City Council - Sep 12, 2024

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Vice Chair, Copley Gerdes, District 2, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Ed Montenari, District 4, Lissette Kanowitz, District 5 and Council Chair, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad, and District 8, Richie Floyd. December 12, 2024 City Council Meeting, beginning with a roll call. Gerdes? Here. Gabbard? Here. Montenari? Here. Kanowitz? Vic Sanders? Here. Driscoll? Here. Muhammad? Here. And Floyd? Here. Thank you. Joining us today to provide our invocation is we affectionately like to call him Pastor Bobby, but this is Pastor Bobby Linsingua, Maximumitarian Church, and it will be followed by a moment of silence, remembering those who lost 9-11, and then following that, we will do our Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me in standing. Almighty God, we gather here today in service of our beautiful city of St. Petersburg. Our elected officials are bound together by our shared commitment to the well-being and progress of our people. May their deliberations be guided by wisdom, compassion, and foresight. May they listen to one another with open minds and respectful hearts, seeking common ground and innovative solutions to the challenges we face. Grant us all the clarity to see beyond our individual perspectives, the courage to make difficult decisions for the greater good, and the strength to implement positive change in our city. Bless our mayor, Mr. Kenneth Worth, his staff, as well as all the City Council members and their families. Bless all the proclamations which have been honored today. As our City Council embarks on today's agenda, let us remember our responsibility to serve as stewards of this city's present and architects of its future. In this spirit of unity and purpose, we begin our meeting. In your holy name, we pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Thank you, Pastor Bobby. Council members, we have an agenda before us. I entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. Seeing that the agenda has been motioned and properly seconded, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please cast your votes. Now that our present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously with Council Member Hanowitz being absent. Yes. So now we have a consent agenda. There's no consent. No consent agenda. I'm sorry. I'm reading past it. So now we'll go ahead and move into open form. Do we have any cards for open form? Can I read the rules? Please read the rules. Please. 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 form sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open form 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 form 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 is your turn to speak? When is your turn to speak? You will be unmuted and ask 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 decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. Madam Chair, we have one speaker in the chamber and one on Zoom. I'm going to call the chamber speaker first. Matt Widener, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address city council. Thank you, Mr. Clerk, Madam Chair, members of council. Thank you so much for all your service and all that you do. I want to talk to you today about historic preservation and give some of you folks some background on why you see so much interest. Oh, 250 Muir Lake, thank you. Thank you, please. Matthew Widener. And I want to give you folks some context and background on why historic preservation is such a fight in the city. I'm going to ground my comments on a case called the city of St. Petersburg or Dan Shue versus the city of St. Petersburg. Dan was my mentor, my hearer. You wouldn't know a more generous and honorable man than Dan Shue. He died fighting the city of St. Petersburg over historic preservation, and I want to get your attention about it. Newer members of council may not be aware of it, but in that case, there were allegations that the city of St. Pete staff was involved in changing ballots. Here was the ballot of Terrence Moore, not support. Here's where it changed, support. Here's the ballot of Ronald Gregg, not support. It comes back to support. Here's the one of Mordecai Walker, not support, support. You, council members, sat there, have got your testimony here and your questions of council members and of the staff. Madam Gabbard, you asked Duvacott, tell me about the allegations of, I guess, tampered with. Madam Gabbard, yes. That was your testimony. Mr. Montaneri, you might remember when the question were asked, Michael Dima, can you talk about the date stamp? The problem with that ballot and that whole process was the ballots changed. Some members still supported it. My great frustration, however, is the fact that it took going up to appellate court in order to get it ultimately reversed. And that opinion is so important. I beg of you, please read the opinion that the appellate court reversed that designation that occurred. But, folks, what was worse than these ballots that changed, what was worse than the technical issues that you, Mr. Montaneri, you, council member Gabbard, identified and had a problem with, you voted against it. There was a gentleman called Gerties that sat right there, not you, the other one. He conducted the trial. I will promise you if you ask him about that trial and about that fact in our city, he will tell you it was one of the most disturbing things that he saw in his storied career as a public servant. But, folks, I told you there was something more disturbing than what happened with these ballots are the problems with the date stamps. I hope you all are remembering what happened there. Only two people voted against it, Montaneri and Gerties. Folks, the reason why I'm before you today is what happened next was, frankly, more disturbing in my mind. And that is what you folks did after the fact. And that was you changed the ordinance. The ordinance first said once a vote comes in, it may not be changed. But the ordinance now reads, the city reserves the right to contact the signer and inform them of the status of their blank ballot. Really? After two circuit court cases in federal court litigation, we come before council with an ordinance change that says now we want to allow staff to change their votes. I'm asking for someone to have leadership and courage. You new council members review this ordinance and please change it. Have it revoked. I will leave all these materials. Please review it very much. Thank you so much. Peter Kent is the next speaker in Zoom. Peter, once you enter into the meeting space, please unmute yourself. State your name and address for the record. And you will have to address city council. Okay. Well, before you start the clock, I do need a point of order. I'm going to be speaking on my. Can you hear me? Okay. I'm going to be speaking on my opposition to resolution CRA two. And I'm unclear based on my prior meetings with the council. I'm unclear if I can do that now at open forum or if I have to wait until resolution CRA two is voted. So if the attorney or the chair could let me know when I, when you want me to speak. Well, your, your, the clock is running, so you can go ahead and speak now. Okay. So please restart the clock. I am Peter Kent resident at eight academy way for over a decade. I'm retired license, professional engineer, land surveyor, city engineer, and commissioner of public works. There are many reasons I feel voting to pass the resolution CRA two today would be acting fiscally irresponsible to your Saint Petersburg constituents. Number one, two appraisals of the property for $18 million or over a year old. And were obtained before the recent approval of the adjacent rezoning. And the $6.5 billion raised hindsight is unlikely. They represent the current property value prior to the partial sale. A new appraisal must be obtained and should be in the 20 to five to $30 million range. Two, the sale includes the south portion of 2nd Avenue South, which is an active city street with traffic lights on both ends. The street cannot be sold until it is formally abandoned by the city after appropriate public hearings. Three, Councilperson Geddes claims that the deal is selling and recovering the south half of 2nd Avenue South for $2 to $4 million. It has zero deal value and to claim otherwise appears to be fiscally irresponsible. Four, the city must negotiate or litigate a large increase in the current parking lease on this parcel, which pays only $21,000 a year annually while the city is paying $58,000 annually in property taxes. The court determined lease cancellation payment is likely to be less than several hundred thousand dollars, not the $1.6 to $3 billion implied in the two appraisals or the $4 to $6 million implied by Councilman Geddes. Do not resolve this issue first in either negotiations or court proceedings is not acting fiscally responsible. Five, the city appears to be acting fiscally irresponsible in selling a parcel probably worth $18 to $30 million to a Delaware financial advisor for only $10 million. The agreement allows the advisor to resell the parcel at the then fair market value, which is likely to double or quadruple their investment. Why is the city enriching a Delaware financial advisor firm? Six is fiscally irresponsible for the city administration to offer an $18 million parcel for public's bid lasting only 30 days. Thank you, Mr. Kent. So now is the point where we have so many of our distinguished guests here today as we are about to present proclamation to thank you and congratulate you for all that we have. And before we get into that, I have to close open forum. I'm just so excited to see so many of you all here today. Well, we're going to go ahead and close open forum, and I'm going to ask our Vice Chair Gerdes, who will be presenting the first two proclamations. The first one will be our Child Care Childhood Cancer Awareness Month proclamation, which will follow the two, which is the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month proclamation. So now we're going to open the floor for Vice Chair Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair, colleagues. And I'll invite Michelle Cooper and Joe Primavera from Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in the Cancer and Blood Disorders Institute and Topher Larkin from Moffitt Cancer Center up to join me. I think you probably know Childhood Cancer Month is something that is near and dear to my heart. Ten years ago, my wife and I created a foundation supporting families dealing with pediatric cancer. We celebrated our 10th year anniversary this year. Over those 10 years, we've raised over $1.5 million to try to find a cure for pediatric cancer. That is my big, hairy, audacious goal, as they like to say. And we're well on our way to doing that with a great partner in Johns Hopkins All Children's CBDI. Just quickly, before I read this proclamation, I want to really emphasize how important today is in recognizing the work and the struggle that families go to. Last year, we had pictures of eight families that we had directly supported on stage for our event. Since then, we have lost six of those children. I can't tell you the impact that that has on me, on our supporters, our board members, but more importantly, the families of this atrocious disease that attacks our children. And I just I want to thank you for your support, not only for this proclamation, but the support you've given me personally since I've been on council. And to everybody that's listening or watched for all the support that all of the organizations Moffitt Cancer Center Dream, Dream Fund Children's Cancer Center, all of the parts for kids. All of those organizations that support trying to find a cure and supporting families dealing with pediatric cancer. So it's my honor to read this proclamation. Whereas the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society report cancer as the leading cause of death by disease among U.S. children zero to the age of 18. This tragic disease is newly diagnosed in nine in over nine thousand nine hundred and ten of our country's young people under the age of 14 each year. Over 40,000 children undergo treatment each year. And whereas one in five of our nation's children loses his or her battle with cancer this year alone, an estimated fifteen hundred and ninety cancer deaths will occur in children. Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children one to 14. And whereas 60 percent of infants, children and teens who survive will suffer the long term effects of comprehensive medical treatment, including secondary cancers. And whereas Blaze of Hope was founded to magnify the message of hope to families of children battling threatening illnesses by providing financial assistance, raising awareness and building community. Blaze of Hope continues to recognize that pediatric cancer affects families of all races, color, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. And whereas during the month of September, we remember the young lives taken way too soon, stand with the families facing childhood cancer today and rededicate ourselves to combating this terrible illness. And whereas Blaze of Hope has partnered with Florida Department of Transportation to have Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway illuminated gold during the month of September to honor and pay tribute to families, friends and professionals and communities who lend their strength to children fighting pediatric cancer. And now, therefore, I, Vice Chair, on behalf of Kennedy Welch, Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 2024 as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and encourage all citizens to join in reaffirming the commitment to fighting childhood cancer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll invite representatives from Johns Hopkins All Children's and if Topher, you want to say anything to say a few words. Thank you for having us here. And we appreciate sincerely the support from this council, the city. We couldn't do what we do every day, which is supporting our providers, nurses, frontline staff in fighting this disease. It really takes a village, literally. So anything and everything that people can do to help support and bring attention to this, that's what we need. We need more people to be engaged, to provide funding, to do research to fight this disease so we don't have to rely on those statistics that were just quoted. So thank you all. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Now you're going to do D2, the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Okay. I get all the hard ones. I'd invite Selma Mastery and Kerry Kreisman and then Topher, I think, is going to stay up with us. He gets to do both of these with me, too. And I think most of my colleagues and probably most of the people in the audience watching know both of these last name and the Masterys and the Kreismans. And I just want to thank them for their continuous fight and advocacy for those battling ovarian cancer and those who have been through ovarian cancer. And I just want to say, personally, knowing both of these families, it's a great privilege to be able to stand up with them, to be able to stand up with Moffitt, who I've had a longstanding relationship with. And I'm just so proud of the work that not only is being done here in our community, but the impact that is being able to be widespread because of the fine people standing behind me or standing with me. And so it's my honor to read this proclamation. Whereas ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths of women in the United States and causes more deaths than any other gyneologic cancer. And whereas the American Cancer Society estimates 19,680 cases of ovarian cancer will be newly diagnosed in 2024 and 12,740 individuals will die from the disease nationwide, including 1,650 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 of the symptoms of ovarian cancer often include bloating, pelvic and 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 means that approximately 80% of cases of ovarian cancer are detected at an advanced stage. And whereas black women with ovarian cancer are more likely to have late stage diagnosis, 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, or ORCA, and community partner organizations hold several events to increase public awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms. Now, therefore, I, Vice Chair Copley-Gerdas, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 2024 as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and urge every citizen to take time to learn more about this crippling disease. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this great proclamation. And I wanted to say, too, that my brother, who is an OB-GYN in Australia, we have partnered with them as well. They're doing research in their lab. I was there last year. And they have come almost close to a test. So let's hope we can get that over here as well. So thank you for all your support. And we have our run on Saturday, if anybody wants to join us. Walk or run. Okay? Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Council Vice Chair Gerdas and Mayor Welch, who I know is not here. Almost five years ago this month, I was in a hospital. And that was when I was told I had a 20-centimeter tumor on my right ovary. So fast forward a week, I'm having surgery, and I had three tumors total. So thankfully, an infection is what landed me in the hospital on a trip to California because I was one of the few lucky ones that received a rather early diagnosis. It's not that way for everyone. They say ovarian cancer whispers because the symptoms are vague. And by sheer luck, I had an infection that necessitated other tests. So that's why I advocate. Kate, that's why I join with organizations like Selma Mastro Ovarian Cancer Foundation to do what we can for the people who are not here. Ovarian cancer will affect 1 in 75 people with ovaries this year. And look around. I mean, I don't know that there's 75 in this room, but we know that it's going to affect somebody in this room, whether it's you or someone you love. So learn what you can. Listen to your relatives, your spouses, daughters, and what they might say and how they're feeling because aside from a definitive test, we have to be our own advocates. So I want to thank you all for helping us raise awareness of this deadliest of gynecological cancers. And if you want to come out and run and walk, it's supposed to be beautiful on Saturday. So thank you for what you all do as well with your service. Thank you. Don't feel good again? We've got to get some laughs out of this. All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. Now moving to item D3, a proclamation in honor of Hunger Action Month by our Councilmember Gina Driscoll. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have some wonderful people from the community who are doing incredible work in this area that I would like to have join me at the podium today for Hunger Action Awareness Month. From Hope Villages of America, the CEO, Nick DeSegli, who also serves as our distinguished state senator. The St. Petersburg Free Clinic has Jennifer Yeagley and Zoe Blair Andrews. From Feeding Tampa Bay, Shannon Oliverio. From Daystar Life Center, Heidi Cornell, Marianne Putnam, Jacqueline Roche. And from Positive Impact, Reimagine St. Pete, Karen Rae Selm, and Carolyn Brubaker. Thank you all for joining us here today. I want to tell you why this is so important to me. When I was 13, my family fell on hard times. And I couldn't go to Catholic school anymore. I had always gone, and so I had to switch over to public school. It's very different. It's a cafeteria where they're serving the food, and I had this free lunch card. And I didn't know. I thought everybody had one because things are different in private school, right? So I'm in line, you know, first time using it, and the kid behind me, he said, oh, you have one of those, too. I'm like, yeah, doesn't everybody? He's like, no, it's for poor people. And I didn't know. I didn't know we were poor. I didn't know what was going on. And I was 13, and I was embarrassed. And after that day, I didn't have that lunch anymore because I didn't want anyone else to see that I had that card. So today, it gives me hope that we have these organizations that are not only providing food for families that need it, but they do it with dignity. They give people that dignity of food to put on the table, healthy groceries, good meals for whoever needs it, whoever wants it. Most of the time, they don't even ask questions. And so I am eternally grateful for the people who do this today, and 13-year-old me is very grateful as well. On that note, I'll read the proclamation. Whereas, September is recognized as Hunger Action Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about food insecurity and mobilizing communities to take action to end hunger. And whereas, in Pinellas County, approximately 11% of residents experience food insecurity, with nearly 140,000 individuals struggling to access sufficient nutritious food on a regular basis. And whereas, food insecurity impacts our community's health, well-being, and economic stability, affecting children, seniors, and families alike. And whereas, it is essential to acknowledge the hard work of local organizations, such as Hope Villages, who's committed to alleviating hunger and providing critical support to those in need. And whereas, Hope Villages distributes nearly 6 million pounds of food throughout Pinellas County each year. And whereas, collective efforts to combat food insecurity through education, advocacy, and community involvement can make a significant difference in the lives of those affected. And now, therefore, I, Gina Driscoll, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, the Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim September 2024 as Hunger Action Month. And I encourage residents to participate in local initiatives, such as food drives, fundraising events, and volunteer opportunities to support our community's fight against hunger. And I will add, together. Thank you. And now, I know we have a lot of folks here, but today I just want to invite Senator DeSegli, CEO of Hope Villages, to say a few words. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you, Council, for your support here. I also want to recognize my friends and colleagues behind me, great organizations that are really working towards dealing with the issue of food insecurity. Obviously, as you heard, Hope Villages, we're based in Clearwater. We distribute 6.5 million pounds of food every single year. We serve around 65,000 to 7,000 guests who come to the food bank once a month to get three, four days' worth of food. These proclamations go a long way in creating that awareness for leaders in our community so you can all spread the word and create that awareness so the residents who need these type of services know that they're available, know that there are folks in organizations, not only just Hope Villages, but the ones that stand behind me, that we're here for them, that we care for them. We are in existence to take care of those very specific needs. So these proclamations go a very long way. And despite the fact that Hope Villages is based in Clearwater, this year alone we've seen a 50% increase in residents coming from St. Petersburg to come to our food bank because, again, they're dealing with the food insecurity. So, again, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your story and certainly would love to invite my friends and colleagues to say a few words as well, if that's okay. We're so grateful for the recognition. Thank you to the mayor and to council. Nutrition is critical to promoting health equity and making sure that our whole community stays healthy. I'm grateful for the recognition of the great organizations here, our partners. As the senator said, we're seeing an enormous increase in food insecurity. The free clinic alone serves 40,000 people monthly just across our three locations and over 120,000 folks through our partners, many of whom are here today. So those numbers are astronomical. We could not do it without the support of our great community and our partners. So we just want to thank you for the recognition and invite all of you to get involved and stay involved. My name is Carolyn Brubaker with Placif Impact. I stand before you trying not to cry today because I'm so proud of you that you would make a stand in our city, that we fight against hunger. One of the main things that we want to do is make sure that no child goes to bed hungry. I'm concerned with what's happening with our children. We know that behavior problems come sometimes for just not having the right nutrition. We also know that learning disability happens because of not having the right nutrition. We want to build the economic system of our city. And how do we do that? Is we make sure that people have food. By having food, they can pay their rent with the extra money. They can make their house payments or their rent payments or be able to pay their insurance. But the first thing, my friend, that happens is people will eat SpaghettiOs and Cheerios and not have the right nutrition that they need because they have to have the money to pay for the other things. Let's not forget that food has to be first. After food, we can accomplish all the other things that need to be accomplished. Thank you for your love and your support. Good afternoon. My name is Mary Ann Putman. I'm the vice president, the board of directors of Daystar. First off, thank you, city council, Mayor Welch, the city, for supporting Daystar for the last 40 years. This proclamation means so much. We've come straight from Daystar. We see it day after day, getting the word out, making the impact in the community. We see about 50,000 families, individuals that we help a year, and that emergency food, that need right there, is the first thing that we want to help. We talked about, Ms. Driscoll talked about, when you were younger, of the children in Pinellas County who are food insecure, Daystar seeing about 25%. So this is so important, getting that word out and helping those children. So thank you for this proclamation. Thank you for your support. We'd love it. Anytime you want to come down, take a tour a day, sir, we'd love to have you. Thank you again. Thank you. All right. Well, I only have one proclamation, so maybe you guys can take turns hanging on to it for a while and share it. Thank you again to all of these partners who are working their tails off and working together to make sure that everyone in our county has the food that they need. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say a quick two thank yous to all the organizations. Just thank you for all the work you're doing. Having seen each of those, and I was thinking about it a minute ago, dealing with Daystar since I was 14 years old because that's what my school did their Thanksgiving drive for. And so I think that's the furthest one back, and I won't say how long that is. But just thankful for all the organizations. And then lastly, I just wanted to say thank you to Councilmember Driscoll for sharing her story. It's a powerful one, and when you can attach a story like that to the work that these organizations are doing, it's a multiplier. It's not an addition. It's a multiplier. And so I'm just very thankful for you and for sharing that. I know that can be difficult sometimes. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. I also want to, first of all, I'm glad that everyone is here, but I also want to thank those that provide that nutrition and provide that. Because Councilmember Driscoll, I had that blue card, too. And I was grateful for that blue card. I was thankful for that blue card. But to know that there are people that have made it their mission and their purpose to ensure that there is no shame, there is no harm, and knowing that you have the opportunity, because sometimes that's the only meal that we had. And so for that, I just wanted to chime in to let, you know, Councilmember Driscoll know, believe it or not, that's the story for quite a few of us. And we're just so grateful that we had those to help lift us and get us to the next place. And now we're on the other end. We were receiving, and now we have the opportunity to help you provide. So for that, I want to thank you. So now we're going to move to item D4, the Suicide Prevention Month Proclamation by Councilmember Floyd. Thank you, Chair. I want to invite, I'm not sure if they're here, Julie Rocco and Trudy Beeler. Are there, if they're available? No, I didn't think so. All right, well then, it's just me up here. You'll get to listen and speak. It's fine, because I feel passionately about this subject, and I was very grateful to be able to share some information. I'm sorry? Yeah, okay, okay, cool. All right, I did not get that written down. Thank you. If y'all would like to join me up here, you'd be more than welcome to, yes. Well, it's a lot. You're not by yourself, Councilmember. While they're coming up, I'll say I was grateful to be asked to read this on behalf of the mayor, and it's a subject that's touched my family and friends multiple times. And, you know, there's a line in here that you'll see in a moment, but, you know, I really do think that we can do better on this, and I've seen people heal from it, so I'm grateful to be able to participate in this today. So I'll read the proclamation. Whereas September 8th through September 14th, 2024, is National Suicide Prevention Week, and September 2024 is National Suicide Prevention Month, at a time during which individuals, organizations, and communities join their voices to amplify the message that suicide can be prevented, 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, coworkers, and providers about the signs of suicidal ideation, and that it affects all people in the community, and whereas we believe it takes all of us doing what we can to create a community without suicide, and whereas Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas, led by Suncoast Center, unites community members and organizations with the common mission to end suicide in Pinellas County, now, therefore, I, Councilmember Richie Floyd, on behalf of Kenneth C. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby declare September 8th through September 14th, 2024, a Suicide Prevention Month, and urge all citizens to join me in doing what they can by being kind, courteous, and connected to end suicide in St. Petersburg. Members of the Council and Mayor, we thank you so much for recognizing us. We are members of Suncoast, Zero Suicide Partners of Pinellas, and we recognize that the most important thing is to talk about suicide and how it affects our community, and I can tell you that we're an organization made up of 27 partners in the community, and the team that is standing here behind me is truly the most dedicated and put their heart and soul in it every single day to reach out to those, especially our veterans, members of the LGBTQ plus population, our youth and our young adults, that this impacts every single day, and we work tirelessly to reduce suicide rates in Pinellas County. And again, just thank you for recognizing this month and having us here, and I would like to introduce you to our new CEO, Jean-Pierre. Good afternoon, Councilman. I want to thank the Mayor and the Council for this special recognition. We are grateful for it, and we continue to look forward to spreading the word and getting the work done in the community. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for being here. Sunco Center, thank you for all the work you're doing. Council Member Floyd, thank you so much for presenting that proclamation. We'll move on to D5, Senior Center Month Proclamation, presented by our Chair, Deborah Fig Sanders. So, you know, when we come to knowledge and the history of who we are and how we've come to be, our seniors play such a vital role. So, I'm going to ask Rick Craft, I thought I saw him, Rick Craft. Hey, come on over, President. And Ms. Carol Ware, are you here? Come on, Ms. Carol. You all have done a phenomenal job of providing services to our seniors. And for those of us that still have our seniors in our lives, you play an integral role in helping to keep them with us and enjoying the time that they're with us. So, I want to read this proclamation on behalf of the Mayor, and I'll give you a moment to actually say something. Is Ms. Lucinda Grant here? Oh, I've got to say, I need you up here. You need to be up here with me, Ms. Lucinda. Whereas, senior citizens are considered an integral part 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 United States, 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 citizens, 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 and well-being and the health and well-being of their fellow citizens of all ages. And whereas, the Senior Sunshine 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 our community. Now, therefore, I, Deborah Figg Sanders Chair, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the City of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim September 2024 as Senior Center Month. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, girl. I'm going to get it. Thank you. Good afternoon. The Honorable Mayor, in its absence, Council Chair, Deborah Figg Sanders, City Council, and all within my voice, Maya Angelou has a poem called Alone, and it says that nobody but nobody can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone. Nobody but nobody can make it out here all alone. This poem emphasizes that no matter who we are, no matter what you do or where you come from, we all need the love, compassion, and friendship of others to thrive. It also reminds me of those who live in isolation and loneliness. We are excited to bring forth this proclamation to honor National Senior Center Month. Power Wing, Power Wing Connection is the National Institute for Senior Centers 2024 theme. There are many opportunities at the Sunshine Senior Center to assist seniors with establishing relationships and engaging in social activities that lead to a healthier and happier person. In St. Petersburg, we have the oldest facility in the state of Florida. For me, that's big. This working as a senior manager, I think I've told my boss, it's a full circle moment for me, because when I started with the city of St. Petersburg back in 1982, I interned at the Sunshine Senior Center. Now, I am the manager for the Sunshine Senior Center, and I have 40 years of service with the city of St. Petersburg. I said all of that because I want you all to understand, you know I'm very passionate about it, and you can see it's coming out. I said all of that just so you would understand that we have a facility here that caters to the need of our senior population. We look forward to that senior center continuing with my colleague here, Carol Ware, as well as her boss, Sally Marvin, my bosses. We look forward to that center being something that everybody loves. So we invite you. We invite you to come by. See what we do over there. See what they do over there. I'm not there all the time. As somebody said, I stopped by your home. I think it was Eric. He said, I stopped by your home, but you weren't there. No, I was out at the other facility. I would have loved to have been there when he stopped by. But one of my mantras is that the value of one of us is the value of all of us. And I want you to know that I see you, and I want you to see me. I hear you, and I want you to hear me. And I'm asking that we take the time to walk together with all the citizens of St. Petersburg. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Did you want to say anything, Mr. Kraft? You're good? Okay. Very good. So now we're going to move to Item D6, our Fall Prevention Awareness Week Proclamation by Councilmember Monteneary. Well, Madam Chair, thank you. I want to invite up. We've got a lot of people from St. Pete Fire and Rescue. Interim Chief Watts is here. Can you join me? Chief Judah, Chief Gomelak. I saw Amber Bolding. It looks like half of St. Pete Fire and Rescue. I kind of wonder who's minding the store. We also have Lana Stifani. Lana, if you want to come up. And then Carol. Carol, are you still here? Well, I've got a proclamation here on Fall Prevention Week, and I did want to talk just a little bit. My mother had a fall a few months ago, and she broke her hip, and it affected her. It affected her mentally. She was in the hospital for a little while, but we've got a close family, and my family is there at my mom's house every day to help her out. Some people don't have that support system. So falls can affect people both physically and mentally, and I have this proclamation that I want to read to the city. Whereas it's estimated that 19.9% of Florida citizens are 65 years age and older, and whereas it is estimated that one-fourth of the people 65 and older will fall each year, and older adults will once again, will fall once or two or three times more likely to fall again. And whereas one out of five falls causes a serious injury, such as broken bones or head injury, and whereas falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries among Florida citizens 65 years of age and older, and whereas falls can lead to depression, loss of mobility, loss of functional independence, and whereas injuries from falls are largely preventable community health problems, and whereas evidence-based programs reduce falls by utilizing cost-effective strategies, such as exercise programs to improve balance and strength, medication management, vision improvement, reduction of home hazards, and fall prevention education. And whereas the Falls-Free Florida Falls Prevention Coalition, say that fast, St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue, the Sunshine Center, and Regional 9-1-1, Regional County 9-1-1 works together to prevent, to increase awareness of this issue, promote multidisciplinary strategies to prevent falls and encourage citizens to take steps to protect those who are in, have an increased risk of falling. Now, therefore, I, Ed Montaneri, on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim that September 23 through September 27th, this Falls Prevention Awareness Week, and urge every resident to take time this month to celebrate older adults and the people who serve and support them as powerful and vital individuals who greatly contribute to the community. Thank you. And I'd like to have Chief Watts say a few words for Chief Judith. Thank you all. I think if there's any indication on what the priorities are of this city, these proclamations today are a great example, and I'm very proud to be a part of this organization. Dear Council Chair and Council Members, on behalf of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, we are honored to accept the Fall Prevention Proclamation and sincerely appreciate the support of Mayor Welch and the City Council on this important initiative. Preventing falls, especially in our older population, is very important to St. Petersburg Fire Rescue. Personally, this is a very particularly important initiative, as my dear grandmother, Irene, died after complications from a fall on September 19th, 2022. She was a vibrant and thriving 90-year-old woman with the quickest wit of anyone I've ever met. She accidentally tripped on a rug, fell, endured a hip fracture, underwent surgery, and was up and walking that same day. Unfortunately, what we didn't know, in those hopeful moments, there was a severe case of pneumonia developing in her lungs. The St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Community Risk Reduction Team and the Pinellas County Falls Free Coalition, it is a tongue twister, have worked together to prevent fall injuries and deaths. Initiatives include creating materials to educate community members on fall prevention, providing resources and encouraging citizens to take steps to protect themselves and those who are at increased risk of falling, as well as promoting the six steps to preventing falls, which are finding a good balance and exercise program, talk to your health care provider, regularly review your medications with your doctor or pharmacist, get your vision and hearing checked annually, and update your eyeglasses, keep your home safe, and talk to your family members. Here are a few examples of local collaborative efforts. Fall prevention presentations are offered through community risk reduction personnel and can be requested by completing a public education community outreach request form on the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue website. The Steps to Senior Safety Activity Book was created and distributed to over 5,000 people living in 55 and older communities in the city of St. Petersburg and adopted by neighboring county and state coalitions for continued distribution. In February 2024, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue personnel visited local senior living facilities to spread some love, crews distributed flowers with Valentine's cards, which included fire safety and fall prevention tips. This month, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue will be partnering with the Sunshine Center during Fall Prevention Week, September 23rd through 27th, for a falls talk and a resource fair. Despite all of our collective efforts, the Pinellas County data shows an increased incident of falls. There have been 4,607 fall incidents in the city of St. Petersburg since January 1st. Our intent here today is to acknowledge our city leadership's support and hope to raise awareness for this persistent leading cause of injury-related deaths among our 65 and older population. In partnership with Pinellas County, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue attempts to connect patients to Health Buddies, which is a program to help reduce preventable hospital readmissions and aims to empower seniors through social connection. If you know a senior who may need assistance in enhancing their quality of life and living independently, please email healthbuddies at seniorsinservice.org and consider reviewing the CDC study, Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries, Home Fall Prevention Checklist for Older Adults, and the fall risk screening available free on the CDC website. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you to everybody at St. Pete Fire and Rescue for everything you do and continue to do on a daily basis out on the front lines. We're just very thankful for all of you, and obviously we're all here to support that work. So thank you so much. Council Member Montaneri, thank you so much for presenting this proclamation. Okay, yeah, I'm all for that. I was wondering when that was going to happen. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to D7, Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation, presented by Council Member Lisette Hanowitz. Council Member. Thank you, Vice Chair Gerdes. I would like to invite some of the Hispanic representatives from some of our organizations here in the city. Come join me. We have the Hispanic Outreach Center here, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Hispanic Leadership Council. I'm going to say a couple of words, read proclamation in Spanish and English, and then Eli's going to say a couple of words after. I have to start by saying as a mom, the struggle is real to keep the heritage alive. I have a nine-year-old daughter, and I'm trying to get her to learn Spanish, and we do not live in Miami where everyone speaks Spanish. And so I was having a conversation with her and explaining to her, and I'm listening to myself thinking, oh, my God, I sound like my mother. You are going to regret not learning Spanish. And, you know, it is something that we all want to pass down to our children and our family and cherish that heritage that makes us who we are. It's something that's so precious, and we all carry it in it, and these are cultures and traditions that have been passed down through generations. So I hope my daughter learns to speak Spanish, maybe even dance a little bit of salsa, merengue, and bachata. But my struggle feels in comparison to what my family obviously struggled with in coming to this country and starting a new life, and living in a different culture and integrating. And this is a story that many share. How do you raise your children and keep that heritage alive? So this proclamation is to honor those who gave us so much to celebrate, even those struggles that led us to where we are. So I'm very proud that I can actually read this in Spanish and in English. And so with that being said, I will read it in Spanish. For what the National Day of the Hispanic Heritage Month, known as the Hispanic Heritage Month, is celebrated from September 15 to October 15 and recognizes the important contributions and influences of Hispanics in the history, the culture, and the achievements of our nation. And for what the 15th of September is the Day of Independence of the Central American American of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, the 16th and 18th of September, Mexico and Chile celebran their Day of Independence, respectively. And for what the Hispanic residents in the city of St. Petersburg represent approximately the 8.4% of our population and play a vital role in our economy and labor force. And for what the city of St. Petersburg recognizes the important contributions of Hispanics, including many employees of the city, in our community. Their support and community participation make our city culturally diverse and welcoming for everyone. And for what the city of St. Petersburg is proud of, and to recognize the Hispanic heritage culture as an important part of our culture, aidad inclusiva. Los hispanos son parte del Somos en Somos St. Pete. Y ahora, por lo tanto, yo, la consejal Lisette Henuis, en nombre del alcalde Kenneth T. Welch, por la presente, declaro 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre de 2024 como mes de 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. So now in English. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month known as Mesa de la Herencia de España is celebrated from September 5th 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 8.4% of our population and play a vital role in our economy and workforce. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg recognizes the significant contributions of Hispanics, including many city employees in our community. Their support and community involvement make our city more culturally diverse and welcoming for everyone. Whereas the city of St. Petersburg is proud to celebrate and recognize Hispanic culture and heritage as an important part of our inclusive city. Hispanics are part of the we in We Are St. Pete. And now therefore, I Councilmember Lissette Hanowitz on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch to hereby declare September 15th through October 15th, 2024 as Hispanic Heritage Month and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the city of St. Petersburg. Thank you. And with now, I would love to, Eli, can you come over and speak a little bit? Thank you so much, Lissette. It's a wonderful day to be here with you all today. The reach and stewardship that the Council is showing today is absolutely remarkable. Ovarian cancer, saving children, food, nutrition, helping prevent suicide, supporting and honoring seniors, the fire and rescue, and now adding some salsa caliente with the Hispanic Heritage Month. I want to officially say that the City Council is on fire. I'm deeply honored to be speaking on behalf of all the amazing Hispanics in St. Pete and Pinellas County, starting with the Hispanic Outreach Center that has been doing an amazing, fantastic job for 20 years. They don't get enough recognition. I'd like to give them a hand, please. And I myself serve as the first ever president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Pinellas County. I would like to thank and recognize the Council for approving this proclamation. I'd love to officially recognize Lisette. I know she goes by Ms. Hanowitz, but she's still ours. And I'd like to, of course, thank and honor Mayor Welch, who's been a great friend to the Hispanic community and the Hispanic Chamber. A few months ago, for the first time since I've been a member of the Chamber, he gathered all the leaders of the different Hispanic organizations to see how we can better work with the city and work together. So, Mayor Welch is definitely a pioneer and a friend to the Hispanic community. And I also want to say that we are headquartered here in St. Pete. We serve Pinellas County, but you guys here were so welcoming that even though I personally live in Palm Harbor, our headquarters is here at the Thrive Building and we absolutely love St. Pete. Another thing I want to do is I want to recognize Mr. Carl Lavender, who now works for the city when he was with the Equity Center. He's been a great, great friend and ally to our chamber and our efforts. And I'm very happy that he's now with the city and continuing to pave the way for us here in the city. And I'll leave with, I'll end with this. It feels great to be recognized and it feels wonderful to be heard, but that doesn't change lives. It's better when you become actually part of what's going on to be called into planning sessions. So with that in mind, I want to just raise my hand for all of us that we would be more than welcome to come and speak and learn and share on how we can all work better together here in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. St. Petersburg has done that more than any other municipality in Pinellas County. So we are very, very happy for this proclamation. We now, I know you guys don't want to hear about the Heinz Ray's project again, but thank the council for getting that approved. We, the Hispanics have been getting a seat, have been given a seat at the table and we expect great things to happen for Hispanic businesses and a lot of Hispanic families do to that. So thank you very much for, for your foresight with that. And on the behalf of the Hispanic community, I thank you. I just would like to say thank you to Mayor Welch and the city council members and the city of St. Petersburg for this meaningful recognition. Your commitment and support in continuing celebrating the Hispanic Heritage Month inspired us to continue working hard serving our community and sharing our culture and traditions. So thank you so much for all your support. Council member Montaneri. Thank you. Council member Hanowitz. Thank you for reading the proclamation. I appreciate the, the mayor recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month. I did want to mention, I talked about my mother when I read the proclamation on, on falls. So my mother was born in Cuba back when Cuba was a free country before the revolution. And my, she, she met my father at the university of Florida and, uh, uh, uh, my father was a geologist and growing up, we lived in, in three countries. We lived in Spain for three years. We lived in Ecuador for three years and we lived in Chile for, for three years. And we didn't just live, we weren't in the, my, my father wasn't in the military. He was a geologist. But we lived, uh, and, and, uh, got to know the Hispanic culture very well. And we all were fluent in, in Spanish, uh, back then. As young kids, uh, I remember moving to Ecuador. Kids like to watch TV. You watch TV, everything was in Spanish. And we had Spanish, we had a Spanish maid, we had a Spanish cook. We went to Spanish American schools and, uh, we learned about the Hispanic culture. And, uh, uh, I was glad that, uh, my family was able to move, uh, move, uh, around like that and learn about different, uh, different cultures. If you go to my mother's house, her house is full of furniture from Spain, Ecuador, and Chile. And she's got paintings from, from those three countries too. So, uh, I was glad to hear this proclamation and, uh, I'm, I'm glad my family has a connection to the Hispanic culture also. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, thank you everybody for being here. It's awesome. And, uh, thank you for the work that you continue to do and, and very thankful to have you in St. Petersburg too, the added bonus, but, uh, and council member Hanowitz, thank you very much for presenting that proclamation. Okay. We will, uh, move. Let me look at the, yep. We'll take on new ordinance E1 joining us assistant city attorney, Sharon Minknowitz. Uh, clerk, can you please read the title? Opposed ordinance number 599H in ordinance repealing section 2 dash proposed ordinance number 599H in ordinance repealing section 2 dash 277 of article 5, division 9 of the city code relating to responsible wage for certain construction contracts amending and providing an effective date. And the public hearing for this item is on October 3rd, 2024, and we have no cards. Move approval. Second. No need for a presentation. Everybody all good. Okay. Seeing as we have a motion and a second clerk, could you please open the machine for voting council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, the motion to approve agenda item E1 passes unanimously with council members Fick Sanders and Hanowitz being absent. Okay. Thank you. We'll now move to report items beginning with F1 joining us as chief financial officer, Erica Langans and budget director, Liz McCloskey. Welcome. Um, so for today we have for FY25, we have six changes to the city's physical policies, and these changes were presented to the budget finance and taxation committee on August 8th, 2024, and were approved by the committee. And five of these changes are related to target fund balance changes. And the six is updating outdated language in the fiscal policies. Any questions? Council members, any questions? Council member Montaneri. Thank you, uh, vice chair. Um, so when, when this, uh, uh, came up before BF and T, uh, and I put a new base business item, uh, uh, on, on this, on this subject or a few months ago, um, and we have, uh, as, uh, we have on page eight of the fiscal policies, we have, uh, a, a lot of, uh, guidance on the economic stability fund. And a few years ago, city council approved, uh, uh, doing interfund loans out of the economic stability fund. And we had a resolution that we passed, uh, to limit those loans to $5 million. Uh, back in January of this year, we had account that we had an item come before city council on the deuces rising townhomes that, uh, included, uh, in, uh, an interfund loan of, uh, it was about $6.8 million. And we were pushing the $5 million, uh, limit. So we went, we went over that. And I know we have another item coming up, uh, later on in our, uh, uh, agenda today to talk about selling some property and paying back that $6.8 million loan. But I would like to make a change, uh, in addition to the wording on page nine, uh, sub paragraph E, uh, uh, uh, triple I at the end of that paragraph, I would like to add the language, the maximum amount of loans from the economic stability fund will not exceed $5 million. And I'll, uh, move approval of that change. Second. Is everybody clear on the request? Is that it? Councilmember Montnage? Yes. Okay. Um, Councilmember Gabbard. Thank you, chair. And, uh, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the update and the item. Um, so we have batted this around in committee quite a bit and had a lot of conversation around this. So I just want to ask administration, um, if you can speak a little bit to concerns or complications that could arise into the future by limiting what we can do with the, um, loans for this program. Um, can we talk a little bit about that? Because I was here when we created the loan and, um, it was very important that we have flexibility as I remember. And so I just want to kind of go back and revisit the original intent of why we did it. And if we can talk about concerns around that. Yes, absolutely. Councilmember and, and thank you for that question. And you're absolutely right. We did discuss this at the committee meeting a couple of times and I want to, um, maybe provide some additional background. We did come to council as council member Montanari in 2021 and created the credit facility to be, uh, capped at $5 million. And that was for affordable housing, um, investments with private parties who are building and constructing the, um, the, the units. So that was one piece of the puzzle. The second piece of the puzzle is, um, the, the advance that we made from the economic stability for the townhomes, two separate issues. So we do have a cap of $5 million for the gap financing for affordable housing. And then we have the other one that was approved, uh, just last year, early this year to fund the townhomes, which, um, hopefully if, if council approves the one transaction on the agenda today, we will restore that advance this afternoon. Now to the question of flexibility. Yeah, that was the concern we talked about in, in committee is, um, we would like to have the flexibility in, in situations to make advances from the economic stability fund in the future and placing a cap on it would limit that flexibility. Okay. And there are other, other situations you can think of, of which we might use this. Just give us some examples of a few opportunities that we might need to be in a situation where we would use more than $5 million. Um, I mean, I think that would be a public policy decision that the administration and council would work through. Um, and I do want to say that, um, from the administration's perspective, you know, we don't, um, we look at this as kind of, um, the last line of defense, so to speak. Um, and in, in the scenario where we did the advance for the townhomes, um, I'll just remind council that was a way to eliminate externalization of a debt. You know, so we saved interest payments on, on borrowing those monies because we knew it was going to be a short term or we hoped that it would be a short term, uh, loan. So we did avoid some significant interest costs by advancing those resources from the economic stability fund. And at the same time, you know, we did have a small opportunity loss. You know, if we didn't have those resources invested, we weren't earning interest. So we did, when we presented that to council, we had that, that analysis of, you know, savings from the avoided cost of interest, less the lost opportunity. But anyway, so that might be, um, or it would be a public policy decision that we would make. Um, I can't think of one right as when I'm standing here. That's not a fair question, but I just thought maybe you had something or maybe there was something coming forward that we might not know about yet. Um, so I'm gonna not vote in support of this motion, um, because I do appreciate administration's position around the flexibility. I do understand that. And I think to your point, Tom, that is policy decisions that we as a council make at that time. And I don't want to limit our ability as a council to be able to, when it is necessary, make those sort of decisions. So, um, I will be voting no on the amendment. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just briefly reiterate what I've said at the committee level, which I appreciate Council Member Montanari's intent on this, um, to, uh, make sure that monies are being used as, um, as he, we think fit. Um, I'll go back to, we've, we voted on this twice in BFNT. Again, I appreciate bringing it to full council because you're going to get most of us to vote on this. So I understand it, but it failed twice in committee at BFNT. And I, I would re it's, you stole the words right out of my mouth. I just believe in the flexibility of having this there, both as a credit facility of affordable housing and for whatever else that we need. And that vote comes to us. And so if we decide that it isn't fit to be used that way, we could always vote against it. And so, um, which I think some people did on, on the deuces project. And so, uh, I, I am also not in favor of this amendment. We've, we've had extensive conversation over it. Although I appreciate the intention, I want to be able to keep the flexibility of not having to do, uh, a bond for gap financing. And this is a facility that we can use that I think is another tool on the tool belt. So, uh, I'll be voting now. Thank you, Madam chair. Thank you. Council member Martin. Thank you. So let me just, um, and, and we, we, we already talked about this in committee, but, uh, I, I did want to kind of go, go back and talk about, uh, the language that we have in our fiscal policies, as it refers to the economic stability fund. And the main purpose of it is if we get hit by, uh, some major catastrophic issue and it lists disasters such as hurricane tornadoes, flood, wind, terrorism, public health, emergency, other catastrophic events. And, uh, that's why I'm so adamant about protecting the, this fund and again, not wanting to get too far ahead of ourselves. And then I, I'll also refer city council to page, uh, nine and 10 of the budget and the notes and the action that city council took when we allowed these loans limiting it to $5 million, uh, back, back in 2021. Uh, so, um, again, not wanting to get too far ahead of ourselves, but so we're going to take up an issue selling a piece of property coming up on our agenda, um, where we're going to pay, pay back that $6.8 million. Uh, that's the proposal if, if that passes. And then the other thing that I'm going, going to, uh, talk about and propose as we get into the later on in the meeting is what are we going to do when we start selling the town home? What, where are those funds going to go? Those funds could be used to pay down the rest of the economic stability fund, which will give us the flexibility, but city council can take a stand right now and be, uh, responsible with this economic stability fund and limit these interfund loans to $5 million. Thank you. Thank you. Vice chair. Thank you, madam chair. I would just point out, uh, again, I, I appreciate the intention, but it says the economic stability fund may be used in both two and three, and it's not shall. And so again, I appreciate the intention and, and, and what you're trying to accomplish, but I, and, and I, and I think the conversation about how the proceeds from the town home sales is a fair one that we should, that we should have. But I, I, again, I just, I wanted to make it clear. I don't think this is being, I don't think it's one or the other that you're being irresponsible. If we decide not to cap it at 5 million, I just think it's a different type of responsibility and making sure we still get the vote and we still have the flexibility. And I think that's, I think that's what's important here. So I, I, again, I very much appreciate the, the intention, but, uh, when it, when it's not shall and, and we have this flexibility already, I want to be able to continue to do that, but also have the vote. If, if we didn't have a vote on it, you'd have my support in a heartbeat, but they had, in order to do the loan, they have to have our vote. And so that's where I'm at on it, but I appreciate the intention. Council member Montaneri. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. Council member Montaneri. No, I'll just be very brief. I, I, I just know the intention that we had back in 2021. We, I was very hesitant, uh, about these interfund loans. Uh, but there was, there was a reason, but we wanted to limit it. So it wasn't that long ago and now we're, we're getting away from the original intent. So I'll leave it right there. Okay. So we have a motion and a second for an amendment for F one on the floors. Uh, can you go ahead and open the machine for voting, please? And council member, please cast your votes. Now that all present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the vote? Madam chair, the motion to approve the amendment fails with council members Driscoll and Montaneri voting yes. Council members Fig Sanders, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, and Mohamed voting no. Council member Floyd being absent. Thank you. Move approval F one as presented. Can you please open the machine for voting for F one as originally printed? Council members, please cast your votes. Now that our present council, now that our present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam chair, the motion to approve agenda item F one passes unanimously with council member Floyd being absent. Thank you. So now we're going to move to F three, which was, um, pulled as a good news item by council member Driscoll and joining us is our arts culture and tourism director, Mr. Celeste Davis. And I'm going to go ahead and open the floor to council member Driscoll to introduce why she pulled it. Thank you. Um, since we've, since we've had lots of public comment and some really great discussions and committee on this item, I, I thought it was fitting that we would pull it. Um, just for one thing, I wanted to thank my colleagues in the administration, um, for working together to make this happen. The, the governor's decision to veto the arts funding, um, statewide this year, just dealt a real blow to our arts community. And as a city that really prioritizes the arts as a, an important part of our economy. Um, I thought we, we can figure out some way to help. And the, the funding that we're providing here, um, thanks to an idea from vice chair, Gerdes is coming from the current budget. My original proposal was that we start talking about ways that we could set a goal, um, annually to dedicate 1% of the operating budget to the arts. And I look forward to having those discussions as we, as we move forward. Um, you know, it's, um, um, I, I, I think it's been a wake up call for us that it is time, um, for the, for the city to step up and, and help out this important, um, this important community that really makes St. Pete what it is. Celeste, I really appreciate your advocacy on this and the work that you've done. Um, I'll let you, uh, do the, the presentation that I might have a couple of questions to point out. But the biggest message today is thank you. I want to say thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to, uh, Council for considering increasing the funding, um, funding for the arts. Um, I always forget that I have this. So, uh, the funding allocations are as follows. 420,000 additional dollars for arts and culture grants, 200,000 for artists, 50,000 for the warehouse arts district, and 25,000 for the St. Pete Arts Alliance, which will go towards shine. I also would like to add for the, um, arts and culture grants that we will be able to provide funding for every arts organization that was vetoed, um, by the state. So, um, even if they did not apply for city funds, we will be able to provide them some funding. So, um, that's the, uh, summary of the allocations. Thank you. May I, uh, may I continue or? Well, okay. Well, I didn't say you would, um, Oh, sorry. I was, I had already. Okay. That's okay. Council member Driscoll. Thanks. Since I had started, I thought I still had the floor. So sorry about that. Um, with the individual artist grants, are you planning to do grants at a higher amount or keep the same amount and do more of them or a little of both? Um, what we plan to do is to reach out to, um, several arts organizations and to provide them, uh, an instrument that they can do call to artists. And based on what their guidelines are, they can determine how they would like to use that funding to go forward. For example, we do the same thing with the St. Pete Arts Alliance. Right. They get their, uh, grant amount and Terry Marcus calls me and she says, you know, I think we'll do four or $5,000 grants this year with this focus. It will be very similar. Mm-hmm. Okay, great. And then with the, um, the remaining amount, the amount that we've, um, added on, is that, so what's, the, the portion of it that's going to go to the arts organizations that had funding vetoed and this will, this will help. It doesn't make them whole, but it certainly helps. Is that going to be allocated? Um, have you just done some math and figured out everybody will basically get the same percentage of what they asked for? Because some asked for much smaller amounts than others. So I thought it might, I was envisioning that it would be a percentage of the amount that they requested. Um, what we have looked at is there are 20, a total of 20 organizations. Um, of that 20, I think three did not apply for the city grant. So for the 17 other organizations, we're going to look at their 2024, uh, city grant score, and based on the percentage that they received on that grant score, they will, we have a formula that they will receive that percentage of the 420,000, um, divided up between everyone. Excellent. And it's, it's just wonderful that we were able to find the money now so that we can get this going out there faster because they need it now. All right. Well, um, thank you. And I'll move approval. Thank you. Hey, um, vice chair. Thank you, madam chair. Uh, Celeste, thanks for the presentation. Um, excited to get this done. Uh, thank you, council member Driscoll for, um, brainstorming this. And I know at the beginning, we talked about tourist development, um, tax dollars. And I just, while we're in the sunshine, wanted to know that, wanted you to know, I'm still committed to trying to, uh, help bridge that gap through TDT. And I think what this does is gives us the time to do that. Uh, because obviously there's a difference between programming and tourism and what drives that tourism. And so, uh, I know I've had multiple conversations with, uh, Brian Loak and, um, in October, we'll, I think we'll start having this conversation and, uh, really excited about being able to, uh, uh, come up with a plan that makes sure that we're not reliant on Tallahassee, but also is, uh, not just one big fail swoop of trying to fix the problem all at once, trying to eat the burger in one bite. And so, uh, very appreciative of all of my, all of the work that both administration and all my colleagues have done and, uh, excited to vote on this. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you. The F3 has been motioned and properly seconded. Seeing no further requests to speak, can you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please cast your votes. Seeing that all present council members have voted, can you please tally and announce the votes? Madam chair, the motion to approve agenda item F3 passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Davis. So now we're going ahead and recess the city council and convene as CRA. And we will now take up item CRA2. Who is it? Who's with us? Okay. With our real estate and property management director, Mr. Aaron Fitch. How are you? Good afternoon, madam chair, members of council. The item before you this afternoon is the disposition of city owned property, approximately located at 298 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard South. Uh, take you through a little bit of background. Uh, the city did acquire this property in 1981. Uh, subsequently the city, um, was instrumental in getting a lease agreement, uh, put in place on the property to provide parking to the adjacent property to the east. Uh, this parking lease includes terms and conditions, uh, which includes a 99 year lease term, which commenced on October 1st of 1987 and it runs through September 30th of 2086. Uh, the tenant currently pays rent in the amount of $21,000 annually. Uh, this rent adjusts every five years with the next adjustment due in 2027. Uh, the tenants responsible for all the maintenance and repairs on the property. The city is responsible for paying all of the property taxes, uh, with the most recent tax bill for 2023, uh, was paid in the amount of $56,000 with this lease agreement. The city is responsible for providing 90 ground level parking spaces to the tenant in 2022 third lake partners purchased the property adjacent at 800 second avenue south from United insurance holdings for $10.5 million. This resulted in the parking lease being assigned to third lake, uh, as the new lessee in March of 2023. The city did receive an unsolicited offer from third lake, uh, offering to acquire the property in response to this offer. The city did advertise a statutory 30 day notice due to this property being located in the in town community redevelopment area. Uh, in response to that proposal or the 30 day notice, excuse me, the city did receive one alternative proposal from Alexander Goshen. Subsequently, the city and third lake negotiated the terms and conditions of a purchase agreement. This purchase agreement includes a purchase price of $10 million with $100,000 being placed in escrow by third lake. Third lake will have 90 days of due diligence to perform inspections on the property with a closing to occur within 30 days after the expiration of the due diligence period. Third lake would pay the documentary stamp taxes on the deed transfer, title commitment fees, title insurance survey, and other closing fees. City would pay any recording fees for recording of corrective instruments, if any. Upon the closing and conveyance of the property, the, uh, third lake will cause a easement agreement to be placed on what was the south half of the second avenue right of way which was vacated in 1984. The closing and conveyance would also include a restrictive covenant on the property which shall require third lake to construct a mixed use development which may include office residential retail hotel uses. Third lake shall also commence construction of the development within five years from the recording of the restrictive covenant. Along with the restrictive covenant and the five year construction requirement, third lake is also to pay approximately $4,100 monthly in any delay as liquidated damages if they do not commence construction within that five years. Third lake shall also grant this to the city, uh, the right of way over and across the south half of that vacated 2nd avenue right of way. And here's an illustration that shows the city owned property currently, which is if you see the red outline on the illustration, the large L shape is currently city owned with the subject property being on the southwest corner, this is the property that is subject to the parking lease with third lake owning the property to the east, which also includes as part of their property that south quarter half of the south half quarter portion of the vacated right of way. If you see the red line kind of goes through, um, that vacated portion of the right of way. In this next illustration, this shows where the initially the easement would be placed and this easement again would be granted upon the closing and then upon the construction of the development by third lake. Uh, they would have to cause the, um, right of way to be rededicated and looking at the considerations for the disposal of this property, the third lake. Um, the city did go back and look at the 2021 appraisals that the city did obtain, which determined market values based on the lease fee interest to be $245,000 and $250,000. But in those 2021 appraisals, the appraisers elected not to include the city's air rights, uh, which the city does retain air rights in the parking lease. In May of 2023, the city obtained two new appraisals, which determined the market value estimating the value to be between 15 million and 16 million 385. Uh, that was based on, uh, the utilization of the city's air rights. The sale and conveyance of the property to third lake, uh, was determined to be fair value for, for multiple reasons. Um, the first reason was the value of the lease fee interest as determined by the 2023 appraisals is impacted by the city's obligation to provide 90 ground level parking spaces to third lake pursuant to the parking lease. The utilizes the utilization of air rights for the vertical development while still providing those required 90 parking spaces was determined to be difficult due to the necessary support columns. Uh, the retail portion, which is required in the DC one zoning, which results in limited space to provide the required parking. The sale and conveyance of the property to third lake, um, requires third lake to dedicate that south half of the second avenue right of way. And this is very important because this would act as the game day street into the gas plant project. Third lake currently owns that fee simple portion, which is approximately half of the south half of the second avenue south right of way with an estimated value of approximately 4 million dollars. The sale of the property will relieve the city of the property tax obligation pursuant to the parking leash, which currently exceeds the amount received in the rental income. The property tax obligation is is expected to increase at a faster rate over time than than the income from the rent. And to further look at the calculation for third lakes contribution of their portion of the right of way, which they currently own in fee. It's approximately 50 feet by 246 feet or 12,300 square feet. And what we did was take the city's 2023 appraisal and the value that was placed in the appraisal for the fee simple interest of the city's land was then applied to third lakes portion of the right of way, which ultimately produced a number of just over 4 million dollars. The projected rental income for the parking lease over the next 10 years is estimated to be 216 thousand dollars compared to estimated property taxes over the next 10 years of approximately 666 thousand dollars. The projected rental income over the remaining term of the lease, which is approximately 16 62 years is approximately 1.6 million that the city would receive and rent compared to estimated property tax payments of approximately 10.5 million. And I do want to point out that we did a calculation because part of that 10.5 million dollars in property taxes that the city pays, the city does receive back a portion of those property taxes as the city's allocation from the tax payments. And in that analysis over the remaining term, it was estimated that approximately 3.1 million dollars of those tax payments would come back to the city. So it does reduce that 10.5 million dollars to a little over 7 million. Third Lake is uniquely positioned because they are the abundant property owner and they are the lessee under the parking lease that allows them to acquire the property. It relieves the city of the property tax obligations and it allows for a better use of this property through development. The sale proceeds would be allocated in into two funds. One would approximately 6 million dollars will be allocated to the economic stability fund to repay the short-term loan for the deuces townhomes project. And approximately 4 million dollars from the proceeds will be allocated to the housing capital improvement fund which is the largest contribution single contribution to date to that fund. The sale of the property is also consistent with the amended 2023 policies for the disposition of real estate as this contemplates a sale at market value and taking the sale proceeds and contributing those to those proceeds to affordable housing projects in the future. That concludes the presentation and I'm happy to answer questions. Councilmember Muhammad. Thank you Madam Chair and thank you for the presentation Aaron. Just a quick question. In the restrictive covenant is there a requirement for affordable housing? Councilmember no there is no affordable housing requirement. Councilmember if I could if I could just address that broadly I think you know it's important to note that our strategy on this property is a little different. So the administration's strategy is not to say look we're going to prescribe what you have to build on this property you're we're going to prescribe that you have to build affordable housing. What we're trying to do is maximize the revenue from the profit from the property sell the property at the highest price we can and then put that money into affordable housing and you know we can certainly I don't want to jump the gun either but councilman Montaneri talked about you know where where that money might go and and we are certainly looking to repay that economic stability uh loan but from our point of view what that would allow is when those townhomes are sold in the future then that money too could go into HCIP so it's for us it's not just the four million it's the additional revenue from the townhomes although I know that's up for discussion with city council. Awesome thank you and then there was a public comment about the street not being able to be sold until it's abandoned by the city and I'd like to maybe hear some clarification about that uh just just like double click on that uh Mr. Kent when he was speaking he said that we couldn't sell the street or the yeah it's it's you know it's very interesting it's always been very interesting to me if you drive down that street you would never know that it's not a right-of-way uh that it's private property um and you know I'm not going to try and pretend to be an attorney but if the property owner wanted to try and shut down that road or do different things with that right-of-way in their private property that might be interesting so it's very important to us the administration that we maintain that we maintain this for public use and travel um especially as Mr. Fish said it's going to be a main thoroughfare into the historic gas plant so returning this portion that is already a paved roadway back to right-of-way for the city for the public's use and travel is very very important to us um and you know Mr. Fish tried to show that the value of that piece of property that's going to be returned to right-of-way is uh over four million dollars thank you for that and that actually leads me to a question about in the event that there is like if the property owner says okay I own it I want to block it off where does eminent domain come into play like if there as an option would you be able to you know basically acquire the property through eminent domain for the good of the public so in the in the the advantage of of this deal and how it was negotiated is there is a requirement that that piece of property and the rest of of the vacated right-of-way is going to be dedicated as right-of-way alternatively an eminent domain procedure may not result in you know a very favorable outcome for the city the city would have to purchase that through eminent domain to get it back thank you thank you madam chair thank you councilmember gabbert thank you madam chair and uh Aaron and James I don't know if he's here but I just want to thank both of you thank you for the one-on-one on this item very excited to see us bringing our city-owned land policy into reality we worked very hard on that policy together for almost a year and a half to make sure that we were very diligent in the way that we prescribed it and then city council unanimously supported that and now here we are not even a year later being able to exercise it so I'm very very thankful for all of that work and to see it come to fruition so quickly very happy as well to be able to pay back that economic stability loan fund and to be able to put what you said here in your presentation the largest single contribution to our hcip fund to date I think that's huge and to councilmember Muhammad's question I mean there's a balance right we always want to try to get housing units where they make sense and that's the exercise that we went through to create that city-owned land policy but quite frankly it doesn't always make sense in every scenario but how can we leverage that city-owned land to do the most good around those housing goals it's this four million dollars it's this repayment on the deuces this is that policy in action so I really want to thank you all for this work you know you went through the process you tried to get a better bid this is the best we're going to get for this but we have been able to take it and convert it and do the most good so I'm very very happy about this thank you so much and madam chair would move approval okay okay councilman you then yes ma'am councilmember Hanowitz good afternoon thank you so much for the presentation um so we're here as a CRA and basically the point of this is to find consistency with the in-town redevelopment plan so tell me what your analysis is and making the determination of consistency with a in-town redevelopment plan because I feel like we're having the conversation that we're supposed to have at the next part of of of the analysis yeah the the original intent of the CRA when it was created was to take these properties which were considered blighted at the time and to redevelop them the city did engage in the 1980s with a developer to redevelop not just the subject property but the property to the north that the city owns and it also included in that agreement a property to the south this did not come to fruition that that agreement did terminate in 91 this agreement with the development of the property would be more consistent with the with what the original intention was was to get these properties developed to their highest and best use yeah I I just I I think I've mentioned this before at another meeting when we have this type of analysis that has to be done and when we have these reports and having the appropriate analysis done in the report based on what our role is as city council and so brian I see that you're coming up yeah if I could just add council member and I appreciate your comment again uh a couple things I would add um and I don't have the in-town CRA plan in front of me but removing surface parking lots from the downtown has been a priority for us for uh quite a while and I believe that that is relevant uh to the plan the property is underutilized uh from a density and intensity perspective so I think that's part of it too and then maintaining public use and travel of the second avenue right away I think would be uh some of the things that we'd be looking to achieve here related to the in-town and and I definitely appreciate that addition it would be nice and we do this a lot as you know and we get very thorough reports giving us an analysis and I'm a stickler for that so brian yes thank you council member brian caper director of economic and workforce development the consistency with the in-town CRA is generally done once a site plan has been filed so these are done once we actually have that site plan we're able to review it to determine what that overall development will be and the impact on the surrounding property uses as a site plan hasn't been filed yet we don't actually know what that consistency will be but once it is it does come back to city council as a CRA item for that review and to determine compliance within the uh in-town CRA so that will happen at a future time once a site plan has been filed okay okay thank you council member martinieri thank you madam chair so I've got a question for legal what would it be out of order to discuss the uh the financial aspects of this or should should I wait until we get to uh f2 I think because that is I think with the report today into council understanding council member how it's this point a certain amount of background is necessary for you to even kind of hit the CRA resolution I'd say that there's something about taking because it's not addressed in the CRA resolution is addressed in the report item resolution I do think that would be more appropriate to wait for the report okay so I'll wait uh for for that item to come up before I make my comments on that the the other question I had was there any public comment on uh does anybody put a card in for this okay all right thank you council member Flory okay that um confused me a little bit uh I wanted to talk about the proposal process for this it was unsolicited and then we negotiated and there was one other bid that is correct council member the and the other bid was from someone who didn't have the parking lease we didn't have the parking lease with so I just wondered if you could speak to that at all how they planned on interacting with that so yeah the the parking lease it was disclosed when we put the 30-day notice out they did submit a proposal that included a long-term ground lease on the property but after further discussions with the proposer we were not able to enter into or entertain a long-term ground lease on the property while we have this parking lease in place so they locked elected not to pursue further so they initially intended to continue to provide the ground parking spaces they they had proposed a development on the property but the it was uh pursuant to a new ground lease that the city would then would the city would lease them the property um for them to construct a development but the city would not be able to lease them the property with this parking lease in place okay council member this is a great question and and I think it goes to value and it goes to why the partner is so important here so if we were to sell the property to somebody else they would have to take over the lease they would have to provide those 90 ground spaces and then what the appraiser saying is hypothetically they have air rights and they could build over those 90 ground spaces our determination through planning is that would be extremely difficult to accomplish and it's unlikely that anybody else is going to want to take on that lease and try and build over this so the adjacent property owner is the property is more valuable to that person than to anybody else yeah of course i and that's why i wondered what the thinking behind the other bid was and uh if they were aware of the strings attached that came along with it and yeah yeah it was disclosed the parking lease was provided as part of the 30-day notice posting they overlooked the terms and conditions i would say of the parking lease and they submitted a proposal based on the thought that it was unencumbered by a current lease okay um i don't know if this is for legal anyone can answer it but you know is there no terms for termination of the lease uh like there's nothing we can do to buy our way out of it tell people that we're not going to honor it anymore there's a general default provision yeah but it you know would the the tenant would have to be in default of its obligations and given notice and opportunity to cure and that's not related to the monetary default okay nothing from our end though not that not that yeah and baron can confirm i don't think there's any type of information for convenience or anything like that no there's no way that the city could unilaterally terminate this agreement okay okay um i'm gonna leave it there for now uh i think later on might be more appropriate to talk about some of the other things i will say though at this point like i i'm don't like the long string of events that led us to this situation um and i'm frustrated so but i understand why you brought this to us today so i'll leave it there for now thank you councilmember thank you madam chair and i just wanted to echo councilmember hanowitz sentiments about the consistency piece because usually we would get like that line by line comparison that shows you know this is where it's consistent this is what the plan is and it would absolutely have been helpful to to see that as a part of the presentation i just wanted to reiterate that i would like to see that in future thank you councilmember driscoll thank you brian caper is still here that he might um he's quite the CRA genius so you probably have this stuff memorized um i see that it is in line with the in-town CRA with that the in-town redevelopment plan um i don't see anything that um that says that it's not not i mean councilmember generally speaking yes it is in compliance with with the um intent of the in-town CRA as um i think to the specifics meant by councilmember hanowitz where it is looking at that specific property and that building and how that building impacts the surrounding uses that will occur at a later date right now the specifics that we know is that it will be a mixed-use property consisting of what mr fish talked about but once that site plan is filed we have height we have the specific uses we have square footages that determination will come back to city council with that line-by-line consistency as it relates to the in-town CRA generally speaking the elements within the in-town CRA looking to eliminate blight look for opportunities for development as administrator gerda said eliminate a surface parking lot to do a form of development is all consistent with the the goals and objectives of the in-town CRA right thank you the in-town CRA is so different from the south st pete CRA for instance and and rightly so because CRA should be developed based on the communities that they're designed to help this particular one um encourages resident encouraged residential um and commercial um not necessarily affordable but particularly i think within that i think they called it the web city uh district in the uh in the original this is you know if they're if they're planning a mixed-use development then that is what this is for and you know reducing the um surface parking lots not only is that um something from the in-town CRA which was created in what 1980 80 81 or 82 i believe something like that early 80s yeah so look at how forward thinking they were at least on that item you know so um i i do see that i mean the question in front of us right now is is this consistent with this with the in-town redevelopment plan the answer is yes thank you thank you down to member muhammad thank you and i i hear that loud and clear about the consistency and then also it says recommending approval so in addition to the vote on consistency like if there is a yes but if we still have you know some reservations about the recommendation of approval i guess this would be for legal how would we handle that sure this is just this is just part one for the actual disposition being consistent with the plan even if this is approved then you move over to the report item so if i'm understanding your question once you're over to that item any concerns that you would have with that that's the ultimate approval of the agreements thank you thank you okay seeing no further requests to speak and it's been motion and properly seconded for CRA item two can you please open the machine for voting council members can you please cast your votes seeing that all present council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item CRA two passes seven to one with council members driscoll fix sanders floyd gabbard girdes montanerian muhammad voting yes and council member hanowitz voting no thank you so now we will adjourn as the CRA and reconvene as city council and we will continue with report item f2 and this is your time again mr fish the chair we've given the presentation does council want to hear it no is everybody okay all right well we do okay yeah we have everyone what i'm hearing is everyone is okay without the presentation yes ma'am okay and we have cards on this item yes we do we're gonna call them two at a time madam chair dylan dames and chase harrell please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council hi council my name is dylan dames i live at 4546 5th avenue north um i'm worried about uh this the discussion we're having today um about this this property being sold um i object to the acreage being sold for under market value and i also grieve that we would be flipping more land for mixed use uh profit motivated development even though it was acquired through the same slum clearance program uh that faith in florida has been uh talking about in the gas plant conversation um i think redevelopment like we know redevelopment as is as cultural as it is material that's something we hear a lot in the community from folks a lot of people are excited about the way that saint pete is developing but an observation that keeps coming to faith in florida is that as redevelopment happens it spreads out um and and where it happens like the capacity for it to push you know the symbolic red line further south um is a big fear and a big worry and i see something similar happening um not so soon after we just uh made a a big sale an unpopular sale um or an unpopular authorization uh to execute sales right and people are now seeing materialize what they warned us about is that they don't believe that the redevelopments in the city will be surrounded by walkable ideas and ways to get those community benefits into south saint pete but they believe that it'll be surrounded by more developments of the same attracting you know more investors and developers to buy up the land and further gentrify uh south saint pete so that's that's one thing that worries me and then another thing that folks really wanted me to bring to the dais was that a lot of people are pretty much at their limit with opposing redevelopments like this um and i think you know the time is i think it's prompt for these conversations to be expanded and taken outside of these chambers and for more conversations to be happening in the community because it's really tough to get people um to come out here and oppose when they don't believe that speaking here will make that big of a difference um i've talked to a good percentage of you and i know that you guys are passionate about it uh gabbert i hear your argument on on how we can leverage this to use um to boost affordable housing creation elsewhere in the city i just wish that message could get out to residents because what we're hearing from residents is that they don't feel represented and when when redevelopment happens in a physical material way that also happens in a cultural way and continues to push people out so those are my thoughts and i i oppose uh the sale thank you jason spitzer i'm waiting for the clock to restart so i get the full time my name is jason spitzer address is 4435 first street northeast i'm a little unclear about what is permissible within the council so um forgive me a little bit but i would first implore you if possible to add a requirement for workforce or affordable housing to this plan if that's not permissible then i would encourage you to vote against this plan and kill this deal and send a message to the administration and let me be clear uh i am a real estate guy i am a active member of yimmy st pete i'm usually emailing you asking you to rezone up zone properties and for uh development i'm not against development i do think this site is underutilized and i do think this site does need a development my issue is um what i would call the uh moffett rule or moffett standard that this administration has created when they originally killed the moffett deal not because it didn't have workforce housing but because it did not have enough workforce housing and yet you're being presented with a proposal that has no workforce housing no affordable housing and there's been no clear explanation from this administration as to why that deal was so terrible and this deal is so great other than some speaking to the avenue which i fully concede is a valuable piece of this but to uh administrator girdus's point we are or the other administrators point we are paying for this if you're buying it back through eminent domain you're still buying it back you're just buying it back through reduction of sale price uh so it's just a different way to slice the pie and that is important but the justification administration has given is that it's important for the raise heinz development and so the justification seems to be or the the perception is we need to do this deal for a billionaire so that we can do this other benefit for another group of billionaires and another private billionaire development and it just feels odd that after giving that development large subsidies that we're now saying we have to give more subsidies to that development and to this new development and it it just feels uneasy especially at a time when you all are discussing a budget and we have chronically underfunded infrastructure chronically underfunded arts chronically underfunded affordable housing a poverty reduction nutrition insecurity as well as other items and yet we're giving millions of dollars to billionaires to pad their profits and line their pockets and it just feels wrong and and i'm not saying that this is a terrible deal uh again if it had affordable a workforce housing i wouldn't be here today i would have emailed you and supported this proposal and said this is great and i understand the argument that this is funding sorry this is funding uh future affordable housing developments but it seems rather tangential and disconnected and from what i understand part of that is going to be voted on in the future and may not actually happen uh and so it does feel odd uh that this is going down the way it is and i would implore you if you can uh to create some affordable workforce housing here or deny this deal and send a message to the administration uh and i would just hope that this administration works harder for the people uh because we do need housing we're in a housing crisis thank you and have a great day okay council member hanowitz thank you share so i've had various conversations with administration um yesterday because i had a lot of questions um to the point of some of the comments that have been made it's hard to not look at this without thinking of the moffett deal and what's different so what i one of the questions that i asked immediately was why doesn't the community benefits um ordinance apply to this and i would like someone to explain this to me thank you council member so the community benefits ordinance is triggered when public participation in a project exceeds 15 percent or 30 million dollars regardless of that percentage in looking at the appraised value of this site of 16 approximately 16 million dollars minus the sale price of 10 million dollars we are looking at a public contribution public participation in the project of approximately 6 million in order to trigger the community benefit ordinance the development would have to be under approximately 40 million dollars we believe and we've had conversations with the developer that that that will exceed two to three times the threshold that would be required in order to trigger the community benefit ordinance as a result it is not a covered project okay so this determination is based on a what is there a document that says guarantees that it's going to be over that amount do we have anything in writing that basically guarantees that they're going to develop something that is not going to you know trigger our community benefits ordinance council member we do not have a guarantee okay so then why don't we have that in the contract because if it doesn't i mean i obviously if they they're that confident that it's going to be i don't know three times as much then it shouldn't be a problem to put something in there and ensure that if it doesn't then we get our money back council member we believe based on the the five year requirement um that they must commence construction uh along with the other developments that are surrounding this site that have been built recently uh in downtown st petersburg as well as the sale price of ten million dollars uh it would not be financially feasible for a developer to construct anything under 40 million dollars so while we do not have anything guaranteed um we do strongly believe uh the developer when they claim that anything they build will greatly exceed the require the threshold that would trigger our community benefit ordinance i think people heard me over and over again during the historic gas plant that i only believe what's in writing in black and white in a contract between parties that's all i believe on so i don't believe in promises that are not in writing i don't care if they tell me i this is what's going to happen no it's a simple thing and i think it's a simple ask so this look i understand that there are issues with the lease i understand that you've worked very hard on this deal but we all also have our duty to kind of make sure that we're complying and doing everything we can to ensure that we are doing the right deal we are um you know making sure that the money that's public money that's being used is being used appropriately um that they're not skirting the community benefits ordinance later on and we should have protections so i have problems with that i understand the dilemma i'm curious this lease has been around for a long time when the moffett deal came through we knew this lease existed right so we knew there were problems with the property right that's correct okay i'm curious to hear what other council members have to say but i i do have problems with that and there should be some language in the contract thank you okay thank you and before um council member driscoll starts i just want to remind everyone that we have to start public hearing um at 6 p.m. council member driscoll thank you um i appreciate what council member hanowitz has said and um i can tell you it was difficult for me at first you know looking at this because it just it made um um it made the rejection of moffett just fresh in my mind all over again and i was really unhappy about that and it's hard to give that part of the property that was originally um planned for for that project but i had to put that aside because this is a a different proposal this is a different plan and a different situation and we still have that full block right so i looked at the discount you know from the appraisal and aaron is it appropriate for me to use the um 16 million 385 000 as the appraisal amount that's the the higher of the two yeah for the least fee interest i'd like to i'd like to use that higher one just um to be on the optimistic side of things so i had had a chat with staff and i wanted to see more about this parking lease and james corbett was was um good enough to send us all what i had asked for which was the calculation um because he told me you know how much it was going to end up costing us because at this point we're taking in less in rent than we are paying um and then even if you take out the part that goes to the city um between now and 2086 like then the net loss is seven million four hundred thirty four thousand nine hundred and fifty nine if you add that if we go through with this deal we're going to receive the 10 million dollars and then this 7.4 million is money that we will not that will not be going out of our city coffers so to me i look at those two things together and that means that there is a total either received or saved of 17 million four hundred thirty four thousand nine hundred and fifty nine dollars with an appraisal and we we go with the higher one because selling this at because looking at that amount really sort of sets the the bar for us at the end of the day we end up having um just over a million dollars above that appraisal that appraisal and i'm not even taking into consideration second avenue south you know and what all of that is this is just the land and looking at the they or the offer and what we're losing right now on the parking so that kind that pretty much brings it up to market rate when you consider how much the city is either going to receive or save over the length of the the lease is that does that sound pretty accurate it's a fair analysis so when you're if you consider that to be then in total um an offer that is the equivalent of market rate i don't see how we i mean isn't that one of the options if we're not it that would be the exemption to the cva process and you know to me it means we don't really have to require anything because this isn't a city project if either one of you want to weigh in on on these thoughts i'd love to hear from you because i i felt it was important for me to to let folks know how i got to this because i really appreciated mr spitzer's comments from the public as well and what what i've arrived at when you consider all of the the implications of the lease is this is this is really the best way we can go with this councilmember driscoll thank you for that and certainly this is one area where the the community benefit ordinance is is silent um and i i think as we continue to this is the third third project where we've really looked at this ordinance and looked at how to apply it every time we've done this we have gotten better at it and we have sort of uncovered another layer of the onion if you will and i think this is an area for incremental improvement there are certain things in the ordinance that we can certainly make clearer such as looking at other things like the offsetting of that rent um versus you know the taxes there are areas where right now the ordinance doesn't speak to it but certainly we would be happy to look at that figure out how to make this a stronger ordinance moving forward to make it clear and make sure that universally we all understand how best to apply it to these projects moving forward and with this lease in place it's really not feasible to expect that anyone else will be able to purchase this property and that we'll truly get much of anything for it and so this gives us an opportunity to take in some funding that's going to go to great use and then also um you know bring an end to a lease that does not make sense for us today and so it it unshackles us from from that and allows this land to move forward with us having money to invest in the things that we need so i'm i'm there and i appreciate all of the discussions that helped me to get there thank you okay just for clarity um i did say that we need to start public hearing at six six ish um we do have one two three three items that we still need to conclude before the 6 p.m um time frame so i just wanted to to correct um i gave a hard time but we do have some time after six council member montaneri thank you and thank you for the uh presentation uh i like other council members was not happy at all when the mayor terminated the the moffett agreement and uh we put a uh report item on the agenda and we talked about it and uh uh you know a lot of us still aren't aren't happy about about that but you know that what what's done has been done and uh it's it's time to move forward i'm supportive of this agreement uh that's that's before us and uh the way that council member driscoll went through the math i came to the same conclusion especially with the one-on-one meeting that we we had uh wasn't that sure before the the one-on-one meeting though so you all uh did a good job would like walking me through uh these numbers i did uh earlier in the meeting i did want to talk a little bit about uh the uh cost and uh funding part of this agreement and when we uh when we approved when city council approved i a couple of us voted against the uh deuces rising uh townhomes but back in january uh of this year that uh project was approved and there was a resolution that was part of that project that talked about the interfund loan and uh i wanted just just to have a little discussion with with staff and in legal about that resolution that that passed um and let me just start with legal does do we have to abide by the resolution that that was passed on january 18th unless you supersede it council member so in that uh in that resolution it does say that you can repay that loan from proceeds received from the sale of the townhome units or proceeds received from the sale of other city-owned properties so in if i understand your question um that a lot the flexibility for that is already built in so that the resolution before you is not inconsistent with the prior resolution okay and then um so we thank you thank you for that so so earlier in the uh in the meeting we talked about the economic stability fund and uh i was not aware of where with with what's before us uh the 6.8 million dollars that was uh going to go that was that was uh taken from the economic stability fund to for the deuces rising project is going to get paid back per what administration is is approving so uh mr girdus you talked about uh using the funding from the deuces rising townhomes you want to put that into hcip fund is that is that correct that that would be the preference of the administration um i'll be honest with you i'd have to defer to mr green or to the city attorney's office on um how revenues are appropriated and you know what that discussion might be like so i think we may need to have a little more discussion about that and what the mechanics of that are but that would be our general intention yes okay and that uh that that sounds like a discussion that might be more appropriate in bf and t uh than here on the dais but i uh i'm serious about the economic stability fund you know i would i would like i'm it's as everybody knows on this city council uh those interfund loans uh to me are a problem but i think that's a discussion that we should have uh at bf and t about how these funds or what the funds are going to be used when the with the deuces rising project and i do like the the fact that uh part of the proceeds are going to go to pay back those those loans i'll leave it right there thank you thank you councilmember floyd thank you i'll pick up right there actually so i can get some clarity why did we choose to tie this to paying back that interfund loan instead of just waiting until those townhomes sold so i mean i think that's a good question it's always been our intention to uh pay back that loan as soon as possible as mr you know green said there's opportunity costs and there's cost savings related to that our real intention on the deuces rising townhomes um you know was to not have to borrow money um so we avoided all all interest costs so that was significant for us and but i'll just also say you know i i think it's um appropriate that this item has come up on the day of the first budget reading because we're always trying to listen to the public and one of the things that i've heard at least um year after year is that we don't appropriate enough general fund dollars into affordable housing and this is an opportunity to appropriate four million dollars in what would be general fund revenue into appropriate housing and to respond to the voices uh that we've heard related to that and as far as i'm aware it would be our single single biggest contribution from the general fund into affordable housing so we felt like what we could do is make that contribution payback economic stability and then reserve the future revenue from the townhomes then to go into hcip when they're sold okay well a couple of things to that first is i wasn't interpreting when people were saying like oh we're not putting general fund money into affordable housing wasn't interpreting that as we should sell city assets to put it into affordable housing i was interpreting that as the increased tax revenue that the city's been generating from all the development and growth in cost uh here should go towards affordable housing and so i had just interpreted that differently uh the second thing though with that is i just want to make sure uh uh and you know it's speculative but i just want to have this answered we still anticipate the sale of the deuces townhomes to cover the amount uh that is uh was the interfund loan we still anticipate that yeah yes okay all right nothing's changed there okay all right then i'll move a slightly different direction um uh i'll go to um since we're talking about these old things councilmember montaneri did mention yes some of us voted against the deuces townhomes project um and uh you know then the moffett deal as well as you know something that's in the past now but sort of tangentially related to this when we were doing the moffett deal it was a cba project and there was this discussion about how it was a cba project because they were purchasing the land for under market value and uh the value of the land determined at that point was like something around 20 million dollars uh and they were trying to purchase it for like five uh forgive me if i'm misspeaking but uh that valued the 20 million i just want to be clear that was based off of the lease existing there the air rights in that part of the piece of property how did how did how did this play into that yeah so in those appraisals in 2021 there was actually the spray the appraisals were split out into two sections one was just to appraise the lease hold on the lot that we're talking about today and the other part of the appraisals included the two lots north of second avenue south so those two lots north of second avenue south you have a very good memory uh about 22 to 26 million dollars was the two ranges of the fee simple interest value of those two lots to the north okay and then so but there wasn't was there consideration for the two lots on the south part or the one lot on the south part there that in that appraisal there was uh an assumption of value of 245 000 and 250 000 uh based on the lease fee okay um thank you for that something just popped in my head side note uh if the moffett deal had happened second avenue north or is north or south i don't remember which one it is second avenue wouldn't have been there anymore or would have or what to my understanding that the second avenue south right-of-way was not considered um yeah as part of that deal as far as opening it opening up yeah that's what i was thinking so had we done that then the grand entrance into the gas plant just wouldn't have existed okay all right that's just interesting and came up all right i got two more quick things one is uh would this have been a cba project uh under the ordinance before we did the changes recently prior to the revision this would have triggered the cba ordinance i did not support those changes uh because of things like this uh so thank you for that the last thing real quick i hope it's quick um that 14 to 16 million dollar appraisal that was air rights like with the ground lease but the air rights yeah yes so in that appraisal the appraisers assumed that because the city retains air rights pursuant to the parking lease that there could be vertical development over top of the parking lot the challenge with that is you need support columns you have ground floor retail space which is required within the zoning if there were to be a parking structure you'd have ingress egress ramps to support that parking structure currently there are 92 parking spaces on site and we feel like those parking spaces i mean the site is fully used for parking so 92 spaces we have to provide pursuant to the least 90 spaces on the ground level by the time you put support columns in by the time you put your retail in there's really no way to support a vertical development but when the appraisers looked at this they looked at it from more of a very high level assuming that you could replace those 90 spaces within structured parking that would be built over top however that is not what the lease contemplates the lease it requires those 90 parking spaces to be on the ground level okay so yeah i'm taking it as to the administration disagreeing with the assessment made by the okay assessor um so we don't have a number though for what the property's value is without the lease then it's it's very difficult and the because of the lease the value is certainly impacted by that requirement to provide the 90 ground level spaces okay yeah that's clear i bring it up though because we're using like this calculation to say that you know because we get this amount for the land 10 million we get four million dollars worth uh over here by the uh you know giving getting back the right of way and uh the value that we have here is 16 million uh it's like a market rate sale but you can't say that it's like a market rate sale because we don't know how much the land's worth market rate without that lease so it's it's not it's it's how much it's like a sale for the for the air rights that's what it's like it's not like a sale for a market rate so i just don't think that that's a one-to-one comparison is all i'm getting at um that was my last question so thank you um i'll just end on saying um i understand why you have come to this conclusion here it's logical and makes sense uh at the same time um i'm frustrated by the string of decisions that got us here starting with the lease in the first place which was silly had nothing to do with any of us um but what distracting um but uh you know when you think about all of the things that could have been here and actually like one of the speakers said the fact that we didn't get moffett over workforce and affordable housing and that a standard was set there a standard that in the moment i was quite optimistic about but since then has not been brought up or met in many developments i'm just left here looking at which often is the case when it comes to development choices something that i don't like or an unknown that is sold to me as being probably worse and so i just uh needed to express that that was how i felt about it thanks thank you vice chair girders thank you madam chair uh i just have a couple of questions on the row i appreciate on the right of way uh council member driscoll geeking out over the numbers and getting us that spreadsheet i always enjoy that so thank you for making sure we all got that and and i won't double down on that but okay so we talked about the 12 300 square feet of right of way i'm just for my mind that is the western portion of the south side of second avenue and the eastern portion it's both that you're counting in that 12 300 right it's not just a portion that we currently own it's the it's just the portion on the it's the south uh half of um can you bring up page six please yeah i'm just trying to totally understand that's all i'm it's basically i want to make sure when i talk about the value i'm understanding the four million value of where that is that's that's right it's on approximately one quarter one quarter of second avenue south right okay so we're not even contemplating getting back the other quarter of the right of way so the the city when you're talking about overall value because right now they could build on that right i mean it's the theirs it's theirs yes and so after if this sale is completed we not only get to continue to have that quarter that south west corner or portion but then we get back the southeast portion as right away so ultimately this entire right of way would be rededicated so this was originally a hundred foot wide right of way the city owns approximately three quarters of the interest in that right of way currently so we will be effectively turning it all back into right away right what i'm trying what i'm trying to figure out though is the four the 4.05 million that you're giving a valuation of 12 300 square feet where is that it's only for the portion that third lake owns so that southwest quarter portion of the right of way i'm sorry southeast i'm okay council member this is where i was getting okay so because we're we're getting it back as right of way we're getting it back so essentially third lake is contributing it back it's property that they currently own that's what i was trying to understand the value because i mean we're it's kind of a trade in value and i want to and when i when i'm talking about this because i'm sure we're going to get questions on it i want to make sure that i understand it correctly okay so that's that's that portion and then the southwest portion that we own will continue to be right away yes it'll initially be subject to an easement but then it'll turn into a right right vacated it to right away okay that's all i had move approval second okay councilman muhammad when you look at the the numbers and how we get to like a market rate sale and calculating the the amount of the lease um so that calculation on the amount of the lease payments that gets us to that roughly 17 million does that also include the amount that we get back from property taxes because you mentioned that there is a portion of that that we're paying that we actually get back and so i just wanted to clarify was that included in that final number and if not do we know what that what that amount is how much are we getting back sure so in property taxes right now as an estimation over the course of the next 62 years the city would receive back approximately 3.1 million dollars of those property taxes as part of the overall property tax payment and so we factor that in that brings that 17 down to 14 is that kind of if i may okay i factored it in okay so it was 3.1 with the city keeping 3.1 um the net loss for the parking lease to from now to 2086 was seven million four hundred thirty four thousand nine hundred fifty nine so when you figure and so that was without the 3.1 million okay which brought that plus the offering the offered price to 17.4 that's my question thank you thank you about the nerd out over the numbers thank you council member hanowitz thank you so i i like some other council members here have an issue with how we got here and i i think there are lots of people that have seen what happened with moffett they look at this property they look at the appraisals and are thinking and why are we doing this getting less money that it's appraised they don't understand the lease they don't understand all the details that we're covering they don't understand that it requires 90 ground um level parking spaces i get all that which is i hate being put in this position um i don't like by the way doing analysis on numbers and monies we're getting in the future because there's a thing called net present value and if we're going to start comparing apples to oranges maybe we should do that just like in gas plant when we're getting 50 million dollars and you know within 12 years it's not really 50 million dollars today um but that's that's that's something that you know if we're going to start looking at those values we should look at them in today's dollars and figure all that out i appreciate by the way that you fixed the 10 million because i had the conversation with you it really wasn't 10 million because we got money back um so i appreciate that but i will tell you i don't think it's difficult to require them to make a guarantee in the agreement that they are going to exceed a certain amount it's not difficult because if we believe in our ordinances as a city council and we are just going to take people's words like oh yeah it's going to happen we should have it in an agreement i'm sorry i don't like that i clearly don't have a consensus so it seems to be fine but i think we should require something like that because then it's meaningless anybody could say oh yeah no we're absolutely no it's you know it's not going to apply because it's going to cost so much so what's the point why do we even have it so i personally have a problem with that i understand that we are in a situation that we have to do it because of the facts of this particular case but this can get fixed i don't know why this has to be done today without it getting fixed that's what i don't understand because this has been happening for a long time so it's that simple it could have gotten fixed they could have made the representation in the contract and we seem to be fine with it i may have to approve this but i want to make it clear i'm not happy with that thank you council member muhammad thank you madam chair just a quick question could we amend the motion to include that in the agreement could we make that change now so i i would say council member you could i mean it's more complicated you can make any motion that you would like of course um for something like this i think it would have to be a request for administration to attempt to negotiate a provision like that in obviously there's multiple parties involved administration the mayor is the one who would execute these contracts we have a third party we don't know whether they would agree to such a term so with with that said you could make any motion that you would like but changing the agreement doesn't mean obviously that administration would accept that change or the third party so i say that just her background thank you thank you vice chair madam chair so i guess how does administration feel about asking to if there's some language obviously we're not going to require them to spend 140 million dollars right like that's not going to be the ask but like is there somewhere where you go okay if you don't spend x then it could trigger cba look we understand the point um but we've answered the question we believe the five-year construction timeline covers us we believe it's exempt from the cba we don't believe we're outside our ordinance and we'd be very concerned about renegotiating this agreement thank you okay so we've had with no further requests to speak we have a motion in the second on item f2 there's no other requests further requests to speak can you please open the machine for voting now that all present council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item f2 passes six to two with council members driscoll fix sanders gabbard girdus hanowitz and montaneri voting yes council members floyd and mohammed voting no thank you so um council members this is what we're going to do because of our um public hearing timeline we're going to move forward uh in our public hearings with items j1 and j2 so joining us is our coast compliance assistant director mr joe wah after we've approved these and they can both be approved together um then we're going to break so that we can come back and be back at six so that we can start our public hearing on time and i don't think j4 will be done in 10 minutes that's the overlay one so i don't think we're going to be able to do that in 10 minutes because we have to start at six so we got this so we're going to take the break after we do j1 and j2 um and then we'll come back at six and do the budget public hearing once we conclude that then we'll come back with j4 and j5 and we can take the time we need but we have to start our public hearing at six move approval j1 and two second okay now that we have a motion and properly second for j1 and j2 can you please open the machine for voting council members please cast your votes seeing that all president council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes to approve agenda items j1 and j2 passes unanimously thank you and we will recess until 6 p.m thank you madam chair then we're going to go ahead and start with the public budget get a budget hopefully that's going to go fast you're going to call us back okay so let me go ahead and okay we're going to resume back with council meeting and our public hearing that's due to start at six and we have how many cards on for the budget we only have three cards madam chair okay so we have three so can you go ahead and call the speakers after you read madam chair we have to i need to read after you read the title no no you have a script you need yeah we have to follow the exact um the exact script gotcha gotcha gotcha okay y'all i'm sorry because we're going to go to the next oh no all right let's read this oh yeah okay all right thank you thank you all right we're going to call to order our public hearing and we're going to actually announce another purpose of the public hearing so publicly announced that this is the start of the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 millage rate and budget the purpose of this public hearing is to discuss the mayor's recommended budget approve a proposed millage rate and approve the recommended budget appropriations ordinance for fiscal year 2025 as the tentative budget for fiscal year 2025. prior to public comment the first substantial issue discussed shall be the percentage increase in millage over the rollback rate necessary to fund the budget if any and the specific person for which advar tax revenues are being increased that issue will be discussed by the mayor and his staff after the title to his after the title to the budget and appropriations ordinance is read mr clerk can you read the titles please propose ordinance number 592 h an ordinance making appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30 2025 making appropriations for the payment of the operating expenses of the city of saint peterson florida including its utilities and for the payment of principal and interest of revenue bonds and other obligations of the city of saint petersburg florida making appropriations for the capital improvement program of the city of saint petersburg florida making appropriations for the dependent special districts of the city of saint petersburg florida adopting this appropriations ordinance as the budget for the city of St. Petersburg, Florida for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025 providing for related matters and providing an effective date and the second public hearing for this item is on September 2026 I mean 26, 2024 and we I'm sorry we only have two cards Madam Chair not three. Two cards okay so are we handling the cards first because I do the mayor is not here are you going to make an opening remarks? We'll defer to council if you'd like a presentation on the budget or if you'd like to go right to public. I would say I'm sorry for this we have to be very deliberate in terms of checking all the boxes under the statute so we should go through this without skipping any steps so I mean you could bypass the introductory remarks if you want but the presentation Liz's presentation related to the rollback rate has to happen first. So that's what I was asking it says Mayor Welch but he's not here. That's fine I mean it could be any opening remarks by administration or fine. That's fine all right so we have with us our budget director Ms. Liz Mascoff who will provide a brief PowerPoint presentation a first substantial issue to the to be discussed in the percentage increase in mileage over the rollback rate necessary to fund the budget if any. The proposed millage is 6.4525 and this rate represents an increase of 6.13 percent over the rollback rate of 6.0796 F.C. F.S. 200.065 parentheses 2 E. The reasons for the increase should be discussed at this point and so we're going to turn it over to our budget director Ms. Liz Mascoff. Good evening everyone. Before I begin the presentation if anyone has specific questions or concerns regarding the assessed value of their property exemptions or classifications related to your property. or information included on the trim notices tonight we have here with us mr Kevin McKeon who's the deputy of assessment administration from the Pinellas County property appraisers office if anyone would like to speak with him please follow him at this time and he'll be able to answer any of your questions um and for those attending virtually um please contact the Pinellas property appraiser's office at 727-464-3207 or email mike at pcpao.org all right good evening and thank you chair and members of city council this evening is the first of two public hearings on the fiscal year 2025 budget for the city of st petersburg florida statutes 200.065 the truth and millage act also referred to as the trim act requires a specific process for our discussion tonight the order of this process is laid out in attachment a of the backup materials the city clerk has provided the first reading of the fy25 tentative budget ordinance and in just a moment i will review with council and the public the tentative fy25 budget and highlight some of the changes since the mayor's recommended budget we will then hear from the public upon conclusion of this budget presentation after the public comment period and additional discussions and deliberation by city council council will be asked to take action on three items each of these actions will need to be done as a standalone motion the first is the adoption of a proposed millage rate for fy25 the second is the adoption of the fy25 tentative budget ordinance and the third is the adoption of the fy25 budget resolution as the tenant but as a tentative budget for the city of st petersburg so under florida statutes 20 065 or the trim process the first item of substance to be discussed is the percent increase if any in millage over the rolled back rate for the purposes of the fy25 budget the rolled back rate is six point zero zero seven nine six and is the millage rate that would generate roughly the same amount of ad valorem revenues in fy25 as the city received in fy24 under the trim statutes we're allowed to recognize ad valorem revenue associated with new taxable value added to the tax base so the rolled back rate generates slightly higher revenues in fy25 than the city is scheduled to receive in 24. the proposed fy25 millage rate is 6.4525 which is a reduction of 0.0150 mills from last year's millage rate and represents a 6.13 percent increase over the rolled back rate the year over year increase in ad valorem revenue from fy24 to fy25 is 20.633 million the second step in the state required trim process is to discuss the reasons ad valorem tax revenues are being increased a major reason for the increase in avalorem revenue is to provide the resources needed for wage increases for all city employees including police and fire rescue there were also 46 fte or new positions added throughout the city including including 12.5 in the general fund the key areas of investment plan for the fy25 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 ready academy year-round youth employment program youth development grants and literacy and steam programs under the equitable development arts and business opportunities pillar we look to fund the continuation of many of our economic and workforce development and art programs while adding funding for new programming including a new city-wide workforce development programming and an arts micro grants program in the neighborhood health and safety pillar we are continuing to fund neighborhood and safety public programs like the call program and the mayor's tree mini grants while adding funding for the safe summer safe neighborhood for all community impact and healthy neighborhood store programs for the housing and opportunities pillar they'll be funding to continue the housing the 10-year housing opportunity for all agenda and provide funding for other programs throughout the city and the under the environment and infrastructure resilience pillar there's funding for infrastructure throughout the city the increase in the ad valorem tax is based on a 10.78 increase in 2024 taxable property values over 2023 this chart shows a 10-year history of property tax revenues in relation to public safety costs you can see that in fy25 ad valorem revenues recover all public safety costs for this city this next slide illustrates the calculation of the millage rate for fy25 the first step in the calculation is to determine the value of one mil to do this we take the gross property value and then multiply it by 96 percent resulting in 33.851 billion in value for budgeting purposes we then divide this amount by 1 000 and this gives us the value of one mil at 33.851 million the second step is to look at our fy25 general fund requirement of 393.595 million and net out the other sources of revenue other than ad valorem taxes which totals 175.171 million to arrive at the amount of required ad valorem taxes needed at 218 point 218.424 million then the third and final step is to divide the required ad valorem taxes of 218.424 which is b on the slide above by the value of one mil which is a on the slide above and this arrives at the 6.4525 mils required and again this is a millage rate is a decrease of 0.0150 mils from fy24 this slide illustrates a typical tax bill for a resident of the city of st petersburg the city of st petersburg makes up 30 percent of the homeowner's tax bill and or 30 cents of every ad valorem tax dollar paid by the property owner the school system with its two components of their tax bill makes up about 35 percent and pinellas county equals about 22 percent of the total taxes the balance of 12 percent is made up of various other taxing authorities we will now move into a discussion of the changes to the fy25 budget since the mayor's recommended budget was submitted all of this information is included in more detail in attachment b recap of changes and the changes in revenue for the general fund can be found on page one there are three changes to the general fund of the revenue side in the economic and workforce development department there's a decrease of about 50 000 as funding from the innovation district to cover 50 percent of a full-time economic development analyst is no longer occurring there's also two increases in grant revenue in the parks and recreation department for the fy25 jwb agreement and in the police department for the project safe neighborhood grant and both these amounts are higher than what we had initially put in the budget the changes in requirements or expenditures in the general fund are also found on page one of attachment b the changes in the budget and management department is due to increase in the general fund transfer to the economic stability fund in the mayor's office the uh 100 000 of the 500 000 for literacy steam programs was reallocated for programming at the usf marine science center at clan bayou per the city council committee of the whole meeting on august 22nd and all the other department changes listed on the slide are due to position changes that occurred in fy24 since the recommended budget in addition to the changes on the previous slides the parks and recreation change is due to the increase in the jwb agreement and the police change is due to the award of the project safe neighborhood grant from the florida department of law enforcement and these are related to the grant revenue received on the previous slides the spto change is due to position transactions since the recommended budget and the changing contingency is the net amount needed to balance the general fund and includes one million set aside for potential costs related to the gas plant redevelopment looking to our other funds outside of the general fund changes in revenue can be found on page two of attachment b the change in the economic stability fund is due to the increase in the transfer from the general fund the changes in the south st petersburg redevelopment district and downtown redevelopment district are reductions in expected county revenues resulting from the proposed county millage rate reduction and all the other revenue changes listed are needed to match the proposed utility rates and transfers in the fy25 utility rate study the requirement expense changes for other funds are also on page two of the recap of changes the change in the south st pete redevelopment district fund is the corresponding expenditure budget reduction to the revenue reduction discussed on the previous slide the building permit special revenue fund increase is due to position transaction changes since the recommended budget for the water resources stormwater utility and stormwater debt service fund these changes are to update budget amounts to correspond with the fy25 rate study the increase in the albert wooded airport fund is the funding to act as a match for airport scholarships that was added at a previous city council committee the whole on the budget and the changes in the remaining three funds listed on the side are all related to position transactions since the recommended budget so we have one revenue change in our cip program and it's found on page three of attachment b and this is a decrease of 125 000 in grant revenue due to receiving the grant agreement in fy24 so since we originally planned for the grant to be received in 25 we built it into the 25 budget but we're backing it out now that we've received it in fy24 and it went to city council on august 8th the two changes on the cip side on the requirement side are also related to that grant and it's backing out the the amounts of budgets in fy25 that we put in in the fy24 for receiving the grant early in this next section we'll give a quick overview using tables charts and graphs to illustrate the city's fy25 budget these tables are included in the fy25 budget and brief which has been posted on the city's website the total operating revenue budget for the city for fy25 is 908.86 million charges for services make up the largest category at 390.277 million or 42.9 percent followed by taxes at 288.1 million or 31.7 percent the operating budget expense budget for fy25 is a total of 902.207 million and it's about 9.6 percent higher than the fy24 operating budget the water resources operating fund increased by 9.64 percent year over year from 202.419 million to 221.94 million and the general fund and reserves budget increased by 8.2 percent from 364.6 million to 394.489 million the total general fund revenue budget is 393.595 million general fund revenue comes from various sources as illustrated in this chart and the largest single source of revenue are taxes including our ad valorem property taxes and excise taxes and others and that's 73.2 percent or 288.1 million intergovernmental revenue including the half cent sales taxes is the second largest source at 11.2 percent or 44.1 million the general fund expenditure budget is also 393.595 million the total the city's general fund is categorized into six administrations and the single largest general fund investment made by the city is in our public safety administration which is 52.7 percent and includes our police and fire rescue departments the general government administration makes up the next largest category at 19.79 percent and these departments include budget finance legal and human resources the third largest general fund investment is in our quality of life programming provided by the community enrichment administration at about 16.8 percent and includes our parks and recreation department and libraries this chart shows the general fund budget broken out by expenditure type the single largest expenditure category of the general fund is wages and benefits at 261.8 million or 66.5 percent of the total budget with services and commodities coming in second at 20.9 percent or 82.3 million the fy25 cip includes a total of 198.46 million in capital projects the water resources projects account for the largest amount at 120.58 million or 60.76 percent while penny for pinellas funded projects account for 39.6 million or 19.9 percent the total for the five-year cip plan cip plan from fy25 through fy29 is 993.853 million in capital projects this next slide and it's the second to last we're almost done so is the fund balance commitment categories that council will need to reaffirm these are other categories when the budget is adopted however the amounts that we set aside for these categories are not determined until the fy24 fiscal year is closed and we have actual year-end results so we will apply numbers to these during our cleanup ordinance in november at this time we'll have a better idea of how much fund balance is available to allocate to each category and there is a new commitment category included in this year's budget ordinance and it's a measure of financial assurance from the city to the u.s army corps of engineers and is a commitment in lieu of a performance bond for the construction of the seagrass mitigation bank in closing the second and final budget public hearing will be held at city hall in council chamber on september 26 2024 at 6 p.m and information on the city's budget is available on the city's website thank you so 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 military and tentative budget by city council he's out of time madam chair i believe it's lama alasan and nathan tupisan please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council sorry about that hi my name is nathan tupisan and my address is 500 second street south and just want to take the time today to first say thank you it's been a very long process and it's a continual process in which we seek better investment in our youth and expand upon our existing opportunities offered both through the city and locally so i just want to take a minute to say thank you now as we consider budget initiatives for fy25 and fy26 i want to keep in mind an active investment into youth even if we again going back to our pillars of progress it is worthwhile and i very believe we should continuously pour into our using as the opportunities and the overall things they can achieve but with that i yield the rest of my time hi my name is lama al-hasan i live at 5011 starfish um in coquina key uh so echoing what nathan's talking about with the pillars you know we hear about the pillars being focusing on youth and housing um not really seeing that reflecting too much in the budget though uh we see dramatic increases in other places referred to as quote unquote public safety uh like the police department but we don't see the same kind of increases in other areas and i think we all agree that we do want violence in our communities to stop and i think it's really important for us to do that by addressing the root causes of these issues we know that the root causes of violence comes from disinvestment in communities and sometimes um and i'm sorry and the way that we can reconcile that is by actually investing in our communities our budget is not reflecting of the care that we care that we have for people and our commitment in investing in communities one of the ways that we could do that and we've talked about this before is through youth programs um as a part of bay area dream defenders we proposed a saver streets campaign nathan has proposed fund our futures and we want to bring these two programs together and have them reflected as part and committed to in the budget itself in this year and continuing on the years to follow these campaigns are intended to address violence by giving youth the things that they need to survive and thrive not only do we intend on creating new programs to help support them in their development but we also know that we have a lot of really great existing programs when i as a member of the bay area dream defenders went and talked to community members and we asked them what they needed to address violence especially gun violence in their communities they constantly told us it was youth programs and we asked them aren't there any available to you now and they said yes however they cost money or we don't hear about them or there are times that are making it really hard for working class folks to attend so as part of our proposal we also think it's important to not only build the new programs but expand on the ones that we have today and actually make them equitable and accessible to all folks especially working class people that find it so much more challenging we also think it's important to actively be able to go into these communities and let people know about it so as part of our proposal we did have a community engagement specialist that would be able to address the concerns by having one-on-one conversations and that's what we really need to spend our time and focus on in our budget and thank you jerry funks is the final speaker madam chair please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council hi there thank you for your time my name is jerry funt uh 2920 north 11th street or 11th street north sorry um so i'm here with the bay area dream defenders we are an organization that fights for the safety and liberation of all people uh we look at safety as having access to food housing jobs education health care the things that people actually need to live a full life represent safety to us i'm coming again to push the city to properly fund the save our streets and for fund our futures initiatives both aimed at providing critical support that our communities need to not only prepare youth for the future but also to make efforts to reduce gun violence that occurs right now i know you may have heard about this campaign but i'll describe it again uh bay area dream defenders went out into the communities most impacted by gun violence out here um repeatedly over the course of two years asking people what do you feel like you need to feel safe what do you think would resolve violence here they didn't tell us they needed more police on the streets they didn't tell us they needed more surveillance cameras or anything like that in their communities they said they needed speed bumps they needed affordable housing and more than anything they said they needed programs for youth to be involved in when they got out of school or when they were grad just graduating school and that they didn't they needed to have things to occupy their time so they didn't get pulled into things um so we started the save our streets campaign demanding those kinds of things from city council from the mayor uh we met with the mayor after the st pete budget open house and we talked about the campaign and we we told him that a budget represents a city's priorities what we fund represents what we care about right and we know that the mayor thinks that this kind of programming like programming for youth can help and we know that the mayor thinks active outreach like lemma had talked about active outreach of the community to engage them on these things can help we know that the city thinks these things can work and how do we know that because a sort of thing that is similar to this already exists the only problem is we're currently only doing that sort of outreach after a child is in the criminal legal system after a harm has occurred after someone has been has been impacted we're not doing outreach before the thing happens and we can do that lisa wheeler bowman was brought on as a community impact and safety liaison she goes out into communities after someone is harmed after a child is caught in the criminal legal system and she tries to provide active support to the family in greater ways than just putting their child behind bars and it has been productive so far now why can't we be funding that before someone is hurt why do we have to wait for something to happen to be making an effort on this our budget represents our priorities and we already have the the infrastructure in place to try and make this happen i recognize it's new infrastructure but new infrastructure can be more successful when it is better funded programming like this isn't represented in the current budget and we think it's absolutely needs to our budget again represents our priorities and so what are our priorities as a city with that i yield my time thank you we have more our next two speakers yordanis mullah and keisha king please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council hello my name is your donna smola address is 2000 gandy boulevard north st petersburg florida 33702 um so like i said my name is jordanos i'm a resident of st pete i've lived in st pete for about four years and have been really active in the community in the last couple years not only with the area dream defenders with a lot of other folks here today but other community partners in st pete and in child's park area specifically so some of my colleagues had already talked about some of the work that we've been doing but we've really been engaging with the community in child's park to hear what are some of their concerns so we've been doing books and breakfast events every month to provide free food for people and to engage in the community to see what are some of the needs and we do canvassing so we did a multi-year long campaign canvassing to hear what are some of the actual top concerns of the people so we would go to community events we would go to markets that were happening around the st p area we would go door knocking door to door around people in the child's park area because that was the community that we were building with the most at the time and we would do this for a couple of years to really hear what are some of the top issues and so like a lot of other folks said some of the top issues were housing and gun violence and so we wanted to corner our issue in how can we help reduce the rate of gun violence in the community so we went back out to do continuous surveys to figure out what are some of the top solutions we wanted this to make sure that it was community-based solution it wasn't just something that we were making up but was something that the community was telling us what they think the solution is and that they would need so like other folks had mentioned their solution is more equity access to existing youth programs and also more marketing some of the folks that have come to our books and breakfast events in child's park had mentioned that they've never heard of some of the youth programs the times don't work for them some of the programs have age limits so some of the older teens don't have anything to do so just making it more accessible for folks another idea that a community member in child's park had mentioned is getting some sort of transportation a lot of people are working multiple jobs they may not always be able to drop off their kids at the youth program so figuring out what are some of the ways that the st pete city council budget could fill in those gaps that the community is seeing and so that's something that we're advocating here for today to be a part of the budget process to get more youth programs and also to get more access to those programs for the community that is asking for it thank you thank you hi i'm keisha king and i am a resident of child's park um and i was here once before um in the past couple of months when we were here before talking about the budget um i'm giving a true statement from being a parent and having my kid in the child's park neighborhood and you know a working citizen and you know trying my best to keep you know um you know things going positive with uh the youth and um i see it every day with the with the child's park rec center we need more funding in order to do more things and um it starts here it starts with um more volunteers more parent involvement um we know we need it and until it affects your child that's when a lot of things seem to be the focus is when it happens to our kid then we want to make things moving but um what we're all here to do is just try to keep our kids more safe with the save our streets campaign um the fund our future um the child's park youth initiative and the phyllis whitley reading program um those type of things um add more involvement with kids and shows the community that we care about our youth um they are a growing part of our society and if we don't have them then our community cannot grow so thank you honor speaker madam chair i believe it's sierra claire or clark i can't read your last name please go to either podium state your name and address for the record three minutes to address city council joyful day beautiful beans my name is sierra clark my address is 4544 22nd avenue south and um i'm here to speak with my um fellow people on demanding that the city budget does reflect our priorities um we talked about keeping um our youth safe but just this this initiative shows that how we want to keep our household safe um i think it should be taught in sex ed because it wasn't taught in sex ed that in deciding to make children that you need to be showing up at public comment because what happens here affects so many households and i don't think mothers and fathers and children understand that we look to our parents to to to provide a safe roof but a lot what goes inside our households really is decided here and so um and y'all so and so again we had a great representation of how we um get the answers and how we get the answers we go to community we do community listening sessions we go door to door and ask the citizens and the tax paying people what do they need to feel safe like it's not just deciding that this is what we're going to give you to feel safe because each household is different and so as we did our about two years of canvassing and asking community people what do they feel safe it wasn't more funding for police it was we need a place for our young people to feel safe when that mom is doing that double because she got to do the double because bills got to be paid but i think her knowing that there's a safety while she is at work to knowing that her children can be safe inside of the community um i'm a i'm a product of community my grandma could depend on miss jean and miss betty to check on us while we were in the neighborhood and i think that we're missing that we're missing being able to depend on community and and a lot of that comes even from um our council officials who make the decisions that really affect households that a lot of parents don't even understand and so again we're asking that this be included in the budget so the city um so parents can know that the cities that we work for right the house the parents goes into these jobs inside of the city and yet the city isn't making sure what the family leaves at home is protected while we go on our job to make the money in households and so our children don't know that and then another part of it is that making sure each so the children who are affected by the gun violence inside of the community we recently just had two more shootings inside of the community and every child inside the school systems are affected when these things happen mr maurice has a um program called five keys to end gun violence and this is very important the dream defenders are doing something intentionally right martin luther king had a dream and we want to make this dream to be an intentional dream so it can be seen and felt like safety in our community the hearing is now closed council member gabbard thank you madam chair and uh thank you to everyone who came out today to speak with us we have seen you here often you continue to advocate and you're very consistent in your message so um i wanted to ask administration um the dream defenders obviously they're out in the community they're speaking with the community they're bringing us these ideas this is the second year in a row at least that they've been very consistent in their ask and their ideas my question for administration is has anyone from administration met with the dream defenders or is there a path forward to being able to meet hello carl the man showed up who can answer the question so mr lavender um can you speak to um specifically the asks around the program because i mean we have at a program because i mean we have at least at least and this is just rough math from the basics um 2.3 million dollars at least for youth programming um but there are also in sprinkled into many other places other programming and i respect that work and i appreciate that work they have very specific asks and very specific programming that has been asked of them to represent from the community so can we speak a little bit about any conversations we have had or are open to having about these programs they're speaking absolutely and thank you uh we did speak to nathan we met the other day on zoom and they would chat about that the very first meeting and i assured them we agreed that there'll be other meetings to talk about what we can do together the initial request of about four million dollars is is up for much considerable debate if you will but nevertheless yes we have met we've chatted for a few minutes and looking forward to meeting again okay very good is that satisfied nathan good yes and then i would encourage all of you to reach out to us individually um maybe you have had some individual meetings um i have not had a meeting with all of you so i would like to have that meeting so that as we are starting the process all over again come january we as council members have to submit our budget priorities and we collect those priorities from the community but if we don't have one-on-one so that we can understand what that ask is and what the plan is and what the actual dollar number is then we can't advocate for you so i just would ask personally that you reach out to my office and schedule a meeting please brother john councilman Mohammed was also on the call and may want to comment in that regard but yes we did do some due diligence there and looking forward to doing even more perfect thank you so much more than welcome thank you councilmember Mohammed for you representing and being there on behalf of council thank you thank you madam chair thank you councilmember floyd i'm gonna ask the same thing so don't go too far mr lavender um so last year and it does seem like we have two different programs being discussed here uh and so i'm not clear as to if you've met on both of them um but last year it did seem like uh whenever dream defenders came and advocated someone from the administration grabbed their contact information and uh i so i don't know which of the two programs you talked just sounded like uh fund our future and save our streets what was the the agenda Mohammed what was it was it both programs mine was an introduction councilman floyd that was my introduction to the entire group you've met with the mayor you shared your sentiment there so mine was a follow-up at his requests we didn't get into specific strategy but you were on the call well how would you respond so i'm going to express some frustration um because when they were coming last year they were informed you're too late in the process getting the process earlier so they begin in january scheduling times having conversations having meetings i understand that nathan might have met with the mayor had some conversations but um it's appearing to me that these conversations are lacking the follow-up that's necessary in order to move it forward to substantive progress and it's becoming these symbolic yeah we met with them we talked with them and we're scheduling another meeting and so now here we are in year two scheduling another meeting that's unfortunate and it's very unfortunate i know you weren't here for that exactly right so where you are in the process the congress the question that you're asking the meeting that you had and we had was a meeting that was had last year okay someone else in the administration well i assure people now it's so it's like it's kicking the can down the road and it's very frustrating especially from the position of a community advocate a community champion seeing that the budget is not the most sexiest topic but as an advocate when i was organizing in that same role a similar role we had all of these ideas but we always were told we didn't have resources we didn't have funding it's not available so we advocated for the creation of the cra now we have the cra and you still see this as a way to be able to substantive substantively measure the impact of your advocacy and so to do this year after year and still not see it being funded it is is definitely something that i think we really need to pay attention to and i appreciate the dream defenders i appreciate you nathan and all of the work that he's done he's gotten letters of support from senators and everyone else but it seems like it's it's getting stuck so the meeting that we had respectfully call i think it was a waste of time because it was just another introduction and it allows you to come in today and say yes we met with them and we talked to them and and not be able to say no you haven't thank you i tell you and that's very frustrating i hear you loud and clear um and as i said on the call i look forward to a face-to-face meeting and how our staff going to organize that it would have been wonderful council person had you shared your sentiment on that call and i would have given it a lot more urgency in that regard so that's why i'm not yes air out all of the all of the all of the things yes you asked him a question did he answer yes sir okay okay i'm gonna call you when your name comes up thank you your question answered yeah that pretty much answers my question there um that was where i was going with the conversation was how substantive have the back and forths been over the past year because this is sounds like the exact same conversation so uh yeah i'm glad to hear that uh it's kind of frustrating for me as well i came into today uh feeling much more comfortable about the budget than i have in previous years uh after some of the things we've done um you know i'm willing to move it forward today but i want to hear more before the last hearing thanks there will be a follow-up meeting for sure absolutely thank you council chair okay thank you madam chair on it with the um the the sentiments for the meeting um i i i won't air those things out but it is frustrating um and i would like to see us do this we we included some things in our priorities that would address that um and they were not included budget one-on-ones i talked to tom about it and so we're continuing to advocate for it and lift those things up and i look forward to working with you all to move this forward and again i appreciate the diligence i also want to thank you for your service with books and breakfasts i was there at the very first books and breakfast and we began that you know in child's park around 2016 and the consistency of that program and the canvassing and the work that you've done is it's definitely appreciated and i'm looking forward to continuing to work with you thank you thank you thank you thank you councilmember montanieri thank you i i don't have anything for you but i uh but liz and in team uh thank you uh for the uh for the presentation um this morning i i sent a uh an email to to liz i had some specific questions we had our one-on-one and i i went through all of my questions uh in the budget book but then i had some questions on on the supplement and uh so i i got a lot of answers to my questions tom thanks for dropping by my my office today i still have uh some specific questions uh concerning some of the uh appropriations in the mayor's office and then aid to private organizations and um i'm ready to move this budget forward uh but after our last uh to me the whole meeting on on the budget we talked about the 725 000 for the five-year anniversary for the pier and i thought that that was there was going to maybe be uh some adjustments uh to that has administration talked about that at all good evening council tom green assistant city administrator um councilmember um i think didn't the committee of the whole take action at that meeting we did we had two motions and they they both failed so i think at this point um we have not made any adjustments i know that mr corbin and his team were reevaluating um the the order of magnitude for that celebration and um i think we you know so they're reevaluating that but as it's currently presented today it's still at that same level okay all right we're at the podium can you remind me on the contingency we've we got one a little over 1.5 million and 1 million is for something related to the gas plant can you remind me what that 1 million is for i think the largest portion of that will be for our construction monitor skanska that agreement but there certainly could be other expenses associated with the redevelopment of the historic gas plan in the stadium but i think that's the big one that's that's right now that i know we'll be funding is that construction monitor contract okay all right good and maybe uh we can meet one-on-one either tomorrow or early next week to get some of these other other questions answered thank you thank you chair thank you thank you madam chair uh i'll just piggyback on councilmember montenari i did a one-on-one about the 700 and change about the pier um it's significantly more than was described originally in our cow it includes seven to seven day it's money for local artists to do concerts out at the pier it's a month-long multiple weekend and so that made significantly more sense to me um i i don't think uh um it got communicated fully at our cow and so uh i'm sure when james is back in town and for second hearing or if you wanted to have a one-on-one the depth of it is significantly more than what was communicated at cow and so i i would tell you after my one-on-one i'm all in favor of the funding because i think it's going to be awesome that's it's a large portion to local artists to do music shows out at the pier um and and not to mention they're trying to get funding to offset that number two with sponsorships and so i my my one-on-one was eye-opening um and so um i i think there's there's more to be had there um i'm probably not even doing it justice but i mean it's seven to seven day along with the tdc some tdc funding there are four different tranches of that throughout the entire month of july and it made a lot more sense to me when i when i had that one-on-one so i just thought i'd bring it up while we were all here um going going quickly back um to the dream funders i certainly would welcome a one-on-one um i in fact what i would say is i think how a lot of the priorities come up and we create these priorities and we create consensus around these priorities is inviting organizations like dream defenders to be at a committee meeting council member muhammad i'm happy to put one in but being the chair of yfs we're wide open and so i mean we could get them asap and i think that's the way you know i don't to be to be completely honest i don't know anything about these programs other than what i hear in three minute updates right and so outside of having a one-on-one i think a committee meeting is is the opportunity to show us all what this is and then we can um go and and try to get it in the budget it certainly sounds like something i think all of us would support but i want to have an understanding especially um on a four million dollar number right and so uh i certainly would welcome on that if i don't see you in the next couple weeks i'm happy to do it okay um and i i am one from the beginning of yfs that you know wanted to make sure that that committee stayed because i think there are important things to be done there and i think that's one of them and so uh it'd be nice to have a new new business item for yfs um so anyway i just wanted to bring that up because you know i i appreciate um administration's got a lot of things and obviously carl uh jumping into the middle of it is is difficult but it's our opportunity in committee meetings to have to get those types of updates and learn those types of things and i think all of us do that invite different organizations to do those things and have those discussions and i'd certainly welcome that one um so i just while we were here i i wanted to bring it up thanks madam chair thank you remember driscoll thank you i just want to get back to the three quarters of a million dollars that's being that is stated to be spent on pier 50 anniversary celebration the reason that the motion didn't pass and when it was in committee was because some council members indicated that they'd like to see more detail about what was contained in that i didn't receive anything um obviously there is detail out there because it's been shared with at least one city council member it hasn't been shared with all of city council we we had we had concern i mean a good number of us raised concerns about the amount of money being spent when other things were being um were going completely unfunded i i i'd like to know why we're at this point and we don't still all have the detail that we need for this party also member driscoll chris palestra city development administration thank you for the question um a couple of couple of things one is uh it's not uh it's called event it's it's under aid to private organizations would not characterize it as a party at all as noted by council member uh girdus um it takes about four to six months of activity and does condense it down into four to six weeks including seven to seven day uh focus on local artists focus on local vendors and focus on local um performers uh try to exploit i for lack of a better term areas of the pier that we haven't used in the past pocket zones uh to provide music activity um it also covers fourth of july fireworks you know so it it envelops a large section of tranches of activity on the pier so uh most importantly it's a community-wide celebration it happens to for budget purposes reside in the peers budget fair enough uh but it's an events budget tony leno uh our events director is here and um it is really focused on the entire community not just the pier we happen to have a five-year celebration it was a great way to wrap around at fourth of july that celebration in a broader way does that help it does it's um it's it's puzzling that that was not brought up at all during our committee of the whole meeting um the the only real detail that we received at that time was that there was a drone show that was included there was no mention of this being anything beyond a peer anniversary celebration event and so you can see why we would be sitting here today not knowing any of this stuff and so that goes back to my question which was why has this not been shared with all of city council we need a breakdown we need to know what's being planned where and how much it costs because we have to approve it so i i want you to show us why we should approve it certainly it's not that i'll say no but i gotta this was brought up in the cow i have to know what i'm voting on more than one person said that show us what we're voting on we can do that i know you can i i know you know i can and uh will uh more importantly uh we'll not just get that done uh uh immediately but um uh the the big buckets they are contained actually in a different section of the budget under aid to private organizations there's some of that detail in there um so it it there's a mismatch just right for work wise uh but that being said it's no excuse uh for not you not having the detail at the meeting that we had two three weeks ago uh we'll make sure to deliver uh to all council members uh a broader detail of what it encompasses thank you because we we really have no way of knowing what that includes and um for me personally the the days of um uh looking at that um an amount like that and an event like that and saying okay and moving on um we need to we need to start diving deeper we can and we can help uh make that happen yes excellent thank you so much thank you thank you i'm gonna go ahead and chime in really quickly um i i concur with what my other colleagues said especially using dream defenders as an example um this is a whole new world when it gets behind the diets um and you all have come there are other organizations that have also come that are feeling the same frustration um that you all are feeling because they cannot seem to get funded they get heard but they don't get funded um so i do have a request to look at because i remember there was a time when we had dollars set aside in the city of st petersburg for any non-profit organizations to get funding from and then that evolved into something else and then we had dollars that were then designated called youth development grants where they wanted youth opportunity youth groups to go and apply for those grants i can't remember five ten thousand dollars max that you can get with those grants which is why i also asked for we just got our social action funding budget up to 700 000 but my request was that we look at other departments where there's other additional dollars to give to organizations just like dream defenders that come to the city ask for those particular dot for that funding and come up with a process for that so i am going to basically say the same thing that council member gabbard did we don't know what we don't know and some of the things that we've seen get approved are things that we collectively ask for in our council member um priorities and when you have those and i just spoke to some middle schoolers talking to them about the same process about we don't know but when you show up in numbers and you share this with us um this is going on your number two for y'all trying to have this this conversation and ask for that funding so i am going to also ask that same courtesy be given to you all as well but i'm still not going to let go of my request of other departmentals going in other departments going into their budgets to find additional dollars to fund organizations like dream defenders and some of the others um so that they can participate in building the city as well and again i've noticed that most of the things that get done are organizations such as yourself that show up so don't stop showing up don't stop you know sharing your voices with this don't stop letting us know how important it is i'm the mother of three sons i worked in child's park i lived in child's park um so i just wanted to throw that out there just to let you know that i'm going to continue i need to continue to see your face ask for one-on-ones with all the council members because that's really how um it is going to get done and again to mr lavenders defense yeah he just got into this position and we're still trying to work out some of these fundings i'm not making an excuse it's just that that's how it is but we still need you all brothers two three four of you whoever your contact is going to be continue to have those conversations with um council members because those meetings will be had and those voices will be heard and i think you see it from all of us behind the diet so i just wanted to put that out there um just to let you know thank you for coming thank you for coming thank you for coming councilmember hanowitz thank you so i'll start off um with the peer and then i'll address the um the organizations that need money first of all on the peer events i don't want to beat a dead horse but the reality is i think when you have 750 000 allocated to an event there has to be a detail as to why the number is what it is and i appreciate that there have been conversations when this issue was brought up at the last meeting i don't like making decisions without having information so i wasn't like willing to vote on cutting that from the budget without giving you all an opportunity because i like to give people the benefit of the doubt that this is necessary for x y and z reason so i think it's simple you just need a detailed account as to why it's going to cost so much or whatever and so i just want to throw my two cents in that um because i do think it's important because if someone just hears that and says oh you're doing what and you're paying x amount and it's a pyramid they're wondering how is that even possible and so i think if if you give an itemized accounting it'll help um in terms of grants and and providing money to organizations first of all thank you all for advocating for the issues that you care about um we get this a lot from a lot of organizations and i've already mentioned it a couple of times in terms of a process and having a a process for organizations know what the criteria is so everyone can actually participate and have some we're doing things ad hoc and and that causes problems because also it's like well this organization came and this organization came for this issue or whatever and i i think the appropriate way to do this like we do for the arts grants and other or you know the social service is have some criteria and some direction um for whatever that priority is so that's what i would like to see so that way the organizations that are involved you can see okay who's doing what what are the standards what are the outcomes and where is it that you're going to get the the i guess um outcomes that you're looking for which organizations are in the best position to do what they're saying they're going to do um so that's what i want to say about that um and i'm hoping at some point i know that carl lavender has not been in the position for a long time we just got a director of education and i'd like to see the professionals that do this work have the opportunity to figure out these things so we're not doing it ad hoc at city council and saying well an organization comes and they like asking for money last minute they need something i think we should probably have some proper way of doing it that's all i want to say about that thank you thank you councilmember martini i'll be i'll be brief the uh the email that i sent out uh i requested a breakdown of 11 different categories in the budget including this this peer one and i just the only the only thing i got was it was you know basically what we heard at the committee the whole meeting so i i don't want to keep going down that path but we you heard it from us we want some answers thank you councilmember floyd thank you i just wanted to clarify i so i haven't met with dream defenders they're not advocating for funding for their organization they're advocating for the city to do something yeah so it's a slightly different situation that i wanted to make sure was clear but it's not clear right now because not everyone's talked to them and i'm sure that they would be willing to talk and make sure that uh everyone's on the same page soon but i just wanted to clarify although i will also add that the comments that uh both of you made uh on uh clarity around process and whatnot are very worthwhile and very welcome as well thank you thank you councilmember driscoll thank you you know there i think there's something to be said for the uh programs and initiatives that are already being um implement implemented by the administration and from through the mayor's office um there are more every time i turn around i feel like there's a new program um that is regarding our youth or youth crime prevention or something like that um and they're in different departments so it's kind of hard to see them all in one place even for us let alone the public and so i think a good place to start would be to show all of the different programs that currently exist are currently in um in the budget and for those that have a track record what the outcomes have been with those so far how much is being spent on each and then what that total amount is in order to figure out where we need to go it's pretty good to see where we are at the starting point maybe we use that and then build something from there just a thought thank you move approval j3a oh i'm sorry i'm sorry i thought it was no problem all right so referring back to attachment a um so you just completed step seven right um you can skip eight so now chair you would be on nine which is the announcement of the proposed millage the proposed millage rate for the city of st petersburg is 6.4525 mills which is a 6.13 percent increase over the rollback rate of 6.0796 mills and now we now you can now you can do the proposed millage right now you can approve the millage is that j3a or do i need to say propose a move move approval attachment c there you go yes j3a oh he's second it oh listen we we're getting through this we're getting through this he's on his 10th this is cheating okay so now we just need to open the machine for voting and that would be who is this j3a j3a correct okay council members cast your votes now seeing that all present council members have voted can you please tell in and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item j3a passes six to two with council members driscoll fix sanders gabbard girdus hannowitz montaneri voting yes council members floyd and muhammad voting no the next is the motion for to adopt the mayor's recommended budget correct move approval now we're doing this in two steps this is right that's j3b j3b right j3b uh-huh and then the next is the resolution which will be separate right which is be separate so we have a motion for j3b do we have a second okay we have a second can you please open the machine for voting for j3b council members please cast your votes votes now they're seeing our present council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item j3b passes unanimously okay so now we'll entertain a motion to approve the resolution approval second second okay now that we have a motion it's been properly second can you please open the machine for voting for jc j3c hold on okay there you go seeing that all present council members have voted and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item j3c passes unanimously thank you the final public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 military and budget shall be on september 26 2024 at 6 p.m in the city council chamber of city hall the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 military and budget is now closed i finally had to screw up are we good jack we're good all right all right we're good thank you so much for that um so now we're going to back up and go back to j4 j4 j4 is the ordinance amending the city code creating a new section for the sun runner target employment and joining us is mr derrick kilborn i read the ordinance madam chair yes please opposed ordinance number 583h an ordinance an ordinance amending the city code creating a new section 16.30.050 sun runner target employment center local overlay providing for definitions including local overlay specific uses providing standards for development and design in the overlay district providing for servability and providing an effective date and we do have two cards on this particular item okay go ahead and call is this the same presentation no no i don't have a presentation for you this evening okay thank you okay okay well um i didn't think you had a presentation but well first i'll i'll mention derrick kilborn manager urban planning and historic preservation so there were slides provided um to you those slides simply reflect the material that is in your staff report and we didn't know if you needed them tonight to be projected on the screen to support your discussion so we have those slides available if you'd like to go through those amendments all right i think that's what they're asking for okay we can do that making sure that's my fault there i'm sorry we can do that no no no well i'm good as long as everybody else is good because i think we had one but okay but if you need it fine is it the the consensus would you like the presentation i'm fine okay all right so with that being said we have public comment joseph funce and max mccann please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council hello hi i'll be brief uh joseph first address at 423rd street south so my comments today are just about gratitude and appreciation i think first and foremost to the staff i do this type of work in multiple municipalities i've never worked with the staff that says discipline and principled and ensuring that every step that could possibly be taken to ensure that there's support consensus and going through all the right sort of framework goals and ideas is taken i commend derek and liz for all of that work and deeply appreciative for that for the council you know when i was here last week um i heard some commentary from the public about you know criticisms of the of council members i can tell you with certainty unequivocally this is the most educated informed and thoughtful council that exists mr girdus your comments about having the spirited debate about urban planning i've never seen or heard people who have such an expertise not just in urban planning but look at all the issues that everybody listens to on a regular basis so for all of you that take the additional time to learn to engage to understand to then have thoughtful conversations about critical issues and have a deep understanding of those issues that's something that you should be extraordinarily proud of so i just want to thank everybody for the last six years of work at least that i've been involved with um and i didn't bring my party hat only because i didn't want my comments to be viewed with a lack of sincerity because i'm so deeply appreciative to all the people who have been involved in this process including all obviously all the community members as well so thank you thank you good evening max mccann 2648 third avenue south uh i'll be less eloquent but more brief than joe just want to say thanks to the council and to city staff for all of your hard work on this these zoning reforms are just going to make this area really wonderful i i do believe that with the bottom of my heart and with the removal of parking mandates i'm also excited that my daughter will be able to grow up in an area where it's legal to develop pedestrian focused buildings and a pedestrian focused community um really grateful for that it means the world to us thank you all thank you any more thoughts okay council member floyd thank you um i just wanted to ask real quick uh you know we don't need to get into it or anything just the food truck revive revision like hear from legal just what what happened in the meantime uh everything we're comfortable with here so we went with the most minimal revision that we could and that was just taking out the maximum uh no more than five days per calendar week language so now it says mobile food trucks are permitted on each property i did add language to subsection b under the frequency that says food trucks shall maintain a minimum 10 foot clearance from all buildings and that was after consultation with captain garth swingle and the fire marshals department to make sure i said what other extra things might happen if they're there more frequently and he said that if it's they're intending to be there that that would be they would need to maintain that 10 foot from each structure there may be attendant other requirements that come in but they will have annual inspections related to the food trucks and this would actually make it a little easier if they're there more often to get inspections for food trucks which are sometimes difficult to pin down but there may be storage requirements if they are longer for things like their propane tanks and any kind of like grease requirements might come in extra but those can be handled in a case-by-case basis okay um thank you and there was nothing like you know permits permanent use type come up so again if it becomes a permanent use see there's already locate requirements for plans to show where they're going to be and if it turns into that kind of use then there may be additional requirements but they would be ancillary requirements for right now if you're out on a mobile food truck you're allowed to like basically unpack and then pack up but if you're there all the time then that as i said might trigger what are you actually doing about storing these items are they stored improperly now do we need to talk about that there may be strapping requirements depending on size but again that was too particular to a specific situation for this part of the code and that would just need to be handed if we get something in a plan and it's a 40 foot long food truck that's going to be there all the time then yes they may have to talk to the building department about that but generally there are enough specific regulations relating to food trucks now that we can regulate them here that way and so again except for this 10-foot clearance that was suggested to me it seems like we could handle that on a case-by-case basis and it would not need to be addressed here okay thank you thank you council member driscoll thank you and thank you to um ever to derek and heather especially for working on these changes um it was um full of twists and turns but in the end i think we made some some changes that made this better and um really creating a neighborhood for the creative class so that we can see what a neighborhood can look like when you think outside of the traditional boxes that we're so used to regarding the food trucks thank you for for that word that was kind of the one thing that was left hanging that we needed to figure out um and with this one can you remind us what the um permitting length is and what that so yeah i think that's you they're allowed by right on properties if they're part of a special event then the special event permit regulations that are elsewhere in 16 would control but as of right now a food truck may operate on private property okay every day of the week as long as they've submitted their proper plan and have a plan for restroom facilities as provided in code terrific thank you and then as you were going through this did you notice other things about our regulations around food trucks that might um cause you to believe it may be time for us to revisit um not just in in this overlay area not just here but in general because you know that was those were created um you know it's been several years since since those went into effect and it never hurts to take a look at something and make sure that it was done right in the first place and that we don't have things that have been um discovered that would cause us to need to make some changes i don't ever want too much dust together on regulations before we take a look and so i i i don't think so at this time because again the general section regarding food trucks is about 10 years old however i believe it was the year before last we were preempted from the regulation of the trucks themselves as i said last time so we had to go in and look at that section and i did that with miss abernathy and we went through and called out things that's where we beefed up our temporary events permit and our food truck special event permits to try to address how people were using these items in the city and then of course keeping compliant with state law so that is only about a year or two old at this point so but of course we always do look at that and if some new emerging technology comes in that we have to work around then we do a holistic look of at vehicles of similar types at that time okay terrific well thank you i'm glad that you all did that review and that we don't have to get all tangled up in that no i think actually the emergent is maybe push carts and other type of smaller roadside vending might be becoming trendy else great i might have to look at that all right well chad i can't wait to learn more um that's all i have except to thank everyone who worked on this um joe and everyone from the community who has been so uh supportive and worked hard to um communicate about this really it's it's it's so balanced between uh current residents and and property owners and stakeholders as well as um you know new businesses that can come in i feel like we we really are creating st pete's next great neighborhood and i can't wait to see what happens next so thank you thank you council member gabbert thank you madam chair and i'll be brief i just want to say thank you so much to derek to your entire team to liz everyone who has worked on this for so many years from the staff standpoint through two administrations and then for our current administration to be so supportive and such collaborative partners in this work it has been a very long time coming for us to finally bring this forward today and i am incredibly proud of the work that city council did last week i started my comments last week by saying this is good but there's more juice we can squeeze today and we did and quite frankly i had a blast on this dais last week because i felt like we just got to such a place of collaboration and cooperation with each other and with the administration in response to what the residents were asking for what residents and property owners and who i always like to refer to gina i see you as the pioneers of this very special part of our city and we got it right and so i'm just so incredibly proud that we are here today and i just want to thank every single person who has hung in there advocated had meeting after meeting to continue to make this area what to council member driscoll's point is what i see as being the the real complete neighborhood vision that we have always wanted to see somewhere in our city and now it will exist here so i am so very proud and with that i will move approval of j4 last second now it's been seen no further request to speak and having it been motioned and properly seconded can you please open the machine for voting council members please cast your votes seeing that our present council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes madam chair the motion j4 passes unanimously thank you it's a great day so now we're going to move on to item j5 a and b which is continued from last week's city council member and is quasi-judicial clerk can you please swear in all speakers including staff please raise your right hand if you swear or affirm that the evidence that you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i read the titles for both madam chair yes please propose ordinance number 759l an ordinance amending the future land use map of the comprehensive comprehensive plan for the city of st petersburg florida by changing the future land use map designation for a 58 acre site generally located at the 22nd street south sun runner bus station south of first avenue south east of 24th street south and north of west north and west of interstate 275 to establish the sunrunner target employment overlay center i'm sorry employment center local overlay providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances and provisions thereof and providing an effective date proposed ordinance number 791z excuse me an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of st petersburg florida by changing the zoning of for a 58 acre site generally located at the 22nd street south sun runner bus station south of first avenue south east of 24th street south and north and west of interstate 275 to establish the sunrunner target employment center local overlay providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances and provisions thereof and providing an effective date and we do not have any cards for either item okay thank you moving on moving on to presentations we'll begin with the city staff presentation and joining us is planner two britain wilson how are you good evening council yes britain wilson city planner presenting the city initiated amendments to the future land use and zoning maps to apply the sun runner target employment center overlay so the first transmittal hearing for this item was on june 6th where it was transmitted to and approved by the state and county planning authority there are no changes to my presentation from june um but i'm happy to present it again i'm good everybody good okay just want to make sure everyone is good uh so with that being said thank you and we'll now take public comment clerk any cards do we have we have no cards we have no cards okay staff would you like to cross examine no we're good well they told me i need to make sure i say everything okay okay do you have any closing remarks or rebuttal no ma'am very good thank you city council we'll now go into executive session move approval second okay seeing no request to speak has been motioned and improperly seconded a and b we do both approval of a and b okay a and b can you please open the machine for voting please council members please cast your votes seeing that all present council members have voted can you please tally and announce the votes madam chair the motion to approve agenda item items j5a and j5b passes unanimously that's good so now we'll go ahead and um go to open form do we have any cards for open form you have one speaker madam chair and we have one in zoom as well dave bushman please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council mr bushman is not a resident of saint peter but he does have property here in saint petersburg good evening city council i'm here to talk about the water flooding that we've had in saint peter name and address again name and address i'm sorry uh dave i'm dave bushman uh 429 88th avenue north i'm not a resident that's my i own the apartments and we normally do not get any flooding there i heard on tv that mr tankersley said that we or that uh seven and a half inches of water a day per 24 hour period can be taken away by the storm water system and he said it would cost billions to improve that and i was looking on the on this on the budget and there's only 41 million dollars for storm water management and i would imagine if it should be more not that i want to pay more taxes but i'd my tenants are really unhappy about getting flooded and and i think that if there's going to be whatever whatever it is where the weather is changing it's getting wetter and there needs to be an improvement in the system my two cents worth thank you the next speaker is a zoom speaker madam chair gail cohen gail once you're entering into the meeting space please unmute yourself state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address city council yeah hi uh gail cohen 250 58th street north apartment 1306. eight days ago the city of saint petersburg had a catastrophe my street 58th street flooded with wastewater it has never happened before like this it's happened before in the city i think i'm martin luther keen i can't remember but many more gallons of wastewater spilled out now you've got to find the money and yes it's going to cost a lot but why today i talked to uh michael perry in the water department well i can't i heard the army corps of engineers mention how come you can't ask the state to ask the federal government to come in and deal with it and get federal money get other grants uh i actually talked to the crown prince of dubai frank gary's my cousin who uh does things in dubai and um you know i said you know maybe you could send a few billion to saint petersburg although i guess you'd have to register as a foreign agent i don't know with the fbi given everything that's going on but the point is you have to get creative you must find the money the houses across the street the guy doesn't have insurance he lost everything every uh room in his house flooded uh he was on abc action news uh people are outraged they were outraged when it happened a few years ago or whenever it happened before they are outraged you've got to find the money uh i don't understand why and michael perry uh did not know why the army corps of engineers could have been called and you just mentioned them so obviously you have some project with them uh you know i'll help raise the money i mean get creative you've got to fix the drainage and the sewage system you must do it you must and plus you're going to have sea levels rising you know it's going to happen again it's time to care okay all right with that we're going to go ahead and close open forum any announcement madam chair oh oh sorry miss hi i'm just looking at you and just smiling okay councilmember gabbert thank you madam chair and my announcement is uh actually in response to um the conversations around the flooding so just want to make sure that it is on everyone's calendar that on thursday of next week 8 30 in the morning this council will be holding a committee of the whole it is on our resilient st pete plan it'll probably be a very lengthy meeting where we will discuss topics that range everything from the wet weather events that we have been having and what we experienced the financial impact of those the infrastructure improvements we have been doing however we need to do a lot more the resilient st pete plan and we will be joined by duke energy who will be talking about resiliency around um electric so just wanted to kind of let everyone know for everyone who is concerned about this topic city council will be having a very thorough and in-depth conversation about it yes it is a long time coming but it's going to be happening next thursday at 8 30 in the morning you can watch that on st pete tv so we look forward to a lot of continued conversation around this issue thank you madam chair you're welcome i always look at vice chair girders when i say announcements because he's always no birthdays this week i have been handed no uh sticky notes no sticky notes okay i was looking forward to some sticky notes and singing happy birthday seeing no other further announcements the council meeting is adjourned thank you madam chair