Nosy Neighbors

Host

Joshua Black

Description

This report is but a snapshot of how government regulations allow busybodies to hinder beneficial economic activities.

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Transcript

Welcome to the tenth edition of the Saint Petersburg Florida Area News podcast for the year 2019. I’m your host, Joshua Black, and this episode will cover the city council meeting held on March 7. I was not able to attend the meeting in person, but I was able to watch afterwards.

The meeting began with the deletion of agenda item E4. Councilmember Darden Rice requested that the item be pushed to next week, because no one was available to give the update they had requested regarding recent troubles at Bayfront Health, the healthcare provider for the city’s employees with the city’s self-insurance plan.

The consent agenda only spent about $450,000 this week. That’s shockingly low, considering that it was across three projects.  

The next item was a settlement for damage to a piece of private property. City attorneys were able to secure a settlement with the owner for $60,000 after a sanitation vehicle damaged a detached garage beyond repair.

The sidewalk table prohibition ordinance was given its first public reading. The motion to set the public hearing for March 14th was approved unanimously.

The next was an ordinance regarding a fence on private property. The codes compliance staff felt that this permission to vacate the property and to allow the rebuilding of a “better” fence with landscaping was the best way forward. Council approved new public hearing date for March 14.

Council also approved the naming ordinance for the Sanitation Administration Building. That public hearing date is April 4.

The next matter was a church with property downtown trying to transform its parking lot into an office building with parking. However, the city wants to pay to make public parking available in that building. That’s 300 spaces at $28,700 per space. So the cost to the city would be around $8.6M, which the developer would receive in tax dollars. This helps the church sell the property. The city would receive 15% of the operating profit in exchange for the one time purchase, but the taxpayers wouldn’t get a rebate on the money spent. Council approved the term sheet unanimously.

Item E2, the request for $750,000 for art for the 23 stops in the Bus Rapid Transit got the expected fireworks. Montanari pointed out that the city already committed $4M. Staff said that this funding is in addition to that. Montanari asked about the FTA funds. Staff said that those funds are for the sidewalks. Montanari asked why the funding request was so urgent. Staff said that PSTA is moving forward with the designs for the stations and that waiting will force retrofitting rather than designed inclusion.

Montanari also asked if other cities will be funding art on their side. PSTA staff said that they are planning to include art only in Saint Petersburg,