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Residents press council for public‑power study, more Complete Streets funding and clarification on arts grant changes
Summary
During open forum residents urged the council to fund a feasibility study for public power, ask for larger Complete Streets allocations and raised concerns that SPIFFS had been excluded from this year's cultural arts application process; councilmembers pledged to review eligibility criteria and said staff would follow up.
Several residents used the open‑forum period to press the council on three recurring themes: investigation of municipal/public power options, increased local funding for Complete Streets projects, and concerns that the Saint Petersburg International Folk Fair Society (SPIFFS) was excluded from this year’s cultural‑arts grant application process.
Marley Price urged the council to "end the Clean Energy Connection Grama and allocate those funds to a feasibility study for public power" so the city can approach next year’s utility negotiations from an informed position. Multiple speakers — including Elizabeth Winter, Alec Schechter and public commenters who cited the HERS committee meeting — backed a feasibility study as the appropriate next step rather than accepting current utility arrangements without additional accountability.
On Complete Streets, speakers including Max McCann, Justin Cornoyer and Garrett Marple urged substantially higher allocations for walking and biking safety projects. McCann pointed to the MLK North bike‑lane corridor as an example where bike lanes coincide with lower high‑injury crash prevalence and said the proposed budget favors downtown parking over life‑saving street safety improvements.
Steven Barfield, speaking for SPIFFS, said recent changes to the cultural‑arts application process left the organization unable to apply through the standard cultural‑arts grant route and requested special consideration and outreach from the mayor’s office and council. Councilmembers responded that staff had been alerted, that the eligibility question would be examined, and that they would follow up with the arts office and the affected organizations.
Councilmembers acknowledged the public comments and said staff would provide more detail at forthcoming committee meetings; one member noted an upcoming budget committee workshop where specific allocations and eligibility criteria would be reviewed.
