Development agency.

Move to item 2.1 on the agenda.

March service awards.

Matt, I would like to script here.

Here we go.

So with that, we'll call forward.

We have two service awards to present today.

We have five-year employee award first.

I'd like to call forward Cedric McCaffey from or McAfee from the Parks and Recreation Department.

Here he comes.

Well, I've got one here.

Well, I guess it's my next thank you.

Here I've got the letter for you.

Okay.

So watch our speaker.

Yeah, no.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that was my fumble.

Sedric, appreciate your service to the community.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

That we'll move to the next one.

Uh, employee of the month award for March 2026.

Now this room we're gonna have.

Right.

So I'd like to call forward Justin Colin from the public communications department.

We would like to extend sincere appreciation to Justin.

Colin for his outstanding work and dedication and bringing our new recruitment flyer and hiring video to life.

Justin's expertise in filming and photography was instrumental to the success of this project.

From capturing compelling visuals to presenting the department in a professional and engaging way.

His attention to detail and creative vision helped authentically tell our story.

The quality of his work reflects the pride, professionalism, and commitment that the City of Clearwater represents.

Because of his expertise and willingness to go above and beyond, we now have high quality recruitment materials that will help attract future firefighters and paramedics while showcasing what makes our organizational an exceptional place to serve.

His contributions played a key role to turning this vision into reality.

Efforts like this directly support our commitment to being a high-performing government organization dedicated to superior public service.

By investing in professional, thoughtful recruitment tools, we are strengthening our ability to attract top talent, bring a strong workforce, and continue delivering the level of service our community accept, expects, and deserves.

Thank you, Justin, for your time, your talent, and your commitment to excellence.

Your efforts are truly appreciated and do not go unnoticed.

You represent the very best of our organization, and it is because of our dedicated employees like you that makewater continue to thrive.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Justin.

Thank you, Justin, for your great work.

Uh 3.1 on the leadership briefing on Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Good evening, or actually good afternoon, not good evening yet, Mayor and Council.

Um, I am incredibly excited to invite our innovation team up here to describe our project and where it's at so far.

I know that many of you have participated in a lot of the activities that we've done, but there's a lot that goes into this process.

A lot of the team has done, a lot of support that the um Bloomberg Harbor team has done for us.

And so with that, I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Hunter for our presentation.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor Council.

I'm Hunter Carlson with the Office of Management and Budget.

I'm excited to be joined today by our core team to provide you all with a leadership update on the city's involvement in the Bloomberg Harbor City Leadership Initiative.

So to provide you all with some context of our identified challenge.

The city has more than 20 individual types of permanent services, each with their own unique process and requirements.

As a team, we've heard from our customers and staff alike that our permitting processes can often be full of unexpected hurdles, and that's why we're focusing on that experience to identify areas for improvement in support of our strategic priority of being a high performing government.

We acknowledge that the permitting process isn't just a regulatory one, it's one with a real life impact and carries emotional consequences for those we serve.

Also, we acknowledge that this shapes the impression that our customers as well as our staff have with the city, and that's why we're really focusing on that experience.

So the challenge that we as a city experience today is one of increased demand from those we serve.

Despite us observing increases in performance and the processing time of many permit requests, we still hear from many customers that experience frustration with our service.

Our primary goal is to focus on that experience and to identify pathways for success for both our staff and our customers alike.

So, new for this project, the city is guided by our ambitious, impactful mission or aim framework, which offers the guiding structure for a desired future state around a policy priority area.

And at this time, I'd like to welcome up Allie Chain Ali Chandler to share more about our innovative approach and the research design of our project.

Thank you.

So my name is Allie Chandler Bear.

I'm the division manager of neighborhoods and community engagement.

Our aim, which is our ambitious, impactful mission statement, is grounded in measurable improvements that reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and build confidence in local government.

So once that direction was clear, the bigger question was where do we start?

How do we even make the greatest impact that we can?

We generated and weighed more than 60 potential focus areas before narrowing in on processes where residents and businesses must seek permission from the city.

And we chose that because it has the greatest operational impact and it also directly affects the public.

With that in mind, we met with the stakeholders and reviewed data to build a shared understanding of barriers, who is affected, and why change is necessary, or even if change is necessary.

We conducted in-depth interviews with staff, residents, and business owners to understand how the process operates in practice and how it's experienced, not just necessarily just how it's on paper.

So from those conversations, our lesson became clear, at least one lesson became clear was that if we're not speaking to the people who use the systems, we may never truly find what needs to change.

So even across different interviews, different perspectives, there were consistent themes.

Even if it was a resident staff, we found that a lot of things correlated.

By the end of this process, we'll have hosted five ideation sessions with staff, residents and peer cities, generating more than 1,200 ideas that we're now refining and trying to actually turn in a practical solution.

We also have one more ideation session tomorrow at the Clearwater East Library.

If anyone hasn't had the chance to join, we strongly encourage it.

It's a great process, good brainstorm.

It's in it again, it's at the Clearwater East Library at 5 p.m.

Okay.

So using human-centered design has shifted how we approach our work.

One example is the strategic workshop.

And that thinking actually shaped the first strategy workshop.

And it proves that it's not just this one project.

We can apply a lot of these principles and techniques to any project that we have.

Then this innovation approach, it's innovative approach, excuse me.

We applied uh has not only generated new ideas, it's strengthened how we define problems in a very disciplined way.

So it reframed our challenges from government versus the problem to residents, staff, and the city, the community together working against the problem.

And now Rebecca will share the impact we are beginning to see in the moments that have kind of changed our perspective.

Hello, I'm Rebecca Mulder, Assistant Director for Planning and Development, and I'm one of the uh core members of this team for the Bloomberg project.

And so, what I wanted to talk to you guys today, and um is expanding on what has been um already told you by Hunter and Allie is to kind of talk about what we found as we did our work.

So we um we met with the core team, identify the problem frame, and then we explored how we were going to evaluate and implement that into some effective and innovative changes.

And what we decided and developed was that we needed to reach out with the citizens, talk to not only residents but staff as well as business owners.

We needed their perspective, we needed to hear their stories so that we could affect change in a new direction.

So within that, we sat down, listened to their individual stories, perspectives, and their experiences within our processes, and those could be anything from a construction project to um planning an event, like we heard about earlier today, and what those individual experiences are, were they able to be duplicated, um how they made them feel while they went through that process and was it successful?

And um we gained a lot of insight into those perspectives, and we stopped thinking about it from our process and started thinking about it from an experience.

And so if we're gonna affect change and implement new innovative ways to assist our residents and users, we need to think about what that experience is for them and not just our procedures.

And so, within that, we were able to collect a lot of data and gather some clear insights.

We, as the team developed seven clear insights across the hundreds of different um perspectives and ideas that were collected from those interviews, and one that I wanted to talk about today was the insight of inconsistence paths eroding confidence.

And what we mean with that is that if someone is going through a process with the city, is that process something that feels like they're working with us or against us?

And is that process something that could be duplicated again?

So if they start a process, they do it one time and it feels different the next time.

Is that you know what is that reason?

How is that feeling?

And looking to really understand their perspectives so that we're not making changes or implementing processes that don't actually address the issues at hand for our residents and our users within within the city.

And so it kind of changed our mentality of how we're thinking about our processes because all the departments are regularly making enhancements and changes to their process, but if it's not being translated back to the individuals that are utilizing those services, then it's a missed opportunity, and we're learning some new tactics and approaches within this program to to address those and think more creatively and innovatively.

So as I um talked about before, we had to change um change our way of thinking and challenge ourselves to ask the a different type of question, both internally with our operations as well as um asking different types of questions with the residents, with staff, with um and with business owners.

And we are finding that we're getting a different types of answers, different types of ideas that is really quite exciting for the team, and we're starting to implement those and evaluate those insights on how can how might we make an impact, how might we improve this service, and something that was a negative can become something very positive.

And so we're working through synthesizing all the data to really um make it a dynamic problem that has clear solutions, and we're getting ready to move into those next phases, which is really exciting.

Um, and so with that, I'll hand it back to Hunter who will um kind of out lay out what these next steps look like.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So, in terms of our next steps, uh I want to preface this by saying it's important that as we go into our next phases, we're gonna be working with some new ways throughout the city.

So, some of those ways we may observe as being successful, others not.

But I think what's really important for us to keep in mind is that we remain committed to our aim statement as well as that framework that we developed at the onset of the project.

So by the end of this month, our team will have complete completed the ideation phase in which we transform over 1200 ideas that we've generated with both our staff and our residents into a set of robust prototypes based on the degree of implementability as well as the potential impact.

So later this month, we'll start the prototyping phase, which will carry us all the way through the end of June, in which we will create and prototype and actually implement two innovative solutions with both city staff and residents.

These solutions are designed to drive tangible improvements throughout our community as well as internally among our staff.

And then this is a multi-year process, so by the end of it, we will have developed eight to ten recommendations that as we go throughout the coming years, we'll assess for the uh again a degree of implementation and um really driving to see how as a city we can improve how we deliver our permit services as well as the experience for our customers and our staff throughout that process.

So our next leadership briefing will be following that prototyping phase in June of 2026.

And lastly, I would just like to give a huge shout out to our team, mayor to you, council to our senior leadership, our staff, and our residents.

Uh, this has been a really great process thus far, and we couldn't have done it without all of you.

So, with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Um I think I saw you first, Councilman Robert.

I don't know how many years we've been talking about this.

Uh and I'm glad that uh this is kind of a out thinking outside the box kind of thing.

I hope it works because uh it's it's tough from for the staff and for the people, and as you first the first slide that you were showing us that you got so many types of permits and so many things that uh are requirements that you're you know, the city is required from the state and federal, and then our city codes all have to be met.

A lot of people don't understand that they are walking into you know what they're walking into when they come in for you know approvals, but uh anything to make it easier for the customer.

I know a lot of uh municipalities around us have gone through the same thing, it's not just clear water.

Um, and I hope this really helps.

So I'm glad you did it.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

I'm gonna sound like Councilmember Alpin.

We've been talking about this for years and years and years.

I actually did a uh we had a I was part of a task force about this, so but I want to thank everyone, and I mean everyone who has and will continue to participate in this initiative.

It is thinking outside the box.

There's one phrase uh, or I guess embracing the the idea that like jumps at me, which is um it carries a real life impact.

All this that we're discussing, all these procedures and policies and all that permitting.

There is a real life impact, and I thought that just by starting with embracing that and working ourselves backwards.

I think we're in the right direction because truly it does, right?

The delays causes businesses to you know postpone their openings, and it affects employees and the supply chain and um increasing costs and you know the economy, the city economy.

So it's like a ripple effect, and so embracing that concept to me is innovative, and I appreciate and I'm so thankful for everyone who's involved in this.

Thank you.

Consider Manino.

Uh Mayor, thank you.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

Uh city manager and mayor, thank you for being so supportive of this program.

I know you both of you have participated and been um very supportive of this and our our city staff doing this.

So I thank you for that.

I thank the whole core team and all the participants.

We've all participated and had a lot of fun.

I think eventually you had to like get out of here, go on, guys.

We have some work to do.

Uh, but you let us participate, it's been a lot of fun.

I took some notes during that because there were so many great things said in that presentation that uh citizens all over the place would be begging for their governments to say when it comes, especially when it comes to permitting processes and the culture of being being not adversarial but partners and collaborative, and not that we're not, but so often that's a perspective and perception of those in the community.

We are in the business, you're in the business, our staff is of customer service, right?

And our citizens are our customers.

Uh, and so often that first introduction to us as a city and customer service representatives uh is through the permitting processes, right?

Regardless of what they're doing.

Um, and so often I think one time you said that so many of the residents have a perspective of walking into this process blind, right?

And while we have certain expectations, they come into it with different expectations, and sometimes it's hard to get on the same page.

Uh, but a key thing you said, I thought is that cultural shift of thinking from focusing on them as processes to putting the valuation into it as an experience, and that that's key.

Once you start to change that thinking, you you truly do evaluate the process differently because you're valuing that experience that that customer is going through.

So I greatly appreciate that.

The other thing I wrote down was reimagining the permitting process to be more efficient, transparent, and consistent.

That's huge.

That's it.

That's a huge goal.

And I do agree.

I won't pull the Mr.

All Britton card and say we've been talking about this for years, but when we go through political campaigns, I think we pulled mailers all the way back to 2015-16 and look at what some of the political leaders are saying and focus points and buzzwords in our community, and so often it is finding ways to be more business friendly, undoing unneeded burdens and restrictions, navigating the permitting process to be friendly and collaborative versus adversarial, and that's a perspective that's out there.

I'm a hundred percent supportive.

I absolutely love this culture shift in our community.

And kudos to our entire team and staff on leadership for going in this direction.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, sir.

Um you've already had a ton of things, so I'm not going to beat that dead horse.

You guys are doing great job.

I think that this is fantastic.

Um, you know, I'm one that always sits up here and asks for more data and more efficiencies and asks you all to try and see ways that you can be more of an innovative.

Um, and this is gonna be fantastic.

You know, I look forward to the eight to ten solutions that we have to problems that you guys have recognized or or maybe an issue that you recognize.

And focusing on the endpoint uh to see how you can better your service is gonna be key to that.

So thank you very much for the update.

I'm proud of all you guys and going through this program and trying to collectively uh work across your different uh divisions, not just being hunkered down in what you know and uh wheel on the cog, but uh reaching out and hopefully realizing we're one team at the end of the day, and we're all gonna work better when we're and most effective when we're reaching out to one another and seeing how one process might work for you that they're already doing over here, putting those together to make a best product.

So thank you all very much.

Okay.

Um, a couple things.

One, I want to thank the um folks at Bloomberg Institute and Harvard for um engaging us to participate in all this, choosing our city to participate in this year-long program, get ready to go to um Boston here next month for follow-up kind of the end of the session my end, but uh this has been a critical part of our whole participation.

And uh I told someone the other day who's giving me we had a little mentor mentoring ship with uh former mayor who participated in this program too.

And uh I told her that uh I want to compliment city manager and assistant city managers and staff because you really did get the right people to serve on this task force.

We have I told her I could not have been more impressed when I walked in that room first time with the group.

And I know it was competitive.

The city manager shared with me that we had a lot of people really interested, and that was exciting to hear because that means we've had an entire staff of 1850 employees that that want to be the best, that want to improve, that want to serve those customers even better than we're already serving.

And we get high compliments.

I got three compliments this weekend from citizens who complimented different departments on their interaction that they've had.

So uh that that's you know, the people that we got selected to serve, that's made a huge difference.

But also have told folks that it's not just the three of you, but I see other faces here on the slide before us.

I I couldn't be more impressed with the way you all have embraced this.

I've seen several of you on look at the session at Clearwater Beach the other night, chapel by the sea, and you all have really I mean I've seen you uh you're very talented, and I've seen you step forward and really a number of you blossom in a way to lead this effort.

And uh thank you for doing that because it really, as you can tell from the other council members, it means so much for our citizens, citizens in our city.

And you know, one of your quotes, if you think about it from the customer's perspective, you can be walking into the process blind.

I've seen I've seen anyone who's participating in our team realize that it's a little bit of an epiphany, particularly the other night when you see the citizens making suggestions, like yeah, you you put yourself in their shoes.

So that the energy you all and your team have brought to this.

Uh I know I appreciate it, and the rest of the council appreciates you, and the whole city of person.

So thank you for your report today.

Yeah, can you imagine?

Um, I have to beat the dead horse and say thank you again because and there's other of our core team members in here.

I know that it won't go on TV, but if you'll please stand up.

Um stand up because it is a team approach.

Um the program was very clear that it was gonna be extra work and they anticipated the number of hours, um, and we went into that knowing it.

Um, this team is by far exceeded what those hours are, um, and it's just purely because of the dedication that they have.

Um, it's not out of obligation, it's out of desire and just interest.

Um, so when I tell you it's in excess of an additional 10 hours a week on top of their normal jobs, I would not, I would actually be underestimating.

Um, it's a significant amount of work, especially as we continue to move through this.

Um, but they're gonna get it right.

Um, Councilmember Albert and you said you hope this one happens, it will.

Um I guarantee you this one's gonna happen because this team is gonna make it happen.

Um, and while this was not intending to be a um any kind of a succession planning or anything along those lines, it absolutely has identified some of the leaders and organization.

Their learning skills, we all are that won't just be applied to this project, but that's gonna be able to apply to other other projects and we'll give other um I know that because of the attention and the accolades as well as the um the improvements this team has made that other people are gonna want to be a part of that, and so we'll continue to have groups and and um put committees together so that they can participate and these people will help lead that as well.

So thank you so much for all you do.

Definitely want to thank the Bloomberg Harbor team.

Our you know the facilitators that we have for us have certainly just meshed well and pulled and pushed us to be um stronger and better together, and so thank you for that.

Um also I want to acknowledge um the department heads um and the other teammates that are supporting to allow these people to be away from those other things and to get ideas, and there's been a lot of participation organization wide through that um and a shift in that culture um occurred to support this.

So I just wanted to make sure all that was noted, so thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Yeah, you got something you want to answer.

General item 4.1.391,938 dollars provided by the city of Clearwater for the development of real property located at 1718 North Petty Lane.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, Dylan Mayo.

I'm the housing manager.

Uh the item is the item today is requesting approval of home ARP funding for an affordable housing uh rental development serving families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Uh, as background, the city of Clearwater received a one-time allocation of 1.6 million in home ARP funding from HUD under the American Rescue Plan.

These funds must serve qualifying populations, and this includes individuals and families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Council approved three substantial amendments to incorporate and reallocate these funds.

Most recently in June of 2025, when funding was shifted from supportive services and tenant-based rental assistance to affordable housing in order to expand the city's affordable housing inventory.

Following that approval, staff issued a notice of funding availability.

The application period closed on August 8th, 2025, and the city received one application from homeless empowerment program, uh better known as HEP.

The proposed project includes 35 apartment units for families with minor children who are who are experiencing homelessness or living in deep poverty.

The development will include two and three bedroom units at 30%, 50%, and 80% of area median income, along with a centrally uh located um community building, a couple of offices with uh case managers on site.

Um the site is located approximately a half mile from HEP's main campus.

Um this allows residents direct access to uh supportive services such as employment assistance, child care um assistance, transportation support, and health services.

The total project costs is approximately 10.2 million.

Uh HEP has secured over 5.4 million in private donations and is requesting 1,391,938 dollars in home ARP funding from the city.

Um and then in addition, they will be requesting 1.75 million in penny from Pinellas County.

And as a side, we did meet with Pinellas County.

They intend to bring this item uh to their board at the end of March.

I believe it's March 24th.

Uh any remaining gap will be covered by additional donations or HEP's endowment.

The neighborhood and affordable housing advisory board reviewed this proposal on October 14th, 2025, uh, and voted to recommend approval to council.

Staff has completed a review of the environmental record and subsea layer analysis and has determined the project is feasible and compliant.

Uh it's important to note that the subsidy layer analysis that's attached shows an amount, uh the city funding an amount of 1.6 million.

HEP understands the city can only contribute a maximum subsidy of one point or sorry, 1,391,938.

Um, and they intend to fill the additional gap uh with additional donations or their endowment.

Um I'll be swapping out.

I do have an updated um SLR that'll be swapping out hopefully by Thursday.

Um also important to know all these funds will be uh verified prior to closing with proof of funds.

Uh closing, staff anticipates execution of a commitment letter, a home ARP funding agreement, 30-year mortgage, a promissory note, and a land use restriction agreement.

Staff recommends approval of the home ARP funding contingent upon confirmation of all under other funding sources and agreement to city terms, which will include construction timelines, uh, income restrictions, and repayment provisions if contract terms are not met.

I do have Ashley Barb and Jeff here from HEP, and I'm happy to address any questions.

Okay, questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

No question, just um comment.

Um, I think this is a great uh community use for the allocated HUD funds.

Uh I commend and appreciate HEP, their leadership team uh to their service uh in our community and that full servant full circle approach uh that they do.

Um definitely a huge asset uh regarding this property specifically.

This has been an eyesore uh for many years, um completely overgrown.

It's been used as a dumping ground for quite a while.

Uh what's even more concerning is that it's so close to the L two elementary schools with an eye shot.

Uh couldn't think of a better group uh to turn this into much needed affordable housing units.

I think what I read was 35 apartments specifically for families with minor children experiencing homelessness or living in deep poverty, and I think this is a great use of those HUD funds.

So thank you for bringing it forward.

Any other discussion?

Not do we have consent?

Yes, we have consent on 4.1.

Thank you.

Approve the purchase of access property insurance, including bridges, boiler, and machinery terrorism, UAV drone, and docks and peer coverages.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, Todd Moran, City Risk Manager.

Request approval.

Uh annual access property insurance renewal and especially property um policies as well.

Um the amount not um to cover the period from April 1, 2026 until April 1, 2027, in amount not to exceed $5,901,000.

A couple items to note for this year's renewal.

Um, last year I worked with Gallagher to prepare for this year's renewal, requesting a strategy to address um expanding our coverage in the needed area for our our docks and peers.

Um the partly due to the significant increase in our assets at the beach, um, which currently is still under construction, but hopefully will be done later this year, and um because we are limited to a two and a half million dollars supplement in our prior policies.

Um this coverage is gonna help us provide needed coverage in some of the most vulnerable areas of our property coverage.

With that said, I'm happy to answer any questions that you'd like at this time.

Any questions on this agenda?

Council Mary Cotton.

Uh no questions, just want to make some points for those people who might not know how to access the agenda item.

Thank you for going through this and shopping it.

Uh just point out some you know reductions that were noted.

You know, we've got um 18% decrease in uh property premium, boilers and machinery, 22.8% decrease, bridge decrease of 16.8%.

So, you know, it's not like we're just flippantly throwing out big numbers and saying yes, we're all dedicated in going through this and listening to what you have to say through risk and making sure that we're on the same page.

So I appreciate it and just wanted to throw out some of those reductions for anybody who's watching or might have any questions.

So thank you.

The general perspective is our guidance to council and from our broker to us is when property rates decrease.

We should increase our coverage as that opportunity allows.

This was a happy occurrence for the city to offset the increase.

Um, the difference between marina assets and regular property assets is about a 10-time difference in rate.

So it's expensive and will continue to be expensive because we're essentially insuring water.

Okay, any further discussion?

Yep, none.

Do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on 4.1.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Five point.

Yes.

Thank you.

Approve and not to exceed amount of 265,000 dollars for reconstruction replacement work for the beach marina building.

Uh my second item today is to request a not-to-exceed amount uh of 265,000 dollars.

Um, this reflects uh for the work done by SERPRO at the beach marina building, not not the marina itself.

Um the disflects would change order that has to do with fire suppression, sprinkler heads, and some other items that had to be addressed as they were wrapping up.

Uh currently marina and parking are on fire watching the building while we wait to get approval so we can move forward with this last piece of the project.

Okay.

Any discussion?

No discussion.

Do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on 5.2.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Authorized the purchase order to 10-8 fire equipment ink for eating some for order for the purchase of one new Pierce Heavy Duty Velocity Platform and one Pierce Heavy Duty Velocity Pumper.

Council, good afternoon, Chatham and Fire Chief.

Um Clearwater Fire and Rescue is requesting authorized authorization to purchase one Pierce Heavy Duty platform, truck 48, and one heavy-duty pumper engine 45 at a total discounted cost of 3,497,068 and one cent, reflecting a multi-unit discount of 45,460.98 cents.

Upon delivery, the current frontline units will be moved to the reserve status, and two older reserve units will be retired and declared surplus.

The purchase will piggyback off a source wall contract through 10-8 fire and safety, providing a 5.5% discount.

And the city will receive approximately 11.48% reimbursement from Penales County for the unincorporated areas we serve.

Early authorization authorization is requested due to an estimated 51-month lead time.

I'm available for any questions.

Yes, sir.

That is correct, yes.

We have a replacement plan for all of our units.

Okay.

And this isn't out of this is right in line with what we had expected.

It is, yes, sir.

Okay.

Anybody else?

Okay, do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on to 6.1 then.

Thank you.

6.2.

Authorized to purchase order Motorola Solutions Inc.

of St.

Petersburg, Florida for the purchase of a mock alert fire station alerting system.

All right.

Chapman Fire Chair.

Fire Station 45 requires replacement of its original emergency incident alerting equipment with a new mock alert fire station alerting system.

It's a multi-channel solution designed to improve response times, enhance firefighter safety, integrated with new computer aided dispatch, and it meets the National Fire Protection Association standards.

The upgraded system improves firefighter safety and efficiency by alerting personnel assigned to the responding unit.

It integrates directly with dispatch system for an automated automated alerting system.

Authorization is requested to figure back source wall contract for a discounted total cost of 108,940 and 46 cents, which includes the equipment installation and an extended one-year warranty.

And the project is funded under the capital improvement plan with the partial reimbursement coming from the county for the unincorporated areas we serve.

Okay.

Discussion on this.

Okay.

Do we have consent?

We have consent on 6.2.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Approved connecting clear water and active transportation plan for the city of Clearwater.

Good afternoon.

Mayor, Council, City Manager, Assistant City Managers.

I'm Rick Hartman, Transportation Planner, here to request approval of resolution.

Um request adoption of resolution 26.04, approving the City of Clearwater Active Transportation Plan.

Catherine Tellez from our consultant, Fair and Pierce is here today.

As you know, this has been over a year and coming, and we are have spent that time implementing plans that are up to date and replacing the 2006 shifting years.

We have presentation, and you'll see concepts as well as uh some proposed projects and policies to implement that will improve active transportation in the city.

And we have um the concepts uh I want to emphasize our planning level concepts at this time and will need more detailed analysis, but I'll turn it over to Catherine now to go through the presentation.

Thank you so much.

I'm sorry.

That's it.

All right, so I'm Catherine Telez, a principal transportation planner with Fair and Pears, and I'm very excited to be here before you sharing an overview of Connecting Clearwater and active transportation plan for the city.

So we were before you last July with a midpoint check-in.

So we'll just start with a brief review.

So what is an active transportation plan?

It's a comprehensive set of strategies to provide better options for people walking, biking, rolling, including access to transit.

It identifies a number of infrastructure projects, some policies, and then some processes based on staff feedback, stakeholder engagement, and public input to achieve the desired goals.

So at the project outset, we identified three primary goals.

So we wanted to identify a citywide low stress active transportation network.

And when we say low stress, we're really thinking about a street that people would want to walk or bike on and they feel comfortable because they're not right next to vehicles traveling 40 plus miles per hour.

We really want to improve transportation safety outcomes.

When we look at the crash data, we see that people walking and biking in clear water are disproportionately killed or injured in crashes.

So we want to make sure that this infrastructure creates a safer environment for people walking and biking.

And then most importantly, we want to have a feasible project list that can be implemented over time.

If projects aren't feasible, this will just be a plan on the shelf that won't get implemented.

So we'll go through some of the key project tasks, including the overall plan development, the analysis, some of the community engagement items, and then the overall documentation.

So as Rick mentioned, we've been at this for a little while, about 15 months or so, with engagement occurring regularly throughout the entire process, including meetings that we had with a variety of city staff departments about every two months throughout the process because we know it's going to take a collaboration of multiple departments to get projects implemented and then maintained.

We had online feedback opportunities, we had a public workshop, and we had three in-person stakeholder meetings from people from the public as well.

So all the analysis and feedback from the community was then incorporated into the plan, and I won't go through all of the details because I hope that you've all at least scanned through the report.

And so these are really sort of the primary topics that everything is organized around.

And what makes this active transportation plan different than some of the others that we've prepared is the inclusion of the concept plan.

So really taking sort of the top 10 type projects to a higher level so that way staff can really understand what is it going to take to implement some of these projects.

We've identified the potential for drainage conflicts, utility conflicts.

So that way when scoping occurs to take these concepts to a plan that can be constructed, we kind of know what we're getting ourselves into in terms of having enough funding budgeted to actually get it constructed.

And more importantly, these concept plans can be great to include in grant applications to help on the funding piece.

So when we we last met back in July, we went through a number of the project types that are included in the plan.

So we have trails, these are off-street facilities like the Pinellas Trail.

Then we have urban trails or wide sidewalks.

So these are like the Druid Trail, so nice wide, wide sidewalk area where you can walk or bike.

And then we have retrofitted bike lanes.

So these are taking your on-street bike lanes and where it's feasible, making them a little bit wider, and even adding a little bit of a buffer, perhaps in some communities we've even seen concrete buffers between the bike lane and the vehicular travel lane, again to make it a little bit more comfortable for people walking and biking.

And then lastly, neighborhood greenways.

So these are streets that are very low volume, low-speed streets where it's pretty comfortable to ride a bike, and really we just need to focus on improvements at those crossing locations so you can get out of your neighborhood into different locations.

We also identified a host of different crossing project types.

So within the plan, we have a number of standalone crossing improvements.

It's also assumed that as corridors are improved that each individual crossing along each corridor would be looked at in more detail for an appropriate treatment.

As I mentioned, we've done a lot of engagement throughout the project.

So the last round of engagement when we shared the draft network, we had over 300 unique visitors to the project website.

And based on the feedback that we received, we ended up adding, I think it was 11 additional projects, and then we made refinements to 14 projects that we had already identified.

So this engagement plus the engagement that we did earlier on in the process, we had over 750 people that interacted with the project and provided feedback, plus people that we we met sort of worked at a number of pop-up events out on the trails and other community events.

So we did get feedback from a wide range of people.

And so this here is just an example of the feedback that we received on that draft network.

And again, that resulted in us making some changes to that initial draft network to create the one that you now see before you.

So these rank the highest when we look at all the different prioritization criteria.

And then we have here the the top 10 ranked crossing projects.

You can see most of these are just installing a high visibility crosswalk and then a rectangular rapid flashing beacon.

So that's where the pedestrian or cyclist able to push the button and you get the flashing lights to alert drivers that there's somebody in the crosswalk.

We also did a pretty extensive policy review because we wanted to make sure there weren't going to be policy barriers to getting some of the projects implemented, and specifically getting some of the projects implemented as development projects occur.

So overall, we found that there's broad support and all the policies and documents that we reviewed for walking, biking, micromobility, and transit integration across Clearwater as well as within Pinellas County and the forward Pinellas policies.

But we did note some opportunities to make some enhancements to the community development code to enhance some of those overall outcomes.

Some of them including modifying a parking requirements and updating some of the sidewalk standards to better align with some of the other projects that the city has already adopted.

Then we developed an implementation plan.

In some instances, there are agency partners outside the city, whether it be FDOT or the county or forward Pinellas.

We also came up with sort of what's a reasonable timeline.

So some of these might be annual actions, some of these we might aspire to complete within about five years, others are sort of well beyond that five-year time horizon, and then a relative cost.

So here's just a couple of examples.

So on an annual basis, you know, ideally we'll come back to you or staff will come back to you once a year to just kind of report what did we do?

How many crossing improvements did we make?

How many miles of urban trail were we able to construct?

And then even a high level some crash reporting of did we move the needle on crashes involving people walking or biking.

And then even there's some trail counters out there.

So even coming back and noting, did we see an increase or a change in demand?

Within five years, you know, updating some of the land development codes, collaborating with some agency partners, constructing some of those lower cost improvements, and then longer term building out that urban trail network because we know those projects will take a little bit longer to design and then get the funding together to construct.

And then here's just an example of one of the concept plans that we developed.

So this is on MLK, and you can see it's it's a concept plan, but there's enough in there that we can really start to see all right.

What is this project entail?

What might the crossing improvements might be?

And this is really intended as a starting point to go to the community and get their feedback and ideas and then refine the plan even more.

And then here's an example of a standalone crossing improvement that has some independent utility beyond what might happen on the corridor as well.

And in this case, the the emphasis here was really just improving access to a bus stop because right now, if you get off at the bus and want to go to the other side of the street, there's not really a clear way for people to do that.

Um and especially if maybe you're you're you know student going to one of the schools and you want to get across the street.

I know I always worry about my kids trying to figure out the best way to cross the street.

Um and then in the the back of the report, we just included a list of potential grants and then a technical appendix with a lot more details.

So with that, happy to answer any questions you all may have.

Questions?

I don't have a question, but I was just want to let you I don't have a question, but um, I was reading the whole the two presentations, and uh I actually called her out overwhelmed when I was trying to look at all your concepts and then try to see if there was any overlapping with your tables, and then looking at the price associated with all of them.

I is a tall order, and I'm glad that you that we have you guys to figure this out because it's extensive, it's a huge wish list.

Um, and then you know, might you go down that rabbit hole, right?

Oh, how are we gonna fund this?

Who's gonna fund this?

Who's gonna apply for the brand?

But I it's needed, but it's quite a lot of work that that you guys are putting in there.

So that's all I just wanted to let you know I was overwhelmed with all I saw because it was a lot of things listed there.

Councilman.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you for the presentation.

This is uh it's important and and vitally um vitally important to our community.

So often we talk about traffic on our roadways and how to move vehicles through our corridors and how to keep them safe.

Um but there's also the whole other side of it of not everyone is in a car and limiting cars and keeping those pedestrians and strollers and wheelchairs and and wiker walkers and bicyclists uh safe on our road on our um trail systems or sidewalks.

Uh this completely aligns with our regional mobility plans.

I know Ford Pinellas at the county level has set this as a priority uh in moving forward as far as um funding mechanisms for this.

I know this day is just learned in Tallahassee how important it is that when you go there with plans and priorities, we make sure we have all the work in place and funding mechanisms in line so that they want to see shovel ready boots on the ground projects that that's what they want to get behind and invest in, and if we want grants, uh this is part of that process.

Uh I think it's in Clearwater, uh, as we all know, you know, our we're we're kind of geographically spread out pretty pretty far from beach to bay, and our neighborhoods are very clustered, um, which is a challenge for us.

Um but we do have some beautiful and unbelievable trail systems throughout our communities and finding finding creative ways to try to connect those different neighborhoods to our beautiful parks, to our trail systems, uh through our downtown park and our beach and keeping families safe and not feeling the necessity to get behind the wheel uh is vitally important.

So I appreciate all the work the team put into this.

Uh I'm 100% supportive of it.

I know councilmember Albretton and I are always um discussing and pulling for Clearwater and for these options in Ford Pinellus, and they're ready to fund uh opportunities like this, and this is an important step.

So thank you.

Anybody else?

Council Mark Cotton?

Yeah, I have a few questions for you guys if you might be able to answer them.

Thank you for the presentation.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for the 15 months.

Um the first one through this resolution are we going to be at the city council committing to any specific facility types or can engineering recommend alternatives later on?

Yes, that's what I was kind of uh you know, referencing when I say it's a planning level.

The concepts are planning level that need to be further fleshed out through an engineering as part of the design process, you know, the feasibility we know where utilities are on a two-dimensional level, but going underground, other things.

Um, any every now and then there could be some kind of um land use that doesn't it's not compatible with what we're proposing, and that's the thing about the list.

The list is not everything that we want, it's the ranking of a lot of things.

So if one pulls out, then we have the next one on the list that we can look at or we can go down, you know, to to get something that is feasible, cost efficient and such.

And I'd also um sorry, uh Kelsman Cotton to address uh Councilman Manino's uh thoughts.

We talked to Denedin, we talked to FDOT, we talked to the county, and part of this is incorporating our neighbors in this process and working together because that really strengthens any kind of grant proposal that we will go and pursue to develop one or more of these projects.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Uh next question, and I'm sure or hope you guys did this, uh, which brings on the question is what is the anticipated um continuing improvement plan uh or the exposure of that with implementing those top rank products?

Did you guys take into account more people moving into the area and and how that exposure will probably affect those projects, or do you we understand that those are targets that might move?

Yeah, so the the plan does sort of anticipate sort of some land use changes throughout time and that neighborhood needs might change.

So as new developments come in, there's an opportunity to take a look at the plan and see.

Oh, there's an apartment complex that's going in here.

Can we get them to construct X, Y, or Z project along their frontage and then perhaps connect to something else?

Um within the implementation plan itself, we also suggest doing sort of a light refresh within five years to kind of take a look and is this still the right plan for clear water?

Um, does it need to adjust?

What types of funding opportunities might have come available?

Um we've identified there's potential opportunities if there's undergrounding of utilities along the corridor, or let's just not not build back exactly what's there, but maybe there's an opportunity to widen the sidewalk or do other improvements at that point.

Um, so we're really trying to structure the plan to be somewhat opportunistic because again, it's got a big price tag, and we know there's got to be a lot of different partners to to come in and help.

Um, last question is how will the council uh be brought back in?

Is that when we a project is chosen, and then you guys would fine-tune it and then bring it back just like any other project is that what I would assume?

Well, it's for us coming back would report just basically on what types of movements have things been able to get into the engineering department's budget cycle or at least consideration and such.

Um, and then when you hear about a project would be when it's moving forward through you know, as far as the traffic engineering and our engineering public works department, um as they are.

I'm sorry.

Oh, I as they um are analyzing it, so that would be the next uh time it would come before you, except for the annual update, which would be a more general view.

Understood now it's time for my Mr.

Wonderful hat to go on.

Um so when reviewing this, when reviewing all the documents that go with it, um I appreciate your hard work, I really do.

But this essentially to me is is a complete streets campaign.

Um I'm all for safer crosswalks, I'm all for safer roads, and I'm all for better signaling timing and connectivity.

But in no way am I for road diets, lane removal, or reducing vehicle capacity.

And even in the few um examples that were given, you could see it was a wider sidewalk that's already coming into MLK.

We just did the MLK parade, and that's already a tight enough road as is.

I can imagine putting a bigger, wider sidewalk in there and then reducing that down to one lane and putting different things in there.

I get it, it was just an example, but something like that.

I'm more for a project-by-project consideration rather than a blanket resolution that binds this city staff and elected officials, both current and future, uh, to any specific standard.

I'd rather you guys be implementing what's going forward, seeing what's ranking high and what needs to be done, bringing it to us and letting us go over it at that point and see what's best for our city in the time.

Planning is always great, and I will say that we need to continue planning, but in my um estimation, I I am not for this resolution because of those standards that I laid out, but thank you very much for what you brought forward to us.

Um, if I may address that, this is by no means committing the city to these projects at all.

And as MLK, um, these are based on the right-of-way and not uh reducing lane width whatsoever.

The only time we mention lane width reduction would be for some type of a bike lane where it would be just enough to put in some kind of vertical or protective barrier, and even that is not being committed by uh approving this plan.

And I just want to note that in other communities where the plan is fully adopted, it then provides some leverage when a developer comes in and they might conflict with widening a sidewalk or whatnot with their development plans to be able to point to the document and compel them to make some of the improvements along with their project versus needing to acquire right away or do other things in the future.

No, I appreciate that.

I'm I'm thinking in in real world practical senses, right?

Right now the county's doing 71st Street, and I deal with it every third day at the fire department.

And uh when they first initially uh presented it, we thought that the street was going to be bigger, right?

And now we're getting a much larger, much wider sidewalk.

Technically, we're getting less room.

And trying to fit a 53,800 pound fire engine through two lanes of traffic going north on one of my major major arteries creates more uh disruption than any help, especially when I'm trying to get to somebody in timely manner.

And I know this this is nothing to you guys.

I'm just trying to say that I would much rather a project hit my feet with what it is, why it is there, let those who are here uh judge it on its merits and and cast what their vote where they may on on whether a project goes forward, not simply push forward a resolution that is going to be going solely for what we anticipate.

I know not lane um reduction, but even when you're winding sidewalks, it's either going to uh the public rights of way where you have it and then ending where you don't, or asking for a property owner to concede some of that right away, or going into the street.

So again, this solely comes down to you got a project, I believe in you guys, bring it to me.

Let me see the merits of that project and go forward inch by inch, not putting a resolution out there that says this is what we're going to do.

anybody else?

I just have a question.

If we adopt this resolution, what exactly are we committing to?

I guess that needs clarification because I I didn't think my mind, I wasn't agreeing to the whole plan, just the continuation of looking into it.

Am I correct?

That is correct.

That's why we're calling it a planning level.

This is uh higher level before approving any kind of a project, it would definitely need much more in-depth analysis from an engineering standpoint, such these are these are potential projects.

And I think I might um you know, lay in, I I agree with you, and I know uh state level left, there's no appetite for road diets right now.

I'd tell you the US Department of Transportation, there's no appetite for funding projects that have road road diets.

So that's not um, and you know, we talked about this earlier in our terms, the five of us on another street in Clearwater.

So I I think that that's something you know we would we would not want to focus on if we got a proposed project in front of us.

I do think though that uh it's good for us to have an overall active transportation plan for the entire city because we do want to encourage pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

We have fantastic trails.

We have the Nellis Trail goes through, we have uh you know, we have all kinds of trails.

We got several trails going east-west, we got trails going uh north-south, and um it's it's an important part of our quality of life.

An example, November, they're gonna connect the um the Courtney Campbell Causeway Trail to the north side of Court Gamble, which will open up potentially, expanding the trail up through uh east part of Clearwater into Safety Harbor.

And so uh I do think we want to nourish and nurture and keep growing our trails because they're a very important part of quality of life here, and I think this plan overall, you know, gives us a commitment to doing that with the flexibility to change whatever project we want to do and spend however much we would do.

But it but I think it's important to show the community, yes, we care about alternative forms of transportation, not just for getting to and from work where we're recreational.

It's important part of our quality of life here, and I I think it's important that we adopt this plan for that reason.

The other thing I'll say, and a little bit what Councilmember Cotton, you had said uh earlier.

I want to make sure that you know we're we're putting money where it's going to when it comes to safety, the things that will actually increase safety.

Um we had a fatality here recently on Court Street at Missouri where you know the innocent person was just at he was where he was supposed to be.

He was clearly marked, he was where and just happened to be unfortunately involved in a collision between two cars, which we know of a number of pedestrian accidents we've had in Clearwater in Gulf the Bay, primarily.

People in dark clothing have been crossing in in the middle of the night, and and uh you know, drivers just aren't able to see them.

So we've got some pedestrian behaviors and a lot of driver behaviors.

So to the extent we're doing some of these projects to increase safety, I just want to make sure they're gonna increase safety that um uh and and uh the 10 you've got priorities.

I don't know.

I haven't looked at each one of those to see if they're connected to some problem we've had.

I know Refgot landed with Drew Street was trying to fix the intersections where they had the most accidents, and um, and hopefully, if we're looking at safety, we're looking at those 10 projects and how they can increase safety.

So for me, I just see it as a statement by the city that we care about active transportation and all forms of transportation, not just for getting places but recreationally, and we're trying to encourage that.

So that's that's how I see it.

But I understand Councilmember Cotton what you're saying.

Council Member Cotton.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Did you want to go first?

It doesn't matter, go ahead.

Okay.

Um to that, I'm not saying planning is not important.

I think that we all know planning is extremely important, right?

Um, I don't understand why we would have to put a resolution to this, right?

I mean, when you read what the resolution says, this this will provide a foundation for a balanced transportation system.

I mean, I I don't understand why we're trying to put ourselves binding ourselves in any way with written document when it just makes sense that we would have a plan that we want to make sure that it's the safest plan that we're doing it for the betterment and best of our community moving forward.

Again, that's I I pointed out uh all the reasons as to why and what this kind of uh is looking like from my uh view and standpoint, and and you know, what I I can count as council member Nina says when we go forward, um, but I I will be opposing this as a resolution.

I think that we continue to plan, make the best plan for our safety of our citizens.

Um, but I'm just not going to ever vote to bind city staff or ourselves to a resolution of this is the plan.

So that's where I'm coming out from.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Robert.

Well, a resolution to me is just stating a fact that we're resolved to moving forward on a plan.

That's all it is.

It's not like uh we're not codifying anything, we're just resolving that the count this council is stating that we want to put a plan together for our transportation plan.

And um it can be changed, it's not uh really a code, it's just uh it's just a stating that we do have something in in place.

So I'll be supporting it because of that.

I know that could be changed at any time, and and it should be, it should be changed as we go, but you know, it kind of tells the public that we've we've got something in in place, and um I mean that's the way I look at it.

Owen, can you just back me up on that or tell me if I'm wrong?

Our resolution is just an expression of council.

That's all it is.

And I believe that the reason that the resolution is before you so staff knows that the plan has been approved, if I'm not mistaken.

That's why you brought the resolution.

And uh just want to add a number of grants do require that the plan be uh sort of approved by the governing board um as that sign of support for qualifying um for the grant funds.

Okay, Mr.

Manino.

Thank you for saying that was one of my questions regarding grant funding.

I I just want to bring a little clarity.

I I appreciate the conversation.

I agree with so much what the council member said regarding you know road dieting and get us locked into certain things.

There is an apprehension with that, and I don't believe this does that.

I think uh what we want to make sure we understand this is nothing more than a citywide framework, right?

A high-level overview of what a micro-mobility plan or options and opportunities are within our community, where some of our challenges are.

This is dumped in our lap, and now it's on us as a team and as a staff to come together and identify those priorities, what is a need, what isn't.

That plan obviously can change, uh, but this is nothing more than just a framework.

It doesn't lock us into any certain final projects or authorize even one penny of spending.

Am I correct in saying okay?

And I appreciate the detail too.

It seemed like it took me 20 minutes to download the full report, which uh to Councilmember Cotton, thank you for raising that because I I do want to before Thursday read through the entire thing.

I I summarized it and went through and looked at the slides, but it's a very long report, and I I agree with you.

I'd like to look at it closer too.

Well, if you if I may, if not, just make sure we all read the resolution too, because I mean right here page one.

Whereas the Florida Department of Transportation adopted the complete streets policy in 2014 and published the Florida Design Manual in 2017 that was updated in 2025 to support transportation planning and promote safety, quality life, and economic development in Florida.

And so I guess I was right.

It does kind of go down the complete streets avenue.

So let's again, I know you guys do your homework just as I do, but let's make sure we read it.

So we're not agreeing to the plan that we might not think it is.

Yeah, the the language of the resolution is important lay too.

So I'll take a look at that.

If I may, so internally we had some very similar conversations as you guys are having at the DIS.

And so you know, the the planning department's done a great job in terms of making sure that we had an opportunity to discuss our concerns with some of the projects that were on there.

Um there's team members out there that you know were very engaged in some of these these projects that just have some hesitation on, and so um just know that the you know the planning department was very receptive to that, and certainly from the feedback that we got, this was not guaranteeing any of these, it was that we would explore these.

Um, and so know that you know it'll be a collaborative approach, that's how we do things.

Um before we bring anything forward, they'll be vetted throughout the entire teams to make sure that we can um we agree in terms of what we're trying to do and that the cost or understand up front what the total project would be.

So we will we will bring each individual project forward um before anything additional occurs.

And like I said, this just gives us the permission to look into these projects to determine if we want to move forward or not.

I appreciate that.

I I really do appreciate that.

And I understand that.

Like I understand all of this, and this is not to beat you guys up or any one person here.

Um this is just going into what the language says, right?

Like before I speak, because I'm a council member, I want to make sure I'm articulating the right phrasing and terminology because I believe my words do count when I say something, and I don't want there to be any apprehension or does this mean that?

So when we are writing our belief to a plan of the future for the city of Clearwater, that's not my plan, but I'm 105, and I understand my role in this.

I'm just conveying to everybody, I would never sign my name to this.

And I know it's tough.

You have five people up here, you guys do tremendous work.

I'm not trying to discount any of that.

Just what is written, I would not put my name to.

Well, you some of the language of resolution you pointed out that I've got questions about that as well.

So I'm well taken.

Okay.

Anything else?

Okay, we'll move on then to agenda item 8.1.

Approve 30, approve a three-year maintenance and support agreement with Tyler Technologies, Mayor, Council members, Dan Mayor, IT director.

Um, this is a renewal of our agreement with uh or further agreement with uh Tyler Technologies.

They provide our financials and our human capital management solution or payroll system, and we'll be adding this year time in attendance, which is the time clocks.

Uh that'll be replacing Kronos uh at a modest savings but a savings.

We have to get that done by the end of the year.

I'll be happy to take any questions.

Yeah, any questions from this genome?

Councilmember Cotton.

Yeah, thank you, Dan.

I appreciate it and uh look forward to these upgrades.

I again going through the documents.

I saw the different uh percentages that we were saving, so thank you for going through that.

Uh there was just one little cause for concern, and that was the up to six percent increases every year.

Like, could you give me it doesn't say that they will be, it says it up to and could happen.

What would an example of why something would be increased for that calendar year?

It can be at the discretion of the vendor.

Uh old contracts used to do a lump sum over a three-year period, uh, which was an old people soft contract that we worked on.

So normally they try to control costs, they know it's uh it's a burden for for some of their users to absorb big costs, but increases in inflation, I think they're hedging their bets and contractionally that's what they were obvious.

This year I think it only went up just under five percent.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Okay, any other questions, comments.

Okay, do we have consent?

Yep, yes.

We have consent on 8.1.

Thank you.

Uh 9.1.

Approver work authorization with registered construction engineering for pre-construction technical services for the Clearwater Executive Airport Northanger.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I'm Aaron Brayley, Marine and Aviation Division Controller.

This item is a work authorization under our existing CMAR continuing services contract to advance the North Hangar project at New Order Executive Airport.

Uh Council previously approved the Fly USA lease agreement as well as FDOC grant agreements for both the design and construction phases of the corporate hangar project.

Under those agreements, FLY USA is responsible for reimbursing the city for the required local match of 20% for the design.

This work authorization and the amount of $63,666 covers pre-construction and technical services necessary to refine the project scope, coordinate permitting, and develop a guaranteed maximum price for the construction.

This is the first in a series of agreements that will return to council as the project advances toward construction.

Happy to answer any questions may have.

Any questions on this agenda?

I have yes.

Thank you very much for presenting this.

Um and my questions are probably pretty basic.

Uh you just said that this is the first in a series of authorizations to get this work going.

Um I think is what I'm coming down to is the reimbursement with Fly USA.

What type of a phase is that tied into?

Is it we pay and then they'll pay us back within the month, or do we know what that tiered approach looks like?

Yes, yeah.

They are they are we we end up having them sign separate agreements when these when these come to when we get the F dot agreements?

Yeah, Fly USA signs uh uh corresponding agreements stating that after we pay out and invoice them, they pay within a month.

Okay, perfect.

I think that's where uh where I just wanted to know because I didn't see where it said it just said that Fly USA would be reimbursing it.

I didn't know what timeline they have, is that in a decade?

You know, what does that look like?

Um, and you did say the 63,666 dollars is just a part of one of these other uh construction allocations.

Is that correct?

Yes, that's perfect.

All together uh so far we have allocated just over three million dollars for this entire project.

Awesome.

Thank you for connecting those dots.

I appreciate it.

Sorry.

Anything else?

This is not a consent.

Uh I was gonna ask, can we place it on consent?

Do we have consent?

Yeah, we have consent.

Thank you.

Approve resilient Florida grant program agreements between the City of Clearwater and the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection for $4 million for the construction of resiliency improvements at the Clearwater Beach Marina and adopt resolution 26 session 07.

Uh hello, Aaron Braille, Marine and Aviation Division Controller.

Uh this item is a $4 million resilient Florida program grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to support resiliency improvements at the Clearwater Beach Marina.

Uh the funding will assist with construction of an elevated bulkhead, replacement of the existing overwater fuel facility with a floating system designed to better accommodate changing water levels and associated pre-construction and resiliency related activities.

These improvements are part of the larger beach marina reconstruction project and are specifically focused on strengthening our infrastructure against storm surge, sea level rise, and long-term coastal impacts.

This grant helps offset eligible construction costs and reduces the financial burden on our marine enterprise fund while advancing the city's commitment to resilient sustainable waterfront infrastructure.

Happy to answer any questions.

Not a question, just another example.

Uh kudos to the staff on how they how hard we've worked on securing these grants.

This is uh we keep hearing them, they keep coming before us, and they are appreciated.

I know the taxpayers at Clearwater appreciate the work that's being done.

We're obviously being successful at it.

I think our grants have more than doubled within the past calendar year.

So thank you.

Echo the same sentiment to whoever and whomever is working on grants.

You know, you guys are doing a bang up job.

This is awesome.

Four million dollars that um are gonna come into our city to help offset costs and get things done.

Fantastic work.

Let's uh let's not let off the gas in that aspect.

So thank you.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Agenda item 10.1.

Authorized respective agreements between the City of Clearwater and Palm Pavilion Hotel, located at 10 Bay Esplanade, Pier 60 concessions and Barefoot Beach House, located at one Causeway Boulevard, and two 332 South Gulfway Boulevard, respectively, Shepherd's Making Waves, located at 619 South Gulfway, Gulfview Boulevard, Hilton located at 400 Mandalay Avenue, Dolphin Stands, located at 655 Gulfview Boulevard and Hampton Inn and Suites, located at 635 Gulf View Boulevard.

Mayor this uh my item, Dan Slaughter since city manager.

So 2025, the legislator made a modification to statute 1615A to allow municipalities to enter into agreements so that uh certain uh property owners would then be able to utilize uh certain types of vehicles on the coastal beaches so that they could service some rental equipment.

Uh so that's what this item is a collection of all the agreements that we've done to date uh and uh bringing them to you as a package.

Um this uh includes of course is the all the ones that the uh clerk mentioned.

Um it provides a permit sticker for the authorized vehicles and a system for us to internally manage it, and um there are a few more that'll be coming to you.

We'll hope to get those uh completed and bring them at the next council meeting.

There's just a couple other ones that we're having to do some final details on.

Uh there's no new service rental services on Clearwater Beach.

This is all our existing, just making him uh compliant with the state statute.

Um Mr.

Cater's here, he is uh his department will monitor manage the agreements and the permit process, and uh Chief Candy's team would handle any enforcement associated with the statute.

Be more than happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Any questions?

Council Member Robert.

So I I read all the the ones that you have on this form here.

It says Pompeii and Hotel.

Is it the Pompeian hotel or is it gonna be Krabby's uh pavilion that actually puts the umbrellas out?

So I add that very specific question to them.

Now that the property is sold, there the restaurants being managed by one group and the hotel by the other, and the hotel is the gonna be the owner operator for the rental equipment.

Got it, thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Do we have consent?

Yep.

Yeah, consent on 10.1.

Uh and I'm gonna take just a very short five-minute break.

So we'll recess and uh come back in about five minutes, and the company, meeting back the order.

Turn on the microphone, and we'll go to agenda item 11.1.

Reappoint Michael Bootsigus to the community development board with a full term expiring February 28, 2030.

Council members, Mr.

Bousic has just completed his unexpired term and is eligible to be reappointed.

Okay, that's fair point.

No, do we have consent?

Absolutely.

We have consent.

Okay, uh gentlemen item one point.

Appoint an individual to the municipal code enforcement board to fill an unexpired term through November 1, 2028.

Council members, Mr.

Ferrar had to resign from the board.

He resigned back in October, and we finally have a couple of applicants for your consideration.

Um Miss Telsey Gerd at 407 Pennsylvania Avenue with a sales property management background, and Dr.

Michael, Dr.

Mark Michael from 11 Baymont Street, and he's a retired physician.

Okay, Councilmember Manino.

Yeah, Mayor, thank you.

I'll nominate Miss Chelsea Gerd.

Um, I know we've all heard her name multiple times.

She has applied for multiple uh board positions, and um without a doubt is is a passionate citizen in our community.

We do know how passionate and how hard she works in our neighborhood and her neighborhood association.

I think she would be a great fit for the municipal code board.

I agree.

I uh would recommend Dr.

Mark.

Um Chelsea's a big candidate, but that would be a close uh over representation of three three seven five five.

That would be three people in one in one committee from that zip code.

Um Dr.

Mark is um very involved in this community, very well respected.

He would bring a different perspective.

Um I would recommend Dr.

Mark.

Okay, Councilmember Cotton.

Yeah, I went through the zip codes as well, and there would be three for uh Ms.

Grid's zip code and Dr.

Michael would be the second for his zip code.

So he is also has a zip code that's represented.

Um I would be in support of um Chelsea due to her property management background, uh, time limit since abatement board.

You know, as Councilmember Manino pointed out, she's very involved uh within her homeowners community um with the police department.

I think I think everybody around her neighborhood knows who Chelsea is.

You know, I think Dr.

Michael brings uh professional leadership, obviously being a doctor, um some governance experience when going through his um application.

Um but when it comes to actual being involved in the city, it looks like Chelsea's already been active and a part of that, so that's what kind of made my even though the zip codes that it's kind once there's more than one person already represented in my mind that just kind of goes away at that point because you guys know I always try and find somebody that's outside of that zip code.

Um, but both are already represented for our two applicants we have.

So that's where I'm at.

Who is the other one from 33767 that's on the board now?

I do not have that before me, but I can find that.

Right.

Yeah, he he left, but but I think that's still 33767.

Yeah, 67.

It is okay.

So then so then Dr.

Mark will be the only one from that zip code.

Is that with the is that an accurate thing or no?

Does that six, six, seven represent one other member or the or Mr.

Ferrar who left?

Hold on one second, because then there would be no representation from that.

I don't know.

Yes.

Actually, there's only one, so yeah, so that would have been Mr.

Ferrar's, I'm sorry.

I'm I'm I'm for having someone from Matt.

I'm sorry, I I stand corrected.

So that the the zip codes that are listed does already include the fact that Mr.

Farrar is no longer there, so that's Mr.

Plum.

Okay.

Oh so they all do still have the same, they still have representative.

Okay, perfect.

Okay.

Trying to see if we have consensus here.

I don't have a strong feeling on it.

Um either one of these would be good for me.

So I'm a little on the fence.

So um do you you Chelsea?

Chelsea, three of you.

So I'll go along with that.

Okay, good enough.

May I place it on Vice Mayor?

You that's fine.

Yeah.

May I place it on consent with Ms.

Gurd.

Yes.

Do we want it on consent?

Yes.

The question.

I mean, we could vote on it, but we must.

Yes, I'll get it.

Okay.

Okay.

That will move to item 11.3.

Provide direction regarding the August 17, 2026 and November 2nd, 2026 work session meetings.

Council members, due to the uh upcoming August primary and the November election, the supervisor of elections has informed staff that they need access to chambers earlier.

So by we would need to be completed by one o'clock.

So either a we can um change the work session start time to 8 30, or it just holds council meeting only on those two dates.

And then I do have something else after we have some direction there.

Preference.

I'm good with that one.

One meeting that week on our work session, whatever the board's comfortable with.

For for both of these dates, or I'm good with that.

It would just be just the work session, right?

Just that Thursday night.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

So neither, um, so instead of having the two work sessions in August and November, we would just have for that one meeting, you would only have the council meeting.

So no work session that week, just the council meeting.

That's fine.

And I will try to work with staff to try to manage the length of the agenda.

How's that?

We'll see how it goes.

I'm fine with that, but I've got another uh request.

So um this morning I was informed that there is a conflict with the September 3rd council meeting.

And so I need direction from council as to what you want to do.

The issue we have with changing that meeting date, it is our first hearing for our millage.

And we are required by statute to hold the first hearing between uh September 3rd and September 18.

And so we couldn't back it down.

You can't you can't back it out, no.

Oh because September 4 uh September 4th, from what I understand, there may be uh you guys will be traveling to Philly's for the annual meeting, and that is when the county will be holding their first hearing.

Uh and this so we could put it the next week.

It can be the following week if there are no conflicts.

I'll have to double check with the county because we can't also have it with the uh board the school board's hearing.

So if there is no conflict, I'll work with your um assistants to determine or identify if it's possible.

If and if not, then we'll figure it out.

Okay.

This we'll figure it out.

Thank no budget.

I've always traveled up on Friday mornings.

I mean, it's there's possibility to get there on Friday morning to still make Friday night game.

If that's our conflict.

It's tight.

I would have to check it out.

Well, right now it's scheduled for Friday morning, I think.

Yeah.

And I like to go on Thursday because kind of always going that extra day.

Not everybody goes, but uh that's the only reason I wanted to change that date.

You want to change it?

So I would I would prefer that myself if we can look at changing it now.

So what's that?

I understand.

So what what are we doing?

We're gonna move it, see if we can move it to the following week.

I will work with your citizen see if there's a potential date because it does need to be held after six o'clock because it is a public hearing, so it can't start any sooner than six.

Um, so I will see if there's a potential date, and I'll bring that as a separate agenda item if we have consensus with the other two meeting dates.

Okay.

Good.

Okay.

Coming in, we'll see.

Walk away.

You're ready to be the first one.

All right.

I know.

Move to um agenda item 12.1.

Uh Mayor 12.1, that's a city attorney item.

Um, back in November of 2025, the former city attorney brought forth the legal services agreement with Gray Robinson for the defense of a two claims bills involving uh the city of Clearwater and uh Gianni Coast, which is the plaintiff.

Um the agreement was to provide for the defense for the two claims bills in January.

There is a special master's hearing.

Um, some of the fees as a result of the hearing exceeded uh the amount that was allotted.

So uh this um this increase is to um uh cover all the costs and the fees as a result of the special master's hearing.

Be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, any questions?

Okay, none move to agenda item 11.

Excuse me.

12 point two.

Um the remaining or second ordinances or second reading of ordinances that's 12.3 and 12.

All the way through seven.

All the way through through seven.

Yeah, so 12.5 through 12.7 are withdrawn, but they've been advertised.

So if anybody shows up on Thursday.

Okay, move to agenda item 13 then to the manager reports.

Thank you.

Um, I just wanted to say one thing.

This weekend we had multiple events that were occurring simultaneously downtown, and um, while there was some apprehension about how that would work out, it turned out spectacular, and I just wanted to thank the team for their coordination.

And and there was a lot of our team on hand that night to go around and make sure that the businesses and um and the events were all doing well, and they did, and it was really um outstanding to see so many events occurring at the same time and successfully.

So thank you to the all the teams that were responsible for making sure that went off so well.

Thank you.

Okay.

Nothing, Mayor.

Update on traffic studies.

That's you.

Absolutely, thank you.

Um, Mayor, appreciate it.

Last work session, uh, there was a discussion uh regarding traffic studies on Clearwater Beach and our partnership with PSTA uh regarding the trolley uh during spring break.

Um just wanted to bring a little bit of clarity because there are multiple traffic studies going on uh throughout our corridor of 60.

So I just want to make sure we were all on the same page and with Mr.

Albritton and I representing uh us at Ford Pinellas.

I thought that was a good time not to do it at that work session or at that agenda item, but to come back this week.

Um the the existing one that the gentleman was talking about uh is regarding our Clearwater Beach mobility and traffic study that goes from our roundabout and heads towards San Key.

That is a partnership with Ford Pinellus.

Uh Clearwater skin in the game was $50,000.

Uh forward Pinellas put up uh just under 274,000 dollars on a commitment to give you an idea of where they are.

That uh study has been completed, it's reviewing findings and recommendations were presented uh last week to Whit Blanton and his Ford Pinellas team.

Uh that was on February 26th.

The next step for that is to come forward for Ford Pinellus.

We'll have a meeting with our city staff.

They will update them on those um findings and recommendations, followed by we will be updated on that plan what it looks like the recommendations, and then it would subsequently be uh presented to Ford Pinellas.

So as a dias will staff will see it first, uh then us and then the group at Ford Pinellas, but that has been completed.

I know we're all interested in finding out what those recommendations and results are.

The second study that's currently concurrently going on at the same time is with the FDOT, Ford Pinellus, and Clearwater.

The scope is from that roundabout heading directly east over State Road 60 corridor to McMullen Booth.

That startup funding was provided by FDOT.

Their funding for that project will last through the summer of 26.

We are getting pretty close to that.

The reason this study is going on several years ago.

The county did a study regarding our belcher Gulf of the Bay intersection.

We all know the safety challenges that exist there.

They came back with three recommendations.

One was an overpass, another was a U-turn and no left turns.

The county did not like any of them.

Their concern was why we might address and mitigate safety at this one intersection.

They didn't feel any of the studies really told them what that does east and west of that intersection.

So it's back being studied again.

There is some gaps in that study because of funding.

What Ford Pinellis is committing, they're committing an extra 200,000 if the city would match that and put skin into that study.

The ask for us as a dais to give that direction of 200,000 match.

FDOT has put over 400,000 into it, so it would be a 200 city, 200 Ford Pinellus, and 400 from FDOT.

Ford Pinellas does recognize that this isn't normally how this communication should and they would prefer to happen.

They do have great communication with our our city staff.

If we get closer to the summer, uh FDOT will directly hit a pencils down position, and that's not somewhere I think that we want to be when it comes to this study and all the time and energy over the years that's gone into it.

So the ask is a direction from the dais for a 200,000 match.

I know at one point uh we were waiting for uh a fed uh state grant, I believe.

I know staff could probably talk to where we were with that state grant, uh safe streets.

Uh we did commit, depending on that graph, uh, upwards up to $500,000.

I think that grant has kind of been on hold at that level.

I don't know if staff wants to talk to that at this point or at another time.

Dan Slarcensity Manager Anna is here, so she could speak to it.

It was a federal grant, I believe, and I think it was just on hold during the shutdown, but uh it is one that we committed based on the scope being compliant with it.

Thank you.

So we were originally um approached FDO FTOT with the Safe Streets for All Grant.

Um we were just in the stage of um having our agreements reviewed with the administration for my administration at the time, and when the administration switched, um, we were put on hold.

Now we've requested uh multiple updates from them, and it seems like as soon as things make movement for us to receive the funding, it gets put on hold again.

So we're literally just waiting for them to release a 400,000.

Or I think the grant amount is about one point um 1.4 million with our match.

So we're just waiting on them to give us the green light so we can proceed.

But we have a um we have an award for about one million dollar.

Thank you.

Um the the fear at the county level is that if we continue to wait and this um communication doesn't happen and we do not get this ball rolling that that funding mechanism uh will drop.

Um, and the last thing the county wants to see as pencils down again.

I just discussed it earlier that when we were in Tallahassee, we did learn how important it is to make sure we had those funding mechanisms uh in place for these projects.

Um last thing we want to do is decenitize the state from funding a project like that.

So again, that is the request $200,000 match that Ford Pinellus would also match.

Um, and we can discuss that afterwards.

The third, um the third is a multi-jurisdictional uh project.

That's Pinellas Hillsborough County, City of Clearwater in Tampa, and that's a PD and E study.

That's project development environmental study, and that's the Courtney Campbell Causeway.

That's McMullen Booth, all the way across the bridge to the Veterans Expressway.

That is 100% FDOT funded.

Uh, Clearwater does not have money in that, however, we do have a lot of interest in it.

Uh the legislation recently uh put into work.

The anything that's put into a PD and E category automatically must be funded within five years.

And when we see them as years down the road, this project because they put it into a PD and E category, we will see things transpire with that one pretty quick.

But those are those are the three traffic studies that are currently going on in our 60 corridor.

Again, I'll go back to the roundabout east to McMullen booth is the one that uh has a funding issue and a gap, and if we could find a way to close that gap without you know waiting for a grant with the unknown and uncertainty that we have with that, uh that would be uh probably more beneficial to Clearwater.

We could certainly take it back, talk to finance and see if we can find a funding mechanism for you to bring back for you to consider it for approval.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Any questions or any comments?

Thank you.

Move to agenda item 15.2.

Yes, sir.

That's my agenda, and that's uh coming to alignment with our city's tree uh ordinance in December.

The county um updated their ordinance, and that was uh ordinance number 251822A.

Um it's in regards to their tree permitting, and the reason I'm bringing it up is because when a local jurisdiction or municipality does something that seems to be and provide more efficiencies and uh ease on their constituents, it's something that I think we should review and look at.

And in reviewing their ordinance versus what we have now, it does seem to be more efficient for not only uh property owners but also ease the burden on staff and reviewing different things.

Um I'm asking for us to do now is I brought it to the city manager.

I I showed her the ordinance a list of five or six different things that I noted was different in our curtain ordinance versus theirs.

Uh she advised it'd be over the eight hours of staff time, so it would need to be brought to this uh board for approval to start looking at.

You know, currently we're on an inch for inch replacement model, which can be rigid and difficult for property owners or business owners to navigate.

Uh the county went to a tiered uh mitigation structure, and um it looks like it's gonna has and will help with the expectations and uh predictabilities of allowing those homeowners or business owners to um essentially have more grace, if you will, in proceeding with what trees can come down.

I do want to say that this is in no way touching protections and messing with our canopy.

Um it's about refining what we're already doing.

We'll continue to protect uh the specimen trees and which are pointed out by staff as well as historic trees.

This is just about um easing the unnecessary burdens for routine residential removal, smaller trees that have minimal canopy or any type of growth that impacts anything.

Um I think that in doing these types of things and having the will and willingness for us to see another municipality change something that it might be working for them and us to review our processes, builds trust with our constituents.

It shows that we're always trying to look for those efficiencies and be more reasonable and come um and bring compliance to an easier way that they can understand.

Um with that, uh I would like to see that if you guys are comfortable, we can give staff direction to uh look into the county's ordinance, look into our ordinance and maybe bring ours more in line, if not I'll say copy what the county did.

Okay, council member Altman.

So my question is how would I how would that affect the CRA decision on the tree?

That's the tree thing that just happened.

Do we know you mean the C B A?

I mean, I'm sorry, C D B.

Or C D B.

Um I'm not sure if we're prepared to answer.

I can tell you the county says it's only from this state going forward, it's nothing retroactive.

It's nothing retroactive.

Okay.

Um and um Councilmember Cotton did bring this up.

Um we ran it through our team having a conversation in terms of the time that it would take for this, which was in excess of the eight hours, which is why it's coming to the dias to determine if that's something that the council wants to direct our team to do, and then you know, we'll have to discuss in terms of priorities.

Okay, any other comments.

Um I'm supportive.

I thank you um for bringing this forward.

Uh I I followed the county commissioners multiple discussions on this.

I think at the end of the day, what they what they found was um they found a pragmatic approach that respects both uh private property rights and the collective good and pays respect to uh to our environment and the uh the tree canopy in our community that uh we we so desire and and need um and I think they did a good job of truly weighing the property rights and administrative inefficiencies against that environmental protection.

So I'm supportive of the direction they went for staff to look into it.

Okay.

Anybody else?

Sure.

Sure, if if I may if you're not you want to finish your conversation on the days I was gonna just I guess um you you're supportive of it, um everybody.

Yes, yeah.

I I'm smart enough to uh I don't think we're gonna you know there's no intent by any of us to you know we want to protect our tree canopy, but um it did seem like the county's provisions were sensitive to homeowners that uh you know I've you know we've all heard feedback from homeowners of Clearwater.

It's it's um we're we're pretty truck tough with folks who are well intended, they just want to make their home look more beautiful, and um our current rules are pretty tough on folks.

So I think uh again protecting the tree canopy for the entire city is incredibly important to our city, but yet finding some um some concessions we can make to make it a little bit easier on property owners.

I thought the county did that, and I support this as well.

So I guess the consensus of the five of us is to support looking at it.

Appreciate that.

Thank you for that clarification.

Um if you'd like, we can start with a kind of a high-level presentation at our NYX opportunity to meet with you with planning department leading the way there are multiple departments involved, which is why we wanted to kind of understand what the con what the questions were so we can properly kind of put the conversation together, tell you what we are what our existing rules are, of course, right?

Go over those, tell you some things because there's some things in process that we're working on, uh staff-wise, but also you know, give you some feedback with respect to that policy and where we think we can go forward from there.

So I think you're looking for kind of that all of that information to make a decision or give us further direction on what you want to do, so we can do that at a future at an upcoming meeting.

I don't believe we'd have another meeting this month, but it would be next month if that's right.

So we can do that.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, again, I don't know what uh resources you'll need to invest in it.

I just knew it was over the eight hours, so I don't want this to be rushed, and you know, and I don't think that's what you're saying.

I'm not I'm just saying we we can do something that gives you information perfect and have a conversation and go from there.

Awesome.

Okay, nope, all for it.

I think we're really looking we're looking really to see if we can mimic or copy what what they've done because it does seem like I said the efficiencies seem to be there, and and I don't want to encumber you all in and going from scratch.

I mean, if something seems to be working and it seems to have already uh be benefiting residents from one angle, I mean we don't need to reinvent the wheel, you know what I'm saying?

So if you and that's the reason for us really giving you kind of an overview of perfect how it works, if you will, and and um have a discussion about what we may be of recommendation to tweak or what you may see is you're hearing something that we're not doing.

So this is a conversation.

Awesome.

Okay.

Thanks up.

Okay, thank you all.

Two times 15.3.

Um that's mine, and in our weekly meetings, city manager brought to me uh request we had had to I think add a link for a group to the construction page with the city website.

It wasn't um her necessarily a link.

Um that's why I called the clarify.

It was a matter of information being provided in any number of ways.

There wasn't any one way that the request was made, but just that it would include all construction projects that are occurring in the downtown.

Okay, and right now it's just those that we have some city involvement in that is currently what is listed, that is correct.

So we know there are a number of other projects that they all have commercial realtors, and they're all I I just I page my feedback to staff was that I just I didn't really want to deviate on that page, that city government page, official page from just talking about city government activities.

So to the extent we can support all, and we do.

I mean, we we're out there working with community and private property owners and um realtors in this case, you know, and uh uh downtown.

We've got a number of commercial realtors working on different properties, filling those that we all lean in and we all talk to potential tenants and talk about what's going on downtown.

But my concern was to put, you know, I I think we're crossing a line a bit when we start uh deviating from discussing on our official web page what anything other than things that we have been directly involved in.

So the Gotham properties, obviously.

That's one that went through our process to select them.

The ballot makes sense, the Osceola Garage.

Certainly, we all want to champion growth and uh development of downtown.

Uh I my feedback to staff was just that I I didn't want to really get into any non to get into all construction because that really opens the door for anybody and everybody.

And I think for use of other government web pages, it you know I I don't know what point are we helping folks advertise or helping them, you know, promote their own private business centers with the official web page.

Again, for me, it's not about you know whether or not we talk to the community partners and potential partners and I encourage them to invest and and take space in downtown Clearwater and have a presence here.

For me, it was just about information on our official page, other than those projects that the city has been directly involved in.

So that was my big point.

Um and I I just want to clarify because we we've had both requests from the public and then from other developers about other projects that are going on in downtown.

And so since we have this construction page, could we not add everything?

Um we've had conversations with some of the outside consultants that we are working with to help rebrand Clearwater.

Um also in terms of discussing what's going on, kind of keeping the excitement as it relates to while we're under construction, and so they provided just different opportunities or different ways that we could show the multiple investments that are being made in downtown without any one kind of type of promotion, it's just a matter of like informational purposes only, which is why like I said, there's no requirement for a link, there's no requirement for anything like that.

It was really more so just um information so that there is transparency about all the investment that's occurring in downtown.

So I I kind of understand where you're coming from on it that we don't want to be giving anybody free advertising and promotional stuff, but I think it's so important to show everything that's going on.

We just had a a great article in the magazine about what's happening in downtown Clearwater, and it showed all our projects and you know things that we're from, but there's other things going on, and I think it's important to show that even if it's just informational that we've got this, this, and this, and this going on besides the things that we're with, I think it does generate excitement, and I think you're gonna see a lot more of it happening.

I I I yeah, I understand I'm gonna oppose that.

I I mean this is all kind of high-level talking, so I don't I don't know what I'm envisioning what it would say or not say.

I I think it's perfectly we talk about the number of acres or lots or opportunities for retail development or whatever.

Uh I don't think it's uh I don't I don't but you know, our you know, our downtown really stretches all the way up to Belf the Bay.

I mean, it's really it's it's a wide area.

It's not it's not just downtown in particular, it's it's a wide group.

Uh our dump town's pretty big, so but but I'm not against talking about the number of properties and all these things.

I just I I hesitate to get into specific parts of downtown, specific owners, because then it becomes a well, why didn't I get what didn't you mention?

I mean I I just think you you also get into a level of fairness too, you know, what are you giving one same attention to the others?

But talk about the overall opportunities downtown.

I mean, obviously the ones that the city has been directly involved in.

But you know, uh these these folks have got had no trouble, you know, uh when I say these folks.

I mean Gotham folks and the hotel and other folks who have developed.

We've got the um affordable housing that's going up there in the gateway across the major suit patch.

I mean, folks, folks have been able to promote their own properties and growth their own properties and fill it.

We want to facilitate that.

I just think the government website is maybe not the best place to do that.

There are other ways to do it.

So that was my concern.

Well, then how do we when this comes to fruition, like we're in the stages of Pinellas County Master Plan and their property?

I mean, I think definitely we should be showing what's happening there or linking to it or something, because that's something a lot of people aren't familiar with.

I mean, a lot of people are familiar with it, but a lot of people aren't.

I mean, they don't know.

I talked to somebody, it was about a month ago.

Um, oh yeah, look up what 13 acres of you know, Pinellas County moving out of it, and they were like shocked.

I guess they don't well, there's really not a lot of newspapers that read nowadays, but you know when I know this for a fact that if you want to get information out, you have to be so redundant with it.

You gotta almost be so repetitive with it that you go.

How can anybody not know here know this?

Because that's how you reach people because everybody's in their bubble, and you know, you've got to get it out to everybody, and it takes a lot to get it out to people.

That's all I know.

So but the but there again, you know, I I understand what you're saying.

But there again, that's a government project.

I mean, that makes sense.

That's the government, the Penels County governments control it.

So I don't know.

Again, we're talking.

I love I thought there was gonna be a link to specific groups that wanted to I don't know what exactly we're talking about.

Uh I'd like to see what you know draft models there is to talk about it, but I would just encourage us to stay a high level so that we again it's not just about you know, draw it's partly drawing the line between public and private for just use of a public website to promote private business, and you know, we all have concerns about that, but some of it is a fairness of you know, is everybody getting treated equally too.

That if you're not careful, you open the door, then now you get into those conversations.

So um you're actually I actually went back to the site just to clarify a couple of things.

In order to go along with your with your uh you know, your way of thinking, it would have to be downtown or city of clear water construction projects.

Correct, right?

But for me, this is a government web page to inform and educate our public about all the projects.

And when I click on all of them, they have a very nice standardized format for each and every single one.

So I don't have a problem with including all the projects because I think it does convey a positive message as long as we're consistent and it's standardized.

So whatever format we do for our steel parking garage is the same one as we do for Gotham, and and they are.

So if we can keep it standardized, therefore we don't um you know endorse anyone, then I don't I don't have a problem with it.

The more I believe the more the better, as long as it's just by project or by address is completely uh neutral.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you.

I was waiting waiting for the green light.

Um, Mayor, thank you for putting this forward.

Um it's an important conversation to have.

Um I I understand where you're coming from.

I think you know, you identify things that really highlight the importance of neutrality, the importance of consistency, um, the importance of fairness.

Uh, and I agree with all that.

I think there, I think there probably is a common ground that we can find that strikes a key with both sides.

Um, you know, Clearwater is undoubtedly in an exciting period of time and change down here, and whether it's been called an urban renaissance or a downtown reboot, uh, these are these are exciting times with a lot of good things going on.

I think we've all identified the vital importance of us as council members and staff to continue to tell that story of hope and optimism and growth.

Um and we've committed, you know, not just this dais and and many groups before us and leadership teams have committed a lot of a lot of resources and dollar amounts to truly try to shift and change those perceptions in our community.

Uh I think this is this is a way that we can.

Um I think it's a way to tell that story.

Uh to me, um, you know, not just listing our public projects that are downtown, but the private projects, the public-private partnerships, maybe finding a uh equilibrium for you is let's identify what what is in what category, what's public, what's private, what's a partnership.

I think when we start to do that, uh, we're contributing uh to the transparency of what we're doing down there.

I think it has the ability uh to reduce confusion, uh, prevents misinformation, I think it does away with some redundant questions to staff or to us of what's going on and who's this and who's that.

Uh you know, when we're talking our downtown, I don't let's be transparent.

Let's say it's we're talking about the church of Scientology and downtown buildings.

I think there's a lot of you know, discussions over the years have been please develop, please activate.

Uh, regardless of what partnership it is, I think when groups develop and activate downtown, we we should find a way to tell that story and not you know, we keep moving the goalposts sometimes.

I think you know, finding that way to improve that communication to our citizens, to our visitors.

I think the message that we send to the the real estate market of positive of growth, of growing, of activity, I think that's important.

I think it encourages collaboration, it increases visibility, it ensures that information that's out there is accurate and factual that's being presented.

So I think there is a a lot of key points.

I I do understand where where you're coming from and the fairness, um, keeping it consistent, the perceived endorsement of something is I can see where that could be a concern.

So maybe if we find a way to separate public-private, public-private partnerships and identify what they are, keep them all neutral and consistent, uh, as well as even you know, put a disclaimer on there above some of the private developments that you know, although these are permitted through the city of Clearwater, that's no more than a permanent process, and it's not an endorsement of you know what they're doing, something that gives some comfort to it.

But I do think um, I do think it's a positive to for transparency and to move this city forward to tell that story uh of those downtown projects.

Casmir Cotton?

Yes, sir, thank you.

I just want to is this what we're talking about?

Is this the map now?

We can pull it up if you want.

Well, there's a there's a page like the top actual compound.

Joel, will you please put it up just so it's clear what we're talking about?

Nothing.

Um the request come from the Cleveland Street Alliance.

I've had the request, I mean I've had requests in terms of what's going on on downtown about multiple properties from a lot of different people.

So no.

Um to actually be mentioned.

There was no request to mention the Cleveland Street Alliance.

No.

That was an option in terms of uh a way to communicate the information would be to refer to the Cleveland Street Alliance web page because it's listed there.

Um but there was not a request that it be it be that.

It was more of a request to communicate all the projects that are going on and the construction projects in downtown.

I get the request from media.

I get the I mean I have a current request from the media about the projects in downtown.

So I'm but to my point.

Again, look, I'm I'm not for I'm not saying we don't talk about growth and opportunities in downtown for everybody.

Um but you know, if one of them is Cleveland Street Alliance, and that's a for-profit LLC, and it and Scott Dobbins, a commercial realtor, is listed on Sunbiz as the manager of an LLC, which is fine.

Uh but I I just I think you know, I I think we need to be careful that we're not you know are we are we using it to help commercial realtors or we use it uh and again I don't know what the description's gonna be, I don't have a misunderstanding about what we're gonna do with the information.

Maybe if I knew more about what we're trying to do, I might feel differently about it.

But uh it doesn't it it doesn't prevent us from doing all kinds of things, and I even tried to call Mr.

Dobbins years, not not years ago, months ago, offer my assistance to talk to potential tenants that he might have for his space.

Um wasn't able to get in touch with him to have that conversation, but certainly we all do that to to promote.

I've been on meeting here recently talking about that.

I did a thing for local news down there on Cleveland Street, promote all the all the business and business opportunities.

So maybe I just need to learn more about what the proposal is here because um it doesn't sound like it's what I thought it was, but uh I I kind of need to know more, and all I wanted to do was express to the other four of you what my concerns were the bases were about it.

Well again, I just think it's I think it's important that we give you direction on what is appropriate and what's not because it in my mind it could be done in a way that uh I I don't know that it's an appropriate use of the government web page.

Sure, no, and and I appreciate that.

Um again, I want to be clear there was never a request from anybody to put the Cleveland Street Alliance on the website.

There was a request to include all, and I've gotten it from information request from residents, from business owners, from media, um, and yes, from the Church of Scientology to include all of them.

So that's what it was.

Um in terms of the content that we put on the website, that's something that we discuss.

Um I brought it up in our one-on-ones to make sure that we were all on the same page in terms of we're in the process of rebranding.

It's a conversation we've had a lot at the DDB.

We've hired a company to help us assist with that, um, and it's a a way to keep that information ongoing about the investment that's included and that's going on in downtown, as well as communicating traffic and things like that.

But so this was just more of a updating the council in terms of what staff was looking to do.

Thanks, Mary.

I again, so if if we look at being being fair and and have it it's standardized, so each each project would be by the address, not by which LLC is owned, because there are different people or organizations that own different properties that are being renovated right now.

So if we would just put their address versus who they belong to, and then describe them the same standardized format that we are doing with Osceola Garage, then I don't think there's any then we would maintain neutrality if the if each project was just given an address instead of lumping them with who owns them.

That's one way to me we would ensure neutrality um and continue to have uh public trust.

I'd agree with that.

Yes, thank you.

Um so essentially, you know, each crane, once you click on that, takes you to the bottom of the page, which is the project that's ongoing.

And I mean, I would just hearing the thoughts, it it sounds like we're in agreement that you know government doesn't pick winners and choosers that uh or winners and losers that we are here to ensure the betterment of the city as a whole and inform in a transparent way which projects are ongoing downtown.

Um because I would look at the ballot hotel and the bluffs apartment development deal that from one lens of what I'm I'm hearing be said that those should be removed because once the city signed over everything to them, we're essentially out of that from now on.

Um, versus I think we are on the precipice of something great for Clearwater that we've never seen before, not bringing in the county properties and the acreage that's there.

So if we're able to show more cranes, even if we want to do a scale of different colors that are public, public private and private, I mean that might even be one way of doing it, and then color coding at the bottom of that page to match the color of the crane too.

Uh and it does, it just shows the developers, it shows people that want to move to this area and be a part of a vibrant downtown that okay, this isn't what it has been, right?

We get the CRA updates, but not everybody goes to Facebook and listens to CR updates or sees the spotlight or sees the growth that is downtown, they have might might might not have been down here for two years, and they know it as the paper mache in the windows, you know, which that's not happening like it was.

Things have definitely changed, and I think that giving credit where credit's due and letting people see that hey, maybe your Friday night you do want to go downtown Clearwater now just to enjoy the vibrancy that is there.

Maybe you run into three events you didn't even know were happening, and now you're stuck in one of them and having a great time, you want to come back next weekend.

So I I would be uh for continuing what we're doing here and and promoting um everything that's ongoing in here for everybody to know, right?

With the way that even the vice mayor has put out there, I think that it shows we're grown.

I mean, goodness, when you just drive down Osceola and you see all the cranes, that's exciting in and of itself.

So this is my two sense on on now understanding what uh I think the question may or may not have been.

So I I I you know I think another distinction between what I see on there now is we know what's going in the ballot hotel.

It's a hotel.

I mean, it's they're not looking for a tenant, it's the hotel that's being developed for a purpose with a something in there.

And uh and even the Gotham property that's an apartment buildings, they're going to put apartments in there.

So there's a business already dedicated to go in a couple of those.

I think that's another way.

That um things that are being you know, buildings being renovated or built, and they don't have you know anything in them yet.

And again, I'm not opposed to help you know, I'll work with anybody to try to help attract tenants for their buildings.

But I think that's another way to distinguish those two at least is you know they have somebody in them now, in addition to them being a project which we initiated.

Um I I think that's one or other way.

So I I don't want to keep going on all day, we're already getting things five o'clock, but um I think if I just learn more about what we're proposing to put on there, maybe I'm more comfortable with it.

But um I'm looking for direction from the council.

Well, may I say something really quick because I might be confused, but aren't the Ballard Ho Ballad Hotel and the Gotham Project, I believe they do have like 10,000, 9,000 square feet of retail space, right?

But they have their main, their main focus.

So that's where you're making the display.

Okay, in there, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

I so is there both is the consensus to move forward?

Is there consensus you want a presentation on what it's gonna look like?

I want to make sure we're meeting expectations on this.

I think I think the consensus is to move forward, but I I don't know if everybody's really clear on what we're proposing.

So we're because the mayor I think what he'd like to see is a presentation of what it's gonna look like.

I think everybody wants to move forward on it.

So if you could do that and bring it back to us, we can get moving.

For me, it'd have to be a formal presentation.

Maybe just give an example.

I'd like to say I'd like to see what we're doing.

Um for example, like what Vice Mayor stated and showed in terms of what the website has now.

Is there a consensus you want us to just replicate that for every project?

Every project that has major construction?

That would be my opinion.

Well, and I think that's the direction that you're looking for is what does this presentation need to look like?

And you know, I I see it as what Vice Mayor has pointed out, and as well as uh Councilmember Manino, maybe color coding and and keeping it as is with the addresses and what may or may not be going be available for offering, right?

Like that's that's what I'm hearing.

And what constitutes major construction to we can define that and and also um you know, with active permits and things like that, we did submit um so that you all could see the active permits that are currently ongoing, so you all should have that.

But um, we will define the um what a major construction project is, and we can discuss that in our one-on-ones and be ready to either have an example or show what that looks like at our next meeting.

Okay, all right.

So we move to agenda item 15.4.

Okay, so I just had my um last meeting with the umbreid abatement funding uh board.

And uh we're still finalizing our big long-term plan, uh, but we're almost done.

But I did want to share some, I would say um some positive news, some positive trends.

Uh so Pinellas County as a whole continues to see a decline in both fatal and non-fatal overdoses with 2024 trends approaching pre-2019 levels.

However, um fentanyl purity has dropped significantly and certain dangerous drug combinations have decreased, though meth um methamphetamine use appears to be rising.

So what it suggests is that the the lower purity and broader supply changes maybe what's contributing to lower overdose deaths rather than decreased utilization.

Um and the task force recommends strengthening recovery supports, expanding prevent prevention efforts, and increasing access to medication assisted treatment to sustain progress and address emerging substance use trends.

So I've included several graphs that um show us how we're doing, and you can see it's even visually it's it's it's nice to see it's declining over the last five years.

That's it.

Okay.

Any questions?

Well, thank you.

That's good news.

Good news, yeah.

Okay.

With that, we'll move to item 16.

And there's any new business that we'd like to put on.

If not, we'll move to item 17, Council Comments.

None.

Yep.

Move to item 18, closing comments by mayor, and I have none.

So with that, we'll adjourn the March 2nd, 2025 work session, Bill Water City.

Thank you, Lena.