The city commission of ST Pete Beach together.
It is 6 o'clock PM on August 25, 2026.
Will you please join us and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands.
One nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Strong city clerk, will you please call.
Roll call.
Commissioner Marriott here.
Vice mayor Robinson here.
Commissioner Causey here.
Commissioner Maldonado here.
Mayor Tate here.
We have a quorum.
Thank you.
Are there any proposed changes to the agenda.
I have some questions on consent items.
OK just for clarification purposes, items B and C.
And then a.
Correction for j letter correction on J. OK thank you.
To add an item to discussions, sir.
Mothballs on the beach.
Do we have a motion to approve the agenda, as amended.
I'll move to approve the agenda, as amended.
Second commissioner Marriott.
Yes, Vice Mayor Robertson.
Yes, Commissioner.
Yes commissioner.
Maldonado yes.
Mayor Tate.
Yes The motion carries.
OK thank you very much.
Moving on to our presentations.
First presentation micro-transit services.
Consideration of contract amount or discontinuation.
Good evening.
Mayor commission.
Mandy Edmonds, resident services director, for the record.
And we'll be going through the presentation tonight.
For transit services.
All right.
So tonight we're looking for commission
direction on transit services.
The presentation covers two related topics.
First, the city's micro-transit procurement, where things stand
and the direction we need from the Commission
on the program's future.
Second star service and funding update for FY 27,
including ridership data, service options,
and the direction we are requesting
on the scope of its service in ST Pete Beach.
We'll move through four parts tonight.
The micro-transit procurement process,
the micro-transit direction request,
and the psta service and funding update
in the psta direction request.
Brad Miller is here.
He is the CEO for psta.
And then the assistant city manager, Adam Poirier.
And I will be happy to take any questions at the end.
So let's start with where the micro-transit procurement stands
today.
The city issued a competitive solicitation,
a request for proposals for micro-transit services 5 vendors
submitted proposals by the deadline,
including the vendor currently under contract with the city.
Bids ranged widely from anywhere up
to approximately 225,000 to over 1 million plus on the high end.
To put some names to those numbers,
we did have our current service provider
bid mid-range and submitted under the current service model.
The bid opening is complete, but the full procurement
process has not been completed.
The proposals still need to be vetted
by city's internal evaluation committee
before staff can bring forward a vendor recommendation.
Tonight's request is not for a vendor selection.
It's for direction on the program
itself, which I'll get to in a moment.
One more note before we move on.
Microtransit is not the city's only public transportation
option.
Psta also provides service here in ST. Pete Beach,
utilizing the Suncoast beach trolley, sunrunner and psta
access, and we'll walk through that in more detail
later in the presentation.
So staff is requesting commission
direction on the future of microtransit program itself.
Two options are presented for consideration.
Option one is to retain the service.
Under this option, the commission
would direct staff to continue microtransit service
and establish a not to exceed dollar amount for the contract.
Service to residents continues uninterrupted.
The commission sets a firm budget ceiling,
and staff proceeds to negotiate final contract terms
within that cap, with vendor selection and pricing finalized
administratively once the valuation
committee completes its review.
Option 2 is to discontinue the service.
Under this option, the commission
would direct staff to remove microtransit from cities
program offerings completely.
This eliminates the ongoing budget exposure for the service,
but residents may lose access to transit options.
Staff would begin the wind down and the transition
of the program.
The current contract would simply be closed out
and no new procurement would be needed.
Staff respectfully requests that commission select a direction
so we can proceed accordingly.
Moving into psta.
So the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the cities funding
support for its services for FY 27.
Psta is proposing a city subsidy of $242,000, $242,000.
Yes, that's a change from 26.
The prior subsidy funded for the Suncoast beach trolley
psta access and route 90.
Psta is proposing to eliminate route 90 for FY 27,
so the proposed 242,000 would fund only the trolley
and psta access going forward.
So now a quick ridership snapshot
on this slide covering the first 10 months of this fiscal year.
All figures are up more than 20% compared to last year.
That's largely tied to Hurricane related service restoration.
So keep that context in mind as we
look at the additional numbers on the sunrunner
the northbound service into ST Pete.
Boardings or ST Pete Beach boarding or no Saint Petersburg
boardings at the three southernmost
stops totaled roughly 80,000, 57,000, and 70,000.
I want to flag that one thing clearly here sunrunner
is shown for visibility purposes only.
The city does not currently supplement this service
financially on the Suncoast beach trolley, which is
the service the city does fund.
The ST Pete Beach segment saw about 70,000
boardings over the same period.
Again up about 11% roughly 15% of the total trolley ridership.
Boards within ST Pete Beach at the South end of the line.
One important operational detail the trolley currently
terminates at 75th Avenue.
That's relevant context as we move into the next slide
on service options.
To access the paratransit service.
The trip count data specific to ST Pete Beach for FY25 and 26
is still pending, and will be available at a later date.
There is an important contingency to flag, however,
if the city were to discontinue trolley support,
psta access pickups in ST Pete Beach would be limited to areas
North of 90th Avenue from Egan park North
to Treasure Island border.
That would be a meaningful service reduction for residents
South of that line.
We are still vetting how sunrunner access impacts
paratransit service with psta.
Given the possibility that microtransit service
could be reduced or eliminated.
Psta is offering the ST. Pete Beach resident upass
as a potential alternative.
This would provide up to 200 city branded
flamingo fare cards, offering free rides
on all psta bus service.
The trolley and the sun runner for verified
ST Pete Beach residents.
It excludes psta access.
The estimated cost is $4,000 in year one,
adjusting afterward based on usage plus an annual
inflationary increase.
Staff would still need to gather more
additional information from psta before moving
forward with this option.
On extending the trolley, staff asked psta for the cost
to extend service South to Don césar.
Psta provided the cost to extend to County Beach County park,
estimated at about 175,000 to 200,000,
in additional annual subsidy, assuming that the cost is based
on distance extending further South
specifically to the Don, Cesar would
likely double that estimate.
Staff respectfully requests that commission review this funding.
Ridership and service information
and decide on the future scope of psta service
in ST Pete Beach.
So that brings us to the direction we're requesting
from commission at psta.
Two questions.
First, does the commission wish to continue funding
psta service, the Suncoast beach trolley and psta
access for ST Pete Beach.
Second, if yes, at what service level.
That includes the proposed 240,000 base subsidy,
and whether the commission would like to add elements such
as resident upass or the trolley extension to County beach park.
Staff and psta respectfully request the Commission's
directions on both the micro transit and psta star
items presented tonight and we are
happy to take questions Mr. Maldonado,
so normally we see a staff recommendation.
Do we have a staff recommendation.
We do not have a staff recommendation at this time.
We are still going through the procurement process
as far as microtransit is concerned.
So at this point, we do not have recommendation.
We're just looking for guidance to whether move
forward in the procurement process
or to eliminate the service.
Mandy thank you.
And you said you pass would be free.
You mean it would be no cost to residents.
It's not free.
We would be paying for it.
Still, it would be that $4,000 charge as we know it right now.
We're still gathering information
from psta on what exactly that program would look like.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Commissioner Causey.
I just talk to sta for a moment here.
So can we clarify in my mind what
route 90 is the PSC route 90.
I'm going to defer to our assistant city manager
on some of the details for the PSC questions.
So perhaps here too, if I speak wrong.
But route 90 was originally from 34th
Street South down the Bay way and then into ST Pete Beach.
So it was a relatively small route that had been recommended
for removal by the psta board.
So I don't know if they've officially voted on removal
of that, but they were.
Where's the terminal ending of route 90 inches ST Pete Beach,
or on that route that we're going to cut.
I believe the County park.
Is that correct, Brian.
Yeah County Park.
And then in general, I had a general comment.
I living right there and past the place of County Park
all the time.
And it's very common to see two sunrunners parked
there for a period of time.
And occasionally there will be a third sunrunner that
can't fit into the County park.
And it's parked on Gulf Boulevard.
So that's blocking the bike lane and one
of the lanes on Gulf Boulevard.
While they're waiting for one of the other two to leave.
So I guess my general question would be, is there a waiting
time that they have programmed into the route at the County
park.
Because our County Parks are not very large,
and it seems like it's not a great place to stop and wait.
So I would like to understand that more.
And also, maybe there would never be two of them
parked there at the same time.
I don't have an answer.
Yeah, well, I'm just posing some questions since Brad's here,
and I think that's something I would like
to definitely get the answer.
Commissioner Causey, please speak into your microphone.
This microphone.
Good evening, Brad Miller.
I'm the CEO of psta.
Thank you for having me.
That was the easy question.
Yeah OK.
Yeah so we're supposed to have the maximum of two sunrunners
there.
Yes there is a scheduled recovery
time, which is what we call it.
They get about 10 minutes there at the end
of the line of the County beach park
before they go around and go back to ST Petersburg.
So I do know that yeah, there are sometimes two.
If you've seen 3, that's not supposed to happen.
The goal, the whole system is supposed to operate,
so they all stay evenly spaced.
I will definitely take that back.
Make sure that there shouldn't be a time
when you haven't seen three.
That's why probably it was parked outside.
Because you're right.
There's not enough space for three buses to be there.
Yeah, yeah.
I understand how schedules can get off on something like that,
but it does that have to be the end of the route.
Like, is there a way that we could make the service to ST
Pete Beach, stop there and then leave so that there's not a bus
just parked at that place.
And that would probably stop that whole problem.
Yeah well, essentially the sunrunner just
goes back and forth and a loop essentially from downtown
ST Petersburg to the beach.
And so the County beach park and then
there's another layover at the other end in ST Petersburg.
So there's only two stops on that whole route.
There's only two spots on the route
where they do have recovery time.
Oh recovery time.
So we couldn't change the recovery
time to a different spot.
I would be happy.
We can look into reducing the amount of time at the beach
or making it less often that you have more than one bus there.
Yeah, I think that would be a key improvement.
So I guess that answers that question.
And then that's it for me for now.
Then I've got a few more, but I'm
going to Commissioner Robinson.
I have a question.
What was the ridership or what is
the ridership for the route 90.
The route 90.
Oh, it's relatively low.
Essentially that route has been there a lot longer.
And it has come from ST Petersburg,
going South past the Don Cesar and then up and it.
Mostly it just operates very few trips in the morning
and in the afternoon for work trips,
mostly people that are working at the hotels,
and most of the riders have transferred
to using the sunrunner, which comes much more frequently.
What's to the trade winds.
What is the ridership, though, on that.
I'd have to look up exactly what the ridership was on it.
Just trying to compare that to what the trolley is.
So it's much, much less it's much,
much less than is it 10,000.
Is it 40,000.
I mean, much less is a very nebulous term.
So I'm just trying to get a handle on what
much less it would be 0.
It's not 0, but it's very low.
It's a couple.
It's maybe less than 1,000 a month.
And the trolley is trolley is more like 60,000 a month.
So for June, the route 90 was 785.
OK thank you riders.
Yeah So you're cutting that just due to cost and ridership.
Yes OK.
Thank you.
So sorry.
Just to make sure I level set my head.
So route 90, the decision to discontinue that
is effectively done right.
You're not asking our opinion on that.
If I'm understanding you correctly,
that's a decision that's been made.
Route 90 will ceasefire.
Officially the decision has not been made by the PSA board.
That's going to be made tomorrow.
Whether or not to go with staff recommendation
to eliminate that route.
The financial information that was presented to you on $242,000
being the operating cost for in ST Pete Beach
of the transit services for the trolley
and the ski access service.
For fiscal year 27 does not include the 90.
Assumes that the PSA board will vote
tomorrow to not operate the 90.
OK last year's number of 220 did include the 90.
So I'm sorry, just because I'm trying to retain
the numbers in my head.
So last year, we paid 220 with route 90.
With route 90.
OK Take some notes here so I can keep this straight in my head.
So in 2026, we paid $220,000.
Including route 90.
Correct OK.
And presumably next year, would the baked in number for 2027
assumes that 90 is not going to be there.
Correct right.
And the 2027 number is 242 OK.
All right, so I have to just be up front with you.
I'm hearing 42,000 more for a drop off of 90, right.
220 was the cost last year.
Did I hear that right.
220 for last year and includes 90
includes route 90 including route 90,
including the portion of route 90 that's in ST Pete Beach.
26th year we're in now.
Yes and then 242 for fiscal year 2027.
Excludes route 90.
Yes OK.
So I'm just making sure I hear it again.
More money.
Route 90.
Gone am, I am, I am, I mistaken on that.
You are.
You are correct on that OK.
Assuming route 90 goes away, what does that leave
us with psta buses in the city.
That will remain, I think.
I think we've still got the trolley
and then we've got another one that comes on the North side
or what remains.
Let me just ask you that current bus service
in ST Pete Beach today versus what
might change if root 90 is eliminated.
Which route does that leave us.
OK, so right now you have the Suncoast beach trolley,
which comes down Gulf Boulevard all the way from Clearwater,
down Gulf Boulevard, all the way down into through
Treasure Island and then into ST Pete Beach
and ends at 75th and Gulf.
And we've provided the ridership on that in ST beach.
We number 2 is the sun runner that comes from ST Petersburg,
on the sun runner that goes to the County beach park.
And then third, today is the route
90, a very limited service just in the morning
and in the afternoon that operates
through the County beach park, but comes
down through the bayway.
In addition to that, PSC access service
paratransit services for about 3,800 people this year.
Through June this fiscal year so far.
That's also provided today.
Next fiscal year for 242,000 is the Suncoast beach trolley down
Gulf Boulevard, ST Pete Beach, 75th and Gulf sun runner up,
and the PSC access services.
OK, sun runner to County beach.
So I'm drawing a map in my head.
I wish I a map that would tell me, show me the routes, right.
So I got a trolley coming down from Clearwater
to 75th in Gulf sun runner.
I know it ends at County beach.
Where does it come through.
Does it come across 75th?
I assume it comes down to County beach.
It goes up Gulf Boulevard, turns on 75th and goes
to downtown ST Petersburg.
OK And just back and forth.
So between County park and up 75th.
And then heretofore we've got a route
90, which comes across the Bay way
and back up to the same County beach.
That may go away pending decisions going soon.
And then the 220, the 220,000 that we paid
in 2026 that included route 90.
Did that also include the psta access.
I guess the handicap piece was that baked into the 220
or was that an additional charge on top of the 220 for 2026?
Well, that was included in the 220.
It is included.
Yes OK.
All right.
I'm just.
Again, I'm kind of mentally just drawing this out.
So we've got most of our theoretically route
90 goes away.
We've got most of our island covered North of County park,
but everything South is now unserved from sda's perspective.
Effective if I just mentally math or mentally map that out.
Well, let me ask, were there any stops to the South.
It was or was it really being served.
I guess I would say.
I mean, I was mentioning it's about a 700
and some total riders per month, pretty low ridership.
The other stuff that people have are workers at the dances
are use that some workers would no longer have bus service.
Well was it stopping there.
It just goes to the County park.
And then they were making their way from there to the well.
It comes down from down 34th Street in ST Petersburg,
then across the bayway past Eckerd college there and then
to the Don says are people would get off there
and then it would go up Gulf Boulevard to end
at the County beach park.
So it's really the 34th Street people that are
not being served at this point.
But what we believe and what we already that some people are
already doing what we believe is an alternative
for those same workers would be that they can take.
We have a good service on Route 34
in ST Petersburg up to the sunrunner,
and then they can come over here on the sunrunner,
down to the County beach park, South to North to South.
The only stop that would not be served anymore
would be at the Don Cesar.
OK OK.
I'll pause for a moment Mr. Marriott, please.
Yeah thank you.
Thanks, Brad.
I did have a question.
I wanted to clarify a couple of things
about the psta access program.
And so the ACCESS program is it's both dedicated
or shared ride handicap vans.
Is that correct for people in wheelchairs
and that sort of thing.
And also essentially like subsidized Uber rides
for people who can't get to the bus stop
or can't have a disability that prevents them from being
able to get to a bus stop.
Is that the or ride the bus independently.
Do I have that.
Basically all of the PSA access services
for people with disabilities, people who have a disability,
they qualify for both programs, either the regular van service
or what we call mobility on demand, which basically
means same day or real time requests using
an Uber or Lyft or a taxi.
And people have to apply to the PSA,
you guys have a program where they apply, they get verified,
they get approved, and then they can use that program.
And is that program and I may have this incorrect
is that are people only eligible for that program
if they're a certain x number of miles away from a bus stop
or that it would be for all of ST Pete Beach
if we pay for the service, it's for anyone in ST. Pete Beach,
whether there's someone in pass-a-grille.
It doesn't matter if there's not a bus stop close to there.
They still have access to that program.
That is our current policy.
Is anywhere.
OK anywhere.
OK perfect.
Thank you.
And then I think a minute ago, you said.
I thought you said a number of riders
from ST Pete Beach who participate
in the ACCESS program.
Or was I misunderstanding a number.
I looked it up.
So far this fiscal year through June 30,
from October 1 to June 30 was 3,800 trips
starting in ST Pete Beach.
And about the same number returning to ST Pete Beach.
So 3809 months, 3801 way trips out
of ST Pete Beach on the x-axis and the mobility on demand
combined.
Got it.
Thank you.
I'm sorry.
The fiscal year.
So October 1.
Through you said the end of July.
June 30.
Nine months.
And can you clarify where the.
If they started in ST. Pete Beach,
what are the limits of where they're
headed to under that program.
I mean, how is what is their destination.
Well, the service goes anywhere in Pinellas County.
So anywhere in Pinellas County.
A lot of medical trips and other key services.
Again, they're all people with disabilities.
Mostly the average age is pretty old
and they are going everywhere.
Yeah, it's grocery stores, shopping,
Doctor appointments, whatever.
Yeah Thank you on that.
I missed that.
What was the cost on that for just
the psta access and mobility on demand
is our separate cost for those.
We haven't developed a cost of just that.
We're happy to provide that if you're interested in that.
Yeah, I'd be interested in that.
Yeah Mr. Maldonado.
Yeah I can see you working over there.
Yeah Brad.
So, is any of that subsidized.
I know that it's not covered through our ad
valorem or anything like that.
Tourism development tax.
City County projects that we're not aware of with the access.
No Well, it's covered by the STA budget.
The ad valorem covers that.
Yeah but the city of ST Pete Beach,
it's only the funding that you provide to us that covers it.
It's included in the 220 for this year and 242 for next year.
And then rider fares, of course, are on top of that.
Like we pay a chunk, but the writers are still paying a fair.
The customers on PSA access pay $4.50 per ride for that service.
And the bus service cost $2.25 per ride.
OK, I'll come back to it.
Thank you.
That's what I thought I was going to wait for.
He was reaching for his light.
Oh, OK, I'll do it.
I'll go ahead and ask a question then.
So thank you.
I appreciate it.
So just trying to get an idea of cost per item.
Seeing that.
So the $7,000 number we were using is that what is
the timeline on the $7,000 for the Suncoast
trolley number that we were talking
about ridership was that per.
77 70,000 was the number 70,000.
OK yeah 70,000.
That's right.
And that is for per.
Is that what timeline was that number for 10 125 to 731.
So that's currently through June.
OK July on the sunrunner there was for 10 months that
included the month of July.
The access numbers I only had through June.
So 7 $7,000 a month or 70,000 for 10 months.
That is the number of boardings on the sunrunner at the County
beach park on the sunrunner.
No, the number we're looking at is the 70,000 for the trolley.
Yes, but still the number of boardings.
The number of boardings in ST Pete Beach.
Correct not total ridership of the entire trolley system.
Correct That is, the number of boardings in ST Pete Beach
of the Suncoast beach trolley.
OK, that's what I was thinking 10 months.
Yeah, over 10 months.
Yeah, but it's only actually it's only 15% of that number,
as I understood, stood the way it was stated.
No, 15.
That number is 15% of the total trolley ridership.
All right of the total trolley ridership,
all the way up to Clearwater, about 15%
of the people that ride that all the whole trolley
system board in ST Pete Beach.
OK 70,000.
Now Yeah OK.
That makes sense to me now.
All right.
Have you all ever.
Could you tell us numbers that you guys
calculate on cost per ride for the sunrunner
and the Suncoast trolley.
Yes well, we have that data.
I know that the sunrunner is our highest ridership route
in the whole County, and it is the lowest
cost per ride of any of our system, of any of our system.
I think our average cost per ride of our whole,
of all of our bus routes is about $7 per ride.
Total subsidy.
I know that the Suncoast beach trolley,
obviously it has a high ridership year round,
very high ridership during the spring break spring period,
of course.
And it is also one of our lower cost per ride services.
So it's somewhere probably in the $5, $4, $5 a ride.
So I don't totally understand that because the $7 a ride,
for example, that would be a function of how
much each city happens to be paying
for their part of that service.
And so I guess your $7 number takes into account.
That's your cost to run the service.
Is that right.
So our cost would be how much we pay
and then how many riders come or leave our city.
And so we would divide out what we pay into what we think
our ridership is that actually goes to the County park
or to the stop for the Suncoast trolley.
Yeah I think is that what we need.
I think two things.
One is that we don't pay for the sun runner.
So in ST. Pete Beach, we're not paying
anything for the sun runner.
So there's no contract cost that we pay for the sun runner.
We don't pay into the psta system on our property tax bill.
I believe it's us, Treasure Island and South Pasadena that
opted out of the psta system.
Everywhere else in the County, they
have a line item on their property tax bill
with a specific millage that goes towards psta.
And we don't and we don't pay for the sunrunner
in ST Pete Beach.
So we have 0 cost for the sunrunner.
All right.
So I was just trying to.
Only for the trolley.
So to separate out costs for a ride,
we're really just talking about the Suncoast trolley,
fiesta ST and the access.
Yeah OK.
OK yeah, that's.
That's great.
Yeah all right.
I just want to do some more math here.
We've got it.
We're fortunate.
We've got a psta representative like on the board or something.
I only have a tiny head start because I've only
been there for a little while.
They do on the psta website for anybody that's
interested in these numbers, they
do publish monthly ridership data per route, including
the cost to run the route, what the cost is, what
the dollar amount is per rider, what
the dollar amount is per rider.
After you take into account what the fare that the rider pays,
and then also what the dollar amount per rider per route
is once you factor in any dollar amounts that a city like
us contracts with state or federal funding
or all the various things.
So it is broken down very specifically
in a lot of star reports that are
available on the star website.
So since now the sunrunner coming here
doesn't give us the beach, the access services,
it's the Suncoast trolley contract that allows
us to have those services.
Is that the way I understanding that in the past.
Our contract for the ST. Pete Beach contract with psta
includes whatever bus routes there are,
plus the psta access program.
Yes, yes.
Historically, and if we had been the way it's been if we had
0 contract with the psta, if ST Pete Beach completely opted
out and said, we don't want anything to do with it,
we're not paying you any money.
Would anybody in ST Pete Beach still be eligible for ST
the psta access program.
That would be up to the PSA board.
I would think not.
Yeah, I think not.
Yeah OK.
Can I ask a question a little differently.
Because I think I want to make sure
there may be a federal regulation
that you provide the ST access program to people who are
some distance from a bus stop.
So, so for people who are 3/4 of a mile from every sunrunner
stop might still have access.
I think that is accurate, but the rest of the residents
would not.
Can I ask a quick question of Mandy
please I noticed this is titled micro transit,
and we're talking very much about the psta.
And I know you kind of touched in on freebies,
so I just want to make sure I understand what you're asking
for from us this evening is to retain the service at some level
of funding that theoretically includes psta and freebee,
because you've tied them into this conversation,
or some micro-transit because you've tied them into this
conversation together.
They're kind of tied in together,
but they're still separate.
So we're looking for two separate directions.
So we are looking for a micro-transit direction, whether
or not to keep the service.
And if we do keep the service, what
are we capping the funds at.
Same with psta.
Our request for the psta is going to continue the service,
and if we do so, at what service level.
At what service level is that a level of funding or the funding.
The 242,000 and/or do we want to add elements such
as the u-pass and trolley extension to go
down further than County park.
I think there were some questions
to staff to explore what replacement options would be
if we eliminated micro transit, so we
decided to marry these two because they're
down directly related.
If you want to use sa'dah in some capacity to fill the gap,
if you eliminate microtransit, we
wanted you to know the expense.
So we've provided you two options.
Extend the beach trolley to the County park for 200,000 more.
So that'd be 442,000 for psta.
Hypothetically, if you want to go even
further down to the dawn, you're probably
talking another 200,000.
So you'd be up to 642,000 for psta.
And psta also graciously offered us another option of this $4,000
per year for year 1, for this flamingo pass that could give
residents an opportunity for a free only ST Pete Beach
residents for a free, unlimited access to any psta bus plus
system so they could ride sunrunner they could
ride the trolley, they will.
Route 9 will be gone.
So basically sunrunner on the trolley
and we would have 200 cards to start with.
OK giving them annual free rides for the year.
Yes and we would $4,000.
And then they've offered after a year we would look at the data
and we would renegotiate based on utilization and inflation OK.
OK I think I might have so so the 242 for 2027
is trolley and access.
And then I might have missed it.
There's another 200,000 option to bring
the trolley down even further South
theoretically to County park.
Correct OK.
And another option is this u-pass where we
would pay 4,000 for 200 lucky souls
to be able to ride for a year.
Lottery right, right.
OK OK.
I think at least now have a better picture of it.
Thank you.
And so your questions are.
Stay yes or no.
And at what cost.
Any additional micro-transit, which
I'm almost because the alternative to micro-transit
might be that you pass.
So maybe I should lump the u-pass over into micro-transit.
And possibly also this $200,000 for the trolley to go
a little bit further might be the alternative
to a micro-transit.
I it's not micro-transit, but these are alternatives.
If we lose micro-transit, I might make sure city staff.
Is that kind of your thought process
asked to explore with the only other contractual transit.
Contract we currently have right now.
Understood OK.
And to be clear, there might be other micro transit options that
may come available to us, or may be offered as part of this RFP
that was mentioned at the beginning.
No, you have in front of you we have
five options, and they range from 250,
225,000 to over a million.
Can I see them.
Because I don't know that I see them.
You won't see them because we haven't completed
the procurement process.
So at this point, we're only at this point,
we haven't vetted the we haven't gone
through the procurement process.
We can't share who the vendors are, what.
They've actually bid all of that information
until we've actually done our internal vetting
of each individual.
I understand what you're saying I'm trying to figure out,
is this a decision you want to make tonight.
And then later you will come with the five
options in more detail and we'll be able to make a decision.
Or you're saying this is a budgetary decision tonight.
So you all asked us to go out and do a proposal
to see if we could get micro transit for less
than half a million a year.
Yes we have brought you back that we have one option for less
than half a million a year.
You have your current vendor for the same around a half a million
a year, and three more vendors who are saying they
will cost more.
Understood so the question tonight
is do you want to continue micro transit option.
All right.
Very specifically freebie in this case, which is no OK.
Do you want to continue micro transit.
And give us a budgetary amount to continue
with our procurement process and budgeting, which
we would then include in the budget you're
going to see in two weeks.
Understood OK.
So this is that amount would be budgeted.
Yeah this would be a not to exceed amount.
So whatever.
If you decide that you want to keep it
this would be a not to exceed amount.
And that amount would be used to negotiate
a contract if you so want to move forward with micro transit.
Understood that is a micro transit decision.
Separately you want us to make a stay decision.
OK got it.
OK OK.
Apologize for.
That's OK.
Took a little while for your words to get over to my head,
so I got it now.
Thank you.
All right.
I'm sorry.
I know there's some questions.
Commissioner Murray, please.
Yeah thank you.
I don't really have any questions.
I have AI have a few thoughts.
Because I think that's where we need to go
is what direction are we going to go.
So I think first we need to keep in mind
a little bit of what the history is and how we got here.
And so some number of years ago, we were paying more money
for our psta contract, and the trolley went
all the way to pass-a-grille.
And largely it seemed at the time
that the people in pass-a-grille were very unhappy with buses
being in pass-a-grille at all.
And so at that time ST Pete Beach went to the store
and said, we don't want buses in pass-a-grille.
Just to be clear, we don't want anything.
We don't want any buses.
We don't want any trolleys.
I think at the time it was big buses going to pass-a-grille.
Maybe they were calling it a trolley.
I think it was the Central Avenue trolley,
but it didn't look like a trolley.
It was a big bus.
And so, so the people in pass-a-grille said,
we do not want the bus in pass-a-grille.
And they got out their pitchforks
and said, get the buses out of pass-a-grille.
So the city commission at the time did that.
And at that time decided that the money that they were saving
by not paying psta for buses to go to pass-a-grille,
they would use that money, use less than that amount of money
for this microtransit service that just went from the County
park to pass-a-grille.
And it was significantly less than Don.
Yeah, maybe in the beginning, it was just
the beginning, just the Don.
Just the Don to prasugrel.
And then as people liked it and more people rode it,
they expanded it to the County park,
and then they expanded it to 75th,
and then they expanded it into all the neighborhoods
to anybody's front door.
And every time we do that, it gets more expensive.
So that's how we end up with this $500,000 city subsidized
Uber rides is what we're doing.
And so the question is if $500,000 is too much,
what do we want to subsidize?
What do we want to provide for transit in the city.
And so my thoughts about that are a couple of things.
I looked multiple times in the last couple of weeks.
I think I can take an Uber from the North Beach area
neighborhood area to prasugrel for 9 to $12 any time I want to.
So maybe I'm not doing it at the busiest times.
Maybe I'm missing the surge pricing.
But generally speaking, there are private services available
that can move people around in ST Pete Beach that are much
cheaper per person, per ride than
what we're paying for micro transit
at a $500,000 a year level.
Now that we are charging non-residents
to ride on the freebee any group of three or more non-residents,
it's cheaper for them to take an Uber
than it is for them to take the freebee.
So I'm not sure what the actual ridership numbers are.
I'm sure we've all gotten the same information from residents
about whether they use it all the time and love it,
or whether they wish they could use it
and can't ever use it because the wait times are too long
or all of those things.
But for me, the root of the question for micro transit
is should the city be paying to subsidize rides that are very
readily available in the private market all day
long, seven days a week.
Or do we not.
And if we do, at what dollar level.
And so for me, I'm not comfortable with the city
providing or subsidizing or paying into picking
a favorite from private enterprise who
can provide the same service.
There's other services in the city
that provide similar services.
There's free beachside, there's island hopper, there's Uber,
there's a lot of options that people have for getting around.
So for me, the micro-transit decision
is that generally speaking, I'm not a big fan of it.
If the people in pass-a-grille welcomed having buses,
that's probably the most efficient
way to move people around.
But I haven't gotten the impression
that that's what they want.
And so I don't think that's don't
think that's a necessary or something
that's worth looking into.
So for me, my recommendation would be to discontinue
the microtransit program.
Let's take that $500,000 and do something else with it.
On the psta side.
I'm a little more conflicted because there are those
70,000 people that get on the trolley
in ST Pete Beach and go North.
Some number of those are people who, live in ST Pete Beach
and want to go to John's Pass.
Some number of those are people that
stay at the hotels on the beach and want to go to Clearwater.
A lot of them are employees of the various
of the various hotels further North.
And so that's one thing.
The more important part of it to me
is the psta access program, because that's really
if you want to look at what should
taxpayer dollars be going for.
Or why do we all pay into this pot of money
that cities use to spend on things.
One of those things to me is that we take care of the people
who need the most help.
And so to me, the PST psta access program is
the more important part of it.
And so I think it's worth exploring what those numbers are
and negotiating a little bit more with psta
and figuring out what the options are.
So my recommendation would be that we discontinue
microtransit, but we continue to look into the psta maybe
go ahead and put that number in the budget
as a placeholder for now while we continue
to figure out what we're doing.
If we can't come to some agreement that seems reasonable,
we can still cancel it and reallocate that money.
But that would be that's where I'm landing on this.
I apologize, I don't Mr. Carter.
Well, yeah, I'll go ahead because I went to that was well
put, Commissioner Marriott.
So as far as the pasta service goes,
I'm wondering, since we're trying
to look for cuts in our budget right now, what if we gave
them a limit of a half of that.
Or say, 100,000 and ask for what level
of service could be provided to us at 100,000
instead of the 242,000?
And that way we would perhaps decrease, or maybe
we wouldn't decrease our ridership,
and then we would also retain the access service.
So we would basically be saying, what service can
we get for half that amount.
Does that seem like it would be a thing.
I'm not my limited granted my limited knowledge
well of the star system would be that it.
Perhaps anything is possible, but it may also
be difficult. If you're looking at if you think about a bus
route and you go, it comes down this street
and it stops at these three places
and it goes back and forth this many times,
there's a cost to that.
And if they're trying to allocate their cost of what it
costs to run the bus in the city and have us pay for that,
I don't know how you cut that in half
unless you decrease the number of routes or times.
Yeah, decrease the number of times it comes into the city.
And I mean, that's their business.
I mean, yeah what it's worth.
I took one of those numbers earlier.
The ridership was nine months and the other ridership
was 10 months.
So I just equal them out to an annual ridership.
We get about 84,000 on the trolley
and about 5,000 on the access.
Just using those numbers and putting them out
to 12 months worth of service.
So you think 30,000 riders, I'm sorry,
90,000 total riders between trolley and access at $220,000
was our cost last year.
Ended up about $2.44 per ride.
Projected at 242 this year, which is next year's.
Assuming the ridership stays the same, that's $268,
$2.68 per ride.
So I mean less than $3.
We're getting rides for $90,000 people, theoretically.
Yeah moving around.
The freebies been costing us $16 a ride or something.
Yeah and the freebie is 15 to 17 or whatever the number is.
So I'm with you.
So we got two separate questions.
One is micro transit at all.
Second is psta.
And at what level.
And if micro transit at what level as well.
OK OK.
Sorry Mr. Robinson.
Well, OK.
Well, I think my recommendation then would be to see what level
of service we could get for 100,000 from the psta,
and that would also include the access that we have now and then
I don't think we've talked about micro-transit enough, really
to make a statement on that.
I know I get letters from people that say they use it
all the time, and they want to keep it,
but I also have letters from people who think that we
should cut it from our budget.
And I think Commissioner Marriott's points
about alternatives that don't cost anything.
It's hard to see how we would subsidize something that is.
In fact, I feel like I know we have
at least one local business that provides service to our city.
And it seems like the thing to do
is to try to incentivize your local businesses
and make them as strong as you can.
So I almost see it's almost the opposite of that mindset.
So I guess that's my comment for right now.
I Mr. Robinson, we may circle back around, I guess,
if you need that, I would second everything.
Commissioner Marriott said.
But I would offer also preface it with the fact
that we're not in a financially good situation in the city.
If we may not even be having this discussion.
But after the hurricanes, after what.
Our storm system, our sewers are out.
What we're looking at right now, talking about increasing,
potentially increasing ad valorem.
Adding the rate hikes onto everything
and then still having those assessments on our tax Bills.
It's a hard one to swallow when it's
monies that could be used better elsewhere within the city.
So as far as for me, for the micro transit at this time,
I don't think it's the right option to go with.
I think there's other options within the city.
There have been other options within the city.
Other alternatives.
The cost.
Cost per person is just way too high.
So as long as we fulfilled any legal obligations that we have
from a transportation aspect, which
I believe we have with sunrunner in general,
I think we're safe on that.
I would as far as the psta side of things, the access
and the mobility on demand, I don't believe
they're the only alternative out there
as well for Access on Demand.
So that would be something I would
look at as well, not just psta or shop psta against others.
I mean, that's what we're about and in the city.
So I think we should just do what's right
and vet it from that standpoint.
As far as actual trolley, I'm more for the mobility
on demand aspect.
See what we can get that.
I mean, what are we looking at.
We're looking at 5,000 riders.
I mean, that's got to be a fairly
low amount versus 242,000.
So that savings plus the freebie could
go a long way in our budget.
And what we're asking of the residents as a whole.
So that's where I would stand on that Mr. Maldonado.
So I'm going to ride commissioner Robinson's wave
and talk about the budget the fact that we're
at a financial cliff in trying to figure out where
we can shed wasteful spending.
I don't believe in subsidizing, what we would
consider commuter services.
I do think it's important to consider the paratransit,
the access services, to make sure
that we're not hurting our most vulnerable populations.
And then also, just a comment on the u-pass.
You said 200 passes.
I believe we have 1,000 persons currently enrolled in freebie.
We have about 1,200, but we haven't been able
to surmise from the data is how many
of those are actually using it.
Yeah so that's a big challenge for us to get ahead of
is to make sure that if we do go with that option, which seems
like a pretty big value for what's being offered,
that we have appropriately looked at that.
And then also whether it's going to be a lottery system
or a needs based economic based system or something like that.
I echo the comments of Commissioner Marriott
and Commissioner Robinson and saying
that microtransit at this point, I can't support that.
Not that I don't want to.
I see my freebie friends here.
I know them in the community.
But it's just I've got so much input to say that we just can't
financially fiscally be responsible and say that we
support it at this point.
So thank you Mr. mayor.
Yes, sorry.
Thank you for indulging me one more time.
I had one other quick comment that I forgot to mention before,
which is that when the trade winds and the conditional use
permits were approved, part of those developments,
if they ever are allowed to go forward,
is that they would be paying in I believe the number would be
$225,000 a year for five years between
the two of them for the first five years towards transit.
And so, if we get to the point where those projects are going
forward, that $225,000 a year would go a long way towards
bringing back some sort of microtransit program if we chose
to at that point, or expanding the bus
system or something like that.
So I think that that's just if we decide not to move forward
with microtransit right now, that
doesn't mean that we're never going to circle back to it.
OK city manager, did we ever get I don't believe we ever
got ridership numbers from our current microtransit like,
I know we ultimately said it's 15 to $17 per person,
so we must have some sense of ridership.
And you just mentioned 1,200 registered.
OK We receive ridership numbers each month when they submit
their invoice to the city.
And right now we're about 4,000 is traditionally
what their invoicing at.
They're saying that there's about 4,000 trips per month
and then it doesn't break it down further
to resident and non-resident.
So, I mean, at this point, once we did the math off
of the 38,000 approximately that they're paying,
it ended up being about $17 a trip that they were paying,
that we're paying in.
OK, so you've already done that math 550 that we pay
minus the $3 per and we end up losing the cost of the city
is about 17, about 17 per trip in the net end
of all that versus and again, I did some early math early on.
I know that they're not equivalent.
But the math on the bus was $2.45, something in that range
versus $17 per ride.
I think the u-pass is an interesting alternative.
I think maybe some of these for our paratransit.
I think the star access is also an interesting alternative.
And as other commissioners have pointed out,
we've got everybody has access to commercially available Ubers
and Lyfts and things like that.
So I do have a hard time given the budget pieces that we're
in right now, saying that I can feel comfortable
continuing to fund microtransit.
I know there's a lot of passion in the community,
so we don't always take comments,
but I frankly think we should take a few
and just hear what people are out.
If you don't mind, do you have a concern.
Yeah I mean, I think we should just hear a few.
How many audience comments do we have.
City clerk, please on this topic or do you know.
It looks like there's four.
OK yeah.
I think can we please take those comments.
Cameron mazzucchi.
That's a hard one.
Do I do we have to do the thing with the address or is this OK.
Cameron mazzucchi, 3307 West Marianna drive, ST Pete Beach.
I think this has been a great discussion.
We're in a time where obviously our economics
are really hurting.
So I've personally never been for freebie.
And I live right across the street from the dances
are where freebie originated, so I know the history,
but I can tell you right away that it's not going
to pass the grill only right.
Within a month or two they were already
expanding their business, which and it seems like that's
all they've been doing since.
We want to go from golf carts to Teslas,
we want to go to minivans.
So it's just been this get their foot in the door
and just expand at the cost of taxpayers
because there's nothing free about freebie.
What I can say is that we have a self-sustaining company that's
a neighbor of mine and a service I've used as well in free beach
ride, and they've proven that with no budget
that they've been able to survive for,
I think almost 17 years.
So I would suggest give freebie their budget
and see how long freebie lasts on the beach.
And in turn, I'd say if we're going
to give any money to anybody, we should have from the day one,
let's look right here in our own community.
First, we have companies here, and they weren't even asked
what could those people do with even half of the budget
of the freebie is asking for.
I bet they can do quite a bit.
So it's not really fair to us.
And another thing too, that I'm seeing
freebie versus other companies.
We're like a community.
We shouldn't be pitted from one company from Miami
against locals.
Hopefully what would happen if money
is given to another company is that there's
more drivers needed.
And if drivers need a job somewhere else,
they can move to that company and
hopefully it's a local company.
Thank you.
Thank you sir.
Bonnie Arnold.
OK.
Hi.
Bonnie Arnold.
216 44th Avenue.
ST Pete Beach.
Lived on this beach for 50 years.
I have been through a lot on this beach.
Freebie is a beautiful thing.
It keeps people like, basically safe.
They can call and be done door to door.
OK psta does not do that.
And basically, your sunrunner is bringing a lot of people.
Excuse me.
I love everybody, but we got a lot of strangers
coming as I'm out at different times of the evening,
not because I'm a street person, but because my life
turns around.
And I might be out.
I go get I go to 7-eleven and get my pickles.
I'm telling you, people are coming on the beach.
I talk to the sheriffs.
Trust me.
A lot of people know me.
Even the sheriffs.
OK The fact is, I'm harmless.
Fact is, we have a lot sunrunner is bringing a lot of people
in that we don't want.
The sheriffs are on the beach bunches of times
that I watch them.
I have a condo at sunrise besides my house on 44th.
And I sit there and I'll be out on the porch
and I'm going like, what is going on.
And that's what they're doing.
They're doing the homeless.
I am super sorry about the homeless,
but I don't think ST Pete Beach residents want this.
And I'm talking about their men like they need mental help.
And, I mean, I'll walk into 7-eleven
and they're ready to fight me, and it'll be a girl.
And I'm like, sitting there going, geez,
I just want my bagels.
I'm talking about and minding my own business.
What I'm talking about is you've got
a lot of people coming in that you guys aren't up at that time.
All right.
And they're coming in.
And the businesses are open.
All right.
And we're not even talking about the drunks.
We're talking about they're coming in on the sunrunner
freebie comes and picks you up.
What have you.
So how about charging.
Like, how about free.
I don't think the residents would be pissed
off about paying a little bit.
I don't think it needs to be the city burden,
but the fact is, it should not be a city burden.
Period it's not doing.
It's not bringing what we need to do.
I mean, we're trying to bring tourists into tourists.
That's great.
But homeless is not.
And you're transiting.
I'm sorry.
I'm over my time.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I'll just say Bob Spera.
So, Bob Spera, 1605 pass-a-grille way.
I had a lot of good things I was going to talk about,
but you guys have done a super great job
of vetting the whole situation.
I was originally coming up to in my career,
I've been a vendor who's answered over 100 RFPs
in my career, and I guess the comments that I would make is I
know a lot of times these decisions get made in a vacuum,
and maybe you guys aren't.
Maybe this I don't these are questions.
The decision gets made and then they present you the findings.
But I would just say in my line of business,
there's always like a lights out.
Piece of the contract.
And so I do know my wife works for freebee.
One thing I'm very, very surprised at
is how well that business is run.
And it sounds like it costs money to run it.
Nothing's free.
But I would also say that these guys really, really that.
And the lights out component is if I would just
say I would make sure that you make sure the people selecting
or making recommendations make sure that from a legal
perspective, there's enough insurance involved in how this
is handled, because one catastrophic event
with a company that you decide to go with,
if you do decide to go with micro,
could end up turning the lights out.
So that's just me being a concerned
citizen, whatever that's worth.
Yeah thanks.
Dana Richardson.
Thanks Dana Richardson 5830 Bahama way South.
So we moved here in 2020.
And before then used to use free beach rides.
And it was great and it worked.
And I agree with Karen Marriott Lisa and maybe some others here.
I think that we can get rid of freebie.
Is it a great product.
Sure but it's very costly.
And right now, we just don't have the money to spend.
Maybe another day in the future, but not now.
And I do believe if freebie does get canceled that would also
bring in maybe different companies to come in
or free beach rides.
Just beefs up what they have.
So that's my view.
And again, like with Karen said, I
don't have a lot of use for PTSA,
but anything to do with the ones that are the least fortunate,
the handicapped.
I am all for.
Thank you so much.
Yeah I have no more public comment on this topic.
OK thank you.
Yes, sir.
Go ahead please.
A quick question while we have Brad here.
I had mentioned the possibility of working to try to have only
one bus at a time in the County park,
and so if we end up with the service,
then I understood you were going to look into that.
So I think that would be great.
And as I've said, I've seen the bus too in this lot very often.
And a third one on the street, sometimes
waiting to get into the lot.
And then what I wanted to reemphasize
is that I've also seen the drivers stop northbound
at the coffee shops, and so that blocks one of the two lanes
on Gulf Boulevard.
So there's the Starbucks basically across the street
there.
So the sunrunner will be stopped on Gulf Boulevard
there in front of Starbucks with for an indefinite amount
of time.
And then the next coffee shop northward is Caribou Coffee.
And it also stops there and stays.
I know the drivers go inside and order whatever.
So I wanted to highlight that to you
as a pain point that we notice.
That's all.
That's all I had.
OK thank you.
Yes, sir.
My question.
Mandy, the last time we discussed this,
I had requested that staff pull or informally coordinate
with some of the hotels, the larger hotels,
to see if they were willing.
As commissioner Marriott just reminded me about
if they'd be willing to subsidize it if the city did
not, was that done.
I can say I personally reached out.
There was a monthly hoteliers meeting.
I brought up this topic and the general tenor of the feedback
was they were not interested because they'd
like to keep their guests on site
and that incentivizes their guests leaving
these larger resort areas.
And so there was no interest in helping.
Thank you.
Now, that's a very justifiable answer from their perspective,
but it just triggered me when I will
say that Tradewinds I know Tradewinds
and perhaps the Serrata.
But the Tradewinds has their own contract with psta,
where Tradewinds employees get one of those u-pass bus passes,
as do all of the Tradewinds guests.
So though Tradewinds isn't contributing to the city's
micro mobility program, they are contributing
to a way for their employees and guests
to get around without having to rent a car.
OK, interesting.
That's actually a good information.
OK city manager, do you have what you need.
Good just want to make sure.
OK thank you very much.
I appreciate you and lively interesting discussion.
Thank you, everybody, for your feedback.
We appreciate you.
I know there's a lot of I will say this.
We get lots of emails on this.
I know there's a lot of passion on both sides.
So, thank you for everybody for your passion and your feedback.
I think right now we're just trying to figure out what we can
do with budget constraints and other things
that we're dealing with.
So thank you all OK.
All right.
Next I'm sorry.
Were there other.
Were there other audience comments for general audience
comments which is next on the agenda
I think where we're headed next.
Yes So please call general comments, please.
Vincent Taormina.
Questions I don't understand why that p sta goes all the way from
clear water and stops at 75th, when all
the rest of the towns are being has stops,
and then it stops at 75th.
That's one question.
Second one, I'd like to know when Publix is returning
because that's also a problem.
The third is that I spoke to Bruce Wright
today in the tax collector's office.
And they have a mistaken thing.
When we had the flood with Helene Idalia the hurricanes,
they put down our homes as being remodeled
instead of repaired and raised us $200,000 on our market value.
OK, I'm trying to get it fixed and it ranges from Bella vista
through the dongsi area.
So I need the city to help out with this to take care of it.
It went up 200,000 because he said to me, Bruce, right.
Oh, that was a remodel.
I said, no, it wasn't.
It was a repair to get back in my house.
We had a hurricane here.
I mean, I didn't choose to spend that kind of money
to remodel my house.
And that's the whole problem, what's going on right now.
And that's going to affect a lot of things because I told him,
and it's going to affect you guys too,
because a lot of people are going
to vote yes on three in November because of this situation.
They should have never did that.
He's looking into it.
And I came to the city tonight to see if you guys could help
out with this because there's a lot of homes
and a lot of properties, and I was on the phone with him
for almost an hour and a half, and we were going through them,
and they're down as remodels instead of repairs.
And all these subdivisions are getting rates $200,000
on the market value of the house,
which is raising their taxes, and new
people are looking for money to raise the millage rate.
I mean, there's a lot of things that are involved in this,
and November is the biggest thing where they're
going to say yes on three because they
want to get rid of Pinellas County in plain English.
So, I mean, we need to get this fixed.
That's it.
Thank you, thank you.
Yes city manager I would just personally comment I mean,
if we got our everybody's trying to get back
from these hurricanes and obviously if they got
mischaracterized inappropriately I would love us to see
if that's truly happening.
If I could ask, please, would you and your team
just look and see if they've been mischaracterized?
Let's make sure that they're characterized appropriately,
because we don't want to punish people for just trying to get
back on their feet, post-storm.
And I'll scratch that off my list for our next meeting.
Thank you.
OK thank you.
City clerk, please.
Michael pezza.
Got some pictures I want to pass on to you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you sir.
Thanks he's afraid to lift my shoulder.
I'm going to tell you about my chiropractor.
My name is Mike pezza.
I live at 124th Avenue.
Some of you may remember, ours was the home that we were
willing to donate to the city.
This was about a year ago.
It didn't work out.
But that was the start of our beginning to build a new home.
I'm addressing you all today with some recent circumstances
and our new construction.
I'm going to highlight some of the important dates
that you can find.
The rest and are uploaded.
Permit application on 822 of 2025 was a year ago.
We submitted for permit and 9 2 2025 our architectural drawings
without pilings were stamped approved
by the building reviewer Joseph Payne on 10:00/9:00, 2025.
The revision drawing with geotech
and scour recommendations notated
were submitted by our architect.
We then went into a four month delay
due to an issue we had with the sanitary line
with our neighbors.
Got that resolved on 213 2026.
Our architectural drawings stamped approved by zoning
by Brandon Berry on 26.
Site inspection past seven 926.
Our permit was approved and 7 1026.
Our soil compaction was in progress seven 1426.
Soil density test report submitted to the city 7:15.
Our foundation excavation started 724.
Our foundation formwork and Rebar began
was in progress on eight 226.
Rebar inspection was requested.
There was an unknown fee for $25 that held it up.
So our builder went back on 819, requested the Rebar inspection
again for August 21 of 26.
On August 21 of 26, while waiting for inspection,
our builder received a phone call from the inspector
that our inspection was being canceled.
Our builder immediately went to the city offices
and was told by Lou Curtis that the property is within 300 feet
of a coastal construction lane, and
the criteria was overlooked during the planning
review process.
He also stated that he was sorry,
but a third party reviewer was used by the city
and it was simply overlooked.
He showed our builder some software
that the city uses to determine the rule,
but explained that this offer is not available to the public.
Our builder was also told that there are a few other situations
like this that have slipped through the cracks,
but they are too far along for the city
to do anything about them.
The city had over one year to inform us of this matter.
No correspondence was made by any building official
prior to last Friday to inform us.
We heard through a building inspector on a phone call
that a permit was being held up because we are not in compliance
and pilots are required.
No prior communication at all with the city is doing.
Keep going.
Please please continue.
Thank you.
Mayor what the city is doing is untimely and unfair.
Both geotech and structural engineers
have stated that this does not pose either a health
or safety issue to the public.
We've met all the requirements.
And there's no way to discern its enforcement
due to the fact that the city uses a map that
is not available to the public.
This is causing tremendous financial and time lost
hardship, and if enforced, we are
looking at a financial impact to us upwards of $150,000.
The whole thing would have to be redone.
We have met all our safety requirements,
and you're applying this rule in arbitrary, capricious manner.
The city needs to step in and take a look at this
and address this situation exponentially
in order, in effect, to avoid these financial damages to us.
Thank you.
Thank you sir.
I've given you guys the pictures to show
you where we're at with this.
And there's a lot of work that has been done.
At this point, I talked to the contractor
and he stated that they would have to start over
from the beginning, remove all the soil,
all the Rebar, all the footings.
They've been working on this for over a month.
If this was brought to our attention
before we went for permit, we would have had no choice.
We would have done the pylons, but I never said we went.
We had it compacted.
We did everything.
The city has asked for us.
And now this comes up at the 11th hour, which
I just don't think is fair.
Understood I did thank you.
City manager, can you please make sure that we have staff
look into this.
Do we have contact information.
I'd like to make sure that he has.
Please if he could either get your information
for questions, please.
And I would like you please, to help
make sure that we follow through on this as appropriate
as we can.
I know who you are, Mr. President, so I'll be in touch.
I would give you my business card,
but they've been all given out.
But I'll be in touch.
Thank you.
OK thank you.
Sir Dana Richardson.
Dana Richardson, 5830 Bahama way South.
I just had one thing to say about the extension
of the chill contract.
I enjoy going to chill.
I've been there many times in the evenings
and listen to music, so I love chill.
But with this contract, I personally
would like to keep things black, white and very clean.
And is it possible to just do the $1,500
month rental fee versus a percentage
of outdoor versus indoor.
I think that can be possibly.
Well, I'm not even going to say it.
All I'm saying I prefer to keep it clean.
A flat rate, whatever that rate is on a monthly basis.
Thank you.
I have no further comments.
OK thank you so much.
Always good.
Always good feedback.
Thank you, everybody.
Over to the consent agenda.
Just a reminder.
We pulled B, C and J for separate discussion minus those.
Do we have a motion on the remaining items minus BC
and j motion to approve the consent items
or accept them as presented minus BK and j items second.
Vice mayor Robinson.
Yes commissioner.
Causey yes.
Commissioner Maldonado.
Yes commissioner.
Marriott yes.
Mayor Tate.
Yes The motion carries.
OK we'll take them in order.
Let's go.
With consent for B. Authorize the city manager
to exercise the first extension as outlined in the contract
to renew the parklet agreement with show restaurant.
I believe, Commissioner Robinson, you pulled it.
I just had two questions.
I didn't see the insurance certificate in there,
so I wanted to make sure we did have an insurance certificate,
because it's not in the packet.
We'll follow up with that, but I think that they're there.
Come to the microphone.
I'm sorry.
Sorry Mandy Edmonds, resident services director.
Yes once we have this approved tonight,
we'll follow through with get the remainder of what's
required for the contract.
And that will include the insurance.
And it will also include hold harmless agreement.
And then payments made to date.
Are we current on all of the payments.
I think it's basically the $1,500 a month.
We're current through May we just recently
invoiced for June and July.
But we are current.
Yes just wanted to make sure on that.
There you go.
Just because we had a public comment right now
the minimum they pay is 1,500.
So it escalates if their sales are generated more.
So just wanted the commission to know that we are
actually making more than 1,500 per month some months,
not all months.
I just wanted to make sure we got the $50,000 that
the taxpayers paid to build that parklet back, and that's really
my big concern.
Yeah, because that was taxpayer funded.
Yes, ma'am.
Interest free.
So to date, it's 52,994.43.
And there was a little architectural stuff in there
too.
So no it's good.
Yeah it's great that we're discussing that.
Yeah OK.
Thank you.
And that was all I had for that.
Thank you.
I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to exercise
the first extension, as outlined in the contract
to renew the parklet agreement with chill restaurant.
I'll second.
Commissioner Causey.
Yes, Commissioner.
Maldonado yes.
Commissioner Marriott.
Yes vice mayor.
Robertson yes.
Mayor Tate.
Yes The motion carries.
OK thank you.
Next item 4 C consent for C authorize the city manager
to execute the holiday decoration services agreement
with Christmas designers.
Florida holiday outdoor decor at a cost
of $76,621 for December 2026.
Holiday decorations.
I just have one question.
What is the difference.
I mean, how many different polls.
I'm just looking at the huge discrepancy between pole trim
and tree wraps on pass-a-grille on gulfway
in, prasugrel way for 22 blocks.
There's 167 as a quantity, and then pull
mounts on Gulf Boulevard from Quarry
to the Bay way, which is many more blocks in 22 at 68.
So the pole wraps are going to be what that candy
cane looking Garland is.
That's what's down in pass-a-grille
there wrapped every pole.
And then the pole decorations on Gulf Boulevard
are the actual lighted pole decorations that you see.
So there are two different types of decorations.
Does that answer your so well.
It's two different types.
I mean there's just a different quantity amount.
It just seems a little odd for what we've got here.
I mean, are we talking both sides of the street.
So we're talking what, 44 blocks.
If I say from first to 22nd and first to 20 and we have Gulf
and we have pass-a-grille way.
So we're talking basically right.
But still that's a huge discrepancy in the number.
It is.
And I don't know if I necessarily
have a justification for it other than that was what
was written into the contract.
Well, we've done it every year.
Yeah every year it's been like that.
I just find it that.
Pass-a-grille does it look more Christmassy than the rest of us.
I wouldn't say that it looks more Christmassy than the rest,
but I would say that there's a reason they
get more than Gulf Boulevard.
I think it's because they have all the palm trees.
Yeah, they do.
Line of palm trees.
OK I think there's more poles to decorate in that chunk
than there is.
Or I mean, maybe there's not more poles overall,
but we've got a lot of Poles on where
we are getting rid of a few of them on the undergrounding.
I think the cost is even though there's more polls and I can.
Maybe we need to follow up, but the lighting on golf
are the actual pretty Christmas trees and the lights that are.
The last year, they were the Dolphins
jumping through the Christmas wreaths or whatever we had.
Those are only going golf.
Then when you get to pass-a-grille they only
get the tree wrap, not lighted, not lighted.
So we have lighted decorations on golf
and we have just tree wrap and pass-a-grille.
Just wanted to know what the difference was.
I almost feel like we should have some continuity.
As when you go from the bottom of the city
to the North end of the city on that road.
And I mean, I would almost try to make it all look the same.
Do we have power.
Is that our problem.
I'm sorry.
Power power.
Yeah we do have issues with.
Some of the poles are energized, some of them are not.
As far as the electrical that we do plug into.
And we are working with Duke right now on a lighting survey
and trying to correct some of the deficiencies
that may be South of 55th avenue to the bayway.
Some of those poles, the city does not currently pay
for the electrical, so that's why there's some limited
decorations heading from 55th South to the bayway,
whereas there's a heavier influx of decorations
North of the 55th Avenue.
So we are working actively with Duke to correct that.
So yeah.
Thank you.
So a couple questions and also a point of clarification.
They're not Christmassy.
They're non-secular.
That's to address the zombies on next door and stuff
that keep bringing that up.
Holiday and their holiday decorations right by design.
And we're never going to get right.
Last year we got beat up because we did
Dolphins and Maritime themes.
This year I'm hearing complaints about Garland.
Folks are very concerned about the Garland,
and the wraps are Garland, and they're
in the area where most folks are complaining about that.
So my question, first of all, is because it's on County roads,
why isn't County pain or contributing towards this.
State roads.
Sorry instead of the city, right.
I mean, it's their road.
It's their responsibility.
And then the other thing is, should we do it.
We're in a financial situation where
we're looking at things very, very hard,
very difficult decisions.
Do the complaints outweigh the folks that are in favor of this.
The County or the State Road issue.
I don't think that we've ever really reviewed
that or looked into that.
So that's something that we can definitely look into and review
as far as the should I'm going to leave that decision up to you
all.
It's a discussion for the Commission, right.
I mean, it's no soup for you.
I mean.
Folks complain enough about it, and they
really should consider whether or not we continue to do this.
I liked last year's decorations, and I will just
say that there were a nice change up from everything
that we've done.
So I hope you didn't take a lot of heat on that.
We took some.
Well, you took it well state owned road.
And I think that's an interesting take on it.
That's obviously the entire Gulf Boulevard.
All that is state owned stuff.
Interesting to see what they do.
Does I would ask how do we compare with other beaches.
Is that just every beach suffering with the state,
has us doing the work or is there something
unique about ST Pete Beach.
I would just ask you to double check into that for me.
And then I would just comment.
I mean, I understand budget constraints
and I think we should maybe look for opportunities to be more
effective and more efficient.
But I think if we went with 0, we
would be a very dreary town where everybody's
trying to run every 10 lights.
I'm just saying the should we do it
I think yes, I think it would cost us maybe
a different dialogue, but.
And then is there a way to get other funding
associated with it.
I think all interesting.
I don't know that that's going to get solved this evening.
Yeah I'm kind of seeing the handshake.
I knew it, I knew the answer before I asked it.
For what it's worth.
Yeah, I'm torn on it.
I clearly we're not going to get anything in time between now
and December for the state to come in
and say, yes, we're going to go ahead and subsidize.
Maybe that's a future conversation for next year
or something like that.
Give us time to really delve into it.
And the question is, this year, I personally think
I don't want to see it go to 0.
And so, I think that would be as much as people might think,
the comments on the other things, I think going to 0
would get far more comments than the reverse.
We should ask that at the road shows you should.
You should have one too.
We got tomorrow's road show left to maybe get a little feedback.
I will just add to the contract does expire 2027.
So it is an opportune time to take a look
at it, maybe even for next year for before we
go out and rebid this.
So it runs through 20 through Christmas 2027.
It doesn't know it expires prior I want to say
it expires prior to September 2027,
so we would have to go out to bid prior to our last year
on this contract, and we can revisit
this and discuss subsidies and all that fun stuff next year.
Theoretically but the 75,000 number is how did
we come up with that number.
That was what was in the bid.
So that was the winning.
OK yeah 250 per gallon.
So we told them what we wanted and they said
this is how much it will cost.
I believe we identified the polls
that we had available in the areas
that we wanted to have decorated.
And when we came back with the scope of work and everything,
the proposal dictated where we were going
to place some of these lights.
So it was identified in the scope.
So now Garland is doesn't really require lights, I presume.
No and.
All right.
I think we are beyond the line not go.
My point was, I just want people to know that this is
a thing that the city has done.
That we are highly supportive of.
It does come at a cost, but we're struggling.
So I agree with the mayor's comment
that we need to look at other funding sources
and that we'll have to reconsider it next year.
So yeah, I'm fine.
I mean, I just wanted to throw that grenade
out there and see who it hits.
Yeah it landed.
Yeah good job.
Yeah all right.
I didn't pull the pin, though.
Yeah listen, I will say this late in the season,
I'm sure that they've got many municipalities
that they deal with.
So I don't think we're going to get a lot of changes.
It's either go or no go.
And I would personally have the mindset go because I don't want
to see a no declaration here.
I will say if our contract's up before next Christmas,
we've got opportunities to talk about, what type of lighting,
which polls subsidies and.
And I also just while we're at the dialogue,
I've had some comments about the plastic use inside
of those things as well, in addition
to some of the other comments.
And, and maybe there's an alternative
to just go with something that's theoretically,
just make sure that we're being careful
with our choice of materials if as we go
to renegotiate this next year.
Noted thank you.
So with that, is there a motion.
I move to authorize the city manager
to execute the holiday decoration
services agreement I second.
Commissioner Maldonado.
Yes commissioner.
Marriott yes.
Vice mayor.
Robinson yes, Commissioner.
Yes mayor.
Tate yes.
The motion carries.
OK consent item j authorize the city manager
to execute an Amendment to the agreement with hydro
clean, LLC to establish annual contract
expenditures consistent with the adopted city budget.
I just wanted to point out that the agenda
report calls it a concrete, brick and mortar repair.
Good evening.
Commissioner mayors.
Camden Mills, public services director.
Yes thank you for pointing out that air for the record,
the concrete, brick and mortar.
In the summary of issue.
And the agenda report should actually
read stormwater inspection and cleaning.
So I apologize for that error and I'll do
a better job of my oversight.
It was a reason for me to get you up here too.
So can you give us an update on the current status of how
many miles we've done so far.
I don't have those numbers in front of me, unfortunately,
but I know we're over.
Around 60% I believe, total Citywide in the stormwater
cleaning portion of it.
So they are making some pretty good headway.
So we're about nine miles in out of 17 or something like that.
OK a bulk of what's slowing them down now is just the tides.
So they're getting the Inland portions where they can.
And then some more of the outskirts outfalls
will be as we get to the winter and the tides
are lower during the day.
OK great.
Thank you.
Real quick.
I'm sorry, I apologize.
You said storms are about 60% What about the waste.
The wastewater is much further along.
So the main line pipes of wastewater is about 97%
The only sections that are left are
in the Don Cesar neighborhood.
So there's some areas there where
the sanitary sewer is in the back
of lots rather than the front.
So we're going door to door knocking on people's homes,
especially in the areas where we don't
have public access easements and try to identify that.
So that's really the last piece on the wastewater.
The camera inspections and the evaluation is following behind.
But at least the cleaning up of it is moving well ahead.
And to be clear, I just want to make sure not falling
behind but following behind.
Following behind.
Correct gotcha.
Make sure.
Thank you for that.
Thank you.
Yeah OK.
Thank you.
Unless there's other questions.
Is there a motion.
Make a motion to authorize the city
manager to execute an Amendment to the agreement with hydro
clean, LLC.
To establish annual contract expenditures consistent
with the adopted city budget.
Second commissioner.
Marriott yes, Vice Mayor Robertson.
Yes, Commissioner.
Yes commissioner.
Maldonado yes.
And Mayor Tate.
Yes The motion carries.
OK thank you very much.
I believe we're on to the ordinances.
City attorney, acting city attorney.
I'm not sure how to address you, I apologize.
Will you please read the ordinance title.
All right.
Yeah this is a first reading of ordinance 2024 2616.
16 there is no.
This is, as I said, first reading.
There is no presentation.
Staff is here for questions.
And I'll read the ordinance now.
An ordinance of the city of ST Pete Beach, Florida,
amending city code Appendix A fee schedule providing
for amendments to city wastewater fees
and wastewater connection fees.
Providing for repeal of ordinances or parts
of ordinances in conflict herewith
to the extent of such conflict.
Providing for codification conflicts,
severability, correction of scrivener's
error, construction, publication,
and an effective date.
Thank you very much.
I think I heard you say there's not a staff report.
I think is what I heard.
Any audience comments.
Yes Holly Noonan.
Hello, my name is Holly Noonan.
I live at 1378 oak forest Boulevard in Seminole, Florida.
I'm a student in the public policy and administration
program at ST. Petersburg College,
and I am here to show my support for ordinance 2024 2616.
Balancing the need to generate more revenue while keeping it
fair for residents is a persistent challenge
for local governments.
But I believe the proposed ordinance accomplishes that.
Because the wastewater fund is an enterprise fund,
it is important that user fees cover
operating costs as well as existing debt and infrastructure
improvements.
Now, the current rate structure does not
bring in enough to fully cover those obligations.
This issue is expected to become more significant over time,
with rising operating costs, limited customer growth,
and necessary capital improvements increasing
debt service requirements.
The wastewater fund's budget was balanced this year,
but that includes grants and general fund transfers.
Continued reliance on these sources
could potentially impact bond ratings
and actually increase the cost of borrowing
for future projects.
I believe it is a responsible choice to move on this issue,
because keeping fees below what is necessary
now can shift a larger financial burden onto future residents
and businesses.
Improvements to aging infrastructure
do not become less expensive with time.
Despite the challenges and increased costs associated
with being a barrier island, the proposed sewer
rates for the first year are still in line
with surrounding cities.
This suggests that the initial increase
is reasonable and not excessively
burdensome from for ratepayers.
The restructure is consistent with the public finance
principle of cost causation, where rates
reflect the demands customers place
on the system using meter size.
As part of that calculation is a common utility practice,
and it creates a more equitable way to distribute
costs among users.
Because small businesses are an important part
of ST Pete Beach's character and economic resilience.
I would urge the city to monitor and evaluate how the rate
adjustments affect them.
This would allow the city to identify
any unintended impacts before future adjustments take place.
Communication will also be important.
Best practices include early outreach using plain language
through multiple channels.
This could include mailed notices or Bill inserts, email
updates, or a page on the city's website explaining the new rate
structure and potentially how businesses
can go about getting their meters evaluated and resized.
I believe this ordinance.
This ordinance is a fair and responsible step forward.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Very impressive.
Thank you very much.
Other audience comments, please.
I have no further audience comments.
Thank you so much.
That was quite interesting.
And so since we don't have a staff report,
we don't have any questions or comments unless there's
commissioner comments.
Is there a motion.
Make the motion to adopt ordinance 202616.
I'll Second Vice mayor Robinson.
Yes commissioner.
Yes, Commissioner.
Maldonado yes, Commissioner.
Marriott yes, Mayor.
Tate yes.
The motion carries.
OK thank you.
We're on to ordinance item 5 B, first reading ordinance 2024 26,
reclaim water fees.
City attorney, please.
This is similar.
No presentation, but staff is here for questions.
An ordinance of the city of ST Pete Beach, Florida.
Amending city code, Appendix A fee
schedule providing for amendments to city
reclaimed water system fees.
Providing for repeal of ordinances or parts
of ordinances in conflict herewith
to the extent of such conflict.
Providing for codification, conflict,
severability, correction of scrivener's
error, construction, publication,
and an effective date.
OK thank you.
I understand there's no report.
So ordinance comments I have no ordinance comments on this item.
Any commissioner questions of the city manager.
Anybody else.
All right.
Is there a motion then.
I'll make a motion to adopt ordinance
2024 26 reclaimed water fees.
I'll second.
Commissioner Causey.
Yes, Commissioner.
Maldonado yes.
Commissioner Marriott.
Yes vice mayor.
Robertson yes.
Mayor Tate.
Yes The motion carries.
Next, we're on to items for discussion.
And I believe the only one that I
captured was mothballs on the beach
for Commissioner Maldonado.
Yeah so, first and foremost, let me just say that everyone is
innocent until proven guilty.
I won't get into the specifics, but the city,
after or upon hearing that mothballs
were placed behind some hotels.
But at a very strong statement, we
said that there was 0 tolerance, that we would do everything
within our power to find the person or persons responsible,
and that they would be held accountable.
So my.
Not question but necessarily my input to the commission
would be that we get ahead of that we work through
our attorneys with the state attorney's office, that we
ensure that as victims, the city being a victim,
that we present our position to the state attorney
and that we ask, that we are considered within that.
I personally would push for the maximum sentence
if these persons are found guilty, that they're held
accountable to the highest standards,
and then that we also prepare sanctions in the event
that the businesses or the persons are at fault
or found guilty.
So in this case, depending on the severity and the outcome,
there could be some very, very stiff sentences.
And in the city I believe can take additional steps.
This would be for the attorneys to guide us.
But this has separate to do with the charges that they're facing.
I do think that as victims, characterizing the city
as the victim, that we're due restitution
and that we also have the power in some cases
to pull licenses, specifically liquor licenses,
depending on the outcome of this.
And that's where I stand with this.
I believe very firmly that if found guilty, that these persons
should be held ultimately responsible to the extent
that we can and that the city needs to get ahead of this,
we can't wait for the state attorney
to make some kind of Deal or not hear our input.
So I wanted to put that out there.
I'm getting a lot of input from residents who feel passionately
and just as strong about this as we do as I do,
I should say not only my district, but I do.
Personally I think that there are things that we can do.
I know that the state attorney is working
diligently to look at this.
It was a pretty big case for the FWC.
I applaud them for their efforts.
They went above and beyond to try to find the evidence.
Now it's just a matter of proving what they suspect.
So that's what I wanted to discuss.
Thank you.
And I wonder if business licenses
would be fit into that concept.
Everything's on the table.
I would agree with you on holding them to as we've said,
hold them to the highest level that we can.
If that includes pulling a liquor license
and anything on the beach.
We're just so lucky that a small child didn't eat one of those.
I just let alone the wildlife.
That's bad enough.
But for the rest of the residents and children,
wildlife, anything.
So I agree with you on that wholeheartedly.
Is the city involved in issuing liquor licenses.
The liquor license may be something
that is governed by the state since the city
doesn't issue the license.
It does come from the state.
The only thing we could do would be as part of a victim impact
statement that we present to the state attorney,
or that we also present to the court.
If there's that opportunity, it could be something that could
be mentioned or asked for.
So otherwise you have to look at your own licenses and things
that you bestow on somebody cabana
service, whatever that is.
So that would be one.
Listen I agree, I would love to hear some legal opinion.
I know that some of the accused in this situation, at least one
of the accused is also in other issues with us.
So I'm careful how far we have open dialogues, given
that there's other open cases.
As I understand IT, legal cases in these situations.
Unaffiliated with what.
With mothballs on the beach.
But that said, as victims, I think we should make sure
that we understand what our rights are
and the full extent that we could ask of the state's
attorney, the state's office.
So I would ask that we just itemize what are our options
here and what do we have on the table
that we could use as potential grievances,
if you will, and remedies that we would recommend to the state
attorneys in this situation, you could ask for costs if you had
any of your staff involved in the cleanup
or in the investigation, and there was a cost to the city,
you can ask for restitution.
I love it, rather than this forum, can we ask that we just
maybe itemize something that we could just bring back
and distribute to at least the commission
or whoever it needs to go that says,
here's our potential avenues of remediation
given this situation.
OK yeah.
I love it.
Thank you.
I don't have any other items for discussion,
so I think we have our commission
reports, our city clerk.
I'll start with you, please.
I have nothing to report this evening.
OK city manager, anything to report.
Nothing to report MS city attorney.
Nothing OK.
Commissioner Maldonado.
Yeah so, again, to the folks that attended
our workshop on the budget.
Well attended.
Thank you so much to the staff, the mayor,
everyone, for setting that up.
A lot of great dialogue and certainly some very informative
answers there.
Hard questions.
I got an email just to talk about
some hurricane recovery grants for storm related
expenses or debts.
Apparently the government gave Pinellas County $813 million
worth of grants that are still out there for folks that
are still trying to recover.
So if you haven't received that, go to recover pinellas.gov
to get information.
And this is also for small businesses.
So please take advantage of that.
The more people that apply, the more
likelihood that people in our city
will get some kind of relief.
So thank you.
Thank you sir.
Commissioner Causey.
I do have a few items I wanted to discuss.
I have received reports of three damaged seawalls
in District three, but I don't really have
a way to see these things, so.
Is there a process in place.
I'm wondering where the city can check
on the status of the seawall.
And also, I would say that a couple of them
were severe enough to where there's the soil
is disappearing into the canal.
And so I think this is a notice for the people who
have these seawalls, but also for the city to possibly look
into these.
And I'll move on to Publix.
I ask a quick just on that, are you talking
public or private seawalls?
Private seawalls.
Thank you.
Yeah, that's a good clarification.
Private seawalls.
So for example, were to use SeeClickFix, I don't really
know that there's I can't tell from the street,
whether this is the case or not.
So it seems like there would be a process for this.
So Publix, I keep getting questions about Publix.
And what I feel like this is one of the biggest problems
that we have in our city.
Perceived pain point.
And I don't feel like we are keeping everyone up
to date enough on I almost feel like we
need to have a Publix report every single commission meeting.
So I'm sure things don't change that quickly.
But this is a big deal for us.
And so I would ask that we think about the keeping
the public more notified about our negotiating
or the status of Publix.
This week, I wanted to say that our new community action
group, the beautification community action group,
launched and it was well attended.
We had seven residents show up for the meeting on that
and the initial meeting.
They're excited about addressing things from parks to signs
to decorations and helping out with any kind of beautification
projects, and also mentioned the idea of forming a nonprofit so
that if the city is not going to repair things,
maybe next year due to budget constraints.
Well, then we might reach out and ask for donations.
So that wanted to let everyone know that is up and running now.
This week also.
Highlight that I am still doing my neighborhood meetings
on Mondays and so I'm in.
I start in the afternoon at the Don Cesar neighborhood park,
and then I move up to Bella vista and finish off in Lido.
So every Monday afternoon, basically between 3:30 and 6.
In those three locations.
And so I'll have people show up and
they have a chance to ask questions
and I can talk to them.
Sometimes if you want to talk to me
you can schedule into that time slot as well.
That's all I've got.
Thank you sir Mr. Robinson.
Just a reminder that tomorrow night is the district two.
And anybody else who wants to come.
If you missed one, come on to the budget
road show at the library 5:30 to 7:00 PM tomorrow night.
Also, I do my library hours typically first Monday,
but first Monday next month.
Being Labor Day, it will be the second Monday of the month,
so the 14th of September from 5 to 545 at the library as well.
Thank you, Mr. mayor.
Thank you.
I just want to congratulate the helm
on reopening in their new space in District 1.
I know everybody is super excited about their bigger space
and longer hours.
And so if you haven't been, go have dinner at the helm.
It's fantastic.
Yeah and that's it.
Thank you.
Impromptu I would say we have many, many great restaurants.
The helm being one of them.
And congratulations to the helm family.
I see a lot of this is impromptu so I apologize.
I see a lot of social aspects of what great things make ST Pete
Beach wonderful, and our great restaurants
and small businesses, not only shopping in the theater
and all kind of things.
So please support our businesses as you can.
We love them and we appreciate them.
Back on to what I did actually have on my agenda here.
Thank you to all the residents and number,
and also to the city staff and my fellow commissioners
who've been attending the budget road shows.
We're now three out of 4 down.
Very good discussion, very lively feedback, very good
responses from our residents and we sincerely appreciate it.
I do want to say I've joined all three.
I've had a kind of a preamble, opening statement.
I am, I say unfortunately for tomorrow's meeting,
but not unfortunately for me.
I'm heading on PTO tomorrow, so I
will be out of town for tomorrow's evening
tomorrow evening's event.
So my understanding city manager's,
we might be able to have a video that shows maybe
a recent recording that I did kind of promoting
these road show events.
Anyways and with apologies that I won't be able to make it,
but I will be watching intently the results of not only the road
show and the notes that come out of it,
but the survey results accordingly.
And with that, I think that was it for me.
Thank you.
There being no further business, this meeting is adjourned.