The City of Tampa is presenting an update to the South Howard Flood Relief Project right now at Thursday morning’s city council workshop. In Thursday’s evening meeting, council members could vote on reallocating more than $21 million within the Stormwater Bond Series 2023 Fund for the South Howard Flood Relief and Streetscape Project.
Lawyers for the SoHo Business Alliance say that the evening meeting to discuss moving funds is a violation of Sunshine Law.
In a Jan. 23 memo, the alliance repeated its opposition to plans for the project that would install a stormwater transfer system with a main culvert down S Howard Avenue. The culvert is meant to reduce flooding in the area, including the nearby Parkland Estates and Palma Ceia Pines neighborhoods.
The group—which includes businesses like Bern’s Steakhouse, 717 South, Epicurean Hotel and Haven—insists that the project is not council’s best option for a preemptive solution to flooding, and the project’s impact on businesses and neighborhoods is its primary concern.
Tampa City Councilman Bill Carlson—who represents District 4, which includes the area affected by the potential project—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that based on past records and engineering, the best solution for preventative flood measures would be to improve existing resources and stormwater culverts in the area.
In its memo, lawyers for the alliance pointed out that during council’s Jan. 22 meeting, the council announced for the first time that a workshop slated for Jan. 29 would focus on the South Howard Flood Relief project, contradicting its agenda listing another item for that date.
Intentional or not, alliance lawyers wrote that this short window of notice denies members of the public to exercise their right to attend and comment on the project.
“Proceeding with a last-minute revision to the agenda, which was discussed at the January 22 meeting, does not cure this shortcoming in the noticing of the meeting,” the memo adds. “This letter serves to put the City Council on notice that proceeding with this meeting will constitute a knowing violation of the Sunshine Law.”
Adam Smith, Director of Communications for the City of Tampa, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that the city attorney disagrees that the meeting is a violation of the Sunshine Law.
“And also very few city council meetings are promoted to the public as much as this one has been—on social media, to neighborhood associations, and emails to hundreds of people who signed up to receive official news about this project,” Smith added in a text message.
Councilman Carlson has had a different opinion.
“The city has to have an honest dialogue with the public, not cherry-pick who they meet with,” Carlson said during the Jan. 22 council meeting. “Meeting with 20 people is a political ploy. It’s not public information.”
At the same meeting Carlson made a motion to push the workshop regarding the South Howard Flood Relief Project to a later date.
The motion failed in a 5-2 vote, with only Councilman Guido Maniscalco seconding Carlson. City Council chair Alan Clendenin along with councilmembers Naya Young, Charlie Miranda, Luis Viera and Lynn Hurtak voted against Carlson’s motion leading to today’s workshop and evening vote.
Smith, the city spokesman, told CL that not moving the more than $21 million unspent stormwater funds “would likely kill tens of millions in additional SoHo funds expected from the state Department of Environmental Protection and Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority.”
“The project would effectively be dead if council members vote against moving those funds. There’s no point continuing to devote resources and energy to this if it lacks support from Council members,” Smith added.
At Thursday’s morning meeting, Carlson asked the administration who told residents that the contract would be canceled if council did not vote on moving funds for the project Thursday night.
“The mayor,” Dennis R. Rogero, Jr., Chief Financial Officer at City of Tampa,” responded.
“As everybody is aware, there’s been a great deal of energy and resources towards this project. At some point, I think the decision needs to be made to either proceed with this nearly $98 million project, or not proceed,” Rogero added.
Councilwoman Hurtak told CL that moving the money does not mean that the Howard Avenue project would be fast-tracked.
She believes that the relief project should be addressed promptly–especially to respect those whose properties have suffered immense flood damage from heavy storms, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.
“The residents who survived the flooding and the business owners who survived the flooding are being asked to relive their trauma every time we discuss this,” Hurtak said. “We cannot continue to push this down the road.”
City Council will hear public comment on the South Howard Flood Relief and Streetscape Project when it reconvenes for the evening session scheduled to start at 5 p.m. tonight inside Tampa City Hall.
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This article appears in Jan. 29 – Feb. 04.