Welcome to the City of St. Petersburg City Council meeting. Your elected officials are Mayor Ken Welch, District 1 and Council Chair, hopefully Gertis, District 2, Brandy Gabbard, District 3, Mike Harding, District 4, and Council Vice-Chair LaSeth Panowitz, District 5, Deborah Fick Sanders, District 6, Gina Driscoll, District 7, Givin's Jr. and District 8, Richie Floyd. Good afternoon. We will call to order the March 6, 2025 City Council meeting to order if we could do a roll call please. Arding, Hannah Whits, Fix Anders, Driscoll, Yeah, Gibbons, here. Floyd, here, here it for your name? Yes, please. May I ask for your name? Yes, please. May I ask for your name? Yes, please. May I ask for your name? Yes, please. May I ask for your name? Yes, please. May I ask for your name? of allegiance. Everyone please stand. Greetings to all. Before I make the prayer, I would like to make an announcement and invite you all to our seventh annual Saint Petersburg Ithaudena March the 18th at 6 p.m. at the St. Petersburg, call us M. The theme for our denna is breaking bread together with peace, justice, love and compassion for all. And if ever that was a time for us as a people to sit down and come together, we're living in that time. So you all would please come and be with us. At this time I'd like to pray and I'd like to begin, this is the month of passing, the month of Ramadan. So we greet you in peace, a salam alaikum, which means God peace be with you. And the next time we come, that would be a test to see all of you learn that. May we pray. If I law the Creator's name, the merciful, been a factor, merciful Redeemer, the Lord, I law it of all world, and all the systems of knowledge, and his servants, and that were many, but they are all of them one family. The praise belongs to him, our Lord, and we beg for your mercy, and we beg for your forgiveness. During this holy month of Ramadan, the months of fasting, may we continue, may you continue to bless and guide the mayor of our city, the members of city council, this administration, and all who work for the betterment of our all citizen and this wonderful city of St. Petersburg. Ramadan called for us to address the poor, those who are in need, those who are suffering. So we asked all to join in with us as we reach out to those who need our help and our support. We always created to know one another, not to despise and reject one another, and we was all created as one human family, peace and justice for all. We ask you our Lord to contain the bless the women and men who protect us, who wear Unipam, who serve us locally, who serve us in this country and abroad. The first responders, may you continue to bless us O Lord and bless all of those who work for our safety and for a better country and a better America as we pray in your name we say, say amen. Please join me in a moment of silence for firefighter Abner L. Dottry last alarm March 4th 1954. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands my nation under now in the middle with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Thank you so much for the invocation. Thank you for joining us today. Okay, council members, we have an agenda in front of us adding G6 in H2. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Seeing is no further discussion. We have a motion and a second. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present, council have voted clerk. Could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, motion to have passed the agenda passes unanimously. We council member Gabrett being absent. Okay We have a consent agenda clerk. Do we have any speakers on consent? We do have one speaker, Mr. Chair. Okay, let's go to the one public speaker and then we'll go to council member Floyd Pete Bowling please go to either podium state your name and address with a record and you have three minutes to address city council Good afternoon everybody Pete Bowling, please go to either podium, state your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council. Good afternoon everybody, Pete Bowling from 293rd Street North, Mary Margons on Irish Tavern, St. Pete's Quintessence on Irish Club. Just for the record, I want to say this is not a Boston hat. This is a St. Patrick's Day hat. Just wanted to make that clear for the floor of the clerk. Thank you for the opportunity to address the day's today regarding this important matter. The celebration and support of Irish heritage in our beautiful community with the Florida Department of Transportation Street Closure Permit for St. Patrick's Day on March the 17th. As we all know, St. Patrick's Day is more than just a festive occasion or drinking holiday. It represents a rich tapestry of our culture, history, and community shared not only in Ireland, but around the world. St. Pete has a proud and vibrant Irish American community that we are proud to celebrate. This festive occasion fosters unity and joy bringing together residents from all walks of life and backgrounds where everybody can be Irish for the day. Continuing to support a free St. Patrick's Day event like this one enriches our community, community spirit during one of the busiest times of the year and after a harrowing storm season. It provides benefit for local businesses, helps to promote tourism and importantly encourages our youth to engage with their heritage and celebrate diversity. By promoting these events we showcase our commitment to inclusivity and respect our cultural traditions. Celebrating Irish culture through traditional music, dance, art, food, and a wee bit of Guinness, allows us to create a more welcoming environment and space to do so where everyone can come together. Whether it's the sounds of traditional Irish music echoing through our downtown streets, or the green cloud revelers and festivities, these experiences create lasting memories in a stronger sense of community. I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to think the incredibly hardworking and gracious city staff whom have supported not only our efforts with Patty Fessing, Pete Williams-Parks and Stay One, but also with their support to create this traditional Irish St. Pat's special event on the Holy Day itself. They have helped every step of the way on how to get to a yes. I would not be here today without the support of Evan Mori, April Grasso, Ted Civil, and all their colleagues, especially city attorney Heather Judd. Throughout the administration, so today I graciously urge you to support the consent agenda item before you by doing so we not only honor our Irish culture and support our downtown business community, but also embrace the broader the broader values of inclusivity and in celebration and cultural appreciation that this city is known for. I'm thankful for the opportunity to work together to ensure St. Petersburg remains a city that recognizes and celebrates the rich traditions and contributions of all its residences. Residents, thank you for your attention and consideration. It's a matter. Thank you. Council Member Floyd. Thank you. There's a lot of things on this consent agenda. It was quite long, a lot of good stuff, but I wanted to highlight two things in particular that are relevant to district eight. The first is CA one, I believe. The library, we are going to actually be purchasing the furnishings for the inside of the library. I'm really grateful to see that. I'm really, you know, it's long overdue and I'm excited to see that we're making good progress in the library and I'm holding us to making sure it gets open this year for the public. And then the other thing is I think it's CB-16, an agreement for painting ball-bouts in the Grand Central District. I'm really excited to see one thing I've been advocating for the whole time I've been here is increased street safety, particularly in Grand Central and I'm really excited to see that project move forward. So I just wanted to shout out those two things that are on the consent agenda. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Okay, seeing as no other discussion, do we have a motion? Me? So moved. Next. Second. Seeing as we have a motion a second no council members wishing to speak clerk could you please open the machine for voting? Council members please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted clerk could you please tell you an announcement vote? Mr. Chair motion to pass the consent agenda passes unanimously. Okay let's move into open clerk. Could you please read the rules? If you wish to address city council on subjects other than public hearing or quasi judicial items listed on the board, please sign up with the clerk. Only the individual wishing to speak may sign the open forum sheet, only city residents, owners of property, business owners in the city or their employees may speak. All issues discussed under open forum must be limited to issues related to the city of St. Petersburg government. If you are speaking to an item on the agenda, you may only speak once during the open form or when the item comes up on the agenda. In order to provide an opportunity for all citizens to address council, each individual will be given three minutes to speak and after which the microphone will be muted. If you wish to adjust to the council through the Zoom meeting you must use the raise hand feature button in the Zoom app or enter star nine on your phone at the time the agenda items address. When is your turn to speak you will be unmuted and access state your name and address at the conclusion of your comments or when you reach the three minute time limit you will be muted. All raise hands will be lowered after each agenda item. Regardless of the method of participation used, normal rules apply, including the three minute time limit on comments. The requirement that any presentation materials must be submitted in advance of the meeting and the rules of the quorum. If live public comment is disrupted by violations of the rules of the quorum, the chair is authorized to accept public comment, but alternate means, including by email only and we do have some speakers, Mr. Chair. All right, let's call to the time, please clerk. We have time. First speaker, Dr. Paragee, Washington, I'll bring the microphone over there to you. And the other is, is Troy Hitchcock. Please either one, please state your name and address for the record and you will have three minutes to address City Council. All right I'm here to support the trails crossing initiative. Good afternoon my name is Troy Hedgecock. I'm a citizen of Saint Pete and a homeowner on- We need your address please. Yeah, man. 2960 Fairfield Avenue Sal. Thank you. Sorry about that. That's okay. I started off correctly there. Resident of Palmetal Park. I'm also a member of the Palmetal Park Neighborhood Association. I work with Tara Hubbard, who many of you know, for Take Mar or Local Nonprofit Organization as the Sunline Project Coordinator focus on activating the Penel's Trail. Through Take Mar I've become a member of the St. Pete Chamber of Commerce. I'm also working with the Florida State Office of Greenways and Trails to help recognize St. Pete as a trail town. All of this is a very long way of explaining that I spend most of my time advocating for the Penells Trail. I'm very passionate about this tremendous ass that we have in St. Pete. I am here personally and on behalf of Take Marr to enthusiastically support the Trail's Crossing initiative. We firmly believe this transformative project will not only convert underutilized parking areas into a dynamic public park at the bare minimum, but by doing so, we'll generate environmental, social, and economic benefits, and really jumpstart trail activation and connectivity in the historic Gas Line District. We are excited about new opportunities to embrace public art, encourage diversity, and the potential for unique community programming. I've recently done research and spent time visiting both the Atlanta Belt Line and the Miami Underline, and I've seen firsthand how this type of development and activation can transform a community. This bold project is exactly what we would love to see more of in St. Pete. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Washington, go ahead. I'm here to tell you I'm going to sue this city a st. Peter Burr. Dr. Dr. Washington, your name and address please. I refuse to give my name because I don't want the power board to find my house inadvertently. They're going to have to wait for my house. Dr. Washington, we need your name and at least give us your cross treats, please. May the name be N343. And your name, please. Perry G. Washington. Thank you. You know the N Anthropower boys. When I grew up, they were the close claim. They still exist. They turned their right cheeks in the white church. I met my home. My fence was destroyed. St. Petersburg police watched's in the video destroyed my property and would not do anything and I told them I called them. They said they did not know it was my property. I told them there's what I put all the mortgage in this state in the ground. I'm a retired 32 year and I had real estate broker. They say, if you say God three times, St. Coddards say it's a conicator, or you have your mental defect. God, they wrote the dog up. Or the dog fell back with me. You will be up. I told you, I only wanted to sleep. Leave me alone. Do not bid me in line. I went through the chain of command. All the way up to Major Miller. I wanted to treat to the cheaper release. I couldn't get the chief. I asked the assistant chief. I didn't get the assistant chief. They violated major members and instructions. They were to stay out of it and it was in action. That'm going to see it. I was lying on my birthday. It's what I was. Because they already stood in. I'll put. Thank you, Dr. Washington. Next two speakers please. Last speaker, Kathy Harylson. Please approach either podium. State your name and address. You'll have three minutes to address City Council. Good afternoon. Kathy Hurlson. I'll give you the cross streets. Twenty-sixth Street and thirty-second Avenue. Thank you. Thank you. OK. The heat is on. We're experiencing a heat island effect that is affecting not only our heat, but our rainfall, and the severity of storms that's been up in the Gulf of Mexico. We've kind of become literally for every storm that comes into the Gulf or is formed in the Gulf, we're sort of like, hey, we're the hot ticket. Come on over. So time to stop that. Urban forestry and citizen foresters are working hard to plant new trees. And that's necessary. A lot of them along the trail, by the way, where's my trail man, with Tickmar. Because of tree absorbs, climate changing CO2 to produce final oxygen as it stores carbon. It fills the earth with its vertical roots that absorb storm water. It reflects an absorb solar radiation, maintains local air quality, contributes to the formation of clouds through vaporization and lowers the ever increasing heat index in our city. But we have a sadly diminishing existing urban forest. I'm talking existing big shade trees. We all know how important they are. The really strong ones did not fall over in the storm and that that's important. We have to keep our current urban forest healthy. These are valuable trees we all need to protect. So it's time to stop the chop. I think some of you have heard that expression before. And find a way to keep trees in our landscapes. I'm here to ask that we get busy creating a livable city task force that will pull in city city workers, citizens, scientists, business owners and other experts. I will email all of you the proposal for a livable city task force and please don't hesitate to reach out. Thanks so much. Thank you. Any more speakers? Okay, we'll go ahead and close open form and move into awards and presentations. We'll have our flood awareness week proclamation giving us, given to us by Council Member Harding. Thank you, Chair. I'd like to thank our own floodplain manager, Hannah, for receiving this on behalf of the mayor or behalf of the city. Whereas St. Petersburg has experienced severe weather in the past in the form of extreme rainfall or tropical system events resulting in flooding in coastal areas, and this flooding has caused damage and flood losses to homes and buildings in all areas, whether they are high-risk, special hazard areas or low-to-moderate risk flood zones. And whereas the City of St. Petersburg is dedicated to proactively safeguarding our coastal communities and preserving the way of life of residents for future generations through comprehensive planning and decisive action. And whereas public education and awareness of potential weather hazards and methods of protection are critical to the health, safety and welfare of residents and whereas St. Petersburg is a voluntary participant in the community rating system through the National Flood Insurance Program that provides residents with the opportunity to protect themselves against flood loss through the purchase of flood insurance at reduced insurance premium rates as well as setting higher regulatory standards to reduce the flood risk and potential flood damage to their property and whereas the Florida Flood Plan Managers Association has declared the week of March 3rd, 2025 as flood awareness week to promote awareness and increase knowledge of flood risk, the availability of flood insurance, flood protection methods, and how to prepare for emergencies. Therefore, I, Council Member Harding, on behalf of Mayor Kenneth T. Welch, of the City of St. Petersburg, to hereby proclaim March 3rd through March 9th, 2025, has flood awareness week. In in St. Petersburg and encourage our citizens to increase their knowledge of how to protect themselves and their property from flooding. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to have to accept it. I'm going to put Hannah on the spot for a second. We had a neighborhood meeting earlier this week for Yacht Club of States, one of the neighborhoods that was flooded in District 1 and Hannah was there and Hannah handled it, Hannah handled it. So flawlessly, I picked some poor words for that sentence that she got in applause afterwards after what can be a heightened emotional conversation and just Hannah and the whole team but Hannah specifically I know there's been a lot of pressure on you over the last few months and multiple conversations at committees, committee of the whole city councils, neighborhood meetings, all like, and I'm just so appreciative for you and the way you handle things and the way you speak to our residents, it resonates with them that they can see you cared just as much as they do. And that goes a long way. And I'm very, very, very appreciative of you and all the work that the team does, but just wanted to give you a special shout out. Hannah, thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move into new ordinances, E1 and ordinance relating to utility rates and charges and just as a reminder, City Council, this is first reading. Tom Green, welcome. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I read the title. Oh, I'm sorry, Chan. Proposed ordinance number 607H, an ordinance relating to utility rates in charges. Amending Chapter 27, Subsection 27-6 of the St. Petersburg City Code. Amending the water charges for leak adjustment relief, adding adjustment relief for abnormal events, adding adjustment relief for abnormal events following a declared state of local emergency, providing for explanation of words, struck through and underlying establishing a date to begin calculating new charges and applying the new adjustment relief for building purposes and providing an effective date. The public hearing for this item is on March 27th and we have no cars Will the approval second Seeing as no other councilman. Oh councilmember Floyd. Thanks. I was just gonna say I Hope to get like one-on-one on this before I assume that you were thinking something along the lines Just so I can fully wrap my head around it. Absolutely. Thanks. Okay, seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, and we have a motion in second. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, motion to approve a genitomy, one passes unanimously. Okay, we're going to move into reports, State of Emergency Update, City Administrator Gers. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, City Council. It's wonderful to see this afternoon. As you know, the administration is required to provide a brief report on the state of emergency approximately every 30 days. We did have a brief discussion on this at the Committee of the Whole last week. We did notify you that we were going to extend the state of emergency mostly so we can extend the waiver of permit fees on damaged properties properties that were damaged in the storm and we have extended that waiver of permit fees until June 30th. I know that you received the new state of emergency in the additional memo that that outlined that. In addition, we did also decide to keep the language that provides us some flexibility on code enforcement, especially related to domestic equipment in a front yard if somebody had damaged to their home that they could have an RV or travel trail or there. We did eliminate basically all the other provisions. I know the one that City Council is usually most interested in is we did eliminate the provision for emergency procurement because we do want to respect City Council's appropriation powers and that you are the appropriate body to appropriate money. We didn't feel like we needed that emergency authority anymore. So with that, we do anticipate now maintaining this very basic state of emergency until the permit fee waiver expires on June 30th That's our current plan and we'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any Move approval I just have report. Oh, sorry. Yeah, just a report. I think I just had one question. I got a question at Yacht Club neighborhood meeting the other day about lifts being damaged and their boats being in their front yards. Are we also waving that code along with travel trailers and domestic equipment? I mean, I think it falls under domestic equipment, but I can certainly talk to administrator Falaster and director Wall. And if you want to give me the address, we'll look into it. I think we want to be reasonable. Depends maybe how long it's been there and if they have taken any actions to track the data. That's what I assumed, but I figured I'd ask why it was in front of us. Thank you. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you for bringing that up and I do appreciate that there would be a little bit of evaluation that takes place because we do have quite a few people in our city who store their boats and on their front lawns and in the front driveway as a practice and not as a fix right now. And so I'd love to see those addressed as well. So you know this is a great way to just check and see who really needs the help. If any council member has a constituent in this situation just reach out to us and we'll take a specific look at it very much appreciated. Thanks for the update Okay, we'll move into F2 presentation on trails crossing agreement And I think we've got Evan Morian Cheryl stacks Cheryl welcome Morning, we're good afternoon Cheryl stacks transportation manager for city I'm really happy to be here and have an opportunity to bring this exciting project forward to you for your consideration. Efforts to get to where we are today have been underway for a while so it's a great opportunity to be able to provide you with an update and an overview. So what is trails crossing? Trills crossing is a community initiated request for a concept that transforms and improves under utilized land under I-275 to connect the panelist trail with adjacent districts and generally in general and central St. Petersburg. In general the project goals for trails crossing are listed on the screen. There's a desire to improve the bicycle and pedestrian connections that reduce the effects of I-275 on those modes. A desire to create a real destination that expands on and complements the adjacent districts with its own distinct identity. Desire to activate the underutilized space to provide more significant community benefits. and a desire to implement a best management practices strategy for a public-private partnership as changes are implemented as a part of the project. The maps here show the general location for trails crossing under I-275 from north of 1st Avenue North to approximately I-175 with a focus on the four blocks from first avenue north to third avenue south. A key partner in advancing the Trust Crossing project is the Friends of Trust Crossing group. They've been founded as a not-for-profit organization with a mission to deliver and maintain a first-class cultural park under I-275, consistent overall project goals. Their leadership has prior experience and under highway activation, particularly in partnership with the city and FDOT with the recent implementation of the under I-375 park. So both the city and the Friends of Trust Crossing Group have recognized the need for a master plan that would guide the implementation of changes in this area. The master plan focuses on those critical blocks from 1st Avenue North to 3rd Avenue South and will provide a blueprint for the infrastructure needs. It will also provide recommendations for specific action items in a phased approach that is informed by best practices and lessons learned elsewhere. Crucially it also provides us with a maintenance operations and governance strategy that will guide the roles and responsibilities of each of the project stakeholders and the public private partnership. The city has completed a solicitation for architecture and engineering services to develop the master plan and found that land design ink is the most qualified firm. While we've negotiated and finalized a scope of services to be performed to create the master plan, and it includes those in the bulletin list here. With data collection, visioning sessions, with the community and direct stakeholder engagement, developing frameworks and some design concepts, through a design workshop that also has community engagement, and again, that development of that maintenance and operations and governance strategy, and then finally, a draft master plan report and a final master plan report. A key element of the master plan will be these various frameworks that will be developed to cover all areas that need consideration in order for the trails crossing project to be successful. So we'll need a blueprint for any recommendations associated with land use and zoning, how people will move through the area and how we'll consider the parking needs, including parking needs that may change over time. Consideration for utilities, infrastructure and storm water management will be critical and include resilience recommendations. And finally, we'll have concepts for how the space will provide those added activities desired by the community with implemented with high quality urban design. There are some very specific key considerations that the master plan will have in mind and that will be developed as a part of the master plan development. We certainly need a phased Imple with short, medium and long-term recommendations on action items that consider existing use agreements that govern the area. So the master plan process will have us working with adjacent stakeholders, particularly those that have an inter agreement with the city and FDOT for parking, such as vertical ventures, and parking needs associated with the edge district and Grand Central, not to mention the historic gas plant redevelopment. So those will be part of what's considered by the consultant through the course of the community engagement and the stakeholder engagement as a part of the master plan development. There are significant number of redevelopment plans that are in this area that will require some phasing implementation, phasing consideration too. And then finally, there are some legal requirements associated with the property since it is located within a CRA. To complete the development of the master plan, the city will partner with the Friends of Trails crossing group with each entity providing an equal financial contribution of up to $150,000 and that will cover the AE cost and the city administration of the AE agreement. The city's funding is previously appropriated and the Friends funding would be phased according to the terms within the proposed funding agreement that was attached to the council item. So the requested action is that council approve the resolution that allows the city to execute the agreements needed to complete the trails crossing master plan. And with that, Evan and I are here to answer some questions. We also have John Barquette from the Friends of Trans Crossing Group, who's available to answer questions as well. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Let's go to public comment John Barquette, please approach either podium state your name and address you have three minister address City Council I can't see anymore good to see y'all now Now, my name is Jean is John Barquette and I'm located at 615, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street, North. Here in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. Good afternoon, council members, city leaders and fellow St. Petersburg residents and business owners. I'm a long time business and property owner here in St. Petersburg for the last quarter of a century. I can't believe I'm saying that, but I also serve on the Board of Governors for the St. Pete Chamber as well as the MLK Business District and the Sunline Committee. I stand before you here today as a co-founder of Friends of Trails Crossing, an appreciation of this Council's ongoing support of the Trails Crossing Cultural Park Master Plan, a transformational project that represents an opportunity for our city to bridge its history, culture, and future. For too long, our community has been divided, physically, socially, and economically, by infrastructure that was never designed with connectivity in mind. The space under IT75 has been been an underutilized barrier, but with this plan we have the power to redefine it as a place of connection. Linking multiple neighborhoods and districts, including the Grand Central District, Historic Gas Plant, Warehouse Arts District, Paul Meadow Park, and Historic Kenwood, as well as Campbell Park to name a few to the Pinellas Trail in our vibrant downtown. This is more than a park. It's a cultural landmark in the making. By incorporating green space, public art, and a pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, we are creating a place where people from all walks of life can gather, engage, and celebrate St. Pete's diverse identity. A place that enhances mobility, fosters economic opportunity and supports our thriving arts community while being sheltered from the sun and rain. The project also aligns with our city's vision for smart growth and sustainability. It will improve walkability, create safer bike routes, and encourage multimodal transportation while activating space that has been neglected for decades. With thoughtful design and strategic investment, we can transform this corridor into a vibrant, accessible, and inclusive destination for residents and visitors alike. We have the vision, the momentum, and the community support to make this happen. I urge you to move forward with the trails crossing cultural park master plan, knowing that your decision today will create a legacy of connection and culture for generations to come. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm here for any questions. Okay, great. Councillor Rueh. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation, particularly the slide with the funding explanation. That's kind of what I wanted to make sure I had my head wrapped around because it was as it was presented to us last time. It seemed like the city was going to do like a contribution $150,000 and the rest would be privately financed. That's what appears in this plan. And I guess that I'm glad to see that it's still like that. My thinking is is once we get to pass like a design phase, has there been any conversation about what funding looks like? I know there's supposed to be a lot of private financing in this and I just wanted to make sure I understood. Thank you for that. Yes, so the idea in the attempt would be equal contributions in the development of the master plan and then within the scope of services that the consultant will provide. Part of their research and best practices would be to look for funding. What other communities have done to fund similar projects in their area so they'll make recommendation to us as to how we can pursue different types of funding and that could include from the private sector as well as the public sector. But that'll be a distinct part of the activity of the scope of services from the consultant is to get us toward how do we implement this and how do we do it in a way that where other groups have done it successfully. Okay, thank you for that. Another thing I'll mention is we heard it multiple times about parking and current agreements. I think like any specifically mentioned vertical ventures just glad to hear that there's a discussion going on as to how that is going to look in the future because I did speak with them recently and from my perspective it just seemed that they were being reasonable so I don't think that that should become an impediment at all. So it's a lot to hear that. And the last thing I'll add is we're moving forward with this right now. And one of the key pieces of the puzzle that it's connecting is the historic gas plant development and you know that's kind of up in the air I just want to ensure like there's no consternation over that we're not are we worried could that impact the future if we were to not go forward or we just You know Trying to connect a part of our city and we're not giving that much thought or we're not worrying about that too much right now Thank you. I think the master plan activity can certainly move forward now and let us get those conversations underway, especially because it connects not just to the east but also connects to the west and to the north and to the south. So I think it makes sense for us to start working on this now and then as those other conversations play out we can incorporate that within the consideration of the master plan. Okay cool. All right well thank you very much for that just wanted to make sure I had my head fully wrapped around it and I was ready to go forward and I look forward to the outcome of this so I appreciate the presentation. Thank you chair. Thank you. Councilmember Harding. Thank you chair. I am fully supportive of Project John thank you for your vision. I think this is really an incredible use of something that has literally been there since we built the interstate. The only concern I have and Councilman Floyd brought it up as well is vertical venture. I know that they lease that part. I know it's important to their business. I drove by the other day and all of their folks were there. Can we be more specific about how we preserve that business? Well, I think what's incorporated in the scope of services for the consultant to do is to make sure that we're having those stakeholder conversations and allowing enough time for them to understand their needs and what's possible and how we could again look at a phased approach to implementation so that we're making sure that we're accounting for the stakeholders of the project but also keeping in mind the community benefits. And I, but yes, John. Sorry, Councilman Parting. I've actually met with Council, former mayor, Christman for vertical ventures and we're having ongoing discussions but we're sensitive to what they're concerned about with parking and when you hear about face development one of those conversations is right now the spaces that we're talking about the JDM ULOTS that some of that parking right now and for the next three and a half years is part of the 7,000 surface parking spaces for the rays and hines as the historic gas plant continues to evolve whatever that outcome looks like there will be parking so we recognize that we need to be patient and understanding and if it means that we start with connectivity and we get lit winding walkways, let's say on the east side of the park to start, and there's still parking components in flex until we get there. That's just a reality of the project. But I also know in dealing with, I've dealt with many of you on the other park project under I-375, it takes a long time to make these things happen. So, you know, this is planning and community outreach and engagement. So, we're excited to get started. So, I hope that answers your question. It does, John. Thank you very much. And again, I really, truly appreciate your vision on this. To be clear from my seat, the project has my full support with the exception of this. I can't sign off on what would put a business out of business if we just took all that parking away without a plan of support for them. So I look forward to how we resolve that going forward and thank you for being conscious of that and talking with them. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Councillor Arvindra School. Thank you. Thank you for this presentation. I'm so excited that we're at this point. Finally, John, thank you for all the work that you've done on this. It was such a pleasure to work with you on the I-375 project, which was almost like a little mini prototype of what could come. If that works, then how big can we go with this? And this is all about reimagining some of these underutilized urban spaces that we forever until now just kind of ignored and let it stay as these sort of neglected forgotten areas and Activating that is Really important right now as we don't have a whole lot of land to work with to to create New vibrant exciting spaces like this that are so open and welcoming to everyone. This is, you know, I look at the project goals and it's so in line with many of the other projects that we're working on right now, you know, creating better transportation connections and building on the successes of some of our neighborhoods like the Edge District and Grand Central. So, um, and seeing, uh, the, uh, studying similar projects that are done in other, other cities, this is truly the same p-way of accomplishing that. And I can't wait to see what it looks like in the end. I don't think it will take quite as long. Like, if you scale, even when she was scale it, I don't think that any of us ever thought that I-375 park would take so long. But once we got the asphalt part worked out, we were good to go. I also wanted to point out that I think the real beauty of this is in that partnership that we have, the public-private partnership, not just in sitting around the table, but putting skin in the game is really critical. And I think that is going to speak loudly to the success of this project. I too am concerned about vertical ventures. I'm quite protective of them. It's a great business and I want to make sure that they are taking care of and set up for continued success. So keep working with them. It's not about whether or not it will work with them, but how? So I hope you'll move forward with that mindset. The question that I have is on the reconnecting communities planning grant for 8th Street and MLK Street as part of the implementation for this. And we know that's kind of up in the year right now. But just like with a couple of other things I mentioned, it's not about whether or not we can do it. Whether or not this goes away, we can still move forward. But I wonder if you're looking at this and considering another avenue, another way that we could move forward if that happens to not come through for us. Thank you. So with the reconnecting communities grant, we have gotten some movement from federal highways and that we have a kickoff scheduled with the award recipients and that's going to be in early April. So I feel at least a little hopeful that we'll be able to move forward and get under agreement with federal highways for that funding to get that planning effort underway. And I think where it relates to this particular study with trails crossing is that that study is going to help us figure out what is the bicycle accommodation look like when we convert those from one way streets to two way streets? Is the bike way on eight street? Is it on ML King street is on both and then how would people connect east and west over to trails crossing? So I think that that really is kind of the linkage there is what is the bike network look like and how are we moving people around if they're not in a car? And so I think that's a key consideration there and And I think that that's kind of a consideration that we have regardless if we were getting the funding for reconnecting communities. We're always going to be trying to be mindful through our complete streets approach as to how are we equally considering all modes of transportation? Right, right. And what we're starting to learn slowly, but surely with what the expectations are in terms of new federal guidelines and it's changing a lot. But what we know so far is that there is a great emphasis on safety. So what you want, what you want to make sure you show, when we get grant agreements, we can fully expect to have new terms and conditions on these. How does this make people safer and how does this help families? Those are the two things that I'm learning just from other work that I'm doing is going to be a priority for this administration. So just keep that in mind as you move forward with this project because we want to make sure that it is in line with that. mean those are our values too right so I look forward to seeing how that how that starts to evolve that's all I have thank you so much thank you by share handouts thank you chair thank you so much for the presentation Evan and Cheryl for the work you've put into this friends of trail crossing for having the vision on this. I grew up in Miami. I re- and then Cheryl for the work you've put into this. Friends of trail crossing for having the vision on this. I grew up in Miami. I remember the metro rail. Believe it or not, took many decades and those that are in transportation are well away or probably started in the 50s or something. Everyone was like, oh my gosh, we cannot have a metro rail. Eventually, in the 80s, I think it happened. It was government run amuck, all that money going into the metro. And now, of course, it's extremely necessary. And then you had, it was built. And nobody ever thought, well, what about under the metro rail? And now, here we are decades after it was built, the idea of having a trail park under it with lots of different amenities. Now of course, it's very long. I mean, it's miles and miles, 10 miles or something like that. So there's lots of space there. It's a little different. But then it's place making. And it's a way to kind of utilize public spaces as we've talked about. But at the same time, what makes St. Pete special, that's going to make Saints Pete special, but guess what there are other things that makes Saint Pete special and it's finding that balance of collaboration and we've heard about vertical ventures. Let me tell you, their parts there that are not activated vertical ventures activated that area there with their business. It is a unique business in the area. I don't climb. Obviously. But I know people that do I had had no idea how popular it was. And I will tell you, I took my daughter there, my step-father and her boyfriend there living Utah. And actually, when they come, they go there. And I had no idea how busy this place was. And it is just people who come from different parts, not from St. Pete. Pete from from other counties because you don't find many climbing gyms. So make a long story short the point is that we encourage obviously people use different types of modalities to to get to places but there is a need for parking for that business and its model. So I'm glad to hear that and I think other council members have spoken loudly on this this but I'm glad to hear that you all have listened to the concerns. You've listened to concerns. Look, they work on a membership model and so they have to have some clarity like any business to tell their people, you know, there's going to be parking. So you have to have some plan in place. You know, it's not like we're going to change things immediately. It sounds like you understand that and if they are watching it sounds like there is a consensus on council. They're very sensitive to making sure that what we have that makes our city unique stays here as we become more unique. And that's what we all want to see. So I'm supportive and keep working at it and make sure that we can make this happen and make everyone happy So thank you very much Thank you councilmember fix Anders. Thank you so much. Who are you? I also Everybody's already said everything it is about how wonderful this project is and what the promises That it makes but again, of course, you know, vertical ventures were also raised. But I will say, Councilmember Harding says something that I thought of, but it didn't resonate until he said it. And especially as much of a small business advocate as I am, it's hard to support something that may potentially put another business out of business. So when we think about the parking, full disclosure, when someone says something is going on downtown, the first thing comes to my mind is, I don't wanna go because there's no way to park. So I don't want to force vertical ventures to try to find other alternatives. And I saw one of the locations that was proposed to them, which I don't think is conducive to them running at the Sets of Business. So I'm trying to decide do I support the project and move it forward with no commitment that vertical ventures is going to be supported and The current lease agreement that we have right now. This may be a question for you The current lease agreement that they have from right now. They're actually leasing that parking lot from the city, right? When does that lease end? So that lease was a-term lease that came to the end of its original term approximately a Year a year and a half ago and it's been extended for a year at this point. I think there's six months to go but Whenever they want to work on another extension. I think that the Administration's amenable another extension we would look at something you know closer to a year than than five years but we can have that conversation and as has been mentioned here today this is not going to happen overnight and I would also say that if we move forward with the with this plan council the public will get to review that plan and certainly have more decision points in the future before a major change would occur with construction. So I don't think that anybody's 100% comfortable with this because there's a lot of unknowns, but I think that we can get there before, think it's too late. You know, this is not a problem where we can't turn back if necessary. So I agree with that and I appreciate that. But as a business owner that's run an successful business and not having anything in writing in regards to how that they can forecast for their employees, for their, you know, I guess I'm kind of uncomfortable with that because I don't think that this is a new issue. Because I'm sure that has been brought up before this was presented to us. So someone had to converse about the opportunity and the thought of vertical ventures and what they are facing in regards to moving forward. So you're right, we do have other points and I'm still thinking but I would have thought in the conversation that would have been addressed prior to getting to this point. That's just kind of where I am with it. Well I can't I don't want to speak for vertical ventures for where they stand exactly today but I've met with their lobbyists I've met with one of the the owners. And I don't think that at that time, when I'm at the owner, they were not uncomfortable moving forward with the master plan, knowing that that'll provide a lot of answers and that it's not a step, it's not eliminating the parking, it's trying to come up with a plan to address everything. Okay, we're not really coming up with the final plan, but at least giving some type of, you know, a surety that It seems like the me is based on us moving forward and rather now we approve it or not And so it's kind of like throwing the baby out with the bath water It's like, you know, okay, well, we go ahead and we approve it and then a year or two years from now We come back and vertical ventures who'sures who's already been said to be such an asset to the area and an asset to the city of St. Petersburg to know we could have prevented it and we didn't. So, and it's a small request. It wasn't to me, it wouldn't have been a detriment to the plan to say, well, it's concrete now, we'll plan around it, You know, to ensure that it's still there, and that's just something that we didn't seem to do. So I'm gonna think about that for a minute, but thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Hamilton. Based on what council member, Pixandre mentioned, and we know that this is, by the way, not happening overnight. Okay. This has a while. I mean, is there an issue with just making sure that the next exception is two years while this is kind of give some clarity for the next couple of years for them. And that way it's not a one year. It's two year because nothing's going to happen immediately on this. We know this. We know how long these things take. We're in the planning stage. We're going to get a report. Nothing's happening and at that point in time you can have a conversation Yeah, I think I mean I think we hear what you're saying We know how long these things take. We're in the planning stage. We're going to get a report. Nothing's happening. And at that point in time, you can have the conversations. Yeah, I think we hear what you're saying today. We're going to want to talk to the business owner. I can't make a commitment like this. But that's I think. Yeah, that's I think maybe if we can find some sort of more than a year. So to give them some flexibility, this is not happening overnight. I think that's kind of where probably some of the heartache is coming from. So thank you very much. I won't rehash those arguments that I think you've heard all the feedback on vertical ventures. I'm certainly supportive of this moving it forward. Thanks for hearing us out on those issues and I know you're working on it. I've spoken with the owner. I've spoken with the recrystment. I know we talked about it at public policy. I'm very confident you guys have heard us and are going to continue to work on the issue. So I'm not going to belabor the point. At this point, I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move approval. Second. We have a motion. The second, seeing no other council members wishing members wishing to speak clerk Could you please open the machine for voting council members please any of your votes? Seeing is all present council members have voted clerk please now in announce the vote mr. Chair Most of the price agenda item gf2 passes 7 to 1 with council member fix Sanders voting now Okay, thank you. Thanks team. All right, we're gonna go into new business, G1. Council member fixed standards. Well, since we support our community, I would like to unfam, my G1, thank you. Respectfully requesting referral to the Youth and Family Services Committee, our other relevant committee for discussion regarding financial support of the Arts Conservatory for Teams at program. We have been in conversation with the Celeste Davis and some other resources that we would like to discuss in the Sunshine with the other council members, committee members as well, and I'm asking with that I move approval. Second. Things we have a motion and second no other council members wishing to speak. Clerk could you please open the machine for voting. Council members please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, motion to approve a gin item G1 passes unanimously. Okay, thank you. We're going to move on to G2, council member Driscoll. Thank you. This one is a staff request. This is respectfully requesting a referral to the Economic and Workforce Development Committee to provide an update on the Center for the Arts Study and I move approval. Second. Okay. Looking forward to this discussion. Thank you, Council Member Driscoll. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Clerk, please stallion and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, motion to a passage in item G2, Pat. Okay. Council member Givens, G3. Respectfully requesting referral to the housing land use and transportation committee to discuss amendments to the city code to allow for increased density through workforce housing bonuses along the panelist trail and the Sunrunner corridor and with that chair I would like to move for approval. Second. Council Member Floyd. Thanks. Thanks for this new business item. I'm interested in workforce density bonuses across a lot of residential areas and so I'm glad to see this so thanks Okay seeing no other discussion. Oh, I'm sorry. No no problem councilmember dress cool. Thank you This is for the administration. You know we're I was told by Liz and and her team that they would be well somewhere team will be coming to us later this year I think for like the next phase of our TOD, some runner rising study and I'm hoping that that can dovetail with this conversation because it's quite quite related. That certainly makes sense to us. Yeah great okay thank you thank you. Thank you. Okay we have a motion in a second. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, Clerk, please tell me and announce the vote. Mr Chair, most to approve a Jedi of G3, pass the machine out of Miss Lee. Okay, moving on to G4, council member Givens. Thank you. Respectfully requesting a referral to the Housing Land Use and Transportation Committee to discuss amending the city code to limit the number of temporary shade structures deployed on our property and establish setback requirements. With that, Mr. Chair, I move to approval. Seeing as we have a motion and a second, no other council members wishing to speak. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present, council members have voted. Clerk, please tell the inannouts the vote. Mr. Chair, I must approve a Jedi on G4 passes you down, Ms. Lee. OK, moving on to G5, 3 in a row. Council member giveings, you know what they call that in my world? They call that a streak. Council member giveings, G5. Respect for requesting a referral to the Health Energy Resilience Sustainability Committee to discuss lifting the city's regulation on single use plastic straws. And before I make my motion, I'd just like to be clear, Mr. Chair, the purpose of this discussion in the sunshine is more so revolved around enforcement of the code. I'd like to get an update on where we stand there since the implementation of this ordinance It's been about five years. So just want to find out where we stand here And also recently many of you may know the president recently issued an executive order Banning this so I want to find out if we're in compliance and how it'll affect us moving forward And with that Mr. Chair I moved to approval Okay, let's go to public comment please. We've got two speakers at a time. Will she didn't and Kathy and believe Kathy here also please go to either podium. State your name and address for the record. You have three minutes to address to the council. Good afternoon council. Will Shedden 43 2026 Avenue North. I'm speaking to you guys again on the same issue I did seven years ago. I was proud to be a member of the Rise of a Plastics Coalition which worked diligently on the issue of plastics over the course of a couple of years, ending in the adoption of ordained 356H. We worked really hard. We contacted over 600 businesses in every single section of the city, listening to their feedback and cooperating changes into the final product. And while we didn't end up adopting the strongest or most comprehensive ordinance, I think we adopted the right one for St. Pete. In the seven years that have passed, microplastics have only become more of a public health crisis. In Tampa Bay, we know that trillions of pieces of microplastics exist in the environment working their way up the food chain into critical sections of our economy, like seafood, and ending up in us. This council looks precious almost in the face of studies showing the amount of microplastics that end up in the human body every year. An alarming study just won, released this year from the University of New Mexico, did all topsies, and found that plastic accumulation in brains has gone up 50% in the last eight years alone. And while it would be spurious to claim causation, there was correlation between the amount of plastic found in the brain and deceased with dementia. In the face of such a crisis, it really doesn't seem wise to move backwards on a small but meaningful step towards plastic reduction. And while public health gets brought up in the conversation of environmental policy, something more often ignored is fiscal responsibility. While the adoption of the ordinance has led to somewhat haphazard compliance and enforcement, there's a clear trend line of restaurants making the choice to either not offer straws at all or only offer straws upon request. I'm sure something many of you all here have noticed as well. That's a decision that saves small businesses money, and it's one that they may have been unlikely to take before the awareness of this ordinance showed them that the consumer desire for straws was not as strong as anticipated. I think it's possible that while many restaurants chose similarly cheap straw alternatives, more ended up saving money than not due to simply change in procedure. And again, while this ordinance affects only a small amount waste created, it points us in the direction of zero waste, which is a reality that could lead to massive cost savings for the city in the form of extending the lifetime of our dumps and reducing trash pickup in the city. We're still coming off the backs of two of the most devastating storms the cities have ever seen, and if you asked residents to list issues that were top of mind, despite the long term importance of plastic reduction, I doubt this would be mentioned by many. I don't think in terms of committee time and staff time this is an issue that needs to be relitigated right now. If anything I wish we could expand it to other forms of single use plastic but we do, we come up pretty close as ordinance, as the ordinance is written to the limit statutorily allowed. If this council ever does bring this issue back up in another seven years, I hope it'll be in the context of expanding our protections on reducing single-use plastics, moving forward, it's not backwards. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Please, please. Nope, we can't applaud. Let's keep the decor, please. Nice to speakers. I'm sorry, Kathy, I'm sorry. That's okay. Kathy Harrelson, 26th Street and 32nd Ave. I will pretty much set it all but I saw this and was amazed that we were actually considering relitigating this. When we managed to slide under the watchful gaze of these state preemption overlords the first time, I suggest we stay there. And hearing that, did you say the president said this can't be done anymore? If that's true, all the more reason. So, God, it just kind of waste our time and everybody's time and it is not going to save the world, but it is everything he said is true. And by the way last year in the Mariana's tranche they discovered a new species of shrimp and guess what its body was made of? Yeah, actually made of plastic. So I think it's time and we've already done the work. Let's keep it in place. It creates a... If nothing else, it creates a conversation. Everywhere you go, when you're in a restaurant, when you're pulling through the drive to whatever you're doing, that is I always make the point. It's the same thing with plastic bags, save the ocean, and you know, everyone says, you're right, everybody. So let's let sleeping dogs lie and keep this, keep this as is. But if you really want to work on an important thing, what can we do about people not using their turn signals in this town? Okay? You want to save lives? Protect property? It's the layout. Thanks. Thank you. Next to speakers please. Next to speakers. Olivia Mustaine and Enico Olay, I think that's what it is. Please go to Ivo Podium. State your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council. Good afternoon, everyone. My first name is Anico, and I am a local business owner of Sand's Market. We're located at 1037 Central Ave. Sand's Market is a zero waste store. Our mission is to reduce single use plastics in the community with the products that we sell. And I'm more so here today to represent our community. When we heard about this topic coming up on the agenda, we decided to do a poll on social media and ask some of our followers what they think about this ordinance. So I just wanted to share the results to four quick questions that we asked them. The first was how many people support the current ordinance. We had 118 respondents and 98% said yes, they support the current ordinance. We also asked them if they prefer to support businesses who enhance and abide by this ordinance. And 99% of them said yes, they prefer to support these businesses. I also asked them if they would be willing to pay more to support a business that has eco-friendly practices and 97% said yes, they would be willing to pay more. And finally 100% of the respondents said they prefer to live in a city that has eco-friendly practices. So I think these are all important things that our community cares about. I know sometimes ordinances like this can be a little tricky, but I believe if we couple it with education and resources for the local businesses, it can really do a great job in creating a stronger community. Some examples of that is that it doesn't have to be cost prohibitive. I understand that Trump and paper straws, but there are bioplastic straws as well as reusable glass and stainless steel straws. Now these might come at an extra cost, but those costs are minimal, somewhere from $30 to $60 a month. And you can actually reduce and offset this expense by teaching your staff to not hand out straws all the time. So there are potentials to decrease that expense. Finally, as our followers said, they would be willing to pay more for a business that has these eco practices. So the businesses could potentially pass some of these costs on to the end user. Again, we're talking a mere pennies per visit. It's not a big cost. And they might even get some extra business by having these eco-friendly practices. So, in closing, I just want to highlight the fact that St. Pete does have a goal to be a zero-way city by 2050, as is on the website. And in my opinion, this ordinance is not a headache or nuisance for businesses, but rather it's an amazing opportunity for us to create a stronger community and to reach those goals. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Olivia Mustaine at 7210 Tent Street North. I was a member of Suncoast Rise Above Plastics and helped get this ordinance passed. And now I'm a member of Sierra Club. And I'm also a member of Vertical Ventures and I'd like to thank you for your great support of Vertical Ventures. That's awesome. I'm asking that City Council take no action to review or rescind this ordinance. There's many threats to our environment and while straws and polystyrene may pale and importance to protecting our parks, clean water, air, clean energy, et cetera, et cetera, now is not the time to give an in-chant any environmental protection. Weakening or eliminating these regulations would be a step backward for St. Petersburg's environmental leadership. Many local businesses and residents have already adapted to this ordinance. concerns concerns that we initially had were for nothing. Many converted and accepted the ordinance with no issue. And a floppy disintegrating paper straws are now a thing of the past. We have better straw technology and no one's complaining anymore. So now is the time to stand by this ordinance and uphold the progress we've made. Thank you. Thank you. Next two speakers please. Raya, excuse me, Raya burn and Jenna burn. Please go to I the Polityam State, your name and address for the record and you have three minutes to address city council. Jenna, you can stand with her if you want. Do you not have to move the picture up? There's a button that you can lower it, Jenna. Wow. You guys could have mentioned that to me previously when I'm smoking. Thank you. All right. Beautiful. All right, Ram. You want me to go for it, please? You don't want to talk yet? You want me to go first? You don't want to talk yet? You want me to go first? Okay. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for your time today. My name is Jenna Bern at 435-3rd Avenue North. I am the founder and current president of Water Warrior Alliance. We partner with with mine and groups and organizations to come together to fight the war on pollution. We obviously face as a whole. I'm also a board member of the Waterfront Park Foundation here in the City of St. Petersburg. We protect, preserve and promote our waterfront in downtown. I am very excited to be a part obviously of that organization and overlapping with all the different partners I have in the community because we all have a common goal in mind. So I'm here today to get everyone on board to continue to move forward versus backwards. This ordinance 356H had already passed years ago with everyone's hard work here today and Like other people have already said. I do feel like this is a waste of our time to bring up a topic like this. We have other things that are more important to discuss. It was already brought up that Trump had banched certain things. It was actually paper straws, but like Enrico just mentioned, there's a dozen different sustainable affordable options for the business owners to invest into. There's amazing local businesses here in St. Pete that we can actually support as well. Paper straws have seen an immense improvement and they don't disintegrate as fast as they used to. There are paper straws that last over 24 hours now, which is pretty amazing. But I'm a big advocate of our sugar cane straws and coconut husks options. They're fantastic. If you still want that single use option. So I have a lot of different programs, but water goats are one of the main things I do, and it's a trash barrier device, which collects surface debris from storm water drain runoff. 80% of our trash ends up dumping through our storm water drains. So all debris is wind driven, and that's how it ends up in our local waterways. So something like straws, super light, it's going to end up in those stormwater drains and dump to the closest body of water. That's where these water-goat devices are extremely effective because it's then going to trash that debris and we host cleanups once or twice a month depending on the time of year in recent rain to clean that debris out. The EPA had established an escaped trash analysis protocol in ETAP, which we have adopted and implemented over the last several years, which helps us identify the point of source of where the debris has potentially come from. So ultimately, during the cleanups, we take a certain number of bags, we dump them out onto a tarp and we sort them to look through the types of trash there are. And I have seen a 700% reduction in plastic straws since this ordinance was adopted. So again, continuing to move forward, not backwards, makes the most sense for everyone. Polyurethane is a part of this ordinance. And I know there's a lot of restrictions on the state level for us to be able to enforce it more locally. But that, plastic bottles and containers and plastic bags are the top amounts of debris I see currently in our different data analysis protocols that we do. So I feel like enforcing, you know, currently what we can make sure it would be the best. All right. Okay, just say what you want to. Everyone's here to hear. You don't want to say what you said to me on the way here? Okay. I think we know where she's standing. All right. That's all right. I get it. I don't like being up here either. Next to speakers please. Robbie, excuse me, Robbie Alves and Amy Boren, please go to I the podium. State your name and address for the record. You have to administer a Dress City Council. Yeah. Should've gone to the other one. All right. Can you hear me? All right. Awesome. Good afternoon, Councilmembers. I did have very formal remarks prepared that I'm probably just going to abandon now after hearing representative Giddens. If you could give us your name in your name. Oh, sorry. 2641 for 7 North and Amy Bourne. Thank you very much. Anyway, it had some formal remarks, but after hearing council member Givens talk about the executive order and then also the enforcement of this ban. I think I just kind of want to bring some thoughts that I've been thinking about in a seat here. But first of all, the federal executive order is for federal agencies, and I think the federal government will work that out as they see fit the impact of plastic straws and other plastic- here. But first of all, you know, the federal or executive order is for federal agencies. And I think the federal government will work that out as they see fit the impact of plastic straws and other plastics in our environment here really don't have any connection. I don't think we have beautiful beaches to protect parks and city streets that we want clean, et cetera. So I would hope that the future conversation doesn't have anything to do with that executive order. Secondly, I totally agree the enforcement of this ban has been lackluster to say the least. And so I'd really like to open up the conversation to really talk about how can we build on what we've already done and make sure that moving forward, we can actually enforce this, assuming that this does stay in place. I did forget to mention I'm also a member of the Surfrider Organization. I'm a member of the local board on the Suncoast chapter here in St. Pete. And we have a program called the Ocean Friendly Restaurants and that's essentially demonstrating that a restaurant is doing great things like recycling and not serving plastics, etc. We are working with restaurants trying to get them fully certified, but it is worth mentioning that there are many restaurants that are already serving us draws only on demand and then when a straw is asked for having a more sustainable material to offer them. So this is happening. I think the question of whether or not this should be abandoned is really off the table, but I would really just move to ask council members to work with Sir Ferdinand Foundation and all the people that are in support of this ban to really move us forward. We are here to help and really excited to continue this conversation. Thanks. Thank you. Next two speakers please. Thomas Patrick and Christian Leon, please go to I the podium. Stay tuned in and address for the record. Yeah, three minutes to address to the council. Hello. Thomas Patrick, 432, 23rd Avenue North. I've been a resident of St. Pete for 12 years and a small business owner for 10 years. And a lot that I could say, when I try to keep it to 3 minutes, I'm going to just read something that I wrote for you guys. We need to be clear about what's happening in the world of waste in our environment. Due to state preemptions, same-peat cannot-band plastic bags, we cannot-band styrofoam, we cannot-band plastic bottles, we cannot regulate some of the biggest sources of plastic solution that litter our waterways every day. That has been off the table for decades because of our state leaders. However, we can still regulate plastic straws. So why would we voluntarily give up one of the last environmental policies we still control? Removing this band doesn't solve anything. It just strips away one of the last remaining tools St. Pete has to combat plastic pollution. Stronger enforcement, we're all for it. A city we proudly call Florida's first green city should not be moving backward. I want to address a recent Facebook post by Council member Givens. The overflowing trash can images from the Christine P. Grand Prix shows exactly why we need regulations like the plastic straw band. They highlight a much larger issue. Our city is overwhelmed with plastic waste. Education is important, but it's not a substitute for policy. If education alone were enough, we wouldn't see overflowing trash cans full of plastic at events like this. This reality is that convenience will always outweigh responsibility unless policies set clear expectations. Regarding being a burdensome to businesses, let's set the record straight. Based on our research, workshops, and thousands of conversations, this approach actually saves businesses money. Not giving out a straw unless a customer requests one saves money. That means fewer waste is straws, fewer unnecessary orders, and lower costs for businesses. All these concerns have been addressed, and we've collectively helped solve this. Now let's talk about this ban. How this ban was implemented. This wasn't rushed, it wasn't forced, it's not political grandstanding. St. Pete took a smart, practical phase in approach, working directly with hundreds of businesses from 2018 to 2020 to provide education and support. This response was overwhelmingly positive from business owners, residents, and tourists. At the end of the day, this isn't just about plastic straws. This is about what's possible in a time when local control is being stripped away executive order by executive order. We the people still have a say in the policies that affect our community. If we lift this ban, what's next? Are we going to roll back every effort to reduce waste in our waterways and parks? Or do we stand firm and continue to push forward? Let's not go backward. Let's keep plastic. Let's keep the plastic straw ban, keep saving businesses money, and keep saying Pete moving forward as a sustainability leader. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, Council. Christian Lynn, 2010 East Palm Ave. So at the time of lockdown, I was co-chair of the Rise of the Plastics Coalition. We had 17 nonprofits. We worked together for years. And 2020 really hit our little group really hard because it took a while to get everything back together. So I think this has been nice to see everyone kind of rally around this because this has been brought to your attention. In addition to what my colleagues have kind of said, I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of a background that was interesting for us is when we started this, we knew that there was a legal situation at the state, which was a worry for council. Thankfully, we moved beyond that. We made sure that this ordinance was in compliance with everything at a state level. And we understand the city's position that we don't wanna like pick fights and get the city in a position, but we crafted this carefully to address that. The other thing is that there was a lot of concern about how the business community would react. And we were even surprised when we went out, like we committed to council at the time into the city that would speak with every business that would be affected. And so we had a bunch of volunteers, we did that, and we pulled all of the businesses affected, and we found that it was over 80% were in favor. And the ones that were against it were in the single digits. So the business community really surprised us. And I think that that was really a relief to everyone that was involved in this. Another thing is on enforcement, we made it very clear that we don't want to get people in trouble and have like, straw police going out there if you were ridiculous. But we just wanted to make sure that like the owners knew that people were watching that we wanted this to happen. So the way in the ordinance, the way that we set up like a fine or penalties or whatever was to be as small as possible to just kind of make a statement and not to really create any tension with the business community. So I do think that it would be great to think about how to enforce that and change culture. Because at the end of the day, we know that it's when we change the culture that things will just change by themselves. And you guys won't have to worry about regulating everything. And we do think that this is a big push in that direction. And just to prove that the day that we had this huge, the final vote on this, it was funny because there were only two speakers that were against. One gentleman somehow magically correlated the old testament to a favorable view on plastic straws, which is amazing. And then the other was Chris Steinacher, who spoke from the chamber, and he voiced some concerns of some of the Chamber members. But it's been interesting because since that time, the Chamber has now actually been very proactive and very supportive, and really looking at how the business community can embrace this cultural change of how we view plastic cell. Thanks. Next to you, speakers, please. Mike, I believe it's Norton and Laura Hume please go to either podium state your name and address with a record you have three minister addressed to the council Oh Hello council business members and residents of St My name is Laura Humm, and I live at the cross streets of 9th Street, or 10th Street, North, and 76 Avenue, North. I've been a resident of St. Pete for over a decade, moved to place to place. Never found that place that really wanted to plant my feet in and build a home and a family. St. Pete is this place because it's a unique city, as one of you have mentioned and several of you agree. And so I've raised a family, I have a 10-month-old daughter and I like to take her to parks and I would really like her to have a place where she could roam freely. I mean, she's at the age of putting everything in her mouth, like leaves and sticks. And the other day, I had to kind of whip out a plastic straw out of her mouth. And that's not what I want as part of this ordinance. I would like it to remain in place. I was also a member and on the board of the local chapter of Surfrider a few years ago and helped with this ordinance. So my hope is that we can continue to keep the city clean, beautiful, and to keep our waterways clean. So thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council. My name is Mike Norton. I live in Kenwood, on a home there at 27th and 1st Ave, North. So just in District 8. So thanks, sir, and I'll run the border of a council member, Givens District as well. You've heard a lot of great points supporting this ordinance, 356H, and I'm also in support of it. I've been a Florida resident for my entire life. All that I spent over 25 years as an Air Force officer, not in Florida and post retirement chose to come make Saint Pete my home. And one of the main reasons is this community seems to really want to take care of each other and and take care of this beautiful peninsula that God gave us And so it's got a fragile marine environment as we know and we deal with the red tide and whatnot But it gives us a lot and I'd say like a lot of veterans Found a lot of of healing by being out in the water and get over stuff we dealt with from combat deployments, et cetera. I also bring up my service because it is my first council meeting and I just want to personally thank all of you for your service. You're not up here because you're trying to get individually wealthy. This is a thankless, low-paying job, and it's really appreciated, because I can see the result of your work in this beautiful city that I call my home and plan to for a long time, so thank you. Yeah, so thank you for passing this ordinance seven years ago. I'm also a member of Surf Rider, and this something we bring up and we talk to people in the community. Yeah, this ordinance is not enforced very strictly, but it shows leadership. It shows this is on the right side of how we need to take better care of this planet and particularly this pencil it. And so I love all the amazing food and beverage establishments in the city. It's one of the reasons that I wanted to move here. And it's exciting to go out support all of them, including my favorite neighborhood brewery, three daughters. I love that I don't get handed a straw with a nice cold pine of beer, because straws make you drink too fast, right? It's why a lot of establishments give you a straw. Whether it's a cocktail or a milkshake, it's not good for you. Just suck that thing down with a straw. Use your lips, put it to the edge, it works just fine. It's great technology. Been around for quite a while. So, my personal plug for your health. So,, the regulation could be enforced better, but I think it's all, it does just the mere existence of the regulation helps us nudge things in the right direction. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thanks for your support. Thank you for your service. Next speaker. I'm Speaker Chloe McKinnon. Please go to the I of the podium. State your name and address with a record. You have three minutes to address to the council. Good afternoon council. My name is Chloe McKinnon and I live at 4126 7th Avenue North. I'm grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you all and go after all of the amazing speakers that have already shared a lot of great points about the importance of upholding this ordinance. So I'll focus a bit on my personal experiences as well as highlighting relevant scientific research from Tampa Bay. So as a Marine, socioecological scientist and a global youth leader with Ares to our ocean, I'm here to oppose the effort to end the adoption of ordinance 356H. In 2019, I moved to St. Petersburg to attend Eckerd College because I admired the fact that Eckerd was not only a campus centered around environmental and sustainable values, but the city was as well. Residents across St. Pete are passionate about climate resilience, environmental conservation, and plastic reduction to support healthy, clean water systems for our community to enjoy and to preserve our natural environment for the next generation of Floridians. And through my engagements on Eckerd's campus and across the Tampa Bay area, I have witnessed firsthand how the plastic pollution crisis is impacting our city on a local level. And this led me to want to further my education in Marine Science and Policy and a Masters program and to study the social, ecological, and cultural impacts of marine plastic pollution. And I quickly just want to highlight some of the most recent research on plastics here in Tampa Bay from researchers at Eckerd College's Tampa Bay Microplastics Monitoring Program. 2017 2017, this program has been operating to study microplastics in our estuary to examine the ecological impacts of microplastics on small and large grazers. For small grazers, researchers have studied how copepods, which are a major food source for many marine organisms, are interacting as a lower trophic level organism with higher trophic organisms passing micro-postics through the food chain, which as Will highlighted, impacts our food systems and our local economy. And for larger grazers, manatees, which I think our city is, we very much love manatees here. I associate St. Petersburg with manatees. Our crucial and the trophic transfer of microplastics as well because they graze in sea grass beds, which is where many microplastics accumulate. And it's clear that manatees are routinely consuming microplastics as well as larger plastic pieces. Additionally, I want to highlight that it's crucial to also consider the negative impacts of human plastic interactions. These include but are not limited to impacts on mental health, individual and communal well-being, and degradation of culturally and ecologically significant sites. We can effectively reduce these negative impacts by stopping plastic pollution at the source and shifting our societal culture to value zero-way systems. And as the Coastal City, we must support members of our community who are on the front lines of marine plastic pollution through equitable and sustainable waste governance. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we'll go to Councilmember Floyd. Thank you. First thing I'll say is Councilmember Givens, I appreciate your unwillingness to accept the status quo. But having said that, I think I actually want to comment on something the first speaker said, Mr. Shedden. There's been a lot of research come out recently about microplastics in their interaction with I guess human anatomy. One thing that's been correlated with it is a higher occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease, which have publicly been very open about my struggles with inflammatory bowel disease. So I definitely don't wanna do anything that would, you know, even present an opportunity of inflicting that upon others. And then in general, yeah, a lot of the environmental things that people have mentioned, I agree with. One last thing that hasn't been brought up is, you know, just the production of plastics releases a ton of greenhouse gases, which are destroying our planet and going to destroy our city if we don't stop with the path that we're on now. So while I do understand a little bit of the attitude that you're reading because I bring it occasionally as well. And I understand that you said your the discussion you wanted to have doesn't quite match like the tone of how this is all gone your New business item does specifically say like discuss lifting the regulation If it was worded to where we would We were going to have a discussion about what enforcement looks like that would be a different conversation as all I'm saying so and you know I Recognize From the group like that enforcement hasn't been super strict or anything, but I have seen like it's changed over time like when we first got in. Yeah, there was still a lot of plastic straws proliferating, but I really don't come across them that often nowadays. So I'm not even sure that like enforcement needs to be brought up at this time. But I only bring all this up to say that the wording of your thing is not exactly what you stated and that's what we have to vote on is based off the wording of what is put in front of us. So I'll leave it there. Those are my thoughts on the topic. Thank you. Council Member Fick Sanders. Thank you. Council Member Floyd definitely just took what I was going to say. I'm always going to talk about everything or anything. I'll discuss it. But then when I saw the lifting that word lifting moving away with was what took me to a different level. So if the new business item comes back with wanting to have a discussion about the enforcement, I will be fine with that. But what you said initially does not match what the new business item state. So that was just going to be two cents because generally when council members want to talk about something, you generally get that support. It's not saying that you support it, but you know, you're willing to have a conversation just in case you're able to be swayed. But this was an initiative that was one of, was one that took a lot of conversation and a lot of work and research for it. So I was still willing to listen. But as far as lifting it wasn't something that I was going to consider. But if you reconsider changing the wording, I will be willing to have a discussion. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council member, gathered. Thank you, Chair. So as one of only two members sitting here that voted to pass this ordinance, I was very concerned when I saw this new business item. The first thing I thought was, oh my gosh, Council member Druskall, all the work that you did to get us to where we are today. You changed the game when it came to plastics in the city of St. Petersburg. And while we are severely preempted from doing so many things, this is one that even the governor himself, back in 2019, vetoed the bill that passed that year and said, and I quote, the state should simply allow local communities to address the issue through their political process. Even the governor agreed with the City of St. Petersburg on this issue. And so Councilmember Givens, I have a question. And Chair if I may ask my colleague a question. Was there a business purpose for bringing this forward? Did you have businesses reaching out to you asking you to bring this conversation forward? Because I would love to hear that because quite frankly it has not been something I have heard. All the businesses in my district have willingly complied after the initial education that went around. So that has not been an issue in district two. I would love to hear from you if it's been an issue for you. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you bringing that up. It's actually been an issue for not just businesses, but for individuals as well. You know, I heard a lot of people laughing whenever, you know, someone talked about this, you know, issue of plastic straws. Well, there are actually people with disabilities who after the president issued his executive order, they definitely felt like this was something that the city should consider is taking up. I'm concerned that this might make us accept the issue to his executive order. They definitely felt like this was something that the city should consider taking up. I'm concerned that this might make us susceptible to legal action. And so I wanted to know if this ordinance, if it stayed in place as is, would it make us susceptible to that? So that was the purpose for me bringing that forward. The purpose of lifting it is I didn't want there to be litigation. Should we keep this ordinance in place? So I just wanted to know moving forward, what were the risk? And so forgive me again if it threw any one off guard, but again, I just want to make sure that we're protecting us as a city in our legal interest. And then also I want to expand the conversation. So to your point, Councilman Ford, and Councilman Rufix Sanders, I would love to, If this doesn't go forward, bring another new business item forward that would hopefully discuss expanding this conversation. Because again, you brought up Tom the Grand Prix. That's a huge issue. We had a bunch of garbage cans full of plastic and you know, styrofoam and it was litter all over the ground and I think we definitely should look at maybe there should be limits on vendors, you know, who come and do business in the city. I understand that there are certain events that are grandfather. Well, maybe we should look at revisiting that ordinance. So again, the conversation, it's great that we're having this because that was the purpose of it to blow the whistle so that we could sound the alarm that, yes, this is great. It's cute and all, but it's pointless that there's no teeth in the ordinance. That was my point. So respectfully, words matter. Yes, they do. And the word lifting, for me personally, that's a nonstarter. It just regressive policy in the age that we live in, when so many things are preempted, the number of times that we have created progressive policy to move this city forward. And then Tallahassee has come and smacked us down and told us that we have to repil those things from our books. I am not willing to do that in this particular situation. I am not willing to go backwards to a place where we had a lot of issues that we have quite frankly used this ordinance to overcome organically through our community conversations that we've had around this. I'm just not willing to. Quite frankly today, I'm going to vote no to even move this forward if it even gets a second. I don't think I've heard a second, have I, Chair? Okay. So, I just, for me, also, words matter. I don't think anything about this is cute. I think this is deliberate policy that was well thought out. The conversations around the galleries, those were discussed thoroughly in countless committee meetings, countless research that was done. And all of those other things, I wish we could do things about. I wish we could regulate to a greater need. If there were things that you can find as a council member and working with legal or working with our team in Tallahassee that maybe we can do more, I welcome that. I support that fully. I do not support this the way it is written now or any way that it would be written into the future. This is a policy that needs to stay on our books. Thank you chair. Thank you. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you and thank you Councilmember Gabbard for taking us back to where this started and for acknowledging the work that was done. I certainly did not work alone. It was not only with your support, but with the support of the folks who were in the audience here and many, many more. That we got this done not with a sledgehammer, but starting off with just having a conversation. And Thomas, I'm particularly happy that you're here today because you were my first conversation about this and I'm sorry that we're back here today under these circumstances but it's okay because you know what we need to take this as a reminder that even though we know what's right we know what's what's best for our community and for our environment we cannot take these things for granted we can't rest and I haven't done more yet so to be continued on that. The really cool thing about the process of bringing forward this ordinance which by the way I brought forward as a new business item almost seven years to the day this month for us to have that conversation. I had been on City Council for less than three months and everybody was like whoa this is Zuzina Driscoll is. And thinking about all that we went through. Whoa, this is Eugene, a Driscoll is. And thinking about all that we went through, I gotta tell you, I try to be tough, but it's kind of hard when I sit here next to someone who says that people laughed at us. And I sit next to someone who called it cute, but we know better, and that doesn't mean anything to us, because we know. We know. The ordinance was crafted in a way that did give exceptions for people with disabilities. And there was a lot of conversation around that, and I think I'm going to need Michael Dima for some clarification, for some education today. Michael Dima, could you tell us, do you happen to have it up, or maybe just in a nutshell, tell us how we are doing ADA accommodations on this ordinance. Sure thing. Yep. So it's very express the exception relates to customers with a physical or medical need requiring the use of a single use plastic drinking straw. We had a long conversation about that and the drafting of this ordinance. And that seemed to be the landing spot for pretty much everybody at the time. Yes, thank you. And then another educational opportunity is on the enforcement. It's complaint based, right? It is. So we don't have the straw police going around. And if there's a problem, if there's a lack of enforcement, a foreseen, that that's lying behind us, because the patrons aren't complaining and calling codes and going after that. And I would say that if there was a lot of crazy enforcement that was going on, I would probably be one of the people getting a phone call about it from our business owners, because I do have many businesses in my district that I had to have many conversations with before and after the ordinance was created. So, complain, and tell us how that works. Well, from an enforcement standpoint, you know, I'll let administration speak to how it's actually administered on a day-to-day basis, but you're correct in terms of it being complaint-based. It's my understanding that there is no proactive code enforcement effort going out trying to find folks that are, you know, in violation of the ordinance. Right. Yeah, I mean, my recollection from the beginning is that we were going to focus on an education-based campaign. Yes. We need to do that. I personally, just in my life experience, would agree with Councilmember Floyd. I don't see very many plastic straws at all in restaurants in our community. It is also complaint-based, so if we have a complaint, we will follow up on it. But we still focus on education now. Thank you. And Rob, if a council member wanted to find out more about enforcement and how that's going and if we're being heavy-handed, could they call Joe Watt and ask him and maybe have a conversation about it? Yeah, absolutely. Also, the Office of Resiliency is involved in the education, so maybe Mr. Tankersley might be a good call too to check in with him. Okay, excellent. But when it comes to the enforcement, I think code is the one who handles that. Sorry to interrupt, but just another point to that is that the first violation is just a written warning anyway. as opposed to other MOVs which you might land yourself in a fine situation right off the bat. So it starts with a written warning and then the fines thereafter for a year after that first one is 40 bucks and then 80 bucks. So the whole intent was to be educational and to induce some behavioral change, not to come in with a heavy hand. The iron fist, so to speak. Right, right. Thank you. And then the last question that I have for you was regarding this executive order that came from the current occupant of the White House. It was a, it says something about a ban on paper straws but that's not what we have is it. I mean it's really, does it have anything to do with our ordinance? It speaks to the ending the forced use of paper straws. Do we have forced use of paper straws in our ordinance? No. Thank you. All right, so to cure that one, I appreciate you so much. The most beautiful thing about the conversations that we had on paper straws. And by the way, we also enhanced our ordinance on restrictions on expanded polystyrene and went up to the line of the state preemption without crossing it. And I'm quite proud of that too. The ideas that we brought forward with that always led to a bigger conversation because people would say, oh, what about bags? Because, yeah, that would give us an opportunity to talk to folks about what the state preemptions are and what we can and can't do. But I like to move forward saying, what can we do and work in that space? And we'll have to talk about what our next steps can be. But I do love that it was never just about a straw. It was always leading to a bigger conversation. And that's what we need to get back to, is having those bigger conversations, not smaller ones. Rob, overflowing trash cans at the Grand Prix, is that something we can address for future events? Absolutely, I'll talk. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's a great idea, because we don't want that happening, and we are supposed to be restricting plastic drinking straws and expanded polystyrene per the ordinance with those who have event agreements with the city. So public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public and the public, well, I think that's all I have. Happy to spend a few moments being cute with you all. I will not be voting to move this forward. I think that the points that were brought up today are merely a question of the question that really needs to be asked. Is have I done my research? Have I had the conversations with city staff and done my own education on what this is really about? And then I would encourage anyone who would like to know more about why this is important to reach out to the Sierra Club, to reach out to Water Warrior Alliance, to reach out to the Suncoast Surfrider Foundation, those who are out there picking it up, picking up after us and wishing that we could do more. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Givens. Thank you, I appreciate it. And thank you so much, Michael, for coming up to answer some questions. And I want to answer another question that was posed as what can we do? Well, it can start with expanding the conversation. You know, yes, it's real cute that we're talking right now. We're having the conversation, but if it's not expansive and inclusive of our entire community, then it's pointless. It's pointless to have an ordinance that infringes on individual rights and civil liberties without having the conversation with the entire community. It's pointless to have clean-ups if you only clean up certain parts of the city and not come to the entire city. So yes, it's real cute to do this stuff. It's real cute to have political grandstanding moments. But again, if we aren't implementing ordinances, providing legislation that's actually going to change best practices, that's actually going to change, you know, the contribution that we're contributing to global warming and climate change, then it's pointless. So yes, I do want to have the conversation and yes, I am happy that folks showed up to talk because hopefully this conversation will overflow beyond City Hall into the communities that need to be involved. And so it wasn't pointless because obviously it's going to lead to some follow-up with some of our event partners that haven't been following these ordinances and haven't been following best practices for good stewardship to the environment. But you talked about, you know, educational moments, I appreciate you reiterating what I already know, but the whole point, as you probably know, is that we can't have these conversations in private. So I'm happy that we're having these conversations in the public arena where it should be had amongst our constituents because they should be involved as well. We shouldn't just be mandating our way through the problem. Regulations are not the answer. Conversations are the answer. You brought up something earlier, Council Member Driscoll, about awareness and education. So yes, I'm going to use your words against you. That's the missing component. Awareness and education. It's all great if we're talking to the Sierra Club and if we're talking to whatever other organizations we're part of but if we don't bring the greater community into the conversation then yes it's pointless. So again I am happy that this came forward regardless of what direction it goes in because it shows our implicit biases. So thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you. Vice-chair handouts. Thank you. I didn't know at what point I was going to have a conversation about this and everything's been said. But I did want to make sure because Councilmember Driscoll asked legal legal issues were brought up and I think it's important whenever that happens that those that are here and are involved watching understand kind of our legal process. If there is some law that happens at the state level or something's mentioned at the federal level, what kind of process we have internally that our attorneys work with us and kind of tell us, you know, what is going on. And so maybe just bring us back to that too so we can have a discussion a little bit about that. So they understand kind of the process those that are involved. Well, I will say from a state legislation standpoint, there's a tireless effort to follow every single bill that gets filed. And it's overwhelming this time of year to track all of those, but we do. And when there is something that speaks to a preemption that's new or emerging or growing, we put that at the top of the list. So that's, and even though these types of preemptions have proliferated, the plastic straw has remained steadfast after the governor vetoed that bill in 2019. So and that remains the case today. In terms of federal things, there's not often times that it directly implicates something like this, but this executive order, you know, we're well aware of it when it came out. Took a look at it. And again, the express language of that EO states that it's, you know, looking to end the forced use of paper straws. And it speaks to federal procurement practices, and it's express language. So the way that it's written, we're not seeing something that impacts this ordinance. I just want to make that clear legally, there is nothing right now in place that affects this ordinance, whether it's a statewide preemption or any other type of law federally that would touch upon this. That's correct, please. Okay. If I could just jump in, just piggyback on what Michael said, this is something that we try to do. That's correct. OK. Council Member, if I could just jump in. Just to piggyback on what Michael said, this is something that we try to do across all the different attorneys practice areas in the office. So it's part doing our best, each of them. And we do have an internal process to flag as many as we possibly can and look at them for legal issues. So that's number one. Two, we work with administration with our lobbyists. Sometimes we will get something forwarded to us. If we haven't already seen it, we'll follow up on that. It can be something from a council member. If there's anything you would have a concern about, any one of you would have a concern about, and want us to look at, we do that as well. But once something is flagged of this nature, because these often aren't static things, we'll keep it on. So this will go on the list and we'll make sure that if anything changes. But once something is flagged of this nature, because these often aren't static things, we'll keep it on. So this will go on the list. And we'll make sure that if anything changes, that we react to it. As you've seen after legislative sessions in the past, when we believe that there is a preemption, we add that as a legal item and bring that to you. Right. A lot of times, y'all notice it before we do and let us know immediately. Or if there's a case that there is a judgment against us where we have to kind of change our ordinance that's something that you automatically let us know and we do immediately. Right. I mean we do we bring it to you when we feel like we are expressly oriented and that something in our code conflicts with state or even federal law. Okay. I just want to make that clear. Look, this is a very hot topic clearly. There are very strong emotions on this from what's been expressed in the dius. I will tell you that based on the language of lifting what you said, Council Member Givens kind of does image that and that's I think probably why some of the feedback you got. I will also mention this belongs, this is the type of item that will belong in hers. And when you look at the Council members, the committee members that are part of hers. They're not supportive. And when you want to get an item on the committee, it's helpful when you can get their, their buy it. You know what I mean? And so I think, I think they gave some good feedback in terms of the type of language that would have been helpful for a business item if there was gonna be a discussion on enforcement. So I'll just throw that out there. In terms of everyone that's here, first of all, thank you everyone for coming. I don't want to forget to thank you. I want to say some of your work affects my neighborhood. We have Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association. Here is a water goat that was installed at the lake there. I live in an era. There was a time when I was a child. I mean, people would throw stuff out of their car all the time. I just, I don't even know how that practice happened. But people would just throw stuff out of their car window all the time. And then, thankfully, that's kind of like slow down. But then you see rains happen and they go into storm drains. And when you look at these water goats, you think, where did all this stuff come from? It's shocking. And so I think that what you find in our city is, we are very passionate about our waterways, whether it's the ocean, whether it's our lakes, whatever body of water that is within our city, we are very passionate about. And when you think about the straws, yeah, it's not a big deal, but you know what, when they do clean up some lakes, they're not getting to the small plastics. A water goat may, but not the people that go and actually go pick that up. And then I started thinking about, before people went and cleaned up Crescent Lake, or had a water goat, and I see all the stuff that still goes in there, I imagine of all the other stuff that went in there and is still there, and that goes into our bay. And then when you think about the manatees that are outside, because the water from Cresson Lake goes out to the coffee pot area, right? And that's where you get fresh water and then the manatees drink. And so anyhow, these are huge issues for people in our city to make sure that we have clean waterways and we take care of in our environment and although it's a small act I think part of the reason that this came through is because there was a lot of passion and still is a lot of passion in ensuring that we have clean waterways so with that said I you know I obviously am not supportive in terms of lifting it and we will see if there is other language and other ways where you can have conversations to make sure that we can do a better job with our environment and plastics and enforcing. If there is a way to enforce, I will tell you this, it does change behavior. That I have seen, and I will agree with some of the comments I've been made, even once you're against something, and you're, you know, you think, well, what is this gonna do? Believe it or not, a lot of times, you know, an ordinances pass or a law is passed, and behavior changes for the better. The UI laws were not really enforced at one point, then they started cracking down on that and it saved lives. And so there are things that it does change people's behavior. And I think that this is something that has changed people's behavior. And it's caused people to think about what the impacts are to the environment. And it's also caused people to actually, if they're gonna manufacture a paper straw to do it better. So there are some benefits that come out of that. So thank you for the conversation, even though it was a little heated at times, but I think this is a good conversation to have. So thank you very much. Council Member Hardy. Thank you, Chair. I'll give you the perspective of the industry that I work in during my day job. When this was passed, our company not only works in the hospitality industry, but we also belong to two different guilds that are formed inside the hospitality industry. And the reaction, and we talked about it a bunch, and the reaction was, okay, that was it. And in this one particular case, straws, put in beverages. The primary users are on-premise restaurants and bars and restaurants that offer to go, quick serve that offers to go. That's where they're all used. No one cared. If I am not for repealing this in any way, but I'll tell you to what council member Hanewat said, if we did repeal this, no one would change. They still wouldn't use them, right? It's a good idea. And it just took a little bit of nudging to my industry to say, yeah, let's not do this. And we're fine with it. So I will not in the way that it is formatted. I will not be voting on this. But to that point, the industry itself has no issues with it. And on the enforcement end, this is no different than when we banned smoking back 20, 30 years ago. That law that came at the state level had no enforcement to it. It's actually a worker's rights law. So you can't smoke in any building, any structure that has someone being paid in it. You can't smoke in your house if you have somebody clean your house. And there's no, there never has been any enforcement to that, but I would challenge you to find a building where someone smokes because it just was the right thing to do regardless of whether you smoke or not. And it's the same with the, it's the same with my industry. It was, it was brought up, you know, the work that this council did was, was more about the attention drawn to it. and the councilman, councilman Driscoll's point, this was less about straws and more about direction that we go on as a society and to administrative gertruses point. This is more about education than it is administering some kind of, you know, setting out codes or police or whoever. And this was a great thing that didn't really require any extra effort and I can tell you, I don't speak for the industry, but I can tell you that the impression that I get from the industry that uses plastic trousers, we're good, yeah, let's move on. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council member Givens. I do not in any way ignore the the passion that is in this room today. I appreciate it in no offense to my colleagues for bringing this forward. But again, I want us to have the conversation about enforcement and solutions because as you said, Council member, harding people don't care. But we need to make sure that they do, because we all contribute to this environment. We all should be stewards of our environment. And I want to make sure that everyone is a part of the conversation. And so, I just was happy to find out we have a local vendor who, you know, is in the business of making these biodegradable straws. Why is the city not supporting them? Why are we not marketing that information out there so that we can be a better partner? You know, I'm happy to find out we have a campaign. I knew nothing about this, and I'm happy to raise my hand and say, I do. I do not, because I'm not a know-it-all. I don't, so how do I put that information out there? So the community knows because I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't. So again, recognizing the fact that not everybody is privy to this conversation. You know, and again, I am happy to know Mr. Deema that we are not at risk for any litigation and I'm happy to know that, you know, in the future, should something come up, we can backtrack pivot real quick, that is good information. Because that, again, that is my goal is to make sure that we don't subject ourselves to any civil litigation and I also want to make sure that we do more to expand the conversation about being a good steward of our environment. So I look forward to inviting you all to you know Lake McGory or a clan by you to do the next cleanup because again I think there are other parts of our community that should be brought into the conversation if we really want to be effective. Let's do it. So I will go ahead and remove my new business item. It does not seem like I have the support so I'm happy to remove that. Okay. Just quickly and now that the item has been removed, I'm gonna try to be fast. I don't like straws period end of story, whether it's plastic paper, I just don't like them. I'm totally with you where it's like, give me a glass and I'm happy to sip straight from it, whether it's water or anything else. And so, I just want not a fan of this conversation to be very honest with you. I don't think we need an enforcement conversation. The council in 2018 and 2019, or I think it was 17 and 18, did a pretty good job of that, understanding where the limits were, where the capacity was. I went back and watched some of those meetings, made a couple of phone calls yesterday to some of those council members that had those conversations. I would echo what council member Gabbard said, council member Driscoll, you and Darden Rice led the charge on this and took the bull by the horns and I'm very appreciative of that. Frankly, I think if anything came from this, the conversation that I'd be willing to have is, how do we enlist the organizations that are sitting in front of us today to help in the education of our community? That's the one that I'm willing to have. And so I'll just put that on the table. I did want to mention one thing, and Council Member Driscoll, thanks for bringing up Michael Dima on the legal side, but I just wanted to mention quickly the ADA issue. Being the mayor's appointee to capy for the last three years, this has never come up. And so if there is an issue in the ADA community, I would encourage them to attend a copy meeting and speak at open forum at the beginning of a copy meeting, council member Givens, or anybody that's listening. That way we can get that feedback because we certainly wanna advocate on their behalf, have over the last three and a half years being the appointee to that committee. I have not heard that. And so I just wanted to make that crystal clear. The seeing is the item has been removed. We'll go ahead and move on from G5. Thank you everybody. We're going to move into G6. I'm respectfully requesting referral to the committee of the whole for an update on the community development to block grant disaster recovery CDBG DR funds on March 13th, 2025 committee of the whole meeting. This is a staff request that I'm formally submitting this new business item as a method of informing council and I'd entertain a motion for approval. So the approval second. Seeing as we have a motion to second, no other council members wishing to speak. Clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please any of your votes. Seeing as all present, council members have voted. Clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote? Mr. Chair, I'm motion to approve a genitum G6 passage unanimously. Okay, we're going to move into committee reports, H1, and I am respectfully requesting City Council approval of the budget finance and taxation committee's recommendation to set the city's annual small business enterprise participation goal at 10% just as a little background. The goal this previous to this was 14% we are lowering it based on The the reasonableness to get the goal and the participation going to be able to get the approval. We're going to be able to get the approval. We're going to be able to get the approval. We're going to be able to get the approval. Chair, most of you to approve a gen item H1 fastest unanimously with council member Gibbons being absent. Okay, we're going to move into H2 that's council member Gabard. Thanks for making the track council member Gabard. Absolutely, glad to. A fresh in from telehousing, so the timing is appropriate. All right, before you today, you have a resolution in support of our federal priorities. In our committee meeting, we had a very robust discussion around our federal priorities. Worked very closely behind the scenes with David Thompson and Doyle Walsh on this and very happy where this landed but it is here before you for your consideration today and I would move approval. Okay, we have a motion to second. Councilmember Driscoll. Thank you. I wasn't able to attend the Lair Committee meeting that day, but I was able to watch and I wanted to think those who spoke up and made recommendations, very smart recommendations, I might add, to changes to our sheet here. And I did have my own conversation with the team and made some suggestions. And thanks to you all. And I did a little bit. I heard what was done in the meeting and when I go to DC on Saturday for the National League of Cities City Congressional Conference and go and meet with our representatives in Congress. You all, David, thank you for creating something that I'm going to be proud to hand over to them. So I mean this is everyone should be very proud. So I just wanted to thank you all for the work that you all did on this. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair Hanowitz. Thank you. And thank you, David, for preparing the federal legislative agenda based on our conversations at the meeting. I still have an issue with one thing I said, and that was the use of the word equitable development arts and business opportunities. And I'm going to bring it up again, because I don't understand why we have a state agenda with the same headings, and it doesn't have the word equitable. So if we're going to be consistent, we did a state agenda with the same headings and it doesn't have the word equitable. So if we're gonna be consistent, we did a state agenda and it says, business and arts development. It should be the same on the federal agenda and we should just be consistent. And I don't see how that, why that would be any different at the state level versus the federal level. And so that's my only thing, Let's be consistent. We already did this. We're already approved to have the same headings. Take that out. It goes with our conversation. And that way it's all the same. Thank you. I'll say for our perspective on the state agenda, that was an error on us in the conversations that we had. It should have been we we had the conversation. And in the drafting process, the equitable part should have been on there. We brought to you and Councillor Wesson, and that's why it's here on the federal one. Well, why does it change anything in terms of what we're asking? I just don't understand how the arts, opportunity zones, business accelerators, that changes it. And I am gonna have those discussions at the federal level. I will. And I'm gonna sit with people from the other side of the aisle that are probably gonna have a problem with just that. And it doesn't change our goal. And so we had this ad nauseam discussion at the Lair Committee. And so if we did it at the state, whether it was this mistake or not, then I don't see the big deal of taking that word out based on our conversations. So we can just go ahead and ask for the things without getting sidetracked on a conversation that we know where it's going to lead. Nowhere. Thank you. And we appreciate that feedback. And you notice we made the other changes. We feel that this document is a compromise between council and you know speaking here on administration and mayor. It's something that was important to him to keep that language in there and for him the words matter there. And look, and I completely appreciate that. Lots of things matter to me that are not being addressed at the federal level by the current administration. And that doesn't mean I agree with them. So I just, it's good to come back with things. That's all. You know, I'm not going to cut my nose despite my face. That's the type of stuff I do not like to prove a point why. You know what my point is? I want to bring back something to the residents of the city of St. Petersburg. And I want to have an argument as to how I word something. So that's just my two cents. If everybody else is fine with it, that's okay with me. But thank you. Thank you. Council member Yabbert. Since we can only speak here to each other I'll just to give you a little bit of my background on how we came here today with what you see before you so to your point this was a bit of a compromise and a negotiation if you will between myself as the layer committee chair and the administration. We went back and forth for a while, which is why you're just now seeing it or seeing it recently. And I did also have a conversation with Congresswoman Kathy Kaster. And really discussed, you know, I guess kind of a lot of the strife that we feel with what we see coming out of DC, what our role is as a city, what our role is as a council, and the language that you see here in what I would call the forward is very much at her suggestion, that we very much focus on recovery, response, bringing dollars home, that that should really be our forward momentum momentum and to kind of stay out of that political fray. And then that was her advice to me. And so I shared that with administration. I believe maybe they've had their own conversations as well to support that. Understanding that, you know, I want all of you when you go next week because I've done it a million times. I know how it can be to walk in those doors and have something that individuals will actually look at, and they won't get two sentences into and throw in the trash and automatically look at you and decide that they don't want to have a conversation. That is no place for any of you to be, because it is ineffective and it will not do what we are charged to do for our residents from nonpartisan elected officials. And so I understand you're concerned about the word equitable. It was a compromise. I've made a motion. I would be open to a friendly amendment if there was one. If council felt the need. However, I think we should respect the role that the mayor plays in all of this. And this was something that was very, very, very strongly given back as feedback from him. And so I'll kind of leave it there. You know, you're the ones that are going to be on the hill. So I'm going to kind of leave it to you at this point. I have done what I can do to bring you something that I feel as though you can work with. That's it, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Mellord, Driscoll. Hi, it's me again. So I thought we... When I spoke the first time, I thought that we would all be in agreement on this. And that's the most important thing to me. And I think that given that we, our, that our, we share priorities, we're all meeting with people, you know, at different times. We all need to have, we all need to be in agreement on this. And I understand and appreciate the work to get to a compromise, but we do have our vice chair has a sticking point here. And it is something that I was like, I mean, I noticed it, but I'm like, all right, we can just keep going because it's a lot better than the way that this started, no offense. It's just like, it has improved a lot, especially in that first paragraph there to kick things off. So I think there are a couple of ways a couple of ways that we could move forward on this that I could agree to. And the first would be my preference, which would be to take out equitable development and make it match whatever the other one is. The suggestion that was given before. I think that would be the best way for everyone to feel that they all had to give a little and arrive at one paper that we can all share. The other option would be to have two different ones and give us one that we can take in two days with us. Fix that and then the mayor's office can have another version but I do like something that is unified. I like something that has his email address and hours on it. And I would be very disappointed if that's the route that we go. But those really are the two options and I'm if everyone was okay with it I would go along. But we've got to make sure that we all have something that we feel comfortable with, and it's not that hard. So I will wait to hear what is decided. I mean, I can... I want to hear what you're willing to do. No, and thank you, Council Doyle-Walls, Chief of Staff. You know how important this partnership is. Personally, the mayor is something we've worked on for three years. I take full responsibility for that state agenda, not having that, that is completely my fault with allowing that to be approved on our side. This is something that David has mentioned is important to the mayor of the administration to have this terminology. It's the pillar we use for all the other work. It's been a key tenant of a lot of the work we do in the economic development space, the store gas plant. We feel very strongly that history matters and it's not this weaponized version that we hear on the political side. I understand we do not believe that this is going to jeopardize resources on our end. We would like it to be unified as well To councilwoman Driscoll's point we are prepared if council would like to remove that word that we would have our own agenda Would not be unified in that way But that is our position and I appreciate the feedback Oh, I didn't mm-hmm I just I was letting you go in case you wanted to keep going. Council member Floyd. Thanks. I figured out. Yeah, yeah, I figured you wanted to hear. I figured out way in. I've you know, don't agree with everybody all the time. Don't agree with the mayors all the time. But the thing that I can say about the mayor is whenever people have pushed for us to back down on issues like this, he's been very willing to push back and couldn't be happier about it. You know, it's in vogue right now to attack all of these words, buzz words. But to be honest, I don't even think the people who attack, like DEI know, that the word equitable is in there because I think they're just doing it to, you know, not to mean the actual meaning of the word, but to demean and other certain people. Having said all of that, I would prefer if it stayed in, I didn't like that it was not in the state one, but I also am here to be cordial and get along with everybody. It's not a huge deal at all. So I'm happy for whatever the group decides at the same time and I don't feel super strongly, but I do want to say thank you to administration for that because see that they've been doing on this topic for a long time. Thanks. Thanks, Member Gabbard. I'll just say my last piece on that word. So I put myself in your shoes of what you'll be doing next week because I've been there done that and I know how challenging it can be. Mostly when you're working kind of in the fray, right? When you're working with members of the delegation or Congress that are kind of that more, you know, on either side, there will be things in here that either side of the far right and left may not think is absolutely perfect here. But I want to just say, I think that where the word placement is is innocuous enough that out of respect to our mayor, I feel as though we could leave it, because it's very far down the list. And when you meet with them quite frankly, they're gonna look at the beginning of it. They're gonna see that it is about recovery, it is about response, it is about FEMA, it is about the things that our residents need today, and then you're going to have a conversation. They're not going to sit and stare at this the entire time that you're with them. And so I feel as though there is a way forward that we could stick with this agenda, you guys will be able to be effective when you are there next week. You'll be able to have those conversations and I just feel out of respect to him and the passion that he feels around these issues. Once again, I want us to all come together on this and if there would be a friendly amendment, I would be glad to accept that. But I do just want to say I think it's innocuous enough that you'll be able to move past it. So that's my two cents just for my lived experience. Thank you. Bye, sure, Hannah. Thank you. And look, I want to hear everyone's opinion on this. We had this conversation at Lear. I still have the belief that I have, but I said at the beginning, I'm happy to do this. I will tell you this, we're gonna, you're gonna talk about CDBG money, that's coming, where's it coming from, federal government. There are lots of programs besides whenever we sit with someone with this little page that the federal government's gonna be deciding. So however they do business, I don't agree with it. However they're deciding what they're going to check, yes or no, grant monies that may come in in the future has nothing to do with on this page. This is something that we all have to think about. I'm happy to go along with the majority. But sometimes, principle, the reality when the rubber meets the road, that's completely different. So, I respect it, I get it, I'm concerned, but I'm happy to go forward because, look, it is a collaboration. I'm not one to do two different agendas and that's fine. I've said what I felt like I needed to say, and we can move forward. So thank you. Thank you. I think I'm at the point now where I think about prior priorities, having two separate ones us coming back together, having watched those separate priorities before I got here and then being a part of the ones coming together, I think are just received heartedly different. And I don't want to lose that. I think that's most important. I also agree with Council member Floyd that I think the mayor is very strategic on where he picks to push. And I think in this instance, if this is where he wants to be, I'll support that. I haven't been up there. So I thank you for going and representing us. I don't think I would operate well up there, because if somebody put this paper down in the middle of my conversation, I might go bonkers. But, and I appreciate that, but I do think this is a collaboration I think it needs to be together and I'm just not willing to lose that. I think at this point. And so I appreciate if my colleagues are willing to support and go and fight the good fight. I appreciate it more than they will ever know. But I think at this point, my preference would be, I really appreciate the changes you heard us. You took our feedback and layer, I'm not even a part of layer and you took our feedback. And I can support this where it's at. Okay, I think we have a motion in the second. Seeing as no other council members wishing to speak, clerk, could you please open the machine for voting? Council members, please enter your votes. Seeing as all present council members have voted, clerk, could you please tally and announce the vote. Mr. Chair, most to approve a genitom H2 passes unanimously. I just want to I just want to tell you all I appreciate for that conversation and your willingness to get together. I think that was really important there. Okay, I'm going to turn it over to legal or our last item of the day. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to announce an attorney-kind session pursuing to Florida Statute 286.0118 in conjunction with the lawsuit-styled Erberto A. Sanchez-Mion versus City of St. Petersburg, Officer Michael Thacker, and Officer Sarah Gattas, case number 824, CD, 0, 0, 690, WFJ, TGW. Okay, and so we just need to make the announcement, there's no action. Correct, it will occur on Thursday, March 27, 2005, with all of the information printed in the agenda Okay, great all right. Thank you. Thank you for the announcement Council members any questions there sheriff. I said made March 27th 2025. Okay. Oh did you say 2024? I may have We already had it, but I've made that mistake The one year anniversary Okay Council members, any questions on I-1? Okay. Let's move into open form. Clerk, any speakers for open form? No zoom. Nobody on zoom? Okay. We will close open form announcements. Council member gathered. Thank you, Chair. First of all, I just want to say thank you to Council Member Harding for taking up the flood awareness Proclamation this week. I appreciate it. I was listening to it as I was coming into town And I just really appreciate you doing that You will be glad to know that Shoreakers was represented in Tallahassee this morning by Shoreakers neighborhood president So we were in Tallahassee this morning and had the first committee stop for House Bill 241, which is affectionately known as the No Wakes Zone legislation, which you all passed the resolution to support. And it passed its first committee stop. It had overwhelming approval, only one of the members descended. and really he literally said nay for now. So that is very positive. Representative Cheney was the chair of that committee, the governmental operations subcommittee. And she was so kind to go ahead and slate that for us at their first committee meeting. Representative Cross did a great job on presenting it. And we were also represented by the the Southern Group Laura beamers there as well So moving on it has two more committee stops in the house and it still has three in the Senate But so far it's looking very good so my apologies for being late, but it was for good reason and I'll continue to keep you all posted through our layer process. Thank you chair Thank you. Thank you for representing us up in Tallahassee and especially with that bill. I know it's close to your heart and I know the rest of us as well. So thank you for doing that. Any other announcements. I just have one. Councilmember Driscoll's birthday next week. And just quickly, I know she's not part of City Hall, but it's my mom's birthday. No. And I will yell at her later if she's watching because I'm sure she has better things to do than to watch me up here. But let's sing Happy Birthday to Councilmember Driscoll. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday. Councilmember Driscoll. Happy birthday to you. Okay if there's nothing else for the year. Mr. Chair. I'm surprised you didn't mention this. I don't want to steal your shine but I'm pretty sure out on the west side. Oh yeah. Community fest is taking. Yeah. Yeah. Two PM to 8m. to 8 p.m. at Azalea Park. Thank you for the reminder council member givens. I'm just in charge of birthdays. That's why, you know. And they have to remind me about those two. The community picnic at Azalea Park, everybody's welcome. There's gonna be some bands out there. Stuff for the kids to do. I'll be out there right at the beginning of it. And so if you want to join us on the west side, you guys get your GPS out, figure out how to get there. We'll see you there. Otherwise, City Council is adjourned. Thank you, everybody.