8/17/26 – Final Budget Workshop & CRA/Land Use to End Week

After a week off council return for a full week starting with a Monday evening budget workshop followed by a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting Thursday morning ending with a full slate of land use change applications that evening.

Before getting into Thursday’s meetings a couple of things about the budget. First, the initial two morning workshops haven’t necessarily gone as one would have hoped. I’ve avoided ranting about the personalities and have focused on the budget overview series I started. It’s given me an opportunity to better understand the OpenGov platform as well as how the budget is organized. The series is meant as much as a future reference tool for Tampa Monitor as it is meant to be an entry point for folks new to the budget process. All of the data is pulled directly from the city’s OpenGov budget book and I try to provide links to source. What I’ve learned can be summed up thus: “The FY27 budget pays people and defers projects.”

Monday’s workshop is meant to cover “general fund” departments which includes police, fire and parks & recreation. Carried over from the second workshop is transportation. Stormwater’s FY27 budget discussion turned into a referendum on the South Howard Flood Relief Project and sucked all of the oxygen out of the room last Monday. With Council member Luis Viera absent due to being under the weather, Council member Bill Carlson leaving early and Council Chair Alan Clendenin having a previously scheduled engagement at 2pm, there was no interest in continuing the workshop into the afternoon. So we’ll see how much actually gets covered with a meeting starting at 5pm.

From there there will be a first public hearing September 8 at 5pm followed by the adoption hearing on September 22, also a special call 5pm meeting. Emphasis on adoption. Council aren’t simply blessing the mayor’s proposal, they adopt it as their own. If there is something in the budget they disagree with, at the minimum they should file an amendment to change it. If that fails and they feel strongly enough about it, they should vote against the budget. Otherwise, they should be prepared to own it.

CRA Meeting

The CRA agenda is light on discussion with only 4 items requiring a vote including Item 3 the final funding agreement for $1 million to the Jackson House and Item 4 Multi-District Wayfinding signage for $1.23 million.

What should be a topic of discussion under new business is what is currently being proposed for the CRA in relation to the Rays stadium. Board member Bill Carlson has floated a few things including cutting the Rays stadium out of Drew Park district for a separate Community Development District (CDD) while extending the Drew Park district another 30 years, either sunsetting or capping the downtown district and extending the East Tampa district another 30 years. Some of those ideas might be more popular than others and as always, the devil’s in the details. For a body that has complained about not being part of the negotiations and can only talk to each other in the “sunshine” setting of a CRA board meeting, the lack of any discussion will speak volumes.

On the evening side, time didn’t permit a real review and I’ve mostly abstained from commenting on land use applications at this point. Between continuations or lack of context, it’s not a good use of Monitor time. If an issue arises worth mentioning, there’s a second public hearing for items approved Thursday evening. What is provided with the Tampa Monitor’s evening agenda is a land use map with the applications on the map and the staff report notes including variances requested.

Council return to regular business on August 27 to an agenda that will include the continued proposal to eliminate the Equal Business Opportunity Program. It passed on first reading 6-1 with Hurtak voting no but was continued at second reading for further input from City Attorney Scott Steady.