It’s difficult for me to write a wrap-up when Council meetings go as they did last week. You can head over to the City’s YouTube Channel and watch for yourself. Suffice to say Fair Oaks passed 6-1 but not without a lot of politicial grandstanding. I said on Twitter, the hill I’ll die on is Tampa City Council approved $35 million in 2022 for the FY23 budget for this project and subsequently passed the reimbursement resolution affirming the plan to bond $35 million. The project presented to Council was $35 million with the full blessing of the community and an extensive amount of work done by local professionals to get to this point. It’s also worth noting that there are not any projects in the 5 year CIP that budgeted to be bonded beyond the 5 fire stations, only 2 of which Council decided to move forward with. Community Trust notwithstanding. This argument won’t happen again until the next mayor is gearing up to run for a second term.
Before we get to this week, I wanted to share a few links I’ve collected over the past week, in no particular order:
- I never did write up a review of the housing workshop, but the Admin did post this Housing Implementation Plan on the city site.
- During the Admin update a new Economic Dashboard was shared. I took a peek under the hood and it’s a Bloomberg product. It’s well done with a lot of propriety data used to generate it. The links to public data are general, not specific but there.
- I received a new email from the city, or at least seems relevantly new, Tampa Kind which has a lot of stuff in and more folks knowing it’s happening or available.
- Finally I saw this news update on the city site, reminding folks there are new rules for using micro-mobility devices. Meaning, you can’t just leave them anywhere. What’s nice is there’s a map where folks can suggest new locations for corrals.
Finally before the full agenda, I’d like to bring attention to item 31. On the agenda it reads “Resolution authorizing the execution of an agreement between the City of Tampa and Lee Bercaw; providing an effective date.” When you read the backup material you discover that Chief Bercaw is retiring from TPD in the fall and the mayor would like to keep him on as Chief for 3 years after his retirement in September at a salary of $240,000 annually with the full benefits he’s currently receiving as Chief. My assumption is he would be receiving his pension while receiving that salary. I don’t know what the going rate for a Chief of Police for a city of 400,000 people is but I do know that last week Council argued over their salary and brought up the mayor’s ~$190,000 annual salary. So CoP is $50,000 more? I have no idea. It’s seems odd to me, but my biggest thing would be they would be the highest paid person in the city and they don’t live in the city. I think that’s wrong.
Read on for the rest of the agenda.
Consent Agenda
item 9 – Citywide Medians and Parkways Grounds Maintenance $700,000 for just a partial part of the city. We really need to embrace native “wild” landscaping. For ecological purposes, and for cost. Think of how few leaf blowers you would hear.
items 10/11 – Arbor Day Grant One million dollar grant for tree planting in disadvantaged communities. I happened to look at the satellite view of Tampa in Apple Maps recently and the tree canopy discrepancy in East Tampa is obvious.
items 18—23 are contract renewals each for $1 million dollars. With all of the talk at City Council last week about supporting local businesses in construction services, Council should make sure projects like these are also being held to similar standards. I promise you there are at least 30 more of these contracts every year for various construction and trade related services. But 35 $1 million dollar price tags don’t get the same attention as one $35 million dollar price tag.
Item 29 – Annual Comprehensive Financial Report I’ve downloaded it and saving for when I have trouble sleeping.
Item 30 – legal advisor and project manager for the City of Tampa to facilitate compliance and reporting associated with the Consent Decree in United States of America v. City of Tampa is something you never want to read as a city.
Item 31 – Chief Bercaw retiring/staying on as Chief The only reading of this is that Bercaw is eligible for retirement and benefits and is taking advantage of it while the mayor wants to keep him on as Chief of Police at $240,000 a year salary PLUS BENEFITS. I’ll also note, to my knowledge he currently doesn’t not live in the city and as a contract employee I’d be curious if he’d be subject to department head requirements. The contract is 3 years and on top of everything else, he’s provided 240 hours of annual leave and 240 hours of sick leave plus he’ll accrue 4 hours of sick time every two weeks.
Item 36 – Substantial Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024/Program Year 2023 Annual Action Plan for Housing and Community Development Programs is to set a hearing date to amend the budget an action plan to move funds around in order to purchase, build and rehab affordable housing. There will be a one month public comment period ending in late May and two hearings to discuss the changes.
Public Hearings
Item 37 is a continued, continued hearing regarding a Variance Review Board (VRB) denial for a variance to have signage covering the windows of a building. The VRB did grant a variance for more and larger signage.
Item 38 Is a petition to review an Architectural Review Commission (ARC) decision. At the time of reading there’s no staff documents for this item but it appears these are neighbors who are petitioning an ARC approval, not a property owner appealing an ARC denial.
**Item 39 ** is a review of a denial for an application for an ADU. Grounds for denial were size, set backs and owners are active military and do not live on the property.
Staff Reports
Item 40 – Solid Waste $4 million in “Crane Carrier LET2-26 with New Way Sidewinder Automated Side Loaders”. Solid Waste has been solid in the service department for us. But the finances of the department need to be addressed. I’ve mentioned before, there’s a rate review underway and the expectation is it will result in a rate increase. When people ask why, point to items like this.
Item 42 – Mental Health Unit will be a briefing from TPD on the pilot mental health unit as well as a representative from St. Pete’s Call Program. There are differences in the programs and it will be interesting to see how that’s handled. I am a strong believer in removing mental health related situations from law enforcement. Retiring Chief of Police Bercaw is a strong believer in keeping the program in house.
Item 45 – Racial Reconciliation Committee This will be the mayor’s response to Council’s resolution asking the mayor to create the committee that was outlined in Resolution 2020-568.
Item 48 – Agenda Backup Materials Obviously I have an interest in this topic. It’s at the heart of what I’m trying to do here. But I would like to clarify I on’y support this sentiment when it relates to items that Council are voting on. Staff Reports and presentations are informational and meant to guide future decisions. As long as the materials are made available for review in Onbase after the meeting, I do not care if they are in on Friday. But if Council is taking action on an item, if there is a vote involved, then all relevant materials, data and presentations should be in Onbase when the agenda is published. I also think Council needs to be clear in what they want from staff. If the motion says “staff to report on X date about Y subject” then there should be no expectation of anything in Onbase. If the motion states “staff to provide a memo and relevant data related to subject Y and be available for questions on X date” then there shouldn’t be any questions.
Related Items 49 & 50 are about the agenda and the general rules and procedures of Council. Council Attorney Shelby has compiled a list of suggestions from Council members on how to run their meetings better. I have opinions. Better left for a separate post later this week if time permits. I’d shuffle my schedule to be there to speak but 3 minutes wouldn’t begin to cover it.
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