The Gulfport City Council met on June 6, 2023, at Gulfport City Hall. The meeting included presentations on fire department promotions and the FY2021-2022 audit, followed by public comments, a contentious lease discussion with the Boca Ciega Yacht Club, approval of pension amendments, and several resolutions. The meeting concluded with council reports and adjournment.
The meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent.
Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the June 6th regular city council meeting for Gulfport, Florida. Our invocation this evening is given by uh Councilman Ian O'Hara, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please join us in standing. Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear and how to be free from it. Victor Hugo. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. One nation, under God, indivisible liberty, and justice for all. Roll call, please, city clerk. Councilmember O'Hara. Here. Councilmember Thanos. Here. Councilmember Brown. Here. Vice Mayor Ray. Here. Mayor Henderson. Here. City Attorney Salzman. Here. City Manager O'Reilly. Present. City Clerk Carico, present. All right. We've got a couple of presentations this evening. Our first is Fire Chief Renee Fernandez doing some fire department promotions. Thank you very much. How are you doing? Good evening, Mayor and Council. I would like to start off by thanking all of you up here as well as the great citizens of our community for making this such a great city to be a part of and be able to serve. So a big round of applause to everybody here. Last but not least, I would like to give some credit to our 18 department members for all their hard work and dedication that they do throughout the community. Today's a special day for our department. We're doing a promotion and doing the official pinning for two of our deserving department members. Firefighter paramedic Michael Barber will be promoted to the position of lieutenant, and Lieutenant Timothy Burden will be promoted to the position of fire captain paramedic. So at this time, I would like to call up both Timothy Burton and Michael Barber up here. Both of these gentlemen up here are well deserving of their promotion. They have both been great role models for our department. Not only have they found the way to balance life, family, and work, they have also continued to further their education throughout their time in our department. Michael Barber started with us as a firefighter paramedic back in 2016. During his time with us, he became a driver operator and has countless hours of training as an acting lieutenant for our city. Throughout the time, he's also continued his education, getting extensive amount of certificates, including his state fire officer one, state fire officer two, state driver operator, state fire safety inspector, state instructor two, American Heart CPR instructor, as well as an associate's degree in arts. So big round of applause. Congratulations, guys. Thanks for having us and letting us do our presentation here. Absolutely. Thank you.