St. Petersburg City Council Meeting, January 4, 2024: New Leadership, Bayfront Report, and CRA Approvals

You brought it out.

Welcome to the City of St.

Petersburg City Council meeting.

Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch.

District 1, Copley Gertis.

District 2 and Council Chair, Brandy Gabbard.

District 3, Edmonton Mary.

District 4, Leseth Panawitz.

District 5 and Council Vice Chair, Deborah Fig Sanders.

District 6, Gina Driscoll.

District 7, John Mohammed.

And District 8, Richie Floyd.

Good morning, everyone.

Morning.

And happy new year to all who are with us today and who are watching at home.

We will go ahead and call to order the January 4th, 2024 City Council meeting beginning with a roll call.

Gertis.

Gabbard.

Here.

Hannawitz.

Here.

Sanders.

Driscoll.

Mohammed here and Floyd.

We're going to begin our meeting this morning with an invocation that will be delivered by Reverend Kenneth Irby of Historic Bethel AME Church, followed by a moment of silence to honor our fallen first responders, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand.

Good morning, Madam Chair.

To uh our mayor in his absence to Chair Elect this distinguished uh council leadership.

I'm honored this morning to offer the invocation by way of a consecration.

And as we have already risen, hear our prayer.

We rise this morning to honor the creator, God, sustainer, and everlasting Father.

We thank you for the blessings that you have bestowed upon us this morning as we strive to be more in 24.

Stony the road we trod.

But by your grace and your guidance, we're still here.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to call upon you in our times of need as a nation and a world.

We thank you, Lord, for your bountiful blessings.

We thank you and are grateful that you have blessed us in your holy name.

Now we call upon you today to imbue this mayor, this council, and city leadership with courage, compassion, and for care for others as we dismantle racist and sexist structures in our city.

Bless us with your benedictions of justice that it may roll down in our city from shore to shore in housing and education and opportunities and through intentional equity for all.

Show up, Lord.

You are the king of glory.

Every day in every way, we pray your perfect peace as your people pray.

Amen, amen, and amen.

Please join me in a moment of silence as we honor fallen first responder, Sergeant Thomas Battinger, end of watch, January 24th, 2011, and canine TAC team officer Jeffrey A.

Yaslovich, end of watch, January 24th, 2011.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance.

And to the Republic, which is fans.

One nation.

Under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice.

You may be seated.

Thank you so much, Reverend Erby.

Great to see you this morning and thank you for that beautiful invocation.

All right, council members, we have an agenda before us today with a request to add item H2, which is an update on Bayfront Health, and to defer item J 1.

So with those changes, I'll entertain a motion for approval.

Move approval.

Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda with changes.

Seeing no request to speak, clerk, please open the machine for voting.

Council members enter your votes.

Seeing all present, council members have voted.