Alan Clendenin 9:01:09AM
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Tampa City Council. I would like to call this meeting to order. First order of business, I would like to recognize Councilman Maniscalco for our invocation and the pledge of allegiance.
Guido Maniscalco 9:01:19AM
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's my honor this morning to welcome a gentleman who really needs no introduction because he is one of the best human beings here in the city of Tampa and one of the best speakers, as we've heard him speak many, many times before. The gentleman is Mr. Ron Weaver. A little bit about Mr. weaver, he is a harvard law honors graduate. He founded 155 lawyers statewide. Stearns, Weaver Law Firm. He's chaired over half a dozen chamber committees. Chaired the St. Joseph's Hospital Finance Committee and Bay Care Finance Committee and also has been recognized as a junior league luminary amongst -- it's a short bio, amongst his many, many accomplishments. If we could please stand and Mr. Weaver come on up and please give the invocation. Tampa city council and staff. And every citizens' needs, especially the vulnerable, to life and serenity saving shelter and desperately needed mobility to work and education and meds. Shine 7 million lights again like saturday into restoring refound rule of law, free expression, evenhanded, non-vindictive justice. Please save us from legally dubious militarization of our cities and our high seas. Bring us real lasting peace, not performative transactional peace prized tryouts. Purge our personal and national sins of pride, neglect of poor, racism, division and selfish strife. For compassionate generosity, not generational wealth, not degenerative power, not treacherous flatteries, not betrayals of even-handed rule of law nor suppressing free speech or free elections any longer. We renew the 1800 john adams prayer dedicating the east wing his successor is tearing down in his own image. Lord may never there be any but wise and honest rulers under this roof. Collapsing today, weeping full the potomac, give us genuine submission to your compassionate will, not our own. Not our own. May freedom no longer weep nor justice sleep or weep for her and your ordained judges and their families threatened just for doing their sworn duty. Pierce our conscience to restore our history of our wrongs, lest we repeat them. Restore wisdom, truth, compassion, integrity upon which you founded this nation and can now redeem it with that same wisdom and truth, compassion and integrity. May power, purse, and privilege disguised as patriotism no longer parade lawlessly or unevenly or vindictively. May hillsborough river and the apalachee and the potomac hear again the sweet liberty, irrepressible sounds like the prayer I will pray a second time from 1800 from john adams dedicating the east wing. Lord, may there never be any but wise and honest rulers under this roof, collapsing as we pray, weeping full the potomac. Amen. [pledge of allegiance]
Alan Clendenin 9:05:05AM
Mr. Weaver, I don't have a microphone, but I do have this. [ applause ] wow. I think we could just adjourn now. Clerk, can we have a roll call, please?
Charlie Miranda 9:05:29AM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 9:05:29AM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 9:05:31AM
Here.
Luis Viera 9:05:31AM
Here.
Bill Carlson 9:05:33AM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 9:05:33AM
Here.
The Clerk 9:05:34AM
We have a physical quorum. Good morning. Can we get a motion to adopt the minutes from the regular session of october 9, 2025 and evening session held on october 16, 2025. we have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Okay. We're going to have the agenda review of all agenda reviews this morning. Let me get my head straight. I have to make sure I get all this right. We have a bunch of stuff. Go ahead.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:17AM
Item Number 32 needs to be heard with Item Number 61.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:27AM
I motion to pull 32 to be heard with 61.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:30AM
So moved, I guess.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:32AM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We have a memo from Councilman Bill Carlson requesting 64 be continued to february 26, 2026 workshop. That is the ethics. I have thoughts about that.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:53AM
So do I.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:54AM
I'll be honest --
Martin Shelby 9:06:58AM
Do you want to take this up now at this point or do you want to entertain it at a later point?
Alan Clendenin 9:07:04AM
Well, I think that's why I want to have thoughts and let council make the decision.
Martin Shelby 9:07:08AM
Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:07:10AM
My thought is that we have a redundancy. I understand from the political expediency at the time when it was passed for Tampa to have its own ethics ordinance, but we're already covered by State of Florida statute and constitution. It seems redundant. I would be willing to entertain having this council, so we don't have to worry about being out of compliance with the State of Florida, eliminating this completely and just conforming with state statute. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:07:45AM
I think this can have a discussion that possibly could move it to a workshop. But I think maybe if we had it during that time. And this is the reason why. Because right now, and I talked to Mr. Shelby about this, we have gotten a lot of e-mail. We've gotten a lot of people here who may want to speak about that today. Because it is a first ordinance, because of our rules, they are going to be allowed to speak during this and during public comment if they want to speak on something else today. So I would also, just for me, I would like to hear from the public during item 64 before we make a decision. I think I know what they are going to say, but I think some people are here solely to talk about that. I would like to give them -- but I agree, we should have a discussion about it. I like your idea. The workshop idea isn't bad. I've heard other things. I do believe we should have a discussion about it at that item. I'm not opposed to moving it to something else or doing -- I just think we should talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:08:51AM
Since this is your memo, I'll defer.
Bill Carlson 9:08:54AM
First of all, I think we can continue it. If we continue it, then we give the public, because we have seen from the e-mails, I haven't seen a single e-mail that says we should do this. The problem with this process is that the administration combined some required changes with some aspirational changes of the administration without much notice for the public. And the public needs a chance to weigh in with more than just public comment. And the reason why I suggested moving it to a workshop is because the public may have additional ideas. And this -- I agree with you, Chair Clendenin, this has mostly been used in the last ten years it's been here's as punishment towards City Council and not fairly implemented toward the administration, which is why I also wanted to put a relook at the Ethics Commission in that discussion in february. What I would suggest is we put it -- we make a motion to move it. We still hear from the public today. We hear from the public then, and during that conversation in february we could make a motion to get rid of it altogether or you could make a separate discussion. I think whenever it is, the public needs to be assured even though they are against a couple of pieces of this that the Mayor proposed, they need to be assured that we are following ethical standards and we are holding the administration and council and staff up to the highest standards.
Alan Clendenin 9:10:18AM
My thing, based on my assessment, since this wasn't created, kind of the height of bureaucracy, it's a feel-good thing and hasn't really been effective, so why are we doing something that is not effective? Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 9:10:33AM
We have to hear from the public. I heard everybody else, but this whole citizens need to register as lobbyist thing to speak to us is the most ridiculous thing. If somebody stops me in the Grocery Store, Gas Station, Coffee Shop, hey, when are you going to fix my road, hey, you are the worst person in the world, whatever it is, they have the right to speak to us. Putting this in place -- I had to check with our attorney to ask, am I reading this correctly?
Alan Clendenin 9:10:58AM
I think we'll get unanimous consent on that.
Guido Maniscalco 9:11:02AM
It's like c'mon. Thank you very much.
Luis Viera 9:11:04AM
Just very briefly, a couple of things. I've been approached about this and Ms. Zelman obviously wants to speak on this.
Alan Clendenin 9:11:12AM
Let her have the last word.
Luis Viera 9:11:14AM
Yes, sir. Thank you. What I've told people is, listen, my understanding of this, I'm very likely going to vote against this and not support this 99%. I always like to hear from people proposing in terms of the rationale of why they are doing this and so forth. That's why I put the 99%. With regards to Ethics Commission, again with the information I have, I wouldn't support getting rid of it. I do think they play a valuable role. I know some of the people who serve on there, legal colleagues who are, frankly, some of the most ethical, decent people with integrity I know who I just would stand behind 100%. They are amazing people. Amazing attorneys, amazing people of ethics. I do think that. Again, I don't want to get into that discussion at this time right now and debate the merits of that. But in terms of this, my initial impression is absolutely not. But, yeah, that's all.
Alan Clendenin 9:12:07AM
Very good. Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 9:12:09AM
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a little bit of feeling of what everyone said regarding this. I think it's a lot of items and to one ordinance. I feel if you come here, you have certainly the right no matter where you live, even outside the City of Tampa to say you don't like something, for or against. I don't think directly this would involve you saying as a citizen, taxpayer of the City of Tampa to tell the Council Members exactly how you feel, whether it's appropriate or not, that's your feeling and you have the same right as we do to express our feelings. We're all in the same city. I think there are things that have to be cleared up. Why is it written this way? It's fine. I don't exactly understand what I think it means and some of the things I read here, means if you come up to testify on something and you know that some friend of yours or you are going to get remunerated or paid to, that is a different story. I don't know if that covers this or not. Needs a little bit of cleaning up. I'm not for or against. I think it needs to be a tune-up before I can vote on it.
Alan Clendenin 9:13:15AM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:13:17AM
Again, my interest is for the public who came here today that knew they would be able to speak on just this item because we allow public comment on first readings. So I would be fine. Again, I'm happy to consider a continuance, but for the people who are here today that want to speak on this I still think -- if we want to move it further up in the agenda so that people can speak before they have to leave, if we want to put this after public comment so that we can then just move forward with it, I would be fine, but I truly believe that the public should be able to speak on both the agenda today, because we have a very full agenda, and on this item. That is what I want to wait for. I have no problem with the continuation of the discussion, but I want to hear from the public who came today to speak on this.
Bill Carlson 9:14:09AM
Considering that at least a hundred percent of the comments I've had are negative against it. Then the question is, what should be in it, if anything, going forward. That to me could be what the public comment is. I'd rather make a motion to continue it and also hear public comment. I agree. But if we can't continue it until then, then I would like to make a motion to hear this after public comment this morning as the next item.
Lynn Hurtak 9:14:36AM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:38AM
Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby 9:14:39AM
Just a reminder, council, if you look at your agenda, you have a closed session.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:44AM
At 11:00.
Martin Shelby 9:14:46AM
That is with a Court Reporter with the clock running, so it is a time certain.
Lynn Hurtak 9:14:51AM
This is after public comment.
Martin Shelby 9:14:53AM
I want to make sure council is aware when 11:00 comes.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:57AM
I think we can accommodate this.
Bill Carlson 9:14:58AM
Not fair to make the public stay until 4:00 to comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:15:04AM
I did have discussions with the Mayor and the staff about the memo sent. There was a misunderstanding, misclarification of the intent of what that memo. The memo misstated the position of the administration and the Mayor. Unfortunate thing it was disseminated.
Bill Carlson 9:15:26AM
The genesis of this is when the Mayor's office and Legal Department before this City Attorney went after three or four City Council members. The Mayor had a press conference to talk about ethics in the city, when the Mayor's office was not held to the same standard. There is a lot of discussion about this. The way the Public sees this is not only prohibiting the Public from being able to communicate with the City Council, but also to be punitive toward City Council by enabling in effect the Mayor and the lobbyist who are lobbying her to look at all the calls between City Council and constituents. We can talk about the merits of it later, but it was -- my point is the origination of this is not for benign purposes. There is a whole history on this. They have taken out some of the most offensive things they tried to put in earlier, but we ought to look at it as what it is and make sure that we have a full public hearing which I'm sure the administration doesn't want. If it's in a workshop in february, the public is going to weigh in on their thoughts about ethics for City Council and the Mayor's office. That's not what they want. They want it to be narrowly defined toward City Council.
Alan Clendenin 9:16:40AM
I'd like to now hear from our city attorney Andrea Zelman.
Andrea Zelman 9:16:44AM
I'll try to be brief. Speaking of unforced errors, the Legal Department caused a lot of what the controversy that's swirling today, and that's around one piece of this long ordinance, which is the language about calling people who are lobbying but not for compensation, lobbyists. Again in 2022, the Mayor asked the Ethics Commission to look at the definition of lobbyist and whether it made sense to distinguish between compensated, not compensated. The intent was never to stop people from being able to talk to council members, talk to decision makers at the city. What the intent was at the time because there were a lot of things swirling. There were also a lot of complaints about lobbyists wandering the halls of City Council. People that were lobbying -- true lobbyists who were not registering as lobbyists. The intent was to create more transparency. That was one thing that was looked at. It got lost in translation. These recommendations of the Ethics Commission, which did recommend this change, were brought to you in 2023. there was a lot of discussion then, including by Councilman Carlson and Stephanie Poynor. It was continued to february 24 hearing, then pulled from the agenda. So the mistake the Legal Department made was twofold. One was we put that into the -- we put the recommendations of the 2022 Ethics Commission into this ordinance along with other changes that need to be made to bring our code consistent with state statute. And didn't go back and talk to the Mayor about, do you still want to go forward with all the changes, that is our fault. Again, it's not -- the intent was never to create barriers between the public and the decision makers in the City. So I'm asking to you kind of unravel it. What I would suggest to the motion, I mean, to your motion you're making, Councilman Carlson, is continue the broader discussion of the Ethics Commission and the issues that councilman -- Chairman clendenin made and all that to february. But I would ask that you also direct the legal department to bring back a clean ordinance that just focuses on those changes we have to make to bring our ethics code back into compliance with state statute because we have several items, and megan is here and can tell you which ones that we really need to bring our ethics code up to code, if you will. There have been changes made in the state statutes. A change made in the florida constitution several years ago that our ethics code doesn't reflect. So allow us to do that and continue the rest of the discussion, that's fine. Again, unforced error on our part and I apologize for that.
Alan Clendenin 9:19:45AM
Wouldn't this be self-resolved in february, we came to a conclusion, having our own -- when the State of Florida already covers ethics of elected officials.
Lynn Hurtak 9:19:56AM
It is not the time for this discussion. Sorry, point of order. We're going to talk about this after public comment. I believe that is the time for the conversation.
Alan Clendenin 9:20:05AM
Public comment, we're not -- we're going to let the Public talk about it.
Lynn Hurtak 9:20:09AM
Yes, but we'll talk about it afterwards.
Bill Carlson 9:20:12AM
In terms of scheduling, can I ask the City Attorney to council member Hurtak's point, considering that you also agree this needs to be revised, we obviously need to change the first hearing of it, can you just withdraw it as the proposer and then we could still hold public comment on it? How can we still hear public comment on this point? I'm asking the attorney, we'll have regular public comment, but can we continue this or cancel it but still hear public comment?
Alan Clendenin 9:20:49AM
What I would like -- two parts. A motion to continue this item per Councilman Carlson's request to the february 26, 2026 workshop. Then I would like a motion from council to waive the rules to allow public comment on this item after public -- general public comment.
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:10AM
I will disagree because we don't know what we're going to hear from the public, our motion may change.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:16AM
To continue it?
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:17AM
Yes. It might add more things.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:20AM
Are you okay with us moving forward after public comment to deal with the issue after public comment? Motion to waive the rules to address this issue after public comment and then we'll entertain that idea --
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:33AM
We already moved this to after public comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:37AM
We didn't vote.
Bill Carlson 9:21:39AM
Let me make a motion to move this to after public comment.
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:43AM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:44AM
We have a motion to move this item to after public comment. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We'll address this issue after public comment. Wait. There's more. If you saw your e-mails this morning -- Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:22:04AM
I thought you were going to let me go.
Alan Clendenin 9:22:07AM
Go ahead. I sent a memo about 66 and 67. based on the information that came to light over some investigatory calls and discussions over the last few days that I've had with the administration on item 66 and 67, there are issues that had not previously seen the light of day. I believe that it is prudent for this council to continue these items to the january 29, 2026 workshop to be able to gather further information from the administration on the financial status of the account.
Bill Carlson 9:22:57AM
Is that a motion?
Alan Clendenin 9:22:59AM
Yeah, I have a motion to -- well, I mean, I can't make it. Pass the gavel. I'd like to make a motion to continue item 66 and 67 to january 29, 2026 workshop because we already have a Capital Improvements project item and it will give the staff an opportunity to provide this council with individual briefings on what's happening with the Stormwater Fund and the implications this project has on that fund. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:23:30AM
I have the gavel right now. Basically, what I'm going to say is, again, this is the time for us to talk about this. We've all had individual meetings. We need to talk about this before we continue it. I want to hear from some of our staff. I want to hear from the public. I want to talk about this. Also, my motion is to move item 73 before it because it's tangentally related. Item 73, believe it or not, it is the review of the lower peninsula watershed plan project. There is money in that that hasn't been accounted for that might actually being used for this. This is a conversation I want to have. I would like to -- my motion would be to move item 73 before 66 and 67. have a conversation about 66 and 67, and then possibly have that motion. But I want to talk to you all about it. Once we move it, once we continue it, we can't talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:24:28AM
There is a lot of information that I am now privy to.
Lynn Hurtak 9:24:33AM
Yes, so am I. I've been working on this and I want to talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:24:38AM
The problem is Other Council Members have not. That would be why more appropriate to deal with it at a workshop. Everybody comes to the Dais with the same information.
Lynn Hurtak 9:24:47AM
This is the only time we can talk. I want to talk about this. If you move it, I'll talk about it during new business. I'm telling you now we'll talk about it one way or another.
Bill Carlson 9:24:58AM
Why can't we talk about it under 73. move these --
Lynn Hurtak 9:25:02AM
Because it's related. I still want to talk about the merits of 66 and 67 today.
Martin Shelby 9:25:12AM
There is a motion and second on the Floor.
Charlie Miranda 9:25:15AM
Discussion. Today is today, and january 26 is about three months away. I don't know if these figures that I'm looking at are going to hold without anything being brought up to the attention of the contract being extended, how much cost it will cost the Taxpayers. We are all Taxpayers in this room to meet the qualifications of the contract that's been signed. One for 4.132 million. The other one is for three one seven eight million. I don't know the cost of equipment, cost of manpower, cost of delays. That's not ever been discussed that I know of. I want clarity before I vote.
Lynn Hurtak 9:25:59AM
Councilman Viera, you haven't spoken yet.
Luis Viera 9:26:01AM
Yes, Ma'am. Thank you. I would be inclined to support some sort of Continuance. I would think that it may be more proper to vote on this maybe after public comment. I do want to hear from staff because I haven't had the opportunity to speak to them on the effect of a Continuance to january. If it doesn't have a really adverse effect on the project, I would be inclined to support that, but I would want to inquire on that. I would be inclined to support some Continuance and have a discussion. I'm positively inclined. Matter of procedure not substance for me, if that makes sense.
Alan Clendenin 9:26:39AM
I believe John Bennett is here.
Lynn Hurtak 9:26:41AM
Yes. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:26:49AM
As chair Clendenin said, there are a lot of issues that have come to light about budgeting and other things. A big concern is that there are some plans that are embedded in here, which have not been presented to the Public, and if we vote on something that the Public doesn't fully understand, has not had a chance to give feedback to, they may hear or see it for the first time today. For example, the map has changed. If we vote on this today, then it's not giving the Public a chance. The other thing is that 66 now is comingling pipes water money with this project, which I don't know if the bond covenants allow us to do that, but I don't think we should allow it to happen. Also, as I said to staff a couple of days ago, I don't think that the Water Department ought to get blamed for the project because it is so unpopular the Water Department has separate -- what's happened is the map now has the Water Department projects on it, and really has nothing to do with stormwater. The other thing that we know now is that the city has no money for this and approving this project, even $3 million, means that we're going to have to raise the stormwater fee. So I think we needed a full discussion if we need a hundred million dollars and we need to raise the stormwater fee, the Public needs a longer discussion about that. It's not just a $3 million project. That's why I think it should be continued.
Lynn Hurtak 9:28:22AM
That is the whole point. We need to have a discussion about it today. Even if it is brief, be able to get some of the stuff out into the light to talk about it a little bit and then continue it. I don't have a problem with continuations after we have the time to discuss, but we cannot talk about this anywhere else but here on the Dais. I do believe we need the discussion. Can we group them together? Do the motions after?
Bill Carlson 9:28:50AM
Why don't we make a motion to continue these two and then add a discussion of 66 and 67. then we would have already continued the decision on it.
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:04AM
We currently have a motion on the Floor to continue this. Again, we can also continue this after we talk about it.
Bill Carlson 9:29:11AM
Could I propose an amendment to the motion to add a discussion of the contents of 66 and 67 during 73?
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:21AM
I don't think that's appropriate.
Charlie Miranda 9:29:23AM
Some of the City Officials are here. Maybe ask them exactly what the interpretation is.
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:31AM
Item 66 and 67 is. We want to have the discussion, but now is not the time for the discussion. Now is the time for agenda review. I have a motion on the Floor. We'll go ahead -- I think we'll need a roll call vote for this. We have a motion to continue this to january, 66 and 67.
Alan Clendenin 9:29:51AM
January 29, 2026 workshop. Just so you know, during new business, clarification from the City Staff to what I'm expecting.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:02AM
Full-on discussion during new business. If this goes, I still have a lot to talk about. There is a motion by chair Clendenin. Second by council member Carlson. Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 9:30:15AM
Again, I want to be clear on my vote, I would be inclined to support this, but I want to first talk to staff publicly about some issues. Inquire on the length of the continuance and what if any effect this would have on the project. That's my -- I would support the motion if it came after. I'm supportive but I want to first ask that question.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:39AM
Roll call.
Charlie Miranda 9:30:40AM
No.
Guido Maniscalco 9:30:42AM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:43AM
No.
Luis Viera 9:30:47AM
With that qualification, no.
Bill Carlson 9:30:51AM
Yes.
Alan Clendenin 9:30:53AM
Yes.
The Clerk 9:30:57AM
Motion failed due to lack of majority vote. It is a tied vote.
Luis Viera 9:31:06AM
I don't want to litigate this issue in opening, but if staff tells me that this does not adversely affect the project, I would be willing to support that.
Lynn Hurtak 9:31:18AM
Now is not the time for that discussion.
Luis Viera 9:31:20AM
I want to be clear, this will likely be moved to address the pivotal concerns, but, yeah.
Alan Clendenin 9:31:26AM
We can have that discussion during the agenda item which will be on the agenda. The motion failed, so we continue.
Lynn Hurtak 9:31:38AM
Can I make a motion to move 73? I want to move 73 to before 66 and 67.
Alan Clendenin 9:31:45AM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak to move 73 to be heard before 66 and 67. second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? The Ayes have it. Anything else on the agenda -- I think that was enough. We do not have administrative update, unless that changed. Staff reports. Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby 9:32:18AM
We can take care of some things after you do staff reports.
Alan Clendenin 9:32:21AM
I do have one more thing. The public hearing number 63 was misnoticed and cannot be heard. I need a motion to reschedule the public hearing to december 4, 2025 1:30 p.m. motion from Miranda, second from Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:32:48AM
I could say this later during consent, but I would like a separate vote on 2 and 32.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:14AM
We'll be pulling that together. Anything else before we move on to staff reports? 66.
Lynn Hurtak 9:33:28AM
68 I have to read aloud.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:31AM
That was already done. 69.
Luis Viera 9:33:35AM
Yes, Person here.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:40AM
Brandon is going to be here for 70, so yes. 71 is Streetcar. We have a memorandum. Anybody need staff? No staff for 71. Brandon, you are off the hook. Brandon is going to be here for 72, yes. We already talked about 73.
Luis Viera 9:34:04AM
74, yes, please.
Lynn Hurtak 9:34:09AM
75 yes.
Alan Clendenin 9:34:10AM
It's going to be a fun day.
Guido Maniscalco 9:34:12AM
Receive and file 76 --
Alan Clendenin 9:34:15AM
Motion to receive and file 76, 77, 78, 79 from Councilman Maniscalco.
Bill Carlson 9:34:23AM
After the second, I want to make a comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:34:25AM
Second from council member Miranda. All in favor, aye. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:34:36AM
In regard to 78, a memo from Chief Bercaw which probably was written by the administration, but it kind of is the middle finger to the public and the City Council saying if we want to use stormwater money on parades, we will use it anyway. They go back to use the security and safety excuse, which they have used before. That's not acceptable. New business, if nobody else, I'll make a motion to create an ordinance to prohibit the administration from using stormwater dollars on parades. It is a disgusting misuse of money.
Lynn Hurtak 9:35:11AM
I was going to talk about the same thing. I do believe we should talk about it during new business. The public has been very clear they don't want stormwater funds to be spent on parades.
Alan Clendenin 9:35:25AM
One more thing to add to the agenda. I invited a special guest, Robert Hendrickson, who is a facilitator, for you all to meet. I'd like to place that on the agenda -- approximately 2:15ish. Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Just to place it on the agenda.
Martin Shelby 9:35:53AM
That might be an appropriate time to talk about the item, if you can. If it fits your subject in the course of business.
Alan Clendenin 9:36:00AM
We'll play that in real time. A motion to waive the rules to accommodate that, if it works out. Anything else before we move on? Motion to approve the agenda? Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:36:19AM
I just wanted as Mr. Shelby often reads the rules for public comment, I want to clarify and let People know what we've decided is, if you want to speak on the ethics, you will have a second opportunity to do so, unless you want to take the rest of your public comment time to talk about it. Perfectly clear for People. They can speak twice.
Alan Clendenin 9:36:46AM
Are we ready? Item 1, we have a resolution -- public comment. You're right. Never mind. Mr. Shelby. I thought we would do board appointment first.
Martin Shelby 9:37:03AM
City Council attorney. Briefly, ladies and gentlemen, to discuss the rules of decorum for today's meeting, if you wish to speak during general public comment, you should have filled out a speaker card and placed it in the box outside the room. One card per speaker. The cards are accepted until had the start of public comment. Each person submitting a card will be recognized by name. Do approach and speak, three minute time limit applies. Print legibly. Names that cannot be read will not be called. Here to speak on something listed as a public hearing, then use the sign-in sheet instead. That is listed on the agenda as a public hearing. The time to speak at that will be when the item is called up by the Chair for the public hearing. As Councilwoman Hurtak mentioned, the item for first reading on the ethics code is going to be moved up to after public comment. Per council's rules, you have the opportunity to speak at first reading on public comment. And the way things are going to work out, you'll have three minutes to speak on other items and use your three minutes to speak on public comment on the ethics public hearing, if that's your choice. Wish to speak on all items at the same time, you can do that during general public comment. It is your option as to when to speak to the ethics code. Now, members of the public are also reminded to please refrain from disruptive behavior, including making vulgar or threatening remarks or making or causing disruptive noises or sounds or displaying signs and graphics. The Chair will rule out of order any person who speaks without being recognized or attempts to address the City Council from outside the speaker area at the podium. Persons failing to comply with the council rules may also be ruled out of order and at the discretion of the Chair may be removed from the chamber for the remainder of today's meeting. Finally, City Council members should refrain from engaging a speaker during public comment and the public should be aware that city council does not take questions or have a dialogue during general public comment. This is your opportunity to express your position to the City Council. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:39:15AM
Thank you, Mr. shelby. Good morning, everybody. We are going to start this morning, we have one online person for public comment. Michael Randolph. Good morning. My name is Michael Randolph. Today I want to talk about improving tools to reduce displacement. This is part of a more comprehensive report that I put together with my friend a.I. It's been titled CRA -- in Tampa. The Community Reinvestment Act has long directed to underserved areas. But in Tampa, as reinvestment accelerates some of the housing costs. Safeguards for revitalization, it becomes exclusion. Nearly 40% of residents are rent burden. Historic black and latino neighborhoods like west Tampa, Ybor City and east Tampa are being transformed. The CRA from compliance to equity. Compliance is not enough. CRA must evolve into a -- not a regulatory checklist which we do now, but into a proactive tool of shared values. To do that, Tampa has to align with the CRA with anti-displacement. CRA backed investment should evaluate the impacts of housing equality and cultural continuance. Incentive affordable housing. Embody community benefit agreement. The CRA projects should include enforcement, commitment to local, tenant protection and cultural reparation. Financial institutions can fund and use complete incentive for -- the opportunity. The CRA is a powerful tool. Anti-displacement goals, Tampa can protect the community and -- next week I will be talking about how to use the opportunity zone and also the community impact statement to supplement and reduce displacement. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:42:32AM
Thank you, Mr. randolph. In-person public comment. First speaker is Elizabeth. [microphone not on] good morning. Elizabeth Dinwiddie. Also known by my married name.
Alan Clendenin 9:43:22AM
Mr. Michelini, please. Okay. Go ahead.
Alan Clendenin 9:43:32AM
Yes. I heard him again. Am I starting over? My name is Elizabeth Dinwiddie, also known as Liz Acardio. I think this is sad. Hundreds of people were flooded in Palma Ceia Pines and Parkland Estates. The fact that the City will not prioritize the safety of its people and you're making this about money is really disturbing. I'm very disillusioned with The City I'm living in. I thought this was a family city. I raised my kids here. I don't know where I'm living right now because the fact that you will make this about money is very sad. It's just so sad. There is money in our budget. If we can afford the beautification of river walks and things like that, which I love. I love the riverwalk, but what are you telling people who visit Tampa. Should you put a flyer in every rental car that says, come, enjoy the beautiful riverwalk but don't drive down azeele and swann when it's raining. Because you may flood in your rental car. Is that what we're telling our tourists? That it's okay to have stormwater, like a lake around a rental car? What if it is a tesla? Do you care about the safety of your people? I don't feel that you do. I feel that you like establishing. That's what I think. I think you lake establishing. This is real. My neighbor next to me was pregnant when her home flooded. I watched her crying in front of her house. This type of stress, you risk a miscarriage. What are you guys doing up here? What are you doing? Because you're not protecting your people. Your City engineers are telling you this needs to happen. Your City engineers, but you want to listen to businesses who are worried about a lot of income while the project goes on. Why is road work on howard avenue not normal? Road work is normal. I drive all around this city and I am detoured all the time because of the city's expansion. It is normal, but you've forgotten who owns Howard Avenue. We own Howard Avenue. The City of tampa owns howard avenue. The City of tampa owns howard avenue. It is not a private street. Those businesses don't own howard. You do not have to ask them permission to do an emergency public safety project. This is an emergency. You are losing sight.
Alan Clendenin 9:46:41AM
Thank you, Elizabeth. Appreciate it. Pam Cannella followed by Tina Adams. I want to address the letter from Mayor Jane Castor to City Council. I want to set the story straight on Stormwater. Number one, I have been addressing the Stormwater cleaning and maintenance of San Rafael Retention Pond and Palmira Ditch since 2015. I believe that is a decade. Other neighborhoods have shared the same problem. Neglect is the correct word to use. Number two, it has never been said that the fault was in the In-house Crew, but with Management. With no manpower, broken or lack of equipment and pulled to do other work such as events, and even with constant calls and e-mails, Management would not always address Stormwater requests for cleaning. Number three, it was not until City Council public hearing that this Stormwater problem was addressed by me and others sharing the same problem. Number four, Stormwater cleaning was not all hands effort until after may of this year. Even after City Council allocated funds to hire contractors to help, we were already in the rain and hurricane season. Lucky we didn't have any, as Tampa was not prepared for this year. Cleaning and maintenance was not a priority. In-house crews were working on sidewalk and road cave-ins per Ms. Lee, our city engineer. Number five, yes, Capital Improvements do fix some problems but not the howard project relief, as it is presented. It does not address the flood area of Palma Ceia Pines and the Hospital Area that requires a pump to prevent flooding per vulnerability assessment report by the city. Our existing Stormwater drainage system does work if it's cleaned. Our neighborhood depends on it. And even new projects need cleaning and maintenance. Number 6, some neighborhood residents took it upon themselves to address the In-house Crew in a negative way. They lost their homes. Devastated by last year's storm and feared this year's storm. They wanted their storm drain system cleaned, but there were other residents that went out and supported these crews by giving them water and food as they worked in the hot sun without umbrellas because The City didn't provide it. Now for the stormwater maintenance report, in my opinion, it is ambiguous. Under pond maintenance, mowing is considered maintenance by city council. Excuse me. City management. Only some contractors pick up plastic and debris sometimes, not monthly. Grass clippings and leafs still go into our stormwater by the contractors. Number two, road cave-in repairs are not always repaired. They are only filled to come back later. I'm not finished, but I'll leave.
Alan Clendenin 9:50:16AM
Tina Adams followed by -- [inaudible] my name is Tina Adams. I'm here to voice my support for the South Howard flood project. I don't understand exactly the motions that were continued today. I thought they were additions to the original project to support the Businesses on South Howard to help them have access, and that's -- I want to support the Businesses. Just like I want them to support us, the homeowners that were devastated last year, I want to say thank you for funding the design of this project and thank you for funding the maintenance of the stormwater system. However, maintaining an inadequate, outdated stormwater system will never be enough. We have cave-ins on all the roads, as you know, because I know you are a proponent of paving the roads. Putting patches isn't working. Just like was said before. The problem is under the streets and the only way to fix it is to dig it up. It will be a disruption. It will be hard. But big problems require big solutions, and this is a big problem. 250 to 300 homes is, I think, a low estimate because the City, from what I understood, calculated that by going around and counting the debris piles outside houses. I happen to know for a fact that there were some people that couldn't emotionally handle it or physically or financially and waited till later to do it. So I think that is a low estimate. Just like was said before, you have a duty, a duty to protect and serve your families. Without the families, the Businesses won't survive. I want to support the Businesses. I want to support the families, too, though. And there should be a way to do it together. You've done it in Hyde Park. You learned from problems in Seminole Heights and did it better the next time. Put those good works to use, that good knowledge. The parkland civic club came out with a statement of unequivocal support for this project in april of 2025 they sent you a letter. Please support this project. Please let it move forward. Don't let it get more expensive. Delays cost money. There's no way around that. Believe me, I'm buying furniture. I know it costs a lot more money to delay. It has been a long, hard year. Please don't -- this much needed project. It will only get more expensive. I talked to one of the engineers and he said it was unconscionable not to do this project. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:53:36AM
Tarah Bluma followed by carroll ann bennett. Tarah Bluma. The first thing I want to talk about is the ferris wheel. It costs $120 for my family of four to go to the Aquarium, one time, for the day. The ferris wheel for my family of four will be around $130. So the argument that families, citizens of Tampa who, by the way, already subsidizing the Aquarium with their tax dollars have that much money to go and spend in one day out on the town with their family, and I have a small family, is unrealistic and unaffordable for most families. Then you are left to wonder who else will be going on the ferris wheel? Well, there are the tourists and people coming off the cruise ships. The Cruise Lines that we have in Tampa are more budget friendly Cruise Lines and I don't know that those families have an additional 120 to 200 dollars to go and spend on the ferris wheel. Even if everyone loves the ferris wheel idea, what are they -- it's not like they are going on this more than a couple of times ever, and you're committing this land for the next 25 years. There's no way you can stand up there with a straight face and say that a ferris wheel is the highest and best use of that land for the next 25 years. Not to mention the fact that every single mom I have spoken to want the splash pads back and they want to be able to park at the Aquarium. These are the people that actually go. Every single one of them said this is a dumb idea. I don't know who is supporting this or what would make you vote for it. But I haven't met anybody that actually is going to go and spend money on this maybe more than one time. Next, on the changes with grand oaks and the trees just briefly, it states that you need an arborist report. I just want to remind everyone that the state of florida does not have a certified arborist license. The closest certification get is isa. The language in the ordinance, though, does not state that it needs to be isa certified arborist. Just says arborist. Anybody can claim to be an arborist in the State of Florida. Thank you for postponing the stormwater project. How are you paying for this project? We don't have the money, and our debt capacity with the stormwater improvement assessment is already two-thirds of the way gone. How many people is this going to help? For a hundred million dollars, if we're going to help maybe 200 people, you can write each of them a check for half a million dollars, build a park there, and call it a day. This is an irresponsible use of money.
Alan Clendenin 9:56:44AM
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Martin Shelby 9:56:46AM
Just a reminder, council, Members of the Public, Number 61 regarding the Tampa Bay wheel is set for a public hearing. It is a legislative matter.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:01AM
If they speak now --
Martin Shelby 9:57:04AM
Normally, ideally, in an ideal world, they would speak at the Public hearing. But because it is a legislative matter, I did not interrupt her. I want to let the public know it is set for 10:30. At some point after 10:30, item 61 is set on your agenda as a public hearing.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:20AM
That doesn't preclude them from the opportunity to speak during public comment in lieu of speaking during the item.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:32AM
If it's not a. We will not accept public comment for items set for a public hearing. Carroll Ann Bennett followed by Stephen Michelini. Carroll Ann Bennett. I went to two public meetings about the south howard project. One at the church and one at the Garden Club. I got to say those meetings, especially the one at the Garden Club, the one at the Garden Club was an embarrassment. One of the most horrible meetings I've been to, which is saying a lot. One of the things that was said by Mr. Bhide at the Church was that water doesn't like to turn. That the best route to send water is in a straight line. Every time you make a turn, you reduce the efficacy of the plan. I have asked in writing and in person, over and over again, why aren't we going straight down swann to the bay? No one has ever answered that question. No one has ever said this is why that's not on the table. I think we need -- we absolutely have to have a flood relief project, but it has to work. That is the most important thing, is it needs to be a plan that will work. My concern is that the plan that -- the multiple plans that have been proposed, the ones most being encouraged might not work. And if they don't, many years from now, when we find out the hard way that they didn't work, the money is not going to be there. The will is not going to be there to go back and spend more money on it. We have to make sure we have the right plan. As hard as I have tried, I cannot get answers to my questions. Cannot get the information to feel like, yes, this is a good plan and will do the job. Davis Islands, Forest Hills, Westshore Area, Port Tampa, all those places flooded horribly. People on davis island, I have a friend who said the water didn't roll in from the bay, rise and then roll into the neighborhood and flood homes. It came up through the stormwater drains. He stood and watched it come up through the stormwater drains. I understand there are things that can be put in the drains to prevent that from happening. That needs to be done in areas like davis islands and some of the areas along westshore. We need to look at the flooding problems throughout the city and come up with plans that will work and we need to find the money to pay for them. Councilman viera said shortly after forest hills flooded, that finding the money for pump stations and the different things we need is a priority. He said maybe the time has come to do something about the channelside and downtown cra so that more of that money goes into the general fund so it can be used for these things. I agreed with councilman viera 100%. I think that there are things that can be done with those two cras to get more money into the General Fund, put every penny of it towards stormwater. I absolutely believe we need something in those areas of Palma Ceia pines and south howard. But we need something that's going to actually do the job. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:00:44AM
[inaudible] Steve Michelini. We've had a lot of discussion about South Howard. And we seem to be comingling water projects with stormwater projects. It doesn't really make any sense. We don't really have the money to do this. We're in favor of a solution or many solutions but it's really starting with maintenance. We have already seen this year that with maintenance, we have made a tremendous impact on deferring and addressing some of the stormwater issues. When this project started, this was almost three years ago. There was a discussion at a meeting with us with the South Howard Group, and that discussion was, we're going to do one lane. Only do one lane and keep one lane open and then it grew. And it kept changing. Now it is the whole street. So survival is not even possible. Talk about, well, we'll do it in sections. It's not just one section. It's two sections ahead, two sections behind and the section they are working on. Simply is not tenable. We're working and would like to see solutions, real solutions, and not one that costs a hundred million dollars and addresses three inches of rain. It simply is not cost-effective. Then when you look at your own analysis that your staff has put together, the money is not there. So what are you going to do? When we start talking about the devastation, we're not talking about survivability of one business or two businesses. We're talking about a whole string of businesses from Swann all the way to the Bayshore. It can't happen. It's not a matter of not protecting the neighborhoods. The Jmt report said build a pump station and a retention pond inside Parkland Estates. They skipped right over that and they picked up and said, well, we don't want to do pumps. When Pam Cannella went out and started looking and talking to some of the engineers, they told her, this pump doesn't work. It hasn't worked. We're not going to repair that. We'll bypass it and put in a different system. It's time to stop bypassing the existing systems, fix them and make them work. Do the maintenance. Interconnect these retention ponds, fix the drainage system before you start spending a hundred million dollars on a project that simply is untenable. Start looking at the other areas, as carroll ann bennett just pointed out. No one has talked about palmetto beach which was devastated. When have you talked about forest hills? When have you talked about the other areas that were experiencing dramatic flooding that is constant? It's been going on for more than 40 years. It doesn't happen just one time. The flooding that resulted here was not from storm surge, except for davis island and the bayshore. It happened because of rainwater. You do not have a system that has the capacity to deal with that. Fix the system.
Alan Clendenin 10:03:53AM
Thank you, Mr. Michelini. Stephanie Poynor followed by Alison Hewitt. My apologies. I was in the bathroom. Number 9, Tree Farm. I want to get in on some of the Nelson Tree Farm money. They get money all the time from us. The contract says we will deliver -- they will deliver and install for the price that's in the contract. But then on page 48 or 49, I couldn't get in my computer, it says that we're going to pay an hourly rate to deliver and install it. Which is it? Is it free install or not? Number 21, Hanna Street. 161,000 square feet with five-story garage. I've never, ever been there, the first floor wasn't full. It was actually full, five-story garage, and the 161,000 square feet, I'd like to know how much of it is being utilized. Number 31, Small Piece of Land. The last time I checked that is not a Technical Term. We should be talking about square footage for that small piece of land. We want to make sure that it goes back into that community where they say that the money is going to go. I'm still looking for my $2 million for the Gandy Bridge Park. Number 32, I'll skip that for now. Number 72, the memo just straight up makes the Mayor look like she lied to me. Because on the day she presented the budget, she told me they weren't going to use Stormwater Folks for the parades anymore. That's between me and her. We'll have that conversation again later. That's what she told me that day. I memorialized it with my public comment that day. It's really sad that somebody is making it look like she lied to me. Number 74, the Recovery Fund. I'd like to know what gifts were given by Zip code, because I want to make sure that the money that was redistributed by zip code is appropriate for where the damage was done by zip code. I would also like to point out that Ms. McLane Evans, she said the stormwater c.I.p. Funds have to be proven to benefit the most people. The most people. I'm really not seeing that. I'm seeing a few people coming up here who were devastated. Yes, they were devastated. Is it my fault as a citizen, am I expected to pay for them not buying flood insurance? I live on a peninsula. I live on a dead end. I live in a flood zone, but I have flood insurance. Why? Because who doesn't? The City cannot pay for other people's rolling the dice and they lost. I'm sorry. It's just not fair. Carroll ann bennett is absolutely correct. That meeting at the garden club for the Howard Avenue project was the biggest joke I've been to. Never seen such chaos in my life. The one at the church fared better, but honestly, those people got up there and said we don't know that this will cure the problem. We don't know that this is going to cure the problem. Wait a minute, why are we spending -- throwing 60, 70, 80, I don't even know, why are we spending all that money.
Alan Clendenin 10:07:15AM
Alison Hewitt followed by Robin Lockett. Alison Hewitt. Start at 32, but that's now just at the workshop. So I will go down to 69. we have a formal creation of Office of Returning Citizens. Talking to people in the community who are active in this realm and also the disappointment with the Reconciliation Commission. I just want to know where is the report on that? It wasn't online. Update. Who are they speaking to? Because I know that there are several organizations who are active who have been speaking to councilmen, but they have not really been reached out by staff. I also want to make sure that when they do move forward, they coordinate with number 44, the office for Hillsborough County Entrepreneurial Collaborative, even though it says in the report you're working on job training and certifications, I want to make sure that entrepreneurship is also one of the things that you consider as far as this program that you are creating. Also say thank you for putting it on a workshop. There are folks who have asked me, you go up and you speak to City Council and who you are working for. We don't have you registered as a lobbyist. I come here because I am active in my community. I care about my community. I need to be able to come and talk. I know specifics. I know how to research details, but I don't do that for a fee. To be able to have to have me register is quite offensive for the people who really take the time out of their day, out of their work to make sure that they are protecting and representing the community. Thank you for continuing that for additional conversation.
Alan Clendenin 10:09:12AM
Also, good job on cra explanation online. Really, really well written. Robin Lockett followed by Connie Burton. Robin Lockett. Just a brief statement. Of course, regarding the Yellow Jackets. I would like for council to consider making a motion to have a budget amendment brought forward to reallocate capital budget dollars into fiscal year 26 to support the design portion of the Yellow Jackets field enhancement project. Want to make sure that when this is all over that money is designated and the project is able -- whether you guys are here or not. I really want to make sure that that money is there to continue, hopefully for those of you running for reelection, get elected. Continues after you. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:10:08AM
Thank you, Robin. Connie Burton, followed by mentesnot. Connie burton. Enslavement of african people occurred around 1619, 305 years later, born this great author in 1924, he died in 1987. to this date, 38 years later, what James Baldwin said, and I quote, to be a negro in this country and be relatively conscious is to be enraged almost all the time. It is so true. Because when I look at this agenda this morning, I'm trying to figure out how do people that were forced into labor to build such, even this City and we end up with relatively nothing. Item number 1, if you approve this person to the board, what has been their work as it relates to housing, around fair housing and ensuring that people that live in those communities or once lived in those communities is reaching the maximum benefit? Item number 32, you're going to talk about it, but the quickness and the way this is moving along. But we see item number 10 through 13 where the City is owning property inside the African Community and hold on to it, only to be returned back to Developers, Nonprofits and then folks in that community still cannot buy houses. People in our communities now, the cheapest house you can buy almost in East Tampa is a quarter of a million dollars. Item number 69, when you talk about an office of returning citizens, we don't need an office. We need action. We've been needing action. For every project the City has worked on, whether it has been stormwater, drainage, parking, whatever, there are ways in which returning citizens could have been brought on board without the -- having an office to say we are actually doing the work. As you heard in a rush to shut down the Racial Reconciliation Committee, it is so hypocritical for those now watching this nation almost drive over the cliff, where you are fighting to hold on to your democracy, those of us that were born in part of the ancestry of 1619, we are watching to see what you will do to save it.
Alan Clendenin 10:13:01AM
Thank you, connie. Mentesnot followed by Pastor Williams. Uhuru. Tampa, florida. Want to say, if you live on Bayshore Boulevard, 20 days out of the year you have to ask the police to come to your home because it is flooding. If you live in south Tampa, about 30 days out of the year you have to be detoured in order to get to your home. And when it starts raining, you have to start praying. When it starts raining, you have to start praying. But I want to speak today on the invocation. And the invocation that was given today was the most eloquent invocation I've ever heard in the history of my life. [ applause ] [ sounding gavel ] and who was the invocation talking about? They say we're not allowed to talk about identify City Council members personally or anything of that nature, but the invocation was actually talking about someone right here. They wasn't talking about Donald Trump. The invocation was talking about the person who had me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. The person who had me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. That's who the invocation was talking about. 7 million people that came out this saturday, last saturday on no kings day was talking about the king that sits right here in Tampa City Council. Because in the history of the united states, since 1779, no one has ever been arrested for wearing a t-shirt on public property. No one. It was a first. So what I like to say with that is, that's called a n-er charge, that's what it is. [ sounding gavel ]
Alan Clendenin 10:14:47AM
Mr. Daniels, you're out of order. And for that reason, there are other charges very similar to that. Trespass. Trespass after warning, resisting arrest. Resisting arrest with violence. Loitering. Conspiracy. Possession with intent to sale. Possession with intent to distribute. Violation of probation. Driving while black. Walking while black. Shopping while black. Riding a bicycle while black. Windows tinted too dark. I smell smoke. Why are you acting suspicious? You fit the description in a high drug area, high crime area. They are all n charges. Nothing more, nothing less. Let me tell you how n charges manifest themselves. You know why -- Aubrey Pierce and Elvis Pickert. We know him as puff in the hood. Two africans been arrested. Keith O'Connor, John Bennett, and all the people at the Sheriff's Department, they ain't seen Orient Road Jail. They ain't seen it. They are all white. But the two black people had to see Orient Road Jail. They are end charges. The person responsible for that, people responsible for that, some of them sitting right here in the City Council.
Alan Clendenin 10:16:15AM
Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Good morning, Pastor Williams. Followed by Ashley Morrow. I don't get much recognition, but I want to thank you all, especially, I can't call no name. Thank you for all of you. Give me the cross and everything. I want to give one of your flyers to the City Staff. They say Legal. I've been complaining about I don't get no water. None of you all come out to check and see what's going on. Now they have a woman there by the name of b. B came out there and walked through my home. Took all the stuff out of my yard. The water is on but ain't no water coming through. I would like for all of you all to come over to 3006 East Shadow Lawn. I want you see the meter for yourself. The meter is spinning like hell but no water coming through. Lady that used to work for you all. She need to come over there, send somebody over there, check my water out. Please. Take this address down, 3006 East Shadow Lawn. I show you all for yourself. Exactly what's going on. I crawl up under the house trying to find a water leak. Can't find none. Yet they are cutting my water off. Only way to cut it back on, I have to pay a certain amount of money. They want me to pay so much money, I might as well move out of my house and go stay in a motel somewhere. We have to understand, we are citizens of the United States are not treated fairly. I would come in when Frank Reddick was here. Mr. Williams, you can talk about anything you want but you've got three minutes to talk about it. I took my time and talked three minutes. My time is up quick.
Alan Clendenin 10:19:45AM
Thank you, Pastor. I want to give him a flyer.
Alan Clendenin 10:19:54AM
She's got it. Good morning, ashley. We look forward to this every week. My name is Ashley Morrow. I will be sharing Tampa's black history. All real estate located within the county as late as 1861 amounted in assessed value to $108,402. Slave value almost doubled that figure at 235,000. Given that about a quarter of all wealth within the county thus consists of slaves, many local residents would feel an immediate concern for national politics began to threaten their financial being. So I started to notice in the newspaper articles in the Florida peninsula, a Tampa newspaper, how they kept mentioning slaver boats and things going back and forth between the u.s. And Cuba and Africa. I learned the word, africans that came straight from Africa to the u.s. Or to Cuba. So they mentioned it a few times. I was very curious as to how Tampa is connected to the african slave trade. Here are some articles. This one talks about how it's continuing in New Orleans, even after it had been outlawed in the u.s. In 1808. Tampa founded in 1849, so it missed out on the early stages of that. Founded four years later. Cuba continues until the 1880s. We do see communication between Tampa and Cuba. See a lot of it, absolutely. Slave trade showing in europe they would get goods. Africa, pick up africans and come over to Cuba and get some sugar and tobacco and take it back to europe because sugar was really valuable. There was also a huge cattle industry in Cuba and in Tampa and in Florida. Now, when we talk about the cattle industry, we talk about how it relates to the civil war. The reason already a cattle industry in place, they were trading with Cuba. William B. Hooker, he had a space that he would take his cattle. Cattle king. Also hooker lake or hooker pond that's still here in tampa that's named after him. This is an article advertising james going to punta rassa, a big port to take cattle to cuba. The sugarcane plantations were a lot in cuba. James mcKay, 34th mayor of tampa. He claims that his father in 1858 decided to cut the middle man and go directly to cuba to do trade as far as with cattle. Now, I want you to notice how james mcKay had one enslaved person. By 1857 he had seven. There's no documentation as to where he bought the slaves from or where he enslaved the black people from. However, comma, there were a lot of enslaved people in cuba. Therefore, I believe, there was some slave trade between tampa and cuba. Thank you all so much. I'll be back next week.
Alan Clendenin 10:23:29AM
Thank you. Have a beautiful day. Surgret doss. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 10:23:40AM
Yes. I've been told by One of Our Aides that there are a couple of people who came in afterwards who do want to speak on South Howard. I feel this is such an emotionally charged issue, I'd like to make a motion to allow people who came in late to speak.
Alan Clendenin 10:23:54AM
We have a motion to waive the rules to allow people to register to speak from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Only thing I'd ask for, I won't ask you to fill out a card now, before you leave, if you can fill out a card so we have that for public record.
Lynn Hurtak 10:24:12AM
If maybe One of Our Aides could come out and pass out the cards, that would be great.
Alan Clendenin 10:24:17AM
Surgret, go ahead. I want to speak to the people of Tampa. Veterans and anybody else who wants to listen. I heard you all mention it earlier today, but regarding integrity and ethics, kind of chuckled to hear it, especially in this city. Reminded me last week that when you refuse to call out b.s., you are complicit in your silence and I can't do that. Especially the misconduct I see going on in Tampa, Hillsborough County, State of Florida and see it in the letters I just wrote, and the letters I wrote and distributed to the judges. A few weeks back I gave you all some information also about abuse of power by judges and local people, attorneys -- Lopez and Gassler, a couple of other law firms. These firms, along with State Farm Insurance Company, undermine Veteran Health Care James A. Haley Hospital here in Tampa. Some local Judges act like black folks -- I got to denounce Steven Smith for bringing energy to Jasmine Crockett, like a happily broken buck, but he didn't have the same energy from the white boys in the gop chat. I have a problem with that. At any rate, this council has become a harbinger of public fiduciary misconduct. You kind of invite unethical and even sometimes criminal behavior because you choose comfort over courage. I've got to ask the question, I saw a couple of things in this agenda, what price, if any, do you all take for turning a blind eye when you know people are being violated? As a veteran, I respect authority and people know I took an oath for life. But I do know that my judicial complications aren't because I lack any kind of sufficient legal action. Even if the people don't know, everybody in here knows I really am like that. A lot of people in power hate that I personify what mediocrity fears the most, which is I'm audacious, intelligent, and unapologetic, I have confidence and all infused in melanin. I won't be subjugated by strategically placed bigots in power. I say what I say the way I do because ain't no curve in my vertebrae. Shout out to my man, my son. But I'm the problem you all weren't ready for. I'm the spook that sat by the door because my education and experiences in life. I have ardent resolve. We know my appeal against the city, but that's not the issue. Like django, I'm that one in 10,000 that won't bend or break because of a little bit of pressure from outside. Some interesting things have happened also lately. Regarding some guys that have issue with the department of revenue, bring this to my attention. You all have investigatory power. Three attorneys facing me right now, and you have obligations once something is brought to your attention. Over there in the 13th particularly, we have blatant abuses of procedural process when it comes to the department of revenue and child support. My issues are pretty much behind me. There are many gentlemen that come to me daily, why won't anybody do anything about the violations that are being conducted by judges and hearing officers over here at the 13th judicial circuit and with the florida department of revenue. I would highly hope using your investigatory powers and even if you don't think it is in your jurisdiction within the City of Tampa, some of the attorneys do have the obligation that once you are aware that a colleague or anybody in a position of any bar member violates their oath that you all have a responsibility to have it investigated. That being said, shout-out to the greatest institution of higher learning in the city of tampa, the university of thomas jefferson high school.
Alan Clendenin 10:28:36AM
Thank you. Vick Demaio, bring it home. State your name. Occasionally known as. 1205 North Franklin Street. Bern's Steak House, epicurean hotel. One thing is, I wanted to make a point of is if somebody gives you an opinion, three months to live, first thing you do is I want a second opinion. When this thing started a year ago, brought a gentleman, David Deloach, stormwater engineer, 30 page resum. You do have an alternative to putting a hundred million dollars pipe from Swann to Bayshore. Which I've spoken to a couple of gentlemen here and they said, you know, if that water goes all the way down to Bayshore and it's a high tide and we're in the middle of a hurricane, there's nowhere for that water to go. It will go back up on Howard and you just spent hundred million dollars on one project when the entire city, with all due respect to Parkland Estates, I don't know what you're doing in Bowman Heights where I live. East Tampa, North Tampa. I learned over the last 48 hours that you are tapped out on money. Manhattan is a flood zone if you want to drive down there anytime of day when it rains. My point is, I want to show you something here. I don't know if you can zoom in on this or not. I don't know how this works, exactly. I can put it in closer. There are four alternatives here.
Alan Clendenin 10:30:31AM
Turn your phone back on. By the south Tampa hospital, you see these two pink areas, those are four city square blocks of existing stormwater retention ponds. As you know, if you've ever been down into the Hyde Park Area, huge retention pond right here that's owned by the Crosstown. There is a huge city-owned, this huge area, a Ballpark right now next to the old winn dixie store, think it is an Aldi now. Storm Engineer said every single one of those areas, new vault, every building built in tampa has to retain its own water, so they put a vault to retain the water. You can triple the size of all those areas without spending a hundred million dollars, you can get it done faster, quicker, easier, with a whole lot less money and retain the water without building that pipe from Swann to Bayshore. I talked to three mayors that had the same option to do this pipe. They all said we're not going to disrupt the businesses on Bayshore. Bern's steak house, we have 400 employees. Epicurean, 300 employees. We had to dig to do the elevators, we had to pump water for four months. If they tell you something --
Alan Clendenin 10:31:56AM
Thank you, Mr. Dimaio. That concludes public comment. Thank you very much. We are moving on to board administrative appointments. Item Number 1 --
Lynn Hurtak 10:32:12AM
It said after public comment.
Alan Clendenin 10:32:15AM
You are correct. Is Sul Hemani in the Audience. Waive the rules since he is here. Unanimous consent, I'll go ahead and get the board appointment so -- Sul, thank you very much. We have item number 1, Sul, would you like to address the council or just here for the vote? Very good.
Guido Maniscalco 10:32:37AM
Have Mr. Shelby come back with the resolution.
Alan Clendenin 10:32:40AM
It is the resolution. Already done. We have a motion to move item number 1 from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Congratulations, Sul. Thank you. Now we are moving on to item 64. here we go. Tag, you're it. There are a few sections of this ordinance that I suggest we address today because they comply with or are consistent with Florida state statute and the Florida constitution. First, sections 2-502 and 2-581 deals with post-employment restrictions. They should be revised to be consistent with the Florida constitution. Second, section 2-658, 2-626 and 2-662 must be revised to be compliant with section 112.326 of the state statute. These deal with the personal knowledge standard and complaints. The City can't initiate an ethics complaint, and the attorneys' fees and costs from malicious complainer, the process for those to be recovered. Next, section 2-624 concerns ethics training requirements and should be revised to be consistent with section 112.3142 Florida statutes. Finally, section 2-502 and 2-626 must be revised to fix wrong references to state statutes. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Alan Clendenin 10:34:34AM
Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 10:34:35AM
As I mentioned in comments earlier, the biggest thing was that private individuals that are not being compensated to have to register as lobbyists in order to speak to council members, there are others that need to comply with state law, but this was something that was brought on from here at the Local Level. It's not -- am I wrong to ask that -- to have you people register as lobbyist, is that a requirement by state law?
Guido Maniscalco 10:35:08AM
That needs to be removed before anything moves forward. Again, people want to talk to us, private individuals, regular people, whatever, the Grocery Store, the Church, the Gas Station, the Coffee Shop, should not have to register. Again, those are the e-mails that we've gotten bombarded with. It's a commonsense issue. If People want to talk to us, they talk to us. Neighborhood Individuals, Neighborhood Groups, Neighborhood Presidents, whatever it is. That was my one concern.
Alan Clendenin 10:35:38AM
Before you move on, do you have a list, by chance, of the statutes that you quoted, that you put on the Elmo? I've got it down at the very bottom.
Alan Clendenin 10:35:53AM
We can always go back and reference it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 10:36:04AM
As the City Attorney recommended earlier, I think we ought to have a de novo hearing first and second reading on the state required changes, but instead of City Council initiating it, I think the Legal Department ought to do that. Then I would give the public a chance to weigh in on those. There is the bigger question about whether we should have duplicated efforts anyway because this all is covered under the state law. And then -- I can make a motion now or later. My recommendation is that after we hear public comment, we end this and we let the City Attorney come back to us with a noticed public hearing just to talk about the state required changes. That way the public can specifically weigh in on that. So much attention about these other things that the public may not have fully looked at this. At the same time, Chair Clendenin make a simultaneous motion to end the duplication of effort anyway. And then I think we need to separately set up a discussion at the workshop in february to talk about whether this committee and this process is effective at all. I've heard numerous complaints about it. Instead of going through adjudicating all the complaints right now, I think should put those in a public hearing in the future.
Alan Clendenin 10:37:31AM
Thank you. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 10:37:33AM
Thank you. I have a question, if we are just -- if we decide to go ahead with Chair Clendenin's recommendation of just allowing the State to cover it, what are the down sides for the City? Lobbyist. Also lots of compliance with current practices.
Lynn Hurtak 10:37:59AM
Again, my question is, if we let state law supersede, what is the harm?
Lynn Hurtak 10:38:05AM
That's what I wanted to answer.
Andrea Zelman 10:38:12AM
There's one thing in our ethics code that we wouldn't have if we did away with the ethics code in entirety. May be others but one thing that comes to mind is we did create that whole process requiring all visitors that meet with City Council Members, department heads, the Mayor, to fill out meeting logs and state who they are meeting with and the purpose of the meeting and if they are representing a Union. We've had that for years. We've had that happen before the full ethics code was adopted. But it's in the ethics code now. So if you wiped out the ethics code entirely, that would go away. The other thing I would say is, there may be some other things in the ethics code that we may want to save that aren't addressed by state statute. I don't think it's fair. I think Megan thought you were asking her about this particular ordinance, but there are other parts of the ethics code that we should probably look at. Again, we could do that before, either discuss it during that february workshop and be prepared by then to say what we can rely on the state for, what we might want to do something separate for.
Lynn Hurtak 10:39:27AM
Thank you. This is the whole reason I wanted to have this discussion. Because I would like to add to your motion to say, during the workshop, you want staff to bring back just what the state is, I would like to know, again, from our Legal Department what other types of changes we would need if we wanted to hold on to some of those. But I do believe that is a good conversation we could have at the workshop.
Bill Carlson 10:39:53AM
I think we could talk about that in february. And we could -- I believe in what Ms. Zelman just said. We need to keep the existing reporting structure for paid lobbyist. Not add Neighborhood Leaders and others. But that can be handled in a separate process, and it doesn't necessarily need a committee that has a lot of allegations against it. I don't want to go through all those right now. But we need a fair process. We also need to make sure that the administration is held accountable to the same rules that the City Council is. If a lobbyist meets with the Mayor or City Council, they have to register. They can't say that they are not a lobbyist if they are paid to be a lobbyist. Can we make motions now or waiting to hear from the public?
Alan Clendenin 10:40:38AM
We'll hear from the public first. Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 10:40:41AM
I'm listening to everything right now. Like was said, might be some things that we have that they don't have that's better. I don't know.
Alan Clendenin 10:40:50AM
I'm going to reserve my comments. It appears this will get continued to february. I'll wait to listen to public comment, listen for the motion and reserve my comments for february if that's what happens with this. Are you finished with your presentation?
Alan Clendenin 10:41:04AM
Thank you very much. Good job. Anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? If so, would you please line up on the wall and I'll call you in order as you line up. By the way, we have a hard stop in 19 minutes. Just for everybody that knows, we have a closed session. Mentesnot, go ahead. Start with your name, please. Mentesnot. Tampa, Florida. Irrespective of what the code is, the Politicians and the Lobbyists are all crooked. Every last one of them. So they are going to find ways around it, and they are always finding ways to conspire to bypass anything. And you can look around the services in your city and you can see, as a matter of fact, the Politicians and the Lobbyists don't even have to conspire anymore. They are so on track that they know what they want to do. They know what the other one wants. So as far as how this works in the interest of the public, the interest of individual rights and the protection of Politicians, Lobbyists, private industry, big donors or whatsoever, projects getting awarded to like certain people or certain companies, it's not going to make any difference. The City and the Politicians have been crooked from 1855 and they are crooked today in 2025. it's going to make no difference. And the biggest part of this is, this City Council never abide by the Florida sunshine rule and the sunshine act to begin with. And they proved that on july 31st and august 7 when they conspired to have me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. So nobody took ethics or ethics codes into consideration then. Nobody took if they should have been having a meeting to conspire to have me arrested and drug out of here like an animal. Not saying anything bad against animals. But nobody was concerned about ethics codes then. So the fact of the matter is, no matter how they address this, the politicians, the lobbyists and the business interests, they are going to come out the winners.
Alan Clendenin 10:43:50AM
Thank you. It is completely hard to participate in what goes on in the city. It's a very challenging thing for the average citizen. Most people are too busy just trying to get through the day. And all their time and attention is focused on their life. The bar, the effort it takes to be involved is so high. It's very disturbing that we would want to -- anyone would want to raise that bar even higher. The current people who are legitimate lobbyists are not always following the rules and doing everything that the -- that is currently required of them. The Ethics Committee is not enforcing it. Why give them more people to have jurisdiction over or to monitor maybe is a better word, when they are not even really adequately monitoring the people who are paid lobbyists. You have to fill out the lobbyist, become a registered lobbyist. You have to document every meeting, the purpose of it, who you met with. You've got to do an annual report saying your expenses. If you don't do the report on time, a $50 a day fine. That is going to stop people dead cold in their tracks. Gadsen Park, the Dugouts, they are a disgrace. There are things falling on children's heads. Someone, a Little League Parent wants to meet with each one of the City Council members or the head of parks and talk about what are we going to do, now they've got to jump through all these other hoops. And they are just trying to get through the day. This is a very bad idea. It sounds to me like you all really understand that and you'll do something about it. I never doubted that you would. So I say thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:45:53AM
One second. If you were here for the public hearings, we are not going to be able to get to those before we have a closed session at 11. then we will break for lunch. We will not hear the public hearings until 1 p.m. if you are here, I will hold them until 1 p.m. we only have 14 minutes until we go to closed session. Problem child for the folks at home who haven't seen this, like, what is the big deal? I would like to point out, about a year and a half ago, because this is not just about talking to our elected officials. It's about talking to upper echelon City Staff. Year and a half ago, woke up 6:00 in the morning, text message after text message and messages on facebook, we don't have any water. Port Tampa didn't have any water. I picked up my phone. I texted, happen to have Rory Jones' phone number and Eric Weiss' phone number and said, you know we have no water. They didn't know. Went off at 2:15. Cave-in and nobody knew. This kind of trash goes into our code, I can't pick up the phone and text somebody to help our community. It may have been two days before we got through the rigamarole to get all the way to the top to make sure this got fixed immediately. It was fixed the same day because the citizens were able to communicate with staff. It's not just about you guys. I love you guys. If I see you at home depot or walmart, I want to be able to talk to you. But the same should go for staff -- not you. Anyway, bottom line is, this is offensive. Yes, I may have started this -- thank you, Andrea -- but I started it when I went and kept asking why we weren't having an ethics commission meeting. I started it when I asked why the ethics commission did not improve the -- approve the investigation of councilman dingfelder and councilman gudes. I started this when I said I filed five ethics complaints because people were doing things they weren't supposed to be doing. I filed an ethics complaint because people were publicly stating that they were meeting with lobbyists and weren't registered. So if I started it, that's okay. I'm good. But I would like for them to enforce the stuff that they are supposed to be enforcing before they start shutting me, carroll ann, connie burton, tony daniels, anybody else who wants to contact you and have a conversation with you about their community. It's not right. This is egregious. I haven't even read the rest of it. Trust me, I will and I'll let you know what I think of the rest of it. This is absolutely uncalled for. It is putting a barrier between us and our elected officials. Us and City Staff, which is absolutely uncalled for. This is not transparent. It's not accountability. It's nothing that everybody says they stand for. I can't even sit over here and have a conversation with chief bennett before we have council meetings every thursday. Give me a break. Save the sidebars.
Alan Clendenin 10:49:03AM
Thank you. Mr. Michelini. Steve Michelini. I think I would like to echo the concerns. As written, this is very broad and too broad in scope. It includes a lot of other things. If you file for a variance or you file for a rezoning or a special use, there are staff discussions at high levels that go back and forth. They send you comments. I'm sure they didn't mean to include that as a lobbyist activity, but if you read that in a conservative way, it is included. The nonpaid discussions for individuals that appear before you or meet with you, absolutely should be excluded. If you are not paid and representing an Association or Neighborhood or individual, take it out. There's no reason for it to be in there in the first place. It's just too broad and too difficult to understand exactly. They were citing state laws and then you have to figure out what state law they are referring to and what is the impact. Then call the attorneys and say, what does this mean? And their interpretations are sometimes in their discussion, they are convoluted. Anyway, basically it needs to rewrite. It needs to start over and discuss legitimate discussions, if they are paid lobbying, absolutely, discuss them, lobby them, register them, and put them on the record. The other stuff, when you're representing different organizations that are not paid, take them out. There's no reason for it. If you read this in a most conservative manner, you would have hundreds and hundreds of filings every day for every permit that's filed, for every rezoning, for every variance that is being applied for. It simply isn't necessary. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:51:03AM
Thank you. Tarah. I wasn't going to talk about this until I heard Ms. Zelman state that while there was a mistake in this ordinance, we do need to pass it because we need to come into compliance with city law. I would like to start seeing clean proposals put in front of you so that you are not pressured to pass something that you might find elements of unsavory in order to follow the letter of the law. We were out of compliance yesterday. The sky is not going to fall down if we stay out of compliance until february. And that puts undue pressure and backs you all into a corner. So don't put something controversial paired with something that has to be done. It's not fair. I would start saying no in general standing up to the City Staff and administration and say, no, we are not going to continue to pass these things. I appreciated the fact that you said that with the reimbursement resolutions and finally said, no, we're not going to pass them all as a group. We want to be able to look at them individually. Please continue to stand up for yourselves in that way because you're giving away power when you do that. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:52:29AM
Thank you, Tarah. Victor. I agree with Mr. Michelini, and I actually agree with the Chair that we do have ethics laws here that every official, whether with City Council, County Commission, School Board, Legislature, the State of Florida has ethics laws governing all your actions as well. If you want to add a couple more things that aren't intrusive to neighborhoods or people on the street, that's another story. Frankly, the problem we have here is who is actually doing the work to do the investigating, to do the tracking. I think that's a big problem here in the City of Tampa because it seems to be very haphazardly looked at and very haphazardly associated with the actual monitoring of it. That is the problem I see with the city is they don't really have a very good process and procedure of actually monitoring this sort of thing. I think if you do this, please exclude neighborhoods, people on the street, people that go up to see you every day or send you an e-mail to not be swept into the whole umbrella of being monitored under the legislation. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:53:48AM
Thank you. Mr. Carlson, ready to take a motion?
Andrea Zelman 10:53:51AM
May I say one thing?
Alan Clendenin 10:53:53AM
After the motion.
Bill Carlson 10:53:55AM
I would like to move to continue Item 64 to February Workshop.
Alan Clendenin 10:54:03AM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson to continue item 64 to the february 26, 2026 workshop. Councilwoman Hurtak is the second. Councilwoman Hurtak, you wanted to say something?
Lynn Hurtak 10:54:16AM
Yes. I also wanted to say to -- I would like the motion to differentiate between if Council Member Carlson agrees, to have a clear ordinance just for state -- yeah, a clear ordinance to have us align with State statutes and State laws. And then the other issues that might come under the ethics code that we can discuss each one and what we want to keep and if there's anything we want to change.
Andrea Zelman 10:54:54AM
I have a suggestion and I need Marty's help. First, I want to be clear because apparently I wasn't. I did not say you need to pass this today. First of all, you can't pass it today. This is only first reading and consideration. No, neither the Legal Department or the Mayor is recommending that you move forward with those changes to the lobbying as it's currently written. I just want to be clear on that. I didn't say that and I'm not saying that. I think a way we could get out of today, Marty, correct me if I'm wrong, today is only first reading. Don't read the ordinance. I believe then, Marty, correct me if I'm wrong, it will then die. Then you can direct us to come back with an ordinance with just the changes that we're advocating for, which, again, are the ones that Megan cited for you. You could also make a motion to discuss the ethics ordinance and the Ethics Commission broadly in february. That may be a cleaner way to get out.
Alan Clendenin 10:55:53AM
I think you're missing the one element is discussing is there a need for the City of Tampa to --
Andrea Zelman 10:56:00AM
Right. You could do that at the workshop.
Alan Clendenin 10:56:03AM
I agree with the assessment. Correct me if I'm wrong, if we don't read this, it will die. And then we continue the item -- go ahead and entertain the continuation now rather than new business and maybe we could subsequently have discussion about the clarification we're requesting from the administration to be able to have this information in february.
Bill Carlson 10:56:25AM
Before you answer, instead of a continuation, maybe, why don't we make a separate motion and put this subject on the Agenda and then separately you can make a motion on your other item.
Martin Shelby 10:56:36AM
My suggestion, council, would be to make a motion, especially considering the City Attorney says they don't recommend that portion in this ordinance, to have Number 64 removed from the agenda, just remove it from the agenda and then have that motion for february.
Alan Clendenin 10:56:51AM
Motion to remove item 64 from the agenda? Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Another motion?
Bill Carlson 10:57:00AM
I'd like to make a motion to put on the february workshop a discussion about whether and how to update the City's ethics code and to look at the effectiveness and structure of the Ethics Commission to see if it needs to be modified.
Alan Clendenin 10:57:21AM
Or eliminated.
Bill Carlson 10:57:23AM
Maybe you could do a separate one about eliminated.
Lynn Hurtak 10:57:29AM
Second. February 26, 2026.
Alan Clendenin 10:57:31AM
Motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Ayes have it. I'll reserve my motion for another day.
Bill Carlson 10:57:39AM
Can I make that motion?
Alan Clendenin 10:57:41AM
Sure, go ahead.
Lynn Hurtak 10:57:46AM
I just want to say very quickly because we don't have a lot of time that one of the things I am most proud of in my time here has been an increase in the public participation in City Council. I'm incredibly proud of that. I believe all of us would say that. So to say that we want to prevent that is something no one on this council wants. I strongly believe that. I want to thank every single person who is watching. Every single person who shows up. Every single person who stops us in the Grocery Store, that is very important to us.
Alan Clendenin 10:58:21AM
Can I insert a joke there?
Alan Clendenin 10:58:27AM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 10:58:29AM
A separate motion to be adjacent to the motion for the workshop in february would be to discuss whether the City's ethics code is duplicative and whether it should continue in its current form or to be modified or eliminated.
Alan Clendenin 10:58:52AM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you very much. It is 10:59. Sometimes a plan comes together. You have less than 60 seconds to say whatever you want to say.
Lynn Hurtak 10:59:09AM
Are you sure you don't want us to come back at 11:30 and --
Alan Clendenin 10:59:13AM
I don't know how long this will last.
Lynn Hurtak 10:59:16AM
1:00 it is.
Martin Shelby 10:59:19AM
Before you read that, I want to be clear, what you're suggesting then is council is --
Alan Clendenin 10:59:25AM
I'll clarify this now. We'll come back at 1 p.m. to continue with the consent agenda. At this time, in accordance with Florida statute 286.0118, we will proceed to a closed attorney-client session to discuss settlement negotiations in the case of Tony Hopps versus the City of Tampa. Case 824 Cv 02806 vmcaep, which is currently pending in the Middle District of Florida. This closed session is estimated to last approximately 30 to 45 minutes and will be recorded by a Certified Court Reporter. The names of the persons attending the closed session are as follows: Council Member Bill Carlson, Council Member Alan Clendenin, Council Member Lynn Hurtak, Council Member Guido Maniscalco, Council Member Charlie Miranda, Council Member Luis Viera, City Council attorney Martin Shelby, City Attorney Andrea Zelman, assistant city attorney David Harvey, and certified court reporter Cheryl Westfall from the Court Reporting Firm of Carolyn Loudon and Associates. At the conclusion of the closed attorney-client session, this meeting will be reopened and I will announce the termination of the session. A transcript of the closed attorney-client session will be made part of the public records upon conclusion of the litigation in the hopps case. We are now in recess and we will reopen the meeting at 1 p.m.
Martin Shelby 11:01:02AM
If I can, what you read is exactly the case. You're going into Closed Session. Going into recess for Closed Session. You will have to return here before you go into recess for lunch at 1:00. After the completion of the closed session, you have to come back in Open Session and announce that the Closed Session has ended.
Alan Clendenin 11:01:26AM
I need a quorum here -- when we leave the closed session, I need a quorum to show up at this chamber to do what he just described. Thank you. We are in recess. 8th Floor Conference Room. [closed session]
Charlie Miranda 11:48:05AM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 11:48:06AM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 11:48:06AM
Here.
Luis Viera 11:48:07AM
Here.
Bill Carlson 11:48:09AM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 11:48:09AM
Here.
The Clerk 11:48:10AM
We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin 11:48:11AM
Thank you. In the case of the Tony Hopps versus City of Tampa, Case 824 Cv 02806 Vmcaep, which is currently pending in the Middle District of Florida, is closed. The session is closed. The City Council is back in order. I'd like to hear -- ready for lunch? So this City Council will be in recess until 1 p.m. [ sounding gavel ] we're out. Thank you. [lunch recess]
Charlie Miranda 01:02:10PM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 01:02:12PM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 01:02:13PM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 01:02:16PM
Here.
Clerk 01:02:16PM
We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin 01:02:19PM
Thank you very much. Okay, we are back on the morning agenda, even though it is afternoon. We are going to do the -- let's see, any requests for the public for reconsideration of legislative matters? Hearing none. Thank you so much. Consent agenda. Council member Miranda, move items 1--- he is not here so I guess it doesn't matter. Move items 2-7, please.
Guido Maniscalco 01:02:43PM
You are Public Safety.
Charlie Miranda 01:02:49PM
Sorry, I was listening --
Alan Clendenin 01:02:55PM
Your Majesty will be fine.
Charlie Miranda 01:02:57PM
Moves items 2-7.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:00PM
Motion to move items 2-7. A second.
Guido Maniscalco 01:03:03PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:04PM
Second from council member Maniscalco. Moved and seconded. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:11PM
I move items 8-19.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:15PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:15PM
All in favor, say aye, opposed? Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you. Council member Maniscalco. 22-26.
Guido Maniscalco 01:03:23PM
Yes. I would like to make a motion to move items 20-26.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:30PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:32PM
A motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:37PM
Move 27-29.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:40PM
I am fem from Miranda. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:47PM
I will move items 30-31 and 32. and 33-45.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:55PM
Actually 30-31 -- not 32.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:59PM
30-31 and 33-45.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:03PM
A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you so much. Just a reminder, we did pull item 32 which will be heard with item 61 for those who are following at home.
Lynn Hurtak 01:04:18PM
Then I move items 46-49.
Charlie Miranda 01:04:23PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:23PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed, ayes have it.
Lynn Hurtak 01:04:30PM
I set items 50-54 for public hearing.
Guido Maniscalco 01:04:35PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:37PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Maniscalco to set the public hearings from item 50-54. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you. Those items have been set. I would like a motion to open the 10 a.m. public hearing.
Charlie Miranda 01:04:51PM
So moved --
Alan Clendenin 01:04:54PM
A motion to open all public hearings. Motion from council member Maniscalco. A second from council member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Item Number 55. who is here for item 55, staff-wise? And Cctv, can we get the monitors at Council Dais up, please. They are black. Any staff for item 55? Mr. Collins, can you hear us? We can not hear or see you. There we are. Check your microphone, Danny. We can see you, but we can't hear you yet. Is he muted on his end or ours? Cctv, is he muted on your end?
Danny Collins 01:06:23PM
Can you hear me?
Alan Clendenin 01:06:26PM
Item 55, please.
Danny Collins 01:06:28PM
Good afternoon, council. Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. So Item Number 55 is file number Ta-cpa 25-03, a comprehensive plan amendment to amend the periphery within the Channel District Boundaries of january 1, 2025. the City Council approved this amendment at its first reading consideration on september 25. it is back before you today for second reading consideration. This concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:00PM
Thank you. Council have any questions? Anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to item 55? we have a motion to close. Motion to close from Council Member Maniscalco. Seconded from Council Member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. The Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson, reads item 55.
Bill Carlson 01:07:19PM
Move item number 55, file number Ta-cpa25-03, ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, future land use section, to offer an additional bonus for projects within the Channel District Community Redevelopment Area, Cra, boundaries as of january 1, 2025; providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict; providing for severability; providing an effective date.
Charlie Miranda 01:07:42PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:43PM
Motion from Councilman Carlson and seconded by Council Member Viera. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:07:50PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:54PM
Mr. Collins, Item Number 56.
Danny Collins 01:07:57PM
Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. File number Ta/cpa25-05. Comprehensive map amendment to amend the map for the property located at 1300 East Harbor Street and Channelside Drive, assigning Public/semi-public. It is back before you today for second reading consideration. This concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin 01:08:25PM
Council have any questions? Hearing none, anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to item 56? a motion to close, please. We have a motion from Council Member Maniscalco. A second from Council Member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Thank you. Please record your vote. Sorry -- Council Member Viera.
Luis Viera 01:08:46PM
Yes, sir, no worries, sir. I move an ordinance amending the Tampa Comprehensive Plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 1300 East Harbor Street and Channelside Drive, assigning public/semi-public, P/sp, future land use designation; providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict; providing for severability; providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:11PM
Well read, Council Member Viera and seconded by Council Member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:09:18PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:20PM
Mr. Collins, 57. we are on a roll.
Danny Collins 01:09:25PM
Item number 57, file no. Ta-cpa25-08. Ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, Future Land Use Map, for the property located at 2306 North Boulevard, from Residential-10 to Residential-20. City Council approved an affidavit for first reading september 25 and now comes before you for second reading.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:49PM
A motion to close from council member Maniscalco. Seconded from Council Member Miranda. Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor to close say aye. Ayes have it unanimously. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:10:02PM
File no. TA/CPA25-08. Ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 2306 North Boulevard, from Residential-10, R-10, to Residential-20, R-20, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:10:29PM
A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded from council member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:10:35PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:10:38PM
Thank you very much. Mr. Collins, Item 58.
Danny Collins 01:10:43PM
Item 58 is ordinance amending the tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, Future Land Use Map, for the property located at 3618 West Euclid Avenue, from Residential-20 to Community Mixed Use-35. If City Council approved this at first reading september 25, and it is back before you for second reading consideration.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:04PM
Council have any questions? Anybody in the audience wish to speak to item 58? motion to close from council member Maniscalco. Seconded from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:11:17PM
Ordinance amending the Tampa Comprehensive Plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 3618 West Euclid Avenue, from Residential-20, R-20, to Community Mixed Use-35, Cmu-35, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:41PM
Motion and a second.
Clerk 01:11:45PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:50PM
10:00 hearings. Next one quasi-judicial. If you are hear to speak, please stand, raise your right hand and be sworn in by the Clerk. [swearing in]
Alan Clendenin 01:12:10PM
Thank you very much. Item 59.
Leo Debardeleben 01:12:13PM
Leo Debardeleben, Land Development Coordination. Item Number 59 is File No. AB2-25-06 for the property at 1616 East 7th Avenue, Unit 1624. for alcoholic beverage sales for small venue, consumption on premises only, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from that certain lot, site plan modifications were required between first and second readings. Changes have been made and completed. Plan has been certified, and a copy has been provided to the Clerk. I am available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:12:47PM
Does council have any questions? Applicant. This is Art Gallery and Retail. Second Floor only, Beer and Wine. I will be happy to answer any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:13:00PM
Does council have any questions? Hearing none. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak to item 59? motion to close? Motion to close by Council Member Maniscalco. Second by Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson, read item 59, please.
Bill Carlson 01:13:20PM
Move item number 59, file number AB2-25-06. Ordinance approving a special use permit su-2 for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue, consumption on premises only, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from 01:13:34pm certain lot, plot or tract of land located at 1616 East 7th Avenue, Unit 1624, Second Floor Only, Tampa, Florida, as more particularly described in section 2, providing that al 01:13:28pm ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict are repealed, and providing an effective date
Alan Clendenin 01:13:56PM
Motion from Councilman Carlson and second from council member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:14:02PM
Motion carried with Miranda voting no and Viera being absent at vote.
Alan Clendenin 01:14:14PM
Read is good. Item Number 60.
Leo Debardeleben 01:14:17PM
Thank you, council and Chairman. Item Number 60, AB2-25-18 ordinance approving a special use permit for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue (consumption on premises, and package sales/off-premises consumption, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at 4121 Henderson Boulevard. Site plan modifications required between first and second readings. Those changes have been made and the plan certified and provided to the Clerk. I am available if you have any questions. As Leo mentioned, everything has been resubmitted, and we are available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:14:58PM
Council have any questions? Hearing none. Anyone in the audience who wish to speak to this item?
Charlie Miranda 01:15:03PM
Motion to close.
Guido Maniscalco 01:15:04PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:15:05PM
All in favor, say aye. Ayes have it unanimously. Please record your vote.
Charlie Miranda 01:15:12PM
Item Number 60, File No Ab2-25-18 ordinance approving a special use permit, Su-2, for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue consumption on premises and package sales/off-premises consumption. And making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from that certain lot, plot or tract of land located at 4121 Henderson Boulevard, Tampa, Florida, as more particularly described in section 2, providing that all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict are repealed, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:15:46PM
A motion from council member Miranda. And a second from council member Viera. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:15:56PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:16:00PM
Very good. We are moving on to the 10:30 hearings, vacating public hearings, and legislative matters. Hearing 32 along with 61.
Abbye Feeley 01:16:10PM
Good afternoon, council, Abbye Feeley, director of economic opportunity for the City, and with me is deputy City attorney Morris Massey. Before you today -- this is the second reading for the development agreement for the observation wheel, as well as the lease amendment to the lease for the Florida Aquarium. The lease amendment is Item Number 32. and the development agreement is Item Number 61. I do have a quick presentation. And then we will -- I will turn it over to Mr. Shimberg -- both Mr. massey and I are here if you have any questions. Right now -- I will talk of the lease amendment first. They owns the parking adjacent, and we are in a lease for the parking. Operating agreement that goes along with that parking and a revenue share agreement that goes with that as well. That is important because I will talk about that in just a minute because that area for the aquarium came to the City for the ability to sublease a part of the property that they currently lease from us. That is before you, that lease amendment. Part of amendment including an exhibit of a sublease. That sublease has terms of that agreement, and we will go into that in just a minute. The project before you in the sublease. Completely privately funded project. So in terms of the sublease agreement, there are a couple of things that are in there. There is a pass-through rent and that -- the term of that is 5%. A $75,000 minimum or 5% of the revenues, whichever is more so -- and that is for revenues greater than $7 million, which is the break-even point for the wheel. So an example of that is if $12 million in revenue came in, the City would be getting $250,000 on the $12 million because it is on what is above the $7 million. Those revenues are not only ticket sales and those revenues are ticket sales, food and beverage, and photo opportunities. Whatever their gross revenues are. One thing that is outstanding is that there are bonds that are on the aquarium, and they pay out on those bonds is about another two years. So should the wheel become operational during that time, The City cannot receive revenue on the -- we still have the bonds that are being paid off. So what will happen is, we will get a double payment on the first year that is eligible for our payment up to two double payments to make up for that time period that we could not collect those revenues. There were questions during the last hearing of insurance and indemnification. Both must be listed as an insured party, and they have agreed to indemnify The City and the aquarium and from any liability. Parking -- the aquarium is receiving funds to offset the parking spaces that will be given up. Part of that is The City's revenue share. So we will be getting our share to keep us whole as to terms of the agreement today. And lastly, the sublease matches the terms of the aquarium lease through 2039. there was a comment made this morning for 20 something years under public comment. Only through 2039, which is where we are today is 2026 next -- in a few months. So just about 13 years. If for some chance the aquarium defaults or we stop our lease to the aquarium prior to that, we will be required to keep our lease for the wheel until the 2039. in terms of the development agreement, the development agreement governs the design, construction, and operation, which includes the height, and we talked about this at the first hearing to go from the 175 to the 250. that allowance is specific and solely to the observation wheel. It does not serve as precedent for other developments, and additional language was added in there in response to the matter raised by council member carlson. In terms of design, there is now in there -- Mr. Morris Massey did provide a strike-through underline in the changes in the of concerns of design, landscaping, and architectural treatment. There is no encroachment into the right-of-way, and the street frontage must be maintained with high-quality pedestrian experience and that was the relationship to Chairman clendenin's comments that were raised at the first hearing as well. There is a requirement for a lighting plan also to be provided to ensure that there will not be spillage into the surrounding residential areas. The operating hours from 10 a.m. to midnight. And there is also a condition that no city or cra funding will had been utilized for this project or applied for in relation to this project. And then that the development agreement ends when the sublease terminates. It will not run through the operation of this. It does not run with, quote, the land, but runs with the project. Unless there are any questions now, I will turn it over to Mr. shimberg.
Alan Clendenin 01:22:35PM
Thank You for incorporating all of that laundry list of items that I had in the initial meeting. Thank you. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:22:43PM
Same thing.
Alan Clendenin 01:22:44PM
Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:22:47PM
Questions were answered because I was hearing 30-year lease. You are telling me 2039. with regards to insurance and indemnification, we are held harmless. As you are adding additional parties, we are covered in that aspect. With revenue, what are we getting from this? Giving up public land and taking -- how many spaces, 50 spaces that are lost, but the revenue was a minimum of $75,000. If the revenue goes above $7 million -- and you put an example of what the City gets in return. You mentioned lighting, because I asked about lighting. I didn't ask about outdoor music. Is music going to be played? Is this going to be -- I don't know. How is this going to work it? Because you have residential areas right there.
Alan Clendenin 01:23:41PM
The Applicant will be up next.
Guido Maniscalco 01:23:44PM
That is my question. Amplified music. Like a carnival ride where you hear all the noise. So other than that, I am looking -- all my questions were answered from what I asked last time. Thank you very much.
Alan Clendenin 01:23:58PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:23:59PM
Thank you. Is there anything in the resolution that talks about dimming after a certain hour? Because -- we did get an e-mail this morning that did talk about the concerns that, you know, a lot of people that live in those towers live in floor-to-ceiling glass. And they are not going to be able to sleep until midnight and that is just not fair. Provides a lighting plan that has to be part of the project that gets approved by the City as part of the permitting to limits the glare on residential projects. That condition provides that they will minimize the lighting when the wheel is not in operation. That is in the development agreement.
Lynn Hurtak 01:24:44PM
That is not my question. My question is after 10 p.m. -- 10 p.m. or midnight, the lights needs to be a lot lower or something like that. That is concern that I am -- from this Resident and makes a lot of sense.
Abbye Feeley 01:24:57PM
Typically, in a lighting plan, they will show -- they can put the photo metrics around to show what the Spill is from certain distances, and this would be in that plan. I don't believe that will be developed to date, but if the desire is at such time, when we do it, normally no Spill at all. You can't have that, and you need to have it contained. A series of up lights and things. I will let the Applicant speak to that. But if there is a modification you would like, that is still -- this is -- we still have the ability to make those changes.
Lynn Hurtak 01:25:32PM
Thank you. You.
Alan Clendenin 01:25:35PM
Very good. No other questions? We will hear from the applicant. Jim. Shimberg law group representing the Tampa wheel. We wanted to provide a couple of updates. And staff has done a tremendous job. Thanks Morris Massey, Abbye Feeley, and Dennis Rogero with their efforts to work closely with us to try to address comments. I know Councilwoman Hurtak had urged us to, you know, do as much community outreach as possible after the last hearing. Our team spent time talking to all people who were here, as long as they were here. We then did a very broad outreach. And the City helped us with notification, but with a meeting at the Florida Aquarium that was noticed to everybody in person after business hours. We followed that up with the virtual option several days later. So we believe we have listened to council and tried to get the word out as much as possible. There may be a few residents that want to speak to that. You know, we worked closely with the Channel District Advisory Committee and aspects of that to help get the word out. Mr. Miller will speak on the lighting in just one second. My client has confirmed there is no amplified music or noise associated with this. That we will be good neighbors. The woman that spoke in the morning during public comment, I spent quite a bit of time outside talking to her about all of her concerns. And, you know, I don't know if she is here now, but she at least felt better, and I explained some of the stuff to her. Her concerns whether people will be able to afford to ride it or not and those concerns have not manifest in other locations where these wheels are located. We are not expecting people from Tampa to come down and ride it every week. We are expecting people to take advantage if you have visitors in town from out of town, and show them an amazing view from you 50 feet, cruise ship passengers, aquarium visitors. People already who are down in that area we expect to be the majority of the ridership. Again, one last thing. The issue we worked out with The City staff that had to do with the $7 million. That is based on an average of -- we included food and beverages and other things, and the city gets the benefit, conservative estimates that our clients have come up with. We feel that the numbers will be closer to $500,000 or higher, which will provide the city with significant revenue, and above in addition to the $75,000. But miss feeley did a great job negotiating on behalf of the city, Mr. massey spent a tremendous amount of time working on legal documents, and Mr. rogero was looking out for the city's financial interest to make sure it didn't adversely impact your bond. Mr. carlson, with your comments, no setting a precedent for any kind of development. Just like the woman I was speaking to outside. If you ever wanted to put a condo there at that point, it doesn't create a precedent. She said oh, no, I don't want a condo there. Aquarium parking leased from The City and reimbursing all the money plus some for the spaces because I don't think they get coverage all the time for those spaces right now. And, you know, at some point in the future, and I have been involved ten years ago when the port had potential plans to redevelop this area, and two 50-story towers and things that never really materialized. If the city and the port and everybody else decides at some point they want to redevelop that portion between Channelside Drive and the water, that will be a long process and will have a lot of Community Engagement and plenty of time to relocate this particular attraction if necessary. We don't anticipate that will happen in the in the extended years. I'm here to answer any additional questions, and we have a representative from stantech, Mr. miller, to let him address the lighting very quickly. We spoke to the resident and addressed concerns that we heard consistently. One was traffic. One was noise. One was lighting and design. Did it feel like it fit The City? The biggest issue was lighting. One of the things we let them know that is part of the permitting process was that we were going to have to submit a lighting package that was going to be agreeable when we are going through the permitting process. And we shared with them that we had the ability to turn the lights way down. We have control. There are five different components of lighting and ability to do that. Like the seattle wheel. A lot of characteristics that will have no issues with the satisfaction of the folks lives in the Channel District area.
Lynn Hurtak 01:30:59PM
You are able to dim the lights and hours say from 10 a.m. to midnight, and you are saying 10 p.m.? we need to keep on and northwest creating any outflow light. These are the ones that we need to maintain between that 9:00 to midnight timeframe. Other ones where you got spoke, you got hub, and you have uplighting. All of those can be controlled, dimmed almost completely turned off. So we can completely manage that light outflow to the degree that it does not create any intrusion for the customer -- or the residents that live in the area. The hours it is allowed to operate goes from 10 a.m. to midnight. They aren't necessarily open every night until midnight. There may be nights where there is not much business. But new year's eve. They will run the business, and they are partners with the City and maximize the revenue and generate as much revenue for themselves and the City as possible. But not open from 10 to midnight if nobody is down there.
Lynn Hurtak 01:32:37PM
Additionally, again, I don't know how to put this in a resolution or do something. I appreciate you reaching out to the Community. What I would ask that as you develop this Lighting Plan, do another set of meetings so people can understand. Once you have come up with an agreement with a Lighting Plan, set another meeting. Do the outreach you did before. I think that is what I am hearing. A good time to mention no amplified sound. I think that again once you have a solid plan, make sure the Community knows about it, and get some feedback. That is the way you get people to really create the open dialogue, and then make sure people know how to contact you. In the beginning months because that is when you are going to have the problem.
Lynn Hurtak 01:33:36PM
No, but what I am saying, the concerns we heard about this are numerous, and I am still on the fence, but I don't think my vote will matter. I think you have the votes you need, but I am very concerned about this. What I am hearing from the public is they are concerned, and the only way to really make them feel better is to bring the plan forward, have them be a part of it. That -- we didn't probably change a lot of minds in terms of the people that were really not for this project, and we don't expect that everybody is going to be for the project. But I hope that what the takeaway from the residents was, is that we do want to, in fact, be good neighbors and be partners with the City and do the right thing. Especially knowing there will be some people who will speak again here today, and I know that some of them may have been at that meeting. I am not asking them to speak on behalf of us other than to say, they feel we did, in fact, listen, and that we -- it felt like, hey, we will try to be really good partners and do the right thing. I believe the people at that meeting walked away feeling a little bit higher level of comfort around the knowledge that we are there to listen to them in an honest and earnest way, and we do want to work with them to address their concerns taking a little risk to see what their thoughts were. Best-case scenario that we can get open. We are hoping less than a year to have it open. Abbye addressed two years. Prior to that, we will have part of our outreach to reach out to the people. We have a great list and a great way to reach out to people and let them know, hey, we are going to have a meeting, and tell everybody about this great opportunity that is coming. We will obviously make sure to show them that we are good neighbors, that we want to be good neighbors. Give them our contact information for people if there is a complaint one night where somebody -- where light is going in their window. We are absolutely committed to being good neighbors and with the people in the Channel District, we want this to be a positive thing for their community and The City.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:01PM
I don't know if I have a question for you or a statement for you and a question to staff. I don't remember seeing a provision in the agreement that allows for later hours for special events like new year's eve and super bowl.
We Are Not Asking For Any Ability To Go Past 12 01:36:14PM
00 like I said we will not open until 12:00 every night.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:20PM
I am thinking of the special events that you may want to have.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:26PM
Okay, I am trying to help you out here. Operation can be varied between Aquarium and the Wheel Operator. They can't operate before 10 or after midnight without the City's consent. They could come and ask, and we would have to say if it is okay. That is put in to protect the residents in Channelside.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:53PM
Very good. Is that is it? Any other questions? Staff, you are good with that as well? Okay. Anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to this item? If you would come and line up on the wall, I will call you up in the order you show up on the wall. Sir, in the fancy charcoal suit. Start with your name, please. I was one of the people that actually showed up. And Mr. Miller is right, they did do their best to reach out to have residents, and frankly, if anybody came away from the meeting not feeling like they are partners and not trying to be partners, they were at the wrong meeting personally. I'm here today to talk about specifically City ordinance 19-47 which is Tampa's lighting ordinance. Nothing should be allowable within incorporated limits in the City that should in anyway be offensive and noxious of odors, gases, dust, smoke, light, vibration, and noise. Stuff about animals that is not relevant here. Anything that will constitute an eyesore nuisance to property owners and residents of the community. Specifically, the development agreement -- can I show this here? You have to forgive me, a photo on my phone.
Alan Clendenin 01:38:23PM
A wheel at the top for you to zoom in. Have the red lines? Amazing. That is so nice.
Alan Clendenin 01:38:33PM
Staff is good. Specific concern we have on b, for special occasions and nights and weekends. This attraction is open until midnight. That is really tough with lighting that will be there. One thing that staff had mentioned -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- that lighting should have no extrusion if that is the case. I have a really hard time believing that the rim lights that need to be on while the wheel is in operation will conform to 19-47. That being said, we understand this is a give and take, and we need to start acting like good neighbors for the Developers here. I think this will pass whether I object to it or not, I think that is apparent. That being said, I am asking for a little more specificity what dimming look like. What is the lux that we are allowed -- I am the person -- I am glad that you are running long in the morning because I get to actually show up in the afternoon. Everybody in my building that lives on the fourth floor from 20 -foot floor-to-ceiling windows. If we have to create items to infuse the light, I don't get to drill into my walls without coming and getting permitting. Encouraging council to be a little more specific on this particular point because I don't think the Developers can do anything about parking more than they already have. They are showing they want to be good neighbors so on and so forth. Last thing I will ask you all, though, because I wonder if there are some people on the fence. Harken back to the invocation. I live my life in that I love my neighbors as myself. So I ask you, if you were standing in my position and you had to vote yes to this and your family and your child who may be impacted with this, would you still vote yes? Thank you for your time.
Alan Clendenin 01:40:22PM
Miss Hewitt. Alison Hewitt. I am not here to speak against the property. I'm here because I historically come here about policy and procedure. As an East Tampa resident, I am completely offended that something like the wheel gets moved and fast-tracked, and we are here in a matter of weeks and months. And we do a redevelopment program, and it takes five years and still hasn't rolled out. And policies and procedures and statutes are important to me also, as you have seen me be able to talk about. Florida statute 163.380, makes sure that before any property located within the cra is leased or subleased or sold, it has to be opened for bids for the public. We hear this on other problems. We hear that you hold us to do it in other areas that the cra property owns. We can't do anything unless we go through this big rfp process. Well, this is the same thing. The City of Tampa has already been in court. City of Tampa, Tampa Heights -- Tampa Heights riverfront community. The Second District Court of Appeals said that The City violated florida law when it amended a lease to transfer a public lease to a private developer without issuing a rfp. If we are going to do this for this one, people who don't have the money for a lobbyist and don't have the money to have the advertisements. If you treat them this way, you got to treat everyone else in the cra the same.
Alan Clendenin 01:42:03PM
Miss Poynor. And I think Alison just brought up a big issue. I would like to point out that I got a text message a few minutes ago that the meridian and Channelside Lots were not contacted per the Hoa president and folks who live there. I just -- I have not heard anything about anybody having anything positive to say about this, and I don't give a flip about this. I really don't. I swear, I don't care. Because I will never spend the money to get on that joker, or will my family. So, you know, I don't -- I don't really have a vested interest in this, except for the fact that I find it hard to believe that these folks have met with the public repeatedly when all I have seen on social media is negative. And not just negative, but nasty negative about it. And I got to stand up for my neighborhoods. Have they actually, truly -- where is the evidence? Where is the sign-in sheets? Let's see them. Because I know -- last I heard, you guys got a couple of positives in development or do development or their main field of expertise. If what Alison says it is true, let's not violate state statutes. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 01:43:30PM
Hearing nothing else -- no one else. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:43:34PM
Well, I mean, now I am going to ask Mr. Massey to come up and address that. Because obviously we want to make sure --
Morris Massey 01:43:41PM
I do want to address that issue. What the Riverview Heights situation says, we can not dispose from a city-owned land in a Cra without going through the rfp process. In interest has already been disposed of. We already entered into the lease with the Aquarium. We are ending that lease, and consenting to the sublease. All they are doing is a contractual arrangement between the Aquarium and the wheel operator. I don't believe that runs afoul of the Cra statute for florida law or the Riverside Heights decision, because we are not disposing of an interest. We already disposed of the interest. We have given it to the Aquarium. All we are doing is consenting to the sublease -- allowing the Aquarium to sublease the property.
Alan Clendenin 01:44:34PM
Anything else, okay, can we get a motion to close --
Lynn Hurtak 01:44:38PM
No, rebuttal.
Charlie Miranda 01:44:40PM
I want to put it on the record I have not spoken to Anyone there regarding this subject matter. Anyone who has come before me. Let me be clear that out.
Alan Clendenin 01:44:50PM
You want a rebuttal? Point was raised about what we have done to reach out to everybody. I do want to ask to get specifics around that to address that specifically. What we did within 24 hours of Councilwoman Hurtak's suggestion that we needed to talk to the residents in a much more important way. We sent an e-mail, and you saw the notification. We tried to be more clear than the original notice that we are mandated by law 390 residents within 300 feet. We did something much more significant. Sent it out to Sky House, to the Grandview, Channel Club, 101 North Meridian Towers, and the place forwarded the e-mails on to their residents. One of them could not do that, so we went and took flyers down there and made sure that we at least put flyers up to create notice. We sent it to the City. City put it on its facebook page to provide notice. Sent it out to more than 180 individuals that expressed interest in channel district matters through the Cac. We also sent it out to the City council members. Anybody that sent something to City council about that issue, we made sure that notification got out to them as well. We feel we did within a 24-hour period yeoman's work to get this out to as many local residents as possible. I want to address the idea that what you heard online is what I would expect to be the negative. There is not a lot of people that get online and talk about the positive, but I do think there is an overwhelming majority of people who are very supportive of this project and will find great value of it. While I respect the -- the voice of those who are not for it, and they are vocal, it does not reflect the majority. So I think it is -- it does not characterize the support for this project. Hopefully that gives you some context. We sent it to all the Registered Neighborhood Associations within the area.
Alan Clendenin 01:47:15PM
Thank you. Can I ask staff, what is the legal requirement for notifications for this particular item?
Morris Massey 01:47:28PM
They are required to publish the notice twice --
Alan Clendenin 01:47:31PM
Start with your name.
Morris Massey 01:47:32PM
Morris Massey, Deputy City Attorney. Eight days before the public hearing which they had done. And the same distance requirement when it was a rezoning. Noticed all the individual property owners within 300 feet and Registered Neighborhood Organizations that would obtain a notice letter regarding a rezoning. And they have complied with all of those requirements.
Alan Clendenin 01:47:57PM
Thank you. I say that because I think there is a misunderstanding in the public about what this council considers notification, legal notification, and what we can hold people accountable for. What you just heard from the Applicant, they went way and above on all of that. I mean -- the parcel we are talking about is Seven Acres, portions of the wheel is just -- we did it from the seven-acre parcel not the half acre, to increase the notice even further.
Alan Clendenin 01:48:32PM
Anybody else? Can we get a motion to close. Motion to Close. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.
Luis Viera 01:48:43PM
So moved.
Alan Clendenin 01:48:46PM
Motion to move item 32 by Council Member Viera. Seconded from Council Member Maniscalco.
Lynn Hurtak 01:48:50PM
I said I was on the fence about this, but I just -- we might get more than $75,000, but to me that is just not worth the risk. And I know I am in the minority, but I -- I just think that $75,000 is not worth the Community's frustration, the light and other issues, and I respectfully vote no.
Alan Clendenin 01:49:20PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:49:24PM
I appreciate all the extra work that the Applicant went through and The City staff in doing all this. My concern is the impact on the Aquarium. The families in my district have been up in arms about the Aquarium's decision to get rid of the splash pad and replace it with sea lions, or they think it is a bad idea and questioning their membership. They are saying that parking is already limited, and now we will be even more inconvenienced by that. If this was on Private Property -- that section was Private Property, whether I like the idea or not, I might say okay, but since this is City Property and adjacent to the Aquarium, I think the Aquarium is making a second bad decision that will hurt their business in the long run. Even though they think it is okay, I never will do anything to hurt the Aquarium. Despite the great efforts of everyone and the Applicant, I will vote no.
Alan Clendenin 01:50:31PM
I will say something that is lost in this is the economic development opportunities and jobs. And I see this in a lot of these problems that come before us. We -- we don't discuss that a lot. While this may be only a few jobs directly tied to the daily operation, there are other jobs that are associated with this. One economic opportunity expands to other opportunities. You drive more people there for an opportunity for more jobs to be created in the area. And honestly the b roll. The impact on this has the image of the City of Tampa and looking -- every time you have a televised game or a lightning match or something else or a convention in Downtown Tampa, that roll will show this. And I think it is going to be beneficial for the City of Tampa. So I think that definitely it is a consideration. It is funny though, my family is pass holders for the Aquarium, and we are excited about the sea lions and puffins. It will make a unique and interesting experience. That is my input. Council Member Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 01:51:44PM
I want to say -- I will support the project. You know, if you just go back 20 years, just 20 years, that's not much in a lifetime. What was on Channelside? Nothing. Nothing!
Luis Viera 01:54:08PM
It is something that people will use in the area, and something that will benefit the area, and I think it will further elevate our story. And always a mediator and it's not black and white in life but gray. Of course there is detriment to it. I don't think there is any potential detriment to it. But I think the good far outweighs the bad. I will say that this is further putting more enterprises, putting more activities in this Area. And what I am going to say has nothing to do with this project at all, but it is another reason why we need an additional fire station in this area Downtown. I know. I am beating the drum. Call me Ringo Starr, but it is so true. We continue to build out there and have more activities and how in the hell no fire station but it blows my minds. I will be glad to support it.
Alan Clendenin 01:55:08PM
I will never call you Ringo Starr. I will close this up. Because it sounded like Charlie Miranda -- did you want to speak
Guido Maniscalco 01:55:18PM
You hear me talking. I will tell a story.
Alan Clendenin 01:55:21PM
I remember when Sandy Freeman dropped the Aquarium. Same negativity was there. Not economically viable. Slum and warehouses and nobody is going to go down there and visit the Aquarium. Mayor Greco built a streetcar. That is crazy. Who will ride a street car? You have people come in with $20 million of their own money. I will not question their decision if they will make money. I understand business as an air traffic controller and a lousy politician. We talk of the tourists, not just residential. How many Hotels? More coming between Channelside and Water Street and Downtown, how many Hotels and how many hotel rooms which generate taxes, which generate those bed taxes, and generate all these great things we have. We love bed taxes, by the way. Council Member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:56:25PM
Real quick. I wanted to talk about this the other day, and I think this is appropriate. I take day trips to other cities to see what they do. Denver is on my list because they have public transportation. Tampa, we don't have public transportation. If I want to take a day trip to Tampa, and I am an outsider, I take the number 30 bus from the Airport and takes me into Downtown. Growing up, we didn't have it. 25 years ago to now, look at the difference, the Museum of Art. You go to the Riverwalk, right. You see Downtown. You take the streetcar. You go through Water Street. You stop at the Aquarium, Hotels, Sparkman, and Wharf. The streetcar takes you into Ybor City. And what do you want to explore in Tampa, the Columbia Restaurant, right, an institution that is over a century old. And you can take the streetcar back to the bus stop that can take you back to the Airport. So show you that Tampa has changed in the last 25 years. You didn't have that. No reason to go Downtown. There was only a Museum of Art. Beyond that, we didn't have -- we didn't have the Riverwalk. Well, the streetcar came in around that time. Look how Tampa has changed. You can come to Tampa. Make a day trip. Explore our culture and history. And make it back to get your return flight home in the same day. We are growing and changing.
Alan Clendenin 01:57:48PM
As a Board Member of the Tampa Theatre, they will object that you didn't say Tampa Theatre on that trip.
Guido Maniscalco 01:57:55PM
An afternoon showing as they do every year, yes. You can take a 3:00 summer movie classic whatever. Yeah, it is interesting. We talk of the lack in Tampa, but we really -- we come a long way.
Alan Clendenin 01:58:09PM
Adding them one at a time. We are adding to it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:58:13PM
Just quickly. In the -- in the 80s and 90s, we were trying to play catch-up with other cities, and we added things that we had to check the box. Economic development. You had to have a center. You had to have a museum. You had to have a convention center. You had to have a hotel for the convention center. You have to have better movie theatres and starbucks and all these things. Now in the last ten years, we have graduated into the time where we are redeveloping those projects to make them uniquely Tampa. So as the new Tampa museum of art came on board whether you like it or not, a new kind of architecture and a different style on the inside with the investments. They will be even more different than before. The straz center. Florida Aquarium. The design was unique, and the way they curated it. As you are trying to decide which city to go to and what experiences, you want it to be different. A lot of cities have these wheels. The thing I will ask these guys to do. A lot of the experience is defined by the videos running inside them and the experience of getting on it. I would ask them -- if it passes and is sounds like it will to try to make it uniquely Tampa. Don't want people to say I did this in Singapore, London, Orlando, or whatever. Better if people got in it and said I experienced Tampa in whatever way.
Alan Clendenin 01:59:49PM
Amazing you put us in the same sentence as London and Singapore. So moved and seconded. A motion from Council Member Viera. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed?
Clerk 02:00:05PM
Motion carried with hurtak and Carlson voting no.
Alan Clendenin 02:00:09PM
Thank you. So now we are going to -- do we have to read this one? Now 61. motion to move to item 61 by council member Maniscalco. Seconded by council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. The Ayes have it. 4-2.
Clerk 02:00:39PM
Motion carried with hurtak and Carlson voting no.
Alan Clendenin 02:00:43PM
Thank you. Congratulations. We are now on -- give everybody a second to filter out.
Bill Carlson 02:01:01PM
Did you guys do consent already?
Alan Clendenin 02:01:04PM
We did. It was fabulous. Super fast and good for everybody. That was a request by Councilwoman Hurtak during agenda review to hear 73 before 66 and 67. who is going to present 73? the stars of the show.
Brandon Campbell 02:01:31PM
Good afternoon, council, Brandon Campbell, interim director of the Mobility Department. Yuan Li will be giving the presentation for Item Number 73, the Lower Peninsula project for the Port. And then, of course, at your -- at your direction and your pleasure, we will move to 66 and 67. we have some support here for those as well. I will turn it over to you all.
Alan Clendenin 02:01:55PM
Start with your name, please.
Yuang Li 02:02:18PM
Good afternoon, council, mobility staff. And we appreciate this opportunity to have an overview of the Lower Peninsula capital improvement, which is a highly successful design-build project currently in a closed-out phase. These are questions that the council is seeking information related to project schedule, the project cost deliverables, and the benefits. For our agenda today, pretty much follows the order of these questions. Next to the agenda is the project which is located in the Lower Peninsula Watershed, which is about 8.6 square miles in South Tampa and where the flooding existed due to inadequate and aging stormwater infrastructure. So this project consists of design and construction of new stormwater collection and stormwater pond in the middle of MacDill 48 Park and to provide flood relief, as well as water quality treatment. This project also improves various upgrades to the water infrastructure. And major timelines are identified in this slide. And the notice to proceed was issued at the end of 2020m and the final design after a year. And the council has max price in july 2022. and the construction has lasted about three years. And we just did the final walk-through and in the process of closing out as it is projected by november. And I do want to mention that this is that the first part of this project was in the middle of a pandemic. The schedule of the project was minimally impacted. In fact, some were delivered ahead of schedule, such as the design. And this table summarizes its budget: two amendments, gmp, and a single change order with a total of $39 million. This slide dives into the details of the scope of work and probably is $3.5 million in total. There are two amendments including water distribution rate design and additional services allowances. Guarantee maximum price of $55 million with a single change order. And due to the cost increases, which was part of the pandemic and the cost in labor went up and increase from the park amenities, as well as water management upgrades. And this table summarizes the usage of contingent funds. As mentioned, most of these are associated with labor and material cost increase. And also we have to have field conditions to modify the design sometimes or accommodate the field conditions sometimes to address the public request. And approval of usage of contingency follows a very strict system, and we fully verify them and also documented them. And this is a summary of cost of kimmins subcontractors. You can see a big chunk of money went to the material and followed by the various professional services, most likely -- most related to the preconstruction services. And continuing is the summary of deliverables or the project, including stormwater, water, wastewater, infrastructure, newly paved road, and park and stormwater pond. And this slide summarizes the date, two years between the first and the last piece of the box installed. And the macDill 48 park was open to the public about a year ago. As mentioned, because of the pandemic and other things going on, this project has stayed on schedule for the most part and with minor justifications to accommodate the school start, hurricane, and additional work. And this is the project spending to date. We do not have the final number yet, but we anticipate this project will be delivered under budget, and capital fund will stay in the stormwater capital improvement program. One possible use that we have already identified is the five-year red line, monitoring obligation that required by the fdep. Tremendous benefits are being brought by this project. Most -- both hard and soft, including flood relief, improved water qualities, and enhancements and parks. We do want to highlight a couple of things. This is another successful case that we have successfully collaborated to stormwater and water to minimize the disruption to the neighborhood instead of twice, but to do it once. And we also save the cost for the restoration. It is a parallel effort. And another thing that we want to emphasize is the resilience and the sustainability of the neighborhood. There are many recent articles talking about reducing the home values in the flood-prone areas after hurricanes especially. And we -- and we have seen discussions and also we -- we see the -- people moving out of the flood zones and the business flood zones. But with implementation of this project, we are confident as community is staying strong with generations. And the city has been very lucky to receive funding for the stormwater capital improvement projects. About two-thirds of funding is provided by state and the regional allocation, the award of the project not only engineering, but they are highly cost effective. And the benefits are being brought to the community. And, also, this project received various professional awards from the organizations. I just -- I do want to recognize our designer team. Kimmins are here today, and we applaud their outstanding work. Again, we are excited with the combination of this project and appreciate this opportunity to reflect this project with the council. And the project team will conduct in-depth, like, close-out sessions, and we use the lessons learned to further improve the delivery of our cips. With that, we appreciate any comments and/or questions that you may have.
Alan Clendenin 02:10:58PM
Thank you very much for the presentation. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:11:01PM
Thank you. I just wanted to remind council, this is the reason I wanted to do this and why we should do this for large projects going forward. It gives us a look at looking back. We are the ones that fund it. And for this, I think it is particularly interesting how it was a $55 million gmp. They completely used the entire contingency fee, and then a change order on top of it. So I had a question that I don't know if Mr. Mutterback is here, but I am -- and maybe Mr. Rogero can address this. What are the average contingency percentages for a project like this? Or Brandon, if anybody knows.
Brandon Campbell 02:11:49PM
We have Contract Administration.
Lynn Hurtak 02:11:55PM
Somebody from Kimmins, anybody knows, come on up. As you are learning, we are learning as we fund these projects and what to expect. Albert Calloway, the manager for inspection of contract admin, filling in for Mr. Mutterback today. Gmps is with the components, Stormwater, Wastewater, whatever. Typical Contingency are ranges between 5 and 8% and we usually stay well within that. Hurtak high temperature okay. Thank you again. In this project, does anyone know what that Contingency. I can do that math, but not that kind of math. This project had multiple contingencies.
Lynn Hurtak 02:12:44PM
Seeing five in the back. 5% contingency. Good to know we were on the lower side of this project. As we look at projects going forward, it is important to take a look at the thing I was confused about. You said Miss Sharp. If you can pop that on the wolf. If we can have that up on the wolf. Thank you. Shove it up just a wee bit. There we go. Right now, this is the bond series that we -- we had a bunch of money in this project. And we had $20 million from the bond series in Lower Peninsula Watershed Plan, and it does not seem that this $20 million was used. So you talked about possibly using the capital overage for monitoring. I don't know if we can use capital funds for that. Can you expand on what you intend to do with the rest of this $20.9 million? Or Mr. Rogero, one or the other, whoever wants to talk about this. I am curious why it sat in this account when we clearly have known for at least six months that it was not going to be needed.
Dennis Rogero 02:14:09PM
Yes, ma'am. Dennis Rogero, chief financial officer. Good afternoon, council. I can't speak to the monitoring portion, but we have known for some time that this bond fund also may not be needed for this. We are bringing it to council as part of larger south howard project as a funding source for that.
Lynn Hurtak 02:14:30PM
So this though goes to the question, we just went through a budget process. And I am just curious of the rationale why you didn't bring it in the budget process and why it is still here.
Dennis Rogero 02:14:47PM
Understood. Primarily, we wanted to bring it good with the guaranteed maximum price, the Gmp, when we get that for the South Howard project because such an unknown right now. He wanted this project to be closed out with any unused funding. Bring the Gmp and a financial resolution grabbing in funding for South Howard will give the council and Public a more holistic -- full picture of the funding mechanisms for that project.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:20PM
Then if -- I still have more questions for you. If Cctv can go back to the Wolf. So we have gotten some questions. And you may have well seen them as -- this is where I transition into 66 and 67 a little bit.
Dennis Rogero 02:15:37PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:38PM
Right now, we took out these series bonds. When did we actually -- the bond issuance date was november?
Dennis Rogero 02:15:47PM
November.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:49PM
Only used 5%. Why in the world did we take that much money out if we at this point did not spend any of it and just paying for the interest?
Dennis Rogero 02:16:00PM
A good question. At the time -- let me back up, philosophically, whether or not we should issue debt until we need the money, but life happens. I can speak for the fact that at the time we issued the debt because we thought we would need the money a lot sooner than it appears we did. Now, I think that does have some factors associated with that are the timing of the project and the progress of the project. For instance, I think we thought we would have more -- we would have either a Gmp or be closer to a Gmp at this time than we are now obviously. So all I can say, at the point in time, we thought we would need the money a lot sooner than we have needed it.
Lynn Hurtak 02:16:39PM
Okay. Because that is something that the public brought to our attention. To be honest, I completely get it.
Dennis Rogero 02:16:45PM
Me too.
Lynn Hurtak 02:16:46PM
So from this -- and I will just tell you I may have it together today or may have to wait until next week, but I want a recounting of that. I think this body needs to know a recounting of pretty much all you have our bonds and where are we. Is this happening elsewhere? Are we at only bond funding where we are paying on and not using. From that, also, we got a reimbursement resolution that was saying more money even though we had this money. I am -- again, we kind of want to talk about all of this together, but to go back to this project, first of all, I want to say it is a phenomenal project. I had a chance to go out there. Eagle Scouts building -- eagle -- was it -- some type of bird housing. What is it, eagle housing? That seems like not right. But maybe it was housing for eagles or -- owls. Owls! That is what it was. Owl housing, and it was very cute. The walking path is beautiful. All I hear is beautiful things about the park. It is far from my house, and I made a trek because it is such a beautiful space. And, again, I want to appreciate out of this $55 million -- or $59 million so far, we received grants of almost $37 million -- $37.5 million, which is huge. And I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to both Mr. Rogero's team, Stormwater Team, everyone else who had everything to with that. Getting more of our own money back, as I like to say, to spend on projects is very, very beneficial, and I really appreciate it. But that was -- I really do appreciate the rundown. And I would like to see this more on some of our big projects to give council an idea what happens in the end. We always see the beginning of the project, but we never get a financial recounting in the end. So I want to say, thank you so much for doing this exercise for me. I know it was a lot of work in the background, but I think we will get used to this. And I do expect that we will have more questions moving forward, but I was particularly interested in that extra $20 million.
Dennis Rogero 02:19:05PM
If I can postscript that, Ma'am. Yes, this project has been a stellar success and our success with all of that grant funding is one of the reasons that mitigated the necessity for that bond funding.
Lynn Hurtak 02:19:18PM
Exactly. That is a wonderful thing. And I really do appreciate how -- now -- okay. Yeah.
Alan Clendenin 02:19:29PM
Can we go to Councilman Carlson?
Lynn Hurtak 02:19:32PM
Yes, thank you.
Alan Clendenin 02:19:33PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 02:19:35PM
Sometimes the advantage of going second. First of all, thank you to staff. Thank you to Kimmins. Kimmins did an outstanding job on this. We have had other projects where we have heard complaints. Mr. Zemina, you are in the back. Thank you. He is on the Harbour Island project this one. He and his team are fantastic at following up with the community, and you can see the quality of work they did working with staff. The concerns that I have had about the next project we are going to talk about, especially -- and some of the other projects is -- is the politics around it. You know, when the political people or the city showed up at public meetings, you are kind of suspect. And as folks have said, we have needed to let the scientists and engineers lead. Unfortunately, we did not have -- as far as I can tell -- the person in charge of stormwater didn't have a stormwater degree. And so -- anyway, we need to hear from stormwater engineers that have experience. And you and Miss Li obviously are one of those, and we have some others on board and plus, we have outside ones. The big question that the public has had about this administration, and there is a team of constituents digging into documents, digging into the bond documents is, why is the public not being given a choice. Why is City Council not given a choice of how to spend this money? This south howard project is divisive. The Mayor has inserted dirty politics in it. Some of neighbors in the neighborhood have inserted negative politics in it unnecessarily and should discuss these on the merits of them. Someone mentioned earlier we are required to have the biggest, broadest impact to the public. We know from the Former Director and others that the South Howard project will basically impact Palma Ceia Pines and not help Parkland Estates except in a regular storm.
Alan Clendenin 02:21:39PM
Council member Carlson, we will hit this.
Bill Carlson 02:21:46PM
I am leading to this. Knowing that is a controversial project that is full of politics, we should have been given a choice of how to spend the money. I would like an accounting -- maybe you can tell us now -- of what is left of each of the funds coming forward. If I understand it, decide on a $100 million project, we have to raise stormwater taxes to address it. $20 million, we can apply without going into more debt for a $100 million project that is questionable whether or not they will be effective, and I will talk more about that in a minute. I would rather apply it more broadly. We have maybe 20 neighborhoods in South Tampa not to mention Forest Hills that will be affected. You and Brandon have been out with the neighbors. Those neighbors have stories that are equally as bad or worse than the parkland estates people. We know because of either maintenance or infrastructure that needs to be replaced, that we can help hundreds if not thousands of people who are flooded by reapplying $20 million from smaller projects throughout. The Public deserves to know what the alternatives are if we have $100 million project that is questionable at best, that is going to require more debt and maybe a tax increase. We need to look at what the alternatives are so we in the Public can make the best decision of what projects help the Public and need to make sure it is in the Public interest and impacting the most people possible. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:19PM
Council member Viera.
Luis Viera 02:23:22PM
I do want to say something because -- [laughter]
Luis Viera 02:23:30PM
That is a message.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:31PM
I need that button.
Luis Viera 02:23:40PM
Pursuant to that, I would like to defer my comments until when we get into that section on the South Howard Project. I will defer. I will defer.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:48PM
Very good. There we go. Muted worked. Need that button. So if there are no other questions on 73. if there are no other questions on 73, thank you very much, a great presentation. Thank you very much for the presentation. Now we will move on to 66 and 67.
Brandon Campbell 02:24:08PM
Good afternoon, again, Brandon Campbell, interim director of Mobility Department. Move this up real quick. I know this was loaded on On-base.
Alan Clendenin 02:24:27PM
Confusing up here because we can see the other presentations. Can you move that away?
Brandon Campbell 02:24:31PM
That better?
Alan Clendenin 02:24:33PM
Perfect.
Brandon Campbell 02:24:35PM
Item 66, approval of a guaranteed maximum price for early work related to the south Howard project. I did want to bring up to your attention today that, of course, the segments that are being considered for approva today are not howard itself and are outlined in the map I put on the projector. They are related to water and main replacement, as well as mill and overlay and overlay work, resurfacing work within six total segments across the neighborhood on the east and west side of Howard avenue. Some of requests that I know have come up with you all in public comment have related to the financing. And so, of course, Mr. Rogero is here to answer some of those questions that may come up in the course of conversation. I also wanted to mention that we have Rory Jones on as a panelist as the primary cost in this initial early works Gmp is for that water line replacement work. So he can speak to the needs of the Water System that are represented by this.
Alan Clendenin 02:25:45PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:25:47PM
Thank you. I just -- before -- I want to set the table on this. Because there are two items. One, is the total, number 66, the $4.1 million. Item 67 is just moving $3.2 million from water into to help pay for it. What we are really looking at is the less than $1 million left. How is that getting paid -- funded, and so I spoke to you this morning and talked to me of the stormwater bonds, but what I am hearing from the public, from us as a council, just overall are concerns of spending those -- spending funds under the umbrella of the South Howard project. And so I would like to hear from maybe Mr. Jones' point of view, and from your point of view, Mr. Campbell. If there is a way we can do these projects that need to get done anyway. From my understanding, the water mains are from 1919. they need to get replaced anyway, and it is coming out of Water budget, not the South Howard budget. If we can make that a separate project and the milling and overlay possibly a separate project out of your funding while we still hear -- because we don't know what is a guaranteed maximum price for this project. We are not far along in this project. I feel that we can move this along as something that needs to get done anyway. Not attached.
Alan Clendenin 02:27:30PM
I want to -- you are setting the table. I want to reset it too. Because it goes back to the beginning when we were doing the agenda review, and one of the reasons why I asked to continue this instead of dealing with this today because, one, I think you are right. No, I think you are right that this has to be broken out, but a bigger overlying issue here. Anything under this south -- because I was -- I was a supporter of the South Howard Project. I have subsequently found out new information that has changed -- possibly changed my point of view on that. One -- and I will just say this. There is financial issues with how much money is left in the stormwater pool available for us to spend. And if we were to fully fund the South Howard Project, there will be zero money left for any other flood projects in the City of Tampa. That it is going to take all of the money --
Bill Carlson 02:28:31PM
And will still have to raise taxes.
Alan Clendenin 02:28:34PM
Sets the table, and we will have to come back to the public. And I know Guido will look forward to voting on a stormwater infrastructure tax increase. He has ptsd from the last time around. So because of the -- and Councilwoman Hurtak, you are right, that this -- you know, we don't have the total amount yet, but we have an indication of where it is heading, and its going to suck up all of the money. There will be zero left. So I think -- I think at this point, the problem -- here is problem with even going -- I think what we do is we can express our intent and ask them to bring back a clean thing that comes out of water and mobility, but I think we need to be very specific and clear that there is a lot of issues that are allowed now in South Howard. We already authorized the money for the design and all. Before we move forward -- that is why I picked the february date, a lot of transparency and data coming back to this council so we truly understand the financial impacts this will have on the City of Tampa, for the entire City of Tampa, and what we are sacrificing. Part of what I would like to see is if we have the motion to continue this is an understanding of evaluation of where the other unmet needs are in The City. How this ranks with other needs. What -- if not this, then what. If we do part of this and part of that, have we had that tabled discussion. Have we done this in a transparent way to bring us on board to say maybe we can do part of this project and part of another project to provide the greatest amounts of good for the greatest amount of people. But I think we will have to give them until february to get that data back to us so we fully understand the consequences of these actions. Again, I am talking of somebody who came in really unashamed to support this project. I supported and voted for it every single time, but, again, finding out that the pot is dry, and this is going to dry it up for everybody else, another tax increase, it caused me a great deal of concern. I will say one thing that I did hear -- this is a testimony on the benefit of the City of Tampa and staff. This data is -- was -- because you have transparency of the City of Tampa, this information became available. We did not have this transparent information, we would not -- if they were acting in the dark, we would not have --
Bill Carlson 02:31:09PM
It is not transparent at all. What happened is one of the neighbors was looking at The City budget. They couldn't find it so they looked in the bond documents, and that's where they found what the cash flow was related to this, and a constituent discovered this. And suddenly the administration responded and gave you a heads-up. Constituents told me a few days ago. The issue is not whether we want to spend money to help people or not, the question is how much money do we have? Why is there money hidden? This is a fund to help people immediately. We could have helped people a year ago instead of waiting for a project that is questionable. What always happens is -- they come to us in little bites. Approve $20 million of this project. We are already down the road and approved it several times to get the other $880 million and all you do is raise the Stormwater tax. That won't be acceptable. How many can we help? Why have we been shoved down this funnel, and in the contrary, it is about the hundreds of people who were flooded that can't get relief right now. We have a culvert that have not been cleaned in decades. They are fallen apart, cracked, and leaking. All kinds of maintenance and replacement of infrastructure that can be done to help people today. We could have applied that $20 million and protected those people instead of waiting for a project that is questionable. Back to Councilwoman Hurtak's point. I told Rory yesterday or the day before in a call, he has a great reputation. The new people at Stormwater have great reputation. Rory and the Water Department, why do they want to be connected in any way to a controversial project. In five years -- this project, in five years when this is done and this Mayor is gone and some of the City Council members are gone, and we find out it is not effective. And somebody said this morning, not any money to fix it or fix anyone else's work. We need a full discussion on this now. Water project should be completely separate. We should not be mixing pipes -- the people are still mad about their water bills and they find out they are using pipes money on a questionable project they will be mad. Just like people are mad we use stormwater budgets for parades. We need to be honest and transparent and trust the public somehow to get to this point. I would like the motion for someone to continue this item after public comment and after everything else -- it will be fine. So after this is done. I am trying to set an agenda after this is done, looking for a motion to continue this item to the february 26, '26 workshop, hard to say. And wish we can waive the rules for somebody to request staff to come back with a clean solution. You already have it --
Lynn Hurtak 02:34:27PM
Not a solution, but I have a whole motion.
Alan Clendenin 02:34:30PM
A whole motion. One of those will be for the Water and the mobility infrastructure improvements.
Lynn Hurtak 02:34:36PM
This is all about Bonds.
Alan Clendenin 02:34:38PM
So have somebody come back with a resolution asking water to come back specifying the water project and the mobility project for paving and have that as a clear resolution after we talked of the pipes program and why it is intermingled, a savings to help the Citizens of the City of Tampa. And that -- we are sitting here listening. Why not give it twice, and we won't have to do it twice. That is what I see coming. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I have -- maybe I am in orbit, but I don't think I am. And if we are going to dig one hole to put one pipe, when you dig that one hole, and put the remaining of the citizens -- what is the need in the neighborhood when you are with one open. Maybe I am wrong.
Alan Clendenin 02:35:46PM
These are different holes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:35:48PM
This is not -- these older water plans -- and Rory may want to chime in as well. The intent with this is to replace them to reduce the risk of breakage if and when South Howard is --
Alan Clendenin 02:36:06PM
Hold for a second. Put the map up for the public to see. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 02:36:12PM
What we don't want to have is we have a segment of South Howard closed and whether it is Albany or any of these. There is a water line that breaks during construction on Howard, that can compound the effect construction on traffic. So the intent is, get the water lines that are at risk nearby replaced, because they need to be replaced anyway and will have a smoother surface on those more highly traveled segments that -- that will have higher value when Howard is under construction. That is why they are packaged with early works and why they are being brought before you right now. I did want to speak as well what Council Member Viera said almost knowing of the impact in january, as this schedule is built out right now. If we are to wait until january to approve this, it basically eliminates the volume of early work segments and the start of construction for South Howard. There could be a secondary impact on the main part of the project schedule if this is delayed until early next year.
Alan Clendenin 02:37:28PM
Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 02:37:31PM
A couple of concerns regarding -- we are going to have to raise the fee. We are going to have to raise the Fee, right?
Dennis Rogero 02:37:38PM
Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but allegations and assertions have been made during that. I would like to clarify and refute. That is one of them.
Guido Maniscalco 02:37:47PM
Okay. So I will speak, and then if you want to clarify it. But will we have to raise the fee? Will all the money dedicated, that $251 million run out because this project? The howard project will balloon to a price so high, $100 million beyond the 65 or whatever that we end up running out of money in that 30-year assessment period that we have. I don't know, may be a misunderstanding, and you will clarify what it is going to be. Here is the thing. When I was sold this almost ten years ago that this would be so historically significant. I didn't want to -- I went to the Mayor and said instead of creating this fee, we can do this. And I was talking of maintenance and doing certain things and these storm drains. Another story for another day. The last thing I wanted to do was to add an extra fee on somebody's property tax bill because that's where they see it. But it was -- as I was told after it passed -- somebody said we are going to look back, and we will be glad that we did this. Now that I am hearing we are going to run out of the money, and you may correct us after this, after what we say, it won't be able to use. Won't have any funds to do any stormwater projects throughout The City. That concerns me. It may not be true, I don't know. But the cost of everything has gone up since covid. Supply chain issues. Now we have tariffs. Reasons and excuses why everything is more expensive, the Tiger Bay Forum. The cost of living is so expensive in the City of Tampa, and it concerns me -- and I may be wrong -- we will have to look at raising more fees, bonding more out, spending more money. People are up to here with their bills. And I don't want to be one to say, oh, we will need more money. We need to raise more fees. So maybe everything that I said and some of the stuff that I heard is not correct, and you might clarify that, but I will let you answer before I speak any further because there might be misinformation there.
Alan Clendenin 02:40:07PM
Mr. Rogero. Start with your name.
Dennis Rogero 02:40:13PM
Thank you, Councilman. There is some misinformation out there. If I can address this item first. Debt report from August 1, 2025 that was on the Wolf before. Entirely correct. I can says it entirely correct. That is my product.
Lynn Hurtak 02:40:28PM
Took it from your e-mail.
Dennis Rogero 02:40:31PM
Again, further to the transparency issue that I will continue to speak to. We publish it every month, and it's available to council, of course, and the public on the web site so council and the public knows exactly what is happening with all of our debt issuance. Councilman Carlson, I thought you had a very good question. I am paraphrasing. Shouldn't City Council get the choice of what to do with this $20 million dollars in bonds? Answer is, that is council's choice. We haven't brought it to City Council to make a choice. We have plans. We have plans on top of plans on top of plans because we have to plan for every unknown that we can. This is one of our plans to use this funding to mitigate the adverse impact to the improvement assessment, which I will talk more about in just a moment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You had forwarded a great deal of data from a citizen. I appreciate the data. I appreciate someone looking at the information. I will say that 90% of the information was my product, the bond documents. My office creates them, okay. The debt updates -- again, we publish them. We publish it. The annual financial reports, we publish them. Complex documents. Annual reports and budgets, they are out there, and our job is to try to make it easy for council and the layperson to understand it. Having said that, if I can level set. When we initiated in effort, when we started on this improvement assessment journey, you will recall -- I don't want to speak for the department -- but started at a quarter a billion dollar worth of plans and projects over not quite 30 years. We have outperformed that metric. We have -- we have spent over $300 million in stormwater projects because of our fantastic efforts and working relationships with grantors, whether resilient florida, etc. we talked about that earlier. That plan includes project a, project b, project c, and an ongoing amount for continued maintenance. I will show it to you in just a moment, but it has been around, $5 million to $6 million historically. When we say we are running out of the money, and we haven't said that candidly. We wouldn't allow City Council to entertain a scenario where we run out of money. What is being surfaced will there be additional funding for new projects outside of that initial plan? I don't know, but it is not unreasonable that new projects outside of that original plan will necessitate additional funding, whether from grants, whether from an assessment increase. We don't know. That is one of the purposes of the watershed master plan to decide, do we need to do a rate study and is that rate study likely to show we need to raise rates? So let me be very clear that the official plan is continuing as planned. You heard me before, plan to dive, dive to plan. That is what we are doing. If we are entertaining new projects and the author of that information specified new projects, than the author is not incorrect. We may need additional funding. We don't know yet. What I can tell you that we are in our forecast -- instead of tell you, I will show up. Will you entertain me. I have some --
Alan Clendenin 02:44:32PM
Go ahead.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:33PM
Thank You. Thank You.
Alan Clendenin 02:44:34PM
By the way, our Facilitator is in the room. Don't scare him off.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:44PM
Sorry, say again?
Lynn Hurtak 02:44:48PM
Facilitator is not for us.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:50PM
If we can go to the wolf, not the elmo, but the wolf.
Lynn Hurtak 02:45:01PM
Can you move the other one out of the way?
Dennis Rogero 02:45:03PM
This is our capital improvement program that City Council just approved a short time ago. And can you see me pointing here? Can you? You see the beginning fund balance. Relatively large. $13-plus million nonad valorem revenues, and the projects you have here. That is the typical maintenance, okay. Relatively low. Very high in '26 as we spend down that fund balance as planned, and then the number I referenced earlier, maybe 7.57, 5.5, 6.5. I will show you those projects in just a moment, a very small operating amount, and the debt services for those bonds. We go a little over 12.5 million. In 2030, if we continue with the plan, that's where we get very tight. That is the plan because in our longer term forecasts, you see a very low fund balance continuing. No running out of money. We simply don't anticipate we will have additional funding to do new projects yet. And, again, that is one of the large unknowns of, if I may, pieces of inaccurate information that is running out. You have a money narrative in that document using $39 million of the improvement assessment. That is not accurate. I don't know what the source was, but we anticipate using a little over $8 million, one-fifth of the improvement assessment. Why? Because we need to continue with the plan code. One of the reasons we are looking at that Lower Peninsula $20 million is to mitigate the necessity to use more of the improvement assessment. I am throwing a lot of information at you, but a lot of information has been thrown to us in a short period of time. I am not trying to dissuade you from continuing an item, but I don't want the council or the public to go through misinformation, information that we don't agree with. We think we have been very transparent. And much of that product was based on our product.
Alan Clendenin 02:47:42PM
Thank you, Mr. Rogero.
Bill Carlson 02:47:47PM
This is why we need to continue.
Alan Clendenin 02:47:49PM
One thing. If I had known about the $29 million left over, the $20 million, I would have slept better last night. Because that wasn't disclosed -- I think my last conversation with John was at 8:30 last night or something like that on this issue.
Dennis Rogero 02:48:09PM
I was remiss not making sure you were aware of that, Sir.
Alan Clendenin 02:48:13PM
Okay, with that being said, I don't think it is a misstatement of fact that how it looks projected out now that if we -- if you say continue with the plan, if the plan means that South Howard is the last and only project that we are going to fund with the current assessment, then I guess you are correct. Then that -- but if we -- if we fund the South Howard project, the plan is over. There is no other money to fund anything else; is that incorrect?
Dennis Rogero 02:48:46PM
Almost, almost. I don't want so split hairs. I want to make sure we are all on the same page. We don't anticipate any additional funding to fund any new projects that haven't already been considered.
Alan Clendenin 02:48:58PM
Right. So I don't think that it is misinformation shared earlier in this discussion. I think that is part of my disclosure with that understanding that -- that this cost shall be -- this was this and nothing else. Considering it is an enormous city and Councilman Carlson brought up in District 7, flooding off of Fowler and Forest Hills. Flooding that is occurring -- still a lot of unmet needs with stormwater, fresh water flooding. We are not talking of storm surge but talking of fresh water flooding. In my weighing this out, had that been fully disclosed from the beginning -- a smaller project and how to mitigate some here and there and wholesale except that will run out the entire fund without a tax increase for the other projects we were looking at. I will end it there. And Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 02:50:05PM
Thank you very much. A couple of things. Strong things to say. Number one, with regards to revenue for things, I operate under the view that the public hates waste. Things that we pass here if we told the public about, they would be really angry, and they are angry of certain things that we pass. They are not angry at police officers, fire fighters, and hurricane infrastructure. Republicans will pay for that. Democrats will pay for that. Independents will pay for that. Whig party members will. Because this is what the public supports. I strongly opposed the Mayor's tax increase to scale it back 70% to use all of money for police officers and fire fighters because I go off of that view and, I believe that is true there. With regards to the issue of this south howard project. We have to see as we are proceeding with this, if it will exhaust all the funds. If we are going to have a continuance, I would like to talk of a shorter continuance than february or january. Look at november, december, something of that nature, to not delay the project because right now this council supports this project. I will speak for myself, for Luis Viera. I gave my word to that community that I will support them because I saw suffering in person, and I gave my word to them. My word is my bond on this issue, and I rely on the experts on this issue and the experts say it will work, and that is what I am relying on. North Tampa, the back-up pumps, the pump generators to help out the North Tampa area. I am zealous advocate for District 7, it pisses me off what happened in North Tampa. It is with the pumps. Those people were in Zone X, and they got flooded. The day after the flood, statements were made on the flooding being not as bad or being worse than it could have been because of pumps. I am still angry about that. I don't forget about that. When it comes to advocating for that area, I pack a punch. I never gave up on the housing dollars and pumps and anything that can help us out long term in the north tampa area. I do not like to say that I am going to look at one part of The City and say we need to do it here opposed to here. We should be able to afford as a city to tell people in areas where they are going to be flooded that we are going to help them, that we are going to have requisite and hurricane infrastructure. If we didn't do that as a city, to quote willie nelson, turn off the lights, the parties over, because the city is not doing their job. If we can't do that for forest hills, South Tampa, East Tampa, Sulphur Springs, East Tampa, and ybor, we are like a subway sandwich store that doesn't have any bread. What are we doing? When it comes to our word that we have given to this community, we should go forward with it. A reasonable continuance that will not delay the project substantially and doesn't increase cost, I can support that. That's fine. But going out to february where we are told that could delay the project specifically, that's too much. I will give you a single and not a triple.
Alan Clendenin 02:54:03PM
January 29 is also available. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:54:07PM
Thank you. One quick question, and then I do have things to say. Can you bring a motion for separate water and mobility -- Separate Water and Mobility project next week?
Dennis Rogero 02:54:30PM
From a dollars and cents, we can. But the logistics --
Brandon Campbell 02:54:34PM
My question to you will be, is the expectation that we just package a funding resolution together that does -- I am not sure exactly, I guess, what the request is.
Lynn Hurtak 02:54:45PM
So the water money is coming from the Water Department. Can it simply now be a Water Department project? Can -- and the reason we are asking you to parse this out, is that we still don't -- right now we need to talk a little bit more of the South Howard project, but doing this work going forward, this particular work needs to be done anyway.
Brandon Campbell 02:55:09PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:10PM
A way to package this water main separately, and bring us a resolution at our next regular meeting so we can fund that through water.
Brandon Campbell 02:55:21PM
I don't know.
Alan Clendenin 02:55:22PM
Rory, are you online?
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:26PM
I think it is more of a dennis question.
Dennis Rogero 02:55:29PM
Let Me -- Let Me educate myself very, very quickly.
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:33PM
He looks comfy.
Bill Carlson 02:55:36PM
Pictures of us there.
Dennis Rogero 02:55:43PM
They are intertwined. This project is interwined. I am making this up. You are tearing up the road. Do you got to do a water thing, a something else thing, or a Stormwater Thing, and repair the road. Is that not the case?
Brandon Campbell 02:56:00PM
The Cat is for many of the segments, not this segment.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:03PM
But what we are talking about right now, the map, if you can put it back on, it clearly says that water is the blue dotted line, and you are simply replacing the plans there and repaving it.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:19PM
Correct.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:20PM
That's it.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:21PM
Most of the segments have water and Resurfacing.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:25PM
Yes, but that's it. Nothing else, no Stormwater. This is simply water and repaving.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:31PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:32PM
What we are asking is if you take this water and repaving and make it a separate entity that does not have the term "south howard stormwater relief" on it --
Brandon Campbell 02:56:47PM
The Commission's complication of linguistically of South Howard, that Kimmins is the one that sets forth the Gmp proposal as well the design. If we were able to take this out all together and try to create a brand-new project, I would assume that members will have to get a new contract to perform that work that poses a significant increase.
Lynn Hurtak 02:57:17PM
So, again, this is what we do with normal projects.
Alan Clendenin 02:57:20PM
I would like to know that, and that's have good information to have.
Lynn Hurtak 02:57:25PM
I want to apologize for my council members because I did not realize that this very long planned macDill 48 presentation was going to be on the same day. I have known about this extra $20 million all week. So I have been working on trying to figure out what -- so we had some questions about that $20 million and not knowing and finding out today -- and that is where we predicted it would go, My Office, but just being able to talk about it with you all, which is why I wanted to talk about it today, and not continue it right away. So with that being said, inclined to approve the project today to actually fix the pipes and etc., roads, just to do that, because that is all that is happening here. And the majority of that money is coming from water. That being said. Mr. Rogero was right. I noted in the budget cycle. I have a note somewhere. We never ended up talking about it because we didn't talk of the Cip, but I did notice the amount we are repaying and thinking, it was a little high. It is what it is. It is what we agreed to do. But it was a lot of money. And I think I even said that was a lot of money.
Dennis Rogero 02:58:49PM
You may have.
Lynn Hurtak 02:58:51PM
Not a surprise to me. What is a surprise is the $20 million. I would love a way that in the future -- I mean, this report was supposed to come to us, like, six months ago. So we have been in the final bits -- there is -- we knew six months ago, we weren't spending $20 million more on this.
Dennis Rogero 02:59:13PM
It's the Lower Peninsula report. I Am with You.
Lynn Hurtak 02:59:18PM
That is what this council needs to know before now. If I had not asked for this report, we wouldn't know that we had this $20s million. And it is not because you didn't necessarily tell us, but part of how you always have done things. That is the kind of stuff we need to know.
Alan Clendenin 02:59:36PM
How does that happen?
Lynn Hurtak 02:59:38PM
That is what I am saying. I am trying to create a process at the end of projects. They bring stuff to us so we learn about this so we can come up with a better way. If you were starting to get to the end, if you have a large amount of money like that, let us know about it so we can put it on the agenda and tell us. And we have $20 million and use this with the South Howard Storm Relief Project. Gives us a little more idea how this money is used. More importantly, I have to say this because it hurts my heart. When members of the public come up and say that we can just take this money and divide it up and give it to people who lost everything. That is not okay. It's simply not okay. People who lived -- I have been inside people's homes who have lived in their homes for 30 years, who raised their children in their homes, and lost everything. They have been in the neighborhood, in the Community for years. And they have watched this happen over time. They have seen the water rise. This is not been a new phenomenon for them, but this time it got them. Climate Change has something to do with it. Sea Level Rise has something to do with it. We are working from 2016 numbers. A lot has happened in nine years. We have so much going on. We need to fix this. I am still committed to fixing this. But I want everyone who comes up who argues about this project to really think, is it okay for me to ask someone to leave their home -- would I leave my home? It hurts my heart. And today, I almost cried because we have to be considerate of our neighbors when they come here to speak about this. I just had to say that today. It just -- hurts me. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 03:01:59PM
Okay, so -- Councilman Carlson, are you going to give me a motion to continue?
Bill Carlson 03:02:06PM
I just want to say, I think -- I would -- I would ask to separate the project. These are not long Rfps, but rfqs and pulled from existing agreements with organizations. I don't want to have that whole argument now, but what I recommend that we make a motion to have staff come back in two weeks or in a month to tell us -- to ideally have them separate the water projects, but if we -- if we say today up or down, we know the answer they are going to give us. I will definitely vote no because I am not voting for anything connected to a project that is a boondoggle and not going to work. When I say it won't work, it will work with four or five numbers over a certain amount of time. But contrary to what the Mayor said this morning, solutions to prevent higher levels of flooding in our community and to protect against rainfall. A lot of cities around the world that have more sophisticated technology and infrastructure than what we are proposing. Quickly they come up with solutions. Council Member Viera is passionate in his areas, flooded areas in Tampa. We didn't talk about flooding, which was devastating for my district. Second, there were areas that had a pump and a working generator. Turns out the pump just wasn't strong enough. The design of it was not right or another area where the culvert were broken and flooded already before the storm hit. Another one that had problems with the Expressway dumping water into the neighborhood. Those are all areas that could be addressed. Says we don't have the money and wondering if the Mayor will ask for a stormwater increase. How much money do we have left without raising taxes and highest and best use of the money. Spend $100 million plus but protect the other hundreds or thousands of people that will got flooded. This never got flooded before because the basic infrastructure around them was broken, and they were promised with all these taxes, it would be fixed or maintained and continue never was. I make a motion to come back in two weeks or a month with the water project to ask how they can figure out separating it. But second, we need to -- in february at the workshop, not just the south howard probably but talking about what is all the money we have left between now and may 1, 2027. and what are the possible alternative projects we can spend that money on without raising taxes and wouldn't ideally taking on more debt and what we can spend the money on. The public deserves to have a discussion what the highest priority is. Managing that decision, we are not trusting the public to understand. Staff and administration can make their case in front of the public. But I think we need a full discussion not on the merits if the south howard project is good or bad, bum what are the at alternatives. We have limited money and need to help thousands of people. How to you apply the limited amount of money to help the most people.
Alan Clendenin 03:05:44PM
Somebody want to give me a motion for December 4?
Charlie Miranda 03:05:47PM
What date?
Alan Clendenin 03:05:49PM
December 4.
Charlie Miranda 03:05:50PM
4, 11 and the 18.
Lynn Hurtak 03:05:56PM
How about november?
Alan Clendenin 03:05:58PM
November is full.
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:01PM
I am ready to waive the rules.
Bill Carlson 03:06:04PM
I will make a motion to bring back 66 and 67 on whatever date you say, but to ask staff to try to separate --
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:13PM
November 20.
Bill Carlson 03:06:16PM
-- from The Water Project on november 20.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:21PM
November 20 --
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:23PM
Whoops.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:24PM
See we are not supposed to do that. I would still suggest December 4. it's like tomorrow.
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:33PM
My problem with that, getting the project from the --
Alan Clendenin 03:06:40PM
Remember we are at the end of october. It is not very far away.
Bill Carlson 03:06:43PM
I didn't get a second.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:46PM
Restate your motion.
Bill Carlson 03:06:56PM
Continue 66 and 67 to November 4 with the caveat that Staff move their best for it to be a separate water project not connected.
Lynn Hurtak 03:07:10PM
And mobility.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:11PM
A motion from council member Carlson. A second from Council Member --
Charlie Miranda 03:07:16PM
Discussion, if I may. I want clarification, separate money-wise and one time laying the pipes and closing the land and doing it again.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:28PM
Totally different streets and projects.
Guido Maniscalco 03:07:31PM
Water Main --
Charlie Miranda 03:07:34PM
That's what I want to know.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:36PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson and a seconded from Council Member Viera. Question from Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 03:07:43PM
Two questions. If I vote for this, I would have to ask staff a question. First off, continue to december 4 is the date I project going forward?
Brandon Campbell 03:07:58PM
If it is december 4, I think we would have two months in between the planned completion of this and the planned start of the main segment of work on Howard. However, if we were repackaging all of these segments all together, I don't know what the scheduled implications. Partners.
Brandon Campbell 03:08:30PM
If your thought is to ask me to come with a completely different project I may have.
Lynn Hurtak 03:08:48PM
As chair over mobility and technically stormwater, I am happy to work with you on that with a five week or so delay. How will that affect the project, if at all, before there is a contingency for the schedule.
Luis Viera 03:09:22PM
This is not to delay the project. And we need more time to get clarification to have leftover funds that is information we need. I need 110% to support this probably and see it through with my own vote and my own support. And this is not to delay the project but to seek more information that I think we need as Stewards of the Public's trust.
Alan Clendenin 03:09:56PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.
Bill Carlson 03:10:05PM
I would like to make a second motion.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:09PM
Can I recognize him or --
Lynn Hurtak 03:10:14PM
About the bond resolution?
Bill Carlson 03:10:19PM
I will just tell you the same thing I said a minute ago that to look at the money that we have over the next 18 months without raising taxes and taking on debt and have staff present to alternatives of what we can spend money on to get feedback from the public and make a decision what we think is the priority of that.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:41PM
That is new business.
Lynn Hurtak 03:10:44PM
That is new business, and I don't think I can support that because this only is here for may. That doesn't matter. We need to plan and keep going.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:53PM
Put a pin in this and have it for New Business.
Bill Carlson 03:11:00PM
The public is hearing.
Alan Clendenin 03:11:01PM
This is New Business, and parliamentarian procedure that is the way to go. We continued this item and Staff have direction to come back december 4.
Lynn Hurtak 03:11:14PM
I have one question. Where are we in design timeline for the south howard project? It was supposed to be to us in april of 2025.
Brandon Campbell 03:11:24PM
Mobility and stormwater. We are in the 30% design phase and anticipating the deliverables of 30% I will say by the end of the calendar year, late december, we have a 30% level of a probable construction cost. At this time, we can fully evaluate the potential cost and benefit all together at that point.
Alan Clendenin 03:11:55PM
Excellent.
Lynn Hurtak 03:11:58PM
I will work with you with all to get a motion together to present that to us. I do believe there are public meetings at the 30%, 60% and 90%. At each milestone, a public meeting.
Alan Clendenin 03:12:12PM
We are going to move on to Item 70 -- what is it? Help me, Mr. Shelby. Doing charter review presentation.
Lynn Hurtak 03:12:27PM
75.
Luis Viera 03:12:29PM
May I, Mr. chair just for notice.
Martin Shelby 03:12:32PM
Mr. Chairman, you distributed to council members late last week a memo regarding today's discussion of council. I just directed copies of that. So we have it in front of them. And I want to turn it over to you because we have in the audience today, Mr. Robert Hendrickson, who was somebody who was -- who has been highly recommended as a facilitator for the Charter Review Commission. One of the most important things that you take a look at today is the topics for today's discussion. And again, Mr. Chairman, you have proposed a special called workshop because if you look at the timeline, which I am going to ask council to take a look at and adopt it either today or in the future, you are on a very tight timeline and challenges for us in having this have ballot question on the vote for the public working backwards. We have to move quickly to get things on it and obviates the ability. We are looking for professionals, and Mr. Hendrickson is highly recorded. If you take a look at your timeline, you will see that what you need is the opportunity to bring on staff. But this has to be done by december 4, and I don't know if you are getting it. In an effort to kind of facilitate that process. And we gathered information from various sources including consultations with hagar and Mr. Shelby and others. Like he said, working backwards from the point to get this information to the Supervisor of Elections. None of this is written in stone. I know you had your personal experiences with the Charter Review Board and able to express your opinion on this as well. And the most important thing is we have to get started and the timeline is tight. Part of that is to have a schedule -- a special called workshop before november 6 so we can institutionalize the procedures on how we are going to run this Charter Review Commission and including how we are going to make these appointments. Those of us on the charter review, remember, you passed the creation of this procedure that is going to occur and the body of that. But if you -- you did not tell us how we are going to make those appointments. We have to make that determination. We made some assumptions that each council person would make one appointment. That doesn't quite fill our obligation, and we have a -- the alternates and others. I think that should be done is a special called workshop.
Martin Shelby 03:16:54PM
Please be mindful that on a special called workshop, I would suggest strongly that both the administration and the Mayor and the Legal Department be part of that as well because the Mayor has two appointments. This timeline, when it is adopted, will apply to having input from the Mayor as well. Sacred document and could not be amended.
Alan Clendenin 03:17:50PM
Somebody look at the calendar and throw out the dates for a specially called workshop.
Bill Carlson 03:18:14PM
If you start at 9 and end at noon.
Guido Maniscalco 03:18:18PM
A special election tuesday, correct. When does that individual who --
Alan Clendenin 03:18:30PM
I have that information. The Supervisor of Election will not have that until the 7th. First meeting. They will be sworn in and expected to be on the Dais by state law and required to vote by november 13.
Guido Maniscalco 03:18:46PM
That is the--
Martin Shelby 03:18:52PM
By the one in november 6 --
Alan Clendenin 03:18:54PM
November 4. sworn in on the 7th.
Bill Carlson 03:19:01PM
We can make it a point to get them to add things afterwards because it is a flexible. Called meeting that they are welcome to attend.
Lynn Hurtak 03:19:19PM
I can move stuff around.
Alan Clendenin 03:19:21PM
I will have to move things around too. We have a motion to have a special called Workshop between now and noon.
Bill Carlson 03:19:28PM
I move a special called Workshop of november 4 from 9 to noon.
Alan Clendenin 03:19:37PM
Council Chambers available on november 4?
Guido Maniscalco 03:20:11PM
November 4 from 9 to 12?
Luis Viera 03:20:35PM
I have mediation at 12:30. Okay, then I am good then. So long as we are out.
Alan Clendenin 03:20:40PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson and a second from Council Member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye, opposed. The Dais. Robert is a facilitator. You have his bio in front of you. I witnessed him facilitate that meeting. Those of you have heard me complain of past facilitators that we have. Robert did a phenomenal job. 10 out of 10. he did not get involved in subject matter and help facilitate the meeting and to reach conclusions, exactly what the facilitator should do. He comes highly recommended. And Robert, would you like to say anything? Introduce yourself. Nice to meet everyone. I --
Alan Clendenin 03:21:36PM
You are on the public record. You have to state your name. And as you mentioned, Chair, we met through a session we ran with the Sports Authority. I worked for the County, and I am an internal consultant, and I have been for my tennish years for the County by virtue of having done consulting years before. I get assigned to a lot of important, fun projects related to my skill set and run large programs, strategic programs for the County. This time came up as an opportunity and I wanted to answer your questions and tell you more about my approach, my background, whatever you need. And I will leave it at that.
Alan Clendenin 03:22:25PM
Kind of right to the discussion. What we are doing is bringing him on as a 1099. I would be asking Rob for a proposal which we will be waiting for to see. And got to get the proposal and see the -- get a fair deal for everybody concerned, and at least that is where I am right now. Anybody want -- Council Member Miranda, I see you look like you are ready to push a button. Council member Maniscalco?
Guido Maniscalco 03:22:53PM
Your bio speaks for itself and resume. You have a lot of experience during covid. I know that was a huge undertaking. So something like that. As council member Clendenin said, he watched you in action and you facilitate. Did your job without giving input. You let the board do the work essentially, and that's what you want, independent voices and them to come to the conclusion without any outside influence. You are just running the show. Your professionalism again. Your biography. We have more details here. Thanks for being here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:23:35PM
If you all have having conversations in the back, take them to the lobby. Thank you. I am having a hard time hearing. Second, so Councilman Carlson and I were both in the last Charter Review Commission. And it was a long commission. And we were, like, running to meet the deadline. So I think the importance of -- of staying on the deadline is really important, and I am happy to see this is going to be twice a month. So I don't know if I would suggest more than twice a month. Do you have thoughts on that? I know the discussion was between three and four hours. Doing these in the evenings, three hours should be sufficient. If we end up working together, I can -- I will learn fast and know more about the group and what our task is and keep everyone apprised. Because as much as a facilitation, probably of a sort, and we did really manage expectation around timeline, progress, to keep everyone here apprised and others. But I think that is a good starting point. And if we work together, we will get a lot smarter and a lot faster once we engage.
Lynn Hurtak 03:24:49PM
Do you recommend -- I believe we have an e-mail address last time.
Bill Carlson 03:24:54PM
We used our own.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:00PM
For the Facilitator. Do you remember if we did like chatter@Tampa -- something like that.
Martin Shelby 03:25:08PM
For what purpose?
Alan Clendenin 03:25:09PM
Look on november 6.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:13PM
Coordinate with Tnr Marketing.
Martin Shelby 03:25:16PM
One of the thoughts of was -- it depends. Talking of internal communication between the Facilitator and This Board or the Facilitator and Members of Commission or the public.
Martin Shelby 03:25:34PM
Chair Clendenin has been talking with Miss Copesky and myself and his Legislative Aide with possibility to talk about that at the special called workshop, one of those things doing through web forums and have that kind of communication.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:51PM
My only concern and this is -- I mean, we had the issue before. But I don't remember getting any personal e-mail at the time, but I am concerned about the -- about the personal e-mail of maybe the charter review members, and someone knows them. And send them an e-mail of what they think. And that person has to be responsible for -- for moving that to the public. So I -- what -- I am just curious in your experience with these times of commissions, what are you recommending that we to do make sure that people stay and follow the sunshine laws? I conveyed have some questions. I only have been here for only a week. Public input. How to have that fairly and transparently and make sure the concerns are voiced because they come in neutral in a sense and we come in with our appointees working on the Commission. We have to figure out a process and make sure how we get that and vet it with attention and rigor evaluating that into what we are doing. I have questions how it works. Whatever we do needs to be seamless and clear and responsive because we need to. We owe it to the public that we do just that. Was saying this morning. A lot more interaction, which is wonderful. I know you used to have that for november 6, and I believe that -- I need that question answered during the workshop. So coming up with maybe some ideas with Tni or something. That really -- that is, like, number one on my list.
Alan Clendenin 03:27:46PM
Mr. Shelby, will you remind me to work with Tni?
Lynn Hurtak 03:27:53PM
If we hire him as the Facilitator, he needs to be involved as well and his experience will dictate a lot of what we need to do here. Otherwise, looks great. I really like your resume. Maybe just random questions but appreciating you attempting to answer.
Alan Clendenin 03:28:10PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 03:28:13PM
To help meet the public records law, I recommend that we give them city accounts -- personal -- you know that we had lawsuits. And all that, I want to make sure that we have a chance -- if someone e-mails on personal e-mails, we can forward it and the city is managing it. Biggest thing for me with the facilitation is no bias. You know, I have done thousands of facilitations also. We have to make -- hopefully, you can go in with no agenda, nobody's agenda, and no agenda. And then if there is -- if there is something to refer back to, it is the council's instructions that we set on november 5, there are times with the Facilitator where we would make a statement, and say, well, we are supposed to be looking at this. And the Facilitator would argue with me, and I would read the document that the City Council gave us and the person would still argue with me and the City Attorney came running down and start arguing with us also. Another thing we fixed on the charter and its own independence. And I don't think this City attorney would run downstairs and intervene and be disruptive like the former attorney did. And Marty was sitting as the attorney for the committee at the time.
Martin Shelby 03:29:39PM
Actually, council, I was there actually -- let me not interrupt. But my role in that -- in that format was really to assist the board in sunshine and public meetings law, Public Records Law, but also to observe and to represent council as well at those meetings. But actually the City Attorney at that time in 2017-2018 ended up drafting the material and providing back to the Committee.
Bill Carlson 03:30:15PM
A lot of bias put into it by the City Attorney at the time and by the consultant. And I think the other thing was in the voting structure, which put bias toward the Mayor. One of the things I tried to get done in 2016 was to set term limits for City Council and the Mayor. And there was intense fighting from The City attorney on the term limits for the Mayor. And now everybody knows why. But we need to make sure that there is no bias. And the other thing is that the process -- we will talk about this more on the 5th. The process -- there was a standard charter and page by page, paragraph by paragraph comparing that to our charter. And we need to make sure that we didn't -- not going through line by line. Trying to get the big buckets. Not trying to do wholesale changes. And lastly, in the financial disclosure, this is not a committee that is not choosing a vendor or something and weighing in on the law of the land for the city. And so -- I think if we provide -- if we require financial disclosure for this particular committee, it will drastically affect the people that will get. That came from me because of the implications with the charter. I felt for transparency -- I put that in. We can hold this conversation to the workshop.
Bill Carlson 03:31:38PM
I thought you wanted to talk about that today. Walking in cold to the workshop and bring it to the workshop. Future. I am totally in favor of all of that.
Alan Clendenin 03:31:56PM
Knowing about the money is always a good thing to know. What I would like -- would you like to add anything to the discussion? I think I have a sense for what success is. My job is to get you there and get them there and do it efficiently and expeditiously. I run a lot of different sessions and always there are personalities no matter what. And I think the --
Alan Clendenin 03:32:30PM
No personalities here. Amongst the group because a shared job needs to be done. Get there with that and around what we have to structure and vent your candidates. Bias doesn't really factor in. And I think the other thing is -- you know, these meetings are made or broken before we enter the door. All about prep, thinking of an approach that make essentials, that allow for momentum. We need longer sessions and keep the energy high and people engaged. All of that is part of the approach.
Alan Clendenin 03:33:10PM
A Motion to negotiate a contract agreement with the Facilitator. Can we have a Motion?
Lynn Hurtak 03:33:15PM
Motion.
Guido Maniscalco 03:33:16PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 03:33:17PM
All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Secondly, we have to talk of an attorney position. Thank you. You can sit down and be tortured by listening to us. We need to talk of the attorney position. Mr. Shelby, discuss options of getting an attorney.
Martin Shelby 03:33:39PM
I will have to work you with, Mr. Chairman. I made some inquiries with people who might know people. Obviously, what is important here is the fact that it is an independent attorney that is not affiliated with the City of Tampa. To let you know, Miss Zelman said within the firms that the city attorney works with, that are suited for it. And the question is whether the City Council will even entertain that possibility and something we can discuss at the workshop because that will be able to perhaps be a shortcut being able to bring somebody on board. Obviously, it would have to be somebody who is known to City Council in some form or fashion and background and make the determination. What I am learning is that you would probably want somebody on-site presently at every meeting or want them remotely?
Alan Clendenin 03:34:46PM
I think On Site is important. Local.
Martin Shelby 03:34:52PM
Somebody would not have to travel. I know somebody that is very well suited in Mount Dora, and I don't think that will be very helpful. Ask council between now and the workshop that you have before the Chair has made some suggested structures. Even within the timeline, there are certain discussions. I know that council member Carson had mentioned this to require a simple majority of membership is required to take action, and the Chair put that in there. And with regard to financial disclosure, just please be advised that what you fill out as a city council member is the full disclosure form. And there is a form one, which is a much more simple disclosure, very abbreviated. That is an option as well. We take a look at what is in here. You either agree or disagree, but you will have a basis to have a discussion. What I am looking for, council, is on november 20 to present you with a draft resolution based on a discussion and direction that you give me tomorrow and be vetted in a resolution not only be to appointed on december 4, but also have the adoption of the resolution establishing the Charter Review Advisory Commission and selecting the facilitator and attorney. And to have a compressed timeline and work with the Chair and his office to be able to implement it.
Alan Clendenin 03:36:42PM
Councilwoman Hurtak, do you have a question?
Lynn Hurtak 03:36:48PM
Even if we have an outside attorney, will we still have someone like yourself to be there to talk about actual -- from the Cities.
Alan Clendenin 03:37:03PM
Represent the council's interest.
Martin Shelby 03:37:05PM
I wouldn't miss this from the World.
Lynn Hurtak 03:37:09PM
Just want to make sure because it is great to have an attorney that is there to not help with this. A lot to be said of someone who understands. I would not be surprised if Miss Zelman would have this.
Alan Clendenin 03:37:32PM
Envision Councilman Carlson if you have a big issue. Do you have recommendations for Attorneys?
Bill Carlson 03:37:37PM
No, but I think -- I think that we need to make sure that the attorney that is hired is not from a firm that is heavily dependent on The City. I know the City hired 30 different firms to conflict them out. But needs to be not one that is dependent on. Because to me, time for the City Attorney to weigh in is when the recommendations are presented to City Council. Not during -- the City Attorney should not bias the process of it. I think that a lot of my recommendations will be around providing balance to the City Attorney's Office. And nothing to do with Miss Zelman. But seeing the business from -- we need to make them rein that in. I've spoken to former attorneys and bart, and the charter set up for the City Attorney. If you were recommending the Mayor, the City Council, the department heads and committee members, and there is a conflict and two of them, you should recuse yourself and get outside counsel. That is the bar rules. Problem is the bar -- the Florida Bar is somewhat silent as to how city attorneys managed themselves. So it is not like there is -- there is major case law around this. What we need to do is set a precedent that makes the City Attorney's Office follow the same rules that other attorneys would. And the content of that is what we will discuss on november 5, but we need --
Lynn Hurtak 03:39:13PM
4th. This. But need to make sure that Andrea is not running down here saying you are trying to change the strong form of government and bypass the process.
Alan Clendenin 03:39:30PM
We might. We may declare the City Council chair Mayor. [laughter] everything is on the table.
Bill Carlson 03:39:39PM
Former City Attorney came down and threatened us saying you can't do it. He wouldn't be entitled to do this.
Alan Clendenin 03:39:46PM
To right-size this. We haven't determined the role -- one of the roles of Attorney is to transfer the language agreed to by the Committee into legislative language. One of the major roles. What their participation is. And they may not be able to participate in every single meeting. May not be needed in any single meeting. One of the things we will discussed. Especially the two of you to bring to that november 4 meeting what you will see as an Attorney's role in this process from this -- from the kickoff to the end knowing that we have to get this stuff translated into legislative language, in deference to our City Attorney, Councilwoman.
Lynn Hurtak 03:40:29PM
Also a --
Andrea Zelman 03:40:32PM
Past member. I don't mean to be argue. When Gina Grimes --
Alan Clendenin 03:40:45PM
Start with your name first.
Andrea Zelman 03:40:46PM
Andrea Zelman. When Gina Grimes became City attorney in 2019, we discovered that the Legal Department was using outside attorneys that had expired contracts. That had no contracts. The office intended to use the same attorneys over and over again. So she issued the rfq, which isn't required. You don't need to go through the procurement process to hire level professionals at the City. She did that in an attempt to do two things. One was to broaden the people that the City was hiring, and so, like we specifically advertised -- advertisements but information about the rfq to law firms to try to widen the scope. The other thing with doing it the way she did it -- and this was something that we copied from Hillsborough County was once we had received a bunch of law firms that wanted to do work for the City, we created a standard form resolution that council was approving all of them at that time, and approving the standard contract we would enter with them at that time. So then when we would get sued and hire an outside counsel for an appeal or whatever, we would quickly engage them without having to draft up a contract, bring it to council, get it on the agenda, and get it approved. But it did not conflict until they are actually engaged in a particular case. That is the point at which we look at conflicts. I want to make sure by doing that, we didn't do it to conflict anyone. And to marty's point, if you want to look at the law firms that we already have approved agreements with, in general, having engaged them necessarily that would save you time. Because you would skip that step of him having to negotiate a contract with them. Get it on a council agenda. Get it approved. But if you want to hire someone that isn't one of the ones we -- that is fine with me. I am just reiterate what marty is saying which is you would save some time if you use the ones from our list.
Alan Clendenin 03:43:08PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 03:43:15PM
I am not opposed to using ones on the list as long as we are not getting a chunk of bills from the City, Someone getting thousands of dollars may be less likely to be objective.
Andrea Zelman 03:43:30PM
Somebody getting a lot of money. We have a Cap. By definition, the ones that are doing $100,000 or $200,000 worth for the City wouldn't be able to take this on because this would bust the Cap.
Alan Clendenin 03:43:47PM
Have Councilman Carlson as a chair of our Attorney Recruitment Search Committee.
Bill Carlson 03:43:53PM
I don't think we are allowed to do that.
Martin Shelby 03:43:58PM
If you do, he would be subject to the sunshine law. I will be happy to work with any members of council if you have any suggestions, and Mr. Chairman you would refer me to brief the council members.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:12PM
Mr. Shelby, I appoint you as the head of our Attorney Search Committee.
Martin Shelby 03:44:17PM
I should point out, I am not familiar with the -- but within this City working for Firms, a great many good Lawyers that have local government experience.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:31PM
A great many good lawyers.
Martin Shelby 03:44:33PM
A good many great lawyers.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:37PM
Spoken like a lawyer.
Martin Shelby 03:44:40PM
If you have any suggestions for me individually.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:46PM
Great lawyers that are cheap.
Martin Shelby 03:44:53PM
Inexpensive or cheap.
Lynn Hurtak 03:44:57PM
Three things. You can have two, but you can't have three.
Alan Clendenin 03:45:00PM
Councilman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 03:45:02PM
I have a question how this is going to be structured. This will be structured like a workshop so the public will be able to speak on each item. Because the public is going to want to know that, you know this. I want to make sure as we set this up, that there are breaks for the public to comment, since this is a brand-new thing. I wouldn't want anyone to comment up-front because we can learn a bunch of stuff and have people to weigh in.
Martin Shelby 03:45:34PM
My suggestion -- forgive me, you are limited by three hours. By the end of these three hours, I need direction from council how to get a resolution. The public can type letters, pick up a phone, and call individual council members, unfortunately, people in your community -- but for us to break this down this as a regular workshop. Just a reminder, this will be downstairs in the Mascot Room. It will a public meeting, and it will be noticed and recorded. Really, frankly, if you -- if any of this timeline gets screwed up, I don't want us to be in a position where we were the last time.
Alan Clendenin 03:46:13PM
People are listening now.
Lynn Hurtak 03:46:18PM
A space for public comment maybe at the end.
Martin Shelby 03:46:21PM
By the way, one last thing about public comment. There is talk here about public comment about whether -- how are you going to conduct -- how the commission is going to conduct public comment. A very important discussion as well. But it was brought to my attention that there is an opportunity to come to City Council and tell City Council something as a whole during public comment in any regular meeting. Any concerns that people have, they have the opportunity to bring it to City Council and share.
Alan Clendenin 03:46:58PM
We have an Appointee we can share that with.
Martin Shelby 03:47:02PM
Only concern I have -- and I will share this council and forgive me for doing this, and I want you to know that the -- that the concern that I have with regard to the process, a great deal of time was spent -- you know something, I would rather say this off line instead. Discretion has gotten the better of me.
Alan Clendenin 03:47:29PM
You want to say something?
Bill Carlson 03:47:33PM
We knew this in our charter review Commission. The public and administration needs to know that whatever they recommend, it has got to go before council. Council is the only one to put it on the ballot. The Commission can't. What we were talking about on the 4th is setting guidelines for the Commission. Whatever they come back with, to accept, reject, or modify. It will be up to us. And the really important meetings where the City Attorney and everybody is there, and the Commissioner's role is to take a new perspective, get public input, analyze the details.
Alan Clendenin 03:48:15PM
I think we are finished with this discussion. Workshop set for november 4 for three hours, Sister Cities Room. Those listening in the public, input on that please advise and know that each Council Person would be -- I'm assuming each Council Person will set the rules. We will be searching for members of the Commission shortly. So if you have interest, please reach out to your Council Person to express that interest.
Bill Carlson 03:48:47PM
Says jointly pick alternates. What is the process of nominating alternates?
Alan Clendenin 03:48:52PM
We need to figure out and will leave that up to you.
Bill Carlson 03:48:59PM
If we did seven alternates, we each could pick one.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:04PM
Awareness because of the way y'all did this and the way you established it. The Mayor gets one alternate and council gets one alternate. That way members get one. If you lose two people, we make the council the alternate and the first one -- the Mayor's alternate. Gives us one more position on the Commission, fyi. This is to have awareness.
Martin Shelby 03:49:28PM
Okay, council.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:31PM
Very good. Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it. Get it in some time this week. When you get that proposal done, I will be looking forward to receiving that. Thank you for taking the time.
Charlie Miranda 03:49:45PM
Hope you feel better.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:49PM
Thankfully, you don't have to deal with us.
Guido Maniscalco 03:49:52PM
Mr. Chairman, I am going to leave at 5:00. I have another event.
Alan Clendenin 03:50:00PM
And miss this? I am not leaving. I am going to sleep Here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:50:06PM
I can read this now.
Alan Clendenin 03:50:08PM
Councilman Hurtak. You have the privilege of by law reading the next item.
Lynn Hurtak 03:50:14PM
Yes. So this is a -- this is the red light camera report that I have to read out loud. Effective july 1, a great day, my birthday, 2024, Florida Statute Section 316.0083, subsection 4, requires the results of City of Tampa red light camera program be presented and actually under staff reports of a City Council meeting. The report to a City Council must include a written summary of the results of the red light camera program, which must be read allowed at the meeting and include an annual report filed by the Department of Highway Safety. The annual report from july 1, 2024 to june 4, 2025 is attached and a summary is as follows. A number of notices of violations were issued. Do we have a copy of this that I can pop on the elmo or the wolf? It doesn't matter. Notices of violations.
Alan Clendenin 03:51:28PM
You have one? The Officer has one.
Lynn Hurtak 03:51:35PM
A lot of people are very visible. 121,431. Notices of violations contested, 764. number of notices violations upheld, 568. number of notices of violations dismissed, 176. number of uniformed traffic citations issued, 38,644. Notice of notices of violations, 80,781. Revenue paid to the state, $6,721,206. Revenue paid to mobility, $2,160,000. Net revenue for the city excluding operation cost, $5,611,719. Directed to intersection capital, 1,429,408. General Fund, 4,208,843.
Alan Clendenin 03:52:43PM
Thank You. Thank You, Councilman Hurtak and Officer.
Lynn Hurtak 03:52:50PM
They didn't put it up there. Operations Division.
Alan Clendenin 03:52:59PM
Were you volunteered for this today? [laughter]
Alan Clendenin 03:53:08PM
Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 03:53:13PM
A quick question for you. It haven't started yet, but these numbers -- in the future, will they or will they not include the new school zone cameras? That will be totally separate.
Lynn Hurtak 03:53:29PM
Good news just so that people are aware of that. Thank you so much.
Alan Clendenin 03:53:35PM
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Not nearly as enjoyable as listening to us. Have a good one. Item Number 69. The City of Tampa.
Alan Clendenin 03:54:07PM
Good morning -- or good afternoon. I prepared a memo within the formation of the office. We are recommending that we go in a three-phased approach. The first starts removing us from identification to design and due diligence. Second phase is the actual implementation and opening of the office. And third phase goes back to evaluation that we set up in that phase one to make sure that we are really achieving the objectives that we established to really reach this population and connect them to long-term careers.
Alan Clendenin 03:54:45PM
Council member Viera.
Luis Viera 03:54:51PM
Miss McKenzie, when we spoke before when I got you outside there, this is a very important issue. Mayor and Chief Bennett have a big heart and Sheriff Cronister deals with this issue as well. And an important issue that we discussed every year in the united states, about 650,000 people leave the prison system, and two-thirds of that will reoffend and go back to prison. Abject failure for our society and community, more disruptive to communities and as well as more crime. And you know, the issue of returning citizens I think kind of got on our -- on our wavelength. As of 2018, it was known as amendment 4 that sought to restore rights to citizens who are not sex offenders and murders. What the legislature did was a different issue and got the issue on its forefront. And we worked -- I have been able to work with organizations like our good friends at Abe Brown Ministries. People like Mr. Robert Blunt, the late reverend abe brown. Dee Jones, when she was on their board, and now with our Public Defender, wonderful attorney. Many folks. Because previously we did a returning citizens ordinance on incentives for contractors. We had worked with the Jewish Community Center and the Florida Rights Coalition, and we had a lot groups to give a lot of input on this issue. The way I see this is -- and the memo sets the preface for the beginning for this administration to begin with. So to tie it up for the incoming mayor whoever he or she may be. It is important for the City of Tampa to have a spotlight on this issue because this issue will have a spotlight because of more broken families, broken community, and higher crimes. This issue is a safety issue. A lot of people look at this and say we can't deal with this. I am not some radical -- far from it. Not and issue of being soft on crime or anything. I mean, I always have been proud to have supportive law enforcement in my career and so forth and support law enforcement. This is about fighting crime, restoring family, and bringing communities together if done right. For those people who want to return home from incarceration and work hard to put food on table for their families and be productive members of society, we have to meet them halfway. If I can inquire to perhaps have an update. How long do you all think you will need? Along. We are moving at a good clip.
Luis Viera 03:57:55PM
Quarterly with council to be in march of next year.
Alan Clendenin 03:57:59PM
With written updates.
Luis Viera 03:58:01PM
Of course. A great idea. If it is written -- if it is written and something is there, we will have a -- we will have a live thing there. If I may, make a motion for quarterly reports at the State Office of Returning Citizens to come back in february 2026. man, I can't believe we are there. That's it, if I may.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:27PM
A motion from Councilman Viera. Second from --
Lynn Hurtak 03:58:30PM
Second. I am trying to find the date.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:32PM
Strategic pause here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:58:36PM
The 5th is a written staff report.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:39PM
A motion in Councilman Viera and seconded from Councilman Hurtak. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you so much for your report.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:49PM
Moving on to Item Number 70. the one and only Brandon Campbell. He is back.
Brandon Campbell 03:58:54PM
Good afternoon, council, Brandon Campbell, interim director of the Mobility Department.
Lynn Hurtak 03:59:00PM
Bring your pillow and hang out with us. Just sleep here.
Brandon Campbell 03:59:04PM
I will go very fast with these because --
Alan Clendenin 03:59:08PM
We have all seen them already.
Brandon Campbell 03:59:10PM
On the web site and on base. But just a brief overview of the resurfacing work that our team has done in the last quarter and a couple of project on the quarter as well. And I will put them on the projector as I speak about them, those that were completed last quarter including the ones on the screen in Virginia Park. Woodlawn, Himes, and the surrounding streets there. Southbound to Bayshore, south of Gandy, North Boulevard, Tyson Avenue, west of West Shore, and then a short portion of Rocky Point Drive, reconfiguring the lane.
Alan Clendenin 04:00:09PM
Mr. Campbell, how many of those projects were done In-house?
Brandon Campbell 04:00:15PM
All of them had some in-house or work done. Three of those six projects or seven projects -- no, it is six -- are some contractor support along with them. I believe that was just the milling portion of those three projects. This is one season under way. Gomez Corridor is wrapping up this month. Azeele in the Beach Park Area. I did -- something of northwest on this map showed Ward being north of Cleveland. In case there is any confusion about that and also noting that there are other work in the area south of here along West Shore and east of West Shore, Linebaugh, from Florida to the east. Yukon Street between 30th and 40th. Another segment that is part of the project that is west of here. And we have waters as well. This in addition to the -- to the capital projects that we have spoken about previously and that we are continuing to plan for the remainder of this fiscal year. That work totaled.
Alan Clendenin 04:01:51PM
Hold on for a second. Councilwoman Hurtak --
Lynn Hurtak 04:01:57PM
No --
Charlie Miranda 04:01:59PM
I believe you have a new macHine with One Sweep.
Brandon Campbell 04:02:04PM
That's correct. We have a second paver. We commissioned a paver, a replacement of one at the end of useful life at 15-plus years old. Same model as the one we purchased earlier this year. A little more efficient. Crews say they are easier to maneuver and perform their work with less breakdowns and better on a day-to-day basis.
Charlie Miranda 04:02:33PM
I have a few calls saying thank you for the City paving in My Neighborhood.
Alan Clendenin 04:02:38PM
West Tampa needed some love. I will sing to them all. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:02:51PM
Congrats on the new macHine. What is the staffing required to --
Brandon Campbell 04:02:57PM
I don't have the exact number of crew needed for -- for one specific Paving Crew, but we do have two separate crews that can operate simultaneously in Certain Areas.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:13PM
My next question, do we have sufficient staffing?
Brandon Campbell 04:03:18PM
We did. We have a couple of vacancies still. But we reallocated Personnel within the Transportation Side of the Operations Division to make sure we have staffing for those critical needs.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:30PM
And because I have to ask, are Paving Crews dedicated to just paving or pulled off of other things to do other things?
Brandon Campbell 04:03:42PM
Generally paving is all they do. They can build skills in other areas of similar -- of similar job descriptions. And they can move from one Crew to another.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:53PM
To do what?
Brandon Campbell 04:04:00PM
Signing, marking, and special events crew. One subgroup within the transportation side of the Operations Division. Paving Crews that are their own functional area but move across functional lines as needed.
Alan Clendenin 04:04:15PM
A Unionized Workforce that would have to be negotiated as well.
Charlie Miranda 04:04:21PM
Includes people that you have with flags that stop the traffic and everything else who have done a wonderful job.
Brandon Campbell 04:04:34PM
Yes. >>Bill Carlson: since you have the floor, and I traded e-mails with you, out of the five north-south arteries in South Tampa, four of them were blocked the same day. And you also copied me on D.o.t. On behalf of Constituents that I got a lot of complaints from, if there is any way to -- and you responded -- any way to coordinate so that people can get in and out. That will be helpful. But other thing is, can you take 30 seconds to explain.
Brandon Campbell 04:05:20PM
Certainly. Sunset Park by the southbound traffic approaching Manhattan from the stormwater project. Let me back up and mention that we are having a community meeting next wednesday evening. So I don't know if all the details have been finalized. But I believe invitations have been sent out. We intend to meet with the communities, the Virginia Park and Sunset Park -- Sunset Park specifically, as drivers can approach the closure at Bay to Bay. Seems like there may have been some confusion what is the official detour, people making a southbound right and make their way into a less navigable area. You go down schiller, I think it is not a straight shot. A bit of confusion that I think we can help to alleviate with signing adjustments. Happy to talk of whatever ideas the community has in between now and then, particularly.
Bill Carlson 04:06:23PM
You put out some additional signs and looking to put out more.
Brandon Campbell 04:06:26PM
Yes, southbound, it would be west. Most people approaching that intersection is coming down Henderson before they have come to Manhattan.
Bill Carlson 04:06:45PM
For disclosure, I got stuck there. And I got a call from a Constituent that I didn't see until I got out. We don't want people to be racing through those Neighborhood Roads. Thank you for your help on that.
Alan Clendenin 04:06:59PM
Councilman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:07:01PM
That leads no another question and to bring up South Howard stormwater project. As we are starting to repave roads, repaved roads are used as Detours. I like to call them Cut-throughs, but Detours for these type of projects. What are things that we can do temporarily to get people to slow down on these neighborhood streets that are being used as Detours, is there anything?
Brandon Campbell 04:07:36PM
Excellent question. We will share more broadly with the community on wednesday, Quick Actions Teams that do neighborhood safety studies. They are looking specifically at Virginia Park now because that is where the grid is, and we have several streets in between the closure and the official detour. So they will come back to me with some recommendations that may be additional stop signs. Maybe, you know, speed humps or the like. I don't know exactly what those recommendations will be. There is some data collection that is taking place right now. It may have -- I don't know what percentage of that data collection is available, but opportunity for additional input or collection afterwards.
Lynn Hurtak 04:08:23PM
I appreciate that, but what the Community is probably going to ask for because I would ask because I have the problem in my Neighborhood. Before we shut down the Streets, if we look at the Streets that we are recommending that People go down and provide those speed calming measures before we do.
Brandon Campbell 04:08:47PM
Understood.
Lynn Hurtak 04:08:48PM
Really what the public wants and expects us to do, even if it is a temporary measure. If we are adding a four-way stop for three months. Did you do that in Seminole Heights and Neighborhood -- the Neighbors loved it so much they demand it to be kept and it was. And it hasn't impacted. It was a really good addition. So definitely -- I would be more interested in finding out ways we are doing stuff ahead of time, because all of a sudden you wake up, and people are speeding down your street. That is not okay. Especially for kids that are used to playing on the street because it is not a heavily traveled street. We need to be considerate of the Neighbors before we start these detours, which are awful anyways but they are needed. What can we do to make sure that the project is considered?
Alan Clendenin 04:09:50PM
Brandon, roll into 72 and talk of Pump Stations.
Brandon Campbell 04:09:54PM
Sounds good. Do I have to introduce myself again?
Luis Viera 04:09:59PM
If I may, 4:30 I have a call --
Alan Clendenin 04:10:03PM
We may be out from them.
Lynn Hurtak 04:10:06PM
This will be a while.
Luis Viera 04:10:09PM
If at all possible, I had a motion I wanted to make for is something for next week. Wanted to hear what Miss Feeley had to say. Is it okay that we hear this item before Brandon? I hate to.
Alan Clendenin 04:10:29PM
Brandon, always has a cold beer waiting for him at Home. Flip these items. Miss Feeley, Item Number 74.
Abbye Feeley 04:10:41PM
Good afternoon, council, Abbye Feeley, Administrator for Economic Opportunity. I have a couple of slides I want to share.
Luis Viera 04:10:52PM
If I may ask, Miss Feeley, how long do you need for your presentation?
Abbye Feeley 04:11:03PM
Five minutes. Depends if you have some questions. Update on the $2 million of General Fund for homeowners hurricane assistance. The purpose of the funds is to direct financial -- to provide direct financial assistance for the homeowners impacted by hurricane helene and milton. As I mentioned, there are general funds and really to support long-term recovery and resilience. The program priorities -- what we are going to do is prioritize by zip code. And our goal is to provide funds to those hardest-hit areas. I think what we found from the $3.2 million and what was administered by Icf and being finished by Housing. And they should be done in the next couple of weeks. Our target goal is by november 1. we had several people who just went over the Ami. Just made enough money to not fit the requirements of funds that are in there. So we are going to prioritize these funds by zip code. Forest Hills, Palmetto Beach, South of Gandy in the Port Tampa Area. And since these are general funds, we don't have to use necessarily the hud standards, but want to use the reasonable standard. 10% above the Ami. 10% above the 140 puts us at approximately $160,000 of income for a family of four. We are updating for one family, two family, three family -- sorry, one person, two person, three person households. Some of that is correct with a maximum award up to $30,000. A couple of things on that. We still have people who already made their repairs but were above the income level. So we are going to use some of these funds within those hardest-hit areas. Families in Forest Hills that already repaired their home, we will reimburse. The second tranche of money will help to go make those repairs up to $30,000 on that. Those funds for recovery will include roof repair replacement, hva c systems, dry wall, flooring, cabinetry, and free removal. We have people who still have trees on their property. We are going to provide funding on that also. We did run into from the first program -- I shared with a couple of you, some that were hand written. Some that were forged. We will make it into two allocations. First allocation that will allow to you buy cabinetry. To get things done. And once that is completed, we are trying to give good stewards of the funds that council so graciously gave. We will do a press release and launch a web app. You can apply online. Call our housing hotline, and we will help people through that process. Finalizing having people available at hanna and have them go over with you looking at funds, as well as go over the required paperwork. We will have people available to provide that assistance. We will then -- as I mentioned review and prioritize by zip code. And what our goal is, the way we work our math now, we are open two days a week. With hha, we have an action period open monday through wednesday of each week, which will allow us then to work on those applications. The thursday and friday of that week so that way we are on a rolling schedule. You have what is coming in and what is getting processed versus putting it open for a couple of weeks. This will be a rolling action with that prioritization of the zip codes. As I mentioned to you, the inspection, the award and the payments. If it is a reimbursement that did not get funded under the first program and their still seeking reimbursement, it will be a one-time allocation. We will go out, look what they did, make the repairs, and match the scope of work, and reimburse the fund up to $30,000 on the new repairs as I mentioned. The two phased payments up to $15,000 initial and up to $15,000 final. But clearly based on the scope of work they are trying to perform. If they are only performing $18,000 worth of work, it will be a nine and nine type of situation. Our goal is to have all of funds fully extended by september of next year, not encumbered but extended, out the door claimed out with 90% of them targeted to be done within 606 days of permit. Some of this work does require a permit. Some of this work does not require a permit. We will be happy to talk through that as people come in. Some that is our strategy.
Lynn Hurtak 04:16:53PM
Board member Viera -- sorry, council member Viera. Already in the Cra.
Luis Viera 04:17:00PM
All good. I want to say to Miss Feeley, thank you very much. You put in so much time with $3 million in this. You and your office have put in a lot of time in helping people. And from the bottom of my heart, this is very important. Because I read in the paper -- was it Pensacola County or St. Petersburg City Government that is looking at doing it? Did you see that in "the times?"
Abbye Feeley 04:17:24PM
I did not.
Luis Viera 04:17:26PM
They did this in that area, and good to see that this is apparently happening. What is important are these funds. More inclusive and original funds block the middle class people who really got hit hard. And, you know, I am glad you cited Forest Hills and north, Tampa Palmetto Beach. I visited out there and in District 5. man, those people got hit hard. Very hard. And with Councilman Carlson's district. A lot of our friends in South Tampa. This is money that is available for everyone. And give a shout out to our acting Chairwoman, acting Chairwoman Lynn Hurtak, because I was going to propose a million or so dollars. And councilman hurtak talked of downtown victims of the leftover funds, she said $2 million is even better. And I think that is important. The main thing this year with milton and helene and people are still hurting and people don't care that Government is working on the middle class and the working class. And our job is to rebut that belief. I will be sending this information out on social media. Everybody can benefit from this. Because these folks really need help. And I -- we all deal with these folks all the time and they are still going through hell, not just emotional hell from that trauma, but the financial, physical hell from just having this. So thank you very much for that.
Lynn Hurtak 04:18:56PM
Council member Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 04:18:58PM
I want to thank you. A lot of people that are still trying to make it. Monies just don't last. Cost of things are enormous. Cabinets -- you put a nice cabinets in the Kitchen. It is $11,000, $12,000. Do it yourself, do your own drawings and take it to People that make cabinets in Tampa. You can get it about $6,000 and $7,000. It is where you go.
Alan Clendenin 04:19:26PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:19:32PM
Thank you for that. People are absolutely surprised when I tell them we are the only city who has done this in the state of Florida. I want to give complete kudos to you and your crew and everything that you are doing. It is just -- it is wonderful. I know we still have a lot of money to give out, and hopefully, this will go a long way of helping more people. And it is just -- it is not enough, but it is something. And we are just so grateful for Your Department and for you to really have fast tracked this. It is just -- it is -- it means a lot. And we are still -- I mean, we are a year past. And it is still -- it is still hurting so many folks. I look forward to also sharing this. This is information available and where?
Abbye Feeley 04:20:20PM
Right now, we are in the process of finalizing some of web site with technology and innovation with Eric Caden's group. I know they have been working really hard to have it ready in association with this presentation today. If not, I asked them at least at minimum to put up hurricane homeowner assistance and say coming soon so people know if they are coming there and they are not quite there yet, they will be there. And definitely the third when the press releases goes out. Gave a little bit of time in between that press release and when we will actually go live. The Housing Hot Line is always open. They can call the Housing Hot Line and we'll have people ready to assist with answering questions. That at least people can start thinking about what they do have outstanding or what this money can really help them do that hasn't gotten repaired yet. I know there are a lot of people that need roofs still repaired or, like I said, the trees. The other thing is, we have crisis track. Please remember, when we did recovery afterward, we went through every street in the City. We know who has had impact. So we will be doing some checks and balances. If you are in an area that didn't flood, clearly we'll know it wasn't there. We want to try to be good stewards of the funds as we know there are a lot of people that really need them. So the Housing Hot Line, we will have people available to answer questions. That number is 813-307-5555. But we will get the information up on the website very, very soon. Like I said, I think there is a placeholder right now, but based on your feedback today, we wanted to make sure you guys were good with all of this. Then we'll start to get that preliminary and the timeline up there as well.
Lynn Hurtak 4:22:16PM
What I might recommend is that on that placeholder, you go ahead and put this powerpoint and that Phone Number. I think that would be a great placeholder to show people -- we can direct People there. Thank you so much. And thank you, again, for all your work.
Alan Clendenin 4:22:31PM
Thank you, Ms. Feeley. Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Brandon Campbell.
Luis Viera 4:22:48PM
My call is at 4:30 and we may be out by then. Really fast, council. Brandon sent out a motion when in november, the first week of november we were going to have Roy Caldwood, 103-year-old buffalo soldier, originally born in Harlem. 20 push-ups, out of control. He really does. It blows the mind. I can't even do five. I was going to have a contest with him at his house this week. His daughter said he should -- we were also going to General Butler, the first african american special forces general who lives in Tampa to talk about veterans day. Unfortunately, roy will go to the caribbean with his family. 103, I don't get it. He will go to the caribbean. So he was available october 30th, which is a workshop. So what I was going to do, number one, we take away the one in november. That saves time. I was going to move the workshop on disability housing to january 29. so as to -- actually save time by doing this, but that does require a waiver of the rules. I thought for 103-year-old Buffalo Soldier, we could waive the rules. That's all. That's my motion, if I may.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:07PM
Can't we do it in one?
Luis Viera 4:24:09PM
My motion is to move the november 6, I think it was -- Gosh, Almighty, presentation for veterans day to october 30, number one. Number two --
Alan Clendenin 4:24:22PM
Stop there. We have a motion from Councilman Viera --
Luis Viera 4:24:26PM
And waive the rules, yes, ma'am.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:28PM
Motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.
Luis Viera 4:24:36PM
As a consideration for that, the Disability Housing Workshop, we will move it to january 29.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:42PM
We have a motion from Councilman Viera. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.
Luis Viera 4:24:49PM
Thank you, council, including, Mr. Chairman, for hearing this out of order. Brandon, thank you for your patience.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:54PM
I was watching you on the high resolution monitor, you are so svelte, I think you should run for higher office. Mr. Campbell, we have teased you twice now. Department, here to go over our stormwater maintenance report. And that is available on the website, if you care to look at it at Tampa.gov/mobility. As before -- before I get into it, I did want to say, I know Councilwoman Hurtak had feedback about some formatting improvements that we could make. I've gone over that with my team. We have not yet been able to implement that to this, but they are on the way. Starting off, once again, with our calls for service for this calendar year, cumulatively we were a little bit behind the total number of calls that we received this year as compared to last year. Whereas that was not the case earlier in the year. That's indicative of the dry summer that we've had, thankfully.
Alan Clendenin 4:26:19PM
I think it's because we're paving the road. That too. The month of september, only 220 calls for service as compared to 658 from the month of september last year. I did want to highlight we do continue to have a number of calls for our cave-ins that we're continuing to repair. That's Our highest category of calls for the month of september, and we have been continuing to address those. I've got a good picture that I think will be helpful in visualizing what that entails.
Lynn Hurtak 4:26:59PM
I know that we put in a special request, I believe it's Kimmins who was doing the cave-ins.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:08PM
How is that going financially?
Brandon Campbell 4:27:10PM
So we have gotten to about the ceiling of that contract. I know that we were looking at ways to extend their work effort. But, yeah, we've used quite a bit of it.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:24PM
So even though we're still dealing with cave-ins, we're looking now that we might need to find more money to continue that.
Brandon Campbell 4:27:33PM
It's possible or to reallocate or use existing funds for a new contract. It's more the maximum of that contractual arrangement rather than the funding itself running out.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:46PM
And about what is the amount of -- how many cave-ins have they been able to do?
Brandon Campbell 4:27:54PM
I can tell you for this month they did 30. that third down highlight shows that 30 were done by the contractor. 16 were done in-house in the month of september. I can get back to you with a cumulative number if you'd like. I will say, we had 48 calls for service on cave-ins for the month. We addressed 46. I can tease out further, if needed, whether any of those 48 calls were overlapping calls for the same pothole. Roughly, if you look at one to the next, it appears that we are keeping up well as of now. In terms of other maintenance efforts that we completed in september, we did about 1.8 miles of ditches and about 6.8 miles of pipes. Those were scattered throughout the neighborhoods at the top of the page. Again, they should be reflective of what you're seeing on the gis map that we implemented just a couple of months ago. Something else I wanted to mention, and, unfortunately, I think this would be something that Councilman Viera would have been interested in. It's that we did in september do a dry-run, so to speak, of a test deployment of the temporary generators that we have a contract for with Sunbelt. That went well. We did not necessarily publicize it in the moment, but we were able to hook up and connect those generators and run the pumps on generators for a brief period of time just to verify that the setups are working and ready. Here are a couple of pictures of the test deployment. The last pictures that I wanted to bring, again, I mentioned we've done 46 cave-in repairs in the month of september. Sometimes it's good to see what that actually looks like because it's often conflated with just a simple pothole and from the before picture, you can see that it's understandable why one might mischaracterize that or misunderstand exactly what is going on where the repair requires a significant digging effort. So that said, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Alan Clendenin 4:30:29PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 4:30:31PM
I want to thank you and your Team for your responsiveness to Constituents. Lots of things going on. Even I saw some indentations I thought might be collapses. You checked those out and turned out not to be. Thank you for that. I had a Constituent that asked a question, so I'll ask it. This is not my question. The Constituent said that a year ago that they checked and there were either no manuals for Stormwater Maintenance or not updated manuals for Stormwater Maintenance. The question is, are there now updated Stormwater Maintenance manuals in place for staff?
Brandon Campbell 4:31:07PM
So we have Standard Operating Procedures. There is an endless opportunity to update, expand, codify things that are understood but maybe not written down. We have a set of Standard Operating Procedures. I see updates to those come across my desk at least every other week.
Bill Carlson 4:31:26PM
Are all those published?
Brandon Campbell 4:31:29PM
I know that we are uploading Those to a Common Database. I'm not sure how accessible Those are, where those might be available for People.
Bill Carlson 4:31:38PM
Considering that we have Constituents now that are digging into the bond records, the more we can make it just accessible online so they don't have to pull public records, the better. I think it will make all of us look good for being transparent. Thanks so much.
Alan Clendenin 4:31:54PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:31:56PM
Thank you. I did want to -- we've been doing these monthly reports for a year now. While these reports will still continue to be available on the website, staff has asked that we kind of close out having these monthly reports. So I do have a motion about that. However, I want to say that I will be working with Stormwater to make the information easier to find and easier to understand. And if you'd like, after we finish and have like a draft of it, I can bring it to council under old business so we all get a chance to look at it and comment on it. Now that I'm over mobility, it's like, I'm sorry. Brad had me there all the time and now it's you. I'm sorry. But I'm --
Alan Clendenin 4:32:47PM
I'm not. Hey, Lynn, Streetcar.
Lynn Hurtak 4:32:53PM
Bus. So, no, I just wanted to let people know that we are still working on the information. As Mr. Campbell alluded to earlier, we're kind of working on a way to make it clearer, easier for folks to understand. I move to discontinue the monthly Stormwater maintenance reports, the monthly information will still be found at www.Tampa.gov/mobility/stormwater. I will be working with the Stormwater Department to make the information easier to find and understand and will bring it back to council during old business when we have a working draft.
Alan Clendenin 4:33:31PM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 4:33:40PM
There is more. I don't know if any of you -- well, all of you. You got it. Ms. Kopesky basically gave us a whole outline of how funding is being spent because this is a question we keep getting ad nauseam. I don't know, Ms. Kopesky, if you have a copy and want to walk through it with us.
Alan Clendenin 4:34:10PM
Can we release Brandon?
Lynn Hurtak 4:34:12PM
Yeah, unless Brandon --
Alan Clendenin 4:34:15PM
Anybody else have questions for Brandon? It's getting late in the day. Brandon, thank you so much. Unless you would -- you can come up and sit with us if you'd like.
Hagar Kopesky 4:34:45PM
Hagar Kopesky, City Council budget analyst. So, yes, thanks for the tee-up. I don't know if we want to go through everything, but we know that there is a lot of interest in trying to see where the results end up after the year closes. Obviously still in process but materially finished. That's why I wanted to give kind of a brief overview on how it wrapped up. Taken as a whole, given all of the moves made through the year. If you remember, we started with a 2.5 million component of the General Fund, funding stormwater maintenance. And then throughout the year, you approved a $500,000 piece and later again another 3 million through the excess surplus from '24. With all the movement, the actual assessment results from, again, the citizens, and then the expenses inclusive of the 1.25 for kimmins and I think it's about 400 for the flow tech pipe cleaning. All of that being said, it appears like we will essentially have a round of 400,000 surplus in stormwater maintenance. Again, what happens with that, that rolls into the fund itself and will carry over into 2026. do you want me to hit the top of the trees? Okay. In terms of personnel, again, now, this is going to show both fiscal 25 preliminarily and fiscal '26. Really just the takeaway here is, I know there's been dialogue around personal expenses are a good portion of the stormwater maintenance. There had been some discussions about what it included. The primary point and I know this is small in the background, but it was intended to do a walk-forward to make sure people understand there were 11 positions moved out which took a large amount of salary dollars out. There were some adjustments done to recognize changes in certain roles and two new additional positions put in. We get a lot of questions in terms of just expense. The biggest line items -- I know this is very small. Maintenance and repairs, when brandon talks about all these vendors, mowing, kimmins doing the cave-in repairs, hauling things between one place and the other, that's all hitting the repairs and maintenance line. The increase you see in here, the 4.8 in '25, that's a lot of those -- the two emergency pos that happened. We have some of that rolling over into '26, but I think as we continue to dialogue and he continues to work through kind of what their priorities are, we'll have a dialogue around whether the existing 3.7 that we have in the budget is going to be achievable. Again, not saying it isn't. Just saying that is an ongoing discussion. The second largest item, when you see the motor pool, that's where the fuel and the repairs to the vehicles they use. That was basically a million dollars in '25. A little bit of a step-down in terms of what's in the budget for that to 700,000. We'll keep our eye on that. You know we talked about the vehicles, we have some aged vehicles, right? That will continue to be an area to watch. Again, I don't want to stay longer on this than you guys need to. I think there is a mention of two things. You've got the improvement assessment, a much larger master plan. Then a consultant they are using to help define where do our maintenance levels, our service levels, where do they need to be adjusted and what would the result of that be financially? That work is supposed to be coming back closer to the february time frame. Again, only mentioning that because there is a professional service element that is rolling into '26 to try to help identify those things. Again, when we talk about fund balance, we have to continue to remember this whole deck was around service. Today we had quite a bit of dialogue around improvement. Both of those highly relevant, but this entire presentation is on maintenance. Really, the headline here, for those that don't kind of know how the flow of the fund would work, I just wanted to show how we started the balance in 24 at 4.5 million. It takes into account all the things we would have seen on the previous pages, salary, capital spending, the in flow of the revenues themselves and works its way down through the period. In the very beginning, I talked about the fact that we added 400,000 to fiscal '25. So in the middle column, essentially all the detail and then the result of the increase of 400,000, which would get to us 4.3 million. If we perform to budget for fiscal '26, meaning if the revenues come in as we expect and we are able to maintain the General Fund contributions that were in the budget as well as the actual expense spending, all of that taken under consideration would require consumption of the fund and would therefore put the maintenance service -- the stormwater service fund balance slightly under a million dollars. That was really the main punch line on the slide. And then there was some discussion when brandon was here about kimmins and the work they did on the cave-in. I know that his team does some of the work internally, but this is dedicated to that 1.25 million that we spent with them. So here, they did utilize all of that between I think june and september. 95 cave-ins completed. All externally by this contractor. I wanted to give a brief view of the top ten and some of the addresses and the districts where those were done. And then taken overall, you can see the distribution of the location where these were performed in the districts in total. On a similar basis, flow tech was the partner that -- oooh -- is the partner that is helping inspect and clean out the storm pipes. So they have about 750,000 that's been approved to do that. They have gone through about half of it. The half has been performed in these general areas. And really, the call-outs on the slide are just to remind people when listening to the budget workshop, they are helping do this, but we have a tv truck that's being spec'd out to be acquired. Hopefully that will be in place by late spring of '26. And then the vacuum trucks themselves, we have five today. Those will be retired when the new three that are being leased arrive in january. All of those new assets will help attend to some of the ongoing service requirements that --
Alan Clendenin 4:42:34PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:42:35PM
Before you go off of this, I just want to state that the five, technically all Five are not in use right now. From my understanding, two are like extra for when one of the three breaks down. So we're not actually going down. We're actually going to be able to have three that are constantly in use. I just wanted to clarify that record. But then after you sent this out, I did have a question about hours versus linear feet of pipe. Still outstanding?
Hagar Kopesky 4:43:13PM
Yes. This is one of the items where as I work with Brandon's team, we have to understand how the data comes to them. This is invoice view, billing the time they spent at location. There is more data available at the linear feet level. If we choose to continue to have discussions around what we're actually getting done more relevant basis for measure would be the Linear Feet hours. You can spend whatever time you want. But I should not have time to work with him on that to get it in place for this particular slide. I think that's relevant for people to understand what distance you're going through and accomplishing. I'm going to put this up again. We did share it at the workshop. This is the list of the specific types of repairs and maintenance. The biggest being the mowing, which includes the Ditches, the Ponds, and the Lot. That is by far the largest piece. And then I think maybe two weeks ago, we had a reso come through to approve -- it's basically the outfalls and a lot of discussion about the things growing on that. Outfall maintenance is right in the center of the page. That's probably one that we'll keep our eye on because I think the department has been pretty honest about the fact that although we put in a certain level of funding here, just based on what they are trying to accomplish after the hurricane and where they fell behind, we'll probably have a little bit more there. We'll just try to keep this updated to understand where the trends are and what we're actually spending. There is a step down from 4.8 to 3.7. right now, presumably, we were able to catch up with some of the Emergency Pos. That's really something we'll have to continue to have a discussion with Brandon about. I do rely on them to initiate if there are any risks popping up that need to be addressed with additional funding. Last, just to remind folks, what is really in the inventory. I think people have become very educated on a lot of the equipment. What you can see really from this slide is that we are trying to chip away at replacing some of the aged items. And we do have a fair amount. You see the average age compared to the useful life. We're really making some headway with the sweepers. More recently with the three vacuum trucks. But we've still got some work to do. And then as a reminder for folks, $3.3 million in the 26, again, stormwater maintenance capital. This is again for the vehicle-related items. These are the particular priorities that the department has identified and actually brian updated me that the difference between the 3, 3 and 1.6 is the fact that those three leased vacuum, when they are available, they will show and they are approximately 1.6 million. It looks to be they will consume the entire capital this year. Okay. Any questions.
Alan Clendenin 4:46:43PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:46:45PM
I want to say thank you for doing this. I think this is a really beneficial thing that we keep getting asked about. I want to say thank you. I don't know if anybody else wants any possible changes to this.
Alan Clendenin 4:46:59PM
I think it was outstanding. I think the feedback was a really good product and I think it was useful and easy to digest and very applicable to the issues as Councilwoman Hurtak said of the questions that we're always asked, and issues that council and, of course, some of the points of our budget process, seeing where what we push for, how it's going to be applied. Great tool to track it as we go forward to see the justification behind what we're pushing for for the budget actually comes to fruition.
Lynn Hurtak 4:47:39PM
I do want to say as we go forward, one of the things we talked about I believe was Stormwater because I have quite a few plates spinning, possibly making a Stormwater update every six months and maybe with that, we could have Ms. Kopesky update us on the financials to go along with it so we keep our eye on that.
Hagar Kopesky 4:48:02PM
That was the goal. I was trying to complement what comes from the staff which has been very much focused on Visual Items, Work Order Basis and Service-level Items. I think pairing that with something that is financial is going to help tie those things together. If it's of interest to the group, I'm able to update that when they have the semiannual.
Lynn Hurtak 4:48:26PM
I found this useful. Is this something we would like Ms. Kopesky to do for other items?
Alan Clendenin 4:48:33PM
I think file it away and as things come up.
Lynn Hurtak 4:48:36PM
I'm not talking about the stormwater, but maybe as we're looking at South Howard, getting her involved in some of that financial work as well. Again, we can't talk any other time.
Alan Clendenin 4:48:50PM
I think what we bring forward is now understanding that the special assessment with the fund balance is. I don't know how much work there is if there's no money.
Lynn Hurtak 4:49:01PM
And that's why I think it's important to have this discussion with her now. I want to work on a motion about that. I wasn't able to finish it during lunch today. If it's okay with you all, I can work with her and Mr. Rogero on getting a motion together for next week that we could then --
Alan Clendenin 4:49:23PM
I think that would be timely.
Lynn Hurtak 4:49:26PM
Okay. I would be happy to do that.
Alan Clendenin 4:49:28PM
Very good. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That concludes our regular business for the day. So new business. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 4:49:36PM
I think we should create an ordinance that prohibits the use of Stormwater -- our money for parades. I don't know what date we can put it on. I would make a motion to have City Staff come back with a draft ordinance that would prohibit the use of Stormwater tax money or Personnel to be used on parades or events.
Alan Clendenin 4:50:06PM
I get it, but managing resources and, you know, a lot of the stuff becomes a shuffle. How they are being paid, where they are being paid, is there work to be done in that particular -- is there work to be done? If not them, who? How much will it cost? It's definitely a management allocation of resource issue.
Bill Carlson 4:50:40PM
Or it's a budget issue.
Alan Clendenin 4:50:41PM
It's a budget issue, too. You get it as a Business Owner of allocating resources, personnel and the people who have expertise.
Bill Carlson 4:50:50PM
The first thing is on parades, with few exceptions of city parades, whoever is doing the parade should be paying for these things.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:00PM
Guys, let's just say Gasparilla. It's an event that only happens once a year. You are not going to hire staff to do it.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:13PM
Contract. Contractors are for.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:15PM
But even contract, might be paying three times more than what we're paying Staff to do it.
Bill Carlson 4:51:22PM
Just like they reimburse us for Tpd and fire, they need to reimburse us for other stuff.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:28PM
In theory they do that.
Bill Carlson 4:51:30PM
But not applied back.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:32PM
Maybe that is the question to ask.
Bill Carlson 4:51:36PM
How about if I put on the agenda a discussion about limiting the allocation of resources in the stormwater budgets.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:50PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:52PM
We have a motion and we have a second. Continue discussion. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:56PM
Again, Hagar sent us out a list of the events. I'll be honest, I had no idea we had this many events. But my issue is that these events are during the dry season when we really need our Stormwater Teams to be out doing the work. That's the problem. Because I look at an allocation of resources as well. But maybe -- I just don't know when they have down time. We're asking them to prepare as best they can during the dry season and then during the rainy season, they are there to fix things or to keep cleaning things out as we get more debris. I don't know when they have a moment's rest. We are still asking these crews to work six days a week, still. That's not okay.
Bill Carlson 4:52:53PM
The other thing is when the last stormwater tax was passed and I can show you all the video of it, if you look at the news reports, the public was promised there would be maintenance every seven years. It's obvious that in most places in South Tampa, maintenance was not done until the public started raising hell a few months ago. The Mayor sent us nasty grams acting as if it had been done. We know from photographic and video evidence and now from the inspections that the Stormwater Team has been doing, I don't know why the Mayor is turning this into a political issue. It is a fact. The last administration did not use the stormwater money for maintenance. Part of this administration did not use stormwater money for maintenance. That's what the money was for. Now we know part of it was that it apparently was diverted for parades. I have all these neighborhoods in South Tampa that they are on me constantly, why can't you fix my street? Why can't you fix my street? The staff says we would love to but there's no money or resources. Why can't you maintain the ditches? One guy went on video because he had to dig his own ditch out. We don't have the resources. It's not the staff problem. Not the staff issue, it's an allocation of resources. It appears that the resources were misallocated. To be fair to the public and all the people that flooded, we should have a discussion about it.
Charlie Miranda 4:54:19PM
I think we have to have a much deeper discussion. A, what is the cost? What is the cost to do it outside? Children's parade, tell the babies can't walk in the street. And same people that don't have the streets paved. It gets voluminous than what we're talking on the surface. Scripted way, just like in finance and other areas, find out what the cost is, find out what the Applicant applied for. Maybe they can contribute. I don't know. You have to do it from the ground up for everybody. Children's parade, gay parade, knight parade, every parade. You can't just pick one. You have to do them all together. Every single one.
Alan Clendenin 4:55:05PM
We only have x number of dollars. If we contract out, let's say it costs three times more to contract out, that money has to come from somewhere?
Charlie Miranda 4:55:16PM
I'm not disagreeing with either one of you. You'll have some text to look at.
Alan Clendenin 4:55:23PM
Economic things, political things about certain events. The 4th of july parade. 4th of july fireworks. Look at some of the events, they are not profit events.
Charlie Miranda 4:55:38PM
I agree with you. Not profitable.
Bill Carlson 4:55:41PM
I didn't pick a date because I didn't know which date we could put it on. December 4. just a discussion about whether or not we should allow stormwater money and staff to be used on parades and events and what the alternatives might be.
Alan Clendenin 4:56:02PM
I think staff, Allocation of Resources and staff for special events.
Lynn Hurtak 4:56:11PM
What do we want to have in preparation for that? Do we want Ms. Kopesky to put something together for us? What do we want from staff? We don't just want to have discussion. We need to have some data.
Charlie Miranda 4:56:27PM
Be mindful, it might be Super Hockey Team that wins -- don't tell them to show up to work. Baseball, football, what do you do then? Who will pay for all that? We've been paying for it, I guess. A City thing. Lift up your feelings for your own City. There is a value to parades that people attend and go see. It's a night out, period. Like going to the park. Same thing as going to the park.
Bill Carlson 4:57:01PM
My point is, probably for the Bond Covenants we're not allowed to do that. But for the Enterprise Funds, that there probably are certain restrictions. Probably gray as to, at best --
Alan Clendenin 4:57:14PM
Let's have this discussion on december 4.
Charlie Miranda 4:57:16PM
One last statement. There is a value to the people who have very little that have a lot of fun on that day for very little money. That's got to be considered too.
Bill Carlson 4:57:26PM
I agree. Should come out of a different bucket.
Alan Clendenin 4:57:30PM
We control the buckets.
Bill Carlson 4:57:32PM
That's why I want to -- the Stormwater Tax is an extra tax that was very controversial.
Alan Clendenin 4:57:37PM
You have to move money from somewhere else to pay for it.
Bill Carlson 4:57:39PM
Did we get a second?
Lynn Hurtak 4:57:42PM
Yes.
Martin Shelby 4:57:43PM
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman.
The Clerk 4:57:53PM
[inaudible]
Martin Shelby 4:57:54PM
Who was the discussion with? Amongst council. Expecting no discussion or information from Staff or legal?
Lynn Hurtak 4:58:02PM
That's what I asked for.
Martin Shelby 4:58:04PM
You are having the discussion right now.
Bill Carlson 4:58:08PM
Why don't we ask the Chief of Staff to do it because it's overall -- I mean, we need to look at it from a citywide perspective.
Lynn Hurtak 4:58:16PM
Chief of staff. Then I'm going to ask that Ms. Kopesky maybe work with Mr. Rogero to get the financials on what we spend on parades. Do you have an idea, Ms. Kopesky, about what we could look at? I think part of what I wanted to highlight in the memo was that right now we just need to understand what tools do they use or are available that allow them to measure. For you to have information that says today on average, we spend x with extra duty, which I know that's one bucket that's fairly easy to quantify, if you pull from transportation, if you pull from stormwater, 10, 12, however many times through the year, is there something that Mr. Rogero and I can look at to even bring back and say, this is Version a, and this would be an external option. Right now, I don't know the answer to that. But we can certainly ask and see what's available.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:12PM
Remember, the special events, it's across all city resources. Our Police, our Fire. It's not just limited to one department. All of our Administrative People. Special events cut across every budget line.
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:28PM
Yes, but so many people were impacted by stormwater -- but that's Overtime. The Officers who are doing most of these parades, that's Overtime.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:43PM
Some. Probably most but not all.
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:46PM
We're not doing overtime for Stormwater People.
Charlie Miranda 4:59:48PM
We paid $250,000 Fire, Police somewhere in the last 30 years, we're going to cut that out? Same thing as this?
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:57PM
But it is not.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:59PM
This discussion has reached into what the conversation should be on december 4. I'll call the question. We have a motion to have this discussion. Did you include that Chief of Staff? Is that what you wanted?
Lynn Hurtak 5:00:14PM
I'll make an amendment to add Chief of Staff, Ms. Kopesky, Finance, and any other staff that need to --
Alan Clendenin 5:00:23PM
We have a motion. Can we take that as a friendly?
Bill Carlson 5:00:27PM
Yes.
Alan Clendenin 5:00:28PM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson, second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? The Ayes have it. December 4 schedule. Anything else, sir? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 5:00:39PM
I have a couple. I made a motion for staff to return with a draft ordinance regarding the lowering the sidewalk in lieu fee for hurricane damaged homes. Staff has requested a little more time. It was supposed to be on november 6, our next regular meeting, but I'm asking to continue it from november 6 to november 20.
Charlie Miranda 5:01:04PM
Second.
Martin Shelby 5:01:05PM
November 20 is the 11:00 day.
Alan Clendenin 5:01:09PM
Yes, the 11.
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:15PM
My only thing is --
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:21PM
Yeah, also, These People, we really want to try to get this done. Unfortunately --
Alan Clendenin 5:01:27PM
The Schedule is what it is.
Guido Maniscalco 5:01:31PM
[inaudible]
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:32PM
Okay. December 4.
Alan Clendenin 5:01:33PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:40PM
Because last year's was so useful, looking at the budget surplus from 2024, we're going to do it again. I'm asking for staff to present an in-person report, and I have talked to Mr. Rogero about this and Ms. Kopesky, staff to present an in-person report on december 18, 2025, to include the following data related to the General Fund, the Stormwater Service Fund, and each Enterprise Fund. I have this written. Preliminary revenue for fiscal year '25 by major and minor category for the Fy '25 adopted budget, Fy '25 preliminary year-end and the variance between the two. Next, preliminary expenses for Fy '25 by major and minor category for the Fy '25 adopted budget, Fy '25 preliminary year-end and the variance between the two. Next, preliminary change in fund balance from october 1, 2024, to september 30, 2025, schedules to include any reserves or other commitments identified to arrive at the actual unallocated balance.
Charlie Miranda 5:02:49PM
Second.
Lynn Hurtak 5:02:50PM
Next, detail of General Fund variance by department for personnel expense and other operating expense. Finally, a list of financial resolutions from september 1st, 2025, to november 30th, 2025, that had an impact on the General Fund fy '25 budget. Additionally asking finance staff to work with Ms. Kopesky on this.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:14PM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. That's it?
Lynn Hurtak 5:03:23PM
Yes. I will, like I said earlier, I'll work on that motion about Stormwater Bonds.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:30PM
Thank you. Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 5:03:31PM
I have nothing, Sir.
Charlie Miranda 5:03:33PM
I have one, sir. Make a motion to give an off-site commendation at the West Tampa chamber award gala to honor the hundredth year anniversary of the annexation of West Tampa into Tampa and also honoring the woman of the year, Audrey Perez, the man of the year, Leroy Moore, and the george guida legacy award to Bob Henriques.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:53PM
Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it unanimously. My only business would be, kind of piggy back on what Councilwoman Hurtak did with the mobility report. We do definitely have a need to try to alleviate some of the burden on staff for reports just for the sake of reports. I would appreciate if you have anything recurring on the schedule that is not something that is value-added, that maybe a report for the sake of a report.
Lynn Hurtak 5:04:28PM
Yes. Actually, after we finish stormwater, we'll move on to paving and sidewalks. The idea then is to make all of those quarterly -- I'm sorry, every six months. We'll come up with a plan so that they are reported to us every six months but still available on the website. I'm working on that to take that sort of stuff off.
Alan Clendenin 5:04:51PM
Look at what we have already. If there are things that we've exhausted, they are no longer required, what is the value added compared to the amount of time staff has to spend doing it, if we could entertain removing those from the schedule, I think staff would very much appreciate that. Secondly, I think that if when we see items, it seems weird to me, the items for council people that have not been on council for a decade for their names to continue to show up there. I think that's one of the things we should look at. Are those reports or things, these recurring things, are they still needed? I would suggest, if a report has a name of someone that is no longer on council, either somebody adopt that and reintroduce that and remove it from the calendar, under the Current Councilperson or we eliminate it completely.
Guido Maniscalco 5:05:44PM
I'll do my own research. I know there are council members that got elected in the '80s whose names still come up. Saul-sena, Mulhern, Dingfelder, all over. I'll go through past agendas and -- do you want a list by a certain time?
Alan Clendenin 5:06:04PM
Bring back a motion to remove those if we can or to reintroduce them under current council members' names if it's something still needed.
Guido Maniscalco 5:06:12PM
I'll do my own research.
Alan Clendenin 5:06:14PM
We'll hand that off to you, Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 5:06:17PM
All right. But before the end of the year.
Lynn Hurtak 5:06:19PM
I was going to take on the workshop session about the Large Format Digital Media from Councilwoman Henderson. We'll talk about that next week. I'm happy to continue that for her.
Bill Carlson 5:06:32PM
I like seeing the names of the Former City Council Members if it is still a relevant topic.
Alan Clendenin 5:06:38PM
It's interesting but it's a way for us to at least understand, somebody look at it and make sure it is not dated, something that is relevant and we bring forward and an opportunity for us to review it now and keep it alive or kill it if it needs to be killed. That's all I had. Motion to receive and file from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We're adjourned. [ sounding gavel ] disclaimer: this file represents an unedited version of Realtime Captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Any person who needs a verbatim transcript of the proceedings may need to hire a court reporter. Tampa City Council thursday, october 23, 2025, 9:00 a.m. disclaimer: this file represents an unedited version of Realtime Captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Any person who needs a verbatim transcript of the proceedings may need to hire a court reporter.
Alan Clendenin 9:01:09AM
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Tampa City Council. I would like to call this meeting to order. First order of business, I would like to recognize Councilman Maniscalco for our invocation and the pledge of allegiance.
Guido Maniscalco 9:01:19AM
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. It's my honor this morning to welcome a gentleman who really needs no introduction because he is one of the best human beings here in the city of Tampa and one of the best speakers, as we've heard him speak many, many times before. The gentleman is Mr. Ron Weaver. A little bit about Mr. weaver, he is a harvard law honors graduate. He founded 155 lawyers statewide. Stearns, Weaver Law Firm. He's chaired over half a dozen chamber committees. Chaired the St. Joseph's Hospital Finance Committee and Bay Care Finance Committee and also has been recognized as a junior league luminary amongst -- it's a short bio, amongst his many, many accomplishments. If we could please stand and Mr. Weaver come on up and please give the invocation. Tampa city council and staff. And every citizens' needs, especially the vulnerable, to life and serenity saving shelter and desperately needed mobility to work and education and meds. Shine 7 million lights again like saturday into restoring refound rule of law, free expression, evenhanded, non-vindictive justice. Please save us from legally dubious militarization of our cities and our high seas. Bring us real lasting peace, not performative transactional peace prized tryouts. Purge our personal and national sins of pride, neglect of poor, racism, division and selfish strife. For compassionate generosity, not generational wealth, not degenerative power, not treacherous flatteries, not betrayals of even-handed rule of law nor suppressing free speech or free elections any longer. We renew the 1800 john adams prayer dedicating the east wing his successor is tearing down in his own image. Lord may never there be any but wise and honest rulers under this roof. Collapsing today, weeping full the potomac, give us genuine submission to your compassionate will, not our own. Not our own. May freedom no longer weep nor justice sleep or weep for her and your ordained judges and their families threatened just for doing their sworn duty. Pierce our conscience to restore our history of our wrongs, lest we repeat them. Restore wisdom, truth, compassion, integrity upon which you founded this nation and can now redeem it with that same wisdom and truth, compassion and integrity. May power, purse, and privilege disguised as patriotism no longer parade lawlessly or unevenly or vindictively. May hillsborough river and the apalachee and the potomac hear again the sweet liberty, irrepressible sounds like the prayer I will pray a second time from 1800 from john adams dedicating the east wing. Lord, may there never be any but wise and honest rulers under this roof, collapsing as we pray, weeping full the potomac. Amen. [pledge of allegiance]
Alan Clendenin 9:05:05AM
Mr. Weaver, I don't have a microphone, but I do have this. [ applause ] wow. I think we could just adjourn now. Clerk, can we have a roll call, please?
Charlie Miranda 9:05:29AM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 9:05:29AM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 9:05:31AM
Here.
Luis Viera 9:05:31AM
Here.
Bill Carlson 9:05:33AM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 9:05:33AM
Here.
The Clerk 9:05:34AM
We have a physical quorum. Good morning. Can we get a motion to adopt the minutes from the regular session of october 9, 2025 and evening session held on october 16, 2025. we have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Okay. We're going to have the agenda review of all agenda reviews this morning. Let me get my head straight. I have to make sure I get all this right. We have a bunch of stuff. Go ahead.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:17AM
Item Number 32 needs to be heard with Item Number 61.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:27AM
I motion to pull 32 to be heard with 61.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:30AM
So moved, I guess.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:32AM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We have a memo from Councilman Bill Carlson requesting 64 be continued to february 26, 2026 workshop. That is the ethics. I have thoughts about that.
Lynn Hurtak 9:06:53AM
So do I.
Alan Clendenin 9:06:54AM
I'll be honest --
Martin Shelby 9:06:58AM
Do you want to take this up now at this point or do you want to entertain it at a later point?
Alan Clendenin 9:07:04AM
Well, I think that's why I want to have thoughts and let council make the decision.
Martin Shelby 9:07:08AM
Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:07:10AM
My thought is that we have a redundancy. I understand from the political expediency at the time when it was passed for Tampa to have its own ethics ordinance, but we're already covered by State of Florida statute and constitution. It seems redundant. I would be willing to entertain having this council, so we don't have to worry about being out of compliance with the State of Florida, eliminating this completely and just conforming with state statute. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:07:45AM
I think this can have a discussion that possibly could move it to a workshop. But I think maybe if we had it during that time. And this is the reason why. Because right now, and I talked to Mr. Shelby about this, we have gotten a lot of e-mail. We've gotten a lot of people here who may want to speak about that today. Because it is a first ordinance, because of our rules, they are going to be allowed to speak during this and during public comment if they want to speak on something else today. So I would also, just for me, I would like to hear from the public during item 64 before we make a decision. I think I know what they are going to say, but I think some people are here solely to talk about that. I would like to give them -- but I agree, we should have a discussion about it. I like your idea. The workshop idea isn't bad. I've heard other things. I do believe we should have a discussion about it at that item. I'm not opposed to moving it to something else or doing -- I just think we should talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:08:51AM
Since this is your memo, I'll defer.
Bill Carlson 9:08:54AM
First of all, I think we can continue it. If we continue it, then we give the public, because we have seen from the e-mails, I haven't seen a single e-mail that says we should do this. The problem with this process is that the administration combined some required changes with some aspirational changes of the administration without much notice for the public. And the public needs a chance to weigh in with more than just public comment. And the reason why I suggested moving it to a workshop is because the public may have additional ideas. And this -- I agree with you, Chair Clendenin, this has mostly been used in the last ten years it's been here's as punishment towards City Council and not fairly implemented toward the administration, which is why I also wanted to put a relook at the Ethics Commission in that discussion in february. What I would suggest is we put it -- we make a motion to move it. We still hear from the public today. We hear from the public then, and during that conversation in february we could make a motion to get rid of it altogether or you could make a separate discussion. I think whenever it is, the public needs to be assured even though they are against a couple of pieces of this that the Mayor proposed, they need to be assured that we are following ethical standards and we are holding the administration and council and staff up to the highest standards.
Alan Clendenin 9:10:18AM
My thing, based on my assessment, since this wasn't created, kind of the height of bureaucracy, it's a feel-good thing and hasn't really been effective, so why are we doing something that is not effective? Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 9:10:33AM
We have to hear from the public. I heard everybody else, but this whole citizens need to register as lobbyist thing to speak to us is the most ridiculous thing. If somebody stops me in the Grocery Store, Gas Station, Coffee Shop, hey, when are you going to fix my road, hey, you are the worst person in the world, whatever it is, they have the right to speak to us. Putting this in place -- I had to check with our attorney to ask, am I reading this correctly?
Alan Clendenin 9:10:58AM
I think we'll get unanimous consent on that.
Guido Maniscalco 9:11:02AM
It's like c'mon. Thank you very much.
Luis Viera 9:11:04AM
Just very briefly, a couple of things. I've been approached about this and Ms. Zelman obviously wants to speak on this.
Alan Clendenin 9:11:12AM
Let her have the last word.
Luis Viera 9:11:14AM
Yes, sir. Thank you. What I've told people is, listen, my understanding of this, I'm very likely going to vote against this and not support this 99%. I always like to hear from people proposing in terms of the rationale of why they are doing this and so forth. That's why I put the 99%. With regards to Ethics Commission, again with the information I have, I wouldn't support getting rid of it. I do think they play a valuable role. I know some of the people who serve on there, legal colleagues who are, frankly, some of the most ethical, decent people with integrity I know who I just would stand behind 100%. They are amazing people. Amazing attorneys, amazing people of ethics. I do think that. Again, I don't want to get into that discussion at this time right now and debate the merits of that. But in terms of this, my initial impression is absolutely not. But, yeah, that's all.
Alan Clendenin 9:12:07AM
Very good. Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 9:12:09AM
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a little bit of feeling of what everyone said regarding this. I think it's a lot of items and to one ordinance. I feel if you come here, you have certainly the right no matter where you live, even outside the City of Tampa to say you don't like something, for or against. I don't think directly this would involve you saying as a citizen, taxpayer of the City of Tampa to tell the Council Members exactly how you feel, whether it's appropriate or not, that's your feeling and you have the same right as we do to express our feelings. We're all in the same city. I think there are things that have to be cleared up. Why is it written this way? It's fine. I don't exactly understand what I think it means and some of the things I read here, means if you come up to testify on something and you know that some friend of yours or you are going to get remunerated or paid to, that is a different story. I don't know if that covers this or not. Needs a little bit of cleaning up. I'm not for or against. I think it needs to be a tune-up before I can vote on it.
Alan Clendenin 9:13:15AM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:13:17AM
Again, my interest is for the public who came here today that knew they would be able to speak on just this item because we allow public comment on first readings. So I would be fine. Again, I'm happy to consider a continuance, but for the people who are here today that want to speak on this I still think -- if we want to move it further up in the agenda so that people can speak before they have to leave, if we want to put this after public comment so that we can then just move forward with it, I would be fine, but I truly believe that the public should be able to speak on both the agenda today, because we have a very full agenda, and on this item. That is what I want to wait for. I have no problem with the continuation of the discussion, but I want to hear from the public who came today to speak on this.
Bill Carlson 9:14:09AM
Considering that at least a hundred percent of the comments I've had are negative against it. Then the question is, what should be in it, if anything, going forward. That to me could be what the public comment is. I'd rather make a motion to continue it and also hear public comment. I agree. But if we can't continue it until then, then I would like to make a motion to hear this after public comment this morning as the next item.
Lynn Hurtak 9:14:36AM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:38AM
Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby 9:14:39AM
Just a reminder, council, if you look at your agenda, you have a closed session.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:44AM
At 11:00.
Martin Shelby 9:14:46AM
That is with a Court Reporter with the clock running, so it is a time certain.
Lynn Hurtak 9:14:51AM
This is after public comment.
Martin Shelby 9:14:53AM
I want to make sure council is aware when 11:00 comes.
Alan Clendenin 9:14:57AM
I think we can accommodate this.
Bill Carlson 9:14:58AM
Not fair to make the public stay until 4:00 to comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:15:04AM
I did have discussions with the Mayor and the staff about the memo sent. There was a misunderstanding, misclarification of the intent of what that memo. The memo misstated the position of the administration and the Mayor. Unfortunate thing it was disseminated.
Bill Carlson 9:15:26AM
The genesis of this is when the Mayor's office and Legal Department before this City Attorney went after three or four City Council members. The Mayor had a press conference to talk about ethics in the city, when the Mayor's office was not held to the same standard. There is a lot of discussion about this. The way the Public sees this is not only prohibiting the Public from being able to communicate with the City Council, but also to be punitive toward City Council by enabling in effect the Mayor and the lobbyist who are lobbying her to look at all the calls between City Council and constituents. We can talk about the merits of it later, but it was -- my point is the origination of this is not for benign purposes. There is a whole history on this. They have taken out some of the most offensive things they tried to put in earlier, but we ought to look at it as what it is and make sure that we have a full public hearing which I'm sure the administration doesn't want. If it's in a workshop in february, the public is going to weigh in on their thoughts about ethics for City Council and the Mayor's office. That's not what they want. They want it to be narrowly defined toward City Council.
Alan Clendenin 9:16:40AM
I'd like to now hear from our city attorney Andrea Zelman.
Andrea Zelman 9:16:44AM
I'll try to be brief. Speaking of unforced errors, the Legal Department caused a lot of what the controversy that's swirling today, and that's around one piece of this long ordinance, which is the language about calling people who are lobbying but not for compensation, lobbyists. Again in 2022, the Mayor asked the Ethics Commission to look at the definition of lobbyist and whether it made sense to distinguish between compensated, not compensated. The intent was never to stop people from being able to talk to council members, talk to decision makers at the city. What the intent was at the time because there were a lot of things swirling. There were also a lot of complaints about lobbyists wandering the halls of City Council. People that were lobbying -- true lobbyists who were not registering as lobbyists. The intent was to create more transparency. That was one thing that was looked at. It got lost in translation. These recommendations of the Ethics Commission, which did recommend this change, were brought to you in 2023. there was a lot of discussion then, including by Councilman Carlson and Stephanie Poynor. It was continued to february 24 hearing, then pulled from the agenda. So the mistake the Legal Department made was twofold. One was we put that into the -- we put the recommendations of the 2022 Ethics Commission into this ordinance along with other changes that need to be made to bring our code consistent with state statute. And didn't go back and talk to the Mayor about, do you still want to go forward with all the changes, that is our fault. Again, it's not -- the intent was never to create barriers between the public and the decision makers in the City. So I'm asking to you kind of unravel it. What I would suggest to the motion, I mean, to your motion you're making, Councilman Carlson, is continue the broader discussion of the Ethics Commission and the issues that councilman -- Chairman clendenin made and all that to february. But I would ask that you also direct the legal department to bring back a clean ordinance that just focuses on those changes we have to make to bring our ethics code back into compliance with state statute because we have several items, and megan is here and can tell you which ones that we really need to bring our ethics code up to code, if you will. There have been changes made in the state statutes. A change made in the florida constitution several years ago that our ethics code doesn't reflect. So allow us to do that and continue the rest of the discussion, that's fine. Again, unforced error on our part and I apologize for that.
Alan Clendenin 9:19:45AM
Wouldn't this be self-resolved in february, we came to a conclusion, having our own -- when the State of Florida already covers ethics of elected officials.
Lynn Hurtak 9:19:56AM
It is not the time for this discussion. Sorry, point of order. We're going to talk about this after public comment. I believe that is the time for the conversation.
Alan Clendenin 9:20:05AM
Public comment, we're not -- we're going to let the Public talk about it.
Lynn Hurtak 9:20:09AM
Yes, but we'll talk about it afterwards.
Bill Carlson 9:20:12AM
In terms of scheduling, can I ask the City Attorney to council member Hurtak's point, considering that you also agree this needs to be revised, we obviously need to change the first hearing of it, can you just withdraw it as the proposer and then we could still hold public comment on it? How can we still hear public comment on this point? I'm asking the attorney, we'll have regular public comment, but can we continue this or cancel it but still hear public comment?
Alan Clendenin 9:20:49AM
What I would like -- two parts. A motion to continue this item per Councilman Carlson's request to the february 26, 2026 workshop. Then I would like a motion from council to waive the rules to allow public comment on this item after public -- general public comment.
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:10AM
I will disagree because we don't know what we're going to hear from the public, our motion may change.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:16AM
To continue it?
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:17AM
Yes. It might add more things.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:20AM
Are you okay with us moving forward after public comment to deal with the issue after public comment? Motion to waive the rules to address this issue after public comment and then we'll entertain that idea --
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:33AM
We already moved this to after public comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:37AM
We didn't vote.
Bill Carlson 9:21:39AM
Let me make a motion to move this to after public comment.
Lynn Hurtak 9:21:43AM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 9:21:44AM
We have a motion to move this item to after public comment. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We'll address this issue after public comment. Wait. There's more. If you saw your e-mails this morning -- Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:22:04AM
I thought you were going to let me go.
Alan Clendenin 9:22:07AM
Go ahead. I sent a memo about 66 and 67. based on the information that came to light over some investigatory calls and discussions over the last few days that I've had with the administration on item 66 and 67, there are issues that had not previously seen the light of day. I believe that it is prudent for this council to continue these items to the january 29, 2026 workshop to be able to gather further information from the administration on the financial status of the account.
Bill Carlson 9:22:57AM
Is that a motion?
Alan Clendenin 9:22:59AM
Yeah, I have a motion to -- well, I mean, I can't make it. Pass the gavel. I'd like to make a motion to continue item 66 and 67 to january 29, 2026 workshop because we already have a Capital Improvements project item and it will give the staff an opportunity to provide this council with individual briefings on what's happening with the Stormwater Fund and the implications this project has on that fund. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:23:30AM
I have the gavel right now. Basically, what I'm going to say is, again, this is the time for us to talk about this. We've all had individual meetings. We need to talk about this before we continue it. I want to hear from some of our staff. I want to hear from the public. I want to talk about this. Also, my motion is to move item 73 before it because it's tangentally related. Item 73, believe it or not, it is the review of the lower peninsula watershed plan project. There is money in that that hasn't been accounted for that might actually being used for this. This is a conversation I want to have. I would like to -- my motion would be to move item 73 before 66 and 67. have a conversation about 66 and 67, and then possibly have that motion. But I want to talk to you all about it. Once we move it, once we continue it, we can't talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:24:28AM
There is a lot of information that I am now privy to.
Lynn Hurtak 9:24:33AM
Yes, so am I. I've been working on this and I want to talk about it.
Alan Clendenin 9:24:38AM
The problem is Other Council Members have not. That would be why more appropriate to deal with it at a workshop. Everybody comes to the Dais with the same information.
Lynn Hurtak 9:24:47AM
This is the only time we can talk. I want to talk about this. If you move it, I'll talk about it during new business. I'm telling you now we'll talk about it one way or another.
Bill Carlson 9:24:58AM
Why can't we talk about it under 73. move these --
Lynn Hurtak 9:25:02AM
Because it's related. I still want to talk about the merits of 66 and 67 today.
Martin Shelby 9:25:12AM
There is a motion and second on the Floor.
Charlie Miranda 9:25:15AM
Discussion. Today is today, and january 26 is about three months away. I don't know if these figures that I'm looking at are going to hold without anything being brought up to the attention of the contract being extended, how much cost it will cost the Taxpayers. We are all Taxpayers in this room to meet the qualifications of the contract that's been signed. One for 4.132 million. The other one is for three one seven eight million. I don't know the cost of equipment, cost of manpower, cost of delays. That's not ever been discussed that I know of. I want clarity before I vote.
Lynn Hurtak 9:25:59AM
Councilman Viera, you haven't spoken yet.
Luis Viera 9:26:01AM
Yes, Ma'am. Thank you. I would be inclined to support some sort of Continuance. I would think that it may be more proper to vote on this maybe after public comment. I do want to hear from staff because I haven't had the opportunity to speak to them on the effect of a Continuance to january. If it doesn't have a really adverse effect on the project, I would be inclined to support that, but I would want to inquire on that. I would be inclined to support some Continuance and have a discussion. I'm positively inclined. Matter of procedure not substance for me, if that makes sense.
Alan Clendenin 9:26:39AM
I believe John Bennett is here.
Lynn Hurtak 9:26:41AM
Yes. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:26:49AM
As chair Clendenin said, there are a lot of issues that have come to light about budgeting and other things. A big concern is that there are some plans that are embedded in here, which have not been presented to the Public, and if we vote on something that the Public doesn't fully understand, has not had a chance to give feedback to, they may hear or see it for the first time today. For example, the map has changed. If we vote on this today, then it's not giving the Public a chance. The other thing is that 66 now is comingling pipes water money with this project, which I don't know if the bond covenants allow us to do that, but I don't think we should allow it to happen. Also, as I said to staff a couple of days ago, I don't think that the Water Department ought to get blamed for the project because it is so unpopular the Water Department has separate -- what's happened is the map now has the Water Department projects on it, and really has nothing to do with stormwater. The other thing that we know now is that the city has no money for this and approving this project, even $3 million, means that we're going to have to raise the stormwater fee. So I think we needed a full discussion if we need a hundred million dollars and we need to raise the stormwater fee, the Public needs a longer discussion about that. It's not just a $3 million project. That's why I think it should be continued.
Lynn Hurtak 9:28:22AM
That is the whole point. We need to have a discussion about it today. Even if it is brief, be able to get some of the stuff out into the light to talk about it a little bit and then continue it. I don't have a problem with continuations after we have the time to discuss, but we cannot talk about this anywhere else but here on the Dais. I do believe we need the discussion. Can we group them together? Do the motions after?
Bill Carlson 9:28:50AM
Why don't we make a motion to continue these two and then add a discussion of 66 and 67. then we would have already continued the decision on it.
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:04AM
We currently have a motion on the Floor to continue this. Again, we can also continue this after we talk about it.
Bill Carlson 9:29:11AM
Could I propose an amendment to the motion to add a discussion of the contents of 66 and 67 during 73?
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:21AM
I don't think that's appropriate.
Charlie Miranda 9:29:23AM
Some of the City Officials are here. Maybe ask them exactly what the interpretation is.
Lynn Hurtak 9:29:31AM
Item 66 and 67 is. We want to have the discussion, but now is not the time for the discussion. Now is the time for agenda review. I have a motion on the Floor. We'll go ahead -- I think we'll need a roll call vote for this. We have a motion to continue this to january, 66 and 67.
Alan Clendenin 9:29:51AM
January 29, 2026 workshop. Just so you know, during new business, clarification from the City Staff to what I'm expecting.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:02AM
Full-on discussion during new business. If this goes, I still have a lot to talk about. There is a motion by chair Clendenin. Second by council member Carlson. Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 9:30:15AM
Again, I want to be clear on my vote, I would be inclined to support this, but I want to first talk to staff publicly about some issues. Inquire on the length of the continuance and what if any effect this would have on the project. That's my -- I would support the motion if it came after. I'm supportive but I want to first ask that question.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:39AM
Roll call.
Charlie Miranda 9:30:40AM
No.
Guido Maniscalco 9:30:42AM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 9:30:43AM
No.
Luis Viera 9:30:47AM
With that qualification, no.
Bill Carlson 9:30:51AM
Yes.
Alan Clendenin 9:30:53AM
Yes.
The Clerk 9:30:57AM
Motion failed due to lack of majority vote. It is a tied vote.
Luis Viera 9:31:06AM
I don't want to litigate this issue in opening, but if staff tells me that this does not adversely affect the project, I would be willing to support that.
Lynn Hurtak 9:31:18AM
Now is not the time for that discussion.
Luis Viera 9:31:20AM
I want to be clear, this will likely be moved to address the pivotal concerns, but, yeah.
Alan Clendenin 9:31:26AM
We can have that discussion during the agenda item which will be on the agenda. The motion failed, so we continue.
Lynn Hurtak 9:31:38AM
Can I make a motion to move 73? I want to move 73 to before 66 and 67.
Alan Clendenin 9:31:45AM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak to move 73 to be heard before 66 and 67. second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? The Ayes have it. Anything else on the agenda -- I think that was enough. We do not have administrative update, unless that changed. Staff reports. Mr. Shelby.
Martin Shelby 9:32:18AM
We can take care of some things after you do staff reports.
Alan Clendenin 9:32:21AM
I do have one more thing. The public hearing number 63 was misnoticed and cannot be heard. I need a motion to reschedule the public hearing to december 4, 2025 1:30 p.m. motion from Miranda, second from Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:32:48AM
I could say this later during consent, but I would like a separate vote on 2 and 32.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:14AM
We'll be pulling that together. Anything else before we move on to staff reports? 66.
Lynn Hurtak 9:33:28AM
68 I have to read aloud.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:31AM
That was already done. 69.
Luis Viera 9:33:35AM
Yes, Person here.
Alan Clendenin 9:33:40AM
Brandon is going to be here for 70, so yes. 71 is Streetcar. We have a memorandum. Anybody need staff? No staff for 71. Brandon, you are off the hook. Brandon is going to be here for 72, yes. We already talked about 73.
Luis Viera 9:34:04AM
74, yes, please.
Lynn Hurtak 9:34:09AM
75 yes.
Alan Clendenin 9:34:10AM
It's going to be a fun day.
Guido Maniscalco 9:34:12AM
Receive and file 76 --
Alan Clendenin 9:34:15AM
Motion to receive and file 76, 77, 78, 79 from Councilman Maniscalco.
Bill Carlson 9:34:23AM
After the second, I want to make a comment.
Alan Clendenin 9:34:25AM
Second from council member Miranda. All in favor, aye. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 9:34:36AM
In regard to 78, a memo from Chief Bercaw which probably was written by the administration, but it kind of is the middle finger to the public and the City Council saying if we want to use stormwater money on parades, we will use it anyway. They go back to use the security and safety excuse, which they have used before. That's not acceptable. New business, if nobody else, I'll make a motion to create an ordinance to prohibit the administration from using stormwater dollars on parades. It is a disgusting misuse of money.
Lynn Hurtak 9:35:11AM
I was going to talk about the same thing. I do believe we should talk about it during new business. The public has been very clear they don't want stormwater funds to be spent on parades.
Alan Clendenin 9:35:25AM
One more thing to add to the agenda. I invited a special guest, Robert Hendrickson, who is a facilitator, for you all to meet. I'd like to place that on the agenda -- approximately 2:15ish. Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Just to place it on the agenda.
Martin Shelby 9:35:53AM
That might be an appropriate time to talk about the item, if you can. If it fits your subject in the course of business.
Alan Clendenin 9:36:00AM
We'll play that in real time. A motion to waive the rules to accommodate that, if it works out. Anything else before we move on? Motion to approve the agenda? Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 9:36:19AM
I just wanted as Mr. Shelby often reads the rules for public comment, I want to clarify and let People know what we've decided is, if you want to speak on the ethics, you will have a second opportunity to do so, unless you want to take the rest of your public comment time to talk about it. Perfectly clear for People. They can speak twice.
Alan Clendenin 9:36:46AM
Are we ready? Item 1, we have a resolution -- public comment. You're right. Never mind. Mr. Shelby. I thought we would do board appointment first.
Martin Shelby 9:37:03AM
City Council attorney. Briefly, ladies and gentlemen, to discuss the rules of decorum for today's meeting, if you wish to speak during general public comment, you should have filled out a speaker card and placed it in the box outside the room. One card per speaker. The cards are accepted until had the start of public comment. Each person submitting a card will be recognized by name. Do approach and speak, three minute time limit applies. Print legibly. Names that cannot be read will not be called. Here to speak on something listed as a public hearing, then use the sign-in sheet instead. That is listed on the agenda as a public hearing. The time to speak at that will be when the item is called up by the Chair for the public hearing. As Councilwoman Hurtak mentioned, the item for first reading on the ethics code is going to be moved up to after public comment. Per council's rules, you have the opportunity to speak at first reading on public comment. And the way things are going to work out, you'll have three minutes to speak on other items and use your three minutes to speak on public comment on the ethics public hearing, if that's your choice. Wish to speak on all items at the same time, you can do that during general public comment. It is your option as to when to speak to the ethics code. Now, members of the public are also reminded to please refrain from disruptive behavior, including making vulgar or threatening remarks or making or causing disruptive noises or sounds or displaying signs and graphics. The Chair will rule out of order any person who speaks without being recognized or attempts to address the City Council from outside the speaker area at the podium. Persons failing to comply with the council rules may also be ruled out of order and at the discretion of the Chair may be removed from the chamber for the remainder of today's meeting. Finally, City Council members should refrain from engaging a speaker during public comment and the public should be aware that city council does not take questions or have a dialogue during general public comment. This is your opportunity to express your position to the City Council. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:39:15AM
Thank you, Mr. shelby. Good morning, everybody. We are going to start this morning, we have one online person for public comment. Michael Randolph. Good morning. My name is Michael Randolph. Today I want to talk about improving tools to reduce displacement. This is part of a more comprehensive report that I put together with my friend a.I. It's been titled CRA -- in Tampa. The Community Reinvestment Act has long directed to underserved areas. But in Tampa, as reinvestment accelerates some of the housing costs. Safeguards for revitalization, it becomes exclusion. Nearly 40% of residents are rent burden. Historic black and latino neighborhoods like west Tampa, Ybor City and east Tampa are being transformed. The CRA from compliance to equity. Compliance is not enough. CRA must evolve into a -- not a regulatory checklist which we do now, but into a proactive tool of shared values. To do that, Tampa has to align with the CRA with anti-displacement. CRA backed investment should evaluate the impacts of housing equality and cultural continuance. Incentive affordable housing. Embody community benefit agreement. The CRA projects should include enforcement, commitment to local, tenant protection and cultural reparation. Financial institutions can fund and use complete incentive for -- the opportunity. The CRA is a powerful tool. Anti-displacement goals, Tampa can protect the community and -- next week I will be talking about how to use the opportunity zone and also the community impact statement to supplement and reduce displacement. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:42:32AM
Thank you, Mr. randolph. In-person public comment. First speaker is Elizabeth. [microphone not on] good morning. Elizabeth Dinwiddie. Also known by my married name.
Alan Clendenin 9:43:22AM
Mr. Michelini, please. Okay. Go ahead.
Alan Clendenin 9:43:32AM
Yes. I heard him again. Am I starting over? My name is Elizabeth Dinwiddie, also known as Liz Acardio. I think this is sad. Hundreds of people were flooded in Palma Ceia Pines and Parkland Estates. The fact that the City will not prioritize the safety of its people and you're making this about money is really disturbing. I'm very disillusioned with The City I'm living in. I thought this was a family city. I raised my kids here. I don't know where I'm living right now because the fact that you will make this about money is very sad. It's just so sad. There is money in our budget. If we can afford the beautification of river walks and things like that, which I love. I love the riverwalk, but what are you telling people who visit Tampa. Should you put a flyer in every rental car that says, come, enjoy the beautiful riverwalk but don't drive down azeele and swann when it's raining. Because you may flood in your rental car. Is that what we're telling our tourists? That it's okay to have stormwater, like a lake around a rental car? What if it is a tesla? Do you care about the safety of your people? I don't feel that you do. I feel that you like establishing. That's what I think. I think you lake establishing. This is real. My neighbor next to me was pregnant when her home flooded. I watched her crying in front of her house. This type of stress, you risk a miscarriage. What are you guys doing up here? What are you doing? Because you're not protecting your people. Your City engineers are telling you this needs to happen. Your City engineers, but you want to listen to businesses who are worried about a lot of income while the project goes on. Why is road work on howard avenue not normal? Road work is normal. I drive all around this city and I am detoured all the time because of the city's expansion. It is normal, but you've forgotten who owns Howard Avenue. We own Howard Avenue. The City of tampa owns howard avenue. The City of tampa owns howard avenue. It is not a private street. Those businesses don't own howard. You do not have to ask them permission to do an emergency public safety project. This is an emergency. You are losing sight.
Alan Clendenin 9:46:41AM
Thank you, Elizabeth. Appreciate it. Pam Cannella followed by Tina Adams. I want to address the letter from Mayor Jane Castor to City Council. I want to set the story straight on Stormwater. Number one, I have been addressing the Stormwater cleaning and maintenance of San Rafael Retention Pond and Palmira Ditch since 2015. I believe that is a decade. Other neighborhoods have shared the same problem. Neglect is the correct word to use. Number two, it has never been said that the fault was in the In-house Crew, but with Management. With no manpower, broken or lack of equipment and pulled to do other work such as events, and even with constant calls and e-mails, Management would not always address Stormwater requests for cleaning. Number three, it was not until City Council public hearing that this Stormwater problem was addressed by me and others sharing the same problem. Number four, Stormwater cleaning was not all hands effort until after may of this year. Even after City Council allocated funds to hire contractors to help, we were already in the rain and hurricane season. Lucky we didn't have any, as Tampa was not prepared for this year. Cleaning and maintenance was not a priority. In-house crews were working on sidewalk and road cave-ins per Ms. Lee, our city engineer. Number five, yes, Capital Improvements do fix some problems but not the howard project relief, as it is presented. It does not address the flood area of Palma Ceia Pines and the Hospital Area that requires a pump to prevent flooding per vulnerability assessment report by the city. Our existing Stormwater drainage system does work if it's cleaned. Our neighborhood depends on it. And even new projects need cleaning and maintenance. Number 6, some neighborhood residents took it upon themselves to address the In-house Crew in a negative way. They lost their homes. Devastated by last year's storm and feared this year's storm. They wanted their storm drain system cleaned, but there were other residents that went out and supported these crews by giving them water and food as they worked in the hot sun without umbrellas because The City didn't provide it. Now for the stormwater maintenance report, in my opinion, it is ambiguous. Under pond maintenance, mowing is considered maintenance by city council. Excuse me. City management. Only some contractors pick up plastic and debris sometimes, not monthly. Grass clippings and leafs still go into our stormwater by the contractors. Number two, road cave-in repairs are not always repaired. They are only filled to come back later. I'm not finished, but I'll leave.
Alan Clendenin 9:50:16AM
Tina Adams followed by -- [inaudible] my name is Tina Adams. I'm here to voice my support for the South Howard flood project. I don't understand exactly the motions that were continued today. I thought they were additions to the original project to support the Businesses on South Howard to help them have access, and that's -- I want to support the Businesses. Just like I want them to support us, the homeowners that were devastated last year, I want to say thank you for funding the design of this project and thank you for funding the maintenance of the stormwater system. However, maintaining an inadequate, outdated stormwater system will never be enough. We have cave-ins on all the roads, as you know, because I know you are a proponent of paving the roads. Putting patches isn't working. Just like was said before. The problem is under the streets and the only way to fix it is to dig it up. It will be a disruption. It will be hard. But big problems require big solutions, and this is a big problem. 250 to 300 homes is, I think, a low estimate because the City, from what I understood, calculated that by going around and counting the debris piles outside houses. I happen to know for a fact that there were some people that couldn't emotionally handle it or physically or financially and waited till later to do it. So I think that is a low estimate. Just like was said before, you have a duty, a duty to protect and serve your families. Without the families, the Businesses won't survive. I want to support the Businesses. I want to support the families, too, though. And there should be a way to do it together. You've done it in Hyde Park. You learned from problems in Seminole Heights and did it better the next time. Put those good works to use, that good knowledge. The parkland civic club came out with a statement of unequivocal support for this project in april of 2025 they sent you a letter. Please support this project. Please let it move forward. Don't let it get more expensive. Delays cost money. There's no way around that. Believe me, I'm buying furniture. I know it costs a lot more money to delay. It has been a long, hard year. Please don't -- this much needed project. It will only get more expensive. I talked to one of the engineers and he said it was unconscionable not to do this project. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 9:53:36AM
Tarah Bluma followed by carroll ann bennett. Tarah Bluma. The first thing I want to talk about is the ferris wheel. It costs $120 for my family of four to go to the Aquarium, one time, for the day. The ferris wheel for my family of four will be around $130. So the argument that families, citizens of Tampa who, by the way, already subsidizing the Aquarium with their tax dollars have that much money to go and spend in one day out on the town with their family, and I have a small family, is unrealistic and unaffordable for most families. Then you are left to wonder who else will be going on the ferris wheel? Well, there are the tourists and people coming off the cruise ships. The Cruise Lines that we have in Tampa are more budget friendly Cruise Lines and I don't know that those families have an additional 120 to 200 dollars to go and spend on the ferris wheel. Even if everyone loves the ferris wheel idea, what are they -- it's not like they are going on this more than a couple of times ever, and you're committing this land for the next 25 years. There's no way you can stand up there with a straight face and say that a ferris wheel is the highest and best use of that land for the next 25 years. Not to mention the fact that every single mom I have spoken to want the splash pads back and they want to be able to park at the Aquarium. These are the people that actually go. Every single one of them said this is a dumb idea. I don't know who is supporting this or what would make you vote for it. But I haven't met anybody that actually is going to go and spend money on this maybe more than one time. Next, on the changes with grand oaks and the trees just briefly, it states that you need an arborist report. I just want to remind everyone that the state of florida does not have a certified arborist license. The closest certification get is isa. The language in the ordinance, though, does not state that it needs to be isa certified arborist. Just says arborist. Anybody can claim to be an arborist in the State of Florida. Thank you for postponing the stormwater project. How are you paying for this project? We don't have the money, and our debt capacity with the stormwater improvement assessment is already two-thirds of the way gone. How many people is this going to help? For a hundred million dollars, if we're going to help maybe 200 people, you can write each of them a check for half a million dollars, build a park there, and call it a day. This is an irresponsible use of money.
Alan Clendenin 9:56:44AM
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Martin Shelby 9:56:46AM
Just a reminder, council, Members of the Public, Number 61 regarding the Tampa Bay wheel is set for a public hearing. It is a legislative matter.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:01AM
If they speak now --
Martin Shelby 9:57:04AM
Normally, ideally, in an ideal world, they would speak at the Public hearing. But because it is a legislative matter, I did not interrupt her. I want to let the public know it is set for 10:30. At some point after 10:30, item 61 is set on your agenda as a public hearing.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:20AM
That doesn't preclude them from the opportunity to speak during public comment in lieu of speaking during the item.
Alan Clendenin 9:57:32AM
If it's not a. We will not accept public comment for items set for a public hearing. Carroll Ann Bennett followed by Stephen Michelini. Carroll Ann Bennett. I went to two public meetings about the south howard project. One at the church and one at the Garden Club. I got to say those meetings, especially the one at the Garden Club, the one at the Garden Club was an embarrassment. One of the most horrible meetings I've been to, which is saying a lot. One of the things that was said by Mr. Bhide at the Church was that water doesn't like to turn. That the best route to send water is in a straight line. Every time you make a turn, you reduce the efficacy of the plan. I have asked in writing and in person, over and over again, why aren't we going straight down swann to the bay? No one has ever answered that question. No one has ever said this is why that's not on the table. I think we need -- we absolutely have to have a flood relief project, but it has to work. That is the most important thing, is it needs to be a plan that will work. My concern is that the plan that -- the multiple plans that have been proposed, the ones most being encouraged might not work. And if they don't, many years from now, when we find out the hard way that they didn't work, the money is not going to be there. The will is not going to be there to go back and spend more money on it. We have to make sure we have the right plan. As hard as I have tried, I cannot get answers to my questions. Cannot get the information to feel like, yes, this is a good plan and will do the job. Davis Islands, Forest Hills, Westshore Area, Port Tampa, all those places flooded horribly. People on davis island, I have a friend who said the water didn't roll in from the bay, rise and then roll into the neighborhood and flood homes. It came up through the stormwater drains. He stood and watched it come up through the stormwater drains. I understand there are things that can be put in the drains to prevent that from happening. That needs to be done in areas like davis islands and some of the areas along westshore. We need to look at the flooding problems throughout the city and come up with plans that will work and we need to find the money to pay for them. Councilman viera said shortly after forest hills flooded, that finding the money for pump stations and the different things we need is a priority. He said maybe the time has come to do something about the channelside and downtown cra so that more of that money goes into the general fund so it can be used for these things. I agreed with councilman viera 100%. I think that there are things that can be done with those two cras to get more money into the General Fund, put every penny of it towards stormwater. I absolutely believe we need something in those areas of Palma Ceia pines and south howard. But we need something that's going to actually do the job. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:00:44AM
[inaudible] Steve Michelini. We've had a lot of discussion about South Howard. And we seem to be comingling water projects with stormwater projects. It doesn't really make any sense. We don't really have the money to do this. We're in favor of a solution or many solutions but it's really starting with maintenance. We have already seen this year that with maintenance, we have made a tremendous impact on deferring and addressing some of the stormwater issues. When this project started, this was almost three years ago. There was a discussion at a meeting with us with the South Howard Group, and that discussion was, we're going to do one lane. Only do one lane and keep one lane open and then it grew. And it kept changing. Now it is the whole street. So survival is not even possible. Talk about, well, we'll do it in sections. It's not just one section. It's two sections ahead, two sections behind and the section they are working on. Simply is not tenable. We're working and would like to see solutions, real solutions, and not one that costs a hundred million dollars and addresses three inches of rain. It simply is not cost-effective. Then when you look at your own analysis that your staff has put together, the money is not there. So what are you going to do? When we start talking about the devastation, we're not talking about survivability of one business or two businesses. We're talking about a whole string of businesses from Swann all the way to the Bayshore. It can't happen. It's not a matter of not protecting the neighborhoods. The Jmt report said build a pump station and a retention pond inside Parkland Estates. They skipped right over that and they picked up and said, well, we don't want to do pumps. When Pam Cannella went out and started looking and talking to some of the engineers, they told her, this pump doesn't work. It hasn't worked. We're not going to repair that. We'll bypass it and put in a different system. It's time to stop bypassing the existing systems, fix them and make them work. Do the maintenance. Interconnect these retention ponds, fix the drainage system before you start spending a hundred million dollars on a project that simply is untenable. Start looking at the other areas, as carroll ann bennett just pointed out. No one has talked about palmetto beach which was devastated. When have you talked about forest hills? When have you talked about the other areas that were experiencing dramatic flooding that is constant? It's been going on for more than 40 years. It doesn't happen just one time. The flooding that resulted here was not from storm surge, except for davis island and the bayshore. It happened because of rainwater. You do not have a system that has the capacity to deal with that. Fix the system.
Alan Clendenin 10:03:53AM
Thank you, Mr. Michelini. Stephanie Poynor followed by Alison Hewitt. My apologies. I was in the bathroom. Number 9, Tree Farm. I want to get in on some of the Nelson Tree Farm money. They get money all the time from us. The contract says we will deliver -- they will deliver and install for the price that's in the contract. But then on page 48 or 49, I couldn't get in my computer, it says that we're going to pay an hourly rate to deliver and install it. Which is it? Is it free install or not? Number 21, Hanna Street. 161,000 square feet with five-story garage. I've never, ever been there, the first floor wasn't full. It was actually full, five-story garage, and the 161,000 square feet, I'd like to know how much of it is being utilized. Number 31, Small Piece of Land. The last time I checked that is not a Technical Term. We should be talking about square footage for that small piece of land. We want to make sure that it goes back into that community where they say that the money is going to go. I'm still looking for my $2 million for the Gandy Bridge Park. Number 32, I'll skip that for now. Number 72, the memo just straight up makes the Mayor look like she lied to me. Because on the day she presented the budget, she told me they weren't going to use Stormwater Folks for the parades anymore. That's between me and her. We'll have that conversation again later. That's what she told me that day. I memorialized it with my public comment that day. It's really sad that somebody is making it look like she lied to me. Number 74, the Recovery Fund. I'd like to know what gifts were given by Zip code, because I want to make sure that the money that was redistributed by zip code is appropriate for where the damage was done by zip code. I would also like to point out that Ms. McLane Evans, she said the stormwater c.I.p. Funds have to be proven to benefit the most people. The most people. I'm really not seeing that. I'm seeing a few people coming up here who were devastated. Yes, they were devastated. Is it my fault as a citizen, am I expected to pay for them not buying flood insurance? I live on a peninsula. I live on a dead end. I live in a flood zone, but I have flood insurance. Why? Because who doesn't? The City cannot pay for other people's rolling the dice and they lost. I'm sorry. It's just not fair. Carroll ann bennett is absolutely correct. That meeting at the garden club for the Howard Avenue project was the biggest joke I've been to. Never seen such chaos in my life. The one at the church fared better, but honestly, those people got up there and said we don't know that this will cure the problem. We don't know that this is going to cure the problem. Wait a minute, why are we spending -- throwing 60, 70, 80, I don't even know, why are we spending all that money.
Alan Clendenin 10:07:15AM
Alison Hewitt followed by Robin Lockett. Alison Hewitt. Start at 32, but that's now just at the workshop. So I will go down to 69. we have a formal creation of Office of Returning Citizens. Talking to people in the community who are active in this realm and also the disappointment with the Reconciliation Commission. I just want to know where is the report on that? It wasn't online. Update. Who are they speaking to? Because I know that there are several organizations who are active who have been speaking to councilmen, but they have not really been reached out by staff. I also want to make sure that when they do move forward, they coordinate with number 44, the office for Hillsborough County Entrepreneurial Collaborative, even though it says in the report you're working on job training and certifications, I want to make sure that entrepreneurship is also one of the things that you consider as far as this program that you are creating. Also say thank you for putting it on a workshop. There are folks who have asked me, you go up and you speak to City Council and who you are working for. We don't have you registered as a lobbyist. I come here because I am active in my community. I care about my community. I need to be able to come and talk. I know specifics. I know how to research details, but I don't do that for a fee. To be able to have to have me register is quite offensive for the people who really take the time out of their day, out of their work to make sure that they are protecting and representing the community. Thank you for continuing that for additional conversation.
Alan Clendenin 10:09:12AM
Also, good job on cra explanation online. Really, really well written. Robin Lockett followed by Connie Burton. Robin Lockett. Just a brief statement. Of course, regarding the Yellow Jackets. I would like for council to consider making a motion to have a budget amendment brought forward to reallocate capital budget dollars into fiscal year 26 to support the design portion of the Yellow Jackets field enhancement project. Want to make sure that when this is all over that money is designated and the project is able -- whether you guys are here or not. I really want to make sure that that money is there to continue, hopefully for those of you running for reelection, get elected. Continues after you. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:10:08AM
Thank you, Robin. Connie Burton, followed by mentesnot. Connie burton. Enslavement of african people occurred around 1619, 305 years later, born this great author in 1924, he died in 1987. to this date, 38 years later, what James Baldwin said, and I quote, to be a negro in this country and be relatively conscious is to be enraged almost all the time. It is so true. Because when I look at this agenda this morning, I'm trying to figure out how do people that were forced into labor to build such, even this City and we end up with relatively nothing. Item number 1, if you approve this person to the board, what has been their work as it relates to housing, around fair housing and ensuring that people that live in those communities or once lived in those communities is reaching the maximum benefit? Item number 32, you're going to talk about it, but the quickness and the way this is moving along. But we see item number 10 through 13 where the City is owning property inside the African Community and hold on to it, only to be returned back to Developers, Nonprofits and then folks in that community still cannot buy houses. People in our communities now, the cheapest house you can buy almost in East Tampa is a quarter of a million dollars. Item number 69, when you talk about an office of returning citizens, we don't need an office. We need action. We've been needing action. For every project the City has worked on, whether it has been stormwater, drainage, parking, whatever, there are ways in which returning citizens could have been brought on board without the -- having an office to say we are actually doing the work. As you heard in a rush to shut down the Racial Reconciliation Committee, it is so hypocritical for those now watching this nation almost drive over the cliff, where you are fighting to hold on to your democracy, those of us that were born in part of the ancestry of 1619, we are watching to see what you will do to save it.
Alan Clendenin 10:13:01AM
Thank you, connie. Mentesnot followed by Pastor Williams. Uhuru. Tampa, florida. Want to say, if you live on Bayshore Boulevard, 20 days out of the year you have to ask the police to come to your home because it is flooding. If you live in south Tampa, about 30 days out of the year you have to be detoured in order to get to your home. And when it starts raining, you have to start praying. When it starts raining, you have to start praying. But I want to speak today on the invocation. And the invocation that was given today was the most eloquent invocation I've ever heard in the history of my life. [ applause ] [ sounding gavel ] and who was the invocation talking about? They say we're not allowed to talk about identify City Council members personally or anything of that nature, but the invocation was actually talking about someone right here. They wasn't talking about Donald Trump. The invocation was talking about the person who had me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. The person who had me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. That's who the invocation was talking about. 7 million people that came out this saturday, last saturday on no kings day was talking about the king that sits right here in Tampa City Council. Because in the history of the united states, since 1779, no one has ever been arrested for wearing a t-shirt on public property. No one. It was a first. So what I like to say with that is, that's called a n-er charge, that's what it is. [ sounding gavel ]
Alan Clendenin 10:14:47AM
Mr. Daniels, you're out of order. And for that reason, there are other charges very similar to that. Trespass. Trespass after warning, resisting arrest. Resisting arrest with violence. Loitering. Conspiracy. Possession with intent to sale. Possession with intent to distribute. Violation of probation. Driving while black. Walking while black. Shopping while black. Riding a bicycle while black. Windows tinted too dark. I smell smoke. Why are you acting suspicious? You fit the description in a high drug area, high crime area. They are all n charges. Nothing more, nothing less. Let me tell you how n charges manifest themselves. You know why -- Aubrey Pierce and Elvis Pickert. We know him as puff in the hood. Two africans been arrested. Keith O'Connor, John Bennett, and all the people at the Sheriff's Department, they ain't seen Orient Road Jail. They ain't seen it. They are all white. But the two black people had to see Orient Road Jail. They are end charges. The person responsible for that, people responsible for that, some of them sitting right here in the City Council.
Alan Clendenin 10:16:15AM
Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Good morning, Pastor Williams. Followed by Ashley Morrow. I don't get much recognition, but I want to thank you all, especially, I can't call no name. Thank you for all of you. Give me the cross and everything. I want to give one of your flyers to the City Staff. They say Legal. I've been complaining about I don't get no water. None of you all come out to check and see what's going on. Now they have a woman there by the name of b. B came out there and walked through my home. Took all the stuff out of my yard. The water is on but ain't no water coming through. I would like for all of you all to come over to 3006 East Shadow Lawn. I want you see the meter for yourself. The meter is spinning like hell but no water coming through. Lady that used to work for you all. She need to come over there, send somebody over there, check my water out. Please. Take this address down, 3006 East Shadow Lawn. I show you all for yourself. Exactly what's going on. I crawl up under the house trying to find a water leak. Can't find none. Yet they are cutting my water off. Only way to cut it back on, I have to pay a certain amount of money. They want me to pay so much money, I might as well move out of my house and go stay in a motel somewhere. We have to understand, we are citizens of the United States are not treated fairly. I would come in when Frank Reddick was here. Mr. Williams, you can talk about anything you want but you've got three minutes to talk about it. I took my time and talked three minutes. My time is up quick.
Alan Clendenin 10:19:45AM
Thank you, Pastor. I want to give him a flyer.
Alan Clendenin 10:19:54AM
She's got it. Good morning, ashley. We look forward to this every week. My name is Ashley Morrow. I will be sharing Tampa's black history. All real estate located within the county as late as 1861 amounted in assessed value to $108,402. Slave value almost doubled that figure at 235,000. Given that about a quarter of all wealth within the county thus consists of slaves, many local residents would feel an immediate concern for national politics began to threaten their financial being. So I started to notice in the newspaper articles in the Florida peninsula, a Tampa newspaper, how they kept mentioning slaver boats and things going back and forth between the u.s. And Cuba and Africa. I learned the word, africans that came straight from Africa to the u.s. Or to Cuba. So they mentioned it a few times. I was very curious as to how Tampa is connected to the african slave trade. Here are some articles. This one talks about how it's continuing in New Orleans, even after it had been outlawed in the u.s. In 1808. Tampa founded in 1849, so it missed out on the early stages of that. Founded four years later. Cuba continues until the 1880s. We do see communication between Tampa and Cuba. See a lot of it, absolutely. Slave trade showing in europe they would get goods. Africa, pick up africans and come over to Cuba and get some sugar and tobacco and take it back to europe because sugar was really valuable. There was also a huge cattle industry in Cuba and in Tampa and in Florida. Now, when we talk about the cattle industry, we talk about how it relates to the civil war. The reason already a cattle industry in place, they were trading with Cuba. William B. Hooker, he had a space that he would take his cattle. Cattle king. Also hooker lake or hooker pond that's still here in tampa that's named after him. This is an article advertising james going to punta rassa, a big port to take cattle to cuba. The sugarcane plantations were a lot in cuba. James mcKay, 34th mayor of tampa. He claims that his father in 1858 decided to cut the middle man and go directly to cuba to do trade as far as with cattle. Now, I want you to notice how james mcKay had one enslaved person. By 1857 he had seven. There's no documentation as to where he bought the slaves from or where he enslaved the black people from. However, comma, there were a lot of enslaved people in cuba. Therefore, I believe, there was some slave trade between tampa and cuba. Thank you all so much. I'll be back next week.
Alan Clendenin 10:23:29AM
Thank you. Have a beautiful day. Surgret doss. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 10:23:40AM
Yes. I've been told by One of Our Aides that there are a couple of people who came in afterwards who do want to speak on South Howard. I feel this is such an emotionally charged issue, I'd like to make a motion to allow people who came in late to speak.
Alan Clendenin 10:23:54AM
We have a motion to waive the rules to allow people to register to speak from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Only thing I'd ask for, I won't ask you to fill out a card now, before you leave, if you can fill out a card so we have that for public record.
Lynn Hurtak 10:24:12AM
If maybe One of Our Aides could come out and pass out the cards, that would be great.
Alan Clendenin 10:24:17AM
Surgret, go ahead. I want to speak to the people of Tampa. Veterans and anybody else who wants to listen. I heard you all mention it earlier today, but regarding integrity and ethics, kind of chuckled to hear it, especially in this city. Reminded me last week that when you refuse to call out b.s., you are complicit in your silence and I can't do that. Especially the misconduct I see going on in Tampa, Hillsborough County, State of Florida and see it in the letters I just wrote, and the letters I wrote and distributed to the judges. A few weeks back I gave you all some information also about abuse of power by judges and local people, attorneys -- Lopez and Gassler, a couple of other law firms. These firms, along with State Farm Insurance Company, undermine Veteran Health Care James A. Haley Hospital here in Tampa. Some local Judges act like black folks -- I got to denounce Steven Smith for bringing energy to Jasmine Crockett, like a happily broken buck, but he didn't have the same energy from the white boys in the gop chat. I have a problem with that. At any rate, this council has become a harbinger of public fiduciary misconduct. You kind of invite unethical and even sometimes criminal behavior because you choose comfort over courage. I've got to ask the question, I saw a couple of things in this agenda, what price, if any, do you all take for turning a blind eye when you know people are being violated? As a veteran, I respect authority and people know I took an oath for life. But I do know that my judicial complications aren't because I lack any kind of sufficient legal action. Even if the people don't know, everybody in here knows I really am like that. A lot of people in power hate that I personify what mediocrity fears the most, which is I'm audacious, intelligent, and unapologetic, I have confidence and all infused in melanin. I won't be subjugated by strategically placed bigots in power. I say what I say the way I do because ain't no curve in my vertebrae. Shout out to my man, my son. But I'm the problem you all weren't ready for. I'm the spook that sat by the door because my education and experiences in life. I have ardent resolve. We know my appeal against the city, but that's not the issue. Like django, I'm that one in 10,000 that won't bend or break because of a little bit of pressure from outside. Some interesting things have happened also lately. Regarding some guys that have issue with the department of revenue, bring this to my attention. You all have investigatory power. Three attorneys facing me right now, and you have obligations once something is brought to your attention. Over there in the 13th particularly, we have blatant abuses of procedural process when it comes to the department of revenue and child support. My issues are pretty much behind me. There are many gentlemen that come to me daily, why won't anybody do anything about the violations that are being conducted by judges and hearing officers over here at the 13th judicial circuit and with the florida department of revenue. I would highly hope using your investigatory powers and even if you don't think it is in your jurisdiction within the City of Tampa, some of the attorneys do have the obligation that once you are aware that a colleague or anybody in a position of any bar member violates their oath that you all have a responsibility to have it investigated. That being said, shout-out to the greatest institution of higher learning in the city of tampa, the university of thomas jefferson high school.
Alan Clendenin 10:28:36AM
Thank you. Vick Demaio, bring it home. State your name. Occasionally known as. 1205 North Franklin Street. Bern's Steak House, epicurean hotel. One thing is, I wanted to make a point of is if somebody gives you an opinion, three months to live, first thing you do is I want a second opinion. When this thing started a year ago, brought a gentleman, David Deloach, stormwater engineer, 30 page resum. You do have an alternative to putting a hundred million dollars pipe from Swann to Bayshore. Which I've spoken to a couple of gentlemen here and they said, you know, if that water goes all the way down to Bayshore and it's a high tide and we're in the middle of a hurricane, there's nowhere for that water to go. It will go back up on Howard and you just spent hundred million dollars on one project when the entire city, with all due respect to Parkland Estates, I don't know what you're doing in Bowman Heights where I live. East Tampa, North Tampa. I learned over the last 48 hours that you are tapped out on money. Manhattan is a flood zone if you want to drive down there anytime of day when it rains. My point is, I want to show you something here. I don't know if you can zoom in on this or not. I don't know how this works, exactly. I can put it in closer. There are four alternatives here.
Alan Clendenin 10:30:31AM
Turn your phone back on. By the south Tampa hospital, you see these two pink areas, those are four city square blocks of existing stormwater retention ponds. As you know, if you've ever been down into the Hyde Park Area, huge retention pond right here that's owned by the Crosstown. There is a huge city-owned, this huge area, a Ballpark right now next to the old winn dixie store, think it is an Aldi now. Storm Engineer said every single one of those areas, new vault, every building built in tampa has to retain its own water, so they put a vault to retain the water. You can triple the size of all those areas without spending a hundred million dollars, you can get it done faster, quicker, easier, with a whole lot less money and retain the water without building that pipe from Swann to Bayshore. I talked to three mayors that had the same option to do this pipe. They all said we're not going to disrupt the businesses on Bayshore. Bern's steak house, we have 400 employees. Epicurean, 300 employees. We had to dig to do the elevators, we had to pump water for four months. If they tell you something --
Alan Clendenin 10:31:56AM
Thank you, Mr. Dimaio. That concludes public comment. Thank you very much. We are moving on to board administrative appointments. Item Number 1 --
Lynn Hurtak 10:32:12AM
It said after public comment.
Alan Clendenin 10:32:15AM
You are correct. Is Sul Hemani in the Audience. Waive the rules since he is here. Unanimous consent, I'll go ahead and get the board appointment so -- Sul, thank you very much. We have item number 1, Sul, would you like to address the council or just here for the vote? Very good.
Guido Maniscalco 10:32:37AM
Have Mr. Shelby come back with the resolution.
Alan Clendenin 10:32:40AM
It is the resolution. Already done. We have a motion to move item number 1 from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Congratulations, Sul. Thank you. Now we are moving on to item 64. here we go. Tag, you're it. There are a few sections of this ordinance that I suggest we address today because they comply with or are consistent with Florida state statute and the Florida constitution. First, sections 2-502 and 2-581 deals with post-employment restrictions. They should be revised to be consistent with the Florida constitution. Second, section 2-658, 2-626 and 2-662 must be revised to be compliant with section 112.326 of the state statute. These deal with the personal knowledge standard and complaints. The City can't initiate an ethics complaint, and the attorneys' fees and costs from malicious complainer, the process for those to be recovered. Next, section 2-624 concerns ethics training requirements and should be revised to be consistent with section 112.3142 Florida statutes. Finally, section 2-502 and 2-626 must be revised to fix wrong references to state statutes. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Alan Clendenin 10:34:34AM
Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 10:34:35AM
As I mentioned in comments earlier, the biggest thing was that private individuals that are not being compensated to have to register as lobbyists in order to speak to council members, there are others that need to comply with state law, but this was something that was brought on from here at the Local Level. It's not -- am I wrong to ask that -- to have you people register as lobbyist, is that a requirement by state law?
Guido Maniscalco 10:35:08AM
That needs to be removed before anything moves forward. Again, people want to talk to us, private individuals, regular people, whatever, the Grocery Store, the Church, the Gas Station, the Coffee Shop, should not have to register. Again, those are the e-mails that we've gotten bombarded with. It's a commonsense issue. If People want to talk to us, they talk to us. Neighborhood Individuals, Neighborhood Groups, Neighborhood Presidents, whatever it is. That was my one concern.
Alan Clendenin 10:35:38AM
Before you move on, do you have a list, by chance, of the statutes that you quoted, that you put on the Elmo? I've got it down at the very bottom.
Alan Clendenin 10:35:53AM
We can always go back and reference it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 10:36:04AM
As the City Attorney recommended earlier, I think we ought to have a de novo hearing first and second reading on the state required changes, but instead of City Council initiating it, I think the Legal Department ought to do that. Then I would give the public a chance to weigh in on those. There is the bigger question about whether we should have duplicated efforts anyway because this all is covered under the state law. And then -- I can make a motion now or later. My recommendation is that after we hear public comment, we end this and we let the City Attorney come back to us with a noticed public hearing just to talk about the state required changes. That way the public can specifically weigh in on that. So much attention about these other things that the public may not have fully looked at this. At the same time, Chair Clendenin make a simultaneous motion to end the duplication of effort anyway. And then I think we need to separately set up a discussion at the workshop in february to talk about whether this committee and this process is effective at all. I've heard numerous complaints about it. Instead of going through adjudicating all the complaints right now, I think should put those in a public hearing in the future.
Alan Clendenin 10:37:31AM
Thank you. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 10:37:33AM
Thank you. I have a question, if we are just -- if we decide to go ahead with Chair Clendenin's recommendation of just allowing the State to cover it, what are the down sides for the City? Lobbyist. Also lots of compliance with current practices.
Lynn Hurtak 10:37:59AM
Again, my question is, if we let state law supersede, what is the harm?
Lynn Hurtak 10:38:05AM
That's what I wanted to answer.
Andrea Zelman 10:38:12AM
There's one thing in our ethics code that we wouldn't have if we did away with the ethics code in entirety. May be others but one thing that comes to mind is we did create that whole process requiring all visitors that meet with City Council Members, department heads, the Mayor, to fill out meeting logs and state who they are meeting with and the purpose of the meeting and if they are representing a Union. We've had that for years. We've had that happen before the full ethics code was adopted. But it's in the ethics code now. So if you wiped out the ethics code entirely, that would go away. The other thing I would say is, there may be some other things in the ethics code that we may want to save that aren't addressed by state statute. I don't think it's fair. I think Megan thought you were asking her about this particular ordinance, but there are other parts of the ethics code that we should probably look at. Again, we could do that before, either discuss it during that february workshop and be prepared by then to say what we can rely on the state for, what we might want to do something separate for.
Lynn Hurtak 10:39:27AM
Thank you. This is the whole reason I wanted to have this discussion. Because I would like to add to your motion to say, during the workshop, you want staff to bring back just what the state is, I would like to know, again, from our Legal Department what other types of changes we would need if we wanted to hold on to some of those. But I do believe that is a good conversation we could have at the workshop.
Bill Carlson 10:39:53AM
I think we could talk about that in february. And we could -- I believe in what Ms. Zelman just said. We need to keep the existing reporting structure for paid lobbyist. Not add Neighborhood Leaders and others. But that can be handled in a separate process, and it doesn't necessarily need a committee that has a lot of allegations against it. I don't want to go through all those right now. But we need a fair process. We also need to make sure that the administration is held accountable to the same rules that the City Council is. If a lobbyist meets with the Mayor or City Council, they have to register. They can't say that they are not a lobbyist if they are paid to be a lobbyist. Can we make motions now or waiting to hear from the public?
Alan Clendenin 10:40:38AM
We'll hear from the public first. Councilman Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 10:40:41AM
I'm listening to everything right now. Like was said, might be some things that we have that they don't have that's better. I don't know.
Alan Clendenin 10:40:50AM
I'm going to reserve my comments. It appears this will get continued to february. I'll wait to listen to public comment, listen for the motion and reserve my comments for february if that's what happens with this. Are you finished with your presentation?
Alan Clendenin 10:41:04AM
Thank you very much. Good job. Anybody in the public that wishes to speak to this item? If so, would you please line up on the wall and I'll call you in order as you line up. By the way, we have a hard stop in 19 minutes. Just for everybody that knows, we have a closed session. Mentesnot, go ahead. Start with your name, please. Mentesnot. Tampa, Florida. Irrespective of what the code is, the Politicians and the Lobbyists are all crooked. Every last one of them. So they are going to find ways around it, and they are always finding ways to conspire to bypass anything. And you can look around the services in your city and you can see, as a matter of fact, the Politicians and the Lobbyists don't even have to conspire anymore. They are so on track that they know what they want to do. They know what the other one wants. So as far as how this works in the interest of the public, the interest of individual rights and the protection of Politicians, Lobbyists, private industry, big donors or whatsoever, projects getting awarded to like certain people or certain companies, it's not going to make any difference. The City and the Politicians have been crooked from 1855 and they are crooked today in 2025. it's going to make no difference. And the biggest part of this is, this City Council never abide by the Florida sunshine rule and the sunshine act to begin with. And they proved that on july 31st and august 7 when they conspired to have me arrested for wearing a t-shirt. So nobody took ethics or ethics codes into consideration then. Nobody took if they should have been having a meeting to conspire to have me arrested and drug out of here like an animal. Not saying anything bad against animals. But nobody was concerned about ethics codes then. So the fact of the matter is, no matter how they address this, the politicians, the lobbyists and the business interests, they are going to come out the winners.
Alan Clendenin 10:43:50AM
Thank you. It is completely hard to participate in what goes on in the city. It's a very challenging thing for the average citizen. Most people are too busy just trying to get through the day. And all their time and attention is focused on their life. The bar, the effort it takes to be involved is so high. It's very disturbing that we would want to -- anyone would want to raise that bar even higher. The current people who are legitimate lobbyists are not always following the rules and doing everything that the -- that is currently required of them. The Ethics Committee is not enforcing it. Why give them more people to have jurisdiction over or to monitor maybe is a better word, when they are not even really adequately monitoring the people who are paid lobbyists. You have to fill out the lobbyist, become a registered lobbyist. You have to document every meeting, the purpose of it, who you met with. You've got to do an annual report saying your expenses. If you don't do the report on time, a $50 a day fine. That is going to stop people dead cold in their tracks. Gadsen Park, the Dugouts, they are a disgrace. There are things falling on children's heads. Someone, a Little League Parent wants to meet with each one of the City Council members or the head of parks and talk about what are we going to do, now they've got to jump through all these other hoops. And they are just trying to get through the day. This is a very bad idea. It sounds to me like you all really understand that and you'll do something about it. I never doubted that you would. So I say thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:45:53AM
One second. If you were here for the public hearings, we are not going to be able to get to those before we have a closed session at 11. then we will break for lunch. We will not hear the public hearings until 1 p.m. if you are here, I will hold them until 1 p.m. we only have 14 minutes until we go to closed session. Problem child for the folks at home who haven't seen this, like, what is the big deal? I would like to point out, about a year and a half ago, because this is not just about talking to our elected officials. It's about talking to upper echelon City Staff. Year and a half ago, woke up 6:00 in the morning, text message after text message and messages on facebook, we don't have any water. Port Tampa didn't have any water. I picked up my phone. I texted, happen to have Rory Jones' phone number and Eric Weiss' phone number and said, you know we have no water. They didn't know. Went off at 2:15. Cave-in and nobody knew. This kind of trash goes into our code, I can't pick up the phone and text somebody to help our community. It may have been two days before we got through the rigamarole to get all the way to the top to make sure this got fixed immediately. It was fixed the same day because the citizens were able to communicate with staff. It's not just about you guys. I love you guys. If I see you at home depot or walmart, I want to be able to talk to you. But the same should go for staff -- not you. Anyway, bottom line is, this is offensive. Yes, I may have started this -- thank you, Andrea -- but I started it when I went and kept asking why we weren't having an ethics commission meeting. I started it when I asked why the ethics commission did not improve the -- approve the investigation of councilman dingfelder and councilman gudes. I started this when I said I filed five ethics complaints because people were doing things they weren't supposed to be doing. I filed an ethics complaint because people were publicly stating that they were meeting with lobbyists and weren't registered. So if I started it, that's okay. I'm good. But I would like for them to enforce the stuff that they are supposed to be enforcing before they start shutting me, carroll ann, connie burton, tony daniels, anybody else who wants to contact you and have a conversation with you about their community. It's not right. This is egregious. I haven't even read the rest of it. Trust me, I will and I'll let you know what I think of the rest of it. This is absolutely uncalled for. It is putting a barrier between us and our elected officials. Us and City Staff, which is absolutely uncalled for. This is not transparent. It's not accountability. It's nothing that everybody says they stand for. I can't even sit over here and have a conversation with chief bennett before we have council meetings every thursday. Give me a break. Save the sidebars.
Alan Clendenin 10:49:03AM
Thank you. Mr. Michelini. Steve Michelini. I think I would like to echo the concerns. As written, this is very broad and too broad in scope. It includes a lot of other things. If you file for a variance or you file for a rezoning or a special use, there are staff discussions at high levels that go back and forth. They send you comments. I'm sure they didn't mean to include that as a lobbyist activity, but if you read that in a conservative way, it is included. The nonpaid discussions for individuals that appear before you or meet with you, absolutely should be excluded. If you are not paid and representing an Association or Neighborhood or individual, take it out. There's no reason for it to be in there in the first place. It's just too broad and too difficult to understand exactly. They were citing state laws and then you have to figure out what state law they are referring to and what is the impact. Then call the attorneys and say, what does this mean? And their interpretations are sometimes in their discussion, they are convoluted. Anyway, basically it needs to rewrite. It needs to start over and discuss legitimate discussions, if they are paid lobbying, absolutely, discuss them, lobby them, register them, and put them on the record. The other stuff, when you're representing different organizations that are not paid, take them out. There's no reason for it. If you read this in a most conservative manner, you would have hundreds and hundreds of filings every day for every permit that's filed, for every rezoning, for every variance that is being applied for. It simply isn't necessary. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:51:03AM
Thank you. Tarah. I wasn't going to talk about this until I heard Ms. Zelman state that while there was a mistake in this ordinance, we do need to pass it because we need to come into compliance with city law. I would like to start seeing clean proposals put in front of you so that you are not pressured to pass something that you might find elements of unsavory in order to follow the letter of the law. We were out of compliance yesterday. The sky is not going to fall down if we stay out of compliance until february. And that puts undue pressure and backs you all into a corner. So don't put something controversial paired with something that has to be done. It's not fair. I would start saying no in general standing up to the City Staff and administration and say, no, we are not going to continue to pass these things. I appreciated the fact that you said that with the reimbursement resolutions and finally said, no, we're not going to pass them all as a group. We want to be able to look at them individually. Please continue to stand up for yourselves in that way because you're giving away power when you do that. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:52:29AM
Thank you, Tarah. Victor. I agree with Mr. Michelini, and I actually agree with the Chair that we do have ethics laws here that every official, whether with City Council, County Commission, School Board, Legislature, the State of Florida has ethics laws governing all your actions as well. If you want to add a couple more things that aren't intrusive to neighborhoods or people on the street, that's another story. Frankly, the problem we have here is who is actually doing the work to do the investigating, to do the tracking. I think that's a big problem here in the City of Tampa because it seems to be very haphazardly looked at and very haphazardly associated with the actual monitoring of it. That is the problem I see with the city is they don't really have a very good process and procedure of actually monitoring this sort of thing. I think if you do this, please exclude neighborhoods, people on the street, people that go up to see you every day or send you an e-mail to not be swept into the whole umbrella of being monitored under the legislation. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 10:53:48AM
Thank you. Mr. Carlson, ready to take a motion?
Andrea Zelman 10:53:51AM
May I say one thing?
Alan Clendenin 10:53:53AM
After the motion.
Bill Carlson 10:53:55AM
I would like to move to continue Item 64 to February Workshop.
Alan Clendenin 10:54:03AM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson to continue item 64 to the february 26, 2026 workshop. Councilwoman Hurtak is the second. Councilwoman Hurtak, you wanted to say something?
Lynn Hurtak 10:54:16AM
Yes. I also wanted to say to -- I would like the motion to differentiate between if Council Member Carlson agrees, to have a clear ordinance just for state -- yeah, a clear ordinance to have us align with State statutes and State laws. And then the other issues that might come under the ethics code that we can discuss each one and what we want to keep and if there's anything we want to change.
Andrea Zelman 10:54:54AM
I have a suggestion and I need Marty's help. First, I want to be clear because apparently I wasn't. I did not say you need to pass this today. First of all, you can't pass it today. This is only first reading and consideration. No, neither the Legal Department or the Mayor is recommending that you move forward with those changes to the lobbying as it's currently written. I just want to be clear on that. I didn't say that and I'm not saying that. I think a way we could get out of today, Marty, correct me if I'm wrong, today is only first reading. Don't read the ordinance. I believe then, Marty, correct me if I'm wrong, it will then die. Then you can direct us to come back with an ordinance with just the changes that we're advocating for, which, again, are the ones that Megan cited for you. You could also make a motion to discuss the ethics ordinance and the Ethics Commission broadly in february. That may be a cleaner way to get out.
Alan Clendenin 10:55:53AM
I think you're missing the one element is discussing is there a need for the City of Tampa to --
Andrea Zelman 10:56:00AM
Right. You could do that at the workshop.
Alan Clendenin 10:56:03AM
I agree with the assessment. Correct me if I'm wrong, if we don't read this, it will die. And then we continue the item -- go ahead and entertain the continuation now rather than new business and maybe we could subsequently have discussion about the clarification we're requesting from the administration to be able to have this information in february.
Bill Carlson 10:56:25AM
Before you answer, instead of a continuation, maybe, why don't we make a separate motion and put this subject on the Agenda and then separately you can make a motion on your other item.
Martin Shelby 10:56:36AM
My suggestion, council, would be to make a motion, especially considering the City Attorney says they don't recommend that portion in this ordinance, to have Number 64 removed from the agenda, just remove it from the agenda and then have that motion for february.
Alan Clendenin 10:56:51AM
Motion to remove item 64 from the agenda? Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Another motion?
Bill Carlson 10:57:00AM
I'd like to make a motion to put on the february workshop a discussion about whether and how to update the City's ethics code and to look at the effectiveness and structure of the Ethics Commission to see if it needs to be modified.
Alan Clendenin 10:57:21AM
Or eliminated.
Bill Carlson 10:57:23AM
Maybe you could do a separate one about eliminated.
Lynn Hurtak 10:57:29AM
Second. February 26, 2026.
Alan Clendenin 10:57:31AM
Motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Ayes have it. I'll reserve my motion for another day.
Bill Carlson 10:57:39AM
Can I make that motion?
Alan Clendenin 10:57:41AM
Sure, go ahead.
Lynn Hurtak 10:57:46AM
I just want to say very quickly because we don't have a lot of time that one of the things I am most proud of in my time here has been an increase in the public participation in City Council. I'm incredibly proud of that. I believe all of us would say that. So to say that we want to prevent that is something no one on this council wants. I strongly believe that. I want to thank every single person who is watching. Every single person who shows up. Every single person who stops us in the Grocery Store, that is very important to us.
Alan Clendenin 10:58:21AM
Can I insert a joke there?
Alan Clendenin 10:58:27AM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 10:58:29AM
A separate motion to be adjacent to the motion for the workshop in february would be to discuss whether the City's ethics code is duplicative and whether it should continue in its current form or to be modified or eliminated.
Alan Clendenin 10:58:52AM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you very much. It is 10:59. Sometimes a plan comes together. You have less than 60 seconds to say whatever you want to say.
Lynn Hurtak 10:59:09AM
Are you sure you don't want us to come back at 11:30 and --
Alan Clendenin 10:59:13AM
I don't know how long this will last.
Lynn Hurtak 10:59:16AM
1:00 it is.
Martin Shelby 10:59:19AM
Before you read that, I want to be clear, what you're suggesting then is council is --
Alan Clendenin 10:59:25AM
I'll clarify this now. We'll come back at 1 p.m. to continue with the consent agenda. At this time, in accordance with Florida statute 286.0118, we will proceed to a closed attorney-client session to discuss settlement negotiations in the case of Tony Hopps versus the City of Tampa. Case 824 Cv 02806 vmcaep, which is currently pending in the Middle District of Florida. This closed session is estimated to last approximately 30 to 45 minutes and will be recorded by a Certified Court Reporter. The names of the persons attending the closed session are as follows: Council Member Bill Carlson, Council Member Alan Clendenin, Council Member Lynn Hurtak, Council Member Guido Maniscalco, Council Member Charlie Miranda, Council Member Luis Viera, City Council attorney Martin Shelby, City Attorney Andrea Zelman, assistant city attorney David Harvey, and certified court reporter Cheryl Westfall from the Court Reporting Firm of Carolyn Loudon and Associates. At the conclusion of the closed attorney-client session, this meeting will be reopened and I will announce the termination of the session. A transcript of the closed attorney-client session will be made part of the public records upon conclusion of the litigation in the hopps case. We are now in recess and we will reopen the meeting at 1 p.m.
Martin Shelby 11:01:02AM
If I can, what you read is exactly the case. You're going into Closed Session. Going into recess for Closed Session. You will have to return here before you go into recess for lunch at 1:00. After the completion of the closed session, you have to come back in Open Session and announce that the Closed Session has ended.
Alan Clendenin 11:01:26AM
I need a quorum here -- when we leave the closed session, I need a quorum to show up at this chamber to do what he just described. Thank you. We are in recess. 8th Floor Conference Room. [closed session]
Charlie Miranda 11:48:05AM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 11:48:06AM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 11:48:06AM
Here.
Luis Viera 11:48:07AM
Here.
Bill Carlson 11:48:09AM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 11:48:09AM
Here.
The Clerk 11:48:10AM
We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin 11:48:11AM
Thank you. In the case of the Tony Hopps versus City of Tampa, Case 824 Cv 02806 Vmcaep, which is currently pending in the Middle District of Florida, is closed. The session is closed. The City Council is back in order. I'd like to hear -- ready for lunch? So this City Council will be in recess until 1 p.m. [ sounding gavel ] we're out. Thank you. [lunch recess]
Charlie Miranda 01:02:10PM
Here.
Guido Maniscalco 01:02:12PM
Here.
Lynn Hurtak 01:02:13PM
Here.
Alan Clendenin 01:02:16PM
Here.
Clerk 01:02:16PM
We have a physical quorum.
Alan Clendenin 01:02:19PM
Thank you very much. Okay, we are back on the morning agenda, even though it is afternoon. We are going to do the -- let's see, any requests for the public for reconsideration of legislative matters? Hearing none. Thank you so much. Consent agenda. Council member Miranda, move items 1--- he is not here so I guess it doesn't matter. Move items 2-7, please.
Guido Maniscalco 01:02:43PM
You are Public Safety.
Charlie Miranda 01:02:49PM
Sorry, I was listening --
Alan Clendenin 01:02:55PM
Your Majesty will be fine.
Charlie Miranda 01:02:57PM
Moves items 2-7.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:00PM
Motion to move items 2-7. A second.
Guido Maniscalco 01:03:03PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:04PM
Second from council member Maniscalco. Moved and seconded. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:11PM
I move items 8-19.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:15PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:15PM
All in favor, say aye, opposed? Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you. Council member Maniscalco. 22-26.
Guido Maniscalco 01:03:23PM
Yes. I would like to make a motion to move items 20-26.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:30PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:32PM
A motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you.
Charlie Miranda 01:03:37PM
Move 27-29.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:40PM
I am fem from Miranda. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:47PM
I will move items 30-31 and 32. and 33-45.
Alan Clendenin 01:03:55PM
Actually 30-31 -- not 32.
Lynn Hurtak 01:03:59PM
30-31 and 33-45.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:03PM
A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you so much. Just a reminder, we did pull item 32 which will be heard with item 61 for those who are following at home.
Lynn Hurtak 01:04:18PM
Then I move items 46-49.
Charlie Miranda 01:04:23PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:23PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed, ayes have it.
Lynn Hurtak 01:04:30PM
I set items 50-54 for public hearing.
Guido Maniscalco 01:04:35PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:04:37PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded from council member Maniscalco to set the public hearings from item 50-54. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you. Those items have been set. I would like a motion to open the 10 a.m. public hearing.
Charlie Miranda 01:04:51PM
So moved --
Alan Clendenin 01:04:54PM
A motion to open all public hearings. Motion from council member Maniscalco. A second from council member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Item Number 55. who is here for item 55, staff-wise? And Cctv, can we get the monitors at Council Dais up, please. They are black. Any staff for item 55? Mr. Collins, can you hear us? We can not hear or see you. There we are. Check your microphone, Danny. We can see you, but we can't hear you yet. Is he muted on his end or ours? Cctv, is he muted on your end?
Danny Collins 01:06:23PM
Can you hear me?
Alan Clendenin 01:06:26PM
Item 55, please.
Danny Collins 01:06:28PM
Good afternoon, council. Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. So Item Number 55 is file number Ta-cpa 25-03, a comprehensive plan amendment to amend the periphery within the Channel District Boundaries of january 1, 2025. the City Council approved this amendment at its first reading consideration on september 25. it is back before you today for second reading consideration. This concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:00PM
Thank you. Council have any questions? Anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to item 55? we have a motion to close. Motion to close from Council Member Maniscalco. Seconded from Council Member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. The Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson, reads item 55.
Bill Carlson 01:07:19PM
Move item number 55, file number Ta-cpa25-03, ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, future land use section, to offer an additional bonus for projects within the Channel District Community Redevelopment Area, Cra, boundaries as of january 1, 2025; providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict; providing for severability; providing an effective date.
Charlie Miranda 01:07:42PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:43PM
Motion from Councilman Carlson and seconded by Council Member Viera. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:07:50PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:07:54PM
Mr. Collins, Item Number 56.
Danny Collins 01:07:57PM
Danny Collins with your Planning Commission staff. File number Ta/cpa25-05. Comprehensive map amendment to amend the map for the property located at 1300 East Harbor Street and Channelside Drive, assigning Public/semi-public. It is back before you today for second reading consideration. This concludes my presentation.
Alan Clendenin 01:08:25PM
Council have any questions? Hearing none, anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to item 56? a motion to close, please. We have a motion from Council Member Maniscalco. A second from Council Member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Thank you. Please record your vote. Sorry -- Council Member Viera.
Luis Viera 01:08:46PM
Yes, sir, no worries, sir. I move an ordinance amending the Tampa Comprehensive Plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 1300 East Harbor Street and Channelside Drive, assigning public/semi-public, P/sp, future land use designation; providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict; providing for severability; providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:11PM
Well read, Council Member Viera and seconded by Council Member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:09:18PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:20PM
Mr. Collins, 57. we are on a roll.
Danny Collins 01:09:25PM
Item number 57, file no. Ta-cpa25-08. Ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, Future Land Use Map, for the property located at 2306 North Boulevard, from Residential-10 to Residential-20. City Council approved an affidavit for first reading september 25 and now comes before you for second reading.
Alan Clendenin 01:09:49PM
A motion to close from council member Maniscalco. Seconded from Council Member Miranda. Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor to close say aye. Ayes have it unanimously. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:10:02PM
File no. TA/CPA25-08. Ordinance amending the Tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 2306 North Boulevard, from Residential-10, R-10, to Residential-20, R-20, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:10:29PM
A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded from council member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:10:35PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:10:38PM
Thank you very much. Mr. Collins, Item 58.
Danny Collins 01:10:43PM
Item 58 is ordinance amending the tampa comprehensive plan, Future Land Use Element, Future Land Use Map, for the property located at 3618 West Euclid Avenue, from Residential-20 to Community Mixed Use-35. If City Council approved this at first reading september 25, and it is back before you for second reading consideration.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:04PM
Council have any questions? Anybody in the audience wish to speak to item 58? motion to close from council member Maniscalco. Seconded from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:11:17PM
Ordinance amending the Tampa Comprehensive Plan, Future Land Use Element, future land use map, for the property located at 3618 West Euclid Avenue, from Residential-20, R-20, to Community Mixed Use-35, Cmu-35, providing for repeal of all ordinances in conflict, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:41PM
Motion and a second.
Clerk 01:11:45PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:11:50PM
10:00 hearings. Next one quasi-judicial. If you are hear to speak, please stand, raise your right hand and be sworn in by the Clerk. [swearing in]
Alan Clendenin 01:12:10PM
Thank you very much. Item 59.
Leo Debardeleben 01:12:13PM
Leo Debardeleben, Land Development Coordination. Item Number 59 is File No. AB2-25-06 for the property at 1616 East 7th Avenue, Unit 1624. for alcoholic beverage sales for small venue, consumption on premises only, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from that certain lot, site plan modifications were required between first and second readings. Changes have been made and completed. Plan has been certified, and a copy has been provided to the Clerk. I am available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:12:47PM
Does council have any questions? Applicant. This is Art Gallery and Retail. Second Floor only, Beer and Wine. I will be happy to answer any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:13:00PM
Does council have any questions? Hearing none. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak to item 59? motion to close? Motion to close by Council Member Maniscalco. Second by Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson, read item 59, please.
Bill Carlson 01:13:20PM
Move item number 59, file number AB2-25-06. Ordinance approving a special use permit su-2 for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue, consumption on premises only, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from 01:13:34pm certain lot, plot or tract of land located at 1616 East 7th Avenue, Unit 1624, Second Floor Only, Tampa, Florida, as more particularly described in section 2, providing that al 01:13:28pm ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict are repealed, and providing an effective date
Alan Clendenin 01:13:56PM
Motion from Councilman Carlson and second from council member Maniscalco. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:14:02PM
Motion carried with Miranda voting no and Viera being absent at vote.
Alan Clendenin 01:14:14PM
Read is good. Item Number 60.
Leo Debardeleben 01:14:17PM
Thank you, council and Chairman. Item Number 60, AB2-25-18 ordinance approving a special use permit for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue (consumption on premises, and package sales/off-premises consumption, and making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at 4121 Henderson Boulevard. Site plan modifications required between first and second readings. Those changes have been made and the plan certified and provided to the Clerk. I am available if you have any questions. As Leo mentioned, everything has been resubmitted, and we are available for any questions.
Alan Clendenin 01:14:58PM
Council have any questions? Hearing none. Anyone in the audience who wish to speak to this item?
Charlie Miranda 01:15:03PM
Motion to close.
Guido Maniscalco 01:15:04PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 01:15:05PM
All in favor, say aye. Ayes have it unanimously. Please record your vote.
Charlie Miranda 01:15:12PM
Item Number 60, File No Ab2-25-18 ordinance approving a special use permit, Su-2, for alcoholic beverage sales, small venue consumption on premises and package sales/off-premises consumption. And making lawful the sale of Beer and Wine at or from that certain lot, plot or tract of land located at 4121 Henderson Boulevard, Tampa, Florida, as more particularly described in section 2, providing that all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict are repealed, and providing an effective date.
Alan Clendenin 01:15:46PM
A motion from council member Miranda. And a second from council member Viera. Please record your vote.
Clerk 01:15:56PM
Motion carried unanimously.
Alan Clendenin 01:16:00PM
Very good. We are moving on to the 10:30 hearings, vacating public hearings, and legislative matters. Hearing 32 along with 61.
Abbye Feeley 01:16:10PM
Good afternoon, council, Abbye Feeley, director of economic opportunity for the City, and with me is deputy City attorney Morris Massey. Before you today -- this is the second reading for the development agreement for the observation wheel, as well as the lease amendment to the lease for the Florida Aquarium. The lease amendment is Item Number 32. and the development agreement is Item Number 61. I do have a quick presentation. And then we will -- I will turn it over to Mr. Shimberg -- both Mr. massey and I are here if you have any questions. Right now -- I will talk of the lease amendment first. They owns the parking adjacent, and we are in a lease for the parking. Operating agreement that goes along with that parking and a revenue share agreement that goes with that as well. That is important because I will talk about that in just a minute because that area for the aquarium came to the City for the ability to sublease a part of the property that they currently lease from us. That is before you, that lease amendment. Part of amendment including an exhibit of a sublease. That sublease has terms of that agreement, and we will go into that in just a minute. The project before you in the sublease. Completely privately funded project. So in terms of the sublease agreement, there are a couple of things that are in there. There is a pass-through rent and that -- the term of that is 5%. A $75,000 minimum or 5% of the revenues, whichever is more so -- and that is for revenues greater than $7 million, which is the break-even point for the wheel. So an example of that is if $12 million in revenue came in, the City would be getting $250,000 on the $12 million because it is on what is above the $7 million. Those revenues are not only ticket sales and those revenues are ticket sales, food and beverage, and photo opportunities. Whatever their gross revenues are. One thing that is outstanding is that there are bonds that are on the aquarium, and they pay out on those bonds is about another two years. So should the wheel become operational during that time, The City cannot receive revenue on the -- we still have the bonds that are being paid off. So what will happen is, we will get a double payment on the first year that is eligible for our payment up to two double payments to make up for that time period that we could not collect those revenues. There were questions during the last hearing of insurance and indemnification. Both must be listed as an insured party, and they have agreed to indemnify The City and the aquarium and from any liability. Parking -- the aquarium is receiving funds to offset the parking spaces that will be given up. Part of that is The City's revenue share. So we will be getting our share to keep us whole as to terms of the agreement today. And lastly, the sublease matches the terms of the aquarium lease through 2039. there was a comment made this morning for 20 something years under public comment. Only through 2039, which is where we are today is 2026 next -- in a few months. So just about 13 years. If for some chance the aquarium defaults or we stop our lease to the aquarium prior to that, we will be required to keep our lease for the wheel until the 2039. in terms of the development agreement, the development agreement governs the design, construction, and operation, which includes the height, and we talked about this at the first hearing to go from the 175 to the 250. that allowance is specific and solely to the observation wheel. It does not serve as precedent for other developments, and additional language was added in there in response to the matter raised by council member carlson. In terms of design, there is now in there -- Mr. Morris Massey did provide a strike-through underline in the changes in the of concerns of design, landscaping, and architectural treatment. There is no encroachment into the right-of-way, and the street frontage must be maintained with high-quality pedestrian experience and that was the relationship to Chairman clendenin's comments that were raised at the first hearing as well. There is a requirement for a lighting plan also to be provided to ensure that there will not be spillage into the surrounding residential areas. The operating hours from 10 a.m. to midnight. And there is also a condition that no city or cra funding will had been utilized for this project or applied for in relation to this project. And then that the development agreement ends when the sublease terminates. It will not run through the operation of this. It does not run with, quote, the land, but runs with the project. Unless there are any questions now, I will turn it over to Mr. shimberg.
Alan Clendenin 01:22:35PM
Thank You for incorporating all of that laundry list of items that I had in the initial meeting. Thank you. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:22:43PM
Same thing.
Alan Clendenin 01:22:44PM
Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:22:47PM
Questions were answered because I was hearing 30-year lease. You are telling me 2039. with regards to insurance and indemnification, we are held harmless. As you are adding additional parties, we are covered in that aspect. With revenue, what are we getting from this? Giving up public land and taking -- how many spaces, 50 spaces that are lost, but the revenue was a minimum of $75,000. If the revenue goes above $7 million -- and you put an example of what the City gets in return. You mentioned lighting, because I asked about lighting. I didn't ask about outdoor music. Is music going to be played? Is this going to be -- I don't know. How is this going to work it? Because you have residential areas right there.
Alan Clendenin 01:23:41PM
The Applicant will be up next.
Guido Maniscalco 01:23:44PM
That is my question. Amplified music. Like a carnival ride where you hear all the noise. So other than that, I am looking -- all my questions were answered from what I asked last time. Thank you very much.
Alan Clendenin 01:23:58PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:23:59PM
Thank you. Is there anything in the resolution that talks about dimming after a certain hour? Because -- we did get an e-mail this morning that did talk about the concerns that, you know, a lot of people that live in those towers live in floor-to-ceiling glass. And they are not going to be able to sleep until midnight and that is just not fair. Provides a lighting plan that has to be part of the project that gets approved by the City as part of the permitting to limits the glare on residential projects. That condition provides that they will minimize the lighting when the wheel is not in operation. That is in the development agreement.
Lynn Hurtak 01:24:44PM
That is not my question. My question is after 10 p.m. -- 10 p.m. or midnight, the lights needs to be a lot lower or something like that. That is concern that I am -- from this Resident and makes a lot of sense.
Abbye Feeley 01:24:57PM
Typically, in a lighting plan, they will show -- they can put the photo metrics around to show what the Spill is from certain distances, and this would be in that plan. I don't believe that will be developed to date, but if the desire is at such time, when we do it, normally no Spill at all. You can't have that, and you need to have it contained. A series of up lights and things. I will let the Applicant speak to that. But if there is a modification you would like, that is still -- this is -- we still have the ability to make those changes.
Lynn Hurtak 01:25:32PM
Thank you. You.
Alan Clendenin 01:25:35PM
Very good. No other questions? We will hear from the applicant. Jim. Shimberg law group representing the Tampa wheel. We wanted to provide a couple of updates. And staff has done a tremendous job. Thanks Morris Massey, Abbye Feeley, and Dennis Rogero with their efforts to work closely with us to try to address comments. I know Councilwoman Hurtak had urged us to, you know, do as much community outreach as possible after the last hearing. Our team spent time talking to all people who were here, as long as they were here. We then did a very broad outreach. And the City helped us with notification, but with a meeting at the Florida Aquarium that was noticed to everybody in person after business hours. We followed that up with the virtual option several days later. So we believe we have listened to council and tried to get the word out as much as possible. There may be a few residents that want to speak to that. You know, we worked closely with the Channel District Advisory Committee and aspects of that to help get the word out. Mr. Miller will speak on the lighting in just one second. My client has confirmed there is no amplified music or noise associated with this. That we will be good neighbors. The woman that spoke in the morning during public comment, I spent quite a bit of time outside talking to her about all of her concerns. And, you know, I don't know if she is here now, but she at least felt better, and I explained some of the stuff to her. Her concerns whether people will be able to afford to ride it or not and those concerns have not manifest in other locations where these wheels are located. We are not expecting people from Tampa to come down and ride it every week. We are expecting people to take advantage if you have visitors in town from out of town, and show them an amazing view from you 50 feet, cruise ship passengers, aquarium visitors. People already who are down in that area we expect to be the majority of the ridership. Again, one last thing. The issue we worked out with The City staff that had to do with the $7 million. That is based on an average of -- we included food and beverages and other things, and the city gets the benefit, conservative estimates that our clients have come up with. We feel that the numbers will be closer to $500,000 or higher, which will provide the city with significant revenue, and above in addition to the $75,000. But miss feeley did a great job negotiating on behalf of the city, Mr. massey spent a tremendous amount of time working on legal documents, and Mr. rogero was looking out for the city's financial interest to make sure it didn't adversely impact your bond. Mr. carlson, with your comments, no setting a precedent for any kind of development. Just like the woman I was speaking to outside. If you ever wanted to put a condo there at that point, it doesn't create a precedent. She said oh, no, I don't want a condo there. Aquarium parking leased from The City and reimbursing all the money plus some for the spaces because I don't think they get coverage all the time for those spaces right now. And, you know, at some point in the future, and I have been involved ten years ago when the port had potential plans to redevelop this area, and two 50-story towers and things that never really materialized. If the city and the port and everybody else decides at some point they want to redevelop that portion between Channelside Drive and the water, that will be a long process and will have a lot of Community Engagement and plenty of time to relocate this particular attraction if necessary. We don't anticipate that will happen in the in the extended years. I'm here to answer any additional questions, and we have a representative from stantech, Mr. miller, to let him address the lighting very quickly. We spoke to the resident and addressed concerns that we heard consistently. One was traffic. One was noise. One was lighting and design. Did it feel like it fit The City? The biggest issue was lighting. One of the things we let them know that is part of the permitting process was that we were going to have to submit a lighting package that was going to be agreeable when we are going through the permitting process. And we shared with them that we had the ability to turn the lights way down. We have control. There are five different components of lighting and ability to do that. Like the seattle wheel. A lot of characteristics that will have no issues with the satisfaction of the folks lives in the Channel District area.
Lynn Hurtak 01:30:59PM
You are able to dim the lights and hours say from 10 a.m. to midnight, and you are saying 10 p.m.? we need to keep on and northwest creating any outflow light. These are the ones that we need to maintain between that 9:00 to midnight timeframe. Other ones where you got spoke, you got hub, and you have uplighting. All of those can be controlled, dimmed almost completely turned off. So we can completely manage that light outflow to the degree that it does not create any intrusion for the customer -- or the residents that live in the area. The hours it is allowed to operate goes from 10 a.m. to midnight. They aren't necessarily open every night until midnight. There may be nights where there is not much business. But new year's eve. They will run the business, and they are partners with the City and maximize the revenue and generate as much revenue for themselves and the City as possible. But not open from 10 to midnight if nobody is down there.
Lynn Hurtak 01:32:37PM
Additionally, again, I don't know how to put this in a resolution or do something. I appreciate you reaching out to the Community. What I would ask that as you develop this Lighting Plan, do another set of meetings so people can understand. Once you have come up with an agreement with a Lighting Plan, set another meeting. Do the outreach you did before. I think that is what I am hearing. A good time to mention no amplified sound. I think that again once you have a solid plan, make sure the Community knows about it, and get some feedback. That is the way you get people to really create the open dialogue, and then make sure people know how to contact you. In the beginning months because that is when you are going to have the problem.
Lynn Hurtak 01:33:36PM
No, but what I am saying, the concerns we heard about this are numerous, and I am still on the fence, but I don't think my vote will matter. I think you have the votes you need, but I am very concerned about this. What I am hearing from the public is they are concerned, and the only way to really make them feel better is to bring the plan forward, have them be a part of it. That -- we didn't probably change a lot of minds in terms of the people that were really not for this project, and we don't expect that everybody is going to be for the project. But I hope that what the takeaway from the residents was, is that we do want to, in fact, be good neighbors and be partners with the City and do the right thing. Especially knowing there will be some people who will speak again here today, and I know that some of them may have been at that meeting. I am not asking them to speak on behalf of us other than to say, they feel we did, in fact, listen, and that we -- it felt like, hey, we will try to be really good partners and do the right thing. I believe the people at that meeting walked away feeling a little bit higher level of comfort around the knowledge that we are there to listen to them in an honest and earnest way, and we do want to work with them to address their concerns taking a little risk to see what their thoughts were. Best-case scenario that we can get open. We are hoping less than a year to have it open. Abbye addressed two years. Prior to that, we will have part of our outreach to reach out to the people. We have a great list and a great way to reach out to people and let them know, hey, we are going to have a meeting, and tell everybody about this great opportunity that is coming. We will obviously make sure to show them that we are good neighbors, that we want to be good neighbors. Give them our contact information for people if there is a complaint one night where somebody -- where light is going in their window. We are absolutely committed to being good neighbors and with the people in the Channel District, we want this to be a positive thing for their community and The City.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:01PM
I don't know if I have a question for you or a statement for you and a question to staff. I don't remember seeing a provision in the agreement that allows for later hours for special events like new year's eve and super bowl.
We Are Not Asking For Any Ability To Go Past 12 01:36:14PM
00 like I said we will not open until 12:00 every night.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:20PM
I am thinking of the special events that you may want to have.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:26PM
Okay, I am trying to help you out here. Operation can be varied between Aquarium and the Wheel Operator. They can't operate before 10 or after midnight without the City's consent. They could come and ask, and we would have to say if it is okay. That is put in to protect the residents in Channelside.
Alan Clendenin 01:36:53PM
Very good. Is that is it? Any other questions? Staff, you are good with that as well? Okay. Anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to this item? If you would come and line up on the wall, I will call you up in the order you show up on the wall. Sir, in the fancy charcoal suit. Start with your name, please. I was one of the people that actually showed up. And Mr. Miller is right, they did do their best to reach out to have residents, and frankly, if anybody came away from the meeting not feeling like they are partners and not trying to be partners, they were at the wrong meeting personally. I'm here today to talk about specifically City ordinance 19-47 which is Tampa's lighting ordinance. Nothing should be allowable within incorporated limits in the City that should in anyway be offensive and noxious of odors, gases, dust, smoke, light, vibration, and noise. Stuff about animals that is not relevant here. Anything that will constitute an eyesore nuisance to property owners and residents of the community. Specifically, the development agreement -- can I show this here? You have to forgive me, a photo on my phone.
Alan Clendenin 01:38:23PM
A wheel at the top for you to zoom in. Have the red lines? Amazing. That is so nice.
Alan Clendenin 01:38:33PM
Staff is good. Specific concern we have on b, for special occasions and nights and weekends. This attraction is open until midnight. That is really tough with lighting that will be there. One thing that staff had mentioned -- and please correct me if I'm wrong -- that lighting should have no extrusion if that is the case. I have a really hard time believing that the rim lights that need to be on while the wheel is in operation will conform to 19-47. That being said, we understand this is a give and take, and we need to start acting like good neighbors for the Developers here. I think this will pass whether I object to it or not, I think that is apparent. That being said, I am asking for a little more specificity what dimming look like. What is the lux that we are allowed -- I am the person -- I am glad that you are running long in the morning because I get to actually show up in the afternoon. Everybody in my building that lives on the fourth floor from 20 -foot floor-to-ceiling windows. If we have to create items to infuse the light, I don't get to drill into my walls without coming and getting permitting. Encouraging council to be a little more specific on this particular point because I don't think the Developers can do anything about parking more than they already have. They are showing they want to be good neighbors so on and so forth. Last thing I will ask you all, though, because I wonder if there are some people on the fence. Harken back to the invocation. I live my life in that I love my neighbors as myself. So I ask you, if you were standing in my position and you had to vote yes to this and your family and your child who may be impacted with this, would you still vote yes? Thank you for your time.
Alan Clendenin 01:40:22PM
Miss Hewitt. Alison Hewitt. I am not here to speak against the property. I'm here because I historically come here about policy and procedure. As an East Tampa resident, I am completely offended that something like the wheel gets moved and fast-tracked, and we are here in a matter of weeks and months. And we do a redevelopment program, and it takes five years and still hasn't rolled out. And policies and procedures and statutes are important to me also, as you have seen me be able to talk about. Florida statute 163.380, makes sure that before any property located within the cra is leased or subleased or sold, it has to be opened for bids for the public. We hear this on other problems. We hear that you hold us to do it in other areas that the cra property owns. We can't do anything unless we go through this big rfp process. Well, this is the same thing. The City of Tampa has already been in court. City of Tampa, Tampa Heights -- Tampa Heights riverfront community. The Second District Court of Appeals said that The City violated florida law when it amended a lease to transfer a public lease to a private developer without issuing a rfp. If we are going to do this for this one, people who don't have the money for a lobbyist and don't have the money to have the advertisements. If you treat them this way, you got to treat everyone else in the cra the same.
Alan Clendenin 01:42:03PM
Miss Poynor. And I think Alison just brought up a big issue. I would like to point out that I got a text message a few minutes ago that the meridian and Channelside Lots were not contacted per the Hoa president and folks who live there. I just -- I have not heard anything about anybody having anything positive to say about this, and I don't give a flip about this. I really don't. I swear, I don't care. Because I will never spend the money to get on that joker, or will my family. So, you know, I don't -- I don't really have a vested interest in this, except for the fact that I find it hard to believe that these folks have met with the public repeatedly when all I have seen on social media is negative. And not just negative, but nasty negative about it. And I got to stand up for my neighborhoods. Have they actually, truly -- where is the evidence? Where is the sign-in sheets? Let's see them. Because I know -- last I heard, you guys got a couple of positives in development or do development or their main field of expertise. If what Alison says it is true, let's not violate state statutes. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 01:43:30PM
Hearing nothing else -- no one else. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 01:43:34PM
Well, I mean, now I am going to ask Mr. Massey to come up and address that. Because obviously we want to make sure --
Morris Massey 01:43:41PM
I do want to address that issue. What the Riverview Heights situation says, we can not dispose from a city-owned land in a Cra without going through the rfp process. In interest has already been disposed of. We already entered into the lease with the Aquarium. We are ending that lease, and consenting to the sublease. All they are doing is a contractual arrangement between the Aquarium and the wheel operator. I don't believe that runs afoul of the Cra statute for florida law or the Riverside Heights decision, because we are not disposing of an interest. We already disposed of the interest. We have given it to the Aquarium. All we are doing is consenting to the sublease -- allowing the Aquarium to sublease the property.
Alan Clendenin 01:44:34PM
Anything else, okay, can we get a motion to close --
Lynn Hurtak 01:44:38PM
No, rebuttal.
Charlie Miranda 01:44:40PM
I want to put it on the record I have not spoken to Anyone there regarding this subject matter. Anyone who has come before me. Let me be clear that out.
Alan Clendenin 01:44:50PM
You want a rebuttal? Point was raised about what we have done to reach out to everybody. I do want to ask to get specifics around that to address that specifically. What we did within 24 hours of Councilwoman Hurtak's suggestion that we needed to talk to the residents in a much more important way. We sent an e-mail, and you saw the notification. We tried to be more clear than the original notice that we are mandated by law 390 residents within 300 feet. We did something much more significant. Sent it out to Sky House, to the Grandview, Channel Club, 101 North Meridian Towers, and the place forwarded the e-mails on to their residents. One of them could not do that, so we went and took flyers down there and made sure that we at least put flyers up to create notice. We sent it to the City. City put it on its facebook page to provide notice. Sent it out to more than 180 individuals that expressed interest in channel district matters through the Cac. We also sent it out to the City council members. Anybody that sent something to City council about that issue, we made sure that notification got out to them as well. We feel we did within a 24-hour period yeoman's work to get this out to as many local residents as possible. I want to address the idea that what you heard online is what I would expect to be the negative. There is not a lot of people that get online and talk about the positive, but I do think there is an overwhelming majority of people who are very supportive of this project and will find great value of it. While I respect the -- the voice of those who are not for it, and they are vocal, it does not reflect the majority. So I think it is -- it does not characterize the support for this project. Hopefully that gives you some context. We sent it to all the Registered Neighborhood Associations within the area.
Alan Clendenin 01:47:15PM
Thank you. Can I ask staff, what is the legal requirement for notifications for this particular item?
Morris Massey 01:47:28PM
They are required to publish the notice twice --
Alan Clendenin 01:47:31PM
Start with your name.
Morris Massey 01:47:32PM
Morris Massey, Deputy City Attorney. Eight days before the public hearing which they had done. And the same distance requirement when it was a rezoning. Noticed all the individual property owners within 300 feet and Registered Neighborhood Organizations that would obtain a notice letter regarding a rezoning. And they have complied with all of those requirements.
Alan Clendenin 01:47:57PM
Thank you. I say that because I think there is a misunderstanding in the public about what this council considers notification, legal notification, and what we can hold people accountable for. What you just heard from the Applicant, they went way and above on all of that. I mean -- the parcel we are talking about is Seven Acres, portions of the wheel is just -- we did it from the seven-acre parcel not the half acre, to increase the notice even further.
Alan Clendenin 01:48:32PM
Anybody else? Can we get a motion to close. Motion to Close. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.
Luis Viera 01:48:43PM
So moved.
Alan Clendenin 01:48:46PM
Motion to move item 32 by Council Member Viera. Seconded from Council Member Maniscalco.
Lynn Hurtak 01:48:50PM
I said I was on the fence about this, but I just -- we might get more than $75,000, but to me that is just not worth the risk. And I know I am in the minority, but I -- I just think that $75,000 is not worth the Community's frustration, the light and other issues, and I respectfully vote no.
Alan Clendenin 01:49:20PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:49:24PM
I appreciate all the extra work that the Applicant went through and The City staff in doing all this. My concern is the impact on the Aquarium. The families in my district have been up in arms about the Aquarium's decision to get rid of the splash pad and replace it with sea lions, or they think it is a bad idea and questioning their membership. They are saying that parking is already limited, and now we will be even more inconvenienced by that. If this was on Private Property -- that section was Private Property, whether I like the idea or not, I might say okay, but since this is City Property and adjacent to the Aquarium, I think the Aquarium is making a second bad decision that will hurt their business in the long run. Even though they think it is okay, I never will do anything to hurt the Aquarium. Despite the great efforts of everyone and the Applicant, I will vote no.
Alan Clendenin 01:50:31PM
I will say something that is lost in this is the economic development opportunities and jobs. And I see this in a lot of these problems that come before us. We -- we don't discuss that a lot. While this may be only a few jobs directly tied to the daily operation, there are other jobs that are associated with this. One economic opportunity expands to other opportunities. You drive more people there for an opportunity for more jobs to be created in the area. And honestly the b roll. The impact on this has the image of the City of Tampa and looking -- every time you have a televised game or a lightning match or something else or a convention in Downtown Tampa, that roll will show this. And I think it is going to be beneficial for the City of Tampa. So I think that definitely it is a consideration. It is funny though, my family is pass holders for the Aquarium, and we are excited about the sea lions and puffins. It will make a unique and interesting experience. That is my input. Council Member Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 01:51:44PM
I want to say -- I will support the project. You know, if you just go back 20 years, just 20 years, that's not much in a lifetime. What was on Channelside? Nothing. Nothing!
Luis Viera 01:54:08PM
It is something that people will use in the area, and something that will benefit the area, and I think it will further elevate our story. And always a mediator and it's not black and white in life but gray. Of course there is detriment to it. I don't think there is any potential detriment to it. But I think the good far outweighs the bad. I will say that this is further putting more enterprises, putting more activities in this Area. And what I am going to say has nothing to do with this project at all, but it is another reason why we need an additional fire station in this area Downtown. I know. I am beating the drum. Call me Ringo Starr, but it is so true. We continue to build out there and have more activities and how in the hell no fire station but it blows my minds. I will be glad to support it.
Alan Clendenin 01:55:08PM
I will never call you Ringo Starr. I will close this up. Because it sounded like Charlie Miranda -- did you want to speak
Guido Maniscalco 01:55:18PM
You hear me talking. I will tell a story.
Alan Clendenin 01:55:21PM
I remember when Sandy Freeman dropped the Aquarium. Same negativity was there. Not economically viable. Slum and warehouses and nobody is going to go down there and visit the Aquarium. Mayor Greco built a streetcar. That is crazy. Who will ride a street car? You have people come in with $20 million of their own money. I will not question their decision if they will make money. I understand business as an air traffic controller and a lousy politician. We talk of the tourists, not just residential. How many Hotels? More coming between Channelside and Water Street and Downtown, how many Hotels and how many hotel rooms which generate taxes, which generate those bed taxes, and generate all these great things we have. We love bed taxes, by the way. Council Member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 01:56:25PM
Real quick. I wanted to talk about this the other day, and I think this is appropriate. I take day trips to other cities to see what they do. Denver is on my list because they have public transportation. Tampa, we don't have public transportation. If I want to take a day trip to Tampa, and I am an outsider, I take the number 30 bus from the Airport and takes me into Downtown. Growing up, we didn't have it. 25 years ago to now, look at the difference, the Museum of Art. You go to the Riverwalk, right. You see Downtown. You take the streetcar. You go through Water Street. You stop at the Aquarium, Hotels, Sparkman, and Wharf. The streetcar takes you into Ybor City. And what do you want to explore in Tampa, the Columbia Restaurant, right, an institution that is over a century old. And you can take the streetcar back to the bus stop that can take you back to the Airport. So show you that Tampa has changed in the last 25 years. You didn't have that. No reason to go Downtown. There was only a Museum of Art. Beyond that, we didn't have -- we didn't have the Riverwalk. Well, the streetcar came in around that time. Look how Tampa has changed. You can come to Tampa. Make a day trip. Explore our culture and history. And make it back to get your return flight home in the same day. We are growing and changing.
Alan Clendenin 01:57:48PM
As a Board Member of the Tampa Theatre, they will object that you didn't say Tampa Theatre on that trip.
Guido Maniscalco 01:57:55PM
An afternoon showing as they do every year, yes. You can take a 3:00 summer movie classic whatever. Yeah, it is interesting. We talk of the lack in Tampa, but we really -- we come a long way.
Alan Clendenin 01:58:09PM
Adding them one at a time. We are adding to it. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 01:58:13PM
Just quickly. In the -- in the 80s and 90s, we were trying to play catch-up with other cities, and we added things that we had to check the box. Economic development. You had to have a center. You had to have a museum. You had to have a convention center. You had to have a hotel for the convention center. You have to have better movie theatres and starbucks and all these things. Now in the last ten years, we have graduated into the time where we are redeveloping those projects to make them uniquely Tampa. So as the new Tampa museum of art came on board whether you like it or not, a new kind of architecture and a different style on the inside with the investments. They will be even more different than before. The straz center. Florida Aquarium. The design was unique, and the way they curated it. As you are trying to decide which city to go to and what experiences, you want it to be different. A lot of cities have these wheels. The thing I will ask these guys to do. A lot of the experience is defined by the videos running inside them and the experience of getting on it. I would ask them -- if it passes and is sounds like it will to try to make it uniquely Tampa. Don't want people to say I did this in Singapore, London, Orlando, or whatever. Better if people got in it and said I experienced Tampa in whatever way.
Alan Clendenin 01:59:49PM
Amazing you put us in the same sentence as London and Singapore. So moved and seconded. A motion from Council Member Viera. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed?
Clerk 02:00:05PM
Motion carried with hurtak and Carlson voting no.
Alan Clendenin 02:00:09PM
Thank you. So now we are going to -- do we have to read this one? Now 61. motion to move to item 61 by council member Maniscalco. Seconded by council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. The Ayes have it. 4-2.
Clerk 02:00:39PM
Motion carried with hurtak and Carlson voting no.
Alan Clendenin 02:00:43PM
Thank you. Congratulations. We are now on -- give everybody a second to filter out.
Bill Carlson 02:01:01PM
Did you guys do consent already?
Alan Clendenin 02:01:04PM
We did. It was fabulous. Super fast and good for everybody. That was a request by Councilwoman Hurtak during agenda review to hear 73 before 66 and 67. who is going to present 73? the stars of the show.
Brandon Campbell 02:01:31PM
Good afternoon, council, Brandon Campbell, interim director of the Mobility Department. Yuan Li will be giving the presentation for Item Number 73, the Lower Peninsula project for the Port. And then, of course, at your -- at your direction and your pleasure, we will move to 66 and 67. we have some support here for those as well. I will turn it over to you all.
Alan Clendenin 02:01:55PM
Start with your name, please.
Yuang Li 02:02:18PM
Good afternoon, council, mobility staff. And we appreciate this opportunity to have an overview of the Lower Peninsula capital improvement, which is a highly successful design-build project currently in a closed-out phase. These are questions that the council is seeking information related to project schedule, the project cost deliverables, and the benefits. For our agenda today, pretty much follows the order of these questions. Next to the agenda is the project which is located in the Lower Peninsula Watershed, which is about 8.6 square miles in South Tampa and where the flooding existed due to inadequate and aging stormwater infrastructure. So this project consists of design and construction of new stormwater collection and stormwater pond in the middle of MacDill 48 Park and to provide flood relief, as well as water quality treatment. This project also improves various upgrades to the water infrastructure. And major timelines are identified in this slide. And the notice to proceed was issued at the end of 2020m and the final design after a year. And the council has max price in july 2022. and the construction has lasted about three years. And we just did the final walk-through and in the process of closing out as it is projected by november. And I do want to mention that this is that the first part of this project was in the middle of a pandemic. The schedule of the project was minimally impacted. In fact, some were delivered ahead of schedule, such as the design. And this table summarizes its budget: two amendments, gmp, and a single change order with a total of $39 million. This slide dives into the details of the scope of work and probably is $3.5 million in total. There are two amendments including water distribution rate design and additional services allowances. Guarantee maximum price of $55 million with a single change order. And due to the cost increases, which was part of the pandemic and the cost in labor went up and increase from the park amenities, as well as water management upgrades. And this table summarizes the usage of contingent funds. As mentioned, most of these are associated with labor and material cost increase. And also we have to have field conditions to modify the design sometimes or accommodate the field conditions sometimes to address the public request. And approval of usage of contingency follows a very strict system, and we fully verify them and also documented them. And this is a summary of cost of kimmins subcontractors. You can see a big chunk of money went to the material and followed by the various professional services, most likely -- most related to the preconstruction services. And continuing is the summary of deliverables or the project, including stormwater, water, wastewater, infrastructure, newly paved road, and park and stormwater pond. And this slide summarizes the date, two years between the first and the last piece of the box installed. And the macDill 48 park was open to the public about a year ago. As mentioned, because of the pandemic and other things going on, this project has stayed on schedule for the most part and with minor justifications to accommodate the school start, hurricane, and additional work. And this is the project spending to date. We do not have the final number yet, but we anticipate this project will be delivered under budget, and capital fund will stay in the stormwater capital improvement program. One possible use that we have already identified is the five-year red line, monitoring obligation that required by the fdep. Tremendous benefits are being brought by this project. Most -- both hard and soft, including flood relief, improved water qualities, and enhancements and parks. We do want to highlight a couple of things. This is another successful case that we have successfully collaborated to stormwater and water to minimize the disruption to the neighborhood instead of twice, but to do it once. And we also save the cost for the restoration. It is a parallel effort. And another thing that we want to emphasize is the resilience and the sustainability of the neighborhood. There are many recent articles talking about reducing the home values in the flood-prone areas after hurricanes especially. And we -- and we have seen discussions and also we -- we see the -- people moving out of the flood zones and the business flood zones. But with implementation of this project, we are confident as community is staying strong with generations. And the city has been very lucky to receive funding for the stormwater capital improvement projects. About two-thirds of funding is provided by state and the regional allocation, the award of the project not only engineering, but they are highly cost effective. And the benefits are being brought to the community. And, also, this project received various professional awards from the organizations. I just -- I do want to recognize our designer team. Kimmins are here today, and we applaud their outstanding work. Again, we are excited with the combination of this project and appreciate this opportunity to reflect this project with the council. And the project team will conduct in-depth, like, close-out sessions, and we use the lessons learned to further improve the delivery of our cips. With that, we appreciate any comments and/or questions that you may have.
Alan Clendenin 02:10:58PM
Thank you very much for the presentation. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:11:01PM
Thank you. I just wanted to remind council, this is the reason I wanted to do this and why we should do this for large projects going forward. It gives us a look at looking back. We are the ones that fund it. And for this, I think it is particularly interesting how it was a $55 million gmp. They completely used the entire contingency fee, and then a change order on top of it. So I had a question that I don't know if Mr. Mutterback is here, but I am -- and maybe Mr. Rogero can address this. What are the average contingency percentages for a project like this? Or Brandon, if anybody knows.
Brandon Campbell 02:11:49PM
We have Contract Administration.
Lynn Hurtak 02:11:55PM
Somebody from Kimmins, anybody knows, come on up. As you are learning, we are learning as we fund these projects and what to expect. Albert Calloway, the manager for inspection of contract admin, filling in for Mr. Mutterback today. Gmps is with the components, Stormwater, Wastewater, whatever. Typical Contingency are ranges between 5 and 8% and we usually stay well within that. Hurtak high temperature okay. Thank you again. In this project, does anyone know what that Contingency. I can do that math, but not that kind of math. This project had multiple contingencies.
Lynn Hurtak 02:12:44PM
Seeing five in the back. 5% contingency. Good to know we were on the lower side of this project. As we look at projects going forward, it is important to take a look at the thing I was confused about. You said Miss Sharp. If you can pop that on the wolf. If we can have that up on the wolf. Thank you. Shove it up just a wee bit. There we go. Right now, this is the bond series that we -- we had a bunch of money in this project. And we had $20 million from the bond series in Lower Peninsula Watershed Plan, and it does not seem that this $20 million was used. So you talked about possibly using the capital overage for monitoring. I don't know if we can use capital funds for that. Can you expand on what you intend to do with the rest of this $20.9 million? Or Mr. Rogero, one or the other, whoever wants to talk about this. I am curious why it sat in this account when we clearly have known for at least six months that it was not going to be needed.
Dennis Rogero 02:14:09PM
Yes, ma'am. Dennis Rogero, chief financial officer. Good afternoon, council. I can't speak to the monitoring portion, but we have known for some time that this bond fund also may not be needed for this. We are bringing it to council as part of larger south howard project as a funding source for that.
Lynn Hurtak 02:14:30PM
So this though goes to the question, we just went through a budget process. And I am just curious of the rationale why you didn't bring it in the budget process and why it is still here.
Dennis Rogero 02:14:47PM
Understood. Primarily, we wanted to bring it good with the guaranteed maximum price, the Gmp, when we get that for the South Howard project because such an unknown right now. He wanted this project to be closed out with any unused funding. Bring the Gmp and a financial resolution grabbing in funding for South Howard will give the council and Public a more holistic -- full picture of the funding mechanisms for that project.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:20PM
Then if -- I still have more questions for you. If Cctv can go back to the Wolf. So we have gotten some questions. And you may have well seen them as -- this is where I transition into 66 and 67 a little bit.
Dennis Rogero 02:15:37PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:38PM
Right now, we took out these series bonds. When did we actually -- the bond issuance date was november?
Dennis Rogero 02:15:47PM
November.
Lynn Hurtak 02:15:49PM
Only used 5%. Why in the world did we take that much money out if we at this point did not spend any of it and just paying for the interest?
Dennis Rogero 02:16:00PM
A good question. At the time -- let me back up, philosophically, whether or not we should issue debt until we need the money, but life happens. I can speak for the fact that at the time we issued the debt because we thought we would need the money a lot sooner than it appears we did. Now, I think that does have some factors associated with that are the timing of the project and the progress of the project. For instance, I think we thought we would have more -- we would have either a Gmp or be closer to a Gmp at this time than we are now obviously. So all I can say, at the point in time, we thought we would need the money a lot sooner than we have needed it.
Lynn Hurtak 02:16:39PM
Okay. Because that is something that the public brought to our attention. To be honest, I completely get it.
Dennis Rogero 02:16:45PM
Me too.
Lynn Hurtak 02:16:46PM
So from this -- and I will just tell you I may have it together today or may have to wait until next week, but I want a recounting of that. I think this body needs to know a recounting of pretty much all you have our bonds and where are we. Is this happening elsewhere? Are we at only bond funding where we are paying on and not using. From that, also, we got a reimbursement resolution that was saying more money even though we had this money. I am -- again, we kind of want to talk about all of this together, but to go back to this project, first of all, I want to say it is a phenomenal project. I had a chance to go out there. Eagle Scouts building -- eagle -- was it -- some type of bird housing. What is it, eagle housing? That seems like not right. But maybe it was housing for eagles or -- owls. Owls! That is what it was. Owl housing, and it was very cute. The walking path is beautiful. All I hear is beautiful things about the park. It is far from my house, and I made a trek because it is such a beautiful space. And, again, I want to appreciate out of this $55 million -- or $59 million so far, we received grants of almost $37 million -- $37.5 million, which is huge. And I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you to both Mr. Rogero's team, Stormwater Team, everyone else who had everything to with that. Getting more of our own money back, as I like to say, to spend on projects is very, very beneficial, and I really appreciate it. But that was -- I really do appreciate the rundown. And I would like to see this more on some of our big projects to give council an idea what happens in the end. We always see the beginning of the project, but we never get a financial recounting in the end. So I want to say, thank you so much for doing this exercise for me. I know it was a lot of work in the background, but I think we will get used to this. And I do expect that we will have more questions moving forward, but I was particularly interested in that extra $20 million.
Dennis Rogero 02:19:05PM
If I can postscript that, Ma'am. Yes, this project has been a stellar success and our success with all of that grant funding is one of the reasons that mitigated the necessity for that bond funding.
Lynn Hurtak 02:19:18PM
Exactly. That is a wonderful thing. And I really do appreciate how -- now -- okay. Yeah.
Alan Clendenin 02:19:29PM
Can we go to Councilman Carlson?
Lynn Hurtak 02:19:32PM
Yes, thank you.
Alan Clendenin 02:19:33PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 02:19:35PM
Sometimes the advantage of going second. First of all, thank you to staff. Thank you to Kimmins. Kimmins did an outstanding job on this. We have had other projects where we have heard complaints. Mr. Zemina, you are in the back. Thank you. He is on the Harbour Island project this one. He and his team are fantastic at following up with the community, and you can see the quality of work they did working with staff. The concerns that I have had about the next project we are going to talk about, especially -- and some of the other projects is -- is the politics around it. You know, when the political people or the city showed up at public meetings, you are kind of suspect. And as folks have said, we have needed to let the scientists and engineers lead. Unfortunately, we did not have -- as far as I can tell -- the person in charge of stormwater didn't have a stormwater degree. And so -- anyway, we need to hear from stormwater engineers that have experience. And you and Miss Li obviously are one of those, and we have some others on board and plus, we have outside ones. The big question that the public has had about this administration, and there is a team of constituents digging into documents, digging into the bond documents is, why is the public not being given a choice. Why is City Council not given a choice of how to spend this money? This south howard project is divisive. The Mayor has inserted dirty politics in it. Some of neighbors in the neighborhood have inserted negative politics in it unnecessarily and should discuss these on the merits of them. Someone mentioned earlier we are required to have the biggest, broadest impact to the public. We know from the Former Director and others that the South Howard project will basically impact Palma Ceia Pines and not help Parkland Estates except in a regular storm.
Alan Clendenin 02:21:39PM
Council member Carlson, we will hit this.
Bill Carlson 02:21:46PM
I am leading to this. Knowing that is a controversial project that is full of politics, we should have been given a choice of how to spend the money. I would like an accounting -- maybe you can tell us now -- of what is left of each of the funds coming forward. If I understand it, decide on a $100 million project, we have to raise stormwater taxes to address it. $20 million, we can apply without going into more debt for a $100 million project that is questionable whether or not they will be effective, and I will talk more about that in a minute. I would rather apply it more broadly. We have maybe 20 neighborhoods in South Tampa not to mention Forest Hills that will be affected. You and Brandon have been out with the neighbors. Those neighbors have stories that are equally as bad or worse than the parkland estates people. We know because of either maintenance or infrastructure that needs to be replaced, that we can help hundreds if not thousands of people who are flooded by reapplying $20 million from smaller projects throughout. The Public deserves to know what the alternatives are if we have $100 million project that is questionable at best, that is going to require more debt and maybe a tax increase. We need to look at what the alternatives are so we in the Public can make the best decision of what projects help the Public and need to make sure it is in the Public interest and impacting the most people possible. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:19PM
Council member Viera.
Luis Viera 02:23:22PM
I do want to say something because -- [laughter]
Luis Viera 02:23:30PM
That is a message.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:31PM
I need that button.
Luis Viera 02:23:40PM
Pursuant to that, I would like to defer my comments until when we get into that section on the South Howard Project. I will defer. I will defer.
Alan Clendenin 02:23:48PM
Very good. There we go. Muted worked. Need that button. So if there are no other questions on 73. if there are no other questions on 73, thank you very much, a great presentation. Thank you very much for the presentation. Now we will move on to 66 and 67.
Brandon Campbell 02:24:08PM
Good afternoon, again, Brandon Campbell, interim director of Mobility Department. Move this up real quick. I know this was loaded on On-base.
Alan Clendenin 02:24:27PM
Confusing up here because we can see the other presentations. Can you move that away?
Brandon Campbell 02:24:31PM
That better?
Alan Clendenin 02:24:33PM
Perfect.
Brandon Campbell 02:24:35PM
Item 66, approval of a guaranteed maximum price for early work related to the south Howard project. I did want to bring up to your attention today that, of course, the segments that are being considered for approva today are not howard itself and are outlined in the map I put on the projector. They are related to water and main replacement, as well as mill and overlay and overlay work, resurfacing work within six total segments across the neighborhood on the east and west side of Howard avenue. Some of requests that I know have come up with you all in public comment have related to the financing. And so, of course, Mr. Rogero is here to answer some of those questions that may come up in the course of conversation. I also wanted to mention that we have Rory Jones on as a panelist as the primary cost in this initial early works Gmp is for that water line replacement work. So he can speak to the needs of the Water System that are represented by this.
Alan Clendenin 02:25:45PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:25:47PM
Thank you. I just -- before -- I want to set the table on this. Because there are two items. One, is the total, number 66, the $4.1 million. Item 67 is just moving $3.2 million from water into to help pay for it. What we are really looking at is the less than $1 million left. How is that getting paid -- funded, and so I spoke to you this morning and talked to me of the stormwater bonds, but what I am hearing from the public, from us as a council, just overall are concerns of spending those -- spending funds under the umbrella of the South Howard project. And so I would like to hear from maybe Mr. Jones' point of view, and from your point of view, Mr. Campbell. If there is a way we can do these projects that need to get done anyway. From my understanding, the water mains are from 1919. they need to get replaced anyway, and it is coming out of Water budget, not the South Howard budget. If we can make that a separate project and the milling and overlay possibly a separate project out of your funding while we still hear -- because we don't know what is a guaranteed maximum price for this project. We are not far along in this project. I feel that we can move this along as something that needs to get done anyway. Not attached.
Alan Clendenin 02:27:30PM
I want to -- you are setting the table. I want to reset it too. Because it goes back to the beginning when we were doing the agenda review, and one of the reasons why I asked to continue this instead of dealing with this today because, one, I think you are right. No, I think you are right that this has to be broken out, but a bigger overlying issue here. Anything under this south -- because I was -- I was a supporter of the South Howard Project. I have subsequently found out new information that has changed -- possibly changed my point of view on that. One -- and I will just say this. There is financial issues with how much money is left in the stormwater pool available for us to spend. And if we were to fully fund the South Howard Project, there will be zero money left for any other flood projects in the City of Tampa. That it is going to take all of the money --
Bill Carlson 02:28:31PM
And will still have to raise taxes.
Alan Clendenin 02:28:34PM
Sets the table, and we will have to come back to the public. And I know Guido will look forward to voting on a stormwater infrastructure tax increase. He has ptsd from the last time around. So because of the -- and Councilwoman Hurtak, you are right, that this -- you know, we don't have the total amount yet, but we have an indication of where it is heading, and its going to suck up all of the money. There will be zero left. So I think -- I think at this point, the problem -- here is problem with even going -- I think what we do is we can express our intent and ask them to bring back a clean thing that comes out of water and mobility, but I think we need to be very specific and clear that there is a lot of issues that are allowed now in South Howard. We already authorized the money for the design and all. Before we move forward -- that is why I picked the february date, a lot of transparency and data coming back to this council so we truly understand the financial impacts this will have on the City of Tampa, for the entire City of Tampa, and what we are sacrificing. Part of what I would like to see is if we have the motion to continue this is an understanding of evaluation of where the other unmet needs are in The City. How this ranks with other needs. What -- if not this, then what. If we do part of this and part of that, have we had that tabled discussion. Have we done this in a transparent way to bring us on board to say maybe we can do part of this project and part of another project to provide the greatest amounts of good for the greatest amount of people. But I think we will have to give them until february to get that data back to us so we fully understand the consequences of these actions. Again, I am talking of somebody who came in really unashamed to support this project. I supported and voted for it every single time, but, again, finding out that the pot is dry, and this is going to dry it up for everybody else, another tax increase, it caused me a great deal of concern. I will say one thing that I did hear -- this is a testimony on the benefit of the City of Tampa and staff. This data is -- was -- because you have transparency of the City of Tampa, this information became available. We did not have this transparent information, we would not -- if they were acting in the dark, we would not have --
Bill Carlson 02:31:09PM
It is not transparent at all. What happened is one of the neighbors was looking at The City budget. They couldn't find it so they looked in the bond documents, and that's where they found what the cash flow was related to this, and a constituent discovered this. And suddenly the administration responded and gave you a heads-up. Constituents told me a few days ago. The issue is not whether we want to spend money to help people or not, the question is how much money do we have? Why is there money hidden? This is a fund to help people immediately. We could have helped people a year ago instead of waiting for a project that is questionable. What always happens is -- they come to us in little bites. Approve $20 million of this project. We are already down the road and approved it several times to get the other $880 million and all you do is raise the Stormwater tax. That won't be acceptable. How many can we help? Why have we been shoved down this funnel, and in the contrary, it is about the hundreds of people who were flooded that can't get relief right now. We have a culvert that have not been cleaned in decades. They are fallen apart, cracked, and leaking. All kinds of maintenance and replacement of infrastructure that can be done to help people today. We could have applied that $20 million and protected those people instead of waiting for a project that is questionable. Back to Councilwoman Hurtak's point. I told Rory yesterday or the day before in a call, he has a great reputation. The new people at Stormwater have great reputation. Rory and the Water Department, why do they want to be connected in any way to a controversial project. In five years -- this project, in five years when this is done and this Mayor is gone and some of the City Council members are gone, and we find out it is not effective. And somebody said this morning, not any money to fix it or fix anyone else's work. We need a full discussion on this now. Water project should be completely separate. We should not be mixing pipes -- the people are still mad about their water bills and they find out they are using pipes money on a questionable project they will be mad. Just like people are mad we use stormwater budgets for parades. We need to be honest and transparent and trust the public somehow to get to this point. I would like the motion for someone to continue this item after public comment and after everything else -- it will be fine. So after this is done. I am trying to set an agenda after this is done, looking for a motion to continue this item to the february 26, '26 workshop, hard to say. And wish we can waive the rules for somebody to request staff to come back with a clean solution. You already have it --
Lynn Hurtak 02:34:27PM
Not a solution, but I have a whole motion.
Alan Clendenin 02:34:30PM
A whole motion. One of those will be for the Water and the mobility infrastructure improvements.
Lynn Hurtak 02:34:36PM
This is all about Bonds.
Alan Clendenin 02:34:38PM
So have somebody come back with a resolution asking water to come back specifying the water project and the mobility project for paving and have that as a clear resolution after we talked of the pipes program and why it is intermingled, a savings to help the Citizens of the City of Tampa. And that -- we are sitting here listening. Why not give it twice, and we won't have to do it twice. That is what I see coming. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I have -- maybe I am in orbit, but I don't think I am. And if we are going to dig one hole to put one pipe, when you dig that one hole, and put the remaining of the citizens -- what is the need in the neighborhood when you are with one open. Maybe I am wrong.
Alan Clendenin 02:35:46PM
These are different holes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:35:48PM
This is not -- these older water plans -- and Rory may want to chime in as well. The intent with this is to replace them to reduce the risk of breakage if and when South Howard is --
Alan Clendenin 02:36:06PM
Hold for a second. Put the map up for the public to see. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 02:36:12PM
What we don't want to have is we have a segment of South Howard closed and whether it is Albany or any of these. There is a water line that breaks during construction on Howard, that can compound the effect construction on traffic. So the intent is, get the water lines that are at risk nearby replaced, because they need to be replaced anyway and will have a smoother surface on those more highly traveled segments that -- that will have higher value when Howard is under construction. That is why they are packaged with early works and why they are being brought before you right now. I did want to speak as well what Council Member Viera said almost knowing of the impact in january, as this schedule is built out right now. If we are to wait until january to approve this, it basically eliminates the volume of early work segments and the start of construction for South Howard. There could be a secondary impact on the main part of the project schedule if this is delayed until early next year.
Alan Clendenin 02:37:28PM
Council member Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 02:37:31PM
A couple of concerns regarding -- we are going to have to raise the fee. We are going to have to raise the Fee, right?
Dennis Rogero 02:37:38PM
Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but allegations and assertions have been made during that. I would like to clarify and refute. That is one of them.
Guido Maniscalco 02:37:47PM
Okay. So I will speak, and then if you want to clarify it. But will we have to raise the fee? Will all the money dedicated, that $251 million run out because this project? The howard project will balloon to a price so high, $100 million beyond the 65 or whatever that we end up running out of money in that 30-year assessment period that we have. I don't know, may be a misunderstanding, and you will clarify what it is going to be. Here is the thing. When I was sold this almost ten years ago that this would be so historically significant. I didn't want to -- I went to the Mayor and said instead of creating this fee, we can do this. And I was talking of maintenance and doing certain things and these storm drains. Another story for another day. The last thing I wanted to do was to add an extra fee on somebody's property tax bill because that's where they see it. But it was -- as I was told after it passed -- somebody said we are going to look back, and we will be glad that we did this. Now that I am hearing we are going to run out of the money, and you may correct us after this, after what we say, it won't be able to use. Won't have any funds to do any stormwater projects throughout The City. That concerns me. It may not be true, I don't know. But the cost of everything has gone up since covid. Supply chain issues. Now we have tariffs. Reasons and excuses why everything is more expensive, the Tiger Bay Forum. The cost of living is so expensive in the City of Tampa, and it concerns me -- and I may be wrong -- we will have to look at raising more fees, bonding more out, spending more money. People are up to here with their bills. And I don't want to be one to say, oh, we will need more money. We need to raise more fees. So maybe everything that I said and some of the stuff that I heard is not correct, and you might clarify that, but I will let you answer before I speak any further because there might be misinformation there.
Alan Clendenin 02:40:07PM
Mr. Rogero. Start with your name.
Dennis Rogero 02:40:13PM
Thank you, Councilman. There is some misinformation out there. If I can address this item first. Debt report from August 1, 2025 that was on the Wolf before. Entirely correct. I can says it entirely correct. That is my product.
Lynn Hurtak 02:40:28PM
Took it from your e-mail.
Dennis Rogero 02:40:31PM
Again, further to the transparency issue that I will continue to speak to. We publish it every month, and it's available to council, of course, and the public on the web site so council and the public knows exactly what is happening with all of our debt issuance. Councilman Carlson, I thought you had a very good question. I am paraphrasing. Shouldn't City Council get the choice of what to do with this $20 million dollars in bonds? Answer is, that is council's choice. We haven't brought it to City Council to make a choice. We have plans. We have plans on top of plans on top of plans because we have to plan for every unknown that we can. This is one of our plans to use this funding to mitigate the adverse impact to the improvement assessment, which I will talk more about in just a moment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You had forwarded a great deal of data from a citizen. I appreciate the data. I appreciate someone looking at the information. I will say that 90% of the information was my product, the bond documents. My office creates them, okay. The debt updates -- again, we publish them. We publish it. The annual financial reports, we publish them. Complex documents. Annual reports and budgets, they are out there, and our job is to try to make it easy for council and the layperson to understand it. Having said that, if I can level set. When we initiated in effort, when we started on this improvement assessment journey, you will recall -- I don't want to speak for the department -- but started at a quarter a billion dollar worth of plans and projects over not quite 30 years. We have outperformed that metric. We have -- we have spent over $300 million in stormwater projects because of our fantastic efforts and working relationships with grantors, whether resilient florida, etc. we talked about that earlier. That plan includes project a, project b, project c, and an ongoing amount for continued maintenance. I will show it to you in just a moment, but it has been around, $5 million to $6 million historically. When we say we are running out of the money, and we haven't said that candidly. We wouldn't allow City Council to entertain a scenario where we run out of money. What is being surfaced will there be additional funding for new projects outside of that initial plan? I don't know, but it is not unreasonable that new projects outside of that original plan will necessitate additional funding, whether from grants, whether from an assessment increase. We don't know. That is one of the purposes of the watershed master plan to decide, do we need to do a rate study and is that rate study likely to show we need to raise rates? So let me be very clear that the official plan is continuing as planned. You heard me before, plan to dive, dive to plan. That is what we are doing. If we are entertaining new projects and the author of that information specified new projects, than the author is not incorrect. We may need additional funding. We don't know yet. What I can tell you that we are in our forecast -- instead of tell you, I will show up. Will you entertain me. I have some --
Alan Clendenin 02:44:32PM
Go ahead.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:33PM
Thank You. Thank You.
Alan Clendenin 02:44:34PM
By the way, our Facilitator is in the room. Don't scare him off.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:44PM
Sorry, say again?
Lynn Hurtak 02:44:48PM
Facilitator is not for us.
Dennis Rogero 02:44:50PM
If we can go to the wolf, not the elmo, but the wolf.
Lynn Hurtak 02:45:01PM
Can you move the other one out of the way?
Dennis Rogero 02:45:03PM
This is our capital improvement program that City Council just approved a short time ago. And can you see me pointing here? Can you? You see the beginning fund balance. Relatively large. $13-plus million nonad valorem revenues, and the projects you have here. That is the typical maintenance, okay. Relatively low. Very high in '26 as we spend down that fund balance as planned, and then the number I referenced earlier, maybe 7.57, 5.5, 6.5. I will show you those projects in just a moment, a very small operating amount, and the debt services for those bonds. We go a little over 12.5 million. In 2030, if we continue with the plan, that's where we get very tight. That is the plan because in our longer term forecasts, you see a very low fund balance continuing. No running out of money. We simply don't anticipate we will have additional funding to do new projects yet. And, again, that is one of the large unknowns of, if I may, pieces of inaccurate information that is running out. You have a money narrative in that document using $39 million of the improvement assessment. That is not accurate. I don't know what the source was, but we anticipate using a little over $8 million, one-fifth of the improvement assessment. Why? Because we need to continue with the plan code. One of the reasons we are looking at that Lower Peninsula $20 million is to mitigate the necessity to use more of the improvement assessment. I am throwing a lot of information at you, but a lot of information has been thrown to us in a short period of time. I am not trying to dissuade you from continuing an item, but I don't want the council or the public to go through misinformation, information that we don't agree with. We think we have been very transparent. And much of that product was based on our product.
Alan Clendenin 02:47:42PM
Thank you, Mr. Rogero.
Bill Carlson 02:47:47PM
This is why we need to continue.
Alan Clendenin 02:47:49PM
One thing. If I had known about the $29 million left over, the $20 million, I would have slept better last night. Because that wasn't disclosed -- I think my last conversation with John was at 8:30 last night or something like that on this issue.
Dennis Rogero 02:48:09PM
I was remiss not making sure you were aware of that, Sir.
Alan Clendenin 02:48:13PM
Okay, with that being said, I don't think it is a misstatement of fact that how it looks projected out now that if we -- if you say continue with the plan, if the plan means that South Howard is the last and only project that we are going to fund with the current assessment, then I guess you are correct. Then that -- but if we -- if we fund the South Howard project, the plan is over. There is no other money to fund anything else; is that incorrect?
Dennis Rogero 02:48:46PM
Almost, almost. I don't want so split hairs. I want to make sure we are all on the same page. We don't anticipate any additional funding to fund any new projects that haven't already been considered.
Alan Clendenin 02:48:58PM
Right. So I don't think that it is misinformation shared earlier in this discussion. I think that is part of my disclosure with that understanding that -- that this cost shall be -- this was this and nothing else. Considering it is an enormous city and Councilman Carlson brought up in District 7, flooding off of Fowler and Forest Hills. Flooding that is occurring -- still a lot of unmet needs with stormwater, fresh water flooding. We are not talking of storm surge but talking of fresh water flooding. In my weighing this out, had that been fully disclosed from the beginning -- a smaller project and how to mitigate some here and there and wholesale except that will run out the entire fund without a tax increase for the other projects we were looking at. I will end it there. And Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 02:50:05PM
Thank you very much. A couple of things. Strong things to say. Number one, with regards to revenue for things, I operate under the view that the public hates waste. Things that we pass here if we told the public about, they would be really angry, and they are angry of certain things that we pass. They are not angry at police officers, fire fighters, and hurricane infrastructure. Republicans will pay for that. Democrats will pay for that. Independents will pay for that. Whig party members will. Because this is what the public supports. I strongly opposed the Mayor's tax increase to scale it back 70% to use all of money for police officers and fire fighters because I go off of that view and, I believe that is true there. With regards to the issue of this south howard project. We have to see as we are proceeding with this, if it will exhaust all the funds. If we are going to have a continuance, I would like to talk of a shorter continuance than february or january. Look at november, december, something of that nature, to not delay the project because right now this council supports this project. I will speak for myself, for Luis Viera. I gave my word to that community that I will support them because I saw suffering in person, and I gave my word to them. My word is my bond on this issue, and I rely on the experts on this issue and the experts say it will work, and that is what I am relying on. North Tampa, the back-up pumps, the pump generators to help out the North Tampa area. I am zealous advocate for District 7, it pisses me off what happened in North Tampa. It is with the pumps. Those people were in Zone X, and they got flooded. The day after the flood, statements were made on the flooding being not as bad or being worse than it could have been because of pumps. I am still angry about that. I don't forget about that. When it comes to advocating for that area, I pack a punch. I never gave up on the housing dollars and pumps and anything that can help us out long term in the north tampa area. I do not like to say that I am going to look at one part of The City and say we need to do it here opposed to here. We should be able to afford as a city to tell people in areas where they are going to be flooded that we are going to help them, that we are going to have requisite and hurricane infrastructure. If we didn't do that as a city, to quote willie nelson, turn off the lights, the parties over, because the city is not doing their job. If we can't do that for forest hills, South Tampa, East Tampa, Sulphur Springs, East Tampa, and ybor, we are like a subway sandwich store that doesn't have any bread. What are we doing? When it comes to our word that we have given to this community, we should go forward with it. A reasonable continuance that will not delay the project substantially and doesn't increase cost, I can support that. That's fine. But going out to february where we are told that could delay the project specifically, that's too much. I will give you a single and not a triple.
Alan Clendenin 02:54:03PM
January 29 is also available. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 02:54:07PM
Thank you. One quick question, and then I do have things to say. Can you bring a motion for separate water and mobility -- Separate Water and Mobility project next week?
Dennis Rogero 02:54:30PM
From a dollars and cents, we can. But the logistics --
Brandon Campbell 02:54:34PM
My question to you will be, is the expectation that we just package a funding resolution together that does -- I am not sure exactly, I guess, what the request is.
Lynn Hurtak 02:54:45PM
So the water money is coming from the Water Department. Can it simply now be a Water Department project? Can -- and the reason we are asking you to parse this out, is that we still don't -- right now we need to talk a little bit more of the South Howard project, but doing this work going forward, this particular work needs to be done anyway.
Brandon Campbell 02:55:09PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:10PM
A way to package this water main separately, and bring us a resolution at our next regular meeting so we can fund that through water.
Brandon Campbell 02:55:21PM
I don't know.
Alan Clendenin 02:55:22PM
Rory, are you online?
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:26PM
I think it is more of a dennis question.
Dennis Rogero 02:55:29PM
Let Me -- Let Me educate myself very, very quickly.
Lynn Hurtak 02:55:33PM
He looks comfy.
Bill Carlson 02:55:36PM
Pictures of us there.
Dennis Rogero 02:55:43PM
They are intertwined. This project is interwined. I am making this up. You are tearing up the road. Do you got to do a water thing, a something else thing, or a Stormwater Thing, and repair the road. Is that not the case?
Brandon Campbell 02:56:00PM
The Cat is for many of the segments, not this segment.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:03PM
But what we are talking about right now, the map, if you can put it back on, it clearly says that water is the blue dotted line, and you are simply replacing the plans there and repaving it.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:19PM
Correct.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:20PM
That's it.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:21PM
Most of the segments have water and Resurfacing.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:25PM
Yes, but that's it. Nothing else, no Stormwater. This is simply water and repaving.
Brandon Campbell 02:56:31PM
Yes.
Lynn Hurtak 02:56:32PM
What we are asking is if you take this water and repaving and make it a separate entity that does not have the term "south howard stormwater relief" on it --
Brandon Campbell 02:56:47PM
The Commission's complication of linguistically of South Howard, that Kimmins is the one that sets forth the Gmp proposal as well the design. If we were able to take this out all together and try to create a brand-new project, I would assume that members will have to get a new contract to perform that work that poses a significant increase.
Lynn Hurtak 02:57:17PM
So, again, this is what we do with normal projects.
Alan Clendenin 02:57:20PM
I would like to know that, and that's have good information to have.
Lynn Hurtak 02:57:25PM
I want to apologize for my council members because I did not realize that this very long planned macDill 48 presentation was going to be on the same day. I have known about this extra $20 million all week. So I have been working on trying to figure out what -- so we had some questions about that $20 million and not knowing and finding out today -- and that is where we predicted it would go, My Office, but just being able to talk about it with you all, which is why I wanted to talk about it today, and not continue it right away. So with that being said, inclined to approve the project today to actually fix the pipes and etc., roads, just to do that, because that is all that is happening here. And the majority of that money is coming from water. That being said. Mr. Rogero was right. I noted in the budget cycle. I have a note somewhere. We never ended up talking about it because we didn't talk of the Cip, but I did notice the amount we are repaying and thinking, it was a little high. It is what it is. It is what we agreed to do. But it was a lot of money. And I think I even said that was a lot of money.
Dennis Rogero 02:58:49PM
You may have.
Lynn Hurtak 02:58:51PM
Not a surprise to me. What is a surprise is the $20 million. I would love a way that in the future -- I mean, this report was supposed to come to us, like, six months ago. So we have been in the final bits -- there is -- we knew six months ago, we weren't spending $20 million more on this.
Dennis Rogero 02:59:13PM
It's the Lower Peninsula report. I Am with You.
Lynn Hurtak 02:59:18PM
That is what this council needs to know before now. If I had not asked for this report, we wouldn't know that we had this $20s million. And it is not because you didn't necessarily tell us, but part of how you always have done things. That is the kind of stuff we need to know.
Alan Clendenin 02:59:36PM
How does that happen?
Lynn Hurtak 02:59:38PM
That is what I am saying. I am trying to create a process at the end of projects. They bring stuff to us so we learn about this so we can come up with a better way. If you were starting to get to the end, if you have a large amount of money like that, let us know about it so we can put it on the agenda and tell us. And we have $20 million and use this with the South Howard Storm Relief Project. Gives us a little more idea how this money is used. More importantly, I have to say this because it hurts my heart. When members of the public come up and say that we can just take this money and divide it up and give it to people who lost everything. That is not okay. It's simply not okay. People who lived -- I have been inside people's homes who have lived in their homes for 30 years, who raised their children in their homes, and lost everything. They have been in the neighborhood, in the Community for years. And they have watched this happen over time. They have seen the water rise. This is not been a new phenomenon for them, but this time it got them. Climate Change has something to do with it. Sea Level Rise has something to do with it. We are working from 2016 numbers. A lot has happened in nine years. We have so much going on. We need to fix this. I am still committed to fixing this. But I want everyone who comes up who argues about this project to really think, is it okay for me to ask someone to leave their home -- would I leave my home? It hurts my heart. And today, I almost cried because we have to be considerate of our neighbors when they come here to speak about this. I just had to say that today. It just -- hurts me. Thank you.
Alan Clendenin 03:01:59PM
Okay, so -- Councilman Carlson, are you going to give me a motion to continue?
Bill Carlson 03:02:06PM
I just want to say, I think -- I would -- I would ask to separate the project. These are not long Rfps, but rfqs and pulled from existing agreements with organizations. I don't want to have that whole argument now, but what I recommend that we make a motion to have staff come back in two weeks or in a month to tell us -- to ideally have them separate the water projects, but if we -- if we say today up or down, we know the answer they are going to give us. I will definitely vote no because I am not voting for anything connected to a project that is a boondoggle and not going to work. When I say it won't work, it will work with four or five numbers over a certain amount of time. But contrary to what the Mayor said this morning, solutions to prevent higher levels of flooding in our community and to protect against rainfall. A lot of cities around the world that have more sophisticated technology and infrastructure than what we are proposing. Quickly they come up with solutions. Council Member Viera is passionate in his areas, flooded areas in Tampa. We didn't talk about flooding, which was devastating for my district. Second, there were areas that had a pump and a working generator. Turns out the pump just wasn't strong enough. The design of it was not right or another area where the culvert were broken and flooded already before the storm hit. Another one that had problems with the Expressway dumping water into the neighborhood. Those are all areas that could be addressed. Says we don't have the money and wondering if the Mayor will ask for a stormwater increase. How much money do we have left without raising taxes and highest and best use of the money. Spend $100 million plus but protect the other hundreds or thousands of people that will got flooded. This never got flooded before because the basic infrastructure around them was broken, and they were promised with all these taxes, it would be fixed or maintained and continue never was. I make a motion to come back in two weeks or a month with the water project to ask how they can figure out separating it. But second, we need to -- in february at the workshop, not just the south howard probably but talking about what is all the money we have left between now and may 1, 2027. and what are the possible alternative projects we can spend that money on without raising taxes and wouldn't ideally taking on more debt and what we can spend the money on. The public deserves to have a discussion what the highest priority is. Managing that decision, we are not trusting the public to understand. Staff and administration can make their case in front of the public. But I think we need a full discussion not on the merits if the south howard project is good or bad, bum what are the at alternatives. We have limited money and need to help thousands of people. How to you apply the limited amount of money to help the most people.
Alan Clendenin 03:05:44PM
Somebody want to give me a motion for December 4?
Charlie Miranda 03:05:47PM
What date?
Alan Clendenin 03:05:49PM
December 4.
Charlie Miranda 03:05:50PM
4, 11 and the 18.
Lynn Hurtak 03:05:56PM
How about november?
Alan Clendenin 03:05:58PM
November is full.
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:01PM
I am ready to waive the rules.
Bill Carlson 03:06:04PM
I will make a motion to bring back 66 and 67 on whatever date you say, but to ask staff to try to separate --
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:13PM
November 20.
Bill Carlson 03:06:16PM
-- from The Water Project on november 20.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:21PM
November 20 --
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:23PM
Whoops.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:24PM
See we are not supposed to do that. I would still suggest December 4. it's like tomorrow.
Lynn Hurtak 03:06:33PM
My problem with that, getting the project from the --
Alan Clendenin 03:06:40PM
Remember we are at the end of october. It is not very far away.
Bill Carlson 03:06:43PM
I didn't get a second.
Alan Clendenin 03:06:46PM
Restate your motion.
Bill Carlson 03:06:56PM
Continue 66 and 67 to November 4 with the caveat that Staff move their best for it to be a separate water project not connected.
Lynn Hurtak 03:07:10PM
And mobility.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:11PM
A motion from council member Carlson. A second from Council Member --
Charlie Miranda 03:07:16PM
Discussion, if I may. I want clarification, separate money-wise and one time laying the pipes and closing the land and doing it again.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:28PM
Totally different streets and projects.
Guido Maniscalco 03:07:31PM
Water Main --
Charlie Miranda 03:07:34PM
That's what I want to know.
Alan Clendenin 03:07:36PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson and a seconded from Council Member Viera. Question from Councilman Viera.
Luis Viera 03:07:43PM
Two questions. If I vote for this, I would have to ask staff a question. First off, continue to december 4 is the date I project going forward?
Brandon Campbell 03:07:58PM
If it is december 4, I think we would have two months in between the planned completion of this and the planned start of the main segment of work on Howard. However, if we were repackaging all of these segments all together, I don't know what the scheduled implications. Partners.
Brandon Campbell 03:08:30PM
If your thought is to ask me to come with a completely different project I may have.
Lynn Hurtak 03:08:48PM
As chair over mobility and technically stormwater, I am happy to work with you on that with a five week or so delay. How will that affect the project, if at all, before there is a contingency for the schedule.
Luis Viera 03:09:22PM
This is not to delay the project. And we need more time to get clarification to have leftover funds that is information we need. I need 110% to support this probably and see it through with my own vote and my own support. And this is not to delay the project but to seek more information that I think we need as Stewards of the Public's trust.
Alan Clendenin 03:09:56PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.
Bill Carlson 03:10:05PM
I would like to make a second motion.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:09PM
Can I recognize him or --
Lynn Hurtak 03:10:14PM
About the bond resolution?
Bill Carlson 03:10:19PM
I will just tell you the same thing I said a minute ago that to look at the money that we have over the next 18 months without raising taxes and taking on debt and have staff present to alternatives of what we can spend money on to get feedback from the public and make a decision what we think is the priority of that.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:41PM
That is new business.
Lynn Hurtak 03:10:44PM
That is new business, and I don't think I can support that because this only is here for may. That doesn't matter. We need to plan and keep going.
Alan Clendenin 03:10:53PM
Put a pin in this and have it for New Business.
Bill Carlson 03:11:00PM
The public is hearing.
Alan Clendenin 03:11:01PM
This is New Business, and parliamentarian procedure that is the way to go. We continued this item and Staff have direction to come back december 4.
Lynn Hurtak 03:11:14PM
I have one question. Where are we in design timeline for the south howard project? It was supposed to be to us in april of 2025.
Brandon Campbell 03:11:24PM
Mobility and stormwater. We are in the 30% design phase and anticipating the deliverables of 30% I will say by the end of the calendar year, late december, we have a 30% level of a probable construction cost. At this time, we can fully evaluate the potential cost and benefit all together at that point.
Alan Clendenin 03:11:55PM
Excellent.
Lynn Hurtak 03:11:58PM
I will work with you with all to get a motion together to present that to us. I do believe there are public meetings at the 30%, 60% and 90%. At each milestone, a public meeting.
Alan Clendenin 03:12:12PM
We are going to move on to Item 70 -- what is it? Help me, Mr. Shelby. Doing charter review presentation.
Lynn Hurtak 03:12:27PM
75.
Luis Viera 03:12:29PM
May I, Mr. chair just for notice.
Martin Shelby 03:12:32PM
Mr. Chairman, you distributed to council members late last week a memo regarding today's discussion of council. I just directed copies of that. So we have it in front of them. And I want to turn it over to you because we have in the audience today, Mr. Robert Hendrickson, who was somebody who was -- who has been highly recommended as a facilitator for the Charter Review Commission. One of the most important things that you take a look at today is the topics for today's discussion. And again, Mr. Chairman, you have proposed a special called workshop because if you look at the timeline, which I am going to ask council to take a look at and adopt it either today or in the future, you are on a very tight timeline and challenges for us in having this have ballot question on the vote for the public working backwards. We have to move quickly to get things on it and obviates the ability. We are looking for professionals, and Mr. Hendrickson is highly recorded. If you take a look at your timeline, you will see that what you need is the opportunity to bring on staff. But this has to be done by december 4, and I don't know if you are getting it. In an effort to kind of facilitate that process. And we gathered information from various sources including consultations with hagar and Mr. Shelby and others. Like he said, working backwards from the point to get this information to the Supervisor of Elections. None of this is written in stone. I know you had your personal experiences with the Charter Review Board and able to express your opinion on this as well. And the most important thing is we have to get started and the timeline is tight. Part of that is to have a schedule -- a special called workshop before november 6 so we can institutionalize the procedures on how we are going to run this Charter Review Commission and including how we are going to make these appointments. Those of us on the charter review, remember, you passed the creation of this procedure that is going to occur and the body of that. But if you -- you did not tell us how we are going to make those appointments. We have to make that determination. We made some assumptions that each council person would make one appointment. That doesn't quite fill our obligation, and we have a -- the alternates and others. I think that should be done is a special called workshop.
Martin Shelby 03:16:54PM
Please be mindful that on a special called workshop, I would suggest strongly that both the administration and the Mayor and the Legal Department be part of that as well because the Mayor has two appointments. This timeline, when it is adopted, will apply to having input from the Mayor as well. Sacred document and could not be amended.
Alan Clendenin 03:17:50PM
Somebody look at the calendar and throw out the dates for a specially called workshop.
Bill Carlson 03:18:14PM
If you start at 9 and end at noon.
Guido Maniscalco 03:18:18PM
A special election tuesday, correct. When does that individual who --
Alan Clendenin 03:18:30PM
I have that information. The Supervisor of Election will not have that until the 7th. First meeting. They will be sworn in and expected to be on the Dais by state law and required to vote by november 13.
Guido Maniscalco 03:18:46PM
That is the--
Martin Shelby 03:18:52PM
By the one in november 6 --
Alan Clendenin 03:18:54PM
November 4. sworn in on the 7th.
Bill Carlson 03:19:01PM
We can make it a point to get them to add things afterwards because it is a flexible. Called meeting that they are welcome to attend.
Lynn Hurtak 03:19:19PM
I can move stuff around.
Alan Clendenin 03:19:21PM
I will have to move things around too. We have a motion to have a special called Workshop between now and noon.
Bill Carlson 03:19:28PM
I move a special called Workshop of november 4 from 9 to noon.
Alan Clendenin 03:19:37PM
Council Chambers available on november 4?
Guido Maniscalco 03:20:11PM
November 4 from 9 to 12?
Luis Viera 03:20:35PM
I have mediation at 12:30. Okay, then I am good then. So long as we are out.
Alan Clendenin 03:20:40PM
A motion from Councilman Carlson and a second from Council Member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye, opposed. The Dais. Robert is a facilitator. You have his bio in front of you. I witnessed him facilitate that meeting. Those of you have heard me complain of past facilitators that we have. Robert did a phenomenal job. 10 out of 10. he did not get involved in subject matter and help facilitate the meeting and to reach conclusions, exactly what the facilitator should do. He comes highly recommended. And Robert, would you like to say anything? Introduce yourself. Nice to meet everyone. I --
Alan Clendenin 03:21:36PM
You are on the public record. You have to state your name. And as you mentioned, Chair, we met through a session we ran with the Sports Authority. I worked for the County, and I am an internal consultant, and I have been for my tennish years for the County by virtue of having done consulting years before. I get assigned to a lot of important, fun projects related to my skill set and run large programs, strategic programs for the County. This time came up as an opportunity and I wanted to answer your questions and tell you more about my approach, my background, whatever you need. And I will leave it at that.
Alan Clendenin 03:22:25PM
Kind of right to the discussion. What we are doing is bringing him on as a 1099. I would be asking Rob for a proposal which we will be waiting for to see. And got to get the proposal and see the -- get a fair deal for everybody concerned, and at least that is where I am right now. Anybody want -- Council Member Miranda, I see you look like you are ready to push a button. Council member Maniscalco?
Guido Maniscalco 03:22:53PM
Your bio speaks for itself and resume. You have a lot of experience during covid. I know that was a huge undertaking. So something like that. As council member Clendenin said, he watched you in action and you facilitate. Did your job without giving input. You let the board do the work essentially, and that's what you want, independent voices and them to come to the conclusion without any outside influence. You are just running the show. Your professionalism again. Your biography. We have more details here. Thanks for being here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:23:35PM
If you all have having conversations in the back, take them to the lobby. Thank you. I am having a hard time hearing. Second, so Councilman Carlson and I were both in the last Charter Review Commission. And it was a long commission. And we were, like, running to meet the deadline. So I think the importance of -- of staying on the deadline is really important, and I am happy to see this is going to be twice a month. So I don't know if I would suggest more than twice a month. Do you have thoughts on that? I know the discussion was between three and four hours. Doing these in the evenings, three hours should be sufficient. If we end up working together, I can -- I will learn fast and know more about the group and what our task is and keep everyone apprised. Because as much as a facilitation, probably of a sort, and we did really manage expectation around timeline, progress, to keep everyone here apprised and others. But I think that is a good starting point. And if we work together, we will get a lot smarter and a lot faster once we engage.
Lynn Hurtak 03:24:49PM
Do you recommend -- I believe we have an e-mail address last time.
Bill Carlson 03:24:54PM
We used our own.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:00PM
For the Facilitator. Do you remember if we did like chatter@Tampa -- something like that.
Martin Shelby 03:25:08PM
For what purpose?
Alan Clendenin 03:25:09PM
Look on november 6.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:13PM
Coordinate with Tnr Marketing.
Martin Shelby 03:25:16PM
One of the thoughts of was -- it depends. Talking of internal communication between the Facilitator and This Board or the Facilitator and Members of Commission or the public.
Martin Shelby 03:25:34PM
Chair Clendenin has been talking with Miss Copesky and myself and his Legislative Aide with possibility to talk about that at the special called workshop, one of those things doing through web forums and have that kind of communication.
Lynn Hurtak 03:25:51PM
My only concern and this is -- I mean, we had the issue before. But I don't remember getting any personal e-mail at the time, but I am concerned about the -- about the personal e-mail of maybe the charter review members, and someone knows them. And send them an e-mail of what they think. And that person has to be responsible for -- for moving that to the public. So I -- what -- I am just curious in your experience with these times of commissions, what are you recommending that we to do make sure that people stay and follow the sunshine laws? I conveyed have some questions. I only have been here for only a week. Public input. How to have that fairly and transparently and make sure the concerns are voiced because they come in neutral in a sense and we come in with our appointees working on the Commission. We have to figure out a process and make sure how we get that and vet it with attention and rigor evaluating that into what we are doing. I have questions how it works. Whatever we do needs to be seamless and clear and responsive because we need to. We owe it to the public that we do just that. Was saying this morning. A lot more interaction, which is wonderful. I know you used to have that for november 6, and I believe that -- I need that question answered during the workshop. So coming up with maybe some ideas with Tni or something. That really -- that is, like, number one on my list.
Alan Clendenin 03:27:46PM
Mr. Shelby, will you remind me to work with Tni?
Lynn Hurtak 03:27:53PM
If we hire him as the Facilitator, he needs to be involved as well and his experience will dictate a lot of what we need to do here. Otherwise, looks great. I really like your resume. Maybe just random questions but appreciating you attempting to answer.
Alan Clendenin 03:28:10PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 03:28:13PM
To help meet the public records law, I recommend that we give them city accounts -- personal -- you know that we had lawsuits. And all that, I want to make sure that we have a chance -- if someone e-mails on personal e-mails, we can forward it and the city is managing it. Biggest thing for me with the facilitation is no bias. You know, I have done thousands of facilitations also. We have to make -- hopefully, you can go in with no agenda, nobody's agenda, and no agenda. And then if there is -- if there is something to refer back to, it is the council's instructions that we set on november 5, there are times with the Facilitator where we would make a statement, and say, well, we are supposed to be looking at this. And the Facilitator would argue with me, and I would read the document that the City Council gave us and the person would still argue with me and the City Attorney came running down and start arguing with us also. Another thing we fixed on the charter and its own independence. And I don't think this City attorney would run downstairs and intervene and be disruptive like the former attorney did. And Marty was sitting as the attorney for the committee at the time.
Martin Shelby 03:29:39PM
Actually, council, I was there actually -- let me not interrupt. But my role in that -- in that format was really to assist the board in sunshine and public meetings law, Public Records Law, but also to observe and to represent council as well at those meetings. But actually the City Attorney at that time in 2017-2018 ended up drafting the material and providing back to the Committee.
Bill Carlson 03:30:15PM
A lot of bias put into it by the City Attorney at the time and by the consultant. And I think the other thing was in the voting structure, which put bias toward the Mayor. One of the things I tried to get done in 2016 was to set term limits for City Council and the Mayor. And there was intense fighting from The City attorney on the term limits for the Mayor. And now everybody knows why. But we need to make sure that there is no bias. And the other thing is that the process -- we will talk about this more on the 5th. The process -- there was a standard charter and page by page, paragraph by paragraph comparing that to our charter. And we need to make sure that we didn't -- not going through line by line. Trying to get the big buckets. Not trying to do wholesale changes. And lastly, in the financial disclosure, this is not a committee that is not choosing a vendor or something and weighing in on the law of the land for the city. And so -- I think if we provide -- if we require financial disclosure for this particular committee, it will drastically affect the people that will get. That came from me because of the implications with the charter. I felt for transparency -- I put that in. We can hold this conversation to the workshop.
Bill Carlson 03:31:38PM
I thought you wanted to talk about that today. Walking in cold to the workshop and bring it to the workshop. Future. I am totally in favor of all of that.
Alan Clendenin 03:31:56PM
Knowing about the money is always a good thing to know. What I would like -- would you like to add anything to the discussion? I think I have a sense for what success is. My job is to get you there and get them there and do it efficiently and expeditiously. I run a lot of different sessions and always there are personalities no matter what. And I think the --
Alan Clendenin 03:32:30PM
No personalities here. Amongst the group because a shared job needs to be done. Get there with that and around what we have to structure and vent your candidates. Bias doesn't really factor in. And I think the other thing is -- you know, these meetings are made or broken before we enter the door. All about prep, thinking of an approach that make essentials, that allow for momentum. We need longer sessions and keep the energy high and people engaged. All of that is part of the approach.
Alan Clendenin 03:33:10PM
A Motion to negotiate a contract agreement with the Facilitator. Can we have a Motion?
Lynn Hurtak 03:33:15PM
Motion.
Guido Maniscalco 03:33:16PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 03:33:17PM
All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Secondly, we have to talk of an attorney position. Thank you. You can sit down and be tortured by listening to us. We need to talk of the attorney position. Mr. Shelby, discuss options of getting an attorney.
Martin Shelby 03:33:39PM
I will have to work you with, Mr. Chairman. I made some inquiries with people who might know people. Obviously, what is important here is the fact that it is an independent attorney that is not affiliated with the City of Tampa. To let you know, Miss Zelman said within the firms that the city attorney works with, that are suited for it. And the question is whether the City Council will even entertain that possibility and something we can discuss at the workshop because that will be able to perhaps be a shortcut being able to bring somebody on board. Obviously, it would have to be somebody who is known to City Council in some form or fashion and background and make the determination. What I am learning is that you would probably want somebody on-site presently at every meeting or want them remotely?
Alan Clendenin 03:34:46PM
I think On Site is important. Local.
Martin Shelby 03:34:52PM
Somebody would not have to travel. I know somebody that is very well suited in Mount Dora, and I don't think that will be very helpful. Ask council between now and the workshop that you have before the Chair has made some suggested structures. Even within the timeline, there are certain discussions. I know that council member Carson had mentioned this to require a simple majority of membership is required to take action, and the Chair put that in there. And with regard to financial disclosure, just please be advised that what you fill out as a city council member is the full disclosure form. And there is a form one, which is a much more simple disclosure, very abbreviated. That is an option as well. We take a look at what is in here. You either agree or disagree, but you will have a basis to have a discussion. What I am looking for, council, is on november 20 to present you with a draft resolution based on a discussion and direction that you give me tomorrow and be vetted in a resolution not only be to appointed on december 4, but also have the adoption of the resolution establishing the Charter Review Advisory Commission and selecting the facilitator and attorney. And to have a compressed timeline and work with the Chair and his office to be able to implement it.
Alan Clendenin 03:36:42PM
Councilwoman Hurtak, do you have a question?
Lynn Hurtak 03:36:48PM
Even if we have an outside attorney, will we still have someone like yourself to be there to talk about actual -- from the Cities.
Alan Clendenin 03:37:03PM
Represent the council's interest.
Martin Shelby 03:37:05PM
I wouldn't miss this from the World.
Lynn Hurtak 03:37:09PM
Just want to make sure because it is great to have an attorney that is there to not help with this. A lot to be said of someone who understands. I would not be surprised if Miss Zelman would have this.
Alan Clendenin 03:37:32PM
Envision Councilman Carlson if you have a big issue. Do you have recommendations for Attorneys?
Bill Carlson 03:37:37PM
No, but I think -- I think that we need to make sure that the attorney that is hired is not from a firm that is heavily dependent on The City. I know the City hired 30 different firms to conflict them out. But needs to be not one that is dependent on. Because to me, time for the City Attorney to weigh in is when the recommendations are presented to City Council. Not during -- the City Attorney should not bias the process of it. I think that a lot of my recommendations will be around providing balance to the City Attorney's Office. And nothing to do with Miss Zelman. But seeing the business from -- we need to make them rein that in. I've spoken to former attorneys and bart, and the charter set up for the City Attorney. If you were recommending the Mayor, the City Council, the department heads and committee members, and there is a conflict and two of them, you should recuse yourself and get outside counsel. That is the bar rules. Problem is the bar -- the Florida Bar is somewhat silent as to how city attorneys managed themselves. So it is not like there is -- there is major case law around this. What we need to do is set a precedent that makes the City Attorney's Office follow the same rules that other attorneys would. And the content of that is what we will discuss on november 5, but we need --
Lynn Hurtak 03:39:13PM
4th. This. But need to make sure that Andrea is not running down here saying you are trying to change the strong form of government and bypass the process.
Alan Clendenin 03:39:30PM
We might. We may declare the City Council chair Mayor. [laughter] everything is on the table.
Bill Carlson 03:39:39PM
Former City Attorney came down and threatened us saying you can't do it. He wouldn't be entitled to do this.
Alan Clendenin 03:39:46PM
To right-size this. We haven't determined the role -- one of the roles of Attorney is to transfer the language agreed to by the Committee into legislative language. One of the major roles. What their participation is. And they may not be able to participate in every single meeting. May not be needed in any single meeting. One of the things we will discussed. Especially the two of you to bring to that november 4 meeting what you will see as an Attorney's role in this process from this -- from the kickoff to the end knowing that we have to get this stuff translated into legislative language, in deference to our City Attorney, Councilwoman.
Lynn Hurtak 03:40:29PM
Also a --
Andrea Zelman 03:40:32PM
Past member. I don't mean to be argue. When Gina Grimes --
Alan Clendenin 03:40:45PM
Start with your name first.
Andrea Zelman 03:40:46PM
Andrea Zelman. When Gina Grimes became City attorney in 2019, we discovered that the Legal Department was using outside attorneys that had expired contracts. That had no contracts. The office intended to use the same attorneys over and over again. So she issued the rfq, which isn't required. You don't need to go through the procurement process to hire level professionals at the City. She did that in an attempt to do two things. One was to broaden the people that the City was hiring, and so, like we specifically advertised -- advertisements but information about the rfq to law firms to try to widen the scope. The other thing with doing it the way she did it -- and this was something that we copied from Hillsborough County was once we had received a bunch of law firms that wanted to do work for the City, we created a standard form resolution that council was approving all of them at that time, and approving the standard contract we would enter with them at that time. So then when we would get sued and hire an outside counsel for an appeal or whatever, we would quickly engage them without having to draft up a contract, bring it to council, get it on the agenda, and get it approved. But it did not conflict until they are actually engaged in a particular case. That is the point at which we look at conflicts. I want to make sure by doing that, we didn't do it to conflict anyone. And to marty's point, if you want to look at the law firms that we already have approved agreements with, in general, having engaged them necessarily that would save you time. Because you would skip that step of him having to negotiate a contract with them. Get it on a council agenda. Get it approved. But if you want to hire someone that isn't one of the ones we -- that is fine with me. I am just reiterate what marty is saying which is you would save some time if you use the ones from our list.
Alan Clendenin 03:43:08PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 03:43:15PM
I am not opposed to using ones on the list as long as we are not getting a chunk of bills from the City, Someone getting thousands of dollars may be less likely to be objective.
Andrea Zelman 03:43:30PM
Somebody getting a lot of money. We have a Cap. By definition, the ones that are doing $100,000 or $200,000 worth for the City wouldn't be able to take this on because this would bust the Cap.
Alan Clendenin 03:43:47PM
Have Councilman Carlson as a chair of our Attorney Recruitment Search Committee.
Bill Carlson 03:43:53PM
I don't think we are allowed to do that.
Martin Shelby 03:43:58PM
If you do, he would be subject to the sunshine law. I will be happy to work with any members of council if you have any suggestions, and Mr. Chairman you would refer me to brief the council members.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:12PM
Mr. Shelby, I appoint you as the head of our Attorney Search Committee.
Martin Shelby 03:44:17PM
I should point out, I am not familiar with the -- but within this City working for Firms, a great many good Lawyers that have local government experience.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:31PM
A great many good lawyers.
Martin Shelby 03:44:33PM
A good many great lawyers.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:37PM
Spoken like a lawyer.
Martin Shelby 03:44:40PM
If you have any suggestions for me individually.
Alan Clendenin 03:44:46PM
Great lawyers that are cheap.
Martin Shelby 03:44:53PM
Inexpensive or cheap.
Lynn Hurtak 03:44:57PM
Three things. You can have two, but you can't have three.
Alan Clendenin 03:45:00PM
Councilman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 03:45:02PM
I have a question how this is going to be structured. This will be structured like a workshop so the public will be able to speak on each item. Because the public is going to want to know that, you know this. I want to make sure as we set this up, that there are breaks for the public to comment, since this is a brand-new thing. I wouldn't want anyone to comment up-front because we can learn a bunch of stuff and have people to weigh in.
Martin Shelby 03:45:34PM
My suggestion -- forgive me, you are limited by three hours. By the end of these three hours, I need direction from council how to get a resolution. The public can type letters, pick up a phone, and call individual council members, unfortunately, people in your community -- but for us to break this down this as a regular workshop. Just a reminder, this will be downstairs in the Mascot Room. It will a public meeting, and it will be noticed and recorded. Really, frankly, if you -- if any of this timeline gets screwed up, I don't want us to be in a position where we were the last time.
Alan Clendenin 03:46:13PM
People are listening now.
Lynn Hurtak 03:46:18PM
A space for public comment maybe at the end.
Martin Shelby 03:46:21PM
By the way, one last thing about public comment. There is talk here about public comment about whether -- how are you going to conduct -- how the commission is going to conduct public comment. A very important discussion as well. But it was brought to my attention that there is an opportunity to come to City Council and tell City Council something as a whole during public comment in any regular meeting. Any concerns that people have, they have the opportunity to bring it to City Council and share.
Alan Clendenin 03:46:58PM
We have an Appointee we can share that with.
Martin Shelby 03:47:02PM
Only concern I have -- and I will share this council and forgive me for doing this, and I want you to know that the -- that the concern that I have with regard to the process, a great deal of time was spent -- you know something, I would rather say this off line instead. Discretion has gotten the better of me.
Alan Clendenin 03:47:29PM
You want to say something?
Bill Carlson 03:47:33PM
We knew this in our charter review Commission. The public and administration needs to know that whatever they recommend, it has got to go before council. Council is the only one to put it on the ballot. The Commission can't. What we were talking about on the 4th is setting guidelines for the Commission. Whatever they come back with, to accept, reject, or modify. It will be up to us. And the really important meetings where the City Attorney and everybody is there, and the Commissioner's role is to take a new perspective, get public input, analyze the details.
Alan Clendenin 03:48:15PM
I think we are finished with this discussion. Workshop set for november 4 for three hours, Sister Cities Room. Those listening in the public, input on that please advise and know that each Council Person would be -- I'm assuming each Council Person will set the rules. We will be searching for members of the Commission shortly. So if you have interest, please reach out to your Council Person to express that interest.
Bill Carlson 03:48:47PM
Says jointly pick alternates. What is the process of nominating alternates?
Alan Clendenin 03:48:52PM
We need to figure out and will leave that up to you.
Bill Carlson 03:48:59PM
If we did seven alternates, we each could pick one.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:04PM
Awareness because of the way y'all did this and the way you established it. The Mayor gets one alternate and council gets one alternate. That way members get one. If you lose two people, we make the council the alternate and the first one -- the Mayor's alternate. Gives us one more position on the Commission, fyi. This is to have awareness.
Martin Shelby 03:49:28PM
Okay, council.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:31PM
Very good. Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it. Get it in some time this week. When you get that proposal done, I will be looking forward to receiving that. Thank you for taking the time.
Charlie Miranda 03:49:45PM
Hope you feel better.
Alan Clendenin 03:49:49PM
Thankfully, you don't have to deal with us.
Guido Maniscalco 03:49:52PM
Mr. Chairman, I am going to leave at 5:00. I have another event.
Alan Clendenin 03:50:00PM
And miss this? I am not leaving. I am going to sleep Here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:50:06PM
I can read this now.
Alan Clendenin 03:50:08PM
Councilman Hurtak. You have the privilege of by law reading the next item.
Lynn Hurtak 03:50:14PM
Yes. So this is a -- this is the red light camera report that I have to read out loud. Effective july 1, a great day, my birthday, 2024, Florida Statute Section 316.0083, subsection 4, requires the results of City of Tampa red light camera program be presented and actually under staff reports of a City Council meeting. The report to a City Council must include a written summary of the results of the red light camera program, which must be read allowed at the meeting and include an annual report filed by the Department of Highway Safety. The annual report from july 1, 2024 to june 4, 2025 is attached and a summary is as follows. A number of notices of violations were issued. Do we have a copy of this that I can pop on the elmo or the wolf? It doesn't matter. Notices of violations.
Alan Clendenin 03:51:28PM
You have one? The Officer has one.
Lynn Hurtak 03:51:35PM
A lot of people are very visible. 121,431. Notices of violations contested, 764. number of notices violations upheld, 568. number of notices of violations dismissed, 176. number of uniformed traffic citations issued, 38,644. Notice of notices of violations, 80,781. Revenue paid to the state, $6,721,206. Revenue paid to mobility, $2,160,000. Net revenue for the city excluding operation cost, $5,611,719. Directed to intersection capital, 1,429,408. General Fund, 4,208,843.
Alan Clendenin 03:52:43PM
Thank You. Thank You, Councilman Hurtak and Officer.
Lynn Hurtak 03:52:50PM
They didn't put it up there. Operations Division.
Alan Clendenin 03:52:59PM
Were you volunteered for this today? [laughter]
Alan Clendenin 03:53:08PM
Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 03:53:13PM
A quick question for you. It haven't started yet, but these numbers -- in the future, will they or will they not include the new school zone cameras? That will be totally separate.
Lynn Hurtak 03:53:29PM
Good news just so that people are aware of that. Thank you so much.
Alan Clendenin 03:53:35PM
Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Not nearly as enjoyable as listening to us. Have a good one. Item Number 69. The City of Tampa.
Alan Clendenin 03:54:07PM
Good morning -- or good afternoon. I prepared a memo within the formation of the office. We are recommending that we go in a three-phased approach. The first starts removing us from identification to design and due diligence. Second phase is the actual implementation and opening of the office. And third phase goes back to evaluation that we set up in that phase one to make sure that we are really achieving the objectives that we established to really reach this population and connect them to long-term careers.
Alan Clendenin 03:54:45PM
Council member Viera.
Luis Viera 03:54:51PM
Miss McKenzie, when we spoke before when I got you outside there, this is a very important issue. Mayor and Chief Bennett have a big heart and Sheriff Cronister deals with this issue as well. And an important issue that we discussed every year in the united states, about 650,000 people leave the prison system, and two-thirds of that will reoffend and go back to prison. Abject failure for our society and community, more disruptive to communities and as well as more crime. And you know, the issue of returning citizens I think kind of got on our -- on our wavelength. As of 2018, it was known as amendment 4 that sought to restore rights to citizens who are not sex offenders and murders. What the legislature did was a different issue and got the issue on its forefront. And we worked -- I have been able to work with organizations like our good friends at Abe Brown Ministries. People like Mr. Robert Blunt, the late reverend abe brown. Dee Jones, when she was on their board, and now with our Public Defender, wonderful attorney. Many folks. Because previously we did a returning citizens ordinance on incentives for contractors. We had worked with the Jewish Community Center and the Florida Rights Coalition, and we had a lot groups to give a lot of input on this issue. The way I see this is -- and the memo sets the preface for the beginning for this administration to begin with. So to tie it up for the incoming mayor whoever he or she may be. It is important for the City of Tampa to have a spotlight on this issue because this issue will have a spotlight because of more broken families, broken community, and higher crimes. This issue is a safety issue. A lot of people look at this and say we can't deal with this. I am not some radical -- far from it. Not and issue of being soft on crime or anything. I mean, I always have been proud to have supportive law enforcement in my career and so forth and support law enforcement. This is about fighting crime, restoring family, and bringing communities together if done right. For those people who want to return home from incarceration and work hard to put food on table for their families and be productive members of society, we have to meet them halfway. If I can inquire to perhaps have an update. How long do you all think you will need? Along. We are moving at a good clip.
Luis Viera 03:57:55PM
Quarterly with council to be in march of next year.
Alan Clendenin 03:57:59PM
With written updates.
Luis Viera 03:58:01PM
Of course. A great idea. If it is written -- if it is written and something is there, we will have a -- we will have a live thing there. If I may, make a motion for quarterly reports at the State Office of Returning Citizens to come back in february 2026. man, I can't believe we are there. That's it, if I may.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:27PM
A motion from Councilman Viera. Second from --
Lynn Hurtak 03:58:30PM
Second. I am trying to find the date.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:32PM
Strategic pause here.
Lynn Hurtak 03:58:36PM
The 5th is a written staff report.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:39PM
A motion in Councilman Viera and seconded from Councilman Hurtak. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you so much for your report.
Alan Clendenin 03:58:49PM
Moving on to Item Number 70. the one and only Brandon Campbell. He is back.
Brandon Campbell 03:58:54PM
Good afternoon, council, Brandon Campbell, interim director of the Mobility Department.
Lynn Hurtak 03:59:00PM
Bring your pillow and hang out with us. Just sleep here.
Brandon Campbell 03:59:04PM
I will go very fast with these because --
Alan Clendenin 03:59:08PM
We have all seen them already.
Brandon Campbell 03:59:10PM
On the web site and on base. But just a brief overview of the resurfacing work that our team has done in the last quarter and a couple of project on the quarter as well. And I will put them on the projector as I speak about them, those that were completed last quarter including the ones on the screen in Virginia Park. Woodlawn, Himes, and the surrounding streets there. Southbound to Bayshore, south of Gandy, North Boulevard, Tyson Avenue, west of West Shore, and then a short portion of Rocky Point Drive, reconfiguring the lane.
Alan Clendenin 04:00:09PM
Mr. Campbell, how many of those projects were done In-house?
Brandon Campbell 04:00:15PM
All of them had some in-house or work done. Three of those six projects or seven projects -- no, it is six -- are some contractor support along with them. I believe that was just the milling portion of those three projects. This is one season under way. Gomez Corridor is wrapping up this month. Azeele in the Beach Park Area. I did -- something of northwest on this map showed Ward being north of Cleveland. In case there is any confusion about that and also noting that there are other work in the area south of here along West Shore and east of West Shore, Linebaugh, from Florida to the east. Yukon Street between 30th and 40th. Another segment that is part of the project that is west of here. And we have waters as well. This in addition to the -- to the capital projects that we have spoken about previously and that we are continuing to plan for the remainder of this fiscal year. That work totaled.
Alan Clendenin 04:01:51PM
Hold on for a second. Councilwoman Hurtak --
Lynn Hurtak 04:01:57PM
No --
Charlie Miranda 04:01:59PM
I believe you have a new macHine with One Sweep.
Brandon Campbell 04:02:04PM
That's correct. We have a second paver. We commissioned a paver, a replacement of one at the end of useful life at 15-plus years old. Same model as the one we purchased earlier this year. A little more efficient. Crews say they are easier to maneuver and perform their work with less breakdowns and better on a day-to-day basis.
Charlie Miranda 04:02:33PM
I have a few calls saying thank you for the City paving in My Neighborhood.
Alan Clendenin 04:02:38PM
West Tampa needed some love. I will sing to them all. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:02:51PM
Congrats on the new macHine. What is the staffing required to --
Brandon Campbell 04:02:57PM
I don't have the exact number of crew needed for -- for one specific Paving Crew, but we do have two separate crews that can operate simultaneously in Certain Areas.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:13PM
My next question, do we have sufficient staffing?
Brandon Campbell 04:03:18PM
We did. We have a couple of vacancies still. But we reallocated Personnel within the Transportation Side of the Operations Division to make sure we have staffing for those critical needs.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:30PM
And because I have to ask, are Paving Crews dedicated to just paving or pulled off of other things to do other things?
Brandon Campbell 04:03:42PM
Generally paving is all they do. They can build skills in other areas of similar -- of similar job descriptions. And they can move from one Crew to another.
Lynn Hurtak 04:03:53PM
To do what?
Brandon Campbell 04:04:00PM
Signing, marking, and special events crew. One subgroup within the transportation side of the Operations Division. Paving Crews that are their own functional area but move across functional lines as needed.
Alan Clendenin 04:04:15PM
A Unionized Workforce that would have to be negotiated as well.
Charlie Miranda 04:04:21PM
Includes people that you have with flags that stop the traffic and everything else who have done a wonderful job.
Brandon Campbell 04:04:34PM
Yes. >>Bill Carlson: since you have the floor, and I traded e-mails with you, out of the five north-south arteries in South Tampa, four of them were blocked the same day. And you also copied me on D.o.t. On behalf of Constituents that I got a lot of complaints from, if there is any way to -- and you responded -- any way to coordinate so that people can get in and out. That will be helpful. But other thing is, can you take 30 seconds to explain.
Brandon Campbell 04:05:20PM
Certainly. Sunset Park by the southbound traffic approaching Manhattan from the stormwater project. Let me back up and mention that we are having a community meeting next wednesday evening. So I don't know if all the details have been finalized. But I believe invitations have been sent out. We intend to meet with the communities, the Virginia Park and Sunset Park -- Sunset Park specifically, as drivers can approach the closure at Bay to Bay. Seems like there may have been some confusion what is the official detour, people making a southbound right and make their way into a less navigable area. You go down schiller, I think it is not a straight shot. A bit of confusion that I think we can help to alleviate with signing adjustments. Happy to talk of whatever ideas the community has in between now and then, particularly.
Bill Carlson 04:06:23PM
You put out some additional signs and looking to put out more.
Brandon Campbell 04:06:26PM
Yes, southbound, it would be west. Most people approaching that intersection is coming down Henderson before they have come to Manhattan.
Bill Carlson 04:06:45PM
For disclosure, I got stuck there. And I got a call from a Constituent that I didn't see until I got out. We don't want people to be racing through those Neighborhood Roads. Thank you for your help on that.
Alan Clendenin 04:06:59PM
Councilman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:07:01PM
That leads no another question and to bring up South Howard stormwater project. As we are starting to repave roads, repaved roads are used as Detours. I like to call them Cut-throughs, but Detours for these type of projects. What are things that we can do temporarily to get people to slow down on these neighborhood streets that are being used as Detours, is there anything?
Brandon Campbell 04:07:36PM
Excellent question. We will share more broadly with the community on wednesday, Quick Actions Teams that do neighborhood safety studies. They are looking specifically at Virginia Park now because that is where the grid is, and we have several streets in between the closure and the official detour. So they will come back to me with some recommendations that may be additional stop signs. Maybe, you know, speed humps or the like. I don't know exactly what those recommendations will be. There is some data collection that is taking place right now. It may have -- I don't know what percentage of that data collection is available, but opportunity for additional input or collection afterwards.
Lynn Hurtak 04:08:23PM
I appreciate that, but what the Community is probably going to ask for because I would ask because I have the problem in my Neighborhood. Before we shut down the Streets, if we look at the Streets that we are recommending that People go down and provide those speed calming measures before we do.
Brandon Campbell 04:08:47PM
Understood.
Lynn Hurtak 04:08:48PM
Really what the public wants and expects us to do, even if it is a temporary measure. If we are adding a four-way stop for three months. Did you do that in Seminole Heights and Neighborhood -- the Neighbors loved it so much they demand it to be kept and it was. And it hasn't impacted. It was a really good addition. So definitely -- I would be more interested in finding out ways we are doing stuff ahead of time, because all of a sudden you wake up, and people are speeding down your street. That is not okay. Especially for kids that are used to playing on the street because it is not a heavily traveled street. We need to be considerate of the Neighbors before we start these detours, which are awful anyways but they are needed. What can we do to make sure that the project is considered?
Alan Clendenin 04:09:50PM
Brandon, roll into 72 and talk of Pump Stations.
Brandon Campbell 04:09:54PM
Sounds good. Do I have to introduce myself again?
Luis Viera 04:09:59PM
If I may, 4:30 I have a call --
Alan Clendenin 04:10:03PM
We may be out from them.
Lynn Hurtak 04:10:06PM
This will be a while.
Luis Viera 04:10:09PM
If at all possible, I had a motion I wanted to make for is something for next week. Wanted to hear what Miss Feeley had to say. Is it okay that we hear this item before Brandon? I hate to.
Alan Clendenin 04:10:29PM
Brandon, always has a cold beer waiting for him at Home. Flip these items. Miss Feeley, Item Number 74.
Abbye Feeley 04:10:41PM
Good afternoon, council, Abbye Feeley, Administrator for Economic Opportunity. I have a couple of slides I want to share.
Luis Viera 04:10:52PM
If I may ask, Miss Feeley, how long do you need for your presentation?
Abbye Feeley 04:11:03PM
Five minutes. Depends if you have some questions. Update on the $2 million of General Fund for homeowners hurricane assistance. The purpose of the funds is to direct financial -- to provide direct financial assistance for the homeowners impacted by hurricane helene and milton. As I mentioned, there are general funds and really to support long-term recovery and resilience. The program priorities -- what we are going to do is prioritize by zip code. And our goal is to provide funds to those hardest-hit areas. I think what we found from the $3.2 million and what was administered by Icf and being finished by Housing. And they should be done in the next couple of weeks. Our target goal is by november 1. we had several people who just went over the Ami. Just made enough money to not fit the requirements of funds that are in there. So we are going to prioritize these funds by zip code. Forest Hills, Palmetto Beach, South of Gandy in the Port Tampa Area. And since these are general funds, we don't have to use necessarily the hud standards, but want to use the reasonable standard. 10% above the Ami. 10% above the 140 puts us at approximately $160,000 of income for a family of four. We are updating for one family, two family, three family -- sorry, one person, two person, three person households. Some of that is correct with a maximum award up to $30,000. A couple of things on that. We still have people who already made their repairs but were above the income level. So we are going to use some of these funds within those hardest-hit areas. Families in Forest Hills that already repaired their home, we will reimburse. The second tranche of money will help to go make those repairs up to $30,000 on that. Those funds for recovery will include roof repair replacement, hva c systems, dry wall, flooring, cabinetry, and free removal. We have people who still have trees on their property. We are going to provide funding on that also. We did run into from the first program -- I shared with a couple of you, some that were hand written. Some that were forged. We will make it into two allocations. First allocation that will allow to you buy cabinetry. To get things done. And once that is completed, we are trying to give good stewards of the funds that council so graciously gave. We will do a press release and launch a web app. You can apply online. Call our housing hotline, and we will help people through that process. Finalizing having people available at hanna and have them go over with you looking at funds, as well as go over the required paperwork. We will have people available to provide that assistance. We will then -- as I mentioned review and prioritize by zip code. And what our goal is, the way we work our math now, we are open two days a week. With hha, we have an action period open monday through wednesday of each week, which will allow us then to work on those applications. The thursday and friday of that week so that way we are on a rolling schedule. You have what is coming in and what is getting processed versus putting it open for a couple of weeks. This will be a rolling action with that prioritization of the zip codes. As I mentioned to you, the inspection, the award and the payments. If it is a reimbursement that did not get funded under the first program and their still seeking reimbursement, it will be a one-time allocation. We will go out, look what they did, make the repairs, and match the scope of work, and reimburse the fund up to $30,000 on the new repairs as I mentioned. The two phased payments up to $15,000 initial and up to $15,000 final. But clearly based on the scope of work they are trying to perform. If they are only performing $18,000 worth of work, it will be a nine and nine type of situation. Our goal is to have all of funds fully extended by september of next year, not encumbered but extended, out the door claimed out with 90% of them targeted to be done within 606 days of permit. Some of this work does require a permit. Some of this work does not require a permit. We will be happy to talk through that as people come in. Some that is our strategy.
Lynn Hurtak 04:16:53PM
Board member Viera -- sorry, council member Viera. Already in the Cra.
Luis Viera 04:17:00PM
All good. I want to say to Miss Feeley, thank you very much. You put in so much time with $3 million in this. You and your office have put in a lot of time in helping people. And from the bottom of my heart, this is very important. Because I read in the paper -- was it Pensacola County or St. Petersburg City Government that is looking at doing it? Did you see that in "the times?"
Abbye Feeley 04:17:24PM
I did not.
Luis Viera 04:17:26PM
They did this in that area, and good to see that this is apparently happening. What is important are these funds. More inclusive and original funds block the middle class people who really got hit hard. And, you know, I am glad you cited Forest Hills and north, Tampa Palmetto Beach. I visited out there and in District 5. man, those people got hit hard. Very hard. And with Councilman Carlson's district. A lot of our friends in South Tampa. This is money that is available for everyone. And give a shout out to our acting Chairwoman, acting Chairwoman Lynn Hurtak, because I was going to propose a million or so dollars. And councilman hurtak talked of downtown victims of the leftover funds, she said $2 million is even better. And I think that is important. The main thing this year with milton and helene and people are still hurting and people don't care that Government is working on the middle class and the working class. And our job is to rebut that belief. I will be sending this information out on social media. Everybody can benefit from this. Because these folks really need help. And I -- we all deal with these folks all the time and they are still going through hell, not just emotional hell from that trauma, but the financial, physical hell from just having this. So thank you very much for that.
Lynn Hurtak 04:18:56PM
Council member Miranda.
Charlie Miranda 04:18:58PM
I want to thank you. A lot of people that are still trying to make it. Monies just don't last. Cost of things are enormous. Cabinets -- you put a nice cabinets in the Kitchen. It is $11,000, $12,000. Do it yourself, do your own drawings and take it to People that make cabinets in Tampa. You can get it about $6,000 and $7,000. It is where you go.
Alan Clendenin 04:19:26PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 04:19:32PM
Thank you for that. People are absolutely surprised when I tell them we are the only city who has done this in the state of Florida. I want to give complete kudos to you and your crew and everything that you are doing. It is just -- it is wonderful. I know we still have a lot of money to give out, and hopefully, this will go a long way of helping more people. And it is just -- it is not enough, but it is something. And we are just so grateful for Your Department and for you to really have fast tracked this. It is just -- it is -- it means a lot. And we are still -- I mean, we are a year past. And it is still -- it is still hurting so many folks. I look forward to also sharing this. This is information available and where?
Abbye Feeley 04:20:20PM
Right now, we are in the process of finalizing some of web site with technology and innovation with Eric Caden's group. I know they have been working really hard to have it ready in association with this presentation today. If not, I asked them at least at minimum to put up hurricane homeowner assistance and say coming soon so people know if they are coming there and they are not quite there yet, they will be there. And definitely the third when the press releases goes out. Gave a little bit of time in between that press release and when we will actually go live. The Housing Hot Line is always open. They can call the Housing Hot Line and we'll have people ready to assist with answering questions. That at least people can start thinking about what they do have outstanding or what this money can really help them do that hasn't gotten repaired yet. I know there are a lot of people that need roofs still repaired or, like I said, the trees. The other thing is, we have crisis track. Please remember, when we did recovery afterward, we went through every street in the City. We know who has had impact. So we will be doing some checks and balances. If you are in an area that didn't flood, clearly we'll know it wasn't there. We want to try to be good stewards of the funds as we know there are a lot of people that really need them. So the Housing Hot Line, we will have people available to answer questions. That number is 813-307-5555. But we will get the information up on the website very, very soon. Like I said, I think there is a placeholder right now, but based on your feedback today, we wanted to make sure you guys were good with all of this. Then we'll start to get that preliminary and the timeline up there as well.
Lynn Hurtak 4:22:16PM
What I might recommend is that on that placeholder, you go ahead and put this powerpoint and that Phone Number. I think that would be a great placeholder to show people -- we can direct People there. Thank you so much. And thank you, again, for all your work.
Alan Clendenin 4:22:31PM
Thank you, Ms. Feeley. Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Brandon Campbell.
Luis Viera 4:22:48PM
My call is at 4:30 and we may be out by then. Really fast, council. Brandon sent out a motion when in november, the first week of november we were going to have Roy Caldwood, 103-year-old buffalo soldier, originally born in Harlem. 20 push-ups, out of control. He really does. It blows the mind. I can't even do five. I was going to have a contest with him at his house this week. His daughter said he should -- we were also going to General Butler, the first african american special forces general who lives in Tampa to talk about veterans day. Unfortunately, roy will go to the caribbean with his family. 103, I don't get it. He will go to the caribbean. So he was available october 30th, which is a workshop. So what I was going to do, number one, we take away the one in november. That saves time. I was going to move the workshop on disability housing to january 29. so as to -- actually save time by doing this, but that does require a waiver of the rules. I thought for 103-year-old Buffalo Soldier, we could waive the rules. That's all. That's my motion, if I may.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:07PM
Can't we do it in one?
Luis Viera 4:24:09PM
My motion is to move the november 6, I think it was -- Gosh, Almighty, presentation for veterans day to october 30, number one. Number two --
Alan Clendenin 4:24:22PM
Stop there. We have a motion from Councilman Viera --
Luis Viera 4:24:26PM
And waive the rules, yes, ma'am.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:28PM
Motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.
Luis Viera 4:24:36PM
As a consideration for that, the Disability Housing Workshop, we will move it to january 29.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:42PM
We have a motion from Councilman Viera. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.
Luis Viera 4:24:49PM
Thank you, council, including, Mr. Chairman, for hearing this out of order. Brandon, thank you for your patience.
Alan Clendenin 4:24:54PM
I was watching you on the high resolution monitor, you are so svelte, I think you should run for higher office. Mr. Campbell, we have teased you twice now. Department, here to go over our stormwater maintenance report. And that is available on the website, if you care to look at it at Tampa.gov/mobility. As before -- before I get into it, I did want to say, I know Councilwoman Hurtak had feedback about some formatting improvements that we could make. I've gone over that with my team. We have not yet been able to implement that to this, but they are on the way. Starting off, once again, with our calls for service for this calendar year, cumulatively we were a little bit behind the total number of calls that we received this year as compared to last year. Whereas that was not the case earlier in the year. That's indicative of the dry summer that we've had, thankfully.
Alan Clendenin 4:26:19PM
I think it's because we're paving the road. That too. The month of september, only 220 calls for service as compared to 658 from the month of september last year. I did want to highlight we do continue to have a number of calls for our cave-ins that we're continuing to repair. That's Our highest category of calls for the month of september, and we have been continuing to address those. I've got a good picture that I think will be helpful in visualizing what that entails.
Lynn Hurtak 4:26:59PM
I know that we put in a special request, I believe it's Kimmins who was doing the cave-ins.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:08PM
How is that going financially?
Brandon Campbell 4:27:10PM
So we have gotten to about the ceiling of that contract. I know that we were looking at ways to extend their work effort. But, yeah, we've used quite a bit of it.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:24PM
So even though we're still dealing with cave-ins, we're looking now that we might need to find more money to continue that.
Brandon Campbell 4:27:33PM
It's possible or to reallocate or use existing funds for a new contract. It's more the maximum of that contractual arrangement rather than the funding itself running out.
Lynn Hurtak 4:27:46PM
And about what is the amount of -- how many cave-ins have they been able to do?
Brandon Campbell 4:27:54PM
I can tell you for this month they did 30. that third down highlight shows that 30 were done by the contractor. 16 were done in-house in the month of september. I can get back to you with a cumulative number if you'd like. I will say, we had 48 calls for service on cave-ins for the month. We addressed 46. I can tease out further, if needed, whether any of those 48 calls were overlapping calls for the same pothole. Roughly, if you look at one to the next, it appears that we are keeping up well as of now. In terms of other maintenance efforts that we completed in september, we did about 1.8 miles of ditches and about 6.8 miles of pipes. Those were scattered throughout the neighborhoods at the top of the page. Again, they should be reflective of what you're seeing on the gis map that we implemented just a couple of months ago. Something else I wanted to mention, and, unfortunately, I think this would be something that Councilman Viera would have been interested in. It's that we did in september do a dry-run, so to speak, of a test deployment of the temporary generators that we have a contract for with Sunbelt. That went well. We did not necessarily publicize it in the moment, but we were able to hook up and connect those generators and run the pumps on generators for a brief period of time just to verify that the setups are working and ready. Here are a couple of pictures of the test deployment. The last pictures that I wanted to bring, again, I mentioned we've done 46 cave-in repairs in the month of september. Sometimes it's good to see what that actually looks like because it's often conflated with just a simple pothole and from the before picture, you can see that it's understandable why one might mischaracterize that or misunderstand exactly what is going on where the repair requires a significant digging effort. So that said, I'm happy to answer any questions.
Alan Clendenin 4:30:29PM
Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 4:30:31PM
I want to thank you and your Team for your responsiveness to Constituents. Lots of things going on. Even I saw some indentations I thought might be collapses. You checked those out and turned out not to be. Thank you for that. I had a Constituent that asked a question, so I'll ask it. This is not my question. The Constituent said that a year ago that they checked and there were either no manuals for Stormwater Maintenance or not updated manuals for Stormwater Maintenance. The question is, are there now updated Stormwater Maintenance manuals in place for staff?
Brandon Campbell 4:31:07PM
So we have Standard Operating Procedures. There is an endless opportunity to update, expand, codify things that are understood but maybe not written down. We have a set of Standard Operating Procedures. I see updates to those come across my desk at least every other week.
Bill Carlson 4:31:26PM
Are all those published?
Brandon Campbell 4:31:29PM
I know that we are uploading Those to a Common Database. I'm not sure how accessible Those are, where those might be available for People.
Bill Carlson 4:31:38PM
Considering that we have Constituents now that are digging into the bond records, the more we can make it just accessible online so they don't have to pull public records, the better. I think it will make all of us look good for being transparent. Thanks so much.
Alan Clendenin 4:31:54PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:31:56PM
Thank you. I did want to -- we've been doing these monthly reports for a year now. While these reports will still continue to be available on the website, staff has asked that we kind of close out having these monthly reports. So I do have a motion about that. However, I want to say that I will be working with Stormwater to make the information easier to find and easier to understand. And if you'd like, after we finish and have like a draft of it, I can bring it to council under old business so we all get a chance to look at it and comment on it. Now that I'm over mobility, it's like, I'm sorry. Brad had me there all the time and now it's you. I'm sorry. But I'm --
Alan Clendenin 4:32:47PM
I'm not. Hey, Lynn, Streetcar.
Lynn Hurtak 4:32:53PM
Bus. So, no, I just wanted to let people know that we are still working on the information. As Mr. Campbell alluded to earlier, we're kind of working on a way to make it clearer, easier for folks to understand. I move to discontinue the monthly Stormwater maintenance reports, the monthly information will still be found at www.Tampa.gov/mobility/stormwater. I will be working with the Stormwater Department to make the information easier to find and understand and will bring it back to council during old business when we have a working draft.
Alan Clendenin 4:33:31PM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you.
Lynn Hurtak 4:33:40PM
There is more. I don't know if any of you -- well, all of you. You got it. Ms. Kopesky basically gave us a whole outline of how funding is being spent because this is a question we keep getting ad nauseam. I don't know, Ms. Kopesky, if you have a copy and want to walk through it with us.
Alan Clendenin 4:34:10PM
Can we release Brandon?
Lynn Hurtak 4:34:12PM
Yeah, unless Brandon --
Alan Clendenin 4:34:15PM
Anybody else have questions for Brandon? It's getting late in the day. Brandon, thank you so much. Unless you would -- you can come up and sit with us if you'd like.
Hagar Kopesky 4:34:45PM
Hagar Kopesky, City Council budget analyst. So, yes, thanks for the tee-up. I don't know if we want to go through everything, but we know that there is a lot of interest in trying to see where the results end up after the year closes. Obviously still in process but materially finished. That's why I wanted to give kind of a brief overview on how it wrapped up. Taken as a whole, given all of the moves made through the year. If you remember, we started with a 2.5 million component of the General Fund, funding stormwater maintenance. And then throughout the year, you approved a $500,000 piece and later again another 3 million through the excess surplus from '24. With all the movement, the actual assessment results from, again, the citizens, and then the expenses inclusive of the 1.25 for kimmins and I think it's about 400 for the flow tech pipe cleaning. All of that being said, it appears like we will essentially have a round of 400,000 surplus in stormwater maintenance. Again, what happens with that, that rolls into the fund itself and will carry over into 2026. do you want me to hit the top of the trees? Okay. In terms of personnel, again, now, this is going to show both fiscal 25 preliminarily and fiscal '26. Really just the takeaway here is, I know there's been dialogue around personal expenses are a good portion of the stormwater maintenance. There had been some discussions about what it included. The primary point and I know this is small in the background, but it was intended to do a walk-forward to make sure people understand there were 11 positions moved out which took a large amount of salary dollars out. There were some adjustments done to recognize changes in certain roles and two new additional positions put in. We get a lot of questions in terms of just expense. The biggest line items -- I know this is very small. Maintenance and repairs, when brandon talks about all these vendors, mowing, kimmins doing the cave-in repairs, hauling things between one place and the other, that's all hitting the repairs and maintenance line. The increase you see in here, the 4.8 in '25, that's a lot of those -- the two emergency pos that happened. We have some of that rolling over into '26, but I think as we continue to dialogue and he continues to work through kind of what their priorities are, we'll have a dialogue around whether the existing 3.7 that we have in the budget is going to be achievable. Again, not saying it isn't. Just saying that is an ongoing discussion. The second largest item, when you see the motor pool, that's where the fuel and the repairs to the vehicles they use. That was basically a million dollars in '25. A little bit of a step-down in terms of what's in the budget for that to 700,000. We'll keep our eye on that. You know we talked about the vehicles, we have some aged vehicles, right? That will continue to be an area to watch. Again, I don't want to stay longer on this than you guys need to. I think there is a mention of two things. You've got the improvement assessment, a much larger master plan. Then a consultant they are using to help define where do our maintenance levels, our service levels, where do they need to be adjusted and what would the result of that be financially? That work is supposed to be coming back closer to the february time frame. Again, only mentioning that because there is a professional service element that is rolling into '26 to try to help identify those things. Again, when we talk about fund balance, we have to continue to remember this whole deck was around service. Today we had quite a bit of dialogue around improvement. Both of those highly relevant, but this entire presentation is on maintenance. Really, the headline here, for those that don't kind of know how the flow of the fund would work, I just wanted to show how we started the balance in 24 at 4.5 million. It takes into account all the things we would have seen on the previous pages, salary, capital spending, the in flow of the revenues themselves and works its way down through the period. In the very beginning, I talked about the fact that we added 400,000 to fiscal '25. So in the middle column, essentially all the detail and then the result of the increase of 400,000, which would get to us 4.3 million. If we perform to budget for fiscal '26, meaning if the revenues come in as we expect and we are able to maintain the General Fund contributions that were in the budget as well as the actual expense spending, all of that taken under consideration would require consumption of the fund and would therefore put the maintenance service -- the stormwater service fund balance slightly under a million dollars. That was really the main punch line on the slide. And then there was some discussion when brandon was here about kimmins and the work they did on the cave-in. I know that his team does some of the work internally, but this is dedicated to that 1.25 million that we spent with them. So here, they did utilize all of that between I think june and september. 95 cave-ins completed. All externally by this contractor. I wanted to give a brief view of the top ten and some of the addresses and the districts where those were done. And then taken overall, you can see the distribution of the location where these were performed in the districts in total. On a similar basis, flow tech was the partner that -- oooh -- is the partner that is helping inspect and clean out the storm pipes. So they have about 750,000 that's been approved to do that. They have gone through about half of it. The half has been performed in these general areas. And really, the call-outs on the slide are just to remind people when listening to the budget workshop, they are helping do this, but we have a tv truck that's being spec'd out to be acquired. Hopefully that will be in place by late spring of '26. And then the vacuum trucks themselves, we have five today. Those will be retired when the new three that are being leased arrive in january. All of those new assets will help attend to some of the ongoing service requirements that --
Alan Clendenin 4:42:34PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:42:35PM
Before you go off of this, I just want to state that the five, technically all Five are not in use right now. From my understanding, two are like extra for when one of the three breaks down. So we're not actually going down. We're actually going to be able to have three that are constantly in use. I just wanted to clarify that record. But then after you sent this out, I did have a question about hours versus linear feet of pipe. Still outstanding?
Hagar Kopesky 4:43:13PM
Yes. This is one of the items where as I work with Brandon's team, we have to understand how the data comes to them. This is invoice view, billing the time they spent at location. There is more data available at the linear feet level. If we choose to continue to have discussions around what we're actually getting done more relevant basis for measure would be the Linear Feet hours. You can spend whatever time you want. But I should not have time to work with him on that to get it in place for this particular slide. I think that's relevant for people to understand what distance you're going through and accomplishing. I'm going to put this up again. We did share it at the workshop. This is the list of the specific types of repairs and maintenance. The biggest being the mowing, which includes the Ditches, the Ponds, and the Lot. That is by far the largest piece. And then I think maybe two weeks ago, we had a reso come through to approve -- it's basically the outfalls and a lot of discussion about the things growing on that. Outfall maintenance is right in the center of the page. That's probably one that we'll keep our eye on because I think the department has been pretty honest about the fact that although we put in a certain level of funding here, just based on what they are trying to accomplish after the hurricane and where they fell behind, we'll probably have a little bit more there. We'll just try to keep this updated to understand where the trends are and what we're actually spending. There is a step down from 4.8 to 3.7. right now, presumably, we were able to catch up with some of the Emergency Pos. That's really something we'll have to continue to have a discussion with Brandon about. I do rely on them to initiate if there are any risks popping up that need to be addressed with additional funding. Last, just to remind folks, what is really in the inventory. I think people have become very educated on a lot of the equipment. What you can see really from this slide is that we are trying to chip away at replacing some of the aged items. And we do have a fair amount. You see the average age compared to the useful life. We're really making some headway with the sweepers. More recently with the three vacuum trucks. But we've still got some work to do. And then as a reminder for folks, $3.3 million in the 26, again, stormwater maintenance capital. This is again for the vehicle-related items. These are the particular priorities that the department has identified and actually brian updated me that the difference between the 3, 3 and 1.6 is the fact that those three leased vacuum, when they are available, they will show and they are approximately 1.6 million. It looks to be they will consume the entire capital this year. Okay. Any questions.
Alan Clendenin 4:46:43PM
Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:46:45PM
I want to say thank you for doing this. I think this is a really beneficial thing that we keep getting asked about. I want to say thank you. I don't know if anybody else wants any possible changes to this.
Alan Clendenin 4:46:59PM
I think it was outstanding. I think the feedback was a really good product and I think it was useful and easy to digest and very applicable to the issues as Councilwoman Hurtak said of the questions that we're always asked, and issues that council and, of course, some of the points of our budget process, seeing where what we push for, how it's going to be applied. Great tool to track it as we go forward to see the justification behind what we're pushing for for the budget actually comes to fruition.
Lynn Hurtak 4:47:39PM
I do want to say as we go forward, one of the things we talked about I believe was Stormwater because I have quite a few plates spinning, possibly making a Stormwater update every six months and maybe with that, we could have Ms. Kopesky update us on the financials to go along with it so we keep our eye on that.
Hagar Kopesky 4:48:02PM
That was the goal. I was trying to complement what comes from the staff which has been very much focused on Visual Items, Work Order Basis and Service-level Items. I think pairing that with something that is financial is going to help tie those things together. If it's of interest to the group, I'm able to update that when they have the semiannual.
Lynn Hurtak 4:48:26PM
I found this useful. Is this something we would like Ms. Kopesky to do for other items?
Alan Clendenin 4:48:33PM
I think file it away and as things come up.
Lynn Hurtak 4:48:36PM
I'm not talking about the stormwater, but maybe as we're looking at South Howard, getting her involved in some of that financial work as well. Again, we can't talk any other time.
Alan Clendenin 4:48:50PM
I think what we bring forward is now understanding that the special assessment with the fund balance is. I don't know how much work there is if there's no money.
Lynn Hurtak 4:49:01PM
And that's why I think it's important to have this discussion with her now. I want to work on a motion about that. I wasn't able to finish it during lunch today. If it's okay with you all, I can work with her and Mr. Rogero on getting a motion together for next week that we could then --
Alan Clendenin 4:49:23PM
I think that would be timely.
Lynn Hurtak 4:49:26PM
Okay. I would be happy to do that.
Alan Clendenin 4:49:28PM
Very good. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That concludes our regular business for the day. So new business. Councilman Carlson.
Bill Carlson 4:49:36PM
I think we should create an ordinance that prohibits the use of Stormwater -- our money for parades. I don't know what date we can put it on. I would make a motion to have City Staff come back with a draft ordinance that would prohibit the use of Stormwater tax money or Personnel to be used on parades or events.
Alan Clendenin 4:50:06PM
I get it, but managing resources and, you know, a lot of the stuff becomes a shuffle. How they are being paid, where they are being paid, is there work to be done in that particular -- is there work to be done? If not them, who? How much will it cost? It's definitely a management allocation of resource issue.
Bill Carlson 4:50:40PM
Or it's a budget issue.
Alan Clendenin 4:50:41PM
It's a budget issue, too. You get it as a Business Owner of allocating resources, personnel and the people who have expertise.
Bill Carlson 4:50:50PM
The first thing is on parades, with few exceptions of city parades, whoever is doing the parade should be paying for these things.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:00PM
Guys, let's just say Gasparilla. It's an event that only happens once a year. You are not going to hire staff to do it.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:13PM
Contract. Contractors are for.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:15PM
But even contract, might be paying three times more than what we're paying Staff to do it.
Bill Carlson 4:51:22PM
Just like they reimburse us for Tpd and fire, they need to reimburse us for other stuff.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:28PM
In theory they do that.
Bill Carlson 4:51:30PM
But not applied back.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:32PM
Maybe that is the question to ask.
Bill Carlson 4:51:36PM
How about if I put on the agenda a discussion about limiting the allocation of resources in the stormwater budgets.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:50PM
Second.
Alan Clendenin 4:51:52PM
We have a motion and we have a second. Continue discussion. Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 4:51:56PM
Again, Hagar sent us out a list of the events. I'll be honest, I had no idea we had this many events. But my issue is that these events are during the dry season when we really need our Stormwater Teams to be out doing the work. That's the problem. Because I look at an allocation of resources as well. But maybe -- I just don't know when they have down time. We're asking them to prepare as best they can during the dry season and then during the rainy season, they are there to fix things or to keep cleaning things out as we get more debris. I don't know when they have a moment's rest. We are still asking these crews to work six days a week, still. That's not okay.
Bill Carlson 4:52:53PM
The other thing is when the last stormwater tax was passed and I can show you all the video of it, if you look at the news reports, the public was promised there would be maintenance every seven years. It's obvious that in most places in South Tampa, maintenance was not done until the public started raising hell a few months ago. The Mayor sent us nasty grams acting as if it had been done. We know from photographic and video evidence and now from the inspections that the Stormwater Team has been doing, I don't know why the Mayor is turning this into a political issue. It is a fact. The last administration did not use the stormwater money for maintenance. Part of this administration did not use stormwater money for maintenance. That's what the money was for. Now we know part of it was that it apparently was diverted for parades. I have all these neighborhoods in South Tampa that they are on me constantly, why can't you fix my street? Why can't you fix my street? The staff says we would love to but there's no money or resources. Why can't you maintain the ditches? One guy went on video because he had to dig his own ditch out. We don't have the resources. It's not the staff problem. Not the staff issue, it's an allocation of resources. It appears that the resources were misallocated. To be fair to the public and all the people that flooded, we should have a discussion about it.
Charlie Miranda 4:54:19PM
I think we have to have a much deeper discussion. A, what is the cost? What is the cost to do it outside? Children's parade, tell the babies can't walk in the street. And same people that don't have the streets paved. It gets voluminous than what we're talking on the surface. Scripted way, just like in finance and other areas, find out what the cost is, find out what the Applicant applied for. Maybe they can contribute. I don't know. You have to do it from the ground up for everybody. Children's parade, gay parade, knight parade, every parade. You can't just pick one. You have to do them all together. Every single one.
Alan Clendenin 4:55:05PM
We only have x number of dollars. If we contract out, let's say it costs three times more to contract out, that money has to come from somewhere?
Charlie Miranda 4:55:16PM
I'm not disagreeing with either one of you. You'll have some text to look at.
Alan Clendenin 4:55:23PM
Economic things, political things about certain events. The 4th of july parade. 4th of july fireworks. Look at some of the events, they are not profit events.
Charlie Miranda 4:55:38PM
I agree with you. Not profitable.
Bill Carlson 4:55:41PM
I didn't pick a date because I didn't know which date we could put it on. December 4. just a discussion about whether or not we should allow stormwater money and staff to be used on parades and events and what the alternatives might be.
Alan Clendenin 4:56:02PM
I think staff, Allocation of Resources and staff for special events.
Lynn Hurtak 4:56:11PM
What do we want to have in preparation for that? Do we want Ms. Kopesky to put something together for us? What do we want from staff? We don't just want to have discussion. We need to have some data.
Charlie Miranda 4:56:27PM
Be mindful, it might be Super Hockey Team that wins -- don't tell them to show up to work. Baseball, football, what do you do then? Who will pay for all that? We've been paying for it, I guess. A City thing. Lift up your feelings for your own City. There is a value to parades that people attend and go see. It's a night out, period. Like going to the park. Same thing as going to the park.
Bill Carlson 4:57:01PM
My point is, probably for the Bond Covenants we're not allowed to do that. But for the Enterprise Funds, that there probably are certain restrictions. Probably gray as to, at best --
Alan Clendenin 4:57:14PM
Let's have this discussion on december 4.
Charlie Miranda 4:57:16PM
One last statement. There is a value to the people who have very little that have a lot of fun on that day for very little money. That's got to be considered too.
Bill Carlson 4:57:26PM
I agree. Should come out of a different bucket.
Alan Clendenin 4:57:30PM
We control the buckets.
Bill Carlson 4:57:32PM
That's why I want to -- the Stormwater Tax is an extra tax that was very controversial.
Alan Clendenin 4:57:37PM
You have to move money from somewhere else to pay for it.
Bill Carlson 4:57:39PM
Did we get a second?
Lynn Hurtak 4:57:42PM
Yes.
Martin Shelby 4:57:43PM
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman.
The Clerk 4:57:53PM
[inaudible]
Martin Shelby 4:57:54PM
Who was the discussion with? Amongst council. Expecting no discussion or information from Staff or legal?
Lynn Hurtak 4:58:02PM
That's what I asked for.
Martin Shelby 4:58:04PM
You are having the discussion right now.
Bill Carlson 4:58:08PM
Why don't we ask the Chief of Staff to do it because it's overall -- I mean, we need to look at it from a citywide perspective.
Lynn Hurtak 4:58:16PM
Chief of staff. Then I'm going to ask that Ms. Kopesky maybe work with Mr. Rogero to get the financials on what we spend on parades. Do you have an idea, Ms. Kopesky, about what we could look at? I think part of what I wanted to highlight in the memo was that right now we just need to understand what tools do they use or are available that allow them to measure. For you to have information that says today on average, we spend x with extra duty, which I know that's one bucket that's fairly easy to quantify, if you pull from transportation, if you pull from stormwater, 10, 12, however many times through the year, is there something that Mr. Rogero and I can look at to even bring back and say, this is Version a, and this would be an external option. Right now, I don't know the answer to that. But we can certainly ask and see what's available.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:12PM
Remember, the special events, it's across all city resources. Our Police, our Fire. It's not just limited to one department. All of our Administrative People. Special events cut across every budget line.
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:28PM
Yes, but so many people were impacted by stormwater -- but that's Overtime. The Officers who are doing most of these parades, that's Overtime.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:43PM
Some. Probably most but not all.
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:46PM
We're not doing overtime for Stormwater People.
Charlie Miranda 4:59:48PM
We paid $250,000 Fire, Police somewhere in the last 30 years, we're going to cut that out? Same thing as this?
Lynn Hurtak 4:59:57PM
But it is not.
Alan Clendenin 4:59:59PM
This discussion has reached into what the conversation should be on december 4. I'll call the question. We have a motion to have this discussion. Did you include that Chief of Staff? Is that what you wanted?
Lynn Hurtak 5:00:14PM
I'll make an amendment to add Chief of Staff, Ms. Kopesky, Finance, and any other staff that need to --
Alan Clendenin 5:00:23PM
We have a motion. Can we take that as a friendly?
Bill Carlson 5:00:27PM
Yes.
Alan Clendenin 5:00:28PM
We have a motion from Councilman Carlson, second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? The Ayes have it. December 4 schedule. Anything else, sir? Councilwoman Hurtak.
Lynn Hurtak 5:00:39PM
I have a couple. I made a motion for staff to return with a draft ordinance regarding the lowering the sidewalk in lieu fee for hurricane damaged homes. Staff has requested a little more time. It was supposed to be on november 6, our next regular meeting, but I'm asking to continue it from november 6 to november 20.
Charlie Miranda 5:01:04PM
Second.
Martin Shelby 5:01:05PM
November 20 is the 11:00 day.
Alan Clendenin 5:01:09PM
Yes, the 11.
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:15PM
My only thing is --
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:21PM
Yeah, also, These People, we really want to try to get this done. Unfortunately --
Alan Clendenin 5:01:27PM
The Schedule is what it is.
Guido Maniscalco 5:01:31PM
[inaudible]
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:32PM
Okay. December 4.
Alan Clendenin 5:01:33PM
Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.
Lynn Hurtak 5:01:40PM
Because last year's was so useful, looking at the budget surplus from 2024, we're going to do it again. I'm asking for staff to present an in-person report, and I have talked to Mr. Rogero about this and Ms. Kopesky, staff to present an in-person report on december 18, 2025, to include the following data related to the General Fund, the Stormwater Service Fund, and each Enterprise Fund. I have this written. Preliminary revenue for fiscal year '25 by major and minor category for the Fy '25 adopted budget, Fy '25 preliminary year-end and the variance between the two. Next, preliminary expenses for Fy '25 by major and minor category for the Fy '25 adopted budget, Fy '25 preliminary year-end and the variance between the two. Next, preliminary change in fund balance from october 1, 2024, to september 30, 2025, schedules to include any reserves or other commitments identified to arrive at the actual unallocated balance.
Charlie Miranda 5:02:49PM
Second.
Lynn Hurtak 5:02:50PM
Next, detail of General Fund variance by department for personnel expense and other operating expense. Finally, a list of financial resolutions from september 1st, 2025, to november 30th, 2025, that had an impact on the General Fund fy '25 budget. Additionally asking finance staff to work with Ms. Kopesky on this.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:14PM
We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. That's it?
Lynn Hurtak 5:03:23PM
Yes. I will, like I said earlier, I'll work on that motion about Stormwater Bonds.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:30PM
Thank you. Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 5:03:31PM
I have nothing, Sir.
Charlie Miranda 5:03:33PM
I have one, sir. Make a motion to give an off-site commendation at the West Tampa chamber award gala to honor the hundredth year anniversary of the annexation of West Tampa into Tampa and also honoring the woman of the year, Audrey Perez, the man of the year, Leroy Moore, and the george guida legacy award to Bob Henriques.
Alan Clendenin 5:03:53PM
Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it unanimously. My only business would be, kind of piggy back on what Councilwoman Hurtak did with the mobility report. We do definitely have a need to try to alleviate some of the burden on staff for reports just for the sake of reports. I would appreciate if you have anything recurring on the schedule that is not something that is value-added, that maybe a report for the sake of a report.
Lynn Hurtak 5:04:28PM
Yes. Actually, after we finish stormwater, we'll move on to paving and sidewalks. The idea then is to make all of those quarterly -- I'm sorry, every six months. We'll come up with a plan so that they are reported to us every six months but still available on the website. I'm working on that to take that sort of stuff off.
Alan Clendenin 5:04:51PM
Look at what we have already. If there are things that we've exhausted, they are no longer required, what is the value added compared to the amount of time staff has to spend doing it, if we could entertain removing those from the schedule, I think staff would very much appreciate that. Secondly, I think that if when we see items, it seems weird to me, the items for council people that have not been on council for a decade for their names to continue to show up there. I think that's one of the things we should look at. Are those reports or things, these recurring things, are they still needed? I would suggest, if a report has a name of someone that is no longer on council, either somebody adopt that and reintroduce that and remove it from the calendar, under the Current Councilperson or we eliminate it completely.
Guido Maniscalco 5:05:44PM
I'll do my own research. I know there are council members that got elected in the '80s whose names still come up. Saul-sena, Mulhern, Dingfelder, all over. I'll go through past agendas and -- do you want a list by a certain time?
Alan Clendenin 5:06:04PM
Bring back a motion to remove those if we can or to reintroduce them under current council members' names if it's something still needed.
Guido Maniscalco 5:06:12PM
I'll do my own research.
Alan Clendenin 5:06:14PM
We'll hand that off to you, Councilman Maniscalco.
Guido Maniscalco 5:06:17PM
All right. But before the end of the year.
Lynn Hurtak 5:06:19PM
I was going to take on the workshop session about the Large Format Digital Media from Councilwoman Henderson. We'll talk about that next week. I'm happy to continue that for her.
Bill Carlson 5:06:32PM
I like seeing the names of the Former City Council Members if it is still a relevant topic.
Alan Clendenin 5:06:38PM
It's interesting but it's a way for us to at least understand, somebody look at it and make sure it is not dated, something that is relevant and we bring forward and an opportunity for us to review it now and keep it alive or kill it if it needs to be killed. That's all I had. Motion to receive and file from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We're adjourned. [ sounding gavel ] disclaimer: this file represents an unedited version of realtime captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Any person who needs a verbatim transcript of the proceedings may need to hire a court reporter. © - City of Tampa (813) 274-8211