Good evening, folks.

I am going to call to order our council meeting for what's today, July seventh, I think.

July seventh, twenty twenty-six.

So that would be helpful to us.

So with that, we'll go ahead and um do a roll.

I called it to order.

So we will go ahead and start with the invocation by Council Member Jennifer Donch, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

So if you may, please rise.

Thank you.

Okay.

Roll call if you will.

Councilmember Donch here.

Vice Mayor Shaw.

Present.

Councilmember Webb.

Present.

Councilmember Early.

Present.

Mayor Love.

Here.

City Attorney Salzman.

Here.

City Manager O'Reilly.

Deputy City Clerk Hartman is present.

All right.

So tonight we're gonna start with a presentation, and it's gonna be given by our own Rachel Cotolbo from the Senior Center.

Good evening.

Hi, good evening.

Yes, I was asked to come and speak about item number six C on your agenda and give you a little background about that grant.

So AARP announced that five organizations across Hillsborough, Polk, and Pinells County have received the 2026 Community Grant Challenge.

Community Challenge Grant.

Sorry.

Marking the program's 10th anniversary, these grants are part of an $8.3 million commitment by AARP, doubling last year's total to fund 750 quick action projects nationwide, aimed at making communities more livable for people of all ages, especially older adults.

With tonight's acceptance of the AARP grant in the amount of $14,982, which is on tonight's agenda.

The Discover Gulf Port Walking Trail System will receive clearer signage and accessibility features along nine miles of routes.

This includes directional signage, trail names, map boards, QR codes for digital maps, and handrails where they are needed most.

And we look forward to seeing everyone in November at the mayor's second annual walk where we will be showing off all the improvements.

Thank you.

That's really exciting.

It is, and they they received one more thing.

They received 5,100 applications across the nation.

And so they only get gifted five uh 750.

So it was good.

Wow, so they really did like your your program then.

Very good.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

Appreciate it.

All righty, and then we'll move on to um let me get back up here.

Um public comment.

So during public comment, you're welcome to come up here.

You give your name, the city that you reside in.

You have up to three minutes to talk about anything that you'd like, make your statement.

Um, it's not a give and take, and uh those people in the audience, we don't boo here and we don't applaud, all right.

But you can talk about anything that's not on the agenda.

If it's on the agenda, we'll do public comment at that time.

So, show of hands, please.

Yes, please.

Come on up.

Good evening.

My name is Emma Mujica, and I'm a resident of Gulfport of almost 10 years.

And I just want to, on the record, say thank you to Mayor Love.

Thank you to the Gulfport Recreation Department and to the city staff for putting on such a wonderful 4th of July celebration.

It was like Mayberry and summer camp for adults and kids, all wrapped up into one very um sultry moment.

It was so hot.

Um, but I just have to say thank you for that.

Um, I brought my daughter here because she also was so grateful to watch the mayor play, to watch the recreation director play, and to be just immersed in that very lovely, lovely experience that was just like wholesome America, right?

Um, and she also is very curious about the gift that you have right there.

So that's what we really were so curious about uh coming to watch happen.

And then one thing I'll say is that I envision some improvements to these recreational spaces for kids and families.

Um, obviously, we have a beautiful tree program that is something we take advantage of often, and also I could see there being some really wonderful improvements to uh shadier areas for Tomlinson Park, including um something like a Mr.

or water feature.

I know that's something that myself and other mothers have advocated for, other parents have advocated for for some of the parks for those of us who live in Gulf Court year-round.

It would make a really big difference to just have a little Mr.

Station where we could cool off in the heat of the summer.

So that's just something that I think could benefit everybody, especially in an event like the Fourth of July festivities, where we were all just so very hot.

Um so thank you for your time and thank you again for your service.

All of you up here doing so much for our city, and uh we love to live here because of the things that you all create in this community and continue running uh day after day, week after week, and year after year.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes, in the back.

Who's that?

Marilyn.

Marilyn McClellan, where do I live?

Oh, oh, 56th Street.

Um, I want to second that.

It was amazing day.

Um, it really made me think too of the kindness of our city council, the demeanor and the tone that you set, and then it kind of dawned on me that it's not just the council, but it's everybody that works in golfport.

All of us sports staff, all of the leaders, and it makes it so much easier for the rest of us to be kind.

Because right now, with all the hate speech, it's easy to want to fight back.

But the way that you conduct yourselves gives us the opportunity to say, hey, go ask.

You know, you you disagree with civility, so I think that sets a good tone.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Yes, please.

Hello.

I'm Alan Yergovich.

I'm a resident of Madeira Beach, but I'm here representing the Kwanis Club of Gulf Court.

And I wanted to uh uh come here and thank the city for uh um facilitating Tomlinson Park for the Juneteenth celebration and for all of your attendance at Juneteenth.

Uh it was uh absolutely wonderful event.

Uh this year we were happy to uh collaborate with uh Fusion 49th.

Um it's a new collaboration for us, and uh uh it helped open up uh to other uh the event.

Uh it's it was the sixth annual uh Juneteenth celebration uh that uh Kwanis uh sponsored and it helped open up uh the event to uh new communities, and uh we're so looking forward to next year's.

Very good.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Anyone else out there before we?

Yes.

Hi, council, city manager, hello Amanda.

So I wanted to say, and I'm kind of speaking on a dual reason as Trey Johnson who enjoys Gulfport so much, and Trey Johnson, Civic News Reporter with the Gabber.

I wanted to say thank you to all of you.

I don't know if anybody knows, but the Gabber has been saved for at least one year, provided everybody follows through on their promises for monthly sponsorship, which I fully believe they will.

The Gabber is safe for a year, and that is great news.

And as we transition to new ownership and a new now, what we feel we should be really a community newspaper.

We're asking everyone, including you, Mr.

O'Reilly.

I just want to make sure we want everybody's information.

What do you want to see covered in your city?

What information would you like to see?

What things are we doing wrong?

What do you want to beat us up about?

Not physically, just verbally.

But whatever you want the gabber to be, whatever you think it should represent and cover, we want to hear from you.

You can email me, T-R-E-I-Tray at the Gabber, or you can do editor at the gabber.

Of course, you can just go to our website and find out who to contact.

But this really is a time for us to come together as a community.

I'm disappointed I missed the Fourth of July celebration because it sounds like exactly what we want the paper to do.

Unite people, inform them, make them happy, bring people together.

And so that's in that spirit what we want to do with the gabber being a community newspaper, like a just a whole new.

We're gonna wipe the slate clean, and we want to start again, and we can't do that and give you what you want without your input.

So everybody that's in the in the community out there, if you have any suggestion, department heads, all of you.

We would love your feedback.

So I just wanted to also say on behalf of the GABBER, for all of you that did show your love and support.

Thank you so much.

There's a couple council members that really have have been there for us, and we so appreciate it.

We appreciate all the work that you guys do and the and the civility.

I do appreciate that because I've dealt with some really nasty people in government, and that is not the city.

So I appreciate that.

And we just wanted to say from the Gabber, thank you very much.

Thank you, J.

Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment?

Yes, Lori, just in time.

Good evening, Laurel Old Ainey, Ninth Avenue South.

I just wanted to say how pleased I was to discover that our Gulfport Library is the only library in the Pinellas County system to possess the best books in the country, possibly the world on rainwater harvesting.

Um, this is rainwater harvesting for drylands and beyond, so we're obviously beyond dry lands, but it is a two-part theory and practice set by Brad Lancaster, who is famous around the world for this, and it's right here in our Gulfport resources.

So I would love to introduce this to our council members, our city staff to be educated.

And in fact, we have someone in um Pinellas County, out just outside of Gulfport who has studied with Brad Lancaster.

She's the only person I know of who's brought this knowledge back to our area.

Her name is Diane Willis.

I have put Mayor Love in contact with her.

She has recently retired from her field botanist job.

She is eager to spread this information for free.

She wants to teach and educate people about all of this.

And I think especially for those of us, I mean, it's good for everyone in Gulfport, but those of us that live in the north side of Gulfport, the more we can catch the rain and hold it on our properties, the better it is for all of Gulfport.

But this is not just about what is good for Gulfport in general.

It's better for the planet.

The more water we can catch and retain in the earth, the better it is.

There are some experts out there saying it's just as important to focus on holding rainwater in the earth as it is on how much carbon is in the atmosphere.

So here we have some of the best tools at our disposal right here in our Gulf Port library.

So again, rainwater harvesting for dry lands and beyonds, volume one and two by Brad Lancaster.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Laura.

I I do remember talking to Diane in the past, and I would appreciate it if you'd ask her to reach out to me.

Oh, I was gonna leave this.

This is her phone number.

I was told that thank you for rumoring.

Yeah, I like email stuff.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anyone else, we're gonna close public comment?

Yes, Ms.

Thanos.

I'd like to just build on what she just said is another way to keep um rainwater in the ground, is to have more permeable surfaces.

And right now, we have an ordinance that 20% of any lot has to be a hundred percent permeable, green.

And I'd like you to consider changing that to 25.

And uh from I've talked to the city attorney about this before, and I don't think this would really be considered a taking, uh, but he would have to double check.

And another thing that has come up before, and maybe we should look at it again with the changes in technology, is instead of having everybody pay the same thing for stormwater in St.

Pete, they do it by how much of a lot is permeable.

And because now you could fly drones and do an aerial thing and have AI figure it out for you, and then if people disputed it, you could always check it, you know, if it was wrong.

But that could be a way of encouraging people to keep their yards more permeable and to use more permeable materials.

You know, there's permeable cement now, there's permeable pavers that the papers themselves are permeable, or there's papers that just by having more space are permeable, or the kind that you can grow, you know, plants in between, moths and stuff.

So I think we really need to look at that and encourage people to do what they can because the more water we can keep up in North Gulfport, the better it is for South Gulfport.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Anyone else before I go to e-comment?

Seeing none.

Yeah.

No, you only get one public comment.

Sorry, just one.

Sorry.

Now your daughter could come up and speak if she wants to.

And as soon as she does, then we'll go to e-comment.

All righty, would you read the e-comment, please?

Okay.

If we have any comments, I think there was one.

There is one from David Shiner.

I oppose the mayor's pageantry contest for a sign at Trolley Square.

A wayfarer approaching this portal will see a gilded sign looming over a grim verity of human suffering, blight, and legal violations.

I held I hold a city email that the mayor has witnessed a slow recurring progress procession from the realm of the square to the adjacent sidewalk.

The city's proclamation that the process occurs legally over an enchanted boundary is a fairy tale.

They have stepped through a looking glass of their own making, but pretending a boundary line alters reality does not absolve the city of its statutory reinforcement enforcement duties under support of statute 166.0453, which prohibits public camping and sleeping in public rights of ways.

Thank you.

All right.

So we will now move on to the city manager report, please.

Yes, Mayor.

Thank you.

Mayor, I'd like to invite Justin Shay to come up and speak during my time in regards to uh some of the items that were received discovered or opened as part of the um time capsule.

And also to recognize your gift from Mayor Clymer, who lived in your neighborhood back in the day.

The gentleman in the far left corner would have been the mayor at the time that presented that you the gift to you.

I believe he lived Kitty Corner from my house now, yeah.

Cool.

Mayor Council, um, what a wonderful experience to see 50 years in the past to the bicentennial right here in the city of Gulfport.

On display tonight, are a select few items that were uh unveiled uh from the bicentennial 1976 time capsule.

A couple highlights, you'll see a budget from 1976-77.

Um it was a three million dollar operating budget for the city of Gulfport, I believe a hundred and two employees.

And then you'll also see a utility bill that covered sewer water garbage and the utility tax from February of 77, and that bill was $12.

Um, so those items are here for uh to for people to review.

Uh Mayor uh climber um gave the future mayor from 50 years a surprise to open.

So uh Mayor Love will unveil that.

And um, so everybody knows the museum curator tomorrow at 9 a.m.

will take possession of these items.

They will archive these items and make them available on the city's website, and uh, we will make an announcement on the city's electronic newsletter when the archive is ready so you can view all the items that were in the 1976 bicentennial time capsule.

And then where will they reside?

Will they reside at the museum?

Yes, ma'am.

So we're working on inventory.

We're getting a secure case of the there's coins, there's cash, uh, those items will be secured.

Uh we'll we're putting a case together so you can come view those items at the historic at the museum.

So what a wonderful uh day of activities and uh thank you for the opportunity.

Well, I have to say thank you too because it was a wonderful day of activities, and you were really responsible for making everything go so smoothly.

So thank you.

Jim has a really good staff, and we all work together very well.

Yes.

So this little note just says this is a gift for the mayor or head elected official of the city of Gulfport on July 6th, uh July 4th, 2026.

And so you saw the all-important ribbon, which the thick yarn, the gold color we all used in the 70s.

Okay, that's the first thing I noticed.

The box, whether it's pretending it's really a frying pan or not, the box says Astro Point by Bradley.

So now I open it.

Oh, now there's another message.

And this message says, I don't have my glasses.

Dear mayor, each person responsible for the planning and implementing of JB Climber Park received one of these uh pen sets at the dedication of the park.

The bicentennial committee of the city of Gulfport wishes you to hand oh to have one also, sorry.

I'm reading cursive to have one also.

We hope uh this area, this area is as lovely in 2026 as it is in 1976, and that all of your citizens are enjoying its beauty.

The entire city sends its best wishes to you for 2026 for the future.

Sincerely, Yvonne Johnson, council member ward four and bicentennial chair.

Well so it's really funny because I said I not knowing who the mayor was in 76.

I said, Well, I wonder if it'll be gender specific.

Well, it was your Bon Johnson, the first female mayor that the city ever had, and the gift goes to the second female city.

So that's pretty funny.

So yes, there's a so I oh it's like a little holder.

Is it oh it's a oh yes.

Does the pen right?

There we go.

Does the pen write so we'll see if the ink still works or if it's dried up in the last 50 years?

Oh, well, it works.

It works.

Very good.

It's so cool.

Very good.

Perfect.

All righty.

So we'll move on with the uh city manager's report then.

Uh city manager, did you have anything else?

No, ma'am.

That was it.

Okay, thank you.

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

Yes, Mayor, two things.

One to uh as council's aware, the governor vetoed the e-bike um law.

So we have we're in the process of preparing an ordinance to bring to you to look at some of the regulations the city can do regarding e-bikes on sidewalks in certain areas of the city.

Um the problem with the e-bikes, of course, is it's not so much what you put in, it's how whether or not you can enforce it.

And uh so we're gonna try to put reasonable restrictions.

One thing I'd like council to consider uh and and maybe contact me if you want it.

There can be particular areas of the city that you can completely not allow e-bikes if you want to consider that.

Uh so some cities have done that in downtown areas or waterfront areas.

I mean, of course, waterfront has uh people that are exercising, things like that, but um, you can consider that.

You could also do it for uh certain festivals and functions like that.

Um so that's just something to consider.

But uh I'm working on that and I'll bring it back to you.

The other issue is on the O'Hara lawsuit.

I told you that we did a civil remedies notice, which is a 30-day notice, basically saying you need to pay if you're not paying, um, we're gonna seek treble damages.

Uh have heard no response.

The last we heard from the state attorney's office uh was they had contacted the clerk's office.

We haven't heard any follow-up from the state attorney's office.

I believe Teresa had contacted them back and didn't hear anything, so we are moving forward with the civil action.

That's all I have.

So can you kind of because this is of course dragged on a long time and and two other times, and we thought we were going to file civil, then lo and behold, the state pops up and and talks to us, and we think we're gonna move forward, and so then we back off, and it hasn't happened.

So going down the route of Sybil, which you're gonna file, thank you.

Um, is that something that could drag on for another year?

No.

It should be relatively short period of time.

Um it uh anything below eight thousand dollars goes to small claims.

Uh small claims moves uh pretty quickly.

Uh the way the process does in small claims, which is a little different, is uh they do an immediate um pretrial, which is also mediation at the same time.

So what happens is you you have uh a set hearing, they they it's a cattle call.

Uh it's done by zoo.

Um, so they if the parties, both parties are there, you're given immediately to a mediator or facilitator to try to resolve it.

If you can reach an agreement, then uh you draft it up and take care of it.

If you can't reach an agreement, then they set you for trial.

So it moves very quickly.

An agreement is payment in full.

Oh, unless you tell me differently, that's my understanding.

And then some okay.

But that is uh uh that is the process.

Okay.

Um, before we move on, does anyone want to have any questions on this matter for the city attorney?

No.

All righty, then we'll move along.

We'll go to the city clerk report.

No report this evening, Mayor.

No report.

All right.

Then we'll move on to uh city uh uh to council comments and reports, and we will start with uh council member Donch, please.

Thanks.

Um, so just like everybody else is probably going to mention that they attended all of these events since the last time we were here.

Juneteenth was awesome.

Um, 4th of July, obviously it was amazing.

Um, so we obviously thank all of the city staff that was involved in that.

Everything was exactly how I think everybody hoped they would be.

Um to mention upcoming, there is a clam bayou um invasive plant removal again this weekend.

I know it's kind of short notice if you didn't know about it already, but it is July 11th from 8 to 11.

Um I know it's gonna be really hot, and I'm actually not gonna be here, so I need two people that maybe wouldn't have come otherwise to fill in for me.

So um Saturday, 8 to 11, clan by you, go rip out some Carrot Woods or Pepper, whatever.

Whatever's marked to take out, take it all out and let's clean it up and get that going.

And that's all I have today.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

Okay, so in the interest of time, I'll summarize my reports that can now be viewed on the city website.

Um, the report on the Suncoast League of Cities meeting highlights the American Flood Coalition as a free resource.

Cities can join by passing a resolution.

It offers tools like the flood funding finder for grant identification, the adaptation for all booklet for mitigation strategies, and free data models from the Florida flood hub at USF.

A little tongue twisting on funding, uh, Florida's resilient Florida program offers 20 million dollars annually for planning grants and 100 million for implementation grants.

The coalition is also pressing for federal reforms, including state management of disaster funds and faster FEMA response.

Uh other reports online, an interesting overview by the Florida Division of Emergency Management Hurricane Briefing at a Quality City session, uh property tax proposal briefing by the Florida League of Cities, uh Sierra's Environmental Think Tank for elected leaders.

Meeting topic was on sewer lateral rehabilitation programs.

Our Sonia Levert, director of utility billing services, did a great job.

She was one of the speakers and presented Gulfport's program.

Summarily, our program offers 50% reimbursement up to $3,500 per property, and later expanded to cover a portion of private waterline replacements as well.

And two other reports from Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council's agency on Bay and Coastal Management Sessions on other topics may also be of uh interest.

Continuing, following the opening of the 50-year time capsule at City Hall on July 4th, another time capsule opening at the Gulfport History Museum is in planning stage for October 18th.

No, 16th, excuse me.

Uh there's also discussion underway about entering a new time capsule to be opened in 2050, so stay tuned for details.

Finally, I'd like to share things.

Uh Juneteenth felt like the biggest and best attended celebration I have been to yet for Juneteenth.

Thank you to Kawanis and the Fusion 49th district for making that such a wonderful uh event.

Uh as for Independence Day, this was our nation's 250th birthday, and it left me searching my heart.

I experienced the celebration live this week, which was amazing.

Then we watched what the Constitution means to me on Netflix.

Thank you.

Followed by a live performance.

And honestly, it stirred me more than I can easily put into words.

Something about the flag, the Statue of Liberty, everybody coming together.

It goes deep.

It inspired more thoughts of what this land in this country means to me and to all of us.

And sustains my hope that we can always find.

Sorry.

You can tell, I'm still feeling it.

That we can always find our common ground and keep working together for our future.

Thank you to everyone who helped bring every part of this very special Independence Day celebration together.

There was something for everyone from morning to night, and our city and community truly came together, and that is one of the things that always connects us.

Thank you again.

Sorry.

And is that it?

It's yes, thank you.

No more tears.

And then I'll recompose.

Okay.

Thank you.

And then Jennifer Webb, please.

Council comments.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

So this Thursday is the Progress Penellas community meeting at Boca Sahega High School at 6 p.m.

This is our opportunity as a community to share with the district what we want the future of our elementary school to look like and our high school, what we want for our students in Gulfport.

The council recently has passed a resolution supporting students all attending Gulfport Elementary.

I would invite council to attend, and if we wanted to present, Mayor, if you wanted to present that and we could stand beside you, that would be great.

Otherwise, I'm happy to do it myself.

But this is I really encourage, they don't want to just hear from parents.

They also want to hear from the community.

And the more we show community support for our school, the more we get insulated from all of the negative impacts of redistricting.

So I really encourage everyone to show up.

It's this Thursday, uh 6 p.m.

at Boca Siega High School.

This is a once in a generation opportunity where they're actually redistricting.

Um they're drawing new lines so that we could actually pull off all of our students into one school.

Um it's also there the other thing that they expressed interest in was maybe having a K through eight community elementary school.

And I also want to commend Gulfport Elementary's teachers.

We have one here today.

Um staff, students, and principal on getting to be an A school.

That is huge.

That's such an improvement, y'all.

I like it brings tears to my eyes because I know that you worked so very hard to get there.

And you did it, and and y'all all did it as a team, and I'm really proud of the elementary of all of the work that's been going on at that elementary school and the leadership there.

So um show up.

Um so we're in a school.

It's been a journey, it's really exciting.

And um, I really want to encourage folks to show up on Thursday.

And the other actually, and that is all that's that's really all I have.

Um, I think that's the most important thing.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council member early.

Um Fusion 49th, second Saturday event at uh Charlie Market Square is this Saturday.

It's from 10 to 8.

It's a full day of events, so there's a calendar, and there's as also I I forgot to bring my poster, but I'll make sure that I got that.

Um so don't forget about that.

We do get ins and outs.

It's not always that busy, but when you are there, you do connect with people, and I think that's the whole point.

It's it's a nice, it's a nice day.

And thank you to Justin for helping me with the 5K, the Gulf Port.

Um, what are we calling it?

Wait a minute here.

The Golfport Community 5K is set for October 3rd.

This is gonna be on the website, probably the end of the end of the week.

Um we're meeting with the vendor for a final on Friday.

Um all donations and part of the ticket price go to Operation Santa.

So a portion of the ticket price that you pay, and I think it's 17 dollars per runner, yes, okay.

Um portion of that goes to Operation Santa, and there's also a place to donate on that website that Justin is going to put up to donate to Operation Santa.

Um presents for the kids is the number one goal here, and um to get myself a little bit of shape.

So uh we're gonna have two things there.

So thank you so much, Justin, for all of your help, and um it'll be posted on the website on Friday, and I hope to see y'all there.

Hope y'all sign up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I was mostly involved in the events that happened on the 4th of July at Tomlinson Park, and again, it wouldn't have happened without Justin, but you know, we say a lot about Justin, but he has a whole crew, so there's a whole staff that's involved, and certainly the games, which was what the goal was to kind of take it back to the 70s.

The games could not have happened without Miravelle and her team.

Uh they knew every child by name.

Um, you know, if somebody didn't show up and get into their sack on time, they could eyeball them and spot them and bring them forward.

It was it was just a really really nice setup for the day, and I was particularly happy that we actually um made our um our parade not only longer but a better quality than last year, and we have some ideas for next year too.

So all of that is good.

Then I wanted to touch base on the fact that watering restrictions are being broken here in this city every single day.

And if you watch my take two on Tuesday, that's what I focused on.

So I'm asking that every single person in Gulfport choose to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, and follow the rules.

They're spelled out very clearly on take two on Tuesday, which is posted on the city website.

If you don't do YouTube, like I don't.

I also wanted to inform the council that the community planning assistance team that uh assistance that I have that I asked for for the downtown uh re in the way I was re-envisioning the traffic flow.

I believe they've made their selections and we have not heard from them.

I have emailed them again uh just to say, can you tell me what's going on?

And I've not heard anything, so I just want you to know that that's not real encouraging because it's my understanding kind of third party that they did make their selection in June, like they were supposed to.

So I wanted you to know that that's kind of on hold right now.

I wanted everyone to know that 58th Street is expected to be completed, both lanes open by the end of the month.

I know we'll be all be happy uh for that to be uh happen in reference to public comment.

I want to say that wish you said if we could just have a mister or something to cool us down.

I really had hoped the fire department could be at the 4th of July and just open up that hose for a bit and just make everyone wet, but they thought it might be in poor taste, being that we are under phase three watering restrictions in a drought.

Um so I had to kind of understand on that point.

I also want to say to Jennifer to Councilmember Webb, I wish I could be at that meeting at the high school.

I would very much like to attend.

I will be out of the office until next Monday.

I am heading to a mayor's conference at Coco Beach at the Space Center.

It was supposed to happen earlier in the year, and we were never told for sure, but we think there was some kind of a security breach, and so it was delayed.

So now it's been rescheduled, so I will be gone for a couple of days.

Um that's all I had for uh public comments.

So with that, we can move on to consent, please.

Item 6a, consider approval of meeting minutes for meetings held June 16, 2026 and June 18, 2026.

Item 6B, resolution number 2026-40, a resolution of the city of Gulfport, Florida authorizing the city manager to expend funds for the annual maintenance of the Andrews Technology UKG web-based time and attendance system in item 6C, resolution number 2026-41, a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept the 2026 community challenge grant proceeds from the AARP for the Discover Gulfport Walking Trail System.

Motion to approve, second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any nays?

Passes unanimously.

All right.

And then we'll move on to ordinances.

Ordinance number 2026-05, second reading and public hearing and ordinance of the city of Gulfport, of the city of Gulfport, Florida, amending the City of Gulfport 2025 comprehensive plan, amending the goals, objectives, and policies to add housing element policy 1.4.3 and policy 1.4.4 regarding accessory dwelling units, amending the data and analysis to provide definitions for accessory dwelling unit and principal dwelling unit, providing for severality and providing for an effective date.

Motion to approve.

Second city manager.

I'm not oh, because it's a second reading, and there's nothing.

Oh, the second reading of you want to go to that okay.

Um I was just reading something.

Oh, I apologize.

Um basically it's a second reading of your amendment to your comprehensive land use plan.

You had passed in May, a transmittal ordinance that was sent to the state for review.

Um basically, this will allow your cop plan to support the definition and also the feasibility to have accessory dwelling units.

I also wanted to thank Mark Griffin and Ms.

Fisher for all their work on this project.

Um couldn't do without forward panels.

Thank you.

Uh any uh council comments discussion.

Councilmember Webb?

No.

All righty.

Do we have any public comment on this issue?

Seeing none, I'd say call the vote.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes units.

Ordinance number 2026-06, second reading and public hearing, an ordinance of the City of Gulfport, Florida, amending Chapter 15, pensions, Article 6, retirement system for city employees of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Gulfport, amending Section 15-91 definitions, providing for codification, providing for severality of provisions, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with, and providing for an effective date.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Mayor, I'd like to invite Shannon Farrell this evening to give you a brief overview.

You would approve this on first reading.

Subsequently, Shannon's here to answer any specific questions you may have.

So nothing has changed in the first reading, but do you have any additional questions, comments, concerns that you have for me?

No, Shannon.

Okay.

Good.

I do have actually a comment.

I I had a lot of feedback on my being the only no vote, so I really did want to take some time to clarify that.

I don't know if right now is the time or if we have to go through another step into our questions and comments section.

If that's but it's not a I don't have a question, I just wanted to clarify myself.

So if you if we have no questions for you, you can sit down and certainly you can clarify.

Okay.

So this is going to um apply to all three because obviously I think that it needs to be fair across the board of all three of them.

Um but I'm just gonna say it now because it's the first one and we'll just uh get it out of the way.

Uh I did write it down.

I don't normally, I usually like just kind of talk my way through stuff, but I didn't I wanted to make sure that I don't miss anything or forget anything.

Um I am looking through this change.

Uh the paragraph that we are given starts by saying credited service means the total number of years and fractional parts of years of service with member contributions.

The suggested change recommends that credited service will be granted for time spent on approval approved workers' compensation.

Contributions will not be required during this time.

The language that I have trouble with is that contributions will not be required.

To me, the base of that is flawed.

It shouldn't remove the requirement for contributions, it should change to be that contributions continue during this time.

Uh pension contributions are necessary to earn credited service time towards your retirement.

The only way that a pension system works is through contributions.

It's set up to have an employee spend 20 years for public safety.

Other employees have different lengths of service contributing into the system with the contribution from the employee and the city.

When an employee reaches that required length of contributing service time, they can retire penalty-free, even if they're not at a full retirement age, and this all only works as long as the contributions continue.

So, since much of what has been questioned of my no vote brings up a unique situation, I'll address it very basically.

Um, I agree that the small six-month time frame from one less than 10-year vested patrolman contributing might have no financial impact in the long run.

That's fine.

However, let's say that God forbid next year there's an officer that's injured for another six months.

Maybe two years from now, there's an officer that's injured for three months, and then another one that's injured for three months.

It happens, it's part of our our service that we are giving.

Um, but when you calculate those then, that comes up to 18 months of lost contributions, not only to the personal retirement funds of the officers that are not working during that time, but also to the pension fund as a whole.

And when the fund has more drawing on it than contributing to it, it starts to become less solvent.

So, having said this, the reason that this is something to worry about is that employees are no longer staying for their entire careers.

So it's um built to have people working for an entire career and people are are not staying for as long as the entire career would last.

As more workers leave early, the full time of service that was calculated to keep the pension going is decreasing.

I would also like to clarify that you don't retire when you have 10 years of service.

You can resign just like you can before 10 years or after 10 years.

But if you resign with less than 10 years of service, you're entitled to the money that you contributed during your service time.

If you resign with more than 10 years of service, you're considered vested, and you're entitled to your contribution and the city's contribution.

And that doesn't happen until you reach your retirement age, which you can then collect a lifetime benefit based on your years of service and that contribution.

Or when you separate, you can roll it into a qualifying account like an IRA, or you can cash it out, but with major penalties.

So there's a lot going on there that maybe people who haven't participated in a public pension would get lost in.

But I would like to bring it back to people who participate in Social Security.

I have had a public pension for my whole life, so I won't get Social Security.

But if you think of the trust that is currently funding Social Security, that people are concerned it's scheduled to run out in 2032.

The reason for that is that there's fewer active workers contributing to it than those that are collecting from it.

So due to the amount of boomers collecting from it and a reduced influx of new workers, there's less money being contributed to that fund.

So overall, I'm thinking of a long-term impact of what I think is a short-sighted solution to a current problem.

I'm in no way saying that injured employees should be punished for their injuries.

Actually, the opposite.

Other pensions and other um employee injury um plans are set up so that the members not removed from their position while they're on injury leave.

Um but here you're essentially just passed off to workers' comp, and I think that that's unfortunate, but that's the way the system here is set up, and fixing that is not the problem that is given to me.

The only issue that's in front of me is that the contributions should not be required, and I have to say no to that.

There is not a time during your years of service where contributions should not be made.

I understand the intent behind this proposal, and I genuinely want employees who are injured on the job to be treated fairly.

I simply don't believe that eliminating pension contributions is the right solution.

I think we should find a way to protect our employees, and creating this exception would weaken the long-term integrity of the pension system.

So for that reason, that's why I'm voting no.

Thank you.

Sorry, I know I don't need to talk that long, but based on that before I open it to public comment, uh, any other council members have anything they feel the need to say?

Yeah, I have a question.

Okay, let's just make sure we're in speaking order first, just to make sure.

Well, you know, we we've read in all the materials and we've discussed um all of the different people that have reviewed this.

Um is this something that we've also looked at as to would it create a long-term impact?

The actuary stated there's no financial impact to the city at this time for the program at this time, right?

That's right.

I can only go by what they provided into sponge.

Okay, so so what that means is what they're looking at now is in the there will be no long-term impact.

Is that what you're saying?

The actuary has said there is no impact to plan at this time.

Yes.

This time.

Okay.

I mean, they can't support it their forecasting out.

They've got formulas the actuary does that forecast.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Real quick, this is not changing how anything has been processed in the past.

This is just clarifying the language to what we have been doing since before I even started.

So we're not changing how we process, how we calculate anything.

The new attorney just wanted to clarify the language.

So I'm not changing how we have figured out how many years of service count as credited service, if that makes sense.

So we're not changing any of our policies or procedures.

The attorney did not, the new attorney did not like the existing language of how we're processing the pension, if that makes sense.

So she just wanted to change the language to match what we were currently doing.

Thank you for that clarification.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh, Councilmember Webb.

Yeah, I I want to thank Councilmember Donch.

That was really helpful.

Um, and I really appreciate the wisdom of having first readings, second readings, and third reasons.

It helps us, I think, make a better um a better decision.

I I have a question um regarding well, I have a question and some comments to help me understand this because I just I I I revisited the letter from the actuary.

Um I know that we don't have I mean we're uh we're a smaller town.

So you're saying that there has been no changes to the implementation of the um how you calculate time and what about changes to contributions during workers' comp.

So I've been here 10 years, and um we've always when someone has been on workers' comp, no contributions aren't being made when they are not here or on light duty.

Okay.

When I taught I I did a little bit of research too, because I I knew it seems like it was a little more complex than I was thinking of just pulling us, thinking of it almost at as administrative, pulling our language and our policy into what we're currently doing in a way that makes the attorney comfortable.

Um this must have happened before your time.

Why they used to contribute their six sick days in order to continue, and then their sick days would be credited back to them after their um after they were off.

And so as a way of fixing this hole was uh was something that I was that was shared with me, and I was wondering Do we know what year that was?

Yeah, it was it was before it was um it was like within the past you know, uh the past 17 years.

So I was wondering Do you know what I'm talking about?

Okay, I don't remember any language about giving their sick time back or using their sick time.

Um FMLA and workers comp do run concurrently, um, but when someone is on workers' comp um, we made the change in 2016.

So I started in 2016, um, so I can only kind of go back from what I know and what I have dealt with.

Um in 2015, the employee was um paid their normal wages when they were out on workers' comp.

Um we were coming into a problem, you know, we were making them whole, all the pension contributions were being made.

Um, but there's not really an incentive to get back to work when you're being paid to be home, and yes, you're recovering, and I'm not trying to the 66 and two-thirds.

Yes, and the city was getting the 66 and two-thirds when we were making the employee whole.

Um, so we're just kind of coming into problem of getting the employees back to work.

Um the new way of doing it is hey, they're on workers' comp.

Okay.

Let them be paid by workers' comp.

That's kind of the premise of the workers' comp program.

Um obviously, you know, their medical expenses are being paid if they have attend physical therapy, but they're being paid by workers' comp.

Um, and then when they get back on light duty, they're getting a paycheck from the city, and that's when the contributions kind of start back up.

So for that.

And if there is like a note, uh council member Donch was talking about if there's any issue with the pension if there's not being funded, we do every year have like a shortfall or a prepaid, depending if we have to pay more money to the uh to fund the plan, or if we have we're overfunded, so every year it it changes.

We get different types.

So Shana, would that be your solution to the problem that council member I think of Donch rightly pointed out about the potential like not having enough people paying and is this process of like making the pension whole at the end of the year?

But we haven't um I could I don't have the numbers in my head or in front of me.

Um but for the police pension, it's it's a very well-funded plan.

We have not come across any significant like shortfalls of the pension.

Um so I don't know if that will help.

If I can address something one our three plans are very as Shannon spoke of are well well funded, and they're almost a rated.

I believe they're all over 90% funded.

Um I believe one of the plans is 103% funded by statutory statutory, we're required to make it whole.

Yeah.

With a minimum five percent contribution on behalf of total salaries in that respective plan.

That's the minimum each year we have to put in, even though it performs well enough to be funded.

Right now you're going through an excellent phase where the market's exceeding expectations.

So our we'll stay at the 5% minimum contribution.

We've had years where it required 22% contribution because of the condition of the economy.

The city had to make that segment up.

But we've always made one of the point advantages, and you've heard your auditors speak of this.

We've consistently funded our pension plan.

Even during the economic downturn, we made our pension payment.

Other cities in this area are upside down with their pensions because in the economic downturn, they chose not to make their payment.

So the health of our plans is beyond reproach.

Yes, in theory, in theoretically, yes, if there's less people paying in, but they're also paying in at a higher rate than the earnings that were made.

If that makes because an officer today is not making what he made back, the other officer.

The officers paying in today are paying in extremely amounts of extreme their contributions fairly high.

As we go through the process of who drops off, they don't get unless they take the penalty as you spoke of the cash back after 10 years they're fully vested.

Yes, they can take a lump sum, but the plan will receive a large penalty paid back to it.

So there are the, and that's is Council Vice Mayor Shaw spoke of the actuaries taking that into consideration.

We're also limited, we just went through a large phase of retirements.

And a lot of because you know, I always talk about retirements is like rings on a tree.

I can tell you when the economy was good, we added a lot of important employees subsequently, and there was a lot of baby boomers as you spoke of.

I wouldn't know anything about that.

And they were hired, you know, in early 1980s, there were a lot of employees.

Growth government took place.

2008, it shrunk.

And you're gonna see it again.

I mean, getting off topic, but as we go through the budget, we're gonna talk about how do we stabilize the budget.

But I think the actual long-term actual impact, the fund at this point is funded well enough to absorb any just because of the few number of employees that you're talking about.

Um I believe there's only approximately even 100 and something members of the pension plan.

So it is a finite number.

Thank you, City Manager.

And also I'm really proud of us for continuing to contribute.

Um, because I know I mean, I can second that I know for a fact that other cities did not continue to contribute to their pension plans during 2000, like the economic downturns of the early 2000s, and things are really tight.

I I have one final question for you, Shannon.

Is um is this a timely?

Is this a time-sensitive matter?

Like this needs to happen immediately, so that um because something's waiting on this to happen.

I don't I don't like making policy changes for one specific person.

This does affect all three pension plans, and it well, it could it could affect other people.

So I'm not gonna say one or the other that yes, I need an answer tonight.

If you need another meeting, it's it's totally up to you guys, whatever's gonna make you all comfortable.

Um it's up to you guys.

I want to, and my final thing is just are we doing debates too, Mayor?

I guess because Councilmember Donch started with just uh her um discussion, is what you like to call it, right?

So um I I guess for my discussion piece, um, I really appreciate the framing of this as um workers today, um protecting workers today and protecting workers in the future.

I think that's a really honest way of intellectually thinking through this, and I really appreciate you, Councilmember Donch for pulling that forward.

Um with the explanation that you just gave and the explanation that um that the city manager gave when a vote favorably on this, I would really um because I think that changes can be like tweaks can be made moving forward, and um and and so I would really love for like councilmember Don you to like get together and really think through that stuff because it seems like I mean I I I think that there's yeah I mean like and that's just that's just me speaking as a council member, but like I said, I'm gonna vote favorably on this today.

Um but I appreciate the the thinking through and um because this is an important matter, and so Mayor, if I may respond to that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Understand the pension is entity onto itself, the trustee plan.

They have a board appointed board that council and the membership appoints each of these plans do.

They have different makeups, but they're an entity onto themselves.

Since they have their own legal council, they have their own requirements of attendance and ordinance.

Basically, your ord the ordinance that's in front of you today basically implements their request.

The only the only time we brought these where we've had issues.

That's a requirement because your ordinance has a pension ordinance in it.

It's three pension ordinances, matter of fact, is if there's a financial impact to the city, and that's when we would we've objected in the past.

We had a request for a cost of living adjustment from the general employees at one time that wanted three years for every year of service they were they had, yeah.

Things like that.

So that was our position that the gent the pension board respective trustee boards had asked for this change, sensibly we presented it to council.

Staff has no real opinion of it one way or the other councilman early.

Do you have any questions?

I do not have any questions.

Okay, I do not either, so I'm gonna open it to public comment and then we'll take the vote.

Uh anybody uh want to speak to public on public comment about this item.

Seeing none, yes.

Ums Buscemi Buscemi, Gulport resident.

The last time I got up to speak, it was about a city clerk's five percent raise that she has for, which is not even a cost of living raise, and you questioned it.

And now I'm thinking how much would it affect the budget if you made the contributions to officers who were out?

Because I didn't hear that that quote do you understand what I mean?

If offices are out and the city made their contribution for them, how much would it affect the budget?

And I know you don't not gonna answer me, but I didn't hear that brought up.

I mean, I I think they deserve it, what they do.

I wouldn't do it.

And I think they deserve it.

Mayor, if I may, it would be I I couldn't give you a specific number because it would depend on which officer we're talking about or the number of officers.

It's and how long exactly and how long they're out exactly.

So if it doesn't happen that often, then it really wouldn't affect the budget all that much.

Okay.

Anyone else for public comment?

Do we have any e-comment on this?

No, ma'am.

No.

All righty.

I would say call the vote.

Councilmember Dodge?

No.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb, yes.

Councilmember Early, yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

All right, so that'll take us to the next to seven C Ordinance number 2026-07, second reading and public hearing, an ordinance of the city of Gulfport, Florida, amending chapter 15, pensions, article five, municipal police officers trust fund of the code of ordinances of the city of Gulfport.

Amending section 15-51 definitions providing for codification, providing for severality of provisions, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with, and providing for an effective date.

Motion to approve second city manager, mayor is similar language to maintain consistency across all three plans.

All righty.

Before I open it to public comment, we'll go in speaking order if there's any council members that have anything they'd like to say or questions to ask.

I have nothing else.

Done.

Okay.

I talked enough.

Yeah, you did a good job.

Yeah, you did.

Councilmember Shaw.

I'm fine, thank you.

Okay, council member Webb.

No, I think you have councilmember.

I'm good as well.

Councilmember Dodge?

No.

Vice Mayor Shaw.

Were we supposed to get away?

Oh, I know.

That's okay.

That's all right.

I was the second behind you too.

Is there anybody that'd like to do public comment on this?

Seeing none?

You can call the vote.

All right, yeah, thank you.

Councilmember Dodge.

No.

Vice Mayor Shaw.

Yes.

Councilmember Webb.

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes.

And then on to 7D.

Ordinance number 2026-08, second reading and public hearing.

An ordinance of the city of Gulfport, Florida, amending chapter 15, pensions, Article 6, Firefighters Retirement Pension Fund of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Gulfport.

And then in section 15-31 definitions, amending section 15-33, Board of Trustees, providing for codification, providing for severality of provisions, repealing all ordinances in conflict here with and providing for an effective date.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay.

City manager, anything new to add?

Mayor, this is the fire version of this.

Okay.

Very good.

And once again, I'll ask in speaking order if any council members have anything to add.

No.

No.

No, no.

All righty.

Anybody in public com have want to say public comment on this?

Seeing none, we'll call the vote.

Councilmember Dodge?

No.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes passes.

Resolutions.

Resolutions, please.

Resolution number 2026-42.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to issue payment to CAP Government Inc., a Bureau Vierda's, sorry.

Company from Managed Services Model for Plan Review and Inspections for the Month of May 2026 and the accompanying budget amendment.

Motion to approve.

Second.

City manager.

Yes, Mayor.

This is um ministerial in regards to paying our cap inspection building services fees.

Um that monthly payment varies, doesn't it?

It's not a consistent, it's what's actually been completed.

Yes, I imagine.

Okay.

Thank you.

All righty.

Um public and before public comment, let me go to council comments.

I have no questions, thank you.

No questions.

I virtually see this as basically it's a service used and we pay for it on a monthly basis, so it's pretty easy.

Agreed.

Councilmember Webb.

Okay, Councilman Rowley.

Okay.

Any public comment on this?

Yes, Councilman.

Um April Thanos.

Oh, well, something's never done.

Well, the kind of the same comment as last time is I I mean, my personal experience of having permits lately has been pretty good.

But I don't see how you can keep paying people without having some actual physical evidence of what they're doing.

Are are they getting all the permits done within 30 days, 20 days?

How are they handling routine things like fences or or a roof or whatever?

And so I don't I think that we need to know are they doing what you really expected?

Are they doing it in 10 days like you wanted, Mayor?

Or are they doing them barely in 30 days?

And I know you said you didn't get complaints, but people get tired of complaining.

And I think it would be a reasonable thing, and I think it's very easy to do with our portal to find out how long permits are taking and for different kinds of permits.

So that's my comment.

All righty.

Thank you.

Do we have any e-comment on this?

No, ma'am.

All righty.

Call the vote.

Did we want to wait for um Council Member Webb?

She just ran to the restroom real quick.

All righty.

Hmm.

Time for a commercial.

I didn't see your step out.

So could I have another water?

We'll keep we'll keep that in handy.

Thank you.

So I will tell you that.

Um, Councilmember Webb gets back to her seat.

One of the things that I'm most excited about is um there were letters in the time capsule from students from 1976.

And um I have those, and I'm planning to read them uh while my guide does the driving on our trip to Coco Beach for the mayor's conference, and I expect to be entertained, and then I will share with you some of the highlights from those as well.

Alrighty, so we were just calling the vote.

Okay, thank you.

Can we do that in council?

Can somebody push my button?

Um yes, my vote is yes.

No vote has been called.

We're all jumping the gun tonight.

Right.

Okay, council member Dodge.

Yes, Vice Mayor Shaw.

Yes.

Councilmember Webb, yes, Councilmember Early, yes, Mayor Love, yes passes.

Resolution number 2026-43, a resolution authorizing the city manager to renew the city's insurance coverage for city employee health and public risk management of Florida Health Trust, Florida Blue for fiscal year 26-27.

Motion to approve, second.

Council questions, comments.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No.

So I think my only question was what was the increase going to be this year?

Oh, that's what I was gonna add.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

It's great.

Okay.

Okay.

I feel like we're being set up here.

Yeah, okay.

Go ahead, Shannon.

You can celebrate it.

2.5.

1.5% increase.

Wow.

Very exciting.

In these inflationary times, that sounds very good to us.

Yeah.

It's wonderful.

That's wonderful.

Okay.

In the health insurance, I don't have to further keep wonderful.

Yes.

Absolutely.

It is cabocketing.

Thank you, Shannon.

Okay.

Thank you for telling us that.

Alrighty.

I don't think there were any other questions.

I think that was it.

Alrighty.

Um there questions from up here.

Any public comment on this matter?

And I believe there's no e-comments at all on anything today.

Okay.

Go ahead, call the vote then.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes.

All right.

Resolution number 2025.

I think it's supposed to be 26.

I do apologize.

Resolution number 2026-44.

A resolution authorizing the city manager to renew the city's insurance coverage for employee life and accidental death and dismemberment with standard issued company assurance company for fiscal 26-27.

Motion to approve.

Second.

City manager.

Mayor, this is the renewal of the accident of death and dismemberment.

And there's no increase in premium to the city.

No increase.

Excuse me.

It's a decrease.

Okay.

A decrease.

I was gonna say there's a decrease.

No, it's a decrease.

It decreased by eight cents per one thousand dollar coverage payroll.

So yay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any public comment on this matter?

Seeing none, call the vote.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Council Member Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes.

Okay.

Resolution number 2026-45, a resolution authorizing the city manager to renew the city's insurance coverage for employee long-term disability LTD with standard insurance company for fiscal 26-27.

Motion to approve.

Second.

It's another decrease.

Another decrease.

Wow.

Just two cents per $100 of covered payroll, but I'll take it.

So another decrease.

Very good.

So how is it that in the times we live in?

Uh what is it that's causing us to get these minor decreases as opposed to increases?

So typically it's the premiums paid versus the claims being paid out.

Uh so like for health our minimal increase, it's called a medical expense ratio.

So the amount of premiums that we pay were higher than the claims that we filed with our employees.

So we put more money in and now we see a little decrease.

Very good.

Thank you.

They like us, Mayor.

We've got healthy people.

Keep doing it.

That is true, actually.

You're providing health and wellness and work life balance and things that don't result in for sure.

What you use the claim tools?

Yes.

Okay.

Very good.

All righty.

Any council comments, questions before I open to public comment?

No.

Nope.

Public comment.

Any public comment on this?

No.

Going once?

No.

Alrighty.

Call the vote.

Councilmember Dodge?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Resolution number 2026-46.

A resolution establishing reasonable rules and policies for the city council and for the comment at City Council meetings.

Motion to approve?

Second.

City Manager.

Deferred.

City attorney.

Yes, this is the uh discussion that council had.

We made the changes, and uh it's ready to be added to your rules and procedures, which would include next year when you do it, it'll be automatically in there.

Um we added the provisions that first-time violators will receive a written warning.

We have the provisions that give the alternative on how uh before the any kind of vote, how council wants uh to request a fact finding either through the city attorney or an independent investigator, excuse me, or hold a special meeting to review findings.

So all the provisions you discussed are in here.

Okay, thank you.

In speaking order, do we have any questions of this city attorney on this?

No.

I do.

Okay, council member Shaw.

Um just trying to make sure I'm understanding what I'm reading.

So usually in my experience and in my conversations with other leaders, etc.

Um, the written warning is first in line as far as a progressive discipline process, and it's at the end of this.

Is there a reason for that?

Or is it does it matter because regardless, first-time violators are always going to get a written warning first?

Right.

First time violator will receive a written warning.

Okay, so regardless of the situation, I think.

We didn't do this as progressive, obviously, because it's it's it's different.

This is a unique provision for council to um look at other members of council.

So uh, but no, it it's the way where I put it is absolutely there is no choice, but if you find a violation, it'll be a written warning.

Okay, so then that's if after that written warning, if if there's not a corrective period, then it goes into the other steps.

No, no.

If you're found in violation of a first offense, the most you can get is a written warning, period.

You have to violate again to have any kind of additional penalty.

Okay, that's what I wanted to make sure.

And then a resident also um inquired as to um in section five, where it talks about vote of the adoption of or censure resolution requires a majority vote of the remaining city council.

Right.

Once the resolution is adopted by a majority vote, they're asking why it doesn't say or fails.

To me, that was kind of uh you're not fails, we're not putting it anywhere other than it's in the minutes, right?

And and so they were saying should it say adopted or fails by a majority vote, the resolution will be entered into the official minutes and posted on the city's website for public record, is what the rest of the language says.

No, it's either it I mean the purpose of this is to show you need a majority vote of the remaining members.

So if the normal process in that would be there's four remaining members, three three have to vote for it.

If it doesn't it fails, and then it's just reflected that failed.

There's something else to do.

Okay, well, I I understand that, but but they're suggesting that even if it fails, it should be recorded in the minutes.

And I think that's a good thing.

It is recorded in the minutes, yeah, automatically.

Okay, all right.

That's what I suggested.

I mean the whole sentence could be removed, actually, because either way it's going into the but it but it's more formal that a the resolution will go in.

Well, that's essentially what I said.

I said I'm not an attorney, but this is how I'm seeing it, but I said I'll ask anybody.

100% correctly.

All right, thank you.

I appreciate it.

That's all my questions.

Okay.

Councilmember Webb, any questions?

Thoughts, concerns?

No, I had a similar question.

I'm assuming that there's also like, well, let me check with my assumption.

There's probably a provision somewhere that dictates like how minutes are recorded.

Oh, yeah.

So this is so it's redundant.

Well, it's all so generally then you don't restate that in this because then if there's a it creates a cleanup issue if something changes.

Right.

I mean technically minutes only have to be who was their motion second.

That's not how we do it here.

Okay.

And that's and frankly, because you have your meetings are are video and audio, they're complete no matter what.

The written minutes are just an additional while written minutes are the ones we keep and record, we keep the other ones also.

So uh it there's a it's a technical aspect of it, but action items.

So this would be an action item, you would vote.

So therefore it would be recorded.

But it would just the minimal recording is motion second and vote.

I appreciated the attention to that sentence since this is a really serious issue and having having like vote records in there.

But I like you, councilwoman Shaw, I assumed that well, I made a note that to ask if uh how minutes are recorded as dictated by another rules for the um clerk.

Right.

The difference is is that if there's a resolution that passes so it's not really different, but the actual resolution is put in the minutes, right?

If it fails, it's in there that says motion was made, seconded, failed.

So it would be recorded in there under that.

We wouldn't put the resolution in there because it didn't pass.

Thank you.

That's a thank you, Mayor.

You're good?

I'm good.

Um, do we have any public comment on this?

Ums Thanos.

So I had something similar to Marlene, where it it's after it talks about all these steps about having a hearing, that then you, if it's a first offense, you get a letter, you know, just a warning.

So that means you have to go through this whole process of having a hearing and and and doing all this research.

And I'm just thinking about the one that was brought against me for my emails.

If somebody had just given me a written warning saying, don't write emails like that because nobody did that, then I would have stopped and it would have been the end of it.

So it seems like maybe depending on the severity of things that you could handle this much more simply without having to go through a whole hearing and everything, if it's a fairly minor event.

So that's what that's one thing.

So I think it should be you know higher up so that it saves everybody's time and effort of having a whole hearing and an investigation if it's something fairly minor that a warning would take care of.

And then the second thing is it says the council may impose any administration actions as long as the actions do not conflict or violate with federal Florida law, but it doesn't say anything about what kind of administrative actions there are, and I didn't find any place where that's listed in our um in either in this document or in our um you know, any of our codes.

So I'm just curious what kind what's an administration action, you know, what does that mean?

Thank you.

Anyone else on public comment?

No e-comments?

No man.

All right.

If anybody in council has questions on those two things.

One I thought you had answered this already.

Right.

Go ahead.

It does if you're not it doesn't make any sense to have a written warning if you haven't violated, and you don't violate unless you go through the process of counsel determining that there's been a violation.

So we're not gonna just sit there and break something and say council member X did this.

Council member X is gonna say, No, I didn't, uh or you could just say, please don't do that again.

That has nothing to do with this policy.

This policy is when it's it's uh a matter that needs to come before you for that somebody's brought up it said this is a censure, this is a a serious issue.

So once you've gone through the whole process, your first violation is a written warning.

That's after you've had due process.

If you don't have due process, then why are we wouldn't even put this provision in?

So that that's why the penalty has been lessened for somebody who's gone through and found to be in violation.

That's the way it's presented.

Yeah, and and you know, the process is cumbersome because um, you know, a lot of things in government don't work per common sense, okay.

So for example, and I feel okay saying the email situation because I didn't bring it up, she did, but in that scenario the observer sitting out there might say, Well, why didn't somebody just tell her that?

And that's a lot of times is because they don't understand that the city manager, the city attorney, and the city clerk work for us, we don't work for them.

So it'd be hard for you to act like you were the boss and telling somebody to straighten up and do better when you're not the boss.

So there's a there's you know, common sense there, and then the reality of how it has to be, and so this was the attempt to kind of get past that situation and yet not allow for total lack of accountability, especially when we have bigger situations which we had around the same time period.

So I think that this was the compromise on how to make it happen, and though it might see come seem cumbersome, I also understand that it's hard for uh staff who works for us to give us a warning, because it's really the rules are reversed.

So thank you.

The second aspect of this, it's on purpose that the administrative uh penalties are not in there because it depends on the violation.

And remember, this is a second violation.

So you've already gotten a written warning, you've done a second violation.

Council may say, oh, this is really serious.

We want you to uh not be on any committees, we want you know, or it could be something where yeah, you did it, you did this, but this is the penalty we're looking at.

So it is wide open because it it turns on the facts, and uh we can't anticipate.

I mean, honestly, the reason why you're putting this in is because we never had an issue where we needed to do it.

Um, and so these are all new, and it and it's gonna depend on what you determine the appropriate penalty is for that violation.

So it's it's otherwise, you know.

I'm not being facetious, but if you want to look under the criminal uh uh rules statutes, they're huge because they're looking at every potential violation and every penalty for every violent.

I couldn't even, I mean, we could sit here probably for several hours and come up with violations, but we don't anticipate those.

We don't anticipate somebody misusing a credit card.

We don't anticipate if it was emails, somebody, you know, we don't anticipate somebody doing something else that's a violation, so we don't know what the penalty is.

It's open for you all to determine what's appropriate.

That's why it's written that way.

Yeah.

Are there penalties that are specifically mentioned somewhere?

Like is there a list of penalties that there could be, like from suspension of going to meetings or other there's nothing anywhere, people would just be making it up at that point.

I mean, all I could do is draft a list of potential.

I just was curious if there's some list of you know, like demerit detention, like some kind of system that gives you like I'm unaware of any city that has, I mean, I'm sure there are, but I haven't seen them where they do the specific anything up to and including duties as assigned, yeah.

The the types of censoring uh disciplines that I've seen is like it go on a like to to the extreme, like um maybe probation or suspension, but typically um, you know, it's like you were mentioning removal from committees or those types of things, and of course, a censure's intention is basically to uh make someone accountable and to up you know a public admonishment essentially.

Well, and it could be again you may not be in a position where that person needs to be removed from that committee because you have nobody else and we still need representation, right?

So it determines on the facts of what of where you are and what the issue is.

Can I point out something, May?

The it also says that um before a center of vote, the council the city council may not must or not shall.

So that's not a requirement, that is an enabling clause of like here are the things that you may do.

So it doesn't require that all three of those actions are done.

However, I mean I think that if I was accused falsely of something, I would want y'all to do all three things so that I could have a full vetting and be like, I am crystal clear, you know, like um, and so I really I really appreciate you using May there.

Um I think that you know, language is imperfect, but I think this is really good.

Well, and and I will tell you, for example, in the Florida Bar.

If somebody there's a whole list of potential things, a public reprimand, which is your written warning, is the first, it's the lowest offense that somebody gets.

Some people are disbarred, it all depends on what you do, right?

You know, if you commit a crime, um you're probably disbarred for a period of time.

If you steal, you're disbarred permanently.

Uh so there's it it depends on what you do.

If you if you don't represent a client or or lie to the court or something like that, it's usually a public reprimand.

So you know, I look at that too, having said on um one of those boards that it all depends on the facts.

Everybody good, good.

All righty, please call the vote.

Councilmember Donch, yes, Vice Mayor Shaw, yes, Councilmember Webb, yes, Councilmember Early, yes, Mayor Love, yes passes.

Resolution number 2026-47, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an interlocal agreement with DRC emergency services, LLC and Ashbury Inc.

for disaster debris collection and removal services within geographic Pinellas County.

Motion to approve, second.

Mayor can be city manager, you could hello Mr.

Henderson.

Uh just bringing up the new agreement that the county came out with for the next five years.

We did have to go back.

I did sit on the board for the rankings of the of the contractors.

From the last storm event, the pricing had to be adjusted because as you all know, we weren't able to obtain contractors due to that rate, which was about $8 a cubic yard.

We went up to about $24 a cubic yard.

How much?

$24.

From eight to twenty-four?

Well, we had to do that emergency order, as you guys know, um, December to raise it up to 16.

And then that's when we were able to mobilize uh Phillips and Jordan and a couple other contractors.

Um, and that also being said, we also had to uh revise the contract to include uh sand collection that wasn't included in the original uh agreement back in 2023.

So those were two major changes that were done uh to this year's uh agreement with the Air Innocral uh with the county.

And uh DRC is a reputable vendor who has done work with City Largo, Safety Harbor, uh actually worked with them hand in hand at City Largo when I was there.

Um Ashbritt was on our original agreement from 2023.

Ceres has not gotten back with me, and Crowder Golf, who is a big vendor in the Pinellas County area, they are they were at least honest enough to let us know they can't accept us.

So that's that's where we're at.

And they couldn't accept us because we're because they they already have too many too many too.

Yeah, so oh well we appreciate it.

Yeah, exactly.

I told you I told him that.

Yeah, he was he was great to talk.

He's I don't want to tell you something that we can't uh obtain.

So any other questions or any questions for Mr.

Anderson?

So when we go into these agreements, can we utilize these company services any time?

We would do a notice to proceed.

First, we would meet with the vendor, and then we'll before we do any work, we do a notice proceed.

Uh the first objective is obviously to do a first push, clear the roads, give opportunities for and I'm sorry if I'm not answering a question of the.

Actually, so my question is like on a normal day, like today.

Could we utilize this company to do something that we needed to do?

Like um, just when I was glancing through some of this stuff, there was um uh they offered some asbestos removal services.

We happened to have needed asbestos removal from a building.

Is this a company that now we're in a contract with that we could use utilize them on a normal day to perform a service or in the county agreement?

There are minimum quantities that are required for them to mobilize.

Got it.

Thank you.

Do you have any questions?

No questions.

So the um so the trigger is minimum minimum amount to haul, not an uh uh state of emergency.

No, no, well, state of emergency, they can pick and choose.

This is this is the problem we ran into before.

Okay, we had a state emergency in effect in multiple counties.

Unfortunately, even with Irma back in 2000, I think it was 18.

They're gonna find where the money is.

It's it's a fact.

Now we're paying, and I I don't want to go too crazy off it, but we're paying 24 dollars a cubic yard now.

Brower County and Sarasota may pay $30 an hour.

This is the reality of it.

We're hoping this will resolve this problem with the money, but if we continue, we were actually talking at the last county meeting to see if there's a way to get the counties all involved, not just us.

Hills Girls World County to hopefully prevent that from happening because they will chase chase it all.

And so one of the things we were talking about is what legal repercussions do we have against these contractors.

And it's something I'm not a lawyer.

I they're looking at what happened during Hurricane Ian and uh Milton because uh our Milton and Helene.

We we had a couple of them that didn't fulfill their roles and responsibilities that we were asking.

They they went to different locations.

Uh basically when we sign these interlocal agreements, they say, hey, we're gonna honor these prices, but then they don't show up.

I thought the state put some uh ramifications into in in this year, some punishments if they don't go ahead and yes, please in Senate Bill 180, the infamous Senate Bill 180.

That there's new hurricane languages formed that language in there's a five thousand dollar fine for to the fund that doesn't fulfill their but for five thousand dollars.

Yeah, that's not enough.

I'm sorry, we would have already covered that amount.

This is no loss to them at all.

Exactly, because they're gonna what happens, and Kendrick's articulated very well.

We have a c we had a contractor here for Halli.

He was doing some things, you know.

We were lined up down 49th Street.

Well, we go into a hurricane watch for Milton.

Now he's here.

He has to take his people out of the city to evacuate his equipment.

He didn't come back because he went to another municipality or county government, and we did the same thing.

We turned around and we called Pasco County and had Southern Road Road and Bridge come in.

And we made that deal the night before the storm.

And a piggybacked on a Pasco County contract.

It's it almost becomes a survival of the Senate.

Who's willing to make those, you know, and we're competing with Panat Pascoe County.

They may give, as Kendrick spoke of a much higher rate or more affluent city, may say we can afford this.

I mean, that's it was a matter of who's gonna make the best deal.

And this is trying the five thousand dollar fine is trying to prevent that.

But I think the only way is just getting quality vendors.

You know, Rhode Bridge was very good product project that company that did the project work, but they were the most expensive, also.

Kendrick Shannon cringes when she has to submit the information to FEMA for reimbursement because these are category one expenses.

Am I correct?

Immediate debris removal category A is immediate debris removal, so we seek reimbursement quickly.

So I think that it's the quality of the or the character of the company you're dealing with.

But you're absolutely right, the state did levy that in the yeah.

I mean, I remember them doing that because they're the ones the state was making sure that every single we were required to enter into these contracts.

So then they were trying to make sure that these people would honor the contracts.

But I'm thinking at the time of a hurricane, five thousand dollars is like uh a drop in a bucket.

I mean, that's not even worth the fuel to get down here.

Yeah, so wow, yeah.

So they didn't protect us once again.

But you know, the be positive, it's hard to determine these events.

No one thought two storms were coming.

And it's it's you know, it's the best thing to do is be prepared.

Um, one if this is approved tonight, my first goal was to get with DRC to start putting a game plan together, give us all our maps or debris zones, and same thing with Ashford.

And Kendrick, you mentioned sand is that from the road?

Yes, yes.

So county added that in.

Just clarifying that.

Yeah, where these case the state had to come in and they had the equipment brought FDFT to clean golf below.

Yeah, that's where we all laid down, walk down golf poliver.

County was trying, our state was trying to put sand in our debris.

We had to go to that way.

For lack of a better term, this all becomes very parochial when it happens.

Okay, but it did a good job because there was a lot of firms, luckily, and I'm not gonna name names that we dealt with in Pinellas County that did not make the cut.

Well, only four this time made it uh through the county's uh betting process.

So we made sure we did weed out the ones that didn't fulfill their agreements last time around, and one of them was a contractor we did hire SDR.

So and they realized that's the reason why they were well.

One of the things was they were required to provide full-time staff.

SDR did uh all subs, they were pulling people from Louisiana, and that was the problem we were running into, and then I hate to keep naming on any safety harbor, they left them.

We were in the same boat as them.

So uh, but when I make sure I share my opinions on the on the on the product that we received at that time.

Good.

Thank you very much.

No problem.

All righty, okay, great, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Before I open it to public comment, any up here?

Just real quick.

Um, when you're saying SDR, is that Southern Disaster Recovery?

Okay, because I'm looking at the list on the um Pinellas County website, they have the list of the collection contracts with different companies, and the county does have southern disaster recovery listed.

So that I mean, obviously, we're not, but yeah, that was the 2023 agreement, and it's still technically active, but we will have to go.

That's the reason why I came here.

We would have to amend every single agreement with that the new pricing.

So, but instead of doing that, we okay, great.

Thank you.

All righty, any public comment on this matter.

Seeing none, call the vote.

Councilmember Donch, yes, Vice Mayor Shaw, yes, Councilmember Webb, yes, Councilmember Early, yes, Mayor Love.

Yes, passes.

So that brings us to the end of ordinances.

We do not have a discussion item tonight, so that will take us to new business, and we will start with council member Donch.

I don't have any new business.

I will just remind everybody again about the cleanup on Saturday from 8 to 11 at Clan Bayou.

So as many people as we can get out there, that would be great.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shaw.

Yes, please.

I have a few things.

Starting with the Gulfport Arts and Heritage and the Time Weaving Labyrinth team have a proposal for a permanent permanent labyrinth.

They have a major donor secured, a plan and development, and volunteers ready.

Yes.

Yes.

This doesn't add too many presentations, Mayor.

I don't have give me one second.

Let me let me see.

To my understanding, we don't have one on that date.

That's why we made it to the state.

At this point, we do not have one, so I think that we we need to give a consensus, but kind of made it make a contingent on it working for the city clerk because we don't know what she might have, but you know, if we have a consensus here, I think she'll do her best to accommodate us.

Understood.

Yeah.

With that caveat, I support it.

Yeah, thank you, Council.

Uh Vice Mayor Shaw.

Okay, so next, I am asking for council consensus to place consideration of a resolution to join the American Flood Coalition, referenced in my earlier report on a future agenda.

Um that would be for us to have more of a discussion of what they provide, and it is free.

I mentioned that in my initial report earlier.

And um, and so uh that I'm asking for that to be an agenda item.

A future agenda item, no specific date.

So you're asking to add them as a discussion.

Okay, and would you want to a resolution or a discussion?

Or a presentation.

Well, or presentation.

Well, I'm not sure I have someone for the presentation.

I do have the information about it, and you know, I can certainly ask.

Um, you know, they they presented at the I think it was the Suncoast League of Cities, yes.

They did.

And and uh so I could ask for that presentation.

Um they are they are saying to become a member, all you have to do is approve a resolution.

It's free.

What does being a member require of you?

Sorry?

What does being a member require?

No, it doesn't.

It just provides all those resources available to you.

So the benefits, right?

So I'm just asking for consensus for us to discuss it.

Have a presentation or whatever you feel is most appropriate.

Oh no, I I I'm not trying to decide what's most appropriate.

I'm just trying to clarify what we're asking.

So when you're saying you just want to put it as a discussion for among the council to decide if we want to accept free benefits, okay.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

Sure.

I would I would think that we just decided it right now.

Yeah.

All right.

If it takes nothing from us, but it offers us free benefits.

Yeah, please.

We'll take two.

Okay, yeah.

All right.

Okay.

Um, third, we all received a communication from Rebecca.

I don't know if it's pronounced tighter or teeter, but from of the juvenile welfare board.

They're celebrating their 80 years of putting kids first.

Um we received that communication on June 24th.

Um she uh is the chief public awareness officer, and uh she was emphasizing her communication that uh they highlight their partnership with local governments and asked whether council would be willing to recognize this milestone with the proclamation at an upcoming meeting uh with language provided by them.

Uh so I just wanted to bring this to council and ask if there was a consensus to recognize the juvenile welfare board's milestone with the proclamation.

Yeah, yeah, yes.

Okay.

Um okay, so one more.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Um based upon input from concerned residents.

I'm asking for council's consensus to place a future agenda item to consider prohibiting personal fireworks in clan biopreserve and Osgood point due to the harm and disruption they cause to wildlife.

And I did check with the chief to see if we do have uh any prohibition to that.

Um it's it seems we might need to look into that even being a feasibility, um, but you know, it's it would be worthwhile.

It would it would merit discussion.

That's a state statute.

There's a state statute that allows fireworks on the July 4th and December 31st three days.

So even in a nature preserve.

I'll I'll double check everything on there.

Yeah, but if you will, because that that is a nature preserve.

And I understand it.

I appreciate you looking into that.

Absolutely.

All right.

That's my list.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Webb.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I'm excited to I appreciate Vice Mayor Shaw talking about American Flood Coalition.

I am on the Tampa Bay Planning Council.

And so I'll take that off of my list.

And the JW and the Juvenile Welfare Board is a great thing.

So excellent.

I um I the presentations are the public comments today.

Miami Beach and a couple of other cities throughout Florida have done have received the designation of a city of kindness.

And I would and how you become it here, it says increasing kindness can come from efforts of city officials.

Or from the ground up, as happened in other it's basically just like accessing their resources and working to promote kindness within your city.

And that seems like something that would also cost us nothing and is really on brand with the kind of community that we are in Gulfport and especially as we move forward into like the polarization that is created by elections uh by campaign season and all of that, this would be a really wonderful thing, anecdote to that kind of um distancing.

And so I would love and now I I I feel I feel you uh Vice Mayor Shaw.

I'm like, what am I asking for?

Explicitly.

I guess what I'm asking for is the opportunity to see if this is something that y'all are interested in, so I can look further into it and see what the best like next step is.

Because if y'all aren't interested, I won't like move forward.

But if you think that this is something that is really on brand with us and and with our opening up the time capsule, it feels like a really lovely kind of like anchoring of what we aim to be as a city.

So I would be happy to look further into it and to provide new business items at the next council meet meeting.

I would be honored to be mayor of a city known as the city of kindness.

Yes, known as the city of kindness.

So you know, for you to do the do the legwork, the homework, and then come back and tell us what what hoops, what are the qualifications.

I hope they don't consider social media.

Yeah, well, that'd be our disqualifier.

It's aspirational, it's something that we aspire.

Yeah.

And um the only other thing is I don't think that this requires an official action, but I would love to, you know, I know Mayor, that you're not gonna be in town on the 9th.

Um, but uh Vice Mayor, if you're there, then I would love for all of us to stand by you as you present the resolution that we passed last council meeting supporting um Gulfport Elementary.

If that's I would be proud to do that, yes.

Okay, great.

And all right, and that's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

I do not have new business.

Okay.

So the only new business I have, and I didn't figure out exactly how it's gonna present this either.

Um so I'm not sure what I'm asking for, but um I I'm still having a real hard time wrapping my head around the idea that we cannot do anything to help our folks who live downtown in homes.

Um, so I'm not sure what I'm asking for, but um I I'm still having a real hard time wrapping my head around the idea that we cannot do anything to help our folks who live downtown in homes, um, and they have put up with the same car dwellers for years now, and I'm not exaggerating when I say years, and it's summertime, and rather than the number decreasing like it has in the past, it's actually increased.

And um, a previous council there was a lot of discussion about what we could do to try to di highly discourage car dwellers from our um downtown parking lot, and um I know that our attorney worked on um the verbiage, the ordinances, and that it failed.

Okay.

What I'm really struggling with is how did we for at least at least 15 years we had signs that said resident parking only on our side streets, and that limited and prohibited people from parking, I think from 9 a.m.

in the morning till 5 p.m.

at night, and yet when we tried, and uh the city attorney, I know you really tried to get verbiage to lessen the car dwellers living on um shore.

We weren't we weren't able to really get it tight enough to really do anything, and instead of looking at what we had done in the past, we had folks that said I'm not going to and and I have to accept this, and I do, but um, you know, we don't want to criminalize um homelessness, and the point of some of the of our residents in homes here that they're still trying to discuss, and I and I behind them is there is a difference, and we said it that that night too, between somebody who's homeless, domestic abuse, they're down at the beach for the first couple of the days, our compassionate police check on them, and they say this is what happened, and I have nowhere to go, and what's gonna happen, our police are gonna help them find a place to go.

That is totally different than the folks who have been living on our beach for years now, who actually have the nerve when I'm doing a beach cleanup to complain to me that the bathrooms are not up to their standards and that the kit our picnic tables are too sticky.

I mean, I have a problem with that, and so I would um under my new business.

I'm guess I'm asking, I I don't know.

We lost council member.

I don't know if we can get a consensus if we could have this conversation again or if it's just dead at this point.

I mean, we certainly are hearing from residents again still continually, and I do understand the compassion needed that we don't want to um uh criminalize homelessness, but homelessness and car dwellers that get their checks every single month are two different things.

So I'm just throwing it out there to see if I have anybody who's open to you know, it would take three people who'd be open to revisiting this.

Speaking order, yes, speaking order, please.

I don't have anything to add to that.

No, but I'm asking for consensus, so I need for you to say yes, you'd be open to this conversation or no, you would not.

Sure, we can talk about anything.

I still get constant complaints and concerned residents, and not just at the beach, including Veterans Park and right along that street area of Veterans Park as well.

Um, you know, the parking lot is is full constantly there, and and and in many cases it's residential matter, is what I'm being told.

And I've gone there early and I've gone there late, and and I I've even spoken to the city manager about it, and he said, well, it could be like O'Maddy's parking for their employees, and yet it's so early that sometimes it looks like it's residential.

Uh I have not approached anybody, I'm just basing it upon what residents are telling me and what I've observed on some cases.

So I would be very open to the discussion if I said no, I do not feel that that would serve the residents who they have those concerns.

Okay, council member Webb.

Democracy thrives in dialogue.

So sure.

Okay.

I would be fine with that too.

I'm wondering if our social worker could be here for that, just to understand the ki the different the delineation between who's living where I I love that point that you said if the social worker, because if in fact the social worker was here and said, I have talked to these folks, and they are very, very happy living in the front seat of their car.

And this is the lifestyle that they are calling their retirement.

And they love living in Gulfport except for the sticky tables because it doesn't cost them anything.

I mean, that's a different situation than somebody who's homeless or is lost their home to a fire or had to run because of domestic violence or lost their job.

I mean, we've always been uh compassionate city and now we want to be a city of kindness.

Okay, but there's lines and everything.

So understanding what we're really talking about, I think it'd be helpful for all of us.

Okay.

So I will um when I return, I would get with the city manager um and the city attorney and the city clerk and see, you know, um the uh kind of how we would like to kind of start the conversation again, and I think having the social worker and their input could be helpful.

If you could schedule it for a workshop, you wanted workshop.

That can be scheduled in first in September.

I have to look at our calendar because we have certain restrictions on when you have to hold your public hearing for the trim process.

But if we could do that, we would schedule it for your first meeting and we'll ask the outreach from the outreach perfect advocate to come.

And he has met with those people, and as you know, Mayor Newmer shares with those people.

Um in regards to the um we'd like it council member or vice mayor shaw speaking of the overnight parking is prohibited in the beach park and lotta and veterans park.

But there and if they're there, but we haven't seen the overnight, and that's where the issue is.

Um that is prohibited.

Exactly.

And when you say, you know, the overnight, I know that we're enforcing that, and I know that they can come back in at five or four in the morning, whatever.

But you know, along with that, I remember one time that there was a uh a boat parked on beach, and I called about it.

Um I called code enforcement and it was gone within a day, okay.

And yet we have cars that are being used as storage sheds in lieu of storage sheds and with bicycles attached, and sometimes we actually have a slot that's used just for bicycles.

And you know, I don't understand how we can't we can tell the boat that they can't park on our street, but the bicycles can take up a parking place.

So there's just you know, just doesn't seem like, and again, then I go back to well, for 15 years we had one side of town that we didn't let anybody park on during the day.

So I just think if we have an open council and we're ready for discussion on this again, that I'd like to see it, and I love the idea of making it our September workshop unless something else gets in the way, and I understand that.

Okay.

Thank you.

That was all I had under new business.

So I think that whoa.

Oh, we're gonna break a record.

Adjourned.

That's the first we've never made it by seven or eight o'clock yet.