Happy New Year! First I’d like to reiterate that these are my thoughts and observations for this week’s agenda. But my goal is for folks to have their own thoughts and observations and share them with Tampa City Council. You can email the entire council using the address tampacitycouncil@tampagov.net. You may not always get a response from all council members, but generally speaking they or their staff read all of the emails. If 5 people email for or against an item, that will register. I’d bet if they get more than 2 on an item it will register unless it’s a high profile item in the news. Don’t think your opinion doesn’t count.

The current draft agenda is available now. Reminder, click an agenda item File No. to view any related documentation. “Backup”. If you are on a tablet or mobile device unfortunately you are forced to the bottom of the page, losing your spot in the agenda. If you are on desktop (or possibly a tablet in landscape) the items will appear on the right. This will be memos or presentations related to the item where I find most of the details surrounding it.

Item #5 I think is a big deal simply because it’s the first of its kind in Tampa. It being a Community Development District. I’m not 100% on how they work, but it sounds like they are special taxing districts that function kinda like a CRA but without the “reduce slum and blight” part. This item is under the consent agenda so there won’t be any presentation. I gather it’s something governed by state law and the City can’t do much about it. There was an adjacent presentation to the CRA in December regarding tax credits for infrastructure improvements. It’s been really interesting to follow the GasWorx development from the beginning, I wasn’t tuned in for Channelside.

Item #21 is a bit of a head scratcher. The city’s budget for vehicles is staggering, why does the Solid Waste Department need a 20 passenger bus? That said, a 20 passenger bus could probably be pretty roomy home on wheels for $160K.

Item #35 looks ugly. We hired a company, A & A Electric Services, LLC to at least install solar lighting in MacFarlane Park. The lights were installed. The company A& A Electric subcontracted the lights from didn’t get paid by A & A. Unknown in this equation is whether the city paid A & A for the work. A & A Electrical Services, LLC has filed chapter 7 bankruptcy. We have agreed to pay the subcontractor $265,000 for the lights. It would be worth knowing what other work A & A Electric Services, LLC had with the city and if there’s any other surprises like this one coming.

Item #39 is a request for Council to approve the nomination of Tony Mulkey head of Parks & Rec. Mr. Mulkey is already with the city and has a background in Parks & Rec.

Items #53 & 54 are music to my ears. I visit Picnic Island Park a lot. Over the last 3 years I’ve driven Bayshore to Interbay to Commerce 500 times? Anyway, Interbay the road has not seen the same amount of investment as the surrounding neighborhood. FDOT grant money for road improvements around MacDill base access improvements coupled with additional funding to address Interbay from Bayshore to Dale Mabry.

Item 59 is second reading adopting “School Speed Zone Cameras”. Council member Clendenin was the lone no vote and I doubt this issue will garner much discussion this time around. I stated I’m not a fan of putting more unchecked surveillance into the hands of law enforcement.

Item 70 is one that sounds like it could turn into a big deal if anyone comes out to speak against it. On its surface, aligning all of our building code with the state code in one big move makes sense. On its surface. We’ll know by public comment if there are any unintended consequences.

Items 71 & 72 are requests to vacate alleys. Thankfully this Council does not rubber stamp the vacation of alleys so it will be interesting to see how the facts play out. These are first readings.

Item 73 is the second reading of the development on Fowler, the first use of the “Live Local Act” in the city. Which in this case just means the developer doesn’t have to rezone the property from Commercial to residential and can just build as long as at least 10% are capped at 120% AMI. Correction this is not Live Local Act, which is 40% affordable. This is utilizing a 2020 law, HB1339, which is similar but only requires 10%.

Item 74 is the first public hearing for a slew of Publicly Initiated Text Amendments. I believe there are some improvements asked for by the community regarding public notice on certain types of developments in this batch of changes. I have been looking more at budget and less at land use but nothing in this is new. These items work their way through a fairly involved process before this stage. And it’s a first hearing. There will be an opportunity to weigh in before final adoption.

Items 76 & 77 is one of those “hey, a grant to do a thing” then you read the memo and it’s yes, there’s a grant, but the grant has a cap of $5M and can only be 50% of the project. So we’re using more than $5 million in “bond money” to cover the remaining cost. I have no idea where Lamb Ave Canal Rehabilitation project is and it probably needs it. Just a reminder that most grants work like this. Sometimes the grant money is used as a justification for the expense.

Items 8 & 78 I have written a separate piece the Tampa Fire Rescue CIP Budget. My biggest issue with this is that there is currently $20 million in the budget for TFR CIP. If we borrow all $116 million, how does the city intend to use that $20 million? We held off on nominal raises for non-union staff to make the budget work without a millage increase and still fund new fire stations. Now we are going to borrow that money without a plan for how to pay for it. I have already encouraged Council to continue this item until after the discussion about bonding capacity or to straight vote it down. I encourage you to weigh in with your own thoughts.

Item 79 made me chuckle. The CFO took screenshots of a page on the city website and submitted them for his report. I really look forward to Council having a budget analyst who can translate “budget amendments” during the year. There needs to be a way to differentiate between a change that simply approves dispensing of funds for a budgeted expense versus actually changing the budget. As in, we budgeted $10M for sod, but now we want $15M in sod so we are going to take $5M out of the police budget kind of change.

Item 80 is revisiting the conversation about credit card fees from October. At the time of review there is nothing new beyond the memo submitted last year.

Item 81 is a presentation on efforts by Parks & Rec for special needs children with intellectual disabilities. Kathryn Malone Center is around the corner from me at Giddens Park. I have questioned the money spent on the building purely from the standpoint of spending $300K to add ADA bathrooms and exit to an ugly block building with bars over the windows. It looks like a prison. Hardly the environment for stimulating a child regardless of need. I have learned a lot about the inability of the city to coordinate across departments when it comes to projects like this one.

Item 83 might be a contentious one. Twice this has been continued because “staff is still negotiating several changes to the Tampa Heights Riverfront Development agreement to address this and other issues…” At the time of review there are no supporting/backup docs for this item.

Item 86 was also introduced by Council member Henderson and is a mouthful. There are no backup docs for this item at time of review but I think it’s relative to self-monitoring for compliance. I look forward to better understanding it after it is discussed.

I was also made aware there will be a walk-on agenda item related to the Tampa Fire Rescue contract, though no details are being shared. My initial assumption is that it relates to the bonding discussion in item 78. At the December 7 meeting, representatives from the union stated they had some discussions and had agreed on some kind of “oversight” of the station design process. I’m all for staff of any department weighing in on what they need to do their job but I question any kind of veto power. It will be interesting to hear the details.

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Comments

2 responses to “Preview 1-11-24”

  1. Stephanie Poynor Avatar
    Stephanie Poynor

    I find it HILARIOUS how we find the same things interested and offensive!
    1. Police officer of the month
    2. Firefighter of the quarter
    WHY DO WE have Police officer of the month but Firefighter of the quarter???
    3. FDOT update for Tampa City Council.
    4. Apprenticeship Pilot Program update
    5. Creation of the Gas Worx community Development Disrict (CDD) that will incorporate 2500 acres of the city. Boundaries- Adamo on the South, CSX tracts to the West, 15th st to the East and 5th Ave to the North, there are some parcels that are NOT included in this area, but see the map in ON BASE for those properties.
    6. Receipt of Grant from Commission of Community Service DBA Volunteer FL for $10k, to be used by TFR
    7. See #6
    8. It looks like the COT has paid taxes for things that they should not have paid taxes for because they are Tax EXEMPT- this is requesting that the funds be refunded by the City to the City for taxes paid. $116 million. I could be Totally wrong about this…but that is what it looks like to me?
    9. EdPlan agreement with HCPS- for cooperation with TPD.
    10. Bid for mulch and shell for parks and rec- the bid process saved citizens 38%
    11. CoT and the Grow Group contract for students with disabilities Intern Program. Contract is $41, 667.
    12. CoT and Macdonald Training Center contract for students with disabilities Intern Program. Contract is $41, 667.
    13. CoT and Pepin Academies contract for students with disabilities Intern Program. Contract is $41, 666.
    14. Special Event Permit- MLK Day Parade
    15. Special Event Permit- Soul Food Block Party
    16. Special Event Permit Carmada en Ybor
    17. Special Event Permit- Tutues and Tennis Shoes
    18. Special Event Permit- Fiesta Day
    19. Special Event Permit- Tampa Burger Battle
    20. *$900k of electrical services across three vendors: Tamco Electric Inc., Crevello Electric, Inc., and MCS of Tampa, Inc, as part of a bid process. It looks like they negotiated the pricing after the bids because all the bids were higher than $300k.
    21. Purchase a E450 20 passenger + 2 wheelchair bus for $159k for the solid waste department— What is the purpose of this purchase? I am trying to figure out why solid waste needs a bus?
    22. $192k for Articulated Lift Boom with JIB, for Solid Waste department
    23. Purchase Dry Organic Polymer for the Water department. Renewal of $275k for two years.
    24. Repairs from single source vendor for Flygt Pump Repairs repairs- $300k for the wastewater department
    25. *Additional water deodorant and degreaser for $90k in addition to the original bid of $148k for services for Wastewater odor control.
    26. Golfview- sewer water rehabilitation plan by CIPP lining for $543k the CIP plan showed a cost of $480k BUT the bid process saved the citizens of Tampa 18%
    27. See #26
    28. Sole source bid from Carl Hankins for a Gunlock Pump Station Generator for $650k for the wastewater department
    29. See #28
    30. $1.2 million for ground storage tank improvement by Razorback LLC .
    31. Bell Helicopter parts for TPD units by Airframe components the bid process saved citizens 1% in the RFP process but this is a renewal.
    32. $1.5 million for pipe lining Ola-MLK to 7th Ave rehabilitation by Insituform Technologies LLC the bid process saved the citizens 18%.
    33. See #32
    34. City Wide Tree services- to three companies: Advanced Arborist, LLC, Mid-Florida Tree Service, Inc. and Pete & Ron’s Tree Service each for $534k for a total of $1.2 million
    35. A settlement for solar lighting provided to MacFarland Park for $265k to a subcontractor who was not paid. It looks like the contract filed chapter 7 bankruptcy so they had to deal directly with he city. It is unclear if the original contractor A&A Electric was actually paid for the work as well?
    36. Oracle mission Critical Support for SAAS for $78k for cloud services.
    37. 3.7% CPI increase for the contract renewal with B&B sports for City of Tampa Logo clothing. Up to $275k
    38. $150k settlement with a citizen for a car wreck with TPD.
    39. The Mayor is appointing Tony Mulkey as the new director of Parks & Rec.
    40. The appointment of Giovanny Cardenas to the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee- I like this guy!!
    41. Stormwater Easement from Krusen Douglas to the City of Tampa for Stormwater facitilies near Morris Bridge road and Pictorial Dr.
    42. Release of Easement for 3400 E Fletcher Rd
    43. $300 from CRA for Downtown Core for the roof replacement and bringing up to code at Kidd Mason Community Center. My question is, how old was the old roof and are the original roofers around to offset this costs?
    44. Code enforcement clean up– (1) 2110 N Boulevard, (2) 8619 37th St, and (3) 4607 W Ballast Point Blvd
    45. The City rents 2609 N Rome from Met min for holiday events, this is a hold harmless agreement for that.
    46. Cost to secure a vacant structure at 8501 N 17th St
    47. Replat of Athena Parks Townhomes between I275 and North Central Ave
    48. CDBG funds agreement between City of Tampa and Solita’s House for $300k per year for counseling services through September 2025
    49. CDBG funds agreement for CoT and Real Estate, Education and Community Housing to provide counciling serives not to exceed $225k. through September 30th, 2025
    50. Renewal for CoT and West Central signs for furnishing Ybor Sign installation and maintenance without escalation for $250k for the mobility department. This is CRA funding.
    51. Moran Environmental services award without price escalation for ditch regrading for $330k for mobility department.
    52. All South Underground with CoT for sediment controls and baffle boxes for Mobiltiy department up to $300k.
    53. FDOT and COT agreement with FDOT providing $1.3 million for Interbay Blvd from Westshore to Bayshore. SEE item #54
    54. FDOT – Movement of COT funds for the project listed above! It will come from several pots- Transportation Grants, CIP Multi-Modal fund, CIT tas Interbay district Transportation Impact fee construction fund. $2.578k
    55. Petition for Review scheduled for March 7, 2024 401 S Howard, DE1-23-235
    56. Petition for Review- SU1-24-05—4901 & 4903 S Quincy March 7th 10am.
    57. Honorary street naming after James F. Urbanski.
    58. 2nd Reading- Code of Ethics
    59. 2nd Reading- School Speed Zone cameras
    60. Correction of a scrivener’s Error Ordinance 23-128
    61. 2nd Reading- Folio Numbers 140515.1214 and 140515.1216, from Heavy Industrial (HI) to Community Mixed Use-35 (CMU-35)
    62. 2nd Reading- 2501 East Fowler Avenue
    63. 2nd Reading– 7212 South Sherrill Street I SUPPORT THIS as it is the homeowner of an already existing home and they can’t build any additional units on this site. They just want to be able to put a separate meter on the ADU that is currently part of their home.
    64. 2nd Reading 3616 W Ballast Point Blvd- I support this Dutch Brothers Coffee in SOG!
    65. 2nd Reading- 2602 & 2616 S Macdill and 3008 W Barcelona Rezoning
    66. 2nd Reading- Rezoning- 2006 S Habana
    67. 2nd Reading 2816 E Corrine St
    68. 2nd Reading 2810 W MLK Jr and 2809 West Virginia Ave
    69. 2nd Reading- West of N 46th St Folio # 140515-1213 and 140515-1215
    70. Public Hearing for the deleting and replacement of Chapter 5 (the construction code) for the city of Tampa, 2nd reading will be February 1, 2024
    71. VACATION of Alleyway- North of W Fribley, S of Peninusular, E of Myrtle and W of Poplar
    72. VACATION of Alleyway- S of Hillsborough, north of Giddens, east of Central and W of I-275
    73. Development agreement for 4019, 4105 and 4151 E. Fowler Avenue- development of 529 units of affordable housing with 12k sq feet of retail.
    74. GOOD NEIGHBOR NOTICE CHANGES!!!! Along with some other code changes. THAN has been working on this for YEARS!
    75. Administrative update—I hope that the Mayor is going to explain about our affordable housing?? Can we start with the ROME YARD PROJECT???
    76. Part 1 of 2- Grant assistance from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection 5 million dollars for the Lamb Ave Canal rehab project
    77. See item 76- moving $5 million from the COT budget for this project to be matching funds.
    78. THIS MAKES MY HEAD SPIN…am I goofy or did the budget only include 1 new fire station, now there are 3+ the maintenance facility? We didn’t even get the grant for the additional 30 fire fighters. There wasn’t ONE fire station in the budget, not even the one approved in 2021, now there are 3????
    a. The need another $2 million for Hanna St??
    b. I realize the Convention Center funds likely come from the Downtown CRA.
    c. $62 million for the land trust? Wow? Just wow.
    79. Budget Update—I have to get my magnifying glass out to look at this!
    80. Credit Card charges for citizens to no longer be paid by tax payers,. I thought that they’d already reported back and the next steps were in process?
    81. Parks and Rec to report about what is dedicated to special needs children and those with intellectual disabilities.
    82. Staff to update on the Special needs internships.
    83. Staff to report on the 2013 Tampa Heights Riverfront Development agreement for women and minority businesses.
    84. Report on accessible, disability friendly housing in the city of Tampa
    85. Staff report on restaurants with carry out only services.
    86. Staff to draft and present an ordienance requiring all persons/entities to file an annual report identifying all conditions and requirements. This is a BRILLIANT motion! Can we start with the ROME YARD PROJECT???
    87. Aisle Style townhomes—AKA CRAPPY tunnel development of property with 10lbs of sugar in a 5lbs sack!! Just say NO!
    88. Garage size report—don’t call it two if two won’t fit!
    89. Where are the $1 million dollars worth of trees going? Why wouldn’t Whit Reemer be answering this question? Doesn’t he have the tree planning interns???

  2. Hey, sorry, I didn’t see your comments until today. I’ll make sure to monitor comments closer.

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