Welcome to the City of St.

Petersburg City Council meeting.

Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch.

District 1, Copley Gurdis, District 2, Brandy Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4, and Council Chair, Leseth Panowitz.

District 5, Deborah Fig Sanders.

District 6, Gina Driscoll.

District 7, Corey Gibbons Jr.

And District 8 and Council Vice Chair, Richie Floyd.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the February 19th, 2026 City Council meeting.

Clerk, can I please have a roll call?

Here.

Harding.

Here, Hannawix.

Here.

Sanders.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Oh, wait.

Here.

There it is.

Here.

Today we will have our invitation given by our neighbor and Pastor Don Warden.

If you can please stand up.

She's with Christ United Methodist Church.

Then please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Shall we pray?

Gracious God of wisdom and compassion.

We pause before the start of this meeting to give you thanks for this city and all who call it home.

We give you thanks for the brothers and sisters gathered here today who serve us with their time and money and energy and look out for St.

Pete, her wealth of land and her people.

Guide the leaders here with clarity, humility, and courage.

That their grace with one another and the subjects they must deal with is overwhelmingly pleasing to you, to the point that no one doubts that we are all extensions of you, God.

Let us each see and feel your love for us as the inspiration for our unity and cooperation together.

May every decision be shaped by justice, mercy, and dignity for each person, especially those who struggle to be heard, seen, or helped.

But are our community brothers and sisters alive with us, wishing for safety, hope, and opportunity.

This we pray in your reverence and in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And the republic for which it stands.

One nation under God into this role with liberty and justice for all.

Please be seated.

Thank you so much, Pastor, for the beautiful invocation.

Council members, we have an agenda before us.

I'll entertain the motion for approval.

Move approval.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Clerk, if you can please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted.

Clerk please tally and announce a vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously.

Thank you.

We have a consent agenda.

Clerk, do we have any cards?

We do.

Okay.

Okay, I'm gonna call two speakers at a time.

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

State your name across street for the record.

You'll have three minutes to address City Council.

The first two speakers are David Sokol and Brandon Scharf.

You can please go to one of the podiums, each of you, yes.

Good morning, David Socol.

I own Fresco's, and I'm happy to be here because uh there's an extension on the consent agenda.

So procedurally, I'm not sure if I should have waited for that.

Uh, and just done it in the open forum.

Uh, but as you know, I've had that restaurant for 24 years.

Um we've been through so much.

Uh I've got a hundred employees, and so we've been trying, you know, my lease was set to expire on April 30th, and now there's been approved for another one year.

I know um that the decisions being made on the marina are very difficult, and you know, you've tried all different types of things, and it's not an easy decision when it's so expensive to do something like that.

And so uh we're just kind of caught within that because we are part of the marina.

Uh the one thing I would ask is if you just kind of maybe let me be included in any discussions.

I'd be more than happy to submit unsolicited proposals.

I've even offered to help pay built for building a new restaurant um at the location or right next door to uh you know, like I say, we've survived Elaine.

We lost all of our equipment, 100,000 worth of equipment.

Uh two weeks later, Milton comes, and so we emptied the whole restaurant out, including everything and all of our walk-ins and went over and donated donated thousands of dollars in food to the fire department because they had everybody there for the emergency.

So we've continued to be a good citizen in town, support every charity that comes by and says they want a basket or something.

Uh so thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

Sogle.

This is the right time to give uh comments for consent agenda.

Uh thank you for having my having me.

My name is Brandon Sharf.

I'm the uh general manager of Fresco's Waterfront Bishop.

Um we just wanted to thank you sincerely for granting us the one-year lease at the restaurant.

Um I've been there 10 years now, and just the amount of employees, like David said, that we have and seeing them grow and succeed has just been a tremendous honor.

And we just want to move forward and continue our work to serve and give to this community.

So just wanted to thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Uh consent agenda.

The final two speakers are Jennifer Bunt and David Sokel Jr.

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.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Bunt.

Um, I wrote up something, so I'm gonna use my three minutes for you guys.

But um from the bottom of our heart, we want to thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, my address, oh, 6878 19th Street North.

Um, from the bottom of our heart, we want to thank you for granting frescoes the one-year extension.

Your decision means more to us than words can truly express.

It gives us hope, it gives us time, and it reminds us that our story here still matters.

Frescoes is not just a place of work, it is my home, it is my life, and it is my happiness.

It is love.

I have been there for 21 years.

I raised all three of my children within those walls through the grew up on the waterfront, and the owner and his family have become my family.

The staff is family.

Our guests are family.

That building holds decades of memories, laughter, tears, celebrations, and milestones.

We have stood strong through every hardship that has come our way.

We've endured the oil spill when the fear and uncertainty slowed our tourism and shut shook our waterfront.

We survived COVID when our doors were forced to shut, and our entire industry was turned upside down.

We cleaned up and rebuilt after hurricanes.

We operated through years of peer construction, navigating road closures, limited access, and constant change.

We absorbed every challenge and every storm and every setback, and we stayed.

We stayed because this is our community.

Fresco's has been the setting for first dates, proposals, weddings, rehearsals, birthdays, and so much more.

We employ local families, we support local vendors, we welcome visitors from around the world and give them their first glimpse of our beautiful waterfront.

We are part of the heartbeat of St.

Petersburg.

As you look toward the future and consider plans for our waterfront, I ask you, please do not forget about us.

Do not leave us in the dark and include us in the vision.

Also allow us to continue growing alongside the city we love so deeply.

We are not just a restaurant asking for time.

We are a part of St.

Pete's history.

We are a part of its present, and we want to be part of its future for decades to come.

This saying goes hand in hand.

We are St.

Pete and we are Frescoes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm David Socco Jr., obviously.

That's my father.

Um very thankful for you guys for doing this for us.

I started working there when I was 14.

I'm now 28.

Your ad your address, or just if we're with Frescoes, you can say that.

Oh, 1474th Circle Northeast.

Thank you.

Um, like I said, it's been a very, very part of my life, very, very long time.

Um, I started working there for 10 plus years now, and you know, I left to play baseball.

I came back because I love it so much, and we couldn't thank you enough or we don't.

We won best of the bay five years in a row for Best Waterfront Restaurant, thanks to our local beautiful people of St.

Pete who vote for that through creative loafing.

And it's been a tremendous success.

Like they said, we've we've overcame so many hardships throughout the times throughout the years.

It's been a terrific part of my childhood, my friends' childhood.

They all love, they recommend fresco to everyone.

Everyone I play golf to, I recommend frescoes to.

It's I'm not trying to sound biased, but it is one of my favorites in the city.

But I might sound a little biased, but that's just my opinion.

But once again, thank you guys so much for everything.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any other public comment?

No more speakers, Madam Chair.

Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you.

On the consent agenda, there are two items that I I didn't want to pull for efficiency's sake because I just consider them to be good news items that I'd like to point out.

And um, for I will start with item CB5, which is the renewal of the lease for frescoes.

And I appreciate that uh David and other David and the team have uh been uh able to come here to speak on that.

It's very very touching.

And um I'm very proud to support this, and I want to take the opportunity to thank you all for um being part of uh St.

Petersburg and our waterfront for so long.

Fresco's has been around for more than 20 years.

It's one of the legacy businesses that we talk about when we uh talk about the new legacy business program that's launching now.

And I do hope that as we move forward with our plans for the municipal marina redevelopment, that we will be able to move toward the future with Fresco's standing by our side and looking bringing that past, bringing that rich tradition forward with us as we envision the new marina.

Um but for today, I just want to thank you for um being such a jewel on our waterfront and for all that you've done for the community as well.

The other item that I wanted to um bring up was item CA1, and that is um regarding the selection of um uh wantamaker Jensen for um the A and E for our new police canine compound.

This is something that um I have been very passionate about since the first year I was on City Council.

We've talked about it many times over the years, and I'm so excited to see that we're at this point now really moving forward with the location and a plan.

Um this is something that is um going to help enhance public safety by enhancing these um uh the canine work through this facility, and I'm just really excited to see this on our consent agenda today.

Um, I see that we have um I didn't know if any members of the police department wanted to speak on it at all, but um Chief Cavasa, since you just walked in, I will tell you thank you so much for all of the work that you have done on this.

It's really um wonderful, especially my last year on council.

I can see that it may not be finished by the time I leave, but we got the ball rolling, and um I just appreciate that so much.

Um if you want to speak at this time, you're perfectly welcome to.

I'm not used to your shirt and tie thing.

I had to do a double take when you first walked in.

We're in uniform today, so I had to dress down a little bit.

Uh no, but it was great.

So it's moving forward, and I appreciate everybody's assistance with that.

It was nice to be able to pick out um uh the design team.

We're looking at trying to get the construction manager on board and moving the project forward.

It's gonna be great, it's long overdue.

It's gonna get them out of the area that is right next to Lake Magory and open it up for fire department be able to expand their operations as well.

So thank you, everyone, and we really do appreciate it.

Thanks, thanks.

Yeah, that it's truly a a win all around for everyone.

So and there were uh many very qualified teams that that bid on this, and but I feel extremely confident that Wanamaker Jensen will be able to uh create something that we're proud of.

Yes, they will.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Driscoll.

Well, move approval.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

I just want to say I agree.

I'm very excited about the canine compound already, uh, getting the ball rolling, which has been rolling for a few years already.

Uh, I know a lot of us have been um dealing with it since we first got on city council and even before.

So it's nice to see that it's uh going in the right direction.

And also thank you, Fresco's and everyone here on behalf of Fresco's uh for the work that you do and very excited about the extension.

You have a motion of second clerk, you please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted.

Clerk, please tally and announce the vote.

Adam Chair, the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Now we move on to open form.

Clerk, do you have speakers?

We do.

Can you please read the rules?

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 forum sheet.

Only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city or their employees may speak.

All issues discussed under open form 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 forum or when the item comes up on the agenda.

Applause is not permitted except in connection with awards and presentations in order to provide 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 a 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 muted.

All raised hands will be lowered after each agenda item.

Regardless of the method of participation use, 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 the quorum.

If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the quorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment by ultimate alternate means, including by email only.

And I'm going to call two speakers at a time, Madam Chair.

First two speakers.

Please state your name, address or cross street, and you will have three minutes to address city council.

Mark Ferguson and Jordan Starr.

I believe that's what it is.

Hello.

Thank you for letting me speak today.

Mark Ferguson, 7937 9th Avenue South, St.

Pete, Florida.

I'm here to talk about the Booker Trail, Booker Creek Trail.

We're so excited that this is finally happening.

It's taken years and years.

And I want to personally thank Evan Morey for staying on top of it with the city and finally getting this thing done, and it's all coming together.

So we can't wait to have this connector that will connect neighborhoods, businesses, and more growth in the city for more jobs.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Hi.

Jordan Starr, uh 126 14th Ave Northeast.

Um partnered Ellison Development.

And uh just wanted to echo kind of what Mark was saying.

Um we're fortunate enough to be developing property here in the best market in the country.

Um you know, by the time I was brought into the fold on the CSX conversion, um, a ton of work had already been done.

Evan Morey, Doug Hathaway, uh Trust for Public Land.

Um, but we were in extremely enthusiastic yes to join the team and really help in any way we possibly could to emphasize um what this potentially could be and connecting the residents to the north down to Central Avenue and helping enhance the energy that's already there and really promoting Booker Creek to be the amenity that it can be for the edge.

So just wanted to come out, um, thank you for the time and and hope you support it.

Thank you.

Next two speakers, Madam Chair, Justin Quinnor, I believe that's what it is, and Nicole Waters, please go to either podium.

State your name, address, or cross street, and you have three minutes to address City Council.

Go ahead, sir.

Hi, City Council.

My name is Justin Cournoyer.

I'm a resident at 1026 uh 9th Avenue South in Campbell Park.

I'm the vice president of the Campbell Park uh neighborhood association.

I'm a local transportation safety activist.

Um and like a quarter of my neighbors in Campbell Park, I uh live uh day to day without a car.

I'm here to talk to you about something unrelated to the agenda but very important to me and my neighbors.

I'm talking about Dr.

MLK Street in St.

Petersburg.

Um, and the topic is one road, two realities.

So, and complete streets funding for MLK Street South.

MLK North and South have similar daily traffic volumes.

They're the same size road, it's the same city.

However, MLK North had 32% fewer crashes than MLK South in the last five years of data collection.

Since the MLK North bike lane was installed in 2018, there's been 19% reduction in crashes.

MLK South in that same time period had a 15% increase in crashes.

MLK South had two times the number of crashes resulting in serious injuries or death for pedestrians and cyclists.

17 people were seriously injured or lost their lives on MLK South.

Those are neighbors that are no longer with us or have had their lives forever changed or are living with a disability.

So what's the difference between the two sides of the road?

MLK North has a protected bike lane, it has mid-block crosswalks, it got the complete streets treatment.

MLK South doesn't have any of that.

We also see that when we do road protections like bike lanes, they protect more than just people outside of cars.

They also reduce crashes for those inside of cars.

MLK South is in the high injury network of streets.

It sees a disproportionate number of crashes.

So we've had this complete streets plan for more than 10 years.

We spent years planning.

We just finished the South Side Mobility Study, which included a walk audit of MOK South.

That plan only received 750,000 for implementation across the entire South CRA with 30,000 people in it.

It's only enough to build maybe two or three crosswalks.

Fort Pinellas has MLK South completes funding as number 26 at the very bottom with no foreseeable date for funding.

I believe that we're in a crisis of public health, and I believe that you as city council have the power to actually save people's lives.

We can't wait for federal or state grants anymore.

Umplete streets funding in your budget priorities this year or for next year.

So I'm asking for us to fund complete streets using city funds and also South CRA funds.

We know that there's money in the CRA for more than just developing housing, which is important.

I think we can do more with the South CRA dollars.

The South Side neighborhoods are organized with me and we're ready to see the change.

Um it's shameful that in a decade has passed with only one side of MLK receiving improvements while the other side we're seeing people losing their lives.

We're a little bit fatigued by the years of planning and we're ready to see some action.

Please fund complete streets conversion for MLK South.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Good afternoon.

Uh Council.

Thank you very much for having me.

My name is Nicole Waters.

My address is 811936th Avenue North.

And a mayor representing the Edge Board of Directors.

And like you heard from Mark Ferguson, we are also in favor of the transfer of funds in order to support the Booker Creek project.

We understand the positive impact it will have on our community and our businesses.

And we're very excited to see that project move forward.

Thank you.

You more speakers.

No more speakers.

Okay.

We close open form, and now we move to reports.

First up, we have our St.

Pete police, the quarterly report.

Good afternoon, Chief.

How will we afternoon, Madam Chair, Council members?

So this report could be cover for our fourth quarter end of the year for October, November, and December.

So for uh 2025, the last quarter we had one homicide, that one homicide was drug related, and the person is in custody.

I'd like to also mention that in the year of 2025, we had 10 homicides.

We closed out nine with an arrest.

We are working on the other one, just waiting for uh some more information to come in.

We should be able to close that one out.

In 2024, we closed out all our homicides with unrest, and we did the same thing in 2023.

All homicides were closed with an arrest.

Good report you can see from the great team.

Uh third quarter, we had 70 assigned cases.

This quarter we had 36, so that shows us there's been a reduction in gun calls for the end of the year.

Guns stolen out of cars.

Uh we can see that trend go up and down, but uh staying steady.

Uh I think we're probably gonna try to get it down to at least maybe 10.

Uh wishful thinking.

Uh, but we did have 32 guns that were turned into us also during the same period of time.

We saw a slight uptick in crime uh for the fourth quarter robberies were up, and also motor vehicles were up.

But we normally see that uh if we follow our our trend for the year, we always see an uptick in the fourth quarter of every year.

And that could be due to the fact that kids are out of school, things are just but every fourth quarter we see an uptick in crime.

With that uptick in crime, we also saw an uptick in arrest.

But overall, the good news is crime is down in the city, and we just want to make sure we highlight that.

I know the mayor said something uh yesterday at the state of the city address.

Uh homicide, that's the lowest it's ever been since 1967.

Uh so that just says a lot about everyone, and I like to call it tick, is due to technology, is through the investigation, it is through community.

Those three things involved in it.

You're seeing a deep uh decrease in crime in every category.

Citations are are down.

Uh our accidents are going down, our fatality access are going down, but we're still doing enforcement.

As you can see on our Facebook page, we still tell people when we're coming, whatever we're coming to, and we still write a lot of people for speed in the neighborhood.

We give them a warning, but they still want to speed, and we're more than happy to give them a ticket.

Our second chance program is doing quite well.

The three that did not succeed, two did not show the other one that did show up for the training.

Uh, he was being very disrespectful for, so we asked him to leave.

This is gonna be the last time you see the second chance program here.

We've now partnered with the sheriff's office and also with Ford together.

So now we're gonna take that program and put it on a bigger scale because we're already addressing the kids that on felony, so we still are gonna give the kids services right away and just move into a different category.

Our home unit again working with the sheriff's office and other agencies throughout.

We still monitor our kids.

Our path team is still doing a great job making contact.

We're gonna start seeing an increase in that because the weather is cold up north, so everybody comes down to visit us during the winter time.

But the team is still out there making contacts and giving referrals to our people that are in need and that want the service.

Park walk and talk.

Uh as I spoke to the ulcers, I told them uh I want quality park walking talk.

So you may see that number go down.

And what I mean by that is just because you check out the Wawa, and you get a cup of coffee, that's not a park walk and talk.

That's getting a cup of coffee at Wawas.

Uh so uh what I want them to do is actually get all they're still talking to people, but I want them to work walk in their zone.

So, like so we looked at those numbers.

We just want to make sure that we're doing exactly what we say we're doing.

Eagle Eye program.

Uh we got another 15 people again.

Again, you're gonna see that change a little bit because technology is changing.

And what I mean by that is within the next couple of months, you'll probably be hearing from uh people to have doorbell, and what they're gonna do, they're linking with another company.

So when we go to an area, they can tell us who in that area has uh doorbell or or whatever ring, and then we can contact that person automatically, and we can do an upload from there.

So that's gonna help out within the next couple of months.

Hopefully, that'll work out for us.

Use of force, we had 404.

Of that 404, we had one complaint, and that's right now in the officer professional standard, and that is under investigation.

The call program as the mayor talked about, and thank you to the again to city council.

You can see we're still going strong.

97% of the calls that we're going on again is without law enforcement, and the key thing is zero injuries.

Forward together, that's what talked about second chance.

We're gonna be moving more things toward that.

62% of the kids that are in this program again, they're not reoffending.

We're giving them the tools they need, the job they need, and we're helping them out with that.

The arts, you saw that yesterday.

Uh, we're still working with kids, we're giving money toward those programs.

And clear water for youth.

Again, these are the kids that are involved, and we want to make sure to take care of kids that are involved in uh and athletics, uh paying for uh equipment that they need it.

The parents can't afford it, so we're still giving them for uh costs for that, and our PAL program where we still work with our kids together.

So with that, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Council member Driscoll.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chief, for the report.

Um, just a few quick questions for you.

Um, and we'll start with the slide.

I'm sorry, they're not numbered, but the um the one that has some detail on crime in St.

Pete being down.

Um this was a big announcement that was made recently.

Um the slide tells part of the story, and it gives examples.

It it covers homicide robbery and auto theft.

So is that where the numbers come from?

It's just from those three categories.

Uh no, ma'am, they do not.

So it also comes from uh aggravated assaults are down by 19 percent.

Larcenies are down by 16 percent.

And then they do a subcategory that we report to Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

So violent crimes overall is down by 15 percent, and property crime is down by 16 percent.

Overall crime is down by 16 percent.

So those are all the categories.

The only category that is up is forcible sex, and the reason why that's up by 12 percent because they changed the category on that.

So if someone touches a female or touch the male, that counts, or so funneling, so those got added to that category.

So I'm not saying rapes are up, it's just because they added different things in there, though you we saw an increase in that.

Okay, and then when you were talking about this slide, you mentioned the um TIC.

Oh, I just technology, investigation, and community.

Okay, so those are the the three keys to uh this number, right?

That's for all the crime because the technology we have, the investigation, the officers, and community involvement.

Right.

So it sounds like there have been improvements in each of those categories.

Yes.

Can you give some ex uh some examples just real quick?

Sure.

So uh through our departments at ATF, we have the NIBA machine, and that's the machine again uh about the uh when we recover the shell casing instead of us waiting three or four months now, we're getting those back in three or four days.

Uh uh our the way we take fingerprints, uh our um license plate reader, just all the technology, our drones.

So we just have about a lot of things now that we can put right out that gives the investigators uh a good lead.

Uh so when they're talking to a susp suspect or subject or talking to the community, they have all that data, and then the biggest thing is the community providing us information, giving us lease so we can solve these crimes.

So those three components working together, uh we keep continuing to see crime going down.

You can go on our web page and you can see it's not just this year, within the past four or five years.

I'm shouldn't say that, but in the past ten years, we had a trend we're down except during COVID years, so crime has continued to trim down uh in the city of St.

Petersburg.

Right, right.

It seems like whenever you come to give the quarterly report, you talk about how um crime is down with very few exceptions.

So it's great that that trend is continuing.

Uh moving on to the numbers that you had on the path unit.

Um this is just a suggestion.

I I you know we we look at this and I um I see you know, in the fourth quarter, there were 603 total contacts made.

I'm starting to wonder where are those contacts being made.

Um is it in is there uh a significant number that's in one certain neighborhood or one certain part of our city.

Um what does that look like in terms of neighborhoods or zip codes?

I'd love to just see the geography of this.

And I can get that to you.

It's gonna it's gonna take some time because I think path unit, and then I can see the path unit is citywide, so I'll get those numbers or I'll get the XY coordinates for you, and I'll be more than happy to share that with City Council.

Right, right.

And I think that would be important to show that not only is a path unit citywide, um, that's because the need for services and the need for that outreach is citywide as well.

It'd be great to see that illustrated in some way.

Anytime.

Thanks.

And then finally, with um the park walk and talk numbers.

I'm I'm glad that you've been clarifying that with uh with your team and making sure that everyone knows what it is and what it's not um in their everyday work.

And I appreciate it when I do see um our officers out doing doing that and and having those great conversations with our neighbors.

Um in the in the downtown area, you know, that's where you use a lot of the golf carts or the mules for um uh for the officers to get around.

Is that if they're driving around in one of those, is that considered PWT time?

Because it's still a vehicle, so the vehicle, so it's not a park walk and talk, they're driving around a vehicle.

So it either could go down as a director patrol because the commander could say, hey, there's a hot spot, so I want you to go to the area, so then it'd be it'd be classified as a direct patrol, so that number is captured also.

But if they're just driving around in a golf cart, no, that's not a park, walk and talk.

Okay.

I just had uh a couple of people in recent uh in recent weeks mentioned that they they don't think they see police officers walking around downtown as much as they used to.

And I was trying to figure out why that might be.

And um I didn't know if that had something to do with it.

If they're being in one of the golf carts actually is the same thing to you as them being out walking around.

No, ma'am, and they're covering a large area, so if they were just walking around, they wouldn't be able to carry care uh cover the whole area that's supposed to be covering.

So they may be in a golf cart drive to another location and they'll get out and do a PWT and then but as they're driving around, no ma'am, that is not a P that's not a park walk and talk.

That's driving around.

Okay, thank you for that clarification and um thank you for everything that you and the rest of the department are doing to help um uh keep people safe.

I just um one more thing, you know, when we when we talk about the numbers and crime being down, that really is something to celebrate.

I want to make sure that the public's um perception of safety is right there with it.

That that is growing as crime is going down.

So crime might be done in the numbers, but the perception of public safety might still be lagging.

And so that's where I think we've got some work to do, and I look forward to talking with you more about that as we go on.

Well, and I've said it before, uh, the police department cannot reduce crime.

We can reduce the fear of crime, and because one person could get out and he or she could commit 10 burgers that day, then I'm gonna come in you and say, Hey, guess what?

I had 10 burgers, but it was one person.

But long as if somebody can go out in the middle of the night and they're not afraid of being robbed or house being broken into, then that's our job.

That's our main job as a police department.

But city decides, you're going to have crime.

There's nothing that we can we can't stop that.

But if people are not afraid to go out at night, which they're not, because we know how downtown the city is very busy and it's very active, so we just got to make sure that we continue to lock our cars, lock our homes, report when you see something stolen, uh, or see something suspicious, that we can continue work on that.

So as a city, we're doing great uh with the law enforcement technology and also with the community help.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Givens.

Thank you so much.

Uh, and thank you, Chief, for being here today.

Uh technology investigation and community, those are very important three pillars.

Um I want to talk a little bit about technology because I had a conversation with one of the chiefs this week about uh situation that occurred at Citrus Grove and how technology actually helps solve uh one of the investigations that you all had.

Um I want to talk a little bit about this Eagle Eye program.

I I think some of the gaps that we have in the program is just not everybody has access to the technology.

Would would you agree to that, Chief?

Yeah, if people do not buy uh doorbell or ring, whatever they whatever they call it.

Yeah, if you don't have a camera on your home, then we don't have access to that.

And we talked about that.

And and I was wondering from administration's perspective, is there an opportunity for us specifically in neighborhoods that may be more crime prone uh to look at investing some of our CRA dollars um into purchasing some of those ring doorbell cameras?

We can certainly research it, council member.

I'd want to talk to the city attorney's office about that type of investment, what programs we have set up, be you know, private property investments.

So there's some things we would have to think through there.

Awesome.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And I was just wondering, you know, maybe if there was some sort of rebate program we could offer, I don't know, uh, just to supplement the cost of that, because again, economics, right, socioeconomic conditions, that is a barrier.

And we have to acknowledge that, and I think if we can work with the community to try to plug in those gaps and fill that need, that could definitely help support our community and help lower that crime rate that we talk about.

Again, we can't expect police to solve every single problem, but I certainly think that the onus and the responsibility should also be placed on neighbors, neighbors playing a part in the role of solving these problems and also safeguarding our community.

Public safety is an issue.

And I think if we don't invest in that technology and invest in our community, then it's the problem will continue to worsen.

Um you talked a little bit about um an investigation.

It's my understanding there was an arrest um some time back.

I don't know if this investigation um was connected to the arrest where there was a a use of force investigation that was taking place.

Was this the one that you were referring to, Chief, in your report?

Yes, sir.

And it's that's under investigation, so I cannot talk about it.

No, yeah, no problem.

But what I want to talk about is the investigation process because I'm big on on transparency and trying to be as transparent as we can to the general public because people ask me and I ask you.

Uh so I just want to talk about that process.

What does that process look like whenever there is that internal affairs investigation?

Who's involved in it and how long does it usually take?

Sure.

So once the complaint is filed and is shipped to the also professional standards, uh, they will interview the witnesses.

They will interview the victim or person that's the uh the file to complaint.

Once all that is done and compiled, then they will bring the officer in, the accused officer, then he or she will get a chance to look at that, then make a statement, and then from there it will be reviewed by myself and the three assistant chief, and we'll make a finding on whether the conduct was it founded, unfounded, sustained, and then we'll release that to the uh public.

So that timeline could take approximately how long.

Uh there is a set timeline, and I can't remember.

I think it's 60 days or 90 days that we have to have it completed.

Uh I'm not sure exactly.

It might be 120 days, but it has to be done within that period of time.

If you don't mind following back up with me on that, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hurdy.

Thank you, Chair.

Chief, thank you very much.

The the um the the stats you present aren't uh we don't have anything to compare it against.

But I have to assume that uh that the city is doing a much better job than most.

Actually, uh, I looked into it.

We are doing a much better job than most.

And I think that that the page that you put up that it that is most poignant that I wanted to make sure that we didn't overlook um is the one that that uh that I think you alluded to.

We had uh 16 complaints for the past six months in total.

But at the same time, um we had 354 commendations.

And um and that goes back to uh a conversation I had earlier today about vision and culture.

And uh and to have it to work in an industry where most of the interactions that you have with your customers, if you will, uh start off negative to have 354 commendations speaks volumes to to you and your command staff.

And um, and that's evident by having uh the officers go out and do walk and talks and trying to create positive environments, but all of it all those commendations didn't come from what started out as a as a as a positive interaction.

Some of them came out as some of them came out of what started off as a negative interaction.

And I want to make sure that that um that everyone watching understands that um that this is a culture issue.

That things are going very well in this city because uh you and the command staff and and the officers have created an environment where there is trust and there is a belief that that we're going to come and help you.

And I really wanted to thank you for that and make sure that that we recognize that uh that 354 compared to 16.

Um I take the 354 any day.

So congratulations on that.

Um want to make sure that we we highlight that.

That that's uh that's a pretty big deal.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

And yet you're absolutely correct because you think we use force 404 times.

We've got one complaint, so that says a lot about what we're doing out there.

Yeah.

Yep.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Chief, for the quarterly report.

Um I didn't realize that Wawas were so popular for coffee.

We have a lot of coffee shops in the city so they can spread the love while they park, walk, and talk.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next up we have F2.

We have Advanced Air Mobility Task Force, the final report and recommendations, and we have our former council member Ed Montaneri, who is uh doing the presentation.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Chair Hanowitz.

Uh it's great to see you, uh City Council, uh staff.

Um it's good to see everybody.

Uh thank you for inviting me here today to make a presentation on on the work of the uh advanced air mobility task force.

Uh we tried to write this report in a in a way that uh a layperson who might not be knowledgeable about aviation, this emergent emerging technology, city issues, uh things like land use and zoning, could pick up the report, read it and understand it.

And we uh we moved all the technical information into the appendices.

Um so if you want to dive down deeper, uh there's uh websites, uh links to technical information, uh, and uh all kinds of things like a glossary uh there uh in the in the report.

We also included a short narrative on the history of aviation here in the city of St.

Petersburg.

As many of you know, uh we have a rich history here.

The first airline uh began right here in the city of St.

Petersburg in January 1914, and we we see a correlation between that four first uh airline flight and where we all are now with this emergency, this emerging uh technology with advanced air air mobility.

So today I'm gonna review the mission that you gave us, the processes that we took to study it, uh subject matter experts that came to our meeting, and uh and then go over our recommendations.

The uh this was the mission that uh city council and the mayor gave the task force.

Our mission was clear and concise.

Um this uh slide is right out of uh city council resolution uh 2025-106 that you passed in February uh of last year.

Uh the main uh two the first two bullet points there evaluate the role of uh Albert Wood at Airport and combinating uh advanced air mobility and the second one evaluate the need for standalone verteports within the city of St.

Petersburg.

From my perspective, those those were like the the heart of of the recommendations, but we went into uh uh a level of detail on on all of them.

It took a sustained effort by uh many people and organ organizations to make this uh report possible, and we have a great group of citizens here in our city uh that need to be commended for their work to study, understand, and make meaning meaningful recommendations to address the mission that you gave us.

I'd like to take uh a moment and have the task force members stand up so I can introduce them.

I see Walt Trigger, can you stand up?

I know Max Glazier is here.

Max is here.

Is there anybody else here from the task force not seeing them?

They need to be commended for for the work that they they did and everybody did to uh make make this happen.

We also had a and as you know, uh wonderful staff and great staff support.

Uh I was asked when I when I came here uh if one of our recommendations was to recommend that Beth Harendine gets a raise, and I said, well we yeah.

We we uh we we just love Beth and the way that she uh she kind of came into the task force about halfway, uh a little little past halfway through our process and and has jumped in with everything else she's got going on.

She's a uh an amazing lady that uh knows how to get things done.

And uh she's I I call Beth a happy warrior because she uh does things in a positive manner and is just very effective.

Our legal team is is totally amazing, also.

Brett Pettigrew, for some reason always seems to get the short straw with really tough assignments.

I don't know if Jackie has it out for you, but this was not one of those assignments.

This was uh a whole lot easier, but Brett, uh you did a wonderful job of helping us kind of come up with a process when when the going got tough, especially when we started making our recommendations.

When you have a a 12-member task force, it can get kind of uh complex, and you you kind of helped us through through that process.

Ben James and Sarah Lucker were fantastic, also in uh in uh helping us on the legal legal front.

Rich Lesniak, Rich and I go go way back.

Rich uh is right over here to my to my right.

Rich and I started working together uh almost 20 years ago uh on the task force uh after the referendum in 2003 uh on what to do with Albert Wooded Airport.

Uh Janie Ollman, as everybody knows, Jane keep Janie keeps the uh trains running on time here at uh City Hall, and uh she's uh she was the perfect person for the role that she played in the task force.

And finally, Doug DeCarlo with ESA, he's our our consultant, and and uh Doug did a wonderful job on helping the task force out also.

You've seen this slide before.

This was uh our schedule and our the meetings uh that we had, and we brought in a lot of sub subject matter experts, and uh we dug down deep on on this uh this project.

And uh we began our we had our first meeting on April 23rd of uh last year, and our last meeting was uh January the 26th.

We spent most of our time in kind of the education phase of the task force and learning about all the subjects that you all wanted us to look into.

Uh and then we got into the recommendations, and and that was uh that was difficult, but uh it we we came up with uh everything that addressed every everything that you all wanted us to look into.

And then uh and then we uh took up our final report and uh that we reviewed it and adopted it in a unanimous vote of the task force.

Before I get into the specifics the specific recommendations, uh there are some kind of the larger issues that we uh kind of tend we we looked into to kind of guide us uh when when we came up to the recommendation with recommendations.

Uh I'm not going to go through every one of these bullet points, but the I do want to touch on some things.

The uh the foundation to aviation is safety.

Without safety, nothing's gonna take off.

So advanced air mobility needs to be safe and it needs to be reliable.

Uh the city of St.

Petersburg was a leader back in 1914 with the the advent of the uh first airline.

It needs to be a leader in advanced air mobility.

Um we want to protect the existing uses at uh Albertwood Airport, that needs to be a priority.

What we don't want to do is have a trade-off of introducing advanced air mobility and then not allow the current users of the airport to operate uh as they need to.

Uh we have the same feeling with non-aeronautical unit uses.

We don't want to interfere with the Grand Prix or any other business that's not an aeronautical use at the airport.

Um advanced air mobility needs to be integrated into regional estate transportation planning initiatives.

Uh when I was introducing the task force members, we had uh the head of the uh Ford Pinellus, Witt Blanton on uh the task force, and he played a real key role in in our study because that addresses uh this integration that that is essential.

And then the the last bullet point on that for that first set of robust public engagement strategy is essential.

And that uh I just want to report to you all that does not seem to be happening right now, and it it needs to happen.

This tech technology is going to transform uh the way that people get around, and uh we didn't have a whole lot of people come to task force meetings.

I don't know if people are aware that this technology is is coming, but it's it is gonna change the way we do we do business.

The uh getting into the recommendations uh the uh uh uh Paul or Chan, can you put up uh figure B please?

So I wanted to talk a little bit about uh Verteports because a lot of people think that verteports are the only way that you could uh take off and land a uh advanced air mobility aircraft.

And if you uh think about Albertwooded airport, and we didn't know this when we first started studying it, but we have helicopters operating out of Albertwooded Airport uh, and we've had them operating out of the airport for for years.

What what I didn't know, and what a lot of us didn't know is we don't have a uh helipad on Aberwooded Airport.

We have a designated parking area for for helip heli ports.

And the reason for that is on on this slide here, you can see the the yellow lines that parallel the runways, and those lines are 500 foot setbacks from the operating runways.

And you you're not allowed, the FA does not allow you to have uh heliports and vertiports are going to be like heliports within those boundaries and have active flight operations going on.

So what how helicopters operate out of Albertwooded airport is they operate kind of like an airplane.

They've got to come down the uh the approach quarter, and then once they get over over the landing zone, then they can air taxi to their parking spot.

And uh as you can see on the north side of the airport, north of the main runway, there is no place to put a verteport within that 500-foot boundary, but we're recommending that uh we have parking spots in the vicinity of the terminal, uh, both north of uh the act the the main runway uh and and south of the main runway.

And then the two V's that you see on the southern part of the runway uh in the future, we want to have that that's the place where we think we can have vertiports.

And uh on this slide, you can see kind of the yellow uh area that is the uh arrival and departure path that the FAA requires.

Uh and that's why we superimposed it over that vertiport.

That's a little bit north of the uh the Aberwooded water treatment facility uh there.

But that's the the path that that we would have to put uh put up there.

So Paul, can we go back to the uh presentation, please?

So uh in the short term within the the uh the next uh three years, uh we're recommending that uh we designate parking spots for uh advanced air mobility aircraft, we install electrical charging stations.

Along with that, we need to have the fire safety uh systems uh in place.

We want to utilize the existing runways like I I talked about, and we need public accessibility, and that's what the terminal is gonna be would is used for.

And then in the longer term, uh we want to build dedicated vertiports uh based on the market demand, and those vertiports would be south on the south side of the airport, like I like I showed you.

All uh like I like I mentioned before, uh all the uh improvements need to be integrated with this existing uh flight operations, and then both for aeronautical and non-air aeronautical uses.

Another big recommendation is to follow up with this task force report.

We're recommending that a alternatives analysis study be done on Abertwooded Airport, and that is like a mini master plan to specifically identify uh exactly where the parking spaces would be, the verteport infrastructure would be, and how it's all gonna be integrated together, and it will also have some specific funding uh guidance in there.

On standalone vertiports, our big takeaway on on this one was as we discussed this item uh we made a determination that the market needs to decide where standalone vertiports are gonna be outside of uh the airport.

Um we didn't want to identify certain places that uh verteports should be within the city.

We have like general guidance, they should be close to different areas, and it's in the report, but when it comes to specifics, uh we did not we thought that the market needed to uh determine where that that should be.

Uh the city does need to create uh the minimum standards for these standalone uh uh verteports, and that list there with the uh uh operations in airspace, charging stations, fire safety systems, public accessibility, and noise and visual impacts all need to be considered.

So the city needs to come up with those those uh standards.

Uh some of you may remember uh a few years ago there was a uh demonstration over at Tampa International from a company called Volocopter that flew uh uh an EVTAL, and uh their operation was like a flying Uber, and they uh wanted to put these on top of buildings, and I think those are the types of things that uh the city needs to consider on how that would that would work.

The city uh needs to continue to stay engaged with this uh industry as we met uh and had our task force meetings.

We met about every three weeks, and the amount of information that changed from the previous meeting was amazing, whether it was regulations that were were uh being put forward or industry changing uh uses and and uh it's it's uh it's one of the these rapidly evolving industries that we need to stay on top of uh federal and state grant opportunities need to be established, and then our city code needs to be updated also.

We had uh Derek uh Kilborn come in and give us a briefing, and uh we don't have uh uh minimum standards for either vertiports or hell uh heliports in our code, and so that needs to be updated.

And then uh when it comes to standalone vertiports, the city needs to create a process to approve new verteport and heliport sites.

So one of the things that that uh I I mentioned uh in one of our meetings was you think about some of this new construction that's going on downtown, and let's say a building owner comes to the city and says, I want to put a verteport on my building.

How do I go about doing that?

And we don't have any sort of any process, we haven't thought that through, so so that that needs to be uh developed.

And then when it comes to regional planning, uh we need to work with the uh state and federal uh agencies and our MPO.

Uh one of the big recommendations on this slide is to create uh quarters to allow uh advanced air mobility aircraft to transit to certain certain areas.

There's a lot of destinations on on this map, but the the number one and the number two priority is connecting Albertwooded Airport to Tampa International Airport because all a lot of these OEMs are uh pairing up with airlines.

So uh an airline is going to be able to sell a ticket from let's say Delta Airlines from Atlanta to St.

Petersburg, and we need to have that corridor to connect to Tampa International.

The other thing that's happening very quickly in the state uh in in the updates I told you about how the state is very aggressive in in this area.

The state has built the sun tracks, which is the far western part of this map here.

It says Sun Tracks Air Ground.

Suntracks is kind of like a uh combination autonomous vehicle test center for ground-based uh uh autonomous cars, but also uh advanced air mobility.

And what we need to concentrate on is getting a connection to to that test center so that they come to St.

Petersburg.

I think it's essential that the city of St.

Petersburg begin advanced air mobility operations as quickly as possible.

Um then we need to promote and uh coordinate advanced air mobility uh across the region.

This uh last recommendation that we have is to create what uh what we call the Janus Center for Aviation and Innovation.

Our city has been uh uh innovative city since its founding.

We're studying a disruptive in uh industry that is going to change the way that uh the world works, and I want to make sure that we cover that education, the the training, the workforce development side of it, but I also want to bring manufacturing, whether it's uh uh components or vehicles, uh, but I I want the city of St.

And I want to make sure that we cover that education, the the training, the workforce development side of it, but I also want to bring manufacturing, whether it's uh uh components or vehicles, uh, but I I want the city of St.

Petersburg and we're recommending the City of St.

Petersburg be a uh leader in this industry.

And uh this is uh one of the uh thoughts that uh I have moving forward.

Yesterday uh I uh I had a a very good uh conversation with uh uh Becca Brown from uh Spark Labs, and I had met with her like three months ago and talked to her about advanced air mobility and what the city of St.

Petersburg is doing.

Uh I'm gonna meet again with her uh next week, and she wants to get uh Arc Invest involved, and I've also talked to educators uh whether it's the supervisor, uh superintendent of public schools, uh, college presidents uh and other educators to to start uh finding partners for this uh this center.

And uh I'll close with just a a short statement and it's in the summary of our report, but advanced air mobility represents the next transformational tri chapter of aviation in St.

Petersburg is once again in a position to lead.

From the launch of the world's first commercial airline in January uh in January of 1914 to today's pursuit of the next generation of uh air transportation industry, the city has consistently been at the forefront of aviation innovation.

Advanced air mobility is not a departure from that legacy, it's a natural evolution.

For advanced air mobility to truly revolutionize the movement of people and goods, vertiports, including supporting infrastructure must extend to Albertwood Airport across our city to other regional airports, surrounding communities, and throughout Florida.

Building this network will require foresight coordination and commitment.

These are qualities that have defined St.

Petersburg's aviation leadership for more than a century.

While some contend that large-scale advanced air mobility operations will take years to mature and reach uh widespread affordability, history shows that transformative aviation advances reward those who prepare early.

The FAA along with the F DOT have an ongoing collaboration with OEMs to certify and integrate advanced air aircraft into advanced air mobility aircraft into the national aerospace system that underscores a deliberate safety first approach that aligns with the city's long-standing commitment to uh innovation.

Preparation is not optional, it's essential.

The task force uh structured uh structured uh forward-looking mission has laid a strong foundation by building knowledge, evaluating opportunities, and shaping actionable recommendations.

The steps outline this report position St.

Petersburg to lead once again.

We strongly believe that embracing short and long-term development of advanced air mobility reaffirms the city's role as a pioneer in aviation, just like we were in 1914.

Our recommendations are reasonable, practical, and affordable.

On the behalf of the task force, I present uh the report to you, and I look forward to answering your questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

Ed, thank you very much in typical fashion.

This is done to the nines.

Thank you to everyone who participated.

Um thanks for spending time with us today.

The um give us a sense uh is this uh is this currently happening anywhere else in the country now?

How far behind are we if we are behind?

Uh right now in the country that there's there are certain states that are ahead of us.

Uh state of Ohio comes to mind.

Uh they are building innovation centers, I think in Springfield, was it Springfield, Ohio?

Yeah, Springfield, Ohio, similar to the one that we're recommending that we we build.

Uh New York City is uh is uh doing a lot of things also.

I think everybody when it comes to transporting passengers, we're all waiting on the FAA to certify these these aircraft.

Uh we're thinking that uh some may be certified as maybe late this year or early early next year.

Uh overseas is a different picture.

China is flying passengers right now.

recommending that we we build uh New York City is uh is uh doing a lot of things also I think everybody when it comes to transporting passengers we're all waiting on the FAA to certify these these aircraft uh we're thinking that uh some may be certified as maybe late this year or or early early next year uh overseas is a different picture China is flying passengers right now uh in the Middle East uh there's uh operations going on also but they don't have the regulatory structure uh structure that that we have with the FAA and the Europeans are very similar to the United States with their uh regulatory struct structure so the Europeans aren't flying any EV tolls carrying passengers right now the um how will this I I assume that the difference between drones that bring you your your your food versus this is just the the the component of carrying a human being is that how they separate drones from well so there's a company called Wing that is uh uh working with Walmart that's uh doing package delivery right now in Tampa and there are some people here in the city of St.

Petersburg I think you're gonna see package delivery services are they are the do they come under the same jurisdiction if you will or is it uh I I don't know the answer to that question.

Rich, can you help me out with the package delivery question?

So so technically it is kind of a a different realm.

Basically they're gonna be 400 feet and under whereas advanced mobility is going to be look at least initially more like traditional transportation or traditional aircraft and is going to operate more like traditional aircraft.

Now down the road the longer term vision is that these will also become autonomous operations but the initial wave of it is going to be pretty much piloted so it's gonna be like a regular aircraft just electric powered.

Okay.

So from a complexity standpoint and and how we look at possibly putting these around the city does will all of these come under air traffic control yes yeah the the initial role they will operate in the airspace just like a regular correct yeah you want to go ahead and put out a help wanted sign now what's that for all that go ahead and put out a help wanted sign now for all the folks you're gonna have to shove in that tower yeah exactly um okay well that makes it a uh a little bit more complex um back to uh back to my question and i and I think you put a point on it already but if you uh it if you uh had to put five dollars down on the map or on the calendar somewhere where would you put it in terms of this is the day that somebody's gonna crawl into one of these in St.

Pete and fly that could happen any day uh with single seat uh single seat EV toll they're flying in California right now there's a company called Jetson uh that sells uh a drone call a Jetson one that you can buy for isn't it like 150,000 or yeah about 1500 you could buy one of these things we talked about in one of our meetings they have to operate like an uncontrolled airspace and we have parts of the city I think it's in district one way out west district one always has that's where that's where it would be yeah uh but but uh that's where the uncontrolled air space is but they could they could operate one of those things if they um the I I know that we we look pretty much specifically at the airport but um but in works with legal any uh any any talk up or any issues with uh with land use or anything the city would have to address yes there there are there there is and there's uh in the in the report there's uh there's some recommendations on on land use and and zoning uh and some specific things do do need to be addressed in in in that okay so so from the perspective of the the business that we have if I understand correctly anything up in the air is the FAA we have no jurisdiction whatsoever that's correct we just need to worry about land use and how that works its way out of the yes okay yeah all right thank you very much again greatly appreciate it all right thank you Chancellor thank you council member Driscoll thank you and thank you for the uh great presentation and thanks to all of the members of the task force who worked on this um for for months and came up with a fantastic report this is exactly what I had in mind um and then some which you once you were involved I'm sure that was to be expected um and thanks for mentioning that district one is out of control um I don't know if I said that so there's a there's a lot to unpack here and there's a there's a lot of work to do I would love to get some input from from Brett uh from legal on this um because I see these recommendations I'm inspired by it I'm ready to get going but where do we start and did you all in the task force or have you thought about what would be the right sequence of events for us do we um start working on the parking spaces and the and zoning right now or um figure out where we would put these the aviation center um I love that I mean where do you where do you start but to to get us I love the center

But where do we start?

And did you all in the task force or have you thought about what would be the right sequence of events for us?

Do we um start working on the parking spaces and the and zoning right now or um figure out where we would put these the aviation center?

Um I love that.

I mean, where do you where do you start?

But to to get us, I love the center idea, but like we gotta start getting ready for action.

Right.

So the the first place is to do this alternative alternatives analysis uh of the airport.

So the the task force, I mean, we we had a short period period of time, and we have somewhat broad type recommendations.

The alternatives analysis is going to be much more specific on exactly where on the airport the parking zones should be, what sort of electrical capacity we're going to need uh uh if we if we have a battery storage operation going on because some of these companies are thinking about doing like a battery swap uh type issue.

So the in the city you can walk and chew gum at the same time, but the alternatives analysis I think needs to get started uh right away.

And then the land use and zoning uh uh clarifying design standards for both heliports and uh vertiports uh along with creating a process.

Uh I I I can just see somebody on in a high rise coming to the city before too long and saying, I want I want to see uh a Verteport built on my building.

So I think those would be like two good places to begin.

And then and then uh just let me just follow up.

Uh I'll I'll be meeting with uh Spark Labs and uh I I want to make sure that we have some actionable items that we can kind of get this process starting, and I think that's a good place to begin also.

Okay.

Got it.

All right.

I'll hold.

I look forward to hearing from my colleagues.

So I'll wait.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gavard.

Thank you, Chair, and uh thank you, Ed, as always for producing stellar work.

Um, you know, this is obviously your passion, and so I would have been surprised if it would have been anything less.

Um, but you have done a phenomenal job and the entire task force while you're here today.

Um thank you all for uh the work that you've done and uh Brett, thank you, as always.

I appreciated the shout out earlier because you do always tend to get the uh more interesting um things to do.

So appreciate all of your guidance in this.

Um so my questions will be brief and not even really a question, um, just maybe a place where I can help to support.

Uh so you talked about the regional support piece, and that is so important.

Um I think that you know we can look at our transit today and note that if there would have been regional collaboration decades ago, we would be in a much different place, right?

And so this is a piece of it that I think is critical to getting right and doing it now.

Um the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, I think should be plugged into this work.

Um I think that there's work that they can do to support these efforts, and one of the things that they have done in the past is model ordinances and um, you know, if a city decides to look at that and adopt that in its entirety so that they don't have to do the work internally to amend their ordinances, they can, or it can also just be served as a guide to some changes that could be made on whatever specific topic.

So that might be something that may help the city with our bandwidth of looking at our code, and it could set a model for the entire region.

So I'd be happy to connect with you, connect you with the regional planning council staff and see if we could maybe start some collaboration there, because I really think that I mean St.

Pete can be a leader in this, we should be a leader in this, but we cannot do this alone if it's gonna be successful.

Right.

So I just wanted to offer that as um you know something that maybe I can be helpful in.

This certainly is not my area of expertise, uh, but it is something that um I think the regional cooperation piece I would like to be involved with you.

So yeah, we'll we'll talk about that and we'll work about that.

That that would be a big a big help uh uh Whit Blanton would like me to also brief Ford Pinellus uh soon.

And uh if I could ask a question along those lines because the task force needs to be sunset by city council.

Brett, can you kind of remind us when that will happen?

Is that is that is that coming before city council soon?

Uh actually thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, uh members of council.

Uh that actually was addressed in the resolution extending the task force to really put the the bow on this report.

Uh if no further action is taken by council, the task force automatically sunsets at the end of February.

Uh and so as I as I told the task force, they can get together and have their out of the sunshine party uh on at shortly after midnight on March 1st.

Uh but until then they are still uh official members of the task force.

Um so that's at that point that that housekeeping detail has been taken care of.

So unless council gives them adopts a resolution today to direct them to go do further work, uh the task force will sunset automatically at the end of the month.

Thank you.

Okay, that's and that was just a kind of addressing uh your I I want to make sure that there's not a sunshine law issue me going before some other board uh in speaking.

So yeah, do you see any challenges with that?

I mean, because Mr.

Blanton is is currently, they are both on the task force uh if that meeting, if that briefing was going to happen between now and March 1st, uh you would want to sunset it sooner.

Uh but or it could be noticed, uh, that would be the alternative, is it would just be noticed as a meeting of the task force, and then it would be in the sunshine.

So well, and that would also be coming before the forward panellas board, which would be a public meeting, so that would not be anything that would take place out of the sunshine, even if it happened before the sunsetting.

But I that I would leave to Forward Pinellas Chair Driscoll to uh kind of talk about, but specifically with the planning council.

Um I'm the only representative for the city of St.

Petersburg there, so you and I can talk about it.

All we would like, because we no longer live in the sunshine together.

So yes, so I look forward to working with you on that.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Givens.

Thank you very much, Chair, and so good to see you, Councilmember Montanari.

Um, I know that you're excited that this is over, but we're happy to have your recommendations.

Um this is exciting.

You know, St.

Peter's always been a pioneer in flight.

Um, so it's exciting to see us lead in this area as well.

Um you talked a little bit about education and workforce.

Um I want to talk a little bit about education workforce development with you because this is something that you and I have spoken about, had this conversation with Albert Wittard as well.

Um, but in the sunshine, I I'd like my colleagues to know kind of what direction we're going here.

Um I've had great conversations with St.

Petersburg College um as well as Pinellas Technical College.

Um both of those institutions have shown a great deal of interest um in finding out how they can really bring that um that aviation technical trade to St.

Petersburg, um to Florida.

Um it's something that's missing.

I think it's an industry that we really need to tap into.

Um and I think about the future.

Um I even think about air traffic controllers, right?

There's gonna be a shortage of those in there.

Um so how can we really work to fill those gaps?

And I'm glad you brought up Pinellas County Schools.

Yeah.

Uh so that that was the kind of the vision between between for the like Janice Innovation Center to to kind of pair up the educational component, which I think is very important.

I came before you, I think, with the in the first update, and I talked about the uh the uh drone uh drone festival at Azalea Middle School that's in District One.

Uh and then I met with the superintendent superintendent, uh superintendent uh uh Hendrick, and he gave me a list of all these other programs and middle schools, high schools, and technical colleges.

Uh I would love to meet with you and kind of go over this list and because to me it the educational component is is fascinating.

I'm a I'm a graduate of I went to college at it at a aeronautical university.

Uh so uh and I got bitten by the aviation bug as a little boy, and I know just going to these festivals that we have with drones, uh there's a lot of kids that are excited about this, and uh it's it's fun if you can turn your hobby into a career.

That's so true.

And not everybody, you know, is gonna be a pilot.

Um, but there's a lot of groundwork um that pays a living wage.

Um and I think exposing these young people to alternative careers and pathways to prosperity, that upward mobility, um, it's important.

And and I love that this is going to do just that.

Um Walt Driggers and I we had a conversation recently about Barrington Irving and his uh Aviation Technical Academy that he has down to Miami Dade.

I would love to see a duplication of that effort right here in St.

Petersburg.

And we have the resources, we have the tools.

Uh so I just want us to activate them.

Um I do have a question, I won't be long.

Um, and this is I guess for legal, as far as as what's next for us um when we talk about further action.

Do we uh need to formally extend the the the deadline for the task force um their meeting period?

Um do we need to have a motion to for administration to act on the recommendations?

What would what's next?

Uh at this point, uh the task force has fulfilled its mandate.

It was asked to to meet, prepare this report and come back.

At this point, uh it really falls to uh if council as a body wanted it to study further, you could ask it to do so.

Otherwise, it sunsets and it's really you take this information and do with it what you will, whether it's administration uh putting out an RFP for the alternative study, uh council budgeting for that, uh a new business item being introduced to discuss the land use item about providing more information in the LDRs about heliports and and bringing in verteports, which at this point the FAA regulates in a in a similar manner.

So at this point, you have received information, and it is up to the two branches of city government to then use that as you see fit.

Gotcha.

Well, with that being said, I'd uh like to make the motion that administration draft an RFP um for us to start looking at alternative analysis for that site.

Okay.

Are you done?

Yes.

Oh, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Gurdis.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh, first of all, Ed, thanks so much.

I know I got to speak with you last weekend about this a little bit.

Just um everybody has said it.

The the whole task force, the consultants, staff, you guys just knocked it out of the park, and very appreciate all the work and uh I talk about it all the time.

Thank you for kindergartening it for everybody figure this out, right?

Because it does get it does get very technical in the independent seas.

Yeah, and which is great because we need we need that technicality, but we also want everybody to be able to figure out what we're talking about, right?

So I'm very, very appreciative of that.

Um piggybacking after actually of both things council member givens said, um super excited about like the prospect of Janice Center for Aviation.

I think this this is really um what I think sets this apart from just saying, yes, we want reports, and yes, we know EV toll is coming.

This is this is bringing it to a whole different level.

Um I will say that there's actually a there's actually a school closer to us than Miami Pasco Hernando Community College has a full they just took an old lab, totally gutted it, redid it, and they brought their drone school into their Dade City campus.

And um they're doing like six-foot drones at this point, and so they they go out, they fly them.

It's about not only flight, so uh some of those people move on to go into towers, then it's fixing them, blades, the engineering of it all.

It's kind of the full bore.

Um so that's I and I'm sure some of our schools are doing it, but I'm not sure on that scale.

I think they've probably got a hundred in the in that uh class currently.

And so we've got one real close to us that I think um would be a good example of what we'd want to have here, just on a on a larger scale.

Um second, uh my my I actually was gonna talk about what the next step was.

It seems to me, because there's a lot of possibilities for next step.

That the next step would be let's have a committee conversation about what we want the next step is because I'm not sure we're gonna figure that out today.

And so uh council member Driscoll, I know this was originally your item.

I'm assuming you'll put in an MBI to do that, and none of us need to do that.

Sure.

You can respond to thank you.

Um this this item actually is still living on a referral.

So we'll just bring her back.

Love that.

And so, yeah, I and I I appreciate Councilmember Givens trying to move the needle.

I just think there may be three or four steps that we want to go forward with, and I want to have that full-blown conversation about what that looks like moving forward, and committee seems the place to do it.

So I'm excited to keep this moving because that's the one thing we don't want to happen is for the momentum to stop.

And so I'm very happy to hear it's still on the referral list.

Uh again, Councilmember Givens appreciate the motion, but want I I think the committee is the way to do that so we can do multiple things at once.

So uh Ed, great job.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

And just going back to the motion based on what you heard, and it's in the committee.

Would you like to withdraw that motion now?

And that way the discussion can I do it if I can make a comment real quick, Chair.

I I just don't want it to die on the referral list.

So if we can take action quickly, especially with Councilmember Driscoll not being with us much longer.

Uh we want to make sure that we give her the opportunity to see this come to fruition.

So I just want to make sure we move that up.

If we can see it come sooner than later, that would be great.

But I'd like to withdraw my motion.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

And I believe that that's exactly what will happen.

Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you.

Chair, I know that you haven't.

I've spoken once already.

You have not I I'm not gonna have I'm just gonna have some closing comments, so you can go up.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So I'm looking at this the next EWD meeting is next week.

So it's a little quick to put it on the next meeting, but we'll look at March and um get it on there.

In the meantime, um, I hope that um with the sunsetting of the task force that um the task force members can work outside of the sunshine, sunsets, all this stuff.

Um but we we still we still need input.

We could we would uh very much like to um get some help with figuring out what to do between now and that March EWD meeting.

So I don't want to um like our conversation will stop until then, but with staff and any individual council members that want to talk to you.

Um there's work to do in the meantime.

We've got some time to actually come to um the March EWD meeting with some solid uh outlines for our next steps.

Okay, and then um the next forward panelist meeting is actually on March 11th.

Okay, and Wood had mentioned to me that he was gonna see if you could present at that meeting.

So I don't know if you already have that on your calendar.

If not, you're gonna be invited.

Yes, but I I did not have that on my calendar, but I'm oh well, I'll just let Witt ask you that.

I got ahead of him.

I'm sorry.

But yes, I um I look forward to hearing what our um Ford Pinellas uh colleagues across Pinellas County think about this too.

So yeah, all right, thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Harding.

Thanks, Chair.

Ed, with some of the things that you have coming up, would it uh would it be beneficial if we uh if we release the task force now versus letting it sunset?

Would that be helpful?

Or is there more business that uh that you think needs to be done?

I from a personal point of view, I don't I'd be fine with sunsetting it today.

Uh but I would defer to legal, you know.

Could can could council do this in a motion?

Yeah, we we would just memorialize it through a very simple resolution.

Um you could make a motion that the task force is sunset effective immediately.

And uh I I would just write that up in a you know after the fact resolution, a very simple resolution that would be signed.

Okay.

So, Chair, I would like to make a motion that uh that after many hours, tons of effort, and just a ridiculous amount of great work that uh that we let the uh the task force uh rest.

Second, you have a motion and a second.

Clerk, can you please open the machine for voting council members please enter your votes seeing that all present council members have voted, clerk please tally announce the vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve uh the sunsetting of the um advanced air mobility task force um immediately.

Yes, sir.

Yes, um passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Chair had one other.

Um taking a whole bunch of uh feedback that came through today, both from Ed and from uh from Councilmember uh Gertis.

Uh administrator Gurtis.

I want you to know that my birthday is coming up, and um I don't normally ask for things, but job core might go up for sale.

And uh that might be something that uh that we look at.

Um we've already got a name picked out.

We'll be we'll be sure that we do sing happy birthday.

Well done, Mr.

Curtis.

Like a true professional.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Well, Councilmember Harding, you beat me to the punch because I was gonna ask whether uh Mr.

Montaneri and the rest of the task force want it to be released from the shackles of sunshine law.

Um, because frankly, your work is done here.

Uh you've done excellent work.

Um your diligence, your time, your expertise.

It's it's evident in your not only in the presentation today, obviously, but the report that you provided, which was everything that city council asked for, not just based on what I'm saying, but based on what all my colleagues have said today.

So spectacular work.

We look forward to the continuing conversations at EWD on this.

So thank you.

It's great to see you as always.

Great, great to see everybody.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

All right.

Bye bye.

Okay.

Next up we have F5.

This is um co-sponsored event applications and associated resolutions.

Um Mike Jeffries and Lynn Gordon's here.

I pulled this from consent because, as you all know, I have a pending business item regarding the co-sponsorship agreements.

And I wanted to make sure that first in the sunshine, council knew that I've been having conversations uh with uh Mike Jeffries and his team, along with economic development in terms of all the issues regarding um the different concerts and events.

Uh we've talked about size and duration of events, fees, access to public parks, uh the maximum setup times and park impacts, noise mitigation, all the things uh that they're actually in the process of looking into.

And I thought it was important to pull this because of all their community members that have been voicing concerns about this, and then they see this happen, and then it's in consent.

It's like what's going on.

Um, so I wanted to give you an opportunity to kind of just touch base on what you all are doing, what this does, and in the meantime, it doesn't mean that these other issues are not being addressed.

So Mike.

Thank you for that opportunity.

Um, as you indicated, we are uh preparing for the committee of the whole um to have the very robust uh conversation.

We want to do a deep dive into events.

Um for those of you sitting here at the dais.

Uh, we've met with uh Chair Hanowitz and we've spent um a significant amount of time going over some different concepts and some different um ideas that um we would like to look at and then offer some recommendations back um to the entire council.

Um we are reaching out currently to multiple cities that are like size, um, like demographics, uh like um you know geographic uh setup at St.

Pete.

We're continuing that.

We don't we have not completed that at this point.

Uh we're also working with uh the legal department um and continuing to meet with them to come up with some best practices.

So we're really just taking a look at uh events uh from start to finish.

Um today before you is our standard uh co-sponsored event package, and so um we chatted with uh with the chair, and um we're not sure what's gonna happen with the committee of the whole and how that's gonna go.

So it was important that we continue with the process that we currently have.

So that's what's before you today.

Um I will tell you that um there are um some events that are on this list today that um are waiting for this action from council to start selling tickets and to start promoting their event.

I'm also happy to report that we have reached out to um some of the larger events and we've asked them um to really get creative with us.

And are there ways that they can uh reduce the number of days that the parks are pulled offline?

So there's there's two events that we have that um pull uh Vanoy Park off for um longer than a three uh three-day period of time.

Uh that would be the country fest and reggae rise up.

And so we're working with those promoters now to see if there's any possibility of getting a smaller uh setup period.

Um and we're also um working with some of the other events as well, and as we've continued to do, we've worked with events on placements, uh placement of speakers and making sure that um we are uh the best neighbors that that we can possibly be while remaining a vibrant city um that has a vibrant uh active downtown.

So it's you guys hear me say this all the time.

It really is that balancing act, and um that's something that we're working on, and we will look to the policy um uh deciders when we bring it forward to the committee of the whole to have you all tell us what uh the events in the city look like as we move forward.

Um the other uh the other item that we're working with.

Um we're continue to work with our partners in law enforcement, uh PD.

Um we're working with them on ways regular rise up is right around the corner.

Um so that was already already approved, and so we're working um with them to look uh for some help with some of the the concerns that we've heard um even at our most recent event that we had, um, public urination, some things that we're not real excited about, of course, but uh working with uh the police department to help us um get those uh under control.

Great.

Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you, and thank you for pulling this.

I was going to ask um about that committee discussion, and I was happy to see that you pulled these items already.

Um with the events that happened in in December, it became very clear that some change needs to happen.

And following that, there was um a news article that quoted the mayor as saying that he was gonna um you know work on on changes.

We received an email from Chief Holloway with um information about the um the event um where he said that he was going to work on changes.

So I want to know what's been what's been done so far, what kind of changes are we talking about here?

Because we have our mayor and our police chief both saying in response to the problems with the event in December that they're gonna work on changes.

So as we previously indicated, that's kind of what the cow is for, and that's what we're working on right now.

Well, no, but but they said they're working on something and maybe Rob, this is more of a question for you.

I've been working with them, so I'll let Mikey into the case.

Yeah, and the event that you're that you're mentioning is the uh we belong uh event.

And so that event is not in this package um at all.

And candidly, we've not received an application correctly wrong.

Have we received we have we have not moved that forward um at this point because we're wanting to really fine-tune and make sure um that we understand what we legally can and can't do.

So those are some of the the research components that we're continuing to work on.

Um I think when Mayor is saying that uh that he's working on um some changes.

Um I think he's expecting um Beth Herrendine and her staff.

That was uh an event that happened on in the peer district.

And so um we're kind of looking at it uh as a comprehensive approach where we're looking to treat all events kind of the the same.

Um but again, as Lynn indicated, that particular event uh from December um has been put on hold at this point until we continue to have the discussion with um uh at the cow.

Right, and and I too am looking at events in general, not targeting anyone that is specific.

I can look at this list of um the events that were being asked to approve, and most of them are familiar.

But I worry when I look at this, I'm like if I don't recognize one, is it just like that one?

But it's just called something different, and it'll come with the same problems.

So um I can tell you that there are no EDM concerts that are in this.

It's not even about that kind.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

It's it's not about a specific type of content.

It's it's about the disturbance that was caused.

So I I don't know enough about these groups to know if we're inadvertently approving more of the same.

So if anyone can tell you that we are of the opinion that you are not um approving more of the uh same kind of concert that happened in December.

Um we we have we have those, we have that application on hold, as as we've said.

There's one new concert um that's there.

I I I will tell all of you that every one of these events is going to frustrate somebody in the community.

Um not like this I agree with you.

I like this.

I I council member, I absolutely agree with you.

We're we're absolutely on the same page, and that's really what we're continuing to work on to come up with those solutions and best practices.

I don't have those as I stand here today.

Um I do believe we have uh looks like three new events.

Um sorry, actually it looks like just two new events.

Um both of them are taking place at the pier.

Uh it would be one of us, which is a concert scheduled um in April at the pier, and the uh cliff diving event, which is um coming up in June.

Um the one of us event is a concert.

Uh they're estimating about 3,000 people based on the application that we have from them.

And the cliff diving event is not a concert, it's um uh proposed event which will draw more people uh to the pier district and into downtown.

But um I am rather comfortable saying that we don't have anything that would compare to the December event.

We would have we knew that one was coming.

We already had that application for the event uh similar to the one in December, and we did pull that back.

So um everything else on here are um returning events except for those two um events, one of us and the cliff diving event.

Everything should be new event or a returning events, perhaps with the new organizer, but same general concept as to what you've approved in the past.

Okay, and do we know when that committee discussion will be held?

The problem is I'm waiting for them to get the information from other cities because the issues we're having is the noise ordinance and looking at comparable cities and what they're doing, and also looking at timing of events, like how long they keep the parks closed, what they charge these promoters because what we're collecting versus what other people are collecting.

Some of these events they charge, they close off the park and they charge people hundreds of dollars to go to these events, and what we're collecting versus what they're getting seems very small for the inconvenience to our citizens and to the fact that park users can't use the park and all that.

So they're looking at a comprehensive list of things to make sure that when we have a conversation, it's not just noise, it's literally everything else.

Okay.

And I'm gonna bring it as soon as possible.

We had that conversation.

I'm we we I it was clear, not just by the way uh from what I dealt with.

I knew for a fact other council members had gotten complaints throughout the city um on the we belong here concert.

And I want to just focus on one event because my new business item preceded that concert because of the issues, and to be clear, your concern is valid when you look at these applications.

The we belong here concert was touted as an intimate event in the application you would look at that application, and I could read it, and you would not know what that concert was going to be like just by looking at what they put on that application.

So that's understandable when you kind of look at these applications.

Usually the problems and Mike knows this is after the fact, it's never before you can't you it, it's always after the fact of a concert, and then you find out all the issues.

And unfortunately, Mike is here, it's not his team that that reviews all the the concerts alone because you have the ones that are at the pier that also are James Corbett's team and Beth and Tony and everyone else.

So there were eight people that we met with uh at least.

And we will all be at the cow and everybody will is participating in the research as as we speak, and we're working feverishly um to get that information so we can schedule the cow so that we can come before you.

Um the the challenge that we're having is getting some responses from different cities and different counties, and we really want to come to you with the best information possible and the best, you know, of what others are doing um with similar concerns and issues.

I'll hold for now.

I I'm not sure what to do here.

I'm really not because we have you here.

And I know that I can trust that you have done your homework, that you have done everything you can to try to ensure that what you're bringing us is something that we'll be okay with approving.

There is a whole nother department that's not here that's responsible for uh events that happen at the pier.

That's where we had a problem.

Some of the events here are taking place at the pier.

So already we've got a team that's not part of this conversation here today, and we can't wait forever and keep approving events while we're and not take any action.

There are some of us who heard from a lot of people, a lot of people.

Some of us heard it ourselves.

We we have to be able to respond.

I don't I don't feel comfortable with approving this today.

If we did them one by one, maybe because some of these I know they don't have um the um amplification that um we're talking about here, but you got to treat everybody the same too and have the same set of rules for everyone.

So I mean, I'm what I'd love to do.

I wish we would have just put everything on hold until we get these changes put into place so that we have something.

There is nothing that without any changes, the police can't do anything more than they did in December.

No one can do anything more.

So we're being asked to approve something by the same standards that failed us just a couple of months ago.

Hi, Beth.

Hi.

Um, I just wanted to make sure that council is aware that if it's on this list for co-sponsored, it has gone through the co-sponsored process in in coordination with Dennis Burns and Mike and his team.

So we don't work in a vacuum.

So they if it's on this list, it has been vetted through the COSPO process.

There are definitely there are options as far as what we do with the current list.

I will tell you there's some time sensitivity to some of these events that uh I'm guessing if we don't get approval today that um the events um would find another location.

So you know, um that that is a potential option as well.

Well, maybe that's just the break we need until we can figure this out.

I'll leave it at that.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Fix Andrews.

Thank you, and um thank you for this conversation.

First, I want to speak on behalf of those that don't even have a clue of what we're talking about.

So if someone can share with those that are watching what the concern was back in December, because you have some people that do not know what happened in December and what we're even having concerns over.

Yes, thank you, um, council member.

Um, in December, we did host a new event um called the We Belong Here, I think just We Belong Here is a festival, an electronic music festival, and um we have actually been talking with Noah and whatnot, but due to a variety of events, some including weather, the type of uh music, the bass, and whatnot, um, the music could be heard all throughout the city, um throughout the city.

Um, and as we had think mentioned uh in another meeting that had happened one time before, many many years ago, with a different type of an event with different type of music.

So um, but because of that one event, um, and it was I live on 42nd Street, I could hear it there for a little while, and I understand in other areas of the city, um, we're having these conversations.

So that's that's the the um the impetus for these conversations.

Okay, and thank you for that.

So I do understand the concern because I heard it.

Yes.

I I I heard it, and um, so you know, I'm glad we're having this conversation.

My only concern and and I do appreciate the fact that you entertain the option of us voting on per event because a lot of these events are their only forms of revenue to provide services for whatever it is that they're doing.

Um, and so for us to no longer be financially sponsoring these events, for us to cut off their revenue, I really don't want to be a part of that.

If there are some that we already know um are I hate to say the word safe, but because we know their what they you know how they operate, we've seen them, we've approved them several times.

Some of the new ones we may be able to better vet, but some of the ones that are on here that use these dollars from these events to further their efforts and their mission, I would hate for us to stall that because you know how slow we move.

I'm just gonna go ahead and make it real.

We move quite slowly, and we have not sponsored financially an event since 2009, financially.

Um, and it's been a long time.

So I would really hate for us to cut off some of the revenue that a lot of these events are actually funding for their mission um to move forward.

So if there is an option for us to vote on these individually, I would love to exercise that option and not totally dismantle those other good actors who we haven't had any issues with for years um to stall to stall what their funding wants, and this may be their one um major fundraising opportunity uh for that one bad actor.

So I'm gonna leave that there.

And if that's an opportunity and the um will of the body to do so, I will be glad to make that motion to approve them individually based on the ones that we know, but I just don't want to cut off their one source of revenue to move their missions forward, and I'll leave it at that.

Move approval 5A through 5 FJ.

Second, second, okay.

So hang on.

I'm gonna say that just so it's clear.

When we had the conversation, and I had the conversation with staff, and and just like council members who dealt with this, I was not happy.

I mean, I made it extremely clear how serious this is.

Um, the we belong here concert was just outrageous, and frankly, you all saying that it went through the process and it was okay, indicates that the process does not work.

Period.

To go up here and say that, and I respect you, Beth, and you know that, but to go up here and say that after we went through the We Belong Here concert, and we saw what happened, and the person, the promoter who we hire, who we pay a ridiculous amount of money monthly to put up the peer events, promoted that event as an intimate concert, and it could be heard to Gulfport, and then had the audacity to post on Facebook that he hopes that city council does not cave in to noise complaints, and I will show that at a council meeting, and he applies for these concerts, it's just not right.

And I want everyone, I want clarity, and I want transparency when it comes to that.

And I don't disagree, council council member, and I and I apologize if what I said was uh taken wrongly.

I just wanted to make sure that the council understood that the departments are working together, and it's I that wasn't I was listening in another office, and and that was the the the pro the uh point that I wanted to make is that um I think community enrichment and city development do work together on these events.

I have the highest respect for you, I have the highest respect for the team, but something went wrong, and we all need to take responsibility, yes, and us as city council, staff in every department, administration, the mayor, we all do because when you have a concert like that, I don't want to hear it was the clouds or the weather.

It was heard in Gulfport, and we all know that.

And I take responsibility just like everybody else does, and I believe that's how administration feels, which is the reason why we're doing this.

So I don't want to minimize this event and what happened.

We want to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

We want to make sure that whatever needs to happen is is happening.

I think those are the concerns that have been raised by the other council members to hear mayor from another city say that you can hear it in another city is is just it's not acceptable, and it's not acceptable to our citizens.

I understand the economic impact.

That's why I hate the fact that we we get all these other events, and everybody gets stuck because of some bad actors.

And there is not just the noise, it's the people that are not doing the things that they're supposed to be doing that go to these concerts that affect our residents, public urination, all the other stuff that doesn't need to happen.

And so I know that y'all are doing a comprehensive look at this.

I just want the public to understand that when you put these forward and you say that you're looking at these, like acknowledge that that did happen, it happened under our watch.

That's all what people want, and that we are gonna fix it, and that's what we're doing, and that's the reason I would say yes to this because I know and I trust that that's what we're doing because we understand that it just wasn't acceptable.

And and council member, everybody agrees with you, uh, and everybody is on the same page.

We've received the exact same emails that you all did.

Um, I can tell you that I probably fielded eight to ten telephone calls from the mayor um uh alone.

He is not happy with the way that event went.

So we're all on the same page.

What I don't have for you today are the answers or the best practices to say here's how we get it on the right path.

And so what we were afraid to do was to penalize this grouping, because as you as you recall, we do four, we we don't have the the um this the exact same process that we had.

This this process, we bring you four groups of co-sponsored events, and so we really had this internal struggle.

Do we put this group on on hold?

And that didn't seem right to us as well.

And I think what council member Fix Sanders is referring to is every one of our co-sponsored events has a nonprofit attached to it, and so that nonprofit, if we were to put them on hold, would definitely penalize um some folks on on this list.

Now, there are, like Lynn said, there are two new events, and what we do is we fully vet those events, we're working with those organizers.

We have seen nothing that makes us think that we're going to have anything similar to what we had in December with those two new events.

The other events that are on this list, um, we do have the country fest that's on the list as well.

Um, Country Fest.

Um, we we got some complaints from uh folks that live in the downtown corridor on that one.

Um, but again, I think that we're going to have complaints any time we do an event in in the park.

So we're looking to mitigate those even on this list, even though we don't have all of our best practices lined up currently.

And and I think that's what people want to understand that is happening that even though this is going forward, their complaints aren't being taken seriously, the work is being done.

I think council member Driscoll's point, and I think what her concerns are is she wants to make sure that this approval does not indicate everything's rosy for us at the end of the day.

I want the public to understand it's not rosy, and by the way, these are not final contracts right now.

Right legal, we don't have final contracts at this point, so there are changes made, they could be made to those contracts, right?

So the resolution right now is not for the contracts themselves.

Typically, the way these are done is there's a form agreement that's filled out and used for all of these.

Um that can be in discussion later if that's something that needs to be modified.

This is just waving that beer and wine only restriction and then approving the events a name in the one big main resolution.

So that should be helpful for council members who are who are concerned about this because it's not a final on the agreements.

I think the concern is if we set the ball rolling, then it's like okay, they're just there we can still do what we want.

I think every person who's applying should be concerned that we have eyes on this, and that we are gonna be looking at what the rules are.

And and I will take it a step farther.

We have reached out to the organizers of the events that we've got the the most complaints from.

Um, and we've had Lynn's had personal conversations with those event organizers, and we've let them know that here are some of the things that we need for you to start working on.

Again, one of the ones we talked about was length of time in the park.

Um, we we do have we have had good participation when it comes to country fest and regular eyes up as far as turning the base down, uh aiming the speakers away from the city.

So so there are some things that that are occurring and will continue to occur occur.

Um, but you know, again, a lot of these events once they are approved in concept, um, then we start to work on some of that fine-tuning with the contracts later on as we get closer and closer to the event.

And if I could, Chair, I just I just want to assure you and the other council members and reiterate what Mike said that um we certainly understand the concerns from that event, and we are working on it, you know, some of the speaker placements, some of the things that we can do.

We really do look forward to the Cal discussion.

Um it's gonna be a good discussion with city council.

We want to hear from all of you.

You know, we also want to discuss and hear from you, you know, um, how you feel about the future of events in the city and where they should be and how they should operate.

It's really a larger discussion about how events drive some economic um you know opportunity downtown and what are the adverse impacts of that, and what are we willing to live with?

So I I think that's gonna be a big discussion, and we look forward to I I certainly understand why you're concerned doing this before the Cal.

Um, but we would greatly appreciate if we could move forward on these as we continue to work on the Cal.

And I appreciate that, Robin.

I will say that you know, my frustration to be clear, you know, we had promoters and people who do applications who are not forthright in what they've put on their applications.

And that has not gone unnoticed.

I mean, to me, I can't believe the word intimate was used for that concert that could be heard in Gulfport.

Um, and you know, fool us once, you know, shame on you, full us twice, you know, shame on us.

And that's how we're operating.

And I and there is this message.

I want the promoters to know that that is not gonna be accepted, and there are provisions in our contracts that we can exercise where they will not have events in this city.

Again, there are provisions in the contract if they do not follow the rules.

That's why they are in the contract.

So I've said what I've needed to set on that.

Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you.

Uh by Chair Floyd.

Uh I won't get into it too much because we will have a conversation later on.

But uh I I first I wanted to say I'm sure administration got the same phone calls we did.

We all got them.

Uh ironically, I was at a different concert in a different city when I was getting them, so it was kind of uh funny from my perspective.

But um best practices we can adopt we're interested.

Well, it was inside, yeah.

Maybe that's the best practice.

Yeah, but uh, you know, they don't have a beautiful waterfront like we do, and so um I I think I I just mostly wanted to say uh, you know, to anyone listening, they're my colleagues, like from my perspective, and correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed like it was uh enforcement after the fact that was a major issue for the sound concerns.

Like, and so uh, you know, our it we can have everything buttoned up, every I dotted and T cross, and if they turn the volume up too loud, that requires noise ordinance enforcement.

And so that's what I saw as the problem.

And so the conversation about what we do ahead of time is important, but the enforcement afterwards, if there is someone who's doing something they shouldn't be doing, feels like what's most pertinent to me in this conversation.

And so uh these events I've looked through the list.

There's only one in here that I'm not very familiar with, uh, but the rest I feel very comfortable with, and I'm gonna assume that since that recent um uh I don't know, let's just call it spate of complaints, uh, that we'll have our eyes uh focusly uh we'll have our eyes focused on anything that comes forward in the future um while we get this conversation going.

But I mean, I don't know if y'all can speak to what the issue was that day or uh what we plan on doing going forward, but if someone's turned the volume up too loud, I assume we should just be using every tool at our disposal to get them to turn it down.

So I think um Chief Holloway, and he's not here obviously, I don't want to speak for him, but um my understanding is they received violations, and that's one of the things that Chair Hanowitz has asked us to, you know, are do we have enough teeth in the violations so that you know day of the event um it's not it's not working for us type of a thing.

Because just as we said, we did vet this and it was listed as an intimate concert, and that that's not something that would you know when you're looking at it on paper, that's not something that would trigger, hey, we have we have an issue here.

Um the other thing that happened with that particular event is that um I think their attendance was um more than they had originally estimated.

And so there were a lot of little components, and uh what what we want to find out is what are other cities doing for that day of.

Um are they pulling the plug?

Are they what what are the what options are available to us?

The other thing that um is is in place is that our noise ordinance is about a mile um if you hear uh up to a mile.

So that may work for um you know many of these events, but then some of the others it it doesn't, and obviously when we had the we belong, that was clearly I I live in golf port, and I I heard it in golf port, so uh lived it.

Um so it's one of those things where um those are some of the questions that we're asking right now.

What we we haven't had a situation like this in many, many years that I can remember where we've had um an event that could be heard all over the the city.

Um but I will tell you there's also balances and there's there's challenges because you know we have Grand Prix that can be heard um uh all over the city as well.

So it we we really on the dais this is not an easy task, and this is not going to be something that is um being taken lightly by staff, and that's why we need the time to kind of make sure we're crossing all of our T's and dotting all our I's because um uh there's a lot of work going forward, and we really do want to hit that sweet spot, that balanced spot.

I I appreciate that, and uh got distracted by you saying that you lived in golf port publicly like that, but um uh I I'll just say that you know, I I bring that up because you know, regardless of what's put into uh a contract or put on an application, there's noise rules, and uh, you know, if they had said intimate and it was a lot less intimate than they said it was gonna be, but it didn't violate the noise ordinance.

I don't think we're having this conversation today.

So um I want to make sure I I'm eager to have the conversation, but I do want to make sure that we don't get into a situation where we're uh choosing what kinds of events we have down there.

I mean, I like uh EDM, I like house music a lot.

I've been to concerts in the middle of central London.

Um I noticed when I got there, oh the music's a lot quieter than uh I would have expected.

Um and so uh I know it's possible.

Um, but I know the city has a history of allowing certain things downtown and not other things.

Um I don't want us to go down that path either.

I want to see it be open and available to any type of cultural event that we can.

And so um I look forward to working with y'all is what I would say, and I know that you're gonna uh do what needs to be done, but I just don't think that we should get lost in like uh the fact that you know people violate a noise ordinance.

Oh, let me mention one last thing too.

Um, you know, I mean, I'm sure there's laws around how uh tough you know, fines and whatnot, how much teeth can be in our noise ordinances, but I know from my experience and working with legal, like uh contractually, we usually have a lot more leeway.

So uh I assume that you're going down that path, but that's just what's in my mind right now.

So I figured I'd say it out loud.

Yes, yeah, I see other people agreeing.

All right, thank you very much, Chair.

Councilmember Fake Sanders.

Thank you.

And the memory is bad, but I do want to remind my colleagues that we used to have a co-sponsored committee where we had where we had council members, us council member GERDIS where we actually were on a on that committee, and we as a council said that we were gonna trust what you all brought to us, and that I'm trying to figure out where we lost that.

If if we at that because it's only been what a couple years that we actually disbanded that 2023, no, it hadn't been that long.

Yeah, maybe three.

Yeah.

So again, I'm still I just wanted to remind my colleagues that we had a voice prior to it got here.

Um, and we put our trust in the fine staff that we have standing in front of us, and that has not changed for me.

So I want to thank you all for that.

Um, as you said, this is something that happened hadn't happened in years, and we we had three hurricanes or two hurricanes in one year.

We didn't plan for that either.

So thank you for what you've done.

I appreciate um council member GET is moving, you know, making the motion, and I don't know who seconded it.

Um but um I I just wanted to throw that little friendly reminder out to my colleagues that we used to have a process where we actually played a role um in that, and we gave you enough um credit and consideration and confidence um that you would vet these um events as you saw fit.

So I I still want to share that I have that confidence and I do appreciate you.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you, Councilmember Fix Anders for reminding us.

We did have a committee, but this would have gone through committee like everything else.

And we would have been in the same place.

And by the way, for the record, the way they describe the concert, I looked it up was we belong here, a smaller, more intimate version of a music festival with minimalist production.

So yes.

Um council member Driscoll.

Thank you.

Um I remember we had good reason to dissolve that committee.

And um, it is because you all have done such a phenomenal job in the past on this.

Um I don't think that problem lies with how you evaluate applications.

The enforcement can only go so far if we don't change the rules.

So I don't think, yeah, I don't think this would be any the any different if we had a committee.

We're basically having that here.

I mean, we can have these discussions, and we don't usually have to have any discussion at all about these, but we learned in December that we've got some work to do.

I know you're working on it, but it hasn't been done yet, and now we've got this, and I have a hard time going on record supporting something when it is business as usual as it stands with these ever a case, and I don't care what nonprofit benefits from an event, but I don't know of any event that we would book in our city that's more important than our residents, the people who live here.

And so I'm going to vote against this because it's a vote for our residents and putting them first.

What we should have done was just put a halt on events, at least new ones.

You could have broken it down to where we could accept the ones that have that are rebookings that we know already have a track record with us and put a halt on new ones until we get this sorted out.

That would have been one way to approach this that I totally would have gone along with.

But I've got to vote for our residents first and foremost, they deserve to have some action taken after what they had to deal with.

So I just wanted to explain where I'm at before we do this vote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I appreciate that, Councilmember Driscoll.

I I have a hard time with this because it was my business item, obviously, but I know that there are lots of organizations here that are got our caught in the crosshairs because of what's happening.

Um I also know based on both um what Vice Chair Richie Floyd mentioned and others that the issues, the complex issues are being looked at, which is why this has taken a little longer in terms of how we can surgically do this based on the different types of events and the different types of noises because different noises travel differently.

Um our noise ordinance, by the way, is is changed by the legal agreement, which allows for the mile.

That's not our noise ordinance, and I want to make it clear that's based on the contractual agreement.

So that 5,000 feet can also change for events.

Um and it can be looked at even more nuanced.

And by the way, I know that the um Grand Prix was mentioned and it's heard through the city.

I want to point out that's during the day, not at night.

And so there are ways that you can also look at this by times of when these events are and the noise levels.

So there are different ways that legal can actually do this without looking at a different type of noise or or type of um event.

So I just want to put that out there.

Um I am confident that based on the conversations I've had um with administration and Mike and James and everyone on the team that they are working on all the issues we've discussed, and because of that, I will vote a yes, but I will be looking at what the concerts are, the ones that are issues to make sure that a lot of those issues are being taken care of.

So with that being said, there's a motion and a second.

Clerk, you please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all council members have voted, clear to you, please tally announce the vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda items F5A through F5J passes seven to one with council members Fix Sanders, Floyd, Gabbard, Gerdis, Gibbons, Hannawitz, and Harding voting yes.

Councilmember Driscoll voting no.

Thank you.

And thank you all for being here.

Thank you.

We move on to F three.

Hi, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

We've got a presentation queuing up.

Um, but good afternoon to council and chair.

I'm pleased to be able to present a resolution for your consideration today that would allow us to continue moving forward with the city qu acquiring another rail segment as well as effectuate other community benefits and improvements.

I'd like to acknowledge um Aaron Fish, Real Estate and Property Management Director and Assistant City Attorney Heather Judd for their expertise and work on this.

Thank you for being here with me today.

And also uh Erica Hernandez with the Trust for Public Land.

She's the Florida Project Manager.

She is here joining us today as well.

These maps can help us get acquainted with the property in question.

On the left side, you can see outlined in orange how the line goes from Fifth Avenue North and progresses down to First Avenue South, ending at M.

L.

King Junior Street.

We can also see on the right uh zoomed in version.

Or I'm sorry, on the left, we can see the first rider refusal that goes north of Fifth Avenue North and goes to uh city limits at 38th Avenue North.

On the right, um, you can see the um hashed area uh I'm sorry.

The solid black line represents the existing Pinellas Trail.

And also, please take note of the green and black marked existing historic Booker Creek Trail segment, which will we'd be able to extend northward once the acquisition is complete.

On the right-hand side is a zoomed-in version where the blue hashed areas marked with a number one uh two and three represent the blocks where we plan to lease back a portion of the line to adjacent landowners who will help cover the acquisition cost.

And for some historical context, this line was originally acquired by Peter Demons of the original Orange Belt Railroad in 1888.

The line is actually shown on the original plat of St.

Petersburg.

So why would we want to buy this property?

Well, the first reason I think is apparent to any observer, the land is currently underutilized and much of it isn't adding good value to the community.

And this vision has withstood the test of time.

Acquiring the line and putting it to higher and better use has been adopted in many planning documents dating back to over 20 years ago when the city adopted its city trails plan.

Subsequently, the goal was reinforced in a series of adopted plans in 2013, 2017, and in 2019.

Additionally, at City Council's April 16th, 2020 meeting, working towards this acquisition was unanimous unanimously supported.

Here we can see the rail segment on the city trails plan.

The line is shown in the four Pinellas Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan here.

And here we can see how the Booker Creek Trail is part of the adopted edge district improvement plan and the acquisition being called out as a specific key action.

As you heard earlier, the Edge District continues to support this acquisition and using TIFF funds to help fund the purchase.

And of course, we did incorporate this into the 2019 Complete Streets Plan.

So beginning in 2019, for approximately a year before the council vote, I mentioned earlier.

Brad Tennant in the city's attorney's office who has joined us today.

I would call out.

Thank you for being here.

With assistance from other staff, began some earnest legal research and other research to begin exploring the path that we're hopefully nearing completion of today.

In 2023, there was a legal decision that required CSX and the city to begin negotiations for us to buy the line.

Subsequently, CSX presented an independent appraisal indicating that the line, which is almost eight acres of prime downtown land, was worth 88 million dollars.

We also decided to work with the Trust for Public Land and Rails to Trails, bringing their national expertise to bear and help work through a complex process.

Of note is that this would be the third rail acquisition in St.

Petersburg.

The first acquisition resulted in the Pinellas Trail opening in 1990, and then the Pinellas Trail extension that brought that trail all the way to the downtown waterfront along First Avenue South, which opened in 2008.

Initially, our approach was to find interested private investors to buy excess segments along the line that we didn't need for the trail construction since much of the line is 100 feet wide, and we really only need 30 feet maximum for a trail and recovery area on either side.

However, it was determined that the city could be the only landowner.

So we pivoted to 99-year leases, which is not ownership, but about as close as you can get.

And Fergus agreed to pay $4 million up front for a 99-year lease, and Ellison agreed to pay $2 million for that same 99-year lease on a smaller area of land.

And here's where I'd like to compliment CSX on the way that they worked with us.

The negotiations did take a long time, but CSX was honest and transparent through the process, and they came down to a figure $7 million total that we believe makes this a very good investment for the city and our private sector partners.

Here's the proposed funding strategy.

We need 1.2 million dollars total of city funding, which will pay the city acquisition cost and our share of the due diligence, which includes a survey, title insurance policy, additional appraisals, recording, and other closing costs.

This acquisition is an eligible expense in the in town West TIFF, and we propose the other half being paid for from the parking revenue fund balance.

As previously mentioned, uh Fergus will pay $4 million in an L.

As it relates to Ferguson Allison, it's important to point out how the trail would align and what that would leave for use by Fergus and Allison.

So on the FERDS Fergus block, there's already the existing beginning of a trail segment going north from the existing Pinellas Trail that goes under First Avenue South and emerges next to Ferg's approaching Central Avenue.

So that leaves most of the CSX property on that block available for Ferg's continued use.

On the LSM block, they would lease the 70 eastern feet for their use.

Will we keep the western 70 foot width for future trail use?

The purchase agreement before you today includes those two blocks being eligible for commun commercial uses, while the other blocks will be more restricted and which will result in open space reserved for trail and trail related uses.

So here's what would happen if City Council approves the resolution today.

We will execute the agreement between the city and trust for public land.

Due diligence will occur, some of which has actually already started at Trust for Public Land's own risk because long lead times are involved.

We'll finalize agreements with Fergus and Ellison and bring those back here for city council consideration.

Assuming all these action items move forward successfully, we will close on the property by the end of June, which involves a simultaneous sale from CSX to Trust for Public Land and Trust for Public Land to the City.

Once we have ownership of the land, we plan to seek state and federal grants to assist in funding the trail construction.

Depending on the findings of the environmental assessment, there could be mitigation investment required.

Any required mitigation is to be determined, but it may simply be met with the construction of a trail to cap any identified contaminants.

And that concludes the presentation.

Second.

Is there public comment?

Yes, we do have one speaker, madam chair.

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.

Hi, thank you for um being here.

My name's Debbie Reeser.

I'm at 105 Fourth Avenue Northeast in St.

Pete.

I'm the past immediate president of the Edge Board.

And I just want to reiterate what Nicole said earlier.

We totally support this acquisition and hopefully you will all vote in favor of it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Givens.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Evan.

I I know rail acquisition can be a complex process, but it's exciting.

Um and it's personal for me.

Uh my great great-grandfather worked for the Seaboard Coastline, and so this is exciting to see this being a part of my district, the edge district, seeing how this is really going to support businesses.

Um, here we are activating a derelict in the lipidated area.

Um, that's the purpose, the true intended purpose of these TIF funds.

Um I support this because I I see the long-term vision.

Um, this isn't just something that we're going to enjoy, but this is something that future generations will get to reap the rewards of.

Um, I see this as the logical next step in completing the city's comprehensive trails pathways plan.

Um, this is something that we talked about doing 20 years ago, and here we are actually taking that next step.

So I'm excited to see this move forward.

So thank you for your hard work.

Thank you, Chair.

Vice Chair.

Uh thank you.

Uh Councilmember Gabbard.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

And uh just very quickly, words of thanks.

Um, very excited to support this today.

Evan, your persistence and your perseverance is incredible.

Um, you are a complete streets champion, and that is what this work really uh per the presentation uh speaks to.

Even when you don't have all of the resources that you need, even when you don't have all the funding that you need, you continue to push, you continue to find ways to make our city safer and more enjoyable, and I just really want to thank you for that.

Um I admire you a lot, and just uh this is an example of that work that you do.

And I would be remiss without saying uh to Mr.

Brad Tennant, who is here today.

Um when I first came on council in 2019.

I think one of the first meetings I had was with you talking about CSX and uh how we could, you know, eventually get to this place.

So thank you for being an early pioneer on this work, and uh Heather Judd, thank you for seeing it through.

So that's what a great team does.

So thank you all, and uh very happy to support today.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh Councilmember Harding.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Evan, I I will absolutely um echo councilmember uhwards comments.

That this is a huge lift.

Um not to be uh not to be overlooked, Ellison and uh and Mr.

Ferguson are just big players in this, and I greatly appreciate them uh helping the city along and their their investment.

And uh and I'm gonna apologize for this ahead of time.

Is there any chance we go any further north as the next project?

Yes, that's um we we have the first retire of usual to keep going all the way up to city limits um if CSX no longer serves that section to the north.

Um specifically that the part of the line that that uh bifurcates city property.

Is there uh is that a thing that we might look at next?

Again, not to take away from what is a day uh a career star um and what you achieved, but I am just curious.

Yeah, there's um the future could hold that.

You know, there's there's only one rail customer uh in St.

Petersburg left, and uh we want them to be a thriving local business for as long as possible.

Um, but as long as they get heavy material from this rail line, then it's probably the real additional rail won't become available, but uh at some point in the future it may.

All right, thank you very much and congratulations.

Thanks.

Yeah, Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you, and thank you for the um presentation and for all the work that you've done on this.

Um councilmember Gabbard is right.

CSX has been a topic for a long time.

And thinking about those conversations, my first year on City Council, I kind of gave up.

I was like, you know, this CSX thing is so complicated and so tangled up that I don't know if we'll ever be able to get anything out of it, even though it made sense.

And here we are today, and that makes me so happy.

So thanks for your um your work on this.

Uh it looks like this is gonna go in your favor once again.

Um I do want to know.

Do you think is there any other city staffer who has been around as long as you have and is also undefeated on votes because you've never lost a vote.

Is there anybody else?

Well, Cheryl's here with me, and uh I I would like to thank her as well.

I had a oh thank you, Cheryl.

Should have worked her into the list, but um happy that she's she's here, a great partner.

All right, so you will continue to be the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

As I like to call you.

So congratulations, and I can't wait to see what becomes of this as it moves forward.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

All right.

Uh good stuff.

I that's literally all I put myself on here to say.

Uh those two words.

Uh thank you very much for the presentation.

Thank you, Brad, for your work.

I don't it was one of the first things I feel like I talked with you about as well when I got here.

Um yeah, I look forward to expanding any sort of opportunity like this for uh trails, alternative means of transportation.

I'm thinking uh even bigger in the future is what I'll say, more than just you know, having a place you can ride your bike.

Uh, but I'll settle for that right now.

Um so uh uh so I'm grateful for all of that.

And uh it looks like we do have a resolution here, but I haven't heard a motion or a second.

We do, okay.

Sorry.

Um all right.

Well then uh seeing no further request to speak.

Uh will the clerk please open the machine for voting.

Council members under your vote.

Seeing all present council members have voted, will the clerk please oh oh oh, sorry, didn't see you there.

Now you say it.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, clerk please tally and announce the vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F3 passes unanimously.

Thank you, thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Next up, we have F4.

Hi, Aubrey.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Aubrey Phillips, director of strategic initiatives and grants.

Um I'm also have with me Tyler Bridges from BDO Government Services.

We're here today to report on the consulting services agreement amendment.

This is for the community development block grant for disaster recovery.

So we're recommending this afternoon approval of an amendment to the existing consulting services agreement with Horn LLP, who is now doing business as BDO government services.

Uh this would provide an additional 48 million to amend the total contract amount from 11.6 million to 59.7 million.

And that's covering uh both residential recovery and relief beneficiary costs and direct intake center lease costs.

I'll talk more about that in just a moment.

And then also requesting authorization to execute the agreement and related documents.

So first up, I want to address the name change from Horn to BDO.

So Horn LLP, who we have our existing consulting services agreement with for implementation services for CDBGDR, notified us on October 8th of a planned merger with BDO USA, pursuant to which HON has merged into a subsidiary of BDO named BDO government services.

That merger closed on November 1st as a matter of law.

That contract between Horn and the city transferred to BDO, and as you're aware, we've initiated these programs and intake just recently closed for our first set of residential recovery and relief programs.

So this contract amendment, which we previewed with you when we brought that original consulting services agreement that handles the administrative costs of administering our residential recovery and public infrastructure mitigation programs.

That is for the intake service center.

When we initially uh scoped out the consulting services agreement, we anticipated being able to find uh city existing city facilities that we could use for an intake center.

While we did find space at Enoch Davis community center, and that's been a very successful satellite service center, the available space was limited, and we really needed more space for an intake center.

Um, so that direct lease cost is reflected in this amendment.

And then the remainder, the bulk of this amendment increase, is for direct beneficiary awards.

So these are costs that are passing through BDO or would pass through BDO directly to benefit residents of St.

Petersburg, whether that's through construction uh costs associated with repair and reconstruction elevation awards or for direct grant payments.

Uh there were of the main reason we wanted to move forward with incorporating this as part of the scope of what BDO would do is one, it's directly passing through those costs.

There is not a percentage that BDO is getting of these expenses to provide those benefits to our residents.

There's a lot of administrative efficiencies in terms of having them administer those construction contracts directly as well as the grant payments directly.

And thirdly, it really gave our residents a lot of autonomy and options in terms of how they receive their grant awards.

So for those disaster relief payments and the reimbursement for repairs, it'll be up to the individual resident will get to tell us whether they'd like to get their grant payment through a digital wallet, a direct deposit, or check.

And that is in the hands of the applicant and is functionality that was they were readily able to support.

Just a quick reminder on the background of how we got here.

These agreed this agreement and the amendment stems from the request for proposals 25090 that was a competitive procurement process that we issued in January of 2025 for comprehensive disaster recovery and emergency management consulting services.

We pre-qualified five vendors through that RFP and agreements are executed on a project specific basis.

The agreement with BDO for the consulting services they're currently providing was one of those agreements and that previously came to council last summer.

And these costs are reimbursable under our HUD CDBGDR grant.

These are direct activity delivery costs associated with delivering these benefits to our residents.

And so finally, our staff recommendation is to approve the resolution before you that authorizes assignment, assumption, and first amendment to the consulting services agreement with Horn for a total contract amount as amended that should not exceed 59 million seven hundred and five hundred and eighty-one dollars.

One quick note here because we know that these programs are fluid.

If there are funds that are not spent on consulting services through this program, they would automatically go over to direct beneficiary costs.

So that total not to exceed allows us to make sure that anything that's not spent on those consulting services out of that budget can flow through to continue to benefit our residents.

With that, I'll take any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gavard.

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

I just have one quick question.

Um it was brought up this morning, I brought it up in our layer committee about the 25 million for the uh infrastructure mitigation.

And so seeing your chart here, the 1.88 to million, that is the consulting services agreement for um that particular bucket.

Does that then come out of the 25 million yes?

So it's 23 and some change.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

Just want to make sure, you know, I'm aware of just kind of how those dollars flow and just kind of monitoring that to make sure as we've discussed that we're really looking at projects where we can do the most benefit for the community, recognizing that if those projects are over, like the project I mentioned this morning in Clan Bayou, this will eat into that money that we have a little bit.

So we'll have to find that extra buffer.

Yep.

And I also wanted to address and thank you for bringing up this point is that if we don't end up using that needing that full 1.8 million for uh grant management purposes related to that program, that'll go back to the project delivery costs.

Got it.

Okay, yeah.

So um I just want to say I think the work that BDO has done for us so far has been exceptional, and so very happy to continue working with them and really just want to thank you all for the work that you're doing.

So thank you.

Uh so we have a motion yet?

No?

No motion.

Approval.

Sorry.

We have a motion and a second.

Clerk, you please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted.

Clerk, please tally announce a vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item F4 passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you, Aubrey.

Next up, we have new business.

Councilmember Gabbard, G1.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh respectfully requesting referral to public services and infrastructure committee for a presentation and discussion on the potential use of AI permitting software in the building department to improve intake and pre-check processes, accelerate plan reviews, streamline staff workflow, and enhance the citizen experience for new construction and infill redevelopment projects.

And I so move.

Councilmember Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Councilmember Gabbard, I'm working on something a bit broader in scope.

Um I don't know if it is uh if it is worth duplicating.

So I wanted to ask you if you wanted to think about that.

We looked at at other things like um AI in terms of data aggregation report writing.

Um, and there are four or five other examples of how AI is being used currently, municipalities and in smaller government.

Um, and I'm happy to do that separate down the road.

Um were you were you were you set on in Polk County is having great success with what you're talking about?

Were you set on that or would you be willing to expand it or would you rather do it twice?

Um I mean, certainly, and those of us who are at the EDC yesterday heard uh you know, a lot of talk about AI and understanding that this is going to be the future of pretty much everything that is being done.

I don't think there can be enough conversation about it, to be quite honest.

For me, I am laser focused on specifically how it can improve our permitting processes, uh, not only for our residents, but for our staff.

Um, I think there's a lot of staff augmentation that needs to be done across departments, and I think that permitting is a very ripe place to use this technology, and I'm excited to see how that could even be something that maybe the Tyler software has a plug-in for.

I'm not sure.

Um, but you know, certainly want to make sure that the permitting piece of it is a standalone focus because that is uh really I mean, I literally, while sitting here on the dais right now, have a resident emailing me about her permitting process.

Um so it just reinforces for me that this particular topic is of dire need.

And so for me, I would like it to have a standalone item and very much look forward to whatever you bring forward for any other process improvements that can be done.

Happy to support you that way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you.

I'm happy to uh move this forward today and have this conversation.

I just uh in my professional background have had experience with uh large-scale data analysis and it has like its place in certain situations, like um but mission critical things when we describe AI nowadays.

Uh there's large-scale data analysis and then there's uh large language learning language learning models and generative AI, and as of right now, I think uh large scale data analysis is feasible, but the other one I have serious concerns about.

And so I would just hope that we are uh really focused on doing something that can bring confidence to our community, is what I would say.

Uh because I just disagree with your statement that AI is the future of everything as of right now, um, based off my background uh in this kind of thing.

And so um I'm not gonna stop us from having a conversation, but I want to let you all know that I'm going in with skepticism immediately.

Uh thank you.

Welcome.

Councilmember Gerdon.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um I I'm happy to support the item.

Uh Councilmember Gabbard, are you planning on having somebody um from Tyler there?

I think I'm gonna work with administration on it.

I mean, to be quite honest, I haven't had an actual conversation with administration about this.

Uh just knowing how the referral lists are, kind of gotta get it in the queue so you can start working on it.

So um, yeah.

If you don't mind, yeah, no.

Um we're happy to work with you, Councilmember Gabbard.

We've had some um initial research.

We are looking at this, so we can share with you what we've been doing and prepare a plan for it.

Perfect.

And Spark Labs and uh Becca Brown, you know, certainly uh a resource for this as well.

Yeah, I saw some presentations that I think certainly attached to this at Spark.

Um I I just know that we've just made a very significant investment into Tyler, and so I'd want to make sure that we're it's working in parallel with that.

That would be my as long as as long as you heard me on that, I'm all good.

Yep.

Thank you, madam chair.

Okay, I have a motion.

I need a second.

Second, motion and a second, clerk you'll please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted.

Clerk, please tally announced a vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item G1 passes unanimously.

Thank you.

We move on to H1.

Councilmember Gabbard.

All right, thank you.

And these are separate.

Yes, they are.

Okay.

Okay.

So for H1, um, this is a cleanup of the HERS referral list from our conversation.

So this is respectfully requesting City Council approval to expand the scope of the HERS referral item list to be uh notated as follows.

Respectfully requesting a referral to the Health Energy Resiliency and Sustainability Committee for a discussion regarding the exploration of municipally owned or supported grocery stores in food deserts within the city.

And I'll just give the background for those who uh maybe were not tuned in to that meeting.

Um this is an ongoing conversation we've been having.

Um the original item was municipally owned after some action that was taken that we're gonna discuss next.

Then the conversation shifted to making sure that we um also have the opportunity to talk about future supported, not just owned as a cohesive conversation.

Um so with that I will move approval.

Second, okay.

So we're dealing with H1A right now, which is which um council member gabbard just spoke about.

I know they were public.

Okay, I want to make sure because there are two items, and I have a feeling that public comment is for B, not A.

Yes.

And uh we're just talking about right now a referral item.

Councilmember Givens.

Thank you very much, Chair, and I just want to remind my colleagues I am a proud member of one community.

Uh so I'm gonna be recusing myself from this vote just like I did in committee.

So I'm gonna be abstaining.

So I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be stepping out for this vote.

Thank you.

And I think you're gonna be stepping out for H1B.

Okay, just for the record, you will be here for the first vote.

You can still vote for the first one, which is H1A, Councilmember Givens, which is okay.

So we have a motion.

I need a second.

There was a second.

Okay.

I I'm I didn't hear, I'm sorry.

Motion and a second.

Um clerk, you please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all council members have voted, clerk please tally announce the vote.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item H1A passes unanimously.

Okay, great.

Uh, we have H1B now.

Councilmember Gabbard.

Respectfully requesting citizens.

I'm sorry, Madam Chair.

Sorry.

The reason, Councilmember Givens.

Councilmember Gibbons, sorry.

Did you state your reason for your recusal on the record?

Yes, I did for the record.

I'm a member of one community, and I want to prevent there being any perception of a conflict dementia, so that's why I'm recusing myself.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'm okay.

Yep.

Thank you.

I think you have legals okay.

Respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution supporting one community grocery co-op request requesting the administration provide partnership support in the amount of $50,000 to the one community grocery co-op to further the goals of the healthy food action plan.

And there is a resolution attached, and I so move.

Second.

And we have public comment.

I'm gonna call two speakers at a time.

Um when I call your name, 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.

The first two speakers are Leslie Bowman and Erica Hardison.

Do you want to go first?

Hi, Leslie Bauman, 2920, Burlington Avenue North.

I've been a member of the member owner of the OCGC for many years.

Thank you for your support of community-owned grocery.

I hope it's unanimous.

Not only will it bring healthy food to the South Side, it will employ local residents and keep money keep money circulating in the area.

It will also strengthen the community.

I've visited co-ops from Kalamazoo to Silver City to Seattle, where people reap the benefits rather than being exploited by profiteers.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um Erica Hardison, um, 13th Street and 24th Avenue South.

Um again, my name is Erica Zenzele Hardison, and I live and work, I live, work, and play in St.

Petersburg, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

I'm here to respectfully ask you approve the resolution supporting one community grocery co-op, a community-owned grocery initiative that is working to expand food access, health, and nutrition, strengthen our economy, and build community wealth right here in St.

Petersburg.

Over the past year, one community grocery co-op has continued to demonstrate what community-led development looks like in action.

We have had a significant growth in our membership, over 140 percent, and we are now over 185 members strong and growing, deepening our partnerships with local farmers and organizations, and expanding our outreach and educational programming, focused on healthy food access and cooperative economics.

This work has been powered by residents, volunteers, and community stakeholders who believe in building solutions together.

This is not just about opening a grocery store, it's about creating a reliable source of healthy food in the area that has long experienced gaps in access.

It is about supporting local farmers and food entrepreneurs.

It is about creating jobs and keeping dollars circulating in our local economy, and it is about ensuring that residents have ownership and voice in the resources that are essential to our everyday life.

The resolution before you represents an opportunity to affirm the city of St.

Petersburg's commitment to its residents, their health and economic development.

Supporting this initiative sends a clear message that our city values community-driven solutions and believes in investing in projects that uplift residents and strengthen our neighborhoods.

The momentum is here.

Excuse me, the community support is here.

What we need now is continued partnership and approval of this resolution to help move the work forward.

Again, I respectfully ask that you vote yes to approve this resolution and stand with the residents and stakeholders who are working to bring a community-owned grocery store to life in St.

Petersburg.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your continued service to the city.

Thank you.

Uh, the next two speakers are Alan Sybertson and Franklin Alz.

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

You'll have three minutes to address city council.

Franklin left.

Go ahead.

Um thank you, Chair and City Council.

My name is Ellen Sievertson.

I live at 1017, 32nd Street North.

I am a member owner of One Community Grocery Co-op, and I just wanted to encourage you all to vote yes on the resolution for the funding for one community grocery co-op.

Um I grew up with co-ops.

Um my mother helped start one in 1977 in uh Minnesota, and that is still a viable active um grocery store now.

Um I believe that our co-op will also be a long-term solution for Sault St.

Pete to have access to healthy food.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um Madam Chair, the um Franklin Awes, his card indicated that he was for the item.

Okay.

Uh the final speaker is Jerome King.

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

You'll have three minutes to address city council.

Hello, everyone.

Uh my name is Jerome King.

I live at 4546 10th Avenue South, and I'm here to um speak on the resolution HB1.

I want to um say that today's resolution um this $50,000 is more than a grant, it is a strategic step to insulate the city's already eight million dollars in investments in the South St.

PCRA region.

Um we are here to help ensure that the infrastructure of health keeps peace with the infrastructure of housing.

Um right now the city is breaking ground in over 2,000 units.

Um at Skytown, others um Fairfield Avenue gas plant, these developments um represent a generational shift.

However, housing alone doesn't create community um or neighborhood.

It's um it needs sustainability and uh community-led foo anchors are a way to make sure that we limit the issue of um residents, these new residents coming in and having limited fool accessibility.

So I urge um you all to vote yes to protect the city's housing investment by building a full security that um you guys can pretty much help with that infrastructure and make sure that these 800 million dollars of new housing is supported by healthy resilient food systems.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Harding.

Thank you, Chair.

I have uh I have had the pleasure of listening to Erica three times now, and I find her uh I find her to be engaging, engaging and uh impassionate, and um and my comments uh in in no way will uh or should take away from how much I believe in her cause.

I do have a struggle.

Um here is my struggle.

The um I believe enough in the cause that I that when I was in Tallahassee, I visited the co-op that um that was mentioned in one of the presentations.

And um and there is a the issue, and one of the issues that I cannot resolve in my head, and and please keep in mind in my real life, um, this is the industry that I work in.

I work in the human consumable industry and I have for my entire career.

And um, and my first struggle is that uh affordable and healthy don't go together.

And at that co-op, um the uh the everything that I found, more or less, if you put it in the aggregate, was about 15% more than what I would pay for it in publics.

Healthy is healthy is expensive, and that's just the way that works.

And so I struggle with with with in this community what's the balance between between uh affordable and healthy and how do those work out.

And I and I don't have an answer to that at all, and I'm still contemplating that.

Um I struggle with um I think I've done more research on this than just about anything else that I have Googled in my supposed spare time, and I haven't found um a great uh a great connection between um public money and and grocery stores, publicly owned grocery stores.

I I've found an awful lot of effort.

I haven't found a lot of success.

And um, and in the grand scheme of the pool of money that is available to this municipality, I wonder if it is it is the best use.

Um, and so uh I I believe this will end up passing today.

I will vote no on this.

I would like to see a game plan.

I would like to to know better what it is that this $50,000 would accomplish.

I do know that in order to build this, um, because I've built things like this before, we're we're well into the seven figures.

We're we're a million five plus uh to to build this and get it open.

And um, and I need to be uh I I need to have a better understanding of of where all that comes from.

And so um, and so I'll I'll leave it there for now.

I greatly appreciate that.

I believe in the cause.

I don't know that the funding sources uh is public government.

Um but I but I appreciate the effort, and that's where I'll leave it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilmember Gabbard.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, so my questions will be brief.

It was just really a follow-up for administration.

Um so in the conversations that we had, and I went back and re-listened to the entire thing to make sure that you know, in the hopes that this passes today, that we have our next steps in line.

And so I wanted to make sure, and uh I should probably maybe just let Councilmember Driscoll take it.

But uh I I did go back and re-listen, and just wanted to make sure you and I uh you know get that follow-up that we need um for the request that you had made.

Um the words exactly that uh councilwoman Driscoll used was a request for staff from the greenhouse to assist in capacity building with the co-op.

And then um the response from staff about the uh request was that there was a commitment for service providers to assist with capacity building for the co-op.

So I wanted to understand now that I've gone back and listened to it again, what the difference in that terminology is within the greenhouse, um, because I think staff implicates that we as a city and our resources, we are going to work with the co-op to help them be able to stand up whatever it looks like for next steps.

But then when I heard those words service providers, I didn't know if that meant something else.

So I needed to kind of understand that and make sure that you all have had conversations since the HERS meeting about how we're going to move forward if this passes and really assisting for what I'm hearing councilmember Harding's concern is, which is like how is this really feasible?

How does this move forward?

And I think that support that the committee is asking for is very important to that.

So I appreciate that, council member, and I'm not sure that I can fully answer your question specifically, but I'll say a few things, and I think that was Ms.

Falve who made those comments.

And I don't know if she's here or if she's in the back room.

Maybe she'll come out while we're having this conversation and she can address that.

Um but what I will say is that um we we are supportive of the one community co-op.

We do think that there's a place in St.

Petersburg for a food co-op within the food system that um we have in the city.

So if this were to pass today, uh we are prepared to move forward on it.

I did have an initial discussion with one community on Tuesday about a potential scope of work for that money.

Um I shared with them that our interest would be on seeing that money used to move forward towards the brick and mortar.

And I think through that conversation, I think we could both get comfortable um with what those deliverables are.

So we're prepared to go forward.

And I'm sorry I can't answer that specific language question, but I I feel like what you just explained is really what I was looking for.

Commitment.

Um, this resolution is a commitment from city council that we support food sovereignty in our community.

That's what that is.

Um, it is now your job as the administration to implement that the funding, the resources, the follow-up to make sure that what we know historically.

I mean, speaker said it, right?

Her mother started one in the 70s that's now as old as I am, right?

I mean, great job, and that's what we want to see.

Um now we can debate healthy and affordability and how that all comes together, and I think that is a valid concern.

Um, but from what I have seen from my research, co-ops is the sustainable model that helps to move communities from the food insecurity that they are currently facing.

And we have had nothing else move us and move the needle in forever.

So to me, this is the logical next step.

And so I really just want to thank you for that clarity on what that looks like.

I'm excited to hear that you've had those conversations, and so it is my hopes that when this passes today, that we will move swiftly into those next steps so that we can have an update back to hers sooner rather than later.

And if you don't mind, that's a good segue to maybe just let me address the mechanics with council so you understand, and if you have any concerns about this, we can revisit it.

Um our intention would be just to go forward if we can come to terms on the scope of work.

Um, and then if we if that put us over budget during the fiscal year, we'd address it at cleanup.

Okay.

Um, if council was not comfortable with that, we could come back with an appropriation that you would have to approve the funding, and that that would take some longer time.

So we thought just going directly since it's under the 100,000 dollar threshold, and if we need to, we would address it at cleanup.

So that's that's what we're thinking.

Perfect.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Driscoll.

Thank you.

So I did not go back and watch and the meeting.

Yeah, and I don't remember exactly what I said, but it went something like this.

This is also an economic development um issue.

And it was made clear that there is not someone currently at the greenhouse who is well versed in the topic of co-ops that could really provide some expert guidance.

And so I saw this as a chance for um everyone to win and asked for a staffer from the greenhouse to be selected, and I think that's when Andrea sat and said yes, we'd like to do that to sort of be embedded with this group to learn with them and provide guidance where they can, but really just an everybody learning together kind of thing, because this won't be the last co-op that we have.

But really just an everybody learning together kind of thing, because this won't be the last co-op that we have.

And I think it would be extremely beneficial if we have someone in the greenhouse who you know becomes a subject matter expert on that.

And if they're um oh what do they say about uh where's Ed when you need him about flying the plane?

Building the plane while flying.

Yes.

That's what I'm asking for.

But I'm really confident that um one of the I mean you've got great people at the greenhouse.

I know one of them might have a special interest in this, and um while I wish that was in the resolution as well to make it clear that that's what we wanted to.

Um I it sounds like everyone has heard me.

Um I know Andrew did, and I feel pretty comfortable with that as long as it's still in the plan.

Yes, ma'am.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Verde.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, Rob, thanks for bringing up the process of it all because that was gonna be my question.

So um, if we're over but if we're over budget, we'll do it at cleanup.

So have you identified what uh bucket that'll come out of?

We're we're gonna discuss it.

We're gonna take a look at our options and see maybe if we're under somewhere, what would be better than than somewhere else?

But uh I would say it's probably either gonna come from economic development or maybe from uh George Smith's shop.

So we're we're looking at it.

All right.

Uh thank you.

Thank you.

Uh that was my own that was my only concern because literally two weeks or three weeks ago, I had talked about we need to identify the bucket, and so I'm very appreciative of that.

I am very supportive of this, but my solo concern was talking out of two sides of my mouth.

So um uh very much appreciate it, and thanks to administration for identifying that and and your willingness to to work on that with us.

That's all I have.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

So, first, thank you for everyone that joined us here today um on this and for your work and do in the co-op.

Um, I know that Florida does not have a big co-op culture.

Um, because I visit family, well, my husband's family, not my family, in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has a big co-op culture, which I think um helps um when you have co-ops, and so that's something that you need to build.

So I understand some of the concerns you have, Councilmember Harding, because there are some struggles with it, especially in an area where the culture is not established, and it has been successful in different areas.

I think because there has been a uh a co-op culture established.

I do agree with council member Driscoll.

I think if we are giving funding for something like this and we have a healthy food action plan, there should be something, and and Rob, I appreciate everything you added, and the the administration is supportive and you're working on a scope of work.

I do think that there should be language in there that if this is for what it's being sought for, which is feasibility and all these other things, there should be something where we get something in return in terms of co-ops and what council member Driscoll was talking about.

I think that's important because what I've seen is we have different programs that are trying to touch on food insecurity, and you all just released a grant that I provided and I sent them, which was for $50,000, which is for the healthy neighborhood stores.

You all decided to go a different route, but there is a grant, and I'm trying to make sure that whatever efforts we're doing in the space is not just here, there, and willy-nilly, there should be some conciseness.

So I'm supportive because I know that that's what you all are gonna do.

Um, but I do want to make sure that we do get information back in terms of what co-ops are and the success of them and all that because I do agree with council member Harding.

This is much more expensive than people realize it's gonna be.

If I could just say, you know, we we want to encourage people to use our existing grants too, right?

And you know, it's it's our first choice is is not to do something out of the budget cycle, but you know, this has been something we've been working on.

It's clear that there's councils to work, uh we're willing to work together on this.

Right.

And the reality is it's it's honestly this is under a hundred thousand dollars, frankly.

It it should be something where if administration says that they're gonna do it, it should be enough.

But we have a resolution before us, and and that's the way we're going.

So there's a motion and a second, and council member Fig Sanders.

I just realized that you have pressed your button.

Because I just pressed it.

So thank you so much.

Um, I I just you know want to first of all thank one community for being steadfast and committed.

Um, you all are not new to this.

You are absolutely true to this, and I have to agree with council member Gertes in regards to speaking out of both sides of my mouth because when I met with you, my comment was we're getting the money from.

So thank you, Administrative Gertes, for kind of giving me an insight of where we can possibly fund this.

Um, but as far as one community is concerned, you know, you always have my support because what you are doing is what we need.

You know, we have people purchasing food from Dollar General stores because we do not have access to healthy eating.

Um, and I will tell you years of unhealthy eating catches up to you.

So I just want to make sure that we are cognizant in the fact of the benefits of a co-op and what that brings to South St.

Pete.

And so I would just be remiss not to say thank you for your true commitments, and um I will gladly support this um resolution.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Chair Floyd.

I uh put myself in here.

I forget as well.

Um I put myself on here.

One to say thank you to the co-op as well for the continued advocacy and the patience for uh coming and meeting with us all, uh, me in particular.

Um I'm grateful for it.

Uh and then just wanted to add one thing to Councilmember Harding's point.

Uh, because I uh was trying to express what you're describing in the committee, and I think I did a poor job of it.

But I think there's two problems uh when we talk about areas that don't have food.

One is areas don't have access to healthy food, and the other one is like being able to afford healthy food, and there's like one is harder to address than others, like it's harder to address for us, like the fact that people can't afford to go buy groceries, doesn't matter what grocery store gets put there.

The other one is easier for us to address, you know, through whatever plan we want to do if it's this or something else, and that's the fact that there is not food in that geographic location, and so I just have them too delineated in my mind.

Um, and uh try to focus on which one I'm addressing it each time.

And so I was trying to explain that in the meeting, but I think you explained it a little bit here when you were giving your reasoning.

So I wanted to say, like, to me, this yes, I'm sure the co-op uh and you know, if there was some other municipal grocery would uh try as hard as possible to make it to where the food is affordable, but there's like a business model that has to be followed, and like things cost money, and so I'm thinking about it through that lens, like making sure that the food is available, and then everything we can do on top of that to make sure it's affordable.

It's just I have a delineation in my mind on it, and I wanted to make sure uh give the second to uplift that, and so that when we're thinking about what it is possible for us to solve, we're focused.

Uh so I'll leave it there.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Clerk, if you can please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, clerk, can you please tally in announce to vote?

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda item H1B passes six to one with council members Driscoll, Fix Sanders, Floyd, Gabbard, Girdis, and Hanowitz voting yes, council member Harding voting no, and council member givens recusing himself.

Thank you.

Now we move on to H we have form 12345.

We're good.

We move on to H3.

Councilmember Gabbard.

Oh, H2, sorry.

Sorry, I the two of them, the two of them confuse me.

No worries, you're good.

Um, respectfully requesting city council approval to remove the following item from the HERS referral list, uh, which was the continued or planned investments in the context of the American City's climate challenge commitments and integrated sustainability action plan implementation.

And uh this was removed by request of uh councilmember Driscoll.

This was her item because it was redundant for another item that is ongoing.

Um, that is council member Floyd's.

So this will still be part of the conversation, but to remove it for housekeeping.

And I so move.

Motion second, clerk.

If you please open the machine for voting, council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, clerk please tally announce the vote.

Adam Chair, the motion to approve H2A passes unanimously with council member Fig Sanders and Floyd being absent.

Now we move on to H3.

Councilmember Gatford.

All right, last one from me, I promise.

Respectfully requesting city council approval of a resolution confirming the 2026 City of St.

Petersburg's federal legislative agenda and the uh legislative agenda is attached in the resolution and I so move.

Second.

Yeah, a motion and second, clerk.

If you can open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, clerk, please tally announce the vote.

Okay, great.

So we've moved to the end of the agenda, except public hearings, which starts at five oh one, so we will be in recess till then.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

We're reconvening the council meeting with public hearings.

Hi, Joe.

We have J one and J two.

Approval J one.

And a second.

Clerk, you'll please open the machine for voting.

Council members, please enter your votes.

Sorry.

Oh, oh.

Council member, please enter your votes.

Seeing that all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and ask the vote.

Oh.

Yeah, missed it.

Oh, you could press a button.

Oh, sorry.

There you go.

Madam Chair, the motion to approve agenda items J one and J two passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe, for joining us.

Good to see you, Joe.

Okay, we move on to open forum.

Any speakers?

No speakers.

We move to announcements.

Any announcements?

Councilmember Gurtis.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just quickly, um, there was the annual meeting for the St.

Pete EDC yesterday, which a few of us attended, and I just wanted to say just very thankful for Mike Swayze and his team and all the work that they're doing at the St.

Pete EDC.

It was a great uh annual meeting.

They had some site selectors, uh, some some great speakers.

It really was and frankly, a great room.

Uh bunch of our stakeholders, more than a hundred people more than last year.

And so just love to see our city pouring into the EDC and trying to help bring uh more economic development here at St.

Petersburg and to foster the economic development that is already here, I think is also one of those things that gets lost.

So just very thankful, wanted to say it out loud to to the entire St.

Pete EDC family, but Mike did a great job yesterday.

It was a great event.

And so uh just wanted to say thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you uh for sharing that.

I'm sorry, I missed it.

I was on duty with child care as my daughter was had no school yesterday.

So my husband had the morning and I had the afternoon.

So Council Member Fake Sanders.

That's right.

So I first of all, in uh think she's watching.

Um, she was brilliant, she spoke the truth.

I reached out to uh Mr.

Lundy to commend her for the wonderful job that she received.

Um that she's doing, but I want to make sure that she received the kudos that she deserves um in serving Jordan Park, a very difficult population in the city of St.

Petersburg.

And I needed her to know that when she left here, she left her here admired by so many of us in the work that she's doing.

So, Kierra, I know you're watching.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Fake Sander.

She actually did a great job this morning.

Councilmember Floyd.

Thank you.

I'm sure it was an exciting game.

I had the kids at home tonight all by myself.

I had the kids at home tonight all by myself actually and watch uh speed skating and thank you.

Yeah well if you watch the speed is it the speed skate was it the downhill where the dog actually there was a dog that ended up going through the finish line it's the best video ever and I will share it after it's the best video ever.

So council member Driscoll.

Thank you.

It's not an announcement.

Actually, I just wanted to to double check to make sure that you guys had checked um Zoom for any um open forum at the end.

I just got a text from somebody that they said they had their hand raised to speak.

It was not raised when it was um when she closed it.

Okay.

All right.

Just want to make sure.

All right, thanks.

Hopefully next time.

Um well, thank you everyone for a great meeting.

Meeting turn.

Thank you.