Hmm, I wonder why we're all gathered here tonight.

Not only do we are we all gathered here, I see so many joyous smiling faces, so that's really exciting.

So I officially call our March seventeenth twenty twenty six meeting to order, and with that we will move on to the swearing in oath of office for our newly elected officials.

If I could have Council Member Webb and Councilmember Donch join me in front of the seal, please, as well as if your spouses would like to join you.

And you can stand in front of us and you're gonna be there.

Okay.

As a recipient of public funds, as such officer that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the state of Florida, and that I will, in all respects, observe the provisions of the Charter and the ordinances of the city of Gulfport.

I do.

May we may we speak with integrity, with serve with humility and disagree without division.

Let us our perspective sharpen us, not separate us so that together we can accomplish what none of us could alone.

Let every decision reflect our shared commitment to the people and the trust they place in us.

We must lead without ego, guided by service and principle, letting the needs and voices of the community shape our choices.

Let us guard ourselves from pride that divides and from habits that favor comfort over community.

Let us hold fast to the courage to choose principle over popularity, progress over politics, statesmanship over showmanship, and collaboration over competition.

Now, may we serve without hesitation.

Let this term be remembered, not for who was right, but for what we made better together.

Amen.

And to the Republicans, sounds good.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Donch here.

Councilmember Shaw.

Present.

Councilmember Webb.

Present.

Councilmember Early?

Present.

Mayor Love.

Present.

City Attorney Salzman.

Here.

City Manager O'Reilly.

Here.

City Clerk Carico is present.

Very good.

And today, because of the swearing in, we do not have any presentations on the agenda.

So with that, we will move directly to public comment.

For those of you that have not been here in the past, just remember you can speak about anything that you'd like that's not on the agenda.

And you have three minutes, and we ask that you give your name and your address before you speak.

So let me see a show of hands, and I'll try and call you up.

Dean, I saw you first.

P.S.

I love all the green out there.

Hello, my name is Dean Have.

My address is 5618 13th Avenue South.

I wanted to first say personally that I'm happy that we continue to have a progressive uh council in front of us.

And is it your birthday, Madam Mayor?

Yeah.

Oh, happy birthday to you as well.

I'm one of the founders of the Gulfport Environmental Team.

And I just wanted to provide a progress update for you.

Our main project right now that we're working on is our tree inventory.

We have about 1,400 trees that have been inventoried in the last two months by our many members.

That nine of our residents and members have stepped up to take on themselves, either through direct inventory themselves or through hosting volunteers that come in to help.

That inventory is available online.

If you go to the tree plotter slash Gulfport Florida, you'll be able to see where all of those trees are.

And right now, out of those 1400, the top three are the uh sable palm or cabbage palm and uh live oak and laurel oak are our top three.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Show of hands.

Yes, please.

Don't be shy, folks, if you want to speak, because you never know when I'll hit that gavel and end it.

Hello, everyone.

Um Mary Winstead, 16th Street South.

Um I would like to say something to the mayor and to all of the uh board here.

First of all, mayor, in the 36 years that I've lived here, you are the first mayor that I have ever seen on our block looking to find out what was going on.

I want to thank you.

I think that we all should recognize the fact that there's no learning curve time for people when you come on this board.

You're just thrown into it.

So, as we as citizens of Gulfport, we have to take that into consideration if we're going to start criticizing each other.

That you're just thrown in here.

I know that you probably have some seminars and things that you must go to to learn how to run city government, but it just doesn't come from the seat of your pants.

So I want to thank everyone for being on this council for donating your time, because no matter what we pay you, it's still a donation as far as your time.

You just don't get paid back the same way.

So that's all I have to say.

I love our town.

I'm grateful for you, Mayor, uh, for the things that you've done, and for everyone else on the board.

So I hope we can all play together well this year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes, Courtney.

Hello, Courtney Perkopis, 15th Avenue South.

Welcome to Ward 3 and Ward 1.

I'd like to speak to something that is shifting.

We're beginning to see cracks between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement policies.

In a report published yesterday by the Florida Phoenix, six of the eight sheriffs on Florida's immigration advisory board, including our very own Pinellas County Sheriff Gautieri, has expressed concern that current immigration immigration policies have gone too far, particularly in targeting people without criminal records.

Members of that board are now drafting a letter to the President, the U.S.

House Speaker, and the Senate Majority Leader, urging clearer guidelines on which undocumented immigrants should be targeted for deportation.

May I remind you that Gautier is the same sheriff referenced from a February 2025 conference call with Pinellas police Pinellas County police chiefs, including GPD's then acting now Chief Ferrand.

Two days after that call, Chief Aaron voluntarily signed an MOA with ICE, enrolling this community into a 287G agreement.

These are not outside voices or so-called agitators calling for reform.

They are officials responsible for carrying out these policies.

For nearly one year, the city of Gulfport has told residents that the 287G program is a state mandate.

That framing is erroneous and incomplete, there is discretion, and there are grave concerns now in the light of day from leading law enforcement agents.

The ACLU report's deputies for disaster, which has been shared with you, states on page four, where banning or ending participation in the 287G program outright is not possible.

Officials should pursue common sense, good governance measures.

I'll let you read those on your own time, but I do have them highlighted here for anyone afterward that would like to see them.

They are reasonable steps.

I hope that all five of you are reasonable people and will take those steps.

At a minimum, I'm asking this council to insist on clear impact reporting and to take seriously the concerns coming from within law enforcement itself.

When the people closest to the implementation begin to question our policy, it's time to look more closely.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes.

I saw you next.

Hello, my name is Julia Bull.

I am a homeowner, 141959th Street South.

I'm very glad we have a progressive group tonight, and I want to thank the new council members for their service.

The Gabber Newsletter newspaper.

In her recent article explaining new projects and volunteer opportunities, I enjoy the direct communication from a city official illustrating what public service truly is, meeting the people where they're at.

But above all, her article made me feel included in this city.

In February, Gulfport City Council passed an inclusion resolution claiming the city is, quote, committed to fostering an environment of belonging and fairness.

It states, quote, the city supports partnerships that promote understanding, respect, and inclusion among all residents, which is why speaking to the residents through the GABA newspaper embodies the principles of that resolution.

The GABA is free to all and available to all, regardless of income, homeownership, network connectivity, or where you might be living.

But not all council members seem to understand what they voted for.

The mayor clearly demonstrates self-service when she purposely does not speak to residents who get their information from the GABA, as they've done for almost 60 years.

She demonstrates self-service when she cannot put aside personal grievances for the benefit of all residents.

Instead, using her official capacity to manipulate city resources in her favor.

The mayor writes are to be directed towards council, not towards the Yeah, you don't pick on one person you can address.

We just had him tell you that you can't do that.

So stop or sit down.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

I just think that perhaps there's a violation of the policy that states the city's guiding principle for decision making, policy development, and public service is driven by inclusivity.

So I just wanted to point out I feel like there's a disconnect between the actions of some of our officials and the statement that everyone agreed to last month.

Thank you, Marlene, for understanding and practicing it in your official capacity, if I may address her directly.

No, the true meaning of inclusive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next.

Oh God.

Oh you can't address one council person.

We already said.

You can't do that.

Thank you, Mayor, and welcome uh uh Jennifer Webb and Jennifer Donch.

Um so uh Gulf oh Wolfgang Dininger, uh Beachway Park.

Uh Gulfport Grassroots, my group uh had a uh cleanup last uh Saturday at Clam Bayou, uh our very own uh nature preserve.

Uh we do it with uh uh the um city of Gulfport and also with the help of Keep a Pinellus Beautiful, our sponsor.

Uh we had 30, I saw seven volunteers show up.

We collected a total of 270 pounds of trash out of our bayou.

We had um uh kayaks go out in the water.

Our mayor was out in the water on a kayak and uh came back with trash.

Uh a few other people did also.

It was a great event.

Um next month uh we will have two events at Gulfport Grassroots.

We will have on April 11th, our normal beyond the beach uh cleanup, and that is always co-hosted by uh keep uh Pinellus Beautiful.

That's gonna be from 9 to 11.

That's our last cleanup on our winter schedule starting at 9 o'clock.

Uh we also will be working with the um city of Gulfport and with the uh support of our partner group, Keep Pinellas Beautiful, uh, who has uh provided us uh reflective vests for our volunteers there, and that is swap and drop.

It's like the old junk in the trunk.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Uh our uh residents can clean out their homes and bring by uh garbage, junk, drop it off, or if they have good things in their garage or wherever that's still usable, they can bring that down, and our volunteers will set that out on tables for uh for other uh residents to um pick up and uh take home and reuse.

Uh it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Uh that's April 11th, and both are events are running currently from 9 to 11 a.m.

Uh and then I'm happy to announce that in May I will be um teaching a hands-on instructive class at the senior center in uh Nordic walking.

And uh the Nordic walk-in is an enhanced form of walking that also does uh upper body strength.

I I do uh Nordic walking probably five uh mornings uh you know every week.

So uh that takes us into May.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes.

My name is Joe Senia.

I'm a homeowner on 59th Street South.

There's a division in this town.

There's pro-Gabber, and there is anti-Gabber.

And I think this needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

And I think this needs to stop, and it needs to stop because anti-gabber is attack of free press, and I'm sick and tired of hearing about it.

It happens on both sides.

There's we love the gabber, there's we hate the gabber.

And this has never happened in this town.

I take that back.

It's happened on small accounts where people hear stuff that they don't want to hear about themselves.

But the gabber is an actual newspaper.

It has uh criteria it has to follow.

It is not a magazine, it is not a flyer, it is an actual newspaper.

It happens to be the second oldest business in this town.

The first oldest business, if you don't know it, is the Peninsula Inn.

The second is the Gabber.

It's been around since 1968.

I don't think it's funny.

It's been around since 1968, and I feel it deserves respect.

It is a respectable newspaper, and I'm tired of hearing negative things about it from people on this council.

Surprised?

Shocked.

Shocked.

Well, this is my time.

You're not supposed to speak.

I thought you asked me a question, sorry.

I did not ask you a question.

This is a dialogue, this is a monologue, not a dialogue.

And I'm tired of the negative press from people on this council about the gabber.

It is a respectable newspaper and it should be treated that way.

And if people on this council don't realize that's going on, you're living in the dark.

You know what's going on.

All of you know what's going on.

And the administration in DC right now, their first action was to attack the free press.

And people on this council did attack the GABE for giving press to them that they didn't appreciate.

Well, what you need to do is to talk to them.

You need to do an interview with them.

You need to open a dialogue.

You're shaking your head, Mayor.

Please direct your comments to the whole thing.

I'm I'm I'm I am.

But the bottom line is there are people that are doing this, and everybody in this town knows it's going on.

It needs to stop.

It's horrible that it's gone on in our country on a federal level.

I don't want to see it in Gulfport.

This town used to be unified, it is not anymore.

And don't spin it any other way.

Thank you.

Joe.

Who's next?

Yes, please.

Brenda.

Hi, my name is Brenda Graf, and I live at 5960 9th Avenue South.

And I just want to say we have a wonderful team.

I bought my grandmother's house.

She lived here in the 80s.

She was a snowbird.

And I am just so thrilled of this panel.

You guys really, I feel we're gonna do something, and you guys represent me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Yes, Scott.

I just saw you, Laura.

Hello, Scott Lindy.

60th Street South and Gulfport Merchant Chamber.

And Primar first.

Congratulations to Jennifer and Jennifer.

Thank the rest of you for your ongoing service, and I look forward to great things happening here.

Um I want to just talk about the Pink Flamingo home tour that we concluded nine days ago, or whatever that was Saturday.

And I by all accounts, it's a big was a big success.

We had a 30% increase in attendance, which adds up to a little over 600 people who attended that.

All of them had a great time.

Thanks for Jen for her ongoing service to our organization.

Thanks to all of you for your support.

And thanks to the city and their team, particularly Justin and his team.

Um, because this particular event, just like all the others, but in this particular event, he is super dependent on him.

So he was there for a minute ago.

Anyway, thank you, John.

And um, if anybody thinks that's a fun project to work on, well, you might be right, you might be wrong, but we are looking for team members for next year because I don't want to leave this thing personally again.

I'd rather lead the full organization.

So uh you probably know how to get in touch with me.

Thank you so much.

All righty, let's see.

Laura.

Laura Oldaney, 9th Avenue South.

Also, welcome to the two Jennifer's.

Glad to see you on the dais.

Um, and following up, also, I guess a little bit off of the um Pink Flamingo Tour.

One of the stops was the Little Tree Homestead and Elbert's house near Tomlinson Park.

And I wanted to let the council know that we're actually going to be hosting Nerd Night St.

Pete's first nerd scursion on Saturday.

Nerd Night St.

Pete is doing excursions, and we're gonna be hosting a um nerd excursion on sustainable living in urban Florida, showcasing how you can live more sustainably right here in Gulfport, Florida, with the shared homestead that's being developed there.

There's no easy way to register for it.

You can go on the Nerd Night St.

Pete website and find the link for the March 21st event.

It's from 2 to 4:30 p.m.

right there across from Tomlinson Park, or anyone can catch me somewhere along the way, or Albert Risenberg, we can get you the information.

But we're very excited to bring people together to um learn how to live more sustainably together and showcase Gulfport as a center of that.

Thank you.

Before I close, anyone else?

Yes.

Lauren.

More hands.

More hands.

Lauren Stern, 55th Street South.

Um, a few comments.

Uh so first, I'd like to bring up again.

I know we had consensus, I think it was two meetings ago for child care for city meetings.

Perhaps I would love to hear take a pulse check.

Do we still have that?

Um, I think the budget, the way that somebody laid it out was about 2600 a year, and that would allow a lot of parents to come to these meetings.

Um, so just reiterating that in front of new ears.

Um, as far as what just happened, Mr.

Lindy came in and thanked a couple of different council members, and that was permissive, permitted.

So I understand the decorum issue, um, concerns about non-decor, you know, out of decorum selective comments to individual members, but I do have a concern about just overall the role being applied to we are not allowed to make individual comments or statements.

So that was a little iffy for me.

Um, and then I read the uh because we can't comment on the consent agenda or the meeting approval, it's all discussion items or consent agenda, but I did read those attachments before coming in tonight.

And I wanted to note that for the um for the rules and policies that you guys are gonna listen to later, um, this whole um document that the clerk prepared does not include e-comment.

So her um her statement said that the whole resolution or the memorandum included kind of the whole um outline of of the way that public comment happens, but I noted that e-comment was not listed in the six or seven-page attachment, so I thought that was a little bit strange.

Hopefully, that will get added so that it's um consistent with what was already previously approved last year.

And then when I was reading through um the e the uh meeting minutes from the February 20th meeting, I thought that there were a couple of sort of editorialized summaries of comments made by Vice Mayor Thanos and Councilmember Shaw that I just didn't think were sort of an objective overview by whoever prepared these minutes, they seem to be um editorialized.

So just making public comment, as is my right to do, and welcome to the two Jennifers.

Happy to have you.

Uh yes.

Hello, um, I'm Donna Grace and I live on 24th Avenue South.

And welcome to the two new council members.

We're very happy that you're here.

We worked hard to get you here.

Uh I am concerned about the uh 287G situation also.

I feel like if we uh allow people to go and get trained by ice, then they're going to behave like ice.

And I haven't seen anything that looks like anything that we would want to have here in Gulfport.

I don't know how you'd go about rescinding something like that, but I sure hope that you have the power to to at least uh bring it up and um feel figure out how to help us so that we don't have um ice police here in Gulfport.

I think that would be very important.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Anyone else?

Do we have any e-comments?

I didn't see any more, so I'm closing public comment and going to e-comments.

Uh yes, we did have two e-comments, uh, both from residents of the city.

Uh the first one is from Deborah Schubs.

Uh Tuesday, March 17th, 2026, Gulfport Councilmember Jennifer Webb, as you are Ward 3 constituent requesting you require tonight at the council meeting with your council member directive that City of Gulfport attorney Salzman is to render a written legal review for public recuse me for public records access that historic black cemetery two-page annex petition is not dated, which is non-legally compliant with state of Florida real estate document laws, Lincoln Cemetery 7,000 historic graves and their descendants matter.

The second comment was from Mickey Alberts.

Uh hello and congratulations to our new council members.

I wanted to remind people that Gulfport No Kings rally will be on March 28th from 12 p.m.

to 130 p.m.

in Clymer Park.

Gulfport joins over 3,000 events nationwide to say no to author, excuse me, authoritarianism and yes to freedom.

Mickey Elberts, Gulfport.

Uh do we have addresses on them?

Because if we're making people come give their address when they come up here, I thought we had to give their address.

They do have to give it when they create the accounts.

Okay.

So it doesn't show on my report, but if you want me to research that each week for you, I will certainly add that.

Okay, thank you.

I I do because that was the whole point is, you know, we're asking them to give their address here.

So I think it's only fair that sometimes in their profile, they may give me 33707.

Uh the system will accept that as their address.

So sometimes that may be all I have for you.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

All righty.

Uh with that, then we'll move on to the city manager report.

No report, Mayor.

All righty.

And then we'll move on to the city attorney report.

No report, okay.

Um I have one question for the city um attorney.

Yes.

Can you um there had been a lot of discussion about the payout on the uh lions club, and that's kind of been put on hold, and I know why, but I think a lot of our residents don't.

So you could you could just kind of tell them why we haven't moved forward on that.

Mayor, counsel, basically what we are we're in a position where um we need documentation to support uh the request for payment to be made to whatever entity.

Currently, there's an issue as to whether or not the Lions Club Inc., Gulfport Lions Inc.

Um was no longer a viable entity at the time that they gave us notice of cancellation of the lease.

Therefore, while the lease provides for payment, we want to make sure we're paying it to the right entity.

I have created a general um release which would allow the city to uh pay the funds once we get the documentation to support who we're supposed to be paying.

So as part of that release, we're uh requesting exhibits to attach to the release that show a viable entity that is supposed to really uh receive these funds.

The city will not, unless you all direct us to uh release the funds until we get that documentation.

If that results in somebody bringing a suit, then what we would probably do is take the money and deposit it in the court registry and allow a judge to make that decision.

But unless there's documentation to support giving it to that particular entity, the city does not feel comfortable in doing that.

So that is what we're waiting for.

Thank you for that explanation.

Do we have a question?

A clarifying question.

So the Lions Club of Gulfport is has been dissolved.

Yes, as of the middle of last year.

But but just so you know, two years prior, they did create a 501c3, but the name is a little different.

And one of our residents brought that to our attention, and so we wanted to make sure that the that the groups that whatever legal document needed to go from Lions Club Inc.

to Lions Club Society, and I'm don't know that I'm saying it right right this moment.

Right, right.

And we don't feel comfortable releasing any funds until we have proper documentation.

Right.

The contract also said that uh it couldn't be transferred.

The lease couldn't be transferred to another party.

That is correct.

But if there is, I guess we we would have to see the original entity has the ability, assuming they do.

I'm not saying that they do, they will uh provide us documentation to show how they have the ability to transfer any funds, whether it goes to their international, whatever exhibits they can give us, so we can make that determination.

As I said, we may end up in going and just giving it to the court registry and let the judge make a decision based on the information because you know it's just we understand what the lease says from the cost, but we have to be able to give it to the proper entity.

Right.

Thank you.

Uh city clerk, do you have anything to report?

Nothing this evening, Mayor.

Okay.

And I have one question for you.

Would you repeat again what the deadline is for the folks who would like to fill out an application to be on the um the board open to fill the board openings?

Uh there's technically no deadline because I will accept them all year long in the event that somebody were to drop out or or resign.

Um I will take them any time of the year so you can turn them in.

Uh for this round of choosing for your boards.

I believe I have that on your agenda for the April 7th meeting.

So I would like to, unless you would like me to push it out.

If you guys are not ready to do that at that time, you can ask me to give more time, and we will go to the April 21st meeting.

Okay, thank you.

All righty.

With that, then we will start in with council comments and reports, and we will kick off tonight with um council member Donch.

Okay.

Uh so I don't necessarily have a report, but I did want to mention um in relation to the junk in the trunk that they have, and you know, swap or whatever cool alliterative name we have for it.

Um, there is a place in the county that you can take all of those things every day, and they also have a swap shop that's free.

So if you take your household chemicals to these, there's two locations in the county.

Um, they take those chemicals and then put them on a shelf so that other people can come use them.

So if you need paint or if you need pool chemicals, just like any household chemicals that you can think of that you need to dispose of at any of these special events, you can do them any day if you're cleaning out the house, whatever, they're open.

And then you can go get stuff for free too.

So if you need help to like clean up around the house or any of that stuff, it's all available all the time.

So just to go with that.

That's all I got.

Is that it?

That's all I have for now.

All right, thank you.

Then we'll go to uh council member Shaw.

Oh my goodness.

Sorry.

All that green.

Um first I wanted to mention something about uh the topic of the child care presentation.

Um can you all hear me okay?

I understand we have a new system, so I hope you don't mind me doing a check on that.

Is that is it coming through well?

Okay, thank you.

Um and so I went to the last meeting in the Gulfport Young Families Council, and they are still working on.

Let me say they're regrouping what they're going to consider presenting.

So at such time that they're ready, then we will hear from them.

Uh so I just wanted to give that little update since it was brought up in public comment.

Um, I am going to cover my report on the Suncoast League of Cities meeting that I attended in February.

It was on advocacy versus education on ballot measures, and with the local referendums and the legislative session that's been in progress, legal guidance on advocacy versus education.

Certainly was a timely topic for me, and I'm hoping this will be helpful to others because we still have we are still looking at the tax bill discussions, etc.

in our in our potential future referendum.

Uh so this meeting was on February 20th, and the presentation focused on the legal framework that governs how local officials may communicate about ballot initiatives.

Um I'm I'm going to skip the part about the person the speaker's background, but this report will be on the city website.

So if you're interested on who was speaking about it and if they were qualified, you can see it there.

He offered practical guidance on how local officials can navigate uh the fine line between education and advocacy.

He began by explaining Florida Statute 106.113, the key law governing local governments, and he identified the most important point as local governments may not use public funds or government resources to influence voters regarding a ballot measure.

And I think you can see that that we were very careful about that through our referendum process.

The law prohibits political advertising on communications directed to voters about a referendum or amendment when public resources are used to influence the outcome.

However, the law does allow governments to provide neutral factual information, which is you know, which was on the website, for example.

Um and uh cities may report official actions of the council, uh, respond to questions from residents or post factual information on the city's website, budget web information, uh budget, excuse me, budget information, economic impact statements, revenue projections can also be shared as long as they're accurate, fair, and impartial.

Um he gave examples, uh an acceptable communication would be if the amendment passes the city's projected revenue reduction would be approximately 3.6 million per year.

Uh uh where the line can be crossed is when communications move from facts into conclusions or persuasion, and that example was if this amendment passes, we will have to close three fire stations.

Um the type of statement may be interpreted as advocating against the measure because it predicts specific consequences that have not been officially determined by the governing body.

It's also important to remember that elected officials do not lose their personal First Amendment rights.

Under Florida law, officials may express personal opinions about ballot measures, attend community meetings, write letters, support advocacy groups, or participate in campaigns.

However, they must do so in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the city.

To avoid confusion, it's recommended that officials clearly state when they're speaking personally, a simple statement such as these are my personal views, I'm not speaking on behalf of the city, that type of thing.

Officials should also avoid using any government resources for advocacy activities, including things like government email accounts, official letter head, city staff, vehicles, equipment, work time, or other public resources.

The print presenter also discussed the role of the Florida Supreme Court in the ballot initiative process.

I wasn't aware of this part of the process.

Before the court approves ballot language, officials generally have more flexibility to discuss potential impacts and to educate residents about proposed legislation or initiative initiatives.

Once the court approves the ballot language and the measure is formally placed on the ballot, it becomes an official ballot initiative.

At that point, the stricter restrictions under Florida Statute 106.113 apply to communications that use public resources.

In conclusion, the presenter recommended several best practices, keep government communication neutral and factual, clearly separate personal opinions from official communications, avoid using any government resources for advocacy, and consult the city attorney whenever there's uncertainty.

We always like to add that clarification on.

And I want to bring up that residents can take part through the adopted drain program via Gulfport Connects, helping keep storm drains clean, clear to reduce street flooding while protecting water quality and wildlife.

So that's my public service announcement for the evening.

Thank you.

Very good.

Council member Webb.

Thank you, Mayor.

I first want to acknowledge that we had higher turnout this election than we had, and all non-presidential preference municipal elections in the past five years.

So I want to give our residents a round of applause for engaging in our and democracy.

It's a participation sport, and it's important that thank you.

That um that folks show up.

And um and it is interest and um and I really appreciate the recording of the types of trees because that also helps shape our vulnerability in terms of if a blight comes, and we know that these are common in Florida and in the conditions in which we find ourselves.

I would also like to congratulate the chamber of commerce on hosting Pink Flamingo and in having it in a place that has traditionally not been highlighted.

I love all of our wards in our city, and I think it's really important that we highlight all of the special characteristics and features of them all.

And I also did attend the um the families council for Gulfport and am looking forward to looking at ways of involving kind of formalizing engagement with our young our younger families.

This is something that is new for us since the 80s, 70s.

I don't know, city manager, when we when the last time we actually had babies and dog carriages.

But it's it's wonderful and it's a new thing for us.

And with the evolution of a city, we also need to adjust and move.

Um and then I would um and and find ways of involving and residents and different different residential groups uh in uh perspectives and val and what they value and what they need as that changes over time.

And turn and I also let's see wanted to um acknowledge that we had um oh this is probably new business, I'll hold on that.

And in terms of things that um that were brought up about the about um the Lincoln Cemetery, I will I will look into this.

I definitely need time to onboard, and so I'm not willing to take an action from an e-comment the day of, but I am interested in looking more into that.

I've been involved in um Lincoln Cemetery cleanups for the past 15 years, 10 years, and and I know that this comes up every now and then, and so I'm I'm willing to look into that.

And I am looking forward to serving.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

And council member early.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

Um Scott, and thank you, Councilmember Webb for acknowledging the ward four in the Pink Flamingo.

It was very, it was great.

It was really great.

So thank you.

Um before I get to my new, excuse me, before I get to my report, I I did want to say that on 425, there's a cleanup of the Lincoln Cemetery.

I spoke with the pastor.

Yes.

And he called me thanking me for helping in a prior cleanup and said that on 425 that I'm to bring all my friends, so friends.

If you're if you're not if you're not busy on Saturday, 425, please join us in Lincoln Cemetery.

A couple of months ago, we had uh Brad, and excuse me, I forget his last name, but um he walked us through the trail, and it was something similar that I do with my granddaughter.

She lives in Virginia, and it's a uh a green area, so a trail, and it's um has freestanding um, it's called a what is it called?

A story trail station.

So each so there's 17, 18 stations, and each one has the front, the first page of a book, and then the second page of a book, and then the third, and you get it.

So if you have a child or even as an adult, I am uh enthralled in the stories.

Um you walk the whole length, and that's what gets kids to walk the whole length, and it's published and supported by the library.

So I brought it up here, and Dave has been amazing trying to track down and trying to wrangle a grant um for this.

It's about $700 a station, and each book is about 20 pages, right?

So you need about 20 of them.

But we're having a difficult time.

So we came up with an idea.

When I say we, I mean he came up with an idea to have people sponsor.

So what you would do is you would sponsor number five on the trail, and you would provide whatever you would want to.

I think it's about $700 each, but you don't have to certainly don't have to come up with all of that.

It can be a business that does it, it could be a person.

I personally am doing that.

Um I have a lot of paperwork.

I'll put it on the website and I'll leave it up there.

But it in a sense, um to make the trail possible and the project possible, the library is inviting community sponsors to support individual story trail stations.

Each sponsored station help fund the installation of a durable outdoor panel and mounting structure that will hold the story pages along the trail.

I think it'd be very fun.

And as we talk about the families that we now have all over, and yes, it's shocking when there's a baby in the carriage.

Um I think this will go a long way for to include the families.

So thank you.

If you're interested, let us know.

I'll put on my website, and I think you'll probably have it at the library.

Is that correct, Dave?

Okay, and thank you for your help.

Super thank you.

You're welcome.

So the first thing I would like to report to my other council members is that I was at um the Ford Pinellus meeting the other afternoon, their Wednesday afternoons.

And once again, like I've reported in the past, the majority of conversation is about the MPA.

So there you're we're gonna take Panel.

This may happen.

It looks like it's going to happen but it's not a sure thing yet.

Hillsboro, PASCO and Pinellas County are all planning agencies forward Pinellas works for Ford, they're all going to combine into one planning agency.

And so much much conversation is spent on the actual practice of how this is actually going to happen, how it's going to be fair to all the cities.

There was a special meeting in between our monthly meetings where they talked about how they were going to distribute seats and the one thing that was decided for sure was because Pinellas County has so many more cities than the other two counties have you know how are you going to address big cities versus small cities and they voted for the fact that what they wanted to do was for each county to decide how to use their share of the votes.

So Penel um Hillsboro County would have no say in to how many seats a small city in Pinellas might get so at the next council at the next not council meeting but the next Ford Panellus Pinellas County is in in fact going to zero in on that and talk very specific to that one thing how do they want to divide up their seats and again it's not a sure thing that this is going to happen but the all it's always kind of commented that if the these three counties don't decide to do it themselves the state's going to tell them how to do it.

And so this would be the preference the second thing I got from that meeting that still is a little over my head this is very much the Jetsons for me is that the state is all in on this air mobility okay and they say that in 2027 we're going to have air mobility from Alford wetted air witted airport okay that'll be the hub here in our county to Tampa Airport and there and initially you'll have pilots but eventually no pilots okay and there this is moving along they don't give me all the details but again I can only think of the Jetsons.

The third thing is not so funny.

The third thing is is very serious in my opinion so they just reported on um fatalities in 2026 through February.

So two months of 2026 in our county alone we had four motorcycle acts of fatalities excuse me four pedestrian fatalities one bicycle and one car so that's 10 that we've had in two months now to compare it in the year 2025 we had a total of 22 okay so fatalities in our county are going to go way up unless we can shut this down pretty quick and that was the message and most importantly I hope you heard four motorcycles for pedestrians one bicycle we have to do better.

And the cars are probably the the the size of the cars and the features in our cars is probably why fatalities in cars has actually come down okay um the third thing I wanted to mention was again not to go in a lot of detail but we do have a workshop here on March 26th this is the conversation starter where and and follow up feedback to the presentation I gave on February 3rd and I point out February 3rd so that if you didn't listen to presentation you would have an opportunity to actually listen to it see what you think and then come and share your comments at the workshop.

This is all about parking in our downtown area reducing speed in our downtown area designated parking in our and one way streets so it's all been laid out it's ready for y'all to make start making the improvements want to hear from you on the 26th here six o'clock let's see so I hope you'll want to attend on that then in terms of public comment tonight I have to say that um I'm going to go a little bit backwards to the best of my knowledge there's no consensus from this council or the past council regarding um child care for council meetings I believe there was a consensus that if a group wanted to come and give a presentation that we would get it on the agenda.

So I wanted to clarify that the second thing was I think a good point was made tonight and maybe when we're talking about our policies and procedures we need to address the inconsistencies is it okay for somebody come up and give accolades and and to one council member and not the other yes I didn't mean to interrupt you but yeah your current policy says yes that the public must refrain from making personal attacks.

Mayor, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but your current policy says that the public must refrain from making personal attacks.

Okay.

That's why it is one side and not the other.

Personal tax, not that one person could be the focus of attention for something good.

It's personal tax thanks.

Cause I was sitting here saying, well, yeah, I can kind of see where that, you know, why is it okay one way, not the other?

Okay, it's the personal attacks.

Thank you.

And then um I wanted to say, and I can't believe that this is still coming up.

Truthfully, the only way that I know that there's a feud with the GABR is because I have certain residents, two of them that left before I had a chance to comment, who've told me this for three times now.

Okay.

When I'm on the streets, nobody asks me about a feud with the GABBR.

When they when a comment was made that I have um continuing a war, and I don't know, they said something else that I'm making personal attacks, find it.

I have when there was there was incorrect information put out either April or May concerning the plan for the senior center.

I saw the incorrect the incorrect information.

I went immediately to every source that I could for correction, and I was slammed big time for picking on a local business.

Okay.

I've not said one word since then.

My opinion doesn't matter.

I'm the mayor of the city.

That does not mean that I work for the GABBR.

I've not made any references.

So every time uh those two individuals decide to come up here and say that I've done something to the GABBER, I I find it ironic.

And the only reason I laughed was because when we were getting our history lesson from that resident, he stated that uh the GABBER and the peninsula were our oldest businesses, and I looked over at the city manager because it's always been my understanding that Calwell Realty is in fact our oldest business.

And that's why I looked at him to just kind of smirk, you know, about that.

It wasn't anything else about what they were saying, it was about that.

So I'd like to finally put this thing to bed.

I work for you, I don't work for the GABBER.

If I choose to use the official city of Galport newsletter and the official city of Gulfport website to communicate what's going on in the city, I have that right.

End of conversation.

So thank you.

With that, can we move to consent?

Item six, excuse me.

Item 6A, consider approval of meeting minutes for meetings held February 17th, February 26th, and March 3rd, 2026.

Item 6B, resolution number 2026-11, a resolution appointing a resident trustee to the Gulfport General Employees Pension Board and providing for a term of appointment.

Item 6C, resolution number 2026-12, a resolution appointing a resident member to the Gulfport Firefighters Pension Board and providing for a term of appointment.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Passes unanimously.

Okay.

I think it's because it's St.

Patrick's Day.

Oh no, because it's um new officials day.

We have no ordinances tonight.

We have no resolutions tonight, but we do have some discussion items.

And it will go very pretty quickly with these as well.

They're not so much as a discussion, but more a little bit of direction for the city clerk.

Uh so each year uh the this the city council has the ability to choose how they choose their vice mayor.

Like we've said, typically it has been a rotating position, and we've done it chronologically by ward.

If you were to continue with that, uh the next person up for vice mayor would be council member Marlene Shaw, and then after that would be council member Webb, and then council member early and so on.

Um last year I did hear a little bit of chatter about possibly changing that, so I wanted to give you that option again.

So I don't need a vice mayor nomination or just how you would like to go forward with it.

This will be on your next meeting as the resolution to appoint the vice mayor.

Okay.

So let's go in speaking order in terms of anything that you'd like to say on that.

I'm good with it rotating the way it has been.

Pardon?

I'm good with it rotating the way that it has been.

Okay.

And let's see, our order.

Excuse me.

Well, I feel awkward because rotating would be me, but I I think nominations are fine.

Nominations are fine.

Okay.

Councilmember Webb.

I think well.

I think that how it's been done is fine.

I also I think remember from the last discussion that we that y'all talked about senior according to seniority.

I think that that also has some has merit because of the fact that they are the presiding officer in your absence.

And so having folks who have run the traps longer and can maintain order makes a lot of good sense.

Okay.

I feel that way as well.

I think that there would be a chance in the way that the schedule that uh city clerk just shared with us that you wouldn't have the opportunity.

I would not have the opportunity if I didn't run next year or if I ran and I didn't win.

So I would love to be um considered and how that would be is if we were nominating.

So I like that idea.

Okay.

So I think I had two that said go in order and two that said uh that they'd like nominations.

Did I get that right?

Go in order of term of London term.

No, oh okay.

That's what I said.

Yeah, I have her down as seniority and still in the orientation.

I said seniority.

All right.

So we've got and then um my feeling was what I had said when we talked about this briefly a couple months back, was that I did not feel the need to keep going just in order of ward, but that I would like to first of all, uh if I would like to know who would like to run for vice mayor, because I know that some people have different schedules, so it'd be some some people it would be no big deal to jump in as vice mayor and to other people it would could potentially be a hardship, okay.

So I felt like we should first find out who wants that opportunity.

Um I do think that do we not have a rule already that says that you must be in office one year to be vice mayor?

It it does not say it does not say that.

Okay.

Good to know because I had it in my brain that I thought that they had to have um somebody had to be in for one year.

I believe that was a little bit of talk amongst the charter review committee.

You may have heard that in one of their uh things that you have to do.

I know I heard it, so that might have been where it came from alrighty.

So that would be my thought, and I don't think we have to make that decision today.

Um if I heard right, we don't have to make it today, but when we go over our policies and procedures at the next council meeting, that's where we should probably make a decision so we kind of have an idea of where people stand now.

I don't know if we'll ever all agree on it or not, but uh at our next meeting when we're talking about it.

If we're not all on the exact same page, it's okay.

We'll just go with the majority consensus.

Can I ask a clarifying?

Of course you can.

Uh and I'm not sure who to direct the maybe you um city clerk.

A nomination can be declined, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

So if someone does not feel that they are fit to serve in that position, they can say thank you, but I absolutely decline the okay.

Just wanting to make sure absolutely, yes, ma'am.

So did you get an every what you needed for right now?

Yes, I'll be able to uh I am gonna put it on a resolution as your next meeting, um, and it will probably have a blank line until we make that decision.

But I would ask you to do a roll call vote at that meeting so that we could at least have someone in place going forward in the event that you were unable to meet your duties or attend the meeting.

Okay.

Before we move forward, any anything else on this issue.

No, everybody's okay with leaving it here for now.

Okay.

My microphone hit me.

All righty.

Um, with that, then we will move on to um 9B.

So 9B is about your res or your policies and procedures.

Now these are done every single year.

Uh and I've given you what is the your current policy and procedure, which the three of you were voted on, you voted on these last year.

So it is resolution 25-32.

I have included them on the agenda.

And all I'm asking is for this to be what I would like you to do is as your homework, I guess, is to come back to the next meeting and we have a full discussion on what your each of your suggestions are and see if we can come to that consensus.

Now you can overhaul this entire resolution or you can pick it apart.

It does not matter to me.

It's how what you guys want for your policies and procedures.

Um, so I just wanted to make sure everyone understood that that in the thing, what I'm asking is we're gonna come back at your April 7th, and we're gonna discuss again, and that's when you guys are gonna be able to say, Um, I want I would like to see this, I would like to see this change.

Please remove this, put this in there, and I will gather all of that information from that discussion and then bring back an actual resolution on the 21st for you all to vote on for your your items, and then that is what we will go by for the 26-27 year.

Okay.

Very good.

Um, before we move on, we'll go in speaking order.

Is there anything that you'd like to say about policies and procedures, questions, statements, thoughts?

I'll be ready for the next meeting.

Okay, that's good enough.

I'm already ready.

Okay, very good.

No, Councilmember Webb, nothing.

Okay.

I'm ready also.

Oh wow.

It did.

Okay.

Very good.

So when we had the new council last year, and that was um pretty much four new people all at once.

So there was quite a bit of uh conversation on policies and procedures, and there were several um things that were changed, and so it'll be interesting to me to see if this council wants to keep those changes or if you're gonna want to revert back on a couple of the things that happened at that time.

Then kind of during the middle of our year, uh e-comments were added.

Okay, we did not decide on that as part of our policies and procedures initially.

That was kind of added midterm, so that's going to be another decision for this council if they want to continue with e-comments, okay.

And when we decided to do uh e-comments, we said that they would be read, and then we realized that we had a little discrepancy about you know, if we ask people to give their name and address from the public, then we need to get the name and address for e-comments as well.

We also had some discussion at that time that we would decide on a case-by-case basis what would happen.

So, for example, um, and I I throw this out to you because this will come up again.

For example, when you have 70 e-comments and they're all taking the same position.

Do we need to read read 70 of them, which could add another um hour to or hour and a half to our meeting?

Did we need to do that, or would it be okay to say we have 70 comments and they're all in opposition for this, or they're all in favor of this, okay?

And um, so that's not a hard and fast rule.

We decided on the night strictly by consensus whether to do it or not.

So I would like for you to come back and do that.

Also, the um I like um council member um Webb already tonight you've said clarifying question, and that's so helpful to be able to to do that to, you know, because we can all only hear so much.

So if somebody's talking and it's hard for you to keep up with what they're saying when you're still stuck on a point back here to do that little subtle, you know, and we also said that as a council that we would do a better job about coming up for air every now and then so that a clarifying question could be asked because that's really good, and that's very different than being interrupted in the middle of your thought, and then you sometimes lose it.

So um I like that as well.

And we also switched up the order of the agenda a little bit.

So you might want to look at the order of the agenda, and if you like it or you don't like it, and raise that next week as well.

And that's all I needed to say on that.

And I'm all set, that's all I needed from you.

Thank you.

Can I ask one more clarifying question?

Yes, you can.

Excellent.

Where there is statutory or charter intersections with rules, that would be noted in the resolution.

Like we would be aware of that.

Because I just want to make sure that we're not spending time recommending something that ultimately can't be implemented.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

And I'm I'm so glad that you asked that question.

I need to interrupt for just a second.

You asked a really good question, and I love that.

And that's the one thing that's really important too, is that all of us up here in council have an opportunity to meet with staff every single week.

And I know I meet with staff twice a week.

And you have an opportunity to ask so many questions.

Now I understand sometimes once you get the answer, you might want to answer ask the question again because it's such a oh ho, you know, powerful thing that you want it on record.

But other than that, it's a shame if you don't take advantage of your meeting with our staff and learn so that you know sometimes meetings don't have to be four hours.

So I appreciate uh that if you'll take advantage of those meetings.

All righty, and now you would move on to your new business.

All righty, and we'll go in speaking order for new business.

So my new business was going to be about the rules, so I guess it can wait, but I did want to bring up and ask for all of the comments to be read.

I would like for that to actually become a rule, even if there's 70 that all say the same thing from 70 different people.

If they were all standing here, they would all have a chance to talk.

And I think even just reading them out loud saying I don't like you or whatever it is, I don't like me, whatever, whatever you want to say, it should all be read, all 70 of them should be read.

I realize we don't want to be here for four hours, but maybe there's I can talk real fast to get through a lot of other stuff.

So I really that that's really important to me.

So I guess we'll talk about that next time because it's already on the list.

So that's all I have for now.

Okay, thank you.

I have no new business.

All righty, thank you.

I would like um to recommend that we acknowledge by their ceremonial resolution or whatever we do as a body.

Um, Nikita Johnson who won um the 2026 Indy next in St.

Pete.

He's a 17-year-old from Gulfport.

And it's not every one.

I mean, it's not a there's very few people who win those races, period, full stop, and to have someone from Gulfport um distinguish themselves in that way as we're celebrating, and so um more of a ceremonial business matter, but I think it's um important to recognize when we have nationally recognized greatness.

Proclamation.

Yeah, yeah.

So are you asking for consensus?

I don't, yes, I am.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Great.

You got your consensus.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, for that guidance.

I have no new business.

All right.

I have a couple of things.

Um this goes back to a couple of things that are bills at the state level that really affect us in Gulfport.

So I just wanted to run them by you.

Um, one has to do now.

This this is passed, but it's not signed yet by our governor, but he has given the nod that makes us believe he's gonna sign it.

So it has to do with e-bikes.

So e-bikes are defined as bikes with pedals and motors that go less the uh at less than 70 750 watts, which I think that's 18 miles an hour.

I think I'm right on that.

So this new bill, which is 382, would require that the operators of e-bikes reduce their speed limit when they're within 50 feet of pedestrians down to 10 miles an hour.

Uh I don't want to get hit by 10 by somebody going 10 miles an hour, but that's what it says on shared pathways.

They must give an audible sign or warning to the pedestrian of their intent to pass.

E-bikes will not require a license.

Cities can make ordinances regarding operation on streets and sidewalks, however, cannot restrict e-bikes on bike paths, multi-user paths, trail net or trail networks.

Now, I don't know about you, but I find that pretty vague.

Um it doesn't use the word parks at all, and it doesn't define multi-user path.

So this council had talked about wanting to implement some rules and regulations and also to define an e-bike versus a scooter.

There are no bills currently looking to be signed at the state level that address anything about these hybrids that are really motorcycles made to look like bicycles.

They don't have pedals.

So I just am saying we will have conversation on this, but it's quite vague.

And it also to me seems to be in conflict with another city council that just recently passed in the last day or two their ordinance, and it says that they are going to disallow e-bikes, electric scooters, hoover boards in all high traffic areas.

So is that a park, a multi-use path, a sidewalk, or a street?

So I think I'm going to suggest that this is another bill that's probably going to be signed, but apparently I don't think it's going to clarify too much.

I think it's going to cause more unknowns than what we already have, and not knowing who needs to wear helmets and who doesn't, and what requires a license.

Have a good night, and if you're going to go celebrate, please do so responsibly.

Thank you.