City Council Meeting Notice

>> Good evening and welcome to our October 20th City Council meeting. Believe it or not -- I always love when we see a crowd. I love seeing so many people here. I like hearing input from everybody. Okay . Just pull out your phone and check. Make sure it's not on. You don't want to be embarrassed. We don't want any phones ringing -- -- vibrating -- none of that. The other thing to know -- we always just have one conversation at a time. If there's something you're not sure and you want to nudge the person next to you and ask them what did they say? Take it out to the hallway. Please. We only have one conversation at a time. I would appreciate that. With that in mind then -- we are going to call this meeting to order. We are going to start out with the invocation given by Council Member Nancy Earley. Followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. >> Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Albert Einstein. >> 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] >> Rt. We have three presentations tonight. Guys -- don't be shy. There are seats up front. Come on up. We have three presentations for this evening. The first one is going to be given by Council member Nancy Earley. >> I would like Kerry Nelson. Kerry Garcia. Kristen. Julie. Council member dawn. Without these ladies here -- there would have never been a five K. Never been. Thank you Justin. I can't you to get up here with a picture of. >> Come on up come on ladies. >> We would like to present. To Operation Santa. $3,802.61. It was raised by the Gulfport community five K. The first one we are so thrilled. So happy to do this. Thank you. [Applause] Did you >> Did you want to get a photo with Francine in it too? And the check? Come on up Francine. [Indistinct conversation] >> How many years -- Francine -- have you collected for Operation Santa? >> A lot. [Laughter] [Indistinct conversation] >> Francine. Thank you so much ladies . All of you. [Applause] >> Okay. I want to thank everybody who participated. And donated. That's how we get through Operation Santa every year. Last year we did 359 kids. Thank you all. >> Thank you. For seven consultation tonight I what's calle the spread of the any of your call port or. You might not even know that we have such a ward. Anybody out there can take and donate somebody they think -- think are worthy of the award. There's an application that you fill out. Will have a chance to go over it. In this case -- let me tell you about our winner of the Spirit of Gulfport Award. Mr. Daniel Hodge. He's here tonight. I met Daniel Hodge in 2011. He's very soft spoken. He has quietly shaped many of our community events and activities. As a manager of the Tuesday market back then double he grew the market from 6 to 75 vendors. He helped create the LGBTQ Resource Center at the library. Along with Dave Mather. And also -- he brought Deano for life to Gulfport in 2005. He was a founding father -- founding father. I don't know about that. He was a founding member of the GMA. Which is now called the GMC. Many of you have met him probably -- more recent years of the DJ of the Thursday night social. Daniel is known for always bringing people together. Now he's here with his family and friends come in loved ones -- to receive the Spirit of Gulfport Award. After being nominated by John Hogan. Congratulations. [Applause] [Indistinct conversation] >> Thank you very much. [Applause] >> Our third presentation tonight is -- from the American Flood Coalition. I will tell you -- when you're in your 70s and in braces -- you look like a full. Sometimes. American flood coalition. Miss Kate Wesner. The Florida director of. Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. Mayor. Vice mayor. Council members. Staff. Appreciate the opportunity to be here with you tonight. I will keep it brief. I just want you to know -- I have an open door. On Florida resident. You can call me at any time. I'm always here to be a resource to you. If you don't cover everything tonight. I just want you to leave that option open. The American Flood Coalition. We are a national nonprofit organization. Here's my agenda. I will keep this brief. I will cover five topics with you all. I will try to keep it under ten minutes. I'm a fast talker. Stop me if there's anything you want me to repeat. We are a national nonprofit organization. Focused on advancing policy solutions to flooding. We work across many states in the country. Under Florida director. My family is here in Pinellas. My aunt and uncle actually lived here in Gulfport for quite a while. I really grew to love this community. I work as your state director. To work with local communities on identifying your challenges to advancing flood solutions. What does that look like for you at a local level? We try to identify innovative solutions and scale them to other communities so other communities don't have to start from scratch. We also look to expand resources that we provide to our members. Yes. We are member based organization. We don't charge a fee. There's no obligation. It's really a coalition of local state and federal leaders across the country. We've got cities -- themselves have joined. Local leaders have joined. Members of Congress have joined. Members of United Congress have joined. Former Senator Marco Rubio is actually one of our federal champions for quite some time. Businesses across the state. Military leaders. We welcome anyone who would like to be a part of the coalition. Feel free to join us. You can see the map up here. Where we are across the country. You all know. You are so acutely aware of the flooding impacts of Florida. I hope you all are recovering. I know there's been a lot of recovery efforts going on here. If you around. It looks like you guys have made quite a bit of progress in the past few years. Here are some of the resources that we provide. They're on our website now pretty much you can feel free to go there. These are the two ones I think are most helpful for smaller communities. Adaptation for all guide. This is an example of flood solutions for whether small community or large community. It's really geared toward communities from 50,000 below. What the solution was and the flooding issue. All different types of flooding. Not just. It shows you how the community fixed the flood issue. How they paid for it. It really tries to go through the different possible gray. Green. Nature based solutions you can use to address flooding. The second one is a flood funding finder. Flooding is very costly to address flooding is one of the main obstacles I hear from local governments. To do all this work. How can we pay for that? There's federal grants available. State grants will get you next. We created this flood funding finder tool. Matches your community up with your needs for funding those projects. It's very user friendly. Created this based on feedback from Mayor Parkland state Representative Christine. This is the kind of feedback we see from local governments. What are your obstacles? Are the things we can do? The state can do? Other partners that we all can do to help you all adapt? This tool will be very useful for your staff who have a grant writer. Or you don't have a grant writer. This will help really expedite those funding tools. Florida resources paramedic and Florida -- the state legislature and governor Desantis -- they took a big leap on helping Florida become more resilient to flooding in 2021. They passed a package of bills called Always Ready. One of the policies that came out of that was a grant program called Resilient Florida. That grant program has been very instrumental to communities doing planning and infrastructure projects. Actually a former speaker Chris Rouse -- the champion in the legislature. He's been a huge advocate for this. After the state did that -- de appointed a chief resiliency officer of the state -- S&P actually credited Florida's Triple A bond rating -- due to those actions. Putting financial investment and a leader for the state, helped our state get better bonding. We all know that's important at the local level. Hopefully that can help you. Here's where some of the projects have occurred across the state. You can see the green spots are South Florida Tampa area. All along the coast. Of course. This has some information on the program. The deadlines. I'm to work with your staff and share that information. Explain it to them. Answer any questions they have. The DEP double Department of Environmental Protection at the state runs this program. They have been really good at helping local governments navigate. Okay. Federal update. We know FEMA plays such a large role in how communities recover and adapt. We have worked at the federal. We've got a federal team that has been working to provide recommendations. What did those look like? We know the federal government especially female -- the disaster recovery program. Adjust to slow. To reactive. That is just not going to cut it. Some of these storms in 2024 hit two weeks apart. We have to move faster. Overly complex. There's more than 130 programs at the federal level. That is longer than a CVS receipt. Right? [Laughter] We've got to do better. There's technology we can use to help communities recover faster. We provided our list of recommendations to Congress and the president's FEMA Council. Those are things we know are under consideration. Congress does move quite slow. We are working. These are recommendations to deliver faster recoveries. Overall how they pay for those projects. Versus you all waiting years to get reimbursed. Some products you get paid up front. A clock to get that funding out faster. This application process has got to be reformed. From individuals to local governments. The process is just not working. We've made these recommendations. We are hopeful this will be taken up in the next Congress. There's more than 80 bipartisan co-sponsors. It's been presented in a house Technology and infrastructure Committee.. It's not waiting a house floor vote on the administration side recommendations were put into the president's FEMA Council report from the FEMA Council had a number of members from across the country. Three of them were from Florida. One of them was Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa. A number of other folks. We have worked to do presentations with them as well. I'm happy to take your feedback on any of those programs. Okay. That's it. I said I would be brief. I just want to applaud you all for your work here at the city. The city has a class six rating with Nfip. The National Flood Insurance program. Because of that because of the work you all have done to get that rating -- you save your residents 20% on their National Flood Insurance. Thank you. >> I want to kiss you for saying that. [Laughter] >> It's never enough. >> The reason is during the permitting process come people said I never know how to do this before. That's because maybe they never worked in a community that have the rating that we have. There's only six cities in Pinellas County that qualify for the program. For you to say that without being paid -- to let them know that's why we jump through some extra hoops -- is to give them that additional discount. That was wonderful? >> No one paid me to say that. That is a testament to the hard work of your staff. Your council. And the community. This takes everyone to participate. If there's anything we can do to help you all -- advance to the next class -- there's lots of things that communities are doing to try to get extra points and all of that. Happy to be a resource in any way. >> Before you go -- we will go and speak in order. See if anyone has any questions. Have no questions. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. >> I had the opportunity to hear her speak at the Suncoast League of Cities as well as Council Member Webb. That's why I hope that she could come and explain the resources in the program. It's at no cost. I'm really happy she's here. Thank you. Very good. Council member. The only question I have is -- if an individual or city -- wants to register to be part of your coalition -- is that an online thing? >> Yes. You can email me directly. There somewhere on our website that says become a of. Join here. You just say you want to join. We take your headshot. We asked you if you'd like a quote. We put your bio on our website. There's no obligation to attend meetings. We will invite you to things. You're not obligated to do anything. You have no legal obligation for your city attorney. There is no cost. It's really an opportunity to potentially do some events in state. We do some stuff out of state. We share resources. We've got our newsletter. I know people don't always think it's useful. Our members say that's where they learned the most information. I'm always a resource to you. Whatever that looks like. I don't understand this process. Or this program. Or just really a challenge. We don't think it is just us. We've heard some stories. This is the theme we are seeing across communities in Pinellas or Southeast region. Is there something we can do as an organization to either work at the state level or the federal level -- to drive an impact and make that a better process. Thank you. >> What area do you live in? >> Palm Beach County. My sister and brother both Pinellas. My brother's Danita. My sister is in Indian Rock beach. My aunt and uncle Karen and Jack lived here for quite some time. I know they're pretty involved in the community. Especially the pet rescue community and other things. I know how much they love living here. It's beautiful. You're very lucky. >> The next time you're in the area -- it really would like for us to have lunch. I would really like to pick your brain for more than ten minutes. Little give and take. >> That would be wonderful. >> When you know you're coming up this way -- if you could reach out? Do what it takes to make sure we can have lunch. >> Thank you so much. I'll be sure to reach out to everyone individually as well. If you all would like to do something. >> Thank you very much. >> If anybody needs help with flooding -- it is us. [Laughter] >> With that in mind we move to public comment. Because I do see quite a few faces that I've never seen before here in meetings -- let me just be clear on a couple of things. This is general public comment. You can come up and speak to anything that's not on the agenda. When we get to items that are on the agenda, there will be a public comment for that. Only at that time. If you want to talk about anything else -- I'm going to invite you up. Three minutes to speak. You need to provide your name and the city that you live in. Just keep it to the topic at hand. Can I see a show of hands? Who wants to speak? [Indistinct conversation] I think we get to the agenda >> When we get to the agenda -- you can take a look. I don't know your name. Come on up. Come up to this microphone here. Can we pass around agendas? Apparently many people came in without picking up agendas. Thank you. >> Hello. My name is Pam Masek. Excuse me. Just a minute. I am sorry. [Gavel bangs] One conversation at a time to make sure the forum >> I live at 505 South Avenue. We have members tonight who came to talk about this issue. It's the alley between us and the strip mall in the front on 22nd Avenue. At that strip mall -- there is a bar. There's a liquor store. The evenings through the night -- are very boisterous and loud. We actually called the police this weekend. It was so loud back there. People were sitting from the bar. Back there -- the patrons. Two in the morning. Is screaming down the alley about things. Trash cans get stolen all the time. People use that alley like a thoroughfare. Highway. I sat out there at midnight one night on the weekend. Seven cars raced by in five minutes. It's a single dirt alley. It's not to be used for cars. On 29th one came. Smashed through four panels of my fence. Down the four by fours. Scraped up my shed. Ran into a tree. Totaled her car. That was $900 in damage that I did not have to fix. Money I didn't have the money to fix. I'm still trying to get her insurance. Three weeks later -- same thing. Friday through Saturday in the middle of the night. Someone ran into the oak tree at the corner of my property. Dinged off of it. Went into the alley way businesses. Smashed into their wall. It is a real problem. I would like some help. The only thing I can think of -- are posting speed limit signs. Nothing is posted. People are not going 5 or 10 miles an hour. Putting some of those little humps up that I see on 49th. So people can't drive so fast. I would really like it if somebody could put a guardrail in front of that poor oak tree. It's a big oak tree. People keep smashing it. It's got a huge piece of bark taken out of it. This big. The car was smashed. People are just very disrespectful using that alley -- like there is no neighbors there. There's no families there. It's really horrible. >> Thank you. I'm sorry I did not catch your name. I was distracted. Your name. >> Pamela Masek. MASUK. >> Thank you. Who is next? >> (Indistinct) I live close to Pam. The alley is also in the back of my property. I find my trash cans scattered everywhere. I don't know how many have been hit and ruined over the past couple of years. They fly up and down the alley to dash which I seen often. Even during the day. People come out of the alley and go on to the other main streets without looking to see if any traffic is coming. It happens day and night. I park my car back there from time to time. I haven't lately. I'm scared somebody's going to come up and take my car out. This has been going on for a while. Other than that, there's also the noise of sitting back there in their cars with the boom going to make my windows shake in the middle of the night. It's a menace. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Anybody else in this? Name and city please. >> Yes Robert Ryan. Gulfport. Let's see. I have some. Mayor. Council person. Staff. I first have to start by saying raise up. [Laughter] The issue I have is with the Sazerac bar. I am on 23rd Avenue. Next to Pam. I've been there while it was peppers. Everybody said you've got to get ready. It's loud. Peppers was never as loud as Sazerac is Sazerac is not every weekend. When it is -- it's mayhem. The windows shake. People run up and down the alley. It's a stone alley. They are accelerating and throwing rocks. I can hear the rocks hitting my fence. There is Florida law. The freedom from public nuisance law. A neighborhood can take legal action against a Florida business if its operations creating ongoing coma severe common unreasonable interference with the area's health, safety and comfort. That includes excessive noise . And danger to common areas such as sidewalks. I believe that includes public alleys. During the day there was a car going back and forth while there was some party or event at Sazerac. I looked over my fence. The car had both front doors open. People hanging on those front doors, as they were racing back and forth -- was someone also sitting outside of the sunroof. This is the middle of the day. When the bar closes -- there's a big empty lot next to me. People come around. When the bar closes -- day party on our block. I clean up empty bottles of tequila. Cognac. And underwear. And shirts. Food containers. I have made multiple police complaints about this. Other people in the neighborhood have also done the same thing paramedic one more thing -- for the police -- I did get a call every time that I got in -- made a police report for a survey. I never got any kind of response about -- did an officer ever go there. That would be very nice -- if I would know if it actually said -- we did follow up. Thank you very much. >> Jones. Gulfport. Thank you for the ears. It makes life so much easier. Mayor love -- members of City Council. Flock removal is missing from tonight's agenda. That's unacceptable. September 15th -- Council voted 3 to 2 to remove flock funding. October 6th -- Council agreed to put flock on the upcoming agenda. 35 days after vote -- cameras remain operational. Still no action item. What are we waiting for? On October 6th -- chief said outside remained enabled. (Indistinct) she replied I can certainly that. formal direction followed during that exchange. Questions are not decisions. Decisions are not action. Nearly everyone who has spoken here on flock opposes it. Records identify no original council approval vote. Or separate Pre-installation -- legal or privacy review. That must never happen again. This is about far more than cameras. Officers also have access to Stetson cameras and other networks. Police records show 183 outside organizations with Gulfport sharing permissions. Once shared, Gulfport cannot guarantee how other agencies use the information. No matter how we protect it. Yes yesterday, I sent every council member a rebuttal to Chief Barron's article. Eight exhibits from police records. Those records are not misinformation. If my findings are wrong -- produce the evidence. Every day, these cameras collect more vehicle location information. Surveillance continues. Your rules permit action under new business. Tonight -- reach a consensus directing city manager to suspend outside agency sharing, to the extent legally authorized. If termination shut down could not be decided tonight, put them on the November 3rd agenda as action items. End police access to flock. Set lawful removal dates. Require public notice and council approval before comparable surveillance returns. Public office is not a license to ignore the public. Leadership requires action. You have heard the public. You've heard the public. You have seen the evidence. You have voted. Act tonight on sharing? Decide termination November 3rd. Finish the job. As a side note -- I want to say -- I love and respect Mary Farrin and police. I've heard some horrible things said on Facebook. I hate it. This is nothing to do with that. >> Thank you. You are clear that we will not be addressing? Good. Your name in the city you live in. >> Hi. I'm Ryan. I live in Gulfport. I hate the signs around the parks that say don't feed or molest alligators. I feel like we've come up with a much better sign. Could say don't feed or fuck with alligators. >> Excuse me. You'll never speak like that here. You'll be escorted out. >> I have a First Amendment right to say fuck. >> We are not putting up with this. >> My first amendment right. I will sue the city. You will hear from my lawyers this is a First Amendment violation permit there is no rules in the quorum. >> Okay. Just so you are clear -- we do have rules to be at this meeting. What just happened here is not fun for me. I will maintain order at this meeting. No matter what it takes. If that's the way you want to talk -- it would be best if you leave now. We don't want to go through this again. Thank you. Next public comment. I see a hand with a blue hat. >> My name is Michelle. I also live in Gulfport. >> I have been here before. I'm with a group of neighbors who had the complaint about the bar and the trash. I pretty much just want to say -- echo everything they have to say. We also experienced having to pick up trash. Beer bottles. I've had underwear. Etc.. I want to also voice that and let you know. Thank you so much for your concern. >> Thank you. Who is next? I see you. Come on. >> Harris from Gulfport. I have my notes here I'm here with my whole street from 23rd Avenue South. The alleyway in the back. I will keep it short. If I could just echo some of the requests that are being made. Possibly put speed bumps back there? Or crash resistant barriers against the property lines to keep cars from ramming through our properties. Our property owners and business owners being responsible for the incidents that are occurring. Possibly security guards petroleum or the alleyway to keep it safer at night. We don't have to have a police officer monitoring it. I've got a two year old. We have used condoms. Broken glass. A very dangerous place back there. Or right in the front yard. Thank you for your >> Thank you. Next? Yes. The white hat. >> My name is Melanie. I live in Gulfport. 23rd. Melanie Esther. Melody like a song. I'm also with a group. For the Sazerac bar. I'm picking up trash out of our yard every single day? It blows in from the alleyway. To echo everything they said. >> Thank you. Who is next? Yes. Fred. My name is Fred Rowe. I live in the Anchorage. Thank you for the opportunity to give public comment. I know that one of the tough things I'm doing action whether it's public or personal dash is to grasp and deal with the unintended consequences of any particular action. I want to maybe help with my public comment to understand the unintended consequences. >> Excuse me. Who has got the phone on? I'm sorry. We only asked to turn the phones off multiple times per minute I'm sorry. Fred, go ahead. >> Thank you. Restricting short access and wet foot area. When I came in it was pretty >> Fred. I'm sorry. You can't speak about that. That's on the agenda. That's a discussion item tonight. Sorry. I have to stop you. Who is next? This is general public comment. Nothing that is on the agenda item already. Anybody else? Okay. Do we have any public comment? E >> I don't have any general comments. >> With that in mind -- -- I'm going to close public. You have to come up here. Even for a quick question. Maybe my name is Roger Townsend. I live across the street from Marina. >> I want to know. Is the flooding in front of Marina on the agenda? I want you to talk about that. >> It's not. It's not a give and take. You just say anything you want. >> I'm upset with all the street flooding in front of the Marina. It shuts the streets down. I think it's dangerous for people. Obviously the cars. I get waves coming through my yard. I have a really hard time parking -- and getting to my house. The street floods there in the alley on both streets -- 46th Street and 29th Avenue. I literally have to come up the alley, and park in my neighbor's yard when we have high tides. I would really like something to be done about that paramedic also -- that flooding is compounded when we have rains. We had a car get totally flooded. The water was up. With the rain, it had nowhere to drain. If there was back stops on the drain -- the sewers or whatever. It would be able to drain out one way, and not stop it up so much at. There's got to be ways to fix the flooding problem on those two streets. Yeah. It ruins cars. They rust. There's a lot of problems it causes. Thank you for your time. >> You are welcome. We have one more. >> Hello. My name is Miss Jones. I live on the bay. The topics we want to discuss tonight are on the agenda. I'm wondering when you will have the opportunity. Will it be at the end of the meeting? >> When it's on the agenda. >> The things you want to discuss today that are on the agenda -- you just missed Fred. Did not get to speak about it? >> They are on the agenda. When we get to the discussion on the agenda -- that's when he will speak about it. >> Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. Seeing none -- I'm going to close public comment. With that, we will move on to the city manager report. >> Thank you mayor. One item this evening. On your agenda -- this evening -- you have the Gulfport Yacht Club lease. We had previously been running simultaneously with the Boat City Yacht Club lease renewal. Subsequently, city attorney and I did meet with representatives of the Boat City Yacht Club. Due to the fact -- city attorney and the representatives were going to be out of town. That would be postponed until the November 17th meeting. So for consideration -- they have provided an appraisal. Provided it to you. Please -- during a weekly meetings -- please let me know if you have any questions. I just want to advise that's why they're not simultaneous. >> We are going to do them as two separate? >> Yes. Two separate ordinances. >> Thank you. Anything else? >> No Ma'am. >> Anything you want to address that was said? >> Chief and I will discuss 23rd Avenue. We will take a further look at the area 46th and 29th. I know Kendricks has looked at it repeatedly. >> I know our state attorney looks different tonight. Do you have anything to add? I have nothing to add. Nothing that Mr. Salzman wanted me to bring to the board. >> Thank you. City clerk report. >> I actually do have quite a few things this evening. We will start with the first one. E-comments was one of the items you had discussed about in the budget. That has ended. Our staff has created a new tool. It's very similar to the E-comments tool. Just to give the residents and staff a kind of quick preview. I'm not going to go through it. I want everyone to know where it is. Where they can find it. If you're on my Gulfport.us dash you go to the government tab. You will then go to city council meetings. Which is where I'm at right here. Scroll down. You're still going to -- you are still going to see our agenda in here. Right above it, where E, used to be over here is now gone. Right now it says to submit a public comment double click the following link. It will take you to a form that you can fill out. To send directly to me. People did find it. I do have quite a few comments on some items tonight. I wanted to mention it to the public, so everybody knows why e comment link is no longer there for you. Okay? I just want to remind everybody -- there is no meeting on the 3rd of November. Due to the election. We are still going to have our workshop on November 5th. The topic is sleeping on public property. I also wanted to mention -- early voting has begun this week. It's taking place in our 49th Street location. That's from 7 a.m. To 7 p.m.. This goes through Sunday. If you can't make it on Election Day -- this does give you an opportunity to make it doesn't matter if you live in Gulfport. This is an early voting location for all of the county. Okay? I also wanted to say -- to December 3rd workshop on our budget revisions -- has been canceled. This is due to a conflict with a conference scheduling. This workshop may be rescheduled to December 10th. We will kind of watch this. We are watching a couple of things to see what topic we are going to have that on. Or if it needs to be on the budget revisions. I'm going to keep everybody updated as we figure that piece out. The February 4th 2027 workshop topic has been changed from the sanitation models -- to the stormwater funding. I did want to address that question about the flock items. I do have it on an agenda. Because of what we have going -- is scheduled for December 1st at this time. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Alrighty. With that we will move on to council comments and reports. This is an opportunity for the council members to share with you what they have been through in the last -- since the last meeting. Things I think would be important to you. They can address public comment if they so choose. They can use their time they have? Ten minutes. We start tonight with council member early I have nothing to report. >> Last Saturday, there was a cleanup at Clam Bayou. It was really successful. There wasn't a lot of people that came. The people that did it was raining. The people that did come collected over 200 pounds of trash at Clam Bayou. There were quite a few people there that actually came up to us -- thanked us for being there to do that. That was awesome. The event at Gulfport Arts and Heritage on Friday to open the 25 year time capsule was really cool. Now having been there we have done a couple walks. Being involved in that -- is something cool. If you've been here for a long time, you know the history of it -- or your new. It's kind of a cool thing to hear people tell their stories. Hear about how they grew up. How they grew up differently than what the history is here. Gulfport Arts and Heritage has a ton of stuff available in events that they do. I just want to mention -- they have Haunted walking Tour on the 22nd at 8 p.m.. It sounds pretty cool. I have done the Clam Bayou environmental History Walking tour. Would highly recommend it to everybody. If you can make it to 9:30 a.m. On the 24th. You can sign up in advance. If you join the Gulfport Arts and Heritage W.S. You get to go to these things. If you don't -- whatever. The Clam Bayou Environmental History Walking Tour is really awesome. I think it will give you a better idea of what is happening down there. And why it's important to keep it thriving to keep it clean. Taking on invasive plants. I don't know what they are. They do. They are incredible at describing it. It keeps you occupied the whole time . It's incredible. I highly recommend it to everybody. Thanks. >> Thank you Council member Shaw. >> First of all thank you so much for you all being here tonight. As the mayor said, it's always so wonderful to see folks engaged and willing to share their thoughts and concerns. Thank you again. The time capsule opening (Indistinct) is absolutely lovely. So grateful to be able to participate in that. I want to say thank you to everyone who worked on it. And that showed up to participate. It was a very special evening. The golf course Arts and heritage also has some really interesting speakers and films. Check out the overall programing. What great things. This week is for the city we come back it's a time when cities across Florida celebrate the work of local government and invite residents to see how city services touched daily lives you all are seeing some of that tonight. We are grateful to our staff our volunteers for Macro residents who make Gulfport the special place it is. The government closest to the people. I encourage everyone to stay engaged. Whether by changing a meeting volunteering. Calling with a question. Thank you to the Florida League of cities for supporting cities like ours as well. And for the resources, training, and shared advocacy that help us serve our community. I have gone to a number of sessions and conferences. I saw the report on those. With many things on the agenda tonight, I'm going to be sensitive to the timing of that. And just give you a key takeaway summary. This particular session was at the Florida League of Cities 2026 Annual Conference. It was small cities. Big ideas. Lessons from Florida local government leaders. As I said I will just go through the key takeaways. It's four pages. If you'd like to kind of look at it w it has headings. We will be on the city's website under council members web pages. The first one was fund for services first. Revenues and priorities guide the rest my second was pursue grants aggressively promote only where you have the capacity to administer them permanent partnerships with nonprofits promote private organizations permit counties permit state and National League of Cities. Maintain reserves and multiyear forecast. Explain the facts behind decisions. Bring the community with you. Be accessible. Empathetic consistent. Not driven by emotion. If any of that piques your interest to what I just stated, just check it out on the website. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Council member. Thank you mayor. We had our Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council meeting last week. Bt PC continues to provide regional leadership. Let me do this. Through planning resiliency. Emergency preparedness. Economic development. Technical assistance. In the last meeting we had a presentation on the Dengue fever health situation. It's a regional issue. I don't know if you all realize? Vice Mayor Shaw had a town hall on this. For every person that has a dash that shows signs of having dengue fever -- there's for people who don't have signs of having dengue fever. Right now we're about 300 people. Hillsborough? Pinellas Manatee Pasco County. If you multiply that times four to actually 1200 people who have it. The reason why that's significant -- humans can give it to mosquitoes that are infected. Unlike other viruses -- you might not have symptoms the first time. When you get reinfected -- your symptoms can get worse. It something the county and mosquito control -- Public Health Department is working on. Vice Mayor Shaw had it in her town hall. It's really something of significance. Please check your properties. Turn over. These mosquitoes can breed into familiar. Any standing water is really conducive. They're not immune to the winter. The goal right now -- is to make sure they don't overwinter. If they do -- it's more likely they just become a regular part of our reality here in the Tampa Bay region. Like they are down in Miami. It's not something we would want. Other very exciting news for Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council is conducting the first update to their regional Resiliency Action Plan. This is the first step? To review existing objectives to make refocus regional priorities participation in our upcoming workgroup and committee meetings and share the region's range of perspectives represented in the 2027 grant? If you don't know W-1 of the founding signatories to our regional Resiliency Action Plan for that's a distinction I'm really proud of that we hold. I will be serving on that workgroup -- to make sure we have a plan that continues to work well and inspires not just our community but an entire region to be planning a more resilient fashion. The staff at Regional Planning Council -- gave an intro to Civic Technology got their GIS mapping. It's a free service or council can use for small projects. If you have a town hall on reimagining what something might look like -- say we'll render it for you for free. And also, help you do it in real time. Can I can give you the contact information of our liaison com if that's something you're interested in in. It's free. All larger scale projects -- they also serve as a cost effective alternative to some of the larger technical assistance engineering firms that are around for some projects. It's a great resource. They are also requesting feedback for the layers. This is for staff? The layers they have in GIS mapping. There's something you want to see. I was wanting to see economics and household. More of the -- property appraiser data on their map. They're asking for that feedback. It's not just for Pinellas. It's for the entire region. If there's any comparable communities in the Tampa Bay region they will have access to that as well. And support around that. That's it. That's it for this meeting. In terms of the town hall -- I talked with the city manager. I will bring this up under new business -- up pushing it back. Our other meeting is pushed back. There's no need for me to have a meeting right after the election. That would help kind of alleviate some of the ongoing stress. I do still -- will still be having the town hall to gain people's perspectives on what's important to you. What level of service in different areas. And what you hope to see in the community for projecting. In anticipation of future city Council workshops. We have a little bit more time for the pushback. At that other meeting. That's all I have, mayor. >> Thank you. I want to say Facebook -- I wrote about mosquito control. I have six rain barrels. I collect all my condensation from my a c. I was told to go to the hardware store and get this product called. Mosquito bits. It's working. I'm just putting on top of my rain barrels and condensation every other week. I've not gotten bitten since I did that. I think a big bag cost me like $11. It will probably last me for months. I just have to get a plug. That came up. It's actually working. I am the representative for Pinellas. I've been talking for at least eight -- if not 12 months now -- about the MPO. The merge. The merge between Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas County. Now that we are so close -- it is off. Hillsborough said no. They didn't say it as simple as no. Something I was aware of Hillsborough County and Tampa -- they really have a hard time getting along and agreeing to things. Now that we are so close. Documents are prepared. Documents to do this. We've been warned all along. If we don't do this merger ourselves to make a Tampa Bay regional planning -- the whole purpose for doing that -- that would then qualify us. Much larger area. We could get much more federal funding per large regional projects. If we don't do it -- they're going to do it for us. We have come a long way. We thought it would probably be implemented late in 27. For now, it's off. I just had to share that. I keep telling you little bits and pieces of that. In terms of the time capsule -- the only thing I would like to add to that -- the folks that run -- say that again. Gulfport Arts and Heritage. They are looking to create a committee for people who want to participate. They are going to bury another time capsule on New Year's Eve. If you think that's something you would enjoy doing -- you want to reach out to Gulfport Arts and Heritage. They would like a committee. Very similar to how we had a committee for the one we opened here? So on and so forth. I want you to be aware of that. In terms of public comment -- there's two I would like to respond to. One is the Sazeracs. I did get an email. I think it was on Saturday. That's the first time that I've heard complaints about that business -- and the noise sitting out there with you all. I remember several weeks in a row -- we had it. The person who wrote to me. I can't remember the person's name. It's still on my email. I asked that person to give me some more specifics. I have not heard back from them. Once I did -- I would ask if I could meet with our police chief. Just kind of talk about some things that could be done. I have not heard from that person. I did get good information tonight. I wrote it all down.. To the gentleman that asked about street flooding -- specific in the Marina. Probably have 1 million and a half pictures of 49th 46th Street and 29th. I'm very well aware of what's going on. I think this year alone -- we probably had 6 or 7 meetings we spent the pedestrian really focusing in on stormwater. If you will reach out to me I will direct you to some of the videos that you should watch -- that were live council meetings. Where we stand right now. Viewer reach out -- my Gulfport.us. That's all I had for my council comments tonight. With that in mind -- can we move to a consent please? >> Yes. Before I start consent -- didn't want to mention that we did have one that was canceled by the applicant. Item six F. If anybody in the residence noticed? I put it in red. This one has been removed from the consent agenda. Before I start anything else that needs to be changed on the consent agenda? >> I would like to remove six E. I have a couple things I would like to say about that. >> Anything else before I begin? Item six a. Consider approval of meeting minutes from meeting held October 5th 2026. Item six B. Resolution number 2026-86. A resolution establishing the date of the 2027 municipal General election as Tuesday March 9th 2027 and providing authorization to the City Manager to contract with Pinellas County Supervisor elections to conduct the 2027 Municipal General Election. Item six c. Resolution number 2026-87. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to renew the agreement with Shumaker Advisors, Florida, LLC for state Legislative Consultant Advisory Lobbying Services. And before the Florida Executive and legislative branches of state government as budgeted for in the fiscal year 2026 2027 adopted budget. Item six D. Resolution number 2026-88. A resolution authorizing the City Manager to expend funds for annual audit services with four of us Mazars LLP. Formerly known as MSLPA. Skipping six E and six f. Going to six g. Resolution 2026-91. A resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into an agreement amending the current emergency medical Services advanced life support ALS First responder Agreement. Pinellas County Board of Commissioners. Pinellas County Emergency Services Authority. Authorizing the City of Gulfport Fire Department to provide advanced life support first responder services. >> Motion to approve. [Members voting] Passes unanimously? That would bring us to item six E that we just removed premature rules to state now has to be addressed immediately after consent from item six E. >> Inter memorandum -- we the amount of money that we have spent over the years on our lateral program. I think everybody would agree that it's a good program. Six E was suggesting to stating we would put another $100,000 into that program. I asked for an accounting of what did it look like for last fiscal year? Last year -- that would be 25, 26 year. Right? 26, 27. Fiscal year. Last year, we spent $36,138 . $36,138 in the last fiscal year. That just closed out. My proposal would be -- rather than sending a $700,000 for that program for this next year -- I would like to think that we would set aside only 50,000 -- and increase over what was actually used. Take the other $50,000. Put it into that account that we have set aside now W dash accumulating funds for matching grants for stormwater. >> Before we can discuss it at -- I do need a motion. >> You can't make the motion? I will make the motion. I will second. >> Discussion on this item? We can start. >> Was last year an anomaly? >> It's a cumulative nature. You can see it in your memo. It's a cumulative. We closed half $1 million in 2017, 18. We are running out of funds. We've reached the amount that we had spent and budgeted two years ago. Basically what we do to exhaust the 50. Funds needed to finish it will come back to you. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> answers my question you. >> My questions well. >> The would be to reduce to $50,000. >> what I'm asking. We reduce it to 50,000. Every time we have an opportunity to throw more money into that stormwater account -- I would like to do that. >> Alrighty. Are we with calling the Public comment on this Seeing none can call the vote please? [Members voting] >> Thank very much. >> two passage. This one on to ordinances. seven A. Ordinance number First reading. An ordinance of the City of Gulfport Florida. Authorizing the City Manager to enter into a five year lease agreement with the Gulfport Yacht Club, incorporated for GYC, a Florida not for profit corporation, providing for terms and conditions, providing for the repeal of ordinances, ordinances and conflict herewith, to the extent of such conflict, providing for severability and providing for an effective date. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> City Manager. >> Yes mayor. This was the first lease renewal with the Gulfport Yacht Club -- following the actions of the Charter Review Committee. Subsequent referendum approval of specifics regarding section 103 in leasing public property. There were some requirements as outlined in my memo. Limited the term to five years. The applicant or lease was required to provide a appraisal for active provided such an acceptable appraisal. Is within your agenda package. One significant change that is reflected -- their appraisal came back -- basically a square footage amount. It did not apply for -- we did have negotiations regarding their dry storage area. So currently -- appreciate Mr. Faulkner -- judge Murphy's efforts. They have now relinquished the dry storage area. That would become a revenue generator for the city. They will maintain the building. We've had a very productive conversation. We've reached this point. Mr. Faulkner is here this evening. Judge Murphy is here? >> (Indistinct) [Laughter] >> Do you want to come up? >> Yeah. Good evening everyone my name is Bob? 3626 25th Avenue South. I'm also the Commodore of the Gulfport Yacht Club I want to say Gulfport Yacht Club had a decades long relationship with the city. We're happy to continue to do this. This new lease is certainly going to be a transition in the way we're operating before. That said, we're optimistic that it's going to create additional opportunities for our club. This lease is going to take us into our 90th anniversary -- is going to be in 2028 Michael Port Yacht Club started in 1938. We've been in our present location since the 50s. Our clubhouse was built in 1960 by club members. We continue to bring sailors from across the state and country to regardless. We bring people on a regular basis. We have a regatta in November with a window class. We are planning other regattas as well we hosted the 2008 US Sailing National Multi Hole Championship. The Perpetual trophy that goes along with that championship was actually designed and built by a late member of a club. It was a store in the Gabaa about ten years ago about that. We also have a lot of world class sailors that are members of our little tiny club. Including -- the 2012 Paralympic silver medalist, Jenn French. We also have -- in the last couple of months -- Herb James. A member of our club. The 2026 Grand Masters world Champion. World Champion. Also have the same world champions ships. Grand Masters is 50 or above. He crushed everybody. He won every single race. He crushed second place. We also had the same race -- Jason Sanchez. This was just the World Championships for all ages. Jason Sanchez placed 10th. Plays 16th in that. Jason Sanchez -- actually is won several national championships in the Hobie 14 and Hobie 16. Also the Hobie 14 National Championships -- a few months ago as well. Herb James got second place. Jason Sanchez got third place. Bob Curry got fifth place. We are excited. We also had Phil Sanchez who is Jason's dad. He's won multiple championships. I want to also just recognize Jim O'reilly. Andrew Saltzman. Dennis Frame. Who have all worked very cooperatively with us. Been very helpful in making this happen. This is a transition in a way because of the ordinance. We were treated very fairly. Based on what transpired? We look forward to continuing ongoing relationship with the city. Thank you Jim and Dennis and Andrew. For the hard work. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> We also want to thank you for your cooperative spirit. We do understand that this is a dramatic change for the way you were used to doing business for years in our Marina. This is going to generate a lot more revenue for our city. I know you all had to work together cooperatively, in order to figure out how to make that happen. Thank you. Let's see. Do we have any discussion on that item? >> We have a motion. >> We have a motion and a second. Discussion? >> I want to thank you. I worked with you on the blueberry patch. You are treated fairly. You also treat us fairly. Thank you. >> I have a question. When we originally were looking at their new appraisal and how long their lease was going to be -- remember bringing up in discussion -- an option. Sign it for five years. We have an option at the end of that. Is that up for something that's available? >> City attorney and I addressed that. I addressed it with Andy. He was not comfortable providing that. The charter said five year leases. >> Okay. Obviously -- coming up on 90 years we want to keep them around for 100. [Laughter] >> We did have that conversation from the charter question was so clear you would be applying extending it ten years. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Council member Shaw. >> I'm delighted to see it come to this point -- is moving forward with this new lease definition for the continuation the golf club. Have always been very proud for us to have they clubs right there in the Marina district. Appreciate the time that we spent together, consistently talking over the previous months? Thank you for all of your efforts, and everyone involved. >> Everybody said it I'm excited. Thanks for keeping us in the loop, and being in good faith . Negotiating this contract. Understanding that at the end of the day -- it was really the people. It was the charter amendment that we are needing to follow. We were really excited to celebrate 90 years with you all. >> Thank you. Any public comment on this? Any comment on this? >> Not on this item. >> Call the vote. Please. [Members voting] >> Carries two passage. Moving on to resolutions. Item eight a. Resolution number 2026-92. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a task order with advanced engineering and design incorporated for professional engineering services associated with the 60th Street South and 20th Avenue South stormwater Collection Improvements project. BMP three. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Mayor. I'd like to invite Kendrick Anderson. This agenda item and the following one -- very similar. One is funded through your Capital improvement program. The 60th Street project? Second item that you will hear about -- funded through the city's monies . Funds provided in matching with state appropriation. >> These are the first of two of many stormwater projects that we are looking at. Please. >> Good evening. BNP3 60th and 20th Street was identified in our WMP last year. What it's going to do is -- increase our stormwater collection. If you have a heavy W I want to reiterate -- if it's a flood event -- 100 year storm event. It's still going to flood. This is to help collect the water quicker off the road during an event. Help prevent it from deteriorating roadway. One of the things I left out in my memorandum -- we're actually not focusing on 60th and 20th. We are serving further up towards Tangerine. To ensure that we get the most bang out of our buck with collection process. We anticipate design to be completed shorter than what was in the original agreement. We're shooting hopefully for spring. Go out to bid for construction. If we don't go out to bid -- we probably end up piggybacking off the city of Clearwater Keystone contract. We received pricing from them. It was competitive, at the moment. >> Already. Do you have any questions? >> No questions. Thank you. >> No questions. >> Do I stand up here for the next one? >> Yes. Stay up here. [Laughter] >> You probably need to move for just a second. In case anybody would like to do a public comment. Any public comment on this? Yes. >> April. Gulfport. I'm sure this contractor's fine. I know they are one of our approved contractors. It worries me whenever we don't get three bids for something. Somebody else may have a better idea of how to implement something. Or they may be cheaper? Just because this one is an approved contractor that we've used -- doesn't mean somebody else couldn't do a better job. It worries me when we don't do that. I think we should. >> Any other comment came up we don't we or clap. Either one. Any other public comment on this? Seeing none to vote do we have any comment on this? >> Not on this item. >> Thank you. [Members voting] >> Carries two passage. Next item. Be resolution number 26-93. Resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with advanced engineering Design Incorporated ahd. For professional engineering services associated with the police and fire rapid response roadway reconstruction project and authorizes the associated budget amendment. Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Good news. We did get $1 million funded through the state this cycle through fDOT. What we're using this money for is to improve 53rd Street. From 25th Avenue to 28th Avenue. This is a roadway reconstruction project. No different than 58th Street. We were able to call our road construction also increase our stormwater collection at the same time. This is going to include a new culvert being installed on 28th Avenue. Heading towards the west. New pedestrian crosswalk. A improvements. Curbing improvements. Intersection improvements . >> No questions. Thank you. >> 53rd is going to stay brick? >> Yes. >> I would like to say for those that are serving I know this seems like we're moving two things quickly. We're not asking questions now. Please no -- we asked a lot of questions in advance. We read through everything. Work has been done on this. Not just breezing through this as it may appear. Also for those that aren't aware -- the reason we are addressing many of the things that are more north than our low lying areas -- the north goes south. If anybody has lived here double they can see the flow of water. That's the reason we're approaching it that way. Thank you. >> Well said. >> To kind of piggyback off of that -- this whole project we are calling the fire and police -- is actually much larger project to the tune of $18 million. This is just one beginning phase of this. With the idea that we will be continuing to make -- to make additions to this project. We will be looking at getting some much bigger funding in place -- that we can do more at one time. I'm going to throw out a date later but it's under new business. We have talked about many of these storm water projects -- the projects themselves. At least four times. And how we came to the analysis -- putting them in order of priority. That's been talked about a lot. If anyone wants to spend about 25 hours looking at it? I can direct you to the correct meetings to look at -- in order to see that. Thank you for your time. And for answering the questions when we have them during the middle of the >> When we get design back to pedestrian we'll do another presentation. Thank you. >> Any public comment on this matter? [Members voting] >> Carries two passage. Moving on to item eight C. Resolution number 2026-94. A resolution amending fees for the building and zoning services in accordance with chapter 25 of the Code of Ordinances. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Thank you mayor. Mark Griffith will be making a short presentation in regards to this. Background I want you to state. This is mandated by state legislation. This is the implementation aspect of it. As we spoke of this morning. Basically -- staff has gone through and put together a comparable plan that sets forth for building permits. It's a switch from project value to square footage. It has to be a Or council member who at this time with this than most of my staff. The fact that the legislature has put itself into the building and zoning business. Is that a polite way to say it? Subsequently timelines permit also the comments do you have consultation with zoning that you can charge a fee for. Councilmember I spoke of -- and inclusive fee. And every time we meet with you. As long as you have an active permit application for the first 180 days. All the what if meetings. Have it subsequently come forth. There's no questions. A big issue that the legislature has been trying to address -- your building fees. Permit fees and such. Will cover your actual cost. It doesn't become a revenue source for other city operations. We explained that clearly within the Powerpoint and your memo. We've shown a methodology to how we've reached this point. We are very comfortable correctly have done a great job putting this together. To clarify. Also to be compliant with the state's action. >> Good evening. Mayor. Council. Historically -- chapter 25 of the Code of Ordinances -- was created to organize fees to be put on all one section of the code. Which provides fee schedules to be adopted and amended by resolution. Just a little bit of background there. Under the recent state legislation specifically driven by House Bill 803 -- we are required to move away from permit fees, based on the cost of the job. We replace it with our administrative enforcement and review cost W dash to maintain statutory compliance with the Florida Building Code. To put simply -- we can't change. We can't charge for permits, based on the construction cost any more. Instead -- wi