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04/11/2022 Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 City of Clearwater Main Library- Council Chambers 100 N. Osceola Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755 m ap ® e Meeting Minutes Monday, April 11, 2022 9:00 AM Special Work Session Main Library - Council Chambers Council Work Session Page 1 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 Roll Call Present 5 - Mayor Frank Hibbard, Vice Mayor Kathleen Beckman, Councilmember Mark Bunker, and Councilmember Teixeira Also Present: Jon Jennings — City Manager, Micah Maxwell —Assistant City Manager, Michael Delk—Assistant City Manager, David Margolis — City Attorney, Rosemarie Call — City Clerk and Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk. To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not necessarily discussed in that order. 1. Call to Order— Mayor Hibbard. The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. 2. City Manager 2.1 Discuss Strategic Planning priorities and objectives. Executive Director Kimberly Jackson of the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College will facilitate this discussion. Mayor Hibbard said today Council will discuss the next steps to the strategic plan. Dr. Kimberly Jackson from Saint Petersburg College will facilitate the discussion. He shared copies of framework used during a council roundtable discussion of philosophy and priorities. Discussion ensued with a concern expressed that the process, to date, has not included public meetings with residents where staff can put into context the overall budget. It was stated that today's discussion was to provide guidance for budget priorities. The City Manager said today is the next phase in developing the strategic plan that will inform the budget priorities. Dr. Jackson said she spoke with Councilmembers individually and provided a brief overview of her educational background and professional experience with the City of St. Petersburg and Saint Petersburg College. Councilmembers introduced themselves and answered icebreaker Page 2 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 questions: how long have you lived in Clearwater, describe family, do you have any pets, top two hobbies, where do you like to vacation, and what was the first concert you attended and where. Dr. Jackson asked Councilmembers to say what they love about Clearwater. Councilmember Allbritton said he loved the people. The people are warm. The city has a history of conservative family values. It is a great place to live, work and play. If the weather is as beautiful as it is today everyday, there would be three times more individuals in Clearwater. Vice Mayor Beckman said the people, the location, and the environment. Councilmember Bunker said the people are terrific. Clearwater is a casual place to live with plenty of fun things to do. Councilmember Teixeira said she loves how the city makes her feel. For her it is the feeling of coming home. Mayor Hibbard said Clearwater has the amenities of a big city but has a small city feel. The neighborhoods are diverse. Clearwater offers residents an incredible quality of life. Clearwater is a safe city. Dr. Jackson said Council are aligned about their thoughts on the city. She asked Councilmembers to identify three concerns. Councilmember Teixeira said during her campaign she heard that there is a culture between the neighborhoods and the City that the permitting and zoning processes are difficult and laborious. The neighborhoods feels disconnect. The City does not engage residents. One of her priorities is diversifying the City's economy, making it healthier with higher paying jobs. She said the economy is too centered on the hospitality and service industries. Councilmember Bunker said the City does not do a good job engaging the different communities and listening to their needs. The city should provide more advanced notices when changes are being implemented. Scientology's impact on downtown. Vice Mayor Beckman said the City needs resources and staffing to get the work done. The City needs to set measurable goals in the priority areas and allocate resources needed to reach those goals. The City Page 3 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 needs to address its housing challenges and understand the levers that can be utilized to address that crisis. Councilmember Allbritton said city processes need to be looked at but he is concerned that the organization is too top-heavy and lacks the supportive staff needed. Other areas of the city, besides Downtown and Clearwater beach, want the City to keep them in mind, the residents feel too much effort is concentrated on Downtown and Clearwater beach. Mayor Hibbard said the City just held Neighborhoods Day, having visited 16 of 30 community events, he did not hear the narrative that people are displeased with the City. He said it is a vocal minority who are not happy with certain things. He said he is concerned with the City's limited resources; we need to be prepared for the next recession or crisis. The City is too dependent on tourism and needs to do a better job on diversifying its economy. The City lacks strategic focus and has not come to grips with what the priorities are as a council. The strategic planning process is overdue and the citizens deserve to understand what the focus is. In response to a question, the Mayor said the current Council was not involved with the current strategic planning document. Dr. Jackson asked Councilmembers to list one item if they had to prioritize from a budgetary process, as a start towards establishing strategic priorities. Councilmember Allbritton said affordable housing. The City needs to think about to how to plan for the future to level the playing field for developers to be able to offer more affordable housing, instead of market rate housing. Most of the City's economy is based on the service industry, more than half of the workers do not live in Clearwater because they cannot afford it. The City may need to increase the density in community areas, the community needs to be involved in the discussion. Vice Mayor Beckman said appropriate funding for staffing to get the work done. Councilmember Bunker said affordable housing. He said he moved to Clearwater because it was less than San Diego. He is stunned at the rising rent costs, housing is a crisis everywhere. Councilmember Teixeira said efficient government by streamlining Page 4 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 processes and providing the staff needed. Mayor Hibbard said public safety, which is the foundation on which this city is built. He believes local government must have a hierarchy, believes local government should stay in their lane, as should state and county governments. In response to comments, Dr. Jackson said neighborhood feedback is needed. Staff does not want to do the work and then hear from the community that was not what the residents wanted. At some point, Council needs to collectively hear individual community concerns. She said Council is not likely to get to an end-product today but 3 hours of time have been dedicated for Council to hear each other's thoughts, determine where councilmembers align and not focus on areas where there is no alignment, and create a working document to move forward. The Council recessed from 9:52 a.m. to 10:10 a.m. Dr. Jackson said Council is aligned on many issues. From a strategic plan space, Council said resources, safety, and housing are priorities. How those items are implemented is where work is needed. She requested Councilmembers to begin identifying their thought process on implementation. She requested Councilmembers to identify one challenge they want to address that needs to be addressed. Councilmember Teixeira said she is willing to compromise on many things so long as she can answer yes to, "Is this beneficial to Clearwater?" Councilmember Bunker said he is always willing to compromise except when it comes to standing up to Scientology. Vice Mayor Beckman said she does not want to compromise on giving more resources to staffing. She said there are over 190 unfilled positions. Councilmember Allbritton said he would not compromise on safety. Mayor Hibbard said putting the City in jeopardy fiscally by making decisions that may sound right today but cannot be sustained in the long-term. In response to a question, Mayor Hibbard said there are a lot of things that need to be resolved but one item that needs further discussion is the Page 5 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 role of city government versus county, state, and federal. He said it would help if there was some consensus on the City's priorities and what are the items the City would stray from "normal marching orders." This is the only space Council has to discuss philosophical approach to government. Dr. Jackson said all have different life experiences and unique situations that make us who we are as leaders and community members. She asked Councilmembers to define role of city government. Councilmember Allbritton said he believes financial stability and enhancing mobility are important because this is a dense community. Revitalizing parts of town that need to be revitalized, such as North Greenwood and Downtown. He said enhancing housing. He said the state and county provide plenty of assistance to address social needs. He said it is not local government's job to provide social services, such as homelessness. Vice Mayor Beckman said the role of city government is to keep residents safe. Local government needs to have delivery of necessary services (i.e., public safety, public utilities). She said local government has the responsibility of ensuring housing options for residents, whether within city limits or surrounding area. Local government must provide quality of life,providing services and programs that enrich our lives. As it relates to homelessness, one government entity cannot handle it all, the state, county and local governments need to work together to address the social challenges. Councilmember Bunker said the role of local government is to take care of the basics: fire, police, fill potholes. He said local government needs to move beyond that from time to time when help is needed. The City stepped outside of its lane during COVID after reading an article regarding another municipality and provided vouchers to citizens for local restaurants. When it comes to housing, the City needs to look at new ways to partner with people to accomplish something. He said the City of St. Petersburg has a land trust that is working on tiny home communities to help people get into a home. Councilmember Teixeira said the role of local government is to take on the day to day needs of residents, whether public safety or infrastructure. She would like to see more extensive planning for the future to ensure success and prosperity, such as actively courting businesses and employers of diverse backgrounds. The City needs to focus on partnering with the state, county, and federal governments because the Page 6 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 City cannot do it all. She said local government can provide some social services but the difficult discussion on how it will be paid must be had. Mayor Hibbard said the role of local government is to provide public safety and public infrastructure. He said he donates money to charities known to do a great job at providing social services in Clearwater. Council needs to discuss their priorities and determine how items that are outside of local government's lane is going to be funded. The City does not use reserve funds for ongoing expenses. Reserves are used for one-time expenses only. Dr. Jackson said she heard there is still council alignment on public safety and staff resources. If the Council addresses social services, the question is which are the social services Council agrees on and how will it be paid? She said the following organizations are partners that the City could align with: Hope Villages of America, Clearwater Free Clinic, Homeless Empowerment Program, Directions for Living, Habitat for Humanity, Gulf Coast Jewish Services, and Willa Carson Center. Dr. Jackson requested Councilmembers to identify how they would implement their priority and how much of the budget should be directed to their priority. Councilmember Teixeira said the City should have a more formal citizen input process. She would like to hear from them what the challenges are. Each department would provide feedback how to improve the processes that directly impact citizens and whether the process should be handled in-house or by a consultant. She said a consultant can be hired to assess the processes and identify needed changes, which would be implemented after leadership review. Councilmember Bunker said if the City stopped funding the Phillies, the City could then fund social services. He said he understands the Phillies nor the County are providing additional funding to stay in Clearwater. He said the City may also want to reconsider its commitment to natural gas. Vice Mayor Beckman asked if there are more than 190 unfilled positions, can reserve funds be used to pay for those positions? Mayor Hibbard said many of the positions not currently filled are budgeted. If they were not budgeted, one would not ordinarily used reserve funds to budget the positions because it would draw down the reserves. The question to ask would be if the positions are budgeted at the correct Page 7 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 salary. Vice Mayor Beckman said the City needs to allocate funds to make the organization more competitive. Consideration should be given to lower the required period to vest into the City's pension and explore more creative ways to attract employees (i.e., flexible schedules, working remotely, childcare incentives). Mayor Hibbard said the new city manager is doing a reorganization of city departments and the city organizational chart. He needs to determine what is a right-sized organization. Council may make the decision to outsource services that were traditionally held internally. Councilmember Allbritton said the City can amend the development code to allow more density, which will help address the housing crisis. He suggested considering locations that would allow smaller lots of homes and streamlining the permitting process for affordable housing. He also suggested amending the code to allow homes with garage apartments be used for renters. Dr. Jackson said Council has great starting points to discuss affordable housing, determining what has worked in other communities and receiving input from Clearwater communities. Mayor Hibbard said the public safety budget is approximately 49% of the budget. He said the City is facing many of the same issues faced during 2005 through 2007. Many individuals were leaving their public sector jobs for the private sector because the pay was better. Affordable housing was a major issue, everything was escalating in price and great recession addressed most of that. He said government, businesses, families, and individuals are reactive to an immediate problem without understanding the long-term effect but he believes it typically resolves over time. He said during the recession, there were unbelievable number of foreclosures, rents went down because property values declined by 40% which meant taxes declined, and increased housing inventory. In response to a comment, the City Manager said staff is looking at holding three to four meetings at recreation centers throughout the city for the purpose of seeking citizen input. The Council recessed from 11:21 a.m. to 11:31 a.m. Dr. Jackson said a structured timeline will determine how many conversations Council will have as next steps. It will be fruitful for all to Page 8 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 have a review of the budget and to have an understanding of the budget process. Identify the community leaders as they do a good job at asking their neighbors about their thought processes. Go where people are, such as school events. Before going out to the community, Council will need to share where they are aligned and what has been discussed so that the community knows starting point. She recommended looking at other municipalities for best practices. She requested Councilmembers identify next steps. In response to a question, Dr. Jackson said she will need to discuss the possibility of facilitating another session with Dr. Williams. She will know within a week if it is possible. Vice Mayor Beckman said next steps includes a review of the budget. She suggested that staff distill all of the information gathered from the surveys conducted over the last year into one document. She suggested that Human Resources provide list of the staffing priorities. She said Council should look at the documents the City has signed onto as agreed upon goals (i.e., Pinellas Housing compact). Council needs to look at sample strategic plans from surrounding municipalities. She said it is imperative to have a list of potential supports for workforce housing. She suggested not focusing on the chronic homeless but the average employee who are income constrained. She said Greenprint 2.0 needs to drive some of the discussion. Councilmember Allbritton said next steps includes a review of the budget and another work session to discuss priorities. He said the budget review can include information gathered from the comprehensive plan process regarding what the community is expecting. Meetings with the public should be held after the budget review. Councilmember Bunker said he is looking forward to next steps. Councilmember Teixeira said next steps should involve the community. The City needs to be creative because what has been done in the past has not worked. Dr. Jackson requested Councilmembers to ask a colleague a question that will not be answered today but at the next session. Mayor Hibbard asked Vice Mayor Beckman, "What is an ROI that is acceptable and what ROIs are not, in terms of timeframes to recoup investment, for those that are dear to your heart?" Page 9 City of Clearwater Council Work Session Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 Councilmember Allbritton asked Councilmember Bunker, "How do you see us with Scientology here moving forward with revitalizing Downtown?" Councilmember Teixeira asked Mayor Hibbard, "What strategic plans have you seen that you want to emulate?" Vice Mayor Beckman asked Mayor Hibbard, "How do you justify our lack of parity in supporting social service agencies in the county, in comparison to St. Petersburg?" Dr. Jackson thanked Council for the opportunity and for participating in good faith. 3. City Manager Verbal Reports — None. 4. City Attorney Verbal Reports — None. 5. New Business (items not on the agenda may be brought up asking they be scheduled for subsequent meetings or work sessions in accordance with Rule 1, Paragraph 2). — None. 6. Closing Comments by Mayor— None. 7. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 12:04 p.m. Page 10 City of Clearwater Texeira Priority: Efficiency, stream line process and well staffed Concerns: process w city, communication, diversifying economy Loved: coming home Quest 2: take care of day to day needs of citizens, planning for future to implement processes and plans to assure prosperity. Diverse employers. Partnership w county and state. Re social services but need to know how to pay for it. 1. 2. 3. 4. Bunker Priority: Affordable housing, Concerns: engaging different communities and providing help on basic municipal services and greater advanced notice Loved: people, causal place, fun Quest 2: new ways to partner with people to accomplish something, ex: st pete land trust. Can bump up efforts with Habitat and other orgs. • Scientology 2. 4 -r,((&_`(CS � V t 3. Ot 0 e �- A 4. Hibbard Priority: Public safety Concerns: not enough neighborhood input, concern re recession and crisis, diversify economy Loved: big city amenities with small city feel, diverse community, something for everyone, best P&R and libraries and services statewide and around country *Long term perspective *Go outside marching orders — 3. 1 4. Beckman Priority: Appropriate funding for staffing Concerns: resources in staffing, allocation of resources, housing, measurable goals Loved: people location and environment Quest 2: staffing and funding. There are openings in nearly all depts. Public safety. Delivery of services. Responsibility to ensure there are housing options. Quality of Life. 1. 2. 3. 4. Allbritton Priority: Affordable housing Concerns: downtown rejuvenation, jobs, Loved: people, conservative values, weather Quest 2:Revitalize parts of town, happy about N Greenwood CRA, enhancing housing. There is plenty of state and county social help, but not our job using taxpayer money to help. Starts with County and goes up to Federal Gov't. 1. 2. 3. 4. 2 Council Roundtable Discussion of Philosophy and Priorities 1) The ICEBREAKER a. b. c. d. How long have you lived in Clearwater if not a native where did you come from? A little about your family? Do you have pets? Top two hobbies? e. Where do you like to vacation? f. What was the first concert you ever went to and where? 2) What is the role of City government versus; County, State and Federal a. Are there times we want to deviate from our role b. What would be trigger to deviate c. Do we desire to provide social services, what would we divert pay for these services 3) Thoughts on strategic planning? a. b. c. d. e. f. money from to When do we want to update plan Citizen input is critical how do we engage during Covid 19 or do we wait? What should be priorities in strategic plan (e.g. job creation, workforce housing, transportation, environmental issues, planning/zoning, encouraging reinvestment in housing stock, equity issues) How we serve the entire city with projects and money, do we spend money where it is generated or do we subsidize less affluent areas? What from our previous plans do you like or dislike? What have you seen in other strategic plans that you want to emulate? g. What do we want final product to include? h. Do we have timeframes and analytics that can be measured? 4) What is your philosophy on projects that we expect a positive ROI a. How long should payback take? b. Are there types of projects that you are willing to forgo ROI? c. What role should Greenprint play in projects? d. What would justify long payback or no payback? 5) What are appropriate levels of service? a. Police, Fire, P&R, Libraries, trails, etc.? b. Standards for facilities upkeep, how are we dealing with depreciation of assets? c. Would everyone like to specify metrics? 6) What should cities role be in economic development a. Does it contribute to live, work and play? b. How can we partner with other government entities and the private sector? c. Do you believe in incentives? To what extent, again ROIs? 7) How do you want to interact with Scientology? a. Can we cooperate or do we move forward alone? b. Legally we need to be cautious about our speech, Pam can address? 8) What do you believe Clearwater's identity is and what should it be? 9) How do we want to encourage diversity (on boards, contracts, community as a whole) a. Do we create a level playing field or a different approach? b. Do we give preference, are we willing to pay more? c. How do we deal with potential backlash? d. How do we measure results? e. Are some companies set up to get benefits without truly being minority owned 10) Once we get back to normal how do we want to better engage citizens? a. We once did monthly breakfasts. b. We could do rotating meetings with council members at libraries or multiple council members but must be noticed and requires more staff. 11) What are your feelings about supporting Major League Baseball? a. History of relationship b. Economic impact of baseball c. If we don't support what will costs be of dismantling Spectrum or operating without a team. 12) Private Property Rights vs. the desire of some to limit additional development? 13) The beach is our largest economic engine, how do we make certain that we preserve the quality of the beach? a. Cleanliness b. Infrastructure c. Safety/police presence d. Businesses that undermine family friendly environment 14) Hierarchy of services, rank priority: a. Public Safety (Police & Fire) b. Municipal services (water, sewer, gas, solid waste) c. Quality of life (Parks&Rec., Libraries, Trails, Beach) d. Economic Development e. Infrastructure (Roads, Sidewalks, etc.) 15) Council Budget (Mr. Horne)