St. Pete Beach audits Upham Beach, Pass

ST. PETE BEACH — The operator of the Upham Beach and Pass-A-Grille concession stands asked the city for a standard 5-year contract extension referred to in the lease agreement and wound up getting a paragraph-by-paragraph audit by city commissioners.

During the Aug. 22 City Commission meeting, Chief Operating Officer Jennifer McMahon noted the city entered into a five-year lease agreement with Starson LLC in August of 2018 to operate the concessions on Upham Beach and Pass-a-Grille beaches after a competitive bid process. The lease is set to expire on August 31 and the company has exercised its option to renew for another five years.

She said city staff has found Starson LLC to be in “good standing” with the city and with its payment schedule.

Commissioner Mark Grill, who typically goes over contracts with a fine-toothed comb, said he read requirements in the agreement and then asked city staff how to evaluate Starson’s performance, “because (according to public records) the Upham Beach location was closed twice in the last hundred days by health inspectors. How are we evaluating that we should be renewing for another five years?”

Mike DeMaio, director of operations at Paradise Grille, told commissioners they recently had to deal with a rodent problem in which the Health Department found rodent droppings on two occasions.

“Upham Beach is right on the beach, there’s a lot of sand dunes and palm trees, so we did hire Hughes Pest Control to pest-proof the (Upham Beach) restaurant. And we did the other restaurant (in Pass-a-Grille), too; they have someone there every day,” DeMaio said.

“When we did the pest-proofing we stirred up some activity in the building. It’s improved … Both times that we were shut down we reacted immediately. We have a lot of systems in place now and we continue to make improvements to the building,” he said.

Owner Michael Janecek said the company has spent $6,000 so far on pest control.

“All of our food is in hard containers or refrigeration, they can’t get to anything; they can’t touch the food,” DeMaio said of the varmints. “We try to keep them out as much as we can, but it’s a fight.”

Commissioners questioned the businessmen on everything from rent on a storage space to the cups they use to serve drinks to music played at the facilities.

Janecek told commissioners music is played “as low as we can. We tried to play it with no amplification whatsoever, but it just disappears completely. As far as the level of the music, it’s always conversational. People sit right in front of the musicians and they can talk … it’s usually a single guitar player and it’s very modest in volume,” he said.

Commissioner Chris Marone said the contract should be revised to clearly define ambient music and whether rent is being paid on the storage space. “I’m in favor of more clearly defining the space that they are renting, so it’s clear in the lease,” he said.

Grill said he doesn’t want to be misinterpreted. “I think Paradise Grill is a great draw,” he said. “It brings in a lot of people. People have a wonderful time going there.”

However, he said, he is not sure he is ready to approve a five-year extension, because there are too many parameters that still need to be worked through.

Marone said the contract needs to be cleaned up. He moved to extend the contract for another 45 days, so the concession can remain open while revisions are considered. He explained the revision should include the legal description of the space being rented, and the issue with ambient and amplified music clarified.

Mayor Adrian Petrila said in addition, city staff should conduct a biannual review to determine any health and safety violations.

Janecek asked to meet with staff so they could go over revisions to the contract line by line, before the commission considers the five-year lease extension. The revised contract should be considered by the City Commission in October.

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