Here’s What Happened at Gulfport Council

Here’s What Happened at Gulfport Council

At the January 5 Gulfport City Council meeting, council was in and out of the Catherine Hickman Theater in under an hour. They discussed mutual aid agreements with other Pinellas County law enforcement agencies, removing late fees for library loans and whether or not the citizen-run Board of Adjustment behaved appropriately. Read about those stories on pages 12 and 15, but before you do, check out “Overheard at Council.”

Gulfport Renews Mutually Beneficial Policing

By Cathy Salustri

While every police department operates within their own city limits, on occasion officers have to leave their city to do their job. Technically, they can’t do that unless all the cities involved agree. Pinellas cities renew those agreements, called mutual aid agreements, with each new term of the Pinellas County Sheriff. At the January 5 Gulfport City Council meeting, council unanimously agreed to renew its mutual aid agreement with Pinellas police departments.

This allows other Pinellas police departments to respond to Gulfport-related calls if needed. It also allows Gulfport to investigate and make arrests for Gulfportrelated crimes in other cities and the unincorporated areas. This doesn’t mean that Gulfport officers will conduct routine patrols in other cities, or that other cities’ police officers will do so in Gulfport.

If they happen to see a crime taking place, say, on their way to work, Gulfport Police Chief Rob Vincent told council, the officer can take action – provided they’re driving a police car. On other words, if a Gulfport police officer sees someone blow a red light in Clearwater, they can’t do anything about it if they’re driving their husband’s Kia.

Overheard at Gulfport City Council

“We’re five days into the new year and we still don’t have hover cars.” – Mayor Sam Henderson

“It seems to me we don’t have check valves on any of our drainage pipes… there’s no reason to be getting two or three foot of water in some of these houses.” – Bob Canning, who wanted the city to install pumps to pump out water of areas the city filled to make land where water once stood. This historically underwater land now have houses on them.

“There weren’t three defective hydrants.” – Henderson, about allegations made during a December 2020 council meeting that Gulfportian Pat Dunham’s home perished in a fire because three hydrants failed.

“The whole process? Seven to 12 minutes. They did everything they were supposed to do.” – Gulfport Fire Captain James Lundh, about the city’s efforts to extinguish the fire at Dunham’s residence.

“Is there any kind of process you go through for fire hydrants for making sure the condition is good?” – Henderson, asking Lundh about the fire hydrants. Lundh answered yes.

“We maybe overestimate how interesting people find us.” – Henderson, in a council discussion on whether or not to discontinue people calling in for public comment via Zoom during council meetings. Council agreed to make no changes.

Gulfport Police Commander Mary Farrand