Tampa City Council - 07/30/26

Welcome to Tampa City Council. I am filling in for Chair Clendenin this morning. So we're going to start with an invocation, which is will be a moment of silence, and then we will turn to the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand for the moment of silence. Thank you all so much. Miranda, Maniscalco, Hurtek, Young, Vera, Carlson, we have physical form. Excellent. Can I have a motion to adopt the minutes of the regular session of July 16, 2026, and the evening session of July 23, 2026? I have a motion from Council Member Miranda and a second from Council Member Maniscalco. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, excellent. We're going to go ahead and approve, quickly go through the approval of the agenda. What I have so far today, staff is asking for item number 35 to be pulled for a separate vote. So please note that. Item number 55, there was a request for staff to remove this from the agenda. However, I believe that Council Member Vieira, you have, there's a time certain for this instead?

Yes, ma'am. So we do, we're working on getting somebody from the contractor for this. Just given the critical importance, I want to make sure we keep our eye on the ball on this issue. So I don't anticipate it taking more than five minutes. I communicated with Chief Tripp that no need for Tampa Fire Rescue to be here on this, in my opinion, but other folks, yes. So we'll, yes.

So do you have a time certain? No. No, no, no. I'm, I'm unaware at this time of any. Okay. But, but yeah, we'll get back with you on that. Great. And we have a request to continue item number 56 till August 27th. So I have a motion from Council Member Maniscalco and a second from Council Member Vieira to move this agenda item to August 27th. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I have a motion from Council Member Miranda. A second from Council Member Young. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So we are going to go. Oh, yes. Go right ahead.

Okay. Number, number, number, number 40. Okay. This is to transfer this visit to any spot. And we have, I forgot what the number is, but we have certain minimums above which it goes to the regular agenda. And this property has got to be worth more than that minimum. And so I would just ask to move it to, just because it should have been put into discussion. Yeah. So, okay. So I have a motion from Council Member Carlson, a second from Council Member Vieira to move it to the items removed from consent agenda. So item number 40. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The second one is item number four. The mayor comes before city council once a year. And I think the public likes seeing the mayor and city council together. My understanding is the mayor is in Key West or something like that. And it's going to present a video today. I would recommend that, I don't know why it was scheduled that way, but I recommend that we move this to a time when the mayor can be here in person.

You want to put your light on?

No, I'd rather we just, if it's already recorded and it's a video, we do it.

So if it's, I mean, my suggestion, because I think the public has the expectation to see city council and the mayor together at least once a year. Um, uh, if, if, if nobody else wants to do that, my suggestion is instead of sitting here watching a video that we just add that onto the end of the video and we can move on with the rest of business. And then we can all watch it later when I waste the time here in the chambers to watch a video.

Um, so I will say that we have a workshop coming up on Monday about these very issues. So we kind of need to hear what the budget is. We need, we need, we need the budget. So we can still watch it in later on. We can watch it at home or something. We don't need to watch it here.

Mr. Shelby, my understanding from a gender review. Oh, sorry. Martin Shelby, city council attorney. Good morning city council. My understanding for a gender review is this, the mayor's video is part of a full presentation that is going to follow that, um, in preparation again for Monday's workshop. And just a reminder to each council member and the member of the public, it is a special call workshop that is set for Monday. This coming the 3rd of August at 9 AM here for the first of three workshops on the FY 27 budget.

I just think last comment on, I think that the public has the expectation at least once a year, the mayor will be in the same room with council and present in person. And if, if she's sent other staff, let the staff present, but I'd rather not watch a produced video by the communication department.

Councilmember Miranda. And I appreciate what Councilmember Carlson is saying, but if we don't listen to this today, how can we get involved in the discussion on Monday?

So I think his, his comment is he doesn't want to watch the video. So if that's really what's at stake here. So does anyone have, um, opinion on the video?

Mm-hmm. I, I, I mean, I, we could watch it in person, but I mean, how long is the video? 10 minutes? I mean, we're probably going to spend 10 minutes talking about whether or not to watch the damn video.

But also could the chief of staff maybe explain why it was scheduled at a time when the mayor was on vacation? It was scheduled because she asked for it to be last week. And we decided that during a CRA meeting wasn't the appropriate time.

Good morning, John Bennett, chief of staff. Good morning, council. Chairwoman, you're correct. It was supposed to be on July 23rd. This is a regular annual thing for the mayor. And so that's why the video, and it is an introduction to the full presentation and it's not very long. And I do agree with the opportunity to blend that. And then the longer presentation from the CFO.

Okay. And if I may, Madam Chair. Yes. So, so please refresh my memory. Mayor Castro was supposed to be here in person and we changed the date, correct? Correct.

Yep.

Okay. Yeah. So that, and if I may, Mr. Shelby, wait a second. So, yeah, I mean, obviously I'd rather her be here in person, but it would appear that she was supposed to be here in person. We changed the date. There's a conflict. Let's just watch the date. She could have presented the video the week before, too.

Anyway, I'll let this go.

Okay. So we are moving on to staff reports. So if anyone, we're going to go through the staff reports very quickly. Do we have an administrative update today?

No.

Okay. So moving on to item 54. Do we need anyone here for item 54? Okay. Do we have anyone here for 50, or do we need? Yes. We are going to talk about 57 briefly.

Did we make a motion to remove 55? No. 55 is going to stay. It's going to stay? Yeah.

55 is going to stay. Excuse me. That was what Councilman Vieira was talking about. Okay.

We don't have a specific time certain for that.

And by the way, I apologize. We actually do. That was my bad, as I used to say in high school, 1030 a.m.

Oh, okay. So we do have a time certain. Yes, ma'am. So would you like to make a motion to that effect? If I may. My only concern is that we may still be in the middle of a budget presentation. So it might be as soon after 1030 as possible. Yes, ma'am. No worries. So do we need to make a motion for that, Mr. Shelby? Sure. Okay. So I have a motion from Councilman Vieira. Second. For a time certain or as soon thereafter as possible. And I have a second from Councilman Carlson. All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, great. So we're moving on to 57. Yes, we've already moved. And then can I get someone to move? Receive and file 59 and 60. Yes. Thank you. Motion to receive and file the written. Okay. I have a motion from Councilmember Maniscalco to receive and file items number 59 and 60. I have a second from Councilmember Miranda. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

Motion to approve the agenda?

So I have a motion to approve the agenda from Councilmember Maniscalco. I have a second from Councilmember Young. All those in favor? Aye. Okay. And Madam Chair? Yes.

I wanted to wish Junior a very happy birthday. It's tomorrow. He takes very good care of us. I'm going to acknowledge that. And today's my mom's birthday, so happy birthday. I love you, Mom. Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

We're happy to.

Okay. So we are getting started with our very full day, although short on the agenda. We are heavy on content today. So first we are going to present a commendation to Mr. Trent. This is by Councilmember Miranda. So it's all about birthdays this morning.

It's my pleasure to be here with a great tampeño, a great individual from the state of Florida and a great citizen of the United States, Doug Trent. And Doug has done many things in life. And I'm meeting up with him at Forest Hills. I don't know if the world knows, but this council has a singing group that sings once in a while at Forest Hills at Babes of Harris Golf Course on, what is it, the Friday, the first Friday of the month or the last Friday of the month? Which one is it? The first Friday of the month. And some of us sing good. Some of us should stay home, but the others sing pretty good. Her tack is the lead singer. She sings real good, and I'm the worst singer. But anyway, Doug Trent was born on May 13, 1927, in North Carolina. Mr. Trent proudly enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1945, serving our country with honor in World War II. After his military service, Mr. Trent married his wife, Hilda, in 1947 and 1950. They settled where? In Forest Hills, where he made a home with his wife and son David and daughter Carol, where they still reside today. That's also a first. How many people do that and still there? Mr. Trent devoted his career to public service working in the City of Tampa and Public Works Department from 1950 to 1966, or 16 years, working with the City of Tampa and Public Works. Then he transferred over to where? Hillsborough County, where he worked for an additional 23 years. And he did a fantastic job in both. As he celebrates his extraordinary milestone of 99th birthday, the Tampa City Council is honored to present you with accommodation on the 30th day of July, 2026. Doug Trent with sincere appreciation for his military service, distinguished public career, and lasting contribution to the City of Tampa. Thank you very much for everything. And it's my honor to say congratulations. And by the way, I collect little things that people throw away. And I found these glasses that says 100. So, Doug, you don't have to wear them now, but this is for your birth to come in real soon, and I know you're going to be to at least 120. I thank you very much, Mr. President.

If I may say so, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, counsel and visitors. When I first came to work here in 1950, the Public Works Department was on the fifth floor, and it wasn't air-conditioned. You had to open the windows to get a breeze through. And in the wintertime, we had gas heat, which was sometimes good and sometimes not. In fact, one time, it froze up, and we had to go home because it was so cold. And another memory, I served with Mr. Hickson and Julian Lane and Nick Nuscio and City Councilman Lee Duncan and Doug West. Marbella. Yeah. And I remember those times fondly, and this is great. The building has changed some. I haven't been in here in 60 years, and we got new paint. And the elevator, we had an operator. That was Henry. You had to pull the rope. And it was a wonderful experience, and I thank you all very much. Thank you.

Can I come up for a second? Yes. Oh, you've got to have the chair. I don't run the chair. Yes, we've already agreed. There's a quick little...

Thank you. I'm Bev Keeney. I live in Forest Hills, and we have a treasurer in Mr. Trent there. Thank you for recognizing him today. And we have a treasurer in our city council here. Thank you for coming out and doing your relaxation and team building in our area. And, Councilman Naya, I would like to present to you your beginnings of your trophy. I don't know if you can see it up there, but this is a CD of your experience. You can put it right up there.

Just turn it around.

There you go. There we are. And, of course, we start out with Alan Clendon, who was the most improved of the evening. Lynn, that was our... Councilman Hurtek, she was our winner last year. I thought she would be presenting you your trophy, Naya. But your rendition of My Girl and the little dance moves in there really brought us all together. Thank you very much. And if you wouldn't mind... Oh, you want to go down and get your trophy? I hope this will continue for years to come because this really brings us close. We have? This is the way it looks because it's the Knife and Fork Award. Oh, thank you.

Okay, excellent. Well, you don't have to go far. You have our next... Okay, our next commendation is going to be presented by Councilmember Young.

Thank you all very much. So, you know, one thing I am always very proud of is celebrating our youth in Tampa. And so I have the honor this morning of presenting accommodation to the AXO team for NAACP for Hillsborough County. I don't know if you all wanted to kind of stand while you're here. This Tampa City Council accommodation is presented to the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics for Hillsborough County. Tampa City Council is pleased to present this accommodation to the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics, AXO, for Hillsborough County. AXO is the NAACP's premier youth achievement program that provides high school students with opportunities to development and showcase their talents in STEM, business, the humanities, entrepreneurship, visual arts, and performing arts. Whereas, on behalf of the City of Tampa, it is with great honor to recognize the students who represented the Hillsborough County community during the 2026 National AXO Competition held in Chicago, Illinois, July 15th to the 19th. I would like to recognize Benjamin Sterling, Isaiah Miller, Amari Johnson, and Makai Gillette. These accomplishments reflect the students' hard work, perseverance, and commitment to excellence. It is with great pleasure that Tampa City Council present this accommodation on the 30th day of July 2026. And I would like to bring up, I believe, one of our coaches, Mr. Otis Kitchen, to recognize them. I know we have a long list of students that did some really amazing things in Chicago. And Mr. Kitchen, if you would like to recognize those students, please.

Just start with your name, please.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Otis Kitchen. I'm the proud principal of Twin Lakes Elementary School, but also I'm one of the co-chairs of AXO, along with Lynette Judge. She's our chair. Ms. Williams, she's our... Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams, she's one of our co-chairs. And I want to start out because it takes a village. It takes a village for this to happen. And I first want to recognize our wonderful president, President Lewis, for making this happen. She had the vision. She's provided the opportunities for the students. So very thankful to her. I'm thankful to Council Member Naya Young and Menescalco and all the council members. It truly takes a village. So I want to highlight the students that were a part of this wonderful experience. And I want to first start out with Sanaya Leavitt. She's Armwood High School, Hospitality Management. Kristen Leavitt, Armwood High School, Hospitality Management. Eric Rose, Jr., Armwood High School, Contemporary Vocal. Jordan Bennett, Blake High School, Dramatics. Deani McPherson, Gaither High School, Hospitality Management. Ashanti G., Hillsborough High School, Hospitality. Journey Standardless, Spoto High School, Painting. Aisha Onofekin, Tampa Bay Technical High School, Architecture. Cambria Burton, Tampa Bay Tech High School, Medicine and Health. And last but not least, Brooklyn Kirksey. She actually came from Bartow High School over in Polk County because, again, it's about community. And we welcome supporting all students. So I wanted to recognize the students. Again, I wanted to thank all the stakeholders that made this happen. the families, the coaches, the principals of the schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools, and especially our wonderful president, Ms. Yvette Lewis. Thank you.

So we have some accommodations for the students that won the national awards and also for the coaches you all have. Oh, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And definitely wanted to give a shout-out to my buddy over there, Councilman Lewis. It's my buddy right there. Amazing. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Did you guys say something?

City Council, this warms my heart to give these beautiful, beautiful kids recognition for all the hard work that they have done and poured into their talent that God has blessed them with. And I just want you to know, as well as I told them all, they're all heroes and champions in the eyes of Hillsborough County. So these beautiful kids, their talent that God has blessed them with, I am a proud, proud president to represent them. And even raising the funds, it makes it so easy when you see these beautiful smiles. And the hard work that they poured into every week, coaching, coaching, coaching, and then to go there. Some of them have never traveled outside of Hillsborough County. Some of them have never been on a plane. These are some of the things that we are pouring into to our kids. This is one of the many programs that our children have at the NAACP. We are doing great work, but we couldn't do it without the support and the love of the community and the parents that every time we call and say, hey, he or she needs to come for coaching, they come, and they come with a smile. And I am just, my heart is so warm that this recognition, thank you, Councilwoman Naya Young, and thank you, Frank Crumb and Darlene for that phone call. Truly shocked. Bless. Thank you.

Thank you all very much. Thank you for the presentation. It's up for you all.

There you go.

Can we get a picture with all of y'all? My chair, my bag. Sure. Okay. Come on up. Call and get a phone. We got a couple stories.

Oh, yeah. We'll get your time.

Make sure.

Okay, let's make sure that we get our empty faces.

Can you see all of our faces? That's scary.

Okay.

Wait, wait, wait. Oh, yeah. Oh, he missed me.

Wait, Mr. Jones.

You can't see Louis.

You all can't see Councilwoman.

Yeah, there we go.

So we need to have to talk about it. There we go.

Maya, come up.

Can you have you on the other side? Right behind me, Mr. Metascafo, Councilman Metascafo, you'll stand right there. Now, ladies, come up.

There we go. The body's faces visible. Right here, Darlene, stand by. And three, two, sit.

Now, right here. Right here.

Thank you all.

Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Excellent.

Now, Councilman Vieira.

Can I ask real fast before we show it?

Councilmember Young, is there a website that folks can go to to learn more about that program?

Ms. Lewis, is there a website that people can go to to find more about this program? Yes. Just come on up to the microphone. State your name again, just for fun.

Yvette Lewis, president of the NAACP Hillsborough County Branch and proud president of the AXO competition. So you can go to our website, and you will see all the categories. There are 33 categories that allow these kids to compete in it and show their talent. And so, like I said, Hillsborough County Schools do a lot of recruitment for us, for we to show this, and these kids, when they win, they come back with prizes, monies, scholarships, everything. What is the website? The website is maacphillsborough.org. Thank you. Thank you. And click on AXO. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Oh, and we're always looking for donations. Great.

Somebody got a clue.

And we'll wait 30 seconds, if we may.

Absolutely.

Well, you've got your folks getting in space, too. So.

Do you mind closing the doors just for, thank you, Junior. Thank you very much.

Excellent. Y'all can filter in behind Councilmember Vieira so we can get everybody. Excellent. Okay.

Thank you very much. And so it's a real pleasure to be here, guys. We're here for the 45th year anniversary mark of a terrible tragedy that happened here in our city of Tampa 45 years ago on August 4th of 1981, two Tampa firefighters gave all in a job in a tragedy that happened here at Station 1 in downtown Tampa. Frank Warner, Sr., and Isaac Royal would give all on that day. On this day, a former Tampa firefighter would walk into Tampa Fire Station 1, and these two men would tragically lose their lives. Franz Warner, Sr. was 40 years old and a father of two and a 15-year Tampa Fire Rescue veteran. He would die on the scene. Isaac Royal was only 26 years old and had been on the job with Tampa Fire Rescue for one year. He would pass on five days later at the hospital. Firefighter Richard Barrett was shot in the lower back and would survive. And, in fact, the bullet hole, I believe, is still in the garage door from this incident at Tampa Fire Station 1. We have here numerous dignitaries that we'll be hearing from, including, obviously, Chief Barbara Tripp. Thank you for being here, ma'am. We have here representatives of Local 754, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, even though he's not speaking, Hillsborough County Assistant Fire Chief Morris Lopez, who himself obviously has a family history and sacrifice for our great city of Tampa. So, for Franz Warner, Sr., we have here retired District Chief Glenn Warner, who we'll be hearing from, who is the very proud son of Franz Warner. And, on this date, he and his sister, Susan, lost their father, and Elaine, their mother, would lose their husband. Chief Warner would go on to give 26 years of service in Tampa Fire Rescue. He would retire in 2021, and he was only 10 years old when his father was taken from us. He describes his late father as a great father who was a proud Vietnam-era veteran who always had time to fish, play baseball, and hang out with his family. In 1963, he would sign up for Tampa Police Department. In 1965, he would then transition to Tampa Fire Rescue. In 1967, he was drafted to the United States Army, and he would serve during the Vietnam era. Growing up, Chief Warner would hang out with his father a lot on the job at Tampa Fire Rescue, and he would join Tampa Fire Rescue and hear a lot of stories on his late father. We're also very proud to have here the proud grandson of Franz Warner Sr., and the proud son of District Chief Glenn Warner, Mr. Tyler Warner, who is a driver engineer for Tampa Fire Rescue. Three generations of amazing service here for Tampa Fire Rescue. For the family of Mr. Isaac Royal, we have here Mr. Bobby Royal, who was only 16 years old when his older brother was murdered and taken away from us. In the hospital room, Isaac would tell his family that he was going to be okay because he was a fighter, and he would ultimately pass on five days later. We have here Isaac's sister, Dolores Royal Lovett, as well as Isaac's nephew, Mr. Gregory Sheffield, who is also here. Isaac's parents, Isaac Sr. and Maddie Royal, who were so proud of their son's name, would lose their son. Isaac is no longer with us here today, but Maddie Royal is here and is, in fact, watching on TV, and we honor her in her service and sacrifice. Bobby describes his older brother, Isaac, as the second father who taught him how to swim, ride a bike, drive, would take him to sports practice. As a young 26-year-old man, he loved his family, loved his community, and had a very bright future ahead of him. Isaac was a graduate of King High School. He would go to Hillsborough Community College. He would serve in the Army Reserve, and he would graduate from USF, something I learned today, which I never knew about, which is something remarkable. Mr. Royal's funeral would ultimately be held at St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church here downtown. These families are intertwined, and they're really a part of our history. So we wanted to hear from folks on this terrible tragedy that would have happened 45 years ago in August on what it means to us today. So if I may, as our first speaker, I will welcome a wonderful woman who has given so many years of service to our city, a tampon in our community, Chief Barbara Tripp. Come forward, ma'am.

Good morning, Council. Barbara Tripp, Fire Chief of Temp Fire Rescue. And, of course, thank you, Councilman Vera, for honoring, you know, 45 years of something that took place. You know, as being the first responder, we respond to tragedies, not expecting something like this to happen to our people. So I never got a chance to knew Chief Warner prior to this incident, but I've had the opportunity to work with his son, who's actually, if he's anything like his father, he was a great guy, you know. So I greatly appreciate the opportunity of working with Chief Warner, and, of course, as far as his retirement, and, of course, having the opportunity to work with the grandson, who I recently promoted to driver. So the legacy still lives on. So even though this tragedy took place 45 years ago, we have history here that allow us to continue in honor of his father. And as we talk about Isaac Rawls, of course, not knowing the extended of the family, knowing the family that I actually grew up with some of the members in the neighborhood, but did not know that that was their cousins, you know. So, of course, the history is still moving. So, once again, you know, thank you for sharing your brother with us for the short time and the bravery that he did, of course, to try to help out the other firefighters. So, once again, we would never, as long as I'm here, we would never let this legacy, you know, die out. So we'll do everything we can to continue with the tradition and let the family know that you're still part of the Tampa Fire Rescue. No matter what, whether you're a firefighter or not a firefighter, you know, Tampa Fire Rescue is here for you. So, with that, thank you.

Thank you, Chief. We appreciate it.

Good morning, Tampa City Council members of the public. Nick Stocko, President IFF, Local 754. I really want to thank Councilman Vieira for bringing this accommodation or this recognition forward and members of council for allowing us to do it here on the third floor. This is very meaningful when it is able to be presented here on the third floor in front of the council and in front of members of the public. You know, the IFF, the Local 754, has been around for many years. And there's various parts of its history that I'm still learning. But one of the parts that we don't ever forget and that we continuously learn is those that pay the ultimate sacrifice, especially on the line of duty. On that day 45 years ago, the two members of the fire department, when they left their homes, they did not plan on this event occurring. While we may want to plan and train for those emergencies that may occur, such as structural fires of medical emergencies, they were brutally murdered at the line of duty. That's something that we never forget. Every time that we go to the memorial in Tallahassee, we look at their names, both Brother Isaac and Brother Franz Warner. I try my best to send a text to the Warner family whenever I do see their name, because we do pay our services and our forwards to them when we see them. To Isaac Royals, as well as the Warners at the Gold Shield Foundation, they display their picture on the board every year, so that we don't forget those that pay the ultimate sacrifice. Those that continue to pay the sacrifice are the families. And not knowing the extent of the family of the Reynolds family, we appreciate you being here. And to the extent of the Warner family that continues on through the legacy of Tyler and Chief Warner, they're here to continue on that name that those members were able to provide for the fire department. So on behalf of IFF Local 754, we want to thank City Council, as well as the Reynolds Isaac family and the Warner family, and that we'll never forget the names of those that fell. Thank you.

Thank you. And so now we'd like to hear from the families. Whoever wants to go first, please. Chief Warner, you want to go?

Good morning, Council. Thank you for taking time for this today. Special thanks to Councilman Vieira for contacting me and spearheading this event. After 45 years, it's very humbling, and we're very grateful for the remembrance. You know, I stand here in kind of a unique position. A city that took so much from me and my family provided me an opportunity, and I had the honor and privilege of doing nearly 27 years with Tampa Fire Rescue. I was able to achieve the same rank and walk out the door healthy. So that's a blessing. Based off of that unique experience that I'm a victim or a survivor, my family's made sacrifice, but I'm also one of them. I would like to thank Council and the leadership for all of the support that you've given public service over the years. It means more than you all would ever know. And with that being said and this event being so much longer, I would just say that it's incumbent upon the leadership of the city, the leadership of the fire department, the leadership of the union, to collaborate and work collectively, as you generally do all of the time, to make sure that the new generation that comes on understands the sacrifices that came before them so that we don't lose sight of the goal and everybody's remembered and we don't make mistakes that we've made in the past. So with that, I thank you all very much. Thank you.

Hello. Good morning. I never really, my name is Tyler Warner, driver engineer for Tampa Fire Rescue. Obviously, I never got to meet my grandfather, but with that being said, I'm appreciative of the legacy that he did create. Like my father said, I appreciate everybody in the fire department as well. Always making it a point to not forget. My goal is to just continue to make them proud and polish the legacy that has been created.

Thank you.

First of all, I just wanted to thank you guys again, City of Tampa, Councilman Vieira. I'm not going to say it's been an easy road, but it's kind of easy now because every time I see Chief Tripp, I see family each and every time. I mean, she lets it be known every time she sees us that, you know, we're more than just people or a person that used to work for the city of Tampa. We're, we're with her every time she, she comes through that door and I appreciate that with her, um, Councilman Vieira, when you, you contacted me and we were talking, um, you showed an enthusiasm that I hadn't seen, you know, in a while. And I appreciate that about you. And of course, you know, my brother in arms back here, you know, we, we continuously text each other and talk and, um, it's been a journey, but the journey has been, been eased by a lot of people, Melvin Stone, Chief Ford, they, they never forget, um, Captain Bill Wade. Um, the list goes on and on, but once again, like I said, I just wanted to thank you guys for having us here and we appreciate everything the city of Tampa has done for us.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, just, just again, and we have some plaques we'll be presenting outside to the families, but just did this just to remember this, this is a Bob Martinez was our mayor and we, we never forget. So just, uh, so thank you, council. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, uh, I believe that is Mr. O'Hara. Are you presenting the.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay. Well, I believe it is your turn. I think we have, might be having some folks coming in perhaps, but.

Ready? Good morning, city council, Dennis O'Hara, chief financial officer. Thank you for having us here today to brief you on the fiscal year 27 mayor's recommended budget. Uh, you know, as we, as discussed, we'll begin with a video by the mayor and then I'll come in after that and dive into more detail with my presentation.

Okay.

Can we have the video up?

Good morning, members of city council, city staff, and everyone joining us today from old city hall and from home.

All right. We're running. You know, every budget tells a story.

This one is about ensuring our city and our momentum are built to last. It reflects our residents' priorities, the challenges we face, and the opportunities we choose to pursue. Today's proposed budget continues the work we've been doing together since 20 years, building a safer, stronger, and more resilient Tampa while preparing responsibly for the future. Before looking ahead, it's worth reflecting on how far we've come. Since 2019, the city of Tampa has made historic investments in the foundations of our community. We've rebuilt roads, expanded sidewalks, made our streets safer, and continued making meaningful steps in advancing transit options. We've modernized our water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, and completed major upgrades to our waste-to-energy plant. We've invested in parks and recreation, strengthened neighborhood services, expanded youth programming, enhanced homelessness initiatives like Tampa Hope, and continued improving public safety. I'm excited to announce that since setting a goal of planting 30,000 trees by 2030, we've already planted more than 18,000 trees in neighborhoods, parks, and public facilities all across our city. Tampa's added 23,000 homes with more than 8,300 affordable units completed or underway. We've invested over $100 million in affordable housing, maximizing every available federal dollar and fighting for every unit. Projects like the Marquee, Rome Yard, West River, and North Downtown, which will have more than 2,300 workforce and affordable homes, provide workers with affordable housing options closer to their jobs. Down payment assistance, housing rehabilitation, and renovation programs are helping residents remain in the homes they already have. Because housing stability isn't only about building new units, it's about helping people stay in the neighborhoods their families call home. These investments have helped make Tampa one of America's most desirable places to live, work, and raise a family. And none of this happened by accident. It happened because this council made responsible decisions. Our employees delivered exceptional work every day, and we remain committed to investing in both today's needs and tomorrow's opportunities. That discipline, innovation, and productivity have put Tampa on the strong financial footing that made this progress possible. Tampa isn't just growing, it's thriving. Our city continues to enjoy outstanding credit ratings, reflecting years of responsible budgeting, disciplined financial management, and long-term planning. Those ratings reduce borrowing costs, saving taxpayers millions while allowing us to invest more in critical infrastructure. We balanced our budgets, maintained healthy reserves, met our long-term obligations, and kept our debt burden relatively low compared with many peer cities. Tampa's population has grown by more than 70,000 people since 2007. Yet we have fewer employees today than we did two decades ago, and fewer than comparable cities across Tampa Bay and Florida. Those aren't simply accounting achievements. They demonstrate that Tampa has managed growth responsibly while preserving the flexibility to respond to changing economic conditions. Strong finances aren't the goal themselves. They're what allow us to deliver excellent public services while protecting taxpayers. And although Tampa's economy remains strong, the cost of providing public services has changed dramatically since 2019. Our city's grappling with inflation, just like families and businesses throughout our community. An infrastructure project that cost $10 million to build in 2016 can cost more than $31 million today. The cost of asphalt has risen 50% since 2017. Concrete, as much as 70%. And stormwater pipes, 90%. At the same time, Tampa Bay has experienced one of the strongest periods of household income growth in our history. According to the American Community Survey, median household income in the city of Tampa increased 56% from 2019 to 2024, more than it did in the previous two decades combined. Simply put, everything costs more. And maintaining the same level of service is considerably more expensive than it was seven years ago. For much of the last decade, Tampa experienced record-setting growth. More than 23,000 new housing units and tremendous job creation. Today, the market has shifted from exceptionally hot to more normal. Not declining, but stabilizing. As we prepare this budget, we're also facing significant economic uncertainty driven by inflation, and in particular, Amendment 3, which would fundamentally change how cities across Florida fund local government. If approved by 60% of voters, we estimate a revenue reduction of $35 to $40 million in the 2028 budget and $60 to $65 million the following year. Property taxes fund our police officers, firefighters, and paramedics, but don't even cover the full cost of those services. Amendment 3 would create a significant funding shortfall. Protecting public safety will always remain our highest priority. And I want to be clear, this amendment does not protect public safety. It threatens it. Without another long-term funding solution, the city would face difficult decisions regarding staffing and service levels, including public safety. The impact would extend well beyond emergency response. Street resurfacing, stormwater improvements, affordable house, parks, trees, litter removal, youth programming, homelessness initiatives like Tampa Hope, and investments that keep neighborhoods clean, safe, and vibrant all rely substantially on the same funding source. Good financial management isn't about waiting for uncertainty to become a crisis. It's about preparing before it does. Developing a city budget begins more than 15 months before it comes to city council. While our fiscal year 2027 budget isn't directly affected by Amendment 3, it includes prudent steps to prepare for the possibility that it passes. For several years, we've invested general fund revenues in resurfacing neighborhood streets, building affordable housing, upgrading parks, and renovating fire stations. Because of the uncertainty created by the proposed amendment, this budget shifts those funds into reserves to provide a better financial buffer should it pass. It also places a hold on creating new positions. We want to continue moving forward with the important projects and quality of life investments our residents are asking for every day. But until voters decide the future of this amendment, we cannot responsibly commit those additional resources. The good news is that this decision can be revisited after November's election. If voters reject the amendment, we can put those important neighborhood project services back in the budget. Our theme is built to last because that's exactly what this budget is designed to do. Strengthen Tampa's foundation and ensure our city remains one of America's most exciting and livable places for generations to come. This budget continues investing in the services residents rely on every day while preserving the financial strength that has positioned Tampa for long-term success. It reflects careful stewardship of taxpayer dollars, continued investment in infrastructure and public safety, and responsible preparation for an uncertain fiscal environment. Tampa has overcome significant challenges before by planning ahead, making disciplined decisions, and staying focused on the people we serve. This budget follows that same approach. I want to thank the members of City Council, our department directors, and finance team, and every city employee for their dedication to serving our residents and helping make Tampa one of the best cities in America. I look forward to working with Council over the coming weeks as we review this proposed budget together and continue building a stronger Tampa for generations to come. And now I'd like to introduce our Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Rojero, who will provide a detailed overview of the proposed budget.

Thank you, Council. Dennis Rojero, once again, Chief Financial Officer. If I can have my presentation. I'm sure you all can see it from your... Yes. You got it up? We are good to go. Thank you. All right. We'll begin. You see the agenda. Again, Referendum Amendment 3, the referendum in November. It's the elephant in the room. We might as well talk about it, so we're going to dive pretty deep into that. Then we'll roll into the fiscal year, 2027, recommended operating capital budget, as we always do. Go into detail on the capital improvement program. Again, that's the five-year plan for our capital projects. Closely linked. We'll give you insight into our existing and future debt program, and then discuss some of the nuances, that have now been added to adopting the millage rate. All right. Amendment 3. So what's it do? Well, as you heard the mayor say, the bottom line up front, it reduces the money we're going to get and what we can do with that money. It's going to restrict us not only monetarily, but in the flexibility that the mayor and city council have to use the funding. You see right here, first, it triples the existing homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in fiscal year 2028. The very next year, for fiscal year 2029, it quintuples that same exemption to a quarter of a million dollars, $250,000. That's a five-fold increase. Just to give you an example, you know, our current taxation is about $19 billion for homesteaded properties in the city. In fiscal year 2029, this will eliminate almost half of that. Almost half of our homesteaded properties will now be off the tax roll if this comes to pass. Obviously, that's a significant adverse impact to our future revenue. What else does it do? Well, it further restricts our use, as I said, of that property tax funding to what you see here. Basically, public safety, police fire, roads, bridges, stormwater, natural resources, flood control, retirement benefits. But, as you heard the mayor say, what this doesn't mean is that it protects these services by any means. It simply says that the property taxes we get can only be spent on these services. And, as you know, and we'll show in just a moment, even our current property tax revenues are insufficient to fund just our police and fire services. We will be put in a very difficult position, and we're part of a big club. Many, many localities in the state will be put in a very difficult position. Will we cut budgets? Will we cut positions? Will we cut services? I don't know. Time will tell. These will be future mayor and future city council decisions because there will be fiscal year 28 impacts. What it also doesn't mean, however, and I want to point this out, it also doesn't mean these services are going to be able to keep pace with inflation, right? Costs are going up. I don't need to tell anybody that. These services won't be able to keep pace with performance pay increases, you know, for outstanding functions of the job.

They won't be able to keep pace with retirement benefits. We'll have to spend property tax funding on retirement benefits, but retirement benefits historically go up. The cost of those things go up. This will not guarantee that those keep pace. What does it leave out? Well, it turns out it leaves out quite a bit. Parks and recreation, for one, as you heard the mayor say, about $74 million next year. Community-related services, again, as the mayor stated. And I'm glad on my way to mention the behind-the-scenes services that make the 49th largest city in America and a $2 billion budget run as well as it does. My shop, for instance, purchasing human resources, technology and innovation, contract administration. We have billions and billions and billions of assets to look after, and this does not fund facilities management. So how will these be funded in the future if Amendment 3 passes? Well, in a perfect world, our other general fund revenue sources would pick up the weight. I think that's highly unlikely that our other revenue sources are going to be able to pick up this. State-shared revenue, charges for services, local option sales tax, et cetera. So we'll have to come up with other revenue sources. Other localities have more than one millage, for example. We have municipal service taxing units, municipal service benefit units, assessments for services. Efficiencies can always be looked for, but in my opinion, this is a tight organization. And I can almost guarantee you that no efficiencies are going to make up for this revenue, sure. So what will you do, or what will future administrations and city councils do? We will likely cut services. This is the final part of it. It simply provides funding for county officers and commissioners. I believe the initial draft left these out. But again, full disclosure, the county officers and commissioners are covered. This is a good segue into what our property taxes do and don't cover. We see this every year because every year it doesn't change. Again, property taxes don't even cover our entirety of public safety services. And those are on the left. You see that about three-quarters of that $430 million are covered by property taxes after we give our component, the $62-plus million, to the community redevelopment agencies. So right off the bat, if no changes happen on Amendment 3, we're $100 million short, just funding police and fire. And as we add the next largest department, near and dear to our hearts, parks and recreation, where we just dig ourselves further into the hole, about $170 million short. What's that look like on a year-to-year basis? The mayor mentioned the first couple of years. Well, for a five-year period, and that coincides nicely with the capital improvement plan, we lose anywhere from $300 million to $320 million. Those are our estimates. As an example, to give you a sense of scale, that more than wipes out all of the general fund capital improvement projects we had planned. And you'll recall over half of that was just fire, Tampa Fire Rescue. That's gone. So as the mayor introed, this is the world we prepared this budget in, sustaining operations, and we've done that, but with an eye toward pausing, reflecting, and, if necessary, adapting to a much more hostile world from a local government revenue perspective, preparing for uncertainty. That's what we're doing. So in summary, we won't be able to do a great deal of what we planned on doing, whether it's capital improvement projects or operating expenses, service levels of the community. It's sobering, and I'm sure we'll talk much more about it in the days and weeks to come. Having said that, we'll move into the recommended fiscal year 2027 budget. And here it is. The net fiscal year 2027 budget for all funds is just over $2 billion, about 2% more than the current year. Increases primarily due to higher compensation and benefits, including health care costs, software licensing. Again, an increase in what we are going to be compelled to give to the CRAs, the community redevelopment areas, and, of course, inflation. You see here our breakout of the major funds, as we do every year, and the two largest components, as always, are the enterprise funds and the general fund. About three-quarters of our entire budget, and we'll get into those in more detail as we do. Then your special revenue funds, excuse me, those are construction services, housing, your trust and agency funds. Those are your CRAs and streetcar, for example. Our internal service funds, that's fleet maintenance and insurance. Our debt service funds, what we set aside every year to pay our debt obligations, and the capital project funds. Those are transfers into special funds so we can execute our CIP projects. Diving deeper into the general fund and the enterprise fund. On the left, you've got the general fund, as we stated. You've got public safety at over 60%. That's police, fire, and we include code enforcement in that particular slice. Then central government. Those are the functions I talked about before, the support agencies that you typically don't see on the front line, but they keep the wheels of government moving. I'll repeat them again. Why not? Technology and innovation, revenue and finance, human resources, neighborhood and community affairs, contract administration. Our parks and recreation department, again, a little over 74 million next year. Public works, or excuse me, that's facilities and contract administration in the public works. Public works, and economic, pardon me, development. On the right, at a little over $866 million, those are our enterprise agencies. Again, those are the departments that run like a business. They're enterprising. They've got to turn what in the private sector would be a profit and reinvest those profits into their own operations. And every dollar we get for those services, we can only spend on those services. They run like a business. We've got water, wastewater, solid waste. Those are the big ones. Parking, parking is doing very well, and it is being run like a business. Continuing with the general fund, here is our general fund balance history and future estimates. As the mayor stated, this plays a very, very large part in how we're preparing for Amendment 3 and the rough future that may lie ahead and its impact. First, once again, and as always, we have a very, very good history. You know, a picture tells a thousand words, and you see it right here. So I want to thank council. I want to thank the mayor for continuing to make this a very, very high priority. It's a cornerstone of our conservative financial management philosophy. You know that. And it's paying off. It continues to pay off. On the far right, you see, in case Amendment 3 passes in November, we are buttressing our fund balance to a level of 25 percent or about $190 million. You see, that's far more than our recent history of 23 percent. And taking out the federal aid associated with the COVID pandemic, it's far more than our 23 to 24 percent. That's how we are amassing the funding to deal with some very, very tough decisions that we may have to make. I think it goes without saying that if Amendment 3 passes, we are highly unlikely to maintain this consistency in our unassigned fund balance. We'll talk about debt and our credit ratings a little bit later, but significantly impacting in a very negative way. Our largest and most stable revenue source is also not likely to be viewed very well by the credit rating agencies. And again, we're in a big club. Almost every locality in the state is and are going to have to deal with these issues. As we do every year, we break out the general fund further, and you see this slide here, with the major changes associated with the revenues. First and foremost, of course, property taxes. They're going up a little under $17 million. And we'll take it. I've seen it not go up. But I do want to point out it's about half of what the increase was last year and significantly less than the increases of just a few years ago. This represents a 4% increase in taxable value. Last year, it was over 7%. So you've got this continuing downward trend of increases. And a downward trend of increases, I get it. It sounds odd. But again, these revenues have to keep pace with an upward trend of expenses associated largely with inflation. Sales tax down over $4 million reflects a moderate economic slowdown in some important sales tax categories. Just need to pick up the paper to see a slowdown in various sectors of the economy throughout the United States. Nice bright spot. Getting back on a nice 3% increase for our franchise fees and utility taxes associated with growth. So we'll take that. Oh, miscellaneous revenues going down, we're expecting a little less FEMA funding than our initial estimates. Again, these are from the storms of two years ago. The FEMA wheel turns, and we're happy it turns, but it doesn't always turn fast. Pilot and Pilaf, those are payments in lieu of taxes and payments in lieu of franchise fees. What we do is we charge those departments who run like a business as if they were a business, or taxes and their use of our rights of way, the franchise fees. Those are going up, almost $3 million, so we'll take that. And we've got a settlement associated with the Hobbs case bringing up the bottom at $2.5 million. So you see, I'll go back. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. And just to reiterate, about $22.4 million revenue increases, and this is what I wanted to contrast it with, the $11 million at the bottom of major increases. Okay, so you see a good deal more revenue than what we're appropriating in the budget for expenditures. And, again, that's by design. And we'll detail those major increases right here. Salary and benefit increases at nearly $25 million. As we've said before, we continue to be in a very competitive environment for talent. So recruiting, retaining, and rewarding our employees remains very, very important. CRA contributions, we've mentioned. Decreases in operating costs. In the past, we've showed you increases in operating costs and what those increases are funding. Not this year. Not this year. A decrease in the TECO streetcar subsidy. A nice little increase in the Hart Route 1, but that's being funded by the parking department. Bottom line, what you've got is a very limited but a continuation of services budget. We're going to hold the line, see what happens in Amendment 3. You see we are actually reducing our positions slightly overall. Two down, one up in the water, one down in construction services, and two down in parking. For the first time in two decades, our total position count now exceeds the high watermark prior to the great financial crisis. It has taken us 20 years to get the number of positions we had in 20, I'm sorry, in fiscal year 2007. Expanding on our position history, you see here our increases since fiscal year 2019, overwhelmingly in the public safety, utilities, and transportation areas. And continuing with the position theme, if you will, you see our ratio of employees to population continues to decline and remains the lowest in our comparison group of the cities at the bottom. We're the dark blue. And continuing with the comparison theme, the mayor's recommended millage remains the same, and you see that it's also less than our comparative groups of cities. Jumping to the capital improvement now. Quite a change from the current year capital improvement program on the general fund part, and we'll get into detail on that. But starting from a 50,000-foot view, you see the fiscal year 27, about 46, I'm sorry, I've got to put my glasses on, 346.7 million dollars. And over that five-year period, over 1.1 billion dollars. Overwhelmingly, you see in the wastewater and water department as we continue the pipes program. And here are the major projects in fiscal year 2027 that are getting additional appropriations. Again, pipes, and you see the list here. Very successful program. We anticipate it's going to continue to be successful. But to be successful, we are going to have to continue issuing debt. Parks and recreation, technology and innovation, very, very lean, okay? Again, as we put general funding into our fund balance, awaiting Amendment 3. Mobility, you see, bless you, funding sources there for fiscal year 2027. And jumping into the debt program, because they are so closely aligned, and many of our projects and our plans require financing in the future. I won't belabor this too much. It was very kind of the mayor to mention our credit rating increases. And as always, I want to thank council also. Again, you have made it a very, very high priority. We appreciate that. And I think the proof is in the pudding. You see that here. I will state, as I always do, that these are very, very important from a financial, a conservative financial management philosophy and a solid financial sustainability perspective. Every single year, as I've said before, we are monitored and questioned about these ratings. I've said it before. They don't just call it a review. They call it surveillance. And all three credit rating agencies, they take this very, very seriously, as they should. Because these ratings are a big part of decisions either retail investors make or industrial investors make when borrowing money and funding, or I'm sorry, giving us money and funding our projects. They want to make sure we are on a very strong and solid financial foundation. And this proves that we are. I do want to highlight the issuer credit rating at the top. Again, as we've said before, and for the public's benefit, this is our equivalent of our FICO score. You know, your personal FICO score, it's good to great. This is absolutely outstanding. AAA for Fitch and Standard & Poor's on the right are the highest you can get. Moody's is the second highest. We'll keep working on that. It will be quite a headwind if Amendment 3 passes, but, again, our individual ratings are also very, very good. I'll highlight the water and sewer bonds. The best you can get across the board with all three credit rating agencies. Absolutely fantastic. I think we're only one of three in Florida, maybe one of seven nationwide. That's very, very thin air. Again, we always want city council entering into the debt discussion with eyes wide open. These are our potential future debt issuance plans. We'll start with non-ad valorem debt. This is debt that is pledged from the general fund but not property taxes. That's why it's called non-ad valorem. So we've pledged general fund. We have no obligation to raise property taxes to pay it, but we have pledged the general fund. It is substantially less than our previous plan, again, because of what may happen with Amendment 3, a little under $80 million, with some federal grant funding in there. You're going to see throughout the timing to be determined based on project schedules and or spend-down requirements. We always want to avoid borrowing money sooner than we need to because we don't want to pay interest on money that's not working for us. Water and wastewater debt, as I mentioned before, the continuation of the PIPES program, almost $785 million. I believe council has been briefed on that third bullet point under water and wastewater, the extraterritorial rate adjustment. Speaking of headwinds, that's going to be a headwind. Quite simply, that was a 25 percent charge to non-municipality customers. That's going away. We're going to have to deal with that. Solid waste debt, as we've discussed before, you know, Solid Waste Department and the Waste to Energy Facility have undergone a significant amount of work. Again, very successful, but we are going to roll up our existing short-term debt instruments into one large bond in 2028. And you see that there, about $250-odd million. Zeroing in on our non-advalor manual debt service, you can see that after fiscal year 2029, we have a substantial amount of debt that comes off the books. That's great news. We get over that hump, and we've got a lot of savings. A lot. That's a technical term. A great deal of savings in our debt service and the opportunity to fund other things if future mayors and future city councils plan on it. And that's part of the plan if Amendment 3 does not pass. So that's a nice picture going from about $30-odd million to $13 million. And diving into a little more detail on that program, it is lean, as I said. We are confining the plan to only those projects that we have entered into a contract with. And you see them right there. Fire Station 24. The Police Department Howard Avenue Annex. The Fleet Maintenance Decentralization. Vita House Renovation. And the West River Walk. We have gone, again, to reiterate, from a plan that was about a quarter of a billion dollars, $250-plus million dollars, to less than $82 million. I do want to explain a change in adopting the millage rate. And, again, council may already be aware of it. But, again, full disclosure, they've amended the number of council members that are going to have to vote for the budget. You know, in the past, a simple majority was enough to keep our millage the same. That is no longer the case. A simple majority, you see here, simply can vote for the rollback rate. Anything from the rollback rate up to 110 percent requires a supermajority. Five votes. Our millage of 6.2076. Something said it? Something like that. Our millage is going to fall, as you see at the bottom there, about 2.3 percent higher than the rollback. So we will require five votes to continue the millage at the same level. And a reduction in that millage, of course, would have associated reductions in the recommended budget. This is the budget calendar going forward. Three workshops. The 3rd of August, the 10th of August, and the 17th of August. And our two public hearings, September 8th and September 22nd. And I will point out for those listening, the workshops on August 3rd and August 10th are morning workshops. The Police, Fire, Parks, Convention Center, and Special Events workshop on August 17th is in the evening. It begins at 5.01. This is where everyone on the planet with an Internet connection can find our budget. And finally, I do want to take just a moment to say thank you. Thank you, Council. I appreciate your interest and energy up to this point and what I'm sure will be continued interest and energy going forward. I also want to thank the mayor, of course, chief of staff, all of our departments, this fantastic communication, fantastic knowledge of their operations and what it's going to take to keep those operations going. My entire revenue and finance staff, whether it's budget, accounting, grants, et cetera, doing a fantastic job, and they make me look good. Thank you, Mike Perry, and your leadership. Absolutely vital to the organization. Appreciate the Citizens Advisory Committee and what will continue to be the discussions going forward, I'm absolutely sure. Last on the list, but first in our hearts, Ms. Kropesky, we appreciate all of your energy and input. We really do. Thank you. What a great addition. And I'll just thank Council again for what's to come. We've got some headwinds, as I've said, but we can do hard things, and we've done them before.

Thank you so much for that sobering presentation. I believe that's probably the right word there today.

So we'll just have a couple of questions, and then we'll save others for later.

But Council Member Miranda is up first. Mr. O'Hara, thank you so very much.

I never drank in my life, but I feel like taking a drink right now.

And, you know, it's funny when you look at government and you say, let me tell somebody else what to do, but that's not good enough for me. I'm not saying the public. I'm talking about the governments. And this government and the whole governments in the state of Florida are under the same meter that we have, that we've received this, that the public is going to vote. And whichever way they vote, I appreciate them coming out and voting how they feel. However, when you look at governments, those that have supreme power over other governments, how come they didn't cut their own tax? Have you ever thought of that? Their own sales tax. They make billions and zillions of that. But they're all right. They're immune from that. Their cost never went up, I guess. I guess where they live at, milk didn't cost any more. Buying a car for a fire engine or buying equipment for the departments of public works never cost any more for them. Everything was cheaper, I guess, up there than it is here. Maybe we ought to buy from them and get a discount on our things that we have to buy. It's really ridiculous when you look around and you start looking. It's really an international war when you spend a million dollars a day in a jail that never worked on the, between, and I'm not going to mention anything, between Naples and Miami. And it really is funny when you give 50 million or something that you want done in the city of Tampa without even knowing what the hell you're doing. It's really simple when you give away 560 million to the same people and you say you want us to swallow that and to swallow this. And I'm not against this. I'm not for it. The public votes on it and I go which way the public feels. That's the way it should be. That's what this country is based on. But in reviewing these things, to me it's really something that you have to look and say, how come if you wanted that everybody else is doing so well? And let me, let me go back to what you said earlier about your bonding issues. If we lose our bonding in some of these areas, which we probably will because the assets and the revenues to pay for them is a little less. If you lose anything like the water department has only 5 water departments in the United States of America have a triple A, 3A bond rating. Only 5. And of all the bonding areas that are bonded out, there's only one city that does just a little wee better than the city of Tampa. That's Minneapolis, Minnesota. They're number one.

And you can check everything I say.

And Tampa, that we live in, proud of, is number two in the whole country. So what I'm saying is, and we're going to be criticized by someone, higher in office than we are, and punished, I guess. And I say that not because of the general public here, but the individuals who are doing this, without knowing what the ramifications really are. So it's going to be a test in history, I think. And the voter turnout, I hope there's a big turnout for that. And I hope there's a big turnout for that. And I hope they include the CIT tax money in that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. Yes, Council Member Maniscalco.

I just want to say thank you and to your team for all your hard work. Thank you, sir. And as always, your honesty and transparency. That's it. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

I'm Council Member Carlson.

Yeah, I'm looking for the page, but you said that projects went up. Yes, sir.

It is page 2-9, I'm sorry.

Did you list what the projects were that were taken?

No, I have not in this presentation, but we can provide that.

Are there any of them that you could just rat off on the top of your head?

Under the general heading of fire assets, fire station, fire station, fire station. Again, the initial plan, over half of that $250-odd million was fire station assets, fleet or fire fleet supply.

So then what happens, you know, we've been working really hard over the last eight years to replenish and increase the general fund reserve, which is one of the main reasons why the ratings have gone.

Yes.

If what happens the day after the election, if that amendment does not go through, would the excess go into a general fund to be like a rainy day fund, or would the administration come back right away and say, okay, we've got this list of projects we want to?

The latter. We will come back to City Council with the apportionment that we're setting aside in fund balance and with whatever our fund balance this year-end will be.

Is it possible, and we can make a motion on this later, but is it possible just to have you all, maybe your department, mayor's office, with the mayor's approval, send a mo to us to say if this is what, I think it would be helpful as folks in the community are asking us questions. So we can say, yeah, if you don't, we've held these projects back, but if you vote no, then we can make their decision. Would you like to make a motion to that effect? Yeah.

Oh, we can, just the memo?

Yeah, like, so a motion, I'd like to make a motion to ask the CFO's office with permission of administration to send a memo to City Council.

With the list of set-asides?

Yeah, with the list of projects that would be funded if the amendment fails.

So I have a motion and a second, however, I would like to make a friendly amendment that includes just all the departments, what every department set-aside would be, not just projects. I don't know, I'm sorry, if that's okay with the motion maker.

Might I make a suggestion? There's going to be a couple of things that will be in play. First, of course, if the referendum doesn't pass, we'll have what's in the unassigned fund balance. And by the time the referendum does or does not pass, we'll be closing the books for the current year, so there will be an amount carried forward. You know, again, I recall the process this year. We came to City Council, I think it was in January, with the itemization of not only what was available above the 23%, okay, the 23%, that is always our goal, and then the mayor's recommendations for those particular allocations. You know, things like we will continue to be obligated for as we go into next year.

I don't think that's his question, but...

Oh, I'm sorry, am I going off on a tangent? I appreciate that transparency, but you don't have objection to the motion, right? I do not.

Okay, did we get a second or not? Yes, Councilman Vieira. So this was just a motion, and do you have a date with which you'd like that to be in our inbox? What do you agree with that?

I think we can do it in a couple weeks. I guess, if I may, I don't know that we'll have enough detail to identify Department A, this is what they'll get. Department B, this is what... No, we're not asking what they'll get.

We're asking what's been withheld.

I apologize. I misunderstood.

Yes. We're asking for what's been withheld from each department.

Understood.

And is it possible just to put it as, so the motion is to, as CFO's office with the permission of the administration to, I would ask for maybe a written report, maybe to the August 27th agenda, just so the public can see it also. We can do that. To include a list of the projects across the departments, capital projects and across the departments that have been withheld to funded if tax amendment fails.

Copy.

Could I make a friendly amendment that we do have three workshops coming up, and maybe could you just bring those with each workshop?

Can I commit to trying?

One of them's on Monday.

Yes.

Oh. Well, that's the enterprise fund. Okay, those, yeah, we have, yes, yes. Which probably won't happen. Probably be inapplicable to the enterprise fund. Correct. So why don't we say that it will be 7th of August, but if you have information earlier, you can send it out.

But the only reason to put it on the 27th is so the public can read it if they missed it for some staff time. Okay. So I have a motion from Council Member Carlson, a second from Council Member Veer. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Can I ask one more question? Mr. Veer, you talked about the 23% just now. As I recall, your projection, even with the cutbacks, is now 25%. Yes. Is that because you're recommending, we talked about last year that agencies originally wanted us to keep a percent because the percent extra would be the rainy day fund because the bond ratings expect 23%, or is that in there for negotiating with Council?

No, exactly as you described, the rainy day apportionment, above the 23%, waiting and see what happens with the amendment.

Yeah, I think keeping 25%, especially as the –

Agreed. Thank you, sir.

Okay. Thank you. Councilman Veera?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for that presentation, Mr. Rojero. And, you know, we'd all be remiss if we didn't say this is the last budget presentation with the administration. So just for sentimental reasons, I guess, if you will. But, you know, and I'm glad that you're talking about the repercussions, obviously, of this proposed taxed amendment, which I'll just be frank. How anybody could vote for it and think it's the right thing to do is beyond me. You have our United States Senator Rick Scott, who supports it but has said he's worried about the effects on it on police and fire. You have folks like our governor saying, okay, we support it, but it's not quite what we wanted and pretty much saying that it was kind of rushed. I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth, but clearly it was rushed. We have our police and fire unions coming out and opposing it all over the state of Florida for the reasons you just talked about, which is this cut is going to be devastating to police and fire services here in the city of Tampa and here throughout our state of Florida, especially for those smaller counties, for a lot of rural counties, and it's going to be terrible. And as former state Senator Jeff Brandis says, a Republican, it's not as much a tax cut as it is a tax shift because you're going to see a higher sales tax. You're going to see other fees generated, other things that can be generated to collect that revenue. So it's going to be a short-term cut to public safety, and then local governments are probably going to get higher sales taxes and different things like that, which are very regressive and hit working families a lot harder than I suggest than property taxes. I've always taken amended-donated approach, which is to double the exemption over three to five years, which I think is warranted. I have no problem with that. And correct me if I'm wrong. Please correct me if I'm wrong. When it comes to this, doesn't it give the legislature the right, if it passes, to be able to essentially get rid of property taxes after that? Correct? It goes up to the...

I do not know that. I know it has been discussed. I don't know that this particular legislation has that.

Okay, thank you. But, yeah, no, to me it's a terrible, ideologically indulgent idea that has been questioned by or condemned by a lot of folks on the Republican side because you're entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts. And the facts on this on public safety are that it's going to be devastating. So, yeah. But thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes. Chief Bennett.

Madam Chair, thank you. I just wanted to support Councilman Vieira's comments real quick. But in 40 years of public safety service and law enforcement, the one thing that seems to be elusive a little bit, besides police and fire on the front lines, is our Parks and Rec program. Those are the preventative models that help. You saw what happens when police and fire engage with Parks and Rec in the community, and it's a big prevention model. So the factors that aggregate in this are just exponential. So I just didn't want to leave them out either because that is really where it all begins in our prevention model. Thank you. Yes.

Thank you so much. Councilwoman Young. Well, kind of to echo some of the other council members. One, thank you. Great presentation. I remember when it first started, Mr. O'Hara, you sat down with me and we met and went through, you know, everything, city budget. So I appreciate that, especially preparing for this time. Thank you. I think also, while it may have been a little bit somber, it's the truth. And I think it's important for us, you know, to be really transparent with the public about what this could potentially mean. And thank you, Chief Bennett, for bringing up Parks and Rec, because, as you know, I'm a huge advocate for anything Parks and Rec, you know, the opportunity that it provides for our youth. And so what could happen if we don't have the funds so that we can continue to fund our Parks and Rec, I think, is really important. And so bringing it to the public and really understanding what this could mean for us, you know, what it can mean for us, you know, on this day as we're making decisions. So just thank you. It was a great presentation.

Thank you, ma'am. Very kind. Sad, but it's the truth. Yes.

So thank you.

Thank you so much. So I just have a couple of quick questions. I noticed under your major projects with the CIT renewal, the only Park and Rec one you mentioned was the Yellow Jackets improvements. And we do have a couple of other Park improvements. But my question really is, are you looking then at reducing the planned CIT projects?

We are not. Okay. One of the reasons the Yellow Jackets is on there is because we have a contract. Oh, okay. And, again, you know, as we've discussed, and I'm sure we'll discuss even more, the community investment tax renewal is tied up with the baseball and development discussions.

That has, so it's basically leading to my other question, which is, do you have a set vision for what will be taken out of the CIT budget to fund the potential baseball stadium?

Not a set vision at this time. We have a number of scenarios, and if I can recap, the latest discussions mirror the non-binding MOU, $80 million over the first four years of the community investment tax. In the first year, fiscal year 27, it's only a partial year. So, for example, we anticipate getting about $35 million. In the next year, a full year, maybe $40 million to $43 million. Well, obviously, that's not going to be enough for our plan and $20 million, $20 million, $20 million, $20 million, $20 million. In a nutshell, the commitment is accelerated from a 15-year time period to a four-year time period. And so now I'll segue into your question. That will require deferring some projects in the initial plan or financing the capacity over that 15 years somehow, whether it's a line of credit, you know, an interdepartmental loan. Because while we've got almost $800 million of capacity, it all doesn't come in at once, right? And it's subdivided with transportation, subdivided with public safety facilities, and, of course, subdivided with public facilities associated with sports teams. That particular amount is $165 million. So, I guess that's a long-winded way of saying we're entertaining a number of scenarios, how to accommodate that request.

But, by and large, we would simply have to cut some of these CIT projects for this fiscal year.

Yes. In the short term, we'd have to. So, I'm just going to read just a few things.

Jackson Heights security upgrades, playground resurfacing, Gadsden Park improvement, Burrell Park renovation, Yellow Jackets improvement, this MacDill Air Force access improvement, public safety communications, public safety vehicle replacement, and TPD headquarters upgrades. So, that is what is on the list for the possibly to be chopped by $10 million.

Or deferred. Or deferred.

Well, either way, deferring is moving for at least four years. So, okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate the answer. Yes.

Thank you again. John Bennett, Chief of Staff. I just wanted to augment when the word ballpark came up. From day one in May, when I was in here, we talked about do no harm and be a good neighbor to our other venues. That's obviously strengthened under this discussion to a point that we really are still in just discussions and feasibility analysis. I wouldn't even call it negotiations at this point. So, we're very, very guarded in what we're doing based on everything that the CFO has explained already. And there's still a lot of work to be done. But when it comes to this CIT and what it needs to do to help support whatever our changes are in our overall system of tax dollars is high on our list. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Chief. Again, thank you for your presentation. We really appreciate it. You're very welcome. Thank you. It's a great way to start out our Thursday, sobering or not. We are ready to – and we look forward to seeing you on Monday. Again, we have our list of different workshops. The first one will be this Monday at 9 a.m., focusing on our enterprise funds. The next Monday will also be at 9 a.m., and that's going to be focusing on stormwater and mobility. And then the last one will be Monday evening, the 17th, focused on general fund. So, that will be capital for both and operating. So, again, thank you so much. Look forward. You know, public, mark your calendars. Thank you, ma'am. You are also welcome to show up. We will have public comment. So, thank you so much. Okay. We will give a moment, because I know a couple of folks need to leave. Thank you so much for our staff for being here. And now we are heading straight to public comment. So, yes.

We had that 10.30. Do you want to do that before or after a public comment?

So, Mr. Shelby.

You're not going to ask for any action to be taken? I don't believe so, no. Okay. I just don't know if the contractor is waiting. I don't know.

Can you find out if the contractor is waiting? Yes, ma'am. And that would be great. And we'll start public comment, and then we'll be able to go.

Before you leave, you know that when we delay, the public always complaining. Yeah, yeah, that would be wonderful. Not make the public. I'll get my phone.

That would be great. Thank you so much. So, we are going to go ahead and start with our in-person folks today, because they have been waiting for so long. So, our first public commenters today, again, that are on agenda topics are Reva Inman, then Abby Ahern, and Michelle Mastra-Totaro.

Good morning. Good morning. Nice to see you all again. I am Reva Inman, and I am here to speak on the project of the Army and Navy development, which I'm in favor of. I had the opportunity to sit on a committee once, some years back, of some prominent developers that was going to do a project, and I did my very good research on every last one of those companies that was thinking about building. Company choice right now, who was also doing rovers, is something not just about building with this company. It's more about building with love with this company. You take a 445 unit and make it triple, and to come and say, the RSP is 800 units, to make it 1,150 units, is awesome. Workforce development. Here we got police officers, firefighters, teachers, underpaid, most of them can't afford homes. So, this is an opportunity for those individuals to have a prime area right down on Tampa Street where they can go to work and come to somewhere nice, comfortable, that will fit their budgets. Because the budgets they are under right now, it's hard for everyone, even myself as an individual. The homes now coming up now, y'all throwing them everywhere, especially in East Tampa, $500,000, $600,000, $400,000. Really, what do you consider the average person can pay for these? So, these apartments would be great for the average person. Workforce, I have to stress it because, like I say, police officers, firefighters, teachers today, for peanut salary, which needs to be increased for the work that they're doing in our community. Yet, these apartments would be a great opportunity for them within their salary budget and everything else. And, with this company, I found that I've not seen one level of company that has chose to triple or double the units for affordable housing in the city of Tampa. Not one. It's a win-win situation for everyone. So, I wish you all to take their consideration for the individuals that I'm speaking about and approve this. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next is Abby Ahern. No, I'm sorry. We don't need clapping here. Sorry. We can't do that. Michelle Mastra-Totaro and then Stephanie Poynter.

Good morning. I've seen you all so many times, and I still get the butterflies, so bear with me. I am Abby Ahern with Doering Ahern. My office building is located at 1110 North Florida. It's the corner of Franklin and Fortune. We're directly adjacent to this site, so I've been watching it very closely over the years. We also started a neighborhood association for commercial property owners 20 years ago that focused on this part of downtown, so it's definitely been near and dear to my heart. As a small business owner and working in commercial real estate for 21 years or so, I'm here to support item number 40, the redevelopment of an Army-Navy site. I've had the opportunity to hear directly from the development team and become familiar with the project. I believe this is the right project for the site and will bring much-needed housing to downtown, just what we've all been asking for for the last several years. So thank you for pushing this agenda item. I have confidence in both the team and their ability to deliver. I believe this project will be a positive addition for downtown, and I respectfully encourage you to support it. I will say, unaffiliated to PMG, I was able to attend the voting process and sit in on those meetings. I scored them. I watched what the other judges scored them, and PMG did the best and were the most qualified out of the four groups. And I'm happy to answer any questions or whatever you need. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Michelle Mastra-Tataro, followed by Stephanie Poynter, followed by Valerie Bullock.

Good morning. My name is Michelle Mastra-Tataro. How's everyone? I came on agenda 14 and 15 about grants. I really need help in regards to Tappan Track Park. It's becoming deplorable. I've been begging for a solution. I'm just going to start off with this, if they can see that. I don't know if anybody can see the date on that. So that's my home. And if you see the circle, that's my house. There's only three. We were part of the railroad, if you guys know anything about Port Tampa. So it's very historical. The road is historical, too. So when the overdevelopment happened, it took a real toll on the area. As you see, that was Tappan Track Park before apartments. That was before everything started happening. So this is my system. I work on a gravity. I can't get the water out. The water does not. So this is my house. The water has to go across Tappan Track Park and along the trenches. I begged George Cox to help clean this. George Cox told me, yes, yes, yes. When I called Tallahassee, Tallahassee tells me he's not even put an application in to even help address the situation. So where are we standing with Tappan Track Park? It's getting neglected. And we're over here. This is his design on South Cheryl Street. It goes straight right out. Ours has to literally go across the park, which is ruining it, and along the trenches out to an outflow to out here. So that used to be, and I'm going to show you what it looks like now. So our water can't, it stays. So we have these huge mosquitoes. It looks disgusting. But George Cox's area, it's empty. If you can see how it's all empty. So half of the road, Lancaster, that way, McCoy, all empty. Our system, filled. We can't get our water out. The water just stays stagnant. So we're at the point of sinkholes. I have a sinkhole right in front of my house. Our water just stays. This is a sinkhole right here. It was an eight-foot sinkhole. My house, it's going down. It's dipping. I have to get water out there again to refill the. Tappan Track Park, if you see, look at this. We need, can we get a grant? Can we make something happen for Tappan Track Park? It used to be beautiful. Look, look at that. That was yesterday. That park was beautiful and green. It never, never, it's, from all the erosion, from the hurricanes, the water got altered. Now it's coming right in front of my house. And I'm getting these whole pockets of puddles. And being, if you think about my home, it's over a hundred and something years old. We need help. Can we? Thank you so much. Thank you.

Stephanie Poynter, followed by Valerie Bullock, followed by Tara Bluma.

Good morning. Long time no see. I didn't realize last time I was here was my birthday. So let's start with, I don't have a problem with the Army-Navy development. But I do have a problem with it not coming to council if they need to push it back. Because it should come to council every single time. And Rome Yard is the perfect example. This is 2025. They hadn't even started. It was approved the same time as Hannah Street. And yet it sat dormant for years. Council needs to be reviewing that, not staff. Here's another picture and another picture and another picture. Very impressed with the mayor giving you guys kudos during her speech for making prudent decisions with money. I appreciate that a lot. I want to talk for just a minute about the elephant who's trampling over, or trying damn hard to trample over the city of Tampa and the decision makers. This is where the money should be going that they want you to put in their pockets. They want us, as citizens of the city of Tampa, to delay sidewalks, bridge repairs, traffic signal replacement, intersection safety, police vehicles, fire vehicles, parks maintenance, and additional stormwater work. This is where the money should go that the Tampa Bay Rays think that they need. These are all essential services. So, I mean, I haven't been here to complain about them. And I told Mr. Babby this a month ago, two months ago, April, whenever. And I told him then, what are we supposed to do without in order to give you what you want? And I just don't see it. So, in the budget presentation, since I have time, 8,300 units of affordable housing, where are they? What percentage AMI? Where is the list? I don't want to hear 8,300 and we just sprinkle it wherever we want. I want to see where they're built, what AMI they are, how many, how long, are they all done? I mean, Rome Yard and Stock Don. Is that included in the number or not? Also, 23,000 homes since 2019. Guess what? 7,800 of them are south of Gandy, west of Dale Mabry. That's almost a third of what this city has taken in. They've put in South Tampa with the knowing full good and well we're in the coastal high hazard. We took on more flooding than any place else in the city during the hurricanes. The AMI increase, oh, oh, oh, oh, wait, I saw that, 24.5 million in increases in salary. That's almost $5,000 a person. That's almost $5,000 per person in the city of Tampa. That's a lot of money. I'm sure some of them are more and less, but that's only, that's about half of what the mayor wanted when the millage increase was proposed. Just saying. That's my map. Thank you so much. Valerie Bullock, followed by Tara Bluma, and then Kenneth Stewart.

Hi, Valerie Bullock.

I'm going to hit on the budget first.

I heard the man up here talking, and one thing that's not going to change, his pay is not going to change.

No matter if the budget, if the taxes get approved or not approved, his budget will not change. And we have so much frivolous spending in the city of Tampa. For example, when a police officer can retire one day and get his pension and come back next week for a job that pays $200,000, we really shouldn't be worried about money if we're going to throw it away like that.

Whether the tax, the homestead exemption pass or not, if the city of Tampa tighten up on their budget, we still would be able to have essential positions filled,

and we still would be able to have the parks, open the roads, fix storm water, and all of that. I hate when somebody comes trying to push fear on me. It reminds me of a scam with the scare type. It's, oh, this is going to happen. That's going to happen. The police, nothing is going to happen to the police department. They get 60% of the budget.

So nothing is going to happen to them. Now let me talk about what I come down here to talk about. Number 11, number 3, that's Ms. Hazel's house, 2208 East 26th Avenue, and the back story is she was in the rehab, and the city of Tampa quickly pushed, allegedly, pushed the paperwork through so that her house could be demolished. And right now it's tied up before it goes into litigation, and I really don't think she should be paying this demolished fee, the fee for demolishing the house, because during when they demolished the house, someone was in the process of making the house livable again. So I definitely don't think she needs to be paying for that. And I also want to talk about 37 and 38. Hey, I'm not a lawyer, but 37 and 38 for the infield lots, I was told that it's a lottery. They pull your name and you get an infield lot. Well, right here, Florida Mortgage Hold and LLC, they sure winning the lottery a lot. This looked like four properties they got. And the infield houses was designed to be affordable, and you sell them to the people. Well, now they are in the rent business, and it shouldn't be like that.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next is Tara Bluma, followed by Kenneth Stewart and Keith Gremminger.

Good morning. I'm Tara Bluma. I'm here to talk about the Tremendous Tree Program. Last month, you all had a contract in front of you to approve the purchase of the trees for the next 12 months. You got hung up on where should we plant the trees, should we ban type 3 trees, should we limit the amount. The contract ultimately did not get approved, has not been approved yet. So they still need trees. What my suggestion is is that you approve the contract for the same price, but you only purchase type 1 and type 2 trees. This made some council members anxious because they didn't want to ban type 3 trees forever. I want to reiterate that this is a 12-month contract. Doing so would only make type 3 trees not available through one of many programs that the city has for 12 months. There is a wait list for this project, a very long wait list. First, start at the top and go down all the people who want type 1 and type 2 trees, and you will use all of the money and have planted all of the trees. And then next year, you can reevaluate the percentages. Because I hope that you saw the report that was submitted this week. Since its inception, 73% of the trees that have been planted through the Tremendous Tree Program have been type 3 trees. You all are okay with some type 3 trees. So am I. They're good. 73% though, the arguments that they made are that there's overhead power lines or underground utilities or not enough space. However, I have been coming before you for almost one year trying to get 10 live oaks planted at West Shore Elementary School. It is a Title I school. There is no overhead power lines. There are no underground utilities. There is plenty of space, yet there are no trees. So I have little sympathy for the argument that we cannot find places to plant trees. They do need the money. So please approve the contract. And just say only type 1 and type 2 for this year.

Thank you. Thank you so very much. Next, Kenneth Stewart, followed by Keith Gremminger. And then we are going to our off-agenda items with Kalia Ross.

Hello, my name is Kenneth Stewart. I'm the owner of Integrated Security Consultants here in Tampa. We do local ultra-security work. I'm also the pastor of Hope Church on Tampa Street near downtown. I'm here to speak on item number 40, which is the Army-Navy redevelopment. And two reasons I'm very passionate about this. Number one, they say you only get one chance to make a first impression. And coming to downtown Tampa, I love the redevelopment we've done in downtown Tampa. I'm tired of saying Tampa is the next great city. We just need to be the great city, not just the future. But the Army-Navy site is one of the few sites. Your first time coming to Tampa is still a blight downtown. And the team that's behind this, I think, will improve that so people coming to downtown will have a better experience coming to Tampa. From a personal point of view, from my company, the business is 2008. And Ducon Construction, who's one of the lead contractors on this project, has been a partner from day one. And it wasn't for Ducon, to be quite frank. I don't know if we'd still be in business. And secondly, PMG, we're partnering with them on other projects. I've seen that same commitment to local business and community. What it means to me personally, in 2023, we were looking for an 8,000-square-foot building to purchase. I told my realtor one rule. It had to be in a disadvantaged part of town. We didn't look at any buildings outside of where we feel disadvantaged. We bought a building on 40th Street, 8406 North 40th, close to Bush Boulevard. I have employees that walk and bike to work. We did that very intentionally. We're very involved in the community. We're going to Charlotte Elementary this Sunday. We're giving away about 150 pairs of tennis shoes for the kids there, a very disadvantaged school. So a project like this allows me to invest back in the community. So I'm passionate about it, number one, because Ducon has proven to me they're a great partner to the community. They give small businesses like me when I first started in 2008, one of our first major jobs at Love First Christian Church, no one else would have given us that chance. And over the years, they've brought us in on multifamily housing. They've brought us in on other projects. We went to City of Tampa projects that another contractor would not have done. I've seen the same thing with PMG. Even on projects that would expand or stretch our bonding and credit capabilities, they're committed to helping small businesses be a part of winning in the community. So I'm here to propose to you, first of all, I think looking at the proposal, that there would be a positive for all the community to have the gateway to our city when a first-time visitor comes to have a new development with housing, retail development. It would just make our city look better. And secondly, I'm asking you, I am not the only small business, minority business, who would benefit from this project. We'd appreciate your approval.

Thank you so very much. Keith Grimminger, followed by Kalia Ross and Dominique Cobb.

Good morning, Council. Keith Grimminger, Grimminger Urban Design, 711 South Fielding Avenue here in Tampa. I'm here to speak on item 40, the Army-Navy site. I have a role with the team for urban design, master planning, community development, placemaking. It's an important, critical project, especially as we coordinate with the Connecting Communities grant that was granted for the Ashley Street Boulevard and bringing that ramp down to grade at Harrison Street and then reconnecting Royal and Fortune and Laurel. Amazing project that has the opportunity to be a catalyst for the North End Vision Framework Plan that the Downtown Partnership has put together, working together with the city. This is a huge step forward to the North End redevelopment. And as the gentleman mentioned earlier, it is the visual entrance into the city. And what PMG and their team can bring to the table, I believe, is going to be catalytic for getting that North End started all the way through the North End over to Encore and actually bringing development like Gasworks and that connectivity over to the Riverwalk. So that east-west connection is going to be a major aspect of the North End initiated by this project, development of the public realm, great public streets, access to activity of retail on the ground floor. So I urge you to support that project's redevelopment. Thank you.

Thank you so very much. Kalila Ross. Kalia, sorry. Kalia Ross. Okay. Dominique Cobb, followed by Azika Harper and Connie Burton.

Greetings, Council. Today, my name is Dominique Cobb. I am the project manager for the Tampa Junior Civic Association, and I am the facilitator for the flowers program. Since its inception, we have had the privilege of working with many different partners. In the last seven months since we have been in East Tampa, we have had the pleasure to work with the Hillsborough County School District, USF Anthropology, USF Health, also USF CROC College Reach Out Program. The reason why we're here today is in my culture, we say that water has no enemies. Water is essential for life. A few of the things that we have heard since we have been patiently waiting is water is intricate in every part of our lives. FLOWER stands for Future Leaders of Water, Engineering, Research, and Science. Over the summer months and also our second cohort, we have had the pleasure of working with different companies that reside not only in Tampa but throughout the county and in Florida. And one of the big things that we have talked about is not only generational learning, but also career pathways. We have had the pleasure of working with the county. We have had the pleasure of working with black and marine science, BIMS. This is the study of water. We know that everyday water is essential when we use the water to brush our teeth. City workers, making sure that we have clean water, drinking water, waste water. We have had the pleasure since March 28th, we had Career Day. This was located in East Tampa at Robert Cole Pine. This is the first of its many programs. We had the pleasure of working with City of Tampa Parks and Rec, Councilwoman Naya Young, and other important, intricate parts in the city of Tampa. I want to briefly show you some of the projects that we have. Hopefully, we don't run out of time. But some of the projects that we've worked on, we know that in our culture, sometimes reading isn't always the best thing. We learn hands-on. So through arts, through music, through, again, cultural events, we provide opportunities for our students. So next, we are going to have Hezekiah Harper speak briefly. Yes, well, he'll get his own three minutes. He has a whole, yeah. So since I have a few more seconds, Maya, do you want to tell a bit about your project? No, no. And you can say your name.

My name is Kalia Ross, and I will be showing you a project that I did about the coral reef. And this is a rock coral. Rock coral is like a big coral, but like it's not, it's also, it's another coral that's called brain coral. But they're kind of similar, but it's that brain coral has lines, and it looks like a brain. And rock coral is like a little bit spiky, and it's like rock shape.

Thank you so much. That is wonderful. I appreciate it. I think we can applaud for that. So Hezekiah, so if all you need to do is start with your name, and you can share yours as well.

Hi, my name is Hezekiah Harper, and as one of the students of the Flowers, we've learned about water and how water can help us do many things, and like how different pipes at the water facility means like purple is the polluted water, blue is the good drinking water. And I want to recognize Ms. Cobb and Mr. Daniel, who isn't here today, and Mr. Moore, for helping us with the Flowers program.

Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you all so much for sharing.

Okay, and just to conclude, Flowers was birthed out of community partnerships. Over the last seven months, we have had over 1,200 engagements, whether it ranges from media to our in-person. We have had over 11 collaborations from school, higher education, and I want to thank the community because this started as just a conversation. It started as a conversation. I'm sorry. It started over a conversation of water. Why is it that our community has to fight for clean water? So my response is start with the youth. With career paths, you don't understand how you can inspire someone. And remember, all of these seats, they change, but one thing about it is the community stays the same when people leave and when they're go. So when you make these budgets, I want you to not only think about salaries, I don't want you to think about buildings. I want you to think about bodies and how it's important for us to leave legacies afterwards. Thank you for the time, and I hope you all connect with Flowers. Have a good day.

Thank you very much. Connie Burton, followed by Chagrette Doss.

Thanks. Good morning, Connie Burton. Listening to that budget, it sounded almost like being at a morgue. You know, we headed to a disaster, to a funeral. And one thing that drew me to it is that there's not enough voter engagement that's going on. Because some people don't even know what is really happening because they don't see after they're voting what is the benefit to their community or to their personal lives. All you got to do is look at your own past election and see how many people actually participate. And so if you're needing the people, the community to participate, then we need to say on the back end, no, on the front end this time, that if you get out and participate to vote, then maybe these are the things that could happen or should happen for your community. If not, then we should just buckle up and get ready. I'm very concerned about, you know, item 3738. If we have to start off our presentation talking about firefighters and other professionals being needing of affordable housing, then what happens to real working class people? People that's working in the factory. People, that woman that work at Burger King that would like to see an uplift for her and her family, but she can't get to the 80% AMI because she don't qualify. All of this stuff that you're building downtown, it's pretty. But when I come through here just to drive through, you know what this city is beginning to look like to me? A resegregation based on those who can afford to live here. People that can afford to live downtown is not normal working class people. It's almost being sanitized by those who can push their strollers, walk their dogs, and have the great comfort of living, walking together, living, walking, working, however those little phrases go. You got to get creative. Here with the new 21st Century Housing Act, get in front of it. Come up with some creative ideas. How different housing solutions can benefit inside of these infield lots that is being given away to these nonprofits. And you know what the nonprofits are beginning to look like? Century 21. You know why? Because then they come back with a price tag and we're thinking that, damn, that's in our community. But you know what? We can't touch it because we can't afford it. This might be some of you all last rodeo, hopefully, whatever your political ambitions are. I hope it don't be because you saw beautiful, shiny buildings and that's what made Tampa great. Instead of how it improved the quality of life, let's start from the bottom reaching up. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Chagrette Doss. And that will be our last public in-person comment.

Good morning. I'm Chagrette Doss. I have to use my notes today. I typically don't have to do that, but I hope this is my final request from the listening audience to talk about child support. And I'm going to blend my story in with it. But I had a question as to what's the purpose of elected government officials beyond what the Constitution, rules, and laws articulate. And I ask because nothing is done to kind of halt the systemic abuses of guys, except because of the child support system, especially in the state of Florida. And what you see on the screen is also what you all can see. You go to the last page, you're going to see an order. This is an order vacating void judgments and all derivative orders from a child support order that I fought for 27 years. An improper order, by the way. And nothing became true on July 23rd that wasn't true for the 27 years that this thing was saddled on my back. But that's what happens when there's no government accountability. I know far too many men who have lost their licenses, their jobs, access to their children because of improper order. And most of them will never see an order like this because they may lack the overall resources or what have you that I may have had at my disposal. And these guys talk to me and some of them would love to come down here. They just don't have the time. What I would like to see is that everybody demand an order to the Department of Revenue and the child support system because these injustices have been going on for a long time. I know people think it's about guys obfuscating some sort of responsibility. It's not about that. We just want you to follow the rules. You know, another thing that a lot of guys don't have, and this might be a little surprising to people, they don't have a story of a Friday night down in Sarasota. We were playing Riverview when they were really good and they were really working our asses that night. And I was going to actually quit. I'd already joined the Army, so I was going to quit playing football that night. And when I was sitting on the sideline talking to a couple of my buddies and said, man, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to go in the Army anyway. The winningest black football coach in Hillsborough County history, Darlene Nelson, was my head coach. But I was standing next to him and Coach Hubb reached around him and said, Doss, get in the game. Something I hadn't been doing, and I do it now. I stay in the game. And he put me in the game and I made plays. I actually won the Bay Area Sporting Good Player of the Week that night. And I stayed in this game for 27 years. And I know most guys just can't do it. But if I had an order that was void, not simply just set aside, a void order for 27 years, how many other people have suffered injustices at the hands of the Department of Revenue because the people over there refuse to do what they are supposed to do as the law is written? They don't have what I have and what I stand on now and forever, a diploma from the greatest institution of higher learning in the city of Tampa, the University of Thomas Jefferson High School.

Thank you so very much. We're going to go to our online folks, and then I have a couple people who actually are filling out some cards. Michael Randolph, are you still there?

Today's conversation.

Great. Can you start with your name, please?

Okay. Thank you. My name is Michael Randolph, and I'm with the West Tampa CDC. Today's topic is, What does Senate Bill 1134 mean for Black businesses and nonprofits in his local county? Senate Bill 1134 dramatically restructures how Tampa certified and contracts with minority-owned businesses and community organizations. While it appears to modernize procurement and practice, it dissembles system Black-owned firms and nonprofits have relied on for decades. This is not a technical update. It's a structural shift. The bill eliminates race-conscious contracting preference and formal MBE firms into neutral SBE systems where well-resourced companies can now compete for the same set-aside to protection designed to address historical Black inequalities or faster evasion. Senate Bill 1134 also adds new reporting requirements and compliant audits that disproportionately burdens smaller organizations. Many Black businesses and CDCs are losing contracts, not because of performance, but because of the paperwork that's overwhelming. When combined with Live Live Act, which redirect affordable housing funds towards market-rate developers through statewide zoning presumption, the impact is awesome. Black CDCs and nonprofits that once rely on both contracting and access to community grants for housing face the loss of two essential partners at the same time. The result is a streaking economic landscape for the very organization that anchors Henswell County's most vulnerable community. In addition to that, the Rome Yard Project is proceeding accordingly. For those that's looking on the outside end, we're moving forward with one of the most important projects for the West Hampton community. Now, if you want to resolve this issue related to Senate Bill, 1134, vote, vote, vote. Thank you very much, and I appreciate you.

Thank you so much. We have Ernest Dubois, followed by Ernest Coney. Please start with your name. You have three minutes.

Thank you. My name is Ernest Dubois, Ernie, also known as Ernie Dubois. I am the humble servant CEO of both Dukon and Dukon Plumbing, Tampa, Ybor City-based businesses, corporate-based businesses. Mr. Stewart kind of messed up my opening. It was very humbling. I actually brought tears to my eyes in the back to hear a person, a grown man, and someone that I respect say that I'm the reason for their business being not only in business but thriving. That is very humbling. If you haven't started something and grown it from scratch and helped so many people, it is humbling to hear that. Not the first time I heard it, but didn't ask him to speak today, but he chose to spoke and say those words in favor of our project. First off, I come here, City of Tampa residents, they deserve an opportunity to have a quality improvement and development on the Army-Navy site, Roll Street site. 800 affordable units. I won't go into all the details of the RFP of our submission and awarding proposal. You all have that. But I will call out the highlight of 800 affordable units. Why is that important? We need to keep our talent here in Tampa, in Hillsborough County. I'm currently working with the University of South Florida on several initiatives to try to keep high school graduates here and then college graduates here. One of the best ways to do it is provide affordable housing. It also assists in transportation challenges. To allow people to afford to live in the city corridor obviously alleviates a lot of the transportation challenges that we have. The second reason I'm here is to speak for small and local businesses. We have, in our commitment, more than 16 SLBE, per the City of Tampa EBO SLBE. We shifted. We went to the current plan. We got rid of all the other stuff that we used to do. And we met the challenge of SL, small and local business enterprises, in our proposal to the tune of more than 16. I say more than 16 because 16 is the only ones that we've committed. We've since then, since we won the project, have signed up even more SLBEs to be on this project. Speaking of the dollars, that's over $90 million committed in writing to the City of Tampa by LOIs that we will complete, we will execute. It's not a bait and switch or any of that stuff. And so that's a commitment to small businesses. We can stimulate our own economy here based on this project in the City of Tampa. So is that time? You've got 30 seconds. All right. So let me try to be swift. I don't do this often. So we give back. Also, that's not just for us to grow, but those businesses give back. This project affects the families of those businesses also. And then third and lastly, I'm here selfishly. As selected as the prime general contractor for PMG on this project, it is an opportunity that I cannot, I don't know anybody in the country that can really understand what that means. Not only that, we're also a development equity partner on this deal. That is unheard of on a half a billion dollar deal for a small local business enterprise based right here in Tampa to be an equity partner.

Thank you so much. So I'll close.

Thank you.

Yes. Our last speaker, Ernest Coney Jr.

Good morning. Ernest Coney Jr. with the CDC of Tampa. I just want to speak on the Army-Navy project. Buona is a longtime resident of Tampa. I remember going to the site and buying stuff and all this stuff. But really to know what it can mean for the community now. When I think about the need, there was a recent article which talked about Tampa having the highest number of high-priced homes outpacing Miami, which means that there is a precedent happening.

And projects like this are greatly needed that bring affordable housing.

I also sit on the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. We understand the need. I've also sat on the Affordable Housing Committee to help shape the Transforming Tampa's Tomorrow that came out with that 10,000-unit goal.

This project will help the city of Tampa to achieve its goals. The second part is around the partnerships. You have the Housing Authority.

You have PMG. You have Ducon. Each one of these groups is strong on their own. But coming together collectively is even more impressive. And the last thing I'll talk about are the benefits. I know personally when PMG was selected to do Robles, they went out into the community. They talked to partners. They had a lot of conversations. And we all know that that also had a lot of challenges with the graveyard being there.

They stuck with the project they didn't run. They made sure that the public was really represented. And when you think about Ernie DuBose being a GC, I've also sat on the city's Small Business Advisory Committee. One of our greatest issues, we had no local primes. Born here, raised here. And I don't want to talk about anything else because you understand what I'm saying. But he's a small business that was born here and raised here. This is unprecedented. And we also work with them on the workforce side, both the Housing Authority, PMG, and Ducon. So they do the right thing, the workforce side of it. He mentioned the small business. The reason why I talk about the workforce side is not everyone has a small business. But oftentimes we have residents who need jobs. This will provide opportunities for residents to get jobs. We had these young folks come up and talk about STEM. This opportunity will provide summer internships. We partnered with USF. We have a vocational school. So collectively, this group is the right group. The time is now. The need is now to having this project completed and all of us celebrating at the end. Thank you.

Thank you so much. That concludes public comment for today. Now we have, I'm sorry. Yes.

Just based on public comment, I would recommend that we pull items 11, 37, and 38 just so staff can explain. For separate votes? Yeah, just, and maybe give staff, because the concerns raised, maybe give staff a chance to explain.

Okay. So I have item 11 pulled for discussion. And what other items? 37 and 38. 37 and 38 are part of our infill lot. Those, sure. There was just a question about how the company was chosen.

It would give the staff a chance to respond.

Sure. Not a problem. So I have a motion to add both 11, 37, and 38 to items moved from consent agenda. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. May I say one more thing?

I think there are a bunch of people in the audience who are interested in affordable housing. If you Google Tampa CRA housing, we also sit as a CRA. There's millions of dollars stuck in various CRA buckets where the CRA staff and city staff have been unable to find developers to invest in. And so if you all are really passionate about, anybody here who's really passionate about housing, please look at our CRA website and try to help us find projects and give them to the CRA staff so we can move those monies forward and invest in the community. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. So we have our city clerk here to Ms. Shirley Fox-Knowles to talk about our board and administration appointments this morning. And if I may be named after this, may we do that? Okay. Thank you.

Good morning. Good morning. Honorable Chair Pro Tem Lynn Hertek and council members. I'm before you, Shirley Fox-Knowles, city clerk, I am before you to present Monica Olesnick, a candidate for the public policy member position on the ARC. Hi.

Okay. Thank you so much. If you could just start with your name, you'll have three minutes.

Yes, ma'am. So good morning, everyone. My name is Dr. Monica Olesnick, and I am a very proud resident of Seminole Heights. Thank you for the opportunity to be considered for the Architectural Review Commission, specifically the public policy seat. Tampa is my first home, although my early career and my early life have taken me across the country. This city has always been where my heart is. A few years ago, I made the decision to return to this place to care for my parents in their final years. And that experience only strengthened my commitment to serving the community that has given me so much. I have dedicated my career to public service, higher education, nonprofit leadership, and community development. Today, I serve as the coordinator of leadership and competency development and adjunct faculty at the University of Tampa, where I help prepare students to become engaged citizens, future leaders, and hopefully take on seats that you're all sitting in right now. Previously, I have led nonprofit organizations, worked in higher education administration, and partnered with local governments, businesses, and community organizations to strengthen neighborhoods, expand opportunity, and create meaningful community impact. As a first-generation college graduate who earned both my bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of South Florida, I have always believed that leadership is about service. And throughout my career, I have brought a myriad of people together, built consensus, and made thoughtful, evidence-based decisions that balance today's needs with tomorrow's opportunities. What has drawn me to this opportunity and has drawn me to public service throughout my career is my deep love for the city of Tampa. I want to help ensure that our city continues to grow, but also grow thoughtfully, that we preserve the unique character of our neighborhoods while embracing opportunities that strengthen our future. Tampa's rich history, diverse cultures, and distinctive architecture are part of what makes this city so special. And I believe those decisions and qualities should continue to guide the decisions we make today. I am particularly interested in serving in the public policy seat because I enjoy evaluating issues from multiple perspectives, asking thoughtful questions, and helping develop broader solutions that serve the broader community. My doctoral dissertation focused on public policy analysis. And my experience in strategic planning, governance, research, and stakeholder engagement has prepared me to make and to contribute in a collaborative, fair, and forward-thinking way. I believe the decisions we make today will shape the Tampa that future generations will inherit. I want to help ensure that our city continues to grow, continues to thrive, and continues to represent all that is good and beautiful about our community. Our people, our neighborhoods, our culture, and the architectural character that makes Tampa so special. So in closing, I want to sincerely thank each of you for your service to our city, for the time and care you've taken to these appointments. It would be an honor and a true privilege to serve the residents of Tampa on the Architectural Review Commission. Thank you for your consideration, and I hope I have the opportunity to contribute to a future that honors Tampa's past while thoughtfully shaping what comes next. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Yes, I have Council Member Maniscalco.

Move to appoint the applicant for Mr. Shelby to come back with the resolution. Okay. I have a motion from – well, let's do one at a time.

So I have a motion from Council Member Maniscalco to approve – yes, the petitioner. I'm sorry. Monica. It's okay. Monica Lesnick. Thank you, Max. Monica Lesnick. And I have a second from Council Member Vieira. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And then so we have a resolution. So I have a motion to move the resolution for Monica from Council Member Maniscalco and a second from Council Member Vieira. All those in favor? Aye. Congratulations, and we are very excited to have you and your passion and your experience serving on this very important board from one Seminole Heights resident to another. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much.

Yeah. Appreciate it, Paul.

Okay. And then we have yet one more resolution to approve for Mr. Jerry Hosey for the historic preservation.

Yes, this ratifies what has been previously done. We voted on this two weeks ago.

Aye. Aye. Okay.

So I have a motion from Council Member – I'm sorry, I didn't – was that – yeah, Council Member Maniscalco, a second from Council Member Vieira to move the resolution for item number six. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you so much. Do we have a request by any member of the public for reconsideration of a legislative matter? Thank you. Okay. It does not seem like we do so. So we are moving on to – yes.

Yes, ma'am. Can we I proceed to decide? Yes. Go right ahead. Do we have this gentleman here with a contractor ready to speak? It appears so.

Okay. Wonderful. So this is item number 55, I believe?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Okay, sir. um are you appearing virtually or or just uh okay there he is good to see you sir how are you doing please unmute yourself thank you thank you sir so good to see you again sir so um we have this set just for an update for council and for the public on the status of the cut through into k-bar ranch you and your company have been so um accessible and uh and uh great to work with on this so just briefly uh and how long do you think you'll need if i may ask two minutes i assume it's not

no more than that okay great go ahead we'll set four for fun thank you uh perfect um i'm here to provide a quick update on the k-bar ranch please start with your name thank you i apologize my name is boyan pargov with height design on the engineer record for the subject project um quick update on the construction and connection of the k-bar ranch extension between the current dead end and moore's bridge road this has been a project that has been in the works for a long time the county is on the dot the city is on the right of way for a long time and this project is finally approved for construction and began earlier this year as i mentioned it's been a critical project for access for residents as well as fire department uh so it has been a a big push to construct we are in final stages of acceptance and um certification through the city at this time with their cad department and are looking to have the project uh completed and opened here uh i believe september is a time frame august september was a time frame for opening so um that's it uh just as i said i know it's a critical project for the city as well as for local residents and i wanted to provide a brief update just for everybody's

knowledge and if i may my name yes thank you ma'am so question for you because we're hearing now august is september has there been any delay since we last spoke and if so what's the reasoning for it or the

positive yeah so when we initially spoke the um acceptance time frame was uh uh end of august end of august uh there's not been any significant delays there has been incremental issues with material delivery most notably a pump station panel that was coming from israel and it was caught in uh on a ship that was delayed several months uh contractor has been working with the city as i mentioned uh to perform inspection and certifications and it is no nothing specific that i could point my finger to it is at this point we are in testing and inspections so let me ask you if i may sir what

is the latest do you think this is going to be open that you can commit to here today in terms of a date

uh the latest contract schedule the latest that will commit to a date it i when we had spoken previously obviously i am the contract is with the land owner and the schedule and everything is controlled by those two parties i am the engineer of record who certifies the construction so i don't necessarily control the contractor schedule but i'm confident that the august september time frame i mentioned now is the correct time frame for this project being accepted is it reasonable do you

say that there's there's that by september let's just say september 15th of this year uh that with all information that you have it's reasonable to say that this should be open to the public and to first responders by september 15th with the information you have here today yes okay and and i have a question for you i was going to talk about this at motion time um that when it oh yes ma'am uh that is there any way that this could just be open starting now for first responders i mean they don't need a

yellow brick road there or anything uh the there's one short answer no long answer there is one area where the roadway connection cannot third occur through because there is a water main connection that is bypassing through the road so the roadway will be blocked for that uh seven day period or so that the bypass is needed to construct the piece in the middle um you're talking about not you're talking about today versus maybe the i think there is a possibility to look at opening that for emergency vehicles

prior to be accessible to the public yeah because that's all i care about right now so so if i may madame chair come motion time i am going to be motioning on that um because uh that's something that's very important but um thank you and and may i i mean may i speak some more on this or um sure okay thank you ma'am yep and so sir and any council members have any questions or okay well thank you sir i i we appreciate your time and and efforts and so again we are going to be following up on that uh because that is something that's very very important but again council members this is something that will reduce response time significantly into k bar ranch uh in an area new tampa where four out of the five stations where the longest response times are at so this is this is big freaking deal uh it is for new tampa thank you so much thank you very much uh i appreciate that okay um we are i'm so i'm so very sorry yes council member um so if it's not so for me uh councilman miranda and i appreciate your your interest in this topic the the um the operative issue is that it's open for first responders so if this gentleman's we believe and i'm prepared to accept his word on this if we can open it beforehand just for first responders that's the win so we will be inquiring on that because this is a critical

importance so thank you sir okay thank you so much um we are moving to committee reports um councilman viera please move items seven through eight hereby move items seven through eight okay i have a motion from councilman viera a second from council member maniscalco all those in favor aye any opposed okay um uh councilman maniscalco i move items 16 through 22. okay i have a motion for items six through 16 through 22 by councilman maniscalco seconded by councilman miranda all those in favor aye any opposed um councilmember carlson is absent for that vote um yes uh councilman miranda i move item number 22. okay i have a motion from um councilman miranda and a second from councilman maniscalco to approve item number 23. all in favor aye um councilman carlson absent at that vote um i have uh councilwoman young can you please move items um move items um 23 through 34 i'm sorry 24 through 34 and then uh 36 and 41. second move item in 39 sorry move items 24 to 34 and items 36 39 and 41. second okay i have a motion from councilwoman young young and a second from councilman maniscalco all those in favor aye any opposed and again councilman carlson absent vote and then councilman maniscalco i will move items 42 through 48 we didn't pull anything

from this no we didn't okay i'm moving them all so i have a motion from councilman maniscalco moving items

42 through 48 with a second by councilman um miranda all those in favor aye um any opposed okay all approved with councilman carlson absent at vote um can i get a motion uh get to move item 54 that was on our staff docket we did not need staff for so i have a motion to move item 54 from councilman maniscalco second from councilman miranda all those in favor aye aye um passed with um carlson absent vote uh can we please set items 49 through 41 for public hearing wait item 49 set for a public hearing

august 6 10 30 a.m uh and august 27 20 26 or just move it okay i'm about in 49 yes thank you for

moving item 49 i have a motion from councilman maniscalco a second from councilman miranda all those in favor aye okay and then how um so then we also have something special to be read for items 50 and 51 i i

will um yes councilman maniscalco all right uh for item 50 uh a public hearing will be held held regarding a proposed brownfield area designation for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of three parcels approximately 30.5 acres in the size located in size located in the vicinity of 36 to 1 north central avenue 38 14 north central avenue and 501 east lake avenue tampa florida three three six oh three this public hearing will be held at the tampa heights junior civic association located at 2005 north lamar avenue tampa florida three three six oh two on august 18 2026 at 5 30 p.m until not later

than 6 30. okay okay i have a motion from council member maniscalco a second from councilman miranda

all those in favor aye aye okay and i'll read item 51 a public hearing will be held regarding a proposed brownfield area designation designation for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of one parcel approximately 62 acres in size located northeast of the intersection of north 46th street and east fletcher avenue tampa florida three three six one three this public hearing will be held in classroom 138 139 of the patel center for global solutions located at 42202 east fowler avenue tampa florida three three three six two zero on august 12 2026 at 6 p.m until not later than 7 p.m okay thank you so

much there is no motion needed do you need me to rescind them the motion to rescind the one for 50

because we didn't need a motion okay so i have a motion to rescind the motion for item 50 from council

member maniscalco a second from councilman miranda all those in favor aye and so then both the public hearings have been read uh so we are moving on to petitions to vacate and public hearings on legislative matters so we have a vacating request this morning draw sam is available for nation

presenting file number vac 26-08 motion to open please uh can i get a motion to open the 10 30 a.m

public hearing act 52 we have a motion from council member councilman miranda all in favor aye any opposed all right go ahead sir i'm sorry no sam is available for nation presenting file

number vac 26-08 the applicant is the school board of his royal county representative's name is nikki day property address is 5020 north 47th street this is a proposed vacating request to vacate a portion of 43rd street lying north of ellicott street south of shadow lawn avenue east of 40th street and west of 44th street this application was filed february 3rd 2026 right away is partially improved uh this right away was created by subdivision platte the existing right away is approximately 16 850 square feet the reason for the request is streamlined public school operations reduce existing dead end and approved turnaround with potential cooperation from the city and curtail dumping activity on school property this is an aerial view of the proposed vacating request in yellow the applicant's properties in red subdivision platte in which the street was created this is a view sorry for the quality of that but this is a view looking south from 43rd street image looking north on 43rd street staff has no objections of vacating request easement reservations are required by spectrum and tico special conditions or natural resources must comply with chapter 27 as regards to tree preservation and site design for any improvements placed adjacent to trees in a vacated area also i'd like to mention that between first and second reading there will be a substitute ordinance for to add a condition in for a turnaround that the city and the county the hillsborough county school board has agreed to to add that

condition okay thank you so much any questions um petitioner good morning city council i don't have anything

further to add i'm nikki day um we just need to we don't need to see okay never mind go ahead go ahead um can you start with your name please yes nikki day with the law firm gray robinson i represent the petitioner of the hillsborough county school district in this matter and i don't have anything to add to staff's presentation just wanted to thank staff for working together with the district as fellow governments um on this petition for vacation thank you okay thank you so much um does anyone have any questions is

there any one in the public that would like to speak on this item okay i have a motion to close by councilman maniscalco uh second from councilman miranda all those in favor aye any opposed okay um who would

like to read okay yeah councilmember carlson would you like to read that um move file number vac 26-08 ordinance being presented for first reading consideration ordinance of the city of tampa florida vacating closing discontinued banning a portion of 43rd street right away located north of ellicott street and james elementary school south of shadow lawn avenue east of 40th street and gary adult high school and west of 47th street as dedicated by the platta revised map of rubenstein subdivision in tampa hillsborough county florida and as more particularly sorry as more fully described in section two hereof subject to certain covenants conditions and restrictions has more particularly set forth herein providing for enforcement and penalties for violations providing for definitions interpretations and repealing conflicts providing for several fighting including um the revision

sheet including revision sheet okay i have a motion from councilmember carlson a second from councilman vieira all those in favor aye any opposed okay thank you so much um yeah i'll let the clerk

second meeting adoption will be held on august 27th 2026 at 10 a.m at old city hall located at 315 east kennedy boulevard third floor tampa florida 33602 okay thank you so very much okay um we have 13 minutes but

we still have these items that we've pulled and we have one other item on the trees so um with permission we're just gonna truck on through do we have um do we have anyone here uh item 40 was the first one that was pulled um councilmember carlson you pulled this for a separate vote or because you

wanted to talk about it um this is the army navy the item 40. i just thought that i only pulled it because i thought it was of sufficient value that it should have been so okay yeah so so you just wanted a

separate vote or to pull it um does anyone have any questions about this okay so um let's see whose it is um councilmember carlson it is your uh committee do you like okay okay so i have a motion to move the resolution by councilmember carlson i have a second from councilman maniscalco all those in favor aye aye any opposed excellent okay now on to item 11 if uh anyone is here from the um from staff to talk about uh the determination of uh demolishing and removal of certain buildings or structures okay while looking it up we can move and talk about items 37 and 38 excellent or not

afternoon yet good still morning rebecca johns legal department what was the question the the

question brought up in public comment was um how how these um how these organizations one i guess the rfp and do individuals have a fair chance to get them and and is there a preference of rental versus owning

so i can answer the question about the rfp process so there was an rfp that was put out there was about 17 lots there were qualifications in the rfp it can be individuals it can be companies they just have to meet certain qualifications like they've had development experience then you can submit based and state the lot that you want if you meet the qualifications in the rfp then you if you are the only one that submitted for that lot then you were awarded the lot if there were multiple people that were submitted for the lot they were put into a random lottery software system and that software system would just randomly select an entry and that's how the developer got selected what about

what about if an individual didn't want to develop it they just wanted to build their own house no it

had to be used for the info program which would be the developer would build it and then the developer would have to either sell it or rent it to a qualified user which would be an eligible beneficiary

with ami requirements so they could not use it for their own house we get another discussion i just want to make sure we answer the question and the discussion about that okay i have a quick question

so i know that this this was the rfp that was put out for the 17 lots or have all the lots been filled now

all of the lots have been awarded through the lottery there were a few lots that had some zoning issues and some infrastructure issues so i think there's three that we're still working through but all of the others are and are ready to come to you or have come to you i i believe there's three left but i wasn't prepared to answer that question so i don't have the exact number off the top of my head

so and i'll add to it because i sit on the affordable housing advisory committee this is the third time we've done this this is this is phase three so the for the first two times they were basically single family um but the challenge from both a hack and this board was to do as many multi-family on properties as possible and i believe with the total there are only one or two lots that are single family

yeah there were few i don't have the exact number in front of me but there were few um there are some duplexes there are some you know seven eight unit townhomes that are going so so we've worked really hard

uh to take these infill lots and try to maximize the amount of housing we can put on us um so if that answers questions then um thank you for answering questions so for both items 37 and 38 we move the resolution okay okay i have a second i have a motion from councilman raniscalco second from councilman miranda all those in favor all right hi uh they're also um uh yes but for whatever reasons i have

here the item 35 was also a separate vote yes 37 i believe has to be a super majority if i recall

correctly no 35 oh 35 yeah 37 we we did um yeah 37 we just did 37 38 yeah but for whatever reason it

says 35 was pulled for a separate vote who wanted a separate vote on that yes this was a memorandum from michelle martin shelby city council attorney um michelle van loan real estate um had informed council via memo that um there is a set the law requires that um a super majority vote be on this so it should be recorded as a separate vote for purposes of the record so um council member carlson yeah so uh

councilman carlson this is your committee um if you do we have any questions for um miss van loan i think we have to explain it what it is uh count yes councilman miranda it's my understanding that

this lot was bought uh a little higher than the freight that they the appraised amount because the city really needed for some drainage problem in the area i'm not sure if it exactly works that way but it has to do with the uh storm water purposes why they bought the house michelle van loan real estate

we bought this property back in 2020 because we needed a pipe in that exact location the property owner at the time would not give us an easement they would not let us buy an easement and so we had to buy the entire lot since then we had interest in this lot and we were able to sell the lot at more i'm sorry this is the higgins right for that yeah that was it for higgins this is the very low spot of the neighborhood and the stormwater department came to us and asked us if we could check to see if we could get there were only a handful of parcels for sale that neighborhood does not have a lot of turnaround we reached out to all of the appropriate property owners and this one was the only one that reached out to us they are agreeing to relocate out of their house and it will help that neighborhood where all the water drains we are paying three percent above appraisal and as such we need a super majority if we went to a cheaper lot outside of this area we would be spending a lot more in stormwater infrastructure to get the water out of the low spot over to a different location so as a project and whole this acquisition actually saves us money because of the

exact location okay so um great explanation i move file number uh deo 26-25743 so i have a motion

from councilmember carlson a second from councilman maniscalco all those in favor aye any opposed do you need um the clerk to read that vote why not have it in the record yes go right ahead so we can have it in

the record motion passes unanimously with one enemy and absent okay thank you so much um we are moving

right along i think the last one we have is item 11 if i can yes i'm sorry mr shelby looking at the

background material this went through a process for a demolition and it was pursuant to section 19-5a 2a demolition review committee and there's several signatories to it and the attorney who prepared the resolution was kamaria pettis mackle i don't know as to the background there are people for instance the code enforcement director the historic preservation manager the building official so i don't know the time constraints to do this but if you want to have it continue to the next regular meeting that would probably be appropriate because i believe this dates back a ways um so if we can't get an

answer today which it sounds like we cannot um uh next week is also a regular meeting week so um would

anyone uh to continue uh this item to next week that's item 11 file number uh nca 26 dash two five six three seven okay for the purpose of having um staff explained to the public so that would be

understaff that would be understaff and unfinished business and um let's yeah let's go ahead and put that under unfinished business um i think that would probably it's next week it's the 6th of um august actually we can put it understaff reports because we only have four staff reports so that works um so i have a motion from council member carlson i had a second from councilman menescalco to move item 11 to august 6th understaff reports although if i could just ask inquire of the clerk is it too late

to put it on for next week's motion no so it's not too okay just want to make sure we have enough

turnaround time okay okay thank you okay great so i have a motion um all those in favor aye any opposed okay well we keep hitting records here um but we are going to oh actually no we are not we still have i'm sorry we have one left we have 50 we have the trees and we actually do you have um uh miss sharp do we have anyone online for that okay great okay so we have 57 very quickly the um staff to report on this where the specified trees have been planted uh so first of all um miss sharp has has the uh paperwork from uh that was in on base if anyone hasn't had a chance to see it well she'll she'll show it briefly um some of the highlights uh um i'm so sorry mr muke if you would like to share the information while she's sharing it that would be wonderful we saw your um uh face pop up so just start with your

name eric muke i'm the urban forestry manager um i put this report together briefly um we turned on the tree plotter software suite back in 2020 so every tremendous tree that we planted is mapped i've got all the gps i've got all the addresses and all that stuff it's just maps make the story shorter uh we have planted 2160 tremendous trees at the cost of 735 000 461 and 50 cents um all of the tremendous plantings thus far have been out of the old funds we have not dipped into any of the buckets yet we do have one tremendous tree coordinator who oversees this program providing five street trees to residents that were providing up to five street trees to residents that request them and agree to water them for one year the trust fund is funded by developers builders homeowners that would like to remove a tree and that is all protected trees so that is anything over five inches in diameter which is about the size of a coaster a little bit bigger or any palm that is up to six foot clear trump so we do capture a lot of trees in that on the next page we do have the graph displaying um exactly what type of species we are planting yes we are heavy on crape myrtle that that's the one that really sticks out um 27 of our plantings are type ones and twos uh 73 are the type threes why do we use so many type threes and it's been brought up before overhead utilities underground utilities narrow planting widths that sort of thing uh when you look at those uh numbers combined uh we've got about 61 of the planting locations that we have planted have been restricted to the smaller ornamental tree due to potential utility conflicts due to uh infrastructure conflicts due to the narrowness of the planting strip um in looking at some recommendations if if we would like we can just say that if you're going to use the tremendous planting program we would prefer that you know if you have the room for a type one or two tree that's going to limit your selection we're not going to offer the ornamental type threes uh where we should and can fit the type ones and twos uh the other thing that we were looking at is that if if crape myrtle stays on our planting list as it is the most popular tree chosen by people that we are going to come up with either a handout or we're looking into whether or not as a person applies for the program they have to click a box that says that they will water it for one year we're looking at maybe an educational video on there to show them proper pruning of crape myrtles so that we avoid that crape murder incident that we we run into um and then that way we would have documentation that they are aware of proper pruning uh the final page on there is the economic uh environmental and social benefits of these trees and you'll see uh just quick and dirty math on it 581 type one and two accounting for about 1200 or about two dollars per tree annually in the economic and environmental benefits uh and it works out the same for the type 3 or ornamentals it's about two dollars per tree that's because they're all coming in in that 30 gallon two and a half inch caliper size so there's really not much difference there it's really when we get to that 15 year mark and beyond that we really start to see uh greater environmental and economic benefits from the larger species okay thank you so very

i'm here for any questions thank you okay i'm councilman maniscalco no questions i appreciate

all the information and i just want to say thank you for joining me the other day uh we we went out and uh you know off-site with a constituent who was who had a lot of concerns and the gentleman spent more than an hour with all of us and he just does a great job so i just wanted to acknowledge it thank you

sir i completely agree so does anyone have any um uh comment on this and what we want to do with the uh we we still have not um passed the motion to uh approve this monies now with this information do we have anything that we want to do with it do we want to um we had a public commenter today talked about type one and type two only we had uh information today showing um and the recommendations from mr muke of requiring type one and type two if the true if space exists um and the crape myrtle planting will receive the pruning guides so what is the uh if if we shift to um requiring type one and two trees for uh if you have the space it will only shift the percentages uh 11 to 12 percent misshark if you want to put that back up um the tremendous trees by species i believe page two of three um has the recommendation so right now type one and two trees are only 27 that so at most that would go up to it looks like 39 um is that enough for us do we do we want to focus on type one and two trees for this

year only how are we feeling can we um i'd like to reach out to some constituents that had you know overall concerns since next thursday is a regular meeting can we bring it back up during new business possibly and just you know so we can okay discuss it and think of different ideas now that we have

this information how we want to move forward yes i have uh um miss sharp is actually planning um a i'll be meeting with folks from the t tag group next week but definitely encourage other council members to

reach out as well council member carlson my preference is type one and type two trees um my my you know the charter doesn't allow us to edit documents so i don't know if we should make a motion to have edit it edit the document ourselves no no we'd have to we'd have to ask for that plus we're not we're

i don't believe it's prepared for a vote today but um so so we have a request for type one and two trees

um councilwoman young yes um i also wanted to bring up as it was brought up in public comment and i did you know during my briefing but as i did ask the question um about planting at schools um i recently i think i was at young and we were walking i was like it is so hot out here but they have a huge amount of space and i know the question with the type one and type two is the right you know right space so if we have all these spaces is that something that we can consider with this or maybe you know is it a conversation that we need to have with you know the school board but i think that that's

a great place to consider okay so it sounds like we would have like to have a little more conversation about this uh we do have room on um on next week's agenda council member miranda thank you

minister you know it's fine to say one and two but the problem is if you have a spot that one two do not fit and that's all you want to plan you're actually working against yourself even if the five times three takes five percent less or twenty percent or thirty percent less water or fifty percent less water it's still something that is value to the society that's all i'm going to say okay so what is the

what is the um preference of council we have to continue this until next thursday or just bring

it up during new business and have just a quick discussion of how we want to move forward yes sir

councilman yes i'm sorry mr shelby city council attorney just if you can refresh my recollection in what

form does it have to come back as a contract yes uh so what we're doing we we postponed the approval of the contract because we wanted more data now we have that data that we we just we didn't go off yes it just fell off so we need to um figure out what we want to do next with this where it goes my suggestion

would be to not do it the next week's meeting that is not a sufficient amount of time to let staff know about this through the motion practice to have sufficient time for them to be able to come back

and do a written report or a staff report i think honestly it's not we don't i think we all just need to decide as a group what we want to do so i think that's what's being asked is that uh council member ran escalco asked for another week to talk to community members i still have to do that myself so um we could put this in old business next week i'm sorry yes and then we take official lunch yeah mr muki i'm

sorry go right ahead thank you uh eric muki urban forestry manager this contract and and what we're talking about here is the tremendous program so it is for you know street trees for residents who are willing to water them i love the idea of planting on school properties i love the idea of planting around stormwater ponds and making them an environmental benefit to the neighborhood those are some areas that we could capture some significant numbers of type 2 trees they're just not part of this program so much um and and that would be a secondary program that would be a project you know that that's definitely something that we as a city should definitely be looking at and encouraging but again that that's really not part of what the 30 plus years of the tremendous program is about tremendous

program is about street trees for residents thank you okay um also to uh let folks know i am um working on with legal on the ordinance that approves uh tremendous trees to be planted in front yards and um side yards for a house on a corner so we are working on that right now so these tremendous trees would not just be in the right of way they would be allowed in both front yards and side yards of a corner property so that is that is also going on in the mix of this yes mr shelby would it be appropriate

then to put this under unfinished business on august 27th to allow you to work with staff and to also be able to talk with members of the community so you'll at least have some direction to come back

if it's going to be the change of a to a contract um so that is why i'm hoping to do it next week so that we can have a contract ready for us on the 27th right now this this program has no funding so we're in a bit of a rush on this will staff be able to come back with staff doesn't need to we need we're asking for the contract to come back on the 27th after we as a board talk about what we want who's going to draft the contract that will come after next week we have a contract already drafted

we just need to either accept it as it is or modify it the question is well the question normally is council cannot modify a contract council can request it to the administration which then has to go through the process with the vendor and then go through the contract process that that's that's you could come back next week to talk about it but i don't know whether and okay well we can request that um

that staff come next week because we're not asking them to recreate a wheel we're just asking them to

be there for a conversation yes but one week motions have been requested to not be done because the deadline to be able to do that and work through the administration was last week for next week's motion

we're not looking for any changes we're just looking for a discussion specific member of the staff to come back to just be here to be and which person is that we generally just say staff

and let the administration figure that but normally it takes more than a week to be able to get that process for them to determine that it doesn't really happen that quickly if you wish to do it let's see what happens let's just see well i mean they brought us a contract already it's already there

we're just trying to do whatever we can to fund this program as quickly as possible understood

okay i've just been in conversations let me just get this out so i can say it i've been asked by both the clerk and the administration to avoid one week motions especially when you're going back to back with two regular meetings well then we simply won't do that and we'll just bring it up at uh so we can

make a a motion to to discuss it at old business so if somebody would like to make that motion that would be great okay so we are going to discuss item number 57 during old business on august 6th i have a motion from councilman miranda i have a second from council member maniscalco please make sure that you have all your thoughts aligned so that we have a quick conversation all those in favor aye any opposed okay so that concludes our official business for the day i am going to remind the general public of our first special call workshop that has to do with the budget that we just heard today that's going to be in these chambers at 9 00 a.m on monday morning talking about the enterprise funds which is our water wastewater garbage parking and golf courses so it should be a very interesting discussion so we'll go down the line council member miranda do you have any i have one motion to make i'd like to make a

motion to have a time certain for 11 o'clock on uh for the visit tampa bay at tampa convention center presentation at the september 24th workshop due to santiago corrada having a previous commitment

second you will not be able to be here until that time okay so we have a um we have a motion to and is that moving from another presentation day uh i think we had i don't believe it's moving it from that day i think it's a time certain for that day okay so yeah okay so we'll uh oh i see it's on here yeah he just wants to okay so we have a motion to take this uh presentation that's already on the agenda and give it a time certain of 11 o'clock i have a motion from councilmember miranda second from councilmember maniscalco all those in favor aye aye any opposed okay anything else okay

councilmember maniscalco all right i'd like to make a motion to present a commendation on october 15th in chambers it is open to the tampa fencing academy that's fencing like sword fighting recognizing them for their extraordinary athletic achievement international representation youth mentorship and long-standing contribution to the tampa community okay wonderful

yeah yeah i don't i don't think they're good i don't think there's enough room in here for that but we'll see uh council of uh motion from councilmember maniscalco second from councilman viera all those in favor aye any opposed anything else just be careful out there we have

looks like bad storms until at least 2 p.m so yeah yeah stay safe out there time there that's

okay um councilwoman young i have two motions um one i must make a motion to present a combination on october 15th 2026 to lashawn tim ceo of 813 stop the violence incorporated for a commitment to making a difference in the lives of the youth in the tampa bay community and she's also been involved with if you all remember when we had um the team take over in um at curtis hixon she's actually been working with those students um to they've been going through a program and they um just graduated from that program so she's been working with those students as well how wonderful we have a motion from

councilwoman young and a second from councilman viera all those in favor aye and then yes there is room

yes there's one we checked yep okay okay and then um my second if you let me know what you all think about this um i moved to make a motion for staff to provide a written report and list of the developers that were chosen from the lottery for the info three program and how many lots each developer was awarded and the reason i just thought of that was just because yeah written report is fine um let me see uh august 27th should be enough time that should be enough time august 27th uh if yeah yeah they should okay so for august 27th so i have a motion from councilwoman young i have a second from

councilman carlson uh for a written report on august 27th all those in favor aye any opposed anything

else uh that's all okay councilman viera thank you ma'am and and i wanted to salute you we are at paris island and this is boot camp so you are going with vigor so i you know well it was a short agenda we

were prepared but still i'm just saying um and it's just funny no two quick motions if i may so

my first one is this is for october 15th um i want mr shelby or whoever the person would be to brief this i'm obviously resigning at midnight on november 2nd and i would like a briefing on the following points which is for my appointment on replacing which is how long the process will take after my resignation um and the process that will occur on this for tampa city council i do this because um we i just want to make sure while i'm still here that i'm briefed on this publicly and for the community for the public for district seven because district seven needs somebody here and i just want

to make sure that we mitigate that time as much as possible council member what is the effective date

of your resignation november 2nd november 2nd um if it's anything similar to mine it was a two week process and then we had a special call the tuesday of the third week now it may be that um but that's actually a really good point because that's been a question we've heard a lot so uh would you like the the clerk to come forward or would you like that whoever like before i can work with as a matter

of fact i prepared something for council um and i have it in front of me for the march 14th um 2022 district three uh vacancy and it has a summary of the applicable provisions of the charter and a

timeline okay would you like to um just brief us very quickly and then we can actually yeah why don't

we have mr shelby update it yeah and bring it to you october 15th yeah that's oh you want it that late but when do you want it when do you want it to come back so this is this is for a briefing on the

substance of what will occur correct this is a briefing this is a briefing on the process of what happens and there are time constraints the appointment must be made the vacancies must be filled by appointment within 30 days from the time the vacancy exists yeah so it's a very compressed timeline i don't and of course the sooner you know about them yeah okay so october 15th it is yes um yes

councilmember carlson um could you and could you include that i think it's important to try to figure out how to fill that seat quickly even two weeks we might lose a bunch of votes so there's a question i have a question since this time we know for sure when he's leaving is it possible to do the vote before so we can fill you can't you can't you cannot no it's you cannot fill a vote you cannot fill a vacancy that

doesn't exist yeah you have to two weeks was what was um given to make sure people had the time to apply good luck could we do october 1st just make it a couple of weeks yeah yeah i think earlier is

probably better to be honest to the budget and that's when yeah um we could we could do september 17th that is also open so we have a motion um to have that come forward on october 1st yes ma'am from councilman vieira um that was second from councilman maniscalco all those in favor aye any opposed

anything else yes ma'am really quick if i may this is something that i think is applicable for the administration update for next week it's probably three minutes which is we heard from the gentleman today on the k bar cut through that there is a possibility that they can open it like really soon for tampa fire rescue just all that i really care about so i'd like whether it's chief bennett or whoever during administration update um and i by the way while i was here i typed out a memo that's already gone out to them on this um but just to brief this on the feasibility of that because this is this will save response times okay so we have a motion from councilman vieira to add the conversation

about k bar ranch cut through to the administrative update for um next week on august uh 6th 2026 we have

a second from councilman um maniscalco all those in favor aye any opposed okay councilmember carlson

just a quick tribute thing you mentioned paris island do you know do you know the significance of paris island in florida history no you know no you're out guidoing oh on paris island inside inside the uh the military facility is is a um the remnants and dig site of a of a spanish settlement the spanish site of what was called santa elena and it was the first capital of florida oh because the spanish were trying to move up to prevent the french and uh and outside the gates is a museum that michael francis from usf wrote the narrative for the museum so anybody going near paris island go to the museum

and you'll learn about florida history excellent excellent any no motions okay um i don't have anything

mr shelby anything no thank you i and i'm not saying this thing to start a conversation but i have read with interest your negotiations with the rays including on the east tampa cra in downtown and just looking forward to hearing more on that because i think those are prospectively good ideas aside from the

race not to open up a conversation what i know right i have a motion to receive can i just say one one quick thing yeah sure this real quick thing i i um i was talking i was talking to uh i think it was

bonnie wise this morning and i said i don't want to be in the center of this issue i want to be like

guido i don't want to be mentioned in the story so if somebody else would like to step up and engage

in the conversation but they have offered to meet with each of us to ask what our constituents concerns

are i have a motion to receive and file from councilman maniscalco i have a second from councilman and miranda all those in favor aye we are adjourned yeah for the day