City Council Meeting

Daunch: Good evening folks. I will call to order our council meeting for July 7th I think? July 7th 2026. A couple things to make sure you know. I will ask that everybody double check their phone right now. Make sure that it is off. If you don't hear something you say and you feel the need to ask your neighbor come up we ask you do it out in the hallway. The way sound carries, I can hear you better than I can hear a.. That'll be helpful to us. With that, we will go ahead and I will call the roll to order and we will go ahead and start with the invocation by Council member Jennifer Daunch followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. If you may, please rise. Daunch: A quote from Ted Lasso. Doing the right things Is never the wrong thing. I pledge Allegiance to the of the United States of and to the Republic for which it one nation under God, with Liberty and Justice for all. Love: Thank you. Okay. A roll call will come if you will. [Roll call] . All right. We will start with the presentation and it'll be given by our own Rachel Cataldo from the senior center. Cataldo: Good evening. I was asked to come and speak about item number six C on your agenda and to give you a little background about that Grant. A a announced five - AARP Announced -- have received the community challenged Grant. Marking the program's 10th anniversary, the grants are part of an $8.3 million commitment by AARP Doubling last year's total to fund 750 quick action projects nationwide aimed at making communities more livable for people of all ages especially older adults. With tonight's acceptance of the AARP Grant in the amount of $14,982 which is on tonight's agenda, the discover Gulfport Walking Trail system will receive clear signage and accessibility features along nine miles of routes. And includes directional signage, trail names and map boards and QR codes for digital maps and handrails where they are needed most. We look forward to seeing everyone in November at the mayor's second annual walk where we will be showing off all the improvements. Love: That's really exciting. Cataldo: They received 5100 applications across the nation and they only gifted 750. It was good. Love: They liked your program then? Very good. Thank you for sharing that with us. We appreciate it. Let me get back up here. Public comments. During public comments, you are welcome to come up here and you can give your name and the city you reside in. You have up to three minutes to talk about anything that you would like and make your statement. It is not a give and take. Those people in the audience. We don't boo and we don't applaud. You can talk about anything that's not on the agenda. We will do public comment at that time. A show of hands please? Yes please. Come on up. >> Good evening. My name is Emma and I'm a resident of the Gulf port of almost ten years. I want to on the record say thank you to Mayor Love and thank you to the Gulfport Recreation Department and the city staff were putting on such a wonderful 4th of July celebration. It was Mayberry and summer camp for adults and kids wrapped up into a very sultry moment. It was so hot. I have to say thank you for that. I brought my daughter here because she was so grateful to watch the mayor play to watch the recreation director play. And to be just immersed in that. It is a very lovely experience. It was like wholesome America. She's curious about the gift that you have right there. That's what we are so curious about coming to watch happen. I envision some improvements to these recreational spaces for kids and families. We have a beautiful tree program and that is something we take advantage of often. I can see there being some really wonderful improvements to shadier areas for a --. Including something like a mist water feature. That's something myself and others have advocated for for some of the parks. For some who live in Gulfport year round, it'll be a big difference to have a little mist station where we could cool off in the heat of the summer. That's something that could benefit anybody especially in an event like the 4th of July festivities where we are all so very hot. Thank you for your time and for your service. All of you up here doing so much for our city and we love to live here because of the things you all create in this community and continue running day after day and week after week and year after year. Thank you. Love: Thank you. Who's next? You in the back? >> Marilyn McClellan. Where do I live? 56th Street. I want to second that. It was an amazing day. It made me think of the kindness of our city Council. The demeanor and tone we said and it dawned on me to not just the council but everybody that works in the Gulfport. All the support staff and leaders and it makes it easier for the rest of us to be kind. With all the hate speech comments easy to fight back. The way you conduct yourselves gives us the opportunity to say go ask. You disagree with civility and that sets a good tone. Thank you. Love: Thank you. Who's next? Yes please. >> Hello. I'm Ellen Yurkovich and a resident of Moderna Beach but I'm here representing the --. I wanted to thank the city for facilitating Townsend Park for the Juneteenth celebration and for all of your attendance at Juneteenth. It was an absolutely wonderful event. We are happy to collaborate with fusion 49th . It's a new collaboration for us that helped open up , the event was the sixth annual Juneteenth celebration that was sponsored that helped open up the event to new communities. We are looking forward to it next year. Thank you. Love: Thank you. Who is next? Is there anybody else out there? Yes? >> Hello Council and City Manager. Hello Amanda. I am kind of speaking on a dual raising. Trey Johnson and Gulfport and the Civic News reporter with the Garver. I want to say thank you to all of you. I don't know if anybody knows. That Garver has been saved for when you provided everybody falls through and their promises for monthly sponsorship but I fully believe they will. It safe right here and that's great news. As we transition to ownership and I know what we feel should be in community newspaper. We are asking everyone -- including you, Mr. O'reilly -- we want everybody's information. What do you want to see covered in your city? What info do you want to see and what things are we doing wrong? What do you want to beat us up about? Not physically but verbally. Whatever you want the gabber to be and whatever you think it should represent and cover, we want to hear from you. You can email me. Trey at the Gabba or editor at the Gabba. You can go to our website and find out who the contact. It's a time for us to come together as a community and I'm disappointed I miss the 4th of July celebration because it sounds like exactly what we want the paper to do. Unite people and inform them and make them happy and bring people together. That is in that spirit what we want to do being a community newspaper. We will wipe the slate clean and we want to start again and we can't do that and give you what you want without your input permit everybody in the community out there. If you have any suggestion Department heads. We would love your feedback. I want to say on behalf of the Gabaa. For all of you that did show your love and support. Thank you so much. There's a couple council members that have been there for us and we so appreciate it. We appreciate all the work that you guys do and the civility. I do appreciate that because I dealt with some really nasty people in government and that is not this city. I appreciate that. We want to say from the gabber, thank you very much. Love: Thank you. Anybody else from public comment? Yes just in time. >> Good evening. Ninth Avenue South. I wanted to say how pleased I was to discover our golf park library it's the only one in the county system to possess the best books in the country and possibly the world on Rainwater harvesting. This is harvesting for drylands and beyond so we are beyond drylands. It is a two part theory and practice set by Brad Lancaster who's famous around the world for this. It's in our Gulfport resources and I would love to introduce this to our council members and city staff to be educated. We have someone in the county outside of Gulfport who have studied with Brad Lancaster. Only person I know who has brought the knowledge back to our area and her name is Diane Willis. I put Mayor Love in contact with her and she has recently retired from her field botanist job and is eager to spread the information for free. She wants to teach and educate people about all of this. It's good for everyone in Gulfport and those who live in the north side of golf course the more we can catch the rain and hold it on our properties the better it is for all of Gulfport. This is not about what is good for Gulfport in general. It's better for the planet and the more water we catch and retain in the earth the better it is. There's some experts saying it's just important to focus on holding Rainwater in the earth as it is on how much carbon is in the atmosphere. We have some of the best tools at our disposal right here in our Gulfport Library. Rainwater harvesting and Beyond volume one and two by Brad >> I do remember talking to Dianna in the past and I would appreciate it if you would ask her to reach out again to. >> This is her phone number. >> I like email stuff. Thank you. >> Anybody else we will close Public comment. >> I want to build on what she just said. There's another way to keep Rainwater in the ground. Is to have more permeable surfaces. Right now we have an ordinance 20% of any lot has to be 100% permeable in green. I would like you to consider changing it to 25. I talked to City Attorney about it before. I don't think it would really be considered a taking but he would have to double check. Another thing that has come up before and maybe we should look at it again with changes in technology. Instead of having everybody pay the same thing for stormwater and Saint Pete, they do it by how much of a lot is permeable. You can fly drones and do an aerial thing and have AI figure it out for you. If people dispute it you can always check it if it was wrong. That can be a way of encouraging people to keep their yards more permeable and to use more permeable materials and their cement now and the pavers themselves are permeable. By having more space for permeable and the kind you can grow plants in between. We need to look at that and encourage people to do what they can because the more water we can keep up come the better it is for South Gulfport. Thanks. >> Anybody else before I go to any comments? You only get one public comment. Sorry. Just one. Your daughter could come up and speak if she wants to? As soon as she chose, she will go to this comment. Would you read the E comment please? >> There was one for David Shiner. I opposed the peasantry contest for sign up common square. I hold a city email that the mayor has witnessed the slow reoccurring possession from the realm of the squares in the adjacent sidewalk. The city's proclamation that occurs legally over an enchanted boundary is a fairy tale. They have stepped through Lookingglass of their own making pretending a boundary line alters reality does not absolve the city of its statutory reinforcement duties under Florida Statute 166.0453 which prohibits public camping and sleeping in public rights of ways. With its wide awake or asleep at the sidewalk overloaded chariot and chattels stored on the sidewalk is a violation of the law. Vote to defund the mayor's sign project and I recommend scheduling a workshop to come up with a real world solution for this one. Love: Thank you. We will move on to the City Manager report please? >> Thank you. I want to invite Justin to come up and speak during my time. In regards to some of the items that were received and discovered opened as part of the time capsule. Can recognize your gifts of the mayor who lived in your neighborhood back in the day. The gentleman in the far left corner would have been the mayor at the time that presented the gift to you. >> What a wonderful experience to see 50 years in the past to the bicentennial right here in the city of Gulfport. On display tonight are a select few items that were unveiled from the Bicentennial 1976 time capsule and a couple highlights you will see a budget from 197677 and it was a $3 million operating budget for the City of Gulfport I believe 102 employees. You'll see utility bill covering sewer water garbage and utility tax from February of 77 and that bill was $12. The items are here for people to review. Mayor Clymer gave the future mayor from 50 years a surprise to open. Mayor will unveiled at. So everybody knows the museum curator tomorrow at 9 a.m. Will take possession of these items and will archive these items to make them available on the city's website. We will make an announcement on the electronic newsletter when the archive is ready. You can view all the items in the 1976 Bicentennial Time capsule. Love: Where will they reside? At the Museum? >> Yes Ma'am. We are getting a secure case. There's coins and cash. The items will be secure we are putting a case together so you can view the items at the museum. What a wonderful day of activities. Thank you for the opportunity. >> I have to say thank you. It was a wonderful day of activities and you were responsible for making everything go so smoothly. So thank you. >> Jim has a good staff and we work together really well. >> This is a gift for the mayor for the head elected official of the city of Gulfport on July 6th -- July 4th, 2026. You saw the all important -- the gold color will used in the 70s and that's the first thing I noticed. Whether it's pretend and it's a frying pan or not. Astro Point by Bradley. Now there is another message. Each person responsible for the planning and implementing of JB Clamor Park received one of these pen sets at the dedication of the Park. The Bicentennial Committee of the City of Gulfport wishes you to have one also. I am reading cursive. To have one also. We hope this area is is lovely in 2026 as it is in 1976 and that all of your citizens are enjoying its beauty. The entire city sends its best wishes to you for 2026 for the future. Sincerely, Yvonne Johnson. >> I wonder if it'll be gender specific? Von, the first female that the city ever have. The gift goes to the second in the city. So that's funny. >> It's like a little holder? Love: Oh, yes. We will see if the ink still works or if it's dried up in the last 50 years. (Laughter). very good. Perfect. We will move on to the city manager's report then. City manager, did you have anything else? That was it? Thank you. We will move on to the city attorney. >> As the council is aware, the governor vetoed the --. We are in the process of preparing an ordinance to bring to you to look at some of the regulations that the city can do regarding e-bikes on sidewalks and in certain areas of the city. The problem with e-bikes of course is it's not so much what you put in but whether or not you can enforce it. We will try to put reasonable restrictions. One thing I want the Council to consider and maybe contact me if you wanted. There can be particular areas of the city you can completely not allow e-bikes if you want to consider that. Some cities are in downtown areas in the waterfront areas. They have people that are exercising and things like that. You can consider that and do it for certain festivals and functions like that. That's something to consider. I'm working on that and I will bring it back to you. The other issue was on the O'hara lawsuit. We did a civil remedies notice which is a 30 day notice basically saying you need to pay if you're not paying. We're going to seek damages. The last we heard from the State Attorney's office was that it contacted the clerk's office and we haven't heard any follow up from the State Attorney's office and I believe they contacted them back and we did not hear anything. We are moving forward with the civil action and that is all I >> This is dragged down a long time and two other times when we thought they would file civil? Low and behold they pop up and we think we are going to move forward so we back off and it doesn't happen. Going down the route of civil which you will file, is that something that could drag on for another year? >> It should be relatively in a short period of time. Anything below $8,000 goes to small claims. It moves pretty quickly the way the process does with small claims is a little different. They do an immediate pretrial which is also mediation at the same time. You have a set hearing that's a cattle call done by Zoom. It's given immediately to a mediator facilitator to resolve it. If you reach an agreement, you draft it up and take care of it. If you can't reach an agreement, they set you from trial and it moves pretty quickly. Maybe I'm in agreement is payment in full? >> Melissa told me differently -- unless you tell me differently, that's my understanding. >> Before we move on, does anybody have any questions on this matter for the city attorney? All right. We will move along and go to the city clerk report. No report? All right. Let's move on to the council comments and reports and we will start with Council Member Jennifer Daunch. Daunch: Like everybody else mentioned, they attended the events the last time we were here. Juneteenth was awesome and the 4th of July was obviously amazing. We want to thank the city staff that was involved and everything was exactly how I think everybody hoped it would be. To mention upcoming, there is a invasive plant removal this weekend. I know it is short notice. It is July 11th from 8 to 11. I'm not going to be here so I need two people that maybe would not have come otherwise to fill in for me. Saturday 8 to 11. Whatever is marked to take out take it all out and let's clean it up and get that going and that is all I have today. Love: Thank you. Council member Shaw? Shaw: I will summarize reports that can be viewed on the city website. The -- highlights the American Flood Coalition as a free resource in the cities can join by passing a resolution. It offers tools like the flood finding founder for grants identification and adaptation for -- for mitigation strategies and free data models from the Florida Flood Hub at USF. A little tongue twisting. Florida's Resilience Program offers $20 million annually for planning grants 100 million for implementation grants in the coalition is pressing for federal reforms including state management of disaster funds and faster responses. Other reports online and an interesting overview by the Florida Division of Emergency Management hurricane briefing at Equality City Session. Property tax proposal briefing by the Florida League of Cities and -- environmental think tanks for elected leaders and meeting topic was on sewer lateral rehabilitation programs. Director of Utility Billing Services did a great job and she was one of the speakers and presented Gulfport's program summarily and the program offers 50% reimbursement up to $3,500 for the property and later expanded to cover a portion of private water line replacements as well. Two other reports from Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council agency on the Coastal Management sessions on other topics may also be of interest. Continuing following the opening the 50 year time capsule of City Hall on July 4th another time capsule opening at the Gulfport History Museum is in the planning stage for October 18th and 16. There was also discussion underway about entering a new time capsule to be opened in 2050 so stay tuned for details. I'd like to share things. Juneteenth felt like the biggest and best attended celebration I have been to yet for Juneteenth. Thank you to the fusion 49th district for making that such a wonderful event. As for Independence Day it was the 250th birthday and it left me searching my hearts. I experienced a celebration live this week which was amazing. Then rewatched what the Constitution Means to Me on Netflix. Thank you. Followed by live performance and honestly, it stirred me more than I could easily put into words. Something about the flag and the Statue of Liberty and everybody coming together. It goes deep. It inspired more thoughts of what this land and this country means to me and to all of us. And is sustains my hope that we can always find -- sorry. You can tell that I'm still feeling it. We can always find common ground and keep working together for our future. Thank you to everyone who helped bring every part of this very special Independence Day celebration together. There was something for everyone from morning to night and our city and community truly came together and that is one of the things that always convicts us. Thank you again. Sorry. Yes. Thank you. Love: No more tears? Shaw: I will recompose. Thank you. Love: Jennifer Webb, your council comments? Webb: Thank you mayor. So, this Thursday is the progress -- community meeting at -- at 6 p.m.. It's our opportunity as a community to share with the district what we want the future of our elementary school to look like in our high school and what we want for our students in the Gulfport. The council passed a resolution supporting students attending Gulfport Elementary. I would invite the council to attend if they wanted to present. If you want to present them we can stand beside you, that'll be great. Otherwise, I'm happy to do it myself. I really encourage -- they don't want to just hear from parents but also from the community. The more we show community support for our school, the more we get insulated from all of the negative impacts of redistricting. I encourage everyone to show up this Thursday 6 p.m. At Boca Ciega High School. It's a once in a generation opportunity where they are redistricting. They are drawing new lines so we can actually pull all of our students into one school. The other thing they expressed interest in was maybe having a K through eight community elementary school. I want to commend Gulfport Elementary teachers and we have one here today. The staff and students and principal on getting to be in a school. That is huge. That is such an improvement y'all! It brings tears to my eyes. I know that you all worked so very hard to get there. You all did it as a team and I am really proud of the elementary and all of the work that has been going on at that elementary school and the leadership there. We are in a school. It's been a journey and it's been really exciting. I want to encourage folks to show up on Thursday. Actually? That's really all I have. I think that is the most important thing. Thank you mayor. Love: Thank you. Council member early? Earley: Fusion 49 event is this Saturday from 10 to 8. It is a full day of events. There is a calendar and I forgot to bring my poster. Don't forget about that. We do get ins and outs and it's not always that busy. When you are there and you do connect with people, that's the whole point. It's a nice day. Thank you to Justin for helping me with the five K in the Gulfport. What are we calling it? The Gulfport community five k set for October 3rd set at the website for the end of the week and we are meeting for the vendor for a final Friday. Part of the ticket price goes to Operation Santa. A portion that you pay and I think it is $17 yes? A portion of that goes to the operation and there's a place to donate on that website that Justin is going to put up to donate to Operation Santa. Presents for the kids is the number one goal here. To get myself in some better shape. We're going to have two things there. Thank you so much, Justin, for all of your help. It'll be posted on the website Friday and I hope to see you there and I hope you all sign up. Thank you. Love: Thank you. I was mostly involved in the events that happened on the 4th of July at Park. It wouldn't have happened without Justin. We say a lot about Justin but he has a whole crew but there's a whole staff that's involved in certainly the games which is what the goal was to take it back to the 70s. It could not have happened without Mayor Bell and her team. They knew every child by name. If somebody did not show up to get into their sack on time they could eyeball them and spot them and bring them forward. It was a really nice setup for the day. And I was particularly happy that we actually made it not only longer but a better quality than last year. We have some ideas for next year to. All of that is good. I wanted to touch base on the fact that watering restrictions are being broken in the city every single day. If you watch my Take two that is what I focus on. I ask every single person in Gulfport choose to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. And follow the rules spelled out very clearly on take two on Tuesday posted on the city website if you don't do YouTube like I don't. I want to inform the council. The Community Planning Assistance team that I asked for for the downtown and the way I was re-envisioning the traffic flow. I believe they made their selections and we have not heard from them. I have emailed them again to say can you tell me what's going on? I haven't heard anything. I want you to know that's not really an because it's my understanding the third party did make their selection in June like they were supposed to. I want you to know that's on hold right now. I want everyone to know that 58th Street is expected to be completed both lanes open by the end of the month. Will be happy for that to happen. In reference to public comment, I want to say if we could have a missed or something to cool us down, I hoped the fire department could be at the 4th of July to open up the hose for a bit to make everything wet. They thought it would be in poor taste being that we are under a phase three water restriction and a drought. I had to understand on that point. I want to say to Council Member Webb that I wish I could be at that meeting at the high school. I would very much like to attend. I will be out of the office until next Monday heading to a mayor's conference at Cocoa Beach at the Space Center. It was supposed to happen earlier in the year and we will -- we were never told for sure and we think there was a security breach and it was delayed. It's been rescheduled. I will be gone for a couple of days. That's all I had for public comment. With that we can move on to consent please? >> Item six A. Consider Approval of Meeting Minutes from meetings held June 16, 2026 and June 18, 2026. item six b. Resolution No 2026-40: A Resolution of the City of Gulfport, Florida, authorizing the City Manager to expend funds for the annual maintenance of the Andrew's Technology UKG Web Based Time & Attendance System. item six C. Resolution No. 2026-41: A Resolution authorizing the City Manager to accept the 2026 Community Challenge grant proceeds from the AARP for the Discover Gulfport Walking Trail system. Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. All in favor? Any nays? It passes unanimously. We will move on to >> Ordinance 2026 Ordinance No. 2026-05: Second Reading & Public Hearing: An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Gulfport, Florida, amending the City of Gulfport 2025 Comprehensive Plan; Amending the goals, objectives, and policies to add Housing Element Policy 1.4.3 and Policy 1.4.4 regarding Accessory Swelling Units; Amending the data and analysis to provide definitions for Accessory Dwelling Unit and Principle Dwelling Unit; providing for severability; and providing for an effective date. Love: The motion to approve? >> Second. Love: The city manager? It's the second reading and there's nothing. >> You want to go to that? Okay. I was reading something. I apologize. It's the second reading of the land use passed in May? A transmittal ordinance that was sent to the state for review. Basically it'll allow the plan to support the definition and also the feasibility to have accessory dwelling units. I want to thank Mark Griffin and Miss Fisher for all their work on this project. We couldn't do it without your help. Love: Thank you. Any council comments or discussions? Council member Webb? No? All right. Do we have any public comment on this issue? Seeing none I say to call the vote. [Members voting] . It passes unanimously. >> Ordinance No. 2026-06 Second Reading and Public Hearing: An Ordinance of the City of Gulfport, Florida amending Chapter 15, Pensions, Article VI, Retirement System for City Employees of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Gulfport; Amending Section 15-91, Definitions; Providing for Codification; Providing for Severability of Provisions; Repealing all ordinances in conflict herewith and providing an effective date. Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. >> Mayor come I want to invite Shannon this evening to give a brief overview. You would approve it on the first reading subsequently. If you can answer any specific questions that you may have. >> Nothing changed for the first reading but if you have any additional questions and comments and concerns that you have for me? >> I do have actually a comment. I had a lot of feedback being the only no vote and I wanted to take time to clarify. I don't know if right now is the time or if we have to go into our questions and comments section. I don't have a question. I wanted to clarify this for myself. So. >> We have no questions you can sit down. You can definitely clarify. >> This will apply to all three because it needs to be fair across the board of all three of them and I will say it now because it's the first one and we will get it out of the way. I did write it down and I don't normally -- I kind of talk my way through stuff and I wanted to make sure I don't miss anything or forget anything. When I'm looking through this change, the paragraph we are given starts by saying credited service means the total number of years and fractional parts of years of service with member contributions. The suggested change recommends credited service will be granted for time spent on approved worker's compensation and contributions will not be required during this time. The language I have trouble with is that contributions will not be required. The base of that is flawed. I shouldn't remove the requirement for contributions and should change to be that contributions continue during this time. Pension contributions are necessary to earn credited service time toward your retirement. The only way a pension system works is through contributions. It's set up to have an employee spend 20 years for public safety and other employees have different lengths of service. Contributing to the system with a contribution from the employee and the city. When an employee reaches the required length of service time, they can retire penalty free even if not at full retirement age. It works as long as the contributions continue. Since much of what has been questioned of my no vote brings up a unique situation, I will address it basically. I agree the small six month time frame from one less than ten year vested patrolmen contributing might have no financial impact in the long run and that's fine. However? Let's say God forbid next year there's an officer injured for another six months. Maybe two years from now an officer is injured for three months and another one injured for three months. It is part of our service we are giving. But? When you calculate those then it comes up to 18 months of lost contributions. Not only to the personal retirement funds of the officers not working during that time but also to the pension fund as a whole. When the fund has more drawing on it than contributing, it starts to become less solvent. Having said it the reason it's something to worry about is employees are no longer staying for their entire careers. It is built to have people working for an entire career and people are not staying for as long as the entire career would last. As more workers leave early the full time of service that was calculated to keep the pension going is decreasing. I would also like to clarify you don't retire when you have ten years of service. You can resign like you can before ten years or after. If you resigned with less than ten years of service you are entitled to the money you contributed during your service time if you resigned with more than ten years of service you are considered vested entitled to your contribution in the city's contribution. Hit happen until you reach your retirement age which you can then collect a lifetime benefit based on years of service in the contribution. Or when you separate you can roll it into a qualifying account like an IRA or a cash it out but with major penalties. Is 20% or something crazy if you decide to cash out that early. There's a lot going on that maybe people who haven't participated in a public pension would get lost in. I would like to bring it back to people who participate in Social Security. I had a public pension for my whole life and I won't get Social Security really. If you think of the trust currently funding Social Security people are concerned is scheduled to run out in 2032, the reason for that is there are fewer active workers contributing to it than those collecting from it. Due to the amount of boomers collecting from it and a reduced influx of new workers there is less money being contributed to that fund. Overall I'm thinking of the long term impact of what I think is a short sighted solution to a current problem. I'm we're seeing injured employees should be punished for their injuries. The opposite. There should be a way the contributions continue so they don't lose any time. Other pensions and other employee injury plans are set up so the member is not removed from their position while on injury leave. You are essentially passed off to worker's Comp and that's unfortunate but that's the way the system is set up. Fixing that is not the problem that is given to me. The only issue in front of me is the contributions should not be required and I have to say no to that and there's not a time during your years of service where contributions should not be made. I understand the intent behind the proposal and I generally want employees injured on the job to be treated fairly. I don't believe eliminating pension contributions is the right solution. We should find a way to protect our employees and creating this exception would weaken the long term integrity of the pension system. For that reason a, that's why I am voting no. Thank you. I usually don't talk that long. Love: Before I open it to public comment, do any other members have anything to feel the need to say? >> I have a question. >> Let's make sure we are in a speaking order first to make sure. >> We read the materials and discussed all the different people that have reviewed this. Is this something we have also looked at? Would it create a long term impact? >> It stated there's no financial impact to the city at this time with the >> At this time? >> I can only go by what they provided in this moment. >> What they're looking at is that there will be no long term impact? Is that what you are saying? >> There was no impact plan at this time. Yes. At this time. They got formulas that forecast . >> Real quick. This is not changing how anything has been processed in the past. It's just clarifying the language to what we have been doing since before I even started. Without changing how we process calculate anything. The new attorney wants to clarify the language. I'm not changing how we have figured out how many years of service counts has credited service. We're not changing any of our policies and procedures. The new attorney did not like the existing language of how we are processing the pension if that makes sense. She wanted to change the language to match what we are currently doing. >> Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Council member Webb? Webb: I want to thank Council member Jennifer Daunch. I appreciate the wisdom of having first second and third reasons. It helps us make a better decision. I have a question. I have a question with some comments to help me understand this. I revisited the letter from the actuary. We are a smaller town. We are saying there has been no changes to the implementation of how you calculate time. What about changes to contributions during worker's Comp? >> I've been here ten years. We we've always-- know contributions are being made when they're not here or on duty. >> I did a little bit of research to. It seems like it was a little bit more complex than what I was thinking of. I was thinking of it almost as an administrative pulling language and policy into what we are currently doing in a way that makes the attorney comfortable. This must have happened before your time. They used to contribute their sick days in order to continue. There are sick days that would be credited back to them after they were off. As a way of fixing this. Something that was shared with me. >> Do we know what here that was? >> Yes. It was within the past 17 years. >> I don't remember any language about giving this sick time back or using their sick time. FMLA and worker's Comp run concurrently. When somebody is on worker's Comp, we made the change in 2016 and I started in 2016. I can only go back from what I know and what I have dealt with. In 2015, the employee was paid normal wages went out on worker's Comp. We were coming into a problem making them hold pension contributions and they were being made. There's not really an incentive to get back to work when you are being paid to be home. Yes you are recovering. Yes. The city was getting the 66 and two thirds when we were making the employee whole. We were coming into the problem of getting the employees back to work. The new way of doing it is they are on worker's Comp. Let them be paid by workers Comp. That's the premise of the worker's Comp program. Their medical expenses are being paid if they attend physical therapy. They are being paid by worker's Comp. When they get back on duty they are getting a paycheck from the city and that is when the contributions kind of start back up. If there is -- council member Jennifer Dodge was talking about -- we do have a short follow and prepaid depending on if we have to pay more money to fund the plan or if we are Overfunded. Every year it changes and we get different types. >> Would that be your solution to the problem that Council member rightly pointed out by the potential? Not having enough people paying in it. This process of making the pension whole at the end of the year? >> I don't have the numbers in my head or in front of me. For the police pension, it's a well funded plan and we have not come across any significant shortfalls of the pension. So I don't know if that'll help. >> If I can address something, what are three plans? Well funded and I believe they are all over 90% funded. If one of the plans is 103%? Statute, we are required to make a minimum 5% contribution on behalf of total salaries within that respective plan. That's the minimum. Even if it performs well enough to be funded, you were going through an excellent phase where the market is exceeding expectations. We will stay at the 5% minimum contribution. We required a 22% contribution because of the condition of the economy. We consistently funded our pension plan even during the economic downturn we made our pension appointment. Other cities in this area are upside down with their pensions. And the economic downturn, they chose not to make their payment. We have made our payment. The health of our plans is beyond reproach. Theoretically yes, there are less people paying in, but they are paying it at a higher rate than their earnings ever made. The ones today are not making what they made back. The officers paying in today are paying in amounts of extremes in their contributions are certainly high. As they go through the process of who drops off, unless they take the penalty issues that you spoke of, the cash back after ten years was fully vested. They can take a lump sum but the plan will receive a large penalty paid back to its. The actuary is taking that into consideration. We just went through a large phase of retirements. I always talk about retirements like wings on a tree. When the economy was good, we added a lot of employees. There was a lot of baby boomers that wouldn't know anything about that. In the early 1980s, there were a lot of employees when the growth of this government took place. In 2008 -- you're going to see it again. We're going to go through the budget and how do we stabilize the budget. The long term impact and the funding at this point is funding well enough to absorb any because of the few number of employees you are talking about. There's proximately 100 members of this pension plan. It is a finite number. >> Thank you, city manager. I'm really proud of us for continuing to contribute. I come second I know for a fact other cities did not continue to contribute to their pension plans during 2000 and the economic downturns of the early 2000. And things were really tight. I have one final question for you. Is this a time sensitive matter? It needs to happen immediately because something is waiting on this to happen? >> I don't like making policy changes for one specific person. Does affect all three pension plans and it could affect other people. I need an answer tonight if you need another meeting. It's totally up to you whatever will make you all comfortable. It's up to you guys. >> My final thing. Are we doing debates to? Council members started with her discussion as you would like to call it. For my discussion piece, I appreciate the framing of this. Protecting workers today and protecting workers in the future is a really honest way of intellectually thinking through this. I appreciate you for pulling that forward. With the explanation you just gave and the explanation the city manager gave, I would really -- because I think tweaks can be made moving forward , and so, I would love for Councilmember Daunch and I to get together and think through that stuff. That's me speaking as a council member. I'm going to vote favorably on this today. I appreciate the thinking through. This is an important matter. >> May I respond? >> Absolutely. >> Tension is an entity unto itself. The membership appoints each of these plants and they have different makeups. They have their own requirements and attendance. Your ordinance in front of you today implements their request. The only time we've had issues is if it's a requirement. The ordinance has a pension ordinance in it. If there's a financial impact of the city. We've rejected it in the past and we have a request for a cost of living adjustment for the general employees at one time that wanted three years for every year in service. Things like that. That was our position. The trustee board asked for this change and presented it to the Council. The staff has no real opinion of it one way or the other. >> Council member Earley do you have any questions? Earley: I don't. Love: I don't either so I'm going to open it up to public comment for the vote. Anybody want to speak from the public about this item? Seeing none. Yes Mrs. Buscemi? >> Regina Buscemi? Allport resident. The last time I got up to speak it was about a city clerk 5% raise that she asked which is not a cost of living raise any question that. Now I am thinking, how much would it affect the budget if you made the contributions to officers who were out? I didn't hear that. Do you understand what I mean? Of officers are out in the city's made their contribution for them, how much would it affect the budget? Are I know you're not going to answer me. I didn't hear that. I didn't hear that brought up. I think they deserve it for what they do. I wouldn't do it. I think they deserve it. Are >> I couldn't give you a specific number because it depends on which officer we are talking about and the number of officers. >> And how long. >> Exactly. If it doesn't happen that often-- . Love: Anybody else for public comment. Any other comments on it? All right. I would say call the vote. [Members voting] . The vote is unanimous. Love: That'll take us to the next one. To seven C. >> Ordinance No. 2026-07: Second and Public Hearing: Ordinance of the of Gulfport, Florida Amending 15, Pensions, Article Municipal Police Officers' Trust of the Code Ordinances of the City Gulfport; Amending Section Definitions; providing for codification; for severability of repealing all ordinances in herewith and providing effective date. Love: A motion to approve? >> I second. >> City manager? >> Mayor comments a similar language. Maintain consistency across all three plans. Love: Before I open to public comment, we will go in speaking order paramagnetic council members want anything to say and questions to ask? None? He did a good job. Councilmember? Council member Webb? Are you all good? I'm good as well. [Members voting] . >> Are we doing public comment? >> Oh I'm sorry. I apologize. Love: Is there anybody who wants to do public comment on this? Seeing none, you can call the vote. >> All right thank you. [Members voting] . it passes. Love: On to seven D. >>Ordinance No. 2026-08: Second Reading and Public Hearing: An Ordinance of the City of Gulfport, Florida Amending Chapter 15, Pensions, Article IV, Firefighters' Retirement Pension Fund of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Gulfport; Amending Section 15-31, Definitions; Amending Section 15-33, Board of Trustees; providing for codification; providing for severability of provisions; repealing all ordinances in conflict herewith and providing for an effective date. Love: Opposed to approve? >> A second. >> City manager? >> (indistinct) Love: I will ask in speaking order of any council members has anything to add? No? All right. Anybody want to say any public comment on it? Seeing none we will call the vote. [Members voting] . it passes. Love: Resolutions. Please. >> Resolution No. 2026-42: A Resolution authorizing the City Manager to issue payment to C.A.P. Government, Inc., a Bureau Veritas Company, for managed services model for plan review and inspections for the month of May 2026 and the accompanying budget amendment. Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. >> City manager? >> Yes. This is ministerial in regards to paying the cab inspection and the building services. Love: The monthly payment varies and it's not consistent in it's what's actually been completed. I imagine? Okay. Thank you. Before public comment, let me go to council comments. >> No questions. >> No questions. I see it as a service use that we pay for in a monthly basis so it's pretty easy. >> Agreed. Council member Webb and early? Is there any public comment on this? Some things never die. >> My personal experience of having permits has been pretty good. I don't see how you can keep paying people without having some actual physical evidence of what they are doing. Are they getting all the permits done within 30 days or 20 days? How are they handling routine things like fences or roof or whatever? I think we need to know. Are they doing what you really expected and are they doing it in ten days like you wanted. Are they doing it barely in 30 days? I know you said you didn't get complaints but people get tired of complaining. It would be a reasonable thing and I think it is very easy to do with our portal to find out how long the permits are taking and for the different kinds of permits. So that is my contribution. Love: Do we have any comments on this? >> No Ma'am. Love: Please call the vote. >> Do we want to wait for Council member Webb? She stepped out to use the restroom. Love: Alrighty. Time for a commercial. (Laughter). I didn't see her step out. Could I have another water? Thank you. I will tell you that. When council member Webb gets back to her seat, I thing I am most excited about is there were letters in the time capsule from students from 1976. I have those and I'm planning to read them while my guide as the driving on the trip to Cocoa Beach for the mayor's conference. I expect to be entertained and I will share with you some of the highlights from those as well. We were calling the vote. >> Thank you. Can somebody push my button. >> My vote is yes and I apologize. >> No vote is for the call. >> We are all jumping the gun tonight's. >> Okay. [Members voting] . it passes. Resolution number -- Resolution No. 2026-43: A Resolution authorizing the City Manager to renew the City's Insurance Coverage for City employee health with Public Risk Management of Florida Health Trust, Florida Blue, for Fiscal Year 2026/2027.- Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. Love: Any council questions or comments? No? I think my only question was come on what was the increase going to be this year? >> Oh? That's what I was going to say. It's grades. Love: Okay? I feel like we're being set up here. >> A 1.5% increase. >> Wow. Very exciting. >> And these inflationary times, that sounds very good to us. >> It's wonderful. >> I don't think there were any other questions. I think that was it. All right. No other questions from up here. Is there any public comment on this matter? And I believe there are no comments at all on anything today. All right. Go ahead and call the vote. [Members voting] . it passes. >> All right. I think this is supposed to be 26. I apologize. Resolution No. 2025-44: A Resolution authorizing the City Manager to renew the city's insurance coverage for employee life and accidental death and dismemberment with Standard Insurance Company for Fiscal Year 2026/2027. Love: A motion to approve? >> A second. >> A city manager? >> The removal of accidental death and dismemberment and there's no increase in premium to the city. >> That's a decrease. >> That's a decrease. Okay. >> A a decrease to? >> A decrease by $0.08 per $1,000 to cover the payroll. Yay! Love: Thank you very much. Any public comments on this matter? Seeing none let's call the vote. [Members voting] . it passes. Okay. Resolution No. 2026-45: A Resolution authorizing the City Manager to renew the City's Insurance coverage for Employee Long Term Disability (LTD) with Standard Insurance Company for Fiscal Year 2026/2027. Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. >> It's another decrease. >> Another decrease? >> Wow. >> Just $0.02 per more peril but I will take it. Love: How is it that in the times we live in a, what is it that is causing us to get these minor decreases as opposed to increases? >> It's the premiums paid versus the claims being paid out. For help, the minimal increase is called a medical expense ratio the amount of premiums that we pay are higher than the claims that we filed with our employees. We put more money in and now we see a little bit of a decrease. >> That's good. Thank you. >> They like us mayor. We have healthy people. >> Let's keep doing it. >> That is true actually. Providing health and wellness and work life balance and things that do result in these tools. Love: Very good. Any council comments and questions before I open to public comment? >> No. Love: Any public comment on this? Going once, alrighty. Please call the vote. [Members voting] . it passes. Resolution No. 2026-46: A Resolution establishing reasonable rules and policies for the City Council and for comment at City Council Meetings. Love: A motion to approve? >> Second. Love: City manager and city attorney? >> Yes. It is the discussion that the council had and we made the changes and it's ready to be added to the rules and procedures which would include next year when you do a automatically. We added the provisions that first time violators will receive a written Warning. We have the provisions that give the alternative before any consent -- any kind of vote for how Council wants to request. The city attorney or independent investigator will hold a special meeting to review findings. All the provisions you discussed. >> Thank you. In speaking order, do we have any questions of the city attorney on this? >> No. >> I do. Love: Council member Shaw? Shaw: I want to make sure I understand what I am reading. Usually in my experience and in my conversations with other leaders, etc. The written Warning is first in line as far as progressive discipline process. It is at the end of this. Is there a reason for this? Does it matter? Regardless. First time violators will always get a written Warning first? >> A first time by letter will receive a written Warning. >> Regardless of the situation? >> We didn't do it as progressive obviously because it is different. It is a unique provision for the council to look at other members of council. But no. Where I put it is there's absolutely no choice. If you find a violation, it'll be a written Warning. Shaw: After that Warning, if there is no corrective period, it goes into the other steps? >> No, if you were found in violation of a first offense, the most you can get is a written Warning period. You have to violate it again to have any kind of additional penalty. Shaw: A resident inquired as to section five where it talks about the adoption of resolution requiring a majority vote of the remaining City Council. Once it was adopted, by a majority vote, they are asking why doesn't say or fails. >> If it, we're not putting it anywhere other than in the minutes. Shaw: Right. I should say adopted or fails by a majority vote it'll be entered into the official minutes posted on the website for public record is what the rest of the language says. >> The purpose is to show you need a majority vote with the remaining members. The normal process is there are four remaining members. Three have to vote forward and if it doesn't it fails and it is reflected. There is nothing else to do. Shaw: I understand. They suggest even if it fails it should be recorded in the minutes. >> It is recorded in the minutes automatically. Shaw: That's what I thought. >> The whole sentence could be removed. It's more formal that the resolution would go Shaw: I'm not an attorney but this is how I am seeing it. >> That is 100% correct. Shaw: Thank you. I appreciate it and that is all my questions. Love: Council member Webb? Any questions and thoughts and concerns? Webb: Let me check with my assumption. There's probably provision that did take ten minutes of recorded. It's redundant. Generally then you don't restate it in this because there is a brief issue of something changes. >> Technically, minutes only have to be --. That is not how we do it here. The minutes are video and audio and are complete --. Written minutes are the ones we keep in record and we keep the other ones also. It's a technical aspect of it. >> This would be an action item and you would vote. >> The minimal recording is a motion and a second. >> I appreciate the attention to that sentence since it is a serious issue having those records in there. I assumed and I made a note to ask. How minutes are recorded as dictated by the rules for the clerk. >> If there is a resolution that passes. Is not really different. The actual resolution is put in the minutes. If it fails in there, it says a motion was made and seconded and failed. It would be recorded in there under that. We wouldn't put the resolution in there because it didn't pass. >> Thank you. >> Are you good? >> I'm good. >> Do we have any public comment on this? If >> I had something similar to Marlene. Gets after it talks about all these steps about having a hearing. If it is a first offense you get a Warning. That means you have to go through this whole process of having a hearing and doing this research. I'm thinking about the one brought against me for my emails. If somebody had given me a written Warning saying don't write emails like that because nobody did that. I would have stopped and that would have been the end of it. Depending on the severity of things, you can handle it much more simply without having to go through a whole hearing and everything if it is a fairly minor event. That's one thing. It should be higher up so it saves everybody's time and effort of having a whole hearing and investigation if it's something fairly minor that a Warning would take care of. The second thing is the council may impose any administration actions as long as the actions do not conflict with federal law. It doesn't say anything about what kind of administrative actions there are and I didn't find any place where that is listed either in this document or you know any of our codes. What's in administration action and what does it mean. Love: Thank you. Anybody else on public comments? Any >> If anybody in council has questions -- . Love: I thought you answered this already. >> It doesn't make sense to have a written Warning if you happen to violate it it. You don't violate it unless you go through the process of the Council determining there has been a violation of. We are not going to sit there and bring something and say Council Member X did this. Council member X will say no I didn't. Or you can say please don't do that again. It doesn't have anything to do with this policy. It's a matter that needs to come before you that somebody has brought a. This is a censure and a serious issue. Once you've gone through the whole process come a first violation is a written Warning. That is after you have had due process. If you don't have due process come you wouldn't even put the provision in. That is why the penalty has been lessened for somebody who has gone through and found to be in violation. That's the way it has been presented. Love: The process is cumbersome. A lot of things in government do not work per common sense. Okay. For example and I feel okay saying the email situation. I didn't bring it up, she did. In that scenario, the observer sitting out there might say why didn't somebody just tell her that? It's a lot of times because they don't understand the city manager and city attorney and the clerk work for us and we don't work for them. It'll be hard for you to act like you were the boss and telling somebody to straighten up and do better when you're not the boss. There's common sense there and the reality of how it has to be. This was the attempt to get past that situation. And not allow for a total lack of accountability especially when we have bigger situations which we have had around the same time period. This was a compromise on how to make it happen. It might seem cumbersome but I also understand it is hard for the staff who works for us to give us some Warning. The roles are reversed so thank you. >> The second aspect. It's on purpose that the administrative penalties are not in there. It depends on the violation. This is a second violation. You've gotten a written Warning with the second violation. The council may say this is really serious and we want you to not be on any committees. You did this but this is the penalty we are looking at. It turns on the facts and we can't anticipate. The reason why you were putting this in is because we never had an issue where we needed to do it. These are all new and it'll depend on you to determine the appropriate penalty for that violation. I'm not being facetious but if you want to look under the criminal rules, and the statutes, they are huge and you're looking at every potential violation. We can sit here for several hours and come up with violations. We don't anticipate them and we don't anticipate somebody misusing a credit card and anticipate if it was emails we don't anticipate somebody doing something else that is a violation. We do not know what the penalty is. It is open for you all to determine what is appropriate. That's why it is written that way. >> Are there pen