[Music] [Music] [Music] everyone I'd like to call this Tampa City Council budget public hearing to order uh for September 20 September 3rd 2024 50:1 p.m. can I get roll call please Carlson here her here Clint Denon here Henderson present Vieira here Miranda here and maniso here we have a physical form all right so may I have a motion to open the public hearing for consideration of the tentative FY 2025 millage rate FY 2025 budget and FY 2025 to 2029 Capital Improvement budget and program for the City of Tampa we have a motion from council member Miranda second council member Vieira all in favor I any oppose all right will the finance chair council member Miranda please read the first public hearing statement number two that's 20 25-2 ordinance being presented for first reading consideration yeah no that's actually gave me something I didn't have chairman uh this is the first H public hearing for the City of Tampa physical year budget 2025 budget the proposed mill rate is 62076 Mills which is 4% 4.00 more than the roll back millage of 59691 Mills Property Tax funds are used to support the general fund operating budget and the community redevelopment agency fund of the city the general fund includes such buzet at fire rescue and police Human Resources Parks and Recreation all right no no there's no it's no motion you just have to read the the statement thank you very much sir at this time Mr O'Hara would you please proceed with your presentation sir it's coming [Music] answer questions if we can answer your questions of course we'll give you a prompt followup this presentation will be brief and uh it's really just kind of a refresher nothing really new but again to get everybody up to speed including the public as to the formation of the fiscal year 25 budget all right the presentation thank you very much and here it is again the net 2025 budget is just a little over $1.8 billion and that itself is just a little over 3% from the current fiscal year you see here our breakout of the major funds and the two largest components we talk about quite often that's the Enterprise fund and the general fund which as usual make up about three4 of the city's total budget and in the next budget we break it down even further into those particular funds general fund on the left you see about 60% of the budget go into public safety that's police fire and the code enforcement department central government these are the support agencies that keep the city running behind the scenes it includes my my shop technology and Innovation Human Resources purchasing and neighborhood and Community Affairs pardon me our Parks and Recreation Department and economic development which includes the Tampa Convention Center on the right the Enterprise funds again these are those departments that are run as a business they're expected to make what in the private sector would be a profit of course anything that they make is funneled back into the system for future needs or Improvement and again you see the big tickets there the Wastewater Department the water department the solid waste department and parking two important drivers that we always want to emphasize regarding our property tax revenue on the left uh as is typical each and every year property taxes by themselves will not pay for the police and fire department Department again the police and fire department are about half of the entire general fund on the right the impact of the community redevelopment agencies or cras you see nearly one5 of our property taxes are required to be contributed to the CRA next year as you see that'll be just under $54 million an increase of nearly 6% from the current year so the property taxes available are even tighter than the initial glance would lead you to believe we have 354 a little over $354 million but we net $300 million and uh speaking of tight Council will recall uh that the increase in property values was about half of last year or I should say the current year in the current year we enjoyed 12% increase in avaloran values this year 6% so as we entered this budget process and of course of course we've talked about this before we made a very conservative estimate we thought of 8% so when the property values came in we actually had to cut $6 million in general funding right off the top so from a general fund perspective it's a pretty tight year continuing with the general fund here is our general fund balance history and estimates uh I will keep thanking you for your support of our unassigned fund balance bance as you know and as we'll continue to reference it is a significant metric for the rating agencies and of our Financial Health you see that over time uh taking away the federal assistance in fiscal year 20 and 21 we have hovered around 23 or 24% and of course as the budget increases and it typically increases every year the amount to reach that percentage also has to increase so you see we identify a projection ending this year of 23% as we've crafted the budget for next fiscal year we also think will end at 23% again uh as some of us have talked these are projections and we'll see how we end up in the current year a couple of months after the end of this fiscal year very happy to note that the 23% is well ahead of our policy floor of 20% that's about $19 million uh as I've said before and I'm happy to say again this paints a very very nice picture of financial consistency and health especially given some of the vulnerabilities that we have uh geographically and some of the vulnerabilities that remain economically so my compliments to council and the mayor for keeping this consistent balance you see the six new positions being added and yet we will still remain over 50 positions less than the height of our position count uh during the start or at the beginning of the great financial crisis back in 2007 just under 5,000 positions right now and of course I think the six positions there are pretty self-explanatory we continue to reference this and have continued to reference this since the great financial crisis because of the mass Exodus of positions that that crisis um forced our Capital Improvement program FAL year 25 to 29 again you see just under $ 1.7 billion do it remains very consistent in that it is continuing the overwhelming majority of projects in the current 5-year Capital Improvement plan it remains no surprise I think that the biggest numbers the largest numbers are the water and wastewater Department as we continue that 3ish billion doll 20year pipes plan and you see a very significant Public Safety increase or investment with fire rescue as the third largest CIP at over $125 million getting into more detail with our major Citywide projects beginning with our neighborhoods infrastructure projects and our pipes program and you see the subcomponents of that pipes program again these are the major subcomponents and each of them have projects within them and into technology and Innovation and solid waste and environmental program management I will highlight the computerated dispatch at the top there for the fire rescue department and at the top of the Solid Waste Department the relocation uh from spruce spre Spruce Street to 34th Street and then in police department at the bottom there you see the Annex Building that we've discussed on Howard Avenue continuing again Citywide or at least Citywide benefiting projects you see the many mo the many projects in mobility and the Parks and Recreation Department and diving into the CIP projects by District beginning with District Four and their parks and flooding projects District Five including the East temper recreational complex District Six and again I'll highlight at the top there the West Riverwalk project and the police department annx project oh and I I should highlight Fire Station Number Nine Renovations also so and well I guess I'll highlight all of them grea house Sulfur Springs pool improvements also district 7 Kar Ranch Park and Fire Station Number [Music] 24 and again we can answer uh any questions and again if we can't we'll get back to you very very soon the final so far step in our budget process for fiscal year 25 you see on screen there that's a final public hearing on SE September 17th 2024 and a reminder that the budget is available in great detail uh in very good great detail I might add it's it's a I'm a little biased it's a wonderful document and it's at this link that concludes my very brief presentation Council thank you very much at this time there's we're going to have a round of questions for council members do you want to ask questions now I was just going to say if we could hear from the public before we start to oh no so this is the the process so the public knows next we're going to hear from Hart I think Justin Willet Mr Willet is here to talk a to have a presentation uh our budget analyst Miss kesy is going to have a presentation um we're going to have a first round of council questions and comments and then we're going to open it to public comment and I would ask Council to just refrain from making any motions before we hear from the public so I have two registered speakers and then I have a room full of people so but there is I know it's not on the agenda but there is opportunity for public comment before we make motions so at this time we'll have um a representative from Hart to make the presentation thank you very much Mr R yes sir Mr Willets please state your name uh Justin Willet director of planning Hart I'm here to present as requested by Council uh a proposal for route one uh Fair free service improvements um all right we have it pulled up on the screen so go ahead and I was asked to keep it under five minutes so that is my goal I have plenty of more information I can share regarding Transit but uh I'll respect your time um so this uh This original request uh so Y Route One this original re request came through a TPO board member through uh Johnny Wong at the TPO to get some information and that's how we kind of got going down this path and then there was a motion several weeks ago to have me come present so I've present got these three slides um why route one uh could be a good investment uh it's the future brt corridor it is the street car extension Corridor those are the two top Transit priorities on the TPO list it's been approved by the heart board the TP the regional uh acting TPO for the TMA for lack of a better uh description um it's the highest ridership route that and Route Six uh they actually both share this corridor um over 3,000 passengers per day as I said there's a strong connection to the street car uh we recently completed a survey I'll be happy to come back and present about street car ridership I think that'll be some interest to you the highest transfer to the street car is from Route One uh it will provide better service and faster speeds be because of the fair free aspect uh it will reduce boarding time for people pay paying whether it's electronic or with cash so that's a big benefit to the existing operation uh and it will just generally uh part of the component here is a frequency Improvement right now it's at 20 minutes most of the day it would bump up to 15 and that was part of the request uh a little more information on Route One within a quarter mile Route 1 there are 32,000 residents and 56,000 jobs uh within a half mile that pretty much doubles to 64,000 residents and 100,000 jobs 18% of the households along the corridor within a quarter mile do not own a vehicle 26% of people are under the poverty line 64% are minority and 14% have a disability so as you can see it's a a pretty diverse population that lives along the Route uh it's got pretty good service now this proposal would make it just a little bit better and obviously a lot more accessible being fair free um The Proposal is to bring back that 15 minutes during the weekday uh 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. uh that's basically 15 hours of service uh that cost is about 640,000 annually and then the proposal to make it free for all days of the week 7 days a week for year uh is $840,000 um that's based on the current ridership of 1.1 million times the average Fair we get which is not $2 per boarding it's a lower rate because of the way we Fair cap I can elaborate but I'll spare you that um and that total cost comes to $1.48 3,900 and the estimated impact is over 300,000 annual trips in addition to the 1.14 million which would actually be pretty close to what the street car is projected to hit this year um I wanted to keep it quick so I did that and I can take any questions thank you for your presentation you have about $19 million in reserves correct uh our operating Reserve is for 90 days so whatever uh a quarter of our annual budget is of 110 million uh I I would I think it's about that um yeah I think my issue with this is is that there are other routes that are not free in our city and it's really about equity and so for us to provide additional funding wouldn't be fair to other areas in Tampa that could use financial support we I believe we do enough this was a proposal from Council not by heart so that I would direct to the I know but this is our only time to have public comment okay well the street car is free so we do it the street car is free you're right the street car is free and it's accessible primarily I finally wrode har this weekend and I rode the street car and the street car really it compr doesn't necessarily comprise what you call the residence of Tampa it they ride it of course but it is a tourist system that's in place that is free for a very small component of our community so my concern is that the equity is not there how I know that heart does you know have some challenges but for us to focus on one area and not address others is just not something that I could support at this time okay any other questions specifically for the gentleman if not we're gonna I thought we were I thought we are we going to do questions now or we're going to wait no we're going to wait till afterwards but if there's anything specific to him if not we can have a general discussion coming up after Miss who asked for the motion I mean who asked for it to come to us okay we Ved yeah on fine okay so we're know but after some thought and consideration you know that's my huh you didn't vote to bring it you said no I did say no council member Express now is their time to say you know why I'm not supporting council member clenon council member Miranda council member V specific questions for the G excuse me councel I'm just going to ask if you can questions please hold your discussion and your comments till the time of after public comment as per the discussion we had previously Council you know what I apologize okay clendenon Miranda Vieira I was going to do comments so oh clendenon mirand ifs I got it so um I see that you say the 64% of the people within this area are minority reference the equity issue um a couple of things one has this been discussed with the heart board this proposal uh no this request came from Council I believe two weeks ago so we I don't think we've even had a board meeting since have have you given it any thought I know part of the issue with the sunrunner and the free um is that um folks homeless would use it as refuge and you know free routes and camp out is there do you have experience with that or issues with it what end up problematic that happens on the street car today so it's not a it's a not a major issue um it is something we would have to be proactive about and we've we've talked about that at the staff level are you comfortable that you can resolve that issue within the organization yes okay thank there are plenty of models around the country okay thank to the uh to the ridership of the street car the survey we've recently done has kind of changed my perception CU mine was similar to yours about the tourist aspect and it is much more balanced than you would think so it's becoming much more of a local asset and locals are using it a lot more whether it's for entertainment or job like we have all that data so I I'd love to come back and present that when it's cleaned up and that was going to address that when we got to that point in the in the didn't want to let that one s yeah I got it no but thank you I appreciate it thank you so again I want to apologize I to ask the same question micone Clint Den spoke about and that is the master plan I know that was a quick thing from us to ask you to come back and and give us that information and if you have decided or you know of any master plan you have to help improve that system that we have called the the bus system in in the whole area and as the other government and this Hillsburg County uh have any any play in this to help out um so we are currently doing an operations analysis we're about to kick off uh to kind of relook at the bus system postco because we haven't really done that in depth and that will redefine what the system looks like for the next 3 to five to maybe 10 years and let me say why I asked those things I come from public housing I'm not ashamed to say that the only thing we had was a bus system before I got elected in 74 and after 74 to a little bit after and then the feds came in make a deal with the city and I never forget and I've said this before Harry or was running the bus system and right by the elevator he told me something that said in my mind my whole life that they you take $1 from the federal government you're going to take somebody from m y Mama for a quarter that's what he told me and you're smiling on the way inside I can see I can read the the language so I'm not opposed to that but there's a lot of CA to that and what I'm saying is the the buset that I took was number three and number four three and four went from all the way downtown all the way to E War City and up to 15 Street three kept going and four made a right and took all the way to the housing project they left you off at 26 and 20th was right at my doorstep so we took that till i' say I did to 57 or 58 when then teenagers theyed there was $100 to buy a car and that's how that started so what I'm saying teenagers is I put myself back as far as I can remember and I think of the teenagers today and I tell myself maybe that's the problem we have no one's used to riding the car that are young they all have cars which is good or bad that's up to the public to determine but I think one of the things we have is not an anti-y is that they've never used it they're not used to it they're not used to a lot of things that we had then because it's all modernized I mean they don't even talk to each other all they do is text each other don't nobody knows anybody anymore they just know the text number and that's how life is I'm I'm trying to be straight up with you so it's it's a very difficult thing I think and just in my little mind I'm thinking that the only way Transportation going to work yes the bus has been great up to a point you're going to have to have some type of Light Rail elevated just like the airport has people will use that because they're young they're smart they want to get something fast and get there that's how life is today I can drive a car 25 miles an hour on any road they'll run you over even if you're driving a semi to go over you because that's Society is today was it right or wrong I don't have an answer for that but my answer is that are we doing something that is feasible for the people who are not writing and we the ones the ones that are writing certainly need it don't get me wrong but the others have an obligation to write it to save the environment in a way you can't have the in this whole country this whole world the amount of people that throwing the carbon dioxide and everything in the world out the gasoline you burn the smog everything that you think about doing to the your environment you're doing that's why we have a problem everywhere in America either wildfires or flooding in the city of Tampa it's flooding sidewalks and pave the roads those are the three main things that I hear in the last two months and I'm not here to question you I think you're doing a great job but we have to retool ourselves and think what are we doing can we put this money into a better use I don't know I don't have the answer but I'm not in that business so I appreciate what you're doing and I know you're hearing our request and I'm not making you the blame for anything but I'm just saying we must think forward in a different perspective of mine thank you very much counc thank you so I I was going to make comments I'm not uh because I I I have a lot of comments i' i' I voted to forward this with the information I have I'm supportive of it but I do want to say this is not a question nor is it a comment that if this passes we it's true that we have a heart board meeting on Monday right um yeah yeah budget yeah so all I will do as the chair of heart a memo asking us to be briefed on this I don't think it's a stretch to say that the heart board I don't let's say this I would be very surprised if the heart board did not support this right I would be very surprised acting in our capacity as a hardboard I'd be surprised um but I'm veering off the comments that I'm not going to do um but I will make comments once the time is appropriate but thank you yep if I could just add so when I went started back at heart just over a year ago one of the first things the board said to us as staff after the state study came out which said we were super well-run except critically underfunded our board asked are we doing everything we can to partner with the community and I have spearheaded the efforts to try to find more funding I've set it to a number of you in oneoff conversations um I've worked with City staff to their credit uh they are they have committed some funding for a circulator uh for 3 years that that application for a project is with the dot um but until the city steps up to fund better bus service we are going to perpetually be in the same condition we've been in since 1979 that's my opinion and that's really where we're at here um we've we're not going to change much without a real strong leadership on bus service and those light rail projects that we all want whether it's from downtown to the airport the street car extension those are all great projects and I think we all agree they should happen but without a really strong bus Network they're going to struggle and their ridership projections are going to struggle so that's that's just where I stand on the bus side and I've heard you say that uh councilman many times councilman Miranda and it's ingrained in my head I've only been here 11 years but you've been you've been sitting on my shoulder um but it's true it's it's at some point in the past for whatever reason the city decided to hand over transit to a countywide agency and those are the issues that have affected har in my 11 years all of that has continued to play out our mandate for a th000 square miles is impossible to serve on a half a mill we cannot get the political leadership to change that and and I've already veered off course myself so I'll stop there thank you very much council member Henderson thank you when you said the city needs to step step up can you explain that a little bit more to me because I thought it was very intentional that the heart system was separate from the city of Tampa and they did that for a reason and so what what do we need to step up and do so I think that inim in terms of course so most Transit agencies if we look at our peers right are funded by a variety of sources it's either a countywide gas tax a local option gas tax it's it's either a local option gas tax or some city funding St Pete I think contributes four to five million a year to PSTA but there's a variety of sources the only sources of funding we get from the city right now are uh Capital Improvements for some bus stops and some of the code language dictates that we should get bus stops as part of that development we're getting some CRA funding for Capital Improvements this year which I'm greatly appreciative of and thankful for staff for working with us but there is no there's never been a a Transit expert at the city i' I've mentioned this to to to Jean Duncan a decade ago the mayor every time I Convent her ear but the until the city has some Transit expertise on staff and some some skin in the game other than the small portion of the heart board that exist this I feel like the agency will struggle to help the city meet its Transportation needs and we're going to be in this Perpetual cycle where the city can blame Hart and then the Hart has very little ability to increase their funding without broad support at the County Commission which we do not have right now and so that's the complicated answer to that question yes you know I had put my mic on then you pretty much said what I was going to say about with the funding and the issue with the county and all I want to I I want to make sure that folks that are listening heard what you had to say and that is the funding source from this is really it is County and that so that you know this is not a city thing and I you know we we try to work with within the limited budget that we have to support Hart um but you know the the millage and everything else that all flows through the county uh our budget is is is so small that it we need a better County Commission to be able to support transit in Hillsboro County and and that's it's that's period blank the end it's that's the the answer is not necessarily I mean we can put Band-Aids on it in the city of Tampa but the answer is not at the city of Tampa the answer is at the county level is this a question yeah that was a question it sound like all right thank you very much sir we're gonna go to um we're gonna go to miss capy's presentation and then we will open it up for the first round of city council questions comments and then go to public comment Miss kesy if you'd like to come up good evening heger kesy City Council budget analyst excuse me all right so I'm going to make this brief um but there were a couple points that I think might just be worth bringing back to the group um we have limited opportunities to do that collectively um some of these are very casual and I'm going to be putting them on Elmo and then after that I'll do a brief presentation regarding the progress we've made um with uh the team on Paving and uh sidewalk and getting prepared on how best to allocate those funds and and change some processes around so um first let's talk about social action and arts funding I know um when this first started the initial time that we saw this encompassed I would call it two buckets it was social action and arts funding the not for profits and then there were also the city of Tampa assets which are essentially the cultural facilities so I do want to just touch briefly on each of those so let's see if I can get this right give it a minute there okay let SC this down so really I think most of you have seen the summary that comes out of Mr R's um department and what has happened in the last couple weeks is there just been a couple subtle changes to this so basically this is a breakdown of the $3 million that the city at this point has budgeted for 2025 for the social action and arts funding um organization the reason that there are a few items highlighted the yellow items indicate uh items that are new to the fiscal year and the items in blue represent organizations who have received an increase over the prior year I'm going to just kind of scroll here down and I can make this available to you after the meeting as well but so really the point here is you know be aware of kind of the combination of what's on the the listing but also in the 3 million what we have currently available for what we would we would call um an allocated funding is the 124,000 that you see at the bottom here I'm just going to put my pencil right here there we go so that essentially is what has not been I'm going to use the word tapped into for any specific org and so is the funding that's available for the balance of the year just say if you want to make it larger you can oh yeah thanks I appreciate it sure sure so essentially this was just a a reminder of where we sit with this particular area it does get a lot of attention um before I rotate over to the city assets any questions on this council member Henderson was this your motion or no General I think it was just a general okay you said there's been a lot of what what did you say I oh I said there's just in between the initial time that you saw this on I think July 18th and then now there have been some additional requests put in which are reflected in here um so in the beginning just to give you perspective there was an unallocated balance of 212,000 to be used and now that balances down to 124 right okay so at what point explain this to me again how we're doing this did you want to take questions now whatever you think is going to be more practical maybe on a piece by piece it might be easier now okay but no motions until public after public comment yeah so everything highlighted in blue basically already existed correct it just has an increase to it why did it increase I would not be able to answer that okay it did it increase through your office Mr Herrero at the mayor's request oh just a clarification they increased from fiscal year 24 from the current schal year okay I'll have I'll have to research that ma'am in terms of where the originating request for increase came from but but we can't we Circle back to you yeah council member via you can only ask a question right now right yeah specific question to the presenter Council VI then Council thank you very much Mr chair uh a couple questions for youall um number one eore Museum didn't they get 150 last year or am I wrong I thought they did um I think actually it was 125 ah okay 50 the year before okay thank you so much uh and thank you for that councilman Clinton and then I see a little one next to Veterans helping veterans and merciful project which I know a lot of folks here on this Council want to get something do we need to make a motion after public comment to include those because I see a little or yes if Council wanted to proceed we could make a motion and again uh you know we've discussed I'm sorry I'll intend or whoever for for those two I I won't make it now but that's it thank you yeah we can make a motion to reduce some of these figures too right we can do that you can do motions to increase reduce sure okay all right council member come done well I can't wait till we get well you know actually that was part that was one of my questions because I I specifically so are we going to go through because I'm I've I've got questions where did leadership development resources going from Zer to 120 where did that come from does anybody know again we I'd have to look and unless someone in Council or in Chambers knows where the uh request originated yeah 120 it was Zero no it was zero and 24 it must have happened sometime during this year so in from 0 and 24 to no not not budgeted at all in 24 and 120 budgeted in 25 according to the paper that I have in front of me and Lighthouse for the Blind went from 0er to 50 that was an add-on do you show that as an add-on you do okay um yeah I guess my question is where where do these increases come from and how did they appear on this list and I I'm I'm curious because it's interesting you brought up I'm not I don't have any skin on the game on the eore city uh Museum but it looks like in 22 they were at 46 they went to 50 then they jumped to 125 and now jumping to 150 yeah would you mind Council ver yes sure so um eore City Museum had um seen a cut um a couple of years ago their funding got cut from I think it was I don't want to speak at it turn like 150 or something down to uh the $50,000 so last year we got them up to the level that they used to be at before with a consent of council and the administration so that's why they got the increase they've had a lot of monetary problems and and I mean everybody obviously wants to support the great work with the museum does so that's the uh explanation they used to be at that level and then we got them back to the level we used to they used to be at I probably need to take a tour to understand what their contributions are because we have a history museum we have all these you know to understand what that's what we're doing there um because I can't speak intelligently about it because I haven't um okay that's I think those are my the biggest thing that leadership going from 0 to 120 um jumps out at me so I'd like to have answers to that and Lighthouse for the Blind why are we why is that showing up for the first time on our not that it's not an unworthy organization but why is that showing up for the first time um pep and Welden Academy I'm assuming that must have come from you okay okay sure yeah go ahead okay thank you very much yeah so um Pepin has a a welding program that helps young people with intellectual disabilities who are very mild intellectual disabilities uh become welders uh a nice gentleman by the name of Bryant Martinez who's a gol War veteran very nice guy does that so I worked out with some of the advocates for pepen uh to improve their Program for Young People so minor contribution is that program at their city of Tampa facility it will my understanding is it will that's my understanding yeah okay M cuz I know they have another campus oh yeah yeah they have Riverview Etc so my understanding is and I want to qualify that because that's my understanding is that it will be council member Carlson um chief of staff is here um if he wouldn't mind if I asked him a question I think um I think you led if I may be incorrect but I think you led the effort several years ago to formalize this process so it would be a more stringent process more based on results not on just random requests could you just explain the strategy that is that you used behind this and why uh these folks were um put in and and without going through everyone individually maybe just explain why some might have gone up or down sure John Bennett Chief of Staff um good evening Council good evening to the public uh to answer your question um when we got here and we saw it was called a fund 200 and a lot of the not a lot but some of the entities on there there um there was limited accountability limited strategic alignment with the city and so of course we were a little disrupted with the co window but we wanted to bring more accountability and more of a scope of work and of course now um a certain dollar amounts certain thresholds have to meet code requirements public records requirements audit requirements and so just to tighten all of that up and to make sure that uh the city and of course city council and the administration feel that the money that is coming from the public to the nonprofits are providing these opportunities that align with the council's vision of course and the Strategic plan of the city uh some of the things that have gone up or requested to go up uh whether they come through council's recommendation or in some cases directly to the city um usually has of course a Nexus to the Strategic plan and the goals of the city and of course as we vet the scope of services through these agreements that traditionally gets and Tighter and uh it's again one of the visions that we've had is to work on you know how do we support either directing some of these funds to um either grant opportunities or other opportunities to help startups and spread the wealth of these opportunities to other organizations and then of course over time let them kind of wean off of these funds so we're still a little bit off of that right now because of the co disruption but again as we go on and on we want to make sure that we're getting the best uh return on the taxpayers investment for the nonprofits you you you talked about being in line with strategy um I think it would be helpful in the future even this one if if you all categorize them based on the topics like Economic Development several would fit under there maybe some would fit under Arts sure Workforce training whatever if they were if they were probably not more than 10 buckets but ideally like five um and so it would show that it's it and my question is if that's possible could you show it to us Absol it would it would make it easier to explain to the public council member Miranda thank you now along with the same things I'm just throwing something out do we have a perform of what happened year after year after year that we just have a list of what they want and I don't know about the needs but sure are they do we do they turn in we had so many visitors or whatever it was that they're doing and so many came in and we we got so many settled and we're working on so many hypotheses of what's going on so the going back to the original question one of the baselines that was instituted was called the logic model it was almost like a one-page grant style approach to bring more accountability and transparency to the nonprofit interface with the city and so it's this the typical manage you know our resources our outputs and our outcomes and also a disclosure of where you get other funding from what your staff looks like you know we were looking to provide more programmatic funding than staff funding but we also know that some staff leads to better Workforce Development so it's sprinkled in there but the whole idea was to use these logic models to for the jump off point now they become more of a scope of services in a full-blown agreement and then they have to provide quarterly reports to get the tranches in quarterly distributions from the uh the budget office are any types of audits required every 3 years or something so that would be embedded in the boiler plate that now legal has worked well with to develop and now embedded in that is really the dynamic part is the scope of services that the nonprofits providing and again to the other point is how well aligned they are with the vision of the city thank you sir thank you very much yes ma'am thank you actually um Chief if you wouldn't mind staying uh just to talk a little bit more about this you said there's a onepage descriptor that they have to put forward that's what we started with to before the agreement levels were more blossoming through the legal department uh we provided them like a template it's it almost looks like a one-page grant but it's a logic model that walks you through these are the resources you have or need and then these are the outputs you're going to provide with the expected outcomes and then they have to report on that quarterly to deliver the next tranch of funding so those are available yes so I think it would be handy for us to take a look at those if that's possible if you could send us PDFs of this because it seems like a lot of us don't know what some of this goes toward and as we're the ones allocating this funding it would be great at least I would like to look through them especially if they're only one pagers sure I think it would make a lot um it would help between first and second reading to really determine uh the understanding at least that that that would be my recommendation or my ask I don't think I need to make a motion it's not motion time but but I think it would help uh us to determine is that something Mr oaro if I can just add one quick thing so again as we introduced this logic model as a a paper transparent interface of this level of service that they're asking um one of the maturation processes of this was to decentralize it out of the cfo's office which is where this accountability began and decentralize it to the subject matter expert s in the different roles in different departments which are also working now on the scope of services in the bigger boiler plate so it's been a an evolution of accountability and transparency but um I'll let the Chief Financial Officer augment my comments no thank you Chief well well said I just wanted to uh provide some additional information and clarification as to what you can expect when we provide you copies uh you know as the chief said uh it's been a dynamic process over the past few years going from a one one pager till beginning in fiscal year 25 every nonprofit that receives more than $25,000 while actually have a contract in agreement now right now about half of them do and uh if I could have the Elmo up please thank you this is the letter be sending out it's dated today I'll probably send it out tomorrow and you see the city will require agreements from all agencies requesting funding of 25,000 or greater as Council motion such funding must be applied for on an annual basis and will be subject to approval by the Tampa City Council so we have progressed far from just one page unless of course uh for fiscal year 25 you're getting less than 25,000 so what what council will get uh with these copies is those few remaining one pages and if you want the agreements associated with all of the other nonprofits I personally would be interested in that but then my question becomes how do we how do we monitor the less than 25,000 or is that just something we kind of give and say you have three years and that's it it it is our intent of course we're open to continue with the one pagers the same way that we've done which is a quarterly report as to their progress before we give them a quarterly payment and from my understanding we are trying to wean some organizations off after I believe I don't know where three years got in my head I don't think that's necessarily true but yeah and and I I would transfer wean into provide more opportunity for other startups meaning you know again kind of create a DI Minimus process and also guide them with technical assistance to other grant opportunities I had a a group uh pay us for this opportunity outside the city of Tampa and I align them with subject matter expert to point to them other funding sources so I think it's kind of a journey of support where may start out with you know seed money and then work its way down as opposed to becoming so consistent we avoid opportunities for other nonprofits to get engaged exactly and I don't know I see some really big names on that list and I'm kind of questioning why folks are still getting I mean at some point right we want that money to go towards some smaller more so that's kind of why I'm interested in Reading sure this documentation to see you know how we go further so thank you that answered my question counc member Henderson Dr Chief you know we've had some extensive conversations about this particular list it's a very small portion of our budget but it really matters because it's you know supporting local nonprofit organizations the thing thing that came across our desk uh up here we voted on the NAACP they finally solidified an agreement and it came across this you know our desk and we voted on it we also voted on you know Community Stepping Stones but all we don't have agreements you just put that letter down we don't have agreements for everybody on this page but yet they're still getting this significant amount of funding and we don't know what their expectations are for example especially it's not the $25,000 that bothers me it's the $200,000 organization that repeatedly have been on this list and yet they don't have any agreements and and we put the NAACP through a lot of changes to finally get their funding but yet nobody has questioned these larger amounts that have gone to these organizations year after year after year after year and there's no agreement in place so that is one of the issues that should be highlighted it should already be a Aster Mark by every single person who does not have an agreement with us that's not over that's over $225,000 since that's what we're doing go ahead and identify who doesn't have an agreement because we did vote for them and they had to do a lot of different things to come to the table to get what they they got and remember they were here last week they were we moved the resolution and they was kind of concerned because they thought that we were getting ready to you know not give it to them and we had to explain no this is the time and that's how long it has taken but yet other people are on this list and don't have agreements at all at much higher figures years so I can you will you be able to provide us with an aster by every single organization over $25,000 that does not have an agreement because I know that Carl Brody is working on those right yes so we should know the position of those because we how can we make a good decision and just give away another $200,000 to organization that has gotten this money for a very these organizations have gotten this money for a very long time and no one um it predates even you all um they're on the list they made the list and nobody can explain any of that so why are they at these levels and why are we continuing to do it without agreements and they're already over a certain dollar figure where other people have been required to come before us to get their funding and the administration agrees with you completely on oh okay good all right council member clett and Miranda okay well I'm going to start off with a followup that wasn't until Council Henderson Point Blank why don't these why don't these organizations why aren't they held to the same standard why don't we have agreements from them just as the chief financial off it's a it's a journey to get with the subject matter departments to work with legal when that boiler plate just came out for the agreements above 25,000 so they have to sit down and I'll use sorry it's been at least a year we understand that but the communications department needs to work with the ones that are 200,000 and figure out what their scope of services are they've been engaged over and over again to see what they're going to contribute to the city so as these agreements develop those scope of services are going to be you know how you know how you get those really quick yeah you cut they F exactly my mind which I which I plan to do and the funding increases really came from the chambers so that's what we're working on is to get the scope of services down to this actionable amount problem so question for you um I I see just in the last three years this this these funds have nearly doubled in just just a very short I mean literally a blank of an eye just a couple of of years have you all considered capping the growth of this fund and or maybe we should all consider capping the growth of this fund and then if we want to fund new organizations we take it out of the Hide I thought it was $5 million the first year at the beginning the I just want you to keep in mind that some of these reasons we've had to fund these sources because the state stopped funding and the county stopped funding so I just okay thinking of that in that point well taken I just I wanted you to know that before you go down that road any further well I mean I only because when you because when you look at it you go man we I mean we we' really we're coughing up some some coin here for some of these organizations and I mean and probably some of my misgivings is cuz I I just had to Google what some organization was I mean I said I've never even heard of this organization and we're giving them money so it's you know it's one of the literally while I was down here googleing like who the heck is this um so yeah I mean that's I I guess that that's it uh yeah thank you councilman Miranda what's Google pull out your advocus it's on your advocus well M Mr Brody is here he let me say this in my Me Maybe we should clear up this whole thing just make a motion right now that we would like everybody to be on the same page as those that have the the requirements that they have to meet the obligations and within six months or something and we're not putting the burden on us we're putting the burden on them and that way I just want to get out of this I don't think uh it's proper for me to criticize somebody who has doesn't have if I don't know all the intakes and outakes of the whole thing so I think that would solve the problem I'm not trying to tell you all what to do but I think in order to have everybody seen through the same lenses it ought to be cleared up so that way no one has any doubt that anything is going on second whenever no yeah we'll hold that yeah but Mr Brody is here he can tell us who has agreements or not like right now during you know so that the public can hear or when we make the motion we say anybody yeah but he can answer he has he can answer the question because he's here Carl Brody uh legal department U I can't tell you exactly who has them unfortunately what we do is we're doing these on a rolling basis so depending on when the initial uh agreement was let's say it started in August then yes they'd be up to date they have an updated agreement if their agreement started in December and it's a year long then at the end of that year period then they'll be updated with the new agreement so that's where the nwcp came in it had its agreement due so we were working on getting that taken care of more recently we saw we had the um uh Str Center and they had one that came through and we also had the Florida Orchestra that had one come through last year and it's all based on uh that annual um reappointment or re adjustment of the agreements so that's what we're updating right no okay that's confusing to me because the last agreement for the NAACP was when Frank Reddit sat in his chair and so it was so how long ago was that that was two two council members District Five ago so that's at least what 10 12 years and then it was it because they got a larger amount and that's why they came they had a new agreement yeah there's changed significantly it changed from from 7,000 to 100,000 correct so during that period we were updating the agreements and they really they may have been one of the first uh social action and arts funding agreements that we did that's going to be on that consistent uh set of terms okay I'm going ask you easier question is anybody with a $200,000 earmark do they have agreements with us already that are in place that are current if they don't they will on the next uh cycle dur but is there anyone that currently has one right at that so I just look at the legal side of it C you sound like a lawyer okay thank you thank you very yes yes yeah the you don't have to answer the question but the the concern from the community about the nacp one is one that they were singled out the second is that it took so long um they felt like that agreement we approved a couple weeks ago should have been approved a year ago so I I don't if there's anything we can do to speed up the process you might let us know well have the floor um Mr Chief of Staff it you don't have to get up but it it might be helpful going forward um if we have maybe in a workshop if if your team takes us through the process that you're proposing maybe get some input from us and the public and so there's transparency into it and maybe some to and fro uh that way we avoid having this conversation in the first hearing and we can be more strategic for next year and we agree with that we're open to a method logical approach to this that fits all needs and of course getting the agreements in place that um comport to the code so whatever it takes to get there again we're all trying to move this accountability and transparency and most importantly opportunity to the broadest way possible thank you very much Miss kesy do you have more to your presentation yes all right you got good stuff so at the beginning I said that you know when we first start started looking at Aid funding I called it put it down we can't see I see that there we go slightly there we go perfect thank you that's good all right so when we first started reviewing Aid funding um we talked about two buckets and so the second one uh was the uh City of Tampa assets or what I refer to as the cultural facilities so in light of the fact we were going to be talking about this I just thought it would be good to give everyone a snapshot of the totality of that and so for example in initially when we discussed it we hear a lot of we'll talk about the non-departmental the the general fund and so I think when Council woman Henderson was talking about wasn't the number bigger it was this sa funding as well as the portion um that you would see in this First Column called non-departmental and so for those specific locations so what I want to do is just walk through and show you know the money is dispersed in different places so for example many of you or all of you know that there is a current active loan with the aquarium and so in 25 um the payment on that loan would be $7 million I'm just going to continue to move left to right so um within one of the Enterprise funds Mobility parking they contribute 331,000 to the street car again this would be in addition to the general fund and then as you know the CRA also provides a bit of several contracts of funding and the specifics to those are noted off on the right um but when you put those everything together for these 1 2 3 5 nine organizations um it's $27 million so again this was just to level set everyone again on when we talk about commitment and what we've done um that's the totality of it so any questions yes just a quick question so this is 27.25 million. 3 million um and what what is the totality of of the the I guess social action um the one that we just went over is three million three I'm sorry three three million 2.94 okay so three okay thank you okay thank you very much yes ma'am what's next all right and so next chief of staff did you have something oh I'm sorry yeah we're not done are you commenting on this just on the social action um just a bar with legal I think it's important for the public and Council to hear going into this fiscal year there is no social action and arts fund recommendation that will get a dollar without an agreement in place over 25,000 level it's all of them will have to meet an agreement right above 25 would need an agreement going into this fiscal year thank you very much that was that was very clear yes sir yes sir I want to be clear of it uh Mr Chief Bennett is that over 25 or 2 and over 25 25 and over okay so if someone's at 25,000 we'll put them at 24 okay thank you if we're going to $249.99 okay so um moving on I am going to ask that the presentation I provided um be brought up please so uh another Topic near and near and dear to this group's heart um is resurfacing and sidewalk and so uh here we go so in the last couple weeks um Mr roero and Mr bday and I have been walking through kind of how to get our arms around um putting a process for this in place so um I want to just kind of walk through so when we met what we had to acknowledge was that um you know how are we going to Define this because we know there's a lot of road work that gets done but when we hear this discussion we know that we believe what is really being discussed often is the annual ongoing resurfacing maintenance that needs to occur why is this important because we need to be able to isolate what we're talking about and know how to plan for it and and measure it so one thing that's important and I think it's been discussed with the group of is we know that there's a lot of other resurfacing that goes on and so for the purpose of what we're going to discuss today yes there are going to be other um projects in transportation there are going to be uh Road res surfing that's Road resurfacing that's necessary for example in a storm water project those do occur and we need to know what they are but again when we talk today about annual resurfacing and where we want to throw that let's focus on the ones that we consider again annual recurring need to maintain our roads um so one of the other things we did request um of Mr bday is is to give us what would basically uh Encompass his maximum annual capacity to do work on road resurfacing and sidewalks and he did we're going to get to that in a minute and then in addition um we all have the capital plan for 2025 and embedded in there are numerous uh project ID numbers so identifying which ones we're talking about is going to be essential to being able to continue to understand where we are with them so to get right down to capacity uh broke these into the bucket so we've got resurfacing the road that we will continue to do with contractors we have resurfacing that um can be performed with the internal team and I don't come on feel free and obviously what Vic has explained before is that um the type of work that's done with the internal team is uh can be slightly different than the work that's done with the Contracting team just going to keep going until you tell me the okay good um when we asked about the sidewalks we know that's another area that people are really interested in so the capacity was 2 million for um the fixes and 2 million I'm sorry new and fixed and then we can use the internal team um to the tune of 2 million for um modifications and Corrections so in total that brings us to an estimated annual capacity of $25 million all right so um the note on the bottom is just put in here because I know there's been some dialogue around as we continue to measure the success of the in-house Paving we know there could should will be an interest in possibly looking at something similar for sidewalk walks and this is simply to say we want a little more time to get um ourselves our footing with the internal Paving come back and understand kind of what that uh financial success has been before we make a formal ask for anything additional in terms of sidewalks I could jump one thing uh Vic B director Mobility uh so on the sidewalks piece there are two aspects to it one as uh Hagar mentioned that we'd like to get a better footing on the uh in-house uh Paving team and get them more capabilities we've identified what our financial needs are for a sidewalk team it's a little shy of $4 million a year what they do not include and that's the big consideration for us is as we expand team sizes they require facilities to and specialized equipment to park this equipment and to house the staff themselves and facilities in real estate as you know are are really tight and pretty expensive and that cost has not been factored in that's something that we're cognizant off and we'll continue to work with our facilities Department should we get there but that is one of the considerations right oops sorry about that all right so so this is just addressing and I don't want to take you too much into the Weeds on this that as you all have become familiar with the capital listing again they're identified with a capex come up closer come closer to the micop sorry as you become familiar with the capital listing you see that they are identified through Capital project IDs I think by the end of this month we're all going to have this 12350 memorized because that's the one that encompasses the majority of the resurfacing um the reason I've indicated that we will be opening a new number to track the internal is simply to allow us to better understand and Report the performance of that and so thus um there will be a new number for internal Street resurfacing and then moving down the two other numbers you see are also are already in existence and it's just again a restatement that um these are the ones when we come forward and talk about this particular effort um we'll be discussing you will see many other projects that indicate specific Road workor or other things but these are the ones that we're going to be focusing on measuring all right so let's talk about Gap because you are in a place where you need to decide how best to make recommendations on priori prioritizing capex so walking through um walking through where we have estimated we will probably be uh in terms of finishing out this year with carryover carryover money and then the amounts that were put into the budget for fiscal 20 5 I've broken out each of the amounts that we think are actually um available let's see here and thus it creates at the end a gap of 15 million if we were going to strive for hitting the maximum 25 million so again the point here is as we're looking at what's in the capex plan we have specific amounts budget for example 4.1 million for resurfacing with contractors 1.3 with the internal team but when we consider Mr B's capacity if we wanted to hit this hard and really go after it then essentially what we're talking about is having to redeploy $15 million from somewhere else to be able to do that on an annual basis council member her T thank you um can you go back to the capacity slide just the one that says capacity so what I don't understand is the next next slide I think capacity you want or the well yeah this this Slide the capacity we have the the capacity to resurface with contractors to me that seems Limitless so why is it 16 million so couple of reasons why because when we look at resurfacing projects we could do much larger contracts and just do design build a lot of times though we do let Lage our in-house team to do in-house designs so that's one thing the other is there is a startup time for a broader program so you've heard me say in the past that we need about 442 million a year to keep our roads in good shape but that doesn't mean that if we get $40 million today that we'll be able to spend that there's a startup time so this $25 million for this year represents some of that and the startup itself but we can ramp up and get that increased if there were programmatic funding available today relative to our capacity what is it that we can do on top of projects that we already have and we've got projects like West River we've got projects like Palmetto Beach coming up that's our capacity but that doesn't really answer the question like what why resurface with contractors we we could simply do $100 million so most of these projects resurfacing projects require survey they require design they require considerations of vision zero and things like that for redesign that itself has some startup time associated with it so if you're asking can we get a very large design build project initiated in your one we probably could but that will still take several years to execute and so to to so if you're asking about capacity from that standpoint then yes we have more capacity but we do have in-house projects that we've identified to be done that we've already designed and initiated and hence the $25 million for this fiscal year but internal projects that we're going to have external people do I think that's the the trick and then my other question has to do with sidewalks if you could go back to the last slide you had up that one yes so I I just have to ask this where is the money from the sidewalk in Luffy in this so I can answer that the sidewalk inl fees are being spent as we speak right now and that number isn't as high as you might think it is so they're not calculated in this how however sidewalk inlo fees are being spent in several of our uh CIP projects so for example one of the carryovers under sidewalks was like a million dollar we're actually putting together together a $2 million designb build contract for the sidewalk gaps identified in moves so as many as we can get for $2 million a lot of that will also be funded by sidewalk and luffies okay just and then just for perspective when we made that policy change to the sidewalk in Luffy several years back it actually worked in that we're seeing contractors build more sidewalk as a consequence from January to date we've maybe collected about $160,000 in sidewalk in Luffy so it's not that much money uh and our cost is a million dollars a mile yeah thank you counc Mar coun thank you very much I uh I know you're talking about dollars but maybe you can put a perspective so we understand it all the public and us also how many miles are we doing with those dollars a million dollars a mile so if we have2 million uh dollars we can do about 2 million uh sorry two miles uh two miles of sidewalk a year that's new sidewalk we're also doing uh a lot of sidewalk rehab and replacement of panels of existing sidewalk and that we're using 700,000 from parking uh we're using in uh we cannot use inlo fees for that sorry and we're using operating funds and capital funds for that let me tell you what I've seen here recently yesterday I was driving through Cleveland not Ohio Cleveland Street and uh I see all the sidewalks were shaved where there were some unbalances in and I noticed that the other day in West hampa some of the areas paletto Street was another one that was shaved I turn around look around and and uh it's amazing how sidewalks move because of the weather people don't understand that they do move absolutely and and we have that grinding program and on the back of it we come with a panel replacement where grinding isn't enough but we've covered about half the city uh in about a year and a half so we think in the next couple of years we'll be done with the whole I've seen it in many places those too but thanks again uh it's no secret that I've been pushing hard on Paving street car number one Paving number two too or vice versa depending on how I wake up that morning um what I hear when you say about the the resources you know 40 million justes to keep up with what we currently have that's not to that's not new and improved that's just keeping up with the general maintenance of of the streets and City Tamp which shows why when we only have $4.7 million allocated in a budget that shows how wul ad inadequate it is to maintain um that's why when I my only ask of all of this budget the only ask was to to was to increase the paving budget and it fell on duff ears um I didn't get a damn penny in it from from the for the administration when they submitted the budget I'm looking at you um so it's uh it's disappointing um I mean at the risk of saying you know before we go through second reading on this I'm going to start willing mly going through budget other people's budgets and start proposing cuts to get to where we need to be but it it seems clear to me I mean you you say you've got a capacity question about your capacity sure cuz I'm kind of leaning towards the direction the councilwoman herk was saying I get what you're saying that these big projects you know that design and all this but you know what I just need Paving equipment on these residential streets that are crumbling under people's feet that doesn't that's not rocket science you know as if youve discovered by bringing the stuff in house it doesn't require you know studying it doesn't require surveying it just requires putting some asphalt down on top of of of these the streets before they literally wash out from underneath you know folks folks kids playing you know playing um so I we need we need as a city to to be hitting closer to that goal of at least maintaining the crap that we have and that includes our streets um you know I know we have a deficit of of of infrastructure maintenance in our parks and everything else you know we've had issues and that's why you know I've I've been supportive of of the administration's agenda and trying to increase revenues to keep up with that but um somewhere in this budget we need to find money to pave the streets I mean we need neighborhood streets not big projects just Paving people streets they expect that we're paying a lot of money and taxes to live here it's a great City it's just a basic need you know we do we're doing really well at providing people clean water we're doing well of taking their dirty water out of their house so all our police are doing an incredible job our fires do an incredible job we are woefully behind in our transportation woefully behind in our in our street Paving and I really urge I mean I don't think you want me going through with with with a with a hatchet of the budget to find money to do this I think the administration needs to come forward with some proposals of where we can reprioritize this fy2 budget to be able to fix the paging page Paving deficit to at least get to some Bas to to the basic needs of of what it takes to make keep up with everything if I could address a couple of items that you mentioned so first uh on on the gas STX budget that is is dismal there's no doubt about it and that's why because gas tax is what funds Transportation the paving budget is lesser I do want to highlight we have Bridges we have street lights we have traffic signals all of that comes into that same budget those are all equally critical uh well that's uh subject to your priorities as the first um but I do want to highlight that there's all of these other programs as well that are essential and and needed for the city and as far as again in-house Paving team it's the same Calculus if we have to in uh increase the size of our in-house Paving team and they've already shown significant results you see it out there and we're focusing mainly on neighborhoods uh it's the same thing we'll need more facilities we'll need more places and offices for uh to house these people and so there's a balance to be struck between what we can contract and what we can bring in house I I I understand I understand what you're saying but we've got to do better and I you know I look towards the administration to finding that before we have to go through and find it ourselves um I want to say for record because we've had this conversation time and time again you mentioned Bridges the bridges and Tampa are safe yes they're structurally sound so the bridges and Tampa are safe we've got we've got fairly good quality of bridges um you know some of this other stuff is we we have to start thinking about the wants versus the needs and the needs are great and uh and I again I applaud you on taking the initiative of the in-house Paving what that saving and also a plug in because I know people talk about this and we've seen it misreported in the times I've seen it shocking misreported in the times um the about the growth of uh Personnel you know when we when you hear this that we're bringing in-house Paving team well guess what we may have to hire a couple of employees so you'll see this on these budget sees you know we we took over the waste of management plant which brought our employees up so it looks like the city of Tampa is hiring all the people guess what it's saving people it's saving money so when the man standing before us at at the day of today talks about bringing in house it's adding employees but he's saving taxpayer money so don't be coming next you know six months and I say oh you added three FTE or whatever no it's saving taxpayer money so thank you for doing and with Paving it's 100% saving on the ultimate product y thank you I appreciate that keep it up councilman Vier Council and and thank you and and I'm trying to by the way because I I know we have people waiting here to talk save most of my comments for afterwards because I have a lot to say but I will say this um uh kind of building on what briefly on what councilman Clinton talked about Revenue which is you know we we're we're looking at I'll just say it very briefly we're looking at taking parts of the budget for other things like Road repaving fire different things where we we have a lot of Revenue challenges here in the city of Tampa I don't care what people say you know I proposed a small. three uh uh Mill in last year we're looking at the CIT and we I mean we're two months September October two months away from the election two months away from the election and and see and if we don't what I'll save that for later but I did want to have a I did have a question because I just did talk to the folks over at um Tampa Police Department District 2 and at station 13 on 30th I wanted to make sure that's already funded from last year it's not dependent on this year correct 30th Street yes 30th Street is funny that's okay just cuz I told them it was I just wanted to make sure when I saw them a few days ago and also wanted to say this is just a um just for y all two up there for Mr bday just that you always do such a good job and you're always so well prepared and and you're you're always just a pleasure to work with and and for Miss kesy you're new and I just wanted to say I I'm sure I speak for all of us just that you're doing a great job at this I mean I know all Council I'm sure agrees you're doing a great job I know councilman clendenon I believe was the one who motioned to um create this position if I recall and and you're just doing a good job you're you're always prepared and all that stuff so you're doing a good job just wanted to say that thanks keeps our pencil sharp and for sure and I know you said well prepared so I'm really sorry to say this but on 30th I do need to clarify the southern section is funded the northern section is for FY 25 funding ah okay good so Bugan via to uh bush is funded and then buan via to uh Fowler is fy2 funded okay good so but the section where station 133 in District 2 R it has already been funded correct okay thanks that's what I told him thanks council member Carlson counc member Miranda yeah thank you all for doing this um and I'll save most of my comments to later but this is the just to Echo what my colleagues are saying this is the number one issue that I hear about and I've now been on Council a little bit more than five years and I've been heavily pushing this for five years also in fact two years ago I voted against the entire $ 1.8 billion do budget because the road repair budget was only 4.1 million and I I I I never bought into the idea that we should only use gas tax for roads um the um uh last year I think maybe council member Clint dennon made the motion but we all agreed that um that we would move that parking signage money over but that only increased it to 11 million and we need way more than that just for basic maintenance and you know we have people that are complaining every day that they pay a lot in taxes and their roads are falling apart and and I know you know from uh what happens on days like today is the roads that have brick underneath the water gets up underneath and as the temperature changes it buckles up the the asphalt and we just end up with potholes everywhere there was a huge pothole in the corner of baser and Gandy um after the last rain a few days ago um so we had the Great Recession where Pam Oro had to cut the budget back to nothing had to cut cut staff and uh you know kept the kept the city afloat and and and kept the reserves High we're just now restoring the reserves to that level that she created um but then what happened after that is there was a push for new tax and the public believes that that the the road repair budget was kept artificially low for eight or 10 years so that they would be compelled to vote for a road tax and what they're telling us that they don't want to vote for tax they don't want to wait on that because it could be 10 years away they want the roads repaired now and so we've got to find find a way to fund it we don't have uh near enough money to be able to um even fund this year's Road repair and uh and we need to go back through if you look at what was not done because the Great Recession and because of vanity projects and and lack of attention we have hundreds of Mill I think you said two was it two billion or more two billion is for all of moves to as of 2022 we we have we have um deferred maintenance on these roads and we didn't we city council especially new ones didn't create this problem but we've got to figure out how to go back and fix them and and instead of just having the money to maintain one year we need we need more um so the question I would ask the administration can you please help us find more so we don't have to cut something because that's the thing that we're going to all hear more and more complaints about um and number two is um can you just confirm all all these numbers are kind of confusing but can you just confirm again for the record that up until two years ago the the budget was this 4.1 million that's on this out of a $1.8 billion budget we still only had 4.1 million a year for Road it was more or less about6 million because there are other categories that also have Paving but yes it was a fraction of the 9 million which is allocated to local option gas STX yeah so I know I this Administration and this council did not create the problem we've not kept up with the current maintenance so it's gotten worse but considering that there was at least eight years of complete negligence we need to figure out how to fill that Gap and we need to find more money and the public doesn't want us to increase taxes so we've got to we've got to find other sources and I hope without us having to use a a scalpel I hope the administration will help us find more money to put in thank councilman if I could just uh respond to a couple of things you're absolutely right and we shared this a couple of years back as well because the general pavement condition of City roads was not great to begin with these additional rains deteriorate the roads faster so keeping up will be will require extra effort on everyone's part no doubt about it you did mention parking funds that were applied last year and I do want to highlight that those funds thanks to council and updated policy uh have yielded uh significant revenues to the parking division but if Council would consider keeping them within the mobility department because of concerns of potential State action so I'll just it at that thank you Council Miranda thank you very much in fact now is a time when you have to look at your own taxes because if you look at the taxes that you receive from the uh public assessor's office you realize that of the three entities the school system the county and the city I pay less for the city that I do for the county and the school system and I'm not opposed to them but I'm just saying what it is and I'm not panning ourselves in the back or anyway like that but you have to understand also that we've had some outside costs to make maintenance on the repairing of the pipes program before became the pipe program was $ 30 to $35 million a year the last time I looked at it was started in 18 then it went to 20 then went to 25 approaching 30 so the pipes program was something that had to be done for 2.9 billion and that funded with 53% cash that's on your water bill or they call it the water bill but it's got every bill in there we just named it the water bill because it's easier to say I guess and that that'll carry us for a long period of time then at the end we're going to have to fund the other uh 46% as I understand but these are the things that are going when you look at the ref to energy plant guess what that's over 100 million uh we we have a turbine there that's supposed to last 20 years been going now 31 years and when that goes we got a problem I hope it doesn't go before the other one gets here because it takes a year and a half to get one and we've been waiting for about six or eight months now and you look at the other big operation that we have those were also 100 million so we have to do repairs when they're needed and this is the time that they were needed or beyond the extension of normal life on them and these are the things that this government has tackled this government PRI government so it's not all been hay and gravy and everybody's having rah rah we have problems also in financing things are costing a dollar then or cost $4 now I'm talking about a gall of milk and gasoline certainly is not 39 cents anymore like it was when I was a kid and and these are the things that are going on so you have a house that somebody bought for 13,000 now they'll sell it for $450 where do they go if they sell it they can't go anywhere so therefore it's not being sold and when they sell somebody ain't going to buy for 128 or 129 or 13 or 15 so therefore you have more problems and affordability of housing everything is hitting us at once not only us the whole country we're not here alone and we're trying to do the best we can and it get difficult but these problems will be solved if we keep keep plugging along they will be solved I just that's all I want to say Mr chairman thank you very much yes um I'm uh I know that next we're supposed to do initial questions and comments and we've had a lot of questions already and this public has been waiting so I'm going to make a motion that we go straight to public comment and then do ours afterward all right that's fine all right we're going to thank you very much is there anything else to your presentation ma' um actually the only it'll take 30 seconds if you could just bring it up one more time just next steps all right thank you oh thank you're welcome so basically just to reiterate um so we do want to move forward with the additional internal Paving equipment and don't go anywhere just to just to reiterate that's about $2 million so to hit the 25 million you know that we've put forward as a capacity there is this need to continue to finish out buying which is approximately 2 million of in of Paving equipment um also it's you know for the administration and the group to decide if we want to do some reallocations um as a point of priority and then once we get oursel kind of wrapped around what we're going to do Mobility will be providing a list of locations um based on that final number uh and then just a point of note as well the 2 million 2 million that assumes a 5050 mix of new sidewalk and uh repair if if the group had decided we want to lean in harder one way or the other there is a cost differential there so it would just limit the amount of mileage that would be done so all right that's that's enough for today thank you very much all right um so peray request here by Council we'll go to public comment we have two uh registered speakers online I'm going to start with them they're going to go with the folks in the room um Michelle cookon if you're on please state your name Michelle cookson is she on all right we we'll come right back to you we have sudir Shaw oh wait yes yeah please state your name all right go [Music] ahead i.5 million one I ride in really close to my home it's my preferred way traveling through the city down Tampa and once down there I usually h on City but just yesterday after many issues for week finally car broke down I'm facing thousand I can't AFF that the will now more than my only way Trav and I'm not alone as we know so many people are lie on heart and the number one is one it's really miraculous what little Med the city are struggling to the rent and bills and the added expense of a car is a huge burden with reliable bu service and greater funding car could improve service and increase frequency many help can even turn into a one car home or go car free if Tempa continues to grow we must address this vital element of qu life for our resident as well as less in the environmental impact is nothing but far travel this is the moment to respond and utilize the budget to improve Busters and Riders and serve those who leave access to Safe Transportation and i' be happy heart decide where the fund should go utilize we need to address Equity by leaving on this city taking not only a responsible St on serving all of it CI but sending a strong signal to the county and our of the need and desire for public transit investment and especially demonstra put myself and so many have now no more Highway wiing our inad please say commit our local funds support the bus and alternative thank you thank you very much next is sudir Shaw okay that concludes our register public speakers if you're here in the public and wish to speak please come up and state your name hello please say your name Linda Olen hi um well first of all thank you to the city of Tampa and city council for your ongoing support of the organization I run Tampa Bay wave and our mission to make Tampa Bay the best place to grow and start a Technology based business in the US when I started wave as a Meetup Group in the summer of 2008 the only headlines our Tech Community here was making was about Wikipedia relocating out of Tampa Bay and the Perpetual brain drain in the in our region as a Tampa Bay native and founder of my own startup at the time I had a front row seat to the issues plag in our community and these startups it was more than just a lack of investment Capital there was no organization dedicated to understanding the issues of these startups and solving the problems in our community as most of you know thanks to this incredible Community we landed our first ever Federal Grant in partnership with the the University of South Florida and launched wave as an official organization in all of our programs in 2013 in barely a decade later I'm proud to talk about our results and accomplishments including the fact that we've worked with 550 Plus startups and we add 50 to 60 new startups annually these companies do this despite having less than a 5% acceptance rate into our programs we have 200 plus vetted volunteer mentors 500 investors and I'm proud to tell you we are just nickels and dimes away from breaking a an incredible metric $1 billion dollars in capital raise by the companies that we support putting us in one of the top five programs in the US and speaking of Roi to the city of Tampa our programs have an annual impact in the hundreds of millions of dollars including over half a million dollars annually just in terms of traffic that we bring through the airport and the hotels in our community we've helped more than two dozen companies relocate here and best of all creating 5,200 jobs in County our organization is gener generously funded by the city and the county as long as a number of corporate backers individual donors and of course federal grants we've been successfully bringing we've brought $5 million in federal grants into this community since we started we have three active federal grants right now and we just applied for another $15 million Federal grant that will run for 4 years and we hope that we are successful with your support these grants though are not possible and yet we still need additional investment so that we can continue administering the grants that we have and put us in a place to accept additional federal grants we want to do this so that we continue to grow the innovation-based economy here in the region and create Pathways to high wage jobs and financial Independence so that we have a vibrant Innovation based economy right here in the community thank you again for your ongoing support and we would like to ask you to consider an increase thank you very much thank you uh suing Miss Lucas Madam clerk is the other individual on register okay okay thank you very much um thank you very much man all right next speaker yes yes ma'am please say your good evening hi my name is maida Martinez everyone knows me as Mimi and I live in ebore Heights um today I want to talk about two things number one I'm here to support funding for heart um I live off the Nebraska Avenue Corridor and I see the heart bus go up and down that Corridor every day um I see it take residents downtown I see it take it up to points of destination on Nebraska Avenue like wind Dixie Publix Tampa Family Health Center and even the new er that's off of Hillsboro Avenue and Nebraska Avenue um so it does show that the bus service does work and we need more of that um just to give you personal Insight of my experience with um using the bus system I'm originally from Pennsylvania and when I lived up there I didn't have a car for many years because that bus could take me to school to take me to college it took me to work it took me to my doctor's appointments to the movies to the mall like I use the bus system for a long time um and then I also lived in a neighborhood where I could walk to wherever I wanted to to get whatever I needed for that day or for the week um the first thing I noticed when I mov to Tampa is that you had to have a car number one it's hot and there's nowhere to walk to to get your daily needs met because everything seems to be very spread apart so you have to have a car um number two the bus service here takes forever to get to where you want to get to because things are so spread apart number three the neighborhoods do not have a main street and they did not have Corner Stores um I'm just so very used to being in a neighborhood where I can walk and do everything I needed to do so um I I do understand that Equity is very important I do feel like um $1.5 million for this um pilot program for Route One is the lowest hanging fruit that we can grab for now um it is a pilot so let's see what the study shows and see if it's successful it is then we can absolutely pilot it to other areas in Tampa um Nebraska Avenue would be great um so I do support that and I do look to you as the Pioneers to um be brave enough to take that first step we do need to fund heart I mean it is a form of equity to be able to provide bus transportation there are programs that can give out free bus tickets and they can give out free monthly passes I've been a recipient of that one time in my life so I know that it does work and it is fair um the second thing I do want to thank council member count council member Henderson for bringing up those nonprofits and bringing that into the sunshine because I personally know someone in my area who is an incubator for about 200 nonprofit Christian Ministries that provide resources to VM eore and ebore Heights residents in the local area let's rotate that money out to those Mom and Pops organizations that are really making an impact and a difference in our local neighborhoods thank you for your time thank you very much yes sir next speaker good evening my name is Bobby kraton um I'm here to speak on support of funding the pilot program for heart to $1.5 million um I grew up in the Tampa area kind of carolwood s Park kind of area um and I will admit that I had a a certain stigma in in my own heart or mind associated with public transportation in the bus it was just so foreign to me growing up here it wasn't something I I really interacted with much cuz you needed a car where I lived it wasn't something I experienced um but that changed when I didn't have a car when I lived in a city where it was just impractical to have one and I took the bus and the train everywhere the bus was my lifeline and that really shook that stigma it it broke it totally apart I saw people on the bus you know Harvard professors sitting next to construction workers mothers with their children people in wheelchairs students I saw all you know manner of people all parts of the spectrum of society on that bus and it it really made me understand that this is a Lifeline this is critical I'm using it it's something that gives value to me and I see it gives value to so many other people so I support for making that more accessible to people in Tampa I also think about my patients and clients in my professional life I I work with people that have disabilities every day and they're mostly acquired disabilities meaning they've had a stroke maybe they've had a brain injury or something else that affects their cognition and their Mobility they're unable to get around without a caregiver or family um you know to drive them somewhere having access to Transportation like a a bus or a train in this case the bus that's Freedom that's their ability to get where they need to go you know without having to rely on somebody driving them in a car um we heard during the presentation about the the success of the street car I think this particular route is very complimentary to that um I'm not going to rehash everything that the the previous speaker uh mentioned some really good facts there um public transportation it's Mobility it's economic Mobility it's social mobility and it's freedom for people that really really need it um especially in our underserved communities so I'll leave it right there I'll yield the rest of my time and I just want to say I support the the pilot program let's see how it goes thank you very much sir yes next speaker please Amir Absol um most of you maybe don't realize I never drive here I always come on my bike or my scooter same when I go to Counting commission and now it's raining out if there was a bus I could just fold up my scooter and take the bus home but I will be stuck waiting um I'm here with others to ask you to commit the 1.5 million to make uh bus route one Fair free Tampa is decades behind many pure cities when it comes to public transportation and honestly Tampa is also way behind many cities in developing countries when it comes to Transportation 1992 I lived in Pakistan doing research and working I never drove nine months I took public buses got everywhere I needed to go all over the country um council members have given all kinds of reasons for not wanting to spend City dollars on buses things like asserting that Hart and the county need to invest more it's not going to happen you contend that we don't have enough money and that fund should first go to fixing potholes or that it's a zero sum game and you can only put money into public buses by taking money away from things like affordable housing programs don't use we don't have enough money or um we need to fix the hot potholes first as an excuse those are policy choices those are not natural laws those are choices that you are making public transportation is a necessity for a resilient thriving City we are literally paying lots of money because we don't have anything even approaching an efficient effective system for getting people where they need to go in a reasonable amount of time we need strong leadership on this at the city level that means you or we are never going to get out of our transportation mess we're decades behind now is the time to start a short list of how we're all paying according to AAA it costs a national average of $112,000 a year that's over $1,000 $1,000 a month to own and operate a car it is ,000 a month that people have to spend because their car dependent because there's no viable mass transit um so it would save a typical family about $112,000 a year that is money that could be spent on other things the environmental benefits buses mean less environmental harm as we all know carb emissions play a huge role in climate change this is Florida hurricanes excessive heat flooding all of that uh fewer emissions also means better air quality we are all paying the price for climate change uh reduced congestion nothing new here paying with decreased quality of life the stress of sitting in traffic um but buses are key to improving public transit they are not appreciated because cities states and Federal leaders have failed to support them as a quality public service for decades they instead sunk billions and billions of dollars into building more and more roads that just lead to more cars and trucks and more congestion but a well-planned fully funded bus system can be so much more please start um with this and dedicate the $1.5 million yes sir next speaker please state your name good evening Council my name is Nathan Hagen uh um I'm here advocating for housing and hard funding uh I don't think I've been here in over six months because uh as active as I am it's very difficult for regular people to participate in a political process driven by public comment rather than elections now like the vast majority of your constituents I can no longer balance my professional and personal life with the level of political engagement that is needed or that I've had in the past that's not a always me story this is me saying that if we had elections that actually represented more than 10% of the voters in the city of Tampa the institution of city council may feel a stronger mandate to address the needs of its constituents at large I think there would be a lot more clarity especially at the out llarge seats about what work must be done I think that work would move a lot more quickly just looking at the data I can hardly imagine a more effective way to suppress the vote than to have it in odd years I hope you continue to consider the councilman um vie's proposal in the historical context and future applications of keeping the status quo what's this got to do with the budget I say this because I'm here to advocate for the 90% of people of Voters who didn't vote in your election who deserve a voice and who too often do not get one in this building I say this because there can be no doubt that the majority of the people whose voices don't get heard in audio Municipal elections want more movement on housing affordability and transportation every poll and community outreach effort that doesn't go to South Tampa home associations says that these should be your top priorities so with that all said I want to thank you for the historical Investments that were made last year but I ask you to acknowledge that Tampa can go further and that Tampa should go further it was my opinion that we should have raised the millage rate last year and we didn't it didn't even come up again this year yet we know we need to make more Investments with that in mind I ask you to listen to the people who can't be here who couldn't who couldn't even know that they should be here and continue increasing your investment in housing and transportation please invest invest 10 million additional dollars to housing including 5 million for the Community Land Trust please provide $1.5 million for free Fair transit or Free Fair Transit options on Florida Avenue um I think of this as a down payment for Citywide um I don't know where the revenue source is yet we have years to figure that out but we need to be talking about it Citywide and we and to support that we need to be talking about going to pre- Ser preo service levels for the Tampa Transit Network as well that costs money um we need to make that investment as a city for city bus service um and then while we're at it um I just want to acknowledge we are in a revenue problem this is a revenue problem this is not really a spending problem I don't think anyone here seriously considers that that there's just a rampant corruption in the city of Tampa we don't have enough Revenue we need to make them painful policy choices to address housing and transportation and we need to increase Revenue if you are not able to do that with the millage increase if we just will'll never ever do that for the rest of time the only way that the most effective way for to increase revenues without taxes is through dense development so think about that with the comp plan and Zoning updates thank you very much yes ma'am please say your name hello uh my name is Dana Lazarus uh my zip code's 33605 um I'm here today to advocate for housing and uh primarily for public transit I'm advocating for public transit for all the people who want to use it and those who already use it Hart has a ridership of 40,500 people per day and this is an equity issue we've been asking for public transit to be funded and prioritized for a very long time Khloe Cony once said to me back when I worked at the TPO back in like 2018 you can tell how much a city cares about its poor people by how it treats the bus system there are people in your District who rely on the bus to get groceries Medical Care and so much more these are people with disabilities seniors and workers and then there's people like me who would use the bus if it was viable if it came frequently I would ditch my car and I would use the bus um and I want that just like I had in Portland Oregon when I lived there just like you have in Europe when you visit so we are adamantly asking for 1.5 million to make Route One Fair free we also um were asking for 10 million if you guys have been getting those emails um but we want 10 million 20 million 40 million 100 million we need to fund public transit and we want we're here today to demonstrate that there is a demand there is support from the public um and we don't mind asking for it because we know that there's a return on investment for public transit that is four to one for every $1 invested experts agree $4 is generated in the local economy route one has the highest ridership in the county and the city rivaling Only Nebraska with a ridership of 27 people per Revenue hour the route on Nebraska is great cuz it has some buson areas um Florida on the other hand doesn't and it's always late um so moving up that trip frequency from 20 minutes to 15 minutes would make a big difference and just improving the trip reliability um the one goes by City Hall do you know how many more people could be here if they could just hop on the bus and not have to worry about fair or navigating parking to advocate for their needs and for what they want the budget to be spent on you know that kind of thing so listen if we do this right if we play our cards right if we fund route one and go Fair free this could be huge for Tampa this could be the tiniest baby step both in showing our commitment as a city to public transit um the very commitment that we're constantly claiming and saying that public transit is our top priority or one of our our top priorities and is um uh one of the top priorities for affording affordability uh sorry this could be the beginning of an incredible multimodal public transit system Sy that includes the street car the heart brt dedicated Lanes um moving people that are dumped in eore from the bright line um in eore city um moving premium Transit uh downtown um this could be the start of something beautiful so please invest 1.5 million into making Route One Fair free thank you thank you very much yes next speaker please please St your name hi Alana braer um city of Tampa resident for my entire 38 years of life um also former city of Tampa staff for the mobility department was Vision zero coordinator Chief planner LED our vision zero action plan our Tampa moves plan uh Equity is the backbone of the Tampa moves plan it prioritized all of our transportation needs including Transit Transit is one of the most Equitable ways a city and a county can invest in actually moving people through its City getting people to jobs and I encourage this Administration this Council to explore what our peers are doing what are other cities what's Charlotte doing to invest and support in its Transit Network its Transit Agency what is Portland doing what is Richmond doing all these cities we're not just in a bubble we can look to what our partners are doing to see how they're investing in transit that is one of the most Equitable ways that we can support our residents and getting around as we continue to grow as development is booming Transit has to be a priority in addition to resurfacing and sidewalks we just wholesale need to take a look both Council and administration at how are we actually prioritizing the money to meet the needs of our communities especially when we say something is our number one priority where is the budget backing that up that's it thank you very much yes ma'am please say your name taana bares 33606 so I actually wanted to start with um I was thinking a lot about all these proposals and what's going on and I wanted to start with an ml quote that says budgets are moral Doctrine so when you make these decisions about what actually happens to the citizens and the residents of Tampa when you're investing what is what is our requ of 1% of the budget to make Fair free and increased access to transit for what would be thousands of people just remember that these are moral decisions you're making about the future of the community so I actually wanted to start with why I got into all of us Urban ISM Transit and all these things seven years ago my dad had a stroke and 3 weeks ago my dad also had a stroke when you have a stroke you can't use transit for about half a year to a year I mean you can't drive and so you have to completely redefine how do you get around and my dad living in a small town outside Miami couldn't get anywhere couldn't do anything he was completely fundamentally cut off from the society around him without spending tons tens to thousands of dollars on just Ubers and trans and other options then weren't that great and I got into this is when I started looking in why don't we do better for our people with disabilities for our people our homeless people all the working-class people in our communities it turned into realizing that we've spent a very long time in this country disinvesting in transit disinvesting in the workingclass people of this community right now in the rain AT&T Workers are striking because they want better wages in our community and I've only seen one of you there so I just want to emphasize that when we make these decisions when we talk about the future the 5 minutes someone waits for the bus in the pouring rain makes a fundamental difference of if they get a job if they get to work on time what happens to their future and when we talk about Fair free it's making the first step in meaningful Investments on a grand scale to our community and so in Miami I was actually able to Advocate that they increase the bus service in my own Hometown and it's incredible it got my dad actually to the grocery store to his hospital visits to many jobs and right now he's making that same decision again actually right now he's in rehab I came up early um to come advocate for this because I want that to happen for the people here in Tampa because those people with disabilities exist everywhere and disability can get to anyone at any moment it can happen to you at any moment so going back to Route One Fair free um driving isn't I think sometimes people think driving is the option that everyone has driving is not an option for many many many people kids seniors people with disabilities workingclass people I ride the bus when I get on the bus and I actually used to ride right route five and Route Six and Route One pretty frequently you see working-class people you see people that work at hospitals the people that change beds you see the people that actually move our community and I've heard a lot of conversations over this year about all of you talking about pavement pavement pavement we are doing that I hear Vic come every month say we are doing that we are trying we are doing everything we can but we can repave every road but if we don't create the better meaningful Transportation Alternatives that this city needs and deserves that other cities like St Petersburg are doing that will never move forward I also want to add that in this the Community Land Trust 5 million for 3 years for something that provide options for people that don't get them we have to say that we are making the right more decisions for Tampa thank you thank you very much next speaker please this is really frustrating because oh I'm sorry my name is Stephanie Pointer and it's really frustrating because I want to get up here and talk about the budget because this is a budget meeting but I'm going to end up getting up here and talking about the bus because Common Sense be damned Vic bday every time I see him do a presentation says that 23% of most folks income in the city of Tampa goes to Transit this is the opportunity to give har the bump that it needs this gentleman came up here and he said that there are 3,000 people a day who are writing that heartline on line one a million one uh 1.1 million a year why are we not cultivating this we spent like 30 minutes discussing 2.9 Million of charitable funds that will not reach that many damn people it will not reach as many people as this bus line will reach it will not help as many people then miss kesy comes up here and she puts up a spreadsheet and it has that the trolley the street car gets 1.5 million a year and they did a they did a survey in the last month or so 65% of those riters are citizens 30% of them are tourists why is there even any question in anybody's mind up there that this is going to help the impoverished of our city I have a friend her daughter is 27 years old she's had multiple seizures she's lost her ability to drive they gave her her driver's license back $900 a month for her insurance she's never going to drive again but yet everybody who's sitting up there and the mayor think that putting 1.5 million just 1% just a little tiny dob the equivalent of me handing somebody $10 today is offensive to anyone on that Council befuddles me you are giving up the opportunity to help over a million people in one year one year you can help a mill million citizens of this city over and over and over again every day 3,000 people a day during the week you can do that without thinking about it bam you're done you are the greatest the greatest politicians in this city by passing it even if the mayor thinks it's a piss poor idea why why does she want to keep people in poverty why would any of you want to keep people in poverty think about it you sleep on that tonight thank you very much next speaker please state your name good evening Nick stov president Tampa firefighters Local 754 uh thank you for the opportunity to speak today uh I also want to thank uh the budget office and CFO uh Dennis roero uh they've done an outstanding job in in answering all of our requests um promptly and efficiently um and and that is uh it's it's a good feeling knowing that um there's someone on that other side I want to address some critical concerns regarding the fiscal year 25 budget for Tampa Fire Rescue uh first uh the capital Improvement projects the cad system and fiscal year 22 2022 the council approved uh $2 million uh from the arpa money uh to enhance the cad system however our dispatch software is nearly a decade outdated and vehicle locators are still absent instead of addressing these issues there's been no progress only the hiring of anti-union Consultants at $99,999 we need immediate action to update this outdated technology fire station 24 in 2022 $12 million was approved for design construction and procurement of new fire station 24 this project was supposed to be completed in fiscal year 23 in fiscal year 24 with this Council here there was an allocated $1.6 million and $16 million were allocated to be spent in fiscal year 25 the current recommended budget now allows 0 for this project TFR maintenance shop and Supply in 2022 the CIP reflected $12 million allocated with the completion expected in fiscal year 23 however in fiscal year year 24 it was adopted that $1.2 million would be allocated for the TFR maintenance supply today there's been no progress and fiscal year 25 shows zero dollars for that Capital Improvement project it's clear that these projects although approved and funded remain stalled my question to council is why are these essential projects not receiving essential projects not advancing despite the funds that have been received in your commitment and approval in reference to the operating budget in fiscal year 23 Tampa Fire rescuees budget was 130 million with $1.06 million unused and returned to the general fund with our critical needs why are there why are we nearly returning 1% of our budget in conclusion we currently have 744 sworn firefighters against a budgeted 793 and we're operating with significant vacancies and are unable to fill positions effectively due to ongoing challenges including closed application periods thank you very much sir thank you next speaker please say your name good evening Mary Beth Williams I am the executive director for friends of the Riverwalk um I'd like to thank city council and City staff the administrative staff for the support that Friends of the Riverwalk has received um we provide a variety of programming for the Tampa Riverwalk and services to the city of Tampa we have made a funding request this year um and I've shared with all of the city council members as well as the staff our reasoning behind our funding requests um we again want to thank you for your support and look forward to working with you collaboratively this year thank you thank you very much is there anybody else here for public comment if not we're going to go to City Council questions and comments I'm going to kick it off so if I haven't spoken um so I've heard from my colleagues and I've heard from the public you know one of the biggest things is uh this million and a half dollars for uh for Route One I think in my personal opinion it's it's a fantastic motion that was brought up by council member herac um it was mentioned that Hart has a board meeting on Monday I don't know we have the the chairman of the board here uh if that would be brought up and discussed is that um if I I sent an email to my Aid saying that if this passes that I was going to do a memo uh requesting that okay so um I sit on the Tampa historic street car board and uh before that and now being on the board now that I see the data in a different way and they do come and present to us they receive grant funding to keep it fair Fair free and it's currently Fair free and in that uh period of being fair free the street car which I've used since I was in college or even yeah in college so it's been a while uh we've seen ridership at record numbers uh and it's not because I've I've written it enough it's not just tourists I see people that work in the area I see people that go from downtown to eore City because they don't want to pay for parking they're already here in downtown as employees uh there's so many different reasons but the fact fact is it's been successful when you look at the heart bus system and I've used the bus system many times where I live in West Tamp I can conveniently walk to the nearest corner and hop on a bus that will take me directly to the Maran Transit Center how I get to City Hall I used to use the Downtowner now I would walk or I can use the yellow Ubers but if the weather is good I'll walk um you know public transportation is such a critical need of any community it is expensive to own a car I pay monthly just under $300 for car insurance and then I pay for gas uh and then you know eventually I'll have my car paid off but I have a car payment then there's maintenance bills I mean there's just so many things that come with owning a vehicle uh not everybody can afford that we talk about housing affordability we talk about the price of food everything has gone up the very least that I think we can do and I know there is a deeper discussion about this million and a half dollars but but to make it fair free my hope is mirroring what happened with the street car is that it will encourage people to ride the bus but it's not just about that route one why do we choose route one because it's one of the busiest if not the busiest I believe it goes all the way up to USF so you have USF students that can take the bus all the way down downtown hop on that street car that is currently Fair free they don't have to worry about parking they can go through this area all the way to eore City uh and it and it brings awareness to public transit number one uh it uh it offers people some savings because uh they're not paying those fairs it increases the frequency uh that's another thing we live in a country of convenience we have all these drive-throughs and people want things delivered and and whatnot going back to the bus you know if it's running at a 30 minute schedule and and and it could be running at a a 50-minute schedule intervals you think you can hop off your bus grab a cup of coffee and then Within 15 minutes you're getting the next bus and you're still making it to work on time um so uh you know I totally support this uh this idea I think this is a uh it lays down the foundation for uh increased awareness uh possibly future investment you know from a variety of sources I hope the CIT gets renewed um come November I mean that's a that's a make or break thing here I hope eventually one day we pass uh some kind of Transit referendum that would help us to expand this bus service but I think that's uh great so that's my uh Spiel on the uh the heart funding I support that regarding the social action items uh it was brought up about the $225,000 threshold you know if we're giving this kind of money you know 25,000 and up to organizations they should go through a process as we saw most recently with the NAACP I think that's only fair it's it's public money um we are giving it up you know we are we are giving that money to different organizations um that's really it I just like a random uh concoction of of comments so after councilman herac I don't want so I'll go herac Henderson uh Vie yes ma'am thank you um uh I'm I really uh greatly um am touched by the amount of people who have really taken this cause on as their own uh the stories I've heard about people needing to use transit for for whatever reason um but I'm I have a few things I'd like to share with uh with the public um first of all being a uh a post from Instagram this was I don't have that copy can I have yours [Laughter] yes um uh first a photo from Instagram uh that happened just last week where um the mayor on a podcast a development podcast said can you zoom it out a little bit Transportation wrong one uh oh I pressed the wrong button I'm fired I don't think so you're not getting out that easily sorry um takes where's that B transportation is the biggest issue and this literally was a podcast uh that that mayor Caster did last week and she is 100% right it is our biggest issue thank you um next is uh the TPO did a study for long range Transportation Planning and that was for the entire County but what what they did afterwards was was uh they were able to pull out the data that focused just on the city of Tampa go ahead to the next one the top priority for the City of Tampa is new faster Transit look at that anything that's in blue that was their number one priority new faster Transit and what they really mean by that is is uh a rail like passenger rail but the thing about passenger rail is if you don't live within a quarter mile of it you still got to get home and how are we going to get home Mr Willet talked a little bit about that earlier is that we have to have a network of getting people on a bus to their neighborhood we've got to be able to get people from that rail line which we can't afford right now but we will be able to afford later lat as soon as we get more people riding the bus doing this um thank you and then the next slide is about the cost of this the street car extension we need $50 million the brt we need 95 million the brt is the same route of Route One by and large and what this will do for a fraction for maybe 1% of that money is give the ability to go faster and get more people on Transit next um there's a story in the Tampa Bay times recently uh that basically said that the number of uh cash strapped households in Florida has increased now and 133% of households now stand below the pedal federal poverty level of $31,200 for a family of four from 2021 to the following year a minimum cost of household necessities such as housing food and transportation for a single adult in Florida acreas an increase from $ 28,34 to $3,884 this is going to be do nothing but but increase because this was from 21 to 22 thank you Miss sharp so I I also wanted to talk about um uh what what Mr Miranda said earlier I I really uh think that that that you hit the nail in the head and other people talked about it today who have lived elsewhere they say bus service is what they're used to you said that people are not used to it and so and what so what so which and that is the whole reason that we need to take away the barrier to riding the bus if we take away the barrier to riding the bus you hop off the street car you get on the bus you don't have to figure out how to use it I've had multiple friends of mine ask me if they can ride with me to learn how to ride the bus because they don't know how you're worried you're nervous you have the $2 can they fit in I'm getting to block everybody else from riding the bus but you literally just hop on um so I uh and of course going on with saving the environment all of these things are very important but but so so today I'm going to go ahead I'm going to be the first one uh out out of the gate um not to mention that uh we've gotten some really interesting support uh we've gotten support from downtown neighborhood associations Harbor Island South wrote a letter when they heard about this because they want to help provide more more um ability for people to get around so I'm going to go ahead and just make my motion uh I make a motion to remove the $1.5 million funding for CIP project 10002 659 which is EV charging stations an infrastructure upgrade from the fy2 budget and reallocate the $1.5 million to heart for one-year fairf free Route One Pilot program to include 15minute headways Monday through Friday second we have a second um council member Henderson do you want to speak first yes and then we'll go thank you chair I appreciate it okay so let's just talk about transportation for a second uh as an educator I know firsthand that route one is not the only route where there are disadvantaged people riding the bus so for one route which I actually um rode on Friday I got to experience it and um I could see the need of course of people riding route one it was crowded as the bus went along chugging along um from downtown all the way to um the depot just off of Fletcher Avenue so I actually understand that but it's about the need who needs to pay for the writers ship everybody who gets on the bus there are people who can afford to get on the bus I think that it would be more ful that if there was those who are disadvantaged and need to ride for free regardless of Route regardless of route that is more important to me because that route may be headed toward westore where there's 25 kids at the bus stop that go to Jefferson High School every day it's not just about Florida Avenue it may be a high ridership but that's not the only only reason to constitute that it should be free it should be about the need and I just wrote a quick note on my my let me just say this it's it's it's about the disadvantage Equity study has that been done um heart is in financial Straits I happen to sit on the heart board it is the most challenging uh position that I actually have I had to every month I have to sit and listen to the employees see I get to talk about it here because I wasn't all to talk about it at the Heart Meeting the who bus drivers who were not paid their time and a half who were not paid at all and they are fighting for that they got a $1,500 supplement but really because of the overtime and their own contract it really actually totaled $26 million but Hart gave everybody a check for $1,500 and called it a day they paid the teamsters but somehow they Ted the employees who drove during covid out of their funding and they can't address that you know it's going to go into arbitration so the the sad part is is that the government sent them the money for that very reason to keep their employees on board and so for me this is a very challenging issue for us to actually for the for everyone to expect that the city of Tampa needs to be the person who's giving I think that heart should reassess their budget I think that heart should reassess their budget because they took Hart away from the city of Tampa I believe I can't remember remember all of the details about it but they separated these two organizations for a reason and we do Provide support now the street car is the other part to that the street car the people who get on the street car can afford to pay for it that's just the bottom line I wrote both on Friday and the people who got on the street car can afford to pay for it and that one is free it is a tourist attraction and it does provide an opportunity for for people who live over here to have a nice little hookup of free Transportation but those are people who can actually pay and you can clearly see the difference so if we actually took the time to say hey heart why don't you identify people who need the support to ride the bus for free regardless of where they live and start there because after this 1.5 million who's going to pay for the next route and then the next route who's going to pay for that when we just still have the same pot of money so that's just the simplistic way of me looking at it I rode the bus as a teenager I actually enjoyed it you know because I was raising a single parent household and that's how I got to work and sometimes I had to walk this is a different generation it's you know it's not as safe as it used to be back then but so here it is I'm saying if we're going to spend $1.5 million we give it to people who actually really need it not just to make it the the the Florida Avenue Corridor and for the Social Action funds this one has been on my radar since before can we can we separate it and do the heart thing first and then go to the social there was a motion on the floor but we'll go right after this motion we'll go right to the Social Action chair I can comply with your request that's no problem yes ma'am we have a viea so let me just wrap up my sentence I don't want you all to think that I don't support free Transportation it's just free free transportation for home it should be for people who need it not just because it's one route all right we're going to go to viea Miranda Lennon and then Carlson thank you Mr chair and I appreciate everybody's thoughts I I support this idea and I was favorably um disposed to it when councilwoman herac first mentioned it a a week or two ago and and I I still support it today you know we we always need to have a balanced street repaving is something that is very very important but that doesn't mean that we avoid our duties to do what we can for mass transit uh many of us up here supported all for transportation I supported it when I first ran for office the idea of a penny sales tax back in 2016 by the way it's not fun to run uh for office on raising taxes but I did that um I I supported it in 2018 I supported it in 20 2022 and if it comes up again I'm going to support it again because I really do believe that we need a separate Revenue source for mass transit but just because we don't get what we want right or really what we need doesn't mean that we just abandon the whole idea and the way that I see this is that it moves us forward on something that we as a city want it is something that is very very important um this moves us forward on mass transit one of the reasons that I support this is because this has real progress for heart's clients and for folks who take the heart bus every single day um I'm in my second year of being chairman of heart and I'll tell youall what that is a position that I enjoy a great deal probably my last year doing it I would think um but being on the heart board I love it for a lot of reasons and I'm very enthusiastic about it I'm very enthusiastic because of the workers at heart the the The Operators the mechanics and all the different folks who make heart run uh you talk to a lot of them as I do all the time and they see it as a calling a lot of them see it as a public service and they know what they're doing and they're very passionate about what they do they're public servants and then the folks who take the heart bus you know these are everyday working people Mr haen said something that I thought made a lot of sense which is a lot of the people that take the heart bus are not the people that we hear from all the time week to week and especially in our city of Tampa elections won't get on that right but there are folks that we don't always hear from I remember if if y'all remember Scott Payne used to be a district s councilman he's now a Roman Catholic Deacon one of my favorite people uh writes a lot for the league of cities and I remember him writing once he goes the people that you fight for aren't the people that voted for you they're not the people that vote uh they're not the the the the people that that you know show up one way or another they're everybody whether they vote or not the people and and that's what matters and when I look at this project or this proposal as put forward by councilwoman or councilwoman herch um I look at something that moves us forward for people who work every single day the people that if you go on heart buses the single moms and dads trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents are senior citizens people with disabilities people who have challenges in life that a lot of folks don't even begin to think about don't even begin to think about because just the way it is unfortunately this is a proposal that smacks of empathy and of compassion and I'm going to support it so I'm 100% forward I would urge folks to support it and I will make a motion um if we do support this uh to have a briefing on the heart board I do not speak for the heart board but I would think our board would support this by the way um I don't think I go off on a on a on on a risk at all saying that so I intend to support this and thank you Mr chair thank you very much Miranda clendenon I always have the honor following the attorney but anyway let me let me let me just say this I mean if you listen what I've listened I'm sure that all the proposals that have come here are valid and and I certainly have to agree with council member herac but I also agree with council member Henderson the the areas that I spoke about earlier bus three and bus four guess which are those the ones that used to take me to the housing project at 1860 K Cor in the corner 267 20 Street and let me mention something about buses in C court at 26 AV 20 Street we used to walk all of us from 26th Avenue and 20th Street through Jefferson High School on ukn and Highland and never be late and now you've got the school bus with 50 kids in it and they're always late that doesn't mean anything but it means a lot when you look at poverty and you look at things that why why maybe we can get some of this money and have two trials instead of one so much more for this one and try the other one see which one has the upswing of value if you really want to do a business acren and study it if I was selling fman Yong at a restaurant which I did at one time why would I want to push the lowest volume the highest volume in sales but the lowest volume in profit that's what it is if I was to sell you a drink a cup of coffee CFE and a dessert I make more money on you than I do selling you the fil so all that being said why do we have to try not try an area that is more than likely the most needed for buses when we haven't tried it I didn't want to S you for living young I wanted to save a cup of coffee a sanria and a dessert and I will make more money on you spending $12 and you spend 50 on the F so what I'm saying percentage wise so what I'm saying is we have an opportunity to look at both items now how do we do it that's what we asking ourselves I have to agree with Miss herac and I also have to agree with Miss Henderson so who do we try how did you do it how do you fund it you're talking about 1.5 how do you split it up how do you get it done how do you get back information if you only try one theying an elected official that only put one thing on his or her mail out and got elected I don't know of any so what I'm saying is there's an opportunity to do both how we do it I'm just putting it out there so we understand the need the necessity who needs it the most would be not what I say not what the council says but the results of those that ride the bus where there are today and how many ride the bus within that certain time in both areas and then you have a workable idea of how you do it that's all I'm throwing out i' like to vote for both of them but I can't so this is what I'm saying thank you council member Clen and then Carlson yeah I'm this is this is an interesting discussion and I think I think we're losing sight of is this is a The Proposal is a pilot program not necessarily A a permanent out you permanent outcome or you know and what I'll say is what keep street car keeps getting thrown out there you know what until we did what we did with the street car it was an unproven concept now it is a proven concept and we can build on that because we know what the successful formula is we don't know whether this is going to work or not but you know what Transportation as the mayor said councilman herch reminded us is the number one priority amongst most people in the city of Tampa we're we're we're Beyond just what you know wherever most communities would be thinking about issues we're in crisis mode of how we move people around the city of Tampa um I'm not a huge fan I you know I actually I recognize where funding comes from as I said during um Justin's presentation earlier you know this the way this was crafted as heart is a is a county responsibility the the taxes that appear on your on your bills your your mil saxs that come in you know that's how it's funded but guess what we're we are where we are and I can I can hang my hat on that all day long and will still continue to backslide on moving people around the city of Tampa so I'm willing to take the leap of faith that you know because we don't know what we don't know um I think that it's a it is a corridor that's interesting because again we're we're talking about potentially spending $95 million on a brt in this Corridor well that if we spent that without testing it you know I mean is that the right thing to do maybe this this is the business model of okay is the demand there um let's let's let's go with what is a reasonable expenditure to test uh the concept to see if there's a demand and you know if it works then we can look for how we how we expand or how we model moving people around Hillsboro County um but I think I think it's worthy of of a go I think that uh is well thought out and I appreciate the councilwoman for bringing it to this Council thank you council member Carlson um I appreciate all the comments by the public um and also the ones we re today and the ones we receive by email um I personally have been involved in transit initiatives for 25 or so years here in this area throughout the State other places I understand the um the call from the community the um uh that this community definitely needs Transit Solutions um and we've suffered from poor leadership in in pushing uh Transit Solutions over the over the years um the the issue here is who should fund it and I fundamentally do not agree that the city should fund it um back in i' I've actually spoken to people who were around that back in 1979 and uh the reason why they moved hard out they also moved the housing housing fund out um was so that that avalum capacity that the the city's avalor rate was around 9% it was reduced down to five or 5.25 something like that but the idea was that that that taxing capacity moved out of the city and it moved to these other agencies the idea was that they would be self-supportive and they could be focused on solving those issues um it's a separate government agency it's supposed to be solving these issues and hardt has had a number number of issues throughout the years um and it sounds like it still has issues we need to fix the issues at Hart um if Hart doesn't work then we need to change the legislation to move har back in the city or the city's part portion of it back in the city um the um uh there are lots of other government agencies the airport the port if the airport came to us and said we need money to subsidize flights or we needed money to build uh new restaurants the at the airport we would say no the airport um has taxing Authority although I think they don't use it the port has a small part that they use and it's declining but there there other government agencies that we don't fund also if the county asked us to subsidize something we wouldn't do that either this is a separate government agency the city of Tampa as we as we've heard all night and we've heard in all the other hearings is way behind on all kinds of spending and if there are ways that we can save money which I think most of us think we can um we should spend that to go to the main purpose of the um of of the uh of this city um I have spoken to some of the board members at heart and I don't think there's unanimous support for uh a government agency coming in and uh like the city and spending this there certainly isn't support from the folks who um who help create this and move it out years ago the issue is recurring Revenue we can say this is a pilot and it's a one-time thing but next year who's going to fund it we set the expectation that it's going to be free what happens on the street C the state stops funding it um it's not a proven model because we because the state's subsidizing it and the same thing here we need a a comprehensive solution and we need to work on unfortunately because the last couple campaigns were screwed up it's going to take us years to come back to it here's the thing and I might get my number slightly wrong the um heart as I understand is at a maximum 0.5 mil right now but it has the capacity to go up 3 mil not a single board member of heart board has made a motion to increase it right now they their total budget somewhere around 110 million about 78 88 million of it is from that 0.5 mil if they increased it the 3 mil just rough math they would have almost $500 million $500 million without getting all for transportation passed and what do we have to do to do that the heart board has to prove it the county has commission has to prove it Tampa City Council has to prove it uh Temple Terrace I think the Plant City pulled out if I remember those two correctly so Temple Terrace has to prove it and then the county has to prove it again to put it on the ballot and then the voters have to prove it that's it's a long process but if we think that process is broken we need to go to the state and fix it or we need to move our part of heart back in but that is the process that was created The Simple Solution is let's put money in but in a year we're not going to have the money to support it anymore and the people who rely on free Transit are not going to have it anymore we're creating an expectation that we can't fill in the future what we need is a systemic solution we all agree that we need to solve this problem the problem is who's going to fund it and how are we going to make it sustainable we need to make it sustainable by asking the heart board to do the the tough job of going to the voters and asking them to increase the uh the adorate because they can do that they by law they can do it they just have to have the guts to make a motion and get it not a single motion has been made to increase the tax rate and also because they haven't had a board meeting not no motion has been made to even ask us for this money or to say that um that they would spend it what we need to do is fix this we need the hardboard to do the tough job and look at the money we need we need to get a half a mill would increase their budget by at least 50 Mill by $80 million that's much more than a million and a half and if we don't like it let's go to the state and get the legislature to change it and if we don't like what the state legislature says or the County Commission we need everybody here to vote to get the County Commission out and we need to get the state legislators out because we need to fix this fundamentally we can't say oh because the county won't vote on it we're going to subsidize on the short run because it creates a horrible problem our my commitment is to fix this problem but I want to do it systemically I'm not going to put a bandaid on it thank you thank you very muchen her he asked me like five minutes ago yeah because I haven't um I'm I'm sad to hear that this is kind of becoming a hot potato it feels like we're just throwing it well if it we don't you know the county is not doing anything heart's not doing anything well we say I've heard the citizens we've all heard the citizens they want Transportation they'll and this is the way to do it quite simply um what other people say is let's wait let's wait let's let's wait and go through this long process we know the County's not going to approve it County's not going to do that right now um it's very clear with the where the county is um the reason this route was chosen is because it's the brt route and the brt route go um the ideal brt route and it goes to USF um and the reason this was chosen was because of legislation in the State uh legislature this past year there is a much higher threshold to get a brt going and so in order to get the ridership we need we this is this is the way to do that so it's not necessarily a one-year commitment the one-year commitment will show that we can afford the that the brt will be viable and that's what we have to show now this is the requirement um as far as when it goes to the other things that don't come to us for money the airport and the port get their money from fot they get they get tons of money uh we don't have to give them any money but fot won't fund the bus it's very simple they just simply won't do it um they will help with certain things but they cannot fund um the actual uh running of the bus they they can help with the the capital projects they cannot help with operations and that's what this is this is an operational issue so I appreciate those who are um are supporting this uh this is just something that the community has talked about and talked about and talked about and talked about how do we improve Transportation how do we decrease cars on the road this is a way to try and I'm really sorry to hear that people aren't willing to at least give it a try because quite frankly if we don't try we're going to be here next year with the exact same thing but with a bigger problem because there will be more cars on the road and I just I feel like if we don't at least try you know we're why are we even here councilman Vieira or wait councilman clendenon Vieira Henderson Miranda yeah I I I I'm glad councilman herk said at about the port and the airport because I mean they get hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in federal money I mean it's they get they get they are they are the recipients of tons of uh of cash flow so they they definitely don't need the city of the Small Potatoes of the city of Tampa again I probably would be where uh councilman Carlson is except though as councilman her just said brt is is a proposal we've been talking about this you know a lot um my emphasis has been expanding the street car for urban Transit and be car-free environment within our urban area but you know that but again as someone said in this discussion maybe was councilman Vera you know you've got to do a lot of different things at once you know we're running the city government you can't just focus on one thing you have to focus on lots of things so as we look at the brt as a proposal it's it's it's it's expensive this test pilot program again I don't necessarily see this as a long-term solution and for those of you in the public that think that we're going to be able to sustain this you know indefinitely it's it's not sustainable within the city of Tampa budget but we can use this as a test program to see that one we can drive that the the writers ship numbers up to to see if if to be able to reach the threshold that's required for brt and it'll either work or it won't and we'll we'll have an answer we'll be able to know whether people will actually be you know are using the service they will will have an answer um so that's that's the thing is this isn't this isn't this isn't a long-term solution this isn't a you know a self-perpetuating program of of government blo and growth this is this is a test of a low a lowcost test to test a much more expense before we invest further into a much more expensive program so we we we invest this amount of money this year and we know whether uh we should be looking at this much greater investment of nearly hundred million of a brt to get from uh downtown Tampa the USF so again don't look at it as a uh as as as a self- perpetuating government blow thing look at this as as a smart business decision of you test the concept at the lowest possible amount of money that you can before you move forward with the larger investment next is Vieira Henderson Miranda thank you very much you know I I councilman Carlson said some words about our heart board and I wanted to stand up for our hardworking heart board um to say that because we don't want to raise taxes right now that somehow the fault lies with the heart board when we have a County Commission that would rather do a whole lot of things other than raise taxes for heart right now so why engage in political flattery and political gsmh and the Heart board even if we did have the votes on the heart board and to say guess what we're going to push through a sale we're going to push through an addition in taxes and send over to the County Commission where we know it's going to die amen all that I want to do is to help out the hardworking men and women and the families who take the har bus every single day and I tell you I think councilwoman Henderson mentioned the street car where we have funding for the street car you know through different Partnerships some of it's temporary Etc I I think councilman Henderson you mentioned the idea and by the way 100% for the street car funding it Etc but the folks who drive who ride on the street car I don't have the stats to back this up but I bet you a million bucks that if you took a survey of the people who are on the street car versus the people who are on Route One for har there's going to be a big difference in income huge difference in income that people who ride the street car probably tend to earn more and I am disturbed by a different level of scrutiny applied to Temporary funding measures for heart and to hardworking families who ride heart as opposed to the folks who take the street car right that's the issue before us here today why aren't we going to give the hardworking folks who take heart in hardworking workers who make heart work every single day the same courtesy that we give the people who ride the street car I support both of them they both do something different Hart's big issue is funding it's money it's the number one issue we have disagreements on the hardboard in terms of how to get there some folks say let's look at Grants others again I've been very I put my political Capital out there time and time again for higher taxes for mass transit we had a study uh from a proposal that was pushed by state senator Danny Burgess and state representative Lawrence McClure and we worked with them I went to Tallahassee with our wonderful CEO Scott dreamful if you haven't worked with him one of the greatest guys on Earth I think he walks on water where we talked to our friends in Tallahassee on things that we're doing to improve heart a study was done by through the the legislature through F do and guess what they found the number one challenge of heart is money and revenue so my issue is I just want to help har I don't care about the politics of it I don't care if we do it through if we could raising the millitary I don't care if we do it through appropriating money from the city of Tampa I don't care if we do it by doing lemonade stands or saying 12 hail mares and 12 our fathers I just want to get the job done because being on that heart board with different folks I've seen the people who depend on that system and they're going to benefit from this it's going to be moved ahead and they deserve the same kind of generosity that we give the street car thank you council member Henderson then Miranda thank you and I have my microphone up since we can't talk at heart you know because of sunshine let me just ask you a question isn't there a subsidy program in place for people who need to ride hard and they receive a significant discount isn't that already doesn't that already exist um I'd have to ask Mr Willis that I'm unaware if you want if that's okay there's a subsidy program in place and are there people who currently ride it for free and another thing while he's looking that up I guess is I'm I'm ready okay uh Justin Willets uh heart uh director of planning uh discount fairs are available uh mostly to seniors Medicare the young and people with disabilities right so they if they're riding that route they they can e they can apply for that or they receive that do you know yeah it's across the whole system there are some discounts available right but you should have that data available since you presented it to us for Route One do you have it the breakdown of existing Riders on Route One by how they pay their fair and if it's discounted that I was not asked to present that I'd be happy to bring it back all right I did present the statistics of the people on the corridor and the demographics and the disabilities income levels and that sort of thing the city is having as the city is being asked to take the hit we have the least amount of money you know the county has all the money the heart board is just as conservative as the County Commission and so they know that we would have to be the problem solvers of this issue and that's just not fair that's all I wanted to say Council Miranda we could make this a TV show and it' be a seller forever the best show and and I mean a producer get this make a movie out of and get rich one government doesn't want to do it so you can't go to them ask for it but you don't want to do it yourself because whatever reason it's always coming to us so but it's and my problem is I agree with all of them now how do we solve the problem by sending it back to heart and telling them to figure it out call me out order go ahead no no I asked for the bank no that's I'll take the heat but anyway no that's I I think the hardboard ought to take it first and I'm not trying to delay it present it to them and see how they want it done and how they want to do it I don't say a hardboard I don't know much about trans I'll be honest with you I don't think anyone does other than those who sit in those areas but it's compan to for all of us to understand that there's a need definitely there's a need how you going to do the study and how you going to find out in many ways but when you really do a need in necessity we know that the lowest income I guess supposedly are the ones that ride the bus on a daily basis and they're young I guess the people that go to different schools don't know what a bus is if you put it in front of them because I one it was a car when they turned 16 and that's what society's done the parents have given them a car so that's another problem you got to overlook there's not not one little hurdle here is a whole bunch of hurdles to change society back where it came from originally are we going to get there maybe and maybe not you cannot have one study in one area when you do a polling of anything you do different areas in different ages different income levels all of it is done no matter what business you're in whether you're in the restaurant business or you're in the Aerospace business or you're trying out something else you try every little thing we're only going to one not two and I'm not trying to say they escape the problem I would vote for it right now if they're going to do two studies and two little areas but they're only doing one how do I know what the other on I the public not if it's never asked I'm not here I'm not I love all the colleagues I love all the questions that they ask I love everything I think they've done it all well but at the end how do you solve the problem you go before the hardboard first and let the other government tell them no and like I said the problem started when it started when it started back in the 80s not today when they said we're going to make it now you're going to have to have somebody from here take them all the way to W Mama to brus and everything else you got to have concentration to have Transit work and it started back in the 80s when this started and you just didn't have the writers ship you were spending the M money on nothing it wasn't going to work the way it was now you have a possibility of working and we just can't solve it because of so many interests so I would vote for it right now if there was two studies done with the same amount of money half of the5 here and half of the5 somewhere else at least to get an understanding what it is we just can't say one and that's it I never made my I never married my first girlfriend maybe she didn't want to marry me either thank you very much motion to close no no council member uh Carlson then uh we take the vote um yeah I think we we've all had two rounds um I I want to first thank Mr Willets um I know um uh you you spent a lot of time on this and researching it and answering uh a question you didn't know that you'd get all these other questions and more time tonight than preparing um but uh but thank you thank you for doing that and and I I don't remember your title exactly but I think you're the the director of planning or something like that so you're not the CEO and we and and and uh we we shouldn't expect you to be able to answer every question off the top of your head but thank you for trying uh to do that tonight and thank you for representing the organization um second the the point has been made that the hardworking men and women of our city deserve a solution and I completely agree with that uh what we need is a long-term solution a systemic solution what's going to happen a year from now is the city of Tampa does not have the million and a half to continue even if it's approved tonight so we'll give people a year to ride this and then the money's going to go away heart can't fund it everybody's saying the city the County's not going to fund it the state's not going to fund it so who's going to fund it nobody's going to fund it we need to find a a a solution and and for everybody who's here advocating for this if you don't like the folks who are going to vote against they've got 480 million plus in capacity to go out and and um and and charge in their avalor fees but nobody's even made a motion so we need your help to do that city the city just because the city is accessible and a city council is accessible doesn't mean that we can solve every problem in our community this issue was taken out of the city uh 40 years ago with the idea that it would be independently handled and and all we can do is maybe put a Band-Aid in it we're not going to fix the problem we're not going to fix all the issues in the in the community even though we're philosophically in favor of them we need to come up with a systemic issue we can't give people uh a free bus for a short period of time and then expect that they're going to be able to pay after that also this helps with one route and not all the rest of them ccil thank you just GNA finish by saying it's been really interesting to listen to the excuses and I have to say this is why people don't like government we're we're Nimble just just picking and picking and picking if we can't be nimble if we can't do something to try to help people then why are we here like why are all of us here and to make sure it's perfect per we can make perfect the enemy of the good um we owe it to the public to try uh so I'm calling the question we have a motion from council member her to Second was council member Vieira let's take a roll call vote Vieira yes Miranda no Carlson yes herat yes CL yes no yes thank you very much council member Henderson you can begin the discussion on the uh social action thank you so much okay I have my microphone okay I have a great appreciation for Social Action when I came to city council um there were basically three black organizations that receive some funding the Urban League the um the U NAACP and a little bit of M money went to the U black Heritage Festival that we have every year that will be in its 25th year in 2025 so we take care of dogs we take care of filming we take care of a lot of different stuff and so the question came to me or I presented the question well how do you get on this list because as an educator I know a bunch of organizations that really support our communities and are doing some amazing things but they're not on this list so how do you get on the list and no one really could answer that question but one thing I do know is if you make the list you just stay on the list you stay on it and you just keep getting money you keep getting money and they've already told you based on the comments from staff that there hasn't been accountability they don't have the agreements in place so to get $200,000 every year what it says to me is that you know you're going to get it you're expecting it and you are not necessarily showing what you've done with these funds and another thing is is that you're so spoiled because you are getting it that maybe you're not going out and soliciting funds from other organizations you're just expecting the city to come back year after year after year but yet one particular organization had to beg for they money and have an agreement in place a lack of equity actually disrespectful and I actually disagree with the NAACP on quite a few things but not on this and so that is what's very interesting to me so what I did was something and I actually had this I'm now sharing in my very first conversation that I had with the mayor I said as a teacher if you gave an organization $55,000 they could do a whole lot of stuff if you gave me $5,000 I could take two trips on college tours to Tallahassee buy the kids t-shirts and buy them some snacks and I am being impactful somebody in that group is going to go off to college because I put them on a bus for the very first time our role up here with this particular money is to support something just to support you to give you a little bit of help you cannot expect us to fund your organization and then everybody else give you $1,000 and $5,000 but yet you get $200,000 from us there is absolutely no equity in this in this list and what has happened because I've been paying attention is that a council member you know they support something so they will ask for that organization to get on the list so I tried it for the very first time and this is public record so you can see what I'm talking about I actually asked the Aeron I I asked for funding for the Aaron's house $55,000 the bullet Family Foundation I also asked for G3 um they are a youth organization that is very impactful my former students but I know what they do for the community out in East Tampa I asked for it for um rise up for peace they deal with gun violence in our community and I asked for $5,000 the big ass for me as a council member was $220,000 to the skills center which we actually supported with CRA funds but this is their first year in Celeste Roberts and her team raised a lot of money from so many different places to um surpassed their their their fundraising goal of 23 million to raise $28 million to build the skill Center so we gave them $500,000 that's a pinch as a CRA and then so this is now here it is for the first time in East Tampa there is this beautiful beautiful facility for Youth and the scary part is is that now we got to keep it open we have to pay people we got to keep the lights on we have to have programming and so I asked for that organization to receive $20,000 and they're on the list the ask up here has been too big for some of these organizations when you look feeding Tampa Bay gets $200,000 that makes sense cuz they feed people they feed people in my community and some of my some of my constituents have a problem with the homeless getting fed which is ridiculous and a whole another story but feeding Tampa Bay does amazing work and they receive $200,000 but here it is the film filming Tampa educational cable and I'm not picking at you I'm just pointing out that you're getting a lot of money and I don't know NE necessarily know that you're being necessarily impactful and so and you and it shows on your website that you do re receive support from other organizations the community just like us you you're going to have to have your ass you're going to have to have your fundraisers you're going to have to start doing other things besides expecting the city to fund your organization at a number where you can't justify it and they haven't had they haven't been able to have to justify it because we haven't made made it a requirement even the funding for the NAACP was very old frank reck was up here many years ago councilman Goods came after him you know so that update because they got an increase they had to have an agreement but nobody else was tied to that and then Mr Brody today couldn't even say who else has gotten those but the chief was very smart he got a Dr Chief got up and said that before we give everybody else a money anybody anyone over $25,000 will have to have a community benefit agreement that benefit agreement at one point when Evette Lewis approached me she said we can't even meet these requirements that they're asking of us in order to get our money you know it's just too stringent so I found that very interesting so I don't even know what we're going to require from these organizations in order for them to get their funding there's just no balance all across the board since I how many seconds do you have um when you the light Rings okay okay so there actually is um some funds left over and for me what is important um because it's happened to me I get so many phone calls with organizations asking for a little bit of help just a little bit of help $1,000 $2,000 because they're trying to do something let me just wrap this up by saying this so the leftover funding um that we have I would like for it to be divided up you know among council members or we decide amount $20,000 because along the year when you get that phone call you're able to help someone you're able to help someone the add-on requests for me just as a public I did ask for the Riverwalk they do some amazing things but the funding amount that we asked for for them actually was a little bit less the mayor was more generous and gave 35,000 I said 25 but I just don't think that we need to be giving out big numbers anything over $100,000 we need to stop doing that so that people know that there's Equity acas the board and you have to show what it is that you do and it has to come in a resolution just like it did for the NAACP it needs to cross our desk at $25,000 for each one separately so that we can say yes or yay or nay and and it actually should not last forever it should not last forever because some of these people on this list have been on here forever thank you very much council member Henderson you you brought up something interesting so there there's $124,000 left over and unallocated funds yes if we were to divide that between seven council members that would give us $1 17,745 council member I know no no no that was uh before the updated list yeah so it's 124 yeah just I did the number it be a great start because one of the things that just happens just for the public is that I'll ask organization wants to talk to me and I'll say to Darling what do they want darling what do they want they they say they have to talk to you they have to talk to you and I'm like darling you know I don't have any money you know I don't have any money to give these people and so it could be really legit but even I you know have I have literally written checks just to support an organization because there is no funding for me to give to them and I am a giver but it shouldn't have to come to that you know where the council members are writing the checks to support organizations that are 5013 C's but yet they just need a little bit it's to feed the kids it's to uh um we gave the money to um the I literally went on the tour we um the Silver Springs steing Stones Community they have a food pantry they have they feed those kids as soon as they get there because they may not have food that may be the last thing that they eat so there are just things that we can do if we had our if we just had where we could ask the budget office you know maybe there's a form created and um especially the ones that have a district I know some of you are tied to um you know your Citywide and so but if we just had you know an equal amount of money um whether it's 15,000 10,000 to help along the year where they don't have to necessarily be on a funding list at the beginning of the year I just think that's ideal pilot program that we actually could try thank you for the extra time yes ma'am council member Randa council member from I I'm not here to to uh debate anyone on this issue but I'm not going that route personally I don't think that I uh I don't want somebody overlooking at me I ask for money for somebody somebody does something wrong with it then I'm going to be responsible for it I'm not saying it's going to happen but if there's a probability it can happen it will happen and and that's how life is no disrespect to anybody on this board or anything like that but once you touch public money and elected official's hands and you pass it on to somebody else you're going to be just as responsible for what that person did even if you didn't like what that person did so me I'm not voting for that even if it's like a thous I'm not voting for that at all even if it's a dollar I'm not doing that because I'm you be creating a burden that I don't need or anybody else doesn't need I understand that I understand that but I'm just saying from what I know about government it's not worth the trouble that you're going to get involved even if you're not guilty you're going to get involved it's going to cost you a lot of money to say you're not guilty and prove it that's all I'm want to say council member kenon council member Vier council member Carlson yeah I I didn't ask for any money on this list by the way um so but I I I do I do look at a lot this is not I mean this is other people's money this is taxpayers money we're talking about this is not our this is but this isn't our money and so when we when we we do a litness test of H how I spend other people's money there's got to be some type of return on the investment that meets the Strategic goals of the city and and how we you know what what we're trying to achieve so whether it's going to be providing jobs uh economic incubator um or the more social um welfare programs when we're taking care of kids and you know the things that that we need to be doing as as a as as a just Society those are the the the litmus test before we did this isn't just a money giveaway these are actually should be accomplishing strategic goals of the city as we as we're spending other people's money so as as I'm and I'm very much hoping that as the city negotiates these these agreements that that's that's included in all of this so that we can actually weigh that this organization like you know so we talk about um you know organization x what are they returning to this community what are they returning to the city of Tampa what are they returning to uh either the the economic success uh you know developing careers developing skills or um you know whatever that is or developing jobs or creating the uh touris you know the tourism and other other Catalyst things that we can do very strategically as a city to bring Economic Development and growth to the city which provides jobs um that's what I'm looking for I mean I'm a Citywide guy I don't want any money either I mean if you guys amongst your single member districts feel like that it's something that's better for you guys go for it but I I agree with Charlie uh councilman moranda I'd rather see that money stay sitting dormant and as you know we had an issue with like you brought up Stepping Stones it came up mid year we had an issue with suver springs pool we needed to find money for that mid year so if we leave that sitting if we leave un unfunded sitting there for the a period of time I guarantee you there's going to be some need to SP before us in the next 12 months that we're going to have to go looking for money and so that we we we'll be able to do that without cutting somewhere else so that would be my suggestion but for myself as a as a as a Citywide person I I don't necessarily feel like I need a a Kitty of money council member Viera Carlson thank you Mr chair and and I know I've looked at the list and I'm personally supportive of the items being put on the list I'm fine with the list you know I I have made requests throughout the years and this year and and they requests that I not just don't you know run away from that I would fully Embrace I mean last year I I began uh funding for uh with with Council and the mayor support uh the penguin project which does uh wonderful first Class theater programs for people with intellectual disabilities and you know it it helps them temporarily uh uh gives them a real leg up to long-term Independence I don't see that as as as something that's going to be long-term and permanent all these different things uh uh councilman uh Henderson I'm so glad you mentioned G3 Ronnie I mean those those folks are are are just amazing rise up for peace love them to death really good people so I I I think that it is good to do something like this um to reflect our values um you know the the different things that we do here on Council reflect our values the the what we just did for heart I voted for it reflects my values uh and I think a lot of the things that I've requested also reflect my values um I do have a question by the way for friends of the Riverwalk um they had you know maybe I can do this offline but they had sent an email where they asked about a waiver of $50,000 of fees um I I don't know who I talk to about it I can do it between first and second reading no no Chief Bennett do you happen to know I spoke about it with the mayor earlier so I don't know if the chief is also aware John man and Chief of Staff um again we can talk deep more deep in offline if you want to but I think what they're asking for is we go through the special event permitting process what I what we tend to refer to is hard costs and soft cost so sometimes soft costs will get waved to support some of the hard costs like law enforcement fire rescue Personnel that are going to come out of the city's budget and or reallocate resources we tend not to wave those things and so I think that's where the negotiation is we feel there's opportunity we love to activate the Riverwalk so that's not the issue the issue is trying to make sure that we grow into this budget in a sustainable way and support activation on the Riverwalk so we're confident we're going to be able to work with our special events team and the friends of the Riverwalk to find that sweet spot in their budget despite earmarking recommending 35,000 to start yes sir and thank you for that and we can talk between first and second reading I would support some level of waiver and and last question if I may Mr chair is for Mr rero I have a question for you sir um I I had asked this before for the veterans helping veterans and merciful project low low amounts I saw the little one do I need to make a formal motion to have those included sir from my perspect thank you yeah Den R chief financial office from my perspective it would be appropriate for a motion by Council to make any of these changes to the recommended budget so but I only asked those two because they had a little one yes okay good so okay so may I make a motion Mr chair wait he has to make a motion even though they're included with that little uh one next to it is it already included or he has to make the formal motion it it is a it is an yes and that's why and that's why it's framed exactly uh as councilwoman Henderson said as potential there's been much discussion of course but no change has been voted on for uh to the recommended budget okay moreover I would uh and correct me if I'm I'm wrong Mr Shelby but we discussed the the mechanism to go about making these changes it would be preferable and I think easier for everybody involved if we could make these changes in October by bringing a financial resolution to city council if I may Mr CH before you before you make any motion I I want to go wait yes if I can just a question just for the sake of clarity the list that was presented by the budget analyst by um um M kesy those items were marked in yellow are new to the list and are not in the mayor's recommended budget did I understand that correctly no everything uh can I have the can I have the Elmo there you oh and and and and F feel free m kesy but those items that are identified as proposed change those are the only items that are not in the recommended budget everything else on this list is in the recommended budget even the items even the items that were listed in yellow and yellow were meant to show 24 versus 25 24 versus 25 okay thank you thank you for that all right next up I have question so this this list the potential change the the $124,600 I love hearing all the New Perspectives um especially in regard to the recurring um funding I agree totally with that the idea I think of the city funding should be um kind of startup or or or innovation funding to get people going but um ultimately the city doesn't have the money to sustain nonprofits especially on a large basis on a on an ongoing basis um I I would vote no if we got a a a vote to have us give away money um one of the reasons is that my friends who were in the in the uh giving industry like work for foundations the 90 something per of your job is saying no and the saying no to people is a lot worse than the saying yes so you make a few people happy but you make a lot of people unhappy and people say why did you fund them and not us but the other thing is that it didn't go through the process um I have folks make requests to me and I never directly put anything on a list like this I always send them to the chief of staff or or the administration because I want them to go through a process for the same reasons that council member Miranda mentioned I want to make sure that the organization is vetted even though I I might like the organization support I want to make sure they're vetted um there are many organizations on here that I that I personally supported or through my firm I've supported uh but but I want to make sure they go through some process and I think where we can have an impact is if we had a workshop um hopefully the administration will put a workshop on our on our list or maybe council member Henderson can propose it but where we could give some input into what the process is and maybe further Define it um to show the equity to maybe have smaller grants um things like that to make sure that we take out some of the recurring ones the other thing is when nonprofits contact me during this time I tell all of them even even though I really like them I tell them all you need to start applying now for next year not this year it's too late for this year the the the the thing is already baked in and I would suggest just if there are new any new ideas that we start NE that that we take them through the process to look for next year if they're vetted uh if this list of maybe if they're already vetted and the administration is saying okay we've looked at these fine but if they haven't I think we need to go through the vetting process the other thing remember I talked about categories of policy interest earlier one of them is economic development and without calling out any names of people or organizations because I don't want to single them out there are probably four on this list that should be under Economic Development not under charitable giving because I think that they should be sustainable um there it's not these are not startup organizations these are things that we're funding these are services that in effect we're buying uh for economic development and I think that has to be a separate category like our city the what um since Alfred's here I'll Point him out but um the sister city program sister city is a is a program that that is they're really they're really providing a service on be sorry they're providing a service on behalf of the city and uh they're separate and they raise their own money and they put but but they exist to support the city and it's not like um they're just solving a social need they're actually providing a service of the city and I think the city should pay and what um what and just like you would any other service and in this case they're raising money to match us and so it's it it's a different to me it's a totally different kind of transaction than than just nonprofit giving this is not charitable giving it's actually a transaction where we're asking to provide a service for us um and if there's any money left if there's 124,000 at the end um if we could fix one road that would be worth it because that would be 20 or so people that would be very happy thank you council member herch and me thank you um for me this is this is a larger Pro uh issue of helping smaller organizations get off the ground and then trans transferring to something else so one of the things I've talked about is I I've asked about actually is the city if the city could apply for larger grants as a pass through for some of these social organizations and and that's something that we have the capacity to do that a lot of these small organizations don't and this came to light when we were talking about how to um help teens um like the stay in play and all of that so a lot of those organizations have some capacity but not capacity to have a $50,000 Grant they can handle $10,000 so you don't want to overburden them with something that they aren't ready for we want to help them grow so so to me that's a real big issue that I'd like to see the city work toward we're we're doing Gang Busters on grants where we have a phenomenal team so let's start going after some of these types of grants that we can do pass through focused on particular issues uh and and so that to me is a really big deal um and then I know we sort of talked about it but we have to create a method to get organizations to move off grants there's at least two two groups on this list that I've asked when I i' I've talked to them and I I've asked them you know what what does an endowment look like to you and they're like well we're not really looking at endowments and I'm thinking why not you have a lot of money why aren't you you trying for an endowment it's difficult to start but once you have an endowment you don't need city city assistance anymore and you have the capacity to do that so to me I would like um some I would like to see some assistance in endowments uh but also to go to go back to the idea of creating the method to get organizations to move off grants if we don't have a method to start people down that path uh I would like to to create one and if we do have one if we could get a presentation about what that looks like but we have to start we have to start somewhere um several of these organizations may need help in the long term but a lot of them I mean there's an organization here that takes in millions of dollars that's getting less than $25,000 from us why why why are we doing that they don't I mean it's our money is a drop in the bucket to them but could be a huge difference maker to some other smaller organizations and I tried to take that off last year and I got a resounding no so um I'm just kind of befuddled by it but anyway so that's those are my thoughts on that council member Clen um yes had gather my thoughts I I I want to make a motion that uh requests that the administration uh divide this list as councilman Carlson said because I it is it's odd this combination this is social action and arts funding but several of these organizations are more Economic Development oriented than than that than social action Arts funding so I'd like to see those separate because again and I think those are worthy of funding because it's Catalyst funding that produces a return for the investment for the City of Tampa so I'd like to see those taken off uh and and in a separate category so I'll motion that the administration um work through this list identify uh identify uh the these organizations that are Economic Development nature and create a sub subset category for them have second second Council V so you know I've had requests as I'm sure all of us had to increase funding for certain organizations and not going to name them but at least one is in that category and that's going to be that's going to be my next discussion that's what I want to talk about okay there's there's a motion in a second by clend and viea all in favor I I any oppose so that that being said I I would like the administration to work with Tampa Bay wave and and identify their funding needs and and I don't want I don't think it's appropriate for us to do this from the deis but I think the administration if they would if they would work with Tampe wave identify their request for additional funding as far as the return on the investment and see what that looks like and bring it back before Council second may have a friendly Amendment sure friend um the the what I'm sorry no no go ahead go ahead I I was going to ask about putting um potentially the friends of the Riverwalk on there as well if you're I'm a I am well all of them that the potential change for all of them because it's not just the Friends of the River Walk is Cornerstone I mean I'm I'm taking out the economic development portion we talk Economic Development portion so we have a motion in a second yes yes Carlson and her I don't have the listen for any me but one of them is um if I can read this one of them is it says Tampa chamber but it really is the protocol office and that is um that is it's I don't know how many it is today it used to be five organizations like Port Airport chamber I forgot who the other organizations were and and together they they all provide resources or fund um a person who works on protocol so when a when a dignitary comes here they help and mostly they work with the administration and so that one I I think has to be included under Economic Development also well that's why I was asking them to pull those all inclusive I not just those I want the administration to go through that list identify things that should be under Economic Development yeah so that's your first motion but the second motion then you started talking about Economic Development I just want to make sure that there are several that we haven't mentioned that that probably could be Economic Development so let me ask you a question on on that note and separating are you looking at cutting their funding in any way dividing I want to divide it because I think that as as we've heard in this discussion I think that we come to the as seven individuals we come to this from and of course the administration of of of many more from different perspectives and I think it's it would be much easier to digest as we're looking at how we're spending taxpayer money okay is this is this dollar we're spending because it returns x amount of dollars in return or is this money we're spending because we're it's meeting our our our our just our just responsibility as a city to provide for people that you know that need that extra hand up you know I want to be able to divide those issues up so that we can make a better decision about how we're funding funding programs so you know it's it's it's kind of odd they talk about television production in the same breath that we're talking about feeding kids or or or helping you know somebody get out of homelessness it's it's kind of it's kind of it's it's odd to be able to talk about the two or or a museum versus a yeah no no I get it I get it can I just add the the the whole list can be seen as economic development it all adds to economic but there are certain ones of these that are services that that that essentially the city is outsourcing the city like like the sister city program that if if the if there was not a nonprofit that help raise money for it the city would have to otherwise do that completely themselves same thing with the protocol office same thing uh with with supporting entrepreneurs through Tampa wave so these are these are services that the city is outsourcing Cil member and again I'm going to go back to the concept of endowments and I I we don't talk discussion um we don't talk enough about the fact that some of these organizations especially Economic Development need to be able to create endowments so they can move forward without City help and there are again quite a few of these that that we need to help with that if they need help but at some point those who are financially able to assist themselves allow us to be able to help more organizations in in different areas and and I don't disagree I think we need to support economic development but we also need to encourage the folks who do Economic Development to look for um for sources that they can keep forever and for me that's working on endowments uh and if folks I mean endowments are basically just being able to collect enough money so that you can pay for things from the return and some some folks can do that I mean the little mom and pop that are getting $5,000 can't do that but people that have helped create millions and millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars should be able to create an endowment all right we have a motion in a second state the motion again please so the motion was come to member clenon yes the motion was to ask the administration to go through this list the motion was to go ask the administration to go through the list uh and pull out the the organizations that are more Economic Development oriented to create subset list so that we can treat these as V on that one no no we we never voted on WE that's I turned him and I said did we vote on this I thought we did to but then we didn't guess I got I got caught in discussion Motion in a second the second is councilman Vier all in favor listen to it it was just as simple as just it really wasn't much of a discussion just asking the administration to go through this list and divide take out the organizations that are more Economic Development and creating two because and they're not really social action and arts funding divide the list amongst two different types of organizations thank you for that uh request all right we have a motion in a second all in favor any oppos yes and I'm this is the updated list with the correct 124 number has a clarifying wait council member Henderson hand up first yeah and also for me um you know in terms of the recommended budget for the fiscal year 25 I don't want to throw any particular organization you know under the bus because this has already been established and presented to us but I don't I think that we should cap social action funding at $100,000 um it's not necessary if we're going to move in a direction of especially these organizations that are over that there are five organizations that receive over $150,000 and they are the repeaters they've been on here for a very long time so I think that we should cap it um not this year but this is the last year where we will give you know funding in at these levels and where we have a plan in place where it can be a range of those under $25,000 and then the range of25 to $100,000 because for three of them Public Access television and then the cable Consortium so Public Access gets 208 the cable Consortium get two 200 and then the film and digital commission you know get a 100 and so it's like you know I mean they're in the you know that's not a business that necessarily is impactful to us and I don't know if it's necessary for us for them to be at such high funding levels because it stands out especially when you look at we give feeding Tampa Bay $200,000 and we know the great impact that they have it's just that there I don't know if their impact is worthy of being up there at that same level as feeding Tampa Bay so I would if I can get some support on a motion where we cap it at $800,000 um not not I don't want to cut anyone's funding for fy2 but this is the last year where we go over $100,000 and that way that everyone on this list is notified that the highest the city will go is $100,000 in Social Action funds hold on a second Mr Shelby Mr chairman members of council Martin Shelby Mark yeah but he's been asking me oh I'm sorry did you want if it's a motion I can discuss this after see if there's a second before is there a second for discussion is there a second to the motion no may I go ahead is there a second I yeah I'll I'll second um I I probably won't vote for but I'll second to discuss it that's all right then if I can if I can before you do that Mr chairman again Martin Shelby city council attorney I was not aware that not every council member or at least I know the clerk nor I had a copy of this list that has been referenced to and of again my job as city council attorney is to make sure the process is transparent and fair and I'd ask that the the cttv put on the screen I see it there the list that's being referred to and you could see it was discussed earlier it was placed on the Elmo earlier but I was want to State for the record that that is being provided to ensure that every council member has that list and for the purposes of moving forward the administration knows what list you're referring to and this list is now going to be placed into the record thank you so much sir c number her tag thank you um I I can't support it for for this very reason right now the state cut every single penny of Arts funding the county won't do social action funding at all or if they do it's on a much limited level much more limited level right now we are it and so I'd be more receptive to that maybe in a couple of years but right now with the government with the state government and the County government I feel like a lot of these places don't have anywhere else to go so I'm I'm hesitant to support that going forward for the next calendar or for the next fiscal year we have a motion from council member all of these have been but they've been on here for a very long time I mean that is we we have to decide on some level of a cap or we're not we're showing favoritism to certain organizations but but I just sorry oh sorry and and the the and and I don't disagree with you which is why I want to work on on how a method to to get organizations to move off the grants but that can take a couple of years so so in in moving them off I would absolutely support once we have a process in place to help them find better grants to to be a pass through to to help them find other ways to get the funding I absolutely support that going forward I think we need to give it a couple of years though because right now we don't even have the whole system of applying okay well maybe T should amend the motion that we have a workshop so that we can publicly decide on some parameters it is your motion so I'd be happy okay to support to a workshop okay so you have you're you're taking back I withraw that how do you do it come on draw your motion okay I withdra the motion has been withdrawn and the second or you're good all right come go ahead is to establish a workshop where we can determine the parameters moving forward um second for fiscal year Beyond Yool year 25 Miranda okay and that Workshop Camp is it do we have room in um not September but the one after that uh it's basically January January we're looking at which is fine January is fine I us enough time to think about it as of January January 30th is your next Workshop uh we have a couple of things but yeah we should it'll work yeah all right okay CLE motion Madam clerk thank you we have a motion in a second now we're going to go to discussion on this motion council member Miranda Clint Denon and Carlson thank you Mr chairman I I'm one about more performance and money if you're giving out money you're getting poor performance you got a problem but if you're putting out money getting a better performance then it's a plus for the taxpayers so I like that at the end of the day when we have that Workshop have some direction some performance like I said earlier if you're going to have one for 25 they all got to supply that information what they do on a however however we're going to work in six months a year or half a year and and check out whatever they're doing and how well they're doing for the money they're getting that's all it's a business on their side and on the taxpayer side that's it thank you very much clend and Carl I just I mean I I'll support this bringing it to a workshop but I just want because we can't talk about it between now and then and just remember that not every organization is the same and why I ask for that list to be divided some there is a return on the investment so it's you know there so there are some things that probably in perpetuity it's beneficial of the city to fund because they're providing a service for us um and it's not just charity they're actually we're actually getting something for the money so we we are getting a return on an investment for every single thing when we feed those children with our money from Community Stepping Stones we are absolutely getting a return on investment I stand I stand corrected in my choice of words there's there's economic Returns on some things and then there are just as I've said four or five times in my conversation about just society and about being a just city of of the type of things that we provide so yes we do but I mean I think that's we have to look at that is that if if the city is spending X number of dollars but we're getting X number of dollars back or a service for that and that's why I asked it it to be divided out of this fund and separately thank you council member Carlson um yeah I I think we should have a workshop on on this that would that the administration would be involved in and that they would present what their criteria is and we would um we will be able to work collaborative with them and hear from the community it partly clarifying but also Point um um when I was talking about separating Economic Development from the rest of them um my intention I don't know what the intention was of your motion but my intention was that um they these e pure economic velopment Services these are services that are are outsourced from Economic Development my intention was that they would then transfer to be Services underneath the economic development budget and that are the economic development folks just like the EDC we Outsource um uh business recruitment to the EDC and we pay $550,000 a year but if we had a list that said EDC um Tay wave sister city program protocol whatever else these are the services then the the the uh the economic development director can review them measure them and and work work the Outsource with their staff to uh to manage it which is separate from um these other services thank you yeah I don't disagree with what you just said I mean I think it's I think we're close we're very close on the same mindset but but not not not not some out of close close we're going to have a good Workshop in January I'm going to reserve my a wordss for January we have a motion in a second all in favor I any oppos oh yes go ahead sir councilman no worries so I I wanted to add to and I can ask answer questions about these veterans helping veterans I'm sure a lot of youall have seen their work amazing a lot of the people who uh do uh this are with the veterans treatment Court they're led by uh Mike Odell who many of you all know who's just just I mean they those folks do amazing work um and then merciful uh project we had talked about them last year or $7,500 I I just wanted us to um uh fulfill that so I wanted to make a motion uh for the cfo's office to return to Tampa city council at the next meeting when they can do it I I I don't know what date it would be uh with a financial resolution making the changes listed under social arts and action fund to include these two proposed uh changes and sir I I don't know when it would be good for you guys there's six changes yeah do all of them do all of them sure I'm sorry the River Walk okay yeah absolutely absolutely yeah thank you absolutely black FAL there's quite a few all the ones that have the number one all the additional funding all the potential okay yep so there my apologies start again yes sir so I hereby make a motion um and and before I do that when when should we have that returned to us sir we can have it to you at the first meeting in October okay yes sir so we'll gladly do that so I make a a motion for the cfo's office to return to Tampa City Council on um October 3rd um regular session with a financial resolution making the changes um listed under the social arts and action fund to include the proposed changes and those are the ones that have potential change and I want to make sure I read these for the motion if I may that includes Cornerstone Ministries Friends of the Riverwalk merciful project um Tampa Bay black Heritage Festival veterans helping veterans and I believe believe that's it 1 2 3 4 five that's it yeah and I'm sorry if I can clarify that that will come from the unallocated funding line item at the very bottom yes that's 87,500 council's intent yes yes which would leave us with the balance of 124 686 after these yes sir can ask a question do we have a second second from Council M hon yester uh chief of staff and and you may have said this before but I just ask you can um can you verify that the Administration has has reviewed all these and takeen taken them through their your process or will you be able to do it by the time we have this meeting um so that we make sure that they're they're approved through your normal process that you apply to all the other nonprofits so we're talking about the ones that requesting changes right the ones in the motion um if again through the current process if it's below 25 it'll come through the onepage process if it's more than 25 that will go through the boilerplate legal agreement and the scope of services so yes so in other words once the budget's approved that's the plan to execute or Implement those requests and they would go through that full vetting process at that time can I share one more thing with Council go ahead so and I think this is prime for the workshop discussion I just want to put the thought bubble out there when we do specializ some of these I see a special events as opposed to Economic Development or social action purposes and if council could consider maybe down the road that there is a number I could we could obviously make a recommendation there's a lot of startup special events very small runs or and they're very diverse too and but because they have small hard costs they're getting denied or they have to come out of pocket before they get started and create some Revenue stream for and they're self-contained in Parks um you know they're they're very manageable events but they come with some hard cost and if there was you know a certain dollar amount that remained for the discretion of staff to apply those to those special events we would be helping dozens of small special events get off the ground till they could get some Revenue so that's just something to say for the future for for the workshop yes we'll just say that's a good idea that leftover funding for people who need us that fall within I like it we have a motion on a second all in favor I any oppos we Madam cler did we vote already we did not vote we just did it we we're good we have voted all right I've been awake since 1:00 a.m. yes yes sir sir excuse me I'm sorry just for our friends the Riverwalk that a reminder that there was a motion by councilman Clint Denon my voice to discuss with the administration between first and second reading so we should potentially have changes there so I just wanted to highlight that thank you and what about in regards to um and I met with Tampa Bay wave I don't know if other council members have because they had uh made it I know it's 100,000 here that's what that's why Administration the conversation isn't over you know I see members here so I just want them to know all right um what they want more money than this everybody wants more money not me okay that concludes that discussion council member clenon you have an item I do I'd like to make a motion to reallocate $5 million from Smart City parking guidance uh item 105 2525 from the uh parking CIP for fiscal year 2025 proposed budget to Street resurfacing under the old item number 10235 to whatever that new number will be and the transportation CIP budget we have a motion in a second for councilman herch let me just say that street Paving is the biggest complaint that I get and if we can make any increase uh any increase on on in our budget for that I understand regarding the smart smart City parking guidance program Mr B you've been up here but uh we did get a second we did get a second okay can you address that from a budget standpoint where where where did you want it to come from from the parking guidance so discussion so make of the motion I mean I get and I know what Vic is going to say about this and and you know it's it's a worthy project and I know a lot of cities have done it I think we've used it you go to Disney in the garages you see it you go to a lot of these places you see it and and it's unfortunate we are where we are of scrambling for money to do the basic need of of of repaving in the city of Tampa but this is the reality we're dealt with I mean I would I I think this is a worthy project I like it I think we it's it's a nice thing to have and we should be able to accomplish something like this somewhere down the line but right now the needs for Paving exceeds the needs for this and we just we've just got to we've just got to do what we got to do we got to bite the bullet and say this is this is more of a need yes can you speak on that big thank you uh big Fe director Mobility so I'd just like to highlight that this project and and you said it for all the right reasons that's why we proposed this project it it one gives Revenue back to the city uh and also addresses some of our challenges but I want to say our CIP budget for parking has been developed based on working with a consultant that's helping us put a master plan together the first year our goal was to address some chapter 15 which is uh what parking is under uh items that we from a policy perspective that we're working on and we should be bringing that to you within the next 90 days and then the other was programmatically what do we need to do as an Enterprise so over 5 years right now through FY 29 we have $29 million allocated for maintenance $18 million for technology improvements the technology improvements may not seem critical relative to other uh uh uh challenges of course but I would like to highlight that a lot of these do what otherwise we would have to send roll trucks which is the most expensive part of our business to do and things like enforcement uh Vehicles parked in bike Lanes or pick up drop offs for major events and those kind of things so that's what some of these technology events uh uh spending is uh program for but council's point is is totally taken given to the biggest complaint that we receive and that is Paving and sidewalks and it's also directly tied to our safety programs Mr oarea would you like to add to that or oh yes just a clarification uh and again and this is germine to the $1.5 million uh change earlier too again if if if I could suggest for uh everybody's ease that we bring these changes to you in October again uh at the first meeting that's fine is that is that good with the motion makers because we'd have to officially vote basically on a resolution is that correct or make take official action so that money is is moved and allocated yes in in October we'll have to bring you a financial resolution again for you to uh to approve that meets your end goals for all of these motions the mo the motion would still stand yes yes the motion's going to stand you're just going to roll it into the product that you're going to deliver said better than I yes Mr Shelby is that good with you uh yes that and I had a conversation with Mr Roo earlier today the purpose being that as you know the way the budget the charter reads is that this is your opportunity to make the changes uh but logistically um it works better for them to be able to do that as a budget um uh Amendment uh but the commitment is by the administration that this is also what they're bringing to you on October 3rd will be a reflection of actions that you have taken by motion today well said yes well council member heard for I believe that one of the Motions we made was to have you basically create I forget the fancy terminology but basically a a check off a list of all the changes we want to make yes is that something that you could bring To Us by the second reading by the second budget hearing just so so I think that if we had that we will have the list and then we can vote with confidence that everything we have and the changes we've made are there yes ma'am we do council member Clint Den well because I I just just restate my position about ask requesting the administration go back and scrub the budget and look for more money for Paving to represent it at that budget as well that I'm not leaving it just just this you know that so I'm asking that the so when we see this again that the the administration would have gone through scrub that budget and come back to try to meet that unmet need that we have for capital capital expenditures for Paving and repaving understood thank you all right so yes again yeah I have a different thing did we vote on that we have the motion from council member Clint Denon no with a second council member her tag this is regarding the uh Smart City parking guidance and then for resurfacing all in favor I any oppos council member her you're up thank you um I want to go back to the general fund balance with this ending available unassigned fund balance uh last year we decided to make that 22% and it's up to 23% and that's because uh they said that they'll have money at the end of the year that to to fit that 5 million what we did is we took 5 million out of the budget last year to go toward I believe it was housing well we still have that five million because we're up to 23% so I think that we should spend that money if we want to find paving money there it is um we aren't scrambling to find money it's literally our priorities what are our priorities yep and and so uh I have a I have one more motion to make about this this uh um I motion to move $500,000 from the unassigned fund balance for fy4 to Art Space which will will provide affordable housing in the 40 to 60,000 per Ami category in perpetuity and I want this to come from this but I also I mean I just want youall to know there's 4 and a half more million that sitting in this unassigned fund balance for 2024 and this is the kind of stuff we need to look at because we said we took that 5 million and then it magically reappeared well I was which means we have the money I was aware that money was there but that's also why because I think there's other and that's why I requested the administration go back and scrub this between now and October because I think they're also where that money is there but there's other and I think there's other lines of item and I think think they're more equipped because they have the staff they have the financial staff to be able to go through that and then present it to us of how they're going to come that unmet need of Paving to to go back to Art Space I just I fully support art I just want to let you all know that this is a eore city property that this Art Space is a national company who's done this and what they're going to do they're going to use this for the soft cost and then they're going to fund raise to get the extra six million they need and it falls just outside the CRA it falls right just outside the CRA but this really would allow them to to move forward it's it's the least amount that we've we can spend on affordable housing to make affordable housing happen thank you there's a motion in a second wait Carson again I would be remiss if I did not uh warn Council of the risks associated with reducing the fund balance less than 23% it's a similar it's a similar warning I gave last year and Council decided to take that action and I appreciate that but we have a history as I've shown you in the radian agencies pay very very close attention to that history this is only 500,000 understood understood Carlson council member Vieira council member Miranda and then so I I need to talk to Marty and then also I want to make a point if I can Marty um uh I'm a Founder co-founder of the Tampa Arts Alliance uh Art Space arts space is a separate nonprofit but it also is a project of the Tampa Arts Alliance I personally have contributed money my company's contributed money um I don't make any money on I don't personally gain I don't have a personal gain or loss except I've contributed money to it so um do I do I have a conflict or not with this movement of $500,000 will this cause you to have a financial gain or a financial loss as in your to a financial private gain or private loss or that of your company or any relative no it only affects the nonprofit and of course nonprofits don't have shareholders so I I don't my company no and you are not the only losses we personally I mean we've donated to it but that's and you are not an officer of this company of this nonprofit you're not you're not on the board I'm an officer of the Tampa Arts Alliance but the Tampa Arts Alliance is just a funding source for this Pro the Tampa Arts Alliance is the local conduit so that money would flow most most likely would flow through the Tampa Arts Alliance it could go directly to Art space but so you're acting so you would you're on the board of something that would ultimately have to vote for the passage of this city money as a pass through to that organization yeah just I think I explain council member VI council member thank you very you don't have to leave the room councilman we'll just Rec thank you very much so with this I I want to specify why I'm voting the way that I am I have been briefed on this project moderately I think it's a a a wonderful thing this is my big challenge with this is I I support affordable and accessible housing for everybody from artists to welders to Carpenters Educators Etc I think that if we're going to fund something that is specifically for a group we've talked about people with disabilities we've talked about seniors we've talked about uh veterans I I support that I don't support city tax dollars that specifically go to a vocation like this I I I can't do that from the uh I I'm fine with taking some money from the general fund for affordable housing but I want to make sure that it goes to everyone and I think us funding this is something that I'm not comfortable doing uh I I told when I spoke to the wonderful people I some really good people who are pushing for this that I had hesitancy with that I know there was a talk on expanding a CRA uh for this potentially um so again for me I know this has to vote to pass I just want to explain my vote thank you council member Miranda council member I was just going to say that once you start identifying with a certain sector is it 5 foot 7 5 foot 8 5 foot n that you're going to have people for that size only Built for something it it it becomes a real Nal thing and I'm not going to support it either council member glint denn it's it this is an economic Catalyst this is this is a a magnet the one of the items that I've been pushing so this is this will be a Telltale whether I'm going to be able to accomplish this before I leave council is I also wanted to do a similar type of project in East Tampa for for black artists and as as as as a catalyst you know I think affordable housing to be able to have a place for black artists to to Showcase black art to be able to to live work and display and sell in that area again economic Catalyst I mean this these these are things because you see them around you've seen them in Asheville you see that there's places around the country these things they work it's an economic development it's something that actually is is is is it's good for the community it's good for you know this is just one example because we have somebody that's willing to step forward and do it but this is one of these it I mean I've been pushing this from day one I've had conversations with folks you know before Nicole left they you know they all knew that I was something this was and and uh something I was a big advocate for for East Tampa um I think that uh it's not just it's not just a myopic look at something this is something that's really good for the development the economic development for the City of Tampa council member that's really great you should say just people of color because there's a lot of artists and so we want to be inclusive because that's what our city is and the west side of town could benefit from that as well we have 20 acres of property over there the sanitation department that we need to do something with and we could build a whole Wonder ful something something you know over there so I'm not opposed to your idea but um I just think that it should be more inclusive not just black artists but Hispanic artists women you know in general we have some very talented people and um you know they were showcased recently at the um Arts Museum um called Sky something just local artists who were able to put their work in you know that beautiful space but we do need to have opportunities like that and it just needs to be a little bit more inclusive because that falls in line with who we are as a city well I think the right project talk about his project project he said black and E Tampa oh okay so you're talking about that yeah I'm talking about that one some place that's historically you know so so connected and you know I'm sorry they're turning it on for you now yeah so some place is so historically connected and I just I again we're looking for economic catalysts to be able to support development and and you know ret and right but there 20 acres over in West Tampa that fits that bill yeah but I mean in a black community but so different projects in different places the right place right project I think that that's again this project stands on its own because it's it's an economic Catalyst it's not welfare it's an economic Catalyst I'm going I'm going to support this motion we have a motion in a second all in favor what are we this is for the $500,000 $500,000 to Art Space okay seed money yes from the unassigned fund balance all right we have a motion in a second all in favor I I I can support that yeah let's do a roll call vote no yes yes yes and I would just caution Council that yes there's $4 and a. half million that you had mentioned yeah but let's just wait for that CIT renewal vote in November just be careful until then and I don't disagree but I just want to let you know there there's there's I mean if if we have the if we have the available unassigned fund balance to go into this then most likely we have more elsewhere all right um can I say ma'am ma'am I didn't hear her what you yes sir counc Carlson yeah just a general comment about the general balance um you know I've been pushing for several years to put it restore it back to where it was um in uh in um 2010 it was at 150 million 2010 were then it was rated and we're we're just now back at 150 million the problem is that the um and and Mr rero will will say this also um the basic expectation of the of the um rating agencies is that we keep 20% but we've had consistent we've been consistently up at a higher level and we did that because the um we need a rainy day fund the rainy day fund is 3% and that's not enough uh we we can't even survive a month on that probably and and so U if if we you know a lot of people have been predicting a recession for a long time uh the economy definitely is slowing down in anticipation of the election we don't know what's going to happen at the election but if we hit a um if if we hit a down economy um Sim we'll have a situation similar to what we had a few years ago and we could end up uh have having a shortfall of revenues um you know several developers have told me that they're going back and renegotiating with the tax appraiser to uh try to lower uh the valuations of their businesses which will lower our income as well and that the 20% we absolutely cannot touch because our our bond ratings will go down and so the only thing we have is that 3% but now there's an expectation be because we've stayed up at a higher level than 20% there's the expectation that we keep consistency there so um I would I would caution us from from dipping into that anymore and and if I if I may Mr chair no uh thank you councilman Carlson you you're quite right um and if I could just take us back a little bit you know councilman car and reference some of this as did councilwoman her Tech you know as we go forward again our Mantra is always reasonable but conservative and that's what these projections are and they were the same last year and and councilwoman herac is quite right we had a better year than anticipated so we had a larger fund balance and we can accommodate that 5 million further to councilman Carlson's comment even though our policy is 20% and it's a very good policy as he said we have been so consistently above that policy there's an expectation on the part of the market and the rating agencies that we maintain the level we have regardless of what our policy is so if we end a year less than 23% there's a there's a risk involved in that and it's my job to tell you about the potential risk if uh if despite our reasonable but conservative projections we come in shorter than anticipated there there is likely to be an adverse effect from a credit rating perspective if we come in Greater as we did this year and we have in other years well that's fantastic that then and I believe we're coming back uh councilwoman herch motion I believe we're coming back in November to talk about uh fund balance a and talk about some of the intricacies and um philosophies going forward in appropriating that fund balance but again it's it's my job to to let you know there's a risk in significantly reducing the anticipated fun balance below 23% Council thank you thank you very much and Mr re I have a quick question for you if I may um forsh I should have write down what I was going to say um for I think I was going to ask about station 24 um what's in the budget remind me what's in the budget for that this year is it designed I yeah if you would give me just one there's no money in the budget this budget yes there's money from previous budgets okay so we have money from previous budgets the only money for the fire department this year in capital is $450,000 for the Improvement of of fire station I believe it's nine yeah but but the money is there the problem is like like the president said we're not getting it done we've allocated the money the it's just hasn't been the priority that we want it to be and and thank you for that councilman so my my question for you is sir we have a presentation or something coming back on the motion we made here at City Council on bonds for station 24 when is that coming back to us is that in November and and if if you know if you don't know if you got to come back to me later that's fine I do if I if I if I could begin with this this is from our budget presentation you see fire station 24 and the fiscal year 2025 not quite 1.2 million bulk anticipated 2627 of $20 million this is anticipated to be part of a larger non-ad valorum Bond we anticipate coming to you after the first of the year with that okay good because I remember we motioned on that I wanted to make sure um one thing I don't know if we can make motions on this I'll probably do it on Thursday but is to have some sort of a formal motion number one um just reach reaching out to different Community stakeholders on the CIT um and I'll think about how to make that Etc but I mean look we're 2 months away from the election we're in September October and we have the CIT vote I mean if we don't pass this we're all in a lot of trouble all in a lot of trouble and on issues that we all deeply care about from Transportation Parks Public Safety Etc um and I want to make sure it's it's all hands on deck i i i roach reached out to uh wonderful mayor in Temple Terrace Andy Ross and I'm reaching out to Folks at different governments just to make sure that everybody is engaged on this issue because it's so very important so I wanted to make sure that um that issue was coming back to us for the additional as you highlighted there $20 million for station 24 because we want to make sure to get that done as soon as possible my hopes for Tampa Fire Rescue by the time we leave here is three things number one that we get done with 24 within the next I'll ask Chief Tri I have asked Chief trip about that and we've talked about a certain time frame a year year and a half whatever it may be that we get land for Fleet Maintenance that we get that funded and then we make some real progress on um downtown Tampa and a station there some sort of real progress there um I I do have a question if I may for chief trip who has been sitting there so patiently thank you Mr Ro I appreciate you sir yes sir hi man' good evening Council yes ma'am good evening um question for you we'd heard I had asked you and and you're going to have to refresh my memory because I don't recall what you said I know last time I asked you about the cad system correct me if I'm wrong did you say that that was going to be accomplished by the end of the year or was I wrong in that regard as far as having it implemented yes you were wrong okay now we actually have a company in a negotiation right now so I'm hoping to start implementation by the end of the year so that's my hope okay yes ma'am do you need any additional money for that for this year's budget I I would think I think it's already in the budget thinking it's already been approved for the budget so far 24 money that was 24 money okay yes yes 24 money okay just want to make sure I I no no further thank you all right thank you thank you very much council member Miranda and council member her I wasn't going to speak on the CIT but since it was brought up I'm not one that gives taxpayers money to private Enterprise never have been and never will be uh I also like to see the wording on how it's going to be put on the ballot I don't know no one knows and it better be explained at the taxpayers what they're voting for and where we're spending our money at I then voted for first time and I will doubt if I vote for it the second time and the reason is very simple you're talking about what you want and what you want to do and yet we give it most of it away and I don't mind saying that directly to anyone I'm not different than anybody else but the taxpayers money belonged to the taxpayers not to me to giveaway when uh when things were done I would imagine we give away a good 3 to 400 million and I'll have that all in detail on how I figured it out and how it come up but we gave all that away something that was turned down I believe one was valued more than 565 Million last year and the total value of that asset is about at least 6 billion so I'm not here to support anyone that has the capital to support themselves that's all thank you council member herte thank you um I wholeheartedly support the CIT because it's going to um help build more fire stations and quite frankly we need that um but Chief trip I had one more question for you um I know we have uh we we have an item on this week's agenda for the pumps the fire the fire and the fire trucks that have million yes so that's that's from FY 24 money obviously yes in fy2 uh what what do you have planned to purchase I believe I put in for with the CIT money we was getting two and I asked for an additional three okay so so with that you're I I believe you're getting one ladder truck I'm going to uh get another ladder truck a couple more rescue cards and a couple more engines okay and and you're good with that that is that is a a good spot for us to be in yes okay thank you and so I did put it in the plan to kind of like every other year because I explained um for one the lead times for getting the vehicles purchase up the 48 months so we kind of got like a rotation like a replacement schedule going on and from from my understanding you have the same amount of uh you you have the same amount of firefighters for FY 25 that you had for 24 you have the same FTE yes I do I did put in for the safer grant for 18 position okay um but we've been told there's not funding for that if we don't receive the the positions or if we don't receive the grant how long would the grant last um it's it's kind of like PR rated I believe the first year and this go for three years three years um are we prepared as a city if we get that Grant to pay for because if it if it's like the police Grant it starts with like 75% not 100% are we prepared for that 25% if we if we um win the grant yes think we put it I think the first year we 100% And then it breaks down from there how does it CU I think the first year is like the 100% then every year for the three years like another 755 then city is responsible after the third year we have forecasted the anticipated expense of course the only certainty would be the initial year that city council appropriates okay so so the ensuing increase in costs in the successive years will be something we'll have to talk about when we when we do the budget process for those particular fiscal years but we are prepared to fund whatever is necessary in this year if we win those 18 yes ma'am okay that's that's all I wanted to know okay thank you very much Council don't don't leave see we had to make you sitting there all night worth as while while you're up there and captive it's okay uh so the curious about the the cad system so I know this something we've been talking about since I was elected what was the hold up there H why did it why is it taken so I know you're shaking your head honestly I wish I knew it was just a process you know it's just been taking a long time um we've um had demos last year and just meeting with the different companies a couple of questions we had between the four vendors we broke it down to two and one of the things we didn't want to happen was the same thing that happened with the last CAD that was prior to me getting this position that wasn't going to be suitable for uh Tempa fire rescue as well as the city of Tampa so the company that we have now is a well-known respectable um company and I think they're going to do good for Tampa I think we're going to see um once we get this negotiation part going I think it's going to be smooth selling from there so what do you think that what what's the timeline for full implementation so that all the vehicles are equipped and you've got the infrastructure in place so like I said my plan hopefully we get it um um negotiation should be on you guys desk before the end of the year and hopefully we can start implementation at the end of the year is is it like a 12 month 12 months they say 12 to 18 months okay and that that's going to go a long way and we have some concern about response time and that this should be helping response oh that's going to help out because once again as I've been saying for the last three years is that the technology that we have is outdated and I saw it yeah exctly and we don't we we still dealing off the 1970s with uh some of our response so once this get implemented it's going to change how we respond units that's going to help decrease the uh usage that we have for our engines as far as responding on calls when they don't need to be there and basically we will be using a lot of rescue so we wouldn't have to utilize the engine and rescue for all the calls so all of that is going to be adjusted okay so these additional 18 FTE that you're talking about um where right now are we running a deficit that we need those 18 people which stations are we are we short that you going have to add ft to so as I've been saying about the um medical calls you know we run you know the 990,000 80,000 medical So based on that last analysis that we did and we need more transport units so we have five stations that do not have transport units okay and those are some where the heat it's at and the goal is to add those additional five transport units okay so so we'll need to be prepared over the next Council we need to be prepared to fund those after that GR start stepping down yes we're but that those 18 are are are are needs not wants those are needs yes okay very good thank you so much thank you very much at this time I'll ask for a motion to close the public comments for the tentative millage rate budget and capital Improvement budget and program we have a motion from council member Miranda we have second council member clenon all in favor I oh you got somebody in the back wants to speak no no I'm just I'm just going by the script to make sure that we do everything public comment we already had it I'm just going by the scripture that was long gone I just wanted to follow the directions you're right okay anyways does council need a break or city staff I'm just going by the script thank you very much break no I don't council member council member Miranda would chairman uh chairman I I make a motion to adopt the 2025 mill rate of 62076 and more to tenant to adop The Proposal millage rate of 62076 Mills which is 4.00 more than the rollback millage rate of 5 9619 Mills for properties tax funds which are used to support the general fund operating budget and the community redevelopment agency funds of the city of Tampa Mr chair yes I'm sorry uh uh thank you Dennis Roo Chief Financial Officer slight correction uh the roll back millage rate is 5.9 6 91 5 59691 I have here yeah he's reading exactly what I have transposed some numbers the first time oh okay got it thank you we have a second second yes um I just Mr rero just I ask you this question every year but just for the sake of the public um to explain what this if you if you read this the wrong way it look it somebody could take it the wrong so what this means means is that um uh the the 62076 that's the same millage rate as last year and the year before and the year before yes sir so we're not changing the millage rate you are not what this is talking about is if um based on the estimate the 4% thing is talking what the estimate of the increase in the value of properties if your if your property value went up you may pay more some properties are going to go down yes sir but um but we're not increasing the tax rate the the only reason it would change is if your property value changed is correct correct okay I just want to make sure we put that on the record for the public we're not increasing the tax rate you are not let's get a roll call vote on that Henderson yes Vieira yes Miranda yes Carlson yes H hat yes Clint Denon yes M Mano yes motion carried unanimously thank you uh Finance chair Council M mirand would you read the uh ordinance yes sir there this is for item number two on the agenda first reading this is the item number 13 uh reading of the ordinance so we're clear on the agenda this would be for the purpos of the public this would be item number two on the agenda the ordinance being presented for first reading consideration it's 13 on the chart but it's number two on the agenda all right but I am I'm reading the right I want to make sure yes thank hi this is uh chairman uh ordinance adopting the budget of the city of Tampa for the phisical year beginning October 1 2024 and ending September 30th 2025 providing for the levy of of as provided for law of a tax on all taxable property in the city of Tampa and fixing the millage rate within City making Appropriations in accordance with the provisions of said budget authorizing and directing the mayor and city clerk as the proper authorities of the city of Tampa to certify the property of of Hillsboro County Florida the millage has to be levied for all purposes of the physical year 2025 in the city of Tampa providing an effective date we have a motion from council member Miranda second council member Clint Denon all in I'm sorry roll call roll call Clint Denon yes Henderson yes Vieira yes Miranda yes Carlson yes herat yes and man SC yes motion carry unanimously the adoption of the fiscal year 2025 military rate resolution second reading of the ordinance and Adoption of the budget ordinance and the adoption of the capital Improvement budget and program resolution for fiscal year 2025 through fiscal year 2029 will be held on September 17th 2024 at 5:01 p.m. and city council chambers 315 East Kennedy Boulevard third floor Tampa Florida 33602 motion to close the public hearing we have a motion to close the public hearing from council member Clen councilman Vie all in favor I wait we have here on the agenda Mr Shelby information reports in new business is it appropriate is that an error that's no that's an error that's an error so we'll wait till Thursday for information report buiness for us okay can I get a motion motion to receive from council member Miranda we have a second from council member clendenon all in favor I any oppose we are ajour C that [Music] hello this is another part in a series of programs produced by this your city of Tampa tele