City Council - Sep 14, 2023

Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council Meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1, Copley Gerdes, District 2, and Council Chair, Brandi Gabbard, District 3, Ed Montenari, District 4, Lisette Hanowitz, District 5, and Council Vice Chair, Deborah Fig Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, John Muhammad, and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon, everyone. We will call to order the September 14th, 2023 City Council Meeting, beginning with a roll call. Curtis? Here. Dabbert? Here. Montenari? Here. Hanowitz? Here. Dick Sanders? Here. Driscoll? Here. Mohammed? Here. Floyd? All right, we will have our invocation given this afternoon by Rabbi Philip Weintraub from the Congregation Benaiah Israel of St. Petersburg. Following that, we will do the Pledge of Allegiance, so please join us in standing. So before we begin, I want to offer my thanks to the council for the invitation for the invocation. It's a blessing to be here. I also want to offer my appreciation and thanks to the St. Petersburg Police Department this week for their responding so promptly to a hateful bomb threat that our congregation had this week. They were professional, they were compassionate, and they were extremely thorough. And I – in a stressful situation, knowing you are in good hands makes all the difference, so thank you very much. And while I'm disgusted at the hate that led to the false threat, I'm grateful to know we live in a community where we care for one another. Tomorrow night begins the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. It's a time when we believe that the Holy One looks at our actions, the choices that we've made over the course of the year, and sits in judgment. And it's a time where we sit in judgment to ourselves, not on others, where we look at our actions, our choices, how we treated others, and ask, what did we do right, and what can we do better? You know, we live in this world that is filled with blessing, but far too often we see the hatred and the violence and the loss, but every single one of us has the opportunity to reduce that harm and increase the love. Each of us has the opportunity to show love, not hate, and each of us can make a difference in the lives of ourselves and all of those around us. Since the time of the Bible, Jews have been the canary in the coal mine. When Jews are hated, others are persecuted, not long thereafter. For many years in this country, antisemitism was overt and open, and we felt blessed for many years that it seemed like it had retreated into a dark closet. But more recently, it has been revealed once again. But whatever happens, I want to give thanks to this council for considering the proposal to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. And by affirming this definition, you are declaring that hate has no place in this city. So now a prayer. Avinu Shabbat Shemaim, our divine parent, the one that we call by so many names, please work to eradicate hate. Help all of us to see the holiness in one another, the divine spark that ignites all of us. Let us see the blessings in this room, in each face. Let us see how our differences can help us bring forth more goodness into this world. Let us seek and find the holiness, the hope, and the love in this city. Let us work together to eradicate violence and truly build a world of love. And let that vision of tolerance, of compassion, of loving kindness, echo from our city across the state of Florida. Fill this nation. Let it eradicate persecution. Let it strike down hate and erase discrimination. May we lift up the voices of all who strive to make this community better and drown out those who spew hatred. May we see this blessing speedily in our days. May we see this blessing, amen, and I wish you all a happy, a healthy, a wonderful year. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. Thank you so much, Rabbi Weintraub, for being here with us today. It's always a blessing to have you. Thank you so much. Council members, we have an agenda before us today. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. And seeing no requests for discussion, will the clerk please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously. And next, we have our consent agenda. Clerk, do we have any public comment on the consent agenda? Madam Chair, we do not. Okay, with that, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval, second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. And seeing no requests for discussion, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present, council members have voted. Clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. All right, we're going to move now to our awards and proclamations. And before we get started, I wanted to turn it over to Mr. Green. Thank you, Madam Chair. Excuse me. I just wanted to welcome, on behalf of Mayor Welch, all of our folks who are here for all of the proclamations. Regrettably, Mayor Welch is at a meeting in Tampa with the ten largest cities in Florida. So he is regretful that he's not able to join you, but wanted me to share a welcome to you. And we're very much appreciative of the council members who are pinch-hitting, so to speak, for the mayor and reading these proclamations today. And welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Green. We're going to go to item D1, which is Big Brothers Big Sisters Month proclamation. And that will be given by Council Member Ed Montaneri. Council Member Montaneri, thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, City Council. Council, I'd like to invite up Representative Bernie Jock and the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters, Chris Lettos. Thank you all for joining us today. Proclamation reads, whereas Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring programs are proven to build relationships that help improve academic achievement, promote responsible decision-making, and provide skills to better navigate relationships at school, in social settings, and at home. And whereas Big Brothers Big Sisters have provided mentoring services in partnership with the city of St. Petersburg for many years, and whereas Big Brothers Big Sisters provide unique mentoring programs in St. Petersburg that facilitate youth mentoring in the workplace, school-to-work, law enforcement, first responder mentors, bigs and blue, slash badges, and mentee support, post-high school, big futures, and whereas the St. Petersburg Police Department is a school-to-work, bigs and blue partner with big brothers, big sisters, allowing youth to be aware of career opportunities within the St. Petersburg Police Department, and helps bridge the gap between law enforcement and communities. And whereas the city of St. Petersburg is committed to supporting youth initiatives through its internal programs and community partnerships. Now, therefore, I, Ed Montaneri, on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of the city of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim September 2023 as Big Brothers Big Sisters Month, and urge every resident to take time this month to celebrate youth and the people who serve and support them as powerful and vital individuals who greatly contribute to our community. And representative, I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here with us today. Would you like to say a few words? Either of you gentlemen? So, thank you very much for the recognition. Big Brothers Big Sisters serves nine counties, from Pinellas Hall the way up to Alachua County here locally. And this is one of our most important communities. Thank you for the recognition, as I stated, especially as next year is our 60th anniversary. 60 years of serving Littles, 60 years of serving communities, and 60 years of serving the city of St. Petersburg. So, we hope we can continue to count on you, and a special thanks to the police department for their continued support and leadership on behalf of our Littles. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Councilmember Montaneri. Next, we'll move on to item D2, which is our Falls Prevention Awareness Week proclamation, and this will be given by Fire Marshal Chief Ian Womack. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, members of Council. I'd like to invite up Lana Stavanovic, Alexis Lawrence. These are our internal public educators at the fire department. We've actually just retitled them as Community Risk Reduction Specialist and Coordinator, and that's a lot of what falls prevention is about, is reducing risk in the community. Ms. Arlene Grasso with Falls Free Florida. Nice alliteration there, but say it slowly, because it's tongue twister. And then Carol Ware's here as well from the Sunshine Center. Whereas, it is estimated that 21.3% of Florida citizens are 65 years of age or older. And whereas, it is estimated that one-fourth of people 65 and older will fall each year. And older adults who fall once are two to three times more likely to fall again. And whereas, one out of five falls causes a serious injury, such as broken bones or a head injury. And whereas, falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries among Florida citizens at 65 years of age and older. And whereas, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults in the United States. And whereas, the financial toll for older adult falls is expected to increase as the population ages and may reach $101 billion nationally by 2030. And whereas, falls can lead to depression, loss of mobility, and loss of functional independence. 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, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, the Sunshine Center, and Regional County 911 work together to increase awareness on this issue, promote multidisciplinary strategies to prevent falls, and encourage citizens to take steps to protect those who are at increased risk of falling. Therefore, I, Ian Womack, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of St. Petersburg, do hereby proclaim September 18th through the 22nd of 2023 as Falls Prevention Awareness Week in the City of St. Petersburg, and urge our citizens to commend its observance. Thank you for presenting the proclamation on behalf of the Mayor, and thank you all for all of the work that you do. So, Arlene, very happy to see you today, one of our Senior Hall of Fame winners. So, thank you for just continuing to do such great work in our community. I have a feeling you have another award in your future. So, very, very happy to see you, and thank you all for everything that you do for our city. Thank you. Can I just say how proud you should be of these two young ladies, Alexis Lawrence and Lana Stefanovic, who work diligently with the citizens, the senior citizens mainly, of St. Petersburg to reduce falls. They have created many programs and many activities for seniors, one of which is an activities booklet that's a coloring book for seniors, and it has word search and crossword puzzle, and it shows the six steps of falls prevention for people. And this particular booklet, I have personally sent out to many coalitions throughout the United States because it's such a great activity. So, not only do they shine in St. Petersburg, but they're becoming well-known throughout the nation. So, you should be very proud of them. Oh, we are. Don't worry. Thank you all so much. Thank you for being here today. Next, we'll go on to item D3, which is our Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation given by Councilmember Lizette Hanowitz. Thank you, Chair, City Council, and everyone here who is here today celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with us. My apologies if my voice isn't great, but hopefully you can hear me through this. We have a lot of people in the room here today with us celebrating Hispanic Heritage, and I would first like to start by asking those employees that are here that have Hispanic Heritage, can you please stand up? Okay. We are here from community groups and have Hispanic Heritage. Please stand up. Thank you all for being here. I would like to share why my Hispanic Heritage is important. As I share why it is important to me, I would like everyone to think why their own heritage is important to them and how you may find similar experiences with others who may have different heritage. Being the daughter of Cuban exiles shaped who I am. It shaped how my mother raised me in the United States. Her emphasis was on hard work and education, so I would be prepared no matter what happened in the future. She emphasized looking forward and not looking back. My family left their country after my grandfather was killed by communists because of his stance on the government. They showed up at my grandparents' house and took him away, and then two days later told my grandmother he committed suicide. They could have never imagined what happened in their country to happen, but it did. They could have never imagined losing everything, including their home and country. They had no choice but to leave to a land that offered them the freedom that they did not have in Cuba. I was born here, and I am American, but I was raised in a house full of rich Cuban culture, from the food, family, loudness, to the music. I believe I had the best of both worlds. A multicultural experience that makes me who I am. I am proud to be American, as I am proud of my Cuban heritage. I am also proud to be the first Hispanic St. Pete City Council member. As such, I am honored to read this proclamation from the City of St. Petersburg. I am going to read it in Spanish and English, so you have to bear with me. Whereas Hispanic Heritage Month, known as Mes de la Herencia Hispana, is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th and recognizes the significant contributions and influence of Hispanics on our nation's history, culture, and achievements. And whereas September 15th is Independence Day for the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. On September 16th and 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. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg is proud to celebrate and recognize Hispanic culture and heritage as an important part of our inclusive city, Hispanics are part of the we, and we are St. Pete. And now, therefore, I, Councilmember Lisette Hanowitz, on behalf of Hispanic Mayor Kenneth T. Walsh, do hereby declare September 15th through October 15th, 2023 as Hispanic Heritage Month and urge all citizens to join me in recognizing the significance of this occasion in the City of St. Petersburg. Otro más, por cuanto, el mes nacional de la herencia hispana conocido como mes de la herencia hispana se celebra del quince de septiembre al quince de octubre y reconoce las importantes contribuciones e influencia de los hispanos en la historia, la cultura y los logros de nuestra nación. Y por cuanto, que el quince de septiembre es el día de la independencia de los países centroamericanos de Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua. El 16 y 18 de septiembre, México y Chile celebran su día de la independencia respectivamente. Y por cuanto, los residentes hispanos en la ciudad de St. Petersburg representan aproximadamente el 8.4% de nuestra población y juegan un papel vital en nuestra economía y fuerza laboral. Y por cuanto, la ciudad de St. Petersburg reconoce las importantes contribuciones de los hispanos, incluidos muchos empleados de la ciudad, en nuestra comunidad. Su apoyo y participación comunitaria hacen que nuestra ciudad sea culturalmente más diversa y acogedora para todos. Y por cuanto, la ciudad de St. Petersburg se enorgullece de celebrar y reconocer la cultura y herencia hispanas como una parte importante de nuestra ciudad inclusiva. Los hispanos son parte del Somos en Somos St. Pete. Y ahora, por lo tanto, yo, la concejal Lisette Hanwes, en nombre del alcalde Kenneth T. Welch, por la presente declaro, quince de septiembre al quince de octubre de 2023 como mes de la herencia hispana, e insto a todos los ciudadanos a unirse a mí para reconocer la importancia de esta ocasión en la ciudad de St. Petersburg. And I would like to allow Andrea Ventetti, senior manager for Hispanic Outreach Center, a few words. I also want to mention that there is a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at the Willis S. John's Creations Recreation Center on Saturday, September 23rd, 2023, from 11 to 3 p.m. There'll be games, vendors, music, and there's free food for the first 300 independents, so please join us there. So, Andrea. Thank you so much to the major council members at the city of St. Petersburg for honoring the Hispanic Heritage Month. It is an honor for me to receive the proclamation today on behalf of the entire Hispanic community, who I'm very proud to be part of it. And we're also very proud to serve this country and be part of this country. I'm going to bring this proclamation to the Hispanic Outreach Center. We have been providing services to the Hispanic community in collaboration with many other agencies for the support of the community and for this country. So thank you so much for keeping it in a very special place. And I have to get the proclamation to go off it? Oh, okay. Okay, there you go. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all for being here, and thank you, Councilmember Hanowitz, for presenting that. All right, we'll move to D4, which is our St. Petersburg Care Fest 2023 Day of Caring Proclamation by Councilmember Driscoll. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm joined today by Susie Ahok from our community services, who has been our champion for Care Fest for many years. Our Care Fest celebration happens in the spring and in the fall. We have that in September and October currently. And it is just a wonderful partnership that we have with the Somebody Cares Tampa Bay organization. It's a celebration of volunteering and giving back to the community. The big event is going to be on Saturday, September 30th at the City on a Hill Church, which is located at 4265 13th Avenue North. And it will be held from 730 AM to 1 PM. Care Fest is always an exciting time for me. Our neighborhoods and community organizations really step up and they understand that really the way to lift up St. Petersburg is to always look for ways to give back. There's also a little bit of a friendly competition that occurs among districts for Care Fest. And the district that has the most projects for each Care Fest season gets to take possession of the Care Fest trophy. And I am proud to say that the trophy has sat in the District 6 office for, what, four years now? Something like that. And so this year I challenge my colleagues and people all across our city to take that trophy from me. And I would look forward to handing it off to the next Superior District. The proclamation that we have for today reads as follows. Whereas in partnership with Somebody Cares Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg Care Fest 2023 Day of Caring is scheduled for Saturday, September 30th, 2023. And whereas in St. Petersburg Care Fest is encouraged and celebrated throughout the year in the spring during March and in the fall during September and October. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg has participated in Care Fest since 2002. And whereas the objective of Care Fest 2023 is to mobilize residents, local businesses, neighborhood and business associations, students, places of worship, and nonprofits. To work together to meet the needs of citizens and make a positive impact in St. Petersburg. And whereas volunteers will take part in various beautification activities such as yard maintenance, painting, planting, and minor home repair assistance to the elderly, disabled, and or the low income of our city. Neighborhood cleanups and donation drives. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg recognizes the organizers, countless volunteers, and sponsors of this event for their commitment to our citizens. And for demonstrating to others how lives can be impacted when the community pulls together. Now, therefore, I, Gina Driscoll, on behalf of Kenneth T. Welch, Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim September 30th as St. Petersburg Care Fest 2023 Day of Caring. And urge all citizens to join us in helping your neighbors and thanking all of our volunteers involved in this event for their hard work and dedication to the betterment of our community. Councilmember Driscoll, thank you and to City Council. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? And that's what Care Fest is about, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I'd like to actually introduce Renee Van Sickle from Neighborhood Relations. Also want to mention we have two other new, relatively new staff to Neighborhood Relations before I ask Renee to come forwards and introduce our partners. So Renee is directly behind me, if you could move closer. Jamal Baskin is also with our office and Brittany Jones is new to Neighborhood Relations. But we're back and I'm going to ask, Renee has been working very diligently along with our community partners who she'll be introducing in just a moment for the last number of months. And she is receiving phone calls and emails and we're looking for more commitments and projects and efforts over the not only on September 30th, but for the months of September and October. Renee. Good afternoon, City Council and Mayor's Office. I believe background's already been shared on Care Fest, so I will not be redundant. I'll tell you a little bit about the 2023 fall St. Petersburg Care Fest. We've had 41 projects submitted. This includes 19 home projects with our partners, Somebody Cares Tampa Bay. 6 home painting projects with the City's in-team, 4 non-profit painting and cleaning projects, 4 tree trimming and tree removal projects, 2 trail cleanups, 2 donation drives, 2 food distributions, and 2 sustainability projects. To date, we've had 20 projects adopted, or 49%, so if you haven't signed up to volunteer for Care Fest and are interested, please reach out to me. In addition, we've been notified of 16 other Care Fest projects that will be completed throughout our Care Fest months of September and October in neighborhoods across the city. We ask that you encourage your neighborhoods to continue to let us know about their projects so that we can keep track of all the community service being done. Council member Driscoll has already shared the event date. We do formally invite you to join us. We will have breakfast and lunch and celebrate our volunteers on September 30th at City on a Hill Church. Thanks to 12 sponsor donations from businesses throughout the city, we will be able to feed our estimated 300 volunteers a continental breakfast and warm lunch at no cost to them. I would like to recognize Pastor Mike Conaway and Pastor Candace Smith, who are the pastors at City on a Hill Church and have been great hosts in allowing us to utilize their space this year. They have a congregation that very actively participates in Care Fest. I would also like to recognize our partners at Somebody Cares Tampa Bay, Dr. Daniel Bernard, President, and Kathy Bernard, Administrator. Somebody Cares Tampa Bay helps residents year-round in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsboro, and Hernando Counties. They were unable to attend today, but Pastor Eddie Robinson and Mrs. Robinson, who have been instrumental in helping St. Petersburg residents for Care Fest, are here today to accept the proclamation on their behalf. So I'd like to thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you, Susie and Renee, for everything you all do all year long to support our neighborhoods and our residents, but thank all of you as well, not only on this day, but every day, because the work that you do is very important, and we appreciate all of you. So thank you. Thank you for being here, and congratulations on the proclamation. And thank you, Councilmember Driscoll, for presenting. All right, we will now move from our awards and proclamations and go into open forum, and clerk, can you please read the rules for open forum? Yes ma'am. If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi-judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet. Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city, or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open forum or when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak, and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app, or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed. When is your turn to speak? You will be unmuted and asked to state your name and address. At the conclusion of your comments, or when you reach the three minute time limit, you will be muted. All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation used, normal rules apply. Including the three minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting, and the rules of the quorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the quorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only. And Madam Chair, we have no one in Zoom. And at this moment, one is signed up to speak on open forum as well. Okay, very good. We will close open forum and go to our new ordinances. And we will start with item E1. It's an ordinance related to pet sales. And clerk, can you please read the title? Opposed ordinance 555H. An ordinance admitting city code section 4-9 related to pet sales. Adding rabbits to the general ban on the retail sale of dogs and cats in the city. Providing exemptions, providing requirements for display of rabbits for retail sale. Providing for servability and establishing an effective date of January 1st, 2024. Madam Chair, the public hearing for this item is scheduled on September 28th. And we do have one card on this item. Okay, very good. I would ask Assistant City Attorney Heather Judd to join us for any presentation that she may want to give or we can go straight to public comment. Council members, do you want a presentation at all on this item? Move approval. No? All right. So we have a motion to second. We will go to public comment. And we do have one in Zoom because it's not a public hearing. Okay. Right. Do we want to do the Zoom speaker first? Is that, that's permissible? Yeah. Tampa Bay Rabbit, Tampa Bay House Rabbit, when you enter into the meeting space, please state your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to address city council. Hi there. My name is Jack Burke. I'm the president of Tampa Bay House Rabbit Rescue. We're based out of Hillsborough County, 5902 Memorial Highway, Tampa. So I'm not in St. Pete. And I wanted to speak in support of this resolution because the number of abandoned and unwanted rabbits throughout the area is unmanageable. And by reducing the sales of rabbits, it will help rescues and shelters throughout the state better control the wild domestic rabbit population of unwanted rabbits. That's all. Okay. And I just wanted to remind the Zoom participant that when we do get to the actual public hearing, that you will not be allowed to participate via Zoom. So you would have to be in person. Just wanted to let them know that. Okay. Please call the speaker in person. Madam Chair, the next speaker's name is Susan. I think it's Hall. Please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record. And you have three minutes to address city council. Hello. My name is Susan Hall and I live in historic Kenwood. Is that specific enough? Yes. Okay. I'm here regarding the bunnies. I'm sure you figured that out. You looked at the sale of dog and cat sales from pet stores and the tragedies of puppy mills and kitty mills and did the right thing, passing an ordinance banning the sale from pet stores. Now we come to you asking on behalf of bunnies, currently the third most popular companion animal in the United States, to provide the same level of care, the same level of responsibility, and add them to the existing ban. As I explained in my latest email, all the rescues are overwhelmed with bunnies who have been dumped when the families become bored, are forced to move, or bunny does damage to baseboards, carpets, etc. Or they need veterinary care that they were not told would happen by the pet stores. And that bunny care comes from exotic vets. When you put exotic in front of anything, the price triples. So, most rescues, including the one that I represent, Suncoast House Rabbit Rescue, which is located in Pasco County, which has also passed a ban, have no option but to close our doors. We've closed intake and that breaks my heart because what goes on is when these are dumped and people see them out in the wild and they take them in but they don't know how to take care of them and they need help, they turn to the internet. And the minute it hits social media, the word bunny goes out and I hear Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice across the land. My name is tagged about 16 times a week. I'm not kidding. So, imagine being in my position. There's nothing I can do. Every piece of real estate in my house is full. And every piece of real estate and every rescue in the state of Florida is full. The only option I can give these people is to provide supplies if they're willing to foster and in most cases they're not. Then the last available option is the SPCA. The Humane Society has closed intake of bunnies because they're under construction and it's kitten season and kittens take priority. So, there's no place to go but the SPCA which is not a no kill shelter. Private citizens like me taking on the enormous financial and emotional burden of caring for these bunnies while the four pet stores continue to sell bunnies as a loss leader to the sale of bunny supplies is the wrong way to go. These bunnies are coming in from out of state from small animals slash puppy, bunny mills, many of which have been exposed by animal activists of incredible cruelty, abuse, and neglect. I refrain from the graphic descriptions. I just they keep me up at night. I know they would you as well. I know you're all caring people. I know that you this because you banned the sale of kittens and puppies and I need you to do the same for bunnies, please. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So seeing no further requests to speak, we have a motion and a second motion. Thank you. Clerk please open the machine for voting. Council members enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted. Clerk please tally and announce the vote. Motion to approve agenda item E1 passes 6 unanimously with council member Fix Sander and Floyd being absent. Okay, we will move on now to our new ordinance E2, an ordinance creating minority and women business enterprise program. Clerk, can you read the title? Yes ma'am. Opposed ordinance number 558-H. An ordinance creating Chapter 2, Article 5, Division 10, Sections 2-281 through 2-288, Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program. Establishing findings, purpose and goals, creating definitions, establishing the authority and responsibilities of the POD. Establishing solicitation and contract requirements related to achieving required minority business enterprise or women business enterprise participation. Percentages in certain contracts, creating provisions, addressing non-compliance with Chapter 2, Article 5, Division 10. Setting forth reporting requirements for the program, providing for conformity with federal, state and local laws. Providing for a sunset date and providing an effective date. Public hearing for this item is scheduled for October 5th, Madam Chair, and we do have one card on this item. Okay, we are joined by Procurement and Supply Management Director, Stephanie Swenson. Council, do you want to have any report? No? Move, approve. We do? Okay. Second, if there was a motion. Yeah, I did hear a motion and a second. So first, let's go to public comment. Was there anyone in Zoom for this one? No. Okay. Please go to either podium. State your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to address City Council. Good afternoon. I'm Jackie Gabriel. 5964 13th Avenue North St. Pete. I'm a public policy student at St. Petersburg College. One of our projects this semester is to take a first reading agenda item and review it and present our opinion to the council. I would like to thank you all for your time today and Director Swenson for taking the time to review this with me. I chose this ordinance because as a resident, I feel it offers many things to our community as well as provides beneficial options to those that do our purchasing and contracting. Minority and women business programs across the nation have proven to empower residents, remove barriers, and increase economic stability. Requiring the utilization of MBEs and WBEs will allow the diversity seen across our city to also be seen within our purchasing and ensure that minority and women owned businesses are given equal opportunities. This ordinance ensures certain barriers previously faced by minorities and women owned businesses will be minimized through the requirements set forth. Lastly, many cities have seen increased contractor options available to city staff through the implementation of similar programs. This can increase savings and maximize spending, which is always a plus for any city. In closing, I'm in support of this ordinance and look forward to seeing the benefits it can bring to our residents. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. Ms. Swenson, please. Madam Chair, if there are questions, we hadn't prepared a presentation for the first reading as usual, but if council members have specific questions, we can certainly address that. And just while I've got the mic for a second, we do have individual one-on-one meetings set up with each council member between now and October 3rd or 5th when we have the second reading and public hearing. So we will have time with each of you to answer any questions on a one-on-one basis. But again, we're happy to answer any questions that council members have at this point. All right. Well, let's go ahead and go to council member Montaneri. Thank you. Well, I have serious questions about this ordinance and the constitutionality of it. I know we've discussed this ordinance multiple times in Committee of the Whole meetings, and I've brought up in previous Committee of the Whole meetings a pending Supreme Court decision, which was made public earlier this year, which struck down admission policies based on race. Basically arguing that they're against the 14th amendment. So I will not be voting to move this forward to the public hearing. And I do have, I do want to have a discussion when this, if this does pass and it does get to the public hearing on the constitutionality of it based on both the Supreme Court decision. Uh, and also the, uh, city of Richmond versus Jr. Crowson case, especially when it comes to, uh, that case, they struck down the, uh, quota. And in this ordinance there, there are goals, which I, I'm struggling to understand what the difference between a goal is and a quota. I also question, um, whether this, uh, ordinance based on action that the legislature took earlier this year, um, is, um, does, is, is it in line with the Florida State Statue 166.041, um, which requires, uh, municipalities when they, when they do enact ordinances to do. A, um, a study, uh, on it. So, um, and the last thing I, I'll just, uh, serve, uh, serve up right now. Thirteen, uh, attorney generals around the country, uh, weighed in after the Supreme Court decision, uh, and addressed this issue, which I think needs to be discussed also. So, so, again, this is first reading, but I think we have a lot of, uh, work to do before, uh, before this gets to the public hearing. Would legal like to weigh in at all? Yes, and we can definitely provide that analysis at the public hearing in one-on-ones or today if you prefer. So, it's really up to the discretion of counsel. Um, I, the, if there, if you're prepared to have some of the legal conversation, I think it's appropriate today. Um, I'll start with Crazon, because that's the first case. That was the case that was, uh, decided in 1989. That's a case that we've discussed with you before. It basically establishes the standard for enacting race-conscious programs like a minority business enterprise program. So, in that case, the United States Supreme Court decided that in order to maintain or to create a program based on race, you have to, a government entity like the city has to, um, have a narrowly tailored program that addresses a compelling state interest. And they gave examples of what a compelling state interest could be, and it could be to remedy past discrimination, uh, in procurement and contracting. And that can be shown in two ways. It can be shown by what's called direct evidence of discrimination, which would be employees or actors within the city actively discriminating against contractors or subcontractors, or by what's called passive discrimination. And in Crazon, that's defined as a government entity basically spending money in a private industry that has been shown to discriminate. And so that is why disparity studies are conducted. In Crazon, they laid out the foundation for those types of studies as far as the kinds of things that have to be addressed. One is you have to address willing and able contractors. And you have to look at the availability of those willing and able contractors and compare that to the utilization of those contractors within your city. As you know, and we'll discuss at the public hearing with, um, the presentation that you have, we did have a disparity study done, which did have a significant statistical disparity for particular minorities. And what Crazon addresses is that your remedy has to be narrowly tailored to that. So if there is a statistical disparity in construction, for example, for African Americans and only African Americans, then your remedies can only address African American businesses. And if there is a statistical disparity with Hispanic Americans and goods and services, then you wouldn't be able to have programs that gave preferences to African Americans and goods and services. So you have to be very particular as to the suspect class, the protected class, and as to the different industry involved, construction, professional services versus goods and services. And as long as the disparity study is valid in methodology and shows that statistical disparity, then that's one of the ways that you can show evidence of passive discrimination. Uh, recently there have been cases as council member Montaneri has described, uh, to look at race conscious, not in contracting specifically with the United States Supreme Court, but in college admissions. And in that United States Supreme Court case that did come out this summer, uh, students versus fair admissions versus Harvard and you're not university of North Carolina. That case said that, uh, Harvard and UNC violated the 14th amendment in its equal protection clause because the race conscious measure did not meet that strict scrutiny standard is a very high standard of evidence. It's the highest standard under legal review and because they didn't show a narrowly tailored effort to address a compelling state interest. The Supreme Court said that Harvard and UNC could not use race based preferences in college admissions anymore. There were a number of reasons for that relative to contracting and what we're talking about here today. They, they didn't, uh, the court, Supreme Court did not feel that Harvard and UNC showed a compelling state interest because there was not, uh, one, not an end to their program and there weren't measurable reasons why the preferences were taking place. The court also found that it wasn't narrowly tailored because of the way the program was set up. And so, um, you do have an even higher bar if there is one as far as the evidentiary standard is concerned. Now that case was not about contracting, but it was about race conscious programs. And so we, we mean the legal department anticipated that at some point, um, a contracting case would come out and cite students versus fair admissions versus Harvard and UNC. And that has happened recently. Um, it was in Tennessee. So it's not a binding court case for us in Florida in what we call the 11th circuit of, um, the federal district court. But it is a, it's the only case right now that talks about the race based in college admissions in the context of contracting. And in that case, they did not have a recent disparity study. However, there was some language in that case about whether or not intentional discrimination is shown. So it, it does discuss the very particular, uh, points of evidence. It's called a strong basis in evidence that has to be shown to show that that discrimination that I talked about earlier, that passive discrimination. Because our disparity study didn't show that there were active participants here at the city of St. Pete that were actively discriminating against anyone. So we're talking about the passive discrimination. So you have to have the strong basis of evidence, which includes the disparity study and intentional discrimination to go forward with these programs. Um, the recent, um, I think council member Montaneri talked about the recent efforts of the legislature as far as the business impact estimate. There is a exemption for ordinances related to procurement. And since this is a procurement ordinance, it would be exempt from 166.041. Um, there has been a stand by 13 attorney generals, um, based on the students versus fair admissions case about race conscience, um, methods to address discrimination by governments. Um, those 13 attorney generals feel that it's such a high standard that it's insurmountable to keep now that we have this Supreme Court case. Minority business enterprise programs or any race-based program by a government, um, because of the high bar of the, uh, evidence that is necessary. And, um, I also wanted to bring to council's attention that the governor, um, through the Central Florida Tourism Oversight, district as many of you may recognize that that's overseas Walt Disney, uh, in its district, its improvement district. Recently, the tourism district that was appointed by the governor did abolish the use of MBE programs. That's not a case. That is a government action, um, in that district. The state still has its MBE program, but, you know, the climate, the cases, um, everything that's going on right now is something that I just wanted to make sure you are aware of. Not to sway you one way or another, but it is a very high standard, um, to prove and to maintain, uh, minority business enterprise programs. And then everybody talks about that part of it, but there is another part of it, the women business enterprise program. And people often ask me, well, what's the difference? The difference is it's not race. That is what the law says. That is what has been found by, um, the case. There is a standard for those programs. It's called an intermediate standard. Um, it's a lower standard. And there's just not really a question based on the disparity study about those programs. So, I, it's a very long answer, but I feel like when you are passing something of this magnitude, which is either likely to be challenged or at least talked about at the public hearing that you need all of the information that's out there. Um, or at least the ones that have been decided by the Supreme Court and a court within our district. Thank you. Thank you for that. Council member Montanari, did that answer your question? It, it, it, it answered, it brought up a lot of concerns that I have. Right. And, and the liability that the city may have if this passes, uh, as, as a ordinance. And I could go into a lot of detail. I've got the Supreme Court case, which is over 200 pages. And, uh, but let me just ask just a couple of questions, uh, and, and then I'll let my colleague. So in the Richmond, uh, versus Croson, uh, case, the court struck down the Richmond's, uh, uh, 30% MBE quota. And in this ordinance, there, there's not a quota, but there's annual aspirational goals. What's the difference between a goal and a quota? Uh, in the Richmond case, there was a specific quota. So 30% of the contract had to be utilized by MBEs and WBEs. That's regardless of availability, regardless of utilization, regardless of any disparity study that may or may not have been conducted. Here, the annual aspirational goal will be set, uh, after a review of the first year of the MBE WBE program. And it will reflect the city's aspirational goal. One is not mandatory. Quotas are mandatory. Aspirational goals are not. It will reflect what the city believes is necessary based on the disparity study and the utilization of WBEs and MBEs to say this is what we would like to see in the city. This is our aspirational goal of what it should look like based on what we saw in the disparity study. Okay. It's not mandatory. Okay. Uh, let me, let me ask a question on, uh, Senate bill 170 that turned into, uh, state law. Uh, it also talks about, uh, the city being liable for, uh, litigation costs and damages. Um, can you talk about that? Is, is that exempted because this is a procurement ordinance or, or, or just the other study that would be required? That section that you've just talked about is relative to the business impact estimate. Uh, but there is the risk of liability and attorney's fees regardless of Senate bill 170. If, if, if we are sued based on, um, equal protection under the 14th amendment or any other reason, then there is a risk that if we are unsuccessful, that we would have to pay attorney's fees. Okay. Okay. Well, uh, we can talk about this more if this gets to the public hearing. Uh, I just in the research that I, that I've done, I see, uh, a, a large threat, uh, facing the city if this ordinance gets, gets passed. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Driscoll. Thank you. Um, council member Montaner, you bring up very valid concerns and thank you, Jeanine for the, um, the great explanation. Um, as you do the, when, when you guys do the one-on-ones, um, I'd like to have, um, Jeanine or another, another attorney at that meeting. If you're not able then, I mean, like, whoever can go. Regardless, someone from legal, probably myself, will work with each of you one-on-one before the public hearing. Right. So, that way we're all. Okay, thank you. Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you. And I get, what I would appreciate from, uh, the city attorney's office is a memorandum on this. A legal memorandum. We can ask for one. You can ask for one. Yes. So I think, I think, given the issues, I think I would like to see a legal memorandum. Okay. All right. Did administration, oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Montaner. Let me just, the legal memorandum just brought up another part. Has the, has city legal thought about getting a attorney general opinion on, on this ordinance? We have not. And that hasn't been, um, approached. No one has approached this regarding an attorney general opinion. I will say that because the state already has an MBE program, we didn't feel it was necessary to get an attorney general opinion as to whether or not. They won't give us, based on our, they won't look at our disparity study and tell us whether or not it meets the United States Supreme Court standard. If we were to ask them a question, it would be regarding generally what the standards are, but they typically will not look at the facts of a case and make a determination that ultimately a court would decide. Okay. Well, Attorney General Moody did not weigh in with the other 13 attorney generals, but let me think about that, and I'd like to talk about that in our 101. Absolutely. Thank you. Administration. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to first start by thanking Ms. Williams for her in-depth knowledge on this, and let me assure Council, we have had these same discussions with the legal team. Our, um, our analysis and our, um, we are, we're focused on creating opportunities. We feel like the business case for creating the opportunities for, um, members of our community who haven't done business with the city to do business with the city, and that would really outweigh the risk of, uh, uh, potential suit. So, I mean, that's kind of how we landed in the final analysis, and like I said, we'll be rounding with each of you, um, to discuss it in more detail with, uh, all of the information that, um, you know, how we'll, how we designed the program internally. Um, and you know, I think, uh, Jeanine hit on all the salient points, you know, where we are, and I wanna assure Council. want to assure council we designed the ordinance to be a tailored response to hit the points that were directed or identified in the disparity study so that we will manage that risk the best we can by by saying that everything that was in the disparity study we're not going outside of that so we've been very judicious about making sure that we stay within the meets and bounds of that document so but we're uh that i just wanted to share that as our kind of final analysis and why we brought this forward for consideration thank you and um swenson did you have anything else you want to add no okay thank you all right well thank you all for the great discussion um clerk i think we have a motion in a second please open the machine for voting council members enter your votes seeing all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote madam chair motion to approve agenda item e2 passes six to one with council member martinieri voting no council members driscoll fix sanders gabbard girdus hanowitz and muhammad voting yes and council member floyd being absent okay we will now move on to our report item and take up item f1 which is a resolution approving an amendment to the city's fiscal policies we're joined by chief financial officer uh and fritz and budget director elizabeth makovsky hello liz hello we get a preview of you before later on when we have our budget public hearing round one um so today we have three fiscal policy changes um for consideration they were reviewed at the august 10th 2023 budget finance and taxation committee and were approved by the uh the committee the first one is um changing the general fund target fund balance which is currently 10 percent of the fund's current year adopted budget to 12 percent and this is a part of a multi-year process to increase our target to the um two months or 16.7 percent target of current year appropriation which is um best practices and the second item is for the sunken gardens operating fund it currently does not have a fund balance target and so we're um uh suggesting uh including of a target of 8.3 percent which matches the other funds in that category's targets and then for the third i'm going to hand it over to ann to explain that one and for clarity for everyone's information it's one resolution with all three items in one so it's one vote good afternoon the final change recommended relates to the fact that our fiscal policies did not address early prepayment of the annual recommended contributions for the city's pension plans as you know we brought that to city council and did that kind of one off last summer so we believe it belongs in the fiscal policy so we are recommending language that would be added where there would be circumstances where the city may use available resources in the general fund in excess of the stated targets for a fiscal year to prepay future required actually determined city contributions to the pension plans such a circumstance would be advantageous when there is a decrease in market value compared to expected returns salary increases and cost of living adjustments higher than expected from the prior year plan and updated assumptions were drivers to this increase the strategic use of available resources in the general fund in excess of the stated targets in a fiscal year will reduce the estimated appropriation needed in the future fiscal year we believe this is a prudent fiscal policy gives flexibility when there is amounts in excess of the targeted fund balances that there could be market timing that we would be able to take advantage of um and make a prepayment so that those uh investments can be deployed by the pension plans and uh hoping that would then reduce the the the uh future uh annual required contribution uh because of the the prepayments move approval second all right we have a motion and a second no we don't have any cards on this item all right seeing no further request to speak clerk please open the machine for voting council members enter your votes seeing all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote madam chair motion to approve agenda item f1 passes unanimously with council member floyd being absent very good thank you ladies we appreciate it all right now let's move into our new business and take up item g1 council member driscoll thank you um it was just a a nice way to open this was having rabbi weintraub doing our invocation today what i bring before you is a resolution supporting the establishment of a definition of anti-semitism um with um um rasha sana starting uh beginning uh tomorrow evening um i thought that this would be um a good time for us to really emphasize our support for the jewish community um recently i had a wonderful conversation with a member of the jewish federation um who spoke of a similar resolution that was passed by the city of clearwater not too long ago and um so i took that and um looked at some ways that we could make it um you know very saint pete i also had some conversations about about this um with chief holloway and also with chris goela because we know that um education is an important way to combat anti-semitism and really the first step is to define it and really understand what it is and the ihra has a standing definition as well as examples that i think could be really great educational tools to make sure that everyone understands what this looks like and what support looks like as well i'd like to invite um i found out some some great things about the way that the city does its training um in regards to this and so i've invited chief cavasa from the police department and also chris wella from hr to join us and um just talk a little bit about some of the efforts that they have where they incorporate this type of education into our training for our employees sure good morning oh good afternoon do you want to invite anybody else off or do you just want to speak first no we do have uh cards for public comments so yeah so uh mike cavasa with the police department uh yeah so uh for the last four about five or six years we've had a partnership with the holocaust museum here in st petersburg where we have offered training to all the police officers that we hired we started the partnership in 2016. it was based upon a national program that was rolled out with the holocaust museum and the washington dc police department so it was to essentially provide our officers with an understanding of the holocaust what the german police played in that role during that time period and as well as looking at what law enforcement's role in democracy so all of our officers started 2016 they all went through the program and then it has become a part of our pre-academy program so all the new officers getting hired have to go there for a three and a half hour uh opportunity to be able to be a part of that partnership to understand uh historically some of the aspects of policing have played in different communities so that's where we have as a police department embraced that and it's worked out well it's continued and we do it several times a year with all the new cadet classes it's wonderful right thank you and um thank you for the assistance that you provided as rabbi weintraub offered earlier um to the the events please pass along um gratitude to the police department i appreciate that and we work great with our partnerships with faith-based leaders and it is great every time they need us we're there for them thank you mr goela hello hello good afternoon for years and really decades the city has been in compliance with federal state and local law concerning anti-discrimination laws that would starting back probably in the 60s excuse me with title uh seven when that came about so uh we have had policies and procedures in place like i said for decades and part of our supervisory training our management training uh and also our new employee orientations where we go over the rules and regulations we discuss uh discrimination in all forms and it certainly includes religion uh as as one of its core pieces uh so this fits in very well to to what the city already does so uh you know we appreciate the effort uh that you're bringing forward thank you and the ihra which for those of you who who don't know is the um international holocaust remembrance alliance they have a wealth of resources that can help um share factual information about anti-semitism and how to recognize it and how to stand together to stop it the definition is included in the resolution which i'll read but then they also provide examples which i've included in our backup material and it's you know some of the examples are things that we don't there it's the obvious stuff but then there are other things that sometimes you don't notice at first as something that could be um or is anti-semitic um it's um you know calling for aiding or justifying the killing of harming of jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion religion making mendacious dehumanizing demonizing or stereotypical allegations about jews as such or the power of jews as collective um as as accusing jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single jewish person or group denying the fact scope mechanisms or intentionality of the genocide of the jewish people at the hands of national socialist germany and its supporters and accomplices during world war ii the holocaust accusing jews as a people of inventing or exaggerating the holocaust i mean the list goes on and on but this is really good information that i think everyone should review and understand because it's a way for us to strengthen our support for the jewish people and to stand against hate in our city and everywhere um i don't um i think i'd like to read the resolution and then we could have public comment on it i would prefer that yes all right thank you the resolution reads this file is a resolution supporting the establishment of a definition of anti-semitism in order to help identify measure monitor and ultimately combat anti-semitism and providing an effective date whereas saint petersburg florida is a diverse city home to a vibrant jewish community and many other religious and ethnic groups and whereas the jewish community in the city of saint petersburg florida has enriched our community through their leadership and contributions to the arts business academia and government and whereas the anti-defamation league reported that crimes against the jewish community accounted for 80 percent of the religiously motivated incidents in florida in 2020 and whereas according to the adl's annual audit of anti-semitic incidents florida has seen a dramatic rise in anti-semitic incidents with the number of reported incidents in 2021 increased 50 percent over the prior year rising from 127 to 190 incidents and including 142 instances of harassment 47 incidents of vandalism and one anti-semitic assault and whereas a significant challenge in expanding protections and rights of the jewish community is the establishment of a definition of anti-semitism and whereas the international holocaust remembrance alliance the ihra has proposed a non-legally binding definition of anti-semitism that has been adopted by 37 united nation member countries including the united states and 320 non-federal government entities including 22 states within the united states and several cities and whereas the ihra definition definition of anti-semitism reads as follows anti-semitism is a certain perception of jews which may be expressed as hatred toward the jews rhetoric rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-semitism are directed toward jewish or non-jewish individuals and their and or their property toward jewish community institute institutions and religious facilities and whereas the ihra definition of anti-semitism serves as an important tool for law enforcement public officials and community members to help identify measure monitor and ultimately combat anti-semitism now therefore be it resolved by the city council of the city of st petersburg florida that the city council urges the recognition of the ihra definition of anti-semitism encourages the people of st petersburg florida to stand in solidarity with and support the jewish community and expresses support for an immediate end to anti-semitism thank you councilmember driscoll for reading the proclamation and for bringing the item forward today and we'll go ahead and go to public comment clerk can you uh please read the cards two at a time yes ma'am our first two speakers adam excuse me alexander westluck and i believe it's john keifer please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council hi my name is alexander vasalak 602 43rd avenue north uh before i start someone's probably a little bit worried i have no problem with jews uh i have i despise anti-semitism i also respect jews to live what they view as alexis i also respect the palestinian's right to call palestine my biggest problem is nothing with what you read jenny driscoll it's what you didn't um bullet point seven eight and nine that it is racist to compare israeli policy to nazi germany um it says it is is now anti-semitic to compare um to say that israel was founded as a racist nation so while i do think it's kind of an overstep to compare it to nazi germany the fact is in israel there's a policy in the west bank called hafada and what that is it translate the same way that apartheid translates into the english language as separation separate roads separate schools separate towns and separate laws for israeli civilians and palestinians who don't aren't regarded as civilians um in the worlds of uh governor keval yahoo who's a part of the breaking the silence of an israeli jew and a um and a palestinian throw a stone at the same time the israeli will be charged under israeli civilian law and the palestinian will be immediately tried as a terrorist under martial law and held for as long as they'd like um so while i do think that mirrors south african apartheid not as much as nazi germany when you have a nation that shoots 17 year old unarmed palestinian boys in the back of the head while they are running away from soldiers um you have a nation that essentially does everything with state sponsors settlers going in and committing pogroms latest one huwata but there are countless um so who does and then nothing none of them get charged the soldier who did that recently hasn't been charged the settler who's a part of the otzma yehudit a party in in israel has not been charged with shooting the 19 year old when they committed the pogrom on huwata and the fact is i think you can have a bold a bold working definition of anti-semitism while not coddling a middle eastern government that has policies of separation and absolute brutality on palestinian people there's also the idea of the formation of israel not being racist and i think a large part of the people who formed israel were not racist but it's impossible to deny that cedo hurtzel was an avid racist against the palestinians um ben galion was the first prime minister of israel who talked about ethnically cleansing and viewed arabs as a fifth pillar so bullet point seven eight and ten if you took those out then you would have a working definition of anti-semitism and if you took if you don't take those out then you'll have a working definition of anti-semitism while again coddling a middle eastern government that has policies of separation based on ethnicity with jews and arabs um and an absolute and policies of absolute brutality against the palestinian people so unless you have any questions but for me that's all i have to say thank you sir was there a second card um i called them john keefer keffer keffer i don't see yes oh sir yes uh this one here please good afternoon council my name is john keefer i reside at 535 15th street i own the property there and also the properties in peniles county i'm a combat vet vietnam 6970 i was a rifle platoon leader i was awarded combat infantry badge silver star bronze star and other awards went through a lot of combat but as impactful as that experience was when i was 11 years old my father who was an army soldier and be in um germany took me to visit dachau which was a concentration camp and that affected my my world view much more than even my military experience there i saw the chambers in which jews were cremated areas where they were executed i saw the photos and as 11 year old i couldn't understand why and how fellow human beings could do that well i went on and religion is is a really important factor for me i went on to usf and got a master's in religious studies and religion is basically how we answer questions of ultimate concern our existential questions where do we come from what's right and wrong what's the meaning and purpose of life and what happens after you die those are those are existential questions and how we answer it basically defines our our worldview our religion if you will so this this resolution is really important you know when what the holocaust was was when antisemitism was coupled with the force of government that's what it was and for us to take a stand and define what antisemitism is is a great step forward to make sure that this never happens again because the embers are glowing out there to make it happen again in closing i just want to say that in vietnam i did serve with one of our one of our my platoon members was a was jewish he made it back like i did 269 jewish soldiers marines airmen sailors and coast guardsmen did not make it back 269 those are families who answer those questions of ultimate concern those existential questions who received a knock on the door from their from an officer like i was and said that and delivered a message that their son would not be coming home thank you sir i support this the resolution thank you next speakers two speakers anne marie cancio and michael eagle please go to either podium state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council good afternoon michael eagle and resident saint petersburg the fhm supports this resolution and applauds commissioner driscoll for introducing it and we sincerely sincerely appreciate our friends in city council who continue to support our work and our fight and our mission sure i'm the grandchild of holocaust survivors and i'm the board chair of the florida holocaust museum today i'm here on behalf of the museum but i'm also here on behalf of my grandparents who are survivors henry ferber stanley eagle lucia eagle they're why i'm up here my aunt tony is holocaust survivor who's right here that's why i'm up here helen kahan if you remember that name concentration camp survivor who threw out the first pitch earlier this year at the rays game on her 100th birthday mary wygotsky my kindergarten teacher 98 years old resident of saint pete survived three concentration camps i think she's watching so hope i'm making you proud and i'm here on behalf of everyone's children and grandchildren because anti-semitism isn't going away as you said and we have to fight it and i'm here on behalf of the six million jews who were murdered at the hands of the nazis they saw the worst in anti-semitism they were killed just because they were jewish so why is this important two big reasons one as you said is this gives us a tool you can't solve a problem until you define the problem this defines the problem it defines anti-semitism this is real those examples you read are real we experience them every day i get phone calls at my day job from people spouting out all sorts of anti-semitic things just because i'm volunteering at the holocaust museum and i'm standing up for my people and my family for example um i read one of the items that that commissioner driscoll mentioned in her list accusing jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing by others the jews are not responsible for covid the jews are not responsible for slavery in the united states these are not facts and these things that's scapegoating and that is one of the main ingredients in hitler's soup that caused the holocaust blaming jews for the ills of others and millions of people have been murdered over centuries because of it including members of my family and other saint pete residents that's why this is important because we can label these things as what they are and the second is it gives the council an opportunity to support not only the jewish community but also other minority communities at the museum and a lot of the staff is here that's how much everybody cares about this and there are four types of people in the world upstanders bystanders perpetrators and victims and this gives the city council the opportunity to show everybody that that you're upstanders and that's not only speaking to the victims you're also speaking to the perpetrators being a bystander is easy being an upstander is not so thank you thank you sir there was another card that you called but i don't know if they were in the room it was anne marie cancio okay i don't i don't see her piece four next two speakers erie passman and stewart berger please go to either podium state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to address city council my name is eric passman uh watermark circle uh saint petersburg florida first i want to thank you for allowing me to speak to you today um i've lived in saint petersburg for the past 13 years i'm also the chairperson of the of our local jcrc the jewish community relations council and i'm serving as my sixth year as president of the men's club of congregation b'nai israel this is the same congregation that rabbi weintraub serves in uh you may have heard about the bomb threat in fact you did hear about the back as rabbi weintraub mentioned it uh against our congregation that took place this last sunday evening following our services fortunately it didn't disrupt our services as we had just finished when the police arrived as they entered the synagogue i said to them this doesn't look like a typical security detail one of the officers confirmed that i was correct we were all told to leave as they scoured the synagogue to ensure that there was no bomb present unfortunately this is just the latest example of the ever increasing number of anti-semitic events uh incidents that around our state around our country and around the world in fact another synagogue in california received the same bomb threat on the same evening there was a time in the late 1990s early 2000s that i actually thought that anti-semitism was finally behind us it seemed that we all got along and nobody was concerned about our differences i'm not sure when it changed but we now seem to be in an ever-growing cycle of hate the fact that it seems reminiscent of the hatred that existed in the 1940s when my father was in high school i still recall many of the stories my father told me about the anti-semitic hatred he encountered when he grew up in boston in those days like today there seemed to be very little consequences for those that openly spouted anti-semitism we need to change that that's why i'm here to ask you to support the ira definition of anti-semitism in order to fight hatred we need to define it and ira does that many cities states and countries have adopted it i hope that today saint petersburg will join the growing list of communities that that have adopted ira and once again i want to thank you for allowing me to speak to you about this important resolution thank you next speaker final speaker madam chair um monica isle please go to either podium i'm sorry thank you i'm not a monica um uh thank you city council members for allowing me to speak to you today my name is stewart berger and it is in my capacity as director of the jewish community relations council of the jewish federation of florida's gulf coast that i ask you to pass the resolution before you regarding the adoption of the international holocaust remembrance alliances working definition of anti-semitism today you have the opportunity to join with municipalities across the country and adopt in this non-binding definition that helps local authorities to know what constitutes an anti-semitic act and what does not i was 12 years old when i first read night by holocaust survivor elie weisel before i read night the holocaust to me was an event that was part of history but it was not part of my history before i read night the idea of being hated simply because i was jewish was not part of my consciousness after i read night i couldn't get the idea out of my consciousness and i was left to ask the question could it happen here until recently that answer was no it could not happen here lately i am not so sure what hitler began with hate speech ended with gas chambers anti-semitism has often been described as the most ancient and enduring of all hatreds and much like a virus it adapts to the times it finds itself in during ancient times jewish people face persecution for believing in just one god and not assimilating into the surrounding pagan cultures in europe during medieval times jewish people suffered forced expulsions from their homes forced conversions and regular massacres and then there was the holocaust and our country overt jew hatred went underground after the second world war unfortunately it never went away and today it is no longer underground we know that other municipalities have found that adopting this working definition helps city officials and first responders understand what is anti-semitic and what is not for instance criticizing the israeli government is not anti-semitic i do it myself all the time however saying the jews made the holocaust up to help in their plot to control the world well that is anti-semitic we know the passing this resolution will not end anti-semitism and anti-jewish hatred but we also know that it's an important step in combating it and putting it back in the hole that it's crawled out from i thank you today for considering this resolution and i ask you to please pass it thanks again monica thanks monica kyle i wasn't planning on speaking i was actually just coming to listen but something i wanted to point out that i i don't think has been mentioned is i'm a historian i write historic articles and do tours around town and i recently created a tour i was looking into methodist town which is historically african-american part of town and i kept coming across examples of jewish for instance the synagogue and jewish-owned businesses all throughout methodist town and i wondered why that was and as i dug more and more into it i learned that particularly during the 20s and 30s jews were discouraged from owning property along central avenue and moved into many of the african-american communities to own businesses particularly groceries things like that and it's piqued my interest so i recently wrote a long article about the jewish history of st pete and i think what we're missing in this discussion is that this stuff has happened here before there's been a long history of anti-semitism in st petersburg when i was writing an article for the northeast journal i interviewed a woman marilyn benjamin who was married to a very prominent doctor he gave eye exams for the lions club whose mission is sight for the blind gave eye exams for them for 17 years and then when he was nominated to become a member of the lions club his application was rejected because he was jewish and this type of thing and she she also told me when they were when they reopened the venoy hotel in you know the 90s whenever it was she and her husband were invited the general manager called them up to say you know we'd love for you to be our guests on our guest list and he said aren't you excited to see the benoy again after all these years and she said well i've actually never been in the benoy and he was like well how is that possible and she said well jewish people weren't welcome to the benoy so there were a lot of institutions the lions club the sun coasters that did not the chamber of commerce that did not the chamber of commerce actually did accept jews at the beginning but then didn't so these things have played out in our history here in the city before and i just wanted to remind everybody of that and i think that's why it is important to make these kind of statements to say that you know we we don't condone it and we we've recognized i know that the resolution doesn't say this but we acknowledge that these past sins have happened and we don't want to go there again and you know identifying it as the first step so i just want to point that out thanks thank you so much any other public speakers more speakers no okay let's go to council comments uh council member muhammad thank you madam chair and thank you everyone who came and participated in the public comment um did rabbi weintraub leave yes okay he had to go back to work okay i gotcha gotcha good questions so uh i really just want to start by acknowledging the fact that i know what it's like to live under threat um we just recognized 9-11 and um you know as a muslim we had bomb threats and you know our community was also you know targets of hate and so i know what that's like in real time um over the past 11 months since i've been appointed um i've built significant relationships with members of the jewish community i'm going to stick on script so that i don't get too long-winded um and i've built these relationships they actually officially began with me having apples and honey in my office following rosh hashanah last year not only have i made new friends i've also deepened the existing relationships that i already had through open honest and deliberative dialogue i participated in the reading of the names of jews who died in the holocaust during yom ashowa the ceremony at the florida holocaust museum and when it was brought forward i voted to approve a resolution remembering holocaust victims without any hesitation because i value the importance of acknowledging the horrors of the past and paying tribute to the victims while working towards building a better future for us all i'm actually an active member of a local black jewish study group and we've had great conversation study sessions and we even have our own group chat um and i can go on and talk more about that um but i'll stop there in the interest of time and i do have some questions about this resolution that i'd like to get clarity on um one of the things this is why i wanted to uh reference to uh rabbi weintraub so when you say jews and jewish community which is in here i wanted to get clarity on who we're referring to because that's another one of the i think maybe points of confusion sometimes um you know is it a religion is it a culture is it a race and um in the structural racism study it basically adheres to the u.s census definition of black and so you so you define it and you know like who we're referring to and so is there anyone here that can speak to uh or maybe you could speak to it in here when we talk about jewish community who are we referring to because in another little bit more context i was informed during the course of this that there are some people who identify as jews but then they may not be considered jews by others and so i don't know who i stewart would you help me with this can you help me with um okay so hold on one second please um stewart if you could come to the microphone stewart please i think that you're probably the one we'd like to hear from it sure sure mike you probably okay yeah i'm sorry i didn't mean to put anybody on the spot but i do want to be clear about make sure we get all of the above who you know because that's something that we've been going through for many years it's like who's considered jewish is it is it ethnicity is it religion um in many cases people convert so it would not be ethnicity but they're members of the jewish religion um so that's a very interesting and difficult question to answer and it's something that we've been we've among us have been talking about for a long time i'll just add i think it's safe to say it's all those things hitler and nazis didn't ask if you went to synagogue or if you believed in god before they murdered someone right that's one factor to consider and there are people in my family and i'm sure lots of jewish families who don't necessarily believe in god but consider themselves ardent jews so it's not just a religion that is true it's a culture it's all of those things so um if a person finds themselves to be jewish then thank you stay there for me thank you if y'all could stay there because i have i have a little more questions so i'll try so does that apply so does this definition that we're talking about this is also apply to hebrew israelites so those who refer to themselves as messianic jews is that a part of it say we're not ira representatives so i you know and there's a this is complicated we can okay you can try i don't i i'm not an expert by any stretch i'm a corporate lawyer by day i don't litigate or anything so you know there's sorry there's these questions are sometimes in the eye of the beholder they're sometimes in the eye of the individual um so i don't know that anybody is really qualified to stand up and tell somebody you know there are jewish laws regarding what in the torah for example is considered jewish but again it goes much beyond that now in today's world again i go to synagogue but not everybody does and that does not mean that the person's not jewish right thank you thank you for that and then again looking at the resolution the second sentence acknowledges the contributions of the jewish community to the arts business academia government and which is phenomenal and again in referencing our conversation with rabbi weintraub we talked about how in some cases pointing out the remarkable achievements of jews has been misconstrued as being anti-semitic um and so that's something that i'm happy to see that's included because it's acknowledging the contributions and but but i do know that that's been a source of contention and you know one of the things that you get labeled as if you talk about the achievement successes in business and media and you know other aspects of american government and in life if you talk about those things it could be conscrued as being anti-semitic and so um i see that in there um would you want to speak to that i think it's deemed that to be anti-semitic that's to to highlight and point out the contributions of because it's in the resolution saying that i'm not trying to no that's that's why i wanted you to stay so we can have this come sure sure the context is important there i think um i i stating that jews control the media and are in control of business is not a compliment and so i don't think that's what that's referring to that type of behavior not simply stating that person is very successful at what he or she does right right no and that's and again just i think as a black person you know we want control so we would celebrate that if we control the media we'd be like yeah black people control the media because we you know we we want power we want you know recognition and status and so um it's just a different viewpoint and perspective it's a double-edged sword it is it absolutely that that control thing again is is why we always have open invitations for anybody including council members to come to the museum to learn about how these things have been manipulated to cause death got it thank you um and you did mention that you're not an ira representative so we'll see if we can move to these next two next couple questions pretty quickly um the fourth whereas it highlights an increase in anti-semitic incidents um and i just wanted to know if there was any data that really reflects who the perpetrators of these incidents are and how many of them if any were committed by members of the black community and the reason that i'm noting that is this important because again i'm a member of the black community and there are reports that have come out that i read as i were preparing through our conversations also stewart um there are some reports that suggest that black people are more anti-semitic than other populations and that is based upon questions about their perceptions not actual incidents of anti-semitism when it comes to like violence acts or attacks on jews and their participation you know has been non-existent so are you aware of any data like does this uh audit and and again if you don't have it i understand does it show the breakdown of who the perpetrators are so that when we talk about combating anti-semitism we can really be targeted we talked about i mean minority business all this so being able to target the perpetrators and again not use data points that use surveys based upon just people's ideas or perceptions about a particular community are you aware of any data that shows that the adl the anti-definition league keeps a tremendous amount of data in that regard and i don't i don't know if there are those details i think the important component from my perspective and everyone i know who's engaged in the fight against anti-semitism is not focused on the height color gender of somebody who's anti-semitic we're focused on the fact that it exists and we need to respond to it and so i hold uh i don't ironically i know i don't know anyone who's battling against anti-semitism who discriminates against an anti-semite we are just focused on the fact that it's happening absolutely absolutely and i i think uh again i stand in solidarity with and support the jewish community um i express my support um and and definitely agree that it should be an immediate end to to anti-semitism um but what we're talking about here is defining it and to be able to define words and meanings have very significant implications um i'll stop there i have others but i don't want to dump monopolize i'll let i'm a colleague speaking and i have a few other questions that i follow with that but thank you gentlemen thank you okay yeah you're good we're good i'm just going to say one thing to clarify the uh um sir i'm sorry you already had your three minutes and so if anyone else has any other questions for you maybe but um yes thank you i'm sorry councilmember montenari thank you madam chair i want to uh thank my my colleague uh council member driscoll for bringing this forward uh this is long overdue uh this should have been done a long time ago and uh we need to stand up and support the community the jewish community every day and i uh totally uh in support of this resolution and don't have any any issues with it at all and uh i did just want to share uh so i'm a i'm a christian man and one of my favorite parables is the the parable of the good samaritan and there was a man that was walking traveling from jerusalem to jericho and he was beaten up and attacked by by robbers and the first two people that passed saw him passed by the other side of the road then a good samaritan came by and the good samaritan helped the man took care of him paid for him and uh went on his way then came back and checked on the man and with the passing of this ordinance city council is going to be like the good samaritan we're not going to pass by the other side of the road with you thank thank you everybody in the jewish community for for being here today and thank you councilmember driscoll councilmember driscoll thank you and thank you councilmember montaneri um perfect parable um i i just wanted to go back and address um something that council member muhammad brought up um that was a really good point with the um the second whereas that just that talks about how the jewish community has enriched our community through their leadership and contributions to the arts business academia and government um so i wanted that to be in there as a positive thing you contrast that with one of the examples of anti anti-semitism um in the ihra materials which is and one of the examples is making um dehumanizing or stereotypical allegations about jews as such or the power of jews as a collective such as especially but not exclusively the myth about a world jewish conspiracy or of jewish or of jews controlling the media economy government or other societal institutions so it's one thing to celebrate the successes um of jewish people in our community it's quite another to demonize that as some kind of conspiracy so i hope that that and there's so much more that you can learn from reading these materials um even even someone like me who has always been very supportive um i'm learning a lot right now and i'm grateful for um steward and others who have brought this uh resource to my attention um with that i'll move approval okay councilmember hanowitz thank you and thank you everyone for being with us here today um thank you councilmember driscoll for this resolution um you know one of the things that i was shocked and i i mentioned this before when the issue has come up when i became a city council member is learning about the anti-semitic incidents in the city of st petersburg by from our police department and i think most council members here have received the text that there have been pamphlets distributed in our neighborhoods containing anti-semitic material specifically anti-semitic material and the anti-ma it's it's some of this material is is is frankly it's horrific but i will i will highlight um just some of the items that were just recently distributed that goes to show some of the anti-semitism one of the documents that every single aspect of phantom bay sports is jewish every single aspect of disney child grooming is jewish every single aspect pornography hookup culture is jewish and it goes on and on and on that's anti-semitic period end of story i i don't even know how anyone can think otherwise when you have a group of people that can be identified and you make allegations like that and it's not tolerated it's not going to be tolerated here and it shouldn't be tolerated anywhere i don't care which group of people so you know i am absolutely supportive of this i i think it's it's it's very sad that we do see the growing incidents of anti-semitism um it's very disheartening to me to see it in my community um you hear about it in the news but it's not that far from your our homes frankly and you know if you want to find data about the you know adl's audit of anti-semitic incidents they're online and there is lots of information about the rise of anti-semitism in our country i don't think frankly anyone has missed what's been happening lately in our country i think we've seen the marches and i think we've all seen the hate so i think it's very timely and um i thank you for this council member muhammad yes thank you and i i feel the need to continue to remind you know us uh and it's unfortunate that and keep saying reiterating um that i'd also stand with us in this fight against anti-semitism um i don't support any acts of anti-semitism um we look at not but however when we look at this definition because that's the devote and the responsibility that we have is to talk about the definition um i do have concerns and my concerns are rooted in my personal experience of being falsely accused of being an anti-semite um being labeled as a hater and so i'm very careful of the magnitude of what we're doing here because i've been on the receiving end of being called an anti-semite um it was stated that i was not qualified to do the job that i've been doing for the last 11 months because somebody who i'm affiliated with is called an anti-semite and so this is somewhat personal to me also and it's important that we have this conversation and this discourse in a way that we can really understand the nuances um just in the first question i asked when we say well who is the jewish community you see the complexities and the layers and the you know even among members of the jewish community and so i think it's very important so i'll just run through this list i'll just basically rhetorize on some of these other questions so that we can land this claim um when we look at the working definition and it is a working definition so i understand that to mean that the definition itself is also evolving when i think about a working title that means it's not the final title not the final definition it's still something that's in progress so we have this opportunity to hash it out and say okay well these are my concerns with this working definition it's not the definition or the final i see i see a nod from legal no no no sorry no but i'm just listening i got you but but having a working definition to me means that it's subject to conversations and dialogue um about this application and its uses and the examples that were lifted up um there were 11 points that are mentioned and seven of those points another organization um jewish organization and i should have the the name here i can find it in a second um they took issue with those points because they said seven out of the 11 ish uh points were political and not necessarily religious uh and so it would stifle the ability to have political dialogue i'll find it in a minute the word is certain we talk about certain perceptions um certain in this context meaning specific but not explicitly stated may uh which is possibly when he says may be expressed um as hatred um is is something that got my attention and again as a as a as a black man um when we have these loose interpretations we found ourselves i found myself i'll say i speak for myself on the the losing end of legal or non-legal interpretations when it comes to to things like this an example of this is malcolm x one of my frat brothers he was considered the leading anti-semite of his day and um this was not only when he was a member of the noi but as after his departure as well um in fact he was considered more of a threat when he left the the nation of islam um because he started advocating for violence and carrying guns which was something that was not um and still is not uh prohib i mean um allowed as as members of this community um in the materials that was provided one of the ways that the definition is being used um there was several ways that it's actually being used that were listed one of them is to categorize uh anti-semitic incidents um as uh incidents as collected by police officers interior and justice ministers civic uh civil social civil society organizations hate crime monitoring bodies the question that i have is what happens if there's a disagreement over whether an incident like a tweet or a public comment is actually anti-semitic we just had an example with a celebrity who posted something and there was debate within the jewish community themselves about oh well no that's not actually anti-semitic and so even the jewish community was unable to agree on whether or not that was um something that was was anti-semitic while it's not legally binding it still is being used to identify aspects of anti-semitism in court hearings um prosecutor prosecutor actions police recordings investigations on hate crime statistics as a and so all of these things again is a matter of uh perception i keep hearing that buzzer y'all i'm trying to do this real quick so i'll just go ahead and conclude um as a public official appointed to this body by god's grace and your support thank you um we took an oath to protect and defend the constitutional rights of all people and i take my responsibility to protect those principles of free speech and address this issue of rising anti-semitism seriously the first amendment is the saving grace of our democracy and this is what gives us the right to speak freely and have public discourse on ways to move this towards a more perfect union it allows dissenting opinions to be aired in the light of day instead of behind closed doors and while we would hope that it would be done with respect and civility that's not always the case but it also does not always equate to hate while i recognize the intent behind the proposed resolution and the urgent need to combat anti-semitism especially in the face of st petersburg history and the increasing incidents involving white supremacists i have concerns about accepting this working definition as it stands again i know what it's like to be falsely accused of being anti-semitic um and considered a hater based upon disagreements with dominant narratives and challenging the status quo key concerns are the over broad overly broad interpretation because it's susceptible to interpretation it could stifle legitimate criticism dissent and academic academic discourse um and i'm speeding now the broad definition could also have a chilling effect on our community members who might fear repercussions of expressing opinions that are not intended to be hateful but may be misconstrued as such we have to protect the rights of those who have unpopular or controversial views within the bounds of civility as long as they are not explicitly advocating for discrimination persecution hurt harm or danger to members of the jewish community another concern with the definition is that a subjective nature determines uh determining what constitutes hatred towards jews leaves room for differing opinions and different interpretations potentially leading again to the misuse of the definition and suppression of legitimate free speech the um move to call the question thank you i can i say this no hate hate is felt hate is evident thank you there's a second on the motion there's a motion and a second to call the question clerk please open the machine for voting to call the question council members enter your votes seeing all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote madam chair motion to call the question for agenda item g1a passes unanimously with council member floyd and mohammed being absent with council member floyd and mohammed being absent okay there's a resolution before you council there's been a motion there has been a motion in a second okay very good clerk please open the machine for voting council members enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tally and announce the vote motion to approve agenda item g1a passes unanimously with council member floyd and mohammed being absent and before we go any further um i just wanted to make my comments um on the issue uh obviously i i support the issue brought before us um you know hate we continue to say that hate has no place here yet it continues to exist in our communities across the board and so monica thank you for bringing the history lesson that you brought today that you always so eloquently bring um as a mother of a 12 year old it's always really important to me to continue to bring history into the forefront because when we ignore it it is bound to reinvent itself in a new way and so i appreciate your comments specifically today um i just also you know want to say that hate exists in so many different forms and for so many different people and in the world that we live in today inciting hate against any person in our community or any community should not be tolerated regardless of the reason and we see people in positions of power specifically inciting this hate both publicly and behind the scenes it is dangerous it is irresponsible and quite frankly it disgusts me and so it's my hope and with you know the actions of this council today that we will incite empathy for each other that we will find a way that we can dispel the ignorance and the evil that exists that is allowed to rear its ugly head in many different forms and we will just begin to understand and learn from each other's lived experience and having that empathy for each other regardless of race color position gender whatever that might be to me no one should have to live in fear no one should have to live in any sort of ridicule or any sort of feeling that they are going to be made less than because of their lived experience so i stand against anti-semitism as i did with the vote and i stand with the jewish community and others who feel as though they have been marginalized for whatever reason you are loved and you are appreciated here in these chambers and we want to thank you all for being here with us today to stand for such an important issue so thank you all we're going to move now to item h1 which is our economic and workforce development action item councilmember montaneri thank you madam chair i have another new business oh i'm sorry uh councilmember driscoll let's go ahead and do this and i'll come back to you yeah go ahead we need dima anyways i apologize uh michael dima won't be here so don't let that play into whether or not well let's go ahead and do h1 and we'll come back to g2 at the august 24th economic and workforce development committee we took action and it's in the form of a resolution that's before us designating the chair of the economic and workforce development committee to serve as city council liaison to the for the grow together leadership alliance and i'll move approval okay we have a motion and a second on item h1 and seeing no request to speak and no cards on this item clerk please open the machine for voting council members enter your votes seeing as all present council members have voted clerk please tell me announce the vote motion to approve agenda item h1 passes unanimously with council member floyd and muhammad being absent okay now we'll go back to item g2 council member driscoll thank you this new business item is respectfully requesting that city council consider an ordinance amending the edge district specialty center procedures for approving special events more particularly to provide for a council approved waiver of the 60-day lead time for approval of a special event and this comes from something that that came up recently this is what you have is a draft of the ordinance and michael dima worked with me on this but he got called into a meeting so i'm hoping that heather and and janine can help kind of give a little more explanation about it um yeah i actually wanted to ask a quick question i'm going to kind of go out of order here for a second um so we just received this right here on the dais um this ordinance draft and um maybe i missed it you know a lot going on in the city did this ever go through a committee no this is something that is time sensitive okay and so okay miss shedd would you like to give some context i will just say with context full disclosure i your pitch hitting yes very much so gotcha understood batting lefty on this one well that's okay um maybe we could go to councilmember comments and then maybe if there's some specific questions well i will just say that um this in the current iteration would most likely be passed after october 1st so this would trigger like i mentioned this morning a business impact statement as it will be an ordinance passed after october 1st okay uh council member gardus thank you madam chair yeah i guess i had a similar question council member driscoll i'm assuming that there's there's somebody that needs a waiver and that's why we're we're yeah they have a new executive director and so it's just been a little bumpy and i thought that we could help out by providing a waiver since now they know um but we don't have anything in place to provide for a waiver so even our procedures are um not in our favor to help them out and we we know how important it is when our business districts have special events if something wasn't clear to a new leader of the business district i i think that we should help them out and we should create a process by which we can create waivers so that we can do that for this one and others in the future because one day it's going to be in somebody else's something in somebody else's district that we need to just step in and save the day for somebody okay um thank you for the context and and just so i'm clear we're we're voting on what the ask is is to vote on this resolution because the wording seems like it's asking us to i'm sorry my indication from mr dima is that this is just a new business item and that the first reading on public hearing will be at a later date and during the public hearing that's when the resolution actually approving the waiver and the event will occur okay then i don't have any more questions and i'm supportive of the item we yeah we don't have time my understanding was we don't have time for it to go through committee which is fine i just didn't want to vote on the ordinance today i've been a proponent of the procedure and that's that was my this was so i guess another way to put this is i'm asking for us to just go straight to ordinance and skip the committee because time is of the essence okay with that thank you thank you for the context thank you and i'll move approval second council vice chair fix centers thank you okay so thank you for clarifying that for me um and i also understand procedure and i also have a whole lot of regulations um regulations of procedure being strongly enforced strongly recommended things that were always strongly said had to follow a process and so i just want to make it known for the record that if this passes that when we set a precedence on things like this that we give everybody this same precedence if they have a new executive director and this is what they come to us to ask for i want us to remember this date 9 14 2023 at 3 37 pm i don't mind making exceptions but um that was my first question is none of this came to committee and we often have events and activities that are also time time sensitive and i've seen a lot of organizations and events that had to wait the following year because they would not meet our timeline that has been documented and approved so um i i do empathize with them trying to meet a deadline i do but i guess i've just seen too many different special events that were not allowed to happen and especially with us not providing any social action dollars for co-sponsored events anymore or any of the other um activities out there so i just wanted to state for the record that if we're setting precedence for this i look forward to reaching out to those other organizations as well thank you chair all right so we have motion a second seeing no further requests to speak clerk please open the machine for voting council members enter your vote seeing all present council members have voted clerk please tally announce the vote motion to approve agenda item g2 passes four to two with council members vick sanders and gabbard voting no and council members driscoll girdus henowitz and montaneri voting yes all right city council that is all the business we can do um until time for our six o'clock budget public hearing so this meeting will stand in recess until that time thank you my name is chance for navassa and i'm the first african american city clerk for the city of st petersburg florida to me a trailblazer is someone who sets out on a journey to accomplish something an individual who sees a path or has a path and even though obstacles may be in their way they find ways to get beyond those to reach their goal to me that's a trailblazer i began my career 24 years ago on january 26 1998 it was a cold rainy day i started in the parks and recreation department as a temporary employee on the waterfront cutting grass and maintaining our parks throughout there i developed as an individual as a person but also as an employee of the city of st petersburg and from there in 2014 i was appointed as a city clerk for the city of st petersburg the city clerk is a very responsible role not only are we responsible for the legislative issues of city council but also our city elections if you look at the history of how elections are and being the first african american to hold the role of city clerk and conducting our elections in the city of st petersburg it's a significant role because that within itself is literally setting some type of trail for others to follow as well it dawned on me the day that i got appointed that i'm the first and being the first you always want to be the best at what it is that you do failure is never an option for me if obstacles come you strategize and you adapt and you go beyond them personally my grandfather gentleman by the name of josh stanford greatest influence in my life professionally there were two individuals thomas jet jackson and clarence scott jet taught me the importance of community and showing compassion towards people and always making your presence known clarence taught me the significance of being not necessarily a perfectionist but doing your best and also reaching back helping others and never forgetting where you came from saint pete is progressing and we're becoming a more diverse and inclusive community and it says a lot about the character of the people of the city of saint petersburg that we look beyond the someone's skin color but we look at the content of the character to me that's what it says well we're here today at saint pete's pride celebration our parade which is one of the largest in the southeast and this year it's very important that we express what pride is about it is about respect for everybody and it's embedded in our slogan we are saint pete it talks about our commitment and our focus of inclusion and equity and making sure everyone's included in the progress that's happening in our city our city's changing very quickly but we never want to lose that fundamental focus on inclusion for every part of saint petersburg that's why pride is so important we are here in the beautiful city of saint petersburg and we are celebrating diversity we're celebrating what makes us the best place to come and visit in the state of florida we are here just to show everyone that we are saint pete all are welcomed we are all inclusive but more importantly all are loved to be here and to be able to celebrate to not be able to hide who you really are i think is one of the best freedoms that we can actually offer our progress requires all of us to reach out and be inclusive it's all about love it's all about folks reaching out and expressing openness for each other but at the end of the day we're all saint pete residents and that's how we move forward together district six reaches from 22nd street to the west bahama shores to the south it goes up to ninth avenue north and east to tampa bay i'm your council member for district six gina driscoll i'm standing in front of one of the many murals you can find in this area the shine mural fest is a big part of this district another great event in district six is the grand prix of saint petersburg this three-day race takes place along our beautiful waterfront in downtown waterfront is a big part of this area with a number of waterfront parks from last thing to vinoy park by the historic vinoy hotel history is rich here with the 22nd street south district more commonly known as the deuces you can see a mural representing this history at the i-275 underpass and that's what i love about district six the arts are everywhere you see it in our murals our museums the galleries and the theaters but you'll also find the art of food the art of beer the art of going full force or taking it easy district six is about the art of being who you are the art of being saint pete my name is shekayla berthelow and i am the first to graduate from the gibbs high school emt program and get hired on with saint pete fire and rescue a trailblazer is someone who is a discoverer a creator who takes risks they aren't afraid to put themselves out there and they're constantly trying to better themselves not only for personal growth though for for those around them they're leading and they're bringing people with them it's called the emt program emt preparatory program at gibbs high school it's essentially three years long and you'll go through what's the traditional emt program that people would do outside of doing it through high school but the classes that you take your sophomore junior and senior year are preparatory classes kind of set you up for what you're going to encounter when you start emt school it was definitely challenging for sure and a lot of hardships to get over but i went and traded for anything in the the world because it set me up for this like it gave me a ridiculous amount of opportunities and i am so so grateful for that going up i think i had two pretty important trailblazers one would probably be shirley chisholm who was the first black female to uh join the u.s congress it was monumental especially at that time because you didn't see a lot of strong black females in positions like those and i also madame cj walker she's the first black millionaire in america she started her own hair care line for black natural hair and i think that is also incredible those are probably the two biggest trailblazers i had growing up just kind of let like let me know that if they can do it i can do it no matter what it is i am a representation of you can do it you set your mind to it and you can do it absolutely do not hesitate do it because you can so i say for people who are kind of struggling with that or like struggling with with the confidence of not being able to do something i say just do it just do it because you're only hurting yourself by not doing it so put yourself out there you never know what's going to happen i'll talk a little bit about the vannoy because it uh back in the day used to be a big major building in town that would catch people's eye right away and they'd ask questions about and what is this this thing the gentleman who built it was uh aimer vannoy lofner and the story goes and this goes into the category of war again i think but uh he and his wife had a place on beach drive right across from where that vannoy would be built and they were having a party that went on to 2am 3am 4am and at some point he bet walter hagan one of the era's foremost golfers that uh he couldn't drive a golf ball off the crystal of his watch without breaking the crystal and he said if you can do that then i'm going to build a big hotel over there it was no big deal for hagan he stepped up whack whack three balls this was in about 1923 and uh lofner was a man of his word he built that hotel it took him about 11 months and i believe it opened on new year's eve of 1925 really does that sound right it did the wet miller i work for the city of st pete i'm equipment operator two operates street sweepers for the city i'm a second generation street sweep operator my dad did it i like it i'm by myself uh it's not a rush get a certain area done the object is to get the area clean like you've got to go i said oh you got to get the air done in one day that's not how we operate the object is to get it clean and do the best that you can street sweeping is very important i think because with our street sweeping we have all the pollutants build up in the curb line and the gutters and they don't make the street sled pollutants what i mean by that you got sand build up leaves trash along the gutter lines my job is to keep it clean pick it up on an average day you might get anywhere from five fifteen cubic yards of material mileage wise you might get anywhere from eight to ten miles a day sweeping some of the challenges we have to deal with you have uh cars that are in your way you have you might have trees down pond fronds stuff like that we have to go around some of that stuff we're trying to get every street in the city swept at least once a month enjoy seeing the citizens out come giving you a high five to tell me what good job you're doing i just enjoy my job well as a kid i used to get excited when i see my dad come down the street in the street sweeper as a kid i like one day i would like to do that so i i guess you could say i fulfilled the dream that i always wanted to follow in the footsteps of my dad and drive a street sweeper well i get the sense of pride every neighborhood i do i go out and try to give it 100 because i feel like every house that i go past it's my house so my job is to go out and do the best that i can i take pride in that i'm the youngest of seven girls and so i had lots of female role models one in particular is most definitely my mother my mother has always been my strongest influence i distinctly remember growing up in south america there were not very many opportunities for women in leadership and my mom really made her own place one of my grandmothers had ovarian cancer and my other grandmother had four cancers in the late 60s went in for a lumpectomy they did a double radical mastectomy she woke up being taken down to her breastplate for her that was incredibly humbling because she her whole identity was being in the community and she felt embarrassed and to some extent that her womanhood was gone and so watching her overcome that and thrive was really that that was inspiring as well growing up i really admired one of my high school teachers in particular she was this incredibly brilliant woman who was tough who was smart and who also would give everything to help her students i think it's critical to have a mentor i found mentors that taught me self-acceptance self-love they help you find a way they help you find an opportunity to a path to your full expression well i think mentorship is extremely important to the pathway to success having someone there who is really going to be the shining example who is going to be your guide through life is really what's so important and what so many of us need every life you should have somebody that is your champion and somebody you can champion and i think that's really important as we think about elevating others oh thank you for leadership for women is outstanding i think we are positioned perfectly i feel so very fortunate to live and work in a city like saint pete that's inclusive that's progressive i believe that we are a future that will be kind and generous there's great support amongst the women leaders to collaborate to make a difference to solve complicated problems and they're brilliant brilliant women this community has not just great women leaders but a platform where they're elevated and able to do things that are meaningful and that really impact our community and that's part of the reason it's such a phenomenal community women have such an important role in our culture the future of women in saint pete never felt brighter mentor a young lady or find a mentor for yourself be sure to honor the women in your life this month and every month i'm officer middlebrooks i work with the city of saint petersburg police department i am assigned to the police athletic league and i'm officer david lopez and my role here is to interact with the kids create a positive environment and be a positive role model in their lives the idea of a police athletic league is very important it is important it's important to have police officers interacting with the community it gives us as police officers the opportunity to create those relationships and change that mindset that police are there just to take you to jail that's really not the case here kids know they can come here and have a good time and interact with police officers in a positive way a lot of times they don't have certain resources so we try and provide those resources for them we have mentors here we provide homework help we provide recreation we provide snacks my favorite part personally is probably the mentoring aspect of my job there was a kid they were having some problems in school i started mentoring and having lunch with them and just giving them some positivity and the teacher told me that they were doing better in class that they were you know looking forward to having lunch meetings with me so that made me feel really good they felt like i was definitely making a difference when these kids come in it brightens their day to see the consistency of having a positive role model in their lives three one two three a lot of times when they first start here they may not take on to us as well but as time goes on you can see a relationship develop there's one kid that started when i first walked into the center he would hide behind tables the the beginning to the end period from when he wouldn't even talk to me he would hide from me to now all of a sudden he can come up to me give me a hug that was a huge huge difference i always feel great coming to work i mean i know i'm gonna i'm gonna be having a good time with these kids and we're here for a cause we're here for the kids and we want to make sure that we're putting them on a path to success so being being in a position where i can directly impact these kids on a one-on-one basis every day is a pretty good feeling knowing that you know hopefully these kids are changing for the better and hopefully i have a role in that campbell park is a beautiful community it is rich with culture all right campbell park is located right across the street from tropicana field where is where the tampa bay rays play right across the highway you got an overpass right here that you can walk over it's right down the street from the local skate shop anchor it's been a pretty pretty dope location honestly what what i think is unique about campbell park is you can have a yard you can have green space you have this beautiful park across the street and then you just go a little further and now you're into the density of downtown which is really exciting to have an actual residential corridor with yards so close to a really booming downtown area we are one of the more accessible communities when it comes to traveling as far as going downtown interstate travel any of our shopping centers this is the perfect place to be when it comes to all of those things you can skate anywhere in st pete just using the trail and you can just hop off the trail walk across the top and then hop right over the highway and you're here and you can just shred our public hearing this is the start of the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 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 2024 as a tentative budget for fiscal year 2024 prior to public comment the first substantive issue discussed shall be the percentage increase in millage over the rollback rate necessary to fund the budget if any and the specific purposes for which ad valorem tax revenues are being increased that issue will be discussed by the mayor and his staff after the title to the budget appropriations ordinances read clerk will you please read the title propose ordinance number 554 h an ordinance making appropriate fiscal year ending september 30 2024 making appropriations for the payment of operating of the operating expenses of the city of st petersburg florida including its utilities excuse me utilities and for excuse me and for the payment of principal and interest of revenue bonds and other obligations of the city of st petersburg florida making appropriations for capital improvement for the capital improvement program of the city of st petersburg florida making appropriations for the dependent special districts of the city of st petersburg florida adopting this appropriations ordinance as the budget for the city of st petersburg florida for the fiscal year ending september 30 2024 providing for related matters and providing an effective date and the second public hearing well this item is scheduled for september 28th and we do have cards thank you clerk at this time i want to offer the opportunity for um the assistant city administrator tom green to give some remarks from the mayor and the administration thank you very much madam chair and good evening council and good evening residents who have chosen to join us here tonight we're certainly excited to get this uh first of our two public hearings on the next year's budget the fy 24 budget underway um clearly uh we always joke that this is a marathon process uh we're rounding the turn into maybe mile 25 at this point with our second public hearing scheduled for later this month um so i do want to just start out with a couple of thank yous uh clearly thank you to city council for your continued collaboration your good ideas that you've shared with us throughout this this process it's truly appreciated um we you know look forward to the discussion tonight and certainly the next uh public hearing but again thank you to to council for your collaboration and and support throughout this um development process secondly i want to thank our city team uh in the administration you know administrators department directors excuse me um fiscal staff many of whom are some are here in the room uh others are scattered throughout city hall um in various offices so in the event that there are questions that are specific or programmatic they're able to help us answer those those questions that you might have um you know and throughout this development process mayor welch often reminds us of the stewart principle and that's basically that you know needs are infinite infinite while resources to address those needs are certainly finite so our job and our challenge collectively both council and administration is to thread that needle every year and fund the highest priorities of our city and i think that the fy 24 budget again hits that target of of funding the priority needs of our community and and again it's it's through the collaborative effort between council and administration that we're able to to uh to proceed uh along those lines i did want to touch on a couple of the pillars um that really got that act as the guiding principles for the development of our budget and those include housing opportunities for all environment infrastructure and resiliency equitable development and arts and business opportunities education and youth opportunities and then neighborhood health and safety and so those are the the pillars that we are always trying to um advance within our community um and those are help us as guiding guideposts throughout the development process um and i wanted to spend just a couple of minutes on on a couple of those high priorities and i'll start with housing for all and maybe start out with a reminder of some of the really cool things that have happened recently you know in the last couple of months we opened the 51 um unit shores in south saint pete we had a groundbreaking for the 85 units of the bear creek commons you know so so we are investing in affordable housing throughout our community we've also dedicated a large portion of those arpa monies 34 million for um to address affordable housing in addition to those investments that we're making um we have also created uh different initiatives with the help of council and i'll just tick off a couple of those you know we've increased uh down payment assistance and home um rehab rehabilitation funding we've created a city-wide pilot program for affordable rebates um we've provided resources to uh prevent eviction we've instituted the missile missing middle ntm1 zoning to increase density um to increase density um and we've reduced or eliminated fees on affordable housing and and again thank you to this council for being partners and and doing a lot of those initiatives because there's no silver star solution that's going to address all of our affordable housing needs but working collaboratively and creatively we can come up with solutions that can help move the needle within the confines of our fy 24 budget i do want to point out some investments in the housing area there's eight million dollars in the housing funds that are made up of state and federal funding as well as general fund monies additionally we've got 8.7 million in our penny for pinellas in the capital improvement uh program that is for land acquisition over the five-year uh window of this of this budget and the cip plan we also provide the the fund funding for various homelessness initiatives you know social action funding at 700 000 rapid rehousing childhood homeless projects safe harbor pinellas hope uh and saint vincent de paul just to to tick off a few of those uh investments that we make in education and youth opportunities we've increased that investment from 500 000 to a million dollars to address uh the uh to provide opportunities for our youth we want to grow our youth and have them be future residents of the city of saint petersburg and and so we're uh investing in those programmatic um opportunities under equitable development and arts i want to point out a couple of things that we continue to invest in as far as uh like economic um investments such as grow smart grow smarter economic and workforce development we have small business grants and micro fund investments and storefront conservation um as well as the economic development corporation and the partnership with the greenhouse our greenhouse partnership with the chamber of commerce um in the arts world you know we are fortunate to live in a community we have a very healthy and thriving arts community made up of 10 arts museums and galleries and artists abound um and within the confines of our our rec our this budget that we're asking you to approve tonight at first reading we include an increase in the arts grants funding of 500 well total of 500 000 it's an increase of 45 000 over last year's budget we also include resources of 107 000 for the carter g woodson african-american museum florida orchestra as well as the museum of history um to just cite a few within neighborhood health and safety um you know we are increasing the investment in the very successful call program the community assistance life liaison program run through the police department um increasing that by approximately 400 000 that would add allow us to add two additional navigators and a supervisor to extend the hours of operation of that program so we're excited about that investment in in the fire rescue department we've added a five additional cadets to bring that to a total of 10 cadets and that is a tool that we can use to recruit diverse candidates into the fire department that is a an exciting increase for fy24 additionally we've been working with the county to fully fund um additional positions with uh firefighter paramedic positions and there's six and 24 with a plan to add additional uh resources over the next three or four years to get to the the funding and levels that we are looking for um just a couple other things that i wanted to mention um you know i mentioned earlier the arpa money the 34 million we're investing in the housing we also have 8.5 million that we're investing in uh the community hubs that will help address mental health issues and other navigational and wraparound services um and those are uh up on underway and i think there'll be good things coming soon on that front um and then finally i want to touch on a couple of economic issues you know this is the second year in the row that we've um suggested a slight reduction in the millage rate so the the millage rate in this current fiscal year is 6.52 mils and what we're recommending and suggesting for fy24 and that council has adopted tentatively is 6.4675 mils that reduces the tax burden citywide by about 1.7 million dollars and and we've maintained the investment in our economic stability fund of 500 000 to ensure that we're saving money for future expenses and you know those are certainly a very high level summary of some of the investments but i did want to call out some of those investments and i know that liz has a lot of statutory things that she's going to need to run through so with that madam chair i'll turn that the meeting back to you and i appreciate very much the opportunity to share a few high level comments thank you tom we appreciate that so now we want to welcome our budget director liz makofsky for our presentation um good evening chair and members of city council before i begin the presentation if anyone has specific questions or concerns regarding the assessed value of their property exemptions or related to or information on the trim notices tonight we have here with us kevin mckeon from the pinellas county property appraisers office um if anybody would like to speak with him please follow him at this time and he will be able to answer any questions you may have and for those attending virtually please contact the pinellas county property appraisers office at 727-464-3207 monday through friday 8 a.m to 5 p.m or you can email mike at pcpao.org all right so this evening is the first of two public hearings on the physical year 2024 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 and the city clerk has provided the first reading of the fy 24 tentative budget ordinance and in just a moment i will review with council and the public the tentative fy 24 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 an additional discussion and deliberation by city council council will be asked to take action on three items each of these items actions will need to be done as a standalone motion the first being the adoption of the proposed millage rate for fy 24 the second being the adoption of the fy 24 tentative budget ordinance and third the adoption of the fy 24 budget resolution as a tentative budget for the city of st petersburg so under the florida statute 200.064 or the trim process the first item of substance to be discussed is the percentage increase if any in millage over the rollback rate for purposes of the fy 24 budget the rollback rate is 5.9152 and is the millage rate that would generate roughly the same amount of ad valorem revenues in fy 24 as a city received in fy 23 under the trim statutes we're allowed to recognize ad valorem revenue associated with due taxable value added to the tax base so the rolled back rate generates slightly higher revenues in fy 24 than the city is scheduled to receive in fy 23 the proposed millage rate for fy 24 is 6.4675 which is a reduction of 0.0575 mils from last year's millage rate and represents a 9.34 percent increase over the rollback rate the year over year increase in ad valorem revenue from fy 23 to fy 24 is 19.943 million the second step in the state required trim process is to discuss the reasons ad valorem taxes revenues are being increased a major reason for the increase in ad valorem revenue is to provide the resources needed for wage increases for all city employees including police and fire rescue the budget also includes funding for affordable and workforce housing there's funding for five additional fire cadet positions and two full-time legals full-time positions in legal we're also increasing funding for the call program and continuing funding for both the body worn cameras and fleet camera programs other major reasons include increasing the investment to key strategic initiatives such as a citywide eviction prevention program youth employment programs and literacy and steam programs the budget includes resources to increase or maintain funding for at-risk youth social action funding the grow smarter initiative and arts grants there's also funding in the budget for the historical gas plant redevelopment project the increase in ad valorem tax is based on a 12.36 increase in 2023 tax bill property values over 2022 this chart shows a 10-year history of property tax revenues in relation to public safety costs you can see that in fy 24 ad valorem revenues will cover all public safety costs for the city this slide illustrates the calculation of the millage rate for fy 24 the first step in the calculation is to determine the value of one mill to do this we take the gross property value and then multiply it by 96 percent resulting in 30.582 billion in value for budgeting purposes we then divide the 96 percent of gross taxable value amount the 30.582 billion by 1 000 and this gives us the value of one mill which 30.582 million the second step is to look at our fy 24 general fund requirement which is 364.467 million and net out the other sources of revenue in the general fund other than ad valorem this amounts to 166.676 million and that arrives us at the required ad valorem taxes amount which is 197.791 million also b on the slide and by the value of one mill which is shown as a on the slide to arrive at the 6.4675 mills required the millage rate again is a decrease of 0.0575 mills from fy 23 this next slide illustrates a typical tax bill for a resident of the city of st petersburg the city of st petersburg the city of st petersburg makes up 33 percent of this homeowner's tax bill Five mills from FY23. This next slide illustrates a typical tax bill for a resident of the city of St. Petersburg. The city of St. Petersburg makes up 33% of this homeowner's tax bill. Of the total tax bill, or 33 cents of every ad valorem tax dollar paid by property owners. The school system with its two components of the tax bill makes up about 30%, and Pinellas County makes up about 24% of the total taxes. The balance of the 13% is made up of other various taxing authorities as SWFMUD, the Health Department, JWB, PSTA, etc. We will now move into a discussion of the changes to the FY24 budget since the mayor's recommended budget was submitted on July 13th. All of this information is included in more detail in Attachment B, Recap of Changes. And the changes of revenue for the general fund can be found on page one of this document. There are two changes to the general fund on the revenue side. There is an increase in property revenue estimated for franchise taxes and utility tax revenue. And this is based on our current year actuals. And in the Parks and Recreation Department, the FY24 JWB agreement amount is greater than the amount that was in the FY24 recommended budget. The changes in requirement or expenditures in the general fund can also be found on pages one and two of the attachment B of the backup. The Parks and Recreation change is due to the increased amount for the JWB grant over the amount in the recommended budget. So we saw the revenue on one side and this is the matching increase on the expenditure side. All of the other department changes listed on this side besides the contingency amount are due to position changes in departments since the recommended budget. And the change in 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 project. In addition to the changes on the previous slide, there are changes in above departments that are due to reorganizations that have occurred during the year. That net out to zero after including a portion of the police change on the previous slide. The details of these changes are itemized on attachment B. The information on revenue changes in the other city funds can be found on page two of attachment B. The changes in the water equipment replacement fund and the fleet fund are to match the revenue in these funds that come from internal department charges. All of the other revenue changes listed are needed to match the proposed utility rates and transfers and the FY24 utility rate study. Requirement or expense changes for the other city funds are broken down on page three of the recap of changes. The change in the building permit special revenue fund is due to position transaction changes since the recommended budget and includes the addition of one full time and one part time position. For the arts and public places fund, the changes to include a budget for the annual inspection of the Eichelman sculpture. The change in both the water resources operating and stormwater utility operating funds are due to position reclassifications and updated transfer amounts to debt. And the changes in the water resources debt, water cost stabilization, and stormwater debt funds are to update the budget amounts to match the FY24 utility rate study. The golf course funds budget change is related to the change in timing of CIP projects that will be discussed on a later slide and it reduces the transfer amount needed in FY24 from the operating fund to the enterprises CIP fund. And the changes in the remaining five funds listed on this slide are all related to position transaction changes since the recommended budget. There are two changes on the revenue side of our CIP program and they can be found on page four of attachment B. There's a decrease of 520,000 in revenue due to the cooperative agreement for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North and 116th Avenue North intersection improvement project, which was originally planned in FY24, being approved by city council on July 13th, 2023. And this revenue is now included in the FY23 amended budget, so we're backing it out of the FY24 budget. There's also a partially offsetting increase of about $244,000 in revenue budget due to a transfer from the TD Bank and a debt fund for the police CAD RMS mobile systems project. Next, there's a decrease of $720,000 in revenue. And this is due to the modification of the five year CIP plan to move the mangrove bay maintenance building project from FY24 to 25. And moving the driving range and T renovation project from 25 to 24. This change decreased the amount of transfer from the golf course's operating fund that we discussed on the slide before. That's needed in FY24. There are three changes on the requirement side of our CIP budget. Details are also on page four, and these correspond to the revenue changes we just mentioned. The changes in the general capital improvement and golf courses capital improvement fund, again, are corresponding to the revenue changes that we just discussed. These are the expense side changes. And there was a change in the multimodal impact fee capital improvement fund. And that's also related to the change that was discussed in the general capital improvement fund, this is where the city's portion of the agreement that we budgeted in FY24 but approved in 23 was located. We're getting close to the end. In the next section, we'll give a quick overview using tables, charts, and graphs to illustrate the city's FY24 budget. These tables are included in the FY24 budget and brief, which has been posted on the city's website and was handed out this evening. The total operating revenue budget is 834.950 million. Charges for services make up the largest category at 355.196 million, or 42.5%, followed by taxes at 264.9 million, or 31.7%. And you'll see there's a difference between the operating budget revenues and expenditures on the next slide. And this is due to revenue being received in funds but not completely appropriated during the same fiscal year. An example would be the tax increment finance funds and the economic stability fund. The FY24 operating budget expenses total 823.295 million and is about 8.3% higher than the FY23 operating budget. The water resources operating fund increased by 8.8% year over year from 185.9 million to 202.4 million. And the general fund and reserves budget increased by 7.8% from 338.156 million in FY23 to 364.587 million in FY24. The total general fund revenue budget is 364.467 million. And the general fund revenue comes from various sources as illustrated on the chart. And the largest single source of revenue are taxes, including our ad valorem property taxes at 72.69% or 264.9 million. Intergovernmental revenue, which includes our half cent sales tax, is the second largest source at 11.6% or 42.2 million. The total general fund expenditure budget for FY24 is also 364.467 million. And the city's general fund is categorized into our six city administrations. The single largest general fund investment made by the city is in public safety at 52.6%. And this includes our police and fire rescue departments. The general government administration makes up the next largest category at 19.8%, and some of the departments included in this administration are budget, finance, legal, and human resources. And the third largest general fund investment is in the community enrichment administration at 17%, which includes the parks and recreation departments and our libraries. This chart shows a general fund budget broken out by expenditure type. The single largest expenditure category of the general fund is wages and benefits at 241.4 million or 66.2% of the total budget. And services and commodities category makes up the next largest at 20.8% or 75.86 million. Moving on to the FY24 capital improvement program, the total for this year is 162.604 million in capital projects. Water resources projects account for 81.575 million or 50.2%, while our Penny for Pinellas projects account for 43.714 million or 26.9%. This shows our total five-year CIP plan over the five years, and it totals just over 901 million in projects. And this slide shows the fund balance commitment categories that council will need to reaffirm these categories. These are other categories when the budget is adopted. However, the amounts to be set aside in each category do not need to be determined until the FY23 fiscal year is closed, when we have our year-end actual results. At that time, we'll have a better idea how much fund balance is available to allocate to each category. And the commitment categories can then be funded as part of the year-end cleanup process in November. And finally, in closing, the second and final budget public hearing will be held at City Hall and Council Chamber on September 28th, 2023 at 6 PM. And information on the city's budget is available on the city's website on our budget and finance page. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. At this time, we will begin the public comment portion of the hearing. The general public will be allowed to speak and ask questions prior to the adoption of the proposed millage rate and the tentative budget set by City Council. Clerk, can you go ahead and call the speakers two at a time? Yes, ma'am. First two speakers, Cynthia Lippert and Corey Givens, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes to address City Council. Thank you, City Council. I'm Cynthia Lippert, 8415 17th Street, St. Petersburg, District 2. I've been a property owner in this beautiful city since 1977 and just wanted to take a moment to express my admiration and gratitude for your recent resolution to control rents and dismayed by a state legislature stomping on home rule at every opportunity. But please, I won't be dismayed, but please ask you to not be vague on the number of affordable housing units the city will commit to build by the end of the mayor's first term. And the public, or I, view that statement on how many units you'll build to be your expression of your moral commitment to the housing crisis. Also, I see 30% in the budget for education, and due to the recent state legislature's program for charter school vouchers, that was a purposeful diversion of student registration in our public schools and will drastically drain resources. I have two nieces that are public educators. They're my heroes, and I hate to see them in working in a system that's underfunded and being attacked. Also, please, I don't know if this is the correct venue, but please, please retain ownership of the gas plant property. The 80 acres in the heart of a city is our treasure. Please do not give it to developers. Please do not give it to anyone. Embrace it and keep it for the citizens of St. Petersburg. And strategic plan for our city states on page 13, the strategic plan goals are that public input and data fuel the budget. So please embrace the public comment, because that indicates what the public needs. That's our best chance to express to you what we need. So thank you for your service to our community, and I'm very respectful of your city council. Thank you. Good evening, council members. $824 million is a lot of money. Most of us in our lifetimes will never see that amount of cash. So when we say that our budget is reflective of our priorities as a city, we need to make sure that it reflects our values. And how can we say that it is reflective of our values if our budget ignores some of our most vulnerable citizens? We must be cognizant of the fact that there's a lot of money in this budget that is allocated towards various projects that will not impact or better, shall I say, the quality of life of most of the residents who are living below the poverty line, who are facing some very difficult socioeconomic situations. Let's be considerate of our homeless population. We have organizations like Reach St. Pete, the St. Pete Free Clinic, the Suncoast Haven of Rest. We help so many different organizations that are trying to meet the needs of this community. And all I'm asking of you as council members is to help us address those needs by allocating the dollars needed. It's very difficult. I serve on the board for Suncoast Haven of Rest, and it's very difficult for us to be able to meet the requests and demands that we have without having that money in the budget. So if we are able to work with these organizations in a way that alleviates the stress so that way they don't have to worry about, okay, this family, they're trying to figure out how are they going to pay for this increased water bill that just went up $20 a month while also trying to figure out how are they going to put food on their table while also making sure they got gas in the car to get back and forth to work. So let's just be mindful of the fact that we have our homeless and our youth to be concerned about. I appreciate the money that has been allocated to these areas, but my only ask is that we consider digging deeper into the budget and finding where we can put more of our dollars towards these groups. As black history is under attack in the state of Florida, it would be awesome if the St. Petersburg City Council could take a progressive step in the right direction to make sure that we have dollars to stock some of our local recreation centers with books that are being proactively banned by our government, making sure that the Enoch Davis Centers, students who come in and out of there, have access to books like their eyes were watching God. We also need to make sure that every child has a place to lay their heads at the end of the day. So that's why we have to do a better job at digging into this budget and finding more dollars for affordable housing and recognizing that what might be affordable to some isn't necessarily affordable for all. So please, let's be cognizant with this budget and let's make sure that it's reflective of our values as a city. Thank you and God bless you. Thank you. Next two speakers. Next two speakers, Madam Chair, Lima and Hassa and Nathan, I can't read the last name. That last name. Please go to either podium and state your name and address for the record. Lima's not here. Lima, she's not here. She didn't state whether she's for or against. So the next speaker is Stephen Diverge. So go to either podium as well. Hi, my name is Nathan Zupassan. I live at 502nd Street South and I just wanted to start off by saying Madam Chairwoman and honorable members of the council. I'm a student at USFSP and I'm a member of Florida Rising. I'm here today to speak about the pressing issues within Child's Park, specifically those concerning the youth in the area. Adolescents within the area are not receiving the nourishment they need to be successful in life. There are two youth centers within the area meant to encompass all the needs of the adolescents in Child's Park. Suffice to say, they cannot take up this burden entirely on their own. Child's Park and surrounding area contains the densest youth population in Pinellas County. I want to take a second to acknowledge that there are several existing opportunities for youth throughout the city, and for that I am thankful. I'd like to expand upon these existing opportunities and allocate resources towards Child's Park so that every juvenile gets a chance to succeed, no matter what path they choose to pursue in life. For the following fiscal year, I would like to request 2.5 million divided up over a five year period funding infrastructure targeting youth development. I know this may seem like a large ask, but at the end of the day, you can't put a price on the life of a child. With these funds, we can expand upon existing opportunity-based programs at the rec center, like the diversion program, and provide students with updated equipment and make sure they are receiving the best care outside of school. There are more to recreational centers than just education and opportunities. They serve as pillars of their community. For some youth, recreational centers are where they go to escape their circumstances. In some cases, that's a place where they'll receive their first meal. Throughout the course of this open forum, I ask that you keep an open mind. You will hear many first hand testimonials regarding the positive impact that after schools have on individuals and their community. And I hope when all is said and done, we can work together to give the youth of Child's Park the future they deserve. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening, esteemed members of the council. My name is Steven de Verge. I live on 500 Street, or no, 500 2nd Street South, sorry about that. I am also a student at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and I am here to provide some additional information on the impact of after school programs. The positive effect of after school programs are numerous, with participation in these programs being linked to improved social skills, grades, test scores, and reductions in misconduct, risky behavior, and juvenile delinquency. A study ran by the University of California, University of Wisconsin, and Policy Studies Incorporated, compared children who regularly participated in after school programs to those who did not. Elementary age children who regularly attended reported a 27% increase in standardized test scores compared to those who did not. And teachers reported upwards of 16% increases in work habits among these students who attended after school programs. The social benefits of these programs are evident as well, with a reported 12% increase in pro-social behaviors, a 13% decrease in aggressive behavior towards peers, and a 25% decrease in reports of misconduct. These trends do not end at elementary age children. Middle school students reported 22% increases in standardized test scores, 13% increases in work habits, 24% decreases in reported misconduct, 25% decreases in substance abuse. A prior study reported 13% fewer police reports of criminal activity in areas that covered housing developments with boys and girls clubs compared to those that did not. A case study centered around two housing projects showed that the housing project which experienced a 32 month after school program and summer recreation program reported a 75% decline in juvenile arrest. While a comparable housing project that only had minimal services reported a 67% increase in those arrests. The results of these studies speak for themselves, clearly demonstrating the benefits of regular participation in high quality after school programs. Not only do these well funded programs help alleviate the burden of working parents, but they provide tangible results. significantly improving the academic performance and social skills of children, as well as reducing the risk of substance abuse and juvenile delinquency. Thank you for your time. Thank you, next two speakers. Next two speakers, and final two speakers, Madam Chair, Roxy Nelson and William Kilgore. Please go to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and you will have three minutes to address city council. Hello, thanks for having us here tonight. My name is Roxy Nelson, I'm the Executive Vice President for 1199 SEIU here in Florida. 1199 is the largest healthcare workers union in the country, and the largest healthcare workers union here in Florida. I'm here today on behalf of our over 2,000 members who live in St. Petersburg, I'm also a resident of St. Petersburg. I want to acknowledge, I was sitting here, I wasn't planning on speaking, but reading through the budget, it became really clear to me that the things that are being prioritized are the things that we need to be prioritized. I want to talk about housing and the focus of the federal money going on development, affordability, and addressing homelessness. I want to say that that is acknowledged, but I also want to say clearly, and feel motivated on behalf of my members to say it is not enough. It's shocking to me to represent a workforce of people who sacrificed through a pandemic. And just today, in one of my shops, I had to have a young mother tell me that her and her five children are living in their cars in this county and working in this county. And so, I recognize and understand that we know what we need to do, and we are trying to do, but what we're doing is anemic, and people are suffering. The healthcare profession, there are estimates that by the year 2032, there will be a million healthcare worker shortage in this country. If we do not figure out how to turn these jobs that these workers are in into good-paying jobs, on one end, we are not holding the people who employ them accountable for paying them a living wage. And on the other end, we do not have the courage to do what they need us to do to be able to live well in our communities. I am here on behalf of them tonight to let you know that it is insufficient what you are doing. We've been being told since 2019 to wait, and that these things take time, and they work slow, but people are suffering. My members are suffering. A mother of five shouldn't live in her car working two jobs. That's the reality in St. Petersburg, and I need you to understand it. It is not us calling you out, thinking you do not know what the priorities are, and what needs to happen, and that you do not want to do the right thing. It is us telling you to find the courage to do what's hard, to make the tough decisions, and prioritize the people. To me, at the end of the day, we have enough money to do it. We know we do, and we know what needs to be done. We lack the courage. So I call on all of you today to act. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Hey, everybody. Thank you, Chair. William Kilgore with the St. Pete Tenants. You now reside in the Ponce de Leon neighborhood. Good to see everybody. Yeah, I just wanted to start real quick with the right to counsel and the tenant liaison. Those are things that we think are very important, and I think that's great to see that in there, creating kind of an infrastructure to help protect tenants. You know, and that being said, you know, in Pinellas County, since the beginning of the year through the end of August, we've seen 3,900 eviction filings. The Princeton eviction lab, you know, this is why we're rolling out these programs. As Roxy mentioned, you know, things move slow, things move slow. I mean, you know, meanwhile, this is what's happening. You know, the Princeton eviction lab found that since June of 2022, June of last year, in Tampa or Hillsborough and Pinellas County, eviction filings have been above the historic average. You know, so we're seeing an uptick in these evictions being filed, you know, and the social services, yeah, everything in here. I mean, it's not that this isn't, like, going to help people. All that money for those social services, of course, it's going to help people. It's not going to help everybody who needs it. You know, all the time we talk to tenants who aren't able to get it for one reason or another. That's why right to counsel is so important. It's universal. It's, you know, there's no red tape. It doesn't matter your income or employment status and all these other things that, you know, sort of this patchwork of social services we have. And it's not that the social service providers don't do a great job. They do the best they can with the resources they got, but they don't have enough resources. You know, imagine if, you know, the fire department's only, oh, sorry, we can only put out 60% of the fires, you know. I mean, no, no, we're going to do everything in our power to make that happen, you know. And so that's with this. I mean, speaking of not doing very much, I mean, you've got the biggest chunk of the general fund, 40% going to the cops. Meanwhile, they got a 20% clearance rate. They're not even solving crimes. I mean, when are we going to admit that, you know, law enforcement is a failure in trying to take care of all of our issues and maybe try something different. And there have been steps made with call and things like that, which is great. Call needs to be taken out of the purview of the police department. It needs to be expanded. But anyway, that was – I just want to let you know we'll be back out at the next public hearing. We're going to bring a few people out, you know, just to, you know, kind of share some thoughts. I think it's important, and I appreciate you all listening. You know, we like to come out. You know, I know I like to harang you all a little bit, but, I mean, it's, you know, it's important. It's important you hear what people are saying because this is, you know, you need to hear this stuff and not just the economic data that all these guys at the Chamber of Commerce are trying to jam up here. So, thank you. That was the final speaker? Speaker. Speaker. Okay, so the public comment portion of the hearing is now closed, and we will go to council deliberation. Council members? Council member Floyd. Thank you. So, first I want to just jump on one thing. We were, made our budget priorities back in January, nine months have passed since then. That is almost half of my time on council has passed since I wrote the budget priorities. So, I think a little differently than I did back then, and I think that's probably fair to say that a lot of us do. So, and it's difficult because we have limited amount of time to discuss this stuff. So, I brought up last week something I was concerned about and sort of mentioned that it would come up this week. So, I'll just go ahead and get it to it. First, I believe we're, our priorities are backwards on how we lower the cost of living in this city. The city takes money for two things. First, it takes money for general revenue through the millage rate, property taxes. And then, second, it takes money in your utilities in order to fund our stormwater, wastewater, water system in general, sewage, whatnot. And one of those fees is paid by users and residents who live in the city. And the other one is paid by property owners. And there's a distinction. One are definitely people who are living here. The other one is not necessarily the case. Yes, 60% of homes in our city are owned by the owner-occupant, but 40% aren't. And 40% of people who live in this city are renters. That means those properties are owned by who knows who. I mean, yeah, maybe some small landlords, but there's corporations. And we talk every day more and more about how Wall Street speculators are coming into our city and buying up properties. It's happening on my own block. And so when we do something like cut the millage rate and lower the burden on property owners while we increase the utility rate, we're putting the burden on people who live here when we could be putting the burden on more fairly. We could be more fairly lowering the burden on the people who live here and instead saying, yeah, it's not ideal, but we can capture more people if we put it on the property taxes instead. And so that's where I'm hung up with the millage rate. I think that, and I apologize to you all last week when I voted no on the utility rates, but we had to get to the millage rate hearing to have this discussion. And I apologize because this is last second. I know, and I'm sorry. I wish we sort of a realization I had later on in the process and just we didn't have an opportunity to talk about it again. So that's my hang up on the millage rate stuff. I've got other comments on the budget, but I'll just leave it there with the millage rate. I would have preferred to see us take a different approach if our goal is to just lower the cost of living across the city or at least limit the impact of what the cost of living increase is because we know we have stuff we have to pay for. So I just wanted to throw that out there and let people know that that's what I was thinking, and that's why I was on something last week as well. So thank you, Chair. Council Member Driscoll. Thank you. I'm really proud that we were able to reduce the millage rate. It's something that you look across the bay at what Tampa's been dealing with, which was they were looking at an increase of a full mill. And I had a counterpart from Tampa City Council call me and say, you know, you guys were able to reduce the millage rate. How did you do that? You know, show me how you all have that worked out. And so I'm really glad that we're able to do that, especially in the face of rising property values. I mean, it just helps however we can while still maintaining a high level of public safety services. They continue our commitment to affordable housing, dealing with critical infrastructure issues, and so much more. So I think we're in a good place with that. We had a couple of public comments and suggestions that I'd like to bring up. There was one request for the need for more books on black history. It was suggested that they be placed in the rec centers and libraries where people have access to them. Enoch Davis Center is an example. I think we should keep that in mind as something that we can do as we have been able to increase our funding. And I've asked every year, and finally this year, we went from a $50,000 allocation for literacy programs to $500,000. Because we are showing our commitment to making sure that children are able to read and be successful in life. And we know that reading is where it starts. So I hope that as we move forward with specific allocations from that budget, that we will take that idea, it's a good idea, and thank you, Corey, for that. It was brought up that a couple of people would like to see more spending in youth development, particularly on after school programs, and focused on Child's Park. And so I wonder if, Tom, you or someone from that department can talk about what we do already. And I believe we've actually increased the amount that we've allocated for our rec centers, which is where those programs take place. And in the presentation, it was noted that there's an increase in parks and rec that is specifically for JWB. And I believe they help out with that type of offering as well. So just for the benefit of the speakers, I would love for anyone to give some more information on what we are doing. Yes, ma'am, and you hit the nail right on the head. Excuse me, I just put a mint in my mouth. No, sorry. So, but we have very active after school programs within our recreation department. I can't speak directly to the Child's Park activities. But I know that we are, as you've mentioned, the new investments in STEAM and education. The expert is right behind you. And yes, I was just stalling while Mike didn't get here. Because I did mention that most of our team is here in the building, and so Mike may be catching his breath after running down the hallway. Thank you. Catch my breath, I ran up the stairs. Hello. While he's catching his breath, I do want to point out, because I mentioned, and you mentioned, Councilmember Driscoll, the increased investment of $500,000 in STEAM and literacy programs. You know, we've also got some resources to buy a book mobile for the library system, you know, to get out into the communities. So looking at, you know, various different types of investments to address that need. But I'll let the expert take over now that he's caught his breath. I think I've caught my breath. So I listened to the presenters, and we are absolutely on the same page. As far as what Corey brought up, as far as the book history, we already are planning that right now. I'm still trying to catch my breath. With the Obama Library, we will have a massive collection for black history. We currently have books for black history at all of our libraries and at our rec centers. So, again, one of the things that we've done is we've collaborated between the two departments so that we have collections that rotate through the rec centers. So that's already in place, and we firmly agree and believe in that. Just as Tom indicated, administration has given us the approval to move forward with a mobile bookmobile. And again, our plan with that is to look for different opportunities to bring different collections into communities for special events, for special months, that sort of thing. So it'll be something that we'll really be able to be nimble and we'll be able to evolve and we'll be able to provide the books to the community that needs it the most. So on that topic, we completely agree childcare that is a very multifaceted response. We have about 2,500 kids elementary and middle in our before school and after school programs. I can tell you that the vast majority, over 75% of those children are being subsidized by the city of St. Pete to attend those camps. So, again, we follow the free and reduced lunch schedule so that if you're on free lunch and you qualify for that, then we only charge you 25% of our rates. So our rates are very affordable. Our quality is extremely high. I know my colleagues in the side room are tired of hearing about accreditation, but we follow all the best practices and we are a department that is focused on quality. You know, I think that we all agree there's a difference between somebody just watching a child and then somebody who is actually helping that child with development. We hire tutors that come in. And so we like to call it the sky's learning where we have teachers that actually are in our programs that were just with the kids that day at the schools that they go to. So, again, multifaceted. We do partner with ELC, the early learning coalition. We are a, and when I say a site, it's the entire system. We are certified and able to provide child care through ELC. So, again, that is determined by their process. But we have families that, you know, pay what they can for child care because, again, the goal is to get the families back into their careers and able to provide that youth development. As Tom and Liz talked about the mayor's pillars, youth development is one of his number one pillars. I think most of you know that we have interviewed, we had about 200 individuals apply for our youth and education director. So, we've boiled it down to five at this point. And as soon as our chief equity officer is hired, then a final selection will be made. But, again, it's a complicated response. But literacy, that will fall under both libraries, community enrichment, and the youth director. I think you mentioned the Phyllis Wheatley and the additional investment for literacy programs. We also have some room in there to stand up other organizations as they may come forward. So, we really, we know we can't do it all ourselves. We know that we can help organizations, grassroots organizations, flourish. And again, it's all about partnerships and working with others. We partner with the Y, we partner with the R-Club. I could continue to talk, but I don't know if there's other areas that you'd like me to touch on. But we really are, under Mayor Welch's leadership, fully engaged in the youth development arena. All right. Thank you. That was excellent. I appreciate it, and thanks for running, and letting Tom finish his mint. I do have one more thing. I know that, of course, there are other projects and initiatives and things that we all would like to see that haven't specifically been designated in the budget for next year. But we can rest assured, we'll all keep continuing to work on those things. One that I want to point out, and I've had another recent conversation with the fire department about this. And it's something that I asked for last year, but then held off this year, and that was to create a new position for a recruiter. And I know that we have an improvement plan in the works, and I know we've got a management study in the works. But this is something that the fire department has told me that would be helpful for them. In light of everything, I think there's real benefit to having that specific position. It's not something that we need to decide and allocate for today, but I do hope that if the time comes within FY24 that it's concluded that, yes, we are going to have this position, that we will find the money to make it happen. Because it's, from what I'm being told from different people, that's one of the keys to getting some of the improvements done in the fire department. Yes, ma'am, understood, and we certainly will, obviously, on an annual basis and during throughout any fiscal year, if there is a need for position, we certainly evaluate that and identify resources to fund that. So it's not, I can't sit here today and say, yes, we're going to fund that. But, you know, if, when the, when the data is available suggesting that the position is needed, we certainly will consider it. Excellent. Thank you. That's all I have for now. Thank you, Chair. Councilmember Montaneri. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for everybody for, for being here. Thank you for the presentation. I appreciate the public coming out and giving us their perspective because this is, this is your budget. I did want to start off by talking about the, the millage rate reduction because it, it was a very modest millage rate reduction. I'm, I'm glad we were able to do it. I proposed a much more substantial millage rate reduction, but I'm glad we did something. But on slide three of the presentation, it talks about the increase from the rollback rate, the increase in, in, in taxable value. And that's the measure of where taxes are going. So we, we're, we're increasing taxes, 9.34%. It's right here in the presentation. The millage rate reduction was very, very minor, but I'm proud that we did it. My friends at the county on the county commission, they asked a similar question that council member Driscoll just talked about, like, how did we, how did we do it? And I'm glad that we are fiscally responsible and we're trying to reduce people's taxes where we can. And, but, um, I did want to address that. I also, uh, had, uh, my legislative aid kind of go through the budget and just to give me a little perspective of the increases in spending and, and, uh, in Liz's presentation, she talked about, uh, how our general fund is increasing roughly 8%. And I, I broke, uh, I, I had my legislative aid break it down from, uh, in different administrations and, uh, I did want to just throw these numbers out here. So the public works is growing at, uh, and I, I had a look back over the last five years, it's, it's growing at about 31% a year, uh, public safety, 26% a year, general government, 18% a year, housing and neighborhood services, 10%. Community enrichment, 7% and city development, 7%. And, uh, some of these numbers, and when we talked last week and we, we, we were going through the, uh, um, our, uh, utility rates, uh, I, I wanted to mention that the increase in, uh, public works spending, it's been, it's been a big chunk for our, our, our, our rate payers to pay. And when you look at, uh, the increase year over year, when it comes to public works, it's, it's, it's a, it's a major part of our, our budget. I do have a, uh, a couple of questions and if administration's not ready to, uh, provide answers, if we can get them by the second public hearing, I'd, I'd like to know, uh, the number of new positions that we have in, in the budget. Uh, uh, and I also, I know we have a hundred thousand dollars, uh, in, in the budget for funding for, uh, the center of the, uh, arts. And I don't know if that number's enough. I think that might need to be increased another $50,000. So I, I'd like administration to, to see if we can find the funding, uh, for, for that. And then I did have one, one other question in the budget when I, there, there's two things in, uh, in the budget that I had questions on, on page 20. One was general capital, we have $4.1 million, four point, yeah, $4.1 million for, for general capital. Um, I'd, I'd like to know what that will be used for. And then there was a 80% increase in, uh, funding for Tropicana field. And, and I, I wanted to know why we, we had that, uh, increase there also. So, and then my, my final thought, uh, just looking, looking at the budget as a whole, we, we continue to underfund capital improvement and maintenance. And we need to continue to take care of those things in, in our budget. And that's something when I look at where we started the process, what process, when it comes to council priorities, uh, a lot of the operations and, and maintenance, maintenance and capital improvements is a lot of the, uh, uh, priorities that, that I have. So we need to keep working in, in that area. So, and I don't know if, uh, administration wants to respond to any of my questions or maybe come back at the second public hearing. I can answer, um, two of them right now. Okay. So for the first question, when new positions, if you count just the positions in the FY 24 tentative budget, which doesn't include increases during the current year, there's 13, there's the five fire cadets, the two full-time position in legal. And then the six, um, EMS positions. Okay. And then for Tropicana field, the increase is mainly due to the property insurance increase that we got year over year. Okay. Good. And then the, the 4.1, it's going to a bunch of different projects. So I'll, I'll have that for you before the second meeting. Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Council Member Gerdes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I just really have, um, one question and then maybe a comment. And, and actually my question is for council member Floyd and council member Floyd, thank you for some clarification on some of your comments from last week. So what, what you're proposing, whether it's now or in the future is that we don't move the millage rate and that if we would use those dollars. So let's say we did it this year. I think it's 1.7 million. We saved in the role and lowering the millage rate. Like we'd use that $1.7 million to offset either we bond less for utility or we charge less from a cashflow standpoint. Is that what you're. Yeah. So, I mean, the easiest way to do it would be with cash offsets. I think bonding gets quite complicated, but yeah, the cash. Um, yeah. And because of who pays, which one is what I'm getting at. Like one is paid by property owners that don't necessarily live here and the other one is paid by users who do live here. And so, um, I think it's some, in my opinion, a more effective way to lower the cost of living for people who live here. Uh, I, I think last week when you brought it up, I, I walked away thinking you were wanting to go to get off of the 50, 50 bonding to cashflow split. Uh, I'm certainly open to that idea. I think, I mean, I think you said it yourself. It's a little late on this one and I'm, but I'm certainly open to looking at that and, and as an option and digging into that data. Um, but, uh, I, again, I'll, I'll just reiterate, I think it's late to do that now because I'd want to make a very informed decision if we were to do that. But I certainly appreciate that, um, that idea. And I definitely think it's worth, worth looking into for, for next year. That's all I had, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, so seeing no further requests to speak, the proposed millage rate for the city of St. Petersburg is 6.4675 mills, which is a 9.34% increase over the rollback rate of 5.9152 mills. And at this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the millage resolution. Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Seeing no further requests to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve agenda item J1A passes 7 to 1 with council member Floyd voting no. And council members Driscoll, Fix Sanders, Gabbard, Gerdes, Henowitz, Montaneri, and Mohammed voting yes. Next, I would entertain a motion to pass the recommended budget appropriations ordinance for the city of St. Petersburg fiscal year ending September 30th, 2024, for first reading. Move approval. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Council member Floyd. Thanks. I split up my comments a little bit because I wanted to talk about the millage first. But I actually agree with council member Montaneri on the capital expenditures. I think we're lacking there. I mean, we've seen the infrastructure needs in the city. They're great. So I just wanted to gloss over that quickly and state my agreement. I look forward to talking about that more in the next budget cycle. But really, my issue, I think, is going to boil on to I could talk about a lot of little things, and I think a lot of people here have. But really, I want to uplift one big thing to me, which is just the number one budget request I had last year was raises for non-emergency workers to make up for inflation and, honestly, the fight that we had the year before with them. And, you know, I was glad that we were able to get to a deal, but that deal that we came to with them, and quickly, and, you know, the union approved it, but that deal that we came to still fell far short of what we do for emergency personnel. And it still just felt to me like we had two classes of workers in this city, even though they're all incredibly important. And so I know, you know, we can only negotiate with the union what you negotiate with them, but I would have loved to have seen us offer more. Just to be blunt, it's like a 10% with steps and annual raised GWI versus a 6% with steps and GWI. And so I'm frustrated by that. I think it's actually a cost, I think it's actually a pay decrease when you factor in inflation, and that's my biggest thing, is if we're talking about we want to take care of working people in this city, we have it right in front of us that I think we could do better on. So I just wanted to make that point as well about the budget instead of about the millage. I wanted to make sure those two things were separate. Thank you, Chair. Council Vice Chair, Fick Sanders. Thank you, thank you everyone for coming to speak, and I was contemplating some of my comments in regards to the budget. But I think at this point it's critical to point out the fact that the budget that we have is very complicated. I'm still trying to learn it. And sometimes when I look at some of the things, for example, I had 21 budget priorities, 21 things that I asked for. And I think it's important, and I'm asking you to help us understand what we need to ask for in our budget priorities. And to advocate what it is, showing up during a public hearing one time, it gets lost. But when you have the advocacy, and this is what we need, and we all have, all of our council members are here. We're here to be held accountable and to serve you, and showing up one day out of the year makes it a little bit more difficult to get some of these things done. There's some global things that we need to address, housing, rental assistance, our right to council. All of those are important, and you see so many people here that need those services, that need that advocacy. And we on this side of the diet, sometimes the agendas can be our way, sometimes priorities can be mislead and misguided, but your voices are extremely important. Your voices are extremely important, and it's showing up one day during the budget hearing when it's almost a done deal. On most of this, isn't as effective as in letting your council member know what it is that we need. Because we're sitting up here, we know a lot of things that need to be done, but it's all about priorities. And you have a mayor now that has pillars. Like when we're looking at our youth development, our dollars for our youth, well there's an extra 500,000 that he has allocated. You might not know all the organizations that benefit from that, but there are so many organizations that will benefit from that. And today you may not know that, because it is broken down from different services, different departments. The money that is going to parks and reg, they have an awesome, awesome system in helping a lot of our youth that you just might not know about. So when I hear about some of the requests that we have, a lot of it is big in communication, education, knowing what the city is doing. But more importantly, let us know what we are not doing, because we don't know it all. But I do appreciate those that come and speak, but I need you to reach out to us on a regular basis. Everybody else does it. When there's something that they want, they find a council member to help them get it done. And that's the only way we're really going to know what we need to do to help service your needs as to where we're falling short as a city. Whether it's the millage rate, whether it's capital expenditures, if there's a will, there's a way, and we will find it. We've seen it over and over and over again. But some of the things you'll be surprised, we've started having conversations about some of the things that are happening now five, six years ago. It's been a long time coming, but when you have that steady flow of advocacy and trying to get it done, eventually it rides to the top. So I just had to say that I'm listening, and we're talking dollars, we're talking cents. But we also need to talk about the needs of the constituents and how we need to get it done. And so you all play a very, very important role in helping us get to this point and having this conversation. So I just wanted to say that and thank those of you that actually came out to share your input with us. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Mohammed. Thank you, Madam Chair, inspired by my colleague, Council Member Fick Sanders. I agree with the complicated nature of the budget and the things that we work on. I had 27 things that we put into the budget, priority request, and only seven of them were not funded. And so that's why I didn't really have a whole lot to say, Tom. Thank you for the considerations. But what I'm learning is exactly what Council Member Fick Sanders said, is they don't show up in the budget the way that we can readily identify it. They may be in other areas and in other programming. And so being able to look at it and double click on it and really be able to see, okay, the funding that we're asking for is there, but it's not as explicit as we would like for it to be. And so, Tom, I'll put you on the spot again. I've been asking for a breakdown of all of the funding that we've spent on housing so that it can be explicit. So when we talk about where we're spending the resources and where the money is going, so you can actually look at it at a glance and say, okay, the advocates are saying, well, we're not putting enough. But to be able to find and see where it's at, because some of it's here, some of it's there, so to say, okay, here's our housing investments and put it all on a spreadsheet or one list so that we can double click on it at a glance, I think, again, would be helpful. And doing that with other areas, like the five pillars, I like how you kind of rattled it off, but to be able to present that to our constituents and give them that immediate feedback so they can say, okay, yes, I feel like you're hearing me, I know that you're hearing me, and I can actually see it in front of me, would be tremendously helpful for me. So when we do our town halls and they're saying, well, we need more money for literacy, and then I'm telling them, well, we just got half a million dollars for literacy, you know, it's like, oh, well, we need more than that. But you understand what I'm saying? It just makes it easier for us to communicate when it's right in front of us, because it is a lot. It is overwhelming. I mean, we get, you know, the big budget, and then we get a bigger document to show us that explains what the, in the big budget, and then there's another one that comes after that. So it can be kind of overwhelming, and so hearing what the priorities are, maybe identifying it through the lens of the pillars, and just to show, like, at a glance, this is what we spent in each one of these areas. So if it's educational and youth opportunities, here's how that shows, because that's what I have, and so I'm able to look at, as a part of my one-on-one, and again, that's why I'm looking, and it's like, okay, we didn't get seven out of 27. I can live with that, especially in my first year still learning, and I also appreciate the suggestion of Council Member Floyd taking a different approach, looking at it through a different lens, and I'll be willing to support that. But again, I just want to thank the advocates who came out, those who've attended the town halls, those who've taken our survey and shared with us what your priorities are, and hopefully by the time we come back, we'll be able to show you how what you told us is actually showing up in the budget. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Green? Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Council Member Muhammad, for that question. And I would point out, and I think many citizens have the budget in brief with them, and that's, we've tried to do what you're talking about, and summarize investments in those five pillars. I am behind on that request to get the one summary sheet, and as you mentioned that to me, I went, oh. But yes, so, but, you know, because that, we do have a lot of resources in housing, and a lot of those, quite candidly, take some time to get from inception and to getting the units actually constructed. So it is confusing and complex, but we can certainly put together a summary one-pager with all the different various pots of money that we're using to address the affordable housing issue. And we will certainly put something together on that front. Awesome. Thank you. Council Member Hanowitz. Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for being with us here tonight. The budget's the most important thing we do here, and it is a very complex process. But I'm going to say that I am really proud of, actually, the administration, the work that they've done with this budget. At a time when you read that Tampa, the city of Tampa was going to raise the military the way that we're going to raise it. They're not funding programs like we are. They don't have the parks budget that they need and things that are not happening. That's why they were going to raise it. And when they don't raise it, guess what? None of those programs are going to happen. And they're going to be behind and continue to be behind and behind in Tampa. And we may not get everything because needs are infinite and funds are finite. But I think they've done a good job at trying to balance getting the needs with our capital improvements, stormwater, replacing pipes. Given the fact that we have had huge increased costs, if anybody's been following some of the projects that we have, including the Obama Library, the cost of building that library from where it started to where it is now, it's astronomical. And that's just one project. That doesn't include every stormwater pipe that we may have to replace and there's an emergency and all of a sudden we have to replace it. And you can't imagine the amount of miles of piping that we have in our city that need to be replaced. And so I just want everyone to understand, I understand all the needs that everyone sees we're trying our best here. But I think we're trying to do everything we can and hit all those issues, including affordable housing, while trying to tackle stormwater issues and capital improvement projects and making sure that our sidewalks are fixed. And, you know, it's difficult, but I have to commend the city for being where they're at. And if you saw the utility rate study and compared us to other municipalities, we are not in a bad place. And can there be improvements? Always. But I have to say that I'm glad that we're in a place that we can reduce our millage rate, given the pressures right now that we are all facing. So I'm glad that we can do that. So thank you very much. Okay, seeing no further requests to speak, we have a motion and a second to pass the recommended budget appropriations ordinance for the city of St. Petersburg fiscal year, September 30th, ending September 30th, 2024, on the first reading. And clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing as all council members have voted, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve agenda item J-1B passes 7-1 with Council Member Floyd voting no. Council members Driscoll, Fick, Sanders, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, Montaneri, and Muhammad voting yes. And finally, I will entertain a motion to approve resolution adopting the recommended budget appropriations ordinance as passed on first reading. As the tentative budget for the city of St. Petersburg year ending September 30th, 2024. Move approval. Second. And we have a motion and a second. Seeing no further requests to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting. Council members, enter your votes. Seeing all council members have voted, clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Madam Chair, motion to approve agenda item J-1C passes 7-1 with Council Member Floyd voting no. Council Member Driscoll, Fick Sanders, Gabbard, Gerdes, Hanowitz, Montaneri, and Muhammad voting yes. The final public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 millage rate and budget will be on September 28th, 2023 at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers of City Hall. Thank you all for attending this evening. And the first public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 millage rate and budget is now closed. Thank you, Liz. Thank you, Tom. Where are you going? I don't know where you're going. Almost there. I promise. I thought I was dismissed, too. As the chamber clears, clerk, I would ask you, we will do our second open forum. Are there any speakers for open forum? No? All right. Thank you. We will close open forum and go to announcements. Council members, any announcements? No announcements. If we could clear the chambers or just keep down while we finish up, please, we would appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Council members, any announcements? No? All right. Very good. Thank you for a great day, everyone. Meeting adjourned.