Gulfport City Council Workshop: 2024 Storm Lookback and Future Preparedness – July 22, 2025
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Gulfport City Council Workshop: 2024 Storm Lookback and Future Preparedness – July 22, 2025
The Gulfport City Council held a workshop on July 22, 2025, at 6:00 PM to review lessons from the three 2024 storms (Hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton) and discuss legislative changes, particularly Senate Bill 180. City Manager Jim O'Reilly and department heads presented a comprehensive seven-category analysis covering damage assessments, permitting, code enforcement, public safety, debris removal, communications, and community recovery. The meeting included two public comment periods and extensive council discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Robert: Expressed concern about code enforcement for unmaintained properties that could become storm debris, and asked about cleanup of the former tiki bar site on Shore Boulevard. City Manager noted the owner is working on repairs.
- Keith Andrew: Asked if the city had spoken with state officials about potential funding arrangements if federal FEMA is restructured. Mayor responded that state officials have advised not to count on FEMA and that the state may take a larger role.
- Matt Bonano: Asked about storm drain cleaning and capacity improvements. City Manager explained that drains are gravity-fed and subject to tide levels; the city televises and cleans lines regularly.
- Jeremy Wood (business owner, licensed contractor, Lions Club president): Urged the city to avoid raising the millage rate, offered suggestions for permitting flexibility, and requested a waiver of permit fees for the Lions Club due to being overlooked in the damage notification process.
- Laurel Oldaney: Announced the My Safe Florida Home program opens August 4 for applications (up to $10,000 in matching funds for hardening).
- Tom and Kathy Bixler (Alliance Foundation/Lions Club): Described their difficulty obtaining a substantial damage letter and permit, explained the financial hardship on the nonprofit, and requested the council consider waiving the $886 permit fee as a specialn- Catherine Sullivan: Asked for a percentage breakdown of substantial vs. non-substantial damage permits applied for since the hurricanes.
- Joan Weeses: Requested more town halls and online broadcasts during crises for better communication and calm.
- Amy Costa: Suggested a structured donation distribution plan and a database of vulnerable citizens and food providers; praised the new volunteer software.
Discussion Items
Storm Recovery Overview
- City Manager Jim O'Reilly recapped the three storms Debby brought severe rainfall and removal of 14 vessels; Helene caused widespread flooding despite being 105 miles offshore; Milton hit during cleanup of Helene.
- Emphasis on lessons learned: the need for strict quality control over outside contractors, real-time damage assessment software, and a dedicated city-managed contractor rather than state-assigned vendors.
Permitting & Damage Assessments
- Substantial Damage Estimates (SDE): 637 initial letters sent; 525 active flood damage prevention cases in the BSNA system. Of these, 473 open, 52 closed (including 10 demolition permits finalized, 9 fully compliant properties). 166 properties have issued permits and are actively working.
- Data Dashboard: Justin Shay presented a dashboard integrating BSNA, GIS, property appraiser data, and FEMA claims. It tracks case status, permits applied/issued, and labels for SDE above/below 50%.
- Contractor Management: The city contracted with 2nd Taylor for plan review at a cost of about $176,000. Future contracts will be city-managed. A request for proposals for a private SDE provider closes July 24.
- Code Enforcement: 100 stop-work/unpermitted-work cases to be processed at about 10 per month. One code enforcement officer currently handles both storm-related and general violations (vegetation, high grass). The mayor noted 54 open vegetation cases.
- Senate Bill 180 Requirements: City must contract for floodplain manager, damage assessment teams, and inspection personnel; cannot charge impact fees for certain repairs; must have online permitting applications (with owner-builder signature in person per Section 489). Moratoriums on look-back periods prohibited. Training templates from the state not yet provided.
- Public Safety (Deputy Chief Lund): Pre-storm tasks include contacting special-needs residents, evacuations, water rescues (multiple rescues performed, state provided an additional boat). Post-storm security and traffic management. Police notified businesses of alcohol sale closures.
- Communications: Justin Shay detailed the city's Constant Contact newsletter (4,000 contacts, 52% open rate), hurricane center webpage with guidance documents, social media integration, and call center activation. Pre-storm sandbag distribution via Sunshine Sandbags with proof of residency.
- Volunteer Software (Get Connected): David Mather introduced a new application called "Get Connected" by Galaxy Digital, allowing volunteer management for city departments and community groups. Supports scheduling, project posting, and block-captain system. Asheville used it after their floods. City will roll out training soon.
- Gulfport Recovers: Mayor described a volunteer-driven post-storm recovery group that created a comprehensive guide with step-by-step instructions, available on the hurricane page. Recognized Jen Howard, Deb Atkins, Marilyn McClellan, Regina Brucemi, Karen Goldberg, April Thanos, Courtney Propagus, and Annette.
- Debris Removal: Tom Nichols reported removal of over 64,000 cubic yards of debris from three storms. 30 vessels washed ashore (many removed by owners/insurance). New dashboard will show pickup schedules. Right-of-entry agreements needed for private communities like Town Shores to get FEMA reimbursement.
- Financial Update:.3 million spent so far; city has $5 million reserves (24% reserve rate) and a line of credit (not yet used) for future storms. Proposed budget does not increase millage rate.
Key Outcomes
- Decisions: Council consensus not to increase the millage rate.
- Directives: City will pursue a contract for SDE provider using county-vetted list (bid closes July 24) and will contract for code enforcement personnel if needed. Staff to investigate training for HOA boards (referred to Masters Association). Council requested a percentage breakdown of substantial vs. non-substantial damage permits.
- Next Steps: Staff will continue rollout of the Get Connected software, including training for city departments and community groups. The hurricane page will be updated with a graphics for sandbag placement. The Lions Club permit fee waiver request will be considered in a future meeting. Code enforcement will escalate on properties with no response to courtesy letters (101 still unresponsive).
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. Good evening and welcome to let's see, this would be the second workshop of twenty twenty-five. Yeah, so we're gonna go ahead and get started today. Um we will start with an invocation by Vice Mayor April Thanos, and then that'll be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. So please stand if you will. This is a one of the few times you have to do it three times in a month. Um so we can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are, and that was from Oprah. Um roll call city manager, city clerk, excuse me. Councilmember Shaw. Councilmember Early President. Here City Manager O'Reilly. City Clerk Carico is present. Councilmember Jackson has asked to be excused. All right, so um just wanted to give you just a real quick overview before our city manager starts us off with presentations tonight. Um I think the first question I just wanted to answer was why? Why are we having this meeting? And they just covered every detail of everything, and they acknowledged the things that they didn't do too well, but they spent way more time uh dwelling on the changes that had already been made and also explaining to a small city like Gulfport as well as a county like Pinellas the rules that we're gonna be coming down um down the line that we're gonna change dramatically, so some of the things in the way we did um in the last storms, hopefully we never have to deal with it at all ever in our lifetime again. But if we do everything that we did one way for one set of rules may not be the same for this next set of rules, so I kind of wanted to uh touch on that. Um so there's tonight uh our city manager has taken and broke broken this up into seven different categories, okay. So th this is way more than just about permitting, but we're definitely gonna uh address permitting the way it was the way we expect it to be down the road. We're gonna address some of the uh new county and state procedures and requirements. Um we learned a lot about uh and we've talked a little bit about um Bill 180, but it wasn't passed at that time. Well, now it has, and uh, we've had some time to read it and can actually tell you how some of the things will actually apply to us. Um second one of the year, it's not like we have a long history of the rules, so this is the way it's gonna work tonight, okay. Um Jim's gonna do um our city manager is gonna do his presentation. He's gonna come up for air periodically, and definitely at any point during this presentation. If you didn't hear something or something wasn't clear, it's absolutely okay to ask for clarification on that point right then and there. As he finishes each category, and he'll outline the categories in a minute. It will be absolutely okay for the council to ask additional questions or comments about the category that he just spoke of. Um and then at the end, we will have council comments again, okay. Um after the first two categories, one will be dealing with permitting and that whole process, and another with the Bill 180. After those two categories, we will have public comment, and then we will have public comment when he finishes when we finish the other five as well. So there will be two opportunities for you to talk, and then we will do public, we will do our council comments after the public has spoken so that if we wanted to address something they said we could. Everybody good? All right, and we're being recorded, so we want to make sure that we talk into our mics. And I think everyone knows this is not a basic council meeting. This will be a little less formal, a little bit more discussion because we're all here to learn and make sure we understand how things are going to be moving forward. Mayor Council, thank you for this evening. Um just wanted to just briefly touch on some background issues before we get started and talk about the three storms that we had last year. Um of the issues that we're facing is, and we talk about it within three storms, two occurring within two weeks of each other, and each of them were different. Hurricane Debbie, we talk about that we had severe rainfalls, we had marine issues. We talk about that later on. I believe we removed 14 vessels. So we after that we learned our lesson there was for the police department and Justin folks to put together an information brochure, they took out to all the vessels. Second was Hurricane Aline. Obviously, I don't have to discuss the love of devastation and flooding, and it wasn't here. It was still a hundred and excuse me, a hundred and ten miles, 105 miles offshore. That's a big point of this. That that did not hit here. It was not once again, it was not a direct hit.
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