Well, welcome.

Thank you for attending.

I don't even know today's Jude a date.

It's July, I believe.

Thank you for attending the July twenty twenty six meeting.

We have a small crowd.

I'm not sure why.

I'm used to seeing bigger crowds these days.

Would everybody take a second and just make sure their telephone is off.

And then with that in mind, we will uh start tonight's meeting with the invocation given by Council Member Donch, and then we'll go right to Pledge of Allegiance.

Robert Ingler Soul said, We rise by lifting others.

And Margaret Mead said, never believe that a few caring people can't change the world, for indeed that's all who ever have.

So today, a national be someone day, be someone's reason to believe that there are still good people in the world.

I think of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which is one nation under our team and justice for all the councilmember Donch?

Here.

Vice Mayor Shaw, present.

Councilmember Webb.

Present.

Councilmember Early, present.

Mayor Love here.

City Attorney Salzman.

Here.

City Manager O'Reilly.

City Clerk Carico is present.

Very good.

All right.

So tonight we actually have two presentations.

We had thought that the juvenile welfare board might show up and we were going to give them a proclamation or read a proclamation for them, but they're not here tonight.

So we get to meet Mr.

Witt Blanton.

He is the executive director of Ford Pinellas, and sometimes you hear me report on Ford Pinellas because I get to sit on that board.

So please, if you would even thank you all for having me.

It's nice to be here.

It's been a little while since I've been to Gulfport.

But thanks for carving out a little time on the agenda for me to give you an update.

I wanted to cover a few things that are going on both regionally and countywide level that are important.

And I've been making the rounds to all the local governments.

We have 24 cities here in this county, and so starting in April and probably through October, we're going to be getting on the agendas just to make sure everybody is updated.

And there's a couple things that there'll be some follow-up activities.

So this is my 11th year now as the executive director of Ford Pinellas, and I was hired when we unified the Pinellas Planning Council and the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization to align land use and transportation decision making countywide.

And I think it's been it's been good for the most part.

And we're really happy to have Mayor Love on the board and to add that perspective from a great city of Gulfport.

So just so you're aware, we um are one of 27 metropolitan planning organizations in Florida that represent the urban areas of the state, but none of them operate like we do that have that land use transportation linkage.

So we're unique.

But we've advanced some really good projects over the years, and our job is to bring federal transportation dollars and state transportation dollars into the into the county by prioritizing projects.

And on the land use side, we really simply make sure that uh plan development is happening in a way that is consistent with and supported by local governments.

It's not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Um our governing board is comprised of 19 members.

Uh it expanded in size a few years ago after the 2020 census.

Um, and we have been um uh fortunate to have uh a large number of county commissioners, city of St.

Pete uh council members, and uh representatives from all 24 local governments.

Some of the seats are rotating.

Um I wanted to just talk a little bit about how we work.

And I mentioned that our job is to bring transportation dollars into Pinellas County every year.

We adopt an annual set of transportation priorities.

We do that uh in May of every year and forward that on to the Florida Department of Transportation.

In June of every year, we adopt what's called the Transportation Improvement Program, which reflects the DOT five-year work program, uh, and it reflects local funded projects as well.

And that's our opportunity to let the DOT know if we disagree about anything in their five-year work program, and if we don't put it in our transportation improvement program, the project doesn't go forward.

So it's part of the checks and balances of working, hopefully collaboratively and in partnership, but every now and then around the state, there are projects that sometimes local governments don't support.

Uh Tampa has had more of those issues than we have, frankly, over the years.

Um really work hard to make sure that transportation funding is in alignment with our local priorities.

So uh the DOT uh is required by federal law to follow our priorities.

It's not just something we hope they do.

They are actually obligated to do that.

So there is there is a working relationship.

We also work with local governments on grant funding, which means we take our federal dollars and we dish them out to local governments for appropriate projects.

Over the years of having this program, I think we've had about 13 million dollars in grants that have been awarded.

Um it's a competitive program.

They are in two buckets, one for planning and one for construction funds.

And they are used for a wide variety of purposes.

It just has to be a transportation linkage to it.

And we've established criteria that try to reinforce redevelopment objectives and land use objectives as part of that transportation linkage.

So the planning grants have a limit of 150,000.

We have a call for projects that was just released.

The minimum project award is 35,000.

They can be for just about any kind of planning study to help you conceptualize, identify a problem, identify a solution, and then work with the community to build consensus on that.

And what we've typically done is we've taken these planning projects, and once we get local government support and consensus, we then advance them into construction.

A good example of that is Skinner Boulevard in Dunedin, State Road 580.

That project in 2017, they applied for a planning grant.

It was opened after construction in 2025.

So there is a time frame that you have to work with, but that's actually pretty quick, seven to eight years to get a project under construction and complete.

These are some examples of those grants.

Just Skinner's listed on here.

Sometimes they're controversial.

That was one that was very controversial.

And then we've had other projects that have been slam dunks, really easy to do.

Some of the St.

Pete projects have really focused on micromobility and safety for bicycling and walking.

And there's a lot of community support around many of those projects.

Our construction and capital grants, we limit those to three million dollars.

That's not generally going to build your entire project, but it can close a gap.

And we all know funds are limited.

So if we can help with that, then that we're happy with that.

The minimum project award is $300,000.

Again, a lot of projects would apply.

We can pay for bicycle parking around the city.

We can do things like installing bike racks, but it could also be to modify the road design to make a street safer, and it could add components for transit and other safety features as well.

This is an example of some of those capital grants.

So the timeline is the applications are due in the fall.

We like to have pre-application meetings with local government.

So if you are thinking of applying, we're happy to meet with you and talk you through the application so it can be more successful.

They are competitively awarded, meaning our staff reviews them, but we also have members of our technical advisory committee who don't have a dog in the hunt.

They have not their local government hasn't submitted a project and they will volunteer and serve on that committee as well.

The planning funds are available pretty much immediately starting July 1st of 2027.

The construction funds we work with the DOT to have them in the five-year work program so they would be eligible to be available in July of 2032.

So that's how we advance transportation projects in general.

We also have a list of priority projects that you don't have to apply for, but if you have a need in your community and you want us to put it on the priority list, just let us know about it and make the case for it and advocate for it, and then we can add it to the priority list.

So those two mechanisms, applying for grant funding, and then just advocating for transportation projects.

And just to go through a little timeline because we're going to be doing this again.

We merged the organization in 2015, and I was hired as the executive director, and that was a five-year process.

There are a lot of steps to changing state law, and this took the form of a local bill that the legislature, the Pinellas legislative delegation championed.

We're going to be doing it again.

Um to merge our MPOs among the three counties of Pasco, Hillsborough and Pinellas.

And we're well into the process of looking at that merger and advancing a recommendation on that, probably by this fall.

If we do advance that merger, the Pinellas MPO goes away, and therefore the Pinellas Planning Council doesn't have a governing board anymore.

So it's created a little fun situation where I'm going to have to now have a sponsor of the legislative delegation to advance a local bill.

But we have we we were very confident that we can get that done.

So just a step back, the Pinellas Planning Council has authority under the special act to provide countywide planning under the Pinellas County Charter.

And so rather than the County Commission doing it, we are an independent body comprised of cities and the county.

Other than they approve my millage.

So that gives us the ability to what I call the conscience of the county and really be that independent arbiter of countywide land use decisions.

Unlike the MPO, when we make a land use decision, it's a recommendation to the county commission.

The MPO is the final step for approval of those decisions.

So we have done a number of strategic planning and innovation topics, ranging from land use and zoning reform, updating codes, some of our land development codes date to the 1980s in this county.

We've done quarter mobility and other planning studies.

One of the neat things we've done is we've used a tool called ARCIS to visualize development and change in counties range in communities ranging from Indian Rocks to Clearwater, and it allows citizens and elected officials like you to visualize what changes in density and intensity look like.

It's 3D illustration and also includes an economic tool.

We've had really good success with that, and one of my planners, uh Nicole Galasso was just presenting on this in San Diego last week at the Esri National Conference or International Conference.

So to address our special act changes, we have formed a subcommittee of the board comprised of about five members of our of our of our board, and they've been meeting, I think four times.

We've got one more meeting scheduled in August to develop recommendations to the special act.

We feel it's better if it came from the subcommittee rather than just from staff.

And then we will, and I've been meeting with our legislative delegation members, and that'll continue this summer to line up a potential sponsor.

The scope is to look at that one change that decouples the Pinellas Planning Council from the MPO because we don't want PASCO and Hillsborough elected officials deciding land use cases in this county.

And also to make some other changes that would streamline the countywide planning process.

We've heard from a number of officials who feel like adding 60 days to 90 days to a small land use decision that you make here in the Gulf in Gulfport is too much time.

If somebody just has a two-acre parcel and it's not controversial and they want to change it from commercial to residential, for example, it has to go through our review.

We make a recommendation, it then has to go on the county commission agenda, they make a final decision, and then it comes back to you, and that can add significant time.

So we're in favor of non-controversial issues like that being streamlined.

So we have uh developed some language to make that happen.

I don't expect you to read this, but we have laid out a timeline for advancing that bill, and I hope to have a sponsor and language ready when the legislature meets in an organizational session in November.

It'll be our legislative delegation's first meeting.

So there are a couple of things related to that.

One is if you have a small parcel, as I mentioned, under five acres, it doesn't touch any of our big countywide considerations like development in the coastal high hazard or a dispute between two local governments, then we can administratively approve that.

And we're poised to do that in the coming two months.

Um and that would be about 60% of our land use cases would be administratively approved.

Now for larger cases like an activity center or multimodal corridor designation, we would still retain our review, and that would still go through our board, but there would be some streamlined provisions associated with that.

The MPO merger.

Um I want to talk about that for a moment.

Um, how did we get here?

Well, uh, like a lot of things, it originated with the Florida legislature.

For three or four decades, the governor of the state of Florida has advocated that we have one MPO for the Tampa Bay Area since the 1990 census.

Um for all those years, the representatives of the three counties have said, no, we're too different.

Uh we have different characteristics, Pinellas is largely built out.

PASCO and Hillsboro County have a lot of room for growth and development, they have different needs.

Well, that argument, I think, has gotten stale with the legislature.

So in 2023, Senator DeSegli filed a bill that required that we do a feasibility study or report of the potential for the merger.

We submitted that report.

And the legislature has continued to send very clear legislative intent that they support MPOs around the state of Florida looking at this issue.

In fact, Collier, Lee, and Charlotte County are now under the same merger feasibility study that we were three years ago.

So we have continued to advance that.

And the motivation or the justification for merging is that transportation funding is highly competitive across the state and nationally.

And this would be the largest such organization in the state of Florida.

We'd have the most population bigger than Miami because Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach are all separate.

We would be able to compete more effectively, in our opinion, for discretionary dollars.

And a lot of transportation funds are not formula-based, they're discretionary.

And that advocacy is important because ultimately the legislature wants to know that there is one elected official, the chair of this board, and one staff person, the CEO or executive director, who they can go to with issues and needs.

And also, sometimes the Florida Department of Transportation tends to dictate solutions to communities, and we are not their adversary, but we are a little bit of a bulwark against them running roughshod on communities, which they don't tend to do, but it has happened.

And I think if we were to merge and have a three county MPO, we would have a much better standing to really set the agenda for transportation in the Tampa Bay region rather than reacting to what the Florida Department of Transportation wants to do because they are under the governor.

And so they tend to respond to what the governor and the legislature directs them to do for good or bad.

And sometimes it's very good, like the improvements to I-275 that the governor has advanced here in our county, and we've been very supportive of that.

Sometimes they haven't been so good, and we've been concerned about some of those changes.

Also, uh commuters, workers, visitors, they don't care about county lines and county boundaries when they travel.

So having an organization that can break down those barriers, I think would be effective.

We've completed a lot of work over the last year.

We hired a consultant who's been working with the three MPOs to collaboratively develop some recommendations.

In fact, uh this past week, we now have an organizational structure that we're working on.

We're finalizing what it looks like in terms of how many staff we might have, what that cost might be, and this is 100% federally funded.

So it's not property taxes, it's not your local dollars, it's 100% federal funds.

Um, and we receive significant amounts of funding to support the three MPOs today.

It wouldn't be any more money, it wouldn't be any less money, but it would be able to support that organization.

What would be more money would be the discretionary grants for projects.

So what we have done is we have established a governing board of 25 voting members based on population.

That includes the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority and Port Tampa Bay, which would be off the top, those would be staff officials, the CEOs of those organizations because they are regional assets to our transportation network, and then the remaining 23 seats would be allocated by population.

Hillsboro would have 10 seats, Pinellas would have eight seats, PASCO would have five seats.

And that was actually a result of a compromise.

You may remember, mayor, at one of our board meetings where Hillsboro gave up one seat to PASCO County because of concerns that with the port and the airport they could somehow dominate.

Most people aren't paying attention to Hillsborough County politics if they think they all vote together on the same the same way.

But that concern was addressed, so that was a good faith effort on the part of Hillsborough County.

So this is the apportionment plan.

This has not been voted on, but uh essentially our eight seats would have two for the county commission, two for the city of St.

Pete, one for all of the cities over 50,000 population, um which is an important designation in federal law, and then one small one rotating seat for smaller cities under 50,000.

Hopefully that would be appointed by the Pinellas Planning Council in its capacity.

So the next steps are to really finalize a set of bylaws and interlocal agreement for this organization.

Um in the fall of 2026 is to present that uh organizational structure, the fiscal impact of that, and then present that to the decision makers who happen to be the three county commissions and the city of Tampa under federal law because they are the largest city in the urban area.

If they agree, then they submit it to the governor's office for approval, but it's in consultation with the governor, so if the governor didn't like it, the governor could reject it and we could start over again.

We're going to be done at the end of this process because all I can do is present our best recommendation, and then it'll be up to the four principals to decide if they want to tweak it and advance it somehow.

That gets to be a very political process, and I don't really care to be involved in that.

So we're going to take it as far as we can go, and then it'll be up to the legislature, the governor, and those four entities.

So yeah, just a little bit of politics involved in all that.

And so part of the organizational structure that we're looking at is potentially having, even if we're a regional MPO, having dedicated staff in each of the three counties that focuses on local issues, public involvement, safety, bicycle pedestrian issues.

Those are granular issues that are very hard to do from a mothership, you know, located in a different county.

Um so um we haven't quite worked out what that looks like, but um we are committed, all three staff members that that will continue to happen even with the merger.

And if the merger doesn't happen, we're here to serve you as Ford Pinellas.

And the Pinellas Planning Council, even if decoupled from the MPO, still has responsibility for transportation planning countywide.

So that would still continue.

So this just lists some of the other types of support that we do.

Uh we have an interlocal agreement with Gulfport with every other city in the county to provide mapping and data and tools that you may not be able to do at the staff level.

So we do consider ourselves an extension of your staff.

And you pay a millage levy for our staff services, your residents do.

So that's an important tool.

I'll just conclude here.

This is my contact information.

I encourage you all to reach out to me.

Mayor, you know how to get in touch with me.

And if you click on that image or that link, there's uh an explainer about Ford Pinellas and all the different work we do.

I find that that's helpful because a lot of people don't really know what we do because we're an obscure county agency.

Uh we show up every couple of years to your city.

Uh but we are here and we look forward to working with you.

And I know Linda Fisher of our staff has done a lot of work here for the city of Gulfport on things like ADU ordinances and whatnot.

So she's gonna retire someday, and we can't um it imagine her ever retiring.

So thank you for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Okay, we'll go in um speaking order to see if any of our council members have uh any questions for you.

I don't thank you for being here.

Uh righty, and then we'll go to council member Shaw.

Thank you for being here.

I have a broader perspective of it.

Now I I attended part of a most of one of the meetings when the mayor was away to observe, not take her place on the board itself, and it was very interesting.

But I think I I even understand more now.

Thank you.

Okay, good.

Okay, Councilmember Wimp.

Yeah, thanks, Witt.

Can you put it back to the makeup of the combined MPO?

Uh sure, let me go this way.

Thanks.

And Linda's done an amazing job helping us out, and if she retires, hopefully she will cast her her view our way.

She doesn't have a date.

Okay.

Uh is this what you're looking at?

Yeah.

So and wait, can you go back one more slide?

Sure.

Just I wanted to say that of oh no.

Uh uh, what did I think?

With the counties, like how many of the one who broke down the country.

The one that broke down by counties.

I know.

Oh, I'm going the other direction.

It's my fault, it's operator cover here.

No, that's tricky.

I was presenting the other day, and I couldn't even get it to go.

Yeah, I'm not sure which slide it is, but if you start over, I'll get there.

Okay.

I didn't realize what I was asking.

No, that's okay.

It shouldn't be that hard.

Uh next.

Coming up.

I don't know that there was a slide that broke down the counties.

I heard you break down the counties.

Yeah.

I heard you speak it, but I didn't see a slide.

Okay, so this is this is the big picture population.

Okay.

And that's based on the 2020 census.

We have to use the 2020 census.

We'll do it again after the 2030 census.

Awesome.

And we're not obligated to change as a result of the census, but we have to at least consider the board composition.

Commissioner Scherer has at the county has some big concerns that and it's it's a fair question that Pinellas County, because we're not growing like the other two counties, will lose our voice, our our our you know, support over time because PASCO will get to a million at some point.

Hillsboro will get to two million at some point.

They have the land.

And we're tapped out.

And we're not gonna probably get much above a million over time.

However, the Florida Department of Transportation has a requirement that the five-year work program be equitable by population.

Okay.

So they have to certify that every year.

So there will be no great sucking sound of money to Hillsborough County or Pascoe County.

It legally can't happen.

Okay.

Um so that's one control in structuring the MPO.

We've also put in some control controls in the interlocal agreement and the bylaws that would require sort of a supermajority for the adoption of the long range plan and the adoption of the transportation improvement program.

That's what I was getting at.

It's not really a supermajority, but um it is a majority of the full board and a majority of each county delegation to approve those documents.

Okay.

Um and that means that we would have five of the eight county um Pinellas County representatives having to support the long range plan.

And if we can't get there, then you got a problem project and you figure out what to do about that problem project.

I want to like commend you on getting this far.

This is the second, third, fourth bite at the apple.

How many times?

I've I've I've walked through this process a couple of at least twice, and I it feels like this is the furthest.

The language that you submitted for the um the local bill, is that does that assume that you that we merge?

Or does it or does it just address the Pinellus, the PPC?

It's got an if-then clause about the merger.

So uh if the MPO merges, then we would create a 13-member board.

I think that's the latest of the subcommittee.

Okay.

That would be just comprised of Pinellus representatives, still reflecting the the cities.

Um in the event that the MPO merger does not happen, we would keep the board as is and the function of the unified organization as is.

Awesome.

Uh then there are other changes that would address more of the streamlining provisions and modifying how we apply the countywide plan so that it's a little more strategic and less regulatory.

Um and then my final question was around how you define non-controversial land use cases.

Because I mean, I because when you were describing it, you were describing it as size of land parcel, but as you mentioned, there's not a lot of open land, so we don't have those 25-acre projects.

We have a lot of two-acre, five-acre projects.

And especially in Gulfport, we're two square miles.

So, like the likelihood that so for us, it sounds like I just want to make sure that we have due diligence from your body and the VOCC.

Well, first of all, with all land use cases, we tend to hold a pre-application meeting with the applicant and the local government.

So we would know then if there's going to be some issues and some controversy associated with the case.

Um but what I'm talking about are land use cases that fall below a certain threshold of size and don't touch any of the four or five countywide considerations like development in the coastal high hazard area would be a trigger.

Um that would that would probably not allow us to just administratively approve something.

Especially if it's permanent housing.

If it's um a commercial property in the coastal high hazard area, nobody really cares.

Right.

But it uh and a hotel could be accepted.

But if you're putting people permanently in the coastal high hazard area, like apartments, that's not good.

Um they need to be mitigated, there needs to be a mitigated strategy.

It doesn't mean you can't do it, but you need to make sure there's shelter space, but it's evacuation.

That's not administrative at that point.

That becomes more vetting.

Would you I mean, and I'll follow up with you via email just to get that definition from you so I can look it over because we do have things that come up from time to time that really um that I want to make sure I want to see how the change in definition would impact that.

Absolutely.

Um I think that is oh, you mentioned the four principles for the um is that the four who are the four principles for the merger.

They are the three county commissions and the city of Tampa Council wise.

Thank you.

And really good job ushering through that process, and the mayor has done a fantastic job of updating us.

That's great.

Um, you know, on a regular basis of how of the twists and turns of getting this done.

When's the final vote on the merger?

We don't have a date set, but we hope to take it to the principals.

Um I would say by January, it'll probably go to them for information in November-October time frame, and then we'd ask them to vote on it by January-February time frame.

The thing is, once they vote on it and send it to the governor, and if the governor approves it, I've got six months to stand up the organization.

So we want to have kind of everything done, like where do we get our HR and IT and all those things, we need to figure all that out.

I really love that you just said I have six months.

Are you the person who would be responsible for sanding it up?

That has not been determined.

There's three of us, and there's one chair, and so there'll be music that stops at some point.

Thank you so much for all of your work and your presentation.

Thanks, Mayor, for organizing this.

Absolutely.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

And I have no questions, but it really, even though I go to all the meetings and I listen intently, your your overview helps me too when I have to explain it to others.

Okay.

Glad to be of help.

Thank you so much.

If you need us, we're a phone call away.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

All righty.

And then we're fortunate to have a second presentation tonight.

We've got Mr.

Dean Hay, and he's gonna update us on what's going on with GET.

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to present uh our 2026 uh tree canopy analysis study.

Um how does this work just that way?

The center button.

The bottom?

Nope, center button.

We should have a workshop on it.

There we go.

So it stands for uh Gulfport Environmental Team, and we recently completed our 2026 uh Gulf Port Tree Canopy Analys back in April.

Um our last tree canopy analysis was completed in 2023, and uh we presented that uh back in I believe July of 2023.

Most municipal tree canopy analysis are completed every five years.

Uh we chose to do this analysis early, uh mostly to study the impacts of the 2024 storms, but also to benchmark the tree canopy cover with the creation of the Goldport Environmental Team.

Um iTree Canopy uses a statistical sampling method and remote sensing to estimate land use coverages.

Um it's a free tool that is available through the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service.

And so it's widely used for urban forestry as well as urban planning in order to get kind of a pulse of where any municipality or organization or area is at any one time.

The tool uh prompts the user to classify land use areas using randomly placed survey points based um uh uh survey points based off of a predetermined land use category.

And so if you look at this image that's that's up here, this is an actual screenshot of one of the uh 2500 uh uh category classifications we did within the overall city of Gulfport boundary.

And so on each of the screens, that yellow cross pops up.

And uh that uh the the user then has to classify it based off of the land use categories that are set up at the beginning of the study.

And so you can see on the right-hand side uh it says add new point cover class, and that's where you would classify if this one falls into those uh six categories.

Wrong one.

Come on, do it wrong.

Yeah, so these are the land use categories that that we typically use.

And uh we uh the reason why we use these land use categories is because we're looking at mostly um human and community natural community health.

And so each of these different land uses has a different management uh tool or uh management practice associated with them, mostly around uh shade uh and uh uh storm water management.

And so uh these categories we did 2500 kind of uh points, random points that were generated, and as you go through the the process, um each of those points will be uh put into this.

And so there we go.

Just pointing.

Um urban forest uh uh urban foresters and urban planners typically use these six land use categories to estimate different types of urban coverage that affects human and environmental health.

Each land use category represents common urban elements that, when analyzed individually, can be indicators of urban development vulnerabilities, ecological health, and they provide compositional data for issues that affect human health.

Each category also represents, as I said, uh the need for built stormwater assets to control storm water if it's not if rainwater is not permitted to infiltrate where it falls.

So here you see that uh 2023 uh urban tree canopy cover uh results.

Uh the tree canopy cover at that point was 23.1, and through the presentation, we recommended that there that council set and the and you did set a 30% tree canopy cover goal.

That uh 30% can't uh cover goal was estimated to be sufficient to enhance human health and offset the 2023 impervious surfaces coverage that is noted in here to preserve water quality.

I think that's 26.

Yep.

So um in uh in 2026, we have uh 28.8 percent tree canopy cover, which is a really significant improvement.

28.8?

28.8.

Um, when the standard error is considered, um uh Gulfport has effectively achieved its 2023 canopy cover goal.

Congratulations.

That is a major accomplishment.

Especially how many we lost during the storm.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So for comparison purposes, the current canopy cover in Pinellas County overall is 35 percent, and the city of Dunedin has the highest canopy cover in the county with 41 percent, just to put your uh into context.

I got you.

Oh, thank you.

Um we expected the tree canopy cover to be at par or lower than the 2023 analysis due to the extensive amount of mature tree loss that we lost in the storms.

Without a complete tree inventory, both public and private spaces, it's difficult to precisely pinpoint the reason for the study's canopy cover gain results.

We'll take it, but we don't know exactly why.

Um we anticipate that the gain is likely from uh canopy growth of existing large mature uh trees in our community.

According to GET's current inventory, which we're about 30% completed right now, which focuses on public right-of-way and uh uh private front yards.

Um 41.7 percent of our trees are 12 inches or larger.

This is the point at which 12 inches is a point at which uh canopy expands the fastest, and so that might be the reason why we're seeing that increase, that significant increase.

But further reliance on these mature trees to continue to provide adequate adequate future tree canopy cover is a concern as approximately 10% of the existing large uh tree species that we have in our inventory are laurel oak, and we expect those to be removed within the five next five to eight years.

Okay, so if we don't plant, we're going to go backwards at this point, is what the message is.

To maintain our existing canopy cover in the next five to ten years, we should plant at least a hundred trees per year just to maintain to expand our canopy cover, we need to plant 200 to 300 shade trees per year.

Those are the next generations uh canopy cover, as well as several others beyond that.

Next slide.

Gulfport effectively has achieved this 30% tree canopy goal.

The next step in further developing a healthy urban forest is addressing our aging tree assets, which uh we call them assets because they continue to provide benefits, plant the next generation of resilient trees, and adopt a more precise tree canopy goal.

Precise meaning uh putting a date on it.

Okay, we we had an open date on the last one.

With the exception of GET, we can develop a tree planting giveaway program that will target low canopy areas, areas with high impervious cover, and the replacement of those storm losses both uh in the past and potentially in the future.

The next step would be adopting a 32% tree canopy goal by 2032 and a targeted planting of 200 to 300 shaped trees on both public and private property.

Next slide.

In 2026, the study recorded a 6.1% jump in impervious surface cover across the city.

Most of this increase was in the impervious pavement category.

And if you remember back what that impervious pavement, it covers streets, driveways, sidewalks, anything that's on a flat surface.

Okay.

Excuse me.

Out of the out of the 6.1% jump, 5.3% of that was the impervious surface category.

This is a significant increase in three years and developed entirely on private property, as the city of Gulfport did not invest in any projects that would have expanded this cover or led to that 5.3% increase on public property.

Next slide.

This 6.1% impervious surface cover increase increase equates to an additional 33.1 acres of lost infiltration and nearly 225,000 gallons of additional stormwater runoff for every one inch rainfall we receive.

Okay.

Stormwater that falls on private property impervious surface ground level most often results in surface runoff that can that can go to the public rights away and our sewer infrastructure.

Stormwater runoff that reaches public rights away increased stormwater management costs, increased erosion through channelization, and results in concentrated pollutants like heavy metals, silicates, and other toxic chemicals that flow into our natural waterways.

Next slide.

The USCPA generally recommends impervious cover be limited across an entire municipality to 35% to avoid severe to avoid severe impacts to natural water bodies.

These impacts include pollution accumulation, severe erosion at the end of the pipe, stabilizing or destabilizing pH shocks and thermal loading in water bodies.

Thermal loading is our surfaces are hot, and when we get surface runoff, it goes right into our water bodies, and that affects the plants and animals' ability to cope with high temperature environments.

And these contribute to a loss of sensitive aquatic species that imperil our aquatic communities.

Contributory stormwater runoff from municipal stormwater systems also increase our future storm risk through warmer Gulf of Mexico Mexico temperatures.

Heat generated from UV absorbance on these impervious surfaces also leads to dangerous daytime temperatures, which affect our elderly and our outdoor workers as well as people recreating, and further relies on an overburdened electrical grid with an increased need for indoor climate control.

Next slide.

Shade trees are unique of all of the native vegetation in that they mature, they draw tremendous volumes of water from the upper soil levels and underground aquifers as they evapotranspirate.

A healthy shade tree constantly lowers the water table, allowing for more water storage in those upper soil layers.

This lower water table and hyperpercolation capability reduce surface flooding in intense sequential rain events.

Tree species like sycamore have the greatest evaporative evapotranspiration rates with a single mature tree at maturity absorbing up to 5,000 gallons of soil water per year, effectively lowering that water table the bigger that tree gets.

And if we go back to the amount of rainfall that is generated from this additional 5.3%, we calculate that 45 mature sycamore trees would intercept that additional 225,000 gallons of stormwater for that one inch rain event mentioned it uh before.

Next slide.

So in summary, GET has three recommendations based off the data that we've collected in this analysis.

The first is to adopt a 32% tree canopy goal to be achieved by 2032.

This can be accomplished by planting 200 to 300 shade trees per year, like I mentioned before, public and private property.

Collectively, get can work with the city to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of this enhanced planning program, planting program, and can assist with funding.

Second is to adopt a mandatory minimum, third 25% green space across all zoning districts.

This will address the fragmented green space that currently precludes the planting and establishment of shade trees that maximize the benefits of a healthy urban forest.

What we're seeing in these fragmented green space, it generally happens in the new larger footprint houses, houses that are now putting in circular driveways and accessory buildings like ADUs, garages, sheds, that uh no longer allow for that small green space to support a large mature tree in the future.

The third thing is to pilot a residential green stormwater infrastructure program to reduce impervious surfaces, increase curbside stormwater infiltration.

This is an example in the in the image here, and establish natural pollinator spaces that increase curb appeal and housing values.

The GET team has the experience and expertise to perform community engagement, design, installation, and maintenance of each of these stormwater swales.

They asked from council would be to set aside approximately 500 or sorry, $5,000 for the purchase of plant material so that we could implement this pilot program.

Next slide.

Thank you, and I welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Shaw?

I don't right now either, thank you.

Okay.

Councilmember Webb.

I just want to thank you for all of the research.

I thought this was really informative.

Um I think because we were going into budgeting, assuming that we're gonna have to trim and tighten and do belt tightening.

Um it would be very helpful to find out about projects where instead of where there is incentives to do this by private homeowners instead of mandates from the government or additional cost expenses.

Um that would be very helpful for me, and examples of that would be super helpful.

But I really appreciate the research, and um congratulations to everybody who came before on achieving our goal.

Yeah, that's a pretty good thing.

Thank you.

Hi Dean.

Um, I have a quick question.

Yes, I wrote it down because I didn't think you'd probably be able to go back.

Um how would one adapt a mandatory minimum of 25% green space?

So I I don't uh in the urban planning field, I I've worked with this before where it's been part of a larger discussion with the community.

Okay.

Um and uh based off of feedback there might be uh need to discuss it on more at the city level kind of thing.

And we certainly, as GET would be uh uh thrilled to be a part of that conversation and to help lead those discussions.

So basically share with people how they can improve their own space that they might not know.

I only know from you being here.

Um those are great recommendations.

And and you know, if the city uh that this is just the start of a conversation, but if the city uh realizes that as development changes, uh as our neighborhoods change in character, that that 25% minimum in our code might be the best way in order for us to protect the tree canopy because uh trees are lost through development, and if we can mandate that those trees through an improved code, uh we can preserve those trees so that they will continue to add to the the character of the neighborhood and the uh physical and psychological health of the community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you.

Um number one organizing and leading get, I think it's really important.

I never expected you to have an analysis done this quick.

I really truly didn't.

So I'm extremely impressed with that.

I also will say that this was really never my cup of tea, and I never lived in a coastal city before, but the programs that have been presented in front of the council over the years, I've I'm like a sponge soaking these things up.

I mean, I have five rain barrels at my house, and uh and I collect every drop of condensation off of my AC units for watering purposes.

I don't have a blade of grass, I've planted three new trees in the last year, so um I'm listening, I'm paying attention, and I'm talking to everybody I can.

But that's kind of me as the resident, and I really like it.

I'm even seriously considering doing some what do we call it depaving, because I have a massive pavered patio in the back that hasn't been used in a long time.

So I take it very real.

I've got uh upcoming class that I'm gonna share with the council here in a little bit that's gonna address that.

But in terms of uh from a city point of view and a council point of view, I am under the belief in talking to our city attorney as well as to Linda Fisher as recent as about 10 days ago that our hands are tied right now.

I mean, I agree with some of the things you said, all these circular drives, that's a problem.

I have a search later drive, but it's all pebbles.

Um so I think that the things you're saying are good, but my understanding of the law that we're under right now, it's October 1 of 2027 before we can actually even discuss these things.

I'm familiar with that, yes.

Okay.

So I just want you to know that if you don't see anything happening right now, it's because we believe that we can't do anything right now as a city, but individuals can.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you for coming and explaining and educating.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um and I just wanted to note that uh we're currently working on a draft report of all of our findings and everything that goes into much more detail as well as it shares the independent individual by council the individual uh cover classes for each one of the the wards as well.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

Okay, so you'll see that probably in a couple months.

Oh, that'd be real helpful.

All right, thank you.

Fairwater.

Yes, we've got lots of laws in my ward.

All righty, very good.

So then with that, I think I recognize almost everybody, but for the folks that I don't, when you come up for public comment, you need to give your name and what city you're from.

You have three minutes, there's literally a timer, and if you exceed it, it'll scare you because it scares us.

Um but you can speak about what you want.

Public comments, not give and take.

It's just for anybody to come up and say and share anything that they want with the council.

So we're gonna kick off public comment with a show of hands who'd like to speak.

No reason to be shy.

Yes.

Okay.

April Thanos, and then Karen, I saw you next.

So just to build on what Dean was talking about, when you talked about how do you um monitor 20 to 25 percent, usually when people come in for a right now, we have a 20% and we change it from just green, which included pavers, to a hundred percent pervious, impervious, I mean pervious for for green.

And so if somebody comes in for a permit, that's when you usually can say, no, you can't do that because it's gonna be more than 20 percent.

So it's fairly easy if you up that to 25 percent.

You you might not be able to tell if nobody comes in for a permit, um, unless you change the stormwater, the way we build for stormwater, and that's a whole other issue.

Um the other thing I'd like to bring up is that in currently when people are coming in for a permit to say build a house or do a um a big expansion on their house, if there's trees on the borders of their property, we often don't do anything to keep them from not cutting those trees down.

And I think that we should work with our permitting and planning departments to to seriously encourage people to leave those trees, um, especially because they're often you know right on the border, so it it affects both properties and it would be a benefit for everybody if they keep them.

Um and right now I know they don't do anything about that.

And um driveways, if you increase the charge for driveways, now I think it's about $70 to get a driveway permit.

If you significantly increase that and then didn't charge people who made permeable driveways, that could be a way to incentivize it.

Um I noticed another thing that in the current budget, where in the last couple years we've put 30,000 in the tree budget.

This year only has 10, and that's a significant reduction.

And I know that we have to be careful about what happens, but this is something that I mean the get will try to get some grants and stuff like that, but this is a significant reduction, and and it'll affect the community for years because, like you say, the the Laurel Orks are gonna come out, and so if we don't start planting now, we're gonna really look very and I also noticed that we didn't have anything coming in, like usually if somebody say there's a big tree in the middle of your lot and you're gonna build a house, of course you have to take that tree out, but you they should be paying into a tree bank, and I didn't see any money in the tree bank at all.

So I'm wondering about that.

And also there was a lot of discussion about cameras, and I thought there'd be more people here to talk about that, but maybe the city manager can talk about what's going on with those cameras.

Thank you.

Uh Karen Block.

Hi, uh Karen Schwartz, Dillette Avenue South.

This is sort of related.

Um we're gonna be building uh um a labyrinth near the history museum, and I'm newly on the board of Arts and Heritage, and I'm also involved with that with the labyrinth.

The discussion during the discussion, actually, Dean was there deciding what color to make it, and I think we've pretty much decided it should be a lighter color rather than there's different ways that the pathway should be the lighter colors so that it's not as much of a heatsink.

But anyway, here's my request, Mayor, and and I've asked for this before.

A bike rack next to the museum, please.

There isn't one.

It's hard to get a bike up on the on the porch.

Um I think that more people would be likely to ride their bikes there to events like porch parties and just to do some research.

Anyway, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Who's next?

Show of hands, please.

If if I see none, I'm gonna stop.

Yes, Miss Gore.

Susan Gore, Town Shores.

Um, I am here to invite you all to my going away party.

It is tomorrow night, 6 to 9 p.m.

at the North End Tap House.

Hot Tonic is playing because Kelly Wright pays for them, not because of me.

And I want to make that clear as a disclaimer.

I also want to say that Kelly Kirshner will be introduced there because I think he's a candidate who has a shot at the US House of Representatives for Florida.

I want to thank you all for your service.

I am going away for a long time.

And some people will be sad about that, and some people will not.

And I'm good with that.

My reason for, in addition to inviting you to the party tomorrow, is to offer some thoughts as I walk away.

And that is to thank you again.

Your job is a tough one, a thankless one, and a policy level one.

You are not the people who implement policy.

You are the people who make policy.

And I want to ask you to think about policy in a way that's notoriously hard to quantify.

That is opportunity cost.

The loss of the casino, we can quantify at 10,000 a month.

That's a lost opportunity for income.

The loss of a senior center, a $15 million campaign that costs $600,000 and did nothing for three years ultimately, is a lost opportunity, not only in terms of $600,000 of our taxpayer dollars, but the loss of a senior center.

That did not have more than two, one qualified appraisal.

Oh, and I have one more.

I have a bun to pick.

Posting job openings widely and interviewing widely for open positions strikes me as a very important opportunity.

And hiring an administrative assistant.

I don't see Tom Nichols sitting outside Jim's office answering the phone and typing memos.

I just don't.

And I'd like to know who's gonna do that work because somebody's going to have to, and that's a lost opportunity.

You, as the policymakers can require open and widely shared position announcements and interviews.

How many people applied for that job?

How many people were interviewed?

Thank you.

Thank you.

And who's next?

Do you have anybody else for public comment?

Seeing none, do we have any e-comments?

I do have one e-comment.

Excuse me.

It is from Timothy Walters.

Uh it says the proposed garbage collection fee increase of 8% should be rejected for three reasons.

Number one, the rate of increase outpaces the citizen citizenry's ability to pay.

The cumulative fee increase over the past two years is 16.6%.

The cumulative cost of living adjustment for Social Security recipients is only 5.4%.

Number two, the hidden tax of about $40 per household, 250,000 pilot divided by 6,060 households, should not exist.

Utility charges should cover the cost of providing the service without a profit that goes to the general fund.

Additionally, this type of tax is the most regressive tax.

And number three, Gulfport's garbage collection rates are already the highest of neighboring communities.

A Gulfport 3741 monthly, B, St.

Pete, 3662 monthly, 2.1% lower for twice weekly.

Small households can opt for weekly service for 2991, 20% lower than Gulfport.

C South Pasadena, 1704, 54% lower for twice weekly.

D Saint Pete B St.

Pete Beach, $20.92, 44% lower, twice weekly through waste connections.

And that's it.

Nothing.

Alrighty.

Public comment is then closed, and we will move on to the city manager's report, please.

Yes, Mayor.

Just city attorney has provided staff a draft e-bike ordinance.

I'd like to schedule that for your August 4th meeting for discussion.

If there's a consent.

Yes, please.

Yes.

Yep, I see a consensus.

Mayor, if you have any questions.

Yeah.

I I was hoping that uh either you or the chief could answer some questions regarding flock cameras.

Sure.

I know that until uh nine days ago I never heard of flock cameras.

So um though did not receive any emails whatsoever, I did see a lot of brouhahaha on social media, and so my reaction to that was to meet with you and the chief today and pose my questions, and so I'm hoping that you would invite the chief up to uh answer the questions for all those who would like to know.

Sure.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So I brought the questions that you asked, and I figured I would just read the responses that I gave you.

Okay.

Um do we have flock cameras in Gulfport, and if so, why and how are they used?

We do have flock cameras in Gulfport.

They are used as license plate recognition.

They're LPRs, license plate recognition systems.

The um technology is used to assist us in solving crimes and enhancing public safety to ensure the responsible use of the technology and safeguard against misuse.

The Gulfport Police Department has established a very thorough directive that governs its use.

How many cameras do we use?

We currently have five cameras.

A sixth camera will be installed next week.

I should go back and say that we first had cameras installed in 2023, so we've been using them for three years.

Another important feature is that data from each camera is retained for 30 days and automatically deletes after 30 days.

Can we track cars or people?

We track cars.

We don't track people.

You said, do we fly drones?

Or you asked, do we fly drones in Gulfport?

We do not fly drones in Gulfport.

The police department does not fly drones.

I can't speak for other city departments.

We don't fly drones.

Do they see into and identify people in the cars?

No.

The cameras detect license plates and vehicles.

That's it.

Those were the questions you asked.

Do you have any more questions?

Those were the four that I asked because those were the ones that I thought were reasonable issues that were raised on social media.

Some of the other things were um pretty far out there, and I didn't think they were um particularly reasonable.

So that was the questions that I had.

I think before you sit down in case anybody else has a question.

In addition to what I've just asked.

I was actually curious looking at there's a whole bunch of maps available for like nationwide where any of the cameras are, and from what I noticed, there's like five cameras in one small area.

Is there a reason for like what was the reason for where they're placed?

Um do you mean in Gulfport?

Yeah, like it from the map that you can pull up that's obviously not an official map anywhere, but when you look it up, Google it, look up where are there flock cameras in my zip code?

There's like five cameras, and they're on Gulfport Boulevard and like 62nd or something, like next to Stetson, but not in Stetson, like kind of towards the Western end, but like all in one little there's actually 16 cameras in our area currently.

Five of them are ours, eleven of them are for Stetson.

They installed 11 flock cameras.

Good question.

So those ones actually aren't on there.

The ones that are in Stetson are not on the map, but the five that are just in a couple blocks.

And we have five, you said we have five, and they I hate to reveal where they are because I would rather people.

I think the better way, but I just five it was strategic.

Oh and we don't have five all at that one intersection that was referenced.

No, I no, I no, I'm not sure what intersection is.

I think the issue is that the scale of the map because it's on both east and west sides of the city and the north and south.

And I think it's the scale of the map blends all the dots together because I mean you can zoom in pretty far.

Yeah, like down to the point.

But um, I just was curious if there was like what decisions would go into where you would put one.

Is it like traffic purposes?

Like, you know, obviously if somebody's trying to flee from somewhere they're gonna go on a main street, they're not gonna cut down like little back roads or something, but maybe they would, or maybe you know, whatever.

I just was curious reasoning, you know.

Well, the stress of it was to try to get like the main thoroughfares in terms of people leaving and entering Gulfport.

Yeah, all right, thank you.

Council Member Shaw, did you have anything?

Well, since we're not talking about locations and we've addressed strategic locations, was there a reason for us to add an additional one?

Yes.

And and that's not to be publicized.

No, so when we when we had our first three cameras, um we had access to other cameras around Pinells County.

It's a network, the flock network.

The beauty of it is that you can access other cameras.

Um the problem was that after a certain point we lost access.

So the only way to gain access to those cameras again was to have three more cameras.

So we purchased three more cameras, and we put those in a strategic location.

Okay, and and so we we maintain that record for 30 days.

Um is it accessed by any others?

No, our records are only accessed by us.

Yes.

Okay, because that's one of the questions I was getting asked on.

They have access to our cameras.

Other agencies have access to our cameras, but it's only police departments that have access to them.

Okay.

All right, I can't think of any more right now.

I think most of them unanswered, but if I have more, I know I can ask.

Thank you.

I have a question since it's a network, so it'd be what like Haida, sheriff, police departments, any other agencies?

Every police agency in Penelope County, yes.

Okay.

So you you have strict internal protocols for like governing what our officers do, but any of those other agencies have their own protocols that they are following when they access our data and other and the data that's held in the database for 30 days when they're trying to solve a crime or identify the whereabouts of a missing person and a car myth matching a certain description.

I'm assuming that's what it's predominantly used for since it's yes.

Okay.

And they're all uh accredited agencies, so they're required to have a policy for technology.

Okay.

Um facial recognition with the cameras.

Not related to flock, no.

Oh, okay.

So cryptic.

Now I have a follow-up.

Come on.

Do we are we all like are we like Britain?

Do we have facial recognition and uh we do not?

Okay.

But perhaps the sheriff on our county roads might.

I'm not sure.

I can't answer that without consulting the sheriff to find out.

Just the way you answered it was so I understand that you have jurisdictional bounds just to what Gulfport does and doesn't do.

Okay.

Appreciate you.

Thanks, Chief.

Thanks, Chief.

Chief, how many crimes has it helped you solve?

You know, I I meant to look that up today, but I kind of got lost in the the research of other agencies.

Um more than one crime has been solved using Flock.

And we've recovered stolen vehicles and missing people.

Yeah.

Um one of my stooling vehicles.

I think it works.

So that's how I knew about them.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chief.

Sure, appreciate it.

Uh City Manager, did you have anything else?

I did.

Okay.

City Attorney Report.

Yes, uh Mayor Council, just to remind everybody that the uh referendum language for save our homes from excessive property taxes is set.

So council, you just need to be clear that if you're giving out any information, it's all just neutral, that the city cannot take a position on this particular referendum or any of the referendum.

Did you I'm sorry, did you start out by saying that the language had been set?

Yes.

Even though there's a lawsuit that might change the case.

Well, it's set now.

I mean it could change if the lawsuit successful.

Okay, there's no stay on.

I mean, so there wasn't that was a part of the Supreme Court was allowing cities to talk about it in total languages.

You could talk about it, but you just can't take a position on it.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

Council member.

I have a question.

Yeah.

The city cannot correct, right?

Well, you as an well, at one point we can't, once the language is set, we can't even educate on it, it's my understanding.

No, we can always educate on it.

I did not, that is not that's not okay.

Advocate.

Yeah, you just cannot pay all everybody that I know of is presenting information.

And I don't know if you know what I did today.

I did do a take two on it on Tuesday, and I specifically addressed the fact that I could not uh advocate for or against, but I could inform an education.

We can do that right up to the to whenever.

Okay.

We just cannot take a position.

So the city cannot take a position.

You as elected officials cannot take a position because it would assume that you're acting on behalf of the city.

You have to be very careful of this.

But we can educate.

Absolutely.

All right.

Awesome.

Thanks.

That's great news.

Did you have anything else?

Uh we have filed the lawsuit against uh former council member O'Hara.

I will keep you updated once we get the um service on that.

Uh and it actually is filed in county court because we are seeking um trouble damages on it, so that takes us over the small claims uh amount.

Did you say that we were did you say we were looking for triple damages?

Is that what you said?

It's civil theft.

So under civil theft, you can ask for trouble damages.

Doesn't mean you'll end up getting them, but you can ask for it.

So we have made that request.

And as soon as I get service, I'll elect council know.

Okay.

I have one question, and I really don't know if I should ask the city manager or the city attorney.

Being that we passed on ADUs, and being that it's been approved, at this point, can our residents apply for an ADU permit?

Yes, they can.

They're good to go.

Do you know if we've had anybody apply for a permit at this point?

Mark.

No matter no.

Okay, but it it's okay to tell people that they can move forward on that now.

Okay, that would be a good take to on Tuesday as well.

Okay.

That's all I have there.

All right, thank you.

City clerk.

Uh yes, I do have a couple of things.

Uh my first item is uh I need to request uh permission or consensus that we cancel the August 18th meeting, and this is due to that being an election day for the primaries.

We do have three polling locations in the city hall, council chambers being one of them.

Uh so I would need your permission to go ahead and cancel August 18th for that reason.

Okay, okay.

All right.

Yes, but can we reschedule it?

Uh well, the week of the the elections, I have uh strict orders from the supervisor.

I have the machines in here.

So the machines are delivered on a certain day and they're here through a certain day.

So I and I don't want to tell the public what those days are because they have to be kept under lock and key.

Okay.

Um so if you want to reschedule, that's up to you, but it cannot be during that statute.

Right.

Yeah, understood.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, my second item is I had sent you all an email regarding the PSTA appointment.

Um, since then, since my email to you all and just putting it on your radar.

This is something that we'll have to have a consensus from you all before the end of the fiscal year.

Umriginally it was just one person who is currently on the board, uh, Vice Mayor Tom Reed from South Pasadena, and he was looking to be re-elected.

Um we did receive a second email from the city of Seminole, and so some uh commissioner Ray Bellivo has uh opted to put his name in for that.

Uh right now I'm waiting for from information on from PSTA to tell me how to move forward with it because usually if there's one person they ask for a consensus or just an email from me confirming that all of the council is okay with the the person that was up for nomination or re-election.

Uh with the second person coming into the ring, they may give us that opportunity to interview, not interview, but have them come and present to you so that you can ask them questions and things like that.

So I'm just again kind of bringing it to your attention.

It's nothing you have to talk about tonight.

I am as soon as I can get confirmation from the PSTA board on how they would like us to move forward with it, I will bring it back to you.

Thank you.

Okay, very good.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

So with that, then we'll move on to um council comments and reports, and we'll start with you, Councilmember Donch.

Thanks.

So I was out of town last weekend, but um I know that Key Powell's beautiful and a group of volunteers went out again to clean up the invasive uh vegetation at Clambayu, and I heard that was really successful, so I'm really excited about that.

It looked like they got over 2300 pounds of invasive uh material out of there.

And from what I read from the follow-up after it, they said that they were disposing of it, but also making it into mulch to be reused, so that's really exciting.

Um so thank you everybody for doing that.

And sorry I wasn't there, but I'll be at the next one.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Very good.

Uh Councilmember Webb early and I attended the planning for progress community meeting at Boca Sega High School on July 9th.

It was a very interesting and informative meeting, and some of the statistics were actually unexpected to me.

It was it was really interesting.

Um, so thank you so much to Councilmember Webb for bringing forth the meeting information and the proclamation of support to our Gulf Board schools and continued updates.

Um just wanted to remind everybody that we have a budget workshop scheduled for August 6th at 6 p.m.

Uh that marks the start of our year's budget process.

Uh while we won't know the results of the number November property tax vote yet, we're already considering initial steps.

We hope residents will share their thoughts and stay engaged in the budget process.

If the property tax referendum passes, we'll be faced with difficult decisions and your input is essential.

And so I'm keeping it short tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Councilmember Webb.

Thanks, Mayor.

A couple of things.

July, uh, the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council takes off in terms of like regular meetings.

However, they're kicking it back into gear.

And so this Friday, there's a Tampa Bay Coastal Master Plan Technical Work Group meeting.

The public's invited to this.

It's a hybrid meeting, so you can either go in person or you can go virtually.

And also on Tuesday, so that's Friday the 24th.

And then Tuesday, the 28th, there's a stormwater management public education and training committee.

So if you're interested in how the county, how counties conceive of managing stormwater, and how you and learning what that looks like for individuals and for cities and for counties.

This might be a meeting that you're interested in attending.

And they're gonna be discussing source pollution prevention education, defining issues of common interest and sharing best practices for supporting the national pollutant discharge elimination system permitting requirements.

Sounds exciting.

If that's your bag since we have a bunch of environmental since we have our environmental team here, you know, there's more to the environment than trees.

There's also stormwater, calm learn, enjoy.

Um if public schools are your bag, you have an opportunity to weigh in.

I want to really thank every the council for passing the resolution.

That's been passed on to the um to the school board.

I've spoken to multiple school board members who called to ask about the specifics around that resolution.

They're very excited.

Um the chair, vice chair, um, commissioner uh school board member Peters as well has reached out and um and they took it into consideration during their last meeting.

So it made a difference.

Um for the public if you want to make a difference and what the makeup of our schools they want to hear from community members uh from the business community, from um soon-to-be school parents and from school age parents.

There is a survey online.

I will get it to you to the city clerk um Carico so that you can include it in the minutes, uh, the link.

It'll be open until the 24th.

So you still have some time, not a lot of time, but until at least the 24th to complete it.

It's a very it's much shorter than that environmental than the the Eckard College survey that we all filled out.

This is like brief in comparison, it'll take you seven minutes.

So um, so please do fill it out because this is a once and a generation opportunity um for us to impact what our public schools look like for our families.

So we have the opportunity to have all of our school children attending the same elementary school for the first time since our city manager was a boy, and we have the opportunity of expanding our elementary school to be a K through eight.

So um, so that's a great opportunity.

They want to hear about whether we want to continue having that be a Montessori school or if a fundamentals um school is something that people are interested.

They were asking at the at the event last Thursday, which the survey mirrors it is do you want a technical?

Um, do you want Gulfport?

Are we open to having um Boca Siega High School be a technical school or are we happy with it being uh school with some vote tech kind of um what is it called?

It's a medical medical magnet programs, so kids go and focus on magnet, but then they can also get certified as CNAs and dental texts and other things.

So lots of opportunities to inform what the future looks like for our future golf portions.

Um so please please fill that out.

And that is all I have, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the fusion 49th event in July.

There's packets of people that are now coming.

I know that council member Shaw, excuse me, Vice Mayor Shaw is always there, and there's packets of people that are joining.

Um we're hoping for more.

But in August, um, they are collecting backpacks, full backpacks, things that go in backpacks or filled and things that go in backpacks, all of it.

And I was given permission to put a box here in our lobby for those of you who would like to donate to that, and I can come pick it up the day of and bring it down.

I will also post um, I'll provide it to the city website.

Um our children can um get one of those backpacks.

So it's a it's for the Fusion 49th, which is the corridor of 49.

Um, one side is Child's Park, one side is Gulfport, and we work together for both communities.

So I will um note how you can apply for a backpack, if you will, and um, you know, the school starts soon.

And I remember when I bought backpack type things, it's very expensive.

Um, it's very costly.

So thank you for your help in advance.

And that's it.

They are thank you.

Mayor, if we have consensus, I can have Justin work with council member early to promote that as part of your information.

There's a consensus.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Manager.

Thank you, Justin.

Okay.

Okay, so I might have to ask you all for a couple extra minutes tonight because um there's several things I wanted to do.

One was I promised you that I would read to you a couple of the excerpts from the letters that were in the time capsule.

Okay.

So there were a lot of pages, but actually, there were only four authors.

So I'm gonna read a couple of the things that made me laugh, and I was amused at.

I think you will be too.

Uh, the first thing I want to say though, the one consistency, all four of the students wrote to us as if we would be much younger than them.

So we wouldn't know anything about 1976.

So they're kind of educating us on 1976, not realizing that many of us are older than them, okay?

So I wasn't born yet, we're born yet.

Okay.

So I was amused by that.

So here's um the person who was the length, his name was Peter, all right.

And um, he had the ambition to become an astronaut, and he was planning to continue his studies at Mass Institute of Technology.

The problems he saw in our area were that there were too many unfinished condos.

He said all the immigrants were coming to the area, and all these condos were started and they weren't finished.

He saw a tenant 10% unemployment, uncoordinated mass transportation, and highly segregated neighborhoods as a major problem.

He said busing caused racial tension.

Umergy crisis was being treated with indifference by Americans.

Uh, outrageous inflation.

Oh, he wanted to inform us of an outrageous inflation.

A five-pound bag of sugar was costing an entire dollar.

Gas was a whopping 60 cents a gallon, um, homes averaging 49,000, cars averaging $5,000, and this one amused me because this one's come down.

TVs average $350.

Now we all know you can buy a nice TV for less than $350 nowadays.

So I like that.

In terms of the cool things, you'll like this.

The coolest things he could think of were the invention of the microwave, the pop pocket calculator, and solar panels.

Okay.

Then with the next gal named Laura, she saw problems as unemployment, inflation, and water gate.

Okay.

The next person was another female named Becky.

She saw unemployment and inflation as the biggest issues.

And then this one, we don't have any minors in the in the area now.

So I like this one.

Uh Jelene.

Jelene wanted to educate us that uh currently high schools were doing a good job of preparing students for college life.

Um, it was common for students to have to work part-time to support their families' income.

They said she said, hippie freaks are no longer in quotation marks.

Wow.

And it was uh common to engage in premarital sex, and living together was really the latest fad.

Okay, so I wanted, I I thought you would enjoy hearing that.

And the letters have been returned to the city clerk, and they will make it to the museum as well.

I took them on my trip because that gave me time to uh read them.

Um then the next thing I wanted to address was so I went to Cape Canaveral for a mayor's conference, and it's real helpful because it was all mayors and vice mayors there, and while we were at Cape Canaveral and we were learning a little bit about Space Force, every time there was an opportunity for the mayors to discuss, as you can imagine, there was only one topic being discussed.

So I'm not giving my opinions on anything.

I just wanted to share that in a room full of mayors, and you know that it was always noisy, and you could only hear so much.

These are the things that were being discussed.

And all of these are being discussed.

What if this referendum passes?

Okay.

So these were the thoughts and strategies and plans from other mayors.

They are working on increasing their commercial space.

They wanted to start cracking down on homes that are currently 100% homesteaded, but the owners are using them whole or part of rooms in their home for several months out of the year as rentals.

They didn't feel they should get 100% homestead if they're not totally homesteaded 100%.

There were cities that were educating us on the fact that they are 100% contract labor.

They have no employees.

For example, Weston.

They have a population of approximately 16,000, and they run their city with 13 employees.

Everything is contracted out.

Absolutely.

Billing, mowing the grass, blowing the sidewalks, picking up the trash, every every single facility, everything that we do, maintaining the parks, the libraries, everything is contracted out, and they thought that was the way to go.

There were a couple of mayors told me that they were preparing and presenting dual budgets this year.

This is what we're going to be looking at.

If it doesn't pass, this is what it's going to be looking at, what we're going to be looking at if if it does.

I did hear across the board several mayors acknowledge that they would not be filling positions that are currently vacant.

There was talk of consolidating counties.

So they talked about consolidating them, and there was equally a lot of talk, a good bit of talk about consolidating cities.

We currently have 431 cities in our state.

And though they didn't talk about a lot of services, the one service I heard more than once was reducing hours at the libraries.

So I'm not saying what I like, what I don't like, anything like that.

I'm just saying these are the real conversations that have to take place among our council and all the councils all across the state of Florida right now.

So I wanted to share that.

And then the last thing that I had is I just wanted to say that I really mean it when I say thank you to our community advocates who see a problem and go out and take care of it.

They don't wait for somebody else to take care of it.

They see it, they organize it, they come to the council and they say, This is what we want to do, this is why we want to do it, this is how we're going to do it.

There's one little piece of the puzzle we need help with.

Can you help us?

Those that really moves forward.

And that from my point of view, and as you know, I was a resident way longer than I was a mayor.

Those are the successful projects that work as compared to the ones who just complain about what we should do, we should do, we should do it, meaning us.

You know, we are a community and we have to work together.

So that's all I had to say under that topic.

Did I make it in 10 minutes?

Very good.

I didn't think I could.

Alrighty, then we can move to consent.

Consent item 6A, consider approval of meeting minutes from meeting held July 7th, 2026.

And item 6B, resolution number 2026-48, a resolution appointing a member to the planning and zoning board, local planning agency, excuse me, and providing for a term of appointment.

I'll make the motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Passes unanimously.

Alrighty.

So tonight, rare, we don't have any ordinances to uh go over.

So we will start with resolutions, please.

Item 8A, resolution number 2026-49, a resolution providing for a proposed millage rate for advalorum tax revenue for fiscal year 2026-2027 of 4.0258 mills providing dates for the fiscal year 2026-2027 millage rate and budget public hearings.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Okay.

City manager.

Yes, mayor.

Um, I want to thank Mr.

Cadell for his work on this agenda item this evening.

It also sets for trend notice purposes.

The proposed millage rate staff is proposing it maintain the city maintain the millage rate at 4.0258.

Okay.

On this.

I don't have any questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

I have no further questions.

Okay.

City manager, did you consider increasing or reducing by the 10% or by the amount that you could the millagerate?

Yes, we considered it.

Yeah.

But we've looked at it from both sides.

The amount that you would increase it requires a supermajority or unanimous vote was very minimal.

Okay.

Because our roll forward rate would be 4.0266.

Okay.

So but then you would actually start acknowledging it at this point, 0258, 4.0258.

You will not be levying a tax increase.

Okay.

And the and the rollback.

Minimal.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

No questions.

Okay.

I have no questions because I've asked you all my questions already.

And you know, I think if we were proposing an increase, uh, there would be a lot more questions to be asked.

With that in mind, um public comment on this matter.

All righty.

Do we have any e-comments on this matter?

No e-comments.

All righty.

All right.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw.

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes unanimously.

Moving on to 8B, resolution number 2026-50.

A resolution of the City of Gulfport, Florida authorizing the proposed interlocal agreement with Forward Panellas with regard to planning and mapping services and or special project work.

Motion to approve.

Motion to introduce.

Yeah, second.

City manager.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Yes, ma'am.

What this does is continue our relationship with Forward Pinellas.

Um, we've been very happy and satisfied with the assistance that because of our shrinking staff, and we've gone from three planners to one with Mark.

Um this is brought for bigger projects.

We brought on Ms.

Fisher as you recognized her earlier with Mr.

Blanton.

We're completely satisfied, and it has worked.

Very good.

Do we have any questions of the city manager on this?

No.

Whatever we can do to keep Linda Fisher.

Okay.

I'm going to relay that statement to her for you.

Um council member Shaw.

I mean, I'm looking at the web and saying Councilmember Shaw.

No questions.

I just want to uh I appreciate the cost savings that this interlocal agreement provides for our city, especially as we look forward to the belt tightening that happens with this coming budget.

No questions.

I also have no questions.

Do we have any public comment on this matter?

Seeing none, do we have any e-comments?

No e-comments.

Alrighty.

Call the vote.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw.

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Aye.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love?

Yes.

Passes unanimously.

Moving on to item 8C, resolution number 2026-51, a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with Continental Utility Solutions Incorporated, CUSE, to replace the city's utility billing and customer information system.

Motion to approve.

Second.

City manager.

Mayor, I'd like to invite Sonia Levert the detailed work that she's performed on this project.

And I'd like her to give a short presentation on what the aspects of this is the third part of a still your thunder, but third part of our process with go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

I'm so excited.

I feel like I'm losing my voice, so I apologize for that.

Um really this is the approval for a customer information system.

This actually has to do with the AMI network that is now live.

So we have three phases, and this is phase three of three.

So phase one was the digital meter replacement that started in 2014, and we slowly moved through that.

The second phase was the radio towers.

So those are now live and active as of around July 1st.

We're still looking at the information, seeing what those are being what's being brought in, and this is phase three.

So we see this customer information system as the bridge that uses the information from the towers, brings it into the city so that we can actually release it to the residents.

So why now?

First, I kind of want to tell you.

So I'm gonna be talking about customer information systems.

We also call it a CIS, so I wanted to give you the definition of what that is.

So utilities use that software to um it's used on a daily basis.

We live in that, and it's used to manage the customer accounts.

It is used to process billing, process payments, and also that's where our web portal resides.

So we give that information out to the customers, and they're able to see their information on the on the web portal.

Um as I stated, this is the the Amin network is now complete, and the current customer information system that we are using for utility billing was implemented in 2004.

So that system is not it can't integrate with these modern technologies that we have.

So knowing that, what we did is we um had we released a request for proposals, and we had quite the reaction from that.

So we actually received 11 vendor proposals, and during the opening of those bids, there were nine qualified proposals that moved forward into the formal evaluation process.

So from there, those proposals were individually evaluated against a gigantic list of over 600 functional requirements just related to utility billing.

Um we had a committee of five members out of four different departments within the city.

So it we had utility billing, we had information technology, finance, and public works.

So I wanted to take a minute just to say thank you to Craig Palambini, to Chris Cadell, to David Mather, um, to Dwayne Stefansky and our city clerk, Teresa Carico for just giving that time.

Um it was quite quite the process.

So what we did is we tallied and scored the nine vendors individually, got together, and we performed reference checks on the highest scoring vendor, and then we negotiated a contract with that vendor, and on this next page, you'll see the total scoring for our vendors.

So here you'll see um CUSI received 773 points out of a possible 900 point perfect score.

Um, and the second one down was Muni Link, and they received 675 points.

So knowing that the city um feels that CUSI would be the best software moving forward operationally and also for customer service.

So this is the extremely exciting point here.

So what residents gain?

So what we currently have, if you go on to our web portal and you pay via the web, you'll notice that you go, you log in, you can see your balance, and that's pretty much where your experience ends.

Um the new system actually, so you you would see the balance, and it actually so CUSI takes different platforms and it combines it into one experience.

So you would actually be able to use that technology, um, and it's actually it's gonna be available for the the residents.

So the information that our department can see right now, your daily reads from those meters at the house, you will have access to that.

So let's say that you look at your bill and you're like 200.

Why is my bill 200?

And then you can look and say, 5,000 gallons of water was used in my single family home here within city limits, and then you can actually drill down into your daily usage, and we're hoping actually hourly uses usage.

Um that way you can kind of we're we're giving you the information so that you can take control of your account and see what's going on there.

Um another extremely like this part really makes me excited.

So we have the leak and high usage alerts.

So when you're in there, let's say that you're going out of town, so you can set an alert that will send you either an email or a text, and you can say, I'm gonna be out of town for this week.

So if there's any water usage, alert me, right?

Let me tell you a little story.

I'm gonna make it short.

So we had a customer that was out of town for weeks, and currently we get one read in our system per month, right?

So we get a read, let's say in May, one read, we have a read one time in June.

We don't know what happens in those 30 days between.

But when we received the June reading, we looked and we were like, oh my gosh, this person normally uses 3,000 gallons and he used 34,000 gallons of water.

So we called him and we said, hey, what's this expected?

And he said, absolutely not.

I've been out of town.

That's how we found that out, right?

He was like, something's wrong here, there's no way that this is possible.

Come to find out, he had a contractor go to his house while he was out of town, a light fixture fell from the ceiling, hit the sink, turned the faucet on, and water was going down his drain for weeks, resulting in 34,000 gallons of water being used.

And I know for a fact, I'm not him, but I know that he would be extremely excited about this leak in usage alert.

So once you experience something traumatic like that, this is what you're asking for.

You're like, please tell me whenever I use this much water, I can't, I don't want to go through this again.

So that's what we mean by the expanded online self-service that this new system would have.

So it's it's going to be using the data that's out there right now in the field and taking that in, going within our system, and then we release it to the customers.

So our residents are our first priority.

And at the but at the same time, staff is actually um excited about this as well.

So right now in our customer information system, um, we have to go outside of our system and use other programs to accomplish our daily tasks.

Um, as far as like collections and things like that, they're completely outside the system.

That's not normally how it how it should work.

Um, with this new system, it's all gonna be as one.

So it's gonna automate the workflows, um, there's gonna be less time spent on manual tasks, and really the ultimate goal is if we're performing less administrative manual tasks, we can focus on our residents, and that's most important to us.

So the financials.

So this fiscal year we had money budgeted, and so in this fiscal year it'd be the one-time purchase and implementation cost of 47,000.

Um, and then beginning in 2027, since we're already in July, um, the annual software subscription at that point would kick in when we get to that stage in this game.

Um I wanted to go ahead and let you guys know also that these costs are funded through the utility operations, so it's from the utility enterprise fund, and um it's not funded by property taxes.

I also have a little blurb down here where I try to do an apples to apples comparison.

So I compared the modules in our current software from 2004 and the web fees that they charge us, and then the 48,000 under the fiscal year 27 is the same modules with those same fees.

And our current software from 2004 and fiscal year 2025 cost us upwards of $62,000 per year.

And this modern software is going to cost in our first year 48,000 for the same services.

Which is surprising and amazing.

Yeah.

At the same time.

So if approved tonight, the next step would be to kick off this project with CUSI.

They would start the data conversion in the system configuration.

Go through testing the staff training.

And with a go live date estimated in 2027.

So I know a lot of these types of projects normally take a really long time, but they this one's not too bad.

If you receive a blue bill, you've dealt with our department.

So our plan is to keep our residents informed, at least starting with data conversion, kind of letting people know this is what's coming up, this is where it's going.

We don't want to stress people out more.

So in closing, um, staff recommends uh respectfully if you would approve uh the city manager to execute the agreement with CUSI for the new customer information system and complete our AMI network project.

And I'm available for any questions.

Very good.

Your presentation is very thorough.

Almost all the questions I had written in advance, you're ready to hit on.

All right.

But we'll go in speaking order to see if there's any others.

So 47,000 this year to buy it, and then 48,000 every year to keep going with it.

Yes, and there's a with these types of SAAS softwares.

Um there is a small increase, but we work that out in that contract agreement that you all received, um, trying to nail them down to like don't be don't throw us to 20% at some point.

We're like trying to negotiate how much they could increase year over year.

And does their fee include like a help desk all the time?

Oh, yeah.

And it better be that you would need from somebody all the time.

Yes.

Okay.

And it better be Eastern Standard Time.

Yeah, because you got out in Texas and you have credit call them and you're at work and they're not going to be able to do that.

That's what we have now.

Yes, we have to wait till nine.

Oh, you have to we have intergovernment.

Okay, yeah, no, no, no.

Yeah, there's that's written in there too.

And then they hand you from like the onboarding team of people who are setting you up with the system to like one guy.

Yes.

So they showed us the team.

Okay, good.

Yes.

Yeah, and they have experience too.

We're analyzing and really looking at all that stuff.

And it's super frustrating for like customers to call, and then they have to talk to you, and you're like, Well, I don't have anybody to call yet, so you have to wait until I can get help in before I can help you.

So as long as there's help available, yes.

Yes, good.

That's all I have.

So thank you for the voluminous information that was provided.

And also for your comprehensive uh description of everything.

And um, of course, I've experienced firsthand what the with the meters can do, so that's absolutely remarkable.

And and of course, the um self-service capabilities of the alert is amazing.

And uh, I have to say I was incredibly impressed when I read that there were that this the committee, the staff committee reviewed 600 functional um requirements.

We color coded it, so we made these, we made these vendors answer all 600, right?

And we color-coded it so that it would be easy for us to review.

So if it was fully functional, it would come up purple.

And if it was like, oh, it's not available, but you could purchase it, it would come up yellow, and then if it was not available whatsoever, it came up a different color, and then that way we could just scroll down and be like, oh, purples, this is amazing, and then see what they hit on with the other options.

Well done.

Thank you so much to all of you.

Thanks.

Any questions?

Yes, I love your enthusiasm for process.

And for utilities, so like all around I'm loving this, and I'm really sorry that I had to excuse myself for a portion.

Um quick question.

The so the the scores were based on the functionality that you're that you covered that seven.

Yes, so it was actually three parts.

Okay.

So it was the functionality and then cost.

Okay.

So the cost comparison.

So we had them tell us exactly how much first year costs would be overall.

And that's kind of whenever we open the bids, that's what we base that on.

So and then at that point, whoever was the lowest cost got the got five points straight out the gate.

And then there was a calculation that if so then we went like lowest cost to highest, and then based that cost off of that.

Then we also, so this is where people get you.

So with transaction fees for banking, right?

So the city covers the online service charge.

A lot of people do like surcharges and stuff like that on their web portals.

The city of Gulfport in Council is amazing, and you guys pay that for the residents to use so it's completely free if you use the web portal right now.

So we wanted to make sure that they're not sneaking charges in within that aspect.

So then we also scored them on their transactions and kind of how their equations worked out, and then of course the qualifications of the 600 requirements.

So all three of those together equal the scores.

Equal the scores.

Thanks for that.

That's amazing.

And I have had a contractor leave on my hose, and y'all wonderfully called and said, Hey, your bill just had some bills gonna be $900 this month.

Yeah, we can give you an installment payment, which I was like, oh, please be a problem when y'all's in and all my uh but it was ultimately uh uh a faucet that was left on and yeah, the and so I really appreciate that function.

I was wondering, because we do, and you might have covered this, but you know how we incentivize less usage.

Yes.

Can you build is it a adaptable that that that we can know like yes?

Oh awesome.

Yes.

So what you could put in there, let's say that you're like, all right, let me look.

I'm using 5,000 gallons a month.

Uh-huh.

So what you can do is you can kind of look at your history and go, I'm using about let's say 200 gallons a day.

That seems like a lot's just me.

So you can actually set a parameter in there that says alert me when I hit 100 gallons, and it'll send you an alert.

So then that way you can kind of monitor.

So rates are going up across at least the state of Florida for utilities, right?

And countrywide.

So how can we help our residents?

And I think it's by conservation, yeah, right.

So if you're able to see what you normally use and then take that information and say, I want to try to use less, that's gonna help your wallet because your bill's gonna be lower, at least for the water and sewer portion.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you for all of you.

Thank you and everyone who served on the committee for taking extensive time to do such a thorough betting.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Sonia, you had me at 2004.

Okay, so one year is too much when it comes to technology and everything that it how it improves and whatnot.

But when they go to different apps, it decreases efficiency, it increases um error reasons.

So this is fantastic.

And I just want to tell you all of your peers should parade you out here when asking for money because I could not ever turn your down.

Every word you say.

Thank you.

Welcome, thank you guys so much.

I only wish that we had a camera right here.

Because it would have made a great video.

I mean, nobody in the world gets us excited about oh yeah, wait, did we say this car?

It does that.

Yeah.

So that was fun, and I know from some of the emails I've gotten regarding water bills that when I come to you, she knows everything about you people.

She knows when you get up, how many times you've washed your dishes, if you took a shower that day or not.

I mean, she knows it all.

Well, listen to this.

Now they're gonna know about themselves.

Yeah, because we're gonna give that them that information, and they can they're they'll know just as much as we do.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I was raised in a household where you had to get in the shower and turn it, get wet, and then you had to turn the water off and you had to wash everything, and then you had to rinse.

You couldn't leave the water running in between.

So yeah, I know it.

I get it.

Um, so my only question was that that wasn't already answered, is will we still be sending out like stuffed water bills in the mail with envelopes and paying postage?

Is that process gonna continue?

Yeah, um, so there's I've researched and there's a couple of different ways that people try to um get rid of the paper bills and have people move to electronic bills.

Um I think that would be something that we could discuss because so a lot of places what they'll do is they'll turn everyone electronic, and then if you want paper because you don't want an email bill, you have to pay for it separately.

It works effectively.

Right.

So there I I have kind of looked at that, but yes, we don't want to change the format of the bills, people love their blue bills.

Um we don't we want you to like you feel comfortable with the graph is sitting over here.

This is where my consumption is.

I don't I don't want to change that and make it more confusing for the residents already changing an account number, you know, is inadvertent.

Does our staff do that stuffing involved lopsers at all?

Oh, they do.

We have a machine that stuffs the bigger.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, but I can't.

That's what I thought.

We have a machine.

Yeah.

And mayor, one thing that we also need to acknowledge is we still take bills here.

Oh, I know I see people paying their bills.

Exactly.

That's pretty unique nowadays.

Yeah, yes.

You know, and you deal with a person.

It's not a kiosk, it's not, and it now we found and people as Sonia spoke of the bill that they wait for those bills.

They know why didn't I get my water bill this week?

You know, and so it's kind of keeps them in contact with us.

Yeah, we like to see our residents come in and visit.

And I appreciate it.

I know I have a lot of older residents in my ward, so I really appreciate it.

I know that they're very kind of routine and how they pay their bills.

Yes, we enjoy seeing them.

Yes, thank you.

All righty, thank you very much.

Okay, thank you.

All righty.

So I guess we need to um public comment on that.

Anyone public comment?

Seeing no public comment, okay.

E comment, no e-comment.

No, all right, call the vote.

Councilmember Dawn?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb, yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes unanimously.

Moving on to item 8D, resolution number 2026-52, a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a change order with KM2H LLC for the casino dock replacement project fire suppression system.

Motion to approve.

Second.

City manager.

Yes, Mayor.

An aspect of the reconstruction of the casino dock requires a fire percent suppression system.

Um what this does is provide for that, and with certified installers, very candidly, we didn't want the dock builder building a fire suppression system.

And subsequently, this will be done to coordinate with the dock builder.

Um, was that was it when the dock building dock builders when we got a the price from them?

Did they have that in there?

No.

No.

No.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

I'm sorry, any questions in speaking order?

No, thank you.

My questions were already all answered.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'm good, thank you, Mayor.

Okay, good.

All right.

Any public comment on this?

Any e-comment?

No e-comment.

Already call the vote.

Councilmember Donch?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Shaw?

Yes.

Councilmember Webb?

Yes.

Councilmember Early?

Yes.

Mayor Love.

Yes.

Passes unanimously.

Moving on to the last resolution.

Eight item eight E.

Resolution number 2026-53, a resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program Agreement for Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund Shoreline Enhancement at Veterans Park.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Mayor, I'm going to do this in two parts.

First of all, the match that's accounted for in this memo is in your proposed budget.

It would be effective October 1st if you were to adopt it and leave it in the budget process.

So the pro the city's match, it will be funded.

Subsequently to that, I'd like to bring up another excited young individual who would like to share with you and his community partners are here this evening also.

Thank you.

I can't match Sonia's enthusiasm, but we first want to start off and uh thank our Gulf Board own resident uh uh Priscilla Ketter for all the hard work she put into this.

We're just coasting off her hard work.

So and uh so yes, uh the agreement is uh gonna allow us to uh work with Temp Bay Reservoir Program.

Um Miss Kidder has already started getting the ball rolling with uh Tamp Bay Watch.

Um as per the uh agenda would be 3,000 square feet of um uh enhancements to in front of a veterans park with some oyster bags, sweatland, uh native seagrass or plants, and um and uh show so uh we're excited to be moving forward with this, and um if there's any questions, uh quite answer.

So I have no questions, thank you.

Okay, great.

I'm thrilled about this and thank you for all your work on it to Priscilla Kid.

Kitter and uh I might not be showing it, but I'm as excited as signing about this.

No questions, thank you.

Oh wow.

No questions just to say this is a great example of a resident coming up and saying I have education or experience and something, can I help?

We don't get that enough, so thank you.

Yes, yeah.

So I I do have a couple uh I have a question and a point.

So I uh when it talks about that she's gotten this grant, the grant is in the amount of like forty-three thousand nine hundred.

Yes.

Is that a cash amount or is that the labor and the volunteers?

So the amount of money that we're getting from the Tampa is what we're gonna get reimbursed.

The 46,000, it is gonna give us an opportunity to cover cost for materials and engineering, but majority of it is going to be volunteer base and potentially donations.

But as city manager mentioned, we want to have the upfront cash to ensure that we can uh pay for our our services included, and then they'll reimburse us.

So the full 40 potentially the 46,000 is just there to get the ball rolling.

So we should potentially not to pay anything.

But I thought we have to provide a match of 46,900.

Yeah, so the uh and I apologize, I didn't mean to cut you off.

So a lot of it is gonna be volunteer hours, but we had to create a formula to um to create that uh number based off of uh salaries and personnel cost or uh not personal cost, but we had to uh and Priscilla was really well in depth in making this uh the sal this formula to we had to come up with a figure and it was based off salary, it was based off uh potential donations, so that's where that 46,000 came from.

Um, once again, there were some items in there that included the um engineering for printing services.

Um but yeah, so that's where we got that match from that number, if that makes sense.

We had to quantify exactly all those numbers that we put forward.

We budgeted 40,000 for the match in next year's budget.

We have to quantify now.

Will you spend the 40?

Probably not, because you'll be a lot of it will be made up of volunteers, but we had to quantify an amount.

Okay, so when we're anticipating, and I thought I read it as 46,900.

Okay, when we're um talking about that amount, again, that isn't like we're we're gonna have to spend that much money.

A lot of that is in the cost of labor, which we're anticipating to be volunteer.

And by volunteer, does that mean Tampa Bay Watch, or does that mean Gulfport residents and keep Pinellas beautiful residents?

That would be that's what we're working on.

Okay, Miss Kidder, we put that together to secure the volunteers.

Okay.

We we will have some out out of pocket cost, but the basically this money is also accounts for Kendrick's participation to manage the project, things to that effect.

And that's the other point I wanted to hit on.

So when our employees are working on this, they are not getting additional funding.

No, ma'am.

This is part of their salary.

So if we were being real honest, we would, you know, which we are would say, okay, some of their wages are being used for this project because this is an affordable long-term resiliency program.

Exactly.

That's where we come to the idea of plonifying it.

Okay.

Okay.

So you've answered my questions.

The only thing that I wanted to say is before you know the uh rumor mongolers get out there.

This project will not be started prior to our docks being open.

So for folks who think that we're trying to um take all of our dinghies off of Veterans Park, yeah, that would be nice, but we're not gonna do it until we have um a place for you to park your dinghy.

So that's the only thing I wanted to clarify that they're not gonna overlap.

There's never gonna be a time where they're gonna be forced to go down towards the other point um to you attach your dinghies.

Okay, correct.

That was the only questions I had.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

All righty, thank you.

Uh public comment on this matter.

Priscilla Kidder.

All right, I do have more to say.

Um and I also to clarify.

And the question you had, I was afraid was going to be com uh confusing.

So the 46,000 match is an in-kind match.

And when I wrote this grant, I was keeping in mind how can I make it so Gulfport doesn't spend that much money because we're suffering right now.

Um from what I put in there.

And I thought I wasn't gonna get the grant because Gulfport's really going to be responsible for so little.

Besides the salaries and in-kind salaries they calculated.

And that's one of the matches, that's a few thousand dollars considered.

And we budgeted $1,500 for the permits themselves.

Correct.

And the engineer, that money's gonna get reimbursed by Tampa Bay Essuary Fund.

And I have a packet here.

So the only one that is cash outlay is this one that's highlighted.

The other ones when you see um unrecovered indirect, those are overhead administration, etc.

Like that.

And then the in-kind matches.

Um a lot of those are Tampa Bay Watch, almost all of it, like 95%.

Tampa Bay Watch is handling the creating of those big giant oyster balls.

So they get to calculate, I believe it's $33 an hour per volunteer.

So if they have a hundred volunteers for six hours or however they do it just to do the balls, they get to calculate that as a cost.

The students who are growing the plants, that's a volunteer.

And the kids um they're growing the plants and they plant the plants.

Um all that.

So those all of those are mainly um in-kind matches.

So I printed out a budget worksheet for all of you guys.

And if you would like to see it, I'll be happy to hand it out.

Would you like that?

Yeah, if you'll leave it with the city clerk, she'll put it in the case.

Yes, and I also I thought I didn't highlight because I ran out of highlighter, but you'll just see the one on the front pages for the cash.

I also have a copy of the grant itself, but I think you have so we're not I was concerned that we wouldn't, you know, people would misconstrue.

We're gonna spend 46,000 on this.

We're not.

We're not not not at all.

Not even close, as Jim knows.

And it's gonna be whatever.

We just have to put a number there.

Correct.

It's in-kind matches.

I had to learn all this.

I do want to say one thing.

You were talking about the library for a second.

Somebody was Deb has made the library garden amazing down there, and then she's gonna be working on the outside garden, and that's another computity Gulf War environmental team organization project that has been really cool.

She just was like, Yep, I'm gonna help fix it all up, you know, because we had a little gap there, and also send out those surveys to uh Miravelle at the rec center, and then I'm gonna send them to all my daughter-in-law.

Thank you very much.

Any other public comment on this?

Seeing none, any e-comments?

No e-comments.

All righty, council member Donch?

Yes, Vice Mayor Shaw?

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

Yes, passes unanimously.

Okay, and I'm really sorry, but we have got to take a five-minute break.

I I I I hate to break the meeting because we're getting close, but it's eight um 14.

I'm gonna ask that we resume exactly at eight.

20, thank you.

No I'm not just gonna be able to do that.

All righty, thank you for allowing us to have that quick break.

It was necessary.

And with that, then we get to move to the discussion item.

So your discussion item this evening is around the Trolley Market Square.

So I did, well, I did not receive them.

They were received by the Arts and Heritage Foundation or the Museum.

They passed them on to me.

We had 11 submissions.

And I randomly had each of the council members either come in and view each of the items and choose their top three to five.

So tonight I have for you your top three with all of the votes that had come in.

So we'll go in order.

So you actually had two that tied for your top three.

Each of them receiving three votes.

So and so these two are in no particular order.

This was the first one.

And I did put the artists' information up there since I believe we would be choosing.

So this was submitted by Scott Lindy and Ann Barca.

The other item that received three votes was very similar.

Artist design team was Glenn White Weldon.

And then your final one received four of you of the five of you.

And that would be your top voted item.

Okay.

So what we had said on the front end is that we would get, you know, independently we would get them down to our top five, or the ones that received the most votes, and then we would discuss it amongst ourselves and decide if we had a clear winner.

So that was in my mind what we were going to do.

On the other hand, you know, I don't know.

I'm I'm asking, I'm not trying to tell you how to do how we're gonna do this.

On the other hand, we have one that had four votes, and we had two that have three three votes.

So do we want to discuss this and and fight for the one that we most want, or are we just gonna say, well, one had four votes?

I mean, uh I'd like to have a little discussion, but um I have to hear what you Nancy says she'd like to have a little discussion.

It's only two of us.

That's fine.

Yeah, we can't.

Okay, so we have a democracy depends on discussion.

Okay, so we have a consensus then at least for a discussion.

So I think what we'll do is go in speaking order, and you can say why you I don't know if we want to say we want to follow one method versus the other, or if you want to really say which one you were going for and why you feel that way.

I know that my top three are up there, and we all did this independently.

We none of us communicated, but that's not the order that I had them in.

So how do we want to do it?

You're gonna take the lead, do whatever you'd like.

How's that?

Okay, uh, yeah, I don't have really anything to add.

I guess if we if four of us picked one, then I would go with that one.

Um I honestly I these are all great, and I don't actually remember specifically which ones I voted for or which ones I didn't.

So if I'm voting based on these three, then obviously there's four votes for one, so I would just go with that one.

Okay.

I I would do the same.

Okay.

Yeah, I think well, one, I want to thank everybody who submitted.

Yeah.

Yeah, 11 submissions.

That's that's a big thank you.

I think we I think the final three are all I actually honestly I like the idea since it's close of opening it up to residents to like put in their viewpoint because different like this one, different ones have different characteristics that are strong, and I think that the more we have buy-in from everyone, the happier folks are with the process.

And so, I mean, I don't I don't know if we're on under a strict timeline, but it seems like since they are so close, and these were the clear three front runners.

I think we did a good job of vetting it down to this point, and maybe having resident input would be a fun way of engaging residents.

Okay, Nance.

I wanted to go back.

Can you go back, Teresa?

To the first one, that one.

The reason why I chose this one was because it looks like the branding of some of our um banners and flags, right?

And when you brand something, you usually get recognition that way.

I also we've had a couple of our residents talk about the history of our sign, and I think this represents a little bit of the history.

I think it's I think it's uh the perfect one for me anyway.

So that's what I just wanted to mention about the brand marketing.

Okay.

Well, I already said that the three that are being shown were in my top three.

So I mean, that kind of says that we're all kind of on the same page in terms of that.

In terms of one of the reasons that I wanted it to be done by the council and done without us knowing who the artists were was because I was trying to avoid a popularity contest.

Um, and by doing it uh with us and uh blind, as I would call it, we avoided that.

When it came down to those top three, my first choice was, and again, I loved them all, so I would not be upset with any of them.

To me, all three of them represent uh Gallport in a way that the current sign does not, and again, this is not changing the sign for Trolley Market Square on the opposite side.

This is changing only the welcome to Goldport.

So after I thought looked at them at first, I had my top three, and then I pondered for a bit, and then I came back with uh the one that is in fact our branding.

Yeah, um, and the reason that that's someone that I came back to, and I for even though Nancy and I have not talked about this at all, I came back to it for the very same reason in that um it is our brand already.

So that made I kept going, how come I know this?

How come I know this?

Um so I really that was one part, but also the fact that people wanted to bring history into it, and I don't see anything historical about our big black and white sign, except that we once had one that looked just like that before we were a creative artist community.

Um so I also went to this one, but if I it's not a matter that I have to win the battle, but um I would be open to public comment, but I would prefer just me to not open it up to the entire um because I don't want to get into a now that people know who the artists are who the artists are, and they did not we did not know this was my favorite too, so I guess we were the three that we didn't so this was my top one as well.

So and for similar reasons, actually.

I mean, really taking into the history part and and people really wanting us to not erase a history, and I thought this was a good nod to that.

So that brings up a good point.

Let me just see if I've got this straight.

Three of us, well, but that doesn't mean that you picked that as your favorite, did you?

I think I did.

I did oh three of us picked that as our favorite.

That means four did not pick.

We all voted for the one with four.

We all voted for that to be in our top three, correct, but we did not select it as our number one.

Correct.

Okay, so to give give us just a minute to ponder.

Let's open it up to public comment if anybody else wants to say anything.

Yes, sir.

Go ahead.

Okay, so no, you have to come up, and I'm sorry, I don't know your name, I know most people's name.

I'm your neighbor, my name's Mason Taylor.

Okay, right on 59.

Uh okay.

22nd.

Um, number three, uh, I'm I'm a cybersecurity administrator.

I've been in tech forever.

My fiance is in her 20s.

When we saw number three, we both tried not to laugh out loud.

It's clearly Chat GPT.

Like it's it's kids are gonna laugh.

Like that one, I like number one, but that one just describe Goldport, the Chat GPT, say make the sign for us, it's gonna look it just we just said, Yeah, it's it's it's clearly Chat GPT.

It's just it's it's a bad look.

It's kind of funny.

And and it belongs to an artist too, so we don't want to say anything real negative, okay.

We don't we want to just kind of elaborate on the positives.

Okay, okay.

Well, maybe it's not I don't know, that's just what it looks like.

That was your take on it, okay.

Yeah, okay.

I like number one.

Thank you.

All righty.

Okay, ladies, you had a lot to say.

Come on up.

Karen, you were first.

Um this one.

Or this one.

I mean, either one.

Same one.

Because it looks familiar, and I really like the little trolley.

That I think that's my favorite part.

That it has the black and white behind it, and then you know, year and Oz.

Yeah.

And the way that black and white is done, I mean, it it kind of says history.

And when I first looked at it, I thought, yeah, but I can't really make out what all those are.

Well, then I realized, well, that's because I'm looking at this picture.

And on that big screen, it's gonna be, you know, huge.

Yeah.

So thank you for your input.

Anybody else want?

Come you gotta come up.

Those are the rules.

So and I have to agree.

I like that one and that one too.

For the same reasons.

I like the black and the white where it looks like the history behind it.

Plus you see those, they look like the cover of the books at uh Walgreens, right?

Those history books.

I know what you mean.

Yeah, so it's familiar to it.

Twin Brown's book.

It's familiar, it's comfortable.

It okay.

Um the only thing is, again, that's another like and when you talked about the flags that are up front.

One is a spaghetti, twirling spaghetti.

I mean, they're not none of it's artwork from anybody in golf port.

I would have liked to have seen, I love the black and white in the golf port, I would have liked to have seen some real artwork, not computer generated artwork.

But I love that one out of the three, would be that.

And just remember there were 11 submissions.

So there were 11.

So for the five of us to come up with the same three.

And then I'm I'm actually really glad that I asked the question.

What order?

I was just gonna say what order were they in, because now we just found out that three of us picked the same number one.

So anybody else for public comment?

If appropriate, I'm happy that.

You have to come up here.

You have to come up here, you know that.

And this is sure I'm well.

I did not know that you did this.

I I had another one when I knew you had submitted, I had labeled you with another one.

So that shows what I know.

I'm Scott Lindney uh 60th Street South.

Uh basically the words you you suggested, and also you and Nancy, but this uh I grew up in the world of Levi Strauss and company, and we had brand police.

They were like retired FBI guys, and so like everything that we did was monitored, and I that was just ingrained in me over the years that consistency of imagery.

And so this is our messaging in signage, trolley, looper, uh the the Gulf of Merchants Chamber, forward-facing public promotions.

We have an advertising Gulf to Bay, 500,000 copies that go out worldwide.

This is the image that's iconic to us.

I too was uh cognizant of the uh concerns about the historical.

So we grabbed these images out of the historical society files that thankfully have been scanned and are available now and kind of matched there were some black and whites, there were some sevia tones, so we just matched the tone across the board, uh adjusting that.

And uh we added the city logo again, consistent with the signage uh that's been done.

Uh in partnership, we I mean, this for all you are around, that was a back and forth uh, you know, you all said, Well, I want a volleyball and I want this and I don't want that, and we worked together and got it through the we didn't say that about this science.

No, no, no, no, no, I'm saying the original branding program I just wanted to make sure.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

And and and this was all, I mean, that that golf port logo was developed by Zach Knight with me as art director.

Uh and he was the graphic designer for the for the gabber for many many years, and so he is and he was a local artist at Independent also.

So it it is golf board born and bred, and it's original artwork.

So okay, thank you.

And of course, we don't have any e-comment on this.

I don't imagine our writing Julie's raising her hand.

Oh, I'm sorry, Julie, I didn't see you.

And if you haven't noticed all this cat art, Julie's responsible for doing everything getting out there.

Well, she didn't create the art, but the idea the implementation is all Julie.

Julie Armstrong, um 17th Avenue South.

My only question, and I do love this, and I I am you know have a marketing printing background, and I agree, keeping the branding so that everyone recognizes this is golf port is very important.

My only question is a technical question, and that's maybe something that Scott can answer, and maybe Dave Matters is what is the DPI on those photographs?

Because when you're gonna increase that um, you know, fifty times, are they gonna be strong enough images to look correct?

I I sub and I'm I'm done.

Thanks, Shulie.

Thanks, Shuly.

I submitted two pages of verbiage with this image, including the statement that we have an extremely large file available that was designed specifically.

Anne, who's the the artist or the graphic artist on this?

Uh she's a pro.

She's four-year degreed and been doing this her whole life, and she knows exactly how to and has the software too.

And that is a huge image that was designed, knowing the eight by ten requirements that it will be 100% readable.

Thank you.

Can you leave it up there so we can look closer afterwards?

Yeah.

Okay.

So with that in mind, I'm gonna I think go through one more time.

I don't know, and just see if if you want to give the number of your favorite one at this point, which one are you voting on to be the winner?

I'll go with this one.

Looks great.

Likewise.

I didn't change my mind.

Okay.

I I'm just thrilled to death when I look at what we have and look at this, and again, I was real slow.

I kept going, why do I know that?

What I wonder if we would have any problems like, you know, are we stealing somebody's art?

That I I mean, I was slow to get that is our branding already.

I was just slow to get it.

So great.

I think we have a consensus here.

Mayor, if I may add yes, please Kendricks will be having the banners would be all the by the end of the month, Kendrick.

We'll be replacing all the banners that are comparable to this.

Oh good.

Yeah, well, we have all the banners gonna have a replace.

We did a complete order.

Uh we anticipate having them manufactured by the end of the month, and we just got to get the brackets in, and we'll have it probably starting uh August.

We'll have them all up.

So and just to be clear, the banner will be will replace the exact same banner, or we're just gonna have okay.

Yeah, we have a uh order that we have as we spoke of the volleyball and all those type things.

Good.

It's time.

How many years have we had those up?

Since the storm, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So we're going to uh work on our short work short boulevard, work our way north.

So very good, thank you.

It's good news.

Great.

Okay, so um the last thing then we're gonna move to new business, and we will start with council member.

Nope, I said that wrong.

You know, eight o'clock's bewitching.

I don't have any anyway.

You don't have any?

Okay.

Councilmember Shaw.

Well, I I wanted to propose that we uh put on an agenda for discussion the get um uh proposals.

Uh I I guess we need to hear a little bit more from the attorney as to which ones we might be able to consider and you know, if there's any possibility for the others, and at least somewhat near future.

We can do uh we can come up with that information.

No, no.

I think we look at the cost associated with that.

I mean it to matter when you want to schedule it, your workshops are the first you could workshop the issue.

Um some of these I don't think necessarily have a cost other than No, I'm just saying we'll have to look at just we'll take the list that we were presented, and then city attorney and I and Kendrick can look at it.

Okay, so I uh just so I'm clear.

Are you saying that the three recommendations that were made by GET you would like to have a discussion on those?

Is that what you said?

Yes.

Okay.

Now I know it seems to me I recall that we already increased the the percentage of green on a property up to 20%.

So even if we increased it to 22%, we're going in the right direction, for example.

But they've proposed 25%.

You change the definition of green.

You didn't change the you couldn't because of Senate Bill 180.

We can't you couldn't increase anything at this time, and that's the mayor was referencing.

Okay.

Well, I I would definitely like to hear more about that.

And well, I'll hold my thought until it's my turn.

Uh um okay.

And in a workshop, because I think that some of these things can be mandated, some of these things can be incentivized or encouraged, and there's a lot of ways to like uh I I don't I would personally like to get a written report from them first so that I can read and research and see what other cities are doing so that because there's ways of doing it more cost effectively and more expensive, and we weren't given clear pathways, we just had these are good ideas, but not like clarity of here's how you implement it in a way that's cost effective.

So I would like to see the written report before we consider having a word.

Especially the ward breakout.

Yeah.

I think that's going to really instill different conversations.

So yeah, I I agree.

And I would uh be open to this type of conversation, but not prior to the budget.

Okay.

All right.

Anything else?

No.

No.

Okay.

Councilmember Webb.

I um I said that I would look into cities of kindness and I unpacked I unpacked a whole universe of loving cities.

And so I am requesting additional time before I present anything to y'all because we actually have an organization that's rolling out compassionate charters and compassionate cities locally.

And so I I'm now I'm comparing different programs and seeing what makes sense for us and what the limitations are.

Now it's become a compare uh uh project to compare different uh different programs that are similar to see if we're what's best for our city.

So that's all I have, so appreciate that the extension on my homework, guys.

Yeah, I don't have any new business mayor.

Okay, I have three.

Um one is at the last meeting I asked uh if we could have a workshop regarding uh long-term vehicle uh residents uh parking on our streets and using them for storage and so on and so forth, and I had asked that we could do that on September 3rd, but um September 3rd is no longer an option because we have to one of the dates about deadlines we have about budget is that in a the same time, so that's a priority.

So um the two dates that I was looking at to move it to and making sure that one wasn't a problem for anybody here was either September 24th or j October 1st, which October 1st would be the correct date for a workshop with us trying to do it the first Thursday of the month.

Okay, and this is for the resources available to people.

I'm meeting with April a lot this week, so I'll inform her of the change too.

Yeah, right October 1st works for the case.

October 1st, okay with everybody.

All right, so that was one thing.

The second thing I'm going to ask for consensus.

Um I would like to um lead a um town hall, and I checked on dates already with the city, and August 27th is available, and that would be on rainwater harvesting, and that was in reaction to um Laura talking about Diana Willis, uh Diane Willis retiring and really wanting to teach a class, and she said she could do it from 6 to 7 30 on August 27th, and it would be at the neighborhood center.

So I just wanted to make sure that you were okay with that.

Yeah, okay.

I saw that.

All right.

Excellent.

And then the last one, I'm not asking anyone to do anything now except to put your thinking hat on.

We have got to now that the property is being uh demoed, we have got to quit referring to the property formerly known as the Lions Club.

And we're gonna have to come up with a name for for that property.

So I'm just asking just think about it so that we can have you know some thoughts and discussion on that sometime in the near future.

I'm not even throwing out a uh deadline right now.

I just think that we need to quit calling it the Lions Club uh in the in the same way that um we got to quit calling it the um Coast Guard station.

I know I call it Oscar Point.

Uh it's a good point.

Yeah, I do say the point too.

So that one that is that one's easier.

Oscar point is good.

And that is correct.

So all righty, with that in mind then I say thank you for coming.

Thank you for giving your input.

Thank you for speaking up because it looked like amongst the group here we we did have a clear uh favorite, so I appreciate that.

And with that I say the meeting is adjourned.

Thanks for coming.