City Council Meeting

>> Thank you for coming if there's any chance at all that you have your phone on you want to turn it off. We don't want to hear it. And during the meeting if at any point you need to have a conversation with the person next to you or behind you, that's cool, just step out into the hallway please. With that being said, I have called the meeting to order, we will start with an invocation by Vice Mayor Schor followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand. >> Don't ever forget that you are a citizen of the world and there are things that you could do to lift the Holy Spirit. Things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Stability, respect, kindness and character. That's a quote by Aaron Sorkin. >> If you're a new place and you don't know you can say during public comment that's a time to say anything you want to say limited to three minutes, and when I say anything you want to say that is not on the agenda. So if you want to address something that is on the agenda, we will have public comment on each of the resolutions at that time. So this is general public comment, show of hands and I will call you up. Thank you. And when you come up again, just in case you haven't been here you give your name and your address. Thank you. >> May I approach the bench for honor? I stand before you tonight to speak on the newly renovated volleyball courts. First I would like to say thank you to the city and parties involved thus far however we are not done yet. I and many other volleyball players have concerns about the current state being that the Sam chosen by the contractor is littered with shells come a concrete, glass, wood, and other debris. >> There's no questions and answers you just speak your mind. >> Hello friends I'm Tracy Carlson I live at 4640 27th Avenue South Gulfport Florida. I'm here regarding multiple recent utility contractor projects in our neighborhoods including Duke Energy Tree trimming and T-Mobile fiber optic underground work. >> Thank you very much and who's next? April? >> April on 53rd Street. I want to echo what she just said I was just walking in my new neighborhood, and I met somebody and they had the exact same complaints and pointed out a tree a few doors down that had been hacked up. It was really disgusting. I also had my own issues with Duke going in my back yard when I told him they couldn't go in my back yard. But anyway I wanted to announce that we are going to have a May day picnic bring your own picnic at Kleiner Park. It's going to be a no work, no buying, and no school event. There will be music. Speakers. And drumming. So I just wanted to announce that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jonathan? Talked about how we could recognize I know it's the racist history of Gulfport. I know it's plenty of people that think well we put that to bed maybe we have. I don't know. Progress is really permanent human rights ordinance sorry I'm looking down. The human rights ordinance and the recently passed inclusivity resolution are a great start. Truly how many lives have been impacted by them. Perhaps it's a simple yet majestic statue or an instructive display. Maybe there's an interactive element it may be a thing or a place where a street or something else that students visit to learn that Gulfport is a loving caring community where all are welcome. If the password go away for good we could just bury the city's racist history and we could move on for good. Our resident should know what we stand for and most of all our children should know that they're growing up in an undivided community that would ever happen in the past this is what we are and what remains. Is this a stretch? We created a skateboarding gecko to celebrate our fun and quirky side. Can we also honor our small part in bending America towards justice? Monuments memorials and streams Street naming take place because it's movement has saved humanity from itself is never over. I bring this up now because the proposed changes to Tangerine Avenue on 49th Street and if there is sufficient interest I think that could be on a short list of possible memorial sites. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Who's next? >> Ingrid Bredenberg, 56th Street South. I'm not sure if we do it this way. There we go. We did not practice this. (laughs) so we can all agree I think that we live in challenging times, it's already mentioned in the invocation that we have the opportunity even though we don't have control over everything we do have control over our mindsets Pierre can so this year, we can in Gulfport we are fortunate to have beautiful nature, a vibrant community, many wonderful -- this year as in years past many years past, we'll celebrate World Labyrinth Day, and I brought a labyrinth because not everybody knows what a labyrinth looks like. In your own personal invitations which I will leave here. But this is a global event that actually starts in Australia and moves around the globe where people will walk the labyrinth in their local time zones of 1:00. So here in Gulfport we will be doing a labyrinth walk at 1:00, but the event itself starts at noon. So you and others are invited to come to our celebration in Climber Park on Saturday May 2nd. It's always the second or the first Saturday rather in May. Starting at noon with music and movement, and then a labyrinth walk at one followed by more music movement and arts activities. And this year, the library is doing a special display of labyrinths, they will be having special resources out, the art center is doing a collage workshop on labyrinth themes starting at 10:00. So if you want to come and make collages, I'm showing that over my shoulder and then the library beautifully is creating a bookmark with a QR code to bring people to Gulfport's own world Labyrinth Day and I would love to see all of you out just to get a moment of peace a beautiful walk with your neighbors, Councilwoman's early has been helped us make the one last year I hope he'll do it again that would be wonderful. And yeah. That's really the invitation to come out and learn more about labyrinths. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mary your next. Oh, excuse me. We've got Berkeley apparently. >> Hi Berkeley Grimble 256th Street South, I I want to bring your attention to something that is not a problem now, but in the future it is going to become a problem. It is the peacock colony that has inhabited our town. Now I know some people love the peacock's, and Lord knows there's nothing but more gorgeous than a male peacock all fluffed up. But, they are a huge problem, they wake us up at 5:00 in the morning, I wouldn't bother I've been practicing my peacock but I won't do it. I'll save you from that. They can pack your car's, they can jump on top of your car's come of course they can tear up your garden, if they land on your pool screen they will completely destroy it, and in addition they just really have bad personalities. Now I've done a little research and in the wild, a peacock can live for 20 years. In captivity which is what we essentially have here where people feed them they live 50 years. Five zero years. That's 8 to 10 babies a year. So every one of these peahens out here will be laying eggs when we're all dead and gone. Now my back of the envelope arithmetic says something about ten years there'll be more peacocks than people if they continue to reproduce at the rate that they are going. So, there are a couple of towns, long Key and Pinecrest both have huge problems but they had to address with the amelioration processes. You can apparently shake the eggs, you can coat the eggs or you can pay money to have vasectomies done, but yep. Or you can remove them to other places. Or perhaps there could be a restaurant to do a peacock menu of some kind. (laughs) but anyways I just wanted to bring it to your attention that it will become a problem in a few years if we don't start doing something about it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mary? >> Thank you. Mary Hanrahan seventh Avenue South, and I wanted to follow up on what Tracy was saying about utility wood, and the right of way. I got today and I want to thank the city clerk for a very prompt response to my public information request, I got a copy of the permit for the T-Mobile utility work, which is a one page document, it says 6402ft of condo. That's all it says. And then there's a 29 page document which is a construction document. And my request is that maybe we look at how we inform the public about these projects. And how we go about managing them when they're happening. This 29 page document, in the middle of it, I managed to get my computer to read it and print some of it out, this is a map. This map shows exactly which properties are going to be affected by this fiber optic cable that they put in. And there are some other things. We're going to have a Toby box, who knows what a Toby box is? Nope. This is a Toby box. I can't read the dimensions on it because they're in red and they're so tiny. But there's some specs for it. So my request is this permit went in in December. It was approved in December of last year, can we not have the city or the construction company send out a letter to each of these properties that they are going to be digging in? And let them know that they are going to be doing that? And the time frame in which they are doing that? So that would allow people to know that something is coming and to be prepared for it which is helpful. When they're there, it would be nice if they were a little bit more respectful of the homeowner and the work that the homeowner has done on their property and in the right of way around their property. When I was out at my property on 27th, they were digging holes and they left, and they left a bunch of trash where they had been drinking empty bottles and cans and what have you. And they walked past and I asked them specifically to pick up the trash on my property which they did. But those things should be automatic. So I would like to address how they work when they're out there and also I would like to know who oversees them in the city? And who is going to inspect that work? Because this permit calls for an inspection. And what is the level of inspection of the work? Do they ensure that everything that was disturbed and damaged and dug up is put back? And put back the way that it was before? How does that happen? So I think we could do better to help people. With these. Projects. Thank you. >> Thank you. Dean? >> Hello, Dean hey 5618 13th Avenue South. I'm here to provide counsel and update on the Gulf Port environmental team. First of all, we now have 21 members which is a lot in the six months that we've been meeting. And we have more than 4500 trees that have been inventoried so far in the city. Our goal is to have all of the trees in the right of way on the eastern half of the city basically from 58th Street south to 49th Street. Or to the eastern border of the city. And at that point then we will start shifting to the Western side of the city and finalizing all of the open spaces parks and gathering spaces. I also wanted to report that today we finalized our first rack Rcard, this is a cardboard marketing tool of collateral that we use in order to promote ideas that are central to our group's organization. And the focus of that is right tree right place. We have tree recommendations based off of large, medium, small, and under overhead utilities. So that we can begin to promote trees that are more resilient than the trees that we currently are inventorying and finding vulnerabilities in our analysis. And then that rack card will be used for the first time at the Saint Pete Greenthumb Festival which is this weekend Saturday and Sunday the 25th and 26th. We will be partnering and tabling at the Florida Nursery Grower and Landscape Association booth, where we will be sharing the rack cart and talking a little bit about what our organization is. Of course we will be wearing our t shirts, and we will be selling sunflowers that I've grown myself. To help fund some of the ongoing projects that we are looking at in the future. The next thing is we will be working with keeping those beautiful, Friday Earth Day the 23rd from 9 to 11 a.m.. At the Clam Bayou in order to remove woody plants mostly carrot wood and Brazilian pepper. We're going to be starting closer to the southern end where the old Coast Guard's auxiliary building used to be common we are going to be working our way north in incremental steps through many different events the purpose of this is to remove the threat that that ongoing and propagating species are doing and then be able to come back in and replant those. If I could have one last second. On behalf of the Gulfport environmental team I would like to present this Earth Day flag to the city, thank you Ingrid for providing it. And ask that you could apply this. >> Alrighty who else has their hand up that I didn't see yet? Wolfgang? >> It was really cool as they approached because they all had the red Coca-Cola shirts on so it was like an army coming to help us clean up here we also had a group of students, high school students from Saint Petersburg Catholic High School and that's the first time they've ever been there. So all we had 44 volunteers and we gathered 195 pounds of trash from our waterfront area. So for this year, the first of four months, we are running at an average of 200 pounds a month. Of cleaning up. We will beat that by a quarter ton hopefully. We also on the same day, we had the swap and drop the first time Gulfport's ever had a swap and drop. It was an amazing event. The turnout was much much better than the high end anticipated. We had volunteers we got back together again from the old junk in the trunk, Mia love was there. The Karen van Der Beek, myself, John Ellington from Keep Up and Ella's beautiful, we directed the cars to where people would drop up usable items and then other people would be able to walk through and grab things that they wanted. For their own homes. Case in point we had a brand new queen size mattress for the foundation that got dropped off and that got scarfed up by one of the city employees. Before the end of the event. It was a three hour event, it was well attended, I'm looking forward. Hopefully we can do another one in the fall, October or November that's still up in the air. But I'm hoping all you council people press our city city staff to make that a reality. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who's next before I go to e comments? Calling once. All right t. Do we have any e comments? >> We have two comments one is an open public comment and one is on item eight E and I have made myself a note so I remember. >> Okay thank you. >> Would you like me to read the public comment? >> The open public comment is from Margaret Tober at the last council meeting there was a mention of the Welcome to Gulfport sign on 49th Street in Tangerine Avenue, that mention reminded me that there's a significant history related to that location. It also reminded me that there really is no signage that indicates such. I would like to ask the City Council and City Manager to consider installing a sign, perhaps similar to that to which is at the Casino that would provide information regarding the history of that location. >> Thank you. Alrighty. Public comment is enclosed and we will move to the city Manager report please. >> Yes mayor. Thank you. Let me first address the volleyball sand issue. We will be bringing additional sand in a different type quality of sand. Once the Army Corps of Engineers certifies our beach restoration. Then we are going through a process right now where they have to come in and certify the work related to be replaced due to the storm activity. But we will be upgrading similar sand that we had previously. We did talk to the promoters, they were content at this point, but we promised them when we started the rebuilt that it's necessary to have this beach certified. So when we do get hit with another storm if it was to happen, that FEMA would cover the engineering beach that you would have now. So we will be moving forward with that. I have two items tonight to start with, one I would like to bring Justin up to go over the aspect of something that's starting to significantly be out in the public is the fact that if we were to have a storm situation again this summer, with the onset of hurricane season, that individuals with open permits those would be cumulative with any activity that was to take place after the next storm. Unless the permit is closed. So if the permits open it's counted towards their 50%. So Justin do you want to give a brief overview of that? >> We want to remind everybody that's in the special flood area please close out your permits. That value counts God forbid we get another storm towards the SD substantial damage evaluation. So residents in the special flood hazard area we have an open permit please close them out God forbid we get another storm that value counts. >> Just at minimum please contact us if you're not going to be able to close it or something to that effect. Please, the numbers in the press release information that's out, we will send it out again, and it's the lead story on the city manager's report to give us access to the numbers of who to >> It's also in our community update. >> Before we move on I'm going to see if there's any questions. I see Council Member Webb has one but in speaking order does anybody else have a question for Justin on this issue? Okay it's back to you Pierre [CROSS-TALK] >> Thank you both for bringing this to everyone's attention. It's incredibly important. So you mentioned a website in the community newspaper in a press release, will you be corresponding directly with homeowners who have open permits? >> That's a good idea. >> We can see the value in those we can see what the volume is but the portal is accessible, they can look at their address and see if they have something. >> Can you use the portal to automate something? To just send it? >> Your contractor can. The portal is for the contractor. The owner or builder. We have to have physical contact with them. Because they have to sign in front of us. >> Okay. >> I think the workflow can be built in the background where it would generate a report to the codes or permitting office and let them know how many homes with a flood damage prevention case have an open permit. >> So I appreciate very much you coming up because I think that's a real big deal, if we can't count on being as lucky as we were last year, and it's time to not only be preparing for hurricanes, but to wrap up from the last one. So my question is this. We know people who have open permits. But how does this affect the few people that are still left who have never gotten a permit period? >> I can address that. As obviously in the city attorney can talk to that also, those are the individuals who are getting taken to the special magistrate. And the enforcement aspects that if they are discovered if they've done work without a permit, subsequently they have to come either get in after the fact permit, or in the event that they disagree with us, they can plead the case to the special Magistrate. >> So worst case scenario somebody has 39% s t e letter, they put their head in the sand and we haven't heard from them, and we have another storm come and they get hit again. Because they didn't open or close a permit, if they have more than 11% damage, now they will have to elevate or destroy their >> Yes Ma'am. >> Okay. Spread the word please people. Spread the word. A lot of people don't realize that, and we need to help each other out by making sure our neighbors know this is critical that they have this information. >> Another talking point is we don't have a lookback periods when you close that out your allowance essentially starts back at zero. >> How many are we talking about? 100? Ten? >> I don't know. I would need to find out and get back to you. >> Because it's not just open permits from the storm right? You just decided to redo your bathroom right now and that permit is open that counts right now? So do your stuff come and get it together and then wait until after the storm to start doing your renovations again that you just feel like doing. >> I think the highest priority that we focus in is as we turn the corner storm season we would focus on the homes in a special class. >> Okay good clarification. Thank you Council member Dodge. All right thank you. >> Can I ask one more question? To the point of because the homes in the flood area are particularly vulnerable, what's the process for prioritizing processing? Like closing out things and moving people through the permitting? >> That's entailed by what they do. They have to submit their contract the contractor has to submit it through the portal. Their contractor gets the permit, and then it goes through the portal. With the permit portal contractors have a number registered that they can come in and close it out and request an inspection. And all of that stuff. >> Hypothetical for an electrical permit they've got to have an inspection they've got to see what the wiring looks like and then when you close it out you do the final to make sure it's connected. >> Thank you Justin. >> And then once that workflow is built to the council member that could be essentially applied to Citywide permits. >> Right. So I'd like to invite >> Mayor also I would like to invite Kendrick's up to talk a little bit about the right of way and utility easement work that is consistently been spoken about this evening. With one caveat that the state statute 337 section 0.40 hundred sets the standards that we can only apply to the contractor's. 330 7.4. We cannot put certain demands. It's pretty clearly outlined what is required and what we can do. Now, in regards to Duke tree trimming. We can ask Duke to come here, and they can explain to you how their storm prevention tree trimming is impacting neighbors. So that would be something that I think Council we can invite Duke to come give you an overview on that and how they go about that process. Other than that -- >> Good evening. So just to bring everyone up to speed, there's some communication contractors out there putting in some lines in our right of ways and our utilities. So I just wanted to -- Mr. O'reilly wanted me to come up here and kind of give a little more clarification and define what a right of way is versus a what a utility easement is. So a right of way is owned by the public. Public right of way and it's maintained within the jurisdiction of a municipality. Mainly used for sidewalk roads, and utilities. Utility easement is owned by the property owner, but it is recorded on the plat in the deed that they must allow access to utility companies to perform work. You can't deny them, well, within reason they should be notifying you if there's an emergency or an event they can't reasonably notify you they legally have the right to go in and perform work. The issue that we're having right now which is not in the Gulf Port because the county we actually have a meeting in two weeks talking about the work being done by the communication companies it's all throughout the counties, if you guys leave the city and see Saint Pete just had 62 utility hits from his contractors, so having all three companies in at one time is definitely a challenge, as far as the city itself trying to maintain what's going on out there, we do receive calls daily and public works at least does, and what we will do is when we receive that complaint we have a list of supervisors. Per the contractors, when they put the permit in they do have a contact. Majority of the calls we do get called about are what are they doing in front of our yard? Anything that's causing damage or something that can be reasonably addressed we will immediately call the contract and once we identify who it is and find out what's going on, if it's an item like the box that was mentioned previously, that contains the communication line or the power, we will do the best that we can to try to see if they can relocate it to. But it's going to be based off of. Not just because it's an eyesore but basically the way they have it set up is how they are going to approach it. So as Mr. O'reilly said there is a law that we cannot discriminate or prevent utility companies coming in to the public right of way, we do require them to put a permit in so we can at least know they are required to restore the right of way as it was before. >> That is a question I need to talk to the building about what's the requirements for the easement let me get a little more clarification on that. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask another question? If someone has like a situation with a contractor calling you if they can't get through like one of the speakers says she couldn't like she called and called and could never get through to an individual. So they could call your department? And you could give them a number or some way of getting in touch? Or contact them directly? >> Not to interrupt you but most times if not Kendricks one of his superintendents will go to the site. Because I've done this for other council members where a resident calls and says the box is here come I can't drive in my driveway. So we send somebody actually out there. But if they reach out to us we will take up their situation. >> And we prefer that we contact the supervisor instead of providing that publicly so we can ensure there was you know that way there's definitely a little bit more teeth from us. Now as far as the communication aspect, we were told that door hangers were put out, I was told in my neighborhood to the same thing. So it's probably someone may have skipped houses to get home a little early. But it's definitely an inconvenience. We definitely Mr. Riley and all of us are aware of that. And we are here as far as the city to help try and get through this process as quickly as we can. >> Thank you. I don't think that I realized that the residents could call you. I thought they had to call the contractor company so the fact that our public works will at least try to intervene is a good thing and I didn't know that. So thanks for informing us. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Mayor, just a couple other items real quickly, is the planning and zoning now that the state legislature is not going to take any action on this accessory dwelling units, we are about to move forward with our amendment and our ordinance, that will be going to the packet of information and such it will be going to the Planning and Zoning Board to review and then make a recommendation to you as the advisory board to the City Council. That will be taking place on May 6th, it will go to the Planning and Zoning Board, and those two items, the ordinance that addresses the zoning code and also our plan amendment. They will be looking at the ordinance and the backup materials and then of course then council would see it based upon their recommendation. So moving it we were kind of in a flux place due to the fact that legislature had decided they were going to talk about it and then subsequently took no action. >> One other item, with a substantial change to the charter as it relates to city properties being leased, and reflection of that, the Gulfport Yacht Club and the Boca Ciega Yacht Club respectively, their leases are set to expire this summer. The Boca Ciega Yacht Club is June, it's three years from the inaction ordinance that the City Council passed at that time, and the Gulfport Yacht Club is in the 1st of August. I will be reaching out to those groups to schedule a time to explain what the new charter requirements are, and also to see what they are looking to do and to get some input from them on how can we work through this? And lay out the ordinance the new ordinance. And that's all I have. >> Thank you. Oh my screen went black. Okay. With that then we would move to the city attorney report. >> No report mayor my item is now an action item about the Lions Club. >> Okay. City clerk report? >> I just very briefly wanted to say thank you very much to Julie Armstrong she completed our change out of our art today so if you notice there are no longer dogs on our walls but we do have birds. And Julie does a lot of work to get this accomplished so I just wanted to say a big thank you to Miss Armstrong. >> Yes. Very good. Alrighty. With that in mind then we will go move on to council comments and reports and we will start in speaking order which means that Council Member Shah is first. >> It's great to see everyone here again this evening thanks for showing up and being a part of the process. I do apologize, but my allergies have hit me hard all of a sudden and so I will do my best to stay as close to the microphone as I can. And also come hopefully my voice will hold out. I did want to mention concern over notifying those owners that haven't responded to pending permits or haven't applied for permits. Some of those homes are still empty and if we're going to send letters, I'm wondering if there's other ways that we can reach out to them. So that's one of my questions that I hope we can take a look at. As always, I have been enjoying a vibrant community in so many ways, events, energy, people. It's always heartwarming to see so many others doing the same. So many wonderful things are happening in Gulfport, just too numerous to mention all of them. But I do want to mention a couple of things. By the way the senior volunteer celebration today was amazing. And it was just really a blessing to see because they have over a hundred volunteers there. And the celebration, all of the staff and everybody that helped with that did a great job. So I just wanted to let everybody know about that. The Town Shores ribbon cutting was an amazing and wonderful milestone to see as well. They had their ribbon cutting there and a celebration and champagne toast. And of course seeing the beautiful beach during the vet's word event was stunning as well. I submitted two summary reports to the city clerk to be placed in council seats tonight, one from the sun Coast League of Cities meeting covering what may be happening with upcoming special sessions, and a charter review process from the Florida League of Cities Quality of cities meeting. Both of those will also be posted on the website should anybody else be interested. Looking ahead, we have some exciting events come I think I already mentioned the Special Student Council, later this month and so we are looking forward to that opportunity for our young people to engage the local government firsthand. And Ingrid and Berkeley slash Vanna White did a great job on World Labyrinth Day, so I don't need to bring that up again. And then on May 7th, we are hosting a Suncoast League of Cities luncheon meeting and I've left information at each council member's seat for that as well. As always, I want to take a moment to highlight the adopted program through Gulfport connects. Again it's a small action with can truly impact volunteering to keep storm drains clear helps reduce street flooding, protects our water quality and wildlife so please consider taking part and as a reminder, April is National Poetry Month, and our Gulf Port poet Laurie continues to lead an open night poetry night every night that the library every month that the library the third Thursday -- so you have an opportunity to do that. It's really great. And finally, I had a wonderful conversation with Jim Wright about the neighborhood watch program, which meets right here in council chambers every third Wednesday at 6 p.m.. And it is a tremendous resource. He is a wealth of knowledge, and I was particularly struck by some of this scam crime awareness information that he shared that our residents have actually been impacted by. They are taking -- we are taking devastating losses come hundreds of thousands of dollars and one resident lost $150,000 condominium. So please spread the word because this program is worth attending it's a great resource. And that's all I have right now. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, and now Council Member Webb? >> Thank you mayor. I want to thank the City Manager for doing such a good job responding to public comment and having staff available to speak to some of the concerns that were presented today. I also wanted -- the only concern that I felt Baird further discussion was the Memorial. And I was thinking about you know, Florida has a thousand people a day moving here. And that's a thousand people who don't know our history, a thousand people who aren't from the South and don't know what that means. I think that I don't know why my city thing is being but it is. I'm sorry. And I was thinking that while a memorial is something visible and present, taking maybe February and Black History Month to explore historical topics related to our African American community and Gulfport, and Pinellas, and the state, and the country, we have amazing scholars here and I think it would go a long way of level setting everyone's understanding It's amazing the South is amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. In Florida is despite us we are still part of the South right? And I think that would go a long way. And helping with some of those issues Pierre and I appreciate you still understanding some of those issues here can I appreciate you bringing it up. Only for my district and for the city we are still working on paying attention to the rezoning of the potential rezoning proposal by Stetson Law School of the neighborhood north of the University. Stetson will host a community meeting, by Dean Barrow's, on May 8th from 6 to 7 p.m.. This is at the law school, and the flier I just received the flier and it is about their vision for the future. And so they are acknowledging that this is something that they know the community wants to talk about and that they are showing up in a proactive way. After speaking with residents, I am hosting our town hall, my town hall after that meeting on May 14th. So May 14th from 6 to 8, the Friendship Room in the Gulf Port Library, I will be hosting a town hall. There's a lot of processes to explain the processes involved in rezoning, it's not our land use amendment, or land use map amendment to introduce the staff who are paying attention to this so that folks can ask professionals who have a lot of the specialized knowledge questions. Just so that the residents who are concerned about this so that they know, we have already taken steps, we've brought our city attorney in early because this is land use issue and so this directly looks at things that our ordinances touch on so we brought him in early. We've also engaged the higher fisher to augment or supplement staff in anticipation of receiving this proposal. She is highly qualified, I met with her and with Mark Griffin and the city manager on Monday. And they laid out the process and they will be sharing that with residents and answering any questions. And if you are a nerd and just love Muni codes, you can read zoning and land use in chapter 22, this is what I have been reading. Since this all started. So there is -- you will have all of the information hopefully that you need also an understanding of where your voice and the process really can have the biggest impact. And that is my report mayor. Thank you. >> Thank you very much and Council Member early? >> For 25 which is Saturday from 9 to 11, there's a cleanup at Lincoln Park. Isn't that a band? Lincoln Cemetery. (laughs) Lincoln Cemetery from 9 to 11. Everyone is welcome. It's a big cemetery and there's a lot of folks trampling through there. And spending the night sometimes. So -- all are welcome. The folks from Core Givens and the pastor will be there, to thank everyone and to also be pitching in. I wanted to mention I lived in Coconut Grove Miami for a small amount of time and they had peacocks there and I've talked to Berkeley about that. So when we go up to a car they see their own reflection and that's when they start chipping at the paint and in Coconut Grove Miami there was some super duper expensive cars. So you cover them with a tarp every night before bed. Stuff that's happening out there before we talk about anything else, that is something that will work. It has worked and it will work. So cover your car's. And lastly, the labyrinth. Celeste year Ingrid mentioned I think it's a.org. Labyrinth.org? Where you can find no matter where you are in the country or outside of the country, you can find the closest labyrinth and I do that when we travel now and I've gone to see quite a few. So thank you for that. I just wanted to let everyone know. Thank you. >> Thank you. Remember Dhanesh please? >> Thanks. So, I have been to a bunch of ribbon cuttings lately which is really exciting for me to see the town coming back, it felt like it was taking a really long time but it's really great to see the seawall at Town Shores, there was an art store that's next to Comfort Cafe, they have their studio there, they have the art that they make come and then they also have a shop in the front where they sell stuff and it's really cool if you get a chance to go in there. Hurricane Eddie's is back, so that's really exciting and the volleyball courts, so that was really awesome to have seen in the last little bit of time. They were finally like making some way back to some social stuff and not just all the business of coming back from the storm and permits and all the stuff that nobody wants to talk about anymore. And also, I got to go to an HOA meeting at Silver Point Common since I've lived here it's kind of been cool to know that there's a gated community and I don't know I never got to go there, but, I was never invited. But now I am invited and I am welcome to go there and it's really cool to see all of these people that you know are your neighbors and you do see them around town, and it almost feels like they're away from us but really they're just as much a part of our community as everybody else. And they have a lot of the same concerns. We are all right there on the water and a flooding concern that's further up north that's flooding down to where they live. It was really cool to be able to spend some time with them and listen to their concerns and how they participate in our community and they are building a monument outside of their entrance off of 59th it looks like it's coming along well and it's going to be really nice. So I'm really excited for them their. I can't wait for another ribbon cutting. >> Is that it? >> Yep. Thanks. >> Okay thank you. On my public comments I want to refer to first was the sidewalk improvements. If you live in ward two and you walk at all, you probably have noticed amazing progress on our sidewalks. The sidewalks have been in really bad shape or the ramps that were in bad shape, they're being brought in so that they are Ada compliant. I'm very happy about that and we will hear about where the next phase is before the night is out. But not this year. So I'm really happy to see the improvements there. In terms of the swap and drop, I also wanted to thank the volunteers and Wolfgang did a good job except he forgot his right hand man Dave Girardi. So I didn't want to skip over that. Also I kind of suggested that this year with it being er 250th birthday on the 4th of July, we are really going to amp up our 4th of July celebration. I hope to double our parade I'm working really hard to get more than one band in there, and the reason I bring it up tonight is because I know it takes time to create and then make a float, and I'm going to encourage every one of you if you have a really good community your block is just super. Joined together and come up with a float. We are actually going to have prizes in a couple of different categories, and then I want everybody to know that following the parade we are going to kick off, excuse me. We're going to kick off at 9:00 with the opening of a time capsule from 50 years ago, right here at City Hall, then we will move on to the parade which will begin at 11:00 though activities begin at 10:00. Following the parade we will then have a community potluck, and you will hear more about that. I'm just giving you a quick overview right now. And then we will be moving into family games and competitions. And we will have categories for adults, children, and adults and children. So we've really got a really big family activity and this will all center around Tomlinson Park this year. Excuse me. So I wanted you to know that in advance. I always report on my forward Pinellas meetings so that you all know what's going on so our meeting was almost five hours long. And we failed to have a consensus. Purpose at this meeting had a couple of things primarily Hillsborough County and Pinellas County. And, we were supposed to -- we being Pinellas County, we were supposed to approve the way the seats have been divvied up. And it did not happen because the way it's been divvied up and was being suggested was that Hillsborough County would end up having 52% of the vote. So even if Pinellas and Pasco voted together, they would only have 48% of the vote. So, I'm just saying stay tuned. I don't know what will happen, it will be brought up at the next meeting and we are up against a time crunch, and I won't be at the next meeting because I will be in Utah hiking. So it's really unfortunate. Of course I will be watching and I will provide the information to you when I return, and again, the reason for the merging of these three planning councils is because it's kind of come down from the state pretty much if you don't do it yourself we're going to do it for you. So, that's again it was almost five hours and there was no consensus which was pretty strange to be at that type of meeting. I wanted to apologize to anybody who has left me a message recently, I became aware that several messages were left and I didn't return them and that's because they were going to a spam, typically if you leave me a voicemail it gets transcribed to my email but there was a hold up and it didn't happen. So we know it's, it's been corrected. The next thing I have to say just irked me bad was we have moved to additional cleaning tables on our pier down to the end of the pier so God forbid people fishing wouldn't have to walk a couple of feet to clean the bait, and their fish okay? And yesterday or the day before I saw that people were still cutting their bait when they were three little steps away from the cleaning table. So -- I don't know what kind of threats we can make but it's just not acceptable. But in the meantime, the city did go out and pressure wash the benches because none of us would want to sit on those benches. Memorial Day, we will be having a Memorial Day celebration. On May 25th it will be at Veterans Park, it will be at 230, I have three speakers and of course, anybody who attends who would like to speak is going to have an opportunity to speak. So, this will be our third annual event that we are doing, I mentioned the 4th of July and I encouraged you to do floats, in response to I think the only thing I wanted to respond to was from public comment that hasn't already been addressed, it had to do with Berkeley. Yes he identified a problem, I sleep with my windows open, I hear the peacock's, I feel like they used to be four blocks away now they're maybe two and a half blocks. And I would love anybody that has a suggestion on what we are going to do so we're not invaded any further by the peacocks. I know some people love them. But not everybody does. Please reach out to me. Because we are starting to acknowledge that we have a problem but I haven't heard any solutions other than we all tarp our cars at night. Where we start having vasectomy clinics. (laughs) only in Gulfport do we do that because that's kind of weird. And then the last thing I wanted to not to pick on Wolfgang, but he said that you know, he hoped that we would get over averaging 200 pounds a month and I feel exactly the opposite. I hope he has to come up here and say we had 50 people and they worked their butt off and we could only find 50 pounds of trash. I look at it a little different than him. So that's all I have under public comments. Thank you. And we will move on to consent. >> The consent agenda item six a consider approval of meeting minutes from meeting held April 7th 2026, and item six B resolution number 2026 dash 21, a resolution authorizing the City Manager to accept donations from make three cares for the needed preparation lifetime care, lifetime supplies, and lifetime health care of first responder therapy dog to be housed at the Gulfport Fire Department. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> All those in favor? Any opposed? It passes unanimously. >> All right t. And then we don't have any ordinances tonight, so we will move on to resolutions please. >> Item eight a resolution number 2026 ten, a resolution authorizing the City Manager to approve the payout of the Gulfport Lion's Club Incorporated lease, as set forth in paragraph five of the Lease Agreement upon termination or non-renewal. >> Motion to approve. >> I second. >> Alrighty city manager please? >> Yes, mayor. As you asked for some specific information from the Lions Club, to move this forward it's been provided in your agenda packet I will defer to the city attorney to refer to the lease and such. >> As council's aware at the last meeting we asked for documentation to be provided for a couple things one whether or not there's an entity a valid entity in order to pay pursuant to the lease, there were some questions raised as to whether or not the lease was terminated if you look at the lease the city chose not to terminate any of those points. The automatic end of the lease. The question that I asked for and you've seen the documentation I would tell you that if the board so chooses to vote tonight to pay either amount that we would still address any payment to the party that is in the lease. Whether that party is a valid party we have been told that there is a valid party but I don't see how we can address it to anybody else. Whether they give it to the foundation or not it's not the city's purview. We have a lease, we have an agreement, we have terms and we have to abide by those terms. If council chooses not to make that payment, then we would sit there and see if they do anything to request the money, the only thing I would point out is that the lease provides an attorney fee provision. So whoever would prevail in any kind of suit would be entitled to attorney fees. And I'm here to answer any questions. Alright TPR I some things to say the appraisal but before I move on do we have any questions about who is to be paid? >> I have questions. But what I do have a question about is you were saying the city didn't take any other action other than to let the lease take its course? What does that mean exactly? >> We have a provision under the agreement, it is termination provision. It is paragraph ten. And there were some provisions in there. And it says lesser who is the city should have the right to terminate this lease for any reason upon giving lessee 12 months notice. If lessee loses its status as a Florida not for profit corporation, Lessor may terminate this lease without notice. As far as I'm aware there was no exercise of that by the city. If lessee defaults in the performance of the terms of this agreement Lessor may terminate this lease and immediately reenter the premises without notice. Again I'm not aware of any actual termination that occurred. So those are the provisions that we were talking about. Those were never exercised. They're not automatic. They're still requires an action by the city to terminate. My understanding is that the determination by the city was then upon the conclusion of this agreement after being notified by the Lions Club that they were not going to ask for any kind of continuance for it to die its natural death of its time here. >> So is the bottom line then either way there was a provision for payment karmic >> There is a provision for a payout. That is correct. >> Whether we terminated upon them not being a nonprofit or whether they -- we terminated that way or they terminated later? Is that correct? >> That is correct if you go to the next paragraph which is 11, reimbursement for improvements comment says upon termination with this lease and the event the parties failed to enter into new lease for the leased premises within 90 days of said termination lesser shall pay less see the percentage of the value when it goes into those terms. >> Okay well that was my understanding but I was a little worried I hearing something different so I appreciate you clarifying. Thank you. >> And again vice versa this agreement has term terminated on December 5th 2025. Technically, the city is in breach of this agreement as we sit here today. Because we had 90 days to make it. We have not had any notification from anyone that we are in breach, or that anything has occurred. We have as you know asked for documentation to support because we were going to pay because the whole idea that the entity no longer existed at that point, you know they said pay the foundation, I'm still not comfortable with paying the foundation, we've got notification from the international that the foundation exists, I'm still not comfortable. We have a release, that we've also put into the packet, and the release takes care of the city. For any kind of action that somebody might accuse the city should you decide to make the payment. It also talks about that it may be used by any of the charities that exist and may be used in the city but there's no guarantees to that. Therefore when I looked at the documentation Comm.com I looked at the contract, it has the Lions Club as the party. And frankly I think after looking at this enough times, that is the party that should receive the check. If that party then gets the check to the international if that party gives it to a charity or a foundation, that's up to them. If that party cannot cash that check because it doesn't exist then that's not the city's problem. >> Okay. But the letter that came from the governor of international states that the Lions Club not the Lions Foundation, but the Lions Club it's an active club with 28 members. >> In good standing. >> In good standing. So to me there's no doubt that there's a Lions Club and that we shall pay them because day in 2019 formed a foundation, Lions Club Gulfport Florida Foundation and they made that a 501 C32 to support the Lions Club when they knew that the lease was going to -- that they knew they weren't going to renew it they did not choose to keep their incorporation but that doesn't mean that that entity was disbanded or that it's lost its 501 C3 goodness. Easy for me to say. 501 c3 status. So -- you know I'm okay with you choosing to write it to the Lions Club as opposed to the foundation even though they said that they voted that it go to the foundation, that's between the foundation and the Lions Club and they can do and international. But they can do whatever they want. >> I knew you're talking about attorney fee provisions Pierre can so you were imagining prevalent fees can you walk me through -- >> If council voted tonight to not make any payments, we could as we talked about at the last meeting, we could file a lawsuit asking for a declaratory action by the court as to who we would pay we would try to do that quickly because as I said should we have a lawsuit filed for them for recovery, anything should they prevail and if they are the proper entity they would prevail, then they would recover their attorney fees. So on top of what we would owe for this we would owe attorney fees. >> You mentioned the 90 days, we had contact with them prior to the 90 days, >> We have had contact -- we had asked for additional information which I mentioned at the last meeting we had not received in that two week time period we hadn't received documentation which would be presented in the packet based on what we asked for that's they presented us. Ma'am thank you for asking my other questions I appreciate it. >> So we have something signed from Tommy Bixler's the president is he the interim time accuracy the president? And does that make a difference in this case? >> You're looking at the release time that was the -- that was the person that they signed that says President. >> Okay. So he's president, is he, >> I can only tell you how he signed it. >> He did he signed it as president. But there was something that we had when Mr. Woods was removed or declined? >> We saw something that said when Mr. Woods was removed that Mr. Bixler would be the interim president, but I'm thinking on the timeline he may have then become the president. >> It's not here. I'm just curious does it make a difference at all, >> If he has the ability to sign off and that's who we would use. This has gone through their attorney, who has presented this back to us. In fact honestly I didn't ask for it to be signed. Sent it over for them to look at for documentation so they signed up before we even -- because I wasn't going to ask them to sign it until after you voted. But it doesn't matter if. Can sign up here >> Okay it's a viable club? I mean who are the members of the club they said there's 28 people? >> That's what the information we received from the international. >> But we believe the club is viable? Okay. Thank >> Okay so I have a lot to say about it, I obviously never got a chance to speak from here about the value of the people we questioned the appraisals and stuff like that so I'm starting from the beginning so come on back to the idea of the value of the structure based on the MI appraisal. So can I understand that when you are getting an appraisal and it will go back to before the storm accepts that July 7th 2022 the treasurer of the Lions Club Foundation sent a letter to the editor of the gabber pleading for funding to repair their building. They said that they raised enough to repair their roof, but still needed money to help with repairs. The roof there was a something obtained in 2022 to me when you look at the permit list the city as the owner which I understand the city is the owner of the lot. But they wouldn't be the one to take the permit out right the Lions Club would be responsible for that and they didn't. The permit itself doesn't describe the full scope of work. They said they're repairing the roof but they're zero square feet of repair mentioned in the permit. It's listed at a $20,000 pair which I mean over the course of reading permits for a long time $20,000 is a pretty round number and that repair consisted of a silicone coating over the top of the roof that was already existing. They didn't tear off the roof. They didn't put any new product, they just skim coated the top with a silicone cover and that was in 2022. Since then, there have been no permits. At that location. So those dire repairs that were so badly needed that they reached out to the gabber to reach out to the public for them we're not done, if they were done, then they were done without a permit. So knowing that we should do our diligence and not buy places that have had work done without a permit, I probably wouldn't want to buy that building at this point. Then, comes the storm's. So on ten two their starts coming public pictures posted by the Lions Club from their Facebook account publicly for the entire world to see on ten two there's pictures of people standing inside the club, clearly there was water intrusion, there's a line that you can see where the water was, there's mud everywhere. They thank people for coming to help participate in cleaning up which obviously is great for our community, but it also shows that there was more damage than we had heard that there was. There's pictures of people who helped to take all of the appliances, five refrigerators and freezers out of that building to take them outside because as they said on their post, all of these appliances were ruined. And then on the 4th of October after the storm, they put out a call to request people to bring 32nd outdoor wood cleaner to clean up any mold or mildew that would have been on the wood paneling inside the building. Which to me, does not make appropriate remediation for mold or mildew or any damage that would have been done from that water. On October 30th, more pictures were posted by members of the club with very clearly a ceiling caved in. Ceiling was on the floor, the installation is on the ground there's a residential dehumidifier inside the building, there's pictures of mops and buckets next to the Lions Club logo, and all of these pictures are tagged with the Lions Club location here you can see them because we've been there for pancake breakfast and other fundraisers come but they're tagged with that location and then on 11 eight there's another call to return a small dehumidifiers that they had been using because someone else borrowed them to work on their house, and they weren't done using them for so 11 eight they're still using small dehumidifiers which again is not appropriate for mediation. On December 1st there's a post from the club that says please come to this fundraiser for us this other organization is having we can't have one ourselves because we are still evading from Helene. On December 1st. So that brings me to now where I see a letter from Linda Gregory on no kind of stationery, there's no header, there's nothing that would imply that this is from an actual entity. It looks like it's just a word doc. And, it lists her as the district governor and I looked her up on the national page and she's listed as the first vice district governor. Which to me is not the same thing. So I would struggle to take this as something legitimate because it's not notarized, there's nothing about it that seems official to me at all. Especially with that incorrect title. Then I get to the hold harmless, and in section seven of the hold harmless, if anybody got that far, it doesn't make any sense. The words don't make sentences, and they don't actually really say anything because they don't form a sentence so I don't know if it's just a script error or if something was left out. But, it reads like just a run on sentence of a bunch of capital letters and it's in all caps. Which I also don't understand the significance of that. But, it doesn't say anything. So they hold something harmless, but there's no punctuation so I don't really understand what that section seven of that hold harmless means. Then I get to the letter that also comes from the Lions Club Foundation, and there's two of them from the foundation, one says as of 8 p.m. On 1111, Jeremy Wood is no longer present at. It does not include his resignation, it says -- I spelt the interim wrong which to me is important because and the paragraph that describes the new interim vice president they use it correctly but then when they put it under his name, they call him the interim president and spell it wrong. So it just doesn't look official. It's not notarized. Does nothing about it to me that looks official other than the Lions Club logo at the top that anybody can get from clipart. And then on the same date there's a letter that says now to Mr. O'reilly whose name is spelled wrong, but they would like to have a checkmate out -- a check made out to the foundation and this was they voted consensus, it doesn't give a list of voters who are present, how many of those people voted, it doesn't say how the consensus like how they voted, h