Welcome to the City of St.

Petersburg City Council meeting.

Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch.

District 1, Popley Gurdis.

District 2, Brandy Gabbard.

District 3, Mike Harding.

District 4, and Council Chair, Lizeth Panowitz.

District 5, Deborah Fake Sanders.

District 6, Gina Driscoll.

District 7, Corey Gibbons Jr.

And District 8 and Council Vice Chair, Richie Floyd.

Good afternoon, everyone.

We're going to call to order uh today's city council meeting.

Will the clerk please call roll?

Gabbert?

Here.

Harding.

Here.

Hanowitz.

Big Sanders.

Here.

Driscoll?

Here.

Gibbons.

Floyd.

Here.

Here.

Will everyone please join me in standing while we get an invocation from uh Abdul K.

Ali Imam Al-Bdul A.

Ali.

Please remain standing for the prayer.

Thank you, uh, Ms.

Vice Chair.

Uh let me say before we do our prayers.

Uh I wasn't here when the chair and the vice chair was uh appointed here, but I just like to say that this council is in good hand with the chair and vice chair, and I say congratulations.

May we pray.

With our Lord's the Creator's name, the merciful benefactor, merciful redeemer.

Our Lord, our Lord is the Lord of all worlds and the systems of knowledge.

And his servants is our one family.

The praise belong to him, our Lord, and we beg for your mercy, and we beg for your forgiveness.

To our chair, vice chair, members of council, administration, uh, staff, we say God peace be with you.

Asalaam Alaykim.

We are very honored uh to be here as we approach the month of Ramadan, the month of passing from Muslim throughout the world.

It's just a few days before we have this wonderful month that will be bestowed us.

We ask our city that we work to make our city the better city.

We ask our citizen that we continue to come together to be good citizens to make this a wonderful place for all to live.

We come together, and we invite all to come together as we be we will celebrate on March the 10th annual city while annual if our dinner, all is invited, and then we work to work to make our city better.

We work for peace, love, justice, and compassion for all of humanity, and make our city a better city for all.

We work to support those who are sick, those who are hungry, those uh who are homeless as well.

We ask our protection, we ask your blessing and protection for the bold and courageous women and men who serve our country here and abroad.

And we ask your blessing, oh God, to bless the first responders who work in time of need for a better and a safe city, and we ask you, God, continue to bless us as we move forward and start stand firmly for what is just what is right for all of humanity.

These are our prayers, we pray, and your holy name, we say amen.

I pledge on the leadership of my mayor and to the republic.

Oh, we're just one nation, under God, individual for liberty and justice for all.

Thank you for that uh lovely invocation, Imam.

Uh, we're going to we have an agenda before us, council members to have a motion for approval.

Move approval.

All right.

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

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, will the clerk please announce the vote?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Thank you.

If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi judicial items listed on the agenda, please sign up with the clerk.

Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open form.

She only city residents.

Owners of property.

Business owners in the city or their employees may speak.

All issues discussed on the open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St.

Petersburg government.

If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open form or when the item comes up on the agenda.

Applause is not permitted except in connection with awards and presentations.

In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak, and after which the microphone will be muted.

If you wish to address city council through the Zoom meeting, you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed.

When is your turn to speak?

You'll be unmuted and asked to state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments, or when you reach the three-minute time limit, you will be you will be muted.

All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item, regardless of the method of participation used.

Normal rules apply, including the three-minute time limit on comments, the requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum.

If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the decorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by alternate means, including by email only, and we do have speakers.

First two speakers, please go to either podium, state your name, address, or cross street.

Dr.

Perigee Washington and Ruth Whitney.

Please go to either podium.

You should be on the joints.

Ruth Whitney.

Ruth Whitney, please go to an open podium, state your address for Cross Street for the record.

You'll have three minutes to address city council.

Hi.

There were two different groups that formed wanted to form the community benefits association or uh advisory council.

And uh one was uh gypsy guardo's one community, and the other one was Brothers John changed for St.

Pete.

And after working on the idea, they joined together and came and lobbied the city.

And um it was approved for to have this community benefits and it's uh advisory council, and we've had it for four years, and I've been on it for four years.

You all appointed me four years ago, and I thank you for that.

We had a meeting of the four.

Uh there's a standing committee of four, and then uh there's community members added when we deal with an actual project.

Um we had our meeting of four, and uh someone decided that, and I think it was James Corbett because that was the report that we were looking at at the time, and he suggested instead of four standing committees, people there'd be six, and um and so you add one more of being appointed one by the mayor, one additional by the mayor, and one additional by you.

But when we had a project, there were nine of us, and so that's will limit the number that come from the community for the project, and uh uh uh and they'll just have we'll still be nine, but there'll only be three of those, and then we do we have always been thankful to have a city council member um serve with us on projects.

Um so we voted uh to approve all four of us.

This increasing the numbers.

Um the argument that ja uh that was made was that uh sometimes the community members come and they're not you know up on the project as much as the standing members, but we did approve that four to nothing, but it was a second part, it was all in one document.

There was a first part and then an attachment by one of our members who was appointed by the mayor, James Madsen, Jason Madson, and in that document he revises everything, practically everything that you wrote and and in your original where you passed to have this event of this council.

So one of the there's one there I just I the vote for that was three to one or three and the one was an abstention.

We didn't give it enough discussion at all in the meeting, and it passed.

Uh, and I was the the negative vote.

I'm up.

Thank you.

I said too much before.

I didn't get to the main point.

I'll have to come back.

Muting it.

No, we have one more speaker by sorting out some technical issues.

There we go.

Okay, hopefully you hear me.

Sorry about that, Dr.

Washington.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

My name.

Doctor Perry G.

Washington.

I'm a man.

I've been here in Pinellas County.

Dr.

Washington, could you please give your cross streets?

Fifth Street and Second Avenue.

Thank you.

175th Street.

No, this very building.

I was in this building when you were a baby, and for work.

My people built this city, built this county.

Last year, during Black History Month, exactly one year for tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

I was arrested in my own yard trying to stop them jag legs, and that's a legal term for putting a fence in my yard.

I complained with you, the city council, the mayor's offer, the chief of the police, everybody in their mama.

They arrested me and put me in jail.

12 hours for my 67 birthday.

You heard me.

When I entered this building, a man asked me, what I still getting in trouble.

I told him, yes.

I'm getting in trouble.

So you can have a good life.

I was in here.

A man asked me what they're mad about.

I told him I'm not mad.

I haven't gotten no relax.

I asked you to look at it.

And find out the truth.

You didn't do a damn thing.

Corey!

You hadn't called me.

Every one of you.

I'm gonna tell you that common sense and not come.

Because you had common sense.

You wouldn't look on my name.

Harry Goshington on the internet.

And you find out I want the real estate broker for 32 and a half years.

A celebrator.

I'm a man.

Thank you.

Is that the end of open forum or is that all speakers?

I'm sorry.

No more speakers.

No more speakers.

Okay.

We move on to awards and presentations.

We'll start on with D1, Black History Month presentation, and we're joined by the man himself, Mayor Kenneth T.

Welch.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Good afternoon, everyone.

To uh our city of St.

Pete, to our St.

Pete team, the City Council, it's an honor to be here with you today as we celebrate the diversity and progress that we have made as a city and as a city organization as we celebrate Black History Month.

Black History Month is an important time of reflection as we remember those of African American descent from our community who led the way for us in a multitude of areas, including in public service in city, county, and state government.

I know I'm dating myself because I remember all these folks.

I mean, y'all do probably as well.

Uh, City Manager Don McCrae, uh, City Councilmember C.

Bet Wimbish, who was the first African American elected, school board member Mary Brown, Florida Commissioner of Education, Douglas L.

Jamerson, my father, City Council member and vice mayor in 1988, Dr.

David T.

Welch, and Ernest File, who I still remember talking about the process, and he'd put that emphasis on the process.

These were icons who left a legacy of strong leadership in our community.

Fast forwarding, I'm pleased to have staff and community representatives from various agencies and organizations who carry that mantle of leadership.

And I'd ask them to join me at the podium as I read this proclamation.

We're joined by representing the Woodson Museum of Florida, Shakita Clark, NCNW President Lynn Johnson, and her members, uh, our own Chief Keith Watts of St.

Pete Fire Rescue, Chief Anthony Holloway, Latora Bowles from Deuces Live with some of her board members, George Smith, our chief impact officer, Danny White, uh, always the best dressed.

Where are you, Danny?

Race without ism.

Uh, our CDA, James Corbett was here.

Uh, he's running back and forth, and our arts, culture, and tourism director, Celeste Davis, and any other members of our team uh who I have um not included, please join us for this proclamation.

And it reads whereas February is annually observed as Black History Month and has been designated to identify the historical contributions of African American citizens, and whereas African Americans have made countless contributions to the city of St.

Petersburg, Pinellas County, the state of Florida, the United States of America, and the world, and whereas the city of St.

Petersburg has a robust center of cultural organizations, including the Woodson Museum of Florida, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the African American Heritage Association, and community oral historians who continue to work to support the intellectual development of our community to collect and preserve black stories, sponsor black history and literature events, and whereas the late John Lewis's words quote, do not get lost in a sea of despair, be hopeful, be optimistic.

Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year.

It is the struggle of a lifetime.

Never ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble, end quote.

Those words continue to ring true today more than ever.

And whereas the city of St.

Petersburg takes pride in celebrate Black History Month and recognizing the contributions of notable African Americans.

Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T.

Welch, mayor of the city of St.

Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month in St.

Petersburg, and I urge residents to join with me in celebrating African American history, legacy, and our profound contributions to our society.

Thank you all for your leadership.

Good afternoon.

My name is Chiquita Clark, and I am a proud board member of the Carter G.

Woodson African American Museum.

Our executive director, Terry Lipsy Scott, expresses her regret for not being here in person, but shares the following sentiments.

Mayor Welch, Chair Henowitz, and our honorable members of City Council.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and friends of the Woodson, African American Museum of Florida, we gratefully accept this proclamation, affirming our city's commitment to preserving, presenting, interpreting, and celebrating Black history.

This declaration is more than ceremonial.

It reflects who we are as a city.

St.

Petersburg chooses remembrance over erasure, truth over silence, and inclusion over indifference.

The Woodson not only preserves the stories of our past, but celebrates trailblazers, shaping our present.

On March 8th, during Women's History Month, we will honor assistant city attorney Janine Williams, the first African American female president of the St.

Petersburg Bar Association, as one of our first ladies in African American history, alongside our Winnie Foster, Lifetime Achievement Honoree.

You guys can clap if you want.

So thank you to Mayor Welch for making our mission a priority.

Thank you, City Council members, for recognizing the Woodson as an essential cultural asset to our residents and our visitors.

We are proud of our history.

We are committed to our present, and together we are building a future worthy of this proclamation.

We are now and forever, the city of St.

Petersburg.

Happy Black History Month.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I am Lynn Harold Johnson, the president of the National Council of Negro.

What did I just say?

National Council of Negro women.

And I am proud to be here, not expecting to speak, but I'm just honored to be here today and let you know that Black History is our history, it's all of our history.

Because as we spend time together, we are growing, we are building that history together.

And I can't even imagine just going through the things that we do in the community, and we are excited about that we can exclude anybody.

So we advocate and support for African American women and their families, but that includes anybody that seeks our assistance.

Well, proud black women, proud black women.

Yes, right, sisters.

And we love to have fun, love to help others, and it's always a good time we come together and see how we can make a difference in our community.

So thank you for having us, and we look forward to visiting more and more seemingly that's what we're doing.

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, we'll go to Councilmember Givens.

Thank you, Chair, and happy Black History Month.

Um, so grateful that each of you thought it not robbery to take time out of your busy schedules to celebrate with us.

We've been celebrating for a century.

1926, Dr.

Carter G.

Woodson created Black History Week, 1976 that grew into a month.

And so here we are, 50 years later, celebrating a people whose history is older than the calendar itself.

And I think it is important that we continue to honor and to recognize the contributions of those folks who Mayor Welch has named off, as well as the unsung heroes and shiros uh who blaze the trails that many of us follow today.

So I just want to encourage each and every one of you in your respectful places in each of your organizations to keep telling the story of our struggle.

Because if we don't tell the story, someone else will, and they might not tell it with the same level of truth or accuracy.

So thank you for what you do, and God bless.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fix Sanders.

Thank you.

Of course, I am going to have something to say on this infamous and wonderful day as a life member of NCNW.

We are strong, proud black women, and I am so honored to be a proud of that.

But when I look at you, do you not see the history that's standing right there before us?

I don't know if y'all can see this picture.

Our black police chief, our black firefighter chief, our first black mayor, and all of those that actually bring so much richness to the culture of the city of St.

Petersburg.

And as I sit here also as the first black to represent District 5 and the first black woman, let us not stop.

Let us continue to make those differences and make those strides because that paint that's trying to erase our history will not win.

And I want to ensure that the stories we tell will be told loud, bright, proud, and with accuracy.

And I am so honored that the mayor thought it not robbery to honor us for this year.

It's not Black History Monk, but this is just the one day of the year that we actually get a proclamation.

So thank you for Black History Year and all of your contributions, and even those that are not in organizations that are not standing here today.

Thank you.

And let us not forget from whence we came, the contributions we've made, and the strides that we continue to make moving forward.

So thank you so much for being here.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all so much for being here and for the service that you do in our community.

We're gonna move on to D3.

Uh call program appreciation day.

Also, Mayor Well.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Give them a few seconds.

Mr.

Chairman, I'm proud to read a proclamation honoring the five-year anniversary of the community assistance in life liaison or call program.

This is program.

This program is something that we can all be very proud of in the city of St.

Petersburg.

It's an example of the power of partnership, compassion, and commitment to our neighborhoods, health, and safety.

Today is indeed a reason to celebrate and show appreciation for the innovation and the impact of the call program.

I want to invite uh our Chief Holloway and Megan McGee from St.

Pete Police Department and Dr.

Sandra Bram of Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services and any members of her team.

Doc?

Y'all show them some love.

Call does a great job for us.

Okay.

Let's make it sure.

The ones who are really likely should be in bad sleep.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha.

And the proclamation reads, whereas the community assistance in life liaison program was launched in February 2021 as an innovative partnership between the St.

Petersburg Police Department and Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services to provide a non-law enforcement response to nonviolent and non-criminal calls involving mental health, youth behavior, substance abuse, and other quality of life concerns.

And whereas for five years, Call has responded to and diverted approximately 20,000 emergency calls, referrals, and follow-up contacts from police response to mental health professionals, reducing strain on emergency resources, enhancing officer efficiency, and ensuring more compassionate outcomes for our most vulnerable citizens.

And whereas the call program embodies a spirit of collaboration and innovation by bringing together law enforcement, mental health professionals, and community partners to build trust and promote equitable, effective public safety solutions.

And whereas the call team has become a national model for alternative response, connecting individuals in crisis to immediate care, ongoing support, and long-term services.

And whereas the City of St.

Petersburg takes great pride in celebrating the accomplishments of the call team and recognizes the dedication, compassion, and professionalism of the advocates, supervisors, and leaders who serve our community through this groundbreaking and innovative initiative.

Now, therefore, I, Kenneth T.

Welch, Mayor of the City of St.

Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim Friday, February 2nd, 2026, as Call Program Appreciation Day in St.

Petersburg, and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and celebrating the call team for five years of transformative service, partnership, and care for our community.

Thank you all for your leader.

Okay.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mayor Welch.

Thank you, honorable council members, and thank you for your vision, Chief Holloway, for all you all have done to support this program.

I stand here today proudly accepting this proclamation during Black History Month, but also standing hand in hand with my sister and incoming board chair Abby Starenzis, who is a Jewish woman, and I want to acknowledge the unfinished business of racism as we celebrate Black History Month and the growing cancer of anti-Semitism that has invaded our country.

And I want to challenge all of us to remember our shared legacy together as blacks and Jews as we walked hand in hand.

And behind me, the rainbow of wonderful people who are black and brown and yellow and white and of all backgrounds and lifestyles.

We want to thank you for the opportunity to serve this community to be a leader, to be an example of innovation, and we want to again you know acknowledge the work that you do and supporting this great program.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fig Sanders.

Thank you.

So as someone that was there when Chief Holloway brought this forward, I am super excited.

Um, because you all have done a fantastic job in diverting the police officers to where they really need to be and providing that extra care to those calls that does not need they they they do not need the strength of our police officers to be there.

So you have helped us, Chief Holloway.

You rock, you are the GOAT.

We appreciate what you've done for this community, and establishing the call program has been undeniably one of the best things I could have pushed my button to say yes to.

So thank you so much for that.

Thank you for the call team, and you are so right, Dr.

Brum.

Look at your diversity and your rainbow and all the grace that you bring to the city of St.

Petersburg.

So I want to thank you all and thank you for continuing to do that work because I know it can't be easy when you arrive to some of those calls, but you continue to do it and you do it with dignity, and I really do appreciate everything that you've done.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Chairman, if you would, I inadvertently skipped Chief Holloway and Megan.

Sorry about that.

Good afternoon, Council Everyone.

First of all, uh, I'm not the goat.

Yeah, you are.

So let's say how it is.

Uh I came with an idea and a plan, but it took Megan McGee and the three assistant chiefs to make it work.

You can come up with anything you want to come up with, but it takes these people to execute it.

So, with that, I'm going to turn over to Megan.

Thank you, Chief.

Good afternoon, Council.

I am absolutely over the moon to be able to be here today to celebrate the fifth anniversary of community assistance in life liaison program.

And I would like a couple moments to thank some of those individuals and groups who worked really hard to make it happen.

I do want to sincerely thank Mayor Welch and former Mayor Chrysman, along with past and present city council members for not being afraid, having that courage to try something new and different and support it the whole way.

I remember standing here back in the day, seeking a nine-month pilot.

We had a lot to do and a really short amount of time to do it.

But we did.

Some thought that call wouldn't work, some thought call wouldn't last.

But five years later, we are a national model, and we have changed countless lives in our community.

I want to thank our officers who have overwhelmingly embraced the program.

They're working alongside call, but they're also knowing when to step back and let a mental health professional handle the call.

And much thanks to the behind-the-scenes heroes in the emergency communications division who adapted their systems to support the call option so we were able to dispatch the right team at the right time.

And thank you to Chief Holloway and Assistant Chief Gilliam for having the guts and the grit to say let's do it.

And on a personal note, I am incredibly grateful that you trusted me with the most meaningful project initiative I've ever been a part of, and I have never taken that responsibility lightly.

And our deepest thanks to our partners at Gulf Coast JFCS.

Our partnership is extraordinary.

We talk all the time, whether it's big projects or just individual conversations about how we can get the best services to a particular person in our community.

Their dedication is truly the heart of this program.

And all of the call navigators, you can see with the polo shirt, uh standing the call navigators and the supervisors, truly the boots on the ground in the field, in the arena, doing the difficult, impactful work every single day.

I'm so glad they're here.

And today is really about them.

And this proclamation doesn't just mark five years, it honors St.

Pete's decision to lead with compassion, to respond with care, and to give our community something we asked for.

So thank you so much.

Councilmember Gerdes.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh, just quickly.

Um I've gotten to know Dr.

Brahm over the last year, and it's been uh quite the pleasure, and you can tell by her words, and I think this room that uh my colleagues have heard me say this about uh both of our chiefs that um it takes a leader, and Dr.

Brahm, you have been that leader uh not only on the call program but at Gulf Coast, and I'm just so thankful for you and your leadership, and I'm thankful to your entire team.

Thank you for what you're doing every single day.

And I know they show up like this with smiles on their face and proud to wear those shirts because they have a leader like you.

And so I might be spilling the beans, but I wanted to praise on Dr.

Brahm for a second.

And uh, and oh my gosh, your words when you were talking about the unity of how we need to move forward, and um there's there's something happening this year, a special happening this year on Jackie Robinson Day at the Tampa Bay Rays, which is the damn right day it should happen.

Dr.

Brahm is singing the national anthem at the Tampa Bay Raids games.

And so I couldn't think of a better ambassador to have somebody start off an amazing celebration of somebody that broke the color barrier and and showed the world that it can happen than you.

And so thank you for doing that with this program, and thank you for doing it as every day going forward, and especially on April 24th.

And so, if all of you aren't there, it's your own damn fault.

So, but congratulations to everybody, our our team, thank you so much for all of it.

But Dr.

Braum, I love you, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you, and um thank you, Mayor, for the proclamation, and to all of you from the call team for the work that you do.

Um, thank you for being so compassionate and so smart about how you approach each situation.

You don't just walk into this knowing what to do.

I know that it takes a lot of training, and it also takes those things that you can't teach, and that is what makes you so incredibly special and so perfectly perfectly designed for this type of work.

And so I have I have great admiration for you, and I'm grateful that you decide that you decided to take who you are and what you've learned and apply it in this way that serves our community so well.

So thank you.

Chief Holloway.

Um, I've got a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind.

Um, or it might be a Megan thing, I don't know, but I want to thank you.

Chief, I know.

I know.

Um Chief, I do want to thank you for um getting the ball rolling on this and for all that you've done.

Um this has become a national model, and I'd love to just hear I want everyone to hear some examples of some of the some of the cities and um other governments, other entities who have reached out to you and said, how did you do that and how can you help us get it done too?

I'll start a little bit.

Megan got a better list than I have.

So I've gone to Canada, gone to New York, Georgia, and we also did something through World Partnership where we talked to uh I think it was like 30 different countries that came in, and then they asked us to go to Africa to actually bring it there to their culture.

Thank you.

And I love that this is being spread throughout throughout our country and beyond, um, especially right now at a time where so much of the conversation is where is around troubling instances of certain law enforcement going too far.

This is what the right thing looks like.

This is the opposite of that.

This is leading with love.

So I did I really want to point that out.

Um after the after the call program started and since it started, we have had some changes, really expanding it because as you said, it went from nine-month pilot to national model, but that didn't happen by doing it the same way for the last five years.

So can you give us a couple of highlights about how you've been able to look at this and adjust and expand so that we can um improve the service even more.

Okay.

Thank you for your question.

We have been able to adapt because after that pilot, it gave us an opportunity to reassess what we were seeing and what we were able to do as far as capabilities as we continue to grow.

We're very different than some of the other models simply because we are an alternative response.

Call is an alternative response, it's not a co-response.

Uh about 5% of the calls that the team is is uh dispatched to, they may request law enforcement assistance, but the large majority of calls that they're responding to, it is a civilian navigator team that responds and also provides the continued follow-up to ensure that individuals are stable.

The other thing that's very different for what we do is in addition to mental health and prevention of suicide, we're also doing neighborhood disputes and other types that aren't maybe the typical response.

Um we do call for assistance, which is one of the things that we've added to our overall array of services because we found that a lot of those calls are really just seeking, they're not necessarily mental health, but they're just seeking assistance.

So we've been able to really expand and be able to meet the community's needs as we've continued to grow and also really refine the best way to uh to meet the community's needs.

Thank you.

And finally, I want to thank your um communications staff, the folks who answered the phone, and go through the whole, yes.

There you are.

It's I know it's not easy um to teach the team and get everyone on on board with that very specific way that you have to evaluate a call and decide if it's call or something else.

That was the part that I was the most concerned about when this first started.

But now I just wonder why was I even worried because you all are amazing.

And I just I want your entire team to know how much I appreciate um the the training and the dedication that they have to making sure that they get it right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Fixander.

Thank you.

I forgot since our mayor forgot to introduce the chief.

So, Chief, if you're not the GOAT, then I'll make you the shepherd.

And Megan, you will be the goat.

So I wanted to I want to thank everyone.

I I couldn't let this moment um go by without personally thanking our St.

Pete Police Department that actually brought this facilit facilitates it and manages this for us.

And then also, Dr.

Braum, I want to thank you for another initiative while you're here for being the lead agency for COF COS for our hubs where the contract ends um in December.

So we're gonna miss the host, but I wanted to personally thank you for the lead agency in actually running those programs as well.

So thank you so much.

Okay.

We're hopeful.

We're hopeful.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh I just wanted to say a couple of things.

First off, thank you so much to everyone who's been involved in this program from its inception till now.

Uh I'm really appreciative to all the good work that you do because when the program was created, there was plenty of doubters and naysayers, and the work that you've done to make it successful uh is why we've been able to make it five years.

So I'm really grateful for everyone and I uh reiterate everything uh my colleagues have said here about the wonderful uh people who have made this happen.

I want to thank, though, a separate group of people who are not in the room with us right now that I think we're pivotal pivotal in making it happen, but it was like the activist community in 2020.

Um it was before I was a council member and uh we were uh angry and frustrated with the way the world was and um and you know there was marches constantly, and a lot of people got together and said what kind of things do we want to see from our city moving forward, and it's really nice to have seen the administration, uh the police, uh, and the city as a whole embrace that call, and uh some of the people that come here and rabble rouse to us to this day, and I know some of the people in this room get annoyed at it, uh, but they really were pivotal in uh putting the pressure on us all to make a big change, and I'm so grateful that that symbiotic relationship uh came to a conclusion in this moment in this room right now, or uh led to this moment in this room right now because this is by no means the conclusion.

So I'm really grateful for everyone who comes up here and advocates for things, and I think uh their voice uh is really important in this conversation as well.

So thank you all so much for joining us today.

Uh it's been an honor to be able to uh recognize you, and I can't wait to see what the next five years look like as well.

If I could just make one note for the public who's watching this, uh Councilmember Driscoll uh talked about the changes in the program over the years and that we made it better.

And I just couldn't resist when folks ask what we're doing with our local discretionary funding, property taxes in particular.

It's this kind of program responding to a community need at about under just under two million dollars a year.

So I know the CFO came down here and talked a lot about what we're doing with the money.

This is a good example of that.

So I want the public to see this very tangible example.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

We're going to move on to D2 Radio St.

Pete Day proclamation.

Uh, we'll be joined by Councilmember Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll ask the uh the folks from Radio St.

Pete to come up and join us.

So it is uh it is my honor to present this proclamation.

We'll wait till everybody, yeah.

It's my honor to uh to represent the city and presenting this proclamation to Radio St.

Pete.

The uh communication with uh the folks in A, town, area, community, has always been a vital importance uh in getting the word out about how your community runs.

And it started with back in back in the day, uh back in administrative Gurtes' of my day, uh, with town criers.

And uh and worked its way up to um to the days in the 1920s when uh when they're selling newspapers on street corners and then to radio and then the TV and then uh and then the internet.

Um along the way, there have always been groups that that have filled in and made sure that we know what's going on in our community.

Radio St.

Pete decided to make it a little bit more complicated.

Um in doing so, they decided they were gonna do it for no money, and they exist as a nonprofit that we'll talk about in a second, which I find i incre not just admirable, but incredible that they've been able to do it this long and continue to do it.

And the other is that they've advocated for uh for the the culture and lifeblood of the community.

Um it is easy to sell newspapers about things that happen in this chamber or in that room over there.

Um it is hard to sell newspapers that that talk about things that are just about your community that that are about the the vibrancy and the culture and um and the the important parts of our community.

But these folks have found a way to do it and do it continually, and so um and so it gives me pride to give you this.

Proclamation City of St.

Petersburg.

Whereas Radio St.

Pete and Sunshine 96.7 FM, where establishes a nonprofit community-powered radio station to serve the city of St.

Petersburg by amplifying local voices, music, arts, and civic life.

And whereas March 4th, 2026 marks the second anniversary of Radio St.

Pete downtown studio and commemorates 13 years of broadcasting that celebrate the people, creativity, culture, and stories that define St.

Petersburg.

And whereas throughout its history, Radio St.

Pete has provided an inclusive platform for local musicians, artists, nonprofits, organizations, educators, small businesses, and community leaders, strengthening community connection and civic pride.

And whereas Radio St.

Pete contributes to St.

Petersburg's culture and creative economy while offering volunteer internship and educational opportunities that support media, literacy, and workforce development.

And whereas Radio St.

Pete continues to serve as an independent, trusted source for local storytelling and public engagement reflecting the diversity and collaborative spirit of the city.

Now therefore I, Mike Harding, City Councilman for the City of St.

Pete, on behalf of Kenneth T.

Welch, mayor of the City of St.

Pete, to hereby proclaim Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, as Radio St.

Pete Day in St.

Petersburg, and encourage all our residents to celebrate the work of Radio St.

Pete and to support its ongoing efforts to provide quality, community center programming that strengthens the bonds of St.

Petersburg.

Congratulations.

It's times like this when I, after listening to the last two presentations, say, what are we doing here?

When I pushed the button to start Radio St.

Pete in 2013, never in my foggiest vision did I ever imagine standing here.

Or last year watching this from 3,000 miles away.

Radio St.

Pete did begin in 2013 with about a day's planning.

About two weeks later, I ran into Paul Tash at a Tiger Bay uh luncheon with that we were trying to broadcast, and he came over and said, Joe, what are you trying to do?

And I said, I'm not entirely sure.

Well, um things have uh have moved along quite uh significantly since then.

While this did start in my house, uh, and we experimented with a number of things for several years.

We got very serious during COVID.

And a number of us came together.

Uh first Jay Kolb, who's standing behind me, met for lunch.

We decided to move ahead and acquire the FM station that was available for 96.7.

Uh we decided we were going to be an all-volunteer 51c3 nonprofit.

We went to the IRS, got that, went to the FCC, got the license application in, did what we needed to do to do all of that.

As we were working at home during COVID, uh Jay Kolb was putting together our music catalog that consisted of hundreds, now consists of hundreds of local musicians and groups, thousands of songs.

And uh we got approved by the FCC and the IRS, and uh we went on the air on 967 FM and on our internet platform.

A couple of years after that, two years ago, we decided to come up, figure out we'd come up with the money somehow and rent a studio in downtown St.

Petersburg, which we did in Thrive DTSP.

So to go along with all of our music, which runs the gamut from classical and sacred music to overnight jazz featuring many members of the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association to folk, pop and rock.

This vast majority of our programming is done locally, although we'd have some very high quality syndicated music uh programs as well.

Then Karen Carmichael appeared by the grace of God.

She walked up one day and thought she might like to help, and we actually discovered her at a downtown neighborhood association meeting.

She became a key volunteer for us and is now second vice president.

She's our volunteer development director.

She's making a huge difference.

First, she connected it, uh, connected us with the neighborhood association folks.

Dom is is here and represents the next generation of Radio St.

Pete as well.

And uh she's making a huge uh difference.

The other member of our executive committee is not here, he's retired Cox Media Executive Todd Leeser, and he brings his broadcasting experience to our executive committee.

Well, our downtown studio opened, Nanette Weiser walked up and joined us as a key volunteer, and within weeks, that little studio and Thrive DTSP became a busy meeting place for local leaders in government, business, and the arts in the past year alone.

Radio St.

Pete's lunchtime conversations program has broadcast over 400 hours of important and entertaining, we hope, local discussions on all kinds of different topics.

Uh all of that is archived and distributed on our podcast platform as well.

I'm proud to say that our Radio St.

Pete volunteers on that program now include the likes of Paul Wilburne, Eugenie Bondrit, Margot Hammond, Craig Pittman, Alvinette Downing, uh Rick and Carrie Chrysman, Rui Farius, and even uh people like Dr.

Victor Mickey Holes, who's associate principal cellist of the Florida Orchestra and has a regular program on Radio St.

Pete's lunchtime conversations.

We've been honored to have several of you with us as well.

Finally, in addition to Nanette, dozens of new Radio St.

Pete volunteers have come forward, and that includes interns from USF St.

Petersburg and Eckard College, and we believe these people will form the foundation for the next generation of leadership at Radio St.

Pete.

Looking at us, you probably may think that is necessary.

From the very beginning, seriously, um, I've always told people whenever I was here at City Hall, that this is called Radio St.

Pete for a reason, and I really think the City of St.

Petersburg should think of it as a city asset, because we're here to broadcast city events like this one live.

Folks will hear on lunchtime conversations tomorrow, not only from me standing here now, but the other presentations that you're hearing that we will broadcast in their entirety.

Uh often that means routine weekly city information that we have on our air that will not be heard elsewhere on any other broadcasting station or internet platform.

And most importantly, during storms, it's emergency information and briefings during the hurricanes and other times when it's so important.

I want to thank, on behalf of all of our volunteers, the city for this recognition and for your financial support.

You uh we've gotten a few of these, I believe they're called level up grants.

And this is a case where a small amount of money, I think makes I know makes an incredible impact, and it's changed our little organization.

It helped us to launch our affiliation and be one of the few and maybe the only non-commercial affiliate of the ABC Radio Network, providing breaking news coverage throughout the day.

It's allowed us to uh replace our homemade mobile apps, which we're in the process of of developing right now, which will further enhance engagement with our audience.

Now, all of these items um uh you know and a new website as well.

I forgot that as well, with a level up grant.

This allowed us to do what we needed to do, but do it a couple of years sooner than we could have afforded to do it, and it's accelerated our growth.

Most importantly, your support has encouraged others to support us as well.

We now have 16 local businesses that are underwriters of our uh bar operation, and two foundations have also stepped forward and uh made grants to us.

So, on behalf of our executive committee, our board of directors, our volunteers, our members, and our listeners, thank you for this truly wonderful recognition.

Thanks.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Uh Councilmember Derby.

Sorry about that, Vice Chair.

Uh I just want to thank Radio St.

Pete.

I've been able to be on the show a couple of times over the last couple of years.

Um everything you said was great, and I thought at the end you were going to do the one thing I thought, which was make the ask.

Oh.

And so if you're not, you can sponsor uh a show, you can sponsor Radio St.

Pete.

I do that.

I sponsor Brig Big Broadway Energy with Steve Reardon, because I'm a nerd and everybody knows that already.

And so uh, but it's just uh it's amazing what you guys are doing there.

Thank you.

Uh the lunch conversations are fantastic.

My drives to Tallahassee are filled with Radio St.

Pete.com on my app.

And so uh I'm just I just wanted to say I'm very thankful for everything you're doing, and um, and if you're not uh participating in radio st.pete.com, you need to be because it's an it's an integral part of our community and one that should not go anywhere anytime soon.

So thank you so much for everything you're doing.

Thanks, Chair.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much, everyone.

We're gonna move on to item number D4, Al Downing and Al Downing's Tampa Bay Jazz Association Day proclamation given by Councilmember Givens.

Thank you, Chair.

When I think about jazz, I think about trumpeter Louie Armstrong, composer Duke Ellington, pioneer Charlie Parker, and the innovator himself, Miles Davis, one of my favorites.

Al Downing and his wife Bonnie created many years ago a venue where young jazz musicians could hone their skills and provide.

Oh, y'all come up here with me, please.

Give them some time.

All Al Downing Jazz Association members, please.

And as they come, uh Mr.

and Mrs.

Downing created a venue where jazz enthusiasts, young jazz enthusiasts could hone in on their skills and also provide the local community with some jazz entertainment.

Now, though Mr.

and Mrs.

Downing are no longer with us in the flesh, their legacy lives on through the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association.

And that is who we recognize today.

The proclamation.

Whereas the city of St.

Petersburg is proud to recognize and celebrate the remarkable life and contributions of legendary jazz musician and educator Al Downing, whose dedication to music, education, and the community has left an indelible mark on our city, state, and nation.

And whereas Al Downing, who served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II, made history as part of the first African American military aviators, exemplifying courage, service, and commitment to the ideals of justice and equality.

Whereas through his musical genius, Al Downing inspired generations of students, musicians, and artists, and founded the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association, a vital institution that continues to promote jazz education and support young talent in the Tampa Bay area.

Whereas Al Downing's passion for jazz music, especially the old Hammond B3 organ, which all of us Baptists love, and his contributions to the cultural landscape of our city have made St.

Petersburg a vibrant hub for jazz education and performance.

And whereas Al Downing is a well-deserved inductee into the 2025 Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

And an honor has been given to those whose work has made significant contributions to the arts in Florida.

And whereas, as a Florida artist, Hall of Fame inductee, Mr.

Alan Downing will be celebrated alongside other legendary figures such as Ray Charles, Jim Borison, and Zora Neil Hurston, whose creative contributions have helped shape the cultural fabric and landscape of Florida and beyond.

Now, therefore, I, Councilmember Corey Givens, on behalf of Kenneth T.

Welch, Mayor of St.

Petersburg, Florida, do hereby proclaim Thursday, February 12th, 2026, as Al Downing in the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association Day.

Congratulations.

Wow.

Thank you so much to our honorable mayor.

Thank you to our councilman gives, to all of the city council members, honored guests, family that has come all the way from Street Port and on.

I'm the youngest daughter of Al and Bunny Downing.

And my father and mother were both amazing African American people that worked fearlessly and unceasingly to ensure that our family was actively involved in the civil rights movement.

They did not walk in the front of a protest march, but were very much part of the civil rights and social justice movement behind the scenes and in our home.

This is so fitting that this is during Black History Month, because our home was part of that, was part of the history that not only made America, but it also made St.

Petersburg.

And it is American history and not just Black history.

It is all of our history.

And allowed my sister Evelyn as well as other jazz young jazz musicians to play.

And that was just an amazing opportunity for all of them.

The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association continues in that legacy.

They started something to make sure that African Americans to youth would continue in the understanding and continued use of the wonderful genre, jazz that was gifted by African Americans to our country here in America.

So I'm so excited that we do this, and we still do this.

So here's my plug and an ask.

Now you got it.

There you go.

There you go.

At the hangar every Monday night, from seven to nine, we have a jazz jam.

That jazz jam is complimented by so many amazing jazz artists.

And this Monday, you might just want to stop in.

We might have something very special happening.

Just a little drop there.

And you heard part of what our organization does.

We've given over 80 some thousand dollars worth of scholarships.

And two of our scholarship recipients, Cooper Madden, playing the upright bass, and Tristan Nelson playing the saxophone, were in your lobby this morning this morning.

And you can tell, and um Caleb is a sophomore at school, and he plays the drum.

So Cable Alabs, Abels.

So you want to know that we are helping youth do professional level jazz playing, and that's exactly what's happening.

So we continue.

So come to the Jazz Jam, become sponsors and donators to our organization because an organization that has lasted for as long as my parents have put it in place.

It started out as Allegro Music Society, and that was 53 years ago.

And now we've joined an organization by Ernie Calhoun, who is in Tampa Saxophonist, who used to play with my father, and that organization, Tampa Bay Jazz, joined our organization and became Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association.

So we are thrilled.

Um my family, the order of the charter members and board and chart chair members as well as past presidents that stand behind me.

We are honored to stand on the shoulders of my father and my mother, Bunny Downing, to have created this organization and do what this organization continues to do.

So come and join us and have a good time at the hangar.

Thank you so very much.

Bye bye.

Councilmember Fig Sanders.

Um thank you.

I just want to take this moment to say thank you, and I'm not sure where your parents attended church, but I think I heard their name at First Baptist Institutional.

Okay, that's my church.

Okay, so we're first bad.

Okay, so I knew that they were great people, but I also want to let you know that I've heard some of your students at the hangar, and they are exceptionally well.

So I just want to let you know you guys are doing a great job with them, but they were very good.

So thank you for that, and thank you for your recognition and all that you do for the city of St.

Petersburg and our history during Black History Year.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

And I have to say, I have to say that my father not only played at first Baptist, he also played at Bethel Bapt Bethel Community, he also played at the Unity Church.

He also played at the synagogue.

He also played played at the Episcopalian and the Catholic Church.

So wherever there needed to be a minister of music or someone to play, many bar mitzvahs, he did it, and many weddings.

So yes.

Thank you for joining us today.

It's wonderful to hear about your father's legacy.

Thank you so much.

We're going.

Thank you very much.

And I I hate to say this, but I saved two of the best for last.

So I'm gonna ask Miss Dixon and Miss Wade to join me over here, please, on this side of the chambers.

And as they make their way over here, I'd like to share a few words.

These two ladies were two good close classmates and friends of my grandmothers, and uh thought about who I could present my first distinct distinguished citizens awards to, and it was these two young ladies.

Give them a moment to quiet down.

And don't these ladies look beautiful, y'all?

They just look lovely today.

Okay, thank you so much.

On December 1st, 1922, a bond was issued and approved to build Mercy Hospital at 12th Avenue and 22nd Street South in 1923.

Mercy opened its doors for the first use of St.

Petersburg African American citizens, playing an integral role to African American community until it closed its doors 60 years ago on April 1st, 1966.

The drive for integration was largely propelled by the civil rights movement, which aimed to dismantle systemic racism and promote equality.

While the intentions were noble, the outcomes were complex and multifaceted.

After building a career, a career, excuse me, and working their way up in leadership at Mercy Hospital.

The foreclosure, excuse me, the closure of the segregated hospital meant that these two women standing beside me were forced to start their careers all over at the newly integrated Mound Park Hospital.

Not only did they lose their retirement benefits, co-workers who had become family, but these ladies were also forced to take pay cuts and demotions as a direct result of integration.

They were forced to start all over.

Today, I rise before you to recognize the rich legacy and history of historic Mercy Hospital by paying homage to the two last living former Mercy Hospital employees, Miss Gwen Dixon and Miss Gwen Wade.

From breaking barriers to serving their community, both of these ladies' leadership has been steady, principled, unparalleled, and deeply committed to their community.

Because of them, we can continue to dream big.

Their example reminds us to honor our history and to preserve it for future generations.

This Black History Month, we honor the labor and legacies of two distinguished lifelong St.

Petersburg residents, Mrs.

Gwendolyn Dixon and Mrs.

Gwendolyn Wade.

Congratulations, lady.

You are living black people.

On behalf of the duo here, representing uh Mercy Hospital, it has been a very high honor for me to stand before you and represent all the wonderful people who worked at Mercy and who had various positions and who enjoyed being just a part of the game.

Okay.

I speak to you because I also lived at 512 Jordan Park, so that makes me uh an affiliate with Mercy and then Jordan Park.

How about that?

But just thank you for recognizing us again and remembering that we were an integral part of Mercy Hospital.

Thank you so very much for recognizing us as a part of the city of St.

Petersburg.

Thank you so much.

Just one second, ladies.

My grandmother, she taught me, and you all knew her.

She said that you should always give a person their flowers, Councilmember Fig Sanders, while they can smell them.

And so today I want to present you with your own roses.

Congratulations, ladies, and thank you so much.

Councilmember Fixanders.

So ladies, thank you so much.

I want to take the opportunity to um I'll wait until they finish.

Ladies, before you sit down, hold on, hold on.

Before you sit down, I want to just say thank you.

Um, and you will really be surprised at the rich history that we still have here in the city of St.

Petersburg.

And I congratulate Councilmember Corey Givens for recognizing you and giving you your flowers.

So thank you so much.

You are so appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And yes, thank you, Councilmember Givens, uh, for really in enriching today's uh Black History Celebration.

Uh that is the end of awards and presentations.

We are now going to move on to reports.

Uh we're gonna start with item F1, uh Ford Pinellus update with uh the executive director, Witt Blanton.

Oh, yep.

Okay, I didn't see you there.

It's good to see you.

Yeah.

Can I introduce?

Uh yeah, I don't see why not.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you.

Um last week we had our um a great update from FDOT, and it was perfect timing because we hadn't had an update from Ford Panellis here in council in quite some time.

There are four city council members who serve on the Ford Pinellas Board, and I'm honored to serve as the chair of the board at this time.

There is a lot that's going on right now in Pinellas County and in Forward Pinellas, and I'm excited that Witt is here to join us and make sure that our partnership with Ford Panelis is strengthened through the information that he shares in the conversation that we have today.

So thank you, Wet for joining us.

Thank you very much, and thank you, Mr.

Chairman and Council members.

It's my pleasure to be here.

It's been a few years.

I don't think I've been here since maybe 2019 or so, which is embarrassing.

So thanks for having me back.

And today what I wanted to do is talk to you about our efforts to regionalize our transportation decision making process.

As you noted, Councilmember Driscoll, there is a lot going on in Ford Pinellas, and we are a countywide planning agency.

But this is really kind of front and center of what we've been dealing with for a few years now, and it's coming to a decision point.

And so I wanted to inform the council and anybody who is watching that there is a process, and the City of St.

Petersburg is certainly in integral in that process.

So let me advance through here.

So I'm going to just start with the very basics.

What is a metropolitan planning organization?

We are a federally created organization that is in every urbanized area in the United States.

There's about 411 of these organizations that makes decisions on transportation investment using federal and state dollars.

And we are responsible for a continuing cooperative and comprehensive transportation planning process that at its fundamental heart is really about engaging the communities and building a level of trust and collaboration with our local government partners and the state Florida Department of Transportation.

We have a short range and a long range set of transportation planning priorities for all modes, including freight, waterborne transportation, the Cross Bay Ferry, things like that, the Pinellas Trail, and the safety of our roads.

MPOs fund projects in a pretty typical way across the country, but there's if you've met one MPO, you've met one MPO, we all do it a little bit differently.

But essentially, local governments submit priority projects and grant applications for the MPO to establish on a list of locally defined priorities.

And that list is adopted every year.

We'll adopt another list of priorities this year in June, and we transmit that to the Florida Department of Transportation, and they are required by federal law to follow our priorities because we are a large urban area of over 200,000 population.

FDOT reviews those priorities for feasibility.

There are sometimes some adjustments and some assessments about the readiness of those projects.

And importantly, there is typically a local match required for advancing those transportation projects.

Those funded projects are then programmed in the Department of Transportation's five-year work program and also adopted into the Ford Pinellas Transportation Improvement Program.

It's important that we do both because if there is ever a disagreement between the Department of Transportation and a local government partner or the MPO, we can stop that project by moving forward by simply not incorporating it into the TIP.

It works both ways, but we have that leverage of stopping a flawed project if that comes to us.

Local governments then work with FDOT directly on a full funding agreement.

And at that point, it's in the design and operations phase and the planning folks like me take a step back.

I wanted to talk about why we're even thinking about creating a single MPO for the Tampa Bay region.

And I thought about this a lot this morning as I was walking the dog.

You know, we we do well, I think, in Pinellas County, meeting the unique needs of a highly developed county with 25 local governments, and we've long maintained uh in our history that we are distinct and different substantially from Hillsborough County and Pasco County, and that's why we needed separate planning organizations.

But the last decade or more uh has experienced explosive growth in this region, and the reality is that transportation funding is discretionary in large measure, and it's highly competitive.

And so to work as a region and define those uh projects regionally is increasingly important because every other region around the country is doing the same thing.

There are very few exceptions where we have single county-based MPOs in the country.

Um it's also tied to our housing strategy, and I know the City of St.

Petersburg is leaned in very well to uh housing affordability and transportation and housing affordability can't be unlinked because those are the two biggest components of the average household budget.

And if you're thinking about one, you have to think about the other.

And the region's strength, uh, frankly, is through that collaboration because what MPOs create is essentially a forum for convening, for decision making, and for building that sense of trust and collaboration around clearly articulated and well-defined transportation priorities.

So, for those reasons, um, I've come around to believe that a merger is in the Tampa Bay region's best interest.

We are doing it really to meet the moment of Tampa Bay and scale up so that we can realize the full possibility of a region that's adding close to two million people over the next 20 to 25 years.

And that strength, you know, I like to joke that we're not adding any more beach.

Uh, we're not adding any more great downtowns for people to come visit.

Maybe we'll add a couple more of those.

But the growth may be in Manatee, it may be in Hillsborough, it may be in Pasco.

They're capturing the majority of that growth, but people still want to come to Pinellas County.

They still want to come here for jobs, they want to come for entertainment, uh, they want to come for a wide variety of reasons.

And more importantly, we need to get through Tampa to get to other places in the state of Florida.

So we have a shared future.

Currently, uh the Ford Pinellas Board, our MPO consists of 19 voting members, and the Florida Department of Transportation is a non-voting advisor.

And you can see the breakdown of seats by those cities.

For a long time, we had 13 seats.

We expanded to 19 in the last few years as reapportionment happened after the 2020 census, and that was to reflect the broader voices in the community.

Now, as we go forward, there's been a long history of merger discussion, and I think we've made more progress now than we've made since this topic was first broached early in my career around 1992 or 1993 after that census.

In 2010, we created the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area Leadership Group.

The transportation management area is a federal designation for PASCO, Hillsboro, and Pinellas County.

And we have been meeting regularly, three members of our MPO board with their counterparts in Hillsborough and PASCO to establish regional priorities, to work together.

But the TMA leadership group has to make recommendations and bring those back to the individual MPOs.

And we've seen examples where those recommendations fall on deaf ears when they come back to the individual MPOs.

So by forming a single MPO, you would have all the decision makers at the table.

In 2023, the Florida legislature got involved and as part of Senate Bill 425 included language there that required the three MPOs to formally explore the merger and assess the feasibility and submit a report to the legislature and the governor.

We did that by the end of 2023.

And along with a memorandum of understanding that all three MPOs adopted and approved has been the guiding force in the last couple of years of really drilling into what a merger could potentially look like.

So we have developed a scope of work and hired a specialty consultant who is helping us work through some of these issues of what the future MPO could look like.

And we're following federal and state laws, and Florida is fairly unique across the country in that we have a lot of state laws governing the functionality of MPOs.

There are some states that have no state law and they only follow federal law.

And I think that's a pretty good balance for us because it gives us guardrails in which to operate.

So I just want to highlight a couple of things in the federal law.

First is that the designation of an MPO must be an agreement between the governor and the units of general purpose local government that represents 75% of the existing metropolitan area population.

That's been determined to be the three counties, Pasco, Hillsborough, and Pinellas, and the largest city in the urbanized area, which is the Tampa City Council.

But I want to assure you that while we call those four groups principles, I consider St.

Petersburg to be a principal to this decision because of your population and your leadership that you've shown in transportation.

And I think you need to be at the table in every one of those conversations.

So in addition to that, the MPOs have state statutes that guide the size of that governing board and a minimum of five members and not more than 25 members can be established.

And then there's a provision that there be a certain set aside for county commission members.

So we're navigating those waters as we look at forming the MPO.

There's been a lot of conversations around this topic with joint boards of county commissioners, with individual city commissions, county commissions, and the TMA leadership group.

Back in November, we had what's called a principals workshop that I know several of you attended.

We had a robust conversation, I think is probably a fair way to say that.

Maybe airing of some grievances as well.

And what we've noted in those conversations is that there's general agreement about working together and general agreement about the merger in PASCO and Pinellas County, and there's still some debate and discussion over in Hillsborough County.

What's come out of those conversations candidly has been that there are far more conflicts between Tampa City Council and the Hillsborough County Commission than there are between Hillsboro County and the City of Tampa and the respective groups in Pinellas and Pasco County.

And I think they've got to work some of those things out.

Part of the rationale, maybe for the merger, is that if you're just beating your head against the wall and doing the same thing over and over again, maybe you need to expand the people in the room.

And I think the Tampa City Council, for instance, would find a lot of allies in some of the cities in Pinellas County.

We are meeting again tomorrow at the Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority.

It's the same, it's the TMA leadership group, but it's essentially the same principles that have been invited to this workshop.

I invited all of my board and all of you, and I hope some of you can attend, and we'll have another robust discussion around some of the remaining pieces that need to be resolved that I'll get to in a moment.

But I want to stick on this timeline just for a minute because we really need to request action from the four principal organizations, the three counties and the city of Tampa, to determine if there are if there's legs to move this forward.

And if there are, then we'll drill down in more detail.

If there aren't, then we need to look at what Plan D looks like or brace for legislative intervention, which potentially could come.

This conversation has been ongoing, and I noted that our chambers of commerce and many other organizations were up in Tallahassee this week, and they were advocating for the merger.

So as long as you have the business community and other interest groups advocating for the merger with the Florida legislature, eventually something's gonna stick.

And the legislature may choose to react.

And I'd rather us take care of that on our own, because I believe it gives us a lot more leverage when we come together and make a decision rather than when we're told to do something, and this is how you're going to do it.

What we will, if the merger is supported, we will then identify the board composition, roles, and responsibilities of this organization, whether it's an independent organization or hosted by a local government as they all are today.

If the merger is not supported, then we'll look at other mechanisms potentially to achieve those regional goals and strengthen regional collaboration.

We will prepare then a draft transition plan by the end of the year.

In a little more detail, I mentioned the meeting tomorrow.

It's the TMA leadership group at Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority in downtown Tampa.

From that meeting, from the recommendations and priorities that are identified, we will develop a staff recommendation.

That'll come from me and my counterparts in Hillsborough and PASCO.

We have tentatively an opportunity to present that recommendation to the joint Board of County Commissioners meeting in March.

And then we will be asking the four principal organizations to place this on their agenda for a resolution of support.

We expect that could happen as early as April.

It may happen as late as May or June.

With that resolution of support, it'll cover the governing board, the apportionment plan, the role of the transportation operators, and then we'll initiate phase two, which really looks at the legal documents, the operating plan, cost and revenues, and how that would be shared.

So there's still quite a bit of granular detail to work out, but if we can't agree on the governing board, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to spend more money and work on things that require that agreement in the first place.

So there's been consensus at the TMA leadership group to have a board of 25 members.

Of those, 23 would be elected officials, and two of them would be representing regional agencies, operating agencies, and they would be represented by staff, not by elected officials.

The port of Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, because they serve the entire region.

Freight and goods coming in out of the area and passenger transportation and cargo.

In addition to that, there's been general consensus that the transportation operators, like our transit agencies, PSTA in our county, and Hart in Hillsboro would be non-voting advisors, just like the Florida Department of Transportation.

Tampa Hillsboro Expressway Authority also a non-voting advisor.

And to note the expressway authority does have a voting seat on the Hillsborough MPO, so that would be a change for them.

In addition to that, there would be an allocation of seats by population.

So 23 elected officials, essentially based on population, Hillsboro would have 10 or 11 of those seats.

Pinellas would have approximately eight or seven of those seats, and PASCO would have about four of those seats.

Now there is a statutory requirement that the Florida Department of Transportation has that in its five-year work program, funding allocations to counties must be representative of population.

So there is a threshold that in that five-year work program there will be an equal allocation of dollars for transportation projects.

So there is an equity consideration that the Department of Transportation must adhere to.

It doesn't mean that in the year 2028 or 2029, 80% of those funds might go to one big project in the city of Tampa or Hillsborough County.

But over that five-year period, they must be balanced out.

So I hope that gives folks a little more comfort that even though a lot of the growth is in Hillsborough and PASCO, we'll still get our fair share of funds.

So things like that can happen.

I've also worked in Alachua County where the city of Gainesville and Alachua County both had five county commissioners and city commissioners on the MPO board.

No motion could pass without a majority of both boards.

So mechanisms like that could also be incorporated if necessary.

We could also introduce weighted voting, but I'm really fearful of weighted voting because then you've got to do a bunch of math.

I'd rather not have to do that.

Journalism graduate, not a math person.

So those are all items.

I do want to point out that the port of Tampa Bay and the Aviation Authority do not have representation on their governing board from Hills from Pasco or Pinellas County.

And that has been noted by some.

It's not necessarily something we have to solve today or can solve today.

But if they end up becoming part of a regional MPO, that may be something you want to look at in the future.

So there are some options for representation.

This is a little hard to see.

But maybe I go to the next slide and then I'll back up to this.

So the remaining issue is how we deal structurally with the smaller cities in our community.

If you look at this chart, I've put together a few different scenarios of how those eight seats in Pinellas County could be allocated.

And you could have an allocation where you have one seat for our larger cities over 50,000 population, which does include the city of Pinellas Park.

They are right at 53,000.

You could have three seats for the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, two for St.

Pete.

There's a number of different options.

But I think it's important that you see yourselves in this future structure.

For the smaller cities, an option could be you pick one north of Ulmerton, south of Ulmerton, or we have the Ford Pinellas Board, the Pinellas Planning Council, appoint one of those representatives as a representative of Pinellas County.

We did a field trip there in October last year and heard very clearly that the small cities felt absolutely well represented and heard as part of that process.

And they feel that that works really well for them.

In our situation, 18 of those small city seats would be in Pinellas County, two in Hillsboro, and I think six all under 17,000 in Pasco County.

So just by math, again, I'm not very good at math, but just by math, you would elect a Pinellas city every time, unless you've had some rotation and effect.

And then I worry if you're rotating those seats, is that seat going to lose influence relative to county commissioners?

So that's a conversation we'll have to have.

And I'll just go back.

You can see in this chart that the shading represents the percentage of allocation for each county, and Pinellas would be between 28 and 32% of that board.

So that's going to be on the table for tomorrow.

A couple of other important considerations.

When the Pinellas Planning Council and the Pinellas MPO merged in 2014, just prior to my being hired as the executive director, the special act creating the Pinellas Planning Council, which is the countywide land use planning agency, was amended to recognize the governing board of the MPO being the governing board of the Pinellas Planning Council.

If that stands uh and we merge, the Pinellas Planning Council would not have a governing board or its governing board would consist of representatives in Hillsboro and Pascoe County deciding land use cases in this county.

So we really don't want to have the merger proceed without amending that special act.

And as you probably well know, any time you amend a special act requiring support from your legislative delegation, all kinds of things can happen to that special act, including striking it completely from Florida statutes.

So I'm looking at some options about how we can go forward, but I do want to just keep you in mind that absent the Pinellas Planning Council, there's been some discussion about the county commission taking over that role.

And I think cities have have been very clear in supporting the Pinellas Planning Council as being an independent planning agency, not beholden to the county commissioners or the county administrator deciding land use cases on a technical basis based on good planning input and knowledge and the working relationships we have with the planning staff.

So the uh joint participation agreement for the merger discussion expires at the end of this year.

Uh, we do have an election year this year, so we really want to get these recommendations in while we have people who've been uh involved in this process for the last several years because it's potentially a whole new set of characters after November.

Um then uh there very likely could be legislative interest in 2027 or beyond if we don't get this done.

Um so I am hopeful uh that we will make strides in the next few months to make this happen.

Uh here you can find information on the website that's hosted by the Hillsborough MPO.

Uh, if you scan that, it'll take you right to the landing page for the regional MPO, and there's fact sheets, frequently asked questions, uh, presentations, and other documentation, including the feasibility report that we submitted a couple of years ago.

Um, and I look forward to your uh feedback and and questions, and um just want to make sure that um you are fully aware of the situation, and if I can be of any help in answering questions, I'd be more than happy to.

Thank you so much for time today.

Thank you, Councilmember Gabbard.

Thank you, Chair, and uh thank you, Wit for the presentation today.

Um, always good to see you, saw you yesterday.

Um, I won't be able to be with you tomorrow, but I will be on there virtually, so I will see you tomorrow as well.

Um, you know, uh I've had the honor of serving really by the time I'm done on city council, seven of the nine years that I have been a city council member on Forward Pinellas.

And um, you know, representing the residents of the city of St.

Petersburg in these conversations has certainly been an honor.

It's been an educational journey.

Um, and you guys, we were talking about the merger when I left uh a couple of years ago, and now here we are, um, still talking about the merger, right?

And I think that it's with your guidance that we have come as far as we have.

Now, you're right, it's gonna take a lot of political will across the region to bring this together.

Um, we've discussed it, uh, you talked a little bit about it, you know.

We had the workshop uh some months back, and uh very clear to me that um you know, we in PASC and Pinellas align on a much different way than our friends across the bay, and it's my hope that they will be able to come to some understanding or find some opportunities for additional alliances in working with us over here because I think you know, if if everyone can kind of get out of their own way, they will realize that we agree on more than we disagree on, and that transit for the residents that we serve is the top priority to ensuring quality of life across the region.

And so it's my hope that you know people will kind of see through some of this in fighting that is happening, and that we can all move forward in a way that makes sense.

Um, you know, we we went over to Metro Plan in Orlando a couple of us, and we learned from their regional MPO.

I actually have a friend that sits on that regional MPO as a county commissioner for one of the smaller counties.

And what we saw is that they have differences, but they find a way through their process to work those things out and find a balance and be able to really bring those dollars to that region.

And what they're accomplishing is phenomenal.

And this is really the only way to make that happen.

Is that it does marry land use housing with transit, which is very important for our residents.

When we end up separating those two things, I have a concern about how we make sure that we are creating viable communities across the region.

So I trust that we will find a way to work that out.

I do not agree that the Board of County Commissioners should be responsible for that.

I do think it's important that it be a standalone board.

But I I have great confidence in your ability to lead us through that.

And so I just want to thank you for your stewardship and uh your guidance along the way.

I see more pros than cons, but once again, the devil's gonna be in the details on that.

And I feel like we have the right people at the table.

The four of us are representing the city now.

Um, and you know, we'll continue to move forward and see uh what what a really bright future for transit looks like in the Tampa Bay region.

Um but we wouldn't be as far as we are if it wasn't for you and your continued push.

So thank you for that.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you.

I just wanted to thank you for the presentation and point out that if this merger does go through, um, that would make our MPO the largest one in the state.

That's right.

So we would be like a mega um PO.

And with that would come so much more opportunity for funding.

And I think that just like with Tampa Bay Water, um, having this this type of a merger and having the three counties working together as we are growing, can go beyond the transportation projects and open the door for us to learn from each other and look for other ways that we can collaborate and create a better region for everyone as we go forward.

So I have big hopes on this, and I also think the majority of people would much rather us figure it out ourselves than have Tallahassee figure it out for us.

So lastly, I want to recognize um that the um if anyone's wondering, the four council members who serve on Ford Pernellus are myself, councilmember Gabbard, Vice Chair Floyd, and Councilmember Fig Sanders.

And um, I am been involved in the TMA group for a couple of years now.

I will be there tomorrow and we'll continue working through this, hopefully, for a successful end.

So thanks for all you do.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

First of all, I want to say thank you for everything that you do, have done, and will continue to do.

I started out when T Barter was ending, and I've learned more about transportation than I thought I would have ever known.

And it is something to have experience with.

So we thank you for that, and I agree so much with our chair for Pinellas and with Councilmember Gabbard as well.

Um, I think regional is where we really need to be, and we've always thought that, and I do appreciate the fact that you have not shied away from the advantages, and I agree with Councilmember Gabriel.

We agree more than we disagree.

And so I'm looking forward and hoping for the merger.

Um, but again, with this being my first year on Forward Pinellas, I am learning and learning and learning, um, as well as being the chair of PSTA.

So transportation is now my thing.

Um, but I do appreciate the fact that you know we're having this open conversation, um, and I'm looking forward to the regional assets that we can get from this merger.

So thank you so much, and thank you, Councilmember, for bringing this presentation.

Thank you much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

We'll go, Councilmember Government.

Yeah, I just wanted to double-click on something real quick for people who are listening, and I don't know if all of you have had this question, but I have had the question of why doesn't the city of St.

Petersburg get a vote on this?

Um, you know, it's the three uh board county commissioners and the city of Tampa because they're the largest.

I have had this question from residents.

Well, why doesn't the city of St.

Pete?

We're a large city, we should get to vote on this.

Um, I want people to rest assured that that is not because we're being left out.

That is essentially what the statute requires for the merger.

So, and what correct me if I get any of this wrong.

Um, but it's that's just the way that it's laid out.

And so um, I just want people to rest assured that the individual MPOs are going to vote on this.

Um, that was in the presentation, and there will be four of eight city council members that will vote on it at that time.

Um, so if people are concerned uh where the city of St.

Petersburg like vote is in this, there is a vote from your representatives, and then ultimately it will be those Board of County Commissioners in the one largest city that will be the ones that will decide at the end.

So uh just wanted to make sure that was really clear because I've had that question a lot.

Thank you so much.

And if I could just add a little bit because I think I skipped over a little bit, the MPOs are gonna vote on this first, and you have four seats on the MPO.

And I think if the Pinellas MPO for whatever reason didn't vote for this, then we're not taking it forward.

So you have a voice to that process.

I would also hope uh that if St.

Petersburg was adamantly against this or had serious conditions to establish that the county commission would consider those as well.

So those are you know there are some uh you you are framed in that decision making context.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Great.

Thank you so much for the presentation, Witt.

Uh it's a complicated topic that I think uh my colleagues will greatly benefit from hearing straight from you about.

Um we work on a lot of other things at Ford Pinellas as well, so I just wanted to mention that.

Uh a lot of great work.

I've learned a lot about the county in general from being on Ford Pinellas.

And uh to your point, Councilmember Fig Sanders, uh, I've been on Ford Pinellas the entire time I've been on city council, and I'm still learning at every single meeting as well.

Um it's a big topic, and uh that you get to spend one meeting a month on, and so it it's it's always a learning process.

Um let's not make it seven years until you come back here again, right?

Especially through this process.

I think uh I think we could have you back relatively soon to give us an update.

I do also want to mention briefly while I have an opportunity is that we are updating our safe streets panellis action plan, and safety is a big part of what we do for transportation.

This merger is just an overall part of how can we do more for our residents for transportation?

Um getting more investment, getting the projects they need, and safety is a big part of that.

We have an ongoing update of our safe streets action plan, and there is a survey uh that any resident can take.

And if you go to FordPanellus.org, uh, get involved, you will find the survey there under Safe Streets Pinellus.

And there are a number of questions you can identify hot spots, areas of concern, um, areas of conflict, difficult roads to get across, um, those kinds of things, and we'll we'll map that and and look at that and and develop some recommendations.

So I just want to put that shout out there.

Thank you for sharing that and and uh acknowledging that there's different uh uh priorities put forward through this process and that we work on all the time.

Uh I think the opportunities uh going forward with more regional collaboration are gonna be better for everyone involved.

So I'm greatly uh appreciative of that.

Uh Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you.

Just real quick.

So that survey is on the Forward Pinellas website, and there's a tab, what's it called?

Safe Streets Pinellas.

Safe Streets Pinellas tab, and you find the survey there.

Get involved.

Yep.

Great.

How long is it open?

Uh it will be open through the spring, so a couple more months.

All right, sounds good.

Also, this morning in one of our committee meetings, housing land use and transportation, of course.

We brought up the ARCIS uh tool to um Mr.

Kilborn, and we would love to um engage with you on that and see how we can use it as we're working on some different things here.

So I wanted you to know that uh we were paying attention uh yesterday at the Ford Pinellas meeting, and we're already looking for ways to use that tool.

So thank you and to your staff for bringing that forward.

Great, thank you.

I'm obsessed.

Thank you.

Thanks again.

Thank you very much.

All right, we're gonna go on to new business now, and we'll start with item G1.

Councilmember Gabber.

Thank you.

Um, so this item is actually a follow-up to our last HERS meeting uh where when we were discussing uh the referral list specifically, um, there was a conversation about making sure that as uh administration is going through any sort of negotiations with Duke to do any possible extension or anything like that, that this actually make its way back to committee so that we can have robust conversation as we are continuing to go through our uh feasibility study as well.

So, with that, I am respectfully requesting a referral to Health Energy Resilience and Sustainability Committee for an update on the Duke Energy Franchise Agreement, negotiations, and potential extension, and I so move.

Second great.

Uh seeing no request to speak, clerk, will you please open the machine for voting?

Council members into your vote.

Seeing all council members of uh present council members have voted, will the clerk please tally and announce votes?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G1 passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Great.

Thank you.

On to item G2, uh, Councilmember Fig Sanders.

Thank you.

I am respectfully requesting referral to the public services and infrastructure, our other relevant committee for a discussion on the Jordan Park apartment specifically to address the reports of increased violence and other resident concerns.

Additionally, requesting that the City of St.

Petersburg Housing Authority leadership be included in this pending discussion and for full transparency, there was an initial meeting.

Um although this dates Jordan Park, we're also going to look at um different ways that we can you know to assist our housing residents when it comes to violence.

We're looking at Harbradale and Child's Park, and we're going to open it up this way for all council members in the sunshine to be able to have this conversation.

But for me to get those calls and not to mention I have family members that live in Jordan Park, and for them to have to hit the ground, because bullets are flying, um, bought it close to home for me.

So this is the reason for this MBI.

And I did ask for PSNI, but if I can get it to another committee earlier, like youth and family services, that would be appreciated as well.

And with that, I move approval.

Second.

Councilmember Gerdis.

Uh thank you, Vice Chair.

So would you rather have it in YFS?

Whichever one I can get to first.

Can we defer this item?

Can you give me five minutes to look?

Yes.

YFS calendar.

Yes, I most certainly.

If it's I I would rather vote on the one we can get it faster to.

Okay.

That's what she's so if you give me five minutes.

Can we defer it?

They'd have to withdraw their motions, right?

If you withdraw the motion in the second for now, and then you could come back to it.

Okay.

If if you give me five minutes, hopefully Ryan is listening to this and he'll text me.

But I'm a I I'm happy to add it on to the next YFS agenda as long as it's uh as long as we're capable of doing so.

I will because it's moving fast.

Yeah, so just if Chair, if it's okay with you, if the motions are withdrawn, we can defer until maybe after the discussion on because I'm sure we'll have a discussion on one of the next few items.

Okay.

We have G3 and G4 that we can move on to uh if that's okay.

And then okay, thanks, Chair.

And I'll and I'll just quickly go back and see if I can get an answer.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

I would take it.

Yeah, are we good?

Yeah.

All right.

We will move on to item G three.

Uh, this is my item.

I have a resolution to formally adopt a definition of Islamophobia and requesting administration to integrate this definition into existing anti-discrimination policies.

Um I'll just introduce the item real quick and then we can go to public comment.

I uh brought this forward after being uh approached by community members who were concerned about some of the things that they had personally experienced and seen in the media.

There's precedent for this.

We did something like this before.

Uh, and they caught me at a really how do I say this?

Uh a really key time.

That's what I'll say.

It wasn't in a positive light.

Um at the end of the year last year, uh, maybe the beginning of this year, I can't remember.

Um, there was some very high up elected officials uh a couple congressman from Florida who I'm not gonna say his name out loud, but he's not very nice person.

He had posted some things that were quite Islamophobic, as well as a senator from um Alabama.

And uh I at one, you know, in one night uh was upset when I saw this, and so I posted uh sort of a com condemnation of it, and I got so much hate back for it that I had to uh make my Twitter account private and uh turn comments off.

And so I saved some of the comments that I got uh and I'm just gonna scan over them.

I'm not going to read them.

Even the nicest ones that I got, I'm not going to read because they're heinous.

And most of them, I got about 58 of them before I uh locked down my account.

Uh they they could not be read in this room.

Um I'll just give an overall uh it was not pretty.

Uh there was racial hatred thrown towards me for it.

There was uh anti-immigrant rhetoric and what a lot of people would consider anti Semitic rhetoric tied up into it as well.

And I think at the end of last year, beginning of this year, we saw some incidents that were really frustrating.

So I've been working on this since then.

Uh I worked with legal and community members to uh draft it and make sure that it didn't fall afoul of anything that was uh in our recent grant agreements with the federal government or in uh or any state legislation as well.

Uh so that's why I felt compelled to do this.

It just happened to be a perfect storm of horrible things happening at once.

And so uh with that, I will uh move on to public comment.

Okay.

I'm gonna call two um at a time.

When I call your name, please go to an open podium.

State your name, address, or cross street for the record, and you have three minutes to address city council.

The first two speakers are Haley Haley Marigold and Alina Hussein.

Hello, my name's Haley Manigold, and uh I'm a uh community member, a broader community member of the St.

Pete community.

Um my cross street is actually I live in Dover, so um, but uh I'm a member of the broader St.

Pete community.

My purpose in is coming here today.

Please share your address still for the record.

Yeah.

Uh it's Shakespeare Drive, 5143 Shakespeare Drive in Dover.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um my purpose in coming here today is to voice my support for the Islam Islamophobia definition resolution.

When I think of the Muslim community, what comes to mind are strong and compassionate leaders who truly care about the St.

Pete as a whole.

Uh the Muslim community strives to unify individuals uh from every walk of life.

They host events that welcome every sect of the community and bringing all of people together, Muslims foster the belonging and St.

Pete's diverse community.

Uh by providing a specific definition of Islamophobia, we cultivate a sense of safety for our Muslim neighbors.

Uh when every citizen feels safe, our community prospers.

Uh, as a resident of no faith, I gain little benefit from this bill passing.

However, I continue to see ever going the ever growing importance of establishing this definition.

When hate goes undefined, it continues to fester seeping into our community and breeding division.

As a community, we must define this type of hate so we can actively combat it.

Uh when the city council defended uh defined anti-Semitism, I sit in solidarity with the Jewish community of St.

Pete as well.

I am confident uh that each of you will consider that uh that defining anti-sent what defining anti-Semitism meant to the Jewish community, and apply the same sentiment to what defining is Islamophobia means to the Muslim commun community.

I stand before the councils, not as not as only a concerned citizen, but an ally for my Muslim neighbors.

Uh the passage of this resolution fills me with immense pride for the St.

Pete community.

Uh, thank you for your most valuable time.

I'm I'm sorry, we don't have uh we don't have uh time for the this right now.

We have to get to the next speaker.

Good afternoon.

My name is Alina Hussain.

Um I'm a civil rights attorney and mother of two young children who I am raising here in St.

Petersburg.

Uh my cross street is uh Ulmerton and Carolon Parkway.

Um I moved to St.

Pete about eight years ago because of the diversity vibrance and culture of this beautiful city.

I am heartened to see the city of St.

Petersburg live up to its reputation and champion a resolution of this nature, given its immense importance.

As a civil rights attorney focusing primarily on matters involving religious and racial discrimination, I know firsthand that there has been a dramatic uptick in instances of Islamophobia.

We are seeing it in our schools, in our workplaces, and in the public more broadly.

Our current definitions of discrimination are not enough to address the unique challenges of the Muslim community.

Rights are only meaningful when when institutions have the tools to recognize when they're being infringed upon.

When bias is clearly defined, it becomes easier to confront and to prevent.

A clear, carefully drafted definition of Islamophobia, such as this one, gives our institutions a shared understanding of what anti-Muslim discrimination looks like, so it can be identified and responded to appropriately.

We have a robust Muslim population in St.

Petersburg, people who are proud to live here and possibly contribute to our community.

This resolution shows them that they have the same rights as every other resident of our city.

It shows my children that they are safe and valued and live in a city that promotes fairness, dignity, and equal protection.

Candidly, many in our community are exhausted.

And honestly, council members, I am exhausted of having to coach my children who are five and seven of how to protect themselves from the inevitable hate they're going to experience because of the color of their skin, their last name, and the house of worship that they choose to frequent.

So I am grateful to the council for recognizing us and acting to offer a very necessary glimmer of hope and promise for positive change for all residents of St.

Pete.

Thank you for voting to pass the resolution.

Before we move on to the next two speakers, I just want to remind the audience that applause is not permitted except in connection with a wars and presentations.

The next two speakers are Marley Marks and Chelsea Monriguez.

Please go to an open podium, state your name, address, or cross street for the record, and you will have three minutes to address City Council.

Good evening.

My name is Marile Marks.

I live in Westley Chapel, 32013 Brookstone Drive.

But I'm a human rights policy consultant and the director of No Hate in Politics.

Thank you for choosing to lead at a time when so many voices are encouraging us to look at our neighbors and see other instead of us.

Today you have the opportunity to embrace our Muslim community and help shift the rhetoric that shapes the next generation.

You have the chance to say, we see you, we support you.

My freedom to practice my faith means nothing if yours can be taken away.

My constitutional rights do not depend on the erosion of yours.

I'm here for the Muslim woman who is followed through a grocery store for no reason other than her hijab.

I'm here for the mother driving to pick up her children, harassed by another driver, screaming obscenities with a toddler watching in the back seat.

I'm here for my Muslim friends who have traveled with me and endured suspicious glances from hundreds of people in an airport while I walked through security without pause.

They were stopped, questioned, and searched, and I received smiles.

But I'm especially here for a 12-year-old boy in my classroom when I was a teacher.

During Ramadan, his friends encircled him all the way around him, calling him a terrorist because he was fasting at lunch that day.

He begged me not to interfere.

Imagine that.

A child who simply wanted to practice his faith in school.

As a human rights professional and as a Christian, I'm encouraged by this body of leaders.

In a world that often feels hopeless, your willingness to act gives me hope.

Scriptures in Ephesians and Galatians remind us that not to slander our neighbors, but instead to follow the greatest commandment of all, to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Passing this resolution is not symbolic.

It's a commitment to building systems, policies, and norms that protect every resident.

It's a promise that we will not allow propaganda to define who belongs here.

Please vote yes on this resolution.

Our Muslim community is one of the most welcoming, generous, and compassionate groups of people.

Their contributions enrich this city, its culture, its businesses, its classrooms, and its hospitals.

History remembers the moments when leaders chose courage over comfort.

Let this be one of those moments.

Today you have the chance to be a shield against hate and to affirm that this city is built on belonging.

Thank you so much.

Next two speakers are Aman Al Khani and Jared Dahan.

Please go.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Got ahead of myself.

No worries at all.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Chelsea Mandrigas, and I actually stand before you as a recent revert to Islam.

It means that I have converted to Islam.

I also stand before you, having grown up in this community as well.

I grew up off of Neptune and Dolphin, also off of fourth, if you know the Pineapple House.

Before it was the Pineapple House, we used to live there.

But I just want to say that I am really proud to give back to this community, whether it's through social work, sustainability, or even through measures that serve our inner faith community.

I had actually also worked with Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services and did national speaking tours with them as well.

I stand here saying that Islamophobia deeply wounds the spirit of our community.

I think about our youth first and foremost.

I think about the Muslim girl who is the target of slurs simply because she chooses to wear her relationship to God, her veil, her hijab.

I think about the young boy who starts to shrink parts of his identity to feel safe, his attire, his culture, his name.

Islamophobia impacts the heart, the mind, and the soul of our children.

It teaches us or teaches them, and all of us really, that they are the other, and that is not safe in this community.

That is not a reflection of this city.

And yet, Muslims continue to serve this city with love.

We are your doctors, we are your teachers, we are your lawyers.

We show up.

We stand firm, we invest, we build our communities, we build the greater community, and we stand amongside our inner faith community strong.

Recognizing Islamophobia as an act of violence sends a powerful message.

That every child is seen, they are mattered, they care, and they are deeply a part of this community.

I urge you to affirm that today.

Thank you.

The next two speakers are Aman Al Khani and Gerard Dahan.

Please go to an open podium, state your name and a dress or cross street for the record.

You'll have three minutes to address City Council.

Hello, City Council.

Thank you for having me.

My name is Ahmad Al Koni.

I'm a St.

Pete resident on Lake Avenue and Forth.

Um I'm here on behalf of not only the Islamic Society of Pinellas County, but on behalf of the Muslim community in St.

Pete as a whole.

I want to just sincerely thank you all for even putting this resolution up.

Honestly, we need it.

That's that's kind of why we're here.

Uh Muslims in St.

Petersburg, we're active in our community.

Um, from food pantries at our mosques to hurricane relief efforts to not just Muslims but all of our community members uh to our zakat, which is our charity that we give back to the city of St.

Pete.

That's obligatory on every Muslim citizen.

Um Muslims and non-Muslims alike benefit from these programs that we that we offer as Muslims.

Um during Ramadan, we offer multi-faith iftar dinners with our neighbors, with our Jewish neighbors, with our atheist neighbors, with our humanist neighbors, with our Christian neighbors to strengthen our community.

Uh the Muslim community here is vast, it's diverse.

Um, and earlier you passed the beautiful uh Black History Month bill for the city of St.

Pete.

Know that 20% of Muslims in America are African American.

So this affects a lot of us, affects many cultures, many backgrounds, many stories.

Um the vibrancy, the diversity of this city comes with that safety, that lack of fear that that we're looking for as a Muslim community, just like we we want to see for everybody in this community.

Racism and politically charged hate.

They're uh they're extremely on the rise right now.

They're directed at Muslims at an alarming levels.

Um, our community has received things like torn and desecrated Qurans wrapped in pork.

Um, our USF Muslim Student Association was attacked a few months ago by agitators, um threatening their lives, threatening to rip off their their scarves.

Um, and these are our students, these are our youth here in Tampa Bay.

Um, so it is very serious.

And this doesn't only affect the Muslim community, but there's a lot of Hindus, Sikhs, Druze, different religions that are attacked by these anti-Muslim bigots because they think that they're Muslims.

This is how far it's gotten to.

Um hate doesn't stop, it doesn't check identities when it attacks, you know.

We're deeply grateful for when this body passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

Uh, we commend you for that, to protect our Jewish brothers and sisters.

That leadership mattered.

And today, on behalf of the St.

Pete Muslim community, I thank you again for standing again with us.

This resolution affirms that hate has no home here, and that St.

Petersburg, we protect one another.

Um, lastly, I do have an ask of all of you.

Ramadan is coming up.

It's our holy month.

Thank you.

Uh Gerard Dahan's um card indicated he was for the item.

The final two speakers are Monir Bokiza and Reverend Andy Oliver.

Please go to an open podium, state your name, address, or cross street for the record.

You'll have three minutes to address City Council.

Reverend Andy Oliver, pastor of Alendale United Methodist Church.

As a Christian pastor in the city, I rise to support this resolution as a neighbor and a shepherd who cares deeply about the well-being of our whole community.

At the heart of the Christian faith is a simple but demanding command.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

That love is not abstract, it shows up in how we speak about one another, how we protect one another, and how we ensure that every person can live without fear of harassment and discrimination.

Adopting a clear definition of a la Islamophobia is not about restricting speech or elevating one group above the other.

It is about naming a real experience that many of our Muslim neighbors face and affirming that hatred, stereotyping, and unequal treatment have no home here in St.

Petersburg.

Our city has already taken steps to stand against anti-Semitism and other forms of religious bigotry.

This resolution continues that consistent moral commitment that people of every faith and or no faith deserve dignity, safety, and equal protection under the law.

I also want to say how encouraged I was last year when leaders of both parties in the Florida House and Senate came together to pass a similar resolution.

In a time when so much of our public life feels divided, that moment showed that protecting people from religious hatred is not a partisan issue, it's a moral one.

It reminded us that Republicans and Democrats alike can agree that no one should be targeted because of their faith, their name, or how they worship.

As a Christian, I do not lose anything when my Muslim neighbor is protected.

In fact, we all gain.

We strengthen trust, we deepen unity, we embody the kind of pluristic, compassionate community we claim to be.

And so I urge you to support this resolution as an act of clarity, fairness, and shared humanity.

Thank you.

Munir Burkiza, 4109, 43rd Avenue North, St.

Petersburg.

Um I'm the Imam of the Islamic Society of St.

Petersburg, right here on Fourth Street.

And I'm also the principal of the school affiliated with the mosque.

As I stand before you today, I really um don't want to read from a paper, but I want to talk to you from my heart on a first of all uh thank Mr.

Chairman for bringing this resolution to vote, and for all the council members for um considering this vote.

Um this is really important because uh we are in a time when the dominant discourse in the public space is one of division and exclusion.

I am proud to be part of a city that thinks forward, and council members that think forward and adopt such resolutions.

I really thank you because of that.

Um I can relate to what you were saying, uh, Mr.

Floyd earlier about the hate speech that we receive in social media.

Um as a school, we try to be uh present in social media as well, YouTube, other uh other platforms as well, and the amount of comments of hate that we get is unbelievable that I have uh my media guy just searching there and trying to delete those comments constantly.

Um that is very sad, but what is even sadder is that our Muslim population has come to accept that reality.

And uh it it it's not it's not a reality that we should accept.

So by bringing this resolution uh up to vote, this is something that would awaken that sense that says that it's not normal to be living among people who are saying things that are um Islamophobic and adopting such a resolution will go far, far uh for uh recognizing our rights as Muslims living amongst you.

Um, as the speaker said before, we're part of many, many efforts that strengthen the city and the fabric of the city.

So again, I thank you for considering this resolution, and I thank you for voting yes for this resolution.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

No more speakers.

All right, we'll go to Councilmember comments.

We'll start with Council Member Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

I have uh I have struggled with this tremendously.

Bear with me as I get to it.

Um this was sent to us on Friday.

I printed out this one particular page and I carry it around with me, and I read it several times.

I have never spoken with as many people, the conversation initiated by myself on an issue that's come before this council as I have this.

Um I understand what what uh council member Floyd or Chair Floyd is going for.

Uh the direction he's headed in.

Here is my struggle.

Um, the young lady, and I apologize, you said your name, uh, who talked about her children.

She said that that uh she talks to her children because they are treated poorly for three different things.

One of them is the color of their skin, one of them is their last name, which apparently is ethnic, and one of them is their religion.

And so my struggle is just that.

I am uh uh a very big believer in um in the idea that that uh Dr.

King got it right, that we should judge people individually by the content of their character.

And unfortunately, we haven't gotten there as a society.

We still are at a point where there is a percentage of us that that live in our society that are pick the word you want, bigoted, racist, just something horrible.

And so that brings me to my struggle.

My struggle is that that the resolution put before us today is uh is well written and narrow in its in its address.

It doesn't address all of us.

That is my issue.

The young lady who spoke talked about her kids being persecuted for three entirely separate things.

There are folks among us who uh who are a different color.

There are I I would venture to guess there are more than 10, possibly more than 20, maybe even more than that, different religions in just our community.

And I would venture to say that all of them have been persecuted over the years in some way, shape, or form.

There are folks uh in our community who are who are uh visibly disabled, and I know that there is persecution there.

There are folks that are mentally disabled, and I can only picture some of the the travesties that happen on playgrounds at our public schools.

And so uh and so this was important to me for that reason.

Again, I fully recognize and support what was said today, and uh and I appreciate the courage that it takes for everyone in the audience to come up and talk.

The the issue that I had, and the reason that I have spent so much time uh on this issue is that we are defining one part of the horrible part of human nature in our and so my my struggle um and I realize as you read through the the resolution that that uh the chair has recognized another part of our society that apparently city councils before me um chose to recognize but I struggle with uh with the fact that that somewhere in here it should just say we should be nice to each other.

That's it.

Um and so uh in the end um the overwhelming advice that that I was given was that I should support this.

Um I'm willing to do that, but I want it known that um that I'm not happy with the the narrowness of recognizing one part of our population that uh that suffers from the bad parts of our society.

I would much prefer that we recognize that there are people in our society that are horrible to people for no reason for a reason that they have chosen that that again it is physical or it is the mental, or it is the color of a skin, or it is how you choose to to worship, or or how you choose to lead your life or who you choose to marry or whatever.

Um and so uh I I wanted to I wanted to take some time to recognize that this is an important topic.

It is no more important or no less important than others who are discriminated against or or made to feel a certain way, or whatever else in our society.

So I'll leave it there, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gabbard.

Thank you.

And uh I just I want to start first by saying thank you for bringing this forward.

I'm sorry that this was your experience, um, but I believe sometimes uh those of us who are in a position of power are um given an opportunity to see the ugliest parts of our humanity because it reminds us of the side of history that we have to stand on, and it reminds us that it is our job to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

So while I'm sorry that was your experience, it is the experience of many people every single day, and I I'm very grateful that you brought this forward to us today for us to have a discussion on and for our community to um see us stand in solidarity.

It is my hope that this passes today.

Um, you know, we did this uh something very similar for uh anti-Semitism, and I think that it's important that we show that same strength and unity for our Muslim community as well.

Um it I'd be speaking outside both both sides of my mouth if I didn't vote yes today.

And so um I very much stand with you.

Um there's so much hate in this world, and we have a beautiful community that loves each other, and we really want to stand for that love across all pieces of our community.

I've been very enriched in my life to have many friends and mentors that are in the Muslim community and to see their culture and the love and the peace that they share has enriched my life.

And so I stand with you on this.

I think the only regret is that you had to be our chair today, so you wouldn't actually be able to move your own resolution.

So uh with that then uh sir vice chair, I will move approval.

Second thank you, Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you, and thank you for bringing this forward.

Did you write it yourself?

Uh no, I had help from members who are here today, and uh then a significant help from legal as well, yes.

It is very well done.

Very well done.

And um, yes, I was thinking today about when we um passed our resolution.

That was something I worked on and brought forward um to recognize the um official uh um I right definition of anti-Semitism.

And yeah, sure, of course, everybody should be nice to everybody, but that's not how the world is working, and it doesn't change if people don't stand up.

And that's what we need to do today.

I I really do.

This really touched me.

So thank you for bringing it up.

And um, for those who spoke, thank you for your um your your courage to share stories and um explain why this is important, because it just really strengthened my resolve to not only support this, but to live it as well, and to make sure that we do adopt those um the right language into our policies.

I do hope the administration will not just accept this but incorporate it as requested in the resolution so that it officially uh reflects what St.

Pete stands for.

So um thanks to all who worked on this, and I'll be happy to support it.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Fig Sanders.

Thank you so much, and um thank you for bringing this forward.

When I saw it, there was no doubt that I was gonna support it.

But here comes the black woman that's sitting up here when we talk about the color of our skin and dealing with discrimination and dealing with things that are just undescribable to a group of people.

It would be remiss on my part to say we need that same protection, we need those same anti-discrimination laws, and not understand the importance of your words, the value of your request, and what it is that we are asking for in this resolution.

When we talk about our children, this that's why we're here.

Those of us that actually have the authority to make decisions such as this to protect our own.

I personally, as a black woman, understand that we are definitely characterized.

We are profiled, we don't have to say what our religion is.

We don't have to say where we live.

Just the fact that we walk out the front door, we are definitely subject to discrimination for the color of our skin, if nothing else.

And I agree with council member Harding, and we should be judged by the content of our character.

But just in case you look around, that ain't happening.

That is not something that we are looking to experience anytime soon.

So we have to stand up for ourselves.

We have to ask for things, and although it may seem segmented, when one community is blessed, it blesses the other one.

When one is blessed and protected, it blesses the other one.

So I'm asking with this resolution that, you know, like I said, I had no doubt that I was going to support it.

But as we're asking for policies for a certain segment of our community, and I look out and I see no Muslims of color sitting in this audience with you.

And I wonder what was the issue with it.

None of color.

Um as we move forward with this, the same grace that I'm praying this resolution gives you that you show that same grace to those that also are experiencing the same type of hatred, the same type of discrimination, because that's the only way we're gonna make it a better world.

We can't do it bit by bit.

You know, we have to pay it forward.

So, you know, with that, I know it's already been motioned, and I know it's already been seconded.

But thank you for standing up.

Thank you, because now you realize unless you say something to someone that I could actually do something, it doesn't go anywhere.

Um, and so I do applaud you, but I am going to say yes.

I knew I was going to support it from day one, but I'm asking you to support everybody else that are sharing the same type of discriminatory actions that you are having.

With that, thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Givens.

Thank you, Chair, and I want to thank each and every one of you for showing up today.

Um, at a time when national politics and political rhetoric seeks to silence you.

I thank you for speaking up today.

Um, I also thank you, Pastor Andy and the other inner faith members uh who stand in allegiance with you.

Uh as a Christian, I see you, I hear you, uh, and I stand with you.

Um I think about the spirit of this resolution, and even though I wasn't here to um vote for the anti-Semitism resolution, I'm proud and I'm honored to be here today to support this because it's not about a political statement, but it's about a declaration of acceptance and also identity, and I want you all to know that St.

Petersburg sees you and we care about you, and we will do all that we can to make sure that we highlight and identify those biases that exist in our community because although many of us would love to live in a perfect world, that's not the reality.

And the reality is is that we have to confront and dismantle hatred when we see it.

Um so I'm grateful, Councilmember Gabbett.

I think you said that we have to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves, and so I'm I'm just happy uh to do what the Bible commands us to do, which is to love thy neighbor.

So thank you, Chair.

Great.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Gerdas.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um first of all, uh, thank you for bringing the item, and then thank you for everybody that spoke.

I'm I'm always um a little hesitant to push my button on items like this because I'm not gonna sit up here and act like I have experienced this.

Um, but what I have experienced, which I also hesitate to always bring up because I don't like talking about me, but I was a religion major in college, and uh and I I went to school knowing that that was gonna have a pretty big role in my life, and I was a Catholic studies emphasis.

But one of the things that uh that religion major taught me, which I'm not gonna focus on, but I want to bring it up is some of the really really ugly parts of the history of our world and when it comes to religion.

But the other side of that, the the other lens that I try to look through on a daily basis is the most beautiful parts of our world created by multiple houses of worship religions across the world, having read uh multiple different versions of the Bible, the Quran, uh, the the Torah, the some of the most beautiful reading I have ever done in my entire life.

And it gave me a viewpoint that um makes me cherish my religion very much, but also have an immense amount of respect for the religions across the world.

And uh if nothing else, I hope that uh my kids really understand that they will have the opportunity.

I'm you know, we're rate we're raising them Catholic, but they're gonna they're gonna be adults one day, and they're gonna have the opportunity to pick.

And and however that goes, um, I they need to know that that is their decision, and whatever guides them is okay.

And if I did that, I I did it okay.

And so um that's why something like this is is such an easy decision, because I had the opportunity to spend four years uh really consuming this, and I won't I also won't pretend that I remember a bunch of it either.

Uh, but I remember some really really good parts of it.

And I'm just um I am I'm it hurts my heart that we have to do things like this, but I'm also uh I also consider myself very, very blessed to have experienced not only the people of the Muslim culture and Islam uh and and have spent time um studying its its background and its history and and frankly some of its current I won't say current state because I was in college 20 years ago, and so um, but I I consider myself very blessed to have done that, and so um very very happy to support this item.

Very sad that we have to do it, um, but very very happy to stand up here with my colleagues and do so.

So again, always a little hesitant um to to think to speak, but uh very thankful for the opportunity.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

I'll be brief.

I just want to thank my colleagues for their thoughtful contribution to the conversation today, uh and thank everyone that came out today uh for um putting yourself out there, it's uh not a fun thing to do.

Um I'll uh just say I'm also grateful to my colleagues for letting me uh take time out of our schedule to do something that's not required of us uh legally speaking, but uh I feel is morally speaking.

And uh I hope that you know it sounds like we've all agreed to an extent uh at the uh sentiment behind it, and I know that's not always the case when we bring things forward that are um of this nature.

So I appreciate you all and I um am grateful for your contributions.

Uh with that, uh seeing no more requests to speak.

Will the clerk please open the machine for voting?

Council members enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, will the clerk please tally and announce the votes?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G3A passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

We're gonna move on.

Uh can we we have time to move back to G2 now?

Uh okay, I'll pass it uh back to you.

Actually, Councilmember Gertie's if you want to thank you very much, Chair.

Uh just quickly.

So um the backup for the next YFS meeting is technically due tomorrow.

But I I didn't know if you were actually gonna have backup or if this was a disc a true discussion of just having stakeholders there.

If so, I'm happy to put it on the agenda for the 19th.

Otherwise, I would respectfully request that we keep it at PSNI.

But uh but I will do whatever you'd like to can I respond?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Go ahead.

Sorry.

So thank you so much for that.

Um, based on who we had in the room today, I'm going to accept that invitation because I'm hoping that there shouldn't be a lot of backup for that.

Um and the people that were there today already should have that information.

So I will accept the um change to respectfully request a referral to the youth and family services committee for the discussion of the Jordan Park apartment specifically to address the reports of the increased violence in other resident concerns.

Second.

All right.

Uh seeing no further requests to speak.

Uh actually, before we vote, I'll say one thing real quick.

Uh I like your optimism in the way that you move trying to get things done.

That's what I want to say.

Because that's that's some bold leadership right there.

All right.

And thank you for bringing up the item too.

I don't get the calls, but I care deeply about Jordan Park as well.

And so I'm uh really eager to have this conversation.

Uh thank you.

Yes, seeing uh no further requests to speak, uh clerk, will you please open the machine for voting?

Uh council members enter your votes, seeing all present council members have voted.

Will the clerk please tally and announce the votes?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve it and item G2 passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Thank you all.

We're gonna move on to G4, uh, which I will present on behalf of Chair Hanowitz.

Um so it's it's an item respectfully requesting a referral to the committee of the whole to discuss community benefits advisory council standing member applications and determine city council's appointments at the March 12th, 2026 Cal meeting.

Move approval.

All right, seeing no requests to speak, will the clerk please open the machine for voting?

Council members please enter your votes.

Uh seeing all pressing council members have voted, will the clerk please tally and announce the votes?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G4 passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Thank you.

We will move on to council committee reports and we'll start with item H1.

Councilmember Gertie's.

I'll go uh I defer to Councilmember Gabbard quickly.

Oh uh yes, I see that.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

So this particular item that's before us today, um, even though this is a budgetary fiscal policy item, it is intricately tied to a particular development.

The development has uh business relationships with the company that I work for, therefore I will be recusing myself from this item.

Um however, I do want to come back and vote on H2.

So I'll leave, but please let me come back for H2.

All right, well, pause and then yell real loud whenever we're gonna do it.

I'll just uh Okay.

Yeah, go ahead.

Uh I am respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution supporting an increase in amount of funding available for interfund loans from economic stability fund to the affordable housing fund for investment in affordable housing projects in city of St.

Petersburg from combined total amount not to exceed five million to a combined total amount not to exceed ten million, and I'd move approval.

Second council member Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

I intend to uh be in agreement with you.

I do at some point want to see us talk about the fund itself.

Um I still have an issue with we didn't use it what it's for, for what it's for, but we are we are loaning money out of it for what it's not for.

I don't have an issue at all with what we're using the money for.

I have an issue with the fund itself.

Um and I look forward to talking about that in the future.

So I appreciate that.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Gurtes.

Thank you, Bush Chair.

Um Councilmember Harding, I I agree it's a worthwhile conversation.

Um you were in the BFNT meeting this morning where we looked at fund balance, and you know, we continue to hold fund balance.

I think as a safety net above and beyond the required amount for Gasby Law and Gowsby accounting.

And so uh I I welcome that conversation.

Certainly appreciate your support on the item.

Not because it affects a project in my district, but I think in a time where uh we are talking about creating housing, especially again again, and I shared this in committee.

Time creating housing ownership of housing and the number one wealth building tool that we have at our disposal.

Uh this is an important uh this is an important item, and I think if it were any one of our districts, we'd be we'd be running at it.

So I I think it's a worthwhile conversation for sure, especially when we continue to look at fund balance as a whole.

So uh thank you, Vice Chair.

All right, seeing no further requests to speak.

Will the clerk please open the machine for voting?

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing all present council members have voted, will the clerk please tally and announce the vote?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve agenda on item H1A passes unanimously with Councilmember Gabbard recusing herself and council member Hanowitz being absent.

All right, we're gonna move on to H2 now.

Um we'll go back to Councilmember Gertie.

Yes, thank you.

I am respectfully requesting City Council approval on the scope of services for management evaluation of the billing and collections department and authorizing the administration to issue the RFP.

And just quickly, I want to thank the BF and T committee, along with all those that joined us for this because uh this this scope ended up being a little different than some of the ones we had done over the last four years, and just really appreciate the input from all of my colleagues.

And uh I I really do think this is one that um we we heard the feedback from our residents and we moved quickly on it, so I'm very appreciative, and I'd move approval.

Second.

All right, I'll just want to say thank you very much to BFNT and uh all the work that led up to this.

I uh enjoyed um giving feedback during my one-on-one about it, and it's very important to me as well.

So I'm grateful to see this as well.

So I echo everything that you just said.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry, Chair.

I I really hate doing that.

So I it's fine.

Um I I also just quickly I for I forgot to mention uh uh along with the work on the scope.

I just want to thank my colleagues because going into this conversation, I was um opposed to doing a management study this year.

I really uh thought there were some internal things that we needed to kind of work out before doing this, and having seen the scope and working together, I I am I'm so happy that uh BFT committee members pushed to do this.

So I just want I just wanted to say thank you to the to the committee um for getting this done.

This is this is you for sure.

So thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you.

That's great to hear.

Seeing no other request to speak, will the clerk please open the machine for voting?

Council members please enter your votes.

Seeing all present council members have voted, will the clerk please tally and announce the vote?

Mr.

Vice Chair, the motion to approve agenda item H2A passes unanimously with Councilmember Hanowitz being absent.

Great.

Uh we'll move on to open forum.

There are no speakers for open forums, so we'll move into announcements.

Councilmember Gertis.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Well, if you haven't heard already, it's Councilmember Fix Sanders' birthday.

I'm surprised she didn't wear a t-shirt saying.

But nonetheless, we will sing council member Fig Sanders happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, Councilmember Big Sanders.

Happy birthday to who?

You happy birthday, Councilmember.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

I love it.

All right, Councilmember Givens.

I just want to put a plug in, Councilmember Gurtis.

I was uh I've received a message on Facebook from a constituent who told me that the highlight of her week is when she listens in to our meetings and hears us saying happy birthday.

So let's keep doing what we're doing because we're doing something right.

Uh just wanted to put a plug in in my district this weekend.

We will have the collar green festival, our annual collard green festival.

For those of you who uh have a hunger and an appetite for collard greens, I promise you you will leave with your bellies full and your souls happy and satisfied.

Uh so please come on out to the deuces, 22nd Street and 9th Avenue, and let's celebrate Collard Green Fest.

Also, we'll have Localtopia downtown this weekend, as well as the Rays Fan Fest.

Uh so there's a lot happening this weekend.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes.

Uh in that as well, Winter Pride Street Festival.

My goodness.

I I don't know when I'm gonna go home.

Anyway, there's a lot going on this weekend.

Yeah, Councilmember Fix Sanders.

Thank you.

And I want to congratulate the men and women of our St.

Petersburg Fire and Rescue, as well as Parks and Rick.

I took my car to get wise.

They raised almost $2,000 for free swim lessons for our babies to teach water safety and in a peninsula on a peninsula.

I think that that is something that they've started, and I am really, really, really um encouraged with the success that they had in providing those free swim lessons.

So I just want to thank them for that.

Thank you, Chair.

It is District One.

Councilmember Givens.

Thanks, Chair.

Uh, quick shout out to our deputy city attorney, Janine Williams, who will be recognized as a first lady in African American history at the Carnegie Woodson Woodson Museum.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, Councilmember Gabbard.

I just would be remiss if I did not remind everyone that last weekend the City Hall stars.

How did I forget played the Kids and Cubs?

And yes, we won.

But nonetheless, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Kids and Cubs organization.

What a phenomenal, fun time that is every time.

I haven't gotten to play every year, but I've played a few times.

I played this year.

I was able to walk by, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.

So, you know, it just phenomenal day, beautiful St.

Pete weather, and just an amazing organization with a legacy in our community.

And so I just wanted to thank them for inviting us to the field and not being too mad at us when we won.

So thank you.

Go ahead, Councilmember.

Thank you.

I'm glad you did that.

I'm glad you did that.

I also want to wish Councilmember Lissette a speedy recovery.

Yes, yes, yes.

And because she's not here today, and so we're thinking about you, Chair.

And then also I want to thank and congratulate Vice Chair.

Uh you actually did a great job today, sir.

I did not know until this morning.

You did, and you did a fantastic job.

So thank you so much for that.

So, you know, we we're a team.

We we support each other.

Thank you all.

And uh I just wanted to say I, you know, I'm uh I'm assuming we'll have kids and cubs in soon to uh celebrate the uh the fun thing that we did together and the work that they do all the time.

All right, uh seeing no more requests to speak.

We'll call uh February 12th, 2026 City Council meeting adjourned.

Thank you.