City Council - Sep 11, 2025

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Chair, Copley Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4 and Council Vice Chair, Lissette Hanowitz, District 5, Deborah Figg Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Corey Givens, Jr. and District 8, Richie Floyd. Welcome everyone to the September 11, 2025 St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Clerk, can I please have a roll call? Curtis, Gabbard, here, Harding, here, Hanowitz, here, Sanders, here, Griscoll, here, Givens, here, here. Today we will have our invocation given by Reverend Frank Peterman, pastor from Rock of Jesus Baptist Church, followed by a moment of silence in remembrance of those lost on September 11, 2001, and then you will please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. If you all could please stand. Thank God for this day and wonderful, wonderful children and adults here. It's a wonderful scene, and I'm so glad that you guys are leading the way you are. As I often say, I remember being here many years ago in the seats that you're in, and it's just wonderful to see leadership is still going, and going to a higher level to some degree. So I'm thankful to be here with you and wish you well, and to you and the mayor and the rest of the staff. God bless. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you now praising your name and giving you glory for being God and God alone. Thank you for being Elohim, the one and only God, the great God. We thank you for blessing this wonderful city and all of its inhabitants. Thank you for all the children and the teenagers and the adults and the seniors in this city. Bless us all the same. We thank you, Lord, now that this council will rule and govern with great accuracy, compassion, and love, and with strength and bravery. Bless them all. Bless the mayor. Bless the staff of this great city, the city of St. Petersburg. And we give you glory for it all, God. We thank you now. Now speak to them now and through us all. Lord, we ask and ask this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Please join us for a moment of silence in remembrance of those lost on September 11, 2001. Thank you. 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. Madam Chair, could I just want to say I'm very proud of this young man, Corey. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Reverend Peterman, for the lovely implication. Y'all may be seated. Council members, we have an agenda before us. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, you please 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, motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously with Council Member Gerdes being absent. Next on the agenda, we have the approval of a consent agenda. Clerk, are there any public comments? I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, you please open the machine for voting. Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing that all present council members have voted. Clerk, you please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously with Council Member Gerdes being absent. Next item on the agenda is open forum. Clerk, can you please read the rules? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When it is your turn to speak, you will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments or when you reach the three-minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item, regardless of the method of participation used. Normal rules apply, including the three-minute time limit on comments, the 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 the decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only, and we do not have any speakers. Okay, we have no speakers. Now we move on to awards and presentations. The first one we have is D1, and it's the Northwest Tenue Freedom Softball Team. And this item is going to be presented by Council Member Gavard on behalf of Chair Gerdes, who's not here with us today. Okay. Just watch out for the dogs that are lying on the ground. I know, I know. Well, I don't know which one I'm more excited about, dogs or the Northwest Tenue Freedom Softball Team. All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Such a beautiful day in the city of St. Petersburg, celebrating so many amazing accomplishments, but I think it's fitting that we start out with an honor that I have been asked to provide by Council Member Gerdes. He is very sorry that he was not able to be here with you all today, but he sends his love. And on his behalf, and as a baseball mom, I have to say, I was a little jealous he was going to get to do this anyway, so I will gladly carry the torch today. So, I would like to go ahead and ask the coaches and the young ladies from the Northwest Tenue Freedom Softball Team to join me up here at the podium, if you will. Yes. All right. Well, this talented group, I cannot say enough about these young ladies. They have recently captured the Babe Ruth World Series Championship. They had an impressive 8-1 victory over Puerto Rico with a competitive 10-day tournament held in Florence, Alabama. Not only are they this year's state runner-up, but they also made history as the first team from St. Petersburg to win a World Series title. Over the course of this season, the Freedom have played an astonishing 68 games, and their bats were on fire. They scored 275 runs, and only allowing 65 to score on them. It's a testament to their outstanding defense and their stellar pitching. Their success can also be contributed to following some important superstitions, such as pulling out their back pocket for good luck, jumping over the foul line, and other things that all good baseball people know you have to do in order to be successful. They're really, their foundation is teamwork, friendship, sportsmanship. These are all their core values. And these young women have demonstrated wisdom well beyond their years. When you go to the website dedicated to them, what you're going to see is you're going to see some amazing young women and what they love, what their thoughts and dreams for the future are, and some of the best advice that they offer to each other. So I'll give you a couple of quotes. Be the version of you that you want people to remember. Another one is, if someone makes you feel small, it's probably because they feel small too. So don't shrink yourself to fit their hurt. Just be kind and keep going. Ladies, those are words that a lot of adults could learn from as well. So thank you for being so insightful and for sharing your love with the world. Beyond their impressive softball skills, these girls also have a few aspirations and some talents. We have a future rocket scientist on our hands in the crowd. And I don't want to call her out publicly, but rumor has it that one of these players has a hidden talent of being able to squirt water from under her tongue while she brushes her teeth. So as you can see, they're very well-rounded as well. They're all Swifties. So they have already earned their ring. So now they're on their own tour. They call it the era of Northwest Freedom Softball. So they've recently been recognized by both the Clearwater Threshers and the Tampa Bay Rays. They've been featured in the St. Pete Catalyst. They've appeared on Fox 13 Good Day News segment. And today, I'm excited to tell you that these ladies and their very dedicated coaches are being honored by City Council Chair Copley Gerdes as distinguished citizens of St. Petersburg. Coach Zimmer. So we have awards for all of the ladies, but we'll go ahead and start with Coach Zimmer, and we'd like him to say a few words. I'd just like to say thank you for having us here today. Played with Copley 30 years ago at Northwest, so we're kind of bringing it full circle right now. Long journey. 22-2 with these girls. 13 girls. It's been a long season. Can't be any more proud. This is one of our last stops on our victory tour. It's been a long one. I've been honored to throw out the first pitch at opening ceremonies in a couple weeks, taking Coach Lynch's spot usually. He usually does that for us. But, yeah, we had a really great season, had a great time up in Alabama, had a great time in Lake City, Florida. Three great pitchers in Cali, Riley, and Harper. Harper wasn't able to be here today, but she was our MVP of the whole tournament. She's got volleyball practice right now. But, yeah, it's going to be amazing to see where these kids go. All of them have great futures, and I'm just happy I was able to be part of it. Thank you. Because I am a baseball mom, I know the dedication that it takes from the parents, the grandparents, the caregivers. If you are associated with any of these players, please stand up and be recognized. Long nights, early mornings, sometimes it feels thankless. You're sitting on ball fields way earlier than you feel like you need to be as a parent. This right here is why they do it. So thank you all for your commitment and your dedication to these girls, and thank you, ladies, for being such a shining example of St. Petersburg. We are so very, very proud of you. So we have all of your certificates downstairs when you leave today. But, Madam Chair, would it be okay if we let everyone come in front and we did a group picture with City Council? I think that would be fantastic. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Go ahead and line up in front, and then we'll all be fine. Not willing. I need middle girls. Congratulations. Don't go far. I'm a little girl. Let me know how you need to move. Are we centered? Yeah. We can see over them. I know, right? Oh, Lord, I know, right? The giggles. I love it. Please, yes. Chair, Coach Zimmer would like to say just one more thing, if that's okay. Just one last thing. Just wanted to personally thank Blair Gill for everything she's done at Northwest. Our president over there, and she has worked tirelessly to get the baseball and softball program really rolling. In recent time, we've had lights put on field five and six, which she's had a big hand in doing that over the last two or three years with a lot of help from the city. So we really appreciate that. It's going to give us the opportunity to start practicing. And some of these times when it starts getting darker out, gives us more opportunity to get more kids on the field and whatnot. And Blair had a lot to do with that. And she's always been giving us the opportunity to go different places, go to the state tournament, go to the World Series. The answer is always yes when it comes to giving the kids an opportunity to play ball. So thank you, Blair Gill. Thank you, and congratulations to the team. So our next proclamation will be the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation presented by Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you, Council Member Fick Sanders, for the introduction. And thank you, everyone, for being here. We have a lot of people here that are here for Hispanic Heritage Month. So if you can please stand up and be acknowledged. So if you want to come here behind me, you're more than welcome to. So first of all, I'm Council Member Hanowitz, and I am the first Hispanic ever on city council in St. Petersburg. And I will tell you it's my absolute honor. My mom passed in September, and every time we get to this time of the year, it reminds me of her. And everything I am is because of my heritage, my family, my mama, my abuela, and everything that they sacrificed for me to be here. And it's always my honor to represent our city and everyone in this city. We are living in some difficult times, and my mom had a favorite poem that I want to read, and it's been on my mind. And it's a poem by Jose Martí. He's a Cuban poet who helped ignite the Cuban War of Independence. And I believe the theme of this poem is important right now because it's about cultivating kindness, even in the face of cruelty. And that is as important today as it was back when it was written. And I'm going to read it first in English and then in Spanish. 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. 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. Cardo ni ortiga cultivo. Cultivo la rosa blanca. So it is my honor today to read the proclamation for Hispanic Heritage Month. And like I just did, you're going to have to bear with me because I'm going to read it in English and in Spanish. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month, known as Mes 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 9% of our population, they play a vital role in our economy and workforce. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg recognizes the significant contribution 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 and we are St. Pete. Now, therefore, I, by Chair Lisette Hanowitz, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 15th through October 15th, 2025 as Hispanic Heritage Month and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the city of St. Petersburg. Proclamación Mes de la Herencia Hispana Por cuanto el Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana conocido como Mes de la Herencia Hispana se celebra del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre y reconoce las importantes contribuciones e influencia de los hispanos en la historia, la cultura y los logros de nuestra nación. Y por cuanto que el 15 de septiembre es el día de la independencia de los países centroamericanos de Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua, el 16-18 de septiembre, México y Chile celebran sus días de la independencia, respectivamente. Y por cuanto los residentes hispanos en la ciudad de St. Petersburg representan aproximadamente 9% de nuestra población y juegan un papel vital en nuestra economía y fuerza laboral. Y por cuanto la ciudad de St. Petersburg reconoce las importantes contribuciones de los hispanos, incluidos muchos empleados de la ciudad, en nuestra comunidad. Su apoyo y participación comunitaria hacen que nuestra ciudad sea culturalmente más diversa y acogedora para todos. Y por cuanto la ciudad de St. Petersburg se enorgullece de celebrar y reconocer la cultura y la herencia hispana como una parte importante de nuestra ciudad inclusiva. Los hispanos son parte del Somos en Somos St. Pete. Y ahora por lo cuanto yo, Lizette Hanowitz en nombre del alcalde Kenneth T. Welch por la presente declaro el 15 de septiembre y 15 de octubre de 1925, 2025, como mece la herencia hispana e insisto a todos los ciudadanos a unirse a mí para reconocer la importancia de esta ocasión en la ciudad de St. Petersburg. Thank you. Is there any community members would like to say something? Yes, go ahead. Okay. Buenas tardes. ¿Y cómo está mi gente? You say, I am good. Yo soy Jessica Estevez. I am Jessica Estevez, and I am the executive director of Mi Gente, Mi Pueblo. And we have been growing specifically through the love and the Somos St. Pete belief that, you know, if we let fear or chaos dictate our steps, we go nowhere. If we allow the things that, you know, try to bring us down to impede progress, we can go a ningún lugar. That's why Mi Gente, Mi Pueblo believes in being on the move y en la lucha. Y Somos St. Pete, the city of St. Petersburg has always been a huge partner to that. So we're so thankful. We started this, and the city said yes five years ago. And the minute they realized, what, we don't have a proclamation, we had such a warm and immediate approval to, like, let's make this happen. So today we are wanting to lift up as Mi Gente, Mi Pueblo, an invitation to continue to lift up healing, collective healing, to continue to celebrate who we are as a community, our culture, our language, our heritage. Those things are important. And if we allow that fear to stall us, let's make sure that our collective thriving pushes us forward. That's why you're here today. And I want to invite everybody, todos, todos, everyone is welcome. We are going to be celebrating that, lifting up our collective humanity at an event called Movida, which literally means to move together. And we're trying to reclaim what community looks like together and how do we lift that with one another. That's going to be on September 20th. During this Heritage event. It is a free event. You're going to have a demonstration of tamales. You're going to learn about how to make this wonderful art that we know. How many people feel food is healing? Yes. Because food is healing, right? We want to invite you to come and participate in that. We'll have healing conversations on how do we invite the community to participate because healers are among us. A hug heals, a smile heals, and just a positive attitude helps us move forward. So September 20th, 12 to 5, we're going to be at Creative Penelas and we invite and welcome everybody to join us and be renewed through the power of the arts. Muchas gracias. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Hello, council members. My name is Blanca Catalina Garcia. Thank you for having me. Our community is made stronger, healthier, and more resilient by the rich and diverse experiences, contributions, and heritage and culture that are of its members. We know that feeling included, valued, and welcomed in our communities is vital to our health. So it's my pleasure to be here on behalf of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. As we mark the celebration today of the Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate throughout the whole year the rich cultural heritage that uplifts our community. But it's important to mark these days, these celebrations, because when we do it with intentionality, we help to highlight that we want to continue to build this incredibly rich and welcoming culture that makes us St. Petersburg. And we recognize that our well-being starts with our community. So thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Thank you. And the next proclamation will be Literacy Month proclamation by Council Member Givens. Before Council Member Givens goes, there's just one more announcement for an event that's coming up regarding Hispanic Heritage Month that was asked to hear. Good afternoon, Council. Lynn Gordon, Parks and Recreation Manager. I'm here with Diardus Peters. He's our Supervisor 1 over at our TASCO Team Programs, a very popular division of the Parks and Recreation Department. And we just wanted to announce that we are having our annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration on September 27, at Gladden Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We were asked to share this with you all and with members of the public to please come join us. This will be our ninth year, I believe, our ninth year. We started at Fossil Park and we have moved over to Gladden Park. And so over the years, we've expanded our offerings and we will feature free food, inflatables for the children, Live DJ, a variety of vendors offering valuable resources to the community. And we even have a partnership, we're excited this year, with one of our local Girl Scout troops who will be providing arts and crafts for our kids. So please come join us for this celebration on September 27th at Gladden Park Recreation Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lynn. Now we have Literacy Month Proclamation presented by Council Member Givens. Thank you very much, Vice Chair. If I can have the Friends of the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library please join me at the lecture. As I prepare my remarks, I just very briefly want to recognize the memory of a board member of the Friends of the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library, Mr. Kevin Johnson. He lost his mom at 101 years old this past week. And she was a supporter of the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library. And although he will be funeralizing her next month, we solicit contributions in her honor. And I want you to know, Mr. Johnson, I will be making a donation in your mom's honor. So I want you to know her life won't be in vain. Other children will be able to read because she was a supporter of the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library. She didn't actually live here because of the situation in Cincinnati at that time. I don't want to make anybody mad. She said there were no openings in the color of the libraries and she couldn't ever, she never got the chance to do it. And so, and she couldn't go to the next state, the University of Kentucky because in the 1940s, black folks didn't go there. So she wanted me to be a librarian. That's why she sent me to Florida A&M. I decided I wanted more than mental health, but that's another story. But my brother said, Kev, she saw that library and she was very proud of me because the house was the hardest kid she had, hard-headed. But, and she said, he said, Kev, do you think the people in St. Petersburg will mind if I, she's going to write an article in the Cincinnati Herald and asking everybody if you want to make a donation to my mom. Send it to your friends at Johnson Ranch Library. And me and my brother ain't that close but it touched my heart because, see, people don't know why I fight so hard for libraries. They put me in special class. My mom fought to get me out of those classes. I wasn't going to go to college in Miss Rose Calloway. I was going to Florida Technical High School. I was going to go into the graphic arts. She told me, you're going to college. I said, you're telling me where I'm going. So then I went to the University of Cincinnati in Upward Bound and they were talking about HBCUs. What is an HBCU? I said, if you know anything about Ohio, River Forest and Central State were there. I found out I had a cousin that lived in Florida and my 8th grade teacher actually wanted me to go to Tennessee State but that's another story. And so I came down here and I went to that alumni meeting. These people fed and I came here. So I don't want to get too long-winded but I want to thank y'all because it's been a very hard, hard time for me and also my wife has just got out of rehab too. She hurt herself so y'all pray for me. And I want to honor the parents too because our parents come up here too because, come on, because education is a family affair. Education begins in the home. So, you know, I read some studies from the American Library Association that said kids are exposed to books and reading at an early age do better in school and a standardized test and everything. And it takes parents because parents put a lot of work in this too. So, like I said, I don't want to get too long-winded but I just want to thank Councilman Gibbons just for being here and just doing this because I don't really ask for much. I don't really come down here to raise saying if you see me is here for a reason because your time is valuable but just be with me in this time and be with the parents. I'm going to be quiet. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Again, I appreciate you and my condolences to you. I want to read this proclamation. As we present this proclamation I want us to recognize and to honor our libraries, our city libraries, all of them. Our library director is not here with us today but we certainly appreciate her and all of her hard work to make sure that young children have access to books. Whereas, literacy is a foundational skill that empowers individuals, strengthens communities and is essential for the personal, economic, and social development of all people. And whereas, the ability to read and write proficiently opens the door to lifelong learning, critical thinking, employment opportunities, civic engagement. And whereas, the city of St. Petersburg recognizes, excuse me, the importance of fostering a culture of literacy and learning from early childhood education through adulthood. And whereas, local schools, libraries, non-profits, and community organizations work tirelessly to promote reading, improve literacy, literacy rates, and provide access to educational opportunities, resources for residents of all ages and backgrounds. And whereas, September is designated as National Literacy Month, a time to raise awareness of literacy challenges, celebrate literacy champions, and encourage every resident to read, volunteer, and support literacy efforts throughout the community. And whereas, the city of St. Petersburg is committed to ensuring that every resident can achieve full literacy and reach their potential as lifelong learners. Now, therefore, I, Council Member Corey Givens, on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 2025 as National Literacy Month in the City of St. Petersburg. And encourage all residents and citizens to engage and recognize the importance of literacy, support programs and initiatives that promote reading and learning, and work together to create a more literate and empowered community. I am witness thereof hereon to set my hand and cause the official seal of the City of St. Petersburg, County of Pinellas, and the State of Florida to be affixed on this 11th day of September 2025. Mayor Kenneth T. Welch. And just lastly, Mr. Johnson, I just want to say there's a quote by George Martin that says that a man who reads lives a thousand lives, but a man who never reads only lives once. And so your mom, I believe, will continue to live and so will her legacy as well as the legacy of James Weldon Johnson. So thank you so much, friends of the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library and your spelling bee champions, if I can recognize them, counsel. Each one of these students participated in the James Weldon Johnson League. I was fortunate enough, come on up, to serve as a judge and I want to give them an opportunity to say a few words if they would like. You all don't have to speak, but if you want to speak, you're welcome to say something if you want to. All at once, no worries. Well, let's just give them one more hand. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Givens. Welcome. Next up, we have the Four National Service Dog Month Proclamation, which is going to be read by Council Member Gabbard. All right. So I'm joined by lots of people and furry friends. So I'm going to go ahead and start by asking everybody to come up and join me. So first of all, District 2 resident Diana Zelt and the entire team from all of the service dogs with Canine Companions, if you would all come up. We're also joined by a couple more special guests for National Service Dog Month. So our very own former First Lady, Carrie Kreisman and Betty. Betty is the Kreisman family's 16th service dog in training. And a local therapy dog rock star, Snowbird, has made an appearance here today. I actually have a baseball card of Snowbird in my office. So I was very excited when he showed up today. From the University of St. Pete, or USF St. Pete and his handler, University Police Department Officer Lichtenfeld. So thank you all for being with us today. Canine Companions is a nationally recognized non-profit organization celebrating an incredible 50 years of providing service dogs. Their mission is to enhance the lives of individuals with disabilities by providing expertly task-trained service dogs to adults, children, and veterans. Additionally, they supply facilities dogs to professionals working in health care, criminal justice, and educational settings. One of the most remarkable aspects of Canine Companions is that both the dogs and all follow-up services are provided at no cost to their clients. Currently, Canine Companions serves individuals with over 65 different types of disabilities, demonstrating the wide-reaching impact of their work. With more than 2,800 active teams across the country and over 8,200 teams placed since their founding, their dedication and success are truly commendable. So I want to thank Canine Companions for bringing this forward. Diane, where are you? Come, please, come up with me. Thank you so much for the invaluable work that you do for our community and for our residents who need these services. Very, very important, and so we're very proud to have you here today to present to you the National Service Dog Month proclamation. I'm going to go ahead and give you the proclamation and then I will read it on behalf of Mayor Welch. 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 specifically trained to assist individuals with disabilities, including physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, and other mental disabilities, helping them lead more independent and fulfilling lives. And whereas, service dogs not only provide physical assistance, but they also offer emotional support, companionship, and a sense of security to their handlers, greatly enhancing quality of life. And whereas, in the United States, over 70 million adults have a disability and only 16,000 service dogs are from accredited training programs and exist nationwide. So you can see that this is a growing need. And whereas, Canine Companions, a national nonprofit organization celebrating its 50th year of operation, has been a trailblazer in enhancing the lives of people with disabilities by providing expertly trained service dogs at no cost to recipients, setting a gold standard in service dog training, partnership, and lifelong support. And whereas, the City of St. Petersburg commends the tireless work of nonprofit organizations, trainers, and volunteers, and is committed to being an inclusive, welcoming community where individuals of all abilities and the service dogs who assist them are embraced, respected, and supported. Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Brandy Gabbard, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 2025 as National Service Dog Month in St. Petersburg and encourage all citizens to celebrate service dogs and be respectful of the rights to safe access in our community afforded to the adults, children, and veterans who lead more independent lives because of their assistance. Hi, I'd like to ask Diane if she would like to say a few words. On behalf of Canines Companions, they want to thank the City of St. Petersburg for acknowledging Service Dog Month and acknowledging the dogs. Dogs work just like we do. They're up at 3 o'clock in the morning and they don't go to bed until we go to bed. If we work a 10-hour day, they work a 10-hour day. They are there to help people out. In court cases where they're scared, they give people a voice. They're there with people with wheelchairs to be able to pick up things and help them hearing impaired to be able to not let us miss anything, to be able to get veterans to be able to have their voice and be able to be safe. Service dogs do so much. Anytime you see a service dog, it would be great to be able to thank them because you see us. They take our disabilities away from us. They make us better people and they make us be able to go into the community and be able to be self-efficient. And we are so thankful for the service dogs we get, especially from Canines Companions. That's a service that I work with. I pay nothing and anything that I need, they make sure that I get it. I'm in the hospital. My service dog comes with me. He goes everywhere and I'm so thankful to honor him because I would not be the person I am today without him. So thank you very much for this honor. Thank you, Diane. And we're so proud of you as a District 2 resident. Thank you for what you do for others. And so at this time, I would like to invite Carrie Christman to say a few words. Thank you all and thank you, Council Member Gabbard, for the invitation to be here. This is a passion of ours and I don't know if I can say anything better than what you just said about, even though we're from different organizations, the mission is similar and having a service dog, raising a puppy in training changes lives because it gives people the independence they need and that they deserve. And so it's been the honor of a lifetime for our family without trying to sound too extreme here, but we've been doing it for 16 years and there's a reason why. We keep coming back to the mission and like Canine Companions for Independence, Dogs Inc. gives their dogs free of charge to people who need them and I emphasize people who need them, people whose lives will be changed. You know, and as a puppy raiser, I'm going to answer a question you all might have and the one we get asked the most is how do you give them back? Well, we give them back, first of all, we know they're not our dogs, but we give them back because even though we love them, someone needs them more than we do. So thank you, you know, to Councilmember Gabbard, sorry, for having me here and congratulations to all of you as well on your 50th anniversary. I do also want to mention Mr. Lindell Bright has decided to grace us again even though he's been trying to retire, he cannot get away from us. So, Lindell, please. I'm here on behalf not only as the ADA coordinator but also for Cappy to let you know one of the projects that we started at Cappy is to promote awareness of service dogs, therapy dogs, anything to be helpful for the community in crossing all the racial lines, you know, people of color, what have you, to encourage people to understand what is the actual push for service animals, okay, and making sure that there are no distinction between service animals and emotional support animals, all right? So, but I want to commend Cappy Gaff for even bringing this up because recognizing because I get calls all the time about what can I do if a service dog comes in a business or anything else but just the fact to see these wonderful animals just making sure that people understand that everybody is all about inclusion, all right? And we may have to have a service animal one day or what have you to make sure to direct us to the path that we need to do so, all right? But Cappy is committed to promoting this. in the preceding year and stuff so I'll still be working off after I will try to help that out too. And then we have one more, Mr. J. Burkey. Thank you everyone. I just wanted to take a quick second to not only thank you for recognizing service dog month as somebody that is a service dog handler but I also, as a disability advocate in the region, I wanted to personally thank the council and the mayor for the efforts that you all make to make St. Pete not just disability accessible but awareness and the awareness that you all do is above and beyond anything else that's in this region. I've personally worked with Lindell for probably the last two years with your Cappy training and it's amazing to see the effort that you all put into making sure that the residents and the employees in the city know about all types of disabilities. We see it as people with disabilities and we tell others about that as well so it's commendable for the effort that you all have done that goes above and beyond and we really truly do thank you for that. Thank you to everyone for coming out today. Thank you Diane again for bringing this proclamation forward and thank you Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you all for everything you do for the community. And next up we have the five which is Senior Center Month Proclamation and this proclamation is going to be presented by Council Member Floyd. Ask any staff or Senior Center participants I guess users who want to come up to join me. I'm honored to give this proclamation today and I'll just say one thing briefly we have a wonderful Senior Center in St. Pete that could use some TLC or a whole new reimagining I'd be supportive of either one. So there administration's heard and I know that my other council members have as well so I'll go ahead and read the proclamation. Whereas Senior Centers are considered an integral place an integral piece of the aging network and in 1972 the Older Americans Act was amended to support Senior Centers and whereas September is National Senior Center Month in the U.S. every year since 1979 the National Council on Aging has celebrated Senior Center Week. In 1985 President Ronald Reagan signed the first Senior Center Week Presidential Proclamation and in 2007 the week-long celebration was extended to the full month of September to put focus on how Senior Centers help improve the lives and well-being of older Americans in the United States and whereas older Americans are significant members of society investing their wisdom and experience to help enrich and better the lives of younger generations and whereas the St. Petersburg, Florida Sunshine Senior Center the first nationally accredited Senior Center in the state of Florida has acted as a catalyst for mobilizing the creativity, energy, vitality, and commitment of the seniors and whereas through the wide array of services, programs, and activities Senior Centers empower the seniors of St. Petersburg to contribute to their own health, well-being, and the health and well-being of their fellow citizens of all ages and whereas the Sunshine Senior Center in the city of St. Petersburg affirms the dignity, self-worth, and independence of older seniors by facilitating their decisions and actions, tapping their experiences, skills, and knowledge, and enabling their continued contributions to the community. Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Richie Floyd, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim September 25th or September 2005 as Senior Center Month and call upon all citizens to recognize the contributions of the Sunshine Senior Center and the efforts of the staff, participants, and volunteers who daily enhance the well-being of older seniors of our community. So lovely to be here with you once again. We're proud to present the proclamation and the 2025 theme from the National Institute of Senior Centers, powering possibilities as we flip the script. The theme challenges aging stereotype and celebrates senior centers as locations for health, purpose, and connection. Our recent senior month events displayed this spirit. Participants showcase their abilities at Chicken Salad and Talent, got their boots on the ground at Boots Buckle and Bling, showed off their swimming and social side at the Tropical Pool Party, discovered more about programming at Mix and Mingle, and challenged themselves while playing games and exercising at Seniors Field Day and Barbecue. Our participants proved that aging is a celebration in motion. Joining me today are Marcy Neal, the Supervisor 2, and Kara Ware, the Supervisor 1, at the Sunshine Senior Center. The Sunshine Senior Center and our facilities, other senior facilities, offer dynamic programs and fosters relationships, wellness, and engagement. It's been said, growing old is inevitable, but staying young at heart is a choice. Let's continue to ensure all older adults, me, me, have the support they need to age successfully. As I often say, the value of one of us is the value of all of us. Thank you for your ongoing support. You all have been so supportive to the Sunshine Senior Center, and I just don't know how to thank you enough. I really don't. We welcome you, though, to come over, visit with us. On Friday, they're having an open house. Come see what they do over at the Sunshine Senior Center. Don't be scared. because one day you will be a senior. Thank you so much for what you've done, and we want to honor the two participants that have been with the Sunshine Center for a number of years, sharing their experience and their knowledge and doing what the Sunshine Center does best at their facility. So thank you today for this contribution to the Sunshine Senior Center in the Parks and Recs Department. We surely appreciate it. Thank you so much. Council Member Gabbard. Thank you, Chair, and don't go away yet. I couldn't let you know I couldn't let this one go by without at least saying a couple of words. So I wrote down the theme Powering Possibilities. I'm going to hold that one, but it's not going to replace the original theme you taught me, which is you don't retire, you refire. And that, I think, is always the theme for the Senior Center. The work that you all do and, quite frankly, what you do with so little. I mean, we've all seen it. We know. Council Member Floyd said it. That is something that this city, we have got to get behind, a new, reimagined, redeveloped Senior Center. Our population is aging even more so. So hopefully we're all going to be lucky enough to live long enough to get there. And it is a gift to age and I believe that a new, reimagined Senior Center would be a gift to all of you. So we're going to keep fighting for that. We're going to keep looking for it. This council is behind you with that need. And I just wanted to thank, I mean, you're both Hall of Fame, right? And here you are. You are out here and you are representing today and there's nothing better than being with our seniors, learning from you. You continue to inspire us every single day. So thank you for everything you do and thank you to your entire team. We appreciate you. We love you and we're here for everything that you need. So thank you. Thank you all. Okay, the next item up we have is D6. It's Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Proclamation and it's going to be presented by Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you, Chair. And for this proclamation, I would like to invite back to the podium Carrie Christman, this time in her role as Advocate Leader with the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. And I'd also like to welcome Selma Mastery from the Mastery Ovarian Cancer Foundation. Hi. So before I get into the proclamation, I do want to give a special thanks to Carrie. This particular topic is of great importance to me because I found myself with a similar challenge earlier this year. And Carrie was there for me and I don't know if you'll ever know how much that meant to me. Being available just to answer my questions and help me make sense of what was happening and what happens next. And from the first time we talked, I felt stronger. And I'm so grateful that she has taken so much of her own time and energy to help others. And I am standing here telling you that it works. It matters. It really means something. And so between Carrie and Selma, I'm so glad that they are spreading the word about this, acting as a resource, and most importantly, helping women to understand as I learned that you have to listen to your body and don't ignore it if something doesn't feel right. It saved my life. And so, as we recognize Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, I'm very proud to share with you 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 the American Cancer Society estimates 20,890 cases of ovarian cancer will be newly diagnosed in 2025 and 12,730 individuals will die from the disease nationwide, including 1,820 new cases and 1,050 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 too many people remain unaware that the symptoms of ovarian cancer often include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, urinary symptoms, and several other vague symptoms that are often easily confused with other diseases. And whereas the lack of an early detection test for ovarian cancer combined with its vague symptoms mean that approximately 80% of the cases of ovarian cancer are detected at an advanced stage. 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 2025 as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and urge every resident to take time to learn more about this crippling disease. Thank you. I have a copy of the proclamation for each of our special guests here today, and at this time I would like to invite them to say a few words. Thank you once again for this proclamation and making everyone aware of ovarian cancer. And yes, you know, the numbers haven't changed. It is the fifth leading cause of death and cancer, of cancer deaths in women in the United States. Florida has the highest rate, and I don't know if it's because people move here to retire, and then, it used to be called the older women's cancer, and not anymore. There are more cases of younger people, as Carrie herself was in her 50s. My mother was in her 70s. And it's just, we thank you for all your support. Our big walk run is this weekend, Saturday, in Albert Whitted Park, and we appreciate the city for backing us on that and supporting us. And we have a gala. We're going to do a gala this year, and it's Gilligan's Island. Return to Gilligan's Island, a fun one. So we're, for fundraising and showing awareness to the city and the community. And my brother, who's an OB-GYN, has, we partnered with him over in Australia, and they have a, quite a, yeah, clinic over there doing all kinds of experiments, and they're going to have us a pre-test real soon. And I just have faith in them. They're doing a great job. And we just thank St. Petersburg for all their support. We give money to women in the Bay Area. We try to stick to the Bay Area because Mother wanted it to be local. So she supported many groups here in St. Pete, as you all know. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Driscoll and the rest of the council for recognizing September and Mayor Welch as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. They say that ovarian cancer whispers, and I say it whispers until it screams so loud you can't ignore it. And that's because the symptoms are so subtle. They're often mistaken for something else. And I know that was mentioned in the proclamation language, but I can't reiterate it enough. So I am grateful that it screamed at me and gave me a stage two diagnosis when it could have given me something much worse. And that's why I volunteer with Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance on a national level and then partner with Selma Mastery and the Ovarian Cancer or Selma Mastery Ovarian Cancer Foundation at this time of the year for increased awareness. And with Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, we lobby elected officials in Congress and the Senate to increase funding and awareness and maintain that funding too and reach rural communities and so much of it so that people don't hopefully have to die and God forbid they are diagnosed that it is in an early stage that increases their chances of survival. So I also speak as well as with others, survivors teaching students, presenters, to medical students, nursing students, pharmacy students, and Betty's had enough. So, but anyway, just to share our stories, it's our hope that, you know, in hearing our personal cancer journey of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, that something will stay in these future health providers' heads that someday, when they have a patient sitting in front of them, telling them something that they have no answer to, that it might prompt them to say, not immediately you have cancer, but you might need to go get a test, go get an ultrasound. But the bottom line is, listen to your body. And thank you all again for your time and attention and your commitment to helping us create awareness with this proclamation. Thank you. Thank you all so much for your advocacy and leadership on this very important issue. And I'm just going to take one of these. And Council Member Driscoll, thank you for sharing your personal story. Next up, we have D7, which is Suicide Prevention Month proclamation, which will be presented by Mayor Welch. Good afternoon, Mayor. Good afternoon, Madam Vice Chair and Council, members of our St. Pete team. What a wonderful day of celebration in our community and a day of recognizing organizations and individuals who help our family, friends, and neighbors through the most difficult of circumstances. This next proclamation is in support of Suicide Prevention Month. This annual observance highlights the importance of increasing awareness communicating strategies, promoting hope, and eliminating the stigma of the suicide prevention conversation. I'd like to invite Jean-Pierre, CEO of Zero Suicide Suncoast Center, and a well-known community advocate, Julie Rocco. Where is she behind me? Who I didn't know this. Come on up, y'all. Julie has a podcast named What Would I Have Missed? And thank you all for joining us today. And the proclamation reads as follows. Whereas September 7th through September 13th, 2025, is National Suicide Prevention Week, and September 2025 is National Suicide Prevention Month, a time during which individuals, organizations, and communities join their voices to amplify the message of suicide prevention. And whereas these observances are united in raising awareness that prevention is possible, treatment is effective, and people do recover. And whereas the Zero Suicide Framework emphasizes that even one life lost to suicide is too many. And whereas it is essential that we educate and encourage relatives, friends, co-workers, and providers about the signs of suicidal ideation, and that it affects all demographics in our community. And whereas we believe it takes all of us doing what we can to create a community without suicide. And whereas community resources and organizations such as 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, NAMI Pinellas, Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas, led by Suncoast Center, unite community members and organizations with a common mission to end suicide in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 2025 as Suicide Prevention Month and urge all citizens to join me in doing what they can by being kind, curious, and connected to end suicide in our community. Thank you all for joining us. Would you like to share a few comments? Sure. All right. Good afternoon, Mayor Welch, council members, and the members of our community. My name is Julie Rocco, and I'm really humbled to be here. For me, this is not only a proclamation, it's my story and that of so many others. I stand before you as a suicide loss survivor, and I'm also a suicide ideation and a suicide attempt survivor. There were moments when I did not believe I would be here to speak these words, and yet, here I am. And that is the very heart of an initiative I started called What I Would Have Missed. The initiative began with a personal reflection and a quiet stillness of awe when I was experiencing a moment of joy and a knowingness. I almost missed this moment. Those reflections compounded as each moment of gratitude became an acknowledgement of a moment I would have missed had I died by suicide. Meeting my granddaughter, Dahlia, watching the daylight fade over Lassing Park, final road trip with my pop and holding his hand when he took his final breath, a bite to eat at my son's Zach and Nick's restaurant, and a moment of exhale after a tough day. And this, this, it's a moment to express my gratitude for the application of the voices like mine on a path of finding hope, healing, and happiness. These are the moments, big and small, often ordinary, yet so extraordinary that I could not imagine but I now hold as sacred. In St. Pete, my hometown, I've committed myself to helping others. see, they too have something waiting for them on the other side of their despair. I work alongside neighbors and community partners to create space where people can speak their truth and be met with compassion, not judgment, to break the silence so often that keeps us apart. And beyond this city, what I would have missed is carrying these stories outward through social media, a podcast, as the mayor mentioned, through community conversations, and through the creation of various artistic mediums that provide a conduit for authentic, real, raw storytelling. Voices from around the country, even the world, are rising to say, I survived, I stay, and here is what I would have missed. Every story told becomes a flicker of hope in the darkness, a ripple of light that travels farther than we can imagine. It might reach a young person quietly doubting how they can make it through another day. It might reach someone in this very room. Mental health issues are often invisible. They are our silent battles we carry. So we truly do not know when our story, our courage, our compassion is touching a life and perhaps saving it. That is the power of story and that is the work of what I would have missed. It's not only about the important work of halting a tragic moment of despair, it's about creating a culture of connection, camaraderie, and community where people know they are seen, heard, and valued exactly as they are. I'm deeply grateful to Mayor Welch and to the council for honoring Suicide Prevention Month by naming it, by recognizing it, you're telling our community we see you, we stand with you, and your life matters. My hope, my prayer, is that we all carry this forward, that each of us becomes a keeper of light for ourselves and others. We are, after all, the sunshine city. Let that sunshine radiate from within and outward to our neighbors as together, we help each other stay to discover all the moments we don't want to miss. You can find more information on whatiwouldavmiss.com about my efforts and I'm grateful to be here with Zero Suicide in Suncoast. Thank you so much. Hey, well, good afternoon and thank you, Mayor Welch and the council. On behalf of myself and the Suncoast Center, I want to thank you for recognizing Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. As we both agree, suicide awareness is an important matter in our community. The Pinellas County deaths by suicide rate is higher than the Florida state average by approximately 33%. 33%. With the rates being higher for youth between the ages of 5, 15 to 19, adults between the ages of 35 to 54, and adults older than 75. One of the risk factors that place a person at risk for death by suicide is isolation, especially social isolation. We at Suncoast Center, coupled with Zero Suicide Prevention of Pinellas Outreach Teamwork, we work with community partners such as JWB, NAMI, Elios, Empath, the VA, Pinellas Parks and Recreation, and Pinellas Library to offer events to decrease social isolation throughout our community. Our Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas Outreach Team offers events such as Veterans, Coffee Socials, Social Emotional Learning Story Time for ages 4 to 8, Teen Activities with the aim for young people to have a judgment-free space to talk about issues that concern them, and free suicide prevention awareness and safety planning trainings throughout the community. Again, thank you for this proclamation, and we look forward to collaborating with your office to help decrease the deaths by suicide in Pinellas County. Thank you once again. If you could stay there a minute, because we have a council member who wants to speak, council member Givens. Thank you very much, Chair. I just want to thank you all so much. I didn't realize that today would be a waterworks fest, so I think all of us are up here holding back tears, but I spoke to Julie downstairs and I shared with her a story that I don't share with a lot of people, but when I was in high school, one of my dear friends, Tony, committed suicide, and Tony battled judgment, the judgment of being homosexual, and I felt his judgment, I felt his pain, and I felt compassion for him. The summer of his junior year, his mom walked outside one morning and found him hanging from a tree, and ever since then, I made it my mission to fight to make sure that Tony's life wasn't in vain. I became president of the Gay-Straight Alliance, and I made sure that I would make sure other young people felt comfortable in living their truth, and so I just want to thank you all for what you do. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for making sure that Tony's legacy doesn't die and other people's legacy lives on who have lost loved ones and friends to suicide. I think about my little cousin, Keyshawn Fuller, who lost his life to suicide just a couple of years ago, a basketball player with so much life ahead of him, but life taken too soon, and so because of them, I'm going to be participating in your postcard campaign, Julie, moments you would have missed. They would have missed me being here today. They would have missed seeing me get elected to the city council, but I will make sure that as long as I'm in a space like this to truly impact change, I will make sure that their legacy lives on, so thank you for what you do. God bless you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Well, thank you all so much for your advocacy and bringing light to this very important issue, and Julie, honestly, thank you for being you, seriously, and sharing that really impactful story, and I think it's something that with your program and what you do, that's a purpose. That is a huge purpose and a huge impact in many lives, and we're so thankful that you're here. Thank you. And next up is the 8-9-11 Day of Remembrance Proclamation. Mayor Welch. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the final proclamation for today. Today is September 11th, and in recognition of 9-11 Day of Remembrance, I'm pleased to be here today to reflect on the bravery and courage shown that faithful day, and I'll ask Chief Holloway from St. Pete Police Department, Chief Watts from St. Pete Fire Rescue and their teams to join me at the podium as we remember and honor those who act without hesitation our first responders. The proclamation reads as follows. Whereas, this year marks the 24th 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, emergency workers, service members, law enforcement officers, and firefighters who answered the call to action with bravery and courage. And whereas 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 bravery and courage shown that fateful day inspires us to care for our first responders, remember the patriotism shown by our service members and celebrate our collective strength. Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare the 11th day of September 2025 as Patriot Day and Day of Remembrance in St. Petersburg and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the City of St. Petersburg and beyond and to thank our first responders for the job they do every day keeping us safe. Thank you all. Madam Chair, in their way of silent service, neither want to speak today. Of course. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you for everything you do today. We, I went to Station 4 for the moment of silence and we, I was there with the firefighters and I know that there were other council members may have gone to other fire stations and being out there with our firefighters and rescue personnel and everyone who serves our city day in and day out and then seeing the community waving at us and honking horns and knowing what we are observing today and the loss of lives that happened in 9-11 and something that by the way that all of us who watched it on TV that will never ever leave our brains. I still remember it. We were just discussing it today. I cannot believe it's been 24 years and it seemed like a crazy world then and it still feels like it's a crazy world now but thank you all for everything you do from the bottom of our hearts. You know you have an administration and a council who's extremely supportive of everything you do so thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up we have a legal item. I won. We have a resolution approving the settlement of a lawsuit. Yes. Thank you. Well hi there. How are you doing? Good. Thank you to the mayor and for everybody for the 9-11 remembrance. I can't believe it's been 24 years. Kind of hits me pretty hard. I went to law school in Massachusetts. I had a couple of classmates who worked in the towers and through fate and happenstance didn't make it in that day. I had another friend who was on one of the planes from Boston to L.A. that never made it. So I hadn't really thought about it this year but hearing all that it's kind of come back to me in a big wave. So just wanted to mention that. I appreciate that being remembered. I'm here today on a settlement of Matthew Davis. This is a workers' compensation washout settlement. Mr. Davis is a 40-year-old firefighter. Used to work for the city. He almost two years ago came down with a pulmonary lung issue and was hospitalized and things didn't go well. He ended up with a number of cardiac issues. In the course of his treatment a number of things were eliminated but he ended up with severe heart issues and he now needs what appears to be a heart transplant. This was a contested issue because it did not appear to be a workers' compensation matter until within the last few months additional independent doctors who reviewed the case can't rule out that it was work-related and due to the comp rules if we get this in front of a hearing in front of a judge the outcome could quite possibly not be well. The settlement in this case is for $175,000. Mr. Davis is on full disability. The full value of this claim going forward is over $2.4 million and that does not include the cost of the heart transplant or attorney's fees and we were able to negotiate a settlement for $175,000 all fees included and we're seeking the council's approval on that. Move approval. Seeing that there is a motion and a second clerk you please open the machine for voting. Council members please enter your votes. Seeing that all present council members have voted clerk you please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair motion to approve the agenda item I-1 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent. Thank you Mr. McCollum. Thank you everybody appreciate it. Next up we have a council committee report H-1 September 4th 2025 layer action item. Councilmember Gabbard. Thank you Madam Chair and I respectfully request city council approval of a resolution supporting the flood insurance relief act before you have the resolution which was passed by committee as well as the flood copy of the flood insurance relief act and so I moved. We have a motion second was Councilmember Figg-Sanders. Clerk you open the machine for voting. Council members please enter your votes. Seeing that all present council members have voted clerk you please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair motion to approve the agenda item H-1 passes unanimously with Councilmember Gerdes being absent. Thank you. Next item we have is a report item it's F-1 a resolution approving amendments to the city's fiscal policies. I see Tom Green so Tom Green your name wasn't here but it seems like you're the person that's going to be presenting this. Madam Chair I'm equally as surprised I'm waiting any second Erica and Liz and Ann are going to come dashing through the door but in their stead I will try to pitch in at the August 14th meeting of the BF&T committee we did discuss several changes to the fiscal policy there were some that were I would categorize as housekeeping there is one I would point out you know after the storms of last year there was a request from Councilmember Vice Chair Hanowitz to organize or to address how are we going to respond to financially respond to disaster so what we did is we realized that throughout our fiscal policy we had various items in different areas of the policy so what we did was coordinate that into one new section and I would characterize that as the biggest change that we made to the policies this year so we recommend that Council approve these changes to our fiscal policies and I now know the team is here so if you have any questions they are going to respond to it but we are very happy to report that we have presented that here today for your approval Tom even with the surprise you did such a good job move approval second we have a motion and a second Councilmembers a clerk you open the machine for voting Councilmembers please enter your votes seeing that all present Councilmembers have voted clerk you please tally announce the votes Madam Chair motion to approve a unanimous F1 passes unanimously Councilmember Gerdes being absent thank you and thank you all for doing such a great work with the policies and cleaning that up and making it clear it's going to be helpful for next time around thank you so at this point in time the next thing we have is our first reading and first public hearing which is at 6pm so Council will be in recess until 6pm thank you and welcome to the first reading and first public hearing of the fiscal year 2026 mortgage rate and budget for the city of St. Petersburg so for those who haven't gone through this process before it's a pretty straightforward process this is governed by statute so what you're going to see me doing is reading from a script it's in the in our agenda it's attachment A so if anyone's interested they can follow that script and for council members or new council members you can see the script tells you exactly when the motions happen and public comment and all that so it'll be very clear which steps are coming based on what I'm indicating from the script so at this point I will start we'll start the hearing this is the start of the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 military and budget the purpose of this public hearing is to discuss the mayor's recommended budget approve a proposed military and approve the recommended budget slash appropriations ordinance for fiscal year 2026 as a tentative budget for fiscal year 2026 prior to the public comment the first substantive issue discussed shall be the percentage increase in military over the rollback rate necessary to fund the budget if any and the specific purpose 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 slash appropriations ordinance is read and city clerk can you please read the title of the budget slash appropriations ordinance proposed ordinance number 619H an ordinance making appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30 2026 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 of 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 independent 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 2026 providing for related matters and providing an effective date the second reading and second public hearing for this item is scheduled for September 25th 2025 and we do have some cards next we have general remarks is the mayor going to make any general remarks okay so next up we have the budget director Liz McAlsey who's going to do a presentation all right good evening chair and members of city council before we begin the presentation if anyone has specific questions or concerns regarding the assessed value of their property or information on the trim notices tonight we have here with us Kevin McKeon the deputy of assessment administration and Jeffrey Haynes the director of residential appraisal from the Pinellas County property appraisers office with us today and if anyone sent any questions you can follow them downstairs the community resources room and they can answer any questions you may have for those attending virtually please contact the Pinellas County property appraisers office at 727-464-3207 or email mike at pcpao.org so this evening is the first of two public hearings on the fiscal year 2026 budget for the city of st. Petersburg florida statutes 200.065 or the truth and millage act also referred to as the trim act requires a specific process for a discussion tonight the order of the process is laid out in attachment a of the backup materials the city clerk has provided the first reading of the fy26 tentative budget ordinance and in just a moment I will review with council and the public the tentative fy26 budget and highlight some of the changes since the mayor's recommended budget we will then hear from public and upon conclusion of this 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 actions will need to be done as a standalone motion the first action is the adoption of the proposed millage rate for fy26 the next is the adoption of the fy26 tentative budget ordinance and then the adoption of the fy26 budget resolution as the tentative budget for the city of st petersburg so under the trim the trim statues or trim process the first item of substance to be discussed is the percent increase if any in millage over the rollback rate for for the purposes of the fy26 budget the rollback rate is 6.2083 mills and is the millage rate that would generate roughly the same amount of ad valorem revenues in fy26 as the city received in fy25 under the trim statutes we're allowed to recognize ad valorem revenue associated with new taxable value added to the tax base so the rollback rate generates slightly higher revenue in 26 than the city is scheduled to receive in 25 the proposed fy26 millage rate is 6.4525 and represents a 3.93 percent increase over the rollback rate the year-over-year increase in ad valorem revenue from fy25 to fy26 is 10.452 million the second step in the state retired required trim process is to discuss the reasons ad valorem tax revenues are being increased a major reason for the increase in ad valorem revenue is to provide the resources needed for wage increases for all city employees including police and fire rescue the key areas of investment plan for the fy26 budget are aligned with the mayor's five pillars for progress under the education and youth opportunities pillar there is funding to continue programs such as the mayor's future readiness academy the year-round youth employment program youth development grants and literacy and steam programs such as surley proctor polar foundation and the 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 while adding funding for new programming including individual artist grants and poetry festival under the neighborhood health and safety pillar we're continuing to fund neighborhood and public safety programs like the call program community impact grants and programs the safe summer program the healthy neighborhood store program and the healthy food action program for the housing opportunities for all pillar there will be funds funding to continue our progress on the 10-year housing opportunities for all agenda and provide resources for various social service programs and in the environmental infrastructure and resilience pillar the prelim the tentative budget will have funding for projects that protect our environment increase our resilience and improve our city's infrastructure including the saint pete agile resistance or spar program the increase in ad valorem is based on a 4.93 percent increase in 2025 property values over fy 24 this chart shows the 10-year history of property tax revenues in relation to public safety costs you can see that in fy 26 the ad valorem revenues recover all public safety costs for the city this slide illustrates the calculation of the millage rate for fy 26 the first step in the calculation is to determine the value of one mill to do this we take the gross property value and then multiply it by 96% which results in 35.471 billion in value for budgeting purposes we then divide this 96% of gross taxable value amount by 1000 and that gives us the value of one mill as 35.471 million the second step is to look at our general fund requirements which total 411.763 million and add out the other sources of revenue other than ad valorem taxes which totals 182.9 million to arrive at the amount of required ad valorem taxes or 228.875 million the third and final step is to divide the required ad valorem taxes which is beyond this slide by the value of one mill which is known as a on the slide to get to the 6.4525 mills required this slide illustrates a typical tax bill for a resident for the city of st petersburg the city of st petersburg makes up 30% of this homeowner's tax bill and or about 30 cents of every ad valorem tax dollar paid by property owners the school system with its two components of the tax bill make up 36% and pinellas county makes up 22% of the total taxes the balance of 12% is made up of other various taxing authorities we'll now move into a discussion of the changes to the fy26 budget since the mayor's recommended budget was submitted on july 15th all of the information is included in more detail in attachment b recap of changes there will be there were no changes to the general fund revenue since the recommended budget we do have a change and we do have changes in requirement or expenditures in the general fund and they can be found on page one of attachment b of the backup the change in the housing and neighborhood service administration department is due to a new program called fluoride for families all of the other department changes listed on the slide are due to position changes in fy25 since the recommended budget the change in the contingency amount is the net change amount needed to balance the general fund information on revenue changes in other city funds can be found on page two of attachment b the change in the local housing assistance fund is to account for a decrease in expected ship grant revenue for fy26 and all of the other revenue changes listed are needed to match the proposed utility rates and transfers in the fy26 rate study requirements or expense changes for other city funds are broken down on page two of the recap of changes the changes the change and again in the local housing assistance fund is to account for the decrease in expected ship grant revenue for fy26 the items for the water resources operating water resources debt stormwater utility stormwater debt service sanitation operating and sanitation equipment replacement fund changes are to update budget amounts to correspond to the fy26 rate study and the change in the billing collections fund is related to fy25 position transaction changes since the recommended budget in our cip program there are no changes on the revenue side of our cip program but we do have one change on the requirement side and the details are on page three the change in the recreation and culture capital improvement fund does not affect the overall funds budget amount and involves moving funds between projects due to a change in the mahapi theater's capital project priorities removing 400,000 from the mahapi theater improvements and 1.5 million from the mahapi theater public address system improvements projects to the mahapi theater roof improvement project in this next section we'll give a quick overview using tables charts and graphs to illustrate the city's fy26 budget these tables are included in the fy26 budget and brief which has been posted on the city's website and we also have a copies available tonight the total operating revenue budget for the fy26 is 974.3 million charges for services make up the largest category at 422.2 million or about 43.3 percent followed by taxes at 302 million or 31 percent the fy26 operating budget is 976.071 million and is about 7.6 higher than the fy25 operating budget the water resources operating fund increased by 12.3 percent year-over-year from fy25 the general fund and reserves budget increased by 4.5 percent from 394.489 million to 412.285 million the total general fund revenue budget is 411.763 million and the general fund revenue comes from various sources as illustrated in this chart the largest single source of revenues for the general fund are taxes and include our ad valorem or property taxes franchise taxes and utility taxes and they total 302.048 million or 73.35 percent of the total revenue budget intergovernmental revenues which include the health the half cent sales tax and state shared revenue is the second largest source for the general fund at 43 million or 10.45 percent the total general fund expenditure budget for fy26 is also 411.763 million and the city's general fund is categorized into our six city administrations the single largest general fund investment made by the cities in the public safety administration which is 53.1 in the public safety administration which is 53.1 of the budget and includes our police and fire departments the general general government administration makes up the next largest category at 19.7 percent and includes departments such as budget finance legal and human resources and our third largest general fund investment is made up the next largest makes up the next largest category at 19.7% and includes departments such as budget, finance, legal, and human resources. And our third largest general fund investment is made in our quality of life type programming provided by the Community Enrichment Administration at 16.8% and includes our parks and recreation departments and our libraries. Looking at the general fund budget broken out by expenditure type, the single largest expenditure category in the general fund is wages and benefits at $278.5 million or 67.7% of the total and services and commodities make up the second largest at 19.9% or $81.7 million. The FY26 CIP budget includes a total of $202.022 million in capital projects. The Water Resources Capital Project Fund accounts for the largest piece of this budget at $126.12 million or 62.4% followed by our Penny for Pinellas projects which account for 18.5% or $37.3 million. The total for our five-year CIP plan is $1.049 billion. And then on this slide we show the fund balance commitment categories that council will need to reaffirm. These or other categories when the budget is adopted. We do not need to set aside amounts for each category as this will be determined after the FY25 fiscal year is closed and we have our year-end actual results. And at that time we'll have a better idea of 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 in November. And in closing the second and final budget public hearing will be held at City Hall in Council Chamber on September 25th at 6 p.m. and information on the city's budget is available on the city's website. Thank you. Thank you Liz. 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 do we have any? We do have some cards. Huh? We do have cards. Six something. I'm sorry I'm sorry you're good. I thought it was fine. You're good. We'll call speakers two at a time Madam Chair. Yes and for those who are speaking three minute time limit applies and you announce your name and address before speaking. First two speakers Madam Chair Stephen Sherwood and Yordanis Mola please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address City Council. Good evening Council. Hope I was doing well on 9-11. Three minutes isn't going to do it for me and I just wanted to plead to you guys at this point. Your name and address first. I'm sorry. That's all right. Yeah this is my second time you know visiting you guys. Stephen Sherwood 155 Alameda Way Northeast. Last time I was here I was referencing the airport and that was the first and last time I've seen you guys. But the I don't know budgets to me when I do my budget I started at zero and what I'm seeing here is a uh and correct me if I'm wrong on this but 202 million dollars for project funding um you know we're looking at the numbers I came up with in a brief period of time just weren't making sense to me at all uh you know over a seven percent increase over what we spent last year um I've never seen the roads so bad in this town since I've been here I've been here well I came here prior to 75 but I've been living here since 2005 and I've never seen the roads in worse condition uh my car I had I get aligned uh probably every eight months uh and these are supposed to be major roads these aren't back roads and I just don't know what's going on uh the I noticed that the lights are all have been out for two weeks along the uh the waterfront there between snow aisle bridge and coffee pot um out looks like two of the poles across the bridge have been sitting there nothing um the sewer system you know my neighbor got flooded he told me there's only a pipe for the sewer system for the flood water that we had during the storms was only 13 inches last uh rain we had I don't know what two weeks ago or whatever uh that came up over by curve I couldn't even see where the water was supposed to be going down and that wasn't even a major rain uh I like to know what what happened since last year I mean you got it you had another increase uh with the utilities and I thought that was supposed to pay for some of this uh stuff that the the impact fees of these buildings have been building downtown should be they weren't addressed at the time I know that's history but something's got to be resolved so I I would like to have a request for an extension of this to be able to come up and discuss it with somebody uh after my accountant looks at these numbers because I don't believe what I saw I'm not an accountant but I want to have this done at my expense to see you know see what else we can do also there was a a seven page letter that was delivered to uh the city uh the dojo florida or whatever that was crickets what's that all about what did that letter say thank you thank you sir hi my name is yordano smola I'm a resident of 2000 gandy boulevard north st petersburg florida 33702 and I am here again to support the demands of the save our streets campaign with dream defenders for more funding for youth programming and for more outreach we want to stop violence in our communities and our budget should reflect that across the country and here in st pete one of the best indicators of where we see more violence is where there is a lack of investment in a local community the city budget should be a people's budget and we should reflect what the community actually wants which based on our outreach is more accessible youth programming and more knowledge about them while we know that organizations and both the city are hosting youth programs many people in the neighborhood still don't know about them we need to fund more and thorough active outreach to the community to make sure they can take advantage of these programs the city needs to invest in paid more positions to expand its current engagement and outreach to the community in order to boost awareness and use the programs available to them like I mentioned at one of the last city council meetings back in July we've met with both city council and the mayor and some of the things that came out of those meetings was an idea to hire youth as part of this initiative to help conduct the outreach to both reach young audiences and also give the youth an opportunity to gain better leadership skills that they can utilize later in life and we want this idea to become a reality in the city drafted budget under education and youth opportunities in the safe summer program there's roughly about two million dollars of grants for organizations to host youth program and out of the nine hundred and sixty seven million dollar budget that is about zero point two zero zero point zero two percent of the overall budget um just for like visual purposes we also like created a mini graph to show how that reflects and in this sheet are 100 squares each square representing one percent of the nine hundred sixty seven dollar uh nine hundred sixty seven million dollar budget um and this top square with a thin line of blue is showing how zero point zero two percent represents for grants for youth programming and meanwhile the budget proposes another increase for 10 additional million dollars for police which is about 17 percent over the overall budget which you can see here represented in the 17 green squares in the overall budget diagram there needs to be more investment in youth programming and investment in more comprehensive outreach to advertise and engage the community this is what the community is asking for and as city public officials you should be prioritizing the needs of the community and championing for this investment thank you next two speakers jay james and franklin alvis please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address to the council hello my my name is jay james my pronouns are they them and 204227th street south lifelong resident of this here city third generation native my people have been here for over 100 years and i say that all to say that i haven't come here for a long time and for a lot of time we've been communicating with our neighbors you know and they've been telling us the same things over and over and we've been having conversations with y'all um for a while and not much things have changed so i have a visual these are split peas for some reason i have bags and bags of split peas in my house so i decided to use them these are a bag of split peas that represent the total budget of the city of about uh what a one billion dollars i think that's a lot of money um this is the amount that is going to youth funding no look not even a handful this versus this and as i say every time i come here show me your budget and i'll show you your values so this really your values is this really your values give me pennants pennies to our children if this really values you know it is it's getting really disheartening in some ways you know i have the same conversations with y'all with the mayor with the mayor's office you know we get to oh we came too late okay we come early or you still came too late because we decided like it's like y'all we're getting the runaround on how you all want things done and you know we've been polite we're dream offenders if you know anything about us you know we are a revolutionary organization that does direct action and we've been nice we've been going the way that you all say we should go within the proper channels and yet we still get to run around my community is like suffering like for real the job market is going to to total crap you know everything is going up the rent's going up my rent went up with another what 15 20 percent this year the rents is going up um duke has raised its rates a lot you know y'all are raising their utility rates a lot everything is going up but and that's just the finances what are y'all doing for our kids we all say you care about gun violence the number one um issue that people have said would help reduce gun violence is having um before and after school programs for teenagers and other youth and even young adults but that is not reflected in the budget this this come on now hi everybody uh franklin 10 26 9th avenue south uh i'm here today because i of course care about the investment that the city is making in its people and i think the number one investment that we have to be revisiting is our investment in youth um it's not a problem it's not a problematic concern it's just it's a full-on public safety as someone who sits for the membership chair of kona i attend probably as my partner says a little bit too many neighborhood meetings but i get to see the the breadth of what's happening in all these different neighborhoods some cso's will talk about hey these are how many cars were stolen in your neighborhood and another one at a different neighborhood will talk about hey these are how many found stolen cars that we have in your neighborhood in my own experience in campbell park uh over the last i guess we'll go over kind of the last six months we've had two hijacked cars one that crashed into a house and another one that crashed and killed someone uh senior in our community an elder all of both of those were within the span of four months we've had even just uh a couple weeks ago a bunch of teenagers murder a man in his 40s just in the street uh trying to find resources to bring them back to your community is practically impossible i hear words that hey you know people will come out i actually just texted the residents who those that that man was murdered in front of their house they have a young child no one has come to talk to them to make sure that they're okay to check on their mental health um it's sad and so these things are preventable these are all of these situations are teenagers they're children that are getting involved in these things i've had neighbors their kids knocking on my door just bored out of their mind they cannot get into programs they don't know how to find them it's it's too hard and as the neighborhoods start shifting right we have a lot of investors within these communities as you start to flip the houses those realtors come in and you know see click fix and try to clean up the blocks the sense of what these communities mean start to change right new residents move in those neighborhood associations might spring up and a lot of those things that come first are policing right see click fixing and it's not necessarily reflective of what the community needs or what it's looking for and policing is just not a long-term solution for for what's happening here we need meaningful investment in youth we need real connections that will come out to communities to help people connect them through resources this isn't like reinventing the wheel or asking something new i mean there's many times many of you heard me talk about i'm just calling offices for rehab assistance for just general purposes to try to bring those resources to neighborhoods there's not even flyers for people who don't have access to the internet that have low internet literacy and these are just easy things that we can do but we really need to just review what we're investing in look at the kids think of our future because we need to keep communities together and investing in those use and keeping that going is an enormous part of that so thank you thank you next two speakers there's two speakers madam chair steven bearfield and i believe it's latora bowls i believe that's the last name please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council my name is steven bearfield i reside at 5036 cassilloway south in st pete uh been in st pete for the second stent uh since 1992 been involved with our sister cities programs for many many years and with spiffs more recently i am concerned that we that spiffs as an organization because we have two relationships with the city one as an arts grant recipient and one as a contractor to operate sister cities because of a new rule in the arts grant program we were not allowed to apply for an arts grant this year i brought that to council and mayor's attention i guess a couple of months ago at a council meeting and in looking at the budget i see the forty thousand dollar amount that is set for sister cities but i don't see anything set aside for spiffs perhaps it's tucked in another category i'm not sure about that but that's my concern is that that not be forgotten we are looking at our 50th year having provided services to this community we are thrilled that we are seeing about three thousand students on on a thursday and about three thousand students on a friday exposing them to literally dozens of cultures uh practices sounds smells looks and so forth and really want to continue to do that and especially to celebrate the 50th year of of accomplishing that this coming spring and it'll be very difficult to do that without some grant support from the city so i leave that with leave you with that thought thank you latora bowls at 833 22nd street south um good evening chair and council members again i'm latora bowls and i serve as the executive director of the deuces live the only main street organization organization for the historic 22nd street corridor first i want to thank you for your investment in the st pete's main street program including the 55 annually allocated to the deuces live your support shows the city's commitment to small business corridors and cultural preservation while we are grateful for that support the reality is the 55k must stretch not only across my salary as the executive director but also our community programming this is not sustainable it does leave us without the ability to fully invest in the staff and resources needed to manage the corridor to market our businesses to provide meaningfully support to the entrepreneurs who are the backbone to the deuces that's why tonight i'm respectfully requesting an additional 45k of that budget for the deuces live this increase will allow us to adjust the executive director salary so it is aligned with the main street other programs have a part-time assistant to kind of help with the marketing with the events and administrative support and establish a small business fund on the corridor that way we can offer micro grants we can do emergency loans even help with paying essential bills like lights and water just so they can keep their doors open and importantly it will ensure the deuces live can maintain our accreditation status with the florida and national main street accreditation does require attending quarterly trainings across florida participating in the national conferences often out of state and paying annual membership fees these are essential and they also are very expensive and without additional support we do risk falling behind with this additional investment the city wouldn't just be funding operations you'd be directly funding the businesses events and people who keep the deuces alive while ensuring we remain in good standing as a nationally recognized main street program every dollar you provide is multiplied through grants sponsorships and private partnerships so with the additional we can sustain our leadership strengthen our programming and keep the small businesses on the corridor thriving one and one at a time the city's most historic corridor ever so thank you for your leadership and for considering the request there's two speakers alan i think it's isidro and rena lester please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address city council hi everyone my name is alan and my residency is until 61 7th avenue in largo i am a student at the st petersburg college program it's more specifically the public administration program i am in my last year would you just give us your last name oh isidro yes thank you um i am my last year and for my policy leadership class we had an assignment to meet with an expert and create a case study project regarding a city council meeting i was interested in attending st petersburg city council meeting today and hearing about budget proposal i reached out to the city clerk for some guidance to finding an expert that i can talk to about the budget proposal i had the opportunity to talk with the budget director elizabeth yesterday she's great she's amazing and i appreciate her appreciate her taking the time to discuss the city proposed budget she's very kind and knowledgeable and we discussed the details and procedures of how the city proposed budget gets put together i'm here to say that i support the recommended budget proposal i did my research and spoke with the budget director elizabeth funding things like education youth opportunities neighborhood safety and along with other services are crucial for a city to run successfully thank you good evening everyone my name is rena luster um i'm a new home owner my mother is here with me she's 72 years old what's your address ma'am our address is 21 42 oakley avenue south that's in midtown um the things that i would like to address with you is affordable housing it's wonderful to have a home when it took a lifetime to receive it but also at the same time we have now been stricken with the property tax which i never thought it would be that strenuous on anyone so i'm asking each and every one of you to think about if you have a mother like i do if you went without for many things many years and that you had to start all over without a job during the pandemic and when you had to use all your resources to find a affordable housing and what i mean by that that my mother stayed in a place for 24 years where the rent keep kept increasing year by year and as her daughter i said there's a way out we've got to find it so i took my resources to carry my mother through and step out on faith to go through the programs that you offer for affordable housing now the issue is property tax how is it fair that for someone has limited income to have a huge property in tax just because someone sold their house for four hundred thousand dollars doesn't mean that i can afford the tax bill for that person i think that you guys need to take a long look do a strenuous a strenuous audit about property tax and value because it's unfair that we have to endure that i don't have it easy but the where i say and where my mother lives in midtown i see poverty day by day i see people that are homeless day by day i had to put things in place to stop people from taking water that wanted to survive or to use electric because they didn't have it i'm not ashamed but i ask you to take a long look and think about the oddity of the electricity and the suffering of our people our children do not have enough because if they don't have enough they come steal they'll kill they'll sell drugs and they'll continue if we do not look back for them it starts with us as an adult my mother is 72 years old it took a long time for me to understand what it is to work to earn and to give but i'm asking you look at the bigger picture here and think about our children for our future and our adults and i and our senior citizens thank you thank you no more speakers madam no more speakers we have one person in zoom but since this is a public hearing there no there's no zoom okay the public comment portion of the hearing sure i think that might oh somebody just came in somebody just came in okay hold on kathleen spot span and go ahead ma'am max mccain can you finish hi there i'm kathleen span i live at 3800 29th f north i've lived there since 1996 by myself um i'm here to talk about the water rates going up like i said i've lived there 96 by myself i don't use any more water now than i did then and my water bill is higher than my electric bill and that's unheard of so i was i heard her saying about her mother and stuff like that affordability and stuff is there any way to grandfather people in that have lived here 25 years in their homes and nothing's changed to keep those rates down some for them so they don't have to each year come up with more money to pay these bills pay the rent pay the electric and all that stuff you know we've paid our due we've i've like i said i've been there almost 35 40 years nothing's changed and i know you say it's for progress and stuff like that but the all the development that you're having downtown put it in those impact fees for these people and their condos have water included and you know they're using tons of water so make their higher bills higher they want to live downtown on luxury buildings and stuff like that have that happened you know as far as maintenance i've lived in that same house i have never seen anybody come out to try to fix the drainage in my neighborhood either the gutters or anything like that and i live in one of the highest parts and last year when the hurricanes came in the whole neighborhood got flooded and of course i said stuff didn't get open and drainage and this and that always something happens but if you're going to charge for that at least come and do maintenance in the neighborhoods as they said fix the roads fix the stuff that needs to be done so that that's all i'm trying to say is help the people that have been here forever keep the cost down so they'll stay here forever and not have to go to affordable housing and not have to do that that's it thank you hi good evening everybody max mccann and sloan mccann 2648 third avenue south just want to quickly ask council and the administration to increase funding for safe streets projects after my family and i moved here our the cost of our auto insurance doubled overnight and i soon found out why when a jeep ran a red light and crashed into our little prius and totaled it out with sloan in the car too my wife hurt her back i hurt my back luckily sloan is made of rubber and was okay is that true yeah but she talked about it for weeks it was still traumatizing for her even though she wasn't physically injured so we've got a problem we've got a real problem we've got a crisis hiding in plain sight here we've got um a similar similar population to arlington virginia but we have five times the number of fatalities i never use the word accident because these are not accidents they're policy failures we have the power to make our streets safer past administrations have chosen not to we've chosen to prioritize speed over safety and it's time we turn that around i think there's a lot of benefit to funding our own projects instead of relying on state funding because that has some drawbacks that we've seen lately so let's do this with our own money we don't have to wait on projects like 28th street recently a couple months ago a cyclist was hit by a driver on 28th street we've been planning a complete streets project there for five years if we had moved faster we could have prevented that i believe i can't prove that but i believe it um so we do some good stuff though we do a bike to school event for sloan school council member floyd and council member gibbons have joined us on that do you want to invite anybody uh if you go to uh perkins or sanderlin it uh it starts at bandit bandit coffee that's right you're all welcome to join us whether you have kids they are not 8 40. it starts at 8 40. all right great thank you all appreciate it thank you no more speakers okay so at this point the public comment portion of the hearing is now closed and now we enter council comments discussion consideration of any amendments council member driscoll thank you and thanks to all who took the time to come out tonight to speak and um to remind us of what our job is it can be it can be really difficult because even though we have a um a strong budget it's impossible to fund everything that everybody wants this year in particular we've had to make some tough decisions a couple of things that i heard tonight i would like to have consideration made um and this is something that um perhaps we can look at when we get into the budget cleanup process um i'll start with the last thing first i agree that um we need to put as much possible into making our streets safer for everyone and in the um citywide infrastructure capital improvement fund we do have some funding here for complete streets sidewalk improvements there could be some money that we can find tonight to put into that um and i know complete streets is actually in two different funds but that is um something that i would like for us to consider i'm looking forward to hearing from my colleagues on all of these things um the main streets program is something that's very important to me um having a a robust um small business infrastructure throughout these main through these main street programs is um it's not just good for business but it's one of those things that really highlights the unique aspects of different neighborhoods in our city in past years i've asked for increased funding for the main streets programs i think it's been a while since we've increased the funding for those and it's getting harder and harder for the folks who run our main streets programs in our city to really make ends meet and and move the ball forward for the sake of the businesses that rely on them so um when we get to clean up i would like some consideration for um an increase for all of those main streets programs there is um i i had asked the administration they provided a list of all of the different ways that we fund um youth programs and um while i believe we can be we can be proud of the amount of funding that we have i think the real challenge i think what we need to take a closer look at is how is that money being spent is it working what are the outcomes and should we invite our residents who have been speaking on this for so long pleading with us to help our youth and ask them to help us with solutions because for all of what we're spending on youth programming right now it sounds like we could do a heck of a lot better than we are and the people who are bringing their voices to city council time after time deserve to be heard deserve to be at the table and deserve to be part of the solutions so while i'm not going to ask for a change to the funding on that i would like to put that under a magnifying glass and really look at how we might be able to reimagine our youth programs so that it meets the needs of today and i will be following up on that so i will give that commitment tonight the one big thing that i am still having an issue with um and i got a few but i gotta i gotta pick something here and um i i am still having a really hard time with the um the way that we have um reduced funding for different aspects of the fire department today is the 24th anniversary of the 9 11 terrorist attacks on that day 343 firefighters lost their lives running towards danger to help others get out to put that into perspective as of today st petersburg fire rescues sworn strength number is 355 imagine losing every single firefighter in our city in one day imagine our firefighter our fire department being completely wiped out in one day that's how many were lost that day one of the firehouses engine company 54 ladder 4 battalion 9 in midtown suffered the greatest loss of all all 15 firefighters from that from that firehouse lost their lives they left that station to go and help and not a single one of them came back dozens more have died since 9 11 dozens of firefighters have died from illnesses due to the toxic environment that they endured while they were conducting their rescue efforts many others did survive but their lives were changed in ways that we can't even imagine one of those firefighters his name was chief peter gansey he was the highest ranking uniform firefighter for the fire department of new york on that day he was scheduled for jury duty someone was giving him a ride one of the other firefighters was giving him a ride to jury duty and they heard what happened and they shot down to the site and he set up command and started ordering people and and you know getting things going he and others um were were crushed when the south tower collapsed and they dug themselves out and immediately went to the north tower where he set up another spot and he it was he who told mayor giuliani to get out he died when the north tower collapsed so we have our own chief gansey here and when i read stories about 9 11 and about the firefighters and especially chief peter gansey it makes me think of rich and all of the other firefighters who serve us many of the firefighters died that day because they had bad equipment they had a faulty communication system and the radios that they used weren't sufficient enough for for many of them to hear the evacuation order they didn't know many of them didn't even know that the other tower had been hit as i've read about this there are some who say that the reason that they had that bad equipment was because the powers that be decided to put off getting the most updated equipment to them there's no telling how many lives would have been saved if they had had the right equipment to get that message to turn around and get out so i think about that and i look at what we have before us today this proposed budget and when i see that we've had in our fire department we've had positions that have been cut when i see that the funding for the firefighters protective bunker gear has been cut that doesn't sit well with me it shouldn't sit well with anyone a couple of days ago we received a letter from the union leader stating that these things were not needed it came as a surprise to me because for weeks this was someone who had been wholeheartedly supportive of my efforts to get this funding restored and then a couple days ago i get a letter saying we don't we get a letter saying we don't need any of that stuff we just voted on their contract last week so i'll let you connect the dots there but i have had conversations with the people who were actually living this work and i can tell you that they have told me some of the statements in that letter are simply not true even worse some of them saw that letter as a complete betrayal so i look at what we have defunding that bunker gear is a risk because the chief needs to give each firefighter two sets of gear so that they always have a clean set it protects them from cancer and other illnesses that equipment gets expensive more and more all the time and especially as new technology emerges to keep them even safer the contribution to this fund that we make every single year is a commitment that we've made and we should never break that commitment as far as the positions that were cut our fire chief he didn't ask for a trade-off he asked he wanted more staffing not the trade-off but he was forced to make a choice if he wanted to create a couple of new positions our fire chief should never have to make that choice he should have every position necessary to ensure that the fire department fully functions at the top of their game i know that the administration has given us some creative math to justify these cuts but the bottom line is that the only acceptable math when it comes to the fire department is addition for these reasons for the remembrance of those in new york and here in st petersburg over the years who have lost their lives in the line of duty who had their last alarm i'm asking city council to make our fire department whole to give them all of the funding for these things to reinstate all of the lost positions the cadet positions the public information officer position and to make that contribution to the bunker gear and keep our commitment we the city council we have the power to place that funding in the fire department where they should have it city council controls the budget we have a choice that we can make today i'm asking are we going to stand with those who want to shortchange the fire department or do we want to stand with the men and women who put their lives on the line for us every single day and with that i am going to make a motion to amend the budget to include the funding for the annual contribution to the bunker gear to restore the five cadet positions that were cut during this fiscal year and to restore the public information officer position that was also cut during this fiscal year thank you council member gibbons thank you madam vice chair um again i just want to thank the staff and administration so much for all your hard work that goes into this budget process um this isn't my first rodeo but definitely my first time on this side of the desk um for 10 years i've been showing up to these chambers advocating for our community uh speaking up for our youth and our low-income residents um but there were a couple of things that i just want to bring to administration's attention um ask a couple of questions about where we stand uh the first is the city's main street business corridors uh i i've requested a stipend increase i understand we're in a tough budget year you know there's cuts left and right but you know we always are told we can't find the money for this we can't find the money for that but some kind of way we find the money to pay for what we want um i want to support our needs um and the last thing that i want to do is see valuable institutional knowledge like what miss bowls brings and other people bring to the table from the edge district to grand central we have so much out there um and i just don't want to lose it simply because we couldn't afford to keep them um so i just want to make sure we're cognizant of that fact don't want to fall behind investing in our businesses either um also funds for child care so that was one of the requests that i made um workforce training programs for preschool and resident-led home daycares we know that the federal government has made significant cuts to early learning coalition um so i would like to step in and help wherever we can there um we recognized earlier today um literacy and i think our youth when we talk about investing in them we have to invest in their education um so on that note in addition to child care funds um excuse me funds for child care provider training also want us to invest in our after school tutorial program uh the sanderland center has requested funds um that request has fallen on deaf ears um they also operate a food pantry there as well um as we talk about food insecurity i i was looking at the budget you know when we we have almost a 968 million dollar budget uh but less than 1.2 million dollars is allocated towards combating food insecurity that's a drop in the budget bucket so i just again want to make sure that we are prioritizing um those hardest hit areas those food deserts which a majority of them are within district six and seven um and and i'm thinking about uh the saint pete housing authority the american red cross has a program that they've offered uh to help with uh combating food insecurity starting a fresh food pantry to give access to those residents um healthy and nutritious food uh just again want to make sure that we our budget is reflective of our values as we talk about um issues and problems that continue to fester um we have some solutions some low-hanging fruit and i certainly think that's one that's worth investing in um also um speaking of education and youth opportunities story 727 that is an organization that trains at-risk youth uh specifically workforce development uh i certainly think if there is room in the budget for additional grants for youth development i understand we have our clan bayou program we have the bullseye youth usf bullseye program but there's so many more opportunities for us to step in and to help aid our community partners who are focused on giving our kids something productive to do uh i know idle hands of the devil's playground um and and the city can't be in the business of providing programming and facilitating that programming but we can certainly fund those organizations that do um i see a couple of them here today um and i and i certainly want to support those efforts if we can um and then also along the lines of education um i know that there was a pause and i'm going to pause for a minute to give administration opportunity to respond to this one on uh funds from the previous administration i think there was about eight million dollars in funds for digital equity um and i know dei is under attack um but i just wanted to know where we stood with those funds um do we anticipate receiving them um and if so um how can we invest in those community partners that are actually out there uh trying to close that digital equity gap i'm thinking about code box right they're providing training uh workforce training actually helping to to reach those goals and take us to that next level for economic development i'm thinking about the community tech house um this is a midtown centered community tech organization that's providing training uh and technology literacy uh for the community so i just want to know um if if we aren't counting on those federal dollars um will there be cdbg dollars to address this issue can we count on the park and recs budget uh i know there's a tasco team program but i believe that's specifically for a team so i'm talking about digital digital equity and inclusion uh thank you council member and uh good evening council tom green assistant city administrator um and and there's a lot to unpack there but let me try to answer the question about the digital inclusion grant i'm confirming i'm fairly certain we are not receiving that grant which is going to make it challenging to continue that eight million dollar investment when we're not going to be getting that grant but i do want to point out a couple other things well um that that you have raised you know administrator foster reminded me that in the cdbg dr we will have some resources available for food insecurity that will be available from through that programming elements so there are additional resources that could be coming in that sunrise saint pete programming to address some of those issues but i just i while i'm standing here i do want to remind council you know when we started this process we knew this year was going to be particularly challenging um so we really wanted to focus on maintaining the level of investments that we're doing currently so there's not a whole lot of new things that we were able to do because of the the revenue kind of constraints that we are under um so i just wanted to kind of share that and our our our goal was to um look for expense reductions where it would have the least amount of impact to operations of our organization and i think we've accomplished that um unfortunately there are some some expense reductions that um that we had to make i mean quite candidly we just had to make and and it did limit our ability to increase investments in places where we would like to make them thank you for that explanation tom i appreciate it and again i i understand sometimes we have our hands tied um i do want to talk for a moment um about youth um we talked about outreach and engagement of our youth um i would love to see that investment um not sure if we can comment more on youth opportunities um i did bring up tutorial programs i brought up grants for possibly employment for these youth um is that something that we can anticipate so good evening city council first of all i just want to thank all the council members for the past eight months of work that we've done together on the budget and appreciate all the work that we've done so far and council member as you know we've recently had uh brown come and give a presentation on some of the youth programs that she's doing you're aware of the uh innovative program that we have in the police department uh for youth programs and then such a significant number of programs in the recreation department so you know we're happy to uh come to a committee if you want to do an overview of all the youth programs um you know that we didn't hear from dr brown on we could do that we could brief you one-on-one but there's just a plethora of of youth programs that we have in the city and and we're happy to review that with you i appreciate that yeah and again note not discrediting dr brown and her hard work i appreciate it i just see so many community partners who are doing so much on their own that if we as local government can step in and pick up some of the slack you know and fill in the gaps where the state and federal government are not um i certainly think there's opportunities for us to do that and i see we're doing that right now with addressing our unhoused problem um i saw the dream defenders here um we are we've already allocated those rfp funds for social action dollars uh to combat that issue um there are funds that the county has that can actually help with social action outreach so when we talk about community navigators i will commend the administration on doing their part there to make sure we have boots on the ground so thank you uh also two thumbs up on the fluoride for families that was something that i was asking for ever health was asking for that as well um so i'm happy to see that we have money for that in the budget um i i do have a question about utility bill assistance um it was my understanding that there wasn't any money initially allocated in the general fund to help in fiscal year 26 so have we allocated any money for that so utility assistance again it's a very difficult topic um you know there's been federal dollars that have come down over the last five or six years that uh have helped significantly whether it was era or care program this is one area as you referenced before where you know the withdrawal of some of these federal or state level programs is very difficult we are looking at some potentials related to maybe moving some uh state housing partnership money around with some cra south st petersburg cra money we're looking at some opportunities uh we don't have that proposal in front of you today but it's very it frankly it's difficult to find funding uh for utility assistance right now uh this is one area where maybe we can uh talk in layer about you know our legislative agenda because this this utility assistance is important and we'll continue to keep working on it i appreciate it yeah very important and and i'm glad you mentioned that this is one of the things i've been saying about duke energy right as we have these negotiation conversations and we talk about that mou what additional dollars can they offer to help you know subsidize some of the costs for our customers um obviously we don't have the funds in our budget um and so if we can look for other revenue streams to get those dollars i certainly think that duke energy has those funds to help um spiffs and acts so i know that there were new rules that barred them for being able to apply uh for cultural arts grants um i certainly think it's it's worth us having conversations with their leadership uh i'm thinking about spiffs right now they're in pinellas park how can we get them back to saint pete they are the saint pete you know uh international folk fair folk fair festival so if we can get them back to saint petersburg if it only takes another ten or fifteen thousand dollars whatever that is i certainly think it's worth it especially for the 50th anniversary uh and then i'm thinking about act um they are an arts conservatory group that is focused on exposing our inner city youth to performing arts uh their leader dr alex harris a product of this community uh he's an african-american man who is doing a lot of great things and i don't see anyone else who looks like him doing what he's doing in this community um and i certainly think he's worthy of more than fifty thousand dollars um when you think about the the students that he's reached and the success record that he's had um i really would like us to reconsider uh funding them with additional uh resources uh and then lastly i i just want to say you know um we really have to get creative with that cra um from the south saint petersburg cra to the in-town cra where we don't have funds i certainly hope that can supplement i hope it could supplement some of the costs for some of these other things that we say we don't have funds for so with that madam vice chair thank you so much thank you council member floyd thank you uh pull up my notes um you know thank you to everybody who came out today uh i heard very little that i disagreed with from the crowd and uh just so you all know like you know we put in our budget requests and they don't all get met every year um and a lot of what we discussed a lot of what the public discussed today was in my budget requests i'll start by talking about youth uh programming i i think uh that you know we we do have a lot of youth programming um and we could always do better i i think though that one thing uh that's i don't know gone unaddressed in the conversation or maybe not gone unaddressed but not clearly been articulated in my opinion is uh just exactly what the ask has been from the community members that have come here to talk uh i think that you know today there was a little disagreement but in general they've been supportive of what we've done on youth programming they just want to see a more like direct to people connection to the programming and they literally mean like have people go out door to door in neighborhoods i honestly i think right now i don't think we actually need to put much more money in the budget to do something like that like we could just get people to do it that are employed and actually already do outreach so i i don't feel that that's a hindrance to this budget or anything i think that's something we can just continue to work on together uh it's been tricky because it was a conversation led by a previous council member uh and then uh held in a department in which the leader or i guess an office in which the leader left and so it just has not been able to gain traction for a number of reasons glad to hear other people uh say that they want to work on it i'm going to continue to look into it as well uh but i don't think that there's any reason we can't uh bring our our what we have at the city a little bit closer to what people are asking for um same vein safe streets programs complete streets we all know the pressures that we're under i appreciate hearing from community advocates about it very much supportive of that i think that actually what needs to happen is we probably need to get together as a city look at where funding is coming where the funding uh how do i look this what the future of funding is for it from the state and federal level and then make a decision about how we want to change how we fund things here it's probably a pretty big conversation right now and so uh i i'd love to continue i can say now i'll uh start pushing for a conversation like that but i think there's a lot of factors for us to consider but i do have some ideas and i look forward to that conversation um to comment on council member driscoll's comments on the fire department i actually have some questions uh that i think administration could probably answer pretty quickly so my understanding is that the bunker gear we have for uh all the employees but we were gonna buy them all new gear and we did not yet it's not in this budget but that's because we felt that we are just deferring it for a year and we could do it in the future what so that that transfers to like an equipment replacement fund to replace bunker gear and the self-contained breathing apparatus and the bunker year is about every three to five years that we replace and the self-breathing apparatus is about 10 years right now we have enough to replace the bunker gears right now whenever they need to it's the amount where we you know we keep are getting towards this the self-breathing the scba gear and we have another five to six years where we would need to replace that so by escaping this year we thought it was a unique way to not affect the actual operations of the department and then we have five to six years to make that amount up and hopefully we may be able to make it up in the next year or two and just to be to be clear we're not deferring buying the equipment the equipment's not due to be bought this year yeah yeah we're deferring making the contribution contribution to the fund okay sorry well and that is how i understood it but yeah my language did not uh match that because from what i understand the safety gear is something that expires and has to be bought at some point so there's even if we don't make a contribution to the fund we have to do this at some point and uh okay all right i'm not gonna continue on that line right there um and then you know uh there was also something about the cadet program brought up and it uh it's been my understanding that you know we like the cadet program it's very good but it takes a long time to get cadets up to speed so i was under the impression that we were focusing on hiring inexperienced people uh is that accurate or hello city council um so yes that is accurate so the you introduce yourself for for those that are here that may not know who you are that's all right pete watts fire rescue chief st petersburg fire rescue so yes uh to answer your question the focus right now is on hiring uh experienced firefighter and firefighter firefighter emts and firefighter paramedics the cadet program is a uh it's a program where we hire people basically with no experience and we provide the uh we provide the funding for them to go get certified okay thank you for that just well since you're up here how long does it take from like hiring a cadet to them being like good to go i don't know what terminology to use but i just with that so it just depends if uh someone comes to us the cadet program is basically for people without any certifications or they can have one or the other to be a firefighter in st petersburg it takes uh you have to be at least an emt or a uh have a firefighter certificate if someone comes to us with one of those certificates that means we don't have to pay for the other so um usually it takes about eight months for both and then we put them through a 12-week orientation class where we teach them basically the st petersburg fire rescue way and then after that then they uh start service to the to the community thank you for that information so you know with those two pieces of information i'm i believe that the fire department still has what it needs to move forward and i think that they were probably collaborative in the process of choosing uh how the funding would get done this year uh and i understand where you're coming from council member driscoll um but you know i think there was some mischaracterization there uh you mentioned letter from a union leader no that's a representative of the employees uh a group of people who are 99 percent uh dues paying members to the union that's their elected representative telling us what uh the membership wants and you're always able to find dissident voices within a union uh and it's you're with well within your right to disagree as well but you know when i have their elected representative telling me one thing like that holds a lot of weight for me and so um yeah that's where i'm at on that issue so i'll leave that there and then i have two more things real quick one is about unions as well i see fpsu members in the house uh i i look to see i don't i see that you're in attendance i look to see if i had an email from you forgive me if i missed or anything love to see y'all love to hear from you let me know what you need uh and then uh the last thing though is i just want to say to administration it looks like we had we we had a a budget year i don't want to say it was difficult because our ad valorem share increased and a decent amount but not as much as we were used to over the last few years and uh we had to make decisions differently than we did in the past uh i am grateful for the work to not have to cut services uh employees all of those things i'm grateful for that work and i just want to particularly point out i'm very grateful for being able to continue to fund uh the tenant assistance in the codes department and in um our legal aid for tenants and i think those things are incredibly important as the state makes it more difficult for us to work on tenant issues through preemption uh and i think we have to continue to do those things i think those things save us money in the long run so just want to thank you again for that which is something i did during the workshop as well uh and say that uh and i'll end on saying that i know that we'll you know we don't know what the future holds property market's not great uh right this second um and doesn't project great but i look forward to you know working together really well next year is what i'll say in what actually i might actually call a difficult year so we'll see um but i think you know having said all that a lot of the things that i think community members are here for and that i'm interested in as well uh can get done uh with existing funds and so that's how i'll work to uh move forward so but thank you very much chair thank you thank you councilmember gabbard thank you chair and uh thank you first to everyone who came out this evening um the dream defenders left us uh but i just wanted to actually start there so i hope they are still listening um so you know that they discussed we've told them about the process we've told them to come earlier well well they did it they um i know at least for myself and i feel like from our conversation on the dais that many of my colleagues have met with them and um i think that a lot of the uh programming that they have proposed is very worthwhile we should be having more conversations about that i did include a lot of their proposal in my budget requests um that was an item that did not have uh funding even though i know there is other funding for youth programs so i would love for us to come to a council committee meeting at some point and have that conversation because the thing that's difficult sometimes is that buckets aren't absolute and things will live in various places throughout the budget and even as somebody who's been doing this now for eight years it's sometimes hard to track youth programming is one of those complete streets is one of those they live in a lot of different places and arts funding that's another one um so i would love for administration to come and have a robust conversation about that the one thing that i am positive though that does not live within the budget is the specific request about hiring youth to do outreach we have a program in the cra now at the st pete youth farm that are youth ambassadors that get stipends to be at the youth farm to work on our food insecurity issues that could potentially be a program a stipend program that maybe we could look at to replicate for community outreach so um i'm asking administration and i was trying to pull it up here in the budget but once again things get kind of bucketed um do you know off the top of your head probably don't i don't know if mike is here um but what that amount is that we budget specifically for youth stipend at the st pete youth farm i know that's a very minute detail that's probably difficult to find i know we budget annually about 538 000 for that for the entire program yes absolutely but i don't know um exactly what that amount would be and i mean understanding you know that's that's a part-time i think it's probably pretty similar in the way that it's lined up i just don't know what that amount is um you know and and it's been to everyone's point a challenging uh budget year we started the year with you know i think it was eight million dollars under where we thought we were going to end up and we've obviously had a lot of additional expenses from the storms we had issues with pensions i mean we went through a very successful um bargaining with both our police and our fire so i understand how we got here and how limited the resources are um you know it's kind of like trying to look for money like in the couch cushions almost um to see how we can try to find additional dollars one of the things that i had asked for and i actually received thank you tom on tuesday is okay so it's a tough budget year where do we find a little bit of extra money one of the things i wanted to look at is what the increases is actually going to be in salary for city council and the mayor because if it's a tough year why are we taking increases in our salary so i looked at it and tom provided it and it's about twenty thousand dollars total so it's not a ton of money but is the ambassador program and the stipends a ton of money i don't believe they really are um and so that's just one idea i would be more than willing to forego my minimal increase in my salary in order to help fund additional programming for youth so throwing that out there i'm not going to make a motion about it i don't know how my colleagues feel about it but i'm willing to forego mine this year if it does anything to help pad the budget in any way shape or form but it would need to be something very specific and something that would specifically involve our youth so i wanted to bring that up um second thing food insecurity so council member gibbons thank you for starting with it thank you for bringing it up it was the top thing on my list as soon as i came in i saw the american heart association sitting here i assumed you are here to talk about the proposal that you brought forward in your partnership with feeding tampa bay for jordan park and the sunshine center so i would like to know from administration i know we had conversations through i think it was the last cow that we had about kind of conversations that administration maybe has had with them where we landed with that i understand there's going to be dollars through cdbg dr but that's going to be a competitive process can we talk a little bit about kind of where things landed my uh thank you council member my recollection is that we had some significant discussions uh with them through community enrichment um you know but but based on on the current budget situation and the tightness of it that we felt that uh having them pursue some of our grant opportunities that are already in place and already funded in the budget might be the better route that was my recollection mike is that still the yes that's um that's exactly where we landed uh we chatted with administration this is a whole whole nother word sorry um we chatted with administration and came up with some different strategies and uh rob is exactly right um i know kim gathered some information on the program and we thought that it would be a program that could potentially apply for some of the grant funding that kim has available through healthy saint pete okay um i believe it was a hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars so it changed a bit um and again we got more information there was some um if my recollection is is right i don't have my file right in front of me um but uh there were some of the programmatic elements that were outside of st petersburg city limits and so there was um a delta there and some of the some of the funding some of the budget okay so um through those grants that is specific to cdbgdr is that the bucket of money or is that grants that exist within the budget today so social service grants potentially so the grants that are through the social services department by resolution can only be spent on homelessness true right so um the social action funding would not be an appropriate funding source for that um as mr jeffries already discussed there are the funding through the healthy food action plan and some of the things in his administration just a reminder you set aside five million dollars in public services through cdbgdr right now the thought is that two and a half million of that will go to the two largest um things that the community told us were the most important to them so there will be a competitive process at 1.25 million um for mental health and 1.25 million for food insecurity the other um there will be about a one and a half million dollars that will go towards housing opportunities for all competitive process right now we're thinking large grants and small grants so that there would be a bucket that would be for small grassroots organizations as well as those more seasoned organizations that have you know done large scale projects before and then the final million dollars would be set aside for resiliency and helping nonprofits build their capacity to respond in future disasters thank you for that thank you for the reminder we get these different we got our budget but then we have all this money so it gets a little bit confusing and if it's confusing for us i can only imagine what it is for the community so um i'd like to continue working with you um seeing how we can really bridge that divide our seniors we had um senior month earlier today that we celebrated um so you know really making sure that we are touching on that and working with you on a very worthwhile program so thank you for being here tonight and advocating um speaking of our seniors i'm just going to elevate it again we said it earlier i'm going to say it again it was on my budget request it did not get funded um the sunshine center redevelopment uh we have got to make this a priority for our seniors um god willing we all get there someday and this city uh deserves a world-class senior center a reimagined senior center i see a senior center that also maybe has housing associated with it i think there's a real opportunity to be able to have a shining jewel in our city for our senior community and so i'm just going to elevate that again i know that's not going to happen in this year's budget but i would like us to start having serious conversations about that into next year's budget safe streets i'll mention it again um and council member floyd actually hit it right on the head we had a forward panelist meeting yesterday four of us sit on forward panelist conversations about the changes at the federal level um i think that is going to be very very important for us back in 2018 i went through the complete streets program through smart growth america very excited that i can still call myself a complete streets champion and i will always advocate max for that funding but we're going to have to be really strategic about the way that we do that because that is changing rapidly at the state and the national level and that is going to put an even greater burden on that resource for us so i'll commit to you that we'll continue to work on that i know that's something that's of a passion to all of us and spiffs thank you for being here so i just had a conversation earlier today with someone from the community who said to me why can't we have a unity day why can't we have a city-wide unity day at the pier at the vannoy where we bring all of these cultures together and we can really celebrate and i said you mean spiffs you mean the folk fair that's what we used to do right but now you've moved to pinellas park and you have our name st pete so i would like to also join councilmember givens in saying that you know we asked for clarification on that grant why you know why did this happen was this an unintended consequence um i don't know that we've really had an answer to that yet so i would like to understand that because we need to get you back in st pete and we need to unify you with the community that is crying for us to do more to recognize all of our community members and i think that you're a great catalyst to do that so um we definitely need to get back there stormwater cip as part of the bigger plan i'm not going to harp on it again because i know everybody's here tired of hearing me talk about it but if we don't do more about our stormwater our system the containment of stormwater how stormwater flows through our city i think that unfortunately we're going to be in a very different place in a few years as a viable productive place where people want to live if their houses are flooding every single time it rains and so i'm going to leave that there because everybody's heard me talk about this but i think that this is one of our biggest budget priorities because this goes right back to the people and protecting life and property and the investments that people have made in our city the last thing i'm going to say is about the fire department so i just want to remind everybody this is not the fire department of before we have a chief who desperately cares about the men and women who work on the front lines every single day if this were three years ago and we were talking about this i'd be right on board but today i trust that this chief and the union and thank you for pointing out that it's not one person it is the representative of the union that they are working exceptionally well together at a rate we've never seen before they were always at odds and now this chief and this union are working cohesively together they were very very happy with the collective bargaining process this year that budget came through we were all very proud of that we all voted unanimously unanimously for that and i am going to trust that the leadership of our fire department knows what our fire department needs and that they are going to make sure that we budget appropriately and that we staff appropriately the pio position i want to be clear about that too when the chief says that we need someone in emergency management i think our lived experience at the end of 2024 tells us that our emergency management team needs more support they cannot do it all by themselves there's what three of them i think two okay there's two hopefully there'll be three we have got to get them staffed up we have got to help them and that is what our chief tells us this position needs to be allocated for so i am going to trust that council member floyd and i know all too well the trouble you get in when you start talking about staffing and you start talking about decisions that leadership makes so i am going to trust our chief i'm going to just trust the union representative that they know what is best and i want every resident of the city of st petersburg to know our fire department has the equipment that they need to keep them safe and to keep us safe thank you madam chair thank you council member fig sanders thank you and good evening everyone um mine are going to be brief because you know we've had these budgeting conversations for a while and um there are some things that yes we would love to see um and that i didn't get everything that i asked for either however i am hoping for the budgeting cleanup process to be a little bit more fruitful for some of those items that did not get originally funded um but some of the things that i do want to voice again is the main street programs um because we look so much to our communities and to our neighborhoods to keep us informed as to what we need and for those that are in those positions trying to work with um our city council members representing them we want to make sure that they have everything that they need i also echo the sentiments for our youth um you know man mom of three and being out there in the community with the temptations and opportunities for trouble to find them no matter how we try to guard our children um from some of those things that we know would be detrimental um we need to have the opportunities and resources now as a city i think we're doing a phenomenal job um with our youth programming but there are some things that i would love for us to also consider i i still am um looking for act um you know me being in the band for many many many many years um showing that artistic side of our children and what they've provided and they've been around for a while i think fifty thousand dollars is a really a low value placed on what they bring to the city of st petersburg um as far as the youth outreach that everyone is concerned about um as you all know we do have a summer youth intern program that is year round um and my request for that four hundred thousand dollars is for it to be reimagined um for that rfp to take into consideration some of the things that we're asking for that could be some of those youth outreach um initiatives and in positions that we're talking about that can be some of those additional um you programming needs that we're looking for we're going to have to be creative we had to be creative with that program during covet and i think this gives us an opportunity to recreate that four hundred thousand dollars that we've already had allocated to that program when it comes down to i also sit on the homeless leadership alliance and although i am confident with some of the money that the cdbgdr funds are going to actually fund sitting in sitting in our board meetings and listening to the federal changes of some of these funding opportunities that is going to be for our own house is sad disappointing and i don't know where we're going to be in regards to we're talking next year i'm talking a year after that where we're going to be for our own house so while we're looking at ways to clean streets of from our own house i want us to look at ways to house our unhoused so we did not increase any funds in our social action funding which i really wanted um but i definitely don't want that that dollar amount to remain stagnant because we have to pay attention to i understand utility rates and everything are increasing because we want to make sure that we address our stormwater issues and then let us not forget we had three hurricanes last year so there was a whole a lot that our budget had to suffer through in preparation for this year but i i do want to ensure that you know our unhoused our homeless those needs are being met so that they are not considered trouble for our community but that they are a part of our community i also asked for small businesses um we we know that in order for our community to be successful everyone must thrive and everyone cannot work for other people whatever that infringement is whatever that blemish on their record is whatever that shortcoming may look like our entrepreneurship efforts i think need to be increased i think we need to spend additional dollars for that and as you all know i've talked a whole lot about our food truck vendors i'm asking begging and i'm i'm very very um confident um that hopefully we'll be able to help our small food trick uh food truck vendors and some of our other entrepreneurs that are not looking for brick and mortar locations because a lot of times in order to do well you have to go to where your clients and your customers are so i want us to actually look into some of that um but again those are some of the things that i wanted to voice out loud um on top of some of the other requests that i asked for but again i'm going to you know thank the mayor's office for for an administration for trying to meet a lot of our needs um you know because again just like it's hard for us to hear no it's also hard for you to try to get to a yes and a lot of us are going to keep asking over and over and over again um until we kind of get to a headway for that but again those are my requests and hopefully you know if we don't get it through this initial process that during that budget clean up a lot of our needs are addressed and with that thank you chair thank you councilmember harding thank you chair first i'd like to thank uh everyone who came in tonight um this is the part that matters this is the the level of government where you actually get to to talk to the decision makers and it's not an easy thing to do i wish we had more but i appreciate the uh everyone who showed up and and shared their thoughts and made their voice heard um sir in the blue hat uh i apologize i didn't get your name when you when you uh got up to speak thank you for your thoughts if you happen to be around when we end the meeting i have something for you um and i would like to thank uh administration liz especially liz this is my first budget process this is a a rather uh massive project with a billion dollar budget and uh and several different silos i think you you have performed admirably um dragging administrator green along the way and uh and i look forward to to finishing this process i want to i want to thank um administrator gertus and uh and all the all the uh the the department heads that that work with with him um balancing the the uh the asks and the needs and the wants of the eight electeds um that are reflecting the the needs and wants of the 330 000 of us who live in the city is not an easy thing um from district three thank you very much the the biggest thing that that uh the biggest topic that was talked about in district three um this year obviously was uh was stormwater and um and this year it took a it it i don't think that that this was true in years past i am sure that uh that this is very unique that we talked about stormwater um brujesh uh pram and and um and claude tankersley uh came up with uh and supported um three different projects that will be funded and start this year that will uh quite literally uh change the lives of thousands of people in district three when we get those projects done those were my big budget priorities all three of them were met i greatly appreciate um the the attention to uh to stormwater and um and i'm happy with the process thank you very much thank you chair thank you council member driscoll oh no i'm sorry okay i'll wait okay um so first of all thank you everyone for being here as you can see this is a very difficult and long process it's not a fun process and i will tell you that as you have seen here and heard everyone speak that everyone's getting everything they want either council members or the public or anyone and i will tell you that this year more than any of the other years i've served on city council i've gotten more emails from residents because they're feeling budget pressure and real real inflationary budget pressure and i know that i'm not the only one because all this stuff you know who pays for it and i say it all the time we all do period and if we talk about affordable housing and and finding affordable housing well if you're it's if it's making it more difficult for people to live here and your taxes go up and your utility rates go up and they have to leave that's a problem too because all it is is you're moving money around that's all it is and so it's hard you go to the grocery store it's more expensive whatever you do it's shocking and so one of the things that i want to kind of have administration and i asked claude to talk a little bit about because we had a conversation about utility bills and the increases in utility bills and what you all are feeling in terms of every time you see something it's more expensive we're not immune to it at all whether it's salaries whether it's negotiations and contracts whether it's you have to replace equipment whether it's whatever stormwater project or whatever it is the number does not stay the same it goes up incrementally and then we all have to pay for it so there was a a question regarding the money that we're putting into capital improvement projects and what we're seeing and this is by the the way that is a very normal question that we get from all residents where does the money go why is there flooding what is going on what are you all doing with the money it is a question we get and so i want to just touch a little bit about what we're doing how much we're investing and i'll tell you this there are limits to how much we can invest because you know who has to pay for it everyone to get us out of some of those stormwater projects that we need to do and all these other things it costs money and you and the people who pay for it are the utility rate payers and we do get grants we try to get federal grant money we try to do everything we can where we can and by the way that's still our money but we try to get money from everywhere else to find the supplement and those pots by the way are getting smaller and smaller and smaller and we're all seeing it so i just want to touch a little bit about this because we talked about utility rates i've been getting so many emails about this issue and claude if you can talk a little bit about our investments the capital projects by the way the monies for those projects where they come from they're not general fund there's a difference between general fund monies and real estate taxes that's separate and then you have utility rates and what you pay and that goes into our system and by the way we borrow money there is bond covenants there's all these things where that money has to go into these systems you don't move them around everywhere there are certain things that pay for certain things that's why when you heard somebody talk about buckets and all that when you talk about our utility rates and if we take out bond money that money has to go into certain systems just claude if you can as you know as simply as possible try to explain some of what i've tried to touch upon thank you madam chair claude tankersley public works administrator so this year in fiscal year 26 i believe we have approximately 32 million dollars in cip money for storm water and another 120 million roughly for water resources so about 150 million dollars for construction projects in this fiscal year we have an equal amount if not slightly more for the maintenance the the the daily operation and maintenance of those facilities and of those systems the systems are huge they were built over many decades um and it it takes a long time to get these projects done uh what you know one of the things we talked about was a typical stormwater project so we have a we have a stormwater master plan roughly a billion dollars in it roughly 70 some projects in it and the average cost of one of those projects is roughly 20 million dollars just for one project and that's and and and that one project is is not going to you know help the entire city we've got an entire city we've got to work on and so it it's a big lift that's ahead of us we have a plan to get there um we've been working on that plan since 2016. there was a slide that i shared with you guys that you know in 2015 our stormwater cip was 1.7 million for the entire year uh council has done and administration has done a great job of bringing it up to 32 million for this year but that's a huge increase but we you know it's it's we still got more to go so when you say we have more to go we have a stormwater master plan which is a billion dollars if you spend 30 million dollars a year it would take probably double the amount of time to what is it 50 something years 60 years to get there by the way by the time you're in the process you have to do another plan because you haven't done everything you've needed to correct right and and our plan is to get up to that 50 million dollar spending um through both the uh the spar program but even after the spar program to be at that level going forward okay so i just want to hope i hope that some of you and if you do have questions about this more i'm happy like if you reach out and and and our public works administrator talk a little about about these issues because i do see the public convoluting some of these issues together in terms of what we're paying for utility rates what that pays for the real estate taxes what that pays for where does that money go and it is frustrating because it is very complex and i'll tell you city council members we sit here and we go through this budget it takes years to figure this out it's a very it's not easy it's a lot of money and there's a lot of legal requirements with a lot of the money we talked a little bit about impact fees and we covered this the other day in the meeting but i want to touch upon impact fees just quickly because my unders we are trying to do the impact fees that we can do correct yes and we currently do have an impact fee for our our wastewater system we call it the water closet fee but it it it it provides money from the development process to help pay for the system and so uh with council's approval recently it's now going to be a thousand dollars per restroom added to the system so that means for new construction correct so for new construction it costs for every new bathroom in a house that's a thousand dollars and that pays for the cost of what it that the system to provide the services for this new construction that's the impact fee that's the sort that's that fee but when it comes to other fees there are limitations yes there are limitations um one of the limitations for all impact fees actually is that you have to spend that impact fee on expanding the system to accommodate the growth um and so some right now a lot of the projects we have are to in improve the um or or to enhance the the system that's gotten old we have maintenance we have operational costs replacement costs when you have impact fees there are legal requirements there has to be a nexus between the fee and whoever you're charging it to so if you're saying well your development is causing an impact there has to be an actual impact because of that you can't just say well you just moved into the city so you know what we haven't done anything for a hundred years or whatever the name i'm just making this up we have done things but i'm just saying we haven't done things so therefore you should pay for it and we do get a lot of that don't we yes we do and so legally there are limitations you just can't do that and so that's some of the challenges that we also face because some of the thoughts of the things that you can do you really can't legally do so i just wanted to touch a little bit about that thank you claude for for bringing up um just clarifying some of that the other thing tom if if you can come up real quick because you know we're talking about budget you know you do see we're keeping the millage rate the same but property values go up so there is a that growth in what was generated in real estate taxes which is about 10 million this year correct even though we're keeping the millage rate uh the same but the problem and just if you can clarify are why is there a gap and and just explain a little bit because we also have things that are costing more within the city correct so um as i don't remember which council member mentioned it earlier but where we really saw increase in expenses this year was with respect to pension and you might recall that there were you know 12 million dollar increase year over year for just one of our pension plans of which we have three so i think in the aggregate it was a little bit higher than that 12 million so that was a a big expense in one fiscal year to try to manage couple that with the unsure the reduction in the property values from the storm and so forth that that so we had increases on the expense side while we were experiencing reduction in revenue forecasts so that was kind of the the the dual forces for us to balance our budget and and as you referenced earlier you know we're not immune from inflationary costs of uh help providing health insurance for our employees uh the the wages and salaries of our employees all those are going up uh every year um so that those are those are the kind of the twin push and pull what that we're experiencing i i hope that answers yeah no that's very helpful and so when we're talking about pensions so in just another point of clarification we have pension plans that have been in place for a very long time and we have actuaries that figure out how much these plans are funded and if there is a big gap let's say the market doesn't do well or whatever the case may be sometimes it's funded really well sometimes you have a large gap we have to fill that gap so there was a gap and we had to fill the gap because you have to have certain criteria that's met is that correct correct we the actuaries generate what we call the annual required contribution and that's what we fund on an annual basis to ensure that we will have the sufficient resources through the balance of the life of the program to fund all the pension payments to retirees okay thank you so you know i like other council members i have my priorities and just like a lot of things have been brought up here whether it's complete streets and other programs in the city that i want to see funded just like other council members but then you get the budget and you see all the pressures that every department is facing and you know that there's going to be things that are going to give and that's where we are with some of these programs we i would hope they find money for the things that we all want but i i put it to you this way i'm i'm concerned about next year because i will tell you this and the problem is once you fund a program guess what happens next year they're going to want the money again and then what happens a year after that so when you make a decision in terms of funding programs it's also one of the things those are you going to be able to fund it next year because that's not fair either and these are really tough decisions that that administration and council is making so i just i hope that's kind of helpful in terms of putting context into this i know it's extremely frustrating and i feel the frustration that i'm getting from residents unfortunately we have a duty to make sure that we provide a level of service and serve and services period there are things that we just have to do and we have to fund and they're the only way that you're going to pay for those things is through whether it's the utility rates through our utility systems or the real or the or the revenue that we get that's it so it's been challenging and i feel everyone's frustration i i get frustrated myself i saw my tax bill it wasn't a pretty site either and it's not by the way it's it's the city of st petersburg on the tax bill it's the county on the tax bill it's the school board on the tax bill jw i mean you go on and on but it is a hard hit and so i just want people to understand that that is also top of mind for us to understanding that because that puts pressure on everyone in the city especially people that are on fixed income because it's that is tough and the idea that well you know make us pay less or or have someone pay more in terms of whatever the rates are and legal can correct me if i'm wrong the rates have to be they're set by florida statute and they have to be set in that manner you can't change from that so it's not like we can say well all of a sudden well you're on fixed income so therefore you pay less it's one rate so that's that unless the state of florida changes the system and who knows what can happen this year for all you know we're we're not going to have real estate taxes and and we'll have a completely different system and the idea that you get real uh get rid of real estate taxes and the issue is solved it's not because you know what these are services that people expect to have period people expect to have services in their city they expect to have police and fire and roads and all these things so i don't know what the state of florida is going to do with their system and how things are going to get paid but um under the system that we have now we're trying our best to meet the challenges just like everyone so i want to thank administration for the work that they've been doing this year understanding the pressures we're in and trying to balance all the needs of the city council member driscoll thank you and thank you for that input and for taking the time for that explanation for everyone because it is it is quite complicated um but you have a you and claude make a great team explaining it in ways that just about anyone could understand i want to go back to um the request for complete streets or safer streets for bicyclists and pedestrians and um i know i'm just trying to see where we might be able to put some some more money into into that fund it seems like every time every time we turn around we're uh we're taking evan maury's money and putting it somewhere else so i wonder if maybe there is an opportunity to look at something here i did want to point out that from last year's budget we did increase complete streets by 250 000 and also increased one of the sidewalk programs by 650 000 so we are trying to incrementally increase those programs every year as we can yes thank you and i i i appreciate that um i know that we also in the past um there's there have been lots of opportunities to get money grant money through usdot um things are changing and so i'm kind of looking at that too what jumped out at me was um under the city facilities capital improvement fund there is um a line in here for infrastructure tbd and it's 150 000 this is money that's set aside that doesn't have a project attached to it it's um for unforeseen city facility capital improvement infrastructure projects so it's that just in case money now we all know that um and as we've talked about with some other items earlier if we really need the money to fund something that's important there is a way that we will work it out so i'm not sure why this is here and i'm wondering if we can shift that over to the citywide infrastructure capital improvement fund under bicycle and pedestrian facilities which although yes complete streets which is a separate item has some increased funding the bicycle and pedestrian facilities um is currently budgeted at 100 000 adding 150 000 to that could really move the needle with creating a safer area for our bicyclists and pedestrians we see that more and more people want to be able to walk to things bike to things it's wonderful we want to promote that and we want to make sure it's as safe as possible so why wouldn't we when we've got 150 000 sitting there um without a home why wouldn't we put that into this we heard from the people so the 150 000 for the infrastructure be determined we use that when we have projects that are budgeted already but when we go to bid maybe more than what we had budgeted yeah so that way we can keep that project going and not have to wait while we find alternative funding so it usually goes to like four or five projects during the year to keep them going so we don't have to wait until we have until the next fiscal we have additional funding that being said you know if city council wants to move that to another project that's that you're that's your prerogative i think that would be a great way to make that commitment to our residents and um you know four or five projects it sounds like you're not talking about big sums of money um even if it was for just one it's not a lot but it sure would go a long way um with bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements and i am absolutely confident that if we have a project that's short a little bit you're going to be able to find the money somewhere else to shift into it so i will make a motion to amend hold down a second oh you're amending sorry because there was a motion on the floor there wasn't a second i understand i just wanted to make sure yeah um i'm pretty sure if someone was going to second they would have seconded it by now well i just wanted to make sure um so i'm going to make a motion to amend the the budget and move um the 150 000 from infrastructure tbd out of um its account 3031 cap city facilities capital improvement fund and move it to um the citywide infrastructure capital improvement fund 3027 for bicycle pedestrian facilities technically we need to keep it in the same fund but you can appropriate it to a different project in that fund does my amendment make that impossible for them to do liz are you needing i mean i'm just based on i'm just looking at the ordinance in terms of the change that she's making to the order yeah so it's so that's moving the penny the fund between the different funds we usually would just keep it in that same fund but just move it to that project okay is that something you can do on the back end or is it something that i need to um so i think just for the motion would just be to move it from one project to the other project instead of moving it between the two funds so liz just so i'm clear you're going to change the name of the infrastructure tbd under the city of facilities capital improvement to the bicycle pedestrian facilities and you're going to make a comment the same way you did that says also where we have them in two different funds like also in the modemodal impact we would make that same comment okay okay all right so do i need to change my motion i would say i'd like to sure you can you can clarify your motion basically so just renaming that would do the trick right i think essentially replacing the infrastructure tbd with bicycle pedestrian facilities all right so um i will make a motion to um for the amendment to rename the infrastructure tbd um line in the budget to um instead be named bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the amount of 150 000 dollars thank you are you done you have anything else to say no there's a motion a second but there's still people that want to have a discussion on it so thank you chair okay council member gabbard thank you chair um liz so i want to just be crystal clear district three just talked about the council member harding having infrastructure projects can you explain again very clearly 150 000 if those projects were to go over this would be the bucket of money that we would potentially take from can you just because infrastructure right like this is what residents here so i just want to be crystal clear what you mean when you say if infrastructure projects run over it'd be the non-utility be the penny funded projects penny funded these are the four penny funds so if one of um if there's a project sample fire station two oh that great example didn't have enough funding we could go to that 150 000 like if we were 20 000 short we could move it from there to complete the project but it wouldn't be used um okay you could but most likely wouldn't use it for the utilities projects because they have their own funding source but it would be anything in those four penny funds great fire station two great example can you give me one more example um street and road improvements um bridges those types of projects understood thank you council member floyd thank you i'm just digesting it right now a little bit um let me make sure i understand so you're saying say if we were to do this then we go over on projects as is typical as what i was hearing from um that then uh the projects could slow down because we have to identify another funding source and we have to probably then you have to bring it to city council and that's probably a scheduling thing as well we would bring it to council either way because we would want you guys to approve the moving it from one project to another okay okay so uh but you know there would be time spent uh figuring out where it's going to come from um okay all right which you know i mean i i don't know what does that process look like um it just you know it's different every time you get the request um you know a couple years ago it was a lot easier because you know penny revenues were coming in higher than budgeted that's not happening now um you know there's project closeouts if there's funding left over then it drops the fund balance that may be available but you know it's just depending on that time and when you get that request so it could be really easy oh we've got it we can do it or it could be you know something where we have to work through maybe look at other projects that are you know maybe not going forward right away that we may take money from to cover to move this one forward so it just really depends on that specific request when you get it okay thank you i'll just say like this amendment i again i understand where it's coming from i respect it but my stomach churns at like being a proposed a dichotomy that is like two of my top priorities uh pushed against each other that also interrelate it sounds like because you said street and road projects could be funded by this which you know i mean we might we literally have had complete streets projects that have gone over budget that we then had to go find the funding for and we would look in a place like this so i struggle with this because i think there are places where we can increase funding for complete streets i i know one thing we did this year was uh increase parking fees and i was very supportive of that and i think there's a lot of space to continue to do something like that and i think that makes a lot of logical sense to find money for safe streets projects with uh with that kind of thing now i don't think there's a lot of discussion to go around with something like that but there are examples of places that make sense and so yeah i struggle with this because now we're putting things interrelated that in opposition to each other i just yeah it's uh i i understand where you're coming from but i uh yeah i'm having a hard time with it is where i'll leave that yeah thank you um i know i saw evan a couple of people oh council member oh sorry were you you were yeah i was no no longer that's member floyd okay thank you um i know i saw a couple people come in um evan and project i don't know if you wanted to add anything in terms of the projects or anything or anything else from administration based on what's been said i think liz covered it okay um so i will i will say in terms look i think the intent is absolutely good in terms of complete streets and i think it's a it's an important issue for all of us but i have the same concerns that council member floyd mentioned and when liz mentioned the fact because i know they have to move money around when these projects come over the over budget and it sounds like it sounds like you may solve a problem and then you may cause three other problems on projects that can't move and i just that they've spent so much time on this budget on figuring out some of the infrastructure things that i am i do get concerned about taking money from a fund that may make sure that a project is done if it comes over budget and it could fall within the same bucket of the things that we care about so with that being said we have a motion and a second on i guess we say j1 amendment okay clerk you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members voted clerk please tally and announce the vote madam chair motion to amend agenda item j1 fails two to five with council members driscoll and givens voting yes council members fix sanders floyd gabbard henowitz and harding voting no and council member girders being absent thank you so at this point we're supposed to compute the proposed military you don't need to we don't need to do anything um since there weren't any amendments that would necessitate i just don't want to i just don't want to skip anything absolutely you you're allowed to get the ire of legal number nine now okay right on track okay the proposed millage rate for the city of st petersburg is six six point four five two five mills which is a three point nine three increase over the rolled back rate of six point two zero eight three mills at this point we are supposed to consider approving the millage resolution which is attachment c this must be done before adopting the tentative budget and must have a separate vote approval second we have a motion and a second clerk please open machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all council member present council members have voted clerk please tally chair motion to approve agenda item j1a passes unanimously with councilman regardless being absent okay at this point we are going to move to adopting the mayor's recommended budget and there are two steps to this the first is a motion to pass the recommended budget slash appropriations ordinance for the city of st petersburg fiscal year ending september 30th 2026 on first reading council member driscoll thank you and um thanks to everyone for the really thoughtful discussion that we've had tonight um i am so in terms of the bike and pedestrian safety i think we know this is a priority we have a real problem with pedestrian injuries and fatalities same thing with bicycles it has to be addressed and so although that motion failed i do hope that you heard the people as i did and will look for opportunities to increase funding for this in these important projects i also appreciate the input from my colleagues regarding my concerns about the funding for the fire department at the end of the day um there is nothing more important for a municipality than funding public safety and at this time i know i took a lot of time to explain why i think this is important but at this time i don't feel comfortable with the level of funding and the um the budget that we have um in front of us recommended for the fire department that is so important to me that i will not be able to support this budget as it moves forward so when i vote no on something i want to make sure i explain why i respect everyone's opinions on this and i hope you'll respect mine and i look forward to continuing our discussions as we move forward with whatever budget we end up with thank you councilmember givitts thank you very much vice chair uh and likewise you know i have some serious reservations specifically regarding utility bill assistance um and also uh spiffs as well as act and i'll expand that by saying i have reservations when it comes to our youth opportunities i know we have funded programs i know we are operating programs um when i look at what's happening in our community uh specifically regarding gun violence you know 27 year old shot in the streets last week um murder still on the loose um there are opportunities for us to reach these kids before they get caught up into the system and i don't think that the programs that we're operating right now is going to cut it um i also don't think that we are doing all that we can do when it comes to combating food insecurity and this has been a passion of mine long before i got elected and so i'll continue to use this platform that i've been elected to occupy uh to use my voice to advocate for those who can't be here to advocate for themselves we need to do more in that area when i look at our budget it's quite robust um but yet there are some areas that we're still lacking in and i think that is one uh so i would hope that you know the revised budget that comes to us includes those items that i've raised concerns about uh and with that i am done thank you vice chair thank you okay we have j1b i'll entertain a motion move approval thank you we have a motion and a second clerk please 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 votes madam chair most to approve agenda item j1b passes five to two with council members vick sanders floyd gabbard henowitz and harding voting yes council members driscoll and givens voting no and councilman girders being absent thank you next we have a motion to approve resolution adopting the recommended budget slash appropriations ordinance as passed on first reading as the tentative budget for the city of st petersburg fiscal year ending september 30th 2026 for consideration and i'll entertain a motion for approval move approval we have a motion and a second clerk please open machine for voting council members please enter your votes being that all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the votes madam chair motion to approve a gen item j1c passes five to two with council members thicke sanders floyd gabbard henowitz and harding voting yes council members driscoll gibbons voting no and council member girders being absent thank you the final public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 military and budget shall be on september 25 2025 at 6 p.m in the city council chambers of city hall the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 millage rate and budget is not closed thank you everyone for attending huh oh sorry you know what open forum yeah not i was looking at my there honey sorry i was looking at my script blame it on the script i know sorry it's my first time doing this and i completely forgot that we have something afterwards no you're good no no that's all right like everyone okay what'd you say you're just joking hand saved us okay so open forum we have no speakers clerk okay so that we close open forum and now we go to announcements council member gibbons thank you vice chair uh again great job everybody i know this was a tedious task today most of us have been here all day um but very productive to say the least so i just want to commend everybody for their labors um i thank council member driscoll for bringing forward the proclamation today recognizing ovarian cancer um because this weekend at the child's park recreation center we will be hosting uh free cancer screens um with the child's park neighborhood association so we invite everyone to come out from 9 a.m to 2 p.m um if you know anyone who may not have access to health insurance it's a great opportunity to tell them we have screenings there'll be five different types of screenings um for five different types of cancers so again let's do all our all our work to do all we can to put our boots on the ground and stump out cancer so thank you so much vice chair thank you council member driscoll thank you i just wanted to um extend a a big virtual hug um to our chair copley girdus um his wife and and family um as they are um managing their way through a difficult time right now so my my prayers are with them and um i can't wait to do a real hug that's all thank you thank you um and yes we miss our chair girdus he's obviously they have had a loss in the family and we grieve with them and um we look forward to seeing him back in chambers thank you everyone have a nice night good work everybody that's for real