itself. Each one of the structures will house trees within it, but it's a built system, meaning it has a treatment process built within it, a certain type of aggregate, so it allows more attenuation of water within the system, so we have some storage capacity, but what it also does is it provides water quality benefits. So it's not just a normal stormwater system that has a drainage inlet, water flows in, and then flows out. We are doing our part as well to help improve the water quality, but also provide areas that we can offset on the floodplain. One of the other benefits as part of this is trees naturally grow where the roots get the water. So because we're within that box structure itself, the roots now grow into it, and it has an area to sustain, so it's a self-sustaining system. So it's absorbing the nutrients within the same system that we are discharging the nutrients to. Now, this project, ultimately, we're looking to start construction at the beginning of the next year. Why? We're coming up on Thanksgiving, also coming up on Christmas. We did an initial public meeting some time ago. This project has some SWIFT MUD funding tied to it, 2.7, which we were waiting on that approval process. We have that funding right now. We're moving forward into the construction phase. So before we get into actual construction, we want to get back out with the neighborhood again. So in mid-November to early December, we're planning to also do another public outreach where we'll brief the residents as far as what they can expect to see during construction because drainage projects by nature of this magnitude, capital projects, take up everything from curb to curb. So it's going to be major impacts to the community, but we want to be with them to hear their concerns, and the contractor is also going to be there to hear their concerns as we walk through the construction process. And with that, I can take any questions and I can ask for approval. Okay. I'll go to public comment. Kathy Harrelson. Approach either podium, state your name and address, or cross streets. You'll have three minutes to address city council. Okay. Kathy Harrelson, 32nd Avenue North and 26th Street. I'm so grateful that y'all are doing this hydroplanter project. I've seen those in other cities in Florida, Gainesville being one of them. One thing, though, that they do have in theirs are trees. I know he knows what I'm going to say. Well, you all do. But particularly cypress trees. And I'm not saying it's appropriate here, but there could be others. The thing of it is it adds so much additional to the hydroplanters besides just the rain garden elements. And it uptakes more water. It provides other services back to the neighborhood. Obviously, cooling habitat, eventually uptake of CO2. And really, it's a nice visual presentation as far as that goes. So I love what you're doing, the magical Claude. And, you know, Rajesh, and thank you. I wholly support this. But I would love to see that additional element added if you can get with your designers and see if something like that would work. Thank you. Thank you. Trees are in it. Rajesh, you want to say something? We already have trees in plant for it. So I can follow up with you after. Yes. No, no. So in the details, we do have plants. I love engineering plants. They're great, but they're very hard to read. So we do plan on planting trees to the residence point. That nutrient uptake, it creates its own ecosystem. So as the nutrients are going in, the phosphorus, the nitrogen, it really helps sustain the trees as well. So good points. Thank you. Also, Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. Rajesh, awesome, as usual. Just very high level. This is a little bit bigger project than usual. Can you give us just a high level time frame? How long will those streets be torn up? That kind of thing. Yeah, so such a good point. So 54th Avenue Canal is new to connect to. So as part of that construction, we'll have to build what we call a coffer dam where we'll actually drive sheet piling into the canal so we could dewater the system and remove that. Now we can actually build the first piece of pipe. Now, ultimately, in stormwater systems or anything of that nature, you want to start from your lowest point and then move back because as you're building, we can accept that and say, okay, it's good. It's not leaking. Put it into service. So when we're bypassing, it's like a moving train. So we build a section. It's in operation. As we take out this section, we can bypass around. So we're still providing that level of service on the stormwater while we're building the middle section. Then we continue again. So that's generally how the construction sequence goes. We start from the tail end and we move up to the head of the system. The outfall section, the city did purchase a property where the outfall is. So we do have that area. We'll try to contain as much of the construction in there when we're doing the construction of the outfall. But once we get into the road, the pipe is in the middle of the road. We're going to work with the residents. We have to put in some temporary access for the residents. The good thing is we do have a lot of right-of-way there as well. So that gives us flexibility to shift the lanes, probably construct some temporary roadways on the front yards if we need to, which is actually the right-of-way, so that way we can safely do the construction. Now, by nature of the pipe construction and stormwater to build capacity, the downstream is the larger section. As you get further upstream, the pipe gets smaller and smaller and smaller. It's kind of like when you look at, when you go to a restaurant and you see that big HVAC pipe coming out and by the time it gets to the other end of the room, it's a small pipe, that's essentially, it's picking up a little bit of flow, more flow, more flow. So as it gets bigger, as it's picking up more flow through that line, the pipe gets bigger. So by the time we get up to 4th Street, we'll be probably putting in a 42-inch pipe. So our impacts start to get less, but ultimately, we'll be restoring from curb to curb. So it'll be a new roadway construction. We'll do some adjustments on the roadway as far as elevation to help with resiliency and sustainability, but it all ties together. So good point, and that's why we want to get back out there in that November time frame, December, to really meet with the residents so they can understand what they're going to see. Time frame for construction, we're looking at about 360 days for overall time, only because we have to break it up in small sections. We can't rip apart that entire road from 7 to 50. It's just going to impact the community so much. So that's the downside of the biggest parts of construction. You have to do it in smaller parts to maintain access. So we'll try to do block sections so that way there's enough of a detour out as possible. Thank you, Brish. Other question is, again, in the bigger picture, what are we solving? Why are we doing it? Oh, good point. So the objective of this is the stormwater system as it resides right now was originally designed in the 1950s. Now, it's under capacity for the intensity of the rain events that we receive today. The other part of it, based on the historical trends, the actual measured trends of the tailwater condition or the level of water at 54th Avenue has increased. So when we look at, and Council Member Gavin and I have discussed this, when you look at that North Tide, recorded tidal data from the 1950s, now we all hear the story, and I've probably said it multiple times as well, from residents. We lived in this community, my parents lived here, our house never flooded, and that is absolutely true. Because when you look at that historical tide data, the recorded tide data from 1950s to now, the extreme high tide is still lower than the extreme low tide that we receive today. So what that means is the stormwater system cannot operate efficiently. Because of that, that's why we're going with a bigger pipe, so we're doing volumetric flow as it goes to hydraulic flow. Thank you, Brej. Appreciate it. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Gerdes. I only wanted to point out that that was Brej's high-level overview of all of that. Move approval. Thanks, Brej. I want to just ask, what is the total cost of this project? So the construction contract is about $6 million, 2.7, which is grant funded. I do not have the design cost with me right now, but I could definitely get that to the Council. One of the things I just want to point out, you know, is I just had a meeting with Swift Mudd, and 80% of their monies is funded by ad valorem taxes. Yeah. So it's something to know with what's happening. Amendment 3, you have different parts of our agencies that get funding that end up coming here and supporting us with grant funding, and there are different effects that you automatically don't hear about. And so the Swift Mudd, when I heard it, it was the first time I heard it, so they provided almost $3 million to this project. And also they've seen reductions in their SWIM funding capabilities as well. So you're absolutely correct with that. Thank you. 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, motion to approve a John F-2. Passes unanimously. Thank you, and thank you, Projosh and Claude. Next up, we get to Council Committee reports, H-1. This is Council Member Gabbard's report. Thank you, Madam Chair. from the HERS committee from August 27th, 2026, respectfully requesting a report item to City Council on actions taken to address nuisance concerns in the Child's Park neighborhood since August 2025, including an update on future cross-departmental coordination and corrective action plan to address the nuisance going forward. And I so move. Second. We have a motion and a second. We have public comment. Brother John Muhammad, approach on the podium, state your name and address across streets. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. Thank you. Council Members. Wow. A long time, it feels like. So, Council Members, I'm Brother John Muhammad, President of the Child's Park Neighborhood Association and resident of Child's Park, 46th Street and 15th Avenue South. And I'm here in support of Item H-1A. First, I want to say thank you. Thank you to Council Members Gabbard, Driscoll, Vice Chair Floyd and Givens Jr. for hearing our concerns at the HERS committee and unanimously moving this item forward. We also look forward to the administration being receptive and supportive of this work going forward to address this issue. Just wanted to be clear about what we're asking. We understand that the state and county have their own regulatory responsibilities, and so we're not asking the city to take over those responsibilities or interfere with those processes. We're asking the city to exercise the authority that belongs to the city. When residents repeatedly report a potential nuisance, there is a process, and that process is to receive the complaints, investigate them, determine what laws and requirements apply, determine whether violations exist, and then require corrective action where appropriate. As you all know, for years, the Child's Park residents have reported recurring chemical and gas odors that interfere with the use and enjoyment of our homes and community. One of the challenges that we've encountered is that there seems to have been some confusion around whose responsibility it is and what can be done at the city level, and so during the HERS committee, we provided a list of city departments and areas of responsibility that we believe should be a part of a coordinated review. We're not asking the city or the administration to determine today or predetermine what those departments will find. We're simply asking to get around the same table look at the problem through their respective areas of responsibility and determine the appropriate path forward. That's really what this is all about, coordination, accountability, and a clear path towards resolution. The item before you, again, is simply asking what has the city done since August 2025, how would the appropriate departments coordinate going forward, and then what corrective action plan could look like. So again, we continue as residents to do our part, reporting what we smell, documenting what our experiences are and staying engaged, and we're asking the city to continue to work with us, follow the process, coordinate the response, and then let's work together towards a resolution that protects the health, safety, and quality of life for residents in Montchalb's Park. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gibbons. Thank you, Chair, and thank you very much for bringing this forward. Councilmember Gabbard, just want to make mention that not only will we hope that this conversation will focus on the nuisances, but also those environmental and public health concerns. So that's really what we want to hone in on. So thank you so much for leading this effort, Brother John, and the Charles Park Neighborhood Association. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Councilmembers, please enter your votes. Seeing that all present councilmembers have voted, Clerk, please tally announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve adjournment H1. Passes unanimously. Thank you, and thank you, Brother John, for joining us today. Thank you. Next up, we have H2. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. The Economic and Workforce Development Committee met on August 27th. We have an action item that has come from that, and therefore, I am respectfully requesting City Council approval to remove the following item from the Economic and Workforce Development referral list. That item is Advanced Air Mobility, which is currently being shepherded by Councilmember Harding. I would like to add that this does not mean we are finished talking about Advanced Air Mobility. I trust that when there is a report from staff that can go to full council or they can do a staff request for EWD committee, but we are just getting started on this, the great new opportunities that can be presented by AAM as that moves forward. With that, I'll move approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Councilmember Harding. Thank you, Chair. It seems to make sense that with the phenomenal work that Councilmember Montaneri did with all those involved in the air mobility study, that this come back at some point in time as a bigger project to include air mobility that's outside of the airport, which we see going on everywhere. So I am working on that and expect to have something in the next four to six weeks building on what that team did and including the city as a whole. So that was kind of the genesis for removing it to come back with something bigger. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, if you can open the machine for voting. Councilmember, please enter your votes. Seeing that all present Councilmembers have voted, Clerk, please tally and also vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve adjournment. H2 passes unanimously. Thank you. Well, the next item is scheduled for 6 p.m. and it is 4.30. So we will be adjourned until 6 p.m. See you at 6. Reconvened. We're here for the FY 2027 first reading and first public hearing of the budget. We're going to follow a certain process that we're required to by law. So there's going to be certain things that I have to read and go through that process. This is the start of the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 military and budget. The purpose of this public hearing is to discuss the mayor's recommended budget, approve the proposed military and approve the recommended budget appropriations ordinance for the fiscal year 2027 as a tentative budget for fiscal year 2027. Prior to public comment, the first substantive issue discussed shall be the percentage increase in millage over the rollback rate necessary to fund the budget, if any, and the specific purposes for which ad valorem tax revenues are being increased. That issue will be discussed by the mayor and his staff after the title to the budget appropriations ordinance is read. Clerk, if you can please read the title of the budget and appropriations ordinance. Madam Chair, proposed ordinance number 647H, an ordinance making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027, making appropriations for the payment of the operating expenses of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, including its utilities, and for the payment of principal and interest revenue bonds and other obligations of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, making appropriations for the capital improvement program of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, making appropriations for the dependent special districts of the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, adopting this appropriations ordinance as the budget for the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027, providing for related matters and providing an effective date and the second reading and second public hearing for this item, Madam Chair, scheduled for September 17, 2026, and we do have some cards. Thank you. We move on. We have introductory remarks by administration or straight to the presentation by Liz McAuliffe. Okay. Good evening, Chair and Council members. Before we begin this public hearing, if anyone has specific questions or concerns regarding the assessed value of their property, exemptions, or classification related to your property, or information on the trim notices, tonight we have here with us Alex Luca. He's the Deputy of Assessment Administration from the Pinellas County Property Appraisers Office. If anyone has questions on their property value or if you'd like to speak with them, please follow him at this time and he'll be able to answer your questions. For those attending virtually, please contact the Pinellas County Property Appraisers Office at 727-464-3207, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This evening is the first of two public hearings on the fiscal year 2027 budget for the City of St. Petersburg. Florida Statutes 200.065, also known as the Truth and Millage Act or referred to as the Trim Act, requires a specific process for our discussion tonight. The order of this process is laid out in Attachment A of the backup materials. The City Clerk has provided the first reading of the FY27 tentative budget ordinance and in just a moment, I will review with council and the public the tentative FY27 budget and highlight some of the changes since the mayor's recommended budget. We will then hear from the public upon conclusion of this budget presentation. After the public comment period and additional discussion and deliberation by City Council, council will be asked to take action on three items and each of these items will need to be done as a standalone motion. The first is the adoption of the proposed millage rate for FY27. The second is the adoption of the FY27 tentative budget ordinance and the third is the adoption of the FY27 budget resolution as the tentative budget for the City of St. Petersburg. So under the Trim process, the first item of substance to be discussed is the percent increase, if any, in millage over the rolled back rate. For the purposes of the FY27 budget, the rolled back rate is 6.3854 and is the millage rate that would generate roughly the same amount of ad valorem revenues in FY27 as the City received in FY26. Under the Trim statutes, we are allowed to recognize ad valorem revenue associated with new taxable value added to the tax base, so the rolled back rate generates slightly higher revenues in FY27 than the City is scheduled to receive in FY26. The proposed FY27 millage rate is 6.4525 and represents a 1.05% increase over the rolled back rate. The year-over-year increase in ad valorem revenue from FY26 to FY27 is about $14.816 million. The second step in the state-required Trim process is to discuss the reasons ad valorem tax revenues are being increased. All ad valorem revenues go towards funding the City's public safety costs after the required tax increment financing district contributions. The main reason for the increase in ad valorem revenue for FY27 is to provide the resources needed for contracted wage increases for police and fire rescue employees. The addition of six sworn positions in the fire rescue department related to the additional floating R-day included in the union contract for FY27 and to cover contractual increases including increases to the call and axon programs. The key areas of investment plan for the FY27 citywide budget are aligned with the mayor's five pillars for progress. For the education and youth opportunities pillar there is funding to continue programs such as the mayor's future readiness academy, year-round youth employment programs, youth development grants, and literacy and STEAM programs such as the Shirley Proctor Puller Foundation, and USF Marine Science Center at Clam Bayou. Under the equitable development arts and business opportunities pillar we look to fund the continuation of many of our economic and workforce development and arts programs. In the neighborhood health and safety pillar we're continuing to fund neighborhood and public safety programs like the community impact grants and programs, the healthy neighborhood store program, and the healthy food action program. For the housing opportunities for all pillar there will be funding to continue our progress on the 10-year housing opportunities for all agenda and to provide resources for social service programs. And finally, in the environment, infrastructure, and resilience pillar, the preliminary budget will have funding for projects that protect our environment and increase our resilience and improve our city's infrastructure, including the St. Pete Agile Resistance, Resilience, or SPAR program, and increase funding for street and road improvements and the Complete Street program. The increase in Avalorum tax is based on a 6.85% increase in 2026 taxable property values over 2025. This chart shows a 10-year history of property tax revenues in relation to public safety costs. You can see that in FY27, after accounting for the transfer to the TIF funds, Avalorum revenues will cover all of police and a portion of the fire rescue costs for the city. This next slide illustrates the calculation of the millage rate for FY27. The first step in the calculation is to determine the value of one mill. To do this, we take the gross property value amount of $39.341 billion and then multiply it by 96%, which results in $37.767 billion in value for budgeting purposes. We then divide the 96% of gross taxable value amount by $1,000, and that gives us the value of one mill at $37.767 million. The second step is to look at our FY27 general fund requirements of $437.325 million and net out the other sources of revenue other than Avalorum, which amount to $193.6 million, and we arrive at the amount of required Avalorum taxes of $243.691 million. The third and final step is to divide the required Avalorum taxes, which is shown as slide B, or as B on the slide above, by the value of one mill, which is A on the slide, to arrive at the 6.4525 mills required. This next slide illustrates a typical tax bill for a resident of the City of St. Petersburg. The City of St. Petersburg makes up about 30% of this homeowner's tax bill or 30 cents of every Avalorum dollar paid by property owners. The school system with its two components of their tax bill would make up about 36%, and Pinellas County at 22%. The balance of 12% is made up of the various other taxing authorities like EMS and Southwest Florida Water Management District. We will now move into a discussion of the changes in the FY27 budget since the mayor's recommended budget was submitted. All of this information is included in more detail in Attachment B on the recap of changes. And for the revenue in the general fund, there have been no changes since the recommended budget. The changes in requirement or expenditures in the general fund can be found on page 1 of the Attachment B. There was a citywide change to the department's internal fuel budgets to reflect the increased cost of fuel of about $446,440. And the department's specific details of the changes are again available on the Attachment B recap of changes. There's also a change in the store, motor, pavement, and traffic operation department due to position changes in FY26 since the recommended budget. And there's a change in the contingency amount is the net change needed to balance the general fund. The information on revenue changes in the other city funds can be found on page 2 of Attachment B. The changes in the community development block grant, the emergency solutions grant, and the home program funds are to account for changes in expected grant revenues for FY27. The change in the fleet management fund corresponds to the increase in fuel charges to other departments. And all the other revenue changes listed are needed to match the utility rate study for FY27. The requirement or expense changes for the other city funds are broken down in pages 2 and 3 of the recap of changes and are shown over the next two slides. There's a change in the emergency medical services fund and this is due to position changes in FY26 since the recommended budget. There are changes in the parking revenue, Mahaffey Theater Operating, Pier Operating, Sunken Gardens, Airport, Marina, Golf Courses, Jamestown, Municipal Office Buildings, and the Supply Management Funds and these are all due to the increase in the internal fuel charges that we discussed in the earlier slide. The changes in the building permit special revenue, the technology services, and the building and collection funds are due to a combination of position changes in FY26 since the recommended budget and the increase in the internal fuel charges. The changes in the community development block grant, emergency solutions grant, and the home program funds are again to account for the changes in the expected grant revenues for FY27 and for the water resources, water resources debt, stormwater utility and stormwater debt service changes are mainly to update the budget amounts to correspond with the FY27 rate study. The water resources operating fund also has increases due to FY26 position transaction changes and internal fuel charges and the stormwater utility fund includes a correction to the general administration charges assigned to the fund and increases to engineering costs and internal fuel charges. The change in the sanitation operating fund is due to an increase in fuel charges as well as a correction to the general administration charges assigned to the fund and finally the change in the fleet management fund is due to the increases in the cost of fuel. There are two changes on the revenue side of our CIP program and they are found on page four of attachment B. For the FY27 utility rate study conducted in FY26 and presented to council on August 13, 2026, capacity fees in the water resources capital project fund increased $490,000 and future borrowings increased $245,000 and the transfer from the water resources operating fund decreased by $245,000 in order to maintain the 50-50 cash to debt funding ratio. Also in the stormwater drainage capital project fund the cash to debt funding ratio was changed from 50-50 to 30-70 for FY27 and this net change to revenue is zero. However, debt funding from future borrowing increased by $7.45 million and various grant revenue increased by half a million. And then the transfer from the stormwater utility operating fund decreased by $7.95 million. There is one change on the requirement side of our CIP program. Again, also on page 4 of attachment B. And this is again related to the FY27 utility rate study that was conducted in FY26 and presented to City Council. And this is the transfer to the water resources debt fund from the water resource capital project fund increased by $490,000. This next section will give a quick overview using tables, charts, and graphs to illustrate the City's FY27 budget. These tables are included in the FY27 budget and brief which has been posted on the City's website and we did pass out today as well. The total operating revenue budget for the City for FY27 is $1.047 billion. Charges for services make up the largest category at $449.6 million or about 42.9% followed by taxes at $322.9 million or 30.8%. The FY27 operating budget is $1.018 billion and is about 4.25% higher than the 26 operating budget. The water resources operating fund decreased by about 0.55% year over year and the general fund and reserves budget increased by 6.26% from $412.4 to $438.2 million. The total general fund revenue budget is $437.325 million and the general fund revenue comes from various sources. The largest single source of revenue are taxes including ad valorem franchise and utility taxes at about 73.8% or $322.89 million. Pilot and GNA is the second largest source at $42.4 million or 9.7%. The total general fund expenditure budget for FY27 is also $437.325 million and the city's general fund is categorized into the six city administrations. The single largest general fund investment made by the city is in the public safety administration at 55.07% includes the police and fire rescue departments. The general government administration makes up the next largest category at 18.9% and includes departments such as budget, finance, legal, and human resources. And the third largest general fund investment is in the community enrichment administration at 16.33% and includes parks and recreation and libraries department. This chart shows the general fund budget broke down by expenditure type. The single largest expenditure category of the general fund is wages and benefits at $299.593 million or 68.5% of the total budget. Services and commodities make up the next biggest slice at $85.8 million or 19.6%. The FY27 CIP budget includes a total of $196.551 million in capital projects. The water resources projects account for $112.47 million or 57.2%. Stormwater projects account for $37.25 million or 18.95%. And penny for Pinellas projects account for $34.047 million or 17.32%. The total for the five-year CIP plan is $1.191 billion. This slide shows the fund balance commitment categories. Council will need to reaffirm these or other categories when the budget is adopted. However, the amounts to be set aside in each category do not need to be determined until the FY26 fiscal year is closed and we have the actual year-end results. At that time, we'll have a better idea how much fund balance is available to allocate to each category and the commitment categories can then be funded as part of the year-end cleanup ordinance in November. And in closing, the second and final budget public hearing will be held at City Council in Council Chambers on September 17th, 2026 at 6 p.m. And information on the city's budget is available on the city's website. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Well, this is the beginning of the public comment portion of the hearing. The general public shall be allowed to speak and ask questions prior to the adoption of the proposed millage rate and tentative budget by City Council. Clerk, if you call the first two speakers. First two speakers, Lauren Hubbard and Kristen Eckenridge. Please approach either podium, state your name and address across streets. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. My name is Lauren Hubbard. I reside at 1110 3rd Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701. Respected Council members, it's good to see all of you. I've been here before and I've learned that Council doesn't argue with emotion. They, in fact, really enjoy and appreciate facts. So that's what I'm here to talk about tonight. Six months ago, I came here and we talked about 31st Street. We talked about the Lakewood Trail connector and I shared concern about the safety because I also mentioned that we are an ecosystem and that this corridor is used for our youth, for Maximo Elementary School and also business. I messed up the last time I tried to talk about that too. Workers, community workers. This is their corridor of how they get to where they need to go. So in six months' time, we talked about requesting support for the funding for the 31st Street Survey and to help bring safety into a accountability and to meet you all so you could meet us. We decided to let me back up. I'm also the founder of All the World's Kids, which is a local nonprofit here in St. Pete. We received a Level Up City Arts grant this year and that was in the amount of $5,000. So six months ago, I met with Kristen and we showed up to talk about what we could do to address the safety concerns, essentially for the youth of the area. So we took that $5,000 grant. Thank you so much for choosing us as a grantee and we turned that into $60,000 of effort, a community mural in partnership with seven local artists and they helped transform a 400-foot wall that I think is probably the longest community art mural here in St. Petersburg or in Pinellas County. So I think we have a lot to work with to ask you to meet us, but the thing I'm still confused about is we don't see a line item for the trail for 31st Street. We're completing the survey and so I think we've shown what we can do with a small gesture from you as a grant recipient and maybe in September when I show back up to ask if the line item has been addressed, 31st Street will be on there because we just want to partner with you. That's all we want to do is work with you to support our youth because we're a trailstown and we're the city of St. Pete. We're the city of the arts. We're better than this. We finish what we start. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Kristen Ehrlich. I live at 2386 Granada Circle West and I help lead a nonprofit called Connect Pinellas. I'm here with an update on 31st Street South and Lakewood Trail Connector which is near Maximo Elementary. If you recall I was here back in April discussing the same topic at the budgeting meeting. To recap, the connector runs under 1275 and it provides what should be a safe access point to cross the highway between U.S. 19 and 31st Street South. Instead it's a place most avoid going due to long-term neglect, infrastructure issues and confusing wayfinding. Long-term residents also remember the tragic sexual assault that occurred on a young girl there. Despite the safety issues, children and residents still use this path to walk to Maxwell Elementary, the Sparkline, and jobs because it's their only safe option. It's incredibly important that this pathway be maintained and elevated as the other alternative is 54th Avenue South, which is one of the most dangerous intersections in Pinellas County. The community couldn't wait to act until the next budget meeting. Instead, myself, Lauren Hubbard from All the World's Kids, the Vitale Brothers, Lakewood Estate Civic Association, private partners, students, and other partners came together to create a 400-foot art mural right on the connector. Councilmember Fig Sanders, I know you were there and joined us for the unveiling. It was a great day. And the community turned a $5,000 city grant into a $60,000 investment through donated money, labor, and materials in addition to your nice grant that you gave us. We are proud of that accomplishment, but paint can't fix flooding, poor sight lines, inadequate security, and years of deferred maintenance. Further, the Lakewood Trail Connector is not an issue that stands alone. It goes hand-in-hand with the 31st Street South. The 31st Street South study should have been completed a year ago, but work stopped and there's not been a great public explanation of why it's not completed to date. Residents are still waiting with nearly two miles of this corridor not having a single crosswalk. That is from the Ray Stadium to the Dolly. Imagine not being able to cross the street. I don't think many of you would be happy about that. Further, we are working with FDOT, Ford, Pinellas, and city staff to find solutions. There are short-term solutions to make this area safer that require minimum work, such as wayfinding and shade coverage. A private corporate donor is prepared to cover the cost of trees and even watering services along 31st Street South with the city's cooperation. The funding and partners are ready. We're just waiting on the city's green light for a next step. The connector also needs immediate signage and maintenance and followed by a large redesign to address flooding, poor sight lines, and structural problems. That process requires the city to apply through Forward Pinellas for a grant, an effort that is supported and suggested by FDOT. We cannot wait until that highway is redone to do this. That will be like 30 years. I see that the proposed budget has funds for complete streets. I request that 31st Street South and Lakewood Trail Connector have those studies allocated, and we're committed to moving these applications forward and supporting it. We hope that you are and you see our community commitment in both time and dollars that we've spent on this project. Thank you. Thank you. Two speakers. Next two speakers, Andy Wells Bean, Neil Camardella. Please approach either podium. State your name and address across streets. You have three minutes to address city council. Good evening. My name is Neil Camardella. I'm at 24th Street and 2nd Avenue South. I'm here to thank you for putting an increase in complete streets from last year and ask you to continue on this positive development and provide more increases for the next year's budget. You see there's a big appetite for street safety. St. Pete passed complete streets about 10 years ago. Since then, about 150 people have died, hundreds of people have been injured. So please increase funding for complete streets to save lives and to make our city safer and more pleasant to live in. Thank you. Thank you. Hi there. My name is Andrew Wells Bean. I live at 8175 36th Avenue. Thanks for this opportunity to speak to you all. I'm here also in support of Safe Streets and further investments in the Safe Streets program. I got my master's in public policy at the University of Michigan and I specialized in local policy and in externalities, in measuring externalities. So an externality is just the cost of something that's not captured in the upfront cost of that thing. So the cost of safety improvements can be easy to see. So you put out an RFP and you get some proposals back and they've got a number at the bottom. That's pretty easy to count. The benefits can be much more difficult to count. So every crash avoided is fewer police resources that are expended. Every injury prevented is lower medical insurance costs. Every bike trip or walk chosen over a car ride improves someone's health. And there are more subjective benefits. Days when I bike to work start out more joyfully. Walking to the joint down the street, the sports bar down the street from me, is fun. And taking the Sunrunner downtown can be very efficient. We have a lot of work to do across St. Pete to make the streets truly safe in every single neighborhood. We've got a lot of investments to make. And I want us all to bear in mind not only the upfront costs of those, but also all the benefits whether they show up on the balance sheet or not. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next two speakers. Next two speakers. Lema Al-Hasan, Andres Centrum. Please approach either podium. State your name and address. And cross or cross streets. You'll have three minutes to address city council. My name is Lema Al-Hasan. I live MLK and Gandy. And there's a few names that I want to start off with today. Marquis Scott, Crystal Knowlton, Alan Scotty Dixon, George Uridan Hall, Tyrone Howard Jr., and Yvonne Abernathy. These are just a few, very small, few sample of names of people who are impacted by gun violence in our community. This is something that's happening across the country and right here in St. Pete. And what we know is that increased violence happens because a lack of investment in our communities. We need to make sure that we address violence at its roots, and that means we support communities that are impacted. When a neighborhood doesn't have what they need, whether it's stable work, stable housing, stable health care, stable child care programs, how do we expect them to have any form of stability? As part of the Bay Area Dream to Offenders, we've been coming here year after year to talk to y'all about Save Our Streets. This is a part of a much larger solution that we need to create. We need to create a holistic approach to addressing gun violence, especially as it impacts our youth. We've been told time and time again that our proposal is too much. We don't think that's the case. We don't think that we are asking enough to address gun violence for our youth. What we know is that we cannot separate youth programs, funding youth programming from safety. This year alone, the public safety budget has been proposed to increase by $10 million in the next fiscal year. And we believe that our youth is in dire need of investment. So instead of adding more money in the public safety budget that goes towards police, we think it can easily be pulled over to invest in the Save Our Streets, which currently the component we are focusing on is an active outreach. Because time and time again, from community members that we have talked to, we've heard that they're not aware of the programs that are happening. So we want a team that is able to go door to door, that includes youth themselves as well, that get people signed up to the programs and the support that we have within our community. We know that we have the money. And as we've been saying, we've been asking for years. And another year waiting is another life lost. Every year we wait for another life lost is a choice that we are making. Let this be the year that we choose to show that we care. Let it be the year that our city chooses to take action, celebrating and supporting our youth instead of mourning lives lost too soon. Let this be the year that we choose to finally fund the Save Our Streets proposal. We also ask for complete streets as well at any kind of public support services. Good evening. Thank you so much. My name is Andres Introng. I reside at 1101 12th Street South in St. Peter Bear, Florida, 33701. You may know me in my capacity in my community work as president of 13th Street Heights Neighborhood Association, vice president of Kona. But I'm really here in my capacity as a resident. I live in 13th Street Heights, which is a neighborhood that runs along the MLK Junior South Corridor. And that's what I'm here advocating for. Thank you so much for your continued support and complete streets. And increasing that budget. But I think we need to do more. Recently, a pedestrian was struck and killed crossing MLK Junior South along around 15th Avenue South. Killed crossing on a crosswalk, a designated crosswalk. And unfortunately, this is not the only isolated incident. There has been other fatal and serious pedestrian crashes along MLK South and in recent years. In 2025, a pedestrian was struck and killed while crossing 20th Avenue South. In 2024, another pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries after being struck in the 1900 block of MLK Junior South, approaching that same intersection. Now, every crash has different circumstances. I understand that driver behavior matters. Pedestrian behavior matters. Enforcement matters. But street design matters as well. And we already have data showing safety concerns along MLK Junior South. We have documented history of crashes, serious injuries, fatalities. And residents have been raising concerns about this corridor. So I'm not simply asking that the city to study whether there is a problem. We know there's a problem. I'm asking that we use that information we already have, really identifying where the additional analysis is needed, and begin and taking action, whether it's short-term and long-term improvements to make this corridor safer for my residents and all the residents that are impacted along Campbell Park, Rosa Park, Ballard Park, 13th Street Heights Neighborhood Association, or 13th Street Heights Neighborhood. We also have a president right here in St. Petersburg. When the city evaluated MLK Junior North, several years ago, I found a roadway that had similar issues, and we took action, understanding that there was a president here with resurfacing, and that made that opportunity possible. I'm not suggesting that we do the same with the south side. As we understand that every situation is different, we need to study it and take action that's appropriate for that location. Let's look at what has been done and what we can do now to make our community safer, particularly in the south side, and thank you so much for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Next two speakers. Next two speakers, Sloan McCann, Max McCann. Approach on the podium. State your name and address across streets. You'll have three minutes to address city council. My name is Sloan McCann, and I live at 2648 3rd Avenue South, and I want them to use the budget fundings for safe streets so I can go to all the Three Daughters borough and other places that I like. What would you do when you get there? I would hang out with my friends and get food, and yeah. And I also want a cat cafe. Municipal cat cafe, y'all. All right. Hi. Good evening. Max McCann, 2648 3rd Avenue South. I want to say thanks for increasing funding for safe streets projects, and I want to specifically applaud the use of parking revenue to fund these projects. It's going to be a game changer to have that dedicated revenue stream for projects like extending the bike lanes on MLK North to the Pinellas Trail. That's a game changer, y'all, because then we can get network effect. A protected bike lane is only good if it gets you to where you're going. And right now, MLK North is great if your trip starts and ends on MLK North. Connecting it to the trail is a huge deal. I can't overstate that. We also love the zipper buffers that the city put in on 1st Avenue North. One thing that's wild about those, next time you go by, look at how many of them already have tire marks on them. That'll show you how important it is to have protection for those bike lanes because drivers are not great at staying in their lane, and paint is not protection there. I know we're getting a bunch of crosswalks on MLK South, and I'd rather have crosswalks than no crosswalks. But let's remember, Kendra was killed on MLK South, Kendra Dillard, in a crosswalk. A 15-year-old St. Pete High student was severely injured. I'm not sure if I said that right. She was killed. Kendra was fatally killed in a crosswalk. A St. Pete High student was seriously injured in a lighted crosswalk after pushing the button this year. Just on Tuesday, I picked up my daughter from her dance class, and we saw the immediate aftermath of a pedestrian who had gotten hit by a car in the crosswalk at 5th Avenue South and 22nd Street. And he was laying on the ground, and paramedics were working on him. And before I could tell Sloan to look away, she saw it with his head wound right there on the side. And I just thought, she shouldn't have to see this. She shouldn't have to grow up like this. And so I want to emphasize crosswalks are not enough. They're great, but we can do better all around. We've been pushing for school zone safety cameras. Chief Holloway told me last year that we would have a pilot program in place by January of this year, and we haven't heard a peep about that ever since. It does seem like the police department has the budget for it, so I hope that that will be prioritized soon. And last thing I'll say, in the seven habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey, author, said, start with the end in mind. The end of our work today is not the budget. It's the statistics on a road next year. It's how many people would die. Thank you. Next two speakers, please. Next two speakers, Jay James, Sierra Clark. Approach either podium. State your name and address across streets. You'll have three minutes to address city council. Hello. My name is Jay James. My pronouns are they, them, and theirs. I'm a third-generation native of Odiseo City, 1181 Third Avenue South. And, yeah. Gage Santos-Brown, 14. Trill Wright, 15. And then the 18-year-old kid at the Y. Lives taken by gun violence this summer. Mikeese Johnson, 18. Deontay Blunt, 15. Vanage Wright, 16. Kenneth Washington, 16. Jeremiah Peterson, 18. Lives all gone because now they're going to be in cages for the rest of their lives. How many more lives is it going to cost for y'all to actually show us where your budget, your budget, where your values are for your life? Y'all say. And he's not here. Mayor Welch says that he values the lives of young folk in this here city. I don't see it in his budget. I do not see it in his budget. You know, we're cutting positions and outreach in the budget, but we're increasing the budget for the St. Pete Police. Something ain't added up here. You know, we have been asking for years now. Another year of raiding is another life loss. In this case, what, three? And if you click, what, that's eight lives right there. Every year. Every year. Let this be the year that our city chooses to take action. And we're not even asking for that much. This year, for year one, we say $2,500 for some computers at the Charles Park Y. Not Y, Rec Center. $2,500. Is that too much? $155,000 for a community outreach team, including teenagers and youth adults, young adults. Is that too much? $20,000 to make summer programs free. Is that too much? We get told it's too much. That's not even a few hundred thousand dollars, but we can increase the police budget by $2 million. But we don't have a few hundred thousand dollars for our children, for our youth. How many more lives is it going to take for y'all to put your money where your mouths are? How many more lives? I am sick and tired of this. I've been coming here for years now. Years! And I'm tired of crying after every new teenager is killed. I am tired. Are you or not? How many more years? How many more lives? How many more? Thank you. Next speaker. Pierre Clark. 4544 22nd Avenue. I have to say it was really hard, right? Going back into the community, saying things, and it just repeats again. Doing better. I think that's what Max said. We're just asking to do better. We've tried a lot, right? We've come a long way. Thank you. I hear the reports on that. Something about our safety is being considered. But we're saying that is not a nothing. Let me take that back. We're not saying. We are really the voice of the people, for the people. I'm here because it's been echoed because we talk to the community. And even if it is a lot of programs, there's an ingredient missing. So go with me, right? If you think about spaghetti sauce, there's a lot of ingredients in there. Remember that Prego commercial? It's in there. The community is telling us that something is missing in what we call care and support and safety. It's not in there. It's showing on T-shirts. It's showing in the organizations that love to show up for the community to help be the extension to the city to show that we love our community. The city can't do this alone. Community organizations like Dream Defenders and all the other ones, the Five Keys, the end gun violence with Maurice Scott, like there is so much help that we have, but something is missing. Our saying that we care isn't feeling like we care when we go out inside of the community. And what is the point of saying the word if it can't be felt? The people are saying that they don't feel it. And I'm really not really seeing it out loud, not small in fine print. We got four pillars that the mayor stands on. I mean, y'all are the backup and we are y'all backup, but the community who depends on us is not feeling that we are not communicating. If we are different members and different functions and all part of one body, the heart does a great thing that the rest of the body absolutely needs. We're not in this all by ourselves. We absolutely need one another. And our city is telling us that they need us in a different way. What can we do better? Is it any good to just plant the seed and it doesn't have any water? I like the sunsets just as much as I like the stars in the sky, but I feel like we're saying that we can only do one thing. And if it doesn't start with us, then it ends with us too. There's a thing to have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, especially when I know for a fact I've been here saying what the people of St. Pete said that they need. And it's not only that they need it, I need it too. I would love to see a representation with that communicates with inside our city, with inside our community that flows back into our homes that the families feel when they go inside their jobs. It's time for us to communicate differently. Thank you. Next two speakers, Madam Chair, Jerry Funt and Tassiana Hoverkamp. Please go to either podium, state your name, address, or across the street, and you have three minutes to address city council. Hello, my name is Jerry Funt, 38th Avenue North and Haynes Road. I'm here today with the Bay Area Dream Defenders. I know there are a couple of campaigns with similar names, but I am here to once again ask you to support the Save Our Streets campaign proposals. We started this campaign years ago after spending substantial time talking to the community. We didn't prescribe solutions. We asked and we listened and we said, what is it that you need to feel safe? How do we stop violence in St. Pete? And they didn't say we need more police on the streets. They didn't say we need more kids in cages. They said that we needed someone to go in for accessible, effective, and utilized youth and young adult programs. And to have someone from the city come into the communities and help families not only identify, but access the support they need, whatever that may look like. Some of you were on city council when we first started this. Some of you have inherited us since you joined. Nonetheless, all of you at this point are familiar with what our campaign and what we are hoping to achieve here. Now, when we first arrived for this campaign several years ago at this point, we were told that we needed to start earlier, engage the city sooner, we can make it happen. So we came back the next year earlier. And the next year we were here consistently during the budget process. And once again, after appearing over and over, we were told, this is great and we want to make it happen. We just need more details. We need to make sure you meet with all of us. We'll start earlier. But next year we think we can make something happen. And we listened again last year. And we met with most, if not all of you. We reached out to the mayor's office and met with them. We revised our proposals. We kept showing up. And last year, once again, we were told, start earlier, maybe next year. And so we did it all again. And now, once again, we are at the end of the budget process and it's not in the budget. You know, I think this is the old Rodney Dangerfield movie, Groundhog's Day, the way I keep showing up and experiencing the same thing over and over again. But what I'm recognizing is it's not because we're still losing more people every year. You know, last year I came and spoke about DeAndre Hargrove. I spoke about Jaden Hill. I spoke about Tyrone Howard. And this year, my friends in Bay Area Dream Defenders brought up several more names to you all. The point is we can't keep kicking this down the road and we're not asking for a lot. The city has a $1 billion budget, a billion dollars. All of the programming we're looking for would be about a million dollars for the first year. And yeah, that's something, sure. But if we prioritize keeping our city safe, the same way we prioritize development, the same way we prioritize locking kids in cages after harm occurs rather than before it happens, we could actually do something here. Now, while we're facing another year waiting for action to be taken by an administration that will promise meeting after meeting but can't seem to offer concrete plans, we are going to see more memorials on the sides of sidewalks and the sides of streets and more community gatherings to mourn the loss of another person. We know that this can work. We know that the funding exists. Don't the families of these people deserve some real action? Let this be the year that we show that we care. Let this be the year that our city takes action celebrating and supporting our youth instead of mourning lives lost too soon. Let this be the year, please, that we fund the Save Our Streets programs. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello, good afternoon. My name is Tatiana Haberkamp, address 871, 64th Avenue South, St. Petersburg, Florida. You already knew that. I'm here today representing Dream Defenders, also with the Save Our Streets campaign. I'm not the most active member of Dream Defenders, but I have been here since this campaign was first conceived. I know that as my comrade Jerry was just saying, we've done all that we can to negotiate and get through to every member of this council to talk to the mayor, to have these meetings, have these discussions about how we can get the asks of this campaign met. There have been meetings and follow-ups, and yet the campaign proposals have not been met in the years that we've been here, coming back to city council over and over again. I don't think it's particularly controversial to want to end gun violence and fund our youth. And yet, I feel that people still have not seemed to accept the idea of funding our residents and that violence in our communities is not a policing problem, but a problem of disinvestment and disenfranchisement, we know that the money exists. We've been watching this year, we've seen that apparently we have money for new police cruisers and all these flock cameras going up, but God forbid that we really sit down and connect to our residents and find out what they need. We've been hand-waved away with excuses that, oh, there's already programming for that, there's already this, etc. Well, we as the residents don't see it. I don't think it's enough to say, oh, we're doing things for folks because we have a five-step scholarship application process for impoverished families. We know St. Pete loves its bureaucracy. I know everyone here on the council has to navigate that every day. But one of the things that we are asking for with our campaign is navigator services that can go door-to-door and help residents connect to programming and the aid that they qualify for. When you are not familiar with these processes, it's difficult not only to apply, but to even know what questions to ask to find out what's available in the first place. This has an inherent effect of filtering out many people who would otherwise apply and benefit. And I just want us to ask, what would it be like if we approached our programming thinking about how we can make sure our residents truly feel held? Thank you. Thank you. Next two speakers, I believe it's Dami Adami and Justin Cornure. Please go to either podium, state your name, address, or side street, and you have three minutes to address city council. I'm Dami. I refuse to give side streets in solidarity with folks who are forced to live outside under this capitalist system that says that if you attempt to build your own house, they'll destroy it while they protect the private property of this settler colonial system. Or you can give your neighborhood. You don't have to give. My name is Dami. I told you that. No, but you have to give a neighborhood or some other. Okay, my address is the same as everyone here, 175 5th Street. If you look up the address of every council member here, there's this 175 5th Street. Why do we have to give our address? That's, sir, that everybody. There's this 175 5th Street, which is this building. So thank you. Sir, you have to. I live in St. Pete, 1st Street and 5th Avenue. Thank you. Thank you. So I'd like to gain back my half hour, my 30 seconds there. But so first off, I wanted to address the fact that I don't see the Business Improvement District or Jason Mathis in the pictures on this or anywhere in this budget. I don't see anything about these new meters up on in between 8th Street and 9th on 1st Avenue South or over here on 5th Street, which you're supposed to put out notices to the public when you're going to change a public space, a public parking spot to a metered spot. Now, this money is being funneled to the St. Pete Downtown Partnership, which is illegal, right? Isn't that embezzlement that this money is being funneled? And they boast on their website, the Downtown Improvement District, boast on their website that they're going to make a million dollars off of close to 400 spots that they put meters on that were public parking spots without notice to the public, which is a violation. Now, safe streets and complete streets are a Trojan horse painted in a 40-foot-long mural and decorated with skate parks that don't serve the people but steal the money from the community. What we need is community-led programs like the Save Our Streets program where folks do the legwork, they talk to people in the neighborhood, they find out the pulse, they find out what people need, they grieve with the people when they lose their family members and they back them up in the times that they've lost. Now, nothing can bring these people back. Your job is to represent your constituents, not to make decisions for them. Your job is to listen and to do what they request. Now, they're putting forth proper proposals. What the St. Pete Downtown Partnership is putting forward is not a proper proposal. It's being done behind closed doors. And you can smile and laugh all you want, Janine Williams. I see you over there. Oh, you were in bed with it. Driscoll, you worked on the PSTA alongside Brad Miller who said in violation of ADA that he was going to change the laws on the Sunrunner so that young black youth and homeless folks couldn't ride out to the beach because people on the beach don't like that. Now, you all need to represent the people. That's all you need to do is to listen to the proper prescription set forth by communities who are suffering and enact that. That's it. I mean, Justin Cronway. So for public comment, there is no clapping during public comment. This is to listen to people. What they say is the strongest way to communicate, not clapping. That doesn't add any value. It's just distracting for all of us. So we want to listen to everyone and make sure that the content of what they're saying is what we're listening to. But this is the same rules that we have every time for public comment. So let's just go to the next speaker, please. Hello, counsel. I'm Justin Cronway. I live at 1026 9th Avenue South in Campbell Park. I'm the vice president of the Campbell Park Neighborhood Association. I co-founded MLK South Safe Streets Coalition with Miko Seymour and Roser Park, along with 13th Street Heights and Bartlett Park. We're a coalition of four different neighborhoods that abut MLK South. We were here in April talking to you. Thank you again for listening to us again. I want to thank you for the modest increase that you've made in complete streets. It's about 200,000. I'm very, very grateful for that. And just yesterday, I learned that the South CRA is going to be funding a lane repurposing study that's very exciting and also funding crosswalks. So we have a lot to look forward to. Last weekend, we held a vigil on MLK South to honor and remember the five neighbors that we've lost in the last five years. Two of those people we just lost last summer, Kendra Dillard and Tamara Williams, were both killed in car crashes on MLK South. 24 people were killed in car crashes last year in St. Petersburg. 10 of those were outside of cars and on bikes or pedestrians. Compare that to the 10 homicides in this city. There's more than double the number of people being killed in car crashes in St. Petersburg compared to homicides. It's horrendous. It's a number that I know that we've all talked about getting to zero. I want to see us do that. I know that complete streets will get us there. The way that complete streets is funded, I don't think is the best way that we should be funding it. It's currently being funded by Penny for Pinellas funds, parking revenues and impact fees. To give you comparison, playground equipment is currently getting more Penny for Pinellas funds in complete streets. And to compare the parking revenue that we're getting for complete streets, clean and safe downtown is getting $750 while we're getting $350. So we're getting the funding. But if you compare it to other programs, I don't think that the priorities that you as council set out aren't being represented in the budget. Seven out of eight of you said that complete streets were a priority. And I want to see that represented in the budget. So the zero dollars that are currently allocated from the general fund, I want to see that zero turn into a real number that we can use to get towards vision zero. I think we need aggressive funding to get to that vision zero of zero deaths on our streets. If we have 10 million for police, for flock cameras, drone cameras, robot dogs and tanks to patrol my neighborhood, I think that we can use those public safety dollars to bring real safety to our streets. I see this as a public safety issue. And I think that there's a little bit of tweaking that we can do before the final budget hearing to bring some general fund dollars for complete streets. So thank you again for all your hard work. And thanks again for listening to us again. Thank you, Justin. Next two speakers. Next two speakers, Madam Chair. Franklin Alves and Yordana Simola, please go to either podium. State your name, address, or across street. And you will have three minutes to address city council. Hi, council. Franklin Alves, 1026 Ninth Avenue South. I go to a lot of neighborhood meetings as the president of Kona. And there's kind of two things that I hear most often in neighborhood meetings is one, lock your cars. Surprisingly, a large amount of very dangerous things people keep on unlocked cars that end up in our streets. And then the second one is that police only show up after something has happened, not before. And this budget hearing is our time to start investing in the solutions that bring health back to our neighborhoods. I've started talking about kind of the ingredients of healthy neighborhoods. And investing in our youth, investing in our future, investing in our street safeties is an enormous part of that. I can't tell you how many kids in my neighborhood are just looking for something to do. They're looking for an outlet. They don't know what's available to them. And they're just begging for something. And I fear all the time that there are people who take these youths and can guide them into other things. Because there is a lot of, sorry, we've also a lot of people in our neighborhoods to the youth that are being brought into these systems and stealing cars, right? They know that if you can get 14-year-olds that have nothing to do on our streets, they can go and do these crimes and they're not going to really get in trouble. And it's part of that kind of exploitative loophole. We need a solution for that. We need to invest in the youth in that. And then on top of that, of course, the street safety. We need places where our neighborhoods and neighbors can feel like they can go outside. They can walk to the corner. They can go to Lakeview Market and get some food and have a crosswalk that's accessible and respectable for them to be able to just have for their daily needs. All across our city, there's opportunities to bring that connection, to bring neighbors outside. And that all plays back into safety a lot more than investing in officers and in police and tanks and drones. Because all of that comes with hidden costs. Those come with subscription services, maintenance fees. All those things will go up year after year. And that's all I wanted to say. So thank you all for the time. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jordana Smola. I'm a resident of 2000 Gainey Boulevard North. And I am here again with the Bay Area Dream Defenders to support the demands of the Save Our Streets campaign to increase funding for youth programming and outreach. We want to stop all violence that's happening in our communities. And we want to make sure that our budget reflects that. Across the country and here in St. Pete, one of the best indicators of where we see more violence is where we see a lack of investment in a local community. Specifically, in this past year, we have seen multiple incidences of gun violence, especially among youth, that have been devastating to the community. The community has been coming together over the past few months to meet, see how we can support the family, and how we can develop stronger community ties so that this doesn't keep happening. We know that organizations in the city have been hosting youth programs, and many people in the neighborhood that we talk to still don't know about them. So we are asking to fund more outreach and thorough active outreach to the community so that way they can take advantage of these programs. Just recently, the Parks and Rec Department recently reached out to us to let them know or to let us know that they are adopting some of the proposals made by us and by other people in the community to increase outreach, specifically among teens. They are implementing more increased outreach by tabling at school events so that youth can be directly informed by these resources. The city needs to continue this effort by investing in more paid positions to expand its current engagement and outreach to the community in order to boost awareness and use of the programs available to teens and young adults. The city budget should be a people's budget and should reflect what the community is wanting and has been asking for, which, based on the outreach that we have been doing with the community, is more accessible and active outreach for youth programming. Thank you. Thank you. No more speakers. Next to speak. No more speakers. Okay. The public comment portion of the hearing is now closed. And at this point, we move on to any council comments or discussion. Vice Chair Floyd. Thank you. Vice Chair, I think we have Administrator Jeffries and Administrator Foster here. Who can both address that? Okay. Question, please. Yeah. Yeah. I was just hoping somebody could speak to the increased youth outreach. I'll just get right into it. I think it was the last speaker spoke about it. But I wanted to ask administration to detail the youth outreach increases that are coming this year. I had it in my budget one-on-one. I don't know if someone can speak to it. I think Amy's coming. Vice Chair, I think we have Administrator Jeffries and Administrator Foster here who can both address that. Okay. Please. Yeah. I was just hoping somebody could speak to the increased youth outreach that I was told about in my budget one-on-one a couple weeks ago. Absolutely. So we have outreach as a component of our community support hubs. That is in RFP right now. Currently, that's covered by PERC, but we will be securing either a new vendor or that vendor to continue that outreach that happens in all neighborhoods. That also has specific outreach into communities after an act of violence has happened so that we can get youth more involved. In addition to that, I know I've mentioned at a couple of committee meetings that after meeting with the Dream Defenders, we have kind of repurposed how the CSRs are being used. Those are the folks that the C-click fixes go to and are out in the neighborhood. So their trucks are being redesigned with a wrap that kind of says, hey, stop me if you have questions. And they are going to be more focused on whenever they're out and about looking at those C-click fixes, their trucks will also have information on youth programs and other resources, the housing programs we have here at the city, and be able to drop that off as needed. So those are a couple of things. And then I know Administrator Jeffries has some stuff as well. Good afternoon. I know that we've reached out to most of the council members. And as one of the Dream Defenders representation mentioned, we've reached out with them as well. We've shared this with you guys at several of our Committee of the Whole meetings to talk about budget. Candidly, we're not real comfortable with teens going door to door. We just aren't. We think that that comes with some liability and creates some concern for us. I will also tell you that we hear the Dream Defenders loud and clear. We want to get the word out. We want to get the message out. But we want to do it in an effectively efficient way. And so our plan is to do exactly, and I forget her name. We spoke to a couple of different Dream Defenders. But our plan is to use TASCO, which is our teen arm, to go out to all of the middle schools and high schools in St. Pete, and offer a TASCO event that can be scheduled by the principal to allow us to have bounce houses, DJs, whatever we need to do to create that excitement. And so that at that point, now we have the kids that are there, we have a captive audience, and we can share the information in the programs that we offer. So our goal this first year would be to reach out to every one of the middle schools and high schools in St. Pete. So that is our plan. We think that's a much more efficient, much more effective way of getting the program information out into the community. Okay. Thank you for that. I understand this may be a broader question or thought. I understand the, like, you know, maybe hesitancy towards, like, you know, people under age going door to door. But, you know, I don't see any reason why, like, adults or young adults couldn't do this. I brought it up in the context of, like, the, forgive me, Mayor's Readiness Academy, I think is what it's called, or I might be missing a word there, which, to my understanding, are people who are over 18 years old. And so I just was hoping someone could speak to the, like, sort of recalcitrance that I feel to being receptive to this issue. It's like, and I appreciate all the outreach you're doing, but, like, we've had people come for years to ask for something specific, and instead we give them something else, and I just don't understand that disconnect. Well, and I guess I will just share what Administrator Foster shared as well. So if you take the reach out to the middle schools and the high schools, that is done by the teens for the teens, so that information is shared directly by their peers, and then you pair that with what Administrator Foster has shared, that she will have staff out into the communities that has, you know, vehicles that are marked, she's repositioned her CSRs, and then each one of our departments that has information programs that we want to get out into the community, we will provide that to those CSRs. So we're really kind of hitting that balance between everything that the Dream Defenders has asked for when it comes to communicating our programs and the activities and the programs we have available for our residents. I understand and appreciate that, but, like, it feels like there's something specific in the ask that is, like, door-to-door outreach that just administration is not open to. The outreach that we do is door-to-door. Okay. And so we track that. We have an app called Survey123. A pin is dropped at every door where resources are offered. So I'm sorry that that wasn't understood previously, but that is how the hub outreach happens. It's in a door-to-door fashion. The hub outreach includes youth services as well and youth programming. It's all-inclusive of everything. So they're knocking on the door and having a conversation about what is the needs in that home. Okay. And so if they need mental health services, they're getting connected to that. If they need returning citizen services, they're getting connected to that. If they need something else, then they're being offered that particular resource. Okay. So I think I'll leave it there for now. I'd like to have a deeper conversation about that and about, you know, what it looks like for us to communicate that. If that's truly we feel like we're meeting the mark that people are asking for why there's a disconnect between the conversation in general. So I think that's probably a bigger conversation than me just sitting and going back and forth with y'all. So yeah, I mean, I think we have communicated that. And in the monthly reports I share with you from the hub, it has that in the packet where that outreach is happening. It includes the tabling information and that. And we did share that when we've met with the dream defenders. But my assumption is that it doesn't it doesn't meet the mark and and they're still asking for something else. But we're happy to follow up. Okay. Yeah, because I'm feeling like I need to have another conversation to figure out why this is. Well, and candid candidly, Councilmember, we we sat down. We whiteboarded what the dream defenders were asking. We looked at what we weren't comfortable with and what we were comfortable with. We also took the experience that we have. We going door to door is not something new that the city, you know, is just looking to do. It's something that we have done. The rec center staff has gone door to door when we have low enrollment. Candidly, that hasn't happened here in the last couple of years. We're at capacity. But we have gone door to door. We have found that to be less than effective. And I know I know most of you have gone door to door in your campaigns. And I know that you can you can knock on 100 doors. You may get 10 people that answer of those 10 people that answer. Do they have teens? Are we really connecting? Are we really using that that resource as effectively as possible? And I think that's really where we were able to come up with this new idea of using Tasko to be that arm for that peer to peer connection. So I think because we aren't doing it right now and it's a new program that we're rolling out, I think that may be some of the disconnect. But we we feel confident that when you pair what we're offering as a new concept to what Administrator Foster has with her door to door, we really are threading that needle and kind of hitting the mark on both components. We heard loud and clear needs to be peer connection. That's the teens listen to the teens. We know that. And we also want it to be safe and we want it to be effective and we want it to be efficient. And that's really what we believe that we're offering at this point. And I want to be clear, like, I'm grateful for y'all having this negotiation at all. But I've got to figure out still personally, like, you know, the community members that are here asking, like, why did they not feel like their requests are being fulfilled? I can't speak to that right this second. So that's why I'm saying it's probably going to involve a conversation for me later on for follow up. Okay, the next thing is Complete Streets. I can just see the top of Evan's head. What's up, Evan? I think what we heard about Complete Streets was a gratefulness for the increases in funding. I'm very grateful. This is something that I've been hounding you about, particularly, you know, moving the parking changes into Complete Streets. I know there's a couple of comments on, like, the parking changes for Complete Streets versus the business improvement district. I don't think anything settled on the downtown improvement district yet. We have not voted to do anything with it. It's just been a conversation thus far. But it will come up soon. So if you're interested in that, that will be something that we talk about soon. There is an increase in Complete Streets funding in a couple of places in the budget, like were mentioned. The South Saint PCRA as well as from your department and the funds that you collect. My question is, you know, I think one person said maybe a modest increase, which, you know, I mean, I think compared to what we've done in the past out of our general funding and not grants or state or federal programs, it's a good size increase. But compared to the size that you need to actually, like, get a project done, these are sort of modest funds. Could you just speak to how, like, you know, if we have, I don't remember the number, $250,000, $350,000, what we can actually accomplish with that amount of money over the, you know, next budget cycle? Sure. So let me break that down into a couple of pieces. One is I would just like to emphasize that while there's more work to do and we're not stalling out on anything, we're going to keep going forward. Everything from a money perspective and from a results perspective is headed in the right direction. So we were in a budget a year ago today that for Complete Streets had $800,000 between penny and impact fees. Next year's budget is going to have $1.5 million in just those two categories, so almost a doubling of that. Plus, we have our money from the scooter right-of-way fees that we roll into Complete Streets, and we can't budget for that exactly because we don't know what it will be, but that's always done at cleanup. And then the $300,000 from parking revenue is within that 1.5 number. Also up on traffic calming and traffic safety and then downtown pedestrian safety. So financially we're headed in the right direction and then results wise, although obviously we completely agree with the zero target, the pedestrian fatalities are going down and the overall fatalities are going down. So we're hope that that trend continues. The cost to implement a project varies widely, so it really depends. The new crosswalks that we're planning on putting in on ML King South are particularly expensive for a couple of reasons. One is just that we don't have another project that we're doing it with. And then secondly, the sidewalk connections and also some extra sidewalk requirements along the way. So it just varies by project, but for the several projects on ML King South, it's multiple millions of dollars. Yeah, and so, you know, when I think a lot of people think of complete streets, they think of like the total revamps we've had on 1st Avenue North and South or 9th Street North and MLK Street North. So obviously like the funding that we're allocating, the increases that we're doing, like they're not, they're going to be more scattered than that or more, I say scattered in one sense, focused in another sense, because we maybe won't have like one big project like that. And I think some of the frustration that I hear from people and that I've expressed to you as well is, you know, there's not been any of those projects get across the finish line. And so does these increases in funding help get projects like 28th Street across the finish line or 22nd and 18th Avenue South across the finish line, if you could speak to that a little bit? It does. And I think because of the requests that we've been getting lately, we've concentrated on making sure that there's enough funding for ML King Street South. So the funding that is in the penny and the funding that's in CRA that council will be voting on, we'll get all those projects across the finish line, except for the future project where we're looking to get funding from the state through Fort Pinellas. So just with what we have coming forward within the next year or so, we expect to be able to finish the protected bike lanes through downtown that is from 4th Avenue North to 4th Avenue South, as well as six additional crosswalks. All right. I appreciate that. I see that we're moving in the right direction here. But I think, you know, what we're hearing is this is a very top priority for our community. It's been a top priority for me as well. And I look forward to us taking another step to a whole nother level as to where we are right now, because, you know, the whole conversation has been around public safety and like, you know, bringing real safety to our community and these big issues that are, you know, causing a lot of harm. So I'll leave it there because I see everybody else wants to talk now. I've covered the two issues. Council member Fick Sanders. Thank you. And thank you for the presentation, especially for everyone that spoke. And so I'm I'm in a couple of different places. So when it was brought up about the outreach and perk was brought up that gave me a perfect segue into culture. A lot of the individuals that would be performing the outreach have experienced or understand the culture of the community that drastically needs that one on one. When I hear that we send our CSRs into the community, there is everything to me is about relationships. There are certain things you can't talk to me about if you don't understand that there are certain things that we can't relate or have a conversation where I feel comfortable if you've not walked in my shoes or if you've not been in my community to understand. I see $200,000 here allocated just for research for disengaged youth. What I hear the Dream Defender saying, and you all have been so consistent, you all have followed all the processes and everything that we've asked you to do. That's something we cannot say. I agree with the administration. I don't want young people going door to door. That is not something that I would prefer. But there is still room for creativity here. When you have a $200,000 grant just to do research, Dream Defenders already know the children are disengaged. You already know where to find them. You already know how to communicate. You already know how to talk to them. And so I'm asking in the conversation, and we can continue to have this conversation. To me, it's all about relationships. It's all about culture. It's not a job title for me. Who is going to have this conversation. Who is going to have the most impact with these disengaged youth that they're aiming to talk to. We're getting stuck on that door to door thing. You all can do more than door to door. Your impact is greater than door to door. And I think if we get past that and have a conversation as to what other ways we can engage our disengage youth, how some of those dollars can be applied to the—I've been here six years. Y'all been here like five of those? Asking for the same things. I've heard people with campaigns come after one year and walk away with five times more than one. Now, Grant Shaw, y'all asking for a whole lot. Let me just go ahead and put that on the record. You are asking for a whole lot, but you're not asking for something that can't be negotiated. You know, if we can break that up to be able to re-seize children, you know, you call the names of those that are no longer with us. We can't put a dollar value on that. We can't, you know, explain to the parents or explain to those that were impacted by that, but we can have a conversation. You can't sit in and say, what you're telling me, I can rationalize monetarily as to the impact that you can make. I can't do that. But you can. And I'm hearing what your requests are. And to me, I think it's worth a more engaged conversation as to taking bits and pieces of what Safe Streets is asking for to see how as a city we can partner. We partner all the time. Thank you, Council Member Gabbard, for requesting this list of all the youth programming and the dollars that we're giving out in the community. There's a conversation that we can have. And, you know, again, you all have followed. I guess that's where I take a pause. And you all have followed all of the processes, all of the steps. You've made a request. If you're asking for something that's too much, we can say no. But then we can also have another opportunity to have a conversation that says, well, you're asking for this. What if we offer this? And again, it goes back to culture. Please let us not lose that. It goes back to cultures. The people that are in the community, living in those communities, have the conversation, knows the language to use, to me, I think will make the most impact and be the most effective when it comes down to disengaging youth and gun violence. So I'll leave that there. But I am a strong, strong, strong supporter of having additional conversations into, because when I, like I say, when I see $200 to do research on disengaged children, really, really. So, Chair, I'm there. I'm done. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. In our meeting last week when we had our public hearing and vote on utility rates, I spoke about how we are asking to have people pay more in like three different ways, utility rates, property taxes, and then more on property taxes if they vote for this referendum that we're putting forward or the general obligation bonds for infrastructure. So we've got three different ways that we're hitting residents right now at a time when they're already getting hit by other financial constraints. That's why I really wish that we had found a way to do a reduction in the millage rate. We've done it before. Learn to live within our means just like everybody else has to. But this time it held steady. We're going to be bringing in more money. Yes, costs have gone up, but I have not seen the real belt tightening, the real frugality applied in the right places to give us what we need. There's still there's still if we were moving money to give our residents what they're asking for, like safer streets that should be pretty much like a basic thing that we say yes to. And I think after, you know, years of watching the money just dribble in for complete streets. I'm very happy to see that we have an increase this year. It's still not enough. We do have access to use CRA funding for a good chunk of what we need to get done. We have we have a way to do something transformative here with making our streets safer for pedestrian by pedestrians, bicyclists, people who drive cars, no matter how they get around. We should make it a priority that they can feel like they can get around safely no matter how they choose to do it. We're not doing that. And if we were serious about it, we would have we would have them we would find the money. It's there. It's just been dispersed to all of these other so many other things that are not as important to our residents. It's their money. And we really should be listening to that. The increase that we have is not enough to make a significant difference quickly enough to start reducing the number of serious injuries and fatalities that we're seeing out on our streets. That is one example of where I feel like we've gone wrong with the budget. And, you know, further squeezing our residents through keeping the millage rate the same is just not something that I can go along with. So that's where I stand with things right now. I do appreciate everything that has been done with the budget so far. Our Tom and his team just do an excellent job working with with what they're handed. And I can't say enough how much it means to me that we have very dedicated public servants in the budget office who are working on this the best way. That they can. These are not decisions that are made by them. And so I want to make sure that that's a clear difference. Finally, I do want to ask. Is Evan still there? I'm over here. Yeah. Hi. Hi again. Um, tell us about the and I'm sorry if you mentioned it earlier, but there was talk about the 31st street trail connector. Tell me more. Sure. Um, 30 31st street trail connector goes between 31st street 34th street and the eastern most part is city property, the open part. And as you go under the interstate and towards 34th street, that's FDOT property. And we have been in contact with members of the community as well as FDOT and Fort Pinellas about short and long term improvements. And, um, basically if we ask for their contractors to go clean it, they will. And unfortunately it's, they're just not there often enough to keep up with it. So oftentimes we hear from the community or we notice and we ask for it to be cleaned and they do that. Um, we are exploring, um, potentially adding some cameras under the interstate where it's more secluded that might, uh, cause people to feel more comfortable and, um, be able to be monitored and respond if there are any incidents. And then we are talking about wayfinding improvements, the things that Mr. Erlich talked about earlier. We're working on that. Okay. So is this, so you said short term, long term, how short is the short term? Um, we have to apply for permits with FDOT. So it's hard to say exactly, but I would think a matter of six to 12 months, we could see some, some improvements there. And the wayfinding, if it's on our property, we could do that quicker. We would need permits for the portion on FDOT as well. Yeah. And you're pretty good at looking at, okay, here's what we can do right now to kind of show that we are serious about this and get something started while we wait for the things that are a little bit more out of our control. So I would appreciate that being done. Um, this is another one of those, I mean, this is a very specific part of our city. We want to do everything we can to help people, um, um, utilize the trail and, you know, our, um, bike lanes and, you know, any way that they can get around to, um, where they feel safe and they can actually enjoy it. Um, I, I know that you're right there. Your commitment is unparalleled and I, I really do appreciate everything that you do. Um, but I wanted to just kind of underscore that that has been brought up tonight and I hope that it gets some, some good attention in the coming months. All right. All right. That's all I have right now. Thank you, chair. Thank you. Council member. Thank you, madam chair. And, uh, first of all, I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who came out this evening. Um, not just for this evening, but all of your continued advocacy, um, and to the dream defenders. Uh, you know, we have worked together over the last few years and you have been very clear in your ask. Um, and you have already compromised a lot. Um, so, you know, council member Floyd or vice chair Floyd, I appreciate, um, you really kind of doing that deep dive with our staff and understanding that, you know, there is, it seems to be a willingness to be creative around these options. Um, but I have a teenager. And so when I hear some of these things, I do have to wonder if they will have the ultimate effect that we want them to have because reaching teens is hard. And, um, we have had great success with our TASCO programming. So I'm very encouraged to hear that staff is thinking outside the box about that, but I'm going to continue to encourage for us to think even bigger because reaching kids, especially in today's world with social media and technology, it's just a different ball game than it's ever been before. And so, um, you know, I'm going to continue to ask for us to really think about what the direct impact is going to be, how many youth we can reach with these programs and not just put it all in one basket and think that it's, it's done. We have to continue to be creative and, you know, continue to look at all resources that we have because that's our future. And if we're not doing everything we can to protect them, um, we are limited in what we can do as a body as it comes to gun control. Um, trust me, I think if we had the ability, we'd be doing a lot in that space, but state preempts us from doing that. And so what can we do? What kind of services? And I even made a note here because I remember very clearly that it didn't just stop with peer to peer outreach. It was also transportation access to get to events. And you all took that off of your list at some point because there was a lot of obstacles that were put in your way. I would like the city to reengage in that conversation as well, because, um, it is really difficult for kids to get around our city, especially if you don't have means. And, um, you know, uh, transportation that we provide is always going to be safer than other transportation options as well. And so I just would encourage the administration to continue to press on these issues. Um, I agree $200,000 to study what our community is already telling us. Um, I think that right there needs to be reallocated immediately, um, because I don't really understand what the output of that is supposed to be when we have the people in the room who are telling us what we need to do. Um, so I will continue to advocate for that even long after I'm off of this council. Um, let's talk about complete streets and roadway improvements, because this is a piece of a public health crisis that is continuing in our city. Another thing that no one talked about tonight, but I continue to elevate is food access as well. These are issues that in a city as rich as ours, we should not continue to have these issues plaguing our community. Um, and so specifically around complete streets, crosswalk improvements, it continues to be incredibly frustrating that we, um, have crosswalks. However, people are getting hit in the crosswalks. And so, Evan, um, I'm going to ask you again some questions, because this is the topic of the night, so I'm glad you're here with us. Um, and first of all, before I start to ask the questions, I just want to thank you. Um, because you and I worked kind of silently behind the scenes on the, um, St. Pete High crosswalks on 9th Avenue. And I want to thank you for those improvements. Um, I hope that those are going to make a difference for our kids, but that's just one area. And so can you talk a little bit for the public who doesn't know what improvements we did there? Can you talk a little bit about those two intersections or those two crosswalks and exactly what happened with those and how you were able to get that done? Uh, sure. I'd be glad to. So, um, there's two main intersections just north of St. Pete High that the students use. They're both designated student crossings and they both have, uh, they already have the high emphasis crossings with the flashing beacons. Uh, the student that got hit did activate the beacon and the driver still didn't, they didn't, it didn't get their attention and they, they hit the student, unfortunately. So the, um, what we tried to do there was knowing that it's already a high emphasis crossing and people should be able to see it. We thought through what could we do to take it to the next level and looked at some other cities and decided that we would add a second flashing beacon on each one. We, um, also engaged the parks department, helped us do some tree limb, um, pruning. They weren't, they weren't too bad, but just so you could see it from way far back and then also added visors on top of the flashing beacons. Kind of like you see on top of traffic signals so that if it's a certain time of day that they'll be more visible. Um, we know other communities have done both of those, but we believe we're the first ever, um, that we could find that combined all that together. And so we are, um, looking forward to seeing how that works. Hopefully we don't have any more incidents there and can replicate it in other places. And approximately how much did that cost? Do you have that off the top of your head? So those, those upgrades that I mentioned alone wouldn't be very expensive, but the devices that were there were getting towards the end of their useful life. So we replaced them entirely. It was, it was in the range of about $75,000 to take care of both crosswalks. Right, right. And so I think where we need to get as a city, um, is that we need to be looking to do these proactively ahead of time and not waiting on something to happen. Um, and I'm all about these quick fixes because I think that, you know, with such a small amount of money, less money coming from the feds, less money coming from the state for these kinds of improvements, we're going to have to figure out ways to stretch our dollar. And I think a project like this is perfect. And so what I hope to see, and I won't be here long enough to see it, but I certainly hope to see it as a resident is that we start with all of our crosswalks along our schools. Like that's kind of the easiest place to start. Um, again, protecting our kids and start there. Making sure that we, we apply these quick fixes to all of those. And then from there, um, you know, looking at all of our other crosswalks in the city. And I know that at forward Pinellas, um, we had talked about, there was a crosswalk. Uh, I believe out on 22nd, closer to where the trail is past the mall there. And there was some reason there was an improvement there that we weren't able to do because of something within our code. Um, and you and I kind of talked about that as well. So is there something coming code related that we will be changing that will allow us to do some of that? Yes. Um, and one thing I should have mentioned also about, uh, ninth Avenue crossing is that was something that we could do. We had the, we had the money available. We had the capacity on the spending. And then we also did that all within house crew. So the stormwater pavement and traffic operations department was able to do that. We didn't need a complex design. So we were, that student got hit essentially on the last day of school and we were able to do the improvement before the first day of school. So that was done in a period of about 60 days and having a capable in house, um, department that can do that really helped out. So I think Marshall and his team for that. Yeah. Thank you for mentioning Marshall. Uh, the second thing is the Pinellas trail crossing on 22nd Avenue North. And so there's a, one of the recommendations is a raised crosswalk. And so back to the traffic calming discussion we had, we're recommending a change to the comprehensive plan that would allow vertical traffic calming on major roads. So right now our comp plan does not allow it. And we'll be seeking council's approval to change that. Very good. Well, yeah. And I think that's the thing like complete streets. Um, it's a puzzle. It's not just, you know, it's not just funding. It's, you know, how do we do these quick fixes? How do we make sure that within our code we can do things? Um, it's a very complex, um, plan. And so I just encourage us to continue to look at every lever that we can pull to get the most out of the dollars that we have. Um, because money is tight and we have a lot of need. And I think that if we can look at the way that we can spread that. And I love, you know, when we do it along with another project that we're doing something like that. Um, I think that that really kind of gets us to where we need to be. My last question is, um, I have, you know, kind of heard this over and over again about reducing speeds because this is not just a, you know, e-bike pedestrian crosswalk situation. This is people in their cars, people in their cars driving way too fast in areas where people should be able to freely move about. So in a city like ours, where we have state roads, county roads, city roads, like how complex is it to look at reducing speeds, even just within neighborhoods? Can you talk about that a little bit? Because you and I have tried to do that in Riviera Bay for quite some time now. Right. So the state has jurisdiction over state roads, but also local roads. And there's, um, statutes related to, um, there's a speed zoning manual that just tells us how far we can go down for speed limits, what we're allowed to do and not do in, um, school zones. So it is complex and government entities are not allowed to arbitrarily set speed limits. We can't just put it at whatever we want. There has to be a study. So oftentimes what, what we're doing, and I think you're going to see it with what we're doing on ML King South is that by adding these long series of, you know, six robust crosswalks, major medians, um, that's not just going to have a pedestrian impact. It's going to cause the friction and make it. So everybody's driving a little bit slower and then maybe we can reduce the speed limit. Um, but we couldn't just go do it. Right. Right. We'll, uh, continue to do the work because Evan out of everyone, I know you want to do this more than any of us. Um, you've worked on this a very, very long time. We wouldn't have a complete streets plan without you. So thank you for continuing to advocate and to do everything you can to try to make our roads as safe as possible with the little funds that we give you. Um, you and Cheryl, thank you very much for that. And thank you, um, to everyone again, who came out tonight, continue to elevate your voices, continue to advocate. Um, the budget is a delicate dance and there's a lot of need and there's always more need than we have the money to be able to fund. Um, but that's our job is to figure out how to do that with community safety at the heart of everything that we do. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Givens. Thank you very much, Chair. Uh, thank you all so much for showing up. Um, it's been said that we have the same conversation over and over again, but, um, I think that's the definition of insanity. When you continue to have the same conversation, but continue to show the same actions. Um, I think actions speak louder than words. And I also think that our budget should reflect our values. Um, we work hard to come up with a balanced budget. Um, but just because it's balanced doesn't mean it's equitable. And I still have concerns, especially regarding the millage rate. Um, I really wish we would have found a way to reduce it considering people are already hurting enough. I think we could have found ways to cut costs and increase constituent services. Uh, rather that be through safe streets or complete streets or youth opportunities. The constituents have shown up. They show up year after year. I've been on the other side of this dais. I know what it's like to ask and your requests fall on deaf ears. Um, but then you're told that we hear you. I think we have to stop treating taxpayer dollars like personal slush funds, especially when there are needs in this community that some aren't even tangible. You can't put your hand on that individual whose life was lost either to gun violence or a lack of pedestrian or bicycle safety. They're no longer here and it's too late. But what's not too late is our opportunity to trim some of the fat in this budget. Um, I look at the budget and there are some things that are alarming in the budget. I am concerned, especially when I see 68% of our general fund expenditure going towards wages and benefits. Um, I brought this up before. Um, largest source of our revenue in the city is taxes. And I don't think that should go towards paying, uh, for salaries. I just don't, especially if it's not the salaries that the people are asking for to deliver the services that they need. Uh, we have a $1 billion budget that continues to balloon. And, and I just want to know where we're trying to be good fiscal stewards. Cause it's, it's hard for me to see that property values rise. And so in return, I would think, okay, well that means lowering the millage rate. And it also means cutting spending if we have to, instead of assessing higher values and assessments on others. Um, I did see there was a, um, an increase. I kept hearing, um, Liz discussing this increase in fuel charges. Um, can we talk about that for a minute? Um, I understand, I guess it's water resources, stormwater, but can we talk a little bit about this, this increase in fuel? Have we accepted the inevitable? Yes. Just with inflation, fuel costs have increased, but what strategies are we looking to implement to conserve that? When we first started building the budget was back January, February timeframe. And it was before some of the economic and political, um, actions have happened like the war in Iran. And just like everyone else, the, uh, you know, if you go to the gas pump, your L, the gas went up a dollar. So that cost is happening for us as well. So we needed to adjust the budget to account for that increase in fuel. So it's a citywide increase because it's affecting every city department that has a vehicle's budget. And I, I appreciate that explanation. I still feel like we should be capitalizing on inflation. Um, that, that, that's not a reason for us not to find ways to conserve. Um, I, and again, when we talk about optimizing the tax dollar, I think there are ways for us to creatively be more efficient. And, and this is why, again, I have trouble accepting what we're presenting. Um, working class families, they are hurting and it's not fair for us to ask for more when they're already trying to balance their, their, their paychecks and stretch their dollars. But here we are, every time we turn around, we're saying, okay, well, we're going to hold steady on the millage rate, but not look for ways to conserve. So, so again, as part of the budget process, we started off to just cover the same programs we had in last year's budget was going to cost us about 18 to 20 million more. So we worked with the departments just in the general fund, which is about 430 million of our budget. And we actually went through and had departments do reduction packages and we reduced over 12 million from that budget. So if we hadn't done that exercise, that, um, ad valorem revenue ask could have been higher. We could have looked to increase the millage rate, but we did through the budget process, go through and work with departments to look at ways we could cut the budget. So every year to do the same thing we did the prior year, it costs more just like in your personal budgets. Thank you for that. I appreciate that, Liz. Um, I want to kind of jump over a little bit to youth outreach since that was brought up. Um, I, I do agree that I would love to see more peer to peer outreach. Um, I think more real time intervention. Um, I, I like the idea that was brought up about utilizing TASCO. However, I would like to offer a tweak to that proposal, um, in order to again, provide employment for these young people, uh, and to provide again, peer to peer intervention, conflict resolution, moral support to help prevent crime and stop violence. I think having someone who you can relate to a peer is the best approach. Um, I also think that leads to an immediate deescalation. But what I, I don't think is the, the right approach is just hosting events at a school. Um, I would love to see employing these young people to be ambassadors. Um, I, I see you, Mike. Um, I definitely, you know, think if there is a way for us to get more Jacksons, Russ Cato's, you know, starting them at 15, 16, 17 years old, you know, looking at Mike Harding too, you know, we've had a lot of folks start within park and rec. Um, I certainly think that is a great ticket into the door when you're looking for a pathway to employment with the city. And I think there's a creative way for us to do that while also again, providing direct intervention to the community, providing those navigators within the community. And I think in our schools is a place where it's most needed. Um, so I, I'd love to again, just work with you and your department on that possible job description. Um, if we are to roll that out, because I do see at least one or two ambassadors in every high school and those ambassadors really being our, our eyes and ears. Those are the people who are gathering the polls of the community, that community that a lot of us can't reach. Um, I love that idea. I would support that. I, I see what neighborhood relations is doing. I love that work as well, getting out there in vehicles, wrapping those vehicles so that way the community is aware that yes, we do have navigators out there on the streets. Um, I love it. But again, I, I don't see, see these youth as disengaged youth. These are opportunity youth and they're just looking to get connected to the right opportunity. So I think we have that and we're on the right path there. So thank you for that, Mike. Um, last thing I want to bring up, uh, the police budget. So it was mentioned how much the police budgets increased by about $10 million this year. I want to talk a little bit about the call program because I feel like that is another creative solution to providing some youth opportunities, youth engagement, youth outreach. Um, I, I don't know if chief Holloway is around to, to ask him questions, but, um, if he is, I'd, I'd like to talk a little bit about that. Um, if there is a counselor, there's a delay in the back room. So I think chief Gerardo is here. It may just be a minute before. Sure. Sure. There he is. Thank you. Hello chief. Thanks for joining. Thank you for joining us, bringing up the call program. Um, and we're talking about youth opportunities and possible youth employment. And I was just wondering, could that be a, a prospective opportunity for us to activate opportunities for our youth when it comes to employment? Are you saying hire the, the used to be part of our navigator program? Yes, sir. Well, those people are trained in doing different things. So you're talking about bringing in a teenager. I would probably tell you, no, be just because of what they have to do going into homes and work with other people. The call program is initiated when a parent calls or a guardian calls and say, Hey, my child is going through this. And there's a lot of things that we do. Uh, the call program and Megan's here also is we connect with the schools and different things. So some of the information is confidential. So I don't believe that we can bring youth into this program to be one of our navigators. And I appreciate that explanation. And, and I would offer, uh, just a rebuttal and say, again, perhaps this could be a collaboration with Tasco. Um, if we can employ them through the call program, perhaps there's a collaboration opportunity for them to work with your community navigators to again, provide that peer to peer, uh, navigation or assistance if it's needed. So I just wanted to offer that chief. And I, and I can tell you, sir, uh, Mike Jefferson, Team Tasco do a great job. We also in this program, uh, do we have, we meet once a month with everybody, uh, in the community, so to speak. We have the school board there. We have different people. So we do give the wraparound servers. And then from there, if we have to go to, we could go to another group. Again, I'm not going to say no, but at, at this time, uh, when you're talking about employing youth, we have to look at other options than that. Of course, I just wanted to offer a point of consideration, especially in front of the public to let them know that again, we are having conversations. You know, this isn't the first time I brought this up to you chief, you and I have this conversation often. And I, and I do think it's, it's worth noting that we are looking for creative solutions. And, and I hope, and I pray that we are sincere and genuine about following up and engaging on this topic because I think, uh, obviously they show up year after year. So it's something that the community definitely not just wants, but needs. So thank you, chief. I appreciate it. Uh, the last thing I want to bring up, uh, talking about the people's budget, because again, that's what this is. Um, the CRA, um, we've had conversations again and again and again about the CRA. Uh, the, the public's frustrations with the CRA. I feel like this is a magic weapon. Uh, it's an untapped resource. Um, you know, when you have a $20 million appropriation year after year, multi year that we aren't accelerating, uh, the way that we should or appropriating where we should be. I think it's an untapped resource that's underutilized. Uh, so I just want to talk a little bit about the CRA and, and just kind of find out where we are there. Um, I think a lot of these concerns, whether it be, uh, infrastructure improvement, lighting sidewalks, whatever, uh, it could be addressed. Uh, it could be addressed within the CRA budget and it wouldn't have to come from our general funds. So I just want to know, uh, is it possible for us to talk about what the plans are for that? Council member. Good evening. Um, certainly the CRA budgets are being developed right now. I, in fact, the South St. Pete CRA budget went to the CAC earlier this week, I believe, or last week. Um, so that will be forthcoming to city council for, uh, approval. Um, once that is, um, uh, that work is completed. I appreciate that. And, and again, I just want to make sure it's heard. We've had conversation that just had a conversation last night in the warehouse arts district, uh, specifically about things like parking, right? And how we can activate some infrastructure improvements to provide better lighting. Uh, I think that helps with complete streets, right? Just public safety, walkability, bike ability, uh, again, low hanging fruit. We talked about quick fixes. I definitely think this is one. Uh, we've had this conversation. We've been having this conversation, but I just feel like, again, we're not getting to where the public is asking us to get to. Uh, and I just want us to do a little bit more, a little bit sooner. But thank you so much. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Floyd. Thank you. Uh, real quick. Um, Evan, again, this is just going to take one second. Uh, we, we were talking about 9th Avenue North earlier. And, um, you mentioned the changes to the crosswalks. Uh, and I've asked you a couple of times in a one-on-one conversation, what it would take to get like a permanent speed marker there, because we have real problems with speeding in that area. People going well over the posted 35 on average. Uh, and you seem to indicate that you think it's something that we could, uh, get. And so I just wanted you to be able to say that here. Yes. We believe we can do that there. We're looking at Pinellas Point Drive as well as a couple other locations. And, of course, we have some out there already. But 9th Avenue North is on our list to do very soon. I'm glad to hear about Pinellas Point Drive as well. I just wanted to actually bring that out into the public, because you and I have been talking about it. Um, because ultimately what I want to see is a complete streets project on 9th Avenue North. Um, but, uh, in the meantime, I'm, I just want to make sure people know we're working on other things as well. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Figgins. Thank you. Really quickly. Um, and again, thank you all for this. Thank you, Councilmember Driscoll for reminding me about the, um, the 31st street trail connector. And since we're in the sunshine, I just wanted to remind you that we have received, um, requests and hopefully we will have additional conversation in those regards. Cause it's such a neat mural, but the, um, area of the FDOT area that they're looking for is extremely dangerous. So, um, you brought that up and thank you for reminding me on that. And thank you for Lauren and those that actually came up to speak. Thank you, chair. Thank you. I don't see any other requests to speak from council members. Um, so first of all, I want to thank everyone for being here. Um, I think a lot of the council members have hit up on everything and I'm not at eight o'clock going to be repetitive. I'm probably going to give it a bigger, uh, broad view. Um, I want to just touch upon with Evan, a quick thing that you brought up that I think is relevant to some of the press, uh, cost pressures we're having. You reminded everyone that the MLK South projects are more expensive cause they're not with another project. Right. And so this is the challenge that we have cause you're addressing a community Dean. You're addressing it faster. We're doing it without another project, which means that we're going to have less money for other things. We did the MLK North project with a resurfacing project. So we save money. We had a conversation earlier today about the project where we're getting swift. mud monies that are grant monies and swift mud, just like us. If amendment three passes is going to feel the effects of amendment three, because what's going to happen is their budget is 80% property taxes. We're talking about youth programs. We had JWB here recently, and there is no one in the county that provides more money to programs for youth than JWB. As a matter of fact, that's the whole purpose of JWB. The county of Pinellas did it specifically to provide all the youth programs and support for families, and they are a special taxing district. The majority of the money comes from ad valorem taxes, and if it passes, guess what's going to happen to all those programs? And I just want to put that broad stroke of just kind of in people's minds what we're dealing with because we are getting it from everywhere. We are getting it from all the organizations that are not getting money because they're not getting money from other places. We're getting it from arts organizations. We are getting it from everywhere. We're getting it from utility customers that don't want to pay more for utilities that actually pay for these projects and the project you're talking about that has flooding or whatever it is. And so I just want to put that broad brush of where we're at right now because I'll tell you, come November, it's going to be quite interesting as to where we are going to be in terms of funding levels. Because I sometimes think that when we're talking about this, putting all those pieces together is very difficult to understand. We look at our budget and it's like, well, we have a billion dollar budget. No, we don't have a billion dollars we can spend on whatever programs because part of that is our utility. You can't spend, you can't use that money for anything but the utility. You got to look at our general fund dollars. And then what are those, what part of those monies are available for things? So it's not really a billion dollars that you can just use for anything. And it's the same thing with all the monies that we're getting for grants. So I just, I want to put that out there. We also get JWME money that we use for programs, TASCO and other programs and team programs that are extremely valuable. And I do think it's important when we're talking about the budget because there's not going to be another time to really talk about how all these things intersect, how there could be some really catastrophic consequences come November. And that's a conversation we have not had. And I know that we're talking, everybody has, you know, whether it's complete streets, whether it's the youth programs, whatever it is, the arts programs, I was just in the arts grants committee, and they're not getting money. And there's not enough money for them. And no matter what subject you're talking about, it's the same we're hearing from everyone. So I, that's the context that we're dealing with this. And I know that we've been trying to balance those things. I am super appreciative when, you know, Evan and his team are trying to find money for your projects. But then when I hear that we're spending more money on the MLK South project, I worry about the other projects we will be doing. I want that project to happen. But that's the reality of what they're moving because they're always finding money from somewhere to spend. And so I think it's great. I'm glad that Evan is spending the money. But it comes at a cost and sometimes at a higher cost. And then another project will have less money. And so that's kind of where we're at with our budget. And I, it's, you know, it's in my budget priorities. But I also realize the challenges that they have. So I think I kind of touched upon everything I wanted to touch upon in a broader level. Um, and I really want to thank everyone for being here tonight. Um, at this point in time, we are at the point where I'm supposed to go to the next step and state that the proposed millage rate for the city of St. Petersburg is 6.4525 mills, which is a 1.05% increase over the rollback rate of 6.3854 mills. The next step is I will entertain a motion to approve the millage resolution. I 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 and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item J1A passes 6 to 2 with council members Driscoll and Givens voting no. Council members Vic Sanders, Floyd, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, and Harding voting yes. Voting yes. Thank you. Move approval J1B. Second. We have a motion to approve. Who made the second? I'm sorry? He was the second. J1B. This is a motion to pass the recommended budget appropriations ordinance. 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 and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item J1B passes 6 to 2 with council members Driscoll and Givens voting no. Council members Vic Sanders, Floyd, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, and Harding voting yes. Thank you. Next up. I'll move approval J1C. Second. We have a motion and a second for J1C. 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 and announce the vote. Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item J1C passes 6 to 2 with council members Driscoll and Givens voting no. Council members Vic Sanders, Floyd, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, and Harding voting yes. Okay. The final public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 military and budget shall be on September 17, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber of City Hall. The first public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 military and budget is now closed. Thank you. Clerk, do we have any speakers for open forum? They both spoke during the budget so no persons here in person and no one in Zoom. We go to announcements. Council member Driscoll. I'll wait if you want. Yeah. Let's give it a minute. Madam Chair, will you... Yeah. If we can clear the room so that way we can get to the announcements part. At least this year I remembered. I thought you were about to just gavel us out. Last year I forgot. If you can do the interview outside. We're still in chambers and we just have to finish a couple of things and that would be great. Thank you so much. Okay. Announcements? Thank you. Just a couple of questions, updates that I wanted to get real quick from the administration and just so that everyone, you know, can hear together. And I don't know the answer. So we're going to find out together. I wanted to know what the status was on the contract for the clean and safe program that was brought up during the budget discussion. And so I was wondering, I know last time I asked on the day, she said it was planned for August 27th. I know there was a little bit of a delay, but like where are we at with it now? That's correct. Council member. And I asked Mr. Hampson to call you. Was he not able to give you a call? Yes, he did. He did. But. So he's working on the contract. He doesn't now have a specific date. We're sorry it took him longer than he anticipated it would take and we're going to bring it as soon as we can. He's just working on the actual contract with the city attorney's office. Okay. And you guys are. That's correct. Council member. We provided some feedback to Mr. Hampton. I think it was last week in response to a draft that we had received. But it's my understanding he's working on that and then we'll see the next draft involving this. Okay. Okay, good. So it sounds like it's at least getting close now. Yeah. So that's good. Thank you so much. Another thing I wanted to ask about was the Grand Prix dates. I was made aware that they had they had asked for some future dates like back in May. And typically that's sort of like a formality. It's it's an easy pass through for us. But I was a little concerned since it was requested in May by our friends with the Grand Prix. And I know that they have to plan way ahead with things. So do you know off the top of your head where that's at? I can certainly we can send an email to all council with an updated answer to be honest with you. I was not aware of this situation. Okay. Yeah. Um, there is a even though it sounds like a long ways off. There is a sense of urgency just because of the nature of their business. So they've been such great partners. I hope that we can absolutely get back on track. I appreciate you letting me know and I'll follow up with everyone. Wonderful. Thank you so much. That's all I have, except I hope everyone enjoys the long holiday weekend. Council member Gerdes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Uh, I was also going to wish everybody a nice holiday weekend. And also, if I, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's council member Givens legislative aid, Mellicent Battle's birthday this Saturday. And so council member Givens, why don't you go ahead and lead us in happy birthday for your legislative aid? I'll take baritone. You take 10. Okay, deal. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Mellicent. Happy birthday to you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you. Did you have something from here? One person. Anyone to speak on open forum? Yeah, open forum has been closed though. I wasn't aware that it was open to the public, so I'd like to sign up. Thank you. Okay, you can do that for the next meeting then. Oh, no, I'd like to sign up. I'm here. It's still open floor. The open forum is up there. It doesn't say closed. So I'd like to speak, please. We closed open forum in the meeting, and I've checked with our legal department. Parking meters because of the downtown improvement district. I checked. I checked. No, I checked with. To sign up. Sir. Sir. Yeah, because you've got, because you have a deadline for this meter thing. I'll follow up. We adjourn. Okay. I'll follow up, y'all. Okay. Y'all are real sneaky. That's real sneaky stuff. Why is it sneaky? Guess what? Have a good one. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir.