City Council Meeting

>> Welcome, everyone to the Gulfport, Florida. Join us in rising. >> Thank you so much for being here. It is good to realize that love and peace can prevail on earth. We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different hopes and different dreams. Each of us must rededicate ourselves to serving the common good. We are community. Our individual fates are intertwined. And if we act on that knowledge, we can move mountains. Jimmy Carter. 39th President. >> Thank you. >> I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call, please, city clerk. >> Council member Brown. >> Yes. >> Council member Ray. >> Here. >> Mayor Henderson. >> Here. >> City manager o'Reilly. >> Here. >>> We have a couple of presentation this evening. One is by Suzanne. We look forward to that. But we also have a surprise one today. I'd like to bring them up now. How are you doing? >> Great. How are you? >> Good. >> We have a check that we'd like to present from o'maddy's bar and grill. O'maddy Gunther wanted to be here tonight but she couldn't. She was the brains behind the operation and the raising of the money for Gulfport. We raised for Gulfport little league. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Malorie, by the way, who is running Gulfport little league now played for the blue jays, if I'm correct. >>> We'd like to bring up the lgbtq resource center read out for 2021. Hey, Susan. >> Thank you. I have to bring the microphone way down. Thank you all, we are pleased to make this presentation. I want to thank Diana sulveri immediately for making the presentation you see before you. I am the President Of the board of the lgbtq Resource Center. It is an absolute lynchpin, as you know in Gulfport. And what happened with the pandemic is everything closed down. Including all of our events. Since last February until this February. When seven people decided there was a need for a lesbian literary festival. And what I'm going to ask Milton to tell you about in just a minute is how incredibly successful that was because of the support of the city of Gulfport. First, for those who aren't familiar with the resource center, if you would, hit the second slide. Dave, could we have another slide? Thank you. Our mission -- okay, I'm so glad I brought my glasses. Is committed to -- oh, that doesn't help. Promoting the awareness of the diversity of experience, contributions and needs of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. We do this by providing educational social and recreational opportunities through the Gulfport public library, including books, films, music, speakers, exhibition, and eens. And this year it has been all about online presence. Next slide, please. You May ar May not know that in 2018, the American library association recognized the Gulfport library and the lgbtq resource center specifically with its newlen-Symans award. We do incredible outreach not only locally but beyond. Next slide, please. Here's a quote from the chair of the round table at the American library association. Their programs, resources, outreach and partnerships for and with the lgbtqia+ community are an amazing example for all of us to learn from. And if everyone wants to know all those letters, just ask later. The acronym goes on forever. We were part of the library's application with the institute for museum and library services, which chose only five libraries from across the United States to receive the National Medal. Part of the reason they gave for awarding Gulfport this highest federal honor a library can receive, was from the lgbtq resource center's integral part of the fabric of Gulfport. Next slide, please. And now we come to Milton's part, readout. Milton, are you there? >> I am here. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Excellent. Thank you for having me tonight. I am at a distance still staying home virtually. But one of the great events that happened this year already for the lgbtq resource center was Readout. This is an annual event, a festival of lesbian literature. This year was particularly interesting because this year we held the event at the library live in-person, with about 145 folks attending. That's about the capacity of space. This year it would have been easy with covid raging for us to cancel it this year. Regroup and start again next year when covid is abating. But instead, the planning committee, 7 of us, decided we wanted to try do this virtually. We weren't sure we could do this. It was uncharted territory for most of us. They thought it especially captured the Gulfport and the spirit of the public library and the resource center. Next slide, please. So we surprised even ourselves. We took this much bigger. Last year the event was about 145 participants at the library. This year we did an entire virtual event and we drew nearly 1,000 registrants who participated in the event across the 2.5 days. We took it entirely virtual and ended up rather than shrinking it, rather than giving in to covid-19, we decided to keep forging ahead to persist and prevail. And we had nine live, and 15 pre-recorded sessions over 2.5 days that featured over 100 writers and 22 entertainers, musicians, et cetera. We're also particularly excited to tell you that our registrants weren't just from around the United States or just even from Florida, but came from 21 other countries, including ta tansaneia, U.K., Australia, and more. Next slide please. We did this not on our own but with a number of sponsors. Unfortunately, because of covid, many organizations weren't able to donate money. But we asked them to instead spread the word about this event. You'll see on this list many from the Tampa Bay and Pinellas county areas. But you'll also see a few from the United States. We were excited to share the magic of Gulfport and this event with all of these folks who were kind enough to share the word across all their social media and email accounts. Next slide, please. Quick thank you to the organizing committee. Some of you May know some of these names. Movers and shakers. Jeanine Norman who joined us from Alabama. Barb Talkov, and myself, I live in Gulfport. Next slide, please. Readout wasn't enough for us. So our next big event will be opening Saturday, May 29th. It will be partially live in the library where we'll be exhibiting artists and themes. We'll also include a virtual component, which we're still working on. We hope it will match readout and the reach of readout. Next slide, please. Finally, a thank you to the lgbtq resource center board of directors. They dedicate all their time daily. Bill Ward, of course, serves as our treasurer. Next slide, please. Finally, of course, none of this could happen no matter how many volunteers, et cetera, we have without the support of the entire city of Gulfport, including the city council. And of course everyone at the library. We want to particularly thank some folks at the library and city staff, Dave Mather, Ashley Johnson, Diana sillVera, and Jacob Taylor for helping us navigate the difficulties of taking on an event of this size. We were fortunate to have a Readout marketing consultant Sarah junke. >> We just want to thank the city of Gulfport, the city council, the city library, and all people here who just made this happen. It's pretty amazing and we plan to keep growing it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Susan. >> For those of you who don't know, our librarian is sitting up in that booth handling remote calls right now. He's not afraid to go anywhere. I was very proud to be a part of that and well deserved. Thank you, both. >>> This brings us to public open comment. We ask that you use your microphone. Please give your full name and address if you wish for anybody to follow up with you. You'll have three minutes. Everybody try to keep it cool. And we'll start with anyone who wants to put their hand up first. Yes, sir, I saw you first in the middle. Yes, sir. >> Hi, my name is Ken Simmons, 3205 58th street south. I feel like the council person and mayor should be censored for their inappropriate comments and behavior in the last meeting. Thank you. >> All right. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Bonnie slern, Pelican Bay plaza. While the responses in the gab to comments made at the last council meeting relevant to the last election, none of those are on record, other than congresswomen's response. This is for a response that will be on record. I was disappointed and embarrassed by the comments made by Christine Brown and verbally endorsed by other xhebs about vice mayor April Thanos. April has repeatedly denied having anything to do with republication of an interview Christine and her husband gave willingly. That should have been enough to stop the repeated allegations. Not doing so fringes on defamation of character, and essentially accuses a fellow council member of lying. She has no proof whether Mike bower nor April was responsible for the blog. To denigrate Mike bower from the bully pulpit was also over the top. Especially since he was not notified and had no chance to refute her unproven allegations. Mr. Bower has incredible credentials and a long list of credible activities. He put himself out there to run for office to offer his experience to the city. All that is now lost due to the accusations and reprehensible behavior of this council. This city's loss for sure. Anyone willing to enter political office should be commended, not vilified. She has denied even thinking about whatever he might do politically in the future. That said, if she or anyone else for that matter to recruit someone to run, so what? Does sitting on the council mean you are an heir apparent it is time for this council to stop the juvenile bickering, treat each other with respect, and do the business they have been elected to do, the citizens business. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Who is next? Show of hands. Yes. >> I have a question about mask wearing. Nobody is wearing a mask up there. What's that all about? >> We've got shields, buddy. >> Not good enough. Okay. I think you know, the ugliness the fact of the political realm of Gulfport is something happening nationally. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing. Mudslinging is part of our political process, I think. In regards to the consent agenda, we have a reroofing company at the fire department. Is that happening? I'm submitting two pieces of mailers. One is from April, and her mailer says environmental and sustainability. The environment is one of Gulfport's most viable as assets. Protecting it is one of our top priority. I'd like to see a solar component on the fire department roof. Also, I have a mailer from Michael. And his says, continue making our buildings more energy efficient. I am assuming that also means solar. Submitting these as public records. Also, if you want things to be on public record, you have to submit what you say in writing to lesley because it's not a public record. They choose to put in public record what they want. If you don't submit documentation, it's not a public record. There's no proof. There's no research. There's not a record of it. Also, I am completing reading the tangled up in blue, the policing of America. In part by George Floyd. It's inscribed for our chief of peace officer, Michael Vincent. I'd like him to read it. It's a good book. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who is next? Yes, ma'am. >> Richard Freed. >> Good evening. My name is Kim Gillespie, I live at 5106 14th avenue south, Gulfport, Florida. When it spills over to the community, I can't really express myself. I'm so hurt in this community. By some of the comments from the past, by some of the comments currently that go on from people who are supposed to represent us. Sometimes as a minority in this community, I do feel marginalized. I do feel under valued. You know, we work in the kitchens. We work behind the scenes. We're not highly visible in Gulfport. We have some of the lowest voter turnout in the African American in Gulfport. And it seems like no one on the city council really cares why we are not voting. There is a reason why Black people in Gulfport don't want to vote. It's because we feel as though you don't take us seriously. The city has a history. This country has a history. I don't know how the city who can claim to be lgbtq friendly cannot distribute that friendliness across the board. It hurts. So I'll move on to the next thing. The habitat for humanity project, I was here for the presentation. I worked for habitat for humanity for a small period of time. I'd like for the council to consider instead of putting families in homes, we can build four affordable homes for people who are on marginalized index who can't keep up with their property taxes. Who can't put a roof on their house so their have a tarp over their house. Property taxes are going up in Gulfport. When someone on social security gets a $22 increase and their property taxes go up significantly greater with everything else. It's just a consideration I'd like the council to consider. There's a way of dividing up those units to put four qualified candidates in independent housing and ownership. The next thing that I'd like to ask for is if the city can consider providing composting barrels like they do in St. Pete. It's a nice way to recycle. You know, add to some of our gardens. And what we don't use, we can share with our neighbors. Thank you. Sfwloo thank you. Yes, Ms. Wright. >> Good evening, everyone. I'm the owner of the -- I'm also the manager of the stage. I'm here this evening to make a request to city council to please use the apparent noise ordinance as it is laid out. Apparently our noise ordinance is set at 65 decibel between -- it makes reference to many different noises: Phones, pets, phono graphs. It does not adequately serve the restaurants and bars at 65 decibels. For example, a vacuum cleaner or a hair dryer registers at 75 decibels. The noise in this room before we began was around 70 decibels. -- I know there have been times when we surpassed the 65 decibels reaching 90 and 95. I apologize for that on behalf of my business. And we have taken steps to mitigate this. We are a new business. We just opened last year. It's a learning curve and we are learning how to do this. I went through a pandemic and I've had my fair share of dealings with this. The past weekend I measured the music that was in the courtyard and everyone who played. We were around 75-83 decibels, as measured to the property line in the alley. We seem to get most of our complaints from people and residents in the alley. I also tried to do some research as to what other counties and cities do. I did find out that pinelas County has 72 decibels. We have become a venue where musicians can perform and people can enjoy themselves in a safe outdoor space. We cannot continue this way if we are in constant violation of the ordinance, and berated by our neighbors. Find a way where we can all do business and live comfortably in an area where commerce and residents coexist. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anyone else for open public comment? Yes. Go right ahead. >> Good evening. My name is Dawn fisher. I live at 6060 shore boulevard. 20 years ago I took a seat up here. I wanted to remark on the yacht club situation and the city. And I have a few words to say. Tonight, I'm going to be lying awake. What could I have done? What could I have said? I'm too late. Everyone, it's too late. Could this all have been different an outcome? How many people have been hurt? How much division and anger exists? Now, in my dear, dear Gulfport. >> Yes. In the back white shirt. How are you doing? >> Hello, everyone. This is my first time here. I am leafy green at 2908 1/2 boulevard south at least on Thursdays. I'm a musician in town, and I want to provide additional perspective to what Kelly Wright was talking about with the noise ordinances. As someone who lives a life of audio, I appreciate the spirit behind these noise ordinances. I really treasure and value my quiet time. At the same time, I also treasure and value music and what it can bring to a community. I've dedicated my life to it. And I've seen over the months and years playing these shows and going to other people's shows. People who might be at each other's throats somewhere down the street will come together and celebrate life and our common humanity. And I really want to not let that go unsaid. As I hope we will reexamine some of these ordinances. They're at this point just not in touch with reality. Kelly mentioned the reference of phonograph. I think they are perhaps a little outdated. I was measuring decibels from the back of the room. When Susan and Milton was giving their presentation about the event, they were ranging 60-70 decibels in the back of the room. It sounded nice. It was not a nuisance in any way. And I think the spirit of our rules involve, you know, keeping things peaceful for people. And I think we can do that with different specifics. So thank you. >> Thank you. Much appreciated. Yes. >> Good evening. On a different note, I'm not here to speak about any ordinance or anything. But Joe guther from o'maddy's was here today to present us a check for Gulfport little league. I'm the President Of little league and what he did for us was a very big deal. I had to come back here. I just met with him at the restaurant. I had to come back here to publicly acknowledge what he did to Gulfport little league and youth baseball here in Gulfport. And I wanted to thank you, mayor, Mr. Manager Jim, Mr. O'Reilly. You watched me grow into baseball. You used to be my coach when I was a young kid. And I went on to play professionally with the Toronto blue jays. He had a hand in stirring my pot to get me to where I needed to go. I just had to come back here publicly to thank all of you guys here in the city of Gulfport. And the support that we get from the local businesses here, it's tremendous. O'maddy's is not the only business here that donates to Gulfport little league. We seem to raise about $6,000 for the last three years on average from all local businesses here in Gulfport. And what that does is that allows a lot of minority kids or -- I can't think of the word here, but let's just say families who couldn't afford to pay the registration. But the businesses here that support us in the donations and the sponsorship allows us to allow those kids and those families to play baseball. So I had to come back publicly to thank him and to thank you guys for the city of Gulfport. We really appreciate everything you do for us. >> Thank you, Mr. Malorie. We're proud and honored to have you. >> This baseball season. We're at Thomason park and Hoyt field Tuesdays and Thursdays. Come out to the park and enjoy. >> Thank you. >> All right. Who is next? I see a hand right here. I'll get to everybody, I apologize. I won't leave you hanging. >> Thank you. Good evening, my name is Lee Nel. I live in Gulfport. I'm a member of past commodore Boca yacht club. I spent my year -- enforced civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, disability. It's a job that I loved and I'm still proud of the work that we did. Wishing doesn't make it so. In context, that means that anyone can sue anyone for anything. But that doesn't mean that the defendant did anything wrong. For example, as much as I wish dominion voting systems would limit lawsuits against Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani -- wishing won't make it so. The same thing with lawsuits against bcyc. The court found that it was not true. Most everyone knows that bcyc was sued for discrimination. What most people seem to not know is we won that case. We were also the subject of an administrative complaint, which we hear about all the time. But again, we won that one because it never even got off the ground. And yet, we still hear how bcyc discriminated. And it seems like that false narrative leads to reactions to bcyc, instead of the actual facts. Bcyc was not able to publicly refute these claims while the case was pending. However, the trial court's decision is now a matter of public record. And in fact, the trial court found in bcyc's favor on all counts. The judge said at page 55, even if ring had met her burden, which by the way, the court found she had not, bcyc has more than met its burden that it had legitimate reasons for expelling ring from membership. Ring had provided false Gulfport addresses. Which is very important because Gulfport residents like me are given about a 30% discount on the boat slip rental fees we pay to the city. Non-residents pay the full amount. Therefore, someone who claims a false Gulfport address is basically cheating the city out of that 30% of the rentals. When bcyc discovered those false addresses, and there were more than one, actually, confirmed by the court. Bcyc took action in part to protect our relationship with the city. And yet, here we are. Thank you. >> Yes, in the front. >> Hi, my name is Richard Walters. I reside at 2900 45th street south, Gulfport. I'm an avid sailor and have been a member of the yacht club. The club game to Gulfport in 1965, dredged and built the south basin and made major improvements to the auxiliary coast guard building on the property. Our mission has been to promote safe boating and sailing instruction for many years through our youth sailing program, which is free to anyone in the community. Our adult sail school, and our sponsorship of a very successful sea scout ship 915. We have taught multiple family generations how to safely sail. Many thousands. We have provided the majority of the funds and toys for the Gulfport police operation santa with our Christmas boat parade for over 25 years, which brings thousands of families with children to Gulfport each year. We also have a yearly fun day giving free sailboat rides to families in Gulfport and the surrounding communities. But this will end very shortly. A couple years ago the city asked us to spruce things up and fit in with the current marina district plan since they reassured us that bcyc would remain in the community. So in only a couple of years we invested $120,000 into the club house along with new paving, curbs, and signage. We even painted our building the same color as the main marina complex. We did that, what they asked us in good faith. Now two years later, the mayor and the city council has decided to evict us with no cause to give very small -- to give a very small portion of land back to the people. It is really a ruse to gentrify the area. Destroy Florida -- for 55 years. The city intends to divert covid relief funding that should go to the citizens of Gulfport for a non-essential marina project to maximize revenue and push out the community clubs. They want to push out the sailboats. Good leadership works to include all stakeholders for the overall good of the community. They're calling their personal legacy -- >> Thank you, sir. >> Destroying one. >> Three minutes, thanks. Right here in the front. >> I'm speaking to you as a transgendered woman, member of bcyc. I applaud the opening presentation from my lgbtq brothers and sisters. And it breaks my heart to have to come before you again tonight after speaking to you on February, the February meeting where I had every expectation and reason to believe that once we were acquitted of those horribly false charges against us, that we would then be given a prolonged lease until such time as the city had its permanent plans in place to modernize and communityize the property and the funding, and the plans that are in place. Now I have to come back to you again tonight as a transgendered woman and try to save the one place we had, the one social boating club we have in pinelas County that you people are going to take away from us. After the love and appreciation city this feels for the lgbtq community. As a transgender person, we suffer more discrimination than our gay brothers and sisters, God bless them. We do. And that discrimination often comes from white males. From privileged white males. I've suffered slings and arrows to get to where I am throughout my entire transgender career. It has been tough. And it has never been tougher than it is tonight. And you people are breaking my heart. I've encouraged so many transgender gals to come to Gulfport. It is the most friendly place for us, I thought. And now people have moved here, I don't know what to tell them. I don't know how this city is being run on behalf of us. We have no other place. I told you that in February. We've been exonerated of those heinously false charges brought about by two tragically disturbed individuals. And yet, here I am begging again. I don't know how you guys can square that. I honestly don't. That's really all I have to say. I hope you search your souls and rethink your decision, on my behalf and on my sisters' behalf. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who else? Yes. >> Good evening, everyone. My name is Dawn anjianni, I'm a full time resident in Gulfport. I have a request for the council. As far as the Shore Boulevard building between caddy's and salties with all the plywood up. There's a lot of concerns in this town about buildings and how they look and how they're built. And if it would be gentrified or not. And the plywood on those buildings looks like asbury park during the crack epidemic. Everyone is concerned about this. I hang out over there by the marina lot, and people come to Gulfport and they think Gulfport is closed down. They have asked me, is everything in Gulfport open because those windows are boarded up. So I'm asking the council, please, and I would be willing to be a part of it. I realize there's a plan in place that I am not privy to about these buildings. But in the interim, can we please do something? We have a ton of artists in the town that could paint those plywoods and make them look nice. You could do so many things with it in the interim. I'm asking that that be done. I'm willing to help get it done. It really looks bad for our town to look like that. You know. And I don't know how long the project is going to take. So it might have to be a couple of art projects on top of the plywood. But just something to clean up our town a little bit because the optics are terrible. Thank you. >> I'm going to respond to that one, real quick. That's private property. And that's basically a big developer who gave us the finger on the way out. But we don't own it. I'm trying to figure out. >> If you want to get the artists together. >> Private property, that's the issue. >> Just ask permission. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thanks. >> Who is next? Yes. >> Good evening. My name is George Anderson. I'm a full-time resident. I live at 5109 17th avenue south. I'm a boater. I come to Gulfport after waiting to get a slip in the municipal arena for my sailboat. I came to live in Gulfport because I got my slip. Within five weeks, I closed on a new residence here in Gulfport. I'm very distressed over the fact that as a Gulfport member, as a Gulfport resident, that there has not been workshops in recent days. The yacht club was in discussion lease renewal discussions. And less than 30 days ago, that went from lease renewal to -- 90-day eviction. I think that's unconscionable. I think that's not giving the citizens of Gulfport the window to err on what the new plans are. It's my impression that the city of Gulfport is running a deficit. And I don't understand what's going to happen. How are we going to spend this money? How will you spend this money as good stewards of our tax paying residents to raise this building, destroy what has become a very vibrant, positive organization for the community. What's going to happen to the sea scouts? What's going to happen to the boat parade? What's going to happen to all those people that don't get to go through the adult sailing school? These are all things that you can't measure in dollars and cents. And I think if you really want to work for the good of the people, then you have to really examine this. How many years has that property going to be line follow? There's no current plan. I believe 2016 was the last plan. How is it going to be funded? None of this has been made available to me as a Gulfport resident. So I'm voicing my dissatisfaction. I feel betrayed as a citizen, and as a sailor. And I came to Gulfport because of sailing and the bcyc. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who's next? Yes. >> On another note, a lighter note. I'm Margaret delgetti. Carol and I recently coordinated the art in the yard thing that happened a week and a half or so ago. >> Just a second. Everybody, I appreciate it. If we applaud everything that happens, this is actually very good that you're doing this. But we usually try to keep the decorum in here. If we can cause the applause in general, and just let people make the comments. Thank you. >> I appreciate it. >> I hear you. Karen couldn't -- >> Karen couldn't be here tonight. There were over 100 artists from Gulfport that participated. The feedback was that it was well received. My understanding is that the Gulfport businesses also saw an increase in business that day after the hours of our event. One in particular that was a new business on the north side of town had her best day of sales ever, which I thought was really cool. The next one we've gotten the green light, November 6th. So mark your calendars. And we have some plans in place that are going to help draw business to the brick and mortar businesses. Again, I appreciate your guys support. And I wanted to thank the city manager for helping this happen. Help with Internet stuff and getting this stuff in the gabber for us. A special thanks to April Thanos who made the ball rolling for us and got this thing. She kinda helped pave the way for the initial stages. Thank you everyone for your support and the fact we get to have them twice a year now. >> Thank you. Who's next? Yes, right here in the front. >> Hi, I live in Gulfport. Recently the city has been the recipient of a boatload of obnoxious letters. I've sent you all a letter. So I hope you get a chance to read it. The letters you've been receiving are notable for the repetitive use of profanity and personal invective. And they're yielding a climate of sort of subRosa or low level fear or unease in city hall. Recently I spoke to a psychiatrist, an m. D. Who is a mental health consultant to hostage negotiating team with the swat unit. That person told me disgruntled residents don't usually give their time and place of their city council attacks. They don't say I'm going to come over at 8 o'clock and blow things up. The council can't cross talk to me, but I wonder if our able city manager could address the safety issues because of the two examples of the shootings I gave you. The members of the communities were killed and injured also. So I wonder if you'd allow Mr. O'Reilly to briefly outline the measures the city can and cannot do at this juncture. >> When the public comments completed, I'll allow him to address whatever we wants to do in person, otherwise he'll get with you later. >> Thank you so very much. >> Thank you. Anyone. Yes. >> Good evening. Mary Henry, I live on 27th avenue south. I plan to cover several topics here in my 3 minutes. I'll send you detailed comments that won't fit in the allocated public time. After listening to the council meeting on March 16th, I was discouraged and disappointed. Christine Brown, while I frequently disagree with your priorities and views on local, county, and national issues, I had the utmost respect for the time and effort you put in to local events and activities. So I was exceedingly disappointed to see you use the city council platform and city resources to attack a citizen of Gulfport. One who does not have the same access to the city platform to respond and defend themselves. All because they had the audacity to stand as a candidate against you in a recent election. Mayor Henderson, I was also very disappointed that you did not use your authority as chair of the meeting to cut off personal attacks and restore the dignity of the meeting and civil discussion. The next topic is bycy yacht club, but it's really the comments and reports at the end of the meeting when all of a sudden without notice to anybody, the mayor terminated the least of bcyc it should have had a motion, a second, and a roll call vote before that happened. The third topic, which relates to bcyc is public tax money. Money whether it's federal, state, county or city derives from the citizens. That is our money. We pay tax. The money is pooled and then should be spent for the greater good of its citizens. Not everyone will agree with every expenditure, but the majority should agree with all expenditures. The moneys from the American recovery act are not a lotto winning for the city and city manager to spend on their wish items. They should be spent for the greater good for the residents of Gulfport. I have a whole list of suggestions on how to spend $5 million to benefit the citizens of Gulfport. I'll send you a detailed list. But here's a short summary. Expand, add, improve senior center to support vulnerable citizens, and seniors. Support affordable housing any way you choose. Give code enforcement more support so that they can enforce code. Pay the city employees a wage that means they can afford to live in Gulfport. Thank you. >> All right. Who's next? Yes, right here on the end in the front. >> My name is Joel hien, 6th avenue south. Mayor, council members, I'm here tonight as a skipper of ship 5195. In previous conversations I have tried to -- successful due to both the city of Gulfport and the bcyc contributions. I want to be clear, if bcyc goes away, I will do everything in my power to keep ship 915 thriving. This type of program is more important today than ever in today's world. The youth need what we teach, entrepreneurship. I'm a full believer in this program. At this time we have close to one adult for every scout with 15 registered scouts and three cadets. Prior to covid, we had -- 15 adult leaders and only one was not a bcyc member. We were the largest ship in Florida and among the largest ships in the country, and hope to one again post-pandemic be one of those ships again. I don't know where we will recruit adult leaders if bcyc goes away. We had tried to start a ship in the 80s, you May not remember. But failed due to the lack of adult participation. Without enough adult leaders, ideas are highly curtailed. With your actions, you May have set bcyc on a course to failure. Or to move to another location. In either case, it will be at the slow death of ship 915 in Gulfport. In summary, ship 915 is successful due to both, city of Gulfport and bcyc. If you remove either one of these legs, the future of this ship is in peril. I urge you to allow bcyc to continue to use the current building until a new community center is built and ready to be occupied. My scouts have decided on their own that they wanted to come and address you tonight. So at this time, I'd like to invite them to have their three minutes and come up and talk to you. Thank you. >> Here you go. >> Noah Shaw. Hello. I'm the yoman. Two blocks away is bcyc, the home of ship 915. The ship and the people in it have changed my life forever. Should it simply not have been there, I fear I might be a much different person. Sea scouts is a branch of boy scouts of America. Our ship and trip operates out of bcyc. Simply put, we need them to keep our ship running. They do so much more for us than we do for them, and we are very grateful. We offer sailing, kayaking, cpr training, and manual boating safety class required to own a vessel in Florida. These cruises, however,have not been happening recently due to covid. They've legitimately been some of the best experiences of my life. You pack your belongings on to a sailboat, then spend two weeks on the water navigating, cooking, and steering all with close friends. Both the sunsets and the stars are amazing 50 or so miles from land. The best part is you can pay for it yourself. On Sundays, we clean and fix the boats for $6 an hour. And sometimes a new skill. Granted you're an active member, you can usually pay for the entry fee yourselves. Sea scouts is a great resource for the youth. Not only to youth in Gulfport, but also to Gulfport itself. In 2019, as part of a statewide initiative, if my calculations are correct -- should have filtered 11,223,750 gallons of water by now. A more recent project happened in 2020, when scouts helped Gulfport glue down "no dumping" sign. Every summer we teach elementary kids how to sail at bcyc. This is a plea for mercy from the heart. Please keep bcyc two blocks from my house. I would also like to say my name is Amelia shaw, Noah shaw is my -- sea scouts has been the best friend group I've had in my entire life and most important. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Is there someone else from sea scouts in this group? Yes. Was there another scout that wanted to speak? >> Hello, my name is Elizabeth Sullivan. I have been a sea scout for three years. My rank is apprentice. I have sailed to the keys, scuba dived, trained and competed with my bcyc mentors in various ragattas, and much, much more. While independent than one another paper, in reality are a true synergy. Yacht club members have become friends and mentors to all of our sea scouts. Once our parents drop us off at bcyc, they know we're secure at the gates. This is something of a safe space for us sea scouts as teenagers. We often sway and gather by the big tree next to the clubhouse to discuss our activities for the day. Mia, the somewhat adopted cat that roems the area has been part of our family. Sea scouts know we are safe around friends and feel supported. So take this away from us sea scouts, it would be a detriment to us and our family. Only with the support of the caring, concerned sponsor like bcy club. -- thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Anyone else from sea scouts that wants to speak before we move to someone else? No. Okay. Sir, you had your hand up. >> These kids, they are our future. These kids are our legacy. So with that, I do want to say council members, Mr. Mayor, good evening. My name is Frank DaMico. I live Gulfport, Florida. I'm a bcyc member, sail school volunteer, sea scout advisor, and a board member of bcyc. My husband and I are both Gulfport residents, homeowners, taxpayers, and voters. And we are very unhappy with our elected city officials right now. If you consider nothing else tonight, consider that. We like many residents here are taxpayers and we vote. This is what bcyc means to me, which in turn extends to how I feel towards the community in general. It's been a lot on social media about the fact that the club doesn't belong in Gulfport because it's elitist, exclusive, and even racist. I'd like to set the record straight. The pun is intended. In case you didn't get the reference, when I mentioned my husband earlier, we are a gay couple. He is an Asian Pacific islander. We were both welcomed into the club, and the Gulfport community. The same way with open arms. Does that sound exclusive? Bcyc is in fact the embodiment of inclusivity. We both work 40 hours a week and have moderate needs. Does that sound elitist? Club dues are $145 a quarter. More than some people's monthly bar bill. Again, does that sound elitist? Others will speak extensively on what the community will lose, free sailing for -- operation santa, the Christmas boat parade, fun days, my personal favorite because it introduced me to Gulfport and to the yacht club. Money spent by our members over the years at local businesses. Have contributed many other ways to the community. And I say community because the city is you. You're the city. This -- this is the community. This is the community. You should be protecting that. The city is financially vulnerable right now, and what do the elected officials do? With money that they're going to receive from the federal government? >> Thank you, sir, I appreciate it. >> I think you know the rest. So I do want to say thank you and regardless how things turn out, we will do what sailors do, we'll plot a new course. >> Thanks. >> And we'll follow the wind. >> Who's next? Yes, sir. >> Good evening, mayor, council members. My name is Howard Bush. I want to say thank you, sea scouts. Also the vice commander of the United States coast guard auxiliary here in Gulfport. And vice President Of the local alliance club. This concerns more than just the yacht club, it concerns us all. It concerns the lions club, who has been there since 1967. Lions club building was built by the lions club members of this community. We have supported organizations in Gulfport since 1948. Also, we have a Gulfport yacht club right next to us. That also affects as others have said, the entire community. We do more than just pancake breakfast. If you've ever heard of Helen Keller, in 1927, she asked the lions club to step up to the plate to take care of any preventable blindness in the world. And they have. More than just blindness, hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, within weeks, $100,000 was sent in relief funds to the people in Bahamas. And that was just a start. The Gulfport has been around -- the lion club has been around since 1967. Members of the Gulfport lions club, we're at 4630 tiffton drive south. Since its beginning, the lions club has raised thousands of dollars for site conservation, diabetes awareness, environmental improvement, eliminating hunger, childhood cancer, disaster relief, and other challenges facing mankind. Recently, we have been recognized as a Florida foundation as a 501 c 3 which will also improve many things to help this community. In addition, like many others, the police program for the santa benefit, Gulfport senior centers food pantry, youth sports, we support the youth sports and the baseball teams here in town as well. Another new one is feeding Tampa Bay, and lighthouse of penelas. If you've never heard of it, they take care of the people that are going blind or deaf, teach them out to gain in this society. They teach the parents about their children that are going deaf and blind. The lions club started that organization in 1956. Thank you again. >> Thank you. Who's next for open public comment? Yes. >> Karen Schwartz. I did not attend the last city council meeting, no excuses. Just to say I had the displeasure of watching the fireworks the next day. Christine Brown -- mudslinging conspiracy theory had no place during a city council meeting. Because of your lies, a man who might have been a leader in our effort to address climate change and build a more sustainable infrastructure in Gulfport is now so disgusted with our city, he's even stepped down from our sustainability committee, which is a real shame because he was the driving force behind the rain garden now blossoming near the rec center. Mayor Henderson, what were you thinking? As our mayor, you are responsible for maintaining civility during council meetings. Letting Ms. Brown air her grievances, none -- makes me wonder about the integrity of our elected leaders. Furthermore, everyone on council, why so opposed to some new blood? I remember when Dan linkey was running, he was so proud of the fact of the lack of drama among council members. Which I understand now means council prefers to put up a united front against new ideas rather than actually discuss different points of view. It's a wonder that anyone would want to seek office in Gulfport. Disagreements and even lively arguments about ideas and concepts are not drama. They are democracy in action. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who's next? Show of hands. Anyone else for open public? >> Welcome. Good evening, council. Hi, my name is Jason Sanchez. I'm a current commodore of Gulfport yacht club. I'm here on behalf of our club and members. We have about eight members here tonight. We were recently made privy to a new site plan that was being proposed. Obviously I've learned quite a bit about this and quite a bit about the yacht club tonight. Unfortunately, this came across as quite alarming as we had not seen this. Moreover, similar to bcyc, we are not included in this new site plan. I am among many of our members and our members of the community have many questions. I know you can't answer a lot of these questions tonight, but our club has been part of the community since 1938. And has been a staple in the community. A good partner to the city and it's been a multi-generational, social and sailing club since its inception. Even to the fact that my own family members helped build the new club when it transferred from plant bayou to its current location. I stand with you tonight with concern and unanswered questions. I understand that you cannot rebut at this time. However, I am hopeful there is a place for us in this proposed marina plan. I'm hopeful that Gulfport yacht club's existence is addressed later in this hearing. I don't have anything else. You know, I support a lot of the yacht club tonight. I did not know that they were being evicted. And I hope we're not on the chopping block next. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else for open public comment? Yes. >> Good evening, everyone. I don't live in Gulfport but I am the vice President And the conservation advocate for clear water Audubon society. I'm here to talk about the cleaning stations up at Gulfport marina. They have been a problem for birds for a very long time. Just in case you all didn't know, it's against Florida administrative code to feed pelicans carcasses or fishes that have exposed bones and spines because it punctures their -- it can cause -- >> Whoever that is, silence their phone during public comment and for the rest of the meeting. Thank you. >> What was that? Okay. Anyway, I know for a fact that the cleaning station has caused the death and injury of many, many pelicans because I know somebody who lives close by and she is a very good advocate and checks the pelicans every time, almost daily. Even from the Brown pelican species action plan, they say through targeted outreach they recommend protecting pelicans from injury and mortality related to intentional feeding. There's actually a placard and a sign that the fwc has made stating that it is against Florida administrative code to feed the pelicans. We have a lot of pathens that come into the Gulfport arena. They have a lot of tourists and people who think it's cool and cute to feed the pelicans. And they want to take pictures. But it's not cute at all when you rescue them and they're dying. And they have an infection and they smell like death because the infection is eating away at their gastro intentional tract and they're dying. That's not cute. And it's against the law to feed these birds. I think the station needs to be removed completely. If you insist on having a cleaning station there, you need to provide lidded trash cans and enforce it. I don't care how many signs you have, they're not going to stop feeding the pelicans. -- feeding pelicans is prohibited by law. So I think in the spirit of being environmentally friendly and protecting the Brown pelican, which afterall is the mascot of the city of St. Petersburg, I realize this is Gulfport, but it's the sister city. Let's keep our pelicans safe, and stop the feeding of them. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Much appreciated. Does anyone else have open public comment? >> There's one. >> Yes. >> Good evening, my name is Frank McKinney. My son has a residence -- >> Can you pull the microphone up. >> Yes, sorry. My name is Frank McKinney. My son has a residence on 51st street south in Gulfport. I have been for 50 years a fervent support of Gulfport. I just love the town. There's an old saying about be careful what you wish for. I'd like to add to it. Is be careful that you can afford and bring about what you wish for. I was a member of a team in St. Petersburg on the other side of bayou -- flying the plane for skyway marina district very active for years. It began as a volunteer operation. Then the city -- we defined a plan. Meetings after meetings of what do you want? What do we need to have down here? Our focus was primarily on shops, places to live, places to dine, and opportunities for employment for people who now live in midtown of St. Petersburg. We want something more than clerks and bus boys. -- it was all wrapped up. The mayor was behind it. Gave an offer to the first restaurant that would open and you can go and dine in. I thought wow, this is great. Then the implementation began. -- no resemblance whatsoever to what we planned. Nothing. We have a large cement buildings which is pretty much like CzechSlovakia. We have no restaurant aside from the preexisting fish house, our dock house, which is not nearly as good as o'maddy's. We have a new wawa gas station. That's it. Mayor still hasn't been down because there's still no place for the mayor to eat. We didn't get what we wanted. We didn't insist on there being a way of implementation for this plan. When it happened, they said, okay, now, now everybody can do everything. We promoted people moving in there. What happened? Businesses moving in. What happened is they were enthused about it. But didn't think that we were a place that they wanted to be. So that development really only on what the zoning laws would allow. If you just rely on the zoning laws and the mercy of developers, you're going to end up with the wrong thing. Now's the time to map out exactly what you're going to get when you go forward with your plan. I don't know whether you're going to go forward or not. But if you do, for gosh sakes, make sure you know what you're doing. Make sure you know where the money is coming. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else for open public comment? Yes. >> David Falwell, 29th avenue. I'm just hoping that somebody in our city or all of you, at least, are very involved with the Florida league of cities. In Tallahassee they're more than half way through their session this year and there are countless preemptive bills coming forward. I didn't bring the whole list. Bill 856 is going to prevent cities and counties from employing any alternative efforts for energy. So if you want to have our city buildings with solar power, you wouldn't be able to do that. If you want our fleet of vehicles to be battery operated, Tallahassee would have a say first. There's also bills that prevent our planning committee that's been working on beach boulevard and shore, it would preempt any of that, unless you complete construction by July 14th of this year. Please, please be aware of all these preemptive bills. And maybe someone from stetsson could help us work on these things. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Hello, I'm Bret Daniel, a veteran who's got disability. And I taught 10 years at pinelas County as a public education teacher. And what I'm most concerned about is the -- if we bring this place to a more public setting and we allow more people to experience at the income levels that allows more people in, I think you have a greater diversity. So I'm concerned about the diversity of this. And if you've ever had a wish and you take a little tour out there at Boca. Help everybody as best we can. Maybe pulling these boats out, fixing them and saying you know, get them back in the water and get people happier because they have wishes. So as many people with vessels out there their wishes have gone astray. 22 years in the military. Three tours in the Persian Gulf says I support the public domain not the private domain. I apologize because I have a disability. And fighting a private disability is much easy to fight in a public setting. The second thing is we should all be happy it's becoming spring and the birds are out here. We are a tree community. We must think of ourselves as a small domain to help impact the birds. And I'm sorry, my teeth are going to fall out. But that's what I'd like you to look at as we're becoming public and allowing everyone access. And you have the accountability. So somebody reports to you, you look at this and say let's see the diversity in this group. Let's see the financials to this group. Let's make sure every child who wants to swim go sailing. I apologize, I'm more for staying in the public domain. But don't trash the stuff and throw it away. Look at how you can serve more people. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else for open public comment? Am I missing any hands right now? If I'm missing any hands, just stand up. Okay. >> Hi, my name is Elizabeth Hendrix and I'm a Gulfport resident residing in gulf shores. I took the sailing course at bcyc in 2017. And ten of my classmates and I joined the club. Of those, five of us bought our own boats within a year of joining. I have a sailboat and it's in the bcyc basin. And I've loved racing monthly. We have a cruising program. I lernt to navigate with charts. Made some wonderful friends. And I love the basin that we're in with all the mangroves and all the trees. There are blue herons nesting in those trees and I watch them feed their young probably four months a year. There's also tons and tons of pelicans in the area. I am very worried about the proposal, which I just reviewed today. That looks at putting pathways both on two areas. They're calling them thinking spots a and b. These would cut through mangroves. Heavy mangrove area where these pelicans and birds are. There are dozens and dozens of birds there. And this would be extremely damaging to the ecosystem, to birds and wildlife. People don't need to go back there. We don't need a park. Those lands are rocky. They're uneven. I've heard people talk about having to do a boardwalk. This would mean a huge change in the ecosystem. We have a huge park. Bikeways right on the other side of the channel. We don't need it right there. Let's leave -- preserve some area for the birds. There's very little areas where birds can congregate where you're not shooing them off a beach or somebody's private property. We need those mangroves, the root system to protect the basin and protect the boats that are in there. Any trimming of trees or ripping out trees is going to affect the boats and the environment. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else open for public comment? Yes. >> I'm Denise Moseley, I'm also known as the crazy bird lady. Some of you know me. Some of you don't. Having said that, I live across the street from the Gulfport arena. I see more than most do. If we continue with the plans as they've been laid out and we start to mess with the mangroves, we're going to start destroying the nesting habitat for different wildlife. Not to mention the wildlife in the water as well. Having the area as it is now is definitely a detriment in a few ways. I pulled out a heron that was nesting in a tree with fishing line entanglement where he might lose a limb. It might not mean a lot to you. But it is important for us. It is also mating season. The better we take care of this area, the more we can continue to have this ecosystem that benefits our fishermen. Several of our volunteers have charters that come out of the marina. They can make an educational lesson to some of their boaters. It's very important that we continue to teach people how important our mangroves andest -- estuaries are. Right now the problem is that if we remove that mangrove area and we start putting in event areas over there, I hate to see the trash that comes from that. I started a group. Every single morning I walk outside and see trash in front of my yard. Not a complaint just a statement of fact. Because when people come visit, they are not appropriate with anything, including their trash, the mono filliment line, anything that has to do with disposal. The other problem we have with removing those mangroves and making it a thinking area, where are you going to put the trash cans? Where are you going to put things to dispose of the mono filliment line? Which continues to kill animals. Please consider as we go through to make these arrangements where the yacht club is existing now that we do not disrupt the ecosystem anymore than we already have. Right now there's a fishing station over there that did not actually meet the specs of what was supposed to happen. There's no fishing chute. There's no carcass disposal chute. Which means the fisherman puts them straight into the bay. And I have to go out there and pick up before they die of sepss. >> -- >> How do you put a walkway in there, sir? >> Okay. >> How do you put a walkway in there? >> We'll address it when we get to the marina part. I just wondered how you saw it. >> On the plans. >> Who is the next person for open comment? Anyone? >> Yes. >> I live in town shores. We've owned property there since 1976, my parents, and now I. It's my first meeting that I've come to. I've watched two on Zoom. It's actually quite upsetting, to tell you the truth. I do have a question. I'm not sure the procedure. I mean, lots of people have spoken with their ideas and concerns. How -- maybe you can answer this after the question. How are decisions made? Are those working meetings open? How do we know that you are really listening and taking in to consideration what everyone has said. And my last question is how did this get started or why did it get started with the yacht club? Which I have nothing to do with at all. But I think it's a nice part of the community from everything I've heard about it. So it's just very curious to me how this all started to throw them out, rip the building down, build a little park. We have the clam bayou park. It's beautiful. I just don't understand. >> Okay. That's a lot of inquiry. So we'll have to follow up with you individually. Thank you. Anyone else open for public comment? Anyone who has come here tonight and spoken on this issue, I encourage you to stick around for the rest of the evening. >> What about Zoom? >> I'm not done yet. >> Okay. Sorry. >> Anyone else in this room that has a public comment for open public comment? All right. I'm sorry. Are you -- can we get her a mic? You can make it in? Okay. I saw your hand. >> Good evening, and thank you for your service and for taking the time to listen. And I truly hope that you are listening and taking these things to heart. I'd like to see a lot more transparency and a lot more dialogue on this. It seems things are moving pretty fast as far as the residents and the community, et cetera. By the way, I've been a homeowner for nearly 30 years. I was a member of bcyc. I haven't been for a long time. I was a member of the lions club. Haven't been for a long time. I really hope that we do everything we can to make sure we don't displace any of those organizations. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else for open public comment? All right. Seeing no one, have we got anyone on the phone? >> Yes, mayor. >> All right. >> The first person will be Margaret tover. >> Hi. This is Margaret tober, 59th street. Before I make the comments I had planned to make, I would like to say that the lady or say to the lady that spoke earlier about the building that's boarded up. I just by happenstance, had an online conversation with one of the owners of that property. And she put a rendering of their plans online. I would like to give permission to city clerk deMuth to give that lady my contact information and the lady can contact me and I'll put her in touch with the owner. I had a speech written out, and I'm going to discard that and just kind of free form it. I've called Gul