St. Petersburg City Council: Meetings, Public Comment and 2026 Elections

Eight members sit on the St. Petersburg City Council in October 2026, one for each district, with Lisset Hanewicz of District 4 serving as 2026 Chair and Richie Floyd of District 8 as 2026 Vice-Chair (City of St. Petersburg, District 4 page, District 8 page).

The City Council page lists every St. Petersburg member by district number. The District 4 and District 8 pages each give the member's stpete.org email and a legislative aide contact; District 4 lists 727-893-7412 and District 8 lists 727-551-3437 (District 4 page, District 8 page). A resident unsure of the district can open the Find My Council District map linked from the same St. Pete council pages.

Both 2026 leaders first won St. Petersburg council seats in November 2021. The District 4 page says the Chair's term expires January 7, 2027, and that she served as 2025 Vice-Chair before taking the gavel; the District 8 page shows the Vice-Chair's term also running to January 2027 (District 4, District 8). Before joining the council, the 2026 Chair was president of the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association from 2016 to 2021, her district page notes (District 4). District 4 takes in precincts 129, 133 through 137, 139, 141, 150 and 151, the precinct list printed on its St. Pete district page. Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of St. Petersburg website.

The St. Petersburg City Council generally meets on the first, second and third Thursday of each month, at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. respectively, in Council Chambers at City Hall on Fifth Street North (City Council).

The St. Petersburg City Council rules manual, amended June 11, 2026, reserves the second Thursday session mainly for ceremonial items such as awards, proclamations and presentations, along with reports, legal items and routine proceedings, and it keeps public hearings and the Consent Agenda off that afternoon (Council Policies and Procedures Manual).

St. Pete broadcasts council meetings live on Channel 15 WOW!, Channel 641 Spectrum and Channel 20 Frontier FiOS, and streams them on the city's SPTV page (City of St. Petersburg Meetings). The Council Agendas page posts each agenda together with a separate additions and deletions sheet; the newest entries on October 15, 2026 were for the October 1, October 8 and October 15 meetings (Council Agendas).

St. Petersburg allows public speakers in two ways, Open Forum for any city business that is not a public hearing or quasi-judicial item, and comment on a specific agenda item, and each speaker gets 3 minutes (Council Policies and Procedures Manual).

Open Forum is limited to St. Petersburg residents, owners of property or businesses in the city, and people employed in the city. Speakers sign up with the City Clerk and give at least a name and a city address, which can be a home, business or workplace, and nobody may sign up on behalf of someone else (Council rules manual). At the microphone in person, a speaker states a name and the nearest cross streets or neighborhood rather than a street address; a speaker joining by Zoom states a name and a home or business address for the record.

Open Forum is scheduled to begin within the first half hour of a St. Petersburg council meeting, and speakers not reached in that half hour should be heard at the end of the meeting. After an Open Forum speaker finishes, council members should not engage in discussion with the speaker; the Chair may respond briefly, ask brief clarifying questions, refer the matter to city staff or another agency, or ask that it be placed on a future agenda (Council rules manual).

Comment on a St. Petersburg agenda item works differently: the speaker fills out an information card and hands it to the City Clerk before speaking, and the comment must come before the council votes on that item. The microphone is turned off when the speaker's 3 minutes end, and no one may speak on an item once its public comment period has closed (Council rules manual).

These St. Petersburg rules sit on top of state law: section 286.0114 of the 2026 Florida Statutes says members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on a proposition before a municipal board or commission, and limits the rules a board may adopt on that opportunity to matters such as guidelines on how long each person may speak (Florida Statutes 286.0114).

Disability accommodations for a St. Petersburg City Council meeting are requested from the City Clerk at least 24 hours ahead by calling 893-7448 or TDD 892-5259; for other official city meetings the notice period is three business days (City of St. Petersburg Meetings).

The November 3, 2026 general election in St. Petersburg fills the office of Mayor and the City Council seats for Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8, each for a full term of about four years (City of St. Petersburg 2026 Elections).

The winners serve from the first Thursday in January 2027 through the first Thursday in January 2031, and the city's primary election was held August 18, 2026 (2026 Elections). A St. Petersburg council candidate must be a registered voter and must have lived in the declared district for at least the 12 months before the primary; a mayoral candidate needs 12 months of residence in the city. City races are nonpartisan: a candidate cannot be a candidate, nominee or representative of any political party.

Two of the four council seats on the 2026 St. Petersburg ballot belong to the current leadership: the District 4 and District 8 pages both show terms ending in January 2027 (District 4, District 8). The election page also still prints a qualifying period of May 25 to May 29, 2026 with a note that the dates will be updated once the City Council addresses the qualifying period at a future Committee of the Whole, although that qualifying period ended on May 29, 2026; the City Clerk at [email protected] or 727-893-7448 handles questions about future elections (2026 Elections). This guide names officeholders only and does not list 2026 candidates.

The St. Petersburg Committee of the Whole deliberates issues relevant to the city, includes all eight council members, is led by the Council Chair, and takes actions that are not official until approved at a regular council meeting (Committee of the Whole).

The St. Petersburg Committee of the Whole met on January 29, February 26, March 12, April 23, May 7, May 28, July 30, August 20 and September 24 in 2026, with agendas posted for each meeting and minutes posted for the meetings through August 20 (Committee of the Whole). In 2026 the Vice-Chair chairs the Housing, Land Use, and Transportation Committee and is vice-chair of the Health, Energy, Resilience, and Sustainability Committee (District 8), while the Chair leads the Public Services and Infrastructure Committee and the Tampa Bay Water Board of Directors (District 4).

St. Petersburg council members also sit on outside boards such as the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), the metropolitan planning organization and TBARTA, and the city's Weekly Meeting Schedule exists to give Sunshine Law notice that members may discuss matters from those boards (City of St. Petersburg Meetings). When two or more officials attend the same listed event, they cannot discuss an item that could come before them unless minutes are taken and filed with the City Clerk.

Residents who want a seat at the table can apply to a St. Petersburg board or committee through the application on the Boards and Committees page, which on October 15, 2026 showed one vacancy on the Advisory Commission on Aging (Boards and Committees). That page also notes that archived documents dated more than 1 year back are not included on the city website and are requested through the Public Records page.

Letters to the St. Petersburg City Council go to PO Box 2842, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, and the City Council Administrative Officer answers at 727-893-7118 (City Council).

The St. Petersburg District 4 page lists [email protected] with a District 4 newsletter sign-up, the District 8 page lists [email protected], and both pages link to a district map (District 4, District 8). The council page also links Council Minutes and Action Taken, recorded council meetings and a Council Calendar (City Council).

The meeting times on the St. Pete council page are described as general, and the page itself tells readers to check the Council Calendar for the most up-to-date information (City Council).