The meeting began with an invocation and pledge, followed by roll call and two presentations. The council heard from Forward Pinellas on regional transportation and land‑use planning, and from the Gulfport Environmental Team (GET) on the 2026 tree canopy analysis. Public comments addressed tree canopy, bike racks, and city policies. The council unanimously approved several resolutions, including a new utility billing system and a shoreline enhancement grant, and selected a new design for the Trolley Market Square welcome sign.
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.