Some thoughts and observations from the 2-6-25 Tampa City Council meeting.

Pump Stations & Short Term Flood Prevention Steps

There were several workshop items on 1-30-25 as well as this week for short term fixes related to flooding. Those conversation have coalesced around back up power for pump stations. The city has 16 and only a handful have dedicated backup power. The current plan being implemented for this upcoming hurricane season is to have temporary backup generators at 14 of the 16 stations (2 are small and can be managed with a pump vehicle). In the event of a major storm, all pump stations will be manually switched over to the fuel generators prior to the storm. This eliminates the switch over failures that occurred during Milton. A more permanent fix is to modernize the pump stations with fixed generators and updated instrumentation will be moving forward over the next 2 years. Last week there was discussion about costs and funding, but this week the Director of Mobility and CFO were clear there’s funding available this fiscal year for these short term solutions. The $3.3 million I flagged in the preview regarding ditch rehabilitation was pulled for discussion and the Director of Mobility outlined what/where the work will be occurring. They are unrelated to the storms and aren’t in parts of town that flooded, rather they are maintenance related. In that the city can do proper maintenance due to the degradation of the ditches. If there was a budget priority concern, it doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

Fire Station 24

This item went exactly as I assumed, with discussions about the long road to get here, how many times this was approved by Council, and the slow nature of building it. Council member Hurtak did question the budgeted cost, $24 million. A survey of stations currently under construction in nearby jurisdictions revealed stations being built for nearly half the cost. The Contract Administrator suggested that’s a result of projects starting in 2021 and therefore that much cheaper than what it will cost to build it 2026. I struggle with that logic. Worth reiterating that Station 24 was in the FY22 budget that was approved in 2021. By that logic the failure to move the project forward cost the city $12 million dollars (plus bond interest so really $22 million). All of that said, the design contract was approved unanimously and we can expect a build contract in 9-10 months. It was also announced the City thinks they’ve obtained the property to move fleet maintenance & supply. It’s the 2nd time Council has been told that so until there’s a contract on the agenda, color me skeptical.

Open Data

I had hoped this issue would spark a broader discussion about open data and efforts we are making to improve it, but alas, it was kept to a minimal conversation about the data being requested by the union. As I suspected, outdated tech was the blame. The Fire Chief referenced a 30 year old system. And from what she said, it sounds like the accuracy of the data is suspect as a result. What I didn’t hear was that the new system that’s been approved and being implemented in phases will mitigate the issue in the future. I did inquire about the Data Alliance the Mayor announced last summer the City would be participating in. It is moving forward and I’m optimistic it will be a move in the right direction.

Naming Things is Hard™

That’s an idiom I picked up from some old neckbeard programmers, but it’s the truth. And it’s an issue I’ve seen in other large projects around the city. Internally a project starts getting called something generic like “East Tampa Recreation Center”, then it’s used in documents, before Council and next thing you know it has a page up on the city website. All without much consideration of how it plays with the public. Such was the case here.

The project originated as a smaller effort to fix up the facilities at Fair Oaks. Then a more ambitious project was proposed that encompasses more than the Fair Oaks property. Thus the generic name for the project. At the time, Council member Gudes, who helped spearhead the rehabilitation of Fair Oaks plan, has said the larger project was a result of a compromise. At the time he proposed naming the new facility after long time member of the Parks & Rec team Mr. Artis Gambrell. That was November 2022. It was continued 8 times since.

In 2022, the city didn’t have a formal process for naming something. A building, a street, a park. The mayor would send a resolution to Council, or Council would ask staff to prepare a resolution, there’d be a brief discussion and a vote. Since that time, a formal process has been established that requires any renaming to go through an application process that anyone can initiate. It is then brought to Council after vetting as a formal presentation at which point a Council member can motion to move the naming forward and set a date for a vote.

All of that led to confusion this week for the community as they were led to believe Council would be voting on this name change today. Which was never on the table. There wasn’t a resolution to vote on. Council ultimately decided to remove the item from the agenda asking staff to solicit feedback from the community and use the new naming process.

Power of the Purse

Not on the agenda, but during new business Council member Carlson floated a motion related to the funding of a traffic signal opposed by the residents of Harbor Island. It sparked a bit of a serious discussion over the boundaries of Council. The City Attorney in no uncertain terms told Council they can’t stop a traffic signal from being built because that’s regulated by Federal/State statutes. And while the City Council Attorney agreed to a degree, he hinted it might not be as cut and dry if there are competing engineering reports. Ultimately Carlson didn’t propose the motion but I wouldn’t count the issue out yet. I’m a sucker for Charter discussion, especially when it’s the City Attorney and Council attorney at the center.

Code Enforcement

There were two items on the agenda related to code enforcement, one an “in person” report related to the new changes in the code for properties in Ybor that have a primary use of parking and a written report on the status of Cathedral Cigars. As to the parking, compliance has been coming around, particularly in relation to the on site security required on the weekends, but for some of the other changes, it sounds like it’s been a slow process. For Cathedral Cigars, which was subject to a suspension of their alcohol sales one year ago for serving alcohol in a portion of the site that wasn’t wet zoned. What also came up was the fact they have been operating without a certificate of occupancy since 2023. It still hasn’t been cleared up. Seems $100 a day fine isn’t much of a deterrent or incentive to come into compliance. How they are allowed to still operate a business I don’t understand. Generally it seems “code enforcement” and Special Magistrates are toothless and favor the property owner. I recognize the goal is to not punish, rather get a property into compliance but 2 years?