City Council - Regular Meeting

It's time to call to order the Clearwater City Council meeting for August 6, 2026. If you wish to address the council tonight, please complete a comment card. Comment cards are located by the clerk seated to the right of the dais. When called to speak, please hand your card to the clerk. I'd ask for everyone to please stand tonight as we move to item two on the agenda for the invocation to be given by Reverend Allie Wood from the First United Methodist Church of Clearwater, and then remain standing afterwards for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Reverend Wood. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Before we continue with tonight's meeting, I'd like to introduce our dais. To my far left is our Assistant City Clerk, Deputy City Clerk, Nicole Sprague. Good evening. To her right is our City Clerk, Rosemarie Cole. To her right is our City Attorney, Owen Kohler. To his right is Council Member, Lena Teixeira. To her right and my immediate left is Vice Mayor, Ryan Cotton. To my right, Council Member Mike Bonino. To his right, Council Member David Albritton. To his right, Assistant City Manager Dan Slaughter. Excuse me. To his right, Assistant City Manager Al Battle.

With that, we'll move to Item 4.1 on the agenda. I'd like to call forward Anita Berry with Johnston Stewart for an end of legislative session report.

Any questions from the council? I think when I say this, I represent the entire council's feelings that we couldn't feel like the city of Clearwater is in better hands than they've been with you and your firm in Tallahassee. You feel that when you visit there with you, we go up annually for a trip, and when we talk to legislators and folks in our legislative delegation, just the way you've communicated, Uh, with the legislature on our behalf and state government has, uh, you've done a really great job and we feel like we're very good hands and you particularly need to have done a good job for

We want to get a picture, but I just want to tell all these young people here, we are so proud of you. And one of you thanked us for supporting this. It's the community. For over 60 years, our entire community has supported this program. And we go every once in a while as a city delegation, city leaders to Nagano. We went last year. But the most important visit, I think, is the trips that you young people are making. We bring their young people here every year, and our young people go there every year. And the friends that many of you made will last you a lifetime in Japan. And thank you for r

With that, we'll move to item 4.6 on the agenda, and I'd like to call forward Karen Boges from the Juvenile Welfare Board. uh... for a presentation juvenile welfare board panels county eightieth anniversary proclamation good evening and i just have to say it's a youth serving organization that we are at that is so congratulations to all I'm going to, Karen, I'm going to read the proclamation and then we look forward to your presentation. Having visited with you yesterday, I know you have a lot to share and powerful work you do. Whereas in the early 1940s, few alternatives existed for troubled

Good to see you too. How are you? Okay, now I move to item 4.7 of the agenda, Florida Water Professionals Month Proclamation, and I'd like to call forward Mike Flanagan, Public Works Director. Whereas water professionals provide essential services that protect public health, support environmental stewardship, and maintain safe and reliable drinking water, wastewater, and reclaimed water systems. And whereas these dedicated individuals include operators, technicians, mechanics, engineers, laboratory staff, maintenance crews, customer service staff, utility managers, and others who support criti

Thank you. On behalf of our citizens, too, thank you for all you all do.

Okay, we'll now move to item 5.1 on the agenda.

Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

Opposed? Unanimous. Move to the consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from the consent agenda tonight? No, sir. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

Move to approve agenda items 6.1 through 6.12. Second.

Opposed? Unanimous. Move to item 7.1 on the agenda.

Does anyone here deny from the public their desires to speak to agenda item 7.1? We're seeing none. Is there any council discussion? Mr. Menino.

Thank you, Mayor. Not a question. I've served on AHAC with you for two years now. I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your leadership and the entire team and all the work they put into making our community hopefully more affordable. And you do a great job. Look forward to moving forward. I see it on my calendar already. So you've got us scheduled. So thank you to you and the whole team. Thank you.

Okay. Any other discussion? If not, stir a motion.

Motion to approve agenda item 7.2. 7.1. Second.

Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Agenda item 7.2.

Does anyone have from the public tonight to the desires to speak to agenda item 7.2? We're seeing none. Any council discussion? If not, it's our motion.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to take a quick minute because she's with us this evening, Ms. Byers. You not being on this committee, I noticed this year, I just want to thank you for your commitment and your service, your passion, your knowledge, and your expertise. Gifting to the community will be missed, so thank you.

Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor?

Opposed? Unanimous. Before we move to agenda item 7.3, at the work session on Monday, I identified a voting conflict that I have. It was identified months ago, and so I've stayed out of all discussion of things leading up to this agenda item. And so I will not be voting on that tonight, and I'll not be participating. on this agenda item. In fact, I'm going to follow the history we have with two prior mayors, both my predecessors, Mayor Hemmert and Mayor Ongst, when they had a voting conflict, they left the room during the discussion. So tonight I'll be exiting the room and I'll be handing a ga

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I, too, will not be voting or participating. I, too, will follow the precedent of our other electeds, and we'll leave the room and let this dais handle their business. My potential conflict has been formally submitted to the Florida Ethics Commission, and we have not received an answer back from them. So once we do receive that, erring on the side of caution, I will not be participating.

Chair Greg Musil So with that, we will recess briefly, and then the Vice Mayor will reconvene the meeting for the consideration of Agenda Item 7.3. We will now call back to order the meeting.

There we go. We will now call back to order the city council meeting, leaving off on agenda item 7.3.

Thank you, Owen. I appreciate that. Now I ask Assistant City Manager Al Battle to give the city's presentation.

Will we be good to see the other presentation, or would you like questions for Stan? I'm good right now. OK. Thank you. Thank you. I'm now going to invite Mr. Brian Youngs, Jr. to come forward with the applicant presentation. The applicant will have five minutes.

Does any council have any questions at this time? I do have a few for you, Mr. Honks. Just to rehash, I think you'll be able to answer all these. For those that are present that might not have watched the Monday meeting, and you've already hit a bunch of those, but we've received emails. I'm sure my colleagues have seen them cc'd on a few of these, but noise and light pollution. Could you just real quick go over those? ways that you've mitigated these things.

Hopefully that answers your question. It does. The next one, just to rehash again, crime. You did state that the applicant will have a 24-hour security personnel.

Thank you. You touched on the flooding with stormwater and the increased infrastructure costs that the developer will be putting in on the project. Another one that we had heard was The exit onto Airpoint Drive, you did say that that's being closed off for patron access as long as it aligns with the city should this go forward. And I think that that's all of it. Did I miss anything? Did anybody have any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Now we'll move to a public comment. Individuals wishing to speak must provide the city clerk a completed comment card and

No, ma'am. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. That was three minutes. I'm sorry. Thank you so much.

Ladies and gentlemen in the audience, if we could just keep the applause to yourselves. Thank you. I do appreciate it.

Thank you, Ms. Lanza. Do we have any other speakers? No other speakers. With that, are there any additional council questions? Okay. Does the applicant have anything to follow up with?

I do want to say something, but I'll say it regardless. Thank you. So we do have a motion and we do have a second.

accepting the proposal, but also moving forward with 30 days as directed by option two, I believe it was, by staff report. Very good. And before we get to a vote, I would like to say a few things. First off, thank you to the audience. For those on both sides, you know, especially when I asked for the applause, you're all very courteous of each other's time, so thank you very much for that. thank you to the applicant for indulging me i know that on monday we went through extensive questioning and at least going through those questioning again because as my colleagues have noted you know these a

Aye. That was my job. Those opposed? Any opposed? It's unanimous. With that, we will now take another recess and get back to the meeting. Thank you.

I'll call the meeting back to order and move to agenda item 7.4.

That's for sure. Maybe we go ahead and have a reading.

Do you want to hear from the public that I desire to be heard on this agenda? Hearing none, any council discussion? If not, let's throw a motion.

Move to approve agenda item 7.4. Second.

Go ahead and have a reading on this one as well.

Is there anyone here from the public that might desire to speak to this agenda item?

Any other speakers? OK, with that, do we have any council discussion? I would just like to make one comment. There are no secrets here. I don't have a card.

Thank you. Any other speakers? Well, I was going to say there are no secrets here. I don't know in the two years that this current council has been together. I don't know if there's ever been an issue as publicly debated as this one was. And we heard from a lot of folks who supported us saying what to do. And we heard a lot from – we did hear from Clearwater citizens who – were in favor of us taking it over. But there's been vigorous debate on it. But it's not, it was never, and our consultants, which we hired, never described this as a dunk, easy. If it was easy or inexpensive, somebody would

Oh, excuse me. Motion. Is there a motion?

Yes, we have a motion. Motion to approve agenda item 8.1. Second.

Opposed? Announce. Okay. With that, we will move to agenda item 9. That's citizens can be ordered in topics that are not recognized in the agenda.

them to meet every four months thank you for serving your service and have a wonderful weekend thank you miss lanza any other speakers okay uh move to item 10 city management reports

You have two opportunities to act. Item 11, city attorney reports. Okay. Item 12.1. started a conversation on naming City Hall or some aspect of City Hall and Municipal Complex after Mr. Horn and Councilman Bonino who want to start us in this discussion.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor. Respectfully, this discussion's not about undoing an honor or trying to rewrite a legacy. It's an opportunity in front of us before we open our beautiful new city hall to elevate his legacy a bit. And William B. Horns, Impact on Clearwater for his 22 years extended well beyond just the walls of City Hall But throughout the entire community on Monday we had a pretty in-depth conversation in our work session in discussing several of the options and and it seemed like the dais was kind of leaning in the direction of naming the plaza or park after mr horn in an effort

Absolutely. And I've heard somebody from the community just express their admiration for Bill Horn and the legacy left here. I'm looking at what was shared with all of us a couple days ago. And I would say, for me, either the William B Horn, the second lobby, which would be the lobby of City Hall, um i would be okay with either william b horn second plaza or park which is the walking pass in green space so either one of those i think would be appropriate for me customer robert so i'll just repeat what i said monday i was leaning more toward the william b horn memorial lobby because i know the

OK. We don't need a motion on that. We just need direction.

Oh, that's true. Anyone here from the public tonight? Sorry to speak to the motion to name the plaza after Mr. Holder.

Anyone else? Okay, now, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous.

So that's also a community redevelopment agency meeting. And I tell you, I've been invited to the White House that afternoon with a small group of mayors from across the country. So I plan to not be here that day as well. So if the CRA meets, I would hope that it doesn't have any significant... agenda items that we would all five want to weigh in on, uh, if the CRA is going to meet that day. And then on the work session, I mean, it's, it's really up to this group, but it's, um, you know, the purpose is to have discussion and to kind of get through, I guess, um, if, um, If you get through some

You'll be here. Sorry. I'm starting to get into conversation mode. You'll be here Thursday though, correct?

We were just locked in a hallway like we were misbehaved middle schoolers, so I get what you're saying about missing something. I think your point's been made. Your county RFN discussion will be added to the next agenda item. And you requested having a further discussion about both of you not being able to attend the September 14th meeting. I think we do as normal precedent, add this as new business, put it on the agenda. Let's have discussions with staff as we move forward over the next couple weeks and find what our options are and make a decision by then. I don't necessarily think we need t

Anything else on that? Okay. Other council member reports? Oh, I guess we haven't gotten to that because we're staying on the council chair. Closing comments by council members. Any closing comments?

Because I look up and everybody's looking at me. We'll go this way. Council Member Rowe.

I'll add something to give you time. Thank you. Next week we have back to school. So all those families that are prepping to get their youngsters ready, good luck. I'm in the thick of it with you. And to all those whose children are grown and out of the nest or don't have children, please be cautious and courteous while driving. You're going to have a lot of kids out there on the roads, lots of school bus, lots of bus stops. So here's to the next school season. Good school year. Good luck to all the parents.

right closing comments by mayor just a couple things one um the the long center opening to see those families just in this folks who have participated there for years be so excited about being back in there enjoying that water and seeing those kids enjoy the water was a great day for clear water and and then the other thing is as vice mayor just pointed out it's back to school so to his point let's all be careful um first day of school for Most of the schools, public and private, is Tuesday, Tuesday morning. So I'll be more attentive to be careful to those little ones crossing the street. And