Weekly Agenda Review

February 27, 2025

Workshop agenda

  1. Funding for finding lost graves or purchase properties with lost graves. This sounds nice, but we need to make flooding/stormwater a priority. We'll have to see how much funding DOGE gives the COT before we start spending on wants like this. It would be nice if we did...but just sayin...
  2. CIP (Capital Improvement Project) report- a. West Riverwalk- $56 million, in Design phase- TCC voted for it last summer. A peachy VANITY project for the COT! Folks should start reading the Comp Plan, because this violates page the spending of funds in the Coastal High Hazard.
    b. South Howard Flood Project- $64.5 million - in Design phase- while TCC approved it in the fall, they had not established the route to take the water, but STAFF is hell bent on taking it down Howard even though there are a lot of folks against it. It also will NOT cure the flooding for the folks in the community (City Staff’s words…not mine) c. Fleet Maintenance Decentralization- 40th st $13.9 million- In Design Phase- I don’t recall this coming before TCC? I could be wrong, but just don’t remember? The fact that there are multiple of these projects makes it hard to track. I know there was chatter about FM projects, but don’t recall.
    d. Fleet Maintenance Decentralization Port of Tampa- $14.3 million—NO FUNDING listed- Construction Phase- See letter C for my comments on approval.
    e. Solid Waste- Relocation $107 million Construction Phase- this was approved by TCC at some point, I don’t recall when. What will the COT be doing with the old property? I hope the development planned for the property will offset some of the cost of this project.
    f. TPD Howard Building-- $40 million—WHO APPROVED THIS??? Where is the vote to move forward with this project? How can we be in the planning stage without having TCC vote to move forward with the RFQ??? There are NO funds set aside for this project that I am hearing from many law enforcement professionals that we don’t need a Forensics lab, so here we are with a WANT?? Just say NO.
    g. Fire Station #24, $24 million—This has been approved multiple times—But $24 million for a station on property the COT has owned since 1978!!! Spare no expense on this joker because it has been put on the back burner as it was funded in they FY21 budget. This is a NEED, it should be at the TOP of the list!!!
    h. Public Safety Training Facility- $13 million- this has been discussed for years, yet it’s still sitting in the design phase? Interesting.
    i. Tippin Water Treatment $41 million Construction Phase—We NEED this more now than ever. 100% support this!
    j. Wastewater Pumping Stations Rehabilitation $47 million- various Phases—do this better and faster!! We NEED this one also 100% support.
    k. Ashley Dr Reconnecting- $22 million- It doesn’t say which phase, so I guess it would be planning. Planning includes $8million in CRA funding requests? Funny that the only thing on the COT website about this project is 2 years old this week. Meh, someone should do some explaining on why this is NEEDED…do we have the cash in hand from the FEDS? If not, hold your horses.
  3. Questions answered about the general fund budget. I’ll read more about this later. I am curious about how the federal dollars are going to be counted on when the government is in such a disarray.
  4. Bonding Capacity presentation…does it include ALL the CIP projects under #2 because some of them haven’t been approved by council?
  5. Ordinance to require appraisal for any property purchased or sold by the COT….I hope they hire a reputable appraiser for this job?
  6. Land Development to present a report on parking leases being no Less than 5 years for offsite parking agreements.
  7. Tying TCC salaries (starting with the May 2027 elected officials) so that no other council must vote on their own raises. If I recall correctly, TCC is currently being paid approximately 40% of the Mayor’s salary. It would be smartest to tie it to the Mayor’s salary. No brainer here. Just do it. Honestly, I thought they had tied it to the ATU, which I didn’t like as much as tying it to the Mayor’s salary.