City Council

>> To the city of Petersburg City Council meeting your elected officials are mayor Rick kriseman district one the chair to early 30's this trick, too. Randy Gabbert. Council 5 years Edmonton married. They just 7 Lisa Wheeler Bowman. And district date Amy Foster. >> Teen meeting of the St. Petersburg City Council to order. Madam Or Mister Kirk could we have a roll call please Foster here the artist year ever hear much an area here. Rice here are now here for a skull there. Thank you Madam Clerk and some. Real of element We're grateful this morning to be joined by important fake leader in our community. >> I've had the privilege of listening to and paying attention to this particular faith leader rabbi Philip Klein trouble congregation, b'nai Israel. And this is this is a rabbi fake leader a citizen of St. Petersburg who has one of the most gentle presentations of speaking that I've ever encountered yet is. His substance is so pointed and so important. And the magic about that is when you are gentle and genuine in your presentation people listen. And rabbi of them, I've been so privileged to hear you. Give our community message is that we all need to hear please continue your work. Thank you for being here this morning. We're going to raise for an indication after the indication we're going to pledge allegiance to our country and its flag and then if you remain standing for a few moments please. We need to honor some fallen police officers and firefighters of at least 8. >> I want to thank Charlie first as the resident of district line. I appreciate your service as well. Honorable members of the council. Throughout our country we are at a time of darkness as we go deeper into December. The rest of our country is discovering winter. And snow and sort of daylight it's the environmental darkness. We see political darkness. We see words of hate and the white sheets have been removed. Anti Semitism, racism the b a feels far to Main Street. But then we come to our fair city. Almost always shines our coldest days are downright bombing. And in these walls, our disagreements are frequently and usually respectful. An issue-based and these walls in our in our refreshed city halls. I pray that the sun will always shine May we debate openly kindly passionately, but always to work together for the city May we always remember the holiness of the individual the people in front of us. This time of year is the season of light and so many cultures whether Muslim Christian Hindu Buddhist, us we're simply celebrating the secular new year. We're all working to light up the night right now we're trying to bring light into darkness. And my prayer is that the city continues to light the way for our neighbors reminding that every citizen. And our fair city and then. I pledge allegiance to the flag. The United States of America and so during which it stands one nation under God. And this fall with liberty and justice for all the remains and he is. >> As we honor and remember. Chief James j Mitchell. End of watch. Dec. 25th, 19 oh 5. Officer James j Goodson. End of watch. Dec. 25. 1947. Firefighter George w Ludwick end of watch. Dec. 19th 1966. >> My colleagues we have an agenda with the decisions and the lesions are there any. Discussions additions or other changes to the agenda or I would entertain a motion to approve the budget move approval second. Thank you. Mister Clark, we have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. You open the machine for voting. On approval of a jet of the agenda. Council members please and your votes. Mister Clerk single council members of both of which are police telling announce the vote on the agenda. Mister Chair of the motion to approve the agenda. Passes. Yes, thank you. Mister Clark. We have the consent agenda. And I would entertain a discussion about the items on it for a motion to approve the consent agenda. If approval. Mister Chair we do have one part for the can say ok let's hear from the public Joshua like. Morning Joshua reporting council members item c b 20. Is yet another. But his government to profit from stealing people's money. >> Proving the supplemental appropriation from an appropriate balance. The federal justice forfeiture fund to the Police Department. The amount that we $9,100. Civil forfeiture is an evil practice. In the world drugs. Which can ever b responsible for crime. This forced. Quite the government as the 3rd party. For his own property. It's not as if. The government is taking this money and giving it to a victim governments just taking the money. Her the ever victim in the crimes to even. Regardless of the fact that there is a nominal process to get your money back should be taken in the first place. This whole process is unjust from the beginning. God did not create government to crush people. Took some drugs. So drugs. Didn't get permission from the government to have. Got create a government to get justice for victims. This is way out of bounds. This request should be denied. Routinely it doesn't get tonight. And that responsibility is on your hits. And on judgment day. Gobble require. For every single time. Look the other way. Under our authority. The guy has not authorized them to punish. Or punish people in ways that God has not had. >> To cook them in motion a second to approve the consent agenda record is one from the motion customer Rice made the most with a second. The machine for voting place. Council members present your vote on the consent. Mister Kurtz thing that all council members have voted. Would you please tell you now it's the vote. Mister Chair, the motion to approve the consent agenda pass unanimous. An attorney a k a. I'm going to love myself enough point of privilege we're going to part from the agenda is printed and has published. Because there was a development late yesterday afternoon. That. In all ways except for selfishly there's a wonderful wonderful development or somebody who's made our city as great as she And so we're going to do a discuss this development that occurred yesterday before open forum and then after we finish this which. Could go on for hours we'll move on to open forum. So I'd like to give Lisa Wheeler Bowman, the oh yeah or the floor, whatever she chooses to introduce this item. >> Thank you chair and thank you for allowing this. You know I can honestly say that I was hoping the. Chief Gil did not get the job in Tallahassee. And that is very selfish of me. He has been he became a friend of mine. 2009. And this was a time when our community really did have a good relationship with the Police Department and many of my family members didn't even like him. So what are you hearing about what you know him you must be a snitch or something like this. But no it wasn't that it was because I was honor. To know a person a police officer. Serve with such loyalty. Integrity. And I'm going to shoot as my friend. And thank you for serving the city of Saint Pete for 18 years. >> And I know you hate it when you gave me your cell phone That was fun. You have come full circle, Utah back home in there they are going to be so blessed to have you. Can they be cross however liver. >> For those for those of you maybe here this morning, although most of you are Whiting gatian our community so you probably already knew but for those who are watching. We're listening in some other way that don't know. Assistant police chief Antonio Gilliam was named yesterday afternoon as the new police chief of the city of Tallahassee Florida. And chief if you don't mind standing there a little I'd like to let my colleagues speak and then let you speak. I heard my colleague you always want to say anything to you I know I want to say something real quick but Mr. Anybody would like to speak to 2 million. Deputy mayor thank you. Chair. You know there's a quote talent is our gift from God, what we do with it as our gift back to the world and uh I think of chief William I think of that quote the mayor has a family commitment that prevents him from being here this morning. I know you could want to take this opportunity on behalf of the administration. And time honored to do so to thank you. For your valiant service. Thank you and a. Integrity of Lear's leadership that you brought to our city. Mayors very proud of many of the things that have unfolded during his time in service here. A commitment to invest in people as much as places sustainability practices. Opportunity creation, you know racial projects like the pier infrastructure. Police Haitian. But I think that he's most proud of the progress and transformation of our Police Department and it's ascension to truly one of the best if not the best and we will hold our Police Department up against any in the country. If not the world that has everything to do with the leadership of chief Anthony Holloway and the team of leaders that he's put in place that not only set standards of uncompromising excellence but lead with example themselves every day. And service to our community in a way that reflects the excellence of our people. The city is its people. Their hopes their dreams. Everything they pursue every day and the Police Department is also as good and as strong as the people comprise it most of the people 4 and our government today have been in our Police Department for a very long time. But I think that we all recognize the transformation stepping in to excellence of the next level. We attribute that leadership so grateful Tallahassee is so fortunate to receive that and now that community can absolutely look for the type of growth that we've seen you are a beacon of light in our city of sunshine. We so appreciate you thank you to every that. Well I mean. How eloquent that she would say those words I don't know why I have to follow her one thing that she said is about investing in our people and you know sometimes that return looks like they move on and that's okay that means that we all want. You know congratulations and I wish you all the best we're going to see great things from you know and Tallahassee is very very for. Thank you congratulations. Congratulations a. It's been a pleasure to know you for so many years the city of Tallahassee. It's very fortunate to be a gaining a chief with your stature, your knowledge in all the gifts that you you bring. Uh sorry for the city of St. Petersburg and losing such a fine officer in such of such a strong leader for our community. When I was a in the in the military as a as a young One of the things that our commanders use to tell us all the time was we could always invest in things in equipment but the people are the make the difference and you've made a big difference for our city. Congratulations. Please come back and visit us from time to time definitely as as Mike. A deputy mayor and council member Gafford said. You're a fine man and you're going to be a great asset for the city of Tallahassee. And I wish you the best. Thank you Sir. Yes, thank you. Congratulations. I. I'm so happy for your success and for what lies ahead for you. And this reflects so well on your work here over the years and as the deputy mayor said. Just the fact that set that our department and our leadership produces such great leaders, he will then have the opportunity to go into other communities and are the same way but that just makes me so proud of you and so proud of us. So thank you for, I'm your service here and I couldn't be more happy or more path for success. Thank you. >> It's a I think a lot of it's all been to that I think thank you so much and congratulations and you know if you happen to see are you a football Down the pull him over because that might be dealing with they're going to be known How >> now that they think utv graduation than what was there and St. Petersburg has been lucky to have your your your services and your your dedication. And we truly appreciate you. Thank you. Gina. >> Congratulations I was thrilled to see the news. That you had achieve this great call. I'm not surprised at all. The pleasure working with you for about 2 years now and I have found that you have fled with such dignity and honor and that's reflected throughout the people that then on your team during that time. And that's why while this is a loss for St. Petersburg. What you have you done with the Police Department. He is set at the entire team for grace excess carrying forward. The the. Community engagement and the trust that has been built between the community and the Police Department is largely a result of your efforts and I thank you for that it's so important. I wish you all the best in Tallahassee they are so fortunate to have you serving them I thank you for for your service and I hope that other you're going home in a way this will still be your home here in St. Petersburg always thank you. So usually when I'm we have something like this it's. The best position to be one of the last because all of the good things have been said. But I'm glad I was one of the last because I needed a minute to collect myself like Lisa. Your service has been. The main thing for community. And I just want to talk a minute about. You not to the work you did on the Police Department even there for 18 years you served with integrity and will t and built trust in our community. I don't even remember if it was a year ago now or 2 years ago now that you open yourself up to tell your story to speak out about domestic violence in our community and it made a huge difference. You're mentoring of children and all the other work you do in the community will not go unnoticed and will impact generations to come. And so it's a huge loss for us every time I got a had a bittersweet and Modi to share with for the updates along the way. But I'm so proud of you and Tallahassee is so lucky. Thank you we're gonna Miss You. >> I know I get to talk Safe. You know I I am just a convinced. Fully in believer. In the creators supreme leader intentional plan. And that might view of life is really kind of rooted in. Picture that I use that each of us. Each of us is a puzzle piece. That God creates supreme we intentional perfect plan. Some of us as possible puzzle pieces. Pay attention. And carry out. What it is we're hearing in our heart and our soul. And some of us. Pay attention sometimes and are working on it. Some of us unfortunately don't here. The direction for the puzzle piece. You you are and to me of my picture. You are the puzzle piece who pays attention. Fines some quiet time in your life is amazing is that is to listen and to hear. And then to carry out. What is your heart and your soul or talk. You're so true to yourself and I believe. Because you know the light that you're following. And uh it's it's no surprise to You know I did a little bit research this morning. On who these knuckle heads were that decided to say yes to Of 15 people from the community of Tallahassee I happen to love Tallahassee the chief of police of the Florida State University Police Department was on this committee, the chief of police of the Florida and then University police force was on this committee. Commissioner from the Florida Department of law enforcement was on this committee. The district attorneys from the second judicial district of Florida was on this committee and many others the n double acp. President. The Urban League President. It was a fabric. Was put together very well by the city manager in Tallahassee and it's no surprise to me at all. That those folks landed on you. Thank you and I'm going forward. I you know, I'm sad. I'm even angry a little bit that you're leaving. But God's plan is for you to do grow go do great things in Tallahassee for now and who knows. I would rather send you to Tallahassee as governor to be honest with godspeed to you if I or we what the city can ever do anything for you. All you need to do is ask. Thank you ok. Now you can talk. >> So as a law enforcement officer I have to not cry because I'll never live that You are making a heart so chair Council. Deputy mayor a city administrator everybody. First want to give thanks. Thanks to my God because. I knew what I went through growing up. And they don't have all day sauce, Peter. If you get some moral support them. >> I just couldn't bring back here >> You know I would not be here for the forgotten. The men and women behind me I think but the best and the state. The relationships that are formed with many of you before you settle Council. Councilman Foster. Councilwoman Mary others are new for a while and the rest of you that I got to know. This is a testament to the city of St. Petersburg not to me. 52 applicants applied for his job. Individuals from Seattle to Broward County applied all great people. Sitting in front of a panel the 15 people you name a few. There's no magic tricks. It was honesty. It was me and I'll talk about to see the successes of Saint Peter's. Thanks chief chief probably. Thanks teacher want everyone to you on edge. They prize. Just remember we still have your >> You need We also need to recognize that today is assistant chief just a 10 to 25 year today. Open forum. >> If you wish to address City Council on subjects other than public Quach I judicial items listed on the agenda please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak me signed the open forum she'd. Only city residents owners of property business owners in the city or their employees May speak all issues discussed in an open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda. You May only speak wants doing the open form when the item comes up on the agenda in order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address Council. Each individual will be given 3 minutes to speak. Wendy Wesley. >> My name is Wendy Leslie, I'm a clinical dietician at Saint Anthony's Hospital. And I'm here talk about an item on under new business and there's an item on your agenda today regarding small box retail. He within a 42 block area of South Saint Pete there are 6 small box retail stores. These are the dollar stores dollar general's dollar a family dollars and they still very highly processed high sodium I would call junk food. My for my clinical experience and they do not sell fruits vegetables nuts, seeds beans, legumes meet our Gary nationally amazingly there are 30,000 of these stores open and they outnumber Walmart and Starbucks combined and currently there on line to open another 10,000 of these stores nationally. Other cities have done incredibly creative things to halt the proliferation of these Says and there's something on the cassette on your agenda today to address that through the h e r s committee and I will encourage St. Petersburg to do the same thing. And this is for health equity and nutrition equity. And from my clinical judgment and my work with my patients at Saint Anthony's hospital I firmly believe that St. Petersburg is only as Good as it has its sickest residence. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. Cynthia Hernandez. >> Morning must win and this morning of the first of all I'd I'd just like to compliment the city on the police chief I was very moved by Ceremony as a new relatively new percent in St. Petersburg I'm here to speak about the affordable housing crisis. The plague of substandard housing. I'm I'm a resident of properties owned on. The 200 block. 3rd Street North. The Staten apartments, the Staten hotel and the Whitney hotel. They're owned by t j m properties of the McCarthy family who are multimillionaires who owned hotels. And other large properties throughout the country. My property and recently the Stanton apartments have been plagued by code violations. All things, I'm alleging. I'm alleging both criminal and civil complaints. I'm in the process of having this investigated. I'm. Pinellas County of course, I'm already in touch with mistress school I believe we're playing phone tag I've also in touch with Mister Cullum that iarc As his name might be pronounced but people are not Italian. And the this this is a very stressful moment for me to continue your medal Mister Chair. The mccarthys I think don't think I'm a piece of the puzzle. They don't think most of us are concerned the President. And I didn't have to fight someone like that is I'm going to do it and I I hope for and expect your full cooperation. Thank you for coming. My experience with council member Jessica Lynch will be all over it. You know it. Thank you for bringing it to our attention anyone else and worse because. All right we'll move on to the. >> Agenda and we're going the first thing we're going to do today is a report an update from usf St. Petersburg how they're doing and an update on the consolidation plan so. Good morning. Thank you for being here. My you're busy I'm not on the set everyone is busy and I appreciate this opportunity and I want to thank the Council for all of the support that you provide to us at St. Petersburg especially as we are continuing to go through the consolidation process which is a very complex endeavor. This going to be a years in the making and all of the support that you provide to us. On this campus and the importance of us to you as a city in the city to us is something that absolutely resonates with all of us on our campus and we appreciate you and appreciate the work you do. I do want to recognize with me today one of our uh campus board member says and she really is with us. She was fantastic and she is an outspoken advocate. Our campus and this community and we just absolutely love her. Helen Levine is a vice chancellor on our campus for a community and external relations and director of our marketing communications Kerry o'brien, our critical leaders on our campus for helping us continue to move forward as a university campus here in St. Petersburg and congratulations on the reelection for Council persons we are not marry I am a pleased to see that and food and do want to thank. Council persons Curtis in Cornell for their service of course for the time that you have served then we consider you friends of course you don't you May not know we pay attention to the council member changes gotten and the politics of the city and how you contribute to the city because we feel absolutely we are he or University in Petersburg and will continue to be that guy that's who we are. So we appreciate that I do want to share a few things with you I'm not all about consolidation because all we do is talk about consolidation is a lot of noise out there about that. But hopefully if this thing works. I want to go back one slide though because it jumped. Technology is great when it works. Yeah, this thinking about one side. We have a short video clip put together talking about our campus just for a couple minutes, they would like to share that with us. As some of our students. And if not how just tell you about it will move on. We'll go on to the next slide that. Some things you need. Well we'll look at it another way, some things you need to know about what's happening on our campus in terms of the progress that we continually make when I came here 4 years ago we were in the top 25 of the regional universities in the southeastern United States by us News and World Report rankings if we we're still part of that ranking because we're not any longer going to be part of the regional University rankings were part of the National research University rankings but if we continue to be part of the u s news and World Report regional rankings will be a top 20, regional University in the southeastern United States because of things like you see here the academic progress rate of our students which refers to those students who start in the fall and then continue the next semester. Not ending up on. But we call academic probation and other words they have a 2 point o or better gpa and they don't they're not struggling academically in our classes that academic progress rate from 36 to 39 has gone from 66% to 78% which is a significant climb. One reason and that contributes to that back in a to 3618% of our freshman. We're on academic probation and had what we call an unacceptable academic progress related to dw son apps. They had the they had these are the head after they had withdrawals of course is because they were struggling academically. We have cut that down from 18% to only 6% of our freshman encountered the w's or f's after there first semester with us which is a tribute to our faculty and staff who have implemented a lot of different ways to help support students academically also on the freshman retention rate in 38 it was 74%. The current incoming class from last fall that freshman class that came in a year ago and came back this Paul 83% of those students came back the national average is 75% preeminence within the state of Florida and there are 3 preeminent universities, you know and usf is one of those usf Tampa has an 89% fall the fall retention rate. You f and Florida State have a little over 90% retention rates very few universities in the country can brag about a 90% or better. Follow the fall freshman retention rate with 83 and we fully expect to hit 90% within the next year too because of all of the things we've implemented on our campus to help those students be successful in their first year. So they will continue with us and come back in the second year. No one in the United States has increased in one year. A freshman fall the fall retention rate by that much. I looked asked me I look not the least on Google nobody can find increase their freshman retention rate by that much. We also have what we refer to as a record breaking research year already this year this runs on the fiscal year. But this fiscal year. Our faculty have generated million and external grants and research awards and contracts versus the previous years that you see in front of you and we're only December this is as of Dec. 1st, we have until the end of June for the final numbers to count in this fiscal year. So we fully expect to go far beyond the million that you see here which is a testament to the work of the faculty and staff in generating those extra dollars important to the city important to the community because that research brings those funds here. We expend those funds here in this community in that research effort that our faculty involve lots of other individuals, including our students and so that's external dollars brought into the community strictly through the research efforts of our factly and we're very proud of their work. In our fund raising efforts which we of course have to rely upon because there's never enough state funds to cover the cost of education of our students and so we always are seeking external dollars in support for scholarships and awards so that students can continue to afford to go to college and not graduate with debt. Last year. We exceeded our fund raising goals. There are 2 significant gifts that you see up there on the slide. But we exceeded our fundraising goal by 55% last year above and beyond the previous year. And we expect the fact that we will continue to have a good result. Our priorities continue to be research and innovation inclusive community and sustainability our students started a campaign this year called you belong here. There's a video that you can see on youtube they have created and they have created a wealth of information for students on our campus about belonging to usf St. Petersburg and why they should feel that they belong because we have the most weird with different folks. This is a different place. We are not your typical University. Our students are heavily engaged in the community there heavily engaged and breathe in and accepting everyone that comes. We have students who come here because they love what they find when they get here. They love that inclusive environment they love feeling a part of that campus. We don't have those students who come because we have of great football team on campus where they can walk across and watch a football game. We don't have athletics. We have club sports. We have. Clubs and organizations a 110 of those it says can blow into that we don't have athletics we don't have fraternities or sororities. We don't have the traditional big college University things that a lot of students seem to elevate too. Our students come here for a different reason. And it shows and you belong here that campaign they started on our campus led by our students is a good representation of that. We also reached the midway point on the new residence Hall which is on schedule to open next summer. 375 beds to help address the affordable housing needs that our students seek in Saint Pete because of course you and you just heard someone talk about the need for affordable housing in that part of the of the city. So this will help address that need so that we can bring students in downtown Saint Pete right on to the campus and this will give us a little over a 1000 I think a 1050 beds on our campus available for students. Vs 375 it's less by the time this this opens fabulous residents Hall with a dining facility in the bottom. I'm just going to be great and we're excited about that we have some special programming that I just want to mention we did open a nursing program by bringing the second degree accelerated nursing program from usf Tampa to our campus. We lease the port building and we have transformed that into a nursing lab. You should go see it because it doesn't look like it used to and there's a lot mannequins in there that they use and as a lab facility for nurses and a classroom facility and we have. Students walked around campus wearing scrubs now for the first time we plan to double the size of the program we admitted 20 students this past year we plan to double that. Next year. So we do have nursing available. These are working adults. These are not your typical for your bs in students. These are highly qualified highly successful working adult students who want to pursue that nursing certification. And that's the group that makes up this class. Our online mba just was recognized as the top 25 in the nation by the Princeton review. And I will tell you us news World report makes money by all of their brain Kings and so forth and that's great. But the Princeton review is the respected academic recognizing Publication that I would pay attention to and so when the Princeton review says we're in the top 25, it means something it's not just a bunch of metrics that don't mean a whole lot. It was selected from among a 110 programs that were considered for online mba so we're very proud of what's going on with that program. The Pinellas access to higher education program in partnership with Saint Pete college was launched in the fall, we have for education counselors, full-time working in the high schools in Pinellas County together to from Saint Pete college to from usf Saint Pete. They are out there educating families and students on what they need in order to prepare to go beyond high school regardless of where they plan to go. Of course we want him to come the Saint Pete stay in Saint Pete come to us at Saint Pete. But we are they're educating the parents and the students so they know what they need to do to be ready to go. But they need to do financially so they can afford to go and then of course we create pathways for them to go through any route they wish to take to come to us at Saint Pete. It doesn't matter what the major is of what their plan is for a major light the fuse program is a 2 plus 2 program safety college you have to identify your major coming in to Saint Pete College and say I want to be a biology major and so this is your tractor Saint Pete College and then you come to us at Saint Pete, with all of those credits transferring with path. We don't care what your major is a still a 2 plus 2 program, those credits will still transferring count. If you start at Saint Pete College and then transfer to usf Saint Pete later for example, but his broader than that this program is designed to really help people prepare to go beyond high school and those education counselors are working actively we have 48 students at last count who are officially signed up. Justice Paul and we know that's going to accelerate and we're going to get a lot more students involved so that we can have them be successful. Coming to us at Saint Pete. We also lodged with the innovation district as our partner. What we call the innovation scholars program for new freshman these are 17 well new front we have 15 year-old freshman now I don't know if you know that because you can complete an associate's degree in high school. Last year we had 12 students come in as new freshman with an associate's degree right out of high school a 17 year-old so we have 17 year olds in the innovation scholars program an 18 year olds in the invasion scholars program. We have 34st year students who qualified through their application and review process to participate in the program. We match them up with mentors from 29 different businesses in the downtown area of Saint Pete and the innovation district, primarily to have mentoring experiences with those organizations throughout the fall semester. Pilot attempt to get to a point where every freshman coming to usf St. Petersburg will be paired up and have a mentor relationship with a partner. The innovation district or in St. Petersburg and they go out and they go on site and they spent time in the business an industry where a partnership organization that they're working with to learn about what it is to work in the real world and careers that will take them forward and so they get a good taste of that in their very first semester which has relevance to the classroom experience because they're connecting their experience in the and the organization and their mentoring with that classroom experience are getting on campus. We aim to have every individual every freshman have that opportunity. Eventually we just started this fall the reports back from the students and those participating businesses. Our outstanding. They're loving it. The consolidation update and I can answer the questions that I can even though there isn't a lot of unanswered questions still to come. You May have seen version 2 of President Crowds consolidation update which included information mentioning. The creation of centers of excellence we didn't talk a lot about colleges. We didn't talk a lot about departments we talked about centers of research excellence that will be housed over here in St. Petersburg 3 of those Oceanographic environmental Sciences, stem education and journalism and digital communication as research centers of excellence within the entire University of South Florida and representing the University of South Florida in this community by concentrating efforts in those 3 areas because those are natural areas that we already have expertise and death and and we have community connections that are absolutely important for those to move forward and we're excited about those opportunities. You also need to know that we've talk about future plans and we are taking steps to move in this direction to bring engine earring related programming to St. Petersburg biomedical Sciences and fine and performing arts which we absolutely need in Saint Pete because it aligns with the importance of the arts in the city. We're moving in that direction. One of those ways is we're in conversations with the city right now about the Sri facility and becoming engaged in that facility. So that we can start moving forward in the future to use that facility has an expansion area which we desperately need to have space if we're going to bring these things to St. Petersburg you've got to have the space and so we're working with the city on a possible. I'm Lisa in order to do that we're talking with the College of Arts and Sciences in u s a Tampa about bringing other things to the city that our academically related programs, but seemed to resonate with what we feel is important to St. Petersburg mention a couple of those the institute on Russia which is housed in Tampa. Should be housed here. Significant population here that that would resonate with those residents to bring the institute on Russia here or at least a branch of that the water Institute is how's that usf Tampa we're in discussions about bringing the water Institute to St. Petersburg which has significant research allocations and connections nationally related to water in research on water. We're talking with them about bringing the Center for the Advancement of food security and help here because that's House that usf St. Petersburg and of course that addresses but we have concerns about in the city and we want that here. We also are talking about the Humanities Institute because the Florida Council of on humanity's is housed on our campus and it would be a natural fit to bring the Humanities Institute over here or a branch of that over here as well all of those institutes and centers bring with them research dollars external awards and grant opportunities and leadership in those areas that are sitting in Tampa right now. We want in St. Petersburg. Here's where we're going. We're going to continue to build on the successes that we have and focus on students consolidation is a process and here's the process here is where we are the board of trustees of usf approve. Change request for consolidation that will go to creditors. So from the board of trustees that will go to the Board of Governors, the Board of Governors will approve that. Without question. Probably then it will go to the creditors in Atlanta in April. They're bored. We'll take a look at the change request and make a decision in June to move it forward and we're confident they'll move it forward to of what we call a site visit. They will put together a team of reviewers who will come visit usf Tampa here and Sarasota next fall that team of reviewers will take a look at the consolidation framework. And the plan going forward for usf as one University that was submitted it will be a full review, they will be here for 3 or 4 days on that site visit just like a regular accreditation 10 year cycle review. And then they will make recommendations back to the accrediting board in Atlanta about what to do. They could accept the consolidation plan completely lock stock and barrel I've been a review and I know that he meet and they talk about those things and they can give the green light to say everything is great move ahead or they can have a whole variety of things they can do they can say there's problems here there are problems there there's problems here and there. You need to correct those problems you need to submit a report to us or we need a return visit to take a look at it in 3, 6, 9, or 12 months, or they could simply go to the very end the very worst case scenario and say no we reject the whole thing start over. That visiting team gets to make that recommendation to the accrediting board and the accrediting board then decide what to do. And we will probably not know that answer until the spring of 2120 21. That is my best guess on when creditors will make that final decision about the accreditation plan. So that's where we are we still have issues that we're talking through even though the version 2 has been out there of the consolidation and the plan to the accreditors has gone forward and been approved by the board of trustees we're still talking about things like the extent of authority delegated to the leadership on this campus. We're still in discussion about that we still have things that we're working through about reporting line relationships. The control of budget and how budget can be allocated and managed here locally. There's there's a lot of in the weeds kind of things are going to happen in the spring. Even though everything has moved forward for approval and is going to be a creditors. The operational peace now kicks in and it's going to be. Conversations so I'm very proud of this university. I am absolutely proud of the people on this campus for being patient. Because as you know anytime there's a merger and this is a merger folks. Any time. There's a merger. There's a lot of insecurity, there's a lot of unrest, there's a lot of uncertainty and people are stressed and people are engaged in multiple hours of time outside of their normal full time jobs to get this thing done. And so all of us are involved in that here in Tampa and Sarasota manatee and it's a along process and there's stress levels that people have experienced but we keep focused on what we do really well and I wanted to share with you the results of that because we're doing that with their full-time jobs while we're also managing the consolidation process and we haven't lost ground we haven't taken a step back everything is moving forward in a very positive direction for our students and because of this community and the support of this community. We are where we are. Right now in terms of the things we need to continue to move forward in a positive way we got those because of the community. About the importance of this campus to this community. So I applaud you I applaud all the people that live in St. Petersburg care about this place. And faculty. That put their heart and soul. Into their work every single day. Because like you said earlier. The city is nothing but a bunch of people where people and the humanity of that. It's what keeps us. Despite the noise. Things like a murder. So I applaud the team of people we have at the university and you need to just be proud. Just need to be proud of their work. Questions that you May have. Thank you doctor tablet for the great update you should be really proud of the progress that's been made under your leadership, those retention rates. >> And academic progress. Changes are are significant and something to be proud of I know you have a whole team working to make that happen. And you know the highlights are just in every category the. Jump in research awards n other things as well so today's to your entire team. i know there's lots of answers you don't have yet so you May not have an answer to this at this time. It sounds like they're still questions open about the authority that will be delegated and. Budgetary controls that kind of thing what can we do for you whether it has to do with consolidation or other projects. Here in thing that we can support the university or one or staff you talked about a great mentoring program. What you need from us. Well we want to definitely let's start with the mentor very and we want to expand that so that any incoming freshman has an opportunity to participate and so any other organizations within the city willing to take a freshman. Even a 15 or 16 or and do something with them a couple of hours every week getting him in their organization and showing them what it's like to be in that and in that world would be wonderful. And Allison Barlow and Karen e Smith, 32 contacts for that Allison is the. Director of the innovation district and Karen e Smith is a project manager for us who works on our campus and they run that and they'll be looking for additional organizations to participate going forward. Otherwise you know supporting that legislation that was passed that we will be a quote branch campus was hugely significant because that gave by definition budget authority to us to manage our own budget here locally. It gave us authority to administrative authority to administer everything locally. Of course we have reporting line relationships with people in time and always have I've always when I reported to do it again Shep report states ground hasn't changed. But the reporting relationships in the broad sense. Branch campus gave us administrative oversight that we would not necessarily have had without that definition being put into place so continuing to some support. Both the letter of the law and the intent of a branch campus definition is very important to us because it gives us those things we feel we need to continue to address locally. The needs that we know best because we're on the ground over here a 100% of the time with the students we're not in our way. And so we've got to be able to make those decisions locally in the best interest of this community and those students we serve and so that would be important just to continue to support the intent. And the literal language of what a branch campuses designated to be. Just go to school. Thank you thank you for the update. I you have a lot of success is to celebrate and we thank you for being such an important part of our city. I wanted to speak for a moment to the innovation scholars program I had the pleasure of participating as a mentor. 2 freshman John it billions the semester. And I will tell you that I got just as much out of it as she did. It was just wonderful too meet and and work with a young person who is so engaged and so interested in. What we what we do here. And it was just. It was enlightening for me as I got feedback from her perspective on some of the things that I'm working on. And then of course to chat with her about her college experience so far having just jumped in. You know it was just a wonderful experience and I look forward to participating again and I would encourage my city staff and there's in the community to consider also being a mentor and the innovations scholars the program. It is not a a huge time commitment. But what you get out of it is extremely valuable so thank you for being part of that and for working with Allison and the innovation district on that great new program. Thank you can I say one thing about John it for you if you May not know your influence probably was very instrumental in this. She's a member of the chances leadership Council and our last that we had as a group every one of those students 32 of those students. Had to talk about what their lifelong ambition and gold May be in relation to what it was when they came here back in the early part of the fall semester last summer. John net said I'm going to be president of the United States one I just just letting you I love hearing that wonderful. I did have a question for you know with the consolidation there has been talk that the standards for admission would be changing possibly. And for me that raises a concern. Because right now usf Saint Pete is known. Be inaccessible University and I want to make sure that that is maintained is there any information or something that you share with us regarding that that was a over a year ago admissions. For the usf was combined into one admissions and one student profile for new freshman. So a year ago, I'm not this past fall, but the year before our overall incoming gpa of students was a 3.8 weighted gpa I would say that's not an accessible institution. It's not a highly restrictive institution but it's I would say it's moderately not highly competitive. Now as of this past fall the incoming gpa of our students was a 4.1 3 weighted gpa and the requirements on the a c t and s a 2 year substantially higher we have an average att of 28 for this past fall. Incoming group but that has done it absolutely impacted. Our numbers of incoming freshman we're down. We expect to be down again this coming fall because there's only so many of those students in the state of Florida to meet the quote preeminent expectations that are put on the preeminent universities for admission. However that's why the path program and the fuse program are so important because if you can't reach that 28 a c t 4.1 3 gpa weighted gpa it doesn't mean you can't get in. It just means you May not get in as a full time fall at mit student where the metrics count. That's where those that profile is counted. Your incoming full-time freshmen in the fall. You can start in the spring as a full-time freshmen with a lower gpa because that spring admit profile doesn't count in the preeminence metrics you can start as a part-time student and you don't count in the metrics you can start and transfer and you don't count in the metrics the old agrarian model of start in the fall as a full-time freshman is the only metric that counts in the academic profile for admission. That's why we have path and fuse and helping educate people look we're just as accessible as we always were if you stop thinking. Coming in the fall as a full-time freshmen is your only way to go to college. That is not. You can go on a variety of different ways to a variety of different paths. And you don't need to start with that 4 point o gpa in the fall as a first-time full-time student. The whole community needs to be aware that because we are accessible. We will take students in the spring and will take part time starts and will take transfers just like we always have but that first-time full-time college class because we are now part of the preeminent research University it went up. And there's only so many students available that reach that so of course we expect a decline in that number of students. Well we raise the number of students that have access in different ways, including working adults. We don't do a good job of bringing working adults back to college. And there's a there's route and pathways we need to develop there too. So we just need to dispel the old agrarian modeled notion that you got to come in as a first-time freshmen right out of high school. >> So while the standards have been raised this work has been done to create additional path as to make too. Continue being excess, yes and we started that work before consolidation because when I came in and you read the tea leaves nationally about where enrollment is going. The enrollment apocalypse is what they're referring to it as nationally will start in 2026 with a huge reduction in high school graduates across the country. 880,000 last high school graduates in 2026 1020 25 because during the last great recession. People quit having babies. And now it's catching up and so there's a 5 year period of time where there's a sharp decline and the number of high school graduates starting in 2026. We knew that we can read the tea leaves you can read the demographics. So we started talking about what are we going to do to provide pathways for lots of different people to continue to develop get their education and move forward in a variety of ways and get away from that thinking that your first year freshman is your bread and butter that's no longer going to be the bread and butter. For most universities. They're closing all over the country merging all over the country right now because of the decline in the number of first-time full-time freshmen students and it's going to get like I said the apocalypse is 2026 for a 5 year period of time a huge decline. Thank you for that information. Thank you. Tim. Council right. Thank you chair. I thank you doctor, Ted at your presentation today. I certainly feel a lot better about things with consolidation that I did maybe a year ago. You're such an important asset to our city my questions are yes. If we've had a lot of discussions have last few years about or grow smarter strategy and from the city standpoint, what we would ideally like to see is that people of all ages have the opportunity whether it's 2 us f c p p Tech, a Saint Pete college. Maybe even Eckert but the people have an opportunity to avail themselves of programs training as an academic degrees that linked to job opportunities that we have in our city and i just would like to hear from you I think May be a sign of little bit of it when you talk about some of the future programs May talked about the ocean. Oceana. Oceanographic thank you. And the stem education centers of excellence. Maybe reflects some of that alignment with grow smarter could you talk about that. A little bit because I know it May not necessarily be your goal to have your graduate stay here in this city to work. But it is a consideration as city leaders that we have that we want to make sure that our educational assets are aligned with our encore smarter strategy. And we will participate with the chamber and have 2 of our leaders on campus who served on the chamber committees and are very familiar with the grow smarter strategy and we constantly are getting updates and reports on where things are going. So we're absolutely committed to the same thing you are. And I say it here quietly, we May be a national research University and we recruit nationally and internationally but we want to keep the talent here because the race for talent as you know is getting more and more extreme and we are competing for talent worldwide. If we go after a faculty member right now. We are doing I'm a worldwide search we no longer even consider things like well we need to find somebody and part of that can come to know we have to be out there looking worldwide for those talented individuals and so when those students come here spend their time here we invest in them. And we invest Florida dollars and no students we want him to stay here. And you need to know that probably 80 plus percent of our students who come here intend to after a very short period of time we've done surveys and we talk because we've done focus groups over 80% of those kids who get ready to graduate want to stay in Pinellas County. Even though they May be from somewhere else in Florida they fallen in love with us. They fall in love with being here and of course we want to stay here. But we have to of course look at how do we align programs with a jobs and career opportunities in Pinellas County and we're missing the boat over here in the stem fields in my opinion we're not where we need to be and we're not where we need to be in the engineering related areas, which are in high demand over in Pinellas County so we're heading down that path and we're going to take advantage of consolidation to get those programs over here because people are going to drive across the bridge. I've been saying it since consolidation was the first we're down off the lips of anybody over there. They talked about one University geographically distributed students can go to any campus they want. And I'm not Europe in the night folks they're not going to drive across the bridge to go to a class in Tampa unless it's an emergency kind of thing like I was when I was a student I had to have a class to graduate in it and take it on that campus. Yeah, I drove an hour to go get that class but otherwise they're not going to do it. We need him here and we need to operate here in the need to get everything they need here. And you've got it there we're not in competition any longer so let's get the programs over here and we plan to do it. It's just going to take some time. And I'll give you one little thing right now as soon as that change request goes forward to Saxon Atlanta. Everything freezes in terms of new programming until the review is completed, and they approve the consolidated usf so we're going to be frozen for about a year in the implementation of new programming that we want to create over here, but we can still brienne existing programs over here that's not going to be frozen. So something like a coastal engineering which isn't offered in Florida could be a new program that would fit in Saint Pete perfectly but it's a new program. So we're going to be frozen and we can't move on that until after Sachs says ok but if we want to bring electrical engineering over here because Tampa offers that we don't have it we're not frozen in bringing that program and making arrangements to operate over here we're not going to be frozen by sacks and we can move ahead in those conversations. So we intend to go there. But it takes resources. It takes space. It takes dollars and we're going after those and it takes a little time. >> I heard you say it takes pay so take that and. The if you could talk a little bit about it is that path a path the the. The nation ship, I'm an English major and they put that in front of me and I said that pace dorian's path e and they said no which is called Khalid had. The small e. >> I love hearing that and my nephew is it Saint Pete The 2 plus 2 program. That's just something I would really love to see strength and and more people know about. And more people understand how there's that connection starting off at Saint Pete College. And how you can you know have lots of options. It's not staying at Saint Pete college. Going over to our South. Is it still I forget is it still an acceptance process order. If you're automatically your obama if you're infuse. So you the den a 5, 1, of 19 majors that are automatic transfer. And you keep your gpa above the minimum requirement for those you're spending 2 years at Saint Pete college in you come in to us Senate straightforward. So that's if you're in path any major and we advise them and get them on that path and we keep an advise all the way through so all those credits transfer into but every major they choose to come into over here and we give him a scholarship when a complete. The 2 at Saint Pete college. Get a scholarship to help to bring him over. >> That sounds fantastic it sounds like it's the best of both worlds us the university becomes more of a center of excellence but there's still lots of pathways for a local student who maybe wouldn't get in on that agrarian schedule as a as a freshman full time in the fall. Sounds like this. Lots of opportunities for I thought what a student last night and said stay home, go to go to Saint the college is right next door it's within a mile of your home. You're going to save money by staying with your parents even if they don't necessarily like that idea but you're going to save money. You're going to stay home you're going to go to Saint Pete college you're going to transfer to us. At the end the year second year at Saint Pete college you're going to go through the path of program that an advise you all the way through it and then you can come and stay in our dormitory for 2 years at least the last 2 years and transferred us and stay on campus if you want to even though you live in Saint Pete. So she's interested in that now where she didn't have the money to come. Immediately. And leave home and come and. It's it's a pathway for her. Thank you for being here doctor tablets, Ted talk it's very very important that we have you in a come and give us an update from from time to time just because you're just a vital part of our community and it's always good to see you in people associated with fund usf St. Petersburg all around our city. I've got some just general questions for you it so it I believe you you mention that we're on consolidation plan 2 point oh it sounds like consolidation plan. One didn't go very well, and they May not have for filled the intent of House bill 71 oh 7. But 2 point o did. But it sounds like there's still some work to be done. So can you talk a little bit more about the approval that was made earlier this month. And what what the next steps are to. The change requests that was approved by the board of trustees is the 10,000 I would call it the 10,000 foot. A view of what usf will look like is one University going forward with to branch campuses and that's the official document that goes to them in Atlanta. That's been a proven going forward, and as 25 pages long you can read that is on the board of trustees website. But there's over 700 pages of hot links of charts and graphs and figures numbers and everything that you can click into version 2 point oh was President Kerr owls Tex to a version. What one usf would look like going forward and he called that v