City Commission - Regular Meeting

It is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 at 6 p.m. Will you please rise and join us 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. Thank you. First off, I want to see if there's any motions to approve or amend the agenda for our budget meeting.

Thank you. First off, thank you. Approval of the agenda. Are there any recommended adjustments or amendments to our budget meeting agenda, please?

Mister mayor I just want to point out that the action request on items for. A and B state motion to adopt ordinances on the first reading I believe that's incorrect. Motion to approve.

Thank you. I'll adjust. Thank you very much. Any other recommended changes or do we have a motion to?

I'll make a motion that we approve the budget agenda as amended.

Thank you. On to presentations. We're honored today to have Representative Linda Chaney with us. Thank you so much. And my understanding is we have a check. And it looks like a big check now that I see it.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Wow. We'll give you all the time you need if you want to keep making it for more. So thank you so much. I love it. We'll be patient. I promise you. All right.

Can I please come down and can we get a picture if you don't mind please?

Just a quick note, Representative Chaney, thank you so much for everything you've done for our community and everything you continue to do for our community. We appreciate you. Thank you. City Clerk, audience comments on our budget meeting, please.

Okay, thank you so much. All right, well, let's go into the ordinances, please. The first item is first reading ordinance 2026-19, establishing the millage rate for fiscal year 2027.

Thank you, City Attorney, we appreciate you. Okay. Are there any audience comments? We have a presentation, sorry.

Well, I would like to just say a great job on putting together the roadshow. It was wonderful engagement. I think it is great for transparency, but I think it set a precedence possibly for the future just so people feel like they understood what's going on here.

Thank you. Looking around. Thank you very much for your presentation. Do we have audience comments?

Okay. Thank you. Any comments from the Commission or requested motion? Commissioner Causey.

Well, I will go ahead and say up front what I'm thinking is flatter rollback. and then I can tell you why I'm thinking that. I am for as much revenue as we need to fix our infrastructure and I'm very happy that we did explore the community and the feedback that we received. I attended two of the four tax presentations The District 2 one turned out to be very different. And I think that was because our state representative was at that one. And she really made it clear a couple of points. And one of the main points that she emphasized, and I actually followed up with her on this, it's the enviro

Thank you, sir. I believe, Mr. Marriott, please.

Thank you. Thank you, and I wanted to start by saying I really do appreciate the hard work that the finance department and Devin and the city manager's office put into getting some community feedback and having these community meetings. I think that probably the most important thing that it did was to kind of open a better line of communication between the city and residents about what we're doing, how the budget gets built, what the city is paying for. I think it gave a little more transparency to the process, which I think is always a fantastic thing. i will say that i still feel the same wa

I want to say again thank you for the amount of info that went into the budget roadshow it really was a lot of info that went into this and it historical and got us to current and it's a great roadmap to where we are as far as the millage I would agree with Commissioner Marriott and I also add this challenge to the city manager to cut operational costs and expenses. I come from the private sector, and when you're not doing well financially, you cut, not spend. You find ways to cut creatively and you do more with less. Why you can't until you get to a point that you can start spending money. An

Thank you very much. Commissioner Maldonado.

Director Mills, if I can get you to come up. And I hope to not put you on the spot, but I do have just a point of clarification and I do want to be transparent on certain things. So let me echo the words of expression from my fellow commissioners about the hard work that went into this. It's not perfect. Certainly there are areas where we can improve and I have given the city manager some feedback on how we can do things better. I am very happy we did not spend money and hire consultant to do that because right now we can't afford it. I'm being very transparent with that. So to Commissioner Ro

Excellent, and I apologize for putting you on the spot, but my point there is that there is a process and a system that can be improved upon and we have an ROI within two years, if I heard you correctly.

So this is just one of many examples that, you know, as I sit there and look at things, and I know that because we approved the contract for the potholes, and I haven't seen it being very effective. We need to be more proactive on that stuff, and that's why I say not doing more with less. You know, when people say that, it's just ingenuous. We only have a certain amount of bandwidth, but we need to be scrutinizing things, and now's the time. So thank you, sir. So then the other thing is that I received a trim notice and it's a sticker shock and I'm sure that several people have started to see

Campton, I thought we had, we did approve an asphalt machine before, prior. maybe two years ago, pre-storm.

I thought we did approve, or it did get approved, because I wasn't on the commission, but it did get approved, and I'd ask that about it after the storm, whether it got damaged or destroyed, which it would have. But I'll ask that. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. As mayor, I get to listen to all this great feedback from my fellow commissioners, and I guess that's the really good side. The bad side is I'm usually the last one that gets to speak on these things, so I get to say I agree with Commissioner A, B, and C as we talk about this. So first I want to start with thanking the staff for putting together a tremendous amount of data. what happened to get pulled together in a very short timeframe. And I just wanna recognize that those budget roadshows took a lot of effort and took a lot of time to get together. And we did so, I think with abou

Thank you, sir. Okay, and thank you everybody for your feedback through this whole process. We appreciate it. Okay, I think that is item 4A. Now we're on to item 4B, first reading ordinance 2026-20, adopting the budget for fiscal year 2027.

Thank you, Director Schmidt. Let's start with questions from the Commission first, please, if there are some.

So this question is actually, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the city manager. Do we have any projected or expected retirements from full-time employees in the coming year?

No one's come forward and said there are? No.

Okay. And thank you for being candid on that. Thank you.

Maybe a related question. You know, I think I'm hearing where you're going, but you didn't overtly state it. So we do have a nutrition rate generally in this people that leave our employee and head to other areas, right? Do you know what that percentage is annually? I think I've asked you this before. I don't know if you've ever—

Understood. I don't want to jump in with a bunch of other questions.

Again, I was echoing on top of Commissioner Maldonado's, but I want to let the other commissioners have questions and comments if they have them.

Commissioner Causey, I see you reaching. Go ahead.

Okay. This might be a question for Camden, our public services director. Could you come up for a sec, please? Thank you, Devin.

Yeah. Director Mills, so could you expound on what we've heard is a capital projects? Could I, not getting done, is there a bottleneck that you, what are the possible bottlenecks that we could address possibly through this budget process that would make things better for next year than they were this year?

Thank you very much. I have another thing I wanted to ask you about. I was in a conversation this last week with one of our large commercial properties, and a person was telling me in their town where they live, they have five city employees, and it's here in Florida. So they are 100% contracted work. So how does that compare to in your mind to how we do things now?

Well, that makes me wonder if it's the contractor delays that cause the bulk of things being slower than we expected.

One last thing I was going to ask about. So we've heard people talking about feeling like, for example, the parks are not being maintained or landscaped to their expectations. Where do you feel like the issue is that could be better next year relative to that?

So now we are, relative to streets, we are complaint driven, I think, for fixing potholes, or do we have people who are out looking at our 40 miles of streets on a regular basis, and they say, oh, this is subpar, here's a pothole that we see.

Stay here, sir. I have a few questions for you too, please, with apologies. What's your current FTE right now, your staff? How many full-time equivalents do you have?

Okay. And so, You know, as I think about things like this, historically, I'm looking, I'm comfortable with strategic investments where we acknowledge that we've got a bottleneck, hypothetically, you know, and being able to deliver what we budget on an annual basis. We haven't delivered, you know, we might budget, x dollars and we always deliver some percentage of x on an annual basis and so i think there is certainly some appetite to make sure that we relieve that bottleneck and we make strategic investments uh... where we can start to drive a higher percentage of of actual delivery on these p

Right. So just to restate what I think I'm hearing you say, currently a very heavy manual process, mostly contracted out. We invest in software. Theoretically, we can not need all that contracted additional manual labor, and we can use software to kind of be more efficient in that sense and go forward, right? Did I restate that right? Yes, sir. Okay, thanks, sir. And we've talked also about kind of this asphalt resurfacing kind of piece that might help us with potholes going forward, being more efficient, those kind of things. I know, Mike, pause with me while I just ask a few more questions,

They are included. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, so I'm foreseeing hopefully some operational efficiencies, some reduced operational costs going forward. And I'll turn this question back to you. Now you're asking for another FTE. And again, I'm going back to that strategic investment. I expect we're going to get some more efficiency just out of software and processes and things like that. And so I'll ask you again, bearing all that in mind and assuming that's going to come to us next year, I don't want to end up with people you know that we've added another ftp theory theoretically and yet

Okay, and theoretically as we become more efficient in your team and we need less direct labor and more, we rely more on operational efficiency out of software and such, do you have a plan of how we're gonna reduce your costs otherwise as we go through these things that might, we spend eighty ninety thousand dollars whether this FTE is I'm hoping you'll tell me we'll find more than that in operational efficiencies next year and and actually even with the investment on this accelerate projects and yet through some of the other investments we're doing vis-a-vis software and process change will a

I think I alluded to that. Hi again. Thank you. I think I alluded last time that that kind of for me, the transfer is just kind of obfuscate, you know, what's really going on. I really want to understand what the revenue is and what the expenses. I get that we're readjusting hopefully in the next year or so. This kind of settles down and we can actually see revenue in and revenue out on these funds. That's more of a comment than than need you needing an answer from you, but City manager just acknowledged that all of these kind of operational efficiency things around You know software and proce

aligning with what Rep. Tellis suggested to us, we will ultimately get those reserves back that I think you were alluding to. You had some concerns with the reserves, but that will naturally correct itself as those fees get brought into place. Correct. Okay, so you saw that as much as wait for the fees to come in.

Thank you. Okay, last question, I think. So we've, based on our millage discussion earlier, we've rolled back. I think I saw the impact, roughly $80,000, so you'll have to adjust this budget accordingly. There's a question to the Commission of whether we make the strategic investment that Director Mills has asked us to do for his FTE. So I think we're looking at not only a decrease in revenue of roughly 80,000, I'm using rough numbers here, and then an increase in costs of 90-ish, I think was the number. And so I want to make sure that, at least my perspective, not allow the other commissioner

Just a couple of comments, really, regarding the additional admin person to help manage the capital projects. And I have a couple of thoughts about that. you know we we keep hearing or i certainly keep hearing that getting those capital projects done is something that is very important to to the community you know these these are the things that are important to do and if we can um by adding an administrative person create some efficiencies in that department actually get projects moving done completed keeping them going i think one i think that's that that is the job of the city right so that

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Devin, as well as Director Mills, for just clarifying those points. Let me start by saying that I agree with the mayor and with Commissioner Marriott that we have to look at this very strategically, not tactically, not operationally. The stuff that... Director Mills was talking about the workflow, the purchase orders and things like that. That can be addressed through proper task management tools and things like that, which we can grow into. And that's part of a force multiplier, but that's a citywide thing. I think that we just need to work on those processes.

I thought this was an administrative position, not a management, correct? Correct. Okay. So there's no management. Okay. So and then does it, would a part-time position work in that as an administrative for basically what I heard was data input and then follow-up?

Thank you. A lot of topics. Did you have more to, you're just here for questions? No, thank you. Perfect, yeah, thank you. I just wanted to make sure, I want to make sure, unless there's questions more from the commission, I don't see any green lights, so I think you're absolved for now. Are there any audience comments?

Okay. Thank you. Is there a motion regarding first reading ordinance 2026-20 adopting the budget for fiscal year 2027? I think if I'm hearing it, the city needs two questions from us. One is do we approve the first reading with the assumption that that the that the the 80,000 will be coming off based on the millage rate. And I understand, give me a moment, please. And, and theoretically, the next question needed is FT ease adjustments. And so with that, I think we were almost about to skip you, Mr. Mania. Okay.

Thank you. Yep, so thank you for your comments. I don't think there's a person up here that would say we're not looking for more grant money. So we're always happy to, whatever process we can or whatever improvements we can make, we've been talking a lot about. operational efficiencies and improvements and everything. Everything's up for grabs, right? Including grant submissions and let's hope we get more money coming in like we got earlier this session. So I'm all for it. That aside, I'm not sure that's germane to this particular ordinance on the thing. So city manager, just to be clear, I th

Yes, thank you, because that is ratified, yes, with the adjustment of the millage rate adjustment and then so we've got the budget being adjusted based on the millage rate adjustment and then theoretically the second question being do we approve the second FTE for strategic investment on operational efficiencies. So do I have a motion from the Commissioner on these items?

I'll make a motion to approve on first reading ordinance 2026-20 as amended by the millage rate adopted tonight and with the addition of a FTE for public services.

Okay. With that, I believe there's no further business. And should the clerk correct me before I adjourn our first meeting? I'm good? Okay. With that, we'll call our, let's see, officially city commission budget meeting adjourned. All right, I know you asked for a few moments, so I'm kind of off record here for those of you in the room. This was actually the first of two different meetings we had this evening scheduled. The second one is our actual commission meeting. I suspect we might wanna have a conversation about the agenda adjustments on that one, but we'll get to it in a moment. So I th

Thank you. First item on the agenda is a motion to approve this agenda as written. I will entertain motions at this moment. I I will I will just acknowledge right off the bat that we I think took considerably longer on the prior meeting than we anticipated so You know, I don't I we usually like to wrap by 10 and so I'm seeing three pages of stuff here But I won't comment on that as much as just say is there a motion or do we need any adjustments to the to the agenda as proposed?

I Move to approve I move to approve the agenda

Okay, first item is audience comments, please. General audience comments, I think.

Thank you, sir. You know what, I... Thank you, Mr. President. I will say, I think we're aware of what's going on, and I think we're having our conversations with the city manager as well, so I understand, and I thank you, and we understand, so.

Sure. So the projects that are going ahead, are they on pilings or are they?

So to get your original permit in February, that was based on soil samples?

Thanks. Yeah, I'll just acknowledge as well. I know our city manager has acknowledged that they're talking to you daily. Yes. I'm looking at her and I know that she's got an interest in solving this through for you. I think we're having a lot of dialogue on it. I think we're all sympathetic and understanding. I just think we're trying to figure out how to resolve it. I don't know if we can solve it right here tonight, but I understand and I acknowledge it. And yes, sir, we're doing our best to work through what we can.

Thank you. We move on to the consent agenda. Are there any amendments to the consent agenda proposed? or do we approve it as is?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Thank you. We move on to ordinances. The first item is the first reading of ordinance 2026-15 amending land development code section 39.9 to update green building requirements for new construction and major renovation in the community redevelopment district.

Before Brandon gets started, I just want to state that this ordinance affects a relatively small number of single-family houses in the city, of which I own one. And it directly affects me because I'm in permitting to build a new house. And so because of that, I think I have a very explicit conflict on this issue. And so I just want to let everyone know that I do, I am stating that I have a conflict in this. I will be filling out Form 8B as required by the state and providing that to the city clerk. And my understanding is that I can sit here and listen, and I will not be voting.

Thank you, Mr. Perry. Well done. I'll turn it over to the commissioner for any questions.

What kind of costs are we looking at on a single-family home?

Okay, I do have a, Mr. Causey, please. Yep, you go first.

Thank you, please go ahead. So I don't, I guess I don't understand why this is coming up right now. Is this something that we've been doing in the past, or is it a new thing that is starting to show up because there's so many, so much new construction from the hurricane, or can you explain some relevance to the?

Is it not possible to have a single family home exemption for this area where it is applying just to the 70 properties without changing the comprehensive plan?

So I'm assuming that's like window efficiency and all the energy efficiency items. Correct. AC, all appliances.

In low fives, I mean, the lowest I can think of would be $10,000, right? OK.

Minimally, minimally, $10,000. And refresh my memory on where the community redevelopment district lies from what to what end.

So if we were going to do an amendment to the comp plan, how much time are we talking about for something like that?

Well, it seems like by the time you purchase all the upgraded things for this, it could be more than low five digits to actually get the two items that we're looking at. So if I understand this right, we can add additional certifications and not have to amend the comprehensive plan?

But I'm not sure that several months would be that big of a problem for someone who's building a new house or... Is that at what stage would this apply to a new house that hasn't been started construction yet? It's going through permitting process, right?

How many homes do we have under construction in this area of the 75 properties?

So the option one, we could assist a little bit by lowering that standard right now and then work on doing a revision on the comp plan. It just seems like a lot of money on that. So I get the idea of it for larger development. But in the single family home, it's a lot to ask for, especially in some of those areas.

Thank you. Before I interject, I always like to just look at the commission and see if there's any more green lights that I see. I do have a question or two for you, please. I just heard one of my questions was if we adopt this, there's less hurdles on the person trying to build their home. going forward until we can formally do it through the comp plan, if that's where we choose to go. But right now, the night would lower the hurdle on someone trying to get their home rebuilt, if you will.

Correct? Projects that are currently underway. I mean, you mentioned three or four that are potentially there and we might have some others. Is there an impact? I'm in the middle of building my home. Is there an impact to my home right now? We have an adverse impact or a positive impact? Presumably positive as I pay less hurdles, but is there an adverse impact on people that are underway right now in their homes?

First and foremost, we've talked about the homeowners and the trying to get back in their homes. I think anything we can do to reduce that burden, responsibly is good. Is there any impact to city operations, finance, anything that we should be aware of if we go forward with this? Any impact to the city and how we operate that would be adverse or otherwise?

and the it's a development requirement it's not anything um that brings in revenue for the city so and just one last question i think you said it i just want to make sure we say it out loud again uh conditional use requests in the future we could be more restrictive than what we're suggesting we amend to tonight correct so it doesn't alleviate us from uh or absolve us from being able to do something in the future

I haven't rebuilt my home or done anything like that. So when does the certification actually happen? Does it happen in the plans processing or at another point in time?

So it's much later in the process. So the three months if somebody was in the process of building. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that I understood that. Okay, thank you.

Okay. If no other questions, I think we're ready for a motion.

Yeah. I think the motion to approve the first reading of Ordinance 2026-15. Is there a second?

Thank you. Next, ordinance B, second reading ordinance 2026-16, wastewater fees.

This is second reading. Thank you, sir. Is there a staff report on this? Okay. Any community feedback or community comments?

See manager, I keep seeing your green light flashing. I don't know if that's because you have something to add or just coincidentally flashing. I keep seeing it out of the side of my eye.

Yeah, so just to restate what I think I'm hearing you say, we do have tiers on capacity, and then we have tiers on usage baked into this current set of fees as well. So we're not suggesting fixed fees, to be clear. They're baked on this one. Just to be clear on wastewater, they are tiered already.

Okay. All right. I think the intent, to be clear, is to have a tiered structure that is based on capacity and usage. That's kind of the intent. And so if we have, you know, had a scrivener's error or something of that effect in here, then I think we'll need to correct that, but the intent is as such. We understand. Understood. I think we're acknowledging, so that's not the intent, so to be clear. So I think I will ask if that's correct, city attorney and city manager, should we try and correct now or adjust and revisit next session?

I think we continue it and we make sure we get it right with the intent that we intend to have tiered fees based on capacity and usage.

Yeah, I'd make the motion to continue to 21 September 2026 the second reading of ordinance 2 0 2 6 1 6 I second

The motion's continued into, yes, motion carries. Continue this until next session. Okay, thank you Moving forward again and ordinance see second reading ordinance 2026 17 reclaimed water fees This is an ordinance of the city of st. Pete Beach, Florida amending the city code appendix a fee schedule providing for amendments to the city reclaimed water system fees

Is there a staff report or anything? City Manager? Okay. Any audience comments?

Okay. Commissioners, unless there's questions, is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the second reading of Ordinance 2026-17. I second.

Okay. I think that resolves the ordinances pieces of it and we're now on to action items. First item is Resolution 2026-26, Stormwater Service Assessments.

So in 2010, it was roughly $36. And then in 2015, it went up to what? And that's the first assessment. There's a second assessment on the tax roll. When did that start, and what did that go up to? Because I know on mine, I'm paying roughly $186 a year, and now we're talking about another one. Correct? Now we're talking three assessments. It would not be three. The very first one that sunsets in 2030 or the second one?

But the first assessment has started at $36 in 2010. And it has increased to roughly $86. 64 that's the one you would amend next year based on the raft tell a study that's not tied to a loan okay and the second one is the one that's tied to the loan that started but that didn't start in 2010 2016

So the one in 2015 that was based on a bond, when does that sunset?

Why are we doing assessments instead of fees?

Okay, just to restate what I think I just heard, no change at all this year. We're just kind of ratifying what's there. I think I heard, you know, given the nature of stormwater assessment is still the best recommendation of how we go about collecting this revenue. uh and I I do think you know we suggested last time I do think we should consider it for next year I'm imagining we're very late in this this cycle but uh somehow to rename those so that we know when those those end dates uh come in not just assessment one assessment two but assessment one ends 2030 assessment two ends you know some

media motion to approve the second reading of ordinance to 0 to 6 dash one 7.

This restate it please Sir. I'm sure I miss on that I'm a yeah, I think.

Motion to adopt resolution 2026-26. Second. City Clerk, please.

All good. All good. Thank you. Okay, next item, Action Item B, Resolution 2026-27, Conditional Use Permit 26069, Rehabilitation of Lift Station No. 7.

Station and I do however have a disclosure for station for I have met with all of this the owner of the a passive room arena, I'm familiar with the area toward the site and I also reviewed the the attached documents.

I've met with numerous residents that are adjacent with and in the neighborhood of the station 7 and none for the other two, so that would be 10 and 4.

next um i uh have seen i have attended uh prior to my tenure as mayor i've attended uh discussions by the city on um live station number seven um and have discussed with neighbors uh significantly that effort i've also received emails um i believe on let's see, station 10. But I've seen emails, but not significant on any of the other efforts.

Nothing to disclose other than reading the staff report.

I do ultimately want to hear some audience comments, but let's start with commission questions to staff, and then we'll circle back around to audience comments and maybe have some more questions for you after audience comments as well. So Commissioner Causey, I see you reaching.

Yes, thank you Brandon. So I thought I saw in one of the graphics that there was no white security fence around the lift station 7 in the picture it looked like and then in the engineering drawing for that same one. I thought I did see the white vinyl fence, the one that Kenley Horn had done. Can you?

So the engineering diagram, we're not going to put a white fence out. It's actually in the package. I'm not sure which page it was.

So this slide we're looking at right here currently... What are we seeing there? Is that a vinyl fence?

Well, I've had a lot of concern with this expressed, and I wonder if we use something different like a Rekha's where it blocks the thing out almost completely because they're thicker and taller right off the bat.

Yeah, I just see this as very different than the other ones that we're talking about here tonight because it's at the very entrance of this neighborhood. So it's a hyper-visibility issue. Understood we could work with the neighborhood group as well maybe solicit their feedback on types of plants that they would recommend for this location Because of the location I almost feel like we need some type of architectural final design even if it costs some money I mean it actually impacts the entire neighborhood every single day that people drive through there so

Just what I'm looking at right now, it doesn't seem to be unobtrusive or hidden at all. So now, then it becomes a matter of, well, how will we ever approve some type of design?

Yeah, but when you first drive into this neighborhood, I could see something decorative and architectural, but I didn't want to really see a generator as the first thing when you drive into the neighborhood. So I feel like on this, we need to figure out a process that has more visual appeal and can somehow, I don't understand what the process will be. Perhaps some other people have ideas on this. I'm going to quit for now. Sure.

What if we found a volunteer architect who could give us just like a veneer for this if you would that looked cosmetically pleasing and then we can present that to the neighborhood meeting or?

Okay. So I will ride Commissioner Kazi's wave a little bit here and talk about just aesthetics. My idea would be more of a mural possibly, keep the cost down. You know, white vinyl fencing can be painted over fairly cheaply. and thank you uh planner barry and yourself for meeting with you know the abiding neighbor seeking input i think that's critical whenever we start to make uh footprint changes and things like that it's important to get buy-in from the uh the stakeholders in this case mr bulbous who's also expressed concerns with aesthetics and things like that anytime you're talking about

sure thank you um uh i just had a few comments um for somebody who's trying to represent some of the people that aren't in bill vista we've heard a lot over the last few weeks when we're talking about budget about uh there have been a lot of conversations brought up um and i thank commissioner causey for for kicking off the conversations about uh the state of the parks in our city and what they look like and uh um I am not in favor at all of spending any more money on trying to beautify this one spot in this one park for a small percentage of the residents when we have needs all over the city

Okay, I have a series of questions for, I believe you, sir, yes, you. So I'll echo what I heard from Commissioner Maldonado and Commissioner Causey. These are pretty significant structures. I think I'm kind of roughly saying 12, 13 feet above the ground. How wide are these things? Just how wide are these things and how tall are these things generally?

Okay, it's pretty significant, right? I think I know some of these answers, but I'm just trying to get, you know, kind of just kind of walk you down a path here. What's our current infrastructure in these? Let's talk about this very specifically. I think it probably applies to most of these. What's the current infrastructure that is equivalent to what we're proposing here right now? What is currently in these properties right now?

And of the electrical components that you're talking about, as well as you mentioned too, electrical components and the generator, can you tell me, Does one of them take up 90% of the space or 70% of the space? Which one is the one that's causing us to be 15 by 10 by 13 kind of feet? Is it the generator or is it the electrical?

Okay. And I know we're talking about these specific three lift stations. How many total lift stations do we have in the city?

Okay. And... Are they all ultimately proposed to become this, 15 by 12 by 13 or whatever the numbers are?

that we could prioritize other alternatives for post-storm recovery okay i do some more questions let me just think a moment on what i just heard you say please um listen i i i think everybody here probably in the room or you know i certainly can speak for myself went through those storms of 2024. I know we have infrastructure in place right now. I saw generators running there, portable generators running for, frankly, weeks, if not longer, after the storms, keeping these things running. And I'm honestly, in my head, trying to balance, we have a current solution that got us through the storms

And to be clear, the 850, I think, was the number you alluded to, 850K. We've still got to pay for gas. We've still got to pay for other things. So I assume there's still some cost in your proposed solution. What's the savings, if you will, by going to this proposed solution? Again, I know there are some costs. It can't be $850,000 in savings.

Okay. I may have more questions. I'm going to pause. I know Commissioner Robinson's got some questions for your comments.

These are electric generators. Are they running off a gas? Off a diesel. Okay. So there's a refuel that's got to come out to it at some point to do it. Okay. And are there options in colors? Because I see a white one here or a cream-colored one for those that are worried about aesthetics.

I'm just thinking if you know for aesthetics for if it's not the stone fencing but I I get it I don't think it looks that bad I mean it's I seen the pedestals in my neighborhood that virtually are in people's yards and they're large and that's you know for undergrounding just for electrical so for a lift station being that there's 21 across the city I don't think that's a bad look to be honest with you I understand that people don't want it but I've seen worse areas and worse things and neighborhoods on the corner with transformers and the like that look really bad too so I mean I think this i

I do probably want to pause, I don't see any other green lights here, so I'm going to pause for audience comments.

Any other audience comments, no further comments. Okay. I don't know if there's other Commissioner comments or questions associated with what we just heard or, you know, any other dialogue.

Right. Correct. Yep. Three that are. confirmed and I think I heard you say expire 2028 and we're asking for more. Not sure we'll get them, but obviously they'll have a lengthy expiration date presumably.

i i clearly see other questions and comments from other commissioners so i will uh start with uh commissioner mario please sure thank you um so a couple of i have just a couple of thoughts about this and and uh i think that you know commissioner maldonado's idea about about some kind of murals or artwork on them i think is a good one um think that's probably a an achievable way to improve the aesthetics I won't speak to I haven't been involved in all the neighborhood meetings you know so so I won't speak to that I will say that and Kim Kim and correct me if I'm wrong I think probably one of th

Yeah, I would echo what Commissioner Robinson said earlier about it's worthy to invest in this and be prepared, as well as Commissioner Marriott. I would not want to be in a situation where we looked at this and said, I wish we could have. That said, to the city manager's point, I don't think it's appropriate to pivot away from being prepared and investing in resiliency and continuing the path that we've started. In the particular instances that we're talking about, I just don't think we're there yet. I think that listening to some of the comments, some creative ideas were put out there, not o

So thank you. I don't see another green light, so I'm gonna jump in. Given what I'm hearing, I'll give you my perspective on this. I don't think we're at risk of losing money in the immediate future. I do agree that we should continue resiliency. That should always be in our plans. We should always be preparing for the future. I will say this. We moved quite a bit of, for lack of a better term, heaven and earth to go have these budget roadshows, and we kind of rallied and got some good work done. all within five to six weeks. I'm not saying that it's all hands on deck for this, but I do think

um with that you know economy is a scale now you're looking at three lift stations instead of 15. i would anticipate that we'd be looking at higher costs down the road if we were to delay this and and then revisit let me ask you this but just based on what you just said so you've got 15 in total to do these three are projected to be the first hypothetically what if these three become the last or somewhere near the end and you continue to work with the other 15 going and you allow us time to revisit different alternatives here does that change

Okay. I will tell you, I still don't think that we've got, I think we've got not only lack of community buy-in, we've got a significant outcry that I think we need to be cognizant of as a commission, which is my perspective on it. One of five. Commissioner Robinson.

In the chain of lift stations, if you don't do something to one and there's a failure on it because it didn't get... lifted, let's just say, and God forbid something was to happen, whether it be stormwater or rainwater, what does that do to the rest of the lift stations? Does it slow things down? Does it stop? Does it cease? What is it in the daisy chain?

So everybody gets impacted by these three. By not doing one of them, others get impacted.

So it impacts more than just the areas we're talking.

I don't think I'm alluding to stall. A month or two isn't, you know, given the grand scheme of what we do over the course of our 10 years, As a city, I don't know that a month or two is a significant amount.

I would be good with a buy-in on some sort of beautification for it, look at whatever we could do for it. I mean, we have lift stations in other areas that I would disagree that the one at 55th, you don't notice it. It's ugly. It's sitting there, and it is there. It's in the back next to the— the beach store and you know we did pretty well with lift station one it's not beautiful and most lift stations aren't beautiful but if we can make them look a little better I mean I would be concerned with Fisherman's Park as well because you know the size of that is basically the size of the park I mean

Commissioner Maldonado. Yeah, now I am ready to make a motion when you're ready, sir.

2nd I would assume given all the comments I assume we get it as fast as we can but give us time to get some feedback would be my recommendation. So I would say I would be more in favor of November 2nd than letting it slip beyond that.

Yeah, and just in the context, I think final parting thought. I hear the city manager, and it's a valid concern, but I do think that I heard an idea that would make it palatable to Val Vista, even though they're opposed to it. It's part of the daisy chain. It's going to be necessary. Otherwise, the entirety of the system is going to be impacted. So it's like medicine. Sometimes we don't want it. try to make it taste better. Okay. City Attorney, can I motion all three resolutions? One at a time. We'll do quick votes. Okay. Sir, you ready? Mr. Mayor, anything else? No, sir. Please. I make the mo

I'd like to make the motion to continue to November 2026, Resolution 2026-28 for Conditioning Use Permit No. 26070. I believe that's for Corey Avenue.

I need a motion to extend our meeting another 10 to 15 minutes. I would say just to wrap this up.

I make a motion to extend the meeting until 1015.

I was in the middle of one motion and I didn't want to run out of time.

We paused in between the motion and the second one. I think we should redo it if you don't mind, please.

Okay. Motion to continue to November 2026, resolution 2026-28 for conditional use permit number 26070 for Corey Avenue and Fisherman's Park. I second.

Okay, and finally a motion to continue to November 2026, resolution 2026-29 for conditional use permit number 26117 for the Paso Grillo Marina area.

I WILL COMMENT I THINK MY EXPECTATIONS IN ALL OF THAT IS THERE ARE SOME DISCUSSIONS WITH THE CITY IN THE COMMISSION SO OR THE CITY IN THOSE COMMUNITIES TO GATHER ALL THE MOSTLY AESTHETIC I THINK WE HOPE FEEDBACK BUT WHATEVER FEEDBACK WE CAN GET AND TRY AND ABSORB SO WITH APOLOGIES TO YOU DIRECTOR MILLS YOU'RE GOING TO BE BUSY OVER THE NEXT MONTH AND A HALF OR SO KIND OF HELPING US DO THIS PLEASE Next topic is on to items for discussion. I don't think we had any during this session. I just wanna make sure, okay. And then we've got the report. So I'll start with city clerk.

Thank you, City Manager and City Attorney.

Assume that wasn't a report. City Attorney.

Yeah, just let me start with some housekeeping. Just as a reminder to my commissioner and new members that under Resolution 20-13, Section 9, Paragraph B, yes, I'm that guy, we're not allowed to have discussions with folks that are speaking during the general comments. The mayor or the chair in this case can direct the commission to have a discussion about it. But I just want to apologize to the PESAs. I felt like I did not support or address their concerns. I do. I'm working with the city manager, the attorneys, and I believe that the mayor is also engaged. So I do apologize for not respondin

Okay, some good news. I did get some great feedback on Public Works, everything that we've been doing this year to clear and inspect our storm drains and things. It's working, so hats off to you. Again, applause. Lots of great feedback. We've had two or three good downpours. and we're not getting the flooding that we used to get. So keep doing what you're doing, and thank you for that. This Friday is 9-11. Please take a moment to remember the victims and heroes who paid the ultimate price at 8.46 a.m., and I hope that some of you will join us at Bay Pines to just remember and reflect upon that

Mr. Causey. Thanks to Linda Chaney. That's a big deal for our city. And as far as the flooding goes and the storm drains, Director Mills, please do for District 3 whatever you did in Pasadena.

Anything else? No, that's it. Okay, thank you. At the risk of being repetitive, thank you again to Representative Cheney for the funding that we've received. Appreciate it significantly. Thank you for the passion and the input that we get from the community consistently. throughout roadshows, throughout even these commission sessions. I appreciate the feedback and it's all valuable and all considered and welcome, so thank you. Commissioner Robinson.

Do the same sentence sentiments to Linda Cheney. Thank you very much. She has been a great proponent for us out here on St. Pete Beach for many many years and can't say thank you enough for that. I did want to mention I do have my library hours on Monday September 14th from 5 to 5 45 at the library and I'm going to ask Camden to take a look at the four drains on the corner of 71st because it with the heavy rains it has been flooding sounds like passing girls pushing the water to everybody else pushing it over to my way that's all thank you commissioner

Thanks. I just wanted to let everyone know that the American Legion post on St. Pete Beach on Gulf Boulevard will have a 9-11 remembrance event this Friday at noon. So they will have a ceremony right here on St. Pete Beach at noon on Friday 9-11.

At the? The American Legion. Okay. Just make sure I know the location. And that's it. I apologize. I think we're out of order, but I think we've gone through all of the reports. and just making sure there being no further business to conduct this evening, I officially adjourn our city commission meeting of September 9th, 2026.