Good evening and welcome.

This is a big crowd.

Wow.

Um, for those of you who have not attended a city council meeting uh recently or ever before, just a couple of basic housekeeping rules.

I ask you to check your phone right now.

Uh, make sure that it's not going to ring.

Okay.

And then the second thing is there's only one conversation going on at a time.

It's either gonna be up here at the amongst the council members, or it's gonna be whoever has the floor up here with that that microphone.

So if you feel the need to have a side conversation, that's fine.

Just get up and exit to into the lobby, please.

All right.

Um this meeting is called to order.

We will be starting with the invocation given by council member Jackson.

And then that'll be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, so please rise.

Hi, everyone.

Um my invocation this evening is a quote from Bob Weir, who recently passed away.

I think if people value democracy, they had damn well better get out and exercise their right to vote while their vote still means something.

I I appreciate that um the invocation went over well, but also in this dais, we don't boo, we don't clap.

We zip it, okay.

Councilmember Jackson?

Here.

Council Member Early.

Vice Mayor Thanos.

Council Member Shaw.

Here.

City Attorney Salzman.

City Manager O'Reilly.

City Clerk Keriko is present.

So with that, tonight we have a special presentation.

Um if any of you have ever donated to Operation Santa, we have had one person in charge of this uh running the show for a very very long time.

I only know 22 for sure, but I think she might insist that it be more.

So I'm going to ask Francine Winton to come up, and she will receive an award.

Well you go.

How many years?

34.

34.

So 34 years of making sure the kids in Gulfport had Christmas.

And then a special gift from your staff they said you would understand.

From the clerk.

From the clerk.

May I talk?

It's been 34 years, and it's not just me.

I couldn't do it without the police department, the fire department, and all the people that donated.

Gulfport, we're we're a good hard group, a loving group, and next year will be 35 years.

So we gotta do it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All righty.

That's great to start out that way.

And yeah, even though I said no applause, I'm trying to make the point.

No applause and no booze.

That's there.

That was an exception.

Okay.

So moving on, then we are proud to have today Cheryl Holzbacher, if I've said it right, from the homeless leadership alliance.

And she's going to give us a presentation on where we're at, what she's doing, and how we can make a difference.

Thank you, Cheryl, for being here.

Thank you.

Mayor Love and Council members for allowing me to speak on the state of homelessness in Pinellas County tonight.

And I have got to say that the uh energy and enthusiasm in this room is pretty amazing.

And I don't know that I can even match it, but I'm gonna try.

So uh I came in tonight to talk about the 2025 point in time count that's held annually in Pinellas Counties required biannually every two years uh by the housing and urban development um department U.S.

Department of Housing Urban Development and uh Kathleen Beckman who is our chair for the COC, she could not be with us tonight, but so you have me.

But who are we?

We are I get to do this left click left there.

We go thank you.

So who we are uh the Pinellas COC Continuum of Care is the COC and Homeless Leadership Alliance of Panellas is the HLA.

We are for the the COC is a countywide network throughout Pinellas.

Not every COC is in a county, it can be in all kinds of different uh configurations throughout the country, but there is one everywhere throughout the nation, and they are we bring together funders, providers, community members who care, um, anyone who has a desire to reduce and end homelessness, and um we establish local policies and priorities and that go across systems so that can be a coordinated system.

That's where we focus is at that systems level with all that input.

We also have elected officials on our uh board as well, and so uh the homeless leadership alliance of Pinellas is the we serve as a lead agency, and we also apply for funding to hide on behalf of the COC and Pinellas County, and which is a typically an annual process.

This year we have had three different notices of funding opportunities since Thanksgiving, and so it's been a very um interesting holiday period.

I'm I'm due a vacation.

Uh and so uh but three of them so far.

The first one was withdrawn is major, uh major priority differences uh from the past, major changes.

Uh not all I I mean there's I really have no comment about that other than just the timing, pretty disruptive and and quick.

Uh that one was withdrawn.

The second one was under court review, and then so could could not really be fully uh put out there, but it's still hanging over us, and then we had a third one just sub uh recently that came through the first week of January that um will uh revert back to what we were expecting to begin with, and that is basically not to have to do an application this year, so we can get on to the business of planning.

We also, as a lead agency, so we house all the information uh across all providers who serve uh people who are experiencing homelessness, and again, it's a good coordinated effort.

We coordinate the point in time count every year, which is January 29th.

It's all day, many shifts available.

And uh and we also support funders through other, I'm sorry, our providers, we also support funders too.

We get them together.

Uh we support providers through the federal funding and state funding and some local funding processes.

So the 2025 point in time count.

Uh, we also, I want to say Pinellis is special.

We have an extensive, very in-depth uh report that we create every year.

We work with a consultant, uh, well, researcher author uh at USF, who is also part of our continuum, very active in our data and system performance committee, and he uh helps put that together in conjunction with our team.

And uh that is going above and beyond what is required for HUD in our report.

So it is something that other COCs talk about, they look at, and it's it just it goes incredible information.

It's pretty lengthy right now, and we're gonna work on that some more, but um, it is available on the PenillaCOC.org website if you want to look at that in more depth.

Uh but it also we do uh other ways we go above and beyond uh in this annual snapshot, or it's like a census, a one-day census of homelessness in the community.

Um it includes not only what's required, the who's in an emergency shelter, who is in, who is living on the streets, who is unsheltered.

It also we all include jail data and school data as well.

And so uh we it is a very big effort, and it's we're proud of it.

But we take that information, understanding it's a census, uh, it's not going to be exact like any census, wouldn't be.

Uh in fact, it's actually an excellent way though, uh, for community building to get in front of somebody that you may not have a conversation with, and you can have a structured conversation, so you don't have to think about what to say, and and maybe and meet a neighbor and and learn more about like you know, get it get past some stereotypes and myths that may be out there and really connect with another individual or a few.

Uh so that is uh something that we are proud of.

So, overall findings uh for sheltered homelessness, uh, that those are people who are in transitional housing or emergency shelter, they are not in a permanent housing situation.

Uh they're they're still in the crisis homelessness system.

We had 1,325 people back in 2025.

For unsheltered homeless, that's literally homeless.

That means living in a place not suitable for human habitation.

Uh 538 people were surveyed.

And so that's a total of 1,863 people that the the HUD in the state of Florida consider to be literally homeless.

In Pinellas County jail, there were 125 people and they follow the same criteria that we use for HUD.

And in Pinellas County schools, which is a little different because this is a cumulative count, but it's also very telling because it is a cumulative count.

It is and and it's reported by teachers and counselors, people who have relationships with students and families where people may not be hiding.

Uh you know, if law enforcement, right?

So this is a important thing.

It's just I want to note that it's not the same type, it doesn't cover the same type of um criteria as HUD requires.

So not only is it cumulative, it also includes any student who is doubled up a couch surfing or family.

Uh well, no, it's number of students, sorry.

So we would not consider them literally homeless in our pit count, but for these purposes, definitely unstably housed.

And so there were 3,623 students, and that's 4% of the student body in Pinellas.

Huge.

And 113 were unsheltered.

And that was between August 10th and January 27th, which was the day of the last count.

So some interesting news that I, you know, when we hear these days about what homelessness is, who's who's unhoused, uh, what the reasons are, it it is and the cost and the inaffordability of housing across the nation.

Um, it's really interesting to see that there has been a decrease from last year, and again, census not perfect.

Um, so there's a 12% overall decrease from 2024.

There was a 25% decrease of the number of unsheltered and a 5% decrease of uh sheltered folks.

Um but there's some caveats of this, some little asterisk, and that is that 100% we had 122 fewer volunteers last year.

We had the two hurricanes, a lot of our volunteers work in emergency management, they work for providers, they work for the county, and so you're they're on task during that time as well, um, as we as we are as well, too.

So that was one thing.

We also had the anti-camping bill that was passed.

And so you had people who were may not have been as visible, may not have been willing to answer some questions.

We've done a lot of education and listening this last year with people with lived experience and trying to get out in the community and people that are connected to make sure that people understand that their data are not being shared, that they can refuse to answer any question and still move on, and and to participate because it really does help bring funding into the county into this area.

But on the positive side, so those are the like what could be you know have resulted in lower numbers.

On the positive side, we have been consistently trending down since 2016.

We'll see if that keeps up.

But we have been consistently trending down, and a lot of that has to do with a lot of the programs as good street out, well, better street outreach now.

Um, and we had significant increases in funding from uh DCF, the state, uh, for prevention and diversion, which you know, like that makes all the difference.

Once someone's already evicted or they've been living out on the streets for a while, it can be very it takes a lot more work to get someone rehoused.

Um, and it's done.

But that we also had more rapid rehousing uh projects out there too, which is very helpful.

Um then finally, of course, hurricanes displacement.

Ever since uh COVID, we've noticed that there has been a drop of people like who may have left, and we haven't seen them come back, and so for various reasons that may exist.

Unsheltered by municipality.

I'm not gonna go through all of that, of course, because we only care about Gulfport tonight.

Uh, but nearby areas, you can see every place has gone down except for clear water and Tarbon Springs ticked up a little bit.

Um, but Gulfport, I added the numbers on the bottom here.

2018 uh four individuals uh did not have a count in 2021, and then the last two years has been zero have been counted.

Now, some of that has to do with where we have deployments, where we have our volunteers and all of that, but I also know that there are some I I believe some good street outreach efforts have been done or some good work done with uh with a provider that has really resulted in good change.

But that just shows you that from 2018 to 2025.

Okay.

So who is affected?

Uh we've sought we've seen definitely an increase in older adults.

That's 62 plus.

In fact, we have targeted the 62 to 65 in our data to really track that because it the numbers, it's just it's at that age, right before Social Security may or may not hit when people are beginning to show up more in these shelters or on the streets.

Um we had a an increase in sheltered and unsheltered veterans.

However, we are almost at functional zero when it comes to people coming in versus going out.

So they were like this year, there's a surge event with the uh veterans administration and other providers and partners on the same day as Pitt.

So if someone is uh being surveyed at that time and they're a veteran, immediately they're going over to that, they're going to be given like rapid housing very quickly.

Um there were 189 survivors of domestic violence.

Uh black and African American individuals make up 38% of the homeless population in Pinellas County, but only 11% of uh the population.

Uh 76% were sheltered families.

Some of that could be because of um where our targeted outreach is uh happens to match up with where we see other disparities, and so uh that that correlate with race.

So 41% of homeless students reported by Pinellas County schools were black or African American.

That that large number I gave earlier.

And then 494 people experiencing chronic homelessness.

That means being literally homeless for at least a year over the past few years, like having multiple episodes that equal out to be uh 12 months.

Um but also most of the homeless that uh unhoused neighbors that we um encounter are male, and and all of this does check out with data that we also collect throughout the year, not just in the census, um, especially adults, single adult males without children.

So 76% were unsheltered, and 62% were sheltered.

We think about primary causes.

You watch the news, it's drugs, it's alcohol, it's uh mental illness.

There are, and which all you know, chicken and egg in some ways, and um, but there are people with substance use issues who are housed, um many actually.

Uh the primary causes, it's not and it's not that those don't play apart, but the primary causes are financial and job loss was number one at 40 percent, number two, medical issues, and that does not include like mental health, that has to do more with uh you can't work because of a medical issue or because of debt, family issues, 14 percent, and 10 percent because of eviction or foreclosure.

Those were the primary ones.

And if there was a fifth one, it would have been natural disaster from the hurricanes.

And it's just interesting that what we think or what we hear, it doesn't always matter, you know, play out in the data.

So some housing market pressure.

Uh there are fewer than 26 affordable housing units per 100 extremely low income renters.

So that in our area, that is that's incredible.

We just don't have enough housing stock, and especially not for for the group of uh lower income folks that we have.

Forty-six percent of households in Pinellas County live below.

If you've heard of Alice, the asset, I had to look at this because I always get it wrong, asset limited, income constrained, and employed.

So that's the Alice report.

Sun Coast of United Way, they put it out along with um another group, and what's interesting is that Sun Coast and all the counties that it covers that United Way, Pinellas County is the most income constrained, like has the highest uh what it costs for a family of four to live, just to make it with their budget, no savings, no vacation, just to make it a family of four with a baby and a toddler is 108,000 a year.

And so when we're looking at an actual survival budget, it is not uh we're not looking at people who and these are nurses, these are teachers, um, retail workers.

Think about where our jobs are, where our economy is at, you know, where our workers are, and that's not housing for the workers.

So that is um that's one reason why, as a continuum, we've been very intentional.

We've reached out to chambers of commerce, we reached out to business leaders, and we finally have made some uh movement there just very recently, but trying to because it really is going to take more than just the crisis homelessness system to solve this.

It's it's it's a full community effort.

Um, and then we also know that rising rents place working households that even increased risk of housing instability.

And what is working?

Strong street outreach.

Um we have street outreach workers who uh have behavioral health backgrounds with with behavioral health providers, uh, who also partner with law enforcement.

We have a very good relationship with um law enforcement partners, especially with the county, and uh we have more case managers at Safe Harbor.

If you don't know, Safe Harbor is uh it's a jail diversion uh shelter.

And um we're just still trying to figure out exactly is it are you jail diversion or emergency shelter?

But they it does serve as our lowest barrier shelter that's available right now.

Uh and there are more case managers and more um services and supports being provided there.

In fact, we were as HLA through a contract with a county supplying one diversion specialist, and then there's strong coordination with uh across providers and funders, and that is something that we have really experienced lately, local governments getting together as well as funders and people with lived experience.

When I talked about those three funding opportunities that came out, that was we had to have many emergency meetings over the holidays to really iron out some details, some backfill, some funds that may go missing and put people with disabilities unhoused, really chronic disabilities.

And so uh those are things areas that are working and that will you know continue to work or at least reduce harm if there are major changes uh that uh come along the way.

And so I I talked about this a little bit earlier, but I I'm just gonna recap it.

Uh HUD is the priorities and funding policies are may drastically changed.

And we did get wind of it, and we started to do some planning around that, um, but we didn't really know what exactly we were looking at until the funding opportunity dropped November 13th.

And um, and it was it was a lot more restrictive than what we thought.

And so most 78% of our portfolio has to do goes into uh programs for survivors of domestic violence, or it goes into permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing.

Those were all considered permanent housing options, and so and they were limited to 30%, period.

They cover 76% of our portfolio.

Covers 87% of all the portfolios within the nation of COCs.

And so we've had to quickly switch and figure out ways of backfill.

And now the stronger emphasis is on uh public safety, coordination with law enforcement, transitional housing or shorter-term crisis uh supports with required supports and services, um, and rejection of harm uh reductions, reduction strategies and housing first principles, which we have found work.

So those are just some things just to take note of.

We'll see.

Things change all the time now.

It's it's uh we're all living in the period of rapid, rapid change and disruption.

So opportunities.

My last slide, opportunities for uh partnership and representation.

We have two board seats that are reserved for non-entitlement communities, and non-entitlement community is one that doesn't have uh funding coming directly from HUD, so that'd be your Pinellas County, St.

Pete, um Clearwater Largo, Pinellas Park.

We have two seats, and uh we would love for Gulfport to appoint if they're appointed, and we just have a vote of confidence.

So if anyone would like to represent Gulfport from uh this body, that'd be amazing.

We do we would love to welcome you and we need your voice.

And it's a way to have a voice along with the other players too, and making those policies.

And are you only looking for um elected officials to be on your board?

Because we've got a whole room full of peers and everyone can become a member.

That's right.

Everyone can become a member.

So you'd be sure to be real clear when you say your phone number how they reach out to you.

Yes, if if you will so finell.org backslash join.

Uh anyone can become a member.

We have sliding fee scales, it's like 20 bucks for an individual membership, but if someone has lived experience, it goes down to zero.

Uh but for the seat, this particular board seat, it's for uh some elected officials.

It is and and so it's a little different.

Uh, but it does cover the entire municipality as well.

So uh that's our that there are no questions, or if there are any questions, I'll I'll welcome them.

We really appreciate you coming out and explaining it to us.

And I was serious when I said we do have a room full of potential volunteers, uh, even if they can't sit on that board.

Um, you know, want to make sure that they can reach out to you.

Yes, and we have how do you count people living in their cars?

They're they are unsheltered, unsheltered.

Yeah, literally homeless.

Anybody else have a question?

So I um volunteer for the food reach food program for kids.

I don't know if you've ever heard of it, but I deliver to a lot of the same people.

And a lot of them tell me that they've recently quit their job because the level of help that they can receive based on what they make just cancels it right out.

So they can be home with their kids instead of sending them to daycare.

Is that too high?

Is the threshold of your paycheck too high to account for any help, such as vouchers for do you know what I mean?

Yes, it yeah, uh there.

So a lot of there are pro various programs because it's governments, they all come out with different levels, and uh, but typically 80 percent is of the AMI area median income is where it it tops out at.

If you look at the Alice report, it looks like it needs to be a little bit higher.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shawstones.

Thank you so much, Cheryl.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

My email address is up there as well.

Oh good, good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, if you have an open seat next to you, please raise your hand because we still have people standing in the back.

Very good.

All righty.

Our next presentation then will be Chief Barran on bicycle safety.

Uh good evening.

Good evening.

So we actually put together a video for bike bike safety.

Justin Shea actually did most of the heavy lifting.

Forgive me, I'm just uh recovering from a cold.

And Donovan, I think he's here.

Yes, Donovan.

Donovan did a lot of the heavy lifting for this video.

So without further ado.

Hello, my name is Mary Farron.

I'm the police chief with the City of Gulfport Police Department.

Whether you ride for fun, fitness, or transportation, your safety is our top priority.

E-bike riders have the same rights and responsibilities as bicycle riders.

So ride smart and stay alert, make yourself visible, wear a helmet, use front and rear lights and signal your turns.

Wear light colored or reflective clothing, especially at dawn, dusk, or at night.

Never assume drivers see you.

Wait until all lanes have stopped before crossing.

Look twice, then look again.

Drivers are required to stop, but not everyone is paying attention.

Follow the rules of the road, stop at stop signs, ride with traffic, obey speed limits.

And remember, motorized vehicles, including e-bikes, are not allowed inside city parks.

Bike smart, ride safe, safety starts with you.

Very nice.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Yeah, so um we'll go in speaking order.

I have a couple, but maybe they'll be asked before you get no questions.

Thank you.

I don't either.

Thank you.

So what's the legal thing about riding on the sidewalk?

If not an e-bike, just a regular bike.

Riding on the sidewalk, you have to um act as though you're a pedestrian.

Okay.

What do you mean act as if you're a pedestrian?

You mean follow the same rules?

Yes.

Okay.

So like if pedestrians don't have to stop at a stop sign, but they have to look both ways.

There aren't very many stop signs on sidewalks.

Okay.

Well, I can see them from the sidewalk.

No good.

Gotta be in the car.

Okay.

Right.

I I think that the general rule of thumb in my mind as a bicyclist is that ultimately your safety is your responsibility.

You can have an expectation that cars are going to stop, but unless they see you, and just because you can see them doesn't mean they can see you.

I think that you ultimately your responsibility is to keep yourself safe.

So anything else?

Fire Chief Fernandez also took a role, Marivelle Gutierrez.

Are there any more?

Did I get a don?

Yeah, I took I said Donovan.

Excellent.

Thank you to all of you.

And and especially a personal experience that I had was I was turning right onto Golf Boulevard from 49th Street, and it was night time, and there was a bike coming down uh Gulfport Boulevard, and I didn't see it.

Everything was dark.

The person, the clothing, no lights on the bike, nothing, and I'll tell you what.

I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.

Yeah, I can imagine.

So my question is if I heard you right, you said e-bikes are not allowed in parks in our parks.

That's where we're at tonight.

Yeah, that is not we're we're getting we're getting there.

I may have put the before the horse.

Okay.

All righty.

When you said that e-bikes are allowed on sidewalks, is there any speed limit and uh limitation when they're on the sidewalks?

I didn't actually say e-bikes are allowed on sidewalks.

Okay, sorry.

They are allowed on sidewalks, but there isn't a limitation.

I I I believe the the language is actually safe and prudent.

So if there are vague and vague, right.

Right.

Well, this is the world we live in.

Um if there are pedestrians on the sidewalk, for example, you have a duty to be mindful of the pedestrians on the sidewalk.

You you don't have the uh you don't own the sidewalk, I guess is probably just because you're faster than the pedestrian.

Wheels yield to heels.

That's a good one.

Or sneakers.

Hey, that wasn't created by me.

I I know a guy named Wolfgang, he taught me that.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Outstanding.

So there is no speed limit limitations if they're on uh sidewalk, and you said that they are allowed on the sidewalk.

They are allowed on the sidewalk at this time.

Okay.

And they also are totally allowed in the street.

Totally allowed in the street.

I'm not sure.

I feel like I'm saying that in terms of as a bike rider, when I'm on the sidewalk, people tell me to get off the sidewalk, and if I'm in the street, people tell me to get out of the street.

So my understanding, and you I'm asking you so you can clarify my understanding is is that a bicycle, and I'm not talking an e-bike for myself, but a bicycle is allowed on the sidewalk and in the street, both.

Yes, they are and must follow the rules of a pedestrian while on the sidewalk and a vehicle while in the street.

Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

Thank you.

I'm sorry that that happened.

That's okay.

I I I have another question.

What about the motorized skateboard things and all those things that kids are on or bold adults, one or the other.

I think they call most of those hoverboards, and those are still legal.

I I wouldn't say those are legal on the street, but you know, people have definitely used them on the street.

But they're not illegal on the sidewalk either.

Okay.

Okay.

And um, does Gulfport police do the Gulfport police write tickets to bicyclers for not adhering to traffic rules when they're on the street?

Yes, we do.

Thank you.

That's it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right.

So with that, we're gonna move along to public comments.

So let me be real clear on public comment, okay?

Because I see a lot of faces that have not been here before.

When you come up to speak a public comment, it's about you can speak about absolutely anything that is not on the agenda.

Okay.

You have three minutes to speak.

Um, you must um use decorum.

And besides that, you can pretty much say what you want.

The other thing, if you haven't done this before, you might not know.

It is not a conversation.

You come up and you're speaking to the board as if we're one, okay, but we don't respond to it at that point.

When we get to do our council comments, if we choose to respond at that time, we will, but we don't do it while you're standing up here.

And because council comments take a long time, which is okay.

I want every person who wants to be heard to be heard.

But please, if you're in the back of the room, you know, and you know I'm gonna call on you next, start getting towards the front so that you know we don't lose a lot of minutes.

People say our council meetings go long.

Well, have they ever noticed that sometimes our public comment can go, you know, over an hour, okay?

So don't be shy, raise your hand.

Yes, right here.

Thank you.

Oh, and when you come up, you need to give your name and your and your address, please.

E-comment?

Uh-huh.

At the end, though, not at the beginning.

Yeah, yes.

Amy Trippy, uh, 6060 Shore Boulevard South, 301 Gulfport.

Uh good evening, Mayor.

Sorry.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council members, and fellow residents.

I'm here tonight because I care deeply about the city, about transparency in our local government, and about the kind of community Gulfport chooses to be.

I want to begin by saying this clearly.

Gulfport has a stellar police department.

Our officers are professional, responsive, and deeply connected to this community.

And the work they do each day is appreciated.

Nothing I say tonight is a criticism of our officers.

Recently, I became aware of Gulfport's relationship with ICE and wanted to better understand what that meant.

In doing so, I learned about Florida Statute 908.104.

Under that statute, local law enforcement agencies must cooperate with certain federal immigration requests.

That's the law, and our Gulfport PD is required to comply.

However, that statute is not the same as a 287G agreement.

A 287G agreement is a voluntary agreement between a local government and the federal government.

It allows local officers to take on certain immigration enforcement roles on behalf of ICE.

Cities are not required to sign these agreements.

It's a choice.

Yet on February 27th of last year, a 287G agreement was signed on behalf of the city of Gulfport without being brought before city council, without a public vote, and without notifying residents in advance.

There was no opportunity for public comment.

I believe this is the kind of decision that should have come before city council.

It's controversial, it involves taxpayer resources, and it affects how safe residents feel interacting with local police.

A significant number of Gulfport police officers have already been sent for training related to this agreement, and our taxes paid for those officers' time.

I also understand that some cities chose not to sign 287G agreements at all, and now others are withdrawing from them.

So my questions tonight are straightforward.

Why was this agreement signed without a city council vote or public input?

Who authorized that decision and what options, if any, exist for the council to review or reconsider the agreement now?

I believe this issue must be brought before city council for open discussion.

If the agreement is not legally valid without a formal vote, that should be addressed immediately.

If it is valid, then residents deserve to hear the council openly weigh the pros and cons, including whether withdrawal is advisable and even possible.

Gulfport has always been a peaceful, welcoming city.

It is a city where people should feel safe calling the police and confident in their local government.

Transparency matters, public input matters, and on an issue like this, democracy matters.

We are the people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, absolutely no applause.

You won't boo and you won't applaud.

That's the way it is.

It's been run this way since the day this council came in, which of course did not was not in session when this February of last year.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

My name is Karen Cotler.

Address is 6020 Shore Boulevard in Gulfport.

I'm a proud resident of Gulfport and a voter in the state of Florida.

I do not support the disruption of innocent lives of our families, of our cherished community members, of citizens of the U.S.

or of those who have come to this country seeking safety and freedom.

I do not support the violence perpetrated by ICE agents who have repeatedly shown disregard for civil rights and for the laws of this country.

They have shown themselves to be untrained, highly discriminatory, and they have undermined the principles that make us a functional democracy where equitable human rights and justice are the tenets of our constitution.

What is to be considered here is a memorandum of agreement between the Gulfport Police Department and ICE, one that suggests compliance with the actions of ICE as described above.

The question is this a reasonable thing to ask of our local police department, and is this what we as a peace-loving community that embraces diversity and equity?

Is this what we want to stand for?

My experience with the Gulfport Police Department has has always been positive, respectful, helpful.

Their work is acknowledged and appreciated.

But to set them up as a conduit to ICE as the first line in the performance of specified immigration officer functions by filtering individuals with whom they have contact into a system that is unjust, highly unregulated, it is unfair and unreasonable to do that.

At this point, we could discuss the challenging and lengthy path to citizenship that faces immigrants in this country.

And we could cite specific examples of those that have been legally on that path being interrupted by ICE detainment and deportation.

We could speak of residents providing valuable services to our communities, people who enrich our lives daily and who deserve the respect we expect others to offer us.

I can offer examples of lives rudely interrupted by ICE, violently interrupted under the guise of community safety.

What this amounts to is a miscarriage of justice, actually a lack of the justice we pride ourselves on engendering as a country.

But rather than distract from the issue at hand, let's go back to the consideration of our local police department's cooperation with ICE.

I think more highly of our community and what we represent.

Why people move here, why they find peace and rich lives here, and the mutually respectful relationships we support.

Let us not ally ourselves with a group that dehumanizes the lives of others.

We are better than that.

Thank you, Mayor Love, City Council for this opportunity to speak.

Perfect.

Who's next?

Yes.

I'm sorry I don't know every person's name tonight.

Okay, Kate.

Hi, my name is Kate Seidman, and I live at 2613 Beach Boulevard.

First, I just would like to thank the council for being here and doing such a wonderful.

Excuse me.

Just one minute, I'm sorry, Kate.

One conversation only, right here.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I moved to Gulfport 10 years ago and have been so happy I did.

Gulfport is a dream community.

Gulfport is an amazing town.

We voted in an all-women city council and mayor.

I think there are only five others in America.

I came to speak tonight because when I heard ICE was in our town, I was shocked.

Equally so when I heard that our police force will be backing ICE, supporting their actions following orders from Trump.

Maybe that's not true.

That's what I heard.

But that face.

Okay.

I have been to many anti-Trump demonstrations this year in Gulfport and St.

Pete.

Just today, there was one in Clymer Park.

I am so grateful to have grown up in a country that has supported free speech.

I have been able to speak my mind without fear or retaliation.

But after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, I am very concerned for all of us who oppose what Trump is doing, not just by sending his brown shirt troops to my town, but by his international takeovers.

I don't know the answer, but hopefully we as a small town can come together and find solutions as we act locally for our own good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Thank you.

Donovan Good evening, everyone.

My name is Donovan Nickel.

I live at 2806 49th Street South.

I'll just go over some bicycle information real quick.

The first thing is e-bike analysis.

In Pinnells County, they're going to be partnering with local hospitals to develop recommendations to improve education safety and policy considerations.

This project is anticipated to be completed June 30th of this year.

Also, with e-bike safety study for Pinellas is going to be collaborating with Pinellas County and working with the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida on an e-bike safety study.

And then last but not least, the legislation that they're going to be proposing is Florida House Bill 4 243, excuse me.

It's going to introduce new requirements to include the electronic motorcycle category, which basically means any bike that's over 750 watts or over 28 miles an hour is going to be considered an electronic motorcycle and therefore would need a motorcycle endorsement.

With that being said, they would also require bikes to yield to pedestrians.

This refers to electric scooters and also electric e-bikes.

They would mandate crash reporting, which would help local law enforcement as well, being able to file their police reports and the event of fatality or serious injury.

Also require the driver's license to operate a class three e-bike, which is anything that goes beyond 28.

They would require five of the 25 questions on the driver's license exam for the state of Florida to include bicycle and pedestrian safety, as well as establishing penalties for tampering with the motors and speed limiters.

That is all the information that I have regarding that.

I'll give you more as the year progresses regarding House Bill 243.

And then also the next uh bicycle pedestrian action committee is scheduled for next Monday, which is January 26th.

That's going to be over in Clearwater.

If you have any other information, just let me know and I'll talk to you after the meeting.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And for those of you that don't know, Donovan is our representative with Ford Pinellas when it comes to bicycle safety.

So if you have questions, he's the expert.

Scott.

Thank you, Donovan.

Thank you.

Good evening, Scott Lindy, Stetson area.

And representing the Gulfport Merchants Chamber of Commerce this evening.

These are serious issues that we're here here to discuss that I'm hearing being discussed, but I'm here hopefully just to make it a little bit fun.

I want to first of all uh tell everybody who wasn't there that we had an amazing first of many uh art openings at our welcome center on Gulfport Boulevard uh this past Saturday.

And it was very exciting to see people coming.

Uh this particular artist had a large following from Tampa.

They came and uh they were going back when we talked them into coming uh touring the rest of the town and going downtown.

I saw some of them in there later.

So the strategies working.

Um and that effort is is due in great part, not to me, but to uh we have a new arts committee head on our board meeting who's does a revelario of DRV Galleries, backed up by Julie Armstrong and uh Margot Dalghetti, who really made that happen.

So thank you to them and look forward to ongoing every month.

Um coming up, we have very shortly our Gulfport Fine Arts Festival.

I believe it's our 11th annual.

We're in Climber Park again.

We moved a little bit south to be a little bit more centralized.

Um we're gonna become a grown-up art show.

We're gonna have cash awards for the first time, uh, which makes us like the real deal, and uh we'll attract artists uh uh of a higher quality from farther away.

And uh we're gonna continue that butterfly effort, which was well received last year.

And uh that that will help any any excess proceeds from that because it does cost us money, will uh go to benefit the Gulf Court of Food Forest.

So we're excited about that also.

Um there will also be music and food just like there was last year.

Um then it's coming up right around the corner after that, our Pink Flamingo home tour, which um council person council person early uh uh brought to our attention at our last meeting.

Uh we're on March 7th, we're finalized.

We have 14 stops.

We're in what most many of us know as Ward 4, but also the garden district or uh or the otherwise known as the Northeast section of our city.

And it's a unique area, and it was a little bit challenging to find something that was gonna be of interest, but I think we've done that.

We've combined a number of gardens like the blueberry patch and community garden, along with uh some old cottages, which is what that neighborhood mostly looked like, but we've got a new build that's on there to see how the evolution of the neighborhood will look.

Uh so I encourage you all to come out.

Tickets remain at the low, low price of $25.

We'll have both the trolley thanks to Justin and Chris Justin and his team's efforts.

We have both the trolley and the looper and a map that's worked out.

So we'll have double the transportation along with the walkers, bikers, uh golf carters and drivers.

Um all of these details and buying tickets and things like that can be gone.

Visit Gulfport Florida.com.

Thank you very much for your time.

Okay.

Next over here, show of hands.

I don't see any hands, no public comment.

Here, right here.

Please.

Yes.

Hi, everybody.

Uh I'm Emily Smith.

Um, I live in Largo.

Um, I have been drawn to Gulfport.

I have many friends here.

I recited poetry here.

Um, but I uh I I'm a law abiding citizen.

I'm a member of Indivisible.org, and uh I am uh um an advocate for social justice.

I wrote this about program 2028.

Um I'm not sure how this bogus 287G agreement ever arrived in a sleepy little town like Gulfport.

Uh where in Gulfport, where in Gulfport are Suggs, rapists, drug running gangsters, uh, for which the administration was recruited to round up and incarcerate or murder.

Here is where they are.

One can simply view an ICE agent on live TV who brutally attacks women, elderly gentlemen, harmless gardeners, and sprays pepper spray into a car full of toddlers.

One can view five against one crushing of a young student on the ground, kneeling on his neck, zip tying innocent, terrified children, and throwing them into vans and garbage trucks.

One can view on live TV the point blank shots to the face of an innocent protester who leaves behind two children.

Listen, dear friend, to the words spoken in our generation that we cannot ever forget.

I can't breathe.

I'm not mad at you.

Okay.

The word uh partner implies to me shared goals, a blending of resources for the common good.

This is not a meeting of the minds or anything else resembling positive social change.

To me, it is a band of power hungry, angry, disillusioned, social misfits, daring to disturb the equilibrium of a kinky, warm and vital bohemian village that has done all fine just fine just by itself.

By the way, I love policemen.

I'm a law-abiding citizen, I have a good driving record.

I love policemen and I love to me, they're doing a fine job, just fine.

Anyway, I ask you to look at the crime rates in Gulfport.

I ask you to look at the plethora of community services offered by Gulfport.

Way, way over the norm for most small town America.

Gulfport recruits volunteers for daily welfare calls to Lonely Elders in this little beach town.

Ice you have no business here or in any any other peaceful law-abiding community.

Thank you very much.

Okay's next.

Yes.

Sorry, don't know your name.

Hello, everyone.

Hi.

My name is Mary Winstead.

I live at 1809 60th Street Gulfport.

I've lived there for almost 36 years.

I normally don't come to the meetings because they didn't feel like a need for me to be.

I used to when I first moved here, but then I let it slide.

Then I was looking at the minutes from last week, and I saw some things that disturbed me.

And I had to come in and repudiate.

Being a black person living in Gulfport and on the other side of 58th Street.

I was the first recognizable black person living there.

I had a neighbor who was black, but no one knew it because she was very, very fair-comple.

So, yes, Gulfport was a sundowner.

I don't expect you all to apologize for anything because it means nothing.

It doesn't mean anything unless you acknowledge it.

We have been, when I first moved here, the first thing I had to do was go down to the police department and let the chief know I lived in this town.

Because that happened right after a black professor from Stetson College had his arm broken because it's boy.

What are you doing on the street?

That was our police department.

Now the police department has radically changed.

But not to acknowledge, thank you, April.

Thank you, Nancy.

Thank the other people who did and are willing to acknowledge that this is what happened.

Oh, it wasn't on the books.

Racism very rarely is on the books.

It's just something that gets done.

It becomes status quo.

Not anymore.

So I'm here to say that which was said last week about what we never codified it, doesn't matter.

It gets codified by people doing what they do.

And unless we acknowledge it and move forward, it will happen again.

So I encourage you all who are our elected officials to acknowledge us.

I don't need your apology, but just to acknowledge that this did happen, and it's not going to happen again.

I want to say when I came down to meet the police department, the chief at that time was a very, very good man.

He I don't remember his name.

Bob Lee was the city manager.

This is how long ago it was.

But I'm proud to live in this town, but I'm not going to be a person here who has sat here and watched things that have happened in Gulfport.

I used to be afraid to drive down 22nd Avenue South, Golfport Boulevard, for fear that I was going to get stopped.

I did one time.

And I was speeding to get to the golf course.

The police, he wasn't so nice.

But I acknowledge that I was wrong.

But I just want you all to be aware that, yes, we have had a racist town.

It has known as that.

And we don't have to be that anymore.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes, Charlotte.

And then you'll be next after that.

I have a blinding headache.

Me too.

I'm Charlotte Downey.

I live on 13th Ave South.

And if I can get this.

There we go.

First of all, I want to appreciate.

I haven't been able to attend the meetings, but I want to appreciate this council of wonderful women.

And I've noticed the work you've done together.

You don't always agree, but you disagree respectfully and you support each other.

You make a and the mayor doesn't bully other council members.

And I'm not afraid to say that.

And you know that the last words she heard before that her killer shot her four times was fucking bitch.

That slur is well known to women, especially lesbian women.

I've been out of the closet since I was 17, and I'm nearly 80 years old.

I've heard it.

Sometimes the people that said it were very sorry.

Masked thugs are violating the constitutional rights of free speech to protest to assemble.

They're carrying out the illegal orders of a white nationalist maniac president.

The cowards aren't going after drug cartels.

If we have drug cartels in this town, get them.

And it's wrong.

I want you to protect our police department.

I don't know about this thing that whoever signed it, signed it agreeing to work with ICE, but I want it rescinded.

I want our police department, our chief and her crew protected from having to participate in unconstitutional and illegal activities against people in this town.

That's your job.

You're our city council.

Protect our council.

I mean, protect our police chief, who I think is doing a great job, and protect our police officers.

Please say this.

I'm not mad at you.

Was the last words that mother of three spoke?

And a man could not stand that he had been called to by her that she drove away from him, and he couldn't stand it.

Thank you, Charlotte.

Yeah.

Hello, my name is Julia Bull.

I'm a homeowner.

I spoke several weeks ago asking the city council to renew its contract with the GABA.

The contract as it existed was not renewed.

Instead, the GABA budget was cut 30%, and advertising dollars were routed to a contract with Gulfport Living.

For those who are unaware, Gulfport Living is an unsolicited glossy, photo-laden monthly advertising direct mailer, otherwise known as junk mail.

Gulfport Living is distributed by Best Version Media, a media conglomerate based in Wisconsin.

Last year, Best Virgin Media was acquired by HIG Capital, a global investment firm managing 72 billion dollars of capital.

And I ask why is this council using taxpayer dollars to support an out-of-state billion-dollar empire at the expense of a local family-owned business?

Why are members of this historic all-female council legitimizing a junk mail circular with a mayor column, council member submissions, and advertising dollars at the expense of a historic woman-led publication?

Gulfport Living bills itself as an exclusive magazine serving the Gulfport community.

But let's be clear, it is not exclusive to Gulfport.

It is exclusive by algorithm to single family homes valued at 400,000 or more.

It excludes this junk mail circular is not distributed to multifamily dwellings.

One-third of households in the city will never receive it, as defined by their company policy based on print distribution.

It costs 60% more to advertise with Gulfport Living than it does the GABBER.

Siphoning money from the GABA newspaper contract to Gulfport Living supports a billion-dollar global enterprise, caters to the wealthy, excludes constituents, and costs taxpayers more money.

This does not look like a marketing plan.

This looks like a plan of retaliation for unfavorable coverage from the newspaper and favoritism for favorable coverage in a junk mail circular.

It looks like a plan to defund and replace our local news, all at taxpayer expense.

City advertising dollars are not to make council members look good or fund vendettas.

They are to provide information to the residents in a way that is cost-effective, efficient, inclusive, and accessible to all.

I again call for leadership to build and strengthen our local stakeholders, businesses, and most importantly, democratic institutions, whether we like them or not.

That is your role.

This is exactly the reason we need independent journalism and not a message curated by council.

I have a handout for council, if I may, a cost analysis on where I get my figures from.

Thank you very much.

And who's next?

Suzanne.

I'm sorry.

I've done well, I've done that, you know, more than once in the last 15 years.

So I apologize.

Suzanne Gentis Stetson area.

Whoa.

I just started.

Very quickly, I just wanted to say that Scott forgot one event, and I thought I'd come up and remind you that get rescued is also coming up, and that will be Saturday, February 28th.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes, over here.

Thank you.

My name is Christine Pough, and I live at 2617 52nd Street South.

And I want to urge the City Council to support our local news source, the GABA, by maintaining the annual expenditure that for city information to be publicized in the paper.

I believe that the GABA is really important to both residents and tourists.

And as we all know, local papers are at risk, and our democracy has at risk.

We need the GABA.

And the GABA is probably facing really hard financial times.

And having Gulfport, the City of Gulfport pull its funding and not maintain it at full funding is could mean that our GABA goes away, and we don't want that to happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes, sir.

My name is Joe Senia.

I live at 1419 59th Street South.

I'd like everybody to think of when the current president went into the White House and started attacking the free press.

When he started attacking broadcasters, whether it be on TV, radio, or print, and calling it fake news.

It was a horrific moment for us.

So for me to not be able to read our mayor's column in our local newspaper really makes me sad.

I mean we're supposed to go after this authoritarian government starting at the local level.

And that's what we need to do.

I want to be able to read our mayor's column.

I want to know what's going on through our newspaper, not something that I don't have access to.

Yeah, I do have access to the Gulfport Living, but I've never read it.

Junk mail goes in the in the trash for me.

It just does.

I don't do social media because we all know what the sewer is, that that that adds up it.

So I'm just asking you to put our mayor's column in the GABR so that we don't look like we're following the playbook of what's happening in DC.

And on top of that, it is being funded by the people who own it.

The people who saved it.

The GABR was about to go under with our hurricanes.

And a couple step forward and put an enormous amount of money into saving an independent newspaper, one that's been in this town for 57 years.

And when I would walk around Gulfport years ago when we bought our house, people were carrying the GABA because it was everywhere.

And our tourists would pick it up.

And that's how they would find out what's going on in this town.

And that's how they could read our mayor's column.

You could do spectacular things for this town, Mayor Love.

But what's going to happen is people are going to look at the worst thing.

They're going to say, Her column's not in our local newspaper.

And they're going to condemn you for it.

And it's not right.

You shouldn't be condemned for that one thing.

So I'm addressing the council as one.

Whoever's decision it was to keep our mayor's column out of the gabber.

We need to fix this.

And I'm going to quote the best president we've had in my lifetime and say, take the high road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Father.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

Mayor Love, Vice Mayor Thanos, distinguished guests.

My name is Ben Atherton Zeman.

I live at Townshores, and I've lived there for two years, and I'm embarrassed to say this is my first council meeting.

It won't be my last.

This has been absolutely fascinating.

I'm not here to speak about uh the GABA, but I will.

I support the GABAR, and I agree with those who have spoken up for that.

And I really appreciated the woman's remarks about, if not apologizing, at least acknowledging our history as a sundown town and our determination to do better.

Excuse me.

In 1965, the Reverend Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

sent a call to clergy from Selma, Alabama.

This was in response to the police violence that was taking place there.

A similar call went out this week from the clergy and the people of Minneapolis.

I and other clergy are answering that call, and I'm going there tomorrow.

And the police violence we're responding to this time is the violence perpetrated by ICE, which my neighbors have already spoken about.

The murder of Renee Good is just the latest and most dramatic impact of ICE's violence.

They be they don't behave like law enforcement, do they behave like law breakers?

If we leave our 287G agreement in place, I don't feel right as a citizen.

I feel like my hands are stained by the blood of Renee Good and others.

However, we do have an opportunity right now to take leadership, moral leadership, to be on the right side of history and dissolve that agreement.

Thank you so much for your work, and I will be back another time.

Thank you.

Courtney Prokoppus, 15th Avenue South in Ward 4.

I moved to Florida five years ago to care for my grandmother.

She was strong, smart, artsy, independent.

Dementia took that away from her.

When I could no longer keep her safe, home health aids and later a memory care facility held her through her night terrors.

So I could sleep.

Not because conditions in Haiti have improved, but because of a decision by the Department of Homeland Security.

Watchdog groups like Amnesty International call Haiti a s that it is in a severe humanitarian and human rights crisis.

Sending people back now is a near death sentence.

I cannot capture the focalusness of ending temporary protective status for vulnerable populations.

There simply isn't enough time.

But know this, council.

Haitian TPS ends February 3rd, and many other neighbors here in the US under TPS with equally unstable conditions in their home countries are next in line.

ICE is escalating enforcement in Florida.

This is not abstract.

ICE is staging Operation Tidal Wave right here in Central Florida, right now.

Hundreds of hotel rooms are booked across Tampa Bay.

ICE has arrest quotas, 3,000 per day.

Tampa has an ICE field office.

There are 1.3 million Haitians under TPS in the United States right now.

Nearly 10,000 of those are our neighbors in Tampa Bay.

There are caregivers, there are nurses, there are neighbors.

On February 2nd, they're gonna go to bed.

On February 3rd, they're gonna wake up.

And nothing about their lives has changed.

But if one of those people is driving through Gulfport and they have a broken taillight or a minor fender bender on their way to work, and GPD runs their ID, come February 3rd, that's gonna flag ICE.

Gulfport police officers did not create this policy.

And on the public record, I cannot believe I am saying this.

I love our cops.

They should not have to enforce this law, this this 287G agreement.

I adore them.

I want to see Chief Errand make more goofy videos.

We all do.

We applauded, we laughed, we cheered.

So it quake it crushes me when I hear people I genuinely love and respect in this room on this dais in this town say ICE won't affect us.

I am so so tired of hearing that.

Because it rips apart systems that we all depend on.

You all said that Elevate Florida was worth funding if it helped save one resident.

If ending 287G protects even one caregiver, one elder, one home health worker, one family, you know what to do.

We the people are giving you counsel pro permission to end this.

Okay, thank you very much.

Laura.

Excellent about the Gabber and this other magazine, if that is true.

Um definitely from my perspective, money I want to see my money go to the locally owned, more democratically oriented gabber, which is feels more in line with the kirky, quirky, inclusive spirit of Gulfport than an exclusive billionaire supporting magazine, like whatever lifestyle golf port that is.

Um for someone who spends a lot of her time talking about boycotting billionaires.

I'm definitely down with doing more of that.

Um similarly or relatedly, so the comments tonight about acknowledging our sundowner history.

I think that's so important.

You know, um, I really appreciated that first comment that raised that issue tonight.

And I want us to look around in this room because Laura to us to the um demographics of Gulfport are 10 to 20 percent people of color, and we rarely ever see that in this room.

And I think that acknowledgement means not the whole reason, but it plays a part.

I mean, if we look at this room right now, I think the one person of color here doesn't even live here and is representing our intrepid GABA newspaper.

Um, so you know, again, just the importance of that acknowledgement.

I live in North Gulfport where I see more faces of color, but I never see them down here for these meetings or at more of the community or community-oriented events, and I'd like that to change.

And I think an acknowledgement like that couldn't play a role in that.

And then, of course, with ICE, I did not realize that that agreement had been signed.

All of that conversation was new to me tonight.

So, yes, if there is a way to get Gulfport out of that agreement, I agree with that.

Thank you.

Who else?

Laura, Lauren.

Excuse me.

Hello, Lauren Stern, 55th Street South.

Uh, first, I want to add my support of the GABR, Kathy and Barry Loper, and for Gulf Port spending its full local advertising money with their publication.

I'm here to speak on a few pieces of context regarding 287G.

First of all, we cannot hang our hats on hurricane money in this state, no matter our compliance with this or any other proclamation by Governor DeSantis.

For an article by The Guardian, a British newspaper in July 2025, DeSantis was under fire for spending 20 million dollars on building alligator Alcatraz that he diverted directly from crucial disaster preparation and response funds, awarding contracts to his friends and donors.

We are clear who the bad guys are there.

Next, the question of a state mandate.

Berber Foster, a senior staff attorney with community justice project, a Miami human rights organization, is clear that quote, 287G agreements are not mandatory in this state.

What we're seeing is the governor and the attorney general using fear and intimidation to force cities across the state to engage in conduct that far exceeds Florida state law requirements, and quote.

Again, same bad guys.

What can actually be done?

A report by Public Policy Institute found at PrisonPolicy.org presents evidence that new ICE arrest data show the power of state and local governments to curtail mass deportations.

Just quote, despite overwhelming displays of power and intimidating rhetoric, the federal government nonetheless relies heavily on state and local collaboration to enact its mass deportation agenda.

This Trump administration is therefore vulnerable to state and local policy action that goes beyond merely limiting sheriffs and police room deputizing officers to work as immigration agents.

This weakness is evident in the data, which shows significantly smaller jumps in arrest rates in states where advocates have most aggressively worked to reject collaboration and much higher rates in states that have embraced it.

So why am I wearing a Jewish star tonight?

I spent a few hours last week visiting the St.

Pete Holocaust Museum, kid free.

It was great.

I read every plaque, looked at every photo, artifact, listened to every video.

And you know what?

How did that all begin?

Well, it was government mandates posted and implemented town by town, and we all know how that ended.

We know it was wrong then, and we know it's wrong now.

Are we too afraid to stand and hold the line against the bad guys?

We're not being asked tonight to hold that line with our lives, but with our voices and our civic action.

Our local Gulf Port police officers are not the Nazis in my metaphor tonight.

They show up to work every day to do their jobs.

I have called them for help.

I know they want to serve and protect Gulfport.

Let's tweak their job description back to what it was so they can stay focused on that priority.

Let's revoke our agreement to help ICE find our neighbors and friends by running their information and handing them over to the bad guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who else?

Yes, I see ya.

Is there anybody else?

I I've got this girl here, and then we've got one back there.

Okay.

You'll be next in the back row, okay.

Hi.

Hi.

Eliza, Sydney, Jersey Avenue, Gulfport.

Um, I had something prepared with data and stats and figures around the 287G agreement, but I decided to speak for my heart tonight.

Um Karen, at the Christmas tree lighting, you mentioned that many young families are now moving to Gulfport.

Um, I'm one of those families that was mentioned earlier with a baby and a toddler.

Um, and hearing of our resources going to a 287G agreement is it doesn't make us feel safer.

Um, and we've seen enough verifiable evidence out there.

We've seen data and statistics about abuses of power going on at the hands of ICE.

And I'm sure many of us in this room maybe have dealt with someone who has abused power before.

And like a presenter earlier mentioned, there's what you're told is the reasoning, and then there's the actual data.

And there's also what you can see as evidence with your own eyes.

Okay, and I've seen Gulfport come together as a community in the face of challenge before.

And Gulfport will stand up for our neighbors and make sure they are safe.

Okay, we we are proud of our leadership and we encourage you to act with courage and clarity over fear.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes.

Hello, uh, Matthew Gelvin, 15th Avenue South.

Um I've heard a lot uh that I agree with a lot to uh here tonight.

Um I'm specifically coming to talk about the 287G issue.

Um I've heard very well presented arguments about it.

I'm not going to try to uh say anything more just than that.

Um I'm another citizen who would agree with I think the necessity of uh rescinding this agreement, stepping back.

My general sense of this town is that we um we think of ourselves as a sort of small little bit insular, maybe somewhat put apart from the rest of the country, and there is this there's a sense of um you know all of these dark clouds looming uh when we when we listen to the news and we are worried about this.

My one one thing that I would just observe is that this this agreement, this 287G agreement, as I understand it, is a direct link, as people have said, between uh between our small town that we're trying to keep safe and trying to keep protected um and some of these larger looming dark clouds.

So I would um that that that is that is a link that I would like to see severed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think I saw one more hand.

Actually, we got quite a few more.

Okay, Amy.

So we're gonna do Amy, Wolf, and Susan, okay.

Susan, I cannot see you at all back there.

Okay.

Hello everyone.

Amy Costa, uh Gulfport resident, 20th Avenue South, um, Midtown Business Collective.

Um couple things.

Yes, please uh consider rescinding the agreement with ICE.

I know you guys weren't the ones who put it in place.

Um, our officers should not be subject to making those decisions and harming people in the way that we've seen.

We all heard all the things we know um what the right thing to do is so I urge you to change that agreement, get rid of it.

Um, number two, as far as the GABR contract goes, um, I write for Golfport Living as a courtesy as the voice of the Midtown Business Collective to share what's going on in the midtown area.

I have no dog in the fight, whether that gets funding or not.

Um I do agree that it is a smaller publication that does not go out to everyone and have had many conversations about that, about expanding that um the word is escaping me, thank you, menopause, but you're gonna circulation and you know we don't that's out of our control.

However, I do believe in fairness, so if you're gonna support any publication, you should support all the publications.

Um, and in that that vision of fairness, I also think the gabber should be fair in their reporting and their articles and who they allow to write and the the vibe that is shared.

I moved here five years ago and I used to save every gabber like a weirdo because I thought it was the cutest thing in the world.

Um and I loved reading it.

You know, I get it every week, and it was our the highlight, and now you know, not so much.

Things have changed.

Um, so I think we all need to kind of look at what's in the gabber, what we're giving to the gabber, and maybe come together on some agreements there.

So, enough about all that.

Um, on to some good stuff.

Just as a reminder, on February 1st, Gulfport Pride is putting on for the love of Gulfport.

It is a community day of love and community in Tangerine Greenway and Trolley Market Square.

So we do encourage everyone to come.

It's from 11 to 4.

All are welcome.

Um the Gulfport Senior Center Foundation is hosting a um jazz, blues, and folk festival concert series at the Hickman on the 24th.

Uh, that's a fundraiser for the foundation, as well as Saturday, January 31st is our casino night, again, another fundraiser for the foundation, which we know supports our senior center.

Um, so we encourage everyone to come out, get tickets for that.

It's a really fun night of casino gaming, poker tables, slot machines, all the fun stuff, all for charity, all for a great cause.

And keep doing the good work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Wolfgang.

Susan, you'll be next.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council.

Wolfgang Dininger, uh, Gulfport Grassroots.

Uh we do the monthly uh Beyond the Beach cleanups.

And I told you at the last meeting that I was at last year, we uh collected over a ton of trash and debris from our uh waterfront and downtown area.

I I thought that was a great accomplishment.

Um our first uh Beyond the Beach cleanup of this year was on January 10th.

32 people uh volunteers uh showed up, and they gathered a total of 242 pounds of trash from our uh beach area and downtown area.

We had uh the volunteers going out in the water behind the casino area, dragging in large pieces of steel that can attribute it to uh to those 200 plus pounds, uh a great accomplishment.

Um we have uh two events uh scheduled for um in February.

We have our regular beyond the beach cleanup.

That's on uh February 14th, Valentine's Day.

Uh and we also on the uh 7th, we are going to join in our cleanup uh uh of the Lincoln Cemetery.

Uh we'll be uh cleaning up and manicuring that area with uh the council person uh Corey uh Givens and the group that he's put to uh gather.

Uh so I'll make sighted about that.

Looking ahead into March, we of course we have a regular uh beyond the beach cleanup, and we will also have a clam bayou cleanup.

I am not sure of the dates yet.

I don't think it's been set from the uh city of Gulfport, and then uh looking even further ahead into April.

April is gonna be a fun month because we're gonna be uh doing uh the swap and drop.

That's April 11th.

That is uh essentially the same thing we used to do and call uh the um junk in the trunk, where uh people can just bring by the trash, the uh city will uh gather it up, and also anything good, and it's good timing because uh a couple of weeks before then we have the uh a citywide yard sale, so folks will be going through their homes uh for the yard sale, and I imagine anything left over that they can bring and drop off at the swap and drop, and we will have uh tables and be placing those things out on the tables so um other uh residents can go through it and uh gather up things that they might need around their homes.

That's as far as I'm going.

Thank you.

Thank you, Susan.

Thank you, Susan Gore Town Shores.

Good to see you at the MLK parade, Mayor.

Thank you.

And as Cozy said parade.

It was, it was a very good parade.

I was with the interfaith group.

Um, as Cozy said, being engaged is critical to democracy, and democracy is messy.

I am going to take position people will be surprised by my opinion.

The 287G horse is out of the barn.

Having a signed agreement puts this city like others in a position of attempting to sue the federal government, and that is not gonna work.

My point is more how did this happen?

How did City Council not get advised or informed or educated and have an opportunity to represent the people who elected you because you do care and we care and you work hard at this?

So, how did this happen?

And what can be changed to change the way small town business as usual has happened here for years and years and years in a number of the topics we've heard.

Trust requires accountability.

Third point, knowledge is power, preparedness.

This council has done one hell of a good job in working toward preparedness for future hurricanes.

But knowledge is only power if you believe something is possible.

Hundreds of cars were flooded in the town shores, parking lots, and elsewhere.

Not because people didn't know Hurricane Milton was coming, but because they did not believe it could happen here.

And I would make the analogy.

You are thinking you control hurricanes.

So what can council do?

If you're not going to attempt to rescind and attempt to sue the federal government.

And to inform citizens of our rights, of expression, of free speech, a free assembly, and what we can legally do is critical.

Because to say it can't happen here is to not believe in hurricanes.

I don't know why everybody's so timid, just you know, it's 7 30.

We've been here an hour and a half.

You want to speak, come on up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We all want to be the last.

And I too want to speak about the 287G, and so I'll summarize my points and not read the whole whole thing I wrote.

I am too concerned about how this agreement was signed back in February of last year without the council being involved in the policy decision.

I'd like the police or council or somebody to explain what the current status and process and procedure is in Gulfport if somebody is stopped and they are or are not an immigrant here.

How does that work?

They explained something to us, but I'm not sure that stands anymore from last year.

I'm concerned about the city paying for police time to go to training for ice, which, and I would like to compliment Amy for her excellent first speech because she summarized so beautifully all the points of why we don't want a 287G, why we don't want ice, and how we would like the city to be.

So I would request that a workshop is a good idea, that maybe the police can educate us on 287G.

We have copies of that.

It's 14 pages of legalese, which is hard reading.

But also what that means in practice.

If I'm stopped, what am I expected to do?

What are my rights and responsibilities?

Right.

And I think council should also understand all of 287G before they decide whether or not to rescind it.

I personally I'd like to rescind it, but I understand the risks for doing that.

So I appreciate it.

And a workshop where we can all learn would be a good idea.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna go to e-comments then, City Clerk.

Okay.

I did have a total of 77 comments.

Uh 12 were Gulfport residents.

Uh one was here this evening, and three of those are identical in nature, so it looks like a form letter to me.

Um, so that would take it down to about nine.

Um 65 non-residents.

76 of the comments were about ice and and did not want us to sign the the ice to 287G.

One comment was about Lincoln Cemetery.

So it's up to you if you would like me to read any or all of these.

Um, I think that you should read.

I mean, this is I'm gonna respond and then see.

I think that you should read the um e-commerce comments from our residents that are not here.

I thought there might be two people here that you had comments from, but if you think just one.

I would have to actually it's okay.

It's okay, not worth arguing about.

Um, on the other, I think.

So you're telling us there's 60 some from people that do not live in Gulfport and who do not want us to sign the 287G.

I think we've heard that enough.

I don't want to spend another minute.

Um I feel differently about residents than folks from out of town.

And also I think that I believe that the uh Lincoln Cemetery is really is from somebody from Gulfport, and I think that should be read as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Are we gonna do that in speaking order?

Comment whether we want these public comments read.

Yeah, yeah.

I thought I thought okay.

Um I'll agree with Mayor the read the Gulfport and the Lincoln Cemetery.

Um Gulfport Citizen Comments.

That's fine.

That's good.

That's a consensus.

I I understand that we do have we've taken we have a lot of time, but I I think it's a bad precedent to set that when we set this procedure to have people be able to you know call in or email in their their comments and then not read them.

Is it difficult?

That's that's that's cheating everybody.

Number one, we we have a consensus on it, and number two, we did say it's checking papers.

I know I'm out of order.

Excuse me.

You are out of order.

And you need to check that's it.

In this state.

So what I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted, that the we've heard a very clear consensus at this point.

Okay, we've heard what the people had to say and what our residents have to say.

I we heard loud and clear, and we're going to have response to that, but we do not need to hear it for another hour and a half worth of time.

So that's why I feel that way.

And we have a consensus.

Well, we have a consensus already.

Thank you.

Okay, that system then isn't working.

That's exactly what we voted on.

That if it was redundant over and over and over, that we would not read 70 some comments.

Thank you.

I support the city's council decision to end its agreement with ICE.

I believe the separation of ICE and our local police so that all Gulfport residents remain safe regardless of citizen citizenship status.

Thank you.

Uh, this one it was the same one submitted by Patrick Doyle, Vicky Doyle, and Sarah Fleming.

I urge the city of Gulfport to end its 287 G agreement with ICE.

Local police should not be entangled with federal immigration enforcement.

When our police take on the role of ICE, it blurs the purpose of local law enforcement.

It undermines the trust that keeps communities safe.

Residents who fear any interaction with police could lead to immigration consequences are less likely to report crimes, seek help, and cooperate with investigation.

That makes everyone less safe.

Deborah Schufs commented Tuesday, January 20th, 2026 from Gulfport Citizen Deborah Schus, Gulfport Mayor Karen.

Please be honest and transparent with Gulfport constituents that 20 April 24th, 2025, you met for a scheduled meeting with the Gulfport senior resident and Lincoln Cemetery advocate Deborah Schufs at Gulfport City Hall, and that you are provided by Ms.

Schus.

The Gulfport City Records she obtained documenting Lincoln Cemetery two-page annex petition is not dated, which is not legally compliant with state of Florida law.

Melissa Hembold, ICE has no place in our city for working with Gulfport PD.

They are unconstitutional and go against everything Gulfport stands for.

We need to end any agreement with this immoral abuse of power.

Janet Kindi, I do not want Gulfport to sign any agreement with ICE.

I am a Gulfport resident.

I do want do not want my taxes to support ICE training for police or any type of agreement that facilitates their presence in Gulfport.

I urge the council to vote no on any proposal to cooperate with ICE.

MJ Hodges, please keep ICE out of Gulfport.

I do not support the Gulfport police having any involvement whatsoever with ICE.

I also would hope that we can encourage local businesses to support or cause of keeping ice out because ICE is acting unconstitutionally and taking people who are indeed U.S.

citizens just because of how they look.

I'm worried about my stepdaughter who is Asian American.

I hope she can stay safe on our streets as she rides her bike to and from work in Gulfport.

Thank you.

Anne McManus, I would like to go on record opposing 287G and any cooperation between Gulfport and ICE.

I believe our police department is more than capable of handling the needs of our city.

The politization of the immigration issue is creating such unnecessary damage, and I would hate to see this occurring in our beautiful Gulfport.

Please stand up for true democracy.

Thank you, and Nance McManus.

Lori Estes, local law enforcement, should focus on protecting us, not enforcing federal immigration law.

I want 280 C 287G ended for the sake of our immigrant neighbors and to support our local authorities in addressing and maintaining peace on our streets and in our community.

Our local police must be trusted, not feared by Gulfport residents.

My neighbors and friends, 287G undermines this trust and depreciates our sense of community.

That person commented in person.

I'm opposed to the use of our city of Gulfport police to work in any capacity as agents of ICE.

They are for our public defenders.

Marion East.

Thank you.

All right.

So it's been a very long public comment, and we're not going to break it this time.

So if anyone needs to make a run, I understand.

We're going to proceed into staff reports because I think that the uh city manager has a lot of things that he might be able to answer and clear up.

And being that this council was not on the dais uh all six of us, I think two people may have been.

I think you you were in on council by February, correct?

Yeah, that's somewhere in there.

Okay.

And Vice Mayor Thanos was.

Um there were a lot of things said tonight, and um I wrote down notes, especially on the things that I'm like, wait, what?

And so um uh that doesn't mean that they're true.

Okay.

So uh I understand that there's people that that believe they're true, and I don't know if they're true or not yet.

So I'm going to call on the city manager and the things that I heard tonight that are the now the questions that I would have as well would be number one.

I am not aware of our officers training for ice, okay.

Uh and it'll be up to you whether you want to have the chief address that or not.

Um, number two, I was very disturbed to hear people say that ICE lives in our town, and that we have troops in our city.

Uh, I'm on the streets every single day in this town.

I'm talking to people every single day.

I drive through town a minimum of twice a day.

I've not seen ice.

I have seen people, residents post fake photos with an ice vehicle with an ICE vehicle in it, and then brag about the fact and laugh, you know.

Well, it could be our reality, but it has not been, to the best of my knowledge, but I want to hear you know what you have to say.

So that was two things.

Uh, the third one I wanted to hear was um when people said that we are giving our resources to 287.

I'm totally unaware of that and would like to be educated if that's the case.

And um I would like you to answer the question, how did it happen that we signed the agreement?

Because all these people saying that they don't want us to sign.

I know this happened, you know, nearly a year ago, so I'd like that addressed.

And then last but not least, um, if it's changed or else refresh everyone's memory of exactly what the status and the process that is that the city of Gulfport agreed to.

Sure.

Sound good?

Yes, if I could.

Okay, thank you.

As we get started, I have a copy for each of you.

Uh some of you have seen it.

Um asked for a copy of 287.

And there's also a copy of, and I'll speak to this when I sit down, but a copy of the letter of the city of Key West received from the attorney general, and it's very similar to our scenario, the discussion we're having.

And then, you know, even if if need be, because we have a lot of um concerned residents in our city that don't have a copy of this.

So even if you are going to reference the letter, which I have seen to the city of Key West, I would appreciate it if you did read it so that uh they do know because they would like to hear what was said from the uh state attorney general office.

Whether we agree or not is one issue, whether we're transparent or not is another issue.

Mayor, um, just for clarification purposes, as a requirement of 287 G, we did have seven officers, excuse me, officers attend training.

We did have uh Chief Farron was one of them, and I'll let her speak to that more when she was returns from the type the training and outline the training.

And was that training specific to working with ICE?

It was it's part of the agreement.

It's outlined in the agreement.

It was a requirement of the agreement that your officers would entertain that training.

And we did have seven go.

We didn't pay for that.

Yes, it was on our time on your work schedule, but we did not have to pay for any cost associated with it other than attend.

And Chief Fairn, when that issue is resolved out there, I'll have her speak to that.

Thank you.

Um other and yes, you're correct, Mayor.

There's we are unaware of any ICE activity within the city.

Um was that photoshop picture at the library where someone showed a ICE vehicle in the library parking lot with a gentleman standing behind it.

That was a superimposed superhero.

The vehicle was never in the parking lot, and that's been verified both both by library staff and the police department.

How did we get here?

Last February, as you're aware of the state of Florida, the governor of the state of Florida issued a directive that all law enforcement agencies and municipal, both state, city, municipal, sheriff's departments, were required.

Now this is a governor's order, was required to sign the 287 G agreement.

The governor said such order.

These this is an interlocation, an agreement that was basically a task force model.

If you look at the title of it, we do task for us all the time with different agencies.

Excuse me, Mayor.

Chief, when we get to this point, could you speak to training?

Okay.

Thank you.

Such subsequently, the chief and I discussed it.

It was an administrative task.

I accept responsibility.

It was not a policy decision.

It was a directive from the state of Florida from the governor that and I'm unaware of any agency within Pinellas County who has not entered into it or has sought direction from their elected body.

It was an administrative task.

With that said, I hope I address that.

It is my responsibility.

I did authorize the chief to sign it because I we looked at it as an administrative task.

It was that time it was not everyone, it was out in the media and not such that this was happening, but I go back to the idea, and if you look into it, the governor directed all agencies to sign.

And just so I'm clear, that was signed by only the chief that was not signed by the city manager or the council.

That's correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

Let me um subsequently to that, and uh I let me touch on other it was some other questions, you had mayor.

I got distracted.

I apologize.

Yeah.

Um so I was asking I asked about the training.

I I asked if uh I was shocked when they said ICE lives in our town, troops are in our city.

Uh right.

We have not been aware of that.

I don't know if our police chief is aware of that we have troops in my own.

She would advise me, yes.

Okay.

Um asked if uh there were any resources going to 287, uh, any of our city resources.

No, I asked if um how did we get here?

That that one you you've answered, and what is our current status and process?

Okay.

Um city resources as identified earlier were strictly for our officers and chief fair to attend training.

So we were told we had to go to the training and we had to pay for it.

No, we there was no paying for it.

We had to send our officers to the resources.

And the resource would be the hours spent there is part of their daily employment.

Other um, in regards to any other resources by the city, there has not been any exhausted other than myself in chief discussing it and preparing this information for today.

Subsequently, and the reason I gave you the Key West, a copy of the Key West uh letter that they received from the Attorney General of the State of Florida, is the scenario is very similar.

Looking as and it's in the media, it's widely spread talked about in the media.

The chief of police of Key West signed the 287 agreement.

Subsequently, the city council, the city commission, excuse me, of Key West wanted to talk about it in regards to the public spoke.

They subsequently then directed their staff to leave the agreement.

Prior to them, they so they voted, they took that off the table.

The attorney general then appeared by in a letter correspondence and said you need to reconsider.

And I'll let the city attorney speak to more to what the penalties are to that, and I'll be happy to answer the questions that I do have the knowledge of, or Chief Farring.

Can you speak to the training?

What type of training you received?

We attended, it was actually online training through uh the um federal law enforcement training.

I can't think of what the C stands for.

It's Fletsy, but we uh we did 40 hours of online training.

So we didn't go anywhere.

We did not go anywhere online.

There was no there was no travel cost or anything like that.

We did the train, I did the training in my office.

Some of it I did from home.

Um the training involved uh the procedures and how someone is able to get citizenship should they choose, among other various topics.

I wasn't prepared to speak to this today, otherwise I would have prepared uh a better curriculum explanation.

I understand it wasn't on the agenda.

Chief Do you want to go in speaking order?

Well, I don't think she's done.

Are you done?

I'm no, I'm done.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

And Mayor, um if we could touch on that briefly, is just this direction and the reiterate and that if you look at the Key West scenario as I was discussing about was they subsequently had taken that action.

But this has been down to utilized throughout Pinellas County.

I'm unaware of any agency in Pinellas County that does not participate.

And I think it lays out the key west scenario is very similar to what we're here discussing tonight.

Andy, you have any questions.

I have a question for Mary.

Are we going to go in speaking order?

Yeah.

But I was this was a city manager's report, so I was going to go to the city manager, not to me.

We've got Mary right here.

You asked your question.

You asked me a question and I was answering it.

Just let me finish my answer.

Okay.

So protocol.

Yes.

Um, I understand that you've answered the things that I asked you with the exception of I know that you were going to defer to the attorney to address the repercussions of let's say reneging on this this the signing of this mandate.

And it was a question, I'm sorry.

We can go there.

But um, Mary, before you sit down.

Nice try, but Vice Mayor had a question, but let's just see if anyone else does in speaking order, okay?

I had one other question, one other statement I'd like Chief to address.

Okay, please.

Once again, if she'd reiterate the process that if an individual, we're not out seeking anyone, but the process that how we're not we're not the ICE agent.

We may interact with an individual if they are breaking the law or there's a reason to.

You want to talk to that, Mary?

Yes, that's correct.

We're not we don't have any lists, we're not accepting any lists, we're not gonna go looking for people.

If we encounter someone who has some kind of a detainer or hold, then we call a phone number and an ICE agent will respond.

Okay, I'll ask my question.

When after as we go in speaking order.

Go ahead.

I have no questions, thanks.

I have no questions.

So I understand all that.

I know that in there it talks about how you work with a supervisor at ICE.

So what did the training say about that?

I'm not sure I understand.

Well, in 287, it talks about how people who are trained will have a supervisor from ICE that directs their their that's what's in the I it may not have been in the training, but that's what's in the the agreement.

Um so did they talk about how you dealt with a supervisor or what a supervisor could ask you to do?

I'm not sure I understand the question.

So could could an ICE supervisor, because you guys are supposed to be reporting through according to this we're not reading it.

We are not reporting to anyone at ICE.

Okay.

So that's different than what this agreement says.

So if an ICE person called and told us to do something instead of them coming here, what would what did the training say about what our response would be?

I don't believe they would do that.

That's not part of the agreement.

But it is in here.

I I hear what you're saying, but though those agreements were almost a year before the training even came out.

Right.

So a lot has changed.

We're not we're not following that to the letter.

Nobody is calling us to ask us to go do anything for them.

If they want something done, they either take care of it themselves or they get someone who's actually on their task force to take care of it.

The Gulfport Police Department is not going to do that.

I'm glad.

I'm very glad about that.

But I'm worried that it says in here that we could have to do that.

And if we signed that, even though the trainings changed, I'm wondering if they could, because this is what we signed, and did they ever co-sign it, by the way?

My copy that I got just has your signature.

That I'm not sure of.

I think they have since we did the training.

I think they have.

But but I'm just concerned because what the document says and what you're saying the training says is different, and that worries me.

But I I know they if they didn't say anything in the training, then that's all you have to go by.

And and we're not really trying to ask you to speculate.

We are asking you what our process is today.

And I I think Councilmember Shawn might have something.

I don't have a question at the moment for Chief Farrand.

However, I will have comments in my report and comments.

Okay.

And so my only question of you then is have we called ICE for any stop that we made for whatever reason?

I know it's not related to ICE, but if we did, and because it was my understanding, and please, if I'm wrong, correct me.

It was my understanding that if we pulled somebody over for speeding, drunken driving shoplifting, and we ran their report, as you do for everybody, and we found that ICE had a warrant out for their arrest.

It was my understanding that we would then call ICE and that we were then required to hold them for 30 minutes in case ICE decided to show up.

That was some time ago that I heard that.

So if that's no longer correct information, I would appreciate anyway that you can correct it.

And then my second part of that would be have you had to call ICE at any point and has ICE come into our town to get somebody that was pulled over for some totally other reason.

All right.

So the first part of that question is if we had contact with someone and there was a criminal charge that we have put on them, we handle that, they go to jail.

If there's an ICE detainer on them, ICE would would have contact with them at the Pinellas County jail.

Does that answer that question?

I think so.

So we don't um call ICE from the tr potential traffic stop.

No, we do not.

We would resolve that traffic stop in in the example that you're providing.

We would resolve that traffic stop, transport them to jail, and then contact ICE to let them know that they're there.

Okay.

And and do you know, have we well, I was gonna say again, have we called ICE, and you've already said no?

We have not, no.

You have not called ICE.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

That was the questions for you.

So now we'll switch over to City Manager.

I would like an opportunity for um on this subject only, of course.

Uh any clarifying questions of anything that you said in speaking order if if there's any.

Did you have anything more you wanted to add though before we do that?

I'm just wanted to, I think Chief Farron's pretty clear about we have not had the interaction that is anticipated or anything like that.

But I can't stress enough that there's three aspects.

When people say, you know, City of St.

Petersburg, the big city will use has not.

You saw the issue the other day at they have not opted out.

There is no level in this county that has reached that.

Now it may.

Now the sheriff may be doing something, but we have been made we have not been made aware of it here in Gulfport.

The arrests that were tethered the other day during the protest were tied to individuals trespassing and such on private property.

Those were not immigration arrest.

So I I want to stand that there's different things that are happening here and getting all lumped together.

So but I do I will be the first to acknowledge that based on the governor's direction is that we did and I did authorize the chief to sign it because it was basically determined that the governor was requiring each agency to participate.

As far as the penalties that I that's outlined in the in the Key West correspondence, I'll defer to the city attorney unless council has any further questions for me.

Okay, let's go in speaking order on see if there's anything specific to the city manager before we move on to the city attorney.

No questions.

No questions.

Okay.

Um I understand that the governor may have said it was required, but in fact, in the in 287, it isn't required.

It is not mandatory for cities.

It's mandatory for counties that have a jail, but not for cities.

And apparently what I was reading today, it may not be totally up to date, but there's at least a hundred cities in Florida that have not signed one.

And I understand that it could be more complicated to rescind one than to not sign it in the first place.

And probably the sheriff was putting pressure on things, but it was never mandatory to sign this.

And you know, personally, I feel like it should explain.

Is this a question for the public comment?

You're doing your public comment now.

Do you know if ICE is co-signed our agreement?

I have no idea.

I'll have Chief, we'll check into that.

We'll go on to Portal and look locate it.

Okay.

And then let me see if I had anything else here.

And the only other thing that was different is that the chief was saying that we send people directly to jail.

You had said earlier that we hold people for a meeting let ICE know that we have them and hold them for an hour, and if they don't come, we release them.

And that's early, that was the process.

I think what's happening, we're talking about are we arresting someone for an immigration violation?

As opposed to if they have a traffic stop or some other chief was speaking that they have a criminal violation, they will be arrested based on that, and then taken to the jail, and we would then tell the government, federal government, hey, this person's in jail.

That's where the difference, I guess that's where the difference is coming about that you know I'm pretty common.

Exactly.

I'm confident that when I say we're not out soliciting or arresting based on someone's immigration status.

We are we are making contact with them based as the mayor spoke of a law enforcement activity.

Okay.

And so one other question, I from this is the first I saw this Key West letter, and that they said by rescinding that we were they were automatically making Key West a sanctuary city, which is illegal.

But as I understand it, we have to we have to comply with 908-104, which says that you can't impede any ICE procedures that are going on.

But by rescinding 287, you're actually not impeding anything ICE is doing.

You're just not doing something additional.

So it seems to me that Key West would have had a good case for not being a sanctuary city.

And and again, I know that I know that the governor and the attorney general are trying to strong arm people into doing this stuff.

And so whether it's fair or constitutional or legal may not be the point.

But um and I realize that if we rescind it, we could risk that same thing.

But technically we aren't a sanctuary city, and we would still be following 908 dash, I mean 104.

So I that would be, I guess, for the city attorney too.

I'll let the city has to.

Councilmember Shaw, any questions for the city manager?

No, I'm still holding my comments for later.

Okay.

That's fine.

Um I don't have any additional questions.

I appreciate you clarifying why both of us who were paying attention a year ago and heard this, will hold them for whether it was 30 minutes or an hour, and now I understood from the chief that that is not the process that we're doing.

So that's where there was some confusion in that.

I was just told recently that we are holding them for an hour.

No, and I I misunderstood something.

Go ahead, Andy.

I think Andy originally that came about because that was a direction that the sheriff was saying.

Okay.

After 30 minutes recommendation was to let anybody go if they didn't because they said technically the office was in Tampa and no one was coming over in 30 minutes to pick anybody up.

So if they didn't have a criminal charge, they weren't holding them.

Okay, so I do have a question now, because it was a week ago Monday that I was told that we do hold them for an hour, and if ICE doesn't come, then that's that.

So what is the fact?

Mary, do you want to clarify the difference in what we're talking about?

We actually do hold them for an hour.

In the case where an ICE agent says they're coming.

If they say no one is available, then we release them.

And Councilmember Shaw, I was telling you what the sheriff when this first came out, this is what was uh given to suggested to everyone at that time.

Okay, thank you.

So would that be then if somebody you're holding somebody that you learn is on an ICE list but didn't commit any crime like speeding or drunk driving?

Because those people you were sending to the jail.

All right.

Speeding is not a crime, just to be clear.

But yes.

That would be someone who has a detainer.

Okay, so if somebody was speeding or went through a stop sign, which is not a jailable offense, then we would check, and if they were on the list, then we would hold them for an hour.

You're you're saying list, but that isn't at all how it works.

We don't have a list.

No, I understand, but you've checked in the in the system.

We we check their records to make sure that their driver's license is valid.

Ultimately, that's what we're trying to do.

Okay.

So if they do something that isn't a jailable offense, then if we check the records and they are do have a hold from ICE, then we would hold them for an hour.

And if nobody came, then we would release them.

No, that's not actually accurate.

We call the ICE office.

If they say no one is available to come get them, then we release them.

We're not going to stand on the side of the road for an hour and wait for ICE to get there if no one is coming.

But if somebody's coming, how long do we wait?

We wait an hour.

Okay.

I mean, that's where the the biggest issue is they have to do something, I guess, to clarify to be stopped.

To be to interact with law enforcement.

And that's where the issue becomes.

If there's a jailable offense, they're notified that goes there.

If it's something here and they say they're coming, then we'll do the curve.

We would do that for any law enforcement agency as a courtesy if someone had a hold on someone.

But not to say we're not going look.

I guess the number one thing is we are not doing what people are seeing in the media.

We are not going out to a construction site and rounding people up or anything like that.

We're doing it based on if we have a reason for law enforcement to interact with them.

And to clarify, we tonight, we are the Gulfport City Council.

We are talking about Gulfport.

So when we get 75 e-comments from people outside of Gulfport, we're not addressing what they're doing.

We don't know what they're doing.

That is not the focus of the Gulfport City Council is to address Gulfport issues.

Are you done to we move to the city attorney?

Thank you.

Mayor, if if you want to, this is a relatively short letter, but I think it's important for the people to hear because it does affect council.

This was from this is from the Attorney General dated July 2nd, 2025, which I think is also important because the action taken by Key West was on June 30th, 2025.

So I don't know how the Attorney General knew two days after this happened.

But it says, Dear City Commission, on June 30th, 2025, the Key West City Commission voted to void the City of Key West police department's 287G agreement with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE.

In doing so, you directly violated Florida law.

Section 908.103 Florida statutes prohibits law enforcement and local government entities from adopting or having in effect any sanctuary policy, as the Vice Mayor referred to.

Sanctuary policy means a law, policy, practice, procedure, or custom adopted or allowed by the state or local governmental entity which prohibits or impedes a law enforcement agency from complying with eight USC 1373, which is a federal law, or which prohibits or impedes a law enforcement agency from communicating or cooperating with a fellow Federal Immigration Agency so as to limit such law enforcement agency in or prohibit the agency from participating in federal immigration operation with the Federal Immigration Agency as permitted by Federal and State Law.

Referring to state law, it's Section 908.1026, 908.1026H.

Additionally, Section 908.1041 Florida statutes require state and local jurisdictions to use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law.

By declaring the department's existing 280C 287G agreement void, Key West has made itself a sanctuary city, prohibiting its police officers from receiving the necessary federal training to adequately enforce U.S.

immigration laws, not only prevents city police from enforcing current federal immigration laws, but also effectively prevents the city police department from participating in federal immigration operations.

In this instance, however, it's even worse.

The Commission didn't merely prevent the police department from entering a 287G agreement.

It affirmatively voided an existing 287G agreement under which the police department was actively operating.

Bad policy and illegal.

It goes on in the next paragraph, if you want me to read it, it's talking about uh Key West specifically and um illegal agents, uh illegal aliens representing a significant danger to Key West, gives examples of arresting sex offenders, all those things.

But I think this last paragraph is is what's uh disconcerning.

Florida law unequivocally forbids sanctuary policies, and it requires local governments to use quotation best efforts, close quotation, to assist with federal immigration enforcement.

Your recent action violated both laws.

The City Commission must immediately reverse its June 30th, 2025 action and allow the police department to resume cooperative engagement with ICE under its 287 G agreement.

Failure to take corrective action will result in the enforcement of all applicable civil and criminal penalties, including removal from office by the governor pursuant to Section 908.107 Florida statutes and the Florida Constitution.

Thank you.

Do we have any questions of our city attorney in speaking order, please?

My only question is um so did Key West then recently they reverse.

That is my understanding.

That's all.

I have no questions except to say that I once lived in the sanctuary city, and we don't want that.

So I understand what happened in Key West.

But I I haven't heard whether any of the cities who didn't sign the agreement in the first place.

Whether they have received anything.

I would have to research that.

I don't know the answer to that.

That's an interesting question because you know they went on to say, well, what you did was worse than that, but it does, but we don't know, you're right, if they did anything to the cities other than it sounds like they could declare them by not doing something, a sanctuary city.

Now again it's because you're not saying that you're not going to comply with 908, you know.

Well, if if you quote unquote become a sanctuary city, you are right.

Well, no, but but but what I mean.

Trust me, I'm not defending what No, no, I understand.

But but you know, it seems to me that what he's saying isn't is not right.

And now whether it went to court and what would happen, who knows, but it would be a hassle.

I I totally get that.

Well, I'm more concerned about obviously my job is to um give legal advice for counsel, and I don't want to see counsel removed of the governor come in.

I don't know how they knew about this vote within two days.

It's very disconcerting.

Well, and and again, it's not saying that you're not complying with the law because you are, you know, if you comply with this with one of the 908.104, but the other part was not mandatory.

So I don't know how they can.

And I think, you know, in hindsight, I don't know exactly why they did this, but I think it was to send a message to cities that were reconsidering it, right?

And it's like you said, Vice Mayor, all the counties had to do it.

Um, all the sheriffs, I checked on that, all the sheriffs in the whole state are have all agreed to do it.

Because they have jails, and and they were required.

You're right.

They were state mandated.

Um, so there was no decisions in it.

And then when this kit first came out, as I said, and I was telling Councilmember Shaw, we were told how the sheriff was going to deal with this, and a lot of municipalities were like, okay, well, if no one's coming in a half hour, then it's not really holding, you know, it's not gonna not say it wasn't in effect, I'm saying it wasn't effective.

Yeah.

Um, that's the only distinction.

But you're right, this has been pushed from the governor's office, from the attorney general, from the federal.

That is what every municipality has hanging over their head.

But but other states like aren't doing this, but again, we're in Florida.

I looked at that and it said at least some are, some aren't.

From the map that I saw look like a little over 40 states have signed them.

There are some states that already had state law that said they couldn't do it.

A couple of the West Coast states, I think California, Oregon, but uh those were state.

I mean, our state apparently is going the other way.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

Um you answered Councilmember Jackson's question, which was which was one of mine, as well as Vice Mayor's question.

Um but now I just heard something about jail.

Did you say Key West has jails?

I didn't say one way or the other.

It's just mandatory, any like Vice Mayor said, any county or city that has a jail.

Right.

They have to sign it by state law.

Okay.

So you know I was aware of that, but then I'm also aware of that we do have some holding cells.

They're not in use right now.

Does that come into it at all?

No, I think it has to be a jail where someone is being held for more permanent time as opposed to temporary.

Okay.

We no longer use our holding cells.

I I know.

I I've had my tour of the mandatory with the county jail facility.

It's I just want to make sure those wouldn't come into play.

Right.

No.

Okay.

Can I answer your question?

Key West has jail facilities managed by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Okay.

County.

Okay, thank you.

Are you done?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Um City Attorney, what did you have any other report?

No, Mayor.

Okay.

I did have one question for you that um I sent you an email, and I said, Um, again, uh my question on again, there's been so much controversy uh out there, and I'd like to s calm things down.

And one had to do with could you give a very brief uh uh clarifying uh the meaning of a nonpartisan race?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um in layman terms, please.

Okay, here it is.

Um Gulfport Ordinance 92 adopts the state of Florida election law, and Florida Statute 100, which is the uh state election law, but uh 100.3605 regulates conduct of municipal elections.

Then nine Florida Statute 97-10623 provides elections are nonpartisan, which is defined as an office for which a candidate is prohibited from campaigning or qualifying for election or retention in office based on party affiliation.

So that is what is the definition of non-partisan.

So you cannot use your party affiliation, you cannot run under party affiliation in a non-uh partisan election.

So it it is something that is supposed to be completely excluded.

Thank you.

Uh social media has not been good to us in the last week, and that was another brouhahaha about uh uh residents being angry that our candidates are not um uh going out there and promoting their party affiliation, and I'm saying you you can't do that.

It's illegal.

Statutory.

So if you hear anybody saying that, it's illegal.

Don't you hate when laws get in the way.

But that's the law, and that's what we're gonna follow.

All righty.

Thank you.

Um Mayor, before we move on, can I have one other topic to cover?

Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.

No, thank you.

Mayor Council had uh asked us to look into the feasibility of a waiv permit fees to properties that had been demo demolished and individuals were waiting on, and we had said some basic criteria that they needed to be homesteaded, and they were in process, things to that effect.

We identified 25 final demolition permits.

Of those, seven were homesteaded properties.

Of that, four have already started the process.

Two have conveyed to us that they are either holding up on their own benefit or they are in the process of doing it themselves.

There's not a delay.

There was one property we identified that we had no knowledge of it.

A lot of the properties and I have a list have been sold in the last year of the demolished ones.

And we came down to, as I said, there were seven homesteaded properties on the final demolition list.

And they four of them have uh new construction permits, which brought us to three two of we're knowledge of that are not looking for anything.

And then we had one that identified that met the criteria.

It was homesteaded, uh no permit, and we just hadn't heard anything yet.

Another property we identified had been was for sale.

We know it's for sale.

So I don't you we narrowed it down to that point, but there's been 25 demolition permits that were filed.

Which lent to the grazed property.

That's all I have.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions clarifying on that in speaking order?

No, no questions.

One just one.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you.

So then would we need to have a consensus whether we wanted to waive the fees for those potentially seven?

No, the seven and the seven have already of the seven, there were seven homesteaded.

Four have already started the process or not looking for anything.

We've got it down narrowed down to one property that hasn't implied that they are looking to they haven't made up their decision.

The others have made application or advised us that they're not looking.

You have one property that you would be waiving the fees for.

So then we'd have to decide whether we want to waive for just one.

Right.

And I would recommend that you're now you're creating there is no that you're picking one person out and they're realizing a benefit that's not available to others.

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying that and bringing that back to us.

Uh city clerk report.

No report this evening.

Okay.

So it's now 8 19, and we will be starting our council meeting very soon.

But um I think that um it I would like to maybe take a five-minute bathroom break and then we'll come back and get our council comments.

And if we're going past 10 30 tonight, we will take another break.

But how about a five-minute break right now?

I think most of you might want to hear the council comments.

Pardon?

Well, I'm just saying it's 10 20 now.

We will resume at 1025.

Thank you.

The meeting is resumed.

Thank you very much.

Have your seats.

And we will now do uh council comments and reports, and we will go in order.

Okay.

Starting with council member Jackson.

Okay.

I attended um the CMPC.

I think that's the right acronym.

And um we uh while there they had some speakers who were speaking about um first contact, formerly known as 211 Tampa Bay Cares.

So this kind of goes in line with what we saw earlier.

Um for getting housing access, disaster response, and skilled assistance and resources for what is needed if you are um needing financial assistance, homeless experiencing homelessness, house um uh or food insecurity.

And uh so I'm looking for consensus here on council to make um February 11th, 211 uh 211 day, so 21 for uh first contact day um within the city of Gulfport.

Um so that uh first contact provides financial assistance such as overdue rent, utilities, tools for new jobs, and you have to have eligibility um to get the benefits, and um they spend about a hundred thousand dollars a month on financial assistance on utilities for residents in Pinellas County, and they have specialty helplines for um multiple um needs within the city for anyone who needs something looking for consensus to uh February 11th to be 211 day.

So, what does that mean to be 211 just to publicize the concept of 211?

Public the concept and then we'll allow we'll have uh things on the website to or you know um work on the website to have 211 resources.

For a proclamation, no or consensus.

A proclamation for resolution, yeah, for resolution.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Can I ask a question?

They um provide help with um utilities?

Yep.

Because if your water is shut off, I don't know if a lot of people know that they can take your children.

Yes, yes.

We do refer individuals and Theresa, if you want to speak to that at the front counter, they uh yeah, it's something that this the utilities does hand out quite often.

But Councilmember Jackson got me that info, and I have passed it on to Sonia and Craig who are in charge of our utilities to make sure that they update their information because they're doing a lot more now than what they used to do.

Whereas we used to just if you couldn't pay your utility bill, we would give you this information.

They have so many more services now.

What is the key that they would be able to help with utilities?

So they uh council member Jackson has put them in touch with them.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Yes.

And so for people to know, you can dial 211 and get the information you need and the help you need depending on what your needs are.

So great resource with that.

Good idea.

Yes.

Very much so.

Yes.

Thank you for that.

That's my report.

Thanks.

All righty.

Um I don't have any any report.

Um I did all the things.

My favorite thing is the boomerangs.

I saw Marlene there again.

Excuse me, council.

Councilmember Shaw.

So for those of you who have a Saturday morning, you should really check out Hoyfield and the boomerangs.

Not only is it fun and it's a great group of guys, but they're always collecting food.

They had so much food the other day they collected, and it was really wonderful.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

So our GET, as in Gulfport Environmental Team, had their first um larger meeting and did a training on how to use our tree plotter um software.

And so we're going to be setting up a date to start actually measuring trees, probably by neighborhood.

And the goal is to have people who live in various neighborhoods going around.

And if somebody knows somebody or somebody is out doing their lawn or something and they want us to measure their trees, we will gladly go and measure their trees.

We are not going to be invading people's property.

Just want to make sure that that's clear.

They don't really count for canopy cover, but it means you can't plant a tree there because there's already something there.

So we'll just kind of be measuring all of that.

And the more help we can get the better.

And later we want to look at planting trees, doing some coastal things, maybe the beach plantings.

But that's all to be, we're starting slowly.

Anyway, and I wanted to ask if now that we're doing permitting different with this contractor, could we get a report similar to what we were getting before that tells us how many permits the contractors are doing, what their time frame is, and how much money we're collecting compared to the total of what there is so that we can see what the revenue difference is and then how many we're doing in-house, and again how long those are taking.

And especially if they could do a differentiation between simple things like a fence as opposed to somebody who's actually doing a homeowner permit for something bigger.

That would be great.

You mean the homeowner permits?

You want to know how long they're taking.

Well, we're only doing the homeowner per it's in-house, right?

Yeah.

Um then I listened to the um Florida League of Cities this morning.

Some really distressing things besides the property tax, which people are probably aware of, but they have a couple of bills that would make it so that you don't have to get a permit as long as whatever a home a residential person is getting for $7,500 or less.

But you can do a lot of plumbing or electrical work for $7500, and to not have to get a permit or have an inspection, not necessarily a great idea.

And then another one is instead of having um our own um, you know, community developed who deals with a zoning and and um board of adjustment and our planning and zoning board, they would have cities have to have contracts with private contractors, and they didn't specify exactly what kind of contractors those are, who would do your zoning and your board of adjustments, so do your quasi judicial board of adjustment things, and also could change zoning and some other requirements, and a city under 10,000 people would be required to have three on retainer, more than 10,000 people, you'd have to have six on retainer.

So that's a big you know, unpaid for mandate that we would have to do, and it would mean you get to choose those contractors, but still they can change our whole zoning if they wanted to, and scary idea.

They're also talking about taking away proper business tax.

Um there's bills about impact fees and how much you can increase them or not increase them.

There's several about that.

Um there's one about firefighters and the health insurance, which I didn't totally get, but especially it's important if they have a cancer um diagnosis.

We provide that.

Yeah, so there's a lot going on with that.

So I didn't totally understand all that because there's several different bills.

The presumption bill, and we do buy the extra additional insurance.

But there are the other thing for firefighters was about the foam, the firefighting foam, which has PFOS in it.

Yep.

And they're talking about banning it, and the firefighters union apparently wants to ban it immediately because it's horrible, and you know, it can be a cause of cancer.

And I don't know.

We don't so there's one thing about not using it anymore, but then there's departments that have a stockpile of it, and how do you dispose of it?

So I'm curious, do we have no and are we using it?

No, we don't have that, Jim.

No, we don't have any of more of that bomb has been disposed of that.

Yes.

Okay, good.

I'm glad to hear that because apparently it's expensive and a problem to dispose of it.

Yeah, okay.

So that's good to know.

Um, and then sovereign immunity.

There's a couple of bills.

So sovereign immunity is the amount that people can sue the city for.

And right now it's a hundred thousand.

200, 300.

200,000, 2000.

I thought it was one thing.

200 per person, 300 percent.

Per person and per incident.

So 200 and 300.

They want to potentially change it.

The more moderate one is 300 and 450, and that kind of matches what cost of living changes would be appropriate.

The other one is 600,000 and 1.2 million, and you can sue for above that if you want to.

And so that would be devastating for small cities.

So those were um some scary things that I learned.

Um, but and if anybody, oh, another thing is our tree committee or team needs tree kits, and I think we need them for um the city because I know um our horticulturalist, as he plants trees, we'll be plotting them on our tree plotter.

And so we need um a caliper, those are fairly cheap, like under 10 bucks.

And there's a measuring tape.

So instead of doing measuring trees by their circumference, which you could use any old tape measure, they do it by diameter.

So that means you have to take the circumference and divide by pi.

Not everybody knows exactly how to do that, or maybe has your calculator on your phone, may not have that anymore.

So they have um uh tape measures that have the inches on one side and then the inches divided by pi on the other side, and those are around 40 dollars.

So what I'd like to do is make sure that we have a kit like that for the city for them to use, and also if we could buy several kits and either keep them at the library so people could check them out when they're gonna go out and do some measuring, or have a few at the library and a few with the tree team so that when we go out we could have them, because it would probably cost less than not even 500 to do that.

So I'm asking for a consensus to do that.

Oh, I I'm sorry, how much money did you say?

I heard what you were asking.

Yeah, it's like the calipers are really cheap, but it's about 40 45 dollars for these metal measuring tapes.

So if we got 10 of those, that would be 400 approximately, and if we got a few of these caliber things, it would be a maximum of $500.

Okay, and this is for the all volunteer group.

Yes, and some could be kept at the library and some could be kept with the team so that when people are going out, they have them.

Okay, I'm okay with that.

Yep.

Same.

That's fine.

Can you send them a tree budget?

So I don't know, I don't see why not.

Can you send me the details on that?

Excuse me.

The details, so what exactly do you want?

Yes, I'll I'll send that to you.

So what we just we have a consensus that we can use money that's been set aside in the tree budget to help this all volunteer group um perform the activity to create um uh the survey for our so that we know what our tree canopy is, what what our starting point is.

Yes, okay.

Okay.

That's me.

All righty.

Okay.

Well, um first I I'd like to cover something that I didn't comment on before because there was a consensus already, and that is the e-communications.

First and foremost, with me, it's always important to me to hear from our residents, of course.

But I do want to make sure that we aren't setting precedences as how we're going to handle future communications.

I I understand this one, and so I'm I'm not refuting that.

I'm just expressing concern about a precedence.

And while on that topic, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who provided input at the marina parcel workshop.

It was it was really informative, and it portrayed that the past consensus for the future of the marina district remains strong.

So thank you again for everybody that participated in that.

It was uplifting to see the employees recognized at the employee appreciation luncheon, and even more so to see so many of the staff in one place talking, laughing, and enjoying time together.

The mutual respect shown amongst many staff members was also palpable.

It was really quite wonderful.

Attending the Arbor Day celebration and seeing the children participate, including planting a tree, was a beautiful scene and indicative of our future.

And Councilmember Early already mentioned the boomerangs of food food bank collection for the senior center.

And it was such a an eventful, they're always so full of camaraderie, camaraderie and warmth there.

And they also reported that as far as the cancer funds, they raised $3,000 with that one that Councilmember Early and I attended a couple months ago, maybe.

And Vice Mayor Thanos reported on a number of those things of last reporting.

There was approaching 2,000 bills.

And it really shocked me to hear that one day alone, 700 came in.

So it's going to be a rip-roaring time there.

I'm enjoying our community art openings.

There were three Friday night and markets and events, of course.

And if you missed the Gulfport community's play beyond therapy, you missed a lot of laughs.

Next week and look forward to the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum on January 29th, 6 p.m.

at the Hickman, and I hope everybody can get to that.

There was a good showing last night, and I hope with the with the Hickman venue with even more seating that everybody that couldn't make it last night can make it to this one.

And by the way, they're all going, they're all recorded.

And I believe we're going to record at the Hickman as well.

Didn't gonna nod on that, but I'll follow up on that.

While on the topic of candidates, I'm I'm not in code enforcement, but just I'm just asking everyone to help their candidate by adhering to the sign codes regarding three feet in from sidewalks and ten feet in from the streets and not on right of ways.

As an example, I drove down 57th Street and turned left on 15th Avenue, and there were numerous signs that could be removed by code enforcement.

So I'm hoping that the friends of those candidates get those addressed.

For those that asked about lighting on Shore Boulevard, particularly particularly near the Tiki, staff is working on this with Duke.

As a revenue source, a resident suggested we move the boat lifts in the South Basin to open slips now rather than waiting for the new lifts.

But the city managers advise that it's cost prohibitive, but it's really great to know that our residents are trying to think of ways to raise revenue.

For those inquiring about the orange fenced area on the beach, work have begun.

I didn't make it there this week to see the progress yet, but I'm anxious to do so, as as I know others are.

Considering the numerous property tax bills introduced in legislature this year, every one of us needs to understand the effects these could have on our city and be able to vote accordingly.

An excellent user-friendly source of information is on our home page under TOP News.

Very easy to find.

There's also a breakdown of how the city receives money, how to write your tax bill and see uh read your tax bill, excuse me, and uh see what part uh comes to the city, how taxes are calculated, and even a Gulfport City property tax allocation calculator.

And it's all real real simple to read down.

Uh doesn't take you an hour, is what I'm trying to convey.

Um please take a look at it.

Even without the legislature submitted bills, it's informative and interesting.

Uh in regards to our website, I also want to say that the adopt a drain program is on the Gulf Port Connects.

Uh and uh soon there will there's already a map connected, but soon that map will even be active so people can just go on there, look for the the area they want to adopt a drain at and select that and go on from there.

Um in conversations with residents on a range of uh in conversations with residents on a wide range of topics, excuse me, me being tongue-tied here, trying to get it all in in my 10 minutes, um, two issues have been predominant.

Uh, acknowledgement of our sundown history and even an MLK memorial at Climber Park, and then concerns regarding ice as we heard earlier.

Um the first of these is included on the agenda under discussions.

On the topic of ice, um I don't think I need to go into a lot of the details that I put into it, and what I was going to recommend is that we have a workshop or a forum of sort of some sort, and we did have some residents speak to that and make some suggestions for it as well.

Uh but there's there's there's a lot of questions about it, a lot of misinformation, uh, and um I think that that could be uh a really uh really positive thing for us.

Um there's so much fear out there and so much information out there being discussed, and uh the only way we can under fully understand these things is to communicate and talk about it.

Uh I won't go through the examples of questions because I think we had plenty of those earlier.

Uh so with that, that's the end of my report right now.

Thank you.

Very thorough.

Um so uh for my I hope I get to reports, but uh first I wanted to address some of the council um not council comments, some of the public comments.

So I would like to say um I get many emails from Deborah Schuffs, and primary well, about a number of things, but uh one of the things, and it was read tonight by our city clerk says that um I never know because she doesn't talk in sentences, but um yes, I did meet with Deborah Schuffs in April of 25.

Absolutely.

Yes, she did talk about the Lincoln Cemetery.

She talked about many things.

Uh probably about 15 minutes into the conversation.

I'm not sure what we were talking about, but it did happen.

Um she says in her uh statement that um that I do not acknowledge that the when we got the deed for the Lincoln Cemetery, and no, that's not right, the deed.

When the Lincoln Cemetery was de-annexed from St.

Petersburg to Gulfport, that document is signed, and she is absolutely correct.

It is not dated.

Okay.

I don't know what the policies were in 1967.

I wasn't here.

That's when this happened.

And how did I know that?

I knew that when Mayor Welch's office sent me those documents at my request, and I shared it with everybody up here at council.

Deborah Schiffs never gave me those documents, which she likes to say that I've known this because she gave it to me.

I've also asked my staff if it's a problem that it wasn't signed, and they've said no.

But I don't know.

I wasn't here in 1967.

So I just want to clarify.

Yes, I did meet with her, and yes, she did talk about the Lincoln Cemetery, and um she did not give me documents, and it's true that that that transfer there when the deed again I keep saying deed because I come from real estate and it's it's a different thing, but when we annex that property and everybody signed it in fresh blue ink, many different blue inks, there's no date on it.

That is true.

The second thing I wanted to address was uh the question was um the budget for advertising with the GABR.

Okay, that was never um handled by the city council, it was not discussed as in years past.

That has always been handled by the city manager.

It has been in years past, it did happen again this year.

Um, in terms of uh Joe's statement that somehow that I should be writing for the GABA, doing a mayor's council.

Now I've only lived here 15 years, but in my 15 years, I've not seen a single mayor in any of our cities write routinely for the GABR.

Um that was never given to me as a job description.

Um, so I never saw that.

I'm doing a lot of communicating, I think, compared to what I ever saw in the past.

And I'm sorry that you choose not to go on social media, and that's okay, because on the website there is a weekly.

Well, let me back up.

On the website, all of us can write our monthly reports.

I do that.

You can read them anytime.

On a weekly basis, there is an email, uh, email, a newsletter that is emailed to anyone who signs up, and it takes about 10 seconds to sign up, and in that I will tell what happened.

Um I again I'm not required to write, but I do routinely.

It's rare that I miss a Monday, like I did this this last Monday, but rare that I miss that for the newsletters.

So there is ways for you to know what's going on, even if you don't use social media.

When people say that I don't write for the gabber, again, I don't see another mayor writing for the GABR.

And interesting enough, when I look at the Gabber, I don't see a single city that's advertising and spending advertising dollars in the GABR besides Gulfports.

So I don't understand why there's anger about how much we do or do not spend, and is that directed at the other cities as well?

I don't really understand, but that's an administrative decision that was made.

Um is she still here?

Oh, you're hidden behind okay.

Susan, I will always hold on to the uh um believing that it couldn't happen to us is the same as believing that hurricanes can't come our way.

I think that was a really potent analogy that you used, and with that in mind, you don't know how much I appreciate that way we do have people that are speaking up and who are watching and who are being proactive, okay.

I I do appreciate that.

That's not the same as making decisions based on that.

So those oh, and the last response that I heard was um the workshop on ice, I think that would be an excellent idea uh to do that.

Um give the uh it would have been so much better uh to have done that tonight, except we were kind of hijacked tonight.

We didn't even know that uh this was gonna happen, and it took um a long time.

I would have definitely have been better prepared, all of us would have been if it had been a workshop.

With that being said, the things that I wrote that I wanted to say is is this.

Um, my job is to take care of local issues.

That is what I was voted in to do, and that is what I intend to do.

I'm on this dais uh when I'm on this dais.

My opinions should always be about what I feel is in the best interest of the city after listening to my staff and my residents.

It is not to move forward any personal opinion.

I have to bite my tongue, or any political party, um the agenda of any political party.

So I wanted to say that.

Um then I want to drop down to this and just say that while I encourage free speech, I do not appreciate uh people stirring the pot by creating fake posts with photos of ice in it, uh ice vehicles in it, uh, who want us to believe that we are in being invaded by ice.

People do that, they're not gonna, we're not gonna believe them when it really happens.

So let's stick with the truth and let's figure out what we're gonna do if that should come our way, is kind of what I want to say.

Um, oh, and then in terms of reports, I did attend the uh Ford Pinellus meeting.

Um, the Ford Pinellus meeting, the majority of the meeting right now is we have a Ford Pinellus meeting, then there's a planning group from Hillsborough, and there's also a planning group out of PASCO.

And what they're working on right now is they call it the MPO.

They're trying to take um and and they're trying to do this because they want to, as opposed to with there's a suggestion that the state is going to require that the three counties merge as one and that there only be one planning um committee, okay, for the whole metropolitan Tampa Bay area.

It would combine the three counties that I just said.

So there's a lot of talking about that.

I expressed to the director of that group that I had real concerns because even when I attend the meetings now, there's so little information about South Pinellas.

So much more is about the North side.

And if we go to even a larger planning commission, that I have real concerns that we're gonna get lost, that no one's gonna notice or acknowledge the issues that we have going on in Gulfport.

So I appreciate it that you know I was able to say that to him, and he said, Yeah, he's heard that from other cities, small cities as well.

So he did invite me to um there's going to be another meeting where um the people on Ford Pinellas are going to meet with um one of the other larger planning councils.

I think it's outside of Orlando, but don't quote me, where they've done exactly what they're talking about doing here, and that he would really like for me to attend that because then I'll have an opportunity to to speak uh to some of the mayors and people from smaller cities and see what their reactions are going to be.

So that to me would be an important thing for me to attend, and then to come back and tell you what I think, though I'll only be one vote whether the merge happens or not.

And again, I don't know if uh Donovan's heard anything like this too, but definitely what I'm getting the read on is that um if the three counties don't decide to do this amongst themselves and how they want to do it, that the state may very well tell them they have to do it and how they're going to do it.

So just another case where the state might be trying to tell us what we have to do, and I'll I'll keep you as informed as I can.

Thank you.

Can I add one quick thing?

No.

You can at um under new business if you'd like.

Okay, so let's move to consent.

Sorry, I lost my plate.

Consent item 6A consider approval of meeting minutes from meeting held January 6, 2026.

Item 6B, resolution number 2026-02.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to approve the purchase of advanced metering infrastructure gateway equipment and support services from Neptune Technology Group.

Item 6C, resolution number 2026-03, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a contract with Kern's Communications LLC for the installation of four advanced metering infrastructure, AMI polls, and mounted hardware.

Motion to approve.

I second.

All those in favor?

I opposed.

Passes unanimously.

All righty, and that'll take us to ordinance 7A.

Item 7A, ordinance number 2026-01, first reading and ordinance of the City of Gulfport, Florida, amending the City of Gulfport Code of Ordinances, amending Chapter 22 zoning, Article 6, supplementary regulations for all districts by creating section 22-6.14 certified recovery residences, providing for definitions, providing for procedures for the review and approval of certified recovery residences, providing for requests for re reasonable accommodations, providing for revocation of reasonable accommodations, providing for codification, severality, and for an effective date.

Motion to approve.

Second, third.

Thank you.

City manager, you want to make sense of that for us?

Sure.

Mayor, what this is, this is also a state mandated by the state legislature that you will facilitate to it or attempt to facilitate the placement of these group home type settings.

The one thing that we I okay with the idea, because we did have abilities for folks to make application to for variances and things like that.

But what this does, this allows a certified operation for lack of a better term, which they have to meet certain licensing and state standards, and there's categories.

So this isn't just you as a government body saying you can operate here.

Approach your staff.

What this does is give staff the opportunity to work with them, but at the same time, there are regulations and there are minimum requirements.

And this is mandated by the state of Florida.

Okay.

Any questions?

No questions.

Thanks.

Um, I do have a couple questions.

Um city manager.

So, like many people here, and if you have been absolved of that, or um, I wish I am very happy for you, but addiction has come to my family, right?

And I know a lot about the group homes.

The certification is a great thing if it's kept up with, right?

Right.

A lot of people come to Florida to go to a group home because there's a home shuffle, right?

You get kicked out of this one, you go to this one and get through this one, you go to this one.

That being said, many people are helped by them, and I can t attest to that.

Um the Florida League of Cities, one of the um bills they wanted to put up for their support, and it was voted on, is to limit the volume in a city.

So it was the um I think it was Hollywood, Florida, that a gentleman spoke, and he's a con a councilman there, and he has three daughters, and they can no longer go out of the house or any anything because he's surrounded by group homes with very little oversight to them.

And he attested to that.

So the certification and the way they're run and how many per block and that kind of thing.

Are we able to base this doesn't pre preclude you from taking action?

One, it it it establishes minimum standards for lack of a better term.

But it also gives you the ability to revoke the permit if they're a nuisance to the neighborhood.

Okay.

And that's outlined in the ordits that you can you there was a in the title, it talks about revokeing.

Yep revocation.

So that is there.

It's like any type of nuisance behavior.

We would start right away that hey, here we've had situations like this, but it wasn't regulated either.

And that's the key, I think.

And I think that's the one that we've had individuals who under the guise of some type of organization, I'm helping people.

Well, it became okay, I buy your beer cheaper for you.

You know, and they gathered in residential neighborhoods.

And you're talking about zoning, you're talking about intensity and how many people are living in the house that are not family members.

Those are all things that the staff would have the ability, you would have to make application and then maintain it.

Right.

Because what constitutes a family and then you get into that four people but different last names, the whole thing, right.

And what this does, and I think part of the way, and a lot of times this legislature does this, they'll say, okay, we're going to give you this ability to do this, and we're gonna let staff have more oversight or such, or by implying well, we're supposed to help help them happen it happen.

But it also makes them put on paper what their plan is, for lack of a better term, their business plan.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So my question reading this, and I understand there was a lot of discussion in um planning and zoning about this.

But um, you brought up a really good point.

And then um, but I was thinking, how big can these be?

I mean, I know they have to follow height and setbacks and all that if they were building something new.

You you would still have your zoning very regulations in place.

Okay.

Lot size, lot coverage, those things are all in place.

This is operational, because very candidly, what this is becomes a commercial endeavor in a residential neighborhood.

The zoning aspect of slot size, per vie pervious surface.

That doesn't change.

You're talking about just the operation of the activity.

Okay.

Because most of our houses, you know, we have a lot of two ones and a few three twos and a few that are b bigger than that.

So again, you get into how many people can you put in a house.

Exactly.

And that's the that's why you have to tell me your business plan.

So we're gonna be able to question that.

If you're telling me I'm gonna have 10 people in an 800 square foot house, well, that business plan really, we're gonna pay attention.

We we're not making that type of accommodation for you.

All this did was the state said you have to try to work with these people because there's a need.

Right, yeah, I agree.

And we can do that, but it's not gonna allow you to come build for lack of a clinic in the residential neighborhood.

This is to say, okay, you live in the house down the street, we have these people.

But the one thing they did, which was when they add numbers of we'll call them clients, you have to add staff.

So it's not just you know, I'm gonna here's the keys, get well.

Is it residential staff or daytime staff?

Do we know?

It's it's a combination of both.

They they lay out in the ordinance, it lays out in the state law what you have to do to meet these minimum requirements.

So be certified, that's the whole key.

It's licensed.

Yeah, it my guess is it would be expensive to build a new house.

So they probably wouldn't do that.

But on the other hand, most of our houses are going to be too little to be cost effective, so it probably won't be a big issue.

Um but also if you have compared to family members, if you have staff plus four or five people living there, then parking becomes an issue.

And personally, I don't want people to pave their whole yard so they can put parking spaces in.

And those are the questions we would ask.

Exactly.

That's because they don't necessarily stay over the person in charge.

That that's not always the case.

They don't always stay over.

They don't live there in many cases.

Yep.

Okay, I'm used to ones where the where they're residential and you live there.

Right.

And they do, they have monitors and all that, and that's what it I think what what you're doing here, and I think your points are very salient in the fact that size generates revenue.

You're not really, you know, my but the state.

But we don't have any eight-bedroom houses in town.

Exactly.

You don't have multi-family, somebody buys an apartment complex and does it.

I've seen that done in very affluent neighborhoods.

In my other life, that was a big product down in in Paso Grill.

So they could do that here.

I mean, we have some small apartment buildings, so theoretically they could do that.

Yes.

But that's but they have to be licensed and certified.

Right, right.

So and that's the key, because that's where the cost is.

People cost money.

And you're you what you're doing here is two things.

One becoming compliant with the state of Florida, two, approaching it from a regulatory precision.

And that's the benefit that you get.

Okay, thank you.

And what you just outlined was what I was going to say that I appreciated about it.

So thank you.

I have no question.

Oh, public comment on this matter, yes.

I also have personal family uh proximity to this cause.

So I'm actually really happy to hear that we're creating this, we'll have parameters for it.

Um there are some organizations that I'm aware of that in St.

Pete that have multiple houses that have like three to four to five bedroom houses, so it's not gigantic.

The they usually have like a captain person who is a resident but also has like some privileges of leadership at night.

And also this population tends to not have cars.

They're paying 200 a week, they don't have cars, they're using the bus, they're using a bike, e-bike.

Um, so parking is way less of an issue for these populations using a house, really than any other use possible, in my opinion.

So I'm excited about this.

I think it's great.

Um, and I think we're not the housing stock we have and the value of the bigger ones is very unlikely that we're gonna kind of get like run over.

St.

Pete has definitely more neighborhoods where this could happen more.

Sounds good to me.

Anyone else for public comment on this?

Seeing none.

Councilmember Jackson?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Thanos?

Yes.

Councilmember Shaw?

Yes.

Mayor Love?

Yes.

All right.

So that will bring us to resolutions.

Item 8A, resolution number 2026-04, a resolution authorizing the city manager and where applicable, the mayor, to enter into a loan agreement with the FEMA community disaster loan CDL program and pro support of the city's operations and hurricane recovery efforts.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Mayor, thank you.

Mayor, we had talked about this last summer as we were looking at our revenues and things to that effect, and where we were with revenues that were in coming from the federal government and offset and insurance claims and things to that effect.

What I'm trying to put here is something in place so we have a backstop.

Because of certain delays at the federal level and things like that, monies are not coming down quickly.

Um they did close the government, you know.

We've talked to each about that.

Um and they possibly could close the government again.

I we have, and Chris Cadell, our finance director's here, we have about 3.6 million dollars in reserves today.

Well, if we have another catastrophic event this summer, then we want to be prepared.

And we also have to look at that revenue when we start planning for the next two budget years.

So this is a backstop to what we have, so that we're not in a dilemma where if we have to use some reserves to make up for revenues that haven't appeared yet, or something like this.

I intend to leave this as our last level of expense type.

And you would have to approve any use of it.

This is just gives us the ability to buy the mortgage, not buy it if there's no cost to it until you use it, and then you pay whatever the interest rate set by the Fed.

And now the interest rate's gone down, of course, as we all know, to put some percentage.

But what it does is give you a sense of security for lack of a better term.

But if you were to use any of this monies and take it out, you would have to approve that.

You just said we would have to approve any use of it.

I just want to would like to clarify when you say we have to approve any use, meaning there would be uh actual council vote at the time that you said, hey guys, we need to take some money, or that we're approving how the money is used.

Because you said use.

Well, it's to me it's symbiotic.

In effect, you would have to approve actually accessing the home equity loan for lack of a better term.

So all we're doing is finalizing the application that we made many months ago.

Exactly.

I think we've been approved for it many months ago, but we've never actually signed it.

Exactly.

And this is authorization to sign.

And I know that that was for five million dollars.

So I just want to clarify.

If we need it money, that doesn't mean that we would have to take a whole five million at one time.

We could say, well, we need a million today.

Yes.

Okay, that's correct.

So that was my question.

We can draw down at Chris if you have any specific questions.

You could draw it down on at any amount you choose.

Yeah, it'll it'll act like a line of credit.

Um five million, we have access to it for the next three years.

Um you can draw it down as needed, as uh city manager stated we would come to you and request approval if we were gonna access the loan.

Good.

Any qu questions in speaking order?

No questions.

I talked about this with you, and we kind of similar to a HELOC.

So all good for me.

Same.

Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, and I was just making sure we didn't pay any interest or anything until we actually access any money.

So that's clear.

You don't pay interest until the term is up.

If you use it, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's not.

But if we don't ever use any, we won't pay anything.

Yes.

Having this backup plan is an excellent approach.

So I'm in I'm certainly in favor.

We'll sleep better at night.

Yes.

Hopefully we don't need it.

But it's okay.

City uh public comment.

Thank you.

I'm getting tired.

Um public comment on this.

Seeing none, we'll call the roll.

Councilmember Jackson?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Thanos?

Yes.

Councilmember Shaw, yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Carries to passage.

Item 8B, resolution number 2026-05, a resolution approving application C25-02, a conditional use application for a church, including related education and training facilities, and providing for conditions.

That's common.

Yes.

All right.

Yes.

Mayor, um, yes.

Motion to approve.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I second.

I'd look at the manager.

Okay.

City manager.

This is a conditional approval of re reestablishing a church in the property down the right here by the dog and the Methodist and church.

Um what this is is there was previously a church there.

They failed to renew that activity by their business tax receipt as you're talking about.

Subsequently, it reverted back to R2, which is a conditional use, is a church, as we've talked about in the past.

A lot of zoning here in Gulfport was what was there, they put it on top of it.

But this basically re-establishes that use.

Mark, do you want to so it was originally the church in 58 that it became a rectory for the church as a whole, and then they went to our school for a very short period of time, and now they're just trying to go back to the church usage.

Mark, is the applicant here?

Yep, the applicant is the audience.

The applicant is here.

And is it this uh when we say they want to take it back to being used as a church?

Is it the same church that was there?

Isn't they've outlined um it's the vision discipline ministry that's wasn't a part of the application process that they've so this would this church would be a new group of people.

That's my understanding, yes.

Okay, okay.

Uh that was my question.

So did you have anything else?

I was just trying to clarify that.

Don't you want to ask if other people have questions?

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Okay.

I was trying to finish up and see if he was done speaking, but thank you.

Okay.

So Mayor, the vice mayor, the applicant is here if they have you have any questions for the right.

And we will have public comment.

You don't need to raise your hand right now.

We'll call on you during public comment.

Um for sure.

Mayor, just uh in case you want to ask Mark, uh, one of the issues that came up at the planning and zoning meeting, um, which was discussed was the parking issue.

Um, and the applicant was not there, so there were questions that were raised as to whether or not there was going to be a use parking agreement, if whether or not there was going to be any potential conflicts between the school and the church using the parking, and that was an issue that planning and zoning wanted to have like clarified, which they did not have in anticipation of this meeting.

Right.

Thank you for for saying that.

And we'll go in order and ask our questions and see who can best answer them.

I did watch the meeting and um I found the meeting to be uh very very confusing when we're talking about the owner, the tenant, the school, the church.

Um I found it to be quite confusing, and even though I watched it and listened a second time, there were questions that I have, but I'll wait my turn.

Um council member Jackson.

I have no questions at this time.

Okay.

I don't have any questions either.

Quickly look something.

So it's my understanding, it's not the actual church on the corner we're talking about.

It's the building to the north of it on 54th.

That's correct, yes.

And it wasn't really a church as I understand it.

I thought it used to be the old um rectory.

But before it was a but it was also a shop, but you know, a resale shop to make money for the church for many years.

Sophie's attic?

Wasn't it Sophie's attic?

No.

That's on the other corner.

That's on that's on 53rd.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Then I then I'm a thing.

So it was a rectory, it wasn't a church.

Before that, it was the church before the school that is now Sunflower, it was originally the church, then they moved up to the larger church and made that directory for the church.

Okay, so it wasn't really a church, it was a rectory.

It was the church originally when it was originally permitted in 1958.

That little building.

Correct.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

I I've never seen it a church, so that's why I didn't know.

And as I understand it, do we know who actually owns the church, the big church?

The Sunflower School currently owns that.

And do we know if they plan on keeping it?

Are they using it as what are they they're using it as currently as a school?

The actual church part, not the buildings along the side.

They're using the larger building as a the that's uh as a school currently.

Okay, because I know that from what I understand about the meeting, there was confusion about whether it would actually stay part of the school or if it would be become a church, and then you'd have the sunflower school and the other little buildings.

And then if you again with the parking, you know, if you have things going on at the same time, it would be a problem for the neighborhood about parking.

And so I I think we should hear from the person, because I don't know if he's got agreements with those people about making sure they don't have um you know events at the same time.

We did condition.

That's one of the conditions we are requesting is that they make an accommodation with the neighboring property regarding the parking.

But would we approve it without knowing whether they've actually got that?

It's conditional the approval within the next year.

They're gonna have to show city staff with the building permit as well as the business tax receipt that verification of the that they've figured out the parking situation with between the property on the property.

So so the it doesn't actually get approved until they have all that.

That's correct.

Okay.

Assuming that you pass it with that condition.

And if you in your memo, it outlines the conditions that staff has put on.

Would you like to hear from the applicant, Mike?

I I I understood the conditions, but I do have a question about the parking.

It kept referencing street parking.

Um and and I get that, but we also have a park right near there.

Is there anything that outlines that I know there's a lot of families that use the park, you know, on Sundays, and so I'm just wanting to have reassurance that they would not be parking in the park area.

The area facing towards 54th does have a on the on the public side, does have a total of 19 spots available.

The church has 45 seats in it, so we'd only need 15 spots.

Uh so would the amount of people would not extend on to 28th or 27th.

Okay.

Thank you.

So the questions that I had, and it it might be that we need to call the applicant up next, and then I know that there'll be some public comment, and then you know, we may have to have Powell here again.

Uh so uh I was a little confused on if you approved it now, but but gave them a year to have uh agreement amongst themselves in terms of parking.

What does that mean they could open up now and hopefully they're gonna figure it out within a year?

Until the business tax receipt was um which wouldn't be approved, the business tax receipt by zoning until the parking situation was uh figured out between the owners or whether or not they want to increase the parking on the property.

Okay, so that what that's the part I missed.

So they have to have the parking agreement worked out before any activity were to start.

That's correct.

Okay, I only heard the one year so that helps.

Okay.

Um and then I was asking if it was a new church coming in, or and if if they are in any way form or fashion related to the sunflower school.

Not from my understanding, but the applicant maybe there's we'll ask them that.

And then my next question, and we can ask the applicant.

I guess we can um why would the sunflower agree to uh their to parking being used by the new church?

Um because are we uh uh uh talking about the parking in the back of the proposed new church?

That I think is pretty well designated to just sunflower.

The they that's exclusively used for a playground, which was um last year when it for the subdivision in 2024, they were given a variance for parking requirements because they were using that area as the play area for the sunflower school.

Okay, and I think if you'll help me with this before we call the applicant up.

So I think there's been some confusion.

So the long building that runs all along 27th, that is all being used by the sunflower school.

That's my that's correct.

Right.

So when somebody are people are saying the big church, they're talking about sunflower school.

So what we see from 54th is what looks like a small little church.

But if you go and you drive behind there, actually once you get past that initial facade, then there's a bigger building and they are attached, and it's painted like the sunflower school.

So I'm a little bit confused when you're saying there's only 45 seats.

Is the church just that front part?

Because I think it's connected.

It's a separate building entirely, and it had does have a separation from the sunflower school for property lines as well as parcels, it's not attached to the sunflower school.

So the sunflower school then is L-shaped.

That's correct.

Okay.

When I went driving through there, I thought it was connected.

Okay, with that in mind, um the applicant.

Would you please come up?

Um yeah, I just wanted to address the parking situation.

Um, we have spoke with the Sun Plata School on the chat.

Excuse me, you have to give us your name and oh, sorry.

Adele Malcolm, 42nd Avenue South.

Um, and like I said, we have spoke with the Sunflower School just to confirm there's gonna be no conflicting schedules with regards to the parking.

They generally use you know the parking between eight Monday to Friday, 8 a.m.

drop off, 2.30, pick up.

They do have an aftercare program, which is a really minimal program, which goes to 5:30.

Um the church is looking to use the parking Sunday, and they have two Bible study um Wednesday evening and Thursday evening from 7 p.m.

So there isn't any conflicting usage of the parking.

So we are talking about just the building on the front that appears to be kind of white.

It's a separate building, it's like yellow with it.

What used to be the preschool?

Yeah, garden up front.

Yeah, with the garden up front, yes.

Right.

Yeah.

But again, I thought there was a building right behind that with that was connected.

No, there's just uh there's the playground for the school behind that.

There is no other building behind that building.

There's the long building, which is just a rectangular, which is the sunflower school, and then there's this building which is separated, it's not attached to the other building.

Okay.

All right.

Do we have any questions in speaking order of the applicant, please?

No questions, thank you.

No questions.

Who owns the other building that's not attached?

I do so you you own the little church building and the other building.

There's just one building that's not attached, is the one long building, which is owned by Sunflower School.

Okay, and then there's one smaller building, which I own.

There's only the two buildings.

There's only those.

Yeah.

And how many spaces is there in all this parking?

There's 19 spaces at the front, and then there's street parking, which is what sunflower generally uses for pick up and drop off.

I think it's on 27th.

Um they tend to use that for pick up and drop off, but in front of this building, there's 19 spaces.

In front of this building, there's 19 spaces.

In front of this, and then going, it's kind of there's this building, and then the edge of the other building, and there's 19 spaces in front of them both.

I drove by there.

Voyager didn't look like that.

Along the street?

Um along the street?

It's it's not actually parking on the street, it is separate parking at the front, but at the front of the building.

I didn't see that at all.

It's the city right-away.

It's the city right-away.

Yeah, so there's 90 feet for the this building and then 85.

So it ends up being 19 spots on the public right-of-way off the street up that in front of the building.

I appreciate you both coming up here because it's uh 175.

Divide by how wide is a parking space?

Nine feet per parking spot, 18 feet wide, or 18 feet long, nine feet wide.

So that doesn't sound like 19 spaces.

I had done that before.

Okay.

And and the reason that um I was questioning that too was I thought that when I was listening to the um hearing uh in front of the session, I thought I heard them say that there were nine spots, and now I'm hearing 19.

So I'm just if you take up 107 by 9, it's 100.

Like 12.

11.88.

I thought it was it's 175.

Oh, 175, I'm sorry.

So I think they need 171.

175 feet between the two lots.

And the total space in front of both lots on 54th.

I understand, but I drove by there before you it sure didn't look like that to me.

Oh.

Well, I've cleaned the sidewalk for you, so I know it is.

The church also did and speak with the city before putting in an offer on the property to see if it would be you know able to put more parking if needed, you know, if that was gonna be a you know a condition from the city, they are willing to put more parking on the property if that's what's necessary.

But how would they put more park parking on the property?

There's this on the the garden area.

The what?

The garden area or in the building, it has a large garden area around the building.

Remove the green space.

Which is not what I but there is but there is a provision that you need to keep a certain at least 20% of your lot green.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, it's not something that I would like them to do.

But and is 19 spaces enough.

I understood that the seats are like 45 seats.

At maximum.

They generally in their congregation have between 30 and 35 that are you know, members of congregation that come, so but up to a maximum of 45.

And you never have 30 cars.

I I honestly couldn't speak to that.

Church isn't open, how could that be answered?

Huh?

Well, I'm I'm just saying I don't know if it's you know whether people come as individuals or if there's families, because if you need 40 spaces, we we don't have it.

But our zoning only requires that we have 15 spaces.

Don't you every three seats requires one parking spot, so there's 45 seats.

That's what I think of.

All right, thank you.

I didn't know that.

All righty.

Any other questions before we uh open it to public comment because there's um thank you though.

Okay, okay.

Good luck.

What about Marlene?

No, I I have no question.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Yes.

No, I'm calling you.

Um excuse me, one moment.

Pardon?

Signs and placards are against your rules.

Okay.

Go put your sign back over there, please.

So again, our rule does not allow you to come up here with a sign.

She's coming.

She's got it.

She's got it.

Okay.

So now you're up here.

Please introduce yourself and tell us what you have to say.

I've been to the property.

Um your name?

Bailey.

Thank you, Bailey.

And uh, first of all, it was never a church.

Um, I was never um here in 1958.

Anyone of y'all here in 1958?

1959.

Good for you.

Um, but I will give you the um codes.

Um, you know, Gulf Port Zoning Ordinance Regulations focus on per lot basis, and require all uses and adhere to setbacks, parking and public access.

One principal use per lot.

That means one building per lot.

One church.

So the main church was the big L-shaped church.

And the little building, um, the quickshaft building was just a storage slash whatever um it was from 1958 to 2001.

And in 2016, it became a um a daycare.

And um on that, I actually had the fire um permit on my billboard there.

Um, and I was um the contractor that actually brought it up to fire codes.

So I know that it was a storage because I um brought up the um walls to fire code and um cleared out a lot of the storage.

Um they used it for um garage sales, um, you know, and yard sales um a lot of the times throughout the years.

Um and um basically it was it was never a church, like um the gentleman um was saying they want to convert it back to a church.

So that's a falsehood that he was bul making y'all believe.

Um Pinellas and on my billboard also Pinellas County zoning.

Um we got the attorney right here.

Um minimum lot size for a church is a hundred by a hundred.

Please help me out.

The lot size just so you're clear, sir.

The lot size Bailey, just so you're clear.

You're doing public, we're giving you public comment right now, and we're being lenient because it's typically three minutes, so use your time wisely.

Okay, the lot size is 90 by 100, so it doesn't even meet the zoning requirements.

And and also I'm gonna put um step back and say, if all of my facts doesn't um, you know, um real real quick.

If um I I request a professional parking um engineer survey under a 138 um six uh one thirty eight uh tech three six oh two alpha, you know.

So you know, um if I run out of time because um it doesn't meet zoning codes, parking codes, ADA codes, and fire safety codes are broken daily.

It's got um 18 parking spots, not 19.

Um the um the um the fire hydrant is um is um within 15 foot where they park daily, and I had that on my um thing, so it's it's just I I'd like to talk on I have um a lot, but you know it's just okay public comment.

You have three minutes.

Okay, yeah.

Okay, Lauren Stern.

Hopefully, this is gonna be so helpful.

This lot was subdivided in the last three years.

That was not in the city's so it was a church in the big building, it was not a church in the creative play building, it was a storage room play area, etc.

So actually both are kind of right.

Like the property, yes, was a church.

This building never was though, so that hopefully is helpful.

It's painted with flowers, it has a big yard, it has trees and beautiful things.

That's the building we're talking about.

The Sunflower School sold it to you a couple years ago.

It sounds like you want to sublease it now to a church.

It sounds like she wants to, sorry, talking to you.

So that's what's being discussed.

I didn't listen to planning and zoning, but from tonight, if I have if what was said tonight was what was said at planning and zoning, I can understand the confusion.

So tonight the owner of just the little building is saying the church has come to me and wants to rent.

Now I understand that I go to that playground a lot.

Um pickleball, tennis, there's a hide AA meeting, it's a very high demand on the parking there, but for all the uses of a church, which it sounds like it's pretty much just once a week for two hours, that's the parking need of the whole building.

That might be less of a stress on the neighborhood than a school, which is gonna have parking every day, or some other use that could come.

So I've toured that building, the creative play school building that we're talking about four times because I wanted to see a preschool go in there.

So I've been in there and I know all about it, and I know that also the sunflower school leases what the church part is of the big building, they actually don't use it, they lease it to a theater company and they use it.

So the school part is just in the part that's flowery that you see on I think it's 27th.

So anyway, I I personally think that a church is a good use for that space.

Um it's residential.

I think that the variance it had was educational, so I think that's lapsed, was my understanding now that it's been over a year that's been on the market.

Um would be great as a school.

Um I don't I really don't think the parking is a huge issue.

I don't think it makes sense to dig up the garden for more parking.

It's like that you just pull in parking on the easement.

Um, it's where that old food pantry used to be in front of that church corner.

I don't think that actually having cars there because the sidewalks on the other side, it's it doesn't block the street.

It's not that serious.

It's one hour one or two hours a week, one Bible study.

I think we could have a lot worse, worse on the neighborhood uses for that space.

So that's what I think.

But anyway, that just should have been mentioned.

I feel about the subdividing because we were arguing about actually something that happened because of the subdivision.

Oh, Linda.

My name is Linda Bailey.

I live on 54th Street, and basically the church before when it was a school, there would be drop off with the kids, so no one actually parked.

They let their kid get out of the car and the cars would go through a line.

They also have tennis, pickleball, um, events that go into golf park, get-go fast, all those people are parking in those parking spots.

So now, even all the pickleball, the tennis, and the people from the dog park, it's just getting so crowded to add more park, trying to get more parking spots, and to have a church where you don't have any handicapped parking spots over there, no paved for handicap accessible.

There's and you got what nine eight, nine parking spots if you put a handicap in there, which you probably need in a church.

I don't know if it's required in a church parking, but you're just very limited on what it before, you know, it was vacant when we moved into the property or close by and it was not being used, and then when it was the preschool, it was just basically transition cars moving quickly through the line and no one actually parked.

So that's the difference.

Did I see another hand up over here for public comment?

Amy and Mary had hers up too.

Okay, thank you.

Amy Costa, 28th Avenue South.

Um, I'm not gonna lie, that was very confusing, but I just figured gleaned it all together.

Um, I would just like to say I don't know the full story and and who's the argument, what's going on here, but I do know that we have a plethora of empty buildings sitting empty in Gulfport.

It's very sad.

It's very difficult for small businesses to lease buildings, stay open.

You know, we're all struggling.

I think if there's an organization that wants to take this building and do good things in the community, I mean, I'm hoping they're not, you know, a church of evil, but I can't see how it could be a bad thing for our community to have more spaces for people to gather.

Um, I think if we think about other things that go on in our city, whether it's a festival or a a gecko ball or whatever, parking is mayhem anyway, and we all survive it.

We all park, everyone does okay, and then we all go home and then it goes back to normal.

So I think it's okay.

I just like to share that as a community member.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Mary, did you have your hand up?

First of all, I have a question for the attorney.

Can I speak here in public speaking?

Because you're on the board?

Yes, because I'm on the planning and zoning board.

It's uh it's an advisory board and it's a public meeting, so you absolutely, as long as you're not speaking on behalf of the board, you can go ahead.

I'm speaking as an individual.

Thank you.

Mary Hanarhan, 7th Avenue South.

I was on the on the planning, I am on the planning and zoning board, and this did come in front of us, and it was very confusing.

And so I have a couple of suggestions, both to the planning department and and in general.

Maps and diagrams are terrific.

If we had had a map that said, this building is this, this building is this, this building is this, and where the parking would go, everything would have been much clearer.

And for you guys as well.

So I I would like to see that in future.

Um, the lady who came up whose name escaped me a lot.

Um I don't I'm not, yes.

I'm not sure if you'll be owner or the person who's gonna run the church.

Okay, speak to us maybe owner.

Speak to us owner, please.

Okay, so neither of neither the owner nor the church were present at at our meeting, and it would have been nice to hear from them.

I am, however, concerned about allowing the counting of right-of-way spaces towards parking requirements, because they're not dedicated to that building.

If we're going to allow people to park there on the right-of-way, which we do mostly for events, then that's a free-for-all parking.

So if it's not dedicated parking, they can't mock it, they can't put disabled spots in there, they can't do any of the other things that are required for parking for the building.

And I do have concerns about setting a precedent by saying, well, this building for this use can use public right away to satisfy that parking requirements.

I realize that downtown we have variances because downtown is a different area, but I'm I'm worried about where we're going with this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um I think that we should um I have a question for uh well, maybe I can't ask the fire um marshal to come up.

Jim D could you Jim, come on up.

Okay.

Okay.

Just because um during public comment it was stated that there was an issue with fire safety codes.

Uh wanted to get your take on that.

So when that building was taken over by the daycare, they went to it.

We're talking about a separate building that they own.

Yes.

It was brought up to code, alarm system was put in there, occupant loads were made, and it was made safe for children.

Now it's been left abandoned.

They took the alarm system out, which will have to be put back into it, and they would have to get an occupant load to see how many people they can put into the church for the usage.

That's where we're at right now on the fire side.

Okay.

The building next to it is the sunflower school, and they have passed their recent inspection.

So I don't know if that answered your question.

And are you your initial are you questioning that 45 people could exceed the load?

So it does have a dividing wall in it, and I'll have to get in there and measure because the daycare is a different occupancy than a church.

So we'd have to see if they're using pews or chairs, how they're using the two rooms that are there.

Mayor, that all starts with the business tax receipt application.

It'll trigger a fire inspection and all those type things.

They'll have to get a site plan approved for the parking and all that's what you see in your packet.

Okay.

The pictures are there in the packet.

So that triggers when this is the only initially.

Are you going to grant the conditional use?

Are you going to allow them to do this particular use?

Then everything else is triggered that has to be made.

Okay.

And so the uh if I understand right, this went before P and Z.

P and Z advanced it to us with a couple of conditions.

One was that there be an agreement between the church and the school about parking.

And one is that it has to pass the fire inspection.

Exactly.

Okay, so these are conditions that we have to all be addressed before it could actually be finalized.

Before they get their final certificate of occupancy to operate the business?

Correct.

Okay.

And we did have a meeting with the owner myself, community development prior to the planning and boarding zone.

Okay.

Just to make them aware of everything.

Okay.

All righty.

Do we have any more questions?

Any of you of uh the city?

Quick questions.

Oh, go ahead.

I'm sorry, you're first.

Um so once that business tax receipt is generated, that's when you go back.

Is that right?

So we'll most likely meet before that, just to make sure that everything's clarified.

Okay.

You know, before they get to that point.

At that point, that's pretty much the end of the story.

So I would have to go in there and say yes, yes, yes.

But if I'm aware of it and we're speaking of what needs to be done, then it should be a smooth process.

Okay.

Oh, business tax receipt process includes mandatory inspections, including fire expectations.

Okay, thank you.

It usually triggers everything.

Everything, right?

Final signature.

Any questions?

Actually, no, not for the fire department.

That's sure.

Okay.

Okay.

I don't have any for the fire department.

Okay.

Thank you.

I don't either.

Always here if you need me.

Okay.

All right.

So I think this is the first uh one that they've advanced from planning and zoning to us.

So they are our our advisory board.

And I'm sorry, Bailey, but you get one public comment.

Your hearing was when you could have said anything you wanted.

It's not now.

Sorry.

So they have advanced that to us now, and I think we're clear now on what they're they're asking us to do.

And so my understanding is P and Z has advanced it.

My understanding that the city approved it with these conditions on it.

And so now it's up to us to take a vote whether we want it to pass it or not.

Am I clear?

Uh Mayor Justice.

The city recommended it.

Recommended it, thank you.

Subject to your approval.