Regular Meeting @ 11:30 a.m. - Apr 14, 2026

Good morning, everybody. It is April 14th, 1130. I'd like to go ahead and call this Board of County Commission's meeting to order. Before we get started, we are blessed to have the Honorable Reverend Dr. Marie Herring with the Day Springs Missionary Baptist Church, who will lead us in an invocation. If you'll remain standing after that, I'll have a few comments to make, and then we'll do the pledge. And so if you all could please stand, and Herring, welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. Heavenly Father, we come in a very difficult time. We come silently honoring Latoya Ganey, who has given 22 years of service to this Board. We thank you for her life, her legacy, and God, we just pray that you heal our hearts this morning. We come before you this day with reverence and gratitude as we gather for this meeting of the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners. We thank you for the privilege of service and the responsibility entrusted to these leaders. Your word reminds us in Proverbs that wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. So today, Lord, we ask that you would pour out wisdom upon our every commissioner, every staff member, and every voice present in this room. Grant clarity on decision-making, patience in discussion, and unity even when there are differences. Help each person here to seek not only what is expedient, but what is right, what uplifts the whole community, and protects the most vulnerable among us. Guide this meeting, O God. Let every word spoken be seasoned with grace and truth. Let every decision be anchored to integrity and foresight. And when challenges arise, remind us that cooperation is stronger than conflict. Purpose is greater than pride. Now, Lord, we dedicate this time to you, trusting that your guidance will lead us toward outcomes that benefit all people. In your holy and righteous name, we pray. Amen. Thank you. So there are certain people in your life that the moment you meet them, the whole world improves. Latoya Ganey was that person. Last Thursday, we lost Latoya, who had worked at this county for over 20 years. Mary, you're in your sixth year. Anna, you're in your sixth year. Mary Helen, you're in your eighth year. Chuck, you're in your 14th year. I'm in my 12th year. Every meeting that this board has had, Latoya has been in the back. She's been watching. She's been listening. She's been listening to each of us individually. She's been listening to us collectively. So that she could serve with a servant's heart, the will of this community that's reflected through our decisions. She didn't just listen to us, though. And for every employee that's out there, I want you to hear this. She heard you. She connected hundreds of employees, elected officials, constitutional officers, citizens that had concerns. And Latoya, she truly had a servant's heart. With every interaction, you are left with a feeling that your request or your comment was important. Because to Latoya, it was. We're going to try to get through today. I'm going to need some help. I brought some backup. But if you'll just bow your head and just let's just take a moment of silence to pray for her family and remember Latoya Ganey. Thank you all. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, a republic for one nation, and their God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're going to do this meeting. Okay, commissioners, before we get started, a couple of quick things. I'd like to add the Earth Day Proclamation, which will follow the Fair Housing Proclamation. Anna's agreed to do both of those for me. I'd like to also kind of move a few things. I'd like to move announcements and the employee length of service to after the proclamation. So as soon as we approve this agenda, we can do the five proclamations. We'll try to get through that before public comment, and then we'll go to the employee service awards, and then we'll do the announcements. And so with those changes, do I hear a motion? Move to approve with the suggested motions with suggested changes. Okay, is there anything else, Madam Manager? Any other changes? Okay, is there any discussion? Any public discussion to the motion? Okay, let's bring it back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay, so now, Mr. Clerk, I think the first one is, I think we've got to approve the recognitions. Correct. Motion and a second to approve the recognitions. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Say none. Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. Mary Helen, I think you're starting us off. I see my team. With the clerk, I think the first one is the presentation of animal? It's a presentation of a recognition of April 12th through April 18th as Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week in Alachua County, Florida. What's the four-legged guy's name? This is Aries. Aries. Aries has got a baby. Glad to see you all this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And whereas it is fitting that we recognize and celebrate the invaluable contributions of animal care and control professionals who work tirelessly to ensure the well-being of both animals and the communities they serve. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim April 12th through April 18th is Animal Care and Control Appreciation Week in Alachua County, Florida. Duly proclaimed this 14th day of April, A.D. 2026, and signed by Ken Cornell, our chair, and attested to by Jess Irby. So I want to hand this to you, but I want, Kyle, you introduce, or you all introduce yourselves, please, to what I see. Come right on up here. Oh, and okay. Go right ahead. And I'll let you guys, you want to introduce everybody, Kyle? This is Aries, that is Officer Antoine. And I just want to say, for this proclamation, our animal enforcement officers respond to thousands of calls each year. And as we recognize their invaluable contributions through this proclamation, we remain deeply proud of their tireless commitment to protecting those without a voice. We also are joined, I'm not sure if we have any of them, I know we have some people from the Sheriff's Office here today, by our partners at the Sheriff's Office, who have also assumed responsibility for criminal animal complaints last month, and while the county continues to manage a lot of the civil cases. So I just want to say thank you on behalf of the community, on behalf of the county administration, commissioners, for all of y'all's hard work and for bringing Aries today. And he's available for adoption, I see. He is? Thank you. Good sit. Okay, Mr. Clerk, next item. Commissioner Tressa, you're up. Mr. Chair, next up is the presentation of a proclamation declaring April 12th through April 18th as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week in Alachia County, Florida. Sheriff. Sheriff, thank you for being here today. A proclamation declaring April 12th through April 18th as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Alachia County, Florida. Whereas the professional public safety telecommunicator in Alachia County plays a crucial role in the protection of life, property, and the delivery of public safety services. And whereas each day hundreds of Alachia County citizens dial 911 for help in emergencies. And the telecommunicators who answer these calls for help gather essential information and dispatch the appropriate assistance, which can often make a difference between life and death for persons in need. And whereas these well-trained, highly dedicated, and deeply motivated individuals serve the citizens of Alachia County 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, during extreme situations such as hurricanes, these individuals are unable to be with their families to protect their own homes and properties. And whereas public safety telecommunicators often do not receive the recognition due them by the citizens and agencies who depend on them and benefit from their services. And whereas the Congress of the United States has proclaimed its support and recognition to these employees and their profession. And the county is publicly recognizing the local telecommunicators, I'm sorry, telecommunicators who serve its citizens in such a professional manner. Whereas we invite all Alachia County citizens to recognize these individuals for their commitment to the safety of our citizen. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachia County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim April 12th through April 18th as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in Alachia County, Florida, duly proclaimed this 14th day of April, A.D. 2006, signed by our Chair, Ken Cornell, and attested to by the Clerk, Jess Irby. Good evening, Commissioners, County Manager. I'm Sheriff Chad Scott with the Alachia County Sheriff's Office. I'm honored to be here today to celebrate the week of telecommunicators. When you talk about first responders and you talk about first contact, they are the first contact. When you get a call of my mom is having a seizure on I-75 and they have to talk to that person to stop something that's going to be horrific, they are the ones that get that call. When you get a call that's shots fired and they're trying to work through the chaos, they are the ones the first one to get that call. When you get a call where my baby is not breathing, they are the ones to get that call. So when you talk about what cops do, we have to talk about what they do because they're very important to our operation and what we do. If they get it wrong, we get it wrong. But if they get it right, we get it right. But we thank them so much. They're very important to us. They're very critical. So to celebrate them, let's please give them a hand, please. But so honored to recognize these folks because, like I said, they're very crucial to what we do. And they don't get enough thanks. So this is very important. So thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you for being there. Good afternoon, everybody, or I guess good morning. My name is Noreen Dixon. I'm a call taker, ASO and GPD dispatcher, teletype operator, and certified training officer with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office and Combined Communications Center. On behalf of all my coworkers, I would like to thank all the county commissioners and the citizens of Alachua County for taking the time to acknowledge National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Thank you. Yeah, while they're taking a picture. Yeah, while you all are taking a picture, just a quick, you know, we recognize that we keep adding to the plates of the telecommunicators between the stroke unit and the new mobile integrated health team, paramedicine. You know, you all are getting new things, co-responder teams all the time thrown at you that you have to know about, and we just really, really appreciate that you do so with such grace. Thank you, Commissioner. Okay, Mr. Clerk, next item. Next is a presentation of a proclamation recognizing April as National Poetry Month in Alachua County, Florida. We've got Commissioner Offord doing that one. If I can ask our Poet Laureate of Alachua County, E. Stanley Richardson, to join me. I'll read this population. He's getting there, yeah. Awesome, thank you. All right, today I have a proclamation declaring April as National Poetry Month in Alachua County, Florida. Whereas National Poetry Month seeks to highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets, introduce Americans to the pleasures and benefits of reading poetry, bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways, make poetry an important part of our children's education. And whereas National Poetry Month, under the leadership and direction of the Academy of American Poets, is now the largest literary celebration in the world. And whereas poetry enhances and enriches the lives of all Americans, and poetry as an essential part of arts and humanities affects every aspect of life in America today, including education, the economy, and community pride and development. And whereas poetry has produced some of the nation's leading creative artists, and has inspired other artists in fields such as music, theater, film, dance, and visual arts. And whereas we call upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all of the people of Alachua County to observe this month, to celebrate the cultural riches our community has to offer, and to recognize the important role of poetry in creating and sustaining this great nation with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim April as National Poetry Month in Alachua County, Florida, duly proclaimed this 14th day of April, A.D. 2026, and signed by all the appropriate people. And I wanted to say, real quickly before I turn the mic over, you know, today is a sorrowful day for us. And poetry has been a saving thing for me in my life, both on days of great joy and also during times of great sadness. It helps us make sense of a world that doesn't often make sense. And so I hope that if you haven't read a poem any time recently that you pick up a book and take the time to, you know, appreciate the words that are put together in such elegant and often interesting ways. Yes. All right. Thank you. And you, Stanley, Richardson? Thank you. Thank you. If you haven't read a poem, maybe write a poem. I think we're all poets. What are we but breath and thought? A magnificent heap of unborn words waiting to be made alive. What are we but poets upon this grand stage? I thank you for this proclamation. And thank you, commissioners. And thank you, Madam County Attorney, for attending our opening of the Bard and Broadside Poetry Festival at the Harm Museum of Art last Thursday. It was great seeing you. This proclamation, I want to present this proclamation to the Civic Media Center and the Thursday Night Poetry Jam. They've been doing poetry, open-mic poetry for over 30 years every Thursday night at Civic Media Center. Oh, wow. When I realized that I was a poet, I've been writing my entire life. But when I came out into the community and tried to, and someone told me I was an artist, I had no idea I was an artist. I was just a guy who loved, a kid, as a child who loved to write. I couldn't help but to write. It's how I made sense of the world. I started writing because my brain would just be going so fast in an effort to catch and hold on to words low enough to make sense out of them. I started writing. And since poetry was always around me, everything I wrote turned into poem. But I discovered this community of poets back in 2010, 2011, 2012, somewhere around there. And they were very encouraging, very inviting, kind of like the grassroots community of poets. Everybody is welcome. And that was the folks at Civic Media Center. And so I have a few folks who represent the Civic Media Center in the Thursday Night Poetry Jam. Long live the jam is dead. Long live the jam. That's one of our sayings. But before that, I want to just talk about the Bard and Broadside Poetry Festival and what we've been doing. Throughout the month of April, we started the Bard and Broadside Poetry Festival. This will be our fourth year. Next year, we're going to celebrate our fifth year. We're going to come to you for some funding. I just want to let you know. We want to have a grand celebration to celebrate our fifth year. But throughout the month of April, we have several events. We opened on Thursday at the Harn. It's a great collaboration between neighbors and supporters. The Harn Museum, open mic. We had the Word Slay, which is a youth poetry monologue competition. This year's winner, we tried to get him here, but he had school. Mr. Bryce Albury, he was our 2026 Word Slay champion. The theme, we're celebrating America 250, celebrating 250 years of American independence through poetry. And that theme for the youth was this is America. And we had so many beautiful poems from our young people. We have something coming up, which I think will be very great. It's poetry at the planetarium. It's based on, we're going to come to the planetarium. So if you want to go, the planetarium only seats 60 people. So you have to RSVP. But we're going to watch a film narrated by Tom Hanks, Passport to the Universe. And then we're going to watch that and write some poems inspired by that and also inspired by the recent Artemis II moon mission. And we're going to have a party at Bodily Plaza on Friday, free Fridays. We're going to incorporate poetry and a live band. So people from the community, the audience can come up and share some poems backed up by a band. So that'll be kind of cool. And we'll culminate on the 26th with Dr. Sidney Wade, who's going to do a free poetry and creative writing workshop at the Lachua County Library Headquarters. So all these events are free. And we want to invite the public to come out and share in poetry. And if you need more information, you can go to www.artspeaksgnv.org. And with that, I think I've covered everything. I want to invite my colleagues from the Civic Media Center and the Thursday Night Poetry Jam to come up and say a few words about poetry. So I'm here to represent the Thursday Night Poetry Jam. As Stan said, this is Jenna Nishita. This is Jenna Nishita. Hi, I'm Jenna Nishita. I'm here to represent the Thursday Night Poetry Jam. As Stan said, it's been going on for over 30 years. I have only been taking part in less eight or nine years, and I had never publicly read my own poetry before that. Now I'm one of the hosts, so be careful if you come. You might get sucked in. But it's a wonderful open mic where anybody can come and share their own poetry or anything else, you know, poetry by famous authors that they love. It's very open and welcoming. It's a Thursday night at the CMC, and the diversity of voices is very important to us. So we want to hear all different people, all different perspectives, different languages, different types of poetry and spoken arts. And sometimes people come and sing or play musical instruments. We once had someone come and do a pantomime. It's quite an open mic. So we definitely are inviting everyone in Lacho County to come and partake with us. And the Poetry Jam has been a community, as Stan said, grassroots effort. We're just a loose group of people who come together and share together. The CMC, the Civic Media Center, has just let us come and do this for free. Use all their AV material, their chairs, their AC, their space, and never charge us a thing. So we have great gratitude to them. And to talk about that, my colleague will do that. I've got two more proclamations, so if you could just wrap it up. Okay. Yeah. Normally I'm long-winded. I'll be as terse and concise. We are the Poetry Jam, a.k.a. Poe Jam. What you could expect every Thursday is consistency. So we've been doing this since 1994, I think about seven to nine months after the Civic Media Center officially started. So on Thursday nights, if you come, you can expect support for your poems and poetry, comedy, singing, or reading of other people's poems. We welcome you. We will support you. If you think you could write and you don't think it's that good, come and give us a chance to hear it. And we will support and love on you if you come. So please come. Thursday nights, 8 p.m. Thank you. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I just will say that poetry is the best way in the world to teach somebody how to read. That's true. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Clerk, our next proclamation. Mr. Chair, up next is a proclamation recognizing April as Fair Housing Month in Alachua County, Florida. And then following that, we'll do the Earth Day proclamation, and we're going to hold in Alachua County noon until the conclusion of the second proclamation. And then we'll start with a public comment. Hello, hello. Thank you all for being here. I get the honor of declaring April as Fair Housing Month in Alachua County. Whereas April 2026 marks the 58th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, which provides equal opportunity for all Americans in safe rental and financing of housing and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. And it is the solemn and sworn duty of government at all levels to protect and defend the rights of all citizens and residents and oppose housing discrimination whenever and wherever it occurs. And fair housing is the law of the United States government and is consistent with the principles of equality and justice for all. Whereas Alachua County is committed to upholding the civil rights through Alachua County Code of Ordinances Chapter 111, which prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression, familial status, veteran or service member status, lawful source of income, citizenship status, being the victim of dating violence or domestic violence or stalking. And whereas the month of April is officially set aside as Fair Housing Month in Alachua County to raise awareness of fair housing laws and partner with community agencies that provide local housing resources. We are celebrating the theme fair housing. It's your right. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, I do hereby proclaim April as Fair Housing Month in Alachua County has all the right signs and seals. And I just want to say thank you to the people who serve us every day thinking about fair housing. This is an issue that often goes hidden because so often when you're facing issues of fair housing, there's a power dynamic between you and your landlord or you and the person who controls the housing that you're living in. And, you know, recently I've had to help someone with a disability navigate housing and just navigate getting around transportation. And it's really become very apparent to me how much we take for granted as people who are fully able and who may not be discriminated against and how just everyday decisions that we make as local government can impact those people's lives. So thank you so much for your service and helping people. And I'll pass the mic on to our illustrious guests. We're going to save any comments for our annual report. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Do a quick picture. Yep. Okay. And then our last proclamation, Mr. Clerk. All right. There's a proclamation recognizing Earth Day in Alachua County, Florida. All right. I get lucky I get two this time. And, of course, as an environmentalist and an ecologist, this is one of my favorite days. One of my favorite days that we celebrate all year. The fact that we recognize our Earth as being sentient, as being the home that we all need to take care of and steward. And we have an amazing team behind me that does that every day for you. We're one of the few counties in the state that has an environmental protection department. And so we're really, really lucky to have a team of people who every day are thinking about how we're going to face the challenges of climate change, how we're going to protect our water resources, our air resources, and our land resources. So just we feel really, really grateful to all of you for supporting the county and our natural resources. And we're really, really grateful to our team. Declaring April 22nd as Earth Day in Alachua County, Florida. Whereas this year marks the 56th anniversary of Earth Day, which enacted in 1970 to advocate for a cleaner environment. And Earth Day has become a worldwide event and has highlighted some of the most critical and environmental issues on the world stage. And loss of biodiversity and climate change and air and water pollution continue to threaten life support systems locally and globally. Whereas it is understood that there are challenges as well as opportunities ahead for working together towards a greener, cleaner future. And local governments are at the forefront of tackling these issues through innovation, creativity, and action. And whereas Earth Day is an annual reminder of the constant need for environmental activism, stewardship, and a time for a renewed commitment towards a more sustainable future. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim Wednesday, April 22nd as Earth Day in Alachua County, Florida. And I will pass it on to Steve to share. All right, good afternoon. I will be brief as well because I know we're running on time here. But I'd like to, again, my name is Steve Hofstadter. I'm the county's Environmental Protection Department director. And I want to thank the commission and the manager, again, not only for this proclamation and adding it to today's chance to be a proclamation, but just the ongoing support all of the commissioners and the manager have for our protection of our resources here in Alachua County. I think it's critical for us to have the quality of life we expect in this community that we continue to protect our environmental resources. I was going to talk about a few events that are happening through the week, but Mark has put our press release that we sent out on March 31st up on the board. Anyone interested can go to our website or contact our environmental department at 264-6800 to learn more about these events. But not only does the county have many events going on, but the city of Gainesville, the library, UF, Santa Fe, we're all collaborating together to do over many dozen events throughout the month. As part of our program, our department, in our effort to protect our resources, we have six divisions, and some of those divisions are represented here today. I'll just mention them. First, we have water resources. Stacy Greco is our water resource program manager. With her is Holly Greer and Eliana Barty. They're getting recognized later. And, you know, water resource is all about protecting our springs, surface water, ground water, really the water we drink. And they are the team, our front line, to make sure we protect that. We have our natural resource division. We don't have a representative here today. But we view all development activity in the county to make sure we're protecting our wetlands, natural resources, and historic resources in our county. Another program is petroleum cleanup. That is actually a nine-county program. So it's not just Alachua County, but we cover nine counties. And then for compliance of petroleum tanks, we have 16 counties. So that program is completely funded by the state. No money is coming in locally to fund that. It's completely funded by the state. We have hazardous materials. They review 1,200 facilities that handle dangerous hazardous materials in the county. So they're our front line to protect us from hazardous materials. And they also respond 24-7 to spills and so on. Then we have our land conservation, our largest program, actually. It's our Alachua County Forever program. 37,000 acres of land we either protect or own and manage in the county. They also have an agricultural protection program in place where we're buying easements to protect ag lands as well. And then we have our tree planting program in that division as well. So all the money we receive when we have trees that have to be cut down, that money goes back in and we plant more trees in the community. And then our last program that we started last year is resiliency. And both of those are here. Matt Williams is our program manager for that. And then Jennison Kip Searcy is, that's the entire team. So they're a small team. They're focused on sustainability, making sure we're doing the right things in what we buy, handling solar and energy issues, as well as responsible for overseeing our climate action planning strategies as well. And I should have mentioned Andy Crisman is our program manager if I didn't mention you earlier. And then finally, Erica Capen is here with our administrative team, making sure our programs and our department runs. So I know that was quite a bit. I was trying to be brief. So again, I appreciate everyone's patience and thank you again for this Earth Day proclamation. I want to thank you all for coming together so quickly when we added this to the proclamation. We'll take a picture. We're going to hold public comment for three more minutes because we've got some employees that I know need to get back to work, but they're here for their recognition. So we're going to go ahead and move to the employee length of service first quarter recognition. And then after that, Mr. Clerk, we'll go ahead and open up public comment. Mr. Chair, may I also thank this team for putting the artwork out there, new artwork, new artwork. Yeah, and we've got a fun event tonight at 5 o'clock, where we celebrate our students. All right, let's do the employee recognition. And then after that, we'll do public comment. Good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon, county manager and county attorney, Suzanne Swain, human resources director. And as an employee of five months now, it was one of the best decisions I made was to join Alachua County. And I appreciate you for appointing me to be here. I'm very excited today to bring our employees forward and recognize them. We are bringing the employees back so that they can be recognized by you and by our team here today. So we're going to go ahead and get started. We have Eleanor Drakeford in court services, five years. Amos Mays, court services, five years. Jessica Hung, environmental protection, five years. And if I call your name, come on up. Eileen Corrales, fire rescue services, five years. Josh Quijano, fire rescue services, five years. Norina Young, fire rescue services, five years. Tyler Sullivan, information services, five years. For those of you that are young, you look great. For those of you that are older, you're really happy over some of these pictures. Timothy McGinnis, public works, road and bridge, five years. Congratulations. Claudia Huggins-Tuck, community support services, ten years. Congratulations. Ted Goodman, environmental protection, ten years. Holly Greer, environmental protection, ten years. Lyra Cruz-Kellis, procurement office, ten years. Tanya McGruder, facilities management, 15 years. Eliana Barty, environmental protection, 20 years. I've learned that in environmental protection, you come and stay. Ray Billingsley, facilities management, 20 years. Who's that guy? Jeff, I almost didn't recognize you. Jeff Hayes, growth management, 20 years. Lily Perkins, court services, 25 years. Sean McClendon, economic development, 25 years. Sean was just a baby when he started. Gus Olmos, solid waste, 30 years. Yeah. Virgilio Vincent-Moye, information services, 35 years. Is there anyone that would like to speak 25 years or more? Come on, let's go down and take a picture. Well, they always volunteer me, okay? So that's not new. Well, first of all, I need to say thank you to God for letting me be here these 35 years. Okay? 35 years. I can hear rocking, okay? With no job, to be honest with you. And I start here with Alachua County, not thinking I was going to stay here more than six months, to be honest. Okay? 35 years later, and a big family heads here with all the Alachua County and my own family. Obviously, I'm still here. So I have to thank you to the commission, this commission, the county manager, and past commissioners, and past county managers for all their support. Not only to me, but also to my IT family. I have one here, one probably here in the back, and the rest doing something over there. So thank you very much for all your support during all these years. Commissioner Cornell said something this morning, and I want to take a little brief on my pre-prepared speech here. 22 years of these 35 years, I worked with Latoya. Okay? And just a few days before she passed, I talked to her on teams. We were laughing, and like always, you know, she was always smiling, never a complaint, always working with your calendars, guys. Okay? Always with your emails and all the stuff related to the commission and the county manager's office. And somebody put it in just one short sentence last week that we're talking about her. She was an angel. Period. That's the best description. Okay? So we'll miss her. Okay? And it's going to be tough the next few months without her. The next few years. I don't know. Thank you to my team, the network team. They have been very special. That's the reason I'm still here. Okay? I mean, most of these 35 years, I mean, we are probably, we need to rename my team as the uretric team of the network team. We're all 60 years old. I don't know. So anyway. And last but not least, I want to thank you to my wife, who unfortunately couldn't be here. My wife and my children. They have been the cornerstone of my life. The ones who always push me forward. Never let me down. And never let me give up. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to recognize our retirees. So, Steve Swan, are you here? Come on up. We'd like to recognize you. I'd just like to say thank you to the county commissioners and the county manager for your support for fire rescue over the years. I'd like to also thank Deputy Chief Jeff Taylor for coming out today and your support. It's been an honor to work for the county. I'm very thankful, very blessed to have that opportunity. And it's been a good ride. And I also would like to tell you folks, I'm sorry for your loss of your colleague. Thanks. 31 years fire rescue and then Wade Smith facilities management and 33 years, I think, 32 years. So, we'd like to congratulate everybody. If you guys will scoot down and we'll get a picture. Thank you guys for being here. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You're welcome. That's a whole thing. Sean, I remember you. Not too bad. 16 minutes long. I remember myself. Not too bad. Not too bad. It's the latest we've ever started public comments. That's okay. Okay. So I want to, first of all, thank the public for indulging. I've been here 12 years. This is the latest we've started public comment, but today it's going to be okay. It's all going to be okay. And so, Mr. Clerk, let's go ahead and open up public comment. Mr. Chair, we offer three minutes for any topic on the agenda and three minutes for any topic not on the agenda. Mr. Connish? Okay. Hold on one second. Let's just let the room clear. We want to make sure we hear you, Mr. Connish. Okay. Mr. Connish, you're recognized. Mr. Chair, Jim Connish, can I have the overhead, please? Overhead, please. I have come to you on numerous occasions about what's going on adjacent to Rose Springs Park on Lots 1 and 2, and I'm particularly concerned about the two acres of floodplain. This gentleman, a former member of the Communist Party of China, who have reported to the Attorney General of Florida for the China Protection Unit, has bought this land and has destroyed it with your tacit approval. The county asserts a 100-foot buffer. He moved a bunch of stuff in it, cut down trees, broadcast and poisoned, and he was cited for not having a permit for trailers that never should have been there in the first place. He merely moved them to the other side, and you accepted that. Then he dug a huge pit in the 2.1 acres of mature hardwoods on messic soil. He destroyed the red maple, the eastern redbund, the black gum, the sweet bay magnolia, the pig nut hickory, and the white ash with complete impunity, and then was told to get approval from the Development Review Committee, who couldn't possibly approve ecoterrorism like this. So he comes to the January 8th hearing, which I invite everyone to look at, and he says, well, I'll just fill the hole. That's not the issue. The issue is that he raped sensitive lands in the floodplain. So that was accepted, and he's not going to fill the hole. He's going to partially fill the hole and use that as an unpermitted stormwater basin for the 6,000-square-foot home he built with your permission. As owner-builder, he hired dozens of foreign laborers and built a crappy house that you approved with no provision for stormwater. And all this is being accepted by you with no analysis of the harm he's done, with no real legal requirement to restore the land to its original condition. And against the backdrop of what you've been doing to me, it's indefensible, sir. Now, either you can go out there and fix this, or I'm going to send you a warning letter, and I'm going to proceed against you under 403-412 and sue him and you and force you to do your job. You tell everyone what a great job you're doing. Here you go. Right next to the crown jewel of the park system, we got an environmental terrorist on the loose, not being held account. So I ask you to step up to the plate and rein this gentleman in. I'm suing him for not coming to me for the required approval before he started to build. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Connish. Okay, next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I, too, want to come and take a moment to kind of reflect on Latoya and also as a – how she has worked with you all. Since Friday and finding out, I have been in contact with each of you and praying with you all and just even recognizing all of those that share in her loss. And I also would like to take a moment to say to you that there is no manual on how to grieve. Each one of you in this room, each one of you that have worked with her over the past 22 years, you have your own moments. And as a pastor, one of the hardest things to deal with is death. There's a scripture that I love that says to teach us how to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. And what that is saying to teach us how to value the day, teach us how to take that moment and to recognize those that are around us, to take that moment to share with those that are around us, just to let them know that, hey, whatever it is. And so in order to get this, you have to – people will tell you to just take it one day at a time. Well, truth be told, that's all we're going to get is one day at a time. But if we learn how to take it moment by moment, there will be a moment that tears are going to fall from your eyes. I've been watching each of you through their interaction today, and there are moments that you laughed. There are moments that you cried. When you take those series of moments and put them together, you've made it through a day. And it's those series of moments that will get you through this process. And I thank each of you, and I will continue to be with you through this process. And I thank you, and I have been in contact with her husband. And the question is, well, how's he doing? Well, he said it's like a gut punch that won't go away. And so I ask that you will continue to pray with them and pray for them as they get through this weekend and then the mourning process really begins. And so thank you all, and blessings on you. Thank you, Bishop Stokes. Thank you for all your support and for being there for each of us and all of us. Next speaker, please. Mr. McCain, welcome. Welcome. First of all, good morning. I learned about her death as well, and I just talked to her maybe two months ago. I was up here, and we were on the phone laughing about her kids at Gainesville High School, and she always encourages me. We've lost someone great. There is no word that can talk about this woman. God sends us angels, and she truly was one. She did so much for our county, interacting with the community, the love that she shared, the love that she poured. The one thing I admired about her, she was always humble. I don't care how bad the storm may look. She always had something good to say, always cared. So my words to you guys is be encouraged. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. That is someone that I know have a crown. I have no doubt there are crowns that's been prepared all around her because that's the love that she cared and showed to so many. I would just ask our county, somewhere along the line, I don't care if we name a building after her. I don't care if we name the upstairs manager's office, whatever. We need something to represent who she is, who she was, how she cared, the blessing that she was, and the lives that she touched. We put names on buildings all the time, but really, do they deserve it? This name is a name that truly deserves it. And I'm praying for you, and if you give me one moment, I just want to pray. Father, we thank you for every county commissioner. We thank you for their families. We thank you for Toya and her husband's families. Father, give us the grace and the ability to know that we will trust you in everything we do. We know that all things are possible to them that believe it. And God, we thank you, Lord, that she's made it in to a better place. Lord, we thank you that you will keep our minds, our spirits, our souls, and our bodies. But allow us as a county to trust you. Trust you in the good. Trust you in the bad. Trust you in the sad. But, Lord, we thank you for it now. In your precious Jesus' name, amen. Thank you so much, commissioners. And may God bless you, and thank you for all that you do. Thank you, Bishop Kane. Thank you for your comments. Okay, next speaker, please. Don't be shy. Come on. Yeah, come on up. Hi. Hi. This feels really awkward and inappropriate. I am very sorry for your loss. Thank you. Okay, but here we are anyway. So I am kind of here to talk about the public records requests and sort of the failure of that process. It took six emails for commissioner Prezio. Thank you so much to get the information that I was asking for about dogs used and a euthanasia training. I did a public records request. I asked for, there were two. One, I asked for just a list of all the dogs transferred to Emerald Shores. Instead, I got a list of all the dogs transferred out, period. Clarified that. Got the list of the Emerald Shores dogs. Found out there were 15 more. Couldn't really get any information about where those dogs went until commissioner Prezio helped me out. Another public record request that I did, my daughter and I did together, paid $70, got a whole bunch of information that I did not ask for and not information that I did ask for. So I just have questions about the integrity of that process. For example, I asked for emails related to the transfer of dogs to Emerald Shores. I got no email. Someone else did get an email and sent me a screenshot of the email they got. So they got an email. I didn't get an email. It's all in your email. I'm not going to break down the whole everything that happened again. But I just kind of have another public record request out. And I'm just like, I guess what I'm asking of you is to just look into that process. Who's fulfilling these public records requests? Are they being fulfilled to the extent of the law? So yeah, that's the main thing. The other thing that I want to say is that I am not, I'm in no way opposed to the humane euthanasia training. I think that obviously it's a necessity. And I'm happy that we have people who are being trained to, you know, do this effectively and humanely. Finding out that those 15 dogs were held for four months, they came into the shelter on 11-4, they were euthanized on 222 or 23. That was quite devastating. I mean, that's one of the allegations that the former employee made in the email, one that I was really, really hoping like wasn't true because the idea of those dogs just sitting there for four months just to be, I mean, they were, they were killed. And that they were just, they were kept there for that reason. And that does not seem, that does not seem humane to me. It also, again, with the 11 dogs, right? Like again, with these 11 dogs, I know you guys can't tell us where they went, but the fact that this trainer did something that was unethical and like could be, you know, could constitute fraud, like again, where are the 11 dogs? We're still worried about them. So that's it. I just hope that, I hope we can get this PRR process like straightened out so it's a little bit more streamlined and that we can feel confident about what we are getting. So thank you. Name for the record. We need to close that. Sorry. My name is Melissa Wokosh. Thank you. Hi, Pamela Blisetti. First of all, I really want to say I'm so sorry about Latoya and I'm so sorry to have to bring this kind of stuff to you today because I understand what this loss feels like and I know that this is hard today, but we're here and we've got to do what we've got to do. So I'm going to lay out a timeline of all of our interactions with Mark Eddins with ACARS. 127.26, PO sent by Brittany Diazzo to Latoya County for fees due to Mark D. Eddins, remember his name, of $4,800 for euthanasia class, $525 for travel expenses, $250 for two nights hotel, total $5,575, $5,575, see supplied invoice. 2.19 and 2.20, ACARS foster dogs Lily and 50 Cent are brought back from foster at the request of ACARS under the auspices that they are going to a rescue. Additionally, nine other dogs join them in kennels at ACARS labeled not available. 2.22.26, two-day euthanasia classes held at ACARS run by Mark D. Eddins. At 9.15 p.m., 15 ACARS dogs are transferred on paper to Emerald Shores Humane Society, Inc., and labeled as transferred out, placing their report numbers in the live release category for ACARS. See supplied reports. However, these dogs were neither rescued nor released. They were used in the euthanasia classes. These records were falsified by ACARS management in the late hours. Weeks later, we were told by ACARS that no ACARS dogs were used in this euthanasia class, that the instructor supplied them. See supply documentation. ACARS transferred them to this rescue only to be euthanized right on the property. Have you ever known a legitimate rescue to operate this way? I don't. Never heard of it. 2.23.26, euthanasia class continues and is completed on this day. Fifteen dogs have been euthanized, yet the fact is not reflected in any ACARS report. 2.24.26, the 11 dogs labeled not available on their kennels at ACARS, including Lillian 50 Cents, are taken and transported by Zutrek. This company is also owned by Mark D. Eddins. He charges ACARS $1,925, which is $175 per dog for transportation. Since when do we ever pay for transportation? We do not. Destination? Nobody will say. These 11 dogs are signed out as transferred out by ACARS management, again landing these dogs in the live release rate. 26 dogs in two days were signed out to this man and his business. Mark D. Eddins then requests anonymity behind Florida Statute 828.02. Apparently, unaware that a municipal shelter must operate transparently, both Gina Peebles and Brittany Diazzo comply and refuse to release the name of the rescue of the euthanized dogs and the 15 dogs, and the 11 dogs. Again, have you ever known a legitimate rescue to not want to be recognized? Approximately 2-27-26, the foster of 50 Cent and Lillie, thank you, Glenn Allison. The foster of dogs 50 Cent and Lillie, who were amongst the 11 dogs transferred at the end of this class, calls Eddins, inquiring about these dogs. Eddins is unaware that at that point, we do know the name of this supposed rescue. Eddins claims he hasn't taken any dogs from ACARS, and in fact, rarely works with them. 3-12-2026, Alachua County attorneys released the name of this supposed rescue as Emerald Shores Humane Society, Inc., stating that this statute was meant to protect personal information of adopters and fosters, not organizations. Approximately 3-13-2026, the foster of 50 Cent and Lillie contact Mark again via phone to inquire about these dogs. Eddins changes his story completely and replies that they were adopted out to a farm, but he could not disclose to whom or where. Well, we hear that both of those dogs had a very high prey drive, and would never be functional on a farm. Points to note, none of the 11 dogs were ever posted on a single mainstream online adoption site, not one of them ever. No local Florida panhandle rescues so far have taken possession of any of these dogs. We know because we've been calling. None of the 11 microchips have ever been renewed. Do the math. Facts about Emerald Shores Humane Society. Anyone is able to call their organization a humane society. There's absolutely no affiliation or connection with that national organization. In this case, the name means absolutely nothing. More information. The president is Stephanie Eddins, and vice president is husband Mark D. Eddins. They are registered in a tract house in subdivision in Pensacola, Florida. There is no holding facility for dogs. There are no financial records yet, as this corporation was formed in late 2024. Despite taking and transporting large numbers of shelter dogs, he has no legitimate adoptables on his website. None. Facts about Mark D. Eddins. He's an ex-law enforcement officer who was removed from the Escambia Sheriff's Force. He was charged and pled no contest to grand larceny against his own sheriff's department. He now holds a $300,000 annual contract with Columbia County to take all of their confiscated or stray or relinquished animals. He was recently videotaped dropping a dog and a puppy from Columbia County Animal Services to a high-kill shelter in a different county. The dog he dropped off is no longer listed as adoptable. She's most probably dead. And the puppy was never listed as adoptable. As a taxpaying resident, I just want to understand how this county can continue to employ and protect these people. Gina Peebles and Brittany Diazzo are clearly falsifying reports, transferring dogs to severely questionable rescues, and operating covertly. This, in my opinion, is very criminal behavior and must be dealt with. We feel that they should be placed on administrative leave or fired. Thank you. My name is Lynn Moore. Good afternoon. To begin, I just want to emphasize that our complaints are not directed at the kennel staff, volunteers, and front desk crew at ACAR. Our complaints are focused on the administrative staff, namely Gina Peebles and Brittany Diazzo, who are under the leadership of Michelle Lieberman. The non-administrative staff is awesome, and we appreciate everything they do every day. With the recent loss of staff members, the release of questionable data by ACAR, the refusal to give info on dogs transferred to mystery rescues and shelters after repeatedly denying that this even happened, the sudden uptick in owner-requested euthanasias, and the ongoing investigation of alleged abuse and neglect at ACAR, we can only conclude one thing. Brittany Diazzo is not qualified to remain in her current position as the shelter supervisor. These are a few of her current job duties. Utilize core values in decision-making such as integrity, honesty, respect, and communication. Lead the staff, offering guidance, training, support in an accountable, approachable, and professional manner. Build strong working relationships with department staff, county departments, animal welfare partners, and other local state partners. Formulate standard operating procedures and budgets for maximum efficiency of shelter operations. Produce professional, accurate, quality reports, including euthanasia reports, responsible for humane euthanasia of designated animals in accordance with department or department procedure. Have knowledge of common shelter programs such as adoptions, fostering, transfers to humane organizations, and the promotion of these programs. Responsible for the supervision of daily animal care operations provided by shelter staff to include proper feeding and watering, sanitation of kennels and cages, humane treatment of animals, and appropriate exercise and enrichment. Coordinate medical and animal health needs with the veterinary staff. Case in point, on Saturday, March 28th, a volunteer noted a dog named Bronco had bloody diarrhea and notified staff for cleanup. She again noted blood in the kennel and went to medical to alert the tech, who was busy, but said he'd check into it. He was the only tech there. Later, Bronco was no longer in his kennel, but it had been cleaned. After some time, he was returned to his kennel, but once again it became bloodied. Again, the volunteer notified kennel staff and later noted the kennel was empty, but discovered he had been moved to the back part of the kennel. On Sunday, March 29th, Mary Helen Wheeler was contacted after emails and texts to Kyle asking for updates on Bronco went unanswered. She was able to speak to someone at the shelter and was told Bronco had been taken to the vet that morning, Sunday. Apparently, he had been made to suffer at the shelter through the night. On Monday, staff notified the volunteer that Bronco was humanely euthanized, but no diagnosis was given. Perhaps adequate staffing in a chain of command could have saved Bronco and prevented hours of suffering. This is something a responsible, competent shelter supervisor would do. So to sum things up, Brittany is not qualified to be shelter supervisor, nor are her goals and interests compatible with those of Alachua County. Her goal is to maintain a live release rate above 90% no matter what the cost, and she has possibly manipulated data to achieve this and potentially executed adoptable dogs. Many PRRs support this theory. She does not perform many of her listed duties. She has lost key staff due to her actions, many of which were unprofessional, and has shown little respect for them. She has used unvetted questionable rescues to transfer numerous dogs instead of using reliable vetted local rescues in her county, stating, we don't need help. She is dismissive and critical of staff, does not follow her own SOPs, lacks professionalism, does not maintain a realistic budget, in part due to paying $175 to transfer dogs to Zutrec to their probable death. She does not support TNR for feral population control, which is the gold standard, and she has been responsible for a huge increase in unexplained euthanasia in dogs. It is unknown if there is an emergency call list when medical emergencies happen on the weekends, but if not, there should be. No dog should be made to suffer for hours. That is unacceptable. We need a competent, humane, respectful professional in this position, not a dog executioner, and that person is not Brittany. It is just not about the numbers. It's about the animals, too. Brittany and Gina Peeble should be placed on administrative leave or fired during this ongoing investigation, as we have previously requested. We cannot trust them to run our shelter. Both have proven to be complicit in the allegations against the shelter of animal cruelty and abuse and falsifying data. We have repeatedly asked for this, yet they continue to report for duty at ACARD daily. They are being paid with our tax dollars. Our tax dollars are funding actions that include horrific abuse and neglect. This must stop. Many of us have spent hours per week working with these dogs, whether it's doggy days out, play times in play yards, or leash walks in the area. We have wrangled dogs who are mentally crazed from hours on end in their kennels. We have tossed balls until our arms fall off, letting them run and play and feel the grass under their feet. We take them on day out so they can get away from the noise and smells and unhealthy environment of the shelter, if only for a few hours. We take them on pack walks. They are, in a sense, our dogs. So we are not a group of women who show up to our three minutes of fame every other Tuesday. I have better things to do with my time. The incompetent management needs to be removed for the safety and well-being of these and all future dogs. Our dogs deserve better. We plead with you to take action immediately before it's too late, which, in fact, it may already be. Thank you. Catherine McGuire. We've been here before. We've spoken before. But one thing that has not been, I've not spoken about before, is I work at All Paws Pet Kennel, which is a local boarding kennel here in Gainesville. We pride ourselves on our community outreach from our kennel. And so we have a program with Alachua County Animal Resources to foster dogs for them and to do stray holds for members of the community that cannot do it. We essentially take dogs that have either been in the shelter for way too long or dogs that are just not thriving in the shelter. They're too stressed and they need to get out of there. We take them to our facility and we give them every single ounce of our energy and our time, not costing the shelter anything at all to get them adopted. And we've been very good at what we do. This is important because we were 50 Cent and Lily's Fosters. Those dogs were with us. They were happy. They were thriving. Those dogs were completely different than they were when they left that shelter. Many of you might have met Lily when she was here right outside this auditorium in January because she was at risk of being put on the euthanasia list because she had been at the shelter for too long. We fought for her and we got her off that kill list and we thought we saved her life. She came to our shelter and was doing amazing. 50 Cent loved having coffee with us every morning. Lily loved going for walks and hanging out with the girls in the office. They were amazing dogs. On February 18th, I received a call from the shelter that asked me to return them as soon as I could. That has not happened with any other dogs in this program or within our care. That is not normal. Not only were we heartbroken, but our stomachs dropped because it wasn't right. Something didn't feel right. For three days, I went into the shelter every single day. I called them. I have emails. I asked them repeatedly, why are they being brought back? If they are not going to a rescue, a reputable rescue that has their best interests and heart, then they need to stay with us. We will adopt them. We will pay the adoption fees. We will keep them. We do not want them going to something that completely dismisses everything we fought for. And we were repeatedly told by the shelter, no, we have a great rescue picked out for them. They are going to an amazing rescue. They are going to have an amazing time. They are taking a whole bunch of our long-term dogs. And they are going to give them the best opportunities. For three days, on the 19th, I returned Lily to the shelter. On the 20th, I brought 50 Cent back. On the 23rd, the same day that this euthanasia clinic happened, run by Doug Eddins and his crew, those dogs were transferred to Doug Eddins' property. No one's heard from them. No one's seen them since. We heard the name Emerald Shores, and we at the kennel ourselves reached out to Emerald Shores. And we said, hey, I don't know what happened. It doesn't really matter. Those dogs had the best future lined up with us, and we want them. We will pay any adoption fee. Please just give them back. And that is at the point when Doug Eddins said, I don't know what you're talking about. We don't have anything to do with them. We rarely work with Galatia County. We don't have anything to do with that. I don't know what you're talking about. We unfortunately had to let it go. A couple weeks later, when the PRRs were released, and it was confirmed that those dogs were released to Doug Eddins, we reached out to him again, not maliciously, not with any form of you're a liar. It was a simple, I don't know what happened. We don't care. We just want them back. We will pay any adoption fee. Please return them. And Doug Eddins sent us in writing, those dogs are not with us. Those dogs are not in a rescue. They went straight to adoption, and they're in loving farm homes doing great. Those dogs cannot be with any other animals. Those dogs are not farm compatible. And that completely defies the fact that it was just released by the county that they were taken to rescues across the country. I just want to know where these dogs are. And I know that there's a limit on how much can be said and how much can be done. But at this point, those dogs were taken from our care. They were loved. We wanted to keep them and see them through to whatever their future looked like. And instead, those dogs, for everything we can see, were taken from us and murdered. And that is unacceptable. Euthanasia is going to be a part of animal rescue, no matter how much we don't want it to be. It's going to be. That's never going to go away. But those dogs did not have to be one of those statistics. There is no reason for that. They were doing great, and they weren't costing the county a dime. The shelter does not pay us for any of our programming. They don't pay for boarding, food, supplies, nothing. We provide all of that, and my team of volunteers provides all of their care. It is crucial to us. We love our program. We love what we do for our community. We love our outreach. I fight every single day for these animals, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But with the leadership that is there currently, with the leadership under Gina and Brittany, these dogs were not only taken from us and likely killed, but we were used against our knowledge as pawns in a game of absolute malicious intent, and that is unacceptable. We fight every day to help our community animals however we can. And we don't want to lose that. We want to be able to continue working with the shelter and working with our community in any way that we can, but we absolutely will not be able to do that if Gina or Brittany are in control there and this leadership stays the way it is. Because not only are we missing our dogs, not only do we just have pictures hanging in the office and that's all we've got left, it's not about the constant lying, the manipulation, the records not tracking, everybody saying something different, people literally lying to our faces about where these dogs are. It's not about the heartbreak. The worst part is that we will never be able to get them back. We will never be able to get rid of the feeling that no matter how hard we tried for these dogs, we failed them. And the reason why we think we failed them is because we trusted the system that was supposed to save them. We trusted that shelter to do right by them. We trusted this board to help us fight for what was right and wrong in that shelter. That is what we need. Chris, do I cheer? Go ahead. A little bit more. Thank you very much. And again, I'd like to also relay my thoughts and prayers for your coworker. I mean, I know that devastation and I really wish you grief counseling too. All right, we just heard some serious and very disturbing information concerning outcomes of dogs in shelter's care. The final disposition was not truthfully reported to the public, creating great distrust and information supplied by ACAR. I'm going to switch gears a little bit and present some data that points to another troubling pattern. Sorry, you're asking me a question. Regarding owner-requested euthanasia, which I will refer to as ORE. To get a basic understanding of what ORE is, Dr. Julie Levy, shelter medicine director at UF School of Vet Medicine, define the standard as follows. An intentional act by the owner of the pet to take it to the shelter for the purpose of euthanasia. The euthanasia should be performed the same day. Those should be the only pets in the ORE category. It is important to understand that animals classified as ORE in euthanasia history reports are not included in the live release rate. Getting these numbers correct is crucial for accurately reporting shelter data. The whistleblower letter shared that no contracts or signatures are made regarding the service, resulting in no paper trail. In reviewing euthanasia history reports for the first quarter of this year, I was shocked to see that ORE had skyrocketed compared with previous quarters and years. Thirty-eight dogs have been euthanized under that category from January 1, 2026 through March 31, 2026. In March alone, the number was 17 from a total of 25 euthanized dogs. Eight occurred on the same day. For January, it was 7 out of 23, and in February, it was 14 out of 19. The quarterly data are explored and explained in a letter to the board on April 4th by Brandy Ormerod, a former AWAC chairperson. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend you do, as she provides a wealth of information I can only touch on due to time constraints. I will show a few graphs, though, that tell the story better than words. This is, is it there? This shows, we've got, show quarter, and there's a, pretty much, each other. But here's, if we look at the quarter, 2024, we've got, just by the quarter, quarter one, we can, this is not projected, this is real. This is what we've actually reported first, 2026, quarter one. If you look at that for any other quarter, even over the entire three years that are reported there, you'll see that it's something, something happened. Something different is going on. There needs to be a deep dive in the records into these OREs to determine what causes a massive increase in this category. The whistleblower states in his letter, quote, what will, the shelter does see ORE cases. This label can also be used to conceal behavior euthanasia decisions, end quote. This would certainly improve the live release rate. I received the results of a PRR of the dogs euthanized in March under ORE classification late yesterday afternoon, and I haven't had time to review all of it. I did find one record of a dog that was an owner surrender, had owner surrender paperwork. Animal control officers brought the dog to the shelter where it was evaluated, given vaccines, and had blood drawn. The decision was made to euthanize the dog. Although the outcome was euthanasia, it clearly wasn't the owner's intention upon surrender and should not be called ORE. Surrender forms do refer to euthanasia as a shelter decision, but the surrender form itself is not an owner request for euthanasia. I don't know how many of those listed in that category are similar to this, but for accurate reporting, it should be reviewed. And I actually have a, and this was, I'm sorry, yeah, it was given vaccinations, and blood work was done to evaluate the dog, and then it was euthanized. So my ask today is that there be a signed documentation of owners specifically requesting euthanasia for their pet. Create a paper trail for transparency and to eliminate opportunities to falsify records. Owner surrender forms are not owner requested euthanasia forms. And, you know, if we look at when this started, it also lines up kind of when the leadership and the management team came on board. So I thank you for your time today. Yes, it's Chris Deutsch. Thank you. Hi, my name is Cody Yelton. I don't have a lot to say. I just wanted to say I completely support what these ladies are up here talking about and not what is currently going on at ACAR. So I just wanted to voice my support for all that they're doing. So thank you. Thank you for your comments. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Telford Cartwright. I live here in Lotsworth County, Florida. And first and foremost, I want to give my condolences to the family of Latoya. And, okay, let me cut to the chase. At the old Lotsworth County Fairgrounds, or former Lotsworth County Fairgrounds, a facility is being constructed to serve a purpose. And I would like to say multi-purposes, or a multi-purpose, by the U.S. military, the Army, Reserve. Now, right across the street, there's the Lotsworth County Jail. And there are many people being detained for lengthy or have been sentenced to serve or be held for lengthy sentences, low-level, misdemeanor, criminal allegations like trespassing, check fraud, driving on a suspended license, et cetera, et cetera. And, once again, the facility across the street that will be utilized by the U.S. Army Reserve could act as a trade school, take for example. And that facility is in Commissioner Chestnut's district, if I'm not mistaken. And there are many men and women, who I strongly suspect, who would opt to or who would choose if there was such a program between the county and the Department of Defense. And instead of sitting in the jail serving a sentence, would opt to go across the street, ride across the street, and learn how to work on heavy diesel equipment and obtain a heavy diesel repair or mechanics certification. I don't think that the jail, or I know that the jail, can be utilized in a different capacity other than holding or detaining. Yes, that's my comment. Have a good one. Hello, Soria Lindberg. I also want to offer my condolences to you and everyone who knew your colleague. I know there's a lot of serious issues here today. So, starting off, today is Election Day in the county. So, anyone watching or in the room, City of Alachua, Newberry, and Archer, you can vote until 7 p.m. My family had a nice weekend at the Springs Festival at Poe Springs that the county put on. It was an excellent time. My child got to squeeze an alligator against the animal handler's request. So, that's core memories. And I look forward to more Earth Day events that we mentioned. I also want to say thank you for taking my concerns seriously at the last meeting about the golf course and the environmental impacts of it. Thank you very much for hearing me. Thank you to staff for looking into it. I have an attorney for this and they agree with staff's recommendation. So, I appreciate that. And I also just want to mention when it comes to the staff recommendations at the time for the golf course, the environmental concerns, I also request to include a concern based on the memo I presented from Dr. Sam Upchurch. He's a renowned geologist. To, when it's time to look at that property again, to include geological studies, he requested in the memo that I presented to the dais. So, it's in your records about different testing to do on the ground because the book he wrote about it shows there's springs there. So, just to give us some peace of mind that the property is safe when it is time if they want to put a clubhouse or any other impervious surface there. So, thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Hello, my name is Sam Weeman Epstein. A lot has already been said as far as ACAR and the issues going on there and the animals. But I just wanted to give a few moments just to acknowledge that the dogs, 50 Cent and Lily, that have been discussed, and you guys have heard a lot about a lot, they are individuals. A lot of us, most of us have pets at home. This is 50 Cent, just to put a face to the name because you've heard about this dog so many times, but he was an individual. He happens to also remind me so much of one of my five ACAR dogs that I have at home. This is Lily, another individual. So, here, I know to a lot of people, we're just talking about dogs, but these are sentient beings. These are animals that, you know, had lives that mattered to all of us, even if they don't matter to management and other people. So, we want our concerns to be taken seriously about the fact that management really needs to be changed, and we're not going to back down and be quiet about it. So, thank you. Okay, Mark. So, wow, this is heavy. This is really heavy. Heavy day. It's a heavy day. Wow, holy smokes. I'm sorry, guys. Yeah, thank you. I did not know that lady. And I'm really sorry about these animals, too, because I remember growing up, you know, I remember the very first animals that mom and dad, we moved into this home, and it used to be owned by Australian people before us. And so, there was these, you know, there was these Australian animals in the backyard, and we were, like, this big, and that's what was our job, is to go and feed them. I forget the type of what they were anymore, but that's how I grew up, you know, with all these animals that you didn't know, and hi, and good morning, and that was our job, is to go and get them water and food and stuff like that. So, and we've had animals ever since, you know, and that is totally true. They do have their own. They become real. They listen to you, like this one, he knows when I open up the fridge and I, there's a specific drawer that has cheese in it. He knows when that drawer opens, boom, he's there. He's like, cheese? Yeah, he and Chris are together right now. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's a great dog. And somebody dropped him over the fence with a leash and a collar. We were very lucky. And, of course, I put him on Facebook and everything, but nobody claimed him. It was August, so I figured the students went home, and they couldn't take him with him. But we were very lucky in that sense. So I was going to really talk about the monkey and how the monkey basically is, over the years, has become detached from the earth. And that's because the monkey is born in a, you know, in a hospital, and it's a clinical room, people are wearing masks. And for the vast majority of the monkey's life, he's not really in touch with the land. He's just, you know, stuck in a classroom and dealing with, you know, human interactions and is no longer. And so just the other day I saw this one person, you know, he's mowing, right, he's mowing, but it hasn't rained in, like, 17 days. But if you were to ask the person why you're mowing, well, it's because it's, you know, it's Thursday. I always mow on Thursday, you know. But it's not going to rain for another, like, you know, 12 days either. But, you know, that's the only day I have. It's my free day, you know. And so you see that happening, and it's not because they're bad people. It's just because that's their free day, and they're used to mowing that day. And then you go through these neighborhoods, and you see these retention ponds, and you see these yards. And what you're looking at is sand. It's green stuff in sand with really, really short roots because it's been mowed and mowed and mowed. And so we've turned all these soils into sands. But people don't see that. They don't see that there's no more worms, there's no more life in there. So little by little, we're turning our soils into sands, you know, diminishing the life, you know, in our own. And then wait until we, you know. And there's solutions for that, like you can throw stuff at it and add water to it and stuff like that. Okay, thank you. All right, Mr. Sexton, you want to take the phone lines? Did you say goodbye, Chris? He's leaving. Okay, okay. All right. Okay, Mr. Chair, we have a couple of callers. We have a caller whose phone number ends in 4703. If you will hit star six and state your name, you are in the room. Yes, good afternoon, everyone. This is Patricia Antonici. First of all, my condolences on the loss of your colleague. I am calling in today. If I cut out, please don't hesitate to interrupt and let me know. I'm not at today's meeting because I am home caring for my own dog, Sweet Pea, who was recently hospitalized. I really didn't plan to tend at all, but around the clock here for her inspired me to call in on behalf of the dogs who don't have a home or family of their own because they belong to us too. I want to speak to the sad irony of a county who continues to stall on getting a director into ACAR and continues to refuse the temporary and much-needed help and funding offered by this board while at the same time choosing to retain Gina Peebles and Brittany Diazzo at their positions at ACAR despite both individuals being under investigation and the extensive community outcry for placing them on administrative leave. Our public record requests have also revealed that they and ACAR supervisors routinely engage in falsification of important data and sloppy, if not fraudulent, record-keeping. County management leaders and County Manager Lieberman, all of whom either oversee Peebles and Diazio or are brought in to support them in lieu of this board's suggestion to hire experienced shelter staff, have relayed incorrect information to concerned constituents via erroneous and incomplete responses to our PRRs. County management is either blindly following Peebles and Diazio's lead, complicit in their bad reporting, or willfully ignorant of the truth. Of course, none of these options is acceptable for persons entrusted to serve the public, particularly when the public has continuously warned about these very concerns. Please do not lecture us again about respecting ACAR staff because we're maybe the only ones respecting them and attempting to protect them from horrible management. To the front line kennel staff who may still be present today, we do thank you, but the County isn't helping these individuals or the animals at all. It is shameful that we as advocates have to take time off for work, attend meetings, dig for the truth, and sometimes pay out of pocket to obtain it. All while the entity this county hired to conduct the official investigation into ACAR has yet to contact a single one of us 43 days into a 90-day deadline. All of this might be forgivable if it amounted to nothing more than bureaucratic waste, but tragically what it amounts to is the intentional and targeted death of sentient beings whom our county had a duty to protect. It is unforgivable, and every day that peoples in Diazio remain at the shelter, the animals continue to suffer and die. We've seen it happen with Startle, Confetti, Amber, Laia, Heart, Payne, Jiminy Cricket, Annabelle, Stephen, and Zara, 50 Cent, Lily, Tetris, Pac-Man, Don Julio, Cindy, Marvin Manatee, Chester Cheetah, Turkey, Gala, and Clifford. We've seen it happen with Bronco. But for volunteer-led efforts, it would have happened with Daisy, too. And 16 dogs were mysteriously transferred to yet another undisclosed rescue on March 28th. When does it stop? Who will have the courage to stop it? What is really going on, and why is the county manager so reticent to do what is right? Our animals deserve so much better, and we will not stop fighting for them. The path forward is clear if we as a county are brave enough to pave it. I'm headed back to my sweet pea. Please take up the mantle and caring for these other animals in need. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Chair, we have a caller ending in 3774. If you will hit star six and state your name. Hello. My name is Keith Nichols. Can you guys hear me? Yep. We have you, Ms. Nichols. Go ahead. Hello. So I'm a former technician, kennel technician. I worked at Alaska County Animal Resources from 2023 to 2024. And I just want to echo the concerns of other people in our community in regards to what's happening with certain dogs' whereabouts and the youth in Asia trainings being conducted. I understand that we have a dog problem in Alachua County. There are stray dogs. There are dog attacks. And, you know, there's an excess population of dogs and they're running the streets. And I understand that, you know, we as a county need to get a handle on this. There are various ways that the shelter, the dog overpopulation throughout the years, and this is not a problem by any means. Shelters all across the nation are dealing with this problem. But I'm just concerned about the lack of transparency after reviewing the public records myself compared to the things that volunteers and members of the community have been told by shelter staff on the counts do not line up what records say. So I understand that we have a problem with stray animals and we need to find a way to deal with it. And it's my opinion that if euthanasia is the necessary course of action that the county decides to take, that, you know, I'm all right with that. It needs to be done transparently and it needs to be done with input from the community. I would ask that the county consider for there to be more opportunities for public input. So that way, you know, the people who live in this county who are the ones either calling in about stray dogs or like me are the ones taking them in, working at a kennel and fostering these dogs. It should be up to us to decide what the policy is regarding euthanasia and what we're going to do about the stray dog problem in this county. It shouldn't just be up to one or two people holding a management position in the shelter to decide it should be a community decision. What are we going to do about this problem? And all of the money that was spent on, you know, supposedly transporting these dogs and performing the euthanasia training that could have been spent on things like spay and neuter clinics or other resources that our community has continuously been asking for. Thank you, Ms. Nichol. Thank you for your comment. Thanks for calling in. And Mr. Chair, that was the last speaker. Okay. All right. So we'll go ahead and end public comment. I guess a couple of things. Madam Attorney, the public records request process, that's, I think, under, that's Malika under your shop. Is that something that you are able to look into or look at? So, Mr. Chair, we have looked at it. We get complaints sometimes about certain records not being released, and we do go behind it and look at it. The way the process works is that the requests come in normally through the website. They certainly can come in by phone, and the requests have whatever language they have in it. That language is the language that we provide to the departments, and they provide the records to us. My office reviews them for confidential and exempt information. There's a common misunderstanding that asking a request for information is a public records request. That is not a public records request. A public records request is asking for existing records. Sometimes we get something, for example, I mean, an example is, like, tennis courts. If they ask for every tennis court in Alachua County Park, if we have that record, you know, a record containing that, we would provide that record. If not, there would be no responsive records. We're not required by the law to create records. The records go, the requests go out to the departments. The departments upload to the system, and those are released. What I would say is we don't have, in our, in our, I went back six months, and we have had 90 public records requests on animal, just animal resources. In those, not a single one of them had exactly the same language for what they were requesting. Our, our default is to release more than less. So, you heard that some, some people got records that they didn't particularly want. If, if it's on the fence, if we're not sure if it's responsive, we release it, because people are entitled to those records. Okay. On the investigation, will the document that, I believe the timeline document that was submitted by Ms. Brissetti, Pamela Brissetti, that's made part of the record, is the investigation, will it include looking at this? Will it include looking at owner-requested euthanasia? And will it include looking at the all-paws pet kennel that Ms. McGuire talked about with regards to 50 Cent and Lilly? So, we're getting, we're getting that question a lot, about a lot of things that are coming up. This is an independent investigation, and everything is being passed on to the investigator. To the extent that the county is trying to control the scope of what she might decide to investigate, we thought that was inappropriate. We trust the investigator. She's independent. She's a Florida licensed attorney. And she will decide what is the scope. There was a lot in that original email that was given, and she certainly will hear other things when she goes out and does her interviews. So, like, does she follow the public comments? Does she follow, like, what's happening today? Will she have that information? We provide what we think is relevant things to her. I don't know if she listens to these. Okay. All right. Thank you. Ms. Lieberman, did you have any response or anything you wanted to say to what you heard today? Mr. Chair, I know that there have been, over the past several weeks, many public comments and emails and allegations regarding animal resources. You know, I want to acknowledge that many people that are speaking on the issue care deeply about the welfare of the animals in our shelter, and we do, too. And I know that you do. We could, if we could just, go ahead. Concern and questions and public scrutiny are absolutely appropriate. But treating allegations as fact before those facts are known, and that is why we are doing this independent process, is concerning. You know, some of the commentary has gone beyond disagreement about how the shelter is operated and has directly alleged employees are engaging in serious misconduct, even illegal activity, and that warrants a very careful fact-based process. We understand that it's clear that some of the reporting and categorization issues have caused confusion and understandably have led people to ask questions where practices can be clarified and improved. They should be, that is what is happening. We are making changes to improve on clarity and transparency. For example, as we were sitting here, staff who was listening to the comments informed me that they had already changed the owner surrender documentation. They reviewed it at their staff meeting this morning to make it more clear on the euthanasia piece. So it doesn't mean that people are acting nefariously or intentionally trying to mislead the public. It means that when practices need to be improved, responsible management improves those practices, and that is what we have been attempting to do. Animal resources is a public shelter, and we take in the difficult cases. We take in cruelty cases, dangerous dog cases, neglected animals, animals with significant behavior and medical challenges. Sometimes we have to hold those dogs. They're a case dogs. Sometimes we don't. But we also have a duty to balance animal welfare with public safety, with responsiveness to the community, and responsible management of a publicly funded operation. And that has to matter in this discussion as well. This issue is not being ignored. There is substantial attention from county leadership that is there. I currently have four assistant county managers and two department directors who regularly are spending time at the shelter providing oversight, support, and operational attention. We've hired a veterinarian that starts in less than a month, and we are in the final stages of selecting a new director, which we have been very deliberate about and, in fact, are treating this as if you are hiring a county manager. We have elevated this to a level unheard of for a department director because it is so important to you and to the community. We've made improvements at the facility in the last couple years, substantial improvements. We have additional improvements that remain available to us that we are reviewing on what to do while the pendency of the new shelter comes online. We do have the ability to increase staffing, and those have already been discussed about bringing in more temporary workers. Of course, temporary workers are limited in their ability to touch and come in contact with animals. And we have the planning underway for a new shelter. We are in a very difficult place. The public wants answers, but some of the people with the most direct knowledge are the ones whose information is being discounted. So that makes the process more difficult and more time-consuming. There have been calls to remove individuals with key operational knowledge, even though we have county oversight at the highest levels and do not have any direct evidence of wrongdoing that would warrant excluding them from the process. I think it is important that discussion remains focused on facts. It is important to remember that county employees are public servants, and they are professionals. They are accountable, and they should be, but they also deserve fairness while facts are gathered, reviewed, and addressed through the appropriate process. Publicly, we will continue to provide information as we are able. We will continue to review practices and make changes where warranted. We will continue to be transparent. We will continue to focus on facts, accountability, and improvement. Everyone here shares the same goal, a shelter that is humane, lawful, transparent, and continually improving in the care of the animals entrusted to us. That remains our focus, and that is the work that we will continue to do. And I thank you for allowing me that. Thank you for that statement. Can you give any additional information about the search for a new director with regards to names, dates, what the process is going to be? You said you've elevated it to similar to a county manager. On the 20th, and we will be pushing out information very shortly. On the 20th, the candidates will be here. They will spend time in the morning with folks at the shelter with staff, learning about the shelter and getting to speak with staff. They are spending that afternoon in individual meetings with each of you, so each of you have the opportunity. Even though you don't have the ability to make selections in the hiring process, you do confirm people at this level, so it's important for you to have that so you will be able to speak with each of them. That's April 20th? Yes, next week. Okay. We have set up a special meeting of the advisory board, which will be held here after they meet with you at 4 o'clock in Grace Night, where the Animal Welfare Advisory Board will also have the opportunity to ask them each question separately. We'll bring them in separately to ask them each questions and learn about them and hear from them directly. And then when they leave at 5, I will be there to listen to their thoughts and opinions on each candidate, so I can take that into consideration. How many candidates, Michelle? The finalists will be two. And they're from out of town? Yes. Both of them? Yes. And you're going to announce who they are in the coming week? Yes. And then when they leave at 5 and I stay to hear the comments from the advisory board, they will be going over to the Hippodrome basement where we are having a public meet and greet to give the opportunity for the public to come and talk to them and hear from them and their thoughts and opinions, after which I will, you know, hear from the public on what, you know, as always, I have open door, open, you know, phone, email, whatever policy for anybody to come talk to me about concerns. And I will hear their thoughts and opinions, and then I will make a decision based on comments I've heard from all of those people. So that's next Monday, actually. Yes, it is, Mr. Chair. I mean, we have made this a very – we have tried to ensure – we've listened to the public and tried to ensure that this was a very clear process for everybody to have that ability. We're trying to set this person up for success to ensure that there is a level of comfort from the public with who is coming in. So we are really doing a lot more than we do at this level for any director that we've hired. Okay. Thank you. All right, Commissioners, anyone – okay, oh, the lights are all on. Did you conclude? Yes, sir. Okay, I've got Commissioner Chestnut, Alfred, and Wheeler. No, I'm sorry. No. Did you have your light on or no? I did. Okay, Commissioner Alford, sorry. Sorry. A few things. I wanted to thank the public for recognizing the service of LaToya. This is indeed a very hard day. She was really important to all of us. And I wanted to also thank staff and Commissioner Prizia for responding to the emails regarding animal services instead of all of us responding, having a careful response from one of us that's thoughtful and has the – is better. So I wanted to tell them thank you for that. I also wanted to say that there were accusations that staff was lying to the public or misleading the public. Well, if they're doing that, they're also lying and misleading us. And so if that does prove to be the case in this investigation, there will be repercussions. I just wanted to make that very clear. But I really appreciate the passion that the public has put behind this. And I have to say that the information that has come up about the Emerald Shores Humane Society really does concern me. And I appreciate the work that's gone into digging into that particular organization. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Wheeler and then Commissioner – did you want to speak? Commissioner Wheeler? In the interviews that we're having coming and the reception that we're talking about, will both of those candidates then be there at the same time? For the reception piece? Yes. Yes. Yeah. That seems odd. Well, we've – for county manager comp – for different county manager searches, we've done that. We let them speak a little bit. No, it feels like an election. Yeah. I mean, maybe in some respects it is. But it's not – we're keeping them separate for obvious – for certain processes. But the meet and greet, it would be difficult to do that. And so it's just really for people to mingle and have those conversations. And do these candidates understand the situation that they're coming into locally in the community? Mr. Chair, they've been watching. These were candidates – yes, they have been watching. They've been paying attention. So they're not unaware that – They are not unaware. Okay. All right. Wonderful opportunity. I have assured them – I have assured them that myself, the administration, and this board is supportive and will continue to be supportive. So they are still willing to be part of the process. Great. And I would also thank Anna for taking this on, too, because I realize that once I have been so involved in there, they may not take me as seriously as someone coming in with fresh eyes. And so I appreciate you taking that on. I'll still continue to go out there and advocate for those workers out there, you know, in the job that's trying to be done. But I do appreciate you taking that lead. But I do appreciate you taking that lead. It's not an easy one. And, Mr. Chair, I know Commissioner Prizia passed this along to at least one constituent. But the decision was made pretty quickly to no longer use Emerald Shores, at least at a minimum during the dependency of the investigation. We can always go back and look at it, but I already instructed staff a while ago to not do that. And I have one more question, too, then for Michelle. Then for the investigation that we've got coming on, how soon will they – I know this is kind of a difficult place to begin, but how are – when will they start interviewing some of these people? Are these folks that are here the ones going to be interviewed? It's under Sylvia Scheer. Okay, please. So, Mr. Chair, the investigator will decide who the investigator is going to interview. She has had a little bit of difficulty getting an expert to support her, but she has one now. So she will begin the interviews, I imagine, with current sitting employees, because those are people we can compel to participate. We will help her schedule those. I'm not sure where she'll go from there, but, again, it's independent, and we're not supposed to be directing those things. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Prizia. I just wanted to say – respond to my colleagues to say, you're welcome. You know, for me, it's – I really want this investigation to be unbiased, and I trust the investigator implicitly. I trust her reputation. I trust her experience. And I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that investigation because I want to make sure that we get all the information we need. I mean, as Commissioner Alford said, if there is any criminal activity, if there is any malfeasance, if there is any falsifying of records, if there is any lying, I mean, like, they're – you know, the people who are responsible better not ever work for this county again, if that's the case. But, you know, we need to let that due diligence happen. And you all can be digging and doing your public records request. And we appreciate that you care enough about the community to try to find that information out for yourselves. But I think we need to let this investigation unfold. But I also recognize that it's important to give people the information that they've requested to the extent that we can do that. So I've really been trying to make sure that that's happening. And I just want to say to the people who are questioning our public records request process, I also trust our legal team implicitly. I think we have an amazing team of attorneys for this county. And I think that they work very hard to make sure that they're doing everything that they can to get you the information. You know, they have to gather the information from the departments that have the – that are the subject matter experts. Then they have to go through that and figure out, like, what it is you asked for. And then they have to give you as much of that as they think you want without giving you more of it. And then, you know, and sometimes things get lost in translation. I don't think – I can genuinely tell you I don't think there's anything nefarious going on. I know that there's no intention of trying to leave things out or not provide you the information through the public records request process. I believe in the integrity of that, and I believe that our PRR team is doing the best that they can to get you the information. And I think that if it comes down to the fact that some of the records that you are getting were falsified or left out or whatever, again, hopefully that will be part of our investigation. And if not, you know, we can always go back and, you know, Manager Lieberman has already said here and to all of us that if the investigation does not yield information around the SOPs or procedures or policies or paperwork that we find necessary, then we can always go back and do a deeper dive and a deeper audit. I do still feel strongly that I hope that now and in the future we will consider how oversight of animal resources is being handled because I do think that it's going to be hard to have this ongoing investigation happening, a new director coming in and not having clarity about that with all of the assistant managers and directors and everybody being engaged. So I hope that we'll take that into consideration and come up with a plan for that, at least for the near-term future. But overall, I just wanted to say to everyone that I think I know that it's hard to be patient in a situation where you feel like things aren't being handled appropriately, but we're asking you for your patience while we conduct this investigation so that we can do the best not just by the dogs and the cats and the animals who are under our care, but for the public and so that we can do our job well. Thank you. Okay, and I just have a couple things I want to say to wrap this up, and then we'll get on to our agenda. It's been a week. You know, the chair's had some things going on, and I want to echo Mary and Mary Helen's comments when I don't even know when it was. The days are kind of running together. It might have been last Thursday or Wednesday. I don't know. Mark and I were talking about four or five different issues, and at the end he said, By the way, do you mind if Anna takes the lead on this? And I just thanked him immediately, and Anna, it took a lot off my plate. Thank you. Yeah. So I wanted to say that. I also want to thank the public. I'm an auditor. I love timelines, and I have questions now, and I'm just going to say them. I don't want them addressed right now, but I want to know why Lily and 50 Cent were asked back. I want to understand that. I want to know more about Mr. Eddins and his company. I want to hear more about what you just said, Manager Lieberman, as far as the owner requests and euthanasia. And I want to support entities like Ms. McGuire's All Paws Pet Kennel that serve this community with big brains but bigger hearts. That's what LaToya was wanted, actually. So thank you for this. I agree with my colleagues. We're going to let this investigation happen. We're going to get to the bottom of it. We're going to hire somebody that's great. We're going to support them. I am very happy that the manager has asked every assistant county manager to participate at the shelter over this time period so that when we have the right person that cares about animals, that cares about our community, we can figure out who that person should report to. What is the appropriate organization? And we can interact with our manager to give her our thoughts. It's the right time. It's a budget cycle. Oftentimes the manager kind of reorganizes some stuff based on what's happened. And so I trust our manager. I trust our attorney to bring us back really good recommendations during that process. With that, I'm ready to move on to the agenda. Are we ready to move on? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you all for being here and for indulging us for the delay in public comment. We actually went a little bit over an hour, which I know is more than what we typically do. Sorry. So, Mr. Clerk, I think that brings us to the announcements. Yes, sir. All right. So we are now to the announcements. A little bit, Mark, you're a little late, but you're right. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. All my announcements have expired. Okay. Let's get going on the next week. So, Mr. Chair, first, I want to just recognize that counties are an essential part of the public health system and delivering services that protect and promote our community's well-being is essential. NACO is kicking off their inaugural public health leadership initiative, and it was an incredibly competitive process to become part of that first cohort. And they were overwhelmed with the number of applications. But I just wanted to acknowledge that from Paul Myers' shop, Paul Myers is the best Department of Health director in the state of Florida, and Nicole Williams, from his shop, was chosen to be part of this first cohort. And I'm particularly happy to report that Commissioner Mary Alford was also selected to be part of that. So, they will be taking part in this and learning successful strategies and how to champion public health issues in counties. So, we're very proud of that. Thank you. We actually are going to be doing a project as part of this, and the project that we submitted centers around the gap analysis of immunizations in the community. So, it was a topic that was certainly in a lot of discussion right now. Thank you. Mr. Chair, also, we've got some big stuff happening in the upcoming days. We are going to be doing the ribbon cutting for East Tumblin Creek and Forest Edge housing community. It's going to be happening Tuesday, the 21st, at 930 at Forest Edge, which is at 4341 Southwest 13th Street. And as you know, both facilities and community support services have been extremely involved in this project. We're going to have over 60 housing units to serve the most vulnerable in our communities. If you go to our website, this project is in the spotlight. We encourage you to do that and to learn more about it. Then, also, Mr. Chair, finally, we wanted to take a moment and just highlight the What's Good Gainesville and Alachua County Guide of Events. Jessica Huroff, who is the department director over the tourism office, Elizabeth Reyes is the director of that department. They have, for years, been producing the What's Good Events Guide. It actually won the gold standard in tourism awards in the state of Florida. It's called the Flagler Award. And the gold standard of the Flagler Award is the Henry Award. And this won the Henry Award as one of the most valuable tourism tools. But as you well know, bed tax and tourism tax is not all about tourism. This board has made it clear that destination enhancement is also a critical part of what we do. This is the absolute best guide in Alachua County for planning what you're going to do over the weekend. So we wanted to let folks know that there's a spotlight on this on our homepage, and it tells you how to sign up and have this delivered to your inbox every week. And I just thought, since I have this opportunity to speak, I would just add that I hired LaToya about 21 years ago, a little over 21 years. I think I'd been at the county for about five minutes when I hired her. I think a month maybe after hiring her, she let me know that she was going out on maternity leave. I'd already learned after a month that I had, you know, I was so fortunate to have hired her. And I just said, you can go as long as you promise to come back. She was promoted five times in 20 years, and I'll never forget the day when Randy Reed came and told me that he was taking her away from me. I won't tell you what I was thinking about. One more county man. That's when she came upstairs, and, of course, you all know that five promotions later, she occupied the center office in the county commission area. And, you know, her loss is incalculable to me, and we were fortunate to have her as long as we did. Those are the announcements. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for those announcements and for that tribute to LaToya. She was really the ongoing commissioner. She was in the middle. She was the commissioner. You know, we moved her office to the middle two years ago, I think. No, it was right before we came in, I think. Yeah, it was. Was it right before you came? No, no, I think she moved to the middle when you were elected. Right, right, right when we came in. Yeah, and then I moved down to Hutch's. Yeah, I moved down to Hutch's. Hutch gave me that table with the uncomfortable care. I considered her a colleague. I truly did. Yeah, absolutely. She was one of us. Commissioner Prizia, push your button. Okay, maybe about the housing. Oh, I know. It was actually about what's good. I just wanted to encourage people to sign up for it. It really is great. They do such a great job, and they also have social media you can follow, and they do a really great job. And I just want to say an extra thanks to Bailey McClellan in the Economic Development Department, because she's been working with them to highlight our agricultural community and our local food scene, and some of the work they've been doing lately. It's just been so great to tell the story about all the amazing opportunities we have for agritourism and local food venues and places you can go visit. So I just wanted to say a shout out to them, because I know we had given them that direction, and I can already see them implementing it with rapid speed, and it's just cool to see how many amazing things there are to do in our community every week. That's right. Okay, great. Okay, Mr. Clerk, that takes us to board and committee items? Yes, sir. First up is the Arts Council appointments. We have two nominees, Jay Rosen and Shanae Vincent. We have one open. Okay, are Mr. Rosen or Ms. Vincent here? Probably gone. No? Okay. Why don't we go ahead and, if Jay Rosen is selected, choose another applicant to fill also. Jay Rosen is the current alternative. Correct. All right, I'll do a roll call. Commissioner Chestnut, can I have your nominee, please? Jay Rosen. Commissioner Przia, can I have your nominee, please? Commissioner Alford, your nominee? Rosen. Commissioner Wheeler? Rosen. I'll make it unanimous. Rosen. Second. Motion is second. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Seeing none back to the board, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay, thank you. Excellent. Next up, Human Rights Board Annual Report. Holding your comments during the proclamation, and we look forward to hearing from you now. My name is your hat. Welcome, Ms. Lindbergh. Hello, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. My name is Soria Lindbergh, and I am here on behalf of the Human Rights Board Chair to present our annual report. You have the details in front of you, so I don't need to read it back to you. But just some background for those watching or listening. The board was established under the Alachua County Human Rights Ordinance, and it prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and places of public accommodation. The Equal Opportunity Office investigates discrimination complaints filed under the ordinance, and they provide investigative reports to the Human Rights Board. And then the board renders a determination as to whether or not a violation of the ordinance occurred, so we rely heavily on them. We're very grateful for them supporting us. And the board supports and participates in public education and outreach efforts of the Equal Opportunity Office to inform the public of their rights and advance the principles of equal opportunity and equal access. And some highlights we had in the last year is public education and outreach efforts. We promoted Fair Housing Month in April, which we're doing this month as well. And there's also going to be announcements on Channel 12 about this as well for Fair Housing Public Service. They hosted a housing resource fair with community partners, participate in the fifth annual arts festival, co-sponsored the annual Gainesville-Alachua County Employment Law Seminar in June for local and public-private employees. And this is a very popular event, 150 attendees every year. And for the 2026 Employment Law Seminar, it's tentative for June 30, 2026, and more details will be shared when they're available. We've also co-sponsored the annual Disability Awareness Expo in July and participated in different small business outreach and events. Thank you so much to the BOCC for your continued support of the Human Rights Board. And we have some staff here as well that you saw during the proclamation. So thank you. Okay. Commissioner, is there any questions? Commissioner Chester? No. No, thank you. I don't know why it keeps coming on. I don't even touch it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Motion to accept the report. It comes on. Yeah, it does come on. Yeah. Second. Okay. Motion and a second to accept the report. Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Yeah. And could the staff that were here recognize themselves by waving? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. Okay, Mr. Clerk, next item is the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee presentation, and the recommended action is to hear the presentation. Good. Welcome. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the mission. We can just get that microphone right under. There we go. I'm never. I hate these microphones. I'm going to clip on. Well, again, I said good afternoon. My name is Perry Coon. I'm the current chair for the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, and I'm only here to present our 2025 annual report. Although public comments today, we have obviously, we're getting into 2026. We've had some discussions about, you know, some of the things that were brought up today, but I'm only here to present the 2025 annual report. So, before I do that, I would like to say that my personal experience within the limits of an advisory committee that staff at all levels, I personally feel like I've been very transparent, and without staff, I don't know how other committees do it, but without staff, our committee certainly couldn't function. They do a phenomenal job putting these things together, including helping me with these talking points, digging back through all of our beating minutes and whatnot. So, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them. And, but moving on, over the past year, the AWAC committee heard pet inclusive housing study presentation, received regular updates on the new shelter. We engaged in discussions on found pet checklists for local veterinarian practices and rescues, medical treatment protocols, including the Glasgow scales and feline Grimace scale, and we got updates on, on all the statistics going out there at ACAR. We had a discussion on breeder licensing and registration, and a discussion on the transfer of animal enforcement to the sheriff's office. Now, I got a little insight on that, but, you know, I just want to say that the discussions that were held in those meetings over that transfer had direct impact on negotiations. I mean, the voices were heard, you know, from the committee members and, and directly impacted, which led to the transfer of investigating criminal animal enforcement to the sheriff's office on May the 8th with three, with three investigators. Let's see. One of our members, Dr. Julie Levy, she assisted with veterinary interviews. And as you've already heard, a new vet for the shelter is, is coming on board May the 4th. Our vice chair, Melissa Jenkins, she assisted with director interviews. And as I learned today, and we've already heard that we'll have an opportunity as a committee to meet with the two finalists on Monday to see what we think about them and provide feedback. One of the things I neglected to mention that, as far as a sheriff's office involvement, is there's mention of Paul's on parole program, you know, coming back. And I understand there's talks in the work for that. I don't have a lot of details at this time, but it was something brought to our attention. And then looking ahead for the rest of this year is, is we're planning on reviewing proposed changes to the animal welfare related standard operating procedures that have been recommended by an outside consultant. That kind of wraps it up for me today. Okay. Good report. Thank you. Commissioner, any questions? No. I just want to make a quick point. When we made that merger with the sheriff's department, nobody lost their job. Remember? Yep. Nobody lost their job. And I don't want to speak out of turn, but so far, so good. So far, so good. You know, things are, things are, I feel very positive about things. Yeah. And I want to just comment that, did you conclude? I'm sorry. Yes, I did. I just want to comment that I'm really glad your group is part of the interview of the director, you know, animal welfare. We're really looking for an animal welfare person. And so thank you for participating in that process. That's really important for this board. Yeah. And thank you for the report. All right, Ms. Goons. Oh, I just wanted to say, I didn't know the Glasgow scale was used with animals. That's super interesting. I knew about it with people, so I just looked it up about using it with animals. That must have been an interesting presentation. It was news to me as well. But we, we, you see that a lot with horses too. And more my experience, more my level, you know, I don't know if they call it that specific thing, but you do pick up a lot. Interesting. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you for, for all your, you know, time and effort with this. I know it's been an interesting and probably tough time to be in that position. So thank you. I get a motion to accept the report. So moved. Second. Motion and second to accept the report. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Seeing none, back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion's unanimous. Okay, sir. Thank you. Thank you for staying, hanging with us. All right. Mr. Clerk, that moves us to land conservation projects. What's the next item? Yes, sir. The next item is the East Noonan's Lake Putts and Romero track option contract to purchase real property. All right. We've got recommended action for recommended items. So, Mark, it's interesting, but this thing, it just pops up names, like my name just came up, Mary Helen's name just came up, and we're not pushing the button. It's happened with Chuck. I don't know if you could maybe look into that. Yeah. It just spontaneously wants us to speak. It's spontaneous. Right. Yeah. It just lights up everything. Yeah. All right. Sorry. Go ahead. You are recognized. I just wanted to let Mark know that next time it happened, and it just, Mary Helen's light just turned on. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Andy Christman, Land Conservation Program Manager, and I'm presenting for your consideration today the option contract for the East Noonan's Lake Putts and Romero acquisition. This is a property owned by Francis Putts and Claudia Romero. It's a fee simple acquisition. It consists of two parcels, approximately 55 acres. Current zoning and land use is agriculture and rural agriculture. You can see on this location map, the property in question is the red-colored property. It's on the southeast side of Noonan's Lake, and it does have frontage on Noonan's Lake. It's not adjacent to other conservation lands, although it is fairly close to some conservation lands in the Noonan's Lake Conservation Area. Zooming in, you can see the aerial image with both of the parcels outlined. And at this point, I'd like to note that one of the title exceptions on this property relates to access to the parcels, which is best seen with this slide. The western or left parcel has access. The eastern parcel, if it were to be severed from the western parcel, would not have independent access. So access to the eastern parcel depends on the western parcel. You can see it's a small amount of frontage on Noonan's Lake and a fair footprint of lakeshore swamp in the area that's the wetland area adjacent to Noonan's Lake. It consists of the lakeshore of Noonan's Lake, bay gall, mesocammock, and mesoc to scrubby flatwoods. It falls within the east Noonan's Lake strategic ecosystem, the east Noonan's Lake, Alachua County Forever project area, the Florida Wildlife Corridor, the Ocala to Osceola or O2O Wildlife Corridor. It's connecting those two national forests. It also does contain part of the footprint of the Lake Pithlachoco canoe site cultural resource area, which is the entire lakeshore of Noonan's Lake. The Orange Creek Basin Management Action Plan crediting area, and you've heard Stacey Greco speak about DMAP crediting areas quite a few times, I think, and we'll hear more. And of course, Noonan's Lake is an impaired water body as designated by FDEP. Now, this property does not have a frontage on a public road, so access to the property will be limited for the public to tours led by county staff, but it does have legal access, as I mentioned earlier. Some images from the property looking out at Noonan's Lake and some of the habitat on there, including the lakeshore swamp and the uplands. There are remnants of a citrus packing house on the property. Historically, the property had a, there was an orange grove in this area, and this, these pillars are remnants of the packing house associated with that. Of course, you can see a little bit of coral artesia in there as well. This is proposed as a fee simple acquisition with Alachua County as the lead manager, the closing in August, assuming that no title defects are found during due diligence. There are no permitted exceptions in the contract, but there are a few exceptions that are listed for your consideration to accept in advance. One, number three, relates to the fact that it has lake frontage. This is actually a standard exception we don't normally call out to you, but we did call this lake frontage exception out because it's referenced in exception number seven so that you would see what it's referencing. Exception five states that there's a plat, so there was a four-parcel plat, historic plat, in that area of which one of these parcels is part of that historic plat. We couldn't find any indication of any constraints or issues associated with that plat. The parcel immediately west of what we're presenting to you does have a house on it. It was within the plat. The other parcels are undeveloped. Those are all owned by one family, the Zettrauer family, and we don't foresee any impacts from that. Number six relates to the easement that benefits this parcel. So number six establishes the access to the parcel. Number seven is a fairly standard one for anything with lake frontage. It basically means that the report riparian or water edge rights and the potential for public use of a beach, if there were a beach there on the waterfront, is not covered by the title insurance, and that the United States government might have claim to it or people may have the right to navigate by water to it. That's a standard exception that we typically see on any properties we acquire that have water frontage. And number eight is the one that talks about the fact that the two parcels have to stay together for them both to have access. The purchase price in the contract is $549,400 with an estimated due diligence of $47,308. Total expenditure request, including the standard 10% contingency that we build into our budget, is $656,379. And we have these recommendations, which I'm happy to read, if you would like. Okay. Questions? Anna? I'm excited about protecting this. I know it's one of the places where we still have some of the old-growth cypress along the lake. I don't think this area was logged the way some of the others. I don't know if it's because of that packing house or what precluded it, but it's a beautiful property. I would give staff's recommendations. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any discussion? So, Mark, these two lights just jumped up again, Cornell and Wheeler. Maybe it's us, Mary Helen. Could be. We light up the world. Cornell and Wheeler. I have a curiosity question. Is this at all related to the author, Jack Potts? Yes. Yes. I thought it was, but I wasn't sure. First name, Francis. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is his property. Okay. Anyone in front of public wish to speak to the motion? Seeing none, back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks, Andy. All right. Now we will move to our public hearings. The first public hearing is a hearing on an ordinance amendments to the whistleblower ordinance. All right. Recommended action is to hold a public hearing. Amend part two, title two, chapter 23 on personal article three, whistleblower of the Elastricht County Code. So, Mr. Chair, this is a request of the board to add explicitly volunteers into the persons covered by the whistleblower protections. I think they're already covered, but this actually names them volunteers. Correct. All right. Do I hear a motion? Move. Staff recommendation. Second. Second. Motion and two seconds. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. All right. Now we move to our second public hearing. Mr. Clerk. That is Z25-000034, a request for a small-scale land use amendment to Alachua County future land use map from medium density to medium-high density at 7816 Southwest Archer Road. All right. The recommended actions of staff recommend that the board adopt the ordinance approving the requested land use amendment. And, Mr. Brewington, you are recognized. Tell me about where your resume is. Aye. Not yet, Mr. Chair. This is not a quasi-judicial item, so my resume doesn't come into play yet. Thank you for asking. It's still on file. It's still on file, yes. It's on file. This is actually a two-parter. We have this as the legislative item. It's a small-scale land use amendment along Archer Road. This property has been actually heard by the board before a few years ago. It is back for the small-scale amendment. It is to amend the future land use on an approximately 8-acre parcel from medium-density residential, which is 4 to 8 dwelling units an acre, to medium-high density residential, 8 to 14 dwelling units an acre. There is also, again, going to be a related rezoning request that you will hear following this one in the quasi-judicial portion of the public hearing. This is located along the north side of Archer Road, just west of Tower Road in the Archer Tower Activity Center. You can see from the aerial photograph, this is a mostly vacant 8-acre parcel. Park Lane Apartments are off to the east. Chestnut Village is off to the west. Chestnut is single-family residential, rather higher-density single-family residential, with Park Lane being mixed-use apartments, and there's some commercial in there as well. Right now, this is a medium-density residential land use. The request, if approved, would go to medium-high-density residential land use, which would allow up to 14 dwelling units per acre maximum. Right now, the medium would allow a maximum of 8 dwelling units per acre. Again, this lies in the Archer Tower Activity Center. Frontage is on Archer Road. There is an access point along southwest 79th Way. There will be interconnectivity with Park Lane PD to the east, and that is 645 residential units. Over 60 acres are about 10.5 units per acre within this, actually, medium-high-density residential land use range. There will be also a transition, if this is approved, from single-family development, which is Chestnut Village, off to the west, and multifamily development, which is Park Lane, off to the east. So this is kind of a transitional property, although it does lie within the activity center. And the maximum number of units permitted would be 112. This is an increase from 64, which is presently allowed. You can see from this chart, peak daily trip generation would increase by 276 trips per day, based on the daily total amounts for single-family, as opposed to multifamily. Overall, the proposed request is consistent with our plan and the following specific policies. There's four of them. Level of service standards, as I found in the future land use element, will not be impacted by this request. The proposed amendment is also consistent with the Archer Tower Activity Center policies that call for a mix of both residential and non-residential uses within the activity center. The proposed request is consistent with principle three of the transportation and mobility element, by providing for the efficient use of the urban cluster, by directing new development and infrastructure to areas where mobility can be provided via multiple modes of transportation. You're on a major arterial, and there's also a bus route going along Archer Road and Tower Road, very nearby. Lastly, by providing greater density within the activity center, the proposed request is consistent with our energy element, specifically policy 3.1.4, which provides for residential development within easy access of public transportation and urban amenities, grocery shopping. There's a public right there. So, again, providing these units with this density in this area is consistent with this policy and our comprehensive plan. Mr. Chair, there's actually a two-part recommendation. The first part is that staff recommends that the board find the proposed land use amendment consistent with the comprehensive plan and that they adopt the ordinance approving the request. Part two of it, which is an add-on, but which is actually very important, is that staff also recommends that the board approve the land use restriction agreement, or LERA, for affordable housing and authorize the chair's signature. Mr. Chair, as you will recall, the board recently passed a policy language that allows for 10% of any increased density to go toward affordable housing. This is achieved via a land use restriction agreement, or LERA. This is the first one. 48 additional units will result in a maximum of five affordable housing units in this development. The actual number will be dependent upon how many additional units are there, but that is also going to be achieved via this LERA, which the applicant has already signed, attorney's office has already signed, and we'll leave this here for your signature. So, it's actually a two-part request, Mr. Chair. Approve the amendment for the small-scale land use and also adopt the LERA concurrent with that. And that concludes staff presentation, unless there's any questions. Yes, I really did push my butt. You mentioned 276 trips per day. I understand that the only public comment to this particular change has been concern about traffic on Archer Road. Is there any way to turn that 276 trips into a percentage of the number of trips on Archer Road? It's got to be. I just wanted to put it in perspective. I don't have the latest traffic numbers, either Mr. Dawson or Mr. Lawani might have a better idea. I don't have this on there. And I don't need to know. It's just I wanted to tell the public that this is really not, in a percentage-wise, this is not a big increase. I mean, the traffic numbers on Archer Road are in the thousands, and so I would imagine this would be, like you said, a fractional number. Again, I can't give you the exact number because I don't have it in front of me, but it is not that big of an increase as compared to the overall capacity on the road. Thank you. And with that, are there any other questions? Mine had to do with your traffic, the traffic too. Maybe not so much this development that you're saying won't have that big an impact, but there are more developments that are coming. And I didn't know if there was any way that we could somehow very creatively require that these new developments, I don't know the term, Mary, the access road that runs parallel for a business or for development, you know, that is parallel to the road where you're using. Like an access road? Maybe that's what I'm saying, an access road. I don't know if there's any way that we can somehow include that as people are planning. You know, we are asking to accommodate trees. We're asking to accommodate, you know, play areas and environmental areas within a development. I didn't know if there was some way that we could also, particularly on Archer Road, where there is so much activity, and it just seems to be increasing by the day. What do you think? Is there any way to get more of that traffic off the road and into the development quicker? Mr. Chair, Chris Dawson, Principal Planner for Development Services. So first, I just do want to point out, you can see in the aerial here, this is a little bit older, that there is a connection through Mayfair, and that goes all the way over to Tower Road. So there is a sort of second way to get places. There's actually also a connection. You can't see it because this area doesn't show, but there's another connection up here also to that apartment complex. So there are ways to get out to other ways, to other places. You also connect back through Chestnut Plantation over to those subdivisions and then back out. We're limited a little bit by the decisions of the past to have subdivisions that don't go anywhere, and they sort of block things in. So I think to the extent that we can plan for that in developments going forward, we are. That's something that's required is to provide those additional connections to other future development or existing development if the studs are there. So, I mean, the short of that is any trips on this specific site are going to go. They have other ways to get out there. They have other ways to get out there. Okay. But some of the concerns then we too have from other subdivisions is they cut through their own subdivisions. You know, that increases the traffic there too. So, no, I just think it's something we probably really need to be aware of as these new developments are coming in, the impact it has on the existing traffic, which I know you all already are. I was just trying to be clever and think that maybe there was a way that we could get, which you've already done. We do our best. I did want to answer the question about traffic. FDOT says there are 23,150 current trips per day on this, I'm sorry, 23,500 trips on this segment of Archer Road. So you'd be talking about what less than 1%. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah. First, I want to acknowledge this is our first person taking advantage of the increase in zoning and the affordable housing provision that we've put in. So it's exciting to see that happening. Can you remind me for the publics what the affordability range is, like what we're holding them to? I did it 80% AMI or below. Is that correct? Okay. Sure. Excellent. It's great news and exciting stuff. I mean, I know it's baby steps in the right direction. It's just a few units, but every unit helps. And I know that our affordable housing advisory committee is going to be very excited to know that this is happening for real. So thank you all. Move staff recommendation. Second. My only comment is about trips. It reminded me of a byerly conversation when we approved Newberry Village. And the whole discussion was how many trips this was adding. And as we were talking through it, staff pointed out, you add those trips in the urban cluster. Because if you don't, then those developments will happen farther out. And you don't eliminate the trips. You just make them longer now. And so it's a really important point or something like this within the urban cluster. And I'm glad you guys brought it up because, you know, these are trips right on Archer Road. And, yeah, Archer Road is busy. But not for these. These trips may be out in, you know, in Newberry or nothing wrong with being in Newberry. But if they stayed in Newberry as opposed to coming in, that's where the trips kind of get you. So this prevents sprawl. It's right on a road that one in four, one in five folks in Alachua County work. You have health in the University of Florida. And it's a good project. And we appreciate the developer with the Laura. Yeah, Mr. Chair, just to clarify, we want to make sure that the motion included the Laura as well. Yeah, the motion. Yeah, all of staff. Thank you. Yeah. Yes, there are. I hope so. Okay. All right. Any public discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Chuck, your light just turned on. Did you push that button? All right. All right, Mark. Chuck. Now Chuck's got a phantom light. If you don't talk, it gets, I don't know. We're working on it. I get this fixed before next year because I can. All right. Now we have a quasi-judicial. Correct. Mr. Clerk. And the county attorney has the announcement of the procedures for the process. Mr. Chair, this is a quasi-judicial. Hearing, anyone wishing to testify or present evidence during this hearing will be sworn in prior to speaking. Through the chair, all speakers may ask questions, seek clarification, and respond to comments or presentations. Anyone presenting written materials to the commissioners for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's official record of the proceedings. Florida law requires that the county commission's decision in a quasi-judicial action be supported by competent, substantial evidence presented during the hearing. Competent, substantial evidence means that the board's decision is based on enough credible evidence that a reasonable person could agree. Persons presenting opinion or factual testimony may rely on any factual information in the record to support their testimony. Opinion testimony may be given by people qualified to give such an opinion. And I do not, I think we're just staff, so I don't believe we have any parties here. Mr. Chair, if we can inquire of each commissioner, if you've received any ex-parte communications involving Z-26-00001, and if so, please disclose those. No. No, I have not. All right. Anybody wishing to address this item, if you will please be sworn at this time. Do you swear or affirm any testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Okay. Mr. Burrington, I have a funny feeling we're going to find out where your resume is. Mr. Chair, good afternoon again. Jerry Burrington, senior planner in the Alaska County Department of Growth Management. I have been sworn a copy of my resume is on file and has been for the last 28 years, although it needs improving, I think. How's the picture on the resume? With hair. Jeff wanted me to ask. Yeah. Just don't go there. And for the record, both of these items, this and the legislative item, were properly advertised and proof of publication was provided to the clerk. The second item is the quasi-judicial, the rezoning. Now that the land use item has been approved, we need an implementing zoning district. And this is going to be very repetitious, so I'll try to go through it as quickly as I can. But this is a rezoning request from R1B, which is a single-family residential zoning district, to R2A, which is a multifamily zoning district. Again, the R2A would implement the medium-high-density residential land use at 8 to 14 dwelling units an acre. This is associated with the previous application that changed the land use to medium-high-density residential. Same site, Mr. Chair, on north side of Archer Road, west of Tower Road. Same aerial, Mr. Chair, and only this time we have a medium-high-density residential land use. Right now, zoning district is R1B. That allows up to 8 dwelling units an acre and is usually implementing higher-density single-family residential. If we go to R2A, we go up to 14 dwelling units an acre, and this implements that medium-high-density residential land use, usually through multifamily apartments and the like as part of that development. The same thing, the fringes on Archer Road, with access via 79th Way, Park Lane to the east, Chestnut Development to the west, and this is a transition, again, from single-family development, which is the Chestnut Development, to the multifamily medium-high-density residential R2, associated more with the Park Lane area at the corner of Archer Road and Tower Road. The proposed request is consistent with our comprehensive plan and the unified land development code, and as well as the specific policies cited below. The proposed amendment is consistent with the Archer Tower Activity Center policies, which do call for a mix of residential and non-residential uses within the activity center. The request is also consistent with policy 7.1.2 of the future land use element, which establishes criteria in the plan for rezoning requests, and these consist of availability of infrastructure, and the relationship of the proposed development to the surrounding area. The request is also consistent with the criteria found in our code, and specifically Section 402.77, when we consider a change to a proposed zoning district. And again, those criteria are all met by this request. So therefore, staff is recommending that the board find the proposed zoning request from R1B to R1A consistent, or 2A, excuse me, consistent with the comprehensive plan and our ULDC, and that they adopt Resolution Z2605, approving the request. And that concludes that presentation. Thank you. Commissioner Alford and Commissioner Pritzko. I was just going to move to staff recommendation. Second, but I just... Motion and a second. Go ahead. I wanted to also encourage us. I mean, this is, again, the first developer that's going to be having to comply with the land use restriction agreement, and figuring out how they do that and how that all works is going to be interesting. Definitely worth us tracking, keeping an eye on, and being able to understand what, if any, tools they need support with to be able to ensure that they comply with that land use restriction agreement, but also interested to let them know also that we have other tools available for affordable housing should they be interested in developing it through our infrastructure sure tax and other things. So if we could connect them with our community support services staff as they're developing this property, I would really appreciate it. Mr. Chair, I will add that county attorney's office, Mr. Dawson, and Mr. Hayes have worked very hard on this LERA. So it's pretty specific about the steps that are going to need to be taken, the time, the 30-year time frame for the LERA as well. And so, like we said, it's a first time, but I think it's a good agreement, and I think we should all be able to get behind it and work with it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other comments? All right. Out to the public. Any public comments? Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is unanimous. Excellent. Okay. Thank you, guys and gals. For that, we've got to do it. Second opportunity for public comment, Mr. Clerk? Yes, sir. All right. Let's open it up. See the crowd rushing in. Okay. It's closed public comment. All right. We'll go to closing comments. Madam Attorney, do you have any comments? Chair, I do not have any today. Okay. Madam Manager, any comments? Yes, Mr. Chair. I just want to bring up, there has been some discussion as of late. I know you've seen the responses back from TJ on the procurement code and how that has played out with us providing you that information. I know there's some confusion and potentially some concern about what's getting picked up and on the list and that kind of thing. So I just wanted to bring that up. I've heard from, you know, at least one of you on some concerns about that. So it may be something you want to bring to discuss during manager comment, I mean, during commission comment. You want me to wait? No, let's just do it. Okay. Yeah. So, one, I really appreciate staff putting together that list. I know that was sort of like the immediate task. I think what I'll say is that I think a couple of things. One, I think that you learn a lot by doing something. And I think what we learned is that maybe writing the code during a meeting wasn't the very best way we could have done it. Like, I think that we probably included more than we meant to because it sort of wraps, seems to wrap everything into this with no manager discretion or authority at all, even below 50,000. I also, no. And I think also timing seems a little, like it might be a little off for staff to be able to include everything they need to include with enough time for staff to review which ones they're going to rebid or not rebid because there was some on there that ended up are going to be rebid now anyway. And so I wanted to also, we did talk about the local preference component of the code and updating that so that, you know, because they had some ideas about the definitions of that to make sure that they were actually headquartered here and they were actually businesses owned here, not just have a P.O. box here, et cetera. So I think that it might be good for us to just refer this back to staff and ask them to craft some potential language to revise the manager authority section and the local preference section and then bring that back in a future meeting for a consideration and discussion. Do I hear a second? Second. A motion, a second. I appreciate that motion. Yeah, and I agree. I don't think that was the intent. But I really appreciate the fact that staff is literally trying to follow our direction to the law. I think the LARA is kind of another thing. We'll see how that works. But this will give staff the ability to kind of huddle up, figure out how to improve that and bring that back to us. All right. Commissioner Wheeler, light just jumped on? It did. Did you push it? Is it my, no? So she didn't push it, but it came on. But is it? My light just came on. I didn't push it. Okay, we're working on it. Okay. All right. We've got a motion and a second. Commissioner Wheeler, you're next. Motion and a second. Are we going to vote on it? I don't have a comment about that. Oh, yeah, you want any discussions on that? No, no. Okay. All right. Any public discussion on the motion? Back to the board. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Michelle, do you have anything else? No. Is that what you needed on the direction? Yeah. Yeah, you're good? Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Commissioner comment. Let's start with Commissioner Wheeler. Do you have anything? Just very quickly, we're getting a lot of emails about Payne's Prairie development. Is that, didn't we already address that? That's the one that the developer withdrew their application. It's now on the list for active acquisition. Correct. So we're currently potentially buying up. So maybe should one of us respond then to that so that people don't think we're trying, that this has already been resolved? I think the challenge is that most of those people are hearing about it on an online forum, like a move on petition or something like that. They're seeing it. Most of them don't even live here. So unless we could find that petition and post on it or something, I'm not sure how we would resolve it. I have access to it. I've talked to the guy. Actually, out of curiosity, I called him to see what the heck was going on with this. And he said that you could usually track to see where they're coming from from the zip codes. But he's out in Idaho. Nice guy. If you want to call, he was very forthcoming. Mr. Chair, Mark Sexton, communications director. I think there's also some conflating that project with the Noonan's Lake project. We were getting a lot of comments about the Noonan's Lake project, and they were calling it the Payne's Prairie project. But we could certainly just do an informational post on social media to just say we've noticed we're getting a lot of e-mails on this just to let the public know that, you know, we can state what Commissioner Prizia said about it being on the active acquisition. We get so many of those kinds of things if it's already been done. Anybody object to that? No. No, as long as you make it clear which one we're talking about. Will do. No, I'm sure you will. You always do. The only other thing is, too, that I don't know that we ever moved or got any traction or we're going to act on more lighting at Squirrel Ridge Park. I just found this petition again, and I didn't know where we were. I have, I can, I'm actually working with, my intern is working with the student that did that petition and is working on a proposal to bring back to us and to staff about that. Okay, okay, okay. I'm sure it was a good. Real good. Well, okay. And I have had a conversation with staff about that, and I will say that in general, their recommendation was not to have lighting in those areas due to other safety concerns and challenges. Really? Really? So I would just encourage your person and staff to have a conversation before they- Sure, sure. Yeah, that's, I'm trying to direct her to staff to meet and to talk about it. They're also looking, I know there's a big cost at putting those types of lights out there, so they're looking at options like only lighting a small portion of the park for safety because they access it from those apartments from the other side and using solar lighting like the city of Gainesville that's used on a couple of bike trails and other things. Okay, all right. I'm just kind of going through my piles on my desk, and I'm realizing there's some things that I have not followed through or finished up or know about, so thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all. Thank you. Anna, do you have anything? I do. In addition to the code, which we already talked about, I wanted to bring up that we, I think we have a, we need to have a policy discussion about the Agricultural Lands Program and its relationship to rural and family lands. We've had a, we've had several property owners interested in working with our agricultural lands easement program. Unfortunately, early on the agricultural, the rural and family lands program, the way that they partner with counties or other entities that are providing funding is that they provide them third-party management rights. That went to our oversight board and to their attorney who formed an opinion backed by a legal note that she wrote that a management authority or, yeah, management and enforcement authority is not a right, like it is not a right in land, like it's not an interest in land, sorry, wrong word. It's not an interest in land. And that you have to have title of some sort to have an interest in land. So the staff attorney and our team went back to rural and family lands to talk to them about that and rural and family lands has agreed to give us title, but only if we give up enforcement authority. So we essentially kind of in a difficult catch-22 where we can have title or enforcement authority, but not both. And I think, you know, given where we are with the legal opinion of our oversight board, I think title is more important. You know, is there a risk that, you know, the states won't enforce their easements and we'll be stuck in a situation? There is that risk. You know, but they have agreed to let us go on the property with them to do the enforcement visits. And I think that, you know, we can keep an eye on what's going on and even if we can't be enforcing it directly, you know, we can contact the state if we have any issues. And I feel like the rewards of being able to protect these agricultural lands, you know, large swaths of our county, and is much more important from my perspective than the low risk of them not being enforced. You know, that's my personal... Enforcement would go to the state? Enforcement would go to the state. We would get title. We would get title. The state would provide money. We would provide matching money. Mm-hmm. So, you know, from my perspective, I just, I guess I just, the policy issue is right now I think we have to decide if we're okay with title and no enforcement and moving forward with the possibility of being a partner on some of these rural and family lands projects because right now there's sort of a question of rather we need to have enforcement authority. Yeah. So does that require a policy meeting or do you need us to tell you how we feel right now? Or do you want us to put it on a regular agenda? I mean, I, you know, I feel like I need us to do that. I do, too. I think staff would like to be able to come and speak to it as well and address any questions or issues. Could we do that on a regular agenda meeting? We can. Yeah. Would that be okay? I actually think sooner is better because the rural family lands program is constantly like circulating and they're prioritizing projects. And so I know it leads. I think our staff have been working with a number of those families and having some clarity on this would probably be helpful. So if we could do it at a meeting sometime soon. And I know that county support impacts the rating of where they sit. Right. On the list. On the list. Can we have this back before a month? Yeah, we can do that. All right. So you want to. Does anybody put it on a regular agenda meeting? Yeah. Move that we put it on the next. First meeting in May. Okay. First meeting in May. We can do that. Okay. I have moved. We have the discussion about rural and family lands partnership with Alachua County Forever program on the first meeting in May. Second. No shit. Second. Regular meeting. Regular meeting in May. Regular meeting in May. Yeah. I mean, I think that makes sense because we actually had the whole discussion at a regular meeting. And it was, I mean, I remember that meeting. It was a big meeting. Yeah. I'm okay with that. I just wanted to refer it to have it brought back so we can have the conversation. Clear that up. Clear it up. Yeah. I think it's one of those. It's just a, at this point, I think it is a policy decision rather than a legal decision. Yeah. Okay. Is that the same day we were going to try to talk about animal, the animal shelter and No, this will be at a regular meeting. This will be at the regularly scheduled meeting. Right. And we're having a special. It's at the first Tuesday meeting. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any discussion for the discussion? Any public discussion? Seeing none back to the board. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Got anything else? I do not. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Alper? Just one kind of, we've been copied on several emails to Latoya requesting that people set up meetings with us. I assume somebody in staff is taking care of those. I haven't seen a response, so I wasn't sure. Yeah. So we made sure that the mail is also going to, between Shannon Broome, Shannon Hahn, and Becky Castles. And they have, we had temporarily split up those duties. I know they were meeting actually while we were sitting in here to make sure to go through and ensure that all of those responsibilities were divvied up. So I know we've sent out to staff, but they should be monitoring those and responding to those. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because I didn't want to respond, you know, weirdly or something. So. Yeah. They should be responding to those. Okay. Thank you. And I realized, and I recognize, you know, and hopefully you're coming to the constituents to also be patient with us because we, Latoya had, she did so much more. I mean, it's probably going to take two people to replace one person. She did that much. She was so efficient at what she did. And we've divvied that up between a few people, but, you know, her absence will definitely be felt. So it may take a little bit longer to get some of these things done. I assume we work on that after Saturday. Yes. I'd like us to, the visitation is Friday night. The funeral is Saturday. Yeah. It's going to, it's going to be a lot. Did you conclude, Mary? I'm sorry. Yeah. I just, yeah. I have a lot I could say about Latoya, but I don't, I can do it right now. I don't think I can do it right now, but there will be a time for that. But you could certainly do it for the rest of the year. It's only April 14th. Yeah. All right. Anna? I just wanted to let you all know that I'm with, like, insanely terrible regrets. I can't be there this weekend. I have travel plans with my family that I can't get out of, and we're going to be out of the state. And so I just wanted to send my sincere condolences to the family and to let them know that, yeah, there aren't words to describe how amazing Latoya was for us. And I just want to thank them for all of the parts of her that they gave to us, because I know that they sacrificed a lot for us in us being, you know, her being here as part of our family and doing so much for us. And so I just, my heart goes out to his, you know, her family, and I just wanted to say thank you to them, and I wish them peace, and she will be missed. Thank you, Commissioner. I just had a question. I don't see Ramone, but have we had any update on the GRU response and this? Yeah, Missy has that information. Yeah, I had an interview with the Gainesville Sun yesterday, and I didn't know if we would have an update today, but they're watching in case we do. So, Missy? Yes, Mr. Chair, Missy Daniels, GRU has agreed to give us the extra transportation easement we need. We have worked on the designs and figured out we don't need the construction, the temporary construction easement. We can do it without that so that we're not even going further into it while we're constructing, but we do need about a 16 or 17 foot additional transportation easement, and they're going to give it to us for this section of trees. We already have the survey for the next section. If you've been out there, you see where the road stops. Then there's more woods. There aren't as many large trees in that whole section. We think we can probably work around them, but those discussions will come later. This is just for the trees that you've seen, that you saw in the pictures, and we'll be able to work around them. So, Commissioner, I'll tell you that I've had multiple conversations with Mr. Bertolarski, so I want to publicly thank GRU and Ed for working with us. I would ask that our staff, I've also had some discussions with our Forrester and our staff, and I appreciate Meg's opinion, but they think we can really save them. So, if we can get fencing up around them and do whatever we need to do proactively, I think that's important. I also was asked to contact the chair of the school board with regards to moving that date. I spoke to him. He said the superintendent was going to call me back. I have yet to hear from her. I will call them again today and try to follow up because I know we've got to nail that down quickly. The mayor said they're waiting on us, and if the school board would move their date, that'd be great. So, I'll make another request on that. We've already announced the LaToya. So, we've got staff full. Does anyone want to say anything before we leave? I do want to remind everybody at 5 o'clock today, we do have the Save My Alachua Art Contest Awards being given, so please remember to come back for the awards. Yes. Yeah. Typically, it's a great night. Yeah. It wasn't on mine either, and I apologize for the five proclamations. Put that on me. That was my fault, and thank you all for being flexible. Any staff want to say anything? Now's your chance. Mr. Chair, I have one more question when you're through surveying. Okay. Is anyone coordinating our response or our interaction or help at all with the services this weekend? Do we have – is Gina doing something? Yes. We'll make sure that – we'll put out the information so that all staff is aware of the viewing and the service. Yeah, so the viewing is going to be Friday night from 6.30 to 8.30. And then the funeral is going to be – 10 a.m. On Saturday. Saturday from 10 to 2 or 3. Yeah. And they have asked for me to say a few words for the commission, so I would certainly – Mark is – Mark and I are working on that. And thank you all for getting back to him. I know in lieu of flowers, they asked also for donations for the children, and I didn't know if we were still going to do something from the county for flowers. Yeah, last I checked on the meal train, we were at around $1,600, I think. We're trying to raise, I think, $2,300 for the meal train, so. I haven't seen that in the nation, so. You didn't see that? Yeah, I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you. They're using a cash app, and I don't know that. I don't know how to use that. Cash app, yeah. I'm going to do that by yourself. No. But they were asking in lieu of flowers or any of them to donate to that fund. To that fund. Okay, all right, so if you can, if staff can get that out to the, if we can get that information out to our staff. That's right, high school. Okay, so we will, it's 237. Thank you all for getting us through it. I appreciate it. And we will reconvene at 5 with a room full of children. Not an actual meeting. We're just not going to work. Oh, yeah, we're not going to reconvene. So we're going to adjourn the meeting, and then we'll be back here at 5 for a celebration. Of the art. Okay, thank you. Are we doing that in here? Thank you.