I misspoke about the meeting prior to the workshop about the agenda. That is this coming Thursday. Regardless, as I suspected, two items were continued until December 21st under staff reports—the discussion about entertainment districts and the discussion about Planned Developments. Overall it was a productive workshop day.
Budget Analyst
Council member Clendenin presented a draft job description that used language very similar to that used by San Diego. I was a little confused by the comments from Council member Henderson as my recollection was she voted (I thought it was unanimous but am too lazy to check) to approve the budget item for $160,000. Seems that would have been the time, or any time over the following two weeks of discussion about where to make cuts to the budget to clarify any questions about it.
There seem to be a solid 4 votes to approve the language for the job description (Maniscalco seemed tight lipped on the topic and Miranda was all over the place) and start the hiring process. Clendenin will coordinate with HR and legal to finalize the language and bring it back on December 21st.
If there is a person in place before June 1 I will be surprised. Best case April 1. Either way, it’s going to take them a while to be fully up to speed while doing what they can day to day to assist Council. While I anticipate their presence to help the 2025 budget process, the real benefit is going to come with the 2026 budget and beyond.
Contract Admin
As I mentioned last week in the look ahead, this presentation was meant to be a good thing on how the city, with the new director has identified areas we could improve as well as solutions. Unfortunately it devolved because as Council member Henderson made clear, any criticism of how the East Tampa Rec Center grew into a $41 million dollar project will be met with a robust defense. Never mind if City Council didn’t actually appropriate $41 for the project—because she’s determined it is the best way the city could invest that much money in East Tampa parks—expect a fight if you are critical.
The proposed changes in process and mind set on how the city utilizes the private sector should have been the focus and are much welcomed. And needed as the budget comes under more and more scrutiny.
Capitol Improvement Project Updates
When I reviewed this item, it had the last update as a placeholder. The projects that were selected for this update included The West River District, South Howard Flood Relief Project and relocation of Solid Waste.
The first project, The West River District multi-modal network and safety improvements (that’s a mouthful) with its $51M price tag didn’t go over well at all. The problem is, and this is where the budget analyst will help, Council hasn’t approved $51M for this project, they did approve $31M for this fiscal year. But keeping track of that kind of stuff has proved difficult for council members. Understanding funding sources is another thing.
The Seminole Heights stormwater project has been a boondoggle and while everyone hopes that lessons have been learned, I am definitely not looking forward to the calvary of businesses and residents at Council next year. I would remind everyone that this is “flood relief”. Something people have been complaining about in Hyde Park/S Tampa for 30 plus years.
My two cents—the CIP update is a perfunctory but required presentation that reads more like a PR statement. Cherry picking a couple of high profile projects does more harm than it does good until Council does a better job of getting their arms around the budget.
Sexual Predator Housing
The statistics are horrible. These are not guys who were 19 and got caught with a 17 year old, these are child sexual predators. And society has not figured out what to do with them once they serve their prison sentence. But for years, there have been a couple of rooming houses in Ybor they could legally reside.
Legitimate questions about zoning/code of having thirty plus people living in a big house were once again asked. This will be back before Council and I’ll be curious if the outcome is any different.
Promote Housing
I was pleased to see city staff push back against Council on this one. Anecdotal comments from developers about how long it takes to get something through the zoning application process isn’t reality. It was also interesting to hear this is about being up against some short term economic issues.
Updates Land Development Code July 23 Cycle
This was a required step in a process that has been before Council previously, there isn’t anything controversial, and was brief considering the length of the other items.
Tree Canopy Report
I was confused as to why a 2021 report was being presented. My mistake was while I had seen the report, the presentation from the professionals who developed had not been before Council. It was presented to the public at an outreach, but not recorded. I’m glad Council indulged the community and took the time to present it for everyone. If you only watch one item from the workshop, it should be this one. I’ve cued up the YouTube link to the start of the Tampa tree canopy report.
tl;dr “Canopy loss since 2011 is a @ 4x the area of Davis Islands.”
Leave a Reply