Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for attending.

Let's see, today is December 16th City Council meeting.

Um, I do see a couple of faces out there that I don't know, so I would suggest that you check your phone, make sure that the uh it's turned off or in airplane mode, so we don't have any phones going off.

Um besides that, we'll go ahead and we'll get started with our meeting.

Tonight, uh, we will be starting with an invocation given by Marlene Shaw, and it will be followed by um a moment of silence as well.

So councilmember Shaw.

Optimism doesn't mean you are blind to the reality of the situation, it means you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise.

The Dalai Lama.

So before we proceed this evening, I'd like to take a moment to honor the life and service of former council member Michael Frodovich, who passed away this past Sunday.

Michael served our community with dedication from March twelfth, two thousand thirteen through twenty twenty-three, and he once again answered the call to serve when he returned to fill a vacant council seat from December twenty twenty twenty twenty-four through March twenty twenty-five.

He also served in Vietnam, so he really did commit a lot of his life to serving our country.

Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Michael Fredovich and honor his service.

May he rest peacefully.

Councilmember Early Present.

Here, Mayor Love.

Present.

City Attorney Salzman.

Here.

City Manager O'Reilly.

Here.

City Clerk Carico is present.

Councilmember Jackson has asked to be excused.

Alrighty, so we're gonna go right into presentations then.

We're very fortunate.

We've got a very busy lady here with us tonight, and it took a long time to get her here.

But we're very glad that she is here.

So if you would, um State Representative Linda Cheney's here to kind of tell us what's going on.

Thank you.

Well, I thought, Mayor, if it's okay, I would start with the big money.

Handing you all 1.3 million dollars for your portable water uh storm mitigation project.

So congratulations.

Thank you so much.

We just finished having um our our stormwater study done, and so we're very much aware of what things cost these days.

So thank you so much.

We really appreciate it.

Well, you welcome, and uh, if anybody was paying attention to the news for last session, this is nothing short of a miracle that you got any funding at all.

It was quite a battle up there.

Um the budget was 107.4 billion, the final signed budget.

Uh 567 million dollars in projects were vetoed.

You escaped the veto pen.

So congratulations on that.

Um, and this is the second consecutive year of year over year state spending at that level.

So in Tallahassee, we do everything we can to be as responsible as possible with taxpayer dollars, and uh you you see we're going through these exercises again continuously.

We have 15.7 billion in reserves, so we can face our inevitable hurricanes in a positive way.

We've paid off nearly 50 percent of our debt, and we passed a bill last session that required 250 million be put into the budget every year.

So that's right off the top.

We're gonna put some money away for our rainy day fund.

And we have stayed focused year over.

This is my going into my fifth year, um, and we have stayed focused on increasing teacher pay, uh, record per pupil funding, law enforcement, uh, the environment.

We continue to fund in uh Everglades and Springs restoration, septic to sewer conversions, and water quality improvements, reef reef restoration.

We understand that in Florida the environment is our economy.

You cannot separate the two.

So we do everything we can to make sure that uh our environment is protected, and we continue to invest in that.

Uh land acquisition, we continue to invest in land acquisition to protect our spring sheds for flooding and storm surge protection.

Um, and it's nice to have open land, isn't it?

Um we uh we funded the replanting of a lot of trees and timber that were taken out in the North Florida area by the hurricanes.

We don't really think about that.

We think of you know the flooding and the wind, but there's a lot of timber up in North Florida.

Uh we passed two billion dollars in tax holidays, so tax relief to our residents with a permanent school tax holiday, a permanent disaster preparedness holiday, and a permanent entertainment holiday.

Why not?

Go to a park, um, have a nice time.

Uh in transportation, we uh funded an acceleration of the transportation network throughout the state of Florida, as you may have seen as you go across the Howard Franklin.

That project is ahead of schedule on budget, might actually be under budget.

Um, and they've got a nice bike walking trail on on the um on the bridge.

We continue to fund our job growth grant fund that includes infrastructure projects and workforce training.

We understand that we need to do everything we can to keep our workforce strong and support those efforts.

Uh we funded the sale in the ship program for workforce housing, as we always do, and our hometown heroes program helps with first-time home buyers.

There's a lot of programs out there people aren't aware of, a lot of needs throughout the state, and we try to spread that one pat of butter on that entire loaf of bread the best that we can.

Um health care.

Uh, we did a lot in the behavioral health space with prevention treatment, substance abuse, continue to focus on that.

Our seniors, Alzheimer Disease Initiative Disease Initiative for caregivers and their and patients, and our veterans.

We put money into capital improvements for our veterans' nursing homes, provide them with free dental skills training for our veterans and assist vets in creating and operating small businesses, which I personally hear a request for that in my district.

Looking forward to 2025.

So myself, I've I'm about to file a bill on mental health that requires some coordination between our care partners to share information in cases of overdose and deaths from substance abuse from substances.

And the purpose of that is so that we can better understand what has happened so that we can fund and design our programs to be more effective for better outcomes in the future.

We're kind of flying blind to an extent on all of that.

The agencies right now with a lot of HIPAA laws aren't able to share amongst themselves.

But in the case of children, when there's a child death, all the agencies share the information, but not in cases of overdose or death.

So that the law would change that.

If I can get that passed.

So this bill is named after Dexter, and it increases the penalty for anybody who abuses an animal.

And they will now have mandatory jail time, and given their their record, their past, their history, they may actually go to prison, which a lot of people will tell you they belong under the prison.

But I'm just happy to be able to strengthen that.

And moving forward this session, I've got a bill for animal cruelty in the presence of a minor.

People who abuse animals are five times more likely to harm people.

So this is a public safety issue as much as an animal protection issue.

And when animal abuse is done in front of a child, you are now perpetuating that generationally in addition to traumatizing a child.

So my bill would increase penalties on that.

I'm working on a number of other health care and environmental initiatives that are not quite ready to be filed, but I'm working on them.

Funding.

So I continually support my locals with infrastructure projects just like the one you got tonight.

And have filed for you a three million dollar appropriation project for next year for road safety and flooding improvements and for your senior center.

So three million for the road project and 2.5 for the senior center.

Oh, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

So that's filed.

We'll we'll see how that goes.

This is going to be another tough session, but we're gonna fight.

Tampa Bay Watch, Shoreline Protection, natural shorelines, water quality improvement, have funded them in the past.

We'll continue to fund them.

I've got an appropriation for them this year.

Eckard College, their living shoreline project, I was able to fund a few years ago.

This year I've put in for their search and rescue program, which is a great program if you're not familiar with it.

Go take a tour.

Okay, all right, there you go.

Um animal rescues.

I have provided funding for Fluff and this session.

I'm uh put money in for Friends Astrays.

I'm always looking out for our animals.

And another great program we have that I have continuously funded and will continue to is Canine Partners for Patriots.

This matches veterans with rescue dogs, and it teaches the vet how to train their very own rescue dog for whatever needs they have, whether it's PTSD or it's physical needs.

So that is a great program.

It's right up in Brooksville.

They've done they do terrific work.

Um the Holocaust Museum.

I have funded, got funding for them from my day one, and we'll continue to support them.

They have one of the largest artifact collections in America.

Um, if you haven't been to the museum, it's pretty amazing.

And I also uh put in funding for their education programs.

They bring a lot of our school children in and teach them that history, very important.

And the Dali Museum have requested funding in the past, haven't gotten it yet, but I'm putting in for uh again for this year.

So thank you all for having me and wish me luck as I'm up in Tallahassee trying to trying to do some good.

So I I wanted to thank you because I've been hearing that they're trying to do offshore oil exploration, and that we that everybody is unanimously going out to the feds saying no.

Yeah, no.

So thank you for that.

You're welcome.

Yeah, and uh I've talked to um Congressman Donald's Byron Donald's, who's currently the forerunner for the governor, and he's not in favor of it.

So and I had one question.

We were I love funding vet things, but I thought that that was more of a federal thing for them, but like the veterans' homes and stuff, that's a state thing.

There's both.

There's funding from both streams, and yeah, we have state facilities.

Okay.

I just thought they were all federal.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

Good question.

Before you go, just in speaking order, Councilmember Shaw, did you have anything?

Um we talked on the phone, and it's really wonderful to have you here, and thank you so much for the funding for all the work that you're doing.

And I hope we can have more conversations.

Thank you.

Councilmember Early.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

I appreciate it.

Sure, sure.

And I guess my only question would be uh to you uh if you had a crystal ball.

Do you think how many bills are going to be advanced on property taxes?

Oh well, you know, we're currently at eight proposed by the House that came out of the special committee that studied property tax, and the Senate is yet to release anything, and the governor is yet to release anything.

Um it's a great talking point, uh, but it's a very difficult situation to have a realistic resolution.

And you know, everybody likes hearing that it needs to be only for your primary resident, for people who are homesteaded, but we have a lot of people who have second homes here.

We've got a lot of businesses, and if if they are not part of it, then there's going to be a lot that's going to be shifted to them.

Um what does that do to our economy?

Uh, what does that do to our real estate market?

So there's a a lot that needs to be thought through.

Um that's what the committees are for, is a lot of debate and discussion.

Uh I think all eight of the House bills will get to the House floor.

And uh what the Senate and the governor will then have the opportunity to either match up one of them or maybe cherry pick out of them and create their own.

And you know, you have to have a house and a Senate companion, and they have to be exactly alike to pass out of both chambers and get on the governor's desk.

And then once on the governor's desk, you know, it may or may not pass.

So not much of an answer, but before questions.

Could we get a photo um with our public works director and you with the check?

We'd love to.

Would love to.

Okay.

Thank you all for having me.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you.

All right.

Spend it all in one place.

So again, thank you so much for coming and thank you so much for the money.

Appreciate it.

All right.

And with that, we'll move on to public comment.

So for those of you that are new, public comment is not a conversation back and forth.

Uh I'd like a show of hands, please.

And public comment is now for anything that is not on the agenda that you would like to talk about.

You have three minutes, and I think I saw you first.

Miss Amy.

Hello everyone.

Amy Costa, Midtown Business Collective.

I brought with me the copied and pasted signs and advertising ordinance from our website.

There's been some issues going on with our businesses or that are trying to display open signage or you know what they're doing, yoga or you know, art.

Um and the ordinance, it's against the ordinance.

So I was hoping that maybe we could open the discussion or set something up where we could look at this ordinance and figure out how we can make it so that small businesses can have signage safely, appropriately matching the tone of Gulfport, whatever it is that the issues seem to be, um, that we can look at that and maybe come up with some solutions to help our small businesses to have that visibility.

Um obviously downtown people are walking, the businesses are right there in areas like um 49th Street and along Gulfport Boulevard.

A lot of the small businesses look like little houses, little cottages.

People don't always know there's a business in there, and it is really helpful for small business owners to be able to put a sign out that says, stop in, we're open.

Um obviously we don't want them to be a distraction to drivers, we don't want it to be a danger in wind or any of that kind of thing.

Um so I thought we could all work together to find some solutions so that uh we can support our businesses and we won't lose anybody else.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

In the back there, yeah, I don't know your name, please.

When you get to the microphone, please give your name then and your um your street.

And and the street you live on.

I'm actually homeless, Your Honor.

Oh, okay at the moment.

Okay.

Right if he has the house in the car.

It's okay on the pubster.

It's not a problem for right now.

I want to address the committee here this evening.

Um I love Gulfport.

Spite some false Facebook posts in regard to my credibility.

I'm a decorated Gulf for a veteran for my country for 20 years, and the posts are completely exaggerated, inaccurate, and false.

And I do resent that.

Um that'll be addressed to my attorney in New York at some point in time.

Aside from that negativity, I wanted to go back to a more positive context here and share with the group that um I've been taking pictures of the town for a number of months, not being homeless, not for the last six weeks, which is not a problem for someone like myself.

We can survive anywhere.

Guys in special operations, we put us anywhere in the world, we can survive.

Not a problem based on our training and our God-given dedication to the profession.

With that being said, folks, um, I've noticed ashtrays overfilled in the community at uh what I was park on the beach area by the little track we have there, one fifth of a mile track.

Um, cigarette butts in the gazebo, doing the cracks of the actual uh wood panels on the ground, which is disgusting.

And quite I'm becoming of a beautiful town like Gulfport.

Uh I'm not sure what the priorities are in this town at times because they seem more concerned with ordinance enforcement than uh taking care of important things that I consider environmentally conscious important things, not just a bunch of ordinances being thrown around and people being, especially the homeless people that are being in some cases um for in a polite way of saying amongst you folks being manipulated and coerced into shelters or being arrested or being told they can't stay sleep on a on a park bench or picnic table.

We're speaking of picnic tables, picnic tables actually by the by the pavilion six in particular, are in certain ones are in in really disarray.

I have pictures too on my phone back at back at the uh my undisclosed location.

Um but uh rest assured folks speak, I speak factually, I speak honestly, I speak humbly, but I speak very directly in regard to what I've shared tonight with you folks.

I appreciate your time.

Um else I want to share with you folks.

Um there's the best I can do with the microphone in the worst position here.

Um just a military thing.

Um I will say overall the police officers in town here are pretty respectful.

Most of them know me by now, not all for the best reasons.

People complain about the smallest little things in this community.

Small towns have their trade-offs and consequences.

As beautiful as it is, people tend to micromanage people's lives, nothing better to do at times, which is not really acceptable, but it's the way it is.

Unfortunately, in our society's day and age.

I just wish their priorities would be a little more more humble, more accepting, and more forgiving for those like folks like myself that are in situations that are beyond their control.

It's a beautiful town.

I want to keep it that way.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes, Carrie.

Hi, good evening.

Carrie Nelson.

I'm in Ward 3 in the Stetson area neighborhood.

I just wanted to comment on all the great events that we had this past week in Gulfport and just give a shout out to all of the people that coordinated the volunteers and of course the city's the city staff that were working to make sure that these events were fantastic.

Also, I'm super excited to see those roadway improvements underway, especially a couple of roads in our ward ward three.

That's excellent.

And also, just lastly, I just wanted to wish everybody here and all the citizens a happy and healthy and prosperous holiday season and new year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes, Mary.

Good evening.

Mary Henrahan.

I'm also a member of the League of Women Voters of St.

Petersburg.

And I'm coming here this evening to ask that for this municipal election season that we have a candidate forum run by the League of Women Voters where they moderate it and provide the volunteers and ask for the city support for the city to provide facility and enable them to use that facility and support the forum.

And I just asked this time that we do that for the city for all the candidates so that everybody can learn about their candidates and we can get a lovely peaceful fair election.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Julie Armstrong, 5722 17th Avenue South.

A couple of weeks ago, well, now a couple couple of months ago, Mayor Love asked me to arrange for new art here in the chamber.

So I emailed the city manager for my for guidance, and he referred me to the clerk of courts, Teresa.

After meeting with Teresa, we came up with a great plan.

And what we're going to be doing is installing rails and hangars on that wall there and that wall over there.

Tomorrow will be the first call for artwork.

And it will go out on all the social media pages, all of the newsletters, and it will be an exhibit that hangs quarterly here in the um the chambers.

And it will be a different theme every quarter.

So the first theme is going to be something that we all love here in Gulfport.

It's going to be dogs.

So we're very excited about it.

And I just wanted to thank the mayor, the city manager, and Teresa for making it all happen.

And you'll be seeing new artwork as of the middle of January.

Oh, wonderful.

Thank you.

That's fast.

Thank you.

Teresa, did you have anything you needed to say?

Or no, you've been wonderful to work with.

She is so organized and has great ideas, so this has been very easy.

Thanks.

We also have, I don't know if you can hold up the flyer.

Um, we have a flyer that is going to be all over social media announcing everything.

So be prepared.

It's going to be everywhere.

So anybody have any questions?

Anyone have any questions or anything?

We don't do that during public comment, but oh okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Wolf King.

Hi, girl.

Thank you, Mayor, Council.

Um Wolfgang Dininger, uh, Beachway Park, uh, Gulfport Grassroots.

Um, I'd like to uh tell you about our uh last uh Beyond the Beach cleanup, which was on the December 13th.

We had 23 volunteers show up.

We collected 120 pounds of trash and debris from the beach, including uh the two of the volunteers, uh mangrove Jim Cass and uh Jennifer Roberts spent a long time and a lot of labor and sweat and uh digging up a tire out of the sand between the casino and our pier.

Um that those 120 pounds added to uh all the other uh pickups of the year.

We've collected this year 2,105 pounds of trash and debris from our waterfront area.

That's over a ton of trash and debris that didn't wind up in our bay.

So I'm very happy with that.

Coming up January 10th, uh, our next uh Beyond the Beach cleanup.

We will be joined by an environmental group from Eckert College, the uh Tampa Bay Estuary program, and they will bring some uh scholars, uh students with them, and they will um set up a table and uh and and educate us on exactly what they're doing.

So I'm excited about that.

Uh that's about oh, and uh next April.

A lot of people ask me all the time about are you ever bringing back junk in the trunk?

Well, um I'm happy to report that we will be bringing back a new incarnation of that.

It's gonna be called swap and drop, and it will be April 11th, which is the um a second Saturday of April, and it will be at the recenter from 9 a.m.

to 12 noon.

We will not be accepting electronics or hazardous waste, but yeah, you can wait till May 16th and bring your hazardous waste and electronics to our neighborhood center on um 49th Street and drop all that stuff off.

So happy Dr.

Report, all those things, and with that, everybody have a happy holiday.

Thank you.

Let's see who's next.

Courtney.

Courtney Prokopis, 15th Avenue South.

On December 4th, the St.

Petersburg Housing, Land Use and Transportation Committee convened.

In that public forum, Cross and Annville Human Services Director, Pastor Williams stated clearly and on the record as the owner of record for Lincoln Cemetery that they seek deannexation of Lincoln Cemetery from the City of Gulfport and a reannexation into the city of St.

Petersburg.

One week later, on December 11th, the St.

Petersburg City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting this request.

St.

Petersburg has made its position clear.

It is committed to supporting Lincoln Cemetery and centering the wishes of its stakeholders.

During that December 4th meeting, the City of St.

Petersburg attorney outlined two pathways forward.

Or the city of Gulfport may pass a resolution seeking the owner's consent to de-annex.

That same meeting also made clear the profound emotional, physical, financial, and generational toll this prolonged process has and will continue to have on the pastor Williams, Cross and Anvil, the descendants of Lincoln Cemetery and their advocates.

Asking the owner of record to carry yet another procedural burden only adds to that toll.

For Gulfport to initiate this process would be a meaningful gesture of good faith.

If you listen to the pastor's remarks during that meeting, you hear the weight in his voice.

Deep recognition in the process that has been arduous and requires immense fortitude.

He, his organization, the descendants, and their advocates face a long road ahead in seeking accountability and reconciliation.

Gulfport's role is so clear.

Center the wishes of the descendants and DNX Lincoln Cemetery.

It's not merely a land transfer.

This is a vital step toward accountability and reconciliation for historical actions taken by the hands of City of St.

Petersburg, including the disinterment and dumping of hundreds of human remains into unmarked mass graves on land that is now within the city of Gulfport.

St.

Petersburg has already taken the first steps.

Gulfport, you have an opportunity, and you have a moral imperative to act with dignity and urgency.

I urge this council to support hearing a resolution that seeks that the owner of record give consent to D-annex.

If one of you calls for consensus to hear a resolution, this could open a pathway for city staff to prepare a comprehensive financial analysis and present a clear outline of the process.

In the words of Kamala Harris, you exist in the context of all which you live and what came before you.

What you choose to do next will become part of what comes after.

Centered the descendants.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Good evening, everybody.

Lenny Gukenheimer, uh 52, 13th Elette Avenue South.

And well, this is a holiday season, and uh it's time to be joyous.

I hope we all can be.

Uh living in golf port now, it's it's really uh quite a pleasure just be able to meet people and uh become part of the community.

Um I would like to ask now about the council is the city charter is not on the agenda now, and if the there could be a discussion of what the status is of the city charter, so that the public can have a better understanding of what's where it's at.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Lauren, did you have your hand up?

Lauren Sternward 4.

My seven-year-old handed me this um headband for good luck before my public comments tonight.

So I had to wear it.

Um I speak for the ancestors, I speak for the children, I speak for the trees.

It is the right thing to do to put forward a resolution to de-annex the cemetery.

Courtney laid it all out.

Um, and what there is for us to do as a city is be an ally to the wishes um and requests of the descendants.

We had a lovely time at the Santa Rampage parade on Saturday.

It looped around, we got to watch it twice.

We have a million candy cans.

So much joy.

Thank you to everybody who made that so magical for my kids.

Thanks, that's all.

Okay.

Anyone else for public comment?

Yes, Bob.

Bob Canning, sure bullward.

Uh, I was here for the presentation by the engineers.

We saw five or six different projects that they suggested.

Have we moved on any of them, like decided which ones we're gonna do not do?

That's the first question.

Second one is um we had a presentation by the engineers, and then we had a presentation on somebody for IDUs.

I've talked to the guy Tyler from XL Pumps, and he works with Pinellas County in troubled areas for prune flooding, and he has contracts with Treasure Island and all these other ones, and he'd like to come here and show you what his company does, what he's doing for these other ones, but it's three minutes, you can't do it in three minutes.

So, how do you set up a presentation?

Like to know that.

And oh, we were talking about the property tax thing.

Uh Jimmy is uh my neighbor.

He 15 years ago, he came from Key West to take care of his grandmother.

Uh Jimmy is now 58 years old.

He had to quit his job, he was doing a living relative, quit his job there, got a job here, and took her care of his grandmother for the last 15 plus years.

She recently died, 97 years old.

She bought her house, Ms.

Vergotti.

She bought her house.

It's not a huge house, it's a cute little three small three-bedroom cottage.

Jimmy and her did it.

She homesteaded back in the 80s, and her taxes were 1,100 now.

Jimmy and her did the house, took a lower paying job here to come take care of her, and now I put the house in his name.

11,800 a year is his taxes.

So that's here in Golfport.

That's all I had to say.

Thank you.

But let's clarify that's not city taxes, aren't 11,800.

Well, that's just property tax.

Okay, I know, but I property tax.

I know.

All righty, thank you.

Anyone else?

We got everybody seeing none.

I'm gonna close public comment then.

Um Teresa, how are we going to?

Did you want to talk about how we're gonna handle the next section of public comments?

I was gonna do that during my report.

Did you want me to speak about it?

Well, I I just wasn't sure because being that this is public comment and that's public comment.

I can certainly go through it now if you would like.

I just didn't want to if the city manager has a report, you should really.

I'm not sure.

It seems to me that it's public comment, and so um if we're gonna read anything in, it should be done at the same time.

I would think presentation.

Okay, I uh okay.

I'm hearing that I was gonna explain it in detail to you all since it's the first time and and then ask you the questions I had on my Paul my procedures.

Okay, that's fine.

Then we will move on to um city manager report.

No report mayor.

Okay.

Okay, no city manager report, um city attorney report.

No report.

Can I ask a question?

We had talked about um SB 180 and whether we could do the the lighting pollution, and and you had said that you thought we could do that, so I thought you would report that.

And did you check on whether we could do the um go from 20% green to 25% green and the permeability for driveways and stuff?

We can prepare it, but I can't give you a definitive answer on it because I don't know the definitive answer since we haven't heard anything from the state other than their initial statute.

So we we absolutely can prepare it and move forward.

If no one stops it or finds it unconstitutional, then I it's fine, but it's hard to interpret anything when we don't have anything.

But have other places done anything?

I haven't one I looked, I haven't found anybody that's done those, but there's been other ones that have done something, so I think we prepare it and move forward if that's what council wants to do.

Okay.

Okay.

And and and are we gonna talk about the cemetery?

I'd like to.

Okay, good.

I'll ask my questions about that then.

Okay, okay.

Okay, so the Lincoln Cemetery city attorney.

Um I don't know, I can only imagine how the majority of residents feel in Gulfport uh hearing night after night after night that we're standing in the way, that we're somehow blocking a de-annexation, um, that we um refuse to go to non-existent meetings that we've not been invited to that never took place.

Um I know I've had my fill, I and I but that's that is really pretty minimal because what the descendants are going through is much greater.

But um my question to you goes back to the same question I've had for you in the past, and that is if I've had one conversation with the person or the organization who owns the cemetery, and his conversation to me, whether you want to believe it or not, his conversation was so precise, Mayor Love.

I'm not asking you to do anything, and my frustration is with St.

Petersburg, and I'm not driving this train, is what he said.

Okay.

Now, I saw the clip, and I saw him attend a meeting that we were not invited to, where there was conversation, and I heard when he was asked, what do you want?

He kind of laid it out the law for St.

Petersburg.

I need help and I need help now.

And I want a commitment that I'm gonna get help.

He did not ask at that time for DNA de-annexation.

Okay.

Then uh when I felt like he was on trial watching it, um, I heard um somebody from the St.

Petersburg Council specifically say, So, do you want a de-annexation?

And I heard him pause lengthly and seem to me very uncomfortable, and say, yes, I need help.

I need help with the annexation.

Okay.

Now I saw that maybe a week ago, but I I believe that did happen on December 2nd.

Again, not one person from the council picked up the phone and has called me or reached out to me in any form or fashion.

Okay.

Uh nobody from St.

Petersburg has asked me to attend a meeting.

Um Pastor Williams has not called me.

The way my conversation was left, and this was just between him and I was when he said to me, I've not asked you for anything, I said to him, and can I assume that you will if you want something?

And he said yes.

And I said, Okay, then I will wait on your call.

And he said, that would be great.

So when I hear that we're standing in the way, I have a real problem with that.

I feel like um almost daily, nightly, I'm watching these um political theatrics, which I don't understand and is not fair to the descendants who really would like to get something moving, but it's not us that are are standing in the way.

So my question to you, attorney, is am I off base?

I am still thinking that before we even have the conversation, which I'm very willing to have a conversation with them.

I'm willing to have a conversation primarily with Pastor Williams.

Um I'm willing to have a conversation among my counsel, but I'm still somewhat of the belief that for what until he tells me the owner of the property, I'd like to be de-annexed.

It seems it would be silly for us to have that conversation without that directly to me.

Now I did hear what he said on December 2nd, but that is in conflict what he said to me.

He was under no pressure when he was talking to me, okay.

And then the other thing that comes into play here that many people don't know, but this afternoon, I spent time reading.

I read the request from the owner.

Now realize in the 15 years I've lived here, the ownership of that cemetery has changed hands three times.

I think that there has been talk of de-annexation for many years before any of us ever came into office.

Okay, but what I read today was the actual documents from 1967 where the owners of the cemetery asked Gulfport to annex them in.

Okay.

So it's fine if they want to now, if the owners now want to ask us to de-annex, that's okay.

But it really is not up to St.

Petersburg to do that.

So, and then just one more thing, just in terms of dates and timelines.

We got the request at 9 15, 9 13 yesterday morning.

I got an email.

I didn't say see it until about 10 o'clock, but I did get a request where they have done a resolution just like they said they were going to, they did, and they sent it to us yesterday, and I immediately forwarded to everybody up here.

So every time I've received anything, I've told everybody up here all the same information.

So I'm sorry, that's a very very long-winded conversation question to you, but should we be taking action prior to being asked by the owner?

Just as you mentioned, um, and council's aware, every owner that has owned Lincoln Cemetery has met with the city manager the last three and me.

And we have said to them, whatever you need, please come to us.

We're happy to help.

You know all the work that the city has done in the past, uh, helping out on on anything that could be done.

Obviously, there's an issue, it's a private cemetery, and so public funds cannot necessarily be used, but still maintenance was done.

Um, any kind of help for debris, all those things were done.

We met with Pastor Williams.

I was there, and we had the conversation with him.

Um, and he knew when was that?

That's when he first took ownership.

So two years ago and a half ago.

A year and a half, two years ago.

Um, and we in we opened the same conversation.

What do you need?

Let us know what you need.

No, I've got it at that point.

Everything was uh he thought would be taken care of.

Obviously, all he has to do is come and ask.

It's a private property.

It's not usually the city's action to de-annex someone's private property without being asked.

Not the city of St.

Pete, the owner.

It's a private property.

There's a Florida statute that reads what you do.

You have two ways of dealing with it.

Um you could do it by ordinance, uh, or you can do it by referendum.

And we just need to hear from the owner that that's what he wants.

We'll bring it right to council and and determine how you want to handle it.

Mayor, I would interject that this is at a certain point, this becomes a staff issue because we need to gather the information.

We need to meet with Pastor Williams if that's what's so directed.

Or if Mayor Welch wants to participate, understand his commission or his counsel, it's a strong mayor form of government.

So he's the one that's going to make the determination.

That's a resolution in support, as was stated.

But his the action would derive from the mayor's office.

Any action if he was to participate with supporting the cross and an vote.

And and that's helpful for you to say that because Mayor Welch is the first person who did reach out to me as early as I'm gonna say June.

Whatever I said before was an exact date.

Now I'm doing it from recall, but I believe in June, and he just asked me if we would be open to that.

And my response to him was I had heard rumors that that cemetery at one point did not that it belonged to St.

Petersburg, but that it was part of St.

Petersburg.

And he said he had heard it too, and I said, Could you get me proof to that effect?

And he said, I'll try.

And it was only a maybe three weeks, four weeks, three, four weeks later, and he provided us with those documents.

So we are aware that that has happened in the past.

Um he is the person who took the lead on it.

Can we all make comments?

And Mayor, I think what if I if I may, the the information all the council received, the maps and the plat maps and and as such, that understanding that the city of Galport did not address the annexation as Lincoln Cemetery.

It was a parcel owned by a group, just as Little League Baseball, the property owner to the east, and also Anderson, the representation I'll call it Anderson Lumber, they also petitioned in at the same time.

So you had one cons contiguous barrier barrier.

Understanding they abutted a vacated railroad line.

The railroad had left and it was abandoned.

Hence it became the Pinellas County Trail.

What we would suggest, and City and Turney and I've talked about it briefly, is if it's council's direction that we schedule some time with Mayor Welch or his staff and see what level they want to participate or don't want to participate, because what's happening, I'm gonna put this out on we're becoming this city is becoming political fodder for things that are taking place in the city of St.

Petersburg.

This is obviously a political issue in their neighborhood in their city that they're putting you on the spot and bullying or pushing Gulfport to do this.

No, Gulfport 1967 accepted the wishes of the property owner and annexed all three properties in.

You all have the plat, and that would be my recommendation to you that at a point it it's not a political issue any longer.

It's an actual is this if we need to have a meeting with Pastor Williams and Mayor Welch all in one room, maybe that's what it takes.

But to keep going, oh, these five, this committee and this council, you've got council members over there that want no part of this topic because it's not political benefit politically beneficial to them.

So this we're getting pulled into something I think is a lot different than what we're truly trying to do here.

I'm gonna open it up to the other council members, but I want to say that uh what you just said is so much how I feel because they keep referencing Gulfport like we're standing in the way, but it's their own in-house fighting that is preventing anything from moving forward, and it it it really doesn't need to involve them, it really needs to involve um the owner coming to us.

I mean, I'm a big believer in personal property rights.

If Cross and Anvil owns that, then it's up to them to come to us and say we would ask at this time that you de-annex and let us become part of St.

Petersburg, and then we could have an intelligent conversation and do what is necessary for the best interest of everybody.

You know, it's not in our best interest to hold that property back from these people you know, who really want it to be moved back to the uh city of St.

Petersburg, but ask yourself why did St.

Petersburg give it to us initially.

I do too.

It was rhetorical.

Go ahead.

But you're first, go ahead.

Thank you.

Um I actually had uh a lot more notes on it, but a lot of that's already been covered, so uh to avoid redundancy.

I too watched um the video of the committee meeting and um heard what Pastor Williams expressed to them.

Uh I also watched the um resolution adoption uh of the council of St.

St.

Petersburg.

Um, from what I've learned, uh it's not a simple process.

Well, I understand the motives of those parties involved, uh, guidance on the full scope of what the process would be, including all legal considerations, potential precedents, cost and responsibilities for those costs, whether a referendum would be required, and any other information that's relevant is needed.

Um I request that council be provided this and any pertinent details regarding the math this matter, and in answer to the question about should we set up a meeting with um Mayor Welch?

And also Pastor Williams.

I I believe we should, because this just keeps spinning, and until we make a move, we're going to be the scapegoat.

Okay.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um I I know Corey Givens, right?

And I know we're not naming names, but he's a big proponent.

And we've exchanged cards and and text about certain things in Fusion 49th, and he's never said anything to me at all.

I am very willing and wanting, and I've been sharing this to meet with them.

I really want to know how how to get this going.

But I'm showing up on Facebook as someone who's not being cooperative.

It's it's just not the right thing.

I am willing and wanting to go to a meeting with them.

I'm just waiting.

Yes.

So I I agree with um Marlene that we need to have know the legal process of doing this, and we need to know the cost because we need to survey the boundaries and change all our maps, change the charter, change the um whatever you know, all the things that we have to change and what it's going to cost.

And um I found out because I wondered why did we get it in the first place.

And I saw some newspaper articles from the time.

It was because of the trailer park.

They wanted the trailer park to be, they wanted to make a trailer park, and that railroad line actually was still active.

And so, in order to service it from St.

Pete, they would have had to build a road across the railroad tracks, which would have been complicated and whatever.

So they figured it was easier to service it from the Gulfport side rather than the St.

Pete side while the train was still active.

And so that's why they requested that that it be annexed to us, just to make it easier to service it.

Um I agree.

I I think I've tried calling Pastor Williams twice and not got a call back.

And um I have no problem necessarily doing it, but um I think we need to we need more information, and I got the feeling from those those meetings, watching those, that he does want it deannexed.

Um, and and mainly because they can't afford to pay for the upkeep, and St.

Pete can't pay for it while it's in our jurisdiction.

Even though his church is in their jurisdiction, he can't give them the money for this through the church because it's in our jurisdiction, and they're willing St.

Pete's willing to pay.

And so I think you know, it it would be a good thing to do.

We just need to know the process and be sure that that's in fact what he wants to do.

Well, I think before we reach back to start developing the level of what you're asking for, Vice Mayor, is let us meet with him.

Yeah.

I think before we go any further, let the city attorney and I once again meet with Pastor Williams and attempt to meet with Mayor Welch and just see if we all come to some mutual agreement.

Because this is, I mean, I I asked you know the question how many did he didn't go to the council meeting the other day?

It's so let's let's get him in the with the city attorney.

He's met with the I would suggest one of us be there too.

I'd rather not, because then it becomes a political thing that we're right back to what they're doing down there.

Let the city attorney and I meet with him and go from there.

That's just my recommendation.

I think that once you introduce the elected officials, let's establish the process.

If he was to, if it was in if this wasn't Lincoln Cemetery, you would have very little part in it till you reach the point of actually taking action.

I mean, normally what would happen is the owner comes to the city, we get all gather all the information and present it to you.

Tell you the process, tell you the cost, tell you everything that's going.

But we're this is kind of going backwards.

The owner needs to come and make the request, and then we can tell you tell you the options, the costs that were mentioned, as council member Shaw said, so you can make an intelligent decision.

It's it's and in most of these type cases, the applicant pays for the expense.

But they don't have any money.

Well, and we would bring that forward.

We would say this is the cost.

Normally it's paid by the person making the request in this particular situation.

We'd bring you all that information.

And as I said, we've met with Pastor Williams.

He knows to contact us directly.

And I think what that's what you're looking at is that it's just any other planning and zoning type product.

And there's an application he'd make application.

We would tell him the cost.

If he, of course, would tell us he doesn't afford it, but that would be the process.

It's no different than if someone annexed in or in someone that wanted to annex in, we'd have to do a cost analysis of what the benefit is to the city to let someone annex in.

Things to that effect, I guess.

And I think that's where the lines are getting blurred.

We're not looking at it, and the city government's not looking at it as Lincoln Cemetery.

Now elected officials may and members of the public, but my staff's gonna look at it.

How do I de-annex this piece of property?

I did reach out to um when I was at a Ford Pinellus meeting recently.

I did hear that there had been a de-annexation in the Tampa Bay area recently, and it had to do it involved done in Clearwater.

So I reached out to that mayor today, and I was really lucky that she had an opportunity to call me back.

And uh a little different story than ours because uh they were trying to get a piece of property and make it a parking lot for an emergency room facility.

But um I asked her how did that start, and her recollection was that that started with the owner of the property um uh along with the city requesting it.

And I think that that is just where the conflict comes in here, and that we've now have heard Pastor Williams do that on on the video, but I know what he said to me personally, and there's a conflict there.

So if he were to get together with y'all and tell you that that is what he wants, then that's great.

Then it's time for us to you know, if uh see if we're all in agreement and what kind of uh cost and who's gonna pay it.

Um it it is interesting that on the documents where they asked us to take it back, uh they said that no give backs allowed.

You know, the but now they want to.

So, you know, I'm not sure that we need to be paying for that, but that's a a conversation for another day.

I do think that uh uh morally it's the right thing to do for the um descendants.

Um it's unfortunate how it all happened that it ended up with us.

So I think what uh the way we're gonna leave that right now, then we're still in the city attorney's report, and we're leaving it that you too will reach out to Pastor Williams.

Um since he has not called me and and he has not returned a call to Vice Mayor.

Um you will reach out to him and see if he would like to sit down and talk with y'all.

Yeah, and hopefully as soon as possible so that we could start sorting this out and and be clear on our side so St.

Pete can do their thing, whatever they're doing.

Yes, please, and thank you.

We'll reach out to him tomorrow and attempt to schedule now.

It's a holidays, of course, and I'm sure he's busy with the holiday, but we'll do it as soon as we can get him in here.

Okay, thank you.

That was a very long-winded question, but it needed to be said because um I know um golf boards getting a bad shake out of this.

I mean, not again, I don't want to play that up because it's not nearly what the descendants have gone through over many many years.

Okay.

With that, then can we move on to city uh clerk report, please?

Uh I do have two items tonight.

My second one would be the e-comment thing, but very briefly uh our charter does state uh section 506B states that the names of the candidates shall appear on the ballot by the surnames arranged by the order determined by a lot conducted by the city clerk.

So this evening I must conduct that uh lot to determine the order of the names on the March 10th, 2026 municipal general election ballot.

And we have our trusty green cut, and so we start with ward one.

That's very visual.

There's actually rules, they have to be the same size paper.

No, I so for ward one, would you like to choose?

Oh the first name on the ballot will be Miss Jennifer Dodge, and that means the second name on the ballot would be Mr.

Joe Gunther for Ward 3.

We have Carrie Nelson and Jennifer Webb.

Would you like to do that?

Do I have the honors again?

They're both closing.

They were both coming out.

What does that mean?

For ward three, Miss Jennifer Webb will be first on the ballot.

And that means Miss Nelson will be second on the ballot.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

And so then on on to my second item for the evening is, as you notice, e comments did go live with this current agenda for this evening's meeting.

So I wanted to kind of give you a just a very brief overview of how this is happening.

I did send each of you the report right at 4:30 on the day of meetings.

It will automatically cut off so that no more comments can be accepted, so that I can get them ready for the 6 p.m.

meeting.

So this evening I was able to get that done and completed by uh 436.

It was a very easy process.

The program runs runs it for me.

So what I've done this evening is I've given you what just the standard what we've got, and I do have a couple of of asking for directions going forward.

And if I can make this a little bigger for people, we'll give you one moment.

Of course, my battery dies.

Okay.

Well, that's not gonna work.

So I I tried to make it as large as possible.

But so the first part of the report, the very first page just tells you a summary of total activity for this agenda.

So I've highlighted for you where it says city council meetings, and I know for the public they can't they may not see it, but it's right here.

It just tells you that this is for the city council meeting of 1216 25 on the agenda.

There were 23 total items.

We have 11 comments that were brought in.

Four people supported things, one person opposed things, and four people were neutral.

So this is just a summary page of what it saw or what it captured for everything for this actual meeting.

The second page of your report is gonna break it's another summary page, it breaks it down by item.

So for this agenda, I allowed comments on our public comment section of the agenda, and I allowed it for any of our resolutions, just like we would for a normal meeting.

So on this page, it's breaking it down for you by items.

So for your number one public comment, you had 10 comments come in, four for support, one for oppose, and three were neutral.

Now they do have an option to click these buttons.

It is not required of them.

So this means people did it out of the kindness over their hardware because they may have liked it.

Um the second item shows you that there was a comment on item 8A.

There was one comment, and that comment was neutral.

You'll notice there is nothing on here for 8B, and that's because there were no comments received for 8B.

So it's only going to show you on the second page what you received.

Okay.

Going down to page three is where you will actually start to see your comments.

Okay, so up at the top here, I did highlight for you all where it says number one public comment.

So that's how you know what these comments are for.

Okay.

We received a total of 10 comments for the public comment section.

And each one is listed.

It gives you the the time that they submitted it, and if they set up an account, it has their name.

If they did not set up an account, it lists them as a guest user.

The last page of your report is the last item on the agenda that had a comment.

So that is for an item 8A, resolution 2025-0108.

There was one comment for that, and that's shown in that section for that item specifically.

Okay, so now my original basic policy that I set was that I would recommend that it be up to you all if you want me to read these into the comments or into the record.

Um this was our very first one.

We did have 11 comments, which I think is a fairly good number.

Um, so as we go on, if there are more comments, I do want to say that this could lengthen the meeting time.

So I would like a little bit of guidance as to do you want them all read in, do you want to look at them between the the time that I give you the report and make a decision and direct me on what to read in?

Um I don't know how you feel about the anonymous comments or the guest comments if you want those read in, or if you would prefer that the the people that have set up an account and tell us who they are.

So I'm just looking from guidance from council on what you would like to see or how you would like like this presented to you going forward.

Okay.

I I have some thoughts on that, but I'd like to go in speaking order.

Um, and then it might be redundant.

So councilmember Shaw, if you can kind of address what your thoughts on this, and I think what we're trying to decide here is um do we want them read out loud, number one, and then number two, um, do we want them all read or just the ones that have identified themselves?

Yes, I was clear on that.

Thank you.

And um and because we continue to encourage um constituent engagement, I think reading them in is is positive.

Um, if we find later that there's a reason we need to adjust that thought process, we could talk about that then.

And uh I I they're required to identify themselves here, so I believe they should identify themselves in the e-communication as well.

Okay.

I I agree with council member Shaw.

We we ask that people do it here, and I think that we should do it online as well.

Yes, I actually agree with that, although I would say maybe for the first couple of meetings that we should go ahead and do the guest ones as well people get used to what the process is and that they need to do that and make sure that we let them know, like through Facebook posts or whatever, that that we're only gonna read the ones where they identify themselves, and that might encourage them.

That that's acceptable, but you would need to tell me when you would want that to start.

Right.

Well, she would and so we're we're not exactly all on the same page, but we're close.

I do think that I would like them to be read in.

I do think that I only want the ones that identified themselves.

I'm not interested in um hearing the ones that came in as anonymous.

And then the other thing that I'd like to say is that in this case, each of these comments is individual and and um has a different point of view.

But if we should get to the point, because you know, we've seen some things that you know I didn't particularly like, I guess, um, with um people trying to rally the forces.

Um, if we were to receive 20 copy and paste statements or AI generated uh over and over and over, I do not, you know.

So how do we want to handle it?

I would not want to see that read 20 times over.

You could just say there's 20 other.

Right.

I I could read the item and say I had 10 of this exact same verbiage.

Right.

Yeah.

And it and I think it needs to be read one time, and yes, then to say 20 people sent this same thing to us, that would be worthwhile, but not to take our precious time to do it over and over again.

Are you okay with giving them a little bit of leeway, say for two meetings to no?

I I think it probably well, people did it and added their names, so it can't be that difficult.

And I do have out there, or and Dave helped me with this.

Uh, we have out there the policy, and we have out there the instructions on how to do it.

Yeah, does it say that you have to be identify yourself though to be read?

No, it didn't.

It does not say that at this time because I was I'm seeking direction.

Yeah.

Well, I I myself would at least give them a meeting or two to get with it.

But we can make it mandatory, so yeah, that way they'd have to, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

So then that would take place by the next meeting, right?

Whatever you buy as one of them.

Thank you.

Okay, so we we could switch it so that they we take away the ability to be a guest user.

You would have to give us a name.

I think that would be good.

Okay.

And then um, the last thing is at what point would you read them in?

Would you be reading them in um prior to the audience public comment or following the audience public comment?

It that would be up to you all, but I would read them per per item.

So if public comment, I I would think Mayor, I've seen them read after public comment, but it's totally up to council.

Excuse me, but we have a conversation going up here and only up here.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So, like for this one, I would have read the 10 or I don't know if any were copied or exact.

Um, I would have read those at the end of public comment, and then we do have one for item 8A.

So again, if you call you would call for public comment for that item.

If somebody came up, then you would say, Do you know, clerk?

Do we have any e-comments for this one?

Or I would say mayor, we do have an e-comment if you would like me to read it.

Right.

Okay.

Okay.

That makes sense to me.

So given that, do you want me to read it?

I would like for you to read that the ones that came in today under public comment who have identified themselves.

Who have identified themselves?

Okay.

And the it does give it to you.

So then the newest comment is the first one.

Uh so for public comment, we had Aaron East.

I want to thank the city for making e-comment available for those of us who are not able to attend the council person, a council in person every time.

Vicki Doyle.

I am writing to express my gratitude for the implementation of e-comment.

This addition will allow a broader range of Gulfport residents to participate in city council meetings.

I plan to help spread the word about this new feature and encourage my neighbors to use it.

I also wanted to compliment the city staff on the new website.

It is much more user-friendly, and the chat bot has helped me locate information quickly.

Nice work.

Margaret Tober says, Happy holidays to all, and thank you for your service.

And I do believe there was one more that said guest user, but she identified her sound.

It's the second one down.

So this one says, hello.

This is my this is Allie Lombard on 26th Avenue South.

I appreciate the addition of the e-comment to the council meetings.

As a parent, it is challenging to get to the meetings in person, so I appreciate the ability to voice a comment or concern to council.

And that is all I have.

Okay.

All right.

I'm sure it'll get smoother with uh each time as we go.

All righty.

With that, then we will move on to council comments and reports, and we'll do that in speaking orders.

So, Councilmember Shaw, please.

Well, first I'd like to say I'm thrilled that the e-communication process has been set up and it's in use, and look forward to additional engagement for those that can't make it to the meeting.

Um, I'd like to say congratulations to Sergeant Burkhardt for his upcoming retirement and thank him for his many years of service in our community as I understand it.

He started as a dispatcher and then officially joined the police force in 2001.

I'm I'm sorry that Marine Officer Shastain is leaving us, and of course, we thank him for his service and wish him well.

Um I also want to give kudos to the front desk staff.

I've been getting feedback from residents, and they've been talking about how pleasant and helpful they are.

So I always like to, when people share things like that, pass that along.

And I said that to them personally, but celebrating it with all of you too.

Um we've been sharing residents' concerns regarding the former tiki uh for quite a while now.

They're now expressing appreciation for the thoughtfully designed screen that frames it.

Uh, the weekly town now to celebrate the things that have been going on, the weekly Townshores Golf Cart Golf Cart Parade continues to be a treasure tradition.

Uh we have one more scheduled for the 19th and another on Christmas Eve, which is not a Friday.

Um we were uh we were there at the start of the parade this year, sharing the joy of neighbors coming together, and we're and I was even lucky enough to ride along with Melanie King during the second parade and got to see all the festivities within town shores.

Uh residents have been sharing how much they enjoyed the community parade along Climber Park.

Some have also expressed that they hope it stretches even further next year.

Another beloved tradition, the return of the Boca Seaga yacht club lighted boat parade after being absent following 2024 storms was especially meaningful.

While I was not downtown to see how many viewers were there, it drew the largest crowd we've ever seen along Clam Bayou on Saturday night.

For many of us, myself included, the holidays didn't feel complete without it.

So we're very appreciative.

I'm also an even bigger admirer of the Box Yacht Club Sea Scouts, an impressive group of young people whose dedication and teamwork truly shine.

Council member Early and I were honored to be asked to serve as judges, which that wasn't necessarily as easy as one might think.

Every parade brought its own sense of joy and connection.

By Saturday night, I had smiled so much my face actually hurt.

The art openings at the Theater Wonderworks, DRV Gallery, Brenda McMahon Gallery, and the Gulfport Arts Center have been energizing and absolutely inspiring.

All continue to show the creativity of the presenters and the artists.

Four of us on council attended the Florida League of Cities legislative conference on December 4th, which also included committee meetings for the committees we each serve on.

I completed the required cybersecurity course on December 7th.

On December 8th, I attended the Florida League of Cities webinar, and I also attended the Suncoast League of Cities meeting on December 15th.

The predominant focus of them at this time is of course, you know, all of the legislative bills that are being discussed.

But there were other matters too, enhancing community engagement, communication, helping constituents understand the budget and Senate Bill 180 were also topics.

Naturally, our city attorney reviewed it before publishing it.

So thank you very much.

I submitted it for the city website as well.

I attended the Midtown Business Collective and the Gulfport Young Families Council meetings to hear directly from business owners and our young families to bring those perspectives into council discussions and to the community.

We're proud to see young families' interest and willingness to engage and help shape the future of our community.

All the while I remain active and accessible to the community.

Okay, so we've already talked about all of that.

And so let's see, where do I pick up from?

What I mean is our earlier conversation.

Oh, something that comes up in conversations with residents quite a bit is that questions are raised at council meetings and they aren't always answered.

So I'd like us to consider uh developing a system that makes a note of any questions that aren't answered, so they may be answered perhaps at the next meeting.

Uh I'd like to note that December 18th is recognized globally as International Migrants Day.

It is meant to bring awareness, respect, and the values of dignity and belongings and belonging that connects us all.

It's an opportunity to acknowledge the many residents, past and present, who came from elsewhere and now contribute to the life uh culture and economy of our community.

Their stories are part of our shared history.

And for and finally, please allow me to conclude with heartfelt wishes for a happy holiday.

Thank you.

There was a lot going on on Saturday.

I was exhausted myself.

I don't think I smiled as much as you, though.

My face didn't hurt.

Um one of the big things was Fusion 49th.

It was our second event, bringing $26,000 into our local economy.

Wow.

Even the ice guy made a thousand dollars.

It's frozen water.

I'm gonna do that next time for sure.

So thank you to everyone that came.

We're having another event, and I will make sure we get the the word out.

So thank you for that.

And Tom, I don't want to put you on the spot.

I'm going to put you on the spot though.

Um, I know we're getting two pieces of gym equipment for Tomlinson Park.

Is that right?

Because part of what we've been hearing is that there's just not enough.

Some of them are just formatted a little oddly.

So do you know when they'll be coming, Tom?

You can that's amazing.

We're still researching it now.

We're working with a few of the residents to make sure the two pieces that we do add to the park are what fits, and we do have plenty of room out there for them.

So I think we're almost there, but they have not been ordered yet.

Okay, thank you.

And thank you for asking everyone.

And I know you've been doing that, but this one was a big deal because the equipment was um favored, and then we have the new equipment, and it wasn't as favored, but people are are getting used to it, and I know a couple of folks um have been very vocal about that, and I appreciate it.

So that's all I had.

Thank you.

Okay, so I went to the Florida League of Cities and um it basically did what she said.

Um it was a good conference, and um we learned a lot.

Um, I went to Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, and it's part of what they're doing is a coastal management plan.

And three of us, Courtney, um, Ingrid, and I went to a training for um how to lead um discussion sessions.

So we'll be going out to the community and setting up meetings to get input from residents about flooding issues, their concerns, and a lot of questions.

And there was a more advanced one that I couldn't go to today because I was doing my um office hours at Sumitras.

But um, you know, Ingrid told me that they they got a little more specific.

So we that will be happening probably January or February.

We'll we'll start on that.

Um they did start repaving because my street is repaved and it looks much prettier.

Uh so that's great.

Um the other things I have, and I have several are really new business, so I'll wait for new business for the rest of my stuff.

All righty, thank you.

So I have a long list of things to under council comments.

Um the first thing is is that the Lions Club will not be renting the property anymore down at what I'm now going to refer to as the marina property.

Okay.

So there is going to be a workshop on January 8th here, 6 o'clock.

And everybody will be welcome, but I'm really, really specifically hoping that we have a good turnout of people that live in the marina area that want to come out and talk to us and tell us their vision of what they would like to see on that property.

There is no plan.

There is no plan at this point.

We've never discussed it.

We're totally like, you know, just sponges taking in the ideas of what people would like to see.

So that was one thing.

At the last meeting, I was I got accolades from Howard Howard Bush as well as a coin from him.

And I just want to say I really don't think that that was really fair that I earned it.

I really think that that was all really came down to the city manager.

He made things happen for the National Guard and they thanked me, but it should have gone thanks to our city manager.

I attended a webinar called Rethinking Roads.

It was really interesting.

I really enjoyed it.

Most of it I will talk about at a later time because I am working on some traffic patterns and some of the things that I've been learning from the different groups and classes I've been going to.

But I think some of the most shocking things were when they did a study of all the countries and the number of fatalities as a result of traffic accidents.

The United States ranks right there with all the other third world countries in roadway safety.

We are at the bottom.

So they also said they brought it down to Florida, and I just wanted to share, they said that there are nine people per day in the state of Florida that die as a result of traffic accidents, and 42 that are seriously injured.

And they definitely equate it to that we necessarily have so many more accidents, we just have way more fatalities.

And again, they're bringing it back a lot to the design of the road and the speed.

So I wanted to bring that to your attention.

It was a real good opportunity to mingle and brainstorm with other elected officials, so that was good.

Without a doubt, it was dominated by talk of property taxes.

That was the number one thing, talking about all the different bills.

And that's why specifically asked Representative Cheney if she thought all eight would advance, because there's people that think that that is going to happen, and that's going to be a lot of chaos if that happens when it comes time to uh do some voting, and they haven't even decided on how they might be able to vote, and there was absolutely no discussion of any kind of uh implementation plan whatsoever for any of the bills that are being proposed.

Um in terms of the property taxes, I'm so impressed with our our um our staff.

Um when I go off to a meeting and I'm being paid to go to a meeting, you know, the cost of registration is being paid for me in my hotel.

I'm I want to learn as much as I can, but I don't want to just learn, I want to bring it back and implement it.

Um I think that's really important.

And so they gave us a couple ideas on property taxes, and I came back and um I met with the city manager and assistant city manager, and they um they took my ideas.

So if you go to now our website, which is my golfport.us, and you scroll down just a little bit on the left-hand side, there's an area that says top news.

If you click on top news right now, there is a real simple, easy to read, two-page overview of the city property taxes broken down into nice small bite-sized pieces.

Um, where do my city property taxes go?

For example, 25 cents of every dollar goes to our police department.

Each one of us, every dollar we pay, eight cents is going to, I want to say the library.

Okay.

So it's a real nice clean breakdown.

So it's where do my property go?

Then the second one is how does the city make money?

Because we have to realize that if 32%, 32.9% of our income is from property taxes and we do away with property taxes, then my common sense says we have to give up 33% of our services if we want to balance budget.

Um the next section on there actually says, how do I read my bill?

And there's a sample Gulfport bill on there, and it breaks it down and it makes sure that everybody sees that at the bottom of the proposed bills is where it tells you exactly which exemptions you are receiving.

So that if you think you should be receiving other exemptions, you can turn around and ask.

And then the last thing, this is just genius.

I'm so impressed.

They actually put a calculator so you can put in your own property address, okay, and you put in your address or excuse me, your um market value, excuse me, and then it's gonna spit out for you almost immediately how much of money you're paying to each one of those uh different services.

So I think it's really a helpful little tool that we'll have.

Um after that, the next thing that we're gonna work on is if you wanted to go look at the city budget right now, it's 255 pages.

I don't think most of you have the time to read 255.

So I've asked that the um uh that we take and we devise so that we're gonna kind of come out with pie charts, kind of about a simple two-page maximum abbreviation.

Okay, and then um the other thing is I feel very strongly that um when I'm out there and I'm talking to other people, I'm trying to find a sister city.

And to me, a sister city should ideally be on the other side of the coast, but similar in size to us.

Um understands a lot about Florida politics or not politics, but policies, rules, regulations, so that the next time that we were to be hit with a storm, maybe we had a sister city that was not hit by the storm that could help us, and vice versa.

So I thought I had one, but after watching a couple of their council meetings, I'm not convinced that um it was the right choice.

So I'm taking that into consideration as well.

And the last thing is I did write to um Senator Um Nick DeSigley.

He is the person who introduced um uh Senate Bill 180 that seems to be such a stumbling block for us at this time.

And um, I'm pleased to say that he has introduced a new bill.

I don't know if it's as extensive as we need it, but he has uh done a new bill at 840 that would revisit and lessen some of the problems it's created for us.

So I reached out to him and just to show my support and ask him what I could do to help him, since he doesn't know me from Adam.

I thought I'd be better to offer service before I asked for help to begin with.

Uh Lenny, you asked about where we were with the status of the city charter.

I mean, we have completed the city charter.

We um had a consensus two hearings.

There are referendum questions that will be on the March ballot.

We will be having a um February 5th.

We will be having a workshop right here in City Hall to review those questions and make sure everybody understands them.

Bob, you asked about the watershed based at the end of the meeting the other day.

You know, there were a lot of assumptions that were made um by the by the presenters of things that they thought we would not consider, and we realized that yes, we would consider some things.

So, based on the questions and the feedback from the public as well as from the council, um, they have are taking that and now working on that, and they'll come back to us again.

So when you ask we're not ready to make any decisions on anything they present it, we're kind of asking them to fine-tune some things.

Um, and then you heard um that uh Linda Cheney told us today that she's actually has submitted and has requested some funds for that already to help us get things moving.

So that's it for me.

Boy, I got a lot in in 10 minutes.

28 seconds.

I also just wanted to mention too, just to piggyback off of you what you said is that all of those uh questions are out on the city clerk's website if you wanted to see the questions the way that they're framed, the way that they will be on the ballot for you.

Thank you.

And that takes us to consent.

Okay, I have a I have a request that we take the first issue about the telephone system off the consent agenda, so maybe Dave can tell us a little bit about what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Okay.

Are we in agreement?

That would be fine.

I mean, we've had an opportunity to uh to read all about it.

I understand it, but that's fine.

For him to hear all the work that went into determining the direction.

Okay.

And I'm okay with that because I'm going to ask that um uh consent.

Um I'm trying to think which number I'm at.

Pardon?

Street sweeping.

Not only can I not see, I can't hear 6B.

6B.

I'm asking that we remove 6B, which is about the street street sweeping, that's not gonna do anything to hold up the contract by any means.

I'm just asking because I think that if we're going to have new street sweepers, we need to as a city understand when they're gonna clean the streets, how they're gonna clean the streets, and how important is it that we move our cars out of the way.

So I would like a little presentation on that.

I think it would make for uh a more effective street cleaning job.

So I'm asking that six B removed if you all will agree to that.

I agree.

Well okay.

Okay.

So we have one item for consent, and this will now change to 6A.

Resolution number 2025-106, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an interlocal agreement for disaster debris collection removal services and disaster debris monitoring services within geographic Pinellas County.

My apologize, there is a second one, which would be now 6B.

Resolution number 2025-107, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an interlocal agreement for designation of collection and removal responsibilities within the geographical Pinellas County.

Motion to approve.

I second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes.

Alrighty.

We do not have any ordinances on the um agenda.

Would we go to the back to the consent things?

It's they get moved to the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the okay.

Just checking.

Uh we will move uh no ordinances for tonight, so we will move on to resolutions, please.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a grant agreement with the Florida Department of Enter Environmental Protection, FDEP, to provide financial assistance for the Gulfport Potable Water Proactive Storm Mitigation Project and approve the associated budget amendment.

Motion to approve.

Second city manager.

Yes, Mayor, thank you.

Mayor, um, what this is is accepting the monies that were presented to you this evening.

I guess is the simplest way to put it.

And then the next step will be Tom will give an overview of the project.

Okay.

Ums questions on this.

I've already had all my questions answered.

All righty.

No, no comment.

Uh do we have any public comment on 8A?

Seeing none.

There was one public comment on 8A.

Submitted by Miss Margaret Tober.

Please explain what is Gulfport Potable Water Proactive Storm Ritigation Project and where can the info be found about?

When was it approved?

Which we'll be talking about in the next slide.

Right, right.

Council Vice Mayor, you're correct.

Mayor, if we may just approve then when Tom will give a short presentation.

Okay.

So we will move on to eight.

Uh well, wait, we need to take the vote on eight A.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Councilmember Shaw.

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Thanos.

Yes.

Mayor Love?

Yes.

Carries to passage.

Item 8B, resolution number 2025-109.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with advanced engines.

Excuse me, tonight.

Engineering and design incorporated for the design permitting bidding and contractual services for the Gulfport Potable Water Pro Active Storm Mitigation Project in Town Shores.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Mr.

Nichols.

This is a fancy name for a waterline improvement project in Townshores.

So right now it's uh not a looped system, it's a dead-end system.

So when we do this waterline project, that again we went to we designed this and started design work in 2019.

We've got the design complete.

We've been trying to find funding for this.

Um finally with the help of uh representative Cheney.

We were able to get the funding to build the project.

The engineering costs will come out of the 1.3 million dollars.

Advanced engineering did the original design, and now they just have to finish up the easements.

We'll do a little work to finish up the design because it sat on the shelf for the past two and a half, three years.

Um, and then we'll um uh acquire the necessary easements.

Uh town shores is known about this project because we had all them sign when we were trying for appropriations in the past, we were denied, I think two years in a row, but finally did um to get the funding for this project.

Very good.

It'll help water quality, it'll help fire suppression uh service out there to upsize the water lines and it's just it it's it's a long needed project.

Okay, and I I know we've already read the comment on the public comment on that, which you just answered.

So any questions from our council for Mr.

Nichols?

All of my questions have been answered already.

Alrighty.

I I don't have questions about this project.

I have questions about how we pick um the engineers to do it.

Sure.

And so we talked about this this morning.

If you could please explain to me to everybody how that works, because we didn't get competitive bids.

No, yeah, and we can't with uh with engineering services contracts.

They have to be competitively, you have to do it based on their qualifications.

So what the city did with a group, myself, Dave Mather, Fred Metcalf about five years ago, we went out and we solicited requests for qualifications.

We received 18 different engineering firms that came in, but we as a committee sat and ranked them and chose the top six based on their expertise.

Um so we have those six firms on standby, if you will, for any project we need.

So when we find have a project like the waterline project, and we already have a firm again, advanced engineering did all the design, we don't have to start over with another firm.

That's how we chose advanced to do this final piece to do the contract.

And that's how we chose them to do the engineering in the first place.

They were one of our engineers, yeah.

So I understand how that works.

My concern is that sometimes by only using one company, you may not get competitive ideas of what to do.

I I I get I get that, but we use right now we have under contract four different four of our six firms are currently under contract.

We have one contract with the casino.

Yeah, but not for the same project.

So you don't know how another company would have handled this project.

Fair enough.

And and so I'm wondering if it's a good idea in general.

And again, this is a a a different topic, and maybe we need to take it up differently.

But but how like if we didn't have these six firms pre-approved, then each time we'd need to go out with an RFP for each project.

But then theoretically, we would get X number of these three people bidding, and we'd get a better idea of the cost and maybe some competitive ideas of how to do a project.

Well, it would be it would come down to the same thing.

If I had to go out for RFP on every project, I would get multiple engineering firms.

Right.

We would still have to will it down to one.

Yes, of course.

And then that's the firm that we would choose.

But we know we ranked these five years ago based on their expertise.

So we know we have I I'm not saying that they're not qualified at all.

I'm not I'm saying that like when I get a project for my house, if I call three different contractors, I might get three different ideas how to do the same project because one person's maybe a little more creative, one's more standard, one's cheaper, whatever.

And then I can choose which I like best, but but they may have ideas that I've never even thought about that would be better than what I was thinking, and that's what I'm thinking is we we may be limiting the ideas that that different companies would come back with, even though of course you still just choose one to do it, but we are only going to one this time, so we're only hearing their ideas.

Because we already went out and did eight times.

I know, but not for this project, just in general for their qualifications.

And it was five years ago.

There may be new companies and in a few years, I'm sure they'll go back out and do it again.

So that's probably something we maybe need to talk about another time.

I don't have a project, a problem with this project, just that process.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, do we have any public comment?

Live public comment before we close.

All righty.

If you'll call the vote, Councilmember Shaw, yes.

Councilmember Early, yes.

Vice Mayor Thanos?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Carries to passage.

All righty.

We do not have a discussion.

We have to do item eight.

Yeah, the two items the two items we removed from consent.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

That's okay.

Uh so this would now be AM item eight C, which is resolution number 2025-104.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to answer an agreement with telev o IPS for municipal telephone system upgrades for all city departments.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Hi, Mayor, City Council.

Um try to be thorough in these, but um, and obviously you can ask me any questions you have, but um basically uh we purchased the system, I believe 2017.

Um it's it's kind of a hybrid, it's a VoIP system, uh, so it's it's voiceover IP.

Um, but it's partially in the cloud, um, like we have a GUI we can log into.

However, um with that being said, there is a physical server.

So uh currently, any time the power goes out, server goes out too, obviously.

Uh during storms, it's an issue, especially when we have the call center.

Um so in 2017, this was what was affordable to us.

It was cost prohibitive to kind of go any other route at that time.

Uh, however, um we benefit now from technology being a lot cheaper, uh, and this is the way things are going, complete cloud technology.

Um, so one of the things that we tried to do over the last few years was just keep it afloat because the system was still running well and we could maintain it.

I I know the server like the back of my hand now.

So uh we just kept it going.

In fact, at one point, the actual MyTel server, uh Shortel server now died, and we just we just rebuilt it, uh, me and tech guru, we just rebuilt it and re-imaged it.

So we were we're actually running it on one of our own servers now and maintaining it just for affordability, and the um the so we could just do like a comprehensive search of everything that's out there.

So we looked at so many different companies, uh, so many different brands.

Um the big one that is out there right now is Ring Central.

And so when you get Ring Central, you don't generally get Ring Central from Ring Central, a provider will actually give it to you, like Spectrum or CSM, something like that.

It's a vendor that that'll service it for you.

Um Spectrum on top of that also has I believe it's called WebEx Unified.

Um it's a great system, very expensive, um, and takes extremely long time to build out when we're talking about something that would be like good.

If we were the if we were like a county, Sarasota, something like that, I probably would have gone for something like WebEx, but it's it's a huge build for a city our size.

Uh the other reason why I wanted to move independent of the fact that the uh it's just becoming so cumbersome to maintain, like in the in the summer, um, and I know I'm jumping around, I'm just trying to get all the points, but in the summer uh when we did have an issue with a power outage, um, I think like we had a lightning issue and everything went down for a little bit.

Um what we had to try to look for different parts.

We ended up having to find a used refurbished part on eBay from it.

So it was getting to that point where we decided, okay, we needed to pull the trigger on something.

Um but I did um and I did mention this in here, I did reach out to all of the uh the bigger stakeholders internally, uh like the um utilities police department to make sure that whatever um solution we went with would be something they could use with utilities, they're the the number one, they're kind of like the front of line here.

So both Sonia and Craig were both on those talks.

They also took a look at the spectrum, uh, WebEx and Ring Central solutions.

Uh besides that, I looked at Grasshopper, I looked at Zoom.

Those solutions weren't that great for customer service, at least in my opinion.

Um but with each of these, I went over with each of the companies in depth.

Uh Tele VoIP, I like because they are local, um, local in terms of um I think their main headquarters sits between somewhere between Sarasota and Tampa.

Uh they work with local uh cities as I as the the piggyback implies.

Um and so we just wanted to make sure we were getting the best fit for us.

I like this because again, it's uh not a physical server.

I like it because you can use soft phones, which means if our phones do go out in the city, we can use our cell phones to do things like call centers.

Um there's a computer aspect to it, and it does integrate like Ring Central does, it does integrate with Teams.

So we can have all the bells that whistles at an affordable cost, and that's what I liked about it.

And after year three, um, it's not something like, oh, we've got to get a whole new system again.

It's just a renegade negotiation of the contract, uh at which time it would obviously come to council again.

So uh that's my um on the fly.

So if you uh have any questions, just let me know.

Um I appreciated how much time and effort was put in uh by the staff for the research and evaluating and the comparatives, uh especially considering that we had reached our sustainable life cycle.

Um I I I thought it was great that you looked at all the flexibilities.

Um you looked at the evolution of what may be needed in the future, um that it's budgeted.

And so I appreciate all of that.

Yeah, we we can we can transfer those lines to this if we want.

But you can we could do either, but uh it might be more cost effective just to move them over now that we have this, but either way we can keep those lines.

So in essence, you other than maybe logging into a different you know messaging system, it wouldn't be any different than what you have now.

Okay.

Well, I mean, I was just wondering if that would then not be necessary.

Yeah, we we could make that up.

That was that would be one of the last things we do after we get everything else on board.

But yes, that that is something we can do because it's it's that essentially is like a mini setup of a VoIP service just for for you all, but it's just the messaging component, but we can do that.

We can actually have it where it rings through to your cell phone too if you want.

Um there's a myriad of options for that.

Okay, it's not that I dislike it, it's just you know, we've talked about some of the things, and okay.

And it's probably more cost effective because the adding adding five licenses to this would be far more affordable than doing what we're doing right now, which is about $93.

And the fact that by removing uh the the 75, what was it?

You're removing 75 of the Oh, the uh the legacy analog lines from SunCon.

So that's really good.

So that was another factor I forgot to mention.

I'll just mention it briefly.

Um is the provider, it's the state, it's the state provider for uh municipalities, counties, things like that, government services in Florida.

If you wanted a B line analog, B1 analog line, which is your regular telephone line in the state of Florida, and you worked for government, you get it through them because it's cheaper, and then they parse it out to whoever's in the area, ATT, Verizon, Frontier, what have you.

Um, and so in this is how the kind of the state works with some things.

We get an email in August.

Oh, by the way, uh 75 of your lines have to go by March 2026, uh kind of figure it out.

So that was part of the impetus too to move forward uh with this system now because not only are we going to save $35 each line for those 75 lines, uh, but we can actually port those numbers over to this new solution, um, save that money, or you know, obviously that money would go into this, but um it's it's definitely going to be easier.

Same with fax machines.

We've had um copper lines around here are failing, their legacy lines through ATT.

Uh and so we've had to do different solutions where we do it online, but we can move all those services too, like the library one uh over to this um because they're offering fax lines, I think at no additional cost.

Okay.

Well, I noted the 3,000, and that the that that will by doing that will save actually 2600.

So that's that's substantial.

Right.

So in essence, I think the I don't know if I wrote this in here or not, but the the last one I think costed around thousand dollars.

So once you once you already factor in some of the stuff we're already doing, the price is relatively the same uh as what we were doing years a few years ago for the short tell.

Okay, I I have no further questions.

Thank you.

No, I'm very familiar with VoIP, no offense, but like for 15 years now.

And the fact that we I did not know you were putting together and putting duct tape on server and whatnot, but this is going to be such an upgrade because everything that we do, you're going to be able to do through this.

So yeah.

And the the first one that we had when I got here in 2012, that was all through DOS.

Oh, so the jump, the jump through to a hybrid was very significant at the time.

But I took off.

So when will this be implemented and how quickly?

So that was one of the things.

They um them and ring central were a lot, or some of the providers for Ring Central are a lot quicker than say Spectrum, the Spectrum solution, they wouldn't even start until six to nine months out, and then that's when you start planning.

So it's almost like building a building at that point.

Um a lot of it was on the backs of the employee, which in this case is just me and and our vendor who our vendor has to tend to other things too.

So this is all done by the vendor, which is great.

And they'll basically take what we have now and move it over, and then anything significant that we want extra or that we want changed or anything that we want to tweak, like call centers for utilities, community development, phone trees, uh, they'll do it that time, plus training.

Uh they said if we wanted to act as like an emergency, which we don't, because I we don't need that, it would be like a three-week turnover.

Uh, they said if we wanted to act as like an emergency, which we don't because I we don't need that, it would be like a three-week turnover, but they said in the very uh like kind of thinking like even with the most difficult issues that may arise, it would not be any hot further than two months.

So when I hear that from a salesman, I think three months, and I think I think that's where we're at about three months.

Because our last phone system with all the physical server, that only took like two weeks.

Uh so I'm assuming it'd be three months, and that's at the long end.

And and I know the a concern that I have is in some departments you'll call you know the number that's on the website, and it'll ring on one person's desk, but not necessarily roll over to somebody else if they're not there.

Yeah, we can do rollover at in any department that wants that.

Because that's really important that people get very frustrated and yeah, we only have a certain amount of licenses right now to do things like that, and that's what I mentioned here too.

Like the museum has a separate spectrum lot license right now because they're just using the legacy one we took over from Arts and Heritage because we just ran out of licensing, and since this is legacy to short tell, they're no longer supplying these licenses.

So with this, we can or we can get as many as we want, we can do as many of these call centers as we want.

It's really like jumping, like you said, just jumping way ahead.

And just so people know when when Marlene was asking about Grasshopper, that's the system when somebody calls our cell phones.

Um it it takes a message that you can listen to, or it transcribes it into an email so that um that's how we get our messages.

Right, and all that will be now all that will be um capable for the city employees as well, which is a good feature as well.

Good thing thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

Yes, Councilmember Early?

Yes, Vice Mayor Thanos, yes, Mayor Love, yes, carries to passage, and the last item which was 6B is now 8D.

Resolution number 2025-105, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement with the city of St.

Petersburg to sweep the curb streets.

Motion to approve.

Second, second.

Good evening.

Good evening.

How are you?

All right, street sweeping.

I'm sorry, I don't have a map available, but I I'll do the best I can to paint you a picture.

So we do have 60 cube miles of road that we street sweep.

Just a little history.

Um we used to utilize City of St.

Petersburg probably about 10 years ago.

They did buy monthly sweeping for us.

A company came in, USA services, they offered a lower price at a monthly sweep.

Through over the last probably five to six years, they did change their company to sweeping corporations of America, and we started noticing a decline in service due to trucks constantly.

If you guys probably are out there, you saw trucks going down, material being left behind.

At one point, we did reach out to the city of St.

Petersburg.

Uh this has been going on for about two to three years, Tom and I have been working on.

First administration wasn't too fond of working with us, so then we reached out Pinellas County government because they purchased their own street sweepers.

They were a little bit getting uh used to their process because they were using a private company at the same time.

City of St.

Petersburg was able to graciously take us into a meeting with Marshall, and I want to give Marshall Hampton and Claude and his group with St.

Pete Traffic Operations, they were willing to take us in open arms.

We've been working with the legal portion for the last two years, so now we're finally at the home stretch on getting this approved.

They're supposed to be taking this in January to have it approved on their end.

So this is a monthly sweep.

It's gonna be about $1,300 cheaper than what the company we're currently using.

You had a question about scheduling and getting that information out.

This is the great thing about working with St.

Pete because we're gonna work with them to see if we can keep it a consistent days throughout the month.

That way, potentially we can get that message out.

Hey, keep your cars off the road, make sure you're not blocking any streets at that point.

Usually the best practice would be to do it on your sanitation days, so you're not having any uh because most people don't park on a road when their garbage cans are getting collected.

So we're we're still working those details out with them.

It's gonna be two days, uh two-day sweep for the entire city.

The whole city is done in two days.

Two days, yep.

So it's not just morning time, they go all day.

They're gonna go all day, yep, for two days.

And um, yeah, so they they we've met with his staff, and they are pretty confident they're gonna and we actually did call them in for an emergency sweep a few weeks ago, or one of our garbage trucks blew a hydraulic line.

So they came in right away to help us out.

It was like nothing even happened there.

So I'm very excited because I know the quality of service and level service municipalities do bring because there's definitely a little bit more oversight than private contractors, and a little more accountability at the same time.

So any questions?

Yes, the um $1,300 cheaper is that per month?

Yes.

$1300 per month cheaper.

Yep.

Okay, I'm just looking for money for that stormwater.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Um I'm glad that you're thinking about doing it on the sanitation day because we do have an individual that complains that cars are in the way and that we should let them know in advance as far as the their street, etc.

So that's good.

And I believe I read 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

They're gonna be coming in earlier.

They're not gonna be at 7 p.m.

It was just to give us that buffer, but they're gonna be working their normal uh shift, uh, which is 7 to 3.30, like our staff work.

They do have a night crew.

Uh-huh.

That's why they include it in there because they because the city's so large, they'll have two night uh morning crew and a night crew.

Okay, well, 7 to 3.30 sounds I think will sound a lot better to that individual particularly.

And I did leap off something.

I didn't even mean to cut you off.

Uh they are actually gonna be sweeping our parking lots.

The last contract didn't have that in there.

So this is that $1,300 cost savings is including all the parking lots in the city.

That's great.

Yeah, so yeah.

No questions from when you say the whole city, so I think that I thought that they only do curb streets.

Correct, yes, 60 curbed, yes.

Okay, and just on for the record, and this is the probably the perfect opportunity to get it out to the public.

We sweep the curb roads to decrease the amount of sediment and leaves going into the storm inlet.

So this does incrove water quality and it's gonna help reduce potential world flooding.

And isn't there something in the memo about it being a legal requirement?

Yes, so we do report to the state NPDS annual MS4 report.

We do about 700 to 800 cubic yard of excuse me, 700 to 80 800 cubic yards of of debris removal every year we report.

And and and living on a non-curbed street, um, why is it that we can't do those streets?

Because the sweeper will actually start pushing the material into the grass.

The curb helps acts as a barrier and help suck it into the to the brooms.

Um that's why it's very vital for the NPDS water quality reporting because we're trying to collect that from going into the storm limits.

Unfortunately, no curb roads.

Don't have storm exactly yet.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Councilmember Shaw, yes.

Councilmember Early, yes.

Vice Mayor Thanos?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Carries to passage.

Okay, so now I can move on correctly, right?

All right.

So we do not have a discussion item tonight, so we will go ahead and move right into new business, and we will go in speaking order, please.

Well, first I'd like to say thank you for the section about taxes on the website.

That was something I had been talking to the city manager about as well, and and was covered, and I believe in a lot of the classes we've been taking, so and uh speakers that we heard.

So that's wonderful.

Um I did want to uh support the concept of the League of Women Voters returning to do forums here.

They did a very professional job and a very um nonpartisan role in it.

So uh I I I would like to express my support for that for the candidate forum.

Uh and then the only other thing that I have is a resident continues to request that we consider a one-way direction on each side of Tangerine Avenue South.

He said it's particularly dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclers.

Um, but you know, I don't know how the rest of that that neighborhood feels about it.

So if there was a way for us to get that information, that that would be great because you know he continues to talk about he he he walks and rides his bike a lot and and he's been nearly hit.

I can see how it is confusing.

I I walk there too.

Um maybe we could get some data on um issues on that street.

I'm not sure if let's look at that, and then I know the mayor has been talking about some traffic things also, so let us see what data we can find.

Thank you.

If if I could just respond to the League of Women Voters, I've I've been in contact with them and and setting this up.

Oh, okay, good.

Because I was gonna ask if we needed to get a consensus.

Sure, I'm ready.

That's already very in the works.

I think we anticipated that you would approve it in it, but we just have to get through the process that you approve it.

I don't have a date yet, that's why I haven't brought it to you.

Once they get me that date that they're asking for and and what they're wanting to do, then I would I would bring it up.

Super.

All righty.

Go ahead.

Thanks.

Go ahead, Marlene.

Are you done?

I said thank you so much.

Okay.

So we're with me.

I'm sure there's a name for what I'm going to describe.

I don't know what it is, but I'm working with Dave Mather and obtaining a grant for our walking trail.

And I did um talk to Brad about it as well.

Um when I visit my granddaughter who lives just outside of DC, there's a green area.

And when you start the green area, there's like a post with uh plastic.

Um it looks just like this, and you can see through it, and it's the first page of a book.

Actually, it's the title page of a book.

And you walk 25 feet and in the same you come up to the same situation, and it's the second page.

And it takes you almost a mile.

It's so very fun.

And you see all the I have pictures, I'll post some on my website, but um they also advertise.

So the library puts a QR code for hey, um, this is what you can this is how you can get a library card, right?

They take advantage of the camps and all of that as an advertising piece, but it's very fun and it gets kids moving.

It gets it get it's very interesting.

So I spoke to Dave about it.

He had seen something similar, so we're gonna work on a grant for that.

So it's a children's book.

It was it's children's book.

The uh one last week was Mango Abuela and Me.

It was riveting.

Anyway, it was it was.

I was like running.

Um but it was it's very fun, and it just gets the kids out and they they do it, they switch it up once a month, that library does.

So thank you for your help.

Love it.

Sorry walk.

Thank you.

Very fun.

Yes.

That's all I had.

Okay.

Um so being that the city attorney suggested that we could go ahead with some of the stuff for uh SB 180.

I would like to see if there's some consensus to do something on light pollution, which the mayor brought up.

I I especially don't like those lights on the front of um the big long lights on the front of new houses.

They're like blaring out and um very disturbing.

And the same thing about um making sure that um automatic lights that come on don't shine into somebody else's house.

Um and and then the other thing is now we have 20% green, which is a hundred percent permeable, and I'd like to raise that at least to 25% or more if we feel it should be more, and um potentially something about permeable driveways.

Um I wanted to see if there was some consensus for us to have him draw something up on that.

Yes, they made it very clear um how important that is.

Yes.

Okay.

Would that not be something that um uh rather than the attorney draw something up that um planning and zoning um our board would get together and brainstorm a little on and present to us.

Mayor, what what it would do is we would draft an ordinance, and then the ordinance would be taken because it's in the land development code, it would then be presented to planning and zoning, to planning and zoning board to review for your to make an advisory recommendation to you.

So strictly recommendation, so they'd make they'd take it under advisement, they would review it, and then they would make a recommendation to you.

Okay, so yes, I I I would like to move forward with that all of that as well.

Yes, great.

And then the other thing I would like to go to planning and zoning is to look at rezoning potentially the whole city to R2 and maybe even R3 if what depending on what planning and zoning comes back, because right now we have very few empty lots.

And so if you built a duplex or a triplex, the same size as the houses that are allowed.

Again, I wouldn't want to change setbacks, heights, any of that stuff.

But if you could build a duplex or a triplex, you're adding more potentially more affordable housing because it's smaller.

Um again, the most of the flood zone is already R2 or three, um, except part of the the marina is isn't so we might want to exclude it in the marina or any of the flood zone, keep that R1, but outside of that to have them look at what that could mean.

Because especially now when there's a lot of houses being built, although most of those are in the flood zone, but still, you know, we do have houses being built in other areas, and I know that Winway built a very attractive duplex on 28th.

You wouldn't even know it's a duplex compared to a single family house.

And so it it doesn't change the character of Goldport.

And we have a lot of um small duplexes now that if they were to burn down or something couldn't be rebuilt because of the size of their lot.

So if we change it so sort of similar to the ADUs, that you still have to set keep all the same setbacks, but that you would be allowed to make it an R2 or R3, whatever they decide.

You know, again, it's not gonna R2, you don't have to go to the county or the state to change, and R three you do.

But you know, Linda Fisher or somebody from the county could potentially explain it even to the planning and zoning board and have them research that for us and come back to see if they have a recommendation for us.

So if for clarification purposes, you would want to increase the density within all R1 and R1A zoning categories.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, I mean that's a density that that's not exempt from the density question.

Well, that again, that's something that they would look into and come back to us about what that means and what we'd have to do.

Because again, we have very few lots that you could do it on.

I I understand that.

I understand what you're saying.

No, I'm not arguing that.

I'm just asking you, is that a step that you're willing to take as a council?

As a council.

As a council to increase the density to increase your density equation here in the community.

That's a big undertaking.

I'm just sharing with you.

Before you go to the planning and zoning board, there's going to be a level of requirements that are going to have to be done.

That I mean, you can't just say, let's just then you have to have the ability to serve all these things to trigger than just saying you can have this lot.

That AD you were exempted from that.

I understand that.

And that's but this really, in reality, with ADUs, you're probably going to be adding more density than you would add with changing it to an R2 because ADUs are less expensive to build, and you know, if you're building a whole new new house, it's it's a whole different ball game.

And people may, I mean, on the same lot, one person who buys that lot might want still a single family house, and that's fine.

But they also could put a duplex.

And really, if you look at me.

I know, but I mean I'm just saying for for the number of lots that we have that are buildable that people are going to be building on and changing, the density would change very slowly.

Okay.

Because there's just not that many lots.

Let us know.

Okay, so you're asking if there's a consensus uh among council um to uh move forward something uh rezon rezoning all A R1, R1A2, R2.

Yes.

Okay.

So I definitely know my opinion.

Um, but we'll go in speaking order.

And again, this is to have them research it.

Well, I I always like more information as to what the steps would be required and also what perhaps any unintended consequences might be.

So if I I mean if if they can bring that back to us so we can then consider it, then then I would support that, yes.

That's their job.

That's not no staff would have to do the there are planning.

There they are, and they you're they're an advisory board.

That staff would have to do the initial work to identify all the property and all that.

We'll look, we'll have a conversation at the staff level.

If you council would like to move forward with it, that's the direction I would ask for.

Okay.

There's no more, it doesn't go to them and back to you it to them, and then back to my staff.

My staff would have to do, we'll do the work if that's what you direct us to do.

Okay.

Okay.

So they would do the work, present it to us, we would understand.

Yes, if we reach the consensus and some items, we'd give it to you, and then if that was where you wanted to go, you would then go to the planning and zoning board in a form of an ordinance.

Okay.

I'm fine with that.

I have I know very little on this topic, so I would really need to be educated.

I I'm in the minority.

I definitely do not want to take up staff time advancing something like this when I'm being told this for the first time now.

I don't want to see staff hours used for this before we as a council have even had a minute to think about it.

And for me, hearing it at 8 12 at night and making decision right now is is not I I would say no for myself.

So we had three that are willing to go ahead.

Yes, as long as it's not their number one priority.

Yeah, and it doesn't have to be a rush, obviously.

Okay.

So we'll just be on the list.

Okay.

Okay.

And then the tree committee.

We're trying to think of a very clever name.

So if anybody has ideas, please let me know.

Um, and we'll be putting it on the wet the volunteer portal.

I'm gonna have to work with Dave about how to do that.

And um we'll be putting out um an article in the GABA for Arbor Day to tell everybody kind of what we're doing and and um you know see how people can plug in and and let them know that this is a happening thing.

What we need, um we reviewed software, and I can send you the the sample thing for it, you know, where you can check it out, but it's very easy to use.

So you basically look at it, you know, walk down the street, look at a tree, take a tape measure, measure it, and we'll have identification software and training about what kind of trees they are, and then you just go in and you say, I'm at this address, and you take a little pointer and you put a dot on the map and you say, This is a live oak, it's 24 inches around, it looks in fair health, blah blah blah.

And so they have we can make our own criteria, and um Dean has agreed to train people to do this and to double check our work so that we make sure it's accurate.

And um, you know, first of course, we would be doing public trees and potentially trees in people's front yard if they agree that we can go into their front yard, and if they're nice and let us into their backyard, we can add their backyard trees.

And um, you know, hopefully neighbors you know will do sort of the block that they're on, so then they know the people, so they're you know, it won't be as invasive as it would be for somebody just knocking on your door that you don't know.

Um the software is 4500 a year, and when Dean met with the um public works, he they said that they were looking at doing a tree inventory anyway, and if we paid to do a tree inventory, it would cost we'd have to pay for the software and professional people to do it.

And um, so I'm asking that we buy the software fairly soon so that by the time we start we can get it up and running with existing volunteers we have so that we can do beta testing, and then when we go out with this article, start really doing it because you the idea is to do it in the spring when it's not so hot so that we can get a lot done.

So I need to consensus that we can spend 4500 for the software.

What do we do once we have that information?

Is it just the can the previous council passed a thing that we wanted to have a 30% canopy and right now we're probably when we did a study before it was about 23% and we lost trees in the storm and people are cutting them down with new houses and because they were afraid, and the laurel oaks are coming to the end of their life, so theirs are gonna be coming down anyway, and apparently there's a disease right on the border of Georgia and Florida that's coming for our live oaks.

So if we lose the the live oaks as well, we're pretty treeless, and so what we want to do is see what kind of trees we have where and make sure that when we start planting trees, this will be the goal is that we will start planting trees because we have our tree budget, and we'll be diversifying the kinds of trees we're planting so that we'll still have shade trees, but they'll be different varieties so that nothing will attack all of them at once and they'll all age differently so that you can keep replacing them and keep the city looking leafy.

Shade throughout so that's the goal.

Okay, thank you.

And then we can also, you know, this committee can look at some of the beach plantings if we want to look at that.

There may be different people on the committee that are interested in different things, so we can look at that too.

Not to turn your questions back on you, but have you looked at other softwares?

So have you come is there a competitive software or is that the same thing?

They were all about the same price.

The third one that was suggested didn't look very volunteer friendly.

Okay, and this one's very easy to use, and and you can do it on your phone or a la or a tablet, and basically kind of anybody could go in and add a tree if they want to you you could make it that way, or you only certain people can add, but anybody can look at it and you can get all kinds of reports on it, and we could have it on the website and people could pull it up to see what their block looks like, and you can get uh a you know, kind of like a Google Google Earth look that has the trees with a dot on them that tells you what kind they are, okay, or you can take out the trees and just have all the dots.

You can do a thing like only show me the laurel oaks so that you know where are you gonna be losing trees.

Okay, and so you can do all kinds of reports.

Thank you.

Thank you for explaining that.

Um I I strongly support any efforts regarding the trees.

Um my only question is would the the funds for that software uh or app come out of the tree budget, or where would it come from?

That's what I would recommend.

Well, I mean, from what Dean said a budget from you guys.

I was gonna say, because I don't have a budget, I don't budget for software for things like that, and I do the council budget.

Well, if we had to, we could take it out of the tree budget.

But apparently Public Works was planning on doing a tree inventory anyway.

We could take it out of that budget.

Well, I mean, it's applicable to the tree budget, so I would I would take it out of the tree budget.

That's what I would recommend.

But where were you going to take the money for the tree inventory?

I hadn't got there yet.

They were talking about it.

I had to well, if we have to take it out of the tree budget, it's better to have it so we know that we can spend the rest of our tree budget money effectively.

Sure.

Um I'm I'm great with that actually.

And I'd ask that you send a software package to David to let him evaluate it before we purchase it.

Yep, absolutely.

And I'll send it to all of you guys too, so you can see you can see my interview with him and this um uh sample thing where you can try it out.

Okay, I'm good.

I'm good with this.

Thank you.

I'm good with that as well.

I was just concerned what did we have the funds for because I wasn't sure it was exactly budgeted for.

Okay.

Well, you have your consensus then.

Okay.

Um another thing I'd like to bring up.

We were talking all of this about the cemetery.

And um I'd like to have us consider doing a public apology for being um a sunshine.

Mayor, if I may interject, that is not been documented.

That is not been documented, ma'am.

It apparently it has.

David, would you like to talk to that issue?

We've researched this immensely.

Well, and let me finish because we're there we're going down a path that David, you talk about the research that we've done.

Um the city itself was never officially a sundown town.

And what that what I mean by that is it was never codified in any kind of resolution, and it was never brought to city council.

There was one city council member in I think 1930s, and this can be looked up, I think it's in the Tampa Bay Times, even that said that we should be.

It was over, I think.

I did this research a while ago, but it was over um some sort of sunbathing policy.

He thought that African Americans would come to the city if we had open sunbathing or something like that, and he was very against it and thought that the city should move into that direction.

They never did.

It's ne there's not there's no record of it being a sundown town.

There is a university that documents these things, and even in their documentation, they never say that we are a sundown town.

It says suspected and then gives those evidences.

The uh the person that originally did that work uh for that, and I can't recall the the I would have had this information if I knew.

Um, but um he passed away a few years back.

They are still continuing his research, but no one's ever kind of unearthed um any documentation that we were officially a sundown town.

Um Meg at the museum has gone through a ton of different documents and she's found where uh people have done writings for books where they say, Oh, it was a known fact that uh Gulfport was a sundown town, but but not in the not in the official pact.

So I think that's where the city manager's getting to.

Um we were never considered an actual uh city official sundown town.

That's not to say that people here didn't feel that way in in this city in the south in that time period, obviously.

Um the official record has never shown any resolution ordinance or otherwise.

Thank you.

I know there were some signs, whether they were official city signs or not, isn't you know, probably they weren't.

So I don't know if it's appropriate to just put out something saying that if people felt that they weren't welcome here that they should know now that we're sorry they felt that they weren't welcome and that they should feel welcome now, without necessarily saying we did something wrong, because obviously nobody here now was there then and did this, but to make sure that people know that we welcome everybody now.

It's been brought up to me, so I'm bringing it up.

Maybe people want to think about that.

What the hell is it think about?

Okay, no comments.

I guess we'll think about that and uh out of order, you need to be quiet.

You're right.

All right.

The last thing is maybe easier, that I'd like to I've had it requested from multiple people that we put the minutes back on the website after they're approved.

Is that that's the city clerk's decision, and uh and I've explained several times why they're not out there.

Unfortunately, I'm a staff of two, ma'am, so I I have a I like last time I couldn't even get the minutes on on the agenda.

So um as my staff hopefully grow some days, I'm I'm actually would be would consider it, but right now I've made that decision as the head of that department and I've explained the reason that I've done it.

But once the minutes are written and approved, isn't it a very simple thing to make them ADA compliant and put them on the website?

No, ma'am.

Somebody told me you just if they're a PDF, you can just switch it into being ADA compliant.

It I'm just being ADA compliant.

I I took an entire four-hour class on how to do it, and some documents are very easy to do, some documents are very hard to do.

The minutes most of them are ADA compliant because I'm writing them.

That that's not why they're not out there.

Why aren't they then?

I mean, because putting them on the website shouldn't be hard.

Because I do action minutes now.

You're getting the entire meeting with the video where you can click and go to each individual section to hear the actual verbatim minutes.

What I people have come to me and don't like the way that I do minutes, they don't agree with the minutes that I'm doing, and that's quite all right.

So that's why I made the decision to stop putting them out there.

They were being picked apart, torn apart, and that that's the clerk's decision on the type of minutes that I Right.

I'm not questioning that part.

Okay.

I just know that some people have told me that they don't want to have to go through a whole video to I I've never had anybody request minutes for a public record.

So nobody has reached out to the clerk asking to see the minutes.

That's that's why I I have had nobody ask for them except for when we come out here to the meetings, and then I've given you the answer and everyone seems okay with it, and then it's it's continued to keep coming up to come to me.

So anybody who would like a copy of the minutes, I'm happy to give them to anybody who would want to see them.

But based on what has gone on over the past, it that's extra time for me and my staff to be doing this and putting it out there first for nobody that even looks at them or wants to see them.

So if they're coming to you, I would I would suggest that maybe you ask them to come to me and ask for a copy of them so that I could make a a decision.

Like if I really do have that many people asking for minutes, I would make that decision to put it back out there.

But I have not had one person ask for that.

Okay, I think I I think that they it's my impression, at least from the people who have talked to me, that they kind of think well, there was a meeting and they missed it, but there was maybe something that they were interested in, so or they heard that there was an interesting discussion on something, so they want to find out what happened, and when they go in, they don't want to have to go through the whole video thing and so they want to look at the minutes, but they don't necessarily they want to do it on the spur of the moment as opposed to go through the process of emailing you and right, and then when I don't have it in the minutes because I'm doing action minutes, I'm not doing a detailed verbate on minutes.

No, I know, I know.

So they wouldn't maybe get what they want anyway.

All right, okay.

At least I brought it up so that are all my things.

All righty.

Um Mayor, could I could I go back to one thing that Vice Mayor touched on?

Yes.

Um I'm wondering as far as the um the statement about everyone being welcome, you know, perhaps we should take a look at a a resolution expressing that everyone is welcome here, and I don't know, put out put out a sign at at the borders of our of our property.

I I'm I have no problem with trying to convey that we welcome everyone here because that's something that's in my heart, and I and I believe it's in a lot of our citizens' heart as well.

So for resolution would be one way to do that, or if there's other ideas, I'm not saying we have to have an answer to that tonight, but I I'm just thinking that that might be one way we could do that, or two ways even, and there might be other ideas.

Um, you know, without you know, trying to remake what is actually recorded history.

I I agree that that's something that we should think about and that it's possible that that could be done.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

If we could you know bring that up perhaps the next meeting, that would be great.

I'm fine with that.

I think that's a nice idea.

Okay.

Okay, so thank you for letting me add that.

Uh-huh.

No problem.

So um, being that this is the last meeting of the year, um, rather than introducing new business, which is what I was talking about so quickly um earlier on, I just kind of wanted to just have a couple of closing statements since it's the end of the year.

So I wanted to um express to you that um I am very grateful for the communication and the support of both the residents, the staff, the employees, and the council.

Um I think we've had a lot of lively conversations and we have come up with a lot of decisions and far more conversation than we've had in the past few years.

I am grateful for the um opportunities to learn um that this position has afforded me and uh plan to continue to bring forth uh some of the new ideas that I get at the meetings, and I'm also uh grateful to the council and the staff for being so receptive to doing things differently than the way they've been done for years.

In terms of accomplishments, I have to say uh I think one of the biggest accomplishments in the last um I'm gonna say seven, eight months, is the increased communications.

Um, and I think that's very important.

I feel like we have civil and open conversations at the council meetings.

Uh in terms of communications, our um st uh staff, our employees have totally redone our website.

And if you haven't taken any time to go on and look at our website, which is my golfport dot us, you could spend days and weeks on there.

There is so much information on there.

But if you don't have days and weeks, there's a wonderful search bar, and you can just plug into the search bar what you want, and it's gonna pop up for you.

And um it's it's very, very helpful in my opinion.

Um, I also feel like we have um in terms of communication, which that was a big part of what I was trying to do, um, and was happy about was that we really have increased the views on our Facebook page, so that um you know, if you want to know what's going on the in the city, you can go to the City of Gulfport Facebook page.

The city is making sometimes as many as six seven posts a day trying to keep our residents informed of what's going on there.

Um in addition to the Facebook page, um my eyes are getting tired.

Um the subscriptions to the EDM newsletter.

So many people don't realize, but every single Monday a new newsletter comes out from the city that highlights so much of what just happened and what is going on.

All you have to do it probably takes you less than one minute to sign up for it, and it'll be emailed to you every single week.

Many of the council members are doing monthly uh reports about what is what they've been involved with over the previous month.

That's also on the website, easy to find.

Um I was told for a while uh that I needed to start doing some uh YouTube and Instagram, and that's you know, kind of over my head, so I was resistant, and then I found this other city doing these take two on Tuesdays.

I reached out to them, asked them if I could steal that idea, and they said that's why it was out there, and I did, and if you haven't noticed every Tuesday at two o'clock, I hit, you know, I make sure it's under three minutes, but I hit just the highlights of one topic that you know I hear a lot of people talking about, or that I understand is one of the most understood concepts in our city.

So, and besides that, I think our count um our council, many of us have come um uh hours every week.

I think we're very easy to find.

Um things to come.

I mean, we're really close to the new year.

What are we about 14-15 days now?

Things to come.

In the the focus of the council, I believe, and of course, you know, this is based on what has been said previously, will be the implementation of stormwater projects as well as the expansion of the senior center.

Um, and of course, adding resiliency and hardening to our city whenever possible.

All of that is already in the works now, and we'll be moving forward and we'll be seeing and talking about that a lot more in 2026.

Um, also in 2026, personally, um I early in the year I plan to merge some of the ideas that I got in Gulfport 2050, along with um comparing them with some of the ideas that came out of Gulfport on the Edge.

I'm working on some change of some traffic patterns that I will be um uh let's see what's the word I want um sharing with the council, I guess is what I'm gonna say for their ideas to nitpick, you not nitpick, what a terrible word to say to comment on and review, sorry.

Yeah, that was a terrible word that came out of my mouth.

Um with the plan of creating um additional parking, uh creating safer streets, connected streets, connected sidewalks.

Um I want to um I am and I've said this many times, but I'm so impressed with this city with the number of people who step up and lead focus groups that turn into creating projects with very very little assistance from the city.

You know, they bring it forth, they say this is what we're gonna work on, and then they come to us with an organized plan.

And when I'm referring to that, I you know, I could be talking about something as minor as Wolfgang doing beach cleanups for 11 or 12 years now.

Uh fundraising for the senior center, best seat in the house, you know, was a great fundraiser for that.

The toy box that was just made down on the beach.

I mean, the city did nothing on that.

This was totally volunteers.

Um, think about it.

New Horizons puts on uh band concerts for us.

We don't pay pay for any of that.

That's all free.

They practice, they work their butts off.

The gecko band showing up all the time for events for us.

Um so and and then uh talk about a big project, Gulfport Recoveries that was done last year.

I mean, really a group of people who had flooded worked really hard together to come up with the some of the solutions and advice in case we encounter this again during our lifetime.

So I want to really encourage that.

That's how I see Gulfport as a city where when you you know they say see something, say something.

Well, I say see a problem, find the solution, figure it out, take charge.

Um and then the last thing, just in closing, I just want to say I hope that everybody will stay safe during the holidays.

I hope that because we've seen so many issues with uh bicycle accidents recently.

If there's even a thought in your mind that you're gonna give somebody a bike, a scooter or a skateboard that you're sure you give them a helmet at the same time.

Please don't drink and drive, take advantage of all the ride share services, and lastly, be kind.

Thank you.

Mayor, if I may two things.

One, we are working on the e-bike ordinance to bring forth to you, hopefully by first the first meeting, second meeting in January.

We look forward to that for the first reading of that.

We'll also be bringing the recovery home.

I didn't know if we were going to bring that up.

The ordinance will be going to the planning and zoning board in January.

Okay.

And also I'll be out of the office on Thursday and Friday for a medical procedure.

All righty.

Thank you.

And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

The last one of 2025.