The Clearwater City Council met on Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Main Library Council Chambers. The meeting included special recognitions, approval of routine items, a major public hearing on an unsolicited proposal to redevelop the Landings Golf Course into a sports tourism complex, and a final vote on a 30-year franchise agreement with Duke Energy. The council also reached consensus on naming the new city hall plaza in honor of former Mayor William B. Horn.
Landings Golf Course Proposal (Item 7.3):
Duke Energy Franchise Agreement (Item 8.1):
Other Public Comments:
Landings Golf Course Unsolicited Proposal (Item 7.3):
Duke Energy Franchise Agreement (Item 8.1):
Naming of City Hall and Municipal Complex (Item 12.1):
This time I'll call order the Clearwater City Council meeting for August 6, 2026. If you wish to address address the council tonight, please complete a comment card. Comment cards are located by the clerk seated to the right of the dais. Please hand your card to the clerk. I'd ask for everyone to please stand tonight as we move to item two on the agenda for the invitation to be given by Reverend Allie Wood from the first United Methodist Church of Clearwater, and then remain standing afterwards for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let us pray. Loving creator, we come to you on this very rainy evening, grateful for the privilege of being a community. We are grateful for all those who make our life together and our safety possible. Our first responders, our city staff, our elected officials, those who work tirelessly on our behalf. As we gather tonight and decide on the business of our city, some small items and some large, make us mindful of all those who live and work and reside in Clearwater. Help us to remember that our city belongs to all of us, and help us to be people who think not just of ourselves, but the future, those voices that are so often unheard, and even those with whom we disagree. Thank you, Reverend Wood. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Liberty and Justice for all before we continue with tonight's meeting, I'd like to introduce our dais to my far left is our assistant city clerk and uh the deputy city clerk, Nicole Spring. To her right is our city clerk, Rosemary Cole. Good evening. Hello and welcome. To my right, Councilmember Mike Benino. Good evening. To his right, Councilmember David Albert. Good evening. To his right, Assistant City Manager Dan Slaughter. Excuse me. His right, Assistant City Manager Al Battle. Good evening. With that, we'll move to item 4.1 on the agenda. I'd like to call forward Anita Berry with Johnston Stewart for a end of legislative session report. Thank you for having us here. So I think that shows kind of the temperature of this session and some of the discord that was occurring between the House and the Senate and the governor's office. Lawmakers were unable to fulfill their constitutional obligation within the normal 60-day legislative session to pass a balanced budget. Most of that was due to failure to reach agreement on really those top line numbers, so what they want to spend in the large the large spending categories. However, soon after they were called into three different special sessions. Ultimately, the second of those special sessions, they came back to finalize a budget. They passed the full budget shortly after Memorial Day. And that continued significant investments in transportation, environmental protection, affordable housing, resiliency, and water quality, while also maintaining strong reserves for the states. We were very pleased to say that all three of the city's funding priorities were fully funded by the legislature in the budget that passed both the House and Senate. And I would say that that is remarkable given the budget climate that we are in in our state right now, certainly looking at some projected deficits in the coming years. And so we saw the House and Senate really look at pulling back some of their spending levels. So we were very happy to have full funding for all of your priorities come out of the legislature. The final budget signed by the governor totals about a hundred and seven hundred and seventeen point six billion dollars. That follows 810 million in line item vetoes that the governor issued on specific appropriations projects. Unfortunately, Elevate Bay Shore was vetoed, but we still returned almost four million to the city of Clearwater. That includes three million for the lift station rehab program and 800,000 for the backup emergency power generator connection for lift stations. Many grant and infrastructure programs utilized by municipalities like the City of Clearwater were funded and received continued funding in the budget that the governor assigned. This includes the five the F.5 Year Work Program, Resilient Florida, which I know that the city has benefited from, and beach nourishment funds. And I'll I'll pause on that because our delegations and Chair Hooper in particular really championed the beach nourishment funds that this session and his work and the work done by the legislature designated 43 million for Pinellas County and the beaches here specifically. It's a pot of about 64 and 43 million is going back to Pinellas County. So that's really exciting for our beaches.