Last week I sent out what I thought was the last email but the response was so overwhelming I’ve reversed that decision. A special thank you to Stephanie Poynor and everyone that reached out and responded to her call for support. Rather than rehash the past, I’m moving forward and refocusing efforts, including continuing with the weekly preview. If you’re new to Tampa Monitor or curious where things might go, I wrote a reintroduction.

This week council sits for a morning workshop on Thursday with evening land use application hearings. The workshop will be primarily focused on trees and the evening agenda is heavy on proposed future land use changes.

Items 1-5 on the workshop agenda are tree related. Starting with a presentation from the University of South Florida on the tree canopy, the discussion will continue to the use of the Tree Trust Fund. Both what types of trees the fund can be used for how to govern the funds.

In my opinion, the whole discussion boils down to Crepe Myrtles. They are classified as a Type 3 tree and have been the predominant tree planted by the city. Since 1/1/23 through the Tree-Mendous program the city has planted 552 Crape Myrtle ‘Natchez’ species trees representing 46% of the trees planted. Bottlebrush Tree is 2nd on the list at 14%. The admin argues with limitations like utilities, both overhead and underground and narrow rights-of-way, there are limited places to plant Type 1 & 2 trees. Only 78 Live Oaks (6%) and 68 Florida Maples (5%) have been planted in the same time period. Diversifying the Type 3 trees planted would go a long way in resolving the issue.

Beyond the discussion on trees there are 3 additional items on the agenda. A discussion on whether the Convention Center should be an enterprise fund, a noise ordinance briefing, and a discussion about deadlines for reports/presentations related to agenda items.

Whether or not council take up that last item, it’s something that’s been brought up before. And there’s already a council rule 7-A

All petitions, communications, staff reports, resolutions, ordinances, and other matters intended for the consideration of the City Council shall be filed with the Office of the City Clerk on or before 2:00 p.m. on the Thursday prior to the meeting of the City Council.

I have been consistent with my opinion on this subject. Absolutely if council are voting on an agenda item all supporting documentation should be included when the agenda is published online Friday for public scrutiny. That’s kinda at the heart of what I’m doing here. But if it’s a staff update that’s meant to inform council on a future vote or an update on a previously approved project, as long as any presentation or documentation is made available after the meeting (either in Onbase or a conspicuous place on the city website) it shouldn’t be a requirement to be submitted a week prior to the meeting. Same for written reports. A motion for a written report for 5/7/26 shouldn’t really mean a report by 5/1/26.

What might be a healthier discussion would be to include the Clerk’s office and representatives of Tech & Innovation to understand the current workflow for publishing and updating the agenda with Onbase.

There will be no meeting the last week of April with the next schedule meeting a May 5th special call workshop to discuss the Tampa Bay Rays MOU. The workshop is scheduled for 5pm in council chambers at Old City Hall. Early discussions of holding the meeting at the Convention Center were nixed for logistics reasons ad the county will not be a participant in the discussion. The Rays and city staff will both make presentations prior to public comment.

A regular meeting will follow on May 7th with this council choosing their last Chair and Pro-tem.