City Council — June 18, 2026 FINAL

Alan Clendenin

9:02:50AM Good morning, everybody. I would like to call this meeting of Tampa City Council to order. Councilman Maniscalco, do you have the invocation?

Guido Maniscalco

9:02:59AM Yes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. It is my great honor to welcome an icon from West Tampa. Missy Martin currently serves as vice president of the Roche Surety and Casualty, a 50-year family business rooted in service, integrity, and community. She is a proud graduate of Jefferson high school and the University of Tampa, with generational West Tampa and Main Street roots spanning more than 100 years. Missy is a past president of the Macfarlane Park Neighborhood Association, a former board member of the West Tampa Chamber of Commerce, and currently serves on the board of the Tampa Bay -- Tampa Tiger Bay Club. She has also served in the City Of Tampa's budget advisory committee and on Mayor Jane Castor's economic advisory committee. If we could please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Yes, ma'am. Take it away. And good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to do this. I'm very appreciative. Dear God, let us take a moment to pause, reflect, and center our hearts and minds in the presence of people of all faiths, all denominations and all walks of life, we ask for wisdom, understanding, patience, and compassion to guide the work that will be done here today. May our elected officials be mindful of the great responsibility entrusted to them by the people they serve. We pray that every discussion, every vote, and every decision made in this chamber reflects the needs, concerns, hopes, and wishes of their constituents. May they listen with open hearts, communicate with honesty and respect, and seek to understand the voices of the community, especially those who may feel unheard and can no longer be heard. May they also be good stewards of the public resources and monies entrusted to them, using those funds wisely, responsibly, and in a manner that serves the best interest of the people and the future of the City Of Tampa. Let their leadership be guided not by personal interests but by service, fairness, accountability, and the common good. We ask for unity where there is division, clarity where there is uncertainty, and courage where difficult decisions must be made. May this meeting be conducted with dignity, respect, and a shared commitment to the betterment of the City Of Tampa and for all who call it home. With gratitude, humility and hope, we offer this Prayer and reflection. Amen. [Pledge of allegiance]

Alan Clendenin

9:05:43AM Thank you, Ms. Martin. It's good to see you. Clerk, would you call the roll, please?

Charlie Miranda

9:05:48AM Here.

Guido Maniscalco

9:05:49AM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

9:05:49AM Here.

Naya Young

9:05:50AM Here.

Luis Viera

9:05:52AM Here.

Bill Carlson

9:05:52AM Here.

Alan Clendenin

9:05:54AM Here.

The Clerk

9:05:55AM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

9:05:56AM Thank you very much. Can I get a motion to adopt the minutes of the regular session June 4 and evening session June 11? Motion from Miranda and second from Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Let's go over the agenda. We have the memo from Councilwoman Hurtak to pull item 7 for discussion. We have a request to continue item 47 to July 16.

Lynn Hurtak

9:06:22AM Can I make that motion?

Alan Clendenin

9:06:26AM Sure.

Lynn Hurtak

9:06:26AM I asked to pull item 7 to be heard after item 44, where the items removed from the consent agenda are.

Alan Clendenin

9:06:37AM Very good. Motion to pull item 7 from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Request to move -- continue item 47 to July 16, 2026. Motion from Councilman Maniscalco, a second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Anything else? Let's do it. Go through the staff reports.

Bill Carlson

9:07:13AM I want to pull number 20 for a separate vote, please.

Alan Clendenin

9:07:21AM Motion from Councilman Carlson to pull 20 for a separate vote. Can I get a second? Second from Viera. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Bill Carlson

9:07:30AM And then the Community, did we do 39 yet? The Community has asked us to continue -- I spoke to Scott Steady, the city attorney, who said he would like more time to help us think through this also since he's new to the issue. I would like to continue this to august -- I don't know what date.

Martin Shelby

9:07:53AM That is a 10:00 public hearing.

Bill Carlson

9:07:55AM We need to do it at 10.

Alan Clendenin

9:07:57AM You said 39.

Bill Carlson

9:07:58AM 39. So we can do it at that -- but just to weigh in for anybody who is here, i'm sure you all did, too. I talked to members of the community and I talked to Scott Steady. I think everybody would like a fresh look at it considering what's happened in the last few months.

Alan Clendenin

9:08:16AM Very good. Just remind me after we open the 10:00 hearings. Staff reports. Unless there's anything else you guys want to discuss for the agenda. We do have an administrative update.

Guido Maniscalco

9:08:34AM Yes on 45.

Lynn Hurtak

9:08:37AM No on 46.

Alan Clendenin

9:08:39AM No staff on 46.

Martin Shelby

9:08:41AM Which one was continued to July? 47. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

9:08:47AM How about 48?

Lynn Hurtak

9:08:50AM Legal Staff is supposed to present it.

Alan Clendenin

9:08:53AM Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

9:08:53AM Yes, sir. We were working through this yesterday and this morning with Chief Bennett, Mr. Brody and others. Let me first say for this one, Mr. Brody does not need to be here at all. I just told him that. I'm going to put this as a placeholder. I'm going to plan on moving a version of this to August 27, if I may. I'm not going to do it now because i've got to think of the motion and so forth. Staff doesn't need to be here.

Alan Clendenin

9:09:29AM No staff, and we'll anticipate a motion.

Luis Viera

9:09:31AM Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Alan Clendenin

9:09:34AM 49? No.

Martin Shelby

9:09:42AM No staff on 49?

Bill Carlson

9:09:45AM It's being continued --

Lynn Hurtak

9:09:47AM No, that is the written staff report.

Alan Clendenin

9:09:50AM It's a written staff report. Issue is ongoing. Susan responded to the --

Luis Viera

9:09:55AM Place-holder to talk.

Martin Shelby

9:09:58AM Will that be a receive and file 49?

Alan Clendenin

9:10:01AM What does council want?

Luis Viera

9:10:02AM Receive and file.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:03AM Receive and file. Motion to receive and file the report for item 49. Second from Councilman -- Viera, second from Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. 50? We need to talk about that.

Bill Carlson

9:10:19AM Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to have Mr. Brody here.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:23AM 51, yes.

Lynn Hurtak

9:10:25AM I move to accept items 52, 53, 54, and 55 because those are written staff reports.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:32AM We have a megs to receive and file 52, 53, 54, 55 from Hurtak and second from Viera. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Mr. Shelby.

Martin Shelby

9:10:42AM Good morning, members of council. Martin Shelby, City Council attorney. With regard to item 51, i'll be appearing with city attorney Scott Steady. I'll ask council for a ten-minute presentation, and then we'll be prepared to have a discussion. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

9:10:59AM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

9:11:00AM I wanted to wish Suling, our clerk, a happy belated birthday.

Alan Clendenin

9:11:05AM Belated birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Dear Suling, happy birthday to you. See, we're warming up for council karaoke on July 17 in Forest Hills. Babe zahara country club.

Bill Carlson

9:11:27AM She has a birthday every day because she's always happy and always goes on great trips.

Alan Clendenin

9:11:32AM People should learn from Suling, be happy.

Guido Maniscalco

9:11:35AM Move to approve the agenda.

Alan Clendenin

9:11:36AM Motion from Councilman Maniscalco, ask fred Councilman Carlson. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Mr. Shelby.

Martin Shelby

9:11:43AM Forgive me, with regard to the almost $6 million expenditure for Number 46, did you say you wanted staff? I don't recall.

Alan Clendenin

9:11:53AM No, we did not. That was the accela thing.

Martin Shelby

9:12:00AM I'll ask that also be taken up with the items at the consent docket, after consent. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

9:12:09AM Very good. We have approved the agenda. We are now on to item number 1. Councilman Charlie Miranda for a commendation.

Charlie Miranda

9:12:41AM Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you members of City Council. Today we have a unique opportunity because in sports you always hear about tennis, golf, football, baseball, hockey, whatever it is. But very rarely do you have three individuals that at one time or another lived in the City Of Tampa for some period of time. Between them, they have won over 9500 races being a jockey. I was honored to have the pleasure of living in a neighborhood where one of them was raised. Ramon Perez, come forward, please. Ramon came from Cuba age 7. Lived on 15th street and 25th avenue, one block away from a guy he never knew, happened to be me. I met Ramon very young age, playing at cuscaden park and he would come in to watch the games. Ramon did something extraordinary. Not only did he win races, but i'm sure most people in the racing community in horse racing know a trainer by the name of Bill Mott. Bill Mott is in the hall of fame. Won many derbies, mistake preakness, belmont stakes. Guy to my left who wrote first two races and won both races for Bill Mott. Bill Mott owes his whole career to Ramon Perez. Ramon Perez outstanding jockey. I'll read some of the stuff he did as a jockey. It was outstanding. By the way, a jockey only gets paid a lot of money or some money when they win. It's not if the team wins, you get paid what everybody else does. You've got to earn it every single day and you get so much to ride the horse and 10% of the wins that the jockey leaves over and pays his agent 25% of that. But Ramon Perez won, born in Cuba, and he began his riding career in 1966. He had a remarkable 27 years of being a journeyman rider. He won 2,729 victories. And two of them were state races. Cornhusker state set a track record not only with that house, but a horse Private Thoughts, also won the arlington classic. Back in the '70s, race of 150,000 was something like a million dollars now. So he won two of those races. He did an outstanding job in being who he was. He, like I said, he hasn't done too many mistakes in life, like everybody else. He quit riding because he started gaining too much weight. That's how life goes. But he's an outstanding guy. Won two titles. One in hazel park Michigan and the other in detroit racetrack in Michigan. He knows how to win. Like most jockeys, not often you win, it's how many times you can get up because it's very dangerous when you're going 35, 40 miles an hour and you see a hole in front of you and you say go or no go and that horse -- the hole starts to close because the horse changes lead, you have to stand up and hold the horse back. It takes an enormous amount of strength. These little guys here, pound for pound to me are the strongest athletes period compared to any because what they got to do with a horse that weighs a thousand pounds or 1200 pounds, going at 35, 40 miles an hour and make a split-second decision whether go in, stay where you are at until you have an opening makes them who they are. That is the arlington classic. That was 150,000 with a horse named Private Thoughts. He did what he had to do to win. He won a lot of them. The next one here is the Cornhuskers up in Nebraska at a beautiful racetrack that was there. It's no longer in existence. I believe set a track record with the horse. The track record would always be there. The reason for that is the racetrack is closed. Ramon, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for who you are, and thank you for all the career you've had, your wins and thank you for being a Tampa native since you were seven years old. That was ten years ago. Appreciate it. [ applause ] for being recognized. I want to thank my friend Charlie Miranda which i've known all my life. He's a little older than I am. You guys have done a great, fantastic job, and I really enjoy being a citizen of Tampa and always will be. I thank you so much for this award. Thanks to my family and my friends. [ applause ]

Alan Clendenin

9:17:56AM Councilman Viera. Hold on one second, Ramon.

Luis Viera

9:18:00AM Se or Perez, mi hermano. I was impressed to see Mr. Miranda speak about horse racing. You are always so intertwined with politics and this is your other world. It's so cool to see. Every time i'm in Forest Hills, which is a lot, Ramon, you always have a smile, a hug, a compliment for Mr. Miranda, for your friendship to him. You are a good soul. You are one of the many wonderful people out in Forest Hills that I have a lot of love and affection for. You are a wonderful guy.

Charlie Miranda

9:18:38AM In fact, he is the one who started the first Friday of the month singing duel with the Council Members. If you want to listen to someone sing, go, hear the board sing. Not me. I'm just a bass player.

Alan Clendenin

9:18:56AM Ramon, thank you. You are a great example of the diversity in the City Of Tampa, both culturally. We have all these great jai alai players that live here and, of course, jockeys. It's so great to have so many different folks that make Tampa what Tampa is. Thank you so much and congratulations.

Charlie Miranda

9:19:16AM Thank you, ramon. [ applause ] Heriberto Rivera Junior. I always call him Junior. But his name is Heriberto. Here is a gentleman that won 14 riding titles in the state of Ohio. 14 -- 16, really. 14 in -- two in Tampa. That's 18 titles he has. He's ridden many, many horses. His riding career, he started riding, producing, and earning 24 years ago, he's had 3,183 victories on horseback. So that's a lot of wins. His victories were over $24 million in earnings. He set the record like I see many times. By the way, he is the second puerto rican jockey to have over 3,000 wins. So that's an honor in itself. And many puerto rican jockeys. I worked with him as a steward in Michigan. We had a very unique situation in that racetrack. It was a female general manager. Puerto rican, a cuban, and a Black. Somebody filed a discrimination act against us. Remember that? I never forget that as long as I lived. Said we didn't have enough diversity. It is what it is. Rivera has wins of like I said 3,183. That's a lot of wins. Between these three guys, they have over 9600 wins. That's an amazing thing. From here in Tampa that no one really knew about. Junior lived here for many years. Won two titles in Tampa and the rest were up north. But he's an outstanding jockey. What does he do now? He works for the jockey -- he's like the general manager of that error of the jockey where he has all the racetracks in america, he's responsible sending different individuals to make sure the jockeys are all taken care of. The next one also works under Junior Rivera. Junior is an outstanding gentleman. You want to say a couple of words? Charlie. [ laughter ] work with him. I was lucky enough to be a steward because he helped me got in there. Once I got in there, I got the job in Michigan and then I was able to bring him there in Michigan and they never met anybody like charlie in Michigan. [ laughter ] if you know what I mean.

Alan Clendenin

9:22:14AM We all know what you mean. Whoa. [ laughter ] whoa.

9:22:26AM Let's talk later. It was a unique experience. I tell you what, I love charlie to death. He's been a great -- I appreciate this and I appreciate the work you guys do and keep the good work. [ applause ]

9:22:55AM I think we'll get a sign back here: "charlie is charlie."

Charlie Miranda

9:23:03AM The next one is a gentleman they call Chilly Willie. How did he get his name? How he rides his horses. He doesn't make too much movement. When he sees something he likes, the horse goes right through. I wouldn't be a jockey because it's dangerous and you have to have a lot of strength. You work seven days a week, 365 days a year because you are always moving every three or four months, go to another racetrack, another racetrack and back to where you started. Willie Martinez is a successful career jockey known as Chilly Willie. The way he relax on the horse and makes -- the horse likes that. Willie Martinez had a 36-year career, amazing 3,722 wins. Including 38 graded stakes. What does that mean? The derby, the preakness, belmont, most derbies in the country. When you have 38 wins that means you rode with the cream of the crop. Anywhere you went, you were a target because they knew you could ride. These are the things he accomplished. Winning grade one victory with a horse, noble promise and brass hat. He even rode in dubai where they have the horses shipped in from all over the world. Those persons are, I don't, 5 million, 10 million. I think the highest one now is 20 million. I'm not sure. That's how the experience that he rode with was top of the riders in the whole country. Willie's mother, when I first met Willie, young boy and his mother lived right behind the post office there on Hillsborough Avenue. I don't know if still -- and still live there. He's Tampa in and out. Among his accomplishments, he became an outstanding rider throughout the country and a leader in the business and now since they all know each other, Junior was looking, that's what I call -- needed an agent, half of the country, third of the country and he hired Willie to come work with the jockey's guild. He's retired and works with the guild. I wanted to introduce you to him. Amazing thing. He's a just a rider, gets on the horse, the horse runs faster for him than somebody else. We have I think a film of him winning three of the 48. It's a quick thing. Not the whole race.

9:27:08AM Last race he rode before he retired. I think he's on the outside here. He won his last race. [ applause ] on behalf of Tampa City Council and all the cities, City Of Tampa, congratulations what you have done on horseback, your career in racing and the many people that you've helped. [ applause ]

Alan Clendenin

9:27:54AM Thank you very much. As I said earlier, it's great to have the diversity, different folks that live in the City Of Tampa. Thank you for being part of our fabric. Thank you for having me. It is an honor to be here, especially among these three guys. Two mentors. Just standing here with these guys and what they have accomplished, they Lead The Way for me. I think for the three of us, big accomplishment is walk away in one piece out of the game. I thank God for that. I rode my first race here in '89. My career took me to many places, but this will always be home for me. Always been and always will be. I appreciate you all so much and the City Of Tampa. This is home and this is where we stay.

Charlie Miranda

9:28:49AM He's had riding titles in Tampa, birmingham, river Downs, Kentucky, Churchill, all of them. At one time he was the cream of the crop himself.

Alan Clendenin

9:28:58AM Thank you. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

9:29:00AM Council member Miranda, we all see when you talk about horses suddenly you light up and like a different person and you are so passionate about it. Tampa Bay Downs hit a hundred years horse racing, Tampa Bay just hit 200 years. Since we spent so much time on this this morning, besides the personal accomplishments, can you tell the public what your passion is and why you think horse racing is so important for our community?

Charlie Miranda

9:29:28AM It's a long story. Don't want to bore everybody. We have a long day. You have to be lucky but you have to work at it like all these gentlemen do. Not easy to be a Trainer, owner or jockey because you work 24 hours a day just about seven days a week. You don't have no break. Go from one racetrack to the other, you start the thing again. It's how you treat the animal and the animal treats you. That's up to the Trainer, owner to decide where to run them at. It's not like a baseball team, hockey team, everybody gets paid no matter you win or lose. No. You only get when you win. After that, hundred dollars to ride the horse. Great sport. Made a lot of people millionaires when I was training. But they were billionaires when they started. [ laughter ] it is what it is. It's very hard to win.

Alan Clendenin

9:30:34AM That's the second best line of the day. [ laughter ] thank you very much. Councilwoman Young, would you like to explain why we have all of this red in the room today.

9:31:24AM District 5 councilwoman Naya Young.

Naya Young

9:31:27AM Yes. Well, good morning. I know you've been seeing some beautiful ladies in red. Come on up. You see some beautiful ladies in red.

Alan Clendenin

9:31:41AM It looks good on camera, too, by the way.

Naya Young

9:31:44AM -- have been blessing us this morning. It gives me great pleasure and honor to be able to present a Tampa city commendation to the wonderful ladies of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. I practiced this. I said it five times fast so I wanted to be sure that I got it right. It gives me great honor and pleasure to present this Tampa city commendation to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated at delta day at city hall. Tampa City Council, hereby recognizes and commends Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated for their outstanding service and enduring dedication to the Tampa Bay community and beyond. Through leadership, scholarship, advocacy, mentorship, civic engagement, and volunteerism, Tampa City Council recognizes the collective impact of the chapters through the annual delta days at city hall initiative established by the Tampa Metropolitan Alumni Chapter in 2006, which strengthens collaboration between community leaders and local government while advancing equity, education, public policy awareness, civic participation and community empowerment. Special recognition is extended in honor of the late Gwendolyn Henderson who was an esteemed and very proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, former Tampa City Council member and dedicated public servant whose leadership and advocacy left a lasting impact on the Tampa community. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is faithfully committed to the five-point programmatic of economic development, educational development, international awareness and involvement, physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement. Presented on this 18th day of June 2026 in appreciation of the continued dedication, leadership, and exemplary service of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. [ applause ] also, my wonderful legislative aide, she's over there, behind the camera, is also a very proud member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Come on Darlene, you have to get on the camera. It gives me such great honor to present this to you ladies. While i'm not a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, I have some wonderful women in my family who are deltas themselves. When I told them I was doing this today, they said, oh, I know that's right. So i'm very happy to be able to do this. Does anyone want to say anything? I apologize. I'm Walinda Mcknight Green. I am the first vice president for the Tampa Alumni Chapter. This is the second vice president of the Tampa Metropolitan Alumni Chapter. We want to thank you for recognizing us today at delta day at the city hall. This is the 20th year for the Tampa Metropolitan Chapter doing this service. Our chapter does the county. And so we are definitely public service members and we honor our late Gwen Henderson as being a part of our chapter and her community service live through the delta. We thank you so much.

Alan Clendenin

9:35:26AM Thank you very much.

9:35:37AM Councilman Viera. Okay. My name is Ebony Faison. Thank you so much on behalf of the Tampa Metropolitan Alumni Chapter, I am second vice president. Thank you for this great honor. Thank you to Councilwoman Young for everything that you're doing so far and what you're going to do in the future. We just thank you for everything. Thank you so much.

9:36:00AM Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

9:36:01AM Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We always love to welcome these wonderful ladies in the room and obviously the memory of the late councilwoman Gwen Henderson, whenever I talk about the deltas, talk about my late friend who was such a strong woman and a great delta, Teresa, a wonderful attorney and her husband, just got Elected County Court judge. We're so happy for travis who is such a good guy. I see a lot of good people there. The with a am who wears many hats, Chloe Coney and very special woman, a proud mother of one of my best friends, Otis Kitchen, Vivian Kitchen, who is such a wonderful person. God bless you.

Alan Clendenin

9:36:48AM Thank you very much. As we spoke earlier about the commendation, the fabric of the City Of Tampa, I look at you all and I see really rich threads. Thank you so much for being a part of the City Of Tampa. Thank you, Councilwoman Young, for recognizing the deltas today. Thank you. [ applause ] we'll give it a moment before we move. Our next presentation is from the Edc and City Staff to report to City Council. Good morning, Geri. Economic opportunity. Pleased to be here today to talk about the efforts that we're doing internally and with our partners on our small business activities. First, I would like to introduce Javier Marin, our director of economic opportunity, to give you a brief highlight of the activities we're doing internally related to our small business activities. Javier.

9:38:09AM Good morning. Start with your name. Good morning, council. I would like the presentation to be uploaded, please.

9:38:19AM It will come up in a second. Within the City Of Tampa. Next slide, please. Our role is to support businesses of all different sizes. We start with start-ups, medium size businesses and large employers. The idea is to identify what gaps there are in serving those businesses throughout the ecosystem. One of our most successful programs, in my view, is the small business navigator. We've been able to support a thousand businesses out of the 23,000 in the City Of Tampa. The idea really is for someone to go into our communities, knock on doors, walk the streets, identify the needs within those communities and then connect them with the resources that are available. There are a number of acres that provide services. We do have referrals to outside agencies and also to our internal partners such as equal business opportunity that typically gets a number of referrals from us. I'll start from the business microfinancing on this slide. Basically we have a number of microgrants available for businesses today. I won't get into the details of each of the microgrants, but they run from 500 to 15 thousand dollars. The idea is to support those local communities, local businesses that want to grow, that want to improve their operations, and we also partnered with four financial institutions that would help those businesses leverage the grants they are getting from the city into micro-loan programs. It's a win-win for everybody. These micro-loan programs are very sensitive to the fact that not all businesses have all the required elements to get conventional loans. And they go up to about $50,000. It is a great opportunity. Going to the left counterclockwise, we have business incubation. Again, people that have these great ideas and they are trying to figure out how to mature those ideas, and then we also provide technical assistance. Through the women's business center, the Hillsborough County Entrepreneur Center. We do technical assistance for microenterprises and also for small businesses. And the idea is to develop some growth acceleration programs to help second stage businesses grow exponentially within the next couple of years. Tampa Bay Wave is specific to tech acceleration. And then, of course, the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council. We have Tony Brown here. We have tony here. He'll tell us a little bit more about the role of the edc in supporting business attraction, retention, and expansion. If you can load up the next presentation.

9:41:37AM Good morning, tony. Start with your name, please. Comes forward. Tony Brown. Vice president of community development for the Tampa Bay Edc. Just By Way of introduction, I know I had one-on-one time with a few of you, but i've been with the Edc five years. I come to this job with a 40-year resum in community development finance and real estate. I ran the community development banking group for what was Barnett Bank, prior to the bank of america merger. And I had the privilege of running our nation's community development financial institutions fund where I implemented the new tax credit program and have had extensive real estate background and manage the CRA for the City Of St. Augustine and riviera beach CRA. I bring a pretty varied experience in community development finance and real estate. I was invited to report on what businesses are coming to Tampa and to particularly focus on what we do to attract industrial and manufacturing businesses. Craig Richard, our president, typically addresses you each year, and goes into details about business development. I'm going to spend more time on Our Place-making activities that have been funded by the Tampa Bay Economic Prosperity Foundation, which is an affiliate of the Edc. And the second wholly owned subsidiary is opportunity Tampa Bay INC., Which has been the entity we use to help generate economic development opportunities or investment opportunities in low-income areas. You asked me to speak on opportunities in manufacturing. We're pleased to report that businesses are looking at Tampa. That we have generated a strong pipeline for the businesses or the project leads in manufacturing. What has occurred, though, is that our conversion rate is not as successful as what we achieved in other sectors. We have a 12% close rate versus 24% across other sectors. And the reason being is that many of the large manufacturing companies are looking for land availability, access to electricity, utilities are one thing. The other aspect is the impression of natural disasters have an impact on our ability to recruit manufacturers from outside the area. There are things happening at the federal level, though, that give us some opportunity. We'll talk about highlight opportunity zones and what Florida Commerce had directed to areas around the state that they were looking for in terms of designating opportunity zones and then another federal program that the president issued -- the term -- but the president identified maritime prosperity zones as a huge opportunity for business activities around our port. This slide is a highlight, and i'll come back to this if you have questions. This slide is a highlight of the 33 census tracts that we recommended to the state to be designated for opportunity zones. The opportunity zone program became permanent this year, so communities across the country have had to redesignate the opportunity zones. We worked very closely with your staff and I want to commend Javier and Amanda and Jerry for the efforts that they have made in helping us in working with the county, identify 95 census tracts of which we recommended 33 to the state. We say 33. 5 were requests for eligibility review. And what that means is that based on the new rules for opportunity zones, Sulphur Springs, east ybor, ybor harbor, Tampa Heights and the army navy site -- meet the new requirements for opportunity zones but the IRS did highlight analysis that could be done for what they call off list census tracts. The asterisk shows where we believe there are opportunities to attract -- opportunities that we believe gives us a chance to attract industrial businesses. As I shift Into Our Place-making activities that have been funded by the Prosperity Foundation, i'm pleased to say that that whole funding effort has been privately financed and we're grateful to 15 companies that have contributed nearly $2 million for us to implement two initiatives. One is our start-up program where we target specific communities in Tampa to let them know of high-paying jobs that allow for quick certificate programs that are job opportunities that fill quickly. So we have targeted that marketing campaign or that awareness campaign in the areas of ybor, East Tampa and central park, and next year we'll expand it into other areas that have been identified with pockets of unemployment. The second initiative that we funded and we've been before you before, has been the East Tampa industrial district. And we started back in 2022 in the plan in working with the CRA to look at the redevelopment activities on columbus between 31st and 40th street. And every building you see in White, we walked through, knocked on the doors and was actively engaged with the businesses to find out what incentives are important for you that would help spark revitalization in the columbus district. In the packet, we have this report and we recommended some incentives customized for the industrial area probably applicable in like Drew Park and areas of West Tampa where you have large commercial properties that are off the tax rolls. This predated the time that you decided to consolidate all your incentive programs and put them under one process. At the time in 2022, each CRA had their own program, had their own processes. So we took a pause. We had great momentum with the businesses that we talked about, and so we took a pause as you look to retool your incentive programs. One of the recommendations that we made, obviously, strategic property acquisitions, and I know that that's a big part of the CRA budget in the upcoming year. And so we formed opportunity Tampa Bay INC. To respond to an RFP opportunity for the live learn development. We recruited Integral Florida as a codeveloper for the residential component, and opportunity Tampa Bay INC. Is the developer of the East Tampa innovation center. As I mentioned, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tampa Bay Edc but has ITs own separate board of directors. You probably recognize some of the names and organizations. We wanted to have an organization that would meet the federal definition of being a community development entity because we wanted to be a driving force for our community development Partners To Drive business investment opportunities in underserved areas. So the site here is what the city bought, put out as RFP and is allowing us to develop the live-learn development, for it to spark revitalization, for it to be a catalyst for the revitalization of the industrial district where incentives were intended to be microcomponent of allowing other businesses to come and improve their properties. One example I like to give when we make a recommendation on the uniform fencing program is we tell businesses that your backyard is the front yard to some of our neighborhoods. So you need to be cognizant of that as you look to develop. You've seen this project. It's undergone the approval process. We expect to break ground in the spring. This is the residential development. 118 units of affordable housing. 100%. And we're now -- that's phase one. The residential component is phase one. Phase two is the East Tampa innovation center. That has gone through a couple of iterations. When we started this process with University of South Florida, this was well before they made their commitment to Delaney College and investment in cybersecurity. The vision of creating a space where advanced manufacturing could be the training component, we're switching that up and doing a feasibility study to see how can we incubate and accelerate small and emerging manufacturers where this advanced manufacturing equipment is a central hub and utilize to grow Small and Medium Manufacturers and using them to then grow and to revitalize the East Tampa district. I went through that quickly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

9:50:32AM Thank you very much. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

9:50:36AM Thank you. This might be a little bit for both Javier and yourself. I am curious. Your data clearly shows that Recruitment is not necessarily working. I believe what we really should focus on is scale-up of the small businesses that we're creating here, especially in manufacturing. We do have those businesses. So I want to talk about why -- what resources. That's what I couldn't tell from your slide. What are the resources you are spending on scaling up versus Recruitment? Other government. We are not a government authority. We do not have bonding capacity, the funding to acquire real estate. So our partnership with the city and the can of the is focused on where do they have land that they have acquired or developers that have acquired land. So we spend our time and attention doing gap financing, trying to help them find sources of capital. So the issue, when you say our success rate, talking about manufacturing with the 12% conversion gap, is that manufacturers, if you have industrial property, if you looked at the market data, that's some of the properties that they don't often come on sale. They are not sold. The vacancy rate is low. And so for Hillsborough County and particularly for the City Of Tampa, the availability of land is not as abundant as it might be in some of our rural areas in the State of Florida. So that's where when we have an opportunity to secure a large manufacturer, we lose that opportunity because we don't have the land or the property.

9:52:34AM That is not what i'm asking.

9:52:37AM Mr. Marin, I think you understand what i'm asking. We have a number of programs. We have a contract with the Small Business Development Centers in what they call the growth acceleration program, which is actually go into a business, identify their needs, about 130 areas in which they address how to help that business grow exponentially. Through the Sbdc, we have that option on a very specific program, the growth acceleration. With the Women's Business Center, with prospera with the Hillsborough Entrepreneur Center, we also have different programs for technical assistance for small businesses to help just move up, whether it's increasing their sales or increasing their staffing or both. Also through Tampa Bay Way, we support --

9:53:31AM That is not my question. My question is how much money are we spending on scale-up versus recruitment of outside companies? $50,000 earmarked specifically for the growth acceleration program. For all other programs, it's about $300,000.

9:53:52AM You're telling me scale up, we're only spending $50,000 on?

9:53:59AM Recruiting people from outside the city, we're spending 300,000? The $300,000 actually covers incubation services, technical assistance, workshops through the ecc. So even though they are not specific to scale up, they support business growth. From the Edc, they have a separate agreement. $588,000 for business attraction, retention and expansion. Part of our agreement with them this year is to develop a very specific retention and expansion plan so we can identify the needs of those businesses in their target industries that should and could be supported through their growth.

9:54:49AM What it sounds like is there is not a differentiation. So what I would like both of you to come back with is the exact amount of money that you are spending on retention and improving in growth and acceleration from our local companies who are already here versus what we're spending on trying to get other people to come here. I need the exact numbers because that's my concern. It sounds like you're putting it all together when what we really need in the city is incentivizing the folks who are already here to grow. You hit the nail on the head when you said people are worried about coming here due to possible hurricanes. Who is not worried about it? People who already live here. That's where our focus needs to be. The other thing I wanted to know, you talked about Hillsborough County, no offense, i'm not really interested in Hillsborough County because i'm covering the city. So when looking at the opportunity zone map, I could not tell what's in the city versus what's outside of the city. You had both. So if you could do a map just for the City Of Tampa so we could see what the opportunity zones are within our borders, that would be very helpful. I understand that the Edc provides information for both, but we do not as the city. So we need to be able to see that differentiation. Thank you. Understand your question. 78% of our project leads are from out of the area. 22% is how we assist existing companies to remain and expand. So that is helping companies stay and grow is a central part of our mission. I'll make sure i'll pass that on to Mr. Richard when he gives an update on the business development activities.

Bill Carlson

9:56:44AM I agree with my colleague. If she wants to make a motion about the information, i'm happy to second it. About four or five years ago, we as CRA Board created a plan that was an innovative plan based on the latest economic development methods. And we were going to implement a system like what she said that was going to promote local entrepreneurship, neighborhood commercial districts, opportunities for formal engagement of entrepreneurs and also informal engagement and -- engagement. Then the mayor ran the staff off and we had to start over. What we ended up with now is we still got the plan, but for some reason, the mayor, through the back door, is pushing for her agenda instead of the CRA Board's agenda, even though legally she has no role in it. This administration, last administration have thought that real estate development is the same as economic development. We know from experience all over the world that that's not true. When a presentation comes up and it talks about all these incentives for real estate, it really is offensive to the public because the public knows that the only thing -- they don't just want real estate. They want real economic development. They want jobs. They want to help entrepreneurs. And this is why I objected to this project in the beginning. What happened is the money we were going to use on neighborhood commercial districts and opportunities to help entrepreneurs got shifted to this Edc project. Frankly, the Edc doesn't have the experience. Doesn't have the track record to run it. Tony is a super star. I wish we could move him to a different organization. But the issue is that the Edc, the last time I looked, none of the companies that they recruited that I could find had met any of the goals they set. Three out of business and one guy had gone to jail. I don't think that is a very good track record for recruitment. They changed the rules so they are not counting the same things they used to do because they are stuck in the '80s using the old model. What we need to do is get the Edc out of this. Community organizations in East Tampa that know exactly what they need to do for East Tampa, instead of giving the Edc a cut of this, we need to go directly to those organizations in East Tampa. Go to the people in East Tampa. The businesses in East Tampa. Because they know how to help their own community. We don't need a group of people paying $30,000 a year in downtown to tell people in East Tampa what to do. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

9:59:22AM We have two more --

9:59:26AM Hold off. Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

9:59:31AM Well, one, thank you both. I asked for this presentation because we received a lot of public comment. Just in regards to, you know, Small Businesses and opportunities. So I kind of just wanted to be able to put this out to the public, you know, what's happening. Another reason why is one of the things that I hear a lot when i'm out in the community is, you know, it's hard to do business with the city. I hear it a lot. And not -- you know, from Small Businesses to local businesses to, you know, sometimes businesses that are coming out of state. I hear a lot that it's hard to do business with the city. I think that is worth us, you know, looking into. How do we make it easier for some of those Small Businesses? One of the things that, you know, I love to do is go and visit other cities. When you go and visit other cities, you know, they have businesses that have been there for 20, 30, 40, 50. Generations, they have been there for such a long time. And it really contributes to, we were talking earlier about the fabric and the culture of the city. And we have so much culture and history right here in the Tampa area. So how are we helping those businesses? I would love to see how we could continue to do that. I know you were saying, Javier, that we do have some CDBG funds that we give out to businesses. I know specifically from my district, Sulphur Springs and East Tampa are two areas that really, really are looking for ways, how do we bring more economic development and businesses, and how do we help those businesses in that -- in the area already. Maybe that is a conversation that we'll have more as a council. But as you two are in your professions, how do -- how are we able to help those businesses? I understand the importance of bringing business here because that also brings money, but making sure that businesses can stay here. I've spoken to people who say, yeah, i've been here for this long, but i've got to move my business somewhere else because I can't do business here anymore. So we're losing that talent. Tony, I think you do a great job. I went to visit the Edc and we really had really robust conversation. I know that you are -- you support helping our small and local businesses, but I would love to see us do more of that. Then I had a question in regards to the opportunity zones. While you're saying Sulphur Springs did not meet the requirements, I guess this is a question for both of you. What ideas or recommendations would you have for us, how do we bring business into the area. If they didn't qualify for opportunity zone, what else can we do? Just to hear from you-all point of view. We've spoken about it as a council, but love to hear from you. The governors the ability to recommend what they call an off-list census tract. Opportunity zones change. Used to be that 80% of the area median income qualified. They changed that to 70%. And you could go up higher if there is a large pocket of poverty. So once -- after we made our recommendations and once IRS issued their revenue procedures, we followed up with the city. We let them know. So to the city's credit, they did an analysis of Sulphur Springs to show -- i'm trying not to be too technical. The Federal Government used an estimate of the census. And so the estimate that they used had high error rates. So we're able to document that Sulphur Springs, along with ybor harbor and a few others, had very high error rates because they were estimating the low-income population from the last census. So we submitted that analysis to Florida Commerce and asked that they take that into consideration for the Governor to then nominate Sulphur Springs based on whatever authority they have for off list recommendations. So we're on it. Short answer is we're on it.

10:03:55AM Thank you very much. I would just reiterate, I want us to help our small and local businesses. We have a lot of them, and their needs vary. It breaks my heart when I go out and people say it's so hard to do business with the city. It's so hard. I'm not even exaggerating. I hear it a lot. How do we fix that? I would love for us to be able to fix that so people feel like they can come to us. Even if they don't qualify for something, we can help them, you are not qualifying this time but here's what you need. Here's what you need so you can qualify. And also dedicate more funding.

Alan Clendenin

10:04:38AM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

10:04:41AM I want to make a motion.

Alan Clendenin

10:04:43AM Go ahead. You wanted to respond. Councilwoman Young, thank you for the comments on Sulphur Springs. Council recently approved funding specific to Sulphur Springs. We're using about $60,000 to deploy outreach programs and we'll also bring the small business development center into Sulphur Springs. At the United Way from July 1st through September 30, our fiscal year, to provide exactly what you asked for. We will be working with entrepreneurs. We'll be working with people who have ideas and in the pre-venture stage as well as those existing businesses, specific to Sulphur Springs to be able to help them through the process. The idea would be to continue that program, and we're also working on developing some new programs that can help the community at different levels. I won't speak on the specific question on how businesses do work with the city. I would leave that to director Bertha Mitchell with the EBO. You'll be looking at the second rating today. But we do have a strong partnership where we typically send clients to them, businesses that want to work with the city, whether providing services or products. The $9.7 Million grant that came from the CRA is actually given to East Tampa. It allowed for the acquisition of one site that is desperately needed for parking. The remainder of the dollars will go for site work and infrastructure. The economic development component will benefit from the investment in infrastructure, but for the record, the 9.7 Million did not come to the Edc or Edc affiliate. It went to actually East Tampa to help subsidize 118 units of affordable housing.

10:06:49AM Thank you very much. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

10:06:53AM Okay. I'm going to make a motion to have the Edc and City Staff to both provide a written report to council on July 16 that shows how much money each organization spends on recruitment of outside businesses versus scaling up of businesses that are already here. Also, I want to show what percentage of each organization's budget is spent on outside business attraction versus scaling up businesses that are already here.

Alan Clendenin

10:07:23AM I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Carlson. All those in favor, say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Thank you, guys, appreciate the presentation. Thank you, Javier, for all your help with everything. That concludes presentations and commendation. We are now at public comment. Fyi, if you are here for any of the hearings, we have over an hour of public comment in front of us. We may or may not get to you before lunch. Let's start with our three online. Do we have all three online this morning? Stephanie Poynor, if you can hear me, start with your name, and you have three minutes. I hope you are freezing up there. It is kind of cold and rainy, but that's okay. I assume you can hear me. Hello?

10:08:16AM Yeah, you are a little soft. I know you never heard from anybody. Hello.

10:08:26AM Yes, we can hear you. I noticed today when looking over my weekly agenda review, there is a theme or lack of a theme. Uniformity is what I was talking about, which is essential for efficiency, quality control and risk rejection. Most important, public comment. The uniformity for public comment is essential. Everyone who is sitting in that audience today should know what the procedures are when they walk in the building unless it's their first time. It should not be different for every kind of meeting. These procedures and the complication of public comment costs time, money, and energy on the part of both staff and the folks who want to come and speak before council. The second lack of uniformity that I saw in the agenda this week is with the committees. There should be a set of guidelines for those boards, for boards and committees. Seven people appointed by the council, two for the mayor, there should be assigned a staff position that babysits those meetings. There should be attendance rules and guidelines for removal just as there are for removal of a public official. Advertising, equity should be done. When I looked at the 50-plus posts on social media about all the other fluff that the city wants everybody to know about, but yet they don't advertise these positions. Internal audit should look at the policy for this particular situation. Trees. There should be uniformity in that process as well. There should be a system. Where they go. What kinds of trees we're putting in. Planted by vendors should have a one-year guarantee just like if you went to lowe's or Home Depot and bought a tree. The definition of what is acceptable, that should be a written amount. Not willy-nilly. Not somebody coming forward just like this week's agenda item that has 50% type 3 trees. I mean, really, if we're going to charge for trees, we need to be buying real trees, not just something that somebody makes up. If you are interested in all my other commentary, please read poynor agenda.review And learn more about my commentary about what's going on this week. Have a great day. Thanks.

Lynn Hurtak

10:11:01AM Thank you so much. Next, I believe we have Mr. Randolph. Mr. Randolph if you are online, please unmute yourself and start with your name. My name is Michael Randolph. Today I want to talk about our upcoming workshops. Bases on businesses in West Tampa related to the issues, Planning the following summer workshops. First, how to create a professional business plan. A step-by-step guide on -- how to conduct a business and market study. Training and analyzing issues. Understanding competition and using data to make informed decisions. How to complete a sales strategy. Participants learn how to build -- identify ideal customers, close deals, and increase revenue. A.i. This -- a.i. For businesses. Training showing entrepreneurs how to use a.i. To improve markets and operation, customer service and productivities. Communication and confident building workshop that teaches how to pitch, advocate, and build relationships. Finally, understanding a Data Driven Way of using -- I also want to make a comment related to -- in West Tampa, we believe in -- today, we confront a painful truth. Generations of people will build -- this echos throughout the community and demands justice. Finally, on June 24, i'll be going into surgery to remove some buildup of plaque in my leg. I ask for your prayers. Thank you very much.

10:13:49AM Thank you so much, Mr. Randolph. You will certainly be in our thoughts. Our first public speakers today in Council Chambers is going to be Pam Cannella followed by Missy Martin and Stephen Michelini. I'll try to call you three at a time so you can prepare. I'm so very sorry, Mr. Shelby. Go right ahead.

Martin Shelby

10:14:13AM That's fine, Madam Chair Pro Tem. I just want to remind people very briefly because we're into public comment at this point, that items 36 through 44 are specifically designated as public hearings. So during this period of time, if you're here to speak on the consent docket or staff reports or at the end of that period of off the agenda items, the time to speak now is during general public comment. But if you are here to speak through items 36 through 44, the time to speak is during the public hearing when that item is called up. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

10:14:54AM Mr. Shelby, could you read the rules, too, for public comment?

Martin Shelby

10:15:02AM Martin Shelby, City Council attorney. Very briefly, by this point, you should have filled out a public speaker card and placed it in the box outside. The cards had been accepted and are accepted until the start of general public comment. Each person submitting a card will be recognized by name to approach and speak. Please print legibly. Names that cannot be read will not be called. If you are here to speak at a public hearing, as I discussed, rather than fill out a card, please use the sign-in sheet that's at the podium instead. If you need assistance, please see City Staff. Members of the public are allowed a reasonable opportunity at the beginning of today's meeting to address any item on the agenda before the City Council takes official action on an item. Preference under council's rules is given to those who speak on agenda items first. A three-minute time limit applies to all speakers providing public comment. Speakers and 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. Please direct your commence to the entire City Council rather than individual members. The chair Will rule out of order any person who speaks without being recognized or attempts to address the City Council from outside the speaker area at the podium. Persons failing to comply with the council's rules may also be ruled out of order by the chair and at the discretion of the chair may be removed from the chambers and city hall, old city hall for the remainder of today's meeting. Finally, City Council members should refrain from engaging a speaker under public comment and the public should be aware that the City Council does not take questions or have a dialogue during general public comment. This is your opportunity to express your position. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

10:16:44AM Thank you, Mr. Shelby. Pam Cannella followed by Missy Martin. I'll put this up because I was given this this morning. My name is Pam Cannella. I want to speak on number 51. I believe this resolution is a violation of our right to free speech. Both under the first amendment of the united states constitution and article I, section 4 of the Florida constitution. The ultimate intention of this resolution appears to be to discourage public comment by placing public comment at the end of the meeting. Where the public will have no notice of the time frame, wherein they will finally be allowed to exercise their free speech rights. Many people work. They cannot sit all day waiting for public comment to be reached or they have other responsibilities. Parking is expensive. And bus schedules are unreliable. Placing an undue burden on the public and ultimately diminishing the opportunity for the public to speak, silencing the public's right of voice, this resolution would effectively have a chilling effect on speech. Time is everything. One such individual said to City Council on June 4, a change on the agenda that morning confused and altered his plan -- his planned out schedule. He rides the bus. And his right to speak begins with a well-planned, timed, efficient schedule. Public comment at the end of City Council agenda would not allow him to do this. He will not have the opportunity for his voice to be heard and City Council Will not be in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Allow the public to speak first. Then City Council can go along their business. Thank you. [ sounding gavel ]

10:19:00AM [Inaudible] Missy Martin. I'm here to speak on agenda item number 45 concerning marty colon -- marti colon cemetery. I didn't prepare any comments. I feel it was serendipity that I was asked to do the invocation and the agenda item was there this morning. I guess today we're going to hear a report from staff based on a motion that a councilperson did a couple of weeks ago. I'm really confused, hurt, embarrassed that it took a motion for City Staff to bring you guys a report on the issue. City Staff should have been reporting to you all on all of the thousands of e-mails and letters and concerns from your constituents for the last couple of years. Our Community is tired of begging for attention. We're tired of bringing these type of issues to light. Thank you for Representative Alvarez for writing a letter which I guess motivated somebody to get some information from staff in what's been going on marti colon the last couple of months. I just want to remind you all about zion. I want to remind you about ridgewood. Both erased cemeteries that past administrations knew there was a cemetery under there and they continued to allow development. This is the same exact thing that is happening in West Tampa at marti colon. I don't understand why our City Administration and our elected officials want to once again be another group of people that allow the same disgusting and embarrassing thing to happen again. Something has to be done once and for all. Our Community needs answers, and we are tired of having to come here to talk about the same issue. Thank you.

10:20:54AM Thank you, Ms. Martin. Steve Michelini, followed by Adrian Rodriguez. I've been asked to read this into the record. You received this by e-mail yesterday. As you know, I represent the Soho Business Alliance that involves Tampa property owners, businesses, as well as residents. Items 34 and 35 set public hearings for the stormwater assessment for central and lower basin. The same basin where $92 million in south howard project is proposed. Some estimates are closer to 170 million. Before the council approves the public money, the public deserves to know where the allocation of funding is, and where it should serve the entire community, not a singular project. For 136 days, the alliance has been trying to obtain records for our review. We filed a public records request on February 2nd, a third one on March 26, and we paid the city $7,600 just to get in line. On top of that, the city charged a proposed charge of $27,000 in special service fees to document items and information already on the servers. The city told us to pay kimmins contracting $965 directly for an executive in ybor for their records. We were also told to pay Atkins realis $12,750 directly to the manager, and that was only for a narrowed request of information. The original Atkins demand was $25,800. The March 26th request was a double charge for information that already exists or was purported to exist in the city system. What the city produced on June 3rd was records of 14 of the 32 items requested. 18 were nothing. No alternatives, no analysis, no design-build contracts, no cost models, no engineering plans, no grant applications, and not a single e-mail from the city from 2022. In March, the city prepared an executive summary. I need to skip to this. The city -- the Circuit Court agreed with us and we filed a request with the courts. And entered an alternate writ of mandamus. The city has 20 days to produce records or convince a judge that it was lawfully withheld and pay the attorneys' fees. Our council members deserve to know and the public deserves to know where the money is going to be sent in this allocation. You're being asked to set a public hearing for these two assessments. It is important to know where the allocation of funds are, for what part of the city, including what portion is directed for staff salaries, what portion is dedicated to actual field work, including equipment and maintenance and repairs as well as when new projects are being proposed. You deserve to know, and that should be requested as part of the public hearing. Thank you.

10:24:05AM Rodriguez followed by Aileen Henderson. There you are back there. I didn't see you back in the corner. Unlikely event there are two ms. Rodriguez, I have two cards for you, by the way. Good morning, love. I was going to ask chatgpt to read my speech. But I don't think you would allow that, would you? It's going to be very hard for me -- Adrian Rodriguez. I'll try to get through this without being emotional. Good morning, council members. I'm here today to speak about the time-sensitive situation involving Marti Colon Cemetery in West Tampa. Today, we will more than likely hear that there's little the city can do because this is private property. But that does not explain why things changed. If this property was denied development approval in 2021 because of concerns related to cemetery burials, what changed in 2025? The property did not change, the cemetery did not change, the history did not change. So what changed? We are repeatedly told that this is private property, but private property does not exempt anyone from following the law. Ray Reed, the researcher who helped bring national attention to Zion Cemetery has so far documented 1,050 burials at Marti Colon Cemetery. Only -- yet only seven documented removals have been identified. Seven. Not 70. Not 700. 7 documented removals. If more than 1,000 burials have been documented and at least 7 removals can be accounted for, then where are the people? Every time I refer to the cemetery marti colon, my heart breaks a little because the marti section of the cemetery was erased four and a half decades ago. Today, I asked the council to continue seeking answers, not for me, not for the community, but for the people who were buried there. The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do it for them. I would like to use the remainder of my time and ask that the council and the community join me in a moment of silence to honor the memory of those buried at Marti Colon Cemetery. [Moment of silence] thank you, council.

10:27:12AM Thank you. Aileen Henderson, followed by Michelle Mastrototaro. Aileen Henderson. Founder of the Cemetery Society. Silence is powerful, isn't it? That was pretty impressive. I'm glad she did that. On my facebook, I do remember the names, so i've been posting those 1,000 unmarked graves. To put a name to them. So we know who they are, because that's important. I'll start with a little story, a little bit of a storyteller. 28 years ago, almost to date, started working for the county. Public servant. I thought then i'm doing this the rest of my life. I knew the moment I walked on a playground, this is what I would do. And in this moment, with the founding of the Cemetery Society, I now know why because it gave me the knowledge and the experience to understand government. So I stand here today to tell you when people say how did you get through 28 years and how are you going to get to your retirement? It's a simple answer. I follow the rules. I just follow the rules. We've been asking since 2024 -- actually, since before that, missy started this fight ten years ago. I'm just riding her coattails. We just needed you to ask questions. We don't need to be lawyer explained later. We know you can't do anything in terms of changing what's happened. You can't change the approvals. But what you can do, you can ask the questions. I said it to you over and over again. Whoever is advising you is wrong. You can ask the questions. You know how I know that now to be true? Because there was a motion on June 4, and you're going to have the attorney stand up here and tell us what you can't do. I sure would like to hear what you can do. But what I know you can do is ask questions because I sent you an e-mail with 17 rules from your rules, council's rules, all relevant to what you can do. So that day I started, had I known the impact, probably would have taken it a lot serious and paid more attention. But here I am today. Ask the questions, transparency, process, accountability. Fyi, i'm moving to Sulphur Springs, so, Councilwoman Naya, i'm on it. Thank you, council.

10:30:12AM Thank you, aileen. Mr. Daniel, can you please, your noises are really distracting. If you would please remain silent, I would appreciate that. Michelle Mastrototaro. Thank you. My name is Michelle Mastrototaro. I'm also talking about the Colon Cemetery. I stand before you today to speak about something that should concern residents of every community. The future of Colon Cemetery. The cemetery is not just a piece of land. It's a sacred ground, and ITs Final Resting Place for mothers, fathers, veterans, children, generations of people who helped build this community. The idea of the land containing human remains could be sold, neglected and potentially developed for housing is deeply concerning. And troubling and morally wrong. The owner has apparently walked away leaving uncertainties about the future of this historic burial site when the cemetery is abandoned, the responsibility should not disappear with the owner. The city must step in and protect and preserve that land for future generations. Human beings are buried there. There are not vacant lots. There are graves. They deserve dignity, respect, and perpetual care. Allowing the developers, development that disturbs burial grounds would be a betrayal of the families whose loved ones rested there and a stain on community. I urge the city to explore Every Legal Avenue available to acquire, preserve, and maintain Colon Cemetery as a protected historical sacred site. The city should ensure that no homes, commercial buildings or future development are ever allowed to disturb this burial ground. The measures of the community is to treat ITs history and how to honor those who came before us. We cannot claim to value our heritage while allowing a cemetery to be forgotten or placed at risk. Today, I ask you to do what's right. Protect Colon Cemetery. Preserve the history, and honor the buried there and ensure that the sacred ground remains sacred forever. I thank you for your time.

10:32:46AM Thank you, michelle. Connie Burton, followed by James Ransom. Good morning, connie. Connie Burton. I got up kind of feeling good this morning because I was thinking about 1863. The raising of the flag that indicated that somehow enslaved people was free. But just sitting here this morning, from 1863 to right now, you all know we don't have no freedom. People can give you presentations that look like me, that don't have no value of nowhere pushing the needle forward to ensure that we will have real opportunity. They can't reach their benchmark. They have been around here 15 years, but they can't tell you about one economic development plan for East Tampa. Sulphur Springs. As poor as our communities are, we don't reach the criteria for opportunity zone. You know why? Because we don't no 40 acres and a mule. Same thing. You all have a responsibility as our political leaders to push the ball forward. You all looking at all this corruption that's going on from d.c. On down, and you can't do nothing about it. But your hands tied here. We ask for simple forms of justice, you can't do any of it. As Democrats, all we can get is saying you know what we'll get is a nonprofit show up in the Black community. They are going to collect all of the data. You know what we're going to be, 15 years more and we still don't have a damn thing. That's where we at. The most we going to get is item number 47. Frank Reddick name going to be placed on a building. He did some hard lifting. But all the Black community supposed to do is be mesmerized because a few Black folks can move forward while the majority sit still. So what's happening now, even as you build that apartment complex on Columbus Drive, you can't even say how many poor people going to be able to live in there. Highland pine, north view hills, grant park, East Tampa, belmont heights, Sulphur Springs, you know what, we still living below the poverty level. Our children are still on free lunch. Guess what, half of our Black men can't get a damn job because y'all set the rules. This morning, as I celebrate Juneteenth, i'm always thinking forward. I ain't got no permanent friends. Politically, no political allies, until I see you carry out the mission of ensuring that prosperity reaches the people at the bottom. Because what a man eat from the top, I give less than a damn. It doesn't feed my family. We are sick and tired. Trying to change the rule about our public comment and see what happens to your political career.

10:36:06AM Thank you, Ms. Burton. James Ransom, followed by Mentesnot. Mr. Chair, City Council, I represent the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs and Toba Foundation. I'm here with one of my colleagues from our Saturday morning breakfast group. Many of you have been at our Saturday morning breakfast meeting. James Ransom, board member of toba. I sent you some facts and data to support a position that we wanted you to take today. You haven't decided on that yet, but we hope that you will approve our request to delay and suspend and pause the EBO ordinance. The reason for that is because we research what the city does with spending, and in the past, there was some provision and guardrails around how much money the city spends equitably by race and gender. You know what's happening federally and nationally. After looking at the last EBO report from 2024, the city spent around $760 million on awarding granted contracts. Black owned only 1.32% Of those dollars. That is not race conscious, and that's not race neutral. We don't live in that kind of society. This is america. America looks like everybody. We need to know when taxpayers look like everybody and spending taxpayer dollars, we need to find ways to do it without sacrificing service or quality or competition, but we need to make sure it's equitable. We're asking the city to study this. Pause for a moment. You have the program suspended. You're tracking spending. Go back to the attorney and say, can we study this and make sure that we're compliant with expectations of the taxpayers who look like everybody, including Black people. So it's important that, and we hope that you support what we ask you to do. Just pause it, research it, look at doing a study, and then come back together and see what we can do to make the city a place where everyone can be respected and everybody can be included. I'm open for any questions you might have.

10:38:15AM Thank you. It's public comment. We don't do questions. Thank you, james. Mentesnot, followed by Valerie Bullock. Uhuru. If you can hold my time because I want to say this. If you look at rule 3, number 11 under the agenda, it tells you they don't even follow their own rules. They don't even follow their own rules. Week after week after week don't follow their own rules. But what we need in the city, we need a Black mayor. I don't care if they are Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, Black mayor. Keep rotating, rotating, we want a Black mayor. De-escalation, versus escalation. They need to learn about that. De-escalation versus escalation. Big difference. Know why? White people have no probable cause to approach you in the First Place. But they approach you --

10:39:14AM Mr. Daniels, you indicated you wanted to speak on agenda items. Please respect -- hold my time.

10:39:20AM No, we're not holding you time.

10:39:26AM Right now. Start with on agenda items. Yes, master. We're going to see the day. I'm going to jail today, partner. I'm letting you know up front. First and foremost, and you're going to stop my time. Stop my time. Whole bunch of things to talk about on this agenda, but i'm not going to talk about it because i'll show you something about respect. On that card it has mentesnot. You continuously call me Mr. Daniel. That is an insult to african people. It's an insult to me. Some Black people don't want you to know their names. Some Black people, we know them all their lives and don't know their names. We respect what you want them to call. June Bug, home boy, home girl. That's respect. I'm going to cut this short. It's very important, but also very important for me to put you in check. On that card, it has mentesnot. If you keep calling me Mr. Daniel, i'll call you mr. Faggot. Plain and simple. [ sounding gavel ]

10:40:26AM You are out of order. Valerie Bullock, good morning. Followed by Emily Hinsdale. College hill. I'm here to talk about item number 3, East Tampa. We keep getting studied, keep getting another program, keep getting another nonprofit, subsidiary of nonprofit but we're not getting economic help that we need. I'm going to say it again and again, the history of East Tampa, used to have the tomato company, used to have winn dixie warehouse, Singleton Seafood. We also had Tampa maid. Used to live, work and play in East Tampa. So it's not hard, and we're not asking you all to reinvent the wheel. We're asking you all to change the spokes. We want manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and warehousing in East Tampa. Yes, we want to see the small businesses process and grow also, but I believe they can coexist because we have coexisted in the past. On 22nd street, you had hubcap where we got our gas from. You have chicken. Sarge grocery store and Midway Grocery Store. Those were the small businesses, and they were very successful. We also had the big businesses, too. And that is what we want in East Tampa. Too many times what I see, we give the nonprofits the money and we ask questions later. Edc is not going to do nothing for East Tampa. Especially not jackson heights and Belmont Heights. When I was at the CRA meeting, the man said he wasn't thinking about that. He wanted incubation programs. We can have incubation programs. While we're waiting for them to incubate, we can have jobs where people are getting paychecks from also. And I asked him, did he go out to the community and talk to people? Did he go to the churches and talk to people? Are you just going to throw your ideas on us? And it shouldn't be like that. We have a voice, whether we use it or not, we have a voice, and people need to come out into the community, knock on doors, and talk to us. Ask us how it used to be and what will it take to get back like that. Because it's sad. You see all the other neighborhoods, jackson heights, Belmont Heights, Sulphur Springs, we still where we have is at in the '50s and '60s. Nothing have changed. I also want to talk about 29, the hiv/aids housing. How do we know that people are getting housing? Who is making that program accountable? Another thing, number 31, I talked to someone and they say the apartments, the vicinity, when they came before you all, 30 and 50 percent. Now they are at 80% AMI. He told me, City Council told him to change it. No longer for the people in the community. Firefighters, nurses and police officers. That is --

10:43:42AM Thank you, valerie. Emily Hinsdale followed by David Philipson.

Luis Viera

10:43:49AM Whenever it is appropriate after public comment, whenever, Mr. Chair, at your discretion.

Alan Clendenin

10:43:54AM After public comment. Good morning, emily. Emily Hinsdale, founder and president of Sidewalk Stompers, Safe Routes to School Nonprofit. I'm here to speak on agenda item 53, addressing safe routes to school needs through filling sidewalk gaps at Sulphur Springs k-8 school. This request was initiated in response to the school district's decision to shift Sulphur Springs middle school grades to other schools starting with the 2027-28 school year. While this is Not The Place to discuss the district's decision, this Is The Place to discuss Tampa's lack of investment in safe routes to school at this and all schools within the city. Sulphur Springs k-8 does not have school buses. This means all of ITs students must either walk or bike or be driven to school. That leaves a lot of young children, especially when the middle schoolers leave the school, traveling alone on the streets without sidewalks. According to this Mobility department report it would take between 950,000 and $1.8 Million to complete the Sulphur Springs sidewalk project or three years at the current city sidewalk installation budget. Please note, this budget references sidewalk gaps. It does not address failing sidewalks such as those that regularly flood when it rains or so dimly lit that they are unsafe for kids to travel. Sidewalks stompers will be partnering with Sulphur Springs k-8 starting this August to encourage and support students walking and biking to school. We will assist school staff with bike helmet distribution, identify walking school bus routes and support larger groups walking together for better visibility. This is the community piece. This is what we as a nonprofit can do in partnership with Sulphur Springs Incredible Pta, school staff and neighbors. What you can do as City Council is find funding to support sidewalk installation at this school and all the schools in our district. You will have to find some other means of securing these funds than annual budget allocation, particularly as the city budget faces hurdles like property tax changes or new stadiums. So I will reiterate a goal I have previously stated to this council. Install the school zone speed cameras and use the city portion of penalties for people illegally speeding past children's walking and biking routes to fund safe routes to school needs like this one at Sulphur Springs k-8. If you want to make a real effort to make Tampa children safe, get the cameras functioning and start spending city money where it will actually make a difference.

10:46:29AM Thank you, emily. David Philipsen followed by Ashley Morrow. Good morning, david. Start with your name, please. My last name is spelled p-h-i-l-i-p-s-e-n, for the record. I'D like to talk about citizens' comments and the possibility of moving it to the end of the meeting. When I was in brooksville, they had comment cards, but only for agenda items, when you would go before their county commission, you would speak. It would be citizens' comments and there would be no comment cards or anything like that. I believe that when you try to implement like digital comments, it can sometimes be very confusing, and I actually have been on the bad side of that where it just didn't work. I'm more of a person-to-person type interaction type of guy anyway. You are elected to be a servant of the people. I Do Not Drive due to my disability. I have to call transportation at least 24 hours ahead of time. I also proposed an idea, because it seems like you're getting a lot of flack for this. What you could do is a town hall. It would be at night. It would be -- you'd get more of a turnout. It was just an idea because like I said, the digital comments, they don't work for me, and i'm not willing to spend about $580 on a brand-new laptop. And the other thing I could think of is you can't even call in the comments, like a teleconference. That doesn't work, according to your staff. As the First Speaker had said, yeah, it is kind of limiting my participation if I can't access it remotely. I'm better off just coming here. Like she said, a lot of people work. A lot of people pay taxes, and you got to remember, you are a servant of the people. Thank you.

10:49:16AM Thank you, david. Have a beautiful day. Ashley Morrow, followed by James Adair. Good morning, ashley. My name is Ashley Morrow. I'll be sharing Tampa's Black history. The past couple of weeks, we've been talking a little bit about the afro cuban topic, specifically on paulina pedroso. I am reading a book by Susan Greenbaum, and then I got a few numbers here last week, and I will follow up with them. But i'm going to move forward while i'm reading the book and doing some self-searching and self-researching. So we're going to hop back over to specifically Tampa's Black community, African American community. And we talked about the Tampa Black Militia formed in 1870. I showed it to you guys some weeks ago when I initially came here. That was one of my big topics that we actually had a Black Militia here five years after Juneteenth. I thought that was a big deal. When I went to Florida memory, I found that -- it said 1890. So I contacted them, and let them know it is actually 1870 and sent them to newspaper documents and they changed it. Sound out to nick for changing that. We'll continue doing that research. The watchman club, like I said, was formed 1894 by the Black men. Leader was Thomas Mcknight who was also the captain of the Black Militia. The club was formed as a civic organization. They organized themselves. They realized they had power in their vote, much like we do today. If we organize and come together. They went through great efforts to make sure that everybody was registered, like we do today. And i'm pretty sure with the population being a lot smaller, that was probably a lot easier of a task, but there are a great amount of Black people here in Tampa registered. We just have to get out and vote. Please go vote in November and stay aware -- august. And stay aware. August. I'm used to saying November. Sorry. They acted as a community of advocates and wanted to protect their youth. So here, I call this clipping the fun suckers because they didn't want kids going to dance halls, didn't want them going outside at night. They planned an emancipation day, proclamation event. It was a celebration. They were very active in their community. I thought that was a big deal. They were called the watchman's club again if you have not been listening. Thomas Mcknight, he was the organizer and the leader again of this watchman's club. I don't have a picture of him. I am officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. So you all can give a little -- we can't clap. We can't clap. Okay. My goal is to -- no clapping. My goal is to do an annual trip to the legacy museum with a charter bus full of kids. That is my goal. Next summer. Next summer.

10:52:41AM [Inaudible] we're celebrating good things today.

10:52:54AM [Inaudible] the neighbor who cares, and we got a couple of cool things going on. I just want to celebrate. That door don't squeak no more. All right. Us Community Advocates can be very tough on stormwater and all things related to those issues. And make no bones about it, we've been pushing, and pushing hard. I got 111,000 lines of data from their internal workforce management. As I was going through it to gather the information for the gasparilla numbers, I discovered some productivity that I thought was really worth celebrating. We were able to look up January through April of 2025 versus January through April of this year. And by golly gee, we are almost 300 percent, 270 percent better year over year. Those are amazing numbers. Like, you can't even imagine how much better it is from 25 to 24, obviously, but, man, to jump like that is amazing. They did some staff changes. However they are managing the schedule now is a heck of a lot better. I will note we do have the contractor we talked about. Just the city crews alone did 2.3% And the contractor was only responsible for the other portion. The guys on the ground doing a great job. Thank you and keep it up. Oh, and we got merch. Just kidding.

10:54:29AM Wow. Ct harris. Followed by Alex Stein. Good morning, council members. My Name Is Ct harris. I am here about item 51 and the proposed amendments to the City Council rules of procedure. However I would like to speak to the EBO item. I stand with the community and toba's request for postponing this vote as the City Of Tampa's first small business navigator I know all too well why programs like this are needed. The importance of making sure that there are diverse procurement. There are diverse procurement opportunities for small businesses because our small businesses are the backbone of this great economic. That being said, please know I do stand with them when you all begin to discuss. But I do hope you postpone it. Now, I want to begin by saying that I do understand the need for order, efficiency, and structure. We know rules and procedures do matter, but there is something that matters even more, and that is the public's ability to participate in their government. The first responsibility of any government body is the people's business. The public should never become an afterthought in a process that exists because of the public. We're all here because of the public. We are the public. I urge you today to carefully examine where these changes will increase civic participation or create additional barriers to it. We must be cautious not to unintentionally overregulate, over-police or stifle the voices of residents, particularly those who already face challenges being heard. If we say we are for the people, then we must react in the people's best interests, not our own personal vendettas or agendas. Working class residents, hourly employees, caregivers, seniors, and those without flexible schedules often have limited opportunities to engage with local government. For many attending a City Council meeting requires taking time off work, arranging child care or sacrificing income. Let's be very clear about something, City Council does not hold regular night meetings. They are in the daytime. Night meetings are for something totally different. While that may be convenient for elected officials and staff, it is certainly not more convenient for the people working 8 to 5 jobs who elected you to represent them. When public meetings are held during traditional business hours, many residents are effectively excluded from participating in the democratic process. We should be discussing ways to expand access, not further limit it. Government functions best when the public feels welcomed into the process, not managed around it. The strength of our democracy is not measured by how quickly we move through our agenda; it is measured by how accessible government remains to the people that it serves. Each of you sit in these -- sit on that dais -- each of you sit on the dais, excuse me, because the people entrusted you with that responsibility. Your role is not simply to govern; it is to listen; it is to engage; it is to ensure that every resident regardless of their work, schedule, income. My time is up. I'll be back next week.

10:57:57AM Alex Stein followed by Mr. Hayes. Good morning, alex. I am here in Tampa representing the rays before Gays Coalition. I feel like it is ridiculous that we are spending millions of dollars for gay rights, gay pride parades, when we can't get the dale mabry stadium even over the finish line. It's ridiculous. You are going to prioritize gay people instead of the great Tampa Bay rays. I as a sports fan think it is unnecessary to put pride flags on athletes' hats because all a pride flag symbolizes is who your sexual preference is. I don't think sexual preference should be around children, especially sporting events. For one, I will say that two gay guys can be real. They can have sex. They have an input and hole. But two women cannot have sex. Being a lesbian is fake. I know it. Everybody here knows it. That is called being in a phase. When two gay guys kiss, that's gay, am I right? When two lesbians kiss, that is a Katy Perry song. If you know who I think the biggest offender of that is is Jane Castor. I don't believe she is a real lesbian. I mean that, because all of a sudden she is a 2009 dei hired police chief, and she got the job because she likes to get freaky deaky with chicks. Well, I don't think that she should get a job because she's a sexual pervert, and we need to call that out. This is what i'm saying. This a great city. And I agree, we need a Black mayor. My grandfather owned plantations -- well, great, great, great grandfather and my great, great, great grandmother was a slave. So i'm on both sides of the argument. So I do believe in reparations. When I come to Tampa and I see all these people struggling behind me, calling you out for your incompetence and you do nothing, you sit there on your phones and disregard their struggles while you sit around and spend all of your government earned paycheck trying to make it harder to speak at a City Council meeting because you don't want to hear what the people have to say. Well, let me tell you what they have to say. They do not like the job you are doing. Jane Castor is not a real lesbian. She's doing that for clout. Two girls can't make a baby. That's all fake and gay. I will also say this, there is a great broadcaster by the name of Bubba the Love Sponge. He's been an icon in Tampa Radio for years. I believe that he deserves a key to the city. He was best friends with Hulk Hogan, and Hulk recently passed away, rest in peace. We love Hulk. I would think that you would treat your legendary broadcasters like Bubba the Love Sponge with more respect. But you the treat the city and the people of the city disrespectfully. You let a mayor lie about her sexuality. You won't even get a stadium for the baseball team while simultaneously yelling at the people that are struggling to make ends meet. I know for a fact that this city could be great. But because of the leadership -- i'm looking at you -- this city will never achieve the greatness that it deserves. And while these people struggle and Jane Castor lies about scissoring with her divorced wife and this and that, we know that's all fake. That's why she's getting divorces. And if you actually look at the stats, did you know lesbians have the highest occurrence of divorce? It's a pain in the ass to date a woman. Thank you. That's my time.

11:01:04AM Thank you. Mr. Hayes followed by carroll ann Bennett. My favorite doggy. Hi, cairo. Ryan Hayes. Whoo. All right. That was a lot.

11:01:28AM Start with your name again. Founder and president of Cairo and Friends. I'm going to make this quick. I'm here because of a development milestone about Cairo and Friends has reached solely on our own with hard work and determination just so I can set a measurement. I want to highlight another wonderful nonprofit organization. Can the camera see that? Feeding Tampa Bay. They are amazing. They help out, food pantries and everything. They have a very well presented google review status. I would just like to highlight a legendary nonprofit organization, Tampa, Florida. We've been able to obtain this with nonstop dedication to service our local individuals and families, especially during hurricane helene and milton. That's when I believed that Cairo and Friends started to truly flourish because we knew what it was like to lose everything within a 13-day span of those two natural disasters. I really wanted to highlight this. You don't have to believe me. You can run it through chatgpt, grok, whatever a.i. Services you use and see what it would take for an individual with no staff, no budgeting, no grants, no funding, nothing of the sort to accumulate something of this magnitude. I just wanted to highlight that. And thank you very much for what you do. That was a tough act to get behind. Thank you, everybody, for speaking on behalf of the City Of Tampa and your perspectives and everything. I'll leave it at that. And everyone have a great and positive day.

11:03:16AM Does Cairo want to speak?

11:03:21AM Start with your name. You have three minutes. His birthday is July 17.

11:03:33AM Very good. Happy birthday, cairo. Everyone have a great day.

11:03:38AM Carroll Ann Bennett followed by, closing it out with Robin Lockett. First, I would like to say I strongly support the people you heard speak about the marti colon cemetery. They expressed it better than I can. I would also like to give my strong support for Rick Fifer for the Vrb. I've been involved with the Vrb and problems with it. I've met with the Legal Department going back to 2023. I've begged this man to apply. His qualifications with his degree in public policy. He was on the Realtor Association Government Affairs Committee. Please put him on the Vrb. Now i'm talking about agenda item number 7. I want to commend the price that nelson's tree farm has come in for the planting. It's amazing. I don't know why we're not getting that price for all our planting. I want to clarify a lot of discussion that you all have heard. I want to make sure you understand that when we talk about tree type, type one, two, and three, and we talk about tree species, they are two separate things. Tree type is just basically what the tree looks like. Type one is tall and wide. Type two tall and narrow. Type three is short. When we talk about species, we're -- and when they talk about tree -- when the experts talk about diversity of species, they are talking about this, not tree type, species. On the Tampa tree code, type 1, there are 46 species of type 1 trees. So we can plant 46 different types of type 1 trees. They are all type one, but we're getting the species diversification we need. Type two and not all on this page, there's 19. I wrote the tree code. I know what it says. I know the purpose. I met with Chelsea Johnson tree something, say something and all the other founding members of T-Tag along with the Tampa Bay Builders Association and Steve Michelini. We met every week for a year and a half. We wrote the tree code. We know what the purpose was. Guess what it says right here. This is the mitigation. Mitigation is where the funds come from. The intent is to require mitigation to preserve the urban forest canopy. So we keep saying tree-mendous, plant it in the front yards. They say we can't plant on the property. Not true. I know. Replacement may occur on the land specified, described below. Privately owned lands. You don't have to change the code. Change it to be more specific, sure, but you don't have to. Says right there, it can be on privately owned land. Also, any lands described in section 284.42, Do not spend tree trust fund money on type three trees. Authorize the type ones and type twos. Change the tree-mendous so they can plant in front yards. Because if they can plant in front yards, then they can plant type ones and type twos. Don't fund type three trees out of the tree trust fund. Yes, we understand they are important, but the city is not funding the Urban Forestry compared to 667 others.

11:06:52AM Thank you, Carroll Ann. Robin Lockett. Bring it home. You are the last public speaker. First of all, I have a couple of things I want to cover. Public comment, you open up a can of worms when asking this question, because some may think you need to change the time of the meeting. Some may think that public comment should stay in the forefront at the beginning. Signing up for public comment online, right. You only give -- you have to sign up within a 24-hour period or something like that. That's difficult. So this is an opportunity, since the can has been opened that you really look at it and get feedback from the community along with thinking thoroughly to yourselves. For yourselves, how to really make this holistically right and available for everybody. I support the marti colon cemetery efforts with aileen. So, please look at this and really think through it because there are a lot of cemeteries. This guy is buying the property to build on it, and we know that. So there's something wrong with that. And we just really have to be a forward thinker in regards to it. The edc project, I support this project, and I support it when it first came about. But with this project, it is council's and the administration's responsibility to require checks and balances. I love what you said today, lynn, in regards to -- councilwoman Hurtak, in regards to the checks and balances, right? Having conversations with the communities, because the community is a gem. It's a gem. We have small businesses there. Councilwoman Naya Young, she spoke about it today. We have everything there. Let's shine up what we have, provide them with the technology, build them up, and then look at what we'll need afterwards. We keep pushing things in. I support this project because of affordable housing. Manufacturing opportunities, but primarily because of affordable housing. When it comes up, now we have to decide on what affordable housing is, not no 120%. Not going for it. That can be a part of it. But it has to be mixed. And it has to be feasible for that community. So keep the checks and balances because that's the requirement of council, and that's what i'm looking for you guys to do.

11:09:34AM Thank you, ms. Lockett. Very good. That concludes public comment. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

11:09:38AM I apologize. In our review of the agenda, I should have mentioned the fact that I have been working with staff, and I do have follow-up on the sidewalk motion that I had for item 53. So I do have a follow-up today and a motion to move some of that forward. I just wanted you all to be aware of it so you don't have to worry about it and work on it now. Item 53 was about the safe routes to school and filling sidewalk gaps.

Alan Clendenin

11:10:08AM Bring that during new business.

Lynn Hurtak

11:10:10AM Yes, but I wanted everyone to know so no one has to do any work between now and then. Because i'm the chair of the Mobility department now, i've worked with mobility, worked with some community members on it. Just to be aware that that's coming.

Alan Clendenin

11:10:24AM Thank you. Appreciate it. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

11:10:26AM Now that it is after 10:00, I would like to make a motion to continue number 39, file e 2026-8 CH 26.5 To August 27.

Martin Shelby

11:10:41AM What number again?

Lynn Hurtak

11:10:43AM 39.

Alan Clendenin

11:10:44AM Do we need to open the public hearings to continue it? Motion to open all 10 and 10:30 public hearings. Motion from Maniscalco, second from Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. I have a motion from Councilman Carlson to continue item 39 to may -- August 27.

Martin Shelby

11:11:02AM That's an open date, Madam Clerk?

Luis Viera

11:11:05AM I apologize for that, if I my intervene.

Alan Clendenin

11:11:07AM Hold on one second.

Luis Viera

11:11:12AM Councilman Carlson, let me take a look at that date because I was going to move the Public Safety Master Plan.

Bill Carlson

11:11:21AM You moved something over there this morning.

Luis Viera

11:11:23AM It's open. I apologize.

Alan Clendenin

11:11:28AM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

11:11:29AM Thank you. Yeah, I support moving this forward because I didn't vote for this. I don't think it's appropriate. I'm glad you all are taking the time to pause and reconsider.

Alan Clendenin

11:11:40AM I had a motion from Councilman Carlson. A second from Viera --

Martin Shelby

11:11:46AM Date, Time And Place.

Bill Carlson

11:11:48AM August 27, 10 a.m., Old city hall, 315 east Kennedy, Tampa, Florida, 33602.

Alan Clendenin

11:12:03AM 10 a.m. Motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it unanimously. Thank you.

Bill Carlson

11:12:10AM Can I say one more thing? I think all of us probably would like to say something about free speech. I'll let Marty speak about it. In the era of free speech, there are a lot of things we might personally not agree with. Marty will tell us about the rules of free speech.

Martin Shelby

11:12:30AM I want to give you a heads-up council. I hope by the end of the day, whatever time it is, that you have the opportunity to give this your full attention. I'll be presenting with the City Attorney.

Alan Clendenin

11:12:41AM Thank you very much. We'll hold the conversation to that point because We Are Way behind and we have a lot of people waiting. We are moving on to board and administrative appointments. Item number 4. Our Wonderful Clerk.

Shirley Foxx-Knowles

11:12:57AM Good morning. Shirley Foxx-Knowles, city clerk. I'm here regarding the Variance Review Board. We have five people that have applied for the board. We have three of them present and two not present. But anyway, let's look at the ones that are present.

Alan Clendenin

11:13:28AM Ms. Foxx, the two not present, it's not because they didn't want to be here. They are out of town.

Shirley Foxx-Knowles

11:13:34AM Right. Ones that are present, Richard Fifer, Michelle Mastrototaro, and the third one is Michael LEED.

Alan Clendenin

11:13:54AM If you would like to speak to City Council, you may line up against the wall. I'll take them in the order that you are lined up at the wall. Start with your name. You'll have a maximum of three minutes. Good morning, council members. Thank you. I have not asked to be on anything. In like three decades, only Mr. Miranda was on council the last time I served and that was over cell phone towers. I've got some time since I kind of decided to move towards semi retirement. I've got other things I can do with my time and I wanted to find ways to give back. And that's literally other than the fact that I did get a call from stephanie asking me to please put myself in for something finally. But that's my reason for today. I think i've got the skills, ability, the background. Most of you only know me by my time in real estate. I worked for Dcf for a number of years, 16 of them. I used to do contract management. I used to license -- i'm also good at looking at regulations. I was involved through the whole Seminole Heights form based zoning thing. I'm familiar with the rules and stuff. Thank you for considering me.

11:15:19AM Thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Start with your name. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of council. I'm excited about the opportunity to secure a position on the City Variance Review Board. I'm a 31-year Tampa city resident and county resident. And currently live on harbour island. I have an office on South Boulevard. I run a development company, Shag Bar Programs and been in the commercial real estate development and redevelopment business for almost 35 years. My main clients are Publix Super Markets and Wawa. I also develop for other qs, uses, coffee, banks, auto parts, things like that. Some noteworthy city projects that I have been involved in is the Publix on azeele and platt with a parking garage above. That's quite some time ago. I also developed -- when rebuilt. Recently, the Publix on Gandy next to the target. Giving back is a core value of mine. Currently involved in many organizations. I'm involved with the take stock in children program through Hillsborough Education Foundation. I've been mentoring high school students for almost 15 years. I recently got involved in starting right now, which is a similar organization, helping the executive team on an exciting new project. I'm a volunteer diver at the Florida aquarium. As of two months ago, I joined the city's advisory committee ldc committee to fill a vacancy. I also spent three terms on the Channelside CAC Committee working in that organization. I'D like to be on the Vrb Board to put my extensive real estate professional experience to good use and to volunteer my time for the city. I fully understand the variance process and the intention of it only being applicable in hardship cases. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

11:17:19AM Council have any questions? Hearing none. Thank you. Michelle. My name is Michelle Mastrototaro. I thank you for this opportunity today. As you all know me, I am seeking the position to be a part of the Variance Review Board because I bring something that is often missing from land use discussions. A perspective of an everyday resident who has personally experienced the impact of the development decisions. Sorry. Little nervous. I do not work in real estate. I am not a developer nor a contractor, investor or a broker or any who stand to profit from outcomes of variance requests. The only interest is serving the public fairly and protecting the long-term interests of our community. Over the years, I have watched natural areas disappear, trees removed, wildlife habitat disturbed and neighborhoods drastically change. I have seen how decisions made in meetings can affect flooding, traffic quality of life and the character of the entire community involved. Those experiences have given me a deep appreciation for why a variance process matters. A Variance Review Board member should not approach applications with a predetermined yes or no. Every days deserves to be judged on ITs own facts, ITs merits, and ITs impact on surrounding communities. That is exactly how I would serve. I believe the public deserves confidence, and decisions are being made objectively while many professionals contribute valuable expertise, I believe there is tremendous value in having board members who are completely independent from any apparent conflict of interest. If appointed, I will be prepared to listen carefully. I will ask thoughtful questions and I will treat every applicant and every resident with respect. Most importantly, I make the decisions based on facts, fairness, transparency, and law, not politics. Pressure or personal gain. I have SIX years of advocating for areas that are vulnerable in Tampa. I am very involved and passionate in this position and well knowledged on all aspects. Our city needs growth that is responsible, balanced, and accountable. I am committed to protecting both property that a private, public interest. I believe my independence, my commitment to honesty and my firsthand understanding of how develop affects residents makes me a unique candidate and well qualified to serve on this board. I would be honored to earn your trust and your vote. Thank you.

11:20:27AM Thank you. Michelle, do you currently serve on any other boards?

11:20:32AM Thank you. Ms. Foxx, can you remind us the other two applicants?

Shirley Foxx-Knowles

11:20:42AM We have two other applicants. Paul Ellett and Lolitha Campbell. They are both out of town.

Alan Clendenin

11:20:55AM Thank you so much.

Shirley Foxx-Knowles

11:20:56AM I believe you have a ballot.

Alan Clendenin

11:20:58AM Yes, we are distributing the ballots as we speak. Council, would you please indicate on the ballot your vote. Now somebody play the jeopardy music.

Bill Carlson

11:21:46AM Cause the city to get a copy right --

Alan Clendenin

11:21:48AM Do it less than 30 seconds. Or we could do the benny hill.

Bill Carlson

11:22:00AM Why don't you do the jungle cruise.

Alan Clendenin

11:22:03AM My name is Alligator Alan here to welcome you on this cruise adventure.

Martin Shelby

11:22:10AM I don't know if the public knows what that is. I don't know if they know the context.

Alan Clendenin

11:22:15AM At much younger age, Skipper on the Walt Disney World jungle cruise.

Bill Carlson

11:22:22AM This is how we keep ourselves entertained when we can't talk about sunshine stuff.

Alan Clendenin

11:22:28AM We can practice our karaoke. Do we have results?

Shirley Foxx-Knowles

11:22:36AM Shirley Foxx-Knowles, city clerk. We have the results. Mr. Fifer received the vote from council member Miranda, Hurtak, Clendenin, and Viera. Four. And Michelle Mastrototaro received three votes from council member Maniscalco, young, and Carlson. Therefore, Mr. Fifer received the most votes.

Alan Clendenin

11:23:23AM Congratulations. Mr. Shelby.

Martin Shelby

11:23:26AM At this point, I would like to ask for a motion and vote accepting Mr. Fifer as the selection.

Alan Clendenin

11:23:32AM I have a motion to accept Mr. Fifer as the selected official on the Variance Review Board from Councilman Maniscalco, second from Councilman Carlson. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Martin Shelby

11:23:43AM Mr. Chairman, I will be bringing back a resolution for you to sign by the end of today's meeting.

Alan Clendenin

11:23:48AM Thank you. For Mr. LEED, you are infinitely qualified. Because you are serving on the Ldc, I wanted to share the wealth with other folks, spread it out. When you come off of that committee, if you come forward for another request, we have tons of committees. Love to welcome you back on another committee. Michelle, you are fighting up against a real estate dude. He has qualifications. Hopefully there is another committee that you can apply for because we have a lot of opportunities. Thank you so much. The two that are not here, please apply again. Again, we have lots of opportunities for citizens to be a participant in our citizen advisory committees. Never a shortage of committees. Always a shortage of applicants. We are now to -- is there any request by the public for reconsideration of legislative matters? Hearing none, we are on to the consent agenda. Councilman Viera, would you please move items 5 and 6?

Luis Viera

11:24:44AM So moved.

Alan Clendenin

11:24:45AM Motion from Councilman Viera, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. You have a long list, Councilwoman Young. Would you please move item 8?

Naya Young

11:24:56AM I move item number 8.

Alan Clendenin

11:24:57AM Motion from Councilwoman Young. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Maniscalco, would you move 9 through 19.

Guido Maniscalco

11:25:06AM Move 9 through 19.

Alan Clendenin

11:25:08AM Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Miranda.

Guido Maniscalco

11:25:15AM You wanted a separate vote? I move item 20 for separate vote.

Alan Clendenin

11:25:20AM Motion to move item 20. Second councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed?

Bill Carlson

11:25:27AM Nay.

The Clerk

11:25:28AM The motion carried with Carlson voting no and Hurtak absent at vote.

Alan Clendenin

11:25:33AM Thank you so much. Finance Committee, Councilman Miranda, 21 through 24.

Charlie Miranda

11:25:37AM Move 21-24.

Naya Young

11:25:42AM [Inaudible]

Alan Clendenin

11:25:45AM We have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Carlson, 25 through 31.

Bill Carlson

11:25:52AM So moved.

Alan Clendenin

11:25:53AM Motion from Councilman Carlson. Second from Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilwoman Hurtak, 32 and 33.

Lynn Hurtak

11:26:00AM I move items 32 and 33.

Alan Clendenin

11:26:03AM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you so much. Can I get a motion to set the public hearings for 34 and 35? Motion from Councilman Miranda. Second from Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We are at 11:27 and at the 10:00 public hearings. The first are non-quasi-judicial. They do not require people to be sworn in. They are second readings. Item 36. Staff. Michelle Van Loan, real estate. Number 36 is a second reading for the honorary naming for officer Morris Lopez. I'm here to answer any questions that you have. This is for an Honorary Street naming at the southeast corner of east 9th avenue and north 18th street.

11:26:58AM Thank you. Did you want to speak to it, anybody? I'm responding to my council members that are asking things. Anybody in the public wishing to speak to item 36? Hearing none, can I get a motion to close? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Viera. Councilman Viera, would you please read item 36? All those in favor of closing, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Sorry. Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

11:27:28AM May I say something briefly for 30 seconds? Thank you, mr. Chairman. Just wanted to say congratulations or strike that I should say my salute to the Lopez family and everybody for this. This is a wonderful thing. Story of real heroism and sacrifice from one of our Tampa Police officers, Officer Morris Lopez. Assistant Chief Lopez, nicholas and others, thrilled to see this through. Thank you, council for your support for this and staff for your hard work. If I may, I move an ordinance being presented for second reading and adoption, ordinance of the City Of Tampa, Florida, approving the placement of an Honorary Street naming sign at the southeast corner of east 9th avenue and north 18th street in Tampa, Florida, to honor Officer Morris Lopez, providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

11:28:20AM Motion from Councilman Viera. Second from Councilman Miranda. Please record your vote.

The Clerk

11:28:28AM Motion carried unanimously.

Alan Clendenin

11:28:30AM Thank you very much. Item number 37. Item 37 is the second reading for an amendment to the honorary naming ordinance number 2023-156 that had already approved an Honorary Street name sign in honor of Mr. Alessi. This amendment would change the approved location from cypress and paddock to the intersection of cypress and gomez. I'm here to answer questions.

11:28:59AM Council have any questions? Anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Mr. Michelini.

Steve Michelini

11:29:04AM Here representing the alessi family. Like to say to the council and staff, thank you. I said Steve Michelini.

Alan Clendenin

11:29:12AM Did you? Very good. Anybody else? That's it. Motion to close? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Councilman Maniscalco, this was your motion, would you like to read this one?

Guido Maniscalco

11:29:25AM Thank you very much. I have an ordinance being presented for second reading and adoption, an ordinance of the City Of Tampa, Florida, amending ordinance 2023-156 to change the location of the Honorary Street sign for Phil Alessi, senior, from the intersection of West Cypress Street and North Paddock Street to the intersection of West Cypress Street and North Gomez Avenue in Tampa, Florida, providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

11:29:43AM Motion from Maniscalco. Second from Miranda. Please record your vote.

The Clerk

11:29:52AM Motion carried unanimously.

Alan Clendenin

11:29:56AM Thank you. Item number 38. Carl Brody, Legal Department. I'm here for second reading on the veterans' advisory ordinance. This would create an advisory committee as directed by council, reduced to 11 members. Actually, nine of which have to be veterans under your 75% requirement. And the purpose is to have the group help coordinate veterans' activities in the city. We would request approval.

11:30:33AM Council have questions? Hearing none, anybody in the public wishing to speak to the item? Motion to close from Miranda. Second from Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Luis Viera

11:30:45AM Sure. Thank you, Mr. Brody for that. I would be remiss if I didn't say which is we're welcoming here in the City Of Tampa our American National Gold Star Mothers Organization for their convention. And those seats that are not held for veterans will be from gold star families. I look forward to this wonderful board. If I may, read an ordinance being presented for second reading and adoption, an ordinance of the City Of Tampa, amending chapter 2, article vi of the City Of Tampa code by adding section 2-326 definitions, section 2-327 veterans' advisory committee, section 2-328 meetings, section 2-329 purpose and function, repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith, providing for severability, providing an effective date.

Alan Clendenin

11:31:37AM I have a motion from Councilman Viera. A second from Councilman Miranda. Please record your vote.

The Clerk

11:31:43AM Motion carried unanimously.

Alan Clendenin

11:31:44AM Thank you so much. Item number 40. My name is Beth Lee with the City Attorney's Office. I am the new attorney replacing McLane Evans. This is the second and final public hearing for proposed Brownfield Area designation of a property consisting of four adjoining parcels that are generally located at 1411 North Ashley Street, 103 East Laurel Street, 1200 North Tampa Street, and 1312 Tampa Street. The City Of Tampa is requesting designation of these properties as a Brownfield Area to assist in the assessment and remediation of environmental impacts that may exist on the property. Details of the designation have been outlined in a document entitled Staff report on Royal Street Brownfield Area designation, which is available for public review at the city clerk's office and online in onbase. City Staff determined all statutory and public notice requirements have been met and recommends that the city -- the council approve this designation. At the conclusion of the second public hearing, council Will have an opportunity to also adopt a resolution Designating Royal Street as a Brownfield Area as specified in chapter 376 of Florida statutes. Staff and I are available for questions if you have any.

11:33:08AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, anybody in the public wishing to speak to item number 40? Motion to close from Councilman Miranda. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. I have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco to move the resolution. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Item number 41. My name is Beth Lee with the City Attorney's Office. This is the second and final public hearing for a proposed Brownfield Area designation of a property consisting of two adjoining parcels that are generally located at 1125 and 1127 East Twiggs Street. The City Of Tampa is requesting designation of these properties as a Brownfield Area to assist in the assessment and remediation of environmental impacts that may exist on the properties. Details of the designation have been outlined in a document entitled staff report on Madison Street park expansion Brownfield Area designation, which is available for public review at the city clerk's office and online in onbase. City Staff have determined that all statutory and public notice requirements have been met and recommends that council approve this designation. At the conclusion of the second public hearing, council Will have an opportunity to adopt a resolution Designating Madison Street park expansion a Brownfield Area as specified in chapter 376 of the Florida statutes. Staff and I are available for questions.

11:34:32AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. I have a motion to move the resolution to item 41 from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Item number 42. Presenting file vac-26-03. The applicant Is North Boulevard townhomes LLC. Property address is 3917 North Boulevard. This is a proposed vacating request to vacate a portion of the east-West Alley Way lying north of Virginia Avenue, south of Martin Luther King jr. Boulevard, east of North Boulevard and west of Clear Field Avenue. Application was filed in the City Of Tampa December 2, 2025. Right-of-way is unimproved. Right-of-way created by subdivision plat. Existing right-of-way is approximately 1,362 square feet. Previous vacating of the subject portion of the alley was approved per ordinance 2009-82. However, the applicant failed to satisfy the conditions of that approval and the ordinance was void and the vacating it no longer valid. An additional petition to vacate the subject portion of the alley identified VAC 21-19 was heard on February 10, 2022. That petition was denied. The reason of the request is the alley falls in the middle of the development area. Site plan has been uploaded for clarification. This is an aerial view of the vacating request in yellow, and the petitioner's property in red. The City Of Tampa atlas sheet showing the proposed vacating request here. And the plat dedicating the alley, proposed vacating in red. This is an image of general location of the alley. This is looking south from Martin Luther King Boulevard. Here is the approximate location of the east-west alley. And this is looking east from North Boulevard. Again, approximate location is here. Staff has no objections to the vacating request. Easement reservations are required by Spectrum, TECO and wastewater. Special conditions are natural resources, compliant with chapter 27 regards to tree preservation and site design for any improvements placed adjacent to trees in any vacated area. That concludes my presentation. I'm available if you have questions.

11:37:48AM Council have any questions? Hearing none, applicant. Mr. Shelby.

Martin Shelby

11:37:55AM Before the applicant begins, just a refresher to council. I just wanted to make it known that I have distributed a 2011 memo that we are all very familiar with, review of applications for vacations of rights-of-way. The second page, you'll see number one, two, three, four is the criteria that was presented in this memo to guide council on making ITs decision.

Alan Clendenin

11:38:28AM Thank you very much. Does the applicant have a copy?

Martin Shelby

11:38:32AM Would you like a copy?

Steve Michelini

11:38:34AM Yes, Sir, i'm familiar.

Martin Shelby

11:38:36AM You would like a copy? I would be happy to give you one.

Steve Michelini

11:38:53AM Good morning, council. Steve Michelini, representing the petitioner. This application is coming to you as a result of trying to consolidate the property. The unused alley bifurcates the property, and it restricts the ability to consolidate and develop the property as one site. This is a t-shaped alley. This is the only portion being requested for vacating. The property owner owns the property north and south of the requested vacating. This portion of the alley is obstructed with trees, as well as this portion of the alley. That's not part of this petition, but I just wanted to point out that in terms of a design with respect to a subdivision and an alley being platted, this hasn't been used and it won't be used. The city has determined that it has no public purpose for that alley. And it does qualify under the criteria because it doesn't have any -- there's no public purpose associated with it. This is a close-up of the property that's actually the petitioner, but the owner owns this one and this one as well. And this portion here is the requested vacating. Here is an overview, and it shows you that even though this alley is platted, we're still reserving the rights for anyone who wishes to try to access it. They still can, although it is obstructed east-west and north-south. This again is the property requesting the vacating and the property as well as this. All of the surrounding property owners, except those to the east are owned by the property owner. The City Staff showed you this picture. This is the western portion of that area that is designated as an alley, but obviously it's no longer -- it no longer Functions That Way. Just to the east, there are fences across here, so you couldn't go eastbound in this area anyway, even if you opened it up on this side. And this is a close-up showing you the obstructions that exist in the alley, going to the east, and also going north and south. This is the approximate location of the alley that's being requested to be vacated. I showed you this picture already. Showing you the portion. It does not vacate the entire alley that's being requested, only a small section. I did receive a letter of objection this morning. One of the things that puzzles me a little bit is that council adopted rules that require any petitioner to notify surrounding property owners and homeowner associations when you file an application. And they also require you to notify them when you have a hearing date set. And to suddenly file an objection the night before a hearing is not consistent with the spirit in which the City Council adopted those rules. However, i'll read from their objection briefly. The official adopted neighborhood plan encourages retention and use of alleys and public access. There is no public access. The retention is only on paper and is a theoretical sense, not a practical one. It says consistently opposed -- association consistently opposes vacating as they contribute to the unique urban design. I would say that considering that this property owner wishes to consolidate the properties that he owns and bring in one development instead of having to split it into two different developments is consistent with what the city is wishing to have done. It also enables a project to move forward that is more consistent with what the city is looking for long-range and short range. With respect to the policies vacating of the right-of-way, the easement or such a violation -- sufficient public interest to justify the vacating, the City Staff has already told you they have no interest in it. We have to reserve easements over the property, over that. So there's no physical construction that can go on that when the easements remain. It's no longer a Street Or Highway. No longer useful or convenient to the public. Vacating of the street used only for members of the public, for this property. That's the only one that has any interest and use of that particular portion of the alley. Based on the reports and evidence presented at the public hearing, you've been presented with a report from the City Staff saying they had no objections, with the exception of the easements being reserved and abutting property owners remain access. In this case abutting property owners here still remain, have access to this portion. The north-south and east-west portion. The only one affected by this vacating is the property owner who owns both sides of the alley. Will it foster redevelopment of the abutting properties? Yes, it will. In the future, if we can get this consolidated by approving a vacating, it will enable the property to act as one parcel and not as two separate parcels. Can the general public interest be served by approving the vacating petition and the special conditions proposed? Yes. This will serve a general purpose and the intent of the code as well as assisting in redevelopment of this corner. If the vacating is alley, entire alley being vacated, no, it's not. Only a portion is requested to be vacated and proper turn around or access has been provided. A right turn on the alley will be provided here, and it will become an l-shaped alley. I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. And that concludes my presentation.

Alan Clendenin

11:46:06AM Council have any questions of the applicant? Hearing none, anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Yes, sir.

11:46:32AM Good morning. Matt Sienk, 410 West Park Avenue. I'm coming today to speak in opposition of this vacation of alley. I do have to say it is a Very Clever Way to work around what the public has already said about this. The last time this parcel came in front of council, it was done as a PD. Everyone was noticed. And this time we did it as a vacation. The reason they did it is because they went and have sb 1 that is contingent upon the vacation of this alley. Instead of doing a PD and having everybody know what's going to happen there, they did sb 1 and asked for the alley vacation to make that happen. We have to really go look and see what is actually being proposed. What's being proposed --

11:47:23AM Turn it 90 degrees. --

Steve Michelini

11:47:31AM Excuse me, council. I have a point of order. This is not part of the vacating.

Alan Clendenin

11:47:35AM Stand by. Stand by. Mr. Shelby, is that appropriate for a point of order during the response? He can respond during rebuttal.

Steve Michelini

11:47:48AM Presenting evidence that is not part of the vacating petition.

Martin Shelby

11:47:52AM But the question is, is it relevant and material to the criteria? In other words, is it based on reports and evidence presented at public hearing, is it in the interest of the general welfare to vacate the Subject Street or alley? Towards that, it could be considered -- and, by the way, to remind council, this is a legislative matter. It's not quasi-judicial. It does not rely on competent substantial evidence. Fairly debatable standard. Mr. Michelini, I would suggest that your objection is noted for the record and you will be able to address it at rebuttal.

Alan Clendenin

11:48:30AM Thank you. Continue. It's a kind of Backdoor Way to go back to what was already declined a couple of years ago where the neighborhood showed up and showed they did not want this project. Additionally, when the applicant says that there's no use for the alley, well, if you put a fence or a gate in front of an alley for long enough, people can't use it, right? Just to say it's not being used doesn't mean it doesn't have value. The same thing is for staying consistent with the Tampa Heights overlay district which was also adopted is that we want to preserve in Tampa Heights the alleys to do rear loading garages which Preserve On Street parking, which gives better access, which drives the community to not have the parking issues that we see in other parts of town, right. Every driveway reduces number of cars that can be parked on a street. By reducing access to alleys, we're reducing the parking available and creating more issues Down The Road. The other thing that is really interesting and since I was an architect of this overlay district with the neighborhood, is the term of a -- it's in your packet -- a courtyard building. They are considering a sidewalk down the side a courtyard building. When we all know the intent of a courtyard building was really this. So the Developers are using a Round About Way of saying that a courtyard building is having a sidewalk looking at an alley that they are going to partially vacate to get their overall goal of bypassing the PD process that we already went through last time. Alleys have a long-term public value. It conflicts with the neighborhood corridor vision. Ideally, the neighborhood has said they want commercial on this. We're losing commercial to support our neighborhood and this is right on the corner of MLK and North Boulevard. Like, we're pro density and pro neighborhood, but we need to have multifamily mixed use.

11:50:36AM Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anybody else in the public? Carroll Ann Bennett, start with your name, please. I'll read the highlights of an e-mail from Brian Seel, former president of the Tampa Heights Civic Association. He's asking you to firmly deny this vacation, that there was an identical request for this vacation almost identical in the past in 2022 by a vote of 6-1, City Council denied it and the associated rezoning for the same property and the same applicant for those of you on council at that time. The applicant is seeking a work-around from the prior denial by getting a staff-level special use approval. The special use is dependent on the vacating of the alley. The project is very similar to the design denied project, 14 townhomes. It was denied based on a code waiver to allow front doors to face alleys. This proposal has eight units facing the alley. I have been to every public meeting on the Code Enforcement -- on the rewrite of the land development code, and at every meeting, Abbye Feeley and Eric Cotton got up there and said how horrible it is to have front doors facing alleys, that the emergency services, the fire and the police hate it because of the address problems, and it should never be done. That was my sidebar. The officially adopted Tampa Heights neighborhood plan encourages the retention and use of alleys. The neighborhood plan envisions MLK corridor for commercial uses. This project is zoned CG. And this would eliminate that opportunity. Tampa Heights Association has consistently opposed the vacating alleys as alleys contribute to the unique urban design and preserving them allows future development of adjacent properties to use them for vehicular and service access. The city should not give up future ownership of city property, the alley, in return for a project that is not built to the highest and best use of the comp plan and land development code. The land use committee of the Tampa Heights Civic Association voted to oppose this request to vacate and the associated special use application. Following the last denial, the applicant sued the city. The judge denied the petition and sided with the city's denial. The judge concluded, quote, the court finds that the site plans provided along with the weak justification for the waiver sufficiently supports City Council's decision to deny the request to vacate the alley and the application for rezoning. It is undisputed that the Petitioner's site plans depend on the use of this alleyway. City Council should not reverse a poor decision -- a prior decision that was Upheld In Court. Please deny vacation 26-03 and the associated su-1. Thank you very much.

11:53:52AM Thank you, Carroll Ann. Anybody else in the public that wishes to speak to this item? Applicant, rebuttal. Regarding this design or anything else that was presented as evidence as opposition. In order to prepare a decent plan, the alley must be vacated in order to consolidate the property. Following that, if this is approved, then we can move forward with plans, but to stand up here and say we just oppose alleys being vacated because we oppose them is not sufficient, does not meet with the city code in firms of vacating or the criteria associated with that. Again, i'll go through it. Based on the evidence at the public hearing, interest and the general welfare to vacate the subject alley. It's not being used. Hasn't been used. It is obstructed both east and west, on the east side of this property and north and south. The only individuals that would be affected would be those property owners on the east side of this property. None of them came forward. None of them objected to this request. You had an association who is much further south than Tampa Heights request that you deny. I'm talking about Brian Seel and the gentleman that just spoke. They don't live in this area. This is on the far north end of the Tampa Heights Association area. They are speaking for an association as opposed to the abutting property owners and none of them came forward and objected. There were no letters, no phone calls received with any objection with the abutting property owners or anyone in the notice area. Will an abutting property owner's access of the property be completely cut off? I said no. And it will not be. This is a portion of one alley that runs east and west. Can the general public interest be served? I would say, yes, it could. This would enable the property owner to consolidate the existing properties and develop them bringing forward an appropriate plan, whether it's through a PD or a special use. I think the problem that we experienced before was that they had the vacating and the rezoning that were tracking simultaneously. In this case, we're asking for the ability to consolidate the property and then come forward with a plan, whether it's a special use or a PD. It is zoned CG, which allows for a number of different options. Those options have not been completely explored because the property has not been consolidated. Can the general public interest be served? I would say, yes, it can be served. It enables this property to be redeveloped in a consistent manner. Is vacating of the entire alley being vacated? Said no. That's only the portion of the east-west connection. And it remains, it leaves the north-south and the east-west connection to the east of the property and it leaves them open. Those are your criteria. I'm following them. We have met them. We respectfully request your approval to vacate a portion of the alley so that we can consolidate the properties. That concludes my presentation. I'D be happy to answer any questions.

11:57:19AM I have a question. We had testimony that said su-2 had been filed -- something had been filed. And in your testimony you said that nothing has been filed. Currently pending. Anything that's subsequent to this has to rely on the alley being vacated. So if there's something that's currently pending, it still shows the alley as being open.

11:57:46AM Has something been filed? Staff?

11:57:51AM Staff? Can you tell us if anything has been filed on this property? Per the e-mail, special use is -- I think it's 26-28 is the associated special use that was --

11:58:13AM Could you tell us what that is?

Ross Samons

11:58:14AM The site plan of which the applicant --

Alan Clendenin

11:58:20AM That was the site plan that's been filed?

Ross Samons

11:58:22AM Yes.

Steve Michelini

11:58:29AM I would say, Mr. Chairman, regardless if that's filed, the vacating of the alley would dramatically change any request going forward. The vacated alley. You can't consolidate the property -- under the current plan, if there is one filed, it didn't indicate that the alley was vacated. It couldn't.

Alan Clendenin

11:58:52AM Okay. Does council have any further questions? Okay. I have a motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilwoman Hurtak. Any council discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. It's closed. Discussion? Make a motion?

Lynn Hurtak

11:59:18AM I move to deny the application to vacate a portion of east-west alley lying north of Virginia Avenue, South Of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. Boulevard, east of North Boulevard, and west of Clearfield Avenue due to the applicant's inability to prove that it is in the general welfare. Additionally, it is in the Tampa Heights overlay, which does not encourage alleyway closure. We've heard from the neighborhood that said that they do not want alley closures. And that has been very clear throughout developments within Tampa Heights since that overlay has been Put In Place. I'll take any other additions, if anybody wants to --

Alan Clendenin

12:00:21PM I have a motion and I have a second. Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. Just discussion, explanation of my vote, I feel like the request from the applicant is not in the public interest because there's nothing coming from the applicant that would promote anything within the public realm or public interest by vacating the rights of the public for this alley. Since this is legislative and not quasi-judicial I feel like I have the latitude to be able to say, had the applicant come with a PD providing -- this is on MLK and North Boulevard, very critical transportation corridors. If they had come with more density, a development that maybe would compel this council to say this was worthy of sacrificing a public asset and the ability to develop this. Generally you look at MLK, you look at this as a commercial corridor. You would think an alley behind a commercial establishment, I believe in testimony, CG. That you would want to have commercial alley access to that property. I think, again, a better development with higher -- high density may be a compelling argument. I can't guarantee that I'D get three other votes on that, but it would be something I would look strongly at. Yeah, i'm going to support this motion. Anybody else? Very good. Roll call, please.

Luis Viera

12:01:54PM Yes.

Bill Carlson

12:01:56PM Yes.

Charlie Miranda

12:01:56PM Yes.

Guido Maniscalco

12:01:58PM Yes.

Lynn Hurtak

12:02:00PM Yes.

Naya Young

12:02:01PM Yes.

Alan Clendenin

12:02:02PM Yes.

The Clerk

12:02:03PM Motion carried unanimously.

Alan Clendenin

12:02:05PM Thank you.

12:02:07PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

12:02:09PM I would like to move item number 46. We didn't do that.

Guido Maniscalco

12:02:15PM I will second that.

Alan Clendenin

12:02:17PM Motion on item 46 to move the resolution. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

12:02:28PM I can settle number 7 right now. I can get all the consent done.

Alan Clendenin

12:02:34PM Any objection to changing the order and hearing item 7 before lunch? Hearing none.

Lynn Hurtak

12:02:41PM I just have a statement. Item number 7, we have made our position perfectly clear with staff about how we want to spend the tree trust fund dollars. During the multiple recent conversations about refunding the Water Department's infrastructure project for the trees planted, we agreed to the reimbursement but everyone said that the Water Department meant well and that staff learned a lesson. Now staff is coming to us, at least in advance, thank you, requesting contract approval for proving and planting trees to include type 3 trees. I do not want to have a long conversation and use up valuable council time today. We have made it clear that we want tree trust fund money to plant type one and type two trees. The tree-mendous program is very successful and has a waiting list. I'll make a motion to deny approval of the contract funding source. If staff wants to change the funding source, they can bring this contract back to us. Next week, we are going to have a continued conversation about trees during the workshop and I will request to include homeowner front yards in the allowable planting area for the tree-mendous program. The community has made it abundantly clear that they fairly quality over quantity when it comes to spending tree trust fund dollars. I motion to deny item 7.

Alan Clendenin

12:03:56PM I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. I have a second from Councilman Carlson. I hear what you're saying. I just don't like the absolutes because there may be opportunities.

Lynn Hurtak

12:04:09PM Again, we're having a whole discussion about this next week.

Alan Clendenin

12:04:13PM Rather than deny, can we continue?

Lynn Hurtak

12:04:16PM No, you can do that if it doesn't pass.

Bill Carlson

12:04:22PM The rules say that we can only -- we can continue, but it just gives us a choice of accepting or denying it. As she said, we had multiple conversations about this and shouldn't be coming before us.

Lynn Hurtak

12:04:34PM They promised.

Bill Carlson

12:04:36PM We have to stand up at some point and vote against some things.

Alan Clendenin

12:04:41PM Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

12:04:42PM I would say, too, I definitely support the planting of trees, but to Councilwoman Hurtak's point, we did state that we specifically wanted type one and type two trees. Yesterday, I was doing some study to see what kind of type one and type two trees, and after learning that there are so many different species, they don't all have to be, you know, -- because we -- maybe a couple of weeks ago, we learned that certain type ones you can't plant, but there are so many species. I would love to see, you know, which ones can we plant. I think we kind of started that. We are going to talk about it next week. I would agree with the motion. I know they are looking for some direction on this and want to plan it, but we kind of sort of have given that direction. We know we want type one and type two and a lot to choose from.

Alan Clendenin

12:05:38PM The type of trees really has to do with the size, not necessarily the species. There are areas that you can't plant a tall tree. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

12:05:49PM Again, the point is not to relitigate this now. I have been working very hard on next week's discussion of this very topic.

Alan Clendenin

12:05:59PM Why not continue it to next week?

Lynn Hurtak

12:06:02PM Because They can bring us another resolution. I'm denying this because we said we were going to deny it, and we can talk about it next week. If we decide that we want to do that, then They can bring it back.

Alan Clendenin

12:06:13PM Okay. I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Carlson. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? With the intent that they can bring back a resolution next week with amendments. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

12:06:29PM Maybe Councilwoman Hurtak will do it in new business, but I think that we ought to specifically put on the agenda next week the item you mentioned about the front yards.

Lynn Hurtak

12:06:39PM It is on there.

Bill Carlson

12:06:42PM Separate item?

Lynn Hurtak

12:06:43PM Yes. Actually, that will be part of what I bring back this afternoon is -- oh, i'm making -- that was a hope, this afternoon. I didn't say evening. Yes, there will be conversations about that. And if -- it is actually one of the motions that is on the agenda for next week's conversation. So we have put that. I'll actually go ahead and bring that today. I'll show you all. I'll talk about it in New Business to let you know what is coming forward next week. So thank you.

Alan Clendenin

12:07:16PM Again, just preface just for next week's conversation on this since we talked about it a little bit. We have to provide some flexibility. I've already told them they have to take bottle brushes off the list. Problematic tree from Australia. A lot of people are allergic to it. Just a bad tree. I think there is a lot of work to be done on this. I hope we can approach this without absolutes. We are now at 12:09. I would suggest that council break for lunch until 1:30 to hear the 1:30 public hearings.

Lynn Hurtak

12:07:58PM We denied it.

Alan Clendenin

12:07:59PM This was denied. Next week, we will be discussing trees again. Because 1:30 public hearings, please be in your seats at 1:25 so we can hear the public hearings. And we will be adjourned for lunch. [ sounding gavel ] [lunch recess]

1:25:28PM We're back from lunch. I hope everybody is well fed and rested. It is 1:30 p.m. And Tampa City Council is called to order. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Charlie Miranda

1:30:58PM Here.

Guido Maniscalco

1:30:59PM Here.

Lynn Hurtak

1:30:59PM Here.

Naya Young

1:31:01PM Here.

Luis Viera

1:31:02PM Here.

Bill Carlson

1:31:02PM Here.

Alan Clendenin

1:31:04PM Here.

The Clerk

1:31:05PM We have a physical quorum.

Alan Clendenin

1:31:06PM Thank you. Can I get a motion to open the 1:30 public hearings? Motion from Councilman Miranda, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We're on to item number 43. I don't know, Mr. Chair, if you would like to swear in.

1:31:29PM That is true. Thank you for the reminder. If you are here to speak to items 43 or 44, please stand, raise your right hand and be sworn in by our clerk. That's basically all the public hearings, if you are here. Stand, raise your right hand. I suspect most everybody in the room should be standing and raising the right hand. [Oath administered]

1:31:58PM Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam, for reminding me.

Camaria Pettis-Mackle

1:32:04PM Again, my name is Camaria Pettis-Mackle. I'm from the City Attorney's Office. I'm here for agenda item 43, which is a review hearing for the application of SU 1-26-33 for the property located at 2406 East Annie Street. The petitioner for this matter is Saloman Joseph. The request was -- to staff was regarding the ability to have a congregate living facility. Staff denied the request for a congregate living facility on April 15, 2026, on the basis it did not meet the special criteria that is outlined in 27-156. Staff will go over the more details about why they denied the request. City Council, I provided a packet to you that includes a copy of code section 27-61, which is the review criteria used to conduct this review hearing. I've also provided the rules of procedure for City Council to use in order to conduct this hearing. I've also provided a sample motion to use at the conclusion of this matter. As outlined in code section 27-61, subsection j-3, this is a de novo review hearing, which means that City Council can accept new evidence. At the conclusion, you are essentially sitting in the shoes of the Zoning Administrator and will consider the factors that the Zoning Administrator used in order to make the final decision regarding this matter. So staff will again give you the overview, as Laura Marley is present. She will give you the overview of staff's decision. And at the conclusion of this hearing, City Council can take two actions regarding this matter. City Council can affirm the decision of the Zoning Administrator and deny the special use application or City Council can overturn the decision of the Zoning Administrator and therefore allow the congregate living facility that used to be used at 2406 East Annie Street. I'm available if you have any questions, but i'll turn it over to Ms. Marley for the explanation of why this application was denied.

Alan Clendenin

1:34:24PM Does council have any questions about the procedures of the hearing? Hearing none, thank you. Laura Marley, Development Coordination. Application is SU 1-26-33. Petitioner is Saloman Joseph for sunshine serenity homes. Property owner Saloman Joseph and Merin Joseph. 2406 East Annie Street. Zoning is RS 60. Future land use r-10. Establishment of a congregate living facility, small. The property is outlined in red. This is just a definition of the congregate living facility. We do not require you to go through a special use if SIX or under. SIX or more, you need to go through a special use. The applicant met all of the code requirements except for a, which is no such use shall be established within 1,200 feet of another professional facility, and there is one facility actually, the property, 2406 is here. 2405 is Across The Street. And here is the ahca, which shows that there are two facilities. One is sunshine for three people and one is the 2405 which is Across The Street for SIX people. The one Across The Street had their state license in 2025. And the current one just got their license in June 2026, so we say established is the person who got their state license first. That's why we had to deny the special use request. This is the proposed site plan. Any questions?

1:36:29PM Does council have any questions? Hearing none, does that conclude staff's presentation?

1:36:35PM Very good. Is an Appellant here? The applicant. Come to the front. Start with your name, please.

1:37:01PM Thank you. Council. My name is Shania Matthews. I'm one of the owners of Sunshine Serenity Homes, LLC. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to present our petition for review regarding a proposed congregate living facility located at 2406 East Annie Street. Today I respectfully ask the council to consider the unique circumstances surrounding this application and grant our petition. The purpose of today's request. The purpose of today's request is straightforward. First, i'm asking the approval of our petition of review. Second, I want to demonstrate that we relied in good faith on official city guidance when -- this project. Third, I want to show the significant efforts and investments we made to comply with every requirement requested by the city. Who we are. Sunshine Serenity Homes was established to provide safe community-based housing for individuals served through the Florida Agency of Persons With Disabilities or Apd. This facility is designed for SIX or fewer residents and will operate as a residential home within the community. Our goal is to provide a safe, supportive, and professionally managed environment for individuals who deserve the opportunity to live in a community setting while receiving the care they need. Ownership and clinical expertise. One of the unique aspects of our project is the experience of the ownership team. Sunshine Serenity Homes is owned and operated by four registered nurses. Together, we have more than 20 years of combined experiences in critical care, acute care, patient safety, medication management, and complex medical care. Two of the owners currently work within the Veterans Affairs Health Care System as registered nurses. One of the owners works at Tampa General Hospital as registered nurse. One owner, Nursing Professor at Hillsborough Community College and University of South Florida. This is not an absentee owned investment property. It is a health care driven project developed by professionals who are personally committed to serving vulnerable individuals in our community. Timeline of events. The timeline is one of the most important aspects of this case. On May 12, 2025, we received zoning Confirmation from the city. At that time, we were informed that there were no similar facilities within the required separation distance. Based upon that determination, we moved forward with the project in good faith. We entered into lease agreements, began the permitting process, and complied with every requirement that was placed before us. How the conflict -- after our process had already begun, another nearby facility applied for zoning approval on or about June 10, 2025, which we came to Know Way later in the process. As a result, a separation distance issue later developed. The key point is this conflict did not exist when we initially received zoning Confirmation and relied on city's guidance. The circumstances changed after we had already committed significant resources to the project. Compliance efforts. Throughout this process, we followed every instruction provided by the city. We completed extensive life safety improvements. We installed a fire sprinkler system. We completed the change -- process. Obtained required approvals and complied with permitting requirements. At every stage our goal was to meet and exceed the city's expectations. Financial investment. As part of these compliance efforts, we made substantial investments. Approximately $35,000 was spent on the fire sprinkler system. More than $10,000 was spent on city fees, permits, and related expenses. In addition, we have maintained lease obligations of approximately 2500 per month for past 15 months for a vacated home. Our total investment now exceeds $80,000. These investments were made because we relied on the city's initial determination and continued following city guidance throughout the process. Why this -- [inaudible] we understand and respect the purpose of city's ordinance. However, we respectfully believe that applying it under these unique circumstances creates an inequitable result. We relied on official city guidance. We invested substantial resources. We completed every requirement requested by the city. Yet the circumstances that created the current conflict arose only after our process had already begun. I'm simply asking the council to consider those facts and the good-faith efforts made throughout this process. Community benefits. We promise this facility will provide meaningful benefits to the community. It will support vulnerable residents who need safe and stable housing. It will maintain the residential character of the neighborhood. There will be no commercial activities and minimal impact on traffic. Most importantly, it will provide quality housing and support services for individuals who deserve to live safely within this community. Our mission, Sunshine Serenity Homes has a mission. Our mission is to serve apd clients, including those who may benefit from additional medical and nursing oversight. As registered nurses, we have seen firsthand the challenges faced by individuals who require support while maintaining their independence. Our goal is to create a safe, supportive, and professionally managed environment where residents can thrive. We believe our health care experience uniquely positions to us achieve that mission. Request to council. Council members and Chair, i'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking for a fair consideration based on the unique timeline of events. I respectfully request that the council recognize our reliance on the city's initial determination, our substantial investments, our compliance efforts, and the community benefits this home will provide. For those reasons, I respectfully ask that you grant our petition for review. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to the City Of Tampa. Thank you.

1:45:30PM Thank you. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

1:45:33PM Do you own this property?

1:45:36PM Okay.

1:45:41PM Okay.

Alan Clendenin

1:45:44PM Leased from the LLC.

Lynn Hurtak

1:45:46PM That's why I was trying to understand you put $35,000 into something you don't own. I just had to ask that. Then I have a question for staff.

Alan Clendenin

1:46:00PM Don't go far because I have a question for staff after you're done.

Lynn Hurtak

1:46:06PM I apologize, because I was paying attention to your presentation, but I cannot remember the date that you said the other applicant. It was in I think the single digits of May.

Laura Marley

1:46:21PM The license for the one Across The Street was September 1st, 2025.

Lynn Hurtak

1:46:27PM September 1st, 2025. And their license was May 12th, 2025.

Laura Marley

1:46:34PM And their license from the state is June 1st, 2026. These are the dates for the state license. I think the dates that you're talking about are the crt letters from the city.

Lynn Hurtak

1:46:49PM Can you say again June what?

Laura Marley

1:46:53PM June 1st, 2026 was when Sunshine -- this application got their state license. And September 1st, 2025, is the one Across the Street got their state license.

Lynn Hurtak

1:47:13PM And then June 10th is when they applied.

Laura Marley

1:47:20PM June 10 --

Lynn Hurtak

1:47:22PM Is when the nearby facility applied for their crt.

Laura Marley

1:47:27PM Certification letter, yes.

Lynn Hurtak

1:47:29PM Is there a reason you didn't tell that group that there was one within a thousand feet?

Laura Marley

1:47:36PM At the time that information wasn't given to us, provided to us. It would have been after because this letter was June 10th. This one was May 10, but they got their license September 1st.

Lynn Hurtak

1:48:00PM Yes. But the question here is they applied in May, and you did the due diligence and there was no one surrounding it. The other person applied in June, and you did the due diligence and didn't note the one that applied in May.

Laura Marley

1:48:18PM Correct. Because people do apply and They ask if this use can be allowed. And we say, yes, at this time of the letter, there's nothing within a thousand feet. At the time They both applied, nothing was within a thousand feet that had the state license.

Lynn Hurtak

1:48:33PM Okay. It seems that then that other house got started. Are people living there? Is that already --

Laura Marley

1:48:46PM We just know They have their state license and that's where we have it as established. Established means They have their state license is how we have used the term established.

Lynn Hurtak

1:48:58PM How would they have gotten their state license without an actual property? Address?

Laura Marley

1:49:04PM You don't. You have to have an address. You have to have a property to get the state license.

Lynn Hurtak

1:49:10PM Then i'm not really sure how this city law can work. That doesn't make any sense. Because if you have -- I mean, this is the perfect scenario of you have your license, and you could be spending SIX months preparing and then Someone could open one right next door five days before.

Laura Marley

1:49:34PM Right. Typically what happens is people get their crt letter saying you can do this use and then They go to the state. Usually done very quickly. Unfortunately in this case, They got the letter and then They didn't go straight to the state. They waited past a year to go to the state. That's typically how it works. You get your approval from the jurisdiction and then you go to get your state license.

Lynn Hurtak

1:50:04PM I'm still a little confused here.

Alan Clendenin

1:50:08PM It's a hearing, so I can't provide testimony.

Lynn Hurtak

1:50:12PM Okay. Thank you. It sounds like you would like to respond as well. If you would come up, state your name again. You are welcome to provide some more information. Don't go too far because I think he had a question for you. I am the property owner. Actually, the issue was we applied first for the zoning. We go to the zoning from the City Of Tampa. There was no facility nearby 1200 feet surrounding. So the property Across The Street was on sale. Someone bought the property. After 28 days, applied for a zoning for a group home. So they got the same zoning letter from the City Of Tampa stating that there is no property. So we got zoning. They got zoning. So we approached the City Of Tampa for the SIX or fewer residents, the requirements to start the home. They said we need to have a fire marshal has to come to our property and take the safety of the property. So we asked for a fire marshal to come. When the fire marshal came to the property, they said we need fire sprinklers to be installed. We contacted a couple of fire sprinkler companies and we got called and we installed all those. So when we called the fire marshal for the fire final inspection, the fire marshal asked us the change of use paper. So we said we don't have that, so we applied to the City Of Tampa, the change of use -- three different applications. I went possibly multiple times to the City Of Tampa, more than 20 times. I went there and asked every staff who was available that day whether we need a sprinkler. So when we contact the state, state said they don't need a fire sprinkler. That's how this conflict started. City gave me a paper stating you need fire sprinkler. So we followed the City Of Tampa's compliance. We installed it. We got the fire marshal to come and inspected it. He said we did everything good. Only thing, city has to say it's okay to go. So when we came, contacted the state, hey, we installed these things, we are good to go, then the state said another facility applied 28 days after your application. They got license because city never asked them any of these requirements. Because that facility got licensed eight months ago, never started still, they don't have sprinkler, nothing from the city. We spent almost 30,000 for the sprinkler, multiple floor plans. Asked Cmc to come, state to come, they all come and inspected property and said okay to go. But the variance in the 1200 feet issue arise. They said ask the council. Due diligence to get this license. Somehow the other property got this license without any of the City Of Tampa's requirements, state provide the license.

1:53:30PM Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

1:53:32PM Staff, for clarification, could you please walk through the process an applicant that is looking for this type of facility, how they would approach the city, what the city would do with that application, what certificates or approvals they would issue and how that is a variance from what we're hearing in this.

Laura Marley

1:53:51PM Basically, most people apply for certification letter basically stating that the property can be used for the certain use. Once they get that property, they would go to the state, get their state license --

Alan Clendenin

1:54:04PM Stop there one second. The Applicant came to the city in May whatever was the date.

Laura Marley

1:54:11PM May 12, 2025.

Alan Clendenin

1:54:12PM Did they receive a certification letter?

Laura Marley

1:54:16PM Yes.

Alan Clendenin

1:54:16PM So They got a certification letter, now what happens?

Laura Marley

1:54:20PM Then They apply to the state. They also do need to do building permits depending on how many residents They have. SIX or under people in the facility, you don't need to do a special use. If doing seven or more, need to do a special use. They have to be working kind of at the same time with the state and us. They do need to do building permits because it needs to be determined how many people They are going to have in the residence -- the residential facility. If it's more than SIX, They do need a sprinkler. Need to do a change of use. So that's typically how that works. First of all, They get their license from the state typically before They start all of the construction.

Alan Clendenin

1:55:08PM If the applicant in May was given a certificate, why would we issue another certificate?

Laura Marley

1:55:15PM This is a certification --

Alan Clendenin

1:55:18PM Explain what that certification is.

Laura Marley

1:55:20PM It's a certification letter. Basically what these letters are for, it's just confirming the zoning. It's confirming the zoning and sometimes people ask if a certain use can be allowed in that zoning district. So it's just a letter that says this is your zoning. If you ask for a use like they did ask for a use, yes, you can do this use. It's valid typically for a year unless something changes with the property. So May 12, 2025, 2426, which is these people, this is their certification. June 10, 2025, is 2405, this is the one Across The Street.

Alan Clendenin

1:56:00PM That certification is not permission granted. It's just saying this is eligible for the use. The city is not blessing this or not giving permission. It's just saying, yes, this building is eligible at this time for this use. Because the others have not occupied or taken possession of that use. I understand. Thank you. While you're there, could you explain what is in the public interest of restricting this use to -- one use within 1200 feet?

Laura Marley

1:56:33PM That's just a code requirement. I couldn't answer that fully. It's just what's in our code. It says 1200 feet. If i'm going to tell you my belief, it's because --

Alan Clendenin

1:56:48PM Testimony -- [indiscernible] for Legal Staff, somebody from legal, is this precedent setting? If we were to grant this today, would this be precedent setting?

Camaria Pettis-Mackle

1:57:01PM Camaria Pettis-Mackle from the Legal Department. You're only addressing the application that's before you.

Alan Clendenin

1:57:06PM I just wanted it for the record. Councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

1:57:11PM Although the cases are different, the council has waived this in the past. Habana, just north of Tampa Bay, about 80 yards to the right there was one.

Alan Clendenin

1:57:23PM Be careful providing testimony.

Charlie Miranda

1:57:25PM And I quit. [ laughter ] it's a very complex issue. You have two individuals with two licenses. Are you both open or one open? You're open?

Alan Clendenin

1:57:41PM The microphone is embedded in the podium. Issue is the variance of this zoning. Once we get the zoning, we are ready to open.

Charlie Miranda

1:57:50PM You have two that are not open. License eight months ago. We thought that's running. When the state told us there is no facility. Only house. That house is closed and no one living in the house for last eight months.

Alan Clendenin

1:58:07PM Thank you. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

1:58:10PM Ms. Pettis-Mackle, could I please ask you to get up again? You heard the comments about the city representative and the applicant, they were talking about the process in the order of things, does legal have any overview of that or advice based on that sequence of events?

Camaria Pettis-Mackle

1:58:31PM Camaria Pettis-Mackle from the Legal Department. I do not. The staff explained the process, and that's for staff to explain. I don't have a legal opinion about that. That's just the process -- process the application.

Bill Carlson

1:58:46PM The question Council Member Hurtak was asking about, also about the order of things, is there any advice there, somebody has an application in, but somebody else comes in and gets it faster, there's no legal advice regarding that?

Camaria Pettis-Mackle

1:59:01PM No. Staff explained the parameters of the certification letter, and I would just ask for you to rely on that.

Bill Carlson

1:59:08PM Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

1:59:09PM Thank you so much. Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none, public comment. Anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Anybody in the public wishing to speak to this item? Hearing none, can I get -- does staff have anything else to add? You wish to speak? Come on up. Start with your name, please. My name is Wilma Moore. Hi. I'm just listening to see if you are considering granting two homes on Annie Street. It sounds like you're considering maybe waiving because of the dilemma these people are facing.

2:00:00PM If council was to approve that, that would be the consequences of this, yes. I oppose there being two of these group homes that close to this residential neighborhood. One would be enough. There would be enough traffic, deliveries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We don't need two in our neighborhood.

2:00:23PM Thank you very much. Is there anybody else in the public who wishes to speak to this item?

Luis Viera

2:00:33PM For Mr. Shelby, I wanted to disclose, I say this in an abundance of caution, my oldest brother lives in a group home. I wanted to disclose that. People with intellectual disabilities. Poses a conflict not just identity of institutions but in terms of my sentiments. I want to disclose that to the public and get your opinion that I may proceed to vote on this.

Martin Shelby

2:00:57PM With regard to this issue before you today, do you have any direct financial interest to your benefit or for your loss.

Luis Viera

2:01:05PM No.

Martin Shelby

2:01:06PM That being said, can you be fair and impartial in this matter or do you believe you are somehow biased that would prevent you from rendering a fair and impartial.

Luis Viera

2:01:16PM Yes, sir.

Martin Shelby

2:01:17PM You can. Thank you. Then I don't see a conflict.

Alan Clendenin

2:01:21PM Hearing no other public comment, does staff have anything to add? Motion to close from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Aye. I need a motion. Anybody want to discuss it? Motion, please.

Guido Maniscalco

2:01:44PM May I make a motion? Thank you very much. I make a motion to overturn the Zoning Administrator's denial. Move to overturn the Zoning Administrator denial of SU 1-26-33 for the property located at 2406 East Annie Street because the Petitioner provided competent and substantial evidence to waive the specific criteria that no such use shall be established within 1,200 feet of another such use or of a professional residential facility as provided in section 27-132, City Of Tampa Code of Ordinances for the following reasons. I think based on the evidence or the evidence, what the Petitioner put in their very thorough powerpoint presentation, not just regarding the good faith efforts, but relying on the city guidance, I think they felt like or they did just follow the guidelines and instructions of the city. That's it.

Alan Clendenin

2:02:45PM Thank you. Motion from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Viera. I'll add that i'm going to support this motion, although I am very empathetic with the concerns about the density of development in the area. I just feel like the number of residents is relatively low, and that probably my anticipated impact would be de minimis. A different situation, I may have reached a different conclusion. But it seems like it is a relatively small facility. Yeah, those of you applying for things, make sure you follow through with staff and make sure you follow your applications All The Way through. Anybody else? I have a motion and I have a second. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

The Clerk

2:03:38PM Motion carried unanimously.

Alan Clendenin

2:03:40PM Thank you. Congratulations. Now for the fun stuff. Anybody bring samples? Item 44. Susan Johnson Velez, Legal Department. Item 44 is a series of hearings pursuant to section 27-318 of the City Of Tampa code for City Council's consideration of suspension of alcoholic beverage permits for each of the establishments listed in exhibit a to a resolution. I believe staff is passing out some documents for council's convenience during this hearing. And the hearings are for failure of the establishments to comply with the requirements of section 27-319 of the code. So these hearings all relate to a classification of alcoholic beverage permit that we call special restaurant or r permits, and they are permits that are processed as administrative alcoholic beverage permits subject to certain criteria. They limit the hours of operation. They limit the amount of outdoor amplified sound. Where the location where alcoholic beverages Can Take Place and also they have to coincide with a specific type of alcoholic beverage permit from the state that is currently called a special food service classification. It allows somebody to operate a restaurant without having a quota license from the state. So it's in conjunction with sales of food. So per the city code, a property owner or holder of an ab permit of a business with this type of ab permit is required to keep and maintain books on their property and records on the premises that accurately identify each daily food and alcoholic beverage sale That Takes Place from the property. Those records have to reflect the gross sale of food and the gross sale of alcohol, and they must reflect that the combined gross sales of the business are not less than 51% attributable to food. So the majority of your sales have to come from food and not alcohol. Also pursuant to section 27-318, those businesses must submit a signed statement to development and growth management. It has to be submitted on or before January 31st of each calendar year. And it must reflect that the gross sales of food and alcohol are consistent with the percentages that are required under the code. Noncompliance with any part of section 27-319 shall be deemed a violation of that section and subject the establishments to the provisions of section 27-318. 27-318, council may recall, is the provision, or the section in the code that allows council to consider suspension of alcoholic beverages based on a laundry list of possible violations. 27-318-c-1-m includes specifically a violation of any part of section 27-319. So that would include the record reporting requirements. So that's the purpose of these hearings. There were approximately 50 establishments that as of January 31st had not submitted the required reporting. And so we submitted or sent notices of intent to suspend. Council on May 7, 2026, established this date, June 18, 2026 as hearing dates for these suspension hearings. It's required that council conduct public hearing prior to considering suspension of an alcoholic beverage permit. So we did send out notices of intent to suspend and notices of this hearing on May 14 or 15 of 2026. And I will now turn it over to LaChone Dock, who is going to report on the establishments that were included in your original exhibit. And their compliance status today as well as recommendation from staff. And i'm available throughout the hearings if council has any questions.

2:08:09PM Are we going to divide this and deal with the 26 locations in compliance first and then deal with noncompliance second.

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:08:16PM Correct. There are a number of locations that after further investigation, staff determined either no longer sell alcohol or are closed. We'll first ask council to remove those or cancel those hearings and then the big group that has achieved full compliance and then the group that's partially in compliance and then another group not in compliance at all. Thank you for dividing the question.

LaChone Dock

2:08:48PM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. I have not been sworn.

Alan Clendenin

2:08:52PM Please stand and raise your right hand. Anybody else who has come in who plans to speak on this issue, stand and raise your right hand to be sworn by the clerk. If you are here for the alcohol hearings and you haven't been sworn in, stand, raise your right hand. [Oath administered]

LaChone Dock

2:09:30PM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. I would like to just mention for the benefit of the public the establishments which are required to report must submit by January 31st their annual report in addition to their commercial insurance audit. If those documents are submitted before January 31st, there is no fee to submit the documents. Once you reach January 31st, beyond that you are considered late. Any establishment that submits their documentation after that date, there is a late fee. That late fee is based upon the occurrence. Hundred dollar late fee for the first time. Beyond that, $500 late fee for each subsequent occurrence. When we send out the documentation, I just want to put up quickly for the public's viewing, and for City Council, these are the documents that we submit. The one on the left that's number one, that is our reminder that we send. We say it's time to report, submit the documentation, here is how you would submit. The document on the right is our annual reporting form just to show for the public's view. The next, document number 3 that's identified, we received a lot of questions about the commercial insurance audit. We created frequently asked questions, and that's something we provide and it just kind of gives any of the business owners and operators some guidance as to what it's for, how you would obtain your audit information, and how to submit it. And then number four is our late communication that we send out. For locations that are late reporting, we send out that communication. I think what we're going to do is --

Alan Clendenin

2:11:25PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

2:11:26PM I had one question. Can you go back to the number one, one that you send? Did you say -- how does someone know to submit that? Do you send an e-mail? That's just part of what they do?

LaChone Dock

2:11:40PM Yes, LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. We send out an e-mail. We used to send a hard copy postcard, but we send an e-mail just due to the cost. They have a designation. So with your alcoholic beverage sales, if you have an r designation, the old wet zoning designations 4 cop r, 2 cop r, that is the requirement to report or if you are a restaurant or special restaurant or condition.

Lynn Hurtak

2:12:06PM I just wanted to make sure because my condition was you do send stuff out.

LaChone Dock

2:12:12PM We do as a reminder, yes. I believe what we were going to do, there are seven locations. What I did was I provided for you a copy of the powerpoint slides and also a copy of the spreadsheet. On the spreadsheet, I kept the original spreadsheet that was utilized when this case was first scheduled for hearing. And I just modified it. Wherever there is a red x, that's the location that either does not sale alcohol, and they are not required to report. There are seven of the locations. I believe by the direction it is to remove these first.

Alan Clendenin

2:12:58PM Motion to remove those?

Lynn Hurtak

2:12:59PM Do you need me to read the names and the addresses?

LaChone Dock

2:13:03PM Business name and address if you would, please.

Alan Clendenin

2:13:06PM Go for it.

Lynn Hurtak

2:13:09PM It's the ones with the xs through them. Lecn -- business name lechonera Latina Tampa, 1420 West Waters Avenue, unit 106. Westshore Bar and Grill, LLC -- penthouse club at Westshore bar and grill, 1001 North Westshore Boulevard. Pizza hut, 19010 bruce b. Downs Boulevard, unit 19062. Pizza hut 4011 East Busch Boulevard. La eden cafe, 506 North Tampa Street. Rio issa kia, 5232 Bridge Street. Little tina cafe, 700 Harbor Post Drive, unit 710. And that's it. I motion to remove those --

LaChone Dock

2:14:33PM We would cancel the hearing. We move to cancel the hearing.

Lynn Hurtak

2:14:37PM Move to cancel the hearing of those aforementioned businesses.

Alan Clendenin

2:14:45PM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

LaChone Dock

2:15:02PM Development Coordination. The next phase of the hearing, as has been mentioned, there are a total of 50 locations on the list for reporting late. So the categories are, total of 26 which were in compliance after the January 31st deadline. And then a total of 24 remaining locations, which are noncompliant as of last week, as of June 11. So we'll go to the 26 first. And those are the ones i've highlighted on the spreadsheet in green. For those 26 locations which have come into compliance as of January 31st, staff recommends a two-part motion. One, we find the location in violation. Two, that no suspension of their alcoholic beverage sales permit.

Alan Clendenin

2:15:52PM Just the ones in green.

LaChone Dock

2:15:55PM Correct. I have the locations here. One, the public can see it visually. We can go through each one one by one.

Alan Clendenin

2:16:04PM Do we need to do that? Can we do it as a group?

LaChone Dock

2:16:12PM We'll get legal advice here.

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:16:16PM If that's going to be -- this should be part of the record if you do it as a group, just so that there's clarity about what's happening.

Alan Clendenin

2:16:27PM Do this as a group and submit this document into the record.

Lynn Hurtak

2:16:34PM We can read them all.

Alan Clendenin

2:16:36PM Councilman Maniscalco.

Guido Maniscalco

2:16:37PM Two part motion for the 26 items that are in green.

Alan Clendenin

2:16:43PM Read them one time.

Guido Maniscalco

2:16:44PM The motion for all 26 is going to be that I find these 26 locations in violation. And the second part of the motion is but that no suspension of their alcoholic beverage sales Permit Take Place.

LaChone Dock

2:16:59PM Correct.

Alan Clendenin

2:17:00PM That will be two votes. Two votes when we do that. One vote for the first -- just one is fine.

Guido Maniscalco

2:17:07PM You want me to read the name and address of each one?

LaChone Dock

2:17:10PM Correct, please.

Guido Maniscalco

2:17:12PM Jerk hut island grill 1241 East Fowler Avenue. The second is cappy's Tampa palms LLC, 1601 -- tijuana flats, 1617 West Platt Street, first and second floor. La set ma, North Nebraska Avenue. Urban cantina, 200 East Madison Street. Thai island. East Davis Boulevard. Ajisai, 2101 East Fowler Avenue. Whiskey cake kitchen and bar, 2223 North Westshore Boulevard 207b. California pizza kitchen, the brother trattoria. South Macdill Avenue. Lameizi hot spot and barbeque, East Fowler Avenue. Byblos cafe, South Macdill Avenue. La giraldilla Tampa, West Hillsborough Avenue, renzo's -- [reading from screen]

Alan Clendenin

2:19:06PM Thank you. I have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilman Miranda. Yes, ma'am.

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:19:12PM This is a public hearing. I would ask if there's anybody in the public that wants to speak on any of these. I don't believe there will be, but there might be.

Alan Clendenin

2:19:22PM We anticipate there won't be. We are finding these businesses to be out of compliance, but we are not recommending suspension. Is that correct?

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:19:34PM They are in full compliance, but They were in violation for not having filed by the January 31, 2026 deadline. But imposing no suspension on their alcoholic beverage.

Alan Clendenin

2:19:45PM No suspension. Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

2:19:47PM Do they still have fines to pay?

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:19:51PM They do have a late -- no, no. I'm sorry.

LaChone Dock

2:19:54PM They don't have anything remaining now.

Lynn Hurtak

2:19:58PM Just wanted to make sure.

Alan Clendenin

2:19:59PM I saw a hand. Did you wish to speak to this? With those provisions? Come to the podium and start with your name. I don't see my business name on the 26. I talked to Deleo at the development office and he told me I sent in all my stuff. The issue with my account is that -- via italia wood fire pizza and bar.

2:20:43PM Anybody else? Hearing none. More, okay. Come to the podium and start with your name. I already paid the late fee two, three weeks ago. I submit a form. I didn't see my name -- Elaah, LLC --

2:21:22PM You'll be in the next group. No, they are not.

2:21:39PM Love your restaurant. Great restaurant. On Gandy Boulevard. Good stuff. Good food.

LaChone Dock

2:21:52PM We just need the motion.

Alan Clendenin

2:21:53PM Nobody else. We're all good?

LaChone Dock

2:22:01PM We're still continuing on.

Alan Clendenin

2:22:03PM I have a motion and I have a second. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? The Ayes have it. If you were in that hearing, you're done. If you were one of those names, you're done. Okay. Second batch.

LaChone Dock

2:23:03PM So the next set that we have -- LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. The next category of noncompliance, i've broken out into these categories. There are ten establishments which have submitted their annual report and paid the late fee. So they still owe us the commercial insurance audit. Three locations which have submitted their annual report and their commercial insurance audit, but they have not paid the late fee. There's one location which has paid the late fee and not submitted the documents, the annual report or the commercial insurance audit. And then there are ten locations which have not submitted any documentation or paid a late fee. So we can go in this order if it is okay with council, and we can start with the ten. This kind of keeps it clear. Let me put this list up. So these are the ten locations which have submitted their annual report. They paid their late fee. They owe the commercial insurance audit to be submitted. Staff's recommendation is to allow until July 9, which is three weeks from today, to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, the recommendation is to impose a five-day suspension of their alcoholic beverage license starting July 10. What I have placed for you and for the public on the camera are the ten locations.

Alan Clendenin

2:24:35PM I'll call each one of these businesses individually and see if they are here and see if they can agree to the terms. Is there a representative from Lolis Mexican Cravings? 1824 North Westshore Boulevard. Anybody here from that establishment? Not here. Okay. Monserrate restaurant bar and grill on Hillsborough Avenue. Please come forward. I'll say this once for him and then you guys make sure you hear this, because i'll ask you the same question. Are you okay with staff saying we're going to give you until July 9 to come into compliance, otherwise your alcohol will be suspended on July 10? Yes. I already submit the commercial insurance audit. I'll find out why they haven't received it yet.

2:25:36PM I'm sure staff will assist you on that as well. Thank you very much. Chili's mexican restaurant on Columbus Drive. Anybody here from chili's? State your name and are you okay with staff's requirement, compliance by July 9? My name is Juan Carlos --

2:25:59PM You'll submit -- you have until July 9 to submit commercial insurance audit.

2:26:05PM July 9. If you do not submit it, your alcohol will be suspended on July 10, you understand that? Yes.

2:26:12PM Very good. Next is another lolis mexican on Gandy Boulevard. Anybody from that establishment? Hearing none. Rouen Thai. Come on up. Can you state your name and are you okay with making sure that you're going to submit your commercial insurance audit by July 9? Otherwise you will be suspended on July 10. My name is --

2:26:43PM Thank you very much. Havana 86. Same question. Start with your name and say if you are fine with that. Yes, I agree.

2:26:57PM Thank you so much. Via Italia. State your name and whether you agree with that.

2:27:10PM Thank you very much. Lifetime on harbour island. Whoever is in charge, say your name and if you agree. Yes.

2:27:28PM Vino y pasta on Gandy Boulevard. I need to try your restaurant. I agree to the terms.

2:27:39PM Thank you very much. Taqueria Mexico on Armenia. Say your name, please and if you agree. Had I spoken to her on the phone. She told me what I needed to do and I sent it to her. Do I have a copy with me.

2:28:02PM Staff will work with you. Very good. Thank you so much. Can I get a motion, please?

Lynn Hurtak

2:28:13PM I'll read the names and then the -- mons rat restaurant bar and grill, 2311, West Hillsborough Avenue. Chili's mexican restaurant, 3247 West Columbus Drive. Rouen Thai, 3324 West Gandy Boulevard. Havana 86, 3434 West Columbus Drive number 101 and 102. Via Italia, 6844 -- Village Road. 8644 hunter'S Village Road. Lifetime, 900 South Harbour Island Boulevard. Vino Y Pasta, 3603 West Gandy Boulevard. And taqueria mi Mexico, North Armenia Avenue, unit 4215. And I motion to allow these businesses to come in compliance by July 9. If not in compliance by July 9, to impose a five-day suspension of alcohol beverage license starting on July 10, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. And ending on July 14 at 11:59 p.m.

2:29:36PM They weren't here. We'll deal with Them after.

Alan Clendenin

2:29:39PM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. A second from councilman Miranda. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

2:29:45PM What would you like us to do with the Lolis Mexican.

Alan Clendenin

2:29:49PM If your name -- if you have questions about the applications, please consult staff, not during the hearing. Just clarification, because i've heard different things. My Commercial Insurance, January 31st, through January 31st. My carrier doesn't start an audit until late February, which means I don't have --

2:30:25PM You'll have to deal with that with staff. You'll have to communicate with staff.

2:30:32PM You have until July 9 to figure it out.

2:30:37PM Work with staff.

Martin Shelby

2:30:43PM Could you put the list back up?

LaChone Dock

2:30:47PM Development Coordination. I apologize. Those two locations I have circled as absent. But we are going through the remainder of the locations. Our last locations that we will review are the ones that haven't submitted anything at all.

Alan Clendenin

2:31:04PM Read this for the suspension now for the five days in their absence.

Lynn Hurtak

2:31:08PM I wanted to be able to bifurcate them just in case.

Susan Johnson-Velez

2:31:15PM I think staff's recommendation would be the same.

Lynn Hurtak

2:31:17PM Yes, the other people agreed to it on camera and under oath. Lolis Mexican Cravings at 1824 North Westshore Boulevard and 3324 West Gandy Boulevard unit 3, allowing them until July 9, 2026, to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, impose a five-day suspension of alcohol beverage license starting on July 10, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. And ending July 14 at 11:59 p.m.

Alan Clendenin

2:31:52PM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from councilman Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

LaChone Dock

2:31:57PM The next category that we have, council, is these are three locations, and these locations submitted their annual report and commercial insurance audit. They are required to submit the late fee. They have not submitted the late fee. The recommendation from staff is to allow until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9 to impose a five-day suspension of their ab license, starting July 10.

Alan Clendenin

2:32:26PM Any of the owners of these three establishments here? Come forward. State your name, the name of your establishment and are you okay with those conditions. We paid the late fee.

2:32:45PM You already paid.

2:32:47PM Very good. Then you will be in compliance and you can work with staff.

2:32:52PM Anybody else? No. Hearing none, Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

2:32:57PM Do we want to do the one who said she paid separately?

LaChone Dock

2:33:05PM Yes, we probably should since she is here and she did state that. The recommendation would be the same.

Lynn Hurtak

2:33:14PM It has to be July 10 at 12:01 a.m. And ending on July 14 at 11:59 p.m. It's a five day. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

Naya Young

2:33:33PM I make a motion to allow table 22 located at 4924 East Busch Boulevard, unit g to come into compliance. They have until July 9. If not in compliance by July 9, to impose a five-day suspension of the ab license starting on July 10, 2026, 12:01 a.m., Ending July 1, 11:59 p.m.

Alan Clendenin

2:34:14PM Motion from Councilwoman Young. Second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.

Naya Young

2:34:30PM I have a motion to -- for guac n cheese, 4101 South Macdill Avenue and Luis's Garden Grill LLC 4502 west Hillsborough basic to have until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9 to impose a five-day suspension of the ab license starting on July 10, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. And ending July 14 at 11:59 p.m.

Alan Clendenin

2:35:01PM Motion from Councilwoman Young. A second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.

LaChone Dock

2:35:08PM Our next category, council, LaChone Dock, Development Coordination, one location paid the late fee. They have not submitted their annual report or the commercial insurance audit. Staff recommends to allow until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9 to impose a five-day suspension of their ab license starting on July 10.

Alan Clendenin

2:35:29PM Anybody here from minerva. Also my favorite indian restaurant in the Tampa Bay area, not for the faint of heart because it is very spicy. It's extraordinarily good.

2:35:53PM You understand the conditions that you have to submit the annual report and audit --

2:36:03PM You can work that out with staff. I want to make sure you understand the conditions.

2:36:07PM Thank you so much. Councilwoman Young, would you like to read this one?

Naya Young

2:36:13PM I move for Minerva Indian Restaurant located at 19050 bruce b. Downs Boulevard to have until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, to impose a five-day suspension of the ab license starting on July 10, 2026, 12:01 a.m., Ending July 14, 11:59 p.m.

Alan Clendenin

2:36:44PM Motion from Councilwoman Young, second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.

LaChone Dock

2:36:52PM LaChone Dock, Development Coordination. The next set of locations, council, are the locations which have not submitted their annual report or the commercial insurance audit. And they have not paid the late fee. On the camera, these are the ten locations. What staff is recommending for these locations is that we allow until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, to impose a 15-day suspension of their alcoholic beverage license starting July 10. I'll put the list back up for reference. But that is the staff recommendation because these locations have not submitted any aspect of the requirement. If your name is on the list, stand by the wall. One at a time, identify your name and business and understand the conditions staff just read, you have until July 9 to come into compliance. If you are not in compliance by submitting annual report, commercial insurance audit, license suspended -- ab license suspended for 15 days. Jacquelyn Rodriguez. I'm coming here on behalf of the Don Pancho. On Friday, we submitted the annual report along with the applications that needed to be submitted and along with the we have 2 cop beer and wine. Not srx or special business. They tell us because it is just beer and wine. We did submit the hundred dollar fee, and I have the receipt for it, too. Like I said, I e-mailed it Friday, but I did bring a copy just in case.

Alan Clendenin

2:38:52PM You can work through that with staff.

2:38:56PM Do that with staff. I want to make sure you understand the conditions. The conditions are you have until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance, July 10, your license would be suspended for 15 days. Just want to make sure you understood that. Thank you so much. Next, please, state your name and your business. This is something My Brother handled and he passed in September. We got everything. I'll show it to them. Again, I apologize. I'm not sure about the audit, I think it's also done, but I heard we have until the 9th.

2:39:36PM So you understand that. Thank you so much. We all love la teresita.

2:39:43PM Next please. I understand the process.

2:39:51PM Very good. Thank you so much. Next, please.

2:40:05PM You understand that you have until July 9 to come into compliance?

2:40:14PM If not in compliance on July 9, ab license will be suspended for 15 days.

2:40:24PM And if you have any questions, you can see staff.

2:40:29PM Very good. Next, please. I'm the representative for two business. The first one is Koizi and the second one is La Casona. We send the document to the e-mail eight days ago, and bring other copies here. We understand we need to pay the late fee.

2:40:54PM Thank you so much. Any clarification, staff will help you out. Next, please. My name is Sylvia Lopez. I'm here with my mom. She doesn't speak much english. La Mexicana Restaurant.

2:41:14PM She understands she has until July 9 to come into compliance, submitting an annual report, commercial insurance audit and to pay the late fee.

2:41:23PM She understands that. Any further questions, you can work with staff on it. Thank you.

2:41:27PM Very good. Thank you so much. Is anybody here from Ciccio Cali, adriana's mexican bar and grill, mel's hot dogs. No. Very good. Hearing none, Councilwoman Hurtak, do you want to take this.

Lynn Hurtak

2:41:51PM I'll butcher some names but give it a go. Councilman Maniscalco is good with the pronunciations. It is the ones that have check marks and on the next page, the times and the dates.

Guido Maniscalco

2:42:07PM This is a motion to allow the following locations until July 9 to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, to impose a 15-day suspension of ab license starting on July 10, 2026, starting at 12:01 a.m. And then expiring on July 24th, 11:59 p.m. For the following restaurants: koizi endless hibachi and sushi eatery. 17012 Palm Point Drive. Izakaya Tori, South Dale Mabry Highway. La teresita restaurant, Columbus Drive. La Casona, Don Pancho, placita bar and grill, La Mexicana Restaurant, 902 south 22nd street.

Alan Clendenin

2:43:10PM Very good. I have a motion from Councilman Maniscalco. A second from Councilwoman Hurtak. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

2:43:20PM I'll do the three that aren't. Ciccio Kali Dale Mabry, 201 South Dale Mabry Highway unit 217. Adriana's mexican bar and grill, West Hillsborough Avenue. Mel's hot dogs, 4136 East Busch Boulevard. We allow until July 9 for these businesses to come into compliance. If not in compliance by July 9, 2026, impose a 15-day suspension of alcohol beverage license starting on July 10, 2026, at 12:01 a.m. And ending on July 24 at 11:59 p.m.

Alan Clendenin

2:44:02PM I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak, a second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Ms. Dock.

LaChone Dock

2:44:09PM That concludes our locations. Thank you so much, council. I appreciate it.

Alan Clendenin

2:44:22PM Thank you. Very good. Mr. Steady. Marti Colon.

Scott Steady

2:44:30PM Scott Steady, city attorney. I'm here to talk about the property next to Marti Colon. Just briefly, I was watching the public comment this morning. A couple of people mentioned private property rights. That's part of it, but really, the issue, our limited authority, i'm saying the city. That our code really doesn't address how we would deal with potential remains of bodies on property. The fact is that this property, the development has the correct zoning and has complied with our land development regulations and therefore the city, in my opinion, and the staff, was obligated to issue the permit. Now, there is a state statute that has jurisdiction. So I'D like to briefly so you are informed about the state statute, but it's limited. By the way, the titles offenses concerning dead bodies and graves. Pretty gruesome. Anyway, any person who knows or has reason to know that unmarked human burial is being unlawfully, being unlawfully disturbed, destroyed, defaced, et cetera, calls the local Police Department. The Police Department confirms that and then they call the Medical Examiner and they deal with it. In the meantime, everything shuts down at that point. But that really is the limited jurisdiction, and that is a state requirement that if during the construction of these projects, a remain is found, they have to stop, call the Police Department. Police Department calls the Medical Examiner. Ben we wished the permit, which was involved in at the beginning of the year, we put in the permit, our permit, condition of approval. The property contained within bld 26, et cetera, abuts a cemetery. Through the approval of this permit, the applicant acknowledges that if human remains are discovered during any site work, excavation or construction activity on said property, the applicant is required to notify the City Of Tampa Building Official and is subject to compliance with section 87205 which I just read which requires immediate cessation of any and all activity on the property. There really is limited legislation or regulations dealing with this issue. And the city right now, we don't have any regulations. We don't have anything in our land development code that addresses this issue.

Alan Clendenin

2:47:04PM Anything we can do? Can we pass legislation? Can they pass legislation? Is there anything you can do to prevent this? Eminent domain? Can we purchase the property? What can we do?

Scott Steady

2:47:24PM I did talk to their attorney. Based on the prices of West Tampa these days, they are not cheap. They are looking for over a million dollars for the property. But I don't see eminent domain. This would have to be a market purchase, assuming they would sell it. But right now from my perspective, and, by the way, legislature keeps hemming us in all the time, local government. There is a provision that says once we issue a permit, which we've done, we can only change the permit that's currently, unless there is a fire safety code or building code issue. Now that it's issued, there's very little we can do. Now, on the other side, when you say what we can do -- I don't see how we can do, frankly, anything relative to development of this property. When I talked to Morris Mass Ohio recently retired at the end of last year, looking at can we do some prospectively in the future. Senate bill 180 is restricting us right now from doing things proactively. Relative to this development, I don't know what our options are other than purchase it. But i'm not saying they will sell it. Well over a million dollars.

Alan Clendenin

2:48:39PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

2:48:42PM What happened between 2021 and 2025? Because in 2021, they denied it because of a possible burial site. What changed between 2021 and 2025?

Scott Steady

2:48:57PM I'm not aware of what's changed. I don't know the basis of the denial in 2021. Who denied it? The city?

Lynn Hurtak

2:49:04PM Yes.

Guido Maniscalco

2:49:06PM It came to City Council a couple of times.

Scott Steady

2:49:09PM Denied what? At this point, there is a Zoning In Place, and they came in to get a permit pursuant to our land development code. So I don't know the situation in 2021. I don't know if it was a rezoning. I do know in talking that there was a request to have a jewish cemetery here. Right. But that --

Lynn Hurtak

2:49:28PM That wasn't 2021. I was here for that.

Scott Steady

2:49:33PM I'm not aware of what's change from '21. I'm comfortable saying at this point we have issued a permit and correctly so issued the permit. I don't know what happened in 2021.

Alan Clendenin

2:49:46PM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

2:49:48PM A few years ago, I made a motion, and I think my colleagues accepted to have the staff do a report to see if the city could set up a fund to do ground-penetrating radar and maybe buy property. The mayor's office ignored it. Blew it off so they didn't do it. In Code Enforcement, anywhere, is there any ability to do ground penetrating radar to try to determine from a third party point of view if there's anything, any people under there?

Scott Steady

2:50:18PM I'm telling you, there is nothing we can do. Blame me, I mean, that's my opinion, council.

Bill Carlson

2:50:26PM This is a recurring thing that's coming up. I'm disappointed that the Mayor decided to reject it. Because I think finding whether there are people buried in certain places is an important thing. If a private organization does it, the public doesn't believe it. Even still, it's important to know where they are and trying to do research on that. Maybe we need to find through the CRA, find a third organization to do it. The other thing is I understand when the current owner bought it, well publicized, trying to -- [inaudible] crematorium, some kind of facility there. My understanding is the city rejected that also. They rejected his ability to use it --

Scott Steady

2:51:12PM I don't know the reason for that, Councilman. Again, want to answer your question, but right now they are looking to build homes pursuant to zoning and comply with the land development code.

Bill Carlson

2:51:24PM We had zion, memorial. The only reason that the mayor and her administration moved on any of these is because City Council and the public pushed them to do it. I wish they would take these cemeteries seriously and do something with it. I'm not talking to you, because you're new. But I think the basic fair thing to do would be to buy the property from the person at market value. And I think we ought to engage in that right away. Unfortunately, unless it is under the CRA, I don't think we as City Council can force the administration to do that. But the mayor should do what's right and try to protect whoever is buried underneath here. The second thing, though, I understand that the person who owns it would like to build some facilities there. If he doesn't want to sell it, then the city should buy some property nearby that's acceptable to him and swap it. This is what happens when you get a hostage to negotiate things like baseball and cemeteries is that we don't think beyond the basic barter negotiations and deception. We don't think about other opportunities on what to do. The situation here is the public does not want anything built on top of potentially their relatives who are buried there. And unless we can prove otherwise, we really need to find a solution to this. It's not fair to the public to have the public come up and fight for this over and over again. Not fair to City Council to have us constantly do this. I'm not talking to you because you're an honest broker in this. I would ask the Chief of Staff and mayor's office, please take cemeteries and the ancestors of citizens of Tampa seriously and find a solution. Thank you.

Charlie Miranda

2:53:05PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know you weren't privy to all this in the beginning, not saying you do or don't. I know you don't. You weren't here. I heard rumor trying to be something -- when you dig for a home, put two houses there?

2:53:33PM All you dig is the foundation. You don't dig the center. The preponderance of the property is never going to be realized if there is anyone buried there or not because all you did are the footers. After that the cement and after that the plumbing and -- plumbing ain't going to go two feet in, that's it. Then you put your cement floors and build up from there. The preponderance of the problem, as I see it, is that if there is something there, They are going to build three houses, they'll never find it percent-wise because the majority of the property that's going to be dug is very small compared to the size of the property.

Scott Steady

2:54:16PM I was talking to Marty before the meeting, and he asked, the fact is, there's no law that says they have to do something. Unless you disturb it under the law I just talked about, if there is some remains that are buried there, they can remain there. Even if -- understand, if there are remains there, which from my -- my understanding, the ground penetrating radar that was submitted for the Jewish Cemetery, which I believe has been provided. Is not definitive. I don't want to get into it. I think the women that were here would say it was. I think the issue is probably not. But just so you know, right now there's no state law that unless you're disturbing buried remains, they stay there. If you develop a piece of property, and there's somebody buried in that backyard, they can stay there. I don't think it's funny. I'm just saying you kind of think, well, is that right? But there's no state law that i'm aware of or local law that says that that can't happen. It's only if you're disturbing it is the state law. One thing I do want to point out, just because I forgot, there is a strip of land between what they're going to develop and the current cemetery that is used. The Parks Department is buying that strip. That's where apparently there's clear evidence of some buried remains. At least relative to a couple of buried remains, the Parks Department is buying that strip. The rest of it, frankly, is debatable whether there are any remains on the property that's going to be developed.

Alan Clendenin

2:56:01PM Currently have a contract on that?

Scott Steady

2:56:03PM Yes.

Guido Maniscalco

2:56:06PM Councilman Miranda brought up an interesting point about when you build a house, how deep. Foot and a half. Typically a burial, you think SIX feet, but it's three feet you can hit if there is a burial vault, you'll hit that. Doesn't have to be so deep, number one. A house is different, from what i'm about to say. My understanding, the Gentleman that knows the story was here earlier, when they built Across The Street, the one Tampa city center, when they were excavating or preparing the foundation for the fort brooke parking garage, they did discover burials from the late 1800s. I believe they had to completely stop the project. The Gentleman knows the story further. If they are to find any remains as they are pouring the foundation for the house or preparing for it, I don't know how deep those possible burials are, would they have to by state law stop? Once you find it and you disturb it, the state law requires you to call the police. The police then calls the medical examiner, and they come out and deal with it. That's state law. Frankly, and i've talked to a lot of the concerned people, they don't like my answer, and they said, well, they are not going to follow the state law. Can we have someone from the city? It's not up to me, but I can't imagine the city is going to start sending people out to make sure they follow the law. There's not enough resources for that. I didn't say yes or no, but I said that's not possible. I can't imagine.

2:57:51PM Would it be possible to get permission from the property owner to do ground penetrating radar? I don't know if this question was asked. Do some ground penetrating survey to see if there's anything there before they do any further work? Do we have any recourse with that.

Scott Steady

2:58:08PM No, we do not. Without the permission. And I can't imagine they would give it. I'll ask staff to ask them. I'll talk to their attorney. It's Mark Bentley. I know him. I can ask him. There was one done for the jewish, i'm going to tell you, one group says there's evidence there but others including City Staff, which are not experts, and I looked at it, too, it's not definitive. It's not like it's clear there are buried bodies there. If anything, to me, that helps to feel a little more comfortable. I'm giving you my personal opinion.

Guido Maniscalco

2:58:53PM City discussed anything in a land swap or anything?

Scott Steady

2:58:57PM No.

Guido Maniscalco

2:59:00PM We have a very bad reputation of issues with cemeteries.

Scott Steady

2:59:04PM I understand.

Guido Maniscalco

2:59:05PM Zion to memorial, of what we know. Because there's -- there could be potentially more. There's really nothing that we can do. These are possibly people's relatives. Could be children. We don't know what's buried there. Also the story about Columbus Drive and how it was not a Thru Street. And the property Across The Street, they called it dead man's field or something like that. That was not a Divided Street. I don't know how long ago. But if you look at the platted map. I Believe The Road stopped -- it wasn't even called macdill. Lisbon. The cemetery crossed what is Now Columbus Drive, I believe.

Scott Steady

2:59:55PM Well, I feel like the Lady has been calling me, frustrated, you'll get frustrated with me, too. No, I don't believe we have any authority. We don't have anything in our land development regulations. We have no state law. There's just nothing there to ask them or demand them to do anything other than to follow the law that's on the books, that if they disturb while under construction, they have to notify the police. Notify the medical examiner and stop what they are doing. Otherwise, there's nothing there, and we've scoured it to look for any hook. Now, we can talk about going forward, but I know everyone is frustrated. I think we all are sympathetic but that's not good enough for a lot of people. My sympathy isn't going to help anybody.

Guido Maniscalco

3:00:47PM Can we make a motion to encourage the administration to engage in conversation with the property owner about working something out? You mentioned, as land values are, it could be a million dollars for those parcels or a land swap. As with Zion, some things were able to happen regarding property owners under the land swap, whatever happened with at least one, to do something. I mean, it's not just us as a City Council today. Since I was a kid, i'm talking 35 years ago, 40 years ago, I think the Tampa Tribune was doing articles about how neglected the cemetery was, going back to Sandy Freedman mayoral era about folks in West Tampa complaining about that cemetery and the lack of maintenance. Now, it was owned by a variety of individuals and that is a longer story. But it's like Marti Colon is a never-ending story of grief for the community.

Scott Steady

3:01:41PM Again, i'll reiterate one thing that I think is important. There is a strip that I think my understanding, there's clear evidence of buried remains. If all goes as planned, the city is going to buy that. So what is identified with remains, and there is a strip of land, that's being purchased by the city.

Guido Maniscalco

3:02:01PM So should that go through, does the city do a disinterment? Do they put a marker? There are no markers there. We assume, but nothing saying there are people there. Do we say, like in oaklawn Up The Street, wide areas of land that you go, oh, there's no burials here. But it's like victims of yellow fever, I believe, or spanish flu. I think it was yellow fever. But there's Mass burial I believe at oaklawn. What do we do? If we are to acquire and everything goes through do we put a marker remembering the unknowns?

Scott Steady

3:02:37PM I don't know the answer to that Councilman. I don't know. I just checked yesterday because I wanted to make sure that the purchase appears to be going forward.

Guido Maniscalco

3:02:48PM Wait and see on that.

Scott Steady

3:02:50PM There was a title issue. I said how bad is it? Don't worry. I'm trying to help, guys.

Alan Clendenin

3:02:57PM I know councilpersons that want to speak that have not spoken. We are kind of beating a dead horse. If we could rein it in to exactly what the issue is before us on this agenda item and not pontificate about other stuff, that would be great. Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

3:03:13PM Thank you very much. Attorney Steady, thank you as always for your professionalism, your demeanor. Every time you are up there, I see somebody who is telling It The Way it is and Just The Way it is. I appreciate it. The reason I made this motion is because I always say in politics I don't write checks that will bounce to folks. We all believe that, especially on this issue, because we're all getting e-mails and calls and everything on that, on an issue that we're all sympathetic to that's very emotional. So having you up here, telling us in terms of what we can and can't do, I think is something very, very important. One thing we could do is perhaps -- just thinking outside of the box -- doing a correspondence to the property owner, to the attorney Mr. Bentley, on further ground penetrating radar, work on it, as well as potentially, if there is construction on the site, having updates every month, two months, what have you. Of course, they are not compelled to do so. They certainly could do so. That's certainly something that I could support. Perhaps we could do a joint letter with the county commission. I would think all the county commission wants to support this as well. Again, just thinking outside of the box. But I did this because again we trust you as our attorney, as our city attorney. I trust you. Good person and great attorney, so I think that's important to note. Just my thoughts on some things we can do potentially for this. I could make a motion.

Alan Clendenin

3:04:47PM Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

3:04:52PM You were stating earlier that by state law, if during construction there are bodies that are discovered then they have to immediately stop. But you're saying staff, we cannot have staff out there.

Scott Steady

3:05:12PM I'm sorry. I'm interrupting you. I didn't say they can't. I can't commit staff to be out there during construction. I suggested that was not something I think the city does is send people out to make sure that Private Entities comply with the law. That was my discussion with the cemetery people. It's not -- anyway, i'm interrupting.

Naya Young

3:05:40PM That is the piece that kind of, you know, like, yes, that is the state law, but if there's no one there to watch or see, then how do we even know, like, if they decide, oh, there is no one here to see us, so we don't have to report anything, then what?

Scott Steady

3:05:59PM Number one, I agree with you. I would just say think of the ramifications. We're expecting people -- we grant permits all the time. Other than inspect occasionally for a house, there's all sorts of laws that the city doesn't go out, state laws, and make sure that they comply and have the manpower to go out and view it. This is not a legal position. I mean, this is a practical one that i'm pointing out to the ladies that called me and said, can the city send people out and monitor what construction of five houses over SIX months. I said I can't commit the city, but I have a hard time saying that the city is going to start sending personnel to oversee private development, Councilwoman. That's not my decision. I was trying to be forth right with them to say I don't think that's possible. It's not up to me.

Naya Young

3:06:55PM I understand that. When you see, of course, as Councilman Maniscalco was talking about, just the history, and then you see, so a lot of the evidence and things that i'm sure we've all received e-mails about, it's kind of a little disheartening to feel like we really can't do anything. I like the idea that Councilman Viera had. I don't know if that is a possibility. Just something, because it kind of feels like, I mean, just kind of sitting there. I don't know. I just feel it's kind of upsetting. We literally can't do anything.

Scott Steady

3:07:41PM There are a lot of things we can't do. I was just going to say, there are similar issues. If it was contaminated, because they mentioned, hey, there could be contamination or some varied debris. By the way, that's dep. I used to do that work. If there's debris there, it's not the city. That's the EPC. Wetlands, EPC S.W.F.W.M.D. Eagle, Department of Natural Resources. There are a lot of things related to development that the city doesn't have authority over. We don't have jurisdiction. This isn't the only issue. There are similarities like I just said. We don't ask for phase one, phase two to approve development to say it's not contaminated. That's something they have to comply with state law. We don't go out and monitor it. When I first started hearing about this, I felt bad as well. I don't of a choice.

Alan Clendenin

3:08:44PM Councilwoman Hurtak, let's bring it home.

Lynn Hurtak

3:08:47PM I'm just going to -- yes, there is something we can do. You told us what we can do. We can buy it. I'm going to make a motion to have staff come back with a written report on July 16 on the cost and the steps to purchase the property connected to the marti colon cemetery and additionally to look at a land swap. I appreciate council member Carlson for mentioning it earlier. We talked about it in my office. Let's just find out. The reason I did a written report, we don't have enough room on a staff report for that day. If we want to go further with that, we can make another motion that day. Does that work for you? Do you want to add anything to it?

Bill Carlson

3:09:31PM Great. Perfect. Thank you for including both. To clarify, you said we talked about it in the office, I didn't talk --

Lynn Hurtak

3:09:38PM No, no. Kelly and I talked. I'm sorry. When I think of we --

Bill Carlson

3:09:45PM So we don't get sunshine --

Lynn Hurtak

3:09:47PM Kelly and I talked about this. Yes, does everyone agree that is a first good step?

Charlie Miranda

3:09:55PM Anybody know if administration is not trying to do this now?

Lynn Hurtak

3:09:58PM We'll find out on July 16.

Charlie Miranda

3:10:01PM The price is going to double.

Lynn Hurtak

3:10:04PM You know what? That is the consequence of us not buying it when we had the opportunity in 2021.

Charlie Miranda

3:10:10PM We haven't asked if they -- before I make a deal, try to make a deal and raise the price, i'm going to ask, are you working on this, yes or no?

Bill Carlson

3:10:19PM This goes back before this administration.

Alan Clendenin

3:10:22PM We have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Maniscalco. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Council, can I get -- is there anybody that would dissent since Mr. Steady is here, he is on our agenda for item number 44 -- not 44. -- can we go to 51? We want a full council. Anybody need three minutes? Physiological break. Let's take a pause and wait for Councilwoman Hurtak to come back, since they asked for it.

Luis Viera

3:11:05PM For item 48, thank you very much. I wanted either an executive order with an ordinance, whatever it may be, on making public safety master plans mandated by virtue of applicable city law. So we've reached an agreement on executive order language. And Mr. Brody is going to be working on an ordinance implementing that and making sure that if there's ever any change of any kind to that order, which will be binding, i've spoken to Mr. Steady about that, City Council would give requisite notice. Therefore, based upon our apparent agreement on this, i'm going to make a motion, if I may, to on August 27, have city legal come forward with an ordinance implementing the notice provisions with a resolution ordinance on the public safety master plan.

Alan Clendenin

3:12:01PM Motion to remove item 48 from this agenda? Motion to remove item 48, second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Do it now or wait until new business?

Luis Viera

3:12:14PM May I do it now?

Alan Clendenin

3:12:16PM Go ahead.

Luis Viera

3:12:19PM Stated --

Alan Clendenin

3:12:21PM Did you get it, Suling? Very good. I have a motion from Councilman Viera. A second from Councilman Maniscalco. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. That once is dispensed. We'll go right into item 51. We dispensed of 48. Where did the City Council attorney go? Marty Shelby, you cannot get away that easy. We put an ankle monitor on him. Item number 51. She came back and you disappeared.

3:14:16PM I wrote something at lunch. Do you mind? Yeah, before we begin. I wrote something at lunch. It is in reference to some of this stuff. Today is just another day. My entire life starting as a very young boy, i've heard words like pansy, queer, and faggot. I don't have the words to fully express the emotions these words carry. I don't feel sorry for myself. I've grown accustomed to hearing them. What makes me sad is knowing that young people in 2026 are still hearing the same hateful, hurtful words. It's one thing to hear them shouted from a passing car or from strangers who see me and my partner holding hands, it's another thing entirely to hear them screamed at my face at a government meeting or in my workplace. What's worse is looking into the audience and seeing people that I work with, people that i'm friendly with, nodding in agreement with the speaker. You can't be for civil rights for all unless you -- unless it truly means all. Thank you. Go ahead.

Martin Shelby

3:15:52PM Thank you. Martin Shelby, City Council attorney.

Scott Steady

3:15:55PM Scott Steady, city attorney.

Martin Shelby

3:15:57PM I'm very honored that the two of us are standing here together. He adds gravitas to this process. But, mr. Chairman, thank you for that introduction. It's a fitting introduction because, quite frankly, we're here, and we want to explain why we're here and how we got here, but the answer -- short answer is, we're here to help. We're here to help you address the issues that are confronting this council. And how did we get here? We were asked by City Council. A motion was made as to what we can do to address these things. A motion or a concern was that the CRA, was the CRA governed by the ordinance that City Council recently passed for indemnification for legal expenses, was that extended to the CRA? What happened was the Legal Department came back to the City Council with an amendment to that ordinance that provided that protection for legal indemnification to the CRA members. So what that did was your questions and your concerns began a discussion. It's a very unusual discussion for me because I have never had the opportunity to work this closely with the City Attorney's office with the City Attorney himself, with the CRA attorney, and I have to give credit to Cliff Shepard. What you have in front of you are recommendations based on an analysis of what our situation is. Quite frankly, what we are here to do, is we are here to offer recommendations to give you the opportunity to give the city, the City Attorney, tools to be able to address your concerns in a way to conduct public business. What i'm going to say to you at the outset, Mr. Steady and I are not here to discuss policy. We're here to discuss law. And we heard a lot of public comment about the first amendment. We heard a lot of comment about public meetings. I'D like to give council a bit of a necessary overview. Not only for your benefit, also for the benefit of the public, because they have to know and understand the situation that you are in and the situation that you are facing. So i'm going to just go through this rather quickly. I want to make sure this makes it with the closed captioning. Can everybody see that? Shall I zoom in more? Now, if you or any member of the public is not familiar with the term "limited public forum," then you do not know first amendment law as it relates to governmental meetings. Have we heard the term limited public forum before? Probably not. Not in common parlance. And I will say this, who does know it? First amendment lawyers know it. Who else knows it? Local government attorneys know it. And I will tell you that the recommendations that you have in front of you are the combined efforts by my count of no less than seven attorneys. These are not my words. This was really a collaborative effort to be able to address this. Mr. Steady and I had teams meeting. With Cliff Shepard. I could tell you the attorneys who have worked on this to put it together for council, members of Mr. Steady's office, excellent attorneys who individually have decades of experience in local government. So what is a limited public forum? A limited public forum is a meeting the government opens for public speech but only on specific topics or for certain speakers. Now, i'll probably get to this later, but do you see the words it says a meeting the government opens for public speech. There is a misconception with the sunshine law. The sunshine law does not require every meeting of a government board to accept public comment. Does the public know that? Well, it knows it now. So, what is a common example of a limited public forum? Public comment at City Council meetings limited to city-related matters. I take a drink because my next statement goes to the heart of the matter. It is the crucial concept that i'm asking you to understand and accept. Clear rules of decorum help establish the meeting. It helps establish the meeting as a limited public forum. This allows the council, it allows the council to enforce viewpoint-neutral and reasonable rules to keep the discussion focused and orderly. In other words, clear rules of decorum give you the tools that the courts give you to allow the council to enforce viewpoint-neutral -- and we could talk that further -- and reasonable rules to keep the discussion focused and orderly. Now, the limited public forum, there is a key difference from what is a traditional or designated public forum. Now a traditional public forum is what people mostly think as the first amendment. That's standing outside in lykes park. And that is like an open mike. And that is the government holds anybody who wants to restrict that to strict scrutiny. A designated public forum, you're familiar with when we had the political convention in Tampa, and we had to establish a free speech zone. That the courts recognize as a designated public forum. What is the benefit to a government board such as yourself of making sure your meetings comply with what a limited public forum is? Because it gives you more authority to restrict topics and more authority to maintain decorum. Whereas a traditional or designated public forum is fully open to any topic. And with that comes strict limits on council control. What is the bottom line? Well-written rules of decorum protect orderly meetings while respecting first amendment rights. Let's talk about the public's right to speak at a meeting. I passed out to you a copy of Florida statute section 2860114. That is a state statute that was adopted in 2013. Now, interestingly up until that point it was not codified as what the obligations of the local government were or what the law provided to the public. Surprisingly, much to Tampa's credit, Tampa provided these provisions to the public almost ten years before the state required it for every other jurisdiction. So, what does the public law require -- excuse me, the Florida statutes? The public has a statutory right to a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions the City Council is considering, issues. Now, interestingly, the statute says this opportunity can occur during the decision-making process, but not necessarily on the day of final vote. It is a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Now, the City Of Tampa historically does best practices. And best practices is to ensure that that provision is complied with, you make sure you take public comment before the final vote. That Way nobody would be able to raise the issue, didn't have the opportunity at a previous time. Now, that's what the law provides to the public. Now, I haven't heard anything yet about off-agenda items yet, but we'll get to that. But what the law provides to City Council, the City Council can set reasonable time limits, procedures, and rules for public comment, but the state statute does not prevent the council from maintaining orderly conduct and proper decorum. And most importantly, public comment is subject to council's adopted rules and policies. The bottom line, the state statutes guarantee an opportunity to speak while allowing the council to run efficient, orderly, and respectful meetings. So the challenge, council, and the recommendations that surround our appearance here today are based on this. If City Council wishes to receive the protections that the courts give you, you have to make sure that you are clearly recognized as a limited public forum. To do anything else opens the door to a court saying that you are not entitled to the protections that you would have if you conducted yourself consistent with what is a limited public forum. So, we present these to you. And the important distinction, we might as well talk about what concerns people the most is public comment. The court recognizes the purpose of your meeting is to conduct city business, city-related business. But once you open the door to anybody can speak to anything, even before -- even before you take care of public business, that may raise questions as to whether your intention, whether it's your intention to conduct your business to be recognized by the courts as a limited public forum. And I will share with you this: we do this with all good intention. We are not here to shut anybody down. But I will tell you that we are here to say that we are at an inflection point. We are at a decision point. We surveyed where we are. I will tell you that this jurisdiction is governed by the US. Court of appeals for the 11th circuit. We are within the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. We're governed by that jurisdiction. The first amendment law is evolving, and we've gotten to the point where this subject required us to revisit what our rules are and to revisit how this city conducts ITs meeting so we can be consistent with what the law requires of us to be able to give you the protections and to give the city taxpayers the protections and to give the City Council individual protections in the event of a challenge. So I understand what the public's position is. I will share with you, I respect that, but I will tell you that i've had the opportunity to work with some really good lawyers who have made really significant contributions in research, in suggestions, in crafting the language. And I think what you have before you, and we could talk about the issues of public comment, but what the public comment does is this. As it's proposed. It takes the public business on agenda items first, and then it goes into the public business. And when the public business is done, then the public, who you want to have the opportunity to talk about off-agenda items, they can do that. Most every other jurisdiction limits the time for public comment. There is a benefit to having it at the end of the meeting, and i'll share why I think that is the case. You may disagree and we can discuss it. Let's take the county commission, for instance. They give 45 minutes to talk. What happens when 45 minutes is up and somebody came downtown and is sitting at county center, tell me if i'm wrong, sorry, we're done, we have to move on to public business. You have to come back at the end of the day, if they allow them to do that. Is that the case?

3:30:06PM That's true. I don't even know. With this method, you ensure you take care of public business and people don't have to come downtown to be told, i'm sorry, your time is up. Other people came before you. The alternative is to do what most governmental bodies do, they set a certain amount of time. 30 minutes, 45 minutes and then stop. Does the Court say it is a reasonable opportunity to be heard? The Courts have said, yes, that is. Does it meet with what you wish? No. You like to give people the opportunity, but let me share with you this concern. The way the meeting is structured -- by the way, I should also point out that the use of cards or the use of other ways to set up a process meets All the Court requirements. As a matter of fact, the way you process this, the formality of the process creates the appearance that you are conducting a limited public forum. I guess my point is that it's important for council to formalize the process. What these amendments do is they clarify what we already know is that this is a public -- a limited public forum, but we want the public to be absolutely aware of this because we want the Courts to be absolutely aware of this so that they can grant you the protection that being in a limited public forum gives you with regard to how you conduct your meetings. I'm sure there's more I want to say, but just a last point. I'm very conscious of the public's concern. But in looking at the law, particularly the 11th circuit, it has become, the law has evolved. I can provide you the case law if you are interested in reading, but the law has evolved. And the Courts have to make the determination. Are you conducting a limited public forum or are you conducting an open forum, an open mike? What's it going to be? Here is my concern, council, and forgive me for phrasing It This Way, but it comes to mind. If the City Council's position differs from what the law requires, in a court of law, the city will have a hard time defending you. That's why we respectfully ask you to consider this, and we're open for any questions. Before you do that, thank you for giving me this opportunity. Mr. Steady, would you like to say?

Scott Steady

3:33:03PM I don't need to repeat what Marty did. He did a good job. We worked together. We brought in Cliff Shepard who brought in a lot of comments. There are a lot of changes but I think the reality is it's the public comment at the beginning. What is the nature of public comment. Is it on the agenda or is it open? It's ultimately your decision. We're here to advise you. That's our job. Whether you like to hear it or not, right, Marty? That's the bottom line.

Martin Shelby

3:33:33PM The point of the matter is, after analysis, I think all parties involved on the legal end agree that we've come to a decision point, that action is required. One Way or the other. If you have concerns, we'll address them.

Alan Clendenin

3:33:50PM Thank you. Councilwoman Hurtak, Viera.

Lynn Hurtak

3:33:53PM The 11th Circuit from my understanding is a very pro first amendment circuit. Are they not?

Martin Shelby

3:34:02PM I don't know how to characterize it. I can tell you how I characterize their decisions. Their analysis in the Mcdonaugh versus garcia case, I believe a late 2024 case, they did an excellent analysis of first amendment. They take it very seriously. There were two substantive cases at that time. As a matter of fact, that case really set forth what the tests were and the requirements were for limited public forum.

Lynn Hurtak

3:34:30PM Anyway. I'll just say my family is a little familiar with that. But my question is, what i'm concerned about is that, yes, we have people come and speak on items on the agenda, but then we also have someone who comes because they have a problem with, I don't know, sewage backup in their yard and they don't know how to fix it. It's technically a city-related matter. Would those people be allowed to still speak at the beginning because it's a city-related matter?

Martin Shelby

3:35:16PM The answer is, the way it is presently presented to you, the answer to that is no. What happens is that in this particular proposal this recommendation, is on-agenda items are covered first under agenda public comment.

Lynn Hurtak

3:35:32PM Yes. I understand that. But what i'm asking is, is there a way to do on-agenda items and city-related items?

Scott Steady

3:35:43PM The problem is, if you say city-related, I get it, if They came up and didn't use that as a first amendment forum. If you are basically saying They still come up and say whatever They want, then we're --

Lynn Hurtak

3:35:55PM No.

Scott Steady

3:35:57PM Okay.

Lynn Hurtak

3:35:58PM What i'm saying is that we often have people -- i'll say a lot of them are older or have barriers in Some Way that they'll come and say I need help with this. Oftentimes, that's when One of Our Aides will come out and grab their information or Chief of Staff is usually sitting there and he'll grab their information. And be able to help them.

Martin Shelby

3:36:24PM That's a very good point, and I understand the importance of doing that. There are other avenues to do it. First of all, obviously, there is a Customer Service Center which may or may not be responsive to them. I don't know. Obviously, you are the most accessible body, the most accessible human being to your constituents. And I respect that. And I hold that very high, in very high regard. And I want to protect that opportunity as well. But the other thing is, that's one person's problem. And it may be an issue that might be of greater concern to everybody, but each of you individually have the opportunity to go into your districts. We heard somebody wanting to have evening meetings. You have your opportunity to go into your districts and hold evening meetings, town halls. And those can be open mikes, if that's what you want, and you can bring back what you learned to City Council and do that in the form of a motion under new business and get to the heart of the matter. But here's the thing, this process, as it is presently set up, and we saw it pretty much today, allows an unlimited number of people for an unlimited time to talk about off-agenda items until you get -- before you get to the first piece of public business. Now, as long as that happens, that's problematic. Because if you allow as many people to show up at any given day to talk about you don't know what, and you allow them to go on because they took the time to show up, what that says potentially to a court, well, maybe this is more of a traditional public forum. It's not a limited public forum. So you're not entitled to those protections.

Lynn Hurtak

3:38:22PM But that's what i'm trying to understand and then i'll let other people have questions. I'm trying to understand the difference between agenda items and city-related items. To me, they are one and the same. You're asking this council when we had people come to us after their homes were flooded and ask us to do something. And that was traumatic. That was -- and I just don't know how we tell those people you have to wait until the end of a meeting because it truly is city business. The fact that our stormwater system needed improvement was an incredibly important city issue at the time. So this is what i'm trying to understand as how we make sure that we take those issues, which are important, and then we did talk about them during our day. If it was new or old business, it's still part of our day that we would not have discussed if we had not heard from the public in that forum. And that is my concern.

Scott Steady

3:39:43PM I recognize it. I don't think Marty has to take all the issues. Here is the reality. As soon as we get a way from -- away from conducting the business and not just the city business, it's the business of the meeting and what's the business items on the meeting. As soon as you start opening up, there is a risk. That's the reality, Councilwoman. It's -- ultimately it's your decision. We recognize that if you want to open it up. But as soon as you go beyond comments on the agenda and you start saying people come up and talk, then they are going to push the envelope and then you're going to get closer to not doing the business of government. It's a catch-22. I mean there's not always a good answer. To me, the answer is you either put it in the box that I know is difficult for you. But you start going to that next level, then where do you draw the line? I would say this and I think we've talked about it and you feel differently, but I worked in jurisdictions all around Tampa Bay and the state, and most jurisdictions have limited their public comment to the agenda in order to keep that limited government form. That's just a reality. It's maybe not your choice, but that's -- so my answer is, you open it up beyond that, then it's a slippery slope.

Martin Shelby

3:41:13PM If I can follow up, the people who do want to bring this to your attention do not lose the opportunity. What happens is, the preference is given to those people who are speaking who came on agenda items, people who have to be here because they need approvals from City Council. People who have engaged experts or attorneys who are paying them to be here. And the other alternative, and I don't know whether City Council wants to consider that, because the alternative is to allow a certain set period of time for public comment, limited at first to only people speaking on agenda items and then open the floor to non-agenda items until the time is up, and then that's their opportunity to have speaking, because the alternative is to ask them to come back I think is unfair at the end of the day. But if you set it towards the end of the day, people will still, I think it would be council's decision and council's preference to still allow public comment by telephone. People can still phone in at the end of the day to bring things to your attention. Likewise, there's also e-mails. You get group e-mails addressed to Tampa City Council at tampagov.net, And you all get copies of it. Your legislative aides worked very hard and do an excellent job responding to constituents, but the question that we were facing is what tools can we give the City Attorney to better protect the city, This Board, and each of you individually?

Alan Clendenin

3:42:53PM Let me go to more Councilpersons. Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

3:42:56PM Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good points brought up by councilwoman Hurtak. I can talk and i'll get to that later, I guess. I'm actually, let's put It This Way. Some of the things that happened today with the immoral, hateful, bigoted, ignorant stuff we heard at Tampa City Council today, it was, how shall I say this? It was relevant, obviously relevant to today's topic. And the Chairman's words just God bless you. That's all i'm going to say, Chairman Clendenin. A bunch of different issues here to talk about, number one, access to the public. We're Tampa City Council. We like to be accessible to the public. I've been in office for about nine and a half years. I've done about a hundred town halls in my time. For me, it's council, town halls, which often can become open mikes, by the way, and sometimes -- never had anything gone off rails, but whatever. Always a good thing. I think that's something that we all agree on. The basic issue, though, is without order and some level of regulation, we're going to be in chaos. Whoever sits in that chair as Chairman or chairwoman, we're going to be putting them in the line of legal fire. And we're going to be asking our Chairperson without the requisite regulation, without the requisite guardrails to take on legal decisions without proper regulatory guidance that could potentially expose them. Who the hell wants to be chair when you have that over your head? I say that from experience. You know why? I canceled the CRA meeting once because of an issue that came up. We don't want that. And if we don't want that, then let's put in some level of regulation on things. Things that are reasonable. Any plan that we adopt, is it going to have drawbacks? Sure. But I think if we look at something that has a ten to one, positive to negative, we can talk about the one, but let's also talk about the ten. I'm going to support some level of change. I know the Chairman has been working on this. And i'll be frank. I want to support him. You know why? Because it's easy for us to sit back here like this while all that bs is happening out there. This fellow has to run the meetings. I just sit back here, and I don't make the decisions on what's happening. And i'm going to go, i'm not going to vote for any sort of rules or anything that bring order and regulation to this, and i'm just going to sit here. Okay. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to vote for something that empowers our Chairperson and whoever comes after that to be able to make decisions with guidance and level of protection that if anything ever goes into litigation, we can have some protection. Protection not just in terms of indemnification and defense from the city, but protection which is the Chairperson can say I followed the regulations. We had regulations that are meant to put the meeting, the business of the meeting first. I followed that. That's what I did. You can hang your hat on that. We're trying to pass something that a Chairperson can hang their hat on. For me, that's what it comes down to, which is putting something that is foreseeable, something that folks can rely on whenever they run these meetings. If we don't pass something, then we're going to take the people who run the meetings and go, have at it, it's the wild west. And any person that comes in and tries to disrupt the meeting like happened here today a couple of times, including that weirdo who came in with the camera or whatever, there's nothing that is going to assist our Chairperson in getting things back on track. So, again, we got to support some sort of serious change here today. I appreciate the work that you all have done and the work that our Chairman has done on this. This is the right thing to do. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

3:46:57PM Just to correct a little bit, the irony as well -- rule kind of guy, this wasn't necessarily provoked by me. This was provoked by the motion you made. My understanding, you made about the hate speech. I was not a part of this. It was all just the attorneys. While i'll take credit or blame, glad to take credit or blame, it really wasn't. This was the circumstance of events of council is my understanding of what has transpired and some of the issues still pending. Councilman Miranda, Councilman Maniscalco and --

Charlie Miranda

3:47:32PM The word limited. Means a lot. Limited public forum. Then you go to the meeting, a meeting the Government opened for public speech only on specific topics or certain speakers. That's really limited. I don't understand the word limited public forums and the meaning of a meeting the Government opens for public speech but only on specific topics or specific speakers. I'm a little understanding that limited now is really limited. When you put the second part to it, the meaning of limited public forum.

3:48:11PM Right there in Black and White.

3:48:17PM Of course, it's the agenda. What does it mean? Who will you let speak? On only limited topics. Public Servant is a Public Servant. They can come here and talk to me -- they have a problem, don't know the number. Come in and see a Council Member, seven of us, whatever, you speak to them. Makes no district what district they live or what part of the city, we try to handle it for everyone. I don't understand what we're really discussing. Public come in City Council meeting, limited to city related matters. Got news, everything that they come here for in their mind is city related matters. That's all i'm going to say.

Martin Shelby

3:49:03PM If I can, the question comes to if a suit is brought against the city or against the City Council or whoever, what Is The Court analysis going to be? The goal is to be able to take care of the public business first. The people who you're talking about get priority over those people who are on the agenda who are here for a public hearing in order to get -- the way it's structured, the way it's structured presently unless you put a time limit on it or move them to a different point of the meeting, when you're already done the public business.

Charlie Miranda

3:49:53PM Let me say this. We start at 9 every meeting. Usually by 4:00 we're out. So the seven hours kill somebody? With all the public hearings, nonpublic hearings, we still get out at 4. Tell me where we are failing.

Martin Shelby

3:50:13PM You're not failing. You're not failing. The Courts are evolving first amendment law to create certain requirements for a board to follow in order to be recognized under the law by the Courts for first amendment protection as a limited public forum. What that does is that gives you more authority to restrict topics if you need to and to particularly maintain decorum. That's one of the issues that we're faced, that giving the Chair the tools to be able to conduct the meeting and giving the Legal Department and the City Of Tampa the tools to be able to protect the city and to protect the taxpayer and to protect the ability for this City Council to conduct public business. I appreciate what you're saying.

Scott Steady

3:51:06PM I think we talked about it. Ultimately it is the City Council's position. If you want to keep status quo, there's risks. I'm not saying there's risks or terrible risk, but i'm not trying to be good cop, bad cop here. I agree with everything being said. At the same time, it's ultimately the City Council's position, how you want to proceed.

Alan Clendenin

3:51:29PM Let's go to the next.

Scott Steady

3:51:30PM This is our recommendation.

Martin Shelby

3:51:31PM If City Council has, if the one issue that City Council feels very strongly about, which is the order of business and not moving public comment to the end, there's still a whole bunch of stuff that a lot of good attorneys put a lot of work product together and research to come up with changing and adding language to rule 5, the rules of decorum to make -- to bring clarity and greater certainty to the fact that this board is conducting public business at a limited public forum. So if that is council's decision, I don't know what the consensus is, but if that is the one sticking point, there are a lot of protections in here and I don't want the City Council to feel it has to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you want to strip out that provision of putting public comment at the end, that is an option, although I don't think after our research that would be necessarily best practice. The other thing to do would be to limit the time as other boards do. But I don't see an inclination or benefit to doing that with this City Council as well as I know you.

Guido Maniscalco

3:52:43PM Thank you very much. This is a suggestion I thought of. We start the meeting. We have ceremonial. We take public comment on items on the agenda, meaning the consent agenda, anything that's not set for a public hearing, or if it is a staff report item. Because in the times I was chair, people would ask me, are we going to get to the consent agenda before lunch, right? So we take public comment for items on the consent agenda and any staff reports minus the public hearings. We take up those items. We get the consent agenda out of the way. The staff reports clearly we wait until the end. Then we allow the county, you said 45 minutes or 30 minutes, we allow maybe like 30 minutes for general public comment after the consent agenda. We do that, and then if it's time to break for lunch or go into the 10, 10:30 public hearings, we go from there and figure it out. My concern is, like Councilman Miranda has mentioned and others, people come here for different things. They don't know who to call. First thing they'll think of, oh, go to city hall. I don't feel that it's right for someone to -- they take off of work or they may be disabled or they have to pay for parking all day because they don't know when the end of the meeting will be. Today, the meeting will end after 4:00. Sometimes we finish, come back from lunch, sometimes we don't even take lunch. That's my concern. I don't want people to have to wait until the end of the meeting or may not be able to get off of work. If someone has to wait and say, City Council on average finishes between 3 and 4:00 at their job, are they going to be able to say i'll leave at 2:30 to park downtown because they might finish -- is it possible to do what I said? Start the meeting, go to ceremonial, we open public comment for items on the consent agenda, things on the agenda and staff reports, we take those items up, so the consent agenda folks that are waiting that are paid here, whatever, they can go. We do a limited 30 minute general public comment and then we continue on the agenda. I think it allows people the opportunity to speak without having to wait all day. Again, I have to be somewhere in two minutes. Two minutes, but I typically don't make any other plans. It's city related. I don't make any other plans on Thursday because I don't know what kind of day it will be. I tell my wife, i'll see you when I see you. Is what i'm saying making sense? My concern is putting general comment to the end. Again, limiting it to 30-minute period where it's reasonable.

Scott Steady

3:55:30PM I don't want to argue against City Council Members, by the way, that 30 minutes could mirror what you heard today. Just accept that. I understand. That's the issue.

Martin Shelby

3:55:42PM The other thing that people have told me to remain mindful of and i've heard from a lot of Land Use Bar. I've heard from Applicants, is they have to sit through these things. If it's chaos or somebody disruptive to the proceeding, not only is this room filled still with people waiting to be heard and having their cases heard, but it's also still heard by members of the public at home. And that's also reflected in the rules, that we recognize the fact that there's just more than the people in this room who are the audience of these meetings. And if somebody is out of order or disruptive, then if it's done at the end of the day, the advantage is all those people who have to be here for public business have had their stuff done and they are gone. And that means the room is less full. Is that a disadvantage to some people who want to come at the end? Yes. They can still phone in. They can still e-mail. I understand if council wants to do that and that's council's prerogative. We're just here to provide recommendations. I've always said --

Alan Clendenin

3:56:53PM Let me move on. You are kind of repeating yourself. Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

3:57:02PM Okay. I agree and share some of the same sentiments with other council members. Also understanding and want to thank you all for the research that you did. Because I know that a lot of people worked on this. So I think that -- I know there are a lot of my constituents, i'm speaking specifically for District 5, that have some concerns with this. Either called, e-mailed or talked about when i'm out in the community. I'm sensitive to that. I think to Councilman Maniscalco's point, you know, not knowing when the meeting is going to end, and that has also come up in some of the conversations with the community that i've had that don't know when to come. When would they necessarily be able to speak. And then at the same time, recognizing that we are here to conduct city business, you know, to the best of our ability. And do it, you know, efficiently and respectfully. You know, just in my time here, you know, I have definitely witnessed some things. I have two high school interns working with me this summer, fortunately they were not here this morning to kind of witness some of the things that we heard today during public comment. But there was at least one that I know, a high school student that was in the audience, that was here and had to witness that. I say all that kind of being, you know, understanding that we are here to do, you know, to conduct, you know, city business. But also being sensitive, you know, but also, you know, being sensitive to the fact of those that come and maybe don't know Any Other Way to get in contact with their, you know, their Councilperson. And this is the Only Way. I mean, I know in my time here, there have been people that have come specifically to council meetings and we learn about things that are happening with them at the meeting. And, you know, either myself or Legislative Aide is able to get in contact with them right then and there. I'm a little -- i'm really torn with this, and I really see both sides to it. That's just kind of my comments that I want to put in and wherever it goes from there.

Alan Clendenin

3:59:59PM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:00:03PM I think that this has to be left to the next council. I don't agree with many of the comments that have been made, especially today, but trying to design rules around one or two people that you don't agree with can prohibit lots of people from not just exercising the first amendment but telling us what's going on. An example, a few years ago when the Mayor asked for the Hanna Avenue project to be approved, it was a week later that someone in public comment When Hanna Avenue was not on the agenda came and said the Mayor had decided not to put it up for competitive bid. And that ended up being a huge scandal. Had we not allowed that person to speak, we wouldn't have known that that had happened. Then we saw a whole track record of those things happening. There are a lot of concerning things that the public knows, Pam Cannella comes and talks about the lack of maintenance in stormwater. The Mayor sends a letter saying, no, we don't have a lack of maintenance. But we know there is because pam tracks it and has all the detailed evidence of it. If we didn't allow her to speak, then what would that do? Also, everywhere I go, the biggest complaint I get, I get people who are angry and I get people who are crying saying the Mayor doesn't respond. We have a lot of great people in this city who respond, administrators and others who respond really quickly. But almost everybody I run into says the Mayor and her office just don't respond. They don't respond at all. People don't know what to do. We most of the time have to tell them what you're asking for by charter is not under City Council. It's up to the Mayor and the Mayor doesn't respond. So their only outlet is to come and tell us. If they say it on camera, suddenly the chief of staff steps up and does something about it. Not The Way the city should work, which is why i'm saying we need to wait until the next City Council. It might not be necessary after the election. Now I think it is because there are so many issues, alleged fraud, all kinds of things going on with this administration that need to be discussed, and the public has a right to talk about it. The other thing is, if you say that they can only talk about something on the agenda, Gentleman sitting behind you will mention something on the agenda and then he'll say something else. How do you edit in mid sentence, how do you edit somebody? I don't think that really works. I think it's better to allow the public to come and speak. The other thing is that we had a Gentleman this morning as an example arrive in a HART disability van. As he said, he has to book that the night before. For people in wheelchairs, people who aren't that mobile, it's a real inconvenience to come down here. People who can't afford to pay $9 or whatever for parking, it is a real inconvenience. We need predictability in doing it. To some extent, it is a great thing we are the most open forum for folks. Unfortunately we have people complaining about the legislature and White House and other things coming here. And I wish many times we could edit it because it takes a lot of time. But for the one chance somebody will come, tell us the Mayor decided not to put Up Hanna Avenue for a bid and we wasted maybe tens of millions of dollars because of that, it's worth it. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

4:03:45PM I wasn't the one that initiated this. Obviously, i'm the chair, so I end up having to be put in the position of having to monitor and be able to enforce these things. A couple of observations in listening to my fellow councilperson speak. How many people are we talking about? 420,000 people that live in Tampa and pay taxes. How many people do you think we're talking about that we're inconveniencing by asking them to come at the end of the meeting? I would say, I mean, maximum, probably 15. 15 people are causing the problem. 420,000 people and we're talking about 15. But you also have to think about the business of the City Of Tampa. We have 10:30 public hearings. We have 1:30 public hearings. I know some people in a system will say all these are paid this, paid that. Not always. These are citizens that are coming and getting -- they are trying to get their house done or citizens that are coming to talk about variances or whatnot. These are also citizens that are being inconvenienced by our lack of really smart business controls of really maintaining a sense of public good and public purpose about the business of the City Of Tampa. I look around at other bodies, and even what we're proposing is still very, very open. I mean, really a very -- an opportunity that no other bodies give. You look at school boards and you look at every other venue, at least that i'm familiar and i'm familiar with a lot of them all over the country. Nobody does this. Even if we make these small amendments of having people defer, right now, somebody is waiting for a 10:30 public hearing. Sometimes we don't hear those until after lunch. What is the difference? You know what the difference is, that's really costing people some real money. Some of the people here on billable hours and they are actually for business of the City Of Tampa, not to come here and call me a faggot. I mean, this is what you're going to condemn this too. What you're saying right now, what you're saying, you know what, we want people to come to City Council and say anything you want to your fellow persons that are sitting here. Where does it end? Where does it end? That's the thing. Where does it end? You've got to be able to draw a line somewhere. Councilman Carlson referenced the next council, we still have a long time in front of us. This Road is still a long time in front of us. There we go. I mean, there we go. Again, this is about the business of the City Of Tampa. We have to do business first. And we're still, what they have come up -- again, I didn't come up with this. They presented it to me. They are still saying we can bring these people in and still give them that total open forum to be able to come before us and have -- by the way, reference the people come about business, we have full-time aides. We have 40 hour a week aides. We are all 24/7 people. I think everybody has my telephone number. They all have our business e-mail addresses. They have the City Council e-mail. I mean, what are the customer service line. There are so many ways to get in touch. Even if they came to us like before a meeting, they could flag us all down and we could talk to them and hook them up with an aide, or like we did today, talk with staff about things. We don't necessarily resolve things. We depend on staff for these things. There are tons of opportunities to wire people in. Tons of opportunities to communicate with us. It does not have to be as an example today, a guy that is a youtube star and he exploits city and counties and school boards around the country -- excuse me, sir. [ sounding gavel ] this is not your opportunity to speak. You may have a seat and listen or you can leave the chamber. We have a guy that goes around the country and exploits these public meetings for monetizing it by being on tiktok, why should he have preference over somebody who is here looking to be able to build a house or renovate his house or restore his house from a hurricane or anything else. Why should he have preference and those people lives inconvenienced for him? I think Councilman Viera was next and then councilwoman Hurtak.

Luis Viera

4:08:55PM Thank you, mr. Chairman. A couple of things. First, whenever it comes to crises, and Councilwoman Hurtak wisely noted, Helene and milton, if something like this passes and we're in discussions, et cetera, on that, you know, the administrative update, for example, if something like that happened, I would do a memo, asking the agenda reflect the administrative update will include this particular issue if a large crisis like that, for example. Just an idea. Is that a one shoe fits all solution? Absolutely not. But just an idea out there. For me, this is a big issue, the central issue, I think how we should see this. Are we going to have a set of rules that a chairwoman or a Chairman can rely on in running a meeting and keeping order? Because if the meeting doesn't run well, we look at the Chairman or chairwoman and go what's up? And where they are not going to be LED astray, where they are not going to be LED to a pathway that takes them to a lawsuit, where, again, if the chairperson has to restore order to a meeting, that they will have an enforceable set of rules that are open and obvious that they can rely on in running the meeting. That's what it is. There are different issues. Councilman Maniscalco talked about doing things immediately after. Public comment. We can talk about that in terms of non-agenda related items. But again, the central issue is this. Whoever is Chair, are we going to empower them with rules and regulations that allow them to run a meeting without exposing themselves legally in the city? Because that's what is going to happen with the way we're going right now. There are a lot of good issues being brought up. We can take care of that and we will because I think we all have good hearts and we want to listen to people and so forth, but we got to have Something in Place because what happened today, it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning.

Alan Clendenin

4:10:57PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

4:11:00PM That's sort of the problem, though. Someone mentioned the fact that what happens when Someone comes and speaks on item 51 for two sentences and then goes off into something else.

Alan Clendenin

4:11:16PM Happened today. I ruled him out of order.

Lynn Hurtak

4:11:18PM That's what I mean. Then they are, oh, i'm sorry. Then go back to 51 for two more sentences and go back and forth. I think when talking about the city's business, to kind of feed on what Councilman Maniscalco talked about, which I think is a good idea, one of the things we don't do is put a hard and fast rule on when commendations end. Commendations should go from 9 to 9:30. End it then. Three commendations is probably too much. I'll just be honest. By the time we got done today, it was already 9:50. That's the way these go. We don't even start our meetings in a timely manner because commendations are supposed to take five to ten minutes, but when we have our officers of the quarter or officers of the month, those at least take 20 minutes by the time people are giving gifts and that sort of thing, which is totally fine, but we need to expect that and we need to time for it and then we need to be done. If we have days where we know we're going to have officer of the month or something like that, then we can't have other commendations, can't have presentations. Those might be later in the meeting because that's one of the main things stopping city business from starting at 10:00. It just is. I would recommend changing second hearing start times to 11. Because we get through those. Very rarely do we not like zoom through a second reading. Why can't we start those at 11. That gives people a more time certain time to come in and then kind of go along with what Councilman Maniscalco said, where we could take public comment only on agenda items, get that consent agenda done, then open it up to city-related matters public comment. In a 30-minute period. I don't have a problem with that. I think something like that could work, because if we talk about city related business, what happened this morning was not city-related business. I think we could very clearly call people out for that by saying you're not talking about city-related business. Again, these are ideas i'm throwing out because I think what ultimately will have to happen is you'll have to listen to the comments, come back to us individually. Sorry, that'S Just The Way we work in the sunshine. And come forward. The one thing I didn't hear you talk about today, you mentioned other changes. I don't know if you have that up to show. If not, I would really prefer that that be something that wasn't just given to us and talked about, but put up so we could talk about.

Martin Shelby

4:14:20PM City Council attorney. Thank you. I want to thank you for all your comments. They have been very helpful. I want you to know we don't stand here lightly.

Lynn Hurtak

4:14:29PM I know that.

Martin Shelby

4:14:32PM And i've always said these are not my rules. These are not the administration's rules. These are your rules. And ultimately you have to take ownership and make them your own. These are great suggestions.

Lynn Hurtak

4:14:43PM But that's part of our problem as a council. We allow things to continue past time. So if we put a time certain for commendations, we put a time certain for comments that are city related but not like open public comment, and then if we felt the need to have open public comment, we could leave it at the end. But then I think that will encourage people to stick around and push the envelope. I absolutely see ways that we can move things around. I think this is a really good conversation.

Martin Shelby

4:15:21PM I appreciate it, Councilwoman. I thank you very much. I should also point out, council, that in your packet that's in onbase, you have the resolution. Then you have a clean version that's attachment a. Attachment b is the underlined and strike-through version. If you go through that, you will see specifically the changes that were made in attachment b. As a matter of fact, I caught a few typos with regard to the lettering or numbering of the items. I have a substitute for it. I guess that can wait. If you're going to be coming back, we can workshop this if you wish. We can come back, or meet with you individually. Of course, we can't predict what you're going to do. This for me I want you to know has been very helpful, that we've had this public discussion. Because I think the public also needs to know about what a limited public forum is. This is not one line in a constitution in the bill of rights that over the course of years from the Supreme Court All The Way down to the 11th circuit, first amendment law has evolved, and it puts us in a position where we as attorneys felt that it was incumbent upon us to be able to present this to you in a way that would be able to give the city attorney and the Legal Department the tools to be able to assist what it is you want to accomplish.

Lynn Hurtak

4:16:49PM Only other thing I wanted to mention is someone in public comment today did talk about the difference between each meeting. And I do think that is confusing. So as we're talking about this, to do something similar for the CRA.

Martin Shelby

4:17:07PM That's why Cliff Shepard is intimately --

Lynn Hurtak

4:17:11PM What i'm saying is whatever we decide for council, we should mirror -- it's going to be the same.

4:17:19PM Only thing that's going to be different is the workshop. And what I think people find confusing is that we use cards for regular meetings, but we do not use them for workshops and we do not use them for CRA. So in finding -- if we're going to keep this card system which I will still say I dislike, then it should be for everything.

Alan Clendenin

4:17:43PM Cue Marty to address workshops.

Martin Shelby

4:17:48PM Workshops are very unusual in the City Of Tampa as we do something I can't even name other jurisdictions that allow public comment at workshop. It is informational and it is between staff and the City Council or the City Commission for the exchange of information and for talking about public policy and directions to move forward. It's very unusual, but I will tell you that, and if you've known me long enough and well enough, you know that I take the sunshine law and public access very seriously. That's why it's very difficult for me to be in this position to even discuss this. But workshops, it's going to be very hard for people to realize that you do not take general public comment at the workshop. During the pandemic, it started appearing on the agenda because of the pandemic, and it caused confusion. The way we conducted public business in the pandemic, to have continuous operation of government we made a lot of accommodations for people. And it's very hard to pull back from that. But now what he have is we have case law saying we have an obligation, if not a duty, to be able to conduct ourselves in a fashion that lets the public and the court know that this is not the same as lykes park. This is a governmental meeting for the purpose of the people's business, the public business as a limited public forum. So, yes --

Alan Clendenin

4:19:18PM Interesting workshops. My experience with other government bodies is that -- sometimes workshops are off-site. They are not on camera. They are not anything, and there's -- literally it's just council's opportunity to discuss things and that's it. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:19:34PM I agree with putting limitations on the commendations. One of the things that takes a lot of time is the giving of the gifts. I wish we could get the Comms Team to do it downstairs or something and still add it in a video in Some Way so people can get credit for it. That takes a huge amount of time. The recommendation by Council Member Hurtak about -- I was going to the suggest we could move all the land use stuff to 1:30. Either Way, we need to move it. We almost never hit 10:30. You are kind of saying this already, I think we need a time in August maybe that you can come back, but in the meantime you ought to talk to each of us individually and listen to the feedback. If we had to vote on it today, I would vote no. If there is a modified version that seems to work, obviously, we need some better rules, but as it is right now, I can't support it. Thank you.

Scott Steady

4:20:34PM Hear you loud and clear. In the meantime, if you could look at the other rules, I think there is a lot that people would agree with. Maybe it wasn't clear that we have a strike-through. So I know the hot-button with the public comment, but I think there are a lot of changes that you will agree with. No guarantee, but i'm pretty sure you will. So we'll definitely follow up.

Lynn Hurtak

4:20:58PM What I would recommend is bringing those forward one at a time so we can vote on them. I'm sorry. That's kind of the way we tend to work better, seeing it visually and saying, yes, this is cool. By and large This Council is very visual. And we're better when you're trying to herd cats to try herding them one line at a time.

Scott Steady

4:21:23PM Or section at a time.

Lynn Hurtak

4:21:24PM That's what I mean. Because if you bring us a document with all of these changes, then each of us has one different change or we may just all approve it. But truly going section by section is just a Better Way for us to accomplish that.

Alan Clendenin

4:21:42PM We have the --

Lynn Hurtak

4:21:44PM I know. The Public, too. Okay.

Alan Clendenin

4:21:49PM Honestly, if -- which I think is a grave mistake. I think there should be a couple of different options. Either we limit public comment in the beginning, a time limit, like 30 or 45 minutes in the beginning or we set, let's say we set an off-agenda item time certain at 1:30 p.m. Every day, take off agenda items so people know if they take a bus, they know that 1:30, show up for off agenda items. Show up in the morning for on agenda items. 1:30 p.m., We'll talk about off agenda items and then have a time certain for that. I think we need -- we have -- and I think the Attorneys, they have kind of beat around it, but in my conversations, we need to tighten stuff up for protection, period. I think the time is now. I think we need to adopt the rules that they've presented. If you do not have the appetite to do what they suggested, bifurcate the public comment from on-agenda items to meet sunshine regulations in the morning for on-agenda items in the business and do the end, let's say we limit to 45 minutes, is there an appetite for that?

Lynn Hurtak

4:23:04PM I think what Councilman Maniscalco said made sense. I don't think there's not an appetite for bifurcating, but I think it is the amount of when. I think that's why we still all need a little bit more --

Alan Clendenin

4:23:17PM Let's talk it out.

Lynn Hurtak

4:23:19PM He's not here. I think we need a full council.

Charlie Miranda

4:23:27PM -- talk about passing it now, take it next week, give us a week to look at it, digest it, understand what is going on and then you can vote on it.

Alan Clendenin

4:23:35PM We've had it for how long? We've it had it for months. At least month and a half.

Charlie Miranda

4:23:44PM This is the first time i've seen it.

Alan Clendenin

4:23:51PM It was submitted quite some time ago. Is there an appetite for limiting public comment to 45 minutes in the morning? Councilman Viera.

Luis Viera

4:24:00PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My big thing is, to the Attorneys my question is, would limiting public comment get to -- the main thing i'm looking at is protection for whoever is running these meetings.

Alan Clendenin

4:24:16PM That's all the other rules they've got.

Luis Viera

4:24:19PM Yes, yes. Mr. Chairman, are you referring to limiting public comment instead of the bifurcated --

Alan Clendenin

4:24:28PM I'm trying to move the needle forward. Seven attorneys have worked on this. Public comment is just a piece of it. I would suggest we move forward with the rules because this is a legal protection for this council. Legal protection for council and the City Of Tampa. Move forward with the amended rules, and then -- i'll make a motion. I make a motion that we move forward with the rules as proposed by the City Attorney and the City Council attorney without making changes to public comment and then we can talk about public comment after this motion.

Luis Viera

4:25:14PM If I may, i'll second that, again, you are running the meetings, Sir, and I want to respect your position on that among other things. I'll second.

Lynn Hurtak

4:25:23PM I have a motion from Chairman Clendenin and a second from Councilman Viera. Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

4:25:37PM I really feel like we should have a full council to decide this.

Alan Clendenin

4:25:41PM This is about the rules, not the public comment part. He chose to get up and leave.

Bill Carlson

4:25:56PM I don't know if i'll be for or against. I don't want to vote yes today because I want it to be in the context of everything else.

Charlie Miranda

4:26:04PM I'm not for or against. I want to read it, digest, understand. You have so many words that mean the same thing. Are we public servants or not? Somebody comes with an emergency, no, you can't speak?

Lynn Hurtak

4:26:20PM What i'm hearing is we won't have enough to pass that. Would that be something that we would consider talking about --

Alan Clendenin

4:26:30PM I withdraw my motion.

Lynn Hurtak

4:26:31PM -- next week at the workshop session?

Alan Clendenin

4:26:34PM I withdraw my motion.

Lynn Hurtak

4:26:35PM What i'm saying, would that be -- we have a long workshop session, but i'm telling you now, the tree stuff, I whittled it down. I'm good. If we want to have this discussion more giving us a week to read that.

Alan Clendenin

4:26:51PM I motion to continue this item to the workshop next week.

Lynn Hurtak

4:26:58PM I have a motion from Chair Clendenin. I have a second from Councilman Viera. Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:27:04PM My criteria for moving anything forward will be if Marty has had a chance to talk to each of us and get our feedback besides the general feedback here. If that isn't able to be accomplished by next Thursday, then I wouldn't be able to vote for anything at that point either. But we'll see what happens.

Lynn Hurtak

4:27:27PM Mr. Shelby, would you be available to reach out to each of us between now and then?

Martin Shelby

4:27:33PM If you answer my phone calls, yes.

Alan Clendenin

4:27:36PM I just want to emphasize, when you all are talking to our City Attorney and our council attorney, they are providing legal advice. If you choose to not take their legal advice, it's at your own peril. So when things happen, including myself as chair, i'm making decisions representing council that I have to have support from the City Attorney and council attorney on. They have come to us and said we have to do this so that they can have their back on certain things. So when you all have the conversation over the next week, please query them on our liabilities.

Lynn Hurtak

4:28:20PM Yes. And I think that is why I recommended moving it to next week and not after break, so that it's still fresh in our minds. Because I think we all agree that something has to occur. I can't speak for everyone, but I feel like we all believe that that is the case, that we want to protect the chair of whatever and we want to have the right things. But we clearly still have some questions. I have a motion from -- i'm so very sorry. Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:28:50PM I want to add one thing. In my day job i'm not a lawyer but I work on a lot of legal issues. 98% of the time to steal a line from one of my colleagues, it's not Black and White; it's gray. And almost always. And if I hear a lawyer say, oh, you can only do It This Way. If I ask this question and this question, they give me a different answer. The way I look at -- it's just like your doctor. There's not a single answer to everything. And this is why I get frustrated about the charter issues, about who the city attorney answers to because the answer, if you report to the mayor is different than -- not for scott, maybe. But we need to push and ask questions. It's not that it has to Be This Way or This Way. You can read the case law, yes, and there are certain, maybe different parameters. But doesn't mean we can't come up with a more creative solution. That's the conversation I want to have.

Alan Clendenin

4:29:49PM Always remember, though, and you all should know it from the past council, not this council, but the past council events that occurred during that council, that if you do not conform with attorney advice, you do not have the full protection of the city.

Bill Carlson

4:30:04PM You always take the advice in the end.

Alan Clendenin

4:30:07PM I'm saying, if your attorney tells you to do something and you choose to go against attorney advice, just like if you are in the hospital and you check out without doctor's consent, you waive some of your rights. We just have to remember if we go against attorney advice, you have liabilities.

Bill Carlson

4:30:27PM I'm not saying go against advice. I'm talking about having a conversation with them. We are the client. It is a two-Way Street.

Lynn Hurtak

4:30:36PM I believe that's what we're all saying is we want to be able to do that. We just have questions.

Martin Shelby

4:30:47PM Unless --

Scott Steady

4:30:51PM I agree. We need more negotiation.

Martin Shelby

4:30:53PM We're not here to discuss policy with you. We're here to discuss law with you. Now you know the parameters of what we're trying to accomplish. I want to thank you because from this council, working together, i've heard you provide us with tremendous suggestions that we're not -- that were not contemplated and we'll look into them, I assure you.

Lynn Hurtak

4:31:19PM Only other thing I want to say that I think is really important to this before I call the vote is we have rules and we need to follow them and right now we don't. So I think a lot of that is true. I think the idea from council member Carlson about maybe moving the gifts to downstairs. Like, there are definitely different things we could do to make sure that we start public comment at 9:30 instead of at 10:05. Again, that's not you right now. Our rules only say the first thing on our rules is 10:00. But if we had something before then, then we're moving the needle forward. And I think this brings a lot of it to focus.

Alan Clendenin

4:32:06PM When I try to enforce rules, 100% of the time you all overrule me. [ laughter ] every time I try to enforce a rule, 100% of the time, Bleeding Hearts jump in and overrule me.

Lynn Hurtak

4:32:21PM Correct, but you know what we do, we make a motion and vote on it. Prior councils, we didn't do that. So we are moving forward. It's better every time, but we are moving forward. Anyway, we have a motion on the floor to move this to next week's workshop. Please make sure you talk to your favorite City Council attorney and City Attorney to make sure you get your questions answered and suggestions put in.

Bill Carlson

4:33:03PM He'S Not In St. Pete.

Lynn Hurtak

4:33:05PM I have a motion from Chair Clendenin, a second from Councilman Viera. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

The Clerk

4:33:13PM Make a note that draft agenda for next week has already gone out since we're closed tomorrow, but we can make sure we put it on the final agenda.

Lynn Hurtak

4:33:24PM Excellent.

Martin Shelby

4:33:30PM Does this conclude our item?

Lynn Hurtak

4:33:32PM Yes, thank you.

Martin Shelby

4:33:33PM Thank you, council.

Lynn Hurtak

4:33:35PM We are up to last but not least, item number 50. Last one before New Business, and I have a stupid amount of New Business. Council member Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:33:53PM I want to thank Mr. Brody for all the long research he did and suggestions. If somebody wants to go through and ask a lot of questions, please do that. Otherwise, can you tell us what your next step is. Do we vote to bring this back for approval or approve it today?

Carl Brody

4:34:11PM Carl Brody, legal. I wanted to have Jennifer Dietz, the manager over archives and records and leads the public records team. I wanted her to come up so you could meet her because they do a lot of work over there. I want you guys to know she is there. This form is kind of what we talked about, councilman. The next step would be, if you could bless, yes, that would be good. And then it would be officially part of our public records policy. And the process we would follow is each member to go through the fee waiver process would complete this. The purpose is to show that there is a public purpose behind the waiver request. That is the most important thing we wanted is to not distinguish you from the public in terms of, everybody else in from the public, they have to pay these fees, where City Council has legitimate government purpose in the request, we believe that the fee waiver is appropriate. By filling this out, it gives us bright line objective standards to follow. We wanted to take all of the discretion out on our side because we don't want to be making that kind of decision. We want it to be bright line. That's why we sent out the Form The Way it is. Fill out the form. We'll review it, if it falls within the standards that are there, then the fee waiver will apply, and we'll move forward with addressing the public records request.

Lynn Hurtak

4:35:44PM Do you have the form to show us?

Carl Brody

4:35:47PM I'm sorry. It was attached in the --

Bill Carlson

4:35:56PM I forgot to say, this is -- there are situations where City Council members might need to make public records requests, and what this does is it makes the request public so the public can see it. It becomes a record itself. Sometimes there are costs related to it. Since we're in the business of running the city, at least I felt that we should be able to get access to the information to run the city. Mr. Brody and his team have done a great job of defining what the reasons are that we might be able to do it with no charge.

Carl Brody

4:36:29PM For the public, this is the form that would be completed. It's pretty straightforward. We just have the Council Member provide their information, whether there is a council business reference, whether it's for a workshop, whether it's for a motion or resolution. Or whether a committee assignment. We'd review it based on those hard bright line standards. Approve if we don't feel it satisfies those, it can come back to you and just let you know and we'll coordinate from there.

Lynn Hurtak

4:37:08PM Council Member Carlson, what are your next steps for us?

Bill Carlson

4:37:13PM Motion to accept the recommended form and process.

Lynn Hurtak

4:37:15PM I have a motion from Councilman Carlson, second from Councilman Miranda. Anybody? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

Carl Brody

4:37:21PM Thank you. Those will be included as part of our official City Of Tampa public records policy.

Lynn Hurtak

4:37:28PM Wonderful. Thank you so much for your work on this. Okay, folks. It is time for new business. Let's see, council member Miranda, do you have any new business? No business. Council Member Young?

Naya Young

4:37:48PM I don't think so.

Lynn Hurtak

4:37:49PM You don't have any of your --

Naya Young

4:37:53PM Today has been a wild day. I need to go check. I'll be back.

Lynn Hurtak

4:38:02PM Okay. Council member Viera.

Luis Viera

4:38:05PM Yes, madam chair. I have a motion. It's funny, I read online these nice two young women, Abigail and Anabelle Smith who live in Forest Hills. It's really interesting. They are twins. They graduated from Gaither this year. They are both valedictorians and both 8.24 Gpa, like on the money. On the money. I wanted to if I may give them a Tampa City Council commendation. I'll do it off-site. And that's my --

Lynn Hurtak

4:38:36PM I have a motion from Councilman Viera. Is it two commendations or one?

Luis Viera

4:38:42PM Yes, ma'am, two.

Lynn Hurtak

4:38:43PM I have a motion from Councilman Viera. A second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor? Aye.

Luis Viera

4:38:50PM I have a schedule issue I have to move. I -- i'll do this next week. That's it. Thank you, ma'am.

Alan Clendenin

4:38:56PM Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

4:38:57PM Just a couple of things for thought or discussion later. There are a lot of people especially on council days that drop people off in the little parking area there. And at some point, i'll talk to staff about it, you all may have ideas you can talk to staff as well. I think we Need Some Way to reduce the congestion, especially entering and exiting. You're working on it already.

Alan Clendenin

4:39:25PM Yes, in fact, i'll talk about --

Bill Carlson

4:39:28PM Anyway, the other thing I want to say is I found the direct mail pieces that the Tampa Bay Rays sent out reprehensible. I called the CEO on Sunday to state that. And there's nothing that is overtly negative in it. His response was how could it be negative? Other polls show maybe 60% of the people are against it. My office was flooded with e-mails and calls of people who were upset. And I don't think that is the Right Way to do advocacy. If you want to get somebody to vote yes on something, you don't send out a direct mail piece that causes them to get lots of hate mail. The other thing, there is obviously an element of politics involved in this. You all may know they are using the consultants that not only are working on a mayoral campaign at this point, but they also worked on prior mayoral campaigns, and they worked on the negative campaigns against me, Hurtak, and Gudes in the last round. If you're paying people who have another agenda besides getting the rays approved, you're not going to be successful because running negative ads against the people you want to -- or getting people to say negative things about the people you want to vote for you, it doesn't work. I was coaching at a group of a hundred activists last week or the week before, and I was one of several speakers. I said, forget the topic. Let's imagine that you are on City Council. I get up as a member of the public and raise my voice, which i'm not going to do now, you are a bunch of idiots, bunch of stupid idiots, if you vote no, i'll make sure you get out of office. How many of you want to vote yes. Not a single one of them raised their hands. If this is not intentional, if the rays are not intentionally paying to play politics with us and enhance somebody's other political agenda, they need to back down. If I were them, I would fire the people involved and hire people that are ethical and want to carry their agenda forward. Thank you.

Alan Clendenin

4:41:37PM Councilwoman Hurtak.

Lynn Hurtak

4:41:39PM Thank you. I told you I would have something about the sidewalks. So the sidewalks for Sulphur Springs. Ms. Scharf put this on the screen. This is what you have in front of you. The orange segments are the primary walking corridors, and the Black lines are the lines that are gaps that we need to fill for the primary walking corridor. Then the yellow are the neighborhood walking corridor. And so I also highlighted the green section, which would Be Bird Street, which is a Very Big Street that a lot of people walk. If you look at the next page, it's the cost for actually doing that work. So what I would like to do is -- when I talk to mobility staff, they updated the table and they were sure -- to be sure they could build the project, they wanted to do a more conservative estimate. So just doing what's underlined on that map would be for -- the Black lines would cost $346,000 and 50 cents. Bird Street at 639,675, the total cost would be $985,725. So I move that City Council allocate an additional $986,000 in FY '27 to the Mobility department for the construction of new sidewalks in Sulphur Springs, specifically to fill the gaps identified along the primary school routes and the Bird Street route as detailed in the staff report for council motion 26-23298.

Charlie Miranda

4:43:44PM Second.

Alan Clendenin

4:43:47PM Question. We have unbudgeted revenue generated by the red light cameras.

Lynn Hurtak

4:43:53PM Yes, but that's not going to be starting. I know council member Carlson motioned that that money would be used. If we can use that money, awesome. I don't care where the administration finds it. My goal, this is FY '27. This is the budget we're not getting until July 30. So we can talk about it then. But we made a motion. Ms. Hinsdale came and talked to us about it this morning.

Alan Clendenin

4:44:19PM Sidewalks, I ran on sidewalks, prioritizing those, how do these fit in the other priorities?

Lynn Hurtak

4:44:26PM This is the prioritization to get to the school. The school is in the middle. Ms. Scharf, can you point to where the Elementary School is in the middle? The Elementary School is in the middle. And then the middle school is up in that corner.

Alan Clendenin

4:44:42PM I understand where that is, too.

Lynn Hurtak

4:44:44PM So this --

Alan Clendenin

4:44:45PM I'm good with it. I want to make sure, greater need somewhere else that not funding.

Lynn Hurtak

4:44:52PM Not in Sulphur Springs. And we specifically talked about the fact that we want to focus on Sulphur Springs and this is a Tangible Way to help those schoolchildren get to school.

Alan Clendenin

4:45:04PM I think this sidewalk gap in 20 -- gosh, when did I do the School Board run? During the School Board run, I talked about the sidewalk gap. 2016. It's been that long. Ten years.

Lynn Hurtak

4:45:20PM So that's my first motion. I have all of these written down, Suling.

Bill Carlson

4:45:30PM I think it's a great idea. It's in had line with -- it's in line with, I think all of us have a priority for sidewalks and making school access safe, so it's in line with that. But also, as you just said, we all agree, a neighborhood that's been left behind. Has no funding source. It gives us a chance to do something tangible in that neighborhood. Thank you for bringing it forward.

Alan Clendenin

4:45:56PM Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

4:45:57PM I just want to thank you as well. One of the things talk about is being, how to be a Collaborative Council. I think it takes all of us. As the district representative, it's nice to be like, yes, the council agrees on this and this is something we want to see in Sulphur Springs. I'm very happy for this to move forward.

Alan Clendenin

4:46:16PM We have a motion and we have a second. All those in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next.

Lynn Hurtak

4:46:20PM I've got a couple. Speaking to Councilman Viera's issue earlier where I had to step out because I had to get water for a headache, I happened a couple of weeks ago, last week to be thinking, gosh, you know what we haven't heard about lately? Fleet and Supply. I decided to ask. I called Chief Tripp and guess what, they decided to put the RFP on hold last week. I know. I know. I don't know what it was that made me decide to ask, but I did. And so my motion is to ask -- first to ask council to waive the rules for July 19. And -- i'm sorry, 16th. And move that staff appear on July 16 to explain why the advertisement for the RFQ for TFR Fleet and Supply was not posted on June 14 as planned.

Alan Clendenin

4:47:30PM I have motion from Councilwoman Hurtak, a second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

4:47:33PM It shouldn't take very long. But I do not think it is a written report worthy. I think we all need to hear why.

Alan Clendenin

4:47:44PM Maybe there is a good answer.

Lynn Hurtak

4:47:45PM Yes, I hope so. Next, the following workshop agenda item is scheduled for September 24, but I will be at the vacant to vibrant conference in pittsburgh on that date. I would like to reschedule to October 22, 2026. That's the council discuss the creation of a bike pedestrian advisory committee and multimodal and pedestrian safety on roads, parks and trails.

Alan Clendenin

4:48:09PM Motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Second from Councilman Viera. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

4:48:13PM Good news is, the law is on the Governor's desk to be signed about e-bikes. So really by then, we should have some ability to talk more about it. I just apologize, but I didn't want to miss the conversation.

Alan Clendenin

4:48:28PM People have no idea the impact e-bikes will have on mobility.

Luis Viera

4:48:33PM That will be my last council meeting.

Lynn Hurtak

4:48:35PM Oh, wow. We'll have to celebrate. To go along -- okay. I've got two longer ones. Next week, we have a conversation about trees. Apparently in the motions, some of the language was confusing. So I am going to reclarify and restate this motion so that we can have it come forward to us next week. So I move to approve the following changes of resolution number 2024-866. The city's natural resources committee. Two additional City Council positions to be added and that each position will be a neighborhood representative, Slash, tree advocate, Slash, environmental nonprofit member. Further, that the Mayoral Appointee state-certified arborist, developer builder, engineer, professional scientist, landscape architect and real estate professional. Initially, all of the terms will be for one year. Then in subsequent years, the mayor Will have two one-year terms, two two-year terms, and two three-year terms. And council members will split between two one-year terms, three two-year terms, and two three-year terms. The reason we're doing this is because we didn't want to give -- so they are going to come forward next week, and they want us to have three- to four-year appointees, and we can't do that. We're not going to be here. We already did this motion. We already approved this motion. I'm clarifying.

Alan Clendenin

4:50:31PM I had conversation with staff, too, about this. Concerned about the terms. I think you should have a term that expires with you and then the next councilperson.

Lynn Hurtak

4:50:41PM That's what I just said.

Alan Clendenin

4:50:43PM But then they ride with the Councilperson. The Next Council and Next Mayor.

Lynn Hurtak

4:50:48PM I'm going to -- you know what, fine. Initially all of the terms will be for one year. That is the end of our term. And then in subsequent years, the mayor Will have terms that are for the mayor and Council Members will have terms -- in subsequent years, the mayor and Council Members will designate replacements. Designate appointees.

Alan Clendenin

4:51:34PM This will also fall into the motion made last week about them coming up with standardized rules for the committees.

Lynn Hurtak

4:51:41PM Not there yet. The Natural Resources Committee will have a minimum of SIX meetings in ITs first year and a minimum of four meetings per year in subsequent years. That is the motion. I have it all written down, Suling.

4:52:02PM They have a lot of stuff They need to set forth initially. That is why we're requesting SIX and then four.

Alan Clendenin

4:52:12PM Even four is a lot in perpetuity.

Lynn Hurtak

4:52:14PM They can change the resolution if need be.

Alan Clendenin

4:52:17PM I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak. Is there a second? Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye.

Lynn Hurtak

4:52:24PM And the mention is that you are working on standard rules that govern boards and committees overall. Next. I apologize. I would like to make a motion that the three motions made by Clendenin and Miranda and the one motion made by me on April 23rd at the workshop under file cm 26-21547 relating to noise be consolidated into one motion as follows -- and this was written by one of our legal staff -- that City Staff be requested to present suggestions for proposed enforceable rule changes to the noise ordinance and to address current state of the law as it relates to noise from vehicle exhaust systems and mufflers, including an analysis of collier county's programs and suggestions for both proactive and reactive strategies addressing noise to include current enforcement status and potential enforcement plans or initiatives by TPD for addressing noise throughout the city and that staff return on the September 24 workshop rather than June 25 workshop.

Alan Clendenin

4:53:41PM I have a motion from Councilwoman Hurtak and a second by Councilman Miranda.

Charlie Miranda

4:53:42PM The other thing is the pickleball, maybe we can include it in here.

Lynn Hurtak

4:53:47PM That's part of noise.

Alan Clendenin

4:53:49PM I have a motion and I have a second. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you for doing that, by the way.

Lynn Hurtak

4:53:58PM I would like to present. I'm doing a commendation. I would like to present a commendation to the family of Dave Coleman, a well-known communities activist who passed recently from a long battle with cancer, off-site during his memorial service on July 6, 2026, at 2 p.m. At Seminole Heights United Methodist Church.

Alan Clendenin

4:54:19PM Motion from Hurtak. Second from Miranda. All in favor, aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Lynn Hurtak

4:54:23PM I told you all I would tell you what's coming up with the workshop agenda with the Nrac. And I talked about that today. We did something that asked for the staff to come back for a rule about type one and type two trees. We're going to talk about mitigation fee increases. We're going to talk about amending the tree-mendous program to include front yards, and we are going to talk about those appointments that I mentioned.

Alan Clendenin

4:54:49PM Can you just tell them to put in an ordinance, just plant the damn trees?

Lynn Hurtak

4:54:56PM We'll discuss next week.

Alan Clendenin

4:54:58PM Plant the damn trees. Councilwoman Young.

Naya Young

4:55:08PM Two events I wanted to highlight, I went to the City Of Tampa Juneteenth celebration, I actually got to meet and sit next to the gentleman who actually designed the Juneteenth flag. His name is Benjamin Hayes. Very funny guy and really, really nice. He was adamant about wanted to take picture. Why do you talk to the vendors and talk to people. The ceremony, it was absolutely beautiful. I mean, it was really, really -- it was really, really nice. I wanted to highlight that. I also had an opportunity to go to -- there was the prime time turf take-over, which was an event to kind of curb the teen take-over. Like seven on seven flag football. So there was a girls' team, and they wanted -- the grand prize was like $250. And then they had a lot of the boys teams and the grand prize was, I think, a thousand dollars, and Then Second Place was like 500. But it was amazing. It was so much fun. Got to be out there on the field watching all of the teams out there. Also painting for peace inside. Was at the nfl, Jackson Heights Center, painting for peace inside. Also, they had a grand prize for that as well. But it was awesome. There's food. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office had their ice cream truck out there, and music. So it was a really, really awesome event. It was parks and rec, safe and sound. Stop the violence. I think Hillsborough County Public Schools had some, was on the board for that as well, and a bunch of other. TPD, I think. A bunch of people coming together. And it was a really, really awesome event. And they are looking forward to having more of them. But it was so nice to see all of the teens out there. There were no issues at all. It was a really, really great time. I had fun. I was very tired. About 11:00. Great time. I want to highlight that, just as we're moving forward, we talk about summer time and the teen takeovers and these are some of the things that community is coming together to do. So I wanted to highlight that. And then also I did hear Councilman Carlson, you were talking about with the rays. I've been getting some calls to our office about a mailer that went out. And I would just encourage everyone -- specifically for me to go back to that meeting that we had and listen to what I said. I wanted to be sure that I was very direct in what I said. And so if anyone has any questions about that, or where I stand and what I believe in, please go back and watch that meeting. And then if afterwards, you have questions or still, you know, to contact us. But I said what I need to say, and I am the only person that speaks for me. I don't need anyone else to speak for me. Just to put that out there. That is all I have.

Alan Clendenin

4:58:32PM Mine are a couple to make sure you guys have all the information I have. I've been working, as you know, one of the things that security and safety of ourselves and mostly staff, has been gravely on mind since I came to City Council and realizing that we have so many vulnerabilities here. In light of that, myself and sam working on some accommodations for staff for evening meetings, getting garage space over at Tampa PD for our staff to be able to park on the bottom floor there and also a couple of spots on Franklin Street so they don't have to walk to fort brooke at night. If council were right here, we're good. It's caused me concern. I want to make sure we do that. We're working on that as we speak. Should have that resolved here shortly. The administration has been very good. Chief Bercaw has been good and Chief Bennett, working with both of them and I want to thank them for working with me on that.

Lynn Hurtak

4:59:36PM Is that also for other evening meetings, like the barrio Latino and Variance Review Board?

Alan Clendenin

4:59:41PM I will leave that up to them. My responsibility is to our staff and Legislative Aides. I don't want to sound like a misogynist. I'm concerned for the women, because I watched one of our female staff persons walk by themselves. I thought that's not good. I felt like we needed to do something. Not specifically gender specific, but, again, it's not going to have unlimited spots. It's not just our Legislative Aides, also for City Staff. The attorneys and whatnot. They can be there --

Bill Carlson

5:00:16PM Can I add, you probably agree, Tampa is a very safe city right now. So there's nothing overtly to make anybody think might be unsafe. But you never -- it's a crazy world out there. You never know what will happen.

Alan Clendenin

5:00:28PM We've been here until 2:00 in the morning, even 11:00 at night. There will be a time in the not-too-distant future, walk down there, Like Water Street. Parking lots get developed.

Bill Carlson

5:00:42PM --

Alan Clendenin

5:00:47PM Right now, kind of dead and deserted and we need to do something. The other thing is city hall renovations. You all saw that we have the surveys done. Saw the boxes that were everywhere. So that's happening. And we are working on doing some design in FY '27 and starting maybe construction late and into '28. It will be expansion of City Council Chambers is the concept at this point. So Shifting This Way and expanding, I can't remember what the percentage was, but a significant expansion of City Council Chambers as far as being able to accommodate more people so we can have a better open access for the public. The concept right now, and again, subject to change without notice, just so you guys know what I know, is the clerk will end up going downstairs, more public facing down stairs and we'll basically have this entire floor. I think i've already said this one meeting, first floor for us is out because the height of the ceilings. We need -- because of the tvs and other things, we need the ceiling height and also the bathrooms. And, of course, cost and all of that. So the Best Way to do this is to -- and we're also a part of the driving force isn't just council comfort or public comfort, it is security. So a lot of the things we're working on is to make it a more secure environment so we can ensure the safety and security of all the employees that work here, not just members of City Council. I'm concerned about safety and security of everybody except for the attorney. [ laughter ] had to get the attorney shot in there. Marty knows i'm kidding.

Luis Viera

5:02:32PM I thought about something I wanted to remark on with some of the public comment with the mentesnot guy, and the freakin' weirdo with the camera, whoever that guy was. When you're in public office, there are a lot of times where we have our private lives, we have our families, we have the lives that we lead our own personal journey, and when you run for office, when you get in office, you always take that risk that personal life and that personal journey becomes part of the public's interest. It's never happened to me, but to see that today, and Chairman, to see folks speak about you, to see that freakin' weirdo speak about the Mayor That Way, it's just a reminder of the exposure that people have on things that mean a lot to them on their personal journey, and just parts of their lives that are so meaningful and that mean so much and to get belittled like that, it's just ugly.

Alan Clendenin

5:03:27PM I think you also have to realize, and i've said this before, I don't know if you all pay attention to what's happening around the country for the last ten years, public officials are vulnerable. Members of City Council all over the country get attacked or shot or killed. Happens more frequently than people want to admit. When you're out there in public, you are a target, everybody needs to be very cognizant of their surroundings. I've also working with the administration to ensure like when we get out, that one of our security is in the parking lot watching us as we leave, monitoring the parking lot, making sure there's not activity out there. A lot of things happening behind the scenes about trying to ensure our safety and security. I appreciate Junior always being there. He's been really, really good to work with, and very responsive and any kind of concerns. I will say, he's really gone to bat -- oh, we talked about the parking lot thing. Junior is a part of this as well. Making this parking lot more secure. There are some ideas of gating it so we have transponders, gates would open as we approach it, have It One Way, so the parking lot would Be One Way. We did try to figure out a way, because we have a problem with drop-use of and deliveries. Can't seem to resolve that issue right now. We're still talking about it.

Lynn Hurtak

5:04:53PM Why can't Use Franklin Street. Franklin Street is already blocked off.

Alan Clendenin

5:04:59PM There was a problem.

Lynn Hurtak

5:05:02PM I wanted to expounds on what Councilman Viera said, you know it's not lost on me it's pride month. I'm sure probably one of the reasons he came. Especially with this war on dei, it's really important to see like how relevant it is to keep talking about it. How relevant it is to put out the flag, to talk about it, to tell people that we respect who they are, for whoever they are. I put out, my husband made -- we got a custom-made City Of Tampa pride flag where it actually superimposes over it. I love it. Coolest thing ever. Put a picture up. The hatred was just unfortunate. And this is the first year it'S Been That Way. Because I put it up in prior years. I just feel like right now we're in the climate is enabling this. And I think to whatever extent we can, we need to speak out about it. We support you.

Alan Clendenin

5:06:12PM I appreciate that. I said that in my comments, it saddens me not for me because i'm an old man. I've gone through this. I've gone through it. I can tell you stories of being harassed, thrown up against police cars because I was walking into a bar. Questioned why I was there. The stories that -- it's crazy the kind of stuff that when I was younger man, you get to a point in your life and you think, society is moving beyond that point, and even with the civil rights with African Americans, you think you're at a point that you've gone beyond these issues, but it's always lurking in the grass. I think the ugly head has risen again, and you always have to fight for equality for everybody. Again, civil rights doesn't exist unless they exist for everyone. What saddens me is these kids. How many people fought for reproductive rights? How many people fought for voter rights? How many people fought for the right to marriage and the right for equality and love the person that you love, you think you're beyond that and you think these kids grow up in a society that they don't have to have that fight anymore because we already fought for some. Son of a bitch, if they don't have to go through the same damn thing or have to listen to that. If you are somebody sitting back there, and you are 15 years old questioning what your life is, who you are and how you identify, and you're in an official government meeting, and we're listening to these people say the type of things that they are saying or you're listening, somebody has got this on youtube at home and you hear this, this is coming from an official government meeting. Some people are questioning whether they want to live or die or commit suicide because they don't feel that they belong. These are the kind of things they are hearing. And it's just wrong. I feel bad because, okay, I fought through it and survived. Some kids didn't. Some kids didn't. And there are kids out there right now having to go through this. That's what I feel bad about. I feel bad for the Black kid that has to worry about whether they'll have a right to vote. I feel bad for the young woman that is now having to fight for reproductive rights and the rights they have. I feel bad for the lgbt kid, questioning whether they belong in the state, in the city. We always have to keep our head up and keep our fists balled up and fight for everybody.

Naya Young

5:09:09PM There are still people out there in the fight. There are things you thought you would never see in your lifetime. I learned about Voter Rights when I was in school.

Alan Clendenin

5:09:25PM It was history.

Naya Young

5:09:27PM Right. Part of history. Now, wait a minute, I thought we already did this. I wanted to add to the conversation about security. Can you include in that people to stop parking in my parking space?

Alan Clendenin

5:09:45PM They have gone from mine to yours now?

Naya Young

5:09:48PM Yes. I'm going to start just blocking people in because I go up to people and I say, you're in my parking space, they go, oh, this is yours. It's not yours. I don't think your name is Naya. I worked hard for that.

Lynn Hurtak

5:10:06PM Just park right there and leave.

Bill Carlson

5:10:11PM I park behind them and give the keys to the security people.

Naya Young

5:10:16PM It's happened like three times now.

Alan Clendenin

5:10:24PM The first year, it was me every week. Recently hasn't been so bad. First year, like every other day. Councilman Carlson.

Bill Carlson

5:10:35PM Just to add, I don't agree at all with the comments that were made today. I believe in first amendment speech, but I also think there should be limits. What was said was really offensive. It's sad just to build on what you said. We all have friends, maybe one of them, who couldn't come out until the '80s, '90s, early 2000s. Suddenly, Supreme Court ruling passed and everybody -- not everybody, but a lot of people came out and then suddenly now they feel in danger. They feel like their lives are at risk. And the same thing with many other groups. I think what's going to happen in our country is that the pendulum will switch back at some point and find some kind of better equilibrium. But right now it's a difficult time for many people. I just want to say, I, and probably my colleagues, we're here to support you and make sure that this community runs well. We're a community that is built on diversity of all kinds, and we want to continue to do that. I should mention while i'm at it, I also condemn the terrible comments that Kanye made about the jewish community. Jewish community, same thing, they think that one day they are safe, and the next time they are not. Suddenly, this made people fearful again. And we have no control over what the sports -- all but one of us doesn't have control over what happens at the sports authority. We can't tell the sports authority to cancel anything. But I just want to say on the record I condemn what he has said about the jewish community.

Alan Clendenin

5:12:11PM I don't know if you're aware, but in tarpon springs, right here locally, just like last week, relatively recently, the mayor, conservative mayor, by the way, had a friend that -- member of the Lgbt Community that got married and flew up to New York for the marriage. I guess he came back, ceremonial, asked to issue a commendation. Well, the community came out and it was ugly. They condemned him. One of the quotes was, this was a quote, in the council meeting, the Bible says you're -- the Bible says you're worthy of death and you will need to repent. Said you are in trouble with God. You are not of God. You are the devil. And there was a lot of death threats. A lot of people telling them they should die. And this was all in tarpon springs just in the last two weeks. Just fyi. It's alive and well.

Guido Maniscalco

5:13:03PM The Bible also says in john 13:34, this is my new commandment and it's love one another as I have loved you. How does God love us? Unconditionally. That's it. I had to leave and I came back. I heard some of your comments. I wasn't raised like that. My Mom grew up -- you are the same age as My Parents, right? In the 1970s -- I hope My Mom is watching this. A lot of her friends were gay and couldn't come out. They couldn't because it was the time. We knew, but we didn't say anything, and they were our friends. So as the '80s and HIV AIDS crisis happened, My Mom, all her friends died. I met one. I met one, a man named louis in 1993. I remember, I was a kid, but I remember where he was sitting. I go -- what it does to your body. He had come to visit My Mom basically to say good-bye. But My Mom lost all her friends, right. So growing up My Parents taught me to just love people. Love one another. They are your friends. It's not to be judgmental and pass judgment. This one is different, and this one is this. It was never, it was just, if they are nice to you, be nice to them. Hang out with good people. People that are good. They are good role models to you. They have good morals. Whatever it is. That's all it is. I think you mentioned it, council member Young, it's like you think it's ancient history. Growing up, it was like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and civil rights. The fight is still being fought. My Mom going, you know, it was like the era of Harvey Milk and then HIV AIDS. And it's still happening today. Still, it's like you think with the technology that we have, we have everything in this phone. You think with social media, that it would connect us together. I was of that generation of social media like my space which we don't talk about. Oh, we'll be so connected. Reconnect with old friends, do this and that. And it's so hate filled. Advancing technology how we are connected and we would be better people and learned from the mistakes of the past. You mentioned somebody else. And anti-semitic remarks and comments, that's ancient history. Still happening. At the end of the day, everybody has a right to be happy. That's it. You love who you love. You have the right to be happy. That's it. We're going to die one day. And this is what we spends our time on. Fighting each other and hating each other and just like when does it stop? I'll end with those comments. But on a happier note, I would like to wish everybody up here a happily Father's Day. Shout-out to Mike Porta. Lisa's dad. He's got a wonderful daughter. I hope you all get to spend time. Jenny lives far away. Have a great Sunday, and we appreciate you. That's it.

Alan Clendenin

5:16:37PM Councilman Carlson close us out.

Bill Carlson

5:16:48PM I have two quick things. One, Martha Vila has been in and out of the hospital. I think many of you know. She is probably watching right now. I want to say hi to her. She tried to come in today. I think more than one of us said, no, don't come in, please. Your health is more important. She's a pillar of the community. And we wish her well.

5:17:10PM Second, back to the other topic we were talking about a minute ago, a few years ago, before I got on council, I think council member Maniscalco had a lot of courage to pass a ban on conversion therapy. Many of our friends and many other people in the community felt like they were abused as kids because they had to go through conversion therapy processes. And then the state preempted it so that was made nil. You all probably saw the headline May 19, Ex-Florida conversion therapy leader arrested in child predator sting. This is something, if you are casting stones at someone else, maybe you should look at yourself.

Alan Clendenin

5:17:51PM Get out of your glass house. Mr. Shelby, you are recognized.

Martin Shelby

5:17:56PM Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Keeping my word, I prepared a resolution to appoint Mr. Rick Fifer as the alternate. I'D like council to move the resolution, please.

Alan Clendenin

5:18:07PM I have a motion to move the resolution appointing Rick Fifer as alternate to the Variance Review Board from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Miranda. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. That is the conclusion of our regularly scheduled program. Motion to receive and file from Councilman Maniscalco. Second from Councilman Viera. All those in favor, aye. Opposed, ayes have it. We are adjourned. [ sounding gavel ] 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