City Council

City Council — November 24, 2025

>> Welcome to the city of St. Petersburg City Council meeting and your elected officials our mayor Ken well. District one Council chair. Hopefully Curtis. District 2 Brendan Barber. District 3 Mike Harding district 4 Council vice chair, Liz said Hannah with district 5 never take Sanders. District 6 Gina Driscoll in districts, 7 warri Givens junior. And district day Richie Floyd. >> Good evening, everybody welcome to the Nov. 24th 2025 City Council meeting if we could do a roll call please clearing. If everybody can please join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance. It's too late for him. Thank you please be seated. Okay council members we have an agenda in front of a salinity motion move approval. Second. We have a motion is second on the agenda seeing is no other council members wishing to speak or could you please open machine for voting. Those Council Floyd. Council members please enter your votes seems all present council members have voted clerk please tying announce the vote. Show the motion to approve the agenda passes unanimously with councilmember Harding being absent ok thank you, Rick now we're going to move into open forum clerk could you please read the rules. If you wish to address him. Subject other than public cause additional items list on the agenda. Please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak based on the open form she only city residents owners of property. Business owners. In the city or their employees MAY speak all issues discussed on the open forum. We must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government if you're speaking to an item on the agenda. You MAY only speak wants during the open for when the item is up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address Council. Each individual be given 3 minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to address the council through the zoom meeting us use the raise hand feature button in the zoom app or interest are 9 on your phone at the time the agenda item is addressed when it's your turn to speak you will be unmuted next to state your name. And address at the conclusion of your comments are when you reach a 3 minute time limit you're muted. We all raise hands will be Lord after each agenda item regardless of the method of participation use normal rules apply, including the 3 minute time limit on comments. The requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of decorum if like public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the courtroom. The tears authorized to accept public comment by alternate means including it MAY only. MR. CHAIRMAN do not have any speakers in the chamber and we have no one in zoom as well, okay. All right, we will move on from open forum and will go into our public hearing for the evening. We've got d-one and ordinance enacting you're an appropriation adjustments for fy 25 we're joined by Liz mccoskey Liz welcome. And they don't support MR. Please and thank you sorry about that. >> Foes ordinance number 6 to one h in ordinance enacting year in appropriations adjustment appropriation adjustments for the fiscal year for fiscal year 2025. Well, the operating and capital improvement program budget and adjustments to the fiscal year 2026 budget and providing an effective date we do have one car for this items to cheer. Ok thank you and it wouldn't be a City Council meeting Biden screw something up so now goal is in custody. >> All right, thank you and good evening chair members of City Council this evening. We have the second reading and public hearing for the fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year, 2026 budget reconciliation where cleanup ordinance 6.21 age at the Nov., 6 budget finance and taxation committee meeting we had a detailed discussion of both the fy 25 and fy 26 recommended budget adjustments silver 16th preliminary financial close. And later that afternoon we had the first reading of the cleanup ordinance at City Council. And between now and the Nov. 6 meetings or the number of adjustments or changes to both revenues and expenditures and this evening I will be give us at sunrise version of the proposed changes from first reading. The beginning fund balance for the general fund in fy 25 was 84.7 6 9 million and based on our city's financials as of Nov. 5th, we estimated fy 25 entries included on the cleanup ordinance that approximately 4.2 1 5 million of the general fund's balance will be used. The fy 26 budget entries included in the fy 2526 cleanup ordinance will use an additional 10.2 1 4 million in general fund balance and the estimated net effect is a decrease of 14.49 million and general fund balance with flight 26 yeah ending balance of 70.3 4 0 million. This is an improvement over the first reading by about 1.7 million and is mainly due to additional revenue being recorded. Any actions additional budget actions taking during this fiscal year would change this estimate. >> So looking at an overview of the general fund at fy 25 year end this chart shows the estimated fy 25 year and general fund balance based on the Nov. 5th financial reports since the first reading revenues have increased by approximately 1.5 million and the majority of this increase was in our grants category. An estimated expenditures in the general fund increased by 31,000. And the net result is the estimated amount of fund balance used at the end of fy 25, which is now the 4.2 5 million compared to our estimate of 5.6 8 first reading. This is a reduction of approximately one 0.4 7 million in fund balance used. Their actions in the 26 portion of the cleanup ordinance that will some out and the project and use of fund balance is mainly due to expenditures related to hurricanes Helene and Milton which were partially offset by greater than budgeted revenues. This slide shows the 14.6 7% core general fund target a 57.2 3 1 million and are 20% general fund group of funds target of 78.3 3 8 million. And the estimated general fund balances at the end of fy 25. We estimate that the 14.6 7 core general fund target will be exceeded by 23.3 to 3 million. And our general fund group of funds target exceeded by 50.4 4 7 million. This estimate does not include the 11.5 million fy 26 supplemental appropriations or rollover amounts that are included in the fy 26 portion of the order cleanup ordinance be discussed later in the presentation. Therefore these actions will will expend 10.2 1 4 million of additional fund balance accounting for one 0.2 8 2 million and associated Grant revenue. So we're looking at the supplement appropriations needed to close out fy 25 in the general fund. The appropriations on this slide total 16.7 18 million and the amount listed for the first 8 items are for budget authority only and all amounts are included in the 529.3 6 million in total expenditure estimate for fy 25 and center first reading the amounts needed for the engineering and capital improvement and fire rescue departments decreased well the stormwater pavement traffic operations department increased slightly. The amount of the subsidy increase required by the port operating fund also decreased since first reading. In the other city funds their 14 different funds that need efi 25 cleanup supplemental appropriations. More information can be found in section one pages 45 of the backup. 4 of the funds amount of change since the first reading the ems fund our water resources debt fund and the and star moderate traffic heat or sorry stormwater utility fund they'll increased and the art airport fun decreased. The water resources operating fund was added and the Coliseum and Marino were no longer needed and therefore removed from the cleanup ordinance. There are 6 internal service funds that require increases in authority for fy 25 and more information again can be found in section one pages 5 to 6 of the backup. Since first reading both the fleet management and commercial insurers insurance funds amounts decreased and the other 4 amounts did not change. In the capital improvement funds there are funds that require supplemental appropriations in efi 25 and these changes are included on the next 3 slides but there's no changes since the first reading. At the end of each fiscal year we commit or signed certain amounts within the general fund and the 6 categories were established when Council adopted the fy 26 budget we now have pride projections for how much will be committed for each of these categories. The operating Rhea preparations or a conference in some out in the general fund is 6.1 3 3 million and is the out on this list that has changed since first reading these in conferences have been paid in fy 25 in are included in our 529.3 6 million expenditure estimate him out and will become actual Zahn fy 26. A full list of the fy 25 operating Rhea preparations is located in section 5 pages 11 through 12 of the backup and there are a total of 40 funds that are and that have entered into a contract or legal commitment to spend funding in fy 25 but were unable to complete the purchase or did not receive the deliverable during fy 20 during fy 25. These expenses were paid with fy 24 resources but they will become an actual in fy 26 and they've already been added out of the flight 26 fund balances and will not have a budgetary impact in fy 26. And the general fund again there's a total of 6.1 3 million in conferences to rollover tapped by 26 and a 179,000 are related to bp funding. Moving on to the general fund supplemental appropriations for fy 26. The fy 26 supplemental appropriation requests for both the general fund and other funds are mostly made up of items programs or projects that were budgeted for in fy 25. But due to timing or other circumstances were not purchase are completed. Before year end. Therefore the unexpected appropriation is requested to roll over to the next fiscal year to complete the purchase or project. Grants and our non department appropriations to programs or fiscal years do not align with our budget fiscal year for example of many of these types of supplemental appropriation requests. This slide mirrors the earlier fy 25 year and slide shows the impact of 26 cleanup items on the general fund balance and again the bp funds are separate from the general fund operating. And since the first reading the total rollover and supplemental request amount has decreased by 244,000 and is now 11.5 million. And I'll highlight some of the changes in more detail over the next few slides. Going back to the slide to at the beginning of the presentation when you combine the fy 2526 cleanup actions. We have the total estimated net impact to the general fund as a decrease of 14.49 million in fund balance and again this is an improvement over first reading by about 1.7 million. And again is mainly due to additional revenue recorded since first reading. The total amount requested in the general fund for fy 26 supplemental appropriations again is 11.5 million. This slide summarizes those requests by departments in administration. There are changes since first reading with a total decrease of 244,000 finance to one of the rollers and police being reclassified as a transfer and then police decrease find out like a man. Parks libraries transportation housing in neighborhoods service administration and public works administration departments all decreased additional information can be found in section 6 on pages 13 through 15 for these appropriations. The detailed information for the fy 26 supplement metal appropriations for other city funds can be found on section 6 pages 16 to 18 of the backup. There are 29 funds in total requesting rollover project supplemental appropriations in efi 26. And since first reading 9 fund amounts have changed. 4 of the housing Grant funds amounts changed including the local housing. Cdbg home and federal operating. The the cdbg DR. And affordable housing amounts increased and water resources and the health insurance amounts decreased. The Bucs and the left includes 12 funds for the appropriation request is to roll over and spent Grant funding and some of the a housing funds. It is also to appropriate additional program revenue. There are now 4 supplemental appropriations requested for fy 26 in the cip funds. The second appropriation has been added since the first reading and this was originally an operating rollover request for the deplete Police Department but it will now be a cip project instead of an operating expense. That was the transfer in finance that increased and the police Rover amount was reduced by out. The supplemental appropriation for this project will help fund the replacement of one of the crack units in the data center. There are no transfers to the arts in public places fund required at cleanup based on the fy 25 transactions. And we do have one project name change in the general capital improvement fund updating the Coliseum ballroom floor project to the Coliseum improvement project to encompass both the roof and floor replacement at the Coliseum. And with that are there any questions. Okay, thanks Liz lets go to public comment. >> Speaker MR. Chair Nicole waters please go to Ed the podium state your name and address for the record you have 2 minutes to address City Council. Good evening city Council members my name is Nicole waters and I'm honored to stand here as the PRESIDENT Of the edge district alongside my colleagues from the St. Petersburg neighboring districts together we represent hundreds of small businesses and thousands of residents who depend on the strength stability and vibrancy of our commercial corridors after years of partnership with the city. One truth remains the same are districts are force multipliers for the priorities you care most about economic vitality. Safety and community identity and placemaking we do daily on the ground work that the city simply cannot do its scale. In the edge district alone. We advocate educate and promote for over a 145 independent businesses entrepreneurs creatives service providers and employers who form the culture and economic backbone of St. Petersburg and we don't just support commerce we strengthen community. This year's Halloween on Central's a perfect example. We began as a bold idea has become one of this city's most beloved family friendly citywide celebration. 10's of thousands of residents join together on a car free Central Avenue, supporting local businesses connecting across neighborhoods and experiencing the best of who we are as a city. Events like this do not happen without district leadership. We also serve as caretaker is for our neighborhoods in the edge our quarterly cleanup. Springer volunteers, business owners families and staff members working side by side to beautify our streets and this is not just trash cleanup. This is where community building moments happen and keeping our corridor safe welcoming and well maintained. Districts also stretch every dollar you invest. We leverage memberships grants sponsorships and volunteer hours to produce results. Far beyond what our current city allocation can cover. Cost is I'm sorry as the cost rise, maintaining the same level of service without the same level of support becomes increasingly difficult. That's why we're here today to respectfully and enthusiastically request an increase in the annual city support from $55,000 to $75,000 per district. This modest increase protects and strengthens a system that already works. This isn't new spending. It's protecting a proven system. Districts of the city's neighborhood level economic development teams. With a modest increase we continue delivering growth the vitality and community pride in a way that scales citywide I want to thank you for your partnership, your leadership and investing in St. Petersburg thank you. No more speakers okay. Thank you councilmember Givens. Thank you chair, I want to start by thanking coal for her voice I see some other folks in the deuces live business district here as well. This is something that I had requested originally my budget request for fiscal year 26 that we look at an additional appropriation for our Main Street districts. I certainly think that it is a worthwhile cause on we think about how our small businesses depend on us but I don't think they realize how much we depend on them. Especially our Main Street business district associations, each of those organizations whether it be Grand Central the edge district deuces live. You are all doing the heavy lifts. It's our jobs just to be there to support you and it's my understanding that we've been giving a $55,000 cash allotment or allocation to these Main Street districts for the past 5 years I I'm just curious. I brought this up to administration, but I just want to know has there been any further conversation about some supplemental appropriations for them. Good evening councilmembers and thank you for that question certainly we're very grateful. To the main Street teams and everything that they do in the community that you do wonderful work. You know we've had this discussion during the year we think this discussion will continue going forward into the next budget year were possibly in the business item from a council member to continue the discussion but tonight with where we're at we're not recommending any new spending in the cleanup action tonight. And we haven't had any further discussion other than that since your call to MR. Green. I appreciate that thank you for that the bank I just asked that we look at possibly some contingency funds, maybe just a $5,000 $10,000 cost of living increase on just a suggestion and then if we could discuss not too far I don't want to go into the weeds. But just kind of a 30,000 foot overview on where we stand with securing our city facilities on this is something that I brought up before. I understand there MAY have been some funds for libraries on but I want to talk specifically about like our rec centers, the Coliseum something gardens have we looked at additional security possibly. Councilmember again this is a discussion that we're happy to continue to have and we can certainly schedule a one-on-one with you if you'd like to get into some more details on the security policy as you know we did recently security at the library's we go into a from a private security company too. City employees we felt more comfortable with that approach we've had multiple discussions with the Police Department on how to handle the change in Florida law related to open carry a won't go into details here about how that's been handled but we're happy to continue the discussion on security we feel good about what we're doing security is an area where you probably always could do more you know you have to balance all these things that we do, but we're happy to continue the discussion. Thank you and I just you know my priority as a council member as elected officials to ensure the safety of my constituents and I just want to make sure that whatever city facility there and whether it be a a. But places like City Hall or the municipal services building I just want to make sure that our all of our employees feel that same safety that we feel we come into these buildings but thank you chair, fresh appreciation. Thank you council member Jessica. Thank you and thank you to those who have raise the question and the request regarding more funding from Main Street and I to have that on my budget priorities at it for a while I brought it up and we did our committee meeting for the budget cleanup. This is. >> If we have 4 Main Street district. $20,000 for each one is $80,000 this is something that doesn't even have to be approved by City Council this could just be done. Considering that the prices that the costs have have gone up and our commitment has not. It's really it's a serious time to look at this from the administration's point of view. I don't understand why we would have to do new business item for something that could be done administratively. It is so obvious that this is what's need to be heard from 2 out of the 4. Just today asking for help. You have all kinds of different. Programs and features in and economic development and the greenhouse. New things coming out. We have to. Invest in what's working and help it to grow and strengthen that, especially right now. Some of these businesses some of the districts are having a really hard time right now. And we've got good people in place in every single one of those districts I am fully confident in their leadership. We need to be supporting that we've got to support what's working. We're going to lose it. The Grand Central district if they do have of the support that they need next year. There's a good chance that they're not going to be able to do Halloween on central. And that's how it that's how serious it's gotten that's a huge event. I mean if the ways that we have to make this happen is to have a drawn out process with a new business item in a committee discussion i mean every council member up here understands what a Main Street district is anyone who wants to take a deeper dive into it can talk to any of the 4 leaders to find out what they do with the very little money that we give them and I don't think there's going to be any problem with having support for that all right so why go off why why should we go through all of that. When you all can just make this decision. You have to be tonight. I'm okay with things the way that they are. But there is money that can be that can be pulled over from the plans for the coming fiscal for this fiscal year. >> In economic development that can be used. To help out these districts that are asking us for support. Why do we have to go through a long process. You don't have to go through a long process and when you're the legislative appropriate funding. You can make a motion right now. >> It's ridiculous. And we're talking about $80,000. So I wasn't I wasn't going to do this. This is supposed to be an easy one. But we have people we have people who wrote to us we have someone who showed up to speak one of my colleagues spoke very eloquently about these needs. So I'll make a motion to allocate $80,000 for $20,000 to go to each of the 4 Main Street districts for fiscal year 2026. To be taken from within the economic development budget. >> MISTER Chair can I ask a point of Tom. And make a recommendation to that might simplify. You councilmember you're certainly within discretion to do that for simplification purposes it might be better to have maybe a separate resolution to appropriate resources from the general fund contingency in fy 26. That's just a suggestion that might simplify the way you describe that would require us to go back and change the ordinance and then bring the ordinance back from comes to. Well, I was just I was just dared to do it. And you know what would simplify this even more is if you just said you will do it. That's the simplest way to handle this. We've made our route recommendation councilmember. This is where the recommended that you not support. The main Street district any more than what we already have in the budget. >> CHAIRMAN Just from a logistics standpoint in terms of what Tom was saying I would recommend the it's up to you how you want to go about that my recommendation is not related to that however if the ordinance itself is going to change with these numbers. I would recommend that we take a recess if that's the will of Council because we need to be more precise and tenant ordinances now since it's not just the resolution we need to make sure that we're looking at the right line items that you see the numbers in front of you that would for an ordinance especially of this nature we would just need a minute to confer with administration and then make sure Council is seeing a red lin