I won’t be doing the same type of recap as I attempted in the past, however I do want to highlight a few items.

Full video is available on Youtube. Part 1 and Part 2.

New agenda platform and replacement for SIRE is now live for current and future meetings. The url www.tampa.gov/agendas will redirect to the current platform and is a better bookmark than the actual Hylandcloud as that may change. the Tampa.gov/agendas will always take you to the right place if it moves. The old platform for agendas prior to the 16th are archived here for now.

The two items I flagged this meeting were covered by Tampa Bay Times. Nice to see. First issue was ShotSpotter. And more substantively discussed the funding of Tampa Bay Economic Development Council.

As to ShotSpotter, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen it debated at Council. The cover of it being grant money and not much public voice against it, it slid through another year. What wasn’t in the Times piece was Council member Hurtak motioned to put on the agenda a discussion of how the money could alternately be spent. I believe she was referring to the budget if we no longer are paying for it out of pocket, but I also believe a discussion of what types of grants FDLE provide. Was this grant narrow in scope of just this platform? Are there more effective measures to combat gun violence a $280K grant could be used for? Worth the conversation IMO.

The second, the funding of the TBEDC has been something Council member Carlson has been consistent on in the time I’ve been watching Council. This wasn’t a surprise to anyone. It did get a more realistic set of benchmarks and a little more oversight. The matter of the fact is this is one of those things you either trust Nicole Travis or you don’t. I’m team Travis. What wasn’t mentioned in the article was there was a more robust conversation about real and median wages, the role of TBEDC, it’s history with the Chamber of Commerce and who is supposed to focus on what. It’s worth watching if you’d like to know who the players are.

But there’s always one “that wasn’t on the agenda” item that comes up that eats up some time and this week it was “Code Enforcement.” Specifically, during public comment led by a contractor who I’m not sure was the subject of the enforcements or got involved after the citation and tried to bring it up to code or both.

A lot of “I’m a property investor” opening lines.

A lot of “I didn’t know the house had been completely remodeled without permits when I bought it off a flipper and turned it into rental property and then tried to flip it again.”

A couple of legit sounding issues. As a result, Council chair Maniscalco motioned that they needed to set an agenda item for

When they were looking at dates, Nicole Travis suggested Feb. 22, 2024 as there’s already an item set for a workshop to “talk about cracking down on illegal construction.”