mic check. test one two.
Ok, sorry I had to take a break last week. We had a workshop where nothing could be formally voted on and the evening meeting was canceled so it was good timing.
I haven’t written up a review of the April 18th meeting, but one small bit of news was in a discussion about Capitol Improvement Projects, the CFO said the mayor was aiming to present the budget a couple of weeks earlier this year than last. Last year the budget was presented first week of August so I’m assuming the week after Council breaks for summer vacation.
Looking ahead at this week’s agenda
items 1-4 Election of Chair, vice chair, CRA chair & vice chair. This will be an interesting vote. I suspect when the dust settles Clendenin will be Chair.
items 14-16 – Special Events Parks, and Other City Owned Properties Grounds Maintenance It is nice to see staff include memos explaining procurement. The memo included for these items explains its broken down by region to allow for more opportunities minority/women own businesses to participate in the bid process. I don’t know if the winner of these bids sub-contracts out but two of the three bids were to Nelson’s Tree Farm & Nursery who do a lot of business with the city already. But the added info is appreciated.
item 24 one-year residency waiver The names on the list include Chief Bercaw, Fire Chief Tripp, David Ingram, Executive Director of the Convention Center (he was hired within the last year), Erica Moody, CRA Director, (also relatively new to city), Richard Mutterback, Director of Contract Admin (another recent hire), and Alias Drumgo, Deputy Administrator of Economic Development.
I feel strongly people who make decisions on a daily basis for the city should live in within city limits. Experiencing the city when you aren’t working I believe is vital. Shopping, services, the people. Running errands on your day off. All of it. When the mayor presented a contract to Council to retain Chief Bercaw, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Bercaw was supposed to be moving to the city this summer. See item 25 I don’t understand the situation with Fire Chief Tripp either. She’s been in her position for over 2 years. She’s either in or she’s out. I would like to see the remainder of admin staff in the city at some point. We either need to enforce this rule or drop it though. Also worth noting that Communications Director Adam Smith isn’t on the list. He’s either moved to the city or he won’t be remaining in his role.
item 25 retaining Bercaw as Chief of Police A slight rewording of the original contract and a more thorough justification by the mayor for her decision to give him a raise of $40,000 and allow him to retire and collect his pension.They claim he’s moving in June and that is why he needs a one year waiver. Staff have lived and worked in the city beyond their waivers so it’s interesting to see this play out. It’s a 3 year contract.
Items 39 – 46 Second Public Hearings including Ybor Harbor.
Item 49 – Green Spine Cycle Track a $4.4 million dollar contract but I didn’t see any backup materials noting that most/all? of the funding for this is from grants if I’m not mistaken. Certainly we want to spend the money responsibly but more context I think is necessary for folks to understand that without the grants, we wouldn’t be building this. It’s not coming out of general revenue funds.
Item 52 – Italian Club Cemetery A contentious item relating to unmarked graves, parking and zoning has been continued until August 1.
Item 53 – residency requirements/proof for City staff I didn’t look at this closely as it’s been continued until May 16, 2024. Conveniently after the current round of residency waivers are granted by Council earlier in the agenda.
Item 54 – Land Development Code Reform Process a presentation from Abbey Feeley. Should be an interesting presentation. Council just approved a $1 million dollar contract to start this so seeing the roadmap now should help.
Workshop 4-28-24
Item 1 was a staff report on “what the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) does, if the Chamber does not focus on raising median wages, who does, and what are they doing; how to get the groups to work together; and provide Council with the data from the Economic Advisory Committee.” A thorough memo was provided and staff were able to answer some questions related to wage growth efforts. In short, a lot of ground work has been laid and efforts are ongoing to build pipelines for career growth. As much as a city government can affect wage growth.
Items 3 and 4 were discussions about where we are with tree removal enforcement and what we are doing with grant funds for tree planting. The big news in this presentation is that staff and legal have revisited the language in the ordinance and have determined that they can also go after the offending tree “service” if they have a way to identify them. Additionally, there has been a recent wave of people pulling up the mitigation trees planted in the home they just purchased, sometimes selling them on Facebook. This is a violation of city code and in both circumstances, face a fine of up to $15,000 per tree for improper removal. This needs to have its own communication strategy to be effective, but it’s encouraging to know it’s being addressed.
item 6 Artificial turf
The city implemented January 1, 2024 new rules on how artificial turf is characterized in land use (permeable vs impermeable) depending on whether standards are followed in the installation, which now requires a permit. I appreciated the conversation touched on the negative aspects of a grass lawn too. I advocate for native plants and “pollinator gardens” and would love for the city to adopt a program to start xeriscaping with selective native plants and just let it go. Cut it back as needed but let nature do its thing. I’m in a small minority however so at least we have some standards to try to enforce for plastic lawns.
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