Sean Sullivan - TBRPC - Resiliency Summit

Business and government leaders are getting together Thursday and Friday for the Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Leadership Summit at the Clearwater Beach Hilton. They'll talk about preparing for hurricanes and related challenges including property insurance and housing. We speak with Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council executive director Sean Sullivan.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. There's a summit going on at the
Clearwater Beach Hilton Thursday and Friday ofthis week. It's going to cover a
lot of the most important issues weface in the Tampa Bay area, including
transportation, infrastructure, climate change,property insurance, trying to find a home,
trying to rent a home. It'sthe Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Summit.

(00:22):
Sean Sullivan is executive director of theTampa Bay Regional Planning Council, which is
sponsoring the summit, and he joinsus now on Beyond the News. Sean
Sullivan, Welcome, afternoon, Thankyou. Goodon. Well, it sounds
as though every issue that really iscentral to what kind of region is going
to be is coming up in yoursummit, and it's I have to say,

(00:44):
it is refreshing to see that there'sa function that's going to be involving
the highest levels of business and localgovernment, of people getting together to address
these issues that are so central tothe way of life in our area and
to our continued economic and personal success. That's correct. Goodon. Over the

(01:04):
next two days, we have fourhundred attendees will be participating in the third
annual Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Leadership Summit. It's geared really toward government leaders,
both elected leaders and staff members,as well as we have over ninety private
sector partners have signed on to jointhis initiative. We've got thirty three governments

(01:30):
throughout the Tampa Bay region where they'reelected leaders have taken a vote to join
the Regional Resiliency Coalition, and wehere over the next two days to discuss
many items, as you mentioned,from insurance, from transportation, we have
a panel specifically with the folks fromFort Maya's Beach, as we know,
are severely impacted by Hurricane Ian lastSeptember. So we're gonna be talking about

(01:56):
a number of things. Insurance includedon how we collectively can work to make
the Tampa Bay region more resilient toextreme weather. Now, of course,
property and homeowners insurance are an issuethat frustrates almost everybody and has defied easy
solutions. And I noticed that thepanels that you've assembled on this has several

(02:16):
realtors and a member of Saint PetersburgCity Council who will be discussing the issue.
And it's good that they're at thetable because this could really be if
we don't get this squared away,it could constitute a moral immortal threat rather
to the housing market at some point. So for self interest if no other
reason, it's vital to have folksat the table good and it really is.

(02:40):
The discussion of insurance and property andinsurance here in the state of Florida
and specifically within the Tampa Bay regionis really critical. For example, we
know on average the increases this year. I know my personal increase was thirty
eight percent on my property insurance.And we know that Brandy Gabbet, City

(03:00):
council member from the City of SaintPetersburg, a current chair of the city
Council and the former chair of theRegional Planning Council, has really been a
leader and an expert in helping peopleunderstand what it is they can do,
what the average property owner can do, to help provide input to our legislative

(03:23):
delegation so that they can work thebest they can to try to get this
insurance dilemma into some sort of control. We're excited about Brandy and the realtives
really from throughout the Tampa Bay regionwho have experienced with insurance, who sell
homes throughout the region and who canprovide input into a policymakers in Tallahassee so

(03:44):
that they could do the very bestthat they can to try to get this
situation under control. Now you havea couple of sessions to talk about resiliency
for the community as a whole andfor businesses. We've seen the hit that
much smaller communities have to from hurricanessuch as Ian in the Fort Myers area
as you have mentioned, and ofcourse before that Michael in Panama City,

(04:05):
and a disaster at that scale aimedat the Tampa Bay area would create a
massive need for assistance to keep especiallysmall business afloat and help them bounce back.
So tell us what strategies you planto address in those topics in the
realm of resiliency and particularly business resiliency. Yes, good, and we know

(04:29):
we've got a also panelists from emergencymanagers from several of the counties throughout the
Tampa Bay region, as well assomebody from the Florida Department of Environmental Management.
We've got a private sector engineer whohelps communities recover, particularly as it
relates to infrastructure after a catastrophic event. And then we have the town manager

(04:50):
from the town of Fort Mayers Beachwho is going to be here, And
what we hope to learn is whatcan we do to better prepare our region
should a storm or a hurricane makelandfall in this area. And we know
that on September twenty sixth of twentytwenty two, the projected eye of Hurricane

(05:11):
Inn had a bull's eye for theTampa Bay region. Now we all know
what happened. It basically took aright and went south of here. But
the last time Gordon that a namedhurricane made a direct landfall and the Tampa
Bay region was on top in Springsin nineteen twenty one, So that's one
hundred and two years ago. That'sa long time ago. At that time,

(05:33):
four hundred thousand people lived in theTampa Bay region. Fast forward to
twenty twenty three. Today we've gotthree point eight million people live in the
Tampa Bay region. So a hurricaneof any kind, really, if from
a one to a five would bewould really bring the Tampa Bay region to
its knees. And we need tolearn how to be better prepared for the

(05:57):
next storm, how not to becomplace, don't take hurricane season lightly,
and then our friends who were reallydevastated in Fort Myers and Lee County in
Fort Myers Beach, what have theylearned, how have they begun that recovery
process, and what advice can theygive us to better prepare us for that
next storm. Now, this isthe third resiliency summit that you've had.

(06:20):
In the previous two, you've goneas far as creating a regional Resiliency Action
Plan. Tell us about what thatis, how it would interact with a
resiliency situation, and how you planto implement it. Good and that we
developed and you're absolutely right. Afterour second regional Resiliency Summit, what we

(06:41):
call is the Regional Resiliency Action Planfor the Tampa Bay Region. And this
is a living document intended to guideresilience actions over the next five years,
so it has a shelf life offive years. It's an ambitious plan.
It sets forth best practices that wecan to learn how to better prepared the
region for extreme weather events such ashurricanes, sea level rise, increased flooding,

(07:05):
crippling traffic, and economic iniquities.The rap foot with the Regional Action
Plan focuses on addressing equity gaps andseeks to talivate the vulnerable populations here in
the Tampa Bay region. We didthe study recently in accordance with the RAP
Gordon that identified that those structures thatare among the most vulnerable to extreme weather

(07:29):
are also inhabited by those at leastfortunate among us. So my suggestion is
that government, in the private sector, we have a responsibility to help all
Floridians and all Tampa Bay residents tobe better prepared for that next on.
But this action plan, it's reallyit's a data driven document. Gordon.

(07:50):
We spend three years putting this document. Together with our member of governments.
We invited cities and counties to participateso that not only can we teach them,
more importantly, we can learn fromthem. And there are some great
examples throughout this region. For example, the cities of Tampa, a City

(08:11):
of Saint Petersburg, Penellas County,Hillsborough County, Pasco County have really been
leaders in participating in the development ofthe RAP, as we call it,
the Regional Resiliency Action Plan. Butthe goal is really to use data to
define risks and vulnerabilities and then identifyen list targets so that we can measure

(08:31):
the success, so it's a measurableinstrument for success. So we're very excited
about the rolling this out. Councilapproved it in November of twenty twenty two,
and we're going to really have abig release of this document tomorrow twelve
of four hundred people. These areall relevant topics, of course, to
everyone who lives here, and itsounds like you have the metrics in place

(08:52):
as well to measure success or wherewe need to improve. To the average
person who's trying to rent a home, trying to buy a home, trying
to ensure a home, or tryingto get around from home to work or
whatever without getting stuck on the roadfor hours, how is an event like
this going to lead to something thatimproves their lives? I think good.

(09:13):
I think that the most critical takeawayfrom this event is that we'll learn strategies
from each other. We've got somefolks from New York City Planning Department that
are going to come down and showus a couple of resilience strategies, specific
examples that they've used in the NewYork City area, particularly post tropical storm

(09:33):
and Superstarm Sandy back several years ago, that they have implemented that worked.
We've got an engineering company from PuertoRico who also is using a more of
a living shoreline to protect their shoreline. So that's another task that people we
can learn from. And then ourelected leaders who really have been leaders and

(09:54):
resiliency in the Tampa Bay region.I'm proud to work with all of them.
Have they come to this event,we learn from them, they learn
from our presenters, and then Ithink it's critical that on policies are being
developed that our elected leaders, andI know they do the best they can,
but we hope to provide some examplesand some teaching of you will with

(10:16):
takeaways, strong takeaways that our electedleaders can then formulate into policies which will
then improve the lives of all Floridians. Sean Sullivan is executive director of the
Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, whichis putting on the Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency
Summit Thursday and Friday at the ClearwaterBeach Hilton. Thank you very much for

(10:37):
joining us or on Beyond the News. Thank you. Good