It's time we'll call order the May 4 2026 work session of the Clearwater City Council.

It's time we moved to item two point one on the authorized purchase order and agreement with Olimeter DPG LLC for natural gas main and service line locating services.

Good afternoon, Council, Mayor.

I'm here on behalf of CGS Energy.

I am the gas manager, and we currently have a damage prevention agreement with Olimeter.

Uh right now we're required by 614 of the federal code and also Florida Statute 556 to locate lines.

We offer that service free to our public and excavators, and we're wanting to continue with Olameter.

They are uh we had a committee that had panel, we took bids from five vendors.

Uh they were selected as the most responsible bidder.

Uh they've done a good job for us.

Uh our ticket volume is up.

We're seeing a lot of growth in clear water, that's a good thing.

Uh, we're getting a great service with good quality, so we we recommend that we go with the olometer and continue with all of the so with that.

I mean, we're asking council to authorize or sign an agreement with old meter.

It's a one-year contract, an amount of six hundred and seventy thousand dollars.

Um there's three one-year one-ups after that, which would be based on the CPI increase.

Um, but that's about it.

We're very comfortable with this team.

The selection panel all agree that ultimate was the vendor of choice.

So that's what we're here to do today, and I've got a damage prevention guide here, so if you guys want one, y'all can have one.

And also a little damage prevention card.

So, you know, we are very big into public safety and utility interruptions and minimizing that.

So we're very proud of our group and what this team has done.

Old emitter's done a great job.

So, with that, that's our recommendation.

Any council discussion?

Any questions?

If none, do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

Move to the agenda item 3.1.

Authorized to purchase order, Rick Croft Enterprises during business as Texas trailers sales and services for the purchase of seven enclosed trailers.

The item for you is to purchase seven enclosed trailers and one forklift.

These items are needed to uh help with our storage needs and also material handling.

The seven trailers will increase our current storage capacity to sixteen hundred feet.

Plus, it will allow us to transport our stored items uh back and forth from storage to events, uh, also out to maintenance jobs and things like that.

So it it actually makes us more efficient uh than what we currently are at with having a load to take those places.

So and the forklift will also increase our capability to handle all the supplies, paper products, and things that we stock the sound with all the different facilities throughout the city.

I'd be glad to answer any questions at this time.

Not do we have consent?

Yes.

We have consent on 3.1.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ratify and confirm a reimbursement payment to the Philadelphia Phillies in the amount of 2.6 million dollars for uh repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Milton.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council members, Art Cater, Parks and Recreation Director.

Uh, the item for you today is reimburse the Philadelphia Phillies costs that they incurred due to repairing the storm damage caused by the hurricane uh built in to the Bay Care uh ballpark.

The damage occurred between October uh 9th and 10th, 24, and to have the stadium ready for spring training by February, very short time frame.

Several things had to take place.

First, the council approved the initial mitigation work to dry out the stadium.

Second, the council approved some of the initial restoration work uh at to pay surve.

Third, the fillies were authorized to make the remainder of the repairs needed uh and they utilize their contractor that they had on board then creative contractors.

Uh the partnership of the Phillies Management, Parks and Recreation Risk Manager, Creative Contractors, and the insurance adjuster for the city ensure that the stadium was operational before uh opening day 2025.

Staff has reviewed and approved all the expenses uh to ensure that the funds were that we are reimbursing the fillies now, were in fact done because of the damage due to the storm, and that nothing uh in that reimbursement is for enhancements that the fillies did uh and uh or improvements that they did over and above the storm damage.

That was important because it they got mixed.

That's why it's taken so long to come back to you because you may ask, well, why has it taken so long if we finish the work?

And one of the things was to go through and make sure that the that that was accurate.

The total amount of reimbursement to do due to the fillies is two million six hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and sixty dollars and ninety-six cents.

I'm available to answer any questions.

Yes, sir.

Okay, councilman Row Britain.

Um, did we get any FEMA reimbursement?

Or how did the insurance work on that?

We received insurance, and we have applied for FEMA reimbursement for we actually uh received Todd Model can answer that better, but we actually received a $500,000 uh decrease in our deductible.

That's what we're seeking from FEMA.

Okay.

Yes.

So we received a $500, $500,000 deduction from the National Flood Insurance Program, and we have FEMA reimbursement pending, and then we've received insurance for the other dollars.

So at this point, we're actually uh pretty close to whole except for the remainder of our deductible, which is about 1.6 million.

Okay, thank you.

Council Martin.

It's actually a follow-up question for Dan.

So um, what are the most recent updated numbers?

How much was what's how much is totally due to us?

And how much has it been already dispersed?

So uh we tried to try to write this into the text a little bit, um, and it is a little bit confusing because when you're going through the um you know the insurance assessment, they provide you a certain amount of you do the work.

Sometimes those numbers don't often exactly pair up.

But the total loss total for the gross loss was you know 5.324 million.

Um now our deductible was uh somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.1 million dollars, but that was reduced by 500,000.

So we had the deductible of 1.6 million.

We have received, have received the insurance proceeds and the amount of 3.1 million.

So uh the remainder that Mr.

Cater's talking about for FEMA is we are trying to seek the remainder of our deductible amount, the 1.6 from FEMA, which would theoretically in the end hopefully make us pull completely, which is optimistic.

What about total, not specifically to the Phillies overall?

I would have to get that for you.

I don't think Todd's here, and he'd probably be the one because it is uh an algorithm of a chart to figure it out because we we have multiple different carriers, multiple different policies, and multiple different ways he seeks reimbursement.

So I don't have the total loss numbers off top of the.

I can ask uh Mr.

Avis to have Todd give a little summary of where we are currently to get you some updated information.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Well, I'll speak to that a little bit too.

We're moving to the speed of FEMA, so that can take years.

Um, you know, certain disbursements there we'll go through out really quick, like emergency protective measures and those types of things.

But once you get into having your insurance going through that, providing the documentation back for the federal government through the state that the insurance has been paid, it's a whole room model.

So I look forward to hearing what those exact numbers or what the roundabout numbers are, too.

So I look forward to hearing what those exact numbers are what the roundabout numbers are too, but yeah, unfortunately, we still got to buckle up and we're in line.

Thank you, Mayor.

I know you've commented on this um previous, but Art, I just want to thank you and staff and the partnership you just described on the task your your group did to make uh clear water baseball ready was nothing short of miraculous.

Um there were fish swimming in Bryce Harper's locker.

Seriously, and it was unbelievable, but that um that short type time frame to turn it back around and be ready for the pitchers in baseball.

Uh, the region was barely able to traverse on some of the roads throughout Pinellas County, but uh your your team had had the stadium ready.

It was uh it was amazing, so thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, two things.

One um consistent with what the vice mayor shared, it takes forever.

I know communities I've worked with through in uh my private sector who uh communities waited 10 years or more.

Um I'm told told by a city leader in the New Orleans area that they're still out some money from Katrina from FEMA.

So as the vice mayor shared to get it, you know, priority monies get, but we're still out quite a bit, and probably will be for quite a long time, just the way it works, unless we can get FEMA reform, which seems to be taking forever to do it in Washington.

But um, and then the second thing is uh having walked through with you and Matt that day day after um Milton that I mean just seeing the how inundated the locker rooms, everything understands was with the water.

Uh it was a heavy turn and a quick turn to try to get that uh stadium ready for spring training, and your your efforts were you know monumental, the fillies we we all dug in to get it done, and you know, we can look back at different things that made us more successful than other communities, but starting spring training on time, getting those Phillies fans back that that early February that sparked the recovery economically for the entire city, and uh and it was tight, and it you know, we were making calls to get it done and get it done before that day.

I think they were painting in the locker rooms that the day before the players arrived.

So hats off to you all for all that.

But folks, this is you know hopefully we'll get it back eventually.

But regardless, it was money well spent because it came back and drove, and what we've been able to recover and by by getting back so quickly.

So thank you for all your efforts again.

Thank you.

And again, it was a team effort on the city as a whole, and those people that I did mention uh today couldn't be done without us working together partner.

Thank you.

Okay, do we have consent on this?

Yes, thank you.

Agenda item 4.1.

Authorized a purchase order to Lake Brothers LLC for the maintenance of city-owned lakes, ponds, wetlands, and mitigation sites.

Good afternoon.

Uh I'm Zara Kessler, environmental specialist at the public works department.

Uh, this is for the approval of our lake maintenance contract.

Um, the cost of the first year is a little bit higher than subsequent years, and that's because there's an initial treatment at some of the sites.

Uh 15% contingency is added to the contract, and that's something that we've done for many years because of unforeseen costs.

So those costs are not for additional treatment of the sites, like we have a standard that those sites need to be treated to, and so that's part of the contract.

Those unforeseen, those unforeseen costs would be if we have a super cold winter and some of the herbaceous vegetation dies for replanting.

As we have other projects come online, a lot of times we have stormwater ponds that need to be added to the contract.

So that's what that 15% contingency is for.

It's not just it's not for things that are within the contract.

Um, and those funds are not used without approval.

So if you have any questions, happy to answer those.

Okay, any questions on this agenda?

Do we have consent?

Yes, sir.

We have consent on 4.1.

Thank you.

Agenda item 4.2.

Award a construction contract of concrete protection and restoration for the Garden Avenue Garage Restoration Project.

Prices and all these stuff that they know.

Good afternoon.

Mayor and council members, I'm Michael Chalet.

I'm the parking manager of this public works department.

Item before you today is a request to award construction contract to concrete protection and restoration LLC.

The amount of 186,318 dollars for the Garden Avenue Garage Restoration Project.

This project addresses preventative maintenance repairs identified through a routine condition assessment of the garage, which is a 250 space parking facility that serves downtown clearwater.

The repairs are necessary to preserve the structural use structures, useful life, maintain safety and help avoid more significant costly repairs in the future.

The work will be completed in phases to make sure you keep as much uh parking available during the construction as possible.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions on this agenda?

None do we have consent?

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Approve the annexation initial feature land use map designation of residential urban and initial zoning atlas designation of the medium density residential for the property at 2448 Nursery Road.

Government New Council, my name is Adrian Young, Plan and Development.

Um volunteer annexation request for 0.363 acres located on the north side of Nursery Road, approximately one twenty-six feet east of roastry court.

The parcel is occupied by detached dwelling unit at the moment.

The applicants requesting annexation or to receive sanitary sewer and solid voice from the city.

Plan development staff analysis includes that the annexation petition is consistent with the community development code and conference of plan recommends approval if you're any questions.

Okay.

Any questions on this agenda?

Thank you.

An item six point excuse me, five point two.

Approve the annexation additional future land use map designation of residential urban and initial zoning atlas designation of low medium density residential for unaddressed sunset point road property.

Again, Adrian Young Plan and Development.

Thank you.

Um, this voluntary annexation request is for 0.14 acres located on the north side of Sunset Point Road, approximately 252 feet west of North Marlon Booth Road.

Um the applicant's request annexation on to receive city suit city services and combined parcels.

Um plan development staff concludes that the annexation petition is consistent with compensate plan and development code and recommends approval if you're any questions.

Okay, any questions on this agenda?

Okay, seeing none, move to the next agenda item, agenda item 5.3.

Approve future land use map amendments from the residential urban category to the residential medium category for the property at 2446 Nursery Road.

Hello again, Adrian Young, Plan Development.

This voluntary future land use map amendment request is for 0.440 acres located on the north side of nursery road, approximately 186 feet east of roastry court on the parcels occupied by the tax dwelling unit.

The applicant's request in the future land use map amendment from resident to urban to residential medium.

Um plan development staff includes that the um petition is consistent with compensative plan, community development code, and also recommends approving.

Yeah for any questions.

Any questions on this agenda?

You're saying none, thank you.

So agenda item 5.4.

Provide direction regarding the city's tree preservation ordinance.

Okay.

Um good afternoon, Lauren Matsky Planning and Development.

So earlier this year, uh, council had requested staff provide a summary of some changes that Pinellas County had recently completed in their to their tree code amendments, so earlier in 26.

So today I'll provide an overview of the county's code structure and highlight certain differences between the counties and the city's tree preservation ordinances.

Um, just for those watching from home, um I've not provided or presented or prepared any code amendments, but following council's discussion today, we're we're ready to to make any changes as um requested.

So recent council actions, including the recognition of Arbor Day and the tree canopy research studies, support the and of course the support of the annual tree giveaway, reflect the city's understanding and importance of preserving the key tree canopy.

So these efforts obviously reflect the importance of that and all the other environmental benefits that they have, so I won't go into all of that.

The community development code then is what tells staff how to implement or to achieve these policy directions.

So this is where I don't know how to do this from sorry.

So I'll begin with areas that staff identified as possible refinement to our existing code.

I'll summarize the city's process, review several side-by-side comparisons, and conclude with permit activity and the city's policy context.

So in as a difference than from some of my other presentations, I promise I'm not going to go line by line through code today.

And I'll eventually catch on to this part.

So before getting into the side by side comparison, we did take a step back or up and look and identify some areas where there are opportunities within the city's code to improve the clarity usability and overall administration in line with some of the original correspondence on the topic.

So some of these are more organizational in nature, like restructuring sections of the code or certainly incorporating better graphics.

A lot's changed these days.

People are definitely visual, and I find them very helpful myself.

Some of the other recommendations that we would want to include are more technical.

So there could be rating systems changing in how we handle residential tree counts, and then there's administrative items, including exemptions, how we address hazardous trees here in the city of Clearwater, and our current fee structure.

These are all things that came out of our internal review, as well as our comparison.

So briefly, the the removal or the permitting process here in the city of Clearwater.

Tree removal permits are typically handled administratively by staff.

That includes the review of the application, conducting site visits, making a determination, and usually with input or always with input from the land development arborists.

The land development arborists are part of our team and they review both the trees in the field as well as when there are site plans or development applications in front of us that also include potential tree removal and also tree preservation.

So the process is more detailed for multifamily and non-residential properties, but it's more streamlined for single family and duplex properties, so two family and single family.

When there's more complex situations, because sometimes these arise in the field, staff may bring in additional additional their peers basically, additional land development arborists may come out and do an independent assessment of the situation.

So that way we have multiple perspectives on the question or a tree in question or the situation in the field.

So and that's all done before making a final decision.

And if a denial is being considered, they would also seek an additional arborist input and conduct further management review before finalizing that.

So there have been times where the city has hired outside arborists to come and make an assessment of a tree, also before moving forward with a denial as an example.

Because like anything, when you're, you know, the more you look at your own slides, the more you're like, oh, I would do that slightly differently if I had another minute.

So I spent some time reviewing the county's presentations.

We spoke with their staff and really tried to get a get a better understanding of you know what they had before and kind of where they were starting from and why they were making their changes.

And someone on my team actually made this slide.

The the left side is straight from one of the county slides, and then they created the the right side for the city of Clearwater just as a comparison.

So it and I just wanted to use this because this just helps illustrate that the county and and Clearwater were starting at different places.

So under the county's former code, um, which again is on the left side, even a relatively small residential project, which is what we see more often here in Clearwater, like an extension of a driveway would trigger pretty major mitigation requirement.

You'll see on there that under their former code for this small typical residential lot in Clearwater, it would have required 27 shade trees or over 10,000 to be paid into their tree bank fund.

Their landscaping requirement required two shade trees, and in the example, it's the removal of two trees totally about 40, 40 inches in diameter at breast height TBH.

So under Clearwater's code, like where we would be starting from now, um, that mitigation is is obviously or is clearly substantially less.

So our mitigation would be two shade trees and um about $1,900 payment into the tree bank fund.

And in our overall landscaping requirement is for trees.

So I'm just sharing this as context because it was it was difficult to do an apples to apples comparison across the board, and I think it was really interesting to me when I saw this, you know, how different are what was their code prior to January and where our code is now in comparison.

They also have um a wider variety, I would say, of situations out there in their presentations.

They also had to illustrate, you know, a two-acre lot that had 40 something trees on it, in addition to already being developed, and I don't think we have very many situations like that here.

So it just kind of they were covering a wider gamut of of situations than we have as a built-out community.

So then I can switch back to my slides.

Thank you.

So now I'll jump into some of the comparisons.

So this slide shows where each code begins when terms of regulating trees, and for shade trees, both the city and county start at four inches, uh is called inches dbh, which is diameter at breast height.

That's their standardized measurement.

Um where they differ is with palms, accent trees, and um which we we the city regulate or consider, and then homesteaded residential properties are treated differently in Pinallas County.

Uh palms count towards the tree requirements in both of the codes, but you'll see different measurements used.

The city uses 10 feet in height and the county is at six feet.

Uh, the city also has the separate category for accent trees at two inches dbh where the county does not distinguish between accent trees and shade trees in that regard.

Um the county generally does not regulate trees on homesteaded single family properties.

This was a new addition to their code, and um unless they exceed 24 inches dbh.

So if it's on a home, it's very specific.

So homesteaded residential property, if it's under 24 inches DBH, it could be removed without a permit.

One of the um next changes that the county made was simplifying their tree rating system.

Previously, they had seven different ratings.

Uh they found it was in talking with their staff, they found it was difficult to apply consistently.

They said some categories were rarely used, and in some cases, different ratings led to different outcomes.

So their revised system is is a rating system of four zero to three.

They also combine specimen and historic trees into the highest rating rather than treating them as separate categories.

Um, as you would have seen, I provided a handout that our team put together to compare both codes side by side without doing it all on the slides, and you'll see that we have a zero to six scale, which um in speaking with staff, they still believe it works well, but this is definitely an opportunity to create better alignment across the two municipalities if desired.

Next is the replacement trees.

So this is one of the bigger structural changes in the county's code.

It was pretty complex to understand.

Um, you know, I think we probably read it numerous times, and and I don't I would not be able to administer it myself right now, but um, in talking with them, I started to get the hang of what they were trying to accomplish.

So instead of using an inch for inch replacement, the county ties mitigation to both the size and the rating of the tree.

So the grade one, two, and three are the ratings, the size goes down the left column.

But in essence, smaller, lower rated trees require less mitigation, while larger, higher rated trees require more.

Um, their stated goal was to create a more practical approach that better reflects the value of the tree being removed, which I I followed, and they allow for mitigation through on-site replanting payment and loo were a combination of both.

Um, what I learned was they did not necessarily allow that prior to these changes, where we already have all of that, and so the difference between ours would be we're still an inch for inch approach.

And then you'll see also on this, they give a credit specifically for the nuisance and invasive removals, and that's an opportunity for our code to be more clear, and I'll touch on that a little bit more in a minute.

So the county also made adjustments to how minimum tree requirements are set for residential lots.

Um, in Clearwater, you'll see on the left-hand side, we have broader ranges for our lot ranges where the county breaks those ranges down into smaller, more detailed lots.

I think for the typical lot sizes that we share in common, the end result is pretty similar, but again, the counties is a little bit more granular.

So this is another area where staff thought some potential evaluation and bringing in this difference or simplifying our approach or aligning it more closely.

So it just kind of depends.

You can see at a certain point, you know, where we are more trees for the larger lots compared to.

But I added along the bottom.

Low medium density residential zoning district is our most prevalent zoning district, and that has a minimum lot size of less than of 5,000 square feet or less.

So I'm gonna do this again.

Where's my other sheet?

Um I just wanted to go back then to do that.

Sorry.

This is then a snippet from the county's presentation that they gave.

And so you'll recognize now their former pre-January 2026 code on the left, the same graphic that I had used in the other one.

And then on the right side, you'll see what they've revised it to.

And so in this scenario, again, it was the removal of two laurel oaks 40 inches.

They uh dropped it down to eight trees.

So the tree bank contribution dropped from 10,200 to approximately 1,800, which is a pretty significant change through their amendments, and then the trees was from 27 trees to eight trees.

So I can understand why some of the headlines were what they were when I really took the time to deep dive into this.

So I thought this really illustrated the success of their changes because it really did reduce the burden of their regulations on their property owners.

So kudos to them.

Um I mentioned that the county's code clearly identifies certain exemptions from their replanting requirements.

For example, trees that are located within a proposed building footprint or trees rate rated as poor, would be exempt from needing to be replaced.

In Clearwater, this is an area where our current practices are not always fully reflected in the code.

So this is again another opportunity for clarity.

For example, um, we we in practice and through policy would not prevent the removal of a tree if it impacted the economic use of a property, but that's not explicitly written in the code.

Um also then how we handle the hazardous trees, we're relying on the state law, or we do utilize or or our residents primarily utilize the state law, which allows for them to have a letter from an arbitrary certified arbor stating that it's hazardous, and then the removal without a permit.

In speaking with county staff, they were finding that everyone was using that instead of going through the the process of their code because of the costs and and the replacements.

So they were finding they indicated that many times you know they might receive a phone call asking, and then they'd never hear back from anyone, but then the trees would be gone.

So they had a you know, they did not want that.

They wanted to maintain and really incentivize the maintenance of the larger, more prestigious trees within their community.

So again, this is where clearer guidance within our code would be beneficial, I think, for everyone, and we could bring forward some of those things that we've done by policy and actually codify them so it's continuous across teams.

So this slide looks at the fees, how mitigation is calculated and the enforcement of fines.

Clearwater is tree bank because we use the inch for inch for our mitigation, that's what ours is based on.

So it's 48 dollars per inch DBH, it's been that number for a very long time.

We've not changed our fee structure in a very long time, so that's why this year we're actually working on a fee study.

The county uses a flat amount per tree, and you pay for what's not replanted, so lower rates for some residential properties and higher rates for the non-residential properties.

So that's where you'll see for a single family or a duplex triplex, they have a flat rate of 300 per tree, regardless of size.

But for those reminder, for those that are homesteaded, it's exempt from all of this, and then it's 500 for the multifamily and commercial.

So I had included this slide more as an example, like a visual reference for what a DVH actually looks like.

Um, in all fairness, when I started digging into this, I really had no idea what 24 inches DBH would look like, right?

I mean, it seems big, but I really wasn't sure.

So the visual person and me, I was lucky.

I have arborists that were willing to go out and measure trees.

Now these are on the municipal services building property, so I thought at least that was someplace regularly accessible.

We also we had a um a department event at Crestlake Park, and we measured some of those trees for fun because that's what we do.

So but um, you know, these are I I mean, you know, y'all can come anytime.

But um, I mean, these are slightly smaller than what the the county would allow from a residential property, but I I was hoping that y'all would find it um helpful as well as I did um because 24 inches is even bigger than this.

Um but you know, county staff they had their reasons for for this information, and and again, our our code is different, our staff is different.

We have um different things that we try to achieve here in the city.

So follow on this slide.

Um so the DBH is where it splits into branches.

Is that no?

It's it's I would say it's probably right around here because it's supposed to be around chest height, which I think is about four and a half feet up.

I have certified arborists in the crowd that could correct me.

Right, that would just happen to it's a standard height.

Yes, it standardizes so that way you can got it.

Which was fun.

I didn't put in all the pictures with the people in them, but I took a lot.

Okay, I get it.

So this then this slide gives us the general sense of our current permitting activity because again, you know, I know that our teams stay busy, but I really don't know what that means until you pull out the numbers, right?

So these are specifically for the standalone permits.

So I'm not doing anything to my house or either, and I just have concerns about a tree, and I come through, or you know, maybe it's fencing but not a brand new development that everything's coming in as part of a whole package.

So the city processed um, you know, just under 300 permits in 2023, uh, fewer in 24, 25, likely reflect some of our waivers for tree permits post-storm, and then um as of the first quarter of this year, we're at 44.

Um, and then you'll see denial rates have generally been consistent, around 11%, a smite, a small increase to 13% there.

We were kind of surprised at how consistent that is.

Um, but I think the you know, the majority of our requests are approved.

Uh you know, each one is each one is reviewed on on a case-by-case scenario.

So, you know, there we're asked, and we go out and look at, you know, because there's a lot of questions or concerns about you know, damage being a main one.

I and I understand that like is there a potential for damage?

Is it currently damaged?

Is it uplifting you know, a sidewalk or a driveway?

And so that's where you you just have to get out on the field and really look at it.

So our our team goes out and does that, and you know, based on their expertise and certifications, this is where we happen to have landed.

So this was just for some context there.

And then just um, because this is all policy-based, or our code comes from you know what is in our comprehensive plan.

I understand like this this is a lot on one slide, but um, I did go ahead and do a review of Clearwater 2045 just to see, you know, or refresh my memory on on the different ways that we talk about this is bigger policy level changes to our community development code are not necessarily inconsistent with this, you know, when we're looking at trying to make things clearer for our community and bring consistency across those things, can still be consistent with the importance of maintaining our tree canopy.

Again, as shown, like you're just just two weeks ago, several actions taken that um were supported by all of this.

So it's um just to kind of pull it all together on one place, and so um that's that's what I have from my slides and a comparison.

I have a lot of support.

I also have my team here who can answer if there's detailed questions.

But um, what I might do is, and y'all can look at it if you want to or not, um, is just pull up these again back to some of the recommendations because I think this was a very helpful exercise for us.

Um, you know, we do try to review our code periodically in different times.

Sometimes it's because a question is asked, and that is just that's what the impetus is for opening it up to like a case like this you know, talk about the tree code and what's been changed.

It's a great chance for us to go through and evaluate and see what we do differently, what are we doing that's not in the code?

How can we make things easier for our customers?

Because when it's easier for our customers, it's just a better relationship for all of us.

So with that, I'll now stop talking for real.

Okay.

Okay discussion Vice Mayor yes thank you Lauren thank you and your staff for starting to look into this and I appreciate the areas that you're just went up to um of kind of where you're focused I and welcome the upcoming debate of what we're getting ready to go through here and you know one of the main reasons and I'm glad that you brought one of the slides from the county is to ensure you know pretty much what you did there is show what they're doing how it's helped residents in our area to be more simplified in an area that we can get so I'd like to be somewhere along that line you also referenced when you're taking uh talking on page nine about the state statute and um the reason pre people probably aren't reaching out is because of Florida statute 163.045 um which puts a hard limit on local governments uh when it comes to residential properties it uh I'm just gonna read portions of it right here local governments cannot require a permit fee or mitigation for removing trees on residential properties it's not just the homestead properties that is those residential properties if the tree is dangerous and then you did hit who is able to deem a tree uh dangerous they do have to we go out and ask about it produce that um letter if you will yes it comes and that is a certified arborist or licensed landscape architect so I I think that maybe we should try to reference that within wherever we go with this whatever we decide um and how we incorporate that into our new um code or or where we we go from here um you know I also want to say that this isn't just trying to clean up what we have it's it's looking out for our residents and protecting those trees that matter most you know we've got some beautiful oak trees we've got some beautiful palm trees um and I think that everybody here you know took a hard stance too uh when we were dealing with residents having issues with utility company that's going through you know so we we all preserve love our canopy and want to preserve it but I want to say you know it comes back to making sure that when you see somebody else uh neighboring jurisdiction maybe doing it a little bit better that we look at how we can either mirror that or or do uh something even better so um my goal is to improve predictability reducing unnecessary burdens on the residents and maintaining meaningful meaningful canopy protection I think that that'll also ease the burden on your staff too right not getting in I know the last year you showed it was only 47 permits so that's not too much but the following years you're up to 300 permits that that still takes time up on one of your staff members after review maybe go out look at the location and see if that's something so if we can get to an area where that's you know hey you fit the the diameter to where you don't need to do anything have a great day thank you for contacting us one of those types of situations maintaining protections for specimen or high value trees I already hit that so ensuring that that those remain in place is going to be a priority identify the opportunities to shift routine low impact tree removals to an administrative approval process just hey I'm looking to take out this tree this is where it's at this is what the tree is boom and then review as you've already alluded in in your slideshow the tree bake tree rank fee structure and the cost deliverable to those to our community benefit um so with that I appreciate the time I appreciate the work that you guys have already put into this is a great starting point and hopefully those make sense if not I can definitely come back later uh offline and and try and articulate better what what what's the thoughts of my brain are so I started reading this yesterday and I'm like I have to put it aside finish the rest of the agenda and come back it's a lot to read and I had to and I still don't understand a lot of things it it's a lot to it's even comparing itself was was arduous for me but um one of the things right away that popped into my mind was what is our goal is it to be more aligned with the county and therefore you know decreasing the confusion between the residents of Clearwater proper and clear you know or is this an opportunity to revamp everything and take a second look so that kind of that question came early on so if you don't mind I'm gonna just go down the list regarding the protected trees I want to know what is that sweet spot according to the city between um protecting trees that are established enough to truly contribute to our canopy versus overextending the definition of protected and making it uh um an enforcement challenge right so the county has it at uh six feet and we have it at 10 feet for palm trees so I'm thinking well how is palm trees considered in in terms of canopy and that's a big discrepancy between 20 and 10 and 6 what the city's perspective was that in that regard to the permit threshold I'm gonna ask Ted Kozak to come up because he he's our manager for development review so um they review all the landscape plans and everything like that but then he's also a certified arborist but what I will do also is um just for for everyone else that is that is from our code and this is our zero to six um kind of reading just in general for trees so to to one of the earlier

I'm gonna ask Ted Kozak to come up because he's our manager for development review, so um, they review all the landscape plans and everything like that, but then he's also a certified arborist.

But what I will do also is um just for everyone else.

That is that is from our code, and this is our zero to six um kind of reading, just in general for trees.

So to one of the earlier points, it's like you know, we have the five and the six are the outstanding and specimen, and those are a shall be preserved.

That that being said, you know, there might be instances where it is blocking the reasonable use of a property and economic use, and um we have always tried to work with our community to to build around or preserve, but sometimes they do come out.

But guaranteed palms, not totally 10.

Thank you, Ted Kozak and um planning and development.

Uh I will get a little nerdy on this first.

So I welcome it.

Palms are not trees, but there's my editorial.

It's a that's very tall grass.

So in the the ranking of importance, palm is great, but it's it's not a canopy per se.

You need to be a frog to get a little bit of shade under one of those.

So they're fantastic, and they have their their part because sable palms are this is uh Florida's native uh tree, so that that's a conflict on what in itself, but is Florida's tree is a sable palm.

So saying that clear trunk is measured to the height, so it's not the top of the front fronds of a of a palm, it's where the fronds start branching out, so it's a better description.

So um it in the aspect of number of trees on a property, the rule of thumb is is one quarters on a not taking the beach into account.

So you it's the typical property that requires four shade trees in one of those shade trees could be uh a palm or a cluster of palms.

So in the importance, it's worth one quarter, if you will.

So um what were other questions you had on that?

The discrepancy between the county's um height versus ours like six versus ten.

I was just wondering like what's the sweet spot for the palm?

Yeah.

I I mean since palms do not have a diameter per se, they don't grow like a tree with those concentric rings.

They're a bunch of little straws, so uh it wouldn't make sense to measure them by diameter breast height, which is four and a half feet.

Um so the county's six feet would just essentially make it a very smaller palm, which uh in in terms of establishment, the importance is it it could die faster, you know, even my backyard.

I lost two very new mango trees last winter because of the how cold it is.

So if they're smaller, they don't survive, they don't establish.

So the sweet spot, I mean, between six and ten, maybe, but typically ten feet clear trunk is a is a across the state the uh threshold.

Uh South Florida, the jurisdictions I worked in, it was 12 feet.

So, you know, the range, the sweet spot, the typical spots 10 feet.

Okay.

And then for tree ratings, I kind of like the county because it's like it's easier.

A lot of the county's changes, I think, are um simplified and easier to administer, or at least to understand from the from that perspective, especially like um when it comes to smaller um defined tiers versus you know, zero to five thousand is this.

And the county does it like by 2500 feet, which means the resident can benefit from that, right?

Clear having a clear and consistent would be fantastic, I'm sure everybody.

I mean, now you're you're creating a new language for tree writing from jurisdiction just jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so that's a great point.

Okay, that would be that was the protected trees.

This is the tree rating system that the county had.

So this is what I think you were talking about, was um you know, compared to the zero to six one from zero to six.

They they've they have zero three.

It's still showing.

Oh, it's still showing on that.

Sorry.

No, I jumped ahead.

I apologize, Mr.

Again, it was those things that I'm like, oh, I should have added that.

Right.

But I think their system Pells County system I think is more advantageous for the residents.

And then the last but uh Mali says the um their tree permit application fee I do like the fact that they they do have a promotional impact for the um nuisance and invasive that's just one thing that stood out to me and again their their yeah their uh tree bank fees are also less complicated so whatever the county's doing that I think simplifies and gives more flexible f flexibility to the residents but simplifies the process I I would be in support of may I ask a question on the the fees specifically um as I mentioned or as y'all recall we're doing a fee study right now would you be comfortable with that would you like us to bring forward a recommendation on the fees based on the county's work or would you like us to continue to have our consultant look at our our fees specifically for trees I think we've always acknowledged ours are low in comparison the county was high I think in comparison and so they found the challenge of that I think we've both seen the challenges of our various fees as they were in R because ours at 40 per inch is not much of a deterrent to take it down either um but at the same time the county found the opposite being true their fees were so high that people were using the it was easier to find an arborist that would write a letter so the money we collect goes to the free bank and stays in the tree bank right yes and so that's what get used for Arbor Day and some of and trees on city properties.

But how much money do we have sitting in the tree bank now?

I did not look that up public works administers it so I think I think the director may know is mayor council members it's uh just under a million dollars yeah so that that would be my you know if if we're able to and that's after spending whatever we just spent on the annual Arbor Day giveaway uh we shouldn't be sitting on that amount of money um so if we need it to we either need to give it away you know um more frequently for uh or keep it the same what we're collecting on these fees because it appears to me if we're we're we've got a tree bank that that's much and the purpose is to you know force the city then um we've got enough we're collecting enough of the fees we already have okay and I should say mayor we will be drawing that down so we did get the uh one uh forestry grant uh and we've got some urban uh forestry projects coming it won't draw it all the way down but it'll just a little bit that'd be my only concern is that you're we're collecting enough to adequately make the city's name speaking that's it for me um thank you mayor uh I'll let you finish that just to throw in on this um that is a good point and if we're collecting it now what exactly are we able to use the tree fund on is it just tree canopies in certain places are we allowed to landscape and beautify coachman park are we where where are we limited to where this gets spent oh good I have I do have it so uh we've been trying to prioritize it in some of our key areas a long our right-of-ways uh that we're doing and then we work with parks and recs if there's areas that they need to uh come in and do it but we do talk about with like some of the upcoming uh osteola Fort Harrison if we're doing some uh street skate those may be opportunities for us to contribute from the the tree rank bank back into those so maybe we have a discussion sometime later on identifying certain gateways or areas in the community that the council sees fit or need and be able to use some of that money to answer your question um I think a feasibility study uh Lauren and finding out what our surrounding communities are charging isn't a a bad idea we get a baseline we understand where we are um compared to some of our other communities but then you still have the ability to then come back and compare it to where the county is and we can make a decision versus just running in one direction I think we kind of kill two birds with one stone on that I I think that um something like this is possible that we could you know I I'd like the chance to think about and then um talk internally a little bit but it might be that um it's something that we could do more at a staff level and pull it out of the the actual study hearing the the kind of the other pieces that have come through today um as long as we leave it more localized and I think that's generally what we try to do when we're looking at our comparator cities you know we're looking at kind of a few in the the very immediate area and then kind of those that we strive to be

I I'd like the chance to think about and then um talk internally a little bit, but it might be that um it's something that we could do more at a staff level and pull it out of the the actual study hearing the the kind of the other pieces that have come through today um as long as we leave it more localized, and I think that's generally what we try to do when we're looking at our comparator cities, you know, we're looking at kind of a few in the the very immediate area, and then kind of those that we strive to be you know our kind of our aspirational goals also.

So we usually try to find the cities that are similar in size, um similar in character, or you know, also redevelopment communities, things like that.

So we could take a look at you know, just the fee piece, but you could see where a broader comparison um across numerous cities if we were trying to compare tree code to tree code would have been a lengthy exercise.

So narrowing it down to just county versus city was much more helpful.

Thank you.

I didn't know if you were done.

I was just touching on her question.

Okay, can I go?

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, obviously, this is um important because we're trying to find um balance and it's important to balance environmental protection and the community well-being, which we know what our tree canopy does for so many of our neighborhoods, uh, but balancing that with homeowners' autonomy as well as trying to make sure we're not imposing restrictive uh barriers uh to those homeowners.

So that finding that balance in that sweet spot is is important what we're trying to do.

I think it does help to try to find some sort of alignment as we're doing with the county.

Uh I do this clear water property abuts to county properties, and I've had neighbors all the time say, Well, why can they remove that name?

And I can't, and I'm touching their fence.

Uh that does make it tough.

Um, just um some feedback for me that six foot versus ten foot, uh, the flexibility of the homeowner.

I'm comfortable with six or ten on the palms.

I I don't um I whether we go ten or six, I'm I'm good.

Um the tree rating system, I'm I'm comfortable in aligning that with the county, kind of simplifying that.

I don't necessarily know if we need a a pour and a below average as well as uh above average and outstanding.

I think we can kind of simplify that that language help me better understand on the replacement trees and credits when you say we're currently inch for inch and the county is currently a grade versus size of a DBH.

What let me find that seven pages.

There we go.

Ted, I'm gonna ask for Ted's assistance to you because um well, I might be able I might be able to talk through it because I tried to when I spoke with their their planning staff who had written the amendments, we use their their five thousandth foot parcel as an example.

So in that one, you'll remember it was uh 5500 square foot lot and it was a removal of 40 inches.

When they spoke through it, they assumed a grade level of two.

So in that instance, if they were removing, you know, that it would be eight replants required.

So um if any of those were nuisance, it would be reduced by the number of nuisance trees.

So if if one of those trees had been a nuisance tree, it would have been removed from that, they would get credit for up to four nuisance trees.

Um, like I said, it took us a little while to read through it, and I'm still not abundantly clear.

I knew what they were trying to get at, but um, you know, again, it was to require more replants for higher quality trees as opposed to ours where if you were removing 40 inches, you have to replant 40 inches or pay the deficit into the tree fund.

So you would have to know to be able to calculate what your replant was to be, you would not just be able to rely on the number of inches if you have that number.

Um you would have to have have the grade, you would have to do this kind of calculation.

So to the math, yeah.

Okay.

I mean, I think once you get used to any system, you know, you get used to it.

But um, you know, inch for inch is you have to know one number to kind of know that mitigation or do the math of your your dollars to replace.

And again, they didn't have that ability to do some of that that that we already do, so I could see where this was a great leap forward for that.

Uh tree count, I'm comfortable aligning with the county um in that category.

And then the exemptions, you said there's some opportunities for clarity, um, guidance and codified for continuity, supportive of that.

I think any time we can kind of go through some of these codes and clean them up and uh make them a little bit uh easier and bring clarity to them.

I'm all all for it.

So uh talked about the feasibility and then enforcements and fines.

Um we had a we're a little bit off on on that one with the county.

I'm just gonna keep pulling it up to make sure.

Okay.

Um is that something that you see would probably deserve some sort of feasibility and see where we are compared to surrounding municipalities, or has that been done recently?

I I think that that would be something when you're pulling up someone's um fee schedule or fines, it would all be part of that.

So I think we would look at the the insurance versus agreed kind of setting that.

I think um I I appreciated, I don't know if my team would agree with me, but I thought there was some value to setting a cap for a tree, like they they have the $300 per tree.

It just kind of gave a flat rate, so in that regard, it was more predictable.

Um so but I didn't do a lot of math to kind of compare.

Um, you know, I thought their exercises were really valuable in, you know, I chose just the one that was the residential lot because their other one was was a scenario like I said that we don't necessarily have here, but that's something that I would expect our class to pull together for you so you would have a couple more illustrations with with final recommendations as an as an ordinance, if that would be helpful to you, of course.

Absolutely.

Well, I appreciate you and all staff's time that went into this.

It definitely wasn't a snipping tool cut and paste, and let's uh let's throw it on the website and move forward.

So there's a lot of time, and I appreciate the vice mayor bringing this discussion forward.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just wanted to go into something and correct me if I'm wrong, Lauren.

Um to get to the fee, you know, the county's doing something that's flat structured.

I like that.

I think that that's just a nice way of doing it.

You know, you get through your rubric of whatever we end up going to, and here it is.

This is what you're gonna charge the resident, right?

Um with that, and and even the mayor alluding to that, you know, or or you that the county might have been higher, we're obviously really low.

There's a sweet spot in the middle.

Um, we're we're already taking your time, right?

To try and make your staff's time to try and get into this more beneficial streamlined structure, so then you're less burdened.

I think it would just be worth the phone call to call the local people that deal with this and see what the fee structure is and find a happy medium instead of spending money.

Correct, this is where you can correct me if I'm wrong in a feasibility study to see what we should be at.

So if we're able to just talk about it.

That's what I said internally.

All right, I just wanted to clarify.

So thank you for the question.

That's right.

That's my favorite thing to do is call my peers.

Perfect.

Send an email, say hi to lunch factories.

Perfect, because that's where you know, I think it's just that easy, right?

Or an email, and then they can just fire one back when you're ready.

Usually, yes, when is when it's focused on something like what topic, that is a great way to do it, and that's why I think that it's simple enough for us to pull out of our broader fee schedule.

I feel like I've got good direction from the from the city council regarding the fees and something we could bring forward a recommendation with some data behind it as to how we got there.

Fantastic.

And I appreciate everybody else's comments.

I know the mayor's uh gonna end up uh with what he's going on.

I thank the staff again for everybody going through this, um, seeing where we can get to.

Hopefully, you guys have direction from us.

It seems like we're kind of all on the same page uh of what we're looking for going forward.

So I am excited to see where we end at uh down the road.

Um, but thank you for putting the due diligence into this and getting us all this information.

So, what's the next step?

I guess at the step level, you're all gonna get all the local comparators, right?

And then you're gonna come back with all that information for us, or or is there something else you're doing before we bring it back to us?

Um, I mean, if there if there's a desire for another work session item with just recommendations before putting it in an ordinance form, that's a possibility, or we could work just towards a full ordinance and and bring that bring that forward when it's ready.

Um I I can't speak off the cup like how fast that could be done because there's other things to potentially move around.

Um from a process standpoint, it's an amendment to the community development code.

So fully local.

Um because nothing came from here that would require changes to our our bigger policy.

So that would ultimately result in a presentation to the community development board for their review and recommendation, and then something to city council.

We um do try to engage the public where we're appropriate.

So as we dig in, that would be something that we would discuss internally to to determine if some sort of um you know what we've done in the past has varied.

Sometimes we've just done it with open house or been available to answer questions.

Sometimes we've done an online session for people who want to hear what about an ordinance prior to it being brought forward.

So we don't, you know, we don't have a one-size-fits-all approach for that.

I would like that.

I think this is this is uh important topic and it's complicated.

And so before you present an ordinance, I would like to have a conversation before that happens, at least an agenda item.

So I mean, what I would I would do is work with um assistant city manager battle and the rest of the city and administration for pull together for a possible proposed project timeline, and um, and then we would be able to communicate that to you.

That's where Albert.

I'm just uh I'm listening to everything, and I think that we make some good points that uh it's more it's important to have the balance.

And um, you know, I've seen uh some of these uh discussions on the uh CDB on people coming in wanting to remove trees and and also when I was on the CDB that we had some people coming in that I thought we could be probably a little more um I don't know.

Um I think we can meet a different level there, which I'm glad you're we're talking about and about doing that now.

So yeah, I mean, of course, I'm biased.

I think my team does a phenomenal job trying to get all of the tree protection in place and really work to find you know how to replace trees and helping our customers, whether it be the single family homeowner or even the larger sites, you know, picking the right trees.

Um it does not always feel that way to the people, you know, five years later.

Um it's it's difficult to say what's gonna happen in 15 or 20 years we deal with it at the city, also, right?

Will the tree damage something, you know, in a long time from now.

But um, you know, I think our team is very skilled at that.

There's a reason why we invest in them as staff as certified arborists.

So um, and they always appreciate that y'all do that too.

Okay, I'll weigh in last.

Um, on the timing, uh I was I was impressed with the county.

They just did it, knocked it out very quickly.

Um, and so I would like to work as quickly as possible to getting something done on it.

Um Vice Mayor beat me to put any on the agenda, but it's something that I wanted to get on as well because I noticed how quickly the county addressed the rules, got and enacted something differently.

So I'd like to see us uh, you know, wherever the timeline is, I like to see us work quickly towards it because we brought this up.

You put it on the agenda two months ago or so.

Um it was supposed to be on the last one.

Our meeting was going pretty long, so I asked to have it moved to here to save us some time because I figured it would be lengthy discussion as well.

So I'd I just like to see us work as quickly as possible.

I understand the time demands, you got other things going on.

We got a lot been thrown at your department here recently, so um sensitive to that, but I would like to see us work with some sense of urgency on it because I think it is important to the citizens because we have um and that's what that's what my hope is here is that we can and you pointed out some areas where we are more citizen friendly than the county.

Um I'd like to keep those, but also maybe incorporate into our codes and things that they adopted that would make ours more citizen friendly.

Uh and I appreciate those folks who are expert in trees, armors who are the tree nerds is referred to.

Uh I'm not, um, and I know we have residents who are in addition to our staff, um, but the average person is not.

And uh Councilmember Albreton referred to a gentleman, you know, he who I think represents a lot of the community that they um they're often elderly, they're often don't have a lot of resources, they can't hire the pious price tree removal company to come in or landscaper to do their work, they're just trying to make their property look better, take care of their property.

Some cases they've had the property for years, and uh and they get frustrated because they're just trying to make the property look nice and to the extent we can simplify some of these and explain better.

I think it that helps quite a bit too, but uh I think just making it more citizen-friendly, and you know, there's a fine line between we're trying to protect our tree canopy to benefit all the citizens of the entire city.

It's good for our community to have a strong, vibrant, healthy tree canopy.

It's good for everybody.

So there's a community need in doing that.

At the same time, we need to respect that folks have property rights and and um we're and we're not micromanaging someone's private real property to the extent where aside from trees, I show you examples of statutes and all kinds of uh statues and all kinds of other things where we have some of the most atrocious looking properties where folks do all kinds of weird stuff aside from trees, you know, and we you know we can't get in.

I'd love to go in and redecorate some some yards, which are pretty obnoxious and not just you know you know all over the city, but we can't because that's their that's their property, and they're allowed to do what they want to do with it to a certain extent.

So I do want to make sure we're balancing that to make sure we're respecting the rights of the homeowner to you know do do with their property what they want within reason and uh balance that against the community's interest in having a strong tree canopy.

So thank you for this report.

It's very informative where you showed the the differences between the county.

I learned some things as I learned what DBH was, and I can tell you that you 95 to 198 percent of our community doesn't know what DBH is and all that.

So I I learned a lot from it, and it looks like we're already better as far as being more citizen friendly than the county, and uh that's good to see.

But I'd like to see if there's some ways we can make our code with regard to trees even more citizen-friendly to sometimes in some cases mirror what the county has done.

So there are some great 24-inch and above in Crestlake Park.

Yeah, thank you.

Very good.

Thank you for your report.

Yeah, mayor.

Can I summarize just to make sure that we're clear?

So my understanding is is staff's gonna work on a timeline that we'll share with you on how we could potentially develop some revisions from the feedback today.

We'll take a look at the existing ordinance in the county and figure some suggestions on how ours could improve, taking the county language but retaining the the ones that are in the best interest of our citizens, and then uh we'll present that to you through one on ones and uh maybe just ask in the meantime you continue to think about that and anything else you want to see in it.

We can uh incorporate it when you see it on one on ones, and then by then we'll bring it back.

That sound good?

Yes, all right.

Thank you for your report.

Thank you.

I'm gonna call it a poll.

Okay, move to item six point one on these except for department of transportation grant agreements uh for the parking lot expansion rehabilitation project.

Uh good afternoon, Mayor Council, my McDonald, Marine and Aviation Director.

This item accepts amendment number two to the FDOC grant for the airport parking lot project, providing an additional six hundred and ninety-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-two dollars in state funding.

This brings the total project cost to approximately two point seven seven million with FTOP funding 80 percent.

The amendment aligns the grant with the current construction costs associated with the terminal and parking improvements.

Fly USA will be in reimbursing the city for the local match portion.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions on this agenda?

Seeing none, do we have consent?

Yep, we have consent on 6.1.

Thank you.

Agenda item 6.2.

Except Florida Department of Transportation Grant Agreements in the amount of 790,000 dollars, 369 dollars for the construction and terminal building at the Clearwater Executive Airport.

Good afternoon, everybody again.

Mike McDonald, Marine and Aviation Director.

This item accepts amendment number two to the EPDOC grant for the airport torment of construction, provide an additional 790,369 dollars in state funding.

This brings the total project cost to approximately 9.38 million.

The FDOP funding 50 percent.

The amendment aligns the grant with the awarded construction cost and ensures the project is fully funded and consistent with the bid aboard consistent with the operation operating agreement fly USA will reimburse the city for the applicable local match portion of the grant.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, any questions on this agenda?

Not do we have consent?

June item 6.3.

Except for our department of transportation grant agreements.

Yes, we do for the remill and overlay project at the Clearwater Executive Airport.

This item accepts amendment number two to the FDOC grant for the taxiway mill and overlay project, providing an additional 374,785 dollars in funding.

This brings the total project cost to approximately 2.85 million with F dot funding 80 percent.

Consistent with the operating agreement, Fly USL will reimburse the city for a portion of the local match not to exceed $94,447 with the remaining local match funded through air park reserves.

I'll be happy to answer any questions.

If not, do we have consent?

Yes.

Consent on 6.3.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Agenda item 7.1.

Appoint Jasmine Cruz to the municipal code enforcement board to fill an unexpired term through October 1, 2026.

Council members, Mr.

Brown was serving in this capacity for some time, and unfortunately, because of work, he needs to step away.

And so the applicant we have on file, she actually filed for another board, um, CDB, but I thought she'd be a really good fit for this board, and she is willing to serve.

Um she is a paycheck supervisor, and I think um, based on her human resources um background, I think would be a good fit for the board.

Okay.

Discussion.

Do we have consent?

Yes.

You have consent on 7.1.

Gend item 8.1.

Approve a legal services agreement with Day's law firm.

Council, this is um my item, it's a legal services agreement.

From I would say mid-October until beginning of April, we did have a litigation attorney.

Um, we hired one on April the 6th.

Um, she's been here for about four weeks.

Um since then, we have taken back, I think three cases from outside council.

We've also been served with three additional ones.

And when she came on board, she had um some also active cases that she's managing just to be able to manage the caseload.

Um, we're requesting that this particular matter go to outside council today's law firm.

We've used him for several years.

Um, he specializes in 1983 actions in federal court.

He also represents the city of Tampa.

Um, so I'm open for questions.

I ask that this be placed on consent.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Albert and did you have a question on 7.1?

Um, yeah, it was regarding I saw a lady yesterday that uh came up and asked me.

She says she applied for one of the boards, and uh we picked somebody else for it, and she was just wondering why we didn't send like a notice to her saying thank you for applying you know, just something nice saying uh you know stay maybe next time we will it could even be in a text form or something.

It should have been.

I'm sorry, and I'll double check with the system.

So the system does when um granite it's everything is automated, so when it is categorized as being appointed, you receive a a letter with all the information for that board, and those who are not should have received.

So I'll go in, and if not, then I'll go back and send it manually.

Yeah, I think just would be nice, you know.

It should have been, but it's the same letter except now it's just automated.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, agenda item 8.2 8.2 through 8.6 or second readings, and there's no additional information.

Okay, fine.

To agenda item nine, is you succeed manager.

Do you have any or either one of you have any reports?

I do not, Mr.

Battle.

I do not.

No, sir.

Okay.

No, sir.

And item 11.1.

Schedule a special work session to discuss the proposed entertainment complex.

Uh Mayor, this is me.

Uh, first of all, I apologize for this agenda item strictly saying uh proposed entertainment complex.

I think our original discussion several weeks ago was in the hopes that uh we could have a special session, a work session that went a little deeper uh than just the Evo Dolby uh discussion, but I know the agenda item uh just says that.

Uh I appreciate uh council's support and willingness in having this uh discussion and the opportunity to schedule a special session workshop as we've discussed multiple times.

Clearwater, uh, we're undoubtedly in an exciting period and a hopeful period uh for that matter of redevelopment, our marina and our beautiful pier to our entire night US 19 corridor and our downtown district that we're in is going through a downtown reboot or has been famously uh coined by our assistant city manager as the urban renaissance, and he's still waiting uh for his check for that.

That should be in the mail.

But uh recently, uh as we all have been aware, there's been a vast amount of coverage and press releases, social media threads, regarding the coordinated efforts of the Church of Scientology, Cleveland Street Alliance, and their development partners, as they've released their uh Cleveland Street redevelopment plans.

Uh the COS has been requested over the years uh by citizens as well as this DIES to develop and activate their properties for the benefit of the entire community.

Um, and I think we've all had those discussions before.

Uh I think it would only be fair to acknowledge that at this moment today uh it is the first time in over 50 years that an entire commercial block uh of our downtown is advancing in redevelopment, and um I do appreciate that all of their plans that have been publicly made are accessible to the public.

Um I think that that's important, and we have asked for that, and I appreciate that.

Uh, why we uh as a city and as a leadership team welcome and celebrate the development and redevelopment that's going on before us uh downtown and the activation.

Uh we also think it's vitally important for us as a city and for a leadership team to have discussions here in the sunshine or a special uh work session workshop on what is transpiring downtown and do that from a position of neutrality and not necessarily uh from a position of of advocacy uh or opposition.

Uh our community deserves this level of transparency.

I think we've all recognized that it reduces confusion, prevents prevents uh misinformation and overcomes misinformation that's so often out there, and it helps build trust in our community, uh not just with our citizens, but our community partners, uh, which is is vitally important to all of us.

Uh my goal in this discussion today is kind of threefold.

Uh, first, uh if we allow the city clerk to kind of help us coordinate and identify and find a date uh that works in our hectic schedules.

I know we're all extremely busy, um, including travel, some travel quite quite a bit coming and going.

So we'll um staff is has worked hard in looking at our calendars, and I'll let the clerk help us manage that.

Uh, second goal uh for a body is decide how this special session workshop uh is facilitated, uh, whether as this is my discussion item, whether you know I kind of facilitate that again from a position of neutrality and and facilitate it, or if the dias prefers staff to lead that discussion, mayor, or or any other option that uh the diassees fit.

Um, so that's number two.

And then the third, I think it's important.

Uh it's great that we pick a date and schedule it, uh, but to identify what the heck we want to talk about and identify uh what are those certain projects that we want to have on it.

And I know the agenda item, and again, I apologize, just said uh the Family Fund Center, but that was not my intent.

Uh I believe there's a handful of things out there that we should discuss in that uh the welcome showroom downtown, all of the Cleveland Street projects, the Evo and Dolby Entertainment Facility Center, as well as the RHR LRH Hall, uh that as we're here, and there have been applications uh submitted.

Uh so I think that's important to be a part of the discussion.

So I think those are my three goals for this.

I thank you for the opportunity.

I think first and foremost that give anybody an opportunity if you had a question or discussion, and before I move in uh to the three items of the date.

Um first of all, I appreciate you bringing this forward.

Um there has been a lot of confusion.

I thought today we were just I thought your focus was gonna be on the um family center, but you did mention a lot of other things that you're right.

There's a lot of confusion and misinformation.

Um, and so the way these projects have been presented across all the media outlets has created such confusion.

Um, but regardless of the intent, the volume and persistent messaging suggests a level of certainty that just isn't there, especially with the theater.

Um of the required reviews, land acquisitions, vacations, um, and approvals, they haven't been done.

So, despite all that robust conversations out there and all the public messaging, it should not, and I hope it won't influence our process or responsibility to review it.

So, I am in support of having a work session to reset, and not just the um the theater, but there's a lot of confusion between Cleveland Street Alliance.

Who's who is that?

Is that a partnership?

If it is, what kind of partnership?

And we need transparency.

You're right, we need to talk about it because when the information is being conveyed in such a robust, in some ways invasive way, like I cannot watch a YouTube video without having a commercial, and hearing it and knowing that it is not the complete picture.

And hearing it and knowing that it is not the complete picture.

I know that.

But when I speak to other others who are not as informed, there's a lot of confusion.

And then there's and that's how that's how fear gets in.

That's how uh conflict gets in.

It's from that confusion.

So I really would appreciate an opportunity for us to discuss in the sunshine.

All the topics that uh would clarify everything and reset reset us.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm not um I'm not against uh having a special work session.

Uh I I don't I don't know why we need a special work session.

I don't know why we just couldn't ask that that is an agenda item to uh upcoming work session.

I share the uh council member uh Teixeira's um sense of I wouldn't say confusion, but uh I I certainly don't want to dampen any enthusiasm for an exciting project that it would hit the media, everybody's I hear a lot of people wow, that's that's impressive, and and and it was impressive.

But we I think the five of us learned about it from staff after the first Dolby press release came out.

So I don't think any of us had any heads up that they were going to announce that, and then the Evo Entertainment.

So with that, I just want to make sure I understand what's what's being proposed, what's going on, and I've had to unfortunately tell the media that I don't know.

Um I know that the Cleveland Street Alliance LC is a for-profit limited liability company registered with the state of Florida.

Um I I know that uh the Flag Organization is is Scientology is a tax-exempt nonprofit uh organization, um, and uh separate from Cleveland Street Alliance.

And I know Evo Entertainment, which I tried to reach out to their CEO, he called me back originally and haven't had a chance to connect with him since, but they're a Texas organization that does movie theaters, these family entertainments, but for-profit.

So how all you know what we and and I think the property that's being proposed for this center is owned by a different LC.

And I don't know the who the owners are that, but that's a for-profit Florida Limbury liability company.

So I I would very much like to get to the bottom of who who's who's playing what role here.

Um I I don't know what you know the the nonprofits role would be with uh with for-profit LCs and developers and uh bus movie business.

I don't know.

Uh but I would like to get to the bottom of who who's involved in this, what are the roles, and uh and really hope to talk to the eBook Entertainment because uh CEO because it sounds like he's had success, he's very well connected in the movie and family entertainment business, and look forward to hopefully having a conversation with him.

But I I agree with you, there's it's put the five of us in a difficult spot because we're certainly because of all the publicity getting a lot of questions from the community about it, and we just don't know.

And I've no one's explained to me how all these entities are involved together, who's primarily a responsible, getting mixed signals on who's leading this, who's not leading this, and uh I I would like to know because the community wants to know.

And uh and uh certainly we want to support businesses and and activities and public accessible activities in downtown Clearwater, and uh hopefully this is what this will be.

But uh I'd I need to know more about it.

But I I don't know that we need a special work session because at this point I I don't know who's who's playing what role in this.

I don't know what the proposal is and how they're gonna move forward.

Uh I would like to see us just add it as an agenda item to an upcoming uh council meeting uh workshop and then invite maybe all these institutes to come in and share share with us what their plans are.

Can do you mind if I address those couple questions before I oh go for it, Vice Mayor?

Thank you.

Um, first of all, um thank you for feedback from both of you.

Again, I think it's important uh that we try, especially in a fact-finding and discovery discussion, uh, that we try to remain from a neutral standpoint, uh, and then we fact find and discover, and we can create a better understanding and clarity.

Um good question.

Why a special work session?

I thought about that before I threw that discussion up, but I think today was a perfect example.

Uh we just talked about a tree ordinance for 54 minutes almost, uh, and that was just trees in our community.

That's not talking about uh over 350 million dollars of prov proposed downtown development uh that covered entire street blocks um and corners.

So I think um being as though it is a downtown, uh being as though the lack of clarity that's been discussed um from uh my two friends here earlier, and understandably so, uh, as well as the the dollar amount.

Um, I think it is deserving, especially being as a sensitive topic of downtown in the church of Scientology, it is.

Uh, I think it's important that we have that discussion and do it uh solely focused on it, because it's not something that will be done uh in 30 minutes, especially when we're trying to know why now, what changed, who's behind certain organizations or nonprofits, what are the entity relationships, what are the projects, what are the permits, what are the time frames, what are the cost?

These are a lot of um questions that that we will have hopefully answered, and and whether some of our downtown partners um join us or not.

Um that's a different question.

Uh, and hopefully we can get to the bottom of that, and however we facilitate that discussion, whether it's myself, staff, or or you, Mr.

Mayor.

I think those are all very valid questions that a special work session would allow us to uh to cover.

But thank thank you, Vice Mayor, for letting me jump in real quick.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I'm all for this if we do need to be in a special work session, you know, talking about what's happening, and um I invite it, you know.

Um I will say this you this is brought to our attention in an infancy stage.

We don't know a whole lot about the project and everything like that.

But when you have a large theater group and Dolby Digital Atmos, I think everybody knows Dolby Digital, uh, championing something that's going to be put into downtown Clearwater.

You have to champion it.

And I think the answer is we don't know, but we're going to find out more facts.

I mean, that's why it's following the process that it is, and we'll get more facts when staff is done going through and finding the details and hammering it out and getting it to us.

But we need to remember that as elected officials, our words matter, they carry weight.

And if we're going to be hawkish towards a product project that seems fantastic for families to enjoy and bring to our downtown, what type of tone as elected officials is that set?

We should be.

We constantly talk about the ghost town that is downtown Clearwater.

Mike, how long have we grown up here?

And nobody we don't even come down here, right?

Things are starting to change.

Urban Renaissance.

We have a hotel, we have another new building coming up with commercial in the bottom floor.

Maycare sound is doing great.

Now we have a potential for Evo Entertainment and Dovey Digital to build an amazing family center.

I I don't know why we would try and deter that or be negative towards it in any way, even if we don't have all of the information.

You simply say that.

We're doing our due diligence.

Staff is working through it, and we'll get there in the end.

Be transparent as we can along the way.

That's our job, right?

That's why I'm all for this work session as well.

I think that you know, maybe when this does get scheduled, who knows?

Maybe more data from staff will be available and we'll be able to present even more and welcome the Cleveland Street Alliance to come and present their things.

I I think that I know that Scientology somehow does partake in the Cleveland Street Alliance.

I'm not exactly sure how, but I've heard that multiple times up here.

So I would assume it's probably true.

I mean, we had uh Sarah come what almost a year ago to present how Cleveland Street was going, and things have been happening, right?

We see the People's Bank that is nearing completion.

We see just across the hall from where City Hall meets, that entire south section of Cleveland Street is now under construction.

So it's very different landscape than it was 20 years ago.

It's a very different landscape than May 12th, 2025, agenda item 4.1 when Sarah stood here and showed us our plan, her plan to have this clear water robust.

Like, I mean, things are happening, and I think that we have to give credit where credit's due.

I always welcome the can the the communication and transparency.

So I'm all for this.

I think that it'll be great, and I think that as we continue down this staff will even have more information for us as we continue.

You know, I see the heads shaking, yes, so I welcome this.

No whole bar.

I think it'll be great.

Well, it that's nobody's bringing a hockey sh just by asking questions.

I mean, this there's no there's no need for secrecy here on what what their plans are.

And uh to the fact we weren't communicating with that's that I I would just like to know more.

I mean, we would let them know more before this was announced in the media, you know, who's involved, whatever.

Most of our uh folks developing things in downtown do that.

They let us know ahead of time what your plans are.

So but I I don't I don't think there's any anything, any questions been asked here or being hawkish.

We're just uh we just want to make sure we have information to before we uh before we get all excited about it.

You know, we all know, and I mean the public knows that um there has been plans and talk about a family entertainment center for a decade now in downtown Clearwater.

This isn't anything new, so this isn't something that came out of nowhere, but it hasn't happened for a long period of time.

So for the community to naturally have questions about it, I think I I think it's just you know it's natural.

And um, and um, but I I don't think it's being negative just for us to want to know more information and to have that chair.

So well, I would say that even that comment there is hawkish because of this is uh private property following the rules, coming to us with a potential program.

Staff is reviewing it, and it's just what I said.

Hey, Dolby Digital and Evo Entertainment released an awesome expert saying that they're going to build something here in Clearwater, and it's fantastic news.

Obviously, we don't have that information.

So when the news is coming to you, sir, when the news is coming to any of us, we say what I say, I'm excited about it.

We'll see what happens when it comes here.

Staff's working through the details, and the more we know, the second we know it, you'll know it.

Um, you know, when it comes to the projects that are happening downtown, the only reason we had more insight is because we control the properties.

I mean, this is a personal property rights issue with the development on their thing, and they're coming to us for different zoning for different um vacancies for those types of things.

So, I mean, when that information does come through, I don't even know what all that entails.

That's when we'll know more information, and that's when you disseminate it.

But to say that they're doing something in secret, it's a private private entity, whoever the LLC is that owns that exact property, to do what they want and then present us with the information that staff goes through and then let us know.

I mean, that is the process, it's process of anything.

The only reason we had more insight to anything else is because we own the property.

We were able to hold those contingencies.

So I think that you do get a little hawkish in those types of things.

We just need to understand that this is great for clear water.

I hope the CEO Evo Entertainment will call me back today.

I've made repeated attempts to call me back to his to acknowledge first.

I would I would like to hear that.

I wasn't saying he's a busy person then too.

If he's the head of an entertainment corporation if we tried to call it back, and all of a sudden it didn't.

So hopefully that he'll he'll call me hawkish.

So you said you described it in a word that none of the media outlets ever used, which is potential or proposed.

It is presented as fact.

So my neighbors, who it will be impacting their accessibility maneuverability, come to me and to add to the many questions that Mr.

Manina Council member Manino has asked, which have been asked of me too.

Was a question when did this happen, Lena?

Did you guys do it in back, like was this a backdoor deal?

Because they're saying like it's happening.

So did you give away that road that I use every day?

What about that other role?

What about the parcel?

The perception is it is a done deal, which then affects the community's perception of when did this happen?

How did this happen?

And that perception of backdoor deals, which did not occur at all.

So I wish that they were a little bit more responsible when they're promoting and marketing a project that is proposed, that is potentially, because it is not a done deal.

They own some of the property, not all.

And so all I'm asking is for clarity and responsible verbiage, because it is not a done deal.

It is a potential or proposed.

The manner in which it was released causes conflict, and it was unnecessary.

It could have just been presented as we are proposing to come.

There is a potential project, we're working on coming, but stating it as a done deal just adds fuel to the fire.

Mayor, if I may, real quick, but I want to make sure that we hear from council member Albretton.

Um first of all, thank you for having encourage all of us to have these discussions, because for a long, long time these discussions were not happening on the diet.

So whether we're agreeing on things or there's layers of emotions, that's all natural.

Um, but the courage and the willingness to have these discussions is what's gonna make Clearwater better.

So whether we're agreeing on things or not, thank you.

Um it's appreciated.

Secondly, we're gonna have plenty of opportunities to continue these discussions.

This isn't a one and done, so I hope we can limit um our back and forth and our banter because I I promise as we move forward, whether it's in a special work session or we move forward individually with these with what projects may or may not come before us, we will have those opportunities to have those discussions.

So I just hope that today we can kind of keep this agenda item a little more simplified.

Let's let uh the count council member Albretton throw his two words in and let's get let's get back.

If there's three of us that are in support of scheduling a special work session, let's get the clerk involved.

Let's find a date, let's find how we want to facilitate it and then move forward with what exactly projects and questions uh we have that that we want answered.

I am taking notes uh from from each of us as we have discussions and what your questions are.

We'll make sure those are included.

But I I do greatly greatly appreciate us having this um discussion that is not easy and it's challenging.

End of the day, it's better for Clearwater, so thank you.

I would support it.

The special work.

Thank you.

That's my robbery.

Yeah, okay.

So I'm gonna talk about the the elephant in the room again because uh here you know the question is not whether people are skeptical.

Uh most are, as am I, and you know, uh because Scientology's decades of secrecy, their history of acquiring property without any clear public intent, uh, you know, goes on and on.

It's insular culture all earned that skepticism.

But the question is whether we allow progress to be tested.

So what we're seeing now is after years, and you've all touched on it of talk.

We're doing this, we're coming out with this.

It's finally coming.

We're seeing it.

It's actually being constructed right now.

And I you know, a year ago, um we all heard that they were gonna do this over a year ago.

It was January of last year, and my comment to them was I am blown away by this plan.

This is great.

They have all the property, it's not like they're taking over, they got a hundred acres of it downtown already.

If they will develop it, that is a plus.

So my only comment was why don't you bring it all out to the public so the public understands what you're doing?

It's taken them over a year to do that.

They he they told us it was gonna take 30 to 40 days from last December for last year.

Finally, it's coming out.

Now they've got this thing over here on Osceola that lays out everything they're doing.

They say it's open to the public.

Come see it.

Well, a lot of public in coming downtown.

But I like your idea, Councilman Manino.

Bring it out on the dais here, show, talk about it so everybody can see what's going on, and we get a little more idea of what they're doing.

I mean, I've got the same thing as all of us.

You got people asking us what's going on down there.

Well, about all we can tell you is the same thing we in the paper, we read the paper too.

You can read it, you know.

That's my point.

But let's go ahead and have them on, we gotta understand a little more about it.

I am excited that finally things are happening.

Let's have them come in and tell us what's happening and be more public-facing about it, because it needs to be.

Or you know, we're all our necks are all on the chopping block for this.

I'm really excited that it's happening.

Let's have a I don't care if it's a special meeting or we take a work session and spend two hours talking about it.

But I think it's something we owe the public to do.

So that's all I'm gonna say.

Well, it sounds like we got consensus to be a special work session.

How do you clerk?

So um staff has identified the following three dates.

Um, the first one there is a conflict, uh, May 28th.

Um, Councilmember Albreton is traveling, so he's um yes, sir.

Okay, May 28th.

I come back in like 2:30.

Um give me the like 3:30.

If we can do a like a five o'clock or six, I'm in.

Okay, so that's one day.

The other two dates are June, Tuesday, June 2nd, 1 or 3 p.m.

or Wednesday, June 3rd, 3 p.m.

June 2nd, 1 or 3 p.m.

and June 3rd, 1 or 3 p.m.

Just 3 p.m.

on June 3rd.

On the June 3rd.

Well, when you guys look at your calendar, I've looked at mine.

I'm uh I'm supportive of the 28th, given Councilmember Albert in time, um, whether it's 4 30 or 5 o'clock to give them time to get from the airport.

Uh the other dates are uh flexible for me as well.

Uh my preference is that the 28th, we get this on the books and we move forward, but uh we have to respect everyone's schedule, so whatever works for everyone else.

It looks like I can do the 28th or the third, the second um doctor's appointment.

Um is good, like I told you, and the third I have um I have uh PSD legislative meeting in the morning, but the afternoon is free for me.

But five o'clock work for everyone.

Okay, 28th 28th, okay.

Good.

Okay.

Mayor 28th, what time?

5 p.m.

Um we can't do it during the day or what's the time.

We can, but I to give uh council member all in time.

He doesn't get back till 2 30.

No, 3 30.

Well, you know, hoping that it's gonna be on time, but I could probably be back here for 4 30.

That's the thing.

Like I don't know if my schedule has the thing with Joan First is that we already have it D D and City Council session, so it might be a long day.

Second and third.

Isn't that Jack first?

Second, second and third.

I can I can third.

Uh third is good in the afternoon.

I I think I can move something that evening.

So I could do it five that's 28th, 5 p.m.

On the 28th, 5?

Okay.

Okay.

Are you good, madam clerk?

Yes.

Perfect.

Um okay, Mayor, if you don't mind second, yeah, uh, it doesn't work out.

Okay.

Sorry, I apologize.

We're talking about calendars.

You guys are good with the 28th, 5 p.m.

Okay, the sec second thing I I discussed earlier.

Uh, I think it's important that we decide how we're gonna facilitate this.

Um again, uh I'm I'm willing to sit in a position of neutrality and kind of facilitate our discussion with staff and all questions um that we have, or we can have staff direct it and facilitate it for us, or may or any other option your yourself or that this board feels fit.

I'm like running like a regular workshop, I think.

Well, I mean, I'll share the meeting like I normally do.

Whatever the do you have any thoughts, Mrs.

Jones?

Do you think there's a a way the that would be more productive?

Uh I think I think the mayor's staying true to the process we know is fine, but I think uh once we set an agenda, you know, as far as the actual items that would be on the agenda, there's certainly no problem with maybe some staff being able to gather some data and present some a brief overview, very short, and um and be able to discuss that to facilitate the conversation, much like our special uh budget works type process.

Very simple.

So it probably depends on the actual agenda items and how you structure speakers.

That's maybe that was my next question.

I don't know.

I mean, my my thought was we invite everybody.

I why not?

It's an open work session.

We're trying to do a fact finding and bring clarity to ourselves and to the entire community.

The invite, I don't know who Cleveland Street Alliance is as far as a person, so invite anybody from the organization.

There's we've heard Scott's name all over development downtown or Randy, or who's listed as the manager for the L's.

Love to have them all.

Um the invites there.

Um hope-filled and optimistic that this can happen for the city, and the more they want to come in in the sunshine and have discussions with us to bring clarity to the community.

I'm I'm all for it.

Um so I think we invite them all as well as uh staff, our economic and development team will have the answers uh hopefully to to our questions as as we get closer.

Well, we'll just leave it like a normal work session for now and see how it comes together to your point.

Okay.

Comfortable with that?

So we get closer to it if you somebody else's gather.

I'm seeing it as like uh kind of like our strategic financial meetings.

Yeah, mayor opens it up, staff presents like uh the rubric of the agenda, we just mayor follow that and we have that open discussion.

Yeah, I think we're good.

I think the manager could follow up the one once to really kind of clarify.

I mean, you mentioned earlier though, if if having one item with regard to the Cleveland Street properties, one with LR Hall and then one with the evening.

Next on the list of yeah, yeah.

I'll I'll jump right in there.

The third thing, and again, thank you.

Thank you for your time and for helping us with the discussion was for it's important for us to identify what we want to cover in this workshop.

And I know my agenda item was my fault again.

I'm sorry, it only said Evo Family Center, but by no means did did I show up here hoping that that was the limit of what we discussed.

I think if we're truly having an open workshop and we're discussing clarity and transparency, it everything needs to be involved.

Um I think we we have to talk about the showroom, talk about the Cleveland Street projects, 600 block and beyond.

Talk about the EVO and Dolby Family Entertainment Center.

Staff will have a better update on where we are, because these aren't even discussions we've had really uh in our one-on-ones to know where we are at in that process, uh, as well as the LRH hall uh and where we are in that development application, uh, as well as a vacation request.

I I don't see why we don't touch on all of them.

Well, the only thing I would say on that is that's a separate agenda item that will be coming before us because they've got an application to vacate Garden Avenue coming up again, right?

Correct.

Yeah, they've submitted an application to vacate Garden Avenue.

It hasn't been set for a council date.

But I think that's the fact-finding and clarity we're looking for.

That's all staff would have to say is here we are in the process, these are the meetings that have taken place, this is what is taking place in the future.

Here is where we are in the process as a community, and here's what's next.

I don't think we need to have if it's not able to have a robust conversation, uh then we don't.

But if we are, I at least we we do our fact-finding side of it in the process, and let's let everyone know where we are in that process.

But uh have discussions where we can and don't discuss where we can.

Sir, sir.

If I may and if you can correct me, oh, and I mean, we'll be in the sunshine, so we can still have an open discussion with whatever facts or data are presented.

You you could have a discussion, yes.

Okay, even though that it's on a future agenda item whenever you all are done going through it, correct?

I mean, I think you could discuss where it is in the process.

Perfect.

Thank you.

So it is it I is that what we want we want to cover all those that I just discussed as far as topics.

Can I have a couple of days to ponder and organize my thoughts and then uh share that information with staff if I have to?

I mean, it looks like you have everything, but let me just give me a couple of you know, days to figure it out if there's anything else I would like to add.

Or at least a day.

Give me something.

No, that I don't have a problem with that.

Okay, I mean, as long as we're not adding things, and then all of a sudden the dias doesn't know what's being added, and they have an objection to well, why is that being brought into this discussion?

That's not part of it.

We need to make sure we have an opportunity for that.

I could probably go well, we could I can inform the city manager and then she can inform the guys at the bottom lines or share the the request on email as I usually do when I want to add an agenda item.

Yeah, that's an asking.

That would be my preference.

Uh we have just a general framework today that through one-on-ones we can refine the agenda.

I'll say on that.

I mean, we we had we addressed Garden Avenue before, and thought the direction from the attorney general was to not uh to was to keep our consideration of that issue to Garden Avenue and not to you know expand, you know, and talk about um Cleveland Street and other things that the attorney general's got to us to focus on Garden Avenue.

So that's why I'm wondering is it better for us to separate the discussion of what happens there from in light of what guidance we already had on the I I've felt like part of the guidance was we shouldn't be considering how these other properties relate to their request to close garden avenue.

So I think according to the attorney general's opinion, I think what he said was you can't place conditions, let's say outside the parameters of the garden avenue vacation involving garden avateau is what he had said.

And I think in terms of garden, you just talk about where it is in the process, knowing that you would have to come back and have another discussion on it.

Okay, but they would have to continue separately as well.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I think just strictly an update.

Here's where we are.

But you're you're 100% correct, Mayor.

We cannot say, hmm, tell me what you're doing on Cleveland and this family entertainment center, and that'll weigh into my decision making process.

Agree a hundred percent.

I was trying to just totally agree and appreciate the the protection.

That that's all I had.

If anyone else wanted to add to it again, these are great discussions for us to continue to have.

They're challenging, yes.

They're sensitive topics, yes.

I I think it's better for the citizens of Clearwater, better for our entire community, uh, and makes us stronger as a group.

So we're gonna disagree on things, we're gonna agree on things.

I think one of the things that we all respect and enjoy the most about working together is we accept that, and we we're okay with not agreeing on everything.

We know nothing's personal, uh, but we are just handling the business of the people, and we're gonna continue to.

So I thank all of you for your robust conversation.

And and I think we all agree transparent.

Let's get it all out here.

Let the public see any conversations we're having, you know, collectively or in particular.

Scientology.

So thank you for putting this on, and hopefully we got this schedule now, and we'll move forward with that.

Okay.

So with that, we'll move to item 12, new business.

I've got something, sir.

Yes, sir.

Um, so we have public comment that's set to expire with the way that we've been doing it.

Um I think that it's been going well so far.

I'd like to just maybe do another extension for another few months, maybe three months, see how it continues to go.

If it continues well, um, with the way that we've set it and established it, and then put it back uh as another voting opportunity in the future to to set it back into just the normal agendas without having to keep setting another extension and another extension and another extension.

Okay.

So it wasn't so this item wasn't added to the agenda, but I think if there's consensus, you can talk about it now.

And I'm super.

Oh, I was just doing it for new business.

So my question is do you want to discuss it for the next work session?

Correct.

That's what I was bringing up.

Because then we can't make the window.

We will make the window though, because if it's expires, don't we have to make this decision before it expires?

Well, I believe it's a good thing.

Well, you can make it on the Monday and then um have the motion on the following Thursday.

And when does it expire?

It expires this Friday.

This Friday.

Yeah.

So that's that's what I'm saying.

We can take you can take council can take it out of order to institute it that same meeting.

So that all right.

That's one way of handling it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Okay.

Okay.

Item 14 closing comments by Mayor.

I don't have anything to add in particular today.

So with that, we will adjourn the work session at the Clearwater City Council for May 4, 2026.