City Council — July 17, 2025 FINAL

Alan Clendenin

9:04:21AM Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Tampa City Council Chambers. I would like to call this meeting to order. I would first like to recognize Councilman Luis Viera for the invocation.

Luis Viera

9:04:34AM It is my great pleasure to invite a wonderful man up here. Pastor Justin larosa. Come forward, sir. Pastor larosa is an ordained minister in the united methodist church, a licensed clinical social worker. He holds many, many titles. He's been at Hyde Park united methodist since 2005 where he serves as minister of downtown spiritual community, director of the portico. He was sent with a small group to launch a cutting-edge new ministry in the oldest church in downtown Tampa which would become the portico. It includes a social enterprise, a cafe, historical chapel, spaces to meet and work and event space for the public and many, many other things. Pastor larosa is a wonderful person of great empathy and decency and is one of the best guys I know. If you guys would please stand up for the prayer and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Those who are praying, let's bow our heads. God of many names, we gather in your presence this morning, centering ourselves on your goodness. We approach this day with open minds and grateful hearts. And we give thanks for our lives and the people around us, the city, and the opportunity to serve. Thank you for the engaged citizens, the City Council, the mayor, the aides, and all the employees who work behind the scenes to make Tampa function, thrive, and grow. We give thanks for our officers and those who serve and firefighters and all who support their work. May you give them all a spirit of wisdom, humility and servant hood. We pray for downtown residents and workers, including those people who don't have a place to lay their head. We pray for citizens who will advocate, invest their time and talent to build a more inclusive and diverse city and deal with the many issues before us, that relate to wonderful things like growth, innovation, and transportation. We humbly ask you that you provide astute discernment and clarity and direction for each council member as they process the budget and reports on the agenda. Allow their discussions to be productive and respectful amidst disagreement. And may the final budget be one that really shows responsible governing in the well use of people's dollars. Please continue to be with councilwoman gwen Henderson's family and friends and this council as they remember and grieve her loss. May your grace, comfort continue to show up for them. Ignite us to be the people you've called us to be. I pray these things in the power of Jesus Christ, amen.

Alan Clendenin

9:07:05AM Councilman Miranda, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? [Pledge of allegiance]

9:07:24AM Thank you all. Roll call vote, please. Not a vote. Roll call.

Charlie Miranda

9:07:31AM Here.

Guido Maniscalco

9:07:33AM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

9:07:33AM Here.

Luis Viera

9:07:34AM Here.

Bill Carlson

9:07:35AM Here.

Alan Clendenin

9:07:36AM Here.

The clerk

9:07:37AM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

9:07:39AM Thank you so much. I would like to hear a motion to receive and file the minutes of the regular session held on June 26, 2025. I have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco, a second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you so much. Like to go through the agenda for the agenda review. There are no addendums. We have item number 63, administrative update. There's no update, correct? Thank you. We have a memo from Adriana for $7.2 million maintenance agreement with bill currie. Motion to receive and file?

Charlie Miranda

9:08:14AM So moved.

Alan Clendenin

9:08:15AM 64. It's a resolution. I'm sorry. We have a memo from Councilman Carlson to continue item 65 today to July 31st. Motion from Councilman Carlson, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Can I get a motion to receive and file number 66 and 67 from Brandon Campbell? Brandon is not here today, by the way.

Bill Carlson

9:08:47AM The idea is they are supposed to be presenting in person. Because he's out of town, they requested to just receive and file this one and present in person the next time.

Lynn Hurtak

9:08:57AM That's fine. Thank you. I just wanted to say that if folks want to know what roads are planned and what has been repaired, the maps are on the agenda and they are very easy to read. I highly recommend folks look at those.

Alan Clendenin

9:09:13AM Motion from Councilman Carlson and second from Councilman Maniscalco. We're receiving and filing 66 and 67. We have a motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Item 66, a memo from Abbye Feeley, channelside district from meridian to Channelside Drive. Added to the cdb. It was a staff report. Motion to receive and file? 68. I'm sorry.

Bill Carlson

9:09:46AM That one is supposed to be in the current text amendment cycle. They confirmed it is. I think we can receive and file that.

Alan Clendenin

9:09:51AM Is that a motion? Motion to receive and file from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

9:09:59AM We got an interesting e-mail about this. I kind of thought we would have a little bit of a discussion about it.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:05AM You would like staff on it?

Lynn Hurtak

9:10:07AM Not staff. Just us. We don't need staff.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:10AM We have a motion to receive and file the memo.

Abbye Feeley

9:10:13AM I didn't put in a memo. I'm going to be here for that item if that's okay.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:20AM There we go. We have staff for item 68 and 69. Very good. I would like to amend the agenda to flip items 1 and 2 so that we will hear from the police first and then we'll have the mayor's presentation. Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

9:10:45AM Are we going to just accept the staff reports for the written staff reports?

Guido Maniscalco

9:10:50AM So moved.

Lynn Hurtak

9:10:51AM Because I had one mention on it on one of them. Number 71, Chief Tripp's memo does talk about the fact that all the bunker gear has been sent out, but there is still more bunker gear to be purchased so that I would like that report to stay until that has been done. That was councilwoman Henderson's motion. I'm saying I do believe we need to maintain the monthly report because while the memo says that all of it is out, all of it that we had is out. Now we're ordering more.

Alan Clendenin

9:11:28AM That's not inconsistent with receiving and filing this.

Lynn Hurtak

9:11:31AM No, but I have heard from a couple of people that people don't know if council wants to continue some of councilwoman Henderson's motions and I never heard of us stopping that. But there is another motion, the downtown signs that I've heard that people have said, oh, we haven't heard anything from council about that. I want to address that later today in new business. But I'm just saying, I wanted to say that I still want this report.

Alan Clendenin

9:12:08AM Do we have a motion to receive and file 70 through 74? We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? We will discuss that -- those issues during new business. Is there anything else for the agenda that anybody would like to discuss? Motion to adopt the amended agenda? We have a motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Okay. Here we go. We would like to start with one of the best meetings of the month when we recognize our police officer of the month. Recognize Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

9:12:58AM Hey, council. Real pleasure to be here. Luis Viera here to do the officer of the month. This is something that we always do to reflect the values of the community that we serve in supporting our first responders, our police officers, as well as our firefighters. I'll let Dr. Chief Bercaw talk about this month's wonderful honoree.

Chief Bercaw

9:13:19AM Good morning, council. It's my honor to present our officer of the month. Detective hope dauphin served since 2022. She has made a lasting impact not only in the department but in the lives of countless victims in our community. Her work often happens quietly behind the scenes but its effects are life-changing for those she serves. She has led complex investigations involving identity theft, fraud and financial exploitation. Just to note a few, she helped stop the fraudulent release of $40,000, her fast work preserved the funds and led to an arrest in just a few weeks. In another case, she brought justice to a hurricane victim who was defrauded by unlicensed contractors after losing their home. She tracked down evidence, spoke to over 20 people and helped put a stop to those responsible. Detective dauphin also investigated a long-term theft at a local bakery where a manager had been altering records for years. Detective dauphin reviewed hours of videos, stacks of documents and eventually secured full confession leading to over 50 felony charges. Outside of her casework, she's taken a lead -- a huge lead -- in helping train new detectives, creating a go-to training manual that's now used throughout her unit. She's also an active in our department family support and wellness efforts. I can honestly say it's not written here, we would not have the wellness program that we have for our family if it wasn't for detective dauphin. She brings skill, empathy, quiet leadership in everything she does. Her work makes a real difference, not just in the cases, but the people's lives that were impacted. In addition, also to our department and our family. She's a valued member of this department, and her work does not go unnoticed. It is with great pride and gratitude that we recognize her exceptional service today and it's why she's being recognized as our July officer of the month. Congratulations. [ applause ]

Luis Viera

9:15:37AM Before we honor you, there are people in the community who would like to give you and your family some tokens of appreciation. Detective, great job as always. Good morning Chief. Brian ford, chief operating officer for the Tampa Bay buccaneers. We have a little tradition at one buc. Anybody that goes over and above gets a game ball. I'm here today on behalf of the glazer family, our entire organization to say thank you. Thank you for what you and your family do for our community, the sacrifice, the leadership, the wellness committee. That's amazing. But congratulations and thank you very much.

Alan Clendenin

9:16:34AM Don't fumble the ball. Congratulations detective on a job well done. The city is definitely a better place with people like you involved in it. We appreciate everything you do for the community. On behalf of Todd stepp and stepp's towing, present you a gift card for dinner, night out on stepp's towing. Congratulations and thank you for everything you do. Good morning, detective dauphin. I'm grace gonzalez here on behalf of the gonzmart family and 1905 family of restaurants. Thank you so much for being here in Tampa and for dedicating so much time and so much of yourself to serving our community. We would like to serve you dinner. Please enjoy yourself out with a night out, ulele, anywhere you would like to visit. Thank you and congratulations. Leo geary with bill currie ford. Congratulations, hope on this prestigious award. On behalf of bill currie ford, I want to say thank you so much for everything you do. Again, like I always say, thank you to all of you officers. I respect and honor all of you guys for the work that you guys do inside the city, the dedication and sacrifices you make for each and every one of us. I truly appreciate it. On behalf of bill currie ford, I want to present to you a certificate for your personal vehicle for some maintenance and also some goodies in there. Thank you for all you do for us.

9:18:07AM I know it's awkward when people are addressing, but if you would face the dais because the microphone is in the podium. If you want to get your voice out there, face the podium. Good morning, detective dauphin. My name is lori osborne. Congratulations. What a great job you're doing not only for our community but it sounds like for the department as well with the wellness program. Well done. On behalf of the Florida orchestra, we would like to offer you and your family tickets to an upcoming performance in our new season. Again, we thank you so much, and we appreciate you serving the community. Detective dauphin, congratulations. MaryBeth Williams, executive director of Friends of the Riverwalk here to present you today with a personalized paver along the riverwalk to commemorate your dedication to our city and the Police Department. In addition, some of our member organizations would like to contribute as well. Within this envelope is dinner for two from yacht starship, two all-day passes from pirate water taxi, two complimentary admissions from lost pearl. Two complimentary riverwalk rentals, splitsville, adult night out or a birthday party for kids. Florida Avenue brewing gift certificate and, of course, the paver. Steve Michelini. First, let me turn around and become mary lou bailey. I'm mary lou bailey, here on behalf of Zoo Tampa. There she is!

9:19:56AM It's like beetle juice, turn around three times. I'm mary lou bailey, the real one. Behalf of Zoo Tampa. I serve on the board. I was so impressed with your story. We wanted to thank you for serving all of our citizens. I want to thank everybody who serves. You guys are all awesome. Annual membership to the zoo for you and your loved ones and goodies that my friend mark who works for the zoo put together for you. Congratulations. I don't know why. I know he always puts thought into it. Maybe we can e-mail you afterwards why he chose stingray because he is very particular about what animal he gives.

9:20:47AM Will the real mary lou bailey please stand up? Steve Michelini, here on behalf of a variety of different folks. First stating, the task that you perform is so vital because so many people are subject to those kind of predatory actions. And they don't know. They end up going to the bank and they take out money. A lot of us have received those kind of threats. If you don't show up in 30 minutes, we're going to arrest you. You got to bring cash and we got to go to this place and deposit, all that. It's awful. Anyway, thank you very much for that service. On behalf of the yummy house china bistro, we're providing with you a gift certificate so you can enjoy yourself over there. Lunch or dinner. On behalf of daily eats, you can enjoy yourself over there, breakfast, lunch, dinner at any one of their establishments. Jackson bistro on Harbour Island, gift certificate, lunch or dinner. And meat market in old Hyde Park, take your letters with you and don't let the chief take your certificates here. I know he likes some of these places. Anyway, congratulations. Thank you so much for your service. [ applause ]

Luis Viera

9:22:08AM If I may, I believe this is typically tickets. I don't want to misspeak to the straz center. Friends at the straz center always participate and couldn't make it. That's number one.

Alan Clendenin

9:22:19AM Face the podium, please.

Luis Viera

9:22:22AM Stickler. Good for you, man. I mean that. Friends at hotel haya. A free night there, I think. I would assume. That's it. If I may, on behalf of a very grateful Tampa City Council and City of Tampa, this commendation is for you. Thank you, ma'am, for your service. [ applause ] I will say that. I am honored and a little overwhelmed with emotion right now. Just the generosity. The business owners and City Council and our command staff and the chief and the mayor. I'll keep it short, but I do love my job. Not only am I honored, I feel like this could be anybody in my division. I'm very honored to be in cib which is a great place at Tampa PD. Every one of them are probably deserving of what I got today. I'm honored to work with a group of detectives that go above and beyond -- it's not just me -- to bring justice to people who have been taken advantage of, our business owners, citizens of Tampa. But if I could summarize all my career accomplishments, it wouldn't be arrests or an award. It would be family support. We started three years ago. Our profession is a huge honor and responsibility but the weight of the badge can be heavy at times. I am blessed to be in a position to give referrals and take phone calls and build relationships among the family members of our officers, and that would be probably what I love the most about my job. Thank you so much. [ applause ]

9:24:08AM I did want to say, not going to recognize him, but tell by the smiles in the audience, you have very proud family members here. That's important about family.

Guido Maniscalco

9:24:17AM Thank you very much. Congratulations. I'll just say it now on the record, you are one of my favorite officers. Detective hope. This is not the first time you've gotten police officer of the month. When I saw you this morning, it's like you're getting it again? Because you deserve it. That's how hard you work. Very rarely do we see officers getting this recognition twice. Your husband is with you. He's with the sheriff's office. I usually say thank you to your family for the sacrifices because you go out there into the world to protect us and to make our community a better place, but in this case, it's both of you. Thank you to you and your family. You are a wonderful person. And, again, to get officer of the month twice is very rare and it says a lot. Even the mayor showed up. I mean, that's how good you are. [ laughter ] congratulations. Very well deserved.

Alan Clendenin

9:25:09AM Thank you very much for what you do for the city, you and the brothers and sisters in the police force. Tampa we love and we respect our Police Department. We thank you for keeping us safe. One day, I think the Chief Will come and tell us about the great crime statistics I keep hearing about. We're on the right type of trajectory. Thank you for what you do. Grateful City Council. Thank you. [ applause ] we're going to pause for just one moment to allow the folks from Tampa PD to clear, and then we will continue with the agenda.

9:26:13AM Okay. It's that time of year again. We get to welcome our department heads in the front. Those of you watching at home, you see some of the faces you see come before City Council from time to time. Some you may not. Department heads from the City of Tampa that are here with us today because it is budget time. And Tampa City Council per a motion from Charlie Miranda, invited Mayor Jane Castor to present the FY '26 fiscal year budget. I recognize Mayor Castor.

Mayor Castor

9:27:17AM We're going to do retirements. Sorry, tony. And tom.

Alan Clendenin

9:27:26AM Do you want to do that? I am flexible. We can do that if you would like.

Mayor Castor

9:27:34AM I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you very much. Councilman Clendenin, City Council, and to the Tampa community that is here in council and those watching from home, I am very proud to be standing before you to present the City of Tampa's FY 2026 budget. This year's theme: grounded in progress reflects the priorities we've heard loud and clear from residents across Tampa in town halls, neighborhood meetings, and more than a few grocery store conversations. You've told us what matters most. This budget is built around those values: resilience, responsibility, efficiency, and results. Tampa has become one of the most exciting cities in the country, but great cities aren't built on buzz; they are built on strong foundations -- roads, stormwater systems, and water lines may not be glamorous, but they keep our city running. When we invest in the basics, we unlock opportunity, strengthen resilience, and lay the foundation for future growth. And we're stretching every dollar to work harder and smarter. Cities are often criticized for adding new positions to their workforce, but this morning, you're going to hear about how the employees we've added over the past few years, including over a hundred firefighters, 60 police officers, in-house paving and water repair teams, and our in-house waste-to-energy team have either made our city safer or have saved taxpayers millions of dollars. A great example of how hiring an energy manager has saved us over $1.4 million in energy costs. This budget is our blueprint, a plan to deliver core services, modernize infrastructure, and invest in Tampa's future. We're doing it in a way that ensures we maintain our near-perfect credit rating. Tampa has the second highest municipal bond rating in the nation, which, as you know, saves our taxpayers millions of dollars every year. Tampa is one of the safest cities our size in the nation, and that is no accident. It's the result of strategic investment and a relentless focus on public safety. That's why every single dollar of property tax revenue in the proposed 2026 budget is spent on Tampa Police and fire. And it's been that way for years. In 2026, we're bringing in 380 million in property tax revenue, and we're spending 455 million on police and fire for public safety. It's a clear reflection of our priorities, protecting lives, property, and peace of mind. This is a message that we want the entire community to share with their legislators in tallahassee. Property taxes fund public safety. In Tampa, we support our first responders, and we couldn't do it without this funding. When hurricane helene and milton hit, our first responders answered over 15,000 emergency calls and rescued hundreds of residents from rising floodwaters. But it's the day-to-day work they do that keeps our city strong. Crime is down over 20%. Violent crime is down 19%, and homicides are down 63% this year alone. Initiatives like the police athletic league, our rich houses and community violence intervention program are making neighborhoods safer, not just today, but for years to come. They are making them safer for the youth in our community who are the future. Tampa Fire Rescue responded to over 92,000 calls last year. Many of them lifesaving medical emergencies. That's why we've prioritized the tools and infrastructure that they need, from adding additional rescue units, a pump truck, new equipment, and technology as well as over a hundred additional firefighters. Public safety isn't just a budget line item, it is the backbone of our community. For most Tampa residents, life after the hurricane looks normal again, but for too many of our neighbors, especially those who lost everything, the devastation still lingers. Storms may pass quickly, but their impact lasts. I saw it firsthand, helping families haul out soaked furniture and salvage what they could from homes flooded by helene and milton. I understand the very real fear that it could happen again. That's why this budget puts a sharp focus on resilience. We can't build -- outbuild nature, but we can prepare. We've launched a pump station rapid response team and we're installing temporary generators at stormwater pumps in our most vulnerable neighborhoods. This budget invests $11 billion toward permanent backup generators that will be installed over the next two years. Stormwater crews are working six days a week clearing debris, keeping systems moving, and delivering on the basics that matter the most during storms. Just in the past year alone, we've removed 6,800 tons of debris from our drains and ditches and our street sweeping team has prevented another 5,580 tons from entering the system to begin with. Combined, that's over 12,000 tons of yard waste, landscaping, and other debris. We've already invested 350 million in major flood relief projects, including macdill 48 nature park which serves both as flood protection and community greenspace. We finished major projects in Seminole Heights and in South Tampa. These projects have made a difference all across our city, and that's why we're excited to move forward with those projects that are in the pipeline. Since launching the pipes program, we've replaced over 62 miles of aging waterlines and 200 miles of wastewater pipe. Many of these pipes were over a hundred years old. And in 2026 we'll invest another 79 million into replacing this crumbling, yet critical infrastructure that's essential to our well-being. We're also leading the nation with the first suspended ion exchange system to remove pfas and other chemicals from our drinking water, improving safety while cutting treatment costs. And thanks to the efficiency of our in-house water repair crews, we've saved Tampa taxpayers over $15 million by fixing main breaks ourselves instead of turning those jobs over to contractors. As you know, Tampa is a city on the move. And we're meeting our transportation challenges with SMART, efficient solutions despite the huge blow of losing the surtax dollars supported overwhelmingly by Tampa voters. We resurfaced over 235 miles of streets since 2019 and by investing in two in-house paving teams, we've been able to double our paving capacity at half the price and complete the jobs in half the time. And we are not stopping. Thanks to these teams, we also repaired more feet of sidewalk in the past year than the city has done in the past decade. Our resurfacing team's work will continue into this fiscal year. In 2026, we'll continue to build out our walk-bike network. We already added 56 miles of bike lanes and this budget will expand the green spine, complete the first two phases of the green artery and connect neighborhoods like never before. These two projects alone will connect West Tampa to East Tampa and neighborhoods like Seminole Heights, Sulphur Springs and East Tampa to our downtown. The new west riverwalk will be more than a scenic path and mobility corridor. It is the hub of our citywide walk-bike network connecting Tampa's neighborhoods together and residents to jobs, education, and shopping. It's also an amenity that will serve as an economic catalyst for West Tampa that ensures public access to the riverfront for generations to come. This budget also helps restore downtown street grid to improve connections and reduce congestion. It takes concrete steps toward the start of construction on the future streetcar extension by moving forward with Planning and development for both project and funding operations. Thanks to our participation in the U.S. Department of Transportation's regional infrastructure accelerate, which launches next month, we're starting to see viable conversation about our region's transportation future, and that includes big projects like the airport to downtown connection. And you may have heard that bright line plans to issue 400 million in Bonds to fund part of the Orlando to Tampa extension. We're excited about this bright line extension. It will finally make it easy for disney fans to visit Tampa Bay where the magic includes stanley cups, super bowls, baseball and sunsets that don't require an admission fee. The work is happening. The network is forming, and the vision is coming into focus. With over 200 parks, we're raising the standard for public space citywide. Of course, the crown jewel is fair oaks recreation complex, a 10-acre state-of-the-art campus in East Tampa that reflects what happens when the community leads on design. It will feature a senior center, basketball court, pickleball courts, classrooms, weight rooms and so much more. It is nearly complete, and it will be a game-changer. Maintaining our parks across the city is just as important. We're providing additional General Fund dollars for basic upgrades and improvements at neighborhood facilities. As we all know, housing continues to be a challenge nationwide, but this City Council and administration have remained steadfast about working to prevent our family, friends, and neighbors from being priced out of Tampa. Home prices surged, and we acted. Since 2020, we've added 20,000 residential units, including thousands of affordable homes. We used every tool available, from zoning reform to down payment assistance, and we kept construction moving while others paused. Now rental rates have returned to the 2021 levels. That's progress, but we definitely are not done. This fiscal year we processed nearly 23,000 permits representing almost $2.5 billion in development. The army navy development will create hundreds of affordable and market rate units and transform a surface parking lot into a beautiful downtown gateway. SMART growth is at the forefront of our new comprehensive plan and with City Council's leadership, we'll add density where it makes sense along commercial and transit corridors while protecting the character and the historic neighborhoods that make Tampa unique. It's also about breaking down silos. The type of development that we need to grow in a way that preserves our quality of life depends on what our future transportation system looks like. We've built new neighborhoods. We've modernized infrastructure. We've opened new parks, created housing, and made our streets safer and more connected. Our streetcar is on track for 1.4 million riders this year. Our rainy day fund is strong. Our bond rating is among the best in the nation. And for the first time, Tampa's median household income surpasses $70,000. Time magazine says Tampa is one of the world's best places. Forbes calls Tampa the best place to live in Florida. And the financial times ranks us the top u.s. city for international business. But our greatest asset is not a headline. It's our people. It's in how we show up for each other when things get hard. It's in how we work together to get things done, and it's how we move forward united and grounded in progress. Now, I'm pleased to bring up our chief financial Officer Dennis Rogero. He's going to go into greater detail on the FY 2026 budget for the City of Tampa. Council, thank you very much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

Alan Clendenin

9:42:06AM Thank you, Mayor. Dennis, do you want to pause for a second? I think tony has something to do. Tony Mulkey. Tony Mulkey surprised us all last week with a memo that he is leaving the City of Tampa for better grounds in pinellas county. Tony was our parks and rec guy and one of the most genuine, pleasant persons you could deal with that you possibly could think of. You've been with the city 12.5 years. We wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for your service to the City of Tampa. We're really sorry to see that you are departing. Glad that you were able to find other opportunities for yourself and your family. But we're going to miss You. Councilman Miranda first.

Charlie Miranda

9:43:15AM Thank you, tony. If I may call you tony. In my many years of public service, you are a shining star. Every time our office called, it was one person that returned the call and that was yourself. You did it expediently, professionally, and with dignity. More than that, I can't say because I know the Parks Department is top-notch. You guys try to do what you can do. Many Parks and Recreation centers, the public is not aware of it because we have a big city. They are all either being repaired or redone or in the plans of being redone and repaired. I want to thank you and your staff for what you've done in your 12 years of service. Thank you very much. Have a nice time in pinellas county.

Alan Clendenin

9:44:00AM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

9:44:01AM Thank you very much. It's always been a pleasure working with you. You've always been very professional, very polite. As Councilman Miranda said, you always answer. And many, many times it's you personally. We get a request from the community. We have a constituent concern or question and you are right there. You don't send other people. You're in the meeting, you're picking up the phone, you're answering the e-mail. Thank you for all that and we certainly wish you the best of luck moving forward. I know you're going to continue being successful, but we're going to miss You. Thank you very much, sir.

Alan Clendenin

9:44:36AM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

9:44:40AM I said this to you privately but I'm very sad that you are leaving. I've enjoyed working with you the last few years. I think you had the right experience, the right training and everything at the right time. Brought a lot of expertise. Your team has done a great job. You have always responded and personally responded every time I had a constituent issue. There have been a lot of complicated issues over the last few years. In particular when harold walker was alive, you partnered with him and the community to bring resources into important parks in South Tampa and even helped with his memorial service at Jackson park. Thank you very much. It's our loss. I think you're going to dunedin. Dunedin's gain. I'm sure you'll do a fantastic job and staying in touch with you, seeing the great things you do there.

Luis Viera

9:45:29AM I'll echo what folks said. Again, you did a great job here. You're always a pleasure to work with. In district 7, a district that sometimes you have to fight a little harder to get things in district 7 and everything. You always did a very good job listening to our constituents and working with us. We appreciate it. You're also a very good person. A conscientious person, a decent person. We've had personal discussions. I gleaned that from that of your decency and consciousness and what a good guy you are. You will be missed.

Lynn Hurtak

9:46:07AM Thank you. I will echo what my fellow council member said. I've really enjoyed working with you and your team. Not only have I enjoyed working with you, I've heard wonderful things from your staff about working with you. I think that speaks volumes. So we are really going to miss You. Best of luck and getting a chance to work with the major league baseball team is pretty cool. Congratulations to you.

Alan Clendenin

9:46:35AM Thank you. We're going to miss You. But you're not that far away. Come over and have a cup of coffee every once in a while. Take care.

Tony Mulkey

9:46:42AM Tony Mulkey, Parks and Recreation. I'm humbled. Anybody that knows me knows that I don't like the personal accolades or anything. It's all about the team and about the great staff in Parks and Recreation, the great community that we serve. It's been a pleasure working with all of you. Been a pleasure working with all of my Tampa colleagues as well as the community and all our great team. It's been a long time here. We've done a lot of fun things. Momentum will continue. There are a lot of projects in the pipeline as outlined in Mayor Castor's budget and moving forward some things that might fly under the radar because we do have a lot of locations. I'm excited to see the future in Tampa. I thank you all.

Alan Clendenin

9:47:29AM Thank you very much for your service. Appreciate it. [ applause ] we've got a retirement as well. Tom Dea, are you back there? If you are, come on up. Mr. DEA, it seems like your partner in crime just retired yesterday. Here you are fleeing that little cubicle back there. Just a coincidence.

9:48:03AM 33 years of service for the City of Tampa. Wow. That's absolutely amazing. I wanted to make sure, you all don't see him, but he's back in this little room next to council. He is the one that basically runs this show. For those of you listening on youtube or some other streaming device, it's because of this gentleman that you guys are able to do that and makes the City Council look as efficient as we do for the public. I want to say thank you very much for your service and for the time that I've worked with you now and what you've done back there, the magic that you guys pull off, it's not gone unnoticed. Maybe we don't talk about it until you actually retire but I want to say thank you very much. Councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

9:48:49AM Thank you very much. I really appreciate your 33 years of service. In fact, I think you installed between last week and this week, so now you can hear all of us. Before they were small and you had to bend over and some of us didn't want to move. It's a wonderful thing that you've done. I remember way back when there was no tv. There was nothing here but just an auditorium. You guys from working from that time on have done a fantastic job for the citizens of Tampa so they can understand what the city is going through on a daily basis. Congratulations. Happy retirement. Enjoy yourself.

Alan Clendenin

9:49:24AM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

9:49:25AM I wanted to echo thank you for everything you do because you are not in front of the scenes most of the time. People don't see how you help us all look good. Thank you for that. Through covid and all the other things you had to deal with. I hope you do some great things in your retirement from relaxing to doing what Brian is doing. I'm having fun watching his adventures. Look forward to following yours as well. If you need anything in the future, please stay in touch. We appreciate everything.

Guido Maniscalco

9:49:52AM Congratulations, sir, on your retirement. Thank you for everything. You are behind the scenes. You sit through many long hours. People don't see you. They see you now, but you make the magic happen. We're losing a lot of good people. Brian, you. We just had Mr. Mulkey, but well deserved. You've committed so many years here, and you've done a lot. As was mentioned during covid, it was very complicated and tricky. But the team was there doing everything, making things happen. Again, we appreciate you and happy retirement, sir.

Alan Clendenin

9:50:32AM Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

9:50:34AM Yes, sir. Thank you for all your service to the City of Tampa. Again, being behind the scenes is never easy, especially when something goes wrong and they go, who can we blame? That guy. You always do a good job and always a smiling face. God bless you in your retirement and thank you for all your service.

Alan Clendenin

9:50:52AM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

9:50:52AM Congratulations. What are your plans?

Tom Dea

9:50:56AM Mostly work around the house. My wife has a pretty big to-do list. We'll do a little traveling. Generally just relaxing, enjoying myself.

Lynn Hurtak

9:51:06AM Wonderful. Congratulations. You have completely earned it. We really appreciate everything you have done to bring us to the 21st century. I know that you are going to be leaving in capable hands moving forward. Thank you so much for all the work you've done and how many people you have helped shepherd into this career.

Alan Clendenin

9:51:24AM It's amazing what Councilman Viera said about things go wrong, it's really rare. And if things have gone wrong, generally it's completely invisible to those -- to us. Considering how many moving parts there is to the automation and what you all are doing back there with presentations and the audio and the video and everything that you guys have to deal with, it's damn near flawless. That's not by accident. So we appreciate those of you behind the scenes that make this thing happen. Thank you so much.

Tom Dea

9:51:59AM Thank you council. I really appreciate it. That's our goal is to make sure that for the people watching at home and on youtube and all the streaming channels that if there are any issues, they don't see them. Everything should be flawless to them. Everything should work the way it should. The virtual stuff when we added that, you were able to communicate with somebody on the virtual, and there are no issues there. We strive to constantly make that work and make that happen. I think in the 33 years I've been here, I don't think we've ever missed a full meeting. We've had a few issues here and there. I remember one time back in the '90s we had a piece of equipment burn out and smoke and whatnot in the control room, and we had to evacuate the building for a few minutes. I remember running out with the piece of equipment. I had to quickly unscrew things and running out with a smoking piece of equipment to put it outside the building. But then we resumed the meeting five minutes, ten minutes later. I don't think we've ever missed a full meeting. When I started here 33 years ago, I never envisioned that I would still be here today and retiring from the city. I'm not sure anybody does when they first start working like that. But the city has become my family. I love working for the city. I love all the work I do, including doing all the meetings. We've done a lot of meetings over the years. I think the longest meeting we ever did was at the Tampa Convention Center back in 1999, between the morning meeting on that Thursday, the three hours in here, and then moving to the Convention Center which that meeting started at 1:00 and wrapped up at 4:30 in the morning. We did about 17.5 hours of meetings that day. That was a long day. But it was very interesting. I know we got a lot of response about that. People really wanted to see all the speakers and whatnot. It was a very interesting day. Of course, I couldn't do it without my staff. I have a great staff. Behind me were a small but very efficient staff. They do a great job, and I would be nowhere without my staff. I've had great staff people over the years. Great support from all the different departments I've worked with. And I'm very happy to have worked for the city. I'll miss it a little bit. I may tune into some meetings occasionally when I'm at home because it's hard to say good-bye to doing all the stuff. But I am looking forward to retirement. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Alan Clendenin

9:54:29AM I believe Councilman Miranda would --

Charlie Miranda

9:54:31AM I was listening to everything you said. When you said about that one meeting, that night lasted about 3 in the morning, regarding the six-foot rule if I recall. Thank you very much for going through all that. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

9:54:44AM That would have been fascinating testimony, too. [ laughter ]

Tom Dea

9:54:48AM It was very interesting.

Alan Clendenin

9:54:49AM Thank you very much. Congratulations on your retirement.

Tom Dea

9:54:52AM Thank you. Really appreciate it. [ applause ]

Alan Clendenin

9:54:56AM Dennis Rogero, thank you for your patience in allowing us to do that. Thank you.

Dennis Rogero

9:55:10AM Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, council.

Alan Clendenin

9:55:16AM The stage is yours. I know you will tell us we have more money than we know what to do and expenses are down.

Dennis Rogero

9:55:25AM Dennis Rogero, chief financial officer. Thanks as always for having us here and allowing us to present and enhance and expand upon what the mayor presented in terms of fiscal year 26 budget. As we did last year, we're bringing -- I think what is going to be the new normal now. We're bringing this to you weeks early. I think three weeks early than most of the time Dennis has been in the City of Tampa. I would like to see that become the new normal because I think it's been very well received, this extra time to discuss, question, research, et cetera. The budget that you're seeing now will be available along with the budget in its entirety at noon today on the internet. First, let me ensure you have the presentation hard copy in front of you.

9:56:16AM Outstanding. In that case, can I have the presentation up, please? Thank you very much. And here is our table of contents. It's mostly typical. We've added a few things this year. First, of course, we'll jump into the meat of it with the recommended operating and capital budget. We're going to break out some items for discussion because they have received specific attention by council, and I want to share some information. First of all, the fiscal year '24 fund balance that we've been discussing. That's about 11.8 million in play. Some changes to the Social Action and Arts Fund being recommended to you and also changes to housing funding we're recommending. At council's request, we added a section with detail about the stormwater funding history. Get into that. And then, of course, as council is used to seeing the capital improvement program over the next five years and the closely related debt program. We've gotten more and more detailed as council knows in the past in terms of our debt funding. I really think, again, it's led to a greater understanding and deeper and more quality discussion about both debt and the capital improvement program. Here it is. The net fiscal year 2026 budget for all funds is just under $2 billion. Increasing over the current year due to items that you're used to hearing by now, higher salaries, compensation and benefits, health care costs, additional positions. Of course, inflationary costs. Vehicle maintenance. The continuing addition to the community Redevelopment agency from property taxes. And continued funding of the water and wastewater projects. You see here, as we always do a breakout of the major funds, especially the two we talk about the most, the General Fund and the enterprise funds. As has been typical, they take up about three-quarters of the entirety of the budget. We'll break those down further as we go through the presentation. Then into your special revenue funds, these include, for instance, your construction services, your housing. Capital project funds, of course, internal service funds, these include such departments as fleet maintenance, those that serve customers internally, that serve other members of the city. Trust and agency funds, community Redevelopment agency. This is funding that doesn't belong to the city but we caretake it and rounding it out, debt service funds, annual debt service fund payments. Breaking out the General Fund and the enterprise fund, again, where we direct a great deal of our attention. The General Fund on the left, you also see that public safety takes up more than half, about 60% of the General Fund in its entirety. You've got your back-office functions, essential government, includes Revenue and Finance Department, human resources, technology and innovation. Those departments and personnel behind the scenes that keep the city running. Parks and Recreation, nice chunk there at over 10%. Public works, economic development, including the Tampa Convention Center. All told, just over $708 million recommended for fiscal year 26. On the right and even larger chunk just under 814 million, these are the enterprise funds. As council knows but worth reminding the public, these are departments that we expect them to run like a business. We expect them to make in air quotes profit. The primary difference between these departments and the private sector is when they make a profit, it's reinvested into their functions in support of the city. And, of course, wastewater and water, over three-quarters of the enterprise funds, not unexpected, Solid Waste, another heavy hitter at just under 17%. Parking fund, as you know, is an enterprise fund, doing very, very well. And very slight sliver at the top there with our golf courses. The mayor referenced this slide and at council's request we're going to highlight it. This is a comparison of what the city is anticipated to bring in property taxes next year and what we anticipate we'll spend on just police and fire. As the mayor said and I'll reiterate, it's obvious, property taxes don't come near the requirement to pay for public safety services in the city. Upper right, total property tax little over $380 million. But, again, we siphon off nearly $60 million of that for the community redevelopment agencies. We have $320 million to throw at just over $414 million for police and fire. Don't want to beat a dead horse but it is obvious property taxes don't meet near the needs the entirety of the city let alone the needs of public safety. I'll remind council and the public that property taxes are our largest revenue source and certainly the largest revenue source in the General Fund. So a very, very important revenue component, but by no means the only revenue component that we have to think about when we want to fund these services. This year, we also added a slide that includes Parks and Recreation Department of over $70 million. Again, it could be anecdotal, and I've said this before, but when I talk to members of the community or homeowner associations, typically there is a very, very big focus on property taxes, and I understand why. I've met people who think the entirety of the city is funded via property taxes. Again this brings it home that that's simply not the case. We use many other revenue sources even though this is a very, very important one. Continuing with the General Fund and a slide -- picture this -- near and dear to my heart are anticipated fund balance for fiscal year '26 and our history of unassigned fund balance back to 2018. I've congratulated council before. I'm going to congratulate you again. This is a very, very stable, confident financial picture for the General Fund. My compliments for continuing and my thanks for continuing to support this level of unassigned fund balance at 23, 24 percent, except, of course, as I always state for those covid years where you see a blip for 28 and 27 percent. Very, very important, as you've heard me state before and I'll state again, when we get to the debt presentation, an important metric for the credit rating agencies, an important metric for investors when we go to the market and try to sell the city's debt. Very, very good history and indication of what our reputation is, a conservative, well thought out, long term financial Planning model. As we did last year and I think the new normal, identify in the General Fund the major revenue components that had increased from the current year to the recommended budget we're sharing today. You see property tax a little over 26 million. Judgment and fines at just under 16 million and the primary component of that and one of the reasons we've isolated it are the school safety speed cameras that are coming online. This is a very nice side effect but I want to reiterate that the primary purpose of the cameras is the safety of our children, but we do anticipate we're going to recognize additional General Fund money from it. Miscellaneous revenues, not a bad component. 6.5 million. A little bit of utility tax in there, a little bit of communication services tax. At the very bottom and I don't know if we talk about this often, but it's worth highlighting. This is what we affectionately call the pilot and pilof, payment in lieu of taxes and payment in lieu of franchise fees. These are fees -- was going to say fines -- fees and charges that the enterprise funds pay for utilizing the rights-of-way of the city. Again, if they are going to operate like a business and acme wants to use our rights-of-way, we charge them. Charge the enterprise funds for this also. Influx into the General Fund and it's not a bad amount, little over $5 million. Total revenue increases, major revenue increases just over $53 million in fiscal year '26. If I could direct your attention back to the property taxes very quickly. $26.2 million, we'll take it. It's not bad. It represents a seven-ish percent increase in taxable value. It is less than we were bringing in just a couple of years ago, though. I think it stands in stark contrast to the 400 plus million that it takes to fund police, fire, and Parks and Recreation. We'll gladly take 26 million, but the amount of growth has been decreasing when you compare it to the last couple of years. All of this I say because it leads to a pretty constricted budget. We'll get into more detail with that in just a moment. As we did last year, and I think we'll do from here on out also, we attempt to match the major revenue increases to the major expenditure increases. I think this has been a very, very useful tool also. At the top, no surprise, compensation and benefits at $30 million in additional costs. New positions of about 4.5 ftes. I apologize for the jargon. For the public, fte stands for full-time equivalent. The best practice in financial and human resource management is to get a little bit away from the term "position" because position can be full-time, part-time, seasonal, et cetera. So to make comparison consistent, year to year and locality to locality, we talk about full-time equivalent. 4.5 full-time equivalent spots have been added in '26 at a little over half a million dollars. Again, you see the CRA contributions. TECO streetcar increased $2 million. HART route 1 gone up just under half a million dollars. And then as we did last year, we broke down the costs associated with either increasing the services that we provide right now -- or increasing the cost, increasing the level of services that we provide right now and the cost to provide new services. Again, our overwhelming priority is to make sure the level of service the city provides does not go backwards. Does not take a step back. To do that, it's going to cost nearly $10 million in the General Fund in fiscal year '26. Little over $2.5 million for the increased levels of services. Of course, we have the ability and we'll break all of this down for you. And new services at 2.5 million. Last two line items, increasing the level of service and new services. It's a little over $5 million. Again, great scale of things, not a lot. Not a lot. We have not had the opportunity to increase what we're doing, nor to bring on new services. Again, when you throw that five million dollars and juxtapose it against the massive, massive funding of the entire General Fund. I will reiterate, it makes for a pretty constricted budget. Moving into citywide position summary, and we provided this last year. Again, I think a very, very valuable tool. We break down at the lower half of the chart the additional positions we're requesting for fiscal year 2026. We also provide at the top of the chart, a comparison to what our position count was at our high-water mark in 2007, right before the great financial crisis. We're still nine positions or nine ftes below that level. You can see in fiscal year '26 we're asking for a total of 24.5 additional positions. And, of course, from most, Solid Waste, fleet maintenance, fire taking up the bulk. At council's request, we have provided a history of additional positions from 2019 to 2026, you heard the mayor reference portions of this in her presentation. At the top, over 122 positions for the Fire Department. I won't read each one, but you can see the overwhelming majority of concentrated in public safety, utilities, and construction services. Continuing with the position theme, ratio of employees to population continues to decline. It has declined from 2022 to 2023 to 2024 to 2025. We are now the lowest personnel to population ratio among our peers, just under the city of Orlando. All of this, of course, while the city continues to grow and service demands continue to expand. I would submit this as yet another part of our conservative fiscal management philosophy. Continuing with comparisons, no surprise here, our city millage comparisons to our peers, we remain and have remained for some time, you see the lowest millage of the four city comparison, Tampa, Orlando, st. petersburg, and miami. The competitive grant program, we like to show this comparison every year. We like to show it a little bit less this year. We had a great run. I don't think the run is going to end, but we have obviously hit a lull in fiscal year '25. You see almost quarter of a billion dollars in grants awarded since 2017 and the overwhelming majority of that in the five years from 2020 to 2024. I don't need to tell you some of the uncertainty associated with awards coming out of the Washington. We still have a very aggressive application program, a very good monitoring program, but it appears feast or famine right now and this appears to be a famine. I'm not giving up hope by any means and will continue to be very aggressive in what we apply for but the awards have been pretty scant so far in fiscal year '25. If I could drill down a little to three particular items, fiscal year '24 fund balance, social action in arts fund and the housing fund. Do you have a question, sir? Better view. Understood. Understood. Fiscal year '24 fund balance, council Will recall these are the particular categories we identified. In the middle column, the particular amounts council requested that we allocate the fund balance to. Far right, you can see the mayor recommended allocating the overwhelming majority of what council has requested to these particular categories. A little bit more than council requested for housing, flooding assistance, and about half of the request for resurfacing. What that leaves in play, of course, is about $2 million. At this time, we would prefer to hold that in abeyance for a couple of reasons. I won't beat a dead horse about the uncertainty going on in the economy and the city, et cetera, et cetera. We're very strong but a great deal of uncertainty out there. We remain in negotiations with our collective bargaining units. From a resurfacing perspective, we also want to make sure that we don't identify funding when we can that can't be spent very, very quickly. So all told, I believe we're recommending again a great deal of what council requested in those categories that council requested. Should council accept this and want to go forward, we can have a financial resolution ready to appropriate the funds I think as soon as the next -- can we get that in time for the 31st? Copy. Again, not to get wonkish, but we'll have to appropriate the funding so we can spend it because it is held in a fund balance right now. In the social actions and arts fund, again, a constricted budget and we had to make reductions in this particular area. From about 2 -- two point, almost $3 million, we set aside some components and are left with our recommendation of $1 million for nonprofits. As some of you know, we envision a hundred thousand dollars for each council member and $300,000 for council in their entirety for a total of $1 million. We have excluded city assets on the presumption that council Will want to continue to fund those assets at the same level in fiscal year '26. That would be the aquarium, the straz center, the zoo, et cetera. We have also, I believe this was at council's request, segregated the development and economic opportunity funding of about half a million dollars. So in the recommended budget, those continue just as they are in the current year. Contributions to housing. Again, a very tight budget. I'll try to walk you through this. I apologize. It may be a bit convoluted. At the top, you have the fiscal year '25, the current year General Fund supplement to the housing program at $9.7 million. We have reduced the General Fund component significantly and are recommending replacing it in fiscal year '26 you see here from an existing housing fund balance. What we've done in the Revenue and Finance world is turn the housing fund into a revolving fund. Eliminating the need to reappropriate the funding every year and allowing more flexibility for the housing department to spend that funding as they need it. From a process perspective, we think that's an improvement. What it allows us to do is mitigate the General Fund supplement you see to the tune of 5.7 million. And then should council accept it, here is the $2 million from the fiscal year from last year's General Fund balance. And then you see the total at the bottom for comparison purposes, we're going from a little under 10 million to a little under 8 million. So a $2 million hit. What I would point out at the bottom of the slide is there are what we think ample opportunities for additional housing funding in the future. Of course, council I believe as the CRA Board has made a commitment of 30% I think it is in the CRAs and then we'll have, I think, additional information to share with you very soon about the community development block grant for disaster recovery. A little bit of background, council I think knows this, but for the public, this is an over $700 million grant that Hillsborough county has received associated with the storms last year. Yesterday, the county commission approved their plan to send to the Housing and Urban Development office in August. It's up to HUD now to approve that. And it is overwhelmingly housing centric. We don't know yet how much, but we anticipate City of Tampa is going to get a significant amount of funding from this grant, primarily for housing purposes. Again, I think there's opportunity in the future, but eyes wide open, I want to be very clear, we're looking at a $2 million reduction in housing funding from the General Fund in this recommended budget. Moving into stormwater, again, at council's request we added both a 50,000-foot view of stormwater and going back to 2015 and 2017 respectively, a history of revenues associated with the two assessments. First up, I'll put a plug in for the service assessment rate study. We're working on that right now for possible implementation for the fiscal year 2027 budget. Of course, we'll bring council along every step of the way and ultimately it will be council's decision. This is the service assessment for operations as opposed to the improvement assessment for capital projects which we'll get into in just a minute. I believe you heard the mayor said stormwater. Invested 350 million in making Tampa more resilient since 2019. I believe she also referenced investing in just under $40 million over the next five years. New and replacement vehicles you see as the fourth bullet of 3.3 million in fiscal year '26. Give the General Fund credit where credit is due, we had an ongoing subsidy in the General Fund of $2 million for the stormwater system. That increased to $3 million in the current year and we're increasing it yet again to $4 million in the budget that we're presenting today. Drilling down into the service assessment, again, this is for operations. Here you see the history since 2015 of that assessment, along with the revenues, along with the expenses. Starting in 2015, you see it became effective in 2016. You see the bump there. We also had a loan from the Water department to do some stormwater projects. And as we started collecting the revenue in green, for the most part, you see that the expenses have pretty much kept pace. Now, again, worth saying that stormwater carries their own fund balance and also I'll reiterate that the General Fund continues to provide a supplement. But a pretty static and level and consistent picture since about 2018 of in-flows and out-flows in the stormwater assessment fund. Again, at council's request, you requested a history of the improvement assessment revenue since its inauguration in 2017. Here you see a nice uptick up to about '24 where we've kind of plateaued out. Again, these are for the capital projects associated with the stormwater program. Moving into our capital improvement program as we do, you see our five-year plan here, a little over $1.7 billion and a little over $420 million just in fiscal year '26. No surprise as is typical, you see the majority in the utilities and transportation areas, although I will point out at the top there, the CRA has a nice chunk and fire rescue, especially over the course of those five years to the right, over $125 million. As we typically do, we highlight major projects that we're working on both by category and in each district. I won't read them to you unless you'd like me to, but you'll see many repeat performers from the current year as these projects continue to be worked on and done. Pipes at the top. Fire rescue at the bottom. Parks and Recreation, technology and innovation, facilities, especially the decentralization plant, 40th street. Quite a few mobility projects. And as we do every year, we've also identified the major projects on the district maps. It's available online. District four, district five, district six and district seven. And if council is ready, into our debt program. Again, this is a nice one-two step I think because as council knows and for the public's awareness, the debt program is tied very, very closely with our capital improvement program because much of the funding for C.I.P. Comes from our debt. It's really good news. Worth repeating. You saw the mayor's slide. Seven credit rating upgrades since 2019. Congratulations. Genuinely, I always like congratulating both the mayor and council about these very, very good credit ratings and congratulating everybody in the city. It truly is a team effort. Certainly isn't Revenue and Finance doing it on its own. I'll remind council and for the awareness of the public, at the top, the issuer credit rating is the equivalent of our fico score, if you're familiar with your personal fico score and how that goes up and goes down. This is an absolutely outstanding fico score for the city. Two on the right, fitch and standard & poor's have given the highest. You can get no higher than aaa. The one on the left, moody's -- and we'll keep working on it -- the second highest, double a one. Just an outstanding credit profile. Then you get into the different issuances, water and sewer Bonds for the pipes program. Non-ad valorem Bonds. Again, we just issued with council's approval a little over $60 million, stormwater Bonds. Utility tax revenue Bonds and our sales tax revenue Bonds. So what the credit rating agencies do is, of course, they go into each individual issuances. As I've said before, got to keep earning it. Don't set it and forget it. We have to prove ourselves. Then they amalgamate the information and come up with our overall credit rating. Speaking of our recent non-ad valorem debt issuance, these are some of the very, very positive comments that went into moody's and standard & poor's ratings for that I think $66 million issuance. Large and diverse tax base. We're very, very fortunate to be where we are with the people we are. Fund and cash balances. Standard & poor's, very strong reserves. Again, one of the reasons that we continue to emphasize our fund balance and our reserves. Robust long-term Planning practices and policies. We take pride in the level of foresight that we have in the city from a financial management perspective. Again, eyes wide open. Want to let council Know of potential debt issuances that are coming in the future. Again, we just issued a non-ad valorem issuance. We have more on the horizon. You see a total of just over a quarter of a billion dollars. Some time over the next three to five years, we don't anticipate issuing these until three years out. And you see in the second bullet for both of these items, timing to be determined based on project schedules and/or spend-down requirements. Again, I can't emphasize enough, we don't want to issue debt and begin paying interest on money that we're not using. Money that's not working for us. Water and wastewater debt, again, continuing the pipes program. 764 million sometime in the mid future. Again, based on when the water and Wastewater Department can use this funding. As council is aware, probably the most recent large one we've continued to talk about is the Solid Waste debt. Again, in the short term, we'll get rid of the two mini-debts and issue a Solid Waste bond to absorb all of that debt for the next couple of decades. Here you see a 30-year fixed rate Solid Waste refunding revenue bond. We really, really like this slide. Council and the public have seen a form of this slide in the past. We wanted to drill down a little bit to the short and midterm as opposed to the long term. In the past, you've seen a plateauing and then a dramatic drop in the non-ad valorem annual debt service. This is what we pay every month for our debt. As we've said before and as you see in stark relief here, after fiscal year 2029, we have a very, very conservative glide path to fiscal year 2035 and beyond. What's that mean? It means once we get through the next couple of years, there is a great deal of debt capacity for non-ad valorem debt issuances, should council and the mayor at that time choose to take advantage of it. Also, quite a bit of relief in the annual General Fund debt payment. This is a very, very good debt plan in our opinion for the General Fund. And here by department or category are the anticipated debt issuances for the non-ad valorem program. You see at the bottom right, council, that $252 million we referenced earlier. And we've broken it up best guess right now into the individual debt issuances. Again, we don't anticipate this for some time, but it doesn't hurt when you talk, I think, when you're talking numbers like this and the number of projects that this entails, which we'll get into in just a moment to put -- to give everybody the information again so everybody can start Planning. Again, eyes wide open our philosophy here. Fire Department, $136 million total on the far right, other public safety projects. Making up, again, the overwhelming majority. At the bottom, you have mobility projects, about $36 million. Some general government projects and Parks and Recreation projects. This is a 50,000-foot view in your presentation and on the next few slides. We break it down by particular project and those particular debt issuances. I want to reiterate, we don't have a particular fiscal year identified for these issuances. Again, as part of our long-term plan, we like to plan this out. We want to know what the inflows and out flows are, what we have to do ahead of time to gear up for the issuances, both in terms of the market and in terms of council and the public. Getting ahead of the information and educating what we would like to do and why we want to do it. Again, I won't go through them item by item, unless you'd like me to. They are in your presentation. I'll just hover on this last slide. Again, with the totals by project program for each of those particular issuances and, again, the total of $252 million. Wrapping up, here is the budget calendar. Again, I think the revised time frame associated with sharing this information well in advance of the workshops worked out last year. I think it will continue to work out. Would like to see it be the new normal. I think council too. Two workshops so far scheduled next month and then the public hearings in September. Again, the budget will be available at noon today at this site. And a very big thank you. I always appreciate you indulging us and letting us get into a little detail about what is a very large budget, 49th largest in the U.S. I guess. It is extensive and expansive. It's complicated. Thanks for giving us extra time to go through it. Over the next weeks and months we look forward to going into ever greater detail with you and the public. Thank you, council.

Alan Clendenin

10:33:40AM As always, thank you. Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

10:33:43AM I want to say thank you to you, to Mike Perry, your team and also Hagar, our budget analyst. This is that time of year. This is not an easy task. Just your presentation alone is lengthy, but the budget is quite dense and a lot to talk about. I want to thank you for all your work, your entire department and all the team members. Thank you, sir.

Dennis Rogero

10:34:08AM Thank you very much. You reminded me, I'm sorry I was remiss in not thanking Ms. Kopesky. I certainly appreciate. And remiss in not thanking the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee. Absolutely. It truly is a team effort and, of course, everyone that we work with in the city. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

10:34:23AM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

10:34:25AM Thank you. I appreciate this. This just gets better every year.

Dennis Rogero

10:34:31AM Thank you, ma'am.

Lynn Hurtak

10:34:34AM I appreciate how we've modified this. Quick question. We haven't heard from the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee yet, have we?

Dennis Rogero

10:34:41AM Not to my knowledge. They typically come in as a body during the public hearings.

Lynn Hurtak

10:34:47AM Okay. During the public hearings. I wanted to double check on that. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of time for questions later, but I did want to just highlight a couple of things. Basically that the 2024 fund balance that we agreed on, I'm not particularly interested in changing that. All we hear is paving. All we hear is paving. I heard it again last night. Personally -- and I know we already approved the 500,000 for stormwater so that would just make it $3.5 million because, quite frankly, stormwater really needs it. That's the other thing that we're hearing constantly. So I don't know that I would support that. Then I'm really confused, the only other thing, like I said, I have a lot of questions but I'll make these two points today. The nonprofit, I thought that we had a brand-new system where people were supposed to have filled out a form, apply for it. Now it seems like we're changing midstream. I'm not comfortable with having a hundred thousand dollars that I have to allocate because what if somebody wants 150. Then I'm not allowed to talk to these folks when I'm not on the dais. So I think that would be next to impossible. I don't have a problem with council as a whole looking at that one million dollars. And from my understanding, previously we had done about 4 million.

Dennis Rogero

10:36:33AM Yes, when you include the city assets --

Lynn Hurtak

10:36:37AM I don't think -- we are finally taking the city assets out and the economic opportunity out. So did that actually go down once we take those out?

Dennis Rogero

10:36:50AM It did. A little over a million dollars. We can parse it out for you.

Lynn Hurtak

10:36:55AM I was curious. Because I know you said it went down but didn't know how much. You said a little less than a million. Maybe 1.9 and now it's 1.

Dennis Rogero

10:37:05AM If I'm not mistaken, going from memory, the totality of what we identified in the current year versus next year decreased about 1.1 million.

Lynn Hurtak

10:37:14AM 1.1 million decrease. Thank you so much. I think those are the two things I wanted to highlight right away because you had mentioned getting a financial resolution and I don't think I'm quite ready to do that yet with these recommended amounts for the FY '24 schedule. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

10:37:32AM Councilman Viera and then Councilman Carlson.

Luis Viera

10:37:35AM Thank you very much. I don't have questions. When I have questions, I'll deal with them privately. A couple of notes to make. I did want to say this publicly and spoken with folks in the administration, I was told for purposes and I'll talk about the nonprofits, that every year, the special needs internship program -- I'll talk about that and the great disappointment that's been so far -- has been funded under nonprofits. According to that, it's not in the mayor's budget. I will fight that. I will contest that. I will do everything I can to make sure that is taken out of nonprofits. This is nothing to do with you, Dennis, because not your ball game. Number one, make sure we hire interns. Done this a couple of years and I think we have two interns from the program. We'll be hearing about that. Potentially taken out of the budget adds insult to injury. The injury is the few interns we've had and allocated the money and then the insult is potentially that. Again I will fight like hell on that, obviously, in terms of what's happened in the past and what we'll do in the future. Somewhere out there is about half a dozen or dozen people with intellectual disabilities who could be working right here in the City of Tampa as interns. They are not doing it now and we can't let that go. That's number one. Number two is the housing. I really, really appreciate that being in there. I think that's important. But we've got to expedite that. We're running so late. Running so late on that. Talk a lot about North Tampa, there's South Tampa. Saw something about Palmetto Beach. Let's talk about the people out there who suffered so much. They deserve this money. We've got to expedite this. Right now people not living in their homes going through misery, going through hell from last year in October. It's been a constant for them. We have to expedite this as if it was us and treat people the way we want to be treated if we got an unexpected flood like happened to so many people after milton and make sure we have their backs on that. I saw something in there about the k-bar ranch park. Is any of that funded in this year's budget? Because it was there. We budgeted design money in the '24 budget, and then we have construction money I think coming in the '27 C.I.P.

10:40:01AM So nothing this year.

Mike Perry

10:40:04AM Nothing this year.

Luis Viera

10:40:05AM Why is k-bar ranch there? In other words, it's not funded in this year's budget.

Mike Perry

10:40:12AM The list we provided to your other projects the city is working on whether or not they receive funding in the upcoming fiscal year or not.

Luis Viera

10:40:20AM I always make note, again, take a look at those things under the district 7 budget. When I say the district seven person -- I'll be leaving in a year and a half and somebody will be taking my place, and I hope they have a really loud mouth. Because you take a look at the things there, you see Forest Hills improvements. Well, they just got flooded. I hope we make some improvements there. Fire station 24, it's taken forever. It's there. We should have more progress on that. K-bar ranch and stuff in New Tampa. District 7 is a part of the City of Tampa. Been beating that drum 8 years. We've gotten a lot done. Whenever I see the lists a little bit, the chip on my shoulder just gets a little bit bigger about district 7. I wanted to make sure. Lastly in terms of the nonprofits, I appreciate what Councilwoman Hurtak said. We had a discussion last year on taking a look at our list that we give, and we had, Hagar did a great job I believe it was in looking at the percentage of what goes to different groups. We found that veterans get very, very little. I identified veteran organizations which council I'm sure would support as well as some groups that help out people with disabilities. What I'm going to do is do a memo that summarizes all of these proposed investments in these two areas because they will exceed the hundred thousand dollars. It's an investment we should make as a city because we ignored those two groups and nonprofits for too long. Mr. Rogero, you are always a pleasure and thank you for your professionalism.

Bill Carlson

10:42:02AM As my colleague said, we'll have a lot of time to talk about this in depth. Interested to hear what the public has to say today and in future meetings. If you hear us not asking questions, we have several public meetings to do that in. To hit some highlights, stormwater is probably the biggest issue in South Tampa. Most of the people flooded were in South Tampa. You talk about a total number of $350 million over the last seven years or so, that's like 20, $30 million a year. When the buckhorn tax was passed in 2016, folks were promised that maintenance was going to be done and we see maintenance has not been done in decades in many places. That has got to be done. I see the city has been on a big PR pitch while City Council has been on vacation to talk about how much the city has done in maintenance and stormwater. The reality is it hasn't. No amount of PR is going to change the fact that people can see that maintenance hasn't been done and that their houses are flooding. We need to take it seriously. It's not a PR problem. It is an actual problem. Not speaking to you, Mr. Rogero, speaking through you to make this point to the administration that stormwater has got to be a real issue, not a PR issue. Number 2, council member Hurtak talked about the social nonprofit budget, I don't think -- I don't want to be allocated hundred thousand dollars if we need -- if we set criteria for what we need to fund in that program, council member Henderson had suggested we only fund organizations for a year or two which I thought was a good idea, so it is not a recurring thing. It should be a short-term amount that we fund. But it should be based on criteria and a short-term bridge, not a long-term funding thing. You've taken at our request and the public's request, taken out economic development and some of the other things that were really not nonprofit funding which is great. But any money that we don't need to spend, it should not be a slush fund that City Council can allocate to their favorite non-profits. It needs to be based on need and sound criteria. Chief of staff has worked on that before. Look forward to working with him on that as well. Fund balance, I'm a broken record, I really believe you should go back to 2018 -- not 2018 -- 2010, because what it showed is pam iorio had 150 million in the fund balance. When buckhorn administration handed off to us, only had 83 million. Dereliction of duty and wasting money. Should not be spending money during good times. Should be saving during good times and spending in bad times. Miracle what mayor iorio did. When I started in 2019 in support of colleagues, pushed increasing the fund balance. Luckily administration agreed. Now we're back up. This year we just hit the 2010 numbers for the first time. It's a shame that we had to do that. We shouldn't have burned down that budget like that. Now we're operating at a good level and seen the results by the rating agencies. They specifically mention that as a line item that something that City Council pushed really hard for over the last few years. Thank you to the administration for working with us on this. You talked about the housing budget going down potentially 2 million. Anybody interested in housing, big bucket allocated in the CRA. CRA money by legislation, one of the key areas that can and should be funded as affordable housing, the CRA, a separate entity is heavily funding CRAs and still tweaking that based on community input. South Howard project is one you mentioned in district 4. Overall flooding in South Tampa and said many times, South Howard project, I don't know why it's been prioritized, the way it's configured, it will not benefit the community for four years and it's not going to help in a major storm. I don't know why we spend 80 million plus, 60 or so million in interest on a project that's not going to work and disrupt the city. We need to take the money immediately and do maintenance throughout South Tampa and other parts of the city. $80 million would be transformative in doing basic maintenance, Palma Ceia Pines, Parkland Estates and others so won't flood. Why spend money on a project we hope work, probably won't work, and even more disruptive. We need to focus on not doing what we think is politically right. We need to do what actually is right based on science, not somebody's pet projects. The last two things that I have to mention, do I read this correctly that the mayor is not proposing an ad valorem tax increase?

Dennis Rogero

10:46:49AM She is not.

Bill Carlson

10:46:49AM She is not. And she's not proposing a roll back either, but she's not proposing an ad valorem increase.

Dennis Rogero

10:46:57AM Correct.

Bill Carlson

10:46:57AM That's good news because I heard that might happen. We had also heard grapevine that she was proposing a stormwater rate increase, is she not doing that either?

Dennis Rogero

10:47:05AM No.

Bill Carlson

10:47:07AM So no major increases there. The debt, I was trying to add it up quickly as you were going through the slides, looks like a billion, billion and a half in additional debt. Do you have the total number on additional? How much of that is included in the 1.6 billion that you had shown us months ago as total debt of the city? Is a lot of that included? First of all, what is the number on the additional debt that -- you said potentially allocated over the next five to ten years, so not immediate. Let's say one and a half billion. One and a half billion on top of the 1.6 or is some of that already included in 1.6. One of the slides you showed was the debt service and that's only because some of the debt is old and going to retire and that allows some capacity to pay. Doesn't mean we need to use it right away. But that's what frees that up. Could you give us just some overall additional insight on the debt? Thank you for the transparency you put in this as well.

Dennis Rogero

10:48:03AM Thank you, sir.

Bill Carlson

10:48:05AM Do you have that answer? Do you know what the total debt is?

Dennis Rogero

10:48:09AM I do not. I was going to provide it to you.

Alan Clendenin

10:48:12AM My assumption is these questions will be answered at subsequent hearings. Councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

10:48:17AM Everything in life has a day and time and purpose for happening. I've been here during the good times and the real bad times. When mayor iorio took over and have to give her compliment, had to lay off people. Times were not good. What happens in life, you have a repeating. What's happening now, yes, you still have growth. Yeah, you still have something going on positively. And it will continue that way for some period of time. However, sooner or later, you're going to hit that cross road where you're going back where the monies you collect cannot equal the sums of your expenses. That's when you have a problem. I just want to make sure, instead of us talking how wonderful everything is, that we realize that there are some people, a lot of people that are suffering because of the inflation that we have and the cost of living we have and not affordable housing that we don't have and things of that nature. Use myself as example. The house I bought in 1968 was $12,400. If I sell it today for 450,000, I'm homeless because I can't find a house for 450,000. What I'm trying to do is not be humorous. I'm trying to be factual. Besides that, the taxes I paid in 1968 are not the same that I'm paying in 2026 coming. So we're putting pressure on individuals that have not had a rate increase like some of us have had in the last 20 years, that are working their butts off to make ends meet. I'm not here to be a preacher. I'm telling you the facts that I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to everybody. Don't take it personal. I know you won't. I've known you a long time. You are a straight individual and do everything right. Believe me.

Dennis Rogero

10:50:17AM Thank you, sir.

Charlie Miranda

10:50:18AM You have to be cognizant of the fact, buckhorn did, greco did, I'm worried about what we're doing now. What we're doing now is setting the perimeters of what we believe the future will bring. But that future sometimes doesn't tell you the truth, even though factual looks like it is wonderful, we don't know what will happen in this country. I believe the general population is at edge about so many things. Every time you look at tv, there is a war, threat you, bomb you, kill you, do everything I can to hurt you, every time you look around the streets, all the kids want to do is look at little computer and make believe telling you all the facts. If you are a doctor, you don't which way to go because you are prescribing medication but on your tv or cell phone, drink this, cure your diabetes. Bunch of people doing it, including people on tv getting revenues from it. What the hell is wrong with us? So confused in this life that we don't know which way is right and which way is wrong. That's the problem we have as human beings. Not about you, not about us, not about the people in the audience or people that live in the City of Tampa, it's what is happening to this country. I cannot tell you that whatever we build to help stormwater and keep the flood from happening is enough to stop what's coming. You know why? Because I can't tell you what's coming. Yet, we don't do anything about nature. This council turned down 5-2 just to put a park in to put something that we wanted in it, which was solar. And it turned it down. We asked for it and turned it down. So I'm telling you, all of us, and this whole country, you better watch out. Better look out what you do and how you treat nature because nature is the one doing the things to us that we've done to them. Seen the hurricanes and tornadoes all over the country. People who have never been flooded are flooded. Some areas that have been flooding, flooding again. Hundred and some people died in a little town in Texas. Ain't the only one. It's all over the country. Still here talking about -- elections. I don't give a damn about election. You either win or lose when you seek office. That's it. You don't have to be any different than yourself. What I'm trying to tell you is it's understandable what we're doing. Let's understand that every dollar is going to the right place for the right purposes, for the general population, not for us, but for the general population, to make sure that we get things done right, that everybody has a chance to do something to better themselves and their family. And that takes a whole lot. Takes a lot more than a government to help somebody get up. I'm just telling all of us, be cognizant of the fact. Look to your left and look to your right because we're all in the same boat. Thank you very much for coming.

Dennis Rogero

10:53:15AM Thank you, sir.

Alan Clendenin

10:53:16AM I have a question and reserving anything about FY '26 for the subsequent hearings we're going to hold. My concern is about the 2024 fund balance council request that, it wasn't just a request. Can you give me some background on this? You brought the fund balance to us. We reapportioned that money and by council's decision and somehow somebody outside of this council decided they didn't like our decision and now they are bringing different figures to us. I was going to wait for your answer but I'm absolutely disgusted that this has occurred. That somebody in the other building has decided they are going to cut paving in half after this council decided to spend this money this way without any communication. One thing I don't like is being surprised. I ran on a budget of repaving the streets. I've been pushing this from day one. We all reached a compromise because nobody got what they wanted when we reapportioned the money. And then to be surprised today without any communication, without any phone calls that you're cutting the paving budget in half, I'm speechless. How did this happen?

Dennis Rogero

10:54:32AM I apologize for any misunderstanding, but if I can start --

Alan Clendenin

10:54:39AM I was going to let you do that but then my temper got away from me.

Dennis Rogero

10:54:44AM I apologize for any misunderstanding but if I could walk through the process and perhaps we'll understand how we came to where we are at. This is funding, of course, left over from the prior fiscal year. Until council -- until the mayor brings council a request to appropriate this funding, it is unspendable. It remains in a fund balance. And that's where it's at right now. This, from my perspective, was viewed as the mechanism for that. Council would like this funding left over from last year in these particular categories, the mayor is recommending almost all of it for those particular categories as you see there. And this would be the mechanism for council to say, yes, bring us a financial resolution to appropriate this funding. This funding does not exist yet in any of these categories for spending.

Alan Clendenin

10:55:38AM Was it just a circus show the last time council made a decision? What the hell do I care the mayor wants when it is the City Council's decision how to appropriate the money?

Dennis Rogero

10:55:47AM I understand your perspective and I'll defer to legal, but I don't believe it is City Council's decision to appropriate the funding.

Alan Clendenin

10:55:54AM Whose decision is it?

Dennis Rogero

10:55:56AM It is the decision of the mayor to bring it forward for council --

Alan Clendenin

10:55:59AM She doesn't spend money that's not appropriated. We have to appropriate that money.

Dennis Rogero

10:56:03AM Exactly. Again, we view this as the mechanism for that, to get us to a point council can appropriate --

Alan Clendenin

10:56:10AM How did this get changed? It happened at a previous meeting. The administration came before us. You came before us and told us we have this much money in unspent money. And this is what we want you to reappropriate this money. This council in good faith made a decision and voted on a resolution to spend that money. Now what I'm hearing, the administrators says, we understand you made that decision, we don't like that decision so we want another bite at the apple.

Dennis Rogero

10:56:40AM I disagree with that recollection. I don't think that's what happened, sir.

Bill Carlson

10:56:46AM That's what happened on station 24 where Councilman Viera made a motion, allocate what was 11 million. This time last year, you said we didn't spend the money. Spent it on something else. By charter, the administration doesn't have that authority. I'm tired of the administration blaming us that we're trying to take over the powers as mayor. We're trying to defend the powers of City Council as defined by the charter and approved by the people. The mayor's office does not have the right. Don't have the right to do a lot of things they interpret they can do. Once we allocate the budget, the mayor's office can't just take it away. I didn't talk a lot about road repair, it is number one or number two throughout our whole city. Our roads are in horrible shape. Never seen roads anywhere in the world that look as bad as our roads. It's disgusting. The compromise we agreed to last year and the year before were small compromises. We need 40, $50 million a year. Compromise by adding another 5 million. We media take this seriously. The people that moved here that had private equity companies and managing billions of dollars, a lot of them are moving back wherever they came from because they are disgusted with the roads, disgusting with flooding and disgusted with our parks. We want to talk about economic development, let's fix the roads, flooding and parks and make sure we keep our people safe.

Alan Clendenin

10:58:08AM I don't like surprises. I think this council has been very clear. Honestly, repaving roads is part of our stormwater as well. It is a critical part on how we shed water off of our properties. The fact that cut in half. A decision that was just made weeks ago. It just blows my mind. Before I hand off to Councilman Miranda, I want to remind the audience, I love you all and appreciate the energy. But no snapping fingers. No clapping. No voice-backs from the audience. You'll have your opportunity during public comment to express your viewpoints.

Charlie Miranda

10:58:42AM I remind my colleagues this is a presentation. Happy for the comments. But it soon becomes the council's budget when it is handed to us to pass so we can make the changes. There should not be an argument. We can do it legally without no problem and then there's no more conversation.

Alan Clendenin

10:59:02AM Maybe I'm confused what we did a few weeks ago.

Charlie Miranda

10:59:07AM I understand that. I'm not debating what you said. I understand what you said. This could be corrected without any legal or any fuss. Once they hand it to us, it is no longer the administration's budget. It is the council's budget.

Alan Clendenin

10:59:20AM Very good. Thank you. Anybody else?

Dennis Rogero

10:59:23AM Sir, again, apologies for any miscommunication, from my perspective, I thought I was very clear that this was a mayoral decision. I'm sorry that message did not carry forward. It is never my intention to surprise anyone on council or the public. But miscommunication happens and misunderstanding happens. I appreciate your perspective.

Alan Clendenin

10:59:47AM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

10:59:48AM I think we need to get to public comment. One more question, the mayor and some of the county commissioners last few days have been talking about how essentially a done deal that the rays are bringing a stadium here or new owners of the rays bring the stadium here. Is there somewhere in the budget for the city to apply money? We all see how tight the budget is? Is there a budget the mayor has set aside for a rays stadium?

Dennis Rogero

11:00:11AM There is not.

Alan Clendenin

11:00:12AM Thank you, sir. Council request is going to take a five-minute break and we'll come back with public comment. Five minutes real time, not council time. So 11:05. [Recess]

Charlie Miranda

11:00:27AM Here.

Guido Maniscalco

11:13:14AM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

11:13:14AM Here.

The clerk

11:13:14AM Viera? Carlson? Clendenin?

Alan Clendenin

11:13:17AM Here.

The clerk

11:13:18AM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

11:13:19AM Thank you. We'll move to public comment. Mr. Shelby.

Martin Shelby

11:13:23AM Yes, Mr. Chairman, good morning. Good morning members of the public, Martin Shelby, City Council attorney, here to talk to you briefly about the rules for public comment and the decorum for today's meeting. With regard to public comment, you've had the opportunity to submit cards outside for general public comment and one card per speaker. Each person submitting a card will be recognized by name to approach and speak. A three-minute time limit applies and please print legibly because names that cannot be read will not be called. If you are here to speak on something on the agenda that's been designated as a public hearing, you will have time to speak to that item at the time of the public hearing and use the sign-in sheet that's outside instead of the public speaker card. If you need assistance, please see the City staff. Members of the public are allowed a reasonable opportunity at the beginning of today's agenda to address any item on the agenda before the City Council takes official action on an item. Again, if it's something set for staff reports or something on the consent docket, the time to speak to that is now. A three minute time limit applies, as I said. Members of the public are also reminded to please refrain from disruptive behavior, including making vulgar or threatening remarks or making or causing disruptive noises or sounds or displaying signs or graphics. Speakers are also reminded to refrain from launching personal attacks against any city official, staff member, or members of the public. The Chair Will rule out of order any person who speaks without being recognized or attempts to address the council from outside the speaker area at the podium. Persons failing to comply with the council rules may also be ruled out of order and at the discretion of the chair may be removed from the chambers for the remainder of today's meeting. Now, finally, please note that City Council should refrain from engaging a speaker under public comment. And the public should be aware that City Council does not take questions or have a dialogue with you during agenda public comment. This is your opportunity to express your position. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

11:15:43AM Thank you, Mr. Shelby. Also let the record reflect that Councilman Carlson is present. We're going to do online first. We have one speaker, Michael randolph. Michael randolph, are you on? My name is Michael randolph. I am with the West Tampa cdd -- West Tampa CDC. Today I'm here to talk about the Rome yard project and update specifically the West Tampa technology. In doing so I want to honor the late Councilwoman Henderson that put so much into this project and give a couple of seconds of silence in that particular respect. Thank you. This project was born from a groundbreaking community benefit agreement, bringing together the CDC of Tampa, Tampa Housing Authority, and the West Tampa CDC in a powerful, public-private partnership. I call it the dream team, local leadership focus on increasing development and community economic development. Our training center will be among the first bill constructed under the Rome yard project. Both the operational headquarters and training hub. Today, I'm proud to announce updates on West Tampa technological center. First, we're talking about curating 30 plus community based, job based, home based jobs. Each will be equipped with artificial power to run it. Second, the creation of 80 new tech jobs, artificial tech jobs. This is focused on hiring directly from the low-income neighborhoods to create a digital -- to end the digital divide. Finally, prepare for technical literacy, which focus away from the idea of consumerism to investment, covering excess building, generational growth. To sustain this project, adopting what is known as community compact agreement. And recipients who do get an opportunity to start the business, do pay pack the community plus 10% of the services that we provide. This is an earned income model that promotes accountability and keeps the initiative. What's most important, the budget for this project is $280,000. 80% of artificial intelligence staff, that 285 is 45 productive in what we would do if we had live employees. Live employees, talking about $650,000. This results in high efficiency programming that boosts equity, build wealth and --

11:19:06AM Thank you, Mr. Randolph. Next speaker is ariel danley, followed by Bishop Michelle b. Patty. To our distinguished council members -- my name is ariel amirah danley. Good morning to our distinguished council members, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the City of Tampa, the mayor, the aides, the staff, the residents, Chief Bercaw, Chief Tripp, and all of the first responders that carried my mother out with dignity and every kindness that has been shown to my family so far. My name is ariel amirah danley, and the honorable councilwomen Gwendolyn Henderson is my mother. Now, to new business, the future of our fair city, because every neighborhood deserves to feel like it is part of Tampa's heart. I've spoken to dozens of residents, business owners, and community leaders in district 5 from East Tampa to Sulphur Springs, from ybor to West Tampa, downtown, all the way to Palmetto Beach. Did I say East Tampa? Did I say Palmetto Beach? Let me say it again. East Tampa and Palmetto Beach, I'm repeating myself because too often those neighborhoods are asked to wait to make do with less. Today, I'm simply saying we can do better. Mayor Castor is correct in saying Tampa's greatest asset is its people. Let the support of the people take the lead. My neighbors, the souls who occupy our streets have been clear we're asking for the basics. Fix our streets and sidewalks, fund home repairs, and keep people housed. Make housing attainable, develop the city thoughtfully, invest in the youth and lighting and public safety. Light up the ybor corridor. Illuminate West Tampa and East Tampa, college hill, and Highland Pines. Families with decades of underinvestment need infrastructure and housing rehab that is real because it's urgent. Ybor, downtown, and channelside district, we need better flood protection and real support for small businesses. These are not just entertainment zones. They are home to workers, families, and community. The difference between Hyde Park and ybor or West Tampa isn't the people. It's the investment. And that's a choice we can change. Sulphur Springs already gave you a plan. Open your hearts and fund the progress. Restore the pool, not a patch job. Dig it up, build it right. Protect the springs. Address the blight. In West Tampa and palmetto, any investment along waterfront must include people who have lived there the longest because their sacrifices are worth investing in. Invest in our long-terms goals. Protect the tree fund, manicure the trees, transportation, improve mobility in the urban core. Prioritize our storm infrastructure. It's not a question if storms like helene and milton will find us again. The storms are coming without a doubt. Let's not settle for patchwork. Let's set the national standard for what can be done. Support our first responders. Give them a raise. Make them feel appreciated. Last, but certainly not least, make the yellow jackets whole. Let's give them a beautiful home because the people have not forgotten them. When we online shop, we often get to a screen that says, would you like to confirm this payment? Well, the people have spoken, and we would like to push the button. Thank you.

11:22:21AM Thank you, ariel. Next speaker, Bishop Michelle b. Patty followed by bill Truett. I'm Bishop Michelle b. Patty. I'm here to speak on the budget. The boundaries do not stop for South Tampa at Gandy. South Tampa go all the way to MacDill Air Force Base, also to Port Tampa. German street. Kissimmee, on and on. People there lost their homes. They are devastated. They call me because there was no communication coming out of city hall to tell them what can be done, what can happen, what they can get their needs from. So they need better communication. They need help. We want to talk about East Tampa, the trees, she already said well, I won't go back over that. There are people that live outside the boundaries of the CRA that are senior citizens who are on a fixed income whose homes are being destroyed and they can't get any help. We need to make those programs accessible to these people. Also, you talked about the nonprofits. I'm glad to hear about the nonprofits, but they need to be responsible. They need to do the work. They need to show where they have done the work. Most of all, they need to do an audit. Audit should be done showing what they have done with the taxpayers' money. Taxpayers were pushed to the limit where we don't have any money, but we still believe in safety. We believe in fire. We believe in all these necessities. We believe in them. But we don't want people to just squander our dollars away because they think no one is looking. Also, we know that we don't have a councilperson sitting here for district 5 right now, so we're asking each one of you all to make sure that district 5 is not overlooked. Yes, we had floods over on Davis Islands. Davis Islands, a lot of people feel like they are rich. But when you have that devastation, it's devastating to lose everything that you own. I'm a native of Tampa, born and raised here, July the 22nd, next week, I be 72 years old. I've seen the train tracks pulled up off of Rome that never was before when we was living there. That area had always flooded out, but now that we are building these nice, fine homes and condos, we're able to invest in certain areas now that we have the money. We want you to continue to really look at that budget, question the budget, and make sure that all of Tampa, all of Tampa is inclusive when you say "I do" to that budget. Thank you.

11:25:16AM Truett followed by Valerie bullock. I'm William Truett. 1005 East Clifton Street in hampton terrace in Old Seminole Heights. In my neighborhood, hampton terrace and lake roberta have significant historical importance to Seminole Heights and for the City of Tampa. This is related to item 43 later. In the early 1900s, the lake was a watering hole for cattle when the farmers would bring cattle into Tampa for auction. In 1913, newspaper advertisements touted that lake hampton at that time in a proposed hampton terrace development was one of the largest natural springs fed lakes --

11:26:07AM Audience members, can you please withhold your conversation or go outside because we can pick it all the way up here.

11:26:14AM It wasn't you. Natural spring lake. Early 1920s that Lillian probasco and probasco realty began to develop. 1924, the first major infrastructure projects began. They began work on what was the only natural spring fed lake in the City of Tampa. They renamed the lake at that time to lake roberta and hampton drive, lake roberta to roberta circle named after her daughter at that time. Many of you know Christmas traditions are very big in our neighborhood. Began with santa and reindeer back in the 1930s with the floats. 1940s, some of the largest bass tournaments were held at lake roberta at that time as well. But it was interesting, also during the 1940s, flooding was a major issue in Tampa and lake roberta was one of those areas. In 1948, the city began flood relief efforts by adding storm inlets and outlets to lake roberta. It was repurposed to a storm retention pond. Lake roberta endured many ups and Downs the past 60 years. When I first drove into my maybe that to look at my house in 2013, I rode around the circle. My first thought, oh, there is a greenspace. There is a little park. Then I happened to notice the snowman. It was sitting on a float. The lake was just a green pea soup. It was thick at that time. Shortly afterwards, many neighbors began working together to improve the lake. Hampton terrace has changed a lot in the last 15 years. A lot of new homeowners. People with civic conscience that want to do something. Working with the city, we have done a lot for lake roberta. Today, the lake is beautiful. And item 43 coming up later today, we're asking that you will continue to monitor the lake for safety in the area. It is home to many wildlife. We enjoy the area. Many of the traditions that continue with Christmas still happening around the lake. It is home to many different species. Also a migratory spot for birds. We had swans for the first time in the last couple of years. I'm asking hopefully that you will support this today. Thank you.

11:28:34AM Thank you. Valerie bullock followed by Stephanie poynor. Valerie bullock from East Tampa and ponce de leon and college hill. I want to put this map up here. I hope everybody can see -- flip it over. I was on facebook and I was talking to some people. They kept saying that they stay in North Ybor. North Ybor, I never heard of that. Where is that at? They started telling me it was on 22nd street by the old Florida sentinel newspaper. No, that's part of ponce de leon, college hill, that's East Tampa. Let me do a little research. I went to the City of Tampa website. They had a page up there. I typed in North Ybor. This map came up. So Ybor City goes from down there by philip shore all the way to Martin Luther King. If that is not true, the city really needs to take it down because it's an insult to me and some more people. If it's East Tampa, it should be on the city website designated as East Tampa. And I was sitting there thinking about it, and now my mind going crazy, oh, this is why they named the apartments on Columbus Drive and 22nd street casa de because that is the agenda they are trying to push and I think it's rather backhanded. The reason why I'm saying this is because now it's time for the budget, and when the gentleman was up here talking and he was talking about the district, he really rushed through it. So I didn't get to hear any ideas of what's going on in East Tampa. And without representation right now and the budget is coming up, I don't want us to be left out. I said it repeatedly and I'll say it again. East Tampa need an economic engine. We need distribution centers and manufacturing warehouses over there and I know downtown have the board where they negotiate with people they bring in, like they did with the people who dot computers. They bring in economic development. So that's what we need in East Tampa. I don't hear nobody talking about it. When it comes to East Tampa, I hear about the cigar place, the place they'll remodel. I hear about that. I hear about first-time home buyers program but I don't hear nothing concerning economic development. The nice pretty houses we must have a job to be able to buy them. Thank you.

11:31:24AM Please silence your phones. Next speaker -- the card says poynor. Are you changing your name? Stephanie poynor, or is it afternoon? Pretty close. I always love budget season. It's always so much fun. Of course, I didn't look at it until 7:30 this morning. One of the big things I noticed, used to be two stormwater pages, now one stormwater page. Are we combining things where they were separate before? I noticed that. I started counting how many people who work for the City of Tampa are making over a quarter of a million dollars. I've only gotten to page 30 and there are five or six. Yes, they are public servants, but when we get over a quarter of a million and I haven't had a chance because it just came out yesterday. I can't wait to see how much of an increase these folks got because I don't remember anybody being over a quarter of a million dollars in last year's budget. When we get to the nonprofits, the arts, whatever fund, can we make a separate meeting for that? Last year we spent a lot of time talking about that and didn't get to other things. I would also like to point out that the mayor told me this morning that we're going to stop servicing parades with our Stormwater Department. That just tickles the crap out of me. I would also like to point out since somebody wanted to bring up my community where I live. I live South of Gandy. I breathe South of Gandy. I fed people after both hurricanes. I kept the community center open for an entire week every single day. So for somebody to come down here and say that City Council and the city haven't done anything for South of Gandy, you need to come to the place where you're talking about because I live there. Go back to Brandon. Don't come down here interfering in city stuff. If you don't live here, mind your business. And don't come talking about what I have done. Luis Viera was watching dishes at the legion. Lynn, bill, they were there. They came to the community center where I was feeding people, making sure they had a place to come and rest and get air conditioning and charge their phones and charge their equipment and then somebody wants to come down here talking about they were forgotten. No. those people weren't forgotten. Everybody has talked to folks about City Council. I've had personal conversations with John Bennett about it. Please, if you live South of Gandy and you have a problem, call me. My name is poynor. Google me. You will see my phone number. Don't call people who don't live in our community for help because they are not going to help you. They are too busy helping themselves to their own pocketbook.

11:34:19AM Thank you. Connie burton followed by kella mccaskill. Connie burton. The highest funded law enforcement agency on the federal level is going from $8 billion to 28 billion. That's fact. When I heard this morning's budget summary, I thought this was the twin sister to that. 60% of the entire budget going toward law enforcement and fire. And that's been a continuing pattern year after year after year after year. 10% only going to youth development. While we are watching and we are constantly saying how we don't have enough housing. And yet we are depending upon the CRA because you say you have that bucket of money over there now, but the CRA has been in East Tampa, been forced to deal with infrastructure issues. JC Newman came to the East Tampa CRA, got five million dollars for what? Infrastructure. And if you're counting on the county community development block grant money to facilitate your housing crisis, you got some people now on that county board that don't give a doggone about where people live and sleep. They gutted their whole housing project. You'll have to figure out some of this stuff for yourself. What we did ask for and we did not get was that in the racial reconciliation package 568, there were five points supposed to look at. One was youth opportunity. For the two years, we asked for an increase for young people to have jobs within the City of Tampa. I think only able to get to 48. 72 wasn't a hard number, but 72 became a hard request if people didn't want to do it through Parks and Recreation. So we would like to see funding moving forward, not just for 72, because we need to advance that. Now we need to have funding that would allow 72 times 2, 144 for next year. We also need to make sure that we have money in the program so we can deal with different housing models. The mayor talked about adus years ago, in the first administration, and yet we have seen nothing with that. We would like to also see the five subject matters that we discussed in the racial reconciliation, money set aside to deal with all five. Preserving history, economic redevelopment, youth opportunity, housing, and money for Returning Citizens. If that's not in the budget, then why are we here? We keep talking about the same things that the people need to have to uplift their lives but yet it continue to be ignored. Thank you.

11:37:34AM Thank you, connie. Kella mccaskill followed by freddy Taylor I think is the name. Kella mccaskill. I also wanted to cosign on what Stephanie poynor said, down in South of Gandy, although I'm active in East Tampa and West Tampa, home is South of Gandy, Port Tampa. In fact, Gandy civic association, than, South of Gandy, Councilman Carlson, everybody was active in that community. I'm here today specifically to talk about d 5 because we don't have a representative in the seat to talk through the budget. I sent recommendations that are good ideas to support this area as it relates to the budget. 568, didn't see pretty pictures or graphics that talk about 568. You admitted the wrongs, disdain for black people and that resolution was your way to make it right. Would have been great to show a great graphic and the budget and the support and how the city will move this forward, especially coming from the mayor since it's in her time that we're trying to deal with this resolution 568. See business assistance services. Our businesses are not scaling. They are not sustainable. They can't even participate in certain things because we need some supportive assistance and business assistance services, previously we requested $600,000 to be supported, particularly over in district 5, to support the businesses there. Creative down payment assistance opportunities. We already know given up to hundred thousand dollars but can we create something creative like nonperformance second mortgage haven't used that approach in a long time. 39% of home ownership in Tampa for black indigenous people of color, we need to get to 60. That's one way they can help us do that. See funds and collaborative effort to address homelessness in the Nebraska corridor in the middle of district 5. Need to see more than one effort. Combined initiative. I see right now TPD is using -- I don't know what that car is called, nobody is in but sits in the middle, it sits on one of the sites I'm developing. We can do more of that. We extended an olive branch to say, what do you need from these owners that dominates most of Nebraska? What do you need from us to help do something to attack this homelessness or resolve it? I would also like to see a community navigator for the CRAs to interact between, almost an ombudsman, to go between the city and CRA to get the information communicated and marketing representative that gets the information out. There are lots of resources to assist homeowners. Over in housing, doing an outstanding job. If I could give them a gift, awesome party or gifts. They have turned the program around and it is outstanding. The language as we talk about a budget, we need a director from you as council to give back to the administration to say 25% of that budget needs to be spent with disadvantaged small business, minority owned, whatever you want to call it. It needs to be a directive from you, otherwise they think it is optional.

11:40:35AM Is it freddy Taylor? Thank you, sir. I was terminated from the City of Tampa by human resources. I've been a productive employee that worked overtime, emergency response no write-ups, no suspensions in eight years, nearly eight years. Went on administrative leave to deal with unfortunate family matter, but once I returned and requested reinstatement I was reinstated on around April 16, 2025. Never allowed me to actually return to my department, which exhausted my medical expenses. HR had other plans for me. I was subsequently being investigated for 2020 charge that was no process in court. Repeat, no process in court. Five years ago, which they knew the outcome of it but they still decided to look into it because they had plans to basically have me removed. They investigated 2020 charge during the pandemic year. I was never arrested but I was charged with a misdemeanor that was, again, no process for the third time. Depraved group of HR employees charged me with neglect to report. Also, they followed up by moral turpitude. My question is, what duty did I have to report? Section 7.6 it outlines after an arrest, you have the duty to report. There was no arrest. Anyway, there is no moral turpitude because there was nothing amoral done. I'm still confused why I was being investigated. As a matter of precedent, similar situation, employee didn't report an arrest, he received a one-day suspension. I would like consideration to be added to the list of city employees referred to the independent council. I've been in contact with Councilman Viera as I looked at my zip code, I thought he was my councilman. I reached out. It was to no avail. The secretary was kind enough to take down my information. I was also asked to speak with city Attorney Martin Shelby who his name in a discussion was to discourage me. I'm extremely disappointed by that circumstance because I believe that Mr. Carlson and Mr. Charlie and the council as a whole really care and understand the issues with leadership in general. But it seems like it is a merry-go-round. I've been trying to contact you, Councilman Viera -- [ sounding gavel ]

11:43:32AM I'm sorry. We have a rule on council that you're not allowed to address individual councilpersons. You're not even allowed to talk about individual councilpersons. I made contact with the office here, specific council, and you all had -- channel fox 13 had women on there talking about their situation. But you referred them to independent counsel. Why can't I get independent counsel in my situation?

11:44:07AM Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Marty green, followed by fred hearns. This take five is for harassment. Would not be tolerated in the City of Tampa with aggressive behavior. I had all hands on me with the director, the interim Director Brandon Campbell and all the Mobility department. Like nine supervisors and the vice president of the union. And everybody that was there. I got -- I asked a question. My question was to Bryan rodger, and he got aggressive with me which is not tolerated with the City of Tampa. He got aggressive. One of the supervisors had to talk him down because he got aggressive with me. Then he said I got -- I asked why I was moved from one side of the department to the other side. He told me I was moved for being aggressive -- I mean, getting in an altercation. No, this has not been an altercation. That's why I call the City of Tampa candyland because he has two employees that got into physical altercation like mandingo and django and nothing happened. They stayed together. I move to the next one. We are citizens paying for the Mobility department. We are funded by the citizens. So Michael brown, he was using the city vehicle for his own personal reasons. I wrote the e-mail and asked him and he went back on the GPS and found out that he was using the vehicle. And then the response I received back that he'll address it and everything I told him was correctly. Going back to this, the e-mails, when I wrote HR and asked him, has it been a disciplinary on Michael brown, they told me -- the response was it was nothing on record. So therefore he was not disciplinary about nothing. This is his second time using the city vehicles for his own personal business. Bryan rodger took the vehicle from him before for letting his wife use the vehicle, run around in a city vehicle. Now, I am one of the ones that run the paving equipment. If I'm not here, the paving equipment barely runs. Therefore, to say that I run it. Now, cutting that budget, we are short. It takes 13 to 15 people to run that equipment. It's only 7 to 9 people on each crew. Therefore, we are down. We are set for failure from the beginning. Stormwater, I know how to control everything dealing with stormwater right now. I have the blueprint. I know what need to be done. That's not my business. Stay out of it. Mobility, cutting the budget. Why cut the budget? Start from the top, Jean Duncan, Bryan rodger, Michael brown and staff because he can pay the hundred thousand dollars for nothing. He don't know what he doing. Therefore -- calling us monkeys. I gave papers two weeks ago. Nothing done about it. HR hasn't talked to me. I feel offended and I feel kind of a little afraid that Bryan rodger might come in here and do something.

11:47:40AM Thank you, sir. Fred hearns. Very glad to be here. Going to touch on a few different items very quickly. You heard from the chairperson of the Racial Reconciliation Committee, connie burton a little earlier today. I also serve on that committee or served. Please, and I know you have a lot on your plate, but if you have the opportunity, please look carefully at the recommendations that the Racial Reconciliation Committee has made. I know we spend a lot of time with Attorney Shelby and other folk who have assisted us, but there are very important recommendations that we take seriously. We know you'll take them seriously also when you get that report. The other thing, I served for the last six years as president of the zion cemetery preservation and maintenance society. Six years, and we're still working on the same issue we started working on six years ago, which is create a memorial site where there could be as many as 700 persons buried there, most of whom are blacks. So we are going to be giving an update to council very soon as a committee. I just want to mention as a heads up, zion cemetery preservation and maintenance society is not going anywhere. We're going to continue to work on this issue. We think we have made some progress, but we need to make a little more. We're going to be bringing you an update as to where we are very soon. The other thing, thank you. I was not here. I understand that the vote was taken recently by council as it relates to an amphitheater at perry Harvey park. This is one of the many projects that councilwoman gwen Henderson had been working on. We had a ribbon cutting there actually in anticipation of what's coming. This has been an 18-year issue with me and a few other folks to get an amphitheater in the park so when people have events, they don't have to rent a stage, which is very expensive, but the long goal is to create opportunities for small businesses to be vendors. I've looked for years of what's happened at centennial park. That is an excellent model. The same thing can be done on a regular basis, maybe monthly, at perry Harvey park and to have a plan to give small businesses an opportunity to set up vendor shops in the park on a regular schedule with the cooperation of the city parks and rec, so forth, and that's something that I'm looking forward to. Thank you for voting to look into the amphitheater.

11:50:54AM Thank you, Mr. Hearns. Harrison lunde followed by mentesnot. My name is harrison lunde with voices of Florida. I actually haven't been up here in a while. Pretty nice to be back up here. I did have something off of the agenda that I wanted to speak about today. It's something that we still believe to be very important. Three years ago almost to the day, I stood here and I spoke to the City Council about a group called turning point USA and how when they came to host their conference in 2022, myself and a number of activists got together and we exercised our right to peacefully protest their convention on account of their political platform proving harmful to so many tampanians and so many americans. Our people were met with literal violence from attendees and harassment from their camera crews, including myself getting pulled down the stairs of the Convention Center. As a result, I came up here and demanded that the city and mayor issue some sort of apology and statement on not only the Convention Center's partnership with the group but their refusal to respond to violence. I bring this up because it's three years later and we're back in the same spot. Turning point USA, a group who has openly platformed hatred, racism, anti-semitism and bigotry was in our city en masse again last week. I watched the exact same thing happen. Exercised our right to peacefully protest and we were met with violence as one activist knocked to the ground bleeding. I myself and another organizer facing harassment from TPD and overwhelmed with attendees and self-proclaimed influencers who came to harass and antagonize us. Same level, while we're not always going to agree, I understand the importance of our city welcoming all groups regardless of political ideology but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. We're in a climate right now where rise for immigrants, women, people of color, lgbtq+ community, public services and more are under attack. When we permit a group into our community who has now twice attacked us, literally attacked us for defending those rights, we have to draw some kind of line. And we have to be able to say no to those who promote such visceral hatred to those who are different and diverse. On behalf of the activists who were harmed that day and on behalf of those that witnessed harm from people who realistically don't even live in Tampa, I am once again asking for some kind of public response for this event, some kind of solution going forward and an apology from Mayor Castor and the City Council. Because we can't claim to be a diverse and inclusive city when some of our biggest dangers to that diversity are getting such a public platform. Thank you.

11:53:38AM Thank you. Uhuru means freedom in swahili. We as african people should always be thinking about our freedom. The city of Hillsborough county government or City of Tampa government isn't located at 601 East Kennedy Boulevard county center or 315 East Kennedy Boulevard, city hall. The seat of Tampa Bay government is located at 1601 South Macdill Avenue, Tampa, Florida, 33629, also known as the Palma Ceia golf and country club. Palma Ceia golf and country club is a member by invitation only privately owned establishment. I personally would not step one foot on those white folks' private property because I understand the sanctity of private property from a colonialist and capitalist perspective. Severe consequences for violating the codes of private property ownership. Alternatively, the united states constitution and the first amendment gives certain unalienable rights to all individuals, historically, various Tampa mayors, Tampa city councils and Tampa Police chiefs have a tradition of compromising or circumventing certain people's constitutional rights. This Tampa city hall is a public building, which at selected times individuals are allowed three minutes to express their thoughts about agenda items or the state of affairs. On many occasions when certain people attempt to articulate their thought process, they are disrespectfully interrupted, insulted, humiliated, provoked, bullied into conforming their thoughts would be representative of white power, white nationalism and white western civilization. I personally have faithfully attended city government meetings for the past 40 years to speak on issues important to poor and working class people. Disproportionately African American people. I've spoken about issues ranging from too many liquor stores inside of the African American communities, police violence, no city services, housing, employment, lack of youth opportunities and sensitivity, reparations, palestine, driver's license suspension, the prison industrial complex, racism, child support, 825 years of oppression endured by africa and african people. 26% and other issues. I will not accept and do not believe that anyone on this planet earth has the right or privilege or opportunity to tell me how to speak at a public meeting. I personally would not allow my mother, father, sister, brother, children, friend, associate, stranger, indigent or wealthy person, Martin Luther King, or Malcolm X tell me how to speak and when, and I'm not about to allow a white homosexual, a gay man in city government tell me how to represent the community or african people.

11:56:50AM Thank you, Sir. Steve Scott followed by Pastor Frank Williams. How are you all doing?

11:57:06AM Good morning. I'm here -- somebody say something? I got good ears. I can't see but I got good ears. My name is Steve Scott. I'm here to solve a problem that I have about my property. When the hurricane come and destroyed the trees and stuff, the back of my house, before they put the fence next door was a company that didn't have no fence and we could have the entrance. That's when I can see, drive into the entrance to get behind my house and cut down the big tree limb that the hurricane did when they came. So we have trailers and we put it on the trailer and we was able to take it to the city dump when the hurricane hit. But the company put their fence on their property. So now I don't have no way of interest to get behind my house because of that fence put there. I do have a driveway but it ends at my garage. I can't drive or get behind my property because that driveway ends at my garage. There's no way to get behind my property. So I've been calling and trying to get something done about it. All he was telling me, you can't have but one driveway. You can't have but one driveway. But I don't have no way to drive behind and do some work when the hurricane come because that fence that the company put up, there's no way. So I'm trying to get help. I'm trying to get some help where I can be able to get on my property during the hurricane. Now, the last hurricane come, I have to get somebody to come and help me, but they had to bring it out and drive it all the way out to the driveway because they couldn't get behind my house. I'm here to try to get some help. I need an entry to get on my property, somebody to guide me how to do it, help me how to get on my property on the left side of my house. That's what I'm here for, try to get some help. Who will I contact or who would I talk to?

11:59:43AM Mr. Bennett, can you get somebody from staff to speak with him? Thank you, Mr. Scott. Appreciate it.

11:59:55AM Pastor Frank Williams, followed by daryl hych. Good morning, pastor.

12:00:35PM You're there. Clerk, will you reset the time to start it now? I call them and set up an appointment, secretary set up an appointment one time. They told me, they are calling me 9:45. Sit there by the phone, 9:45, no call from them. I set up another appointment with them another time. You want to know what time it was? They told me to set up an appointment at 1:45. You know what I did? I set up an appointment with them 1:45. They never called me. The legal aide staff, they are not on the job. Just like a lot of us, we're not on our job. I got something to read to you. I don't pledge allegiance to the flag because the flag don't do anything to me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. There's no justice in the united states for people of color. You know what they did? They took my property away from me. My son and my daughter had to collect over $18,000 to keep me on my property. That's all coming from these people right here. They don't give a damn about me. I can understand why because I'm a man of color and I try to do the right thing. 1112 East Scott Street, took it and give it to the white folks, my church. They done move all my stuff out of there. Stole it and everything. They don't care nothing about us. We got to care about ourselves. Good god almighty, that's my time? I told you to leave the clock alone. -- shall make no law respecting the establishment of religious or prohibitive free exercise -- and abridging the freedom of speech and the press. Right of people to peacefully assemble and to petition the government for redress.

12:04:03PM Thank you, pastor. Thank you so much. Your time is done. Thank you so much.

12:04:12PM No, I'm sorry. Have a beautiful day. We'll see you next meeting.

12:04:19PM Those of you that are waiting for the 10 and 10:30 public hearings. I apologize. I will tell you that we can cut you guys loose because we are not going to hear those until at least 1:30. If you want to leave and come back at 1:30. We still have probably another 15 minutes of public comment and then the consent agenda. Never have and never will. We have to keep coming and keep -- he'll make justice. Did you all get my flyer?

12:04:55PM We did. Read that flyer and give me a response.

12:05:04PM Daryl hych followed by Robin Lockett. Now it's time to say good afternoon. I don't know how that list. I was the first person to sign up -- no, okay. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Daryl hych. Ybor City shooting, you found money. When developers were looking to build and expand their legacy projects and various things throughout the City of Tampa, finding land, you found money. A legacy, for-profit organization inside the City of Tampa that wanted to continue their family legacy by utilizing historical buildings and artifacts of various things, you found money. Yet five years ago, resolution 568 was written. Apologies were given. Conscious understanding of the ramifications of correcting the wrong and yet you never even mention the money. This reminds me of April 14, 1865, when the bullet rang out in the ford theater at the assassination of president Lincoln. President Lincoln had put in place laws and things to assist black families who had been hurt, harmed and injured. He offered these black families 40 acres and a mule. And no sooner than the bullet rang out in the ford theater was President Johnson and those who were inside of his cabinet working to rescind that particular law. Ultimately he came back full circle and said, well, you know what we'll do, we'll call them sharecroppers. When I look at resolution number 568 that was established September 3, 2020, it is synonymous to that exact same situation. Because what happened last year in April of 2024, we switched the game and called it resolution 377. And when we switched the game and put it in resolution number 367 -- I mean 377, we essentially put us right back into a sharecropping situation. I'm asking you, as the mayor just got done stating when she was doing her speech and speaking of the budget, the mayor said, we are a city on the move. She said we're a city on the move. The question I have to ask and the overwhelming concern I have is, was she included black people on the move? Because right now we're still sitting stagnant. You all have an excellent opportunity to make a difference. Thank you.

12:08:31PM Thank you, Sir. Robin Lockett followed by surgret doss. Just have a few things I want to talk about. I look forward to deciphering what will go into the budget. Of course, I'm looking for the yellow jackets to be made whole again. I'll be sending you guys an outline of what that looks like since I get the question all the time in regards to what are you looking for? So it would be an itemized look. Also, I'm interested in exactly what Sulphur Springs is going to look like because I heard the verbiage about Sulphur Springs. So I'm looking forward to seeing what that is going to look like. It was said this morning that the county is getting $709 million for disaster relief. The CDBG money, Dr, That's strictly to make people whole from the disaster. It's not a regular housing fund. The county has stated that they are going to spend, I think, $368 million towards housing, but they are going to handle the whole housing fund. So they are not going to divide the money up. They are going to have a one big housing, I don't know, they are going to handle the money. That money is not separate for regular housing. It's just for disaster recovery. Just giving clarity to that. A couple of people came up and spoke about resolution 568 and so forth. You should have received a letter from us. I'm not sure if we're supposed to make a motion to have the additional days added or whatever, but I look forward to the report that's going to be created. It hasn't been created yet, of the recommendations that we're going to send to you guys. So thank you.

12:10:50PM Thank you very much. Surgret doss followed by Naya Young. Surgret doss. My shirt is a little more appropriate than I thought. I get a lot of people -- to the attorney, interestingly enough, the issue is about accountability when it comes to attorneys and judges. But to the brother who was speaking about his issue within the city, if you are a union member, I think it's very important that you take the time to learn what's in your contract. I used to be a union steward for the teamsters. I understood how important it was to understand and bargaining unit needs to know it as well. Need to learn the law because at some point violate your rights under the law. Need to know what's going on. Let's talk about double standard. What black folks could never do that white folks can do is ascend to certain positions. Like, black folks could never become attorneys and walk into a court room and lie and expect no accountability. Black folks can never become judges and allow a lie to be told blatantly in front of you and not sanction the attorney who made the misleading comment or actually the outright lie. In my instance, we have attorneys and I'm going to say their names. I really want them to say something about this. Talking about raymond haws, dale parker of banker, Lopez, John mueller butler katz, I think he is a partner there as well. Michael roe, I think he is probably the most despicable person I met in my life. Deanne -- tabitha Blackwell. Judge Emily ann peacock. Of the 13th judicial circuit. We already know I don't think much of former judge holder what he and former city employees falsely accused of me of perjury. Judge paul huey who sat right there, the interesting thing, the whole world can go to my youtube page. I found out because I posted something on speaking before, profit share. We're partners now. Go to my youtube page and just watch and listen to these people lie. Like my shirt says, nigga could never ever hope to get away with atrocities, that white folks across the street. Shout-out to the University of Tampa, university of Jefferson high school for naming the auditorium after the late great Gwendolyn Henderson. I have a tremendous affinity for that institution, even though I didn't give the best effort when I was on the football field because I joined the army. 40th year of joining the military. Veterans -- take care of them. You all take care.

12:14:00PM Michelle. Last but not least. I slaughtered your first name. Good afternoon, council members and fellow Tampa residents. My name is Naya Young. I'm very happy to be here today. I stand before you as a Tampa Heights resident, also district five resident. Tampa is growing every day, and with that growth comes incredible diversity. Diverse communities, each with unique backgrounds, experiences and needs. D 5 is a beautiful district. We have historic communities that I want to continue to see thrive. Unique stories from our legacy families and those who have lived here for many years. That history is a guiding light for today's youth. We have to hold that dear. Therefore, I want to encourage expanding support for our youth. Our youth, our youth, our youth. Our parks programs, community pools, our seniors, again, who are gems of the district 5 community. Housing and economic development just to uplift people in our community. I've seen myself, the beauty that comes from investing in our youth and listening to our communities. When we invest in our youth, ultimately we are investing in our future. We are building a future for them. It's only right that we continue to invest in them. When we listen to our communities, that's how we foster that collaboration. And that collaboration leads to shared economic growth. Sustainable growth means more than just managing development. It means creating opportunities that lift up our entire communities. It means ensuring that as Tampa grows, we grow together with collaboration and goodwill guiding our path forward. I thank you all so much for listening and thank you for the work that you do.

12:15:59PM Thank you very much. One more speaker, Ron weaver, please. I have twin grandsons. I was raised by two twin cousins. Ronald l. Weaver. I rise on the occasion of twins. Twin grandsons and I was raised by two twin cousins having no brothers. The twins I rise for are George and leonard levy about whom it is possible that this city, your city, your City Council might name one of your future major projects in honor of the amazing twins George and leonard levy. When solomon and simmie levy looked at these little identical twins on July 25, 1933, in the middle of the depression, I wonder if they wondered what might these little twins do alone and together to change the shape of Tampa. These twins, leonard and George Levy -- leonard went off to the marines, served as a captain, came out as a captain, and he didn't inherit Hillsborough printing from his dad. He worked as the sales representative and grew over 30 years to own the majority interest in one of the premier companies in all of Tampa, Hillsborough printing. But it wasn't in printing that we see leonard and George Levy changed the shape and redeemed all the hopes of solomon and simmie levy on July 25, 1933 because he would chair the Tampa Sports Authority and get us a Tampa Bay buccaneers team. He would then, as he got that team, turn around and say, now, let's get a super bowl. And he did. Then we got three or four others, only because of leonard and George Levy. Leonard levy would be 1994 civitan city of the year. In 1999, he will help get us the national final four for college basketball. In 2017 he will get us the inaugural football playoff game, clemson Alabama here in 2017. Then his business Hillsborough printing will be not only a company of ethics, but University of Tampa will give him their center of ethics award to leonard levy. Leonard levy and George Levy have changed the shape of this community. They have changed not only the world of sports, but leonard chaired the Tampa visitor's bureau. His wife look so good today because chairman like leonard levy. Leonard and George Levy came to this town, they brought this town to a new place. They brought it to a place of pride. They brought it to a place of international recognition, and there are dozens of other things done for the united way and the salvation army and the greater Tampa chamber of commerce, all of which reflected the fact that George and leonard levy fulfilled every hope of solomon and simmie levy looking down on July 25, 1933, in the middle of the depression at the enormous potential of these two identical twins. I would hope you would name a facility after the levy brothers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

12:19:04PM The next item on the agenda is request for reconsideration of legislative matters. I believe we do not have one. We'll go right to the consent agenda. Let's run through the consent agenda, set the public hearings and then break for lunch. Public safety committee Chair, Luis Viera.

Luis Viera

12:19:22PM I move items 3 through 8.

Alan Clendenin

12:19:28PM Motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Neighborhood and community affairs committee, Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

12:19:38PM I move items 9 through 16.

Guido Maniscalco

12:19:41PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

12:19:42PM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Bill Carlson

12:19:48PM Could we vote on 19 separately.

Alan Clendenin

12:19:54PM Councilman Maniscalco, pulling 19 for separate vote.

Guido Maniscalco

12:20:00PM I move items 17 through 24 with the exception of 19.

Alan Clendenin

12:20:05PM Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

12:20:11PM Now I would like to move for a separate vote, item 19.

Alan Clendenin

12:20:15PM We have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco, second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor say aye? Opposed?

Bill Carlson

12:20:21PM Nay.

The clerk

12:20:22PM Motion carried with Carlson voting no.

Alan Clendenin

12:20:24PM Thank you, clerk. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

12:20:26PM I have one thing to say about finance committee.

Alan Clendenin

12:20:31PM I have a clarity thing, too. Item 27, there was an incorrect memo attached to item 27. It was not supposed to be there, just for clarity, so people understand. This is a scrivener's error correcting the name of the company.

Lynn Hurtak

12:20:46PM Item number 30 is the list of approved audits for 2026. I'm not pulling this for discussion, but during new business, I would like to discuss if council wants to add an audit, I have a suggestion. We have 30 days from the time we receive this audit plan to request additional audits. Please make sure that you look through the list and see if there's anything else you would like to add. Last year, we added two things. One of them is the continuation that Councilwoman Henderson asked about the river center. That one is still on there. Again, we did add two audits last year and we have 30 days in which to do it. Think on it over lunch so we can make some discussions.

Alan Clendenin

12:21:31PM Thank you. Would you move items 25 through 30, please? Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Mr. Carlson.

Bill Carlson

12:21:47PM On 34, I need to abstain. I've got a form 8b, make a motion to receive and file. Although my firm doesn't work on the issue directly, one of the clients may potentially benefit. I'll abstain.

Alan Clendenin

12:22:04PM All those in favor say aye? Opposed? Councilman Carlson, would you move items 31 through 41 except for item 34?

Bill Carlson

12:22:15PM Commentary, 31 I think should have been a public discussion. We'll see what the repercussions of this are. I think it should have been a public discussion instead of consent. I move 31 through 41 with the exception of 34.

Alan Clendenin

12:22:32PM Motion from Councilman Carlson, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Councilwoman Hurtak, would you move item 34, please.

Lynn Hurtak

12:22:44PM I move item 34.

Alan Clendenin

12:22:46PM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Viera. All in favor aye? Opposed?

The clerk

12:22:50PM Motion carried with Carlson abstaining.

Lynn Hurtak

12:22:53PM I move items 42 through 45.

Guido Maniscalco

12:22:56PM Second, and may I make a comment real quick? Thank you. I want to acknowledge, spoke at public comment, bill Truett and the hampton terrace neighborhood association, well, I think that is the official name. Anyways, bill Truett and Brian frye and others are constantly monitoring the quality of the water in lake roberta and very, very involved in their neighborhood. We've met recently, Mr. Truett in my office and what not. Glad to see this on the agenda and things are moving forward in regards to the water quality monitoring in lake roberta. That's all. Community association. Get the right one, yeah.

Alan Clendenin

12:23:40PM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye? Opposed?

Guido Maniscalco

12:23:48PM Move to set items 46, 47 and 48.

Alan Clendenin

12:23:51PM Thank you. Motion to set items 46 through 48 from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, say aye. Opposed? We are going to break for lunch, how about we come back at 1:30?

Luis Viera

12:24:07PM Two things. To let council Know, I was going to request, we have I think tomorrow for the nonprofits some documents I was going to request. I feel like I'm in court, but I would like a continuance on that. Some groups I'm talking to may not have that ready. I don't think an issue but wanted to say that. Second, I would be damned to not say this. Something in public comment pissed me off about our chairman. I ordered a bunch of pride pins. I'm going to wear it next week because people who talk like that, we can tell them to go to hell.

Guido Maniscalco

12:24:40PM I'll second that.

Alan Clendenin

12:24:42PM I want to say something else about public comment. I want to make sure people understand, listening in the public. There are a lot of personnel issues, while free to come to council for public comment, understand this council is not part of the human resources, the appeal process. If you are represented by a labor union, you have a negotiated agreement that you work through. If you are not represented but there is a personnel manual and there's legal steps that you can take. Unfortunately, the City Council has no role in that whatsoever. So while you're free to come and express those viewpoints and your three minutes of public comment, there's really not much, we're not a part of that process. As members of City Council, we can't really help you in that process because we're not part of that.

Bill Carlson

12:25:31PM The Legal Department told me, I assume the rest of you, that the only thing we can do when an employee comes to us, because I've had a bunch of calls which I had to turn over in public record searches, but when somebody contacts us, all we can say is you need to contact HR or contact a lawyer. And that's it. We're not allowed to have other conversations which is very frustrating because I would like to solve the underlying issues. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to.

Alan Clendenin

12:25:57PM Yeah, there is a process. 1:30. Bon appetit. [Lunch recess]

01:38:21PM Here we go. Our smiling faces. Welcome back. The meeting is back to order. Roll call, please.

Charlie Miranda

01:38:29PM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

01:38:30PM Here.

Bill Carlson

01:38:34PM Here.

Alan Clendenin

01:38:34PM Here.

Clerk

01:38:35PM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

01:38:38PM Thank you. Thank you for those being patient for us waiting for your business for the morning. Appreciate your patience. Hope you had a good lunch. We are going to start with the 10 a.m.

Lynn Hurtak

01:38:53PM Motion to open --

Alan Clendenin

01:38:55PM That's where I was going. Motion?

Lynn Hurtak

01:38:58PM Motion.

Charlie Miranda

01:38:59PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:39:00PM A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded from council member Miranda.

Martin Shelby

01:39:06PM Will you consider taking the second readings before the 10:00 hearings? I am sorry, I thought you meant the actual hearings and vacations. My misunderstanding, thank you.

Alan Clendenin

01:39:24PM The first one is nonquasi-judicial. We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from council member Miranda. Mr. Shelby interrupted me, and I was unable to get to the vote. All those in favor of opening the hearing, say aye. Opposed. The hearings are open. Nonquasi-judicial as opposed to the next ones that we will have swear in. Vac-24-19.

Ross Samons

01:39:58PM Ross Samons. For adoption. And I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:40:07PM Council have any questions? Any questions that you may have.

01:40:16PM Anybody have questions? Anyone from the public to speak on item 49? Motion to closed by council member Miranda and second by Councilwoman Hurtak. Council member Carlson, would you like to read item 49.

Bill Carlson

01:40:30PM Sure. VAC 24-19. Second reading and adoption. Ordinance of the City of Tampa vacating closing, distancing or abandoning an alley right-of-way located of North Seventh Avenue, of South Oak Avenue, east of interstate 275, and of West Taliaferro Avenue within the plat map of oak ridge subdivision in the City of Tampa, Florida, as more fully described subject to certain covenants and restrictions as more particularly set forth herein providing penalties for violation. Providing for definitions, interpretations and repealing conflicts, and providing for severability.

Charlie Miranda

01:41:12PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:41:13PM A motion from council member Carlson and a second from council member Miranda. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:41:18PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:41:33PM Item 50.

Susan Johnson-Velez

01:41:36PM Susan Johnson-Velez, Legal Department. Item number 50 is to correct a scrivener's error. I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:41:49PM Is there an applicant? You are the applicant. Okay. Motion -- anybody in the public wish to speak to this item?

Lynn Hurtak

01:41:58PM Motion to close.

Charlie Miranda

01:41:59PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:42:00PM All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

01:42:03PM Yes, sir, glad to read it. Ordinance for second reading adoption amending ordinance 2004-14 passed by the City of Tampa January 8, 2024. Rezoning property 4905 Price Avenue, City of Tampa, to correct a scrivener's error said to ordinance, providing for severability and providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

01:42:27PM A motion from council member Viera. Second from --

Charlie Miranda

01:42:31PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:42:31PM Miranda. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:42:34PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent and vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:42:42PM We are moving on to the public hearings quasi-judicial and require to be sworn in. Between items 51-57. Please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in. [Swearing in]

01:43:05PM Item 51.

LaChone Dock

01:43:06PM Thank you, chairman and council, LaChone Dock, item 51 rez-24-114 for the property located at 206 West Columbus Drive. The request to rezone from CG commercial general to rm-24 residential multifamily to PD Planned Development for residential single-family attached use. Site plan changes were required to be made. Those changes have been made. The plan was certified and provided to the clerk,

Alan Clendenin

01:43:36PM Council have any questions? Do we have an applicant? For item 51. Hearing none. Anybody in the public wish to speak on 51?

Charlie Miranda

01:43:51PM Move to close.

Bill Carlson

01:43:52PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:43:52PM Please record your vote -- sorry, you have to read it first.

Lynn Hurtak

01:43:58PM Rez 24-114, ordinance presented for second reading and adoption, ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 206 West Columbus Drive in the City of Tampa, more particularly described in section one from zoning district classifications CG, commercial general and rm-4, residential multifamily to PD, Planned Development, residential, single-family attached providing an effective date.

Charlie Miranda

01:44:24PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:44:25PM A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from council member Miranda. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:44:31PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:44:39PM Thank you, item 52.

LaChone Dock

01:44:41PM Thank you, council. LaChone Dock, land Development Coordination. 52 is 25-17 for the property located at 760 North Nebraska Avenue. The request to rezone its property in sh-ci, Seminole Heights commercial intensive to sh-pd, Seminole Heights Planned Development for attached and detached auto uses on-site. Site plan modifications were made. Those changes have been made, and they were provided to the clerk, and I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:45:16PM Thank you, LaChone. Anybody have any questions? Is there an applicant? Anyone in the public wish to speak for item 52? Motion to close by Councilwoman Hurtak. Second by council member Miranda. Council member Miranda, read item 52.

Charlie Miranda

01:45:31PM File number rez 25-17. Ordinance presented for second reading and adoption. Ordinance rezoning property of 7602 North Nebraska Avenue in City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described as sh-ci to sh-pd, attached and detached providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

01:45:59PM Motion from council member Miranda. Second from --

Luis Viera

01:46:02PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:46:03PM Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:46:05PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:46:12PM Thank you, item 53.

LaChone Dock

01:46:15PM Thank you, council. LaChone Dock, land Development Coordination. Item 53, rez-25-34 for the property located 3305 west oakellar, to rezone from rs-50, residential single-family to PD Planned Development for residential single-family detached use and site plan modifications have been made, and the plan has been certified and provided to the clerk. I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:46:45PM Thank you, any questions? Is there an applicant? Kevin, online? Kevin, going once -- anybody from the public who wishes to speak on this item? We have a motion to close from council member Carlson. Seconded from council member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Please record your vote. Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

01:47:19PM 53, right?

Alan Clendenin

01:47:23PM 53, yes.

Bill Carlson

01:47:25PM I would like to move file number rez-24-34. Ordinance second reading and adoption property in the general vicinity of 3305 West Oakellar Avenue in the City of Tampa, Florida, particularly described as section 1, zoning district rs-50 to PD, providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

01:47:48PM Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:47:51PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:47:56PM Thank you, 54, please.

LaChone Dock

01:47:59PM Thank you. Again, council, LaChone Dock, land Development Coordination. Item 54 is rez-25-38. Properties 102 and 106 South Dale Mabry Highway. Request to rezone the property from PD Planned Development which allow for the retail of a drive-thru to PD drive-thru for clinic use. Site plan changes that were ready to be made between first and second reading and some of those changes were lifted on the staff report. But in addition to those, council, you may recall at the first reading, on June 12, the applicant was directed to work with the community. The applicant did meet with the community, and they have added to the site plan an eight-foot wall along the southern boundary of the site. And they will have landscaping outside of that wall. So that change was made in addition to the other changes required on the staff report. The plan has been certified and provided to the clerk. And I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:49:00PM Thank you. Council have questions? Applicant? Ward and Henderson. We appreciate your support at first reading, and we took your direction and met back with the community on June 25. There was an on-site meeting with bay care executives and members of the community. And there was a discussion about how to handle the screening on both the southern and eastern boundary. And I would like to approach and provide council with large copies of what we presented. And I will also ask kathleen keen to come up and walk you through what we are proposing. I will wait a moment for everybody to get a copy. Well, thank you for your comments last time. We did take a closer look at the plan to see what we could to do meet council's comments. And we did meet with the neighborhood on June 25th for number of options and screening that will have the plan that is in front of you on the screen. We considered a number of screening options with various locations. Both landscaping treatments and a wall. And ultimately, what we settled on with -- in conjunction with the neighborhood and what is shown on the plan is a wall along the southeast corner roughly where I am outlining right now. That wall is a total of eight feet in height. It is a six-foot wall, but that wall is located in a location that is two feet higher because of the berm. So we account for the total of eight feet. But I wanted to make sure that's clear. That wall is located directly along the internal circulation roadway. The reason for that that the residents could have a view of the open space area. But then have the wall to buffer from the ambulance drop-off from there. We are also providing a hedge and landscaping along the wall. That actually runs further to the along West Rawlings Street. You can see the darker strip. And further to the north past the wall to provide additional landscaping and screen. Not only from the ambulance drop-off area but to the dumpster locations as well. In addition, we are looking to increase the amount of landscaping along the southern property border that borders rawlings street. It is in that view line of the residences. All of those plans -- all of those changes have been incorporated on to the plans that you see today, and we did also prepare some renderings of the view so that council and the neighborhood could see how the view would be disguised of the ambulance drop-off area and the proposed changes to the plan itself. The wall we are proposing to set up is similar to the wall on the eastern property line right now and as I note, cleaning up the wall in the eastern property line.

01:52:30PM Council have any questions? Comments? Thank you for working with the neighborhood. Seems to be a good project. Definitely important.

01:52:43PM Anyone from the public who wishes to speak to the item?

Charlie Miranda

01:52:47PM Move to close.

Alan Clendenin

01:52:47PM Second from.

Lynn Hurtak

01:52:50PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:52:50PM All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Record your vote, please. Read it, 54. Who is up. Luis. I am in the same place you are.

Luis Viera

01:53:04PM Thank you very much, chairman. 102 and 106 South Dale Mabry Highway in the City of Tampa, Florida, providing for an effective date.

Charlie Miranda

01:53:27PM Appreciate putting the file number on the case so it is directed to it.

Alan Clendenin

01:53:32PM Motion from council member Viera. Seconded from council member Miranda. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:53:41PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco missing at vote.

LaChone Dock

01:53:56PM Item 55 is 24-44 for the property located at 2509 north 54th street. The request is to rezone the property from rm-16, residential multifamily to rm-18, residential multifamily. Euclidian request so no site plan available for this request. I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:54:20PM Council have any questions? Hearing none is there an applicant. Motion from council member Miranda. Seconded from Councilwoman Hurtak. All in favor, say aye, opposed. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

01:54:35PM File number 25-44. Ordinance for second reading and adoption. Ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 2509 north 54th street in the City of Tampa, Florida, more particularly described in section 1 from district classification rm-16 residential multifamily to rm-18 residential multifamily providing an effective date.

Charlie Miranda

01:55:03PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:55:04PM Motion and a second from council member Miranda. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:55:08PM Something needs to -- motion carries unanimously.

LaChone Dock

01:55:27PM Item 56, rez-25-47. Located 2511 West Saint Isabel Street. From PD, Planned Development to rs-50 residential single-family. This request is before you for second reading and available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:55:50PM Hearing no questions. Is there an applicant? No applicant? Anybody from public wishes to speak.

Charlie Miranda

01:56:01PM Move to close.

Bill Carlson

01:56:03PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:56:05PM All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Council member Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

01:56:08PM File number 56, ordinance rez-25-47, ordinance for second reading and adoption. Ordinance rezoning property in the general vicinity of 2511 West Saint Isabel Street in the City of Tampa, Florida, more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district PD land development to rs-50 residential single-family providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

01:56:33PM Second from council member Viera. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:56:38PM Motion carried unanimously with council member Maniscalco missing at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:56:46PM Item 57.

LaChone Dock

01:56:49PM Item number 57, file number rez-25-03. From 614 east 7th avenue from rm-24, residential multifamily to CN commercial neighborhood. And this is euclidian and no site plan associated. I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:57:12PM Any questions? Applicant. Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

01:57:19PM Anybody have questions for the applicant? Anybody wish to speak for item 57.

Charlie Miranda

01:57:24PM Move to close.

Lynn Hurtak

01:57:26PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

01:57:27PM Motion from council member Miranda and seconded from Hurtak. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.

Bill Carlson

01:57:33PM File number rez-25-03. Ordinance presented for second reading and adoption. Ordinance in the general vicinity of 614 east 7th avenue and the City of Tampa, Florida, and more particularly described in section 1 from zoning district classification rm-24 residential multifamily to CN. Motion and a second from council member Viera. Please record your vote.

Clerk

01:58:03PM Motion carried unanimously with Maniscalco being absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

01:58:09PM Thank you, 2:00 and time for the 10:30 a.m. petitions to vacate public hearings on legislative matters. Move on to item 58.

Emma Gregory

01:58:29PM Good afternoon, Emma Gregory with the Legal Department. To approve the city's use of its own service employees for the water main replacement project. This is a statutory process under section 25-520. We sent out the notice for this on May 25 and set the public hearing before this and complied with the statutory notice process. During this public hearing, I will ask council to make sure that there is an opportunity for any qualified contractor or vendor to have a reasonable opportunity to print evidence regarding the project and the accuracy of -- excuse me, of the city's estimated cost to the project. That is part of the statutory provision for this. So I believe there is a Water department representative online.

Alan Clendenin

01:59:31PM Someone from water online?

Emma Gregory

01:59:34PM In case you have any specific questions.

Alan Clendenin

01:59:37PM Does council have any questions of this?

Charlie Miranda

01:59:41PM The only question I have. Not the case where one contractor went default or something?

Emma Gregory

01:59:49PM Yes, this is just --

Charlie Miranda

01:59:51PM She has answered it. Thanks.

Alan Clendenin

01:59:53PM What do you need for council, pass the resolution?

Emma Gregory

02:00:00PM Yes, but we need to give any qualified contractor or vendor reasonable opportunity to present evidence of the city's estimated -- estimated cost.

Alan Clendenin

02:00:09PM What will that look like for action from council? Opening it up to the floor, I am asking -- right now. It has been noticed. Anybody who wishes to speak to 58, including the issues that the representative just discuss? Hearing none. A motion to close from Councilwoman Hurtak. Seconded by council member Miranda.

Emma Gregory

02:00:36PM There is also a resolution submitted along with this. So I would ask that the resolution be approved.

Alan Clendenin

02:00:42PM A motion to close from Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded from council member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Somebody like to move the resolution. Motion from council member Maniscalco. Seconded from council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Resolution passed. 59.

Emma Gregory

02:01:01PM Thank you.

Ross Samons

02:01:10PM Ask the clerk to share the elmo screen, please.

Alan Clendenin

02:01:18PM Mr. Shelby, for these hearings, do they have to be sworn in?

Martin Shelby

02:01:23PM No, the determination has been made. These are legislative matters.

Ross Samons

02:01:28PM Ross Samons, land development. Applicant is teresa Macneil, and the property is at 5815 Interbay Boulevard. Proposed vacating request for a portion of Green Avenue and unnamed and unplatted boulevard south of 4th, east of first avenue and of West Elkins Avenue. Application filed April 26, 2024. Driveway is currently unimproved, and was created by subdivision plat. 6622 square feet. Here is the aerial view proposed vacating request is in yellow here. The applicant's property is in red. And Interbay Boulevard here. An atlas sheet. The City of Tampa's atlas sheet to show the current request of how it relates -- how it was platted. This is the request. You can see it is part of multiple plats. This is the street view looking northwest from Interbay Boulevard and the approximate location of this right-of-way here. Staff has no comments. Natural resources must file to chapter 27. Tree preservation and site design for any improvements of adjacent trees in the vacated area. That concludes high presentation. I am available if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

02:03:33PM Any questions? Is there an applicant for item 59? I am the applicant, Theresa Macneil. And the reason I am seeking this vacation to build my modest forever home is that has taken me three years to get here. Appreciate your time for this consideration. I am trying to make my property comparable to my neighbors and my neighborhood. So thank you very much for the consideration.

02:04:08PM Any questions for the applicant is? Anyone in the public wishes to speak for item 59? Yes, sir? Live next door to the property. As you may or may not know, the owner is a realtor. They have owned the property for over three years. To get this piece of land is to make more money. They told me that once they own the city's piece, that they will be able to divide the entire property up into two separate properties, which means they are going to make a lot more money. I propose that the -- that the portion that is owned by the city be open to purchase by anyone. Obviously, for me, it will give me overflow parking area, and I am right next to where that triangle is. So that would be a better thing to see if you open it up for sale to the community. As I said when they first bought it, they said they would tear it down and start building a new home within a year. That never happened and as of today, they have done nothing there. I had to call the police multiple times because vagrants, homeless people have broken into this abandoned house. They broke in multiple times. I had to call multiple times. I have a wife and two daughters. And I am very concerned all the time when they are there alone. Also, there was a gentleman who was passed out in the yard for half a day before the police could get there and come out. So it has been a danger. My pest control people have told me that the influx of rodents I have been dealing with, the rats, the snakes, the raccoons -- which I have pictures of those things. The point is, all that stuff is directly related to that house. Multiple openings in the house for those kind of animals to get in there. The neighbors to the east of me have tall trees -- I don't have a tall tree for that reason. I know where they get up and go into the house. They both had to have exterminators come and remove animals out of their attics. So summarizing, I think the city should not allow this. The owner doesn't care about the neighbors. They are the citizens of Tampa Bay. And they are directly impacted by this particular situation. Thank you for your time.

02:06:48PM Any questions.

Bill Carlson

02:06:59PM Could we ask staff to weigh in on the question -- could staff just explain the rights that other neighbors might have with regard to a property like this just so that's on the record.

Ross Samons

02:07:13PM Ross Samons, land Development Coordination. City doesn't own the right-of-way that is asked to be vacated. Just has a public interest. As far as reverting the fee ownership once the right-of-way interest is vacated. If so, usually it reverts back to abutting property owners in the plat. But the city doesn't get involved with how the reversion of the city-owned property goes. But the city doesn't own anything there.

Alan Clendenin

02:07:48PM I understand with alleys, if you vacate the alley. Each owner gets one-half of the alley.

Ross Samons

02:07:58PM In most cases.

Alan Clendenin

02:08:00PM Can you put up the plat and see this property and how it relates to the adjacent properties.

Ross Samons

02:08:05PM Hang on one second. In this situation in the past, the when the plats were platted. There was a lot of questions and some overlap with the corners of these plats and possibility that the surveyors in the past have used different points of commencement, starting points to start their measurements. And I think that is what caused this overlap. You can see these bold Gray Lane are plat boundaries. So you have one here. And you have another here. So this area here, the city in the past -- these are all vacating in the past in different areas. Basically to clean the area up so people will have the property lot dimensions to be able to develop.

Alan Clendenin

02:09:09PM Can you put the other -- when you show the existing house and the lot lines.

Ross Samons

02:09:14PM Yes. When this first came about, this proposed vacating request, the original request was obviously how you can see their lot lines are currently because of the way they were platted and how they are -- how the restrictions read. They are looking to clean that up with the vacation. In my opinion, it would give them the ability to do that then they would have a odd-shaped lots. If you build anything new with the zoning requirements brings up issue too, in my opinion.

Alan Clendenin

02:09:54PM Wouldn't it make more sense to have the line to Interbay at that point?

Ross Samons

02:10:00PM Correct.

Alan Clendenin

02:10:01PM How would that happen?

Ross Samons

02:10:03PM In my opinion, if this vacating were approved -- I can't get into -- but they -- it would be a civil issue of them working with their neighbors to try and purchase that from them and its told in the past they are in contact with their neighbors and they already are plans -- plans of how the lots will look in the future. I don't know if that will happen now, but that is the only way.

Alan Clendenin

02:10:34PM Who own this property now?

Ron Wigginton

02:10:39PM If I may, Ron Wigginton from the Legal Department. At this point, we are not sure who owns it, but the State of Florida has a right-of-way interest pursuant to an old plat. It was a right-of-way before it was vacated. I think this is remnant of one of the previous vacating. An awkwardly shaped lots. As far as us making a determination who will acquire it or divide it up, a private property matter for them to determine between themselves and not the city.

Alan Clendenin

02:11:09PM If this council today were to grant the vacation, what happens to the ownership of that property?

Ron Wigginton

02:11:16PM Still the same as it was yesterday.

Alan Clendenin

02:11:18PM We are not giving anybody --

Ron Wigginton

02:11:20PM We are not giving anybody fee interest at all. We are relinquishing our right-of-way interest which is an easement. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Bill Carlson

02:11:28PM One follow-up thing before you leave. The neighbor also mentioned that -- is that -- he believes they might split this into two lots. Just for informational purposes, would that require them to come back to council or are they already entitled?

Ron Wigginton

02:11:47PM I am sure they have to clean up that title before they split lots because that is still in limbo. As far as splitting -- I don't know how you can split it up east and west, diagonal basis and I don't know if it is wide enough to split into two separate lots.

Bill Carlson

02:12:01PM Will they have to come back before council in a separate -- not part of this.

Ron Wigginton

02:12:06PM Not a part of this at all.

Bill Carlson

02:12:08PM Another public hearing.

Ron Wigginton

02:12:10PM I would presume so as far as land use is concerned, zoning and determination of property lot lines.

Alan Clendenin

02:12:16PM Anybody else have any questions for staff? Actually -- [inaudible] this is your opportunity for rebuttal. Thank you.

02:12:38PM State your name. First of all, it is not possible to split the lot, because my lot is only 90 feet wide. I also already done the process, and we are still just working out the deeds and the descriptions, but I also did the property line reconfiguration with my neighbor on the west. So that is already in the works with the city. They have already approved that. This is sort of the last piece of the puzzle for me to basically square off my lot. The reason it has been vacant is I haven't been able to build it with the vacation. When I do get it -- but if I do get it -- thank you for your consideration. I will start the process of building and cleaning up the area so my neighbor won't have any issues with rodents and all the other situations that have come up. I have, though, never personally talked about splitting it. I also went through a divorce. So there are a lot of different things that happened. Anyway, this is a three-year process. And I am just wanting to move forward so I can improve the piece of property, improved neighborhood, and make everybody happy. So thank you, again, for the consideration.

Charlie Miranda

02:14:03PM Since you mentioned all that, do you have a timeline you have been working on? And, again, I am just trying to build a modest home so I can live somewhere. It has been a crazy three years for me. So if I just get the green light with this and move on to the next phase, then I can get the construction happening. And then improve the land.

02:14:28PM Any way we can put that on the record. So if it doesn't, it reverts back? I am taking what the petitioner said.

Alan Clendenin

02:14:36PM I am guessing no.

Martin Shelby

02:14:38PM You might want to hear from the attorney. Council -- do you have an answer to that?

Ron Wigginton

02:14:46PM Ron Wigginton, Legal Department. Technically speaking, you can put a reverter clause in the ordinance done between first and second reading. Again, in a particular situation, I am not sure why that would be needed, if you will. Because this is an unused right-of-way. A remnant of past vacatings and kind of a combination of, you know, the corner of three different plats. That's why I am not really sure if this will be suitable to have a reverser and go back to the city. We will have to continue to maintain it if it did that.

Alan Clendenin

02:15:20PM The only decision we are making here today as council -- just to make sure I am clear -- this is not about ownership. This is about the city relinquishing its rights on the property.

02:15:33PM Nothing to do with ownership on the property?

02:15:36PM Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

02:15:39PM This is like a scrivener's error. How did this little piece get left out? Different reconfiguration of the roads. I imagine back in the day when they didn't have great surveyors, this was overlooked. We don't know how this came about this being the hiatus interest of the right-of-way. The remnants of the right-of-way. Unfortunately, I can't answer that question. It is not supposed to be there.

Alan Clendenin

02:16:08PM Anybody have other questions? Motion to close?

Guido Maniscalco

02:16:13PM So moved.

Alan Clendenin

02:16:13PM Ask for public comment before.

Bill Carlson

02:16:17PM Does she have any -- does she have a chance to rebut what he just said?

Alan Clendenin

02:16:24PM Do you have any response to what the attorney just said? To my knowledge, there was -- sorry, teresa Macneil. There were two roads going through that originally. And for whatever reason, the former owner of that land never went through the formal process of vacation. When I purchased the property, I was told just something that never got done and would be an easy process. You know, but for me to try to build with -- it's -- it has been very difficult. So it would help -- help me and the neighborhood just to square it off so that I can improve upon the land and move on with the next phase. I have already submitted part of the plan to the city. I haven't submitted the full thing yet. But it is -- like I said, it is all in the works.

02:17:19PM Very good. Thank you much. Motion to close from council member Miranda -- Maniscalco, I believe. Second by council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed? Who is next -- council member Viera.

Luis Viera

02:17:37PM Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. I -- thank you. I move file number vac-24-12. Ordinance presented for first reading consideration. City of Tampa vacating, discontinuing or abandoning switzer avenue and book 4169, page 1074 are official records of Hillsborough county, Florida, or and portion of Green Avenue right-of-way that lies within the plat of brobston fending company's half-way addition or plat book 2 at page 78 and the portion that unnamed and unplatted right-of-way and abuts Interbay Boulevard and east of 1st avenue and of West Elkins Avenue and are more fully described in here of subject to certain covenants, conditions and restrictions more particularly set forth here in providing for enforcement and provided an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

02:18:42PM A motion from council member Viera. And a second from --

Lynn Hurtak

02:18:46PM Second. But it is 1st street not 1st avenue.

Luis Viera

02:18:51PM I apologize --

Alan Clendenin

02:18:59PM As amended. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.

Clerk

02:19:03PM Motion carried unanimously. Second reading and adoption will be August 7, 2025. 10:00, at City Council Chambers, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.

Alan Clendenin

02:19:15PM The most interesting vacation. Item 60.

Ross Samons

02:19:31PM Ask the clerk to share my screen, please. Ross Samons, land Development Coordination. Providing have,ac-25-07. Applicant is Stephen Michelini. This application was filed on April 26, 2024. Right-of-way is approved by subdivision plat. And approximately 6080 square feet. I have a review of the proposed vacating request. In yellow. Applicant's property is in red. Subdivision plat of which the alley was created. Lot 37. Here is an image looking east. The approximate location of the alley here. Looking from West North McDowell Avenue. Approximate location. Staff objects to this vacating request. Easements are required by wastewater. And natural resources of tree preservation and site designs of trees and vacating the area. City staff is available to speak on those objections if you have any questions.

Alan Clendenin

02:21:15PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

02:21:18PM I would like to know your objections.

Jonathan Scott

02:21:21PM Jonathan Scott, mobility. The reason their vacating wasn't very clear, they had on their new build as a reason. It wasn't, like, for a public purpose. We support the comp plan which encourages the use of alleys in the future. May not be being used right now, but we are looking at long term one day can be used for some kind of connection.

Lynn Hurtak

02:21:52PM Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

02:21:54PM Council member Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

02:21:56PM How wide?

Ross Samons

02:21:58PM Ross Samons, ten feet wide.

Charlie Miranda

02:22:01PM I see that alley when I drive back on Macdill Avenue. How wide?

Ross Samons

02:22:08PM Ten feet.

Charlie Miranda

02:22:10PM How much, ten feet?

Ross Samons

02:22:13PM Ten feet.

Alan Clendenin

02:22:15PM Any other questions? Is there an applicant? Steve Michelini. As staff has pointed out, its alley is ten feet wide. I want to show you a few pictures. This is the east block and running right along here of dewey and Abdella Street already vacated. East block has been vacated leading up to this block. And this is the west block that already has been vacated west of this property. This is a photograph of the existing alley with the trees on it. As you note from the staff report from natural resources, they reviewed the above-referenced request with landscaping, tree removal and chapter 47, and they are asking for the protection of the trees that exist in the alley. This alley is not passable. And potentially is severely restricted. None of the homes -- this is the existing property in the alley. None of the homes access this for anything, not for garages or anything else. It is blocked by vegetation. Maintained by the adjacent property owners for more than 40 years. The city doesn't maintain it. It is not -- it is not what you would call usable in any respectful sense. It is not practical. This is -- this is lot 37. And the property in here. It is ten feet wide. The dedication on the plat indicates was to be used for utilities principally, this is the dedication language that I pulled and reviewed that with the right-of-way department. Every lot in this subdivision is 98 feet deep. All these lots are nonconforming. Because they don't meet the -- this is zoned rs-50. 50 feet of width, but they don't have 100 feet of depth. If the vacating is approved, this will make all of those lots conforming. Here is another picture of -- of the area. The purpose of the site plan transportation issued says "when practical" to where we serve them, but the historic development pattern has already stopped that from happening. It is not usable. Utilities. There will be an utility easement reserved against the for the entire length or width of this alley. What will remain as green space. Applying the general. The specific general principles of the comp plan. They are not intended to be used wholly, just for that purpose there to preserve access. Right now they have issues regarding maintenance and trash and debris and people wandering around their houses and they would like to control that. I have a petition signed by neighbors who abut the alley supporting this. And 3105 dewey. 3109 dewey. 3106 dewey. 3118 dewey. 3507 mantanzas. As well as 3107 adaria. 3109 adalia. 3115 adalia. The two other families that were here earlier were supporting this for the record. They did try to approach the other property owners in the area to explain what was happening, but there seems to be some confusion whether you can build on an easement. And you can not build on an easement. The general issue related to this property also involve -- the access. It haven't been used by the city. Serves no municipal purpose except for utilities. It has been maintained by adjacent property owners. There are no garage or other access that are provide along the entire block, which are 24 different homes. The easement protects the city's interest regarding utilities. There are utility poles there. Also a sanctuary sewer line that runs here. There is no intent here to create a development of lot. The purpose is to clean it up and allow the adjacent lots that are vacant to be considered conforming and would allow construction of new homes on the vacant lots. And will also vest and make the existing lots that are single-family. It would also allow them to be conforming instead of nonconforming. So anyway, that is the intent of this. I had another request that I will mention at the end of the hearing, but it is not related to the vacating. And I will be happy to turn this in. This is the supporting neighbors that abut the alley. Historically, it haven't been used. I have the photographs going back -- as far back as google maps. It shows that it is open and used as green space. It is not being -- it has no municipal purpose except for utility access and will be across the length and width of it. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

02:29:16PM Any questions? Thank you. Anybody in the public who wishes to speak to item 60? We have a motion from council member Maniscalco. A second from council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed? With respect to the applicant, these right-of-ways are multigenerational and even with tree on the property of about 50 years, but probably substantially less. And the owners of the adjacent properties will not be the same owners that are there tomorrow. We are protecting with staff's assessment. Protecting these for future needs. Previous decisions council to vacate so many of our alleys in the City of Tampa. The assets for its city had we not done that for the multigenerational. While I get, you know -- I want this today. But as members of the government, we have to think about what will happen in the future and protect these assets in the future. It is not about -- it is not about, again, those people that are there today. 50, 60 years. How are we going to develop this. What is the neighborhood going to look like. How to access these areas. I think alleys are critical infrastructure. And we set this standard under this council many, many times, reaffirmed those values. Overall districts and everything else we have and institute in our rules of what it is like to protect the alleys in the City of Tampa.

02:31:08PM Yes.

02:31:11PM You can't. Council discussion.

Charlie Miranda

02:31:15PM I can only say alleys when I was a young man was needed because city trucks with one driver, one with the cans and two throwing cans from both sides. Those things are gone. They don't use alleys to pick up the -- I am saying where I grew up at. Ybor City. And they were so SMART with the housing projects, they dug a hole. A nice concrete wall and put it inside so the garbage people have to pick it up -- can you imagine that, and then put it in the truck about 30 feet. I don't know how many back injuries were reported, but they had at least some. I am just saying that times have changed.

Alan Clendenin

02:31:58PM Anybody else? Council member Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

02:32:02PM I will read it. Ordinance presented for first reading. The City of Tampa vacating, closing or discontinuing its alley way to the of North Abdella Street, of West Dewey Street and east of north matanzas, and west of north macdill. And ordinance of the City of Tampa vacating, closing, discontinuing and abandoning the alley way providing for severability and if executive date.

Alan Clendenin

02:32:41PM Motion from council member Maniscalco and second by Viera. Roll call vote, please.

Lynn Hurtak

02:32:47PM I want to say that I believe that alleys are incredibly important. Once you give it away, you absolutely cannot get it back regardless and upsets me to see so many of these alleys going away, because it is so hot here now that I see a lot of my neighbors using that space to walk -- to walk their dogs, to walk themselves. And we have the ability -- West Tampa and the CRA was piloting projects to reuse the alleys. And if we give this alley up, this alley will never be able to become something that right now is looking like a renaissance in the city.

Alan Clendenin

02:33:29PM Thank you. Roll call vote, please.

Bill Carlson

02:33:34PM Yes.

Charlie Miranda

02:33:35PM Yes.

Guido Maniscalco

02:33:37PM Yes.

Lynn Hurtak

02:33:39PM No.

Luis Viera

02:33:40PM Yes.

Alan Clendenin

02:33:43PM No.

Clerk

02:33:45PM Motion carried with Hurtak and Clendenin voting no. second reading and adoption will be held on August 7, 2025 At 10:00 a.m. at City Council Chambers, 315 e. Kennedy, Tampa, Florida, 33062. One other request. Neighbors we met with had -- and I will show you a picture of this.

Alan Clendenin

02:34:10PM How is this related -- it is a different issue, but they asked that the ditches be cleaned out. Because ditches and the drainage are not working. The one in front. So I am just giving you -- I promised them I would mention it. So it is not related, but --

02:34:29PM We will give you that one little thing. The only thing you get today. [Laughter]

02:34:36PM You called in your one daily favor. Thank you so much for your consideration, and thank you for your support.

Guido Maniscalco

02:34:44PM My office will look into that and see about it.

Alan Clendenin

02:34:49PM Item 61.

Ross Samons

02:34:51PM Get the clerk to show the elmo screen again, please. Ross Samons, land Development Coordination presenting file number vac-25-10. Representative's name is Miss Rodriguez. The property is West Cordelia Street. To vacate north of cordelia, of South West Ivy Street and east of north Lincoln and of West North Mantanzas Avenue. The right-of-way is currently unimproved. Existing is 8680 square feet. The area view of a proposed vacating request in yellow. And applicant's property in red subdivision platting that was created. You have 69. And the alley is ten feet wide. Here is a street view looking from East North Lincoln Avenue, approximate location of the alleyway. This is looking from West North Matanzas Avenue. Approximate location of the alleyway. That is here. Staff objects to this vacating request. Easement reservations are required by frontier, spectrum and TECO. Special conditions must comply with chapter 27 with regard to tree preservation and site design for improvements with adjacent to trees and vacated areas. I want to note also, that there was code violations concerning in alley and other staff -- or City staff are available if you have any questions as far as objections. And one -- one point I want to make through. I asked Miss Lisa before lunch, misplacement of an e-mail of abutting property owner objection. I think you all received that earlier today. She handed them out to you as an e-mail.

Charlie Miranda

02:37:11PM I haven't seen that.

Guido Maniscalco

02:37:15PM You mean Lisa?

Alan Clendenin

02:37:19PM I didn't receive it.

Ross Samons

02:37:20PM We did. We sent -- a colleague of mine agreed to send it out to -- yeah. And I will -- I can make copies of this. But she did earlier --

Alan Clendenin

02:37:34PM Can you put it on the wolf.

Ross Samons

02:37:37PM A pretty long e-mail.

Lynn Hurtak

02:37:41PM Just send it around to us.

Ross Samons

02:37:44PM I will send it. You wanted to make sure it is on the record.

Martin Shelby

02:37:48PM Is this in opposition?

Ross Samons

02:37:52PM It is.

Lynn Hurtak

02:37:53PM I am interested to know the opposition from you and the code violations, if you could explain those.

Ross Samons

02:37:58PM I ask City staff to speak their behalf of the departments. Jonathan.

Jonathan Scott

02:38:06PM Jonathan Scott, Mobility department. Once again, it is a matter of the proposed use. It is not clear of a public use, and the whole idea of the comp plan and maintaining the alleys, as well as -- you know, there is -- the city right-of-way. Utilities and so forth. And other departments have objected to it as well. So for all those reasons.

Lynn Hurtak

02:38:42PM And what are the code issues? Okay, we have a code person. Enforcement. They have placed obstructions all throughout the alley -- one or two properties that don't have anything in the alley. Complaint driven and the purpose of my going out there to begin with.

Alan Clendenin

02:39:18PM Thank you. West Cordelia Street. The fence right there. That is the alley. That is the alley, and this is the interior of the back yard. At the gate looking into the back yard. This is the alley. Since the alley is ten feet wide. This is the alley that has been completely paved. They incorporated the alley into the back yard by placing a fence behind the alley. An outdoor kitchen they placed in the alley. A close-up view of the indoor kitchen. The owner was there at the time of the inspection, and she granted me access to her property. Another picture of the back yard. This is approximately five to six feet. This is in the back yard facing the west. So there is an additional four to five feet that is still alley. That you can see there has been quite a bit of construction and obstruction placed in the alley. The building department also has an active case due to work without permits because none of this work has been permitted.

02:40:43PM Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

02:40:45PM Are you allowed to show us the obstruction of the alleyway?

Alan Clendenin

02:40:53PM Anybody else? Councilwoman Hurtak?

Lynn Hurtak

02:41:02PM Thank you. So the building that is in the alley will still have to be moved because of easements? It is not my decision. I am stating the violation with the building department and the Mobility department.

02:41:28PM Okay. Mr. Wigginton, do you have an answer to this.

Ron Wigginton

02:41:35PM In particular case, this is unusual because a code violation should not be considered when going through a vacating consideration. The primary focus will be whether it serve as public purpose. However, since this is sort of unique. A lot of encroachment that encompass the entire alleyway. I would say this could be resolved privately, but since people are basically assuming the entire width of the alleyway. It wouldn't -- you -- it would knock Code Enforcement out of the equation because now they wouldn't be enforcing an easement that they would be able to if it was a easement right-of-way. That is something to considered because if we vacate this, another private property dispute.

Alan Clendenin

02:42:23PM They assumed control of the entire alley.

Ron Wigginton

02:42:29PM Exactly.

Lynn Hurtak

02:42:32PM Wow.

Charlie Miranda

02:42:32PM I want to mention that six, seven months ago, I got a call at the house from a neighbor. I don't know how they got my phone number, but they had it. I think they got it from a trust. Knocked on the door and got the number. And I did go out and see the alley. I am just saying it now. I don't know if I should disclose it or not.

Martin Shelby

02:42:52PM You don't have a financial interest. This is legislative. Not quasi-judicial. You don't have to provide testimony, but can request questions related to what you saw, but you don't have to abstain.

Ron Wigginton

02:43:07PM One other thing if I may qualify again. Ron Wigginton. Building without a permit, this will not affect that. They will still be active.

Alan Clendenin

02:43:18PM I understand. Is there an applicant? And I am the applicant, and it is my mother-in-law's house and they don't speak good english. Neighbors are in favor of getting it vacated. As he mentioned, it would not fix the code violations. They understand they were wrong. They are not -- they want to get well with it. They have involve the fence five feet. You know, if it is approved they only get five feet of the alley, not the whole alleyway. And I know you guys were concerned of the sewer and the right-of-way through the back. Big to the neighborhood but it is like the front yard. A right-of-way in the front and they still have to maintain it and take care of it plant the sod, mow it and take care of it. If you do something for utilities, you guys can come and do it. The city can come everything they need to do. Not like they are building on the alley. They will have to demo the stuff in the alley like the paved, the marble and the outdoor kitchen and remove the fence, but the sewer and stuff, it still needs to be accessed, would not be built on top. It would still be, you know, accessible. You guys can come in whenever you need it. I also have pictures -- I know that they showed -- just an aerial picture. I am not too good with this. But you can see the other neighbors that you guys were asking that were in the alley. So basically -- let me start. This is the house here. This is where she showed that it is paved and they put the fence -- this neighbor is in favor as well. They let them do the fence. They said I am not going to use that part. You can do the fence. Ten years ago. Not something done yesterday. This part right here would have to, you know, be fenced -- if you look down the alley. Everybody already has the alley -- taken care of the alley and mowing it and taking care of it. Sorry about that. I am not too good with speaking.

02:45:41PM You are doing fine. And anybody can -- and you can see there. They built as well. The other neighbors built in the alley, like right up to the alley that you can see. This is the only part of the alley that is, you know, not being used that is still vacant that this neighbor mow it is. This neighbor mows it. And the neighbors take care of it. They had to kick homeless people out and call the cops, because they had people leaving debris and needles and stuff that they were obviously -- no one wants to have that in the neighborhood. So just for you. The fence has been there since 2007. Where you see it in that picture. Pretty much all I have to say.

02:46:37PM Any questions? Anybody in the public wish to speak on this item? I am Yunia Morales. 3209 West Cordelia Street, and I am in favor of us keeping our fence up for multiple reasons, safety being one of them.

02:46:59PM Okay. Anything else? Any other questions?

Lynn Hurtak

02:47:05PM You said you are in favor of keeping the fence up. Does that mean you are in favor of closing the alley or leaving it open? Everybody, I want that too. But I am not going to be in a position to move my fence, if I have to move my fence. But I would like it to stay the way it is. If that is a possibility.

Alan Clendenin

02:47:28PM Anybody else? Can I ask a question of staff. Council member Carlson.

02:47:37PM You can sit down now.

Bill Carlson

02:47:39PM I don't know if Code Enforcement can answer this or anybody. But he just showed a map that showed I think a bunch of the neighbors encroaching on the alley. Does that mean there were multiple neighbors that didn't get permits that might be violating the code? Do we know -- if you are allowed to testify or maybe somebody else can.

Ross Samons

02:48:00PM Ross Samons, land Development Coordination. It is a possibility. They do have violations -- violations from the abutting owner. Just what we have on file with what Code Enforcement has worked on as far as complaints.

Bill Carlson

02:48:16PM You talked of unusual cases. Everybody has already encroached -- the entire alley. Other than a couple of neighbors people have encroached on it already. I don't know how they would have gotten a permit to do that.

Ross Samons

02:48:33PM Also -- we are looking at the aerials. We are not looking at surveys to see what is in the field compared to property lines. So we need to be careful with that as well. But it does look like it is completely across the entire ten feet of the right-of-way.

Bill Carlson

02:48:49PM In terms of utility access. He was talking -- the applicant was talking about -- that he understood that they had to tear out the concrete. What are the rules about providing utility access to property. They allowed to put concrete on top of it?

Ross Samons

02:49:08PM Most of times easement-wise, yes, there is concrete and asphalt all over easements all over Tampa in parking lot and those kind of things. Driveways, yes. That is not more of the issue. Issue would be footers and that sort of thing and overhangs -- building overhangs you can't get utility vehicles -- and it may -- I can't speak for TECO, but they have certain height restrictions are, how close they get to the power line and other things too. But ease of access is it is always a plus for utilities as you know. And they -- they have the option to request access from the front of lots too, but, know, that is a issue in the future. Can pose an issue for utilities. But there are other ways -- I know as far as wastewater goes, there are certain ways of working on those lines without accessing the alley. So I can't answer that. But that is just my opinion.

Alan Clendenin

02:50:21PM Did you have something that you wanted to add? In our proposed ordinance, should this pass, restriction that's they can build in the easement area and limited to only grass and low shrubbery. No improvement structures, walls or buildings whether permanent or temporary that shall be located within the vacated right-of-way.

02:50:47PM Is that consistent with City of Tampa policy?

Ron Wigginton

02:50:51PM It very much is, yes, sir. And that also goes along with the TECO easements, frontier easement and all the other easements to be preserved. If passed, the easement rights will have to be in the court system opposed to Code Enforcement

Alan Clendenin

02:51:14PM Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

02:51:16PM The previous question looking at the aerial photo, it looks like there are all kinds of structures on top of there from the neighbors also. Does that mean that -- that the neighbors would all have to remove those no matter what, whether we vote yes or no, they still would have to move it?

Ron Wigginton

02:51:39PM We have a wastewater easement and ways to access their facilities. I am not sure they will enforce the restriction of placing any kind of permanent for temporary structure notice right-of-way, but we have two or three other easement holder who may want to enforce those rights and rear the removal of all of those structures that are impermissible. If they have get written permission from TECO, spectrum and frontier, that will be a different situation.

Alan Clendenin

02:52:10PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

02:52:12PM Can I see the e-mail from the -- who has the e-mail. And then we might have more public comment.

Alan Clendenin

02:52:24PM Other than staff, anybody who wants to speak to item 61? I am looking at this, and there is a lot of things that don't make sense to me. Number one, who field the Code Enforcement complaint? Did the Code Enforcement officer inspects in and file it herself? Because if she didn't, and some -- a citizen actually did that, where are they? Because if they cared enough to file a Code Enforcement complaint, they would care enough to be here. Did they get noticed? The second thing I really, really -- I went to a Code Enforcement hearing about a month ago, and I saw pictures that looked very much like the one that this Code Enforcement officer presented today where the whole back yard was paved. And then they put up the aerial, the whole front yard is paved. I thought we had a rule about 50% -- no more than 50% impervious surface. We have a problem where flooding. I understand the need, desire, want, whatever. But I -- I just feel like there is questions that I have that you probably need to be asking. But like I said, when I went to that enforcement meeting someone pulled out pictures of a back yard and standing in the next-door neighbor's yard when they did this, and the next-door neighbor's back yard was paved. Standing on Code Enforcement to take a picture of a different Code Enforcement issue. My big concern, where is the person who filed it if she did not file it herself, and I would hope that somebody is looking at the amount of impervious surface on the property. Other than that, I got nothing. Thank you.

02:54:19PM This is not what we are hearing here today.

Lynn Hurtak

02:54:25PM Actually, this is exactly what this e-mail says, the flooding. Flooding is the issue, but we have a neighbor who is really -- who has had flooding. And we get flooding for 40 years. Water will flow freely through the alley alleviating the situation. Now it can not. So I don't know -- I think it will be if Mr. Samons put this at least on the wolf for a moment. Just to put it into the record.

Alan Clendenin

02:55:06PM Mo more public comment.

Lynn Hurtak

02:55:16PM If we can take a look at this.

Alan Clendenin

02:55:20PM The councilwoman wants the public to see this.

Lynn Hurtak

02:55:26PM Don't we get the applicant --

Martin Shelby

02:55:32PM An opportunity for rebuttal.

Alan Clendenin

02:55:33PM That is true. Applicant, would you like to come up rebut anything you heard. To say something. The --

02:55:55PM You have to state your name first. Own house. Everybody on my street want to close the alley. For me, this is for the alley. Everybody on the street want to close the alley in the back. We have been living here for 18 years. Never. Everything closed. Everybody say -- my neighborhood. Everybody here -- say everybody wants to close the alley. On cordelia. I don't know why the complaint. The alley of West Tampa. You look at every alley in the front and the back. Everybody uses the alley in West Tampa the people -- I don't know why. For the -- another neighbor says what happened? And no, look in the alley. I say you can come and look in my house. Everybody uses the alley. Coming inside of my house, it is coming inside, you look at the picture. But you can look at everything -- everybody uses the alley in West Tampa. For me -- from macdill, everybody close the alley. Maybe one or two alley closed and you go Lincoln, same. And glen, same. West Tampa, everybody uses the alley.

02:58:04PM Thank you, gracias. Council member Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

02:58:11PM Going to ask if they have a study on every alley -- I was going to bring it up. This lady --never spoke to her of speaking like that or anything else, but the problem is, nobody knows what happened because of an experience. Half of them don't speak english. They think they are in miami and ft. Lauderdale and hialeah -- not ft. Lauderdale but hialeah and Cuba, and they do what they have got to do.

02:58:41PM Just a second, please. What I am saying, we have to do a study of all of West Tampa and all the alleys to show you what I am talking about. In fact, my alley where I live at, I bought it further to 1968. Is it really closed? I don't know.

Alan Clendenin

02:58:56PM Motion to close and then have discussion. Can I entertain a discussion to close?

Guido Maniscalco

02:59:01PM So moved.

Lynn Hurtak

02:59:03PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

02:59:03PM All in favor, say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

02:59:07PM May I.

Alan Clendenin

02:59:16PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

02:59:19PM Thank you. I understand that people may have bought a house that way, but this is basically saying --

Charlie Miranda

02:59:25PM I never said they bought a house that way. But most of them knew what you they did.

Lynn Hurtak

02:59:30PM This goes back to my Variance Review Board days. Just because you did it, doesn't mean it was legal and say, oh, no biggie.

Charlie Miranda

02:59:38PM I didn't say that either.

Lynn Hurtak

02:59:40PM I understand you didn't say that, I am moving forward by saying that for people to just take over an alley, even if it has been done for multiple years, a bigger concern is the e-mail that is sitting in front of us from a neighbor on that street who is concerned about flooding. And I have to say that that is what concerns me more than anything. I am very concerned that we are going to close an alley that helped flooding. Even if it is just one neighbor, that person -- I just -- a, I am very concerned of closing alleys. Not asking permission but asking forgiveness. That is not an excuse. I am concerned of the water. It says in the e-mail that water used to flow down its alley and now it can't. That is where we are right now. I am very concerned.

Alan Clendenin

03:00:43PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

03:00:46PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I share councilwoman Hurtak's, this is an allegation written in an e-mail that I pay some level of deference, any way to have this profession ally looked at from the Stormwater Department if that is in fact true because I would hate that to be a determining factor I rely on in my decision. Again this individual wrote that e-mail. I am sure they believe that. But is that so? That --

Alan Clendenin

03:01:17PM So staff, any objections? Because the city has objected to this. Did stormwater weigh in on this?

Ross Samons

03:01:26PM Ross Samons.

Alan Clendenin

03:01:30PM Motion to reopen.

Ross Samons

03:01:32PM Ross Samons, stormwater reviewed.

Alan Clendenin

03:01:38PM Did they object?

Ross Samons

03:01:40PM No.

Luis Viera

03:01:41PM May I ask?

Alan Clendenin

03:01:46PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

03:01:47PM The question. If stormwater looked at the scene, and says, with all due respect to this individual, this has no bearing or effect whatsoever on the flooding, you know, I would like to hear that. Just because they didn't object -- by the way, if they objected, obviously it would be kent with this. I just -- I want to know.

Alan Clendenin

03:02:09PM This will come back to a second and maybe --

Luis Viera

03:02:12PM I hate to get their hopes up.

Lynn Hurtak

03:02:15PM Did Miss Feeley have something to say?

Alan Clendenin

03:02:21PM Miss Feeley, you are recognized.

Abbye Feeley

03:02:23PM Good afternoon, council. I have not been sworn in.

Alan Clendenin

03:02:28PM Not quasi-judicial.

Abbye Feeley

03:02:30PM Abbye Feeley, economic opportunity. I hear council's discussion. We just want to provide a little bit of information. We wouldn't do a stormwater analysis or have stormwater -- stormwater in their very view is only looking at whether or not there is a public interest in this alley. Okay. Your discussion is headed down a different path. They can not get a permit. They did work without permit. They can not get a permit in a right-of-way. Some in order to get an after-the-fact permit because as you heard they were cited as well and that would come after and the whole 50% would come in and the other stormwater engineering that would be required to keep part of what I witnessed in those photos is through the permit process. That can't happen yet. Right now, you have an improvement within the right-of-way that they are asking for it to be removed a right-of-way. Then the second part of that will be dealing with the improvements that are there. So we can't even get there. I don't know if we will get there. If council were the for approve this, it would take one path. If council is to deny it, it will take another path.

Alan Clendenin

03:03:42PM Since you are here.

Abbye Feeley

03:03:43PM Yes, sir.

Alan Clendenin

03:03:45PM City of Tampa policies on alleys. The land development code, the future lands use. For alley retention. Don't we have basically a Tampa --

Lynn Hurtak

03:03:58PM We denied it.

Abbye Feeley

03:03:59PM The West Tampa overlay, your code speaks to having access to the alleys and maintain the historical pattern of the West Tampa area.

Alan Clendenin

03:04:12PM Can I ask --

Bill Carlson

03:04:14PM I don't know that you -- an aerial that showed all the neighbors have structures in the alley too. Would it -- you might be able to testify to each one, but would it be true probably that they could not have gotten permits if they are in the right-of-way -- in the right-of-way, isn't that what you said a minute ago. If they built a fence in the middle of this alley, they would not have been permitted. The presumption would be all you have that is not permitted?

Abbye Feeley

03:04:43PM Correct. The opinion that you see is a condition that is somewhat fresh in the city, typically fencing only that people put fencing in and fences don't require permits. It not an improved alley. People think I can put me fence out to the middle or whatever and that the assumption that the others are not permitted is a correct assumption, yes. A lot of time that starts with a Code Enforcement matter, and Code Enforcement will cite -- sometimes if they are able to cite all the improvements or property owners down the alley, they will. And they ask them to remove them. In this case -- I think you had a vacating a couple of years ago maybe down in South Tampa, same kind of difference. Improvements had been made. Only way to even begin to start a permitting process to make those improvements would be to start with the vacating. Because we don't let you put it in the right-of-way unless unfortunately came for an encroachment which is different. A full use the of the evidence that what is shown the aerials and photographs that were shown. I hope that clarifies the line of questioning you were going down. We wouldn't necessarily do that analysis at the this time because it is not under a permit for 50% or stormwater engineering.

Alan Clendenin

03:06:20PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

03:06:21PM Thank you. My only question that I want answered is this. Is the vacating of this -- is the closing alley in any way have any detrimental effect on stormwater and flooding for the neighbors? That is all. That's it. Yes, ma'am.

Alan Clendenin

03:06:39PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

03:06:41PM Thank you. I think that -- what -- what they are saying is --

Alan Clendenin

03:06:47PM They haven't done the study.

Lynn Hurtak

03:06:49PM They haven't done the study. But the issue in -- and -- this is providing testimony to agree, but my -- in my neighborhood, all of our water does go to the alley. So we know alleys can be used for stormwater. I think it is more the pervious surface issue which Miss Feeley said would be dealt with after the Code Enforcement violations. Some and so forth.

Alan Clendenin

03:07:18PM I heard the motion to close, but I would like to give the applicant an opportunities to rebut what you heard. I'm the applicant. I wanted to point out a fact. I was looking -- I just read the e-mail and says there were complaints -- complaining about the flooding, but says right here, neighbor at 3219 west cordelia that added to property line causing the water to go directly in the yard, which after that would go to code especially because a violation for building in the alleyway in the right-of-way that has to be removed or demoed. Once that is removed and demoed, that fixes that issue because no one else in the neighborhood has complained about the flooding. No one else. That is the only person. If you get it going into a neighbor's yard, you get a lot of water from it. No one else's house has been flooded and just went through hurricane milton and hurricane helene. Nobody complained about the flooding. I understand you will have flooding if you got water flowing from the neighbor's house into your yard, but once that is demoed and everything goes into code. Everything is back up into code, that should fix their problem.

03:08:40PM Thank you.

Martin Shelby

03:08:41PM Can I have the letter -- if it is still there.

Charlie Miranda

03:08:44PM You want us to read it in.

Alan Clendenin

03:08:47PM That e-mail that was passed around. We have a motion to close from council member Maniscalco. Is there a second? Second from council member Viera. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Is there any further discussion? Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

03:09:01PM It just doesn't change the way -- I -- the egregiousness of -- still goes to the fact that we need to be saving our alleys and folks are building on it with the stormwater problems we are having. Only a matter of time that that area -- I still think regardless, we have a bunch of new Code Enforcement issues we need to tackle. And I am very curious to know now that you have that aerial, hopefully now that you have the aerial, those neighbors will be required to fix their issues. But -- yeah, all I have to say.

Alan Clendenin

03:09:50PM I will say a reiteration of the last issue which I was on the losing side of. The policy of the alleys. If we don't, I can't imagine if anybody comes from Hyde Park and vacate an alley in Hyde Park what would you hear. Just because, you know, again, West Tampa overlay. We have a policy, and if you don't like the policy, throw out the policy. But we have a policy that says we are -- the City of Tampa wants to retain these. And the structures in these alleys, they are temporary. I mean they are -- and -- and in the eyes people, you know, these things even if they have live for a long ridiculous periods of time like 80 years. Once you give away -- Councilman Hurtak said that. Once you give away your rights, its City of Tampa cannot get them back. They will be gone forever. New houses will be builty and new trees will grow. But you will never get that back. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

03:10:48PM I didn't say this in the last case but I do want to say. I feel the same way that you do for alleys. The first two or three years why I was here I voted against every alley vacation. But there are some cases where it -- start look looking at it the from a case-by-case basis. There are cases that I vote in favor of it. What I am not in favor of are folks asking for forgiveness after they have done things that illegal. I can't even though it is a huge expense to change things. We have our permitting process. And folks need to follow the rules only that. We should not vacate because somebody broke the law of building something in the right-of-way.

Alan Clendenin

03:11:38PM Councilman Maniscalco? You see past -- of the alley, not viable or there is no real public interest. And I have done the same thing. Okay. So the -- what is the desire of council? I know council member Hurtak you were next. I don't think you will want to read this. Does anybody want to read this?

Charlie Miranda

03:12:07PM [Inaudible] -- owned by the trust that I manage, it is all on that street on its other side. And I never been notified about anything. No reflection of that.

Alan Clendenin

03:12:21PM Somebody would like to read a denial?

Lynn Hurtak

03:12:28PM How do we do that? Let's see. Motion to deny vac-25-10, abandoning the alleyway located north of cordelia, south of ivy, east of Lincoln and of West Matanzas Avenue of Hillsborough county, Tampa, Florida, due to the failure of the petitioner to give a solid reasoning other than a lot.

Martin Shelby

03:13:14PM If I think --

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:16PM It does not.

Martin Shelby

03:13:18PM I can make a lot easier.

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:20PM An abutting order will be completely cut off or substantially diminished as a result of the vacating and we have opposition for that.

Alan Clendenin

03:13:29PM Mr. Shelby, you wanted to --

Martin Shelby

03:13:32PM I am going to direct your attention, councilwoman, to the first line, and based on the evidence presented, do you have a finding it is in the interest of the general welfare of this to vacate the subject --

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:43PM No, there is no finding.

Martin Shelby

03:13:45PM Finding of council in your motion.

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:48PM Yes, no finding.

Martin Shelby

03:13:49PM Okay, thank you.

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:52PM That it will be in the public's benefit.

Alan Clendenin

03:13:54PM Based on staff reports.

Lynn Hurtak

03:13:59PM Based on staff reports.

Guido Maniscalco

03:14:00PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

03:14:02PM Roll call, vote please.

Charlie Miranda

03:14:05PM I am going to vote against the motion. Even if I vote by myself, but I will tell you why. We received a letter that states what the motion is based on. We also have an individual who lived there who said -- not flooding by this neighbor's side but by the house next to him. What am I going to believe, this gentleman or the letter? I don't know. Unless somebody in the city will look at it and tell us what it is. And the only way to do that is when it rains. So, he says it is not. The letter says it is. That's all.

Alan Clendenin

03:14:40PM Roll call vote.

Charlie Miranda

03:14:42PM No.

Guido Maniscalco

03:14:44PM Yes.

Lynn Hurtak

03:14:45PM Yes.

Luis Viera

03:14:48PM Its's hard. I will -- I will vote yes, 51-49, yes.

Bill Carlson

03:14:54PM Yes.

Alan Clendenin

03:14:56PM Yes.

Charlie Miranda

03:14:58PM How I did know I would vote alone.

Clerk

03:15:01PM Motion carries with Miranda voting no.

Alan Clendenin

03:15:04PM Very good. We will move on to 62, and I will pass the gavel because I have to step out for a moment.

Lynn Hurtak

03:15:14PM We have Mr. Viera, this is your ordinance. I feel like you would wants to do the honor. Renaming of the multisports field in honor of Roland.

Martin Shelby

03:15:33PM If I may.

Lynn Hurtak

03:15:35PM Turn your mike on.

Martin Shelby

03:15:37PM Just so you know, normally now until your rules were officially amended. You have the opportunity of presentation by staff.

Lynn Hurtak

03:15:45PM Presentation and public comment. Hi, welcome.

Michelle Van Loan

03:15:51PM Hello. Good afternoon, Michelle Van Loan, Real Estate Department. We have the first reading of the renaming of the multipurpose sports field at Forest Hills park. I made the original presentation on May 22 on the biography of Mr. Roland Paz, jr. we posted, per its ordinance, on May through June 13 and did not receive any public comment beyond what you received in this room. And I am available for any questions.

Luis Viera

03:16:20PM If I may, madam chairwoman. Thank you, miss Van loan for your hard work on this. We have gone back and forth and a lot of the information available on this gentleman you had to get from people. And it just wasn't, you know, as available as it should be. This is really good. We know the paz family and their history in South Tampa and forest hill. We know Officer Roy paz, this gentleman's son. What a good guy he is. He is, like, the best. He is the best. He is a kind person. He is a decent person. He is always curious. I remember back in 2020 at the Convention Center, and a lot of protesters after George floyd and some were respectful, courteous, etc. and some were being very have very aggressive with the police there. And I would say officer paz just be a gentleman. Kind and decent and everything like that. When you see his story. His father leaving early, dying when he was a young person. Speaks more of the type of person that officer paz is and the time of person his father was. This a good thing for a wonderful family. I will say this. Forest Hills community that so many of them have gone through hell. This is a good thing because people love the paz family. I will read it just whenever. I know others --

Lynn Hurtak

03:17:55PM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

03:17:56PM Thank you very much. So when I went to visit my grandparents at the cemetery about a month ago, I don't know why I never noticed it. But the headstone next to my grandparents, where they are buried, says "paz." Looked at it. And it was Roland paz, he passed away '77. Here we are talking of it, and we all know his son. And, yeah, he is, like, ten feet away. And I said, well, that is interesting. Yeah, that was it. I took a picture if you want to see.

Lynn Hurtak

03:18:33PM Anyone else? Okay.

Luis Viera

03:18:39PM Sure. I move a -- an ordinance of the City of Tampa, Florida, approving the name of the multisports field at forest hill park in Tampa for the honor of late Roland paz sr. providing an effective date.

Lynn Hurtak

03:18:56PM Add the file number.

Luis Viera

03:18:58PM File number hn25-15718.

Lynn Hurtak

03:19:03PM Any discussion. We have a motion by council member Viera. Seconded by council member Miranda. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed.

Clerk

03:19:11PM Motion carried with Clendenin being absent at vote. Second reading and adoption will be held August 7, 2025 in City Council Chambers, 315 e. Kennedy, third floor, Tampa, Florida, 33602.

Lynn Hurtak

03:19:30PM Thank you so much. You have such a fun job. Here to tell us all the exciting things about people. We name them. That must be a very fun part. Every time you come in, we will be talking of something fun.

Michelle Van Loan

03:19:46PM I wish it could be of someone living, but, yes. It does allow me to be an incredible part of the history of Tampa.

Lynn Hurtak

03:19:54PM Absolutely. That is what I mean. Wonderful that we are able to do that. Thank you so much. Okay, Miss Feely. Number 64. It is a small amount.

Guido Maniscalco

03:20:08PM Peanuts. Pocket change.

Martin Shelby

03:20:15PM It is a matter of moving the resolution.

Lynn Hurtak

03:20:18PM A motion to move item 64 from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from -- I saw council member Carlson first. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Okay. 64 is done. Now to 68, and we are having to up and down and up and down.

03:20:37PM Remember we did a very short staff report because of our long morning.

Abbye Feeley

03:20:45PM Abbye Feeley, administrator of economic development. Council member Carlson and the July cycle and ability to bring back the Channel District for inclusion into the central business district. And we have done some preliminary work on anything through this. I think one of the main impetus for this was in order to adjust the height to be the hca-faa height. And look at putting it through the ddr process, the downtown development review process. In doing that, I did work with Eric Cotton, our Zoning Administrator, and we would like to propose a two-part approach to this going into the July cycle will as you know we did away with private amendments. Public amendments, the July settle bicycle, now July 15 of 2025. So the first part would be to put into the July cycle changing the dimensional --

Lynn Hurtak

03:21:58PM Just a second, the wolf is not up quite yet. There we go. If we can get it on our screens.

Abbye Feeley

03:22:08PM In addition to that, a private amendment to increase f.a.r in the Channel District. Three and a half f.a.r. And you can go to seven if you bonus and an amount to go to ten and a half and then no more bonus. In processing this text amendment, we need to see what will happen next -- the 31st on that. And then we can incorporate that as well. And then just having confirmation from council that there is no more bonus in the cdb or the Channel District areas. That will be the first item. The area described in the motion was meridian to channelside. We have property that is located along the channel. So I want to make sure that it goes all the way to that area.

Bill Carlson

03:23:09PM I strongly object to be that. I knew somebody would try to push this.

Lynn Hurtak

03:23:14PM Council member Carlson.

Abbye Feeley

03:23:16PM If not I will leave this as cd-1 and won't go in for the rest of the zoning code.

Bill Carlson

03:23:26PM That area is for the port and shouldn't be designated -- sorry to rant to you that way. I don't know whose idea it was. I know where the idea is coming from, but the community is going to fight hard to make sure that the port is not redeveloped. The compromise that think of been pushing for the maritime community provide maximum density up to Channelside Drive. And the people that want to develop that port land are bound and determined no matter what to develop it. And it will not be developed. So what we should do is provide the area.

Abbye Feeley

03:24:00PM Okay, that is not a problem.

Bill Carlson

03:24:11PM Because developers want to -- I am not arguing with you. I am talking to the people who are pushing this. Because they are getting paid to push somebody's agenda doesn't mean we need to destroy the economy of our area by getting right of our port.

Abbye Feeley

03:24:25PM I think we were looking at it from just a zoning -- just lifting the --

Bill Carlson

03:24:31PM Shouldn't be. The last mayor forced the port to add two 70-story towers, and this mayor said we need to follow it with a plan. He did it under duress because they threatened him, and the 70-story towers were not allowed due to the FAA limit. If this is what is being pushed, I will withdraw the whole thing. We wanted to build parity because building at height across meridian and across the street to build four or five stories. Again I am not arguing with you but the stupid people who are pushing this idea to develop to the east of channelside.

Abbye Feeley

03:25:11PM Let me -- let's go back a second. Because I think we can still do -- so -- so right now -- and I don't want to write on a fly, but recent now in Channel District, two zoning districts. CD 1 and CD 2. The height goes to 175 for both and a subscript that says you can go above that with City Council approval. Know the desire -- the first desire was to allow that to be FAA. So that -- we can put that into this amount and that is not a problem and gets the first part of that. The f.a.r. Is going to come with whatever comes from the private amendment in two weeks. If you go to ten and a half, we can adjust the f.a.r. To ten and a half. That is all. Second part is moving things to go through an administrative process. If just changing the height and the f.a.r. Is enough for right now to address the intent to allow development of a similar character to the cdb because the height is unlimited. I think that will address that --

Bill Carlson

03:26:23PM Fine as long as we cut it off at Channelside Drive. Are you saying you wwant to go of East Channelside Drive? The motion is to go to Channelside Drive.

Abbye Feeley

03:26:36PM I have to create a district other side of channelside --

Bill Carlson

03:26:40PM I will bring out of a lot people to fight that. That is maritime land. And they need to have more space, not less. Because of a couple of developers and their lobbyists want to develop it, doesn't mean we should. If you can't push this forward without going past Channelside Drive, then I will make a motion to withdraw my motion.

Abbye Feeley

03:27:04PM So on the east side of channelside, do you want that to stay at 175?

Bill Carlson

03:27:11PM I didn't ask for anything of of East Channelside Drive. Only between meridian and Channelside Drive. That is the motion we approved.

Lynn Hurtak

03:27:18PM Council member Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

03:27:21PM I want to make sure that when you say -- equal to downtown?

Bill Carlson

03:27:31PM I made a motion to go from Channelside Drive to meridian and somehow -- I know how -- but to go past Channelside Drive, which is not a motion.

Charlie Miranda

03:27:41PM The motion was made. You made it correctly. I remember, and I am 100% --

Abbye Feeley

03:27:47PM Thing is, if we change the zoning district, that zoning district exists on the other side.

Bill Carlson

03:27:59PM What would happen if we delayed this by two weeks? Make the July cycle.

Abbye Feeley

03:28:05PM Absolutely.

Bill Carlson

03:28:06PM I move we continue this for two weeks. Sorry, I got back late last night. I haven't had a chance to talk to you about it. You didn't know this would be proposed today. Would like to make a motion to continue this to have more discussion with Miss Feeley. Not upset with Miss Feeley, but I am with the people who are pushing to get rid of our port.

Lynn Hurtak

03:28:29PM I just have some questions. If you can put your first slide up because I was -- and I know there is a motion only the floor, but I just have a question I would like answered. So the direction on the bonus density. You are saying if we went to this faa/hcaa limit and update the f.a.r. In two weeks, we won't need the bonus density anymore because the 10 whatever -- if that is approved, that will be, like, mega density and we want -- we would then remove your -- your recommendation would to be remove the bonus density if we were to do that. We still need to wait regardless.

Abbye Feeley

03:29:13PM I believe that is what is in the private amendment. Go to ten and a half for district CD 1 and 2 for that land use that would translate into the zoning and no longer be bonuses in that portion of the city.

Lynn Hurtak

03:29:27PM Okay. I just wanted to clarify that before we go ahead and go forward with the -- did you want to --

Bill Carlson

03:29:41PM Continue this for two weeks whatever the next regular meeting to have a chance to talk to Miss Feeley.

Lynn Hurtak

03:29:45PM May be beneficial to wait until after that because the night meeting is where we will have the private text amendments. So that would be the first week -- first august meeting?

Abbye Feeley

03:30:01PM If we could just talk of the July cycle more in general. The July cycle -- normally, what we do on a workshop day, we will bring in all the things we are considering putting into the July cycle, and I think a couple of other things, three or four that are statutorily required because of changes. So they will have to go in the July cycle. And then we had talked about putting the new bonus into the July cycle, but we are not sure we will get there yet with the direction of the future land use plan and the comp plan is taking and make sure they are synthesizing. You don't have a workshop in august and dependin on the discussion, we will bring the contents back to you on the September workshop, if you will include it on there. And council member Carlson, you and I can work together and get that done and go through kind of -- here are the zonings that interest in here. Here is how we impact it and try to meet the intent of where you would like to go.

Bill Carlson

03:31:07PM I will move to continue it to the September workshop.

Lynn Hurtak

03:31:11PM I don't know if we need to continue it.

Abbye Feeley

03:31:14PM It will be part of there with the July cycle.

Lynn Hurtak

03:31:18PM This was just to be an update.

Bill Carlson

03:31:22PM I could make a separate motion and would like for to be a separate line item.

Lynn Hurtak

03:31:30PM Motion to continue until the September 25 workshop was the motion on floor. And the second from Mr. Miranda. Any more discussion? All in favor, say aye. Any opposed.

Martin Shelby

03:31:43PM May I inquire, madam chairman. Is the July cycle going to be on the 25th of September? Because I don't see it yet.

Abbye Feeley

03:31:56PM It is not there yet. Asking as part of today, seeing we have a couple of things that are rolling until that would like to be included in the July cycle that are not statutory driven for us. We normally -- that's what I had -- we do normally have a workshop where we bring you the concepts. You give us your feedback, and we -- give us your feedback and go out to the public. This follows our cycle. January and July. And this will follow and will give us time to work on this and get this to a place where we can then travel forward.

Martin Shelby

03:32:40PM It not on the calendar.

Lynn Hurtak

03:32:47PM That is what I was saying. Unfortunately, that workshop is pretty big -- but actually no. because that is the biannual capital improvement report and presentation. And I will -- how many workshops are we allowed to have?

Martin Shelby

03:33:08PM Whatever you can get done because you have a 5:00 night meeting. So the thing is, if this something that is significant, otherwise, you would be putting off these amounts to another workshop.

Alan Clendenin

03:33:27PM Bring me up to speed. Does this need to be at a workshop?

Abbye Feeley

03:33:32PM The normal process.

Bill Carlson

03:33:33PM Can I make a motion to move the item third down. So it doesn't disrupt the cycle.

Lynn Hurtak

03:33:42PM Doesn't need to be workshop, I don't think. The staff report.

Abbye Feeley

03:33:48PM Can you read to me the motion?

Bill Carlson

03:33:51PM The commercial use of seawalls.

Abbye Feeley

03:33:54PM Andrea was working on that, right. Yes.

Lynn Hurtak

03:33:59PM That is just creating an ordinance that we wouldn't necessarily have to workshop that. We can staff report that.

Abbye Feeley

03:34:07PM We can circle back and let you know on the 31st when we have our next meeting.

Lynn Hurtak

03:34:13PM I make a motion to add the July cycle amendment for the July text amendments fields for the land development code.

03:34:32PM To the September 25 workshop.

Alan Clendenin

03:34:35PM A motion and a second from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it.

Abbye Feeley

03:34:41PM Last item. Just wanted -- I hope you all had a good vacation. We have been working hard on the land development code. You know we are in the drafting process, and this is the hardest process of the whole undertaking. We are looking forward to reengaging with the public at the end of September and that will be forthcoming. Item 61.

Alan Clendenin

03:35:11PM At item 69, fyi.

Abbye Feeley

03:35:21PM That first installment will have districts, definitions and uses. We are working with clarion on that. Parallel to that, as part of the land development code modernization, we also have been looking at something you talked about this morning. Having different times of corridors and nodes that will support our redevelopment in a more meaningful way. And we are not commit to punting them into the code but we are studying them. We worked with the mpo, with HART, with FDOT, with our own mobility team, Planning and zoning and with input from the consultant, we came up with three areas we are going to look at to see about developing design standards that will support those typologies, and you have to start studying one to know when they will be applied to. When we look at Busch Boulevard and other -- a lot of times redevelopment is being driven by the market rather than by our design standards. Bringing the code forward from the late 1980s. Share what the preliminary are that they will be studying. First is that Florida Avenue and bird -- and you can see they not only look at a focus area but look at context area. And a sub consultant on this is to align with what we are involved with HART right now and the Sulphur Springs. And good to bring it in the land development code. That is one. Cypress Street at macdill. You will see a focused area and a context area. And that is also looking to complement what has been promoted in the -- in the future land use update, which I know many of you were at the meeting last night. And the last is 15th and lake. So they are all different. And they are different -- FDOT typologies. And they will serve a good foundation for us to look further at -- if we do this and what we come up with and what are the right standards are, and this they applicable in other areas of the city, and I think they are. Those conditions are replicated in a number of places. Lastly, I wanted to touch on with my update just quick. Many are saying that senate bill 180 does have a lot of information at the local government level. And one of the conditions in there says that you can not impose more regulations impacted by the hurricanes for a two-year period. I know some of you reached out and say, what does that mean for the city? We are working with Andrea and cate to get that together. But in the land development code effort, what does that mean for news is we made a huge investment in this. We need it tremendously, and we are -- I just want to let you all know that we have that awareness that we have got the comp plan update. We have the code update and senate bill 180 and ensure that all of these work together, and we hope they will not derail plans even if we maybe have to segment certain things. Things are good to go and just modernization can go in one section. Things that have new design standards could go in something else. A little bit of a wrinkle of where we started on this. But we are fully committed to getting this done and having a new and modernized code. I want to share those things with you today. And if you have any questions, I am available.

Alan Clendenin

03:39:35PM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

03:39:37PM Thank you very much. I noticed and you brought it up. When we talk of Sulphur Springs, you know that area in particular, if you even ask my mother, you know they spend a lot of time in the '60s and '70s in that area, and tell me what businesses used to be there, northgate or floriland. Both of them. In South Tampa, the beginning of the -- the change can of the people leaving downtown and going into the wide-open areas with ample shopping, parking lots and whatnot. Since the 1980s, that changed tremendously. With the loss of a major anchor store. You have big areas of lands. You have what used to be tower drive-in, you know. Made improvements to the lights and everything, but, I know, as candidates, some of us here were at least -- at least one candidates forum on Busch Boulevard and become Sulphur Springs and talking about when we will get investment here squalling a food desert. Lack of grocery. There is a walmart there on busch. Something. But Sulphur Springs. At least since my childhood and the loss k-mart and the waters and Florida, became a flea market. Bravo, if the bravo is still open. People feel neglected. A gentleman by the name of Joseph robertson. He was the neighborhood association president. He tells me that Sulphur Springs is the poor neighborhood in the city. And I met him through t.h.a.n. 15 years ago, you know. Many of these people have passed away. But the point I am making long story short, thank you for looking at this. Because Sulphur Springs -- I hear about it every day. Every day, because it is just -- it is -- I mean, I say East Tampa is the land that time forgot but Sulphur Springs right there with it., thank you for looking at this and I look forward to further discussion and how to improve the an area.

Alan Clendenin

03:42:04PM Councilwoman Hurtak and council member Viera.

Lynn Hurtak

03:42:09PM Thank you. These three areas of study. When do we expect to get some feedback on thank?

Abbye Feeley

03:42:20PM I don't have that schedule in front of me right now. Running a parallel track. What times of design standards will be appropriate for incorporation the land development code. I can bring you more information that only next month when I met with clarion on Tuesday, this second authorization came out from the large group, and I really wanted to present with council on Thursday. And hot off the press, and I can get that you information.

Lynn Hurtak

03:43:00PM We are obviously very excited about continued a really helps -- I think what it also will to do help the public understand more what the land development code will actually do. And so I really love the idea of just the corridor studies that can show with visuals what we are really looking to do in certain locations. Really appreciate it. Those are three very well-chosen spaces throughout the city for various different reasons. I think that will be very exciting. Thank you so much. I appreciate the update. And I know we will get of the report when the first comes, we will be ready to go.

Alan Clendenin

03:43:43PM Council member Carlson. Viera.

Luis Viera

03:43:49PM This is appreciated. Excuse me, I look at Sulphur Springs and council member Maniscalco of a land that time forgot. Sulphur Springs is a land that time never gave a damn about. Never on the agenda. One of the biggest challenges with Sulphur Springs, there is no big civic movement there that makes its voice heard to City Council and so forth, unless you go out thereto and punt it on the agenda, right, it is not going to be pushed. We have that a lot in East Tampa. A great civic conditions in East Tampa. In Sulphur Springs, we need things like this where we unilaterally say look at issues of development in Sulphur Springs. What Sulphur Springs needs at the ends, in my opinion, sr. money. A whole lot of money. We need state money, federal money. And Sulphur Springs needs a new deal. Get the kids on the streets and help the communities. Fix up the community centers. Next up its housing. Where people go and engage in exercise and so forth and that takes takes a lot of government money. And the will for that is just not here. Take a look at the pool. How long has that pool -- I know a lot of structural issue that -- one of the big amenities that Sulphur Springs had from the City of Tampa, the pool, gone, gone, gone. When is it going to come back? We don't know. We don't know. The big agenda for Sulphur Springs, really, to get them back to their position where they were before they lost the pool. That is not good. So this, again, is obviously a step in the right direction, and what time we spend talking about it -- Miss Feeley, Has nothing to do what you do and the wonderful efforts about this. But it is about the money and investing dollars in Sulphur Springs immediately long-term against from all government partners. This is a step in the right direction, but, again, there is just -- a lot of things that we really needs to do to put Sulphur Springs on the map from policy. I talked of things like a CRA there. There wasn't support for that. Who know what is the hurricane will happen in the knew commuter -- in the future with the CRAs. I remember a story -- I love u.s. history. A press secretary of president lyndon Johnson. This war of poverty. Poor folks don't vote. He said by the time this is done, if I don't get a single thing passed but poverty on the minds of people and to put Sulphur Springs only a list first and foremost of the minds of people. That's it.

Alan Clendenin

03:46:50PM You know I look at Sulphur Springs differently. All of our economic difficult areas -- some -- a lot of times best intentions have unintended bad consequences, gentrification and other issues. Sulphur Springs, disproportionate number of themes are not owner-occupied rental and investor properties. I don't know what that number is, but I believe it is substantially different than any other area of the city. You have a lot of renters there, and you don't have that civic activism that you see in other areas of the sit. If I was able to sprinkle some magic pixie dust, it needs to provide opportunities for the city of the skill of the city. And we have an opportunity to be able to do that. To expand those programs. And into areas of Sulphur Springs. So people have ownership and have buy in and they are invested in the community. Just people who are, you know, buying dozens as investiments and keeping them minimally maintained. What we can afford to do as a city, continue to double down on the programs with Sulphur Springs and some of the other areas. Suitcase city. And some of the places that we have some issues that are historically depressed area. That is just an observation. I said this before, be careful what you ask for. We go and heavily invest. I have a good panel for you. You may not be able to afford to live in it. When we look at these neighborhoods, working-class neighborhoods or for senior citizens or gentrified and turned into things. Council member Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

03:49:01PM Do you want to go first? You didn't speak yet.

Bill Carlson

03:49:05PM I agree with the point we need to help build capacity for -- for Sulphur Springs area to -- to speak out. Just like other communities, there are a lot of different voices. East Tampa, there is a lot of different leaders and no East Tampa plan. People have different ideas what they should do. You all may see with my community hat on, I had Charlie Adams speaks, and it is recorded, and you can watch it online. Dave Coleman posted it. But I had a robust discussion. The idea is to have exposure throughout the city and people know what is in Sulphur Springs. He is one person. Helps capacity and doing something like town hall meeting. And we have a meeting and can have folks speak and have conversations with them. My concern is that Tampa has been for many years what I call the "ediface complex." Same thing. That we don't have people that don't under sand the economic development. Not Miss Feeley but people asking for it. Don't understand. Their perspective on economic development that we need shiny new buildings that benefit their clients because they are lobbyists. And what we do is we tear out jobs in the port which are essentially important to the area. For Sulphur Springs, we need jobs. Not subsidized but jobs. And we need to figure out how to do it. Because economic development folks have traditionally not focused on those areas and focused on the unique at tributes of at area. The simple thing and with Charlie Adams and others. The very simple thing and others, all the parks are falling apart. The pool and the park ground and the riverwalk there. The -- there are pocket parks in neighborhood. If we just fixed up the little pocket parks, it will make a huge difference. Allocating money like we should be, there is nothing really to do there. So if we fix this, that will be a start. Fixing some of the other basic infrastructure and listening to the community on -- on what we can do. You mentioned suitcase city. University area, CDC, has a great example of looking at things from the people's point of view. Mexican indigenous native. Czech or something like that that a lot of people know. So they got their workers to learn how to speak the language. They understand the culture. They engage them. They brought in groups like the foundations that invest in the art. They get retired leaders in the community to come and coach kids in basketball and football and other programs and tell them not to use drugs. The goal is not to build buildings and plow over things that don't look nice. The goal to get people engaged to build a sense of communities to be more proud of an area, and things build organically and we need to get to that.

Alan Clendenin

03:52:30PM Council member Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

03:52:32PM Several years ag, a friend and I -- lives in Seminole Heights and going through Sulphur Springs. In his opinion, he said Sulphur Springs is a transient community. People coming to vacation in the 20s and 30s and whatnot. He said you never had that permanent residency. People coming in and out. I said people who are multigenerational that will live there. I even read and I never found proof that cary grant, the actor, had a house in Sulphur Springs or would vacation in Sulphur Springs in the 1930s. I know cesar romero had a house in the neighborhood. The house is there, but -- I was just -- I told Mr. Rogero I was watching batman movie in 1966. He is a big batman fan. Anyway, to get to the point, Sulphur Springs is a beautiful community. I spent a lot of the time in the Rowlett Park. I take Florida and Nebraska. Springs theatre. I don't go to the pool. But I go to river tower park. I see that -- call it -- you know the boardwalk back there. I know the history of the area. I talked to my mother about it or people who remember it. The thing is -- and this is a -- this is maybe one of my faults. I see the beauty in -- I look for the beauty in bad people, good people, ugly places, pretty places, but you try to look for the good. So, as you know, I walk the riverwalk all the time. The other day, I had a great idea. I said I am walking the riverwalk, and I said like forrest gump, I just started walking and didn't stop. I said I want to keep on walking to ybor. Walked to armature works. I said I will walk through the City of Tampa. I am not talking about knocking on doors campaigning. I did this during covid when no traffic on the road. I live in West Tampa. And walked from joe's, and I ended up in Ybor City, and I am seeing it from a different perspective than being in a car, bus or bike. I noticed this detail. Look at this. Look at that. A lot of beauty in the city. I am saying from my perspective, I have a lot of ideas. And some I don't want to talk about today, but I will tell you about one. So I am on the board of the Tampa theatre. Tampa theatre will be doing renovations and will be showing movies soon. Can we go and see movies. Cuban club, the centro esturano. Movies in the park like curtis hixon. Showed "wizard of oz." A pop-up drive-in at the water tower at Sulphur Springs. Do it where -- in the old-time drive-ins. You pulled up and a speaker you would hang on the window and modern drive-ins. Would you tune your radio to a different -- I told Tampa theatre, do a pop-up screen at river tower park in the same layout. Have cars pull up like an original drive-in. Show whatever movie and have people tune on to the radio. People go through -- that don't live in Sulphur Springs and Seminole Heights and East Tampa, go to pops in the park. So many people from all over the city go there. They would never go to that park other than passing on the interstate and seeing tower. We do things like that. Tampa theatre and other ideas that I will talk about another day. And people started discovering it. And not about gentrification. Rediscovering areas of Tampa and hey, I can move here and reinvest. I know a woman whose husband bought up real estate Ybor City back in the '80s my husband bought x building on 7th avenue. I told my mom and go -- grandfather bought some real estate -- I said why didn't you buy in Ybor City. She said because you didn't -- Ybor City in 1978 is not Ybor City of what you see now. You go to the columbia restaurant every Saturday night. And we would go home. It wasn't like you see it now. Now you can't touch property in Ybor City. Because the stories that think -- oh, I could have bought this building for $80,000 grand 45 years ago and now they want $5 million. But anyways, someone had an idea saying, hey, Ybor City we can bring that back. Somebody said I have a friend that lived in Hyde Park. Historic Hyde Park. Said I lived there for free off Bayshore in an old victorian home -- early 1900s because the owner said I need somebody there if not homeless people will break into it. Blah-blah-blah. People told me I couldn't get a loan to buy a house in Hyde Park. Now a little house in Hyde Park $900,000, $1 million.

Bill Carlson

03:57:34PM You can't find a house in Hyde Park for $1 million.

Guido Maniscalco

03:57:41PM A house off of Howard, $900,000. This was three years ago. But the thing is once you spark interest -- this is not again -- gentrification. My buddy said Seminole Heights is transient -- bought in Seminole Heights in 2001, $909,000 on a big lot. Something like that. They tore the house down, and I don't know if they sold but $750,000. A little house without a garage, you know what I am saying. Especially goes Seminole Heights. Tampa Heights, okay. When the school caught on fire on Columbus Drive, I went down to see the fire, right. Power was out in parts of the neighborhood. I walked through the neighborhood and some of the most beautiful architecture. Victorian era, late 1800s, 1900s home. Sit on their porch. You couldn't afford this. You talk to my dad, he think that Tampa Heights is $30,000, I go, you wish. You wish. So in -- I mean, we would take --MLK to Tampa Street to get downtown. Drove to get through the neighborhood. Armature works. I drove down Palm Avenue to get to Ybor City. Didn't pay attention. It was just a neighborhood. Long story short --

Alan Clendenin

03:59:07PM You won't. [Laughter]

Guido Maniscalco

03:59:11PM I am not --

Alan Clendenin

03:59:14PM You go down there. You sit next to each other.

Guido Maniscalco

03:59:18PM I am going to finish with this. All it takes is a spark to reignite in a good way a neighborhood. This is not gentrification. This is reinvestment. The people who live there to build generational wealth. We want to you stay. You are what makes that neighborhood, but here is the grocery store. Here is the middle class. Here is the amenities, the doctor's offices, whatever it is, we can do that with East Tampa. We can do that with land use decisions and policies we can make in collaboration with you and private investment. Council member Viera said every dollar, every -- I will finish with this -- would tell me when he was mayor in the '60s through urban renewal -- he would talk about model cities and that is a bleated neighborhood. A blighted neighborhood. Get federal funding through the Johnson and Nixon administration at the time. Money was coming in and very aggressive. We are talking interstate. A lot of negatives there. But we can utilize the resources we have from here to the federal level to reinvest in these communities. No excuses in 2025 that poverty exists. People live below the poverty line. The poorest neighborhoods them don't have access to fresh food. We take it for granted. Go to publix. They don't have a publix. Building in big spaces and opportunity for us. Thank you for listening to my history today. Thank you for indulging me ,and I can talk forever.

Alan Clendenin

04:00:57PM We love you, council member Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

04:01:00PM I believe in this community and can make positive investments to make things follow.

Alan Clendenin

04:01:04PM Council member Miranda, can you follow that?

Charlie Miranda

04:01:07PM If I follow that, I will die. I am not going there. But a history of going down and you look at the little parks that you have. If you see a lot kids in the park, you have a community on the rise. If you see no kids, you have a community in the decline. I can give you an example of West Tampa Bay park which is Tampa little league. Now over 300 kids and community is coming right back to it. That's how it is.

Alan Clendenin

04:01:33PM What was the cost of the real estate. It is always to say I could have brought it then. Realize $400,000 and $880,000 might as well been $4 million. I wasn't make anything money and trying to raise two kids. Even though it seems like based on the scale of today, it was still out of reach for most of us. A lot of the ybor policy was controlled.

Guido Maniscalco

04:01:59PM 15 years ago, now East Tampa 650 was $990,000. I am out of college. I had the money, but it is going to take me years to -- I am not going -- need to rent it out for $500 a month. What is that land worth today, $150,000, $200,000 per lot?

Alan Clendenin

04:02:28PM Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

04:02:30PM The new $30,000. The $30,000 is $300,000 to $400,000 on the water. Tell everybody across South Tampa and across the river you can buy a lot for less than $400,000 on the water and you can stand there and look at the houses across the river and the ones on this tide. Then you have the ediface complex. And only goal is to kick poor people out have somebody like blackstone, divide up the lots along the river. Get them to rebrand it. $1 million, $2 million houses and everything starts to change. Better way to do it is to start work on programs. You probably met the kids playing on the streets along there. And build parks and have what the CDC has done and build a less of community there and him the community from the ground up.

Alan Clendenin

04:03:26PM Have people fix up the items. The last agenda item.

Abbye Feeley

04:03:34PM If you just indulge me one second.

Alan Clendenin

04:03:36PM We might as well.

Abbye Feeley

04:03:37PM Thank you. I want to say the robust discussion about this is just so wonderful. We do have the Sulphur Springs neighborhood action plan plan going on right now. We are working on the fresh food initiative there. And as those progress, we need to ensure that we are reporting back to you on that so we have awareness and folding all of these things in together. So that when the redevelopment comes, we put that neighborhood in the best position possible to -- to be what it needs to be next. And that is where I think it linking in to what we talked about today. So I want to thank you for all your perspective and insight on that. It was very lovely this afternoon and welcome back.

Alan Clendenin

04:04:20PM Thank you, Miss Feeley. We are done with the agenda items. Checked and received and file everything we needed. New business. Let's go to council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

04:04:29PM Just a comment and then a motion. This morning, it was presented to us that we would each have $100,000 nonprofit fund. A few weeks ago, I just threw out an idea that council member Viera worked more on Sulphur Springs than I have. He can make a motion or somebody else. If there is $700,000 there. We can allocate that as a Sulphur Springs nonprofit fund and direct that money to go -- I met with a bunch of the nonprofits as you all have, and nonprofits can create the programs that get the kids and the families activated and again a way of working on things from the ground up rather than real estate development. Separately, there are -- these are coming to me -- I know they used to come to you council member Viera, maybe they are as well. But I have got two eagle scouts that have recently been awarded and would like to have off-site commendation. I would like to make an off-site commendations of receiving eagle scouts.

Alan Clendenin

04:05:42PM Motion from council member Carlson. Seconded. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it.

Luis Viera

04:05:50PM Couple of things. I requested apparently next week -- or this Friday actually is to do some of that nonprofit applications. Some of the folks are needing a little bit of time. What the method of which I seek extension?

Martin Shelby

04:06:06PM Sorry, is that an administrative issue?

Luis Viera

04:06:09PM Yes, I guess so, I don't know.

Martin Shelby

04:06:11PM I am not familiar with specific grants.

Lynn Hurtak

04:06:15PM I think it is in the -- Miss McGregor department.

Luis Viera

04:06:23PM A motion requesting for an extension that I will take to them. Member Maniscalco for a one-time exemption.

Martin Shelby

04:06:40PM Application for --

Luis Viera

04:06:43PM Nonprofit funds.

Alan Clendenin

04:06:45PM All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it.

Luis Viera

04:06:48PM Thank you, council. A couple of really quick ones --

Alan Clendenin

04:06:53PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

04:07:00PM Eric Kaiser, one of our intern who will speak of this autism report, documents that folks can get if they on the spectrum. Get to law enforcement letting them know they are on the spectrum. Multiple stuff going on and push it back to August 28 when we are open. That is under staff reports because he is a City of Tampa worker.

Alan Clendenin

04:07:27PM A motion from council member Viera. Second from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.

Luis Viera

04:07:37PM Looking to build 56,000-square-foot community center in Tampa for the housing for the intellectually disabled. Invite Clayton Clemens. I am on their board to come on August 28, please, for ten minutes with discussion. Five for him, five for council.

Martin Shelby

04:07:58PM Under commendation and presentations.

Luis Viera

04:08:00PM Yes, sir.

Guido Maniscalco

04:08:01PM Second it.

Alan Clendenin

04:08:05PM Motion from council member Viera. Seconded from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it.

Luis Viera

04:08:14PM Next week, a number of motions with reminders of a change-up in mobility, stormwater as well as parks. A lot of things happening and I would like to do internal because part 8 of station 24 and I don't want that. The harrison boonstoppel all abilities park renaming that includes the plaque that was requested for the late Mr. Boonstoppel because Mrs. Mulkey is no longer here.

Alan Clendenin

04:08:52PM A motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Opposed.

Luis Viera

04:08:57PM At least I am correct, the $2 million requested for flooding victims for housing assistance is going to be in the budget as it I understand it as proposed by the mayor. So I motion for the administration to report back in two weeks, and the July 31 of the timeline making the funds available for homeowners need. We are late to the party. Not a party. A time of suffering and everything for snake and we need to get this done as soon as possible.

Alan Clendenin

04:09:27PM Real quick. I have of a motion of this as well. Realize we have to get a resolution from the administration for those funds so the funds have -- council has to pass a resolution. And I will have an amount-to-that as well.

Luis Viera

04:09:41PM May I? If you need to tag on to mine for not overdoing the number of reports. I am fine with that. Once we do the resolutions, what are the monies will be available to people.

Lynn Hurtak

04:09:57PM Can I -- I have something that -- that goes along with that. I mean, have we actually expended the other $3.2 million?

Luis Viera

04:10:08PM We have not.

Lynn Hurtak

04:10:09PM I thinking that is something we can certainly ask for now to find out where we are in that process. I don't disagree we need to do that, but let's find out where we are.

Luis Viera

04:10:25PM I can tell where you we are at.

Alan Clendenin

04:10:26PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

04:10:28PM Yes, sir, thank you. Couple of those funds have not been extended. The reason why I am pushing with this three million that precludes a lot of people from benefit. These funds are not. Tons of working-class and middle-class people who are screwed work for these dollars. That's why I say that. Because of all the strings attached to them.

Clerk

04:10:53PM Are we asking for a staff report. Fyi, we will have four items schedule --

Luis Viera

04:11:05PM I thought it was five for some reason. Okay, how about this. We will do a written. And I will talk about it at motion time.

Alan Clendenin

04:11:13PM Again, will it be appropriate because we don't have a resolution. Getting the resolution and ask for that?

Luis Viera

04:11:22PM Wait a second. Ask to Mr. Chairman or Miss Suling. Is one of those items a presentation from eric because I just removed that. So we fit. Not status on making it happen, but status when we approve the resolution, and can we get these dollars out. What kind of system will be available for pushing these dollars out. Because, again, these will not be constrained by federal guidelines on who wants what. More inclusive. I understand wanting a resolution, but I think the timetine is appropriate.

Alan Clendenin

04:12:04PM Motion from Councilman Viera. Seconded by council member Maniscalco.

Luis Viera

04:12:07PM Last motion, if I may. This is on its disability internship coming for us. But I want a resolution -- not a resolution, but a motion stating as follows: the disability internship. Appropriated for a few hundreds dollars and with interns in the City of Tampa. I believe we had two. I believe we have two. And I am very -- I waited to speak publicly about this because this issue is very, very emotional to me, and I tried to deal with this on the back end as soon as possible, but it is out and coming to us in a few weeks. So my request is that we have been funding this through the social action funds. And I was told this is not going to be in the budget because under social action funds and its up to council. An internship should not be under social action. My request is that City Council states that this fund should come out of the general budget. Why is this -- shll why are we going to deal with these limitations -- by the way, if we appropriate the money, will it go in to work. We have two interns and another level of frustration.

Guido Maniscalco

04:13:23PM Second.

Lynn Hurtak

04:13:23PM I have a quick questiont. If we allocated money over the last couple of years, where is the leftover money?

Luis Viera

04:13:33PM What I did -- and I always try to achieve instead of public conflict look at mediation and compromise. We are potentially giving the funds away to organizations like the mcdonald's training center, a motion that I made some time ago. Purpose of this was not a subsidy to these organizations, to make the City of Tampa stakeholder and people with disabilities to be paid $15 an hour under an internship program. Some of the funds have gone that way and waiting to see how much is left over. That is a very good question.

Alan Clendenin

04:14:12PM Council member charleston.

Bill Carlson

04:14:15PM A great idea and something that is a great program that we need to build on. Again, about building community and building the people of the community and having this on its resume and experience is invaluable. Some of us get full-time jobs. How about to make it permanent. What if we set it up as -- I know we have to work with the administration, but what if we set it up as a fund. Coming from the other direction.

Luis Viera

04:14:48PM That is what my motion goes for, sir, take out of the social action fund that makes it temporary and find a way to go in the general public which is permanent. I said I don't care if we get this done by lemonade stand, but that is the challenge.

Alan Clendenin

04:15:09PM Question. I heard everything you said and will be knee-deep in the budget system. Something that we run into in all the budget workshops. But I want a position of the administration. Again, will you go out with me? Check yes or no. I want a yes or no on this which is August 7 to bring a report. They will move those funds from the social action fund to the General Fund. It can be under the --

04:15:38PM FY '26 money?

Luis Viera

04:15:41PM From here on out, from here to eternity.

Alan Clendenin

04:15:45PM When we do the budget --

Martin Shelby

04:15:49PM I understand what you are saying.

Bill Carlson

04:15:51PM I think we need to now because with the fire station he has been pushing for a long time, and it is not happening.

Alan Clendenin

04:15:58PM Here is my question. We go into this budget cycle and go into the workshop, and we are going to allocate an x number of dollars in this category. Not in the social action funds. Even if we do that, we still can't force them to spend it.

Luis Viera

04:16:19PM I know. But may I.

Alan Clendenin

04:16:21PM Yes.

Luis Viera

04:16:22PM Couple of things. Number one, they get their position. And number one, we have to deal well it. Administration's position because step one, number one, keeping this on the agenda. So that is all that hi want. Are they willing to get this from the general budget opposed to social action, because right now it is not in the budget. If it was in the budget, we would move forward. That is another question.

Bill Carlson

04:16:48PM Goes back to our goals. A complex with pretty new buildings. This morning the first time I heard the mayor say we need to focus on -- one of the successes was median household income. Something that has been in the Tampa scorecard for six years. Per capita income. Focus on numbers look that, the way you. The way you become -- the way you have the numbers is not just to have rich people which is what the policy has been today. We are good at making millionaires but not good at bringing people up like st. pete did. We need to look at it and see what are the category of next could be earning more money that are not fulfilling their full capacity. This is a group -- not a big group, but a really important group that we need to help to move up. And we see how productive these folks are when it is giving the first step. So -- again, our goal has to be economy and economic development, not real estate development. If we do that, we will make the community very successful.

Alan Clendenin

04:17:55PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

04:17:57PM I mean, I agree with you. I also think -- my first thought of the median income, I was concerned. The problem is people that can't -- can't afford to leave here are leaving and going out to the county. This is going on. Hearing it from that perspective is good, but my initial thought was, that is not good. Because we are basically leaving our poorest citizens behind because they can no longer afford to live here. That is what we hear from public comment. What we hear from the community. Quite frankly, I believe it has a lot to do with our declining crime numbers because people can't afford to live here anymore. And unfortunate byproduct and we have been talking of ways to bring folks -- to keep people here and bring people back. And I think -- I don't know, I just --

Bill Carlson

04:18:59PM Go to tampascorecard.com. I developed that with a bunch of top economists in the state, and people that have an ediface complex don't like it. But if you look at it working with USF economists and others, teased out per capital income what is the difference. Reason the per capital income is highest because we have an unusually high number of people who are millionaires and making more than $200,000 a year. Why? Because the goal for at least the last 15 years is to help millionaires to make more and to help real estate developers. The reason why folks can't afford to live here is they are getting squeezed out because of developments going on because that is the goal and not helping people.

Alan Clendenin

04:19:44PM Council member Viera has a motion.

Martin Shelby

04:19:50PM If I can address council member Viera so I am clear for the purpose of what you are suggesting for a written report from the administration.

Luis Viera

04:19:57PM Yes, sir.

Martin Shelby

04:19:58PM I want to be able to articulate it so that the clerk. I want to -- if I can phrase it and you tell me --

Luis Viera

04:20:07PM Yes, sir.

Martin Shelby

04:20:07PM Applies not only to this subject which is your topic, but it is your purpose, to learn the administration's position on the expenditure of funds to support council's intended purpose ultimately.

Luis Viera

04:20:26PM Specifically narrowly tailored the internship program top put it out of the social net work. And for the General Fund.

Martin Shelby

04:20:40PM Irrespective of where the pot of money, administration supports that expenditure for that purpose.

Alan Clendenin

04:20:48PM Motion from council member Viera. Second from council member Maniscalco.

Luis Viera

04:20:52PM August 7.

Alan Clendenin

04:20:55PM Ayes have it. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

04:20:57PM Thank you. Just a couple of things. First of all, I did want to say kind of to Councilman Carlson point. This is where we have the discussion to spend the money to build. This will be my third thing. We need to start in the CIP. Do we want to spend money on building or spend money on people. And I think that should be our guiding question as we look through that budget cycle. I think that is a good point. Secondly, I have been hearing murmurings that -- that the large format digital media that the staff is not sure we want to continue with that. And I want to continue with that. It was council member Henderson's motion, and I am still very interested in it. And I don't -- I just wanted to. Before she passed. But the second thing is modern cities are using this. I came back from a whole trip in all these different cities. Everybody is using this. I don't know if you have seen this chinese technology, the little squares. We are not talking about billboards and -- you know the folks who pushed to give a couple exclusive agreements downtown don't want competition in downtown, but that's not what it is. Imagine on Franklin Street, if it was tastefully used in tern ways. The -- the Downtown Partnership is going to come back and recommend a process that is unique to Tampa. We don't want times square. We -- of course we don't want anything like that, piccadilly is probably too big also. But cities that have smaller things. Places like dubai. Every store has it. You feel like you are in some kind of futuristic science fiction movie because everybody has huge ones, small ones that cover doors and windows in front of stores. So we just need a policy of how to you deal with it and apply it. Shouldn't be given exclusives to a couple of folks.

04:23:17PM I agree. That's why I wanted to bring it up and say, yeah, I am still interest in it.

Guido Maniscalco

04:23:23PM I am glad you are, and we should pursue it and move forward. You know, I mean, growing up, you watch movies like "back to the future, part two." 2015, how futuristic the world looked, and we look how behind we are, and ten years ahead of that. I am glad that you brought that up. And we continue the discussion. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

04:23:45PM Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

04:23:47PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My thing going forwards with this. That couple of things. I know people agree to this and not a point of distinction. My thing is, there are a lot of people that live downtown and make sure that we, you know, have the stakeholders be talked to, the residential stakeholders. Not just commercial and so forth. And want to make sure that all of the parties to this issue get a place at the table, a voice at the table. And that -- it is something that SHIPs can largely sail in the same direction because I do think there is privilege and going forward and that are my thoughts.

Lynn Hurtak

04:24:31PM I expect the 25th discussion to still occur. And my last thing is, I -- I said -- I told you this morning that I wanted to talk of the audit that -- that is planned for this year. And I was shocked when I looked at the list, and I didn't see anything having to do with stormwater. Seems all they are talking about. Last audit done about stormwater in 2019, as well as the post audit review and then some of the infrastructure inventory, and I had them talk to Miss Copesky because we did ask to compile some of that data. Talking about audits, I am interested in a stormwater audit. And I want everybody to have a chance to look lieu the information. Since we only have 30 days, I would love for it to be part of discussion at our next meeting.

04:25:30PM To really discuss between the administration and us what -- what can we study that will give us -- that will give us some interesting information. I talked -- we talked to Christine already and this is where we got this information. I know we don't have a ton of room for this. I had Chief Bennett reach out to me before -- before afternoon session to say, hey, we may be able to accomplish this another way. Either way, we need talk about it and figure out what items we need to look at. I was disappointed to not see stormwater.

Bill Carlson

04:26:12PM Can't you ask for her to be present.

Lynn Hurtak

04:26:17PM In old business -- can we schedule something in old business? I motioning to have a discussion that includes staff about -- including stormwater audit in the old business for --

Bill Carlson

04:26:34PM Second.

Lynn Hurtak

04:26:36PM -- July 31.

Bill Carlson

04:26:37PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

04:26:38PM A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. It was council member Carlson who beat you to the second. Motion by Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded by Councilman Carlson.

Lynn Hurtak

04:26:56PM It is a busy day, but since this is old business, my hope is that by then as well will be a decent idea. We all knees to come with something we want to see. Also Miss Copesky is going to -- on that day -- isn't that when your report is due? Her report about -- we asked her to -- it is as written report, but to create schedules reflecting the equipment and service Tuesday support maintenance activities along with the associated age for each asset and a summary of stormwater. If you have to -- if you have to put it into the on base by tomorrow or next week, yeah, she has to have it in on base next week. Will have to e-mail it to all of us. Will ask her to e-mail it to all of us.

Bill Carlson

04:27:50PM Instead of asking for staff ask for Miss Glover.

Lynn Hurtak

04:27:55PM Miss Glover or any staff that might be interested in participating.

Alan Clendenin

04:28:00PM A motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and seconded from charlotte. All in favor, say aye. Opposed. Ayes have it. Anything, council member Maniscalco?

Guido Maniscalco

04:28:09PM I have nothing.

Alan Clendenin

04:28:10PM Council member Miranda. Councilwoman Hurtak, will you take the gavel, please.

Lynn Hurtak

04:28:17PM Yes.

Alan Clendenin

04:28:18PM I recommend the motion that the administration to present a financial resolution at the July 31 meeting to restore the $2.5 million to street resurfacing for the 2024 allocated fund balance for a total of $5 million and the fund balance request that City Council had previously forwarded.

Lynn Hurtak

04:28:46PM For the FY 2024.

Guido Maniscalco

04:28:48PM Thank you for council member Chairman Clendenin for fighting for this. I get complaints and we all get complaints. And just pave the roads. Pave its roads. A lot going on in the city and the biggest request that I get, please pave me street. You see the amount of property taxes people pay and the house she is live in and it is a mess all over the city. Not just rich and poor. I am glad you brought it up and look forward in improving the quality of our roads. It is always what I hear every day

Alan Clendenin

04:29:27PM I look forward 2012 as well as we look to the next fiscal years as we go throughout budget that we don't settle only the budget as well, but we continue -- this council has done a really good job over the last couple of years of increasing it. And has not gone unnoticed. Get the comments starting to see paved leads to haven't been paved in decades. We can't take the foot off the gas.

Lynn Hurtak

04:29:49PM Council member Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

04:29:51PM Somebody else's budget. We get it, it is our budget. We are going to do it anyway without anybody's helps.

Lynn Hurtak

04:30:01PM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

04:30:02PM I said this morning, but the $2.5 million is really important. But that is, like, one two roads. We need $50 million and we need $2 billion. Fighting for scraps. It should be a no brainer and the administration shouldn't fight us. An argument for another day.

Lynn Hurtak

04:30:28PM I will put my two cents in. Councilman Miranda is right. It is our budget. We don't have to build buildings. Pave roads. What we decide to do. Do we build buildings and help people. And I think that is a really good question as we go into this budget cycle. How do we want our city to look? And I don't believe, just for me, this morning, looking at it the, the clarifying thing that was -- we have been building a lot. But maybe it is time to -- you know, the county commission got rid of all of its social action arts funding. How can we really take $1.5 million away? I feel like we have to find something. Because nowhere else for people to go. People are going to start coming us to because they have lost money with the county. And we may not have ages for everybody, but I know that some things in the city, we might have to -- have to help. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

04:31:34PM Just one thing. So many comments. Things that should be done. For example, Hanna Avenue. What is it, 30 or 40% of the building is still empty. I asked the question, how much of it are you subleasing. They said what is that? People in the private sector are shocked. I don't know how much we can get for that, but at least $200,000 and $300,000. Think of what we can do with that in a community like Sulphur Springs and East Tampa. Think of the job programs we can get. We need to its SMART how we run our city.

Lynn Hurtak

04:32:11PM Absolutely, agree. I have a motion on the floor and -- yes? [Inaudible]

Alan Clendenin

04:32:19PM I would say put it on the consent agenda.

Lynn Hurtak

04:32:22PM A motion from Chair Clendenin and a second from council member Maniscalco. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Guido Maniscalco

04:32:32PM Move to receive and file.

Alan Clendenin

04:32:34PM Motion to receive and file from council member Maniscalco and seconded from council member Miranda. We are 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. ▶ meeting video the information contained in these pages represents an unedited version of realtime captioning which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy nor used as a verbatim transcript. Persons requiring a verbatim transcript may need to hire a court reporter. © - City of Tampa (813) 274-8211