Special Meeting — March 3, 2026

Alan Clendenin

5:02:46PM Special call meeting of Tampa City Council. Clerk, can we get a roll call, please?

Charlie Miranda

5:02:53PM Here.

Guido Maniscalco

5:02:53PM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

5:02:54PM Here.

Naya Young

5:02:56PM Here. Carlson?

Bill Carlson

5:02:58PM Here.

Alan Clendenin

5:02:59PM Here.

The Clerk

5:02:59PM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

5:03:02PM Thank you very much. Well start the meeting by recognizing Councilman Charlie Miranda. We really need to tighten security.

Charlie Miranda

5:03:27PM Mr. Chairman, council members, im deeply honored today to be here for how many times? 18 times straight, I believe, that this fine department, the Purchasing Department and staff of the designated procurement -- its procurement month today in the business world that were in, Tampa City Council hereby acknowledges the fact that March has been designated as procurement month, we, therefore, would like to acknowledge the Purchasing Department and their staff for outstanding achievements. This does not come every year if you dont do anything right. You are following the rules. You do what you have to do. Youve been looked at by purchasing departments throughout the country, the procurement process, 55 years has been going on, and this City Of Tampa is honored to have with US today the purchasing director Deanna Faggart and outstanding staff. Pleasure to present the commendation, procurement month, because IT is the month of the procurement. You guys, all of you, and before I finish here, come up to the mike and mention your name because I want you to be recognized. Its not easy to have a city that has the type of budget this city has or any other city no matter how fall or big IT is and do IT correctly. Beautiful. You all have done this. Thats why I want -- [speaking over one another] I did IT intentionally to catch you. Im honored that you caught on. Thats why you are the chairman. What im saying is that the facts are what they are. You follow the rules. You have the process you go through. You dont say im the greatest. You are because youve met the rules and regulations of the procurement process that they have not only here but throughout the country. All of US in the City Of Tampa, including the seven council members, we say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for doing what you do. I would appreciate IT if you say a couple of words and then let your department, just say your names and what they do. Thank you very much. My honor to be here. [ applause Deanna Faggart, director of purchasing, here with a couple of representatives from our staff. Nigp is the National Institute Of Government Purchasing, and they recognize nationally the month of March as procurement month. And the intention is just to bring light to what we do every day as professionals, what our role is in making sure that things -- the process is followed, the ordinances are followed, the rules are followed as we are procuring all of the supplies that are required to keep a city like Tampa running. So I just wanted to bring some staff forward. We appreciate you all, recognizing US 5 pm. On a Tuesday and just allowing US to celebrate our profession and everything that we do and everything that this staff does. Ill let them introduce themselves. Cheryl Aldridge. I am the purchasing systems Manager.

Alan Clendenin

5:06:43PM How long have you been with the city? My name is Celeste Gibbons-Peoples. I am a certified senior procurement analyst. Ive been with the city 40 years. Michelle Estevez, senior procurement analyst. Next month I will be 36 years with the city. Im Jill Elder. Im a purchasing technician. Ive been with the city for three years. My name is Chelsea. Im a procurement analyst. Ive been with the city for about a year and a half. My name is Anthony Mcgee. Im in charge of the City Of Tampa warehouses. Ive been with the city about 26 years.

5:07:37PM How long have you been with The City? Two and a half as the Director, but 12 years total.

5:07:43PM For everybody here, I imagine This Department has seen some dramatic changes. The difference in what the scope and the scale of the job is just -- has just escalated. Just even the last couple of years.

5:08:02PM Exactly. Look at the budget a couple of years ago. Thank you. Council, anybody want to say anything? Were good. Thank you so much. Sorry for charlie making you work late tonight. [ applause very good. Thank you. Congratulations once again. Well see you next year. Very good. Item number 2, Citizens Advisory Committee. I saw Mr. Scaglione walk in.

Bill Carlson

5:08:35PM Point of order real fast?

Alan Clendenin

5:08:37PM Sure. You can always make a point of order.

Bill Carlson

5:08:39PM I wanted to say that I think well be done by 7, but I have an urgent constituent issue going on at 7 where they need me to be there. Ill be leaving by 6:45 if were not done by then. Thank you, Sir.

Alan Clendenin

5:09:02PM Mr. Scaglione, start with your name, please. I have the Vice-Chair here, Stephanie Poynor. Andy Joe Scaglione. Number one, would like to thank the committee. We have a very engaged, smart, attendance ratio is very high. Hardworking group. Hoyt is here and Stephanie and we enjoy great relationship with Hagar and Mr. Mike Perry. And thank you for always being there also at our meetings. Justin. We have really a great team. I dont give compliments unless they are deserving. They are deserving, okay? So well go into the first item that we discussed in detail. Our meetings are over three hours once a month. Each one of you all have been there. The first one is property tax reduction risk due to potential tax reform. As you know, this proposal as published would gradually eliminate nonschool property taxes for primary homeowners over a ten-year period starting 2027. IT also establishes protections for Public Safety by prohibiting cities and municipalities from reducing total funding of law enforcement below the 2024-25 levels. We have handed out -- I know you all know this upside down, but the public does not -- a slide from the CFO included in the FY '26 budget to highlight the reliance the city has on property tax to fund Public Safety. A reduction in property tax revenue --

5:11:00PM Hold on one second, andy. CCTV, could you get this on the public monitors, please? Okay. Continue. Maintaining public safety levels extremely challenging, as you can see by the graphs up there. We collect $380 million. Of that 59,700 go into the Cras. As you can see, our total fire and police expenses are 414.2 Million. So We want to be proactive on this. We want to start seeing based on whats being proposed how that would affect the budget. We want to be very reactive on this because at the same time were concerned about a billion-dollar decision were having to make with the rays. And our recommendation is to hold off on a big decision like that because We May need some of the CIT money to fill in some of these holes on expenditures. Stephanie Poynor. The property tax reduction im going to hit on the construction and land development fee study. Were still looking to see that. I also have included the pink sheet that was pink months ago. The things that We recommended to you in September. And one of them was not moving forward on my horizontal projects on the CIP. Nothing but infrastructure because how can We spend money if We dont know if well have any in a year and a half. We have no clue. To move forward on some of the things, I put in my notes, I think Station 24, although We need IT, We found out that were not going to die without IT because its drug along for four years. So some of these other things that people think are a huge priority and make a huge impact dont have to be done today. Actually, I think some of them are on City Council's agenda. I also pulled a memo from Chief Bennett from June the 4th of last year. He always gives me the best Christmas presents. IT says in here that the funds from the CIT were not to be spent on the new stadium. And Andy Joe knows more about that than I do, and thats his baby. Cras, as you know, We have nine of them. They have served a great purpose. We wouldnt have the development We have in these areas if IT wasnt for the Cras. But when their life is over, its over. Okay? And extending the CRA in the Drew Park area further strains the ability to cover citywide services and long-term investments. Youre taking away from other revenues and you are taking away from general revenue. For US to say were not going to be taking away from general revenue is not correct. Extending a CRA beyond 2034 of Drew Park is going to take away from general revenue and from other neighborhoods. As Stephanie had said, the recent CIT 15-year renewal, there were commitments made on how to utilize the funding systems. They clearly -- Mr. Bennett has been very, very transparent. He put in writing based on the response that We had from the Taxpayers saying that they clearly didnt -- they wanted the money to be spent on our current facilities and public -- We took out the word -- ill get to that -- community stadium and We put public facilities, that Mr. Miranda has referenced a lot to. And when you kind of think about IT, misleading, because you cant go into some of these places without a ticket. But thats done. I just want to reference the letter from June 4 from Mr. Bennett. And if you look at page 2, IT clearly, based on the council meetings and the public hearings We had, everybody agreed that there would not be a new stadium. Now, that was on 2/14/24, if you go to the Bocc, there was a hearing that day. And the word community stadium was taken out. And IT was taken out for specific purpose, because there was going to be no new stadium. That was the intent, what We told voters, went to public forums, thats what this committee did to pass -- because We were all for the CIT, and We went out there, just like you all did in the community. On 4/17/24, if you listen to the Bocc meeting, every County Commissioner on there said there would be no new stadium with the CIT money. Keeping our word to Taxpayers is very, very important. Taxpayers have no tolerance for a bait and switch. We all want the rays, and -- I mean, I love baseball. Hell, grew up in West Tampa, playing IT all my life. Councilman Miranda grew up at. Love baseball. I want the rays just like everybody else. But We also have obligations to the current, and thats the Bucs coming up for an ask. Its going to be a big ask. We had the lightning, a great facility here to keep up and the great corporate citizens of New York yankees. Everybody has priorities on this council. Ive heard many years, Mr. Carlson, drainage, making sure you dont have flooding in your areas. Councilman Viera, all about fire stations, fire stations, fire stations. Our new council member, Affordable Housing, ms. Young, Councilwoman Young. Affordable Housing, Chairman Clendenin, the streetcar, transportation. I heard you talk about streetcar many, many times, which We need IT. Its not a matter of wanting IT. We need IT. Councilwoman Hurtak, better transit, better buses for our people. Maniscalco, ive heard you -- you are a big advocate of Parks. Mr. Miranda, water, because We need IT every day. So everybody has their priorities. As elected officials trust again depends on transparency. Tampa Taxpayers deserve to know the cost, the risk, and the long-term obligations. Again, notwithstanding the effects of this property tax reform that will be on the ballot in November. We dont know whats going to be there, but something is going to be there. Make a 99.99%. And thats going to affect US. So We need to be very careful before were making billion dollar decisions on how this is going to affect our budget, because We all, every one of you all have priorities that you want to achieve. Again, We want baseball. We love baseball, but We just need to be very, very -- just watch out for the Taxpayers. Thats the bottom line. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Any questions?

5:19:25PM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

5:19:26PM Just for the public, maybe my colleagues will correct me, but I dont think We have IT on the agenda, any requests for baseball right now, but its good planning for the future. I wonder, Mr. Scaglione, you probably saw the presentation last week on the total debt. Now, our bond ratings have gone up, during the same time debt has gone up. Part of that is We replenished the reserve fund that was raided a few years ago. Do you have any concerns about the total debt? Does your Committee have any concerns about the total debt of the city? There are several projects that the Administration has proposed that could add half a billion or a billion more in debt in the next year. Do you all think that is a good idea? How do you feel about the debt now? Thank you. The answer to that question the other day. Bottom line is, were spending money that We dont have and We dont know if well have a paycheck come election time. So We really have to start saying no until We figure out whether We actually -- I mean, its irresponsible to spend money on a want when We dont know if were going to have the money to pay for our needs. If We cant support Public Safety, how are We going to pay for anything else? And, yes, there are some sucky places in town. Since the last time We were here, We visited Big Blue, and We saw the issues with Big Blue. Big Blue is basically a large warehouse, storage house. Is IT pretty? No. But does IT keep things dry and safe? Yes. Can IT last a couple more years? My guess is probably. Does anybody like IT? No. I guarantee you they dont. They want a pretty new building. But, unfortunately, We have spent all of our money on other things Like Hanna Street thats totally underutilized. I try not to be -- debt is not your friend, okay? In good times, leveraging debt is great. Bad times, debt can get you in a lot of problems. Weve discussed this in our Committee, and were not so concerned about the enterprise funds. The monopolies, the sewer, the water, the garbage, and thats the reason We have one of the best ratings in the united states. Our concern is general revenue. If you look at the general revenue, We cant even do a fire station without bonding. We cant even do a park without bonding. You know why? Because were tapped out of general revenue. Were tapped out with general revenue. We have to go out and get bonding for everything. No, debt is -- im ultraconservative, you know, and the Committee actually is very conservative also. So We are concerned, mainly about general revenue debt, not enterprise debt.

Alan Clendenin

5:22:33PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

5:22:34PM Thank you. Thank you for this conversation. This has been great. Look forward to having you all have some time at the budget as well to do this. So my question is about the CIP. Any thoughts on that as we go into the 2027 budget. CIP. Is capital improvement projects. Or program, I believe IT is. Any thoughts on that? Anything -- IT kind of goes to the last conversation about bonding, but what are your thoughts on some of the CIP.?

Alan Clendenin

5:23:13PM Can I reel this in just a bit? I almost wanted to gavel out of order in the beginning. I had to resist the urge to gavel you out because what I felt like a lot of that presentation was Andy Scaglione not representing the decisions or the group thought of the Committee. Your invitation here tonight was to represent the Committee as a whole and share their opinions. Unless that thought was brought up by the Committee, I think I would say, can you represent what the Committee thought about that?

Lynn Hurtak

5:23:43PM Yeah, I know they have talked about IT. Thats why I asked.

Alan Clendenin

5:23:46PM Im good with that. I want to make sure because IT seemed like this is not the opportunity, because if You want public comment to hear your all thoughts, we have the opportunity after the presentations are presented, but this invitation is just based on You representing the consensus or the votes of your committee.

Lynn Hurtak

5:24:03PM Yes. Thats what I want to hear about the CIP.

Alan Clendenin

5:24:06PM Very good. Go ahead. Committee. So its not me. I want to make that very clear to you. So that actually is off record to say that, very off record to say that. Actually offensive to say that. Were trying to be proactive here and run this like a business versus being reactive. Thats what were trying to do here. But ill let you speak -- Committee discusses. We havent gotten down into this list and said this shouldnt be there. This shouldnt be there. This shouldnt be there. What were saying is that its your job to say no sometimes and not always say yes. And thats where we run into problems, because we could sit and mark everything off, but IT doesnt do any good for US to have those conversations because ultimately they have to come back to you guys. We can have discussions about the bonding and how much money were spending that we dont have paychecks coming. We dont have a guaranteed paycheck anymore. So we have to take that into consideration when we say yes to a $50 million -- we have $46 million on the agenda on Thursday. Did we have individual conversations about those particular things? Not as one fell swoop, like here, but thats -- we are doing other things in the meeting and these are the big fish. What I gave you on that yellow paper is the big fish that we all voted on and voted to come here with, and theres not bias in IT One Way or the other. Thats what we decided as a group to send forward. I understand if Mr. Scaglione, thats why IT is written out, because Stephanie Poynor has opinions, too. I cant judge him because ive gotten up here before to represent the Committee and kind of got sidetracked and had to pull myself back. I dont disagree that everything that Mr. Scaglione has said this evening wasnt the thoughts and processes of the Budget Committee.

5:26:33PM Yeah, and just to be clear, thats why I didnt gavel you out. I wanted to give you that benefit of the doubt. Some of IT was how the question was phrased. I wanted to make sure what you were expressing were the Committee thoughts. At the end of the presentation, if you want to come back, you have three minutes at the end to express andys thoughts.

Lynn Hurtak

5:26:56PM I used the word "You" meaning the collective.

Alan Clendenin

5:26:59PM Very good. Excellent. Anything else? Luis Viera.

Luis Viera

5:27:06PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Like everyone said, I thank you all for your hard work. We have a real high-quality committee. The three people there bring a lot to the table, and I know were all very thankful for your alls work and service. You guys get paid about $120 an hour -- im joking. Yeah, were very, very thankful for that a hundred percent. You talk about the tax issue in tallahassee. I always said with that that I hope the Legislature takes the position of mend IT, dont end IT. Lets hit a single with this, not a triple. Looks like theyll go for a home run on this. I dont know that voters will approve that. Needs to get 60% in Florida. I dont know if there is an appetite for that. I really hope that our friends in Police And Fire will use their voices on this issue because even though you cant necessarily cut Police And Fire, where I happen to believe that where we are at in the City Of Tampa, probably a lot of our cities, we need to go higher whenever IT comes to Police And Fire. Potentially additional investments in the future could be curtailed if were having to look at additional diverse sources of revenue, especially ones very regressive. Property taxes highly imperfect. Highly imperfect. In life, theres Black and White and then gray. Property taxes are often in the gray. But I think what is being discussed is an extreme that is going to undermine US in our ability to just provide for people here in Tampa. And IT will, in spite of assurances I believe undermine public safety ultimately. I hope the voice is used on that issue. Again, we do need property tax reform in Florida. Take a look at higher exemptions for individuals and so forth. Folks bring up a lot of different issues of terrible cases, we do need that. Again, mend IT, dont end IT. You brought up the rays. Im not going to get a whole bunch into that, other than IT is the biggest issue that ive dealt with, me as an elected official in my nine years. This is huge to the future of the City Of Tampa. This is huge. Like all for transportation. Have we been able to keep that, would have revolutionized this. This is a huge issue. Im very uncomfortable with the small timeline that were given apparently on IT. I dont like that. I really dont. This is huge. I agree with the idea that I really wish we could take a look to see what happens in November before having a final vote on this issue. But, again, this is a huge, huge thing. I talked publicly about some things. Theres potential revenue sources, you can look at others, apply high scrutiny to. Not going to get into that but I appreciate the issue being brought up. Man, this isnt an elephant in the room. This is a whale in a bathtub. This is huge as an issue. If we dont start talking about IT publicly with our constituents, thats not good. Again, im not saying yea or nay, I havent decided. I do have pillars that I think are very, very important. Ultimately, the rays will bear the burden of selling IT to the public, as well as not just to elected officials but to the public. With regards to the forthcoming budget, I do think that some additional restraint is wise. Austerity, not saying that you all are proposing that. I necessarily wouldnt go there. Somewhere between Calvin Coolidge and fdr is Eisenhower. Maybe we can do some Eisenhower this year. I do think that is wise in lieu of -- strike that, what voters May do this year. I do think that is certainly something that is wise. Again, we have a lot of looming issues. This revenue issue could radically transform Local Government, radically transform. In the middle of this, were also talking about baseball. A lot of different issues to look at I think as elected officials. We need wisdom and discernment in that. In that regard, we are blessed with a good committee of folks to give US advice. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

5:31:10PM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

5:31:11PM Thank You very much. You know, my biggest concern, of course, as has been mentioned, this property tax issue because should that pass, what is that hit to the city and how does IT affect our revenues and what is the alternative method? Is IT going to be raising the millage which defeats the purpose. Were doing some other increase where youre trying to sell to folks were going to get rid of property taxes but youll raise their fees or taxes on the other end and they will be paying the same or more. Then what? Its all political without really solving the problem. You had mentioned, Mr. Scaglione about debt is not your friend. I agree. I dont like debt. But we have aaa bond ratings. If were able to borrow at the lowest interest rate, if IT makes sense IT makes sense, but IT should be a last resort. Last week when we talked about the CIT and the revenues, what will that CIT 15 year renewal generate and what can we pay for with that CIT? Im talking about Police, five. Not talking about baseball. Im talking about the needs. How much can we pay with that revenue source without bonding? Bonding should be the last resort saying, hey, we can pay this over a few years. We can factor in any escalating costs without having to go to the credit card or to the bank, however You want to call IT. So Councilman Viera really said everything. The decision of what is coming in November of what could be put on the ballot, we are just a few months away but IT could be so detrimental to the future of the city. Is the next Mayor going to be faced with a millage increase? What are they going to cut? How are we going to fund the essential services we need? We talk about a fire station that weve been waiting years for. You talked about bonding for that fire station. How much more in the hole are we going to be? How much money are we not going to get in as a city? And what is our -- our financial status going to be? So there is a lot of big decisions. Theres a lot of money. I mentioned last week regarding the amount of interest that were paying over the life of what we bond. Its a fortune. Its a fortune what were giving away to the Banks. Going back to the CIT, I know IT is a short renewal of 15 years, not the standard 30 year that were in right now that were finishing in, but we should use that money wisely. And use bonding as a last resort or look at what we can fund with the cash flow, the existing cash flow of what well get. There is a lot to think about here. I appreciate all the members of the board because three of You are here, and there are a lot more, and You work tirelessly. IT is a volunteer position, but You truly go above and beyond. I think what You do really helps US in our decisions because You are out there, You are getting into the weeds. You are working with Hagar. You are working with other team members and your opinions are very valuable because You do the hard work. So we appreciate You being here, and we certainly thank You for IT.

Alan Clendenin

5:34:23PM Councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

5:34:24PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Im just looking at your yellow sheet, number three, all three mayors promised that the CIT passed that they would not use IT to fund a new stadium. Am I correct what im reading.

Alan Clendenin

5:34:42PM Thats stephanies sheet, By The Way.

Lynn Hurtak

5:34:47PM Those were the four things they voted on. That was something brought up at tiger bay. All three of those Mayors sat there had told people that they werent going to vote for IT.

Charlie Miranda

5:35:01PM Can you tell US what three? Castor.

5:35:09PM And who? Thats who was there. Remember, I have to read something.

Alan Clendenin

5:35:21PM Is that IT?

Luis Viera

5:35:24PM Thank you very much. Im sorry, Charlie, you sound like a trial lawyer, asking something to a Witness. Who was that last person? Could you say IT louder for the Jury? I thought that was funny.

Charlie Miranda

5:35:36PM You dont realize I am a Trial Lawyer.

Luis Viera

5:35:39PM I know you are. Work with him long enough. I do have a question, if I May. We talk a lot about debt. Im just curious, again, im not an economist or what have you. Do you all think as a committee that the City Of Tampa right now that we have a debt problem, that we have too much debt? I say that just as an open question. Do you guys think that right now we have too much debt? 2019. A billion dollars. We have two-thirds more debt than we had in 2019. At my house, thats not okay. Thats my opinion.

5:36:19PM I dont have an agenda on IT. I just asked.

5:36:25PM General. Okay.

5:36:29PM Do you think so? That. Not give you my personal opinion on that.

5:36:37PM Ill call you tomorrow. We are concerned -- like I said, debt is not your friend, outside of enterprise funds and general revenue.

Alan Clendenin

5:36:49PM Property taxes. As of today, IT looks like the Legislature is not going to reach an agreement on property taxes. IT will probably go to special session. Youve got the House, the Senate, the Governor all completely separated and they have no consensus Of Which Way to go. Weve lived long enough to know that anytime the Legislature is in session, crazy stuff can happen. IT will be The Same Way next year, the year after that, the year after that. We are always subjected to the whims and will of the Legislature. Hopefully they will see the insanity of the proposals that have come out or floated out and realize the devastation IT would create for cities. Were just one city and one county, but 67 counties and I dont know how many cities --

5:37:39PM 411 cities. The devastation this would create, especially to small towns, small cities in the state. This would completely wipe them out. I suspect, you know, we have to -- whatever happens, happens. Well have to pivot. As Councilman Maniscalco, the reality is, were not going to discontinue police and fire in the City Of Tampa. Well have to raise money elsewhere to be able to pay them. And more people will suffer. IT will be less equitable, and IT will hurt. IT will hurt, but were not going to discontinue the critical services. People are still going to have to pay for IT, just how they pay for IT. Where the tax money comes from. On the bonding and debt, I think we brought this up at the last council meeting. Were, I think, number two in the country rated as far as the debt per person in the City Of Tampa. I know ive said this from the dais many times. There is a difference between bonding, generational type of infrastructure. And like what were doing with our pipes and our sewers and our stormwater and all those type of things, even large scale buildings like fire stations, maybe future police station. Part of the reason is because you dont want senior citizens. 90 years old living in the City Of Tampa, you dont want to pay out of your taxes today that infrastructure that people will be using for the next 30 years. You want to be able to amortize that over the useful life just like a business does, amortize is over the useful life of the product. We do that by bonding. Thats fiscal responsibility. What I am encouraging and I think well have the conversation tonight, is the things that break down. Like, we shouldnt bond vehicles that are only going to be used for seven years. Now for the next 23 years, people are going to be paying for something that nobody has seen in 23 years because the thing went to the junkyard 23 years ago or the air-conditioning. We talked about that with the convention center. Those are maintenance. Those are pay-go, pay as you go, for those type of functions. We shouldnt be bonding that stuff. If we are doing large-scale projects, the generations that use that product should be paying for that product. And the people that are moving to Tampa, so were all living in Tampa and paying taxes today, I dont think that -- and all these people coming, why should all the people here today pay for everything that they will be using 15, 25 years from now. I think bonding is appropriate where appropriate and I think we are in a Good Place in the City Of Tampa based on the information and subject matter -- spoken with. The CIT. I think that is a little bit of a red herring. I May be wrong on this, but I believe reference how this -- this battle is going to be fought at the County Commission or this discussion is going to be had at the County Commission. They have a much bigger bite of the apple than we do, of course, because the revenue they are generating versus the small amount we get. I think the County Commission is going to make these type of decisions, the legal decisions, what we can or cant do with IT. Whats appropriate, not appropriate. That decision will be made long before IT comes to US, and well get that answer and well deal with whatever we have to deal with. On extending the cras, I think youll get push-back. East Tampa would love to extend their CRA. They still have a lot of unmet needs there. I think Drew Park is another, taking aside the proposals. These areas that we still have a lot of areas, a lot of blight and things that we need to target. Not necessarily a bad idea to extend them. Im not taking a Position One Way or the other, but I also know that improvements in those areas are much needed by the people that live there. And we have to recognize that the mission -- I mean, obviously the mission is near complete in the downtown area and channelside. Were getting there in ybor, maybe not quite yet and other cras, I think the mission is not complete, so we still have areas we need to improve. I think weve talked about Sulphur Springs here quite often. I dont necessarily support creating a CRA but ID love to see US do dedicated funding specifically targeted at Sulphur Springs for that very reason because we have blight. We have hardships. We have a community that needs to be lifted up. I would like to see something done there. Those are my thoughts and observations based on the stuff that was brought up. Does anybody have anything else? A laddering effect corrects that because youll never have one capital improvement for 20 years. Youll continue to have them as the city, the infrastructure breaks down and as IT grows. Regarding the CRA that we talked about, Drew Park actually has a surplus. I had IT here.

5:42:43PM We get those reports. The laddering thing, good thing that we have a city that grows. When a city runs into trouble when they have stagnation and dont grow. As a growing city, needs grow as well. Thats why we have to constantly keep climbing up that ladder. The Mission gets bigger and bigger.

Charlie Miranda

5:43:03PM If I May, Mr. Chairman, what were talking about, bonding and not bonding, when you look at the Pipes Program, im not sure if all of US were here when IT started, maybe we were, what im saying, program that started out with pay as you go. Its still paying as you go. However, because of increases on the projection of what the total cost was, take 20 or 22 years to finish the program. Over 2,000 miles of pipes of waterlines and tertiary treated lines put down, 4,000 miles, you have to do IT hard work, hard labor, but only thing we could do spending 30 to $40 million a year repairing the same pipe that broke every other week. When the new people come in, theyll be paying their fair share. Next year, increases in different things have to do when the house is sold and cost of doing business in the city will increase. Another year or So This Way and then IT will change. The taxpayers would be getting a little relief, not much. But that Pipes Program is going to increase because of escalation of cost is going up higher than expected. These are the things that were doing now. I believe $8 now on the water and $8 now on tertiary treated water going out. But were doing a fantastic job and were not paying not one penny in interest. But I dont know if IT will Be That Way at the end. Im just being upfront.

Alan Clendenin

5:44:31PM I think well close out saying, Charlie Miranda that is a really nice tie you have on tonight. I like that tie. County level, on the city level, we have about 253 million projected based on the 3%.

5:44:50PM Over the 15. Which I think to raise IT up to historical 4%, you need a cushion. You dont know what the future is going to hold. I dont think we have a surplus. But of that, 165 was for the current sports facilities that we have. In the county, IT was 597 of public facilities. Of that 545 would be among the sports facilities we had. And 52 million would go for Parks And Conservation. Cumulative of the two would be 710. 710 million. So the city does, the city is 165. Thats taken out the 88 million for Parks And Conservation, just to kind of --

5:45:37PM My point is the conversation will happen over there. Well get the winds Blowing This Way from whatever they decide. Very good. Thank you, Andy. Thank you, Stephanie. Were not doing public comment, not until after because IT is a workshop. They were here on behalf of the Finance Committee. Very good. So we have now finished our presentations, and we are to our one and only workshop item. This is Council to discuss the FY '27 budget and budget priorities. I would like to recognize our great budget analyst. Start with your name, please.

Hagar Kopesky

5:46:12PM Good evening, Council. Hagar Kopesky, City Council budget analyst. Today, this evening you have the opportunity to discuss publicly what you all feel are your fiscal '27 priorities. In kind of plotting out how well do this, first time, a little bit of a learning in process here. What I would like to try is for US to get through the discussion and then depending on how broad the potential quantity of items are, hopefully we can get to a place where we are calling IT to a reasonable number of items that can then be pseudo-finalized. Again, wanting to keep things moving so IT doesnt drag through the budget process too long. That said, lets see what the discussion unveils. Additionally, the approach was rather than just kind of start one by one -- ill click this for you, if you can printing up the presentation. Thank you. Im suggesting that we go through the major categories being those that the city actually defines during the beginning of every annual budget process. So these are what I would call the five overarching goals. As youve had time to think about what you want to discuss here, ID like to suggest the chair basically goes one by one and everyone gets an opportunity to determine if there is something within that category. I will be continuing to take notes as well as observe the conversation, and then once we get to the end, we can certainly determine if we need to go back for Questions And Circle around again.

Alan Clendenin

5:48:02PM Just to focus and kind of recap what Ms. Kopesky just said, these are the strategic goals of the City Of Tampa, and this workshop was called, I believe Councilwoman Hurtak called for this workshop, to give US the first opportunity to kind of, lack of a better, spit-ball what our thoughts, needs, wants, desires for the next fiscal year so that we could start. This is a broader look and then we can start honing this down as we move through the budget process in our proposed workshops and then moving, after the Mayor presents her budget to US. I see Councilman Carlson, you wanted to start?

Bill Carlson

5:48:43PM No. Point of clarity, did City Council approve that or is that just the mayors priorities? IT says City Of Tampa.

Hagar Kopesky

5:48:52PM Right. IT is the data -- ill answer you The Best Way I can. IT is the data provided on the website and as part of the overall budget tools. So by virtue of approving the budget, I would take --

Alan Clendenin

5:49:07PM Framework of the budget.

Bill Carlson

5:49:10PM We probably would agree with most or all of these. The other thing I want to mention, last time I remember we did a meeting like this was maybe SIX or seven years ago. The problem was we had the majority of votes on Council to move things forward. Thats why we started pushing but still couldnt get the Administration support. Maybe putting them under these buckets would help, but considering that the Mayor has one year, and we have one year as this group, I hope that the Administration decides to collaborate. Were out listening in the community every day. We hear what the community wants. The last time they didnt listen. I hope they will this time.

Alan Clendenin

5:49:52PM Like We were talking about the Social Action Funds and stuff, We said how did they fit in our strategic goals to justify spending city taxpayer money. I actually like this. IT gives US a little bit more definition. If you wanted to expand something, if you see something missing, IT doesnt mean We couldnt add something to IT. At least IT is a jumping off point.

Hagar Kopesky

5:50:16PM Im glad He said that. There May be the need to add a couple of things.

Alan Clendenin

5:50:21PM Jumping off point. Councilwoman young.

Naya Young

5:50:25PM I know, Hagar, you have a presentation. Should we be talking about our priorities now or do we want Hagar to finish the other pages quickly and then we start?

Hagar Kopesky

5:50:36PM I would suggest that we jump in.

Alan Clendenin

5:50:38PM I think so, too.

Hagar Kopesky

5:50:40PM Only a few items at the end that will take a short period of time.

Alan Clendenin

5:50:45PM This really puts US right to where Councilwoman Hurtak's motion to start the workshop was to do this. This is the opportunity to say the quiet parts out loud.

Lynn Hurtak

5:50:58PM Can I set the stage? That was the whole point of this is to simply just share what our thoughts are because we cannot talk about this behind the scenes. We arent allowed to talk about things outside of the sunshine. And we dont generally know when IT comes to July how all of US feel. We May or May not have the opportunity to talk to the Mayor ourselves. From our time here, IT sounds like we have a lot of similar ideas. If we are talking as a unit IT can hopefully go further.

Alan Clendenin

5:51:39PM I think the important thing is We started this earlier and a great idea. Just like the workshops We started last year, IT helps US get to that finish point in a cleaner, Nicer Way. Youve got the floor.

Naya Young

5:51:59PM So --

Alan Clendenin

5:52:01PM Five minutes and then three on the second round.

Naya Young

5:52:09PM I have a few items. They kind of fit in with the strategic goals but I also listed them out and I want to kind of talk through them. First I have is Parks. I have like master plans in parentheses because I know there is a Parks master plan but IT seems we May be a little bit behind on that Parks master plan.

Alan Clendenin

5:52:36PM That is the understatement of the night.

Naya Young

5:52:38PM So I would like to see some movement in that plan and also movement in terms of funding and in capital to complete some of those projects. I guess that would fit under the improved infrastructure and mobility. I also have one that doesnt fit under the strategic goals. Sulphur Springs action plan. Just finished IT. Just uploaded the final onto the project website if you are interested in seeing IT. When we were talking about the surplus funding I said just to put 150 towards because we want to make sure that that is a plan that continues to move, but I would like to see some dedicated funding to continue with that project. To your point, Councilman Clendenin, about we have areas that dont have CRA. Sulphur Springs is one of those areas. I know that this plan was something that was very well thought out and the community is definitely 100% behind IT. They have kind of what they have identified as some of their top priorities that are outlined in that plan. What im going to do later is I want to have the Planning Commission come and present the plan to US in collaboration with the community and what their goals are out of there and what we could do as far as funding for a city. I want to see how we can move that forward. IT doesnt necessarily fit under one of the strategic goals but I want US to make sure that is a plan that continues to move forward and we actually put a dedicated line item of money towards in the Sulphur Springs area. Also, some housing initiatives, and I put this specifically to prevent displacement because IT is something that is happening in our communities. And this could be a multitude of things. Again, these are outside of areas that have CRA funding, because I know there are some rehab programs that come with CRA, but these are for areas that dont have cras. For our rehabbing, we have some Seniors that could use some assistance with their homes. Whether IT is a fresh coat of paint. Just something so that people dont feel that the bill becomes too big and end up selling home and further displacing community. I know we have a First-Time Home Buyers Program but I want to continue to have that. And just thinking, you know, College Students. We have a lot of students that go away to school and become either Doctors, Lawyers or Engineers, and how awesome IT would be for them to come back and start their businesses here and grow their life here in Tampa. You are continuing to add to the community. There are so many students that have gone to school to do these things, we want them to come back and invest especially as we dont know what will happen in November. If we could have something for people to come back and say I want to invest, buy a home, do something here, I think that could be a positive. Anything youth im a hundred percent by. I definitely want to continue to have more funding for youth programs and apprenticeships. Also, Sidewalks And Street paving. We just got a call this morning about sidewalks. Our office getting calls or talking with people on the daily about sidewalks. I was meeting with someone with Hillsborough County public schools. Also our duty to make sure kids can walk to school safe, get to school safe. I want to make sure we put emphasis on that. Improving infrastructure and mobility. Overall Street safety. A lot of areas with Seniors, there are no sidewalks. They are literally walking In The Street. Dedication to really putting Sidewalks And Street paving in some of the communities. Ive talked with community members that have Said This Street has not been paved for a year. So I want to do that. Also, as we move closer to the workshop, I just want to make sure that we dont stop talking about social action funding, especially since we lost a lump sum this year. I dont want that to happen again. Lastly, for our trees, I said IT at one of the tree workshops about thinking about our trees as part of our infrastructure. If were going to continue to want our city to be more walkable and bikeable, its hot. We live in Florida. We need to invest in having some trees.

Alan Clendenin

5:57:18PM Your five minutes is up. Youll get another round. You highlighted another one, quality of life.

Guido Maniscalco

5:57:33PM I want City Of Tampa to succeed. I want US all to succeed. Next month marks 11 years that ive been on this council. IT was completely different. I say different in the sense that we have invested a lot historically -- well, in the last 11 years that historically we have not. Stormwater investments to try to address our flooding. The pipes program. I told the Mayor this many times. The successes that have come out of these last several years since ive been here are going to affect generations. So the things that are not sexy that we dont see, like the underground pipes and all these repairs that were constantly doing to water main breaks, all these replacements, were investing and making sure that its going to last for the next half a century, right? With that, this council specifically, I want to highlight my colleagues. Councilman Clendenin championed increasing the paving budget. Roads are getting paved at a rate, yes, there is a lot that needs to be done, at a rate we havent seen in a long time. People are happy about that. Were getting a lot of compliments. Councilman Viera has been a champion on public safety. Hes going to be gone in November. Although ill miss him tremendously, but hes been fighting for the fire station and other improvements. Talked about k-bar. I can go on and on. Councilwoman Hurtak brought up transportation. And she championed Route One and the bus service, things we dont invest in because IT is a county priority, but these are things important. When I go out and talk to the public, theyll say park improvements. My priorities are improving a lot of our Parks. Not a master plan like with the Vila Brothers park that was several million dollars which is a gem. But Parks throughout the City Of Tampa that just need basic investment and repairs or replacement of certain items, basic things. Housing affordability. This body and the previous City Council has invested and this administration, a historic amount in making or trying to make housing affordable, investing in affordable and workforce housing, bringing up what we talked about a little bit ago with the tax exemption, with the property taxes. Its just going to further exacerbate the problem and IT will keep US going backwards instead of forward and eliminate the progress we made. People will come down to Florida in larger amounts as we saw from covid and whatnot, and they are going to say, if I homestead my property, im not going to be paying what ill be paying in other states. That will hurt the people in Tampa just trying to make IT by.

Alan Clendenin

6:00:23PM Can I make a suggestion? I was trying to get US out of here relatively -- in your discussions, throw out your one, two, and three budget priorities to get this conversation going.

Guido Maniscalco

6:00:35PM All right. Ill wrap IT up because I can talk forever. My number one priority, we talk about transportation. That is a bigger discussion on expanding the streetcar and whatnot. What can we do with this budget coming Up Is Road resurfacing. Did IT last year. Increased the budget. People are seeing results. We need to continue on that. Investing in our Parks. Im not going to be asking for another vila brothers park, which the Mayor and my colleagues supported, but visiting Parks throughout the City Of Tampa, equipment replacement, basic maintenance. A lot of Parks have been neglected. And I dont blame anybody. Its just we have so many Parks and only so much manpower and so much money. But focused on that the Social Action Funds, Council Member Young brought that up. A lot of organizations saw cuts, not to play favorites, but they are all good organizations. They all contribute to the city and the quality of life. I want to make sure that no one is left behind. Some folks saw their number go to zero. I know we talked about this. To get them something. Because the return on investment with the social action fund, you really cant put a dollar amount on IT. Ill leave that as my priorities because out of respect for my other colleagues, again, I want US all to succeed. Not massive project and suck away all the funding. I want equity that leads to success. Thats IT.

Alan Clendenin

6:02:02PM Circle back to Naya. What would be your top three priorities?

Naya Young

6:02:10PM Top three priorities --

Alan Clendenin

6:02:13PM For the next FY '27 budget.

Naya Young

6:02:15PM All of them. Just kidding.

Alan Clendenin

6:02:19PM Just like children, You have to pick your favorites.

Naya Young

6:02:22PM You know, what I would say --

Alan Clendenin

6:02:27PM I can come back to you.

Naya Young

6:02:29PM No. For Me, one, we are continuing to Do The Street paving. I feel Like The Street paving and sidewalks kind of fit in with each other, so I feel like its fair to lump them as one. Ive spoken about Sulphur Springs. I definitely -- I think that would be one of my priorities as well. And I would say -- again im going to lump youth and Parks together because I think they kind of work in tandem together.

Alan Clendenin

6:03:07PM Parks, slash, Youth, with a small y, like a subset of Parks. Because they do kind of work together.

Naya Young

6:03:14PM They do. Can I have a big y?

Alan Clendenin

6:03:19PM Granted.

Naya Young

6:03:22PM But thats not to say, I know there are a lot of things important. Just off the top of my head thats what I would say for right now.

Alan Clendenin

6:03:34PM Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

6:03:35PM Yes, sir, thank you very much. We also have to remember that there are situational budget investments that we get. I was out at Forest Hills, Councilman Clendenin was there and other folks were there. The Mayor was there. Bob Enriquez was there the property appraiser. If you talk to the people at Forest Hills for the $6 million that we appropriated in two separate grants to help out working class people who lost everything after the 2024 hurricanes, thats situational and thats Local Government being there for people who work their tails off. And that is a good example of things that come up and that we find money for, because if we dont, then were failures at our jobs. Thank God we werent for those folks. Talk to people who got the help 15, 20, 25 thousand dollars, lost everything, welders, cops, nurses, teachers, electricians, et cetera, that makes a big difference. A couple of things looking for. Im in a unique position because im out of here in November. A lot of the things as IT applies to my district that im looking at are things that I really want to hand off to the person that comes after me. Because to give a foundation on certain things that I think are very ignored in District 7, I come from the premise that District 7 is often ignored. I say this, that if the District 7 person doesnt beat loudly on things that uniquely matter to the district that are in the weeds, then things often get ignored. A lot of people from District 7 dont come here a lot of times, especially New Tampa. IT is what IT is. That is the job you sign up for. One thing im passionate about and making noise about, weve often talked about a substation in New Tampa, for Tampa Police Department. I made a motion on that. Thats coming back. Im not talking about a huge brick and mortar substation like in district 2 off 30th. Im talking about how many strip malls do you have where you have an empty store, how much would IT cost to get that rented out, hire a person to staff IT and have a place where cops can go instead of the 7-eleven in Tampa palms or mcdonalds in Tampa palms or whatever IT is, so that the people can register complaints, register things on crime, et cetera. Right now, if you live in grand hampton on k-bar ranch, IT takes you 30 to 35 minutes. Hagar, you know that because you are in New Tampa. IT takes a long time to get to district 2. We pay our taxes. Its not a lot of money. Couple hundred thousand dollars. Were not bedford falls. Were not dairy. We are not a small town where folks Have To Drive 30 minutes or whatever to get to a police station to register being a victim of crime or talk to a cop. We have to do better on that for New Tampa. Thats certainly something well be looking at. Fire, we should make an investment this year so that the Next Mayor is locked in on something either involving downtown Tampa or k-bar ranch. One of those two. Things that I think weve been ignore for a very, very long time. If we begin on something like design funding this year, to get IT locked in. Get the train to leave the station. Theres no coming back, there is coming back, but you know what I mean. Thats something that would work. Two areas where we talked about additional fire investments for a long time and we ought to get that party started really, really soon, I would say. And then I want to remind folks when were talking about Parks, read the Parks master plan. And if you see the area of Tampa that had the lowest amount of Parks was the peoples republic of New Tampa. Okay, District 7. And that was back in 2019 or 2020. And the part of Tampa most neglected on Parks is grand hampton, k-bar ranch, out there in the northern part of the city just before pasco county. Thats an area. And were taking a look at remedying that for something that a lot of folks in k-bar ranch are very, very excited about, including a lot of indian americans out there with a cricket component. Thats going to be a big deal, because my thing is, why fund the Parks master plan if were going to ignore IT? Makes no sense to me. Lets do that. Then, of course, folks talk about repaving. I know Councilman Clendenin has talked about that a lot and championed that a lot. A lot of folks here on council. We just got repaving in New Tampa on compton near the Ymc out there, were going to do finally New Tampa Boulevard which is wonderful. Thats one of those things. Often a fire station, people dont see the immediate benefit of IT until they have that crisis. Because, By The Way, four out of the five stations in the City Of Tampa with the longest response times are 33647. But a lot of times people dont know the benefit of that until they have that crisis. They should know the benefit, but they see the immediate benefit of repaved streets. Weve got to look for that as well. Thank you, mr. Chairman.

Alan Clendenin

6:08:22PM Councilman Viera, what was your first item, K-Bar, downtown, Paving.

Luis Viera

6:08:28PM Im not prepared to talk in numbers. I talked about a new Tampa Police station presence. Not a $20 million taj mahal. Just something. And some sort of an investment in either a station in downtown, some additional k-bar ranch.

6:08:52PM Yeah, I dont want to box myself into three just yet because were in March.

Alan Clendenin

6:08:58PM This is just to get the conversation going. See if we could get consensus. K-bar slash downtown for fire station. Repaving. Park master plan.

Luis Viera

6:09:14PM And repaving.

Alan Clendenin

6:09:16PM Common theme, obviously. Councilman Carlson, your light is back on. You are next. And then Councilwoman Hurtak is next after that.

Bill Carlson

6:09:26PM I think We mostly had the same list for the last eight years, seven years ive been on Council. Similar to my colleagues, We hear a lot of complaints about Parks. A lot of money was spent in downtown and on pet projects the last 16 years. We really need to focus on fixing the basics in Parks. ADA equipment thats falling apart. We have equipment thats not accessible because theres not concrete for kids in wheelchairs to go in and equipment thats falling apart. So this is not about building a huge, new park. Its just about fixing the basics. We need to fix roads, sidewalks, crosswalks. Those are the biggest things We hear complaints about. We complain about them for many years. Finally, I think IT was Council member Clendenin finally said, okay, well -- since the Mayor is not offering US any more of this, well take their budget. This year, this was the third year We were about to do that and the Mayor finally offered more money. Thank you to them for doing that. We need to invest in roads. No direct funding source for roads. As We said as far back as seven years ago, We have to find money for IT. Cant just leave the roads falling apart. Same thing with sidewalks and crosswalks. Its got to be safe for kids to get to school and folks to get around our community. Fire has been underfunded for years. Its getting to the point where its not going to be safe if We dont fix IT. 20-year-old fire truck will eventually fall apart. And We need to get ahead of fire and invest heavily in fire. We need to continue to invest in Police, too. Fire has not been invested in in years. Stormwater has been the biggest issue the last couple of years. We have to spend the money more wisely. Wasting IT on things like bad design for south howard and other projects that dont work that arent showing results for taxpayers. Most importantly, the middle class is hurting right now. People who are getting by week to week no matter their income, they are hurting right now. They cant afford more taxes. The Administration cannot come to US in August or October or whenever and say, oh, here are all the things We do. We dare to you vote against a tax increase. That cant happen because the public doesnt want IT. Its not that they are philosophically against IT, its that they cant afford IT. The economy is teetering right now, and We cant do something to push the economy over. Because of what happened the last few days, gas prices are going up. That hits peoples pockets right away. An additional tax is going to hit them really hard. We can adjust some fees here and there, but We cant do that. We also cant adjust the debt any more. The data We saw last week to some extent was cherry picked. The folks I had look at IT are very concerned about where We are right now. We cant afford to add any new debt. Administration cant come to US, well, We have a billion dollars worth of investment to make, well propose a new tax increase and We dare to you vote against IT andor well have debt and We dare to you vote against that. Last thing and I say this every year, every Administration, not just this one, tries to cut side deals. They come and say, hey, if you vote with US, ill give you this or ill give you that. Were stronger together. If somebody gets offered a couple hundred thousand dollars for something in their district, I would just ask my colleagues to please, We cant coordinate outside this room but the Administration can talk to US all. We all have to say no and bring IT to Council. If the Administration would give you 200,000, well find a million to give you. We have to stand together, especially in the last year. We cant work together outside the room but We can work together here.

Alan Clendenin

6:13:10PM My side deal involves a flat in paris with a real Monet over the fireplace. I totally skipped over.

Lynn Hurtak

6:13:27PM I would say, Councilman Viera, youre talking about a police substation in the Alaska of Tampa. Do not forget that South Tampa has that same problem. Their station, station 1 is by the stadium. Thats not even remotely in the area. If we are looking at substations, I would advocate for one in South Tampa as well. Just going to throw that out there. For me, I dont have three because -- I know you say you have to pick a favorite child. I dont have children, so I dont know how IT goes.

Alan Clendenin

6:14:05PM Favorite dog.

Lynn Hurtak

6:14:06PM Good thing about favorite dog is I only have one dog at a time. Its not a thing. As far as some of the things that I really want to focus on, instead of just saying paving or sidewalks, I want look at IT as mobility. Because something that nobody has mentioned tonight is signalization and what signalization does for helping peoples commute times. And those things are expensive. So as were adding --

Alan Clendenin

6:14:36PM Crazy expensive.

Lynn Hurtak

6:14:37PM They are. But that is something that is tangible for everyday citizens that We dont really think about. Now, this is where youre going to regret putting Me as chair of mobility, because this is what im diving into now. Obviously, I agree that what We have done with paving is very good. I am curious, because right now We have $41 million in there. Like how far weve gone to how much more We actually need to add in to continue to be successful. Im interested in knowing that. So We might not need to add more money this year depending on how They have used the money.

Alan Clendenin

6:15:15PM Remember, this year we didnt --

Lynn Hurtak

6:15:17PM I know. Thats what im saying. We kind of need an update about that. Obviously, I think were doing a great job. We now have our second paving team, so lets keep going with that. Sidewalks, the 2 million extra that We put in from the 25 budget, We need to do more for sidewalks and We need to prioritize Parks and schools. Sidewalks to Parks and schools. I know thats something. Something else thats been huge has been the e-bike grants. I dont know if any of you have gone to the bike rodeos. They have been insanely packed. People love them. They want that. I think We put 500,000 toward that this year. That might be too high. Im not quite sure where We landed. But a little more, im not a ton more but a little more to the e-bike grants because the bike rodeos have been so successful. I am still going to champion for transit money for HART, whatever that might look like. I can work with HART on that. But the increased frequency is important to people. So I do want to throw a placeholder for that as well. My second focus is going to be on housing. Its something only Councilwoman Young mentioned. Tampa Hope. We have tripled that. We have tripled the attendance there, but We havent tripled their funding. So what are We doing for them? Ive been talking to Chief Of Staff about that and they could use some more money to help with what work they are doing and that is keeping people not completely, but IT is helping keep people off the streets and We need to fund that especially with whats going on in the economy right now. Along with that, the Community Land Trust, I heard that the city has an agreement for Community Land Trust. We need to fund that. Also We need to learn about IT. Im just hearing about this from third parties. ID really love to know what their Community Land Trust looks like and what kind of money We can put toward IT to get started on home ownership for the people who live in the city. And third, I will go along with Parks and maintenance, for Parks, not brand-new giant Parks, but fixing the issues We have in the Parks We have. A little glow-up is what I like to say. I do read -- I have the Parks master plan on my desk, so We do look at that often, but what are the little things We can do to improve the Parks to make them just less tired. A little something that folks can go to. Also stormwater, where are We with stormwater? What kind of money do We need? I know We helped buy some equipment, but what are their needs equipment-wise. I have 30 more seconds. I want to talk more about -- I know We have fee study results coming in. I do want to dive into the CIP. This year. Maybe a special call focused on that for the general budget more specifically. But also really focusing on pay go. Weve got something on fleet centralization, decentralization coming to US on Thursday. And that is a mess of kind of money to pay for that. I have the Chief Of Staff sending US all how that will be paid for because I asked for IT today during our prep meeting. Its a lot of different ways.

Alan Clendenin

6:18:37PM Thank you. Now councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

6:18:41PM Thank you very much. We havent talked really about successes that weve had in the Water Department, wastewater and Refuse To Energy. Those are things that really are necessary not only for this city but any city to survive. Just going from memory, I would imagine that those three enterprise funds have spent over $500 million in bringing all the standards up to date. Refuse To Energy, we had a generator supposed to last 22 years or 25 years, IT was there like 32 years. If that generator would have gone, we would have lost a lot of money because then you couldnt take IT and burn IT. You had to carry IT 40 or 50 miles out to dump IT and come back with a load. The cost would have been almost prohibitive even to pick IT up. All the things the Council passed and worked with the Administration to get these things done. When you look at needs and necessities, there are many, like any household. What ID like to know is, we talk about affordable housing, but we never asked the question, what is the payment to own one? How much money do individuals that have almost nothing, what do They have to pay to move into a house? What is the cost of financing IT? What is the cost of paying for IT? And could They really afford IT? I want to know for sure because we give all this money out and I want to make sure that the people have a chance to stay for IT and have uplift and wealth. I dont want somebody to buy a house and cant pay for IT. My estimate, Husband And Wife making $25 an hour nowadays cant afford affordable house. Thats why im bringing that up because of taxes, because of cost of insurance, other costs that are not related directly, but home ownership causes you to have those costs. By going back to reality, theres no doubt in my mind two things are needed. A, a continuation -- and I think They had one big sweeper, maybe They bought another One For Road fixing. I heard that. They have two now. So that accelerates the cost of building a road and more than likely about half the cost. That is the estimate I figure IT is. However, just as important is the signalization of traffic lights. They are not up to date, in my opinion. See out on the market now, They have a focus and They have a computer that tells them when to change, not to change based on the traffic coming, going. They have IT all figured out. We might have to look at that a little bit more. And im not a traffic engineer, but I leave IT up to those people who do that. These are the things that the city in my opinion is heading in the right direction, doing well compared to most cities in the country. When you look at the rating on bonds, there are no -- 38,000 water unit manufacturing of water in the country, producing water. Only five that have a Aaa rating and Tampa is one of the five. You have to pat yourself on the back. Bringing eye-opening things happening to US. We dont talk about those things too much. They happen. Did fine. No, IT has to continue and we focus on other things that have to be brought up. This is a big operation, when you work here and you live here and you play here, its like working for General Motors or Ford. Everything -- come together to build a car differently, but you also have different parts to make a city go places and move. Need same products, same things coming in so you can manufacture and serve the public that you get elected to serve. These are the things I look at. Im not here to scorch my city. I think were doing very well compared to other cities. And I hope IT keeps Going That Way. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Alan Clendenin

6:22:34PM I got your signalization. What are the other two top priorities?

Charlie Miranda

6:22:38PM All of them.

Alan Clendenin

6:22:41PM You prioritize everything. Councilman Carlson, I have roads, sidewalks, and Parks. What was your third? Fire. Fire and stormwater. Okay.

Charlie Miranda

6:23:02PM Let me answer that. My first responsibility is Changing The Way we move traffic. You cannot continue building, expanding the expressway. In the last two years, how many strips to widen the expressway. You have got to go to what works, what works is something we dont have. You go to the airport and IT works very well there. What does that tell US? You have to go to a system like that because the streets are so full of cars, I dont care what You bring, in its not going to move fast. Fast enough to make a change in lifestyle. You have to change, the system they have at the airport are second to none in the world. They are fantastic. They work well. Second priority after the first three.

Alan Clendenin

6:23:56PM That was good. Ill go ahead and pitch. I have two. My other is a big one. Two smaller ones. One is already going, but I want to make sure IT stays in. Yellow jackets. We made a commitment. I want to make sure that stays in the budget. Have a consensus from Council on that. I would be remiss if I didnt continue to push For The Road repaving. But I agree. In fact, if you dont do IT, ill do IT under New Business, request that update so we can go to accounting and get the -- basically the CIP. For Road paving. What is the year two, three, four look like and how much do we need to accomplish that. Do that in New Business. We dont have to have this but bring to your awareness, again, we cant talk, about the city hall renovations. What well need in 27 is the design phase. Youre going to have conversations here shortly with the folks that are looking at this, renovating this floor and they are going to reach out to you guys to talk about your wants, needs, desires. Pretty much eliminate the concept of moving one because of the ceiling heights. Floor one, ceiling heights are not sufficient and the bathrooms. And what this whole floor would look like. There is a whole design team. Adriana will have the design phase in '27 and then whatever comes after that. I just wanted to bring that to your attention since were talking about money. I talked to Ms. Kopesky about this, too, im starting to concerned because when I first came on Council, vehicle replacement was a big thing. Some of the vehicles were really old. Now IT seems like the pendulum has gone far to the other side. Maybe we are not getting the full length out of the vehicles. I really want to get an accounting of how we are replacing vehicles. IT is an enormous expense out of our budget. If we can get one more or two more years out of a vehicle IT saves an awful lot of money out of the budget. I am not a subject matter expert on IT. I want to have people really talk to me about that, what we can do and cant do with vehicles. With the yellow jackets, make sure IT is in there. Obviously Road resurfacing is item number 2. Third item is streetcar. I think what we have to do, were going to need -- this process is moving. A lot of people dont see IT, but its moving forward. In '27, were still not there where we have to have the money, were going to need $50 million of city money when we come to construction phase. We need to start saving money so we dont have to come up with $50 million in one year. We have to set aside pieces each year to get to that point. Depends on what the budget looks like, up to $20 million, would be wonderful. Less, thats fine. But I dont want to be three years from now, we need $50 million to get the federal and state grants, the matching grants, so we have to be thinking in advance, like a savings account to get to that point so we have the matching money. That will get US to our $200 million streetcar. 50 will get US 200. Thats me. Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

6:27:18PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of quick things for Councilwoman Hurtak, strongly support that. I think, again, when you first brought that up, always sing your praises, I think thats great and glad to support that again. Again, kind of talking about the hurricane assistance, its just good to see a city program that is so narrowly tailored to everyday working class people. Its great. I will be glad to support that. One thing I do want to bring up and I only say this because I brought this up in a land use hearing we had recently, which is Lincoln gardens in Carver City. I talked about. I talked about doing something like having a motion that the Administration advise on what budgetary investments are going to be made In This Place, in this community, in this forthcoming budget, and even talking about perhaps a special call meeting in the community after what we saw, because I think that hurt everybody, including on the code as IT relates to that community. I think talking about that is really, really important. Its funny, because something was mentioned about South Tampa. There is a lot of similarity between south and New Tampa that a lot of people go, oh, they are doing fine out there. Yeah, thats the houses. I think that city services in both of those areas leaves something to be desired. I think there are some similarities there. Thats all. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

6:28:49PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

6:28:50PM Just to respond to you, Councilman Viera. My Aide, Ms. Scharf and I are actually working on Carver City and Lincoln Gardens trying to get a meeting with folks there to talk about transportation issues.

Alan Clendenin

6:29:08PM That seemed to be a big issue, mobility, getting in and out of the neighborhood.

Lynn Hurtak

6:29:13PM Youre starting to see its mobility. Its getting people around. How do we get people around the city?

Alan Clendenin

6:29:21PM Councilwoman young.

Naya Young

6:29:22PM Just to, one, I want to say im kind of happy to hear that IT seems like amongst US Parks is something that is kind of on everyones list. I agree, I think two of you said not necessarily new Parks, but just updating some of the Parks that We already have. Im sure all of US have driven past a park and were like, can We just put some flowers here? Can We fix the fence? Can We repaint something? I just wanted to make sure, I think that is awesome. I know this is not necessarily budget, but I would really like to see this, Council and Administration work together to like really collaborate and utilize like -- be innovative in utilizing our partnerships, what grants. I dont know whats going to be available, but I would love to see US kind of take that extra step to really look and see what would be available. Right now were picking what are our top three, which is hard. That doesnt mean that We cant look and see what is out there and what is available so We can get projects done. Again, We dont know what will happen in November. I think this is a time now where things are moving and so many things available to US. IT would be nice for US to be innovative, like really look at the definition of innovation and collaboration and work and see how We can make that work for our city and our communities. You mentioned the yellow jackets. Happy you mentioned that because that was also on my list. I also had Local Business Support And Training. You had mentioned something, Councilman Viera, about We have a lot of these abandoned buildings. I would really love to see how much would IT cost to get some of these spaces and use them. Ive driven past a lot of buildings that im like who owns this? What is happening with this? Can We buy this back and use IT for something? I just wanted to add those few things.

Alan Clendenin

6:31:44PM Mr. Kopesky, im looking at the presentation. IT looks like we covered quite a bit. I think were almost down to trying to summarize the points. I think clearly theres some direction coming from Council tonight. Parks, maintenance equipment seems to be the cream that has risen to the top. Resurfacing continues, but I think we have to have that accounting to understand before we can really commit to that.

Hagar Kopesky

6:32:13PM Moving the traffic as opposed to --

Alan Clendenin

6:32:15PM I think resurfacing, road resurfacing, I think we need to hear from Brandon what the strategic goal is, what the needs are and meeting right now before we can commit to the direction Council will take on budgeting there. The other thing as Councilwoman Hurtak and Councilman Miranda, signalization and mobility issues, the larger issue is mobility and signalization lies underneath that. I think that seemed -- in the discussion, people seemed to have in common. Stormwater will always be an issue in the City Of Tampa because most of US live at sea level. As were crafting the budget, well have to be keenly aware of where we are with stormwater. I think IT came from Councilman Carlson and Councilman Viera on fire, but I think we all concur. I dont think anybody here would disagree. I think a good starting point on that would be we need to see movement on whats next. Fleet Maintenance, we have to make sure that Fleet Maintenance is where IT needs to be. We need to make sure that we continue to support Fire Station 24. I think we need to have the next step and that is either picking the renovations of -- nine. And then after that, at least starting, at least talking about fire station one or k-bar, right? Councilman Carlson, you had something.

Bill Carlson

6:33:39PM Just to add to that, we talked about the last time Fire Union was in front of US, my recommendation, I talked to Nick afterwards, I think just like Joe Greco worked on a plan a few years ago, I think the Firefighters should come up with their own plan because a year from now well have a New Mayor and several new City Council members. And what we should do, just like the CIP. Is a forward look at projects that are going forward, if we could find consensus on a strategic list of projects for fire, at least we could give IT as a recommendation to the next council and next Mayor and show the Firefighters that were listening to them.

Luis Viera

6:34:19PM Really quick, on that, I mentioned downtown as well as K-Bar. Im not a public safety expert. So I defer to that to the experts on that. I just cite that as something missing for a long time. I do want to note that seeing Mr. Shelby without a tie rocks my world. Hulk Hogan without a bandanna on his head.

Alan Clendenin

6:34:43PM Do I need to fan you? [ laughter

Luis Viera

6:34:45PM Im shocked.

Alan Clendenin

6:34:52PM These are the relatively smaller things. The e-bike grant program. The Tampa Hope. As we filter this down, we meet the major needs and then we can backfill. We talked about yellow jackets. This is relatively consistent with the three years ive been on Council. Not a lot of fresh meat on this bone. Were continuing, obviously, so the strategic goals of this Council seems to be consistent with what weve been doing. Im pretty comfortable with that as far as the spit balling tonight. Anything you feel hasnt been said that you want to share? Couple things to discuss, I dont know if too early, do we want to put dates on the workshops? We can do that another time. Or just maybe start thinking about that. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

6:35:44PM I would ask ms. Kopesky to work with the Finance Department to come up with dates.

Alan Clendenin

6:35:50PM So we have these on our schedules.

Hagar Kopesky

6:35:53PM CCTV, if you could bring up the presentation again. I know were trying to keep on track and get public comment. I want to make a couple of comments about that slide. We moved past this. Those of you that have the desire to look at this, this was intended simply to highlight examples of the smaller items that May really not be the best use of debt. We can come back to that conversation. Dont need to have IT. There are additional pages. I know were trying to move through. Here, last year was the first year that we introduced the three workshops. Subtle clarification in here that I want. In the general fund discussion, which is a large bulk of money, what we did not do is we didnt really tease out the largest players of that. So the subtle shift here is that the departments you see listed are the ones that make up the bulk of the spending. Thus I will be working with Revenue and Finance, assuming everyone agrees, to actually come up with a refined presentation for those groups so there is an opportunity to really talk through some of the more important items related to their operating expenses and their capital. The other areas were already presented within their respective workshop and then in the case of the third one, which was just stormwater, I do believe that is a good third workshop to continue to have. Clearly, weve talked about that as a priority. But in light of the conversation, having transportation as part of that May seem to make sense and that was the recommendation. I just wanted everyone to see that before I do start officially working with Revenue and Finance. Any concerns or comments on that?

Alan Clendenin

6:37:35PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

6:37:37PM I wanted to say thank you so much for adding transportation because its pretty clear that that is a conversation we all want to have. By transportation, obviously that is all the mobility things.

Hagar Kopesky

6:37:49PM Yes.

Lynn Hurtak

6:37:50PM Including the sidewalks and paving. Signalization was the number one. But I was talking about all the other smaller things that fall under that. I think this is a great idea. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

6:38:01PM Youll work with the Finance to come up with dates for US.

Hagar Kopesky

6:38:04PM Yes.

Bill Carlson

6:38:05PM Could I ask you to go back to the first slide, please? I just want to point out, Mr. Chair, if we were writing the goals de novo based on that list, IT wouldnt --

Hagar Kopesky

6:38:17PM Are we talking about here?

Bill Carlson

6:38:19PM IT wouldnt look like this. We could force feed these in here but IT wouldnt look like that.

Alan Clendenin

6:38:23PM Its interesting, I dont know if You Guys have seen, because they are not intuitive. If you look at the breakdown of them --

Bill Carlson

6:38:31PM Still, though, the words are not -- you can force feed them in this but you wouldnt write IT like this. Strategic goals should be written for everyone in the organization to understand. And to understand what their direction is. But if you say Parks, like where does that go, exactly, same thing with fire, where would you put IT? This is what the Administration has set, so well put ours underneath there. Hopefully theyll support IT. Ideally, the Administration would work collaboratively with City Council to set the goals and then from that, we would decide the budget and work together going forward.

Alan Clendenin

6:39:07PM Okay. Good. Anybody else have any comments or do you feel comfortable? Do you feel like you have enough information --

Hagar Kopesky

6:39:15PM To proceed forward, yes.

Bill Carlson

6:39:18PM Just a reminder, I have to go to an important constituent meeting in five minutes. For anybody I dont hear in the public, I promise to watch IT on video later. I will listen to what you have to say.

Alan Clendenin

6:39:29PM So the plan of action now is we will have public comment on the workshop item and then we will finish with new business and thats IT. If you want to speak to this item. A couple of things. You havent talked about the loss of Ad Valorem as a result of the storms and you need that number from the Property Appraiser's Office as an estimate before your budget can even begin. When you talk about safe streets, you really have to be careful because in the minds of mobility, IT means narrowing streets and putting on-street parking which adds to your congestion. Its not relieving congestion as Mr. Miranda pointed out or the signalization. A Narrower Street means more congestion. Bonds are a credit card. You dont issue bonds to pay off another bond that you had in the past. Its not reasonable. Its not financially responsible to issue a bond to pay off another bond and then living off of the bond for your operational and your normal expenses. Just because you had the capacity for a bond doesnt mean you should use IT. And narrowing the streets. Fundamental needs need to be a priority and not necessarily coming out of another bond issue. Single-family house, I think we said this before, single-family house for construction pays $25,000 in fees. So that adds to making housing less affordable. Be careful about adding additional fees to the construction of houses. Legacy projects and vanity projects need to be deferred, especially now that youre going to have less revenue to use for operational expenses. You cannot live off of bonds, which apparently weve been doing. Salary caps, weve talked about this before. Consider salary caps for Senior Administrators so that you dont have these exorbitant salaries. Im not saying that they dont deserve fees, but these cost increase over and above on these high salaries is probably not a good idea. When you talk about Tampa hope and you talk about housing, one of the elements that youre forgetting about is food. A lot of the people that go to the -- to these shelters, and you know that I volunteer for that every Saturday, thats not about housing. Thats about feeding people who need food and cant afford food. So thats an important element of servicing those who are less fortunate. Parks, mobility, all the rest, the criteria that you talked about are great. When you talk about stormwater, lets look at the maintenance of stormwater and not the construction of new projects which bypass the existing infrastructure. Its very important to get the infrastructure repaired that you Have In Place, so you have a baseline and you know what you need. Thank you very much.

6:42:39PM Steve, I have a question for you. You said Bonding to pay off Bonding. I know we bond and pay off higher interest rate bonds with Bonding. What are you talking about with that? Rogero talked about issuing new bonds to pay off old bonds.

6:42:58PM Because They have short term and then They roll them into longer term. But IT seemed like They were piggybacking and combining bonds.

6:43:08PM Okay. Ill look into IT. Thank you. IT just seemed like IT was -- we are very fond of issuing a new bond. And I know that when IT comes to Council, wont be just me but other people will be looking at that and commenting about what are we doing here? The bonds are debt. They are simply debt. You dont issue another credit card or apply for one to pay for an old credit card.

6:43:38PM Thank you. Appreciate IT. Next speaker. Start with your name. You have three minutes. My name is Hoyt Prindle. In 18 years of living here, I have never come to this podium to speak to you. I hope you will understand the importance with which why I came to see you tonight and why I am here to speak. As many of you know, I am on the Budget And Finance Committee for the city. Andy and Stephanie got up here and we had a discussion about the rays baseball stadium. I felt IT was important to come tonight and clarify my thoughts. And in fairness to the committee, not all of these thoughts have been shared with them. Its a function of having thought more about this issue and having read a lot of facebook comments and seeing that the public discussion is kicking up further about this. But I think its very important for this council when IT comes to the stadium to not let prejudgment, personal interests, or false narratives color the decision, the very important decision that you all have to make. I live in West Tampa. So this project affects me personally. Having talked with other homeowners in the area, there is a lot of excitement about the project. There is a lot of uncertainty, and thats why we do due diligence. Thats why we go through a process to determine what is actually going to happen with this project. In doing some additional reading on my own, one of the things that I was surprised to learn was that the overall economic output from this project is estimated by Rclco, the outside third-party entity that did the economic performance, estimated to be 34 billion over the life of the project and 12,000 permanent jobs. For an area like Drew Park, thats very important. Drew Park came into the city probably only as Councilman Miranda knows in 1954. If you go down there and you walk that neighborhood, you will see that a lot of IT has not been touched from an infrastructure perspective probably since 1954 when IT came into the city. This particular project, if IT were to go through, is probably the only project of its kind that could deliver some real substantive change to Drew Park from an infrastructure perspective, given that theres not a whole lot of projects that are beating the door to go in there.

6:46:18PM You have 30 seconds. The two other important parts, obviously there will be a lot of tax revenue generated if this project were to go through, but also importantly the benefits to Hillsborough College, as I understand IT from some reading, IT will assist them with $65 million in past due maintenance that they have been unable to get done at this point. All I ask of this council is do your due diligence, do your process but to reserve judgment until we have all the facts on this particular project. Thank you.

6:46:50PM Next speaker, please. Stephanie Poynor.

6:47:10PM Queen of south of Gandy. Im just the person who keeps powerful people accountable. Bottom line is that IT took US 52 pages to answer two questions. Thats neither transparent nor is IT accountable. This budget is going to be a thousand pages which ive read the last couple of years. I didnt read all of IT last year. But the bottom line is that its amazing how we start moving the shells around and money pops up to pay for things that people who are sitting up there didnt want, but they work in the city. I just want to -- I want You Guys to get what you think is important for the citizens, but I want to make sure that IT actually happens. Because You Guys have asked for things in the past like fire stations and money for the NAACP and then not squat gets done. And thats what really bothers me is somebody blowing smoke up my butt and telling me, oh, well get IT done and then IT still doesnt happen, years and years later. I would say that this is the most important budget. Im glad were having this conversation now, but this is going to be the most important budget that You Guys have ever done, to include Charlie who has been here forever and a day. Because we dont know where we are going. We have no clue. Im just so tired of this not being extremely transparent. Two questions. Two fifth grade math questions. Has a lot of zeroes behind IT, but they are two fifth grade math questions. My fifth graders could always do this. How much do we owe? How much can we owe? Andy Joe and I are not politically aligned, but im going to be honest with you, I dont believe in debt. I dont have any debt. None. Not a penny. And I dont believe that we should be out spending money that we dont have. And I have to agree. I actually asked Hagar last week, what happens to the old vehicles that we dont use anymore? Do we get any money back from that? There are so many ways that this city bleeds money that were not paying attention to. We dont pay attention to the ways that we are bleeding money. I just wonder how much of that blood is going out that were not paying attention to and were more concentrated on all this pot here, pot there, and then the same pots arent -- IT just doesnt make sense. Maybe im rambling on tonight because yall did IT earlier, so im making IT up now. I love you but you pontificated a lot.

6:49:59PM Thank you. Next speaker. Hello there stranger. Tatiana Morales. I wasnt planning on coming tonight. I actually came because when I went to lunch with a friend that lived in Tampa her whole life, shes like a fourth generation tampeno, she was telling that me this is her last month in Tampa because she cannot afford to be here anymore. That broke my heart hearing that because that ends a generational line. I want to go backwards a little bit from my own notes. Food Access. I forgot who brought up Food Access. I think thats becoming more and more important as snap cuts are imminent. If you go to any Feeding Tampa Bay, any of the places, the lines are getting longer and longer. Its more families. Its more younger people that should be able to afford IT and cant anymore. How can we move forward the plans talked about with Sulphur Springs but also looking at east and West Tampa. I heard from West Tampa businesses that they take the burden. These are businesses that dont have the extra revenue. Maybe there are partnerships that can be built. E-Bike Rebate, as somebody who got the first e bike rebate, giving an opportunity To Not Drive in the city benefits everyone. I have over 3,000 miles on my e bike. IT has been a life changing experience. I had an e bike that was dangerous to be on and now I have something that ill have the next ten years. Incredible investment. Really pushing, please do that. Anybody that gets people off of driving is better for all of US. That leads into transportation. I know so much love for repaving the streets. I get IT. I live in Hyde Park, go through South Tampa, the roads are all bad. You can pave a road, hundred people move Here And Drive, you have horrible traffic and IT will get worse. Make sure we give money to HART to fund some of the routes because traffic will get worse and people are like youre paving roads but now what? That is the question that keeps coming to you. When you have the conversations, the broader mobility conversations. Parks in district 7. I used to live in district 7. Please, thats IT. Thats really IT. The hurricane housing funds. Finding a way, I know this is more for the Administration, obviously, but finding a way to make like the next ten years. We are going to have hurricanes. That just will happen. We are unfortunately on the coast. Figure out how can we fund the programs, longer term programs because there will be another hurricane. If we lose property tax money, we could lose that money and then people are gone. I want to end with housing affordability. The state of the region came out. Like 45% of people living in Tampa Bay are under the guidelines. That is poverty. Working people cannot afford to live and stay in Tampa. People that are 20, 30 are leaving because of better jobs in orlando and atlanta. They cannot afford to stay here. I really want to you look at our people as our infrastructure. They are essential. There is no city without the soul of South Tampa, East Tampa, West Tampa, and kids cannot afford to stay here when the average house in South Tampa is $600,000 a year. Find ways to lower rents like other cities but make sure we invest in deeply affordable housing. The Community Land Trust, we have to fund that. Jacksonville just built their first house. They are ahead of US. Jacksonville, guys. Thank you very much.

6:53:09PM Thank you. Next speaker. Start with your name. Youll have three minutes. Hi, Council. Thank you for doing this. This is really beneficial, I believe. I find IT a little curious done in a Mayor candidacy year, but I digress. Wasted money in the City Of Tampa. When we look at the hanna building and what that cost and what we were told IT was costed and by the time IT got to you what IT really costed, that is not acceptable. And its not acceptable when the neighborhood tells me that all night long they leave those lights on and its not acceptable when I go into that lobby and its like a ghost town and so many conference rooms that are never used. That was a tremendous waste of money. When you get projects put to you, do your research. When they tell you its one price and then by the time its actually enacted its hundreds of millions of dollars past that, thats where a lot of our money could be coming back into the community. Transparency matters. IT really does. IT matters to all the taxpayers. They want to know where their money is going. When we look at the city website, and you look at the diagram, the citizens are above the Mayor. Then there is the Mayor and then everybody else. So we should be privy to everything as far as where the taxpayer money is going, and were not right now. Thats about all I have to say. Transparency matters. Please keep that in mind. And please, the next time you get a thing to vote on that is a million dollars, consider that $4 million by the time IT comes back to you, and then we can probably have a lot of extra money. Thank you.

6:54:54PM Thank you very much. Have a good night. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Hope Kiriisa. Im a resident of Sulphur Springs and also the chair of the Sulphur Springs action league neighborhood association. Thank you for the opportunity today to invite the public out to hear our public comments. I am here advocating for a substantial increase in budget for Sulphur Springs. I did send a letter this Monday to you all. Your assistants. I hope you all received IT. First, we want to say thank you for including US in a discussion for the surplus spending of 150,000. We know that you guys are still working that out and thats not final. However, we do say that we are a community of 10,000 residents, so were really asking you to consider US in the 2027 budget. Were really advocating for our pool that has been shut down for more than two years. In addition to the surrounding boardwalks, we have some boardwalks that have been closed since 2018. We are looking for housing preservation funding. We would like to create long-term affordable strategies to keep our current residents in our neighborhood. We want major streets and sidewalk improvements, ongoing grants or investments for residents and our commercial businesses in our community. We would like to see this turned into a pilot thats reoccurring, that can support everybody thats either partnering in Sulphur Springs or living -- and living in Sulphur Springs. We would really like to see redevelopment of key vacant lots or problem areas. Kind of there were some in the East Tampa CRA. We know we dont have a CRA in Sulphur Springs, but we would like to mimic some of those initiatives or Projects Taking Place there because the communities are similar. And also community safety structure. You all have all spoke on Parks and rec and also mobility, so I definitely feel that were aligned. We understand that there is a master Plan In Place. Ive been a resident of the City Of Tampa for a while, and there have been plenty of master plans and Sulphur Springs has had the City Of Tampa come in and ask for their feedback and weve also seen our feedback fall on deaf ears. Yes, master plans and planning are next, but execution is better. Thank you for your consideration.

6:57:22PM Thank you very much. Have a wonderful evening. Anybody else that wishes to speak from the public? That concludes public comment. Thank you all for coming tonight on a special call workshop. I think IT has been a dynamic discussion.

Luis Viera

6:57:37PM I was going to say that Sulphur Springs was mentioned right now in the CRA. I tried to push for that a little while ago. I cant say this in private, Councilwoman young, God willing youll be here many, many years, I would say give them hell on that issue because they need IT. Thats all im going to say. Its a scandal they dont have a CRA. Thats all. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

6:58:01PM Go right to you for new business. Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

6:58:04PM I dont believe I have anything. However, I will be doing a memo on the request for an ordinance on the Public Safety Master Plan. Im meeting with the Administration on some issues on that, and I will be pushing that to March 26. Ill do IT by memo on Thursday. Just fyi. But thank you.

Alan Clendenin

6:58:21PM Councilwoman young.

Naya Young

6:58:23PM I did have a motion, but I want to -- what is the word I want to use -- I want to do IT again and come back on Thursday to make that motion. I want to do some rewording with IT to make sure IT is precise and succinct so we dont have any questions. IT will be in regards to the Sulphur Springs neighborhood action plan because they just finished IT. I do want staff to be able to come back and present IT to US. But I want to make sure I have all of my details together first.

Alan Clendenin

6:58:58PM Well take the iou. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

6:59:00PM I dont have anything, but on that, obviously -- oh, she already left. The woman from Sulphur Springs. But talking about all of the money that we do have for those boardwalks and for the pool, I know there was another community member who was having a meeting with Mr. Fowler today about IT, just maybe throwing some of that in there, too.

Naya Young

6:59:24PM I was like I want to reword this so I --

Alan Clendenin

6:59:29PM Sulphur Springs has not been lost on this Council.

Naya Young

6:59:32PM No, I dont think so. Not at all.

Alan Clendenin

6:59:34PM Councilman Miranda, New Business?

Charlie Miranda

6:59:36PM Im turning in my electric bill.

Alan Clendenin

6:59:43PM People At Home want to hear you.

Charlie Miranda

6:59:45PM IT was $15.33 A month before, this month IT went up to $19.53.

Lynn Hurtak

6:59:57PM Chair Clendenin.

Alan Clendenin

6:59:58PM I have two motions. A request that the Planning Commission staff in conjunction with City Legal and City Planning research ways other local governments use to restrict comprehensive plan amendments to the entitlements approved in the planned development rezoning and outline the impacts of utilizing similar approaches in the City Of Tampa and come back with a written and in-person report to City Council on June 18, 2026. IT has been coordinated with all of the above.

Lynn Hurtak

7:00:27PM Okay. Wow. We have a motion. Very interesting. I was at the land development code kickoff last night and We did quite a bit of conversation about planning -- about the comp plan. This is good. We have a motion from Chair Clendenin, a second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Alan Clendenin

7:00:45PM The next is a motion for an off-site commendation to recognize this years national crime victims rights week which will be occurring April 19 through April 25.

Lynn Hurtak

7:00:56PM Motion from Chair Clendenin. A second from council member Miranda. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Alan Clendenin

7:01:03PM Ill be like Councilwoman Young, I said I was going to make that request about paving, and then also, I want to -- couple of other things flesh out -- vehicle replacement. Ill bring that back on Thursday. Im thinking what well do is ask the reports to come to the Budget Workshops.

Lynn Hurtak

7:01:24PM I would recommend having them come before US so we have a chance to look at them beforehand. Also, I did a great tour with ms. Colina and her department where we talked about all of that, saw all the stuff they are doing. They do sell those cars. There is a lot to IT.

Alan Clendenin

7:01:42PM I just feel like that pendulum swings.

Lynn Hurtak

7:01:46PM I think its great. I dont disagree. Good thing to talk about. I know She has all sorts of information for you. I like both of those. I just want to say, I like how both of you are going to talk to staff members before. Thats one thing weve been trying to do. I think its nice to see IT in practice.

Alan Clendenin

7:02:05PM One other thing, we have a special call CRA meeting on Friday. The bulk of that meeting was supposed to be on the agreement, the service agreement.

Lynn Hurtak

7:02:16PM No, housing.

Alan Clendenin

7:02:17PM Originally proposed, IT was a service agreement. Thats why we did a special call, because we thought IT would be a lengthy discussion. That has now been removed from the agenda. The service agreement was removed from the agenda.

Lynn Hurtak

7:02:32PM Yes, but IT wasnt supposed to be.

Alan Clendenin

7:02:34PM They are not ready to present the service agreement.

Guido Maniscalco

7:02:40PM The e-mail that came earlier?

Alan Clendenin

7:02:42PM Yeah. I dont disagree. Its not going to be discussed on Friday because they are not ready for IT. I think we delay that meeting. I dont see a reason to convene City Staff and all of US on Friday. I think we should cancel the meeting.

Lynn Hurtak

7:02:57PM The whole point of the meeting is to talk about these grants, because the grants have to get started. That is the whole point of this meeting. The additional part was talking about the services agreement. Absolutely. They are saying They cannot go forward, no one can get new grants right now because we dont have the agreements.

Alan Clendenin

7:03:17PM Two problems. One, Councilman Viera is not going to be here. Councilman Carlson is not going to be here.

Lynn Hurtak

7:03:22PM Well, We already agreed on the meeting.

Alan Clendenin

7:03:25PM I know. Im touch and go about whether ill be able to be here. Youll end up with four council members.

Lynn Hurtak

7:03:34PM The conversation still needs to be had. We cannot pull the rug out from people on a Tuesday for a meeting They have been waiting for for ages on a Friday.

Guido Maniscalco

7:03:43PM Ill be there.

Lynn Hurtak

7:03:44PM Ill be there. I cleared my calendar for this.

Luis Viera

7:03:49PM I can speak off-line with Cedric on this issue. IT was my mistake, guys. I promised this county event that I would go be one of their speakers at something for the 35 years of the Gulf War, and I didnt send IT to my aide to be properly calendared. They sent me a text today, hey, you coming?

Alan Clendenin

7:04:11PM Im trying to recover from hurricane damage and They want me down there Friday. Thats my big problem. Anyway. I just look at that and say when They pulled the rug out from that one issue.

Lynn Hurtak

7:04:26PM I will challenge you to go back and watch the CRA meeting. He very clearly said thats not the priority. The priority is getting these grants out the door.

Alan Clendenin

7:04:33PM I knew thats why, We had the one meeting that was canceled and they wanted to get this through. I thought the reason for the special was to do that.

Lynn Hurtak

7:04:41PM No. IT was all about grants. He said that multiple times. We had the discussion during the CRA meeting last month and IT was all about grants.

Charlie Miranda

7:04:51PM I forgot to mention that the bill I turned in from the Electric is for receive and file.

Lynn Hurtak

7:04:57PM Motion to receive and file.

Alan Clendenin

7:04:59PM The meeting is still on.

Lynn Hurtak

7:05:01PM Motion from Councilman Miranda, second from Councilman Viera, all in favor? Aye.

Alan Clendenin

7:05:05PM Very good. You all have a good night.

7:05:11PM Move to receive and file. Second. All those in favor, aye. [ sounding gavel were adjourned. Disclaimer: this file represents an unedited version of realtime captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Any person who needs a verbatim transcript of the proceedings May need to hire a court reporter. © - City Of Tampa (813) 274-8211