Remarks by Bruce Rector
329 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 14
- Play at 43:08
“Yeah, okay. Right now it's just questions of either the staff or the presenter.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 44:49
“Yeah, I'm saying. You know, first I want to say to what's just been said. For me, this is not about your entertainment center. I mean, you're able to build the entertainment center on the plot of land where it's at. You don't need to close the street to build the actual entertainment center. You're just talking about the parking, the access to the building. And that's why you're saying. But I do have some questions a little bit off of what Councilman Teixeira said. When you say this is the way you do it, have you done this kind of concept in an urban environment similar to what we have here…”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 46:39
“Yeah, but you and I did talk. It's been a while ago. I didn't reach out to you here recently, but you and I haven't talked since early on. But you did talk about how... this opportunity was unique for you because of the proximity to saltwater, proximity to Clearwater Beach, one of the top beaches in the United States, even in the world, that this would be a different demographic you would draw from for this and that there were a number of things you might do differently here. than you've done elsewhere. Are there other places where you have asked to vacate an active public street to build one…”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 48:11
“Another thing that was said earlier was negotiating, assuming that this street would be vacated. You understand that the citizens of the city of Clearwater own that street. Correct. Yeah. It's not anyone's to bargain or negotiate with. It's their street. So that's the concern here is they're vacating a street that the citizens own and that's actively used by the community now. So the facility that you put forth and the slides and everything looks amazing, and you and I have talked about that. The question is just we're being very creative in building the building. It's a little bit…”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 49:50
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 50:31
“It's not just traffic. It's, you know, and the other thing, when I looked at the maps that even the applicant put up, other than the parking lot there in Garden Avenue, that's an open space. There's buildings all around this. Part of our downtown core is we don't have any choice but to try to build up and put buildings on everything we can to, you know, we have a housing shortage. We're trying to get people to live downtown. So, I mean, I think that's one of the concerns here is that a couple of the comments in the staff report were this open space flat building parking lot next to it eats up…”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 51:35
“Okay. That's all questions I had. Thank you. Okay. You're going to go into discussion when you wanted to, but I interrupted you earlier, so why don't you go to lead our discussion.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 55:07
“I am going to take public comment now. I think we'll do that and then we'll discuss further if that's okay with you. No, I'm done.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 55:16
“So with that, we'll now take some public comment and then the applicant will have a chance to offer anything at the end before we discuss it. With that, is there anyone in here from the public? I doubt there is, but is there anyone here from the public that desires to speak to this agenda item?”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:01:17
“I'm done in about 20 seconds, and I'm done. Your time's up, sir.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:01:24
“Please, please. Your time is up, please. Very good.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:04:54
“Craig Ferrara. Look, I'm not trying to be overly tough, but if you go over your time, you're cutting into somebody else's time. So when that light hits red, please respect others and conclude your comments.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 1:59:19
“Excuse me. Ma'am, could you stay with the crowd behind? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Please continue.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:02:36
“One or the other, I think we're going to take a recess. I appreciate all the kind comments about the entertainment center. That's not the issue now. It's a vacation of the street tonight. And we've heard different personal stories, but we've heard kind of the same thing over again about support for. So I think I don't know what's the pleasure of the council on extending it on to. hear from more to maybe, I don't know if there's anyone in that stack that has a different opinion, but I don't know we're serving anything well by hearing the same thing.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:03:46
“So the pleasure of the council, I'm just interested in what the others may feel. So Vice Mayor.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:04:48
“It's not a good situation, obviously. You know, if we're not going to allow people with different views to get up, then I... I think what I would like to do is I'd like to take a recess briefly. We're at two hours anyway we're going to, and then let's come back and talk about whether or not we want to continue public comment or not. We'll recess for ten minutes. Okay. We will call the meeting back to order. And what I'm going to suggest to the council is our rules require the council to extend the time. We have a time limit. We've exceeded that. And so it's the council's decision whether or…”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:09:18
“So we have consent of the council to extend the time. Okay.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:09:40
“My rules, we took their cards to sign up to speak, so my position would be, That's what we'll do. We'll stay as long as we need to stay.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:10:55
“We'll go until 9, and then we'll reevaluate when we get there. Okay? Consent on that?”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:11:02
“Okay, well, we're going to extend it at least until 9 o'clock. So now she's going to call the cards, our city clerk. And, again, if you hear her name – You know, we've heard a consistent theme from others. If you feel like that represents you or if you don't, you feel like you have something different to share, then by all means, you know, take this time to come up and speak. But if you feel like others have already made the general points that you wanted to make, then we invite you to simply raise your hand and say I support or I'm against. Next speaker.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:22:37
“Folks, we've already talked to you about it's getting late and we're trying to get through this list. Would you please hold your applause? It just slows things down and be respectful of the other folks who are down at the bottom of that pile. Steve Perry.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:32:22
“So she's ‑‑ you're with the flag organization, correct? You're with the church of Scientology.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:32:32
“She's asking on behalf of the church to consider our recommendation to you if you don't have anything additional to say, but it's already been said if she's recommending that. If you're here tonight with a group in support, that you consider just saying that you support instead of speaking.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:35:53
“I support the vacation. Thank you, ma'am.”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026
- Play at 2:45:39
“Thank you, sir. We are at 9 o'clock, so how many do we have left?”
City Council · Sep 17, 2026